Originality in 40k

Yeah, good luck with that...

o/

I was talking about custom space marine color schemes the other day with my buddy Sam. He had come up with a 'new' color scheme for his Kill Team marines, Purple and gold. Like the Hawk Lords I asked? and his shoulders just slumped. lol, no worries dude, finding an original color scheme in this game is nigh impossible. I mean hell, that's also the pre-heresy Emperor's Children colors...but whatever. So I just told him to go with what he liked and don't worry about it.

Not only is this an inconclusive list of Space Marine chapters (wait, where are the Smurfs?!), but its also an inconclusive list of the marines I've fielded over the years (which includes those missing Smurfs, the Storm Wardens...etc.).

Speaking of, I've also been searching for a chapter to use for my newly acquired 40k space marines for Kill Team ($20 for a NIB tac squad, why yes thank you!). However it seems like I'm just looking at the same old, same old, and/or rehashing something I've run before. In looking online for a bit of inspiration, I mis-read the name of the Angels Revenant and me being me I just ran with it, coming up with the following:

The Angels Irrelevant 

In keeping with their chapter name, this enigmatic chapter of Adeptus Astartes is all but unknown. An official search into the Imperial Archives of Terra, instigated by the Ordo Hereticus revealed little to nothing. It would seem that the the adepts responsible simply couldn't be bothered to record anything for posterity. No chapter lineage, founding date, home world, fleet and/or unit strength, only the rare and scattered reports of an unknown Astartes chapter engaging in small unit surgical assaults (indeed, they were the same such reports which lead to this investigation in the first place). The knowledge that there is more known of the so-called Legion of the Damned than there is of the Angels Irrelevant alarms Ordo Hereticus to no end… 

The only troop types thus far encountered have been Tactical and Scout marines, and never numbering more than a dozen or so individuals at any one time. Leading investigators to assume that their total Chapter strength to be less than one company. 

The name 'Angels Irrelevant' is only known due to a single, garbled vox intercept of inter-squad communications, believed to be rallying their battle brothers to prevail upon the enemy.

Livery is black and dark grayish-blue armor with a dull silver Aquilas. Tactical Arrows are displayed on the helmet and presumably display the company color. Scouts wear black armor with dark grayish-blue fatigues, but neither tactical marines nor Scouts show any other insignia aside from their chest plate Aquilas. 

Gee, that sounds familiar...

Curiously, a few tactical marines have been seen wearing Deathwatch heraldry. However inquiries into the matter sent to the Ordo Xenos have been ignored by the highest levels of the Ordo.

So will I use that? I'm so indecisive (like you couldn't already tell...), all I can say is: maybe. Then again I have a bunch of cool, custom decals that would work for the Black or Star Dragons so maybe I'll choose one of them instead. 

Or, maybe something all together different...who the fuck knows at this point.

For the 1st time in my 20 years of gaming, I DON'T have a Space Marine army!

How did that happen?

Oh that's right: ebay.

Yes, this pic came from their ebay auction.

The most recent marines sold (the Storm Wardens) were ironically made up of almost all of the exact same models as I got 20 years ago in the 2nd ed 40k starter box. At my height (somewhere between 4th & 5th ed) I topped out at 19 40k armies! Don't ask where the hell I stored them all, because even now I can't figure that madness out. Currently, I have 3 (Orks & Eldar, both of which struggle to reach the 1500 point mark and my Grymn Militarum and friends who can't even reach 1k). Wolfy still has her Fem Fa'Tau though, which is easily the largest 40k army in the house.

What can I say, the twin travesties of 7th ed 40k and more recently the Age of Sigmeh have really strained my love of all things GW. However their redemption may possibly be in the near future. Ya see, unlike so many miniatures that have gone the way of ebay over the past year or so to keep the lights on, food on the table, credit cards at bay, etc., the Storm Wardens have a higher purpose. Their funds are going into a savings account, to await the day that plastic 30k arrives.

We've all seen the sprue pics, so we know its going to happen, the question is when. Luckily GW's marketing division likes to keep their customers completely in the dark, so who the hell knows. Right before Christmas is my guess. Regardless, I'm generally not in the position to make a triple-digit impulse buy (which often seems like GW's overall marketing scheme). Thus the Storm Wardens' funds will await that release. I may add to it in the intervening days/months/years as well...we'll see.

I do still have marines though. My current inventory of them is as follows:

Dark Hands/Subjugators: I have the periodically retired predator that I got an honorable mention with at Gamesday Atlanta some years ago, along with my Subjugators Librarian. Not sure why I kept him, I just like the mini I guess.

Exorcists: Yes, the accursed Matt Fucking Ward still exists, in my game room...I forgot about that model until just recently actually.

ANGRY MAHREENS!!!: Floyd Uberson is the only one I actually painted, and the only one I have left...and he's really fucking pissed off about it!!!

Aurora Chapter:  How in the FUCK can there still be a damned Aurora scout sniper left in this house?!?!?! I've sold them to Sweden (literally), given them away, repainted them and then given them away, and yet there's another half painted, headless one in the fucking mini case! Its like a god damned conspiracy or something...

Techmarine: He's a 'non-denominational' techmarine, meaning he's bereft of chapter iconography as I got tired of switching/repainting his shoulder pads (you can see him in Floyd Uberson's link above). He has 2 heavy bolter servitors that have been primed green for years now.

Blackshields: My former Emperor's Children, 30k contingent. Currently I have the recently painted Centurion and 5 recon marines (a.k.a. Scouts), a Techmarine with a conversion beamer along with a pair of Servo-Automata flunkies to serve as ablative wounds for him. I also have the now former Captain I killed Draigo (11th pic down, fighting some losers...), swimming in simple green who will be demoted to a mere grunt, an original rhino that's swimming with him, and my original predator which is the very first 40k model that I ever bought (in another year, that tank will of legal drinking age in this country!).

Storm Wardens: (3) bikers, of which only one is assembled and painted. These are the first minis my beloved Wolfy bought me, and thus they have sentimental value, yes even on the sprue.

Red Corsairs: with the demise of my Chaos marines, Centurion Niro has found himself retired to my Hall of Heros awaiting the day he can scratch the cowardly name of Tigurious off of his Murder Sword...

*****

I was going to further list the chapters I've fielded in the past as the number far exceeds the total number of marines listed above, but...I'm kinda tired and its getting late,  so screw it.

Maybe some other time.

lol, even at my age, Christmas is all about the toys under the tree...

Yes I got a lot of other stuff too and like them just as much, but they're not really 'blog-worthy'.
Anyways...

I hope everyone had a great Christmas (or insert whichever other holiday you like), we certainly did! I recall as a child dreading the thought of Christmas as a 'grown-up' because all you would get would socks and underwear, other clothing items, and that's about it. The idea of 'no toys for Christmas' was rather horrifying. Being the little tyke that I was, I hadn't even heard of the concept of miniature games. Thus I had no way of knowing that even as an adult, on Christmas morning I would still getting toys!!! To that end, I'm not sure where to start on the painting/building front come the new year, but amongst all of the on-going projects I have, there's quite a few more to add it.

Starting off on my GF's Tau: I gave her some rather cool, and anime-styled banner poles by Paulson Games for her Fire Warrior Shas'ui's. Not sure if they'll work on her metal Pathfinder Shas'ui's or not though. Additionally, I got her a squad of Kroot, and a small squad of Hasselfree minis, that will work nicely as an inquisitor and retinue (all female of course). Whilst desperate allies, they will give her her only access to psykers, since to date she's only been on the receiving end of psychic powers. She also received another Devilfish, and a gift card to the FLGS. Thus the ranks of the Fem Fa'Tau will be growing considerably (not to mention her still unbuilt Piranhas…).

I did quite well on the gaming front as well! Da boys have a new kustom fotifikayshun along with a FW Runt Bot (curiously, its Grot controller speaks with a Russian accent…), which will be either the warlord of the grot divishun, or a deff dred depending on what sort of list I am using. My Arbites have a new Chimera along with the Chapterhouse wheeled conversion kit and the Storm Wardens now have a bike squad! On top of that I also got a gift card to the FLGS!

So look for a lot of new projects getting started here in the next few months! Of course, being the typical gamers that we are, don't go looking for them all to be finished in that, or any reasonable timeframe…

;-p

Going Green...

...cuz GREEN iz BEST!!!

Sadly, that's all in this post that'll reference da boyz. A week or two back I started another bout of what I like to call 'recycling'. Recycling is where I sell off gaming stuff I no longer want/use via ebay, so that I can afford to buy other gaming stuff that I do want to use (this method renders the incessant price hikes somewhat irrelevant, though it does mean that my collection is slowly reducing in size). So far its just been random odds & ends (and I do have quite a lot of that), however the (non-Red Corsair) CSMs, and most of the Inquisitorial Horde (minus the Illustrious Forestry Service) will probably go with the remnants getting reorganized.

With the rumors of chaos cultists on the way, and the fancy bases of the Corsairs (vs. the plain ones on my renegade IG) I plan to trim the old CSMs down to just the already painted 'pretty ones' and will then fill in the roster with the IG. Oh, and I'm not selling any vehicles either, they're just too expensive to replace.

Likewise the Matt Fucking Ward, Fucking Gav Thorpe & his purgation squad, Coteaz and a few of my favorite Inq. minis will stay (including Ben Franklin), but most of the rest will go. I think I'll be using the old beret styled storm troopers as the Inq. horde instead. Indeed, there are about a dozen of them I purchased from Dylan Gould last week using ebay funds that are enroute to me right now.

Last week I totaled about $100 from ebay sales & promptly spent all of it. In addition to the forthcoming stormtroopers, there are also three battlemechs on their way. The first to arrive of last week's purchases is the army book at left. I've only skimmed it, but it looks to be much better than I expected just in terms of quality. So after some thorough reading I would hope that my Stirlanders will be more properly organized for future battles.

However last week's purchases from mini funds may be the last for a bit. It looks now like I'll be heading off on vacation again the end of this coming July. As this trip wasn't planned for, all of my vacation funds were spent in Washington DC a little over a month ago. So instead my 'recycling' funds will be heading towards that instead. Its okay though, I'll never run out of toys to paint...

A big rat and a slice o' cheese.

o/

Well, despite my thoughts of my henchmen horde as being a 'failing' list, in their battlefield debut they almost tabled a mech/vet. IG army. Indeed the only remaining model IG model was a demolisher (in which all of my units in its range were redeploying away from, as they couldn't hurt it). Coteaz should be considered the MVP I guess having taken down a chimera & Pask's Vanquisher single handedly. However I think the MVP award goes to the death cult assassin who stood his ground after his squad was annihilated. Flush with victory, the IG vets. then charged him and 2 rounds of HTH later, he cut down the fleeing IG survivors. Not bad for a 15 point scrub!

Matt Fucking Ward & the Eversor assassin on the other hand were both gunned down via massed shotgun fire after doing nothing more than looking scary. I dunno, the army has potential I guess, though as my opponent noted, my anti-tank options are rather limited.

Below is my finished Justicar for my Exorcist's Purgation squad. He was both finished in time for the game and the sole survivor of his squad. They did account for a Basilisk & a vet squad, so I guess they gave a decent accounting for themselves.


With the 'cheese' out of the way, I now move onto the big rat. lol, no more explanation is needed on that topic I suppose.



This isn't quite done as I've yet to decide on what to add to his base. 40mm bases are too large to simply flock without some sort of decoration. Otherwise they look more like wasted space than a proper base. I'll have to dig thru the bitz box to see if I have anything 'Empire-ish' looking to add. Aside from that, it was fairly quick & easy to paint with the Ogryn flesh wash once again doing most of the work for me. It certainly is a nice model though. Oh, and I've named him 'Scrum' which strikes me as an appropriate moniker for a rat Ogre.

My Skaven will be taking to the field tonight actually, though this big beastie won't be amongst them. They only have 70 gc or so in their stash, so he's a bit out of their price for the moment.

My GK 'Failing Circus'

I have no Stormravens, so the 'flying circus' name is out...

o/

Despite my lack of want to play 40k, i will be around to play @ the FLGS this Saturday & am going to give the Retinue Horde a try. I started paint on my Purgation squad Justicar last night, and hope to at least have him finished before then. Matt Fucking Ward will also be in attendance. I know that I posted a prospective list some time ago, but its been worked over a multitude of times. Not so much looking for anything that's optimized (not an option here) rather this is just an attempt to hold (somewhat) true to my old retinue themes while giving some vague semblance of combat effectiveness.

Did I succeed? Who the hell knows, but at this point I'm tired of tweaking it for now. In the end, the various retinues are named close to the way they were before (only now being named after included acolytes who used to be inquisitors), and I'm sorely tempted to write the names of each named mini on their respective bases. Doing so in total opposition to Neverness's suggestion from 2 posts ago to not give every model a name! (ahhh, glorious spite!) Below is my list. It holds true (sorta) to my old retinue themes, and has the token allotment of primed SM vehicles trying to not look like they're codex hopping...

Honestly! This is just a test run! The Auroras will get them back, eventually...

So totaling up @ 1500 points even, this is what I've got:

HQ:

Inquisitor Coteaz

O.M. Inquisitor Longshot w/Hellrifle & 2 servo skulls

Elite:

Eversor assassin

Matt-Fucking-Ward (Paladin) with master crafted halberd

Venerable psyfleman dread

Troops:

The Imperial Forestry Service:
6 acolytes w/5 autoguns (shush! I paid the point ea. for bolters, if i want them @ str. 3 then that's what I'll use them as) and (1) stormbolter)

Forestry Service Rhino w/Extra armor & plow

Skubb's Storm troopers:
(5) acolytes w/Hot shot lasguns & carapace
(1) acolyte w/boltgun & carapace
(1) acolyte w/hot shot lasgun & power armor
(1) acolyte w/carapace & flamer

Chimera w/extra armor & searchlight

Proust's Fire support:
(1) acolyte w/power armor, plasma-bolter
(2) acolytes w/bolters
(3) Heavy Bolter Gun Servitors

Ben Franklin's Chinese wave assault*:
(1) acolyte w/Carapace, Power sword
(1) Death Cult assassin
(1) acolyte with 'melta bomb' (Sgt. Pepper for those who remember him)
(7) Acolytes

Rhino w/extra armor & plow

Heavy Support:

(5) man Purgation Squad w/(4) Psycannons

Razorback w/Psybolt

Landraider Crusader w/Psybolt

*These were trimmed down to 10 models to fit into a rhino as 15 screaming idiots with next to no armor [some even without clothing] and pistols running across the table will die before ever doing anything useful!

So there they are, the bulk of my former allied retinues and their handful of Exorcist (GK) allies (kinda ironic to use that word in this particular context). Coteaz isn't present as I don't have the mini yet. I'll be proxying him with a friend's old Njal Stormcaller model, because he too is holding a bird.

Sorry for the lousy photo, I just took a quick photo before heading out the door this morning.

Purgation Squad assembled, sorta

o/

Just a quick update. I went outta town to visit my Mom & stepfather this past weekend, so there is little in the way of hobby to talk about. I did however finally get my Exorcist purgation squad mostly assembled in the days prior to leaving. The backpacks are still separate as is the justicar's helm (it won't be primed black like everything else will be).

I doubt I'll start painting on these this weekend though. My dad & stepmother will be down visiting & I'll be staying @ my grandparent's house with them. While granted its normal for me to paint minis there (not much to do around here @ night), I'm not bringing a model who's base has 'Matt Fucking Ward' painted on it to grandma's for a painting reference. Likewise I won't have any internet access there (Ma says that they're too old for computers) to allow me to pull up his photos on here.

Of course I have tons of other minis to paint, so I'll find something to work on...

Assassin & Paladin

o/

In looking throught the new GK codex, I saw that the Eversor assassin's gun was no longer a combi-weapon but rather just an 'uber' bolt pistol. For years I had been using my old 'original' assassin conversion as the aptly named 'Obsolete Assassin'. He was an elite slot Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor with rosarius, bolter-stake crossbow, frag & Krak, and a power weapon, and all for a mere 68pts. He never accomplished too much other than just running around, looking cool, and ganking the occasional psyker. However two quick snips of the 'crossbow' bits on his gun, a little bit of codex gray to cover the bare plastic, and he is now returned to full assassin status as an Eversor! :-D

This evening my 'wound allocation circus' will get its battlefield debut against....something. Hopefully another fluff ball list. Though I'm already have visions of a gun line IG list that will obliterate me without ever even trying to move forward. Nonetheless, I finished painting up my paladin 'Matt Fucking Ward' last night and am rather pleased with him (well, the mini, not the actual guy).
The Chapterhouse Exorcist shoulder pad fit on nicely, and GW's sculptors really did an excellent job of giving it a really dynamic pose (though that was more a luck of the draw sort of thing for me as I ordered this lone mini from ebay). The base looked too plain to just flock (a common issue with the 40mm bases) so I trimmed down a Slaaneshi (I believe) icon to fit. All I need now is the regular Exorcist Squad and then (barring the 'borrowed' Aurora vehicles I'll have an almost entirely painted army.

Never tell me the odds!

o/

So, this past Monday, my Skaven warband the Clockwork Forage attacked some hapless Reiklanders in my first game of Mordheim in years. Starting out, we learned that I4 is great! And we also learned that we screwed up stuff all the way through as well. Hence no casualties were permanent, no experience was gained, etc.

However the highlight of the game (for me) was when The Great Horned Rat shined his favor upon the Forage as I rolled (8) 6's in a row! (while profanity was streaming from the other side of the table) I really only needed six of those as at that point the two Reiklanders that I had attacked were both out of action, I just kept rolling to see how many more sixes I could get. Afterwards I posted a query on facebook about the odds of that and the geeks responded quickly with a ‎1 in 1,679,616 chance! I wish I had that kind of luck on lottery tickets! (though I did win $4 this morning, after an expenditure of $2)

Speaking of numbers, we played Space Hulk again last night, and while the Blood Angels were wiped out again (victory was so close!) although they did manage a nice 3.7 kill ratio in their favor.

In other news. Murl had lent me his GK codex, forgot about that, couldn't find it, so he bought another, then remembered & told me to keep it (conveniently my birthday is right around the corner). He told me to try it rather than just sell off my horde of inquisitorial retinues, and after some pondering I'm going to give it a shot.

In truth, there is little in the codex that really appeals to me aside from all of the retinues (and maybe the Vindicare). However one chapter I've always liked, but felt could never be adequately fielded is the Exorcists*. Already having the HQ & Troops needs filled, I'm going to try & field the Exorcists in the Heavy Support role. For now I can borrow the primed rifleman dread & landraider crusader from the Aurora and to that I'm going to add a 5-man purgation squad with four psycannons. That will give me some good light anti-armor/MC support, and if all goes well with that I'll add in another in time. To help keep them from just looking like red & black GK, I ordered some Exorcist & devastator shoulder pads from Chapter house studios. Enough for one 5-man squad and one termie shoulder pad. I figure I'll field a single Paladin (all hail ebay) to act as a commander to the Exorcist's contingent (who will be named 'Matt Fucking Ward' in honor of his writing of the codex & his 4chan page, no warding stave though I don't think I could stomach a 2+/2++ model in my army).

*The Exorcist image was taken without permission from Lexicanum.com who probably stole it from GW who actually holds the copyright on it.