[Tau] De-Mech or Die, Part II

Hi,

Welcome to part 2, I'd like to start by addressing some very good points bought up in the comments section to Part I

Completely De-Meching

To reiterate the main aim of the post was to explore increasing the anti-tank firepower, a solution I suggested was to reduce the mechanised elements in the Tau army to give the points required for more anti-tank.

It was quite rightly pointed out that removing all the mechanised elements of the Tau army would mean all the enemy's anti-tank guns would be directly towards broadsides and crisis suits, and probably instant killing them in short order. Tau tanks are one of the most survivable in the game, due to their good armour, long range on their guns allowing them to stay further away from their target, and the humble disruption pod which allows them to take their 4+ cover save with them.

Other reasons why I think Tau tanks are still required as follows:

• They are great at contesting objectives, once they are moving >6” and there aren't any meltaguns nearby they are really hard to get rid of.

• Our fragile troops can not march across the battlefield and hope to get to distant objectives, let alone survive on close at hand objectives. A Devilfish means that any objective can be threatened, and will take serious firepower over to remove (first the devilfish and then the occupants have to be destroyed.

I also stated in the comments that I did not think a fully mech army can compete too well in 5th edition. These two posts are me exploring where in between the two (fully mech and non-mech) is most effective.

The Change

Moving on to my current list I want to change:

Shas'el with 2 Drones
2 Fireknifes
3 Fireknifes with 2 Drones
3 Missile/Burst Suits with 2 Drones
6 Fire Warriors
10 Kroot & 7 Hounds
10 Kroot & 7 Hounds
10 Kroot
8 Pathfinders
Devilfish
Railhead
Railhead
3 Broadsides with Advanced Stabilisation Systems, Leader with Target Lock, Blacksun Filter & 2 Shield Drones

Everything normally did their job quite well, apart from the railheads. They didn't put out much firepower for their 165 points each price tag, but as mentioned above they were very useful for contesting and absorbing firepower.

I also noticed that in some games I did not always need to move the broadside unit that much. So my idea was to switch a railhead for a unit of static broadsides. So I tried to build the cheapest 3 broadside unit that was still effective; here is my result:
Broadsides Team – 245 pts
Broadside with Drone Controller with 1 Gun Drone & 1 Shield Drone
2 x Broadsides with a Target Lock

To ensure the railguns had the option to split fire the basic suits had targets locks (the only cheaper options to fill the har point is the blacksun filter or a drone controller). Also note that I did not include a leader because I used the basic hardpoint for the drone controller.

Lastly I downgraded one of the drones to a gun drone. Being behind my army or in terrain I nearly always got a cover save, so against a lascannon the gun drone would be the same as a shield drone. Of course I'm bound to now face space wolf missile spam where an extra 2+ armour save drone would be useful.

This new unit costs 80 pts over the railhead. Now I am losing a lot with the railhead, I'm losing a str 6 large template option, the durability to distract a lot of enemy firepower, and the excellent late game contesting ability, but I have upped the number of railguns hits (not shots) by over one and a half a turn, plus the new unit can not be shaken or stunned.

Now I had the hard choice of where the 80 pts required for the upgrade would come from. I was tempted to use lose the unit of 10 kroot, but I've found having only 3 troop choices is running a bit small especially as I would be making them more fragile; the pathfinder devilfish to transport a unit would come under more firepower with the reduction to only one other vehicle to distract the enemy.

So instead I picked the hounds from the second unit of kroot. It's always essential to have a large kroot unit to cover a lot of ground for the rest of the army to hide behind, but sometimes the second unit didn't need to be so large, especially if they were going to be sacrificed and I normally had a good idea by then the direction the enemy would break through the 1st line of kroot.

With 3 pts I could save from taking the blacksun filter off the broadside team leader (filling up spare points before) I had now saved 45 pts. The rest of the points would will come from what I think would be a controversial spot.

As I said before my railheads didn't seem to put out much firepower over a game. Part of the reason for this was that they were shaken or stunned on some turns. This will only happen more if I halved the number of railheads I had. However I was not going to drop the hammerhead, as I believe it is too essential to contest objectives and draw firepower, so instead I will morph it into an ionhead. Yes sometimes known as the bastard stepchild of the hammerhead chassis weapons, but it is significantly cheaper at only 130 pts for the whole tank (incl multi-tracker and d.pod). If it spends a few turns shaken/stunned will an extra 35 pts for a better weapon be that useful. The ion cannon still has it's uses, against monstrous creatures it is better than the railgun, marines don't like walking in the open with it around, plus against tank armour 11 it's performance is on par with the railgun, so it can add to the crisis suit's missile pods light vehicle killing and suppression firepower.

The anti-tank firepower has increased from 3½ to 4½ railgun hits a turn, and 9.8 to 11.8 str 7 hits a turn. At the expensive of 1 less vehicle chassis, and losing both mobile railguns. I will have to use the dual firebase tactic more to account for the loss of the mobile railguns; with spread far away from each other firebases if an enemy advances to one firebase it will expose it's flank to the other. However I think the change should help my army kill vehicles better and faster.

The New List

Here's the new list in full:

Shas'el - 102
Missile Pod, Cyclic Ion Blaster, Multi-tracker, 2 Gun Drones

Crisis Team 1 - 124
2 Fireknifes

Crisis Team 2 - 211
3 Fireknifes
incl Leader with 2 Gun Drones

Crisis Team 3 - 163
1 x Crisis Suit with Twin Missile Pods, 2 Gun Drones
2 x Crisis suits with Missile Pod, Burst Cannon, Multi-tracker

6 Fire Warriors - 60

10 Kroot with 7 Hounds - 112

10 Kroot - 70

10 Kroot - 70

8 Pathfinders - 96
in Devilfish with Disruption Pod - 85

Hammerhead - 130
Ion Cannon, Burst Cannons, Multi-tracker, Disruption Pod

Broadside Team 1 - 280
1 x Leader with Advanced Stabilisation Systems, Target Lock, 2 Shield Drones
2 x Broadsides with Advanced Stabilisation Systems

Broadside Team 2 – 245
1 x Broadside with 1 Gun Drone & 1 Shield Drone
2 x Broadsides with Target Locks

Total: 1750 Pts

What do you think of the new list ? It has some static elements, but still has a mobile element of 9 crisis suits and the 2 vehicles. Will it do better than the previous list, or have I de-meched too much ? What's your balance between mech and static, anti-tank and mobility ?

Rathstar

[Tau] De-Mech or Die, Part I

Hi,

Following on from the previous Tau post about the decline in Tau players at tournaments, my thoughts turn to how I can improve my Tau. After the poor performance at the last tournament (44th of out 52), partially due to bad match-ups and mistakes on my part, I would to look at a way to improve my list.

Looking back at my games, particularly the ones I lost, problems seem to fall into one of two camps.

One is army match-up. The Tau really struggle against fast melee armies. Heavy cav and beast daemon armies spring to mind, and although I haven't faced them yet I expect Blood Angels using assault troops with decent of angels would be a big pain. These armies tend get to the Tau lines very quickly and overwhelm the kroot layers before the enemy is weakened enough, plus they normally have the speed to catch the retreating crisis suits. Although adding more kroot screens and piranha blockers could help it would still be an uphill fight,.plus the more points invested in screens and blockers the less firepower you have to kill the enemy, so adding more screens may only delay the inevitable rather than change the outcome of the game.

The other group of problem games involved not de-meching the opponent fast enough. How good are the hammerhead submunition templates, burst cannons, plasma rifles etc. if you can't get the enemy troops out of their transport, your anti-infantry firepower is wasted or proving ineffective (such as firing at transports that they have little chance of affecting). Also vehicles can produce pretty large no go areas whether it's the threat of assault from the occupants or just the threat of deadly firepower. Both issues can stop the Tau from advancing and using it's firepower as best as possible (which normally includes getting plasma rifles in rapid fire range of infantry).

As armies seem to be getting more and more mechanized it can really mean that if you can't kill vehicles you die, hence "De-Mech or Die".

I'm finding that if you have too much anti tank you will de mech the enemy early, but will be a bit ineffective at killing the infantry, however because they have been de meched fast you will definitely be in with a chance of winning. On the other hand I'm finding that if I don't have enough anti tank that the enemy is able to advance on my lines too easily which normally means I am pinned back from advancing. These battles tend to be much harder, and my lines are likely to be breached with my expensive firepower units not having the room to get away.

From my experiences I believe it is best to go a bit heavier on the anti tank, and then worry about the rest (anti infantry, scoring, blocking). Say you think you need 3 railguns considering your local meta I'd advise taking 4. If you de mech the enemy fast you can still use hammerhead submunitions and broadside SMS against the enemy. If however you have bit of bad dice and/or one of your railguns dies early you could be in for a very tough game.

More anti tank you say, buy which type ? Tau have two main anti tank weapons. The railguns and the missile pod. If you want to kill a tank then only a railgun will do. The missile pod will get damage roles but is much better at suppression fire, ie. hoping to at least stopping the vehicle firing. For example if you have a full rhino advancing on you with extra armour, no damage result apart immobolised or dead will do, but getting a side shot on a vindicator, a "can not shoot" will allow you to move onto other threats that turn. It's good to have a good mix of anti tank but for targets which have to die to stop then really ruining your game it has to railguns, so make sure you bring enough. It take too many missile pods to destroy a rhino (on average), much better you bought a couple of extra railguns so you can fire the missile pod AND the crisis suits secondary weapon at the rhino's occupants.

I think the best way to get enough anti tank firepower into a list is to de mech the Tau army. Now this tactic has more risks for a Tau army because any enemy anti tank can be redirected towards our crisis suits and broadsides which will probably be instant killed. However swapping a hammerhead for a unit of broadside will significantly increase the railguns hits. Also minimizing devilfish will allow more crisis suits to be taken.

You will take a bit in mobility but the extra firepower should allow you to de mech and therefore slow and disrupt the enemy better and sooner.

Part Two will show how I've made a small tweak to my current army list by applying this new thinking.

What's your thought on the importance of anti tank to anti infantry firepower ? Is partially de meching the Tau army too risky (and doing the enemies job for them) ? What's do you think the required railgun count is for the points level you play at ?

Rathstar

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Dark Eldar Razorwing Flocks

Hi,

I was looking through the DE codex, when I got one of those OMG moments.

I had read discussions where Razorwing Flocks were mentioned; 5 rending attacks, 5 wounds. All well and good, but seems just ok, because I someone was under the impression that they were around twice the cost of a (space wolves) grey hunter, so you can imagine my surprise when I was looking at the hellion entry and glanced down the page and saw that the Razorwing Flocks were the cost of only one grey hunter.

My only excuse was that previously I had been concentrating on getting my Dark Eldar tournament ready asap, and therefore I wasn't looking at any units that I didn't have unless I thought it was essential to the army. Therefore I only decided to buy a 3rd ravager and convert 2 venoms.


So Why Are the Razorwings So Good

Well as stated they have 5 rending attacks (6 on the charge) and 5 wounds. Unexpected for something that has so many wounds and attacks for so little points they are still T3.

They can be combined in a unit with the basic Kyymerae (the replacement for the last codex's warp beast) which have a nice 4+ save, which gives them someone to catch any str6+ shots which would instant kill them.

They can come out of a webway portal giving a threat range of a circle with a diameter of 48" around the portal (they have the potential to asssault anything within 24" of the portal the turn they arrive).

Another thing I've noticed with beast units is that theie threat range can be underestimated by opponents, as they start out only moving 6" plus D6" run move, and then suddenly later in the game they dash 19-24" into a key combat to tip the balance.


The Bad

They are beasts so can't go up buildings, a common tactic againt nob bikers is to stay in the top level of ruin, however a beast squad will only be a small part of the army so they'll be many other units that can take a unit or two hiding in a ruin.

They have low toughness and very poor armour saves, so if you don't kill most of the enemy with your high initiative attacks you will take lots of wounds back, however this is a trend accross the majority of the DE range.

If they don't charge they move no faster than a running grot, and will get left behind by the rest of the fast moving (either jump infantry, jetbikes or transported in fast vehicles) DE army. This means that they are slower over the long run than hellions. Hellions (on average fleet rolls) can charge a unit 37" away in 2 turns, for Beasts a turn 2 charge is 6" slower at (on average) 31" away (but this is still 5" away from the opponents table edge if they are set-up 12" onto the table).

To take Razorwings you have to take beast masters which seem very lack lustre for their points. They are wyches that are 2 pts more expensive. The get the beasts rule, but lose a close combat attack, plasma grenades, 4+ dodge and combat drugs. All they are good for is being being the first few models to dive in front of the enemy and die (the last beast master is needed to keep their leadership, but the rest can die).


Best Uses

Combine the Razorwing Flocks in with Kyymerae to reduce their weakness to instant death.

Set them up agressively with a view to getting to the enemy asap. They are slower than your transported assault troops, and you want the beasts to be in the 1st or 2nd wave, definietely not the third. DE need to hit an area at the same time to overwelm it quickly and move onto the next. If they arrive piecemeal it turns into a game of attrition and the DE can not win that kind of fight due to their low toughness and nearly non-existent armour save.

The combined unit of Razorwing Flocks and Kyymerae does not need cover too much as the Kyymerae has a 4+ inv save, plus after turn 1 the unit will probably get a cover save from the faster raiders in front of it. If possible advance near terrain in case you do want to pop in, but don't be afaid to advance round it so it doesn't slow you down.


An Example Unit and a Comparison to Hellions

An example unit is:

5 Beastmasters - 60
10 Kyymerae -120
6 Razorwing Flocks - 90
21 models totalling 270 pts with 45 wounds

You could give one of the beastmasters a special close combat weapon, and you could drop either 5 Kyymerae or 2 Razorwing Flocks to get a Clawed Fiend, but the above configeration is a good base unit to get you started. It has 10 models with a 4+ inv to protect the Flocks from instant death and soak up characters attacks, while having lots of attacks.

A quick comparison against the same cost in hellions (17 hellions = 272 pts) looks good against marines in combat, assuming the ideal (and therefore extremely unlikely) scenario that both the beasts and hellions charge the marines before they take any casulties.

Beast Unit puts out: 10 Str 3 beastmaster attacks, 40 Str 4 Kyymerae attacks & 36 st 3 rending Razorwing Flocks

Hellions puts out: 51 str 4 attacks

and the number crunching gives us the following average marine casulties: 7.8 from the beast unit vs 4.2 casulties casued by the hellions. However if the hellions get a good combat drug result, such as reroll to wound, their casulties against marines would go up, to 6.3 in the case of reroll to wound.

So in raw combat power against marines the beasts seem up have the upper hand. Against lighter troops the advantage of the beast unit would increase because they have more attacks and some are at lower str.

So the other differences are:
1) Hellions get Power from Pain (PfP) for the whole unit, while only the beastmasters have it.
2) The Hellions are faster if both units are out of charge range
3) The Hellions have more firepower while only the beastmasters in the beast unit can shoot
4) Without cover the beast unit has a better save, as they have 10 models with a 4+ inv save
5) Hellions get Hit & Run

The extra differences make it a much more closer contest between the beastmaster unit and the hellions. The hellions would also get the nod if you include the baron (making hellions troops), however in that list I can forsee taking both hellions and beast units a valid option.

One of the two last things that makes it beasts for me, is that they are slower to start off. The Hellions will be right in front of the army with your first wave, because they can move 12" and then fleet an extra D6", so if your raiders & venoms only moved 12" to fire their weapons the hellions might be the closest thing to the enemy and a very obvious threat. The beasts on the other hand will be a few inches further back from the front of any raiders that have moved 12", this gives the enemy a hard choice; kill the closest vehicles or shoot the beast unt whichis fast has lots of attacks, that is probably benefiting from a cover save, so that any hit that if less than str5 only as a 50:50 chance of taking one wound off a five wound model which costed 15 pts.

The last point that makes me choose beasts is that they won't be many people picking Razorwing Flocks, because of the big issue (see below), which means it will give my list something different.


The Big Issue

What models to use is the main issue. Most people agree that they should be on a 40mm base, and be like a flying swarm. So the models most people are suggesting are:

Warhammer Fantasy Bat Swarms


Lord of the Rings Bat Swarm


Reaper Bat Swarms


Reaper Murder of Crows


Forgeworld Tyranid Winged Rippers

For the 6 bases I wound need (for the unit I decribed above) the Fantasy Bat Swarms would cost be £17.40 for 2 blisters (if I spread the bats lightly at 3 per base), however I really don't like the odd models.

The Lord of the Rings Bat Swarms looks much better than the Fantasy models, however they look a bit large for a swam, and finally they would cost a fortune (£49.20 for 6).

The Reaper minis, although being really nice models, seem a bit big for what the model should be. Also they have the disadvantage that I wouldn't be able to use them at any official GW events, but as I don't think I'll be going to a official GT this year (the non-GW run events are cheaper and better most of the times) it shouldn't make that much difference this year, but that could all change next year.

The Forgeworld models cost exactly double the GW ones at £34.80 for 18 models (3 a base), plus Forgeworld's expensive 12% delivery charge (another £4.18 in this case). They look much nicer than the GW models, are bigger (and therefore 3 on a base doesn't seem like I'm skimping), and are the only models that look like alien creatures.


Conclusion

I like the unit. They come off better in combat than hellions, but lack some of the hellion abilities (eg. combat drugs, PfP etc.). By being in the same unit as Kyymerae the weakness to instant death is mitigated. The Beast unit is also a nice mixed unit that aids it's durability. Finally the beast unit is a unit that is different to most other DE units, so it's nice to have something different from the rest of the army to add to the overall flexibility.


Next Steps for My Army

After my first read of the new codex I wrote off beast units initially because they would take alot of work to be added into my army. The old beastmaster model I had didn't have a skyboard so joined the wyches, and the warp beasts I had were the old dodgy looking ones and I only had four of them.

Giving them another look I'm realy looking forward to putting a unit together. I already have some hounds that can be the Kyymera. I've now ordered the winged rippers from forgeworld, and I'll be getting some Hellions to be beastmasters. The beast unit will be the first (non-vehicle) unit I'll be painting up for my DE in about 5 years.

I'm going to limit the DE painting only this extra unit as I want to focus on getting the Space Wolves up and running. So the painting line is now Ravager & 2 Venoms to get the DE tournament ready, then Space Wolves painting with some Beastmaster & Razorwings interjected to give me a change from time to time.


Have you seen the beastmaster units with Razorwing Flocks in action, and if so, what did you think of them ? How do you rate them compared to hellions ? What models have you seen people using for Razorwing Flocks ?

Rathstar

Tau UK Best General

The UK Masters 40k tournament has just been and gone, however looking round the Rankings HQ site I noticed that I have the icon for the UK Tau Best General.

Now this is not going to be an ego stroking blog post because I know I am far from the best Tau player in the UK, so I'd rather look at the reasons behind this state of affairs.

One possible reason is that a lot of tournaments aren't on Rankings HQ. However I don't believe this to be true, as looking at the site it has the majority of tournaments on it. Strangely enough my two best tournament results from last year (Basingstoke's ASMoH & Bracknell's 40k Online) where I came 3rd (out of 40) and 5th (out of 24) aren't on the website. Given that including those results would have made my ranking even higher, it must be something else.

The answer is actually quite obvious. Players with Tau armies are either not attending tournaments or using other armies when they attend tournaments.

Two good UK examples of very good Tau players taking other armies to tournaments are Adam of Warhammer Tau and Stu who came 3rd at the 40k Masters with his Dark Eldar.

Adam is waiting till a new codex to redo his Tau. He likes the way they play and their fluff, but thinks it's hard for Tau to compete at the top levels. Adam is currently concentrating on his Space Wolves and heads up the excellent Space Wolves Grey Blog.

Stu recently went back to his Tau for the recent (Oct) Rapid Strike tournament. Stu came an impressive 10th (out of 52). The other three Tau players came 42nd, 44th (me) and 50th. I was interested to talk to Stu and see what his take on Tau was. Speaking with him before the tournament I knew he took more broadsides than me and also used a large kroot squad. However he said he thought there were too many armies the Tau struggle with, and that he would be returning to his Dark Eldar.

But what do you do if you still want to play Tau ? My advice is to go ahead and play them. The armies you face in the top half of competitive tournaments is nowhere near the normal army you'll face in a shop or against your mates. I still won more than I lost of my tournament games over the year. I just found they struggled against certain armies and when they got to the top tables, however that may have been because I was facing better players (as well as better lists) rather than just the Tau couldn't compete.

So why can't Tau compete at the top ? Well to me it's partially the increase in mech armies (particularly Guard, Wolves and Angels). Tau have the wonderful railgun but only in small numbers, and the missile pod is best at suppression rather than actual tank killing. Also some armies are just faster than we're use to (eg. blood angels) or have more firepower than our expensive crisis suits can handle (eg. Guard or missile heavy wolves).

There is some disagreement against the common view that Tau aren't that competitive. Both Stelek and Kirby rate them. However I believe Tau can compete better as you get to closer to 2000 pts. At that points level you can have 3 units of broadsides, 3 units of fireknifes & kroot screens, while still having points to have pihranas to run interference to add a further layer of defense and stalling time.

So what's your few on Tau performance in tournaments ? Are.they really struggling in your area, or do the Tau in your area.hold their own ? It would be great to hear ideas on how to reverse this trend of less and less Tau seen at tournaments.

Rathstar

Dark Eldar FAQ Revealed

Well GW has released a Dark Eldar FAQ, which I think is quite quick for GW, normally it's ages before an FAQ comes out for a new codex.

So lets take a look at any important answers (here's a link to the FAQ):

Most of the errata section is just obvious typos/mistake that made it into the codex. Moving onto the FAQ section things get a bit more interesting.

The section starts of with a few questions surrounding how feel no pain interacts with models that do not have feel no pain, basically if you don't have the feel no pain rule you can never get any benefits from pain tokens.

Next is a few clarification questions, eg. how to measure the line for reaver's bladevanes attack, whether you get a pain token from a necron unit where some of the memebers join other units through WBB.

2 rulings that that did pip my interest were regarding the Void Mine and the Aethersails.

The Void Mine can be dropped regardless of how far the Voidraven has moved, and it doesn't count towards the number of weapons the Voidraven can fire. Before I was thinking the voidraven was a weapon and therefore could not be dropped if the vehicle moved more than 12" with this new clarification you can move up to 36" while dropping the void mine. The Voidraven is still and expensive and fragile model (if if it is the toughest in the DE codex), but this clarifiaction may convince some people to splash out on one as a 3rd heavy support choice.

Aethersails can not be used if a unit disembarks from the vehcile. This will only come up when you disembark to assault a unit of cature an objective and want to speed off to contest another objective with the vehicle. An extra 7" may be nice, but I don't think it is game changing. The important thing is that the vehicle is only restricted from using the aethersails when a unit dsembarks, so the tactic I was going to use, which is to have my succubus and heamy swapping units on turn 1 to move about pain tokens and then they embark on a raider with their units and then move off 12+2D6 inches to catch up with the rest of my army. The last thing you want with combat units is to have them stranded far away if their raider is blown up.

Even though the clarifiaction didn't change how I was going to use aethersails (embarking speed boost, and general speed boost to my other advancing raiders), I still considering whether they are worth it. I'd save 25 pts accross my army if I removed them. That's enough to put a liquifier gun on my haemy and in the wrack squad. I'll playtest the sails for a few more turns and get you know my final decision.

So overall most of the FAQ is probably just clarifying issues the way people who play it anyway (with a small boost to the void mine), but its nice to have the clarifications in black and white, and I doubt any of the clarifications will change the way anyone will approach how they build their army list or play during a game much.

Did you spot any gems in any of the new FAQs released this week ?

Rathstar

Painting Motivation Part II

So it’s been a busy couple of weeks for me. I started a job 2 days before xmas, and now I've had the joy of a two hour commute to work 2 days in a row (bloody accidents causing delays) :(

With all this happening it’s hard to stay focussed on the painting, all I want to do when I get home is watch some TV and go to bed. Looking at my painting table and seeing the huge numbers of models on it is hardly inspiring me to get on and paint.

What I decided I needed to do was focus. At the moment I have 3 Dark Eldar vehicles in the process of being converted, space wolf vehicles, loads grey hunters, warmachine cryx models and even a warmachine crusader warjack on my painting desk. All this clutter just turns me off.

First I decided what I wanted to get done over the next few month. I can’t do everything so there’s no point having everything on my desk. My Protectorate of Menoth (Warmachine) are in a playable state, and I’m not going to any warmachnine tournaments soon so they can wait (to get painted/repainted).

Getting armies assembled so they can be played with and getting armies painted so they can be used at tournaments are normally the key milestones for modelling (apart from the joy of painting great models).

For me this focused my attention on getting my Dark Eldar tournament ready (after their new codex gave me a new list to use), and getting my Space Wolves fully assembled and starting the process of getting them painted.

I split all that I had to do into small tasks, such as “convert ravager”, “assemble a long fang pack”, “paint half a grey hunter squad” etc. The Dark Eldar tasks are small and quicker to do, so I hope to get them done by the end of the month.

I split the Space Wolf tasks into various mile stones. First was having an army I could play round my mates with, so this is to finish assembling enough models so I can play a 1500 point list. This list includes models I didn’t put into my ideal 1750 point list [link], but are already assembled and would allow me to play the army asap. The next mile stone was assembling my ideal 1750 point list I posted here. Lastly the third mile stone was getting the 1750 point list fully painted.

The Dark Eldar task list has 9 tasks, which are also quite quick to complete. The 3 mile stones of the Space Wolf army have 5, 9, and 24 tasks respectively. Getting the huge task broken down into mini tasks helps to give a better idea of what a realistic idea of when the whole task could be completed.

For example I know that I have to be able to commit 2 hours a night for at least 2 or 3 nights a week to have a chance of finishing the Space Wolf list by my birthday (July). – I know, I’m slow 

I also added a progress tracker to the blog (see the first of the two right hand panels). Feel free to comment if you don’t see much movement in the percentage bars over the weeks.

Everything apart from the Dark Eldar vehicles I’m converting and a small case of Space Wolves I’m painting will be removed and put away in cases. I hoping putting more focus on my painting this year will mean I will have three fully painted armies for 40k (Tau, Dark Eldar & Space Wolves) by the later stage of this year.

Hopefully early Feb I’ll have finished the Dark Eldar tasks, and will be able to post pictures of my fully painted 1750 army.

What's your process of getting yourself motivated, and what do you think of mine ?

Rathstar

Quick Update (13th Jan '11): I was putting grey hunters together tonight and realised I'd missed some items on my task list. So some of you my have noticed that the progress tracker went slightly backwards today. Never fear I am busy assembling :)