Tester Models for Tau and Tyranids

Afternoon.

It's been a long while without posts on here and unfortunately I've not got time for detailed blog posts, battle reports, etc. anymore with changes with work patterns and family life.

In the mean time, I've been building up Tau and Tyranid armies across the last 12 months and found myself with a free evening yesterday, with which I decided I would do some test schemes for both forces.

These were the ultimate speed paint tests and the main thing (with my limited painting time) was to get one done from undercoat to washed, within 20 minutes. 

 

Tau - These guys are based on the Tau from the Medusa V campaign from a couple of years back. I've always liked the idea of white armour for them and definitely wanted a colour scheme which was different from my other armies. The white was really quick to paint, my only concern would be for when it comes to painting the vehicles. The test model is a Tank Commander stuck on a base, but I'm optimistic this will be better on a proper Fire Warrior that has more armour.

Tyranids - A few years ago I did have some Tyranids painted up in the same scheme and really liked it. It's based on a Guy Haley article on speed painting from an early 300ish White Dwarf. I used to use a Chestnut Ink on the body, but tried with Nuln Oil now. The most important thing for these guys is that they are quick to paint. I really love the contrast of the cream carapace against the brown body.

With practice and a few more, I'm optimistic that I can reduce the painting time to <10 mins per model start to finish. I wasted a lot of time on the Tau by painting the cloth first and then the armour. If I were to have slopped on the grey base of the armour, then overbrushed the white, then painted the cloth etc. it would have been significantly quicker.


In other news I've not played 40K for a while as I've been getting involved with Malifaux, which I really love and would like to do a proper intro post to that separately (whenever I can find time). I'm currently painting up my Lady Justice plastic crew and have a Mei Feng crew ready to go after that.

If you've not given Malifaux a go before, get involved! It's fun and cheap to get started with. It's allowing me to spend a lot more time on detail of minis, something which I've abandoned whilst painting hordes of Orks, Marines, Guardsmen etc.

Cheers,
SB

Tyranids - Fighting back against Codex Hatred

Morning folks,

Saturday morning I woke up like a giddy schoolboy, it was new Codex day! All through the week I had been hearing the doom and gloom over the changes people had found. Despite all of this though, it's still the book I've anticipated getting my hands on the most in the last couple of years - purely because of this hate.

I'm the sort of person that if someone says something is bad, it makes me want to use that unit / character / vehicle all the more.

Whenever a new book comes out, there always seems to be some kind of "ripples in a pond" effect of hatred. One or two "notable" voices / blogs / sites have their opinion and everyone seems to snowball off of whatever that opinion says, even before they've read the full codex and can see the entire picture.

So, over the weekend I had a bit of a skim read and to be honest, I really like it. It goes back to the Monster Mash style lists of 4th edition, but importantly, there's now a load more monsters rather than just various different Carnifexes.

"BUT WAIT! YOU LIKE THIS ABOMINATION OF A CODEX?!"
Yes. Yes I do, and here's why.

"They've removed Spore Pods, how are we supposed to get anything anywhere now?"
Aside from the Chapter House rubbish side of it, it means that the Nids don't just get to copy Space Marine tactics. Warriors, Gaunts and Fexes were never supposed to be the ones getting dropped onto the opposite side of the table - there's now various flyers for the speed along with Rippers, Raveners and the Mawloc that can deep strike by tunnelling in. Tunelling always made much more sense to me.

Ultimately, Drop Podding is a Space Marine thing to do - other armies don't get equivalents, why should Tyranids? The more fitting thing for them is Spawning (a unique mechanic for Nids) and Tunelling. This coming from the guy who bought 20 Dragon Eggs off eBay last year for a 5th edition Nid army.

"Synapse is rubbish now! My Gaunts can hurt themselves / flee off the board / etc."
Good. That's the way Synapse is supposed to be. With the 5th edition codex bleeding over into 6th edition rule changes, what you ended up with was actively wanting your Hormagaunts to be outside of Synapse range so that they got Rage and extra attacks.

The only thing I will concede on this is that I think a 1-3 for the lowest level of Synapse (i.e. the bad one) is a bit harsh, but again, this promotes you needing to keep stuff in Synapse range / extend your Synapse range / take more Synapse creatures.

"But they made the Tervigon rubbish!"
I've not read the Tervigon entry properly yet, all I've seen is that you now can't spawn then move your Gaunts, to which I say "GOOD!". See the Tervigon now more as a Transport vehicle, as opposed to launching yourself out of it however far it used to.

As for the fact you now need to take 30 Termagants to take a troop choice Tervigon? Again, that's good. I was fed up of seeing "The Scuttling Swarm" represented by 10 - 30 Gaunts and 1 - 3 Tervigons. Yeah it became swarm-like as the game went on, but 30 models is a good sign GW want to see hordes of Gribblies on the table as well.

"They got rid of the Doom of Malan'tai! How could they do this to me?!!"
Simple, they got rid of a character who was broken. Ever see a Tyranid army in a tournament without one? Point proven. For not much more than a basic Zoanthrope you got something that could do Psychic shriek to ALL units in a radius, in BOTH player turns, without ever having a downside to using it AND got stronger for doing so. I don't like seeing units get deleted from a Codex, but he was a crutch, plain and simple.

"They got rid of the Parasite of Mortrex too! How could they do this to me?!"
Said no one. Ever.

I can only remember seeing him 1 or 2 times mostly in a themed list with Warriors, Shrikes and Rippers. I heard someone complain about losing a Winged Synapse creature. Seems they forgot about the Hive Tyrant - but again, this falls into the "I always use the winged Tyrant in this way!" rather than "I need Synapse support for this stuff, maybe I can use the Tyrant?".

"But all the Bio-Artifacts suck!"
Not really, I just feel that they're costed properly. There's no auto-include artifact in this Codex, like there are in the previous 6th edition Codexes - Puretide Engram in Tau, Mantle of the Laughing God in Eldar, Black Mace in Chaos Marines, Grimoire in Daemons. I felt the same way about the Dark Angels artifacts, they're all middle of the road "handy if you need them and cool in some situations" kinda thing.

Considering how Synapse is, I'd expect people to start looking at the Norn crown, especially on a Winged Tyrant to help him support areas of the battlefield.

"Pyrovores are still rubbish! The internet told me they would be good!"
People were expecting AP3 / AP2 Pyrovores that could drop down in Spores and batter marines. They've gotten better in having AP2 melee attacks, but I see these more now as backfield "sweepers" and support. Keep them close to your home objective holders to clear up things like infiltrating Kroot, Orks, Scouts, etc.

"The Warlord table is rubbish too! Rolling a 1 is useless to me!"
Add more trees to your scenery collection then! Any time you don't include ruins, buildings, rivers / ponds, forests then you're limiting your game types. Understandably in Tournaments you don't get a say (unless you're Wood Elves in Fantasy, with your pet Forest). We're guilty for it at club (not including trees), mostly because we've not got many or that they're not in with the 40K scenery.

I think the rest of the traits are all pretty good. I've got a box of trees that I need to get on bases and I'll be adding them in regular rotation.

Other than that, I think the other Warlord traits are alright. As with most Warlord tables I've seen in Codexes, there's some that are "Meh" and some that are decent. That's why we roll a dice to see what you get!

"Tyranids can't take Rulebook Psychic Powers anymore? GIVE ME BACK BIOMANCY!"
Now, this is a touchy subject to a lot of people and one that will likely get FAQ'd back in.

Personally? I see the BRB powers as Warp based, to which the Tyranids should have no access to. Mechanically their Psykers function as everyone else does, to keep the rules simple, but I like the fact they've their own Psychic discipline. What I would have liked to have seen would be a few disciplines, rather than the one, which is why I think it will get FAQ'd.

The one I will conceed on is that Biomancy suits the Tyranids down to the ground and I expect them to get access back to it. If it doesn't happen, then I'm not going to lose any sleep, I'll just keep plodding on with the Codex powers.

Biomancy was a crutch for players to make their MCs nigh invulnerable, now you actually have to think about where your Psyker and MCs wade into / what units they get close to. Ultimately it's less about getting Iron Arm, Endurance, Warp Speed etc. and more about using the actual stats for the model you're using.

The reason why I think Nids will get Biomancy back, is that Chaos Daemons have access to it, and if you can have a Great Unclean One making himself Toughness Infinite, then Tyranid MCs should be able to as well.

"Scything talons are pointless now!"
When you consider pretty much every unit had Scything Talons and they're the "standard" Tyranid weapon, I can see the logic for toning them down. I wouldn't expect a Space Marine chainsword, the basic combat weapon, to have some kind of special rule or bonus involved with them that gives them rending or shred, for example (however fitting that maybe). It's just a loss you have to accept really in the grand scheme of it, however handy it was for the bugs.

-------

There's probably a ton more online hate that could be piled in here, but I've gone for the biggest and most vocal ones I've seen. I've not had a good enough read of the codex to go into too many specifics, so I could be wrong on some bits.

I'll probably also get a lot of flak for posting this off people who don't like the Codex, but personally I'm looking forward to finally painting my Nids (after starting them last January) and getting them on the table to play some games.

It's shook things up at least so we're not seeing the same 5th edition / early 6th edition lists over and over again with Swarmlord, Doom, min Gaunts, max Tervigon as troops, 3 Trygons, etc.

That's my two bob worth, anyone else fed up with the bile and hatred towards new codex and rules before they're even released properly?

So many people take rules snippets and debatable points out of context with the whole book or the grand scheme of the rules, it's getting really boring to hear.

If you like the models and the army, then use them and enjoy them. So what if something's more expensive than it was, so what if they've removed something from the codex, so what if something is different.

Get over it and enjoy playing toy soldiers.

Cheers,
SB

Tyranids - Mycetic Spores

Morning again Comrades.

Having decided to finally take the plunge and start a Tyranid army for 2013 I decided I would try a few things out, one being a heavy emphasis on Mycetic Spores in my list.

Currently my Nid collection is as follows:

• 3 Warriors
• 1 Fex
• 16 Gaunts
• 16 Hormagants
• 8 Stealers
• 4 or 5 Ripper Swarms
• 10 Gargoyles

So the hope was that with the addition of a HQ later down the line, I could have some of the units drop down in Spores and cause havoc.

Problem is, there's no Mycetic Spore models and I planned on using a ton of them.

A lot of people have used the Mega Bloks "plasma hatcher" eggs, but they seem to be getting more and more expensive and harder to find, because people want them for the same reason.

I found a few auctions on Ebay however of other Mega Bloks eggs and managed to win an auction for a job lot of them for £5 + P&P. These showed up a ccouple of weeks ago, but I forgot to do a post mentioning them.

So here's what I got, I think there was about 14 or 15 in there in a few different designs.

And then a size comparison next to a Space Marine drop pod, of which it's supposed to be a similar size. When you account for the size of the fins, the larger eggs on the right are pretty much the same size and footprint and also look a lot more suitable for holding 20 infantry or a massive Carnifex.

The smaller Spore on the left could be used for Zoanthropes or Warriors later down the line to differentiate them.

There's also a few other types of "iron" looking eggs that have metal plate sections on the egg, so I would have to find a way of removing them or making it look all Bio-looking chitin or something before I can use them

So that's that... I've got about 15 of them so plenty to use for a fledgling Nid army, it's  just a shame that with the changes in 6th edition I can no longer do an all-Spore Tyranid army. The plan may be to keep a firebase at the back with a Tyrannofex, Tervigon and some other bits whilst everything else Spores forwards.

All for a fiver. 15 of them for the cost of 1/4 of a single Drop Pod.

Goodbye for now folks!
SB

Army composition

Hi All,

Angryman here.  I'd like to ask the question of whether to Swarmlord or not to Swarmlord. 

Since the change to 6th edition one unit has really stood out for me in the Tyranid codex, that is the Swarmlord.  In 5th edition he was too overpriced to really justify, with the way I run him in my 2K lists he plus the guard and lashwhips comes in at a whopping 475 points.  That gives me 11 T6 wounds, 3+sv, 4 rolls on for psychic powers but can only cast 2 a turn (personally I prefer the biomancy table), an increase to my reserve rolls, the ability to re-roll outflank results, I can give units either preferred enemy or furious assault, longer synapse range, instant death weapons that make you re-roll successful inv saves, he is an MC so you all the benefits that brings and counts as a character for the purposes of challenges.  All in all that unit is an absolute must.  There are 2 drawbacks, the unit is expensive and SLOW.  they can move 6", run upto 6" or the 2d6 charge range.  Experienced players will just avoid him if they can.

My other choice for the title of warlord in my Tyranid force is the Flyrant (to be more precise a Hive Tyrant with wings).  I He comes with 4 wounds, T6, 2 rolls on the psychic powers but can only cast 1 per turn (again biomancy), he is a MC so has all the benefits that brings, he has wings so he is VERY fast, can swoop or glide, counts as a character for challenge purposes.  I run him with a 2+sv, 2 twin linked devourers with brain leech worms and old adversary (it gives him and other friendlies within 6" preferred enemy).  the devourers give him 12 twin linked S6 ap- shots a turn.  This is a very effective unit but comes in at 325 points and can end up being stranded due to its speed.

Id prefer to have them both in my army, having a trimmed down version of the Swarmlord unit, may be by losing a guard and the 3 lashwhips but that would still be a total of 725 points for 4 models and both HQ choices.  I don't think I could really justify that in my list.

So have at it, any thoughts, alternatives?

All comments welcome

New Year: Old Failures and New Goals

Morning folks,

Been a while without a post as everyone's been busy over the holidays with work, family, general socialising away from a keyboard, etc. So happy new year to everyone, and hope you all had a good festive period.

Now it's back to work time, which means a new set of goals for this coming year, as well as a recap of what I got done over December.

Dark Eldar:
Out of my Dark Eldar backlog I got all the Kabalite Warriors and Wyches completed and the Hellions ready for painting, although by that point in December I'd got painting fatigue and gave up in favour of Xbox gaming.

I didn't manage to get much else done, apart from getting Dark Vengeance bits out of the box ready to sand the bases and spray... So all in all, apart from that hefty chunk of Dark Eldar, I didn't get much else in the painting pledge dented.

Festive Gaming:
As a send off for the last game before Christmas, some of us playing in a 4 player kill team game involving a crashed shuttle and it's pilot S.Claus. So I spent a Sunday evening converting, undercoating and painting him ready for the game on a Monday night and thought he looked cool.

As for the actual game, alliances went out of the window pretty much straight away, and the Ultramarines kill team used it's Random Target Generator (tm) to full effect meaning no one was safe.

Tyranids:
I decided with it being a new year and not really being too interested in the Dark Angels stuff, that I'd start myself a new army project and try to add at least 1 new unit a month. Hopefully reaching 2,000pts of painted stuff by the end of July in the hopes of going to Britcon 2013 in August.

The options were Tau, add to the Chaos stuff I had from Dark Vengeance or an army I'd been after starting for ages - Nids.

I decided on Nids as they were my original first army (after splitting Battle for Macragge) and I wanted to do the paint scheme I did on them with brown and bone, and mostly because it didn't involve vehicles, just big beasties.

 
So with my Xmas pennies I went out and bought the Battleforce and Codex as a launch point, and hopefully place an order for January's unit in the next few days.

I'm not entirely sure how I want the Nid army to be, probably just a collection of all the different units I can get hold of. Initially I wanted the core of the army to be Warriors, but it's pretty expensive to be running that, even with eBay prices.

That's all for now folks while my work PC churns into life after a month with no activity! I'll get a painting pledge for January sorted in the next couple of days too.

THE DOOM OF MALAN'TAI

Hi All,

Angryman here,

I played a 2K game against another club member on Monday night.  I was using my Tyranids and Mike was using his Dark Eldar.  The mission was 'bases' with pitched battle setup, terrain was light and spread evenly over the board.  I got first turn, things were going well until the end of my movement when I DIDN'T cast FNP on my Swarmlord and Tyrant Guard, a few shots, no combat etc - Mikes turn 1, due to the amount of poison, re-roll weapons his Dark Eldar had, my Swarmlord died, horribly, he then took out some of my Hive Guard so my shooting ability was hampered.  My turn 2 started and the Doom appeared in his spore pod of awesomeness.  I then then went on to single handedly turn around what was a sure fire loss to me to a well deserved draw.  At the end of turn 6 (when he finally died) the Doom had at least 80 shots fired at him, survived 2 lots of combat, he did have a lot of wounds taken off him but he kept on regaining them and turned the game around for me.

so the point of my post is this

How awesome is the Doom for 90 points? to the other Tyranid players out there, do you take him and if not, why? to the non Tyranid players, is it a broken unit?

all comments welcome

[News] Tyranid and Space Wolf Second Wave!

Well then, it's been a while since I last posted. Lots going on at work and home, not much hobbywise. I've been meaning to post about my Necron progress, but constantly forget to take pictures.

Anyways... I spotted this a few moments ago thanks to Bell of Lost Souls and thought it was worth sharing on here!

Product	Contents	Date	Price	Material
Thunderwolf Cavalry	3 Minis	Mar 03	$54.50	Plastic
Fenrisian Wolf Pack	5 Minis	Mar 03	$24.75	Plastic
Hive Tyrant / Swarmlord	1 Mini	Mar 03	$53.75	Plastic
Tervigon / Tyrannofex	1 Mini	Mar 03	$57.75	Plastic
Arjac Rockfist	1 Mini	Mar 03	$24.75	Finecast
Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf	1 Mini	Mar 03	$41.25	Finecast
Hunter with Wolf Standard	1 Mini	Mar 03	$24.75	Finecast
Cyberwolf	1 Mini	Mar 03	$16.50	Finecast
Boneswords Set	3 x BS pairs	Mar 03	$19.75	Finecast
Bonesword / Lash Whip Set	3 x BS & LW pairs	Mar 03	$19.75	Finecast
Ragnar Blackmane	1 Mini	Mar 03	$19.75	Finecast
Ulrik the Slayer	1 Mini	Mar 03	$19.75	Finecast
Njal Stormcaller	1 Mini	Mar 03	$19.75	Finecast
Iron Priest	1 Mini	Mar 03	$19.75	Finecast
Terminator Rune Priest	1 Mini	Mar 03	$19.75	Finecast
Rune Priest	1 Mini	Mar 03	$19.75	Finecast
Wolf Guard	1 Mini	Mar 03	$19.75	Finecast
Wolf Guard with Wolf Claws	1 Mini	Mar 03	$19.75	Finecast
Lukas the Trickster	1 Mini	Mar 03	$19.75	Finecast
Bjorn the Fell-Handed	1 Mini	Mar 03	$49.50	Finecast
Deathleaper	1 Mini	Mar 03	$24.75	Finecast
Old One Eye	1 Mini	Mar 03	$41.25	Finecast
Biovore	1 Mini	Mar 03	$41.25	Finecast
Spore Mine Cluster	9 Minis	Mar 03	$24.75	Finecast
The Red Terror	1 Mini	Mar 03	$41.25	Finecast
Ripper Swarm Brood	1 Mini	Mar 03	$13.25	Finecast

 I'm a bit too excited for a plastic Hive Tyrant. It might be the thing that drives me towards buying Nid stuff...

Also nice to see with the way Finecast is going, that GW are starting to do Bitz packs again, as they shown with the banner for WHFB stuff and whatnot.

Anything on there interesting you guys?

SB

The unloved Nids

Hey all,

It's been a LONG time since I last put up a post so I thought I would share my thoughts on my Tyranids that I have been trying. My lists have been made using units which at least at MAWS don't get used and as far as I know have been shunned in most gaming circles.

Firstly lets look at my favourite unloved Tyranid, the T-fex. This beast costs 250pts basic which is a hefty lump of points, but for that you get 6 T6 wounds with a 2+ save, plus a Strength 6 Ap4 flamer which can fire 20" (12" plus the 8" flamer) plus two other weapons (cluster spines and a thorax swarm) it can also fire all three weapons because it is so awesome. It can take some upgrades but the only worthwhile one is regen costing 30pts. The fleshborer hive just isn't worth the 10 points it costs.

Next I tried out the Harpy, I'm still unsure on this guy as he didn't really stand out, but he took out 2 war walkers and blatted a squad of guardians. But he is only T5 with 4 wounds and a 4+ save, which means Heavy Bolters will shred him if he is left in the open. He has some good abilities like his Screech which halves the enemy's initiative the turn he charges and he can drop spore mines (but only once). Having twin-linked Stranglethorn cannons is a bonus and it isn't worth upgrading to venom cannons. I would leave the regen at home even though it's only 15pts. As a distractive unit or a support for a Trygon, or the Parasite it is a decent buy at 160pts.

The last unit I tried which I personally thought was a bargin buy was two Venomthropes. I have heard alot of negativity about these guys but I loved them and will include them in every list I use from now on. Giving my big monsters a 5+ save makesa huge difference, It saved a tervigon from being blasted apart in turn one from a full Eldar shooting round and kept various others alive for a few turns. This frustrated my opponent greatly and took great delight in blowing them apart with missile launchers, I did however forget about various rules that these guys have, like when an enemy assaults a unit within their spore cloud range they have to take a dangerous terrain test!!! At 55pts I think these guys are a bargain and will definatly help keep Tervigons alive and spawning. Just remember they are not like most Nid units they are purely support and will do well being kept behind the Tervigons they are protecting.

Well they are the three units that rarely get used or considered at MAWS but I think we will be seeing more Venomthropes around.

Feel free to leave your thoughts on these three and if you like, dislike or would consider using them.

Enjoy!

Beer-Hammer 40,000 at Nottingham

Morning all,

It's took me a few days to recover from it, but over last weekend the 40k'ers at MAWS went to Warhammer World in Nottingham, to drink copious amounts of alcohol and play a 500pt 1 day Cup - dubbed the Beerhammer Cup.  The aim was simple - to play 1 game against each player, whilst recovering from pre-game drinking the night before.

My army idea was simple, whatever will take the least space as possible in my bag. I had a plastic tub which, if the list couldn't fit inside of, it needed to be changed. Luckily the 500pt Necron list I'd used a few weeks ago was small in number and (with a bit of help) just managed to get in the tub.

It weighed in as follows:
10 Necron Warriors
2 x 2 Units of Destroyers
2 x 1 Unit of Tomb Spyders with Particle Projector.

Lowe and behold, after finding out everyone's forces, it seems it was the Old Blood against the New Kids. Three 3rd edition Codexes - Necrons, Dark Eldar and Daemonhunters, playing off against 2 of the newest codexes -Blood Angels and Tyranids.

Game #1
So, after a fair bit of messing about with tables at Warhammer World, we got into the gaming and I kicked the competition off playing against Angryman's Tyranids:

The list was something along the lines of:
2 x 1 Zoanthropes
2 Hive Guard
2 x 20 Gaunts with Toxin Sacs and Adrenal Glands

This was the game I was dreading. The sheer amount of Gaunts on the table, backed up by High S and Low AP killy stuff that was there.

Fortunately, my Destroyers managed to snipe one of the Hive Guard early on, took out the Zoanthropes a bit later on and then the Gaunts struggled for Synapse.

Combine that with failing an assault charging Necrons into, then being run down by an assaulting Tomb Spyder as they fled.

Result: Win

Game #2

Game 2 was against Blood Angels (if I remember rightly), the new kids on the block. No vehicles, but focus on the numbers:
5 Man Tactical Squad
2 x 5 man Devastators with lots of weapons
4 Jumppack Death Company with 2 Power Weapons

We played a Capture and Control mission, 1 home objective each.

Thanks to an absolute ton of cover saves from AP2 weaponry, and extremely poor rolling by both of us for shooting, we played out to a draw. I held my Objective, the Blood Angels held theirs.

Result - Draw

Game #3
Game 3 was the battle of the 3rd Ed Codexes. Necrons v Dark Eldar. Now, this is the first time I can remember playing against Dark Eldar and I really enjoy playing against them since they're rare to see.

The list was along the lines of:
Drachon
2 x 10 Warriors in Raiders
Ravager

The mission was again Capture and Control, this time with Dawn of War deployment. The Dark Eldar, being Dark Eldar, hoped to cripple the 1 unit of Necron warriors on the board in the first turn. Unfortunately, thanks to a lot of cover saves on my part from Dark Lances.

Unfortunately, whilst holding my own, the amount of Dark Lances and Disintegrator (?) shots tore into my Warriors and made the army phase out.

This was after a first 2 turns where I managed to destroy 2 of the 3 paper planes in the Dark Eldar army, forcing them to foot slog it over to the Necrons.

Result: Loss via Phaseout

Game #4

Again, another battle of the third edition Codexes, this time Daemonhunters were the opposition. Straken was the opponent, and he chose to use an all or nothing army of Deep Striking Grey Knights with a squad of Inquisition Storm Troopers.

Stormtroopers with 2 Meltas in a Rhino
2 x 5 Grey Knights Deepstriking with Incinerators(?)

The game was Capture and Control, 1 "home" objective each. The Stormrooper Rhino parked in cover, with the Destroyers looking for an easy kill. Unforunately, the Rhino just would not stop making successful cover saves from penetrating hits.

Unlucky for Straken, both Grey Knight units came down in different turns, so couldn't overwhelm the Necrons and were picked off.

It took a while, but eventually the remaining Destroyers managed to shift the Rhino and Stormtroopers from the objective, to give the Necrons a 1-0 victory.

Result: Victory

Final Results

So with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss to my name, I think the Necrons gave a good show for their money, by ending up on 7 points putting me in 2nd place.

1st place went to Brother Captain Ventris with his Dark Eldar army, through a combination of clever play and taking advantage of everyone's lack of knowledge of Dark Eldar! Combined with the fact his Dark Eldar are yet to lose a game at the club, it's well deserved win.

1st Place - 8pts - Brother-Captain Ventris (Dark Eldar)
2nd Place - 7pts - SuicideBadger (Necrons)
3rd Place - 5pts - Sanguinius (Blood Angels)
3rd Place - 5pts - Angryman (Tyranids)
5th Place - 1pts - Col.Straken (Daemonhunters)

It was a really fun contest, and I really enjoy the smaller scale games where everything hangs on a knife edges - less of a war of attrition.

Here's looking forward to the Combat Patrol Cup in November / December!

Peace,
SB

Britcon 2010 - Angryman's Tyranids

Hi all,

Angryman here, August 13th sees the start of Britcon 2010.  Its a 6 game, 3 day, 2000 point tournament held every year in Manchester.  MAWS players have entered the 40K competition for the past 4 years.  Each year our final positions have been higher and higher, hopefully this year we can bring home a trophy for the club.

This year I'm taking my Tyranids.  I've showcased my Tyranid army on previous posts but I wanted to show you what I'm taking.

Hive Tyrant and 2 Tyrant Guard

Tyranid Prime and 4 Tyranid Warriors

The Doom of Malan'tai and a Mysetic Spore

3 Hive Guard

3 Zonathropes

2 Tervigons

two units of 14 Termagants

Carnifex

  

Trygon Prime

5 objective markers

The colour scheme I chose  was a variant of Hive Fleet Behemoths colours.  To protect the models and give them a slimy look I 'ardcoated the entire army and objective markers.

Last year I finished 4th, hopefully (with a lot of luck) this year will see Hive Fleet Tattybojangles finish at least 3rd.  There is always good competition at the event and the rules pack makes sure there are no 'internet lists'  or 'power lists'.  There is a link to the Britcon home page under MAWS links where you can see the rules for the various different wargames played there.

[Battle Report] Apocalypse! Tyranids v Guard, Wolves and Grey Knights

Hey everyone,

I've finally had the motivation to pick up the stack of scribbled notes on my desk and write them up to cover the Apocalypse game we played a few weekends ago, with Angryman using his Tyranids against my Imperial Guard and Col. Straken's Space Wolf / Grey Knight list. Our club hall was double booked, so we had to play the game on a standard 6 x 4 table at my house - not ideal, but it meant for a quick decisive game...

Battle Lines are Drawn.

The objectives of the game were for 4 objectives - 3 minor (worth 1 each) and 1 major objective (3 points). These were spread around the board, 2 being Bastions, 1 being a Tyranid spawning pool, and the final one being an Imperial defence outpost.

Imperial Heavy Armour deploys on the Table.

The Tyranid horde deploys - plenty left in reserve to drop down on the board.

Turn 1 - Imperium
The Imperial armour advance forwards up the board, destroying Razorwire left from previous battles. Hellhounds and Leman Russes hold the right side, the remaining Russes and the Wolves on the left.

Imperial shooting however wasn't so good. Most of the Guard tanks scattered off wildly from their targets. The hellhounds however fared better, attacking a brood of Warriors and Zoanthropes in close proximity to one another.

In totalt, the Imperium managed to kill; 1 Carnifex, 4 Tyranid Warriors, 2 Zoanthropes and left 2 fexes badly wounded, as well as the foot slogging Tyrant and his guard.

Imperial Advance - Turn 1.

Tyranids - Turn 1

The Tyranid horde pressed forward, the Carnifexes and Tyrants towards Imperial Tanks. The Tervigons managed to spawn 27 gaunts between them.

In the shooting phase, one of the Tervigon attempted to cast Feel No Pain on the Tyrant's unit but took a Perils of the Warp wound. A Heavy Venom Cannon Fex destroyed a Grey Knight Dreadnought. A 2nd Carnifex managed to blow up the turret from the very effective Hellhounds. Zoanthropes fail to damage a Grey Knight Land Raider. Hive guard shoot and Shake a Leman Russ.

In assault, the Carnifexes run into the Hellhounds and manage to Stun the 2nd Hellhound.

Tyranids Turn 1 - They do NOT like Hellhounds

Imperium - Turn 2
From reserve, the Marauder Bomber arrives and aims for a strafing run across the entire Tyranid back line. Drop pods with an Assault Squad, and a Wolf Guard squad arrive aiming to attack the Tyranid defensive horde. Grey Knight Terminators leap out from the Land Raider.

In the shooting phase, the Grey Knight Terminators Land Raider shoots and kill a Tyrant Guard, Drop Pod causes 2 wounds on the fresh Tervigon. Wolf Guard terminators wound the cowardly Hive Guard and the Bomber with it's strafing run killed another Tyrant Guard. The Guard opened fire, with a Leman Russ Vanquisher blowing up a Bastion housing Genestealers, a Leman Russ then followed that up with dropping it's Battle Cannon on the Genestealers, scattering, but managing to kill 1 Zoanthrope nearby and a Genestealer (darn cover saves...). The Leman Russ Demolisher killed the final Tyrant guard and wounded Old One Eye. Another Leman russ kiled a Dakkafex with it's shooting, along with 4 nearby Gaunts.

In assault, the Grey Knight Terminators take out Old One Eye in combat before the feared beast had chance to even open his Claws.

Leman Russ tanks press forward to Hammer the "Big Ones".

Tyranids - Turn 2
In the movement phase, the Mawloc, Trygon Prime, Doom of Malantai, Screamer Killer fex and Genestealers with Broodlord manage to arrive from reserve. Spelling big trouble for the Guardsmen... The Tervigons manage to spawn 18 more Gaunts between them, but unfortunately, both roll doubles - no more spawning in this game. The Gaunts to the back corner of the board move forward to target the Wolf Guard and press on the Objectives.

Shooting, the Tervigons cast Feel No Pain on the walking Tyrant (who's buddies have been killed) and a Carnifex. The Doom of Malan'tai wrenches the souls from 2 Grey Knight Terminators. A Dakkafex causes a Shaken and Weapon Destroyed result on a Space Wolf Rhino. The Gaunt wave shooting kills 1 Grey Knight terminator and the Hive Guard pop the Storm Bolter off the Drop Pod.

In assault, the Hive Tyrant and Gaunts charge into the GK Grand master, hits the Tyrant 5 times but fails to wound, more Gaunts charge the Wolf Guard. Carnifexes blow up both Hellhounds, destroying them and taking 2 Genestealers in the blast.

Tyanid Reserves en Masse

Imperial - Turn 3
Imperial Guard reserves show up now, with Kratos (Guardsman Marbo) appearing, along with 2 Veteran Squads in Chimeras, Company Command Squad in another Chimera and then 3 Vendetta Gunships.

The Grey Hunters and Grey Knights disembark from their vehicles, and "Jimmy Gauntslayer" the Lone Wolf moved towards the Trygon prime - a fitting test for him. The Marauder bomber strafes along the centre of the board.

In the shooting, the Marauder Bomber annihalated 25 gaunts with more dropped bombs, Grey Hunters kill 5 Ymgarl Stealers, GK Land Raider killes 6 gaunts. Marbo throws his demo charges and wipes out a squad of 3 warriors lurking near the backfield objective. Veterans and the Command squads, along with their Transports bring down the Mawloc thanks to Melta guns and a pinch of luck. The Wolf Long Fangs fail to wound anything and the Vendettas take their toll on the Tyranids, wounding a Tyrand, wounding a Fex and wounding the Trygon twice. A Leman Russ kills one Hive guard and another wiped out a Spore pod.

Assault phase, Dreadnaught assaults the Screamer Killer Fex, Lone Wolf assaults the Trygon and manages to survive. The Grey knights stuck in assault are killed off, and the Hive Tyrant headbutts the Grey Knight Grand Master to death.

Reinforcements FTW!

Tyranids - Turn 3
Reinforcements - Tyranid Warrior Prime, along with his Warrior Bodyguard show up, Raveners appear, Winged Tyrant, 3 Lictors jump out near the Imperial Artillery line, Parasite of Mortrex and Shrikes all appear. Everything in the Tyranid army pressed forward to cripple the Imperium.

In shooting, the Hive Guard turned their attention to Guardsman marbo, which thanks to their nifty guns, bypassed his Cover Save and Stealth rule (he was stood behind a wall). The Winged Tyrant knocks a Lascannon off the Marauder bomber, Tyranid warriors kill 3 space wolf Grey hunters and one of the Carnifexes blows up a Space Wolf Rhino.

In assault, the Tervigon and Fex destroys the Land Raider, Tyrant attacks the Demolisher, the 2nd tyrant stunds a Leman Russ, Carnifex wrecks the Vanquisher, Genestealers attack a Veteran Squad Chimera, wreck it and kills several Veterans, Raveners shake another Leman Russ and the Ymgarl Genestealers attack the wolves, killing 2, then the remainder of the unit being wiped out by the Wulfen marked trooper. Finally the Doom of Malan'tai blows up the Leman russ, and the resulting explosion destroys 4 Gaunts. The Trygon finally kills off the Lone Wolf.

"There used to be more tanks than this..."

Imperum - Turn 4
Imperial retaliation time... Veterans and the command squads turn to wipe out the Genestealers with Brood Lord. The Grey hunters move to combat the Raveners and the Vendettas move up towards the destroyed Bastion.

In shooting, the Bomber kills 2 gaunts and all of the Shrikes. Long fangs take 3 wounds from the Trygon prime and Grey hunters killed 2 Raveners. The Company Command squad issues 1st rank fire, 2nd rank fire to the Veteran squad out of the Chimera. The Veteran squad kills 7 gaunts and the Colossus Siege Cannon kills off a Hive Guard. The Leman Russ scattered it's shot, managing to land on the Colossus but luckily failed to damage. The Demolisher missed the Trygon completely. The Vendetta gunships kill off one of the Tervigons, kill a Tyrant and finish off the Trygon prime - awesome shooting there Imperial Navy.

Assault was scarce, the Grey Hunters moved to the Raveners, 3 Hunters being killed in the process but the Hunters managing to kill off the Raveners.

"That's better lads... Thank the Emperor for the Imperial Navy!!"

Tyranids - Turn 4
The remaining Tervigon regenerates 1 of his lost wounds, the Lictors spread around cover. Gaunts move to secure the 2nd bastion objective and the remaining Tyranids dispersed to avoid Guard artillery fire.

Shooting caused a Carnifex to shake a Vendetta, but the remaining shooting patters harmlessly off the Imperial Armour.

Assault was more prolific for the Tyranids. Warriors with the Alpha Warrior charge the Leman Russ and Space Wolves, removing the Battle Cannon and killing the Wolves, Screamer Killer carnifex assaults a Vendetta, removing 1 of it's 3 Lascannons. The Lictors assault the Colossus mortar, shaking it, and a Tyrant assaults a Leman Russ, blowing it up. The Doom's assault against the Demolisher and the Lictors assault on a Razorback was fruitless, but the Genestealers and Broodlord stunned, then blew up a Chimera with a Veteran squad. The Tervigon assaulted one of the Drop Pods and destroys it.

ZERG RUSH!

Imperial - Turn 5
The remaining Razorback tank shocks the Gaunts, moving them up the battlefield. The Vendetta moves to contest the Tyranids home objective, while other Vendettas spread out to move for objectives. The Command squad disembarked from it's stunned Chimera and the attached Inquisitor moved and joing the remnants of the remaining Veteran squad. The Bomber again strafes across the table for maximum impact.

The Bomber's strafing run kills off 3 warriors and wounds around the rest of the unit. The Razorback fails to wound the Carnifex. One Vendetta kills the Screamer killer Carnifex and the Long Fangs fail to hurt the lurking Lictors. The Company Command squad kills off another 7 gaunts and the nearby Demolisher takes a wound off a Hive Tyrant. The Leman russ kills 3 gaunts with it's template and the other shootable Vendetta killed off a Sniper Fex.

In assault, the Veteran squad and Inquisitor moved to charge the Broodlord, but failed to damage it. Fortunately, their leadership held and kept the Broodlord pinned with them for a turn.

Zooooooooooooom!

Tyranids - Turn 5
The Gaunts press to a Bastion objective and the Winged Hive Tyrant moves to support them.

The Flying tyrant shoots a Vendetta but nothing happens and a Carnifex moves to support, managing to Shake the Vendetta.

In assault, the Tyranid prime targets were the Vendettas.. Tyrant attacks one, fails to do anything, similar story with a 2nd Vendetta assaulted by a Carnifex. A lone Lictor attacking a third Vendetta managed to cause a Weapon Destroyed result. Another Lictor assaulting the Colossus caused an immobilised result. A Tyrant attacking a Leman Russ caused 3 penetrating hits, resulting in a wrecked result. Gaunts charging in on the Imperial Guard Command Squad kill off all but the Company Commander who stands firm, killing 3 gaunts in retaliation. The Broodlord versus the veterans again resulted in a drawn combat.

"Stand still damn you!!"

Imperial - Turn 6
The Vendettas move around the board to contest 3 of the objective, the Shaken Vendetta moving flat out to reach it's one near the Winged Hive Tyrant. The Bomber strafes across the board again and the remaining 2 Leman Russes (1 Demolisher) move to open fire on remaining targets.

The Marauder bomber kills off 1 Lictor, the Vendetta nearby shoots another Lictor but thanks to it's Chamelionic skin and going to ground, it survived. The Leman Russ kills a Tyranid Warrior. A 2nd Vendetta attempts to open up on another Lictor, who again, dives for cover in the ground. The Doom of Malan'tai takes a Demolisher shell, but passes his invulnerable save. The Space Wolf Long Fangs nick a wound from the Winged Tyrant.

In assault, the Brood Lord kills off the Veteran squad (finally...) and consolidates towards the Bastion objective. Imperial Commander Grant wins the combat against the Gaunts, who take 2 casualties - standing firm to contest the Objective on his own.

Tyranids swarm the Digestion Pool objective

Tyranids - Turn 6
The Winged Hive Tyrant moves to assault the nearby Vendetta, Warriors, Carnifex and walking Tyrant move to attack Leman Russes, Gaunts move toward the digestion pool, and the Tervigon goes to attack a Chimera lumbering toward the Tyranid home objective.

Shooting caused no issues on the Vendettas, one passing it's Flat Out cover save and the other from the lone Hive Guard missing it's target.

In assault, the Tervigon destroyed the Chimera, Winged Hive Tyrant shakes the Vendetta, and all 3 remaining Leman Russes were destroyed. Commander Grant stood firm once again, holding the Gaunts for a draw.

Imperium - Turn 7
The Vendettas and the Long Fangs move to contest their nearby objectives. Everything else remaining (not much) held their positions.

The Marauder bomber shot the Lictors and wounded 1, the Vendetta with 1 lascannon remaining shot at the Winged Tyrant but failed to wound.

In assault, the Gaunts finally manage to beat down the Imperial Commander - not bad for someone who sits in a box ordering people around mostly.

Tyranids - Turn 7
So final turn for the Tyranids. The Warriors move to combat a Vendetta objective, one remaining Lictor moves to attack the Long Fangs and a Lictor / Gaunt combo move to secure the digestive pool. The Parasite of Mortrex and Tervigon head to the home objective to secure it.

Final round of shooting caused a Vendetta to become shaken, 2 Long Fangs to be killed and the Marauder bomber to finally take a hit, causing a Gun crew stunned result.

In assault, the Hive guard failed to damage his Vendetta foe, the Long Fangs caused 1 wound on a Lictor, but the Lictor held, the walking Tyrant managed to smash down the buzzard Vendetta hovering near his objective and the Winged tyrant failed to damage the final Vendetta.

The Aftermath of Portsmotia...

Result
Tyranid Victory - 1 objective held, other 3 were contested.

Conclusion
It was a tough game full of bloodshed, had Imperial Template Weaponry been a bit more accurate, the Portsmotian defence force may have held - alas. We have crippled the Tyranid foe significantly and can send for further reinforcements to cleanse this Tyranid infestation sector.

SB.

Hive Fleet Tattybojangles and the invasion of Manutia

Hi All,

Angryman here. This weekend Suicide Badger, Col Straken and myself are playing a 5K apocalypse battle. Hive fleet Tattybojangles will be taking on the might of the Imperial Guard allied with the Space Wolves and the Grey Knights. I also wanted to use this opportunity to show off what I have been working on lately.

The hive fleet awakes from dormancy, it has emerged on the edges of a star system. Due to its unusually long period of hibernation it must feed or die of starvation. The fleet makes its approach to what appears to be a world teeming with life.

Upon reaching orbit the swarm gains a better look at the prey world. Manutia is all its glory.

The swarm settles into geosynchronous orbit over the continent of Portsmotia and seeks out a suitable region to land. The chosen area houses the ruins of an old Imperial outpost, partially reclaimed by Mantuia's jungles.

The swarm must conquer and feed quickly so it deploys every bio-creation left in its arsenal in order to achieve its goal.

The Swarm has deployed no less than 3 Hive Tyrants. 1 is winged and armed with 2 twin linked Devourers (with Brain Leech Worms), another is armed with a Bonesword / Lashwhip and a Stranglethorn Cannon and the last is armed with a Bonesword / Lashwhip, a set of Scything Talons and accompanied by 3 Tyrant Guards. There are also 2 Tervigons, an Alpha Warrior and the Parasite of Mortrex.

Here the hive has spawned 3 Lictors, 3 Zonathropes, 3 Hive Guard and the Doom of Malan'tai with a Mysetic Spore. These elite infantry will take a fearsome toll on the defenders of Manutia.

The Hive makes heavy use of Tyranid Warriors to guide and direct the swarm. Here we have a unit of 3 Warriors armed with 2 Deathspitters and a Barbed Strangler. There is a similar but larger unit of 4 Warriors, armed with 3 Deathspitters and a Barbed Strangler. The last unit contain 5 Tyranid Warriors, there is 1 Warrior armed with a Venom Cannon and a set of Scything Talons and the remain 4 Warriors are armed with Bonesword / Lashwhip and a Devourer.

The Hive mind knows that in order to overwhelm the defenders of the Manutia a sheer mass of numbers will be needed to expend the ammunition and destroy the morale of the defenders. Here we have 70 Spinefist Termagants and 62 Fleshborer Termagants.

To spread terror and confusion the hive relies on speed and hit and run tactics. To accomplish this goal it creates Tyranid Shrikes and Raveners. Here are 3 Shrikes with Rending Claws and Scything Talons and 3 Raveners with Scything Talons and Devourers.

In the final waves of attack the hive deploys its heaviest bio-monsters, terror weapons created solely for the destruction of its enemies. Here we have a squadron of 3 Carnifexes all armed with 2 sets of twin linked Devourers (with Brain Leech Worms), a Carnifex with 2 sets of Scything Talons and a Mysetic Spore, a Carnifex with a Heavy Venom Cannon and a twin linked Deathspitter, Old One Eye with Crushing Claws and Scything Talons. There is a Mawloc on the left and last but not least is a Trygon Prime on the right.

Here we have the swarm in all its glory, ready to devourer Manutia and its inhabitants and defenders (please forgive the picture quality).

I've been collecting, painting and modelling my Tyranid army for about 3 years now. Apart from 25 Genestealers and 25 Hormagants (which I hope to complete this week) I've got everything in my army, including objective markers painting up and ardcoated. I went for a variation on Hive Fleet Behemoths for my colour scheme. The bulk of the painting I've gotten finished in this past month ready for this weekends battle. The Hive fleet in the first picture I built using spares from my Tyranid collection. The map of planet Manutia (Suicide Badgers home planet) is my first attempt at painting Planetary Empire tiles.