Termimantis

The final infantry unit for the Mantis Warriors - it had to be Terminators.

Terminators were where I got into 40K, really, back with the original Space Hulk game. Much as I like the newest box set, I wanted something older for the Mantis Warriors. They're supposed to be ancient and revered suits of armour, after all, and I really liked the pre-Heresy look of the Tartaros armour, so I went with that. 

I also really liked the extra pip of movement Tartaros armour used to get, but that went out with the new codex, which probably serves me right!

Relic Terminators are a strange way of compiling the older suits and their rules. They're exactly like newer Terminators now, but lose the teleport homer rule (shame, it rocks) for the ability to mix and match their weapons in a way that the newer guys can't. So you can have a few melee weapons added in to the firepower, making them a bit more generalist if you want to. Which I do, luckily. 

Lightning claws for a few extra attacks, a chainfist on the sarge for tanks, everyone else gets a power smack to the chops for their trouble. A heavy flamer is probably the right choice for a unit that's very likely to see the thick of the action, but you never know, so the twin autocannon is a magnet option. Sarge also has the fancy Volkite blaster, which doesn't shine compared to other weapons but does look pretty boss. 

The colours don't quite match the rest of the armour on the ground that these are really really old suits, in my head. So I went with the official GW paint scheme, which is Zamesi Desert for the yellow and Elysian Green for the armour. The original chapter badge is harder to paint, but why not try, and there's a Tranquility Sniper in the squad, for those of us who like obscure references. 

The Mantis Warriors are a single Heavy Support choice away from being a full Brigade detachment. That means I'm pretty likely to fold for something next year (when I can buy models again), but this army is definitely done after that. A Whirlwind is still the prime candidate for this slot, but we'll see - a Primaris vehicle wouldn't go amiss either, although I don't really fancy many of them as models. Maybe the incoming supergiant land speeders? They'd work well in the list. We'll see, though, there's no rush. 

Never had a full army shot of the Mantis Warriors - that's next to do, then a change of pace!