Tuesday 4 October 2016

Time for an Epic Slow Grow!

Time for an Epic Slow Grow! 


Welcome Epic Addicts to the first Epic slow grow hosted on the blog. D6addiction is my first foray into the blogging world and its been a really interesting few months. I watched the first few weeks as we were hitting about 5-10 views a day and now we are averaging 2000 views a month, that's a lot of interest for a "dead game". There's been talk around my gaming circle of doing a slow grow for a while now and so I thought I might combine both ideas and see if we could generate some interest in the community. The real question was how many players out there just needed a little bit of peer pressure to kick off some frantic hobbying!

The response you will see below, at last count we had 13 players covering a wide array of different armies and we hope you all enjoy checking out the progress updates each month and perhaps even find a little inspiration yourself to dust off the metal and get some colour on there. The plan for the slow grow looks something like this
Below each of the players will be providing a starting pick and a little blurb outlining the army they are building and a little bit of background about their connection to the game.

Each month the growers have been asked to complete approximately 1000 points of their army and provide us a progress shot highlighting their achievements for the month. Hopefully we can inspire some of you readers into dusting off your own toy soldiers and grabbing a paintbrush too!

We will likely get some sample builds going sometime in the first month too so each of you can see the thinking process behind the armies being constructed. Where possibly we will line up some battles and post up reports too but the players are pretty spread out so we will see how that goes.

All of these armies should be fully completed by January ready for some glorious finished army shots and some well deserved rest for the painters! I'm hoping that as many players as possible will make it along to Cancon 2017 at the end of January and test their shiny new armies at what will no doubt be a huge epic event to kick off the new year. Enjoy the read and throw your support behind the players in the comments section below!

Player 1 - Steve 'The D6 Addict' Gibb

So I'm that sort of player who tends to purchase far more minis than I ever have time to paint. For me the slow grow is all about having just enough of a boot up the bum that I will finally have motivation to get out one of the 3 armies I currently have in bear metal and get them done. In the end I settled on Chaos Cultists as my focus partially because of a love of all things chaotic and partially because nobody else in the grow was doing them! I'll be basing my build on the developmental Lost and the Damned Redux list available here  on the Tactical Command forums which I feel is a far more interesting and charismatic chaos cult that the current approved one. I'll post a sample build in the near future but the army shot should show you that the basic philosophy will be to drown my enemies in junk troops every step of the way. Cultists, daemons and daemonic war engines to chop, crush, infect and burn the enemies of the dark gods

 

Player 2 - Zac 'Shenanigans' Manning
I will be completing my Iyanden army for this slow grow. I have always wanted to play elder since I started playing 40K when I was 12. I never got the chance then and now is a great time (mainly as I have money to buy things now haha). Alaitoc was always the craftworld I was most interested in to play closely followed by Iyanden. However Iyanden won the battle for what Eldar to collect and play in Epic as the Alaitoc list just does not float my boat.
      I liked the Iyanden list as it allows me options to play a different sort of playstyle to the past armies I have played (Marines, Tau and Iron Warriors). Iyanden allow me to combine similar aspects of all three into one if needed or can still play like the cheesy elder they are. At the end of this I aim to an army that can be mobile with Vampire Raiders, Storm Serpents and Web Way Portals while being able to smash things with the fearless macro weapon wielding Wraiths and Revenant Titans (because who doesn’t love titans than can move shoot move and have holo fields). Throw in some Night Spinners, Wave Serpents and Rangers with the mighty free Avatar and we have what on paper should be a solid army that can deal with most on comers.
      As for painting I have finally found an army where I can use orange as the main colour. The scheme will consist of orange and blue armour plates with bone and black weapons. Gems will be purple and green I feel at this stage. This can and will more then likely change as painting is not my strongest aspect of the hobby and try to follow paint by numbers when I can. For the bases I have found some circle scenic bases with gems that look very eldarly (will post the link for these later on when the army commences). 

Player 3 - John 'Girl Power' Hammond
 To counter all the abominable filth, heretics and foul xenos that I see the others building I give you the most pure form of the Emperor's Judgement!

The Adepta Soriotas have arrived!

When approached about the slow grow I knew it was time to finally work on a force I've always wanted, the Sisters of Battle. I've had most of the models for this army stashed in boxes in the hobby room for almost 12 months now awaiting the inspiration  to get back into painting them and now the moment has arrived. I've always liked the Sisters approach to most problems in the 40k  world, mainly being fire, holy fire and even more fire, and hope to bring this to the epic tabletop in a very aggressive in your  face Firefight style army.
This list will be based of the experimental list here  on the Tactical Command forums and I hope to be giving some  reports and feedback to help move the list along.

I'll admit I'm also cheating and getting a head start with my army as I plan on taking the first 1000pts to a local minigeddon  event towards the end of the month (MOAB 2016). The starting army will look like:

----------------------------
Mission [8 sisters] 275
Rhinos

Exorcism [5 exorcist] 250

Repentance [6 Repentia] 225
Rhinos
Immolator x1 25
Priest 50

Penitence [4 Penitent Engines] 175

-----------------------------
I'll report back next month with how they go and keep you up to date as I dispense with the enemies of mankind!



Player 4 - Ben 'I'm not a communist I just like red' Tranter


You know what rocks? Titans!
You know what sucks? Being unable to select their armament outside the predesigned load outs.

Enter the Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarri army! Able to take all the fun goodies that a pure Titan army can have, with the ability to field a 'proper' infantry army too. I'm also looking forward to fielding some of those wacky Ordinartus weapons.

First 1000 points undercoated and ready to go:


Incompertus, 1000 POINTS 
Gryphonne IV Skitarii Legion (NetEA v2.04 *EXPERIMENTAL*) 
==================================================

SKITARII DEMI-CENTURY [500] 
2 Secutor units, 8 Hypaspist units, Hydra, 10 Chimedons

CATAPHRACTI SUPPORT [350] 
Macharius Command Tank (vulcan), 2 Macharius

CRUSADER SCOUT MANIPLE [150] 
4 Crusader Robots





Player 5: Colm "no nickname" Kiely
I've been playing Epic in a fairly low-key for a couple of years now, and aside from the first couple of learning games, I've used a Codex Space Marine force exclusively.
      I wanted an excuse to get some new models and to try a different style of army. In my browsing I found some awesome looking Knight models and I've always been a a sucker for the "future feudalism" aspect of the 40k lore, so my decision was made for me. The "slow grow" group was advertised and it sounded like a great way to motivate myself to make steady progress with the new army.
      I've gone for a reasonable number of activations and kept it mostly knights, which means small unit sizes. Three units of engagement-focussed Errants are backed up by three units of ranged Castellans, with a couple of units of AA guns, a pair of Thunderbolts (reusing the ones in my Astartes army) and a unit of rough-riders to round out the force.
      Keeping the knightly theme going, I'm using English War of the Roses knights for my rough-riders.









Player 6: Jeff "what's a blurb? Thomson

Here's my 3000pts of standard IG. There's no real blurb or reason behind this force, except that it means I get most things painted in batches, rather than painting it all in bits and pieces. I don't intend to play it as it is here.

I'm going to try and stick to standard Steel Legion colours, though I have enough models (not being painted during this) to also use it as the Minervan Tank Legion, and also plan to get the required models for use as DKoK.





Player 7 Dave "Fruitbat" Dinglestad
I was a huge fan of Epic back when everything came on square bases and it was called Space Marine. It dropped off my gaming radar for a few decades, but a mate lured me back in with a couple of intro games over the last few years. I bit the bullet this year and finally played some games with the full rules at Castle Assault. It was a rapid learning curve, particularly game 1 vs the feral Orks, but I was hooked again. I'd acquired several armies over the years in bits & pieces, and settled on Imperial Guard using the Steel Legion approved list because tanks are cool. Also, because being a newbie I wanted a list that wasn't too hard to remember what stuff does. Guardsmen move forwards a bit, shoot lots, and die. Easy! For the Emperor!




Player 8 Chris "Fake Nightlords" Smith
I thought getting into this slow grow was a great idea to get yet another army going, I have only been in epic for just over a year, played in 2 tournaments and thoroughly enjoyed the game.

The reason for starting my Night Lords was just purely because of the slow grow, another chance to paint more epic. Because Night Lords aren't official yet I'm going to be building my army list using the approved Black Legion list.

And we have to rid the galaxy of them traitorous loyalists as we were meant to rule the galaxy.


Player 9 Ben "Genuine Fluffbunny" Spaulding

 Armageddon 233rd Armoured Regiment

++ Open transcript 311-ZA-[233-A] ++
Request received from 101st Mechanised Regiment –Armour support required.
233rd Armoured Regiment available for redeployment – advance element to mobilise within 24 hours from Hive Infernus. Body of force to mobilise within 72 hours, tasked to escort Mechanicus forces hailing from Voss Prime to rendezvous with Legio Invigilata.
Route of advance – ‘Hell’s Highway’ – projected minimal resistance.
Rendezvous with 8th Super Heavy Tank Company at southern entrance to Hive Helsreach.
++ Close transcript 311-ZA-[233-A] ++

I fell in love with the Gothic battles of the 41st millennium when stumbling across a display of Steel Legion vs. Orks at a local hobby show, at the impressionable young age of 12. There was something about the scale that never sat well with me however; a handful of models slugging it out didn’t portray to me the epic scale of the conflicts. I discovered Epic while at Uni, and was blown away by how well it portrayed the epic conflicts, but sadly Specialist Games was discontinued before I could find anyone to play with.

I have moved to Brisbane recently, and found a thriving scene still playing Epic Armageddon. I’m looking at getting involved, and saw the slow-grow as a fantastic opportunity to stay motivated. This scale allows me to field the mighty war machines that attracted me to the game, and takes the emphasis off the individual soldier and on to formations.

I’ll be building my Armoured Regiment around the Steel Legion 233rd Armoured Regiment, and the Battle for Helsreach. This was a large battle during the Third War for Armageddon, and gives me the opportunity to draw units from other Guard regiments, Cult Mechanicus, and the Adeptus Titanicus!

Here is my plan for the first month, which has been built using the Net-EA Minigeddon mods to allow smaller points games. Once I’ve got a couple of games under my belt, I’ll look at what I need to expand on to take the list to 2000 for month 2.

Advance Recon Element, 1000 POINTS
Minervan Tank Legion (NetEA Tournament Pack 2014) (Minigeddon)
==================================================

TANK COMPANY [400]
6 Leman Russ

TANK COMPANY [400]
6 Leman Russ

SALAMANDER SCOUT PLATOON [100]
3 Salamanders

SALAMANDER SCOUT PLATOON [100]
3 Salamanders



Player 10 - Ben "I need a reason to paint" Wadswoorth

Finally, the excuse i needed to start collecting and painting epic again! you guys rule!
      Ben here, and the last time i played epic was in high school. swooped in on the day before GW stopped selling it and picked up a tonne o' marines & guard for a couple years advance on xmas and bdays gifts lol. many good times. then, you know, puberty etc. later it was all sold on ebay as a poor student, but with much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Now as a grown ass man (albiet with nearly 10 WHFB armies on the shelves) I'm back on the teeniest of tiny buzz with a vengeance!
      NetEA seems better ruleswise from what i remember, and nowadays there's some great alternative ranges, so i had to try something new and go with the space commies, with the encouragement of sensei norto.
      Still got another ax-10, ten stands of infantry, a couple drones and a trio of rippaz on the way, but i had a couple days off at home last week and just couldn't balance anymore treats on my nose. so I'm a dirty cheat and 100% couldn't be happier lol. still plenty of painting to go though
!

Player 11 - Daniel "Needs a head Start" Schmidt

My first 1000 points. I'm a massive cheater and have started painting already, but given how slow I am at painting and how busy I am with work these few months, I figured I needed the head-start!

Will be a Bad Moon/Evil Sunz standard Ork force. The Kult of Speed and Blitz Brigade will be in Evil Sunz colours, and the other mobs will be in Bad Moonz colours. Decided to go with Orks as the sheer variety of models and units makes them pretty interesting to paint and model up. No idea if it will be competitive at all, but it should look great! :)

The list:

Evil Sunz/Bad Moonz 1000 pt Minigeddon Ork Horde, 1000 POINTS
Ghazgkhull Thraka's War Horde (NetEA Tournament Pack 2013)
==================================================

BLITZ BRIGADE [150]
3 Gunwagon, Flakwagon

MEKBOY GUNZMOB [175]
5 Big Gunz, Oddboy

MEKBOY STOMPAMOB [275]
3 Stompa, 2 Killa Kan

KULT OF SPEED [200]
7 Skorcha, Warbuggy

WARBAND [200]
2 Nobz, 6 Boyz, 2 Grotz, Warlord



Player 12 - Kendall "The Colombian Kingpin" Williams


I'll be running Genestealer Cult for the slow grow, which works pretty damn well with my recent appointment as the NetEA Army Champion.

The initial list as follows
Hybrid Brood + 4 Civ Vehicles
Hybrid Brood
Sentinel Squad
Purestrain Brood
Lictor Brood

This is a pretty aggressive list, prime for rushing the enemy to overwhelm in combat, at least this is the theory.
Most units can move fast, and even with my low Strategy Rating, I shoulf get favourable engagements in thanks to having infiltrate on my Stealers.and Lictors, plus hybrids in fast moving vehicles.

The hybrid models and Civie Vehicles are from Onslaught Miniatures.
The rest are GW.

Bases have been made using Samurai Miniatures magnetic bases + 2.5 mm thick plasticard for the road base + thin cork board and 3mm square tile plasticard to form a higher sidewalk area.

I'll start painting them soon - looking at a burnt orange primary, grey-white secondary and cult purple accents.

Stay tuned for progress shots, minigeddon game reports and next months developments.



Player 13 - Dan 'Wait for Me!' Hutchi

*coming soon*... 

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