This is Sparta II

Ok so last time I explained a little bit about how I intended to go about modelling my new Blood Angel army. This time I want to talk a bit about the core principles of it, the initial list and my hopes and aspirations with the army.

First up the core principles. From a modelling perspective this is relatively straight forward.

1. Each model should be ‘Spartan Themed’ and easily identifiable as a Blood Angel. Whilst I can understand why people paint their marines as generic marines so they can use multiple codexes (who doesn’t want to save money for something other than plastic crack right? Not to mention the time it would take to paint an army for Codex Marines, Grey Knights, Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Dark Angels etc etc) to me it just doesn’t feel right. How can those dudes painted, for example, black and red really be Space Wolves? Wolves are grey right? And how can they be Grey Knights? They are silver aren’t they? It just galls me, call it a pet hate.
2. Each squad Serg and Independant Characters will have wings instead of a jumppack or backpack. It looks cool (IMO) and helps ID the model on the gaming table. ‘Which one of your assault marines is the serg?’ ‘It’s the one who has mutated a bit and grown wings’. Simples. I want a strong ‘Angel’ theme running through the army.
3. Each Serg and IC will use a torso from the Sanguinary Guard, the ones with the sculpted on abs ;). Again, helps give Serg’s and IC’s that bit more individuality.

From a gaming perspective:

1. The army has to be able to go into reserve and still be viable. It’s the one thing i really missed when using my Wolves.
2. I wanted to use units which are different to my Wolf playing style. This meant mobile firepower (tieing into point 1), mobile assault troops, ranged fire support on vehicles. I want to include a tactical squad at some point but I’m struggling to think how to keep the ‘tactical marine’ feel but tie it into a Spartan theme at the moment though.

So what does my initial list look like?

Mephiston 250 (Awesome modelling opportunity and the conversion i have in mind will pass as a normal, although pretty imposing, Librarian)

2 Priests with jump packs 150

Chaplain with jump pack 125

2 x 10 Assault Marines with 2 melta guns and a power fist 235 x 2

5 Assault Marines with 1 melta gun in a Razorback with heavy bolters 130

3 Scout Bikers with combi melta and melta bomb on the serg 85

2 Speeders with multi meltas 120

2 Predators with lascannon sponsons 135 x 2

Dreadnought with twin las and extra armour 150

I’m sure it’s not the best list in the world but it does something in every phase and should be enjoyable to play with and against. I’m also very aware that 6th ed may well chuck it all up in the air but i’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

I guess that just leaves me to talk briefly about what i am hoping to achieve with my Blood Angels. The honest answer is, fun. For me the hobby has become a lot more ‘serious’ with almost Sport like elements to it now (intense practice, eeking every % of efficiency out of lists (to the point where the merit of each single point is being furiously discussed in some places – like it really matters??), crazy arguements on the net and sometimes in real life as mistakes/wrong calls etc end up ‘costing’ players points and prizes etc). To be frank i don’t need that. My job is increasingly stressful as i move up the ladder, enjoyable but hard work and in a competitive market place and i’m really into my fitness training at the moment, entering challenging races and training as hard as i can down the gym so i need something to do to chill and have a beer with. Toy soldiers is that something. So my aims with the army are to compete for a best painted nomination at each event i take them to and to win more games than i lose over the course of a weekend. Oh and to finish above the rest of the CSM guys of course 😉

With that i’ll leave you with a piccy of my first test model, who is eagerly awaiting his crest which is winging its way over from the US of A. Until next time fellow geeks!