What’s on my palette?

Wow, it’s been over two months since my last confession! I’ve obviously been way busy getting the Four Horsemen done, but I’ve done bits and bobs on a number of other models. I’ve been working on a variety of Dark Angels all at once. Deathwing, Ravenwing, Devastator and Tactical Squad. The Deathwing have had metallics and washes done.

By spreading myself thin like this it will take a while for these to be complete [no change there then], but it does mean that when I do reach the end of each unit there should be about four units that are ready within a short while of each other. It feels less productive while I’m doing it, but it should be more rewarding upon completion. It also helps to mitigate the fact I still don’t know my ‘recipe’ for each unit type. Essentially I’m making it up as I go along which creates inefficiencies.

Unlike my Tyranids which is so simple now, which is why I can’t help myself and as soon as Blog Wars was out of the way continued on with my 11 Genestealers. This has revealed something to me, that it was not Tyranids that I hated painting years ago afterall, it was Genestealers. There were no gaunts back then so the 6 limbs on a Stealer is what is frustrating, especially because they’re split into two bits [most arms/legs are though so thats really no argument]. Anyway, I have gone the extra mile on these not like the original Stealers I did way back when which are pretty much washed, with only very sparing highlights. These guys will have two sets and will follow the slightly grained pattern that I’ve adopted for some of the bigger creatures. Thoroughly mind-numbing, with a lot of effort that once again up close the brush work is really dodgy but from a distance looks quite effective.

I also nipped back to Element Games the day after Blog Wars and picked up most of the bits I’d missed, with the shop closing earlier than last time. My three bottles of Warpaint washes, two pots of Secret Weapon Miniatures weathering powders [so I can muck stuff up] some more flock [just for the yellow!], some bases, black primer paint, and some Red Oxide paste for even more weathering fun. This bundle of goodies cost me £28, which if I’d have ordered online would have had about £6-£9 worth of postage due to Royal Mail’s fear of paint going through the postal system. Still, I didn’t blink twice about the cost, which is odd as that’s another Tervigon, which feels slightly more substantial than some paint and some pretty coloured dust! Still, most of it will definitely get used and the weathering powders are a new technique to master and hopefully make the Dark Angels a little more interesting.

So, BIG news, Armies on Parade is on. So I guess I must apologise for my prediction it was not going to happen. Daniel Grundy pointed out in the comments that White Dwarf was going to have an announcement yesterday. It seems it did, although they got their own dates wrong. According to White Dwarf daily:

*It’s worth noting that the Armies on Parade dates we put in this article are, sadly, incorrect. Armies on Parade will now begin on August 30th with the store Parade Day taking part on the 25th October. We’re pretty certain the Grots are to blame. Of course, if you know what you’re doing and you’re super-keen, feel free to start work on your board straight away. We won’t tell anyone. Promise.

Which does indeed leave a healthy amount of time for me to do what I wanted to do, but the big question is do I go ahead with project X? The drive and the ability is there, the really big question is the scale of the task. I currently find storing my 2’x2′ display board quite awkward, now I want to create something more substantial. Having the room to build such a thing will be a challenge and to store it afterwards too will be a pain. Additionally if we do go ahead with the building work in the house that we have planned I’ll no doubt need the space in the garage that I’ll be constructing this thing in. More importantly this project at this time may very well prove confrontational with my better half. So I will have to manage that above all else.

Ideally I need to find a way to have the display modular so I can break it down into pieces but that is a logistical puzzle of the highest order. What I think I will do is buy the parts I need, new 2’x2′ MDF sheet and the sundry bits of wood to construct the frame and see from there how easy it will be to continue on with my plan

Blog Wars 7 1850pt battle report – nids vs Grey Knights/Inquisition

James Lamb was my last opponent who admitted from the very beginning he was going to lose this battle. His Grey Knight/Inquisition relied heavily on Jokaero for his troops, or something weird. Essentially he didn’t have anything to hold an objective without them being mulched immediately after. I’m pretty sure you can go about this mission forcing ‘contestion’  and with Chimera’s Land Raiders and Dreadnoughts in his force that could have been an option

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant HQ Tervigon CC HQ Tervigon Plain Tr Zoanthope Warp Blast Dominion Catalyst Dominion Onslaught Warp Blast

The low down:

• Three objectives, evenly spaced 1VP per objective controlled per player turn
• Dawn of War
• I lost deployment.
• Warlord Trait – Mindeater – Deathleaper
• Night fighting turn one

Having done well against PeteB in this mission I knew the first thing to do was get as close to those objectives as possible, one advantage to Tervigon’s spawning is you get that potential 18″ range to secure them.

With Deathleaper also scoring this game I positioned him between the two objectives [left and centre] so I could cover either option depending on which units got good run moves.

While the Nephropid and Termagants aimed for the right and centre objectives.

Despite the cover saves the Nephropid took 5 wounds from all of the Grey Knights.

And then the last wound popped off it, thankfully not too many died in the backlash, about 5 but it was still First Blood lost although no other VPs were scored..

I managed to secure two of the objectives, thanks to the Great Maw spawning out on top of one. I think the Flyrant wrecked the Chimera on the left.

The remaining gaunt blob headed for the third objective but their run move fell short leaving me with 2 VPs that turn.

Biovores missed the Vindicaire Assassin hiding in the trees but had spore mines to assault him in future turns,

This must be a couple of turns on because I think that’s Coteaz [the strange monkey on the left] and pretty much all his retinue is not there. I think they’d suffered a whole lot from the Flyrant and Carnifex. I had hoped the Mawloc would have turned up to capitalise on their placement but no joy.

The Flyrantswooped off to the left but I also managed to pop his second Chimera, possibly with the Quad Gun.

His Land Raider turned it’s attention to the Flyrant.

And it must have suffered a fiery end.

My Mawloc arrived but I deep struck him underneath his monkey units – [Dreadnoughts]. I killed one and had room to deploy.

Coteaz was kille dby some shooting for Slay the Warlord. All the while I’m racking up VPs as I now have all the objectives, I missed out on 3 in the first turn, 1 in my first turn and another 1 in James’s second turn but since then it’s 3 per turn.

While my Tervigon assaults the remaining Dreadnought the Carnifex gets to grips with the Land Raider and it’s Hammer of Wrath penetrates

And blows it up.

The Vindicaire Assassin has joined the fight with the Tervigon and my gaunts protect the objective.

The Mawloc finishes off the remaining Dreadnought and any other monkeys hiding while the gaunts conga line to Line Breaker, just in case the Mawloc failed to dispatch it’s targets.

So all that’s left is the Great Maw facing the Vindicaire Assassin. We’re at turn 4 or top of turn 3 at this stage. If James is tabled the game ends, no more VPs, if it carries on then I get more points. The Vindicaire has a 4+ save and can’t seem to damage the Tervigon. I start to Smash the Assassin to reduce my attacks, one hits.

and this is my Wound roll, we continue for another round of combat and I get another 3VPs

I Smash again, but this is my ‘to hit’ roll, another 3VPs

When I do manage to wound the Assassin passes his Invulnerable save and eventually we reach the end of turn 5 and the Assassin remains alive.

It was a pretty one sided game, score wise. I ended up with 25VPs, plus Slay the Warlord and Line Breaker. James got First Blood and Slay the Warlord – Deathleaper meeting some ignominious end I can’t even remember so 27-2. Alex, the Blog Wars event organiser had talked about the potential for games to be drawn out and where possible if you’re going to table someone not to delay the inevitable to get the VPs. I suppose you could say switching to Smash attacks was doing that, but the options  were:

• 3 Attacks, hitting on 5, wounding on 3 with a 4+ save on 2 wounds
• 2 Attacks, hitting on 5, wounding on 2 with a 4+ save, insta-kill with 1 wound

Now I’m not going to work out the maths but I actually think I may have a better chance of killing him with Smash than without. I’ve one less chance to hit but greater chance to kill, outright too. In the end the Assassin deserved to survive, he was awesome. The result pushed me to 12th out of 38, not bad really although I did come 4th in November, wow, I forgot how close I came. Still maybe I can pick it up again later in the yearr.

Blog Wars 7 1850pt battle report – nids vs Dark Angels

Second match was Dark Angels and I think my oppnent was John Bell [it’s been a few weeks now and looking at the BW7 results it’s the only one with Dark Angels that matches my result but it said they also had Inquisition allies but I don’t remember them]

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant HQ Tervigon CC HQ Tervigon Plain Tr Zoanthope The Horror Dominion The Horror Onslaught Catalyst Warp Blast

The low down:

• Emperor’s Relic – 3 objectives, your own worth 5pts, centre objective worth 10 and your opponents worth 15pts
• Vanguard Strike
• I lost deployment.
• Warlord Trait – Mindeater – Deathleaper
• Night fighting turn one

I put Deathleaper behind the cottage, in scoring range of the centre objective but also ready to assault the bikes when they Scout manoeuvre. Plenty of Independent Character for him to ‘eat their minds’ too.

Lovely pre-heresy bikes. Sammael, Ravenwing Knights and a Whirlwind.

My Deployment.

Bikes Scouted forwards, leaving the objective exposed.

Sammael plinked a wound off my Carnifex, despite Night Fighting and the cover save.

I surged forwards, the Nephropid spawned 9, not sure if it spawned out. Whereas the Great Maw spawned 15 than secured my objective.

I decided the best use of the Flyrant was to kill Sammael, to get First Blood, Slay the Warlord and a VP for killing the Special Character [although I may have go tthat last bit wrong]. As it was I only managed 1 or 2 wounds on his leader. The Flyrant took 2 wounds, I think that was falling out of the sky too

and despite Catalyst it was finished off, darn Banner of Devastation! That would have been Slay the Warlord to John if I hadn’t swapped to Deathleaper this game. I don’t think it was First Blood though, because I think both his Multi-Melta bike-sidecar combos came on from my left. Given how easily they could take out my Bastion I think I intercepted one with my Quad Gun getting me First Blood just before the fall of the Flyrant.

Spawned Gaunts were next on the list

  

thanks to the Whirlwind [perhaps?]

Another unit of Bikes Outflank on my right. I need to stop them getting my objective so I do the one thing I’d told myself not to do, assault with the Tervigon, but with some gaunt support and thankfully killing three of them through shooting before I even got into combat.

I’d ummed and ahhed a lot over where toplace the Mawloc, whether to take the Outflanking Ravewing, instead of using the Tervigon but Deathleaper again allowed me to position in the front row of the Ravenwing Command Squad/Knights. He swallowed enough to be able to deploy and was backed up by the Carnifex. Meanwhile my Termagants tried to sweep round the village to try and secure objectives but the Dark Angel’s was looking quite far away and time was running short.

Ravenwing backed off to get out of range of my monsters.

And suddenly the Deathwing Knights disgorged from the Land Raider. They may have been forgotten up until this point but it had turned out to be the best time for them to arrive.

By the looks of it the Knights managed to smash through a lot. No Mawloc, Carnifex or Dathleaper! I can’t recall how they fell but 6 Knights came out and 6 Knights remain so that does illustrate their durability.

Outflanking Ravenwing lost one…

…then the remaining two, I consolidate back to my objective.

Sammael gets his objective, I stall the Deathwing with the Great Maw and bubble wrap the centre objective, try to contest Sammaels but can’t reach and at this stage, with about 2 minutes to go I call it because we can’t get a turn done each in the remaining time and change the outcome.

I had the 5 and 10pt objectives, and First Blood, while John had his 5pt objective and had killed Deathleaper for Slay the Warlord making it a 16-6 win for me.

Blog Wars 7 1850pt battle report – nids vs Squats/Eldar Allies

Graham Sanders was up first from Claws and Fists with a technically confusing Army in that it was Squats as Astra Imperial Militarum Guards, with Eldar Allies. I immediately started to forge a narrative about the Squats eager to take some vengeance on my nids for … well, removing them from 40k lore [for a bit at least]. Most of his models were the old skool pastic with some nifty conversions including some fatastic Zepplins as Vedettas [amde out of Haribo Easter Eggs!]. His list is at the end of the report.

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant HQ Tervigon CC HQ Tervigon Plain Tr Zoanthope The Horror Dominion Paroxysm Paroxysm Onslaught Warp Blast

The low down:

• Purge the Alien
• Hammer and Anvil
• I lost deployment.
• Warlord Trait – 18″ synapse on my Flyrant
• Night fighting turn one

With such poor success with Deathleaper as my Warlord I went with the Flyrant.

I put Deathleaper over the other side of this wall to scare his Wyverns.

Wyverns

Deathleaper!

Facing down three Punisher Cannons I had every intention of holding off bringing on some of my Termagant, but I just couldn’t help myself and ended up putting 30 and the Great Maw in

easy range of the Leman Russes.

. It was stupid, not even a tactic, I should have used the tower to cover my advance, instead I just offered up kill points!

And you can see it was mighty effective, I think 5-7 Termagants survived to secure half their Kill Points for the Squats.

In return I swooped the Flyrant forward  and targetted one of the Wyverns to try and secure First Blood. I moved the Tervigon forward to threaten his tanks and Miasma the Squat blob. The Carnifex was Onslaughted to get in range of the Wyverns too but his run move left him short and exposed in open ground. I should have cast it on the Hive Guard who would have been in range, even with a 6″ run I think ‘War’ would have been too far away. Instead they both did nothing!

I managed to get two Hull Points on one of the Wyverns, just not enough to get the job done.

My Biovores missed, but I got 3 Spore Mines to charge him in the assault phase killing a couple of Squats.

With Night Fighting passed the great maw was even more exposed to the relentless fire from all the tanks and Squats. Las Cannon, Punisher Cannon and Multi-Melta fire stripped all but it’s last wound away. I could have a used Catalyst at this point.

Hive Guard lost 3 wounds, securing another 50% of the units Kill Points.

A lot has happened in my go, I managed to destroy the damaged Wyvern and also blow up one of the Vendettas that had come on and kill all but one of the Veterans inside. So I got First Blood and the Kill Points for both vehicles but with a lone Vet left I only got 50% of the unit’s value, grrrr!

Punishers finished off my Tervigon.

Jetbikes arrived and assaulted Deathleaper I challenged the Autarch to what ended up being a numebr of rounds of ‘patty cake’ as nothing happened turn after to turn. The Eldar invul save helpign to mitigate the 2 or 3 hits I’d manage per phase.

Hive Guard and Carnifex try to bring down the second Vendetta.

But they’re now firmly in the sights of the Punishers and their Squat Lord Commander.

Having evaded the Hive Guard the Vendetta approaches the Flyrant from behind, managing to knock it out of the sky.

And with all the available lasguns the flyrant did not survive as it flapped around on the ground.

Slay the Warlord and a big chunk of Kill Points to the Squats.

The Carnifex decided it was time for payback on the Russes and slammed into the lead Punisher. I’d been Paroxysming the squadron [which had kept their shooting poor] and mistakenly thought the Paroxysm marker on the front tank was the sign it was Pask [despite him sticking out of the turret in the second tank!] So when I smashed it to pieces with Hammer of Wrath hits alone I only got 150pts, instead of the 240 and StW I’d hoped for and now he was exposed again!

Matter of debate regarding the Mawloc, given he can deep strike without scatter within 6″ of Deathleaper I brought him up next to the melee, killing 4 Eldar Jetbikes. Graham was fine with it happening but I do quesiton if it is possible. If I’d Deep Struck and deviated on top of it I’d have wounded anything underneat – friend or foe, so presumably I can deep strike in such a way that hits just the foe as a I did, but is that correct?

Deathleaper eventually finished off the Autarch and I was extra excited to get my 2VPs for killing an Independent Character only to realise that wasn’t a Special Rule, it was it’s Warlord Trait IF I took Deathleaper as my Warlord when I hadn’t because he’d been so rubbish up till then!

The Squats went on to put enough wounds on a number of units, Mawloc included, to get 50% of their worth each time, extremely lucky to tip that balance repeatedly. In the end I managed to secure 587 Kill Points, while Graham killed 798pts worth. He had Slay the Warlord but I had First Blood and Linebreaker, thanks to my Mawloc and Deathleaper. So I lost that one, narrowly after the Secondaries were included [not sure what they were worth].

ASTRA MILITARUM + ELDAR ALLIES

Tank Commander [30] + Knight Commander Pask [40] = 70

• Leman Russ Punisher [140] + lascannon [10] + sponson multi-meltas [20] = 170

• Leman Russ Punisher [140] + lascannon [10] = 150

• Leman Russ Punisher [140] + lascannon [10] = 150

Ministorum Priest = 25

Primaris Psyker [50] + Mastery Level 2 [25] = 75

Primaris Psyker [50] + Mastery Level 2 [25] = 75

Platoon Command Squad [30] + 2× flamer [10] = 40

• Infantry Squad [50] + Heavy Weapons Team [0] with lascannon [20] = 70

• Infantry Squad [50] + Heavy Weapons Team [0] with lascannon [20] = 70

• Infantry Squad [50] + Heavy Weapons Team [0] with lascannon [20] = 70

• Infantry Squad [50] + Heavy Weapons Team [0] with lascannon [20] = 70

Veteran Squad + Grenadiers [15] + 3× flamer [15] = 90

1 Vendetta Gunship = 170

1 Vendetta Gunship = 170

1 Wyvern = 65

1 Wyvern = 65

Autarch [70] + Eldar jetbike [15] = 85

5 Windrider Guardians = 85

5 Windrider Guardians = 85

1,850 points

Blog Wars 7 Armies

I came joint second in for best painted army at Blog Wars 7, with only one vote in it. I was a little disappointed but soon reminded myself that it’s just like gaming and ego really has no place here. I like to show off what I’ve done but ironically find receiving praise in person quite difficult. Ultimately the lesson learned from the day is for the future to take my army and display it whistles and bells purely as a ’40kaddict – live’ scenario. An opportunity to take the blog on the road. There are indeed plenty of armies better painted than mine, but mine looks good as a whole and has had it’s share of success both in painting competitions and interest so the most important thing is to let people see it in the flesh to decide. Then I can add some of my 40addict ‘business cards’ which will send folk to the blog [I have had 2 new followers since the weekend, it was 3 but then one mysteriously decided to unfollow 😦 ]

Anyway here are the armies that were on display for the best painted army competition at Blog Wars 7and a couple of other pictures thrown in for good measure. First up, in my last game I did look over and see these two Tau gunlines facing each other, which I thought was amusing. 

This ImperialAstra Militarum Guard army was really nicely done, with it’s owner having a secret recipe to paint the tanks in a few hours each!

Some nice Chaos Daemons.

Lots of Blood Angel Assault troops.

Space Wolves.

Crazy Adeptus Custodes, possibly as Grey Knights.

Graham Sanders Astra Imperial Militarum Guard – Squats, with Eldar Allies.

Moare Daemons, this guy was awesome.

The whole unit.

That’s conversions for you!

A fantasatic Iron Hands army.

Iron Hands Dreadnought,

These were rally good.

I voted for this as the best Character, the pictures not very good as you can see but better ones are available on the Blog Wars 7 best army review page. It eventually won the best Character category, I think I came joint 4th.

Awesome cinemtatic FX on the missile.

Moar Daemons!

Dark Angels

Dark Eldar

Very nice and clean, too clean, what are they up to? 😉

A crazy Dark Eldar force made up of pirates

With sails and cannons, it was a lot of fun.

I think this bar may have been a Bastion, I’m not sure, it was totally mad.

Another tricked out Grav Galleon.

RTB1 Space marines, and Old Skool Rhino complete this Blood Angels army.

I believe that’s a Scibor Miniature used to represent Mephiston.

Crazy Stom Raven Conversion too.

Yet MOAR DAEMONS!

I think this was an Ad-Mech force presumably using Imperial Astra Guard Militarum rules.

Love these armoured vehicles, might make nice Genestealer Cult transports?

Nice little touch there.

This guy was cool too.

Excellent Tau.

Really nice and clean.

Fantastic Iron Warriors army, which I voted for and took the overall prize by one vote, with me in joint second with the Guard Tank Army from my second picture. I voted for this myself, so Chris Benstead has me to thank for not being stuck in joint second with me, ha, ha!

Plenty of unique Forgeworld models.

These I think or Forgeworld, bu there were some other 3rd party models for the Obliterators, I think.

Fantastic.

The Flyers for Heldrakes, and some cool explosion markers, I think are the ones Lemon Painting makes and sells.

Flufftastic – Hive Fleet Gorgon – Ferron Splinter Fleet – The Four Horsemen of the Ferron Apocalypse

It was late on in the incursion of Ferron Proxima that Hive Fleet Gorgon introduced a new bio-menace.The tactics so far had usually followed a path of bio-engineering a new bioform that would threaten Ferron’s defences and that way the Hive Mind could ascertain whether it was worth committing further resources to that bioform. However in this instance three new bioforms were created and deployed under the watchful gaze of the tried and tested Zoanthope genus.

Having the enhanced brain capacity of the Zoanthrope alongside these three new test subjects would allow the Hive to monitor their progress, strengths and weaknesses in real time and at an accelarated pace compared to it’s previous prototyping tests. As these four abominations were often seen within close proximity to each other the valiant defenders of Ferron proxima took to calling them the ‘Four Horsemen of the Ferron Apocalypse’ in referrence to the ancient Terran fables. At first this naming practice was overlooked. up until the the very words ‘Four Horsemen’ began to bring about the unmanning of the most staunch auxillia in the PDF. Once this fear started to spread members of th Astra Militarum Commissariat were deployed to submit fatal alternatives to the grip of fear. In truth though the names were continued to be spoken, just in more hushed tones, while the light of terror in their eyes shone on regardless.

The Hive Mind’s conduit was nicknamed Famine, in part because it was initially thought to be a reincarnation of the ‘Doom of Ferron Proxima’. However, this was a case of mistaken identity and although it did not have the life sucking powers of that nightmare creature it did posses many other skills of the emperian. Although it was not initially considered the most threatening of it’s twisted bretheren it’s Psychic abilities received an unexpected boost when the 7 planets within the Ferron system aligned causing an unexpected change the manifestation of all Psychic powers within the system. Sanctioned Psykers of the Imperium have begun referring to this change as the ‘Phase’. It’s too early to tell what impact it will have on Hive Fleet’s control of it’s witch powers but so far there have been great improvements alongside drastic failures.

Despite it’s fragile outer structure Famine controls all four of the Horsemen as an extention of the Hive Mind, it’s recommended by the Bio-magi studying this new danger that despite it’s lower threat level than it’s brothers it should be considered target priority Alpha, to sever the connection between the other Horsemen and the Hive Mind.

If appearance alone be the judge of danger then this creature from the Carnifex family would otherwise be considered target priority Alpha. The creature itself is a Behemoth, a nigh unstoppable bio-tank armed with some of the most potent Brainleech Devourers the Xenos can engineer.

Although not as manouverable as the winged Hive Tyrant that also can be found armed with such weaponry this creature, dubbed ‘War’ due to it uncompromising battlefield role, advances under the protection of it’s siblings. It uses the mental fortitude of Famine whilst being protected under the cloud of Pestilence…

…this foul, loathsome creature is still much a mystery to the bio-magi. It seems to contain and exhude some of the most virulent toxins and poisons ever encountered on Ferron Proxima. Gaining samples have proved extremely fatal. The creature is shrouded by a toxic mist that obscures most of it’s biological functions and also manages to cover the advance of it’s siblings and other creature from the Xeno’s threat.

 

Due it’s Toxic nature the nickname Pestilence was adopted. Despite its slender size and less fearsome appearance it is often this creature that will terrify more than the rest of the Horsemen. For what can a man do, even one blessed by the Emperor [insomuch as that man was conscripted into the PDF and there by default MUST be blessed] when behind those writhing tentacles and slime dripping maw once could die instantly just by being close to this abomination.

Yet for all Pestilence’s fatal characteristics it is this Lictor that has earned the moniker – ‘Death’. For it is death incarnate, an untimely end no one can foresee. Often striking from the shadows, having patiently stalked it’s prey. With an adaptive camouflage that can help it blend into it’s surroundings usually the first sign of it’s presence is the mantis like talons that have suddenly appeared protruding from a Guardman’s chest.

Identification of this member of the four horsemen has been the hardest  as it’s given role of the fourrequires it to range further ahead than it’s bretheren, even beyond the control of Famine and given this level of autonomy quite often the connection between the four has not been made. rest assured though that if you see one of these creatures the rest will surely follow but whether you see all four at once depends on if you survive the meeting or whether they choose to reveal themselves.

Further pict footage confirms their symbiotic relaitionship.

Be wary brave men and women of Ferron Proxima, these creatures are a very real threat. Should you identify any of them report the sighting to the nearest available defence cohort, where they will then detain you and send you on for thought cleansing by the Inquisition. To help the citizenry recognise these foul denizens of the alien filth, Magos Biologis Alder Garrick has prepared a set of handy cards, keep them on your person at all times.

‘nids part 146 – The unexpected bonus of a magnetised Carnifex

Having completed War I was lucky enough to finish off my spare set of Tervigon Crushing Claws that are also magnetized. Once you add in the Tervigon’s Scything Talons here’s the making of my Old One Eye/

Admittedly he hasn’t got that ‘skull’ head but it seems the Carnifex kit only comes with one spare other side which I used on my Quad Gun, now I actually have 2 skull sides and no normal ones to make OOE, so until one turns up this will just have to before it gets wounded.

If I ever use him I can put the unused Mawloc talons on my Tervigon, if it’s armed with the Miasma Cannon technically it shouldn’t have Scything Talons at all so those Mawloc talons are pretty ineffective looking to illustrate it doesn’t have any melee weapons.

I do like that toxic tongue though.

Of course being magnetized I can also swap the arms around, making the claws the front weapons and the talons in the back. That’s so versatile but I seem to take quite a gamble with the position of the magnets. The end result isn’t always as cool as it could be but its a small price for so many options.

I’m looking to do another one as soon as I find a cheap Carnifex but Fleshborer Hives are quite scarce so I may make some converted Devourers, like I originally intended.

Luckily if I can get some Carnifex Crushing Claws it will give me the bits to convert some more Hive Guard.

One cool advantage to going with Tervigon Crushing Claws is they’re massive, much bigger than the Carnifex versions so it really works for Old One Eye as an uber Carnifex. Adding in the Mawloc talons probably doesn’t but it is another way of making this model even more versatile.

And lets face it any creature foolish enough to get past those claws, well you need something small and tiny to kill what’s got underneath you so it still works.

So even with a slightly random set of weapons this still works and has been a blast to create.

Not to mention his ‘War’ configuration.

 or even ‘War-lite’!

Blog Wars 7 – Retribution

Today is Blog Wars 7. Last year PeteB and I attended Blog Wars 6 in the November [check the Battle Reports tab for all those games] and had a great time so we were both looking forward to today’s event. Unfortunately Pete’s shifts got mucked about so he had to cancel, even worse, after getting his refund someone offered to swap. So he’s understandably miffed not to be attending.

Hopefully I can hold our end up though. It’s interesting to see what I’ll be facing, it turns out Daemons are popular alongside their Chaos Marine bretheren, obviously strong Tau and Eldar showing, but a surprising amount of Space Wolves, some freshly minted Astra Imperial Militarum Guard and billy no mates me the only ‘nids. I know there’s a large contingent from a gaming club in Preston, including Lemon Painting who was nominated for Best Army at throne of Skulls with their Imperial Knights, so the painting competition will no doubt be hard fought, there’s no guarantees. I am however taking note of last years comments about my army display, that putting them on my transport trays wasn’t the best way to display them.

So I’ll be taking my Armies on Parade board, just to be a little more professional. Then again it could be seen as over the top, who knows, I do my best and will leave it up to my fellow gamers to decide. Either way as AoP isn’t likely on the cards this year it’s nice to give it a run out for 2014. One point of note is that this particular army list features 740pts [from 1850pts] of miniatures that were not part of last years competition. The majority of which are newly painted, only my Warriors and Quad Gun were done but not part of my entry and my Trygon/Mawloc has been retouched considerably since then. Again this might put people off voting, as it’s technically the same army that won last time but there’s not much you can do when you commit to something like this. It’s a shame the Skyshield and Pestilence couldn’t fit into my list, to make it even more of an update, but the Capillary Towers will get a showing on the board at least.

Terrain is everything – Hail the Omnissiah a new Print & Play building

It’s been a good few months since my last   ‘Print & Play’ terrain template so it was about time I added the wide version of the black building. If you’ve made the first beige building then it’s exactly the same wider footprint with exactly the same options to keep or remove the windows, this time a lovely diamond leaded effect. So the building is the same, but wider with just a different colour for variety on your battlefield.

These would ideally be suited for foamboard that has the black foam core. I was going to make one but didn’t get round to it, sorry. However, that black foam would make these easily playable from the off, without looking too much like a quickly knocked up bit of terrain.

To access the full STC please point your Cogitators here, be fair warned it is 11MB in size [I make no apologies for this, I could probably render it as a .jpg or spend hours trying to reduce the file size, I tweaked it a little bit and got it down so hopefully it’s less of an issue now.]:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B97Rk-BalgZbV0tobjU4OEZEbkxDNXVXMWF2WG1MZFRrQjVN/edit?usp=sharing

Alternatively if you want to reduce the footprint a bit and still retain some of the proportions you could employ the standard 2 storey template on one facing to make a rectangular building instead of a square one. It’s your choice but here’s another ‘artists’ rendering and a link to the page where it’s at.

Yet MOAR! Tuesday Nights all right for fighting

With PeteB on nights this week it gave me chance to arrange a game with Ben, who I haven’t played since way before Throne of Skulls back in March. Trying to get in another game with my Blog Warslist ahead of Saturday but once again using 7th Edition rules but playing Purge the Alien so the version differences didn’t have as great an impact. I have to say 1850pts is a nightmare, it takes so long to set up, we started rolling dice at 8:30pm and had only finished turn two, two hours later! Blog Wars has a 2.5 hour time limit.

Once again this isn’t a battle report just an overview, interspersed with pictures from the initial deployment. Ben was running Orks, with Ghazgkhull, some Cyborks, Kommandos three trukks ad Dakkajet, three Killa Kans, a war trak, buggy and Void Shield Generator. I deployed first and was able to get first blood, on Ghazgkhulls sweet ride, so turn one was quite successful. PeteB had suggested last time I needed to be more aggressive with Deathleaper [although in his three games he’s got into combat relatively quickly and died equally as fast with only a mullered Beastmaster to show for his efforts] so he was deployed in the open in the centre of the board to help my Mawloc arrive somewhere cool.

The psychic phase wasn’t amazing because Ben had no psykers so his only option was to try and nullify my efforts but I seemed intent on applying the most randomly inappropriate power to a situation – Ghazgkhull with -3WS while facing Deathleaper, I’m not sure that made any difference. Giving Catalyst to Termagants where they couldn’t get in range of a unitand the Carnifex standing not far away could!

 

Ben had a pretty rubbish turn one and things were looking positive when the  Malwoc arrived. I had a choice to take out a trukk full of Nobz or go for the recently disembarked Cyborks and Killa Kan in the forrest. I went for the latter, scoring only 1 wound on first attempt and 2 on the second. Cyborks 5+ invul and FnP from the Painboy was very effective. So effective I rolled on the mishap table because the Mawloc couldn’t be positioned and got a 1! 140pts of damage to myself! The only solace was that if I’d have chosen to attack the trukk it would have been equally ineffective. In fact as a transport it would more likely cause a mishap because even if I manage to explode the vehicle and the Mawloc is AP2, so there’s a chance, the models are positioned where the vehicle was, i.e. where my Mawloc is deep striking! We’ve come to the conclusion the best way to use him is to just clip the edges of the blast template with your target so it may have space to actually deploy if it kills it but that reduces the effectiveness of it’s Raison d’être, non?

 

For pretty much the entire game I was shooting with impunity, I amanged to take out two of the Killa Kans so things were looking good. It was in assault I was failing and if Ben’s appalling charge rolls had gone the other way I’d have been finished off much quicker. Ghazgkhull suffered one wound to Deathleaper and then promptly swatted him like he didn’t exist. He then did exactly the same to my Carnifex and got the hat-trick by smashing my Bastion to pieces, taking the Quad Gun with it and putting 3 wounds on the Hive Guard inside! The Great Maw managed to wound every single Cybork once but not enough to get me the VPS for at least half the unit and he was shanked by the Painboy who managed to multi-task like fiend – killing Monstrous Creatures while administering solder and Savlon to the Cyborks so that they hardle ever failed a FnP roll. Not to mention the period of Fearlessness when the WHAAAAAAGGGHHH! was called. Then when the Great Maw popped it took enough Termagants with it to tip the assault they were in in the Orks favour.

The Flyrant was the king of the skies for the entire game. The Dakkajet, after losing one of it’s weapons to Interceptor from the Quad Gun managed to stil put 6 wounds on the FMC but it saved them all and every other wound for the entire game. It Vector Struck the Ork flyer in return but could do nothing so shot it down with the remianing Brainleech fire.

By the end of turn 3 or 4 I called it as it was after midnight. There was very little that I had left but I thought I’d been quite effective throughout but it transpired I’d killed just short of 500pts worht of figures to Bens 1400+ which is probably worse than I scored in the same mission at Blog Wars 6. It seemed that the stuff I had killed didn’t cost a lot and despite all the wounds caused often it wasn’t enough to cover 50% of the unit cost which would at least get me 50% of the points according to the rule pack.

So I’m two for two in my last four games. I really learnt a lot in this one. I finally realised that the new ‘nid Codex contains one massive red herring. It is undeniable that the likes of Move Through Cover and Catalyst have made us quicker and 7th Edition removes some obstacles like carging through Difficult Terrain. So although my early nid experiences were always concerened with closing that gap to assault now we can do that much easier. But therein lies the con, we are not good in assault, or at least what I have in my army is not good. Tervigons just don’t cut it with only three attacks. My only success was the Crushing Claws Tervigon blowing up a Trukk but it’s occupants [the Nobz] survived and systematically butchered it over the next couple of turns. We may be able to close ground now but what have we got that can get the job done when they get there?

So I think I have to think conservatively again. Particularly for the tournament in that my Bastion does not confer Victory Points so I may as well capitalise on it’s cover, hide behind it and force my opponent to come to me while ranged fire – Biovores, Brainleech Devourers, Hive Guard and Quad Gun do their bit. Lets see if my experiences make any difference on Saturday.