Next Hobby Project and reflection on the year that was

Hey all,

Back from a bit of radio silence. I was away in the land of cheap Warhammer, so not much hobby action there at all (though the GW sales staff in the UK are a lot less "fluff" orientated than the hobby-hero-hammer staff that work in NZ).

Anywho, any trip to the UK would not be the same without spending far too much money on Warhammer with the justification of a quick currency conversion + overseas use bank fees and then comparing that to the price your local Southern Hemisphere GW would charge for the same loot...

This of course now means that I have officially picked up my Hobby project for 2014...a Salamander Army.

SHOCK SHOCK a 40K army you might say??? ("I thought you already had a 40k army" was what the other half said)...and my answer to that is...DONT WORRY! I'm still a WHFB player first and foremost...I just have friends who also like to play 40K + it's fun...and that's going to be my key consideration...fun.

Now in that pile of plastic you will find:
3 Drop pods
1 Rhino
1 Razorback
1 Ironclad Dreadnaught
2 LandSpeeder Storms
2 Landspeeders
2x5 Scouts (no sniper rifles)
2x10 Tactical Marines
2x5 Devestators
5 Sternguard
AEGIS defence line

Meaning for my evil plans to come to fruition all I need to pick up from NZ is a thunderfire cannon and Vulkan.

I have set myself the goal of having it all painted with display board (and be reasonably confident using it) by Call to Arms 2014. Assuming CTA '14 is a 1750pt tournament with the usual rules and stuff I will have more than enough stuff to get some options together.

The Good news for all you is that my blog will no-longer be simply me painting another "X" to add to existing armies etc + I'll have to figure out how to make 40k battlereports make sense. The lack of strict movement rules can result in hard to follow reports, so I'll try my best.

WHY A SALAMANDER ARMY?
...especially when the internetz is telling me to Wave Serpent spam or take White Scars (the new "oh, I've totally owned that Demon Prince for years"). The reason is 2 fold.

The first fold is that since Space Marines are the default army in 40k they will never be "bad". They may not always be the top dogs, but they are the yardstick against which 40k is measured. My existing Ork army is the exact opposite. I'm sure when the book gets a revision in 20 years it will be the new shizz for 4 months or so, but it will eventually suffer "old codex" problems like it currently does today.

The 2nd fold is that Salamander's tick all the cool boxes for me. They like close quarter fighting with templates (Heavy Flamers = yum) and they have a dragon as their symbol! + I dont see many of them around = a chance to do something a little different. They also have built in super consistency at what they do best - flame and melta - which is a nice change from the Orks who do 1 thing consistently...powerklaws.

THE YEAR THAT WAS
So with the 2013 year officially finished I can now reflect on where things are at.

• I was 14th on the rankings for the Master's cut off, having fallen out of the top 10 after a frustrating Call To Arms where a couple of games I just failed to capture points from combats that I had successfully won (looking at you Halberds). This was better that last year where I was 16th.

In saying that I could have gone to Masters this year as I was 2nd on the waiting list - and the 1st no longer lives in NZ. However time zone differences + the dates colliding with the partner's birthday meant I couldn't go :( All the best to everyone who is attending.

• I am currently the Empire Icon Holder which was my goal for the year. I hope to extend my Stewardship of it for another year.

I'm very much looking forward to the usual Welly events next year. NZTC should be the highlight as it was so much fun last year + Panzershrek for some Swedish goodness. I hope to attend an event in OZ + hopefully an event in Auckland.