State of the Union Address

Hitting the age of forty next year has me pondering what I should do for my birthday celebrations, the past two years have been quiet due the impending and now arrival of my firstborn, and I feel that next year I can stretch my wings and do something special for the occasion. This is on my mind as I will be out this weekend sampling the delights of forty pubs celebrating one of my fellow gamer’s birthdays.

Forty years old, Warhammer 40k, forty years old, Warhammer 40k – you know it has a ring to it. Casting my mind back to a year before the release of Apocalypse I gamed a two day battle that reached turn four that had 40,000 points on each side. It was the best game I ever played as the sheer amount of figures and vehicles on display was breathtaking. It could also be said that the sheer amount of unpainted figures and vehicles on display was also breathtaking. Since then four years have gone by, whilst not much more has been painted, at least on my part, more figures and vehicles have been gathered. We have seen new rules, or at least suggestions, to fast play large games and over the years I have played an Apocalypse game or three.

Aiming for bank holiday weekend in August 2011 could I gather a full quarter or perhaps even more of a four player 40,000 points a side battle? I think that is a big ask, but wanting to game only with painted models I would need to crack the whip with my gaming buddies as well, making sure they sleep with a paintbrush as well. Fortunately two of the players are big painters and do not like to have more models than they can paint, one of them probably already has 20,000 points plus painted and ready to battle the other a more modest 10,000 points. Our final gamer perhaps has 500 points painted and I do not know if I have enough dynamite to get him into action.

So ideally I would gather together another couple of gamers, four will be ideal, perhaps two realistic? Secondly I need to paint, paint like the wind. I have no figures that are completed, but many in a state of near finish. Many more just undercoated, and probably an equal number unpainted. Looking in my calendar I have fifty weeks to achieve this goal, fifty short weeks. That does break down to a manageable 400 points a week or two squads in Chaos Rhinos or five Chaos Terminators in a Chaos Landraider. It sounds simpler when broken down into individual models. On top of painting the 20k of Chaos models I will also need to ensure that there is enough terrain to battle over, painted of course and that the Forces of Good (FOG)have enough painted figures and vehicles to match this evil horde, or Forces of Evil (FOE).

Next posting I will be breaking down what I can expect to bring to the battle, and what potentially my gaming buds could be taking.