In the last blogpost we sized up the armies for Age of Sigmar (formerly known as Warhammer Fantasy). I had planned to put everything in one post, but there was so much to write that the post would be too long. So I split it up, and without any more smalltalk let us take a look at the Warhammer 40.000 armies and say a little bit about how I see the armies coming out in the end. As with the Age of Sigmar post we will go from smallest to largest, and we'll start with four separate armies that are so small they probably will end as warbands or mashed together as one army.
The smallest of the four is my Sisters of Silence. There are just two units made for this army, so it is really hard to make this in to an army of their own. My idea is to use the Sisters as an addon for Deathwatch, Space Marines or use them in a bigger army of the Inquisition.
Then I have the Inquisitors and their retinues. They can be used by themselves, but like with the Sisters of Silence they will not make an army with that many points. But the thing with Inquisitors is that they can request support from the units they want, so they can get Deathwatch, Astra militarum, Space Marines or combinations to fight with them .I have some Inquiitors, some of their retinues, and some Grey Knights that will make the basis of this army.
The Adeptus Custodes might have enough points to be a small army by themselves. They are the protectors of the Emperor, but after the great rift happened some of them have fought on other planets lone or beside other Space maine chapters.
One army that quite probably will evolve in to something bigger is the Siters of Battle. I have alays said that I would like to have an army of them when they came as plastic minis, and we are there now. So far they are just a warband, but I am not sure what this will end up as. It will not be a huge army, but it might be an army on its own. Games Workshop keep pushing out nice models for this range so I know it will grow...
Now lets move in to what is full armies. And first out, just as with the Age of Sigmar (Fantasy) is the army with the biggest models. The Imperial Knights. I am not really sure how many models I will end up with for this army, but it will probably be a little more than the Sons of Behemat. I will have three sizes of knights, and they will work as a separate army or as backup for other Imperial armies.
The next army when it comes to the number of minis is my Genestealer cult. They will have a variety of models, and will come both from the Planetary Defence Force and the mines on the planet where they are. It will be mostly infantry, but they will also have a few Leman Russ tanks and Chimera troop transports as well as mining vehicles (these are great looking minis) and bikes.
Then we have the Adeptus Mechanicus. This will be a nice size army, but nothing too big. They will be a varied force with Skitarii as the basic troops but they will have lots of different support elements. This will certainly be a stand alone army of a certain size, and if they ned to they can call in the Knights for support.
The two next armies will probably be about the same size, but some has to go first, so I will put the Chaos Space Marines first. They will have two Knights fighting along side them, but apart from that most of the army will be infantry. They are really two different Chaos armies from the same chapter so I can either split them up if I want to have a Nurgle army or a classic Chaos Space Marine army and run them with just that rulebook, or I can run them togther as one big army. I am planning on using them as one army as much as I can. I have some old models in this army, but I do believe they are all legal still, as well as newer units especially in the Nurgle part of the army.
Then we have the Necrons. They are my own dynasty, and all units are units that are available in the current range as I started collecting them not too long ago. I don't have all the models for this army yet, but they come in a little at a time. Some of the units are ready to be based, but there is still lots of the army on the sprues. This is probably the army that use the fewest colors as the base for everything is metal. Then I have two contrast paints that I use to get some colors on to the metal.
The one that just didn't make it to the top three is my Deathwatch army. It is all built and 95% of it is primed, but I need to paint it up. Only unit that is painted is my test model who also is my Watch Master. I have one final unit that isn't primed and that is some Primaris Space Wolves. I need to find a primaris upgrade kit for them as I want to have shoulderguards with printed chapter inignia on them, but that is hard to find. I look for it every time I am at the Games Workshop store, but haven't seen it yet. Next time I go I might just order them online.
The third biggest army is my Orks. This is the army made for doing conversion work as well as just having fun with it. I am currently building several units for this army, and writing their backstory. I have lots of units for this army in my storage that I can't reach because of Covid-19 restrictons, but there are plenty to work with at home as well. I still buy units for this army from time to time as I get conversion ideas or if I find I would like to have more of a certain unit. This is the army I go to when I want to havesome fun.
The second biggest army is the Gatekeepers Space Marines. My original idea was to make an entire chapter, 1000 Marines strong with all the support elements that go with it, but I don't think the army will be that big as Games Workshop started to fase out the original Marines and replace them with Primaris Marines. I am not the biggest fan of Primaris, even though they do have some nice models so I plan to have about one company of Primaris but who knows maybe there will be more in the end.
The biggest army is the Astra Militarum, or as I like to call them the Imperial Guard. I love tanks, so this army has a lot, also artillery and troop transports. I use all kinds of infantry in the army. Cadians are my main force so far, as they are the easiest minis to get a hold of, but there is also quite a lot of Catachans with Tempestus Scions a little rarer in the mix. I love Ogryns and Bullgryns, so I have a whole lot of them. I think I could field an entire army just with them if that is legal. I know it is legal to have an all tank army so I can certainly field that, but what I like most is to field a good mix of everything.
This will probaly not be an army that I will ever call finished, but when I get to a certain point I will only add more units if Games Workshop releses something brand new that I feel I need to have. But for now I am adding units, especially infantry, when I don't buy too much else from Games Worshop as I am short on Infantry units. Like many of my other armies this is also in every state from finished to still on sprues, and I have a lot primed, especially tanks and other vehicles.