Armies and Lists

Not been any activity on here for the last week, and this is my second post in a row not about my painting project. Is it cheating? Probably, but there's been little (aka none) progress on that front - I started my new job here in Stockholm this week, so things have been a little busy. For the record, my new job is totally ace, and the salary means I'll definitely be able to complete my DE army over the next year or so, even with the extra costs of GW products in Sweden.

Anyway, as Lifeless Loser has alluded to, for some reason I like to write lists. Warhammer army lists, that is. I'm not even sure why, but there's some appeal to me in writing lists. There's the tactical element of course, because a poorly written lists largely means you've lost before you even play, and if you realise after one turn that there's no chance in hell you can win, it makes for a very uninteresting game.

A lot though, comes down to the background and fluff of the game I suspect. The list is the last point where you actually think about the theme of your army, how they should look and how you think they should 'fight'. When you start rolling dice, only the worst human beings are still pretending they're living life in the 41st Millenium.

Sometimes my lists have been triggered by reading one of the Horus Heresy books. I've enthused before about this series, and it's made me like a lot of armies I'd never liked before. A Space Marines chapter that previously I could care less about often becoming intriguing. How would a Thousand Sons force look I ask myself, and write a little list, perhaps thinking I might one day get around to building it. Or what's the Space Wolves codex like, there might be more to them than just vikings-in-space. There isn't, but still, it's a different codex and a different play style, and I think that's another thing that interests me.

Since I also have a Krieg army back home, I spend some time on the Forgeworld site, where they have issued a couple of what I hope will become mainstream army lists: that of rebel Imperium armies. Some of the recent fluff is hinting that for the first time, GW are going to move the narrative on - the light of the astronomicon is fading - the Imperium is really in the shit. There's rumours of the first codex for the new edition of 40K being some sort of Chaos/Cults codex. I FULLY back this, and I hope there's some truth there. The FW lists are excellent, well thought out and 'fluffy'.

Or, more recently, when a new codex comes out I like to have a little download and browse through it, and it's down to doing this that I'm about to spend about £400 or so building my Dark Eldar force (so think about that GW before chasing me for downloading a £20 codex - now bought). As well as the old models being truly terrible, DE used to sound utterly lame. But the fluff in the new codex made good reading, and the army list section is well put together. So as usual, I wrote a little list, saw how different they are to every other army, and thought I might just start collecting. The move to Stockholm has given me a perfect chance to start afresh with an army I can build and paint bit by bit, rather than fielding the embarrassing mix of unpainted and counts-as-x armies of before.

In order to build my army, I wanted to make sure I had something to aim for - no frivolous purchases. So I wrote a list and posted it to Librarium for critique and refinement. For anyone starting out in WH40K, I couldn't recommend this enough, forum members will provide a lot of useful feedback to help you out. Writing the basis of a good army is easy, but there's always the last 200points which makes or breaks a list. Extra units, character upgrades, extra attacking options or protecting those vehicles: This 200pts is what'll make a good list excellent, or even make a fluff only focused list competitive, and Librarium users will help you make good choices. Or of course, if you want a list writing let me have go!

I'll probably talk more about my DE army another time, and specific things I like about them, as this list is already a little long winded. Hopefully the next update will be when I've moved on with my final 3 Wracks, and my first completed unit.