I've been involved in the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop wargame hobby for about seven years now.
My first 40K army was Necrons, and at the time their 3rd edition codex was quite new. They were a fairly robust, simple, straightforward army to paint and play, and I enjoyed the idea of the army quite a lot - an "elite horde" army that had a lot of hard-hitting ranged firepower and could absorb a lot of punishment. I played a lot of games with them, but eventually my interest turned to another army...
That's when I started collecting Orks. Their savage barbarism and crude but effective technologies appealed to me, and I enjoyed them being the exact opposite of my Necrons - large numbers of motley units with poor firepower but brutal close combat ability. I spent many years collecting a rather large Ork warband, eventually amassing over 200 models and more than 4,000 points. Even now, I can't help but occasionally pick up a box of boyz and get converting...
Two years ago, with the advent of the new Space Wolves codex, I decided to collect myself a Great Compnay. I had looked at collecting Space Wolves even before my Orks, but as fortune would have it, another one of our 40K players started collecting Wolves, and I wound up giving him the one box of Grey Hunters I had to get him started. Back then of course, Space Wolves only had an accessory sprue to customize normal marines, a sprue that had some good bits, but nothing nearly as comprehensive as what we have now. I have collected roughly 70 models worth of Wolves, and I'm working on a few text paint schemes, but during this process (and aided by the purchase of a Black Reach boxed set), I began looking at normal Codex: Space Marines chapters. Which leads us to where we are now...
I spent a long while hemming and hawing over "Vanilla Marines". It isn't that I think the codex is poor - far from it. But I needed to find something that really captured my attention and would make me invest the time and energy in another army. I found Ultramarines utterly boring, and while a few other chapters (Raven Guard, Salamanders) piqued my interest, and some others had cool paint jobs (Sons of Orar, Iron Knights), I wasn't finding the blend I wanted.
And that's when I took a closer look at the Crimson Fists. Here's a Codex chapter (but not an Ultramarines successor, which was nice...*yawn*) with a very long and impressive history, who suffered a terrible tragedy at the hands of one of their most despicable foes. Suffering from a catastrophe that almost wiped out their Chapter completely, the Crimson Fists cling tenaciously to survival while at the same time striving to carry out their duties to the Emperor and those who seek their protection. This background seemed like something I could definitely work with, giving me reason to make certain list choices, and also helped focus on the "every battle brother is a hero" aspect of the Space Marines.
So here we are. I've been working on some models, and I hope to start posting some materials soon. A lot of what I have is assembled but not primed or painted, and I hope to do a little documenting of my workflow as well as the overall theme and development of my army. I am by no means a competitive or tourney player, and my lists tend to reflect that, but I do enjoy a good storyline battle, whether it ends in victory or defeat.
And on that note, time to get to work...
