Staying ahead of the 40k curve... slowly.

So I have made a 40k career out of some how staying ahead of the curve while fielding unique and interesting armies.  The best example of this was my Death From Above: Stomp Stomp army from a few years ago that took advantage of weaknesses in the current 40k competitive meta, and a unique quirk in the Blood Angels PDF of the time.  I was able to play three Venerable Death Company Furioso Dreads.  Not only were they crazy hard to kill, but most guys at the time were only packing a couple of melta guns per army tops and fists and hammers were nonexistent.

That army, followed by my new codex Defensive mech list, earned me 3 Vegas Golden tickets and a number one ranking on Rankings HQ for a few months.

Horn tooted.

I'm getting to the point of the article, really.

Any way, I managed to pull this off by being observant of what I was facing at local tournaments, and trying to guess what I might face at upcoming GTs.

Enter 2012 and GK henchmen spam and DE venom dakka. Two armies that could not only blast you off the table with shooting, but finish the job with superior assault.

At a recent tournament I noticed that Blood Angels were having some success against GK spam by putting a furioso dread into a Storm Raven and turbo boosting it into the GK ranks.  Sure the raven would die, but it absorbed enough shooting to ensure that the dread lived. Next turn, the dread would tear into purifiers.  Fearless is a handicap for poor purifiers.  The dread will most likely kill 7 or 8 of them, and if they are unlucky one will live from the fearless saves. Locking the dread in combat on the GK turn, then freeing him next turn for the dread to assault another squad.

Single dreads were tearing through entire armies!

That got me to thinking about a cheaper and more reliable way of delivering dread death to GK armies.  The raven is too expensive and unreliable. It can be blown up before it even moves, stranding your dread on your edge.  So I figured pods were the way to go! Sure I would lose dreads due to GK dakka before they got to assault, but when you are running six of them, odds are one or two would survive!

Plus it would make a pretty cool army.

Plus plus, I had the models sitting around!

Now I get to my point. More on building the list later. First a cool pic for the blog rolls.

Librarian with Melta Pistol

I had the models sitting around.  I had lots of unused infantry from my ever changing lists. I also had the dreads, or enough store credit to get them and the pods.

With a minimal investment I had a full 2k point, 10 pod army, painted to table top standards ready to go.

That is the first step guys. The point has been made.  When starting an army on a budget, come up with your concept, and build what you can with what you have.  The idea is not to get an entire new army, and assemble 2k points of grey plastic and try to get in games.  Get your army table top, and go play.

The key is seeing what works.  I quickly learned that I needed more killy shooting upon landing for infantry.  SO I dropped a blood talon dread and added one with a heavy flamer and frag assault launcher.  Problem solved.  This minor change was easy, all I had to do was paint the launcher and mag it to a dread.

But as I play the list more, I realize I need more changes.  Here is where the slow adjustment of your army is key.  Eventually I want to play this army as a competitive force, that also competes for best painted. While I started the army using recycled models, I will eventually remake the entire force and paint it to my award winning standards. All while playing a table top army to learn how to do it.

So now as I make changes, I will be painting those models up to top standard.

Here we go!

First the recycling part.  I used models from my retired model case.

Ahh, the remnants of old armies and unfinished projects.

Some of my old black templars peeking out!

Part of my mountain of spare sprues full of GK, DC and SG bits.

I busted out the old case and started scrounging usable assault marines. My first drop pod list included a tactical squad. I figured based on the role I found them playing though, that an assault squad would do better since I could add more melta.

Most of these models were in the retired case. 

Behold, remember these guys?

The first five assault marines I ever painted, and 

remnants from my first Best Painted! 

The beakie was my first.

After finding what I could in the case, I had to scrounge a few odds and ends. Namely, melta gunners.

After scratch building one, and rearming another, I had my two gunners.  All models I am showing you now need to be scraped and cleaned by the way. Please don't say "I see flashing!"

Finally I had to add the sergeant upgrades.  Here is where I stay ahead of the curve.  Previously, I would always give my SGT a power sword, to take advantage of that initiative 5 strike. But with rumors of only fists being able to punch through Terminator armor in 6th eds, power fists will become much more important.  A ten man squad is a perfect place to hide a pesky fist.  You are going to see many more of these forgotten relics showing up soon!

Now to the cool stuff.  After a couple tournaments, I realized that my six dreads were overkill, and not quite getting the job done.  I needed a little more melta on landing, and I needed it to be able to take more than a single hit before dieing.  A psy dread can blast a dread off the table, but could easily fail to kill an honor guard model, let alone the whole unit.  But first I needed to upgrade the librarian model I was using.

I wanted him to have a melta pistol. So I used

one from the SG sprue.

A sword as well.  I used the books from a GK sprue

along with the head and back piece.

The body was SG and DC bits along with the back pack.

The cool cloak came from the Empire General box set. I had to cut it to fit.

Any way, with a little kit bashing, I had a pretty cool librarian. I gave him a SG shoulder pad, with the intent of using more to match the Honor Guardsmen.

Think ahead as you plan. This squad is going to actually become the centerpiece of this army as I paint it to my Best Painted standards.  It has to be interesting and unique. The kit bashing I am doing, as well as the matching shoulder pads will help create a look that adds to the greater sense of unity in the army as a whole.

Flamer.

More melta. Note the slightly different pose. This guy looks a little more 

dynamic as if he is about to charge into a fight.

Blood Champion. SG body with assault squad combat shield

cut and fitted to a standard pistol arm.

I wanted this guy a little more dynamic, so

I used the legs that had the skull and rocks, but cut them off,

and trimmed the foot on the bottom a bit to make him look 

a little more like he is stepping into combat.

And the priest.

I used a GK terminator arm. I cut the shoulder off and replaced it with a small one

with the apothecary shoulder pad.

Apothecary chest and back pack with DC legs and other bits.  

Not too shabby.

So after a bit of scrounging I have a new librarian, an honor guard and a ten man assault squad ready to go.  The squad needs to be completely repainted, and I plan on doing a video on how to.  The HG though needs more love. I will probably do them completely NMM gold.  A big job!  First I have to clean and drill them.  This will be my first unit in my competitive list I plan on bring to GTs like Feast of Blades.  Eventually I will completely replace the other models, but for now I can easily get them table top ready and playable.  I won't play this unit until it has at least been base coated with some basic highlights.  

What is that little blue guy doing there?

Here is a treat for you. Behold, the first model I ever painted... 

Not too bad if I do say so myself. Look at the super thick highlight,

thanks to that old GW "Fine Detail" brush.

Back then I was into using all the accessories. Scope and Bayonet!

I managed a fairly decent job on the lens.

Flashing? What flashing!

Check out my leet hand painting skills. I put a spade on his shoulder.  

I finished him with a heavy blast from some spray gloss varnish.  

Pretty sweet huh!

Ok, thats it for now.  

More to come as I work on this little project.

Jawaballs