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I hope this one goes better than my Thousand Sons blog which lies abandoned in the darkest depths of the forum (I might get some work done on them soonish).

This BT army is being painted for an army building competition at my local GW, over the next 6 and a bit weeks I will be adding around 250pts every couple of weeks with the aim of having a 1500 point army at the end of the competition. Who knows in amongst all the Dark Eldar and Blood Angel armies being made I might win something.....

Naaaaa

Anyway I originally went with the Templars because being CC focussed they are different to my other 40k armies and weirdly when the competition was first announced a Space Marine army of any description was different. Inevitably that changed very quickly when people realised the DE are still a glass cannon, but I had already started the army by then so I was stuck with a marine army in potential ocean of them. At least they're not Nipple Marines or Space Puppies eh?

According to the competition rules we had to start with the equivalent of a battleforce and an HQ choice. So in my case that is two troops choices, one fast attack and one dedicated transport as the battleforce equivalent and the Emperor's Champion as HQ.

I've only had a fortnight to get the first wave of models finished and still need to paint 5 more marines by Thursday. As a result of this I've had to cut a few corners and very few of the marines have had their mold lines removed. So please don't bring that up, after the competition is over I'll go back and get rid of them. Additionally the paint is very basic, don't expect anything beyond tabletop standards here.

So on to some pics....

1st Crusader Squad + Razorback:



Bike Squad:



Emperor's Champion:



Hopefully I'll be able to post images of the second Crusader Squad tomorrow, just need to finish it.

If anyone is interested my list for the first part of the competition is:

HQ

Emperor's Champion: Accept Any Challenge...

140pts

Troops

Crusader Squad: Initiates x5, Bolters, Lascannon, Plasmagun, Razorback (twin linked lascannon, smoke launchers)

194pts

Crusader Squad: Initiates x10, Neophytes x4, Bolt Pistols and Close Combat Weapons, Melta, Power Weapon

220pts

Fast Attack

Bike Squad: Bikers x5, Power Weapon x3, Krak Grenades

195pts

Total: 749pts

Not really a competitive army but think it should be fairly versatile, lacking a bit in heavy weapons but I shouldn't be encountering too many vehicles in the first week of the contest, part 2 however will require some more heavy weapons but just what I have planned you will have to wait and see.

In addition to the army building it is almost certain that I'll have to write a background story for the army at some point (the staff are trying to encourage all aspects of the hobby) so that will also appear here once I think of anything other than the army's name.

No I don't

Black Templar FAQ wrote:Q. Can I field the Emperor’s Champion as my
one compulsory HQ choice and no other HQs in
the army?
A. Yes, even though he does not use up an HQ
slot, he is still an HQ choice, and so he can fulfill
the minimum HQ requirement.

Taken from: link

The status of the EC in regards to taking up a slot is one of many oddities within the BT codex. Other include the fact that it uses the old smoke launcher rules, it still has a wargear section (oh how I miss those) and the special characters have minimum army point requirements (although that one has been FAQed out elsewhere).

On the subject of my army I've not got quite as much done today as I would like on those final 5 marines, after several days of painting pretty much all day my hard are starting to ache when I hold a brush for any longer than an hour. Still I've got a couple of days to finish those marines off and they're about half done so I should finish them sometime tomorrow.

I will do all that when I find the time, currently though I'm having to speed paint. Thanks for the feedback though.

Why is it that people describe my painting as neat? If you were to watch me painting you'd find I'm just good at correcting mistakes.

Element206 wrote:Im also speed painting a BA company right now. Though my speed painting is kinda the polar opposite of yours, you tackle the details and no highlighting, Im doing the highlighting and omitting the details!

Given all the detail on those BT conversion bits I had no choice really.

I promised the second Crusader squad would be finished today, and here it is:



The painting on this is even worse than it is on the rest of the army but they are at least painted (to an extent). Which is a lot more than quite a few armies I've played in the past, although in fairness most players in my area do seem to be as keen on the painting as the gaming.

Tomorrow will be the first real test for the army as it's the end of the first part of the competition. It'll be judged on both performance (ie can I win with it?) and paint quality (eep). I don't think I'm going to do well but that's not going to stop me having fun. I'm looking forward to seeing what the challenges aside from adding 250pts to the army for the next 2 weeks are.

I'll see if I can get a quick group photo at some point tomorrow though I won't be able post it until Friday. I'll also reveal the first expansion soon.

Update time.... sorry it's a bit late, playing games has got in the way since my last post.

For those interested I've played 4 games with this army since my last post, winning 2, drawing 1 and getting massacred by BA in the 4th. By my standards that sort of win rate is damn good.

Anyway, I'm afraid that I've not been able to get a photo of the whole army yet I'll keep trying to get one though.

Not much of an update this time round, I'm just going to reveal first 250 point expansion to the army and here it is:




I know I should probably focus on adding yet more close combat nastiness to the army but I can't face painting yet more space marines for a couple of weeks or so.

In addition to adding the 2 tanks over the next couple of weeks there are some other challenges for the army building competition. I've got to write a bit of background fluff for the army, build 3 objective markers for the army and there will be an award for the best painted vehicle/monstrous creature. So I've got plenty of stuff to keep me busy.