+ inload: A visit to Lamb's World +

+ A jaunt to Lamb's World +

+ Ratlings aren't native to Lamb's World, but the nature of warfare in the Antona Australis Sector means that there's lot of cross-pollination in the Guard. +

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+ It's raining. It's always raining on Lamb's World. The planet is my own little corner of a little corner of a little corner of the 40k universe, and home to a significant proportion of the Imperial Guard armies I've built over the years and sent out to fight in the name of the Emperor of Mankind (and, thanks to Omricon* – the PCRC member, not the virus variant! – at least one in the name of Chaos Gods!). The first Lamb's World Guardsmen were raised when I was still at school, and I'm still gradually adding to them. +

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+ There have been a number of Lamb's World Regiments I've built; with figures drawn from a huge number of ranges; in metal, resin and plastic; and ranging in size from Epic to Inquisitor scale. My favourite (am I allowed a favourite?), however, are the Lamb's World LVth – the Black Hands (so-named because a shipping error left them with no soap on their first deployment), and the dusty desert-fatigued soldiers have been fighting for years. +

+ Victoria MIniatures' Arcadian Guard form some of Lamb's World troops +

+ It's not simply that I like the immediate accessibility of 'soldiers fighting aliens'. A large part of the reason that I like them so much is that Lamb's World allows a bit of gentle humour – from the names of the planet's cities, to scrawled graffiti on the tanks, to their affectionate mediaeval Welsh theming. +

+ Space Marines are all very earnest, which can be dry. The  nature of the Imperial Guard means that there's room to be a bit wry about things. Regular humans, courageous though they may be, can't fight forever – exploring the  soldier's downtime and reaction to the inevitable shortages caused by the Departmento Munitorum is fun. It's nice to think that perhaps some of the Black Hands might one day get to retire back in relative comfort amongst the green hills and valleys of their rather soggy Rainworld home. +

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+ Vidscans inloading + 

+ Anyway, enough musing – let's see some pics! +

+ Citadel Rogue Trader-era Officer and Standard Bearer with Elysian arms. His canine companion is from Anvil Industries. +

+ This officer – a Caef (senior officer) in the principal Lamb's World dialect of Low Gothic – and his equerry are relatively recent additions. The first character I ever remember creating was a 'Lieutenant Whittaker' from my long-departed Rogue Trader force. Stuntwedge of the PCRC very kindly gave me this Captain, who has been painted up to be a modern-day Whittaker – presumably after years of fighting! +

+ You can read his exploits against the wonderful Bezoan Skitarii of Lucifer216 in the Neues Tremo War – a campaign I'm keen to pick up again. Perhaps the Gatebreakers will lend the Lamb's Worlders a hand? +

+ Whittaker is a good example of how you can multi-task your models. The LVth Black Hands are led by Caef Terentius Dresden [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], but by swapping out the Officer and standard bearer, it's easy for the troops to be used to represent another of the planet's hapless Regiments. Whittaker is leading the 18th Regiment – yet to earn a nickname – on Neues Tremo. +

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+ Composition +

+ The core troops of the Lamb's World LVth regiment are made up of Forge World parts: Cadian upgrade heads (mostly the Respirator ones, but quite a few of the standard Veterans, too) on the Elysian Drop Trooper range – all not sadly out of production. +

+ I have a dwindling stock of bits to allow for expansion, but happily the nature of the Imperial Guard lends itself to slight deviations from a purely uniform look. Humans, after all, are infinitely variable; and a mixture of wear and tear and patchy resupply means that differences in detail of equipment and fatigues adds to the sense of a war-weary force. +

+ This meltagunner includes a heads taken from an AT-43 figure, for example, and the Victoria Miniatures' figures earlier also show how a colour scheme can cover the differences between ranges. I have some plans to kitbash a squad or two of the Victoria Miniatures figures with some of my remaining Elysian bits to further elide the distinction. +

+ The ogryn's converted from an Warhammer Ogre Kingdoms Bull, the Leman Russ is a Mars-pattern Forgeworld kit, once available as a conversion kit, and I think now slightly recut and redesigned. +

+ This is not a realistic army. It mixes modern-ish looking infantry with WWII-style tanks and – as you can see above – giant space ogres, ratlings, horse-mounted cavalry, robe-wearing priests and all sorts of other 40k weirdness. Nevertheless, I hope the overall impression is one that would be familiar or at least immediately understandable by pretty much anyone. +

+ That sense of 'okay, I understand toy soldiers' goes a long way to grounding 40k. Without the Imperial Guard, a lot of the more over-the-top or flamboyant elements would become over-stylised. It's cool to have weird aliens invading a planet and fighting recognisably human soldiers, as it makes 40k relatable. If everything's special, then nothing is. +

+ I can't imagine my upcoming Alaitoc warhost is going to be too happy with that light-fingered Ratling sniper's bracelet... +

+ A murky, muddy mass of Guardsmen and women holding the line against the worst the galaxy can throw at them – true of the Guard in general, and of the Lamb's Worlders in particular. . +

+ Techpriests, along with preachers, psykers and commissars, are some of the more esoteric elements that help balance that grounding, and make it fun. However you spin it, conflict is horrible, and it's good to remember that you're playing a wargame. Brightly-coloured lunatics with space-axes are hard to take seriously! +

+ Rough Riders are another favourite of mine. I've got five that regularly turn up in my games – and it's another example of how gaming with my mates is a key part of the hobby for me. Rough Riders have appeared and disappeared from the Imperial Guard rules on a regular basis, and the PCRC have always been very happy for me to use home-grown tweaks to allow the inclusion of things like this. +

+ Bring back my horses, Games Workshop! +

+ The figures are Empire Pistolier legs (metal, from the glory days of bits ordering, which gives you some indication of how old they are) together with the same bits used for the infantry. The horses are Wood Elf ones that – as is fast becoming a theme – I think are no longer produced. When I built this army, I was nowhere near as experienced or confident with converting things, but I'm pleased with how the fairly basic tweaks and kitbashing (as well as the decade-old paint job) used for this army still hold up fairly well. +

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+ Future plans +

+ In the short term, I'd really like to play The Bezoans Strike Back – a return leg for Lucifer216's Adeptus Mechanicus. For me, having a finished army is something of a pleasure; where it's something to use and enjoy, with the potential for expansion, rather than being a Sisyphean task to continually grow. +

+ With that said, Lamb's World allows me a lot of flexibility to fold various bits and bobs in. I have numerous little squads that could form the kernel of a new Guard army, but I also have the option of painting them up as a new intake of the Black Hands. These include Victoria Miniatures' Arcadians and Elysians, as mentioned above, a few squads of metal Cadians, and some more esoteric things like Squats and Beastmen. Vehicle-wise I have three Chimeras and another Leman Russ that need polishing off... but happily, there's no rush. +

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