The Beard Bunker

It’s very unusual for me to consider a project “finished”, but this one is.  At least for now.  Whilst some Bearded Bunker dwellers are capable of starting a project, building a modest collection, and then calling it complete, I’ve never been able to do that.  I collect a lot of armies , and after the initial sprint to get them to minimum usable size, they continue on, being added to in fits and starts as inspiration strikes and new models get released.  They vary between 'boxed up and ignored' to 'current burning passion,' depending on the vagaries of the hobby butterfly.  Currently the winds of obsession are blowing the hobby butterfly distinctly Guard-wards, but that is largely due to my most recent success: completing my Knight Lance. Clan Vestrfjall of House Ulfir Armigers L-R: Vapnburtha - Vei Danr, Sverthsegg - Vei Bjartr, Glymja - Vei Asta Questoris L-R: Breithux - Gar Touki, Striiguth - Jafnather Yarl Rúna I previously shared the start of this army , an...

Surprise, dear readers: It’s not Tom! Hey, I’m Drew: serial bit adder, highjacker of formats, and purveyor of a new army.   We are Kroot! Why Kroot?  I had been working on my previous army (Craftworld Aeldari) for around two years. It was my first ever army and I had scorned the plastic-y advances of all other factions to concentrate on it, leaving me feeling pretty burnt out: A change seemed like exactly the thing I needed. It was roughly about this time, like the meet-cutes (meat-kroots?) of old, that the kroot expansion to the Tau was announced. 

 For the first of the Beard Bunker’s temporarily monthly offerings, I thought I’d write about something dear to my hobbyist’s heart: The Imperial Guard. Specifically my Imperial Guard collection, the 31st Nightfall Ranger Regiment. This is the first of a double-bill of posts, with this one talking about the Imperial Guard as a narrative army and my collection as it currently stands, and the next post exploring homebrew rules in the world of modern 40k. Men of Nightfall... Do you want to live forever? Why I Love Them Ah, the Guard. There is nothing quite like the mental image of a band of poorly equipped and under-appreciated human grunts going up against alien monstrosities, posthuman demigods and nightmarish hordes of daemons. The Imperial Guard channel that “indomitable human spirit” flavour which pairs so deliciously with the relentlessly bleak grimdark of Warhammer 40,000. They’re a whole army of underdogs and that’s what I love them for. I’ve had a number of Imperial Guard arm...

If you haven't already read Oops New Army: Imperial Soup Edition Part 1, I recommend you go read it first as it sets the scene for what I’m about to talk about today, the Imperial Guard portion of my accidental Imperial Soup army.  Dubbed “Battlegroup 86”, the army consists of elements from the Imperial Knights of house Ulfir, the Cadian 177th Mechanised Infantry and the Cadian 53rd Armoured.  Last time I focussed on the Knights, this time I’m diving into the Guard, but with an overall conclusion for the whole army. Why Imperial Knights are a skew army.  All Vehicles All The Time.  Certain armies, such as Orks, will particularly struggle with that kind of army, to a degree that playing it is simply not fun.  The same would be true of playing an Imperial Guard armoured company.  With that in mind, when I started building Knights I knew I would be able to bring them along to contribute to a multiplayer Apocalypse game, but I wanted to be able to have a mixed...

 It should go without saying to readers of Oops New Army: Necron Edition and Oops New Army: Tyranid Edition that I have A Problem.  I think the issue might be that I have lots of plans that I promise myself I’ll do “one day”.  But once you decide you will do something in the future , it becomes very easy to say yes to little things now .  Once you’ve started you might as well carry on.  My Imperial Knights/Guard army is a testament to this.   This “Oops New Army” is an even bigger Oops than normal, since it is in fact two armies, Imperial Knights and Imperial Guard.  This article I’ll be mainly focussing on the Knights, and next time I’ll talk some more about the Guard. Why Giant Robots Are Cool.  I suspect most Giant Robot lovers started out with some variant of Gundam, but for me my mechaphilia all starts with watching Full Metal Panic! (the explanation mark is apparently a required part of the title).  Alongside a lot of anime stap...