Frateris Militia/Cardinal World Rabble

[mediocrehobbyist89]

Was thinking of doing a small Administratum force made up of fanatical militia from some Cardinal World, to latch onto one of my other Guard lists for narrative games. It would only be a patrol sized detachment made up of conscripts, priests, and maybe a crazier vehicle like a hellhound or deathstrike.

I know how I plan to make them but I was wondering which doctrines to use to represent them. I like to have those slight differences to give them that extra character on the table. I have come down to 2 options - 1. Valhallan Rules or 2. Slum Fighters and Pyromaniacs. Was wondering what people think would be more suitable. Cheers!

[nutty]

Do valhallans still allow you to shoot at your own duded when they are engaged in melee? or am I thinking of older rules? either way the way they deal with morale would work well with zealots imho.

[borkies]

You have a three choices, depending on how you want them to play theme/crunch wise.

Are these militia primarily raving flamer lunatics who want to provide street style justice? If so you have two choices:

1. Catachans, the extra strength, flamer hits for vehicles (a holy hellhound sounds right in line) and general style of play suits it well. It would also give you an option to model straken as a fiery leader or crazed abbot/deacon running forward with a shotgun boosting those around him. Lastly the warlord trait and tusk blade relic work well as a holy church avenger seeking out heretics.

2. The custom regiments as you noted. In addition to the 2 you listed wilderness survivor (uncaring horde just takes fire and keeps going), Agile warriors, and lords approval (your "officer" religious leaders rouse militia to hit harder) would also work, depending on your style. Choose any that might work in theme or crunch.

Or are you building a horde that won't leave the field, advance and fight in a determined mass regardless of loss? If so: Valhallans

Yes Nutty you are right, the order to fire infantry into combat is still active and amazing as ever. With an officer that has the laurels of command you can fire into combat and possible reroll 1s to hit (plasma, lascannons, demo packs) or wound (flamers). I love using squads to fire into melee, than if you kill all of the enemy the unit tied in melee is now free to fire aswell. This order works great with shooting into melee involving any crusaders you might field.

The reduction of morale losses is also huge both I theme and crunch. Plus the relic pistol alone makes conscripts actually usable on the field. That's a horde of troops you can tie people up in fights for some time.

Any of these would work based on the theme you want, feel free to mix as needed.

A cool aspect could be converting your officers into imperial cult personnel, that way buffs like orders or auras are the person, not the rank they have. -T

[mediocrehobbyist89]

Thanks guys. I was thinking of a militia that has been desperately coralled together to defend cathedrals and other holy places. Kinda like a religious Volkssturm - a mix of fanatical citzens, criminals looking for redemption, and lower level administorum servants. Maybe even use them as fanatical hangers on following an Imperial crusade, catching a ride on a priest's ship. Dependent on the story really. The commanders would see them as little more then bullet catchers so the Valhallan order would be great fun for that.

So yeah I'm leaning more towards the Valhallan rules now. Makes them that little bit more stubborn/brave/idiotic. Have a block or two of conscripts with a priest nearby to get them in a frenzy. Use either a CC or LC to represent some kind of cardinal or an unfortunate veteran told to keep an eye on them.

The sets I was thinking of would be the empire flagellants, orlock and cawdor gangers, with a mix of lasgun arms and gsc autoguns (sans mutations of course). Maybe use a couple of cadian bodies to represent guys who've been lucky enough to pick up armour. Anyone suggest any shabby human heads that I could use that aren't as unkempt as the flagellants and cawdor guys, but not cool biker gangers aka the orlock style? I do have some Bretonnian peasant heads left, but not many.

[nutty]

Do you want to keep them a 100% GW? There's quite a few companies that make headswaps, but I personally like Anvil Industries quite a bit. It's a slightly finer scale, but they fit fine with flaggelants, and should work with cawdor and orlocks.

There are a couple of good looking bare heads in the Marauder Horsemen set. There's also the oop Imperial Guard 'Veteran head sprue' that GW used to do; it's going to be hard to find for a good price though.