I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of the latest instalment of the Horus Heresy, Prospero Burns. This novel tells the other half of the epic battle for the Thousand Sons home planet, Prospero. Unlike most of the Heresy novels that follow Primarchs, Dan Abnett follows Kasper Causer as he is initially protected by native Fenrisians and then by the Space Wolves. Kasper, aka Ahmed Ibn Rustah, is an academic who enables us to understand the mind set and logic of the Sixth Legion. This understanding includes everything from how members admit their mistakes (I have seen the error of my ways and will work to correct it (worked awesome with my Wife!)), to what scares the Space Wolves and how they deal with that fear. Through out the book we are transported back into Kaspers memories where we learn more about the Council of Unification and it transitions into the Imperium of Man. We see the Rout's (one of the Space Wolves names for themselves (like Clan)) perspective on the ceremony at Ullanor and the council of Neakea. It isn't until we are about 7/8 through the book that the Wolves land on Prospero. There are several secrets that are revealed, which I won't spoil but make for a very enjoyable and informative read. Abnett did a great job encapsulating the Wolves and their mind set when it comes to life, death and war. I have been a Space Wolf player since they were the first codex brought out in 2nd edition 40k and this book did more than them justice in my mind. The only thing that I would have liked to seen was more of how the Space Wolves interact with the other Legions as part of the great crusade. If you get a chance to pick it up I highly recommend it as either a stand alone if your a fan of the Wolves and as a must read if your a fan of the the HH.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Prospero Burns Review
I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of the latest instalment of the Horus Heresy, Prospero Burns. This novel tells the other half of the epic battle for the Thousand Sons home planet, Prospero. Unlike most of the Heresy novels that follow Primarchs, Dan Abnett follows Kasper Causer as he is initially protected by native Fenrisians and then by the Space Wolves. Kasper, aka Ahmed Ibn Rustah, is an academic who enables us to understand the mind set and logic of the Sixth Legion. This understanding includes everything from how members admit their mistakes (I have seen the error of my ways and will work to correct it (worked awesome with my Wife!)), to what scares the Space Wolves and how they deal with that fear. Through out the book we are transported back into Kaspers memories where we learn more about the Council of Unification and it transitions into the Imperium of Man. We see the Rout's (one of the Space Wolves names for themselves (like Clan)) perspective on the ceremony at Ullanor and the council of Neakea. It isn't until we are about 7/8 through the book that the Wolves land on Prospero. There are several secrets that are revealed, which I won't spoil but make for a very enjoyable and informative read. Abnett did a great job encapsulating the Wolves and their mind set when it comes to life, death and war. I have been a Space Wolf player since they were the first codex brought out in 2nd edition 40k and this book did more than them justice in my mind. The only thing that I would have liked to seen was more of how the Space Wolves interact with the other Legions as part of the great crusade. If you get a chance to pick it up I highly recommend it as either a stand alone if your a fan of the Wolves and as a must read if your a fan of the the HH.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Orks!
I have recently started two new projects. One I have already posted here and that is my new Dark Eldar army. As you can tell from the pics I am putting a huge amount of time into painting everything. I think my first 10 warriors took about 15-20 hours total and the Raider was about 10 hours. This is the first army I have really started in earnest after my Tyranids and I have to say that I am feeling a bit drained putting that much effort into one project for over a year and a half (the nids). I decided I needed something to work on along side my DE to take a break from using a 000 brush painting everything.
So my second army project is a speed painting project painting the one army I have started and stopped about 7 times now, and that is Orks. I have owned a decent amount of these green skinned buggers for as long as I can remember (like, well before the 4th ed Ork Codex came out) and I just could never decide on a colour scheme that I was happy with. I liked my Deathskullz scheme but each Ork Boy was taking me 2-3 hours, and when you have well over a 100 models to just hit 2000pts your will power really starts to vanish. I did some test models about 3 years ago of some Ork Boyz and the 6 of them took me about 2-3 hours (so 6 in the time it took to do one from my old scheme). The scheme in question ONLY uses foundation paints (well, like 95% foundation :P) and uses a lot of inks. The smallest brush I use on anything for this army is a #3 and there is a liberal use of the Tank brush. They don't look nearly as good, but at least they are finished lol. The following group shot (minus the ork boyz, so the Trukk, 3 Killa Kans and the Dread) I did in the last week.
The Dread was what got me back into painting my orks. Freaking LOVE the new plastic model, easily up there with the Trygon and any of the new DE as my fav kit GW makes. He was just sitting on my shelf collecting dust so I figured "lets do this" and ended up painting him in about 3 hours. The whole model was dry brushed boltgun metal, then delvin washed. I then painted black on all the areas that weren't going to be metal. After that I did the red patches, inked them with Delvin Mud, then did the black, followed by the checkers. After that there were a couple of touch ups as well as a final dry brushing with Chainmail to help pick out the metal and give it more definition. All the mechanical stuff in this army is painted this way and I try to do as many things as I can at once due to how much ink I use and how long that takes to dry.
Killa Kans took a bit longer then the Dread, around 4-5 hours.
Trukk was about the same amount of time as Dread, so 3 hours. Oddly enough it is the biggest thing I have painted, but it was by far the easiest. I am going to finish the crew for my first Trukk Boyz squad this week (hopefully) and then it will be onto the bikes. I will also finish the crew for the Trukk when I find them (no idea where they are lol). I have decided to try and do the large, difficult stuff first, then just do the assembly line for the Boyz. I also have 10 lootas primed, ready to go. Anyways, that it for now, let me know what you think :)
So my second army project is a speed painting project painting the one army I have started and stopped about 7 times now, and that is Orks. I have owned a decent amount of these green skinned buggers for as long as I can remember (like, well before the 4th ed Ork Codex came out) and I just could never decide on a colour scheme that I was happy with. I liked my Deathskullz scheme but each Ork Boy was taking me 2-3 hours, and when you have well over a 100 models to just hit 2000pts your will power really starts to vanish. I did some test models about 3 years ago of some Ork Boyz and the 6 of them took me about 2-3 hours (so 6 in the time it took to do one from my old scheme). The scheme in question ONLY uses foundation paints (well, like 95% foundation :P) and uses a lot of inks. The smallest brush I use on anything for this army is a #3 and there is a liberal use of the Tank brush. They don't look nearly as good, but at least they are finished lol. The following group shot (minus the ork boyz, so the Trukk, 3 Killa Kans and the Dread) I did in the last week.
The Dread was what got me back into painting my orks. Freaking LOVE the new plastic model, easily up there with the Trygon and any of the new DE as my fav kit GW makes. He was just sitting on my shelf collecting dust so I figured "lets do this" and ended up painting him in about 3 hours. The whole model was dry brushed boltgun metal, then delvin washed. I then painted black on all the areas that weren't going to be metal. After that I did the red patches, inked them with Delvin Mud, then did the black, followed by the checkers. After that there were a couple of touch ups as well as a final dry brushing with Chainmail to help pick out the metal and give it more definition. All the mechanical stuff in this army is painted this way and I try to do as many things as I can at once due to how much ink I use and how long that takes to dry.
Killa Kans took a bit longer then the Dread, around 4-5 hours.
Trukk was about the same amount of time as Dread, so 3 hours. Oddly enough it is the biggest thing I have painted, but it was by far the easiest. I am going to finish the crew for my first Trukk Boyz squad this week (hopefully) and then it will be onto the bikes. I will also finish the crew for the Trukk when I find them (no idea where they are lol). I have decided to try and do the large, difficult stuff first, then just do the assembly line for the Boyz. I also have 10 lootas primed, ready to go. Anyways, that it for now, let me know what you think :)
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Ogryn Mobile Turret
This guy isn't painted yet either, but I figured it was time to get it up and running. Some green stuff and super glue later, and here is the Tallarn Ogryn Chimera Turret.
I needed a way to show that this Chimera had my 5-6 Ogryns in it, so I thought it would look cool if the Chimera didn't have enough room for the turret mechanism so they took out the turret, piled some sandbags, and one of the Ogryns grabs the heavy flamer and uses it. Living turret! And I wanted to make a "turret" that was removable so that if this Chimera was not going to be carrying Ogyrns, we can go back to the original turret.
Anyway here he is. He's even older than the OOP Ogryns I use as my troopers. I think he's first generation! But I got him from a gaming buddy, and his goggles really work with the open top desert look. I was really close to giving him an Afrika Korps style cap, but decided the face material would be enough. The arms and hand of course had to be cut and re-glued so that they were facing the right way. Might also add in a flame thrower hose and tanks after he's properly painted. Also have to remove the heavy flamer tab that was from the Sentinal sprue that the flamer came from. The Chimera body is from the only Chimera I've fully painted so far so I wanted to show it in its glory (pre-painted)
I needed a way to show that this Chimera had my 5-6 Ogryns in it, so I thought it would look cool if the Chimera didn't have enough room for the turret mechanism so they took out the turret, piled some sandbags, and one of the Ogryns grabs the heavy flamer and uses it. Living turret! And I wanted to make a "turret" that was removable so that if this Chimera was not going to be carrying Ogyrns, we can go back to the original turret.
Anyway here he is. He's even older than the OOP Ogryns I use as my troopers. I think he's first generation! But I got him from a gaming buddy, and his goggles really work with the open top desert look. I was really close to giving him an Afrika Korps style cap, but decided the face material would be enough. The arms and hand of course had to be cut and re-glued so that they were facing the right way. Might also add in a flame thrower hose and tanks after he's properly painted. Also have to remove the heavy flamer tab that was from the Sentinal sprue that the flamer came from. The Chimera body is from the only Chimera I've fully painted so far so I wanted to show it in its glory (pre-painted)
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Valkarie/Vendetta Initial Magnetizing
So with the Waaagh GT a mere 10 months away, I decided I needed to get EVERYTHING ready for my army painted STAT. That includes getting the Vendetta ready for action. But I also realized that you need to magnetize the Valkarie because what happens if GW decides that vehicles aren't as important in their next edition of 40k? Well with that, I looked around a few sites that do this kind of conversion and magnetization, and here is my contribution:
First of all, the multilaser in front needed to be swapped for a twin linked lascannon. I'm assuming for now that I won't have just a single lascannon on the front of this thing. Since with the side pods, you get 3 options for the spotlight, I used a trick where you reverse one of them and place it on the back side of the weapon pod thusly:
The 0.135 x 0.03" rare earth magnets I used for this project were just a tad too weak, so I generally had to double them up. On this particular piece, I used only 2, but there was plenty of space so not a big deal.
Next the lascannon and multilaser were magnetized:The top half of the twin linked lascannon was cut down from a triple pack of regular guard las cannons that I bought from www.thewarstore.com. Nice and cheap, they look the same, and you'll see what I did with the other 4 lascannons soon enough..
Here you can see the connected lascannons to the side pod. The magnets touch and are quite strong.
Here's a shot of the side pod glued onto the Valkarie body:
One problem with doing two magnets is you have to worry about polarity, so to make sure that they were correct, I mounted everything using multiple magnets while the super glue dried:
After the glue is dried, the pieces can be pulled apart easily, and I KNOW for certain that the weapons attached to them will face the right way.
Below is a shot of the weapon pieces. The missile and the rocket pod are fairly straight forward. You just have to carve down the top pieces a bit until you have nice flat surfaces to glue the magnets to. The lascannons are ground down to that they glue evenly to each other, and then I tried to glue a stryene tube with a paper clip inside it to the top. That sucked as the magnets were not strong enough, so I cut it in half and glued the magnets to it. It looks messy, but should paint up fine.
Here's the rocket pod and lascannons mounted to the wing. It looks pretty sweet if I do say so myself. You may notice there are 3 magnets on the wing. This is because the magnets weren't strong enough (it was flimsy, and I want my connections strong), so I had 2 magnets mounted to the wing sponson.
And here's the full weapon loadout on the Vendetta/Valk conversion. You'll notice first that the wings aren't glued on yet. That is because I'm trying to decide whether to magnetize them or just leave them detached for easier transport. The slots are very firm and easy to put the wings in, so may not need magnets. Also notice that the top has not been glued on. I did this to be able to paint the inside more easily. For this build I'm not planning on using the side bolter gunners, but I'll have them and magnetize them if necessary. Also the back ramp has magnets so that it can be closed easily (I think it might get loose after a while, so you gotta think ahead!)
That's it for now. I'll start painting this baby in the next few weeks, although I also want to get my Ogryn Turret conversion greenstuffed. I need to figure out how to do sandbags in greenstuff first though...
First of all, the multilaser in front needed to be swapped for a twin linked lascannon. I'm assuming for now that I won't have just a single lascannon on the front of this thing. Since with the side pods, you get 3 options for the spotlight, I used a trick where you reverse one of them and place it on the back side of the weapon pod thusly:
The 0.135 x 0.03" rare earth magnets I used for this project were just a tad too weak, so I generally had to double them up. On this particular piece, I used only 2, but there was plenty of space so not a big deal.Next the lascannon and multilaser were magnetized:The top half of the twin linked lascannon was cut down from a triple pack of regular guard las cannons that I bought from www.thewarstore.com. Nice and cheap, they look the same, and you'll see what I did with the other 4 lascannons soon enough..
Here you can see the connected lascannons to the side pod. The magnets touch and are quite strong.
Here's a shot of the side pod glued onto the Valkarie body:
One problem with doing two magnets is you have to worry about polarity, so to make sure that they were correct, I mounted everything using multiple magnets while the super glue dried:
After the glue is dried, the pieces can be pulled apart easily, and I KNOW for certain that the weapons attached to them will face the right way.Below is a shot of the weapon pieces. The missile and the rocket pod are fairly straight forward. You just have to carve down the top pieces a bit until you have nice flat surfaces to glue the magnets to. The lascannons are ground down to that they glue evenly to each other, and then I tried to glue a stryene tube with a paper clip inside it to the top. That sucked as the magnets were not strong enough, so I cut it in half and glued the magnets to it. It looks messy, but should paint up fine.
Here's the rocket pod and lascannons mounted to the wing. It looks pretty sweet if I do say so myself. You may notice there are 3 magnets on the wing. This is because the magnets weren't strong enough (it was flimsy, and I want my connections strong), so I had 2 magnets mounted to the wing sponson.
And here's the full weapon loadout on the Vendetta/Valk conversion. You'll notice first that the wings aren't glued on yet. That is because I'm trying to decide whether to magnetize them or just leave them detached for easier transport. The slots are very firm and easy to put the wings in, so may not need magnets. Also notice that the top has not been glued on. I did this to be able to paint the inside more easily. For this build I'm not planning on using the side bolter gunners, but I'll have them and magnetize them if necessary. Also the back ramp has magnets so that it can be closed easily (I think it might get loose after a while, so you gotta think ahead!)
That's it for now. I'll start painting this baby in the next few weeks, although I also want to get my Ogryn Turret conversion greenstuffed. I need to figure out how to do sandbags in greenstuff first though...
Monday, November 29, 2010
Group Shot!
Here is a small group shot of the redone warriors with the Raider and the Haemonculus. I took advice from friends and people on here to change up my colour scheme. I took out the "glow" from their eyes as it really wasnt working for me. I also added a lot more black as an "undersuit" so all the leather, gloves, leggings, etc. which I think helped to add more visual interest and colour variation. Same goes for the red for the tabard which I changed to a kind of skin tone since when you combine it with the other red accent colours like the hair, arm bands, etc. it over powers the miniatures. Anyways, let me know what you think and as promised there will be more shots throughout the week as well as the start of my painting tutorial :)
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Painting Contest...
Hey all, just a super quick shout out to a painting competition that I entered on last Monday over at Spikey Bits.
You guys should check it out as there are some really good entries including my Haemonculus :) (Mike Davy). If you guys do go check it out if you could throw a vote or two my way that would be mucho appreciated as I am in a complete dog fight for top place. One nice thing about the competition is there are about 4 entries that would have no problem winning, one of which only has 5 votes which is a shame since if his picture was actually in focus he would probably be winning the competition (a fellow named Ron Gamble). The competition ends on Wednesday so check it out before it is over.
Later this week I am going to have some pics of my first 10 man Warrior squad and I am going to be doing at the very minimum part 1 of a painting tutorial on how to paint Dark Eldar the ghoulio way. I am also planning on doing a speed painting article/tutorial using some orks that I have been working on. Originally I was going to put the same amount of effort into the Ork Army as I did with my Tyranids then after painting 8 of them I realized I have about 120 more to go I thought to myself "Ef That!". The test models I finished do look surprising good considering 6 models took me only an hour and a half.
You guys should check it out as there are some really good entries including my Haemonculus :) (Mike Davy). If you guys do go check it out if you could throw a vote or two my way that would be mucho appreciated as I am in a complete dog fight for top place. One nice thing about the competition is there are about 4 entries that would have no problem winning, one of which only has 5 votes which is a shame since if his picture was actually in focus he would probably be winning the competition (a fellow named Ron Gamble). The competition ends on Wednesday so check it out before it is over.
Later this week I am going to have some pics of my first 10 man Warrior squad and I am going to be doing at the very minimum part 1 of a painting tutorial on how to paint Dark Eldar the ghoulio way. I am also planning on doing a speed painting article/tutorial using some orks that I have been working on. Originally I was going to put the same amount of effort into the Ork Army as I did with my Tyranids then after painting 8 of them I realized I have about 120 more to go I thought to myself "Ef That!". The test models I finished do look surprising good considering 6 models took me only an hour and a half.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Tyranids Battle Report!
As a follow up to the Tyranid Tactica articles I have been writing I decided I would do a battle report to show off certain lists in action. A couple of weeks ago I played my friend Nick using a "Come From All Sides" type army list. I decided to try out a couple things I have never used in this edition of the codex. The biggest one is a Flying Hive Tyrant (although, I don't have one so he is represented by my regular hand to hand Tyrant on the board). I basically made up this army a 100% for fun (in regards to my choices) with the overall theme of assaulting my opponents on my terms instead of just footslogging across the board and getting shot. So, without further adieu here is the report.
Here are the two lists in the battle:
"They're all around us!" - All Reserve Nid list 2000pts
HQ
Flying Hive Tyrant - Wings, 2xScything Talons, Hive Commander, Paroxysm, Leech Essence
Elites
Hive Guard (2)
Zoanthropes (3) - Mycetic Spore
Troops
Genestealers (9+Broodlord) - Toxin Sacs, Broodlord w/ Scything Talons
Termagants (20)
Tervigon - Cluster Spines, Catalyst
Fast Attack
Raveners (6) - Scything Talons, Rending Claws
Harpy - Twin Linked Stranglethorn Cannon
Heavy Support
Mawloc
Trygon Prime - Adrenal Glands
Iron Warriors 2000pts (aka Nick) (from memory, so more or less this +/- an upgrade or two)
HQ
Abbadon
Demon Prince of Nurgle - Wings, Warptime
Elites
Tzeentch Terminators (9) - All Aspiring Champions, Power Fist, Chain Fist, Reaper Autocannon
Troops
Bezerkers (7+Champ) - Champ w/ Power Weapon
Chaos Marines (9+Champ) - Plasma Gun, Lascannon, Icon of Chaos (undivided), Champ w/ Power Weapon
Chaos Marines (9+Champ) - Plasma Gun, Lascannon, Icon of Chaos (undivided), Champ w/ Power Weapon
Heavy Support
Raider - Demonic Possession (Zerkers and Abbadon in here)
Havocs (9+Champ) - 4 Missile Launchers, Icon of Chaos (undivided), Champ w/ Power Weapon
Set Up:
Mission was Dawn of War and the objective was capture and control (5 objectives). I won the roll off to see who went first and I opted to go second. The Iron Warriors set up two units of Chaos mairnes each with a Lascannon, Plasma Gun, Aspiring Champ w/ Power weapons and a chaos icon.
I set up a Tervigon and a unit of Termagants (20) in a building near one of the objectives. The only unit visible was the Termagant unit (Tervigon was completely blocked).
Turn 1: The Iron Warriors either walked/drove everything onto the table from his board edge, keeping most things closer to the center of the table. The Land Raider with Abbadon came on in the center of his army while the huge unit of 9 Tzeentch Terminator Champions came on his right flank. His shooting phase consisted of gunning down a couple of Termagants in the building near the objective.
I walked on the Hive Guard and the Mawloc. I walked the Mawloc behind a building so he couldnt be shot at, same with the Hive Guard. I opted not to Burrow the Mawloc as it would be pretty much certain death on turn 2 with Abbadon waiting for him. I cast Domination from the Tervigon to get an 18" synapse bubble. The Tervigon also created a new unit of 9 to run towards the middle objective with the hope of either drawing out some of his hand to hand combat units or pulling some shooting away from the Tevigon and Gants in the building.
Turn 2: The Iron Warriors moved up the Raider with Abbadon in it and took some more shots at the Termagants running towards the middle objective. He also moved the Tzeentch Terminators further forward and took some more pot shots from the Gants in the building. His Demon Prince of Nurgle moved up in the left building on the hill near the 3 objectives in the middle of the board. After all the shooting was done I lost about 3 gants from the new squad in the middle and about 7 from the original 20 in the building.
This is the turn where the fun begins for the Nids Everything came in except the Raveners and the Zoans (which were the only one I WANTED to come in to blow up the raider). The Stealers came in from the right flank, near the Tzeentch Terminators. I decided based on how the board was set up that I was going to overload one flank to try and make too many things for him to attack at once. So Harpy, Tyrgon Prime, Winged Tyrant, Stealers and Deathleaper all showed up on the right flank. I was hoping to Paroxysm the Terminators but alas, scattered too far away. I basically pumped everything into the terminator unit. So 3 large blasts (from Tervigon/Harpy - all hit) and a large unit of termagants took down 3 of them. I also created another unit of Termagants with the Tervigon and he crapped out (made 8). Those 8 moved onto the objective near my board edge. The 1st created unit moved onto the middle objective (hoping to pull his Demon Prince into the center of the board). I also burrowed the Mawloc at the start of the turn.
Turn 3:
The Iron Warriors decided of all the threats on the one flank that came in, it was the Stealers that needed to die (being deadly, scoring and visible). He moved the Terminators into the building as he new nothing in my army other then the Deathleaper had Frag Grenades. He pumped the entire terminator unit into my stealers only managing to kill 2 of them and he also put a wound on the Broodlord. The Demon Prince moved up as hoped and completely mashed the small Termagant unit holding the middle objective. Abbadon finally got into the frey and hopped out of the Raider and charged (and decimating) the original Termagant unit. The Iron Warriors managed to kill 2 of my 5 troop units. He also managed to put a wound on the Harpy with his Havocs.
I started the turn off by using the Deathleaper's phermone trail to auto hit with the Mawloc on the Terminators, only killing 2 of them due to their 4+ invuln save. Since my reserve roll was at 2+ (Deathleaper and Hive Commander) both my Raveners and Zoans came in. I brought them in on the other side of the board, hoping to draw the demon prince towards the Raveners (as the Shadow in the Warp will hopefully shut down warptime). The Hive Tyrant moves forward to Paroxysm the Terminators (which he does, so they are now WS/BS 1). I also moved the Trygon prime up hoping to leap frog the Terminators into the unit of Chaos Marines behind them. I took a bunch of shots at the Abbadons unit (2 cluster spines and a Stranglethorn Cannon) doing minimal damage. The Hive Guard managed to take 2 wounds off of the Demon Prince and the Zoans kill 2 of the Chaos Marines on the left flank. In the assault phase things really heat up. The Trygon gets 7 wounds on the Chaos Marine unit he charged, easily breaking them and running them off the board. The multi charge of the Deathleaper, Hive Tyrant and Genestealers kill all but 1 of the Tzeentch Terminators leading them to break and they were caught by the Deathleaper and killed. Basically Paroxsym won that combat as the terminators were hitting on 5's.
Turn 4
Last turn was a very deadly turn for The Iron Warriors as his entire left flank was crumbling beneath him. He still had 2 scoring units so all was not lost. Abbadon and his unit head towards the Hive Guard and the Demon Prince heads over to the Zoans. After watching the Trygon Prime effortlessly kill 10 marines in hand to hand the name of the game became putting him down. So the Havocs, Raider and the last unit of Chaos Marines shot everything they had and only managed to bring he down to 3 wounds (he had cover amazingly). Abbadon single handedly kills the two hive guard and the demon prince kills a Zoan and almost kills the pod due to overkill as he multi charged them.
At this point in the game my only thought is covering the objectives so I burrow my Mawloc and put my Deathleaper back into deepstrike. The Trygon rushes forward towards the Havocs in the lower building and the Stealers move forward to capture one of the objectives in my opponents deployment zone. I also move the last termagant unit onto another objective. My Raveners move around the building with the intention of helping the Zoans out. My Harpy Moves forward and charges the Raider since it didnt move (only glances, does nothing) and the Hive Tyrant is out of charge range. The Trygon just walks through the Havocs, doing 6 wounds but takes 2 in return (as he charged into cover) leaving him with 1 as he breaks the unit leaving him to the mercy of the last Chaos Marine squad in the building. The Demon Prince casts warptime but rolls perils due to Shadow in the Warp and drops himself to one wound (the hive guard did a couple earlier in the game). He does a minor amount of damage on the Raveners and the Raveners in turn score 6 rending wounds killing him.
Turn 5
Things at this point are winding down for The Iron Warriors and he starts focusing on the objectives. He tries to tank shock the stealers off of the objective near his board edge, only to roll a '1' immobilizing the Raider. Abbadon and his unit starts running towards the Termagants holding my lone objective. His last chaos unit fails to put a wound on the Trygon Prime (failed to wound on the plasma gun, rolled a 1 to hit with the lascannon and I made my saves against the bolters).
The Mawloc misses Abbadon's unit and scatters 8" away. The Deathleaper appears in the middle of the board to contest the middle objective in case Abbadon turns around. I put a couple more wounds on the Bezerkers with the Harpy and Tervigon. My Zoans totally wiff on the Raider and the Hive Tyrant fails to do any damage in hand to hand. The Trygon licks his chops while staring up at the last Marine unit. The Chaos marines fail to take off his last wound and the Trygon kills 5 of them, breaking the unit.
Turn 6
The game continues as I roll a "6" for random game length. At this point all that is left for The Iron Warriors army is his immobilized Raider and the Bezerkers with Abbadon. The raider opens up on the Stealers and they go to ground so it does no damage. Abbadon gets into charge range of the objective in my deployment zone.
I re-burrow the mawloc and put the Deathleaper back into deepstrike in case the game goes to turn 7. I blow up the raider with the Zoans and I fly the Tyrant over the building and Paroxysm Abbadon and his cronies. I also cast Catalyst on the last
Termagant unit. One thing to note as well was my Tervigon was actually on TOP of that building he is standing beside. He was just really wobbly up there so we put him at the base of it :)
Turn 7
The game keeps going as I roll a "4". Despite being WS/BS 1 Abbadon and the 4 Zerkers manage to easily wipe out the Termagants and putting them on the last objective now tying the game.
I try to deep strike onto Abbadon but miss...again (huge miss too lol). The Deathleaper also comes in contesting the last objective. My Flying Tyrant Paroxysms Abbadon and the Zerkers. Abbadon still does a wound to the Tyrant as the Tyrant charges him and then the Tyrant kills all the Zerkers.
Final Result
Tyranids win with 1 objective leaving only Abbadon alive with 2 wounds. I still had my stealers, Tyrant, Mawloc, Tyrgon, Zoans, Tervigon, Harpy and the Deathleaper. Great game, super fun army and Nick (the Iron Warriors Player) was great to play
against
Tyranid Player of the Match: Trygon Prime. He killed 27 marines in total (this is including breaking them). Not recognizing the threat he posed right off the bat basically cost the Iron Warriors the game as he ate 2 of his 3 troops.
Chaos Player of the Match: Abbadon as he was the only one to actually do anything. He killed about 20 Termagants and 2 Hive Guard, not too much, but its still 3 kill points
I figured when I took this army that it would just be a "fun, casual" army but it ended up playing really well and was most importantly really fun to play
Here are the two lists in the battle:
"They're all around us!" - All Reserve Nid list 2000pts
HQ
Flying Hive Tyrant - Wings, 2xScything Talons, Hive Commander, Paroxysm, Leech Essence
Elites
Hive Guard (2)
Zoanthropes (3) - Mycetic Spore
Troops
Genestealers (9+Broodlord) - Toxin Sacs, Broodlord w/ Scything Talons
Termagants (20)
Tervigon - Cluster Spines, Catalyst
Fast Attack
Raveners (6) - Scything Talons, Rending Claws
Harpy - Twin Linked Stranglethorn Cannon
Heavy Support
Mawloc
Trygon Prime - Adrenal Glands
Iron Warriors 2000pts (aka Nick) (from memory, so more or less this +/- an upgrade or two)
HQ
Abbadon
Demon Prince of Nurgle - Wings, Warptime
Elites
Tzeentch Terminators (9) - All Aspiring Champions, Power Fist, Chain Fist, Reaper Autocannon
Troops
Bezerkers (7+Champ) - Champ w/ Power Weapon
Chaos Marines (9+Champ) - Plasma Gun, Lascannon, Icon of Chaos (undivided), Champ w/ Power Weapon
Chaos Marines (9+Champ) - Plasma Gun, Lascannon, Icon of Chaos (undivided), Champ w/ Power Weapon
Heavy Support
Raider - Demonic Possession (Zerkers and Abbadon in here)
Havocs (9+Champ) - 4 Missile Launchers, Icon of Chaos (undivided), Champ w/ Power Weapon
Set Up:
Mission was Dawn of War and the objective was capture and control (5 objectives). I won the roll off to see who went first and I opted to go second. The Iron Warriors set up two units of Chaos mairnes each with a Lascannon, Plasma Gun, Aspiring Champ w/ Power weapons and a chaos icon.
I set up a Tervigon and a unit of Termagants (20) in a building near one of the objectives. The only unit visible was the Termagant unit (Tervigon was completely blocked).
Turn 1: The Iron Warriors either walked/drove everything onto the table from his board edge, keeping most things closer to the center of the table. The Land Raider with Abbadon came on in the center of his army while the huge unit of 9 Tzeentch Terminator Champions came on his right flank. His shooting phase consisted of gunning down a couple of Termagants in the building near the objective.
I walked on the Hive Guard and the Mawloc. I walked the Mawloc behind a building so he couldnt be shot at, same with the Hive Guard. I opted not to Burrow the Mawloc as it would be pretty much certain death on turn 2 with Abbadon waiting for him. I cast Domination from the Tervigon to get an 18" synapse bubble. The Tervigon also created a new unit of 9 to run towards the middle objective with the hope of either drawing out some of his hand to hand combat units or pulling some shooting away from the Tevigon and Gants in the building.
Turn 2: The Iron Warriors moved up the Raider with Abbadon in it and took some more shots at the Termagants running towards the middle objective. He also moved the Tzeentch Terminators further forward and took some more pot shots from the Gants in the building. His Demon Prince of Nurgle moved up in the left building on the hill near the 3 objectives in the middle of the board. After all the shooting was done I lost about 3 gants from the new squad in the middle and about 7 from the original 20 in the building.
This is the turn where the fun begins for the Nids Everything came in except the Raveners and the Zoans (which were the only one I WANTED to come in to blow up the raider). The Stealers came in from the right flank, near the Tzeentch Terminators. I decided based on how the board was set up that I was going to overload one flank to try and make too many things for him to attack at once. So Harpy, Tyrgon Prime, Winged Tyrant, Stealers and Deathleaper all showed up on the right flank. I was hoping to Paroxysm the Terminators but alas, scattered too far away. I basically pumped everything into the terminator unit. So 3 large blasts (from Tervigon/Harpy - all hit) and a large unit of termagants took down 3 of them. I also created another unit of Termagants with the Tervigon and he crapped out (made 8). Those 8 moved onto the objective near my board edge. The 1st created unit moved onto the middle objective (hoping to pull his Demon Prince into the center of the board). I also burrowed the Mawloc at the start of the turn.
Turn 3:
The Iron Warriors decided of all the threats on the one flank that came in, it was the Stealers that needed to die (being deadly, scoring and visible). He moved the Terminators into the building as he new nothing in my army other then the Deathleaper had Frag Grenades. He pumped the entire terminator unit into my stealers only managing to kill 2 of them and he also put a wound on the Broodlord. The Demon Prince moved up as hoped and completely mashed the small Termagant unit holding the middle objective. Abbadon finally got into the frey and hopped out of the Raider and charged (and decimating) the original Termagant unit. The Iron Warriors managed to kill 2 of my 5 troop units. He also managed to put a wound on the Harpy with his Havocs.
I started the turn off by using the Deathleaper's phermone trail to auto hit with the Mawloc on the Terminators, only killing 2 of them due to their 4+ invuln save. Since my reserve roll was at 2+ (Deathleaper and Hive Commander) both my Raveners and Zoans came in. I brought them in on the other side of the board, hoping to draw the demon prince towards the Raveners (as the Shadow in the Warp will hopefully shut down warptime). The Hive Tyrant moves forward to Paroxysm the Terminators (which he does, so they are now WS/BS 1). I also moved the Trygon prime up hoping to leap frog the Terminators into the unit of Chaos Marines behind them. I took a bunch of shots at the Abbadons unit (2 cluster spines and a Stranglethorn Cannon) doing minimal damage. The Hive Guard managed to take 2 wounds off of the Demon Prince and the Zoans kill 2 of the Chaos Marines on the left flank. In the assault phase things really heat up. The Trygon gets 7 wounds on the Chaos Marine unit he charged, easily breaking them and running them off the board. The multi charge of the Deathleaper, Hive Tyrant and Genestealers kill all but 1 of the Tzeentch Terminators leading them to break and they were caught by the Deathleaper and killed. Basically Paroxsym won that combat as the terminators were hitting on 5's.
Turn 4
Last turn was a very deadly turn for The Iron Warriors as his entire left flank was crumbling beneath him. He still had 2 scoring units so all was not lost. Abbadon and his unit head towards the Hive Guard and the Demon Prince heads over to the Zoans. After watching the Trygon Prime effortlessly kill 10 marines in hand to hand the name of the game became putting him down. So the Havocs, Raider and the last unit of Chaos Marines shot everything they had and only managed to bring he down to 3 wounds (he had cover amazingly). Abbadon single handedly kills the two hive guard and the demon prince kills a Zoan and almost kills the pod due to overkill as he multi charged them.
At this point in the game my only thought is covering the objectives so I burrow my Mawloc and put my Deathleaper back into deepstrike. The Trygon rushes forward towards the Havocs in the lower building and the Stealers move forward to capture one of the objectives in my opponents deployment zone. I also move the last termagant unit onto another objective. My Raveners move around the building with the intention of helping the Zoans out. My Harpy Moves forward and charges the Raider since it didnt move (only glances, does nothing) and the Hive Tyrant is out of charge range. The Trygon just walks through the Havocs, doing 6 wounds but takes 2 in return (as he charged into cover) leaving him with 1 as he breaks the unit leaving him to the mercy of the last Chaos Marine squad in the building. The Demon Prince casts warptime but rolls perils due to Shadow in the Warp and drops himself to one wound (the hive guard did a couple earlier in the game). He does a minor amount of damage on the Raveners and the Raveners in turn score 6 rending wounds killing him.
Turn 5
Things at this point are winding down for The Iron Warriors and he starts focusing on the objectives. He tries to tank shock the stealers off of the objective near his board edge, only to roll a '1' immobilizing the Raider. Abbadon and his unit starts running towards the Termagants holding my lone objective. His last chaos unit fails to put a wound on the Trygon Prime (failed to wound on the plasma gun, rolled a 1 to hit with the lascannon and I made my saves against the bolters).
The Mawloc misses Abbadon's unit and scatters 8" away. The Deathleaper appears in the middle of the board to contest the middle objective in case Abbadon turns around. I put a couple more wounds on the Bezerkers with the Harpy and Tervigon. My Zoans totally wiff on the Raider and the Hive Tyrant fails to do any damage in hand to hand. The Trygon licks his chops while staring up at the last Marine unit. The Chaos marines fail to take off his last wound and the Trygon kills 5 of them, breaking the unit.
Turn 6
The game continues as I roll a "6" for random game length. At this point all that is left for The Iron Warriors army is his immobilized Raider and the Bezerkers with Abbadon. The raider opens up on the Stealers and they go to ground so it does no damage. Abbadon gets into charge range of the objective in my deployment zone.
I re-burrow the mawloc and put the Deathleaper back into deepstrike in case the game goes to turn 7. I blow up the raider with the Zoans and I fly the Tyrant over the building and Paroxysm Abbadon and his cronies. I also cast Catalyst on the last
Termagant unit. One thing to note as well was my Tervigon was actually on TOP of that building he is standing beside. He was just really wobbly up there so we put him at the base of it :)
Turn 7
The game keeps going as I roll a "4". Despite being WS/BS 1 Abbadon and the 4 Zerkers manage to easily wipe out the Termagants and putting them on the last objective now tying the game.
I try to deep strike onto Abbadon but miss...again (huge miss too lol). The Deathleaper also comes in contesting the last objective. My Flying Tyrant Paroxysms Abbadon and the Zerkers. Abbadon still does a wound to the Tyrant as the Tyrant charges him and then the Tyrant kills all the Zerkers.
Final Result
Tyranids win with 1 objective leaving only Abbadon alive with 2 wounds. I still had my stealers, Tyrant, Mawloc, Tyrgon, Zoans, Tervigon, Harpy and the Deathleaper. Great game, super fun army and Nick (the Iron Warriors Player) was great to play
against
Tyranid Player of the Match: Trygon Prime. He killed 27 marines in total (this is including breaking them). Not recognizing the threat he posed right off the bat basically cost the Iron Warriors the game as he ate 2 of his 3 troops.
Chaos Player of the Match: Abbadon as he was the only one to actually do anything. He killed about 20 Termagants and 2 Hive Guard, not too much, but its still 3 kill points
I figured when I took this army that it would just be a "fun, casual" army but it ended up playing really well and was most importantly really fun to play
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