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So tomorrow is the monthly doubles tournament. The schedule is free, I’m feeling OK, so the fates might allow me to go to this one. I’ve got a positive enough feeling that I wrote up a list and took it off the shelf:



1,200 points Ultramarines
Cassius
5 man assault squad, 2 flamers, vet w/axe, pod
10 man sternguard, 2xC-melta, 2xHF, pod
10 man tactical, MM/M, c-melta, pod
5 man scout, 2 shotguns, vet sarge w/meltabomb, LSS (w/HB)
Talon w/skyhammers
Raven w TLMM/TLAsC

While I was taking units off the shelf, I was reminded about my resolution to paint up spare bits. While the assault marines have magnetized backpacks, I have only painted two regular backpacks for them. So I needed to recruit some spare guys for the squad. Also, both my assault sarges have their packs glued on, so I needed a swap for him as well. One flamer came from the swap shelf (battle of macragge pushfit) and the other one and the sarge I swiped from my command squad. The flamer needed to borrow a chainsword to replace his SS, but I have a spare (originally from my bike captain)

The more I think about it, the more I might grab another box of assault marines. I’d like to make a pair of new sarges, fully magnetized. I also need at least one set of legs and a JP for my VV. So that’s like 3/5 of the box I can put on projects right away. Of course, as I’ve just shown by poaching stuff from other parts of the shelf, it’s not like I really need fresh sarges; there are amble guys ready to step in.

VV are still in the process of being cut from the sprues, didn’t get a whole lot done on them this week. One thing that did get assembled is a second flight stand, so that’s something.

I’m taking a short break from painting blue. The SR almost drained the pot, not sure how much is left in the bottom. Buying more is on my short list of things to do. But I did put some red paint down on a pointy-eared fortune teller. Still need to figure out what color goes where on him. I’ll get some WIP pics when there is a little more “W" to be "IP"

Looks nice and melta-y.

I think any time you deplete your reserves of a color... you are allowed to paint in a different color for awhile

Botom of turn 1, game 2

Two games, both wins. It was a short tournament, we won. My partner was inquisition; LRC w/ deathcult assassins, two rhinos with henchman (one melta, one plas) cortez, some monkeys, and a vindicare assassin.

Game one was vs. dark/light eldar. Only two WSs and knight, falcon, some bikes, and a fistful of venoms w/ assorted DE. Not too over the top. Pro-tip: flamers, both normal and heavy, do very bad things to DE open topped transports (and their contents) The only thing that kept this from being very bad for them was my reserves being asleep at the wheel. None came in on the second turn, and the raven just made a cameo at the end.

Game two was vs. IG/GK and Knight/SW. The GK player was a DK, terminator squad, 2 wyverns, and a big blob of guardsmen. SW was a giant deathstar of thunderwolves and the imp. knight (w/battlecannon). I dropped the assault marines and the sternguard right into the meat grinder on this one. But with one turn of fire, and one round of CC, they had removed half the wounds from the DK and about half the thunderwolves. They died to a man, mind you, but took a heavy price for their lives. Most of the rest of my time was spend blowing chunks out of the IG blob, and putting pressure on the big knight. Who died to some melta in close proximity to the rest of his army, at which point we called the game.

Fresh paint report:
Stormraven: Game one, mostly sat out, blew a venom off an objective last turn. Game two, spanged shots off of IK’s ion shield.
LSS: took early fire, did mostly nothing. Game two, hung back, took potshots. Would have scored objectives if game was played out.
The 3rd pod: nice having 3, two pods on the first turn is a very nice thing.
Guys subbing in for the assault marines: flamers are good, sarge either was punked (game 2) or just bat cleanup for Cassius.

Awesome Always nice to see people getting to use their pretty painted armies!

My Eldar might be briefly on hold. When I was up at the FLGS yesterday, I talked to the owner about the upcoming escalation league. While he’s not ready to do a full data-dump about all the details, he liked my suggestion that I start from scratch, so I can build up my forces with the rest of the guys. The whole point of this league is to get new players involved, both in the hobby and game side. So my Eldar might be my Wednesday night project. Not that I won’t sneak time in during the week, but I want to start more-or-less even with the newbies.

I think I might take the next week or two to clear some of the random bits off my desk. The lack of spare backpacks irritated my yesterday as I scrambled around for stand ins.

Good work on the 2 wins, purge those xenos ....and Imperials, they are obviously traitors. Nice to get a game in. Don't succumb to the filthy Eldar, don't believe their lies!

So durring one of my last games, one of the guys was helping me pass casualties. At one point when my sternguard was being shot off the table, he exclaims “Woah, that’s metal, I’ll let you take care of that!” Which brought to mind the question, how much of my army is lead, and could I field an all metal list? The only solution to that is to grab the camera and head to the shelf:

Now this is just the pure metal minis. Well, mostly pure, almost all the backpacks, and a few of the arms are plastic. If I go into more of the hybrid kits, I can add a chunk of devastators and a few bikes to the list.

But I could field a small force here. 14 scouts are enough to furnish the troops. Ample selection of HQs, with enough specials to fill out a command squad, and more elites then I can pack into a FOC. 1,000 points easy, could probably stretch larger if I put my mind to it (particularly if I let the devs in)

Not a lot of progress from the workbench this week. A few reasons for that. Not wanting to paint blue for a bit, and pausing the Eldar until the end of the month sort of restricts what I can do. I did start putting some paint on two of my deathwatch marines yesterday though, but not a whole lot of progress. One of the other main reasons is I’ve been playing some Civ:BE, which just sucks away the hours. Just one more turn…

I’ll try to get some more work done this weekend, so I can try to keep up on my 1/week goal, and not have to race at the end of the year.

And the team to date:


So a Ravenguard and Crimson First join the fold. I thought the RG had decals on the basic sheets, but was wrong. Still, the bird shoulderpad gets enough across that I don’t feel like freehanding a symbol. The CF transfer had to have the circle cut away to fit on the raised disk. I’m not sure if it shows up in the pictures, but he also got some edge highlighting on his shoulder. He also joined his fellow squadmate, the White Scar, in a little sanguine-based armor redecoration. While the WS used a little blood to re-do his tribal markings, the Crimson Fist is living up to his name. I should probably splatter some BftBG on the snow for him.

Next up will the the last two of the Deathwatch; the wolf and the salamander.

Cool, always liked deathwatch.

Nice to see more marines into the fold.

Is the title an intentional Game of Thrones reference?

 Zambro wrote:
Nice to see more marines into the fold.

Is the title an intentional Game of Thrones reference?

Not intentional. Might just me getting my wires crossed, but I thought that was the phrase for marines and the Deathwatch. It's been years since I read GoT, still need to start the last book.

Ahh, the title makes me think of men joining the Night's Watch.

You definately need to start the most recent book - #5. I really liked it. Not quite as good as the third one, but head and shoulders better than 4, which I thought was slow and relatively uninteresting.
Also, the sixth one is due out this year (iirc). So you definately want to catch up!

 Zambro wrote:
Ahh, the title makes me think of men joining the Night's Watch.

You definately need to start the most recent book - #5. I really liked it. Not quite as good as the third one, but head and shoulders better than 4, which I thought was slow and relatively uninteresting.
Also, the sixth one is due out this year (iirc). So you definately want to catch up!

Watch-captain Stark: Xenos are coming...

There is a large amount of thematic overlap. Small volunteer force from across the land, working together to fend of an threat most of the innocent citizens have no idea of it’s nature/magnitude. Similar names and wardrobe choices.

And so there is some painting progress to report: I got the base coat down on the two remaining DW.

Deathwatch and Night's watch basically rock. I like yours and am toying with doing more for me, I really enjoyed the one I did for my Sternguard/Tyrannic War Vets.

I’d make more, but I’d need to pick up more shoulderpads and fancy bolters. It would also help to get custom chapter bits, like BA shoulders, etc. Saves me the trouble of freehanding a/o running out of different chapter transfers.

In an ideal world, I’d do 4 more troops, so I’d have a full 10 man squad, plus the librarian. In a slightly more ideal world, I’d have some optional HQs. In a it’s-not-ever-going-to-happen world, my RPG gaming group would actually play Deathwatch, and I’d make custom characters for the gang. But after our experience playing Rouge Trader, I doubt that’s ever going to happen.

I've got plenty of the standard marine sheet transfers if you want any posting.

I've played Dark Hearsay but not Rouge Trader or DW. I'd like to as I enjoyed my little foray into the 41st millennium.

 RandyMcStab wrote:
I've got plenty of the standard marine sheet transfers if you want any posting.

I've played Dark Hearsay but not Rouge Trader or DW. I'd like to as I enjoyed my little foray into the 41st millennium.

I’ve actually got a huge mess of transfers, some dating back to the RT era, so that’s the last thing holding me back from more deathwatch. Mostly it’s the shoulders. I’ll see if I can trade any from the guys at the FLGS. There is a limit to how much effort I’m willing to put into side projects, and the postage for the bits needed probably overshadows the cost of the bits themselves, if I was to buy them separately. I guess if I really wanted to, I could just paint an inquisitorial on a blank shoulderpad. It’s all straight lines, should be within my skillset.

The RPG problem was is chaotic gaming group. Who are also very anti-authoritarian. There is a limit to the casual blasphemes against the Emperor I can take in-character before the setting unravels. Or just degenerates into PVP combat and the campaign implodes. It didn’t help that the player who was our rouge trader is ultra-cautious and risk adverse. Sort of sucks the adventure out of the rim stars. Enough people had a bad experience with the game that us revisiting the setting as a group does not have good odds. Shame.

As my weekly update, slow progress to report. I got the gold and brown details picked out on the Deathwatch, and the flesh started for the wolf.

For those interested in my old stuff, I did put some pics of my old undead stuff up over in the Flashback Friday thread.

@Nevelon sounds like your group should just cut to the chase and play Black Crusade.

CaptainStabby wrote:
@Nevelon sounds like your group should just cut to the chase and play Black Crusade.

Heretic! <Blam>

I think it’s just better off that we stick to more fluffly systems like Pathfinder. And even then we get bogged down into ethics and morality debates. Some days it’s like herding cats just to kick in the door and kill a few orcs. I love my friends, but there are days they need a good swift kick in the pants. Roleplaying, as in “to play a role” so get out of your chaotic good, nobody tells me what to do, piss on authority, rut and try to get into character for the setting.

/rant

So you've got problems with the players Roleplaying "too much"? Interesting, I usually ran into groups that only wanted to fight (or with characters who only *could* fight), or knuckleheads who were just trying to sabotage the game for... reasons?

 GrimDork wrote:
So you've got problems with the players Roleplaying "too much"? Interesting, I usually ran into groups that only wanted to fight (or with characters who only *could* fight), or knuckleheads who were just trying to sabotage the game for... reasons?

Sorry if I wasn’t clear, it’s not role playing too much, it’s always playing the same character regardless of setting. One of our players has some very strong authority issues, so anytime we need to deal within a structured organization, or some sort of higharchy where we aren’t the top, there is a lot of pushback. Which in the 40k universe is a massive problem.

The other problem is overly imparting modern views onto a fantasy setting. Why are we killing goblins? What have they done to us? In a world where Good and Evil are palpable, measurable things, and the basic MO of adventures is suspect (kick in the door, kill the green guy, take his stuff) how much do we want to debate? Why are we negotiating with the trio of Hags anyway, you know they eat babies, right?

There is a spectrum, on one side is the kick in the door dungeon crawl. The other is the philosophic morality play. Neither is right or wrong, but lets all be on the same page about what we are playing. Some of my group has problems with that.

I’d prefer a little more of being the hero, killing the bad guy, and saving the world in my roleplaying. If I wanted debates about right and wrong, and compromises with evil, I’d watch the evening news.

Full discloser: It’s not that bad, just sometimes. But enough to get my ire up and trigger the occasional rant.

Make them play Paranoia until they all agree to get on the same page.

Disclaimer: I may be evil.

Oooooh... ahh... I see, that makes more sense now.

Yes, it's very important for the entire group to have a somewhat cohesive view of what they're after.

I could see those morality/ethics debates being fun for some people yeah, but at the end of the day I think I feel much the same as you do I think some banter and debate is grand, but ultimately with some action involved as well. Play the evil councilman's game until you can catch him in a lie, and *then* battle his minions as he makes a desperate ploy to escape into the busy city streets.. or whatever.

Space Wolf and Salamander almost done. Just need to base them and put the transfer on the Sali.



Glad I don’t play GKs. That incinerator was not fun to line up.

I need to put together a 500 point Eldar list for tomorrow. Having a bit of trouble with it. I’d like to keep it fluffy Saim-hann, but don’t have enough things assembled to make that happen. I’m fine with unpainted, non-WYSWYG at this point, as the format is encouraging people to start fresh. But I don’t want to field empty bases, and want to keep mostly to new stuff, not the old dusty ones. It’s also a balancing act of playing a newbie friendly list, but not totally sandbagging. I might just dump everything into a box, drag it up to the FLGS, and see who shows up and what happens.

Great work on the DW. The incinerator fits a DW Salamander really well.

I dont have the codex anymore, so I cant offer lists for Eldar. But something along the lines of 10 guardians, a farseer, transport and vypers / jetbikes should get you close to the mark. And, IIRC, you have those models. Or even go crazy and add your Avatar in... Might make a 500 point game interesting

I think my biggest issue is decision paralysis. There are so many things I want to use, what to pick? If it was a 1,000 point list I’d be done and packed by now.

Final shots of the Wolf and Salamander:



From the left:
Space Wolf
Salamander (w/incinerator counts as HF/F)
Crimson Fist
White Scar
Dark Angel (w/ c-plas)
Ravenguard
Mantis Warrior Librarian (w/ force sword)


And a front shot.

All based. All with drilled gun barrels. Darn your good influence Dakka! If I were to field these guys, it’s probably happen in one of two different ways. Option one is more sternguard, bulking out my Ultramarines to two full squads. The 4 tyranic war vets I have would fit in just fine in a deathwatch kill team for a combined operation. The other option would be as an allied tactical squad, using Mantis Warrior CT, so I can field the librarian for Divination shenanigans. As I generally try to avoid anything that can be categorized as “shenanigans” the sternguard option is far more likely. Still, the librarian does need to take the field at some point, so one of these days I will try the allied trick.

On my things to do eventually list is to fill out the squad to a full 10 men, probably with a magnetized heavy weapon. But that’s way down the road and would involve sourcing parts, so don’t hold your breath waiting.

Looks like a great unit Nev! I highly approve of an Mantis Warrior-linked divination shenanigans.

They definately look the part! Good job!

I think you'll have to reserve an IF marine for the DW heavy slot. Heavy Bolter or Lascannon would work