Tuesday Nights alright for fighting

I had another showdown with PeteB on Tuesday night, again I haven't gone to any lengths to do a battle report. Both time constraints during play and to blog afterwards is preventing that from happening. It was an opportunity to try out one of the Blog Wars 7 missions with our  potential armies. this particular mission is very similar to my totally FREE Ephemeral Scuffle Mission - Knowledge is Power. Three objectives  across the centre of the board and you get a point every player turn you hold one. Additionally no First Blood but a point for annihilating 75% of your opponents force. After our last game where I was very much outmatched I was not hopeful of the outcome, particularly as his Wraithguard, which were nigh unstoppable last time were now in a large unit. Pete got first turn but didn't secure any objectives. In my turn I managed to gain all three and intense firepower and poor armour saved managed to whittle his Wraithguard down to just three

My Hive Tyrant got knocked out of the sky, although he hadn't been wounded by the shooting [that won't happen in 7th!] took a wound falling and was pounced on by a Wraithlord for another 2 wounds, the Hive Tyrant making two in return. I tried desperately to get my Tervigon nearby so it could Psychic Scream the last wound off it but failed my Onslaught roll. Instead Deathleaper joined the melee but couldn't get a single rend in three rounds of combat and was eventually insta-killed after the Flyrant was squished again without providing an answer to the Wraithlord who went on to survive the game and kill the Crushing Claw Tervigon [Pete's MVP I think].

The other Wraithlord managed to kill a squad of Warriors and a Tervigon before he was taken down by a Carnifex, which had just eaten the last of the Wraithguard and his Spirit Seer. That was sweet revenge for being killed by a Wraithlord in our last game. It then went on to kill a jetbike and rout the rest of the squad which ended up exactly on the board edge! Karandras then faced down the Carnifex and despite every special rule under the sun could only put 2 wounds on the Carnie before it ate him too, yes quite a surprise to us. Other elements of note is that Hive Guard really only work in threes and Biovores seem to be more accurate in two's. By the end of the game I'd secured at least 15vps in holding objectives and Pete hadn't managed to get in range of 1! It was a athoroughly one-sided score line but it felt like a close game and although he suffered a lot in my first turn I also had some disastrous results were things just didn't work. I really need to find out what Tervigons can assault. I'm playing them as aggressively as I used to do when I had Warp Speed and Iron Arm and that just isn't working when Wraithlords just slice them up before they even get a look in. No doubt it'll all change in a few weeks anyway.

Additionally PeteB had asked about my son's stockpile of Eldar, what he might want to get rid of and trade for some Dark vengeance bikes. I had a chat with him and he wanted to keep his Prince Yrial and Swooping Hawks but everything else was on the table. So I took all the Guardians, the Dire Avengers he got before they reduced the models in a box by 50%, his three Jetbikes and the Fire Prism. In return I got the three Ravenwing from Dark Vengeance, a Drop Pod and a Land Raider Redeemer. I think we both came out ahppy with the deal, although I probably owe my son something for the Eldar ;) The funny thing is Pete has already undercoated and washed the Dire Avengers.

And the Fire Prism is now a Death Spinner. I'm sad to see the Iyanden colours lost but it's better it's actually used by someone who cares about it and will show it some hobby lovin'. I'm also a little sad that it represents my son's abandonment of the hobby. I hoped it was something we could share together, I only really got back into it for him and although I have a great deal of fun and pleasure it's such a shame it's not something we can share anymore.

Anyway, one last reminder of the good old days:

My Son gaming

Gaming with my son

    

'nids part 137 - Yet more WiPs, of Venom/Zoan-thropes and Lictors

I'm rapidly warming to the idea of these four Tyranids [including the Dakkafex] being referred to as the 'Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse'. Certainly fluff-wise I will write something. The Zoanthrope will be 'Famine', representing the spirit leech power the Doom used to have

The Lictor will be 'Death' for Deathleaper, striking from the shadows without warning, obviously, like death itself.

The Venomthrope will be 'Pestilence', bringing a toxic cloud of disease with it.

And the Dakkafex will be 'War', bigger, stronger and more armoured than his 3 siblings it seemed appropriate [he gets his own blog post as well, he does totalt the pts of all these afterall, so look forward to that]. They'd make a nice Dataslate, perhaps being immune to Instinctive Behaviour when they're within unit coherency range of each other, although not being a unit and not gaining the other benefits of Synapse - Fearless [although the Carnifex gets that anyway].

'nids part 136 - Dakkafex go boom!

About 90 minutes of striation work here. Once again I'm feeling really good about this. Way back when I was more concerned about fading some of these highlights and how dark the washes were so they aren't so harsh but I've not done the spots yet which will make it less 'contrasty'.

I do suddenly have a love of the Carnifex [that reads SO wrong!] the model is great, even if I've totally distorted it's silhouette with the massive Devourers. Stupidly I let an ebay auction slip away for another one. I seller had three Carnifex auctions finishing in the space of five minutes. not one went for more than £7, with postage about £3, you live and learn.

I may magnetize his head, currently this one is attached by the plastic tab at the back of the neck, I'm also painting the Bio-plasma head at the same time [for no particular reason] but wish I had the an Old One Eye on the go too. I have the skull half but I think the normal half was used with the other normal half that eneded up on my Quad Gun...

Some may think he's a little bit front heavy but despite the size of the Fleshborer Hives as Devourers I always imagine them potentially being fleshy, rotting bladders so they wouldn't be that heavy.

So, lots of progress, back onto the Venom/Zoan-thropes and the Lictors next.

    

Dark Angel Librarian progress

June last year may have been my last update on my Dark Angel Librarian but I realised he's another 'quick win' on my 'to do list' and I need a HQ afterall and as he can be upgraded to a Level 2 psyker which makes him both more effective and more costly, when I need to bulk out my points values it was a no brainer to spend some time on him.

The blue I am loving, so much so I kind of wish I was doing Ultramarines. Obviously I couldn't stand the ridicule so that was never going to happen but highlighting my Bahama Blue Craft Acrylic with Turquoise has brought out some really nice highlights. It also ties in the Verdigris...

... which went a bit OTT. In fact it's pretty much made any detail on the bronze pieces indistinguishable. I'm not sure it works and I'm not sure how to fix it.

The other leg is the same and I'm thinking the paint is already a bit too thick to be adding any more.

The shoulder has even more Verdigris on it but the pattern manages to show through redardless. With hindsight I can see I was much more sparing with the Turquoise on my Tactical squad. i rushed this a bit, added some thinned down Dark Angel green first, then the Turquoise so there was altogether too much going on. I also wanted his sword to be turquoise, to try and tie everything together. It's going to get a couple of coats of gloss varnish too to make it stand out.

Ultimately though I can't see me using him too much once my Azrael is finished so it may be worrying for nothing. Note I went all blue, not Dark Angel green shoulder pad. It's already quite busy so I didn't want to add another colour in. I'm not convinced about the red piping on the cloak. I just don't get how other people are able to get so much detail out of it.

    

His Chapter symbol also pretty ropey. I'm not happy about this at all. My local GW manager suggested resculpting it as Maximus armour.

Still some highlights to do but it's very close to being complete. Some better pictures may help clarify my concerns. Like I say I'm not completely happy there are some bits I love and some bits that I think are well below the standard of what the model should be,

SEVEN!

I write a 40k blog, so as we stand on the precipice of a new edition I have to make the obligatory 'you must have been hiding under a rock' reference [and indeed White Dwarf daily used that very same reference!] not to know about what is to hit us in a weeks time. Cliche I know but if you take away the cliche what will I have left? It seems only right that I close out 6th Edition with a look at my Limited Edition version.

    

I explained my reasoning behind this purchase in June 2012, sadly GW's site update means all the pictures are missing now - note to bloggers, if in doubt save a copy of the images to your own space. Of course the most amusing aspect was the deluded 'I doubt I'll regret this...'

In truth I could have made double my money back. In the week after pre-orders ebay was awash with Limited Editions. So many peaople had been unaware they were available and missed out. They quickly soared in value, selling for £90, £100, £120.

The most expensive I saw sold had a final bid for £300+ while someone managed to put quite a few on at Buy It Now for £150, which calmed the market somewhat, although probably making the £300 bidder violently sick in the process!

I was reluctant to create an auction for an item I did not have posession of so observed the mad scramble to sell 'unhatched eggs', even more ludicrous when you were unaware which numbered edition you were buying. Just imagine number 666 selling for less than 1372?!

I also had a rather dubious ulterior motive, in that I photocopied the entire book so I could use my own spiral bound copy for gaming, while keeping the Limited Edition prisitine.

As it was I was fortunate enough to get the thoroughly unique issue 0931, but by the time the pre-order week was up the ebay frenzy had subsided. I assumed that as those initial auctions went the competition between sellers would be less fierce, meaning if there was only one auction you would have more bidders fighting over your book and potentially bumping the price even higher.

How wrong was I? It turns out that those few who were desparate enough to throw fortunes at these Editions were just those few. As time went on whenever I did a search for auctions of them you would see their winning value less than the hardback standard version.

In fact, only the other week I saw one sell for £16, with about £10 postage! Prior to the rumours about the new Edition I'd actually resigned myself to the not unpleasant but certainly not the intended realisation that I will not actually part with it. I'd even considered using it for it's purpose as my gaming rulebook. However, it weighs a tonne and I've already got so much stuff in my gaming luggage I don't need have a forest to go with it.

In truth, it is a beautiful object, it also taught me a lesson about the value of the Limited Edition items, I wouldn't expect any return on the new Munitorum Edition. Although I still thinke the Gamers Edition satchel may have retained it's value separately.

As the pre-order date for 7th arrives I will even be asking myself the question - do I want this '3 book' hard-back edition? If I want to read the fluff and imagery my Limited Edition version can supply that fix. There's only so much of the fluff GW can change/rearrange/deny so much of it will remain true. The rules are another issue, I will need those. But can I hold out for the box set. Rumours suggest the Ork/Blood Angels beginners set will arrive sooner rather than later. If you recall from my post two years ago the very same thing was said then, with limited copies available on the release of 6th with the bulk of the box sets available later in the year. That ended up with no box set until September/October.

    

Saving £50 to spend on a box set with miniatures, isn't really an issue. In this instance I actually don't begrudge paying it, although £50 to spend on other hobby stuff is equally appealling. I firmly believe that those people complaining about GW changing the rules within 2 years are missing the fact most video games have a similar cycle. No one out there is bemoaning 'it's only been two years since the last Grand Theft Auto came out and they're releasing a new one'. I think the amount of pleasure and fun I've got out of 6th [taking the actual use of my Limited Edition book out of the equation, although the photocopy did get used extensively until Dark Vengeance] was well worth that initial investment and well worth reinvesting £50 now.

Personally I'm just reluctant to end up with another high-quality product that sits on a shelf when the mini-rulebook comes out with the boxset and indeed that £50 could co towards the box, or just some cool new figures. But I am also looking forward to the potential challenge of removing a slew of Blood Angel iconography, as other marine players were forced to do with the Dark Angels for Dark Vengeance. I'll probably see what the other guys are doing and decide on the day...

Flufftastic - Hive Fleet Gorgon - Ferron Splinter Fleet - Mycetic Spores

These Mycetic Spore pods are similar in intent to the transport pod of the Doom of Ferron Proxima, although it has been noted that the initial use of orbital delivery mechanisms has ceased. Does this herald the second stage in the invasion of Ferron Proxima or has the Hive Fleet decided that it now has access to sufficient resources planetside to take the world instead of investing more of the fleets bio-resources? Evidence is not sufficient to draw conclusions but the fact is the sky has stopped falling, for the moment...

One of the major difficulties for the bio-magi trying to reveal the secrets of the Xenos threat, is that threat is evolving and mutating on a daily basis. When new bio-constructs appear, getting samples, eye-witness accounts and observing their function is only the first challenge because the Hive Mind is constantly using these constructs as foundations for different purposes forcing each hypothesis to be re-evaluated. These Mycetic Spore Pods are a prime example of the bio-diversity the Tyranid threat can bring to bear. The new spore pods had originally  been seen delivering a variety of troops to the battlefield, disgorging monstrous beasts and chittering hordes as well as potent psychic terrors like the Doom of Ferron Proxima.

Most often they were discovered in areas close to the main Tyranid Hives, their designation identified through xenos bio-data sheets as the orbital transportation pods but on closer inspection some were found to be semi sentient weapons batteries. Producing fierce explosive rounds or a torrent of smaller scatter shots that whittled the eye-witnesses down to a man. These new discoveries are forcing the bio-magi to re-write their findings and reassess all their discoveries to date. What other bio-forms are being mutated into other entities to bring about the further subjugation of Ferron Proxima?

Alongside this new development there were rumours again that these pods may form some kind of Synaptic link for the Hive - extending it's range of influence as the smaller more feeble minded xenos spread out to forage for bio-matter and increase the Hive's territory. No evidence has been found to support this hypothesis but the bio-magi will not discount any possibility at this stage given the proven mutable factor of Hive Fleet Gorgon.

What has been proven though is the real change these pods are having to the surrounding landscape - they are changing the environment and polluting it with the foul alien DNA of the Xenos. These pods are effectively terra-forming the Ferron landscape to make it more suitable for the alien interlopers. Even the very aspect of the pods is against the nature of good clean Imperial design that is built on the crushed bones of the fallen, ferrocrete, steel, brass and adamantium. Alien flesh and chitin suffused with rank toxic ichor, fluids and tiny symbiotic builder organism constantly repairing the structures, it's obscene blasphemy and an affront to the Emperor's architectural tenets. These pods may yet be the most dangerous element in the alien assault, purge the alien, destroy on sight!