Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand- RELAX!!

Wow! That last post was bleak!
Let's bring back the positives again:
Weekender- YAY!!
BEER- YAY!!
Great small games- YAY!!
KEBAB-YAY!!
Time well spent with good friends- YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!

NEWS FROM THE RECRUITMENT CENTRE...

Well, the Ultramarines force has doubled in size! It now has a scout and and a chaplain! Eventually the plan would be to build a proper battle company as per the old space marine codex back ground info shows.
That means:
HQ- Captain, Chaplain and Apothecary
Troops- 6 tactical squads
Fast attack - 2 assault squads, bikers, land speeders
Heavy support - 2 devastator squads, land raiders
Elites - Dreadnoughts

So sayeth the book!

In game terms I think I can elaborate a little:
HQ1- Captain with command squad, including apothecary- options for terminator armour and maybe some sweet conversion work... in either a Razorback or some sort of Land raider.
HQ2- Chaplain and Reclusiam command squad- again scope for comversion with robed marines in black power armour with Ultramarines chapter markings (that actually made my mouth water lol)
Elites- Venerable and Ironclad dreadnoughts, plus techmarine with servitors in a razor back.
Troops- 6 Tactical squads in rhinos. Again I could always swap out tactical squads for scout squads for different games.
Fast attack- 2, 10 strong assault squads with lots of weapon variations included.
Also worth considering removal of back packs and placement in transports as a tactical option.
third choice is a toss up between 3 land speeders opr a bike squad with an attack bike...
Heavy Support- 2, 10man devastator squads in rhinos and a land raider. But that said, I would still like to throw in different tanks every now and then for flexibility and fun.

What does it mean for the collection? I hear you cry!
Well, it means hours of work, it means loads of dosh and it means years to complete.
My plan to start with is to have:
Chaplain and Command squad in Razorback
Dreadnought
Tactical Squad in Rhino
Scout squad
Assault Squad
Vindicator
Along with anything else to make it up to 1500 points.

I am also at the stage when I am thinking about dropping the whole idea and just getting more chaos stuff, like raptors, daemons (including codex), vindicators and defilers, not to mention more rhinos and bikers. Perhaps combining the chaos daemons and csm codexes would yield more character in my forces...
I do dislike the chaos codex, but perhaps there is an element of distrust and I am not used to it yet, I don't know. Perhaps I need to simply persevere and hang in there.
The prospect of noise marines has been appealing to me of late too, and I like the thousand sons rules for marine killing bolter ammunition...

Or even dropping THAT idea and getting something completely different, a step away from what I am used to, like 'nids, necrons or even Orks.

Sooooooooooooooo torn!!

The weekend's events have really turned the juices of imagination up to full power, and my mind is racing away with ideas faster than I can write them down. That invariably means a lot is being lost in the ether between skull and writing arm.

I may even try and bribe the missus into gaming with me (small patrol games only) just to keep in practise.
The major thing that sticks in my head was rolling 41 dice for assaulting troops in the big finale. It's one of the reasons I play and keep playing. There is just something about rolling a shitload of dice, hearing the clatter as they roll and watching your opponents face as you pick out the misses and hits that makes 40k and warhammer some of the best games on the planet. That and almost every time you play, it's different.

Well, this happy gaming addict is off to ponder at the games workshop site for even more ideas(!) and maybe the plan for Ultramarines will fade and be replaced with more chaos, who knows?