Tyranids - So close, yet so far.. WIP Showcase

Hi guys,
I attempted this weekend to get my 1850 Nids into a coherent and sexy looking paint scheme.. from the mish mash of browns and greens and even pinks (!) that they were beforehand.

Quite an undertaking in one weekend.
Suffice to say - I failed.

I simply couldn't get them all done in time for Blog Wars 4, an 1850 one day tournament this weekend at Maelstrom/Eye of the Storm.

What I did get done was about 1650. Still pretty impressive and with just my Hive Guard and a 2nd harpy to finish, I feel pretty good about the whole project.

What I aim to do now? Well, I'll run my trusty Necrons to this one, celebrating their 1 year birthday of attending 40k tournaments. That's pretty good for me - if you know me, you'll know I can't stick with one thing for long..hobby ADD and all that.. but the robots have kept me going all year.. let's forget that I won a tournament down at Brighton Warlords earlier in the year with my Space Wolves.. my 1st 6th ed Tournament win!

As for the Nids, well - they'll get finished over the Christmas break, hopefully well before tbh, as I intend to dust off all my vanilla Space Marines and get them all painted up in anticipation of the Dark Angels codex, and ready to ultimately be a force that I am proud of.. my Space Wolves are "OK" but that is all they are.. My BA/GK/VSM.. well, they are a bit crap tbh.. time to make a Marine force to be proud of.

In the meantime, have a goose at these chaps..

These were done with an airbrushed base coat over a grey primer.

I then worked down the colour to a very near black in the centre of the densest (arguably) part of each Nid shell/carapace. In the case of the Doom/Zoanthrope (above right) this meant his forehead!

The most prominent features of each Nid then got a fade to Orange. This meant heads, most pointy bit, claws, tails etc.

It does look incredibly striking en masse.

AS you can see left here, I am somewhat short of little bugs.. You can just about see the beginnings of a pile of little bugs in the mid, far left of this photo.. that pile extends off for quite some way, but unfortunately they are not painted or just in the crazy ass mess of their previous colour schemes.

I am also missing another set of Balrog wings for my 4th flying bug.. a 2nd Harpy.
The painted list is now really quite good..
Both Flyrants,
Harpy,
2 Tervigons,
Doom + Pod
20 Gargoyles
20 Termagants
Trygon
Now the still to go list:
4 Hive Guard (old school warriors)
40 Termagants
These guys are all purple.. but nothing more now..
As for the rest of the army.. it needs washing (the purple basecoat to add some shading and depth, highlight the detail etc) and then I plan to add some patterning to the orange...like freckles..
Anyway.. you know me.. I am not a big "army showcase" guy.. but I thought I would show these guys off, they look good.. I will get some decent photos and more updates over the next couple of weeks as I finish them off.
Hope you like.

Chaos Suckz - Grey Knights Rulz!! New Army List Ideas

After a fairly successful run with the Wolves + Guard over the last 3-4 tournaments, I am looking to try out a new army. Now I was all about Chaos, but the codex, simply put, does not fulfil any of my high expectations.

Abbadon feeling much like many CSM players right now..

Chaos Sucks...Right?

Now don’t get me wrong, there is some strong options and potential combinations within the book, however I am one of those players who does not like taking extreme lists without a measure of balance to take on all comers. Chaos is, unfortunately, not balanced. Their weakness? Shit troops..

I have tried time & time again to build a list with a strong push, solid fire support & still retain a strong scoring presence, but I am struggling. There is always a lack of mobility if I take too many troops, or a lack of scoring if I take too many hard hitters (which there are plenty of).

The Troops in 6^th are the forefront of most codex’s, and to be honest, I hate the troops for Chaos.

The Marines are completely overcosted (two points less than a marine and loses ATSKNF & Combat Tactics, and two points less than a Grey Hunter who..well …I won’t go there).

Cultists? LD8 thanks to the champion, and do fuck all except hide. Seriously, they are dog shit. Guardsman are 1 point more but have the same LD, more weapon options, better armour & statline, potential to split or blob up, and can be joined by allied characters.

What is the point of this unit? Well like I said, they hide…that’s fucking it…

You can make them into zombies, and they gain Fearless, but now they are even more useless cause they can’t even hide…what..the..fuck! No going to ground makes them as good as dead. FNP? Who gives a shit, they suck.

I wont even bother going into the mark specific units, overcosted and do nothing which the rest of your army can do better. Noise marines comes close, but to get the most out of them your looking at spending a shit load of points.

No, the Chaos Codex for me is not shit, it’s just imbalanced. I hate not having reliable scoring, and since I am used to my scoring having to push for midfield, well good luck pushing squads of Chaos Marines near anything. Seriously, how are you going to stop those 18 wraiths,  or those gargoyles with FNP after your T and STR has been reduced to two? Well Spawn and Havos surely? Oh wait, not I don’t have any fucking troops…

Basically, this rant is pure and utter hatred for the codex, but I do hope someone has fun with it!

Ok So What About The New Lists?

Now this post is getting on and I haven’t even gone into what I want to use next . Well after some consideration I am leaning towards Grey Knights, unless someone convinces me Blood Angels can work. But then again Dark Angels are just around the corner, so maybe I should just wait?

I’ve fiddled around with mysel...I mean...some list ideas, and this is what I am up with at the moment, thoughts & criticisms are taken into account, even if you’re horribly wrong.

Mwuhahahaha HAVOC time! Heresy Autocannons Released!

This bad boy set was released today.
How quick will it sell out?

Add the Volkite Charge and Calvier to the mix as Sonic Weaponry and the Chaos converter has everything they need to be very, very happy in the pant region.

Pretty decent price as well.. just £12 for 5. Not too shabby..

The Volkite weapons look frakkin' cool too..

I know I may use them to represent Sonic Weapons on my "one force" type marines.. Very cool

I like.
A lot.

Now, I know these are just guns.
Just upgrades.

But damn, they are so good..

I think a 30k army is on the horizon.

Any excuse to not get socks for xmas in the stocking hey?

The Voice - Being a Hobby Butterfly,Space Marines and my Blog Wars list!

So, yea, my name is Gary Percival and I have a problem. I'm a hobby butterfly.

6th is really doing my noodle in, so many things viable, so many codex's now a possible, i'm having trouble settling on what I want to use for the 2013 season. Nids, Crons, Blood Angels...all have piqued my interest.

But i've decided, for sure...vanilla marines. Done.

Why?

Frankly because you get more bang for your buck, once you have a core you can turn a generic space marine army in to wolfs, blood angels, dark angels etc, and to be honest with a little one on the way I don't know when I will be able to afford another army. So this will be added to for a while to create new types of army's.

So what am I planning for the 2013 season?

Well I want something balanced, something with lots of options (as trying to predict the meta at any given tournie is a nightmare) something where I don't really care  too much what I'm facing. I want strong scoring that also but also built to do the secondary missions as they are so so important now.

So this is the core - and it has a fair bit of melta purely as wraiths seem to be turning up at the moment  - but these can easily be switched out to add a new key unit or option if some new star rises..

Librarian, terminator armor and combi melta, force axe, null zone and gate- 135

10 stern guard - 250
pod - 35

Iron clad, 2 hunter killers, melta and heavy flamer - 165
pod - 35

10 sniper scouts, telion - 190
aegis line with lascannon - 85

10 marines, plasma gun, missile launcher-180

10 marines, melta, multi melta, combi melta - 185
pod -35

storm talon with assault cannon and cyclone - 155
2 multi melta attack bikes - 100

thunderfire cannon - 100
vindicator -115
whirlwind - 85

So why do I think its good? Well combat tactics is amazing, null zone is ace at getting those daemons and wraiths. My first blood potential is strong and vanguard should be easy. Ive got fast attack and heavy's plus up to 6 scoring units for objective missions. There is something there for every job and multiple attack vectors for what ever army I face.

Combat tactics really keeps my warlord alive and cant be under estimated and the "fade and fire" warfare style really is a valid tactic - falling back from where the enemy makes a strong push and then use the new rally rules to then surround and pulverize....it makes me happy :)

There is SO much this army can do well (rather than one or two things really well like most army's) that I cant even list all the tactics Ive been using. It really rewards thinking a turn or two ahead and being familiar with MY army rather than prescribed internet tactics. (In a vain way I think part of what I'm going for is eeking out a niche for myself "that marine player that seems to always do well" rather than "that guy that won with 18 wraiths...again...yawn")

Some changes may be just taking the libby down to just bare bones and getting some combi meltas in the sternguard - but vengeance rounds and null zone seem to be nobbling wraiths just fine. I'm also tempted to take some scouts bikes with a melta bomb and power axe too instead of the attack bike's and the libby's terminator armor. This potentially can allow me to gate a tactical squad in, drop the stern guard and iron clad in too and then charge the scout bikes in too on turn one (if going second)- really aggressive, which I like. The scout bikes with t5 really can tie up certain units in combat, which then should reduce the incoming flak for the other three units.

Anyway I digress and I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Finally my Blog Wars 4 list - moded a little due to the special nature of the missions. Can you guess the sneaky plan? - But bear in mind its also for a bit of fun :)

Libby, null zone, gate, force axe - 100

10 stern guard - 250
pod - 35

Iron clad, 2 hunter killers, melta, chainfist- 155
pod - 35

10 sniper scouts, telion - 190
aegis line with lascannon - 85

10 marines, plasma gun, missile launcher-180
Razorback - twin assault cannon - 75

10 marines, melta, multi melta, combi melta - 185
pod -35

storm talon with assault cannon and cyclone - 155


thunderfire cannon - 100
vindicator -115
Predator, heavy bolter sponsons, Chronus - 155


Oh and check the points for me :P

Gary

How to NOT win a 40k tournament in one easy step

A trend has emerged over the last few months. A trend that only has been apparent in 6th ed 40k tournament.
The meta swirls and changes and lists come and go.
So too do players - top, middle or bottom ranks change..

But one thing in 6th remains the same.
Geography doesn't seem to impact this.
Player experience is irrelevant, although it seems to be an affliction in more experienced tournament players.

What is this trend you ask?
Eager now to know aren't you?
A little wet with excitement?
No. OK, perhaps too far there..

The trend is this:
Sons of Sanguinius bloggers are cursed with it..
Sons of Sanguinius bloggers it seems CANNOT count or submit lists accurately in 6th ed 40k at GT Heats.

At Heat 1, Gary P our erstwhile "The Voice" managed to have his solid performance smashed by an inaccuracy with his list, leaving him in a very poor final position that did not reflect his playing ability on that given weekend.

At Heat 2, I myself got fucked after I messed up and dropped from 8th to 2*? (I can't remember I was so pissed at myself) ..whatever the position, it was too low to even qualify for the GT! For a simple error in my spreadsheet working out points in a rush on Friday night at work without the codex..

At Heat 3 this weekend... Alex / "Killswitch" was looking to finish 2nd, but he messed up his list that he submitted - hand written and missing a unit.. leaving him in 17th. He qualified, so it is all good for Killswitch really, but not reflective of his skill or performance on the day.

Is this a moan/rant I hear you think.. No, no.. just a cheeky Aesop's Fable.. learn from the Sons.

"Don't be a fool, double check your tool!"

Pen, Excel, Battlescribe, Army Builder.. whatever you use to build your army, check it against the codex, always build your final lists with the codex in front of you, never let administrative errors lose you a tournament or a placing or qualification.. Let your game play do that! Though preferably not.. :)
There must be something to this.. 3 players, 3 tournaments, 3 GT Heats, ONE blog!

Malifaux Tournament, Sunday 25th November at Sons of War Cambridge

Afternoon all,
On Sunday 25th November there is a 3 game, fixed crew 25ss Malifaux tournament taking place at the gaming club that I run alongside Bringer of Death and Tiny Furry Spider (I think that is Tim's name on most forum's lol)..

Link to Wyrd Forum page and all the tournament details HERE.

It is being run by McDoogle/Mark (his handle on the Wyrd Forum), he is just using the club as a venue.

Prize support is excellent, Henchmen Ratty/Alex should be about and has spoken about potential very cool prizes.

There are 30 spots in total, with only 6 currently being signed up. There are about 5/6 local players to the club up for this, but it is open to anyone. So he has about 15-18 spots still available.
Tickets are cheap, covering a discounted facility hiring fee and the rest going to prize support.

The club makes nothing from this and we are just offering our facility and buying power/relationship with the owners.

If you are interested, jump on the Wyrd Forum link above and HERE (for the lazy ones!) and get involved!
Once more back into the Breach dear friends!

Maelstrom Goes Down..Wow. Official

Wow.
Heard these rumours for some time and now it's official..
Man, am I glad I didn't go for the last ditch "moving warehouse" sale - fraud? Or a genuine attempt at covering debt?
Shocking business practice really... as a teacher of Business and Economics, I cannot fathom how this overtrading was allowed by the supplier, nor how Maelstrom management made this poor, poor decision.

Oh and Wayland? Great move. Force a competitor out at a cost of £100k? Why the hell not.
Question- if Wayland lose significantly more than £100k in sales per year to Maelstrom, is it not better to force them out of business and pick up the pieces - i.e. you and I shop at Wayland now.. creating greater overall revenue and therefore, hopefully, profit?
Answer - Fuck yes. Growth is good.. although as we can see, too rapid growth is not good!

Read all about it at Frontline Gamer (click the link) who has an excellent Editorial on the matter....and of course read the statement on the Maelstrom Games site. Fascinating... painful if you have outstanding orders...Overall, good for Wayland, potentially bad for the consumer as supply is distributed across one less company..less competitive market, higher price for us.. 

Blog Wars 4 1850 Tournament 1st Decemeber - TICKETS AVAILABLE

Hey guys,

Thought I'd throw out a quick community post in support of Blog Wars 4 - an 1850, 3 game tournament being held at the Eye of the Storm/Maelstrom on 1st December - just 3 weeks away!
This is the second Blog Wars tournament this year, the last being in July and being immense fun!

There is always a small but good crowd of guys, with quite a lot having been to all the previous Blog Wars.

It originally started as a great way to meet the other UK bloggers and is the baby of Alex from "From the Fang" - who has really stepped up and ran this great event for a couple of years now.

It still is that same event, fun - spirited, community based and well organised.

For those that are unaware, the event has just one stipulation - that your army contains a Special Character from your main FOC (allied ones don't count but can still come out to play).

There are 23 confirmed attendees this time round, with space for more.
Fantastic prize support as ever and there are a wide range of players, from tournament regulars like The Voice, Bringer of Death Steve and myself (not exclusively...Franco Marrufo is hitting is up for the first time I believe from the sign up sheet..sir, your reputation precedes you :) plus not forgetting Matty Greenwood, the erstwhile doubles companion of Alex and tournament regular himself.. think he is still out for revenge from Jolly Toys in January!) as well as some gorgously painted and themed forces.. we've had the Rebel Alliance, evil Empire armies, great looking Nids from Sixth Degree over at WeeMen blogs, the Relictors from those boys are pretty damn nice too! ..

So overall, if you run a blog in the UK, or simply want to come and play some games of 40k for the day, enjoy a great venue and good company.. get signed up over at From the Fang.

Tickets are £15 and are AVAILABLE NOW! 
What are you waiting for? Seize the day bitches! 
P.S - Should probably mention that I have won it the last 3 times in a row.. step right up and take on the big dog!! Can YOU stop me??

Tyranid Colour Schemes - Airbrushing time this weekend!!

My current Nid colour scheme is dour, dull, boring etc.
I toyed with the idea of continuing The Voice's pink nid colour scheme from the Hive Tyrant he has sold me..
But I have always wanted something that looks close to nature.
Hence my current green/bone scheme.

But nature does not have to be boring nor dull.

Nature can be bright.

I "researched" - read: Googled 'colourful lizards/snakes/toads/frogs' to see what I could come up with.

I am airbrushing the base coats onto the Nids this weekend and though to myself.. "What if I were to use the airbrush to put on a detailed/graded colour scheme as the base?"

I can always add detail at a later stage, but this would get the army looking striking, quickly.

These are very striking and cool looking lizards.

Very simple to airbrush, blend etc.

Chitin is the big issue..

But there is no reason why the chitin cannot develop the same colour as the rest of the animal..

Or is there? Back to Google..

Hmm... more searching..


Well, no.. it seems there is no issue in nature that defines the density of a shell or any of that nonsense with the colour or patterning that it can develop..

This funky ass crab for example rocks a nice purple/orange combo on its shell and claws..

Think my Nids can manage the same..

In fact, now that I have seen this crabby chappy..

Doesn't the FW paint job for the Crusher Claw Carnifex thingy have something kinda similar..

OK, so can't find that.. Anyone know what I mean? Think I have seen it in a FW book? Any clues peeps? 
Is this a good idea? Natural but Funky? Nature Funk Nids. NFN's. lol. 

Ebay time from the Voice - Getting rid of some Grey Knights and some books.

Having a bit of a end of year clear out. Old projects and stuff on the way out.


Coteaz - basecoated

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271094944801?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Solodin - base coated (its the finecast stern with the gammy hand replaced)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271094946182?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649


10 table top painted paladins
tabletop painted Draigo

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271094933631?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649


15 part assembled purgation/purifiers (4 psycannon built)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271094938323?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

30 henchmen (skaven with cut down weapons ready for bolters/pistols)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271094942467?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649


and a box of unassembled terminators (that i stole a psyannon and hammer to finish the paladins)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271094907346?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649


Check my other items for some books like epic rulebook, signed kings of war rule book and fantasy army books.


Incidentally - Ill be putting up a pretty big tau army up. Lots of vehicles lots of fire warriors..and for some reason lots of vespid too. Plus all the usual. If any ones interest, make yourself know..Sons readers first refusal :)

G

Converting Nid Tyrant to a Winged Wonder..plus tweaked 1850 list

My old Hive Tyrant needs a 6th edition update.. WINGS!

I played my first test game with my Nids last night. Wow. Loved it. The Flyrants were soo good! Trygon even survived because all the firepower went into the Tyrants and a lot of firepower went into killing the Harpy - which I love btw.

I played Dimitris from the Badab War in Cambridge blog and his Nurgle themed Chaos army, he ran:

Nurgle Lord on Bike, Fist, Blight, Aura, MoN, Plasma Pistol
Daemon Prince, MoN, Wings
Epidemius
7 Plague Bearers
7 Plague Marines - 2 Plasmagun, Fist
7 Plague Marines - 2 Meltaguns, Fist
7 Plague Marines - 2 Meltaguns, Rhino
5 MoN Bikes, 2 Meltaguns
7 Havoks - 4 ML, Flakk upgrades

7 Havoks - 4 ML, Flakk upgrades

Not bad at all.. All Nurgle, all getting the sweet upgrades from Epidemius and his tally.. we played Purge (KPs) and Vanguard (Diagonals) - turned into a rout in favour of the Nids after Dimitris infiltrated a unit of Plague Marines out onto his far right flank, isolated - with Epidemius & 7 PB's off the board turn one and these guys isolated, I swept across to the left flank, gutting a unit of Havoks to keep my flyers alive. His one, he failed to get his preferred wave down, getting nothing as he had put Epi in the PB unit, so he only had to roll a 3+ to get everything in. He rolled a 2, no Tally Turn 1.. He then moved up to charge the Gargoyle screen with his Bikes and Lord, needed a 7 to charge.. rolled a 6.

This killy unit of T6 Bikers was then Enfeebled twice to T4 and gutted by firepower from the Nids, more Havoks died when the Doom arrived and from here on in, it was a case of minimising losses to avoid the Tally getting over 20.. The Prince went down to mass firepower after failing a very long charge..I couldn't do this though and the rest of the game and small handful of Plague Marines ripped up Hive Tyrants and Termagants alike in combat.. silly. It ended 10 - 5 on KPs when Dimitris called it.
If he had of kept his force together and concentrated fire he would have been better off. The Bikers should have hung back and launched a counter assault turn 2 or 3, his whole army moving back and right together to avoid the nids charge and just thinning the bodies on ground so that the Tally swept up higher, faster.. I think D should drop the Prince and just grab more Plague Marines.. more plasma too.. Still, it's gonna be a solid unit for Blog Wars 4 tournament..

Back to me.. The Balrog Wings arrived today in the post and so I can just tag them onto the back of the Hive Tyrant... I think the simplest way to do this is to remove his back spines and just green stuff the big fuckers on.

Simples..

I just need one more box of Gargoyles as I only acutally own 10 of the little beauts and am awaiting a Flying Tyrant from The Voice to complete the collection.. Sweet.. so.. next project? lol

I've tweaked my list for future games based on just how good I feel the Harpy performed:

Tyrant -wings, Devs, OA

Tyrant - wings, Devs

Doom - Pod

2 x 2 Hive Guard

10x Terms

10x Terms

2 x Tervigon - TS,AG, 2 Powers, Cluster Spines

Harpy - TL Stranglethorn Cannon, Cluster Spines, Spore Bombs

Harpy - TL Stranglethorn Cannon, Cluster Spines, Spore Bombs

20 x Gargoyles - AG, TS

1845

Swarm of big and little flying bugs.. Love it.