'nids part 147 - Genestealers, more of them!

Micro-blog, not much today as I try to keep my blogging activity under control, i.e. keep you up-to-date/keep painting/keep blogging. So this is my eleven Stealers that will help bolster the 12 original Space Hulk Stealers, 12 Macragge and 9 Ymgarls [and 2 Broodlords]. 44 in total, not quite enough to fill out the entire Leviathan data-slates but getting there.

I also have the new Space Hulk model on the left with the Warrior Scything Talons. It's not the Broodlord model but given how big he is I don't see why he couldn't pass as one. I'm going to keep an eye out for any other cheap ebay 'steals' hopefully add to the broods.

On the plus side these are now complete so I'll treat you to their 'To Done' shots next time [although I have since added a little bit of flock to the bases] and some with almost all of the rest of the horde, I think I missed off seven of their number :(

Wednesday night Blood Bowl

'Hey Sports Fans', having glutted a bit on oversized 40k games in our last few showdowns it was time to bring some fun back to PeteB and I's gaming and in comes Blood Bowl - 2nd Edition! Pete hasn't played for 20+ years so I had a bit of an advantage, both with the few games I've played over the last three years and my numerous games of the current version of Blood Bowl on my son's DS.

I thought it only right to let Pete take the Elves, given his love of space pixies and I went with my Skaven. Their stats are pretty similar in 2nd Edition, except Elves are much better Throwers and Catchers and I get an extra Movement, which became surprisingly useful. Pete took most of the pictures so it will be mainly from the Elf perspective but I'll try to relay the action. I started with the ball, we immediately decided not to use the deaf/blind Dwarven referee, better stick with the normal rules.

Having made it half way up the field the Elves hit back, managing to KO one of my Skaven and Kill another! Pete ended up with two Stunned and one KO'd Elf for his trouble. This did not look good, but I still had the ball and my Catcher with four arms and tentacles [just the model, he didn't have the mutations] had already sprinted past the Elf line of defence [out of shot] and was heading for the End Zone.

The Elves caught up to my Catcher but failed to bring him down. He was able to dance through their tackle zones, reach the End Zone and secure a Long Pass from my Thrower to make it 1:0.

With the Elves taking the Offensive Pete adopted a crazy twin wedge formation. Its great to see how other people play. Having been so long since he played he was just trying stuff out and it was actually challenging to  counter his tactics.

Pete managed to get one of his Elves behind my line but went and injured one of my Skaven which would later allow me to bring on a reserve right next to his Catcher with the ball.

Unfortunately my reserve wasn't able to take the Catcher down and he [or she, it's difficult to tell with Elves ;) ] danced out of the grasp of the Lineman and skirt [so it probably was a girl, skirts and that] round the Thrower to head for a touchdown! It was 1:1 but Pete had suffered a number of Injuries in the process. Substitutes were getting low.

I'm not quite sure why Pete has the ball again here, perhaps this was after our third Touchdown when I went on the Offensive and made it 2:1

As you can see though I only have one reserve left so these guys were going to have to stay on their feet. The Elves would eventually get all the way to the End Zone, with a Catcher waiting and the Thrower just miss-timing his throw for it to go wide. The Skaven managed to pick the ball up on the run and head down field

By this stage the Elves had also suffered a Fatality, six injuries and a bunch of KO's

The Skaven were fairing a little better with only four Injured alongside their dead team mate.

The Ball is in the wrong place here, it had fallen off a base. I had managed to get quite a few Skaven in scoring positions.

The ball was actually scattered into one of the spaces in front of the End Zone and eventually the Blitzer managed to pick the ball up

and complete a pass to the Catcher.

Both PeteB and I agreed this was the most fun we'd had in a long time gaming. I'm still not sure if we should adopt the current rules system. 2nd Edition allows you to move every model you have the current rules mean any time you fail in your action the game turns over. I'm not sure which system works the best but given I had only 8 players left standing and Pete only 6 clearly being able to lose so many, which wouldn't have happened if just one model had failed their block, forcing a turn over.

We'll definitely have another game, I just need to finish the Elves and look to get that Treeman so we can both have a Big Guy.

Flufftastic - Hive Fleet Gorgon - Ferron Splinter Fleet - Termagants

One of the most common Tyranid Bio-forms to have infested Ferron Proxima is the Termagant 'Gauntii Virago' Although seemingly without number these beasts, up until now, appeared to have had a maximum population level. This evolutionary ceiling has been attributed to the limited numbers of 'brood mothers' that spawn the gaunts. Additionally, the Hive Mind is actively utilising it's available bio-matter and unbelievably it's alien intelligence is ensuring it does not commit it's resources to what is essentially a very limited beast.

That's not to say Termagants are not a threat to the population, bio-magi data suggests that there may be many more gaunts secreted in the catacombs and underground spawning chambers that the Hive Fleet has started to fortify. There were rumours that the Tervigons might have evolved new reproduction methods that would increase their ability to spawn in larger numbers. There is no evidence of this happening in the wild yet but the Dark Angel and Planetary Defence Forces that are currently containing their incursion have started to bolster their defences in readiness of any increase in their numbers. This hypothesis has since been disproved and those bio-magi that posited such a theory and 'spread their heretical works' to the Ferron public have thankfully been lobotomised and put to serve the Emperor as Servitor drones within the mining fields of Utarr Equinox Gamma.

Most these gaunts are born fully formed with their own symbiotic weaponry. Initially within the early stages of their infestation of Ferron Proxima - despite the shock of birth they are spat like projectiles from the Tervigon's womb, immediately moving on, shooting their obscene bio-weaponry and even attacking innocent citizens of the Emperor. The abomination has even been witnessed whereby they have literally been shot out of their brood mother onto battlements and defended buildings. The staunch faith of these brave soldiers kept them alive to tell of the horrors witnessed. Having passed on this vital knowledge the Inquisition gratefully bestowed the 'Emperor's Peace' on them with summary executions so they could not spread the foul knowledge to the citizens of Ferron Proxima, their names subsequently added onto the 'Ferron Roll of Heroes' for services to the Emperor.

However, more recent observations have shown the vitality of a newly spawned Termagants has been greatly reduced. The creatures are spawned ahead of it's progenitor and have been programmed only to to stand and fire their organic weaponry or advance in numbers to press home and attack, thus drawing attention away from their brood mother by being the more immediate effect. This new directive by the alien mind shows they are adapting, and thinking in patterns even the most senior Bio-Magi cannot yet comprehend. Their future in solving the alien menace depends on them getting to the bottom of this behaviour.

Another point of note is that these Termagants are highly mutable, often having enhanced strength or poisonous sacs that will lay low any human. Some of these bio-morphs can be traced back to their progenitor but equally some seem to be vestigial growths whose only purpose can be surmised as to keep track of it's various offspring. Again, such observations could be seen as heretical, even the concept that there is an intelligence behind the Xenos filth's actions is tantamount to balsphemy. However, some members of the Ordo-Xenos have sufficient powers to grant the Bio-Magi currently observign the nature of this alien scum the licence to postulate such radical theories.

Termagants are considered one of the lower life-forms that make up the Tyranid menace but they must not be underestimated. The people of Ferron Proxima will face more of these creatures in the future and it is up to the staunch defenders of Ferron Proxima to stamp out their taint on the red planet.

What's on my palette?

Wow, it's been over two months since my last confession! I've obviously been way busy getting the Four Horsemen done, but I've done bits and bobs on a number of other models. I've been working on a variety of Dark Angels all at once. Deathwing, Ravenwing, Devastator and Tactical Squad. The Deathwing have had metallics and washes done.

By spreading myself thin like this it will take a while for these to be complete [no change there then], but it does mean that when I do reach the end of each unit there should be about four units that are ready within a short while of each other. It feels less productive while I'm doing it, but it should be more rewarding upon completion. It also helps to mitigate the fact I still don't know my 'recipe' for each unit type. Essentially I'm making it up as I go along which creates inefficiencies.

Unlike my Tyranids which is so simple now, which is why I can't help myself and as soon as Blog Wars was out of the way continued on with my 11 Genestealers. This has revealed something to me, that it was not Tyranids that I hated painting years ago afterall, it was Genestealers. There were no gaunts back then so the 6 limbs on a Stealer is what is frustrating, especially because they're split into two bits [most arms/legs are though so thats really no argument]. Anyway, I have gone the extra mile on these not like the original Stealers I did way back when which are pretty much washed, with only very sparing highlights. These guys will have two sets and will follow the slightly grained pattern that I've adopted for some of the bigger creatures. Thoroughly mind-numbing, with a lot of effort that once again up close the brush work is really dodgy but from a distance looks quite effective.

I also nipped back to Element Games the day after Blog Wars and picked up most of the bits I'd missed, with the shop closing earlier than last time. My three bottles of Warpaint washes, two pots of Secret Weapon Miniatures weathering powders [so I can muck stuff up] some more flock [just for the yellow!], some bases, black primer paint, and some Red Oxide paste for even more weathering fun. This bundle of goodies cost me £28, which if I'd have ordered online would have had about £6-£9 worth of postage due to Royal Mail's fear of paint going through the postal system. Still, I didn't blink twice about the cost, which is odd as that's another Tervigon, which feels slightly more substantial than some paint and some pretty coloured dust! Still, most of it will definitely get used and the weathering powders are a new technique to master and hopefully make the Dark Angels a little more interesting.

So, BIG news, Armies on Parade is on. So I guess I must apologise for my prediction it was not going to happen. Daniel Grundy pointed out in the comments that White Dwarf was going to have an announcement yesterday. It seems it did, although they got their own dates wrong. According to White Dwarf daily:

*It’s worth noting that the Armies on Parade dates we put in this article are, sadly, incorrect. Armies on Parade will now begin on August 30th with the store Parade Day taking part on the 25th October. We’re pretty certain the Grots are to blame. Of course, if you know what you’re doing and you’re super-keen, feel free to start work on your board straight away. We won’t tell anyone. Promise.

Which does indeed leave a healthy amount of time for me to do what I wanted to do, but the big question is do I go ahead with project X? The drive and the ability is there, the really big question is the scale of the task. I currently find storing my 2'x2' display board quite awkward, now I want to create something more substantial. Having the room to build such a thing will be a challenge and to store it afterwards too will be a pain. Additionally if we do go ahead with the building work in the house that we have planned I'll no doubt need the space in the garage that I'll be constructing this thing in. More importantly this project at this time may very well prove confrontational with my better half. So I will have to manage that above all else.

Ideally I need to find a way to have the display modular so I can break it down into pieces but that is a logistical puzzle of the highest order. What I think I will do is buy the parts I need, new 2'x2' MDF sheet and the sundry bits of wood to construct the frame and see from there how easy it will be to continue on with my plan

Blog Wars 7 1850pt battle report - nids vs Grey Knights/Inquisition

James Lamb was my last opponent who admitted from the very beginning he was going to lose this battle. His Grey Knight/Inquisition relied heavily on Jokaero for his troops, or something weird. Essentially he didn't have anything to hold an objective without them being mulched immediately after. I'm pretty sure you can go about this mission forcing 'contestion'  and with Chimera's Land Raiders and Dreadnoughts in his force that could have been an option

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

The low down:

• Three objectives, evenly spaced 1VP per objective controlled per player turn
• Dawn of War
• I lost deployment.
• Warlord Trait - Mindeater - Deathleaper
• Night fighting turn one

Having done well against PeteB in this mission I knew the first thing to do was get as close to those objectives as possible, one advantage to Tervigon's spawning is you get that potential 18" range to secure them.

With Deathleaper also scoring this game I positioned him between the two objectives [left and centre] so I could cover either option depending on which units got good run moves.

While the Nephropid and Termagants aimed for the right and centre objectives.

Despite the cover saves the Nephropid took 5 wounds from all of the Grey Knights.

And then the last wound popped off it, thankfully not too many died in the backlash, about 5 but it was still First Blood lost although no other VPs were scored..

I managed to secure two of the objectives, thanks to the Great Maw spawning out on top of one. I think the Flyrant wrecked the Chimera on the left.

The remaining gaunt blob headed for the third objective but their run move fell short leaving me with 2 VPs that turn.

Biovores missed the Vindicaire Assassin hiding in the trees but had spore mines to assault him in future turns,

This must be a couple of turns on because I think that's Coteaz [the strange monkey on the left] and pretty much all his retinue is not there. I think they'd suffered a whole lot from the Flyrant and Carnifex. I had hoped the Mawloc would have turned up to capitalise on their placement but no joy.

The Flyrantswooped off to the left but I also managed to pop his second Chimera, possibly with the Quad Gun.

His Land Raider turned it's attention to the Flyrant.

And it must have suffered a fiery end.

My Mawloc arrived but I deep struck him underneath his monkey units - [Dreadnoughts]. I killed one and had room to deploy.

Coteaz was kille dby some shooting for Slay the Warlord. All the while I'm racking up VPs as I now have all the objectives, I missed out on 3 in the first turn, 1 in my first turn and another 1 in James's second turn but since then it's 3 per turn.

While my Tervigon assaults the remaining Dreadnought the Carnifex gets to grips with the Land Raider and it's Hammer of Wrath penetrates

And blows it up.

The Vindicaire Assassin has joined the fight with the Tervigon and my gaunts protect the objective.

The Mawloc finishes off the remaining Dreadnought and any other monkeys hiding while the gaunts conga line to Line Breaker, just in case the Mawloc failed to dispatch it's targets.

So all that's left is the Great Maw facing the Vindicaire Assassin. We're at turn 4 or top of turn 3 at this stage. If James is tabled the game ends, no more VPs, if it carries on then I get more points. The Vindicaire has a 4+ save and can't seem to damage the Tervigon. I start to Smash the Assassin to reduce my attacks, one hits.

and this is my Wound roll, we continue for another round of combat and I get another 3VPs

I Smash again, but this is my 'to hit' roll, another 3VPs

When I do manage to wound the Assassin passes his Invulnerable save and eventually we reach the end of turn 5 and the Assassin remains alive.

It was a pretty one sided game, score wise. I ended up with 25VPs, plus Slay the Warlord and Line Breaker. James got First Blood and Slay the Warlord - Deathleaper meeting some ignominious end I can't even remember so 27-2. Alex, the Blog Wars event organiser had talked about the potential for games to be drawn out and where possible if you're going to table someone not to delay the inevitable to get the VPs. I suppose you could say switching to Smash attacks was doing that, but the options  were:

• 3 Attacks, hitting on 5, wounding on 3 with a 4+ save on 2 wounds
• 2 Attacks, hitting on 5, wounding on 2 with a 4+ save, insta-kill with 1 wound

Now I'm not going to work out the maths but I actually think I may have a better chance of killing him with Smash than without. I've one less chance to hit but greater chance to kill, outright too. In the end the Assassin deserved to survive, he was awesome. The result pushed me to 12th out of 38, not bad really although I did come 4th in November, wow, I forgot how close I came. Still maybe I can pick it up again later in the yearr.