The Army that makes ALL of 40k BETTER just by existing | Imperial Guard - Astra Militarum

Warhammer 40 000 a world where Gene enhanced super soldiers wage Wars across the stars with all manner of alien monstrosities and the universe as Fantastical as this it can be easy to feel a bit detached from what's going on on the table there is however one Army that brings things back to a relatable reference point that we all understand I'm talking about the emperor's human soldiers his Imperial Guard the Astra militarum if I have one philosophy that guides my hobby it's that there's one thing that makes everything better context it's why I spend so much time building rich and interesting environments for my miniatures when a miniature is grounded in context that context suggests a story and that story is the jumping off point for your imagination to run wild once your imagination kicks in you get invested in the game invest in the survival of your army invest in winning and invested in making your story play out on the tabletop concept called immersion it's why people work so hard to paint their armies and why some people won't play against an unpainted Army and here's the thing the more fantastic world is the harder it is to create a sense of immersion if a world is too outrageous or too alien we can't relate to it and the impact of the Fantastical elements are lessened this is why so many fantasy worlds and movies and literature are introduced through the perspective of a fish out of water character someone else who is also new to the world that we're stepping into an avatar for example we see the world through John Sully a normal guy who's arriving on Pandora from Earth share his first impressions of the world and the contrast between our world and Pandora is heightened through his experience been in The Lord of the Rings we see things from Frodo's perspective we've spent his entire life in the Shire the fact that everything is new to Frodo 2 gives a reason for the film to Revel in these new settings and scenes and helps us appreciate them that much more welcome to Rivendell Frodo Baggins in the Warhammer world this is the role that the Imperial Guard plays the Army is composed of unaugmented normal humans just like us and they provide us with a sense of context and contrast that makes the whole world richer just in comparison have you ever watched a basketball game on TV and forgotten that even the quote-unquote short players are over six feet tall this is the phenomenon I'm referring to when you see a Space Marine on its own it's like okay that's a cool looking guy with cool armor but just by placing it next to an imperial Guardsman all of a sudden the Space Marine reads is what it's supposed to be a massive superhuman Gene enhanced super soldier a preacher naturally powerful Warrior and one of the Emperors avenging angels all of a sudden you appreciate how well armored the Space Marine is how large and Powerful his weapons must be and how terrifying it would be to face a squad of these guys and a big part of that is because the Imperial Guard are equipped and drastic in gear that wouldn't look out of place in the 21st century or even the 20th or 19th century the Imperial Guard have clear stylistic influences from the very human real-life Wars that exist prominently For Better or Worse in our Collective memories and consciousnesses there's an unlimited diversity of models and backstories that you can play as the Imperial Guard and we'll dive into that but let's have a quick word from our sponsor first hellofresh hellofresh it's an online meal delivery service that brings you delicious fresh easy to cook meals at home my wife and I are both really busy and my son can be a picky eater but hellofresh offers over 40 recipes to choose from so you can find something for every palette they sent me a few boxes to try out and we really enjoyed it with foolproof instructions and high quality proteins and veggies hellofresh brings out your inner chef with every tasty easy to prepare meal this summer spend less time meal planning and prepping with hellofresh's pre-proportioned ingredients that make it easy to get cooking quick we made these fancier pork chops my wife and I thought they were delicious let's see if the little guy likes it little guy approved so go to hellofresh.com and use code Eric's hobby 16 and check out for 16 free meals plus shipping that's hellofresh.com promo code Eric's hobby 16. thanks hellofresh for sponsoring this video in the lore of the Warhammer world that the imperial guarder recruited from thousands of star systems across the Imperium and especially in the early codexes players were encouraged to make their own regiments with their own character and flavor and this allows players to borrow aesthetic influences from pretty much any Source they want especially their favorite war movies do you like the movie's Rambo and predator collect some catachan jungle Fighters did you like Michael Caine in the movie Zulu that one time he rented it on VHS and watched it with your dad try finding some Old praetorian Guard models on eBay did you enjoy the movie Starship Troopers try kadians animate the gates maybe collect a force of valhallons Lawrence of Arabia try collecting Tyler and desert Warriors or maybe make some recently recruited Tech barbarians or cyberpunk gangs pressed into Services cannon fodder by necessity or anything really anything else your mind can come up with there are a host of opportunities to convert your own models and tons of third-party companies that make models that are perfectly suitable proxies for Imperial Guard soldiers I've been slowly collecting an Imperial Guard Army now for years with a particular focus on some of the older metal models many of these older models were sculpted by Alan and Michael Perry twin brothers who sculpted hundreds of the best human Miniatures for Games Workshop and later branched out on their own to start Parry miniatures I have their coffee table book Masters and miniature signed no big deal and it's an incredible look at some of their work for Perry Miniatures it's abundantly clear that they're passionate about the history of warfare and that grounding in realism is reflected very clearly in their work in the Imperial Guard range personally I love the naturalistic poses that the models are in my personal preference for Miniatures is that they're posed in a way where they look natural on any turn of the battle not just doing a one-off move repose paradoxically in a way the more movement that there is in the pose of a model the more stationary they look to me if you have to move a model around the table in a pose where they're leaping off one foot for example you have to imagine them leaping off one foot every turn I prefer a more neutral pose simply aiming a gun for example these Perry Guardsmen are perfect in that respect here are my Tyler and desert Warriors as you can see they're wearing a traditional North African tag almost or leifam a head wrapping that's effective for preventing the inhalation of wind-borne sand it's a clever low-tech adaptation to Dusty desert environments and it really adds a cool element to these models check out these Desert Warrior women from Victoria Miniatures that I'm using as taller and desert Warriors from my Army short and slender but they can hold the last rifle hell yeah [Music] I also have a bunch of Armageddon steel Legion who wear these distinctive tan coats because they come from such a polluted World they wear these rebreather masks which I think are an awesome way to make them fit in on all sorts of battlefields I of course have a bunch of katachan jungle Fighters as well there is a plastic kit of these that Games Workshop still sells I think maybe but it's really kind of ugly so I've been collecting some of the old metal ones which I think are a lot better as a fun detail I've been putting these little paper plants from gamergrass on their stands to really sell them as creeping through a jungle environment one of my favorite things about the Imperial Guard are the fact that they look adapted to so many climates valhallan ice Warriors as you can see are dressed for winter so I've done them with snow bases and I painted this Chimera to match them and even put snow in the Treads to look like it's crawling across an icy tundra or something now these may look out of place on the same Battlefield as my desert Warriors or jungle Fighters but my goal is actually to eventually have enough to fit in with whatever climate I choose to have a battle on and I think that's really cool the one thing that bothered me about the Imperial Guard range when I was a kid is that yeah there's the ice ones and the jungle ones but but how do you choose I always thought they were all cool and I didn't want to choose so now that I'm a grown man and I have a channel completely dedicated to Warhammer I can justify not choosing at all and I think that's really cool so one of the most fun things about the guard is how you can make your own regiments and that's what I've done with these guys here using the bodies of cadence I've added helmets sculpted by Saint decent who's a digital artist whose work I really like these Brody helmets of course are reminiscent of World War One and it's no coincidence that I'm also working on a trench board the fun part about making your own regimen is that you can make up your own backstory and lore for these guys as well because the Warhammer world is comprised of so many countless worlds that there's room for any ideas that you might have so I decided that these guys would be from the industrial world chandaria and will be known as the chandarian 12th I went for a simple color scheme of neutral colors to keep them grounded in the real world military aesthetic I only have five painted so far but I love the way they look you'll see more of these in future videos especially as my trench board progresses the inclusion of the Imperial Guard answers the big questions that we all have at some point about the Warhammer Universe how would I do in this world and the answer is Crystal Clear not very well Imperial Guard soldiers are chaff they're low-powered Expendable and once the shooting starts they die like flies it reminds us of something that's often lost in the wargaming hobby where war is made into a game in the most literal of senses and that message is that war is dehumanizing it turns human beings into numbers into statistics into game pieces that can be moved around the battlefield and ultimately are expendable it's not only tragic it's capricious it's random it's unfair and it's an unlimited source of pain suffering and sorrow yet at the same time the incredible adversity of War can bring out the best in humanity time and time again in times of War humans have shown their capacity for bravery resilience and sacrifice is far beyond the limits of what we think ourselves capable of at their best fantasy War Games allow us to feel some of those inspiring feelings divorced from the baggage of history in real world conflicts in the 41st Millennium Humanity fights endlessly against a host of existential threats that endanger the very survival of mankind Imperial soldiers are recruited from thousands of Worlds regardless of race Creed gender or background or any cultural or political differences in an imperfect world full of Oppression corruption hardship and brutality mankind fights on regiments from far-flung planets and outposts fight shoulder to shoulder with each other but nothing in common but their shared purpose and their Humanity never wavering never giving up Even In The Bleak dystopian world of 40K the best of the human Spirit endures the trenches and on the front lines in the ranks the Astra militarum the Imperial Guard

Channel: Eric's Hobby Workshop

Views: 259,869

Keywords: imperial guard, warhammer 40000, warhammer 40k, games workshop, astra militarum, death korps of krieg, warhammer memes, 40k lore, warhammer 40k memes, 10th edition, space marines, steel legion, imperial guard warhammer 40k, tallarn, valhallan, catachan

Id: nVEOtH8HSXI

Length: 11min 12sec (672 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 23 2023