Wednesday, 26 November 2014

GW Southport

When I was at GWSouthport for Armies on Parade I took some pics of the figures in the display cabinet. So I thought I'd share them here because I still don't have much content to keep me going so I'll just have to make do with this for the mo.

 A nice Necron Night Scythe


Space Pixie paper plane.


Some crazy dark Space Wolves


Fab purple metallic Necrons


Yet more of the Crons


And that's your lot.


Monday, 24 November 2014

What's on my palette?



Crap all! As Blog Wars apporached and the building work transformed into decorating pretty much the only painting I did was walls, doors and skirting boards. The den where I do most of my hobby work became a dumping fround for soft furnishings preventing me from painting and I've still to discover my missing 11 Genestealers amongst all the detritus. However, as of Tuesday the last of the carpets were fitted and asside for tidying and remedial bits and bobs the house is pretty much done.

I'll expect a renewed push by my better half to remove the hobby paraphernalia to a shed or garage within the next couple of months particularly as I feel some stirrings of my hobby mojo. I was actually devoid of all mojo for a period, definitely not helped by those missing Stealers. I still pottered but I felt no desire or motivation to get on and do stuff but I'm starting to feel like I've lost a lot of time and just want to get stuff done. Unfortunately I have a lot of stuff at building stage when I actually just want to paint. So I'm going to be sensible and just do the things that will move me on.
  1. First up my Blood Bowl Elves only need to have their base edges painted and varnished. That's a super quick win and they're on my hobby list too.
  2. Secondly, my Realm of Battle board. I just need to add some extra washes in all the crack and then do the skulls again, so many skulls...
  3. I've some resin that needs washing...
  4. And if I get bored with all that my Dark Vengeance Tactical Squad can be finished off. 
Four tasks that I'm going to focus on and get boxed off and hopefully in the porcess I'll discover those missing Stealers! I appreciate this isn't much of a post but it's a statement of intent that I'm off the wagon again and gearing up to paint.

Friday, 21 November 2014

Terrain is everything - 'Tis the season to pick up your trees

A few years ago I picked up a bag of model trees from Dobbies, our local garden centre [and craft shop]. They only have them in the run up to Christmas as they're for making your own Christmas scene with miniature revelers and holiday nik-naks. In fact I tried to get some more last year and they had none in stock.


Now I haven't had chance to go this year but I'm hoping they're back in stock and just thought I'd remind folk about them. The set I got was 21 pieces from a company called Lemax for £13 which I think is good value. Clearly there's at least two that are just a bit too big, they're the same size as my 40k outpost that got bigger! but great line of sight blockers for a Trygon!


Of course they weren't going to fit with my table so I decided to paint them - undercoating them all in Red Oxide primer and then repainting them in shades of yellow.


And here's the finished result:


Wednesday, 19 November 2014

Blog Wars 8 Armies

Alex already put up his photographs from the painting competition but I didn't want to steal his thunder[wolves] so here are my own shaky cam shots of those armies who mustered for the painting competition. I'll let the pics do most of the talking so just enjoy.

First up Space Wolves:




Secondly, Space Wolves.



And thirdly, erm Space Wolves - PeteB's very own.


Typically PeteB has put the Imperial Knight on ebay already!


Finally, something different, Space Pixies!



Evil Space Pixies.



More Space Pixies, Evil and the Poet kind.


Gareth's Ta on a trampoline.



Howling Griffons [?] and the Rebel Alliance.





Brazen Claws [although I thought they were the Brown Claws, which conjured a completely different fluff image for me].



Crimson Fists


Ben's Necrons, I still think these are really good, certainly the best painted of his armies, even if I've still to smash their little metal minds apart.



And the overall winner with Evil Space Pixies, my mate Liam. Of course he cheated by adding in his Tantalus which wasn't in his army list but I'll forgive him, it was his birthday afterall, although he kept it very quiet.






Sorry, just trying to get a decent shot of this...



And here was my own effort, that came second but you've seen all this stuff before.


Incidentally Alex mentioned he didn't get a pic of my 'Deathleaper', that's no surprise as I was still proxying my Lictor but if you want to see him in all his glory all the pics are here: http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/nids-part-144-to-done-four-horsemen-of.html


Monday, 17 November 2014

Blog Wars 8 1850pt battle report game 3 - nids vs Tau

Gareth Newton Williams was my last game with his Tau on a Skyshield. By this stage I'm relegated to one of the lower tables, with PeteB on the next to bottom and Liam on the last with Blog Wars very own founder Alex. We all started to have a great laugh with PeteB opposite another PeteB and his Necrons who proudly exclaimed he didn't run the usual suspects, no Annihilation Barges, Flyers or all the other usual cheesy nonsense, y'know the stuff my mate Ben takes. But with perfect comedic timing Gareth interjected with the line 'and that would explain you playing on the bottom tables'! We just fell about laughing and that set the tone for the game. Even with a highly time-sensitive mission where every palyer turn after game turn 1 allows you to score points Gareth and I chatted amd discussed things like my not taking the Skyshield, which would have been fun opposite his

Psychic Powers
Winged Tyrant Tervigon Plain TrTervigon Miasma
The HorrorWarp BlastParoxysm
Warp BlastDominionDominion
Dominion



The low down:
  • I won deployment, elected to go first but typically lost the initiatve, go Tau shooters
  • Warlord Trait - Deathleaper has Mindeater - +2VP for every IC slain in a challeneg
  • Night fighting not turn 1 [also typical against a Tau gunline].
The last thing I needed was to lose the initiative and night fighting. With my Hive Tyrant on top of the Bastion and Venomthrope outside he was just in cover range but some of my other units were outside, which if he'd been in the Bastion they'd be safer.

As it was all these guys on the Skyshield, together with the Markerlights from the Pathfinders in the woods dropped a couple of wounds on the Flyrant, who at least couldn't be grounded.


Mmm, some Pirannahs...


Further fire from the Skyshield took out two Hive Guard and put a wound on the Carnifex. Even a couple of Stealers got killed despite their excellent cover. It's all for nught when the Tau can ignore it with their Smart Missiles - like Impaler Cannons but fired by creatures with a Ballistic Skill and can see more than 24" [no I'm not bitter! they're probably half the points n'all! ruddy fish 'eads]


With my turn I swooped forwards hoping to end the Pathfinders, maybe causing them to rout, but to no avail. Genestealers headed to distract, they can't assault after Infiltrate anyway.


Lost of gaunts spawned, double figures for both and I rushed to swamp the objectives so that I would still be holding them all at the end of Gareth's turn 2 and get me my first VPs [note Deathleaper is not on the board there he's waiting to Deep Strike]


The Flyrant gets killed, it helps when you can just add Skyfire to your units. The lead brood of Stealers, First Blood is gone at least.


Second unit of Genestealers gets wiped out too losing the objective, perhaps if they'd just been in range of the Shrouded Bastion they may have survived. I get 2 VPs from the other two objectives.


Deathleaper arrives in my turn. I manage to position him so the Riptides can't Intercept. There's no angle for the one on the Skyshield and hes'd hidden fromt he one that jumped off. It's Flesh Hooks rake the back of the Tau [whatever it is] but do nothing. I also moved the unit of Gaunts with the Carnifex up to my unsecured objective but within range of the Bastion which gets me another 3VPs [5:1]


Having lost one of the Pirannahs to the charging Stealers the remaining three adopted a protective formation to hide their weaker rear armour and promptly removed the larger brood of Stealers from play. I still held all thre objectives so this takes me to 8:1


In a bold move Deathleaper clambers onto the Skyshield declaring he wants to challenge the Ethereal. Gareth is astounded by the temerity of such a challenge and agrees that if he can get passed all the overwatch he'll accept.


The fact is even just the supporting Overwatch from the Riptide is enough to wipe the Galaxy's ultimate assassin from the face of the planet! Bye, bye Deathleaper, you suck. I may go for Old One Eye or the Swarmlord in a Tyrannocyte next time. So Gareth gets Slay the Warlord but I collect another 3 VPs from objectives making it 11:2


I continued to spawn double figure Termagants [for time throwing down genestealers instead of rooting around my myriad takeaway tubs], but obviously you can see there's a triple 1 in that dice roll. Well those five dice are my Tervigon's saving throws from the Pirannahs...


and here's what's left the termagants when their brood mother goes POP. Gareth seemed to be unaware of this unexpected bonus so with renewd vigour tried to pop the other Tervigon taking it to just 1 wound left. Despite this and some gaunts routing and some resorting to Instinctive behaviour I still hold all the objectives taking the score to 14:2.


Gareth continues to pour fire into my dwindling bugs and I make numerous cover saves in the trees as the Tau enact deforestation on levels similar to those seen in the Amazon. The last Tervigon hides behind the Bastion but Longsight moves off the Skyshield and manages to target it with Smart Missiles. The Missiles swoop round the Bastion and score a wound...


So much for it's armour save, the Tervigon pops, taking another slew of its babies with them but I still manage to stay on the objectives.


With the final turn in play [well I mean, as time runs out] I score another 3 VPs taking the final score to 17:2. The Tau managed to perform a great display of precision shooting but failed to grasp the tactic of holding an objective.



Having a chat with Gareth I think he felt the same way Ben did when we played, by advancing on the objectives he would have been exposed to some teeth and claws, although I doubt I'd have got too many kills on the armoured or high toughness models. I think the Skyshield influences you to stay put too. Of course Tau can do that with their long range firepower but when you pay for this defensive stronghold it creates a mindset to stay on it for as long as possible. Ultimately he left it too late to capture the objectives but I think that was also because I'd spawned particularly well and had surrounded each point with so many bodies [something I didn't have the opportunity with when I played Ben].


It was a great game, which sadly didn't reflect the damage Gareth had wrought but as I always say you have to play the mission. But we had a whole lot of fun and I managed to come away with a win so at least 'nids are better than Dark Eldar ;)

One other point of note is how Gareth achievd his digital camo. This was revealed in another lengthy chat mid-game when we should have been attempting to score objectives. He sprayed the models with a Dark Green and then applied the sponge sticky pads used in decoupage to mask areas off then sprayed the lighter colour on top. He still has to add some shading but I thought it was a really clever and effective trick, so thought I'd share.