Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So this will be my first foray into 30k and I want to do a Militia Army. That being said it seems everyone is going for a heretic horde army or a dark age of technology Imperial outfit from what little I can find on the army list. I would like to do an Imperial Horde army if possible. I've just finished Harry Turtledove's great war series and I think the alternate history early WW1 U.S. Army would make a great Imperialis MIlitia Army. Lots of inducted levy troops loosing volleys of upgraded firepower and dying to slow folks down while artillery and malcadors smash up enemy's the conscripts can't overwhelm. Having never played 30k I don't have a clue if this is viable. Also what Imperial provenances offer advantages for this type of army? If some folks can help me out and/or are interested I can post some uniform examples and maybe some fluff....

I can partly answer your questions, having a little experience with the Militia Horde. An infantry heavy WW1-esque army would definitely be easy to create with the list. The only problem, however, that the militia horde suffers is that there are no platoon-like options. For the IG or for the renegades book, you can take multiple squads as one troop choice. Unfortunately for the 30k list, you don't have that option. You will run out of slots before you run out of models.

Having said that, you can still get multiple 30 man cult squads on the board. You just need to make sure you back them up with something, as you simply wont have enough slots to drown your opponent in unending waves of troops.

limited slots are an issue (though, when you can bring 300 models for under 1,000 points and still be within force org, the problem is slightly mitigated), but it can be worked around. As for 'upgraded firepower' Levies may not be the best option, BUT it can be a good idea to do a list along the lines of:

CAD 1:

1 commander (Survivors of a Dark Age, warrior elite)

2 20-man grenadier squads (something like laslocks with the +1 strength is just deadly)
4 20-man militia squads

Tanks and what not

Allied Detachement:
1 commander (whatever provinces that let you take levy squads as your needed squads and would make them a bit more durrible OR feral worlders and make them decent on the charge)
2 50-man levy squads


Levy squads are weird as they don't give your opponent points, though on their own they are "meh" as a core unit beyond the silly rules that traitor lists give them. I'd run my levies with something like the SotDA and Warrior elite as that seems the best path to make them last long enough to do anything.

Thanks for the feed back! So would you say it would be better to take the regular militia squads over the inducted levy? I ask because I figured if I beef up they're range weapons and close combat skills/stats 50 shots of laslocks before a charge or just using them to slug it out they'd be okay. I know they're not going to wipe out a squad of marines but they can hold objectives and tie up characters and units while I hammer the rest of the enemy with arty and a malcador or two. I just didn't figure a loss of 1 point in range skill would truly make that much of a difference with 50 models.... Thoughts?

You also can't have krak grenades or meltabombs, or an attached medicae.

Malcadors providing fire support should work well.

Discipline masters should help up leadership and combined with discipline collars and maybe alchem jackers that should give me a steady, meaty blocking unit....