Warriors of Valhalla (and other Astra Militarum troopers)

Well this week I've been utterly distracted from the Knight, by the arrival of a couple lots of new (to me!) 40K miniatures. Since then, I've been busy stripping old paint and re-basing and priming and organizing and then I finally got to putting some paint on a few of them...



The new stuff - well, the new Valhallans....



First up is the Company Commander for this new force. I think he was a character in previous editions (Commander Chenkov?). Unfortunately the only named characters in the current edition are ones they currently make figures for (So, Cadians and Catachans....) Ah well, he'll make a fine Company Commander...



The figure has a Hussar-style jacket - slung in customary hussar style. I decided to depart from the camouflage for this one item. I also did the fur trim on this, and the other bits in white, rather than the grey I've used for all other ranks. I wanted to maybe make it look like he has real fur - while the others have some sort of faux fur.



A command squad - the Company Commander's command squad - which differs from the the other two command squads, which will consist of a Vox-caster, a Melta gun operator and two veterans with Lasguns. I had a spare Heavy Bolter and a single Grenade Launcher, so they all ended up in this command squad.



The Company Commander and his Command Squad.

I still need to come up with some names and fluff for this new force....



The single Infantry Squad I have painted with their two new editions. I had previously completed the squad, but two of the squad members were actually mortar crewmen, which I have since made into a Heavy Weapons Team armed with a mortar. I guess they could STILL have been part of the Infantry Squad - as an Infantry Squad is allowed to upgrade two troopers into a heavy weapons team... (as I have done with all my Tallarn Desert Raiders and Guaiacan Commandoes so far - each infantry squad in both of those forces is armed with a missile launcher team). I do like uniformity, though, and I also just don't have nearly enough heavy weapon teams of any type to go arming all my infantry squads with them. As the Valhallans are also sort of modelled after WW2 Soviets, I also like the idea of waves of pure infantry squads being send into battle (although I'll have fewer waves of these than the Tallarn, in the end...). Each infantry squad is going to have a sergeant armed with a chainsword and bolt pistol, 8 troopers armed with lasguns and a single special weapons trooper armed with a flamer.



The entire (painted) force, so far.... a Patrol Detachment: Company Commander (HQ), Command Squad (Elite), and an Infantry Squad (Troops), Power Level 7.

Next I'll probably finish up two more mortar teams to complete the first Heavy Weapon Squad. Part of me feels like I should crank out another Infantry Squad first, but the solitary mortar team is an incomplete unit and I'd rather complete units before starting new ones... I guess I could see the mortar team as an "option" for the command squad, for the time being...? Nah, I'm going to finish the heavy weapons squad. It'll be quicker and easier to finish than painting a whole infantry squad. And there is no sense if having options for a unit that's not going to be fielded until I have more stuff finished!?

I think the order of things will be - finish two mortar teams to complete a heavy weapons squad, then paint two more Infantry squads, then paint a platoon commander (that will likely be fielded as another Company Commander)... That would get me to a "Battalion" detachment at Power Level 20 - a good, playable starting place for a small force. After that? maybe start converting some of those KV-2s into Ragnarok tanks! But that may be some time, as I do want to finish up the knights and some more Tallarn...



I also happened to paint up a pair of the new (to me) bog-standard Cadian-types. Part of me would like to have painted these guys in some sort of camouflage - like all the other Imperial Guard forces I've painted... but another part really likes the simplicity of the green and tan of the Cadians.


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I should have a post about all the games we've played in June tomorrow or the following day... after that...?

I really SHOULD get back to work on the Knight and finish that up - maybe both. I have some vague ideas about names and paint schemes and background fluff... but nothing that has coalesced enough to share just yet - stay tuned! Maybe I will mention that the second one I am considering some scheme involving a lot of WHITE - to possibly support the Valhallans. But I was also considering making the pair a team of Freeblades - one male on female - perhaps partners...?

I've also been thinking of, at SOME point, picking up some sort of Knight Armigers - just so I can field them all as a single Super-Heavy Detachment. The minimum for a super heavy detachment is three - otherwise they'd all have to be fielded singly as Auxiliary Super-Heavy Detachments.