Tuesday night's all right for fighting [Gaming with my son!]

It's been a while but I had chance to nip up to my Local Friendly Neighborhood Gaming Club and as it's the Summer holidays I took the boy too. A couple of years ago, when I was still able to go to my kendo, I spent a wonderful six weeks taking him with me to class. Being 8 at the time I feared he wouldn't be able to fit in with the discipline but he did really well and I was immensely proud of his efforts, he didn't do it last year, obviously this is what I can only bring him to now. Saying that, he hasn't even played 6th Edition yet and didn't even realised I'd played any games.

First a note on the pics. I added a new camera app to my phone Camera360 Ultimate. I'd binned it off in the past as it can't be moved to the SD card but it does some nice effects and I hoped it would allow me to enhance images before taking the shots instead of requiring me to do it after. Now I've got to grips with it it may speed up my progress. The first two shots show the Enhanced and the Original. I love th evibrancy of the enhanced, there's actually more mid-range colours in the original but it's just too flat.

So 500 pts [sort of] of nids on each side, this is his Vanguard setup on Purge the Alien, he's got 10 Devgaunts, a Trygon, Prime and Warriors and a Biovore, which I think tips him 55pts over 500 but...

... I have a Tervigon [as Warlord], 10 Devgaunts, Hormagaunts, 2 Hive Guard and 5 Genestealers, infiltrating in the ruin to the right.

He gets first turn and setup. Warlord powers give him +1" to his charge and I get the one to add a dice to Run and Charge rolls.

And moves everything forward, the Devgaunts target the Genestealers...

Only a few Devgaunts were in range so their 12 shots take out just one of the Stealers [who was foolishly standing atop the ruin!].

The Biovore and Barbed Strangler fire - hit my Devgaunts, killing five and two Hormagaunts. In my turn everything moves forwards and the Tervigon spawns 11, without doubles.

With nothing else in range everything targets the Trygon, I think the Hive Guard wound but it's Armour protects it. The same couldn't be said for the weight of fire from the Devgaunts and I think in the end it failed one of the two or three shots that managed to wound. Another comparison shot too of enhanced and normal.

Turn two and the Warriors move out in the open and the Devgaunts advance through cover, the Biovore sits still ready to lob spore mines at any massed brood - which I happen to have in the 11 Termagants in the trench system. Five fall to large blasts and the Hormagaunts also suffer, with only one left alive. The Devgaunts target the Genestealers, they all die - First blood! The Trygon unleashes it's Bio-Electric Pulse on the Hive Guard, taking one wound off them. My son often does weird stuff I can't comprehend but quite often it doesn't harm his chances whatsoever.

I spawn another 10 gaunts but get a double. They form a protective line in front of the Tervigon so it doesn't get assaulted and they get to overwatch if they do, not like it would achieve much but y'know. The Hive Guard move back into cover as do the Gaunts in the trenches, far enough to delay charges but near enough to still shoot, pre-measuring is great.

I'm not entirely sure what put the extra wound on the Trygon. Everything fired at it I think, except the Tervigon. My son then moved his Devgaunts up and the Warriors too.

The Devgaunts shot and killed the three Termagants they could see. The Trygon fired it's pulse at some point, unleashing all 6 shots on the last Hormagaunt, overkill maybe, but it was dead and another VP to him.

There may be a lack of continuity in this pic in that the Trygon is now assaulting the Termagants in front having just shot the Hormagaunt but whatever, only two gaunts remain.

In response the Tervigon charges in, it puts two wounds on the Trygon but not before it put four on the Tervigon, this may have been a mistake!

Even moreso I see my brood approach extermination. The Tyranid Prime leaves the Warriors and assaults the Tervigon.

The lashwhip takes the Tervigon down to Initiative 1, and his Bonesword puts another unsaveable Wound on the Tervigon, I pass my Ld test. In return the Tervigon stomps two wounds on the Prime, was this a mistake? Should I have taken the Trygon? only time will tell.

Only the three Fleshborer gaunts remain in the trenches they fire at the Devgaunts, who knew Fleshborers could do so much damage? Makes a change against T3 and no save! 

My Hive Guard move thru terrain to target the Warriors, three shots, three wounds S8 vs T4 and only the far right warrior gets a 5+ save which he fails - 1KP to me!

Oh dear, the Prime and Trygon finally take out the Tervigon. It's demise feedbacks on the surrounding gaunts - the three in the trench suffer 14 wounds, the Devgaunts 8 and the two assaulting the Trygon three.

When the dust settles just two Devgaunts remain after saves. In revenge the Hive Guard target the Prime...

...and impale his a$$!

That was it, turn 5 and he beat me something like six or seven VPs to my three. My Genestealers were rubbish, that's a fact. The single biggest talking point was the Prime separating, that brought about the demise of the Warriors but if he hadn't would the Tervigon have been able to finish the Trygon off? He caused two unsaveable wounds on the Prime, I don't recall the dice but if they'd have taken the Trygon then instead the Tervigon would have survived and so too all the gaunts, there's no telling would would have/could have happened but it was a very significant tipping point.

I've some ideas for the future about a more defensive posture and perhaps not sending Genestealers forward as most times they just get slaughtered because they're too far removed from support. Lots to think about and my son did really well, the jammy sod ;)

Warhammer World - Prize Giving and more random pics

Here's the prize ceremony for my Warhammer World trip, Nick prepares to tell us whether the Seasiders or Inlanders have prevailed.

 

Nick was really helpful throughout and funny too!

Best painted miniature went to this guy, I think his name was Lee, he brought Nids and fought my son in the second match. His nids were really cool with some fluff about their 'homeworld' which seemed similar to Pandora in Avatar. All the nids had tiny bio-luminescent dots on them and the bases were dark blue, as was their colouring. Some very fine detail work but he pointed out it was a simple effect so didn't take very long. There was some beutiful attention to detail on the bases with tiny plants and leaves. Foolishly I forgot to get pictures though. He does commission painting and is getting a website online so if I ever find it I'll post here.

And the winners were the Seasiders, here we are, a bit blurred but winners nontheless.

And as we move off you can see my baldy head and red jumper at the back.

Both my son and I got these cool little winners certificates, neat. An awesome day and my son asked if we could do it again next year.

The end results were that I came joint 23rd out of 46 and my son came joint 38th, a good result.

Just a couple of more 'atmosphere' shots. There's at least 3 or 4 buildings within the GW HQ, this building has the Imperial Aquila on the side. Out front [towards the left] is Space Marine Statue on a plinth, if you check out the HQ on Google Maps you can see the statue I'm referring too, although...

...there's a similar statue guarding the entrance to the building here. Imagine seeing him poking round the corner of the building as you exit the coach!

And what this is either the side of Warhammer World or one of the factories that runs parallel to WW, behind it.

Gaming with my mate Liam

My mate Liam, he of the scratch built Warhound and Warlord fame dropped me a line the other day asking if I wanted a game. He'd only just got 6th edition so how could I refuse the opportunity to 'pop his cherry'. If  you look back in the history of my gaming crew you may get a feel for how long it's been since I gamed with Liam and also the all night parties he used to hold in his house were legendary and I owe a certain amount to them that has resulted in my continued relationship with my then girlfriend and now wife, but I digress.

Liam now lives near Bolton, about 40 minutes away and so I pootled up there to have our first game in about 20 years. Before I get to the game here's a little treat, if you look back at all the ebay sales he's done you should know he can paint like a fiend and you can see that in these giant eagles he made out of war griffons.

The full swoop of three eagles for his high elf army. So well painted it's frightening.

OK, so here's the battle 1,500 pts, Dawn of War setup, Purge the Alien-  Eternal War Mission. I had the 'nids, obviously and Liam was using his Dark Eldar, my first time fighting the naughty space pixies. Liam won the roll to setup and first turn. From many discussions I've had with Liam he has a firm belief he is cursed with bad luck, I therfore was hesitant to attempt stealing the initiative and confirm his belief, luckily I failed. Most of my force was lined up as you see, with the adrenal stealers in the crater top left and the Ymgarls in the Shrine of the Aquila, which is where most of his Grotesques were hiding.

You can just about make out the Grotesques and two Ravagers in the ruin. A couple of Webway portals appeared either side of the Shrine.

The Ravagers moved of cover and targeted the Tyranid Warriors, their high strength weapons insta-killing the entire unit. First Blood to Liam and one kill point. Everything of mine moved up, some shooting happened but the Hive Guard could only reach the Grotesques and managed a couple of wounds.

Liam's next turn and a squad of jetbikes came screaming out of the portal. [you've got a love his bases!]

The entire unit blasted across the battlefield and deftly pirouetted to face the direction they'd come just in time to see the mass detonation of the cluster caltrops they'd scattered as they overflew the genestealers.

Despite casting Endurance [the ymgarl marker was my reminder for this] on the unit only one stealer survived and the Broodlord took one wound courtesy of the cluster caltrops.

Meanwhile a unit of  Helions, including his Warlord Baron Sathonyx flew into the ruined shrine, one inexperienced Helion flying straight into a girder.

The Hive Tyrant/Hive Guard managed to put a hull point or two on one of the Ravagers, their chameleon like armour coating making them very difficult to hit. The Tervigon had spawned 10 termagants and pooped out.

Inside the grim facade of the Shrine Baron Sathonyx urged the Grotesques to hold fast and let the Tyranid horde come to them.

The Mycetic Spore landed just shy of being sucked into the webway portal. The Devgaunts swarmed forth and fired point blank into the Helions, doing serious damage to the flyboys and girls. Everything else converged on the ruins, ripping through the weakened walls to get at the Grotesques inside.

The Trygon reached the Ravager and smashed it to pieces, I'd forgotten to test for instinctive behaviour but he passed retrospectively.

The Reavers blasted across the battlefield, their cluster caltrops annihilating the Devgaunts this time. Meanwhile the Helions moved to assault the Trygon and a unit of Wyches scrambled onto the wreckage of the Ravager to take potshots at it too,

The Hormagaunts continued to assault the Grotesques but another unit of Wyches came out of the webway portal, they moved to get a decent position to assault next turn. The Termagants were down to two at this stage but were eventually wiped out as was the Broodlord and stealers. The Mycetic Spore got blasted too, if I recall and I'm guessing the Hive Tyrant given how many VPs Liam was racking up.

Eventually the last chance I had was the Trygon to assault baron Sythorax and take out his unit, getting points for killing the Warlord and the Unit. Everything was going to plan until I remembered yet again I'd forgotten to test for Instinctive behaviour and this time it failed so all the damge the Helions received would now be on the Wyches in the wreckage of the Ravager as they were the nearest target. Unfortunately this would be AFTER they got their strikes due to me assaulting through cover. Thus the Trygon was slaughtered before it could even get into combat with them. In the end I was pretty hammered. We were playing into the early hours of the morning and with the Trygon going postal on the Wyches I had little chance of salvaging any respect. I think I'd scored one VP and had another for Linebreaker but Liam was up to about 7,8 or 9 VPs before I called it.

So what's to learn from this? I setup really wrong, I'm always of a mind to close the distance, maybe once in a while I need to hang back and draw the enemy forwards, get them to commit and then steam roll in. Dark Eldar were a whole new prospect for me so I should be better prepared next time. I dunno how to counter the jetbikes, their cluster caltrops were awesome, who needs assaulting from reserve when you can drop those babies on a fly-past. I also positioned the stealers wrong and the Ymgarls got toasted by the Helions by assaulting in cover - a total waste. Not my finest hour and I have to agree Liam does roll an awful lot of 1's and I did manage a lot of 6's so I did have some advantages. Statistically there seemed a lot of anomalies but I look forward to a rematch soon and maybe making some better tactical decisions.

Terrain is everything - Another Eldar Defence Line

The more scratchbuilt defence lines I showcase the more I find. Spyrle kindly commented on my previous Eldar Defence line post and shared his own version, instead of a structure solely woven from wraithbone it's part bone with a forcefield created by the wraithbone pylons. You can check out the finished article here.

The link has a step-by-step guide to how they were made and as the pylons were resin casts it's also a neat introduction to casting. I really like acrylic force fields but having cut clear acrylic sheet in the past I know how hard that can be to get a nice edge. Still with saving time on the casting process you can spend a little more for the tidy finish. Alternatively you could look at transparent polypropylene folders and use them for the force field. Easier to cut, perhaps a little less durable but you could make them a little oversized for the gap and that way they could curve to fit between the pylons. You could even use the plastic from a 7Up or Sprite bottle - pre-curved and coloured!

But it's a really cool idea by Spyrle and very much reminds me of the Webway Gates and Energy shields from Dawn of War:

Also, specifically check out page 2 or Spyrle's step-by-step guide as it includes some links to other Xenos Defence Lines, including Grubnards that prompted Spyrle's comment [thanks again for contributing].