1850pts battle report - Tyranids v Necrons

Ben and I haven't had a battle since mid April, so it was about time we did and about time the Hive Fleet Gorgon took on the Necrons once again. We even upped the ante and went 1850pts.

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant HQ Winged Tyrant Tervigon CC TR Tervigon Plain Tr Onslaught Warp Blast Onslaught Warp Blast Psychic Scream Paroxysm Dominion Dominion Dominion Dominion Magus Tryst Psychic Shriek Dominate INVISIBILITY!!!!!

The low down:

• One of the Maelstrom missions - 3 cards per turn
• Vanguard Strike
• I lost deployment but was asked to deploy first and Ben seized thanks to his +1 to Seize warlord trait
• Warlord Trait - Move through cover and Stealth [Ruins]
• No night fighting.

Ben did give me a sporting chance by not taking the Decurion but other than that there was a lot to be wary of: 6 Wraiths, Triarch Stalker, two units of Immortals, Ghost Ark, Tomb Blades, Annihilation Barge as well as Doom Scythe delivering Lychguard and Warriors into the fray.

I'd used a lot of my Throne of Skulls force, but got three Dakkafex and two Flyrants in as well two Tervigons. The key being I went for two CADs and the Genestealer allies.

Ben Went first and advanced everything, he managed to kill a Termagant in my big brood and the Tomb Blades took my Genestealer hybrids down to 4 and the Magus [on 1 wound] thanks to ignores cover upgrades! He was unable to score any VPs though.

I was extremely lucky with my cards, I pulled hold objectives 1, 5 and 6, which were all closest [or inside] my DZ. Number 6 was in the ruined tower on my left, I spawned out on 9 Termagants to secure it, the big blob got number 1 and the remaining Cultists held number 6 on the right in the wood. Meanwhile the Carnifex and Hive Tyrant took the centre. One Flyrant managed to cast Warp Blast but failed to hit the Stalker, which might have brought his Quantum Shielding down so the Brainleech could glance it.

So instead everything fired at the Wraiths, all the Dakkafex and the Flyrants - 70 shots [plus a few Termagants might have caused a wound] and it was just enough to beat the odds. He failed only enough saving throws and Reanimation Protocols to kill the squad. It was a devastating blow but took all my resources. I ended the turn with 3VPs plus First Blood.

But NEcrons are an implacable foe with a Doom Scythe appearing above

and Flayed ones appearing below. Unfortunately the second unit of Flayed ones mishapped and I deployed them out of harms way in the far corners [although not far from objective 4 so still of use should Ben get the card].

Ben initially brought the Doom Scythe on here, but due to the hull mounted weaponry having little to shoot at moved to the other side of the Chaos Shrine and deplyed the Lychguard onto objective 2.

In his turn 2 Ben managed to complete two missions - capture objective 2 with the Lychguard and Assassinate - killing my second Flyrant [the one with Warp Blast!] with the combined shooting of his Ghost Ark and Immortals. I think the Carnifex I'd given spine banks to was also killed, Ben had managed to recoup the value of his lost Wraiths.

The cards were kind again for me, objective 6 was secured by the remaining Cultists for a second turn and I was able to manifest 3 psychic powers: Tervigon cast Warp Blast, hit the Tomb Blades but they Jinked and survived. Warlord Flyrant cast Psychic Scream but the nearby Immortals survived no problem and something was Onslaughted. Manifesting the powers, even with little effect on the game netted me 2 out of D3 victory points.

Turn 3 and Ben managed to overrun my Cultists with the Tomb Blades.

The Doom Scythe targeted my Dakkafex with little joy, but it [or the Ghost Ark] did deposit a bunch of Warriors in the middle of the board just to ruin my day.

The middle of the board was looking pretty solid and to cap it all those misplaced Flayed Ones did come into their own and secure objective 4 in the top left to score Ben a VP.

Underneath the Skyshield the Flayed ones charged the Termagants. I could only get 16 in pay and managed to bring their number down to 5, but with 25 attacks on the charge they slaughtered the 16 they could reach, leaving them locked with the remaining 13. The Lychguard charged the Dakkafex in the middle, I avoided their Mindshackle Scarabs [I hate them with a passion] and it stomped on one or two but they cut him down with ease.

My turn 3 and I drew objective 4 and 2, [both in Ben's DZ and one held by the Flayed Ones the other by Immortals] and a VP to have three units in my own DZ and none of Ben's. Due to the positioning of the Flyrant I had to turn right instead of left, towards the objectives and give support to the newly arrived Tyrannocyte and Rippers. The Pod had landed almost exactly between obj 2 and 4, the Rippers could claim one as they were ObSec but only with a run which they made. 

The Flyrant took out the Annihilation Barge regardless, while the Tervigon assaulted the remaining Tomb Blades. Underneath the Skyshield the Genestealers broke the deadlock with the Flayed Ones securing me the VP but that is an issue I'll get to at the end...

The Termagants having made a disastrous charge on the Immortals turned tail and were chased by the Immortals, the other spawned gaunts tried to tar pit the Lychguard

Everything else poured fire into the exposed Dakkafex, except for the other broadside of the Ghost Ark which aimed at the Tyrranocyte. The Dakkafex went down to just one wound and then took another 5 that I had to save

Yeah, not on this watch!

The Dakkafex fell.

The Flayed ones wiped out the Rippers to secure objective 4 and a VP.

The Gaunts managed to pull down a few more Lychguard, and I was able to secure objective 5 in the ruined tower for another VP. Meanwhile on my right flank the Flyrant had managed to reach the Tomb Blades locked in combat with the Tervigon. The Flyrant managed to cast Psychic Scream, with Ben looking out on a 12 on the Leadership wiping them out and freeing up the Tervigon.

But they were ultimately slaughtered, leaving the Necron Overlord to hunt larger prey next...

The Flayed ones from objective 4 continued to be useful [considering Ben wasn't going to put them on after the mishap] by wiping out the Tyrranocyte, 

it did kill at least one of them in combat though which is always nice to see :)

The Overlord charged the Tervigon, which was down to 2 wounds so it was not going to survive but as both were Initiative 2 I could achieve mutual destruction with a Smash! attack. One roll of the dice and I hit, and I got a 2 to wound. He failed any save [if he had one] and his Reanimation Protocol but he took out the Tervigon as he went.

This wiped out a number of Termagants in the ruins.

Ben's turn 5 and despite our early start we're pushing 12:30am and Ben manages to secure objective 1 with the remaining Lychguard and 3 to score 2VPs and I think he gets Linebreaker. Given the hour we decide to call it.

For the first time ever Hive Fleet Gorgon has won against the Necrons, with 9 VPs, plus 2 for First Blood and Slay the Warlord I'm on 11 and Ben scores 8 but in writing the report I realise I've cocked up. I'd been thinking how I'd achevved it with some expensive units effectively just holding objectives - the Cultists and Genestealers which I could have done with a 40pt unit of Termagants The Cultists scored 2, for  a cost of 150pts and all the Stealers did was broke the deadlock with the Flayed ones to score 1 VP and they cost 130pts, except when I went to look how much they were I realised when I'd switched from my ToS starting list of 1 CAD plus allies to 2 CADs plus allies I;d had to drop the Stealers to fit the second Tervigon  and small unit of Gaunts in. So in effect I played with the Stealers when I shouldn't have :(

This would make the score more 10-8, I'm pretty sure the Termagants, even with the Venomthrope couldn't have bested the five flayed ones, 13 attacks, plus the 3 poisoned [2+] Venomthrope shots and it's Toxic Miasma. I'd have been lucky to take out three of the five which would have left them in my DZ/table edge. They'd have then been killed by the 20 attacks in return but what would they have done after, and how it would impact the remaining game I can't tell. To say I'm p'ed off is an understatement. My first success ever and I went and screwed it up with a mistake.

'nids part 198 - 31 Genestealers

With the Dark Angel Jetfighter done I should be in a bit of a slump but for some reason I immediately cracked on with some Genestealers.

I managed to get some arms done and suddenly I could see the timescale ahead.

I started on some of the metallic elements on the bases too.

This meant I was able to do the first set of Bonewhite highlights in 7 days, 11 days ahead of schedule. I could then see another 7 for the second highlights plus the remaining days making 18 days until completion. With 9 weeks until the end of the hobby season that was two sessions a week

Or, just crack on with them as the next project, complete them in 18 days and then see where I get with the next thing I think I can manage in what time is left...

Dark Angels - Jetfighter - Moar TO DONE!

Usually I add the 'obligatory phone pics' on the end of my TO DONE! post. I take them as I usually need pics on my phone that I don't need to view via the cloud. However, I'd ogt a tonne of pics from camera and these just turned out so cool I thought they deserved a post of their own.

In case you're wondering the camera app is called Camera 360 and it's got loads of filters [which I'm sure other apps also do] but they work pretty seamlessly. The below ones are more 'enhanced', not really very good pics but this help in low light conditions for my battle reports and the Double Trouble shots. Obviously this was well lit, hnce why the colours are pretty stark.

However other filters brought out these richer tones and made it far more brooding.

Hope you liked these more dramatic shots, I wonder what's next on the table?

Oh and I suddenly had a thought to do a video, it's not great at all, I'll try to do better in future but as I just threw it together it's definitely something I may well do again and get it right.

Dark Angels - Jetfighter - TO DONE!

With a bit of a push I finally got this bad boy done. There are definitely things that have not gone according to plan, more on them later but overall I'm really pleased.

Much like the Ravenwing bikers before it the end result, although maybe not what I imagined has become something beyond my expectations and I can't wait to see it alongside the bikes and the Land Speeders too.

I haven't added the Rift Cannon glow, I appreciate the opinions, it looked like green was the winner. I may well add it in at a later date but for now it's just not firing.

The jets worked out OK though.

But here's where we can begin to address the elephant in the room. Having been disappointed with the brush strokes in the Anti-shine it was time to try a new approach. I got out my air brush, don#t you just hate it when you put something in the 'hard to access place' because you don't plan on using it for a while!

As you can see the effect is a little mixed. The end result although not frosted is a little 'dusty'. Now I asked on the 'eavier metal' facebook group if it could go in undiluted but unusually got no response. So I went in neat...

Now I started underneath as I thought I'd have less to lose. I was very careful with the varnish and I think I managed to cover up almost all the brush strokes.

As you can see close up it's really flat, just what I was aiming for.

So I was buoyed with confidence.

Then I think I got carried away, opened up the nozzle a bit too much and ended up with this rather grainy 'sandstone' finish. I mean it;s not ruined, it's just not right either. In different light it's certainly less noticeable but it's a learning experience so I'll suck it up and be more careful in the future.

I was finally able to glue the pilot and canopy in place too.

The base in all it's glory.

And the other side too.

Close up of the stasis cell.

The tail.

The stasis cell crystal roof, glowing baleful red from the prison interior. 

And in it's Jetfighter configuration.

Blackthorn missiles.

Such a better silhouette on the Jetfighter.

Three stripes on the left side. 

Litanies on the right, all done in Dark Reaper, they have the sense not to litter their craft with text that will show up too easily.

Twin linked las-cannon configuration.

The obligatory phone pic will be in a separate post tomorrow, for reasons!

So that's another one off the list, and a really great achievement. I actually have a new found acceptance of the real world price of this flyer. I think it may well be worth the £45, because next to my Cerastus it's pretty big so makes a pretty cool centrepiece [although a Doom Scythe is equally impressive and is only £27.50...].

That said though I was deeply disappointed to see the boxset mine came in - the Dark Angles, Dark Vengeance Expansion is no longer available. Rumours suggested all factions would be getting 'start collecting' boxes so clearly this is a move towards the Dark Angel variety. Sadly I think it's a mistake as most starter boxes are £50-£60 and this was an £85 box, or you could get Dark Vengeance for £65, split the figures and you had a decent starting force for £30ish. Either way you're bringing in more money for the expansion or selling out of stock for the main game as rumours suggest 8th is due next September. Reboxing them now is just additional cost. Oh and the Ravenwing battleforce has gone too...

Still TO DONE!

Dark Angels - Jetfighter - Tail lights

I decided to do some freehand identification markings, this is 2nd company 5th wing, Alpha Squadron, craft PSI [cos who doesn't like a Pitchshifter reference] or somesuch vague meaning. The cool thing is that new flyer book suggests all markings on ravenwing flyers are meant to secret and hard to fathom by outsiders.

Once again i was struck by how much easier it is to pain numbers than roman numerals. To be honest the sides are different, this side is a bit taller and more tightly spaced, which isn't quite as nice as the other side. I could have probably done a little more to construct a grid to ensure they were better matched. But, you can't actually see both sides at once so you wouldn't really notice, maybe if I do another one?

Having started to apply some of the orange OSL on the jets I suddenly realised how the open jet engines wouldn't work - gaping black holes that are all lit up round the edges. So I resolved to fix it, albeit a little late. I stuffed the engines full of rolled up kitchen paper. I must have forced about two paper towels in each engine, it's amzing how much space is inside these! I;d originally though to use tin foil as it compresses harder but there really was too much volume to fill, and it'd have been harder to do. So instead paper and to cap it of I plugged it with DAS air drying clay. A small blob and then a damp end of a paint brush rounded it off.

The next night it was simple enough to paint over, no primer necessary, orange highlights up to yellow with some bright white blobs and I'm pretty happy.

The jet vents were alittle more understated than I'd planned but I was finding all the orange OSL just looked wrong, so I was able to remove it with just a hint of glow which I think works better. Also of note is the three 'bear claw' tribal stripe motif on the tail. This is only on the right side, if I get another flyer it'll be marked on the left and a third [for a Silence Squadron] will be the leader with both left and right markings. I later took time to add the same markings on the Jetfighter tail but asymmetrically on the left side. This will again be mirrored on a second flyer also with both sides marked on the third. Also worthy of mention are the red windows on the Dark Talon stasis cell. These will be picked out with Tamiya Clear Red X-27 when done. I even decided the conical 'dome' was tempered stasis glass too. The picture makes it all blend together quite well [much better than reality].

I've spotted a couple of things in this picture I can do to help blend it into the fuselage a bit better, despite already varnishing it. The Anti Shine has not gone on well. As expected I'm seeing brush strokes and tide marks in the Anti-shine. It catches the light funny and makes a mockery of the effort spent trying to make the black as flat as it could be.

I can only think a second coat might even things up or alternatively sprayed on, which might mean cranking out the air brush. I'll try a second coat underneath first to see if it helps. Regardless I;ve still to paint the glow on the rift Cannon and finish of the Blackthorn missiles then it's done!