Day 1, Closer (Slightly) to Ready to Go

So Sunday was the first day (since my army assessment) that I had a chance to do any army work.  Saturday was full (as I figured it would be) and Sunday was full enough that I had to shoe-horn in some 40K army work where I could.  Keeping in mind the list from the previous post, here's what I got done yesterday.  I'll get some pics up tomorrow along with tomorrow's update as there really wasn't much to photograph yesterday.

HQ:  Captain - Now primed.

HQ:  Chaplain -  I went ahead and stripped the Chaplain.  It went pretty well, and I went ahead and primed it last night.  I think I can get the HQ units painted up tonight and, these being the most detailed jobs ahead, will certainly be a load off my mind.

Elite 1:  5 Man Termie Squad - These were painted and primed, but it dawned on me that the weapon combo I selected for my sergeant was not available on a helmeted model (I refuse to send any unit into battle without a helmet, my reasons for doing so will be covered in  a later blog).  After my discovery, I decided to tackle my first "conversion" (although what little I did probably doesn't qualify).  All my terminators are from the AoBR set, so I had to saw the arms off the helmet-less Terminator Sergeant and attach them to a helmeted model.  The sawing/replacing went more smoothly than I had thought, and I now have the sergeant with a helmet I desired.  I re-primed him, and they are in the painting "bullpen" at the moment, waiting for the HQ choices to be completed.

Fast Attack 1:  5 Man Assault Squad - BUILT!!  A minor triumph, but a triumph nonetheless.

And that was it for Sunday.  Considering all the other things that landed on my plate yesterday I'm pretty pleased with what I got accomplished.  Of course the elephant in the room is the unpainted Predator, the UNBUILT Predator, and the Whirlwind with only the left track assembly done.  I've got them on the schedule and I will get this done prior to Saturday if I have to break the laws of physics to do it!!

Back tomorrow with updates and pics!

The Countdown Begins.....

Less than 1 week to Astronomi-con Dallas.  Where has the time gone?

I have (to the surprise of no one who knows me personally) procrastinated and placed myself in a difficult position:  I have an absolute TON pf models left to build and paint in order to be ready for the con.  I have a 6 hour house work and honey-do commitment to the lovely Mrs. Noob tomorrow in addition to 2 hours allocated to Mother Noob (helping her run errands/get her hair done) and a minimum 2 hours being given to supporting the United States Men's National (Soccer) Team (that little World Cup thing they've got going on in South Africa.  The US has a minor match against some team or another, so i should watch.  OK, it's freaking ING-ER-LUND.  Lord how I'd love to smack the English around tomorrow, especially if we can jump out to an early 2 goal lead or so.  If the US gets up by 2 or more before half-time you have my personal NOOB guarantee that the little bitch Wayne Rooney will get red carded.  He will LOSE HIS MIND if he realizes he's getting personal ass-handing service, compliments of the good ol' US of A.  So much so that, rather than to dig in and work hard, he'll try and make it all about him and get tossed.  It will start as a yellow for a cynical tackle on the US player that has just stripped him of the ball.  What will ensue is a string of expletives aimed at the ref that would embarrass a dockworker in Liverpool, followed by a second yellow and Widdle Wayne's dismissal.  Hallelujah.  we now return to our regularly scheduled 40K blog)...

OK, football rant over, back to 40K.

So, as I wise saying before I got interrupted, I have a lot of work to do vis a vis putting my army together, so I figured I would post a "Noob's Ultramarine Completion Update" daily this week.  This will force me:  acually paint, and; be accountable as I'm sure my beloved readers will be the first to say "Hey, Noob, you said you would have those Termies painted and based yesterday, yet they're on you list again today.  What gives, slacker??" (it will also inflate "ye olde Post Count", which isn't a bad thing, either)  Looking at my "To Do" list for today (Saturday) again, it seems that all I'll really be able to do today is, well, post the initial list of where every element in the army is as far as assemble, painting, basing, etc.

So, without further ado, here is the master list.

HQ:  Space Marine Captain - built, no primer yet (this is a rebuild as the Captain I had initially intended to use lost an arm, plus the paint job was a solid "meh" as the guy I bought it from didn't really seem to care too much about "quality", and "neatness", and "painting the torso and legs the same color")

HQ:  Chaplain in Power Armor - built and painted, needs base completion (This may also get redone as I looked closely at my Chaplain on Thursday I discovered some of the same issues as I had with the Captain, except instead of  "painting the torso/legs the same color" it's more along the lines of "painting both sides of the face the same color".  Possible purchase of a new Chaplain this week)

Troops 1:  10 man Tac squad.  Assembled, painted, AND based.  F'ing complete.  Hurray for me!!  (Actually, "Hurray for the guy I bought them from off of Ebay")

Troops 2:  5 man tac squad.  Assembled, painted, and based.  Thanks, Ebay!!

Elites 1:  5 man Termis squad:  Assembled and painted/assembled and primed.  I have one set completed (save the bases) and they are OK.  They were some of the first models I painted and with the painting I have done since then I'm sure I can do a much better job now.  I'll wait until everything else is done and see if I have time to redo these.

Elites 2:  Dreadnaught.  Assembled and painted.  Needs base completed.

Elites 3:  Dreadnaught.  Assembled and painted.  Needs base completed (Ooohhhh, deja vu!!!)

Fast Attack 1:  5 man Assault Squad.  NiB, and NiB is NOT what I'm looking for in this case.

Fast Attack 2:  Land Speeder Squadron.  Both are painted and ready to go except LS#1 needs to have the Typhoon Missile racks attached.

Heavy Support 1:  Whirlwind.  Left track sub-assembly built.  Uh-oh.

Heavy Support 2:  Predator, Autocannon variant.  Built, not primed.

Heavy Support 3:  Predator, twin-linked Lascannon variant.  NiB. Damn, do I have my word cut out for me this week.

Well, that's it, the 1496 points I'm dragging with me to Astronomi-con.  I'll update it every night just (with pictures!!) before I go to bed so you guys can follow along and comment/heckle as the week goes by.  feel free to comment on the weirdness/weakness of this abortion I call an army list, as well.



Oh, quickly before I forget:  Matt from the Archangels blog, I lost your address.  Your stripped Venerable dread is on my painting table mocking me, so shoot me your address again so I can ship this sucker. (bradATthesatorigroupDOTcom)


That's the news, and I am outta' here.....

The Noob Goes 1 and 1

So Saturday was my big Combat Patrol day. Let me say that I don't think I've had more gaming fun in quite some time. The guys in Adeptus North Texas (my gaming group) are fantastic, and really helpful to new players.

Game 1 was against Grey Knights. Here's a tip: don't get locked in close combat with Grey Knight Terminators. They took out an entire tac squad until a second squad turned the tide based on numbers alone. My Dread also did his job, holding up a GK tac squad and preventing them from getting involved elsewhere. By the end of turn 5 I had finally cleaned the board and taken the win.

Game 2 saw my Ultramarines squaring off against an IG army. To let you know how the game went, my Dread (with missile rack to handle his armor) was wiped out in the first half of turn 1, before I even moved. And it went downhill from there. the bike squad (along with Chaplain on bike) was useless, my Terminators were wiped out, and I was completely swept off the board by turn 4. Oh, well, it was a good time anyway.

Sunday I played a 1500 point game against another Space Marine army. Again, a loss. Again, the bike squad was useless, the Chaplain was no help, and my Land Speeders were less than helpful (although keeping them in reserve wasn't the best idea at all).

All in all, though, it was a great weekend of 40K. I signed up for another tournament starting June 27, and I'm looking at maybe doing a Tourney at the end of July in Austin. Yes, I have become a 40K addict.

Is it a bad sign I'm already contemplating starting a Tau army????

Combat Patrol!!! This Weekend!!! Hurry, Hurry, Hurry and Step Right Up!! (Directly into the line of fire, if you're the Noob)

Nice long post title, eh?

If you couldn't figure it out from that, your friendly neighborhood Noob is playing a little CP this wekend. Several guys from my local 40K group, Adeptus North Texas, are getting together on Saturday and Sunday at one of our FLGS's, Xmax Games, to have a little Combat Patrol fun. Well, I don't know how much fun it will be for them as this little event was organized by yours Noob-ly so that I might be more prepared for my tournament debut at Astronomi-con.

In other Con news, I have been guaranteed by the organizers of Astronomi-con that I will indeed have fun. What they didn't mention was that while I'm having all this fun (oblivious to all the pain and suffering my opponents are going through as they gnash their collective teeth as they have to explain to me again, for the fifth time and we're only in Turn 2 (oh, dear Lord give me strength for a may just smite the Noob right here-and he's smiling again like a dementia patient-WHY WON'T HE JUST DIE ALREADY!!) that all men in a squad need to move as a squad, not just pell-mell like a jailbreak, and please, Noob, for the 10th time (and we're in Turn 3!! He has got to be the most absent minded noob I have ever seen! And is he CHEWING ON A TERMINATOR'S SWORD?? IS THAT MY TERMINATOR'S HEAD IN HIS MOUTH!?!?!?!?). That's what I'm sure the running internal dialog will be in my opponents' collective heads over June 19th and 20th.

Anyway, back to this weekend. I'm jumping in feet first into the deep end that is 40K with my very first official game with actual opponents (not the imaginary 40K games I have in my head where I win the US Grand Finals armed only with 2 Rhinos, 10 Tactical Marines, a broken Landspeeder, and two-fifths of the Legion of the Damned (5 man squad from "parts unknown"). The last part of the dream is technically, the most correct as I will be running a 5 man Legion of the Damned squad at Astronomi-con. Of course I'll be running more than 2 Rhinos, and in reality only one of my Landspeeders is missing a weapon. Oh, well, we'll have time to agonize over the army list for the Con plenty of times over the next couple of weeks.

In other Noob related news, the Venerable Dreadnaught (given the dazzling "embarrassment" paint job by yours truly, a paint job so bad that the brave, brave Space Marine who was being kept alive deep within the sarcophagus in the recesses of the Dreadnaught body actually used his powerfist to RIP OUT HIS OWN WIRES in an act of suicide rather than to spend another day wearing a paint job so bad even Orks made fun of him from a distance) has FINALLY been stripped and shipped.

We hope Matt from the Archangels Blog gives him the home (and paintjob) he deserves, so that brave Dreadnaught no longer feels suicide is the answer.

I'll follow up Monday with some Battle Reports on the Combat Patrol games. I'll be running up against 'Nids, Chaos Space Marines, Eldar, and Grey Knights that I know of, so join me back here to see how that pool of enemies smited your friendly (and Noob run) local Ultramarine chapter....

Until then, keep watching the skies!! For the burning wreckage of my Drop Pods!!

Astro Additions??

So, my FLGS is having a pre-Astro sale: buy two GW boxes, get the third free. I'm thinking about adding a Vindicator plus another Devestator squad and a Close Combat Termie squad.

Or just adding 15 more Terminators, getting me closer to my Deathwing ideal...

Decisions, decisions....

The Noob Goes to Astronomi-con

Yes indeed, folks, the Noob is playing in Astronomi-con, June 19 - 20, right here in my neck of the woods, Dallas. Now, many of you may be asking: "Noob, have you ever even played one game of 40K? Are all your figures painted? And have you lost your mind??" Well, folks, my answers are no, no, and maybe.

For those of you not aware, Astronomi-con is a story driven tournament, with 6 games being played over 2 days. Army size is 1,500 points, and I'll be playing Ultramarines (although I'm seriously thinking about switching to Dark Angels, only not the Ravenwing, but the Deathwing. Something about a table full of Terminators makes me happy, but I don't think I want to try and strip and paint my current set of Termies, not to mention I'll have to clear it with the wife to buy, oh, 6 to 8 boxes of new Terminators to the tune of roughly $300 to $400).

Now for my dilemma: what 1,500 points should I put in the table? I want to play a very basic army so my learning curve is shorter. I don't want to worry about psykers and what-not. Here is what I have available (some still need to be painted. And built.) to me:

2 SM Captains
40 SM Tacticals
10 SM Terminators (This is basically 2 Assault on Black Reach sets)
2 Whirlwinds
2 Predators
1 Razorback
5 Rhinos (3 w/ Smoke Launchers)
5 Legion of the Damned (includes Flamer and Melta)
25 Assault SM's
3 Land Speeders (with Bolters)
3 Dreadnaughts (2 from the AoBR set, one with missile launcher, all have power claw/fist)
1 Devastator Squad (5 men)
1 Techmarine w/ Bolter
1 set, Marneus Calgar and Honour Guard
5 SM Bikes (w/ Bolters)
2 Attack Bikes (w/ Bolter)
1 Apothecary

All have pretty much the basic weapons, nothing out of the ordinary. I'm doing this for fun and to learn so there's no need to worry about winning. I want to go basic and have a good learning experience.

With that in mind, who has any 1,500 point ideas???

We Have a winner!

And this should have been announced, like a week and a half ago, but our winner was Matt from the Archangels blog!

Matt, send me your particulars at bradATthesatorigroup.com and you'll be the proud new owner of a stripped Venerable Dreadnaught!

Now, Matt, what will you be giving away at Archangels?

Thanks to everyone that entered.

Now I gotta' go strip that Dread....