‘nids part 226 – Trygon & Genestealer Broodlord/Patriarch – Red Planet BASE!

A nice step-by-step Red Planet BASE! for the Trygon and Broodlord here, although there are already a couple of tutorials for how I base my models already in the tutorials tab at the top. At this stage it’s just the Red Oxide Primer.

Here’s the Strong Tone wash. You may be wondering a little about the basing materials around the ‘eruption’ area. These are constructed from BBQ wood chips. I have a bag of them but my BBQing is terribly infrequent and my wife isn’t fond of me messing about with them, so I just figured they’d make ideal bits of ground burst effect. I could have tried to achieve the same effect with small bits of slate but the natural curves and angular chips seemed ideal so thought I’d give it a go.

It’s obviously not a complete ground eruption, more an impact as the Trygon ‘sidewinds’ across Ferron Proxima. Its far from a scientific recreation but it looks almost representational so I’m quite pleased. Anyway, Vermilion highlight next

Second highlight

Oops, missed a step, second highlight followed by the final Pumpkin Craft Acrylic highlight. Just Bonewhite chips to add, but that will happen during the rest of the painting, but for now it’s done.

The Broodlord is the same – Red Oxide.

Strong Tone wash.

Vermilion drybrush.

1st highlight [Vermilion and Pumpkin mix, don’t know the ratio]

2nd highlight [moar Pumpkin]

With the broodlord detached.

The final set of Pumpkin highlights.

Both detached.

I’m really impressed with how much detail I was able to get on the drybrush of the untextured base, I’m sure it’ll end up scuffed and damaged over time though 😦

Anyway, badges! I get another two Big Build badges for completing my bases. OK I know my bases need edging and the bone chips but they get done later in the process, so for me this element is complete. Interestingly in last year’s Great Build this was a badge just for priming the model! Then I realised I was thinking of it as ‘prime and base’ but as I can’t base without priming it became pointless to reward the inevitable. Anyway, two badges. Washes on the base colours next and then I need to take a moment to review progress and plans…

Moar Armies on Parade

Armies on Parade was a month ago and I never really debriefed, mainly because as the event unfolded the actual result became less and less relevant to me. Leading up to it my belief that ‘taking part’ was reward enough was posted many times on Facebook where folk seemed disappointed not to win. Winning is a welcome but purely incidental part and as much as it’s nice to win the ‘hobby should be the winner’ [© Toby Liddiard]. I saw plenty of examples of the best of this spirit during the weekend of the Parade, I also saw examples online of the very opposite, folk bogged down over arbitrary self-imposed rules or dismissing entries because it didn’t fit what they perceived as an ‘Army’. It was quite depressing actually, but I reminded myself this was the minority and promised myself I would eventually write a feedback letter to GW to hopefully move things forward in a more positive direction.

As you recall I entered twice and no this was not ‘against the rules’ as someone questioned me online. I think perhaps he thought I was hedging my bets, which would be true if I was intent on winning but not entirely true when my second choice store is renowned for it’s hobby quality. That’s like competing in a local Sunday league football match and also having a crack at the FA Cup final so you have greater chance of winning!

The Southport store had just five entries so the categories were reduced to Young Bloods [of which there were ony two elligible], Best Painted and Best Themed Board. First up was this Raven Guard/Custodes army that was really cleanly painted.

I really liked it and gave it my Best Painted vote. Amusingly the store manager suggested I could indeed vote for myself – to which I refer you to my recent politician comment!

As you can see it was nicely executed.

Simple, but really tidy and effective.

Anda a bit of terrain at the back for a nice vantage point.

Next an Imperial Knight and Ad Mech force.

Then a Tau army that was one of the Young Blood entries.

It was really quite a nice effort for a youngster.

This was the other Young Blood entry a well realised Death Guard force.

The quality and effort got my vote for the category and I was left to choose best theme. As much as I liked all the entries I kept thinking my own theme was truly the best there.

But, I don’t vote for myself, so I voted for the Death Guard as this City Board had the most effort put into it.

Now I’m sure you’re interested in the result and it would transpire that the Raven Guard did indeed win the Best Painted and the Death Guard did win the Young Bloods, but the best Theme was…

… a tie! Mine and the Death Guard. The Manager eventually shared  pictures of the two boards with his colleague to cast the deciding vote.

I was half a mind to happily concede at this point because I could see it meant more to the Young Blood than it did to me but luckily she chose in his favour anyway and what a potential impact on his hobby that success will bring him no doubt.

I think the kid with the Tau was disappointed I didn’t win saying he thought mine was the best and the subsequent discussion about Armies on Parade was the highlight of the day as I hopefully convinced him of my view of the spirit of the event. 

But my Parade looked much better than I’d hoped and without AoP I’d never have got these pictures.

Also of note is their store front display which looked pretty impressive.

And the amazing calligraphy work in their hobby areas.

Not to mention this cheeky chap! 😉

Now, to Manchester and despite the last-minute reservations in Parading there the team really tried to accommodate me in the end, for which I’m truly grateful. Sadly, I only got to see two other entries [which were by members of staff] when I returned to collect the Dark Angels. There was this mixed Age of Sigmar force.

Which was undeniably impressive

Part of me feels the need to do a Sigmar Army just so I can take part in this category as it seemed there were very few entries during the Sigmar week.

And then this Chaos/Blood Raven Dawn of War showdown.

Gabriel Angelos facing down [up?] a Bloodthirster!

Oi, where’s he nicked that Mace of Absolution from, thieving git!

OK, so I won a couple of awards – Best Monster/Machine and Best Painted but the certificates were the only prize I got so just to put it into perspective I lugged a double hobby case, an aluminium hobby case and a board and backdrop on three consecutive hour long train journeys to work. Then I carried them 20 minutes across Manchester with a friend and spent a further 30 minutes setting them up.

I then had to do the entire thing in reverse. I am extremely grateful for those that voted for me and honored to win, but if anyone thinks the primary motivation for this double effort is the two certificates at the back, then they’re missing the 2’x2′ expression of my hobby in front of it. I may have belaboured this point, but look at this way when we think back to the Cold War and all those Red Square Parades of Soviet weapons and armour, does anyone remember the bit where some guy won something at the end? No, you remember the endless sea of marching soldiers, freshly painted missile carriers, tanks and vehicles – the might of their army on display. This is the same, this is 40k Armies on Parade, not ’40k Armies Winning a Prize’.

Next year, Parade your Army and damn the result!

Whats on my palette?

Bless me readers for I have sinned, it’s been nearly 2 months since my last confession.

I feel like I’ve been pretty productive, although under close inspection it might not seem that way. I’ve completed the Deathwatch, my Dreadtober Genestealer Cult Sentinels and finished off some future containers. That’s not actually a lot and I’ve still to do proper To Done pics/posts of all those. But these successes, such as they are, left me without an obvious project to jump into. I’ve flitted here and there between things I had started but progress has been minimal, or at least hasn’t ‘felt’ significant. I feel a sense of ‘raging ambivalence, or ‘obsessive dissatisfaction’ – I’m just not loving doing it as none of them have become my muse. But in reality whatever I’ve done will indeed pay dividends further down the line as they’ll all be closer to completion when I do set all my attention on them [you know the drill by now].

Dark Angels Rhino and Predator 

The two Dark Angels tanks have received some panel shading with Dark Tone and had two sets of highlights on the metalwork. I’ve got another highlight, followed by some shade washes and then it’ll be to focus on the green. There isn’t actually a huge amount to do on these so they could be a quick win but I’m just not ‘feeling’ them enough to dedicate them all my attention.

Space Hulk Brood Lord & Trygon 

These two guys, as you know have just come on the radar. Right now I’m blissfully unaware of the horrors that await me painting all the Chitin highlights on the Trygon. However, much like the Dark Angels tanks I can visualise roughly how much work is involved to get these completed and although there is still the lion’s share left ont hem for some reason I also see them as a quick win. I may split them to go ‘between projects’.

 Ferron Fire Firs

After my can of Simoniz Red Oxide Spray malfunctioned I picked up a smaller 400ml can of Hycote. It covered both the Tyranids and then 80% of my Ferron Fire Firs so I’ve ordered another can of spray. This was very much at the forefront of what I wanted to finish before the can went bust, but the actual amount of work involved and just how much time it’ll take me away from the other tasks means it may stall at the priming stage. Coupled with the fact games at my house are a rarity anyway investing my time and effort in something for no functional reason seems a little short-sighted.

Ravenwing Land Speeder Dark Shroud 

This has been sat on the shelf for far too long. As I wrestled with the magentising aspect a conclusion became essential as both the Dark Shroud and Vengeance platform are now viable. I solved the magnet problem by leaving the Vengeance Plasma Battery as push fit and just magenetising the underneath of the Dark Shroud relic to the top of the control station [I’ll show it in future pics]. The urgency for this is it may form part of my GT3 Dark Angels list, should I take the Dark Angels. The single Land Speeder Typhoon was handy, but I think this would be a better alternative and offer more benefits for cheaper. Unfortunately GT3 is in February so I have 2.5 months to get this guy done and it’s not even primed. It’s doable but there’s pressure involved which is both helpful and unwanted.

Rippers

What the flip? Yeah I know… This is so left field and off list I don’t even have a picture to illustrate it. Bottom line I’m also debating taking the Tyranids to GT3. I have two lists at the moment, though pretty similar one is based on a Brigade and another on two Battalions. But they both require two broods of 3 Rippers [cheap troops] and I only have four Ripper bases. Therefore I’ll need to make two up. I’ve one brood part painted already, my son did them around five years ago. The other will be a little bit different, a stop-gap solution to the Forgeworld inspired kitbash/press-mold version I’d been planning for ages. 

Movement trays

Another task that may present itself should I choose to take the nids is the adoption of movement trays. There are no two ways about it I’ll probably end up with a couple of big broods of Termagants and I need to be much quicker than I currently am to fit in a full game and movement trays may help with that. These from www.lasercutarchitect.co.uk seem like the best solutions to me. You have the Tervigon/Trygon brood tray and four random blobs of 10. They’re about £8 each but will still require a bit of sanding, basing and painting to be truly happy and I haven’t even bought them yet…

Regardless it’s another task and I need to find a way to manage the projects and prioritise what I’m doing. GT3 is only 2.5 months and if my post-Christmas malaise hits like usual I could find things very difficult to get done in time.

‘nids part 225 – Trygon & Genestealer Broodlord/Patriarch – BIG BUILD

While I’ve been busy playing games I’ve been far from idle, flitting from one thing to the next but most of my projects came to a conclusion with AoP and those that are ‘ongoing’ didn’t immediatley catch my attention, the Rogue Trader Predator and Rhino have just started to take my interest but before that I needed to build some stuff. One of those things was a long ignored, almost forgotten Forgeworld Trygon, with no reason to play the plastic one I already had there was never a reason to tackle this. I’d also been put off by the many tales of it’s difficulty.

However, Trygons are now cool in 8th and although mine tends to get shot to pieces reports of multiple Trygons [plus tunnel units] swamping your opponent being effective made it worth my attention. At the very least getting it built puts it in the realm of possibility and in particular using it to create a slightly more dynamic pose than the plastic version. In actual fact making the pose, so the tail was raised was the hardest part of the build. Interesting BW filter effect too, almost looks like a 3D Studio Max render.

While I was at it I finished basing the magnetised Space Hulk Broodlord. Sadly, I didn’t go for a load more skulls on the base. I actually have a spare Space Wolf wolf skull I could add but the broken pipe with slightly over-sized joint came out OK to try and already ties both bases together.

And it’s detachable so I can use it in Space Hulk [should I ever get round to playing it] and DeathWatch Overkill too. I’ll probably do the same with my remaining Patriarch from my second Overkill box. Next up I should probably look at What’s On My Palette so I can manage my projects…

Oh, and look, I found my 2017/18 Big Build artwork, so I get two!

NMTBW Painting Competition

Alex continuse to run four painting competitions – Best Conversion, Best Character, Best Vehicle/Monster and Best Army. The one caveat is you can only enter one categroy, meaning we don’t have a single person sweeping the board – Liam. Although amusingly Alex did suggest everyone should see which category I was entering in and then choose another one. Amusingly this may be the 4th or 5th time I’ve entered into Alex’s painting competition and NOT won something, perhaps my reputation exceeds my achievements 😉  Anyway, Best Conversion and this amazig scratchbuilt Taurox.   

Then these brilliantly converted Tyranids who were made by Graham Sanders.

I’m well aware of Graham’s kitbashing skills after  facing his Squats in Blog Wars 7

The Zoanthrope ‘jellyfish’ made out of aquarium ornaments were particularly cool, hence why he won the category.

Tanks and I think this is a Land Raider Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer painted up by my second round opponent Thomas Capper.

Cleanly painted replica of the Renegade Knight from the much missed game… Renegade Knight

A nice Dune Crawler.

Daemon Prince

Domitar-Ferrum Class Battle Automata

Ben’s Leman Russ, which went on to scoop first prize.

Best Characters

Liam – ‘going big or going home’ with his Mortarion, which went on to win.

My display in best army. I really need to look ata a smaller display board for these events

Nick Thrower’s Dusk Knights

An amazing Alpha Legion. These colours speak to my love of high contrast, yeloow and black with orange, yummy.

Toby Lidiard’s Custodes. Toby scooped the prize by one vote, putting me in second. Which when I mentioned to Ben I voted for Toby’s army he suggested in future I might not want to vote for what I think is the Best Army as they’re my direct competition but I’m a fair believer in Toby’s mantra “let the hobby be the winner”.

A great selection of armies and it was interesting during the voting when someone asked if you could vote for yourself. I pointed out to them that it must be acceptable, politicians always vote for themselves in an election so feel free to follow their example… he promptly started to look at other candidates ha, ha 🙂

NMTBW Game 3 – 2000pts battle report – Dark Angels v Tau

Last game and I was still on table 12 but my opponent this time was Ian Plumpton. I first met Ian at Blog Wars 9 over four years ago which is another enduring success of Alex’s events – a regular group of people continue to participate and it’s always cool to meet up again. Ian was using Tau this time [instead of his Adeptus Mechanicus] something I believe he started because he won some Tau related goodies in one of the Blog Wars ludicrously generous raffles.

The low down:

• Cleanse and Capture [3 objectives per turn]
• Blood Points
• Hammer and Anvil deployment
• I went second

Ian’s deployment, twin Devilfish with Breachers either end of his line with the Stormsurge holding the centre, two Ghostkeels pushed up in my grill and two squads of Stealth Suits, one with the Ghostkeels and the other right up against my DZ just outside of shot on the right.

You can just see the second squad of Stealth Suits on the top left, so I deployed the Ravenwing bikes to counter. Black Knights arrayed against a Ghostkeel with the Dark Talon and Knight holding the centre opposite the second one. Scouts hold the high ground in the ruins.

Devastators in the abandoned Bastion and my Plasma Tactical Squad in the centre, Flamer Squad beside the Knight with the land Speeder.

Turn 1 and my cards weren’t good I had drawn objective 4, which was in the ruin to the top left but thought I couldn’t get it. But I’d accidentally positioned my Ravenwing Apothecary in such a way that he could just reach it. The rest of the Black Knights positioned opposite the Ghostkeel, while the Dark Talon zoomed forward.

Ravenwing Bikers positioned between the Stealth Suits and the Black Knights. This gave me options – I could see how their shooting went and charge if they weren’t successful, and if the Stealth Suits could be dealt with they’re then in a position to sweep round with the Knights supporting that flank. They were also helping to cover the Apothecary too.

The Knight moved up to the second Ghostkeel with the Techmarine sprinting to keep up and the Librarian a little ways behind.

Tactical Squad took cover int he ruins and the Land Speeder repositioned to get good fields of fire and cover, although with hindsight he probably could have stayed where he was and still shoot…?

Ravenwing bikers managed to shoot, kill and charge the Stealth Suits laving just one left alive, grrr. Lone survivors are always a problem.

Black Knights managed to do some damage on the Ghostkeel, not sure how much but he killed one Knight in return. The Dark Talon also managed to wound the Devil Fish. The Stealth Suits in the centre looked to have been wiped out too, I think thanks to the Tactical Squads close by. I ended up with just the 1VP for holding objective 4 this turn.

Ian’s turn and those slippery fish headed flippers just will not stay locked in combat. The lone Stealth Suit jumps out of the combat with the Ravenwing bikes… lets just take a moment to acknowledge six Ravenwing bikes could not kill a single Stealth Suit in combat!

The Ghostkeels also jump out of combat and the Stormsurge anchors down to dish out the pain in his next shooting phase. Ian secures Objective 5 for 1VP

Ian had brought down a unit of Battle Suits beside the lone Stealth Suit. They’d targeted the Ravenwing bikes but I’d only suffered two casualties. I repositioned and returned fire, killing two of the Battle suits. The Plasma Talons of the Black Knights destroy their Ghostkeel, leaving them ready to assault the remaining one. The Dark Talon banked off, I still hadn’t dropped it’s Stasis Bomb, waiting for a bigger unit to make the best of the Mortal Wounds. Tactical Squad moves up and the Apothecary joins them. Ian has drawn a Warlord specific mission to capture Objective three so I have to put as many bodies on it as possible before the Taun Commander arrives by Aerial Deployment. The Imperial Knight prepares to multi-charge the Ghostkeel AND Stormsurge!

After Overwatch the Imperial Knight is on 18 wounds. Everyone gets into combat, the Stormsurge takes a licking from the Knight but isn’t quite put down, equally the Ghostkeel survives. I score 1VP for objective 2.

The Bike Squad surround the Battle Suit and Stealth Suit and still can’t finish the job off on either of them.

And thus they slip through their fingers yet again. Finally the Tau Commander arrives to offer them support, thankfully away from objective 3, where he needs to be but my forces deny access to it.

Instead Ian redeploys on objectives to guarantee Supremacy at the end of his turn.

The Ghostkeel prepares to leave combat while the Breachers disembark to mow down the Black Knights as they become exposed.

And they become super exposed, with not even their armour sufficient to protect them! Just the Huntsmaster survives.

The Ghostkeel jump allows it to fire at the Imperial Knight, supported by the Devil Fish. Ian scores 3VPs from Supremacy so is winning 4 to 2, but is till holding the high scoring Warlord mission if I lose Objective 3 to him.

My turn 3 and I also draw Supremacy and alongside Kingslayer I have the cards to meet and overcome Ian’s lead. Huntsmaster and Apothecary [down to 2 wounds] converge on the Tau Commander, the remaining bikers move to support and give options on those indestructible Battle Suits and Stealth Suit survivors.

Tactical Squad surround Objective 3 with the Librarian, while the Techmarine repairs two wounds on the Imperial Knight.

Who shoots the Stormsurge to pieces and then multi-charges the Breachers and Devil Fish. I split my attacks for the Chainsword on the tank and Titanic Feet on the Breachers but it’s spread too thin and fail to achieve either goal of wiping one of them out.

The Battle Suit gets picked off with shooting, the Stealth Suit lives to die another day. I charge and the Huntsmaster gets headshot on overwatch! Everything piles on the Commander but I cannot kill him and I fail with Kingslayer but secure Supremacy for 3 VPs.

Ian’s final turn and the Commander manages to kill the Apothecary for Kingslayer and scores 3VPs this turn to take the total to 7VPs for Ian 5VPs for me. BPs are 1497 to me, 550 for Ian. So, three games, three losses on VPs and three wins on BPs [which Ben was quick to point out is still three losses]. But I have never been so ‘killy’ and this game in particular nearly 75% of Ian’s force was wiped out.

Given my practice game wasn’t so successful I’m really pleased how this went down. My final position was 20th out of 32 but in truth I didn’t even check where I came until Alex posted the results online. I honestly didn’t care about the result, I’d had three of the best games of 8th I’ve ever had and as frustrating as the Maelstrom results are the effectiveness of my army list far outweighs what I feel is a relatively underpowered army.

It was another classic event and so long as Alex keeps running them I’ll keep going. My only disappointment was forgettign to do selfies with Tom, Tom and Ian, how could I forget? Anyway, I’m looking forward to Double Trouble 3 next year where I hope to take my Genestealer Cult… I’ve got the painting competition to post up next, hotly contested as usual 😉

If you’re interested in any more of my Battle Reports, point your cogitators here: www.40kaddict.uk/p/battle-reports.html

NMTBW Game 2 – 2000pts battle report – Dark Angels v Blood Angels

Next up was Thomas Capper, he and his brother go to loads of the local events but this is the first time I’ve faced him. I was actually quite pleased about this as I figured he’d be pretty clued up on the rules so might speed things up and help iron out my lack of knowledge in the Dark Angels – he was running Blood Angels so there was overlap in equipment stats at the very least.

The low down:

• Cleanse and Capture [3 objectives per turn]
• Blood Points
• Hammer and Anvil deployment
• I went second

I pretty much deployed across my DZ, Knight in the centre, bikes to it’s right, Dark Talon it’s left.

Thomas had a couple of Rhinos with Death Company in, a load of Scouts, a Baal Predator and a Predator Annihilator, Librarian Dreadnought, Mephiston and Sanguinary Guard. I didn’t take any more pictures of Thomas’s turn but he scored 6 VPs thanks to Supremacy (2VPs) and Priority Objective 4 (4VPs) which he was sat on top of. So I had a real challenge on my hands.

My turn and I had drawn Objective 1 twice, I don’t recall where that was but I could score it with ease. Which left me to try and deal with the Scouts and the Dreadnought. The scouts got shot to pieces and I got the Black Knights into assault with the Librarian, unfortunately the Apothecary couldn’t keep up.

The Biker Squad went for the scouts int he centre of the battlefield.

The Dark Talon dropped the Stasis Bomb on the Sanguinary Guard – it killed one and wounded another, I hadn’t realised they had 2 wounds each [or a 2+ save!] no wonder it was 306 points for the squad. Mephiston was holding that objective backfield [for which he’d won 4 VPs for Thomas]. But it also blew up the Predator Annihilator. The Rift Cannon did 6 Damage and then a further 3 Mortal Wounds with the Rift Vortex. It must have had damage from something else as it’s no longer in play.

The Black Knights hacked at the Dreadnought, I did some damage but not enough to end it.

One of the Rhinos got popped and his tactical Squad got out.

The Dreadnought hit back and left all but the Huntsmaster and another Black Knight [Banner just for show] alive.

Thomas’s turn 2, the Tactical Squad rounded the central rock formation. My Techmarine had taken cover behind after suffering wounds in the first turn.

The Dark Talon looks to have been obliterated, I think close shooting from the Inferno Pistols of the Sanguinary followed by being assaulted by them – there’s not much it can do against a Power Fist!

Mephiston moved up with the Death Company who wiped out the Ravenwing bike squad with ease. However, he still had three units in his DZ for Hold the Line and 1VP.

The Dreadnought couldn’t stand the Corvus Hammers, it was on 2 wounds and I think I used two Command Points to attack first killing it. I needed objective 5 in my turn, so now it was secure.

The Baal Predator succumbed to shooting with the Imperial Knight bearing down on the Sanguinary Guard. 

More shooting took out most of the Tactical Squad and the Techmarine and Librarian assaulted them to blunt their advance.

I managed to kill at least one in combat, whoopie do!

The Knight managed to kill four of the Sanguinary Guard, I think with his Reaper Chainsword.

Thomas’s turn and Mephiston took out my two HQ’s although the Librarian had initially denied his ‘Blood Boil’ power. Meanwhile the Death Company got to grips with the Ravenwing Knights as they had to secure Objective 5 and needed to outnumber the Ravenwing or kill them to do it.

Which they did.

My turn 3 and I draw Kingslayer – Mephiston must die. but I have a bucketload of Bolter shells, a Knight and my Warlord to do it. I sweep the bike round so it can try to take out the Sanguinary Guard if Mephiston falls to the other elements.

The Knight and Tactical Squad kill Mephiston for 1 VP.

The Apothecary assaults the Sanguinary Guard.

but without and 6s on his Corvus Hammer the Guard shrugs off the attacks and punches him with his Power Fist killing him outright.

We run another turn each where Thomas secures objective 5 again and I secure objective 3. The final score is 9VPs to Thomas, 5Vps for me but 1361BPs to me and losing 1082BPs. So another loss on VPs but win on BPs, practically unheard of for me but again a very tactical game and far more rewarding 8th edition.

One other point of interest was Thomas pointing out my Plasma Gun toting Ravenwing biker could fire both his twin Bolt Guns and his Plasma Gun, which I could scarcely believe. You see, I knew Thomas would know this shiz. But then I started to think, why can’t they all fire their Bolt Pistols too? Well it would appear that there’s an answer to that question and gosh darn it, it’s only in the rules. Pistols specifically state the model may either fire their main weapon or the pistol, that’s it. I’d even had a moment where I reverted to 7th and was of the belief I couldn’t charge having fired the Bolt Guns because they weren’t Assault. OK, so the rules are anaemic in places but quite often the rules are right there, or if they’re not there, then they don’t exist! Of course the Bolt Pistols also mean I could have had a round of shooting while the bikers were locked in combat, which I forgot. #stilllearning

If you’re interested in any more of my Battle Reports, point your cogitators here: www.40kaddict.uk/p/battle-reports.html

NMTBW Game 1 – 2000pts battle report – Dark Angels v Orks

Nevermind the Blog Wars, Alex From the Fangs return to full scale singles tournaments, the friendliest of tournaments and the 7th event I’ve attended that Alex has organised [he’ll start to think I’m stalking him next]. First game was with Tom Kendrick and his Orks. Apparently it was his second tournament as well.

The low down:

•  Cleanse and Capture [3 objectives per turn]
•  Blood Points
• Dawn of War deployment
• I went second

The initial deployment, cover was sparse unfortunately, aside from the four ruins there was only the Ork mudbath for me to hide my scouts in on top of an objective [just in case it popped up in my Maelstrom].

They were pretty close to all these Orks and Ghazgkhull too, which was intimidating. He had these two  big mobs of Boyz, a Weirdboy, Painboy, Ghazgkhull, Lootas, and an Ork Nob on a bike.

On  my left he also had another mob of Boyz and a Weirdboy, two big blasta guns [or whatever] on the tower, a Battle Wagon full of Tank Busters, and two Dakka Jets, one on each flank.

I had the Black Knights, Devastators and Land Speeder Typhoon [in the ruin] on the left flank to try and deal with them, while my Knight held the centre…

Tom’s first turn and naturally everything moved up with the Dakka Jets zooming forward. The right Dakka Jet managed to rip apart my Ravenwing Bike Squad, leaving just my Plasma Gun toting biker alive.

The left flank moved forward too.

Then the Weird Boy cast ‘da jump’ and flung 20-30 Ork Boyz right up in the face of my Black Knights. The Dakka Jet, big weapons and Tank Buster blasted all their worth at the Imperial Knight, stripping  a load of wounds off it thanks to some pretty appalling dice rolls on my saving throws. But by the end of turn 1 Tom had failed to score any VPs.

With limited experience I had no idea if charging the Boyz with my Black Knights was sensible or suicide. But killing a fair few with Plasma Talons helped reduce the overwhelming numbers of greenskins. The Knight went for the Battle Wagon, by this stage just on 5 wounds [whether from the previous round or after some lucky tankbuster overwatch], but he was pretty damaged.

My Dark Talon had dropped it’s Stasis Bomb on the big blob and I moved the remaining Ravenwing bike, Librarian and Techmarine to support the Scouts as I believe Tom needed to score that objective. At some point I kick myself for not shooting the Scouts at Ghazgkhull, Toms says to go ahead but I say no it’s too late now we’ve moved into the assault phase. About five minutes later I suddenly realise I didn’t shoot with the Dark Talon either. Thanks to dropping the Stasis Bomb in the movement phase I’d just figured I’d done it. But 24 Bolter shots on that mob of Boyz would have come in real handy, not to mention the Rift Cannon on the Dakkajet! You live and learn

The end of the turn and the Orks suffered so much damage the failed their morale and amazingly the Ravenwing had seen them all off. Meanwhile the Knight is now on three wounds.

The Dakka jet zooms past the ruins.

His partner coming in from the right for a side by side pass. The Battle Wagon falls back, meaning the Tankbusters thankfully can’t shoot the Knight but opens it up to attack from the weapons platform, that promptly whiff!

Boyz line up on my spirited but outnumbered defence of the mudbath jacuzzi.

And get swamped, in both senses of the word. The Ravenwing Biker gets chopped down and all but the Scout Sergeant. Techmarine and Librarian survive but not enough bodies to stop the Orks claiming the objective which thanks to another objective scored meant Tom walked away with 4Vps this turn!

Tactical Squad with Flamer move up to support the remaining guys in the mudbath.

My Black Knights move up to secure an objective at the base of the ruins and the Dark Talon Zooms over. Shooting at the Battle Wagon destroys it.

The Tank Busters now out in the open among the smoking wreckage of their Battle Wagon.

Moar shooting at the weapons in the towers.

Lots of shooting at the Dakkajets but I can only reduce them to 2 and 4 wounds, which still gets me half Blood Points each, but I was close to getting full points on both.

With the Battle Wagon gone the Knight charges the big mob of Boyz, stomping with his Titanic Feet. I’m not sure how it ended up, but I think his feet were a lot greener by the end of it.

A big melee took place in the mudbath, making it more a bloodbath. No idea how it ended up either but ultimately I scored 2 VPs this turn. The we ran out of time I think.

This was a really great game with Tom and felt tactical and unlike many of the 8th edition games I’ve played so far. I lost on VPs 4-2 but somehow won on Blood Points killing 700pts+ compared to losing just 532. I must kick myself for not shooting the Dark Talon, he might have had a decisive impact on the game with his 24 shots but winning on Blood Points was a ‘win’ for me. I surprised myself by thinking that was all I needed to consider the whole event a success regardless of what was yet to come!

On to game 2…

If you’re interested in any more of my Battle Reports, point your cogitators here: www.40kaddict.uk/p/battle-reports.html

Terrain is everything – ‘Brian the Sewer Vent’

You all know I like terrain, but there is one particular piece of scratchbuilt terrain I’m partiuclarly fond of and recently I discovered it pride of place on the Catachan Jungle Fighters box. Now I’ve contacted GW a couple of times for more information. If they had any background information on it, who built it, when it was built, if there was a tutorial in White Dwarf showing it’s construction? I’ve always been interested to know what it’s function is ‘fluff-wise’, what’s the story behind it?

But the responses, although pertinent have never answered any of those questions. On a whim I decided to post again on the Warhammer 40,000 Facebook Group and while I was at it showcase where it’s snuck into the background of normal army shots.

As I kept on posting I got a little giddy with the hope of finding what its name was and instead decided to seize the initiative, rolled a ‘6’ and called it ‘Brian the Sewer Vent’.

Which then prompted me to set up a Brian the Sewer Vent Facebook page, as you do!

But then the GW Community Team responded with the absolute best answer EVER!

There’s much more in the comments worth reading.

And I then shared it among some of the other 40k and terrain groups which means the Brian the Sewer Vent Facebook Page has over 170 followers!

This is a prime example of the new GW Community engagement and I absolutely love it. I’m also going to enjoy playign around with Facebook to collate more sightings of Brian over the years. It appears in the grimdark 41st millennium there’s not only WAR, but a few laughs too 😉

2000pts battle report – Dark Angels v Astra Militarum

In preparation for Nevermind the Blog Wars, Ben and I had a practice game with our respective lists. My Dark Angels versus Ben’s Astra Militarum plus Inquisition Warband. Ben got to choose deployment and opted for Hammer and Anvil but I finished deplying first which allowed me to go first [although we did roll off

Ben had a huge amount of firepower arrayed against me but for some reason I was most terrified of the Hellhound… go figure?

Those sneaky Ratlings appearing at the back of my DZ were an unexpected problem as well.

A problem that was easily solved thanks to my Land Speeder and the Tactical squad holding the objective. What they didn’t kill broke and ran scoring First Blood. The Knight crashed through the ruined farm to use the bulk of the church to obscure it from the Leman Russ’s

Dark Talon sped up the board, dropped it’s Stasis Bomb on a unit of Guard killing a fair few while it’s other weapons wreaked havoc on the remainder and Rift Cannon did some damage on a tank. I ended the turn with 5VPs because I’d got Supremacy [3 objectives] and Area Denial [nto to have anyone within 12″ of the board centre – so easy first turn I did offer to put it back]

Ben’s turn 1 and his Crusaders went for the Scouts.

It runed out the Knight hadn’t been quite as effective at hiding as it hoped.

The Russ’s could just about see him.

With the Dark Talon lined up in front of quite the array of anti-aircraft weaponry it suffered significant damage left smoking in the sky on just one wound. Still a threat Ben decided to let his Commissar take a potshot with his Bolt Pistol. There was a moment when I wondered was that such a good idea having just read Nick Throwers article on blessings in disguise. So he shot, managed to hit the damaged but still fast moving target, managed to get the wound and I typically failed the armour save but then this was the roll to explode!

BOOM! Mortal wounds all round.

With the Leman Russ trained their guns on the Knight.

With additional supporting fire from the Vendetta.

CRUNCH! The Knight collapsed in on itself, luckily not exploding next to all those Tactical Marines. The Wyverns were also particularly effective at culling many of the Ravenwing Black Knights

The Crusaders get into assault with the scouts and while I’m momentarily excited at my scouts extra attacks thanks to their combat knife.

Before they’re wiped out by the Crusaders powers swords. They pile into the church and hold the objective for 1VP

With just my Ravenwing Apothecary left from the Black Knights he charges the remainign guard unit.

I’m not sure what else happened this turn, my forces were decimated, I think my dice rolling started to give up but I came away with another VP.

Ben threw his Psyker and Commissar at the Apothecary.

Their combined attacks sufficient to pull down the Medic who had 4 wounds remaining!

Despite my best efforts the Hellhound still remianed on the board and by the end of the turn Ben had scored 4 VPs and Line Breaker. So by turn 2 it was after midnight and I called it.

Ben had effectively tabled me, he’d won on Blood Points, I had very little left to counter him. It was 7:6 in VPs but he would have easily overtaken me in subsequent turns as I didn’t have the cards or the man-power to score them. Funnily enough though, Ben was more disappointed than I was. The same issue remains – 8th is too brutal. Ben disliked Apocalypse because of that first turn wholesale cull of units. I think he felt a bit devastated when I took out the Ratlings and a chunk of Guardsmen, but compare that to the Knight, Dark Talon and most of my Elite Ravenwing. He may not have suffered those loses but he realised just how disheartening it can be to be on the receiving end.

Anyway, it is what it is, I’m thinking that perhaps getting into combat as soon as possible might be the best tactic, but even so I’m not sure that was possible in this scenario. It did make me realise that the Hammer and Anvil deployment was potentially the cause of my downfall >24″ to close with the enemy was just too much, leaving me stranded and exposed to the weight of fire set against me. I’ll be really interested to see how his amry fairs against the likes of Guilliman or Mortarion but all the tactics, orders and stratagems made his shooting devastating! I’ll just enjoy the bottom tables again 😉