For the doubles event I'm heading to next week, I needed a couple of Sergeants with bolt pistol and power fist, and an new HQ. I went for the Optae, simply because he's cheap, but because he's lacking in the melee skills I went for a ranged option, a minor combi-bolter with Volkite. The shield gives him the invulnerable save of a Centurion, which might help him, and I plumped for some artificer armour.
I was hoping to have completed the 2 Basilisks I started recently, but after a poor showing in a practice recently, they were parked, incomplete. The event is a local doubles one-day narrative one, and we're taking White Scars with Loyalist Iron Warriors. I had hope to go super thematic with Basilisks, as the Scars player is full on jetbikes and Lan Speeders, but the lack of good AP made me think that they won't cut it. I've therefore gone back to a couple of Laser Destroyers and some other toys - the Basilisks aren't cheap! The VLD was started last year but got dropped when I found there's no datasheet for them in 10th (although the other one made an appearance in the end using a Predator stat block when I needed to find more points quickly).
I haven't painted anything other than as part of doing repairs since November. I had a great time at Apocalypticon, even if we ended up facing an Imperator titan - thanks David - and getting thrashed. After the event a load of us caught a pretty nasty bug, something like COVID although it didn't trigger my test kits. That knocked me out for two weeks, and lingered in a lesser form for even longer. That lead to Christmas preparation starting late, and being pretty rushed, and at the last minute (Christmas Eve) I had to help the vet euthanise one of our sheep right on the afternoon work had given us off extra as a gift. Between Christmas and new year, I had a few days off so I managed to build though my Combat Patrol sprues that had arrived or been bought locally. I'm still waiting for issues 11-14 from my subscription, even though they've sent me later ones already. I also started building a few single model kits that were in the house. By this weekend I have managed to build:
30 x Termagants
3 x Ripper Swarm
1 x Psychophage
5 x Barbgaunts
1 x Terminator Librarian
1 x Infernus Marine Sergeant Ltd Ed
5 x Infernus Marines
1 x Deathwatch Captain Artemis
2 x Drukhari Khymerae
1 x Sydonian Skatros
1x GSC Benefictus
Moving into 2025, it's a 30k start to the year. I have a doubles event next month locally where I'll be taking my IW (with some new Basilisks and a Siege Breaker consul) along with my friend Matt and his new White Scars! In March I'm off to Goonhammer's 30k event in Leicester, again taking my IW. I only squeaked in on Friday due to a drop out, so I haven't even thought about my list yet, I spent most of the time in between continuing the rebuild of a chicken house so we can bring all out chickens into the same location. I've also done a bit of programming to make some tools to help make a custom unit fandex for future Apocalypticons. I'll share more when it's presentable.
I'll leave you with a picture of the Imperator we faced.
