Tuesday Nights alright for fighting 7th Edition

I've actually had two games of 7th Edition with PeteB now. We were going to continue with 6 until Blog Wars [as that's the ruleset they'll be using] but Pete has had his shifts rearranged so wouldn't be able to go. It's not really fair to keep forcing 6th on him when there are new rules to try out and get your head round, so I suggested we play the 'Purge the Alien' mission, given the changes to scoring units this will have less impact on my preparations. We'd play all the new 7th Edition rules with psychic powers, I think I can live with that when it comes to reverting to 6th.

Pete went with his Wraithguard and Lords again but I got first turn.

And having infiltrated  a wave serpent and unit of Scorpions forward Pete paid the price with my Hive Guard destroying it for First Blood. The Wraithguard also suffered a lot of wounds, Pete's dice rolling was particularly bad. My first turn was brutal and given last weeks overwhelming win I think this early surge was demoralising for the Eldar high command.

As time went by I did make some grave tactical errors, I continue to assault units far too powerful for my Tervigon to overcome. So as the game progressed Pete managed to close the gap quite considerably. One of the highlights was my last Tyranid Warrior getting an Overwatch on the venerated Wraithlord from our last game and taking it's last wound!

 

The Psychic phase was a whole lot of weird, Pete was initially very impressed before his turn when he was unable to cast any of his powers. That's one thing about 'nids, our powers are hella cheap to cast. It's a nice mechanic on the whole. It allows a bit more interaction between players during the game but it does interrupt the flow of things, slows it down a bit. We took to sitting down during this phase, it was more like a card game. When you consider I used to cast certain Psychic powers with three dice, two yellow for the Ld check and a red die for any D3 modifiers - Iron Arm and Warp Speed, now Paroxysm [why didn't that get a straight -3 to BS and WS like the Biomancy powers?] to try and save just a little bit of time. So I'm a bit concerned about the amount of time spent doing powers, but it's early days. Overall the game plays much the same but I was slightly more impressed by the charge through cover situation with -2" to your 2D6 but my Termagants have Move Through Cover so it's no effect [except for the Initiative modifier] and they get Counter Attack for free when next to their Tervigon. So I'm seeing some benefits for my nids, which is nice.

A week later and we're at it again. This time PeteB decided to overcome the shortcomings of his Wraithguard with the help of some Evil Space Pixies and their faithful beasts. This time we did the 'Emperor's Relic' mission from Blog Wars - 3 objectives with one in the middle of the board worth 10pts, and one each, your own worth 5pts to yourself and your opponents worth 15pts, an interesting dynamic. As you can see I forgot my Bastion so PeteB's daughter's toy stool proxied as my Fortification.

The beasts were the advance guard but I got first turn again so I was hoping to thin their numbers.

 

 One advantage of the 'stool of doom' was I could put my models inside the building. The Hive Guard were reasonably effective and although I didn't manage to get First Blood I took out quite a few beasts and wounded a Wraithlord.

Unfortunately the beasts are super fast and managed to roll over my Carnifex. Additionally the Bastion got hit by a Lance weapon and blew up. The Zoanthrope manning the Quad gun took two wounds and I got snake eyes for his saving throw. The Hive Guard suffered 3 unsaved wounds between the three of them, killing one and wounding another in the explosion. With Baron Sathonyx and a Farseer/Warlock on a Jetbike all sorts of wound allocation shenanigans went on to protect the beasts. It was really difficult to kill any of them. I made a gamble and sent Deathleaper in, challenged, and ended up facing a Beast Master. Challenges seem to have changed in 7th. I thought you nominated who you wanted and if they sent someone else they didn't get to take part. Now the assaultee chooses who accepts if there are more than one so the Beastmaster [the weakest of the three opponents] was torn apart by 5 wounds, two of which were rending. The Great Maw spewed its poisoned Miasma over everything and both my Biovores and Barbed Strangler deviated wildly to less effect, it seems I was borrowing Pete's luck from last week.

At this stage there was still a unit of Jetbikes and Vipers to come on and the Dire Avengers hadn't even got out of their Wave Serpents. My Mawloc had failed to turn up on turn two when Deathleaper could have got him to swallow a bunch of doggies, instead he eventually got a unit of Swooping Hawks, with the sole survivor flitting off. My Tervigons fell, one was Doomed so was taken out by the Vipers in one turn, the Mawloc would follow in much the same fashion. The Great Maw managed to survive a couple of turns against the Farseer, Deathleaper was unable to get past Sathonyx's save. Eventually the Farseer's Instant Death weapon brought them both down.

We had to call it at midnight, there was no way I could hold my own, most of my force had been spent on the Beasts and their buff units.  This was a difficult game, there's something that happens when absolutely nothing goes right. It doesn't matter how philosophical you are about it it's tough to overcome. Last week it was Pete who had to face this feeling, this week it was me. The Beasts and their buff units, offering them Fearless and having 4+ invulnerable saves, Sathonyx with a 2+ invul save until he takes a wound, it's a tough nut to crack. I even put 7 wounds on a Wave Serpent, thanks to my Flyrant, it jinked all of them!

I think we're both looking forward to smaller forces though, 1500pt armies. I'm getting bored fishing out 60 Termagants a game, can't wait to have something a little more compact.

The Death of Project X - Armies on Parade 2014 cancelled?

I've been dropping hints about projects X and Y for months now. Project Y turned out to be the landing pad section of my Skyshield to attach to the Capillary Towers I'd been building, but Project X has not been revealed, until now.

Project X was supposed to be my new Armies on Parade board. Last year my Armies on Parade board was a relatively simple affair, a 2'x2' mdf square with a hill in one corner and a backdrop. It was supposed to be minimal effort as I wanted to showcase the miniatures ahead of the board.

Sadly, I was the only entrant in my local GWs competition, so I walked away with the gold medal. It's since been used as a beat stick to my gaming buddies to enter the competition this year. Every time I play one of them I whip out the old medallion to wind them up, in the hope they will enter and then I'll be able stop showing it off. The only problem is, the fact I've seen no mention of Armies on Parade 2014 at all this year. This time in 2013 I'd already been approached by my GW manager saying he'd got three people who were going to commit to it [and ultimately didn't]. When I popped in recently and mentioned this years competition he was of the opinion it had been cancelled altogether.

With this rumour in hand I decided to contact GW directly for some confirmation and this is the information I received:

Hey Dave - Many thanks for your email and we do apologise for the long delay in responding to you. Since the new web store launched we have received a large increase in both calls and emails.

We do not currently have any knowledge of if or when Armies on Parade will be happening, however the first place to find out about such releases would be on the website’s daily blog or in White Dwarf.

We hope this helps.

Regards

James

So Armies on Parade 2014 could be cancelled, or it may still be on. What is pretty much guaranteed is that Project X is dead. I'm not prepared to commit to creating a new board with just three months to go. That's not to say I couldn't do it in that time, in fact I'd probably set aside that amount of time to complete it anyway, but a little more advanced warning would help me. Additionally we may be looking to have some building work done on our house and trying to fit in a large scale terrain project won't really fit into that scenario, or go down well with my better half. Should AoP happen this year I will most likely reuse my existing board but there will obviously be new additions to the army itself, that will have to suffice. On the one hand I am disappointed, I had a really great idea for what I was going to do, maybe they'll sort it out next year and I can fulfill it's potential. On the other hand those energies can now be focussed on my current painting challenges - mainly Dark Angels with a side order of Tyranid procrastination.

One point of note is that AoP may well be still alive in other countries, I'm not sure why. But I have seen posts of people doing things overseas so maybe it's not all dead, just take what you will from the email I received. All I know is that this time last year the competition had been announced, whether it's dependent on Games Day/Golden Demon, which itself may be debatable after it was downsized in 2013, who knows. Like I say though, time is running out to run a competition that requires such effort as an AoP board, although I'm pretty sure those Golden Demon guys probably start preparing as soon as the last competition is won! Until I see an announcement I don't believe it's going to happen.

'nids part 145 - TO DONE! The Four Horsemen of the Ferron Apocalypse - 'WAR'

WAR!, Huh! What is it good for? Absolutely killing anything on the table. Carnifex are clearly the great winners in new 7th edition. With Smash attacks being nerfed 'Billy Big Time' who doesn't want D3 S9 Hammer of Wrath attacks plus 4 [or even 5] S9 attacks on the charge.

Even when kitted out with twin-linked Brainleech Devourers they can beat up on tanks better than almost any other Tyranid MC. Their only problem their lower Initiative, which is why mine keep losing to Wraithlords. Either that or the tiny talons it's got!

I'm looking to get another Carnifex so they can tag team. I learnt a valuable lesson about their potential in my first game at Throne of Skulls so having two would give me more firepower and durability.

Some cloe up shots of his carapace.

This really does look like an armourred beast from this angle.

And as you can see the magnets allow me to swap the position of it's weapons.

Giving a slightly more compact but no less terrifying aspect.

From the back he's trimmed up and svelte also.

I've some more pictures to follow where I add in some of my other weapons, making Old One Eye but thought it beast to leave War his own moment in the spotlight. With Blog Wars just a week away I've got all of my models done with Death proxying for Deathleaper and one of my Tyranid primes proxying for a second Biovore, other than that, job done.

Big blue tick for being a good boy!

'nids part 144 - TO DONE! The Four Horsemen of the Ferron Apocalypse - 'DEATH'

Aah Death, my old friend. He's turned out quite well too.

As you can see there is some patination on the top of his arms for the Chameleonic skin, which works, as does his faux ribbed feeder tentacles. I had thought to have the extra veins/tubes on his arms glowing green but for some reason went with red. In so doing he does stand a little apart from his three brothers.

The others all have some green on them which ties them into a group, I may change this but until then I like just a little individuality from him.

Also cool is the Tamiya Clear Red X-27. I don't know if the Citadel technical equivalent is as good but if you havent got any X-27 in your life then you need it. Can't wait to see him taking cover beind a Capillary Tower and see him blend in.

I'm keen to pick up a Deathleaper next and slowly get the four remaining Lictors for the Leviathan Data Slates. I may have mentioned but Throne of Skulls in March was won by someone running the Deathleaper Assassin data slate so it may be worth a punt. But I love the lictor model so I'll be looking forward to finding a way to convert them just so they're each a bit unique.

Big blue tick!

'nids part 143 - TO DONE! The Four Horsemen of the Ferron Apocalypse - 'PESTILENCE'

Pestilence looks like a whole other beastie now he's got his 'toxic' going on. 

I'd originally planned to blacken the edges of the yellow flock, to show it dieing in the toxic miasma given off by the Venomthrope. I may still do it, and perhaps leave a black slime trail behind the creature. I'm not so sure how he's supposed to move, does it hop, slither, glide?

It'll be interesting to have some mobile cover, potentially a new way to play, surging the horde forwards under it's cloud of protection, should be fun.

Now, how to transport the little fella...

And the obligatory big blue tick for getting it done!

'nids part 142 - TO DONE! The Four Horsemen of the Ferron Apocalypse - 'FAMINE'

Famine is complete! 

As you can see the toxic green has made a huge difference, he's clearly gearing up to cast Catalyst [according to my psychic power markers]. Granted his little support stem looks a bit rubbish, although it does look like a little fountainsupporting him. The reflected glow on the bottom of his tail is quite effective too.

However, in some of these views the stem disappears so maybe it's not too bad.

The Vernidas clear varnish has had 24 hours to shrink down, I'll keep adding successive layers to eventually have the crater filled. I've also noticed that once it cures it does manage to mute the coulours a little bit [although these have had a little auto-enhance to bring out the contrast already ;) ]

It'll be fun to run two of these with the new Psychic rules, alhtough two single units give me 4 Warp Charge to add to the pool whereas a unit of two gives me only 2?

Here's the big blue tick for getting it done, even if it's not on my To Do List, the rest of the 'Horsemen' will be coming over the next three days :0

'nids part 141 - Yet more WiPs, of Venom/Zoan-thropes and Lictors

Famine gets it's highlights too. This will, by far, change the most once I start adding the SFX. I still need to paint up the tentacles in the reclamation pool though.

Looking forward to using this guy, I measured him and he will glide harmlessly underneath the Skyshiled, that's if I ever put it in a list. I'm enjoying the Bastion a bit more, for the benefits of the Quad Gun but now it has Hull Points it may well end up more of a liability being glanced to death...

Death starts to take shape too.

I'm looking to add a bit of 'spotting' on the shoulders eventually, as part of it's chameleon skin nature. Nothing crazy just to try and break up the shape a little.

I'm starting to dig this Lictor, I really want to try out that datalsate...

    

Pestilence moves on too. In truth it's probably my least favorite of the four. I'm convinced his tentacles will and I'm not sure how to transport him safely either.

Still, I'm looking forward to taking some mobile cover into battle. I may consider dropping a Fortification to do so.