Cabinet models at Manchester GW

Nipped into GW to pick up a Knight base the other week and took a few photos of the models that interested me in the display cabinet. There was this green and orange Maleceptor which made me actually like the model, not enough to buy one obviously! The rules just don’t appeal to me, I just can’t bank on the randomness of the ‘Psychic Phase’ [aka the disappointment phase] so investing in this both in £s and pts especially when this is smaller than but more expensive than a Tervigon to buy.

The same painter also put together a Spawn of Cryptus which was equally nice.

But this conversion of the Spawn was really clever, utilising it as a base for a Tyranid Prime!

Had to get this fella on ‘film’ for you all as I knew it was such a killer idea, shame the kitbash is probably more expensive than the standard option.I suppose it does allow you to keep the three Warrior brood intact without sacrificing a model to become a Prime though and if you don’t run Genestealers then maybe the spawn would be redundant anyway and the Deathstorm box does provide all the bits to achieve this.

Lastly some of the nice new AdMech models, I certainly prefer the Cult Mechanicus theme and kits than the Skitarii. I remember reading that Skitarii were more ‘techno-barbarians’ than the steampunk we seem to have gotten. So I’d definitely go cult first if I was going to invest in another army [which I’m not] and then if I wanted Skitarii I’d do some crazy conversions from Warhammer Fantasy models, that’s if they still exist in the near future!

I thought I’d share this too, it’s the ‘shed’ I’ll be getting in a few weeks to move my hobby into, although mine will be 10′ x 6′. It’s an expensive to do, but it will free up our back room to become a dining room and more importantly remove my ‘crap’ from the house

And just to ensure this does go ahead [well the deposit has been paid so it better had] the wife encouraged me with this for Father’s Day

Dark Angels – Scouts, Jetfighters and MOAR

See, I AM painting them! For some reason the Scouts are calling to me I think it’s the camo cloaks and the plan I have to paint them. Of course they have to be red so I’m introducing yet more to the colours in my Dark Angels mix! As I needed to tip my last order from Element Games* [see below] over the £80 for free delivery threshold I also got some Martian Earth technical paint and some Khorne Red base – which I believe is the closest to Mechrite Red and not that Mephiston they tried to foist on me when the new range came out. So I had a quick go on the cloaks and I’m impressed. It seems a lot thinner than the old Foundation paint but went on very opaque. It did dry a little less so but I can live with that.

I then drybush/wetbushed the cloaks with my Vermilion craft acrylic. Even when dry this became a little tacky to touch but it did add a subtle texture I hoped to benefit from in subsequent highlights. This is going to be a lot fun as it’s all rooted in the Ferron Proxima theme so I’m loving the opportunity to do my Ferron camo pattern, regardless of the not inconsiderable effort involved.

Sadly the Milliput cloak is a bit out of place amongst the plastic counterparts but hopefully it’ll be less conspicuous once complete.

And my Jetfighter is starting to come together. I want it magnetised so I can try both flyers and looking at the leaks I want to try both flyers! However, the cockpit/canopy situation is a bit fussy. I was debating the colour of the canopy, originally it was going to be Tamiya Clear Orange X-26 but I think introducing orange into my Ravenwing may be a mistake so will go with Tamiya Clear Red X-27. I’ve sprayed the internals of the cockpit Red Oxide and washed it, I won’t have to do a great deal inside as most of the colours will be obscured by the canopy colour.

Although it would be nice to see the result before sticking it in I’m not so sure that’s possible as there are still two extra pieces that enclose the canopy to glue in places which actually makes the canopy impossible to open – sounds like typical AdMech design principles!

This is what arrived from Element Games – my missing Ravenwing Command Squad/Knights box.

And my Google AdSense funded Imperial Knight Warden and two pots of paint. OOH I’m gonna have me some fun!

* Incidentally when I ordered from element games I got some loyalty points and a code so you can get double ‘Element Crystals’ (Store Credit). My referral code is DAV910.

• If you feel the urge to use it on any order I’ll receive extra Element Crystals to my account, but
• You receive DOUBLE Element Crystals too, so everyone wins! 

All you have to do is enter the code above at the end of the checkout stage, or not, it’s up to you.

The return of the Free Radical Collective – MOAR cultist pics

I know this is more of the same but once again I am working behind the scenes on stuff so while I regale you with more pictures of all my Dark Vengeance cultists I can get on with the Dark Angels safe in the knowledge you’re actually getting some posts out of me in the mean time.

The whole point of these extra photos is to see both the new and old cultists together and see if they’re a cohesive fashion even if it is a rabble.

And I think they turned out alright. Perhaps a drybrush of grey on some of the debris on the newer ones but otherwise they all fit together OK.

There was a lot more blue on the Genestealer cultists, which make sense as it’s their affinity to the Tyranids that brings about the colouring, but it does help tie both the red and orange fatigued group together.

Anyway, that’s it hope you enjoyed the pics 🙂

‘nids part 172 – Genestealer Cultists – TO DONE!

I don’t quite know why I got a sweat on for completing these guys. They are on my list so I don’t feel too bad about allocating hobby time to them even if they’re currently of zero use to me. But these were actually a little bit more fun to paint than the Free Radical Collective Cultists I’d already done.

I think it was perhaps because there were the familiar nid elements; all the unfamiliar bits, which were in fact easier second time around, were smaller so were painted quicker. The mix of the two just made it a more pleasant experience, although I did begin to lose patience at the end but that was more to do with the pressure to get the Dark Angels back on the table.

So anyway, alongside the 10 cultists I threw in the pilot from the Battle for Macragge kit. He’s carrying some vital geneseed vials so we better hope he hasn’t been infected by Genestealers…

This guy was one of the most mutated cultists and I particularly like how I repurposed his chaos tattoo brand as toxic elements from his toxin sacs – it’s not convincing in any shape or form, I just like it.

I’m also digging the orange fatigues. I wanted a rabble red planet wasteland look for all the cultists, both chaos and Genestealer so I chose both red and orange as base colours with all the other elements tying it together, like the blue accents. I must admit there is far too much colour going on, an assault on the senses.

But I’m just delighted to have them done even if they’re a bit garish and even rushed in places. Being able to be happy with something that was done quickly is a lesson I’m proud to learn. It was indecision and inactivity that killed my forays into painting when I was a child so ‘progress is progress’ as the FRC are wont to say

I’m also getting to explore the colour scheme I had down for my Squats way back when – orange and blue so this was quite a rewarding trip down memory lane for me.

Super chuffed with this guys heavy stubber – only paint and washes on this, no technical paints and I think it came out particularly realistic and grungy. I love the contrast between that realism and primary almost comicbook elements on his nid features.

I was a bit lazy on some of the FRC markings resulting in a lot of stylised R’s but this complete logo came out particularly well.

The Warrior faced cultist was perhaps my least favourite conversion but I think the red face actually saved it, you still can’t quite work out what’s going on with his features but it’s definitely better than I thought it would. The stylised R’s on both sides of his hood are debatable though.

This fella is covered in R’s, I wanted it to be a random expression, like some lunatic repeating the same symbol but I’m not sure it worked as I intended as I didn’t do any markings above the waste

So it’s like he started scrawling on his clothes and then got bored!

This one has been infected by an Adrenal Gland biomorph.

The pilot, he’s still an unexpected bonus, he’s not got any FRC markings so is he complicit in their cult, who knows?

Rear shots of the hooded guy.

Yet more shots from behind so you can see all the details.

This guy’s got all the tools.

And the rust still looks pretty cool.

Now i know certain buddies will be disappointed this is not a Dark Angels post but they were in progress long before Blog Wars and will actually benefit me as I work on the Dark Angel Scouts as there are certain similarities. I did also have zero interest in fielding scouts up until the new Codex leaks suggested that two demi-companies give away free Transports – which will mean my Land Raiders will need to be progressed so the scouts will definitely keep their spot on the table, as will the Tactical Squad and their Macragge counterparts that I’ve not even cleaned the mold lines off! Then I may even have to look at my old skool lead [pb] ones to make up the numbers before I even consider buying new plastic.

Anyway I gets the red stamp of approval!

Dark Angels – Scouts and stuff

I’ve decided to throw this out there as it seems my ‘so-called’ buddies are unimpressed with my admittedly slow but nonetheless actual Dark Angel progress 😛 Yes I am working on them! And here’s some proof, these were a unit of Scouts PeteB gave me that were left over from his Space Wolf affair.

This guy was missing half his cloak so I mashed one together with Milliput, of course Pete found the other half in a trawl through his bitz box but the repair had been done by then!

OK, so it’s not conclusive proof of my progress but it’s something and I promise I’ve got more to come.

Because I’ve got the tactical Squad out and I’ll be working on them and the scout alongside each other.

And this too! Yes, I have a Bastion and that will also be part of my force. I’m safe with fortifications and having a lovely purpose built vantage point for my Devastator Squad makes perfect sense

I’ve also got all the bits from my Dark Vengeance expansion set now which means I will have:

• 18 bikes
• 30 terminators
• 2 Land Raiders
• 2 Land Speeders
• and numerous Marines, I have 30 plastic ones before I even look at my Rogue Trader stuff

I know this isn’t huge by some standards but I’m surprised because aside from one of the Land Raiders this is all new [or at least new to me] stuff. Anyway you will start to see more focus on these, apparently they’ve got a new Codex since I bought the last new Codex so this force will no doubt alter a bit but you will be seeing updates soon.

Blog Wars 9 1850pt battle report – nids vs Chaos Daemons

Ben Leach, the only time I’ve played against Chaos Daemons was against Chris Sharp and his Nurgle Chaos Daemons which I recall as a particularly tortuous affair thanks to Cloud of Flies cover saves and Feel no Pain that I recently had flashbacks about thanks to the similar shenanigans of the Necrons. However, Ben had brought representations from all four chaos gods so I was going to get to experience all sides of the daemon host

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant W Tervigon Plain Tr Zoanthrope Dominion Dominion Dominion Paroxysm Paroxysm Warp Blast The Horror Paroxysm

The low down:

• Into The Maelstrom – like Maelstrom missions but with Blog Wars mission cards and VPs
• Warlord Trait – Night Fighting Turn 1
• Night fighting first turn, lost deployment, went second and failed to steal the initiative. 

Ben pretty much filled his deployment zone, I may be wrong but I think he was also unfamiliar with nids so we were equally naive about our opponents.

Skarbrand, the centaur on the left was leading the army alongside the Plaguebearers and the Bloodletters with a tiny unit of Flamers on that right flank. You can see objectives 3 and 6.

I set up the Stealers in the ruin in his DZ and another, those are Flamers of Tzeentch surrounding the objective there. That is indeed a bottle of Cider, not a proxied drop pod 😉

Tfex and a Carnifex hold up in my ruins, with everything else on the Skyshield,

Except 10 Stealers, Deathleaper and a Carnifex in soem ruins on my right flank. I didn;t want to concede the flank completely so I had to put some firepower there, still probably not enough to face the Bloodletters but anyway…

Battle commences. Now I thought I’d photographed Ben’s score sheet so I could see what Ben drew and achieved but apparently not which will make this quite a difficult report to make as I only know my objectives but I’ll muddle on.

Maybe you can make out his cards but I think one was a pretty easy objective secure that he already had.

Probably hold objectivve 6 as the bloodletters hung around and had a drink. Then the chaos winds struck and a random character on Ben’s side was wounded for clearly offending his capricious gods. We rolled and typically Skarbrand was the victim suffering a wound or two, not a good start.

Everything else got forward but with little shooting I don’t think First Strike was achieved. I drew 32, 15 and 22: 

• 1VP for destroying a unit in the shooting phase 2VP for 3 or more
• 2VP to secure objective 5
• 1VP if at least one enemy unit with the psyker special rule was killed

First Strike and the shooting objective was doubtful as Ben’s units were so big, except for the flamers but they were too far away. However, objective 5 was in front of the Skyshield and there were Psykers in the unit of Flamers behind the ruins next so I sent some gaunts to hold objective 5 and swooped the Flyrant over to the ruins.

The Carnifex and Tfex targeted the Damonettes of Slaanesh, I managed to kill 8 but there were still 13 left. The Flyrant shot at the Flamers and I was able to get enough Precision Shots to focus on one of the Psykers [the Herald of Tzeentch] who couldn’t make his save and was out of cover to give me the VP [so I had 2 by the end of turn 1]

Ben’s Plaguebeares sat on OB3, I guess it was a card he pulled.

The Daemonettes went for the Tfex who only managed to kill one in overwatch! They’d been Paroxysmed too by -1

But 6 rending hits will end most anything!

The Daemonettes danced on the corpse of the Tfex as I looked on, a bit stunned.

The Seekers of Slaanesh were desparate to add to the slaughter the Daemonettes had wrought on behalf of their god and so assaulted a brood of 5 Genestealers. Somehow they failed kill more than one Genestealer, whereas the premier 40k close combat unit killed 4.

Losing the battle the Daemons then failed their morale and I think daemonic instability caused a further 6 wounds wiping out the unit! So having lost my Tfex fortune suddenly shifted back in my favour. Again the winds of Chaos proved detrimental to the Daemons in some way and these results were just not showing favour to the daemon kind – what had Ben done in past lives to upset the deities so? The Fleshounds got stuck into the Termagants though.

My Rippers turned up, luckily deviating not to far and mishaping

While the Tyrannocyte with Hormagaunts deviated away from Skarbrand but I used it as a buffer between the Carnifex and his Warlord and the Hormies in a position to supprt the Termagants being eaten by the Fleshhounds

I spawned more gaunts and threw the Genestealers at the hounds but only managed a few kills an losing half their number but still Fearless thanks to Synapse.

Skarbrand got to grips with the Carnifex, 

the chaos gods smiled on him [for a change]

and then made a very grumpy face as he failed his save

I’m thinking it was the Termagants and Tyrannocyte that may have put him out of his misery, how galling!

Because I think the Flyrant wiped the daemonettes out. I’d scored objective 2 in my previous turn and this was for

• 1VP for destroying a unit in the shooting phase 2VP for 3 or more

With two units dead I just didn’t have the firepower to get the third 😦 In part that was because the Carnifex in the ruins on the right kept failing his Instinctive Behaviour test so no shooting on that tiny unit of flamers.

Genestealers and Rippers tore into the flamers

The Fleshhounds alsogot wiped out but I have no recollection of how that happened, I can only assume they failed their daemonic instability test, although I do recal the winds of Chaos blew hot and foul once again at the detriment of the host with another character suffering wounds at the whim of their own patron!

I m,anaged to destroy a unit through shooting [though not sure which one] and secured a VP for that, and the Genestealers remained locked in combat which go tme Linebreaker at least, but as turn 3 came to an end there was no longer any time left so we had to call it.

 

I’d managed to score 6 VPs, plus secondaries of Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker, for 8VPs whereas Ben was only able to secure 5 VPs in total. In fairness to Ben his Chaos overlords really didn’t want him to win, he suffered far more at their hands than my own I think. However, both of us committed a lot of troops to doingn not very much – the right flank was pretty much a game of musical statues. I was hampered by some poor Instinctive behaviour rolls but again when Maelstrom objectives mean just staying put it will hamper your forward momentum and with only three turns we didn;t have much opportunity to get those figures into play. But once again a really great game only hampered by the time constraints, I think it took us about 40 minutes to actually start the game but that’s what you get when it’s horde V horde! Anyway, this was Bens list:

And here’s my scorecard.

Now I didn’t actually think to take stock of where I came in the tournament at the time, I only checked afterwards, you will see I placed 30th, which is perfectly acceptable and I’m actually ambivalent about the result. Ben just beat by two places with PeteB being the best of us in 21st and Liam running way short of retaining his last place wooden spoon with 39th out of 48.

However, Alex has since mentioned that due to the current scoring system those who had say 1 major victory often ended up placing higher than those who had won more but less convincingly. So he will be having a new metric to include the imprtance of winning, in which case I would have leap-frogged all my buddies and got 15th place! Only Matthew Tennant and his Necrons made a bigger jump from 26th to 6th. Pete B would have gone up 4 places to 17th and Ben gained 9 places to 19th. Only Liam would have fallen foul of the new system losing 2 spots to become 41st

It doesn’t really change anything but it was nice to see that in another dimension I actually did the best out of all of us. Tyranids are still $hit though 😛 Now bring on Blog Wars X

ebay sales you won’t regret

My multi-award winning painter and friend Liam at bluewarpstudios has a slew of new auctions on ebay. He’s decided to really test our friendship by getting a Knight army so has to clear the decks of old models to make way for new.

I’m a little sad to see some of the super heavies go from our Apocalypse WOW! battle and there’s both his scratchbuilt ‘stubby’ pattern Caestus Assault Rams but there may well be something here to interest you so hit up his blog to see what’s on offer:
http://bluewarpstudios.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/blast-from-my-passed-ebay-sales.html

Blog Wars 9 1850pt battle report – nids vs Adeptus Mechanicus, Skitariiiiiii

Well this is new and exciting, fresh out of the forge Ian Plumpton and Adeptus Mechanicus – Skitariiiiiii. Quite interesting to go into a battle with absolutely no idea of the abilities of the models opposite but I think Ian was new to ‘nids so we were both equally matched for the experience.

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant W Tervigon Plain Tr Zoanthrope Dominion Dominion Dominion Paroxysm The Horror Warp Blast Onslaught Psychic Scream

The low down:

• Emperor’s relic – 3 objectives – 5VPs for your own, 10VPs for the middle one and 15VPs if you capture your opponents objective – Vanguard Strike
• Warlord Trait – Night Fighting turn 1
• Night fighting first turn, lost deployment, went second and failed to steal the initiative. 

I set up with the Skyshield hidden again, making as much use of the Terrain to add even more advantages to my stacked cover saves [and night fighting, again!]. Deathleaper hid in the nearest ruins with the Flyrant and Carnifex, with the T-fex just in front of the Skyshield – I would meet his Dune Crawlers head on! My objective was under the Skyshield so I could hold it while on top and surround it with Ob-sec Termagants so it couldn’t be stolen. The remaining objectives were in the midle of the board and behind the ruins in the top left.

I put three units of Genestealers in this ruin, but high up so it would be difficult to assault them but they would have options to take out the Rangers or go after the Titan, another brood was on the ground floor underneath the Rangers.

There were also some Rustalkers [or Infiltrators] behind the ruins so there were definitely options/threats.

While the remaining two Broods hid in the other

Ian moved the Knight round the ruins. Lots of shooting poured into the Stealers, reducing one brood to 1 which promptly broke and fled right in front of the Knight.

The rest of the Rangers were equally effective killing a Brrod in the opposing ruins for First Strike

Through careful manoeuvres I managed to get shooting on quite a variety of models but that may have been too many targets as I couldn’t outright kill the Rangers, if only I’d cast Onslaught on one of the Carnifex or Tfex, but it was too late by then.

I sent the Tfex into the far ruins to take out some more Ruststalkers, unfortunately the Fleshborers weren’t too effective and the assault less so. We remained locked in combat and the Tyranid took a wound.

One of the carnifex had been wounded, probably by the Dunecrawler. The Knight couldn’t get round the fleeing Genestealer without losing half it’s move in a detour so it stayed put and melta’d the Stealer into slag.

It then targeted the wounded carnifex who was just out of the shrouded cloud from the Venomthrope

And vaporised it. The remaining Carnifex was assaulted by the strider things [S8 on the charge!] I think it took a couple of turns for me to take one of them out while the Flyrant seems to have taken a couple of wounds, he may have fallen out of the sky thanks to shooting from the remaining Rangers and lots of Heavy Stubber fire from the Dunecrawlers.

I’d moved the brood of Stealers underneath the Rangers to the other side of the wall but they were hunted down by the Ruststalkers. So let see what happens when the five of the 40k universe’s premier cloase combat troops get into assault with the new robots on the block – well wiped out by the looks of it. All five dead, I think the Ruststalker have multiple wounds by the looks of it so I did 5 wounds and took 5 in return!

The Tyrannofex had been locked in combat for about 2 turns so I sent some spawned Gaunts [once again spawning out on double figures] to break the combat. It made not as much difference as I’d hoped and the Tfex took another wound.

The Tervigon also added it’s weight to the combat with the Strider but again to little effect.

The Flyrant swooped off and headed for the Ruststalkers and to add synapse to the newly arrived tunnelling Rippers in the ruins. The last of the Genestealer in the left ruins had been killed by the Rangers but they fell in return to a lot of Devourer shots from the Flyrant.

The Rippers were quite happy to sit on the objective, it was worth 15pts afterall.

Meanwhile I still couldn’t get the last brood of Stealers out of the ruins and the remaining Rangers/Vanguard were still alive and being a pain.

The Knight turned it’s weaponry on the Flyrant…

and managed to kill it for Slay the Warlord. Not sure if it was a lucky shot and falling out the sky or a variety of it’s potent weaponry but the beast was removed. 

And to make a bad situation worse so were the Genestealers, vaporised in a large blast!

On the plus side the Strider got smashed and the two MCs moved out of combat.

And started another one in my turn taking on the entire squadron of Dunecrawlers but it was just too much and the Carnifex got trampled underfoot and the Tervigon was untouched by the mech but was still nursing a wound from previous battles. This was not going to end well with my high strength combatant gone.

Luckily the Tfex killed the last of the Ruststalkers but not before they killed the Gaunts.

My Tyrannocyte arrived and I disembarked the Hormagaunts, in Ian’s turn the last three Ruststalkers assaulted the Rippers and I was left with just one wound on one base for their efforts.

The Knight headed over to the combat in the middle, Ian wanted to assault the Tervigon but I didn’t think that was possible given he couldn’t get into base contact [remembering this game from 6th Edition 2 years ago] however the new rules seem to suggest if he can make the charge and be within 2″ of a friendly unit already in combat then the Knight could take on the Tervigon too. So I was satisfied [although not looking forward to the result] that he could do it. However, Ian rolled a 5″ charge which was enough to get the Knight within 2″ of the Dune Crawler but not enough to get him into combat with the Tervigon. 

Which left it to focus it’s attentions elsewhere and it spied the nicely bunched Hormagaunts who I’d forgotten to Run in my turn, and would have been in cover. Instead they were out in the open [although Ian did think there was cover from the pod] and so were wiped out

The Dune Crawlers piled in, which gave Deathleaper the opportunity to sneak out from his hiding hole. For these missions the Special Character is Objective Secured so thanks to the Crawler stepping off the objective he now had a direct path to stealing it.

With my Rippers dead [it looks like they took at least one model with them] the Ruststalker advanced, leaving their objective. Unfortunately with the los of the Hormagaunts all I had was the Tyrannocyte which floated towards the objective, but having confirmed my recollection in the rules cannot Run [or charge] and so was an inch or two from securing the 15pt enemy objective!

With the Tfex joining the assault I had one last decision to make – include Deahleaper or not in the melee and the answer was no. He could have been squished instantly losing me the objective, instead he played the mission rendering the assault moot, time was up and I had 15pts from the objectives and 1vp for Linebreaker. I failed to kill the Warlord, he was in that unit of three Rangers who just wouldn’t die, as he didn;t when i attempted First Strike. Ian just had Linebreaker and StW for 2pts.

This was a great game with some interesting new adversaries. Rangers shooting ability is not to be underestimated. The Ruststalker too are particularly handy in combat, I’ll consider them similar to Flayed Ones in future. The biggest blunder was not running the Hormagaunts, if I had I’d have won 32 to 2 but it was still a really great tactical game and although he didn’t do very much it was Deathleaper who won it for me [though thats only thanks to Blog Wars rules] still, worth taking… now for my last game, what delights await?

‘nids part 171 – Tyranid Objective Markers TO DONE!

While I try and write up the remainign two Blog Wars battle reports I just thought I’d drop this in as the pics are doen and there’s not a lot to say about my Maelstrom Mission Objective Markers.

I’m really pleased, although it would have been nice [but less practical] to add a bit more variety, like the way Otty added Venom Cannon barrells and Rippers to the nodes for extra interest.

Ultimately I have my 6+2 so I can deal with Maelstrom and the Scourin [? I forget if that’s the right mission with 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4 VP objectives].

Although we have had a lot fo cun playing that mission not knowing the value until the end of the game and you still need to blind draw the objectives, so my card markers are still of use.

I obviously added some Tamiya Clear Red X-27 to the mouths, liek they’ve just been fed 🙂

Some 3D texture paint managed to join the different pieces and hide my kitbash butchery.

Once again, not on the list but I’m really pleased I threw it into the mix. These markers are essential for the way we play now and it didn;t require too much effort to get them done, so it all adds to the hobby bank. Hopefully I’ll get the next Battle Report done for Wednesday.

Blog Wars 9 1850pt battle report – nids vs Imperial Knights/Dark Angels

Wouldn’t you know it, I’ve actually evaded quite a lot of Imperial Knights since their introduction over a year ago. Really I’ve only faced PeteB’s Space Wolf ally and for my first BW9 game I only go and get three of the blighters! I’d actually seen Lord Halfpenny’s blogpost [or Dave as I called him 😉 ] about the army list only the other day but I never expected to face it so lets see what happened.

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant W Tervigon Plain Tr Zoanthrope Dominion Dominion Dominion Catalyst Catalyst Paroxysm Warp Blast Paroxysm Onslaught

The low down:

• Purge the alien but based on the Blog Wars 9 rules – Unit Points for killed units, half points for half killed units which then translates to VPs – Hammer and Anvil
• Warlord Trait – Night Fighting turn 1
• Night fighting first turn, lost deployment, went second and failed to steal the initiative. 

This is one of the first times I’ve ever deployed so far back in my own deployment zone but I figured the Knights are pretty fast anyway so I shouldn’t make it any eaiser for them to get to grips with me. I actually looked over at Liam who was next to me and saw he’d set up his Tau Skyshield in the same fashion so I was actually relieved I’d made the decision.

I filled the ruins behind the Knights with Genestealers. I had no idea whether this was a mistake as essentially I’d put them all within easy range of the knights but I figured it was better to have them all there so I could overwhelm at least one of them.

If their presence forced him to split his force I might have a chance and it might help that only two would be headed for the rest of my army.

With nightfighting and going to ground I could get a 2+ save which might keep them alive and if they weren’t targetted I could try and see if they could chase down the knights. It was a gamble but the alternative was to do nothing and deploy in my own area.

However my DZ was already quite full and 25 Genestealer would be tough to keep protected so forward deployment was the plan. Oh and the Tyrannocyte had the Rippers in, just because.

Turn 1 and the Deathwing Knights turn up amd are keen to target the Tyrannofex, but I think his 2+ save was too handy.

On my other flank the remaining Deathwing teleported. I don’t think anyone was wounded thanks to cover saves from nightfighting and Shrouding from the Venomthrope tucked behind one of the Capillary Tower supports of the Skyshield.

My Genestealer bait was ignored and all three Knights marched up the battlefield, they did shoot back at the Genestealers casuing a unnit to go to ground but with the ability to target differnt units the Special Character Knight reducde the dilapidated Bastion to rubble, it’s original intention was to fling it at the Tyranids but unfortuanetly you can’t do that with building.

I was lucky enough to cast Catalyst and passed on the FnP to tht T-fex, unfortunately his Fleshborer Hives, and 15 Termagants Fleshborers that were spawned out by the Tervigon, were not sufficient to damage the Deathwing, thanks to their increased shield wall toughness

However, on the other flank my shooting was far more productive on the plain Deathwing and allowing me to Assault leaving just one terminator left, but not enough for First Strike.

I hadn’t assaulted with the T-fex as I was reluctant to sacrifice the 20 snapshots I’d get on overwatch. Of course that meant he would be charging with +1 attacks but it was justified as one of the knights died in the charge.

The Imperial K nights continued to advance, with just two broods of Stealers leaving the safety of the ruins to chase them down.

One of the knights charged my Hormagaunts who were kept in check by the Flyrant who’d taken a wound from a Knights anit-aircraft autocannons [or a perils of the warp, I forget which]

The Knight wiped out all but three of the Hormagaunts so remained locked in combat.

I managed to kill off the last

I managed to kill the last Deathwing but it was still a long way to the knights could I make it?

The Tyrannocyte turned up and I decided to try and use it and the Rippers as a speed bump, see if I could delay the knights a little. So far my combined Shrouding and Skyshield were keeping most of my army whole so the longer I could delay the inevitable the better.

The Flyrant swooped off behind the Knights to get some rear or side shots, taking a hull point or two. Meanwhile one of the Carnifex managed to make it’s charge, ironically the one further way and Deathleaper also got in to assault the Knight sadly he didn’t get any Rends in despite doing quite well in his attack. I’m not sure if the Carnifex faired any better, I like to think it may have got a Hull Point in. However, the only damage in return was Deathleaper got smeared across the battlefield [another 230pts lost].

With the T-fex still an issue the Deathwing Knights powered up their Maces to Smite the offending beast

The T-fex couldn’t get past the Terminators shields and even with the spawned Termagants piling in their claws and teeth couldn’t penettrate the Knights armour.

The Smite dealt four wounds to the enraged beast but the was still an opportunity to visit some damage to the Dark Angels.

 

This is either some saving throws [not good] or more likely my to Wound rolls from the Carnifex on the Knight 😦 not even a single glance, let alone a pen. Meanwhile the Rippers tried to stop the other Knight!

The Carnifex paid the price for it’s ineptitude in combat.

And unsurprisingly so did the Rippers allowing the Knight to consolidate towards my Tyrannocyte.

With the character Knight sweeping the top front layer of gaunts things were not looking good on the Skyshield.

The Deathwing Knights continued to hammer on the Tyrannofex, without losing a model, they were just too tough for the gaunts to help out. He was on already 4 wounds

and took another 6 that I had to save against and the law of probability was borne out with me failing one of them to leave him on his last wound.

For the purpose of spectacle I allowed the Knight to climb atop the Skyshield, so long as the Tervigon would be allowed to get in on the action, which is actually what Dave was after so my cunning ruse worked, no wait…

Unfortunately I was unable to add to the two Hull Points it had already taken but luckily I only took 2 wounds in return.

The other Carnifex sought revenge for the death of it’s sibling but clearly wasn’t up to the challenge. I’m not sure if it did any damage in the process but I know he’d taken two Hull Points damage by the end of the game so was 1pt off scoring half his blood points.

I managed to get the Genestealers into combat with the other knight with one of the broods just short of reaching the assault. He was already on 3 wounds so all I needed was 3 rending hits off 11 Genestealers [mathhammer – 33 attacks, 22 hits – 3.something rends] and I managed to beat the odds with 5!

Ah, erm yeah! The Knight blew up big time wiping out the three broods totalling 14 models that had been assaulting it.

So it was a good job the other brood had failed their charge as nothing survived the Knight explosion and as I only secured the second half of the Knights points [the first half already in the bag] I probably came off worse as I lost 210pts of Genestealer to do it!

This was clearly the Tervigon, I’m assuming saving throws as 2s would be bad but I’m not sure how these two dice rolls would have affected his current wound status

But it clearly was fatal, and the Knight picked it’s ruined corpse up and hurled it at the Venomthrope causing a wound to add insult to injury.

And then all the Termagants popped!

The Deathwing Knights [Paroxysmed by -1] continued the fight, once again completely unharmed by my Termagants.

They managed to put four wounds on the Tfex and it could no longer sustain the impacts from their maces.

The Tfex died and the game came to an end.

I’ve never won a kill points battle at Blog Wars, I’ve never faced more than 1 Knight and I don’t think I’ve ever killed one so although the final score was 600pts to 1335, with both of usgetting Linebreaker I honestly fel quite pleased with the result. Clearly I do have options against Knights and I think I was unlucky in places not to have done more damage to them so safe in the knowledge my gaming buddies are never likely to field more than two I’m hopeful for the future. I’m also once again impressed by the Dark Angel Knights, it took them far too long to kill the Tfex but that was because of Paroxysm keeping their hits low, but they’re certainly durable in combat and can do damage when needed.

So a great game despite the loss, now on to game 2