Build, Paint, Play Series

Hey guys! We have an exciting project in the works and we want you to be a part of it. The Gamer's Haven prides itself in growing some amazing communities and play groups by giving you guys the place and products to play. We also want to acknowledge that it can sometimes be difficult to cultivate your own play group, especially if it's not a game or format that we currently host events for. Some people may even find the idea of starting an army daunting, so we wanted to provide you with a guide to solve both of these hurdles. We want to introduce our "Build, Paint, Play" series, where we showcase how to dive into a hobby with a friend, choose an army, create reasonable hobbying expectations, and get those mini's marching at each other on the table. You can use this template for most tabletop wargames like Star Wars Legion, Conquest, Kill team, and even BattleTech. For the launch of the series, we're going back in time with Horus Heresy to the battle at Istvaan III, not only to build some hype for the launch of Heresy third edition, but to take you on a nostalgia trip and maybe get some ideas for the upcoming launch. 

Before we dive into the details of this event, let's do a brief overview of what a "Build, Paint, Play" event is, and what to expect. This is an event aimed at people interested in theory crafting an army, building the miniatures, choosing or creating the paint scheme, and playing the game with other participants. In future iterations of this series we'll replicate this formula in other universes and eras like BattleTech, Conquest The Last Argument Of Kings, and maybe even Star Wars Legion. 

What can I expect to see?
We’ll be showcasing the participant’s vision, force building, painting and then playing an army with periodic hobby progress updates and battle reports. Additionally, we’ll strive to add some information about a hobby technique or product that was used during the process. We'll be posting our progress photos to Facebook and Instagram, some shorts to Reels and Tiktok, and eventually the battle report to Youtube. Make sure to subscribe to us here to keep up to date.  Participants will change occasionally to provide different paces, perspectives and strategies to build, paint and play your army.  

What do I gain from this content?
Follow us as we guide you through the process of getting an army to the table and get you playing games in an organized and incremental way. If you want to apply this process to a game system you’re itching to get going, this guide can get you pointed in the right direction. There might also be a hobby technique or product being showcased that you might want to try. It's time to create your own story and experience. 

Now the good stuff. 

Return to Istvaan:

Horus Heresy rules version 1.5 1k points, narrative play

James (Death Guard) vs Naiche (Sons of Horus)

Step 1:

Where do I start?

For this series we're diving into a narrative battle, and we're showcasing how easy that can be. Looking back at The Horus Heresy Book 1: Betrayal the color palettes, pseudo-historical feel and missions sparked a desire to tell a story using the Istvaan III story as a backdrop for our own vertical slice cut from the Heresy cake. While theory crafting we agreed that a one thousand point game using one of the old Legendary Battles was good for the amount of time we were willing to commit. After that we discussed who would be taking the role of loyalist and traitor, along with developing and sending our lists back and forth to make sure that the power levels of the lists would be appropriate. After that both players dove straight into the build and paint stages of the event.

Step 2:

What are my hobby expectations?

Currently we're releasing content for week one, which is the start of the hobby portion. 

During the process of getting each army built and painted there will be periodic pieces of content that showcases a particular technique or hobby product that viewers might want to try for themselves. 

Players established their lists, and now it's time to pop out the sprues to assemble minis. Keep in mind people move at different paces so we're estimating this to be roughly 4-6 weeks of content leading up to this big battle. It's important to discuss what your hobby expectations are, and what your minimum level of realism is ahead of time so that you can plan the appropriate level of time to hobby. We'll be showcasing a couple hobby and painting techniques along the way with tools available at The Gamer's Haven. The cool thing about this particular series is that we'll also be following along Bob as he creates the terrain for this event, which is something you'll also want to discuss with your group. Terrain can make or break the immersion level, so we'll show you how we dive into the subject. Stay tuned for a full mission description as well as the remaining steps to our Build Paint and Play series. To see more and follow along, hop over to Facebook/Instagram for our weekly hobby updates, along with TikTok and Youtube to get some longer form content and tutorials!

WEEK 1 PROGRESS

James:

Naiche: