2000pts battle report - Tyranids v Astra Milliwhatsit [TANKS!] - Game 4 - North West Open

The North West Open Tournament @ Wargames is an ITC format competition using the following rules pack: ITC 8th ed Combined Arms Missions. Each mission was rolled for randomly before the game and we were then all told which one to play.

Game 4 low down:

• Scenario 6 - Secure & Control [check the rules pack linked above for all the details]
• Spearhead Assault deployment
• 1 Eternal War objective and 2 Maelstrom objectives

Day two and after three losses I moved down to table 26, but I was so happy as it was Red Planet BASE! It would transpire my opponent was a 'no show' and as there were two missing I was matched against one of my Double Trouble 2 partners and Birthday Bash Veteran Rob Nathan. However Rob was not bringing his White Scars this time, he'd brought TANKS! and bucket loads of them, including a Shadow Sword! With such a destructive weapon on the board I didn;t see much point in putting the Hive Guard in the Bastion. I assumed as it was such a big target it would be knocked down pretty smartish.

So everything huddled behind the hills, if not in cover at least attempting to be out of sight. Unfortunately not out of sight enough as the Bastion was ignored and the Shadowsword put it's shooting into the Tervigon in Rob's first turn.

Luckily it's weapons weren't quite fired up and the Tervigon survived on three wounds.

The rest of his tanks drew their aim at my Carnifex.

Stripping off five wounds...

and then the last three to score First Blood and most likely a Maelstrom point.

My turn and I had to hold Objective 2, just in front of the Bastion and kill a unit. The remaining Carnifex Advanced, supported by the Flyrant. I targeted the nearest Leman Russ think I managed to degrade it to just a few wounds but ultimately couldn't complete my kill a unit Maelstrom mission.

The Tervigon and Termagants also Advanced, with the Brood Mother replenishing any casualties from the first turn of shooting.

But their progress did not go unnoticed and the Tervigon was shot to pieces.

The Carnifex too was judged an immediate threat and reduced to 2 wounds...

and then none like it's sibling. My push forward was being blunted pretty effectively.

With less threats on the board Rob had opportunity to focus on the Bastion, stripping 13 wounds off it!

As my assault diminished I tried to hunker down, retreating my Malanthrope to bolster my defences and score both objective 2 and have 3 units and no enemy units in my DZ. I knew how devastating the Guard shooting could be and having the Bastion, Hive Guard, Rippers, Warriors, Termagants and Malanthrope gave me double the units I needed for a bit of redundancy.

While my push forward added a further distraction when the Genestealers and Trygon arrived in their tunnel. 

But before I sent in the ground troops the Flyrant tried to assault the super heavy but they were waiting for him and the Volcan Cannon overwatched him like an insignificant fly.

The Genestealers failed their charge and the Trygon need a charge of 8" to reach the Shadowsword and I typically rolled a 1 and 2. So I used a command point to re-roll the 1 hoping for a 6

and only went and got it!

The Trygon managed to take it to 9 wounds, or do 9 wounds, not sure, but Rob said it was equal to the most amount of damage it had received in all the games, unfortunately not half as successful as it should have been.

Rob retaliated by destroying the Bastion.

The reveresed out of the combat to shoot the Trygon point blank, then mop up the Genestealers with ease.

We tied for Eternal War objectives, both holding our own and scoring 4 points each but Rob had the Maelstrom mission for 8, First blood and Slay the Warlord for another 2. Final score was 14:4 another loss, but another great game and nice to pair up with Rob again. This is the great thing about the hobby and these tournaments, gettign to see the same faces again and catching up.

As much as I'm enjoying the games, at this stage I'm a little disappointed about how bad I'm playing. I don't honestly think it's the 'nids, they just feel like a tool I don't know how to use. I think I'm actually going to be in with a shout for Wooden Spoon which would be an achievement of some sort but although it might be coming across as 'protesting too much' about not winning the fact is I don't mind losing so long as I gave it my best and right now my best is pretty rubbish. Still, on to the last game.

2000pts battle report - Tyranids v Necrons - Game 3 - North West Open

The North West Open Tournament @ Wargames is an ITC format competition using the following rules pack: ITC 8th ed Combined Arms Missions. Each mission was rolled for randomly before the game and we were then all told which one to play.

Game 3 low down:

• Scenario 1 - Retrieval [check the rules pack linked above for all the details]
• Dawn of War deployment
• 1 Eternal War objective and 1 Maelstrom objective

Moving down from table 22 to table 24 I was matched with David Woods and his Necrons. Unfortunately I didn't take too many pictures so it's a bit difficult to work out what went on. Additionaly I think this was David's first ever tournament and third game of 8th edition so we spent a lot of time trying to get things right. I believe I won first turn but importantly you should note I totally messed up deployment. My big mistake was putting the bastion between those two ruins. In particular the two storey building meant none of my Monstrous creatures could be deployed inside as they had to climb up one side and down the other to get out as you can no longer 'pass through walls' by barging through with a difficult terrain test! Insead my Tervigon was forced into the single storey ruin on the left. Anyway, I drew Maelstrom objectives 1 and 2, which was possibly by my Bastion and where I brought the Trygon and Genestealers in, hoping to live to my turn 2. I was sure I killed something in turn 1 but it may have just been weight of fire into the Doomsday Ark to strip away all but 5 of it's wounds, at least it degraded a bit.

In return the Genestealers and Trygon were wiped off the board! This would deny me securing both objectives in my turn. The Flyrant was also wounded enough to reduce it at least one, if not two tiers of damage [they're really not that good, or I'm not using then correctly].

I scored my 1VP and drew Objective one and kill a unit. The Doomsday Ark was my best chance [even though it's Living Metal had repaired one of it's wounds]. The Flyrant swooped forward and I was able to take it down. Additional damage was wrought on the Warriors and Immortals.

But most of them got back up again in their turn leaving me back where I started.

Unbelievably, considering my results, throughout most of the day my dace rolling had been obscenely good. Quite often statistically improbable, which made me wonder just how bad a results I could have had. This I think was a series of saves, FnP and Tenacious Survivor results for my Flyrant leaving him still on the board.

This gave the Flyrant the opportunity to assault one of the Doom Scythes, whose Death Ray was laying down all sorts of hurt with abandon. Unfortunately without any melee weapons I could only take it to 5 wounds left [which it would repair one - Living Metal]. Meanwhile the Carnifex and Malanthrope mad eit into combat but I couldn't kill a unit

Flying off left the Flyrant exposed and ultimately it was plucked from the sky. I think my conga lined Termagants managed to secure me the Eternal War mission and I got Line Breaker by deploying the Rippers in that Ruin in the back of the board where they couldn't be seen [which is why I left them in there overnight!] I ended with 9 points but David got 11 with Line Breaker, Slay the Warlord and Big Game Hunter and the Maelstrom Mission win. Surprisingly my unit with the highest Power Level for Big Game Hunter was not the Flyrant, Trygon or even the two Carnifex but my Genestealers!

Three games, three losses but again a really good game and David and I had a lot of fun. I totally screwed up my deployment, which highlighted another problem with the way 8th works now. LoS blocking buildings/ruins are so important nowadays to actually offer some protection for larger creatures/vehicles, but those pictured above serve up a massive nightmare for movement. Granted creatures/vehicles have so many more wounds now that the idea of protecting them further seems greedy but they're still dieing in droves because heavy weapons are more destructive and small arms have chances to damage even when there used to be none.

Anyway, it was a great game and I was ready for day 2, perhaps that wooden spoon could be mine...?

The 2017/18 Hobby Season starts soon, join me!

The 2017/18 hobby season will be starting soon so for those alumni who joined in last year it might be cool to look back at your lists at what you've achieved , what might have slipped and those lovely unexpected successes that happened despite life getting in the way and loss of mojo - I speak from experience.

The original plan when I started with 'big stamps of approval' was that I wouldn't do multi-coloured stamps, just alternate between red and green but who was I kidding? So I give you the official 40kaddict 2017/18 Great Big Gamboge Stamp of Approval! I'm sure the choice of colour seems a bit leftfield but yellow and orange are my two favourite colours and this sits somewhere between the two. Sharp eyed may also spot the blogspot URL, not the www.40kaddict.uk version from last year. This is in part because that was on the hard drive that became corrupt. It may have been salvaged in my recovery but I haven't had chance to find a working version as yet and not had time to fix this beyond the colour swap, so we make do. As such the Great Build stamps aren't available but I'll see if I can find time to do them.

Or you can record your achievements with an 'unbranded' version.

And should you feel inclined todifferentiaite your efforts yet further here 's the major goal stamps

And minor goals.

Just a reminder of what it's about, in 2011 I made my first To Do List, amusingly it now looks like this:

• AoBR Tactical Squad
• AoBR Dreadnought
• AoBR Terminators
• Scout Squad
• Ravenwing bike squad
• Dark Angel Drop Pod
• Purity Seal all of my son's Tyranids
• Gloss Varnish all of my son's Tyranids
• Tyranid Prime
• Mycetic Spore
• Paint Vent Tower
• Paint defence platforms x4
• Complete pot pourri vegetation
• Complete future containers
• Complete 40k Cathedral tower
• STC Single story ruin
• STC Hex Defence platforms
• STC Targus Assault Blockade
• STC Vent tower
• STC Athena plateau
• STC Mercury plateau
• STC 40k Cathedral tower
• 60mm Dreadnought crater

So 4 things still haven't been done. The purpose was to try to focus my efforts to outline a list of things I'd love to do over a twelve month period and if I acheived any of them great, all of them, so much better. But more importantly I needed a structure to cling to when my efforts became aimless. That's not to say deviations from the list were forbidden it was more for when I went 'well what's next?'

It became an annual blog post to review what I'd done and set new tasks and throughout the year I would reveal my 'To Dones!' as completed items both on and off the list. Showcase posts are nothing new to hobby blogs but again it was a structure to help build the identity of this blog. Then in 2014 I invited readers and passers-by of the blog to join in. Well, when you have a good idea why not share it around. I got about 10 people joining in and it looked like we were quite a supportive little bunch. I think over time steam ran out a little bit but last year folk joined in again and hopefully the same will ring true for 2017/18.

To help things out a bit I've created a Hobby Season Facebook group, it's here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/278747245819138/

So, if you're joining in just ask and I'll add you in, that way you can share your blog posts or any efforts to those also joining in. I hope this platform will allow more interaction for those taking part and keep us all motivated.

I guess the last question is why 28th August as the start/end date, why not January 1st?
I think back in 2011 it was at that time I thought a structure needed to be in place and it was as good a time as any to post a To Do List, afterall the footy season starts around this time too, no one complains about that, do they?

Anyway, 28th August join me for the new Hobby Season :)

2000pts battle report - Tyranids v Blood Angels - Game 2 - North West Open

The North West Open Tournament @ Wargames is an ITC format competition using the following rules pack: ITC 8th ed Combined Arms Missions. Each mission was rolled for randomly before the game and we were then all told which one to play.

Game 2 low down:

• Scenario 5 - Big Guns Never Tire [check the rules pack linked above for all the details]
• Front Line assault deployment
• 2 Eternal war and Maelstrom objectives

Despite the loss I remained on table 22, which was actually rather convenient and I was up against Max's mate Steve Tiencken [the only Welshman in the tournament according to him ;) ]. Max had some Assault Cannon Razorbacks, Baal Predators, a Sicaran Battle Tank, a Fire Raptor :(, Storm Raven, various Tactical Marines and three Assault Cannon Tarantulas holding his centre [in cover] buffed by a Primaris Captain and Lieutenant [re-rolls of some kind for hits and wounds]. I won first turn and surged forward.

Tyrgon also turned up to draw some fire from the Flyrant. My target priority were the Tarantulas for First Blood and because I thought they would be relatively simple to kill while their survival would put out disproportionately high shooting thanks to the buffs around them. I succeeded but then found out First Blood/Strike was not a bonus mission in this scenario! Meanwhile I had to hold onto my two objectives in my deployment until turn 2.

The Genestealers and Trygon did their job too well in Steve's turn suffring 19 Stealer casualties and 7 wounds off the Trygon.

Then the Trygon took even more fire and was killed while the Flyrant was reduced to 8 wounds.

It took a further four wounds and then I think the Tactical squad got some shots on it and my failed saves, Catalyst and Tenacious Survivor failed to stop the remaining damage.

The Flyrant was dead for Slay the Warlord.

The lone Genestealer was then set upon by the Tactical Squad that disembarked from the Razorback.

Teh Marines attacking first on the charge meant he could not survive the five to one odds.

Not sure what I did this turn, clearly the Carnifex barreled forward and charged the Tactical Squad - killing them outrigh. I secured my Maelstrom objectives thankfully and with hold objective 1 and kill a unit I was halfway to scoring another 2 point sin my next turn.

Steve responded by strafing my lines, killing the lead Carnifex.

It also looks like the tervigon was popped.

While the Termagants were whittled in numbers as I aimed to hold objective 1 while still advancing up the board.

I gain my 2 VPs and draw Objective 1 and Kill a Unit again. I move the Devgaunts and Carnifex up and rain fire down on the Tactical squad in the trench - killing them for my next turn VP.

The Storm Raven moves off to the left but targets the Carnifex.

Shooting from the Fire Raptor combines to destroy the Carnifex and subsequently the Termagants.

I gain my 2VPs but draw hold my objective 1 and Steve's objective 1. I bring the Rippers up in the trneches, hoping to sneak that enemy objective 1. All my Bastion, Quad Gun and Hive Guard shooting manages to bring the Storm Raven down [probably using a Command re-roll to do it].

All Steve's shooting went into my Bastion, bringing it down along with one of the Hive Guard in the twisted wreckage.

Steve then killed the remaining Hive Guard and most of the Warriors with the Fire Raptor.

I may be mistaken but I think he subsequently killed everything left on the board - the Rippers, Malanthrope and remaining Warrior leaving me tabled. Not entirely sure but it rings a bell that it went down that way. Ultimately I scored 7 Maelstrom VPs but Steve had been more consistent and took the 8 points for Maelstrom, the 8 Points for Eternal War and potentially the clean sweep of Bonus Points to make it 19:0! Once again defeat and a score line that overlooks what hard won success I did achieve but perhaps reflects more what remained of my army.

Again, no complaints from me. The Flyers were a challenge to contend with [I only managed to deal with one] and those Primaris HQ units were pretty tough but a perfectly decent list and Steve was a great sport and good fun. On to game 3.