40K Friday Returns - With More Chaos!

There hasn't been a lot of 40K action around here lately. Fall gets busy with kid stuff once school is back in session and a lot of weeknights and weekends are spent on those things. Plus the sacred Sunday rituals must be observed, especially when the Cowboys are playing well.

BUT - when we can't play, we paint! Or ... we pick up more mini's. I talked about what I was doing with my slowly growing Chaos Space Marine force a few months back  and I've made a little more progress since then. The converted spawn are coming together, I picked up some interesting cultists miniatures (already painted, thank goodness), and I've added a small contingent of Iron Warriors.

The spawn unit is 5 spawn with the mark of Nurgle. With that and the bikes it gives me two fairly speedy, tough units that can charge across the field and hopefully do some damage. They are not a complicated unit to build or to use but people seem to have decent results with them.

The cultists are painted green and white so they fit with the Death Guard theme of the army. They are not GW cultists - I like the hooded look better. Thirty of them gives me some flexibility in going with multiple squads or one big squad. Mechanically, well, they are not a power unit. They're a cheap troops choice to allow me to take other more effective non-troops units. Taking the long view though it makes a lot of sense to have a unit of cultists available.

Note: These guys also work well in a lot of modern RPGs too

The Iron Warriors came about when I started looking for ways to expand the army beyond just the Nurgle forces. IW's were huge in 3rd edition as they had some special rules that allowed extra heavy support choices compared to other chapters - more vindicators proved to be a popular choice. Armies from that era still show up from time to time on eBay. Allowing for a little "chaos" almost any IW painted unit looks right next to another painted IW unit. Going with them as an additional force alongside my nasty green marines diversifies the army a bit in both look and in the types of units each might take.

As a squad it's a mixed bag because I agree with the popular view that the traditional 10-guys-with-a-heavy-and-a-special-weapon is not the greatest anymore, especially with the lack of combat squadding for CSM's. That's how these were built though, and as I add more options I may be able to change it up some. I also know that dreadnoughts are not all that effective in the current rules but a)I've always liked them, b) that's the only combination of stock parts I like on those old metal chaos dreads, and c) it seems appropriate for Iron Warriors to have at least one.

I have acquired some unpainted chaos marines as well and some parts. Some of those may go towards options for some of my existing squads (more double plasma/melta/flamer) but I think I can put together at least one full squad and it will likely be Iron Warriors as well.

Down the road it would also make some sense to add a couple of Maulerfiends to keep expanding the "fast assault" approach I'm working on here. An IW look on those would be pretty cool. If I later decide to turn the IW into their own separate army then tanks would make a lot of sense too but that's a ways off yet.

More to come - I'm going to try and get some more painting in this weekend and see how much more I can do to get these guys ready to jump on the table.