Cratos Skitarri Regiment Background

Here's the background for the Imperial Guard army that I'm working on. Comments and criticism are welcome.

The regiment is an Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarri force based on the Forge World Cratos. Cratos is 'east' of Terra in Ultima Segmentum. The planet resembles Mars from the Dark Age of Technology with its red soil and abundant resources.

The Mechanicus established Cratos as a Forge World in M34. ArchMagos Technicus Hest'phus is the current administrator. A small council of Magi oversee the day to day operations of the planet. They supply the Imperium with all manner of standard Imperial Guard equipment. Cratos is also home to the Legium Cratum Titan Legion.

Magos Genetor Leten, who specializes in genetic manipulation, takes particular interest in Cratos' Skitarii regiments. He has continued the long held tradition of directing the growth of all potential members to make them better soldiers. This is accomplished with a three step process. First selective breeding and genetic screening is used to ensure that only the most fit are allowed to be born. During puberty the prospective soldiers undergo simple brain surgery to remove un-needed emotional ability. Shortly thereafter they begin a rigorous chemical-based therapy to condition them physically for the rigors of combat. This cocktail of drugs is administered routinely throughout their lifetimes. By the sixteen years of age a soldier is fully mature and is ready to serve as a Hypaspist (regular trooper).

Some troopers have additional physcial modifications based on their role in the regiment. Sagitarii (heavy weapons teams) are often integrated with their weapon of choice. A Rune Priest will accompany Sagitarii into battle to ensure they function at full performance. Balisteria and Cataphractii (artillery and armor) units are also integrated into their vehicles. Techpriest Engineseers are on hand for these units anytime they are deployed. Tribunes (officers) are bred for their roles and given even more physical and mental modifcation than other soldiers.

The basic platoon is composed of Steel Legion models. I really like the coats and rebreathers. Veterans are Cadian models with a rebreather head swap. I also like to use Penal Legion squads and have modeled them as Cadians with a different rebreather head swap. I hope to do some more detailed conversions on the heavy weapons teams, officers and tanks. For now they are just modeled and painted so that I can add to them as inspiration strikes.

Will's Army History

I've been playing 40K since late 2001. Some friends in college encouraged me to start playing a few months after they started. I picked up the Tau codex and went from there. The Tau army that I started with has long been sold. I spent a solid year losing games with them in third edition while I learned the rules of the game. My regular opponents were a Dark Eldar player, an Orks Speed Freak player and a Blood Angels player. All were fast armies that assaulted me on turn two and made for some pretty discouraging games. It was a running joke that the roll to go first was also called the "roll to win".


I also had a third edition Eldar army. I say third edition because I built it using Ulthwe rules and min-maxed it for a Rogue Trader Tournament. I did win the tournament but never had much fun playing the army after that. I tried to use the army with the fourth edition Eldar codex but didn't want to add the units that made it effective, namely three Falcons and Harlequins. The army sat in its cases for years before I sold it to a guy through Bartertown. This experience really taught me a lot about how and why to choose an army.


The third army I picked up was a Khorne based Chaos army. I never made much progress with them before I sold them. At the end there were a couple of painted squads of Berserkers and Daemons.


In January of 2008 I started with Necrons. I spent a lot of time labouring over the army selection decision. I wanted something that complimented my playstyle, had an enjoyable background and that I would enjoy painting. I have a fully-painted force of ~4000 points including a home-made Plyon. On top of that I acquired a couple more thousand points of models in a trade that have not been painted yet. I have a few projects to work on that are Necron related but they are on the backburner until we get a new codex. Did someone say Gargantuan Creature Deceiver?!


My current project is an Imperial Guard army. I bought a Cadian army from a local player and combined it with a college friend's Steel Legion. The army is assembled and about half painted. I have enough to play an Apocalypse game of about 3000 points painted and can easily swing the local 1850 point tournaments. I probably have another two thousand points of unpainted stuff and several Apocalypse size things that are in various states of construction. My goal with this army is to spend some time on conversions and give it a very strong theme that is easily recognizable when you first see it. I'll post more on this in the future.