Attila's not dead yet!

Let me take you on a trip back through time...

In Rogue Trader, 40k's first edition, the Grimdark was new, and finding itself. Back then, the Imperial Guard had access to Rhinos, Predators, Land Raiders, even bikes, jetbikes and Land Speeders. They got a proper army list in White Dwarf 107. The list was riddled with problems, foremost amongst them, the profusion  of lascannon. Every command squad had 2, every infantry squad and conscript squad had one, and every support squad, back then squads of 10, had 4 and a missile launcher. They could be swapped out for Conversion Beamers for free, but those heavy weapons were compulsory, and had a movement penalty.

It made little sense to have so many, and they were next to useless in Assault platoons - platoons whose squads had pistols as standard, and could have jump-packs - and Beastmen Attack platoons - where squads of beastmen were the squads. There were, as i said, a lot of problems, but that's a rant for another post. One thing that has struck was the Rough Riders.

In first edition, upgrades were organised by platoon, and platoons had to stay "in coherency, within 12". This was clunky, but so was everything back there. Any platoon could be given horses, and then lances, in addition to their existing kit, including lascannon.

In second edition, we got distinct regiments, like Cadians, Mordians and Catachans. One such regiment was Attilan, who were all cavalry, and so were attached to forces as platoons, or as individual squads. Another was Tallarn, who had their own cavalry.

Sadly, these were the last Guard cavalry models, over 20 years ago.

21 years ago, Games Workshop made a shocking decision: third edition 40k threw out 12 years of development with a completely redesigned mechanics. As such, all previous army lists were superceded. When they did the same in 2017, they released Index books with temporary army lists. Back in 1998, however, there were fewer factions, so they just slipped temporary lists into the rulebook, with army-wide options.

For the Imperial Guard, the options were: Armoured Company, by shifting Russ to HQ and Troops; Mechanised Infantry, by taking Chimerae for all infantry; Storm Trooper Commando Force, by taking Storm Troopers as every slot; and Rough Riders, by giving command and heavy  weapons squads horses and lances and replacing the infantry in platoons with Rough Riders.

Over the years, all the other options would get their own list, or be subsumed into the main list. The one option that wasn't was Rough Riders. Despite this, i built a company of them. A full company. The 3rd edition Codex gave Rough Riders the option of lasguns and special weapons, so i went with that.

In time, the list evolved again, and the rifles were gone.

Suddenly 100 cavalry became outdated. For nearly 15 years they've languished in a box. I thought they'd never see the table again, especially when the eighth edition Codex dropped the venerable horses.

A few weeks ago, however, a thought occurred:

Tallarn's Regimental Doctrine, Swift as the Wind, allows Infantry units to Advance without suffering any reduction in their firepower except for heavy weapons. Thus, they can move quickly, as if on horseback, and keep shooting. As they're nominally Infantry, they can move through buildings, and even climb between floors.

Cavalry that can dismount into buildings or such. If they advance, they can still fire their rifles, except sniper rifles, and if they don't, they can fire everything. There's a historical precedent for this: Dragoons and Horse Artillery, especially Galloper Guns. In fact, the original autocannon were often used as Gallopers.

I doubt I'll be refreshing the Herculanean 57th F company any time soon: the models are old, and half the company is unpainted, as the option dropped off before I finished the force, the faction they're based off, Brettonia, are gone from Fantasy and, generally, there's a bad taste left.

The possibility, however, of doing a new Dragoon force, i can't rule out. The basis for such, I'm unsure on as yet. Maybe I'll use some Elves, or Pistoliers, or Marauders, or maybe, just maybe, I'll build it with in-house miniatures, when we get around to such.