++ Contact 07/89#d ++ Xenos Incursion ++ Tyranid turn 1

My son didn't do too much this turn. The Trygon passed it's Instinctive Behaviour test and scuttled across the back field, not sure hwere he was going but as long as it wasn't forwards it was a relief. The Gargoyle swarm flapped forwards and the Genestealers taking advantage of their fleet rule got as far into the Ferron Bindweed as possible, after running. A few Fleshborer shots were fired but the Terminator armour shrugged off the nasty little grubs without effect.

The Biovore targetted the flamer marine in front of the fence only for the spore mine to deviate. After BS reductions it sat happily between the two combat squads but was not within 2 inches to detonate, those crates came in handy. The Barbed Strangler also fired but deviated wildly without effect.

On to turn two...

++ Contact 07/89#d ++ Xenos Incursion ++ Space Marine turn 1

Movement phase, and the Terminators and Dreadnought moved out onto the Vulcan Plateau. Not entirely sure what the plan was here so we should move on.

One of the combat squads, with the flamer and sergeant moved up to the fence line. Hopefully this would at least be an impediment to any 'nids charging through the fence and the squad might survive long enough to take a few of them down.

The Tarantula had a pretty good field of fire. Can't recall which target it fired at first but I don't think it was successful. I also forgot it's supposed to aim for the nearest visible target, which should have probably been the Gargoyles. If it did any damage I don't recall, although one Genestealer was removed, so it was either pulped by the Tarantula or the Terminator squad.

Meanwhile I think the Dreanought let rip with the Assault Cannon and storm bolters and managed to take one wound off the Trygon, only five more to go! I think the Terminators peppered the ruins with Storm Bolter fire but were unable to do too much damage after cover saves, not helped by two of the squad standing behind Brother Cask so were unable to draw line of sight to the stealers.

And that was it for my turn.

++ Contact 07/89#d ++ Xenos Incursion ++ Dark Angel Interception ++ Threat level - six ++

Thanks to DoW: Dark Crusade my Son has renewed interest in GW. He's been painting his Eldar, is doing jobs round the house to earn money to buy more figures and the other day uttered the immortal words "can we have a game of 40k?" So on Saturday we dusted off Ferron Proxima and it's associated scenery and positioned them next to the new bits. It was only a 'small' force of 650ish points each, but of course that gets me little :

Belial and Terminator Squad

10 man tactical squad with missile launcher and flamer

A dreadnought

Heavy bolter Tarantula sentry gun

(18 figures - 18 wounds)

and he ended up with lots:

Tyranid Prime [LW+BS & Death Spitter] 

3xTyranid Warriors - 2xDeathspitters + Barbed Strangler

5xGenestealers with Toxin Sacs

1xBroodlord, Toxin Sacs and Scything Talons

10xGargoyles

1xBiovore

1xTrygon

(22 figures - 41 wounds)

Whenever I see these lists I can't imagine any outcome where the Emperor's finest are not left in puddle of goo before being turned into gribblies. Unlike last time where I blogged the battle live I decided to just take pics and upload the results afterwards. Games take too long as it is for us I didn't want another thing to slow it down. Stupidly I didn't take notes so I'll try to engage my mental cogitator to describe what's going on, but some bits may be hazy although the highlights will no doubt be burned into my optical augmetics for eternity. I won't be posting these every other day as it'll get tedious but equally all the posts in one go would be too much so each turn will be posted each day for the remainder of the battle, oh lucky you!

Anyway here's the setup for my Son, Warriors on the left flank, Biovore in the defence tower, Gargoyles in the centre, Genestealers occupying the ruins and the Trygon on the right flank. Of course the eagle-eyed of you will have spotted the [literally] school-boy error - Synapse, but we'll get to that.

The Dark Angel Tac Squad and sentry gun on the other hand had occupied the Eduardo Stobarto Distributorum Container facility. With the Terminators, Belial and Brother Cask taking up position on the Vulcan Plateau, in the shadow of the venerated Hero of the Imperium - Matt Black.

It was at this point we remembered to roll for which type of battle. There's no point to roll for type of deployment with this size of table but if there's objectives involved then I have a chance of competing, if it's annihilation I'm up the creek. Anyway, it was capture and control and my Son used his Hive Node as his strategic asset whereas I chose the Biohazard container beneath my Tarantula Sentry gun. Did I hear a cry of 'foul' there for not choosing Matt Black, Hero of the Imperium? Well lets be realistic, the Tyranids don't want a manky old statue they're much more interested in a container full of rich bio-med waste to create funky new gribblies!

We rolled for who goes first and both got 6s, this could be good! Then rolled again and I won and didn't lose the initiative, let battle commence.

PS note how the Honored Imperium Statue fits the tower socket square on the Vulcan Plateau - skillz that is!

Terrain is everything - a solution to an age old problem part 4

Apologies once again about the 'washed out' nature of these pics. I'm trying to find a quick solution to editing my phone pics, instead of using my digital camera then editing in Photoshop and trying to use the Blogger picture uploader, which sucks on IE6 [don't ask, we're saddled with the browser at work]. So far I tried Photoshop Express and Image Shrink Lite but a new App called PicSay allows me to import any image at 640x480 edit the colours quicker than P'shop Express and upload straightaway, so they should be better in future.

Anyhoo, here's the Vulcan Plateau with a bit of colour. Red Oxide Car Primer then I got some silver paint, mixed some black in for home-made Bolt-gun silver and drybrushed the meshed bits. Doing it this way shows a bit of the Red Oxide off underneath, a hint of rust, no less!

Next up is my old Vermilion art acrylic to highlight, then some black poster paint shading washes to try to tone down the glossy finish to the red highlights. Then perhaps a little paler drybrushing to bring out all the edges. Although, if I was in a situation where I needed a lot of terrain painted and ready, like if I was running a gaming club, I'd actually be happy with these as they are. So if you are in that sort of situation I'd heartily recommend stopping at this point.

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

The Techno-archaeologist Avro Vulcan has unearthed a new and complete Standard Template Construct. Standard Template Construct (STC) systems were advanced computers created during the Dark Age of Technology, which are said to have contained the sum total of human technological knowledge. An STC system was possessed by every group of human colonists before the Age of Strife, allowing them to build all of the equipment necessary for survival on an untamed colony planet. It enabled the colonists to build efficient shelters, generators and transports without any technical knowledge and using almost any locally available materials. The user simply asked how to build a house or a tractor and the computer supplied all the necessary plans.

Surprisingly STCs have been found for more mundane purposes and Vulcan's discovery falls into this particular realm. although not without historical ramifications for Ferron Proxima. Vulcan has discovered the STC for a 'raised plateau', in effect a man-made hill. On paper this may seem a rather underwhelming find, why would hills need to be made? It has since been revealed that 73.4% [factor a 2.6% differential] of all of the strategic high ground, or hills, on Ferron Proxima originated as an STC. It would seem the planet was unnaturally flat and the first settlers in need of increased visibility set about building higher ground so their settlements could be protected better.

Due to the high ferrous content of the rockcrete base of these mounds, over millenia the sharp and angular cast constructions weathered and rusted leaving the more organic shaped but iconic steep sided flat topped hills that can be found all over Ferron Proxima. Further investigation has shown that the STC's function often went beyond additional height. Storage facilities and underground habitation, amongst other things were built into the structure. This news marks all potential hills an undiscovered relic from before the Age of Strife. Who knows what may rest in a long forgotten mound?

To access the full STC for the first 'Vulcan Plateau' point your cogitators here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B97Rk-BalgZbZDg3MzNkMTktZGVhNS00MTA4LWE4MWEtYmI5MmUwZjgwYjIx/view?resourcekey=0-uaipWLa_ruOk6Frc6mdYWg

To see the collection of current STC's go here:
http://40kaddict.blogspot.com/2011/02/terrain-is-everything-standard-template.html

Terrain is everything - a solution to an age old problem part 3

Hey folks, here's a little update on my man-made hill. This is mainly fixing on all the details, the mounting card edges, Granny Grating, DoW strategic asset and modular socket. As you can see below the top was sectioned off with some strips of mounting card. I just did 5mm strips and cut them with scissors over the template to get the exact angles for them to butt up neatly.

I decided a DoW strategic asset might be nice. Originally my son had a Spider-Man Comic freebie toy that had these little yellow 'web-shooter' discs that I was going to use but couldn't find them. Obviously they've since resurfaced since this picture and typically they're too big to replace my orange card disc. A Robinson's Fruit Shoot cap will make the structure for the asset. It's not 100% what I want but it'll do.

The granny grating was put at an angle, which is a less efficient use of the material but it looked better. Seeing as I didn't do the angled wire fences the least I could do I make the effort here.

Here's where the modular aspect evolved by adding in a Vent Tower socket I can use the same plugs to create variety with the same hill. Either with just the rooftop:

Or with the rooftop and extension. The socket will be closed off with some sliding doors for when it's not a modular structure. I appreciate there isn't a door in the extension to get to the roof. I thought about putting one in the back, beside the steps but it would too complex at the moment. So let's just suspend our disbelief for a minute, like we have to do with plenty of other aspects of 40k and just get on with it! Folk can get to the roof and that's that.

Terrain is everything - a solution to an age old problem part 2

More work on my man-made hill. The original plan was to make this as simple as possible but you know these things are fluid, always in flux. It's at times like these where new ideas and directions become apparent and so the end result can be dramatically different than the initial concept. So they end up being less simple but more functional in the process. Here's the 'basic' hill.

The downside to this is the STC production. I could deliver about half a dozen new .pdfs of my STCs to 'my followers' and the community as a whole now [if they wanted] but the kinks may not have been worked out and I've not constructed them enough to show step-by-steps or put any instructions on the pages so it's a little clearer what goes where. However I've tried to stay on top of the template with this construction so who knows, this may leap-frog some older STCs and be in your hands before you know it! Here's a Dread for scale.

You can't tell but I messed up on the cutting for the bottom step, it's 5mm longer than the other ones but I kind of like it, the STC will be fixed to accommodate this error and there should be a cool little construction technique where interlocking bits of foam core should make that bottom step reall solid. As this hill will not have a board base it'll need to take the strain at this join. It also needed a bit of extra card under the front step, apparently my vertical measuring was out by about 1.5 mm so your average cereal box is too thin, and mounting card too thick, however the sort of card used to back A4 writing pads was just right!

Next up is mounting card edges on the top of the hill and steps with Granny Grating mesh on the top. That's right I come up with an idea for a simple hill in case you can't get hold of foam and use another material that not everyone can get their hands on! Of course you could do without or just use card squares with a tile pattern... Oh and the hills going modular [in a way]!