Throne of Skulls 2014 army list help

Tomorrow I will finish my army list, unlike my hobby buddies I will not be spending months doing mine I've a template that looks cool and every one of my opponents gets one with a sheet with the Hive Fleet Gorgon  Ferron Splinter Fleet back story. I can't imagine Liam making 6 copies of his Chaos Space Marine head army list! Anyway, I got approval from the Events Team today to use all my models but I now have to make that last decision.

The two main choices I need help with is this list which is slightly varied, a Zoanthrope, Biovore [the spore mines], Trygon and two Tervigons [one as troop, the other a HQ with Regeneration (which worked out well last game)]...

...or slightly less versatile three Tervigons, two of which are troops.

Option 1. has some long range fire power with the Biovore. Assault damage from the Trygon [he got me a VP on a Lord of War, but died immediately afterwards] and the opportunity to Warp Blast from the Zoanthrope

Option 2. still has the same amount of Synapse and Psykers but I get the extra durability of the second troop Tervigon [not to mention the 2 broods of 30 Termagants] spawning will be limited in places, I just don't have enough gaunts but I'm hoping that enough will die for me to respawn them.

Ultimately Option 1. is probably more fun for people to play against, Option 2. fits my 'fluff' in that they are defending the Hive Nest - the Bastion, Skyshield etc.but it's 3 Tervigons! Will I be 'that guy' if I run it? I may survive to the end of the game - when you go Stronghold Assault it's endurance not attack you're planning for but spending most of the game hiding... but, it's the first time I've been able to run three.

I may get a chance to try this out tomorrow night on Ben but any opinions on these two options would be greatly appreciated.

Flufftastic - Hive Fleet Gorgon - Ferron Splinter Fleet - Tervigons

When it became apparent that Hive Fleet Gorgon had managed to create a foothold in the more remote parts of Ferron Proxima there was little the Planetary Defence Force could do by that stage. The alien intelligence had gambled on citing their incursion in some of the more desolate wildernesses so as to avoid detection, the gamble being the lack of bio-mass available to fuel the breakout from their planet fall. However, in time the brood nest was able to use hastily formed digestion pits to reclaim what vegetation and local fauna resided in those areas and with this recovered bio-mass they were able to evolve their 'Proto-Tervigons' into their natural state.

Aside from the increase in size there was little difference to their earlier counterparts, although some would say they possess a visage many times more frightening than their forebears. Unfortunately those that did voice such thoughts were soon removed from the populace by the local Inquisition or summarily executed by their PDF Commissars. What did hold true between the two strains was their ability to spawn Termagants. Often they would projectile birth them ahead of their charge, using them as a shield, to fearlessly engage the PDF before their brood mother slammed into the preoccupied Ferrons. The only respite the PDF could discern was once again due to their limited stocks of bio-mass as often the beasts spawned would number just a dozen although very occasionally it could be many dozen!

As the encounters increased Bio-magi continued to record all reports of the nature of this new Xenos threat. Tervigons were a whole new genus they were rapidly having to come to terms with to draw solutions up for their eradication or at the least containment until the arrival of support from the Adeptus Astartes. It soon became apparent that the creatures had some form of psychic abilities. Initially those skills allowed them to force their progeny to greater feats of endurance or allowing them to control the weaker minded beasts from further distances whilst they stayed in the rear. However at some indeterminate point something changed, whether it be the natural absorption of the Wraithbone shards scattered across the surface of Ferron Proxima or some alien signal that evolved the psychic ability of the creatures following the arrival of the Dark Angel relief force in their battle barge 'Dark Vengeance' no one knows.

The result though was that suddenly the Tervigons were performing much more varied elements of witchcraft, invariably making them stronger and tougher or giving them the ability to move faster than the eye could see and faster than anything of that size should be able to in nature. Additionally these skills allowed them to be more aggressive, leading from the front and using further skills to weaken the forces arrayed against them, or making their progeny even more durable in the face of oncoming fire. Regardless, it soon became apparent that even the most devastating of creatures the Great Devourer could bring to the battlefields - Trygons and Mawlocs could be pale shadows of what an enraged Tervigon could be. They were seen to tear large tanks apart with ease, smashing Bastions and whole formations asunder with their giant crushing claws or scything talons.

Currently the Tervigons are being kept in check through the efforts of the Dark Angels, disallowing them access to further biomass to increase their numbers.One side effect of this 'containment exercise' recently noted is that their extreme levels of psychic ability has decreased. Whatever obscene catalysing agent that had produced such monstrous powers seems to have been used up. The beasts are still powerful but in no way can they perform the feats of psychic mastery that allowed them to secure a foothold on Ferron soil. Not only that but their spawning behaviour seems to have altered, no longer are they able to spawn with such ferocity, their progeny bursting forth with wild abandon. Instead the alien filth are deposited like mewling newborn infants, weak and decrepit, blinking in the harsh daylight as they try to ascertain why they have been brought into existence. It is advised that anyone facing such an abominable birthing should utilise this moment of confusion to destroy the alien scum.

One bio-magi has suggested that it is Ferron Proxima itself that is fighting back, that it is allergic to the Tyranid presence and thus weakening the bioforms much as the planet is anathema to the Ork threat. Although there was historical evidence that certain have genome sequences that can match up with the Catachan Devil it has since been shown to match more closely with the Ymgarl Mutation but with differences that make the instability of the mutation more harmful to the Tyranid genetic make up than beneficial. It certainly might explain the recent discovery that although the Tervigon as primogenitor spawns the Termagaunts and was able to pass on certain genetic improvements new evidence suggest it no longer imparts any such advantage. In fact the Tervigon is now a mere incubator, or surrogate for some other, unknown brood mother.

The question remains is the unstable mutated Ymgarl genome in Ferron flora why the Tyranid threat has been stalled so abrubtly? Is this why their rapid expansion and overwhelming brute strength has been replaced by weakened genetic stock, only time will tell.

'nids part 133 - PROJECT Y Scratchbuilt Tyranid Skyshield Landing Pad pt10.

In a bid to stave off the mind numbing nature of painting the Tervigon I'm also cracking on with the Skyshield walls - no mean feat in themsleves. I actually don't want to be doing these, I'm going against the flow of my creativity, I'm bored of it and it's a bit tedious and it's still at the beginning in most respects because I've abandoned all the high concpet ideas. This is the first bit fleshy fibres, I went straight with DAS because I knew Milliptu was going to slow everything up. With a small amount of water it can stick quite well so the rest will do the same.

I tried to add some variety in the musculature and as my terracota ran out I also finished up my white clay too. It was starting to dry out anyway so abit of kneeding with some water added revived it enough to get to this stage.

The first completed wall and I think I'm not mistaken when I say the clay drying has managed to warp the frame a bit.

I'm hoping that once it's afixed between the Capillary Towers they will hold it in place a bit more but at this stage that one magnet is looking less effective than when it was just the plastic frame on it's own.

Yet more progress.

The first completed wall [again].

The first completed wall [and again].

Another wall, just some horizontal bits to do at the base now.

And the same on the front is needed too.

It all seems a bit random but it needs to be done and I haven't time to come up with something better. I've already compromised the vision so we'll just have to hope the paint job willlift the end result.

Don't get me wrong, there's some interesting work here but this isn't something I'm relishing doing. I'll be happy at it's completion but that will be the reward, the construction process is just less pleasurable than the finished article.

So the race is nearly done, I think I'll make it with time to spare.

'nids part 132 - 'The Great Maw' £24 Tervigon pt 4

That's the problem with the blog I want to share stuff and although I'm not taking as many pictures as I used to, I'll suddenly find myself with a load of pics to share all at once when I've felt I've been scrabbling around for content that could have been micro-blogged over the course of the week. Here's the base, at the point of completion I decided to create the mound to hide the 'Cuban heel' I'd added to the Tervigon's hoof to make it sit level. Some DAS clay and sand explains the slightly different colours in the top left.

You can just make out the magnet extensions too. The two arm sockets have had another magnet added and sculpted around with Milliput. Without them the claws and talons sit a bit too close to the body and looked dumb.

    

All the striations have been done, the spots will be done last. I think that's quite a time consuming part, it's not very much painting and it does make a huge difference but it does feel like a lot of work for not much return, even if that's not the case. On the plus side this was considerably less mind numbing than the first one. perhaps my 'mojo management' techniques are keeping me sane?

    

The Tervigons together, despite the different paints they are suitably related to one another, should I have done a green belly?

All Chitin highlights and spots complete, you get a good view of the tail too, like I said - all pointless because they can't take tail biomorphs! Still makes it a little more distinctive. I keep thinking if it's possible to put the middle legs at the front and what that would do to the look of the model. I'd love to see some mix and matches between the Tervigon and the Haruspex, it'd be really interesting to see what's possible.

The first Bonehwite highlights are also in place. Now that was more mind numbing!

However the continuous momentum to get it done has pushed it through. Rest assured though that I'm paying for it in other ways, the 'addiction' does feel more like it's controlling me than I it, my sleeping habits are also up the spout again. Anything pre-midnight is 'early' for me know!

As you can see the Scything Talons are attached [by magnets] the claws are still a bit iffy even with the extensions but I'm still more upset by having the poles on the right arm in such a way as I cannot attach the Hive Tyrant's Fleshborer Hives :(

Still to add that head though. Next set of Bonewhite, then the fleshy bits, claws and any Special FX -I'm going to make the vent stacks glow - to differentiate it more and add more fluff about the toxic bio-plasma for it's Miasma Cannon.

1500pt battle report - nids vs Orks - Escalating Stronghold Assault

Ben and I wanted to have a run out with our potential ToS lists. He's got his Void Shield Generator made now and was trying out his Stompa, which he has doubts over. I on the other hand am all about surviving the attack of a Lord of War, so it's Skyshield, Bastion, Aegis, however since the Bastion can be targetted without being occupied in Stronghold Assault rules I wasn't holding out for much protection on that.

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant HQ Tervigon CC HQ Tervigon Plain Tr Zoanthope Catalyst Paroxysm Catalyst Catalyst Warp Blast Warp Blast

The low down:

• The Emperor's Will - Ben's objective to the left of his VSG, mine between the Bastion and the Skyshield
• Vanguard Strike
• One of us won deployment, but Ben went first
• Warlord Trait - Perfect Volley, once per game my Warlord gets Rending AP1 shots on the Stompa!
• Night fighting turn one

I deployed in as much cover as I could and split my Termagants on the Skyshield so half got invul and 3+ Cover saves and the rest just the covers.

I set up hoping the woods and defence line would slow down the Stompa so it's D assault weapon would take a while to come into play.

Ben's VSG has Battlements on top, I pointed out some may argue he can't access them as the VSG is described as an 'Impassable' building but in actual fact I think he's right, there are ladders on the outside so the battlements are indeed reachable, it's just the interior of the building he can't hide in. In fact the rooftop is a water tank that's frozen and there are some precariously placed planks covering the icy water that I found quite amusing and very 'orky'.

First turn and the Stompa bashes through the trees. There's no explanation of how to do a 12" Move Through Cover that we could find so we do two 3D6 rolls picking the highest from both to get his 12" aggregate. I think he managed 9" while the Trukk with Ghazgkhull and his Nob retinue burned forwards. The Quad Gun once again fell victim in turn 1, Stronghold rules state you get VP's for lost Fortifications only if you agree with you opponent beforehand. I thought you got them regardless, but awarded First Blood anyway for the loss of my unlucky gun. I think a couple of gaunts died too and a wound apiece on the Tervigon's but most everything else escaped [according to my plan].

In my turn I threw as many Fleshborer shots as I could at the Trukk without avail and was forced to stop it with the Hive Guard, who were really my only chance at the Stompa. They did their job, blowing the Trukk up but it careened nearer to my frontline instead of what I hoped for and backwards into the Stompa.

Now Ghazgkhull and the Nobz were right in my face, with only a screen of Gaunts to impeded their progress. In my turn my Troop Tervigon spawned out on 5 or 6 which surrounded my own objective which typically was booby trapped. The HQ Tervigon continued to spawn another 9 or so.

The Termagants were whittled away by the Stompa allowing the Nobz to charge the Hive Guard, sweet revenge for the loss of their ride no doubt. Ghazgkhull on the other hand went for the Tervigon, it put 3 wounds on it after it Regenerated the wound taken in the first turn. Having called the WAAAAAAGGH! everyone was Fearless so the combats ended in stalemate all round.

The Stompa had quite a good shooting phase, except for running out of ammo and lined up to take down the Bastion but came up short trying to charge through the dense wooded area, phew!

Hive Tyrant arrives from Deepstrike, deviated 11" and unbelievably was just on the board edge. He'd later be targetted by all the Orks in the area but managed to dodge everything like some aerobatic ace. Spore Mines Deep Struck also to surround the Targetting Relay objective. I think the Hive Tyrant killed 7 of the 10 Orks . Meanwhile my Biovore tried to take out the Orks on the battlements but I forgot they would hit the Void Shield first but amazingly it took out one of it's two shields!

The Stompa finally managed to get to grips with the Bastion, tearing it a new one, obviously! Thanks to a combination of spawned gaunts Paroxysm, Catalyst and Regenaration the melee in my back field continued on through my turn and Ben's, with the WAAAAAAGGH!over I thought I'd gain the upper hand but he cleverly positioned the Stompa, which confers Fearless to nearby units. I thought it was to face down the Tyrant but clearly he knew more than he was letting on.

Having felt the Hive crumble above it an enraged Trygon burst from the wreckage to confront the beast that 'kicked the termite mound' [I'm forging a narrative here!]. At the very least he was going to be an obstacle the Stompa could not ignore to get past and get to my scoring units on my objective.

Spawned Gaunts attacked Ghagkhull and more gaunts were spawned to chase down the Stompa and 'tarpit it. Meanwhile the combats continued with the odd wound lost here and there but I think I was coming out of this better thanks to plenty of Catalyst, Paroxysm preventing Ghazgkhull being effective -3 WS&BS for two two game turns! Regenerations worked and although I wasn't playing Catalyst correctly - the psyker and a unit 12" get FnP, I was only playing it a unit 12" gets FnP the results were still good.

The Flyrant Vector Struck and did enough to wipe out the remaining Orks, and the Devourers took a few Gretchin too. I think he was eventually shot down at one point, but miraculously survived the impact and any subsequent shooting. Meanwhile my 30 gaunt Brood was spread out across the board, trying to reach Ben's objective but also stay within Synapse and close to my own objective should I fail to reach Ben's and fail to bring another unit of gaunts up to secure mine.

The plain Tervigon got popped by the Stompa, it took some gaunts with it but no more than 6 or 7, it was even more desparate to get gaunts onto my objective now, just behind the right Caillary support.

The Stompa decided to take on the Trygon, it managed to get 3 pens on it, the 5 translating to a 6 thanks to AP2 but that 2 just gave me one extra Hull Point of damage :(

The Stompa struck back in return and only hit once! :)

However it was a Deathblow and the Trygon took about 9 wounds! :(

The Hive Guard managed to overcome the Nobz and Ghazgkhull finally succombed to the weight of gaunts, with a little help from their brood mother [who was on 5 wounds now!]. They'd been nipping at his ankles, wounding him once per turn and finally he failed hi invul and died.

Gaunts got to tarpit the Stompa, although Ben has since found out that's not possible. PG76 states you can't assault a Vehicle you cannot hurt, even though the FAQ states you can assault a unit you cannot hurt, maybe it's a clear distinction maybe it's a misuderstanding, who knows. At the time we though tit was possible and everything else headed for my objective.

Over on Ben's side of the board my Flyrant had headed back and stomped on the Orks in the VSG and with that the situation had tipped in my favour. With the big blob of gaunts only a few inches from his objective at the end of turn 5, his Stompa tied up and my remaining gaunts within easy reach to secure my own objective, his Warlord dead and mine far from any danger we called the game around 1am!

Ben is struggling to come to terms with the Stompa, he has quite mixed opinions, I think perhaps if you're going to invest in a VSG it makes little sense to step out from under it in the first turn, but then that D-weapon needs to be used. I think the only drawback is the cost and the limited amount of troops he has to secure objectives thanks to it's presence. I believe his tactic was sound but maybe driving thr Trukk up so early was a mistake. It's vulnerable to first blood and is an easy VP to lose. Better to hold it back and deliver it in turn 2 somewhere more decisive perhaps.

As for the Nids, well I was surprised. I'm thinking Catalyst and Regeneration were my saviours here, so that won't always be the case every game. Ben was of the opinion I rolled out of my skin but Regen is 4+ and I think I passed 3 or 4 out of 5 rolls. The FnP was also successful but when you add in Paroxysm on Ghazgkhull the situation changed again. When you both end up with durable units with low WS then you are only going to manage 1 or 2 wounds per turn. The Orks had invulnerable and FnP rolls, I also had FnP but the Tervigon and Hive Guard were high Toughness and the there were extra gaunts spawned to help tie up the situation and add 1 or 2 extra wounds to tip the balance. Because those assaults lasted so long it didn't seem like a pivotal situation but it was.

I'm now having to think whether my alternative 3 Tervigon list is better. I'd have to drop the Zoanthrope and I think the Biovore and a number of other things but the Zoie is replaced with the psychic power and Synapse of the Tervigon. I really found the Zoie a bit frustrating, with Catalyst  and Warp Blast, which is Lvl2 you have to decide if you're going to cast Catalyst  and waste a charge or save them up for the blast...

Anyway, a pleasant situation to find myself in following a rather dismal impression of the Codex, maybe I was wrong all along...