Blog Wars 8 1850pt battle report game 1 - nids vs Necrons

First up was Josh with a C'Tan shard, Overlord in a command barge, Necron Scarab Swarm and allied Helbrute formation! Josh intoduced himself as only recently returned to the hobby so still very much a 40k newb which boded well for me considering I seem to be regularly beaten by those either new to the game or new to their army. In particular Tyranid noobies seem to beat me without fail!

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant  Tervigon Plain Tr Tervigon Miasma The Horror Warp Blast Catalyst Onslaught Dominion Dominion Dominion

The low down:

• Game 1 - Cleanse the Xenos with Hammer & Anvil deployment
• I won deployment and went first
• Warlord Trait - Deathleaper has Mindeater - +2VP for every IC slain in a challeneg
• Night fighting turn 1.

Having found enough Genestealers to replace those I'd left G.O.D. knows where I  deployed 15 in the ruin in Josh's DZ. The remaining Manufactorum Genestealers occupied the middle ground alongside Deathleaper.

The remaining force spread out in my back field to keep them away from weapons and hopefully prevent the Helbrutes materialising.

And let battle commence.

Hive Tyrant swoops forwards, Genestealers stay put, they can't assault anyway so may as well keep them there. Carnifex advances alongside the Hive Guard.

With so many Scarabs heading my way I repositioned the Tervigons to potentially pump out some bubble wrap.

I unleashed the Flyrant on the C'tan and Brainleech Worms took 2 wounds off it.

Josh spawned more Scarabs, a risky tactic in Purge the Alien as you're just adding more VPs to the table, but he seemed unperturbed.

They skittered forwards and assaulted Deathleaper

He killed a couple but was swarmed asunder giving Josh First Blood and a healthy dose of VPS. Meanwhile the Command Barge assaulted the Genestealers in the centre ruin, killing a couple and the C'tan headed for the Stealers in the DZ ruin and may have killed the brood [or was this Josh's First Blood?]. A unit of Scarabs also assaulted the Stealers, only killing a couple due to the difference in Weapon Skill and strength/toughness.

With the Scarabs exposed the Carnifex peppered them with Brainleech worms, double strength insta-killing 9 bases!

The Flyrant also made use of Brainleech living ammo to shoot the C'tan.

Who promptly exploded, somehow it must have been ground as it only took one wound. Not sure how that happened.

With no other targets the remaining Genestealer assaulted the already engaged Scarabs and wiped them out. Meanwhile some of the Spyders took wounds.

The unengaged Stealers in the centre ruin joined their brood siblings and attacked the barge.

With some heavy duty Rending hits

The Command Barge was gone and thankfully didn't reanimate. A healthy crop of VPs for me.

Some strange smoke erupted from the wrecked vehicle! What? I'm forging a narrative here!

I think that Obyron joining the Warriors there, hoping to take out the wounded Flyrant.

Yet more Scarabs, and they're hungrily looking at all that Bastion to eat because I bubble wrapped the Carnifex.

    

Half the Scarabs assaulted the Hive Guard I think I came out better only losing one Hive Guard but we're all Fearless so we remain locked.

The Scarabs get they're nibblers on the Bastion

 

And reduce it to a sloppy mess, taking the Quad Gun and the Venomthrope with it.

With the Flyrant on the ground everyone assaults and Obyron accepts the Flyrants challenge and gets eaten.

As the ground up pieces of living metal fall to the ground they coalesce back into the Necron hero and his learning protocols remove all challenge acceptance confirmations for a Tyranid bioform of this scale.

Spyders eat through a brood of Genestealers.

Carnifex assaults the other Spyders, does some damage but comes off just as bad with MC Vs MC.

The Flyrant bashes Warriors but still can't get to Obyron, the Spyders head to break the stalemate.

More spawned gaunts join the Hive Guard but they begin to take casualties and the melee remains locked.

Helbrutes finally materialise, they put some damge on a Tervigon but mostly it remains unharmed.

Eventually time is called and we tot up the results 793 +2VP [Line Breaker and Slay the Warlord] to Josh's 919 +3VP. I was actually quite surprised I didn't do more damage and had been lucky as a lot of  my units were not passed the half strength mark so hadn't scored. I know I killed a lot of scarabs, which aren't much points but the Command Barge wasn't cheap. Perhaps the relief I felt not having to tackle the Helbrutes backfired in that essentially those points never got a chance to be secured by me, although I'm not so sure what could have taken them, probably the Carnifex...

Anyway, aside from the super quick deployment [all things considered] this was another typical first game loss but a fun game. Josh was quite apologetic about his list but although Scarab swarms aren't a fun concept I never once felt I wasn't enjoying the game and as I said at the beginning experience is no guarantee for success. Anyway, on to game two.

Josh and I mid game from From the Fang

Blog Wars 8 - The Aftermath

Saturday was Blog Wars 8 and I had so much fun With PeteB, Liam and Ben. We all went as a group, PeteB taking his Space Wolves, Liam his Dark Eldar and Ben taking my arch-nemesis - Necrons. We all had a great time despite a less than stellar succes right [in gaming terms]. According to the results I came 18th, with Ben typically taking the best slot out of our group - 10th [although he faced some unique new combos that finally taught his crons 'fear']. PeteB came 22nd and Liam was dead last at 26th.

PeteB's Space Wolves

On the plus side that won him the coveted Wooden Spoon Prize, Certificate and £5 voucher for Element Games and on his birthday too! But the prizes didn't end there, PeteB picked up a spot prize when one of his unit was killed when his blast weapon deviated onto his own Thunderwolves. He picked up a pack of Tactical Objective cards for the failure and gifterd them to Liam [as it was his birthday.

Liam's Dark Eldar

Then Liam won best painted army [I cam 2nd], another £15 voucher for Element Game, and on his birthday he even picked up best Character for a further £10 voucher. to cap it all PeteB won a Voidraven bomber in the raffle and then 'on his birthday' Liam won a Muderfang Dreadnought so Liam and PeteB promptly swapped prizes. We owned BW8!

Ben's Necrons

Hive Feleet Gorgon - Ferron Splinter Fleet

I even managed to discover about a dozen packs of Tactical objective cards in the Element Games shop, they're right there on the counter and you can order online, although if you get chanc eto visit it is like Aladdin's Cave.

I did take pictures so hopefully I'll get some battle reports done. The only real downside to the day had nothing to do with the tournament or the games but the fact when I came to unpack my army at the start of the day, which hasn't been touched since Armies on Parade. I seem to be missing my CORE toolbox, not to mention a takeaway tub full of my latest Genestealers

Admittedly it doesn't look like this inside now, but it does contain my Warriors, Primes, some Stealers, both Broodlords and assorted odds and sods. Luckily I had sufficent models to make do in all my games but when I returned home I could find no sign of either of these in our back room. Of course it's full of allsorts at the moment but the CORE box would at least stand out. I can only imagine I left it at GW after Armies on Parade but can't contact them until Wednesday and I'd expect they would have tried to let me know if I had left stuff

Either way it put a downer on what was an otherwise fantastic day. Fingers crossed it'll turn up somewhere and we'll all make BW9 and 10

• Blog Wars 9 - Saturday 6th June 2015
• Blog Wars 10 - Saturday 7th November 2015

UPDATE:

The CORE box was indeed left at GW after AoP the manager even let me know on the Facebook group but I think my Swiss cheese addled home DiY brain excised that info from my brain, maybe it was the Inquisition? I think I even said in reply it would give me reason to return for my silver medal. The Stealers on the other hand... I think they may be hiding under some new curtains or a loo brush ;)

Blog Wars 8 - The Reckoning [army list]

I 'ummed' and 'aahhed' quiye a bit about this but my decision was made a little easier when Alex released me from my promise to take the Skyshield. It's great and all but 7th edition deployment and the BW missions make it less useful. The limitations on list choices were relaxed a bit, I'd love to have had another detachment so I could run [swoop] two Flyrants but at least I got the Genestealers which hopefully play havoc with my opponents deployment. They're such a curve ball I had to take them. It's just the fact your opponent who has spent long and hard formulating a list that does something begins with 25 Genestealers within 6" [terrain permitting of course] of their setup. Suddenly you have to amend your plan and having put them on the back foot hopefully I can capitalise. Sure they're a potential easy First Blood sacrifice but it is five targets and I can go to ground in the ruin and when you add in night-fighting they can persevere. Meanwhile the rest of your army is unscathed...

Of course I had to drop the Mawloc, Zoanthrope and Biovores from my last list to fit everything in. The Mawloc can work, he defnitely benefits from Deathleaper but I can't gamble on his reserve rolls and his killing potential can be questionable. The Zoanthrope is a loss, the extra shooting BS on the Quad Gun, Synapse and +2 Warp Charge and powers. However the Venomthrope gives me mobile cover, which is more a hangover from when it was on the Skyshield but think it'll do well extending it's cloud from the Bastion! The Biovores are a loss too, but although I've seen them become more effective over the last 10 months I've actually found them less worrying for my opponent. Previously they were targetted no matter what and succombed regularly. Nowadays I still have both pottering around. When they work they can do a number but they're still a bit hit and miss.

I lost a unit of Warriors too from my last list but I managed to keep the Two Tervigons which will hopefully provide the Synapse and extra bodies. I may have a lot less firepower but I'm hoping I have staying power which for the objective missions will gain me the advantage. I've got 96 models with two lots of spawning which will be extremely effective this time around, the Hive Mind assures me of such. So it's all about the numbers. Looking at the other entries, which is sadly not as many as BW7, there seems to be Space Wolves, Eldar and Crons aplenty, we'll see what I face and whether it includes Ben, Liam or PeteB who will be attending also.

Ultimately though Blog Wars is a fun tournament, it's meant not to be too competitive and although I find 1850pts in two and a half hours quite pressuring, especially as I've gone moar horde than last time, I really hope to have a fun time. BW6 I actually came 4th, BW7 I was 12th but both times I managed to lose games stupidly and then balance that out with ridiculous wins of maximum points so the end result is not important. Hopefully BW9 will be back up to numbers, apparently there's one of the National 40k GT's on in Manchester on the same day so that may explain why some folk aren't attending. I'll definitely be pushing BW9 for Alex next year, its' a great event and when you put in the effort to make it happen it deserves to be a success, thankfully there are enough numbers for it to break even and have a decent raffle and prize fund regardless. 

So, without further ado, my BW8 list:

HQ
Hive Tyrant, with 2 x Twin Linked Devourers, Wings
Deathleaper [Special Character]

Elites 
3 x Hive Guards
1 x Venomthrope

Troops 
Tervigon with Stinger Salvo, Scything Talons,
30 x Termagants with Fleshborers
Tervigon with Stinger Salvo, Miasma Cannon
30 x Termagants with Fleshborers

Heavy Support 
Carnifex with 2 x Twin Linked Devourers

Fortification 
Bastion with Quad Gun

Tyranid Datasheet 
Manufactorum Genestealers
5 x Genestealers
5 x Genestealers
5 x Genestealers
5 x Genestealers
5 x Genestealers

TOTAL: 1850

Moar of Otty's Inquisition force

Otty sent these through to the Facebook group again but not everyone wants to get their fix of the 40kaddict [such as it is these days :( ] through the book of face. So I'm sharing it here because they deserve the wider audience and right now I don't have any content anyway [sorry folks]! But do I love the effect on these shields!I'm enot sure if it's meant to be a marble effect or battle damage but they're fantastic.

As promised, here are some pics of LOTR witch king converted into inquisitional death cult assassins. These are 3 of ultimately 9. I'm still sticking to the plan to convert, and every model have some robes and metal on them. The plan for these is to assault out of an land raider redeemer. I am not convinced by the brass etched inquision eyes, I think perhaps freehand painted ones would have been better.

Personally I like the brass etch and it's really quite impressive how the Lord of the Rings models have been 'grimdarked' to fit into 40k. The simple addition of servo-skulls and bolt-pistols. These be-robed models could be easily integrated into a Dark Angels force, either as scouts or servitor/thralls

Anyway, lets hope Otty has some more stuff to share because I'm fresh out of juice, although I have my Blog Wars list to share...

Just a thought...

Tyrannocyte

+

Tervigon

+

Spawned Termagants

=

Whole lot of fun when that baby lands! ;)

Add in a Lictor so they land on target, maybe even buy 2 spawning baby carriages! I really must make up a Comms relay!

The sky is falling, let it rain!

Y'know the bit in South Park when someone goes to heaven only to be denied entrance because they chose the wrong faith and it turns out 'Mormons had it right all along'? Well out of all the third party casts of Mycetic Spores that came out who'd have thought that Mr Dandy would have been the one most on the money.

This looks so like the central core of the Sporocyst, you could easily add the five 'arms' with Tyrgon head crests if you wanted something even more similar.

And just a reminder, in February I was mourning it's loss but here we are right back at it with so much more too. The fact is I am super excited to have this back in my arsenal. Will I be purchasing one though...? Erm, not just yet. I obviously have my own scratchbuilds and they will suffice for now. So is that an own goal by GW, too little too late? Not at all because right now I'm looking at the Codex anew. Suddenly there options, some I mentioned in my earlier post but these are kits I had not entertained before. The Haruspex I wanted for the cool model but as Monkeychuka pointed out the Haruspex is awesome but the Exocrine is more useful. Now the Haruspex has a delivery mechanism, heck pretty much everything can be in your face, this way. I was only contemplating how much we needed that level of deployment when this happened to me the other night:

There's nothing like seeing your opponent put drop pods on your Landing Pad to feel slightly aggrieved you can't even attempt the same. Still, all kinds of fun to be had. I will be definitely be getting some new models, models I wouldn't have considered prior to this option, so although I'll muddle on with the pods for friendly games I will be partaking of other gribbly sustenance. However, I have quite a bit on the plate at the moment, stuff that is in my hobby list and as and when my mojo and opportunity returns I will be focusing on those items.

So as giddy as a schoolgirl I may be thanks to GWs beneficence I will have to contain my excitement and just enjoy the new dawn that's arrived just 10 months after the initial horror of the new Codex. happy days!