Next Move

The below blog post is going to be even more self absorbed then usual.  I've been mulling over a few projects for my next hobby effort.  I've narrowed it down somewhat, but its still a bit of a diverse field.

I've got two types of choices, that of expanding an army I already have or picking up a new one.  I tend to plan my armies very carefully and for the most part I don't really have any urge to collect more then 2k of any given army.  My opinion, typically, is that I would rather try something new and different then continue on something I already have.

Along that path I have had an urge to update my Chaos force (my oldest army, and the only army to survive all of my eBay purges) into a proper Khorne army.  I also have been wanting for a while now to get some more Orks as they just don't work well at 1850.  I need to dump my deff dread/killa kans and and add some bikes and another (or two) truck boyz to the list to make it work.  I've also been considering getting some more IG, specifically some Russ' to play a slightly different IG force.  I have a rather typical IG army and I think spamming armor 14 could be somewhat effective, simply because it's not seen that often.  With the spread of missile spam it may be quite effective.

I've flirted a few times with Tau, and with the upcoming GW price increase Tau are being hit pretty hard so it may be a smart choice.  I've also written about my desire to pick up an 1850 GK force.  It would be pretty cheap (~$300) and easy to transport.  20 terminators and 3 dreadknights would be a fun force to play. 

So in summary my choices are.

Expand an army. 

1. Orks - Add some bikes and truck boyz.
2. IG - Leman Russ' five or six
3. Chaos - Turn the army Khorne

Pick up another army

1. Tau - Battlesuit and Broadside army
2. GK - Terminators and Dreadknights

I'm leaning towards the IG, since I have been playing them a lot.  I also saw an Executioner in person over the weekend, and while I have been rather negative towards them (everything gets cover so easily) I really, really liked the model.   My second choice would most likely be the Khorne upgrade, as my chaos has been very, very neglected over the years.

Sometimes I wish I didn't like this hobby as much as a I do.

Alamo Games Workshop Tournament 1850 May 15, 2011

 With May 15th coming quickly I put in a lot more hours then I had planned too and I was about to get my army 95% done.  The only details I had left were some decals on the infantry, highlighting some metal bits, boot lining and some matte spray.

 

I brought the army for its painted debut (I had brought it to this store in November of 2010 as an unpainted mess for a test run before painting).  The tournament was a bit different, being run by a local gamer and having some unique missions.  The first game I played was against a GK player.  I made a few mistakes and let the deep striking terminators intimidate me.  I deployed my army from reserve and doing this meant I just didn't get all the time I needed to shoot.  In hindsight I should have just taken my lumps and tried to trash the termies when they came in. 

 

As you can see in the above the termies came in and I ran into a traffic jam trying to get all my guns on them.  I did manage to wipe one of the two squads out, but the other one I just couldn't get it done. I lost a lot of KPs in the first few turns and even though by the end I had almost tabled him (3 squads left) he had killed enough in the first few rounds, it didn't matter.  The game ended 12-14 with a loss.  I made some mistakes but I learned a lot playing against GKs.  

My second game was against a friend who was playing IG as well.  The mission was pretty much a night fight with blind deployment.  We didn't really do this as our table was missing the boards, we just put our stuff down and tried not to look.  The tourney didn't have enough boards/foam parts for all of the tables to use it, and we got left out.  As neither of us was in it as we had both lost a game it wasn't a big deal to either of us. 

 This game was exactly what you would think it was, with both of us blasting away.  His Leman Russ' trashed my whole right flank and my Manticores and Valkyries chipped away at his troops.  The game was really close, ending with a win for me 7-6 KPs.

A picture of the Tournament itself (during my first game).  I have only been to the Alamo Games Workshop to play one other time, but everyone was saying how crazy it was to have twenty players.  I usually play my tournaments at Black Diamond Games, in Concord, and even though they have regular tournaments there is rarely more then sixteen.

My last game was against a Blood Angels opponent.  The mission was a modified Dawn of War (extra points for killing elites and HQs).  I won the roll to go first, so I lined up a few squads of guardsmen as far forward as I could to keep his deployment far away from me.  

 

He deployed a tac squad and Mephiston.  This was the first game I played against him, having heard he was brutal, I didn't realize how nutty he can be until I had to play against him.

 When I took the first turn, I fell back with my squads and his dreadnought dropped right into my lines.  I wasn't too worried, as my army (included a squad of melta vets) was going to come on the next turn.  This went exactly as I though it would with the dreadnought and drop pod being destroyed when my guardsmen came on. 

 The rest of his army came in and we started the slug fest in earnest.  He destroyed my whole right flank, and managed to get Mephiston near where his dreadnought was.  Mephiston suffered from he could only kill one thing and then my guns turned on him.  The melta vets finished him off with some lucky melta and one lasgun wound. 

I ended up winning the game with  9 KPs and he had 4.  I finished the tournament with 2 wins and 1 loss.  I was pretty happy with this as I've only used this army for about ten games and I've managed 5-1 in the two tournaments I've used it in. I need to play some more with it, I was still having to check my codex a lot. I've got a lot to learn about guard.

I thought the tournament was over at this point, but the organizer had some kind of death pit event to decide third as seven people had gotten 2 wins and a loss. There were no battle points, just straight record.  A friend of mine had mentioned this and we both laughed about the chances of a guard command squad, as the death pit event was just everyone tossed their HQ down and fought it out.  There were some tokens on the board, though I figured out real quick it was playing Russian roulette. Some tokens gave you a weapon, some blew up, or made it so you couldn't control your fig anymore (squig i think).

I got lucky and won the second deployment so I deployed as far into the corner as I could.  I used my first turn to get into the corner, as the only chance in hell I had was my command squad (with four plasma guns) shooting whatever it could.  No way was I going to engage anyone if I didn't have too.  There was a demon prince, a thunder wolf lord, and others that were just as nasty.  Everyone laughed as I sat there, but as the field got whittled down to only two I stood a pretty good chance.  It may have not been the most heroic thing to do, but when you play guard you don't get to be heroic.

The above picture was almost at the end. My squad watched as the demon prince and space wolf lord fought it out.  The wolf lord came out on top.  At this point I didn't get any more pictures, but I'm sure you can figure out what happened.....or not.  The wolf lord came at me, I got 4 shots at extreme range and did no wounds.  He got closer, not close enough to charge (Whew) but close enough that I moved forward to get within rapid fire range.  I hit with 7 shots, wounded with 6 and he failed two and he died.  The lowly guardsmen came out on top of the HQ death match.  To be honest I got lucky with getting a hill to camp, the lord having a wound on him, and everyone else being bloodthirsty and killing each other.   

All in all it was a fun tournament, I got to play three fun games and it had a killer finale.  Hats off the store and especially the organizer for putting on a fun event.

Home Stretch

I've been making a lot of progress, even though I haven't been posting it.  I'm about to finish up the main chunk of the infantry in the next few days and I thought I'd post some pics.

On Friday a good friend came over and we painted until the wee hours.  It turned out to be a great motivator and I painted way more then I ever would have on my own.  I'm actually taking a break from basing the heavy weapon trooper to write this.  I can't recommend group painting enough.  It keeps you on track. 

My living room converted for the evening.

 

Well into the evening.

 

My painting is not that detailed, but it is a good, simple table ready effort in my humble opinion.  There is much detail work to do, but at least they are starting to look like something.

Weekend Update

I made a lot of progress in the last week.  Finished up the first two steps in getting my guardsmen painted.  The brown base coat and devlin mud wash is done. I started painting the green (armor and weapons) and I finished about 75% of them.  This phase I thought would go much quicker, but has taken a way long time. I'm hoping to finish up this phase and move on to painting boots tomorrow but I may need more time.

Numbing of the Mind

After a day off from my IG painting project I decided to start the phase of the project I was looking forward to the least.  The Infantry.

I really can't complain, in an IG list I've only got about 50 infantry and a squad of psykers.   If I had an infantry blob list I would most likely have sprayed them all brown and called it a day.  I always have trouble painting horde armies, the shear number of models to paint can be overwhelming.

I based and primed up the models last weekend so it was just a matter of diving in.  The Cadians are pretty simple to paint, they have some cloth on their torso's(which I finished half of last night) that need a good wash, some green on their armor pieces and lasguns and some black boots, and they are pretty much done.

Picture Time

I made some major progress on my tanks.  Other then needing to finish the manticores missles and some matte spray they are pretty much done. 

Back in the Saddle

I've been trying to resist many of my latest collecting urges this last few weeks.  I had a brief flirtation with collecting some Tau and decided once again I should wait until they get a new codex.  I figure it will be tough to put that much effort (and resources) into an army that is for the most part going to be in an uphill battle to be competitive.  While being competitive is not my primary motivator, it is tough to put that much time into something only to get your teeth kicked in.

I also had a brief idea to turn some Space Wolves I've got (they are actually my ten year old's, but he doesn't really use them)into a somewhat viable force. After a while of mulling over some options I decided what I really needed to do was kick myself in the butt and actually paint my guard army. 

So that's what I started this week.  I had left my guard in December as a fully assembled but only 30% painted army.  I finished the base coats on the vehicles and that's about it. I finished the wash job on the 2nd Valkyrie(doing the 1st one was the last thing I completed before I shelved the army) and last night I worked on getting the metal bits on the vehicles (10 chimera and chimera chassis vehicles) painted up. Next up, washing the metal bits and detail the tanks (mostly doing the optics).

The real project is going to start when I have to do the infantry....