Brent from BOLS recently (last month or November) ran a competition to write an article and get it published on BOLS under a category of his choosing - Appendix 1, 2 or 3. I started out doing Appendix 3 and then inspiration struck and I did the other two, (2 then 1) throughout using the context of telling a story. I uploaded them to Blogger as drafts on the 12-12-11 and forgot to publish, wanting to add photos. Fixing that now... (sans photos - will add later)...
“Brent gently lifted the hard plastic case from the back of the cupboard and reverently placed it on the table. Inhaling deeply he blew the dust from the top of the case and swiped his right hand over the top; a familiar double headed eagle embossed across it, caressed the underside of his palm. A rather sad looking fabric plaster underneath it stated “Necrons” in black marker, the corners stuck with lint, curling over.
Opening the case and running quickly through his encrypted (pun there, two ways) army he surmised that whilst his space unread yearned to awaken from their poly foam rest, they needed the breath of unlife whispered back into them. Before him he sees; A Necron Lord, A Destroyer Lord, 28 Necron Warriors, 10 Necron Immortals, 8 Scarabs, 2 Wraiths, 5 Destroyers, 1 Heavy Destroyer, and a Monolith.
He contemplates this.
Whilst previously a force to be reckoned with under his auspicious command, his minions have been in stasis sleep for too long, the universe had passed them by. These are no longer the idyllic days of Sanctuary 101, slaughtering space nuns with digitized abandon. These are the day of Overlords and Phaerons and Crypteks and Brent, resolved, will be Damnos-ed (another one) if he is left behind.
Faced with little or no money, his contemplation having made him miss his shift, and as the angry red light on the answer phone attests, an enraged phone call from his boss, Brent realises in order to reanimate his force he will need to get creative.”
Narrative aside, Brent isn’t in too much of a situation here. He has a functional army already and is at most only one or two shiny new models away from being able to make a showing. He is also able to do this on a slim to moderate budget.
The only necessity that Brent needs is an Overlord. This will enable him to utilise all both his Destroyer Lord and Necron Lord and not exceed his HQ slot requirements. By upgrading his Overlord to a Phaeron he can have both his Necron Lord and Destroyer Lord as a part of his Royal Court. Attaching these to other units at the beginning of the game means he can tailor abilities to suit each individual Lord (for example the Destroyer Lord with Destroyers and the Necron Lord with Immortals) and to bolster the units they attach to.
The second and not so necessary but possibly handy add on to Brent army could be the purchase of a Cryptek. Another HQ choice as part of the Royal Court his abilities can also be used to enhance an attached unit. The choices available here differ from those of the Lords and as such can offer a bit more diversity when tailoring the army to suit.
Brent can leave his Immortals, Destroyers, Monolith, Wraiths and Lords for the meantime. He now faces a couple of choices which can mean a few more models and a wider range of choices across his army.
Scarabs are four bugs to a base. They have three wounds each. Brent can take this fourth bug off and create some more bases. He can go from eight to eleven bases in short order and with his one remaining Scarabs - well, he can use that for some creative basing or hold onto it for a rainy day.
His 28 Warriors can stay as such, two troops of fourteen each or Brent can get the craft knife out and have five or so fall victim to the “flayer plague”. Eight seems like a good round figure (couple more puns there).
Hands and guns off, a quick scrounge through some old sprues may turn up some knubs from the ends. These can be cut into and some tags off a loaf of bread (which I hope you guys have over there but I can get a picture if not, I can also take a picture of a “knub” should it be required) can be glued into place. Once this is stuck on the end of the arm, you have a functional flensing hand. Some green stuff (or at a pinch and in keeping with our budget conscious army – poster tack) as skin draped over and allowed to dry (or with poster tack, the super glue you spread over allowed to dry) and your Flayed Ones are ready and that empty Elite slot is filled.
A functional army that has enough options in play to keep you going whilst you save up for the big shiny things everyone else is likely to advocate.
Except we find our army not complete. Our new Overlord and his Cryptek pal are naked as the day they was bought and out Flayed Ones look like they have flayed a bunch of orks (green stuff) or smurfs (poster tack and to clear it up, the la la lala la la kind, not the ones from Macragge).
“Brent looked over his revivified army. He was not satisfied. His efforts had pained him and had taken a lot of effort and he was still in need of finding a new job and his wife wanted him to finish mowing the lawn and that show was on soon and he need to change the baby. The need to paint was over taken and subsumed in the general background roar of his life.
And three weeks later, again the dust began to settle on his army of mechanised cadavers...”
Appendix 3 - Drafted 12-12-11.
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