Necron tactica and showcase from my mate Ben pt2

Here's the second part of Ben's Necron tactica and army showcase [thanks again for putting this together Ben].

Troops

The necron warriors are a cheap troop choice durable and their gauss blasters can always glance vehicles.

I always take 2 big units of immortals with teslas. The tesla weapons are amazing the extra hits rule makes them great at snap firing and the high strength gives them a chance of wounding even the toughest opponents.

Triarch Stalker

Its targeting relay helps the troops hit making their weapons twin linked if they choose the same target and its heat ray gun is a great anti-armour weapon thanks to its 2 shots and melta rule.

Scarabs

I put these in to slow down the advance of an assault army and to rush forward giving my opponent an immediate threat. There entropic strike rules can also help pull the most heavily armoured vehicle apart.

Canoptek Wraiths

These are my assault troops great invulnerable save and good in close combat the whip coils can help them get an assault in before my opponent, without this they tend to go last.

Annihilation Barges

All my barges have Tesla cannons and Destructors. The twin linked Tesla Destructors are phenomenal. High strength multiple shots I have found they are even great at shooting down flyers thanks to the special tesla rule. As if this wasn’t enough they are hard to destroy good armour and jink saves.

Fortifications

Finally I took an aegis defence line with a quad gun. I made the defence line from one of my monoliths as I found they aren’t any way near as good as they used to be and to be honest it makes quite a good defence line.

The quad gun was made from left over monolith bits a tomb blade, and I used gauss blasters from the tomb blade kit making them longer with sniper rifles from the deathmarks. The defence line was something that perhaps I didn’t need in my list but my fear of flyers made me take one. In its defence (no pun intended) it did intercept and blow up an Imperial guard Vendetta.

Necron objectives

I have found this necron list very very good and believe you would have to be very unlucky to loose with it. I played 5 games at TOS and numerous games with Dave, Otty and Liam and have never lost. During TOS though I was matched against a fellow Necron player and, even though I won, I realised how frustrating and in many ways soul destroying it can be to face a Necron army. Consequently I haven’t played with my Necron army since.

I have been battling with one of my mate Liams armies, which he has kindly lent me, Imperial Guard. I have now gone from one extreme to the other, from always winning to always loosing. I have found Imperial guard very hard to win with but to be honest asides the games where I have been tabled (thanks Liam) I have enjoyed the games a lot more. Trying to win with a poor codex is much more fun than winning with the best one and I believe Necrons are the hardest race in 40k. To back this statement up Necrons where the best performing army at the Throne of skulls we attended having the highest average score.

Warhammer 40K Throne of Skulls March 2013

HQ
Imotekh The Stormlord
1 Royal Court
1 Cryptek Harbinger of Eternity aeonstave  Chronometron
1 Cryptek Harbinger of Despair Abyssal Staff  Veil of Darkness
1 Cryptek Harbinger of the storm Voltaic Staff

Troops
9 Necron Warriors
9 Immortals
10 Immortals

Elites
Triarch Stalker

Fast Attack
5 Canoptek Scarabs
3 Canoptek Wraiths  1 with Whip Coils

Heavy Support
3 Annihilation Barges Tesla cannons 

Fortifications
Aegis Defense Line + Quad Gun

'nids part 92 - Tyranid Bastion growth pt13.

Another 2fer, with 2 days updates. Firstly I decided to sculpt some fleshy bits round the fire ports [node points]. 

I'm not 100% convinced this was the best thing I could have done but it did need something and eventually some more red flesh should go some way to break up the large bone white walls.

As you can see I also added lava rocks at the base. I'd originally planned to use beads and paper balls but once again chatting to my brother about his lizard vivarium he reminded me about them and they do make  less uniform blobs and therefore more interesting more organic shapes. I've also got tons of them so go with the easiest option.

With a bit of effort I'll get it to blend in a bit more than the 'stones stuck on the side of the building' it resembles at the moment.

An we're coming full circle to the skills I picked up on my first kitbash - Carnifex to Tervigon

The lava rocks were covered in small bits of tissue paper soaked in PVA. This gives a thin membrane stretching across the lava rocks much like the birthing sac of the Tervigon. I want it to look like the Bastion is gestating Tyranid bioforms. It's not just a defensive structure it's part of the Hive and as such fulfills a variety of rolls.

I also added a number of tendril vines coming out of the fire ports. As usual this is just PVA soaked unwound string [or twine]. I actually had two different gauges here so tried to mix and match to get a pit of variety.

With the inner towers, where there was less of a crater I wanted to show the tower had pushed up through the surface a bit. Once again I'm not 100% convinced I got this spot on, I struggled to find some reference imagery but some slate and Milliput did a half decent job and when the sand goes on it should cover up any inconsistencies.

More vines and PVA membranes

The single vines seem to work the best here I think. The vines that have not been unwound so much do tend to look just like frayed string but hopefully the paint job will suggest otherwise. I also added a number of crafting beads in the crevices between the larger lava rocks. These will be picked out in green the same way I did the small pustules on my Tervigon [picture at the end]. Once again this is to break up the expanse of colours and add a bit of variety.

The other ground-rupturing inner tower

If you go back to the start of this update [or any other updates for that matter] you may notice that the moonscape base is attached to mounting card. I'll be adding sand to the edges to transition the crater but before that I decided to cover the card with Milliput. This needs to be durable, especially on the edges and I didn't want to rely solely on the mounting card. Of course it's only reinforced on the top but I think it should make it considerably stranger than card alone. A simple thin sausage was pushed into place and carefully smoothed with not too much water as I didn't wish to soak the card.

So folks, aside from adding sand to the base that's the construction done as far as I'm concerned. I may add a few wandering Adrenal Glands but I'll do that after it's painted which will be my next update. 

As promised you can just make out the Tervigon's maroon incubation sacs with the livid green pustules I aim to replicate this on the lower sacs on the Bastion.

Tyranid Bastion | Foamboard core template | part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. | part 10. | part 11. | part 12. | 

'Blind gaming'

I've been pimping er, promoting the blog on a number of forums recently. Given a number of blogging networks seem to be 'overloaded' resulting in fewer returns, or perhaps the loss of Google Reader I think it's inevitable that you've got to do the leg work to show people what's on your blog and invite them over. To do it well you also have to be a part of that forum, not just rock up and shout about what you've done but be a part of the community. One way to do that is to look at the 'unanswered posts' who doesn't feel a bit left out when their question goes unloved and unanswered?

So, over on www.warpshadow.com I spotted one thread asking for a Battle Brother. Someone had a pair of tickets to Warhammer Worlds pairs tournament and his wife was unavailable and regular gaming buddies could potentially be working. So I thought hwy not? This morning I got the nod from 'Centurion' that I can be on the team. At first it seemed a bit weird to meet up with a complete stranger to game but pretty much every tournament you play in is against people you don't know and I'm thinking it's going to be fun. I really hope he is Max Ray though and at some point goes 'power extreme'!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szjcCB8m3G8

Anyway, aside from the perhaps 'oddness' of 'blind gaming' I did think this would be a good opportunity to give the Bastion a run out and Centurion is up for it. There is best army nominees again, I don't whether it's a joint thing but his Tyranids are coincidentally the opposite to mine, not in colours but in colour use. His body colour is blue with brown/bone chitin whereas you know mine are brown/bone bodies with blue/turquoise chitin and I think they'll look quite good as force. There's still opportunity to do best fortifications and models too, so I'll be 'in like Flynn' with the Bastion and a number of other things. 

However, this will most likely result in some pictures on the Warhammer World Facebook page of the finished article. So I've brought forward the final construction updates for tomorrow but the painting updates will still be over time therefore if you want to avoid spoilers do not look at the Warhammer World pages Sunday onwards, but if you do at least you'll know what it's 'naked' construction looks like and you should have been able to extrapolate the finished paint scheme based on my other works. 

So a fun weekend ahead, traffic willing ;)

'nids part 91 - Tyranid Bastion growth pt12.

The Bastion is now weaponised! All the Deathspitters are now in place.

With some left over Milliput I sculpted some fleshy muscular bits that will allow the weapon to move in it's fire arc [not for real, just pretend]. I also added some Toxin Sacs, not so much for them to be toxic mind I just wanted to add some other bits and so I can put in some different colours. If anything it may be the brain sacs that fire the weapon...?

I wanted to add an Adrenal Gland to the top of the door, it opens the sphincter obviously, its not there for any other reason (¡)

Another emplaced weapon.

Some more fleshy musculature perhaps.

And the top view showing it's compass points as a normal Bastion would have as a fire arc, just offset.

Tyranid Bastion | Foamboard core template | part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. | part 10. | part 11. | 

Necron tactica and showcase from my mate Ben pt1

My mate Ben decided he wanted to share his efforts on the blog and as you can see felt like the Bridesmaid in our little gang. At Throne of Skulls he was the most successful gamer out of all four of us but did not come home with any certificates which was a shame. I think his army is extremely well painted [despite his claims otherwise] and I'm not sure I could have done quite as good a job on them. He's incredibly consistent with his painting and has added nice little touches throughout. So when he says "I will openly admit I don’t possess the painting or conversion skills of my 3 talented friends" don't believe him. As a group we like to play with painted minis and I always enjoy setting up against Ben and his army, even if they're going to smear me into Xenos paste by the end of it. Be sure to comment at the end to let him know what you think.

Throne of skulls march 2013 - Necron list that won 5 out of 5 games.

Feeling a bit left out as my mates Otty and Liam both having contributed to Dave's 40k blog site, I thought it may be of interest to everyone, especially Necron players, the list and army I took to Throne of Skulls March 2013. I will openly admit I don’t possess the painting or conversion skills of my 3 talented friends and see myself as a player more than a modeller. I sadly spend days reading/ studying rules and codex’s trying to come up with competitive (some may say beardy!) lists. The list I took to Throne of skulls is below.

I thought I’d give a brief outline of why I took what I took and I apologise now if it seems I’m trying to teach people to suck eggs that isn’t my intention.

Imotekh Stormlord

I took Imotekh who’s Lord of Storm rule is, well, just too good to be honest. In most of the games I played he was able to destroy something first turn thanks to lightening which often gave me first blood. The night fighting rule also helps Necrons as their guns have mostly short range(24inch) it makes your opponent move nearer as the max range during night fighting is 36inch. Imotekh’s hyperlogical strategy is also a good rule giving you a great chance of steeling the initiative. I’ve often thought it might be best to let your opponent deploy first and have the advantage of second set up and then try and steel the initiative.

3 Crypteks

 

I took 3 Crypteks one with a Chronometron I placed him with the Stormlord mainly so he could re-roll the dice to keep night fighting in play throughout the games. The shrouded and stealth rules also often give the annihilation barges a better jink save.

 

I took another Cryptek with a voltaic staff and put him with Necron warriors, I felt the haywire ability of his staff fitted well with the warriors gauss blaster ability. They all have a good chance of wrecking even the most heavily armoured vehicles with multiple glancing hits.

 

The final Cryptek I put with 10 immortals he has the Abyssal staff template weapon and veil of darkness. I start this unit at the back of board behind the aegis and use it to deep strike near the end of the game to either try for an objective or gain linebreaker or both.

'nids part 90 - Tyranid Bastion growth pt11.

It's two days update for the price of one, or else you'll never get this thing done. So first of all it's another load of flesh strands on the towers, with Chitin plates 3 and 4 on the larger and inner towers respectively. 

I'm also going through latex gloves at a healthy rate too. Can't stand Milliput on my hands :(

And the morning after the night before I begin again, applying the final Chitin plates to the inner towers. I suppose they do look a bit skew-whiff but nobody ever accused Tyranids of being great builders - they have no thumbs, they can't use Quad Guns give 'em a break!

The 4th larger Chitin plates are in place and I'm also really glad I went with the Spinefists, they add some extra 'official' nid texture to the whole thing however together with all the clay on the walls I'm becoming dubious I can fit 10 Termagants on the roof now :(

And the other side of the Bastion, slightly more 'plumb' for the inner tower on this side. 

How we getting along folks, are you enjoying the ride? Let me know if you're liking it and if you're going to try this yourself.

Tyranid Bastion | Foamboard core template | part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. | part 10. |