I've deliberately not documented the process, as (a) it might've been unfair to members of the club who read my blog and (b) I knew I wouldn't have time to take photos, but here is an overview, in case you're interested...
My List:
Coy Cmdr w. 4 snipers and chimera
Marbo
1 Platoon (HQ w 3 gren+1 flamer in chimera; 3 squads w. plas, melta+gren; SWS w. demo+2 melta; HWS w. a/cannon; HWS w. mortars)
2 Platoon (HQ w 3 gren+1 flamer in chimera; 3 squads w. plas, melta+gren; SWS w. flamer+2 gren; HWS w. m/launcher; HWS w. mortars)
Penal Legion
Hellhound w. h/bolter
Devil Dog w. h/bolter
Leman Russ MBT w. lascannon
Leman Russ Demolisher w. lascannon
Griffon Mortar Battery (2 vehicles).
Now, the astute amongst you will have noticed that this is not a 'competitive' list. In fact, some of the choices are just bloody stupid, like putting sinpers in a chimera, putting my mortars in separate platoons or fielding griffons, but here's why: Rather than starting with 'What will play well?' I started with my normal HQ and 2 of my platoons, and thought 'How might these troops be supported?'.
First, I gave all the command units a runaround. I know snipers can't move-and-fire, but if their boss is given a chimera what else are they going to do? Then I added the griffons, as they're cheap, fun, and no-one expects them. Next the Hellhound (always) and the Devil Dog...which you'd see everywhere if GW hadn't rubber-stamped vendettas and melta-weilding monted veterans, which I refused to field on principle. A couple of Russes to help my anti-tank capability and that just left a few points for the Penal Legion and Marbo, both of whom are always great fun to field.
Progress so far:
Well now. We've finished the first round (20 players in 5 groups) and the three games of round 1 were all the same: Pitched Battle with 5 objectives; tracking secondary scores for victory points (hooray!) and kill points (boo!). I played James's Blood Angels first, and after a great game I just pipped a win. Next was Josh and his generic (gold?!) marines - the game dragged a little and ended up an anticlimactic draw. Finally, last week I played Lee's superb Eldar: a really fun game which ended in a win for me, but only after he assaulted and destroyed pretty much half my army!
Result? I won our group, with Lee second, and as such we're both through to this week's 'Knockout' round 2. This will be hard for me as round 2 is 5 objectives with a spearhead deployment, and trying to usefully deploy a gunline guard army with 120+ infantry in the corner of a board is tricky. Ho-hum, we'll see.
Unit of the tourney so far?
Definitely the Penal Legion. In 3 games they've destroyed 3 units: Blood Angels lightning claw terminators, a whirlwind and 10 Dire Avengers. Nice. The heavy weapons teams have done an admirable job for once, and have even survived fairly well, and the mortars and heavy mortars have caused no end of casualties and pinning.
The main failures have been the HQ snipers (no surprise, really - they're really just there for anti-MC work) and my demo charges which have been uncharacteristically lame...although one did sail comically over the enemy landraider to blow up a bunch of Guardsmen!
The biggest thorn in my side has been a unit of Striking Scorpions. Gits.
More posts coming up!
- Drax.
PS: Sorry about the weird spacing. Does anyone know how to stop Blogger doing this?
Looks like you're doing well with your "uncompetitive" list. I look forward to seeing how your other games go.
ReplyDelete(Not sure about the spacingin blogger. I looks fine to me.)
Thanks, mate!
ReplyDeleteActually, after the edit in which I added that last sentence all the spacing fell back into place, but I daren't try to re-edit!
mmm mortars and snipers :D
ReplyDeletelooks like a fun list. I know I'lld get owned by it I think.
Nothing as satisfying as a hellhound with 8+ units under the template.
I trust you are still advancing slo wly towardscthe enemy across open ground? :)
ReplyDeleteWell done man, look forward to seeing how you continue to get on.
also drax, I have begun painting my VDV converted force. But I am having troubles on how to paint cleanly, as all my vehicles are drybrushed.
ReplyDeletehow do you get such even clean coats?
Karitas! Great to hear from you! (I ought to have more plans for you in a day or so...)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. You'll be pleased to note that an unhealthy amount of them are indeed still advancing slowly across the open ground. Seems to work. Imagine the look on the 'gold marine' player's face when his chapter master and assault termies piled out of their landraider to execute a textbook assault on...a 55pt infantry squad. Right in front of my gunline. :)
COTBT? I'm flattered, but a tad surprised. The next post will be a vehicle post which I suspect you'll like (tonight maybe?) but here's all I do:
1) spray can Chaos Black undercoat
2) unadulterated GW paint (DA Green) straight from the pot using a dirt cheap, soft-bristled, flat make-up brush I bought years ago in a cheapo set. It's got a short handle (about 3.5") but I guess it's the softness and the flat edge which help. the brush head is about...ooh...6mm wide maybe?
3) annoyingly, (because I'm a lazy painter) I then add a second coat all over. sometimes I do the brushstrokes at right-angles.
4) I pick out details in Catachan Green. This is almost solely the rivets and the driver's hatch, but it's enough to give an illusion of depth and shading.
5) a wash. I like the GW washes for figures, but I've found they smear too much on flat areas, so I've actually gone back to very watered down black, maybe with a bit of brown in it. That's it.
For reference, my only attempt at proper drybrushing has been my baneblade, here: http://admiraldrax.blogspot.com/search/label/baneblade.
Hope that's of a little help...
thanks for your help. you have confirmed my worst fears: I might not be able to use tamiya colour spray to basecoat now..
ReplyDeleteFor an only proper attempt that's not bad at all mate!!
*flat* duly noted :P