Warhammer World GT3 - Game 4 Tyranids v Aeldari [Eldar]

Game 4 of GT3 and I am a hot mess. I'm regretting the beer, yesterday's lunch of curry [fab as it was] and sheesh kebab [which was far spicier than I would have liked]. Steve Parker is facing me with a host of Wraith Guard [mainly hiding in the webway] and a Wraith Knight. In all honesty I was not with it for this game. I couldn't remember where I'd put my digital camera after game 1. I'd been using my phone since and so I was totally preoccupied with where it could be. The events team came over to give me the bad news that it hadn't been handed in while adding the good news the 'nids had been nominated again for best army. So as Steve went first and started to remove my models with ease I couldn't see them die quick enough, anyway the game...

The low down:

• Ascension [Chapter Approved mission]
• Hammer and Anvil - Table ends deployment
• I chose deployment zone, but I deployed last unit [giving Steve +1 to win first turn], 
• Steve went first

Thanks to the peculiarities of this mission all span the middle of the board, which effectively makes my Skyshield redundant in it's role of objective camper. With a lot of both our armies off board I once again chose Tenacious Survivor for my Warlord Flyrant instead of Alien Cunning to remove him from the board.

With so many Ranger scouts littering the battlefield finding space to bring stuff on was also going to be a challenge, so it seemed like a good idea to start with the Flyrant on the board. Wraithguard took and objective. Two more units of Wraithguard would secure the other objective out of shot in front of the ruin the Rangers are in.

Crimson Hunters zoomed into my Deployment Zone and wiped out the Hive Guard who were hiding in the shadow of the ruins. First Blood, swiftly followed by the second blood of the Tyranid Warriors.

The Wraith Knight shot the Warlord Flyrant to smithereens [Slay the Warlord]. With hindsight it was probably a good thing I was preoccupied with lost camera as I'd have been pretty demotivated at this point if I'd been hoping to attempt some kind of challenge in the game.

Tervigon surged forward with the Termagants, weight of numbers and objective secured, snatching the objective out from under the Wraithguard. Half their Brood had been killed though.

Trygon and Stealers appeared in the Aeldari backfield, I don't think I mad the charge, even with the Behemoth re-roll. The fates were against me it would seem.

Trygon and Devgaunts arrive on the other side, where the Broodlord had sprinted up. I secured the second objective while my second Flyrant managed to charge the Wraithguard but with an Autarch [or Farseer] holding the objective he was going to survive long enough to score 2VPs on that objective nect turn.

The Wraith Knight shot/assaulted the Trygon.

Tervigon was was killed and the Termagants suffered many casualties...

With just two left alive to secure that objective for the Aeldari.

The Wraith Knight charged the Genestealers, ultimately with just 2 left.

The last Flyrant was down to 4 wounds in combat

Wraith Guard scored the objective.

Autarch retained the centre objective for the second turn giving Steve another combined 3VPs.

Even at this stage I had some innate tactical awarness. I fell back with the Flyrant, movign to the other side of the objective to take out the Autarch with the Broodlord ensuring he died, unfortunately that must not have been in my turn as I'm only down as 1VP, which would have been the objective in the Ruins. Still, Slay the Warlord and as the Broodlord made the killing blow I used my last CP to use Feeder Tendrills and managed to regain 3CPs [although I later discovered some believe Broodlords cannot use Feeder Tendrils because it states Genestealer can do it, he has the Keyword GENESTEALER though so I'm unsure on the difference?]

Steve subsequently surrounded the Trygon and Devgaunts and brought the Wraith Knight to bear on the Flyrant and Broodlord. The Flyrant was shot.

The Gaunts were engaged.

The Wraith Knight assaulted the Broodlord and I had to make five 5+ invuls to evade his assault.

But that one 4 took the Broodlord out. This left the Farseers holding the objective with the Wraith Guard holding the other one.

Wraith Knight moved to the ruins. My Trygon extracted itself from the ruin and then moved to charge the Wraith Guard. I may well have discovered my lost camera at this point which caused blessed relief but the game was lost in all but name.

I mustn't have done much damage. I socred another VP for this objective.

The Guard fell back and killed yet more of the Devgaunts.

Wraith Knight mopped up the Devgaunts the everything shot at the Trygon who must have lashed out in death throes.

As only 1 Wraith Guard remains. With some Rippers still on the board, trying to sneak Linebreaker Steve had plenty of time to score another 8VPs over turns four and five while he wiped out the Skyshield to ultimately table me.

Steve was an absolute top bloke throughout. Out of all my games this army completely outclassed me. Sure the Orks had done as good job but that was numbers and poor tactics on my parts and good tactics on there's. This was an army that was just in a different league. In fact my kill points were just the Autarch on 77pts, which I felt truly embarrased byt after yesterdays ribbing on the 82, but thankfully Liam had a worse game in the 40s so he really sucks compared to me!

I really appreciated Steve's patience and thanfully we finished with 20-30 minutes sparer for me to start shifting my stuff into the cabinet and then game five.

Old Stuff Day 2018

It's old stuff day 2018. A few years ago now warhammer39999 wanted to join a movement to rediscover lost gems from the world of hobby blogs. To choose one of your own blogposts that your most proud of, or may not have got the attention it deserved or any thing that may warrant some necromantic blogpost bothering. On top of that you were to share blogposts from other bloggers which you thought deserved the same spotlight of attention before they were returned to their dark nightmare infested slumbers.

The two posts I'm going to shine a spotlight on are posts where I tried to tackle the issue of keeping motivated.

http://www.40kaddict.uk/2012/11/misdirection.html

http://www.40kaddict.uk/2013/10/the-hobby-matrix-or-how-to-beat-your.html

Which reminds me of Tabletop Minion's recent video

From other blogs, first up one of the single most useful reminders of why Army Painter washes are awesome and in also reminds us of the Godfather of hobby blogging the great Ron From the Warp
http://fromthewarp.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/devlan-mud-and-badab-black-wash.html

If you don't have a plan on how to do your bases but want something unique and stylish then just do this:
http://scarhandpainting.com/tutorial-modelling-overgrown-bases/

I fell in love with the Brush Brothers approach to rusty gold when I first saw it in 2010, these Blood Angels were particularly awesome. I've never quite reached their quality with my own brassy/bronze but here's a step-by-step guide to achieve awesome.
http://thebrushbrothers.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/rusty-gold-tutorial.html

Warren Ludwig makes beautiful terrain, this selection of caves and the process in making them is a pleasure to behold and truly inspirational.
http://ludstuff.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Sculpture-Tabletop%20Gaming

Again terrain, John at the Painting Bunker made this air strip for a 30k tournament back in 2014. The finished article is fantastic, but search deeper and you will discover how it was made...
https://thepaintingbunker.com/2014/03/10/air-strip-one-finished/

Monkeychuka makes some amazing models, this Carnifex inside a Tyrannocyte is a thing of obscene beauty and skill. Couple that with the best Vargheist wing kitbash Tyranid Warriors to Shrikes [the link I always use to answer the question that regularly comes up on Facebook/forums].
http://monkeychuka.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/in-utero.html
http://monkeychuka.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/charlies-angels.html

Who doesn't like les Kouzes? To think at least one [sorry don't know if it's more] went on to join GW and sculpt many of the new Death Guard. Anyway, this post from 2014 shows how to paint 'brucked-up' yellow - oh my!
http://leskouzes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/maintenance-area-20.html

Darren 'Razza' Latham is a Games Workshop Miniatures Designer and former 'Eavy Metal figure painter. He judges the Golden Demon too, but what some may not know is he's had a blog since 2013, quietly posting away, less so in the last few years as twitter has probably taken over as a way to communicate. He posted in Feb though but it's Old Stuff Day so start in 2013 and work you forward to the future, the models are amazing.
http://razzaminipainting.blogspot.co.uk/2013/

Gavin Lee Manners does some amazing large model work, I wish I could do it. Check out this weathering guide and Imperial Knight from 2015 while marvelling more recently at the Warlord yet to come.
http://gavinmanners.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/oooook.html 
http://gavinmanners.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/imperial-knight-acheron-honour.html
http://gavinmanners.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/warlord-titan-wip-2.html

Just some inspiration pictures for textures and weathering on terrain. it was only last year I saw it but even so...
http://roebeast.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/steampunk-photo-reference.html

Hope you enjoyed these jems from the past, and don't forget Old Stuff Day 2019 ;)

Warhammer World GT3 - Game 3 Tyranids v Slaanesh daemons

Game 3 of GT3 and I'm facing Dan Moody and his awesome 'Pleasure of Slaanesh' Chaos Deamons.

The low down:

• Not sure which mission [Chapter Approved mission]
• Spearhead Assault - Table ends pointy deployment
• Not sure who chose, think it was Dan, 
• I went first, again unsure on whehter I won it or stole it, sorry

He had so many Seekers, which I had heard were good and fast: 14" move , plus D6+1" advance, plus 2D6+1" charge. They were going to be in my face and yet I still pushed forward in my first turn with my reserve deep strike. Objectives were scoring each turn and I had to hold as many as I could because I could see Dan had a much more difficult army to overcome.

Thanks to all the shooting I managed to wipe out one unit of Seekers for First Blood. Dan later confessed he thought the game was over at this point! Meanwhile my Trygon failed to reach one of the Chariots but the Genestealers made it and thanks to Metabolic Overdrive on the Broodlord were in range of his aura to rend the chariot unto mince meat. Somewhow I'd managed to secure four objectives that turn with the Stealers holding one in the ruin, the Flyrant holding another.

The other side of the board had my Termagants holding the third while one the second Flyrant faced the opposition.

My Tervigon supported the gaunts on their objective and the Skyshiled held the fourth.

Seekers swarmed my Devgaunts and it looks like they all got dead.

Chariots and Daemonettes surrounded the Genestealers,

ready to pounce.

With the Devgaunts dead, the Trygon on 11 wounds and the Flyrant on 8 the two Daemon Princes swooped over with the Keeper of Secrets. They had auras making it difficult to hot so the Broodlord failed to lay a claw on the Keeper.

While she slaughtered him with impunity, his invul save worth nought against her vicious attacks.

Genestealers were all but removed from the board, just one surviving but no doubt died in the morale phase.

Everything else consolidated in among the Tyrgon and Flyrant. Dan scored 3VPs in his first turn.

My turn 2 and I still had complete control on this objective.

My second Flyrant swooped into Dan's backfield to secure this objective, but there were Daemonettes to kill to capture it. I may have needed Metabolic Overdrive to make the distance. Rippers snatched the objective in the wood.

My Warlord Flyrant 'fell back' to the ruins in the centre, hoping to challenge the Daemonettes holding the objective with the Trygon. He may well have destroyed one of the Chariots in the shooting phase though. Meanwhile the other Trygon failed to do very much because Slaanesh strike first!

All the Seekers, Daemon Princes and Keeperbrought it down but it might have lashed out and wounded some of them as it died.

Daemonettes swarmed the Trygon but I couldn't kill enough.

The second Flyrant failed wipe out the Daemonettes but somehow I still scored 3 VPs in turn 2.

The Seekers now released, they swept across the board towards my Termagants and Tervigon.

I think that 6 is another Death Throes roll for the Trygon.

It was only on 2 wounds and the Keeper of Secrets goes from 5 wounds.

Down to 2. Not sure of that Chariot got wiped out in the process but my Flyrant did, sadly not setting another Death Throes off.

The centre was completely lost and Dan had slay the Warlord. The second Daemon Prince headed for my Flyrant.

I don't think he survived the combat as I got Slay the Warlord and he may well have been it, but the Flyrant was down to 4 wounds and the Daemonettes secured the objective [plus the one in the ruin] for 2 VPs this turn.

When we went into turn 3 I still had the objective in the woods and the Tervigon held the other giving me 2 VPs. The second Prince swooped over and killed the Rippers.

Seekers wiped out everything on the far side of the board which gave Dan 5VPs this turn which put him into the lead with 9VPs to 10VPs [not including secondaries].

Our last turn and I was able secure just one objective with the Skyshield, remember that? The Flyrant still could not kill the last remaining Daemonettes but he did secure Linebreaker. Dan also followed suit but scored another 5VPs for objectives which brought game 3 and day 1 to a close.

I scored 10VPs for objectives, plus the 3 secondaries, for 13 VPs. Dan scored 15VPs for objectives and 2 secondaries, for 17VPs. I beleive we also had to add kill points, I scored 8, while Dan scored 11 giving a final score of 21 to 28 to Dan. I actually killed 1,193pts worth of figures this game!

This was such a good game, I was rightly afraid of the Seekers but Daemonettes with so many attacks at -4AP! The inability to strike first also meant I was losing models in combat before they should have done some damage at least. I may well have been beaten [again] but I had a brilliant game and Dan was such good fun. Bring on day 2!

Hobby Season 2017/18 half way point

When I arbitrarily chose 28th August as the beginning/end of the Hobby Season I never realised that the half way point lands on my birthday. In truth I was going to recognise this coincidence last year but promptly forgot to write anything. So I just thought a little reminder a might reinvigorate everyone's efforts. Suffice to say I'm pretty happy with my current progress. In fact here's a sneak peak at the recently  completed Dark Angel Predator that I need to reveal when I get a gap in my schedule.

And my most recent completion (just last night in fact) , the 1984 Citadel Samurai for the Eavier Metal 20 year competition.

Unfortunately I haven't had time to create any freebie to gift on my birthday as I would  normally try to do. However, this Hobby Season reminder comes just as the weather might turn and hobby mojo might flourish as the Spring fecundity will bear fruit for us all. So get you paintbrushes out and your hobby on as those Great Big Gamboge Stamps of Approval aren't going to award themselves!

Warhammer World GT3 - Game 2 Tyranids v Orks

Game 2 of GT3 and Morgan Cole and I have been asked to play live on Warhammer TV! I obviously had to concentrate a lot on the game so pictures were taken only sparingly and I'm a bit shaky on what happened but I'll be going back over the Twitch feed to try and recollect but I'm only part way through so far. Either way if you have a Twitch subscription you can watch the game here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/229954502

The low down:

• Roving Patrol [Chapter Approved mission]
• Dawn of War
• Morgan chose deployment zone, 
• I either won first turn, or seized - I went first that's for sure.

Aside from the honour of being on Warhammer TV and the achievement of my dream I was almost totally unprepared for the enormity of the game. I had tried to split my army into three on the drive down to Nottingham so I had a start but I just could make neither head nor tail of the mission. I was allowed to deploy the Skyshield regardless [no one could reconcile how Fortifications fit into the deployment so they just made a decision there and then] and luckily I rolled to start with my first third - which I think was

• Warriors
• Hive Guard
• Tervigon
• Termagants

I deployed the Hive Guard in the ruins to shoot at anything heading towards the centre objective. The Skyshield sat on the other objective. I was lucky that both Trygon's arrived as reserves, with their tunnel buddies. On top of that my Warlord Flyrant.

Tervigon and Termagants swarmed to secure the centre objective and then in the midst of everything I totally messed up shooting the mob of boys with my Devgaunts. 

When I came to the Genestealers and their charge I suddenly realised Morgan had deftly removed all the nearest model and a 9" charge was now 11" at least! I failed charges by all on both flanks.

I was feeling totally out of my depth and then Morgan brought on his reserves, a second truck and mobs of boyz.

The Boyz swarmed the Genestealers and at least I had the sense to kick off with Caustic Blood, knowing just how many hits these guys have. 

And they stayed true to form and managed to butcher the lot of them and the Trygon too!

Morgan then unleashed a second stroke of tactical genius. Alongside his second mob of Boyz he brought on a Painboy [or Weirdboy, not sure] behind storage tank No.31. He was out of sight of the Devgaunts and so charged. In 8th you can charge without Line of Sight and ironically you cannot overwatch without it! Which I think is the opposite to 7th. So he made the 7" charge on the Devgaunts - tying up all 25 Termagants and was safely able to bundle the remaining Mob of Boyz in without fear of overwatch! 

A genius move I couldn't help but admire, even after all the Termagants were butchered. The Termagants in the centre also took a pummeling, losing 11 of their number but I replenished 10 of them in my turn thanks to the Tervigon.

I think the Warlord Flyrant was down to around four wounds so I retreated to use his Devourer shots on the big Mob. Meanwhile the Trygon charged one of the Trukks.

Which looks like it got smashed only to leave the Trygon surrounded by disembarked grumpy Orks, angry at the loss of their boat.

Moar Mek Guns arrived with the last of Morgan's army and the mob on the right flank decided to solve the issue in the centre of the board.

Morgan then cast Da Jump - Perilling in the process as his Weirdboy dumped 20 Orks in my deployment zone.

Boyz start butchering Termagants, I think I employed Caustic Blood again, I'd brought my Rippers on too to throw in and add to the numbers holding the objective.

Da Jump Boyz manage to make a phenomenal charge against the Hive Guard. Unsurprisingly they are cleaved up like kebab skewers

In response I bring the last Flyrant in and the Broodlord to whittle down their numbers. My dice rolling is appaling at this stage though. I can't get anything to do what I want, even Morgan begins to feel for my lack of success. It's reasonable that there are specific Warhammer TV dice - it helps them show up on TV and it means we're both using supplied dice, not our own [which is fair] but they are really big dice, something I was not prepared for and with relatively small hand not equipped for either, ha, ha! Ceri said the same thing afterwards.

The Flyrant gets killed by the Tank Bustas and then a series of shots at the Warriors on the Skyshield manages to completely bypass the invulnerrable save and all three die! The battle rages on in the middle of the board with the Termagants being crushed between the Boyz they were in combat with and the Orks that had killed the Hive Guard and cleverly removed sufficient models from the attack of the Broodlord and Flyrant to be out of combat.

With the Termagants gone there was nothing I could do and we called the game. It was afterwards I found out I'd only scored 82pts worth of damage, and we'd only completed two turns. However, I realised my dream and despite the result on paper it was an amazing game, Morgan's tactics in particular raised the bar, hopefully something I will look into how I can apply also - charging from out of LoS for instance.

Anyway, a fab game and Nick and Ceri were super-appreciative of our efforts, so I can't ask for more. On to game 3!