Army starting insight

Keeper of the Fortress

Hello again. As promised I will share my opinions on some things. Firstly I will be discussing my views on building an army. Now there are two way you can build your army: Planned and build as you go. Both have there merits and both can be hard especially for someone new.

With the random 40k Event my friends and I are doing i started thinking about how to build up an army which involves the army list and the two ways mentioned above came to mind.

Firstly Planned. This means that you sit down with your codex and write out the blueprints of your army aka the Army List. You may work on it and change it a bit but he final product is more or less what you want to build. From there you make your army. I find this works well with armies like Space Marines, Chaos, Eldar, and Orks for example. Why these army types? Well because with space marines for example if you model the marine with a plasmagun or heavy weapon then that is what the marine is stuck with unless you remove it and replace it. (I am not going to touch the subject of proxies at all.) With Chaos and eldar it is a similar thing. A howling banshee can only represent a banshee and a berserker cannot represent a plague marine for example. With Orks you can have slugga boyz but to represent shoota boyz you would need more models. Get my meaning? The planned army list is best with these armies and armies like them.

Build as you go: This is where you find a cool model or unit and you buy it and then factor it into your army. With this style of army building you have to be careful because you could change your mind and not need that unit. Now of course we all have bought something because it looks so cool and rarely get to use it. The two armies that I feel can work the best with this are Necrons and Imperial Guard. Why? Well with Necrons there are no real unit upgrades that you need to model with the exception being your Lord. Everything else in the army has equipment that does not change. You still have to keep them specific so immortals only represent immortals but its easier then the other armies listed above. Why Imperial Guard you may wonder? Well a chimera can be use by a lot of units. Guardsmen can represent a variety of units from conscripts to command squad. Heavy weapon teams can be used as support squads there own heavy weapon unit or to represent a heavy weapon in a squad of guardsmen. Sentinels can be fast attack or part of the command platoon thing. Essentially its easy to fit in units to these types of armies.

Now neither method is better then the other. I find that an army that you really enjoy (For example Dark Angels for me) that either method works as you wont mind having extra models. Essentially you want to build up and own as much as you can for that army. If you are going to branch out into new armies i find the planned method works best as you will have a solid idea of what exactly you need.

Now for New players my best suggestion would be to mix the two approaches. Establish a core which would be an HQ that you like configured how you want and 2 or 3 troop choices configured however you want them to legally be. From there as you learn the rules you can make easier tweaks to the army and impulse buys may fit better as you ll have a strong core already.

Hope that insight was helpful to people. Many of us know this already but we don't always follow it.

So what do you do when you build your armies? I personally do both. If I am trying to make a tough as nails list ill strictly plan.

More stuff to come in the future.

Status report

Hey all. Just thought id make a little update post. Now all i did for this picture below is make him a new base and started some minor touch ups on his helmet. I may do a little more touch up on him in the future. He is a Dark Angel Deathwing Interrogator Chaplain.

I got some more BFG stuff to paint so I think I will work on them and bases for my Crusade Thousand Sons. Depending how fast I can base and paint the 8 escorts and 3 cruisers I may be able to get started on the actual crusade terminators soon.

I want to post some Tactica that I use when i play games but I do not know what exactly. I may do something on general things. I also have another idea in mind so stay tuned some tips and tactics to come aside from just progress reports on what I'm working on.

Oh just so any followers are aware. I play Dark Angels and codex marines. I have some Tau and a few chaos. I have played with my tau and i know a good amount of how to play chaos marines. I am also working on Orks for that challenge. So if you have any army specific questions especially about any Space Marine army except space wolves feel free to leave a comment with your question. This goes for the other armies listed above. I will do my best to answer them with my opinions in a post. If no one does that its fine I will still do what I have in mind as well. Until then.

Kahotep

Hello all. A small update. Here we have a pre heresy thousand son Commander. I named him Kahotep:

His wargear mimics that of Sicarius because i do plan to use him as a counts as model for Sicarius. He would be a second HQ model to go with my Count as Tigirius (Ahriman or Mhotep from the HH novel). So why do you ask? Well I like the Fluff of the Thousand Sons and having a high degree of Psychic potential within the legion. I think the rules of Sicarius best mesh with this theme.

So yea there he is. I like how he came out. When next I work on the army it'll be on the Terminators. When thatll be? Not sure but it wont be a long delay. Id like to have my 1500 point army done by spring.

That and other things to come when i have time to collect my thoughts onto here. Until then.

The Dakka Ladz Big Captain

Hey all as stated earlier I rolled Orks for the random 40k event. Luckily for me that meant just one guy to paint. I decided to make a freeboota Ork horde cause Ork pirates are fun. They are called the Dakka Ladz. So here is my HQ:

His names is Grax Dakka Goldteef. And yes it says Yo Ho! on his Gob. He is "Da Big Kaptain" of the Dakka Ladz and because of this he counts as Ghazghkull. I went with a purple color scheme because i think its a good color for ork pirates. Gave him a Gold gob because its styling. The purple is hormagaunt purple base with Liche Purple over it and a wash of leviathan purple. It looks better in color then with this picture. He doesn't have a Matte Varnish yet and I think ill do that soon because he is a big pewter model.

Anyways I'm done with the first part of the event. Once we start phase 2 in Jan. I will post an update on the event. Of course as i make progress on my other projects ill post as well.

So enjoy and Take care.

So it begins

Hey all. Not much to update with here. However the Random 40k event has started! First deadline for us is January 8th. Why so late you ask? Well one among our group is doing a forgeworld order for stuff and it takes some time so we made it a little longer. I will be joining him in that order but not for this event.

Anyway I rolled Orks for mine. another of our group rolled orks and two rolled imperial guard. I believe one other is doing eldar. Should be fun as we all have different styles for what we are going to do.

So what I bought for my HQ is Ghazkull's model. Why? Because its a cool looking beefy ork model. He is a bit points heavy and I need a name for him still but it fits the little fluff i made for the army. Basically I'm running a freeboota ork pirate army. Only instead of going crazy with boyz I'm using purely shoota boyz. for troops and a meganobz troop choice because of the warboss. Basically this model will represent the leader of the Freebootaz. THey are called the Dakka Ladz. Normally the list i have would use a big mek shokk attack gun and a warphead weird boy but i figured id do something different for this challenge.

So yea updates with that model hopefully soon. I plan to get him done asap cause it'll be a nice change and i want to continue work on my Marines too. But we are on our way. SO if anyone wants to follow along your more then welcome to. If you have an suggestions of Orky pirate leader name for a ork group that loves the sound of gunz and the smell of propellant lemme know and ill take a look at em.

Until then..

Random 40k!!

Hey everyone. I cam up with an idea a while ago and talked to my friend on it. And after talking with Helios Raven (link on the right with the other blogs). Basically its a modified escalation type event thing. And Helios suggested we randomize it and thats what we did. I wrote up a guideline type thing for it and we decided to post it on our blogs here as well as other stuff.

Feel free to do this with your friends or group.

Random 40k Army Challenge

Welcome to the random 40k army challenge. What is this you ask? Well this is a long term group activity. You and a group of friends randomly choose a 40k army and slowly build each of your armies at the same rate. This is designed to be done in addition to any other army your working on and is broken down accordingly to allow people to still work on there current army idea. After each part is complete you have a little brawl as either a crazy free for all or by randomly choosing who fights who. First lets get to how you choose your army.

Alright so basically there are two ways to choose your army. Either by putting the armies into a hat and choosing or by rolling dice and consulting the following list:

1. Imperial Guard
2. Orks
3. Eldar
4. Chaos Space Marines
5. Inquisition
6. Necrons
7. Space Marines
8. Chaos Daemons
9. Tau
10. Tyranids
OPTIONAL
11. Dark Eldar
12. Reroll

Ok so why are the Dark Eldar optional to add? Its not because we hate them but because the models are hard to find without ordering online and the codex cannot be found in stores. Now when the new codex and models come out then they wont be optional. If yoru group agrees to them then by all means add them in. Obviously without the dark Eldar you would roll a d10 and with them in you would roll a d12.

Great! You have your army picked out now how does this event work? It’s a series of parts explained below. But please note all models must be WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) so choose your equipment carefully.

Part 1: Establishing a chain of command. Everyone picks one HQ that is legal for your army that would take up a force organization slot (so no Emperors Champions, command squads, etc.). The HQ unit must be fully painted and based. Once everyone has completed there HQ you have a HQ brawl. Yea it may not be fair for some HQ’s but its just for fun and so everyone sees the models.

Part 2: Troops win the war. Now that everyone has picked there HQ you move one to ONE troop selection from your codex.(ie. A tactical space marine squad). The squad must be atleast minimum size and can go to maximum size. Yes it is only one troop selection so one troop choice. Also dedicated transports are not allowed at this time unless the selection requires a transport (example: Pathfinders need a devilfish but they are not troops so you cannot make a squad of them here). Also squad character upgrades (Ie, Telion, changeling etc) are allowed. The troops selection must be fully painted and based. Once everyone is done you have another small brawl with your HQ and troop selection.

Part 3: A proper battle group. This is exactly as above but this gives you your second troop selection making your forces actually force organization legal. The two troops are split apart for two reasons. One monetary constraints, this allows everyone to participate as everything is spaced. Also some squads are huge like ork boys this allows people to take some time to make a nice force. Once everyone has there second troop selection complete you can fight either a free for all, team game, or one on one battles. Obviously the size of yoru group may dictate which way you fight.

Part 4: Reinforcements are en-route. Alright its time to wage real war. You have your HQ and 2 compulsory troops. What now? Well no you flush out your army. You are able to expand your army as you see fit from your codex. So dedicated transports can be added in here a second HQ or things like command squads or a Emperor’s Champion. Now don’t go too crazy there is a point limit. The limit can be either750, 850 or 950 points. Your group must come to an agreement on which one you choose. If someone is already above 750 for some reason then obviously you would have to go with a higher point limit. There are options to give flexibility to people with time constraints. Also keep in mind everything must be force organization legal. So elites for example can only have 3 slots. Again everything must be fully painted and based. Once everyone is done then you can start fighting actual battles utilizing missions and deployment from the rulebook.

Part 5: Escalation. The armies should be shaping up nicely now. Its time to expand upon the forces you have collected. The armies can be expanded up to 1200 points. As always you have to follow the force organization chart. Once everyone has fully painted and based the additional units its time for another battle. From this point on you should be fighting standard battles as either one on one or team battles using the mission and deployment tables.

Part 6: Time to make war. Its time to bring the army up to a decent minimum playing level. Players can expand there army up to 1500 points. Again force organization chart must be adhered to and all models must be painted and based by the end of the time limit. After everyone has finished more battles to be fought. You could have a impromptu mini tournament at this point to get games in against more people.

Part 7: Let’s get Dangerous. Alright this is it. This is where all this time has been going towards. This is the final part where everyone is able to expand there army to 1750 points. Once everyone has fully painted and based there additions everyone should play a game against each other person.

Congratulations! You all now have an army fully painted anf finished and its an army that you may not have been able to get to otherwise!

Sound like something you would be interested in? Well great! Now here are some specifics to how this works.

When picking an army it is best to keep it random. However there is one re-roll allowed (or re-pick if you did it out of a hat). Now this is of course meant to be fun so more then once is fine if your group is fine with that. Also As this is a great way to get new people into the game that may be interested if someone is new and wants in but like a specific race they can of course pick that race. This is not meant to discourage any new people from joining the hobby.

You probably noticed that there are 7 parts yet no mention of time limitations. That should be determined by your group but in general 3 weeks to 3 months per part is a good amount of time. For the first few parts 3 weeks should be well enough time but for something like part 4 which is probably the biggest point jump 3 months may be necessary. Remember this is a casual army build meant to be done on the side while you are working on your current main army so you do not need to speed demon this stuff. Also once your group finishes on part you need not jump right into the next part. While that may be possible at certain time the parts are meant to be started once the group as a whole can continue. So any amount of time can pass between the end of one part and the beginning of another.

A note on models:

As stated earlier all models must be WYSIWYG. But that does not mean you have to stick to 40k units or blisters. This is the time to get funky as we are building armies in small stages. Conversions are not only allowed, they are encouraged. Now of course the 40k line may have that model you need or want but done be afraid to look at the other ranges from Games Workshop either. As long as in the end the model is WYSIWYG as best as possible its all good.

Another thing to keep in mind is that each part should only be started once everyone can participate. This means when everyone has the models and painting supplies they need. If someone had to order there model off the internet then everyone should wait until that person gets there model. The goal is for everyone to progress as one and have fun.

Interested in taking this further? No problem it is easy to go past 1750 if you want to just progress by 250 point each time! Also if your group want to spice things up by turning the games played into a tournament type thing then go for it. This is just the baseline by which you and a group of friends can start something new (or a variant of an existing race for you crazy veterans) and progress together.

TIPS:

These aren’t so much tips on how to do well in this event but on how to have fun.
- If you plan out an army list and break into stages that go with the parts you may find it easier to know what you have to buy.
- Share your lists with each other. You never know what bits your friends may have that you could use to make your army.
- It’s not necessary to have a 1750 list in the beginning Sometimes it’s more fun to pick as you go and make it fit into the constraints.

Well this is a fluid event meaning that it can be added to or revised as necessary.

Good luck and Have fun!

[We aren't sticklers on WYSISYG and by that I mean bolt pistols don't need to be modeled on marines for example. If you want to that's great but basically only war gear items need to be modeled.]

Its really segmented and really lose time wise because its meant as stated before to be built while working on your main army. Also its a great way to get new players and people interested into the game as well! Just let them choose what they want and participate. Anyways sorry for the length hope you all enjoy. When I roll for my army ill post what i got and my choice for my HQ! Take care.

Prepare Starboard weapons to fire!

Hey there. Here is a bit of an update. Two capital ships.

This is the Thunderchild above. The apocalypse Battleship. Painted in Angels of Fury colors.

The Battle barge Angelic Fury. Obviously in Angels of Fury colors.

They were assembled by Helios Raven link on the right side. More on the way eventually when the order comes in and such. Working on crusade era Thousand Sons now. More to come soon when I have time to post something more substantial. Sorry for the bad pictures. Hope you enjoy. Until next time.