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About this Site
One of the joys of wargaming is a well-painted army with a compelling
character that suggests a story to go with every battle. The problem becomes the
need to paint a new army (and buy hundreds of dollars in figures) to try out a
new game. I thought to myself, why not create a reasonably 'vanilla' force, sort
of my own household troops that could work in nearly any universe. The idea was
interesting, but I shelved it for several years. When I decided to build a few
new armies when Warhammer 40K 3rd Edition came out, I decided to create a 'force
genericus' which would serve as my own household troops in whatever game we were
playing.
The story of how this particular army came into existence is told in the
article Designing an Army. This site
exists to showcase my mediocre painting skills, to encourage other wargamers, to
solicit feedback and to present my army to the world at large. I am one of those
annoying storyteller wargamers who develops a 10 page back story for every
role-playing character, starship or army I have ever played. This site is merely
an outgrowth of my obsessive desire to create fluff for my 'paper' armies and
personas.
What you won't find here is content gypped from the
Games Workshop site.
GW has gobs of cool content and if you want to read the official skinny (and I
recommend that you do), go to
GW's homepage and read it. This site will focus on
the peculiarities of one particular regiment (and eventually on
its sister armies - the Tau, Chaos Marines and
Tyranids I am working on -
that will
join it here on Starbase 10.
This site will be updated once a month - more or less. This is a hobby, which
means I have real life concerns which come first but I will do my best to add
new material as time and interest allow.
About Me
Who am I? I doubt most people would care but I am a middle aged grognard who
has been wargaming for over 30 years. I began with the venerable Avalon Hill hex
and counter games (the real Avalon Hill, back when AH created real
historical simulation wargames, not the Hasbro wannabe replacement that turns
out Risk knock-offs that wish they could be real wargames) in the mid-1970's. I
discovered D&D, Traveller and tabletop gaming all in quick succession. In the
early 1980's I was (and remain) heavily into 6mm miniatures gaming. Tractics
(GHQ), OGRE (Steve Jackson Games) and Space Marine a.k.a. Epic 40K (GW) were
special favorites of mine. In college, I began playing Star Fleet Battles (ADB),
Warhammer Fantasy and by the time I began grad school, Warhammer 40K. I still
play all these games, so I could say that entertainment value for the dollar, I
have gotten a lot out of my games collection.
I got married to a very patient woman who tolerates my nerdly obsession with
toy soldiers (hey, I tolerate her cats so we're even!). We have two children, a
son and a daughter, two cats and a modest home in the city. I manage to hold
down a civil service job with the State of New York Department of Health, run a
small technology consulting business on the side, raise my two children, own a
home, participate in my synagogue and religious community and still squeeze in
the occasional game now and again. Of course, I have given up sleeping but
there's plenty of time for that when I'm dead, isn't there? All in all, just
your average Joe you meet every day. My friends and neighbors have no idea of
the twisted and weird obsession that has dominated my spare time for three
decades, the bizarre images, the massive armies of tiny soldiers who daily
muster ever stronger in my basement, the...ummm...right ... but I digress.
I started playing Warhammer 40K in 1987 as a grad student, when the original
version of the game (“Rogue Trader”) came to the United States. I kibitzed with
other gamers and finally gave in to the inevitable and began collecting my first
army. Inspired by the movie Alien, and wanting to be different
from the other five gamers in the Schenectady Wargamers' Association who had space marine armies, I chose
Imperial Guards as my first army. I was an occasional player during the “Rogue
Trader” era. When 2nd Edition came along, in 1994, I became an enthusiastic
player and remain so to this day. The guards have always been my main army
although I have since acquired Chaos Marines, Space Orks, Tyranids and Tau as well and I am
slowly adding Space Marines to my collection. I also have several Warhammer
Fantasy armies (full size Empire, Chaos, Goblins, Orcs, Dwarfs, Wood Elves
armies and a very small undead army).
This is the third itineration of my Guards army. The first was built out of
the very French Foreign Legion looking Imperial Guard plastics, unlike modern GW
plastics, these were sprues of absolutely identical guard riflemen wearing kepis
and carrying lasguns that looked a lot like M-1 rifles. I sold that army when I
got married, and used the money to acquire the basis of the second version of
this army, which was based the rogue trader metal guardsmen. However, I didn't
really like the look and when GW revamped the Guard with newer figures (Cadians,
Valhallans, Tallarns, Mordians and Catachans) I was truly torn. I couldn't
decide, I was like a kid in a candy store. So I decided to leave it up to
fate... or more accurately, my wife and I asked her which army she thought I
should get. After suggesting I take up a more sensible hobby, like bungee
jumping, she looked at the pictures in my White Dwarfs and thought the
Valhallans had potential. So, as Yul Brenner said in the 'Ten Commandments',
"Let it be written, let it be done" and I began collecting Valhallans.
When the 3rd Edition Codex came out, I reorganized my Guard but made no major
changes. When the 4th of the Codex came out, I was able to well and
truly customize my forces and the 18th Light Infantry took its current shape.
Like any good wargaming force, this army is never truly finished but it does
have a solid foundation to build on and a good back story that I can identify
with.
More recently, the 5th edition of Warhammer 40,000 and the Imperial Guard
Codex have been released. My guard collection has reached such a size that I had
to do little to make it 5th edition ready. I made a Master of Ordnance out of
parts from a vehicle accessory sprue I had on hand, the Lt. Varras model I had
from the 4th edition boxed set became my Officer of the Fleet and an old seeress model
from the Sisters of Sigmar range for Mordhiem became my Astropath. I was also
inspired to finally paint the old Nork Dedog that has been living in my bitz box
since 2000. I disbanded the Heavy Weapons Platoon and distributed the heavy
weapons across three rifle platoons, I organized three special weapons squads
and picked up 20 additional troopers on eBay to complete the reorganization. I
have four squads of Sentinels in various configurations, two Griffons, four
Chimerae, a Basilisk, a
basic Russ, an Exterminator Russ and a Demolisher Russ all painted in winter
camouflage. I am in the process of scratch-building a squadron of Salamanders,
towed Quad Guns, staff cars and some other auxiliary vehicles. I laid out my
collection the other day and realized I don't own a mere company of guards, I
have a full blown battalion. Even more frighteningly, this army is 100% painted
- freaky, isn't it?
My future plans for this army include adding some new vehicles (Grav Tanks
for use under VDR or to swap out for other game systems, a few additional figs,
maybe some Ogryns... I know, I know they're goofy but the figs are just so
yummy...) More winter themed terrain and a few new conversions are also in the
cards. I am toying with the idea of making some Cossack outriders (maybe a
minimal squad of five roughrider troopers) out of my bitz box simply as a
modeling project. I have some old Mordhiem torsos with the long coats, add some
mounted legs, spare horses from my fantasy bitz box, add some hairy heads and a
bit of green stuff and I think I have it.
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