Editorial: Concerning the "Second-army Syndrome"

Hi folks,

I know this blog was originally solely dedicated to the painting and gaming of and with my Guardians of the Covenant army and lately, the Iron Warriors have been ever more prevalent. Thing is, I suffer from the "second army syndrome". While I absolutely love the Guardians of the Covenant to bits, I seem to favour my second large army, the Iron Warriors, a bit more. The Guardians moving to obscurity a bit. I still play with them from time to time, but Chaos and IA13 is where I get my kicks nowadays. Sure, I've got a new Mortis Dreadnought (the boxy one) and several nice Land Speeders including a Darkshroud and Sableclaw primed black and ready to paint, I still need to regain my mojo with the Guardians of the Covenant.

As will all large armies that span the process of several years, my skill with painting has grown as well. This is quite visible when comparing both armies. I'm not saying the Guardians were painted badly, but the Iron Warriors are simply painted better. Especially the weathering on the vehicles is better with my Chaos tanks, save for the GotC Fellblade, which is still one of my best models to date.

Currently, my Iron Warriors have surpassed my Guardians of the Covenant as the biggest army. That is no small feat, because the Guardians have always been Apocalypse-sized around 5000pts. I would like to regain my painting mojo when it comes to the Guardians of the Covenant, not at the cost of losing interest with my Iron Warriors, of course.

Still, it's not all negative. I've been working on a nice Inquisitorial warband and ditto Inquisitor. One I've written a cool backstory for in the past. The Inquisitor and his warband is meant to accompany my Guardians army. They're halfway finished. If anything, a good impulse to my "loyalist army."

Still, with the Betrayal at Calth on the horizon, 30k gaming is a given sooner or later. I've already got  several units that are have a dual function as both Chaos and Horus Heresy units (rapiers, autocannon squad, Mk3 veterans). So, I am looking for a way to keep the Guardians of the Covenant interesting, even though the focus will be shifting to Heresy-era Iron Warriors sooner or later.

Knowing myself, I know that painting and working on a certain army creates the buzz, more than actually playing with an army. So, perhaps purchasing some new units or finishing up Guardians that have been in a WIP state for several years might help.

When I take a look at several fellow hobbyists I know, I see that I am not the only one with the Second-army Syndrome. Mostly, it's one army standing firmly in the spotlights and more often that not, it's the army that is newest that steals the show.

Still, I am interested in how other people cope with this? Are you able to love your armies and play with them equally, or is one of your armies prone to neglect on the shelf? How would you handle, or even, solve this?




-Revan88

Work in Progress: Renegades & Heretics

Nearly weekend!

Prepping my models for a match is always a good motivator for me; I have a rule where I only use models that are at finished completely. Though I strive to follow that rule at all times, I must admit that I play with "almost finished" models from time to time. Never will I play with so-called "grey" models or models that are simply primed black or white.

Now back to the prepping. Friday night is my FLGS's Warhammer night, and I like to finish up models so that I can use them during these friday nights. Behold: the Cult of Steel, dual cultists and Renegades & Heretics. I plan on using them either as Chaos cultists as per the CSM codex and once I have expanded a bit, they will be an allied detachment from Imperial Armour 13, complete with some neat heavy mortars from Victoria Miniatures and nice artillery crew. A nice allied detachment that will fit the theme of the Iron Warriors pretty well, plus the mortars will probably pound some enemies to submission.

Since I always hobby during evenings, and natural light is far, far away this time of the year, please forgive me for the crappy iPhone photos.

The models use Forge World's renegade torsos and some proper Cadian arms and legs. The base is a simple cork this time, instead of expensive resin bases I usually have a taste of. I plan on making a lot, lot more of these so I painted them in tabletop quality. No need to spend hours on single miniatures when I plan to have about 60 of them on the field. As a group, they look splendid. I might make them a little more drab with some weathering powders and some Typhus Corrosion, a nice technical paint with the right amount of drabbiness.

- Revan88