'nids part 345 - Tyranid Leviathan - BIG BUILD TO DONE!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #BuildingWarhammer on #New40k and got to put some basing material down on my Screamer Killer. I had a press-moulded green stuff floor panel to add some variety and fit with the rubble under its foot.

2nd Screamer Killer got based too, but not base painted yet. Had to protect the cork with some tile adhesive/grout.

Aquarium gravel [green and blue chips] is really handy here. They add an intermediate size between some of the larger sharp sand stones and my sifted material. I'm running out of my Element Games millet basing material though.

Here's two Great Big Big Build RUSTY Stamps of Approval for the build.

Psycophage is based, with a spare Genestealer node for decoration.

Great Big Big Build RUSTY Stamp of Approval for the build.

And lastly in this group of build/basing, the Neurotyrant and Neuroloids. I had wanted to have an afternoon and get all the nids based but this was it for now. 

Here's the Great Big Big Build RUSTY Stamp of Approval for the build.

Leviathan

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #BuildingWarhammer for #New40k A few weeks ago now but I still need to record it. I was lucky enough to get my copy from The Outpost. They'd tried to mitigate all the availability issues with an option to 'register interest', but last minute they were only getting a third or two thirds so everyone went in a raffle and I got mine. Liam didn't so spent the entire morning scrabbling around but ended up with two. Meanwhile, I struggled to pay for mine while I was out at a LEGO convention but it was all good in the end and here we are.

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Unnecessary unboxing as there are plenty of more exciting channels who've done this for weeks.

New box smell - just imagine.

Moar plastic.

Yet moar plastic.

And even MOAR plastic.

Divider.

Rules and instruction manual.

Bases and cards.

So I immediately got to making the Ballistus dreadnought, no idea why but he was so big and easy to put together.

Psychophage next.

Then the Screamer Killer and despite my original thoughts his legs were too uniformly thick and could do with more definition I really wanted a second one to repose.

Nuerotyrant and Neuroloids

Winged Tyranid Warrior Prime.

Barbgaunts - because their rules look great, even if the model is a bit odd looking.

Von Ryan's Leapers.

Leaping off the back foot, for which I approve - so much more dynamic. Hopefully the rumoured Genestealers follow suit.

And my afternoon's efforts.

Which I thin part built this guy too. May magnetise and add some more Dark Angel bling.

I managed to pick up a second Screamer Killer on ebay for just £16 - that's cheaper than the standard Carnifex. I may never use both but wanted to play around. 

Removed the tactical rock, but added in a flatter one so his back leg wasn't cocked too high on another tactical rock.

Swapped the talon arms round so it definitely has a different silhouette.

Added a monstrous Adrenal Gland on its back and will add a few more Termagant sized ones elsewhere.

Also, the Carnifex upgrade bits for head blades and crests fit perfectly and a slightly longer Carnifex tongue helps to differentiate.

I've also built all the Termagants and Neurogaunts, just haven't taken pics - will do when they're all based.

#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 344 - Tyranid Zoanthrope - TO DONE!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my #Tyranid Zoanthrope. Getting the Parasite to the same stage meant it was so much easier to do them as a pair.

Obviously you can see I opted for blue psychic powers.

I think I just wanted all three Zoanthropes to exhibit different effects coming from their brain.

I know that's not how they work in game, usually doing the same power.

And 10th will be likely very different with the psychic phase removed [I believe].

But I just thought it'd be cool to have them all doing their own thing.

I think they make a cool little brood, good to finally have 3 so it's a complete set and they're all painted to the same standard.

Also, the fact I lost the 2 of the small back vents for the green one means it looks a little different too.

Not mounting it on the [tiny] Capillary Tower base means it's a little shorter too, almost like it's underdeveloped or younger. 

It adds a little variety to an otherwise identical set of miniatures.

And the different colours helped sell that too. If I do another one I'll have to go Fluoro Magenta

And the white background pics.

Close up of the brain - it wasn't exactly what I was going for, but I think the results were pretty cool.

The green one is clearly working overtime with it's powers leaking down towards its mouth but the scheme, like the biophorms - evolve.

And another GREAT Big RUSTY Stamp of Approval .