What's on my palette?

Bless me #WarHamFam for I have sinned, it's been 7 months since my last confession! But I've been so busy I've not needed to take stock, nor fit in blogging about it but I thought I'd best chare where I'm at.

OK, so my son is back from uni and in the space of 2 or 3 weeks my hobby efforts have been significantly curtailed. I had time to do a lot of building of the Tyranids from Leviathan when it was released but painting has taken a serious nosedive.

However, I had quite the backlog of hobby progress that I haven't yet shared on the blog, not to mention a couple of non-battle reports. But again, time is short. Trying to hobby and blogging about hobby is a difficult choice. Hobby takes precedence but then down the line I start to feel guilty because I haven't shared what I've done, not guilty about you the precious reader, just guilty I haven't recorded it for posterity. Then guilty that I have a growing backlog and with the end of the Hobby Season just 2 months away I need to try and fit in all my unrecorded progress in the rapidly decreasing time available. Not to mention prepare everything for next season.

But, I am enjoying spending time with my son, we're currently going through Aussie comedy Rosehaven, which I adore and wish it was more widely available here in the UK. On top of that we're doing more things as a family, because he's now home, which is great. And, of course, there's gaming time at Otty's shed. So fitting in the:

• 16 terminators, 
• 4 Thermic Plasma Conduits, 
• 3 Treemen, 
• Armies On Parade Blood Bowl board, and 
• basing and priming all my Leviathan nids is somewhat challenging. 

Lastly, it's my wife's birthday this month and I have the family birthday cards to design and print. I'd say I'm halfway through but even so there'll be a night or two where I have to put away the hobby to create these things. Hopefully I'll find time to get things done. I may not complete 5 things listed above but that's OK, so long as I find time to get most of my WiPs and TO DONES! on the blog I'll be happy.  I'll leave this for now so I cam try and fit in another blog post.

#BattleReport - 1,000pts Imperial Knights v Tyranids

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been playing TENTH! #New40k Despite having a backlog of #MESBG and #Turnip28 [not] battle reports to record I thought I'd do this while it was fresh in my mind. Leviathan is due today, with my rulebook, but Otty, Ben, Liam and I decided to give TENTH a crack. Naturally, nobody had printed the Core Rules, or Quickstart Guide and only one of us had their Index rules and datacards printed out. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusion as to who had prepared in some way...

Anyway, Ben had prepared a list of Otty to use his nids - Old One Eye, a Carnifex, 10 Hormagaunts, 10 Termagants, 2 broods of Warriors [1 ranged, 1 melee], Hive Guard, Zoanthropes, Trygon, 5 Genestealers. I had a knight Preceptor with Unyielding Paragon [reduces AP by 1] and Stormspear Rocket Pod, 2 Helverins and 2 Warglaives. If I'm honest I thought Otty was at a distinct disadvantage - lots of little bugs with weak weapons and talons - how could they possibly effect the towering Imperial Knights... Otty got first go, and straight out of the gate the Genestealers scouted forward 8".

Which meant they had an easy first turn charge into one of my Warglaives. Otty had chosen Hyper-Aggression as his Hyper-Adaptation which meant every creature had [LETHAL-HITS] on vehicles/monsters. That means even the littlest bug, a roll of a 6 and it auto-wounds! Oh dear...

I was very lucky though and did some amazing saves with limited wounds across my knights. My Warlgaive managed to kill  just two of the Genestealers, which was underwhelming.

Otty had pushed forward and the Ranged Warrior's were slightly exposed and the Hive Guard with Shock Cannons, although taking some cover were now within range of more guns.

Shots from the top Warglaive, Helverin and Preceptor managed to wipe out the Ranged Warriors and one Hive Guard went down. I think the other Warglaive managed to squish the Genestealers.

I'd made a better impact, but now I had Hormagaunts swamping the other Helverin and OOE+Carnifex needed a 11" charge to get the freed-up Warglaive - Otty rolled a 6 and 1, CP re-rolled the 1 and got a 6 and managed to wipe out the Warglaive. I got to attack back before dying with a stratagem and dished out soem wounds but not enough to make a difference. Meanwhile, my Helverin stomped on a few Hormagaunts. On the far side [out of shot] the other Warglaive took a wound from 5 shots in range of the Devgaunts. Then the Zoanthropes blasted it to pieces dealing the exact amount of damage it had left. That lucky Termagant had saved the day for Otty!

Naturally we were getting all sorts of rules wrong, we weren't both receiving CPs in the command phase, just the person who's turn it was. So I was running out of CPs every turn and we hadn't worked out that vehicles could shoot in and out of combat [for -1 to hit]. As it was I tried the best with my shooting and ended up needing a reroll on the Preceptor to do decent damage on the Carnifex. Then I charged and immediately remembered the plan was to Tank Shock them and roll 14 dice with the potential for six 6's. But I'd spent my CP

As it was the Reaper took out the Carnifex and did a few wounds on OOE, but he regenerated most of them. And then the Trygon burrowed up and charged the Knight from behind.

The Melee Warriors managed to link up with the Hormagaunts and inflict even more damage on the Helverin but I was very lucky with saves and Feel No Pain. Lastly I was swinging at Old One Eye and managed to get 3 hits on him, 3+ to wound...

Unbelievable! There wasn't much I could do after this. 

The Preceptor got smashed by the monsters. I think both Warriors got killed, by the remaining Helverin Autocannons but the Prime survived and the Armiger in combat could only stomp on 2 of the remaining Hormagaunts. We called it as I had little chance at this stage and it was late. 

So, what do I think? I liked the game, just enough rules and complexity, but I hated not having the physical book, or even the Quick Start. It was a nightmare trying to use the app for both Otty's army and the Core Rule .pdf, while also taking pictures. 1000pts feels like as good size while we find our feet. Hopefully, when we're all on board with the rules and familiar with them it'll feel easier but even with this streamlining there were still times where explaining the rules felt just really hard - in direct contrast to Turnip28 and Bolt Action. But we'll keep at it. We all had fun and both factions, that on paper looked great [my Knights and Ben's Astra Militarum] were beaten by the weaker Tyranids and the much smaller but elite heavy World Eaters. Surprising lessons learned for next time. Now to await Leviathan and build some bugs...

Yes, I was the one prepared[ish]

Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game - Moria Cave Troll

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been painting a #MESBG Moria Cave Troll. Marc from Old School Gaming kindly sent me it, along with some other Middle Earth figures that Otty, Liam, Scott and Ben are extremely grateful for. First of all I had to rebuild this metal monstrosity - pinning and gluing it.

Also, sand and gravel on the base. The blue and green chips were from one of those occasional forays into having a pet fish - fish tank gravel. It adds another scale of stone to my mix and among the gravel it's pretty consistent.

Here's the Great Big Big Build RUSTY Stamp of Approval for the build.

Liam had done something similar, for colours but I was following my Blood Bowl Troll - turquoise body with a grey torso, and some areas on the knees, feet, elbows, palms and face.

The grey was wet blended into the turquoise, which makes a change. It was roughly done but I was surprised with how much I liked it, confident any roughness would be mitigate by further washes and highlights.

Hammer, chain and loin cloth were basecoated black.

I also painted the base [mostly] - Great Big Big Build BASE RUSTY Stamp of Approval. 

And on to the scale base colours - as per the Blood Bowl Troll, and my Tyranids this starts with DoCraft Bahama Blue. I also used it in areas as a quick shade. I was thinking further shade washes of green red and purple would add even more tones to his skin.

Although it is not really in keeping with the toned down nature of my Middle Earth figures, there is something appealing about the Bahame Blue, even if it is garish.

Sepia and Strong Tone washes helped tone it down, which again looks pretty interesting and more in keeping with Middle Earth.

I also used the wash on the skin in places to add a bit more tones and variation.

#WarhammerCommunity

Afternoon #WarHamFam I've been #PaintingWarhammer for a good few years now and you may have noticed I was lucky enough to be asked to share my Tyranids for a Warhammer Community article: This Tyranid Army Looks So Good You’ll Want Them to Eat You. 

This was such an honour to be asked, I'd seen a comment on Twitter about the community sharing their Tyranids, I shared pics of mine and also some of Otty's, because they're based on Jes Bickahm's scheme and he'd already chipped in with a tweet. There were a number of other fellow nid enthusiasts showcasing their Hive Fleets and I was totally unaware [or forgotten] the original tweeter is responsible for the community pages. A number of DM's later and I'm writing a few hundred words about my journey with the nids and taking some additional pictures [all on white background]. Now I've never been in White Dwarf, still a hobby achievement to aspire to. I had my Tyranid Reclamation Pool feature on the GW site a decade or so ago, but that no longer exists. I've been on the Twitch Hobby Round-up a few times and the Twitch live stream for the 40k GT, but this is one of the highest accolades I've ever had.

You all know me by now, I write far too much and take far too many pictures. Naturally they weren't able to use all of them and I was really impressed how they edited everything to still be coherent and make it better. That said I do have a number of new showcase pictures that weren't used that  I will be posting up in the future, and adding to the Showcase page.

Now back to my remaining hobby bucket list:

• Feature in White Dwarf, one model will do.
• Golden Demon participation pin

That's not too unreasonable I think...

Otty's Man Cave - what lies within?!

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity they last time I got to visit Otty and his shed of delights I thought I'd actually take some pics of his setup and what treasure lie within. Here's the main gaming table, underneath is loads of shelf storage for additional faming tiles and road strips to go inbetween. It was actually so heavy it bent the original castors he put on it! 😂

The back wall shelving units are mostly terrain, for all the different games systems and boards. So, alongside his Middle Earth scenery he's got stuff for Bolt Action [both European winter and Pacific theatres of war], Star Wars Legions and various 40k terrain for both his winter Realm of Battle board and scenery that'll fit with these green flocked boards. It's also worth noting he has some small shelves attached to the roof beams, so as you're playing you can look up and see boxes of Chaos Warriors and Tyranids stuffed into the ceiling spaces!

On the left had side a several rows of glass cabinets, here's the bulk of his Hive Fleet Gorgon Tyranids.

I thin the top left is a Tyranid bio-ship for Battlefleet Gothic, the rest of the top 4 shelves is Bolt Action. Then 3 shelves of #oldhammer Warhammer Fantasy Orcs and the bottom 2 shelves is his 40k Inquisitor force.

Moar Bolt Action.

This is all Middle Earth Orcs, on square bases.

Top 2 shelves are Star Wars Legions, then the rest is Middle Earth - Orcs, Uruk Hai and various bad humans. I mean close up these are fantastic. All the colours are simple 3 colour highlights, the cloaks and clothing will quite broad brush strokes, that are so effective at distance. Yet there a nicks and scratches on the armour and all the White Hand of Saruman badges are so finely detailed, it's amazing to look at. He's incredibly skilled at how to get the best out of a simple paint job and where to invest time in the fine details that will elevate the rest of the model. 

Middle Earth Rohirrim. 

Moar Rohirrim. Their shield badges are absolutely stunning, although I appreciate you probably can't see them in this pic, but look closely in some of the future battle reports

And a close up of his Stormtroopers from Star Wars Legions.

Anyway, really cool stuff I think you'll agree.

1750pts battle report - Imperial Knights & Dark Angels v Tyranids

Otty had a free evening and wanted to arrange a game but that created a problem as I wanted to run my Knights for convenience but I was certain Otty's Tyranids would be on the road to a hiding if I did. Once again I looked at some of the narrative missions but as it turned out we went with the same mission I played with Liam - the Echoes of War mission in Vigilus Defiant called Forlorn Charge. It was Knights and Freeblades versus Ork Stompas, Morkanauts and Gorkanauts. It compressed the Knights into a 2'x2' corner with the 'Orks' creating their 'scrap city' and deploying first. There were also benefits for running a Fortification network and some additional stratagems.

 

What we did was swap out the Ork elements for Monstrous Creatures. This wasn't too bad really as victory conditions were for my Knights to destroy all his Knights and buildings for a Major Victory, Minor if I killed more than were left alive and Defeat if it was any other result. Otty went with 2 Tyrannofex, Old One Eye and 5 Screamer Killers, a Harpy, a Trygon and a Trygon Prime and a load of Hive Guard which we put in his Bastion with a Quad Gun. All in I think he had around 2,000pts [not including the Bastion].

Otty deployed the terrain and put the Bastion [gaining 3CP extra] in his back corner out of reach of my Knights with the Hive Guard inside. The Tyrannofex and Harpy offered support.

But he deployed the Carnifex right opposite me just 12" away. Now the mission stipulates I would get first turn but I realised with his Carnifex that close my Knights would stomp all over them so I gave him first turn. Tyranids had raised a barricade across the battlefield to slow my advance down.

The Tyrannofex shot at the Lancer, doing some damage with the Harpy. The Hive Guard were out of range. Otty's scratchbuilt Spore Pods almost look like they've just disgorged the monstrous brood, they did however form sufficient obstacles to prevent a straight run at my Knights.

So charge distances were not a sure thing at least.

Out of the 6 Carnifex OOE and 3 others were the only ones to make their charge. A bikes took mortal wounds from the charge, then Lady Pettorini was battered, first one Screamer Killer taking off 3 wounds, then another taking 3 more. Then Old One Eye ripped her to pieces with 18 and thus illustrates our lack of experience. OOE should have gone first and then I should have interrupted, but I forgot and Otty was systematically going from left to right instead logically going from best to worst.

To cap it all I eagerly wanted to blow up, hoping to use the Noble Sacrifice stratagem but was reading the Valiant Last Stand, which would have allowed me to attack if I didn't blow up and I got a 6, so it blew up anyway! I could have re-rolled and then used the strat but it was all so farcical. Bikes died in the explosion a Carnifex took 5 wounds, OOE and another 1 and the final one 6. Ser Ellenbogen and and Armiger also took damage.

With the Carnifex being the immediate threat I repositioned, with the Ravenwing falling back, Ser Ellenbogen vaporising one Carnifex and the Warglaive taking another. I charged the three remaining monsters and killed OOE, but Otty used the strat to attack before he dies - putting wounds on my Knights. He then used the interrupt strategy too! Suddenly my combat phase was Otty's and yet more wounds went on the Knights, the Lancer was down to 13 at least.

It was not enough though and Warglaive and Ser Ellenbogen wiped the Carnifex from the face of the planet, just the last remaining Carnifex in that corner. It was quite surprising how ineffective OOE was this turn, to which I think I recalled in the first round we'd been doing 2's to wound on the Knights when it should have been 3's.

My second Warglaive had tried to bring the Harpy down but failed due to being damaged. The Harpy returned the favour in Otty's turn 2 over-flying the Knight and leaving Spore Mines in my DZ.

But with Heavy Venom Cannons the Armiger couldn't stand.

 Bursting from the ground the Tyrgon and Trygon Prime were possibly going to stall my advance and allow the Tfex another round of shooting. I think the second Warglaive was their target and I burned a re-roll to keep it's last wound and force the second lot of shooting on it.

It took the brunt and fell, sacrificing itself to leave the larger Knights [mostly] unmolested.

Ser Ellenbogen smooshed the Carnifex and moved off, with neither of the Trygon's making their charges - the Tyranid barricade proving equally disruptive to it's own as well as the Knights.

But not in my turn as the Lancer stormed behind one Trygon and Ser Ellenbogen went for the Prime.

Inevitably the Tyranids couldn't stand against such titanic opponents and both Knights consolidated toward the remaining monsters and Bastion.

The Tyrannofex were not to be steamrolled so easily though and took all but 1 wound off the Lancer with their Rupture Cannons and the managed to take it down with a single Stinger Salvo wound that I failed to save. With the Lancer gone Ser Ellenbogen couldn't make the charge to the last Tfex [the other one shot by the Thermal Cannon]. And with that we called it a night, I'd secured a minor victory with the Carnifex gone anyway.

Thankfully Otty felt like it was a good game but clearly it was very one-sided in favour of the Knights, despite:

• 250pts+ extra
• a free Bastion
• first turn advantage
• Deployment map having just 12" no man's land
• OOE wounding on 2s instead of 3s
• forgetting to 'interrupt'

It just illustrates the advantage Knights have over some other factions [or in general] and taking into account I'm not a good player too! Next time I'll go back to Tyranids as I think there are learning opportunities for us both if we run the same faction, much the same way as I learned things when Liam and I both had Knights. With hindsight the Hive Guard were wrongly positioned in the Bastion, if they'd been in the crater behind the Capillary Tower they'd have been double shooting each turn. Also the Trygons could have been on the board with the Carnifex or on my other flank to force me to split my army up. Again that 12" No Man's Land and first turn could have been used more to Otty's advantage. Hindsight = 20:20!