Committing to the Plaguefather (and Tanksgiving!)

I had planned to wait on these things... until I was finished the Maggotkin and Helsmiths Spearheads... or Black Friday... which ever came LATER... 

But then I realized I'd missed the Beast Feast - which was an event held at the Warhammer Store last weekend where you committed to building and painting a (previously unassembled upainted..) warmachine or monster and brought it to throw down in a mega battle... 

There is another event coming up next month, though... TANKSGIVING... which is a 40K mega battle where you commit to building and painting a (previously unassembled upainted..) vehicle or monster... 

So... I thought... I could build and paint a GREATER DAEMON because they can be used in both Age of Sigmar AND Warhammer 40,000... but WHICH ONE!? 

I don't really have much of a Tzeentch army, so Kairos Fateweaver/Lord of Change was pretty easy to eliminate. 

Slaanesh was kind of my first Chaos army... and I do have a fair bit of stuff for it... and I've kind of wanted a Keeper of Secrets for a long time... and Shalaxi Helbane's Soulpiercer attack in 40K is BRUTAL... Six attack, hits on 2+, STRENGTH 12(!), Armour Piercing -3 and dealing D6+2 damage for each of those hits! OUCH! Buuuuuut.. I haven't really been playing or painting them for a while... and I'd want to do a good job on a Keeper of Secrets and wouldn't want to rush it... 

So it was kind of down to a Bloodthirster of Khorne or a Great Unclean One of Nurgle. The Bloodthirster is fast and even more brutal than Shalaxi Helbane... and I do have a Blades of Khorne army with over 2500 points of painted minis ready to go... It's the army I've been thinking about playing and I have the Battletome... ugggghhh... 

In the end I went with the Great Unclean One, though...  

It's arguably the worst of the Greater Daemons - at least in 40K... it is the slowest (if everything else that shows up is a tank, they could probably just drive away and shoot ny daemon to bits). It doesn't hit nearly as hard as the others - at least the Khorne and Slaanesh Daemons (best attacks are Strength 10, Armour Piercing -2m versus Strength 12-16 and Armour piercing of -3/-4 of the others...)... but... It's what I'm working on right now and interested in painting right now, so.... 

Having done that... 

I'd noticed there was a Shudderblight Cyst Battleforce box still sitting at Dragon's Den Games - one of the previous year's Battleforce Boxes... which has a lot of great units - stuff I'd have gotten to build up my Maggotkin army over the coming months... but at, like, 30% off... I was thinking of waiting until Black Friday (to make it close to 50% off!), but picking up the Great Unclean One kind of felt like COMMITTING to building a Nurgle army... and the guys at Dragon's Den Games give me really good deals all year long... and the box itself was at a significant discount over the regular price of the contents... and so I realized I'd be pretty disappointed if I went on Boxing Day and it was gone (as has happened other years)... 

So I went and got that today as well... 

So... I guess I have a full-on Nurgle army as well now... 

Now, you don't HAVE to buy something brand new to participate in Tanksgiving... you CAN bring in stuff from your pile of shame and show it to the staff when you sign up... and I COULD have done that... because... 

STILL SO MUCH GUARD STUFF TO ASSEMBLE AND PAINT!!!

(I'm SURE I had a third unassembled Leman Russ somewhere...?)

But I wanted to stay focused on Age of Sigmar stuff... and keep working on the Spearheads... And so, taking a few weeks to a month off of working on Age of Sigmar stuff to knock out some Imperial Guard tanks... well... I was concerned it could completely distract me from THE PLAN... so... Maybe next year...?

(How did I end up with so many unassembled Guard tanks...!? Well I'm pretty sure I bought all of these about a decade ago..? Maybe as 7th edition was wrapping up, or beginning of 8th Edition....? Some at a Black Friday sale... some at a Boxing Day sale... back when they were HALF the price they are selling for now!? But then before I could get around to assembling or painting any of them, I ended up buying MULTIPLE lots of used Guard armies from local guys... all of which contained multiple tanks that were already assembled and painted or partially painted... So almost all of the Guard vehicles I've painted over the years are ones that were assembled by others that I just repainted?! and then never got around to assembling the ones I'd bought new for myself! I STILL have a few more built tanks to repaint before I get to THESE! I will have an entire Tank Squadron when I'm done - plus supporting arms vehicles)