2012: The New Year is Cupped Gently in My Hobbying Hands

2011 was a year of goal making, goal changing, goal reaching, and goal failure. Basically, everything you can think of happening with goals has happened. I would consider this hobbying year an overall success as my biggest goal was completed in mid-December: 

The Tau Empire Red Star Cadre

"Marshy Dogs" 

  

This has been an event several years in the making. When I first started 40k, I chose Tau due to my love of robot suits and my experience painting such machines from years of playing Battletech. I also wasn't initially in-love with the Gothic look of the other forces. The army has evolved significantly since I first started it, relying more on Kroot, Pathfinders and XV-88 Broadsides than the tank-heavy armored strike force I had originally conceived. I've written ad nauseum about the evolution of my army, so I will let the photos do the talking.

Notice that the Fire Warriors armored shoulders spell out my first name. Quite clever, really.

Kroot Mercenaries are one of my favorite parts of the army. I have four squads of twenty, plus a few hounds. 

All flight bases, seeker missiles, and most vehicle guns are magnetized to reflect in-battle conditions. 

Not a unit I use often, Stealthsuits just look cool and can be a nasty surprise under the right circumstances.

My normal lists consist of Devilfish transports for the Pathfinders only. The Piranhas, Hammerheads and Fire Warrior transports have all been dropped in most of my standard small-to-medium lists. In higher point games I love nothing more than prowling around with my hover tanks. Despite their big guns, excellent weapon load outs, and snazzy wargear, they don't normally last too long since they make stellar targets for tank-hunting enemy forces.

As I played more games and slowly developed more of my army, I have expanded my painted force to include objective markers and terrain. This sort of personalization is one reason why developing my own themed army has been so much fun. Without worrying about Codex insignia, I have included lots of silly details into my force including battlesuits with WWII-style-lady nose art, Chinese Communist regalia, and my name hidden into the Tau lettering. In-game, the one Fire Warrior standing up is always the first to die. 

Tau objective markers. My Chinese-speaking family has noted that my numbers are often upside down.

The Kroot objective marker: A big pile of bloody meat. 

A crashed Tau Devilfish. No doubt a leftover from the many, many battles this brave little army has lost. 

Finally, I must give thanks to all my 40k friends and family that have helped make this army what it is. Random generosity from fellow Warhammer players was an amazing and surprising  aspect of the game that one will never read about in any rule book. Thanks so much to: Chris Tabor, Andrew Snow, Andrew Bruch and Aaron Lurz for donating to the cause of the Greater Good. I hope I have done justice to your gifts. 

I still have plenty of random bits and units that I will be adding to this force in the future to expand the Tau Marshy Dogs to an even greater degree. Be on the lookout for some Krootox, Kroot Shapers, those pesky Vespids. 

2012 means more assault marines...

The Future: My goals for 2012

The first project is my Raven Guard Space Marines. Originally I had planned to have this done by the New Year, however I radically changed up my list since that announcement. I have added some Razorbacks, Rhinos and more Assault Marines. I have ditched the scouts in my rewritten list to make room for these armored elements. My goal is to have 2000 points painted by this time in 2013. This is currently my main focus and will continue to add battles to my ongoing Pinturama Campaign.  

Razorback with custom built plasticard "extra armor" plates.

"Extra armor" plates are magnetically attached.

The second major goal is my Ork army. I would like to have 1500 points done by this time in 2013. I have plenty of boyz and trukks built and ready to paint as well as some almost finished Deff Dreads and Killa Kanz. The theme for my army is "Roborktek Defenz Force" including plenty of stompa madness and trukk mounted boyz. 

Ah, the meditation of gluing things together.

My last hobby goal is improving the terrain I have. There is no reason that the sizable collection of Games Workshop ruins I have can't be painted to a higher standard than they are currently. I will be adding a feature post called "Terrain is Not that Hard" where I will be discussing my building of terrain. I believe that there is no excuse to have an ugly game table. Everything on the table should be beautiful. 

Drop pods are a total pain in the ass.

As far as this blog, I will continue my Pinturama Campaign as I complete elements of my Raven Guard strike force. Also, I plan to work on another set of articles detailing the many homoerotic Space Marine quotes from the Black Library series. I've been enjoying the Horus Heresy immensely, but have found an interesting trend in the observations of Space Marines afforded to their Primarchs and others.


"Ahriman's heartbeat spiked at the sight of them, the first a gloriously comparisoned warrior...his face was one of perfect symmetry...this was a living, breathing angel made flesh, whose countenance was the most beauteous in  existence..." (McNeil, Graham McNeil, A Thousand Sons) 


Let's be honest, there's alot of sweaty tussling among those Astartes. I have a feeling the Space Marines operate a lot like the historic Spartans in the arts of war and love.

Here's to 2012, let the Nerditry March Onward.

That Space Marine is totally checking out my ass.