Friday 22 March 2013

'nids part 76 - Magnetized Winged Hive Tyrant update [WTF where's all the inbetween bits?]

My hobby mojo has been fixed squarely on painting these past few weeks. Blogging and even photographing the progress has been low down on my list of 'to do' because I've actually just had a whole lot of fun on this Winged Tyrant, Sepia debacle notwithstanding. The enjoyment has translated to leaps in progress and this is in no small part to the proportions of the model and how much of each element needs painting. Chitin, bone and reds seem to be in amounts that just don't result in feeling of tedium and frustration.


So I've steamed ahead with the first highlights on everything. On the bone areas I'm going to be continuing to add in extra texture through highlights, as I've done with some of the large creatures recently. This effect is similar to Ghoulio's over on Legiominimus and is also similar to the effect my mate Otty does on his. I think this stripey woodgrain effect is particularly effective on the tail.


Here's the wings and as you can see I was able to salvage the sepia fiasco somewhat but thanks to natural lighting and the dark background these look much better in the photographs than reality. Extra wash has covered up the powder marks and the veins here act like a baffle disrupting the view of those areas where it's gone a bit wrong. 


I was hesitant at this point to add anything else to the wings but the veins were too prominent so extra stripey textures were going to happen.


As you can see the veins are too bright, perhaps if I'd added them before the red it might have worked a bit better. Of course there are those GW glazes, but I'm reluctant to try any such effects following the sepia reaction.


The veins are actually highlighted too, I think I used a cocktail stick to try and keep the lines thin and the line weight variable. You can still see the sepia 'cigarette burn' mark in the wings though...


Lastly here's the Felshborer Hives as Twin-linked Brain leech Devourers. You should just be able to see the crusty scab reaction in the crook of the fingers on the left hand [nasty isn't it]. To get away from the pinkiness  of some of the red highlighting I have used my Vermilion art acrylics on the fleshy bits. This 'double-cream' thick paint can be thinned with water and adds a nice glaze in places.


Anyway, ToS tomorrow, lets see how this baby performs!

Wednesday 20 March 2013

'nids part 75 - Magnetized Winged Hive Tyrant and the abomination that is Seraphim Sepia

It's Throne of Skulls again this week and I better just catch you up on the Wingged Hive Tyrant. Much like the Tervigon for October I've kind of run out of time to showcase the mini before the event. i suppose I could sneak an extra post in but content [and motivation] is low at the moment so given the choice between chronology or no posts I'd rather have stuff out of order. Sorry for the downturn but it's just the ebb and flow of the hobby. Anway the Tyrant is complete but not without it's problems. I had to purchase another pot of Seraphim Sepia from GW and I was appalled at the end result, what you see below. While it was wet it acted like the previous Gryphonne Sepia wash and even my other pot of Seraphim Sepia. It pooled perfectly, however when I returned a few hours later everywhere it had pooled looked like some cheeky elves had sprinkled flour into the crevices and it had dried as a fine brown powder. You can see the odd 'cigarette burn' marks where I have brushed the dried crust away. In the deepest recesses it formed a scab like coating and was just plain awful.


This HDR picture highlights the marks more thought the above picture is more representative of the end result. Apparently this is a known problem, some forums suggest the shade needs to be shaken vigorously to prevent this happening which I find disgraceful [although Purity Seal serves up a similar issue]. This is a flaw in the formula, with the washes if the mix wasn't 100% you were able to use the slightly thinned top layer of the wash for lighter shading effects and the bottom, where the darker ink had settled for darker areas. These shades no longer offer that option. Additionally the forums suggest it is a reaction to non GW paints, I can't comment on that. It's true these were washing non GW paints but I think the Tervigon, Ymgarls and a number of others were also washed with my previous Seraphim Sepia pot and didn't result in this abomination.


Although this picture seems little different to the above one it is after some application of my [Devlan Mud equivalent] Army Painter tone. It managed to fix the powder in some places but was not able to fix it in others, despite numerous coats. In fact it was in these areas where the powder began to crystallize into the crusty scab I mentioned earlier. 


Sadly when I next returned to a GW and raised this issue with a staff member he wasn't even apologetic. I'm sorry but that product is not fit for purpose and if it screws up someone's expensive miniatures they should be damn well sorry and perhaps ask for it to be brought back in so they check if the formula was wrong. Anyway apparently Vallejo do a sepia wash so I will look into getting some instead. Meanwhile I have plans to add veins on the wings and then highlights across the so the veins look underneath the stretched skin. Hopefully this extra paint will cover the problem and where is does show through perhaps it will just look like extra texture amongst the other colours

Monday 18 March 2013

Full sized Chaos Space Marine Helmet

My mate Liam, he of the scratch built Warhound and Warlord fame [I may have to change his title after this] has sent through his latest creation, yes that's right a full-sized Chaos Space Marine Helmet! In actual fact this is his army list for Throne of Skulls! It would seem that after November where is awesome leather bound  hand rendered Dark Eldar tome was pipped to the best army list prize by Otty's Tyranid Inquisitorial Encyclopedia that Liam decided to go the extra mile hence... 


Here he is actually wearing the monstrosity and believe it or not that is an actual dental cast of his own teeth in the front there!


As I said, it's his army list and I believe that's it hand painted on the non-metallic metal brass plaque on the back of the helmet there!


And in case you were wondering what it was like inside, with the LEDs and what not voila, here's a peak inside an actual Astartes helm you'd have thought it'd be a bit more techy but no progress is not the Imperial [or even chaos powers] way now is it!


Anyway, ToS is this weekend so I'll try and do some decent battle reports again.

Saturday 16 March 2013

1600pt battle report - MAWS Challenge nids Vs Imperial Guard

Here's the third of my MAWS tournament matches. This was a four-way tournament between my local friendly neighbourhood Gaming club - The Lost Boys against The Ribble Warriors, Northern Warlords, and our hosts the Manchester Area Wargames Society [or MAWS]. There were three battles of 1600pts with a time limit of 2 hours, sadly this meant I was pressed for time, you know me, so pictures are sparse given the need to actually play. Also it's been a few weeks now so memory will be even more sketchy in places than usual. Paul [sorry I forget his surname] was up last with his Imperial Guard.

Psychic Powers
Tervigon HQ CCTervigon T TalBroodlord [Adrenal]Broodlord [Toxin]
Warp SpeedEnfeebleIron ArmIron Arm
HaemorrhageHaemorrhageEnduranceNA Haemorrhage

The low down:
  • The Scouring (6 objectives ).
  • Hammer of Wrath
  • I lost deployment, but eventually stole the initiative
  • Warlord Trait - Tenacity - Feel no Pain within 3" of Objective :)
Here's my initial setup, my Aegis was right on the half way mark as you can see Paul set his Aegis up within 12" of his board edge. So I still had 24" of empty killing field to cross so I kept the Trygon and Stealers off to Deep Strike and Outflank.



I spawned some Gaunts and pushed everything forwards but tried to stay in cover with the big stuff. It turned out the objective behind my Tervigon was Sabotaged so I would spend the rest of the game trying to keep fragile Termagants away but near in case I needed to secure the objective.

    I repositioned the Tervigons so I wouldn't get anymore wounds taken off by the Leman Russes. Everything else moved up to the Aegis and I think it helped keep them alive and I can recall thinking it actually paid for it's points in saving lives this game, however I think the Hive guard had taken a casualty or two.


    With a vacant spot where the Leman Russes had been the Spore Pod landed exactly where I wanted it to be.


    Genestealers came in on the flank.


    The Doom sucked life and was up to 10 wounds, the Spore Pod failed to do damage.


    So, all the Doom had to do was make two saves or be insta-killed. That's right he makes one and fails the other. 4 saving throws in three games! He obviously did some damage but I really want to seem him last a couple of turns just to add an extra level of annoyance. The Spore Pod also got killed. 

    The Warriors suffered extensive damage, I'm not sure from what but given the Warrior that's left nearest the Aegis I'm thinking it was some form of barrage weapon or perhaps a Vendetta shooting from behind?

      
    The Broodlord had managed to survive a torrent of lasgun fire and managed to trash the Chimera, exploding it with the occupants left to hunker down in the wreckage.

    Unfortunately this was the last of the pictures. The Trygon eventually appeared in the same spot the Doom had been and the second brood of Stealers cam on on the other flank and headed for the objective on the second floor of the building. Amazingly the Biovore had struck and killed the two guardsmen defending it and the unit routed. The Stealers got into the ground floor but later on another unit of Guardsmen managed to make it into the ruins. Eventually we ran out of time, unfortunately we only got a 1 minute warning in this game and only just completed Paul's 4th turn, with mine still to go. At that stage I was 1VP up somehow 6-5. We debated whether to 'rewind' to the end of turn 3 so we would have a fairer VP count which I believe would have been more in my favour but I settled for the small win. Who knows what would have happened with the Trygon, remaining Broodlord on the left flank and stealers gunning for the objective in the ruin on the right flank? 

    Anyway, a good game overall, tough but a great learning experience. As for the actual tournament we came 3rd, which is one place better than last time and I came 13th overall [presumably out of 24] with a win, loss and draw. I'm happy with that, the draw was lucky and the other two games were also finely balanced. I'm convinced if the Doom had have been just slightly more durable he'd have been the key to tipping the balance further in those games. So does that mean hope for Iron Arm in Biomancy or forget it and just make him even more killy and take the Telepathy primaris power - Psychic Shriek - essentially his Spirit Leech special ability just with a Deny the Witch but no armour or cover saves! Of course I may not need the extra wounds Absorb Life gets me and I miss out on the AP1 of Cataclysm but it could seriously damage nits round an objective... something to think about.

Thursday 14 March 2013

Throne of Skulls 2 - help with my 1500pt list please...



Throne of Skulls again next week and another 1500pt conundrum. After the last time where I somehow managed to win 4 out of 5 matches I'd pretty much settled on a potential list after the event, trimming some of the units I didn't think had worked and adding in others that could deliver, this was it [with 19pts left to play with:
HQ
  Tyranid Prime with Lashwhip and Bonesword, Deathspitter, Synapse Creature,
  Tervigon with Catalyst, Dominion, Synapse Creature, Stinger Salvo, Crushing Claws
Elites
  3x Hive Guard(s)
  The Doom of Malan’tai with Mycetic Spore with Hardened Carapace, Lash Whip, Ripper Tentacles 
Troops
  Tervigon with Catalyst, Dominion, Synapse Creature, Stinger Salvo, Crushing Claws
  10x Termagaunts with Devourer
  3x Tyranid Warriors with Barbed Strangler, Deathspitter, Scything Talons,
  Broodlord with Adrenal Glands, Scything Talons ,
  4x Genestealers with Adrenal Glands
  Broodlord with Toxin Sacs, Scything Talons ,
  4x Genestealers with Toxin Sacs
Heavy Support
  Trygon
Fortifications
  Aegis Defence Line

Anyway, I've got me a Winged Hive tyrant recently, just finished painting it and can't decide whether to run a list with it in. It's a 6th of my points and although difficult to hit, if it is hit it could get spanked. So the list would be more like this:
HQ
  Hive Tyrant, Wings, 2X Twin Linked Devourers
  Tervigon with Catalyst, Dominion, Synapse Creature, Stinger Salvo, Crushing Claws
Elites
  3x Hive Guard(s)
  The Doom of Malan’tai with Mycetic Spore with Hardened Carapace, Lash Whip, Ripper tentacles
Troops
  Tervigon with Catalyst, Dominion, Synapse Creature, Stinger Salvo, Crushing Claws
  10x Termagaunts with Devourer
  3x Tyranid Warriors with Barbed Strangler, Deathspitter, Scything Talons,
  Broodlord with Adrenal Glands, Scything Talons ,
  4x Genestealers with Adrenal Glands
Heavy Support
  Trygon
Fortifications
  Aegis Defence Line
Now this leaves me with around 97pts and a number of options.


  1. Drop the scything talons on the Troop Tervigon and I could add another unit of 10 Devgaunts and make the HQ Tervigon a troop, which would be useful, but also mean my Warlord is the slightly fragile Tyrant.
  2. Drop the scything talons on the Troop Tervigon and I could go for 10 plain Termagants, make the HQ Tervigon a troop and add another Hive Guard [2 broods of 2]
  3. Add another Hive Guard and 1 Biovore [Big Guns makes it a scoring unit and they're really annoying, however it does make an easy kill point [although there was only 1 KP mission last time]
  4. Find some way to shave off 8pts and add 3 Warriors with Deathspitters - extra synapse and more durable than the Devgaunts but can still be instakilled and are less effective without the Prime.
So which would you do? Stick with the first list or option 1,2,3 or 4 from the second list. Incidentally I tried option 2 the other night [no battle report] and it wasn't bad. The Hive Guard were effective in pairs and the 10 Termagants, although not game changing were useful to have around. The Hive Tyrant survived the game but did regenerate two wounds through Endurance...

Tuesday 12 March 2013

1600pt battle report - MAWS Challenge nids Vs nids!

Here's the second of my MAWS tournament matches. This was a four-way tournament between my local friendly neighbourhood Gaming club - The Lost Boys against The Ribble Warriors, Northern Warlords, and our hosts the Manchester Area Wargames Society [or MAWS]. There were three battles of 1600pts with a time limit of 2 hours, sadly this meant I was pressed for time, you know me, so pictures are sparse given the need to actually play. Also it's been a week so memory may be sketchy in places. Pat Divers was my second match but my first game ever against Tyranids! To be fair though there were at least 4 'nid players competing out of 24 so the odds of playing another Tyranid army was quite high.
Psychic Powers
Tervigon HQ CCTervigon T TalBroodlord [Adrenal]Broodlord [Toxin]
EnduranceEnduranceNA Life LeechIron Arm
Life LeechHaemorrhageNA HaemorrhageEndurance


Doom of Malan'tai
Haemorrhage

The low down:
  • Purge the Alien (I started with 13VPs on the field to Pat's 11).
  • Vanguard Strike
  • I lost deployment, but eventually stole the initiative
  • Warlord Trait - Master of Defence - Counter Attack in Deployment Zone
Pat was to go first with two Winged Hive Tyrants, two Tervigons, two broods of Termagants to make the Tervigons troops, the large flock of Gargoyles in the centre, two broods of two Hive Guard [behind the L shaped ruin top right] and a brood of three Zoanthropes right at the back! I set up with most of my Monstrous Creatures on the left out of range of his Hive Guard forcing him to take a long trek. The Trygon looks far forwards so I must have seized, again! Stealers are all to the left Infiltrating in the ruins. My Hive Guard targetted the Tervigon on the left. Pat was under the impression that Hive Guard were BS3 so he was delighted to find out they were BS4. Probably more delighted in his own turn rather than after the 3 wounds or so on the Tervigon. There were further discrepancies regarding cover saves from Impaler Cannons but again for expediancy they just didn't get cover saves from them* Also my Biovore managed to kill 6 of the Termagants in one brood!

    Pat rolled for Spawning on the tervigon on the right and suffered three 1s for his pleasure [perhaps i should have targetted those with the Biovore? He then flew the Gargoyles forward, which was fine by me as I fancied 14 of those fellas against my 10 Devourers and 4 Deathspitters I managed to take out 10 of them. However, Pat had brought forwards both Hive Tyrants and I had to torrent them with the Deathspitters and Stinger Salvos in the hope they'd be grounded. I managed to get one down and he failed his save and took a wound. 


    Which suddenly changed my focus on the left. The Trygon had to take out the Tyrant while he was gorunded, he'd taken wounds from the Brainleech Worms and neede to stop him while he could. He made it into assault but was on 4 wounds versus 2. Meanwhile the other Tyrant was to Brainleech the Stealers in front of him


    On came the Doom and sucked the life from a load of the Termagants and after all shooting one was left! The Doom also took a wound and a model off the Hive Guard  Broods and wounded the Zoanthropes.


    The Gargoyles set up to charge the Hive Guard


    But before that the Doom and it's Spore Pod was splatted to finally get First Blood for Pat in turn 3. Once again it was just one saving throw I had to make with 10 wounds but it was Instant Deathed by Impaler Cannon Fire - he so needs Iron Arm! 


    The Trygon couldn't take down the Winged Tyrant and instead was punished thanks to Prefered Enemy re-rolling to-hits and to-wounds. Somehow the Stealers managed to get into assault with the Tervigon, the Broodlord challenged and stripped the remaining wounds off it but as they were both Initiative 1 the Tervigon squashed the Broodlord in it's death throws. I think it also killed off the 4 gaunt Brood next to it too, unless the Biovore did that...


    In an effort to get more guns on the field one of the Tervigon spawned and they raced to try and get firing on the remaining Termagant.  


    Everything else moved forward I may have killed the wounded Tyrant but not before the stealers got splatted, losing me Line Breaker. The Warriors tried to get there but it was too far just yet.


    The other tyrant swung round the grain silos and killed the Biovore for an easy VP but was grounded and took a couple of wounds. The tervigon pounced on it while it had the chance.


    Last pic and I think the game was called shortly after with Pat winning by 2 VPs thanks to Line Breaker and First Blood. Unfortunately the Hive Tyrant I killed was not the Warlord, which would have helped

This was a really good game, it was funny though how much we both had to keep referring to our Codex for rules. You'd think between the two of us we'd have had every stat and ability covered but it was like we were newbies. I certainly had a newfound respect for the Winged Hive Tyrant, although it may be more to do with the fact there were two in play. You have to hit it with a lot of shots to ground it and if there's two it certainly reduces your chances to do that. Now if I can get an extra pair of Tyrant Wings and Fleshborer Hives I could run two as well!

Personally if I'd been Pat as soon as I saw my set up I'd have shifted the Hive Guard and Tervigon nearer in the following turns, they didn't do very much, as you can see in the last shot they're practically irrelevant to what was going on! But it was really a great game and interesting to finally face another 'nid force.

* The Impaler Cannon ignores cover saves for intervening terrain, however the FAQ states:


Q: Can a unit take cover saves from any source other than the terrain they are in, or touching, against Wounds caused by ani mpaler cannon? (p47)
A: No.
So, you can get a cover save if you are touching or within area terrain, just not if it's between you and the Hive Guard.

Sunday 10 March 2013

1600pt battle report - MAWS Challenge nids Vs Chaos Marines

Here's the first of my MAWS tournament matches. This was a four-way tournament between my local friendly neighbourhood Gaming club - The Lost Boys against The Ribble Warriors, Northern Warlords, and our hosts the Manchester Area Wargames Society [or MAWS]. There were three battles of 1600pts with a time limit of 2 hours, sadly this meant I was pressed for time, you know me, so pictures are sparse given the need to actually play. Also it's been a week so memory may be sketchy in places. First up was my battle with Chris Green [I think] with his Chaos Marines.

Psychic Powers
Tervigon HQ CCTervigon T TalBroodlord [Adrenal]Broodlord [Toxin]
Iron ArmEnfeebleNA Life LeechHypnotic Gaze
HaemorrhageWarp SpeedNA HaemorrhageNA Haemorrhage

The low down:

  • Crusade (5 objectives blue poker chips, I had 2, Chris had 3, the third behind the central Bastion).
  • Dawn of War
  • I lost deployment, but eventually stole the initiative
  • Warlord Trait - Tenacity - Feel no Pain within 3" of Objective
As you can see here's my setup and I think I may have stolen the initiative too. Devgaunts hiding in ruins with Warriors and a couple of Hive Guard. Stealers pushed forwards [perhaps too exposed?]. Further pictures indicate that at least one of the Rhino's is gone so I'm guessing the Hive Guard on the left did their job and shot one down for First Blood.

    The disembarked Noise Marines had buffs for their Sonic Weapons and managed to shoot the pants off the Toxin Stealers, leaving the Broodlord with two remaining wounds. While their Adrenal counterparts stayed in their crater and were promptly ignored. The right Hive guard must have got a Penetrating hit on their nearest Rhino - immobilising it.


    Everything bundled forwards, the HQ Tervigon had taken 2 wounds as well it also spawned out of gaunts on turn one with only 4! While the Troop Tervigon spawned 14.


    Devgaunts, spawned gaunts and Stealers took a beating and the Troop Tervigon also suffered a wound.


    The rather stunty winged Heldrake managed to be rather effective toasting most of them with his Baleflamer. The lack of Trygon in this shot suggests he also fell to massed Obliterator, Noise Marine and Predator fire.

Throwing caution to the wind the Toxin Stealer went for the Noise Marines. Fair Play to Chris he actually accepted the challenge to his Warlord. Unfortunately we decided I would not get to cast Hypnotic Gaze on him as a quick look at the rules and instant interpretation Chris felt it would be cast on the model he assaulted into base contact with, not the one he ended up challenging. For the sake of expediency I agreed but it's a 5th Edition rule before the 6th Edition Challenge mechanic. I'd argue you would be able to attempt it in a Challenge otherwise there's no point having the power at all. I'd still allow a Deny the Witch, regardless the ability was not needed as the Broodlord slaughtered the Chaos Warlord getting me another VP for Slay the Warlord [obviously].

    And here's the same Toxin Stealer later on - having also killed a Chaos Sorcerer in a Challenge and then wiping out most of the squad - what a beast!


    The Doom finally makes an appearance, sucks the life from a few marines and then promptly has to make one saving throw and unsurprisingly fails! Just over in the top left you may just make out three grey blurs - these are a squad of Chaos Cultists that came on in reserve and are capturing the other objective in Chris's Deployment Zone


    So we made it to turn 5 at least. I'm thinking perhaps that clear 'negative space' the Marines are encircling is where my HQ Tervigon once stood.


So the game came to a close and I was convinced I'd lost but having read the rules pack it was revealed objectives were only worth 1point each. I'm not entirely sure what was left holding my home objectives but the end result was a draw! I think Chris was actually holding 2 objectives, which in a normal game would have clinched it with Slay the Warlord but because I had both Slay the Warlord, First Blood and an objective it may have been 3VP each [I think my Toxin Broodlord was just out of Linebreaker range].

I felt a bit guilty at the end, because of this rule, Chris beat me quite comprehensively although once again Warriors did little, the Trygon was bested too soon and the Doom was just a distraction for a single turn. The Toxin Broodlord was a beast but the Adrenal Broodlord did nothing, I faffed about with him leading to his downfall. Anyway, a draw meant at least I wouldn't suffer a whitewash.