Troths (Homo Sapien Verdantus) – Troopers of the Imperial Garden

The Troth, also known as Homo Sapien Verdantus, are an officially recognized strain of Abhuman within the Imperium, endemic on the world of Verdant (Warhammer 40,000 6th Edition Rulebook pg.405).

As their name suggests, they have pledged an oath of fidelity to the Emperor and fulfil their duty to the Imperium whenever called.  Verdant was originally classified as a Death World, but through the tireless work of the Troths it now serves the Imperium as an Agri-World and Pleasure World (or Garden World). With a world of outstanding natural beauty, many Troths have dedicated their lives to pampering the important Imperial visitors they often receive. These are frequently members of major noble houses, members of the Navis Nobilite, Planetary Governors, important Ecclesiarchy officials like Confessors and Cardinals, Imperial Commanders, Rogue Traders and wealthy Chartist Captains. Other Troths pay the Imperial tithes by tending huge jungle crops or farms of edible fungus. Finally, like many colonised worlds and other abhuman races, the Troths also maintain a tithe of men to fight in the Imperial Guard, (or as humans jokingly refer to it, the Troth Imperial Garden).

There is nothing stopping someone from using Troths as straight out normal Guard troopers, but I thought some cool house rules would groovy them up a bit!

Any of the following units of the codex Imperial Guard can be upgraded to Troths:

Company command squad* ……………………………………………………….....5p

Platoon command squad …………………………………………………..………....5p

Infantry squad……………………………………………………………………….....10p

Heavy weapon squad……………………………………………………..…………...5p

Special weapon squad………………………………………………………………...5p

Veteran squad…………………………………………………………………..….....10p

* Requires 2 troop choices to also be upgraded to Troths

Troths: These squads gain the Infiltrate (into or next to forests*), Stealth (forests*), Move Through Cover (forests*) and Hit and Run (whilst in forests*) special rules. Additionally, they can choose to ignore any mysterious forest results. 

*’forests’ refers to any forests, jungle, woods or any area of foliage.

In addition, any Veteran squad that takes the Troths upgrade may not take the Grenadiers, Forward Sentries or Demolitions doctrines. They may however, choose the Verdurous doctrine for 30p.

Verdurous: Some Troths have become adept at triggering their Photoreceptive Cutaneous Lichenification (PCL), which forms endemically in a figurate configuration by photodistribution.

This PCL, commonly referred to as foliage, once triggered lasts for the rest of the battle and has a number of tactical implications for the Troth trooper:

Effectively becoming walking cove, they are shrouded (cover saves 2 points better). As a result, they also become slow and purposeful (can’t run, sweeping advance or overwatch, but can fire heavy weapons on the move and assault) and lose their hit and run – but gain the sniper ability (hits of 6 are precision shots).

The real advantages to having an extra layer, which they can regrow, are they become 2 wounds and gain ’It will not die’ (gain lost wounds on a 6). However, the drawback to this is their vulnerability to flame and explosives weapons – counting as swarm (blast and templates cause 2 wounds) and additionally all flame weapons wound on 2+.

“Troths; a bushfire waiting to happen!”

Additional points to consider:

The 30p cost for Verdurous is essentially 40p because you need to have already upgraded them to Troths for 10p.

While 2 wounds seems like a big deal,  it is worth noting that they are still toughness 3 so many weapons will cause instant death anyway.

If a Troth Veteran squad has become Verdurous and is in a forests, they still receive Stealth as well as their Shrouded, to a maximum of a 2+ cover save. Forests are 5+ cover so there is no need to also Go To Ground.

Any flame weapon will wipe them out with auto hits, wound on 2+, no cover saves and no armour save (all flame weapons apart from a hand flamer are AP 5 or better).

For some added background, I toyed with the idea of making them also Hatred (Tyranids) and Preferred enemy (Tyranids). Being “plant men” they see Tyranids as the ultimate threat to their world and the Imperium – so they train specially to hunt them. They are the floras that fight back against the terrorising fauna! If this was included additional points would need to balance the army.

The models themselves:

I didn’t want them to be ‘walking plants’ because they are ‘abhumans’ not some complete 'alien' species. As a result my conversions are subtle. Really just a green paint job and a few greenstuff leaves here and there. I think I will also do some different troops to count as veterans with way more foliage on them.

I'm having a few light issues with my camera set up at the moment -so, sorry about that.

As for bits, they are Victoria Miniatures' Highlanders/ Drookian Fen Guard conversion kits, mixed with Cadian and Catachan parts and 2 old plastic Necromunda gangers. I am planning to also model up all the other Abhumans, but there are many more things on the list to finish off first... like some more Praetorians!!