WFB - Empire General on Pegasus

My recollection on this is a bit hazy I'm afraid. I've no idea on why I thought orange and green would be a suitable colour scheme for the pegasus but it was fun to do and suitably 'fantastical' to warrant doing and I think it still holds up today. The general himself with his red-metalled armour was also quite innovative for me at the time. Mixing new metallics up to get the effect I wanted. Not so sure about his magenta and yellow clashing with his mount but it's not like he was accessorizing was he?

So one of the questions I can't answer myself is the removal of his saddle and saddle back. It was quite an ornate piece of work which I've replaced with a piece of Milliput pricked within an inch of it's life to show some seating arrangement that look more like chainmail or a Rastafarian's hat [?]. The fact is I still have the seat and I had started to paint it a bit so what was I planning to use it for?

Just a couple of full length shots for your delectation.

WFB - Elf

Totally random I know but this fella was one of the WFB 4th Edition High Elf Archers. I painted him along with the rest of the Heroquest guys, just to play around and if we did play Heroquest there was another Hero to include.

Elves with blue hair, whatever next?

++ Contact 07/89#d ++ Xenos Incursion ++ Tyranid turn 2

First up the spore mine drifted around but was still nowhere near the Tac squad observing it from their vantage points on the containers. The Tyranid Warriors advanced around the bindweed and the Biovore moved out of the building towards his objective, which he'd foolishly abandoned.

The Trygon suddenly became enraged with hunger and reverted to it's instinctual behaviour seeking out the nearest man-meat to feed on. Smashing through the ruins it slithered towards the Deathwing. Meanwhile the Genestealers under the withering gaze of their Broodlord had bigger fish to fry and went looking for the Dreadnought.

The barbed strangler finally paid dividends removing the Missile Launcher marine from his position in the containers. He'd been more than useless. I'd taken advantage of the Krak missiles to try and take out the Warriors in most turns. What with his high BS it was more likely to hit and kill a warrior than multiple frag hits that only have a 1 in 3 chance of being on target. He didn't hit once!

Meanwhile the Biovore targetted the Deathwing only for it to deviate and blow up next to the Dreadnought, but it was unable to dent it's Adamantium hide!

The Genestealers stormed the Dreadnought, possibly unfair to get that difficult terrain modifier, what do you think? Brother Cask pulped a Genestealer with his CCW.

The Trygon had run and charged, barrelling into the Deathwing

Back with the Stealers the Broodlord visited all sorts of damage and so too did it's smaller kin. A couple of stuns, an immobilised and ultimately a massive explosion ripped through the dreadnought incinerating one of the Genestealers as it exploded, I really must make a 60mm crater for his carcass.

Back with the Deathwing, Belial struck out with his claws making two bloody slashes across the monstrous creatures worm like hide. The sergeant was next to face the beast...

With one swipe of his power sword he added another searing wound to the beast, it's blood coating everyone. The rest of the squad braced themselves as they tried to bring their power fists to bear but the Trygon, wounded and blind with hunger slashed manically with it's sycthing talons, pinning the marines one by one and devouring them whole. The only one safe from it's predations was the Terminator Sergeant and Belial, who still suffered a glancing wound thanks to his heroic efforts to bring down the beast.

 Sadly, time was called at this point and again thanks to objectives I was winning at this point. We may set this back up to finish the battle off, I don't know. I'd be hopefuly that the Deathwing could avenge their brothers in the next round and hopefully the Tac squad could finish the Genestealers with Bolter fire and cleansing flame but there's still the full squad of warriors to take down and I think they'd maul the squad into submission. Perhaps by that stage the Biovore would recapture it's objective, mine may be lost but Belial and the Sergeant would be either moving to contest or hot footed it back to the container facility to help wipe the Xenos out, maybe we'll never know, warp storms have cut off all comms links into Ferron Proxima...

What did I learn? Those containers are cool but more than one marine on each causes wobbly model syndrome. Adjusting them so you don't have figures falling over isn't helpful when your sentry gun with a fixed 90° fire arc suddenly can't target something it did last turn 'cos you moved it! Belial's a beast but how much better if the squad had a banner: +1 Attacks and an Apothecary: Feel no Pain! Of course they were all deaded cos of Power fist Initiative one. I think a full lighning claw squad would be cool... 

++ Contact 07/89#d ++ Xenos Incursion ++ Space Marine turn 2

So this is where it all kicks off! Brother Cask advanced down the hill and just made into the difficult terrain of the smashed Aquila. The Deathwing squad also surged forwards toward the Gargoyles, the embryo of a plan was forming although I'm not sure whether it was genius or madness that was bringing life to it. Meanwhile the Tactical Squad stayed where it was.

Five rounds of Storm Bolter fire, added to Brother Casks Storm Bolter and Assault Cannon whittled away the Gargoyles to three. The Tarantula may also have had some effect on that. Conveniently the ruined building had completely obscured the Trygon, no mean feat in itself so it was saved any attention.

The Deathwing charged forward and thankfully the Initiative 1 power fists didn't really become an issue. Belial slaughtered them with his lightening claws.

This left the squad to consolidate and I was hoping to make cover in the ruin to the bottom left. Thereby making the Initiative equal against any marauding Genestealers on the next turn. Sadly the Deathwing were pooped [despite Belial doing all the work] and just moved an inch back. Eek, here comes the pain...

++ 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!