My CCS has changed in editions of the game. Back in 5th Edition I fielded a lot of long range firepower with elements of mobile infantry and a mobile CCS. 5th Ed. gave us lots of tanks and melta was king. Luckily IG, as it was then, had oodles of melta firing out of every orifice! My CCS was the gold standard though. Drive up in a Chimera, unload my Company Commander along with 4 meltagun toting veterans, issue the order to twin link hits against tanks and watch a land raider go BOOM! Ok I might not survive the retribution but for 90points who cares!!
Now though things have changed. 7th Edition brings in Slay the Warlord, there is more infantry and flyers abound. The Astra Militarum has prevailed and their tactics have changed. Sitting back and using orders while hiding like cowards is now the way forward for our once heroic Commander.
Now the squad is a heavily armed bunker that sits protecting the heavy weapons and objectives in the back lines and consists of:
1 Company Commander (to issue orders to surrounding units)
2 Veterans with Meltaguns (I like to keep these handy, for close encounters)
1 Veteran heavy weapon team with Lascannon (1 shot at BS4 with orders is generally enough to do some damage from range every turn.
1 Astropath (For no in game use whatsoever, I just really love the model and I have painted him ok!)
1 Chimera with Multilaser & Heavy Flamer (For protection and Medium to short range firepower)
Now as you can see the models have also changed. During a tournament at Warhammer World my army was short-listed for Best Painted Army. Unfortunately I didn't win so I asked for some feedback which was that my army was a little too dark and that the models used were very similar (I used Cadians for my troops and my vets, they were just painted a different colour - red for the troops and grey for the vets).
Taking this on board I repainted all of my vets to White and brown, weathered the armour heavily and switched the heads from cadians to some from Pig Iron Productions (this is why I am sad to see them closing down - See my post here). I also changed the lasguns on the lasgun toting veterans but you'll have to wait until another post for that one although here is a close up of some of the veterans here:
I am so glad I did change as I really love my new veteran models now even though it took such a long time to repaint them and model new lasguns. I will include a tutorial on how I did this in a later post when I have taken some better close up pictures.
The only other change that you may notice is my Company Commander. I prefer the old one as I really feel that I painted him well (I just love his face!) but unfortunately at the following tournament at Warhammer World (where I again got nominated for best painted army but never won it even with pimped up veterans) I dropped him and his right arm disappeared into the warp. Since then I have just been using a replacement model until I can be bothered to repaint another arm!
Finally I should mention the Heavy Weapon team. I have only ever bought 1 heavy weapon set (because of the price) but managed to get 9 heavy weapons out of it with a little creativity. The main reason for achieving this is to get the right bases so that the weapon can sit on something other than its normal stand. I looked around on the internet for a 60mm base that was an urban ruin and had enough room for 2 miniatures and a heavy weapon. Luckily I found a company called Black Cat Bases who do some really cool stuff. Check out their website here: http://blackcatbases.com/
I loved the bricks and the black and white checked floor as it just added a little more colour to the army and also a bit of realism of the heavy weapon team finding cover to fire from amidst a raging battle.
So there we have it, my HQ - the Company Command Squad. Quite a long post for only 6 models but I hope you enjoyed it. Please let me know what you think and what your Astra Militarum HQ choice is.
All the best,
James
