This series of posts will track the progress of 5 courageous hobbyists as they embark on that most epic of quests: To build and paint a Warhammer 40,000 army from scratch! Each month you’ll be able to follow along as their armies grow from bare plastic sprues to fully painted units of battle-hardened warriors. Once the armies are ready they’ll meet on the battlefield to decide who’s worthy of claiming the title of Greatest WAAAGHlord for 2020!
We’ve hit Month 7 and our first person has got a full 2k points finished. Now the rest of us just need to catch up so we can start playing some full size games of 9th edition!
Alex: I had a fun one this month. I’d been super lucky and managed to get my hands on one of the old Forgeworld Grey Knight Venerable Dreadnoughts. These things are like gold dust as they haven’t been in production for a long time so when I got the chance to get one I snapped it up. The normal Venerable Dreadnoughts look cool but these fit the style of the army so much better. It’s a shame you can’t buy them anymore.
It was missing the Grey Knight exclusive arms but with the inclusion of a MKIV Lascannon and Missile Launcher it’s now ready to hit the table and bring some much needed long range firepower.
The ranks of the Assassinorum also grew this month with the completion of Evan the Eversor. My final army will have two detachments so that means 2 free slots for Agents of the Imperium. With the Eversor being one of the most fun Assassins to use it would feel wrong not to include one.
Not long after he was finished Evan got the chance to prove himself on the field of battle. Taking on the might of a Star God in single combat he showed once and for all that new model syndrome doesn’t exist!
With those done I had just enough time left over to get a couple more Terminators finished which rounded out the month nicely.
Next up I’ll be continuing to work through the horde of Terminators aswell as adding some more heavy firepower in the form of a Purgation Squad.
Army Progress:
Models assembled: 36
Models painted : 36
Points completed: 1786
Pledge for next month: A Purgation Squad armed with Psycannons and some more Terminators.
Rhaz: So, with the new points update I am well over 2000 points which means I have won this 2020 Tale of Gamers! (Alex: Good try but that’s not how it works) Now everybody else needs to catch up, and we can get some 2000 point games in. My pledge this month was completed early as I’ve become quite good at speed painting Doomsday Arks.
I played a 2000 point 9th edition game with my Necrons against a Harlequin and Grey Knight Team. I must say having three of these was pretty good for killing their Characters and those squishy Harlequin transports. For Secondaries I managed to max out the Abhor the Witch and Assassinate; but most of my Troops were wiped out in 1 turn by the Harlequin Solitaire which made me really struggle to score the Primary objectives. I’ll remember to kill that one first next time…
Next, the final Doom Scythe:
And Finally I decided to go beyond my initial pledge, and paint a Triarch Stalker. I really enjoyed painting this one and I think its a great looking model. I’ve kitted it with the Twin Heavy Gauss Canon at the moment but nothing is glued down just yet. I’m waiting to see what’s what when the new Codex drops.
Since its my newest model, I’m sure it will be the first to die in the next game we play. Hopefully though it will explode and take a bunch of enemy models with it.
Army Progress:
Models assembled: 47 + the Necron half of the Indomitus Box
Models painted : 47
Points completed: 2322
Pledge for next month: 10 Indomitus Warriors, 1 Skorpeth killing Plasmacyte and 2 Murder Buckets (Cryptothralls)
Dean: Its Terminator time! I’ve got the squad finished for this month.
I decided to shake up the scheme based on the HH models and drop in some bone elements. Which has added a wealth of variety to them. I’m also highly rating the new Tesseract Glow paint for the lens.
I became captured by the scheme when the Forgeworld previews went up, and kept coming back to the idea. With this being yet another unit of Terminators I figured it’s time to shake things up and doing something new.
I adopted the selected bone touch scheme and I think it’s panned out.
So what’s next?
There’s a raft of new Codexs and Supplements on the way that look set change how my army list is built for the third time in under a year. For now I’m going to stick with the original plan of an Elite heavy army.
That of course means filling the 6th elite slot with a new Dreadnought. This time I’ll be using the Siege chassis as the basis for a Venerable. I’m using the classic Forgeworld model as I’ve had one for a little while and it feels like I need to break up all the fancy armour and robes that’s been a mainstay of this army so far and bust out some slat armour.
Long term I think I’ll be bringing in some Tactical support. They’re getting the extra wound that’ll keep them on the table longer and it should also help round out the army with some Ob-Sec Troops.
Army Progress:
Models assembled: 25
Models painted : 25
Points completed: 1245
Pledge for next month: A Terminator Librarian
Paul: For Month Seven I’ve been on a go slow and only managed to complete a squad of Howling Banshees. This will be the first of three squads for a Craftworlds bolt-on detachment led by Jain Zarr for casual games.
While I’ve been painting these Banshees for casual games I’ve had the time to plan out my revised list for Tournaments. Following on from the points changes and the overall shift in tactics due to the release of 9th edition.
The core of the army will stay the same. The Soaring Spite Battalion using Fusion boats as a major threat and my secondary detachment will be an expanded Dreaming Shadow Vanguard. This will have the three Death Jesters, the Solitaire, a Shadow Seer, a Troupe Master and an additional bare-bones squad of Players.
The Solitaire is mainly benefiting from the new Stratagems focused around mobility. Such as the ability to consolidate 6” after an enemy unit falls back with Twilight Encore, or a full fallback movement instead of consolidating with The Curtain Falls.
In the remaining months of Tale2020 I’ll be working on more green and red lads for the second detachment. In terms of what’s left to paint overall I’ve got five Players, one Shadow Seer and two Troupe masters to get through before I can call this 2k army finished.
Army Progress:
Models assembled: 60
Models painted : 41
Points completed: 1863
Pledge for next month: A Dreaming Shadow Troupe Master and the Squad of five Players
Have you started a new army of your own recently? What do you think of the ones we’re working on? Let us know in the comments.
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