Throne of Skulls Oct '12 - Battle 1, Tyranids Vs Grey Knights pt1

I'll split these into two parts as they're a bit long winded otherwise, although I'll post them on consecutive days so you don't have to wait too long for the conclusion :)

First game was Purge the Alien, Vanguard deployment [slightly amusing to see table after table split diagonally by everyone's tape measures]. My Warlord Trait was Inspiring Presence [meh]

Psychic Powers Tervigon HQ Tervigon Troop Broodlord [Adrenal] Broodlord [Toxin] Haemorrage Life Leech Warp Speed Hypnotise Endurance Warp Speed NA Witchfire Aura of Despair

Andrew Bruce brought a Grey Knight force to the table very similar to my mate PeteB's. I was quite confident despite the fact his deployment took less than about 2 minutes and the max VPs I could take were 5 plus Slay the Warlord, Line Breaker and First Blood [8 in total], whereas I was fielding 11 VP's without the bonuses!

He had twin Nemesis Dread Knights [NDKs] with Psycannons and Heavy Flamers, 2 Terminator Squads and a Storm Raven. I deployed second with the Aegis Defence Line mid way across the board - somewhere to take cover from [what? With those Flamers?]. The Adrenal Stealers infiltrated behind the Chaos Mound out of sight and hopefully out of range. No Tervigon was going to spawn as I didn't want to add to my uphill struggle on VP's. The MCs took cover behind the ruin and both Hive Guard were stationed on the second floor and out of sight.

Andrew advances all his figures and took some shots, not sure if he did any damage due to range but it doesn't look like it.

My turn and Hormagaunts and Warp Speed Adrenal Stealers charge for the NDK, backed up by the Trygon and Troop Tervigon.

Devgaunts advance to cover behind the ADL, HQ Tervigon and Warriors advance in support of the Toxin Stealers. HQ Tervigon Endures the Stealers.

Hive Guard failed to do any damage to the NDK. Going second allowed the Toxin Stealers to assault the NDK. They survive overwatch thanks to Endurance, the Broodlord Hypnotises the NDK and manages to put one wound on it.

Devgaunts wait for their first victim.

The NDK tries to win First Blood by killing the Hormagaunts but four survive, and I realise this will be significant in my turn.

The other NDK pounds on the Stealers and kills one.

The Spore Pod arrives with the Doom and despite usually being bang on target is dropped 11" away from where I wanted it and next to my ADL :( I realise that the max overwatch fire an NDK can do is D3, so if the Hormagaunts charge I can lose 3 and still not lose First Blood and get the Adrenal Stealers into combat unscathed. I also manage to reach with the Trygon for a full on Battle Royale. The Broodlord on Warp Speed puts 2 wounds on the NDK who in return smashes him into the ground.

The Stealers then rip him to pieces before the Trygon gets a chance. All of the nids consolidate to the left and head for Line breaker [wishful thinking at this stage] with the Trygon going over the Chaos Mound in seach of the second NDK.

Game 1 concludes tomorrow.

Otty's minis

I'm just throwing these all at you. Otty sent through some pics of his minis but I thought I'd bundle in some of the shots I took from ToS too. There's a particularly contentious pic of a Tyrannofex and homemade Raveners conferring a 25% cover save on the Necron Bastion the T-fex is shooting! I may revisit the ToS pics again in a future post if Otty thinks of any captions to go with them, meanwhile enjoy.

Throne of Skulls 2012 - Prologue

I've come to the conclusion that a sense of chronology may be misplaced in my current blogging schedule. I've three Battle Reports and a couple of Tervigon and painting updates pre- Throne of Skulls that help to lead into the five battle reports from ToS. However, if I continue in that order we're talking the middle of November before they are published and lets face it the first three Batreps are already out of date. So I'm going to rejig the schedule, my biggest hatred of the blogger interface as it's a ball ache, and try and bring the ToS one's forward. They're current news they others are history.

Therefore you may want to avail yourself of my  Hive Fleet Gorgon - Ferron Splinter Fleet army list and background. The final list I decided on, which I felt was Wafer Thin in places and Stronger in others. Some of the background you may be familiar with, it's handy having a blog to source this from ;) And to add some visuals to this post here's some of the new decor at Warhammer World.

I love the fact the Rhino has a full 'display' to it, not just parked up.

Also I never got a shot of the Space Marine on the plinth at the front of GW HQ, so I went and got one this time.

And the Imperial Eagle too!

Ooh, but look who's missing from the other building... kind of spooky to see he's moved!

So, look forward to 10 days of battle reports, each one is split into two as there's a lot to take in but I will be running them consecutively so you don't have to wait a day for a conclusion.

Now we are 2!!

Aside from my recent observations on my 'To do list' it's been a while since I took stock about the blog and where its at. What better time than my second anniversary. Two years ago I began to reveal my addiction to the unsuspecting internets. I achieved my initial goal of posting every other day and almost every time I warned that I couldn't keep up the pace and may have to take time off I pushed on through and continued to deliver. The second year was supposed to be more relaxed but the sheer amount of content I had thanks to my Warhammer World visit, more regular gaming activities and plenty of new hobby enterprises resulted in the opposite.

The blog therefore became bigger than I thought it would be and so I've begun to make it easier to navigate because all those who find the blog now aren't going to go back through every post so it's important to position all the very best treats in places folk can get at quickly.

As I look ahead I can see plenty more to keep other hobbyists satisfied, entertained and excited but I have noticed that this is less a 'group session for an addict' - a way for me to release my addiction and feel more comfortable, and more another 'hit' I can take. I check the blog far too often than is healthy, my sleeping arrangements have got worse, I even had to install parental controls on my PC to ensure it stopped at midnight. I may even consider making that 11:30 as I'm still going to bed at 12:30 once the computer has locked. Put into some kind of context, even with a month of posts already produced I was still beavering away with new content. I've joined another couple of Tyranid forums to discuss gribbly specific issues and my BoLS and Warseer visits are incessant! So I'm aware this is a 'problem' I just have to find a more appropriate level of activity, that may be my biggest goal for my third year.

Thanks for all those that have participated, commented, followed or otherwise. Apologies if this thank you/celebration took a slightly grimdark turn but maybe there is a lesson for everyone, I mean this is 'Confessions of a 40k adddict' afterall.

A tale of four gamers - Warhammer World Hangover

As you should be well aware it was Throne of Skulls this weekend and it was in a word 'awesome'. I've hundreds of photographs and five battles to report on so it's obviously going to take a while to fit everything into the blog. So, I felt it was important to give you the headlines now, thank all those that made it happen and that way you can look forward to reading and seeing the treats to come.

Tournament headlines:

• I was nominated for best army [seven were nominated out of 140 competing]
• My mate Liam was nominated once again for his Dark Eldar
• My mate Otty was also nominated for best army
• Otty won 'The Scribe's Quill' - the award for best designed army list
• Out of five games I won four!!! [what the flip!] Yep folks, my weak force with weak nids won four!!! Ben worked out I came something like 26th!
• I faced:
1. Andrew Bruce's Grey Knights, similar list to my friend Pete B's but was hammered on kill points.
2. Jim Klapkowski's Ravenguard,
3. Phil Elliott's [of www.4tk.co.uk] Blood Angels Mech,
4. Andreas Kkounnous's Imperial Guard [Squats],
5. Sean O'Sullivan's fluffy Necrons,
• Liam won 2 out of 5
• Ben won 3 out of 5 [losing only to the best Nid and Tau players with five wins each!]
• Otty won 3 and drew 1 out of 5 [yes with nids!]
• Necron's were there in force and the seven flyer Necron air force was in for a lot of stick ;)
• Equally the five Tervigon list that my mate Ben lost to [as well as 4 other players] wasn't a pleasant match.
• The highest average army score went to ... Eldar!!!
• The lowest  average army score went to ... Dark Angels!!! [bring on the new codex]
• Surprisingly the new kid on the block Chaos Space Marine army average was 2nd last!

Thank yous:

• First and foremost it must be to our wonderful better halves for letting four big kids go off to play toy soldiers. It wasn't all plain sailing and they're not going to see this but I want it on record we appreciate it even if it seemed like we couldn't see past the end of our dice and tape measures.
• Second a big shout out to Ben's cousin Warwick Kinrade and his good lady wife who put four gamers up in their front room. If you're unaware of Warwick then check out any Imperial Armour book from Forgeworld or more importantly if you like your WWII battles he's just produced a new rulebook - Battlegroup Kursk through The Plastic soldier Company. I saw it first hand and it was mint!
• Another big thanks to the Events Team at Warhammer World, Adam, Nick and the guys couldn't be more helpful and accommodating and one of these weekends represents 'good value', something you may be surprised about but it's true and I would look forward to going again. Meanwhile the guys put up this album of pics on their Facebook group from the two days, including my buds and your's truly's figures.
• And lastly to my three road trip warriors who put up with me. Otty for the patience and driving, Ben for the patience and organising everything and Liam for the patience and putting up with my ramblings after two pints of Bugman's finest XXXXXX and the other stuff I will always owe you for!

So I'll get around to posting these as quickly as I can. I'm trying to write up the battle reports now but please understand that things will be a bit sketchy thanks to the amount of gaming, the lack of chance to record everything that was going on and the delay in getting to write everything down, but I'll do my best.