The Road Ahead 2011

When it comes to those of us who live in Austin, TX I am more the hobby guru. Not that this is a bad thing, but being more about all things hobby tends to hurt my game. Does this bother me? Not particularly but it reminds me where my priorities should be. Before I talk about my course for the coming year I always like to see where I have been.

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Project Log: The Shelf of Shame

Well there it is in all of its procrastinated glory. I have even more unpainted figures for the Empire, but this is the army that I will be painting up according to the list that I drew up in my last installment. As you can see my force is in various stages of paint, from bare plastic/metal all the way up to being done.

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WFB Hobby: Coming Out of Semi-Retirement

Over the last two years my tournament WFB armies have been pretty much retired. They would come out from time to time to play friends or help folks out in tuning their forces up, but I have really not had much of an interest in playing tournament games with them. Mind you some of this is due to some absolutely horrendous sportsmanship at the first WFB ‘ard Boyz. Well, Minus 67 has talked me into pulling my oldest army out of retirement, which is now 20 years old. It is the one army I own that has the best chance of being competitive in the Daemon/Vampire dominated tournament scene, and one of the few armies that consistently shows up in the top ten rankings. That army is the Empire.

My Empire army is a multi-generational army that was started on the tail end of 3rd start of 4th edition. Its main core of troops was initially built using the figures found in the GW-Milton Bradley Game called Battlemaster. Many of those figures are still in my army, and yes they are absolutely tournament legal because they were made by GW. In 6th edition my army got its first real face lift with the figures that came out with the boxed set. Then in 7th edition, after the recent army book, I got the battalion box with the new style troops.

I’m sure that by now many of you are wondering what all of this rambling is about and I assure you that I have a point. I’m going to write a series of hobby articles revolving around rehabilitating this old army for tournament play. I will also discuss some of my thought processes behind unit selection and tactics. Overall, I will be focusing more on the hobby aspect of all of this because that is what I enjoy the most, and it will give me a framework for the hobby articles I have thought about writing.

I’ve designed a preliminary army. The build had a few main goals. They were: 1. Use what I have. 2. Make something fun to play and play against. 3. Make sure it has a chance to perform well. 4. Leave room for improvement.

With that in mind I designed the following list. It is far from perfect, but it looks interesting and should put up a decent fight.

Empire Army List

Arch Lector Of Sigmar on War Altar x1 w/ Wyrmslayer Sword, Armor Metoric Iron, Van Horstman's Speculum; 295pts
3x Battle Wizard Level 2 w/ Dispel Scroll x2; 450pts
Knights Blazing Sun x10 w/Full Command, Steel Standard; 290pts
Halberdiers x30 w/ Full Command; 170pts
Spearmen x30 w/ Full Command; 170pts
Crossbowmen x20 w/ Full Command; 180pts
2x Handgunners x10 w/ Marksman, Hochland Long Rifle; 210pts
Great Cannon x3; 300pts
Mortar x1; 75pts
Hellblaster Volley Gun x1; 110pts

Total: 2250pts 134 Models 8PD/7DD

The goal with this build is for the big units to act as meat shields for the casters. The Arch Lector is for general beat down, and I think it is pretty self-evident what the shooters are for. I realize that I spammed my artillery and casters, but I think that is a small matter. My greatest strength is guessing range, and I have enjoyed a lot of success with the big guns. Nothing brings a wider smile to my face than when my opponent walks into the mouth of the Hellblaster, or when my opponent thinks my ranges are off only to find that they have been hit by three cannons and a mortar.

I will be looking at ways to add a Steam Tank into this army. I may also look at some alternative builds, but for now it looks like I have a good starting point.

In my next installment I will face my shame publicly by producing the Portrait of Shame, or as I call it, “What I should’ve finished painting ages ago.” I will examine what exactly I will need to do to get this force fully painted and on the table. I will discuss how I will plan this all out, and I will look at what will need to get its paint stripped and what can just remain as is.

All right readers your turn! Have at my build. Also let me know what major army plans you are looking at for the 2010-2011 Tournament Season.

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New Year Plans

Many websites and blogs run a New Year or year in review post of some variety, so I’ve decided that I should reflect on what happened for me this last year in gaming and let my readers know what is going on for the upcoming year.

2007 in review
This last year has been a big year for me. We will start with the release of the Empire Army book for Warhammer Fantasy. The release of this marked the beginning of a year filled with all sorts of new releases for me.

Immediately on the heels of that book came Codex: Dark Angels. I was mildly entertained that my two longest running armies had back to back releases. I was pleased with both books and have had a lot of fun playing them.

2007 also saw the release of Apocalypse, which I strongly feel is demonstrating the future direction that Games Workshop is going. So far, the games of Apocalypse that I have been a party to have been fun, which is where I think GW is going. This new addition to the game has allowed many of us to dust off our Armorcast Super Heavy Tanks and Titans. It has also encouraged me to begin the fine art of scratch building, which has been fun and challenging.

Plans for 2008
I’ll start off with the biggest plan for 2008. It will be that I will be graduating from the University of Texas in the summer. What this means is that while school is on I know I will be posting less. With family, school, and hobby, it will be the last that takes the back seat first. However I did accomplish a lot last semester with hobby stuff so we will see how it goes. I think that video blogging might save my keester and alow me to do some more blogging.

My scratch building plans are going to include some Stompas, finishing my first Battle Wagon, making a second Battle Wagon, and detailing the Thunderbolt. I also really want to get to work on painting my Orks.

Finally, as long as there is going to be prize support for our tournaments in town I would like to try and bulk out my Nids and Orks with newer models by attending as many Tourneys as I can.

Well there you have it. Looks like an exciting year!

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