Painting Points Total for 2014-2015

Painting Points Total for 2014-2015

Ork army in Oct 2011

I can't remember which blog I read, but they gave me the idea to start tracking my painting progress and assigning scores.  I have spreadsheets for damn near everything else - movies, books, video games, comics, scrabble scores, won/loss record.  Although I wish I had started tracking earlier, today marks the start of my 2015-2016 year, so it's time to recap.

June 2011 - April 2012

My initial painting efforts were decent at the time.  I believe the first squad I finished was some deffkoptas, followed shortly by my Warboss, lootas, and a painboy.  I had exclusively Orks until Spring 2012 when I started Blood Angels.  Many of the models from this time period still hold up nicely such as my Battlewagons, Snikrot, Big Meks, and some early nobs.

First pass

"Completed"

Most of the time was spent painting boys to a 3 color minimum.  I only completed 1 squad of 18 boyz and they still remain as the only boyz I've finished.  Even though it was only to a minimum standard, 150+ models is a lot to plow through.  I learned a lot about brush control, drybrushing, and washes in that time.  Something I would never have had the opportunity to test out with a less forgiving army like space marines.  Orks can be sloppy and crude, but still look good.  It was also a fun army to convert.

April 2012 - April 2013

So much thick red primer

 As with my Orks, my Blood Angel army was mostly focused on getting them to a minimum to play in tournaments.  It's shocking how little I actually completed during this time.  I painted a lot through the summer, but the fall/winter saw a dearth of hobby progress with the birth of my daughter.  However, they stuff I did complete, mostly looks just as good alongside my current output.  I invested in better brushes, significantly increased my pool of available paints, and by early 2013 was focusing on details with multiple highlights and layering.

Librarian, still holds up well

Chaplain, first completed BA model

I still have yet to finish a single BA vehicle I started during this time.  Twice as many models are incomplete vs. actually done.  However, the models that are completed don't need to be revisited unlike some of my early Ork work.

April 2013 - April 2014

The first year of my official tracking yielded 424 points.  A rather arbitrary number overall, but useful in year to year comparisons.

Dreadknights

I completed the majority of my Inquisition army this year with 181.5 points coming from what is now GK/Inq/Assasins.  Another 145.5 from Blood Angels.  Most of the items were magnetized arms, although I did complete squads of assault marines, snipers, tacticals, devastators, and a drop pod (my lone completed BA vehicle).  The rest of the points were split between terrain features (bunker, defense line, etc) and random Orks.

Imperial Bunker

April 2014 - April 2015

My total for 2014/15 blew away the prior year with 729.5 points.  Around 3/4 of the points came from Daemons and completing half-finished models.  This is the nadir for BA, as I didn't complete a single model. 

Ork Bikers

By my count, 102.5 of the points were for Ork models that were more than half finished from the previous year.  this includes the Nob bikers and Kommandos.  Most of my focus was on completing units, rather than project hopping.  Still, several units are mostly done and should yield easy upcoming points including my interceptor squad which is about 40% finished, my warbikers (75% finished), Grukk (60%), and my Plague Drones (50%).

Slaanesh Daemon army

The bulk of my year was dedicated to Daemons.  An impressive 352.5 points for Slaanesh alone (including the Soul Grinders), with another 89.5 from Be'Lakor, Tzeentch, and Nurgle models.    the total for Daemons alone, 442, exceeds my 2013/14 output.  I was really excited to paint Slaanesh and don't foresee having this kind of enthusiasm in the upcoming year.

Conclusion

I anticipate that 2014 will remain the high water mark for some time to come.  Maybe after my 2nd (not yet conceived) child is in school (so 6+ years) and I get super excited about starting a Dark Eldar army or something similarly numerous or engaging.

Maybe this will finally be the year of terrain.  Ever since 2006, when 40k first caught my attention, the idea of scratch built terrain has intrigued me.  The ability to take nearly anything and turn it into functional battlefield terrain is currently beyond my grasp.  I've been so focused on models.

40k Game Balance Thoughts, Pt. 1 Unbound

40k Game Balance Thoughts, Pt. 1 Unbound

There has been a lot of recent debate around the ITC regarding the number.  The recent poll results came back with a limit of 2 detachments.  There was some debate about a runoff to determine if it should be 2 or 3.  The bigger question has been whether to impose any limit at all and what effect it has on the game.  I would like to explore unbound, multiple detachments, codex balance, forgeworld, and super heavies/gargantuan creatures as different posts.

I don't intend to focus on this from a grand tournament perspective that gets the attention of people on the major blogs and sites, but, rather, on the smaller tournaments that are struggling to maintain numbers year over year.  Our own shop has seen attendance slip from around 20 attendees down to 8-12.  Even our local 'con' has dropped dramatically from 50-60 people down to 20-30 last year.

The first topic is also the easiest to dismiss, but tells us a lot about the state of GW's internal teams, their target audience, and how they see themselves.

Bringing all your toys

I'll start off by saying that I believe anyone who thinks the game straight out of the rulebook is 'balanced' if you include everything is wrong.  Games Workshop wants to provide a framework for people to use their model in any way they want.  It isn't designed for tournaments, but can be used in that manner.  GW has been pulling back of their tournament support for a long time.  We do know that their business plan is to sell models and most people will agree that they create some of the best looking and highest quality (remnants of finecast not-withstanding) models on the market.  Their system wide rules writing (i.e. game balance), rule wording , and editing leave a lot to be desired.  They don't care, have admitted that they barely play test beyond their own very small internal teams, and don't have a marketing team that will tell them otherwise because--ooh look, new shinies.

I don't believe they have a grand vision for balance but we just have to trust them is naive.  Working for a large corporation (not in the gaming industry) has taught me a lot about the inner workings.  Much like everyone who become a parent realizes that their own parents were just winging it, I realize that almost no one knows what they are doing from the highest levels to the lowest and planning, estimates, forecasts, and the like are all complete jokes.  Even if, at one time, they had a vision for game balance it would be the first thing to get sacrificed when their stock dropped a pence.

The game has to have some limitations in place.  Specifically, unbound is not a balance against anything.  I also don't think it's some malevolent plan to sell us more models.  It's just them throwing their hands in the the air and saying 'fuck it' play with whatever you want.  It isn't a strategy it's a cop out.

I've never played unbound, have never seen anyone play unbound, and would never play a pick up game of unbound.  There are very few reasons you would want to play unbound -- to spam a specific unit or force org slot (most likely heavy) or because you don't want to take a shitty hq or troop due to poor GW rules (this is where I say screw you GW for taking away assault marinse as troops from Blood Angels).  If I knew someone who wanted to do the latter, I might be inclined, but almost never the former.


Here are some examples of unbound lists that are utterly ludicrous, and yes they all involve spamming some unit an ungodly amount of times:

This squad 97 times

1843 points
19pts Inquisitorial henchmen squad with 1 psyker, 1 acolyte, 1 acolyte with meltabomb
x97
If you thought 20 warp charge armies were bad, try 97 WC, all with psychic shriek, and they can charge vehicles with melta bombs

19 of these pricks, hiding and making baby daemon love children

1805
95 Herald of Tzeentch w/ML3
x19
Similar to the above list, but can count on summoning at least 7 units or a dozen heralds a turn.

This guy is bringing his 9 closest friends

1850
10 Dreadknights, each with an incinerator, hammer, and teleporter.
Has the mobility, shooting power, and assault ability to kill anything else.

Don't forget the 204 Grots

1836
102 Mek Guns with kannons
408 T7 wounds!!!  You could sprinkle in some lobbas for barrage in case things try to hide, but the basic fact is there isn't enough shooting in the game that can put enough wounds on this to dent it.

These lists are in no way unbeatable.  In fact I don't want to even speculate on which is more powerful.  There are hundreds of other lists we could come up with.  These are just a handful of ones I thought up from armies I have.  No balanced list could really hang with these.  Or maybe they could, but the one thing they would not be is fun to play against.

I'm sure that for every 20 players that want to bring their fluffy list based on a book they read, there is only 1 player who wants to bring 37 Thudd Guns.  But it only takes that 1 d-bag to come to the tournament and ruin it for others.  Maybe at a grand tournament, there might be a hard counter to the list, but at a local tournament, it's completely unworkable.  Do you think his opponents are going to have fun watching him roll 148 blast templates a turn?

The "let me bring all my toys" crowd can, but not at a tournament.  There are other hobby aspects of the game that let you do that, but tournaments are about trying to achieve some sort of competitive environment.

Unbound becomes an arms race on who can take the most units that can be exploited in the game system and that's pretty terrible.  Any tournament will devolve into a few people willing to wade into that filth to see who's asshole stinks more.  Maybe it's just for a laugh at first, but people won't return and you die off as a tournament scene.  It only balances itself if everyone uses insane unbound lists, but that doesn't mean you're having fun.

You need a structure in place to be able to run tournaments or play the game in general, otherwise, what's the point.  Not everyone can come up with their own house rules and game system, that's what we expect (to pay) GW to do by purchasing rulebooks. 

My fun list

I think my first conclusion is the tournaments should be fun.  I always want to bring out the most people possible and want everyone to enjoy themselves.  We will not allow unbound armies because their fundamental nature will be exploited.  The number of individuals who will only attend a tournament if they can bring 10 dreadknights is vastly inferior to the number who would never attend a tournament where someone could bring 10 dreadknights.

Next up we'll examine the confusing world of battle-forged armies in 7th.  People are still frequently confused by detachments, formations, CAD, and how to properly build an army.  These solve some of the issues outlined above, but do we need a limit on how many and does it affect the pwoer curve.

Ordo Xenos Inquisitor with Conversion Beamer

 Ordo Xenos Inquisitor with Conversion Beamer

After a few years of wanting the model, I finally have him finished and painted.  The model is from Moonfleet Miniatures, the gun is from chapter house, and the base is from WarGamma.  Various bits are attached from the terminator kit.

I considered several models from Kabuki like the Napoleon or Rommel both of which have a nice military general type feel and a pose that would work with the beamer.  I couldn't tell how big they were so I didn't want to take a risk.  The "Scientist Thinking" I used is on the small side, but works well enough.

Chapter House doesn't appear to sell the conversion beamer anymore.  I ordered a lot of stuff from Chapter House several years back and was mostly disappointed with it.  I have 6 magnetic razorback turrets.  The resin didn't line up very well, so most had to be glue in place and don't rotate.  The magnets holes don't line up well with the gun holes and they didn't include enough.  The worst thing I ordered was the Storm Raven extension kit.  It took a ton of work to get it to even build and I really wish I hadn't bothered.  It's fine as long as you don't look closely.

The beamer wasn't as bad as the rest, but was pretty brittle.  I ended up pinning it all the way from the backpack far into the actual gun itself.  That's why it is in one straight line rather than bent like it should be.  It's pretty secure now.  I magnetized it so I could swap out with another model if I change my mind or add a master of the forge.  The book and grenade bits were added to keep it from rotating and falling down but also give it more of an official look.

WarGamma 25mm bases came in groups of 13.  I used 10 for the PAGK and have 3 for various inquisitors and other ICs.  I painted it very similar to the seller, although I feel mine are a smidge better.

I painted him and the two assassins concurrently and he only took 2 days, but the backpack took me another few days before I was satisfied.  I think the glowing effect on the gun turned out ok.  It looks better in person because of the mix between glossy and matte.  I didn't want to go with OSL and risk the chance to repaint parts of it if I didn't like how it turned out.  The drybrushing is supposed to reflect that it is older technology that is falling apart and in need of constant repair.

His role in my army is to sit inside the imperial bunker and blast away with servitors.  In order to make my Nemesis Strike Force Detachment work I need reliable reserves and to lessen the chance of deep strike mishaps.  The Inquisitor takes serve skulls to reduce scatter to only D6" and the bunker lets me take a comms relay to re-roll reserves.

The bunker has 8 fire points and is fairly impervious to most damage at AV14.  For only 60 points, I can get 3 servitors with plasma cannons, throw in another 10 points for a psyker to add to my WC pool and possibly cast psychic shriek.  They can get out and run to an objective if needed.

The beamer itself has a unique weapon profile that gets stronger the further away it lands.

Range	S	AP
0”-18”	6	-
18”-42”	8	4
42”-72”	10	1

It's a small blast running you only 45 points.  This will let you put pressure on backfield vehicles such as manticores and devastators.  The AP1 will blow vehicles up nicely.  If they enemy gets in close you can start shooting them with the plasma cannons.

Additionally,  you can add Jokaero for lascannon shots and possible buffs like adding 12" to the plasma cannon range.  They are pricey at 35pts for only BS3.  There isn't a very effective way to take advantage of all 8 fire points though as this only uses half the potential.

Unfortunately, you can't cast blessings inside a vehicle or building, so no prescience.  This doesn't make sense to me at all, but it is the rule.

If the bunker is damaged, the occupants will be hit pretty hard, but in general, they'll be pretty safe inside since most of my army is deep striking midfield turn one and a bigger threat.  At least enemies can't assault, throw grenades, or flame inside anymore.

According to the rules, the bunker is a member of your army and can man the comms.  The comms should go outside the building rather than on top, just in case it gets destroyed.  It should be close to the unit inside so if they are forced to disembark they can man it.

I also take the void shield upgrade when points are available.   It can help protect the guys inside and a separate unit on top, which I never usually do, but the option is there.

Inquisitorial Detachment
79 Ordo Xenos Inquisitor with conversion beamer and 3 servo skulls
70 Henchmen: 3 servitors with plasma cannons, 1 psyker
100 Imperial Bunker with comms relay and void shield
249 points

Or barebones at 172 points if I'm strapped for points.
79 Ordo Xenos Inquisitor with conversion beamer and 3 servo skulls
18 1 psyker, 2 henchmen
75 Imperial Bunker with comms relay

Inquisition Deathstar

Inquisition Deathstar

Henchmen

While painting my models, I've been trying to think of ways to come up with lists that can utilize the cool things I've painted, but never use.  This might take some people by surprise, especially since we're several years removed from when DCA were actually used.  Keeping them alive is difficult, plus you have to remember all the special rules.  Your opponent might get a little peeved once you read out the long list of buffs and debuffs.

1750 Inquisition Deathstar
Grey Knight Nemesis Strike Force Detachment
125 Librarian, falchions, combi-melta, melta bombs
200 5 Terminators, 1 Psycannon, 1 hammer, melta bombs
265 10 Interceptors, melta bombs, 2 incinerators
200 Stormraven
205 Dreadknight, teleporter, greatsword, heavy psycannon
205 Dreadknight, teleporter, greatsword, heavy psycannon

100 Bunker w/comms & void shield

Inquisitorial detachment
79 Xenos Inq w/3 skulls & conversion beamer
70 Henchmen: 1 psyker, 3 Servitors w/plasma cannons

99 Xenos Inquisitor  w/2 skulls, Rad & Psychotroke grenades, power armor, Psyker
185 Henchmen: 2 Priests, 3 crusaders, 6 Death Cult Assassins

18 Henchmen: 2 acolytes, 1 psyker

Bunker mates

This is just an addition to my previous NSF list, but swaps the Purifiers in the Stormraven for an inquisition squad and adds a interceptors.

Deployment is simple, just the servitor henchmen with the beamer inquisitor sit inside the bunker.  If my opponent has no barrage, I can hide the psyker henchmen squad behind the building for the extra WC each turn.  The building mans the comms to make sure my GK comes in turn 1.  I actually prefer to go 2nd unless my opponent has something that can take out a bunker at long range.

In most cases, we're going to have the Terminators, interceptors, and 2 Dreadknights drop right on my opponents front lines (aided by 5 skulls), then the Stormraven come in with the inquisition deathstar turn 2.  The stormraven is a solid flyer killer, another reason to want to go 2nd.

Crusaders

The inquisition deathstar is pretty durable once they make it into combat and deadly, but paper thin if they are outside combat.  The DCA have 2 base and 2 power weapons, giving 4 total on the charge at I6, WS5, and S4.  The Crusader has another 2 attacks on the charge at I3, but only S3.  The Priests each have another 2 I2 attacks, but only WS3, S3.  Potentially, he can smash, but I don't see many reasons to do this.  Everyone even has an invlun.  The DCA have a 5++, Priests have a 4++, and Crusaders a 3++.

Inquisitors

Generic Inquisitor

The Inquisitor brings rad grenades for -1 toughness, psychotroke grenades for shenanigans and another power weapon and maybe even activating force (although you may not be targeting the correct unit if you need this).  For your psychic roll you really only have Telepathy as the primary option.  Prescience doesn't give you much since you have no guns and the unit already has most of the buffs.  Getting hammerhand from Sanctic would be nice, but you perils on any doubles so it isn't worth it.  Telekinesis is Telekinesis.  Pyromancy isn't too bad, but I think Telepathy is strictly better.  Invisibility and Shrouding are the juicy targets while Dominate and Terrify are good.  Mental Fortitude won't help too much and hallucination isn't really worth WC2, but with Psychic Shriek in as the primaris you'll always have a useful power.

You'll want to check what the Psychotroke grenade does before you use your war hymns.  The effects are all really good (#2-6) or does nothing (#1).  If the opponent is reduced to 1 attack (#2), dropped to I1 (#5), or attacking themselves (#6) you may not need to reroll saves and instead would rather re-roll wounds to finish them off.  Keep in mind, you're still only T3, plus the opponent has -1T.  The other roll drop the opponent to Ld2, which may not help too much, but could cause them to run away.

Priests bring Zealot (hatred and fearless) plus can chant war hymns to buff the unit further.  The war hymns from the priests require a leadership test at Ld7, which only goes off a little more than 50% of the time, which is why we need 2 for redundancy.  Almost always you'll want to use the Emperor Protects with these T3 models as it allows you to re-roll all failed armor and invulns.  If you really want to finish the fight and ensure they die, then the Righteousness of the Emperor lets you re-roll to wound.  Finally, the emperor's strength gives smash to the priest, letting him have AP2 attacks but he's still only S3 (I don't think this lets him double the strength again with an eviscerator for S10 attacks, which would be cool).  You'll test for protects first, then try again if it fails.  If it goes  off try for Righteousness.

Death Cult Assassins

The DCA are your killing beasts, the Crusaders are there to tank wounds with the (hopefully) re-rollable 3++.  Multi-charging helps avoid overkill.  You don't want to be left hanging in the wind with only your invulns (and no re-rolls).

With Zealot and the Righteousness of the Emperor war hymn, you'll be re-rolling to hit and to wound against the enemy with -1T.  The DCA will be swinging at I6 with each attack having an 80% chance to kill a PA SM.  The 6 DCA alone will average 19 dead MEQ kills before they even get a chance to swing.  Even against orks, a full strength squad will kill 29 boyz, leaving only the nob, before they even get to swing back.

The Priests still need to be painted.  The one on the right is custom built

This is a terrifying amount of killing ability, that only really works because you have the dreadknights, terminators, and interceptors mucking things up before you even arrive.  Hopefully, this squad is forgotten about because you aren't getting a charge off until turn 3.

It's only 274 points including the IC.  Really, you can't even call it a deathstar at all.  That's less than a bloodthirster, less than a 5-man paladin squad, nearly the same price as 3 grave centurions.  Of course, it's substantially less survivable than all the aforementioned units.  One of the primary identifiers for deathstars is ultra durability.  Of course almost anything can be made ultra durable with invisibility, so if my GK librarian rolls for it, he has the potential to cast it on them.  The unit is fearless while the Priests are still alive, which helps.

Regular old bolters kill this unit.  It would take only around 70 shots to kill and quickly lose effectiveness with every death.  Compared to other deathstars like Paladins, which require 36 bolters shots to kill each model or Screamerstars that require 216 to kill each model, this is nothing.  Even Flyrants require 54 shots per wound when they are flying.

Inquisitorial council makes difficult decisions-- Burritos for lunch?

I think it's more effective now than ever, even though it requires choosing your target a little more delicately.   The old Grey Knight codex in 6th allowed DCA and Crusaders to take 'power weapons' so you could pick.  I modeled my crusaders with halberds (+1S, AP2 unwieldy) and modeled the DCA with staff (nunchuks, +2S, AP4) and sword (AP3).  This gave me more versatility, but it didn't have priests, so war hymns were out.  The Inquisition codex forced them both to take power swords, but limited my transport option to only Land Raiders.  Since I don't have any Land Raiders, I didn't have a delivery mechanism for the unit.  With 7th edition, battle brothers can embark in each others' transports, so now I can use a Stormraven.

Another generic inquisitor

Once I get the priests painted then I'll try this list out.  It's not going to win any lists, but it will be fun to see it overkill some poor unit only half its cost, then get shot to hell (and probably the Storm Raven that delivered them as well).