Imperial Armour 10 has renewed my interest in the Imperial Fists force I'm very slowly putting together. Specifically, the Siege Assault Vanguard list give Space Marines a new
FOC and some new options for existing units, all of which are very applicable to the Imperial Fists.
The ability to field large numbers of dreadnoughts and vehicle squadrons has received a lot of attention, but it's the new options for basic troops that I'm most interested in.
The first of these is the ability to equip tactical squads with siege mantlets, which are described as large shields and allow the squad (and anyone who joins the unit) to reroll their basic armour save, but prevent them from running or performing sweeping assaults. They're also not allowed to take dedicated transports.
The second entry is a Siege Assault Squad, which are basically assault marines with no jump packs, nice wargear options (two power swords in addition to the Sergeant's options and combat shields for everyone), Land Raiders as dedicated transports, and a reroll on sweeping assaults.
Both of these units pose some modelling issues. The Siege Assault squad is not such a big deal, aside from the hassle of tracking down enough combat shields for the whole squad. After some digging around, I really can't put aside my preference for the
GW version as seen in the command squad and assault squad kits. It might however be worth having a go at making my own with plasticard rather than blowing loads of money tracking down all of them as bits - both of the kits have only a single combat shield.
The upgraded tactical squads are the greater modelling challenge. I need some very large shields that don't look out of place on a space marine. I've seen lots of big medieval style shields on marines, such as the very fine shields made by Scibor, but that's just not what I have in mind for this project. My searches haven't turned up much so far. I think this might also require plasticard work. I did find the following example right here on Dakka from Hereticdave:
The Ironclad style plating on these intrigues me. Perhaps I could add some
etched brass from FW.
Is anyone else putting together these squads? Have you come across any examples that I missed?