I've only gone and ordered a...

... Tervigon!

Whilst I await my Purity Seal and Gale Force Nine Autumn Flock order from Maelstrom Games [nearly 4 weeks since despatch and 6 weeks since purchase :( ] I only went and saw a great deal at Wayland Games for the Tervigon.

Of course you all know I made my own from a Carnifex and I suppose I would have been happy with that but the scale is so wrong that at some point I'll probably be called on it, especially if I'm playing in tournaments. So I do need the proper model, and it does give me the opportunity to field two Tervigons and that way I can always swap them around to ensure there's always accurate Line of Sight etc.

Anyway, £28.70 with a voucher code for free postage! Will I try and paint this before the Warhammer World Tournament on June 6th...? I'll have a damn good shot at it!

GW Manchester Eldar

I've mentioned in the past the awesome Eldar army in the Manchester GW. They did a feature of it in What's New Today once but I can't find the actual link. I had opportunity to nip in a while back and take some snaps. The pics in no way do justice to the quality and creativity of the painting but maybe go some way encouraging you to check them out if you ever get chance.

First up some rather fetching brown Howling Banshees:

Then some Dark Reapers, the OSL on the missile launchers is quite cool.

Some very turquoise Swooping Hawks. This utilises the semi-metallic technique used in the entire army. Every colour has been mixed with a metallic paint or medium so they all have a pearlescent effect that is subtle and definitely other-worldly.

The Wraithlord is more representative of the majority of the Craftworld colour scheme. This subtle grey metallic effect washed with a sepia for the shadows and a pale metallic lilac for all the markings. Also of note is the green glow effect on the head, this is on all the Wraithguard too, as if some psychic glows is suffusing through the wraithbone construction. A lovely effect.

The Return of my Gaming Crew

Last month I had a bit of an 'Old Ba$tards Reunion' with many of my Old Gaming Crew and got to chatting with one of the guys, Ben, who lives but a few minutes away (bottom left in the pic from the early 90's). Well he sent me a text the other day and asked if I wanted to nip round for a game? Taking into account last year he entered a tournament at Warhammer World and came 6th out of 200! How could I refuse?

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures last night, maybe next time but it was a very interesting match-up. He'd given me fair warning he was going to use Necrons but I was thinking old-school - Warriors, Destroyers, Wraiths, Scarabs maybe a new Command Barge... Wrong!

For his 1,500pts he had

• Command Barge with The Traveller Dude [with a Tachyon Arrow]
• 3 [or was it 4] Annihilation Barges
• Triarch Stalker
• Ghost Ark
• 10 Warriors
• 5 Flayed ones
• 2 Units of immortals [at least 10 in each unit] Tesla Carbines
• At least 8 or 9 scarabs
• Cryptek

Which I think covers most of it. Of course if you've been a long time reader, first time commenter you'll know our Tyranids aren't completely comfortable with mech, I have a healthy fear of it and we don't have the recommended figures to deal with it. If you recall the problems I had with Guard AV11 Leman Russes in assault, well this is the same deal but with the shooting side of things their AV goes up to 13 [yeah I suppose the Russes do to]. Oh and it was Annihilation and you know how I love that mission type!

Anyway, without pictures there's not a great deal I can share without it just being a series of disconnected 'what I did next was...'.
However I'll try to cover some highlights. Necrons:

• The Tachyon Arrow, ha, ha! It hit and could wound my Trygon Prime on a 2+, yeah you know it - a 1.
• Tesla weapons just ate my units, arcing everywhere and with quite a few 6's which give another 2 hits they were total Tyranid killers.
• The Crypteks Tremor Stave was also handy in slowing down my advance, especially when used against Gargoyles - if I wanted to move 12" they were already in difficult terrain so I'd have to roll a terrain test. So they crept along instead of flapping. They made an effective wall of cover though. 
• The Immortals were just solid and I think for every 3 I killed 1 ended up getting back up.

And my highlights. Tyranids:

• My Hive Guard continued their 50% deal, 2 out of 4 hits, 1 out of 2 penetrates. However Ben pointed out that they were in fact 100% effective in that they Destroyed an Annihilation Barge and the Command Barge in their two rounds of shooting. They held The Traveller in combat for two turns, caused a wound and suffered 1, then the Tervigon arrived and flattened him so good he didn't ever get back up! So I'm definitely getting the next two of the Hive Guard converted.
• The Trygon took out the Flayed ones, Warriors and blew up the Ghost Ark 7 times over, although those first two combats took 2-3 turns to resolve before I could take the Ark.
• Genestealers were a bust, the Broodlords survived for quite a while but got mashed by the Immortals and the Adrenal one attacked the Triarch but just couldn't penetrate and was stepped on and danced over. If I'd gone for a Barge I may have had some joy... Not one single basic Stealer got into combat!
• Meanwhile the Warriors were held in combat with the Scarabs for a long time, but it took two broods of Termagants and a bundle of Hormagaunts combined to finally whittle away the many little metal bugs nipping at their heels. I think only the prime was left after this concluded.
• Oh, and the Mycetic Spore was assaulted! And he killed someone before he was killed in return.

The game was much closer than expected even if by turn 5 I had just 3 termagants left on the field and they were running away. In the middle of the game it was quite close but the Tervigon and Trygon had all taken significant wounds and the Hive Guard were tied up with the Traveller - I realised too late I should have charged the Biovore into him to keep him occupied and ensure the Hive Guard got another turn of shooting at the mech.

But it was a great game. Ben's army is really well painted and to prevent arguments he employs the 'rolling dice in a game box system' I try to employ with the kids. It's formality certainly fits with the Necron aesthetic. I did much better than I expected and the mech was a challenge and I know this list is in no way appropriate but I think just a few small changes might have been able to tip possibilities a bit further in my direction. However, I make my list based on objective missions which account for ⅔ of the missions so I hope changes I make don't make them less versatile for those matches. Anyway, we'll probably play again and he's suggested I think about the doubles tournament in Warhammer World in October so we'll see. I promise I'll get pictures next time, it's a good set up and well worth your viewing pleasure.

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.