So...what happened?
One moment I was happy, painting, making progress and the next apathy hit me complete with depression, inactivity, fading into silence and generally doing nothing. Well guys, the story is long and complicated so I'll try to shorten it as much as I can. I suffer long term depression. And depression hits like a truck. When we switched contractors at my (now former) employer they did a number of things that ended up...just screwing me over. First, we lost our fixed desk policy. This meant that the specific desk setups that were in place for a number of us advisors disappeared. Then they took away our internet access. Apparantly having things to do to bide us over during 'dead periods' - when it was generally quiet, when it was late or early shifts or when the lines were just down...was not deemed viable. And finally, I got fed up of a manager treating depression like a phase.
The end result? Long term sickness, leading to actual sickness (chest and stomach infections), leading to me being referred to A&E on the day they were originally going to sack me...for me to be sacked three days later, two days before I was due to return to work.
It took some time...but....
Local gaming group announces, in December...a planned Horus Heresy tournament in March. 1,000 points. Much hype for Betrayal at Calth too. So I decided, with some of my savings I would sign up and go for that. It gave me focus, it got me back into the hobby and doing things. All good, right?
Basic rules for the sake of balance? No Moritats, no flyers, no Template tanks, no Special Characters (as at 1,000 points these are all insane).
So I planned a list...and from a
BaC box and odds and sods built my list. And now I have found the 30k bug was spiralling further and further out of control. So much that I'm still painting it.
So what was in the original list?
Well...the original list was as follows...
Death Guard - Rite of War: The Reaping
HQ - Centurion - Delagatus - Cataphractii, Combi-Flamer, Deathshroud Power Scythe
Troops - Legion Tactical Squad
Troops - Legion Tactical Squad
Elites - Apothecarion Detachment - 2 Apothecaries
Elites - Legion Dreadnought Talon - 2 Dreadnoughts - Twin-Lascannon, Twin-Autocannon
Elites - Legion Contemptor Talon - 1 Contemptor - Kheres Pattern Assault Cannon
This turned out obscenely strong. Not many folk were prepared for the Dreadnoughts - which are insanely good in 30k. So I spent January and February painting.
Not normally either. I'm an odd duck and instead of going from a white undercoat to a sepia wash...I go from black, to scorched brown to a series of dheneb stone drybrushes, an earthshade wash and more drybrushes. No so much sepia as off-white/bone which matches some artwork from one of the Horus Heresy books.
First up were the Tactical Squads. I actually had fun painting these and decided to keep them barebones as possible. I sort of felt these define the character of the army more than any characters, any special units or anything else. And I like them. I loved weathering them, I loved the mix and match of odd bits and pieces (for the idea of hand-me down armour) and I love the fact that a lot of
40k Chaos bits mixed in nicely. To the extent that the 30k stuff is going to become stand-ins for my
40k CSM when the time comes.
Close up for you guys. Weathering, chipping and transfers too. I really like this Marine in particular. He sort of embodies the Legion perfectly.
Then I started on the Dreadnought Talon - using the old metal 2nd ed. Chaos Dreadnoughts to represent Mk III Dreadnoughts - convenient, fitting with the whole theme of the Legion and really, really strong in 30k games. I ended up naming these guys The Brothers Grimm.
Transfers went beautifully on these guys, as did weathering. I was surprised at how much difference a paint scheme made. As long as you resisted the traditional
GW approach of blinging the trims they turned out reasonable and looked like they fitted in just fine. I was worried they'd be somewhat out of place but it turns out they weren't.
Next up - the Contemptor. This thing was beautiful. Unfortunately it seems I couldn't get a decent full body shot, so enjoy some other shots instead. These things are monstrous in both 30k and
40k.
Turns out the tournament organiser got a nice in-game photo and did a bit of filtering to produce this beauty of an image. Cheers Harry!
My final bits were the characters...and here's where it got odd.
Originally I was going to use my Typhon as a counts-as Delagatus...and had some alternate Apothecaries on order. The guy I was ordering from...well, let's just say the order finally showed up.
Yesterday. Naturally way too late to be of use. I had to scratchbuild the apothecaries from bits, which was fine with me. Have some close ups. I love the gore on the narthecium.
But then....I realised that using Typhon would be an insult.
So last minute I bought some Deathshroud Terminators off a trade group and decided one needed slight tweaking and painting up to be my Delagatus.
I feel he did a better job.
The tournament came and went. I did well. Joint-first, though after a
HQ battle I ended up third - it's what happens when you have an economy character against two Praetors (Iron Hands and Iron Warriors. OH LORD). There was a mix of armies - off the top of my head...
My Death Guard
2 Blood Angel armies.
2 Emperor's Children armies.
1 Raven Guard
1 World Eaters
1 Iron Warriors
1 Iron Hands
1 Solar Auxilia
Ended up going 2 wins, 1 loss - the loss was against the Solar Auxilia (because holy crap, S6 weapons everywhere). Next time not only will we be upping it to 1500 points...but I'll be allowed to have some updated Legion rules....plus a bigger pool of things of my own to use.
I've already got plenty more underway - Deathshroud, Cataphractii, 2 Tactical Support Squads (Flamers and Plasma Guns), 2 Heavy Support Squads (Heavy Bolters and Missile Launchers), a Veteran Tactical Squad , a rhino and a Magna-melta Predator. In addition I've decided that I'm also going to add an allied Night Lord detachment - Legion Tacticals, Cataphractii, a Centurion and some Raptors.
Plus Mortarion....
