Preparing for a January Tournament

Wow,  it's been nearly forever since I updated this blog. For those of you who still follow it, you probably just forgot it even existed.

Since my last post, so much has happened, both in real life & the gaming community.
I started a new job, which has been great.
6th Ed 40k was released, which has one of the better merging of rule sets.
Although I still don't like flyers being involved in normal games, Apocalypse yes, normal 40K no.
And Forgeworld released the first of The Horus Heresy books... and there was much rejoicing. (unless you were my Credit card, who is still crying "Rape!"

Most of you will already be across most of these goings on, so I will stop there & get back to the reason for the post.
I'm preparing for my first Tourney & my Luna Wolves are going to attempt to cause some havoc & adoration all at the same time...
Me normally being fluff driven with my lists, this was going to be a new challenge, can I merge an effective tourney army with being fluffy as well, & be successful with it on the table?

Being the first tourney to play with the 6th ed rule set, in my area. All of the missions are straight out of the Rulebook, so there will be no surprises.
 It should be an interesting experience... I anticipate seeing lots of Grey Knights, Chaos & Necrons lists, with an odd smattering of Dark Eldar, Vulkan led Marines, Blood Angels etc.
With a lesser amount of Orks & maybe even Tau or Eldar...

Okay so here is what I am planning on taking. (With modelling notes attached - photo's will be forthcoming as the units are finished & I get home to a decent camera.)

HQ 1 - Pedro Kantor (Warlord) (for scoring Sternguard, army wide Stubborn & Orbital Bombardment)
HQ 2 - Captain Lysander (for bolter drill, bolster defences & being a major threat/counter to assault)

Command Squad - Apothecary, 4 x marines with Storm Shield, Meltaguns & Chainsword, in a drop pod.
(These will be modelled in Mk 3 Armour with the FW boarding shields.... should look pretty cool)
I unashamedly stole this unit idea - after facing it on the table not long ago.

Elite 1 - 10 x Sternguard, Sgt with Meltabombs, in Drop Pod - Lysander will ride with these boys.
(These will also be modelled in Mk 3 Armour with box fed Boltguns)

Both of these squads, will be my in your face units, dropping in to execute certain targets & hopefully gain me first blood Victory Points....

Troops 1 - Tactical Squad (10) Flamer & Missile Launcher, Sgt with Power Weapon & Melta Bombs
(In Mk 4 Armour)

Troops 2 - Tactical Squad (10) - equipped & modelled as above

Troops 3 - Tact. Squad (10) - equipped & modelled as above. (Sgt with Chainsword & Meltabombs)

Troops 4 - Tact. Squad (10) - equipped & modelled as above, in Drop Pod.
(Which depending on the scenario will mostly be empty.)

Heavy Support 1 - Devastator Squad (5) - 4 x Missile Launchers, Sgt with Meltabombs.
(Modelled in Mk 4 Armour, with Forge World pattern Missile Launchers.

Some of you may be surprised at me not taking a fortification with quad gun, due to the prevalence of flyers in this edition.
My plan is to pretty much ignore the flyers & kill everything else, force my opponent to react to me, not the other way around.

Thoughts & any comments, if any of you still check this blog that is, will be welcome.

I'll give updates on painting & modelling as I can.

Plus reports of lead up games & how I go in the tourney too.

15 Months has gone so fast... soo much dust.

*Cough* *Cough* "Damn this place is dusty......"
Wow, 15 months since my last post on here..... well a fair bit has happened in that time frame.
In no particular order, Got married, got sidetracked by SWOTR (still do to be honest), discovered the Infinity game system & it's awesome models, plodded away at my True Scale Alpha Legion, decided after 16+ years of running my own Eldar craftworld to go back and begin repainting them with my first Craftworld flirtation.... Iyanden. (For those of you who need proof, I'll post a pic of my Epic Eldar Army, that I found in a box at my Mum's place over Christmas.) picking up a squad of 10 Wraithguard on e-bay really helped me with the decision.

Okay back to what I really decided to post about.
WHY DO I LIKE PRE-HERESY MORE THAN NORMAL 40K?
This is something that takes a while to get into so please stay with me.
My first foray into true epic fantasy & Sci-fi was the movie "Star Wars", I distinctly remember being allowed to stay up past my bed time, when I was about 5 or 6, to watch it on TV, every time it came on.
I was forever playing at being Luke & saving the galaxy.

I always liked reading & it was about the age of 10 that I first discovered The Hobbit, I drew me in so completely that I wanted more, I was happy to discover Tolkien had written The Lord of the Rings and remember begging for relatives to buy me each book for Christmas or my Birthday, I re-read it over & over as I waited for the next relative to buy me one.  By the end of grade 6, I think I had read the entire book about 10 times.  But still my thirst for more of Middle-Earth wasn't sated, I played with Tolkien's Elvish runes & language in the Appendices of The Return of the King, devoured the brief histories & family trees.

High school started & in school the Library was a revelation for me, "The Simlarillion" gave me everything I ever wanted, a full history of Middle-Earth from it's creation & the high period of the Elvish race, where the Heroes of the Third age, were minor players compared to the mighty heroes within it's pages, from the ill fated F'eonor & Turin. To the love of the mortal Beren who dared the anger of a god for the woman he loved.  I still to this day prefer 'The Silmarillion" to any of his other works.  This led me to get into D&D and TSR's novels.

"What does this have to do with 40K?" you might ask.  Well I discovered GW games through my best friend & a game he bought. "Blood Bowl", as we were both fans of American Football, we spent numerous weekends playing against each other, keeping statistics & running our own leagues. (I still play it to this day.)

From there a discussion with a new friend a few years later, he mentioned words like "Space Marine & Rogue Trader" & GW.  This sparked my memory of looking at the side of the BB box with the advertising of other GW games & I dashed off to my room to double check.  I was right, I had been looking at these things all along.  I was told of the monthly magazine "White Dwarf", and promptly headed off to bury my head in one.

Shortly after I played my first game of "Space Marine" the Epic system of that time, I was instantly hooked.
As soon as I could afford them I bought the Warhammer Fantasy boxed set (complete with card cut outs of Grom & Eltharion, I still use the High Elf Spearmen & archers), then the best thing (in my mind) ever happened.  GW released "Warhammer 40k" in a boxed set, complete with Marines & Orks & Gretchin.
The coloured pictures of the different races fascinated me.

It was as I was reading over the history of the 40k universe that I first read of the Horus Heresy.
Vague references & images of the Heresy predominated many of the different books in both the "40k & Space Marine" rule & background books.

For a while I forgot about the history & concentrated on playing & painting my slowing growing Eldar army.
Then a few years ago, Black Library created a monster in me, by releasing the first of their HH novels, re-sparking my interest in all things to do with the finest moments of the growing Imperium of man.  I went back & dug up all of my old copies of my rule & source books, re-reading the "Fluff" sections to refresh my mind.

Okay fade back in from the wavy image of the flashbacks......  I enjoy the HH period because of the things it implies, when I first made up my mind to start this army, there was none of the Older Marks of armour available from Forge World, except for the Red Scorpion torso & helmet upgrade kit.
While I do love the FW kits, they have taken away a little in regards to Pre-Heresy modelling, allowing everyone to quickly get a foot in the door.  I think that is what prompted my to start my Pre-Heresy True Scale Alpha Legion.

Basically, the current 40k universe is a rather stagnant beast, GW have to be careful on how they advance the timeline as pushing too far will see them effectively kill off the Imperium, which I think would be a big mistake. Don't get me wrong I don't hate 40k at all.

But in the scope of the 30k universe, the Imperium is still being built, Primarchs strode into battle with their men, there is a huge sense of hope for mankind.  Push it a bit further along & you have the depth of the Heresy itself , brother fights brother as the loyalists struggle to deal with the true depth of the betrayal by the Warmaster & his legions.  Which I think is a far grander stage to play games and run campaigns in....

What do you all think?  Have I swayed anyone from the "quick & easy path" of 40k?