40K Friday: Hard Choices

With the coming of a new edition I have been taking stock of the armies I have - what's playable, what's fun, and what's painted.

• Howling Griffons - small but completely painted and not planning to add more now.
• Crimson Fists - lots painted, more that could be added
• Blood Angels - some painted, lots of stuff in the works, and some things I still need to get
• Imperial Fists - done, painted, no expansions planned.
• Dark Angels - planned, bought, partially worked but nothing finished.
• Imperial Guard - Still coming together. I expect this to mainly be Blaster's next army.
• Eldar - lots finished, more in the works whenever I want to expand.
• Dark Eldar - small force built and base coated but could be bigger.
• Orks - quite a bit finished but it is an ork army so there's just a ton left to paint 
• Iron Warriors - lots finished but could be bigger ...
• Death Guard - some finished but need to complete the core units to really make them usable
• Khorne Daemonkin - have gathered enough to make a playable force but still small and still mostly not painted.
• Tyranids - Did I say tyranids? Why would I do that? There's nothing to see here.

That's a lot of armies. About half of them are at the point where I could field a fully painted army of a decent size. The rest are still somewhat early in that process. I feel like I should narrow the focus a bit.

Additionally 5 of them are marine armies and 2 more are chaos marine armies and that seems like it might be overkill. To me the core of the 40K universe is Marines, Orks, Eldar, and Chaos. That's where I want to spend my time.

So I am breaking up the Dark Angels.

Yes, the army I documented over the years - like 5 years ago when I picked up the new boxed set, or when I reviewed the new codex, or when I devised a paint scheme I was happy with, or here in 2014 when I spelled out my thinking behind the army I was building and when I was making progress. The one I've probably talked about the most besides the Eldar I spent last year finishing up. They're just not sparking the enthusiasm the way I had thought they would. I still like my paint scheme for them but I am not all that interested in painted 50-100 guys in it right now when I have nothing finished for them and a bunch of other armies much farther along.

I am not selling them though - I am re-purposing them.

I thought about this a lot over the last few months. I decided that it makes more sense to break them up and use the parts to make other armies even better rather than building Yet Another Power Armored Force. Instead:

• The Iron Warriors get 2 more Predators- this gives them 3 total, Hope they're decent in 8th.
• The Iron Warriors also get 2 more Rhinos - this takes them to 6 and should be all I will ever need for them. With 4 CSM squads, a chosen squad, and some possessed, well, now everyone has a ride.
• The Dreadnoughts go to the Crimson Fists. Hoping they're good in 8th as well.
• The Attack Bikes go to the Crimson Fists, which is where they were slated to go when i first bought them years ago.
• The speeder typhoons go to the Fists.
• The missile launcher devastator squad goes to the Fists as well.
• The assault squad goes to the Crimson Fists.
• The 2 sniper scout squads go to the Fists.
• The not-molded-in Dark Angels tactical squads go to the Fists too. This will bump me up to 5 or 6 of those as well.
• Finally the Land Raider Crusader goes to the Crimson Fists. They will put it to good use.
• The 3 Razorbacks go to the Blood Angels.  This will give me some options besides jump packs and drop pods - especially for fielding tactical squads. 
• The regular land speeders go to the Blood Angels as well.
• The HQ are being split up among all of my other marine armies, at least the guys who don't have the chapter symbols molded on.

This leaves me the Dark Vengeance tac squads, the DV leaders, the DV bikes, some terminator squads, and the Deathwing Knights. They will go in a box for now until I decide if I want to convert them, sell them, or start them up again. More likely is that I will give them to one of the boys to start their own army or trade them to someone for more orks/eldar/chaos/marines.

I really wanted to get back to the heart of the game and this change lets me do that:

• It beefs up my Crimson Fists with all of the ancillary units they should have. It'll be good to have a "normal" marine army on the table again. All I need to make them complete in my mind is some sternguard and a few drop pods.
• It lets me focus time-wise on finishing the Blood Angels who are pushing my buttons quite a bit more than the Dark Angels have been for a while now. With the Fists "mostly done" I can work on getting the BA's to the same state and not feel like there's still one more marine army waiting on my time. Plus if BA Razorbacks keep some kind of "fast" rule then these Razorbacks will be quite a bit of fun. 
• It pushes my Iron Warriors into the realm of serious tank army. Considering that I already have cargo for the rhinos and the speed with which I can paint them , it's a pretty nifty situation. Six rhinos, three predators, four helbrutes, and a heldrake make it the most mechanized marine army I have. I'd like to add a land raider to finish them out. And a Vindicator squadron ...

Preparations continue!