1500pt battle report - nids vs Orks

Even after the Scythe and Teacups marathon tournament I'm still hungry for my games. My hobby mojo may be on the wane a little bit but when Ben asked my for a game I wasn't about to refuse. I decided to not take the Doom, instead I went for two Flyrants, two Spore Pods with 10 Devgaunts each, two Tervigons and a Biovore and Bastion with a Mawloc. Altogether quite a compact if monstrous force with no HIve Guard either! Ben intimated he would be taking two flyers, which given how successful one Dakkajet had been in bringing down my Flyrant I expected them to do just as well and I actually spent a lot of time running it through my head how I was going to counter that threat. In all honesty that was NOT how I wanted to play. After a days competitive gaming I really wanted a fun bash and was secretly hoping to lose in as much disastrous flames and choppiness as the Orks could provide.

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant HQ Winged Tyrant  Tervigon CC troop Tervigon Plain Troop Enfeeble Endurance Life Leech Iron Arm Life Leech Smite Smite Smite

The low down:

• The Scouring
• Dawn of War
• Ben won deployment, and went first
• Warlord Trait - Re-roll reserves.

So, board setup, my Tervigon on the left flank nearly went unnoticed by Ben ;) I have a 1pt objective behind the Bastion - next to the meteor crater. There's a a 3pt objective to the left of the bastion behind the other meteor crater and my 3pt objective is just in front of the trees my Tervigon is hiding in.

This big mob of Orks is led by the special character weirdboy that can turn Independent Characters into Squigs. A 4pt objective is just out of shot below on the chaos shrine.

Ben's 'borrowed' Defence Line with Ghazkhull Thrakka leading the greenskins. A 2pt objective is on the left in front of the Aegis and there's another 2pt objective out of shot on the right. So Ben had got 8pts to my 7pts.

Funny how this guy was nigh invisible in the woods. With the objectives in my half I opted not to outflank with it just in case I ended up on my right flank which was short of objectives. Also I needed to be spawning  from turn 1 to ensure I had Troops to control them

My two 3 pointers.

Turn 1 and the Orks move forwards. Some shooting happened but it was practically ineffective with I thin zero damage taken.

CC Tervigon spawned 9 and headed for the onjective - a Grav Wave Generator.

Vanilla Tervigon spawned out on 14  held the targetting relay. The Mawloc burrowed and Biovore entered the Bastion, while the Tervigon and Flyrant waited for their chance.

Well that was unexpected! Ben's Ork Kommandos had a special character that allowed them to outflank from any baord edge. Suddenly I've got a krak Kommando unit behind me who promptly flamed 8 of the Termagants to death.

And then the Tervigon suffered 2 wounds too.

It's raining gribblies! With +1 to my reserves AND re-rolls [though I didn't need them] this was inevitable. My Mawloc burst forth but due to the cover save from the difficult terrain on the hill only killed 1 Ork. 

Spore pods landed and Flyrant swooped in. It was shot by the Quad Gun but saved it's 1 wound and kept flapping.

My HQ Flyrant swooped left across the board and together with the 9 newly spawned gaunts and the Tervigon whittled the Kommandos down to 5 and their leader, who took a wound. The Tervigon even tried Life Leech on them only to be 'denied'.

With the Devourers eating away the other boyz they broke and fled. Not wishing to pass up a free feed the gaunts decided to finish the job...

...and bit off more than they could chew - killing only one Ork and having 8 of their number chopped up into chunks. Still no First Blood at this stage but this combat next turn would definitely not end well for the nids.

The concentrated deep strike fire routed the big mob of Orks too. with 4 left and the Weirdboy they too headed for the hills.

Ben had only decided to take one Dakkajet, I think he'd have been better taking two because this one zoomed on and took out the CC Tervigon putting 11 wounds on it and I failed 4 saves, just enough to kill it off and take the lone remaining spawned gaunt from turn 1. First Blood to Ben and worse still that was my sole remaining spawning Tervigon. The other spawned gaunt was chopped up in combat. The Weirdboy and his 4 Boyz rallied and then he zapped out of existence only to reappear on my right flank.

My Flyrant Enfeebled the Kommandos who were wiped out by the Devgaunts. The Mawloc burrowed.

Ghazkull came out from behind the Defence Line and shot up the Spore Pod while my Devgaunts had positioned to stay as far away as possible from him but still hold the objective, even if it was sabotaged.

Flyrant two headed behind the Aegis and killed all but 2 or three Gretchin but they steadfastly would not rout. A lot of fire went into the Nobz and Ben decided that Ghazkull would take most of the wounds but the weight of Devourer fire, even with his full save was just too much and he succumbed, giving me Slay the Warlord. 

But Ghazkull and his Nobz made it just into kombat and slaughtered the Devgaunts even though they were peppered four time with Devourer grubs on overwatch. The remaining Grots shot the Flyrant behind the Defence Line. He got wounded but FnP saved his life, but in doing so he plummeted out of the sky and was wounded but once again FnP saved his life!

The Mawloc burst up from the ground again. Instead of hitting the Nobz it got confused and seemed to come up through the same burrow again! HQ Flyrant failed to Enfeeble the Nobz, I think taking Perils in the process. He then shot a few more Nobz

Spare Flyrant vector struck the remaining Gretchin and killed them all and was perfectly positioned on the remaining 'boyz 'n the wood'

The remaining Nobz multi-assaulted the Mawloc and Spore pod. The succumbed to Fear and even with my Spore Pod hitting first on 3s I failed to hit and to cap it all my Mawloc did hit but failed to wound! In response the mullered the Spore Pod and took a wound or two off the Mawloc. Meanwhile the Dakkajet managed to hit my 14 gaunts behind the Bastion but as they were out of Synapse I went to ground in the meteror crater and only one or two died. The weirdboy and his boys closed in on Linebreaker,

Next turn for the Orks and my Devgaunts heading back to secure my 3pt objective were the next Dakkajet target. They were routed off the board as they were just out of Synapse range because I'd sent my vanilla Tervigon back to bring the other 14 gaunts out of 'going to ground' which they managed, moved through cover 6" and ran 6" to gain the middle 3pt objective in the vain hope the Tervigon could also hot foot it through the trees and secure this 3 pointer. It was not to be but we did put a glance on the Dakkajet and the Weirdboy cast some spell that backfired and killed himself and his remaining boyz.

The final nail in the coffin for the Orks was that the Nobz were enfeebled and when the Warlord Flyrant assaulted he instakilled 4 Nobz in combat, given they were now Toughness 3 to his Strength 6. Which resulted in Ben saying I was very 'naughty' and pretty much called it there and then.

I honestly didn't think this force would have been as effective as it was. I'm also a bit disappointed it was as brutal a result as it turned out to be. I dropped the Doom so it wasn't painful but 60 Strength 4 shots and 24 twin-linked Strength 6 shots alongside the 12 Strength 6 Ripper Tentacles and the 3 twin-linked Deathspitters on one pod was just insanely good, funny how it didn't work that way on those Dark Eldar ast the Scythe and Teacup. Anyway, if those play test rumours are to be believed I may as well enjoy the Brainleech Worms while I can, if they're going to get rid of THE best load out for Flyrants possible.

There was another impression for me that my dice are dodgy again. I've played a number of games recently where it just seems to be endless 5s and 6s which worries but then those very same dice will roll 1s and 2s and particularly with the Devgaunts I was statistically hitting the average rolls most of the time so that allayed my fears although occasionally it was above average. What was more noticeable was that I don't think I failed a Feel No Pain roll once. My spare Flyrant went unwounded and even when he did get knocked out of the sky FnP saved him twice! All credit to the Nobz though, they did awesomely and despite the Beta Strike working both Spore Pods and their occupants were destroyed which severely impacted my ability to hold objectives.

I think for Ben it's become apparent I've honed my nid skills, even when I drop the Doom I've stuff that is just s painful to play against. I think our next match up will either be to see if I can overcome his Necrons again or otherwise I will look at using a list very different, perhaps using the models I don't usually try, like a 20 strong Stealer brood and Hormagaunts. We'll just have to see.

Terrain is everything - Hail the Omnissiah a new STC is found!

Techno-archaeologist Avro Vulcan has believed to have been in enforced hiding for months now. The truth is he has not cowed to the shadowy figures out to destroy him or steal his work. His absence has been in the pursuit of more knowledge and to unearth the Standard Template Construct (STC) pattern for what has been described as a 'Vent Tower' by some of his more disparaging contemporaries.

 
In truth, one use for the tower is indeed venting geothermal ground-source heat pumps and in rare cases through the use of Standard Manifold Couplings a Plasma Generator can be installed in the tower.

However, the Cetacean Tower can be used as a multipurpose structure, including an Imperial Shrine, a frontier outpost, a small Bastion or even an Astral Communications Bunker and Navigation Array. The versatility of it's construction is evidenced when the Baleen roof extension is added during the build.

The extension increases the field of view for the tower without compromising the battlement surface area and can be added repeatedly. Additional fireports are present in the extension and can be fitted with emplaced weaponry, should the resources prove available. Thanks to the Standard Manifold Coupling the Baleen Extension is also compatible with the various man-made hill STCs Vulcan has already discovered.

The STC discovered by Avro Vulcan contains some of the most detailed template instructions to date, a crowning glory for the efforts Avro has gone to to ensure his STC will 'stand the test of time'. However, given the modular nature of this STC there are some elements that could not be recreated using Vulcan's arcane data retrieval algorithms. Luckily, this STC comes with links to a number of archival pict feeds of a Cetacean Tower and its Baleen Roof Extension under construction. These visual records are valuable in themselves as they pre-date the Age of Strife and hark back to the halcyon days before the Horus Heresy.

So far only one Cetacean Tower has been built on Ferron Proxima, to stand at the edge of the wastelands in defiance of the newly discovered Xenos threat that is gestating in its uncharted midst. Underfall, as it has been called is a first line beacon of the Emperor's Will - a tower defence that will see the alien scourge as it approaches and, given it's comms array built into the rooftop, will rapidly call force the vengeful retribution of the recently arrived 2nd Tactical Squad of the 5th Company of the Dark Angels. Squads Gideon and Boreas, veterans of the Siege of Vraks, have answered the calls for help raised from their recruitment world and may herald the coming of a larger force descended from the First Legion.

To access the full STC please point your Cogitators here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B97Rk-BalgZbNWFYbWc2c0NWelU/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-Dp1x31Mt9nmkmxy0xwLzrw

This STC will be uploaded to the full Ferron Proxima STC library shortly. You can access the database here:

http://40kaddict.blogspot.com/2011/02/terrain-is-everything-standard-template.html

+++ Data Blurt - One +++

+++ Data Blurt - Two +++

+++ Data Blurt - Three +++

+++ Data Blurt - Four +++

+++ Data Blurt - Five +++

Armies on Parade board - Update

Apologies if there's a sense of de ja vu about this post but after the update there's the actual pictures and I added ALL the figures this time so, why not? Anyway, the clear result was I won! There's my GOLD medallion, I think I'm going to get a ribbon for it so I can 'inspire a generation'.

Sadly I was the only one that entered, the other 2 or 3 people who'd promised to do one had not been able to finish. Luckily the store manager was prepared to let me set everything up and initially implied he'd give me all three medal [I actually think the bronze one looks the best]

Anyway, I stayed for the day, chatted to some parents bringing in their kids 'starting the hobby' then had a 1000pt game with the store manager using the store's nid army and was thankfully beaten by his Ultramarines led by Sicarius - he Coup-de-gras my Tervigon and in the psychic backlash laid down 18 wounds on the sole remaining Termagant in assault. He won 4-1 on kill points.

It was quite sad there were no other entries, I think there's a misunderstanding that it has to be on a battle-board tile. It only has to be a 2'x2' board and my .mdf was about £5. Saying that though the manager did say they'd been told that should someone want a single battle board tile [and they sell the flat ones in pairs] they'd sell one for £30. I guess that's one thing to take into account should you enter next year.

And why wouldn't you? Nothing says it has to be a new army, granted that may be what people do and create a diorama to showcase it but my aim was to create a board that would display what I've done over these past 2-3 years. The figures speak for themselves.

The minimum requirement is 1 HQ and 2 Troops, that's not such a lofty goal and even if you just painted a tile and turned up at my GW today you'd have gone home with a trophy, who knows what was happening at your nearest store?

Anyway, hopefully people will give it a go in the spirit showing off what they've done over the year, so start thinking now.

Armies on Parade board - The finished article [near enough]

The board is done, not that you can see much of it once I put all the figures on it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to fit the digestion pit on too but most of everything I'll be showing is on there or at least an indication of where they might go [Gargoyles in the background I'm looking at you].

I've got the Ymgarls up front coming out of the smashed Aquila. They're some of the more recently painted nids and are quite varied in their mutations so I think it was appropriate them being the vanguard of the force.

The second Flyrant will have his wings replaced with the Swarmlord's Bonesabres. The wings are a bit too big at the front distracting from what's behind but there was nowhere else to put him really. I even got my Rippers on the board on the right. The blades are black with Turquoise, I have to still photograph them in natural light.

CC Tervigon is the 'mother hen' that is back at the hive [Bastion] which is surrounded by it's defensive walls [and Quad Gun ;) ] and it's aptly named 'Hive Guard' who are defending the Hive from anyone foolish enough to approach. I think this accurately depicts my belief that Tyranids are not just a roaming force that don't have structures or things to defend. When you see it like this it makes sense, sadly with so little Tyranid terrain and buildings you don't often see it like this, hence the misconceptions.

Even the Trygon had to take a back seat due to the amount of stuff on the board and when I display it for real I will probably add even more gaunts wherever I can fit them! The Biovore is hiding in the background too.

Hive Guard and Quad Gun defend the Hive. I was quite surprised how well the defence line managed to fit the hilltop that was cut at a completely random shape. I guess it's just very versatile.

My rarely seen Gargoyles will be in the background. I dislike them so much I couldn't even be bothered to put more than 4 in these shots, just treating them as 'placeholders' for where I'll put them today.

Lastly, plenty of node points will be scattered among the battlefield debris.

I'll be dragging all this stuff to Southport and it also happens to be day one of the Southport Airshow. The Red Arrows should be there [weather permitting] and indeed tomorrow there was supposed to be a fleeting visit by Avro Vulcan, no, not Avro Vulcan but the only remaining flying Avro Vulcan, unfortunately I've been told it's suffered a mechanical problem so will be unlikely to attend. Maybe the Free Radical Collective have go to it! However, it does mean Southport will be an absolute nightmare tomorrow for traffic/parking so hopefully I'll find a way to avoid all of that.

Meanwhile, having finished my board a few weeks back and coming down after the 'gluttony' of the Scythe and Teacup tournament my hobby Mojo is at an all time low. Even painting the Swarmlord's Bonesabres left me on some occasions unable to paint for more than 20-30 minutes at a stretch [bodes well for my Dark Angels!]. The situation has not been helped by a renewed interest in Dawn of War II and more recently Saints Row 3rd [I know IV  has just come out but 3rd is what I've got].

Not to mention my kids started back at school this week and I discovered now my eldest is in secondary school and has much further to walk he gets up 20-30 minutes after me and will be under my feet while I get my morning routine done. On the plus side it may force me to abandon my late night stupidity so I can get up on time and get my stuff done before the kids descend on me. And my 93 year old Aunt has also been in hospital this week which is emotionally and physically draining too.

Sadly this means my blog schedule is running dry which may force a short hiatus, but usually when I suggest that, my mojo returns and nothing changes. Although give me a glut of GW today and I may just keep feeling sated like an overfed snake for weeks again. However, even if a short break transpires there may well be something wonderful that will happen before then, it's Saturday though and it seems no one reads the blog on the weekend [according to my stats] so who knows if anyone will pick up the teaser tomorrow...