WIP: The Crimson Guard

I swear, one the greatest strokes of marketing genius on GW's part was making Allies an official (and controlled) part of 6th ed list building. For the longest time, I'd been sitting on my Guard, wondering when in blazes I'd get the energy to paint enough of those horrible hordes of flashlight-armed mere mortals to actually see them in action. Now, with the option of allies, I get to attach the glorious, mighty guns of the Imperial Guard without having to while away absurd amounts of time churning out enough Troops to field a legal army.

So, I've finally gotten properly started on getting the Guard on the table and here's what's cooking:

Simple stuff, really. A little injection of pure brutality for any army I field:

Lord Comissar
Sly Marbo
Veterans in a Chimera
Vendetta Gunship
Manticore

Haven't settled on the loadouts for the Commissar and the Veterans yet, but a Vendetta is always a solid choice. And I just love the sheer ludicrous firepower the Manticore has. Yes, I know it's fragile and squishy and is just inviting some nawty trick from my foes... That's kind of the point. There's a few ways to play this:

1) I could castle up and protect it, making it more trouble than it's worth to attack it. With the right primary detachment, one can draw the opponent into a horrible game of attrition, running into my guns while the Manticore piles on the pressure in the form of Strength 10 pie plates.

2) I could deliberately leave it unprotected. Doing this leaves an enticing target for the enemy, taking attention from the rest of the army. How unprotected kind of depends on what I'm facing and what I can expect the enemy to throw at it.

Of course, there's always the off-chance that, me being me, I'll throw all cunning plans out the window and revel in the joy of bring big honking explodey rocket death to the battlefield...

I also figured I'd make use of Sly Marbo. Always useful to have one BS5 AP2 battlecannon shell tucked aside, just in case, yeah?

Anyway, that's it for this update. There's painting to be done...

Btw, that colour is Krylon Burgundy, drybrushed with Mephiston Red. The Guardsmen haven't been drybrushed yet, so you can see the difference a little drybrushing makes.