Goatboy’s 40k Thoughts: I Want a New Army!
Now we all know that we can’t play the same plastic miniatures day in and day out. Things get boring and the desire to learn something new and try a different play style out drives us to buy more plastic and fill up a room with empty sprues and cardboard boxes. What I want to talk about, is how I decided to create and buy a new army.
Usually the first thing I do is always purchase the codex. I normally buy every codex that comes out since I like reading every army to see what will annoy me across the table during a game. I usually have a good idea what kind of army the codex pushes me toward.
The first thing I do is look at the range of minis and make sure the models are something I like to play. Now I am one of those players that only brings out painted models if I can help it. I don’t like seeing fields of grey on the board, so I want to make sure I will paint the army. This means the models have to look cool. The first thing any army has to do to get my attention is have that “it” factor in the mini range. Also, I like to only use plastic if possible, so if the range has a majority of metal minis that will often stop me right there. I find metal is just too much of an annoyance with the super gluing and constant repairs from the dropped models.
After finding a range of minis I like, I then start to devise a paint scheme. It is very important if you desire a cohesive army, to have a pre-determined paint scheme. What it will do for you is allow you to figure ways to work through the army. This doesn’t mean every model has to look the same, but it does mean that they need to have some kind of connection between each of the units. I like to write down all the paints I used as well as the layering method I used for each. This makes it easier when you have to work through the models towards the end of army. This can also work with any conversions or design aspects you want to incorporate throughout the army.
Once I figure out the army range and paint scheme I get into the whole design aspects of the army. I am one of those, have every option available players, so playtesting the army is not something I do for the list. I theorize and then build and paint the army. Once it is done I take it out on the field and see if it works. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t and that usually means more purchases at my local store. I like to have all options because it allows me to have an evolving army that isn’t something that everyone seeing day in and day out. I know a lot of people don’t have this option, as their budgets are limited, but it is something I like and is one of the ways I can explore an army list and range. It also gives you flexibility to try out new things from week to week, and protects you from the evolving meta-game that can leave fixed static armies high and dry (such as the recent power level change to Nob-bikers).
After all of this I usually have a nice looking force that I can take to the table-top and hope to place in a tournament, as well as give a good game to anyone. Now of course this doesn’t go into how I convert most of my army and look for ways to make an army more affordable. We’ll save that for a future post.
The following pictures are some of the new things I worked on for the Ork army I am currently machining through. I had to do a rush Meganob order so here are 10 metal clad Orks running around. They go well with all the trukks and battle wagons I have finished so far. The new Forge World half trakk ork trukk looks awesome and it is calling to me. Damn you GW resin masters!!!
As usual shoot me an email at [email protected] if you have any questions, want me to review a list, or give you some thoughts on art etc. What are your thoughts on starting new armies? How do you pick and design your next one, and when do consider your current army finished and know its time to move on to something different?
