Hello all!
In my last article – many months ago, I talked about how I needed to get a unit of Bladeguard Veterans ready for the Warhammer Open: NOLA (hereinafter: “NoLA Open”) event. And I did it. Given that I don’t think the stock Bladeguard Veteran models work particularly well with my Space Wolf aesthetic, I decided to convert a squad of Assault Intercessors to be Bladeguard. Using the Forge World Space Wolves upgrade set and the firstborn plastic Space Wolves upgrade set, I managed to get all of them assembled and painted. These were finished in August. That’s when I decided I had time to build a paint of other things instead of doing things such as “get in practice games” or “work on my army for NoLA”.
First, I painted a couple of Sisters of Battle models: Morvenn Vahl and Tariana Palos.
Then, since I still didn’t want to paint my loyalist Space Marines, I decided to get a Kill Team ready. Specifically, Death Guard!
While working on my Death Guard kill team, two things happened next to each other that made things somewhat difficult. The first was that I had a minor medical emergency that made life… frustrating for a few days. The second was that this emergency happened during the weekend of the Goonhammer Open, which made it a smidge more difficult to hang out (for the first time, in many cases) with the Goonhammer crew. That wasn’t fun. Still, dinner at Fogo de Chao with ’em all was still totally worth it.
Following Labor Day weekend, I realized I had less than a month to the NoLA Open, and I still needed to finish one model (my Redemptor Dreadnought) for my army, and then getting my army ready to fly to New Orleans.
Instead of trying to use a magnetized board and case like I had originally intended due to procrastination, I made use of my trusty old KR Multicase foam. The foam is sufficiently soft to fit in irregularly shaped minis, but (with the card case) solid enough to protect them all during the drive up to Baltimore and then the flight down to New Orleans. I also needed to pack other things. This too would cause headaches.
First, I went to Target and got a $17 laundry cart. It was sufficient compact and durable to fit into my suitcase on the way down, and could hold my army. Second, I had to bring all my books. Since GW insists on having hard copies of all the hardback books at the event (even if I’m only using one datasheet from the book), this makes the luggage situation dicey because it can be fairly heavy.
That being said, after procrastination, medical issues, and time adventuring with my puppy, it was time for the trip down to New Orleans and to hang out with the rest of the Goonhammer crew! Sure, I had only played a grand total of one game of Warhammer 40K 9th Edition (a 500 point narrative game), but I could still have a bon tempes, no?
Yes, I could still have a good time! But it was going to involve a fair amount of losing!
Next Time: Fun Times in New Orleans
In Part 3: The New Orleans Stop, I will explain how I had an absolutely amazing time in New Orleans, despite not really having a clue how competitive Warhammer 40K actually worked when I started my first game.
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