Gaming with my Son - Nids Vs Eldar 500pts

I think this is the first time we've played:

• on our new table 
• with the new Ferron Proxima battlemat
• with my son playing his Eldar
• with the Ferron Fire Firs
• with the DoW Plasma Generator

So 500pts, I took the BS/RC Prime, a load of Hormagaunts, Devgaunts, Biovore and Genestealers. I didn't take a Tervigon as I though it'd be a nightmare for him. He took a load of Guardians with a Bright Lance support weapon, Swooping Hawks, a Farseer as HQ and 3 Guardian Jetbikes. Here's the start with 3 objectives.

The Guardians take cover in the Ferron Bindweed.

The Tyranids hold the high ground next to the Plasma Generator.

The main swarm is driven to secure the Hive Node objective in the centre of the board.

Under the psychic control of the Prime the Hormagaunts leap forwards intent on securing the Hive Node.

As the alien menace bounds forwards the Eldar move out of the bindweed and take aim at the Prime who had not decided to 'join' the Hormagaunt brood. They manage to take a couple of wounds off him at which point I realise he is my only Synapse Creature on the board so I make a note to join him to the unit next turn IF he survives!

The Diving Eagles swoop out of the sky the Exarch's Sun Rifle a bright light of death amongst the Tyranids.

The jetbikes fly in from the flank the second objective is in the copse of Ferron Fire Firs to their right.

The Hormagaunts keep moving forwards, using the hill as cover, the Prime joins their brood hoping to use them as a meat shield.

The Devgaunts have taken cover in the coffee plaza ruins where the third hive node objective resides.

Teh Diving Eagles continue to blast away with their Sun Rifle and other weapons, taking a heavy toll on the Hormagaunts.

The Guardians press forwards, a stray spore mine floating aimlessly about the battlefield.

The Farseer strides toward the objective in brave defiance of the encroaching horde, while the jetbikes scream forwards to add support.

The Hormagaunts charge the Farseer, their Scything Talons proving too much for the Eldar mage [he didn't see that coming]

The Devgaunts move forwards to both hold the objective and hopefully add fire support against the Diving Eagles.

The Hormagaunts consolidated towards the Eagles who in turn charged them in their turn.

The Guardians spread out to add maximum fire support but stay out of charge range. The Jetbike heads back to the second objective.

The Guardians continue to rain shurikens into the Tyranids and hopefully thin the swarm.

The Jetbike, having narrowly weaved through the dense Fire Firs suddenly spots the arrival of nine Genestealers.

They charge into the copse, and despite the dense foliage they tear the Jetbike to shreds with their rending claws.

 

The Hormagaunts are completely decimated by shuriken fire, so the Devgaunts stretch their brood to try and capture both objectives 

With the prime hidden by cover he wills the brood to form a chain bridging the gap between node points

With the Devgaunts out of range the Guardians target the Prime, taking cover behind the trees.

But their storm of shurikens shreds foliage and Tyranid flesh alike as the remove the last of the Primes wounds leaving the central objective unsecured.

With the objective free the Guardians move forwards both to capture it and to get a bet firing angle on the remaining Devgaunts.

The Devgaunts skulk back towards the Hive Node

 

Meanwhile the Genestealers secure the other objective

The aerial view from the Eldar Craft Ship

The Synapse view from the Tyranid Kraken Hive Vessel.

It was a good game, I helped him a bit, particularly with arranging his Guardians to maximise his shooting. He overestimated his Farseer's ability but he was committed before it was too late and there was just no way he could survive the Hormaguants and Prime, but if he'd have taken that one wound off in combat...

With another couple of turns his volleys of shuriken fire could have dislodged the Devgaunts, and eventually the stealers but the end result was a 2:1 victory for me. My lesson was always remember how many Synapse Creatures you're using and protect them!

Gaming with my Son - Bloodbowl 2nd Edition

As my Blood Bowl painting efforts continue I managed to gee up some enthusiasm from the eldest to have a game, it was either that or 40k and he opted for the fantasy American Football. Of course I've only ever played 2nd Edition and I don't have the current 'Living Rulebook' for modern play so we stuck with what I know. In the past we just did the basic rules but I decided to up the ante and go with the advanced set and we had elves versus skaven, here's the end of my Son's first turn, no head to head shenanigans in 2nd Edition, and I never liked the kick-off rules brought back in with the Blood Bowl companion.

A number of his skaven ran upfield with his thrower hanging back completely undefended, lets just say he was very new to the game.

You don't see that every day, a three armed, be-tentacled giant mutant rat!

After some deft play and a few blocks one of his Skaven was deaded, 2 K.O.ed and 2 stunned but he'd still managed to slip through my defensive line and thrown the ball to a scuttling little rat fella - 1-0 to the skaven.

So, next round and I start off with the ball. 

At the end of the first turn my elves are heading upfield, I suppose this illustrates we they all start in the middle now.

Some punishing blocks put a lot of my elves on the floor, I'm not even sure where the ball is, it seemed to bounce around that pile of flattened individuals in the middle.

I think this picture pretty much describes what happened, the catcher managed to break free for the end-zone and my thrower managed to get in a simple pass to gain a draw.

That was it, we packed up after that. I think it was a fun little game. I know the new rules have that if you fail a block, throw or tackle etc. and it's a turnover from playing Blood Bowl on the DS but I kind of enjoyed the original you get to keep on blocking, rolling armour saves next block and on and on. The new rules add more tension, any fail could be your doom but it ends up a bit more tactical, a bit more like chess. Every move has to be made with 'what will happen if I fail?' in mind and so you have to try and plan your moves in a set order. It's interesting and perhaps more of a challenge but I feel 2nd Edition is a little quicker because if you do fail so what you just make your next block. It's like in 40k when you have a target you absolutely must kill and so if one thing misses you fire at it with another until you bring it down. Could you imagine if your turn in 40k was over if a unit missed? Of course they're different game mechanics and amounts of figures involved but it's an interesting thought.

'nids part 38 - The ebay goodness just keeps on giving

With the Warrior/Hive Guard conversion frenzy and the five new Termagants I forgot to show off the second reason I bought my bitz pack [after the Hive Node objective markers] Ymgarl Genestealers. OK there's none of the Tendril faces but the extra carapace armour and Scything Talons should differentiate them or at least when the armour is blue you'll definitely see a difference.

Of course one issue is I only have 4, but perhaps another bitz purchase should solve that issue and who knows what else I'll benefit from because of it?

Don't forget my  Ymgarl Genestealers. Mutation counters

'nids part 37 - Devilgaunts

My Devgaunts continue apace. Purchasde from my gaming and car sharing buddy Mark they've had all the washes and the chitin highlights done.

I love devourers, they work out expensive at 5pts a piece but a unit of 10 with 30 shots sure does focus folks attention elsewhere.

They make nice formations too.

Next up is the Toxin sacs, 2nd highlights, Bonewhite and claws.

As with the Broodlord, instant update! Originally I was neat with the Toxin Sacs, Dark Angel green only going in the  exposed part of the sac with the liver fleshy bits still showing but then as I put more highlights on  I thought 'sod it' lets have them all 'glowy' or implying the toxicity of the sacs suffuse both the fleshy bits as well as the orb glands that produce the poisons.

and I love 'em, hence why I used the green on the Broodlord. The colour fits in really well with my existing scheme and also allows me that opportunity to separate out units should I choose to field 2 squads of 10.

Poisened Toxin Sacs - yummy!

Claw highlights, Boenwhite and bases still to do.

Terrain is everything - Dawn of War Plasma Generator part 10

I've glued it together. I bit the bullet and just did it as I've so much on my plate at the moment I just want to feel like something is done and dusted but I don't know if you can see but something has changed since last we saw the Plasma Generator...

... do you notice just how big the air bubbles are at the top, compare them to the previous post and you willl see somehow the gel is evaporating and the hot melt glue seal isn't sufficient to prevent oxygen getting in.

 

I'm not sure what to do about it, I'm as surprised as you that it actually happened. The only silver lining is if I leave it upside down for long enough when we play I can leave it upright and the terrain actually moves throughout the game! Yeah, not much of a silver lining

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Other STCs are available

100 Not out

Wargames Workshop

I'm not sure hwo it's happened or which one of the faithful followers it was but I just hot 100 followers. Thank you all for visiting and enjoying the content enough to feel you didn't want to miss one of my ramblings. You're all special, I've a flipbook full of each individual profile picture that I keep next to my bed, or not?!

It's been around 19 months since I started the blog and although I may have occassionally suggested that I wouldn't be able to keep up with it I'm still here and so are you. My interest in gaming is greater than it ever was and although the hobby side of things peaks an troughs, like most things, I should hopefully have plenty of peaks to ride out those shallow periods. I've got loads of things I want to share, more fluff, more 'nids, and more STC's depending on whether Avro Vulcan ever sends them to his dead-drop or have those shadowy figures bent on his destruction finally succeeded? Hopefully we'll find out.

Thanks everyone.

'nids part 36 - Nu Broodlord

Amongst all the Hive Guard shenanigans I've still been working on the Broodlord [not to mention Devgaunts, five extra Termagants, Hive Node objectives and even a Spore Mine].

This Broodlord has had his Bonewhite and Ultramarine base, the liver coloured soft tissue bits and then the sepia and Devlan Mud wash. The first set of Chitin highlights are in place and it's going smoothly.

Back view, "why? WHY? WHY?"

And the left side view.

Here's a quick update, all the claws are 'blacked', the Chitin has had it's second highlight and his tongue has been painted green.

Again the green is something that looks cool, maybe cooler than the pink tongues. If I'm using a second Broodlord it will be with my Toxin Stealers anyway so the green tongue helps differentiate the Toxin brood from the Adrenals.

Next up, Bonewhite highlights, claw highlights and the base.

Gaming Night - Super Dungeon Explore

Last night I went to my Local Friendly Neighbourhood Gaming Club and as it was something of a spur of the moment thing I hadn't organised a match up or anything There seems to be a lot of interest in boardgames at the moment in the club so I was quite happy to stand around and watch a game of Last Night on Earth, a zombie apocalypse board game. It seemed a bit more complex than the game of Zombies!!! I played the other week but there were certain advancements as in proper objectives and a gamer playing the zombies. I think if I was just going to lay down on a zombie game it'd be Zombies!!! it was a little more fun but it depends what you're after.

Following that we got a game of Super Dungeon Explore in. It's like Heroquest, band of adventurers enter a dungeon and try get treasure and beat the baddies. What's different is the cute Manga Super Deform characters and the 80's video game metaphor used throughout. The figures are awesome and it was really fun to play with loads of swapping of potions to regain health and lost 'lives'. By the end of the game our intrepid band of four heroes was reduced to just two but we had a laugh. Worth checking out.

I've had most fun on gaming nights playing these games but I can't help feeling like it's a waste of a night. 40k is the thing I want to do but it's a pain getting all the miniatures out and it's slightly more anti-social as it is a competition most times between you and the guy you're playing with. With the boardgames it's fun and you can have a laugh, there's less invested in it so if someone dies horribly everyone giggles but at the end of the day it's a bit of fun. When I played 40k last week I realised what a difference a few weeks off made.

So I'm struggling to come to terms with the fun and frolics of the intangible against the serious but experiential benefits of 40k. It's like choosing between playing Angry Birds and Dawn of War? Still, it's all good so at least I had a good night.

'nids part 35 - Tyranid Warrior to Hive Guard conversion pt4.

Wassup! Here we go with the usual Hive Fleet painting, I'm pretty sure we decided this was Hive Fleet Gorgon before the Codex came out and rather neatly they're is a Gorgon in the Codex that has an interesting story and no figures painted so we aren't messing up anything.

As you can see, that's a BIG gun!

Here's the right side view, I wanted the claw to be grasping the pumice stone on the base but if I'd have bent the claws any more they'd have snapped right off.

Back view, I removed the top little tail spine as I thought the torso would have been obstructed by it, I was wrong. Tilting the tail section so it's more horizontal just meant the torso was flatter too, not as upright as I thought it would be.

Top view, so you can see the detail on the crest.

Left side view, I was enjoying the new green tongues so despite their being no Toxin Sac upgrades I went with green instead of the usual pink. This would help differentiate broods of Hive Guard, if necessary, I'm hoping to kit bash another two of these.

From the front, yes that REALLY IS A BIG GUN! I think the claws worked out well, still to do all their highlights and the Bonewhite highlights.

Here's a side-by-side comparison  of my Hive Guard and Warrior. I think their profiles are significantly different, it helps that all my Warriors have their weapons in their lower arm sockets, whereas the Hive Guard is upper. There isn't a huge difference in height, the crest rises to nearly the same height as the warrior but I think optically you arfe fooled into thinking it's shorter due to the pose and the head being smaller and lower down.

And to finish off a front and three quarters view, there's no mistaking these are very different beasts. I think the thing with 'nids is I could turn up to any event say its a 'gribbly beast with synaptic bogey fronds' and no one can argue as they're 'just 'nids' . Who knows the Codex and who thinks they're a difficult army? Why would they complain about anything. It's like Orks and looted vehicles. Slap some plasticard and small rivets on a G.I.Joe tank and it's been 'looted'.

'nids part 34 - Tyranid Warrior to Hive Guard conversion pt3.

Warrior to Hive Guard conversion v2.0 as I continue to mine gold from my amazing bitz pack I work on the second Hive Guard this time here's a shot of adding the end of the crushing claw to the torso. The inside of the base of the claw is gouged out a bit to have a channel. With a bit of flattening at the top of the Warrior torso this should then fit snugly together.

Here it is in place. One mistake I made with v2.0 was that I had sliced off a few millimetres of the base of the claw to make the 'crest' not stand so tall. This time I forgot so it stands prouder than I was planning for.

One reason for this is that I wanted a little variety in height for these two Hive Guard. I have some third party plastic 40mm bases that are 2mm lower than the GW counterparts. I'd opted to use these to make this Hive Guard shorter than v1.0 but thanks to the taller crest they are roughly the same height, although their profiles are markedly different. Also of note is just how far you have to position the legs - right on the edge of the base. If you mover them forward any further the figure becomes unstable, thanks to the size of the Impaler Cannon.

And here's the big difference, extra armour plates from the Termagant upgrade sprue. You've bound to have loads of these, I use two of the pentagon shaped ones with the slightly more ridged triangular plate as the final one at the base. This better reflects the more armoured nature of the Hive Guard, when you see the actual model the head is protruding from the carapace with both a crest at the front and back, with the front one obviously being smaller.

In the end I was so pleased with this addition after I painted v1.0 I painted up three armour plates while they were attached to their sprues and just glued them in place on the finished model, you'd never know they hadn't been their all along.