Badab war - Astral Claws Tyrants Legion - Space Marine Cohort.

Finally complete is the first troops choice for my tyrants legion. A fifteen strong legion Cohort well armed with a missile launcher, heavy bolter, meltagun and combi melta.
Its a solid, jack of all trades unit that can throw out a fair amount of anti infantry firepower and have a chance against more heavily armoured foes.
Even a small unit of elite close combat troops might think twice before charging the overwatch fire of fifteen marines. The cohort forms the core and provides the backbone for the demi-legion. At 270 points its also a fair chunk of the total force.

Most of the individual models have been seen in my earlier posts so I'll leave it at the group shot above and a couple of snaps of the final five squad members I finished.



First three 'veteran' astral claws who haven't yet reached the point of daubing all their aquilia's crimson in a prelude to becoming red corsairs, the two on the right are a pair of push fit marines (black reach?) I picked up on-sprue for three quid as cheap reinforcements from ebay.



Lastly a pair of more recent 'badab war babies' including the cohort's meltagunner. After I had taken the photo's I had a quick look and realised not only had I forgotten to paint the magazine chamber of his meltagun; I had painted the eye lense blue, rather than the green of all the others. Feeling slightly annoyed at myself I had to go and correct it, so thats why the last photos in crap artificial light ( it hides my very average painting a bit though!)

Anyone who has read my earlier posts about this army being themed on a boarding assault force might be wondering what the brick wall and rubble bases are about.

So ive done a bit of a background u-turn! Now were gonna have a vicious last-ditch city defence force

Buiding a army based on the boarding assault mission means no vehicles, excepting walkers, of which there are none in the Tyrants legion army list (unless you take huron who unlocks an elites slot from the Space Marines codex - ie: a dreadnought)

That meant id end up with just a horde of infantry, and every army needs some sort of larger model or centerpiece.
Imperial armour's background describing the spitefull last stands of the capricious Astral claws amid the ruins of their pocket empire drew alot of parallels with the late period of ww2 in europe and the fall of berlin.

Huron's legion has a philosophy of 'big guns' and faced with the massed land raiders and predators of his loyalist foe, the desperate use of artillery and assault guns as makeshift tank destroyers.
Much in the same way as the germans were forced to rely more and more on assault guns like the stug and direct fire artillery as their panzer divisions were lost to attrition.

Now im thinking ill end up adding a basilisk or maybe a thunderer as a centerpiece for the army. Im still working out a 'final' list, now revised up to an end goal of 1000pts (these things always seem to spiral up!)