The road to Arc40k is paved with plans of epic armies… So follow along and get some insights from hobbyists who know what it takes to present a new army at a new arc40k - they’ve started the ArcArmy Challenge and so can you.
In article #1 I looked a lot at why? The why's about the army I chose for this Hobby Blog, why I was still stepping up for the challenge even though I'm organising not a participant, and then I offered some insights into how to find inspiration and that will help to to start.
Phew, that was a lot... No wonder it was a long article!
In this second installment I'm going to get on with more planning and preparations.
This stage of every project gets me set before launching full ball into collecting, building and painting of my new army.
Luckily the Leagues of Votann Army Box gave a core of models that I really wanted to take. This meant that once the codex was live on the Warhammer 40k App I started the next important stage of the project.
So if you can find a start collecting, battle force or combat patrol then they are equally good starting points usually with good value as a starting point for any collection.
Write a list… Even at the beginning of the project writing a list is important It helps set a path for collecting and adding models to the army.
Right when I started drafting my list the entire army took a points hit! Thanks James Workshop!
Luckily I hadn't finalised anything other than that I wanted to showcase the Hearthkyn Warriors, Einhyr Champion, Khal and Hernkyn Pioneers I'd already owned through the Army Box. And everything else was still a while away.
The release of the Balance Dataslate was a reminder, for everyone involved in documenting their journey towards Arc40k in 2023, that the Meta for the game is constantly changing.
It means that the points we plan on, for building an army, even 4 months out from the event might not be the same as when it comes time to field the army in March next year. Importantly, there will definitely be another balance of points and other new challenges when the next Chapter Approved lands in January.
So, all of us have and should be working on contingency plans.
Any changes will be better accommodated in our final lists and we’ll have models prepared to take the field next year. Trust me this is the most important part of planning and being prepared.
In 2021, I started planing, preparing, building and painting a Tau army based upon the longstanding Farsight Army of renown - the Eight - which gave me eight tau battle suits in various configurations as the core of the army. Unfortunately Arc40k in 2021 was first postphoned and then cancelled. Leaving me with an army but no event to play at!
Then before this year’s rescheduled event the Tau Codex dropoped. In January 2022 a new 9th edition Tau Codex arrived and the Eight were no longer part of it - 5 weeks out my army was invalid!
I had to scramble - realigning models into new units, adding troops, drones, and other models to ensure I had a valid detachment, let alone enough to be an army. It was total madness!
But the core of the army was already there and I was able to create an iconic Arc40k army - the
Tauformers were Player’s Choice and Best Painted… no mean feat, but only possible because of the planning and preparation done well in advance that allowed me to add more in a short period of time.
Add to that the fact that the 2022 event had a list deadline 2 weeks out which meant that I had to decide and commit to a list without having finished all my models…
Well that’s going to change! Luckily my experience this year, and sage consideration from the organising team has seen list submission being rescheduled to now be lodged on the day. This means that armies aren’t locked in and you don’t have to commit to a final army up until you are ready to lock it in - or to fit in everything you’ve painted.
I’ve written a list for the Leagues of Votann that I’m prepared to see change between now and Arc2023!
Some of those changes will be the result of play testing the army. Others may be imposed upon it by the release of January’s scheduled Chapter Approved. So, that’s why it’s best to be prepared and able to change your list right up to the event.
What’s in this new Leagues of Votann Army? Or Army List version 1.beta!
So I’ve chosen the Kåhl as my Warlord - he comes in the Army Box and is a great looking rounded sort of gentleman. Armed with a Mass Gauntlet, Volkanite Disintegrator and Teleport Crest. He’s tactically versatile and gives me a load of options for using him on the battle field. With Void Armour which gives him a 4+ invulnerable save, and reduces all damage by 1, he should be a tough little leader.
The core of the force will be two units of Hearthkyn Warriors.
One unit will be armed with Autoch-Pattern Bolters, will include a MagnaRail Rifle and L7 Missile Launcher, while the Thane will have a Concusion Gauntlet and Plasma Pistol.
The second unit of 10 will be armed with Ion Blasters, this unit will include a Plasma Beamer the Hylas Auto Rifle. The Unit’s Thane will wield a pistol and Plasma Sword.
Then there’s the Hernkyn Pioneers as they are also from them Army Box - I’ve added the Hylas Rotary Cannon to one, and then a Rollbar Searchlight and Pan Spectral Scanner to the other two. So the unit will ignore dense and light cover benefits when shooting - handy bonuses for just 10 pts.
The Hylas Rotary Cannon is HunTR9 so a load of strength 6 AP-2 shots, while all three come armed with pistols, shotguns and Magna Coil Autocannons which will add a further HunTR3 Sthrength 7 shots - so this unit can pump out a lot of fire.
I really wanted to take some big models as these always help when the army is on display so being greedy I’ve added both vehicles - the Sagitaur and the Hekaton Land Fortress. They add 450pts to the list - a third of my total. But they will add to the overall look.
With not much left points wise I decided that the units of Brokhyr Thuderkyn and Einhyr Hearth Guard would round out the army. Great looking models with two very different battlefield roles. The Thunderkyn will be able to deploy or redeploy using the Sagitaur while the Hearth Guard can deepstrike or use the Land Fortress as transport to get them where I need them to be - hopefully taking the fight to my opponents and hitting hard.
With the release of the full range I made my next step purchases as these two units. The vehicles can wait until I’ve built and painted the foot soldiers and I’m ready to paint these larger models.
I did order some Iron Kin heads from Taro Model Maker. Ready to enrich my factions store that a large number of them are Iron Kin due to depleted clone stocks… So that may see me look at potentially swapping the Kahl for a Brokhyr Iron-master (as he leads a whole unit of Iron Kin). But we’ll see how the build, time, play testing and anything else comes to disrupt the schedule.
Sorry - I hadn’t really set out to do an army list review article for this second instalment…
But writing a list is an important part of planning for any hobby project let alone getting a new army ready for an event like Arc40k.
Hopefully we can get back to regular hobby programming and I'll have some images to share so I can talk about colour schemes. I hope to show you some of the details behind testing and practicing new techniques. Plus hopefully there's more bases to design and make… that should make the next instalment more hobby action focused.
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