Terrain is everything - ancient Skyshield Landing Pad

Taking into account I really should be sharing the love of other blogs I stumble across and community spirit it engenders I thought I'd share this truly awesome ancient Skyshield Landing Pad at Cinders of War.

As you can see  C!nder has made something quite unique for his mate Ben's Thousand Son's force but the amazing thing is that the Pad doesn't end with the image above, it's a truly modular piece that has a variety of configurations:

or even turned upside down!

There's loads more at Cinders of War, not to mention some very effective Tyranid Spires, scratchbuilt Jump Packs and a number of army boards. There may not be a blog post every day from him but that means you can just add it to your blog rolls/feeds safe in the knowledge you're not going to be overwhelmed with yet another blog to read as I know I feel sometimes - so much cool stuff to read.

Warhammer World ToS Brad Glover's Necrorks

I really like Brad Glover's Necrorks. I was amazed he didn't get nominated for best army and could only presume he hadn't painted them himself, which he informed me he had. Neither of us could figure it out but I can only assume the judges are looking for clear cut armies that represent a Codex. Mix and match, however cool may fail to meet the criteria. That's the only reason I can imagine because I thought the conversions were cool and the painting was ace.

The Ghost Ark/Trukk was very impressive.

I liked the maroon bases too.

All the figures were finished to the same high standard and I'm pretty certain they all had conversion work on them, certainly worthy of a nomination in my book.

Even ogres got in on the action.

There was also a bit of humour with the likes of this spotlight headed character.

His award winning Necrork Quad Gun and Aegis Defence line [which I voted for].

His large monster and collecting his award for the Fortification!

 

Also here's a couple of pics of my mate Liam's Dark Eldar awaiting their next battle.

His pain and wound token's have just as much attention as the rest of his army!

Also here are some Necrons, I believe this was the best Necron Army over the weekend. Pete Ganderton was the owner I think and he came over a couple of times to see how I was getting on and to say how great he thought my Nids were. He was very modest about his won efforts which I really liked, particularly the airbrushing effects he did on the flyer.

Here's Pete winning the best Necron player award.

1000pt battle report - nids Vs Grey Knights [Again!]

Playing on a Sunday night, what next! Ah well if I hadn't have postponed the family ironing then PeteB would have been without his gaming fix due to four consecutive night shifts - OUCH! So we had quite a cool little game in his cleared out 'man cave' - the garage. Certain advantages to having a newly found dedicated space but maybe we'll think differently come the Winter and not in a Game of Thrones fashion either.

So a 1000pts each, I got first turn, Dawn of War/Relic intimidating presence and PeteB got the overwatch on full BS. Oh, and note the TWO! Nemesis Dread Knights. As if one wasn't bad enough last time. This is after my first move. The Genestealers were able to secure the relic[the tiny yellow tyre valve cap!] thanks to infiltrate. The Hive Guard fired on the black NDK and he saved with ease. Tervigon spawned 8, that's about it.

BOOM! The grey NDK pops a large blast on the Termagants and does some damage. Funnily enough the Razorback fails it's difficult terrain test on the anaemic hedge, something we will be bringing up in many future matches no doubt ;) The black NDK fires it's flamer, I forgot it has a rang of 12" and it incinerates the stealers and a couple of Hormagaunts leaving the Broodlord safe with the relic. First Blood to PeteB!

The Devgaunts take a couple of casualties but the rubble help with saves.

The Tyranids are looking slightly less secure thanks to their dwindling numbers.

My turn two. Another 8 Termagants are spawned and they conga back to my half. The Broodlord heads back to take the Relic further away from the Grey Knights. Hive Guard fire again on the NDK and again it does nothing. Ymgarl Genestealers come from the pillars and my Momstrous Creatures charge forwards.

Devgaunts and Tyranid Prime take cover behind the ruins preparing to trade fire with the five man squad opposite. He takes a casualty. Hormagaunts assault the NDK to tarpit him and prevent anymore flamer shots but suffer 3 dead from wall of flame. In the assault four die but he stays locked. At this point I wish I'd attempted to get the Prime in there too. Rending claws and twin boneswords - one unsaved wound he could be instakilled!

Broodlord offloads the Relic and heads back to the fight.

After much deliberation I decide to assault the NDK with the Trygon alone, no point having challenge shenanigans like last time. The Tervigon assaults the GK squad and shrugs off overwatch fire. The Ymgarls charge in for extra support.

The Trygon smashes the NDK to pieces, it failing four out of the six wounds, it then consolidates 6". The other melee leaves four knights left and they flee.

Everyone consolidates a few inches. The squad in the Razorback comes out at some point and gets eaten but not sure when or by whom but the Ymgarls don't appear after this pic so something went wrong for both of us.

The four man squad facing the Devgaunts 'shunts' into my deployment zone They flame the perfectly aligned Termagants and the Relic is left among the charred remains.

The Tervigon advanced to the back of the Razorback to assault it [which it did] and also keep the GK squad fleeing. I think the Trygon ate the Inquisitor squad following it's destruction of the Ymgarls [I think], Slay the Warlord to me. The Black NDK advanced and I assaulted it with the Prime. I managed to put a wound on it and then he used his force sword  [unnecessarily] failed Shadows of the Warp and took a wound but I also took a wound and being St10 the Prime was Insta-killed. Slay the Warlord to PeteB.

He consolidates, ready to shoot the Devgaunts who had previously killed three of the four GK's in my deployment zone, the last one broke and fled, you can see it next to the ruins. I think the Devgaunts were then flamed.

I failed my Instinctive behaviour for the Hive guard in the previous turn and in my eagerness to do my Tervigon assault forgot to shoot the NDK, not that they'd done anything to it that night. The NDK therefore took advantage and flamed and then sliced them with it's sword. Meanwhile my Trygon tried to race back to help the Broodlord, the Tervigon staying where it was for Linebreaker. The NDK somehow ends up in combat with the Broodlord after this pic is taken putting a wound on it with it's flamer.

But thanks to Iron Arm I hit first, causing two rending wounds and two normal ones and we call it. 

PeteB is hoping for a win next time, I think the first NDK was a lucky kill for me but I think for the first time the advance delivered and I think it was because the Ymgarls, Tervigon and Trygon had a lot of support for each other. He pulled some really neat tricks and the NDKs are still difficult to kill but I think it's early days for his force and given time when he knows exactly how to peal me apart I'm going to suffer. Terminators next time I think.

A freebie - Eldar Psychic Power and Webbed markers

More freebies, because who doesn't like free stuff? Naturally these are only going to benefit Eldar players though, but they're people too, filthy Xeno scum, but people nontheless ;) So I did these quite a while back and was convinced I'd shared them because I had them in Picasa. Originally it was for the benefit of both my son and PeteB, back when he had Eldar. The five psychic powers were covered, nothing too fancy, no explanations of their effects either.

The reason I believe I didn't share in the end was PeteB asked me to produce a 'Webbed' marker for models that have been hit by a Night Spinner shortly after I made the psychic markers. I did so but never added them to the pic above. Then, when I did come to add it I discovered the actual marker had disappeared from my Illustrator file - probably failed to save or the file was overwritten at some point. Anyway, it didn't take too long to redraw the marker so find it attached.

Usual step-by-step:

1. Print
2. Apply double sided tape to back
3. Stick to mounting card
4. Carefully apply sellotape to top if you want them pseudo-laminated
5. Cut out with craft knife/scalpel
6. Amaze your friends and enemies with these cards
7. Tell them to visit 40kaddict.blogspot.com for their own free markers.



Facebook shmacebook

I'm not entirely sure why but I thought I'd create a Facebook group for the blog. Mayhap you log into Facebook more often than come to the site, although I'm trying to make the blog more easy to navigate with the new tabs at the top to find all the relevant hobby stuff. But if you just want to dip in while networking socially then you can nip over to the Book of Face and join my group, here's the link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/144564502354384/

For all I know this may mean a drop in visitors but c'est la vie it's there if you want it and even the few friends who've joined have used it to share their work so it's ideal if you want to share stuff and maybe I'll bring it over to the blog proper?!

Terrain is everything - more Eldar terrain

I saw these a while back when I was devouring any other Xenos terrain/fortifications I could get my hands on. Finally got the chance to point out Jack's Painting blog with them in, it won't be new to regular commenter Spyrle ;) but perhaps news to anyone else, check out the old White Dwarf tutorials:

http://jackspainting.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/eldar-fortifications-and-blast-from.html

Battle Report 1500pts - Nids v Orks!

My old gaming buddy Ben had me round for another battle before ToS, this is quite a while back and some of the questions raised have since been answered but please be patient with it, it takes to long to retcon all the historical inaccuracies now. His Necrons have been utterly brutal on me recently so he decided to go easy and use his Orks. 

Now these aren't the Orks he came 6th with in Throne of Skulls last year but there was plenty to scare me as I've never played a full Ork force properly. There were 3 Killa Kans, 3 Trukks and Wartrakk, warbuggy and 3 Deffkoptas. He also had a big 30 man blob with Weirdboy at least one or two units of Nobz and another 10man+ unit so all three Trukks had guys in tow. I'd brought along a force similar to what I want to take to ToS, but with the Hive Tyrant instead of a second Tervigon and it was the first outing for my Defence Line and Quad Gun [obviously this shows how long ago the game was pre-FAQ nerfing!].

The pics are at a distance because the closer I got to the board the more shadow was cast so hopefully there's enough to go with to see the action. I'd had a vision earlier in the day we would be playing the Relic and when I saw the board set up with two of Ben's Stompas as impassable terrain and very little room for my defence line I guessed fate would dictate a hammer and anvil setup and I was correct on both counts. I know fortifications go down before the terrain but we didn't worry too much about that and so I crept the line a little forwards so I could sally forth, steal the relic and then retreat to my cover whilst gunning down everything that got within reach. My Warlord trait was +1" to charge distance and I got quite a decent set of psychic powers to replace the Tyrants, Tervigon and Broodlord.

Ben got first turn, I couldn't steal the initiative. He moved stuff up [obviously] his Killa Kans grotbuster [?] gun taking out at least 3 of my 8 stealers putting them down to my usual starting numbers! He also targeted the quad gun, in a bid to kill it before I even got chance to fire. It took a wound and so too did the Zoanthrope in the mysterious forest but he survived a massive amount of firepower aimed at him in an attempt to gain first blood. He must have made at least nine saving throws!

My turn 1, everything advance [obviously]. For some reason I chose not to use a psychic power on the Hive tyrant, missing out on Iron Arm and Enfeeble. He fired his Venom Cannon at the Grotbuster Killa Kan but his the one next to it just taking a hull point. The Trygon ran over the Aegis. the Hive Guard, hiding behind a ruined giant Deff Dread fired, I think they got a HP on one of the trukks, or penned and got a weapon destroyed - certainly not the successful shooting I was hoping for.

The Warriors stepped over the first Aegis to allow room for the Tervigon to spawn Termagants next to the quad gun. I was hoping to keep the numbers down so it wasn't too cramped, but I got 14! but no doubles at least. He cast Warp Speed on himself [for no reason] and got +2 I and A. The Warriors and quad gun targeted the Deffkoptas - killing one and wounding another - they failed morale and puttered off back the way they came. The Tervigon let rip with it's Stinger Salvo, taking a HP off the War Trakk.

The Broodlord cast Endurance on the Stealers as they headed towards the Wartrakk bearing down on the relic. He mullered it to pieces gaining me First Blood. The Hormagaunts followed closely in support and to try and capture the relic but were too short. Although the Deffkoptas were fleeing, first blood and the od HP my overall view of the turn was not good and a lot of my dice rolls had been below average.

However, Ben was feeling a little under pressure with few options to take out my monstours creatures he burned his Trukks forward, jumped the boyz out to take on the Tyrant and sent his Warboss at the Tervigon who picked a wound off him through overwatch. I'm not sure how successful these assaults were. I think we ended up locked in combat for that turn, the Warboss did more damage than you would expect and the Trygon held in there, the fololowing turn the Monstrous creatures won out, killing the boss and enough orks for them to be swept away after failing their morale. But my turn of assault before this was particularly poor.

The other Trukk disgorged a mob into the Warriors who managed to kill an Ork through overwatch. The Orks then managed to do serious damage to the warriors thanks to power klaws and through weight of numbers over both my turn and Ben's butchered the Warriors and headed for the Termagants manning the Quad gun

Meanwhile only the Broodlord remained he 'died' at one point wa sremoved from the board, orks consolidated and everything but then we remembered he still gets his Feel No Pain roll, and managed to save enough to retain one wound left. The termagant spawned another 10 gants who bundled the Ork mob with the Devgaunts who had previously glanced the back of the Trukk to death. the Tervigon wound up his Warp Speed for another +3 I and A so on the charger he would be 4 attacks +3 [D3 rolled] crushing claws and +3 Warp Speed. Really need to understand what happens to Smash in this situation as most rules I've read state the Crushing Claws are added after the Smash halves the A characteristic, but what happen to Warp Speed?

The last mob of boyz came out, on this side they threw everything at the Zoanthrope, Tyrant and Trygon. The Zoiehung in there and I think he'd managed at least one mech kill I think.

The orks moved for a better position and the Deffkoptas rallied at the last minute to return to the battle, just too late.

The Orks continued to kill the Termagants on the Aegis.

Everything piled on the poor Orks in the middle surrounding the Relic, you remember the Relic the thing we're supposed ot be fighting over but no one has actually picked up yet. By this stage Ben had started to get some seriously bad dice rolls. A lot of St 10 weaponry ending up with 1s and despite a change in fortune, once again coincidentally at the moment his wife came home from work that good fortune evaporated as my Psychic Powers began to tip the balance.

The Hive Tyrant had been on +3 St and T for two turns with Iron Arm so by this stage he was nigh indestructable, regardles of how many wounds he'd already received.

Meanwhile the Trygon killed the last of the Killa Kans but was short of his deployment zone but it was getting on after midnight and with the blob of Orks gone in the middle and both first blood and Slay the Warlord under my belt he wasn't going to recover so he called it and I finally broke my duck.

Another really close and enjoyable game. Compared to his Necrons it's amazing to be facing mech that I can kill but to be honest early on I should have been doing some significant damage but it just didn't happen. The surprise for me was his assaults, they were brutal, 20, 30, 40 attacks sometime. The Warriors paid that price. I feel a lot more comfortable with how I played, I hope I'd have won through if it had have been Necrons but there are far more cards up their sleeves than lowly Orks I believe...