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So i love history, thats why i collect the imperial guard and now that my Praetorian force is almost complete i was thinking of doing a fanatical imperial force based on the Imperial Japanese Army. What im after is not a competitive set of rules but fluffy add ons to go with them. I wanna keep it close to the codex but for example replacing special weapons teams with Fanatical Tank hunting/Suicide teams or giving them a rule so that they can instead of firing rapid fire give them the choice to fire as an assault 1 lasgun, maybe a cool set of orders im not really sure.

Some obvious things stick out to me for example making them a light infantry based force, keep them mostly platoon based, give them limited heavy support options in favour of lighter weaponry etc.

Anyways some ideas would be great and hopefully its something i can base an army off.

A few things that come to mind right off the bat:

- you can limit your heavy support choices simply by taking away the ability for them to be a squadron.
-You could also include the booby-traps ability (snare mines?) that the SM scout bikers have. Figure out a points cost and have that as a heavy support option, 0-1.
- what about having a fortification in the heavy slot? Caveat of not allowing yourself to take the same fortification twice, so you could have a bastion in the heavy slot and a defense line in your fortification slot
- give certain units camouflage. Things like your veteran squads, suicide squads and heavy weapons squads can take a 5 point upgrade (10 points for heavy weapons) and get a +1 cover save.
- tank hunters as a fast attack choice with infiltrate. Give 2 camouflaged troopers melta bombs and then remove them from play after the attack is resolved. They count as gone to ground until the start of your first turn.
- how about a pure heavy weapons platoon? 0-1, command squad (must take a box caster), 2-4 Weapons squads concentrating on mortars, autocannons and heavy bolters.

Iron hand Straken + power blobs looks pretty good.

Stormtroopers could represent the SNLF.

 Swastakowey wrote:
So i love history, thats why i collect the imperial guard and now that my Praetorian force is almost complete i was thinking of doing a fanatical imperial force based on the Imperial Japanese Army. What im after is not a competitive set of rules but fluffy add ons to go with them. I wanna keep it close to the codex but for example replacing special weapons teams with Fanatical Tank hunting/Suicide teams or giving them a rule so that they can instead of firing rapid fire give them the choice to fire as an assault 1 lasgun, maybe a cool set of orders im not really sure.

Some obvious things stick out to me for example making them a light infantry based force, keep them mostly platoon based, give them limited heavy support options in favour of lighter weaponry etc.

Anyways some ideas would be great and hopefully its something i can base an army off.

By god man, do it. Always thought Japan was one of the most interesting factions in WW2 because of their whole crazed banzai thing.

For starters, borrow what I believe is the FoW Japanese special rule - when morale is failed, the unit charges wildly at the nearest enemy instead of fleeing! The Black Templar have or had a rule like this - a failed morale test caused them to run 2d6 forward iirc. Alternatively, perhaps if a unit drops to below 25%, and so would usually need 1-1 to rally, make a final morale test - if passed the unit starts rampaging forwards instead of fleeing backwards.

I reckon model their basic troopers off of one of the Penal Legionaire melee types, and perhaps an option for a Laspistol+Sword or an added sword for 1pt per model or 5pts per unit etc.

When this is done I'm happy to give you a game with the modified rules if your ever up in Auckland, as long as I can use a few of my goofy special Ork units in return

The flames of war rules for bonzai is they never flee but if fail everything goes straight to the objective and assaults ig they can which is cool. And id play anything if it makes for a fun game.

I was looking at modifying the bolt action Japanese forces for them.

Definitely give them some stealth capability of sorts and make them assault based but ill put up some proposed rules tonight and people can be judge.


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Imperial Japan Force:

Bonzai:

If any unit in the Japanese force is to fail their leadership test, for anything, they immediately head towards the nearest objective OR the nearest enemy unit. They cannot do any voluntary action that will stop them from assaulting. If they cannot assault they must run. They can however shoot assault weapons if they are in assault range (including grenades). If already in assault they continue fighting.

The ultimate sacrifice

One man per squad may opt to take a demolition charge (at the points cost shown in the unit). This model may detach from the squad at any point and may act independently for the rest of the game. In order to activate his demolition charge he MUST get into assault with an enemy unit or vehicle. Place the blast so it centers over the model and resolve wounds as normal. If equipped with a melta bomb it always hits enemy vehicles when in assault. Once this has happened remove the model from play. They detonate before any attacks take place.

Symbol of leadership

All officers MUST have a Power Katana. They may exchange their pistol as per unit entry rules but may never replace the Katana for another weapon. The Katana acts as power sword with the rending special rule.

Limited support

May only take one heavy weapons squad per platoon and platoon squads may not take heavy weapons. They may still take special weapons. Special weapons teams are increased to +1 more allowed per platoon. No chimeras are available for units using these rules. No priests are available for these forces. All vehicles (including sentinels) may only be taken as units of 1 instead of three.

Ferocious Advance

Infantry have the move through cover special rule and may choose to use their rifles as pistols but only to shoot before the assault. If they choose to do this all lasguns use the laspistol profile for that shooting phase. Infantry have the furious charge special rule.

The rules above apply to only the company command squad, the platoon options and any independent characters that join.









The following changes are made to all platoon squads:

May choose one model that has not been upgraded with another option to become a suicide member with the rules detailed in the ultimate sacrifice special rule for 20pts. He may take a melta bomb instead for 5 points. (special weapons squads may take these as options for the same points costs for all 6 models in the unit.)

The following changes are made to company command squad, the platoon options and any independent characters that join.

Ofiicers all have a Katana and laspistol. the katana may not be changed.

May all take Camo Cloaks and defensive grenades for 30 points a squad, 15 points for command squads and 20 points per special weapons squad. Conscripts may not take this option.

The following changes are made to command squads

Replace the order "First rank Fire, second rank fire, third rank fire" the following order.

Long live the emperor!

Units gain the fleet special rule and add 3" to the charge range.


Thats all i got so far. Let me know if its too powerful. if people would not play this let me know and say why. If its all good to go ill make a special character. Now i got rid of alot of support options and these units when buffed out can get expensive. With the lack of support they make up for it with their assault nature so up close they can cause some hurt. But ultimately they are pretty outclassed in most situations and can lack a lot of traditional support.

The only thing I'll say to that is that the katanas issued to Japanese army officers were often low quality, especially compared to the classical samurai's sword.

That's why for regular Sergeants and the like, just using Power Swords is probably enough - although Company Commanders and named characters could probably get away with your upgraded Power Katanas as they're likely ancestral weapons rather than the cheap gak cast up to give the regular noncoms.

Yes but that's boring. I know what you mean but at the end of the day its a theme not recreation. Otherwise they wouldn't have access to plasma etc.

I'm fairly sure officer's had to buy their own katanas and pistols so there's general quality to abide by.

Other than that is there anything that would stop you playing this set of rules?

You could look at the old imperial guard codex (4th ed?) for some ideas as well if you can find one, the doctrine system gave you customization options that were GW-sanctioned at the time so that might have some ideas.
The other thing I would recommend is to see how far you can go with just the IG codex as a "backup", so if someone refuses to play your custom rules you can still play a fluffy list using your models (which I assume are/will be awesome!) and strategy.

Thats exactly the plan man! Just have 2 lists handy really. Yea i have those codices but points wise i didnt see an easy way of making it work so i just wrote up the above as it was easier.

Katana are terrible at armor penetration, they shouldn't be rending, at all.

This isn't reality, its herp derp folded ten thousand times. I say Rending is fine, especially on a power weapon where its nearly useless. Though shred might be a more effective and more... logical I guess alternative

The one I take issue with is the +3" charge. That makes them faster than like, everyone in the game - instead I'd make them d6+6 on the charge when under the influence of Bonzai

The Bonzai rules need a bit of clearing up. Currently it looks like you can run and shoot at the same time

Shred would make a lot more sense. But its still seem stupid to give an advantage to a power katana vs a power sword.

Edit: Folding steel is so 700 BC

Yeah, but this *is* Space Japan. Let him have his super sword!

Maybe even a "Spirit of Bushido: get XYZ bonus in a challenge" sorta thing

If my history is correct, and I'm a history major so I'm going to tentatively say "feth no", they've been folding steel for millennia - but it wasn't until 1200 AD that they decided to fold it ten thousand times and see what happened

 Bobthehero wrote:
Katana are terrible at armor penetration, they shouldn't be rending, at all.

Alright here is my 2 cents...

My space Katanas are not our usual modern day katanas. These Katanas are POWER katanas, Not only that those that wield them are among the most dedicated wielders in the Imperial Guard, and if they can hit a nice joint or even better get a good slash at their throat then they will (rending). Oh and they are space Power Katanas, not wartime japan not space, not power katanas... haha

Now the bonzai rule to be short means they may shoot only if they are about to assault, they can not shoot if they do not assault and must run instead.

The Howling Banshees, Warwalkers have the long live the emporor rule for free and without rolling for it, with an autarch and lucky role it can be +4". That is fast, and plus they loose the most commonly used and arguably the best order around... first rank fire, second rank fire, third rak fire. I think its a very negative trade off in some ways but nothing beats a fluffy army so i dont know.


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Wow challenges is something i didnt think of, hmmm ill come back with a rule for that.