"For the brothers we've lost. For the ones who are ash. Forward, brothers! Into the fray!"

- Sergeant Kuttai, Heavy Intercessors, Salamanders 4th Company - 

 

Greetings Frater et Sorores!

 

Prepare yourselves, this is gonna be quite the ramble.

 

The Salamanders participated in a slow-grow league these past couple months, hosted by a nearby store, Nomad Games & Hobbies. Over four phases of 2 games each, participants expanded their armies from 500, to 1000, to 1500 & finally 2000 pts. Every game played earned raffle tickets for a prize drawing to be hosted on the 24th. It was a casual league, so we weren't playing for wins, and so I took the opportunity to try playing Space Marines in a very different way. Away with the flamers, it was boltgun time! Aaand I just wanted to let some of my more dusty models out to play a l'il bit (lookin' at you Hellblasters ). I experimented with the Ceramite Sentinels detachment, in which units that sit fairly still in terrain get to reroll hit rolls and wound rolls of 1. 

 

Sadly, this really isn't my playstyle, so I didn't often get the benefit of extra rerolls, & half the time when I did it was against an OOM target anyway, so already getting rerolls to hit. It's quite hard to position just right to use this detachment to full effect, due to the official terrain layouts being quite low on firing corridors & whatnot. That being said, the stratagems are a lot of fun, with Augmented Targeting (SUSTAINED or LETHAL, or both if ENTRENCHED) & Evasive Repositioning (D6" move in response to being shot, w/ reroll if ENTRENCHED) being especially useful. Stand to the End also seems useful, allowing for fight on death - I only used it once but it was quite helpful there & could be a real game changer in the right situations. 

 

The final list (basically grew into this over time, I wasn't swapping stuff out)

 

Lots of boltguns, some vehicular support, some units I don't use much (hellblasters & eradicators) and some terminators for lolz.

 

Ultimately I went 3-5 with the detachment through all phases. Again, we weren't playing for wins, but since I was trying something new it's a helpful indicator of what went right and what could be improved. More on that in the next post. For this one I'd like to mostly focus on hobby stuff. 

 

The Great Rebasing - Upgrades to the Army

 

So, this is a grow league. Buuut the big reason I joined in wasn't to grow my collection. I'm pretty happy with what I've got*. What I wanted to do was get along in THE GREAT REBASING, and get my guys onto some new and improved bases. This was acceptable, so I got to join up! In fact I think a lot of people were either improving their existing collections or just trying out the new edition, so a little base improvement fit right in. Now, when this blog started most of my army was on standard bases, primed black with the rest of each model and painted with orange lines to simulate cracked earth and lava flow. Since then it's become a 'filler' project of mine to switch them over to cork bases, with some actual depth to them. Since I was running Ceramite Sentinels for the grow league, I could run a lot of units that I don't use much & improve their bases to get in line with the main force. 

 

So what got done?

 

In my post Recent Completions - Terminators & the Great Rebasing, I wrote out this list. All the stuff that needed to be upgraded. 

 

Quote

• 1 25mm (the Old Termis need a proper base for their teleport homer right?)
• 51 32 mm (65 to actually replace)
• 18 40mm
• 1 100mm

 

Over the course of the GL, I got a lot done!

 

• 10 32mm (Amfell's Assault Intercessors)
• 17 40mm bases upgraded, including an Apothecary (old Command Squad mini) Chaplain, Librarian Termi, Lieutenant, Heavy Intercessors, Eradicators & Tactical Termis
• That 1 100mm, a blinkin' Repulsor! And that wasn't even in my GL lists. 

 

A few pics of the process

 

And of the results

 

It feels good to get a good chunk out of the way. The new bases look really nice (at least compared to the old) and they're a fun and easy project. Lots still to do! I didn't quite get everyone in the force done, & of course not everyone who needed the upgrades could get in. And a few guys I thought could pass are now slated for upgrades. And there are a few more dudes now... 

 

Maybe it's time for a new list. Let's see where we stand. What's left to do? 

 

• 1 25mm
• 40 32mm
• 6 40mm

 

If I'm looking at it right, I need to get 10 Intercessors, 10 Hellblasters (the GL bros) 10 Infernus, & my old Tactical Squad redone... along with 3 Eliminators, and Ancient, & 2 Lieutenants. Oh, and the old teleport homer. Huh. 

 

Well, I'll keep plodding away. Might knock out half the 32mm guys in the next week. Those Hellblasters deserve to get finished!

 

So that's the rambly side of things. Next up, I'll go on a little recap of game highlights, maybe even get inspired to do some more single-draft blurbs. 

 

Thanks for reading! 

 

The Emperor protects. 

 

 

 

*for now. RIP noble Vindicator!