The crossover that no one asked for
I am starting another long-term Warhammer project. This one I am theming around the concept of "Space Battleship Potemkin."
Before I explain what I am actually doing, I should explain the concept. In essence I am combining the film, Battleship Potemkin, the cartoon, Space Battleship Yamato, and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader/4th edition.
Battleship Potemkin is a famous Sovietfilm made in the 1920s. It is known for its revolutionary themes and plot - aspects of this film were censored when screened in capitalist countries - as well as it's cutting edge editing. Its editing techniques keep it in high regard amongst film enthusiasts.
The film has a famous scene on the Odessa steps where Tsarist soldiers massacre civilians. The movie is about revolutionary sailors who mutiny. A few years back I bought some WW1 Russian Sailors. Anarchist sailors played an important role during the Bolshevik Revolution and the subsequent civil war. The sailors of Kronstadt ultimately rebelled against the Bolshevik government claiming that it had betrayed the original principles of the revolution.
Space Battleship Yamato is a 1970s Japanese cartoon. The cartoon features the titular ship in various daring space battles to save humanity in the distant future. The space ship is literally the Japanese WW2 ship, Yamato, that was rediscovered on the sea floor after the Earth's oceans had dried up. It was then refurbished and modernized with space weaponry and engines.
So my theme is to squish these two IPs together into "Space Battleship Potemkin" in the context of Warhammer 40k. Hence the fake movie poster above that includes various 40k and Potemkin movie references. From Warhammer Space Fleet (a GW game that was released in the early 90s and only supported through a handful of White Dwarf issues before quietly fading away) there is the Planet of Stalinvast featured in the upper left, and a Gothic Battleship in the bottom right. The icon in the upper right indicating the movie is "R-level data" is from the Rogue Trader book. The pair of characters on the left are from the Potemkin film. And the vehicle and raiding soldiers are from model kit box art.
So what's the actual project?
Space Fleet
My project is two projects. First, I want to make a Space Fleet themed around the idea of Space Battleship Potemkin. I am thinking that I will paint the fleet in more traditional naval colors - Red antifouling paint below the "waterline" and light greyish/white paint above.
The fleet will include a variety of Gothic battleships and ships that share a similar design.
In addition to the war ships it will also contain a force of fighters and bombers - Thunderbolts and Marauders based on the original Epic range. I plan to paint these planes to match the WW2 soviet color scheme of olive green.
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| Marauders can be seen in the upper left and thunderbolts in the lower right (White Dwarf) |
I plan to use this olive green color throughout the army as a contrasting color for some equipment like helmets, grenades, heavy machine guns, fuel tanks etc.
The second half of the project will be a Warhammer 40k Imperial guard army. My kids play 4th edition so it will have to line up the with the requirements of the 3.5 edition book. The other constraint is that that it has to line up with the theme of anarchist Russian Sailors. To match up these two concepts I am blending the idea of WW1 era sailors a bit to include troop types included among WW2 naval infantry formations and vehicles available to Cold War Soviet naval infantry formations as well as a handful of other minis that sorta fit the theme.
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| The start of the army so far. |
Here is what I have in mind in terms of options:
| Warhammer Unit type | Historical Analog |
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| Infantry | |
| Standard Guardsmen | Sailors armed with Mosin Nagant rifles.  | Model comparison: Warlord, Artizan, Copplestone Castings, and Black Tree
Copplestone Casting has the best overall sailors. The casts are clean and well-detailed. Artizan has the best faces but suffer from poor casting. Black tree have well sculpted faces and details but their range is limited. Warlord games are poor quality, the faces aren't well sculpted and there are lots of casting issues. |
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| Conscripts | N/A |
| Veterans | Sailors armed with PPSH (to be analogous to the shotgun loadout)  |
| Storm troopers | N/A (the obvious WW2 analog would be combat engineers, but that doesn't align with the Sailor theme) |
| Ogryns | N/A |
| Ratlings | I just converted some ratlings to look like they have sailor uniforms. Mostly just sculpting on sailor hats and soviet stars. |
| Support Weapons | |
| Flame Throwers | WW2 Russian Flame Thrower infantry (some modified to have sailor hats) - this is a little bit of a cheat, but I am doing it because I wouldn't otherwise have any support weapons. |
| Grenade Launchers | Sailors modified to hold RPGs (also a little bit of cheat, except that cold war era naval infantry were armed with RPGs) |
| Plasma Gun & Melta Guns | N/A - There is, obviously no historical analog to these weapons |
| Heavy Weapons | |
| Heavy Bolter | Maxim Machine Gun |
| Auto Cannon | Anti-tank rifles |
| Missile Launcher | Sagger guided missile (apprehensive about this one) |
| Las Cannon | I am thinking of getting WW1 era Russian field guns |
| Mortars | Even though they historically used mortars in WW2, I haven't found any metal Russian Sailors with mortars. |
| Vehicles | |
| Chimera | BTR 60 pb (the obvious choice would have been the BMP, but they weren't historically allocated to Naval infantry units despite their amphibious capabilities) |
| Hellhound | N/A (though, if I were, it would have to be a modified BTR series vehicle to match the Chimera chassis) |
| Leman Russ | PT 76 -naval infantry formations were often equipped with T-55s which would be a strong comparison to the Leman Russ, I opted for the PT 76 since it has a stronger amphibious capability and is more prominently featured in photographs of naval infantry. (if we were playing with the Forgeworld rules, the PT 76 might be more analogous to the Salamander an amphibious scout tank. |
| Demolisher | N/A (Though I am considering the airborne ASU-85 because it shares the same chassis as the PT 76 (just like the Demolisher shares the same chassis with the Leman Russ). However, since it is an airborne tank I would want to include some WW2 airborne infantry to tie it in as a combined arms force and the 3.5 Guard codex allows for airborne troops. |
| Basilisk | 2S23 Nona-SVK - this is a mortar/howitzer weapon mounted on a BTR series vehicle. This was chosen instead of the more analogous self propelled guns on BMP chasses because I wanted the chassis to match my BTR 60 choice for the Chimera. Though to be honest this vehicle choice would be a closer fit for the Griffon mortar tank (but I don't want to get into the whole forgeworld rabbithole with my kids.) Now if only I could find a model kit... |
| Sentinels | N/A - there is no historical analog to these walkers |
| Mounted Troops |
| Rough Riders | N/A - While mounted troops were relatively common amongst Russian forces in the civil war and even present into WW2, none are associated with naval infantry forces. |
What do you think? Should I be more strict about my model choices or consider different historical models?
What about Regimental Doctrines?
I am thinking:
- Close Order Drills (to represent their use of bayonets)
- Hardened Fighters (Naval infantry are associated with beach assaults and urban fighting. In Bolt Action, Soviet naval infantry get a bonus attack in assaults. So +1 WS seems to match this vibe)
- Ratlings (because I like them)
- Maybe Iron Discipline to represent their ideological tenacity?
- Maybe Sanctioned Psykers because they are a naval formation meaning that they will have psykers, astropaths, associated with their fleet's warp navigation.
I would love to hear your thoughts on what Regimental Doctrines would be appropriate to represent these anarchist Russian sailors.
Ideally I'd like a doctrine similar to the Jungle Fighters:
Naval Infantry
The regiment's members are recruited from amongst the imperial navy. They excel in amphibious landings and coming to grips with the enemy in prepared positions. This doctrine may only be taken if all Infantry units in the army are upgraded to Naval Infantry. Naval Infantry cost -0.5 points per model. Apply this discount to each eligible model in Infantry units (e.g., Infantry Squads, Veterans, Command Squads).
Naval infantry gain the following rules
- They may disembark and assault from any transport as if it were open topped
- They gain the preferred enemy special rule against enemies in cover
- They may replace their Lasgun with a Las Carbine (same rules as a Shotgun), but may not benefit from Close Order Drill if they do so.
- This specialization will lead a regiment to abandon bulky flak armor altogether as it impedes swimming and movement in cramped naval vessels. Their armor is reduced to " - ".
May not be combined with carapace armor, chem-halers, conscripts, rough riders, and storm troopers
The -5 points is because most guardsmen deploy in infantry platoons that are not appropriately used as assault infantry - due to their lack of mobility, and having attached heavy weapons. As a consequence the doctrine acts has a hindrance to most guards infantry units: they lose their armor.
Does that seem balanced?
Put your thoughts and constructive feedback in the comments below.
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