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Hi everyone!

So we've just finished a big campaing in our gaming club over here, and during this campaing, I was tasked to create a custom force for the campaign's "neutral force". Since these guys were descripted to me as "greco-roman USA in the future" I said: "KK guys, you will get your modern-army equivalent, mybe with some greco-roman feeling too, but they will make AirCron weep, so prepare yourselves!". They said: "Okay, just make it good.", and thus I've created The Second Republic.

Well, the codex lacks the fluff, but I'll give it to you here: The Second Republic is a secessionist "empire" what can track its roots back to a much bigger pre-Great Crusade empire ("The First Republic" - completely vanquished in every possible way by the Ultramarines legion during the Crusade). The worlds that are currently form the Second Republic are actually just a bunch of hard-core rebels knit together by shared cultural standards and the "You don't want to do your sh*t alone in this universe." mentality. The SR is ~100 worlds strong, including a minor Forge World, a Hive World, two Fortress Worlds and an ex-Astartes ex-homeworld. They keep their business low and quiet, so nobody really bothers them (its hard to tell if the IoM is even aware of the actual situation - some says that it isn't at all). So the Second Republic is pretty cool: without all the IoM crazyness, they are progressive, they have this republic thing going on (as the basic political structure), they like the 'Empah (they only have problems with the IoM), they severly restrict psykers, slavery is totally legal and the local AD chief (the renegade Magos of the minor Forge World) is kinda' helpful and supportive with his stuff. Overall, its like the USA with all the shenanigans (like fast food) with 100% more greco-roman influence (like slavery, because everyone likes slavery).

The army itself... So I tried to fit in as many modern-day army things as I could, and the result was a highly versatile, fast, but somewhat fragile and (suprise!) feeble codex. The Second Republic can do many-many things, they have a wide variety of combos, they have the option to spam flyers shamelessly, but once your enemy brings the big guns to the table, you are screwed. As one of the players said, the Second Republic is like playing a faster, flyer focused IG, only with half the model count and half the special/heavy weapons. I played only two games with this 'dex so far, and overall, I would say something similar: its like playing a different Elysian list with more durability and more versatility but less models and less firepower.

Yes, you read it right. This is mainly a flyer focused army. The codex has 6 flyers, but they aren't Scythes (so to say), so an all-flyer list is not so super-cheesy here. You can also take some nice ground assets too of course, but I think most of them are outshined by the flyers. to counterbalance the flyer power, the SR infantry is just plain bad. The basic unit is essentially just a basic IG infantry squad with a 4+ armour, def grenades and +1 Ld. And no, they don't come in platoons. Just by themselves. And this will be your only scoring unit, and the best protection you can get for them is an AV11 flyer without any bail-out special rule. And even Allies are lost cause, as you could only take Tau or DE scoring units with it.

All-in-all i dare to sya that this is a somewhat balanced fandex. It definietly has some weird things (currently, I have the Dragon's fuselage weapons as the main OP factor), but hey, nothing can be perfect.

And some unit/weapon descriptions, just for an appetizer:

Weapons: They are a lot like your average Imperial weapons. Missile Launchers have Flakks for free and as a basic selection. Autorifles are tottaly like the M16A3 and the sword/power sword is totally a gladius. I changed some weapons to make more sense than their Imperial counterparts (grenade launcher, "vanquisher cannon"). Others are just straight from the IG codex (multiple rocket pods, "bastion-breacher shells").

HQ: Three selections here: the bog standard Command Squad, the Battle Psi and the Combat Enginseer. The Command Squad is the usual support element, similar to the CCS of the IG codex, but with an Ld bubble instead of orders. The Battle Psi is the only psyker of the codex, pretty offensive with its disciplines (pyromancy, telepathy, telekinesis) and can be upgraded to ML3. The Combat Enginser is the firend of the mech armies, and as an added bonus, he can repair through his servitors too (OMG, how the other repair characters miss this little thing!)!

Elites: This section is simply super-crowded. You have two flavors of specialist elite guys: the direct assaulty Grenadiers and the sneaky Commandos. Playtesters said that the former is expensive and the later is awesome. There are also Veterans (similar in function to the IG vets, only without Scoring), Ogryns (better than their IG brethren) and finally... The two real flyers, the Cobalt (fighter) and the Hailstorm (bomber). The special character flyer is also cool (cookies for the first who gets the reference).

Troops: Soooo... You have these Infantry Squads here. They can be good, don't get me wrong, but when they do, they will clokc around 160 points for 10 GEQ guys... General consesus is the best setup for them is Meltagun+Heavy Flamer+Demo Charge+Wyvern and a pray for good rolls. They have a good synergy with the SR fortifications though.

Dedicated Transports: The Wyvern is essentially the basic transport. A good flyer that can be upgraded to a pretty decent gunship, its only big disadvantage is the lack of some sort of grav-chute drop special rule because going hover with the Wyvern equals suicide. In contrast with the Wyvern, the Sudden is basically a pretty mediocre vehicle, but at least it can get the boys where you want most of the time.

Fast Attack: Another somewhat crowded selection. The Drop Squad is basically an Infantry Squad rigged for DS. The Outriders are better, as a bike unit they can do sme pretty decent damage to your opponent. The Hammer attack vehicles are similar to the Outriders, only in a light vehicle package and with better special weapons. The Marauder is a "Razorbacked" Sudden, nobody tried it out, so I can't say anything about it. The Harpy is a super-versatile flyer, it can act both as a gunship and has a limited transport capacity too. It was a selection of choice until the players discovered the Outriders.

Heavy Support: as one of our player said: "All the awesome stuff was crammed here!". The Liberator is a decent medium tank, roughly equal to a buffed-up Predator (or toned-down Leman Russ?). The Catapult is a versatile artillery that can be either a stronger Basilisk, a "different" Manticore or just take bunker-buster shells (Fortsplitter Cannon here) and act as an assault gun. The Rampage is the generic AA tank , inspired by the ZSU-23 Shilka (because we love the Shilka - it is far the coolest AA tank of the world!). The Dragon is the powerhouse of the codex, a super-killy gunship with all the sweet weapon options. Just take Tankbuster Cannon+Multiple Rocket Pods+Targeting Subsystems+ Veteran Crew and good hunting! The Broadsword is only there to be the AC-130 of the army. Some said that it is good against hordes, but personally, I never saw it in action.


Thats all folks, hope you will enjoy the codex! Criticism, army lists and stuff like that are always welcomed, so keep them coming!