Taking up Matt Hutson's Hobby Challenge

In this month's White Dwarf Matt Hutson laid down a challenge to the rest of the WD team: to paint a new force in time for the next issue to go to print. Having had no luck at all with the hobby vows I'd been setting myself I thought “If I'm going to fail, I might as well fail to a generous deadline.”.

Optimism, that's what I want anyone who stumbles upon this blog to find: optimism.

The next White Dwarf hits on Saturday 30th March (New Doctor Who Day!) so that gives me thirty four days in which to paint a workable army. For this project I've chosen the Tomb Kings since I have all the miniatures I need already. In my mind the minimum workable army size in Warhammer is 1,000 points so that'll be my goal. Picking and choosing from my original 2,000 army list gives me this tidy little force:

Heroes

Tomb Prince armed with great weapon and light armour. Army General. 106 points

Liche Priest armed with hand weapon, Level 2 Wizard using the Lore of Nehekhara riding a Skeletal Steed. Heirophant. 115 points

Liche Priest armed with hand weapon, Level 1 Wizard. 70 points

Core

20 Skeleton Warriors armed with spear, light armour and shield, full command. 150 points

11 Skeleton Horsemen armed with spear, light armour and shield, full command. 184 points

3 Skeleton Chariots, Charioteers armed with spear and bow, full command. 195 points.

Special

3 Sephulchral Stalkers armed with halberds.165 points

985 points

40 models in 34 days doesn't seem too much of a challenge and even if I don't quite make it I'll have made a dent in the job. So far I have one skeleton finished and nine others half-done so I'm nearly a tenth of the way there already.

Zandri Blackshields army list

Aims of the army

There's no theme to this army at all. The plan here is to create a general, balanced army with some infantry, some cavalry, some monsters and as many wizards as I can fit in. The basis of the list were the kits I bought when the last Army Book came out: the Battalion (which is great), a couple of the new monsters and twenty Tomb Guard.

The list:

Lords

Tomb King (170) armed with great weapon (6) and light armour. Army General. 176 points

Heroes

Liche Priest (70) armed with hand weapon, Level 2 Wizard (35) using the Lore of Nehekhara riding a Skeletal Steed (10). Heirophant. 115 points

Liche Priest (70) armed with hand weapon, Level 1 Wizard. 70 points

Liche Priest (70) armed with hand weapon, Level 1 Wizard. 70 points

Tomb Herald (60) armed with hand weapon riding a Skeletal Steed (10). Battle Standard Bearer (25) carrying the Banner of Swiftness (15, +1 Movement). 110 points.

Core

20 Skeleton Warriors (80) armed with spear (20), light armour (20) and shield, full command (30). 150 points

20 Skeleton Warriors (80) armed with spear (20), light armour (20) and shield, full command (30). 150 points

11 Skeleton Horsemen (132) armed with spear, light armour (22) and shield, full command (30). 184 points

5 Skeleton Horse Archers (70) armed with hand weapon and bow, full command (30). 100 points.

3 Skeleton Chariots (165), Charioteers armed with spear and bow, full command (30). 195 points.

Special

20 Tomb Guard (220) armed with halberds (40), light armour and shields, full command (30). 290 points

3 Sephulchral Stalkers (165) armed with halberds.165 points

Rare

Necrosphinx (225). 225 points.

Total: 2000 points

This list gives me a good spread of foot and mounted units, plenty of core troops and a couple of impressive centrepiece units to get my teeth into. Totalled up the army comes to 88 individual models, mostly skeletons, so I should be able to finish it pretty quickly.

As to its tactical usefulness... not a clue. As I've said before this is an army I'm completely unfamiliar with so I'll be learning as I go. As you can see I've hedged my bets by taking a good spread of the Core choices and keeping the monstrous mad shit to a minimum. And Liche Priests, lots and lots of Liche Priests.

My only disappointment was I didn't have room on the list for some Ushabti but I can always swap out the Stalkers for them later or add them to a 2,400 points army list.

Random acts of hobby

Sometimes you just run out of steam and grind to a halt. I failed my first hobby vow which threw me into a bit of a funk, to be honest.

I've decided I can't actually be bothered with the Dark Vengeance Dark Angels, its too many projects at once. They'll get done, just not now.

On the plus side I got enough models painted (well, painted enough) to take part in the first game on my friend Dave's new gaming table. 2,000 points: Dave's Dark Angels (a mere fifth of his collection, he's a dedicated man) versus a Chaos Space Marine alliance of my Night Lords and Matt's Black Legion. Good game, won by my team on objectives and a few lessons learnt:

Cultists are brilliant for holding objectives, especially if you advance them under cover of Terminators. It was the unit led by the Champion in a Commissar's greatcoat, he's getting a character.

Chosen are not as survivable as I assumed they'd be. I really should have bought them a transport.

Power mauls and force staves are worthless! My Sorcerer and Dave's Terminator Chaplain were locked in a seemingly endless duel for four and a half turns. Power axes, by comparison, are amazing. Matt and I need to have a grudge match, though, as his Lord and Chosen were in a perfect position to come to my Sorcerer's aid AND HUNG ME OUT TO DRY! Grudge match, XVI Legion bastards.

It was, however, the first game where I was able to keep my eye on the objectives. Usually I get so into the fight, especially when playing a fun old friend like Dave, that I lose sight of the actual purpose of the scenario.

On an aside I helped my friend Dan paint his new house this past week which meant unlearning the lessons of a lifetime and making sure there was as much paint as possible on my brush.

“Do you need a three-stage highlight on this bannister, Dan, or should I just drybrush it?”

Oh, and before I forget:

This week's hobby vow

Write three army lists so I have concrete plans for my projects.