Thursday 27 March 2014

Throne of Skulls March 2014 - Tyanids Vs Necrons 'pick up game' with Scott

We managed to get to Warhammer World on the Friday early enough for us to have a game amongst ourselves. The original plan was for me to go up against Liam, and Otty and Scott to face each other with Ben offering Scott advice. Scott's just getting back into the hobby and as he's using Ben's army there's none better to give him tips. However, Liam had heard rumours about my list and for the entire journey to Nottingham had bemoaned how evil it was and refused to square up against it - baby! ;) So I faced Scott and Liam went against Otty's nids.

Psychic Powers
Winged Tyrant HQTervigon CC HQTervigon Plain TrZoanthope
DominionCatalystParoxysmDominion
Warp Blast

Warp Blast

The low down:
  • Purge the Alien
  • Vanguard Strike
  • I think I won won deployment, but let Scott go first and failed to win the initiative.
  • Warlord Trait - Master of ambush - useless
  • Night fighting turn one, I think
I set the brood nest up with the Aegis as a defensive baffle, but that wasn't really going to slow down the Wraiths and Scarabs!

    The Annihilation Barges too would have no problem crossing my 'Maginot Line' but I see it as a statement of intent, as if I'm going to head forwards so it my draw him into the open.


    Everything else hid well back with my Termagants split levelled on the Skyshield.


    Scott sent the Wraith's forwards, backed up by the Scarabs. I know what they can both do and I know how devastating the Scarabs can be on my Bastion so after weathing a few lost Gaunts to Imotekh's Lightning attack I swoooped the Flyrant forwards. Now it may have been overkill and the Wraith's are the more serious threat but I reasoned I could kill the Scarabs with my Brainleech Devourers and despite their cover saves I was able to insta-kill all his bases securing me First Blood and a kill point.


    I think I also put a wound on a Wraith and the Hive Guard took out the Triarch Stalker before he could do any damage with his heat ray. Not sure what the Quad Gun did, everything else scooched around a bit.


    The Wraiths headed off to the Skyshield. The Flyrant is still in shot here but does not appear afterwards. I'm not sure what happened to him, perhaps he was shot down or as the Wraiths eventually took his place on the Skyshield maybe they assaulted and killed him, which is the more likely outcome.


    The Wraiths, having secured a foothold on the Skyshield were mobbed by the Termagants. Every single one bundled in but despite not getting Counter Attack I managed to kill one Wraith, luckily the one with the Initiative reducing whip coils.

         

    Weight of numbers continued to wear down the Wraiths and eventually the Gaunts became my MVPs and wiped them out - way to go little guys! The Hive Guard may have taken out one of the Barges, Scott still had one left and pointed out he'd have been happier with a third one instead of the Triarch Stalker.


    Meanwhile my Trygon faced down a newly arrived unit of Immortals and the Cryptek who teleported them. He eventually won the combat and routed them, eating every last one but was down to 1 wound, either from their attacks or the following shooting phase.


    With him severely weakend I retreated him behind the Bastion and sent the Great Maw forwards to secure Line-breaker. A gamble really as the Trygon was further up the board but in no way to weather any incoming fire, whereas the Tervigon was unwounded but had further to go.


    With the game entering it's end phases I needed to draw the last Annihilation Barge into range of my Tervigon. I accidentally managed it by moving the Trygon further round the Bastion. The Barge could only get a bead on him if he entered my DZ, in which case the Tervigon could smash it and prevent Line-breaker. The Trygon was indeed zapped and I traded the lost VP for the Tervigon getting it's Crushing Claws on the Barge. Unfortunately I don't think I managed to get the Great Maw into Scott's Deployment Zone but in the end it wasn't needed.


    The end result was 8:5 to me, not entirely sure on the breakdown but it does mean I finally beat Ben's Necrons, I just have to do it versus Ben next. Scott was great fun to play, he brings no baggage to the table and winning seams irrelevant, he just seems happy to play. The hilarious thing was his use of those 1" blue dice above. Every time he rolled them the Realm of Battle board would jump along with all our minis. Funnily enough his regular dice are tiny 8mm affairs, from one extreme to another.

    The other really funny part was that Ben came over at one point [he spent most of the game schmoozing with the other players to see what they were bringing tomorrow] and asked what happened to the third Annihilation Barge... Scott hadn't checked his list and did indeed have three, not two barges. I told him at that point to bring it on as a reserve but he carried on regardless. Of course this set up one of the running gags for the weekend of Scott making sure he had 3 Barges, while I was open for a huge amount of friendly abuse about the amount of time it took me to pack away my army.

    This was a great start to the weekend, not because I started it with a win, just because it was a laugh. This was also the point where I found out there was no Best Painted Fortification award. Liam may well have been saying I was going to win best army all weekend but I was not convinced, but had secretly believed I had the Fortification prize at least. Even so the loss of the category was funny in itself as Nick said it had been dropped about six months ago, round about the same time I started building the Skyshield. I think it's a shame, although the Bastion only had one competitor at Battle Brothers - an indication the category was on the wane perhaps - the inclusion of Stronghold Assault really opens up people to build more Fortifications and bring them along.

    Anyway, bring on the next day and battle 1!

    Tuesday 25 March 2014

    Throne of Skulls March 2014 - the interim report.


    Sorry for the delay in this, most of my post Thrones news has been shared on Facebook but I've been trying to start preping what is to come. I think the picture indicates the Brood 'done good'! Throne of Skulls - March 2014 saw me win Best Painted army as voted for by the 100+ competitors. I am truly honoured and  once again makes up for that Toymaster debacle! My games were also great fun and although I didn't do as well as Battle Brothers I did do better than the last ToS.


    My mates were also rewarded for their efforts. Otty was once again nominated for best army and so was Liam who also won best painted Monstrous Creature, best painted Vehicle/Engine, best army list for his updated Chaos Space Marine Helmet and also managed to win best Chaos Space Marine player. In fact on the way home we realised that if he'd remembered the last game that his Heldrakes were scoring he could have won the game instead of a draw and he would have won the tournament outright! The only thing we didn't win as a group was the pub quiz, best painted Hero [infantry character] and the prize for most Heroic Act in the game. Oh and obviously the best Fortification category was dropped :(


    It was quite a weekend and when Nick said it was "Dave's Tyranids" that was the winner I honestly didn't realise he was meaning me, as I hoped to hear "Dave Weston". I was hoping but you can't tell with these things and the competition was fierce across the nominees, from cleanly executed Eldar to gruesome Iron Warriors full of executions ;), Imperial Knights with LED eyes and Gretchin pretending to be Imperial Guard I was lucky to be chose and luckier still I could actually fit the Skyshield in the cabinet. Two Capillary Towers had to be removed and even then it could only go in one side where the sliding door gave it a little more room but meant the inner door couldn't slide back or it would hit the landing pad - I never thought about that did I?!


    The weekend was an absolute blast. I didn't do great with the 'nids but I did do better than the last time that I went to Throne of Skulls. My use of Stronghold Assault to mitigate the Lord of War threat came to nought because I didn't face any! I did get to play against 'nids, Chaos Space Marines, Dark Eldar, Nurgle Chaos Daemons and Ork Bikers so make of that what you will for the upcoming battle reports, not to mention the pre tournament pick up match I had with Scott using my old nemesis - Ben's Necrons


    We had a right royal laugh though and the five of us had some serious fun amongst the incessant dice rolling. I also played against some top blokes and once again Warhammer World surpassed itself with the way it held the event and looked after those that were attending. I can't believe this is the trophy I got!


    It looked nice at GW HQ too!


    And the beard brought me luck as I continue on my 'hobo with a shotgun' impression, Liam no doubt happy with his haul in the background.


    Anyway, I'll leave you of a couple of pictures of how I managed to fit everything in and try and work up some of the Battle Reports, I'll try and be as quick as possible but please bare with me, there's over 300 pictures to sort through. Below you can see where one of the Capillary Towers was removed over the digestion pit, worked quite well I think.


    and one in the back was detached too, I even got my shattered Aquila underneath with some of my older Termagants that don't quite meat today's standard.




    Monday 24 March 2014

    Flufftastic - Hive Fleet Gorgon - Ferron Splinter Fleet - 'Devil Gaunts'

    Amongst the more common Tyranid genus found to frequent the Hive Fleet Gorgon Ferron Splinter fleet are Termagants armed with the fearsome Devourer weapons. 'Devgaunts' or 'Devilgaunts' as they're often called by the more superstitious residents of Ferron Proxima are found amongst the broods that strike without warning. Usually joined by it's monstrous brood mother - the loathsome Tervigon. Or were on occasion bursting from the remains of the sub-orbital deployment pods known as Mycetic Spores, these beasts are not to be dismissed despite their position in the Xenos hierarchy. Ordinarily they were seen as a brood apart, separated from other differently armed Gaunts, their Devourer weapon symbiotes incompatible with their Fleshborer bretheren. However, more increasingly we are seeing Devgaunts intermingling with other less formidable gaunts and providing both range and weight of attacks hitherto unknown amongst Fleshborer gaunts alone.


    The Devourer weapon is a rotting mass of flesh filled with pulsating worms that are ejected from the weapon thanks to a bio-electric shock. Upon impact with their victim the parasitic invertebrates begin to bore into exposed flesh or infest any orifice they can find. The victim becomes a seething mass of agony as the worms eat through to their brain and certain death. The horrific display can be too much for the companions of the victim. Quite often the sight of their colleague being eaten from the inside and screaming in agony can cause witnesses to flee in horror.



    These particular Devgaunts caught on camera by servo-skull Xt-36^9 show what appear to be a Toxin Sac biomorph. These glands are a breeding ground for caustic poisons and virulent toxic fluids that coat the creatures claws and teeth making it far more dangerous than it's stature would suggest. However, some Bio-magi have posited the suggestion that sometimes these are just vestigial sacs, with no real function aside from providing its brood mother with a means to keep track of its offspring. The very concept that such alien intelligence is at play has brought Inquisitorial censure for those magi foolish enough to publish their works openly.



    More recently the burrowing worm has been less virulent in it's attack upon the victim. Initial tests by the revered Bio-magi converging on Ferron Proxima to study the captured Xenos beasts are indicating that something within the Ferron eco-system is having a weakening affect on the Tyranid bio-form. In fact a transcript from the treatise 'Ye Battle of the Planetes' by one of the first Bio-magi to observe the weakness, suggests one theory. Heronimus-Gamaliel Welles wrote:
    And scattered about, some next to their primo-genitors, were the Tyranid filth —dead!—slain by the putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared; slain as their Capillary Towers and Bio-Titans were being slain; slain, after all man’s devices had failed, by the humblest things that the Emperor, in his wisdom, has put upon this planet.

    For so it had come about, as indeed I and many men might have foreseen had not terror and disaster blinded our minds. These germs of disease have taken toll of humanity since the beginning of things—taken toll of our prehuman ancestors since life began here on Ferron Proxima. But by virtue of this natural selection of our kind we have developed resisting power; to no germs do we succumb without a struggle, and to many—those that cause putrefaction in dead matter, for instance—our living frames are altogether immune. But there is no bacteria similar to the strains of Ferron Proxima whence the Tyranid came, and directly these invaders arrived, directly they drank and fed, our microscopic allies began to work their overthrow. Already when I watched them they were irrevocably doomed, dying and rotting even as they went to and fro. It was inevitable. By the toll of a billion deaths man has bought his birthright, and it is his against all comers; it would still be his were the Tyranids ten times as mighty as they are. For neither do men live nor die in vain.


    Here and there they were scattered, nearly fifty altogether, in that great gulf they had made, overtaken by a death that must have seemed to them as incomprehensible as any death could be. To me also at that time this death was incomprehensible. All I knew was that these things that had been alive and so terrible to men were now dead. For a moment I believed that the destruction of Ultramar had been repeated, that the Emperor had repented, that the Angel's of Death had slain them in the night.

    However, there is also some evidence that points to the fact that the biological absorption of the Wraithbone debris scattered about the surface of Ferron Proxima that initially brought about the heightened psychic mental abilities of the Tyranids, has now begun to weaken their physical being. For it is well known that the Xeno Eldar are weak and feeble due to their repeated exposure to the Wraithbone. Documentation abounds as to their avarice to this otherwise worthless material, they surround themselves by it like Magpies, or at the worst addicts. Therefore continued expose has escalated the demise of their race like a withered lifeless limb. 

    They even have the blasphemous audacity to sculpt buildings and heretical automata out of this excretion, instead of using the sanctified and Mechanicum approved materials of Adamantium and Rockcrete. Rumours suggest they even trap the souls of their ancestors in shambling bipedal machines, the depravity of the Xenos filth know no bounds. These obsceneties are a poor mockery to the glorious majesty of the venerated Adeptus Astartes dreadnoughts and Titans. These Wraithbone constructs are more akin to mobile torture cells than the shrines of honour borne by only the finest Space Marines. But that is the Eldar way and brave and just human beings cannot begin to comprehend the alien mind, else face re-education.

    Saturday 22 March 2014

    Support your local blogger - Fenrisian Studios


    I may be a little biased about this but I had to share Fenrisian Studios blog, it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact Javier created the ruins below from my very own STCs


    I love the pale colours, I really need to have some cream/bonewhite buildings on Ferron Proxima, I think they'd look fantastic against the red but Javier has gotten a lot of texture and tone into the colouring, really nice.

    Additionally he's got airbrushing tutorials, painting guides for his Space Wolves [well we can't all be perfect and play Dark Angels ;) ] He's even made some terrain based on plans from my own original inspiration - Bugbait


    A lot of the blog is in Spanish but google translate cna help cut through the language barrier and ultimately we're all speaking the language of hobby anyway. Have a look see what you think: http://fenrisianstudios.blogspot.co.uk

    Ooh the cruel irony - you've got to laugh

    So we got to Warhammer World yesterday and I had a little game with Scott just to help bring him up to speed. I spot Nick from the events team and he comes over to admire the Skyshield and I ask him if Best Fortification is one building or one formation. He says have I read the events pack? I root around for a bit and realise I just have the Warriors Code with me. To which he adds they haven't done the best Fortification painting competition for about 6 months. You've got to laugh though!

    Thursday 20 March 2014

    Throne of Skulls March 2014 - Prologue


    It's Throne of Skulls tomorrow, I've nervously excited for a couple of weeks now, this is the culmination of months of work and I can't wait to hang out with my gaming buddies because if I'm honest I'm going into this with a fair bit of trepidation. We have Escalation to contend with - it's not the end of the world [that's Apocalypse ;) ] but I'm not 100% convinced I can do much against a Lord of War, hence my adoption of Stronghold Assault forces to try and weather the storm. Ultimately I don't want to spend £150+ for the weekend to be wiped off the board without response!


    I also have the new Tyranid Codex to deal with which really is the gift that just keeps on giving. Only today I found out that Winged Hive Tyrants can no longer Deep Strike. Flying Monstrous Creatures do not have that Special Rule and although it does mention that in Swoop and Glide mode they 'move' like Jump Units apparently the consensus is that that does not mean they 'are' Jump Units and thus can take advantage of their deep Strike Special ability. Apparently even to consider such is just stupid, or so I was made to feel on the forums! Apparently the last Codex FAQ did state that Harpies and Flyrants could Deep Strike but obviously that is no longer available/appropriate so deployment is now on or off the board in Reserve, which just sucks.


    Anyway, I chose my option 1 list. Everyone kept on saying go with 'fun' well if I'm actually taking 4 Spore Mines in a cluster along with the Biovore it must be fun. It does actually make a mockery of all the Termagants I have. I painted those extra 20 on the assumption I'd run three Tervigons, which is no longer the case, still they needed to be done for Project X. Although with 30 less gaunts on the board from the get go I'll be under less pressure so may get to take pictures as usual. Oh, bizarrely I decide to start adding a bit of Mechrite Red to the Trygon last night around the joints and fleshy bits. I've been adding more and more red into Hive Fleet Gorgon as time goes on and retro-painting the Warriors and other models to fit with this new aesthetic. The 'liver' effect wasn't particularly good on the Trygon so it could definitely do with a pick-me-up. it won't be finished but it will look better alongside the other Kaiju!


    Ultimately ToS this time is about having fun, I want to hang with my buds and have some fun games and with Stronghold Assault I get to show off all the nid Fortifications in one go. I didn't expect to ever be as successful as Dan and I were at Battle Brothers, coming 2nd and lets face it with everything as it stands I doubt that's even a possibility. But I've a good run at best painted Monstrous Creature and Fortifcations, although I expect considerably more competition this time, so it's by no means in the bag toxin sac! I do want a better 'Best game' score. It's extremely arbitrary but hopefully the army, freebies, my rugged good lucks and natural charm will win over those I get to game with.


    What more can I say? We hope to leave early tomorrow morning, get to Warhammer World for 4ish, register and maybe even get in a practice game. Liam and I will have a bash while Otty and Scott [our 5th Musketeer] face each other with Ben offering Scott support, given he's only just getting back into 40k. Hopefully all these positives will run true and it'll be a good weekend.

    Tuesday 18 March 2014

    What's on my palette?


    Nearly six weeks since my last confession... and how've I been doing? I've obviously been flitting between the Great Maw and the Skyshield walls in preparation for Throne of Skulls, preview to follow. This has actually been quite a challenge, it's required a lot of will power and discipline, not to mention a lack of sleep, to complete. This is what I was dealing with last time:
    1. 20 termagants
    2. Skyshield Walls
    3. New Tervigon
    4. 4 Spore Mines [actually 6 got completed, some old metal ones resurfaced]
    5. Deathwing [they're base coated at least...]

    And I also made 2 new figure boxes:


    However, as the deadline and completion approaches I can feel the reserves of energy waning, the job will be done but what of post-Thrones? Traditionally I have found myself completely stuffed on hobby gluttony after previous visits to Warhammer World, and with a solid six months of modelling and painting I may well take some 'time off'. That wasn't the plan, I wanted to get three months of Dark Angels work in before Project X is required to begin, but I feel quite tired right now so we'll just have to see what comes.


    I have promised to repaint my brothers vivarium, after the only solution we could find to the matt floor varnish 'frosting' was to start again, So it's now a flat brown, so I need to do a shadow wash and then drybrush it. A couple of nights work but one that has been postponed since about Christmas, the poor lizard needs a new home.


    I'd also planned a couple of 'large' purchases some 'Apocalyptic' things but having just come off the Skyshield I'm not actually keen to start a big model, although Project X will be big, but potentially straightforward. In case you're guessing it is not a Tyranid Fortress of Redemption. I had thought of doing one and I had a brilliant idea for the tower and some of the other bits but I came across the following picture a good few months ago that's pretty much what I had in mind

    http://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer/comments/1cydoj/awful_sketch_for_a_tyranid_fortress_of_redemption/
    Nabbicus pretty much read my mind [and he even likes my Quad Gun], although I was going to add some kind of 'oesophagus' using rope between the Capillary Towers with Termagants attached to it and coat the entire thing in PVA tissue paper so it looks like the gaunts are running up and down the tower 'gullet'. I wonder if he got round to making it? I measured up the Fortress to plan ahead but project X will take up a fair bit of room [I don't have ] so it will go on the back burner.

    Meanwhile I do have a new Zoanthrope and a Venomthrope as well as a Carnifex and Pyrovore to paint but I don't want to start those, despite the 'voices' telling me they'll be SOOOO easy. I want to do the Dark Angels and if I'm going to struggle to get motivated and also try and endeavour to be sensible with my hobby time - not working till stupid o'clock I think they deserve a bit of attention.

    I actually felt nauseous the other day at the thought of doing something new. However I managed to overcome that last night when I thought I'd prep the Zoie and Venom [that's when I lost the back vent for the zoie, grrr!] and get some bases done too - 6 bike bases and 11 Genestealers [wait, what?! Where did they come from, ha, ha!]. I know I shouldn't but until Thrones happens I still feel I'm allowed to do some nid stuff and may well throw in some nids while I'm focussing on Dark Angels, just to keep momentum going. So  I basically prepared a simple list that I can hopefully achieve for the Dark Angels that utilises as much of the stuff I've already got started so I can have something complete to play with sooner...

    I've my Aegis Defence Line to do, a unit of Deathwing, the MKI Land Raider, my Dreadnought [it's on the list too!] and I want to get some Ravenwing complete. I recently saw this Black Legion Army painted by Ballistic Skill Four which is what I would love to achieve on my Ravenwing


    Which is reminiscent of the Codex entry that manages to eschew the 'white wings' of the Ravenwing who are supposed to be dark and shrouded hunters, not blinged up followers of Liberace

    This is a bit darker in the Codex
    More like the original version just excuse all the reflections.
    Anyway, that's it for now, lets get Thrones out of the way, overcome the post thrones slump and we'll see what treats the hobby has in store for me and the faithful.