Valhallans are something else, tbh. On the one hand, in much of the background lore, they are exactly as you say: a cruel parody of the USSR, relying on Western myths of suicide wave tactics and callous use of artillery on their own positions led by homicidal officers, like Commander Chenkov (notice the Slavic influence of the name). Paradoxically, sometimes the Valhallans are actually competent arctic warriors with a specialization in warfare and a professional level of being able to shrug off losses, rather than a comically evil one. These more humanized, realistic Valhallans have names like Jurgen or Kasteen or Sulla. Oh, and they specialize in killing orks that invade their planet.
It’s wild to be that even when they make the Valhallans less of a parody, they do so at the expense of cruelly dehumanizing Russians. Suddenly the Valhallans aren’t inspired by Western myths of Russians, but Western myths about Finns. Crazy.
Tallarn are another odd paradox of cultures depending on the author. Sometimes they’re styled more on Arab resistances who specialize in guerilla tactics, and other times on British and German tankers in the North African theater of WWII. But at least - as far as I’ve seen - neither version is dehumanized, and in fact they are often shown as some of the saner, more down-to-earth humans in the setting.
Using leman russ tank (tool of Imperium) with Valhallan guardsmen (mean spirited parody at red army) with the USSR flag is certainly a vibe
Valhallans are something else, tbh. On the one hand, in much of the background lore, they are exactly as you say: a cruel parody of the USSR, relying on Western myths of suicide wave tactics and callous use of artillery on their own positions led by homicidal officers, like Commander Chenkov (notice the Slavic influence of the name). Paradoxically, sometimes the Valhallans are actually competent arctic warriors with a specialization in warfare and a professional level of being able to shrug off losses, rather than a comically evil one. These more humanized, realistic Valhallans have names like Jurgen or Kasteen or Sulla. Oh, and they specialize in killing orks that invade their planet.
It’s wild to be that even when they make the Valhallans less of a parody, they do so at the expense of cruelly dehumanizing Russians. Suddenly the Valhallans aren’t inspired by Western myths of Russians, but Western myths about Finns. Crazy.
Tallarn are another odd paradox of cultures depending on the author. Sometimes they’re styled more on Arab resistances who specialize in guerilla tactics, and other times on British and German tankers in the North African theater of WWII. But at least - as far as I’ve seen - neither version is dehumanized, and in fact they are often shown as some of the saner, more down-to-earth humans in the setting.
I should note that the images are from an anti-communist source categorizing “types of tankies.” Still goes hard.