Project Planning

Thanks for all the replies to my last post. I'll throw out some of the ideas I've had going on in my head. More than likely I'll try and balance out a mix between these options and hope that I stick to it.

1) Monthly Quotas
- Basically, the idea is to get 400 to 600 points (army building points, that is) worth of hobby done each month, whether its painting, assembling, converting or whatever. The time span is set so that I have to stick to it, but the points are flexible so I have some wiggle room in case of a tough month due to the demands of the music department/

2) Painting Points (Kudos to Harreh from http://mattsminiatures.blogspot.com for this one!)
- Basically the last idea, but using smaller numbers. I'll give various models a score and whenever I complete a said model, I add that score to my total. The total is how much money I'll allow myself to spend on the hobby. This is more of a short-term idea rather than a long-term thing since eventually you'll find yourself with so little points you can't buy a blister back. Instead, I might make the total poitns the amount of money I can spend on things that isn't in my army or armies.

3) Another Army
This is something I've been contemplating for quite some time. In one of my previous posts, I had talked about considering Dark Eldar as another army and had gotten quite excited about it. Needless to say, once I drew up a 1500 point list, I facepalmed at the idea of having to buy 7 Raiders and 3 Ravagers. However, another idea that I've had is to do an all Scouts Space Marine army. Yes, it's more Space Marines, but it's just something completely different than what anyone is expecting to see. Any opposition to seeing the Ultramarines 10th Company? The reason why I'm choosing the boys in blue is because I would hate to have to do a hack job on converting Sergeant Telion and because I feel there's too much Ultramarine hate in the world. The vanilla marines need some lovin' too!

4) Commissions
Highly doubtful since my painting/converting skills are no where near the level that many the other painters in the FTW coalition, but hey - if I can get them, they'll keep me enthused, sate my desire to paint different schemes/models, and help fund my addiction.

Cheers,
Squirrel_Fish

Open Forum: Finding the Time to Hobby

It's been a long week for me - I've had two band concerts last week and 2 jazz concerts this week, so it's been rehearsal after rehearsal on top of all of my usual school work. I've been getting home at like 11:00 pm on a fairly regular basis now, doing homework or studying and then hitting the sack at 2:00 am for more classes at 8:00 am. Even if I had the time to do anything, I'm not sure if I'd have the energy for it.

Basically, I've had practically no time to work on anything 40k related. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has this problem - we all lead busy lives and I envy the people who have time to get in a game or a few hours to paint on a bi-monthly basis or (heaven forbid) a weekly basis.

How do you find time for the hobby? Is it whenever you manage to get an hour or two of free time? Do you schedule it? What motivates you - commissions, contests, or just plain fun?

The floor is yours 40kers.
Squirrel Fish

Must Have Units - Eldar Farseer

Whether on foot or mounted on a jetbike, the Farseer is the lynch pin of the Eldar army. If I am playing my Eldar army, I will always field at least one of these guys. With a plethora of nifty psychic powers and a badass Seer Council Bodyguard, it's hard to see why you wouldn't field one of these guys.

Due to the specialist nature of the Eldar army, I feel that the Farseer is necessary due to his ability to augment any one of those units that is likely going to fail at its objective. Those Banshees not going to do enough damage to Terminators? DOOOOOOM! Do you need that Land Raider gone this turn? Guide your Fire Dragons and you'll guarantee that it'll be a pile of slag. Powerfist about to charge into your Wraithlord? Mind War him and chuckle as he bleeds out of his ears.

Most Farseer's run Doom and Fortune as their psychic powers - this gives reasonable flexibility with offensive and defensive support - allowing you to help out in just about every situation. Try not to buy more than two psychic powers since all it does is make your Farseer super expensive and you don't get to use the third or more power.

Jetbike or no? I find the jetbike to be particularly useful due to the +1 Toughness and the 3+ armor save (without which, Psycannons would leave my Farseer a smoldering crater) but understand that you will be walking around with a 160+ price tag in a fairly high cost army as it is.

- Runes of Warding: BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY! In a world where Jaws of the World Wolf, Murderous Hurricane, Lash, Fortune, Doom, etc etc are powerful game changers, you need to be able to shut them down.

- The Warlock bodyguard. They can add a whole lot of hurt in the form of Destructor Spam. 10 Point heavy flamers? I'll take that. They add a lot of ablative wounds to your Farseer and, when combined with Fortune, are super hard to crack due to a 4++ rerollable save (or 3++ if you buy jetbikes). Now, the Jetbiking these guys is going to be a costly endeavor. They will each cost more than a terminator and in order to be effective, you're going to need 5-6 of these guys. But man, is this a killy unit...

Eldrad Ulthran

If I'm going to talk about Farseers, I feel a little obligated to talk about this guy. King of the Farseers, he gets 3 psychic powers a turn (if he's not in CC), can use the same power twice due to his staff, wounds on a 2+ with no armor saves and allows you to redeploy some of your forces after the both sides have deployed, meaning you can have first turn and a reactive deployment. He's a powerful character - use him wisely since he is darn expensive. Can't have a jetbike unfortunately. :(

Cheers,

SquirrelFish

Dead Man Walking

As my last post suggested - I love Dreadnoughts.

To me, there is nothing more fantastic than a warrior who has been maimed, crippled or should otherwise be outright killed but refuses to die. Instead of euthanasia or accepting a non-combat role (a much worse fate than death), the Space Marine takes on the mantle of the Dreadnought - a machine weighing several tons, more heavily armored than most APC's, and armed to the teeth in deadly weapons. Sure, there's the drawbacks of having to essentially hibernate for centuries at a time or risk going insane due to being kept alive in a near death state and not being able to enjoy things like food or drink, but hey. For the Emperor.

I always find a way to field one of these things - even when it's tactically sound to field a different unit (like more Terminators or another Land Raider).

Vanilla Dreadnoughts

They're cheap and they have plenty of options for varied roles. These are similar to tactical marines in that they can be flexible in all aspects of warfare but can specialize to a degree.

1) Dreadnought with Multimelta, Heavy Flamer and Drop Pod - 150 Points

This is a fairly common set up. Having both a Multi-melta and Heavy Flamer allows your Dreadnought to engage either infantry or armor after exiting the Drop Pod. The short range of both weapons is largely negated by the Drop Pod. It's a fantastic (and relatively cheap) Dreadnought to use if you need an "In Your Face" anti-everything unit that your opponent will be forced to deal with.

2) Dreadnought with two Twin-Linked Autocannons - 125 Points

The Rifleman. This thing is made to slaughter light vehicles (Rhinos, Land Speeders, Raiders, etc) and man it is good at it. Against AV 11 or 10, you can expect it get 2 or more glancing or penetrating hits. Field two or three of these things and you can pretty much guarantee your opponent will be walking across the board. You won't be able to kill squat in CC, so stay far away and just unleash flak. Once you start facing AV 13 though, you're at an uphill battle, which brings me to the next choice.

3) Dreadnought with Twin-Linked Lascannon and Missile Launcher - 145 Points

This is the Dreadnought to use (at range) against heavier armor. It's less effective against lighter armor due to having less shots, but you're more likely to do something against AV13 or 14.

4) Dreadnought with Twin-Linked Lascannon and Heavy Flamer - 145 points

This is actually my favorite vanilla dreadnought. You have the power of a longer ranged anti-tank weapon as well as a crushing close range anti infantry weapon. Keeping the close combat weapon allows you to use this Dreadnought as a jack of all trades - if you need help in any field, this is there to help you out (but is not likely able to handle it all alone).

5) Dreadnought with Assault Cannon and Heavy Flamer (125)

Cheap and slaughters infantry gloriously. Try to aim him at heavier targets.

Ironclad Dreadnoughts

AV13 and Move Through Cover go a long ways to helping this thing survive. Unlike the other Dreadnoughts, a Drop Pod is practically mandatory or else you will spend most of the game running towards your target. Due to the close combat leanings of this guy, there is only one way I would field an Ironclad.

Ironclad Dreadnought with Heavy Flamer, Seismic Hammer and Drop Pod - 180 Points

This is the most common (and in my opinion) the most effective Ironclad. Have this baby drop down turn 1. If you are within the 6" melta range against a critical vehicle - do it. Otherwise, pop smoke launchers and wait for a turn. If your back is against the drop pod, it becomes exceedingly difficult to kill this Dreadnought while smoke launchers are up. If you survive, then charge forward, melta/flame whatever is juiciest and start tearing in with your giant fists o' fury. Frankly, vehicles should be your priority target. S10 and +1 on the damage chart from the Seismic Hammer makes a mockery of just about every piece of armor. If you have extra points, consider adding Ironclad Assault Launchers. Grenades are nifty for everyone.

Venerable Dreadnoughts are the expensive, survivable and more skilled big brothers of the vanilla Dreadnought. Due to a higher BS, I can easily encourage using some of the non-twinlinked weapons. You can field any of the vanilla dreadnought builds with this guy, but he can get really expensive, really quickly.

1) Venerable Dreadnought with Plasma Cannon and Heavy Flamer - 185 points

BS5 Plasma cannon is mmm delicious. The Heavy Flamer (notice a trend?) allows you to crush anything that gets too close to your lines. This guy should gladly tear into elite infantry and has the option of firing into light vehicles. Keep him near the middle of the table so he can lend his might wherever needed.

So that's Dreadnoughts in a nutshell. I hope you consider fielding one of these armored behemoths next time you play. I know I am :P

Squirrel_Fish

Justifying the Purchase

Picture Courtesy of Forgeworld

I love dreadnoughts. I just loooove them from both a fluff and game standpoint. If I could afford it, I would totally run the 6 Dreadnought Space Marine army.

However, having just finished painting one, I just realized how boring they look. It is literally a box with arms and legs. So, I've been tempted to get the Forgeworld Venerable Dreadnought (seeing as how the GW is a 3 pound chunk of multi-piece pewter - we all know how much that sucks to work with) because it's a model that just screams its presence on the tabletop and really says "I am a hero reborn."

As much as I love how cool looking this model is - I'm not sure if I can justify it's purchase. I currently have three dreadnoughts (1 regular, 2 AoBR) and the actual likeliness of me running the 6 Dreadnought army is slim. I don't even feel great about spending $12 on the Forgeworld Dreadnought arms, even though I really want to use Mortis pattern Dreadnoughts.

Everyone has a favorite model. What do you go crazy about when it comes to this hobby?

Making the Right Choice

Following up on my previous post about having a choice in your army - I want to explore why you choose your army (or your second or third army).

Now, the following items can be done in any order and will weigh different for each person.

Assuming money is not an issue (which it probably is, this is not a cheap hobby! More on this later), you should consider how the army...

• Plays
• Looks
• Feels

Consider how it plays. Do you like moving lots of models or being capable of out maneuvering the foe? Do you enjoy the feeling of throwing down huge amounts of dice at a time? If you're a new player, you might have some issues finding out what army strengths you favor. In my experiences, your FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) will have several armies that you can play with in order to learn or if you want to try out a different army. Pay them a visit and see what they have in store.

Everyone has their own aesthetic taste. Needless to say, this will affect some people's decision more than others. Do you like how a certain army looks over another? Is it the models themselves that you enjoy or the GW-eye candy color scheme? Look at lots and lots of miniatures from different armies and different painters and see what catches your fancy. Now, a lot of people may give me some flak for this but I recommend buying a blister from two or three armies if you can't make a decision. Usually, a blister pack is pretty representative of what you can expect for the rest of the army. I know before I started Eldar and Salamanders, I spent a huge amount of time going through the Coolminiornot.com galleries looking for anything that was just gloriously inspiring.

Are you always the good guy when you play video games? Do you just hate the idea of people acting perfectly in line? The fluff behind each army is probably an indicator to whether or not you'd enjoy it. So far, I haven't met a single goodie-two shoes who would enjoy purging plastic life from the tabletop while screaming "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" It could happen, though.

Now, I'd like to know why each of you chose your specific army? What attracted you to the cry of Khorne or the Path of the Seer or to heed the Wolfcall?

Squirrel_Fish

Is the Grass Really Greener on the Other Side?

Or is it just the vocal minority just being particularly vocal? I've been sick for the past two days, lying in my death bed and whatnot, hoping that this illness that's been spreading around campus isn't gonna mutate into the zombie plague.

Other than sleeping and studying for my midterm tomorrow, I've been reading quite a few forums have come across a rather common consensus.

Everyone on the forums thinks that their codex blows. That's right. Everyone (with exception to the Space Wolves players who are still on their honeymoon). All across we have complaints from Chaos Marine players, Ork players, Space Marine Players, Eldar players, Tyranid players and whatnot about how there are so many things wrong with their codex, every other army has it much better than them and how it should be GW's priority to release a new codex for their army to fix all their problems and make them the uber army of 5th edition 40k.

Why is this? Well, I think that it's just a whole lot of hodge-podge steam venting from a very vocal minority. These are the kinds of people who will go into every thread and every forum hijacking the thread into "Sisters of Battle need an update" or flaunt their own superiority for choosing to play with an outdated codex. I don't really see why they have to do this. Frankly, you CHOOSE your army and before making a $300+ investment in models, you presumably understand the decision you are making. No one is forcing you to play Sisters, Daemonhunters, Dark Eldar or Necrons. You made the decision.

Yes, the Chaos Space Marine codex was effectively castrated fluff wise in terms of army building. Most players are going to accept this and realize that it also opens up tons of army building options. Yes, the Witch Hunters codex is old and harder to play. But that is the nature of anything with a metagame. As the metagame evolves, some options get left behind and some options become awesome. Your army will never be on top forever (I remember the fall of the Dual Biker Nobz list to the IG - a list that was supposedly fool proof in execution).

To sum it up - every player has a choice in the army that they play and should choose it carefully. When starting an army, you should realize that the game will change and evolve as new armies and codexes are released. No army will be perfect forever, no strategy is unbeatable. We play a game that is as quick to change as the seasons.