Warhammer 40K: These Armies Have Miniatures – No Codexes!
I’ve been going over GW’s minis and realized – there are multiple armies ready to go, minis and all – if they only got rules!
I know, I know – we all want new armies. It’s in our wargamer blood after all. It’s rare to find the entire Warhammer community as excited as when the pics drop of an entirely new faction – and everyone drops everything and comes running. Armies are planned, stacks of minis get bought, then it gets a little hazy after that.
Things like Adeptus Custodes and Idoneth Deepkin were white-hot times of gamer excitement.
Daddy, I Want It NOW!
We all have our favorite new armies that keep us up at night dreaming. Things like:
- Emperor’s Children
- World Eaters
- Adeptus Arbites
- Hrud
- Exodites
The list goes on and on…
The Other Side of the Coin
Hovever, looking carefully over the GW miniatures range it turns out there are some hidden gems. It turns out that if GW wanted to, they could make several all-new armies with miniatures that already exist. Some of these miniatures could do dual-duty being part of multiple armies/codexes at once. Some are just orphans floating out there looking for a codex to call their own.
If GW wants to, they just need to make a codex, and rebox these minis and we are off to the races. Here’s what we found:
Traitor Guard
The entire army is done – in plastic. You can thank Blackstone Fortress. We have all the corrupted Cadian infantry in a decent amount of poses, Commissars, Ogryn, Beastmen, Not-sanctioned Psykers, and Conscripts (those recent Blackstone Fortress fire dudes). These units in combination with the existing Astra Militarum kits (both infantry and vehicles) would make up an extremely robust full sized codex. There are units that you would probably disallow like Ratlings and Scions, but there are others that can be added like the CSM Warpsmith (Magos replacment), and perhaps a select number of Daemon engines.
Reboxing many of these units with the CSM vehicle accessory sprue is pretty much what GW did to jumpstart the Genestealer Cult army. If Nottingham wants to, the army is there ready to go. It just needs a codex.
Sisters of Silence
This would be a small one, but hey, the Imperial Knight codex had ONE unit in it! Remember that there are plastic Sisters of Silence and they can be broken up into various types of specialist squads and HQs using the existing range. They even have a specific transport thanks to Forge World that can be included while it gets redone in plastic.
There there is the Sister of Silence character that got released with the Custodian last year. I think you could get about almost ten units out of it, so a teensy niche force like say… Harlequins.
Forces of the Inquisition
Nobody Expects the Inquisition! So much so that they are one of the most fluid forces in the game. In many editions, they are just a set of rules for the Inquisitors. In some editions, they get lumped into the Agents of the Inquisition codex, and sometimes they swell and are included in multiple codes like Witchhunters and Daemonhunters.
At the moment we have a ton of Inquisitors, and a proper army would include a good amount of lifted troops from other codexes. I would expect mainly generic CORE choices of Astra Militarum, Sororitas and Crusaders, with a smattering of the specialists seconded from the Astartes, and Mechanicus. I would love to see the return of rules for the various Ordos of the Inquisition and all their ultra exotic wargear, and psychic abilities. The models have been there for years – time for another codex to bring them into their own.
Kroot Mercenaries
It turns out there are a lot of Kroot miniatures – that are completely ignored by Tau players. The way to fix this is to redo the classic Kroot Mercs codex. This is a cool one as the Kroot apparently work for just about anyone. Their Warspheres plying the spacelanes looking for a good fight and anyone who has hard cash to pay. While the Kroot minis themselves are the basics of a list, the army can go in a lot of directions.
This is an army that could harken back to the anything-goes vibe of Rogue Trader, and have all kinds of aliens looking for a paycheck. All those Drukhari Archon retinue xenos – sure why not! Vespids – fly over here! Beastmasters – sure! Ratlings and Ogryns – yup. Eldar Rangers doing some recon – sure. Bored Jokaero – build us some cool stuff! Maybe even a unit or two of Ork Freebooterz or Deathskulls looking for loot. The sky is the limit on this one and it could be a great way to craft an army whose special rules are all about the mercenary way of life and earning that cold hard cash.
Rogue Traders
The game is named after these, and you know – I think we have two or three in plastic by now. This is an army that would straddle the concepts of the Inquisition and the Kroot Mercs. It’s a human and Imperial organization. But it’s also one that turns a blind eye to the law and will work with aliens – if the payoff is big enough. I could see an army that can be built “goody two shoes” and is 100% Imperial units, or a “we’re past the line” version that can’t include the high and mighty side of the Imperium like the Sororotas or Astartes, but can take limited xenos units, like Kroot, or Eldar Rangers, etc… If anyone is going to have that original 1st Edition vibe – it’s this army. Also, you get to use the coolest dog in 40K!
But will GW ever make the “Warhammer 40,000 – Codex Rogue Trader” book? I would love to see it.
~ Which one do you want first?
