A 2019 Retrospective - Tim's thoughts on 2019 and looking forward to 2020

2019

My blogging fizzled out a little in 2019, thanks in part to my iphone giving up the ghost and depriving me of a camera at exactly the time when I should have been writing up the last stages of my Primaris space marine army. However, I've nonetheless had a fun hobby journey this year, slowly building my AoS forces, converting chaos critters, and above all building my space marine army for 40k. Here is the mother of all catch up posts to show how!

Adeptus Astartes

My Dawnbringers chapter of the adeptus astartes are now a healthy size army in the region of 2500 points, with a whole demi company of primaris marines plus supporting caste of commanders and specialists!

I tend to play them as Raven Guard and occasionally White Scars successors - I deliberately chose a homebrew chapter in order to swap around between playstyles for different successors, as well as making up my own fluff and colour scheme for them (resplendent with ornate Deathwatch shoulder pads). The next step  for them, for the start of the new year, is to pick up the much maligned Iron Hands supplement to allow for a competitive build. I have found that at the 2 tournaments I've attended this Autumn (getting a respectable 2-1 and 3-2, but without any podium finishes like Neil!) people are prepared to play space marines A LOT and bring the tools accordingly, and while you're still in a good position due to the strength of the book, the advantage is a bit reduced.

For example, Raven Guard and White Scars are in my view both at near their best when using a mob of assault centurions popping up out of deep strike. However I am fairly confident these (imo) ugly russiandollmarines' rather-too-low points cost will be rectified in the next FAQ and don't want to invest in their hefty real-world price tag before that happens: best to instead  pick a more generically overpowered chapter for competitive purposes!

The important thing here, I think, will be to make sure what I bring is matched to a similar "competitiveness" level to my opponent. Our local club is acquiring a more competitive subgroup which I dip in and out of, and for these games I want to bring tough stuff to avoid getting tabled - equally, though, there are times when a more rounded and fluffy force is appropriate since the only thing as bad as being briskly curbstomped in a game is doing the same to your poor opponent. One of my more memorable games this year, after all, was bringing a fairly fluffy 1,000 points Primaris Deathwatch army (who rather struggled on anti tank) to face an Imperial Knight and a mob of Wulfen - a game which boiled down to going second, hiding behind a fortuitous block of munitorum crates and rushing out to claim the main objective at the end of each battle round with squad after hapless squad only to have each gunned down by Endless Fury in the turn immediately following.

My typical list is generally a big brigade (list appended below) for the nice variety of units and options (I never like having all my eggs in one basket) and to allow me to hand out fine relics to everyone in a great pre-battle potlatch! I struggle a bit with disciplining myself not to shower all my CP on festooning my fightmans with pre-game goodies, especially with the new Masters of the Chapter rules from Faith and Fury (and the sweet sweet Apothecary FNP warlord trait for my primaris infantry horde). It's always Christmas for the Dawnbringers.

I have also painted a varied command cadre of space marine characters. My usual captain, or defacto chapter master since I can't leave home without the aura, Aeneas Herax, supervises the battle from atop his portable rock, pointing his finger aggressively at the enemy. But he can also be supported by a supporting caste of characters, some converted to different degrees - a chaplain with a proper crozius, an ex - lieutenant Cassius, and most notably two models I use as proxies for special characters since it seems improbable that the real Kayvaan Shrike or Kor'sarro Khan would turn up to  battle leading the wrong chapter, and more appropriate (and fun for the conversion fiend in me!) that each chapter would produce its own similar heroes.

In addition, I have some "compromise"/"sell-out" units spoiling the pure Primaris theme by supplementing it for more competitive play - the core of my army is Primaris, but I have a cadre of 3 converted budget thunderfire cannons (more easily transportable, and with actual bases to appease my OCD) with Primaris sized techmarine supervision; some magnetised 32mm based characters to allow non-Primaris options here (generally either a jump pack, or allowing my characters to downsize to squeeze the army under a points limit); a captain on a bike (also enthusiastically pointing, a sure sign of command); a Primarisized attack bike; and a couple of cute box dreadnoughts, soon to be supplemented by an ubiquitous, shameful scout squad or two for board control and extra command points to buy the inevitable goodies.

AoS

This year I added some reinforcements to my favourite AoS army, the Maggotkin of Nurgle, who I bolstered from where they stood at the end of our group's previous AoS tale. The star here is the Verminlord Corruptor, who carries the rarely less than utterly abusive Sword of Judgment and acts as a support DAEMON keyword for my plague drones, a nice extra spellcaster, and an assassin who goes out hunting heroes and monsters fishing for 6s to hit (each yielding a horrifying D6+1 mortal wounds) with his ten attacks.

Joining him is a chaos sorceror on a "manticore" - or at least on something that bears some demented resemblance to one! I've always enjoyed the converting side to chaos, and this mad fusion of a foetid bloat drone with the contents of my bits box was great fun to assemble. I enjoyed giving him a reverse pose to the rather upright manticore model, using the curve of the bloat drone's body and the zombie dragon head to make a steep diagonal slant as the monstrosity plummets out of the sky onto its victims.

In addition, I've converted a few more heroes to join the ranks, each of whom is on the painting production line - a Lord of Plagues (complete with dead horse), a Chaos Sorcerer, a Harbinger of Decay and a homemade Epidemius on overflowing tide of Nurglings.

Along with them are a plague priest and ten plague monks, the first of a mob of 40 which I'm slowly motivating myself to paint. I’ve also managed some as yet unpainted conversion work - rather than buying a separate set of fly guys for my pusgoyle blightlords and lord of afflictions, I've converted the bloaters from Nurgle's Rotters and a spare putrid blightking into a lord of afflictions (with big wizard scythe of importance) to lead them.

Necromunda

Only two incomplete, partly painted projects to show this year, but both of them great fun to play in our local club's two turf wars of 2019.

First, my stealthy Delaque, the Black Adders, led a fletchette and smoke heavy uprising to claim a podium finish behind the local Van Saar las - plas outfit. Shout out to "Lord" Ed'm'd "the black adder" himself and his horrifying web gauntlet, a weapon option so horrifically powerful as almost to redeem the combat phase single handedly in the shooting range that is Necromunda (until the corpse grinders showed up).

Second, my Goliath gang, the Loose Screws, were a blast to play - after my initial leader, King Louie, suffered a -1 Toughness lasting injury in game 1, these bad boys made cynical use of the corpse farm territory to "recycle" him and make a resounding comeback under the replacement Big Macbeth. The star here was the brute who initially was billed as the fire support, Hamlet the grenade launcher champion, whose pinpoint accuracy redeemed the perpetual uselessness of the melee-focussed gangers.

Finally, I’ve started my very own corpse grinder cult , "Protein Reclamation Plant JX-1519-Theta Community Sports Project 652B". This example rare foray into the regeneration of a deprived urban area by the usually oppressive regime of Lord Helmawr unfortunately went horribly wrong when the meat started to go rotten and the plant they were in descended into starvation and anarchy. Better send in the Enforcers next time, Helmawr! Thankfully, the Community Sports Project was able to survive the mutation and disease rife through the hive through a rich protein diet. Converting these guys was a blast, as I wanted to use the rest of the Nurgle's Rotters set plus a few odd bits and pieces I had lying around (plague monks and so on) and spare cleavers generously donated by my friend Tom to make a fun, mad little cult. I’ll post pictures of these guys, along with the Delaware and Goliath gangs, once I’ve painted them up properly.

Warcry

Lastly, I managed to lay my greedy mitts on the Warcry starter set. Though it currently lies mostly unassembled, and I traded away my Iron Golems to Matt, I have assembled the Untamed Beasts and converted a few extra members to allow more flexibility of load outs, and had some success with them in games. The harpooner First Fang in particular is a real terror! I also converted the tribal leader and the cat handler into a Darkoath Chieftain and Darkoath Warqueen respectively, and am looking forward to painting up and fielding these in my Slaves to Darkness army.

My Vanguard Hunters and their assorted pets also made a brief foray into Warcry, but to my dismay turned out to be as OP there as they are unfailingly disappointing in AoS proper. So after riddling the opposing warbands with crossbow bolts, they have now retired in dishonour from the Eightpoints as well as the Mortal Realms. Some say they were last seen in quest of a hidden Stormvault rumoured to contain that most elusive of lost artefacts in Sigmar's charge: the fabled relic of battletome internal balance. It's said that Sigmar has tasked them with finding and retrieving this treasure in time for the next SCE battletome. Others whisper that they were waylaid and robbed on this quest by a jubilant mob of Evocators riding Dracolines.

Pictures to follow once they’re painted... I hope in 2020! However I did also convert a few syormcast and experiment with some test colour schemes - so here are a few of those, along with a few of the many other conversions that I’ve thrown together in the last 12 months, and my luridly bright Mollog’s Mob.

2020

Phew! That was a grand rush through 2019! What of my hobby plans for 2020? Well, the main plans are:

1. Finish my Primaris marines currently in the works and add small supplements to make them tournament-ready.

2. SLAVES TO DARKNESS FOR OUR NEXT TALE OF FOUR GAMERS: VERY EXCITED! My chaos lord on his chaos crocodile will devour his foes like migrating wildebeest caught in a river of  diabolic fire.

3. Polish off my Maggotkin bits and bobs with a view to being able to make a competitive tournament army to take to an event or two in 2020.

4. Paint my new Corpse Grinder Cult, so as to be ready and photogenic for the first place turf war finish which has so far eluded my loveable but sloppily daubed Delaque and Goliath.

5. Start at least one unplanned and abortive hobby project (it's not a mistake if I planned it, right?)

---

Appendix - my space marine list (pre-Faith and Fury)

1,750pts: Dawnbringers

Space Marines - Raven Guard successor chapter: Stalwart, Stealthy

BRIGADE (15 CP)

(Starts with 7CP after pre battle stratagems)

HQ

Primaris captain - 87

Master-crafted stalker bolt rifle, power sword (Chapter master) (Relic: Ex Tenebris)

Lieutenant with jump pack - 78

2 chainswords (Relic: Teeth of Terra) (Warlord: Silent Stalker)

Primaris Chaplain - 77

(Relic: Benediction of Fury)  (Hero of the Chapter: Master of Ambush) (Litany: Recitation of Focus)

ELITES

3 Aggressors - 111

Boltstorm gauntlets, fragstorm grenade launchers

3 Aggressors - 111

Boltstorm gauntlets, fragstorm grenade launchers  

Ancient - 63 (Relic: Banner of the Emperor Ascendant)

TROOPS

5 Intercessors - 90

4 x Bolt rifles, 1 x Sergeant with bolt rifle, auxiliary grenade launcher and power sword

5 Intercessors - 90

4 x Bolt rifles, 1 x Sergeant with bolt rifle, auxiliary grenade launcher and power sword

5 Intercessors - 86

4 x Bolt rifles, 1 x Sergeant with bolt rifle, auxiliary grenade launcher and chainsword

5 Intercessors - 86

4 x Bolt rifles, 1 x Sergeant with bolt rifle, auxiliary grenade launcher and chainsword

5 Intercessors - 86

4 x Bolt rifles, 1 x Sergeant with bolt rifle, auxiliary grenade launcher and chainsword

5 Intercessors - 86

4 x Bolt rifles, 1 x Sergeant with bolt rifle, auxiliary grenade launcher and chainsword

FAST ATTACK

3 Suppressors - 90

3 Suppressors - 90

3 Inceptors - 123

Assault bolters

HEAVY SUPPORT

3 Eliminators - 84

bolt sniper rifles, 1 las fusil

3 Eliminators - 84

bolt sniper rifles, 1 las fusil

3 Eliminators - 72

bolt sniper rifles

Thunderfire cannon with techmarine gunner - 92

ADDITIONAL UNIT:

Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos - 63

Force sword (Master of Esoteric Lore, Biocorrosive poisons) (Psychic Power: Terrify)