Monday - September 15, 2008

The Paint-a-thon

First, a little background, so those of you who care can get caught up with what I'm talking about here.

I'm part of a fan-club called the "40K Fight Club," which is a Warhammer 40K gaming community. We're not really so much a "Gaming League," or anything of the sort, as there's really little more than friendly competition between us. The 40KFC is more of a network of gamers who like to share their hobby with like-minded, mature people. Sadly, as I'm sure some of you have read me rant about on this very blog, the hobby tends to be permeated by people who have not yet required a razor as part of their daily grooming. The 40K Fight Club makes sure that the people we network with for games are old enough to be mature about their gaming, and helps us find games between other members, discuss tactics, numbers, strategy, painting, design, technique... all of the stuff that goes with the wonderful hobby that is Warhammer 40,000.

That said, here's the scoop: This friday is the first Legio Nonus (our Fight Club chapter) All-Nighter at the Novi Games Workshop store where Arica works. The plan is to host a Necrons vs Eldar Apocalypse game, so all members are encouraged to bring everything of those armies that they can muster.

The catch? Only painted models on the table... which means I'm going to be missing some.

Let's take a tally:

So, as you can see, I don't have a LOT to do, in comparison to what I've already got done. I don't plan on assembling / painting my Deceiver for this game, so I can rank him out right now. I've come to terms with the idea that I won't be fielding more than one of my Monoliths, because they simply take too much time to assemble and I want them painted WELL.

What this basically leaves me with is a problem with what to paint first, and how fast can I paint as much of the above list as possible before Friday? It doesn't seem like a lot, but you'd be surprised how slow of a painted I can be when I put my mind to it. I got into this hobby because I liked painting the figures... it's just a bonus to me to be able to play the game with them also, and look good doing it.

I think my priority list is : finish my 5 warriors so I can present 3 full squads, then finish my Immortals. I'm not terribly worried about the Pariahs - though they're REALLY nice against Eldar, they also have limited use, and I only have 5 of them anyway. After Immortals, I'd like my Destroyers finished. Destroyers, with regards to usefulness, should probably go before Immortals, since they're the bomb-diggity, but I think Immortals are cooler looking, and I want my command squad there in force. Last in consideration is my Heavy Destroyers, since they make decent tank-busters, but little else. One will more often take Destroyers for their higher volume of weaker shots, and spend their points on Monoliths for heavy support and utility.

I want to make an effort to get the crater painted, as past experience with my monolith tells me I'll need it... but it's far from vital. It's nice to be prepared though, and when the rules say, "remove the vehicle from play and replace it with a smoldering crater," it impresses people when you produce said-smoldering-crater, and place it on the board. It enhances one of the aspects of the game I've come to truly appreciate, and that is theatrics. One can only play Ghetto-hammer so long before they aspire to drive their game to the next level.

So, wish me luck on my paint-a-thon. I'll try to take a group photo if I can wrangle a camera to use Friday.