Sunday, 29 September 2013

'nids part 105 - magnetized Bonesabres / Boneswords


Bonesabres for the Swarmlord are complete [apart from some matt varnish]. I've done the gloss varnish and I must remember in future that less is more. Putting too thick a coat on seems like a good idea, I did want them to be super glossy and sharp looking but a thick coat of paint just makes them look a bit plastic. The varnish didn't dry properly in places too. 


Still, they turned out all right and I was happy with the Turquoise choice in the end thanks to Arnie's comments about sometimes deviating from the scheme can just backfire. The end result worked out really well and although close up the brush strokes are apparent it does convey the crystalline structure I was after and certainly from a distance it's spot on!


I was even reluctant to add on some orange highlights to the fleshy bits too as I thought the red was sufficient and adding more warmth/tones to them would have drawn the attention to those parts instead of the blades.


Anyway, whether I ever use them or not is another topic of discussion. We'll see how things go in the future.


All that's left to do now is to try to finish off the second pair of wings and Fleshborer Hives for the winged configuration. I've played a few games with them unfinished so I need to get them done before the paintwork is scuffed off.



Thursday, 26 September 2013

Terrain is everything - Hail the Omnissiah a new STC concept!

With the introduction of the Cetacean 'vent' Tower the other day there was a proposal by Tech Adept First Class Spyrle to create a landing pad platform that could protect larger units of the Emperor's Finest or in certain circumstances provide a forward base for Imperial Skimmers. Ordinarily this kind of outspoken innovation would have sent Adept Spyrle to the flagellants yard for penance - new technology is bad technology progressive thinking is the mark of the Heretic.


Thankfully though before he felt the sting of the arco-flail a sign was sent to one of our more Visionary adepts who is beyond reproach and the Heresy of new thinking that indeed this concept could already be implemented thanks to a 'blessed' Mechanicum Approved STC. By using the Hex Tower 2 and employing a Standard Manifold Coupling on the base it is theoretically possible to combine these two ancient and revered STCs.


Currently there are no examples of this on Ferron Proxima but data scribes have conjured these picts of how the Hex Tower could be employed on the Cetacean Tower and it's Baleen roof extensions. Additional underslung roof support struts could also be fashioned to make use of the emplaced weapon ports but current load simulations do not suggest such strengthening is mandatory for it's current role.


In reward to Adept Spyrle, this will be reclassified as the Spyrle Forward Observation Platform, please update you cogitators forthwith.


Tuesday, 24 September 2013

MOAR from my mate Liam - Helfly 2 - Nurgle Heldrake painting progress

My personal hobby mojo may be struggling but my mate Liam is still knocking things out of the park. Therefore I may as well showcase this little update he shared with me while I try to get my own game on. As you can see his non-metallic metals and faded wings are still featuring heavily on the model.


In truth I do have my mojo bubbling along, just. I'm still very much interested in my figures, I've pulled out the old Dark Vengeance Chaos Cultitsts, Dark Angel Librarian and my Devastators. All I've done is mount the Devs [poorly] on slate and added a Devlan Mud wash to the Cultist bases. It's not much, certainly not worth sharing as there's nothing to see really and therefore my blog schedule has run dry.


I may get some pictures of my Swarmlord Bonesabres up but the big thing is our '4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse' battle is happening this weekend. On Friday, Otty, Liam Ben and I will set up 10,000-12,000pts and then on Satruday at 9:00am battle will be joined. I'm hoping to get some awesome pictures as I'm pretty sure we'll have 99% of the figures painted, Liam's Warlord Titan will probably make an appearance too!


Although I've played a couple of Apocalypse battles this may be the truest experience yet. The ones at GW Southport were a bit hectic, everyone else seemed to know what was going on and I just came along for the ride. The 25,000pt Lost Boys Apocalypse Battle was insane but ultimately I had my little 2,000pts spread out in two areas. I held a corner and caused mayhem in the back field of another. My only other input the game was annoying people by moving their deep strikers around the board thanks to my strategic asset. 


However, in this game there will not be another 23,000pts to hide behind, take up the slack. I'll have my 4,000pts and Otty will have his 6,000pts of nids too, although the latest update suggests we may add a further 2,000pts. Anyway, that's what I'm looking forward to, sadly my painting and modelling just isn't bearing fruit at the moment. Hopefully that will change and I'll have something to share but if not blog posts may be a little less frequent.

Sunday, 22 September 2013

1500pt battle report - nids vs Orks

Even after the Scythe and Teacups marathon tournament I'm still hungry for my games. My hobby mojo may be on the wane a little bit but when Ben asked my for a game I wasn't about to refuse. I decided to not take the Doom, instead I went for two Flyrants, two Spore Pods with 10 Devgaunts each, two Tervigons and a Biovore and Bastion with a Mawloc. Altogether quite a compact if monstrous force with no HIve Guard either! Ben intimated he would be taking two flyers, which given how successful one Dakkajet had been in bringing down my Flyrant I expected them to do just as well and I actually spent a lot of time running it through my head how I was going to counter that threat. In all honesty that was NOT how I wanted to play. After a days competitive gaming I really wanted a fun bash and was secretly hoping to lose in as much disastrous flames and choppiness as the Orks could provide.

Psychic Powers
Winged Tyrant HQWinged Tyrant Tervigon CC troopTervigon Plain Troop
EnfeebleEnduranceLife LeechIron Arm
Life LeechSmiteSmiteSmite

The low down:
  • The Scouring
  • Dawn of War
  • Ben won deployment, and went first
  • Warlord Trait - Re-roll reserves.
So, board setup, my Tervigon on the left flank nearly went unnoticed by Ben ;) I have a 1pt objective behind the Bastion - next to the meteor crater. There's a a 3pt objective to the left of the bastion behind the other meteor crater and my 3pt objective is just in front of the trees my Tervigon is hiding in.


This big mob of Orks is led by the special character weirdboy that can turn Independent Characters into Squigs. A 4pt objective is just out of shot below on the chaos shrine.


Ben's 'borrowed' Defence Line with Ghazkhull Thrakka leading the greenskins. A 2pt objective is on the left in front of the Aegis and there's another 2pt objective out of shot on the right. So Ben had got 8pts to my 7pts.


Funny how this guy was nigh invisible in the woods. With the objectives in my half I opted not to outflank with it just in case I ended up on my right flank which was short of objectives. Also I needed to be spawning  from turn 1 to ensure I had Troops to control them


My two 3 pointers.


Turn 1 and the Orks move forwards. Some shooting happened but it was practically ineffective with I thin zero damage taken.


CC Tervigon spawned 9 and headed for the onjective - a Grav Wave Generator.


Vanilla Tervigon spawned out on 14  held the targetting relay. The Mawloc burrowed and Biovore entered the Bastion, while the Tervigon and Flyrant waited for their chance.


Well that was unexpected! Ben's Ork Kommandos had a special character that allowed them to outflank from any baord edge. Suddenly I've got a krak Kommando unit behind me who promptly flamed 8 of the Termagants to death.


And then the Tervigon suffered 2 wounds too.


It's raining gribblies! With +1 to my reserves AND re-rolls [though I didn't need them] this was inevitable. My Mawloc burst forth but due to the cover save from the difficult terrain on the hill only killed 1 Ork. 


Spore pods landed and Flyrant swooped in. It was shot by the Quad Gun but saved it's 1 wound and kept flapping.


My HQ Flyrant swooped left across the board and together with the 9 newly spawned gaunts and the Tervigon whittled the Kommandos down to 5 and their leader, who took a wound. The Tervigon even tried Life Leech on them only to be 'denied'.


With the Devourers eating away the other boyz they broke and fled. Not wishing to pass up a free feed the gaunts decided to finish the job...


...and bit off more than they could chew - killing only one Ork and having 8 of their number chopped up into chunks. Still no First Blood at this stage but this combat next turn would definitely not end well for the nids.


The concentrated deep strike fire routed the big mob of Orks too. with 4 left and the Weirdboy they too headed for the hills.


Ben had only decided to take one Dakkajet, I think he'd have been better taking two because this one zoomed on and took out the CC Tervigon putting 11 wounds on it and I failed 4 saves, just enough to kill it off and take the lone remaining spawned gaunt from turn 1. First Blood to Ben and worse still that was my sole remaining spawning Tervigon. The other spawned gaunt was chopped up in combat. The Weirdboy and his 4 Boyz rallied and then he zapped out of existence only to reappear on my right flank.


My Flyrant Enfeebled the Kommandos who were wiped out by the Devgaunts. The Mawloc burrowed.


Ghazkull came out from behind the Defence Line and shot up the Spore Pod while my Devgaunts had positioned to stay as far away as possible from him but still hold the objective, even if it was sabotaged.


Flyrant two headed behind the Aegis and killed all but 2 or three Gretchin but they steadfastly would not rout. A lot of fire went into the Nobz and Ben decided that Ghazkull would take most of the wounds but the weight of Devourer fire, even with his full save was just too much and he succumbed, giving me Slay the Warlord. 


But Ghazkull and his Nobz made it just into kombat and slaughtered the Devgaunts even though they were peppered four time with Devourer grubs on overwatch. The remaining Grots shot the Flyrant behind the Defence Line. He got wounded but FnP saved his life, but in doing so he plummeted out of the sky and was wounded but once again FnP saved his life!


The Mawloc burst up from the ground again. Instead of hitting the Nobz it got confused and seemed to come up through the same burrow again! HQ Flyrant failed to Enfeeble the Nobz, I think taking Perils in the process. He then shot a few more Nobz


Spare Flyrant vector struck the remaining Gretchin and killed them all and was perfectly positioned on the remaining 'boyz 'n the wood'


The remaining Nobz multi-assaulted the Mawloc and Spore pod. The succumbed to Fear and even with my Spore Pod hitting first on 3s I failed to hit and to cap it all my Mawloc did hit but failed to wound! In response the mullered the Spore Pod and took a wound or two off the Mawloc. Meanwhile the Dakkajet managed to hit my 14 gaunts behind the Bastion but as they were out of Synapse I went to ground in the meteror crater and only one or two died. The weirdboy and his boys closed in on Linebreaker,


Next turn for the Orks and my Devgaunts heading back to secure my 3pt objective were the next Dakkajet target. They were routed off the board as they were just out of Synapse range because I'd sent my vanilla Tervigon back to bring the other 14 gaunts out of 'going to ground' which they managed, moved through cover 6" and ran 6" to gain the middle 3pt objective in the vain hope the Tervigon could also hot foot it through the trees and secure this 3 pointer. It was not to be but we did put a glance on the Dakkajet and the Weirdboy cast some spell that backfired and killed himself and his remaining boyz.


The final nail in the coffin for the Orks was that the Nobz were enfeebled and when the Warlord Flyrant assaulted he instakilled 4 Nobz in combat, given they were now Toughness 3 to his Strength 6. Which resulted in Ben saying I was very 'naughty' and pretty much called it there and then.

I honestly didn't think this force would have been as effective as it was. I'm also a bit disappointed it was as brutal a result as it turned out to be. I dropped the Doom so it wasn't painful but 60 Strength 4 shots and 24 twin-linked Strength 6 shots alongside the 12 Strength 6 Ripper Tentacles and the 3 twin-linked Deathspitters on one pod was just insanely good, funny how it didn't work that way on those Dark Eldar ast the Scythe and Teacup. Anyway, if those play test rumours are to be believed I may as well enjoy the Brainleech Worms while I can, if they're going to get rid of THE best load out for Flyrants possible.

There was another impression for me that my dice are dodgy again. I've played a number of games recently where it just seems to be endless 5s and 6s which worries but then those very same dice will roll 1s and 2s and particularly with the Devgaunts I was statistically hitting the average rolls most of the time so that allayed my fears although occasionally it was above average. What was more noticeable was that I don't think I failed a Feel No Pain roll once. My spare Flyrant went unwounded and even when he did get knocked out of the sky FnP saved him twice! All credit to the Nobz though, they did awesomely and despite the Beta Strike working both Spore Pods and their occupants were destroyed which severely impacted my ability to hold objectives.

I think for Ben it's become apparent I've honed my nid skills, even when I drop the Doom I've stuff that is just s painful to play against. I think our next match up will either be to see if I can overcome his Necrons again or otherwise I will look at using a list very different, perhaps using the models I don't usually try, like a 20 strong Stealer brood and Hormagaunts. We'll just have to see.

Friday, 20 September 2013

Terrain is everything - Hail the Omnissiah a new STC is found!


Techno-archaeologist Avro Vulcan has believed to have been in enforced hiding for months now. The truth is he has not cowed to the shadowy figures out to destroy him or steal his work. His absence has been in the pursuit of more knowledge and to unearth the Standard Template Construct (STC) pattern for what has been described as a 'Vent Tower' by some of his more disparaging contemporaries.

 
In truth, one use for the tower is indeed venting geothermal ground-source heat pumps and in rare cases through the use of Standard Manifold Couplings a Plasma Generator can be installed in the tower.


However, the Cetacean Tower can be used as a multipurpose structure, including an Imperial Shrine, a frontier outpost, a small Bastion or even an Astral Communications Bunker and Navigation Array. The versatility of it's construction is evidenced when the Baleen roof extension is added during the build.


The extension increases the field of view for the tower without compromising the battlement surface area and can be added repeatedly. Additional fireports are present in the extension and can be fitted with emplaced weaponry, should the resources prove available. Thanks to the Standard Manifold Coupling the Baleen Extension is also compatible with the various man-made hill STCs Vulcan has already discovered.


The STC discovered by Avro Vulcan contains some of the most detailed template instructions to date, a crowning glory for the efforts Avro has gone to to ensure his STC will 'stand the test of time'. However, given the modular nature of this STC there are some elements that could not be recreated using Vulcan's arcane data retrieval algorithms. Luckily, this STC comes with links to a number of archival pict feeds of a Cetacean Tower and its Baleen Roof Extension under construction. These visual records are valuable in themselves as they pre-date the Age of Strife and hark back to the halcyon days before the Horus Heresy.


So far only one Cetacean Tower has been built on Ferron Proxima, to stand at the edge of the wastelands in defiance of the newly discovered Xenos threat that is gestating in its uncharted midst. Underfall, as it has been called is a first line beacon of the Emperor's Will - a tower defence that will see the alien scourge as it approaches and, given it's comms array built into the rooftop, will rapidly call force the vengeful retribution of the recently arrived 2nd Tactical Squad of the 5th Company of the Dark Angels. Squads Gideon and Boreas, veterans of the Siege of Vraks, have answered the calls for help raised from their recruitment world and may herald the coming of a larger force descended from the First Legion.


To access the full STC please point your Cogitators here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B97Rk-BalgZbNWFYbWc2c0NWelU/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-Dp1x31Mt9nmkmxy0xwLzrw

This STC will be uploaded to the full Ferron Proxima STC library shortly. You can access the database here:

http://40kaddict.blogspot.com/2011/02/terrain-is-everything-standard-template.html