Et tu Brute?

It might be the change in weather, or it might be that I started running/hitting the gym again but Spring has somehow resulted in more motivation to paint, build army lists and generally be more productive.  The past two weeks, I took the time to work on one of the 3 Helbrutes that I need completed as part of the list I plan to bring with me to the next Millennium tournament.

I have a few new elements in this list - and I have found these incremental changes really help a lot when it comes to pushing me to complete painting projects.

Born on the Bayou

I've made more progress on the swamp board over the past week. While I am getting a lot of things done on the board, the pace may seem a little slow since so much of the time is spent letting glue dry between applications. But fear not, things are progressing and starting to take shape. So without dragging this out, let's take a look at what I was able to accomplish this past week.

Quick Daemon Thoughts

I had the chance to grab a game this weekend at the local Millennium tournament and being there whet my appetite to get back into playing some more 40k games.  I am going to try to get out at least one or two nights before next month's tournament to practice/relax a bit.  Somehow, it seems like Spring leaves me with more energy than Winter when it comes to around the house and 40k.

The tournament at Millennium though is unique - and requires some more painting - in that it is 2000 points and up to 3 Forge World units with no Super Heavies, Gargantuans or D Weapons allowed.

Swamp Board - A Genesis

A couple of weeks ago I announced that my first terrain project for 2014 was to be a swamp themed board. Well, the weather has started to cooperate in Western NY so I started work on the board. The idea behind this board is that I want to create a realistic looking lowlands/swamp that fits a 6x4 table surface but will have modular pieces so that even though the overall shape and layout of the board will always be the same, the modular pieces should have enough variety so that the board as unlimited potential for layouts. So let's see what I got done last week.

Balance of Power - 1 Casual, 1 Tournament List

This week the world's eyes - well the Warhammer 40k world's eyes - was on Adepticon.  It was great to see a few Daemons among the top finishers for the tournament.  It was sad to see that none of the lists were particularly inspired.  For the most part they took minimum troops, maximum flying monstrous creatures.  Before discussing army lists, a quick observation.

The most interesting 'innovation' of the tournament for a Daemon player was the inclusion of 9x Fiends by Bill Kim.  Kim is a veteran Daemon player, and it makes sense that he would bring them to both quash psychic powers with -1 ld within 12" of each Fiend and eliminate the Hit and Run shenanigans that so many armies seem to rely on.  I started taking a similar load out for Fiends in December - I had experimented with 2 smaller units, but the truth is you need the whole grouping of 9 to be effective.  I have also started running a Slaanesh herald on Seeker mount to get them into those backfield psykers through outflanking.  Grabbing a lesser gift also enable the Witstealer sword - which pairs well with the Fiends initiative reduction.