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I have become a total Imperial Guard whore. Over the past year or so, I have purchased roughly 20 leman russes, ~8 chimera's, several basilisks, two baneblades, and I just put in an order for a macharius and a stormblade, along with custom turrets for many of my russes.

I have really fallen in love with imperial guard, especially their tanks! I want to invest the time and effort into making this army really unique, and make sure it stands out when it is completed. Thus, I want to name every single tank in the army.

I thought, why not leave the naming to dakka, atleast for some of my tanks? I think it would be fun for everyone, and would ensure a unique take on every single vehicle in the army.

If you want some sort of background to base the name on, my guard are industrial themed - the infantry are all based in an industrial fashion with plate flooring. The have red armor, with dark grey fatigues. They use standard cadian issue armor and lasguns, except the lasguns are modified into carbines, with shortened barrels (no flash suppressor on the end). Their primary foes are chaos renegades, and sometimes daemons (I have a grey knight regiment that uses the same basing scheme, except the bases look like they are daemon infested - the GKs have been sent in to cleanse the area).

So here we go! Please leave only serious name suggestions, or ones that fit the theme of 40k. Simply post a reply with the tank you wish to name, the suggested name, and you can even leave your real first or last name - I might use it to name the tank commander, for the tank you named!

1x Commissar Baneblade (future project, think fortress of arrogance but with my own spin on it)

1x Standard Baneblade

1x Stormblade

1x Macharius Vulcan

1x Commissar Leman Russ Executioner

8x Standard Leman Russes

3x Leman Russ Vanquishers

3x Leman Russ Exterminators

3x Leman Russ Demolishers

2x Leman Russ Laser Destroyers

4x Basilisks

I would definitely like to see (and would be honored!) to have tanks named by dakka heroes such as Centurion, Yakface, or HBMC =)

Have at it!

BOB....



STEVE....



LARRY....

People will be pissed to die horribly to your tanks with names like these.

Or if ya want fluffy. Ya might try...

Hostilis Pango = Foe Hammer in latin (One of my Russes)

Best 40k names i have found come from online latin translators. Type in 2 words that sound mean and poof great name. Best is when you find a great name that sounds scary but in fact is rather silly.

Take my tank the mighty caecus custodiae. Name awarded after missing with its mighty guns 3 games in a row. caecus custodiae means blind guardsmen.

Let us know what you come up with.

Try http://www.tranexp.com:2000/Translate/result.shtml

Baneblade=Deadalus
Exterminators=Hengiest and Horsa
That's all I can personally think of, I tend to just give my tanks serial codes:
"tank 445692 forward, oops I mean 445768, um 44..5.3...8....21...um......oh forget it!"

Just go to wikipedia and search for old gods. Here's a list of the fire gods, which would fit a tank well. Then just trim the names down at will.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=god+of+fire&go=Go

I would like to see one of the Demolishers named "Impending Disaster".

Change Laser Destroyers to Super Awesome Laser Blast Squad!

Bobby the basilisk 1,2,3 and 4.
Larry the Leman russ vanquisher.
And name the rest George, Harry, Ben, Nurgle, Horus, Tzeench, Slaanesh, Khorne, Magnus, Loken, Lucius, Kharn, Ahriman, Typhus and etc.

Heresy none have been called Kenny!! All guard armies must have one vehicle called Kenny.

A question why do you have twenty seven vehicles?

With apocoplypse thats a pretty good sized force. Why not. Lots of variation and looks great on the table. Why doesn't he have more is the question

Sha1emade wrote:With apocoplypse thats a pretty good sized force. Why not. Lots of variation and looks great on the table. Why doesn't he have more in the question

I like how this man thinks!

For the Imperial Guard, there is no such thing as too many tanks =D

How about Phobos and Diemos for the Baneblades

Phobos=Fear
Diemos=Terror

Both moons of Mars.

Name one of the larger tanks
Nex quod Resurrectio
Latin for Death and Resurrection

Piece of cake!

The Hammer of the Emperor
The Emperor's Hammer
The Emperor's Blade
The Imperial Hammer
The Blade of the Emperor
The Hammer of the Aquilla
The Maul of the Emperor
The Emperor's Knife
The Weapon of the Emperor
The Imperial Blade of the Aquilla
The Emperor's Mace
The Imperial Emperor
The Emperor's Imperial Hammer of the Emperor
The Emperor Strikes Back

Halfway there!

Xav wrote:A question why do you have twenty seven vehicles?

No Xav, the question is why hasn't he got 50?

Gabe wrote:I have become a total Imperial Guard whore. Over the past year or so, I have purchased roughly 20 leman russes, ~8 chimera's, several basilisks, two baneblades, and I just put in an order for a macharius and a stormblade, along with custom turrets for many of my russes.

That's a good starting force for small skirmishes.

I will say this though:

Macharius Kit = Awesome. I've got 3 of 'em. Best FW tank ever.
Stormblade Kit = You will want to hurt people by the time you're done.

Thankfully your Stormblade won't be completely resin like mine is, so you'll be spared the utter horror that is resin tracks. I almost threw my Stormblade against the wall twice whilst constructing it, and only after I learnt how to use greenstuff did it go together properly (after falling apart once). Also I suggest you get good at putting on Guard tank tracks quickly. Russes are easy - I could build one of them in my sleep - but Chimeras are a pain in the ass.

Gabe wrote:I have really fallen in love with imperial guard, especially their tanks!

Really? From the paragraph above I could've sworn that you were more into infantry.

Gabe wrote:I want to invest the time and effort into making this army really unique, and make sure it stands out when it is completed. Thus, I want to name every single tank in the army.

I thought, why not leave the naming to dakka, atleast for some of my tanks? I think it would be fun for everyone, and would ensure a unique take on every single vehicle in the army.

Most people will name them after phallic objects, or at the very lease each tank will be a euphemism. I will try to resist that.

Gabe wrote:1x Commissar Baneblade (future project, think fortress of arrogance but with my own spin on it)p

For a Commissar tank is has to be something that exudes the feeling Commissars give. Loyalty, pride, arrogance, superiority. You could almost call it Pride & Prejudice, but let's not do that. The Fortress of Arrogance is an awesome name, but it's taken.

Aquila's Pride

Gabe wrote:1x Standard Baneblade
1x Stormblade
1x Macharius Vulcan
1x Commissar Leman Russ Executioner
8x Standard Leman Russes
3x Leman Russ Vanquishers
3x Leman Russ Exterminators
3x Leman Russ Demolishers
2x Leman Russ Laser Destroyers
4x Basilisks

That's a good amount of tanks.

Rather than naming your tanks, I'll give you some starting points.

Remember that 40K uses a lot of pseudo-Latin. It's not real Latin and it doesn't have to be. Saying Pax Imperator Immortalis sounds cool, but really doesn't mean what you want it to mean. One of my Hellhounds is called Immortalis Incendium, or Eternal Flame. Of course, Immortalis Incendium doesn't really mean 'Eternal Flame', from what I know it's closer to 'imperishable fire', but it sounds cool, and that's the point. I use this site for all my bad translation and pseudo-Latin needs.

The other thing is to organise the tanks into Companies and then come up with the reasons why they are a company.

For example, my first armoured company consists of 3 Squadrons (Vanquisher + 2 Russes) and a Command Tank (Vanquisher). In the fluff for my army all my tanks are Tallarn (whereas my MechInf is Cadian and my Artillery is Mordian), so for this company's Commander I have the actual Tallarn tank commander guy, and I've used Arabic names to name the tank (or pseudo-Arabic). My second armoured company is my 'odd ball' company, led by a crazy Tallarn Major. He drives an Executioner with hull Plasma Cannon and sponson Plasma Cannons - quite befitting of an unhinged commander. I use the Al Shareif (SP??) model (who is FW's version of Oddball from Kelly's Heroes) so he's waving his pistol in the air and has a massive speaker on the side of his tank for 'inspirational music'. He leads a force of 3 Exterminators and 6 Demolishers. Again, he has an Arabic theme to his tank name (that I can't remember off the top of my head) but it's more fiery and dangerous than the noble commander from the first armoured company. My third armoured company is more of a reserve company, as it just consists of 9 standard Russes led by a Russ Annihilator. As that company was never in my original plan for the army, I haven't really come up with details for them.

My Artillery Company is Mordian, and I've chosen a more German theme for them. The lead tank - an enclosed Basilisk - is Mitternatch, German for Midnight and I've chosen a good strong pseudo-German sounding name for their commander. He leads a strong unit of 3 Basilisks, 3 Manticores, 2 Griffons and my pride and joy, a Bombard.

My 'Mech Inf is based around a more western theme, and linked with the fluff for my Inquisitorial army. The Commander is Major Sharpe, and his Chimera has less of a forceful of mood-setting name, but more of an affectionate name - Becky - as their Chimeras are all part of the unit and are treated like friends more than machines. He leads two 45-man Platoons, all mechanised. It's quite a lot of fun to have that on the table at once.

What I'm getting at here is that there's no point in just coming up with a bunch of names. You've got to come up with a cohesive reason for the unit (as I said, divide them into Companies and give each Company an identity that fits with your fluff) and from there name the rest of them.

Super-Heavies can be a bit more individual. For my main three I've got Hell's Fury (a Hellhammer) and Hammer of Dawn and Bladeblade (both Baneblades). The former is actually from Gears of War, but I loved the name so much I had to have it. Same as Pillar of Autumn from Halo. I've played neither of these games, I just think the names are awesome. Bladeblade is a joke name that stemmed from the way Baneblades and their variants are always a variation on a select group of words (Blade, Sword, Hammer, Shadow, Storm, Bane) so when, in another thread, we were thinking of various combinations, and the last few were stupid but funny (Swordhammer, Hammerblade, Hammerhammer, Swordsword and finally Bladeblade). I liked Bladeblade, so I kept it. Haven't named my Stormblade or the third Baneblade yet, but I as I'm waiting for the new Baneblade kit to complete my Superheavy Battalion (yes, 10 Super Heavies), I will wait until I can give a theme to the whole unit

My first Macharius - the one with Battlecannons - is another joke name. I call it Babyblade, because when it first came out it was like a mini-Baneblade. It was also my first Super-Heavy, so it's my first baby, so Babyblade stuck. Haven't named the other two yet, but then I haven't used them yet.

So find a mindset for your army. It's very clear to see what mindsets various armies have. Catachans are sort of rogue-ish, they get the job done but don't respect authority, they listen to their own commanders and hate outside interference. Death Korp are very dour, they consider themselves already dead almost, so individually they are characterless - soulless even - and they act in that manner. Everything is very casual to them because war is their life. They don't go back to their homes afterwards. Tanith are the opposite. They don't have a home to go, but the way this manifests is in pride - they're proud to be the 1st and Only (even if, given the choice, I think they'd prefer not to be) and their efforts go into keeping themselves alive so that the Tanith don't die out. Mordians have an 'us against the world' mindset. Their world is in perpetual darkness and they've faced Chaos incursions - including Daemonic infestations - and have always fought them off. Mordians are steadfast and proud - they go to battle in full dress uniform for crying out loud! - they are a lot like Marines actually in that they have pride in their colours. Their tanks are bright. They don't use camo. They don't hide because, to them, the enemy knows they're there already and they will stand as an unshakable wall against all that might oppose them, even when surrounded by total darkness.

So do this. Find the mindset - find the hook to tell your army's story. Once you've got that, naming tanks should be easy.

Gabe wrote:I would definitely like to see (and would be honored!) to have tanks named by dakka heroes such as Centurion, Yakface, or HBMC =)

I'm flattered. No idea who those other two are though...

BYE

I wanna make oddballs tank company too now!
Maybe some orks in german uniforms and we have an army!

So its final.
H.B.M.C. is the über-god of all fluff-creation revolving around IG.

Most impressive how you put your army together and tie the whole thing together with a neat fluff-bowtie.

Perficio Apparatus for the Baneblade.

Name one after each Primarch. For the traitors, call them things like Angron's End or Horus's Doom.

ungulateman

EDIT: Just found a nice one. Imperator Pango, which means Emperor's Hammer.

Go for squad related names such as squadron 1, Vulture, Vodka and Victorius or Imperator, Idol and Icicle e.g.

Always fun to name tanks. Latin tends to work well for 40k... if you're going with latin, can I suggest a bumper sticker for one of them?
"Semper ubi sub ubi."

What?

10whats

ungulateman wrote:What?

10whats

Me? Was that about my post? Aroo?

I didn't understand the translation. Running something over, is it?

ungulateman wrote:I didn't understand the translation. Running something over, is it?

Always wear under wear (literal)

Personally I like the historical big gun names you can find at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dora_(artillery)


Names like:
Basilisks=Dora
Basilisks=Schwerer Gustav
Baneblade=Leopold
Stomblade=Landkreuzer Monster
Demolishers=Sturmtiger
Basilisks=Paris-Geschutz(The Paris gun sounds like what it did, is it wierd that I find that amusingly ironic)
Macharius Vulcan=Morser-"Karl"-Gerat
Fortress of Arrogance=Langer Max (Long Max)
Leman Russes=Krupp(technically not a big gun name but the manufafacturer, still sounds cool and once worked with a Krupp press that was three stories tall)
Leman Russes=Krieg (german for strike or war)