Project Draftdodger – Part 1

Righty, lets get this going. The new Astra Militarum codex is imminent. Its had more leaks than the UK national water supply, more preview hype than the MCU on a good day, and more day 1 patches than a Bethesda game. I still don’t have it at time of writing. You can't even order it seperately yet; Eldar are instead the big thing for this weekend. And even if I did, it seems quality control might not have been great with this one. But fuck it, I'm done waiting. Thus begins Project Draftdodger, a diary series that hopefully I will post about weekly.

 

 

 A recent picture of my current force

Beyond making my Astra Militarum force codex compliant, the objective here is twofold. First off, I want to make my own versions of those new Krieg units while fitting my theme and budget. I've been making notes and acquiring bits in the run-up for the codex, so those leaks have been a big help. Secondly, I want to use this opportunity to finally take my force to a comfortable 2000 points with a 300ish sideboard for flexibility. Off the top if my head, I'm pretty much at 2000 already, but only flinging everything I've got on the board, which isn’t quite the same as having a balanced force I like. As to which detachment I'm using? Well Siege Regiment is the obvious one, but I'll be trying a few out before settling on something. In terms of plastic, I'm gonna be leaning on WGA's Death Fields line of scifi infantry, which I've been stockpiling in anticipation. With all that in mind, but with big gaps in my knowledge, I'm planning on the following modelling projects.

One Krieg battleline unit, plus oddments to round out existing units

I've found myself wanting more infantry, so this seems a logical direction to go. As the data sheet for these is unusually obtuse with respects to weapon slots, I'm gonna play it safe here, assuming the most conservative reading possible until some clarification is issued, and putting them on the back burner. These will be Cannon Fodder ladies again, to fit in with the rest.

 

One+ Krieg Command Squads

With the demise of the Platoon Command Squad, I need to rebuild my HQ choices. I plan to reshuffle the existing ones into the equivalent Catachan units where possible, the path of least resistance, but I still need something to lead the above, and that means banners and similar greeblies. These will most likely be a mix of sprues, with the <deep breath>, the Les Grognards Command and Heavy Support kit providing the fiddly bits. The base size for these is however unknown at time of writing, most likely 28.5mm but who bloody knows, so I’m holding off.

Two teams of Combat Engineers
The new hotness as it were, these are a rough Scion/Kasrkyn equivalent, so Ive opted to go for the Bulldogs again. I'm undecided at time of writing how big the squads will be, so the leftovers might go onto be other things. The main issue here will be producing the less conventional weapons, although the bomb drone should be fun.

One+ Krieg Heavy Weapons Squad

The other new hotness, this is the main reason why I got that Grognards kit with the long name. Their unique selling point, other than the spite attack, is probably their horrific flamers, which I feel should be an easy kitbash. The second team is something less certain. I probably don't need two burny units, I have plenty of lascannons, and while the twin stubber option isn't great, there's this wonderful quad gun ball turret on the sprue. The base size for these are also unknown, which is annoying.

One small squad of Ratlings

While initially I was fond of the new killteam set, I kinda went off it when I saw the 40k rules. As Ratlings fit my convict army theme, I have however opted for a minimal size to try them out. These will use WGA SneakFeet.

 

You may notice that the above features no new vehicles. Like six Rogal Dorn tanks, for example. This is because I feel infantry are the focus of the new codex, and such models would be a fun thing to do if/when/inevitably I get sick of doing infantry. If I get all this done, I’ll probably have all the army dudesmen and/or women I’ll ever need for the scale of game I tend to play. Because I got impatient, I’ve already made a start on some of this. Like those Sergeants, but also the Ratlings. Those aren’t quite finished yet, and I didn't want to rush them, so expect to see more of those in part 2.

Cheers for now.