Hobby Season 2017/18 half way point

When I arbitrarily chose 28th August as the beginning/end of the Hobby Season I never realised that the half way point lands on my birthday. In truth I was going to recognise this coincidence last year but promptly forgot to write anything. So I just thought a little reminder a might reinvigorate everyone's efforts. Suffice to say I'm pretty happy with my current progress. In fact here's a sneak peak at the recently  completed Dark Angel Predator that I need to reveal when I get a gap in my schedule.

And my most recent completion (just last night in fact) , the 1984 Citadel Samurai for the Eavier Metal 20 year competition.

Unfortunately I haven't had time to create any freebie to gift on my birthday as I would  normally try to do. However, this Hobby Season reminder comes just as the weather might turn and hobby mojo might flourish as the Spring fecundity will bear fruit for us all. So get you paintbrushes out and your hobby on as those Great Big Gamboge Stamps of Approval aren't going to award themselves!

Warhammer World GT3 - Game 2 Tyranids v Orks

Game 2 of GT3 and Morgan Cole and I have been asked to play live on Warhammer TV! I obviously had to concentrate a lot on the game so pictures were taken only sparingly and I'm a bit shaky on what happened but I'll be going back over the Twitch feed to try and recollect but I'm only part way through so far. Either way if you have a Twitch subscription you can watch the game here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/229954502

The low down:

• Roving Patrol [Chapter Approved mission]
• Dawn of War
• Morgan chose deployment zone, 
• I either won first turn, or seized - I went first that's for sure.

Aside from the honour of being on Warhammer TV and the achievement of my dream I was almost totally unprepared for the enormity of the game. I had tried to split my army into three on the drive down to Nottingham so I had a start but I just could make neither head nor tail of the mission. I was allowed to deploy the Skyshield regardless [no one could reconcile how Fortifications fit into the deployment so they just made a decision there and then] and luckily I rolled to start with my first third - which I think was

• Warriors
• Hive Guard
• Tervigon
• Termagants

I deployed the Hive Guard in the ruins to shoot at anything heading towards the centre objective. The Skyshield sat on the other objective. I was lucky that both Trygon's arrived as reserves, with their tunnel buddies. On top of that my Warlord Flyrant.

Tervigon and Termagants swarmed to secure the centre objective and then in the midst of everything I totally messed up shooting the mob of boys with my Devgaunts. 

When I came to the Genestealers and their charge I suddenly realised Morgan had deftly removed all the nearest model and a 9" charge was now 11" at least! I failed charges by all on both flanks.

I was feeling totally out of my depth and then Morgan brought on his reserves, a second truck and mobs of boyz.

The Boyz swarmed the Genestealers and at least I had the sense to kick off with Caustic Blood, knowing just how many hits these guys have. 

And they stayed true to form and managed to butcher the lot of them and the Trygon too!

Morgan then unleashed a second stroke of tactical genius. Alongside his second mob of Boyz he brought on a Painboy [or Weirdboy, not sure] behind storage tank No.31. He was out of sight of the Devgaunts and so charged. In 8th you can charge without Line of Sight and ironically you cannot overwatch without it! Which I think is the opposite to 7th. So he made the 7" charge on the Devgaunts - tying up all 25 Termagants and was safely able to bundle the remaining Mob of Boyz in without fear of overwatch! 

A genius move I couldn't help but admire, even after all the Termagants were butchered. The Termagants in the centre also took a pummeling, losing 11 of their number but I replenished 10 of them in my turn thanks to the Tervigon.

I think the Warlord Flyrant was down to around four wounds so I retreated to use his Devourer shots on the big Mob. Meanwhile the Trygon charged one of the Trukks.

Which looks like it got smashed only to leave the Trygon surrounded by disembarked grumpy Orks, angry at the loss of their boat.

Moar Mek Guns arrived with the last of Morgan's army and the mob on the right flank decided to solve the issue in the centre of the board.

Morgan then cast Da Jump - Perilling in the process as his Weirdboy dumped 20 Orks in my deployment zone.

Boyz start butchering Termagants, I think I employed Caustic Blood again, I'd brought my Rippers on too to throw in and add to the numbers holding the objective.

Da Jump Boyz manage to make a phenomenal charge against the Hive Guard. Unsurprisingly they are cleaved up like kebab skewers

In response I bring the last Flyrant in and the Broodlord to whittle down their numbers. My dice rolling is appaling at this stage though. I can't get anything to do what I want, even Morgan begins to feel for my lack of success. It's reasonable that there are specific Warhammer TV dice - it helps them show up on TV and it means we're both using supplied dice, not our own [which is fair] but they are really big dice, something I was not prepared for and with relatively small hand not equipped for either, ha, ha! Ceri said the same thing afterwards.

The Flyrant gets killed by the Tank Bustas and then a series of shots at the Warriors on the Skyshield manages to completely bypass the invulnerrable save and all three die! The battle rages on in the middle of the board with the Termagants being crushed between the Boyz they were in combat with and the Orks that had killed the Hive Guard and cleverly removed sufficient models from the attack of the Broodlord and Flyrant to be out of combat.

With the Termagants gone there was nothing I could do and we called the game. It was afterwards I found out I'd only scored 82pts worth of damage, and we'd only completed two turns. However, I realised my dream and despite the result on paper it was an amazing game, Morgan's tactics in particular raised the bar, hopefully something I will look into how I can apply also - charging from out of LoS for instance.

Anyway, a fab game and Nick and Ceri were super-appreciative of our efforts, so I can't ask for more. On to game 3!

Warhammer World GT3 - Game 1 Tyranids v Orks

First game of GT3 and I'm facing the spectacularly bearded Ben Briscoe and his filthy looking Orks made up of excellent Battle Wagon - Taurox Conversions and some of the artillery guns kitbashed from spare [looted!] Tau weaponry. As mentioned my recollection of the battles are really sketchy so I will do my best

The low down:

• Re-supply Drop [Chapter Approved mission]
• Hammer and Anvil - Table Ends deployment
• I chose deployment zone, but I deployed last unit [giving Ben +1 to win first turn], 
• Ben won first turn, I failed to seize

Skyshield and most of my none reserve deplyment on the board. I did not use Alien Cunning to remove the Warlord Flyrant, instead opting for Tenacious Survivor as my Warlord Trait.

Orks tried to shoot me down but couldn't manage to get First Blood.

Ork War Boss channeling the WAAARRGH! - handy LED lights powered by a battery in the base.

The other 'raving' Weird Boy with his glow sticks.

My turn and I used Metabolic Overdrive on the Tervigon to sprint up the board, followed by Termagants to hold the objective. Flyrant swooped on top of the foundry towers.

My Trygon arrived with the Devgaunts and my plan actually worked in that the Tervigon was now in range to buff them [re-roll 1's to hit]. The other Trygon and Genestealers arrived at the back of the board and the second Flyrant was inbetween them.

My Trygon made the charge on one of the Trukks

 

The Trygon struck...

... and ended the Trukk for first blood. I don't think the Tankbusters inside took any wounds and disembarked to the top of the towers.

I swooped the Flyrant down to take out the Battlewagon

The Flyrants ill-conceived charge on the Battle Wagon resulted in taking 5 wounds for not much damage inflicted.

Genestealers made the charge on the Grots with the Mek-guns [?]. I wiped out a unit of grots so one gun was decommissioned, sort of. Second Trygon made the charge on another Trukk. Smashed the trukk killing a couple of Tankbuster inside this time.

I don't know the name of the Ork biker Warlord but he led the counter offensive on the Trygon with a mob of Boyz backing him up.

Weirdboy powers up the Orks with plus one attacks.

20 Orks get in doing 100 attacks! The Trygon could not stand against so many Choppas!

With only 5 wounds left the second Trygon also fell to the Biker Warlord.

One of the Mobs charged the Genestealers

And managed to chop 16 of the 17 Genestealers into little pieces. Probably would have been handy to choose the Caustic Blood stratagem in this instance...

My remaining Stealer killed two in return but would die from battle shock.

Boyz tried to chop up the Flyrant.

Which I think they must have succeeded as I don;t see him elsewhere.

As time was running out we had got to turn three and Ben rolled to remove the two redundant Alpha Objectives, choosing one nearest his grots, one behind the Aquila strongpoint and one by my Felshborer Termagants. The Fleshborer Gaunt objective was the Alpha supply drop. With the mob of Orks having a party after killing the Trygon, they were unaware of the Tervigon and Gaunts about to spoil the fun.

They bundled the lot of them.

And killed all but the War Boss.

Fleshborer Gaunts finished off most of the Boyz who'd killed my Warlord in the shooting phase.

Then killed the remainder, while holding the Alpha objective.

Weird Boy had headed for an objective but my Rippers had already cheekily been there before it was revealed it was not an Alpha. Battle Wagon headed for Line Breaker.

My Flyrant had secured the other Beta objective. But a squad of Kommandos came on in a last ditch attempt to steal it out from under the Hive. They would make the charge but Overwatch and my Monstrous Rending Claws would see them finished.

I'd somehow secured a victory holding both Alpha and Beta objectives. The fact I had been on all but one of them before the Alpha and Beta were revealed gave me the advantage in holding on to them. Ben was a great sport, patiently waiting while I confirmed the scoring nature of the Skyshield ahead of the tournament. I managed to to do only 609pts of damage though and lost a significant amount in return.

I think the Flyrant assaulting the Battle Wagon was a mistake but it stopped the momentum of the Orks at least. I'd imagine a completely different result if they'd driven unopposed around the board dropping the big mobs off on the objectives I was so tenuously holding. Hive Guard were shockingly poor though.

Anyway, on to game 2

March 2nd is Old Stuff Day

Just a heads up March 2nd is Old Stuff Day A few years ago now warhammer39999 wanted to join a movement to rediscover lost gems from the world of hobby blogs and it's still going strong today. To choose one or more of your own blogposts that you're most proud of, or may not have got the attention it deserved or any thing that may warrant some necromantic blogpost bothering. On top of that you are to share blogposts from other bloggers which you think deserves the same spotlight of attention before they're returned to their dark nightmare infested slumbers.

So if you have a blog don't forget to root through your old posts and rediscover those hidden gems. Feel free to use the Old Stuff Day poster by Firstkeeper from DeviantArt.

Warhammer World GT3 - Painting competition

While I continue to work on the battle reports I'll showcase the painting competition. Firstly the squad competition, as you would expect the standard was pretty high. I loved the style of the Noise Marines below, and was luky enough to play against them in game 5 :)

Custodes on Jetbikes, I warned Otty about them before the tournament started. He then had the misfortune to come up against some, whether it was these I'm not sure but he confirmed my warning. Meanwhile I found I;d broken an arm on a retro old-skool Space Hulk Genenestealer so instead of five the same I actually chose on of each of the eclectic mix in my brood. I had no expectation to win so used it as an opportunity to show variety instead. At the time it might have looked silly but seeing them now I actually think it makes a lot of sense, Like I'd tried to make each Steler completely different.

Liam's scratchbuilt chaos spawn maggots in the back. Love the chaos cultists too.

Primaris Marines.

Moar Primaris and Centurions.

Hero competition, my own Broodlord and Beliswaaargh-i-ork Kawl I believe ;) which went on to win

Liam's Typhus in the back.

I thought the pose on the bike was pretty spectacular

Here it is from the back.

And the 'icons' category - for monsters, vehicles and anything else that defies description. The Ork Freebooterz ship I think went on to win the category.

In which there were 3 Mortarions, including these two.

Liam's Mortarion and my own Hive Tyrant hidden in it's shadow.

Big tank!

And something very, very wrong.

Nominations for best painted army - Liam's Nurgle/Death Guard.

A krazy Ork Mekanikus looted army. The Grot Ruststalkers were particularly clever and not just a little disturbing too.

Beliswaaargh-i-ork Kawlwas leading them, I'm guessing they were run as Mechanicum in the game.

And the original Mechanicum.

With Gerantius the Forgotten Knight.

Aeldari

All kinds of wrong with the Dark Reapers.

These Drukhari had a really nice 'nature' theme.

The bases were particularly good tying everything together.

My own efforts in the cabinet, you've seen these guys before though.

Pretty amazed I fit the Skyshield in this time. Just before game 2 I did drop one of the Capillary Towers and chipped an inch long section of the clay on the base off. It'll be fine with a bit of glue but it was another example of how the nerves kicked in and the clumsiness prevailed.

The eventual winners - an insanely detailed Aeldari force by I believe a guy called Lee Bates [if wrong let me know].

The quality of the airbrushing - galaxies and planets, coupled with the thousands of stars was a marvel.

The Wraithguard that transitioned from purple to orange to blue, each helm featuring a tortured screaming skull learing out. I've no idea how this was done, it doesn't entirely look like it was monotone and then glazed as the black would be tinted too. It was beyond my comprehension.

As was this Wraith Seer, oh my!

Jetbikes and Hornets.

The planets on the Hornets were spectacular

The main guys again.

Amazing armies and I was just chuffed to be nominated again. There was always a chance but I went into the weekend with different aspirations and I was pelasantly surprised to achieve something not on that list and get this nice certificate/poster.

I'll try and get some Battle Reports done next.