War Convocation Christmas

Like many gamers, I suffer from hobby shiny distraction syndrome, and am always wanting to try out new things, new formations, new models, new codexes, etc. With 40k being more of an elite hobby, the price typically keeps me in check from buying too much. I still have a pretty full Tyranids army that is mostly unassembled and waiting for its space theme paint scheme to be applied upon hits carapace. I doubt that it will be completed any time soon.

Christmas for me has become very non 40k centered as the special people in my life – wife and family, just don’t know what to get me in the 40k realm other than gift cards, and those can be a bit cold in the feeling department. So most Christmas’ for me are not full of 40k. Not this year though!

Next Year’s ITC Season

I’ve been thinking about what I want to do for next years ITC season as I really want to move on from my Centstar. I’ve been playing it for about a year and a half or more and that is a huge stretch for me. My hobby ADD spreads not only to my models, but to my lists as well. I’ve typically always been the guy that is never playing the same list twice or is at least drastically changing it. So playing the same thing has been hard, but rewarding in that my game has gotten much better overall.

I’ve had two lists in mind with one being a Eldar/Dark Eldar/Corsairs type lists built with Skaven models. Totally lifted the idea from Ten Inch Template (long since dead blog but full of good stuff) but that’s okay…I netlist too! The other idea has been the War Convocation and that is where I am landing right now this Christmas.

It’s pretty hilarious that Reece just wrote an article about building a new army as I had already planned on this article before that one went live.

Aesthetics

The thing that got me into this game more than any other thing was the looks of models. I remember staring at a GW catalog with a friend and drooling over how cool they looked and how awesome it would be to have my own. I didn’t realize at that time the work that would need to go into having my own army but that is beside the point. The number one thing for me is look of the army. If it doesn’t look cool, then I’m not all that interested.

The Skitarii, Cult Mechanicus, and Imperial Knight models all look cool to me. I love the heavy robotic and mechanized feel of the list with large walking monstrosities crawling upon the terrain going towards my foes.

Play Style

Having played against the War Convocation, I love how long the shooting phase is! That is one thing that I am really looking forward having that long shooting phase where one thing after the other is pummeling my opponent. It also doesn’t appear to be a very static army as it still has a lot of units that can move and get close to the enemy. Drop Pods will also be a part of my play as they are pretty key in getting certain units into position to do max damage.

I’m also happy to go away from psychic powers and instead just have things go off with the Canticles of the Omnisiah. Full Shrouding for turns, raised Ballistic skill, and other great bonuses will be great to just turn on and not have to worry about rolling five dice at Invisibility and not getting it. That sounds appealing to me as it is very different from what I am playing now.

Free Stuff

I’m also excited about taking advantage of the “free stuff” syndrome in 40k right now. Free units, upgrades, wargear, etc sound really good to me. I want me my free stuff!

Affording a New Army

A new army can always be daunting, but if you know me,I am always looking for cheaper ways to do things. I got the first part of my War Convocation from my second hand minis business, which is going bonkers by the way (thanks to all that have contacted me about selling me their minis!). A local guy was selling his Skitarii Battle Maniple and I took out what I needed and am selling the rest. Next I got a Culexus, also in a trade in. I then took all of my GW plastic cases (I hate selling these!) to my local game store and traded them in for store credit and picked up my Kataphrons. Last I picked up the Knight, Dominus, some back up Vanguard, and Dunecrawler through Frontline Gaming.

All told I am into this army very cheap! I am always excited when I can make my dollar move further.

New Goals

One of my favorite things togo for is the Best Overall title. I feel this game is truly a combination of generalship, hobby, and sportsmanship. I know there are arguments that can be made about chipmunking and manipulating those scores, but that is a prize I will always try to go for. So I know I need to up my painting for this army.

A friend of mine was talking to another great painter who said if you want to do better at getting good painting scores than go for a bright colored army. With that in mind I’m trying my hand at a Metalica War Convocation Scheme. This is a white base with red accents. For the under metallic carriages of the army I’m wanting to try a bronze with patina look to it. I think that contrast will be very eye popping and look great on the table.

Conclusion

So that is my gaming Christmas present to myself. A full War Convocation, ready to be assembled and painted. I’m super excited and want to take the time to make it look really good. It should be very fun and I’ll be keeping you up on the process.

What about you? What are your plans for next years ITC? New army? New goal? Also, don’t forget about Frontline Gaming for your hobby needs where you can save up to 25% on new models!