Another two weeks, another slice of my life. Welcome. Last time, I covered the event I ran and the games I played during it, securing myself a second place finish! Since then, I’ve been taking it relatively easy. Normally that would mean a hobby-heavy edition of the column, but unfortunately all of the things I’ve currently been working on are embargoed, so that section will be thin too. We’ll find something to talk about, I’m sure!
Hobby
Let’s start here. As I mentioned, for the most part, I’ve been painting embargoed content, which means no fun pics for my blog. That’s just the way it goes sometimes. The fortnight hasn’t been completely devoid of other hobbying though; I built a unit each of Pyregheists and Craventhrone Guard for my Nighthaunt army. I’ve owned the Nighthaunt since probably second edition AoS, and just occasionally add a unit to them – I must have about 4,000 points now. Most recently, I added the Lord Vitriolic which I reviewed for Goonhammer. I’d never gotten around to adding either of these newer shooting-focused units though, and it seems they’re serving the army pretty well in the new book, so I’m going to get a couple of each painted and added to the force before the end of the year. I think the meta currently dictates 2 units of Pyregheists and two units of reinforced Craventhrone Guard, but I’m not sure I’m up for buying another 4 boxes of minis on top of the Scriptor Mortis and Nexus of Grief I also still need. Given that I already own the 40 Bladegheist Revenants that the meta also seems to prefer, this feels like some kind of cruel punishment. They’re finally useful again, and in return I need to spend another £200 to get the most out of them.
I’ve also been carrying on my quest to evaluate and (hopefully) reduce my pile of shame/potential (delete as appropriate). I’ve moved a few more things to the “sell” pile, including the entire Death Guard project I’d bought. It turns out I really wanted to paint one model, not a whole army. Recognising that impulse is something I’ve gotten better at, although nobody’s perfect. The pile is now in a place where if I didn’t add to it (which I will, obviously), it would probably take me about a year to work through at my normal kind of rate. I’m pretty OK with that, although adding Goonhammer work on top of that means I’d probably like it to be a bit smaller still.
Having a pile with a defined size means that I actually need to make some plans to work through it, and I’m historically bad at making and sticking to long term plans (thanks ADHD). There’s one good opportunity coming up though – assuming that we’ll probably get 11th edition Warhammer 40k next year, I’m setting myself a goal of having a Black Templars army painted and ready to go. I plan to start making a dent in that before the end of the year.
Gaming
I followed through on my plan from last time, and have had a couple of weeks off of Age of Sigmar after the last event. I’ve got to say though, I’m feeling enthusiastic to get some more games in! Luckily I’ll have that chance, as this weekend I’m attending Mercia Madness III, a 2 day event at my local store with around 20 entrants.
I did go back and forth a bit over whether I wanted to switch things up and take Nighthaunt or FEC to this one, as there’s no painting requirement, but ultimately I decided to stick with the faithful Stormcast yet again. I’ve switched things up a bit though, and am taking a variant of chimp’s list from his recent Start Competing: Stormcast articles.
Rich’s Mercia Madness III list - click to expand Lightning McQuestor 1990/2000 pts —– Grand Alliance Order | Stormcast Eternals | Sentinels of the Bleak Citadels General’s Handbook 2025-26 Drops: 4 Spell Lore – Lore of the Storm Prayer Lore – Prayers of the Stormhosts Manifestation Lore – Aetherwrought Machineries Battle Tactics Cards: Master The Paths and Restless Energy —– General’s Regiment Scourge of Ghyran Iridan the Witness (320) Lord-Terminos (140) Prosecutors (300) Reclusians (280) — Regiment 1 Knight-Relictor (120) Questor Soulsworn (200) Stormcoven (210) Vigilors (140) — Regiment 2 Knight-Judicator with Gryph-hounds (130) — Regiment 3 Knight-Judicator with Gryph-hounds (130) —– Faction Terrain Stormreach Portal (20) —–
This is a minor variation on what I’ve been running recently, and after the recent battlescroll it’s more or less straight swapping out the Celestant Prime for the Questor Soulsworn plus an extra Knight-Judicator. I think this’ll give me more flexibility, without sacrificing a 5+ ward on the board. At least, as long as I play the Questors right – which I’m normally alright at.
I’m looking forward to the event – Dan’s events are always fun, and I’ve got pod-mate Laura and team-mate Dom visiting from London too so there’s a chance of some bitter personal grudges being formed and/or resolved!
Next Time
A fairly short one this week! Next time we’ll have five battle reports from the event to go through, so prepare for a bumper edition. Let’s see if I make it back with any silverware.
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