Power from Paint: Detached from reality

It has been a while since we last descended into the Web Ways, but I think it is high time we visit once again. I've been in something of a hobby limbo over the last few weeks, building some more of the kits from the Never Ending Pile of Plastic Crack, but not really feeling motivated to actually pick up a paint brush.

But that is all about to change as the First Founding Club have just published the rules pack for Octoberfest (our club tournament - 14th October, Chessington, SW London)!  There's a sort of hobby life cycle I go through every time the club puts on a new event:

• Step 1: Fantasize about starting a completely new army (one day Stealer Shock, one day)
• Step 2: Realise I have plenty of armies already
• Step 3: Pick a force, pick a couple of new units
• Step 4: Buy them, build them, (may be) paint them
• Step 5: Change my mind about something
• Step 6: Repeat Step 4 in part or full 

Hellions; trying so hard to be good on the tabletop!

In all seriousness this means I slowly grow the painted units in my collection, like the Hellions above who were quite good when they could be accompanied by the Baron (who made them troops and tanked for them quite nicely with his Shadowfield). Alas GW decided they can't be arsed to make a model for the Baron (along with a bunch of other special characters (Lady Malys, we miss you)), and apparently converting models is a bit tricky for new hobbyists, so being the lucky lucky players we are, the characters were dropped from the later edition Codexes.

The Baron, now reduced to Sergeant duties. 

Ahem. The point being these guys have had their time in the sun, and now some of the new toys get to come out to play.

Octoberfest and Mayhem are always quite challenging events to write lists for; they are set at quite a low point level, and sometimes have other "comp" restrictions. This time round we are working with the following:

• 1250 points
• Up to two detachments
• Only a single faction keyword (and no Imperium, Chaos or Aeldari (unless using Ynarri))

I'd quite like to take my Grey Knights as they haven't been to a First Founding tournament, but I'm struggling to write a list for them at 1250 points (a fondness for lots of Terminators and Dread Knights has that effect), so I've decided to stick with my Dark Eldar.

In previous posts I've examined Troops and HQs with a view to unlocking a Battalion Detachment to gain extra Command Points to use on the various stratagems.  I've also mused on Darklight weapons being an Archon's best friend. At 1250 points it is a bit tricky fitting all the commanders, boys and toys in, so it is worth looking at some of the other detachments as well. These give less Command Points but mean we aren't quite so restricted in our choices. In particular Vanguard, Spearhead, and Outrider Detachments allow us to take a lot of Elite, Heavy Support or Fast Attack choices with minimal HQ and Troop requirements.

How about a Fast Attack focused army based around Beast Packs and Scourges, backed up with Ravagers?

Ghost Hounds (counts as Khymera)

Get down Shep!

I'm actually quite tempted by this idea, but I'm not sure I'll paint all my Scourges in time (they look super fiddly). At the moment I'm playing around with a Spearhead Detachment (Heavy Support biased) that looks something like this:

• HQ: Archon
• Troops: Warriors with Blaster 
• Troops: Warriors with Blaster 
• Elite: Incubi
• Dedicated Transport: Venom
• Dedicated Transport: Venom
• Dedicated Transport: Raider
• Heavy Support: Dark Lance Ravager
• Heavy Support: Dark Lance Ravager
• Heavy Support: Disintegrator Ravager
• Flyer: Voidraven Bomber

This gives me a painting queue with the following units (and yes there are Warhammer Fantasy models here, I think they look the part and the swords aren't bendy like their finecast brethren):

The Boss Man

His body guards

A Dizzie Rascal

And a fantastic centre piece, the Voidraven bomber! Canopies to be added.

Of course there is a catch! (Isn't there always?) The missions haven't been published yet, but historically Octoberfest and Mayhem have always favoured Troop heavy forces in the scenarios, so there is always the possibility I will need to go scrabbling back to the drawing board to try and fit more basic grunts in!

And don't forget Step 5.

At the start of the article I mentioned I'd finished some other kit builds:

Haywire Blaster Scourges

Haywire Blasters are a bit meh, but hopefully they might get a boost in the Codex (fingers crossed), otherwise they will be counts as Something Else More Shooty.

Splinter Rifle Trueborn

Blaster Trueborn

I like the cloaks on these guys; the helmets are a bit odd but I got lazy and couldn't be bothered to trim down regular Kabalite helms (bad Varchilde!). These will get a lick of paint at some point.

So there you are; I hope you've enjoyed the article and if you are free on the 14th October feel free to come along to Octoberfest.