Intro:

If you haven't by now read Graham McNeill's Storm of Iron, you probably missing out on one of the best books written in the 40k universe.... atleast in my opinion!  The 383rd Jouran Dragoons were taken straight out of the pages of the book, where they; and a handful of Imperial Fists; valiantly fought to defend Hydra Cordatus from the destructive grasp of the chaos legion known as the Iron Warriors.  Till I read this book, I had no desire to start a guard army of any sort, nor an Imperial Fists army, and yet I now have both!

Army Overview

What you see is all the remains of the Jouran Dragoons, the main body of the 383rd being utterly decimated on the battlefields of Hydra Cordatus.  These last warriors, were actually on their way to Cordatus, never made it in time to reinforce the heavily outnumbered Guardsmen.  Barely escaping the the Iron Warrior's fleets (thanks to the aid of the Imperial Fists), they have since returned to active duty elswhere as the last of the 383rd Jouran Dragoons.  To this day, it would seem that the Iron Warriors are still bent on hunting down those that escaped their fate at Cordatus, and further engagements by them have become more and more frequent......

The last of the 383rd Jouran Dragoons is led by Tank Commander Vastian.  His fellow men describe him as: "Oddly cheerful, and perfectly at home amongst the destruction our Russ' often hand out to the enemies."  One of Commander Vastian's signature traits is what his fellow commanders have deemed "The Vastian Wake-up call", which involves driving all the Russ' out to the enemie's lines at the crack of down and sending them "a little hello" via mass amounts of Ordinace shells!

My Personal views on the Army

What can I say, I guess I'm now a pure "Tread-Head"!  I knew after reading Storm of Iron that I wanted to do a Guard army, but I doubt I'd ever have the patience to ever paint 100-150 figs, so I decided tanks would be the way to go!  I mainly picked these guys up (and my Imperial Fists as well) to directly oppose my Friend's Iron warriors.  I think having this sort of struggle between the Iron Warriors, Imperial Fists, and 383rd Jouran Dragoons already inbedded in the fluff of those 3 armies means that no matter what happens we always in up with a good, fun, and fluffy "Grudge Match" kind of game!

 To be honest, I've always hated using big expensive vehicles like this in a regular army.  It always seemed that with 1 good Lascannon shot from the enemy on the first turn ment 100+ points down the drain real fast.  So, my new motto is: "If I'm gonna take a tank, you better believe I'll be taking 10 them!"

You'd be suprised (as I was too) that you can actually breath a lot of character and life into a tank army, simply by have giving each tank its own personal emblems, numbering them, doing slight conversions here or there, and by having Elites and/or commanders popping out of the hatches.  No two tanks in my army are exactly alike, and each one has a story behind them.  If anyone ever asks me "Why does this tank have a Sickle on the back" or "why does this one have 2 spades and say ACE in the middle" you better believe my my resonse will be: "do you want the long verson or the short one?"

- Manji