Blog The Road to 2500

[Qupakoco]

On April 27th there is scheduled a 2500 point tournament. I am planning on attending. (and hopefully winning)

With a little over 7 weeks to prepare, my current competitive 2500 point list is in shambles. I am setting the goal of having the entire army fully painted and ready to rock and roll within this time frame.

The army I plan on taking is a modification to my current 2000 point all-comers list. Here's the breakdown:

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The Anvil of Anvils



Slann - Light
Mystery
Rumination
Cogitation
Cupped Hands
Ironcurse Icon
Battle Standard
Warbanner

20 Temple Guard
Full Command
Sword of Might
Razor Standard

The army center piece. All the eggs in a basket. Historically there have been waves of foes fallen by the swing of their halberds. The Revered Guardian himself has slain 3 Heroes in mortal combat, with magical help from the Slann of course. The Razor Standard will help me punch through the heavy armor of any elites that are bold enough to attempt an assault.

This unit needs to have 7 models finished, the entire unit based, and the Slann finished up. On top of all that I am planning on making magnetized movement trays all around. One of the larger orders in the army for sure. The Slann may be the model I enter for the painting portion of the tourney, after a few corrections and a nice base.

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The Surgeon



Scar-Veteran
Cold One
Light Armor
Halberd
Venom of the Firefly Frog
Dragonhelm
Amulet of Itzl

When the going gets tough, we call in the cavalry. This formidable warrior allows for control of the battlefield by directing chaff units, chasing monsters, or even sacrificing himself for the greater good. With his decent movement rate and the ability to shrug off a cannonball, he is my monster.

Fortunately this model only needs a few touch ups. He may also be the model I enter for judging if I can get him just right. Either him or the Slann.

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The Caddy



Skink Priest
Cube of Darkness

The back-up wizard. He carries an important arcane device that will threaten even the most powerful magicians.

Needs to be completely painted and based.

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The Good Ol' Boys





24 Saurus
Full Command

24 Saurus
Full Command
Spears

Hand Weapon & Shield Saurus have been my fallback tactical squad as long as I can remember. Capable of being both a hammer and an anvil as well as garrisoning a building if the need arises. The Spear Saurus have been tricky for me to master as I tend to be aggressive, but they are reliable nonetheless. Clearly they will be played as defensively as possible, always kept nearby the Slann.

These guys are actually fully painted and based! Just finished basing them this week actually. They will also be given magnetized trays.

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The Ablative Hammer



33 Skink Cohort
3 Kroxigor
Full Command

The swarm of Skinks deters the attention of the target away from the Kroxigor. Used to take down large monsters or elite warriors, this specially spawned unit is often underestimated. They are not afraid to charge nor be charged.

Lots of work here. The Skinks need to be given shields and painted. The Kroxigor need touch ups and basing. I actually have enough new-style skinks to build this unit, but they don't rank up as nice. They will also be getting a magnetized movement tray.


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The Expendables

Silly pun, I know.




2 x 10 Skink Skirmishers

Able to move with the ebb and flow of battle while being able to redirect enemy attackers to help the Saurus pick and choose their fights. Fully capable of downing giants and solo characters yet cheap enough to toss under the bus if needed. I usually spring for Javelins at this point level, but I felt the extra 20 points could have been put to better use elsewhere.

One unit is finished besides an arm that fell off recently. The other unit needs to be completely finished. Also planning on making movement trays for them, but it will be a bit tricky to accommodate the rules of Skirmishers. We'll see how this goes.

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The Hunters



6 Chameleon Skinks

Warmachines beware! Your days are numbered. Same to you, frenzied units. The only defense against them is to bring enough troops to cover the entire battlefield.

These guys are done too! Just need a magnetized Skirmisher base.

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The Flaming Amphibians





2 x 1 Salamanders

I run them as single units to let them squeeze between cracks in terrain and enemy units. No other significant explanation needed. Just watch out.

The only thing these guys need is the extra handler for each Sally to be painted and based.

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There you have it! Dead on 2500. Realistically these models are probably good enough to play with. But I want them finished! I'll likely be doing weekly updates with the army to show how far along they are. I am getting really tired of having a bunch of unpainted and unassembled models sitting around, so this will be my motivation.




Any feedback on the army list or the models is much appreciated. I have a general game-plan on what to buy and what to do, but I don't mind fresh ideas.

 

[Rettile]

usually i don't like lizardmen's old models, but these are very nice

 

[Qupakoco]

Thanks! Yeah, my army spans all 3 editions of releases. Got the 5th ed Slann with 5th, 6th, and 7th ed Temple Guard. I'd like to upgrade them all to 7th edition at some point. I prefer the 5th edition Kroxigor over the 6th edition ones, but I like a couple of the 7th edition ones also. And once I add shields to the Skinks I think they'll look alright.

The magnetism madness has begun...



I bought myself two 9"x12" magnetic pads for about $3 (US) each at a craft store. Pretty good price compared to GW movement trays. Tonight I cut up enough for my completed Saurus and got the pieces all glued on. It seems that the glue takes much longer to set since it's inside of the large cavity at the bottom of their bases. I think I'll be filling the bases for my heavier models, like the metal TG, to ensure the magnets don't pop off.

The absolute best part about magnetizing bases is that I can leave models all over the house in weird places. Such as...

Traversing the Cliffs of Kenmore...



... or climbing Mount Frigidaire.



Fun fun. It would be entirely feasible to play a small battle on the fridge door.

Next I'll be cutting up some sheet metal and adding nice trim pieces to it for the actual movement tray. After that I'll tackle the Temple Guard.

 

[spawning of Bob]

Hail High-Priest Qupakoco !
One thousand obeisances for misspelling your name once !

I followed your thread (and your car. Alaska isn't that big) to see the road to 2500.

I've tried some things with magnet bases. Spent a happy afternoon recently with tin snips converting sheet metal into every possible size base for all unit combinations.

My bases are sprayed chaos black, then scratched with a cryptic design, as modelled by Bob himself:


Here is a skink skirmish base and a salamander pack base in the foreground:


As Bob is equally averse to both straight lines and spending money, he also acquired some old skinks with bows and will act on your observation that they rank up better with Krox than the new ones.

I did some simple conversions 2 years back to make full command using old skinks and bits, mostly off the Cold Ones sprue.






Leftover javelins / blowpipes are easy enough to add for rank and file. With the 2 "skink with bow" variations, proxy shields can be stuck over the left arm. If a shield is not required, the forward part of the blow (with metallic paint) makes an acceptable hook bladed hand weapon. The back part can be trimmed or painted camouflage colours to blend with the base or leg.

For right arms, hand weapons or each end of javelins / blow pipes can be directly stuck to the fist. For stronger bond I prefer cutting and patching at the wrist although this means I have few with a left hand stuck on to the stump of their right arm. This is hard to detect (especially as I forgot to paint these hands, so they are all wearing black gloves) and would not look out of place in Scalenex's Zombie lizardman army, where I believe hideous deformities are the order of the day.



I've decided to tolerate the quivers, and will probably convert most of my rank and file, and then discover that short bows are back in the 8th ed army book. The conversions can be covered by touch ups rather than needing to repaint the whole model.

My metal movement bases have another layer of adhesive backed fridge magnet stuff underneath so that the units will stick in my army box. (Metal fold out tool box)


Note the swarms are stored on the wall. My Saurus blocks are in the bottom section ready to deploy at a moments notice. I like the idea of being to grab any of my units at random and not give away my deployment choices by ranking everything up on the table prior to a game. Although deploying temple guard with a 4 trooper sized hole in the second rank is a bit of a giveaway. I might make a 4 base TG unit filler that I can just pop out at will.

 

[Qupakoco]

Magnets on the bottom of the trays? GENIUS. Consider your idea stolen.

I followed your thread (and your car. Alaska isn't that big) to see the road to 2500.

Yeah, I'd believe you. There's really only one road, albeit a long one.

As to updates, I pulled a Bob and busted out my tin snips over the weekend. Fortunately my brother-in-law works construction and has lots of spare building materials just sitting around, including a very large piece of sheet metal! I'll never have to buy movement trays again.

After getting yelled at for leaving lizards all over the house, I decided to cut out some trays. I used them in a battle already and I must say I am impressed with how easy it is to move my Saurus around now.



Getting a little tipsy...



Hang on boys! Trust in the Old Ones!



Too tipsy!!



Oh wait, wrong type of tipsy. St. Patrick is kind of an anti-Sotek if you think about it. Drove the snakes out of Ireland as opposed to driving the rats out of Lustria? Coincidence?

 

[Old Mossy]

Nooooooo, St Patty! Why!?

Nice project, gotta love the magnetized trays. Lucky you've got the hookup for materials, too.

 

[Deathfrisbee2000]

I do not have the fortitude to sit and crank out that many miniatures in that amount of time. Well done!

Also, what kind of beer do you have there that has been greenified?

--DF2K

 

[Qupakoco]

It's Red Chair NWPA. Seasonal stuff. I'd buy it again. And thanks! Yeah, I was pretty happy when I saw that sheet of metal just sitting in his garage.

Bob, I keep looking at your Skinks and saying, "Oh, that's how he did it..." They might be stolen too.

More updates to come later this week. Keep yer eyes peeled.

 

[spawning of Bob]

So. No more "SoB" and I release your family, right?

Respect. Its all I ask for.

 

[Qupakoco]

You have my respect, Bob.

Well I have to apologize to my millions of faithful followers. The Road to 2500 took a few unexpected turns and as such I haven't had much of a chance to work on this project. I also will no longer be able to attend the tournament. However I do plan on finishing what I started. It just might be a little while.

Thanks for reading! Thank you for the encouragement as well.