I went 0-3 for the 2nd tournament in a row with my Space Marines Saturday. This wasn't entirely unexpected, its a fully mechanized list that includes a 10 man scout squad, a Land Speeder Storm, and a Storm Talon, so I wasn't expecting to slay people, but even still it makes me doubt the army a bit since I'm 1-6 with them. Of course, that's part of the problem, I'm running a list in tournaments with tight time constraints that I haven't sufficiently playtested. But of course, its hard for me to get out and playtest because its more than an hour each way to the game store due to biking to the train station, taking the light rail, and then biking the 2 miles to my store. Longer if the trains are running slow. I have purchased a Realm of Battle board to try to counter-act this a bit, but even then, I don't have any local opponents to invite over, I almost exclusively play pickup games. I am planning to twist some friends' arms once my board comes in to at least try to learn the rules. Other than that I guess I should make some friends at the game store and get their email addresses. Socializing with people who aren't on my social graph (introduced through friends, in other words) is not a strong point of mine, lol.
Ok this picture isn't 40k related, its from my neighborhood, i just use pictures to break up the wall of text XD
Army wise, my IG are coming along. I painted to table standard all 3 Chimeras, and table painted and based my 3 guard squads that I currently run as a Company Command Squad and 2 Veteran squads. I need to expand them a bit though, so I'll be picking up some more heavy weapon teams and maybe some of those snap fit cadians. I may also steal some of the Wargames Factory Shock Troops I ordered to convert into zombies, since I can always order more. I'd like to be able to take a blob squad and I want a Lord Commissar and a normal Commissar. I'm planning to pick up a Vendetta this month, but I may put it off till next due to the immense size of the Realm of Battle purchase.
My Tyrant's Legion will eventually be fieldable as the list in the book. I just need to find/make an Arvis Lighter template.
My Marines are nearly complete. Technically, I want to add a bunch of Mantis Warrior and Executioner units, but I'm going to start with a tactical squad of each and they aren't high on my painting priorities. I do want to get a 2nd thunderfire cannon and to build a Master of the Forge on a bike, along with a bike squad. I have the bikes, but theoretically they are earmarked for my Dark Angels. Eventually, I'd like to have a 2nd Storm Raven painted in Astral Claws colors. Other than that, I'd like more Drop Pods and a box of non-sniper Scouts and the army is for-now-complete. (Meaning eventually I'd like to have all the masters of the chapter, including a Pedro Kantor and a Lysander model to heavily modify, and a vanguard vets box just for painting). Oh, add a Baneblade to the list of things I want for my IG. Then mark it last on the list.
Yay more Astral Claws.
My Blood Angels are still in a state of being mostly assembled. I need to build the Razorback turrets I want to run with them and then cut plasticard icons to put on the doors before I'm ready to start painting. I'm planning to get a Storm Raven for them next month. One nice thing is, I can use the SR with my Astral Claws as a vanilla SR now (or whenever Death from the Skies' rules for them hit the web, I don't know what force org slot they're in yet or what kind of missiles they have).
They're still so grey. Partly the issue is its too cold to prime them and I have the army painter yellow primer.
My Dark Angels are in a carry case. I have decided to alter their back story and completely redo their color scheme, but that means making decisions about bike squads and building some tacticals, currently the army has no Tacticals and 6 bikes. I have 9 Dark Vengance bikes and a 6 man Ravenwing box in my closet, I have to decide whether to give all 15 to the Dark Angels and add Space Marine bikes to my to-buy list, or give a few over and run Azrael dual wing. I could throw my Tyrant's Legion blob squad in here for that slightly silly 4++ Invul guardsman trick, assuming it wasn't FAQ'ed today, I haven't checked any of the FAQ updates.
Originally I painted them as my Death Guard's elite terminator corp, but the story has changed a few times, I haven't developed their new colors because I don't have the DA book yet.
My Tyranids are no longer in my closet. They have moved to a shelf next to my desk. The biggest issue with them is there are piles of Genestealers and they just haven't held up well in 6th. I need to cut a plasticard base for my custom Tervigon and build up the height to make it match the official model, I did the Carnifex conversion because when I built it, there wasn't an official model. I'd like a 2nd Trygon, one of the new Tervigons, and a new Flying Hive Tyrant. Army is playable even without them though. Biggest issue is I haven't finished converting Hive Guard and Zoanthropes and don't have a Spore Pod converted yet. Tons of modeling left to do, planning to start as soon as I get my death guard table painted, since I've thus far refused to play with them unpainted.
This is an attempt at a mycetic spore. It can actually contain a bunch of models lol.
I really need a 2nd tervigon, if only so I know how high to make this guy's base
My force consists of a ton of genestealers, I am frustrated at their current rules.
I will do an article on my homebrew ripper swarm modeled after the FW one later. My nids will be the return of my molding and casting work.
Gants, gants, gants. This will take awhile to paint. Gonna use Army Painter's dip pot to do them though, and their bases are actually decently intricate.
My CSM haven't been touched since I realized I was going to a tournament with Astral Claws...then promptly started a week long diversion building a titan from scratch. I have to get a few Plague Marine squads painted and do greenstuff work on my Rhinos. I have one Spawn to finish and one more to create. I kind of want to do a Spawn that looks closer to a Marine. Then I have to make ~ 80 zombies. I have 54 wargames factory shock troops inbound, but I mean to order 60 mantic zombies to kitbash. I'm also planning to start a nurgle guard force ala Siege of Vraks, starting with whenever I find the cash to order a few packs of those Dreamforge Stormtroopers.
My Daemons are barely an army. I have a Epidemius and a Great Unclean One, but I really want Fatey and a Bloodthirster. I will probably buy a Thirster when a new model drops, or when I have the cash for one of the expensive and beautiful alternate versions. I have 2 Nurgle Daemon Princes, but I'd like to have a few Daemon Princes made from Ushabti (from WFB) with wings attached, as Tzeentch DP's. I have 10 Plaguebearers and 10 of the WFB zombies I am in the middle of converting into plaguebearers. I have 10 Daemonettes and 10 Bloodletters. I want to get 10 Pink Horrors to round them out. I'd like to get the new PB box they put out. I have a ton of Nurglings, which are really kinda pointless in the current book. Can't wait for the new book so I can figure out what to do with this army.
Oh, and I still have a box of Reaver jet bikes and 40 Ork Boyz and 10 Nobz and 6 Defkoptas in a box on my shelf. They aren't even on the horizon.
So, I have a bunch of armies I'm working on, but a few too many things to work on without feeling any real passion. Maybe I'll feel better when I find the cash for that big flyer order I've been putting off. 2 Heldrakes, a Stormraven, and a Vendetta are my goal for next month. After that I'll get the mantic zombies and some other bits (this is getting a whole "convert me some zombies/cultists" article later"), and I'll have 2 armies done to a point where I'm ready to move on. Some ebay shopping for Ravenwing bikes should be the only purchase necessary for that. After that, its nid purchases and maybe daemons.
Where is all this going?
I'm not happy with just 40k any more, so I've decided to try something out. I'm going to buy and paint one alternate game system model per month. Months where I don't have the spare budget I'll work on my Dreadball teams. Starting out, I'm going to build a small team of Yu Jing models for infinity. First up I bought the Yao Kong remotes box. I know most people start with a starter set, but the store was out of the Yu Jing one, and while I like the look of the Imperial Sector box, I am planning the army as a Ghost in the Shell themed force (with one akira themed choice, a box of bikes). I like the look of the remotes and they serve a similar role to the Tachikomas.
Admittedly, I know nothing about Infinity, I haven't played a game yet. But, with this new approach to hobby stuff, I should have 2 starter sets of Infinity armies soon enough. Hopefully, that will be the cure for my hobby malaise.