1500pts battle report - Caledonian Highlander 1 - Tyranids v Necrons

Table draws had put me up against Anthony Chew and his 15 bikers, something Ben had suggested was a good draw for me [how little he knew]. Unfortunately traffic had been horrendous on the Saturday, we'd only just made it because they'd closed junction 25 of the M6 because someone had skidded in the random slushy conditions that morning. The end result being Anthony hadn't arrived so I was switched to play against Mike Bolton and his Necrons. Anyway, the ETC format is full of scoring elements so I'm not sure how my report will reflect what went on but I'll do my best.

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant HQ Tervigon CC TR Broodlord Warp Blast Dominion Dominion Paroxysm Onslaught The Horror Dominion

The low down:

• Eternal War missions  
• Maelstrom missions
• Hammer and Anvil
• I think I lost deployment!
• Warlord Trait - -1 to opponents reserve roll
• Not sure about night fighting. 

Mike started with his line of Wraiths, warriors and Destroyers, with nine Tomb Blades behind that pale building.

I fortified the Hive in my usual deployment [don't worry I'm going to start doing different things in future, it's about time for a change]

The Destroyers got off to a good start, getting three wounds on the Tyrannofex, that really stung.

Obligatory first turn move forward.

In retaliation I managed to take out just two Wraiths with the Flyrant, while Mike had positioned them just out of range from the Carnifex [being lazy] and even the T-fex.

Turn 2 and despite the -1 reserve role all Mike's reserves arrived. The Deathmarks appeared and went for the biggest beast in their sniper scopes.

Killing the T-fex for first blood.

Tomb Blades screamed forwards, blasting the Genestealer to pieces with their 'ignore cover' weapons.

That flank was going to roll over, so I had to think about abandoning it with just the Broodlord and a few stealers to try and save. Meanwhile I got the rippers up to the top floor, hopefully out of sight to hold the objective but not be shot/assaulted. Unfortunately I found out my understanding of their Instinctive Behaviour rule was wrong. I was under the assumption Fearless meant you ignored the lower 1-3 role on the table but it appears that's only on specific IB charts and even then if it's a unit of more than one model then they can still turn on each other in 'Feed' - so my brood of 2 Carnifex are now at the same mercies [honestly I thought this Codex was bad, I'm still finding out just how bad it really is].

I moved a unit of spawned gaunts into the centre and the Carnifex still wouldn't break into a run.The Flyrant targetted the Doom Scythe but only put a Hull Point on it.

The Broodlord just couldn;t get away from the Tomb Blades, his retinue falling by the way side and suffering two wounds also.

Which became three!

The Flytant swooped behing the Doom Scythe but the Carnifex tried to bring it down first so he could switch targets to the Wraiths if necessary. Unfortunately the Carnifex managed just the one Hull Point so he had to finish it off leaving the newly arrived Hormagaunts and Spore Pod painfully outnumbered by the nearby Wraiths and Immortals.

The Tervigon's Miasma Cannon tried to damage the Tomb Blades but with little to no success.

Carnifex and Malanthope were only halfway up the board at this stage.

The Tyrannocyte got popped and the the Hormagaunts took cover in the woods.

The Flyrant got down to his last wound, I think he may have been grounded at this point.

Tomb blades advanced on the Skyshield and the Destroyer Lord separated to take out the Rippers who'd started to eat themselves without adult Tyranid supervision!

The flyrant managed to get a rediciulous number of overwatch shots on the Wraiths as they charged in, I think it was as many as 8, but Mike saved every one! He was obviously brought down by them and the game came to and end.

Final score was 16-4, unfortunately this was the only score sheet I remembered to photograph. So you can see what missions we made.

So I kept my record of never winning a first game, but more importantly it was a fun game and Mike was great to play against. I think he eventually came 4th overall, but did get up to the top table by round 4 so losing wasn't that bad really. Luckily I also managed to get a pic with him the next day, everyone was kind enough to conset to selfies, a tall order on the Sunday morning ;) .

Caledonian Highlander wrap-up

What ho! Caledonian Highlander wa this weekend at Element Game North West Gaming Centre. I'm in the process of trying to find time to write the battle reports, at least while it;s still fresh in my mind. The headline for yours truly was 2nd place best army, beaten to the top spot by Liam and his Khorne Daemonkin. Still the trophy is cool and the £25 voucher will go towards Blood Bowl later in the year.

Game wise I had a blast and after a typcially poor start got progressively worse over the weekend until I eventually snatched a vistory from defeat meaning the Wooden Spoon prize was out of my grasp. Still, the guys I gamed with were all top blokes and that's even including two Tau players who were all booed good-naturedly throughout the weekend! ;)

While I try and fit in the battle reports enjoy the pics I took of the best army nominees. Some interesting Dark Eldar.

Blood Angels

Red Scorpions

Necrons [I faced these in an unscheduled change to my first match-up]

My own nids.

One of the two Khorne Daemonkin armies nominated.

Eventually winner, my good mate Liam's disgustingly good Khorne Daemonkin.

Selfie time, we really did have a good weekend, even if I look stunned!

Oh and then someone torched a car next to the Gaming Centre. Luckily no one was hurt and the few staff left evacuated safely.

Fire Brigade were in there in a dew minutes, putting it out even while it was still popping and banging!

Anyway, a spectacular conclusion to a great weekend.

Where's my head @?

'Conspicuous by my absence' is probably the phase you're looking for. Obviously I don't need to apologise you'd all tell me it was OK, I'd normally say politeness compels me too and apologise anyway. I'll skip all that palarver and just explain what's been going on.

Number 1 - in reasons not to be posting is 'damn drop pods'. I knew as soon as I revealed I'd be working on them that'd put a jinx [not a jinks] on them. To be fair I now understand the effort involved and I don't think it's insurmountable, I just have no desire to do it. Therefore I did do some 'on list' diversionary tasks but not much and not anything worth sharing yet.

Number 2 - my head really has been in a weird space, been quite tired and headachy so given the option of an early[ish] night I actually took it.

Number 3 - and this is the big one, I saw a job advertised last Monday. It's a big deal and although it's a fixed term contract that fills me with bowel clenching fear [when Ive been 'happily' employed in my current post for 13 years follwoing a previous redundancy] in every other respect the job is ideal. Now I have to apply and that is considerably more effort than four 250 word responses to their questions, should take.

I certainly don't think number 3 has helped with number 2 and I'm spending a lot of time trying to gather my thoughts. I had a mini battle report but couldn't find the notes and will power to get it down. Fingers crossed it's momentary and once the application is out the way I can 'look forward' to an interview or not, in which case things will go back to normal.

Anyway, no need to wory, I'm still alive and Caledonian Highlander is this weekend so I should have Battle Reports for that and hopefully an update on Birthday Bash v2.0

Dark Angels - Drop Pod[s]

Although this new project doesn't [yet] fill me with dread I have already observed that monotony will be the biggest factor in how it progresses. You have the five pod fins, but you need to do both sides and when you're actually doing two pods that's 20 of these still to do and you haven't even looked at the door petals! No doubt the door will then split up into the top, middle and bottom left and right sections, again multiplied by 10!

Anyway, as you can see above I managed to do the highlights on the first five. I now need to do the shading on inner edges of the four newer ones, then it's the other sides. What's now apparent is it takes about a 60-90min session to highlight five [unbelievable but true for me] so I've three more sessions to look forward to - yay! At least by having that in my head the task seems more manageable but even so it's a good enough excuse to take a night [or two] off.

The knock on effect is progress is very slow [which does no favours for the blog] and I'm thinking that having this separated pod will feel easier to paint than the pre-built one. I'm also a little underwhelmed by the highlights. They've been drybushed Waaagh! Flesh for the most part, which doesn't really work on flat surfaces. I'm then drybrushing some more Caliban Green on to blend it a bit more and then I'll get round to the black. It's unfortunate that a lot of the original Orkhide and black shading are being over painted now but you live and learn.

Anyway, slow but steady. Fingers crossed I can get the next three sessions in without imploding. I'll feel much happier once the fins are done.

Dark Angels - Drop Pod[s]

I'm not sure but it may well have been nearly five and half years since I last worked on my Dark Angel Drop Pod but I first mentioned it in the February of 2011 as it was a Christmas present from 2010! My original plastic crack dealer Pete got it for me so it deserves some attention finally.

Not just because it's been so long but because it may actually be worth taking and even if it's not used in any list it'll make some nice terrain too. Having left it at a black wash stage in 2011 I thought I's add a bit more shading in all the cracks and crevices.

Mainly because I'd already done the same on my second Drop Pod that I got in a trade with [the other Pete] PeteB. As you can se ethis one is already built so I'm going to comparepainting them by components and as a whole. This had been primed, painted red and then re-primed black. I then added an Angel Green primer and then with the shadows.

A quick coat of some of the last of my Tin Bitz and it's getting close to Pod 1.

There's a lot still to do but this is my primary goal at the moment. I know how infamous they ar eat breaking people, notorious for their difficulty/monotony, hence why I was reluctant to jinx it. I'd started alongside the Acid Spray but now I can devote 100% attention to it. Lets get the out of the way and off my To Do List finally!