Welcome back, Dear Reader, to my ongoing blog of competitive and hobby progress for 2025. This week is a special Friday edition of the column! No, I didn’t just miss yesterday’s deadline due to other obligations, stop asking. Anyways, Last Time Around I was testing the Coterie of the Conceited, playing around with John Lennon’s list.
And… I’ve come around to the idea that Coterie are the best way to play the faction. They’ve got a good set of Stratagems and just snagging re-rolls to hit/wound of 1 early is often enough. Just use insanely good datasheets, point them at enemy, make them even better. If there’s a problem I’ve had with the army, it’s (thematically) that I sometimes get so eager to rush in and fight that I forget my secondaries entirely. So it’s worth putting some work in there.
Game: vs. Max’s Astra Militarum
Max is a good sport and he’s always up for helping me test an army or get an extra game in for the weekly article. That’s helpful because I can’t always write about all of my games – I may play 3-4 games in a week, but if those are test games for an upcoming Codex, I can’t write about those until after it releases. Max has been spending more time these days making sick terrain than playing, so these games end up more being reps for me to get familiar with the army rules than big tests of strategy.
The Mission: The Ritual – Swift Action – Crucible of Battle
Max gets first turn and pushes forward with his tanks using scout moves – and that’s pretty much a big mistake. I call three units with my Coterie and rush in with a daemon prince, and three units of Infractors. God damn this army is fast. With Scout on the Rhino + 3″ disembark and a 7″ move + advance, I can easily clear 24″ of movement and then some to get into Max’s deployment zone and score a turn 1 kill on Ursula Creed.
Someone asked me after my last article about my reserves/rhino plans. The answer is that the Kakophonist unit of Noise Marines always goes in reserves (though he many not always go with them if I want him to walk around solo). Then I usually put at least one if not both of the other noise marine units in reserves. This is partly out of necessity – not only can you not put the Kakophonist’s unit in the same rhino as a Lord Exultant’s unit (they can only hold 12 models), but putting them in the Rhino with Infractors prevents you from Scouting. And that Scout move is huge.
The biggest challenge here are the rogal dorns but I take one out pretty easily with Lucius and a winged daemon prince and I’m already on Lethal+Sustained going into round 3. This one’s pretty much over and we call it. I’ve got Bryce in tow and he wants to go home. Max as always, is one of my favorite people and I appreciate his endless willingness to be a public punching bag.
Hobby
To go along with that section light on the gaming side, I also have to be frustratingly light on the hobby side. Again, same reason – if I’m working on models I can’t show yet, I can’t show them. That’s not always the case – I don’t get every new model or to paint everything, but it does mean my time goes to painting those. One of my favorite complaints I see online is when people complain about the “content creator advantage” for competitive play. There may be some truth to it, but the reality is that it’s a ton of work – we take this seriously, and that means playing test games and painting models you get for upcoming products – whether they come from Games Workshop or anywhere else. There are too many grifters in this space who are just out for free shit. Who act entitled to those copies without doing the work to make meaningful content around them.
Anyways, here’s Lucius. I reviewed him last Saturday, but he’s been on my hobby table for about two weeks:
Lucius painted up slower than I’d have liked but I love the final result. He looks great and I’m glad I went with pink armor over black – though I can see why they went with black. The faces aren’t quite as detailed as I’d have liked and making them work was tricky.
I also finished my Goremongers:
They have to be ready for when I eventually pick World Eaters back up. I’m super excited for that army to come out and for new Death Guard. And also Thousand Sons. It’s a lot and while I have pretty much everything I’ll want for Death Guard and Thousand Sons painted save the new models, my World Eaters need a lot of TLC. I’m hoping to start shoring up those gaps in the next couple of months, in between painting more Emperor’s Children.
Next Week: Planning for Wardome
That’s it for this week – short I know, but check back next week when I’ll have more. Wardome is a week from Saturday, and I need to finalize a list for it this weekend. Still not sure what I’m going to play. Probably Creations of Bile, as my Emperor’s Children just aren’t there yet and aren’t going to be ready in time. Plus I don’t think they’re legal for it. I’m also pretty comfortable with Creations, even if they’re far from the best list right now and my version is bad. But that’s how it goes, generally. Gotta dance with who ya brung.
See you next Thursday.
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