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So I just ran out of steam on my Astra Militarum force. My Guard are as Guard as I need them to be. They die well for the Emperor; now it's time to work on something else.

Dakka, I find myself torn.

I cannot decide what to work on next, but I know what qualities I am looking for. I want an army with an interesting/odd/questionably canon backstory, one with lots of conversion opportunities and one that can be fielded alongside my Guardsmen (even if the guard are wearing their "cultist" hats that day). These are the ideas I've come up with so far:

Gretchin Revolutionary Committee
Idea: Rebel grot army of fanatics amp'ed upped on a special serum and the idea of freedom.
Pros: By far the most amusing option.
Cons: Best represented by "counts as" Astra Militarum (my best guess is Valhallans) and I'm starting this project because I'm all guarded out.

Squat Heavy Infantry
Idea: Exo-suit based force of Space Dwarf bad-asses.
Pros: Allows me to field a very different take on a "space marine" army. Starting with Kharadron Overlords.
Cons: Limited model selection that actually works well with Squat theme.

Sons of Malice/Null Knights
Idea: Heresy Era gear, chaos-ed up with added horned helmets, worshiping a chaos god that probably isn't canon.
Pros: Fun conversions and horrifying to the point of silliness fluff.
Cons: Expensive conversions and limited unit selections (chaos (un)divided only), which cuts out some of the best Chaos options.

Chaos Renegade Misfits
Idea: A undivided warband of Chaos Space Marines whose only unifying theme is that each squad is radically themed.
Pros: Endless conversion options.
Cons: Least interesting backstory; kind of just another Chaos force.


So what do you think? Do any of those stand out as particularly awesome? Is there another army I should be building?

Help me Dakka! You're my only hope!

Pros: By far the most amusing option.

Do you need to go any further?

Coh Magnussen wrote:

Pros: By far the most amusing option.

Do you need to go any further?

Amusement is not the only reason I 40k, though it is a pretty huge part of it.

I like the grot army theme, myself, but it may end up more or less presenting the same sorts of challenges as the imp guard project (lots of models to paint). Though offering more in the way of nifty modeling opportunities and the chance to use up some of the leftovers from your imp guard models and sprues, painting another hundred foot troops, a few tanks and some heavy gunz might be a bit too similar to what you have been doing and contribute to your burnout rather than ameliorate it.

Null knights or renegade misfits (why not both, really?) should allow you to explore an entirely different model range, still present lots of modeling opportunities and also give a chance to use up some leftovers from the imp guard sprues and so on, while offering access to more elite units a different playstyle. Moreover, one my own goals is to be able to keep a set of factions on the shelves that permit for ready play from these ranges of opponents in house, so for example, I collect eldar as well as orks and imperium with a smattering of chaos (as yet unpainted). The idea here is to be able populate a game on the fly given the right company, so having one imperial and one chaos army would satisfy this mission.

Squats would be cool too, just use Mantic models maybe.


In the end, all things considered, I would recommend the chaos project (at leatst one of them) next.

Thank you for the votes and comments. Null Knights and Renegade misfits could certainly blend together, so long as the misfits were all big fans of Malal and having another Chaos force in my local gaming group would be nice. From the votes it's looking like folks are really excited about Grots and Squats? Is it the shortness, the hilariousness or are the two inseparable?

I don't know why people vote grots.

You got sick of AM, getting you to start a "sorta AM" project will only cause you to be sick of it quickly.

Go as far away from AM as possible.
Both malice and squats work, but avoid grots m

Oh my word, thank you Jeff! How have I missed Mantic Forge Fathers? Wow! Definitely makes the Squats more tempting.

And yeah Boom, I'm inclined to agree. I started thinking about what I would make and realized I would just be cherry-picking the handful of Guard units I don't already have and hoping that would make a usable Grot force. Seeing the enthusiasm though may mean that I make Grots another project further down the line.