My usual 40K game group has quietly died, and it was sort of my fault.
To set the scene, one of my associates from the tabletop RPG space has moved into 40k in a big way. At first I thought more the merrier and helped him get into it, unfortunately I already had an idea to the kind of player that he would be. In spite of this I put my reservations aside and resolved to give him a fair shake.
A few weeks in and he was regularly trouncing me in one on one games and ended up taking increasingly unfriendly lists tailored exactly to wreck my usual load out. Yet, in the spirit of inclusiveness I invited him to my usual Sunday group, but first I warned him to be on his best behavior and ease off on the hyper competitive list building.
Game day came and the list ended up being a list entirely of assassins that I later learned was from the hyper competitive variety. Long and short of it, the group hasn't convened since. Much later I learned that his list and behavior at the table was exactly the reason the group has not convened again.
A week later I went against him again with my guard list and literally got tabled first turn, at this point I decided the time investment of playing against him wasn't worth it. He did insist on replaying that first turn except with my guard having the first move, but my heart wasn't in it and I wanted nothing more than to go home and move on with my life. Unfortunately, since he is the only one that wants to play 40K right now, it means that I haven't had a chance to get a decent game in.
I guess the take away from this exercise is that each group has their own culture and norms on the table top. I made the mistake of inviting someone in that broke those norms to such a degree that it destroyed the trust in said group that I had previously earned.
Long and short of it, my game group is now ash and I have to rebuild it from square one. Good times.
What I've Been Painting
Finishing off the Ultramarines has been a major milestone for me. They were a major slog and I'm glad to see the back of them. In order to prevent the painters burnout from setting in again I've tried getting a variety of projects on the table in order to give me some variety to work with. While it has been a pain from an organisational point of view, it has allowed me to maintain a much greater throughput.
Recently Completed
Imperial Bastion
I bought this to help offset the fragility of my Astra Militarum infantry, but even though it has been finished it has yet to see action.
The kit itself was a bit of a pain to fit together. It required a fair bit of green stuff on the upper most battlements to deal with some of the gaps. In terms of painting I followed the schema that I used for my Aegis Defence Line and Bunker. I also made an attempt with concrete chipping using the sponge technique, but it didn't come out the way I was hoping. Otherwise I'm fairly happy with the result and it'll fit in nicely with the rest of my fortifications.
Pan Oceania Cutter
This one was supposed to be the last PanO model I would ever paint, unfortunately my participation in the local Infinity scene has brought to light some of the major gaps in my current line up. More on that to follow.
As with all Corvus Belli models, this one was a bastard to get assembled due to the thin components and the white metal material. Once that was done I applied the usual Giraldez method for PanO models. Gradient highlights with the usual mix of blues and a black line shade for the recesses with a stark white highlight for the sharp edges. Once that was done I picked out a few more components with their won colours and decided to call it a day.
Overall I was surprised with how quickly I managed to bang this project out once I was over the Airbrushing stage. Like with vehicles generally, the fewer colours significantly decrease the time spent on the model. I'm also surprised with how good it looks for such a lazy paint job.
Robute Gulliman
The big blue himself, and I hated every minute of painting him. The worst part of definitely an overabundance of gold trim. It took a solid layer of Vallejo Air Metallics Copper, followed by a layer of Gold to build it up to the base coat, and due to my lack of patience with being neat at this point, I had to go back and clean up all of the blue after the fact. The sword didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, though it does make use of the whole yellow glaze on white process, which I will certainly be stealing for future projects. Other than that, everything else was pretty much standard. The level of quality is probably mid range table top, and I'll settle with it at this point.
Lelith Hesparex
The Queen of the Arena herself has the honour of being my test model for my Dark Eldar project.The skin, "armour", and hair have turned out pretty well, as did the warpaint on the face. This somewhat problematically dressed lady will be centerpiece of my almost entirely skimmer-bourne assault army.
The only downside is that the model itself is finecast, with all the problems that come with it. Fortunately all of the details that didn't cast correctly I mostly covered with a paint job, and the major focal points turned out fairly well.
Underway
Leman Russ Punisher
This is the first, and probably most fundamental addition to my Astra Militarum army for this cycle. In terms of weaponry, the Punisher strikes me as the best antidote for multi wound monster models and hordes, a capacity that my AM currently lack.
In terms of hobby I'm planning on fully magnetizing the kit, which means I should be able to swap it to any configuration that comes with the box. I'm also planning to do the magnetization after painting for the most part to make my life easier.
So fair I've got the main Castellan Green basecoat down, a fairly easy airbrush job without any fancy pre-shading or gradients. Next up is the Steel Legion Drab brown stripes. I estimate that I'll have this vehicle completed relatively quickly, as I find tanks are fair quicker to paint than infantry models.
Kabalite Warriors
I've done all of the assembly and the gradient priming for my Dark Eldar Line infantry. I'm currently waiting for a decent time slot to break out the airbrush again and put down the base coat of Incubi Darkness.
Cygnar Grenadier Light Warjacks
Hopefully these two will be the absolutely last of my Warmachine Models, then I can put this army to bed. So far priming and the under paint layer of Exile Blue is down. These are the old school metal models that I stripped off from my old army. I did so at the advice of one of my local wargaming buddies regarding their effectiveness. Again, I won't be going for an amazing paint job, just something good enough to fit in with my existing army.
Ultramarine Rievers
So, it turns out that the getting started Riever snack pack doesn't give me enough models for a legal squad. I've picked up another small box to top them up to legal size. Given what I've just been through I should be able to smash them out pretty quickly. Since I want to start rolling out my smurfs on the table top they may get bumped to the top of the priority stack.
Games Played
Infinity
As mentioned previously, I gave the local Infinity Slow Grow a go with my Pan Oceania Fusilier horde. I wasn't expecting to do well, I was mostly hoping to start internalizing the rules and nuances of the game. Overall it turns out I stumbled on a fairly strong list in the early stages. My first few games were fairly tightly controlled learning games, I won the first through no fault of my own and drew the second due to unlucky dice rolls. Since I had a lot of help from the TO in the second game I certainly wouldn't allocate any of my army's success to my own tactical acuity.
The third game ended up being a grind, as this time I came up against Total Reaction Bots for the first time and didn't have an answer to it. I ended up being back into one corner of the board, and since this was a table quarters game I ended up losing in a big way. This was the game that showed me what my major deficiencies were, and now I'm planning to get my own Total Reaction Bots, as well as an engineer, medic and variety of other additions to my PanO.
I later got a message from my opponent pointing out a few rules he got wrong, especially since he is a relatively new player himself. I appreciate this sort of thing happening in the local meta, as it makes actual development at high level game play possible and builds a far healthier local scene. I'm looking forward to doing this again when it rolls around again. Unfortunately, I wish these things didn't conflict with my existing role playing game commitments.
Anyway, that is it for now. I've got a 40K game with a returning player lined up for later this month and a large game of Chain of Command with my British at some point in the future. In terms of painting I'm aiming to fill out the last of my 40K armies at a steady pace. Wintercon is coming up, so I should consider entering at least one of the events, hopefully more on that in the future.
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