Saturday 21 July 2012

Warhammer World - Game 2 Space Marines [5th Edition]

Once again due to the unique way of preparing these posts in advance I have stumbled on a new problem. I still have battle reports for 5th Edition while I'm exploring new 6th Editon so I hope you don't mind having to straddle the two rule-sets to enjoy what went down. For one you've no choice and for two I'm not about to dump the content. This was my second match at the Warhammer World Tournament before 5th expired quietly in a corner somewhere.


Don't be fooled these aren't Grey Knights, they're just vanilla marines with a penchant for metallics. When I saw this line up for Pitched Battle - Anihilation I was pretty scared as you know mech is not what I'm geared for, still a Vindicator, Razorback, Land Raider and Predator is not the most mech I've ever faced. For some reason my opponent was really apologetic about his list, I was convinced I had little chance and he was convinced he would conquer all comers so he graciously relinquished first turn to me. I thought this was incredibly sporting and if and when they came round to ask about sportsmanship I was thinking he'd get my vote.

Anyway his deployment in the top right corner made my deployment so much easier with everyone ready to barrel forward, the Trygon for the Land Raider/Razorback. 


 The Hormies charged forwards going for the scouts,


The Tervigon headed for the Predator and the infiltrating Adrenal Stealers for the Vindicator


Splat, the Spore Pod came down on target. The Devgaunts popped out and shot at the squad of Marines in front of them. Not sure if they killed anyone, might have taken one or two. The Spore Pod lashed the back of the Predator with it's Ripper Tentacles but I think it only managed to stun or shake the tank.


Over on the right flank the Hormagaunts finally got to grips with the scouts and out of the 24 hits, this first 12 rocked up seven 1's! Of course this was handy as their scything talons allow them to reroll 1's. However at this point I started to get a little frustrated by my opponent. My early respect for his grace in giving me first turn was spoiled by the fact he revealed he had not brought his Codex and he was convinced his scouts had the same stat lines as a full Space Marine. Once again I didn't want to come across as an a$$ so lets just say the Hormagaunts spent a while in combat here thanks to the scouts 3+ saving throw


The Stealers had taken a few casualties but charged into the marine squad so they could finish them off or be safe locked in combat.


The Tervigon advanced up the hill, the Predator's turret is turned round so maybe I destroyed the twin linked las-cannons with the Spore Pod afterall, I'm not sure.


The Hormagaunts continued to maul the scouts. At this point I think one of the other guys from Southport turned up to watch, having finished his game. I think I'd had enough of my opponent guessing stats from his Codex and just posed the question 'are you sure?' with the back up of my team mate we had the true stats and things moved on apace...


Now you know that awesome collection of 1s, welllll... not as good as this beauty rolled - nine 5s and two 4s. Although by the looks of one of the later pics it seems like it still wasn't enough to destroy this squad of scouts. Once again the Hormies fail me, I'm not sure why I bother with them!


Over on the left flank the Terfigon got to grips with the Predator and ripped it's turret off, most of it's other efforts involved it caressing the tank lovingly with it's slightly floppy scything talons! You may also note the missing Vindicator, presumably the Broodlord and remaining stealer got in and tore it to pieces for a 2nd kill point.


Time was ticking down I'd already had to field a number of discussions with random passers-by ranging from how the Spore Pod was made [always fun] to why we do the hobby! These pit-stops ended up costing me a little bit of time at the end, the Trygon had to choose between the Razorback and Land Raider. I was convinced the Raider was the more significant threat so it had to go. I charged - 7 auto hits - not one single one penetrated only needing 8s on the charge! In the following turn I thought I'd just switch targets to the easier Razorback. It hadn't moved, I'd get my +1 St and Initiative but that time limit came up just as I rolled to penetrate the first of 7 auto hits and no joy so we had to stop. I think the last Hormagaunt may have bitten the dust thus securing 1KP to my opponent.


It was at this point that I had to disabuse him of the notion we had drawn. Despite a lot of victims I'd only suffered 1KP. I'd inflicted 2 but it should have been more. This was quite a weird game, from the generosity in the beginning to the cardinal sin of forgetting to bring your Codex. I really liked the guy I was playing, he was cheerful and chatty throughout but the lack of 'professionalism' tainted the match for me a little bit. I just wish those bits hadn't happened so it could have been a thoroughly enjoyable game and I really don't know how we didn't do more in the given time. I know we got into combat really quickly but it still came as a shock when time was called. I really felt my Monstrous Creatures should have done more, but it was the Stealers that carried the day with their lightning strikes and deadly claws. So I was 1 win and 1 loss at this stage and as each progressive game was worth more victory points game three would be even more valuable.

Thursday 19 July 2012

Warhammer World - 'nids

Aah, the studio collection of Tyranids. This was really quite exciting to see as you look at them and suddenly realise these are the very same figures in White Dwarf, the Codex and on the website. Here's the Hive Fleet Leviathan Trygon.


Here are the colour variants for the various Tyranid Hive Fleets.


The Hive Fleet Leviathan Swam, impressive no?


And Hive Fleet Behemoth, there is nothing like that endless sea of Gaunts. Despite the limited posing options of Termagants and the fact they all have 'Rocketdog' tails when you get them in a swarm like this they don't half look like the Galimimus flock from Jurassic Park and if you position them well they can look far more animated than their straight pose ever conveys alone.


The Bio Titan. I'm hoping to utilise this in some of my future 'action' shots [ooh!]


Lastly the Swarmlord, not a great pic but it was the first miniature I saw when I entered the main hall and started snapping like a fiend!


Tuesday 17 July 2012

Warhammer World - Blood Angel Displays

Obviously the display gallery was worth a visit to see soem of the wonderful studio painted armies. I've collected together some of the specific chapters, here's the Blood Angels. This bunch of tactical marines is quite impressive


Next, Astorath the Grim. I do like this model and the armour based on Vlad the Impaler's armour in Bram Stokers Dracula. What was interesting, and unfortunately just out of shot, was a second Astorath that was nigh on identical to this one. Who knows how many 'studio standard' miniatures for each special character exist?


The Sanguinor, another awesome figure and paint job.


Here's one of the Forgeworld large scale Marine sculpts painted up in Death Company colours




Sunday 15 July 2012

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Friday 13 July 2012

'nids part 45 - To done! - Broodlord 2

My second Broodlord and he's complete [except for the Mechrite bit on the base and couple of touches on the bitts on the scenic base, but we'll not mention that].


I may well prefer to use this one in future, he's got the swanky base and the green tongue looks a lot better than his pink tongued brother. 


Interestingly I had a game the other week where the Broodlord bottled out of a lost combat and spent the entire remainder of the game running, Usain Bolt style, across the entire battlefield. Given that his unit was destroyed there seemed no way for him to rally. However, when I consulted the interwebs the following morning I found out that even though the Genestealer is not subject to instinctive behaviour, nor require Synapse they still rally automatically when they enter Synapse! Too late now but it's handy to know that Synapse and the 'fearless' inherent with it affects 'any Tyranid unit'.


And that is the key, not 'any Tyranid Unit subject to Synapse control'. Its another one of those moments [like the Hormagaunts 3D6 'leaping bound' run] that you find another little gem of info about your Codex that you thought you knew already. So I advise anyone to have a quick read of their Codex, you never know what new little rule you may see that you'd missed or misinterpreted or dismissed as not important in your 'then list' only to be relevant in your 'now list'.




Wednesday 11 July 2012

Gaming with Mr Ben [5th edition]

Once again due to the unique way of preparing these posts in advance I have stumbled on a new problem. I still have battle reports for 5th Edition while I'm exploring new 6th Editon so I hope you don't mind having to straddle the two rule-sets to enjoy what went down. For one you've no choice and for two I'm not about to dump the content, in particular all the Warhammer World battles, not to mention an obscene 25,000 point [each side!] Armageddon battle. This was my last match with my mate Ben before 5th expired quietly in a corner somewhere.



Having initially cancelled our next match my old gaming mate Ben realised to bin off 5th Edition before 6th had even come out was a little premature and was eager to pit his 'Crons against my 'Nids again. So he reinstated our planned match and I got a few pictures but not a complete turn by turn report so don't think the pictures necessarily represent the action taking place in the description.

Annihilation again with Dawn of War setup, he got to deploy first and initially I wanted to box everything up in the bootom left corner. The magma chasm in the centre of the hill would become a complete nightmare - Ben asked if just the chasm should be impassable or the whole of the area terrain. Seeing all those scarabs and flyers I said the entire area just to see the car park it'd make of everything. I took some Ymgarls and thought the best place to set them up would be in the Aquila wreck just below the magma chasm as I assumed the 'crons would be heading in that direction...

Anyway so here's turn 1 after I stole the initiative. Taking into account he has Imotekh the Stormlord which would have been DoW anyway I was hoping to make fast ground ahead of the daylight coming and my guys being open season for shooting. The Stormlords lightning took two wounds off the Trygon and 3 wounds off the Hive Guard [so 1 was dead] not good considering their my main anti-tank.


Having barreled everything forward Ben did the exact opposite of what I thought he'd do, he didn't come to meet me but retreated, suddenly my Ymgarls were in completely the wrong place. Also that magma chasm suddenly became a hindrance to my movement and not Ben's. In his second turn Imotekh tried to keep the storms shoruding the battlefield in darkness but rolling a 2 meant that the clouds cleared, no more lightning and the battlefield was revealed.


Last time I played Ben he'd no used gauss weapons, his Teslas being much more effective for their extra sparks and arcs. I thought these Warriors failed for him because the gauss weapons don't really allow you to move and shoot. Anyway later on in the game I managed to get the 6 remaining Hormagaunts into combat with them but as they were in cover the Hormies struck last and the Warriors killed the brood before they could even lift a scything talon/ 


3 Annihilation Barges - these are just killers of 'nids. I managed to immobilise the one on the right quite early on thanks to the lone Hive Guard. I would later immobilize the second one which allowed auto-hits from the Broodlord but the remaining barge and active weapons still plagued me throughout the game.


The Tervigon managed to spawn for the entire game, and each roll was double figures in extra gaunts which with hindsight was a mistake as I was just creating more kill points for him to take down. By about turn 3 pretty much my entire force was bogged down in the Aquila wreckage. The Hive tyrant had repeatedly fired on the Ghist ark but kept on missing and taking out scarab swarms. The Adrenal Stealers had gone straight to Imotekh and the Immortals - the Broodlord hypnotised the Stormlord and caused a wound, the remaining stealers ravaged the Immortals and the innability of th eunit to land telling blows meant they broke and ran allowing me to slaughter them as they tried to flee. Luckily Imotekh failed to resurrect and I consolidated into the trees.


With the scarabs coming forward I threw the lead termagants at them, followed up by the couple of remaining Ymgarls and the Trygon. They smashed them to pieces and despite the significant losses to the 'nids [the Zoanthrope too was killed before he got to shoot!] very feew complete broods had gone. By about midway I'd managed 5 kill points to Ben's 2 but with the spore pod over on the right and out of synapse the 3 remaining Devgaunts were already routing towards the board edge and a further Necron KP.


So by the end of the 4th turn the roles had reversed and Ben was on 6 KP to my 5. The Tervigon had headed towards the Annihilation Barges and had suffered 5 wounds and saved quite a few other attacks but eventually it succumbed but the psychic back wash of it's demise killed an entire brood of 11-13 termagants stood in front of it - 2 KP's for the corns with one shot! Something else eventually gave up the ghost, the warriors with Tesla Carbines may have finally took the Broodlord down who had scrabbled ineffectually at one of the immobilised Annihilation Barges leaving a sole Ymgarl to keep mutating in a hope to rend it to death.


Meanwhile the Royal Court on Necron Lords had diembarked from the now wrecked Ghost Ark, their weapons casuing a lot of damage and then their mindshackle scarabs doing worse to the Tyranid Prime and the Warriors. My initial hopes for the combat after the all but one of the Warriors passed the Mind shackle test and resulting in 3 ou tof 5 lords being killed was scuppered as all three resurrected. I threw everything at them, all the Termagants bottlenecked by the magma chasm, but still quite a few got to join the mellee. The Trygon too tried to battle on but ended up stabbing itself to death. By the end of round 5 I think the Hive Tyrant and Hive Guard had also been takne down by long rang fire. With the big assault likely to end up in a wipeout for me I pointed out that there was literally no chance for me to catch up and we called it at about 12:30 am!

Once again a game that teetered on the edge but it was the durability of the Crons that won out again in the end. I think I had been much more aggressive and challenging this time and I think it was one of my best games yet. A lot of my force did what it was supposed to do barring the fail with the Hormagaunts and the ineffective Zoanthrope. My deployment fails were down to the spore pod and the Ymgarls in the wrong place and also not getting the termagants into place as a shieldwall against the mindshackle scarabs. That way my Warriors could attack the Lords without fear of being taken over. Successes were the Broodlord, I dithered over Hypnotic Gaze and Aura of Despair to potentially help the Hormies - they lost anyway so I'm glad I neutered Imotekh, so much for his battle prowess! The Hive Guard also did their, or should I say 'his' job given he was on his tod for the entire game.

Monday 9 July 2012

'nids part 44 - To done! - Rippers and a Spore Mine

My fourth Ripper base, my son still has to finish his. I really wanted this one to play with the lava balls so it looked slightly like the rippers were bursting from the ground. Now I know this doesn't quite capture that feel but it's quite different to the other three bases and from a low down level it does make them rearing up on their tails make sense.


Although, whether it makes sense they're gong in different directions I'm not sure. I think it goes some way to implying they've tunneled out of the ground and that's all I want to use it for.


 

And a Spore mine I had knocking about just finished up.


I really do like these, they're fun to paint but the rules are a bit sucky and the Biovore never really flings enough of them out. However, they do make decent alternative objective markers too. At least that's one things Nids do excel at!