Tallarn Infantry Section

A few years back I started a small collection of old Games Workshop Tallarn Desert Raiders. I had no intention at the time of playing Warhammer 40K, I just liked the idea of sci-fi dessert warriors. Over a couple years I picked up a few smaller lots warriors and heavy weapon teams at the time for a not-too-unreasonable price… but over time those lots got fewer and further between. Now they seem to mostly sell individually for $10 a piece PLUS SHIPPING (which is often eve more than the cost of the individual figure….), heavy weapon teams and individual roughriders (which are often missing parts – like, the HORSE) often start around $30 (also not including shipping). Who could possibly put together an entire force at those prices!? Maybe a millionaire… but not me, so I kind of gave up on the idea and was happy with the small platoon-sized force that I had… should I ever get around to PAINTING them!?

Last week I was snooping around on ebay (Looking for Catachan heavy weapon teams to add to my Guaiacan Commandoes – as part of my 8th Edition Reorg.) and I stumbled across a HUGE lot of Tallarn minis… about 70 infantry, 15 heavy weapon teams and 9 roughriders (complete with horses and hunting lances)!? And all for… well… not a million dollars! Not even a thousand!? And willing to take offers!

So… I made an offer…

And now I have a rather large force of Tallarn miniatures on the way! 

So I thought I best get to painting a few of the ones I ALREADY OWN!?

One squad of Tallarn Desert Raiders from Games Workshop (They are © and ™ Games Workshop and painted by myself and posted here entirely without their permission.)

Initially I'd gone with plain khaki smocks, but then I decided to add some subtle camouflage... I wasn't sure if it was working for me at first - I felt it mostly muddied the works, but I'm kind of warming up to it now. 

With the ones that I have inbound I think I figured I’d be able to put together a 1500-point Brigade Detachment with them.

Something Like:

Company Commander

Command Squad

2x Commissars

2x Infantry Platoons each with:

Platoon Commander

Command Squad

5x Infantry Squads (each with: Sergeant chain sword and plasma pistol (or bolt gun?), 6x Guardsmen with Lasguns, 1x Guardsman with grenade launcher, and 1x Missile Launcher Weapons Team)

5x Heavy Weapon Teams (distributed between platoons or under company command as required- 2x Lascannon, 2x Autocannon, 1x Heavy Bolter)

4x Special Weapon Squads (or “Light Anti-Armour Squads” as I like to call them - distributed between platoons or under company command as required- 2x Plasma, 2x Melta)

1x Roughriders

2x Scout Sentinels

That makes:

5x HQ (Company Commander, 2x Platoon Commanders, 2x Commissars)

10x Troops (Infantry Squads)

7x Elites (3x Command Squads, 4x Special Weapon Squads)

5x Heavy Support (Heavy Weapon Squads)

3x Fast Attack (1x Rough Riders, 2x Scout Sentinels)

At some point, if I ever get these all finished and, you know, actually start PLAYING with them… I’d like to expand the Scout Sentinel Sections into troops of three sentinels (currently each sentinel is a unit of one all on its own). I was also thinking of scratch-building a sniper section (prone miniatures under tarps/ghillie suits with only legs sticking out one end and a rifle barrel or binoculars sticking out the other). If I get really crazy I could add a detachment of armour to the force… but I kind of like the idea of a purely foot mobile raiding force. Maybe a Marauder Airwing Detachment!? (Sweet Jiminy! £300 for three aircraft!? That would cost more than the rest of the force combined!) Thematically I like the idea of air support for a foot-mobile raiding force rather than armoured support, but WOW those are crazy expensive.  

I have NO IDEA how this will work as a force in 40K… but it seems like fun to me, and that’s what’s important, right?

(Actually, from my cursory look over the rules and scenarios, it seems to me that have a LOT of low point units could be a significant disadvantage as there are a lot of scenarios where you score points per unit whipped out. So, if I have a force of THRITY units and I’m fighting against a force that’s made up of a small number of high cost units (say, 10?) and we each destroy half of the other force… well they’ll score 15 points and I’ll score 5…. Ah well, the Imperial Guard is just supposed to be a speed bump until those bloody glory-boys the Space Marines can show up and clean up the mess, right?)

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Boardgaming updates (for the 4th Annual September 30-Games-in-30-Days Challenge), more Tallarn (I've got another infantry squad and one of the Sentinels on the workbench), and Jet Bikes!