Friday, March 25, 2011

A change in course: peer pressure or sound advice?


In a recent post I discussed how I was going to upgrade a few of the figures in my army for the Colonial GT. I had decided to replace four marines with Forge World marines.

In a conversation with Jawaballs about the direction I’m taking for my army over the next two weeks he disagreed with me (something new?) on what I should prioritize – the five non-upgrade marines or the new dreadnought. All the figures and the dreadnought come from Forge World so it’s not a decision based on “coolness” – they're all pretty bad ass – but how much of an impact the models will have on the different aspects of what I’m trying to achieve as a “tournament player.”

Our conversation focused on two aspects:

     1) How much “tabletop” time will the figures/dred get?
    
           2) What is going to impact my painting score more?

Tabletop time is a big factor. The five marines will replace the four marines in my non-upgrade five-man unit. That unit’s role in my army is to sit inside the razorback and shoot the vehicle's TL Lascannon at the opponent’s tanks, rhinos, and razorbacks. Thus the figures would only hit the tabletop battlefield if they were forced out of the razorback.  The Dred, on the other hand, is an important part of my “attack down the center”  section of my list. Its role is to follow my Land Raider and then support the Terminators when they charge into melee. So the dreadnought will be on the table the entire game.

As for display purposes you can see that my Ironclad is on the front of my display board and the new Dred will take its place. Plus the model and banner are awesome. The four marines are at the rear on the right and are just four of the twenty five marines I have on my board. ( I am aware that I can reposition the stuff on my display board to put the four figures in toward the front)

All that being said I’m going to spend next week painting up the Dreadnought and then, if I have time,  paint up the marines.

Thoughts?

The Stout Smurf

19 comments:

  1. hi, just signed up as a follower here from jawaballs site. 1st let me say great job on the army you have already done and painted. 2nd, i would do exactly what you said, focus on the dread... then the basic marines. for the same exact reasons you stated. the dread is more a center piece to be looked at than your razerbaack-sitting marines. perhaps get a primer and base coat on the marines tho just to get them table-top battle ready??

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  2. I would say the Dreadnought. It's just a beautiful model that really sticks out unlike a couple of marines.
    A bit unrelated, but don't be afraid to jump the squad outside of the razorback even though they are unupgraded; they are marines. They can still dish out 9 bolter shots, which isn't too much, but is something that can change the outcome of a shooting phase at the right time. The Razorback can be empty and still zoom around and shoot, it just wouldn't score.

    Oh, did you see my comment reply on your first post?

    http://stoutsmurf.blogspot.com/2011/03/welcome-to-stout-surfs-ultramarine-blog.html

    Random again, but I really like having email notification on comments on. I use Gmail, so I created a special folder for all blog comments and I archive them as I receive them. That means I have a notification when I get a new one, but it isn't in my inbox so it isn't cluttering my mail. Just wanted to give some blogging tips for you. Hope it helps.

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  3. I think it was probably good advice. I would also never trade away something from an army I still run (read: your AoBR dread raffle) as what happens in fun games if you need to drop some points from a Ven/IC to a normal dread for some reason? Then again I am looking to raffle off some of my crimson fists for charity since the paint scheme on the newer stuff is coming out differently so what do I know. :P

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  4. Hey man, everything is looking good! Check out my Blood Angels blog!

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  5. Hey there, Smurf-man, nice blog you got there. Nice to see someone with a fully painted army, or at least a segment of it. Makes me hide in shame. Anyways, added your sweet blog to my blog roll, you should do the same. :P Add mine, I mean. :)

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  6. I started following a few days ago when jawa put up the post. Good to see more blogs from new guys. If you get a minute, head over and check out ours at istvaanians.blogspot.com. Feel free to add us to the roll! We're still getting our site sorted out, so look for your link soon.

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  7. I agree with the dread, seeing as he will be out on the battlefield more, unless somebody decides to take a ton of Genestealers. It's really refreshing to see somebody who actually plays vanilla marines as vanilla marines, especially Smurfs. I added your blog to my blogroll, on the blog that my friend and I run: http://mybrothermyenemy.blogspot.com/

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  8. I agree, but hey, get them both done!

    ming from b&c

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  9. Jim if your giving away a dread and you have the new one Id focus on that since it is list priority

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  10. When I looked at your smurf picture above. First thing jump to me is the land raider and terminators. Of course, that depends how you position your army. But those 2 units are the iconic of SM.

    Painting and modeling is a life time progress. If you get your land raider look something like the one on page 123 of the SM codex. That will be gold.

    I wish you the best luck in the up coming GT.

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  11. Yaaay! Newbies of the net unite! Good work Smurfie

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  12. Cool blog so far and looking forward to seeing the ironclad dreadnaught finished.

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  13. To All,

    1) Thanks for the advice and the Dread will be given first priority. I am looking forward to painting this beautifully sculpted model.

    2) All requests for blogroll adds have been fulfilled. I you would like yours added just let me know.(just return the favor)

    3) the dread for the giveaway is not one I use for my current(and only) army. I was challenge by Jawaballs to paint something 40K so I painted two dreadnoughts - one blue and one red. The give away is for the blue one. I'll post a picture on the side.

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  14. I'm loving your army! Great, great work. I'm glad I found your blog.

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  15. Those are some beautiful smurfs. I don't like the Ultramarines too much your paint jobs do them enough justice for me to at least glance at them longer lol.

    Please add my blog to your roll:
    http://vaevictis-wh.blogspot.com/

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  16. I also vote for the Dread getting the tooled up paintjob first.

    I also wanted to comment on your list.
    I like it, you seem to have fun with from your battle reports. So this advice may be(IE probably is) unwarented.

    2 simple(IE difficlt and pain in the hynnie) changes, I think would make your army much more effective on the table.
    Drop the TDA to PA on the Libby and give him null zone and force dome.
    Drop the LotD.
    Add a Dev squad with 4 missle launchers with a tl Laz razorback and HK missles to the rhinos and razor backs. This give you a pretty darn good fire power the entire game instead of waiting for the LotD to show up mabye being lost or badly placed due to mishap(thats just 250 points wasted if they do).
    Now the Libby can either jump in the Devs Lazback or ride along with the Termies casting forcedome to give you the invuln save for your LR until you get to deply them.

    Just my two cents.
    Im enjoying your new blog.

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  17. Hey Stout Smurf! I'm also loving your blog. Ultramarines were my first army (like so many other people) but unlike most I have mine fully painted and based and I have won tournaments with them. Your painting is very good (as you know) and I like the fervor with which you are widening your ranks!!
    Keep up the great work!

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  18. Thanks for the encouragement Hightower. My goal is to have a well painted army for the NOVA open in August. I'll be tinkering with it until then. I'm looking for advice from Ultramarine/Codex marine players with real tournament experience.

    Welcome aboard!

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  19. Jim,

    I'll look into the Force Dome but I have already submitted my list to the Colonial so I'm "stuck" with Null Zone and Gate of Infinity for this Tourney.

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