'nids part 57 / Terrain is everything - Tyranid Quad Gun pt5.

All the washes have been done now. I had to get a Seraphim Sepia just in case I ran out of Gryphonne Sepia. I also needed the new Agrax Earth Shade - Devlan Mud but the Manchester GW was out of stock. Luckily on my way back to work within a five minute walking distance are two independent games stores.

The nearest one Fanboy3 had a stock of Army Painters Dark Tone and Strong Tone inks which Ron at From the Warp reliably proved are the exact same results as the old GW washes. So £2.25 for 33% more paint than a standard pot, I was sold.

I struggled to make choices about which colour was to go where but I think I got it in the end. I'm still a bit dubious about the lightness of the blue, can't imagine it looking like my usual finish. Somehow I think it needs to be darker but perhaps it'll look different after the turquoise...

And the Vermilion base just so I can get that started too, great way to distract from the endless Turquoise striations I'm going to be doing.

1500pts Lists some help please.

So I've got four 1500pt lists here with the major differences highlighted in yellow. I'd originally thought to take a Hive Tyrant but felt two Tervigons are more durable. I also feel I should definitely have the Defence Line because it looks cool as opposed to necessarily being a winning tool. I want to include the WQuad gun but given the FAQ feel it would be pointless. I've ended up with only one list with it in because most armies I've played have only had one flyer but if I face more without it I'll definitely be dead in the water with only cover saves to try and keep me alive. Anyway here are the four and my individual thoughts.

 

 

This is probably my most standard force and one I'm most familiar with. Ymgarls for deployment zone shenanigans. Hormagaunts as my meat shield but only 5 stealers which is a bit weak.

HQ

  Tyranid Prime with Lashwhip and Bonesword, Deathspitter, Synapse Creature,

  Tervigon with Catalyst, Dominion, Synapse Creature, Stinger Salvo, Crushing Claws

Elites

  2x Hive Guard(s)

  5x Ymgarl Genestealer(s)

  1x Zoanthrope(s)

Troops

  Tervigon with Catalyst, Dominion, Synapse Creature, Stinger Salvo, Crushing Claws

  10x Termagaunts with Devourer

  Mycetic Spore with Hardened Carapace, Lash Whip, Ripper tentacles,

  12x Hormagaunts

  3x Tyranid Warriors with Barbed Strangler, Deathspitter, Scything Talons,

  Broodlord with Adrenal Glands, Scything Talons ,

  5x Genestealers with Adrenal Glands,

Heavy Support

  Trygon

Fortifications

  Aegis Defence Line

 



Swapping out the Ymgarls for more durable brood of stealers, but losing on the in your face dangers. Only 11 Hormagaunts this time but I get the Quad Gun, if I can use it and alternatively I could add a 3rd Hive Guard to instantly fix the list if it wasn't acceptable.

HQ

  Tyranid Prime with Lashwhip and Bonesword, Deathspitter, Synapse Creature,

  Tervigon with Catalyst, Dominion, Synapse Creature, Stinger Salvo, Crushing Claws

Elites

  2x Hive Guard(s)

  1x Zoanthrope(s)

Troops

  Tervigon with Catalyst, Dominion, Synapse Creature, Stinger Salvo, Crushing Claws

  10x Termagaunts with Devourer

  Mycetic Spore with Hardened Carapace, Lash Whip, Ripper tentacles,

  11x Hormagaunts

  3x Tyranid Warriors with Barbed Strangler, Deathspitter, Scything Talons,

  Broodlord with Adrenal Glands, Scything Talons ,

  8x Genestealers with Adrenal Glands,

Heavy Support

  Trygon with

Fortifications

  Aegis Defence Line

  Quad gun

 

Given the success of the Doom in a recent match he still has the ability to inflict carnage but is he too much and suicidal? Back with the Ymgarls but Hormies and Stealers are as small a unit as they can be and possibly First Blood fodder!

HQ

  Tyranid Prime with Lashwhip and Bonesword, Deathspitter, Synapse Creature,

  Tervigon with Catalyst, Dominion, Synapse Creature, Stinger Salvo, Crushing Claws

Elites

  2x Hive Guard(s)

  5x Ymgarl Genestealer(s)

  The Doom of Malan’tai with Mycetic Spore with Hardened Carapace, Lash Whip, Ripper tentacles,

Troops

  Tervigon with Catalyst, Dominion, Synapse Creature, Stinger Salvo, Crushing Claws

  10x Termagaunts with Devourer

  10x Hormagaunts

  3x Tyranid Warriors with Barbed Strangler, Deathspitter, Scything Talons,

  Broodlord with Adrenal Glands, Scything Talons ,

  4x Genestealers with Adrenal Glands,

Heavy Support

  Trygon

Fortifications

  Aegis Defence Line

 

Just a list thrown in, reduced Stealers but with added Broodlord make them a little more durable and more Psychic powers to throw around.

HQ

  Tyranid Prime with Lashwhip and Bonesword, Deathspitter, Synapse Creature,

  Tervigon with Catalyst, Dominion, Synapse Creature, Stinger Salvo, Crushing Claws

Elites

2x Hive Guard(s)

1x Zoanthrope(s)

Troops

  Tervigon with Catalyst, Dominion, Synapse Creature, Stinger Salvo, Crushing Claws

  10x Termagaunts with Devourer

  Mycetic Spore with Hardened Carapace, Lash Whip, Ripper tentacles,

  12x Hormagaunts

  3x Tyranid Warriors with Barbed Strangler, Deathspitter, Scything Talons,

  Broodlord with Adrenal Glands, Scything Talons ,

  4x Genestealers with Adrenal Glands,

  Broodlord with Toxin Sacs,

  4x Genestealers with Toxin Sacs,

Heavy Support

  Trygon

Fortifications

  Aegis Defence Line

 

So there we go, your help is appreciated. I could always bin off the Hormagaunts altogether, they're never as effective as I wish them to be but they're useful in going forwards through cover and backed up by the Stealers could be effective in flanking. Ultimately It will have Hive Guard, Warriors, Tervigons and Trygons with Devgaunts and a pod but if anyone can play around with the remainder please do. I had thought about Regeneration on a Tervigon also or perhaps save a couple of points by switching to Scything Talons on one, given as that's how it's modelled. The Defence Line would be nice but I'm wondering if 50 point elsewhere may be better, I can still put it on my trays for the army and people can "aahh!" But I'm not sure if using it may risk whatever chances I have thanks to weak units. Thoughts appreciated.

Warhammer World - My son gaming

These are the last pics of my Warhammer World visit, not long now until Throne of Skulls with the guys. Anyway, as these pictures were mainly of my son and his games and he's spending most of the summer holidays just playing on his DS and computer I thought I'd get him to write down his thoughts of the weekend and the games he played. Well it's good for him, when I was on holidays and used to spend a few weeks at my Grandparents my Grandad used to give us sums and spelling tests on a daily basis. It may sound awful but I feel a better person because of it. So here it is my first guest post from my son, who's 10 so enjoy his efforts...

Me setting up my figures for the first game!

Dark Angels - game 1

(I don't remember a lot of this, seeing as though it was the first battle)

One of the things, which was hard was finding one of the objectives, he'd hidden it behind some trees with some marines all around it. He won, 2-3 to him.

Tyranids - Game 2 

(Unfortunately my Dad didn't take any pictures of this battle as he was on another table.)

This battle I remember the most, seeing as though it was Tyranids V Tyranids, I reckoned he would know about synapse. I had only 2 synapse creatures a Hive Tyrant and a Tyranid Prime, he had 3, two Zoanthropes and one Hive Tyrant with wings. I had the prime with the hourmgaunts, my genestealers infiltrated towards one Zoanthrope, which blasted them to pieces when it had the chance and the Hive Tyrant swooped over to help. The only survivor was the broodlord, who miraculously survived the whole game. Most of my hourmgaunts got wiped out leaving the Prime and two gaunts left, and they started to fall back to the table edge. I forgot that when tyranids are in synapse range, they're fearless, but the gaunts and prime reqrouped 2" from the board edge. I didn't win, but apparently the Imperial Guards tricked the Tyranids into thinking that one fleet insulted the Hive mind, and then the IG nuked them.

Chaos Marines - Game 3

This game was quite hard, the Thousands Sons were shooting lightning, as was the Chaos Sorcerer. So I decided to get my troops in cover. The Tyrant didn't do much, it just shot whatever shot it.  

My reinforcements have just come in but my Genestealers with broodlord have had casualties. The tyranid prime comes on with the hourmogaunts, and has his eyes on the Chaos Sorcerer.

The Prime makes it into charging range of the Sorcerer and charges, the Prime had twin boneswords meaning that if the defender has an unsaved wound, he must take a leadership test, if he fails, then it is instant death! So the Prime charges, attacks, and the sorcerer gets an unsaved wound! He fails his leadership and it is goodbye sorcerer. The broodlord is the only survivor again. Eventually, I get wiped out, leaving only the Biovore, and then the game finished.

Awards

We had the awards ceremony last, and the winner of the Single best painted miniature was my contestant on battle 2 with a commissar. The seasiders won! (Blackpool and Southport) And I got some Dire Avengers for my Eldar which were £21, whereas my Dad spent £5 on a bunch of heavy weapons for his heavy weapons squad.

'nids part 56 / Terrain is everything - Tyranid Aegis Defence Line Pt5

I was creative with my undercoats here, a quick blast of white on the insides then red oxide from the front and top down on the sand base. this way the Ultramarine blue went on a darker background - don't want it too bright and the base was perfect for my Vermilion craft acrylic

Inside of the defence line is my latte craft paint, it's extremely matte and I'm not entirely convinced of it's durability but it gives good coverage and there'll be plenty more paint going on top of it so it shouldn't be a problem.

Washes and tentacle vines to be painted next...

1000pt battle report - nids Vs Grey Knights [6th Edition]

Another 1000pt battle with PeteB, do let me know if you're getting bored with them. Vanguard setup with my first time playing Big Guns Never Tire. Four objectives, essentially one in each table quarter - hive nodes next to my prime manning the quad gun and between the mysterious forest, fuel drums in front of the bastion and the comms relay next to the cover my stealers and Ymgarls were dormant in. I had first turn and my Warlord had +1" to charge range, not sure what PeteB rolled. The Bastion and Aegis were not part of our list, just terrain we could use as per their rules, gives me chance to check out the Aegis ahead of completing my own Tyranid versions.

First turn advance towards the Razorback and the squad in the Bastion. Tervigon spawns 7 or 8 and keeps on going into the ruins. Hive guard are too far away but the quad gun fires at the unit in the Bastion, but fails to wound, bah. Stealers stay hiding.

Hormagaunts, spawned Termagants and Trygon go up the left flank. Termagants enter the forest to find it is made up of Overgrown Spinethorn. PeteB did his move which was equally quick the Razorback, Bastion Heavy Bolters and Defence Lasers all targeted the Trygon which managed to whether the hail of fire and suffer just one wound.

Turn 2, the Hormagaunts enter the second forest to discover it is made of Ironbark.

The Tervigon spawns 11 Termagants with still no doubles. They get projectile birthed throughout the three levels of the ruins and then the Tervigon smashes through the walls. The Trygon moves up to support the Tervigon. I think the Tervigon tried to charge the Razorback but was too far away. The Quad gun fires again but does nothing.

The Ymgarls woke up and sat in the cover. It was this point PeteB had an interesting discussion about where these should have been placed. With hindsight I should have had them in the pillars next to the Rhino. I was thinking too much about the games recently where Stealer out on their own have been mauled through lack of support but PeteB's idea made much more sense as they could have done what they were supposed to d, assault from cover in their first turn.

PeteB's turn two, a squad teleports in and scatter just in front or the Hive Guard, they open fire with all guns and kill one Hive Guard and wound the second.

His Nemesis Dreadknight teleports in, scatters but doesn't suffer a wound. He opens fire with his flamer and the Devgaunts don't fair well with 4 of their number BBQ'd.

Now I have to decide what to do, the Prime needs to take the immediate threat and abandons the quad gun. The Hive Guard moves further back to help delay any charge but still give it target options of the NDK or the squad. The Devgaunts target the unit in front and take out 3 or 4 but don't manage to break them. The Hive Guard takes a shot at the NDK but it's armour shrugs off the impaler ammo. The Prime charges the unit and the leader challenges me, saving the rest of the squad from his Boneswords but as you can see he either failed to hit or wound as it was 3+ for both, so much for protecting his comrades.

The Tervigon spawns 8 more Termagants and poops out, they're fired from it's belly towards my deployment zone so they can get back and capture my objective. It finally reaches the Razorback but only manages a couple of glancing hits. The Ymgarls and Stealers sally forth to target the Dreadknight but not before the Termagants in the ruins do the same. All three units fail their charge range, the most frustrating being the Ymgarls as they fall an inch short due to their frontrunner being mown down by overwatch. This was a major disappointment for me. It wasn't particularly 'bad luck' which I don't believe in but the failure of almost every element of my attack to achieve just something started to weigh heavily on my morale.

The unit of knights in the bastion had moved out last turn behind the Razorback and here they 'shunted' behind my stealers, their flamer and storm bolter fire leaving just the Broodlord with one wound left after this shot. It was going from bad to worse.

Grey Knight Terminators materialised in my deployment, they sparked up their flamers...

... and incinerated the entire unit of Termagants. And even more worse! Oh, did I mention that was first blood, and again worse.

But could it get worse? Indeed, the Ymgarls were also toasted by the NDK. This left me with little choice, the Broodlord was going to die next turn, fact, either by the knight or the NDK on overwatch if I charged it. The only option was to take out the Razorback and then die...

At this point my phone battery ran out. As expected the Broodlord took out the Razorback, the Tervigon and the Trygon assaulted the NDK. None of their Hammer of Wrath's did damage then the NDK called out the Tervigon in a challenge - I didn't see that coming. It declined so could do nothing the Trygon assaulted and added a wound or two to the NDK. In return it put three wounds on the Trygon which was now at 5 thanks to more autofire from the Bastion.

The Prime managed to take out the sergeant or justicar and managed to rout the unit slaughtering them all - success finally. The Hormagaunts headed towards the barrel objectives, and the Termagants in the woods hid in the Ironbark for cover. The Devgaunts hot-footed it back to the Quad gun objective securing that post with the Prime eventually getting back to the Quad gun and opening fire on the terminators who were eventually destroyed.

The monstrous assault continued but this time the Tervigon accepted the challenge but hit second due to Initiative. The NDK had already suffered one wound trying to activate his force sword thanks to Shadows in the Warp. Having wounded the Tervigon it gambled again and it paid off slicing the Tervigon dead with one mighty stroke. The following turn the Trygon and the NDK got angry and killed each other and when it came to turn 5 the game was over. Despite my 'bad luck' and heavy losses I'd managed to win due to the capture of three objectives - 9VP, Line Breaker and killing his heavy support. PeteB got 3VP for objectives, First Blood and killing my heavy support.

It was good game, though I having seen so much failure I don't feel my win represents how outgunned I felt. PeteB felt the opposite though pointing out I had so many scoring units it suddenly became impossible for him to tackle everything. It's just different to go back to an objective based game. Suddenly I'm doing what I've geared myself to do and it feels wrong considering all the Purge the Alien games.

So lesson to learn is really how to use Genestealers and Ymgarls now, or not at all!

'nids part 55 / Terrain is everything - Tyranid Quad Gun pt4.

Base colours in place, Ultramarine and my cheap bone white equivalent 'Latte' I believe it's called.

This is nearly exactly what I wanted to achieve but now the colours are in place I can't work out if it's actually a bit stupid looking. It doesn't seem to be out of balance but then I look at the gun and think perhaps it's a bit big and the heads a bit 'stuck on' and what's the point of the tail?

I dunno, I don't suppose it matters much really, it's just something to represent a Tyranid Quad Gun. It doesn't have to be physiologically correct and if there'spart of me that thinks it does what I set out for it to do then I should just accept it and move on.

Next up, liver, reds and washes...

Warhammer World in 3D!

After this there is only one more set of pics from Warhammer World you'll be happy to know. I took some shots of my son gaming but I keep asking him to write something to go with them, a little guest post, maybe a mini-report in places. I'll bully him into doing yet! In the mean time how about some 3D, no glasses required except perhaps afterwards if ti screws up your eyes!

You may have noticed I took an awful lot of pictures [and a lot of awful pictures too] quite often I would take one picture only to see in the preview that it was slightly blurred so I would take another shot to get a crisp image. The unexpected bonus to this was that I suddenly realised the other day that I had the makings of some 3D Stereogram images. If you recall they were very popular in the 90's mainly the 'noise' variety where if you held the page in front of you and crossed your eyes in a particular way eventually you would suddenly refocus and the noise would coalesce into some 3d shape hidden within the patterns.

You can do the same thing with slightly offset imagery, just like the pics I had taken. Some work better than others but once again the best thing to do is click the pictures below to see them at full size then go a bit cross-eyed and try to bring the two images into focus in the middle of the picture. If you get it right there should be some 3D shenanigans, so here's the Blight Drone, which is an awesome model and one of the best 3D images.

One of the Forgeworld large scale marines.

Lurtz the Uruk-hai who guards the entrance to Warhammer World. When viewed properly I think this is more 3D than the real thing! My son refused to have his picture taken with him, which is one of the 10 things you are supposed to do when visiting Warhammer World.

Be careful when you enter Warhammer World as this Marine guards the building opposite. You may have seen pictures of the statue that stands outside the front of GW headquarters. This is his brother who has a rather less glamorous location but slightly more disturbing when you see him poking round the corner of the car park watching for ne'er do wells and xenos of course.

Now in case you're having problems seeing these I turned a couple in flick movies so perhaps you can see the 3D a little bit easier.

'nids part 54 / Terrain is everything - Tyranid Aegis Defence Line Pt4

Now this is what we're talking about...

Having suggested many different ways to add detail, but in so doing increase time to model I ended up with just some string tentacles on the backs, just to make them a little more organic and alien. You can also see that the grey-board bases have warped just a little bit after being based with sand. Not enough to be a problem but I thought I'd draw attention to it.

Sand also got added to the fronts, I'm hoping to transition between the chitin and the ground without too much stupid contrast, if you follow.

As a group they're really starting to come together and I think the alien tentacle vines break up the slightly shoddy sculpting on the back.

I hope the paint job works because right now they look decent enough as is, ha, ha!

And the quad gun in place, still visible over the defence line.

But still capable of gaining a cover save ;) Next up base coats.