Some new arrivals!

My general collection policy starts from the point of view of what models do I like the look of most and what can't I wait to own.  In the case of starting my Guard army I've started with the Militarum Tempestus and their transports because the models look amazing and they can be used as a force of their own to ally with my Tau if I want to.

These arrived this weekend and I don't mind admitting it but I squealed like a girl.  Loudly.

And just to drop a little teaser of my fluff, I now have:

31st Psian Raptors Detachment

Commissar Auden Roarke

Scion Squad 1 led by Tempestor Albin Foxe
Scion Squad 2 led by Tempestor Jett Kassem

Valkyrie Squadron "Black Raptors"

Although this is all that's in my army list, my plan is to double the size of this force so I can use it as a stand alone if I need to for smaller games.

The colour scheme is going to be patterned after the Psian Jackals so hopefully once I practice a little more they will look a little like this:

More once I've built something!

A draft army list

Putting together an army list is something that seems to take endless revision, a lot of play testing and, for me, taking advice from more experienced players who have experience with that army.  During my time playing 40k I've most often played with armies that are all rounders in armour, range and close combat.  Marines mostly, Black Templars specifically for a long time.  I've started playing Tau and they have reasonable armour and incredible fire power, and there is a perverse pleasure when you rail rifle a unit of terminators to death.  Like seriously, it makes me happy.

This time I've gone for an armour that is notorious for being neither well armoured or having incredible fire power.

The Imperial Guard...or Astra Militarum as they are now known.

Best known for having lots of tanks, disposable troops that could be killed by a strong wind and the shooting ability of the Storm Troopers from Star Wars.  It's clear that to be successful with them you need to think more tactically about the units, gear and tactics and this is a challenge I'm willing to meet!  Coupled with that is how I like to play.

Now as it turns out I like shooty armies and I'm not a huge fan of close combat.  That's mostly due to some unfortunate experiences at the end of Khorne Bezerkers when I was younger and Tyranids more recently.  You both know who you are.  For me the key things in putting together this army was survivability, decent shooting and mobility.  Coincidently this fits with the fluff of the Elysians!  See what I did there?

With the Guard this meant veterans as my troop choices for the boost in BS, all with transports, and kitting them as Grenadiers so we get the increase from 5+ flak armour to 4+ carapace armour.  This upgrade is only 15 points for a whole squad so well worth it!  But with T & S 3 there needs to be a clear battle plan in mind and avoiding combat at all costs if possible.

Weapon choices are also going to be important because my units, fragile as they, need to be able to take out potential threats or at least soften them up enough that my vets stand a reasonable chance of coming out on top.  Cue melta and plasma guns.  They are hopefully going to smite a lot of the Emperors enemies in the future!

Now this next one is going to have experienced Guard players screaming at the screen and holding their hands in shame, but I hate tanks.  Hate 'em.  Really hate them. 

Don't get me wrong I have used them in the past.  My Templars were delivered on the treads of a Land Raider, and my Tau sport a pair of Hammerheads for long range destructive goodness.  But those forces were never built around them whereas a lot of Guard forces are.  Not so for mine.  Again Elysians to the rescue because their fluff makes clear they don't use them.

Thank goodness.

So for me my heavy support will come in the form of the incredible looking Valkyrie and Vendettas; because lets face it you can never have enough flying firepower.  They are mobile, cant sport some great weapon choices and can carry my troops about.  Expect to see a lot of them in my list!

And finally, because I love the model and rules are excellent, there's going to be a Vindicare Assassin in my force.  And I won't elaborate anymore on that for the moment because I'm going to do a post on my tactics and my fluff and I need to keep something for the future!

So without further ado, this is my provisional list so far:

HQ
Company Command Squad
Company Commander - Carapace Armour, Bolt Pistol and Power Fist
4x Veterans - Meltaguns
Commissar
Transported in Vendetta 1

Troops
Veteran Squad 1
Veteran Sergeant - Close Combat Weapon & laspistol
6x Veterans
3x Veterans with plasma guns
Chimera

Veteran Squad 2
Veteran Sergeant - Close Combat Weapon & laspistol
6x Veterans
3x Veterans with plasma guns
Chimera

Veteran Squad 3
Veteran Sergeant - Close Combat Weapon & laspistol
6x Veterans
3x Veterans with Meltaguns
Transported in Vendetta 2

Elites
Militarum Tempestus Scion Squad 1
Tempestor - Power Fist & hot-shot laspistol
7x Scions
2x Scions with Meltaguns
Transported in Valkyrie 1

Militarum Tempestus Scion Squad 2
Tempestor - Power Fist & hot-shot laspistol
7x Scions
2x Scions with hot-shot volley gun
Transported in Valkyrie 2

Fast Attack
Tauros Squadron
Tauros Venetor 1 - twin-linked lascannon
Tauros Venetor 2 - twin-linked lascannon
Tauros Venetor 3 - twin-linked multilaser

Valkyrie Squadron
Valkyrie 1 - lascannon & 2x multiple rocket pods
Valkyrie 2 - lascannon & 2x multiple rocket pods

Vendetta Squadron
Vendetta 1 - 3x twin-linked lascannon
Vendetta 2 - 3x twin-linked lascannon

Officio Assassinorum Detachment
Vindicare Assassin

So there we have it, I think it's a consistent list full of fluff and some surprises that will give the enemy pause.  Comments welcome!

Enter Elysiums!

Now that I feel a bit more confident in the hobby I've turned my attention to looking at a second army.  This is something I deliberated over for quite some time because honestly, the Games Workshop make some great looking models!

Do I go Necrons with their relentless, mechanic legions?  What about a Space Marine Chapter?  The Imperium's elite who offer so many opportunities for a player to come up with their own chapter.  Or the enigmatic Eldar, swift and powerful but as fragile as glass.

No to them all!  In the end I decided I was going to go Imperial Guard.

Ignoring the fluff and the opportunities for writing your own background, I made my decision based upon a small group of models.

First there was the Valkyrie.  The eagle of the Imperial Guard, the model is quite frankly amazing.  Personally I think it's the best looking flyer model around and when I was thinking about the look of my potential 2nd army, Valkyries where always there.  Sometimes with Tau jumping out of them.  One terrifying time there were Tyranid Gargolyes on the wings.

Secondly, Militarum Tempestus Scions, our storm troopers of old.  Because seriously, who doesn't think this looks cool!

Once I'd decided that this was the way to go it was easy!  I thought about running a Scions only list but after taking some advice it was never going to be an easy list to play at higher points games, as entertaining as it would be.  In comes the Imperial Guard to the rescue to help me with my mixed list.

One of the great things about the Guard is the variety of regiments that GW has already released models for.  One of the problems I have with the guard is the number of models you need to build and paint to make a viable list.  As I've already made clear, that isn't my strong point so that really didn't appeal to me.  So that meant a smaller, elite force, and as the look of your army is important, one that was good looking.

I thought about the Cadians.  They're fairly ubiquitous and well known and they do look good, but a bit generic.  Catachans?  No thanks.  Mordians?  Hell no!  So I had to think a bit outside the box.

I'd heard of the Elysian Drop Troops years ago but not given them much thought.  I had a look on the Forgeworld website and actually looked at the models and boy was I impressed!  I went in search of some fluff and I was sold.  They are a small, elite force who also use Storm Troopers and Valkyries!  Sorted!

The only thing I've toyed with is the price.  For a squad of ten they come out at £40 which is hell of a lot and makes the thought of collecting a whole army incredibly expensive.  Still, there are ways and means around that: trades, eBay, discount sites. 

So job done, Elysian Drop Troops it is! 

In my next post I'll go over my planned army list, the ethos behind it and the list I've come up with.

Tau - Painting Part 1

One of the areas I struggle most with is painting.  I don't enjoy painting, I'm not good at it and I don't quite have the confidence to try.  This year I plan on addressing that, but since I haven't even started yet and I love my Tau I didn't want to practice on them.

I follow quite a few channels on YouTube, and there is once in particular who is a great painter and thankfully takes commissions.  I'm not going to go into the practicalities of that, because frankly, if you want to know go and find out yourself!  But I would say that his work is superb.

Believe it or not it was getting my first few units back that has inspired me to learn to paint myself, because if I can be half as good then I'll be delighted.  Now some people might think it's a cop out to have someone else paint your models, and maybe it is.  I have no idea how common this is or how many people do it, but going by the posts on 40k Facebook groups I'm not the only one doing it!

So, having sent my models off and suggested the colour scheme I wanted, he very honestly told me he was worried the models would come out too plain and what did I think of his Tau armies colour scheme.  Now I love his scheme but didn't want to copy him, but I'm so glad that I did.

My plan is to share my force as it comes back and at the end I'll do a picture of the whole force.

Without further ado let me present to you...

HQ - Cadre Fireblade

 

Elites - Crisis Suit Team




Troops - Fire Warriors

 

And my favourite model so far!

 

I love this colour scheme.  It's interesting and characterful without being garish and over the top.  The orange is a little redder in person, unfortunately my camera doesn't do it justice!  It's a skilfully done job and done in such a way that it looks like they've been through the wars with armour being marked and pitted.

And as for the model, I love the sniper pose, it looks like he's taking aim and is the one I'm happiest with.

So that's it so far, if I want to field a painted force I can split my Fire Warriors in half and have two small units of 6 models each.  So an HQ, two Troops and an Elite choice so small 300-400 point battles are within my grasp already.

I'll update when the next unit is in!

Tau - Background

I mentioned in my previous post that I've been collecting an army of Tau so I thought I'd start there and do a series of posts explaining how I came to collect them, my army list and tactics and the painting of them.

A few years ago when the Tau came out I was captivated by the thought of plasma rifle wielding, crisis suit wearing aliens who ultimately just wanted everyone to get along.  Albeit everyone had to get along according to their values and beliefs, but still, it was a version of utopia you don't often find in 40k.

I mean, doesn't that sound cool?!

But as often happened with me, it came to nothing as other things in life got in the way and my interests changed.  Then a couple of years ago I bought a few units randomly on eBay.  Then a few more and so on until I had the bones of an army but no thought of how I would use them, what role the units would play and how successful I'd be.  But I did end up with several Piranhas (they do look ace), multiple vehicles and other assorted units.

I eventually sat down and sketched out an army list and found that what I had didn't match with how I wanted to play.  So I sold the excess and used that money to buy more units that were more useful and now I'm pleased to say I have an 1850 point army assembled that I'd like to think is reasonably competitive. 

I would say though that I haven't played with it so I don't know how it will perform.  That will be a future post I think!

So there you have it!  I wish I could say the background was more involved or more interesting, but the reality is I picked an army I liked the look and sound of, started buying units and then refined the list.  That's not how I plan to do my Elysians because this approach was a bit backwards.  I should have planned before I bought, but I at least had the common sense to sell off what I wouldn't use to buy what I would so it didn't cost me as much.

More to come!

A beginning...

Blogging isn't something new to me, though it's something I've never been very good at.  I don't know that this will be different, but someone suggested it to me as a way to keep track of the armies I'm collecting (well trying to) so I'm going to give it a go and see how it works out.  This New Year I decided I wasn't going to make any resolutions but instead put together a non-bucket list bucket list.  Number 4 was to: Start, build, paint and finish a 40k army. 

You see in the 20-odd years I've dabbled with Warhammer in it's various guises, I've never actually seen an army through from start to finish.

When I was 11 a friend had been put onto 40k in school and decided to share the love by converting me and my brother to it.  And so it was that that friend (a Space Wolves player) persuaded my brother and I to buy the 2nd edition box set so I became the paragon of the Blood Angels and he became a rampaging Ork.  I loved playing the game; I loved reading about the fluff, I loved giving my characters names in my head and coming up with their own stories and I love the tactical nature of it.  I did not love building or painting models.  And I was crap at it.

Maybe it was lack of confidence, maybe it was lack of money or maybe it was that we lived nearly 2 hours from the closest Games Workshop so couldn't join the various clubs there.  I don't know.  But I never took to it and throughout the years this put me off really following it through.  As the years went on and I became a teenager, went to university and then entered the real world I haphazardly kept an interest.  I'd buy the occasional White Dwarf, once or twice I'd buy a 40k Codex or Fantasy Army Book but I wouldn't buy any models.

Two years ago I bought some Tau on impulse.  I'd ready the codex about 10 years ago and liked the fluff, and while browsing eBay (as you do) bid and won a squad of Fire Warriors.  Then the following week it was a Crisis Suit, then another and so on.  Before I knew it I had about 500 points with no clear plan of what to do with them. 

Then as normally happened I stopped.

A year ago I downloaded the interactive Eldar Codex for iPad and it peaked my interest.  I've always loved Striking Scorpion models so went on YouTube to search for a tactical guide and then came across StrikingScorpion82's channel.  You can find it here if you're interested.  It's a well thought out, entertaining channel and it changed how I thought about the game.  He knows his stuff, does great battle reports and makes the whole thing fun.  I'd highly recommend it!

I'll go into my Tau in a later post, but suffice to say, it invigorated me and I began collected in earnest.  A good friend took and interest and he has started to collect Tyranids and Space Wolves which has really helped, and I have my eye on converting my brother-in-law because he likes to collect and build things so 40k is perfect for him!

With that motivation I've built all of my Tau, and I have to say, whilst I'm immensely proud, any seasoned collector would see the flaws.  I haven't cleaned a lot of the models off, I was clumsy when sticking them together and they're not even all in poses I want.  But I did it.  Myself.  On my own.  With no help.  Which is a start, a huge start for me.

Now that I have some confidence I've started looking at a second army so that I have a bit of variety and don't get bored.  After a brief foray into the new Blood Angels (models bought, built and already sold on eBay because I changed my mind) I've settled on the Imperial Guard, sorry Astra Militarum now, specifically collecting an army of Elysian Drop Troops with Militarum Tempestus (Storm Troopers to you old hands) Scions.  I'll cover that in another post as well.

So I guess this blog is probably going to end up a bit random.  I'll look at the armies I'll building, how I'm doing building and painting them and how I do when I start playing again.  I'm also going to post some of my own fluff, because I enjoy writing and I enjoy fluff, for me it really makes the game. 

With me luck, friends, I'm going to need it!