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Drent's Redeemed is an Imperial Guard army that I've dreamed up. It is based around the idea of an army formed from escapees from a death-world style prison world (think No Escape (1994)), who have rallied around a strong central character and are determined to make the Imperium pay for putting them in such a hell-hole. Here's the list:

Drent's Redeemed:

HQ

Company Command Squad
+Colonel Straken as "Warlord Andoras Drent"
+Regimental Standard
+Bodyguard (x2)
190 points

Troops

Veteran Squad (x10) - Garador's Butchers
+Gunnery Sergeant Harker as "Garador the Disembowler"
+Demolitions Upgrade
+Grenade Launchers (x3)
170 points

Penal Legion (x10) - Sarker's Slashers
+Ministorum Priest with Eviscerator as "Sarker"
140 points

Penal Legion (x10) - The Karlsdon Boys
+Ministorum Priest with Eviscerator as "Captain Orden"
140 points

Penal Legion (x10) - Crusher's Carnadons
+Ministorum Priest with Eviscerator as "Rasmuth 'Crusher' Dynan"
140 points

Fast Attack

Vendetta Gunship - Unfinished Business
+Twin-Linked Lascannons (x3)
+Heavy Bolter Sponsons (x2)
140 Points

Vendetta Gunship - Cock of Balor
+Twin-Linked Lascannons (x3)
+Heavy Bolter Sponsons (x2)
140 Points

Vendetta Gunship - Andoras' Fury II
+Twin-Linked Lascannons (x3)
+Heavy Bolter Sponsons (x2)
140 Points

Elite

Ratlings (x5) - Balor and the Furious Four
50 points

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The plan would be to deploy the Command Squad inside Andoras' Fury II (Vendetta), as well as two of the Penal Legions - Karlsdon Boys and Sarker's Slashers in the Cock of Balor and Unfinished Business respectively. The other Penal Legion (Crusher's Carnadons) would start in reserve and try to flank. Balor and the Furious Four as well as Garador's Butchers are both Infiltrating units, so they'd start wherever is appropriate for the army. The Anti-Vehicle element of this army comes from the 3 Vendettas as well as the Veteran Squad, and more or less the entire rest of the army is trying to get into their lines, supported by the Commander. Meanwhile the Veterans and the Ratlings are trying to keep down the opponent's melee long enough for the lines to collapse.

Keep in mind that I am brand new to 40k, so this is basically just my thoughts. I've played Fantasy for years, but this is my first foray into 40k (well, the tabletop wargame anyway).

One thing I am debating switching is the grenade launchers on the veterans for plasma guns.

The Modelling

I am thinking Catachans for all of the penal/veteran units, as they are more of a Penal Legion choice. One of the Penal Legions will be covered in full body tattoos, and each will probably have its own colour motif (gang colours and all). I am undecided about the priests as yet...I'm probably going to use the Grey Knight preacher with chainsword over the Imperial Guard one, as it looks more appropriate. I'm also searching for something a little less "Imperial" and more "Deathworldy", but am yet to stumble across any ideas...it might be a conversion job.

I'm thinking of designs to paint on the noses of the 3 Vendettas - the Cock of Balor is so-named because of the Ratling Balor, who painted an "Aquila made entirely out of Dicks" on the gunship. The motley crew liked it so much they decided to keep it, and named the ship in his honour. At this stage I will probably go with centrefold-style naked ladies on the other two, as is more traditional.

I'm very interested in ideas for ways to make each of the gangs distinct, and motifs for the Vendettas.

I think it is actually a neat fun list, but it would not be incredibly competitive due to alot of your troops sporting no special weapons or anything. Still, your enjoyment is more the point of stuff like this. You have the core of a rather interesting Outflank list.

The Priest means you can't use the Scout ability of the Penal troops, so you can't outflank with them for example, unless they are in a Vendetta.

I would drop the sponsons on the Vendettas. When your shooting at things with AV 11+, the HBs can't hurt it so are wasted. And firing Lascannons at stuff you would shoot the HBs at is overkill and wasting TLed Lascannons.

Use the points to get meltas on Harker's squad and meltas in Straken's CCS. Meltas are assault weapons, so you can move and fire. Plasma are rapid fire, so really are best used static.

If you do decide to go static with Harker's squad, I will suggest Sentries and a second HB (HWT). HBs are anti-infantry and the plasmas will actually work well with them. I would then keep the Lasguns then on the vets for the range instead of going shotguns.

In a themed list like this, I am shocked you do not have Marbro. Hell, he should be your 'Drent'!

If you do decide to drop the Priests and go all Outflank, I strongly suggest you get a Astropath to help your reserves come in faster. 30pts is pretty hefty, but the +1 would be huge in a list that has more than 3 units outflanking.

Good luck and have fun with the list!

Taking your advice into consideration I have the following revised list:

HQ

Company Command Squad
+Colonel Straken as "Warlord Andoras Drent"
+Meltagun (x3)
+Regimental Standard
+Astropath
+Bodyguard
235 points

Troops

Veteran Squad (x10) - Garador's Butchers
+Gunnery Sergeant Harker as "Garador the Disembowler"
+Demolitions Upgrade
+Plasma Guns (x3)
+Heavy Weapons Team
170 points

Penal Legion (x10) - Sarker's Slashers
+Ministorum Priest with Eviscerator as "Sarker"
140 points

Penal Legion (x10) - The Karlsdon Boys
80 points

Penal Legion (x10) - Crusher's Carnadons
80 points

Fast Attack

Vendetta Gunship - Unfinished Business
+Twin-Linked Lascannons (x3)
130 Points

Vendetta Gunship - Cock of Balor
+Twin-Linked Lascannons (x3)
130 Points

Vendetta Gunship - Andoras' Fury II
+Twin-Linked Lascannons (x3)
130 Points

Elite

Ratlings (x5) - Balor and the Furious Four
50 points

Guardsman Marbo
65 Points

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I'm not sure about taking Forward Sentries on the Veterans - they already have stealth from Harker, and 30 points seems expensive to get defensive grenades out of. Anyway, taking your advice, I probably would send all three of the penal legion squads on outflanking duties now that I have the astropath, and try and get the CCS into support range on a Vendetta - the other two would just be anti-vehicle gunships. The Veteran squad would be a fairly static deployment in some cover positioned somewhere to open up a can of whoop-ass on their light infantry.

Nice theme. version 2 looks a bit more balanced.
Vendetta's are the shiz-niz.
10pts for 2 heavy bolters has gotta be the best value upgrade in the dex. I'd scrounge round for them.
30 pts boosts your anti-infantry by 18 s5 ap4 shots a turn.
Ps you have no ranged anti-infantry- do it.
Drop the regi standard, and maybe the heavy weapon from ur vets- mobility is nicer


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nice theme. version 2 looks a bit more balanced.
Vendetta's are the shiz-niz.
10pts for 2 heavy bolters has gotta be the best value upgrade in the dex. I'd scrounge round for them.
30 pts boosts your anti-infantry by 18 s5 ap4 shots a turn.
Ps you have no ranged anti-infantry- do it.
Drop the regi standard, and maybe the heavy weapon from ur vets- mobility is nicer

Good point on the Sentries, I didn't notice Harker gave his unit Stealth. Good catch.

I take it your HWT is a HB on your Vets? And yeah, I would go 18"-24" away from whatever squad you want to hammer.

Yes, the Heavy Weapons Team is a Heavy Bolter team. As they have infiltrate, I'd ideally deploy them, as you say, 18-24" away from an infantry unit I want to hammer (in cover if I can manage). With two heavy bolters, three plasmaguns and a demolition charge for anything that tries to assault them, I'd say that they'd have to count as "Ranged Anti-Infantry", right Optimus?

There seems to be a conflicting opinion out there about the Heavy Bolter sponsons on the Vendettas - how many vehicles am I likely to see in a 1250 point list? Should I be planning for a "Post-vehicles-destroyed" board with the heavy bolters or are they going to be chasing tanks for the entirety of the game? As the army list expands (when the wife lets me buy more models anyway...), I will probably round out the list a bit but at 1250 point level, I can't imagine that I'm coming up against too many lists with either a tonne or infantry or a tonne of vehicles - correct me if I'm wrong here.

Although I'm big on theme, I do like to be competitive too as I'd like to play Tournaments for 40k - but I don't just want another guard army, I would like one that's somewhat unique, even if I have to work harder for a win (as long as I -can- win with the list).

P.S. As I still have one of the priests, I'd have to have one of my penal squads on another vendetta, not all 3 outflanking as I previously said. Unless of course the general opinion out there is that outflanking is worth more than that priest, in which case I'll drop his points and try and add something else...