Psychic Powers in 40K.....or "How I learned to embrace Benders"

Lol.. I snowmobiled his title! I'm so freakin' fuunny.. can you see what I did? I'm not homophobic... I took out 'Spoon' ..

Psychic powers. They got quiet sp. "quite" (let's get this snowmobile a rockin' properly lol) the shake up in 6th Edition didn't they? With a standard set of disciplines much like fantasy they really opened up the utility of the spoon benders in the grim dark future.

But are people really looking at these new tools "properly"?and  (I promise this snowmobile won't just focus on literacy amongst the blogerati here at Sons!) I say that because a lot of the time I see or hear people say something to the effect of "well unless you can take divination what's the point". The Divination Discipline and more specifically Prescience is the golden child of this new aspect of 40k.(Golden Child.. what a film! Whatever happened to Eddie Murphy...Dr Dolittle? c'mon..) Rerolls are king in a dice game, just ask Blood Bowl players, and mitigating the chances of bad rolling and improving the chances of getting a great roll for a unit for either shooting or combat is hyper powerful....but its not the whole story. Nid players for example are probably the next most vocal about the joys of Biomancy powers; having used the list and Discipline myself I know this to be a terribly frightening prospect to face. But still I come across players that seem genuinely surprised that they have been enfeebled twice and shot to death by gaunts.Generally speaking, the trend seems to be for Enfeeble NOT to stack.. depsite my personal opinion that it does.. I now play it that it doesn't stack.. Best way I think, play at a disadvantage and when it gets ruled in your favour in a future FAQ..well...sweet! But yeah, in an army that can field 20-30 psychic powers, stacking Enfeeble sure does fuck people up good! Much like Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop.. seriously.. Dr Dolittle - it still hurts.

Big Tyranid Update! Loads of progress!!

I've been working hard for the past two weekends on improving my Nids - previously, they were all kinds of different colours and schemes. So I have been trying to get them into a coherent colour scheme and get them all based the same to provide a theme.. I feel I have been quite successful.. You just have to look at Mondays post of last week to see how well/much progress I've made.. 

 This is the latest batch of 50 Gaunts all based with 2 airbrushed layers - I've gone quite extreme compared to the Ravenwing after some feedback from an anonymous and Bully.. :)

 Really pleased with the way the Winged Hive Tyrant has come out.. this guy is still in the "experiemental" phase of list building as I am also running the Swarmlord, but having the flyrant means I can get support for the Gargoyles past turn 1/2 very easily and get this big dog in the backfield disrupting shit. In playtesting he has been immense (within the constraints/context of the army build I am testing) getting turn 2 charges off on Necron Barges etc that Id normally have to put up with for three turns before Swarmie or one of the Tervigons gets in.. So we'll see, plus looking this pretty without even having any Orange themed contrast colour or basing detail..it'd be rude not to!

 The man himself, Swarmie now has a detailed airbrush coat and is ready for further detail.. his base (not shown) is also showing great progress..

 The Tyrant Guard is shaping up nicely and has now got the darker marking in the centre of his carapace to match up with all the smaller bugs.

 Just a slightly more close up shot of the Gaunt batch so you can see the detail a bit more.. there is still work to be done on these guys..

Both wings of the Tyrant shown here to get in the full effect of how god damn cool he is! OK, that is my update for the week, I'll be putting more work in on these whilst I watch the Rugby this afternoon - England to smash the Azzuri... Gargoyles need a bit more work and then all 60 of them are done... the snow basing is done for all 60 of the Gargs flying bases.. another job done! So pleased with how it is all coming together.. now just waiting for my alternative Zoanthrope models to come from the States... come on postal system!!! Later peeps going to help a mate move house.. 

Tyranid Hobby Update: Swarmlord and Tyrant Guard Basing

Got loads of work in this weekend on hobby projects.
This included building and airbrush painting 40 Gargoyles.
Building and airbrushing Swarmlord - I decided to buy the proper model rather than converting yet another of my Carnifex/Tyrants from dusty Carni models.
Putting snow basing on 60 Gaunts and 20 Gargoyle flying stands.
Converting the Space Hulk Brodlord to have a lash whip - he is my Tyrant Gaurd, but also my Warrior Prime model so he has to look bad ass.
He also got airbrushed.
I also built and positioned the basing for three Tervigons.

I decided to take a break from the boring basing of the masses of models.. about a third of the way through Gargoyle bases and almost half way through Gaunt bases... and go to more distinctive basing for the Swarmlord and his lash whip wielding Guard.

I'll update this post later in the week with painted pics of both the bases and the models.

The Tyrant Guard to the right was built from a pretty simple arm swap. the back left arm (in shot) is in fact the dual left armS of the existing model - this was then clipped and trimmed to remove the second arm and put as the back limb. It was then a simple job to put in the lash whip arm from the plastic tyrant kit - a perfect sized piece for the job!
converting the guard....


As you can see from the Guard's base, I decided to use foam board to build some ruin pieces rather than the cork board that I used for the Ravenwing and for Swarmie. I have always been ab it worried about its applications since I built some Infinity terrain last year -it was a bit shaky, so since then I've not been convinced by it. However, here it is supported by the plastic base and framed around the existing scenic base from the Space Hulk. I used super glue to get it onto the base and also placed a piece of plasticard tubing running through the base to give a greater level of detail.
I first had a dry run of the pieces to see how it would all look across the layers of ruins. I very much encourage everyone to adopt this as best practice.
After the pieces were in place I also used some liquid green stuff to create an amount of sewage flowing from the pipe. Suitably nasty for the Nids I thought and in homage to his original function as a Genestealer - this is the kind of dank nasty place we may find a Genestealer cult.
To further increase the detail, I used some random detail pieces from the Manufactorum GW kit that I had lying around.. but any old bits of palstic kit could work.. bodies, limbs.. I even thought about some bike parts to represent the successful trial of my Nids vs Ravenwing/IG this weekend in playtesting.

For Swarmie I did use cork board, mainly for scale - as a monstrous creature, he can command a more substantial base than the Guard, plus...he kinda deserves something bigger - I personally feel the plastic model is a little small.. although I am not going to lie.. it makes him easy to hide loL!

His base look very plain at the minute, just having a broken aquila piece and some piping for sewage.. the sewage will get the same liquid green stuff..."muck flow".. coming out of the pipes.. I am also going to steal some metal paperclips from school today and insert them into the broken ruin building slab to represent the steel enforced elements (Rebar) of the concrete.. this will add detail to the rubble..plus, it will have patches of snow all around the base for more detail.. I may create some ice patches too for Swarmie to slip on...lol..or maybe see if I can model "Enfeebled" old man or some sort of Bio-shield to represent Telekine Dome.. some sort of psychic lols basically..  

Both bases are going to have snow added to them after the detail is painted to tie in with the rest of the army.. the ruins help to lay ground work for coherent theme with the Zoanthrope models which will be mounted on small peices of rubble/ruin terrain.. Theme is important for me in this army.. I want them to be good looking. I feel I am improving on my "completed" armies with each one.. I was first pleased to have a one colour space marine force...then my Wolves were tournament ready at 3 colours plus detail and WYSIWYG...then the Crons got airbrished to really have their Gauss weaponry POP on the tabletop.. Now the Nids will take that POP and improve through basing..
The Ravenwing take both of these elements too to be fair..
Anyway, more later in the week..

Tyranid Update: Troll Forged Miniatures Alien Brains

Hey guys,
Quick update today and non-Ravenwing related.
I've been playing a lot with my Tyranids and loving them.. my black/puple/orange paint scheme looks awesome on the tabletop en masse and I'm working on snow basing for the army - I think the contrast of the pure, white snow to the dark black/purple will offset the whole thing beautifully.

I intend to get the basing done for most of the Gaunts and a couple of Tervigons done this week/weekend.. so you can expect more visual updates later in the week.

What I wanted to show case today was the Zoanthrope alternative models I've bought - NOTE: I only ordered them this weekend after my final round of playtesting confirmed that I wanted to order 6 Zoeys in... so I havent seen them in the flesh yet, but they look great.

The models come from Troll Forged Miniatures over in the States and they look sweet.

Check out the site here, they have a "community sculpt" thing going on, whereby dudes can throw out ideas on their forums and some of them make it sculpt/production.. it's kinda cool.

Either way.. it means that they have some funky stuff that I personally am not interested in, but it also means they have some real gems.

I love these weird little alien Brains - they are costed just right and are resin or "Trollcast" - these guys cost me just forty dollars for 6 - in the UK this is nothing at all.. and with international shipping, I think I paid £36..total! Bargain!

More crazy Psychic Choir Nids for me to play with whoot! In the meantime, the locals will just have to put up with 2 "real" Zoeys and a handful of stand in Warriors! lol.. I'm working on it boys!

Hmmm...maybe one  of the Troll Forged boys will see this and ship my order double time! Unlikely...but if they do.. it's the international going to Humphris!

Army Update: Tyranids Tournament ready!

So whilst I am not running them next weekend at Caldeonian Uprising, Gary "The Voice" P is... he was going to use Marines, but I think he couldn't use the army that week (it was borrowed from a mate), so he needed another army - mine!

My Nids were being airbrushed anyway to get them all in a coherent scheme and looking badass.

I went for this scheme and I think that I have succeeded to a degree. It needs some actual brushwork, and I mean a traditional brush rather than an airbrush.

I am thinking some spots, sort of like liver spots to transition the colours from purple to black to orange.. not sure how to describe them...

Anyway, I previously threw some shots up of random models that I had finished but this is now the whole army.. well, I think I need more gaunts as I only have 60.

The colour scheme looks great en masse and should look pretty striking on the tabletop. I hope Gary has fun with them, I know in playtesting I've really enjoyed them, I think I may get more games in with them after Caledonian - it'll have been about 14/15 months with one army after Cally and I do really need a break! The Crons are taking a break from tabletop service - retirement if you will! 

I do really enjoy having a large number of models on the table as well as having a good number of humongous Monstrous Creatures ripping it up with flying Tyrants and Biomancy .. it is incredible to me how 6th ed has really brought the bugs back to being a force. 

Anyway, the bugs are getting packed away now for next week.. I'll leave you with a shot of my favourite models from the current range.. the massive Tervigons 

Any advice on getting the extra detail into the models? I wont be doing it until after Caledonian now.. but I am pleased that the effect is striking and I've not rushed the army so that it is hard to rectify later... I can add extra detail in stages across the army .. Next army? Tau. 

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.

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. 

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.

New life in the old project yet: Tyranids

Time to reinvigorate the Nids.
I'm staring at these guys now on my living room floor.. 1 Tyrants, 1 Harpy conversion, 1 Trygon, 3 Carnifexes, 18 Warriors, Zoanthrope (Doom conversion), 25 Termagants, 10 Gargoyles, 31 Hormagaunts (random number hey!..these guys are all getting turned into Termagants with green stuff casting fleshborers), 3 Broodlords, 8 Genestealers, Lictor (Deathleaper) ...

New additions - 2 Tervigons.
On order - a second pair of balrog wings for the Tyrant to become a Flyrant..
And thanks to The Voice.. another flyrant with twin devourers..

I've just bought 4 old school Tyranid Warriors, 1 with a Devourer which I am going to cast and use as Hive Guard. Fuck paying full price for a boring ass model.. I am going "Old School" for these guys.. I love the old look.. I remember being a kid and being jealous of a childhood friends Nids - they were very cool.. the old plastic Warriors with boneswords - when I saw them, they were the coolest thing I'd ever seen!

Tyranids have been a long project for me. I've never really given them real drive or momentum to finish the project though. You can see some old posts here and a really old Warseer project log that I started when I last really pushed the Nids...wow it'll be 3 years in Jan since I last really built or painted a Nid! Crazy! 

I'll be honest. The change to Nids through Sixth has gotten a lot of people excited and I am one of them.. the benefit of a huge 'back catalogue' of armies is the costs of updating and relaunching a project is very minimal.. I have just bought a set of Balrog wings, 2 Terv's, 1 new Flyrant (courtesy of The Voice) and 4 OOPWarriors for £20.. so that's about £100 all told.. Not bad.. and mainly due to the cost of Tervigons..

I did think about just converting the Carnifexes, but the new model is nice and HUGE, so it hit my weakspot for massive models.. bought!

Today, I am going to spray paint the base coat on the new models, then airbrush a base coat onto all the models that haven't got it already.. the rest of the day will be dedicated to painting chitin in base colour and maybe even washing it.. I've got a test game lined up in Wednesday vs Dimitris' Plague Marine & Epidemius army that he is taking to Blog Wars 4.. I am going to this btw, so is The Voice and Bringer of Death Steve...if you haven't already - get your ticket!! 

The Voice Speaks -Meat for Meta. Or "How I recon I can get Tyranids to work...for a while.

Meta – its talked about a lot. Too much?  Maybe.

The fact is I started trying to write a blog on how the meta will/maybe develop and its started giving me a headache. The reason is – there is just too much dam choice now.  List development meta as it once was, I think, has gone out the window because with so many choices a counter can and will be found from one book or another pretty quickly to any dastardly list or trend that may appear. Already Andy O is possibly bringing back Venom Spam in an attempt to counter the Deamon/Nids/Genral Infantry heavy armies we see. And if that takes off?? I’m sure taking out 18 fast moving Av10 hull points will NOT be a problem to a tinkered with list from one book or another.

So, my meta predictions for 6^th? Circles.  It’ll be like fashion. One thing gradually evolving into another until one day you find you are wearing bell bottoms again when you swore you never would again xxx years ago.  I think there will be common principles to list building, that’s a given,  but I don’t foresee a situation where your having to pick certain units BY DEFAULT because “I know I’m going to face razor spam GK/Marines a lot of times this weekend”. Flavour of the month is what I think will happen.  Ridding high in popularity for a list or build, but for very short bursts of time due to the infinite variety of ways of picking it apart as soon as it raises its head above the parapet. You will not see one list or book dominating to the extent or for the length of time that you saw in 5^th. You will see people with large pools of available models changing their lists a lot.

The constant escalating way that some people build  lists to become “perfect” will ultimately cause a ever changing cooking pot of ideas where certain lists will have their 5 minutes and then sink again. I think this is good. I like this. It means my knee jerk way of changing armies every 10 minutes doesn’t hinder me and I can just get on with some games.

So anyway. My flavour of the month is Tyranids. I figured that scoring is such a big thing now that an army with good scoring options  for me and nice options for hoovering up the enemy’s would be a nice departure having played a lot of marines or marine based armies for a while now. Also with access to the Biomancy powers and spamming spells such as Iron Arm ( +D3 to Strength and Toughness), Enfeeble (minus one toughness for the enemy) and Endurance (Fnp and it will not die) you can really create an army where the big things get bigger and the little things can actually really start churning out some damage, especially when you add in Hive Tyrants ability to create Preferred Enemy bubbles (which as everyone knows is now rerolling ones to hit and to wound in both SHOOTING and assault). So shooty nids FTW.

So the list building – what will I need to take in to account while I work? Well, while there isn’t one army that seems to be that popular our there (see my above meta comments), there is an awful lot of models hitting the table. Hordes or at least lots of bums on seats seems to be the order of the day. But there is still flyers to contend with and also while there are far from everywhere, a few of the big tourney players are hitting the Necrons for the time being – so Wraiths, barges and scythes seems to kicking about a bit at the top (though I’ve not seen any 2 lists identical yet). So if your doing well then you have a good chance to maybe face a tin head army on the top tables.

So if I’m doing nids I’m going to need a few things:

• Lots of weight of fire for the hordes
• Some AA firepower
• Scoring, lots of scoring
• A way to deal with wraiths/multi wound models – but not to the point im weakening my list with something too specific - as this could very well change soon and make the unit redundant.
• A way to deal with AV13 that doesn’t eat to much into my weight of fire – but again not to the point im building too specific for something I may never face.
• Id also say an assault element just in case, but its nids. Its kind of built in lol.

So this was the first list I’ve bee trialling. Its 1850 which is still tourney standard. But had been practising at 1500 while I build everything. Since discussing this with peers however I was warned off by my good friend and Nid player James Ramsey: “you’ll never finish a game in a tournament. What with moving the gaunt’s and resolving that many psychic powers and abilities and explaining to people how it works and fiquring what exact combo your doing this turn with your 14 psychic powers -it’ll be a 4 turn game tops every time”

Flying Hive Tyrant. Twin Linked Devourers and Pref Enemy Bubble

Flying Hive Tyrant. Twin Linked Devourers and Pref Enemy Bubble

Doom in a pod

3 Hive guard
3 Hive guard

Tirvigon - 3 powers, fc and poison
Tirvigon - 3 powers, fc and poison
Tirvigon - 3 powers, fc and poison

10 gaunt
10 devil gaunt
10 devil gaunt

Which is a shame as I really liked the amount of firepower it could chuck out with that pref enemy bubble making all those ones reroll. The sky fire from the Hive tyrants was nice and getting lots of Iron Arms and Enfeebles and Fnp’s on things really was making me happy. I still may try it at this points level just to see though because my smaller scaled down lists/games at 1500 were very promising. The Hive guard were keeping the Necron Barges and wraiths honest but also wrecking any vehicles that turned up. Despite having no fast attack or Heavy support the scoring in all objective missions was never a worry. In fact I kinda liked having only elites sometimes as it made everything almost of equal threat in some games (If you have a Trygon Prime in big guns never tired for eg ..why wouldn’t that be one of the first things to die??) The Hive tyrants did get picked on but again if I got fnp or Iron Arm on them, then they lasted a good while to cause havoc.

At 1500 I only had 2 Tirvigon’s and 2 basic gaunt units and was really looking forward to trying the devil gaunts (gaunt’s with devourers). But apparently I have it on good authority that 3 Tirvigon’s will just bog the game down too much so…….

Plan B:

Flying Hive Tyrant. Twin Linked Devourers and Pref Enemy Bubble

Flying Hive Tyrant. Twin Linked Devourers and Pref Enemy Bubble

Doom in pod
3 Hive guard
3 Hive guard

Tirvigon - 3 powers, fc
Tirvigon - 3 powers, fc
9 Tyranid warriors - devourers and rending claws in pod
10 gaunt
10 gaunt

Less spitting out of gaunts slowing the game down but reducing my scoring somewhat. To make up for this a nice big unit of Tyranid warriors will be dropped in peoples faces instead. 27 (hopefully preferred enemy) devourer shots and rending attacks should make them a threat in the enemy lines from early on. They cant be ignored as they are scoring and there is 27 wounds in there too. Pot shots will not cut it. I want really to be charging these into the fire support units at the back if I can.

And Plan C:

Flying Hive Tyrant. Twin Linked Devourers and Pref Enemy Bubble

Flying Hive Tyrant. Twin Linked Devourers and Pref Enemy Bubble

doom in pod
3 hive guard
3 hive guard

Tirvigon - 3 powers, fc and poison
Tirvigon - 3 powers, fc and poison

11 gaunt
11 gaunt

Harpy

Harpy

Spending the points that was on scoring on 2 Harpys instead. By throwing 4 flying Mc’s at the enemy I hope to keep the precious Flyrants alive a bit longer. The Harpys also keep the high volume of armour saves that the enemy has to make from shooting as well as some ok vector striking at some of the lighter armoured flyers.

So thoughts? Personally I’m liking the warrior version if I cant go for plan A. But there are other considerations. Gargoyles are amazing in this edition especially with preferred enemy. Do the Hive Guard fall under that “too specific a counter” that thing I’m trying to avoid? I’ve taken them as they really help vs quantum shielding  but do I really have to worry that much? They are adding resilience to the army and 12 shots in to the pot vs infantry too. Mech hasn’t disappeared totally so its nice having them. But am blinkered. Should I just suck it up and maybe swap them out for a nice big unit of Gargoyles?

See, too many Choices. Lol.

Till next time

G

Tyranids in 6th, WIPs and thoughts

I've seen a lot of stuff around about Tyranids in the last few weeks.
I got a little bit wet when Stelek first threw out a Biomancy army on the morning (morning in the UK at least) of the 6th ed release.. I was sat in a nice little cafe sipping my morning coffee with Bringer and Kabalite and reading about cool stuff like Wither (or whatever the -S/T one is) and Iron Arm etc thinking how cool Tervigons would be like that!
Then we got the rulebook and Flying Monstrous Creatures had a whole page!
Read the rulebook.. saw the changes to Fearless.
Game changer.
Saw the changes to cover and MC's..
FNP changes for MC's and well.. everything..
Hammer of Wrath
MC AP2 at Initiative.
Cool.
S4 vs Vehicles and rear armour, hitting on 3's..

There are so many reasons why Nids have the very real possiblity of being a force in 6th again.
I know a lot of people will read this and instantly dismiss it, but I think, for me.. It's time to get the bugs out and polish off that paint job..

This guy on the right was originally going to be a Harpy..I guess he still could be, but I think he may see action as a Winged Hive Tyrant. Certainly he will for friendly games.

There is a very real possibility that Tervigons and Hive Guard spamming will be the real key to 6th lists. Finish off that armour via hull point removal and then just swamp..

You'll see one of 2 Tyrgons in the bottom corner of the image, these bad boys will be coming out to play too..

The Hive Tyrant/Harpy has been painted since I took this photo.. afterall.. this image was taken over two years ago back when I was living at home and saving for my house deposit.. ah fun times.

Yup. that is just how long this guy (and my Nids in general) have been waiting to play.

This walking Hive Tyrant converted up from the Carnifex kit may also see some action. You can see him here for a size comparison with some of the other big beasties.

Although I think these will pale in comparison to the awesome size of the new Tervigon kits.

Walking up the field with the 2+ armour and a pair of TL Brainleech Devourers for glancing transports to death will be very useful.

The benefit of the 'ap-' change will really be felt..

I may even repaint this Carnifex from my childish efforts of yesteryear.. after I've ripped his arms off and added Brainleech Devourers..and another mate for his brood...and a Prime...lol.


Soo many options that may actually be viable.
"It's too early to say too much about 6th and the way it'll impact every army" - bit of a kop out phrase but I suppose its accurate.
 On the other hand I was browsing some of the army lists being posted on the Brighton Warlords website - the first 1850 6th ed tournament happens next weekend and I am in attendence with my Crons..

Mr Sinister (I'll not reveal Rich's name.. d'oh!) posted his Nid list up.. and there I was expecting to see IG.. but all I can say is.. I have no idea how I'll kill it all!!
I have no problem with the volume of little bugs.. but one of the key areas that Necrons truly struggle with is Monstrous Creatures. We simply have no real low AP firepower..although I guess it should be noted that everything in the game dies to volume of fire eventually..

I'll throw his list up for the sake of completion.. afterall, a Venerable Brother post wouldn't be a Venerable Brother post without a list!

All I can say is.. It's nice to think "shit!" when looking at a Nid list for once... almost made me want to switch to dual Jaws Rune Priests and Wolves.. lol.

It gives me real hope that if I think "oh bugger", others will too and there is hope for Nids in 6th. Now, I know that Space Wolves will be coolio with it.. but I'm not changing...that's a bit too ...lame. I guess I'll just have to use my brain.. balls.

Let me know how you'll kill it? or tell me I'm worried over nothing! 

Tyranids - 1850 pts

Tervigon (160) with Adrenal Glands (10), Toxin Sacs (10) = 180

Tervigon (160) with Adrenal Glands (10), Toxin Sacs (10) = 180

3 Hive Guard (3x50=150) = 150

2 Hive Guard (2x50=100) = 100

2 Hive Guard (2x50=100) = 100

Tervigon (160) with Adrenal Glands (10), Toxin Sacs (10), Catalyst (15) = 195

Tervigon (160) with Adrenal Glands (10), Toxin Sacs (10), Catalyst (15) = 195

Tervigon (160) with Adrenal Glands (10), Toxin Sacs (10), Catalyst (15) = 195

11 Termagants (5x11=55) = 55

10 Termagants (5x10=50) = 50

10 Termagants (5x10=50) = 50

Trygon (200) = 200

Trygon (200) = 200

Total = 1850

Hmm... still think "oh bugger." ... I also think.. fuck yes.. I am so stealing that! Rich, I do not look forward to a rematch, bring back the Imperial Guard! haha.. 

Tyranid Deployment: The Bio-Blob?

This all relates to yesterdays post on some new Tyranid ideas I have been rolling aroung the old brain… see here for list and concept.

Well, I had a practice game with the Nids on Friday and was really pleased with how they came along.

The deployment was, IMHO, just right. It went something like this…

(So, I couldn’t find Tyrannofexes on Vassal?...the shooty Carnifexes represent them)

New Nid Thoughts: The Bio-Blob?

Inspired by a post (part of a series I guess..evolution of a list) by Kennedy at 40k for the NewProfessional…

As I sat and read up on some blog posts from my ‘followed’ blogs over breakfast…I really enjoyed reading up on Kennedy’s ‘Nids.

He has a batrep versus some pretty well built Orks (not ideal, but it is orks) up and it was a good read. Batreps are odd things as they can more often than not, not help, but I really felt as though I picked up some ideas from this.

On a side note, Kirby’s Centurion Nid posts are also as educational. Some great deployment ideas through the pics he posts…..like this one:

Analytic Anomaly? Tyranids …

Over the last month and a half or so I’ve been using google analytics to look at patterns in readership, what post topics are popular etc.

One very strange thing has cropped up…this post from ages ago has seen the most traffic of any post.

Tyranids and Moving House

I've been moving house and have no interwebz - hence me being piss poor at regular blog posting.

I got my first 40k game in on Thrusday....has been a while!

Played 1750 with Tyranids...and what can I say? The extra 250 points to normal (UK - 1500 standard) makes a monstrous difference to the way you can construct and play Nids.

In a very positive way.

My list was;

Prime - Lash whip/BSword, ScyTals, Regen
Prime - Lash Whip/BSword, ScyTals, Regen

3 x Hive Guardx2

2 x Termagants x 10
2 x Tervigon - Catalyst, Aglands, Toxin sacs, Cluster Spines
1 x Hormagaunts x20 - Toxin Sacs

2 x Harpy - Heavy Venom Cannon (TL), Cluster Spines

Carnifex - Dual ScyTals
Biovore
Biovore

I attached the Primes to the Fex (as the Fex is a Brood and can be bought in multiples I see this as all good - the Rulebook states that an IC cannot join a unit that is only ever bought as a single model...not that an IC cannot join a single model unit...)and run them behind the fearless Hormies, with both Terv's supporting...Harpies and HGuard smash up transports...Harpy's really proved their versatility with large templates and using Sonic Screech to half the initiative of enemy units...combined with Hormagaunt assault was very cool...

All works really, really well and I love the impact this army has on table top domination...I controlled alot of the table top due to the sheer volume of gaunts and threat bubbles from a variety of units. 

Great game and a win for the NIds vs Fateweaver Demons...

Look for regular posting to recommence from the 21st October onwards when wireless gets set up in the new house.... plus lots of exciting hobby exploits as I set up my Man-Cave in the garage....photos to follow!!

Cheers guys and I appreciate that you all still check out the site even with the slow posting over the last month...

Venerable

Loganwing Vs Nids 1500 BatRep

Mission: Capture and Control

Deployment: Dawn of War

Space Wolves (me):

Logan

Rune Priest – LL, Jaws, Runic Armour

5 x 5 Wolf Guard, inc 1x TDA w. CML

Long Fangs – 5 MM, Power Weapon, Drop Pod

Long Fangs – 5 ML

Long Fangs – 4 ML

Nids (AJ):

Tyrant – HVC, Lash whip & Bonesword, Old Adversary, Hive Commander, Leech Essence, Paroxysm, Acid Blood

3x Tyrant Guard w Lash Whips

Very, very expensive and confused Tyrant. LW&BS, AB, Paroxysm, OA all state this is a combat beast, the HVC and HC state this is a support ‘rant.

Tyranid Prime – Lash Whip/Bonesword,

Wow. A lot of points here, but when combined with the ‘Rant, we have 10 T6 wounds to pound through.. too many points here at 1500 is my thoughts…

2x 2 Hive Guard

Cool. Standard. Misses having a 3^rd unit IMHO.

Warriors x 4; Lash Whip/Bonesword, Deathspitter, Adrenal Glands, Venom Cannon

Expensive and vulnerable to ID. Goes with the Prime and creates a very killy unit.

10x Termagants w Devourers

Shooty. Enables the Tervie as troops. Good, but a lot of points for some torrent firepower…

1x Tervigon, Catalyst

Cool, standard.

1xTrygon; Adrenal Glands

Lonely.

So, I win roll off to go first, pass it to AJ. He places his objective more or less in the middle of the table, I place mine 6” on from the board edge directly opposite his. I can hold mine fine, but focussing fire and support whilst attacking his objective means I need to not spread out my army, always allowing support.

He deploys nothing, holding everything in reserve, outflanking the warriors and attached prime using Hive Commander.

I deploy 2x Wolf Guard squads and attach a Rune Priest.Central, with one of my unit on the objective, one forward of this, but both in a piece of area terrain with great views...

Turn 1:

He does nothing, I roll on and run all units into position, using Grimnar’s High King to make his unit Fearless – to avoid running off the table due to casualties…not likely but why leave it possible? I am positioned in a central position to avoid the outflankers and force the deep striking units to pop up on either flank where I can focus half my army on it.

Turn 2:

All of the Nid units except the Tyrant and one unit of Hive Guard show up. Sure enough, the Trygon pops up on my left avoiding the right hand side with Grimnar and the majority of the Long Fangs. Everything else comes on from his board edge and runs too.

The Warriors and Prime appear on the right hand side and move into area terrain for cover save love.

Shooting - the Trygon who shoots at the nearest Wolf Guard unit. Wounds a couple but kills none. Warriors and Prime pepper deathspitter fire into Logans Long Fang unit and kill no one.

My turn… All Wolf Guard units reposition for fire into the Trygon on the left, the Long Fangs stay put, except Grimnars unit who moves forward fractionally to get into MM range.

Shooting – The Trygon dies to CML, rapid fire boltgun fire…down to one wound…makes his last two saves from the bolt fire and forces me to use a unit of Long Fangs who can draw LOS, but he’ll get cover, they all hit and 4 wound, he fails cover saves and Trygon is gone.

On the right hand side, 2 Long Fang squads and the Rune Priest w LL fire at the Warriors, killing a couple and putting a wound on the Prime.

Turn 3:

Nids – Hive Guard shows up on the right hand side and the Tyrant and Guard show up from the Trygons hole on my left hand flank. Silly.

Tervigon spawns 11 gaunts. FNP’s one unit. Moves. Runs – a lot of action? Too much? Whatever. Everything else runs forward towards their own objective and to get into range. Warriors and Prime stay put in cover.

Good.

Fuck you Lash Whips.

Shooting, HVC Tyrant kills a marine, Deathspitter warriors kill a MM Long Fang and put a wound on the Rune Priest.

My 3. I move a single unit of Wolf Guard into a tempting position in the open near the Tyrant, MM Long Fangs move left through cover closer to the Tyrant. Every one else shuffles for clear LOS.

Shooting – Warriors and Prime die to Missile fire from Fangs. I remove 4/10 wounds from the Tyrant and Guard unit.

Turn 4:

More spawnage from the Tervigon – 14 pop out but it doubles out so no more. Everything else jockeys for fire positions, Hive Guard units pop off some shots and kill a marine.

Assault – Tyrant takes the bait and eats the Wolf Guard unit. Big surprise. Consolidates an 1”. Half in cover.

My 4. I move forward a bit towards his objective. Grimnar detaches himself from his squad and legs it forward to eat a large unit of spawned Termagants who are now close ish to my lines.

Wolf Guard combined fire removes the 6 T6 wounds in cover from the Tyrant and his Guard. Long Fang fire removes a wound from the Tervigon…great, 5 to go. Its in cover too by the way.

Grimnar makes it into CC and kills (combined with fearless wounds) all bar 3 Termagants. He’ll eat them in the Nid turn 5 and then get onto the next Gant unit on the Nid objective.

Turn 5:

Everything moves forward towards my lines. Termagants w Devourers kill 2 marines from a unit, force leadership at -1 and they run off the table! Bastards. Inducted into the Wolf Guard for the leader of the entire legion and what do you do? Fucking run off the table at the sight of a couple of bodies!

Ah well, not a massive issue.

A couple of wounds into a couple of units, mainly from Hive Guard shooting, but the AP4 lets them down and my marines make their saves.

Assault, Grimnar wipes out the 3 idiot gants still standing in his way. Consolidates 5”. Sweet. I’m right now within 3” of his objective and on full wounds.

My 5. Tervigon is killed from Long Fang and CML fire. Psychic backlash wipes out most of the gant unit on his objective. Oh dear. More are killed to Frag missile fire. Rune Priest casts LL and kills another. One left.

Grimnar doesn’t make it into assault with this guy. Bugger.

Game over? No. Turn 6:

His 6, he moves and runs the sole scoring unit towards the nid objective, but only runs an inch. About 5” away from objective now. Piss poor luck.

Hive Guard fire from 2 units kills a marine.

AJ calls it there. No point in getting tabled. Left on the board are 2x2 Hive Guard, 10 Termagants w Devourers, 1 spawned gant. I have lost 2 units of Wolf Guard and a couple of Long Fangs from different units. Still 1200ish points of 1500 left. Sweet.

It was easy to target prioritise in this game as AJ put the Tyrgon and Warriors in my threat zone. I had only 2 targets total for turns 2-3. Tygon – killed. Tyrant –killed, Warriors – killed. Offensive threats – gone.

I then spent turns 4-6 removing gants and Tervigon. I basically ignored the Hive Guard for the game as they are designed to de-mech, and I have none – bar the drop pod, which podded in on his objective empty and died on Turn 2 to Hive Guard fire and tervigon assault.

Systematic and simple. Never really felt threatened.

We had a good chat afterwards going over his list. Stripping and creating efficiency. Just by losing a couple of upgrades from the Tyrant, one TG and the Venom cannon from the Warriors, AJ gained a 3^rd unit of 2 Hive Guard. All the same elements in the list, just now it has more firepower and a net gain of 2 T6 wounds.

The Warriors and Prime are a hideous unit IF they get into CC…but facing 19 missile launchers and 5 MM means a lot of ID-causing cover saves are going to be taken before they can ever get close.

They are expensive and perhaps another Trygon would be better than the Warriors? Keep the Prime and attach to a Hive Guard unit as a very viable CC counter attack unit…

I am pleased with the Loganwing so far. Have a good number of battles under their belt now and a good ratio for W:L:D.

I have removed the Cavalry (lord and TWC x4) from the list though to get another Long Fang unit, Rune Priest and another Wolf Guard squad.

Seems more effective and points efficient, but does lack the extra mobility.

Mobility is key for a competitive foot army. I know this. But I am confident I can de-mech in a turn or 2, so I am not sure if I need them?

Are my most recent changes apt?

Back to painting… God I love the summer holidays. Teaching FTW.

Redesigned 'Nids: Comment Responses

BroLo suggested a few changes to this list I posted yesterday, I am loving the consistent and always useful comments that come in to my posts and I just want to say a really quick thank you to you guys – you know who you are!

Check out the comments and weigh in:

NOTE: I am questioning the choices, ultimately defending my own, but I am not being defensive. An important distinction I feel. As I said above, all suggestion from you boys are brilliant and respected. As Kirby said though “…Nids are hard to work @ 1500…”, so I want to get the best out of them. That is what this whole process is about…

BroLo’s comments italicised in red:
“…Hive Tyrant: Hive Commander, Twin-Linked Devourer - 210
Tyrant Guard - Lash-Whip/Bonesword - 80
Hive Guard (2) - 100
Hive Guard (2) - 100
Hive Guard (2) - 100
Termagant (10) - 50
Termagant (10) - 50
Tervigon - Catalyst, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs - 195
Tervigon - Catalyst, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs - 195
Trygon - Adrenal Glands - 210
Trygon - Adrenal Glands - 210
1500

Same number of T6 Wounds, more options with deployment/reserves (hell, reserve it all against shooty lists), little less shootiness, but I think more unpredictable. If both Trygons and the Commander turn up on the same turn... Emprah help your opponent! A central castling from your opponent is predictable but if you know that, you can counter it…..”

“…I'd drop a trygon and make the HG 3x2. That gives you about 280 points. Enough for a Tyrant with HC, HVC and a guard. Same number of T6 wounds, more (only a little I know) ranged firepower and also the option of outflanking the Rant with reserve manipulation on the Trygons? Finding the points for a second unit of gants will be harder though…”

BroLo. Dude. You've made the Hive Commander balls up. I've seen alot of people do it in real life too.
Only a TROOPS unit can be outflanked using HC.
So your concept of unpredictability is mutated to unreliability. I think alot of the basis for the success of this revised list was based on the Hive Commander outflank Tyrant idea in symbiosis with the Trygon reserves fun.
Let me explain my thoughts…



The Tyrant now has to sit back with everything else, providing synapse in an area that does not need it (2 Tervies there already).... short range firepower that is not useful in addressing this list targeting weakness you highlighted...

Other changes:

- Offensive elements. Reduced through the change from 3 to 2 Trygons. All other elements are defensive choices. Bear in mind the relatively short range of the Hive Guard who are to control midfield and pop transports…this clearly is a defensive unit designed to respond not to alpha strike first turn. As a result, the overall army becomes a very defensive, ‘dug in’ kind of army – and very good at that, but only 2 Trygons bombing forward on their own. This very point was a principal part of the thought process in the original post.

- 2nd Termagants unit. Squeezed in. Tyrant can't have a HVC because of these guys. Otherwise I might be interested in him. With one termagant and 2 Tervigons, I'm still going to have 5 units of troops, even if I poop out straight away.


- Tervigon as 3rd troop. Awesome, scoring T6, love it. Already have one, a second is really good…but this does mean I have to pay for something else in HQ…


-Hive Commander - I'm clearly not going to be outflanking any of these troops. A tervigon you say? IF there is strong cover, blocking LOS and IF he comes in on the right side then maybe...cause he sure won't have termagants screening him for a full turn of shooting/assault as Tervie must spawn BEFORE moving...
SO I'm paying for the +1 to reserves which I must add.
Against all shooty armies this is great, against all Deep Strike armies this is great. Against all other armies with more traditional set ups and not army-raping-in-one-turn firepower...not useful. Why? Who would reserve normally? Trygons? With only 2 we need to keep them alive so reserve and Deep strike for rear armour vehicle shots yes?
No, as this leaves a highly reduced threat level on board. Less confusion about who the enemy needs to shoot. Those smaller Hive Guard units? Blown away? Want to have a real chance against one of the Tervigons (even in cover) before it spawns, go for it...with less targets on the board the dilution is not as complete and the job becomes easier for the opponent.


- Smaller Hive Guard units. This list still only has 3 targets at range, except now, they are statistically less likely to do stuff leaving the dice a little more control over fate (which we know is never a good thing- lets give the dice as little control as possible), also less likely to survive as long due to reduced numbers. On the plus side, units of 2 are easier to get into cover as only one model need be in.

- Reduced Trygons. Less survivable as they run up the board. Reserved then they get to try and pop rear armour with firing, but as I said earlier, if I am reserving them then I am reducing the threats on board, making threat assessment too easy for the opponent…

Hmmm…. Well. I think overall the suggested new list is good, but I rather strongly think it was hoping for something a little extra to make it very cool. Hive Commander I’m looking at you here.
An outflanking Tyrant with a short ranged TL S6 gun is very cool and highly useful, adding another target/tank to be taken down, plus if it showed up at the same time as the Trygons then as BroLo said - “…Emprah help your opponent! …”
Unfortunately, not to be.

I think I will probably maintain the existing list, I am just toying with options on excel now as I write and am struggling to incorporate the elements of BroLo’s suggestions I like, namely the second scoring Tervigon, the Tyrant w HVC (for a fourth target at range)…but still trying to build back up the Hive Guard and maintain 3 Trygons…can’t be done at 1500.

Bloody awkward Tyranids.


NOTE: Perhaps I should have adopted the snowmobiling method here….for the future.