The GW Ironman Tournament

So this just past Saturday, the mall was open from 9am until 11pm for Christmas, so the staff at the Games Workshop decided to run a tournament for the day in which I participated.  I didn’t actually know it was a tournament when I entered, I just wanted to play because the concept sounded fun.  The idea was that everyone brought in 3,000 points and played a regular game of 40k for 2.5 hours.  At the end of the game or time, whichever came first, all players would have to determine what was completely destroyed and what still had models left in a unit.  Any vehicle or unit completely destroyed would be lost for the rest of the tournament.  The depleted units would stay the same for the next round unless you used reinforcement points to top them back up.  The reinforcement points were assigned based on the paint quality of the army.  The more detailed, the higher the points up to a max of 10; starting out at having all models primed got you 2 points, then having them all base coated got you another 2, then detail, shading, highlights, squad markings, etc.

The rest of the rounds of the tournament, everyone was paired up with whomever was closest in points remaining until the last game where the last four players teamed up to fight each other.  First and fourth teamed up to fight second (me) and third ranked players and we played a no turn limit game (which went 15 turns) down to the last man standing.  Teammates were allowed to shoot each other, but it wasn’t wise to do so until later in the game if they wanted to survive at all since the points for the top 4 players was 1) 2350, 2) 2140, 3) 600 and 4) 450.  In the end, 1st place player backstabbed and killed his teammate and eventually I had to kill my teammate before killing the 1st place player and in the end, in the immortal words of Ozzy Osbourne, “I AM IRONMAN!”

“Ironman Army”

End Of Another Decade

With Christmas almost here and another Paint or Die coming to an end, I spent quite some time painting over the last two weeks.  I also did some research on how to take a better picture, so far I think it has worked.  I’ve taken some new pictures of the Ogryns since they’re such great models, you can view those new ones by clicking on them below in the Ogryn post.

So, on to the painted items.  To start, I painted up a Leman Russ Demolisher.  I cut down the heavy bolter sponsons and fit in some of the new plasma cannons from the new GW Demolisher kits, they turned out pretty good. With the new Lumbering Behemoth rule, this short range tank puts out a hell of a lot of destructive firepower.

The next thing I painted up was a standard Leman Russ Battle Tank.  Another full Forge World kit, complete with a different turret than the regular GW kit.  Before the latest codex, I would have never put the sponsons on a Leman Russ, however, with the new rules I wouldn’t NOT have them!

Lately, I have left my infantry models alone, simply because they’re so many and tedious to paint so many and a tank is just one large item.  Well, I decided since I was going to be entering a tournament this just past weekend that I should paint some up quickly.  This is a command squad with a lascannon on a custom built base.

Continuing with my infantry push, I also painted up an infantry squad with an autocannon, again with another custom built base.  These infantry are just extra models that won’t be on my display for the army so they’re all different base theme but I think the colours work together.

In the new Codex, a couple new characters were written into the book that I decided I wanted to play around with but of course don’t want to use the regular model for them as they aren’t Death Korps; so I made my own versions.  The first was Sly Marbo, or Rambo; not a very interesting conversion, just some kit bashing to come up with a model with all the right toys Sly has such as a sword, a sniper pistol and a demo charge.

The next three models aren’t conversions, but what models I have chosen to represent them.  The model on the left is a regimental advisor, the astropath, a model I traded with Doc which came from Inquisitor Rex’s retinue.  The model in the middle is Lord Castellan Creed, whom I’ve decided to call Lord Castellan Krieg, is just the force commander model.  The last model, on the right, is another regimental advisor, the officer of the fleet.  This model is actually the Quartermaster model intended to be used in a different fashion, however, I don’t plan on using the actual Death Korps list until it’s more up to date with the new codex.

Last but not least on this large update is a Chimera.  It can be used by any unit pretty much, so it’s not really dedicated to any unit officially in my army.  A generic, small conversion on the lasgun ports in which I decided not to put the lasguns on the back area and closed up the ports.  Currently the Ogryns are using it, but eventually they will have their own converted Chimera.

Current Total

So, this Saturday coming up, my local Games Workshop is hosting a crazy event to keep their store full during the Christmas store hours (from 11am to 11pm)!  The event is called the “Ironman Challenge” where you bring in 3,000 points and play against someone else.  Whatever survives your first game, you will get to use in your second game, everything else is dead.  The catch is, that if you have painted models, you get bonus points which you can use to bring back models each round.  The store came up with a chart that starts off easy with every model having primer on it, gets you 2 points.  Then it moves up to where if every model has base coat applied, you get another 1 point.  It keeps getting more strict all the way up to highlights, shading, squad markings, and fine detail work.  For every point you receive for a painting score, you get to bring back on 50 points.

I signed up for the event so that my wife could finish her Christmas shopping, while I was in daycare, I mean busy at GW, but I noticed I really don’t have a well put together 3000 point list, as it has to be ONE Force Organization Chart, it’s not Apocalypse.  So, I figured something out on Army Builder and began to paint what models I would need to finish off a 3000 point list.  While doing this I decided to see how many points I have total so far for my Death Korps of Krieg, and it came to an astonishing 18,913 points so far (and Christmas is just around the corner)!

I then decided to figure out exactly what I had painted, and it only came to 4,681 points.   Not even 1/4 of the army is painted yet!  Oh well, I have finished a Chimera (for the Ogryns), a Demolisher, Sly Marbo (or my own version at least of him), a Platoon Command Squad and a Infantry Squad.  All have been sealed and are ready for some decal work and battle damage.  I have 3 more models I want to have finished for Saturday, to add to my command unit, but the decal and battle damage are next on my agenda so I can call them officially finished.  I will post those pictures soon, after I have them done.

Points: 18,913
Painted: 4,681