'nids part 48 / Terrain is everything - Tyranid Quad Gun pt1.

Last month I did all the leg work in bringing forth some ideas to make your own Tyranid defence line, you can thank me later ;) Sure I'm taking credit for pointing out someone else's, namely Mr_Pink, work but I can follow up that post with some real effort.

I actually have no idea how to use and Aegis Defence Line equivalent, that's not how I play. I've of a mind to just get stuff into combat ASAP even if that puts me out of position and vulnerable. Of course with overwatch that's even more dangerous, so some defences might be useful but more importantly it unlocks the 50pt quad gun - 4 ST7 Twin Linked shots that can target flyers - I'll take that. However, you may recall that I was of the opinion, based on the FAQ, Nids couldn't use them but having seen other posts on the subject I re-read the rules and a defence line is 'battlefield debris', not a building and the gun emplacement in such DOES NOT have the auto-fire capability, it is purely user controlled so we can use such a weapon.

Anyway so first up is my Tyranid Quad Gun I got five 50mm bases off ebay and I'll be using a plastic Bucks Fizz cork as the base for the weapon.

The weapon itself will be based on the Acid Spray gun for the Tyrannofex, handily free with my Tervigon kit. I love the item, it'd make an awesome objective marker but it'll look cool as a quad gun given the four 'barrels'. At this stage I was playing around with ideas but I have cut off the lower part of the arm with my Dremmel equivalent that I got for my birthday last year. The Dremmel hasn't seen too much use for modelling but when necessary it's been invaluable.

Having curved the arm to try and match the curve on the plastic cork I drilled a hole to pin the gun to the cork with flower arranging wire.

Here was the decision I had to make, whether to put this pot pourri seed onto the side of the 'cork' and mount the arm inside it so there would be still that tendon able to pull the weapon up or to mount a Carnifex head in place of the tendon.

My decision was to go with the Carnifex head. Unfortunately my reasoning is flawed as I've just realised in writing this. My idea was to have the head to therefore justify when it wasn't being 'manned' the Carnifex sentience would provide the autofire but as I've just pointed out above this thing won't autofire - DOH! nevermind it'll look cool.

And here's what I mean, with the head cut down and mounted on the top of the arm I will add the pin. Next I'll mount the cork onto the base, bulk out the neck area and then use Milliput to create a chitinous shell round it and try to blend it alltogether, perhaps using some toxin sacs to hid the gaps inbetween the head and the arm.

Next up to share, the initial stage of my defence line...

Forge World Deimos Pattern Predator

For some reason I'm not a huge fan of the short range limitation of flamer weapons, of course they try to make me reconsider that position when the nids face them but there's something about the new Forge World Deimos Pattern Predator that speaks to me, although perhaps not the price. Check it out!

And with the Magn-Melta turret

Rules are here.

Off to order Dark Vengeance ;)

Warhammer World - random pics

Still plenty of pics to come from my Warhammer World visit, lots of terrain photo-bombs but here's a slew of random shots to entertain. First up the Reward sign to find the Regimental mascot and the poor little tyke spotted by my son. This is one of the '10 things to do at Warhammer World'

In the entrance is this life size chaos warrior.

Also sharing the entrance is Lurtz the Uruk-Hai, one of the '10 things' is to have your picture taken with him but my son refused.

I loved this print, and it's recently surface in the new 40k rulebook.

A real-life Golden Daemon Slayer sword, you would not believe how sharp this thing looks on the edge, chunky, but very keen.

A dragon-hide map of ye olde Warhammer Worlde. Whcih covers quite a large wall and is about 6'x8'.

The last 'person' who tried to leave without paying in Bugman's Bar - be warned!

A rather more portable map of the the old world.

And a rather pointless blurred close-up.

My son finally getting into the spirit of things, holding up the Bugman's Brew and seeing how big he is compared to an Astartes.

Another life size Marine for him to make friends with.

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.