Of Tournies & Motivation

So another few weeks of not much going on at all.  I haven't been able to get a game in, but it doesn't help that I just spent 8 days out of the country as well.  I've tried to squeeze in some painting, but I just can't get motivated to finish Borka.

Here he is pretty much base coated.  I really should finish him.  I should.  I just need to push through it.  Yet I can't seem to get him done.

When I don't get games in I just don't feel like painting.  For one I'm busy, and it also takes more effort than, say, watching DVR'd stuff or playing a video game.

In fact is seems like, when looking over these last few years, the thing that really drives me to getting painting done is tournaments.  They end up giving me a goal and pushing me to really time table out plans and get things done.

Of course with no tournaments these last few months motivation has been low.

So I'm glad to see the LGS has a two day tournament coming up at the end of Jan.  Normally two day events are hard to do with the family, but I've been so busy with family functions (and will continue to be for the holidays of course) that I've lobbied a bit with the wife to get this on the calender.  Hooray!

Now this is a 1500 pt tournament which is not my favorite point level, but what can you do I suppose.  There will be a best general, a sportsman award, a best painting, and a 'overall' best score.  So this is really exciting to me as I feel like while I have a shot at any one of these categories on a good day, I can usually muster a nice overall score as well.  There is a nice painting score sheet so you can kinda guess where you'll end up, but thing like display base are things that are not the normal for the LGS!

Of course the real question is what army do I take?

I don't think I'll go xenos.  My Tau are still feeling very underwhelming, and my orks are really built out for 1850.  I could maybe scale them back but... I just think the list I have works at 1850 and cutting anything out really makes the whole thing horrible.

So that means marine options!

Blood Angels Jumpers

Blood Angels Jumpers at 1500 is certainly a viable option.   I've basically cut out my 5 man assault squad and trimmed my Vanguard Vets to 5 guys that are fairly well equipped.  I think it keeps the feel of the army from 1850, though I got to say looking at that picture is a little underwhelming.

Need to paint:  Nothing! The army is ready to go!
Display Board:  Well it exists... it is nothing special.  I have some missing holes that I could fill in with maybe some plant life on bases to make it more interesting... but even then it is not so speical.
Overall Army Look:  Honestly I think this is my least favorite painted army.  Sure I did it fast and as a whole they look ok.  I'm actually amazed how well the dipping came out on them, especially the Sang Gaurd.  Still this is definately not my best foot forward on painting!
Competitiveness: Well I think it is pretty good, but I think it has just horrible matches also.  Armies like Grey Knights might just own these guys, and I'm not sure how other new books like DE and Necrons would do.

So basically not a lot of work, probably pretty good army to play, though my least favorite looking of the bunch.

Black Templar Mech

So moving away from my pod list (which I think jumpers BA can do... well, better) would be looking at a mechanized Templar force.  I haven't really played these guys in a mech style since the updated faq.  Some things hurt now (can't cheat the Righteous Zeal, using new smoke) but some things are now pretty rocking (Assault Termies got even better, Land Speeder Tornados are ridiculously cheap).

The above list looks something like:
Champ, AACNMTO
Marshal with Claws x3, 4+ invul, Term Honors
5 Assault Termies (2 TH/SS)
7 Marines/2 Scouts, melta, fist, Rhino w/ Smoke & EA
7 Marines/2 Scouts, melta, fist, Rhino w/ Smoke & EA
5 Marines/1 Scout, Lascannon, Plasma Gun
LS Tornado
LS Tornado
LRC, Smoke, Blessed Hull


Need to paint: 1 Speeder, and the Missiles for the 2nd Speeder
Display Board: Again a display board exists.  I think I could spruce it up with some ruins and craters.
Overall Army Look: I'm always a little torn on my Templar.  I think they look nice, but they are in some ways sloppy (a lot of the marines are repaint jobs).  Also a lot of people think painting the black and white is easy.  I think they look better than my BA, but I'm afraid that is just really a matter of opinion.
Competitiveness:  Honestly I have no idea.  I'm guessing probably not so much.  I think it lacks enough ranged threat and I'm counting on my marines in the two rhinos to do an awfully lot.  I seem to recall they always end up dying and there goes my scoring potential.  I think I've got a thing for wanting to use a LRC with Blessed Hull just to annoy some DE players, but probably that is 25 pts mispent.  Hell the whole list is probably a total disaster, and it would only take a practice game or two to realize it.

So probably a list that is probably only to win 1/2 the games out there, looks ok, and not a ton of work to get ready.



Thousand Sons

Ah my 1ksons.  The army I made to score as best I could on painting scores.  If the new dexes really come I'm praying to my Tzeentch alter that these guys can be made competitive so they can really kick ass.  I haven't played in a tourny yet with them, and I think it would be nice to do so before 6th/new dex.  If only to see my paint score and how badly they do!

From my 1850 I basically dropped one rhino and one squad, but maxed out the two remaining, and dumped the two preds.  I think I'd run the 3 oblits solo and just go for crazy deep strikes off of icons.


Need to paint:  Nothing!
Display Board: Certainly my best display board.  I still need to actually paint the checkerboard white (it is currently grey) and I could do a few tricks to really kick this up to prime time.
Overall Army Look: Like I mentioned this is my best shot to taking painting.  There are conversions, there's freehand, and there's just a level of detail way beyond my other armies.  Of course all it takes for one master painting to come in and knock me off the top.
Competitiveness: Total. Utter. Rubish.  It is a bad list and a bad dex.  Every game would be a struggle to win.  Hell I didn't even try to make as good of a list at 1500 as I could.  Chaos Dread?  Ya it is all about having a great looking list, so if I won even 2 games it would probably be a miracle.

So I guess this comes down to wanting to show off my painting skill, playing for fun, and knowing that I'm not going to win a damn thing unless everyone shows up with armies not as well painted as mine.

But there was a point to this post beyond me rambling about armies.  It was about tournaments and motivation.

Over the last few months I've continued collecting OOP models to fill in YET ANOTHER ARMY.  yes I have a sickness, I can't help myself.  It has just been on the back burner, but I've got it all collected now, and it is assembled and primered.  If I kick it into gear and use the tournament as motivation I could possibly bring...

Imperial Fists Thunderbubble

Hooray for silly internet names for lists.  This is the 1850 army I've assembled.  Essentially I could  trim the three troop squads to the absolute min, and drop a few termies.  I've played the proxy version of this list once a few months ago at 1850 and it did put out an amazing amount of fire power, and a big mob of TH/SS termies are still no joke either.


Need to paint:  Everything!  I'm on crack!
Display Board:  Nope!  I need to build that too!
Overall Army Look: Who knows!  My plan is to dip these guys but I've learned quite a bit from doing the BA.  I think I could make them look good, better than the BA, maybe even better than the Templar.  Still nothing dipped will looks as sweet as the 1ksons.
Competitiveness:  Well I'm not to sure really.  I think it has a lot of merit still.  It's a lot of chasis on the table for the point level (9) and has a good clip of ranged fire power.  Enough TH/SS termies to be a threat to almost anything that wants to close.  It is just really really like in the troop department.

Could I paint all that in 7 weeks?  Well I could try?  And a display board?  Eh... who knows!   But even if I don't I could always move to the other armies.   I figure about two weeks before hand I can make that call and see if I press on, or if I jump to one of the other 3 and get them into shape.

All I know is I'm excited about undertaking a new project, I can't wait to get going, and am looking forward to doing a tournament!

Now if only I could score some 1500 pt practice...


Wow long post...