Grey Knights vs Orks

Last Monday I got a game in with riotbat from CAGE who brought out his new Orks. Very exciting game though it did take us a bit longer than what it has been.

Having more firepower in this game than I have had in the past, we were both surprised (me pleasantly so) when the first 3 rounds were pretty much nothing more than a Turkey shoot.

However, not understanding how badass Orcs are in close combat and completely forgetting to use my Cleansing Flame power of my Purifiers, the bottom of the 3rd round turned the whole game around and became a race for a tie. In which I lost. Lost big time. Was an exciting match though and had a lot of fun. Most importantly - I learned a couple of things. Such as using my superior firepower and not to forget to use my special powers!

Grey Knights Growing!!

Have some lines to clean up on the new Razorback and more detail to put on it as well as some parts, but liking the look of it!

I haven't decided if I am going to swap turrets out yet for visual interest yet, but part of me likes the swap out.

This is why I am a newb. I am so proud of this glowing effect on my Interceptor's backpack/teleporter! Learned how from this month's White Dwarf. The original article was for green energy for Necrons, but I applied it here. I like it!!

Castellan Crowe's details are starting to come along and I've finally attached his banner to his backpack and getting it painted up. Still have to finish him off but taking my time, since for now he's one of my better painted models IMO.

You can see one of my Interceptors on the far left still being worked on, but here's my army so far.  still have a Dreadknight in the box and will be unveiling him in June here I think. Speaking of June, I should be adding another Razorback and a 5-man Purgation squad into the mix as well. Almost there for my first 2,000 point GK Army! (note: the Terminators will be retired for future use and not being counted towards my 2K points)

New Paint

I got new paint today from Bud's. Was under a budget, so wanted to concentrate on paints that I didn't have yet or really wanted to try (such as the Glaze and Drybrush varieties). Got to use a couple of them tonight - namely the Guilliman Blue Glaze and Necron Compound Dry).

Added to my previous paint pots, I've really got a pretty good newb collection of pots going. I took advantage a couple of weeks ago, just before the new line of paint pots came out to stock up on a couple of my previous favorite pots (Skull White, Asurmen Blue, Burnished Gold and Boltgun Metal).

All-in-all I have 28 pots now. Not bad for someone a year ago who thought he'd never paint at all and was planning on having his wife paint his miniatures or pay for it to be done. Next post will be of some of my work tonight with the new (and old) paints.

Book Review: Salamander

If I wasn't already a fan of the Salamanders Space Marine chapter, I would be after reading the first book in this triology. An outstanding tale of Space Marine brotherhood, with insights on how Space Marine chapters react to each other when they aren't immediately known to each other and a ton of lore for the Salamander fan.

Rich in detail, character development and story, this is a worthy title in the Black Library line of Space Marine books and has me ever more excited about this great chapter.

Book Review: Flight of the Eisenstein

Excellent book! The action, emotional quality and character development in this book supercedes or is compatable to the series before it. I was previously a fan of James Swallow with his Blood Angels Omnibus, but this work elevated him even further in my enthusiasm for his stories.

The book concentrates itself around the point of view of one central character - Nathaniel Garro, a member of the Death Guard and his escape from the Istvaan masacre and bringing the message of Horus's Heresy to Terra. An outstanding tale and my new favorite in the series.

Book Review: Galaxy in Flames

Where Horus Rising excelled at character development and False Gods pushed the plot forward, the strength in Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter was in the detailed action and combat scenes. It was difficult for me to get into this book for the first 40-50 pages but I am glad I slogged through them, because it turned out to be an awesome action-filled combat book. Much as movies like Saving Private Ryan brought World War 2 to gruesome life, so did Galaxy in Flames did for the Horus Heresy and the battle of Isstvan III.

It is a toss up for me on which book I liked better so far - Horus Rising or Galaxy in Flames. This book was all about the combat and the detailed battle scenes were second to none. All through these first three books of the Horus Heresy, you can't help but wish that the Warmaster would change his direction - though as a player we already know the answer to that.

Well written, I'm looking forward to the next book in the series and learning more about Garro. The Flight of the Eisenstein is also by James Swallow, who wrote the Blood Angels books and my favorite series (Blood Angels Omnibus) that I've read in the 40K Universe up to this point.

Newb Army A.D.D. Part 4

As discussed in my last post on the subject, I like the idea of building two armies at once and thus leaving me with 3 armies to field when they are done. Granted this means it won't be until late 2012 at the earliest and realistically into 2013. This means that both Dark Eldar and Blood Angels have been pushed off the shelf - for now. I definitely want to play these armies in the future, but since this is the harsh arena of process of elimination, they are gone. For now.

This leaves the choice of building a Chaos Space Marines and a Chaos Demon army together, or building two Space Marine armies together. So which two do I go for? Some things to consider:

• I already have or will have a Grey Knights army. In both of my options I'm still playing around with Space Marines, though in one I can also play with Demons.
• Space Marines armies are a dime a dozen, but building them is usually cheaper (according to some).
• 6th Edition will be out by the time either of these choices are built. Can probably count on these both being updated to 6th edition by the time they are built with new codex's.
• Both have great support through Forge World and GW shows them all some love.

In the very long run, I expect I will have several armies. So no matter my choice, no matter the armies I've already shelved, I will eventually get around to the ones left behind. I am very drawn to the lore and fluff of the 40K universe and very much into the hobby aspects of it as well. This logically means that as I go forward in the hobby, the better my painting, army building, etc. will become. So with all that in mind, I've decided on my winner...

The Space Marines.

The next step is to decide which two chapters I want to build. In a perfect world, I'll choose two that compliment each other, just in case I get half way through and settle on a unified army of two chapters instead of two individual chapters. In a perfect world I'll end up with two outstanding armies.

So my next step is to decide which two armies. They will both need to be radically different in terms of tactical organization, so I'm not just playing the same army painted two different ways. My options are nearly endless with the combinations, but I will be keeping to established chapters from the lore of the 40K universe. Possibilities include but are not limited to:

• Ultramarines
• Salamanders
• White Scars
• Ravenguard
• Howling Gryphons (Badab era)
• Carcharodons (Badad era)

Considering I still have a lot of time as I build my Grey Knights army, I have plenty of time in deciding which two chapters. I'll be sure to update my thoughts here on the blog of course. I hope this exercise helps other newbs out there in deciding what they want to run by taking a good hard look at all of the options out there. I know it helped me. Before running through these posts, I was considering Dark Eldar, but I like this choice better. The Dark Eldar can be my 4th army!

New Items from Forge World

The very cool looking Dark Eldar Tantalus (above) and Land Raider Proteus (below). Not available for order yet and debuting for sale on September 25th at Game Day.

Newb Army A.D.D. Part 3

When I left off last, I had narrowed down my selection of potential second armies to the following:

• Blood Angels
• Chaos Demons
• Chaos Space Marines
• Dark Eldar
• Space Marines

I've decided that in the wake of Battleforces availability and my own desire of collecting, that a possibility will be to make two armies at the same time. This might not make sense though depending on the army/armies I choose. Let's look at the possibilities.

The Blood Angels is a strong army, with fluff that I really like. No, I'm not a romantic emo-vamp lover, but I like the Blood Angels from what I've read (codex, Omnibus) and from what I've seen on the gaming table.

The Dark Eldar is an awesome looking army, with a roguish style that appeals to me (I usually end up playing Rogue characters in RPG's, MMO's). I like the fluff, their models, the tactics. I don't even mind the fact that they are glass cannons.

Chaos Demons. Awesome looking models and from what I've heard, a decent army.

Chaos Space Marines. According to various reports I've heard and read, I really like the versatility of this army. I like the fluff and think that some of the traitor marine chapters look really good in the modeling aspect.

The Space Marines. I have no doubt that while it will take years, I'll have plenty of Space Marines. I'm particularly interested in building chapter fluff armies, including Ravenguard, Salamanders, White Scars, Ultramarines, Howling Gryphons and Carcharodons. Maybe even pre-heresy Luna Wolves.

As I mentioned in the beginning it may make sense in making two armies at once depending on the mix. For examples:

• Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Demons. It is my understanding that Chaos Space marines can have Chaos Demons in their ranks. To me it makes sense to build these two armies together, with perhaps a little more emphasis on the Chaos Space Marines and finishing off with a Chaos Demon army when building them.
• Space Marines chapters. This makes sense to me, though also means that while building the armies I may be playing fluff, with two chapters representing until each chapter is done. Not sure which two chapters I'd start with though.
• The Blood Angels and Dark Eldar IMO are pretty similar and if I go with either of these armies, while I am sure I will get the other I'm not so sure I'm interested in building them together if that makes sense. It just doesnt' feel like a good mesh like the above two examples. Whichever army I do go with between these two though also means I'll be pushing the other one back until a later date.

With this all now laid out, I think I really like the idea of putting together two armies at once. This means by the end of the project, I'll have 3 armies to field. Stay tuned for the next post when I declare the winner. Maybe.

Newb Army A.D.D. Part 2

I think a great place to begin when deciding which army I would like to collect next is to present which armies I do not want and why. This will either help or might just be an exercise in the process of elimination. In either case it seems a good place to start.

• Armies I'm not interested in:
• Black Templars. Not crazy about the models nor the background from what little I've been exposed to.
• Dark Angels. As with the Black Templars.
• Sisters of Battle. Cool models and was one of the first things that exposed me to the 40K iniverse that caught my attention. I'm just not crazy about their special rules.
• Orks. They just don't appeal to me. I like fighting them, but don't see myself as an Ork player.
• Tyranids. While they do look cool, I'm just not into them right now. As a side note and I have to admit some selfishness here, if my wife ever gets into 40K, she has already declared that the Tyranids is what is most interested in. This means if she does end up playing one day, I'll most likely have access to a Tyranid Army anyway. While tempting to collect to maybe push her a little into 40K, at the end of the day if she does not get into it, I'm not ready or willing to be stuck with a Tyranid army yet.
• Eldar. I like the lore and fluff about these guys, I'm just not crazy about their models.
• Tau. Communists. 'Eh' models. I'll pass.
• Space Wolves. While powerful and looks good, I'm just not crazy about them. Passing for now.
• Necrons. Upcoming release soon, expected bad-assery. I remember thinking these models were cool looking way back in the day. Here and now though, just not that interested. Passing for now.

So a lot of No's and passing for now's in this list. What's left?

• Blood Angels
• Chaos Space Marines
• Chaos Demons
• Space Marines
• Dark Eldar
• Imperial Guard

Of these, I'm going to put Imperial Guard on the shelf for now, mainly because I do have a vision for an awesome IG army in the future, but not prepared for the work I know it will take. This will be an army of mine one day, but I'm thinking it won't be until my 3rd, 4th or 5th army at best.

Next time, I'll take a look those armies remaining and see if I can't distill them down even further and perhaps even come up with a couple of finalists.

Newb Army A.D.D. Part 1

So here I am, just getting started on my first army - the Grey Knights. Scheduled to perfection, or not, I should be fielding a full 2000 point army by my birthday in March or shortly thereafter with some for a sideboard.

Yet, I'm already thinking of my next army. The one that will come after the Grey Knights. I'm considering making purchases for it as early as the end of this year or the beginning of next year while still finishing up my first army. Army A.D.D. is in full swing.

Not many people know this - actually only 1 or 2, but my first army was going to be Space Marines. Then, even as I was budgeting out and preparing to buy quite the expansive army (used) the Blood Angels came out and caught my eye. My first game to end in something other than a loss was proxing a Blood Angels army (a tie, I've yet to win, though in fairness have barely played just over a dozen games).

Then the Grey Knights came out and I was ready to start buying my first army and they were all shiney and new, seemed easy to paint, had some powerful options and I really like the fluff. Grey Knights it is and I'm very happy with them and looking forward to playing them more. It's even looking like by next month I may be able to get my game on in a more consistent manner.

Perhaps because I do like to plan out so far in advance, I'm in the mode lately of trying to figure out what armies I want to eventually have and which one should go next. Or should I build two armies at the same time? I figure I'm not the only one with 40K Army A.D.D. so I decided to write about it - not just for my own sake but other newbs out there as well. So let's look at the army choices out there:

• Dark Angels
• Black Templars
• Blood Angels
• Grey Knights
• Space Wolves
• Space Marines (various chapters, themes, pre and post heresy)
• Chaos Space Marines (renegades, pre and post heresy, etc)
• Chaos Demons
• Orks
• Tau
• Eldar (various Craft worlds)
• Dark Eldar (various Kabals, Cults and Covens)
• Imperial Guard
• Sisters of Battle
• Tyranids
• Necrons

So a lot of choices to made and thats not counting the themes, organization, historical, etc. that are within each of the armies themselves. Before moving on in another post, a couple of things I know I need to consider are:

1. My current Army. The Grey Knights is an Elite army, good for mid-range shooting and a middle of the board game strategy (for the most parts). They are MEQ (Space Marine Equivelant) and are indeed Space Marines; just specilaized. If, I want to go in another direction with my second army, I need to keep this in mind.
2. Do I want to go with more shooty or more assaulty with my next Army? What strategies do I want to work with?

In my next post on the subject, I'm going to explore what armies I don't want to go for and then start looking at those who may be contenders.

Book Review: Horus Rising

After reading this great novel, I have to say that I am glad I waited until I understood some of the 40K Universe history before picking this book up. While the book is written in such a way, that the universe will reveal itself to you as you go, there are some reveals in this book that just make so much more sense and has much more of an awe factor if you wait until you have some of the basic concepts of the 40K universe down. Specifically who are the Xenos, the Imperium, Chaos and perhaps a little bit about Space marines in general.

This information I came across outside of the book through the fluff in codexes and the general rulebook, along with conversations with friends more knowledgeable about the 40K universe than I. The result is that I was able to follow the novel pretty well and was genuinely surprised and completely understood the significance of some of the reveals in this book.

I've heard good things about Dan Abnett the author and had even listened to an interview with him before picking up the book. I did find it a tad slow getting into for the first 30 or so pages, but by then I was sucked in and kept coming back for more as the story progressed. So much so, by the last third of the book I had a hard time putting it down at all.

Strongly recommended but IMO more for someone who has at least some of the basics of the 40K universe down first. I think the reader, like myself, will get just that much more enjoyment out of it.

Dark Eldar

I've got to admit, as much of a Space Marine and specialty SM Chapter fan that I am, the Dark Eldar has gotten my attention. Will probably be a very long time in the future, but I can see myself developing this army. Will definately be after Grey Knights and Blood Angels and who knows what else (standard Ultra-Marines perhaps? Space Wolves?).

But there it is, something other than human in the 40K Universe has arisen my curiosity.

What's Happening in June @ 40K Newb?

June will be a great month for 40K Newb blogging! Expect to see:

- Grey Knights army lists
- WIP: Grey Knights Terminators
- WIP: Grey Knights Purifiers
- Exceptional showcases from around the web
- Blood Angel army lists
- Possible Death Company WIP
- and much, much more!

Become a follower, leave your comments, and enjoy the 40K hobby!

Introduction of 4K Newb

Welcome to my new blog: 40K Newb. I'm Sam Guss, owner of Samuel Guss Photography and the blogs: Exploring Uncertainty and Classical Newb. The focus of this blog will be adventures, mishaps, thoughts and growth as a Warhammer 40K player.

My first tournament is coming up next weekend. I'll be borrowing my brother-in-laws Space Marines for it and in May I have my own SM army that I am purchasing from a fellow gamer. Warhammer 40K is still very new to me. I've played a grand total of 8 games over the last 5 months, 6 of them Ultramarines and 2 of them Blood Angels. My strategy is to go into Space Marines, Blood Angels and Grey Knights. I'm considering Space Wolves in the future.

The reason I chose Space marines and the various chapters such as Blood Angels, is threefold. First of all, in some cases I will be able to get double duty out of some of my models, since they use some of the same basic models. Second of all, I like the back story of Space Marines, which leads into my third reason: I'm a huge Warhammer 40K Space Opera novel fan - most notably the Space Marines.

I'm 41 years old as of this posting, married with 3 teenagers, 1 of which lives with me; 3 dogs, 2 cats, a car loan and a mortgage payment. I run my own wedding photography business - Samuel Guss Photography where I also specialize in portrait photography and some fine art photography. I work full time in outside sales as well - credit processing and I'm in college earning my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (majoring in Photography and Graphic Design). In addition to this, I'm a board member of the Unitarian Universialist Church of Birmingham and an avid writer and gamer. Gaming is my hobby and in all of it's forms. I play Magic the Gathering, Warhammer 40K, MMO's (like World of Warcraft), computer pc and Xbox 360 video games, as well as board and other strategy games.

So far, I find myself intrigued and hyped up about Warhammer 40K, thus the purpose of this blog. I welcome you to follow along my journey, give me your 2 cents and together let's have fun with our chosen hobby. Until next time!