1500pts battle report - Tyranids v Ynarri/Aeldari/Eldar/DarkEldar/Space Pixies/Evil Space Pixies - game 1

It's been over four years since I last went to the Scythe and Teacup but they announced on Facebook a 1500pt, 3 game tournament for only £5, what's not to like? Limitation were only one flyer or LoW and a CAD must be taken before Formations or other shenanigans, apparently to keep the cheese down [not so sure it was successful ;) ]. More of a concern was the 2 hour time limit for each game! You know me and how long I take, couple that with the event starting an hour late and things were less auspicious than I'd hoped. Now pictures are less than usual because of the time factor so I'll do my best to try and remember what went on, bear with.

However, when I was there last I picked up the Miniature Paints Aquamarine that I'm now using as my Anita's Turquoise substitute and I hoped to find some more. I've found it on ebay but when you add postage on too it's like £4 a pot which just seems a bit annoying.

Anyway Round 1 and Ryan with his new Aeldari alliance, wonder if they'll get a new name in 8th. He had some Venoms, a Raider full of Incubi and Harlequin Solitaire, a couple of Farseers on Jetbikes, Warp Spiders and the Yncarne...

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant HQ Tervigon CC TR Broodlord Zoanthrope Dominion Dominion Dominion Warp Blast The Horror Psychic Scream The Horror Paroxysm Catalyst

The low down:

• Eternal War mission - Crusade [5 objectives]
• Vanguard Strike
• I went second whatever happened with deployment and whoever went first.
• Warlord Trait - 3 Enemy units pinning check [useless against these]
• Not sure about night fighting.

You can see 3 of the objectives, top left between the bunker, debris and hill. One below my Genestealers and one in the middle on the hill next to the Honoured Imperium Statue.

The other two are on the hill and in the Shrine. Ryan focused on the Genestealers taking them all out and leaving the Broodlord with one wound! Serves me right for not putting them within range of the Venomthrope!

My turn and the Flyrant managed to destroy a Venom getting me First Blood, the Broodlord retreated to gain cover from the Venomthrope and the Carnifex moved up with the Tervigon, who spawned Gaunts to secure the centre objective on the hill.

As the Venom, or one of it's occupants died the Yncarne was born [reborn? reincarnated?], bother!

My Tfex had done a little damage on the Warp Spiders with his torrent weapon but that Raider moved up

It disgorged it's Incubi and the Solitaire then was made Invisible and everyone decided to shoot the Tfex.

Which couldn't stand the Firepower of the Raider and Warp Spiders. The Incubi charge the blob of Gaunts, cutting through a third of them without any opportunity for me to hit back.

I spawned Gaunts to throw into the melee but really these would be suicidal sacrifices if they got into combat next turn.

I think the Flyrant downed another Venom but I think it was just wrecked leaving the occupants safe in their disembarkation.

Ryan's turn and both the spawned gaunts in the centre and the Carnifex were dispatched with ease.

Additionally the second brood of gaunts were shot to one left and was subsequently killed alongside what was left of the big blob by the Incubi.

My Tyrrannocyte arrived and I managed to put a wound on the Yncarne and kill of the Dark Eldar next to the Venom leaving a bigger gap around the objective. Unfortunately the Yncarne did his best Fenella the Witch impression and popped up where the Dark Eldar once stood. So much for securing that flank. The rest of the Dev Gaunt and Flyrant shooting did significantly less than I'd hoped, probably killed the other Warriors though.

Last of the Warp Spiders arrived to steal another of the objectives, alongside some turbo-charged Farseers.

I think the final score was 10:4. Ryan had three objectives amd Linebreaker, I just had one and First Blood. I think at some point I realised I may well not have been out-gunned but definitely out-classed. Certainly seems odd that a faction/factions that have so many benefits were given a new way to play with equally good benefits. With the Soulburst actions allowing movements and shooting in my turn it was a tough ask of the nids. That said Ryan was an awesome player and he went on to the final and think may have won the entire tournament, so there's no shame in my efforts.

So, reinstated my habit of losing first game, what's up next.

Dark Angels - Ravenwing - Detail work

With renewed vigour I return to the Ravewning but can I overcome the black? Well, no! The first level highlights still fill me with no motivation whatsoever, so I try to come at them from a different angle - what can I do that'll move them on, feel like progress and put me in a position where I can tackle the black with more confidence? Essentially I outflank the black! I decided to start picking out some of the details - all the Ravenwing symbols, purity seals, cloaks etc.

I remember someone once saying when painting 'start on the inside and work your way out'. This approach is contrary to that advice, laying the detail work on the top of all the black. Now there's a chance the subsequent black highlights might spoil these details but it's a risk I'm willing to take. As you can see I also painted the rolls on the back of the bikes red. Originally these were supposed to be green but I thought it was adding another colour to the bikes and extending the palette, which I thought was unnecessary [in this instance]. Black was too much, Rhinox Hide potentially - but didn't want to mix materials with the leather goods already used so I went red... OK, so why red? I see these rolls as bike covers. When the Ravenwing are on the hunt although they forgo camouflage they might need to obscure their bikes while in the field and Ferron Proxima is red afterall. It might be a bit odd, but I'll see how it goes and if I do another unit of bikes with them I'll try green so you can differentiate squads.

Some of the Black Knights were also brought up to speed.

Including the Ravenwing Banner with it's basecoats - this is near enough a unique job in itself!

And some more of the Knights. Annoyingly I kept on finding purity seals without red wax or grey paper, skulls on back packs or scrolls on legs in no contrasting colour. I'd go through all the bikes, pick out a detail move onto another one and find I'd missed something, fix it, move on and then find another detail overlooked - it was really annoying. So I'm now at a point where the black is inevitable, where completing that will almost leave them finished. There are plenty of little extra details to do [that Banner not least among them] but once the black is out of the way they'll be so close I'm hoping it'll ensure the black no longer feels like a hurdle. No avoiding now - I need to push on through!

Of course I can always nip back to the Assault Squad should I feel the need ;) As you can see I picked up some of the same details on these, again making best use of the paints on the brush. And much like the Hybrids the whole tone of the squad has changed thanks to this injection of new colour. Also completing steps here and there will make them easier to finish when they get my full attention tlater on.

And that leaves me currently in a better headspace, not all my chickens have hatched, so I won't count them just yet. I'll certainly feel better once the first black highlights are done and then I can focus on the Dark Reaper ones. If I get a timescale I can predict how much effort is involved but I'm sure it's no more than a week to 10 days to get the black all done [which means they may very well be done by the time this post is scheduled ;) ] Fingers crossed!

'nids part 215 - Genestealer Hybrids

As mentioned yesterday, in a bid to do something, anything other than tackle the black of the Ravenwing I jumped ship to the Genestealer Hybrids and paintign their environment suits grey. The Acolytes were up first, I'm not sure how many I did that first night but it was such an onerous task I was actually regretting this course of action and wondering if those Ravenwing weren't so bad afterall!?

The Neophytes were actually much worse to paint, it was dull and tedious and I think I spread it out over three nights just because I foudn it so unrewarding. As a kickstart to getting back on the Ravenwing it sort of worked but I couldn't leave them half-done so pushed on.

However, the end result is already changing the look and feel of the Hybrids. There's still a lot to do on them but this was a big change to their overall colour balance and chipping away at them like this will once again pay dividends when I tackle them as a priority. Some of the Neophytes need some more base colours on details, there may be some bonewhite to start on the nid arms. Then it's weathering the metals and all the washes which I'm quite looking forward to, despite there being even more to do after that!

Still, it did the trick - I moved them on and I felt the urge to return to the Ravenwing, but can I capitalise on that urge?

This Country - King of the Nerds

I remember a documentary about fans of Dr Who, where folk reminisced about the glory days of the 80s and 90s and that if the Doctor turned up in any programme other than the show, it was such an 'event' for a Whovian. I'm sure as hobbyists we all get a bit of a thrill when GW turns up in something unexpected, even Newsthump, The Onion or Daily Mash! I mean how many times has that still been shown of Enemy of the State where Will Smith's son is reading White Dwarf? Here it is again, it'll never go away:

Anyway it's not that picture I'm sharing with you for the GW cameo, but something else. Recently I was swayed by a good review of a BBC3 comedy called This Country. Now I'm a big fan of comedies, I strongly believe that life can be miserable enough and spending some time watching programmes made to make you laugh is time well spent [if they're funny of course]. The fact the two main characters wrote, star and even managed to get it made deserves a bit of support.

This Country is a bit of a slow paced comedy, similar in vein to The Detectorists. In fact on first viewing I imagine they inhabit the same locale. It's a 'mockumentary exploring the lives of young people in modern rural Britain.' I'm sure it'd be a wonderful eye-opener about a certain aspect of youth in this country for my international readers, but imagine you can't access it outside the UK. Sorry, that's because of the unique way the BBC is funded.

Anyway, episode 4, entitled 'King of the Nerds' features more than just a passing cameo of Warhammer, although it's not the best episode in the series so far but it's still amusing. It's not quite as cringeworthy as The Office [by which all mockumentaries are judged] but I guarantee most hobbyists will giggle, then rage a little about some random made-up rules and then immediately chide themselves with the subsequent scenes - I did. The jokes aren't completely at our expense so don't worry ;) It is worth noting that that's a Chaos Dreadhold - Overlord Bastion in the shot so I'm wondering if that was bought for the show as everything else looks 'older'.

Anyway you can check out the episode here [more episodes in the link above].:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p04sx02t/this-country-4-king-of-the-nerds

Where's my head @?

The problem with these posts is they’re very much a snapshot of what I’m feeling at the time and if I already have a schedule of posts, which unusually I do at the moment then how I’m feeling right now may very well have come and gone/resolved itself by the time this is posted. Nevermind, I will continue regardless because it’s like a tattoo, it’s relevant at the time… or at least seems to be. So where is my head @? It’s all over the place actually.

You probably noticed a few weeks back there was limited service on the blog, this was really due to a lack of content. The Ravenwing were priority and photographs did not really show the efforts and progress achieved. So there was a lot of satisfaction – I’d settled on something, I felt good about it, I’d overcome hurdles [all the metallics] and now it was the black to highlight which I thought I was cool with... and immediately refused at that hurdle. So I looked back at my previous Ravenwing post to reassure me of the process, and inadvertently hit on the same action of focussing on one miniature – the Apothecary. And progress was physically continuous, it just wasn’t mentally.

I felt I'd hit upon the approach to overcome the hurdle but I couldn't quite crack it. As much as I wanted to tackle these bikers and get them done they just wouldn't play ball with me. I would add some details here and there but really it was just avoiding the black. I took the Company Champion through both sets of highlights and was ultimately disenchanted despite it remaining true to my previous Ravenwing efforts. I highlighted another bike so I have one completely highlighted with the black and one or two on first highlights, leaving 10 still to do and that’s where the brakes came on as I realised the enormity of the task remaining.

I immediately looked round for an alternative and did a little update on my Assault squad – Stonewall Grey again. I looked mournfully at my Land Speeder Dark Shroud – can’t get past building the Icon of Caliban/magnetising hurdle. I’d solved a problem with Project Z that may one day mean it actually moves into reality but there’s still much to do before I feel confident enough to reveal it. And ultimately it led me back to my Genestealer Hybrids, just Stonewall Grey on their environment suits but it’s stuff that needs to be done and when better to do it than when my heads all over the shop. The thing is I can see ahead to the end of the Hobby Season and I think I’m confident of what I could achieve in that time but that requires my mind to engage and for me to focus on those tasks and I know that’s just not realistic.

The downside to staying up late to paint is that leaves you with a lack of sleep. I’ve managed to get by on 5-6 hours a night for a good few years now I’m used to it but eventually it does catch up on me. I’ve tried going to bed earlier, it doesn’t make me feel any better and I know for it really to pay dividends it has to be consistent, which means I’ll have to sacrifice the late nights altogether. It also means should I choose to stay up I’ll really feel it when in fact nowadays it’s that one early night that feels worse than the six lates in a week.

None of this is new on the blog though, it’s a perennial moan that I need to get off my chest [mind] every now and again to hopefully kickstart my motivation. Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way unhappy or worse there's just an emotional detachment and frustration that I'm not progressing how I should be. Of course that is the nature of the addiction whereby the enjoyment of the activity ceases and I'm compelled to completion because ultimately it's what I achieve which is the payoff for me at the moment. That's been most evident by not having posted regular TO DONE! posts to keep me 'maintained' and instead bingeing them all at once, which has perhaps prompted this observation 

With these thoughts discarded into my internet penseive I hope I can move forwards. It’s reminded me of mushin ‘the mind without mind’ from when I was doing kendo. There are definite moments where I need to stop thinking and just do. Looking at that Wikipedia page I have to say this quote from a ‘legendary Zen master’ is not a million miles from what I’ve been saying from day one on the blog, who knew I’d mastered Zen along the way?

The mind must always be in the state of 'flowing,' for when it stops anywhere that means the flow is interrupted and it is this interruption that is injurious to the well-being of the mind.

And it also reminds me a bit about The Game, which you just lost.

Fingers crossed by the time this post finds itself published* my headspace is once again free, uncluttered and in full flow. But no need to worry about anything I'm just getting my head straight is all, that's what the blog is for.

* Yep, first highlights are all done, whether I'm over the worst of it is still to be determined though...

8

Apparently there is a new edition of 40k due. What? You hadn't heard? Sorry, I thought that rock you were wearing was a fashion choice. Already we've had Alex's thoughts on the Q&A on From the Fang and Nick's views on the FAQ on The Burning Eye. Obviously I write a blog, you know this, you're reading it. So I MUST have an opinion on 8th as it's a blog about 40k [predominantly] afterall. Aside from spotting a Ravewning badge [next to an assault squad symbol, zoom in] in that first wing on the left of the picture above there's not much I can add to what Alex and Nick have already said. Of course I can just say what 8 means to me...

What does 8 mean to me?

It means we get new rules, that's about it. The fact they're FREE initially, means I haven't got anything to complain about, and I play 'nids I know how to complain! There's no way I'm rage-quitting, for all I know nids might actually get some cool new rules. And we're all in the same boat, so unlike when your swanky new Codex hits - you get excited and then realise it's not workable and you're back of the queue again.

Well this time time we're all starting from the same point with a new way[s] to play and rules and not just the variations of the rules I've played since returning in 5th edition. On top of that we'll all have new rules for our Factions and with a push to end all those stupid imbalances and over-powered broken upgrades, we may well have viable competitive options for all. I certainly would love the idea to not look across the table at an opponents army and go Eldar - bleurgh, Necron Decurion - bleurgh, Tau - bleurgh! etc. If 8th is the great leveller then I'm all for it.

I'm sure folk will find a way to break it, they always do. Even when it's a friendly fluffy list tournament someone will always bring a cheese list. At my son's primary school every year on Sport's Day the year 6 boys always do something funny and unique in the final sprint race crossing the line altogether. Over the years though there have been a few instances where one kid will just break ranks and insist on 'winning the race'. That's what I see with those cheese lists at a friendly event - an 11 year old trying to win at the expense of everyone else. If 8th edition brings back the spirit of the hobby, even if nids are still pants, then I'll be a happy bunny.

I will miss templates though. Alex said they're always contentious in tournaments, which might be true and the replacement rules may well be easier, quicker and more representative but I will miss them as artifacts. They made neon green acrylic cool, when Necrons couldn't. However, I had actually been using [losing] the softer plastic translucent ones from Battle for Macragge because they had that hole in the edge you could link them altogether so you wouldn't lose one [just all of them at once ;) ]. I'd also been lusting after the Shadow War red ones but now there's no point in them I can dismiss them altogether.

R.I.P.

Just thought, I wonder if these will still have a place in 8th? I'd really miss them

So that's me, bring on 8th I can't wait to see what we've got in store for the hobby.

Dark Angels - Ravenwing - Some little progress

I've a post on Wednesday of where my head is @, and I recognise it may well feel very different because it was written when these pictures were taken on the 10th April. Its only now I can fit the posts into my schedule but the situation currently is that as much as I want to box off the Ravenwing the black is defeating me. It's not so much I can't do it, the pictures below are evidence I can, it's just that the thought of doing it fills me with a state of inertia.

I tried to resolve this by tackling the bikers that have the least amount of black, for some reason choosing the Company Champion and not the Apothecary [who was already more advance] as my primary objective. As is clear in the picture I've managed to match the black with my previous Ravenwing bikes but for some reason I was left disappointed, fearing I'd gone too light with the highlights. I need to remind myself not to judge a model until it's complete, or at least until I deem it complete. I tried to carry on regardless but put my efforts into the Stonewall grey on all the bikes - picking out the company markings and purity seals. I also Strong Tone washed them all and did their cloaks hoping I'd feel reinvigorated to tackle some, if not all of the remaining bikes. So far it's not the case. Two have started highlighting eleven left to do.

And at the risk of getting confused when I shared this I Stonewalled the Assault squad too. I may well do some green on these at some point while my head resets...

Come back Wednesday [or whenever] for a load of psycho-babble! ;)