Deathwatch Kill team

OK, so on the Brick of Scrutiny now are the Deathwatch Kill team figures.  They're here so we can talk about painting. 

Red.  Blarrgh !  I know a lot of people grumble about painting red.  Here are some red ones.

Ultrasmurfs.

Now the green team.

There he is, looking for Alpharius within the ranks of the deathwatch.

Lighter colours.  Yellow.

Metal.

More yellow, he actually looks slightly better from the back.

Hell's Spangle.  I was feeling quite pleased with my progress here and thought to myself "I'll look at Karitas' Whitescar biker as a point of reference."  I won't do that again.

And my fluffy ffaves, the grey team.

So what you're looking at here are ten unfinished Space Marine figures.  I get so far, and then run into the law of diminishing returns.  By the time I get them to this stage, I've burnt through my mojo.  One of the reasons they are in their Chapter colours with black arms is that the variety of colourschemes are what maintains interest.

But I get 'em to here and then the steps required to finish them seem just beyond reach.  Picking out those final levels of detail is something I tend not do.  Long time readers may remember me talking about not enjoying painting (hence contracting it out), having neither the time nor inclination to practice in order to get to a level I'm happy with.

Now let's avoid a load of bollox where we blow smoke up someone's arse about their minis deserving a better paintjob than the one I'm currently putting out.  Two girls of primary school age eat money.  I need to improve my painting because contracting out painting is expensive.  There are a certain bits out there which I'm still getting help with, but I need to improve my painting to a point where these guys can look finished.

One thing which will need to improve is paint discipline - applying it where I want it, currently it goes a little bit further which means touching up.  Sometimes the touching up goes too far and needs touching up.  Better paint discipline in the first place would be a good start - go back up the picts and look at where the lenses are.  see ?

But I have a plan.

Hummm.

OK, so over Mordian 7th there was a little bit of chatter about Mord's Deathwatch list.  He's said his vow, taken the black and is off to wall until the Wildings turn up.  Anyway, his list is:



Which obviously is a viable Knight's Watch army.  Did I write that ?  I meant Deathwatch, of course. But it doesn't seem much for three and half thousand points.  I have had a quick play with Battle Scribe.  I won't pretend to know what an "Unbound Army" is, but ten minutes dicking about gave me a viable list which I appear to unable to export by any means known to Adobe.  Oh well

• Gen Odon with a tricked out command team in a Chimera
• Three Platoons of three squads of Scions
• Three Platoons of two squads of Infantry with two mortar teams each
• Two squadrons of three Valks (with Hellfires) to move it all around 
• A squadron of three Vendettas
• Two Avengers with Hellfires
• Two troops of three hydra platforms
• a troop of three Leman Russ MBT

3540 points.

I reckon that's enough AT and AA for most situations as well as 121 squishy bodies and 35 semi-hardened bodies for most things.  Admittedly the only pies are the LRMBT and the 18 mortars, but with that many birds in the air, and the ability to pick up nearly all of the army and dump in someone's backyard (esp if you start with as many as possible embarked and in reserve), it should give most pause for thought.

Would you take on Mord's Knight's Watch list with this bunch ?  Of course, you know that I'm not interested in army list top trumps (do you have top trumps where you are ?  Does this reference make sense outside the UK ?);  but these two, at this scale, over 3000 points, are at the scale where it has become viable to field units in the size which armies would deploy.

If you consider a 1250 point engagement - those couple of squads of marines (of either persuasion) are holed up in a building somewhere; the IG, Tau, 'Nids (or even one of the other MEQ armies) is unlikely to send a small force to winkle them out.  Given the resources, you'd send a formation like that list above, or just deploy a blocking force* until you could bring a big enough hammer.

Now I know that in order to have fair pick up games etc that more or less equal points values (nearly everyone I've ever played has not been too bothered about a couple of points either way) but those last stands and unequal ambushes are staples of the fluff.  And fun to play, almost all of the time. I'm just attracted to the bigger picture.

I'm not trying to persuade you one way or the other, its just food for thought.  So there you go, a pointless post about points.

*ie not to attack or engage; just maybe harass from a distance and definitely to run away if seriously compromised.   Their mission is to simply fix the enemy in place until the big hammer arrives.