Throne of Skulls Oct ’12 – Battle 2, Tyranids Vs Ravenguard pt1

Happy Hallowe’en!

Second game was Crusade, Hammer & Anvil deployment [surprisingly this really does your back in]. My Warlord Trait was Co-ordinated Assault, +1″ to charge range.

Psychic Powers Tervigon HQ Tervigon Troop Broodlord [Adrenal] Broodlord [Toxin] Warp Speed Warp Speed Endurance Endurance Life Leech Haemorrage Iron Arm Warp Speed

Jim Klapkowski brought a really nice Ravenguard army to the table with:

• Librarian (Gate, Avenger)
• 3 x 10 man tactical squads in Drop Pods (all had some variant of special and heavy weapon)
• Land speeder Squadron, all with Typhoon missile launchers
• Storm Talon with Lascannon
• Full size bike squad with m-m attack bike, sarge with power sword.

Given the deep striking nature I positioned my ADL with one edge taken up by a ruin. With five objectives, one in the ADL with my Devgaunts and Warriors as support and Synapse/Fearless, the other objective in the ruin with the Toxin Stealers. Right about now I moved something under the table and knocked over my pint glass of water that spilled towards Jim’s bag and coat, not an auspicious start and certainly no way to introduce yourself to a new opponent, i felt like such an idiot

Anyway Jim was gracious with my clumsiness and played on positioning one objective amongst his bikes in his Deployment Zone [DZ].

The other objective in the Ruin next to his Land Speeders.

I’m guessing from the picture I got first turn. The Troop Tervigon spawned 7 gaunts back into the ADL to add more support in case of drop pods and with two objectives I hoped to free up the Stealers to do more damage elsewhere. The HQ Tervigon spawned 9 but given how crowded the ADL was getting they had to spawn forwards and head for the woods where the final obective is. The Trygon and HQ Tervigon were Endured and both Tervigons were Warp Speeded.

Jim’s turn and the Drop Pod with ttactical squad and Librarian pile out.

Flamers, psychic powers and all manner of bolter fire lay waste to 7 Devgaunts.

The Trygon suffers 5 wounds from the combined Land Speeder fire but thanks to Endurance weathers the storm.

The Land Speeder’s are becoming a real thorn in my Trygon’s hide – they have to go!

My turn two, HQ Tervigon spawns 12, not sure what else I recall the Toxin Stealer getting snake eyes at one point on a psychic roll. Obviously this drop pod arriving is from Jim’s turn two which is later on.

I forget to bring the Doom of Malatai on. The Trygon recovers 2 wounds thanks to Endurance [fast becoming my favorite Biomancy power, it’s like regeneration but cheaper, better odds and Feel No Pain too! you just have to roll it in the first place].

Storm Talon arrives and the bikes advance.

Bikes target the Hormagaunts in the wood and kills them, maybe receiving First blood for the effort.

The Devgaunts in the ADL had previously moved back behind Tyranid Warriors so as not to lose First Blood. The warriors therefore take the brunt of the shooting from the Tactical squad and eventually two die.

The Storm Talon and Speeders target the Trygon and managed to shoot past his Endurance and he dies. The second Tactical Squad kill 6 of the 12 Termagants nearest to their Drop Pod.

The Tervigon suffers 3 wounds, from something.

The final Hormagaunt is also gunned down, things aren’t looking good this side of the woods…

Part two tomorrow…

Throne of Skulls Oct ’12 – Battle 1, Tyranids Vs Grey Knights pt2.

And on to part 2…

The Storm Raven arrives and shoots up the HQ Tervigon with all sorts of kooky ammunition and rockets. First Blood and Slay the Warlord to Andrew. The second NDK kills the remaining Toxin Stealers despite Endurance and the Broodlord remains in the mix. I think the Doom was destroyed also, probably by the terminators advancing on the left.

During my turn the Broodlord again Hypnotises the NDK and finally rends it to pieces, denying the Trygon once more. It consolidates back into the woods and the Trygon looks expectantly at the Storm Raven. With just 4 wounds the Doom fires Cataclysm but is denied only to suffer 3 Wounds for the privelege. The Devgaunts advance over the ADL and combined shooting with the Warriors puts down all but one of the Terminators.

The Adrenal Stealers and Hormagaunts scuttle out of the fire arc of the Storm Raven still intent on securing Linebreaker.

Storm Raven deploys terminator and Warlord squad in front of the Trygon and flys backwards to take a bead on the stealers with some Hurricane Bolters [oh yeah I forgot in can move!] and kills two. It unleashes more fire on the Trygon and puts 3 Wounds on it.

The Terminators assault the Trygon and thanks to a special banner doesn’t have to roll to activate his force weapons – they’re always on and slices the Trygon to death with one cut!

The Grey Knights get ready to take on the next mightiest creature.

It comes round to my turn. and the Hormagaunt heads away to his board edge while the lone Stealer charges the now hovering Storm Raven and puts a glance and a rending hit on it. It’s claws sink into an exposed plasma conduit and the resulting explosion vaporises the flyer and Stealer instantly [a VP each!]. In his turn he guns down the Hormagaunt denying Linebreaker and moves the sole surviving terminator back to save a kill point.

At this stage I think I’ve lost. He’s taken so many VP’s already and I realise the ‘always on Force Weapons’ are MC killers so I have a choice – skulk away or try to go all out… So the Troop Tervigon, Devgaunts and last Broodlord assault the Terminators [not before killing one through shooting, it may even have been the Hive Guard who did that]. I think they fail to do the business. Rad grenades make the Broodlord initiative 1 and the Terminators kill most everything

Meanwhile the Warriors advance on the rapidly retreating last Terminator from the right hand squad [chicken 😉 ] The Barbed Strangler shoots wild and the Deathspitters wound five times but he makes every save. With nothing left I think the game ended with a final score of 10Vps to 3 😦

I’m not sure where I went wrong here. perhaps being too aggressive. Maybe if I’d have forced him to come to me and then picked when I wanted to assault would have been better. Certainly the Biomancy helped keep me alive. The ADL was only marginally useful just saving the lives of a few Devgaunts that I recall. Don;t remember much about what the Hive Guard did but certainly the deciding factor was plenty of rerolls to hit and wound for the Grey Knights and their Force Swords were the marked differences between fighting PeteB, although that’s a smaller table and smaller force. Certainly plenty to share with him though about what worked. 

Not a good start to the day but not something I was disappointed with, except for the Doom fail! Ha, ha.

Throne of Skulls Oct ’12 – Battle 1, Tyranids Vs Grey Knights pt1

I’ll split these into two parts as they’re a bit long winded otherwise, although I’ll post them on consecutive days so you don’t have to wait too long for the conclusion 🙂

First game was Purge the Alien, Vanguard deployment [slightly amusing to see table after table split diagonally by everyone’s tape measures]. My Warlord Trait was Inspiring Presence [meh]

Psychic Powers Tervigon HQ Tervigon Troop Broodlord [Adrenal] Broodlord [Toxin] Haemorrage Life Leech Warp Speed Hypnotise Endurance Warp Speed NA Witchfire Aura of Despair

Andrew Bruce brought a Grey Knight force to the table very similar to my mate PeteB’s. I was quite confident despite the fact his deployment took less than about 2 minutes and the max VPs I could take were 5 plus Slay the Warlord, Line Breaker and First Blood [8 in total], whereas I was fielding 11 VP’s without the bonuses!

He had twin Nemesis Dread Knights [NDKs] with Psycannons and Heavy Flamers, 2 Terminator Squads and a Storm Raven. I deployed second with the Aegis Defence Line mid way across the board – somewhere to take cover from [what? With those Flamers?]. The Adrenal Stealers infiltrated behind the Chaos Mound out of sight and hopefully out of range. No Tervigon was going to spawn as I didn’t want to add to my uphill struggle on VP’s. The MCs took cover behind the ruin and both Hive Guard were stationed on the second floor and out of sight.

Andrew advances all his figures and took some shots, not sure if he did any damage due to range but it doesn’t look like it.

My turn and Hormagaunts and Warp Speed Adrenal Stealers charge for the NDK, backed up by the Trygon and Troop Tervigon.

Devgaunts advance to cover behind the ADL, HQ Tervigon and Warriors advance in support of the Toxin Stealers. HQ Tervigon Endures the Stealers.

Hive Guard failed to do any damage to the NDK. Going second allowed the Toxin Stealers to assault the NDK. They survive overwatch thanks to Endurance, the Broodlord Hypnotises the NDK and manages to put one wound on it.

Devgaunts wait for their first victim.

The NDK tries to win First Blood by killing the Hormagaunts but four survive, and I realise this will be significant in my turn.

The other NDK pounds on the Stealers and kills one.

The Spore Pod arrives with the Doom and despite usually being bang on target is dropped 11″ away from where I wanted it and next to my ADL 😦 I realise that the max overwatch fire an NDK can do is D3, so if the Hormagaunts charge I can lose 3 and still not lose First Blood and get the Adrenal Stealers into combat unscathed. I also manage to reach with the Trygon for a full on Battle Royale. The Broodlord on Warp Speed puts 2 wounds on the NDK who in return smashes him into the ground.

The Stealers then rip him to pieces before the Trygon gets a chance. All of the nids consolidate to the left and head for Line breaker [wishful thinking at this stage] with the Trygon going over the Chaos Mound in seach of the second NDK.

Game 1 concludes tomorrow.

Otty’s minis

I’m just throwing these all at you. Otty sent through some pics of his minis but I thought I’d bundle in some of the shots I took from ToS too. There’s a particularly contentious pic of a Tyrannofex and homemade Raveners conferring a 25% cover save on the Necron Bastion the T-fex is shooting! I may revisit the ToS pics again in a future post if Otty thinks of any captions to go with them, meanwhile enjoy.

Throne of Skulls 2012 – Prologue

I’ve come to the conclusion that a sense of chronology may be misplaced in my current blogging schedule. I’ve three Battle Reports and a couple of Tervigon and painting updates pre- Throne of Skulls that help to lead into the five battle reports from ToS. However, if I continue in that order we’re talking the middle of November before they are published and lets face it the first three Batreps are already out of date. So I’m going to rejig the schedule, my biggest hatred of the blogger interface as it’s a ball ache, and try and bring the ToS one’s forward. They’re current news they others are history.

Therefore you may want to avail yourself of my  Hive Fleet Gorgon – Ferron Splinter Fleet army list and background. The final list I decided on, which I felt was Wafer Thin in places and Stronger in others. Some of the background you may be familiar with, it’s handy having a blog to source this from 😉 And to add some visuals to this post here’s some of the new decor at Warhammer World.

I love the fact the Rhino has a full ‘display’ to it, not just parked up.

Also I never got a shot of the Space Marine on the plinth at the front of GW HQ, so I went and got one this time.

And the Imperial Eagle too!

Ooh, but look who’s missing from the other building… kind of spooky to see he’s moved!

So, look forward to 10 days of battle reports, each one is split into two as there’s a lot to take in but I will be running them consecutively so you don’t have to wait a day for a conclusion.

Now we are 2!!

Aside from my recent observations on my ‘To do list’ it’s been a while since I took stock about the blog and where its at. What better time than my second anniversary. Two years ago I began to reveal my addiction to the unsuspecting internets. I achieved my initial goal of posting every other day and almost every time I warned that I couldn’t keep up the pace and may have to take time off I pushed on through and continued to deliver. The second year was supposed to be more relaxed but the sheer amount of content I had thanks to my Warhammer World visit, more regular gaming activities and plenty of new hobby enterprises resulted in the opposite.

The blog therefore became bigger than I thought it would be and so I’ve begun to make it easier to navigate because all those who find the blog now aren’t going to go back through every post so it’s important to position all the very best treats in places folk can get at quickly.

As I look ahead I can see plenty more to keep other hobbyists satisfied, entertained and excited but I have noticed that this is less a ‘group session for an addict’ – a way for me to release my addiction and feel more comfortable, and more another ‘hit’ I can take. I check the blog far too often than is healthy, my sleeping arrangements have got worse, I even had to install parental controls on my PC to ensure it stopped at midnight. I may even consider making that 11:30 as I’m still going to bed at 12:30 once the computer has locked. Put into some kind of context, even with a month of posts already produced I was still beavering away with new content. I’ve joined another couple of Tyranid forums to discuss gribbly specific issues and my BoLS and Warseer visits are incessant! So I’m aware this is a ‘problem’ I just have to find a more appropriate level of activity, that may be my biggest goal for my third year.

Thanks for all those that have participated, commented, followed or otherwise. Apologies if this thank you/celebration took a slightly grimdark turn but maybe there is a lesson for everyone, I mean this is ‘Confessions of a 40k adddict’ afterall.

A tale of four gamers – Warhammer World Hangover

As you should be well aware it was Throne of Skulls this weekend and it was in a word ‘awesome’. I’ve hundreds of photographs and five battles to report on so it’s obviously going to take a while to fit everything into the blog. So, I felt it was important to give you the headlines now, thank all those that made it happen and that way you can look forward to reading and seeing the treats to come.

Tournament headlines:

• I was nominated for best army [seven were nominated out of 140 competing]
• My mate Liam was nominated once again for his Dark Eldar
• My mate Otty was also nominated for best army
• Otty won ‘The Scribe’s Quill’ – the award for best designed army list
• Out of five games I won four!!! [what the flip!] Yep folks, my weak force with weak nids won four!!! Ben worked out I came something like 26th!
• I faced:
1. Andrew Bruce’s Grey Knights, similar list to my friend Pete B’s but was hammered on kill points.
2. Jim Klapkowski’s Ravenguard,
3. Phil Elliott’s [of www.4tk.co.uk] Blood Angels Mech,
4. Andreas Kkounnous’s Imperial Guard [Squats],
5. Sean O’Sullivan’s fluffy Necrons,
• Liam won 2 out of 5
• Ben won 3 out of 5 [losing only to the best Nid and Tau players with five wins each!]
• Otty won 3 and drew 1 out of 5 [yes with nids!]
• Necron’s were there in force and the seven flyer Necron air force was in for a lot of stick 😉
• Equally the five Tervigon list that my mate Ben lost to [as well as 4 other players] wasn’t a pleasant match.
• The highest average army score went to … Eldar!!!
• The lowest  average army score went to … Dark Angels!!! [bring on the new codex]
• Surprisingly the new kid on the block Chaos Space Marine army average was 2nd last!

Thank yous:

• First and foremost it must be to our wonderful better halves for letting four big kids go off to play toy soldiers. It wasn’t all plain sailing and they’re not going to see this but I want it on record we appreciate it even if it seemed like we couldn’t see past the end of our dice and tape measures.
• Second a big shout out to Ben’s cousin Warwick Kinrade and his good lady wife who put four gamers up in their front room. If you’re unaware of Warwick then check out any Imperial Armour book from Forgeworld or more importantly if you like your WWII battles he’s just produced a new rulebook – Battlegroup Kursk through The Plastic soldier Company. I saw it first hand and it was mint!
• Another big thanks to the Events Team at Warhammer World, Adam, Nick and the guys couldn’t be more helpful and accommodating and one of these weekends represents ‘good value’, something you may be surprised about but it’s true and I would look forward to going again. Meanwhile the guys put up this album of pics on their Facebook group from the two days, including my buds and your’s truly’s figures.
• And lastly to my three road trip warriors who put up with me. Otty for the patience and driving, Ben for the patience and organising everything and Liam for the patience and putting up with my ramblings after two pints of Bugman’s finest XXXXXX and the other stuff I will always owe you for!

So I’ll get around to posting these as quickly as I can. I’m trying to write up the battle reports now but please understand that things will be a bit sketchy thanks to the amount of gaming, the lack of chance to record everything that was going on and the delay in getting to write everything down, but I’ll do my best.

‘nids part 62 – Oh did I not show you these n’all

Back when I was making the Tyranid Warrior – Hive Guard conversions, primarily out of a mixed goody bag of ‘nid bits I needed a couple more Termagant heads and in true fashion won another mix of Hormagaunts and Termagants auction on ebay. Not sure how much this was in the end but it was probably better value than the five Termagants in a box you can get. Despite my love of Hormagaunts and their unwillingness to do anything other than get shot and fail to live up to their potential I decided to convert them to leaping Termagants. With two Tervigons now I need more spawnage, just in case. So with my extra fleshborers I knocked them up and also added Adrenal Glands so that they stand out even more as a unit. I’ve really started to notice how difficult it is to keep track of spawned units in 6th, so some ease of identification is helpful.

Of course Hormagaunts are some of THE most unstable miniatures ever created and if you place a gun in their hands, well lets say gravity takes an even greater interest in their face! I’m really going to have to start putting some weight on the back of these.

There were ten extra Termagants in this set.

Of which four are based on Hormagaunt bodies with a fifth head on a Termagant, they really do break up the lines of the gant swarm, a little more vertical motion makes them look like they’re jostling for position.

I also had another five vanilla Termagants to add to the previous five – 20 in total from these few ebay auctions.

I’ve run the maths though and I’m not sure I’ll ever need them all though. Currently I can use the second set of Devgaunts as spawned gaunts to help wit hsquad differentiation and so on average I should have enough. Only in exceptional circumstances should both Tervigons continue to spawn after turn 3, which invariably they do not will it be an issure and that’s not taking into account that often they die and I get to recycle them into new units anyway.

So, another 15 to paint, and they weren’t even on my list, *sigh*!

Eldar Fire Prism

I only realised recently I never took pictures of my son’s Fire Prism. OK I admit I painted it but we knew that was happening and I’ve only done a basic finish but even so I’d be happy with something like this for quick tabeltop use.

If you recall I was hoping to create a gel-filled effect but that didn’t really work so I did some weird paint effects to try and get some ‘powered crystal’ theme going on.

Here’s the actual firing crystal which is suitably more angy looking as the energy is confined to the point.

Top view. There’s really so much more I could do to this but it’s not my figure and having a showcase piece in amongst the rest of his figures wouldn’t be the right thing to do I think.

The simple fact is my son has totally gone off the boil in painting his figures. He mentioned having a go the other weekend but when it came down to it he decided to play on the computer instead. Although I’d prefer him to do something more ‘productive’ I’d rather not force him to do something he doesn’t want to do and certainly not something I feel he should be initiating engagement with himself.

A tale of four gamers – Warhammer World road trip

So it’s come round, finally, me and some of my old gaming buddies are off to Throne of Skulls at Warhammer World. There’s Ben with his Necrons:

Liam, he of the scratch built Warhound and Warlord fame with his Dark Eldar:

Otty and his Nids [and that Mycetic Spore is the size of a Farmhouse loaf and probably uses about £30 worth of spare nid bitz!]:

And my own Nids – Hive Fleet Gorgon, Ferron Splinter:

So there’ll be two days of gaming at WW and we’ll be off on Friday and staying with Ben’s cousin who is kindly putting us all up. I’ll see what I can do over the weekend to bring some updates. I’m trying not to build my hopes up, I’ve got increased durability in places and reduced in others I’m hoping to win three out of five games but will be satisfied with two wins – I must remember it’s about having fun, showing off my army [though there’s going to be plenty of good ones there – as you can see from my mates forces] and hopefully plugging the blog.

Catch you all later!