FREE - Battle Mission - Ephemeral Scuffle - Knowledge is Power

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The other week at 1:30 in the morning as I struggled to get to sleep, following my epic confrontation with Ben and his Necrons, my mind was racing and in a brief epiphany I had an idea for a Battle Mission. Not only that, but I could give it away, like for FREE! Once again, who doesn't like free stuff? I do and it's the season for giving afterall. So to see out 2013 [good riddance!] and hopefully usher in a new more benevolent and fun 2014 I thought I'd make it a reality.

For all I know this mission may already exist, it's probably not the most original idea, but then again, what is? Anyway, in my typical fashion of coming up with a suitably flippant 'Aldi' naming convention for the flipside of an Eternal War mission [GW like their wordplay too] I came up with these alternative titles [and you can tell which one I chose but let me know if you prefer another]

• Ephemeral Tussle
• Ephemeral Tiff
• Ephemeral Scrap
• Ephemeral Ruckus
• Ephemeral Struggle
• Ephemeral Skirmish
• Ephemeral Scuffle
• Ephemeral Conflict

To download the first Ephemeral Scuffle mission data-blurt, point your Cogitator here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B97Rk-BalgZbOFpKamx3eDZmYkE

Let me know what you think, if I'm visited by the voices again maybe they'll come up with another FREE mission?

To Done! - Tyranid Aegis Defence Line

Don't worry, you haven't gone mad I know I've had a Tyranid Aegis Defence line for quite a while, well this is the completion of the 'spare' and it's on my '2013/14 To Do List'. All that was waiting was some Tendril Vines and the sand base. For some reason stripping string and twine apart and then soaking it in PVA before I individually position them to look like trailing alien vine growth didn't appeal to me, so I'd put this off for long time.

But I'd done the Capillary Towers vines and thought I might as well add to the two hours doing them and continue on with half an hour of pimping the walls. Additionally I added sand to the bases. In the new year I may ask my mate Liam at Blue Warp Studios to take me through the finer points of making a mould and casting these up. Escalation allows for multiple defence lines so this is a perfect opportunity to build more.

Here's my big blue tick for getting it done.

'nids part 117 - PROJECT Y Scratchbuilt Tyranid Skyshield Landing Pad pt1.

What? You really didn't think I was making the Capillary Towers as just terrain pieces did you? What's really surprised me is no one asked about the slots that have been cut into the towers from day one. I was sure if I'd released the towers templates folk would figure out what was going on and I thought even holding out would be conspicuous by it's absence.

Originally I planned to not cut slots, but embed magnets and have an additional central column that would support it underneath. But the slots would solve the problem completely even if they looked a little odd when used just as terrain, I may make some wedges for those instances. There was also going to be a swappable sphincter in the centre - open and closed to represent the landing pad sending bio-matter back into space and in doing so offering the Invulnerable Save. I thought better of that as swapping out the sphincter with models on it would be a pain in the a$$

As you can see it's quite tall but a handy height for Trygons. I will look at adding removable walls. I'm planning to make a frame and then stretch molten transparent plastic cutlery between the frame so you can see through it. I'll add magnets in the base and walls so they easily attach and stay in place.

The landing pad is a bit of a blank canvas though, I know what I want to do, just can't bring myself to do it. Still I only foresee a couple of nights work on the pad but you see how these projects just keeping getting bigger.

And in case you were wondering how it stacks up against the standard Imperial Skyshield you will note there is significantly less surface area. I may be stretching the capacity of the Imperial one, two bases do fall outside the edges but it's wall flip down. The Tyranid version will have ones that are added to the pad, which will in turn contract the available surface area. Granted I also have some impressive LoS blocking terrain in the Capillary Towers but four out of six are no bigger than the walls on the Imperial version.

Additionally my walls will hopefully be semi transparent which is a big point because on the Imperial version with them raised attacking models would struggle to see the defenders. If you cannot see them you cannot assault them. I will probably be surrendering a large advantage to make them look cool, we'll see if I can pull it off.

You can see the slots now can't you!

One other point, what if I create a smaller platform? Something that would be happy supported just by three towers, then I have two mini platforms... I'm a freakin' genius! Unless of course yesterday's rumour that we won't have access to Fortifications prove true, in which case I've wasted a whole lot of time making stuff I can't use, in which case I'm a freakin' idiot...

Tyranid Capillary Towers | part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. |

part 10. | part 11. | 

Tyranid Skyshield Landing Pad | part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. |

Tyranids: Some Detailed Rumors - Faeit 212: Warhammer 40k News and Rumors

Please let rumour 1 NOT be true - no access to Fortifications for Tyranids! Take my Spore Pods, remove the Doom but please leave me some structures to convert and build :(

Tyranids: Some Detailed Rumors - Faeit 212: Warhammer 40k News and Rumors

Stronghold Assault may be completely redundant then and Throne of Skulls will be a completely different prospect. If one had bought the book and the rumour turned out to be true do you think you'd be able to ask for a refund as it was no longer needed?

Seems to be a very specific denial if it's correct. I know some people don't believe Nids should have access to buildings and I've gone on record as pointing out they have a Hive to Guard afterall. Additionally it's battlefield debris, they can take advantage of it if it's been left, they understand the importance of tactics and items of strategic value, if they didn't you may as well remove their ability to claim objectives too. Why not? Why not say Tyranids can't claim objectives what possible difference would that make?

You could point out that other races have specific denial of fundamental aspects of the game - Necrons don't have access to psykers, but then neither do Tau or Dark Eldar so they're not being picked on individually. Removing Fortifications from their FOC seems extremely prejudiced, verging on the current examples in our Codex/FAQ - Independent Characters joining a unit in their pod, use of quad guns, getting to re-roll witchfire spells we can't use.

I know this is still early days and I've discussed rumours already but this one chafes more than the others. Removal of the Spore Pod is a biggy, I could live with the Doom going, I half expected it but the Spore Pod was something I could adapt anyway, with them becoming Vengeance Batteries or Void Shield Generators but now you say I might not even have that!

If this rumours true it seems like this concept was just wishful thinking:

New Warhammer World order - Escalation and Stronghold Assault [what it means to me]

Recently the Warhammer World Facebook page was the forum for a 'ruling' on the use of Escalation and Stronghold Assault at their events. The question was asked very soon after the release of the two supplements, additions that at that point I really had no interest in. After a brief pause for the Events Team to get to grips with the rules themselves it seemed only one of the supplements would be in use, I forget which because pretty much as soon as it was mentioned that it was confirmed that both would be allowed.

Escalation

Suddenly I actually have to take notice of these new rules. Escalation is pretty much a non starter, the only Lord of War available to Tyranids is a Harridan from Forgeworld and that is never going to be on my shopping list. So instead I have to turn my gaze to Stronghold Assault. Now this is something I can get behind, literally! The ability to take numerous fortifications, if only I had more than one... Oh, I do! An Aegis, Bastion and Skyshield... and even try and shoehorn my redundant Mycetic Spores as Vengeance Weapons Batteries!

Stronghold Assault

There's plenty to think about and it doesn't end there because although the idea of 'fortifying' my Hive appeals, I'll still need to 'man' it with creatures and in January those options will be completely different. I'll continue to develop the buildings but I need to ensure I've actually got sufficient models to win against someone who doesn't turn up in Escalation mode, or those who turn up in Stronghold mode too.

Ultimately I believe the choice of the the Events Team to take on board the supplements is the right thing. Warhammer World is GW HQ and they should showcase all the best that GW has to offer. I'm not sure how the mission setups will go but that's their problem to overcome, its a bold move

However, I do feel that those who invest in their army will be at a distinct advantage . At this moment in time I would not be able to face any Lord of War with my Tyranids, I'd struggle to do any damage whatsoever. The prospect of spending £62.50 on a ticket to an event where I may as well leave my models in their box doesn't appeal to me, and that's not including the money on travel and hotels too. This is my only reservation, Warhammer World is supposed to be fun, competitive but not at the expense of enjoyment. Including the supplements could end up like taking a knife to a gunfight. No one wants to be outclassed before turning up and those with lots of money to buy the big new shiny toys are at a distinct advantage.

I hope the atmosphere will still be the same and there won't be those who use the supplements as a route to win at all costs. I think the advantage with Stronghold is at least my options are defensive, I'm just hoping to stay alive and conveniently showcase all my Tyranid bio-architecture at the same time

HAPPY X-MAS

Merry X-Mas from Professor Egon Seuss and the rest of the Magos on Ferron Proxima. Additional felicitations from the guys and gals at the Vulcan Institute of Techn-Archaeology. My all your X-mas wishes be plastic [or resin, but not Finecast].

'nids part 116 - Scratchbuilt Tyranid Capillary Towers pt10.

If I'm honest I hate doing this bit. Separating string threads and soaking them in PVA and then attaching them really is a laborious task.

The results are just about worth it, they do add an extra dimension to the model, although painting them also chaffs my hide a bit.

I'll probably regret not doing them all with Flesh Sacs but I wanted a bit of variety so that's what I got.

I'll give 'em a quick blast of Red Oxide primer soon and then consider when to start painting.

So that's it, capillary towers complete. This isn't the end of the project as it feeds into 'project Y' which I'll reveal before the year is out hopefully, keep watching.

Another 2 hours doing the Tendril Vines and we're on 23 hours and 20 minutes modelling time.Incidentally I put my Trygon next to these the other day, he's pretty much completely hidden by the 3 tier tower!

Tyranid Capillary Towers | part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. |