And now for individual pieces. Up first is my armor I managed to get done... the Puma and StuH 42. These two were actually the first time I really got to use my airbrush for the bulk of the work.
Up next is all my grunt infantry men, taken in two sets. Some of you might have seen these guys in an earlier post, but think with proper lighting you should be actually able to see the details.
Next is my medium mortar crew and my spotter for them.
My sniper team is up next.
And my Lieutenant and Medic....
And as a special bonus, here is my objective marker that was required for the tournament. I'm really pleased with the way he turned out. I thought Warlord's paintjob didn't do the model justice. He looks so much better in browns than he does in a blue and yellow.
So that's the army. It's a bit small for 1000 points, but with the time constraints I didn't have a whole lot of options for a whole lot of list building and customization. I basically whatever I could grab and paint in the army starter kit, plus two metal blister packs. I also think having a lack of understanding the gaming mechanics when I was building the army limited my selection. I'll get more into the gaming side of this army in a paragraph or two.
The painting was a lot of fun. A bit grueling with having to speed up my usual pace and cut corners I wouldn't normally, but I think they turned out as a high table-top quality army which is what I was aiming for. Again, this was my first time utilizing my Patriot 105 airbrush to do the bulk work of priming and basecoating. It really made doing large surfaces such as the Puma and StuH a whole lot easier. Getting the right consistency with your paint seems to be the trick along with learning proper trigger control. It seems easy when you watch a demo video of professionals using an airbrush on youtube, but when it's in your hand, it's difficult to get the feel for it. Also, switching between colors and cleaning up is a bit of a chore. I think if I want to start detailing models with highlights and whatnot, the patriot 105 isn't going to cut it. Painting camo was also pretty new for me. After a bit of research mixed with a bit of trial and error, it pretty easy to get an effective result. All in all I'd say it's a solid looking army.
When it comes to gaming, I came into it thinking my elite infantry would never die, or they'd be able to hold they're ground against multiple units at the same time. I loaded them up with assault rifles, and could knock off 20 rounds in a single. What I miscalculated is with Bolt Action you could have the most elite forces on the field, but once they're getting targeted by multiple enemies, they're effectiveness goes down considerably. Also, a lucky heavy mortar hit can turn your unit of 10 elites into cannon fodder as simply as if they were cheap inexperienced troops. This actually happened to me twice in a single game, and it sucked. With tournament play, you want a more balanced force with lots of order dice. When you get an objective mission, your small elite forces are utterly useless as it only takes a unit or two to start stacking PIN's on them while your enemy sends one of his bargain bin units to scoop up all the objectives.
The Puma was either extremely effective, or got targeted and blown up the first or second turn. Maybe it's because I tried to be overly aggressive with it? Probably. I spent most of my games during Operation Sting on defense which allowed my opponents to dictate the flow of the game. This was mainly due to the low amount of order dice.
The Puma was either extremely effective, or got targeted and blown up the first or second turn. Maybe it's because I tried to be overly aggressive with it? Probably. I spent most of my games during Operation Sting on defense which allowed my opponents to dictate the flow of the game. This was mainly due to the low amount of order dice.
The only game I did managed to win was mainly due to table side and terrain. It was one of those games where you have to defend your base in the corner of your side of the table while blowing up your opponents base by getting an infantry unit in touching range. My opponent had to slog thru almost a foot and half of rough terrain while I was able to focus a good portion of my force behind cover and in front of the objective and just slow down his advance. He defended his base with inexperienced troops, machine guns, and other specialty troops designed to set up a shield wall around his base. Like I said, I managed to put the bulk of my force on defense, and used one of my elite infantry squads to skim over to his side, using the terrain on the way to block most of his shots. I managed to take minimal damage getting within a striking range, assaulting his weak troops in hand to hand combat which utterly decimated them, followed by consolidating right next to the object. It was a really fun game.
I think when Adepticon comes around, I'll be adding more bulk riflemen, a flame thrower, and switching my HE up a little to something that's more my suitable to my army. I really do think quantity over quality would suit my play style. Maybe something like 11-13 order dice would allow me to have some control over the flow of game. It's something I'm going to ponder on in the up and coming weeks.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the pictures..
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