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Hi all! With some birthday money rolling in, I've decided to get started on my Imperial Militia army! I'm modeling the look off of US Civil War Confederate Infantry in part because of the southern bits of my family, as well as the fact that the rag-tag look fits pretty well for a semi-professional force. Pair those 2 facts with the fact that I can get 44 models for 35 dollars, and it makes a compelling argument for using them

They will be no means be a core force, so I won't be adding in super heavies, or going over board on fast attack/heavy support options, but I'd still like it to be fielded as a fun, simple, 1000-1500 pt. list.

Anywho, this is what I'm thinking on now:
HQ
full Command squad w/ grenades
Force Commander (kitted out) w/ Warrior elite + Survivors of the Dark Age (rough Idea for now, will probably change)

TROOP
3 20-man militia squad
5-man Missile launcher weapon teams
2 20-man grenadier sections

ELITE
Ogryns or Rapiers

FAST ATTACK
Cavalry?

HEAVY SUPPORT
3 Leman Russ battle tanks

And I was curious: how would people feel about a homebrewed unit for Militia cavalry/bikers? something like the Cavalry unit type, furious charge, hammer of wrath, 2-wounds, etc. etc.? As well as this, I was thinking of adding on some squat models that I've been sitting on for the sake of some variety, but who knows.

I approve of any militia force! And yes, throwing in American Civil War bits will make for a very nice looking force!

And I was curious: how would people feel about a homebrewed unit for Militia cavalry/bikers? something like the Cavalry unit type, furious charge, hammer of wrath, 2-wounds, etc. etc.? As well as this, I was thinking of adding on some squat models that I've been sitting on for the sake of some variety, but who knows

I'll be honest, I was surprised there was no 'militia cavalry' unit. You can use Mutant Spawn, I guess, but only if you take Twisted Flesh, and that screws with allowable infantry choices too much.

Making a 'militia cavalry' unit would be fine in my mind. I'd probably start with something resembling Death Riders (they're a competitive but far from overpowered unit) - WS3/LD7 by default (to give room for provenances), carapace is fine....

Anywho, this is what I'm thinking on now:
HQ
full Command squad w/ grenades
Force Commander (kitted out) w/ Warrior elite + Survivors of the Dark Age (rough Idea for now, will probably change)

TROOP
3 20-man militia squad
5-man Missile launcher weapon teams
2 20-man grenadier sections

ELITE
Ogryns or Rapiers

FAST ATTACK
Cavalry?

HEAVY SUPPORT
3 Leman Russ battle tanks

First thoughts: Rapiers are heavy support. One of the big weaknesses of the Militia compared to Solar Auxilia and Legion forces is that thud guns and rapiers occupy the same heavy support slot as the big guns and tanks, so they're either/or, not both.

If you're taking Survivors of a Dark Age, you're paying 75 points for that armour save boost. For god's sake take carapace armour on anyone who can because it's now power armour!

The Grenadiers make for okay infantry units. You will need (for them to be 20-man units) two special weapon grenadiers. If you want them to go forwards and take objectives, I'd suggest flamers, grenade launchers or meltaguns. If hanging back, Advanced Weaponry Rotor Cannons.

If you've got the points, always, always find something better than auxilia rifles. Seriously. 10 points for a lascarbine will double the unit's effective firepower by letting you open up a turn earlier and double-tap once you get close.

The list has a serious lack of heavy anti-tank. I'm not sure what to suggest off the top of my head; a vanquisher instead of one of the tanks is nice but not that great. Meltabombs might be nice.


The one thing I'll say is think hard about the provenances: your models are supposed to have a 4+ save, and a 3+ save for the grenadiers. ACW confederate infantry will have no visible armour at all on the model, when in theory they should be plated up like 40k stormtroopers and fire warriors. They're your models, but I know it'd bug me a little.

If I was going to try and 'toughen up' the army but didn't have the models to represent body armour, I'd consider Cyber-augmetics as a provenance. Consider it as every model carrying a personal low-power refractor field. We've seen that in heresy books - the 'Cheinveil' all carried personal shields - and a mob of dudes with a 6++ save is better than it sounds.

Plus it pairs well with other models - giving a platoon commander or discipline master with refractor fields a 4+ save, and making giving your force commander a 3++ save much, much cheaper.

Don't go nuts on equipping your force commander. Unless you're planning on taking a very limited selection of provenances (Feral Warriors/Gene-crafted/Cult Horde/Twisted Flesh) you will not make your force commander able to stand up to anyone else's generic HQ choices in a challenge, let alone Primarchs or named characters. A 3++ save is a cheap, sensible investment, but arming him for close combat is generally points wasted.

A brace of pistols is not a bad plan, though.

Fire support squads are good - not exactly cheap, but cost effective because they're also troops. They fulfil the job of the rapier batteries everyone else gets as elites - easier to kill but scoring units - whilst your tanks and heavy guns mirror tank and artillery tank squadrons.

One thing worth considering is splurging on Planetary Overlord if you take several fire support squads (ACW light artillery shouldn't be out of scale for guard heavy weapons to be fitted to the carriage) - if you have one each of missile launcher and heavy bolter squads, you can pick one of them (as required for the enemy army) and take the -1AP warlord trait.

AP2 Krak Missiles (for terminators), AP3 Heavy Bolter Rounds (for normal astartes) or AP4 frag missiles (for auxilia) are a terrifying thing to see in action....


Throwing in the squats would be cool.
It's hardly "official FAQ" but I did ask Forgeworld in an email, and they replied that you can ally two different militia 'regiments' together (using one force commander with one set of provenances in the primary detachment and another with different provenances in the allied detatchment).

Tons of feedback, thanks!

As for the armour thing: I actually was thinking of rough modeling on some fancy hi-tech faux kine-field generators on the models to act as the improved armour saves, though I probably have to work on the idea/fluff more For the squats it's no problem as it's kinda implied on their models, and I was also trying to think of a way to run the exosuit dwarfs as my Ogryns, but who knows: their probably not big enough, even if I had them on the right base + standing taller.

As for the list points: I agree with most everything you mentioned, and know about most of them, my 'list' was just a stupidly rough draft The list itself would be something that either 1) Runs as the core detachement with auxilia, mechanicum, or marine support, or the other way around as a good, cheap source for bodies.

a more fleshed out list would be along the lines of:



At least, this is what I'd use for the confederates, the squat list would be much more elite + artillery heavy.

I was also trying to think of a way to run the exosuit dwarfs as my Ogryns, but who knows: their probably not big enough, even if I had them on the right base + standing taller.

Multiple models on one (larger) base for the ogryns?


Field Generators as armour makes sense - as I say, that's essentially what I was suggestion; I just thought that (to me) made more sense as a 6+ invulnerable. Still, your army, your conversions.

You don't have artillery tanks either - militia default to heavy gun carriages. Which is good, as they're (a) bloody cheap and (b) hard to hurt. They do suffer from Morale problems, though.

A good second provenance if you're not sure what you want is Alchem-Jackers - as noted in the entry itself, it needn't represent drugs and could just be fanatical courage. But between the two, your squads are now Ld8 and stubborn in combat rather than Ld7, and will never fall back. It makes up nicely for the command squad's standard that you don't have in this version of the list.

Alchem-Jackers means that if you fail a morale test from shooting, you go to ground instead. Which means no snap-firing guns in your next shooting phase. As a result, tanks (who can't be pinned) are probably a better call than manned artillery batteries. Failing a Ld check still means they won't fall back, which would destroy them (which is good) but going to ground means those guns aren't firing the following turn, which hurts if it's something like a pair of medusa siege guns!

On a related note, since you're going to have to send at least some units up-field to take and hold objectives, and said units will be coming out of cover and getting (not to put too fine a point on it) shot to absolute buggery, consider some Medicae Orderlies and Discipline Masters. Even if just for the grenadiers. Won't cost you too much and may keep your precious scoring units moving the right way.

If you want to do an army with Legion support, look into the Army Of Dark Compliance build rules - it essentially lets you mix the two in one detachment, and you get a few nice bonus rules, like improving the cover save militia infantry give to Legion units. Traitor-only, though, I'm afraid.

The milita scout sentinels are great. Cheap outflankers/disruption unit. I take them with autocannons/hunter killers and hope to hit a tank in the rear or side the turn they walk on. I take a small milita allied detachment just for them.

As far as Squat in exo-armor as Ogryns... To get something Ogryn size simply find some mechs or robots, or Ive seen 40k Centurions used... Where the Squat is basically standing with his arms completely in the torso and the suits legs and arms are completely robotic. You might consider the Centurion comvrersion route or look at something from Warmachine or there are some Dwarven mech suits from a company called Titan Forge that are pretty Ogryn sized.