Quick Hits - Vol. 2

More on the Dark Angels
I was rushed for time last post (I was at work a the tail end of my day) and missed a few things.
As I mentioned last time, the new Marine codex trumps the Dark Angels codex in almost every way.

Fore example: even though there are pieces of equipment in both books, they may have different and MUCH better rules in the new book. Add in the fact that the new marines have a ton more rules, options and cheaper costs than the Dark Angles and you have a codex that was already regarded as 'blah' get moved down to 'terribble' in the face of the new marines.

Then there's the new FAQ. A lot of people had high hopes that GW would give some love to the Dark Angles. GW had other ideas. We got this "most important rule' bullshit that says DA players can use the new toys, but ONLY if they get permission from the other player. these choices are not detailed and are not a given that I can even use them. This was the final nail in the coffin for me. My Dark Angels will gather dust until they get a new/decent codex.

The New Project: Prelude
So, I've gone on and on about the new codex and how the DA book is shit compared to it. After making the decision to not pursue a fully painted Dark Angels army, I decided to jump ship for the new toys.

Around the same time, I picked up the first three books in the Black Library Horus Heresy series. They're pretty good read - decently written pulp sci-fi dripping with tons of details what were always vague in the game-book stories.

Also around the same time, I found this thread on DakkaDakka: Iron warriors.
This guy's stuff is amazing - his use of found objects, his simple and effective color scheme and his fan-fucking-tastic comversions. Blew me away.

Additionaly, I found a series of pretty neat pre-heresy Death Guard articles on the Bell of Lost Souls.

So, all of these things inspired me to build a pre-heresy Iron Warrios army using the new codex. I also picked up a copy of the Horus Heresy art book to act as inspiration. Best art book I've owned and a steal at 30 bux (400+ pages!)

Iron Warriors and M:TG
Things have been a little tight with money lately, so I don't have the freedom to drop a ton of money on gaming projects. To that end, I had been trying to sell my Magic collection. its been years since I played, and I probably wont in the coming years. So why not turn those things into cash?

I first tried to get a quote on my collection from Star City Games. I wanted to sell it all at once and avoid the hassle and expense of ebay/paypal fees. No dice. I got strung along for almost three months and then got an insultingly low offer. I then turned to ebay and began selling singles. Kind of a bummer to break up the collection, but its actually fun to sell these things and its brought me a pretty good profit. Enough to buy everything I needed for my initial 1000 points.

Note: when selling MTG cards on ebay, list internationally. The shipping isn't that bad and the number of potential buyers is crazy. Tons of people want cards in English who live on non-english speaking countries and a ton of sellers don't ship internationally. Make money on those people's shortsightedness.

Iron Warriors Pre-prep
So, at this juncture I'm simply waiting for my parts to arrive. Everything is ordered and on its way (and I mean everything - forgeworld parts, a massive superherogameland order, paint, decal solution, decal paper - the works). In the meantime, I'm finishing up a few key pieces of terrain and working on a color scheme.

Citadel Metalic Paints.
Are awesome. Previously I had had a pretty have bias againt the GW paint. But a recent post on the new brush thralls forum gace high praise to the Metalics and were spot on about the problems I've had with Vallejo and P3. I gave 'em a shot and I'm hooked. Great coverage and great consistency.

Iron Warriors: the First 1000
For my entry into the realm of my crazy project (chock full of conversions and custom stuff) I decided on a fairly fluffy force led by a Master of the Forge. Two 10 man tactical squads in Rhino's make up the bulk, a 10 man squad of Sternguard in a drop pod give me some oomph and a Whirlwind gives me some fairly fluffy ordnance and troop killing ability.

Mos of this stuff arrives friday (hopefully) and once I get the forgeworld bits, we're in business.