Then along came the Imperial Guard. This part of the collection started off as an Armoured Company; again, using a Chapter Approved army list. A little later, we started work on Cities of Death, and so I decided to collect an army based around infantry and Sentinels for that urban setting. That gave me a large pool of both tanks and infantry to choose from when I want to field a balanced Imperial Guard army in normal games, though I still need to paint up a bunch more heavy weapons teams to make them really effective.

Then we started work on Apocalypse, and so I started thinking about what I could do to expand the army still further. The first thing I wanted to do was to expand the tank contingent into a full company, and this is still underway — just a couple more Leman Russ and I'm there. I'd had an idea in my head for ages about making an entire battery of the old Rapier Laser Destroyers, and so this project finally came to fruition. In normal games, I count these as lascannons, but in Apocalypse, they're counted as a heavy weapons platoon equipped with twin-linked multi lasers for the same price as lascannons.

Next up were the Sentinels. I'd collected quite a few of these already, mainly because I just think they're cool. I added a couple more, to create a complete "Emperor's Talons" Sentinel Recon Group.

Then there came the flyers. I'd received the Vulture Gunship as a birthday gift a year or so before, and working on Apocalypse shunted it right to the front of the painting queue.

Then there's the Arvus lander, which I painted for a White Dwarf Fall of Medusa V battle report a while back. This small flyer is undoubtedly the most innocuous vehicle in the game, and it tends to get completely overlooked in games of Apocalypse, where mighty Titans can wipe out entire armies in a few turns. However, I've actually won two massive games by dropping the Arvus down on an out-of-the-way objective at the end of a game and having a Hardened Veterans squad leap out and claim the objective to win the day.

The latest addition was the Ogryns, which are just such nice models that I could hardly pass on them. In terms of the future, there are still plenty more ideas I have to expand the army still further. Firstly, I plan to make full creative use of the spirit of Apocalypse army selection and add a unit of Harlequins to the force. This may seem mad, but I only plan to do it when facing a Chaos army, which is entirely consistent with the background, in which the enigmatic Eldar may occasionally aid a beleaguered human force against a greater enemy. Then, I have the notion that a small force of Blood Axe mercenaries may be fun to collect, especially if they're painted up as if they've actually been equipped by the Imperial Guard and are wearing the same colour uniforms as the rest of the collection.

And lastly, there's a great big, super heavy tank-sized gap in the army, which will be filled as soon as I can get my paws on a new Baneblade. In fact, I may not be able to stop at just the one!