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 Lord Damocles wrote:
The half barding with random ironmongery attached, and giant boomstick make them more over the top grimdark/deep than they could be, or were previously...

If you remove the "leg" armour from the horse it looks exactly like the bardings used durning WWI and the 1919-1921 war.
There are even ones like that shown in the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw.

I hate everything about it, especially it being Attilian.

Nice model....for a fantasy game.
Weren't there horse riders making very brave, very desperate and very laughable attacks against tanks in real history?
Difference is in 40k the tanks are flying and shooting even deadlier weapons.

When I look at this model I just see a horse, it's not some chaos beast from hell, or an alien monster with plenty of room for imagination why this thing isn't out of place on the battlefield. It's just a horse. I don't know and I don't care if these horses are more in some 40k novel, I just look at it when the gaming piece is placed on the table.

I would like the horses better, if they were more like the black mechanical horse of Skeletor, "Night Stalker" with various built-in guns on it's back.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_cavalry

Go down the ww2 bit. It appears to be an urban myth.

Horses are self repairing, to a certain extent, and can be fuelled on random foliage. For certain types of planet and conflict they make a lot of sense. If nothing else they provide economic high mobility infantry that can do more stupid high risk manoeuvres in the face of the enemy if needed.

Also the Imperium is largely immune to worry about throwing poorly optimised forces into meat grinder situations. And they are armed with pointy sticks with ultra-tech explosives to make sure anything they hit stay down.

Ive always liked the anachronistic element. Rough riders have also been around from very early in 40k history and therefore there is a lot of nostalgia value in bringing them back. and if you dont like horses, then mount your guys on dinosaurs or bikes, or over the top exoframes like I did.



Personally, I’m glad they didn’t strap any guns to the horses. Quite enough of that in the recent Marine vehicle releases.

myUserName wrote:
Nice model....for a fantasy game.
Weren't there horse riders making very brave, very desperate and very laughable attacks against tanks in real history?
Difference is in 40k the tanks are flying and shooting even deadlier weapons.

When I look at this model I just see a horse, it's not some chaos beast from hell, or an alien monster with plenty of room for imagination why this thing isn't out of place on the battlefield. It's just a horse. I don't know and I don't care if these horses are more in some 40k novel, I just look at it when the gaming piece is placed on the table.

I would like the horses better, if they were more like the black mechanical horse of Skeletor, "Night Stalker" with various built-in guns on it's back.

One advantage of horses is that they are proven in our own world to essentially be viable on every terrain that a human is to an extent. They make for an excellent mode of transport for scouting parties.

They also make for good beasts of burden, which makes sense if your scouts are expected to operate away from the main force for extended periods of time and remain mobile.

We've already been using dogs and horses for millennia, why not just keep doing what works?

Google tells me that Argentina, Chile, China and India still have horse mounted cavalry units that aren't exclusive to ceremonial duties.

myUserName wrote:
Nice model....for a fantasy game.
Weren't there horse riders making very brave, very desperate and very laughable attacks against tanks in real history?
Difference is in 40k the tanks are flying and shooting even deadlier weapons.

When I look at this model I just see a horse, it's not some chaos beast from hell, or an alien monster with plenty of room for imagination why this thing isn't out of place on the battlefield. It's just a horse. I don't know and I don't care if these horses are more in some 40k novel, I just look at it when the gaming piece is placed on the table.

I would like the horses better, if they were more like the black mechanical horse of Skeletor, "Night Stalker" with various built-in guns on it's back.

Imperial rough riders have been around since 1st ed and are a venerable and legit part of the imperial guard. They are no more ridiculous than a normal human charging the enemy with a chainsword or shovel.

myUserName wrote:
Nice model....for a fantasy game.
Weren't there horse riders making very brave, very desperate and very laughable attacks against tanks in real history?
Difference is in 40k the tanks are flying and shooting even deadlier weapons.

Is WWI fire power enough ? the Soviets won their revolutionary war thanks to Budionnys Cav Army. Mass cavalery formation have been used through out the entire WWI and later durning the 1920 war there have been the biggest battles where cavalery was used since Napoleonic wars. As tanks go, tanks of the SS Germanica had been attack by cavalery, they lost all of their equipment and required immidiate help from the lufftwaffe to be bailed out. Both the units leaders Willy Köppen, who we call the Butcher, because of what he was doing in Będzin, Katowice i Sosnowiec. The unit stopped existing as a functioning unit, and after the purges in Lwow, was "punished" by not being allowed to wear the name of the unit on their sleaves for 2 months. After the polish campaign parts of the unit were moved to create the later famed SS Wiking division. Polish cavalery raids have been described in the updated version of Guderians "Achtung Panzer" from 1940.

If waves of humans charging the enemy works in 40k, then waves of humans on horses will too.

Because a million horsemen charging is more survivable against enemy fire than a million foot troops and the guard works on scale.

myUserName wrote:
Nice model....for a fantasy game.
Weren't there horse riders making very brave, very desperate and very laughable attacks against tanks in real history?
Difference is in 40k the tanks are flying and shooting even deadlier weapons.

When I look at this model I just see a horse, it's not some chaos beast from hell, or an alien monster with plenty of room for imagination why this thing isn't out of place on the battlefield. It's just a horse. I don't know and I don't care if these horses are more in some 40k novel, I just look at it when the gaming piece is placed on the table.

I would like the horses better, if they were more like the black mechanical horse of Skeletor, "Night Stalker" with various built-in guns on it's back.

Ah yes charging those flying tanks with guy with chainsword is much more sensibie

As is in 40k these are among more sensible options.

 Insectum7 wrote:
Funny. It may just be one of those things that's totally accurate but somehow still comes off as awkward.

It is. This particular issue comes up a lot with horse models (not every new GW horse kit, but a lot of them), and people have to break out pictures.
We're too used to seeing horses in motion, and horses are usually going fast when they're in this pose, so we don't have a chance to focus on it.


The brand bothers me the most. That's fething deep, I hope the cruel berk that did it got his head kicked in (which given typical horse reactions, it was either completely sedated or he did and then the horse panicked itself to death).

myUserName wrote:
Nice model....for a fantasy game.
Weren't there horse riders making very brave, very desperate and very laughable attacks against tanks in real history?
Difference is in 40k the tanks are flying and shooting even deadlier weapons.

When I look at this model I just see a horse, it's not some chaos beast from hell, or an alien monster with plenty of room for imagination why this thing isn't out of place on the battlefield. It's just a horse. I don't know and I don't care if these horses are more in some 40k novel, I just look at it when the gaming piece is placed on the table.

I would like the horses better, if they were more like the black mechanical horse of Skeletor, "Night Stalker" with various built-in guns on it's back.

40K is a Fantasy game though with the Guard representing a rather "realistic" force unlike all the others. GW could have done these as Catachans riding Catachan devils but I think it was a wize decision to just do some WW 1 horses. Makes more sense than Space Wolves on Wolves if you ask me. And is on par with Orks riding Squigs, probably.

Welp, looks like i'm just going to buy some 28mm horse sprues for historicals, then the Victoria Miniatures conversion legs, some slouch cap heads and machetes.

The guardsmen can always be kitbashed, but those horses are GOD AWFUL.

@ Horses and modern armies: the German Bundeswehr still has 72 horses and 48 mules for supply transports in mountains. Mainly because no competetive, economic alternative for real steep and narrow paths has come up yet.

 Pyroalchi wrote:
@ Horses and modern armies: the German Bundeswehr still has 72 horses and 48 mules for supply transports in mountains. Mainly because no competetive, economic alternative for real steep and narrow paths has come up yet.

The chindits and merrils murauders used mules as well.

30-odd years since Rough Riders first appeared yet people choose 2022 to question their inclusion in the lore… ok…

 Sledgehammer wrote:

 Pyroalchi wrote:
@ Horses and modern armies: the German Bundeswehr still has 72 horses and 48 mules for supply transports in mountains. Mainly because no competetive, economic alternative for real steep and narrow paths has come up yet.

The chindits and merrils murauders used mules as well.

Yes, as pack animals.

To be honest, I'd have preferred dirt bikes. Failing that, some sort of alien or dystopian breed of animal - giant emus, velociraptors, triceratops, bear lions, something other than a generic horse.

And, again, I loathe the Attilian motif.

It doesn't really matter if it makes complete sense or not because the Imperium doesn't follow modern sensibilities.
If a planet has a population that has good knowledge of combat on a beast of burden, then that's what Regiment gets raised from the planet. Why spend the time training 10,000 cavalrymen into tankers or line infantry when they can still serve a purpose as cavalry? Sometimes it will pay off and sometimes it won't but the Administratum likes those odds.

 Gert wrote:
It doesn't really matter if it makes complete sense or not because the Imperium doesn't follow modern sensibilities.

^This is the thing to remember. The anachronistic mentality of the Imperium is generally vastly underappreciated.

It's also why the Land Raider is the pinnacle of 40k vehicle design, but I digress.

 Gert wrote:
It doesn't really matter if it makes complete sense or not because the Imperium doesn't follow modern sensibilities.
If a planet has a population that has good knowledge of combat on a beast of burden, then that's what Regiment gets raised from the planet. Why spend the time training 10,000 cavalrymen into tankers or line infantry when they can still serve a purpose as cavalry? Sometimes it will pay off and sometimes it won't but the Administratum likes those odds.

That and when your deploying an army of untold Billions, possibly even Trillions? You take everything you can get, and put it to the best use you can.

For what its worth - and its not worth much - I don't love them.

Rather like all the nu-Guard, it just feels like GW have gone "take our old range, remake the models in HD and go". Which is fine I guess - and clearly appeals to some people. But I was hoping for something different.

None of it is bad, but it feels like when you get a game remake and its exactly the same game from 20 years ago... but they'll want you to pay current AAA prices because look at the pixels.

tneva82 wrote:

myUserName wrote:
Nice model....for a fantasy game.
Weren't there horse riders making very brave, very desperate and very laughable attacks against tanks in real history?
Difference is in 40k the tanks are flying and shooting even deadlier weapons.

When I look at this model I just see a horse, it's not some chaos beast from hell, or an alien monster with plenty of room for imagination why this thing isn't out of place on the battlefield. It's just a horse. I don't know and I don't care if these horses are more in some 40k novel, I just look at it when the gaming piece is placed on the table.

I would like the horses better, if they were more like the black mechanical horse of Skeletor, "Night Stalker" with various built-in guns on it's back.

Ah yes charging those flying tanks with guy with chainsword is much more sensibie

As is in 40k these are among more sensible options.

That's a good point, I have to agree.

I still don't like the models and I still think they would not fit in any Imperial Guard army I've ever played against.
If any friend of mine would think about buying them, I would offer to print these ones for him instead, those I like much better: https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-death-division-cavalry-of-the-imperial-force-dynamic-poses-225322. Especially the riders blend much better in the design of the Imperial Guard model line. At least I feel that way.

^Can confirm, those are pretty nice.

Tyel wrote:
For what its worth - and its not worth much - I don't love them.

Rather like all the nu-Guard, it just feels like GW have gone "take our old range, remake the models in HD and go". Which is fine I guess - and clearly appeals to some people. But I was hoping for something different.

None of it is bad, but it feels like when you get a game remake and its exactly the same game from 20 years ago... but they'll want you to pay current AAA prices because look at the pixels.

Ya pretty much and come on the blew up cadia make the lore have some impact sure still have some cadian regiments bouncing around but it's time to move the majority to other forces like kreig.

Boosykes wrote:
Ya pretty much and come on the blew up cadia make the lore have some impact sure still have some cadian regiments bouncing around but it's time to move the majority to other forces like kreig.

Yeah, that's not how it works. Cadia being gone doesn't suddenly eradicate every Cadian regiment in existence and even before the destruction of their homeworld the Cadians were the single most numerous Guard regiment out there. The entire Cadian Gate region was defended by them and they still sent out huge numbers of regiments on other campaigns galaxy-wide. Then there are the worlds that Cadian regiments were given as per the right of settlement and the other thousands of non-Cadian regiments that use the same gear with many also being instructed by Cadian officers and soldiers. The Cadian model is the generic Guardsmen template for the Imperium, with exceptions taken for the type of Lasgun they might use or the specific tactics employed.

Plus, of all the regiments to pick as a replacement, the one most associated with fash and neo-nazi elements within the community would be the absolute worst choice.

 Blndmage wrote:
Lol, cutie marks.

That's a brand

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Everything on that model is clearly in motion... except the rider.

I take you never saw actual, military riders?

That's exactly how someone in breastplate sits on horse (because you can't bend down with one of these), doubly so if they have a lance - you'd fell off the horse if you tried to lean forward because your center of gravity would be too far away from the saddle. Funnily enough, this photo (paint-ized) of real hussar reenactor looks virtually identical to the mini, down to exact poses of both horse and rider, yet somehow is 'unrealistic' and 'not in motion'. GW can't win even when they literally copy paste reality, eh?

Karol wrote:
If you remove the "leg" armour from the horse

That's not armor, that's leg protector used on any heavily working, expensive horse:



Real ones used in cross country runs have plates bolted on too to prevent injury if horse runs into something hard too quickly, but its primary purpose is to protect joints and prevent tendon extension under added weight. Another super 'unrealistic' element

Understanding how armor works, passed and present does inform us of how armor works in the future.
As in this case, both horse and rider we do understand what needs to be protected.

Honestly I think they are more a mismatched unit, getting horses from planet to planet sounds like a nightmare.
And they don’t seem to be designed to make that effort worth it, it would have been nice to see a bit of a redesign with some weapons options to at least make it look like the IG commanders are thinking about there battlefield roles.

Adding a scout, and Longrifle role to them I think would have gone a long way to making them gel a bit more with the current thoughts of the IG, why still keeping there insane sometimes a Calvary charge is needed.

I like them because there are a lot of reasons why cavalry as such would be an inefficient, less-than-ideal choice. To me this is part of the humor aspect to 40k; the far future, literally the fate of the galaxy at hand, and the most powerful human faction is sending dudes out on horses!

Apple fox wrote:

Honestly I think they are more a mismatched unit, getting horses from planet to planet sounds like a nightmare.

I don't see why it should be more difficult transporting people, which also need to be sheltered and fed. The Imperium probebly moves livestock around too, either for fresh meat or to populate farms with fauna.

Might also be interesting if the mounts spend a significant time of transit sedated or even in stasis if such technology is available. Other than the soldiers who seem to train on board of the troop ships (at least that is implied in the Cain and Gaunt books) the warsteeds don't have to. And the savings in space and food might make sedation the cost effective alternative...