Hobby Update.

So it's my first post in a while... Where to begin...

Painting. 

Painting has always been one of the most enjoyable things about my hobby, but for quite a while I've struggled to get my head back in to my "painting mindset". I'm now taking some steps forwards with this by doing little bits on three different painting projects, a Heresy era Terminator Praetor, a Vindicare Assassin and my Imperial Knights. I'm also reading a lot of hobby blogs at the moment, looking at what my fellow hobbyists are painting or making is very interesting and in turn helps inspire me.

Making.

Currently I'm making two new sets of objective markers to fit in with my Imperial Knight and Admech army. One set of mysterious objectives which I plan on creating using 40mm bases, which will have metal decking made from embossed plasti-card and then each will have one of these mysterious objective marker crates placed on them. 

The second set is going to be made with a mixture of materials such as metal decking embossed plasti-card and various bits from citadel miniatures "Bitz boxes". So far I'm on number three out of six objectives, the first two are shown below. The first features a dead Imperial pilot and the second features a dead Dark Angels Space Marine (The Dark Angels being my favourite space marine chapter and one of my other armies). 

Gaming.

Gaming wise, I'm quite enjoying myself at the moment. I returned to playing Warhammer 40,000 last year after a break of several months. Since doing so, I've played a game a week (mostly consistently), gradually becoming more proficient with my Imperial Knight army. 

I've had mixed success running the knights, eventually settling for a five knight list, using a Baronnial Court formation. 

The knights I usually use are:

1 x Cerastus Knight-Castigator (https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-NO/Cerastus-Knight-Castigator)

1 x Imperial Knight Gallant (https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Knight-Gallant)

1 x Imperial Knight Errant (https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Knight-Errant)

2 x Imperial Knight Wardens (https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Knight-Warden)

The main benefits of the formation are an increased invulnerable save for all the knights as long as they are within 6 inches of another knight, the ability to use the over-watch and counter-attack special rules, if within 12 inches of the warlord / baron of the formation and an increase in weapon skill and ballistic skill for the warlord / baron of the formation. 

I've played using this list consistently for several months now and I find it really fun but quite complex. For example with this list I really struggle in objective based missions but tend to do well in kill point missions. I will be tweaking my list slightly by swapping out a knight Warden for a knight Paladin for my next tournament and other future games. I think this will give me a little more tactical flexibility.

Tournaments.

Since November last year I've attended the following tournaments:

November 2015 - Rolling Thunder Two.

February 2016 - Warhammer 40,000: From the Ashes.

March 2016 - Warhammer 40,000: Righteous Fury.

I've really enjoyed getting back into gaming at tournaments, all three tournaments were held at the Sanctuary Gaming Centre in Sutton in Ashfield. They were all very different and enjoyable in their own ways. I've had mixed results at the tournaments I've attended so far, placing 13th at Rolling Thunder 2, 7th at From The Ashes and 12th at Righteous Fury respectively. 

One of my goals is still to achieve a first, second or third place at a tournament, so I'm going to keep attending tournaments, keep playing with the same army and try to keep improving on what I do. In fact my next tournament is on April the 16th at the Sanctuary Gaming Centre, Warhammer 40,000:Into The Fire. All the missions will be objective based missions, so it's definitely going to be a challenge with my knights, but hey this hobby is all about having fun while throwing dice, so lets just see what happens shall we...