Sunday 29 June 2014

What's on my palette?


Wow, it's been over two months since my last confession! I've obviously been way busy getting the Four Horsemen done, but I've done bits and bobs on a number of other models. I've been working on a variety of Dark Angels all at once. Deathwing, Ravenwing, Devastator and Tactical Squad. The Deathwing have had metallics and washes done.


By spreading myself thin like this it will take a while for these to be complete [no change there then], but it does mean that when I do reach the end of each unit there should be about four units that are ready within a short while of each other. It feels less productive while I'm doing it, but it should be more rewarding upon completion. It also helps to mitigate the fact I still don't know my 'recipe' for each unit type. Essentially I'm making it up as I go along which creates inefficiencies.


Unlike my Tyranids which is so simple now, which is why I can't help myself and as soon as Blog Wars was out of the way continued on with my 11 Genestealers. This has revealed something to me, that it was not Tyranids that I hated painting years ago afterall, it was Genestealers. There were no gaunts back then so the 6 limbs on a Stealer is what is frustrating, especially because they're split into two bits [most arms/legs are though so thats really no argument]. Anyway, I have gone the extra mile on these not like the original Stealers I did way back when which are pretty much washed, with only very sparing highlights. These guys will have two sets and will follow the slightly grained pattern that I've adopted for some of the bigger creatures. Thoroughly mind-numbing, with a lot of effort that once again up close the brush work is really dodgy but from a distance looks quite effective.


I also nipped back to Element Games the day after Blog Wars and picked up most of the bits I'd missed, with the shop closing earlier than last time. My three bottles of Warpaint washes, two pots of Secret Weapon Miniatures weathering powders [so I can muck stuff up] some more flock [just for the yellow!], some bases, black primer paint, and some Red Oxide paste for even more weathering fun. This bundle of goodies cost me £28, which if I'd have ordered online would have had about £6-£9 worth of postage due to Royal Mail's fear of paint going through the postal system. Still, I didn't blink twice about the cost, which is odd as that's another Tervigon, which feels slightly more substantial than some paint and some pretty coloured dust! Still, most of it will definitely get used and the weathering powders are a new technique to master and hopefully make the Dark Angels a little more interesting.


So, BIG news, Armies on Parade is on. So I guess I must apologise for my prediction it was not going to happen. Daniel Grundy pointed out in the comments that White Dwarf was going to have an announcement yesterday. It seems it did, although they got their own dates wrong. According to White Dwarf daily:

*It’s worth noting that the Armies on Parade dates we put in this article are, sadly, incorrect. Armies on Parade will now begin on August 30th with the store Parade Day taking part on the 25th October. We’re pretty certain the Grots are to blame. Of course, if you know what you’re doing and you’re super-keen, feel free to start work on your board straight away. We won’t tell anyone. Promise.
Which does indeed leave a healthy amount of time for me to do what I wanted to do, but the big question is do I go ahead with project X? The drive and the ability is there, the really big question is the scale of the task. I currently find storing my 2'x2' display board quite awkward, now I want to create something more substantial. Having the room to build such a thing will be a challenge and to store it afterwards too will be a pain. Additionally if we do go ahead with the building work in the house that we have planned I'll no doubt need the space in the garage that I'll be constructing this thing in. More importantly this project at this time may very well prove confrontational with my better half. So I will have to manage that above all else.


Ideally I need to find a way to have the display modular so I can break it down into pieces but that is a logistical puzzle of the highest order. What I think I will do is buy the parts I need, new 2'x2' MDF sheet and the sundry bits of wood to construct the frame and see from there how easy it will be to continue on with my plan

Friday 27 June 2014

Blog Wars 7 1850pt battle report - nids vs Grey Knights/Inquisition

James Lamb was my last opponent who admitted from the very beginning he was going to lose this battle. His Grey Knight/Inquisition relied heavily on Jokaero for his troops, or something weird. Essentially he didn't have anything to hold an objective without them being mulched immediately after. I'm pretty sure you can go about this mission forcing 'contestion'  and with Chimera's Land Raiders and Dreadnoughts in his force that could have been an option

Psychic Powers
Winged Tyrant HQTervigon CC HQTervigon Plain TrZoanthope
Warp BlastDominionCatalystDominion
Onslaught

Warp Blast

The low down:
  • Three objectives, evenly spaced 1VP per objective controlled per player turn
  • Dawn of War
  • I lost deployment.
  • Warlord Trait - Mindeater - Deathleaper
  • Night fighting turn one
Having done well against PeteB in this mission I knew the first thing to do was get as close to those objectives as possible, one advantage to Tervigon's spawning is you get that potential 18" range to secure them.

With Deathleaper also scoring this game I positioned him between the two objectives [left and centre] so I could cover either option depending on which units got good run moves.


While the Nephropid and Termagants aimed for the right and centre objectives.


Despite the cover saves the Nephropid took 5 wounds from all of the Grey Knights.


And then the last wound popped off it, thankfully not too many died in the backlash, about 5 but it was still First Blood lost although no other VPs were scored..


I managed to secure two of the objectives, thanks to the Great Maw spawning out on top of one. I think the Flyrant wrecked the Chimera on the left.


The remaining gaunt blob headed for the third objective but their run move fell short leaving me with 2 VPs that turn.


Biovores missed the Vindicaire Assassin hiding in the trees but had spore mines to assault him in future turns,


This must be a couple of turns on because I think that's Coteaz [the strange monkey on the left] and pretty much all his retinue is not there. I think they'd suffered a whole lot from the Flyrant and Carnifex. I had hoped the Mawloc would have turned up to capitalise on their placement but no joy.


The Flyrantswooped off to the left but I also managed to pop his second Chimera, possibly with the Quad Gun.


His Land Raider turned it's attention to the Flyrant.


And it must have suffered a fiery end.


My Mawloc arrived but I deep struck him underneath his monkey units - [Dreadnoughts]. I killed one and had room to deploy.


Coteaz was kille dby some shooting for Slay the Warlord. All the while I'm racking up VPs as I now have all the objectives, I missed out on 3 in the first turn, 1 in my first turn and another 1 in James's second turn but since then it's 3 per turn.


While my Tervigon assaults the remaining Dreadnought the Carnifex gets to grips with the Land Raider and it's Hammer of Wrath penetrates


And blows it up.


The Vindicaire Assassin has joined the fight with the Tervigon and my gaunts protect the objective.


The Mawloc finishes off the remaining Dreadnought and any other monkeys hiding while the gaunts conga line to Line Breaker, just in case the Mawloc failed to dispatch it's targets.


So all that's left is the Great Maw facing the Vindicaire Assassin. We're at turn 4 or top of turn 3 at this stage. If James is tabled the game ends, no more VPs, if it carries on then I get more points. The Vindicaire has a 4+ save and can't seem to damage the Tervigon. I start to Smash the Assassin to reduce my attacks, one hits.


and this is my Wound roll, we continue for another round of combat and I get another 3VPs


I Smash again, but this is my 'to hit' roll, another 3VPs


When I do manage to wound the Assassin passes his Invulnerable save and eventually we reach the end of turn 5 and the Assassin remains alive.


It was a pretty one sided game, score wise. I ended up with 25VPs, plus Slay the Warlord and Line Breaker. James got First Blood and Slay the Warlord - Deathleaper meeting some ignominious end I can't even remember so 27-2. Alex, the Blog Wars event organiser had talked about the potential for games to be drawn out and where possible if you're going to table someone not to delay the inevitable to get the VPs. I suppose you could say switching to Smash attacks was doing that, but the options  were:
  • 3 Attacks, hitting on 5, wounding on 3 with a 4+ save on 2 wounds
  • 2 Attacks, hitting on 5, wounding on 2 with a 4+ save, insta-kill with 1 wound
Now I'm not going to work out the maths but I actually think I may have a better chance of killing him with Smash than without. I've one less chance to hit but greater chance to kill, outright too. In the end the Assassin deserved to survive, he was awesome. The result pushed me to 12th out of 38, not bad really although I did come 4th in November, wow, I forgot how close I came. Still maybe I can pick it up again later in the yearr.

Wednesday 25 June 2014

Blog Wars 7 1850pt battle report - nids vs Dark Angels

Second match was Dark Angels and I think my oppnent was John Bell [it's been a few weeks now and looking at the BW7 results it's the only one with Dark Angels that matches my result but it said they also had Inquisition allies but I don't remember them]

Psychic Powers
Winged Tyrant HQTervigon CC HQTervigon Plain TrZoanthope
The HorrorDominionThe HorrorOnslaught
Catalyst

Warp Blast

The low down:
  • Emperor's Relic - 3 objectives, your own worth 5pts, centre objective worth 10 and your opponents worth 15pts
  • Vanguard Strike
  • I lost deployment.
  • Warlord Trait - Mindeater - Deathleaper
  • Night fighting turn one
I put Deathleaper behind the cottage, in scoring range of the centre objective but also ready to assault the bikes when they Scout manoeuvre. Plenty of Independent Character for him to 'eat their minds' too.

Lovely pre-heresy bikes. Sammael, Ravenwing Knights and a Whirlwind.


My Deployment.


Bikes Scouted forwards, leaving the objective exposed.


Sammael plinked a wound off my Carnifex, despite Night Fighting and the cover save.


I surged forwards, the Nephropid spawned 9, not sure if it spawned out. Whereas the Great Maw spawned 15 than secured my objective.


I decided the best use of the Flyrant was to kill Sammael, to get First Blood, Slay the Warlord and a VP for killing the Special Character [although I may have go tthat last bit wrong]. As it was I only managed 1 or 2 wounds on his leader. The Flyrant took 2 wounds, I think that was falling out of the sky too


and despite Catalyst it was finished off, darn Banner of Devastation! That would have been Slay the Warlord to John if I hadn't swapped to Deathleaper this game. I don't think it was First Blood though, because I think both his Multi-Melta bike-sidecar combos came on from my left. Given how easily they could take out my Bastion I think I intercepted one with my Quad Gun getting me First Blood just before the fall of the Flyrant.


Spawned Gaunts were next on the list

  
thanks to the Whirlwind [perhaps?]


Another unit of Bikes Outflank on my right. I need to stop them getting my objective so I do the one thing I'd told myself not to do, assault with the Tervigon, but with some gaunt support and thankfully killing three of them through shooting before I even got into combat.


I'd ummed and ahhed a lot over where toplace the Mawloc, whether to take the Outflanking Ravewing, instead of using the Tervigon but Deathleaper again allowed me to position in the front row of the Ravenwing Command Squad/Knights. He swallowed enough to be able to deploy and was backed up by the Carnifex. Meanwhile my Termagants tried to sweep round the village to try and secure objectives but the Dark Angel's was looking quite far away and time was running short.


Ravenwing backed off to get out of range of my monsters.


And suddenly the Deathwing Knights disgorged from the Land Raider. They may have been forgotten up until this point but it had turned out to be the best time for them to arrive.


By the looks of it the Knights managed to smash through a lot. No Mawloc, Carnifex or Dathleaper! I can't recall how they fell but 6 Knights came out and 6 Knights remain so that does illustrate their durability.


Outflanking Ravenwing lost one...


...then the remaining two, I consolidate back to my objective.


Sammael gets his objective, I stall the Deathwing with the Great Maw and bubble wrap the centre objective, try to contest Sammaels but can't reach and at this stage, with about 2 minutes to go I call it because we can't get a turn done each in the remaining time and change the outcome.


I had the 5 and 10pt objectives, and First Blood, while John had his 5pt objective and had killed Deathleaper for Slay the Warlord making it a 16-6 win for me.



Monday 23 June 2014

Blog Wars 7 1850pt battle report - nids vs Squats/Eldar Allies

Graham Sanders was up first from Claws and Fists with a technically confusing Army in that it was Squats as Astra Imperial Militarum Guards, with Eldar Allies. I immediately started to forge a narrative about the Squats eager to take some vengeance on my nids for ... well, removing them from 40k lore [for a bit at least]. Most of his models were the old skool pastic with some nifty conversions including some fatastic Zepplins as Vedettas [amde out of Haribo Easter Eggs!]. His list is at the end of the report.

Psychic Powers
Winged Tyrant HQTervigon CC HQTervigon Plain TrZoanthope
The HorrorDominionParoxysmParoxysm
Onslaught

Warp Blast

The low down:
  • Purge the Alien
  • Hammer and Anvil
  • I lost deployment.
  • Warlord Trait - 18" synapse on my Flyrant
  • Night fighting turn one
With such poor success with Deathleaper as my Warlord I went with the Flyrant.


I put Deathleaper over the other side of this wall to scare his Wyverns.


Wyverns


Deathleaper!


Facing down three Punisher Cannons I had every intention of holding off bringing on some of my Termagant, but I just couldn't help myself and ended up putting 30 and the Great Maw in
easy range of the Leman Russes.


. It was stupid, not even a tactic, I should have used the tower to cover my advance, instead I just offered up kill points!


And you can see it was mighty effective, I think 5-7 Termagants survived to secure half their Kill Points for the Squats.


In return I swooped the Flyrant forward  and targetted one of the Wyverns to try and secure First Blood. I moved the Tervigon forward to threaten his tanks and Miasma the Squat blob. The Carnifex was Onslaughted to get in range of the Wyverns too but his run move left him short and exposed in open ground. I should have cast it on the Hive Guard who would have been in range, even with a 6" run I think 'War' would have been too far away. Instead they both did nothing!


I managed to get two Hull Points on one of the Wyverns, just not enough to get the job done.


My Biovores missed, but I got 3 Spore Mines to charge him in the assault phase killing a couple of Squats.


With Night Fighting passed the great maw was even more exposed to the relentless fire from all the tanks and Squats. Las Cannon, Punisher Cannon and Multi-Melta fire stripped all but it's last wound away. I could have a used Catalyst at this point.


Hive Guard lost 3 wounds, securing another 50% of the units Kill Points.


A lot has happened in my go, I managed to destroy the damaged Wyvern and also blow up one of the Vendettas that had come on and kill all but one of the Veterans inside. So I got First Blood and the Kill Points for both vehicles but with a lone Vet left I only got 50% of the unit's value, grrrr!


Punishers finished off my Tervigon.


Jetbikes arrived and assaulted Deathleaper I challenged the Autarch to what ended up being a numebr of rounds of 'patty cake' as nothing happened turn after to turn. The Eldar invul save helpign to mitigate the 2 or 3 hits I'd manage per phase.


Hive Guard and Carnifex try to bring down the second Vendetta.


But they're now firmly in the sights of the Punishers and their Squat Lord Commander.


Having evaded the Hive Guard the Vendetta approaches the Flyrant from behind, managing to knock it out of the sky.


And with all the available lasguns the flyrant did not survive as it flapped around on the ground.


Slay the Warlord and a big chunk of Kill Points to the Squats.


The Carnifex decided it was time for payback on the Russes and slammed into the lead Punisher. I'd been Paroxysming the squadron [which had kept their shooting poor] and mistakenly thought the Paroxysm marker on the front tank was the sign it was Pask [despite him sticking out of the turret in the second tank!] So when I smashed it to pieces with Hammer of Wrath hits alone I only got 150pts, instead of the 240 and StW I'd hoped for and now he was exposed again!


Matter of debate regarding the Mawloc, given he can deep strike without scatter within 6" of Deathleaper I brought him up next to the melee, killing 4 Eldar Jetbikes. Graham was fine with it happening but I do quesiton if it is possible. If I'd Deep Struck and deviated on top of it I'd have wounded anything underneat - friend or foe, so presumably I can deep strike in such a way that hits just the foe as a I did, but is that correct?


Deathleaper eventually finished off the Autarch and I was extra excited to get my 2VPs for killing an Independent Character only to realise that wasn't a Special Rule, it was it's Warlord Trait IF I took Deathleaper as my Warlord when I hadn't because he'd been so rubbish up till then!


The Squats went on to put enough wounds on a number of units, Mawloc included, to get 50% of their worth each time, extremely lucky to tip that balance repeatedly. In the end I managed to secure 587 Kill Points, while Graham killed 798pts worth. He had Slay the Warlord but I had First Blood and Linebreaker, thanks to my Mawloc and Deathleaper. So I lost that one, narrowly after the Secondaries were included [not sure what they were worth].


ASTRA MILITARUM + ELDAR ALLIES

Tank Commander [30] + Knight Commander Pask [40] = 70
• Leman Russ Punisher [140] + lascannon [10] + sponson multi-meltas [20] = 170
• Leman Russ Punisher [140] + lascannon [10] = 150
• Leman Russ Punisher [140] + lascannon [10] = 150

Ministorum Priest = 25

Primaris Psyker [50] + Mastery Level 2 [25] = 75

Primaris Psyker [50] + Mastery Level 2 [25] = 75

Platoon Command Squad [30] + 2× flamer [10] = 40
• Infantry Squad [50] + Heavy Weapons Team [0] with lascannon [20] = 70
• Infantry Squad [50] + Heavy Weapons Team [0] with lascannon [20] = 70
• Infantry Squad [50] + Heavy Weapons Team [0] with lascannon [20] = 70
• Infantry Squad [50] + Heavy Weapons Team [0] with lascannon [20] = 70

Veteran Squad + Grenadiers [15] + 3× flamer [15] = 90

1 Vendetta Gunship = 170

1 Vendetta Gunship = 170

1 Wyvern = 65

1 Wyvern = 65


Autarch [70] + Eldar jetbike [15] = 85

5 Windrider Guardians = 85

5 Windrider Guardians = 85

1,850 points