You know it’s a good thing this is for an event in Seattle (Tacoma, technically, but Seattle-adjacent) because if I had to come up with half a dozen puns for Kansas City I’d be well outside of my extremely narrow knowledge base. They’ve got… Puddle of Mudd? Ugh.
SRM’s Road to the Roadshow: US Open Seattle 2022: Part 5: Burden in my hams: ah nuts am I getting burnt out? I’m totally getting burnt out
As I come more and more to grips with these Easy to Build Aggressors, I’m starting to notice some of their unique foibles. While at first they appeared to be pretty much identical to their multipart brethren, there’s some slightly goopy details, some odd angles on particular armor plates, and other tiny things you won’t really notice until you’re putting paint to plastic. Still, it’s a totally serviceable kit and a great one for the price, it’s just a little odd.
More than anything else, I’m just happy to be done with Gravis armor for the time being. I have some Eradicators from Indomitus and I picked up that cool new Gravis captain recently, but I’m not really in need of more elite units or another Marshal for this army. I know how I plan to convert them both to be suitably Templar-y, but for now I’m happy with what I’ve got: a 240 point gimmick unit that I can use to pump out 72 flamer shots with Heretic’s Pyre:
If I ever actually manage to use this stratagem for the 2CP it costs me, I will be fully over the goddamn moon and I will do a backflip on the spot.
Where I’m really running into personal friction is with my painting – of the 43 models I’ve painted this year at time of writing, 17 have been Black Templars, and of those 17, they’ve been predominantly detail-rich models like Sword Brethren, vehicles, or these chonky, chonky bois.
More than anything else, I’m just kind of tired. Tired of sharp edge highlights, tired of painting black power armor, and kind of feeling burnt out by 40k in general. My recent games of Age of Sigmar have been far more enjoyable, and it hasn’t felt to me like each new army book upsets the entire game in a hugely detrimental way. That being said, there was recently the latest balance slate for 40k, and it should serve to make my time at the US Open more comfortable.
Armour of Contempt is a cool new rule bolted onto the increasingly Frankensteinian combination of FAQ, core rulebook, codex, chapter supplement, season book, and whatever other published materials I’m missing. Said rule reduces the AP of wounds aimed at my bois in power armor by 1, which is going to be pretty clutch in a game as deadly as modern 40k. Combined with the Unwavering in the Face of the Foe stratagem, I could easily be getting a 2+ save on these guys. Does that stack with cover? Who cares, my small brain is overloaded with the mix of positive and negative modifiers already, especially with specific qualifiers over whether or not they apply. I did, however, recently get a CAT scan, and they can confirm that there is a brain all up in my massive dome, so I at least know that’s not the problem. It also means I might not feel so incentivized to take Uphold the Honor of the Emperor for that army-wide 5+ invulnerable save, so I can play with the other vows a bit more.
Fortunately, I just recorded a new 40k Badcast at time of writing, so I’ve got a bit of a spring in my hobby step. Unfortunately, my cohost told me to paint an Impulsor, and sold me on the idea after I expressed some worries at my Sword Bros getting blasted off the table. Guess I’m heading back to hovertank hell!
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