Mkay, back to building my army… Found some templates to build some "Space 1889" type Airships. Aphid class airship will be my first attempt as a Valkyrie or Vendetta class skimmer. I just cut out the main hull of the vehicle, and it will look like this… More or less :-)  This picture is from the "Space 1889" site:

So, much longer, not quite the wingspan of a "real" Valkyrie, but it fits the Praetorians a LOT better I think. I'm not doing it completely to the plans, not quite so long I think, but I'm hoping it looks decent when I'm done with it… So, I'll play the Praetorians as an Infantry company, with Mechanized and Air Assault elements. Sadly, I CAN field something like 9 of these Vendetta/Valkyrie airships (only difference really being the armament, the Vendetta is just 3 TL Las Cannons while the Valkyrie is more of a mix) in a legal IG force… I plan a squadron of 3 perhaps all told for my army, then to build some Chimera hulls for the various Armored "things" like Hydra squadrons, artillery and of course the actual Chimeras…

New League, starting over

We're running a team league at the Gopher and I'll be partnered up with one of the Eldar players, Dave Hahn. I'll probably at least start off running my Praetorians at the 500 point level and likely 750 as well. Since those levels are not requiring us to actually field a "legal" army (don't need to field the 1 HQ, 2 troops), I can pretty much tailor my list to cause the most damage in the shortest amount of time… Here's my "legal" list:

Company Command section (2 GL, Las Cannon, Master of Ordnance, Chimera) 160

Vet Squad (3 Melta, shotguns, Missile Launcher, Chimera) 165

Vet Squad (3 Melta, shotguns, Las Cannon, Chimera) 175

 

And here's my "It's my 500 point 'All Stars' list":

Company Command section (4 Melta, Chimera) 145

Hydra 75

Leman Russ Battle Tank 150

Vendetta ( 3 TL Las Cannons) or Valkyrie (rocket pods, multi laser) 130

 

 

The first has all BS 4, standard Mechanized list, not a lot of imagination or thought required. On the other hand, I'm not totally screwed if it comes up "Dawn of War" deployment like it did for me ALL last league, except that last game. I see them reserving a LOT and then just driving around shooting things up… Hull Heavy Flamers probably… With the second list I can't win any games with it, but I CAN throw a LOT of firepower down range… Will be counting on either wiping the other team off the field or Dave's Eldar holding objectives… Or I could field the Vendetta/Valkyrie and a bunch of Sentinels for an outflanking army…

Well, on another note altogether… It appears as if I’ve actually stopped drinking again. I don’t think it was a conscious decision or anything at this point, I just pretty much stopped. I think it was because I could feel my self control slipping more and more as the stress level increased…  Kind of amusing watching “Being Human” or any Werewolf movie/show and identifying so well with the Werewolf. It’s really frightening living with the knowledge of just how much havoc and destruction (physical and emotional) you can cause if you slip even for an instant. Henry Rollins had a quote that went along the lines of “I look at my hands and see the scars. I cannot forget what I did to get them”… Not an exact quote, but I have his books on a shelf in the basement somewhere and not in a searchable electronic format… But I think he just says it a whole lot clearer than I ever could. As time passes, I can see some of the scars starkly against the tan of the normal skin, and every time I look at that hand I remember why it is scarred and why the knuckles are ever so slightly deformed from the breaks over the years… Some are not so obvious, bones that were broken and my knee that will likely never really recover to the level of the other one. Places I’ve been and things I’ve done. Lots of stress this year, it keeps pushing me closer and closer to the edge

Anyway, I’m working on changing jobs. I’ve been at the Math Department for 8 years now I guess… It’s become something of a dead end position over the last 5. There’s been two years of pay cuts, most of the rest static or “minimal raises”. Yes, it was a big raise coming over from GSLIS, and there was one year I got another big raise, but that was a while ago. So, I guess it’s time that I got back to a “Management” position. Done that a while ago, and I have to admit that I burned out in 1994 playing Army. The life or death decisions being made on the fly are a “bit” different than the fairly trivial ones I’d have to make in an IT department. So, in order to move up and more importantly preserve my sanity, I think it is time to move on and up. I am hoping to get moved over to Atlas, the College level IT department. At the very least I’ll not be on my own there, they have a fairly complete set of skills over there, and it will make the job a whole lot easier… Failing that, I guess it is time to start sending out the resume of doom…

Up to 1000 points...

Playing in a team league… Random partners, so not at all sure what will be fighting alongside my lads. So, I’ll be fielding 1000 points, and making sure I have a “complete” force that can stand on its own. In this “flight” we randomly roll for partners, etc., then we can pick our lists after opponents have been determined…

So, if I’m facing off against a Marine force:
CCS (Master of Ord, Las Cannon, 2 x Grenadiers in a Chimera)
2 x Vet Squads (Meltas, one LC one ML, Chimeras)
Leman Russ (LC in hull)
Colossus or Basilisk
Scout Sentinel (Missile Launcher)
Vendetta Gunship

Facing off against a horde force:
CCS (Master of Ord, Las Cannon, 2 x Grenadiers in a Chimera w/ stubber)
Vet Squad (Meltas, missile launcher, Chimera w/HS)
Infantry Platoon:
PCS (4 x flamers)
3 Squads (GL/AC, one Commissar to deploy as a big blob more likely than not)
Leman Russ (HHB)
Hydra (+ PHS)
Valkyrie (Rocket Pods, Heavy Bolters)

Ah, up to 750 points for the Team League tomorrow...  Looks like I'll be bringing out a (proxied) Colossus.  Seeing WAY too many things just hiding in cover all game, even Marines.  Thinking of one of my old DI's with the "No Problem...  No Problem what so ever"...  Mind SSG Berry was a REALLY big guy, so he could pull that off sounding like a pissed off Darth Vader :-)

Other units I'll be bringing will be the Command Squad all loaded out, a Platoon Command Squad (4 flame throwers), a Vet Squad with the standard loadout (Chimera, Demo upgrade, 2 Meltas) and the line Platoon with 2 squads w/ melta/heavy weapons.  A Commissar in the PCS and the Platoon to keep things going the "right" way...   A bit light on vehicles for me I think, but we'll see who I get paired with and if it works out...

Just a quick shot of the "steampunk" Sentinel along with some of the lads in progress...  Second pic is the ancient "Death chicken" class Sentinel along with one of my Vets in progress...  Marine Scout shotgun, different color uniform for the squad to differentiate them from the Line Dogs :-) 

Vets...

Well, finally building more of my Praetorian Imperial Guard… Working on a Veteran Squad, been fielding them with the Demolitions upgrade, Shotguns on the lads and a pair of Melta Guns… Dug out the ancient Praetorian Sentinel, but missing the driver… Will be scratch building it I guess. I’ll have to break out the camera and put up some WIP pictures, they’re coming along quite nicely though. Need to decide on a uniform color for the Vets…

The FLGS (The Armored Gopher, http://www.armored-gopher.com/) is starting up a teams format league. Should be interesting, not sure which army I’ll field, so it’ll probably be random…