Misson Ard Boyz. Sallie Wing

So it's that time of year again. Time for Ard Boyz. The past 2 years I have played and made it to semis with a "fluffy" Vulkan list. I say it was fluffy because I didn't have a ton of spam in it, it simply was a great army. Yes I admit, I did have lots of hammer and melta everywhere (why wouldn't I?) but I did follow the fluff in that it contained no fast attack choices. 'gasp!' That's right, no multi melta attack bikes or speeders. Just marines and termies... and 2 land raiders, and 2 dreads. Ok, so maybe it was a little spammed but what Ard Boyz army isn't? Anyways, my point is this. I loved that army and really liked the fluff of the army after reading Salamander and Fire Drake. If you haven't read them I highly recommend them.

But this year I wanted to do something different. I still love my sallies but wanted to try another list with them. But how I should do this proved a problem. And low and behold the Dark Angels got a Codex Update. Storm Shields are 3++ now you say? Yes please! There was my answer, I'll run my sallies as a First Company and use the Dark Angels book. I know, I know, the proper response now is, "count as armys are gay!". And normally I would agree. You should not be able to use vanilla tactical marines as blood claws, or use your unpainted jump marines as blood angels. But what I do think is exceptable is this, you should be able to have some wiggle room between codexes as long as your boys are modeled appropriately and you've devoted your time into making it work. If you have a great modeling idea for an army then you should be able to do what you want. I know this is a hot topic now because people are trying to make their models fulfill different codices. "Yay I have a SM army! Space Wolves are coming out? I'll just say mine are a later founding of the Space Wolves chapter so I can use their codex." No, that's not good.

So back to my plan. Yes I will be running a deathwing list this year at Ard Boyz. But frankly I think the Dark Angels are, well, kinda lame. I mean they wear dresses, and they're pretty much one step away from being heretics. But the idea of an all terminator list or a 1st company list is just too cool. And according to the fluff of 40k every chapter has a 1st company comprised very similarly to that of the Dark Angels. The first company are the best of the best, every army has access to them... including Salamanders! If Salamanders had their own official codex then yeah, I may be calling shenanigans on myself but they don't! So why not right?

But I'm not just going to get a bunch of termies, paint them a different shade of green and be done with it. No, I wanted this army to really show the background and feel of a salamander list. So I went all out with them. Here's my list:

Belial w/ TH/SS (Praetor?)
Librarian in Terminator Armor (Pyriel?)

2 Dreads
1 Land Raider Crusader (no Redeemer option gayness )

7 Termie Squads. 4 TH/SS, 1 Chainfist, 1 CCML


Simple enough right? So I purchased all new termies for this project and made a little order to ForgeWorld.

Body:
That's right, all these termies are going to be wearing the official shoulder pads of their chapter.
I'm thinking of giving them some special shields, maybe from some saurus warriors, to help with the feel of the army.


Bases:
I would like to do the bases in a jet black sand. I've found some thanks to ct that looks perfect. It even has a nice shine to it. I want to cover most of base in that save for a few open lines running across the base. In these lines I would like to paint an orange/yellow/red to make it look like lava. See where I'm going with this?

Customization:
I want these guys to fulfill many roles so I'm going to magnetize about half of the model's arms so I can trade out the TH/SS with a Storm Bolter and PF for another game. This is also my big plan for my HQ models.

HQ
I named my HQ after the Salamander books. Pyriel is a librarian in the series and Praetor is a Terminator Seargant. For these two models I'm going to use the Terminator Librarian frow GW since he's "Citadel Finecast" now and for Praetor I'm using Commander Culn from the Red Scorpions. I'll have to shave a small insignia off his chest but I think he'll work nicely. He's got a cool dynamic pose and he's got a mohawk! No contest. These guys will definetly be magnetized to allow for greater flexibility in later games.

Dreads and Land Raiders
The Land Raider is straight forward. It's a Crusader with a Multi Melta for My HQs to ride in. I'm planning on stringing some lizardmen heads along the side of it like trophies and I am going to "attempt" to green stuff some scales on the side.
For my two dreads I'm using a Venerable and an Ironclad. I didn't want to use the plain GW dread so I thought these would give me a better look. Luckily about a week after my FW order they came out with the Salamander dread so that's just wonderful. I'll just have to work with what I have for now. I found some cool dwarf shields that have a hammer and anvil or a hammer with wings on them. I'm going to put those on my dread's arms which should give them a little flavor.


So there's my idea. I'm using a count as army for Ard Boyz but I'm spending a lot of time (and money!) to really make it worth while. Let the hate begin below.

Chaos Legions?....Yes, Please.

The Chaos Legion rumor, even with no info, is the most exciting rumor for me in a while.  Chaos is by far my favorite army of 40k.  I started them in 3rd edition when they had the awesome codex with tons of options for specific Legions.  I liked them all, but Plague Marines were definitely my favorite.  I hope they make Chaos into at least 2 Codexes(I guess 3, if you include Daemons).  I mean why not, half of the legions defected, yet they only get 1 old Codex, while the mummy-worshipers get 6 codexes, half of which are less than 2 years old. This sucks and is the main reason why Chaos players have started building the dreaded "counts-as" armies.  

Regardless, I hope the rumor is true so Chaos players can rise once again.  I started this blog to catalog the building and painting of my Deathguard army, but lost interest because of all the new codexes getting tons of cool stuff, while we're left with a bland excuse for a codex.  While I think it is still semi-competitive, it's just not cool that we have less units in the whole book than some newer armies have HQ options.  I want to get back on my original project and finish painting the army I converted.  

Above and below are the only 2 models with paint from the 2,500 pts I built.  The top is a Champion with plastic powerfist(don't mind the banner pin, all the champions have removable banners to represent Icons).  All backpacks have been converted to either steel barrels or wooden drums.  You can see the whole army being built in the first couple months of this blogs existence to the right.  

Below are a couple shot of my Chaos army in its entirety.  Don't mind a few of the Space Marine models on the right that snuck into the family photo.  I have closeup shots of the units that I will post up next.  Most of these have been posted individually somewhere on here, but I'll put up again since it's been awhile for Chaos on here.  The most recent stuff added have been units built for use using SW or BA codex, like the Raptors for a pure DoA(R!) Nightlords army from BA 'dex and the Juggernauts for Wolf Lords from SW 'dex.

So, please rumors, be true.  I want more Chaos in my life.  I do like the idea of the main legions having their own book while the renegades(go Huron) have their own book as well.  I'm sure there will be crossover units that are in both books.  And with all the new huge plastic kits as of late, maybe both books will get a nice flying transport or something.  The possibilities are endless, so I can't even venture a guess as to what they will come up with, but I'm excited.  

I am hoping for new plastic Thousand Sons and Emperor's Children.  I do not have either of these units yet and would like to add them, but with new models instead of the hybrids.  New Berzerkers would be nice as those are looking dated compared to newer plastics.  

Oh, and plastic Obliterators and Dreadnoughts please, with tons of options.  Okay, I can do without the dreads as Forgeworld makes some beauties already.  

Oh, and plastic Raptor box, instead of the top-heavy ones from now.

Oh, and awesome rules so we can keep up the new guys.

Oh, and the first 300 pt HQ that beats face.  This should be fine, some of these guys have been around for 10,000 years, you really think they should die in a small battle.  

Okay, so wishlist aside, I do hope we get a couple of well-rounded codexes with rules that set them apart from other "normal" Space Marines.  Some new unit entries would be nice, and I think a must to add to existing and add flavor to the armies.  

How many of you guys are excited about this rumor?  Do you have a wishlist for your favorite army?