1st game in over a year

I played my first game in over a year yesterday against a really great painter, and an even nicer guy, shawn, over at Glaven.net. I brought the army above(yes in that sexy cardboard and tape movement tray), and he brought 2k worth of demons. I've never played demons, so it was thrilling to get the chance to play one of the essential fluff armies in the 40k universe.

Shawn's army ate mine. It was fun, I learned a lot, but I really think BA are more my style. Perhaps I do have to finish off painting troops so my BA force can be a contender. I was hoping that with the relatively small deathwing force that I was going to be minimizing the trouble of transporting them and then setting them up and playing. However versus 17ish units I just could not maneuver.

Since I was railroaded\d\d\d\d\d into playing in the NOVA (thanks jawa! :) I now have to train. I'd like to think I am Rocky in this fantasy, but really I am just training so my opponents can have relatively fast and fun games. Things I learned from game one of my training sessions.

1. I need to have all special rules and main rule book rules on hand. This includes psychic powers. I am going to make a cheat sheet
2. Just because my army can DS does not mean it needs to. I think I should have castled
3. My bikes are glass, they shatter on everything. Best use them as last minute objective grabbers
4. splitting a bike squad into two units of three, makes a single weaker unit even worse
5. If I can't play to win, I should play for the draw
6. DW are neither hand to hand, nor long distance fire support. I have no idea where they fit.

NOVA Dark Angels Ebay Salvage Terminators

I have my first squad of terminators built from my first ebay 40k purchase. I am pushing through despite my desire to let these guys soak in simple green for a while. I am working on the theory that having one army to play at 2k is better than no army. I'm going to get these guys finished which will give me the option of trying to then put a BA force together, or just go with what I have.

I love how clean my original DW are. These guys just quite measure up. I think the problem is that my focus has been on BA for such a long time that I have forgotten what it is like to paint a hard color.

Should I chip these guys up with chardon granite battle damage?

Painting Recipes Rock

One of the added benefits of blogging is that the blog becomes a painting recipe repository. If I hadn't put my deathwing basing recipe online, I would not have had any idea how to reproduce the bases for the 3 new squads I am adding to the army. If only I had put the recipe for putting the deathwing themselves online!

NOVA BA Jump List and Ebay Buyer Beware!

I am still debating what to play at the NOVA open, which is a problem given that I will likely have to do a large amount of painting before hand if I want a semi-coherant list. After all, as a painter primarily I paint what I like, not what is playable. Rather than make a decision now, why not paint two armies and decide later?

Using that logic, I took my Ebay'd terminators, which had turned out to be poorly put together AoBR terminators, and began the process of dressing them up with new armaments for two new DA squads. Once completed, this will mean my DA army now has enough miniatures to support a 2k list, which gives me some options.

On the BA side of the equation I have been toying around the idea of running an all jump list using 5 assault squads, asteroth the grim, dante, and honor guard. Toss in a a chaplain and a sanguinary priest and it is a pretty sizable force. Who wouldn't want to drop 50 marines out of the sky onto an opponent. At the very least it would be fun....after all, it is raining blood angles.

NOVA Open: What to Play

I bit the bullet while at Games Day Chicago and decided to play in the 40k Nova open. I had a little prompting by Jawaballs. The chance to throw down some games with fully painted armies sounded like fun. So how does one prepare for a GT if one is not a regular player? My last game was more than a year ago against brother captain james. My concerns.

• I've never played a 2k game before, so my painted armies might not support it well. I may have to paint up new units.
• A 2k army can be hard to transport if it is tank heavy.
• I am rusty with the rules so I need a simple army with few tricks that I can start practicing with now

I could play BA, IG, or DA. BA are currently my favorite painting army, but they require a real list, which I am going to get some help with. However, through the wonders of Army Builder, I've put together an alternate Dark Angels dual-wing army list. Could a mostly foot DA list work?

• Belial lightening claws
• Librarian in terminator armor
• x5 Terminator squad
• ravenwing fast attack with bike and land speeder
• ravenwing support squadron (1 land speeder)

There are no tanks, but a lot of teleport homers on bikes. In the past my tanks always evaporated first turn anyway, so why not just leave them home and save the effort. Do I need more troops? Should it be a terminator only army?

Games day

I don't know who is attending games day, but If anyone wants to meet in peson, I'll be alternating between the hoa, golden demon lounge, and the heores of Armageddon table.

Don't forget to vote for armies on parade. My blood angels will be there representing the Springfield va store.

Half Priced Army

Like nearly everyone else on the planet I have been aware of ebay. Yet for 40k until recently I have not utilized it. It just seemed like too much trouble. A week ago I started purchasing on ebay. At first it was for OOP wolf scouts, wulfen, and other hard to find miniatures. Then it changed. Why should I have to decide between a space wolves army or an ultra marines army. Why not do both? I don't like mentioning money in general, but for the purpose of this entry I need to, especially since cost is a major reason people do not start new armies.

For $180 in purchases I was able to pick up:

• 20 space marine bikes (including command squad)
• 10 space marine tactical legs (I have loads of torsos, arms, heads, and backpacks)
• 10 metal space marine scouts (including heavy bolter)
• 10 terminators (I have loads of arms/heads/ heavy weapons etc)

If I were to buy these in a store, I would get all the nice bits that come with the kits, some models would not need to be stripped, and I would get to build them to my standard. However, I would also have to pay around $460. Additionally I would be stuck with plastic scouts, which I don't like very much.

$460 or $180?

go ebay!

Weathered Ultramarine Test Miniature

While waiting for the Heroes of Armageddon drawing to start I painted a quick heavily weathered ultramarine. I still haven't decided whether to go ultras or wolves, but seeing as how I just won an ebay auction for 25 marine bikes, and I just built 5 scout bikes, I might have to go ultras just to use the new loot!

I use test miniatures to try out techniques prior to batch painting. This guy start off as a cleanly shaded marine. A lot of little dabs with a sponge full of paint, followed by weathering powders and I had this result. I play to try out the ash wastes weathering powder on another ultra, since I am not sure the red rust of mars looks right.

I am still trying to come up with good colors for power swords, axes, and lightening claws. Since ultras are blue I do not want to use the same colors as on my BA. Purple or red are my current favorites.