#BattleReport - 1,000pts Imperial Knights v Tyranids

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been playing TENTH! #New40k Despite having a backlog of #MESBG and #Turnip28 [not] battle reports to record I thought I'd do this while it was fresh in my mind. Leviathan is due today, with my rulebook, but Otty, Ben, Liam and I decided to give TENTH a crack. Naturally, nobody had printed the Core Rules, or Quickstart Guide and only one of us had their Index rules and datacards printed out. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusion as to who had prepared in some way...

Anyway, Ben had prepared a list of Otty to use his nids - Old One Eye, a Carnifex, 10 Hormagaunts, 10 Termagants, 2 broods of Warriors [1 ranged, 1 melee], Hive Guard, Zoanthropes, Trygon, 5 Genestealers. I had a knight Preceptor with Unyielding Paragon [reduces AP by 1] and Stormspear Rocket Pod, 2 Helverins and 2 Warglaives. If I'm honest I thought Otty was at a distinct disadvantage - lots of little bugs with weak weapons and talons - how could they possibly effect the towering Imperial Knights... Otty got first go, and straight out of the gate the Genestealers scouted forward 8".

Which meant they had an easy first turn charge into one of my Warglaives. Otty had chosen Hyper-Aggression as his Hyper-Adaptation which meant every creature had [LETHAL-HITS] on vehicles/monsters. That means even the littlest bug, a roll of a 6 and it auto-wounds! Oh dear...

I was very lucky though and did some amazing saves with limited wounds across my knights. My Warlgaive managed to kill  just two of the Genestealers, which was underwhelming.

Otty had pushed forward and the Ranged Warrior's were slightly exposed and the Hive Guard with Shock Cannons, although taking some cover were now within range of more guns.

Shots from the top Warglaive, Helverin and Preceptor managed to wipe out the Ranged Warriors and one Hive Guard went down. I think the other Warglaive managed to squish the Genestealers.

I'd made a better impact, but now I had Hormagaunts swamping the other Helverin and OOE+Carnifex needed a 11" charge to get the freed-up Warglaive - Otty rolled a 6 and 1, CP re-rolled the 1 and got a 6 and managed to wipe out the Warglaive. I got to attack back before dying with a stratagem and dished out soem wounds but not enough to make a difference. Meanwhile, my Helverin stomped on a few Hormagaunts. On the far side [out of shot] the other Warglaive took a wound from 5 shots in range of the Devgaunts. Then the Zoanthropes blasted it to pieces dealing the exact amount of damage it had left. That lucky Termagant had saved the day for Otty!

Naturally we were getting all sorts of rules wrong, we weren't both receiving CPs in the command phase, just the person who's turn it was. So I was running out of CPs every turn and we hadn't worked out that vehicles could shoot in and out of combat [for -1 to hit]. As it was I tried the best with my shooting and ended up needing a reroll on the Preceptor to do decent damage on the Carnifex. Then I charged and immediately remembered the plan was to Tank Shock them and roll 14 dice with the potential for six 6's. But I'd spent my CP

As it was the Reaper took out the Carnifex and did a few wounds on OOE, but he regenerated most of them. And then the Trygon burrowed up and charged the Knight from behind.

The Melee Warriors managed to link up with the Hormagaunts and inflict even more damage on the Helverin but I was very lucky with saves and Feel No Pain. Lastly I was swinging at Old One Eye and managed to get 3 hits on him, 3+ to wound...

Unbelievable! There wasn't much I could do after this. 

The Preceptor got smashed by the monsters. I think both Warriors got killed, by the remaining Helverin Autocannons but the Prime survived and the Armiger in combat could only stomp on 2 of the remaining Hormagaunts. We called it as I had little chance at this stage and it was late. 

So, what do I think? I liked the game, just enough rules and complexity, but I hated not having the physical book, or even the Quick Start. It was a nightmare trying to use the app for both Otty's army and the Core Rule .pdf, while also taking pictures. 1000pts feels like as good size while we find our feet. Hopefully, when we're all on board with the rules and familiar with them it'll feel easier but even with this streamlining there were still times where explaining the rules felt just really hard - in direct contrast to Turnip28 and Bolt Action. But we'll keep at it. We all had fun and both factions, that on paper looked great [my Knights and Ben's Astra Militarum] were beaten by the weaker Tyranids and the much smaller but elite heavy World Eaters. Surprising lessons learned for next time. Now to await Leviathan and build some bugs...

Yes, I was the one prepared[ish]

'nids part 275 - Tyranid Warrior Termagants, Rippers - MOAR basecoats and shades

Afternoon #warmongers and I've been #paintingwarhammer on those Tyranid models. I was getting all the chitin plates basecoated. The 5 Devgaunts, some made from Hormagaunt 'chassis'.

The Rippers

The lone Warrior

The Hive Guard

And I got the wash done as well. With the motivational challenge of my Deathwing Knights it is always handy to have something simple but with significant impact to a model up your sleeve. 

Washing all these 'nids, alongside all the metallic edging for my Adeptus Titanicus titans gave me a huge hit of progress on a lot of models. It also put me in a position where these can be moved onto the next stage as and when I feel overwhelmed by the Deathwing.

It was however not without issue. I had been using my Valejo sepia wash, mixing in some Instar Water+ to thin it down as I'd got the same crusty deposit in past applications as I did with Seraphim Sepia.

It didn't quite solve the problem, as you can see on the head crest it's still there, but not as bad as Seraphim Sepia. You would expect me to be livid at this point but as I'm running a Strong Tone wash over the top of it I don't think this will be a problem in the end.

Hive Guard conversions got the same treatment.

And there were deposits int he crevices also. I think it's the heavily recessed areas where the wash pools.

Some have suggested it's the separation of the matting agent, who knows?

I quickly remembered to wash these two in Soft Tone as well.

You can see that there was not the same problem with the Army Painter washes.

The Valejo wash does describe itself as a dipping wash so perhaps applying it with a brush is not the best application. Maybe you treat it the same way as an Army Painter Quickshade, although I believe they're much thicker. Doesn't really matter though, I'll just keep on painting.

'nids part 274 - Tyranid Warrior Termagants, Rippers and Carnifex head - basecoats

Afternoon #warmongers and I've been #paintingwarhammer on some outstanding Tyranid models. Outstanding in the sense they need to be painted, not so much they are 'amazing'. I have these 5 Devgaunts, some made from Hormagaunt 'chassis'.

I know this isn't exactly quality content but what I wanted to showcase just how bad my basecoats start off. Coincidentally Marc over at Old School Gaming did a similar post on his Iron Snakes, but I think my Tyranid are in a much worse state initially.

I had undercoated these red, but with hindsight I should have done them Bone colour, like I used to. It's much easier to cut in the red elements. I had started carefully doing the Bonewhite but after one ad a half models completely lost patience and just splashed on a load of paint expecting to pick out the red areas much as I used to do the 'liver' wash that I originally used to do.

Now if I'd done a Skeleton Bone prime, and then masked off the base and done that Red Oxide, I could have saved myself a bit of effort. Or perhaps, primed red and zenithal bone?

Whilst I was at it I threw on some Bonewhite on the 4 bases of Rippers hanging around.

I was a little more cautious on these, mainly to ensure the Red Planet BASE! was retained. All of these Tyranids will keep sitting on the shelf. Every now and again I'll add another step in the painting process until I reach the tipping point whereby a small push would get them done, should a window open up to focus on them. 

I had these Carnifex heads knocking around for a while so it made sense to get their first basecoat on too. All my nid bits are now ready for Bahama Blue on the chitin, but also cutting in that red for the fleshy parts where necessary.

With my Blood Bowl Ogre done and getting through these while I also finish off my Middenheim Marauders turn counters and a few Blood Bowl balls it's about time to take stock of what's on my palette, so expect an update next.

1750pts battle report - Imperial Knights & Blood Angels v Imperial Knights & Nurgle Death Guard - game 3

Double Trouble 4 and Alex From the Fang's doubles tournament replacing Blog Wars. 875pts with random pairings but all match-ups are Battle Brothers. Once again my recollection is pretty hazy so for the most part enjoy the pictures, the commentary will be secondary ;) 

My first Blog Wars was Blog Wars 6 in June 2013, in that time I don't think Alex and I have ever faced or paired with each other. We've been on adjoining tables but with this our last chance to dance Alex twisted the strands of fate to put us both on the same table - Knight on Knight! I'm paired with Tom Capper again [paired with for DT3 and opposite for Never Mind the Blog Wars] he had his Blood Angels, Mephiston, possibly Astorath some Assault Terminators and Sanguinary Guard. Alex had his two Helverins and a Knight Warden and was partnered with Jonathan Lyness [regular attendee both at Alex's events and my own Birthday Bash] he had Nurgle and Death Guard - a Damon Prince, big blob of cultists, 2 Bloat Drones, unit of Plague Marines and I'm not sure what else.

Once again the Knights hold the line but I have some Sanguinary Guard in the ruins with Mephiston. Opposite we have Death Guard and Bloat Drones on the left, a Helverin with the Cultists blocking out the centre, backed up by the Daemon Prince. The Warden is way back behind the ruins with the 2nd Helverin behind the abandoned Bastion.

We win first turn and keep the initiative. We surge forwards, Mephiston swooping over the cultists to get to the Prince but couldn't kill it. The Sanguinary Guard got into the Cultists while my Warglaives caught them in a pincer. I think they were wiped out this turn after morale.

The Lancer went Flank Speed and crossed the entire board to get to the Helverin which couldn't withstand it's charge and was destroyed. It was a brutal first turn and I must confess I didn't feel too pleased with myself in the success of our Alpha Strike, given the spirit of the event.

But Alex and Jonathan were not done yet - the Helverin and Drones repositioned to fire at the Warglaive but didn't do a huge amount of damage.

The Warden was significantly more successful, withdrawing from the Lancer while laying down plenty of wounds taking me to the second tier at least. The Bloat Drones charged the Warlgaive

In our turn 2 the Sanguinary Guard look to have targeted the Helverin, it's down to 8 wounds. My second Warglaive slammed into a Drone.

My Lancer headed for the Warden, but it's mobility was severely hampered by damage, only getting 2" on its 2D6 Flank Speed advance! Terminators arrived from deep strike.

And made their charge into the Plague Marines. That may have required a re-roll though which meant the Lancer was at risk making his on the Warden...

I'm not sure if he was killed in overwatch or Alex's next turn but we never found out what it would be like in close combat. I felt a little less guilty about that Alpha Strike at this point.

I've no idea what damage was made here but I think the Drones survived.

Then fell back to secure the objective in the ruins

This allowed the Warglaives to move up. A Nurgle dude holding the objective in the corner of the ruins was killed somehow, allowing my Warglaive to secure it. The Terminators wiped out the Plague Marines with the help of Astorath.

The Sanguinary Guard took the fight to the Drones, while the last Helverin doesn't feature in anymore pics so might have been destroyed at this point?

The Sanguinary Guard took casualties in overwatch but I think they killed one of the Drones.

The Warden blew up both Warglaives and some of the Terminators.

But was assaulted by the remains of the squad and Astorath. The last Drone fell back to hold the objective but the Sanguinary Guard was still there so it may have been contested.

Astorath was the lone survivor against the Warden, I'm not sure how much damage it had been dealt, not half I don't think.

Fall back and retreat again, still no end to the deadlock.

With honour at stake the Standard Bearer left the objective it had been holding to charge the Knight in an attempt to bring it past half points but he could not make the charge.

The Bloat Drone must have perished leaving the Sanguinary Guard to hold our objective again. They may have been killed in Alex's turn - he had enough firepower to do it!

The final score was 7VPs to 6VPs in our favour at turn 5, which was the last turn. We'd scored 1169pts but been almost [if not completely] wiped out. I honestly don't remember much of what happened. It feels like quite a tactical game but like I say after our turn one I felt really bad but it would appear that a sacrifice of a unit of Cultists and a Helverin was a small price to lure in my Lancer and scalp it so early.

Tom Capper, Myself, Alex From the Fang, Jonathan Lyness

But another great game, regardless of the fact that my Lancer failed to survive a single match - so no honour badges to add :( It was a great way to finish the event off, nice to be picked by Alex and be with Jonathan and Tom again. That's the best part of these events as it's almost like a reunion each time. Hopefully someone will step forward to continue it on. Obviously I could 'put my money where my mouth is' and take up the baton but I think Alex has said someone has already offered.

Here's my final scorecard, not that it matters. I honestly felt I had a pretty tough army this time, but clearly it was more fragile than I thought. Definitely the Lancer is far from OP, and I think over-costed too. 440pts seems like a better price to me, maybe it would be different in a full Knightly Household. Anyway, I've a wrap up post and painting comp to do but this is the last Double Trouble report - So Long and Thanks for All the Dice!

If you're interested in any more of my Battle Reports, point your cogitators here: www.40kaddict.uk/p/battle-reports.html