Warhammer 40K: Time to Revisit an Old Friend!

I used to play 40K on a regular basis for a good few years, both with my gaming group and also at the local GW shop (Aberdeen UK). I even entered a couple of the Games Day tournaments that were held in Edinburgh although I am not really that competitive, I just did it for the fun of meeting other gamers.  However, when my sons came along my gaming time was reduced and our gaming group moved on to other games and genres etc. so I haven’t really looked at the game since then. We are talking 4th edition here, by the way.

I originally had a large Eldar army, an Imperial Army (yes pre-IG, still love those figures) army, I also had a Khorne Chaos army for a while, and I have enough Dark Eldar (from the original release) to build a sizable army. My Eldar army faded in my interests and with the launch of the Tau I was really attracted to the Kroot, they looked suitably alien, and savage, without the brute stupidity of the Orks! I built up quite a large Tau army, and was on my way to building a Kroot Mercenary army too. A friend gave me his Tau army as well, so I probably have enough for an Apocalypse game, although it is unlikely I will go down that route. When I stopped playing I stored my Tau and Kroot away and I have occasionally had a look at them just to stir some memories.

One of my gaming group friends has been playing 40K recently (with a guy who is not in our group). His tales of the developing campaign have rekindled my interest to some extent, and now with the arrival of 6th edition that has also attracted me back to the game. Initially I am concentrating on filling out a few missing units from my Tau army, some of the newer models weren't out when I last played with the Tau. I have picked up three Piranha flyers, a couple of units of the XV25 Stealth teams and the Firewarriors with Railguns. I will be tracking down a Sniper Drone team in the near future too.

Digging through my existing collection of Tau I found a scratchbuilt/kit-bashed chariot that I built as a scenic base for my Ethereal. I believe that the new 6th Edition has brought back chariots (as well as some other vehicles) so I might actually be able to find some rules for it now too.

I will be getting back on track with my Kroot Mercenary army. It is unsupported, but it is so much fun converting it and putting it together! At least there is an army list available from the Kompletely Kroot forum, so I should be able to use them at least in my own gaming group! For my Kroot army I have several units of standard Kroot, a couple of Kroot Ox, and all the Shapers that have been released. I have also cast up some wings to convert a unit to flying. I also have a couple of the Forgeworld Knarlox models. The units I will probably work on first though are a couple of units of Kroot Cavalry. I bought the GW conversion kit, to turn Cold Ones into Kroot riding beasts, and have already put those together. However I don’t feel that they look like fast moving cavalry, so I came up with a plan to use the older Chaos Daemonettes steeds with some modification.

I cut the daemonettes off of their steeds, then cut the heads off of the steeds. I replaced their heads with Kroot Hound heads (which turned out to be a perfect size for the steeds) and also added the Kroot Hounds “Dreadlocks” onto the steeds necks. To hide the area where I removed the daemonettes I built up a quilted saddle and then mounted the Kroot rider on top. These conversions work out fairly expensive, when you include the Daemonette on Steed, the Kroot Hound and a basic Kroot figure, but the effect certainly looks sleek and fast, which is what I wanted to achieve. I have only put three together so far, but I have the parts ready for several more so these are going to take priority over the next few weeks…

I am not sure if I will actually pick up W40K 6th Ed. just yet. My friends are still happy using either 4th or 5th Ed. I will have to see how much I get back into it before deciding that one. Also a new Tau Codex would probably help me decide to upgrade to 6th Ed…