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I am a big David Drake fan I and I love his Slammers Novels. What Army would you all recommend would best replicate Hammer's Regiment aka Hammmer's Slammers. For those of you that have never read it, I recommend them highlt

For FYI

Hammer's Regiment is primarily an Armoured force, but contains all the elements to make a balanced Combined Arms combat group. The main strike force consists of four Tank Companies, equipped with huge (170 tonne) Hovertanks; supporting them are eight companies of "Combat Cars" (open-topped GEVs equivalent in function to the present-day M113 ACAV), four companies of infantry mounted on one-man GEV "skimmers" and with heavy weapons carried on GEV jeeps, and finally three batteries of self-propelled GEV 200mm rocket-howitzers as artillery support. The exact composition of each arm is as follows:

Tank Companies

Four Hovertank companies, each of 1 command tank and four line platoons of four tanks each. [In action, the company command tank is generally attached to one of the line platoons to form a five-tank unit.]

Infantry Companies

Four Line Infantry companies, each consisting of four platoons; each platoon has four 10-man squads, a command element, two "Gun-Jeeps" with Tribarrel Powerguns and one Jeep with 100mm mortar. All the Infantry squads travel on 1-man GEV skimmers - little individual hover-sleds - but appear to use these for transport only, dismounting to fight as normal light infantry. (The published TO&E does not specify a Company Command element, but I think it can safely be assumed there must be one - probably something like a Combat car and a couple of GEV jeeps).

Combat Car Companies

Eight companies of Combat Cars, each of 1 Company command car and four line platoons of six cars each - five Line cars and a platoon command car.

Artillery Batteries

Three Batteries, each of six 200mm GEV/SP Rocket Howitzers, one Command Car and two munitions vehicles.

I would run Eldar or Tau. The elements in the books I most like are the GEV tanks with energy weapons. Little in the 40K genre will replicate the sheer mass and durability of the Slammer's tanks, but Eldar fire prisms and wave serpents, or Tau hammerheads and devilfish are similiar.

The Eldar and Tau also have a similiar style of warfare to Alois Hammer. Intel is paramount whilst confusing your opponent. High mobility and devastating firepower make up for relatively small forces, allowing you to dictate where and how the fight will take place.

I also would recommend the Hammer's Slammers novels to readers out there. Drake is an excellent combat sci-fi writer. One of my favorites is a full length novel, "Rolling Hot". After surpise attacks by enemy forces, a rear echelon rest and refit depot with a bunch of section eight and shellshock veterans is the only element able to stop the fall of the capitol city, and the collapse of the Slammer's mercenary contract. They only have to fight through 400 kilometers or so of enemy forces and face off against vastly larger numbers to defend the capitol itself. But they are Slammers, and they're rolling hot!

I haven't read the books, but from your discription, Tau sound like the way to go. They have a fair number of skimmers that you can work out for your tanks and hover cars. Eldar might also work, but they tend to be a bit frail and styalized.

Are you planning on modifying GW models for this army or are you going to scratch build / kit bash everything?

Actual there are two companies that produce 25mm, 15mm and 6mm versions of thhe Hammer Slamers Vehicles. There is also a Sci-fi Minature game ruleset that is David Drake approved.

Hammers Slammers Game
http://www.hammers-slammers.com/index2.htm


Old Crow Minatures produces a vehicle line,

Hover Tank


Command Tank


Combat Car


They also have these:

Lancer Heavy Assault Carrier

It can be Grav, Hover or Tread and with either Infantry Support, Multi-Missle, and Tank Hunter Turrents



Crow Infantry Lander



and Raven Gunship



Ground Zero Games has a 25mm Hammer Slammers Infantry models. They are not that great. IG Cadian look much better.

I have to admit that my first introduction to Hammer's Slammers was with this book and particularly the cover:



The cover art is wrong on a number of levels (one of which is a Japanese flag on the tank) but ever since looking at a hover vehicle that uses skirts (as described in the book) still don't look right to me. The tank on the book cover evoks "power" but the Old Crow models simply don't do that for me.

For a 40k force, I was going to do something similar, I thought Tau were the best choice.

Yeah, I gave this a lot of thought a few years ago as I'm also a big fan of the Hammer's Slammers novels. From a purely gameplay perspective, I think you're best going with Tau with Hammerheads as your Line Tanks, Devilfish as your Combat Cars, Sky Rays are your arty batteries. Even the infantry power rifles seem comparable to Tau pulse weaponry.

That said, the Tau mentality just don't capture the Slammer's mercenary attitude to me like Imperial Guard do. From a fluff perspective, I think you're better off going IG Armor Company to do the Slammers. You get a wide variety of tanks for line guns and artillery, and Chimeras for the Combat Cars. And you just get to play with a LOT of armor.

Unfortunately, nothing in 40k really captures the infantry pongoes with their anti-tank rockets. Sadly. I always thought they were way cool.

I am going to have to table this idea.

Once again I run into the problem of my large imagination and my small wallet.

I have a notebook full of ideas for cool army themes for different races. I just don't have the cash to keep up with my imagination.

Evil Eli wrote:Once again I run into the problem of my large imagination and my small wallet.

I have a notebook full of ideas for cool army themes for different races. I just don't have the cash to keep up with my imagination.

You know how they say "time is money"? Well, they are right. This is one of the many situations where you can work out your ideas if you want to spend inordinate amounts of time working on the project and not spend much money. So, how are your sculpting skills? If you want to work this out you can usually pick up some random bargen bin tank models at your local model store (not GW store, but a real model store). From there, you can use sculpty (or some other type of modeling clay) to sculpt on whatever modifications you feel would be appropreate. With enough time and effort, you can make the army work out the way you want.

That or you could just keep playing whatever army you already have. *shurg*

Phoenix wrote:

Evil Eli wrote:Once again I run into the problem of my large imagination and my small wallet.

I have a notebook full of ideas for cool army themes for different races. I just don't have the cash to keep up with my imagination.

You know how they say "time is money"? Well, they are right. This is one of the many situations where you can work out your ideas if you want to spend inordinate amounts of time working on the project and not spend much money. So, how are your sculpting skills? If you want to work this out you can usually pick up some random bargen bin tank models at your local model store (not GW store, but a real model store). From there, you can use sculpty (or some other type of modeling clay) to sculpt on whatever modifications you feel would be appropreate. With enough time and effort, you can make the army work out the way you want.

That or you could just keep playing whatever army you already have. *shurg*

Thanks Phoenix, Its sounds like a good idea. I will have to give it some thought. I may have to head down to the local hobby shop and pick up some model clay and give it a try

Evil Eli wrote:Thanks Phoenix, Its sounds like a good idea. I will have to give it some thought. I may have to head down to the local hobby shop and pick up some model clay and give it a try

Just keep in mind that it really is a lot of work. However once you are done, you end up with a very unique and personal army. If you do decide to go ahead with the project, start up a thread in the "Modeling Blogs" section to keep us up to date with your progress.