Thursday, August 4, 2011

Uh Oh... Purgatus' Creative Juices Are Flowin'

You know what happens next. I decide to start a new army.

GODDAMIT!

FINISH YOUR ARMIES! STOP GETTING NEW IDEAS!

Yes, well, my Grey Knights are completely built and within a solid "push" of being fully painted if I ever wanted to take them to a tourney or sell them.


My Nids are pretty much one step away from being completely built (completing the egg sacs on my Tervigons), and are nearly painted as well.

I'm in the zone where I'm itching to collect and assemble a new army. This weekend getting beat by a really neato looking Ork army had me thinking in that direction. I have been scrounging up spare bikes that aren't in the best shape for my distant dream of an Ork Nob Biker army. I know they aren't "awesome." But I would still have fun with them.

Anyways, my buddy Chappy was similarly inspired to revive his Ork project, and, well, he's way further along with his army than I am with mine. I have eight bikes. He has the entire army ready to go, practically. So I'll probably just let him move ahead with that and figure something else out.

So my thoughts turned to a long time dream of mine to make a Tzeentch worshiping, Egyptian themed chaos marine army. It's something that I've honestly been thinking about for a LONG time. I have been scrounging up space Chaos shit for a while and have a decent sized collection.

My vision, if you will, is for an Egyptian themed army that is NOT the 1k sons. Possibly a renegade chapter that emulates the 1k sons and worships Tzeentch but not part of the original legion. My working name right now is "Sons of the Golden Ka" (Ka being the Egyptian word for spirit).

My paint scheme is going to be Ivory White with Gold Highlights. It's gonna be bright, boys.

Of course, being Tzeentch worshipers and without the efforts of Ahriman or Magnus to protect them, the entire legion is essentially horribly mutated. The image I have is of flawlessly white and gold armor hiding the grotesque mutations beneath. Like a porcelain mask over a leper's face, or a golden sarcophogi atop a withered mummy. Beauty over the grotesque reality beneath.

While they prefer to remain covered in their armor, they do make allowances for practicality, and useful mutations are exposed to the world. Working thoughts at the moment are that Meltaguns will actually be mutated arms with giant Eyeballs at the end that spout melta-beams. Think Beholder eyes. Lightning Claws will be oversized mutated clawed hands attached to the end of their armored arms. Chalices will be symbols of Tzeentch, representing the hyper mutations increasing their strength, speed and ability to heal over wounds.

Oh, yes, Chalices. Did I mention that I'm going to use Codex: Blood Angels?

Betcha thought I was going to use Grey Knights, huh?

Well, one of the things that I love about the Blood Angels codex is the Furioso Librarian, and two other things I really like are fast Heavy Flamer Razorbacks and a badass psyker named Mephiston.

So yeah, I think you can make a good Tzeentch worshipping, heavily mutated army out of Blood Angels.

Here's the basic list I have been pondering. I have been borrowing some concepts from Stelek lately, and even though I go with more "toys" than he has been using lately (Flying Dreads and a choppy HQ choice) I think this is still a respectable core. I am not set in stone here, of course, but you get the general idea of what I would like in the army.

Lord Osiron (Counts as Mephiston)

Furioso, Librarian, Magna Grapple, Extra Armor, Shield of Tzeentch, Disc of Tzeentch
Furioso, Librarian, Magna Grapple, Extra Armor, Shield of Tzeentch, Disc of Tzeentch
Sanguinary Priest x 3, Combimelta x 3, Lightning Claw x 3

Assault Squad, Meltagun, Razorback w/TL Heavy Flamer, Dozer Blade
Assault Squad, Meltagun, Razorback w/TL Heavy Flamer, Dozer Blade
Assault Squad, Meltagun, Razorback w/TL Heavy Flamer, Dozer Blade
Assault Squad, Meltagun, Infernus Pistol, Lightning Claw, Razorback w/TL Heavy Flamer, Dozer Blade
Assault Squad, Meltagun, Infernus Pistol, Lightning Claw, Razorback w/TL Heavy Flamer, Dozer Blade

Land Speeder, Multimelta, Heavy Flamer (This will be a Tomb Kings Chariot pulled by Screamers of Tzeentch and with an enslaved daemon - probably a Flamer- on board to represent the weapons)
Land Speeder, Multimelta, Heavy Flamer

Devastators, Missile Launcher x 3 (Probably going to use Horrors for the actual missiles, with their "minders" which will be the Marines, not sure).
Devastators, Missile Launcher x 3

So the list itself is pretty decent. I give it an 8 in terms of effectiveness. I think it will be fun to play around with the Magna-grapple on a flying Dreadnought platform. I'm picturing flying up and dragging Rhinos closer to be melta'd and assaulted by my Assault Marines in Razorbacks. Dunnoh. Gotta actually see it on the table to verify its effectiveness but the basic concept seems pretty decent.

There are enough Feel No Pain providers to make it difficult to get rid of them, and perhaps discourage my opponent from even trying. The two sources of Shield of Tzeentch/Sanguinius will help to ensure I get one off even through a Hood or Rune Priest. And the Furiosos and Meph will go against hard targets like normal Dreadnoughts or TH/SS Terminators (Furiosos more than Meph for the Bonkanators). I'm debating swapping out an assault squad and a Sanguinary Priest for an honor guard with 2 meltas and a lightning claw. Upside is you get two "real" meltas, a hard to kill chalice, and a few more attacks. Downside is you lose a scoring unit. I'll think about that one.

It's got a lot of elements that I've wanted to play out of the Blood Angels dex for a really long time. Thoughts and suggestions (on either modelling or list) are welcome, as always.