Tyranid Reshoots...

I have been looking through the blog at a bunch of the older stuff I posted and I cant help but see how dated most of my original pictures are. Most of the pictures were taken with my old iPhone 3GS...so yeah, not great. Here are a few of them with my revised lighting set up. While a massive improvement (I feel anyways) I still have a bit of work to do. Over the next little while I am going to start updating my Nids and my Dark Eldar.

Tyranid Prime...Updated!

Over the next month or so I will be updating a bunch of my older units with new weapon load outs. That is one of the best things about any new Nid codex is that you always have to pop the arms off all your guys and give them new guns (I know sarcasm doesn't carry well over written text lol). That being said I didnt mind updating this guy just because he had chapter house resin boneswords which were terrible. So after building my Tyrant Guard I ended up having lots of left over pieces so I decided to give this guy one of their new Boneswords and Lashwhips. So here he is with his new weapons!

New Tyrant Guard...Finished!

Alright, I have spent enough time about what is wrong with the 6th ed Tyranid Codex so I figured it was time to look at what's right. All the models for this release are absolutely fantastic, just like virtually all of the recent Tyranid models. The Tervigon, Trygon, Harpy and Haruspex are all some of the best kits that GW makes and they also did a fantastic job updating the standard warriors with the new kit.The one kit I purchased though with the codex was a box of Tyrant Guard as I only had 2 and they seem very small to me.

For the most part I love these figs. They are significantly more dynamic than the previous edition and have tonnes of fantastic little details. I really love the ripped up Space Marines attached to their bases and the head in the one guys hand. I also love the battle damage on the figs. They are also tonnes of extra bits, some of which I have already used to update some of my older models. The only thing I DON'T like on this new model are the Tyrant Guard shoulder pieces. I originally didn't mind them until I put my Tyrant in the squad to see how they looked. The "swoosh" look of the shoulders has a completely different aesthetic then the rest of the army. I really wish I took the time to convert some new shoulder pieces to match the old models. That said I still might do that. Anyways, the models are still great and I am really loving how the bases turned out.

Next Up: My updated Tyranid Prime! I am also starting to plow through my Gargoyles and the last of my Termagants. Big push at the moment is to 100% finish everything I have for my Tyranids. Looking forward to having a 100% complete army.

Tyranid Battle Report!

Over the weekend I finally managed to get my first game in with the new Tyranid Codex. I couldn’t really decide which type of list I wanted so I figured I would just throw down all my big bugs and see how it went. I played against my friend Jason who has an amazing look Nurgle Army. We have had a few battles in the past and it has always been a tight game and I figured this would be more of that.

6th Ed Tyranid Codex Initial Thoughts - An Explanation...

I have to say that ever since I heard that Tyranids were going to be redone and I have been super excited to get back into 40k after an almost 8 month break.  I kept thinking how we were finally going to get a book that fixes all the obvious and glaring issues with our current Codex and hopefully bring us back into the fold of relevance (seriously, tournaments see more SISTERS players then Nid ones sometimes lol). I had been ravenously following all the rumors, talking to friends who are “in the know” and everything was pointing towards a great book. Huge point drops for almost everything, “Apex Biomorphs” with some awesome effects, rumors of a Troop Transport bug, fixed Trygon tunnel and a Data Slate that focuses on Genestealers and Lictors. Everything sounded awesome. 

Ymgarls!

So I finally got off my ass and started painting some more Tyranids as they are incredibly close to being 100% finished (just 19 Gargoyles, 12 Termagants and 6 Ymgarls). Pleased to see that from such a huge break I still have the scheme down pretty well.

 

After looking at how these guys were turning out I noticed they looked EXACTLY like my original Broodlord which I thought was super cool. The nice thing is I can use them as a tooled up Stealer squad being led by him and use my standard stealers as more of a horde genestealer squad. Here is a quick shot of him with the new Ymgarls:

Tyranids Invade Tournament OP!

OP Tournament Over the weekend I attended my first tournament since the Spearhead tournament I did at the end of November last year. I was really looking forward to this one just because of how long it had been since I have attended any event. I decided after reading all the reports from Adepticon from this year I was going to play my Tyranids since not a single tournament player showed up there and everyone sees the army as dead on the tourney scene (well..which it kind of is lol).

This tournament had a couple things that were much different from your regular tournament. First off instead of using the standard force organization chart it used a percentage system almost identical to fantasy with an added limitation of only being able to select a max of 2 of the same elites and 3 of the same heavy. The rest of the army building process for people (like myself) who didn’t play fantasy was as follows: 25% max for HQ, 25% Min for troops, a max of 50% for elites and heavy combined and a max of 50% fast attack. The thing I noted is that I couldn’t really build an army outside the standard force org chart as all my lists could fit in either system. I also didn’t play against anyone or saw any list that had 4+ elites, fast attack or heavy support. It begs the question of why even use the % system at such a small points value (the tourney was 1600pts)?

Flying Hive Tyrant Finished!

After many hours of work (specifically on the wings..ugh lol) I finally finished this guy. I used the new Swarmlord's head instead of the normal Hive Tyrant head so to me it looks more like a "fin" (think Rocketeer). All I have left to finish now for the tournament is a single Hive Guard then my list is complete and Leviathan will be ready to kick ass and take names. Can't wait!

The Swarm Grows! Flyrant WIP...

I bought this guy pretty much when the two new Tyranid kits came out with the purpose of magnatizing him so I can replace my two metal Tyrants (my regular Hive Tyrant and the Swarmlord). Then I opened the box and actually looked at the parts that made up the Flying Hive Tyrant...and that was all she wrote.  The wings fit into the should sockets incredibly well and are fantasically sculpted.  Very little clean up was involed with this guy and zero green stuff, which is something I can't say for the metal Hive Tyrants.  The quality of the two new Tyranid models is incredible to the point where I would say they are some of the finest kits GW makes. Both models come with virtually every last option you could want minus twin linked devourers for the Tyrant and regular fore-arms for the Tervigon since I will NEVER use scything talons lol. One other really nice thing about this kit is you dont need to build the entire thing and paint it in one go. Since it is plastic you can do it in pieces with ease, which is great.

Tervigon Finished!

Man, I love it when work slows down. This weekend was totally dead so I was able to get in a good 16-ish hours of work on the Old Tervigon. In total this guy took about 20-22 hours, the same as my first Trygon. Only thing is I pretty much rushed this guy were as the Trygon I actually brown washed the whole model and went back and re-high-lighted a second time to get an even nicer finish. Here he is in all his finished glory (well...except the base which is still a WIP lol).







Just to give you an idea on how big this model is I did a comparison shot with it and my converted Tervigon. As you can see they arent even close as the official model is almost twice the height as the one I built. I still feel really good about the one I built as it is super close to the official model. I used the large base, it has spine banks for its cluster spines on its shoulders, egg sacs hanging from below. The only thing I like about mine more is that it has small "manipulator" arms instead of scything talons (its front arms are for walking only) but the official model you ONLY have the option for Scything Talons. Kind of sucks as I would never take that upgrade for this unit and I wish there was a 3rd set of arms (like small hands or useless arms like on the Mawloc) to use. Maybe I will just do up the smallest set of Mawloc Scything Talons to put in its place. Anyways, here they are :)



Next Up: I started working on the Ymgarls over the weekend as well so hopefully I will be able to finish the last part of my Ymgarls articles and get some good shots of the unit when its done.

Tervigon WIP #2!

So I managed to get some more time in today (about 6 hours worth). I 100% finished the main body and started working on the legs (just dark brown so no pics). Unless something crazy happens I will have this monstrosity done by the end of the weekend with pics on Monday. Also going to include some comparison pics with the other monsters to help give a size of scale since it is massive.

Tervigon WIP #1

So...my horrible Tyranid addiction continues. I managed to get my hands on both of the new kits (Tervigon and Hive Tyrant) and I gotta say that they are easily two of the best kits that GW produces. I sadly put the Ymgarls on hold after seeing the new Tervigon as I HAVE to paint it so the last part of my 3 part series is still coming, just slightly delayed.

The first thing I started working on was the main body of the creature, specifically the Egg sacs. I ended up putting in close to 5 hours in total only because I was trying something new which really didnt work so I ended up redoing an entire side. Overall I am really happy with how its going and I am still deciding if I want to leave it as is or if I want to do some work to make it look like the Termagants are popping out (like the mebrane of the egg sac is somewhat translucent). Hopefully soon I will be able to get some more progress pics (just started on the brown) and I also am going to do a comparison shot of GWs Tervigon and my conversion (trust me...mine is WAY smaller lol).

Ymgarls Part 2!

I find doing scenic bases are very daunting for most people. One definitely suffers from the “Where to start” syndrome. I find the best place to start is “what overall theme do I want my bases to have” and “what do I want my scenic bases to accomplish for this army”. Once you answer those two questions then you will find things will really start falling into place for you. Here are a couple of examples of what I am talking about in reference to my last two armies (as each one specifically fills one of those two questions).

“What overall theme do I want my bases to have”: For my Tyranids this is by far the most important thing I had in the back of my mind when approaching this army. I really wanted my Tyranids to feel like they were part of a large battle that was still in progress and to help tell that story. So for my army I decided I was going to incorporate my armies Arch Nemesis, The Ultramarines, as casualties on my bases. When I look at the army as a whole it really does give that feeling like they are in the middle of something bigger then what is on the talbe, which I really love. I also figured everyone hates Ultramarines anyways so I will get mad props for doing it (I kid...well...not really lol). The other main reason for using Ultramarines is the colour of their armor really plays off the Purple and Brown on my Tyranids which leads me to point 2.



“What do I want my scenic bases to accomplish for this army”: Now, this is the main focus of my Dark Eldar’s bases. If you really look at the bases for this army and the colours I used it is virtually impossible to pick an actual “theme” and it really is nothing but a bunch of jibberish. Dark Eldar standing on loads of scrap metal and junk? That really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense (they were originally my Orks bases but I was too lazy to make up new ones for my DE lol). For this army the theme 100% doesn’t matter and wasn’t part of the thought process behind their bases. What WAS the main focus was “What colours can I use to really help punch up the main colours of the army and to add visual interest to the models?” That is all that matters to me and for the most part I feel it is fairly successful.



Now that we have decided on a theme for our bases the next thing is to figure out what we will need in order to accomplish our goals. There is literally no limit to what you can throw on a base and this article will be WAY too big if I go into all of them. What I will do though is touch on some of my “Go To” materials.




- Industrial Rail Train Pieces: if you go into any regular hobby store there is normally a section near the model trains with different industrial plastic pieces. Things like “I” beams, scaffolding and smaller plastic tubes that you can use for pipes and whatnot are fantastic. You can also find plastic sheets that mimic building textures like bricks or aluminum siding (which I used extensively for my DE) not to mention plastic-card which have millions of uses. The key to these types of materials is to stockpile a bunch of these so when you get around to basing you can lay it out and help the different options materialize in your brain.

- Different Sizes of Gravel: One of the best basing things I have ever purchased was the “Limestone Chips” that come in the GW’s 40k basing kit. A small package of jagged, perfectly sized rocks was a godsend. It’s not the only decent rock out there though. It’s always good practice to have a bunch of different varieties of them for different looks and purposes.

- Bits from other Models: When I started my Tyranid army I had about 30 unbuilt Marines as well as left over parts from Rhinos and other things that I knew I was never going to build so I made good use of them on my bases. Now, I am not saying go buy a whole army just for your first army to stand on…that’s crazy talk. What I am saying though is your bitz bin is an invaluable resource for basing. You never know what you might need down the road so I make a habit of stripping my modeling sprues an throwing the extra bits into my bin. Throwing out a spare Marine helmet or a pistol onto a base can really help spruce it up.

- Different Types of Flock: Adding things like grass to your bases is another way to add visual interest by sprucing up the colour as well as the profile of your bases. It’s always really important to make sure the colour of your static grass goes with what you are trying to accomplish. Like, my Dark Eldar for example it would look horrible if I had bright green, very alive grass. If on the other hand I throw on dead grass (like they have) it makes more sense and adds that last little punch of colour. Another really cool product that has come out recently are pre-made tufts of grass that come on a sticky sheet. You can add this to bases with your regular static grass to create an even more realistic look.

- Coarse Pumice: I saw this on an article on Bell of Lost Souls and decided to try it out. I have to say I love using this product. It’s basically a Sand “Spread” for a lack of a better term. It’s a resin based product that drives hard with sand like texture. What it is really useful for is adding a layer of texture on your base that you can use to stick materials into. For the best results I find adding small sprinkles of sand here and there really gives a great finish look.

Once you have figured out the theme you want to go for and you have gathered the materials you want to use its time to actually get basing. The actual application of all the materials really depends on what you are trying to accomplish and there really is no right or wrong way to do it. There are a couple of tips you can use though.

1) Be Mindful of the Size of the Base: For the small bases you really want to avoid doing too much. Typically a single extra piece of something is all you need like adding a rock, or a metal plate. If you add too much it will tend to get overloaded and there is the simple fact you just cant fit everything on such a small surface.

2) Doing a Dry Run: For when you start getting into doing the larger bases or the bases for your generals/focal points I normally will get the pieces I want to use and I will set them up on the base before I actually do any gluing. I do this so I can really figure out how I want everything to look and so there isn’t any overlap on how I have things set up. This one is a really important step and one I really encourage you to get in the habit of doing.

3) Basing Doesn’t just Stop at Foot Troopers: I can’t count how many times I have seen armies with amazing basing on everything BUT they leave the Skimmers with their bare plastic rings. For me it’s just one more opportunity to create some really cool looking to help tie everything together. This one really does boil down to personal preference.





Now that I have talked about basing in general I will actually get into the specifics for my Tyranids (this article is supposed to be about Ymgarls after all lol).

With all of my Tyranid bases I started out with setting out the materials I needed (so, typically one or two extra details, white glue and sand). I would do a quick layering of the white glue and place my "detail" pieces then I would dunk the whole thing in my bin of sand and cover the whole model. Next I would do a couple passes of white glue around the detail bits, slowly building up mounds around them with the sand. The reason for this is it really helps make it feel like it is part of the base instead of just sand with a Space Marine helmet thown onto the base. Below I have added an example of my Tyranid Prime and how that layering of sand looks once its complete:





So that is pretty much it for this article. The next article is going to be about the how I painted my Nids and it will focus more on the colours and techniques I used to paint it (plus a step by step guide). If you have any other requests of articles like this you would like to see (I am thinking of doing the same thing with my Dark Eldar).

Ymgarls Part 1!

I have had my last three Nid projects in states of semi-completion for a while now. The last three things I am working on are my Flying Hive Tyrant (already converted, just needs basing and painting), 20 Gargoyles (built, primed, based with 1 test model done) and my 10 Ymgarl Genestealers (finally built).

I finally got a bit of time to do some work on converting up the Ymgarls and I decided I wanted to make them look different than the regular stealers but not go completely wacky on the conversions (so more of a subtle change). I have looked at the drawings for the Ymgarls and based my slight conversion off of that:

So, looking at the picture I knew I would need the feeder tenticle head (obviously) and the middle claw on their rending claw hands are also elongated. So below is what you will need to do this conversion:

The main thing to change the overall profile of the stealer other then the head are the rending clawed hands. So, for all of mine I cut the middle claw out and replaced it with talon from the Hormagaunt Scything Talons:

Here is what it looks like when you throw all the pieces together:

Next up: Is going to be about how I base this army and basing in general and what it can do for the overall feel for your army. After that I will be expanding on the painting tutorial I did a year or two ago and I will go more in depth on which colours I used for this army and the actual technique of how to get the "carapace" for this army.

Some Idle Thoughts...

Howdy Y’all! Sorry for the lack of posts over the month of December but it has been insanely busy at work and I also went home for Christmas for the first time in about 3 years (11 day trip). Throw both of those together and it equals zero time to paint or do anything with the hobby really. In fact I don’t think I have painted a model in almost a month, so hopefully over the coming weeks I will be able to get back into the swing of things.

I am currently working on an in depth tutorial on converting, basing and painting Ymgarl Genestealers for my Tyranid army. Going to talk a bit more about how to go about the feathering technique (ie how the army is painted) as well as the colours involved. The last part will be about basing in general and how to do scenic bases easily and on budget and how doing simple scenic bases vastly increases the appeal for your army. I am also getting into Warhammer Fantasy a bit and as I mentioned before I am starting an Ogre army (more pics soon…hopefully lol). I also managed to find my old High Elf army that I thought my ex girlfriend threw out. The crazy thing it is still all brand new, still on the sprue and comes out to about 4300pts of High Elves...so merry Christmas to me lol.

The main focus of this article though is to talk about something I have been thinking about for quite a while and that is what I feel is wrong with the 5^th ed Tyranid codex and my own take on how to fix it.

**Disclaimer** I acknowledge the fact that this is a completely redundant exercise as literally nothing I do or say will ever be taken into account by games workshop. This is something I did just as a fun exercise to entertain myself while it is slow at work…plus it’s just fun to think “what if”**

The first thing I wanted was outline what I feel the current Tyranid Codex does well as there are a bunch of things that I do really like.

1) Reserve Shinanigans: By far the best aspect of this codex is how many deployment options you have access to as well as different ways to alter your reserve rolls. It really makes it feel like an alien invasion out of Starship Troopers or something with Tyranids coming at you from all sides. It is the one thing that regardless of the main issues with this book that keeps me coming back and still having fun playing this army.

2) Little Gribblies: I feel that Cruddace did a great job on all the smaller “Gant” type creatures in this army book. Last edition Hormagaunts were almost un-usable because of how expensive they were and without number while a good idea was a bit wonky in execution as well as being fairly expensive. I love all the changes both in their points cost (5-8 points per model) and what they do. Gargoyles especially are fantastic in both their rules and their models. All the smaller bugs (not counting rippers) feel exactly how they should in my mind.

3) Streamlining: I am sure I am very much in the minority on this one but I think it was pretty much essential for the current book to streamline the stats for the ranged weapons and the units instead of keeping the 3^rd and 4^th ed stat swapping system. It just reduces the confusion for your opponent and most of the time you just took the same stats anyway so why not just streamline it and find the middle ground? Here is a good example of what I am talking about:

Tyranid Player: “My Carnifex here has a toughness of 6, 4 wounds and a 3+ armor save”
Opponent: “Okay, good to know. I will fire at that other Carnifex in the back then with the two big guns with my Missile Launchers!”
*After Opponent Shoots*
Tyranid Player: “Oh…actually THAT Carnifex is toughness 7, 5 wounds and a 2+ armor save”
Opponent: “…..sigh”

4) Mega Worms!: This more has to do with the models than the actual codex. I just love these models and simply don’t care what they do…I will still field them lol.

With that out of the way I wanted to nail down what I personally feel are the real issues with this book that need to be addressed.

1) Horribly Written Rules: Never before have I seen a book that needed an FAQ before it actually came out. Things like the Trygon Tunnel, Doom of Malantai, Terror from the Deep, Lictor Deployment, etc. All of these rules are all over the place and/or are completely useless (*cough* Trygon Tunnel *cough*). If this book just had a solid once over from an editor or even just someone who played the game it would have been a way better book.

2) Redundancy: This one is of my personal biggest issues. What I mean about redundancy is how many options, both in unit choices and the ranged weapon section, that just flat out do the exact same thing. Why do we have 3 Devourers (Devourer, Stinger Salvo and Deathspitters)? Why do we have two “Sniper Fexs” (Tyrannofex and Carnifex are virtually the same unit when you break it down). Why do we have 2 different units of Lictors (Ymgarls have the Lictor’s deployment and fill the exact same role). The Hive Mind is all about hyper focusing and constantly evolving to create an army of creatures that specialize in one or two defined rolls working in synergy with each other to overcome their enemies. This book isn’t that.

3) Overcrowded Elites Section: Everything is crammed into the elites section, specifically all of our useful anti tank. It vexes me that I have to forgo all the “fun” units in the army if I want to make sure I have enough anti tank to survive in this current meta game which brings me to my next point…

4) Ranged Anti Tank: This and the all Carnifex armies were probably the two single biggest issues with the 4^th edition codex and it was the number one issue I was hoping the 5^th edition Codex would have solved. At first glance it almost looks like the issue was fixed with the addition of Hive Guard and to a lesser extent Tyrannofex’s. At second glance though you realize that Hive Guard share the same slot as everything you would want to take in your army and the Tyrannofex is a 4^th edition Sniper Fex (Carnifex with a Venom Cannon and Barbed Strangler) with worse weapons and WAY more expensive. All Cruddace had to do was remove the “always glance” effect on the Venom Cannons while keeping everything else the same for them and this issue would have been rectified. Fixing Venom Cannons would have helped spread out the Anti Tank throughout the different Force Organization Slots and therefore removing the massive crutch in Tyranid army list building and that is taking as many Hive Guard as you can. Instead he actually makes the gun WORSE and therefore making the problem worse. Sigh.

5) Overpriced Monstrous Creatures: If you look at every other Codex, especially the ones written for 5^th edition you will start to see what I mean. The Talos is 100pts base and better then a Carnifex (which is 60pts more expensive) in virtually every way. Dreadknights are only 135pts and same deal. Cruddace completely over estimated just how powerful Monstrous Creatures without an invulnerable save really are and it REALLY hurts the army. The only one that is pretty much spot on is the Trygon, everything else is 20-30 points too expensive (in the case of the Harpy which is 160pts base it is closer to 60pts). Either make the MCs a bit better or give them a slight discount.

6) Instant Death and Toughness 4 Tyranid Warriors: I remember playing Tyranids back in 3^rd edition and one universal thing I noticed is that NOBODY took Tyranid Warriors, which was a real shame because they just received a great looking new model at the time and are one of the most iconic units in the army. The reason for this is that there were just getting insta-gibbed by every battle cannon and missile launcher under the sun. Fast forward to 4^th edition and the designers knew they had to do something to address this so they added instant death protection to everything within synapse which all of a sudden made them a great unit. I will admit though that giving everything in Synapse Range Eternal Warrior was a bit over the top and I really wouldn’t want to see that return. Tyranids are a living army and mass eternal warrior should be reserved for Demons. With that being said though something should be done whether it is eternal warrior JUST for Tyranid Warriors or making them Toughness 5. Regardless though something really needs to be done to make them a more attractive option.

7) Lack Of Assault Grenades: For the most part I think it really fits the Tyranid Army that the majority of the army doesn’t have assault grenades. Even now we have tones of ways to mitigate the damage we take when assaulting into cover with things like Catalyst, Paroxysm and Lash Whips. The only unit that SHOULD have grenades though are Genestealers. You add some rule for them to assault into cover and you would have one super happy Tyranid Player here.

So, with all the above issues in mind I made changes based on how I would love to see the 5^th Edition Tyranid Codex look. All the changes are just personal opinions on things and obviously none of it was play-tested. It was just changed based on my own experience with the current Tyranid Book and what just doesn’t work in it (or does work). Please feel free to make suggestions if you think things aren’t good enough or more likely to things that are too good. I have no issues toning things down or changing things if they are deemed too good and would very much love to hear people’s opinions on things. My main goal is to make something that is balanced and fits in line with the rest of the 5^th Edition Codices, not something that sits in its own category (*cough Grey Knights *cough).

Tyranid Codex Redux

2' x 4' worth of Pink Nids.

So I finally got around to taking some pictures of my tyranid army(painted models only, I have 45-50% more that are still in progress) that I have been working on for the past 6-7 years. I apologize for vastness of the shots;I didn't have the time to do individual unit shots.

edit: reread what I wrote; was a bit confusing before on the amount that is actually complete

The Great Devourer Descends on Red Deer!

Over the weekend I participated in only my second tournament this year. I missed out on all the big events at the beginning of the year because of work. My wife is giving birth to our first child next month so I am trying to cram in some gamin’ action while I can. I know I said I wasn’t going to be taking the “mighty” Tyranids to another event, but alas, I just couldn’t get the Dark Eldar up and running in time, so bugs it is.

The Tournament in Red Deer was being run by a gaming group called “Da Grots”. I have seen a couple of their members at some of the events in Calgary, but by and large, I know almost none of them. I therefore thought it would be a good chance to get in some games against people I have never played before. The tournament was a standard 3 game format, each game being a combination of missions and deployments from the main rule book (so standard stuff). Despite only being 10 people at this tournament there was a really wide variety of armies. There were 2 Nids, 2 Imperial Guard, 2 Space Marines, 1 Necron, 1 Ork, 1 Tau and 1 Demon. So almost all the armies were represented. There were supposed to be a couple more but I think there were some no shows.

The Tyranid List:

HQ

Tyranid Prime – Dual Boneswords, Scything Talons, Adrenal Glands

Elites

Venomthropes (2)
Hive Guard (3)
Zoanthropes (3)

Troops

Termagants (20)
Tervigon – Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, Catalyst
Hormagaunts (25) – Toxin Sacs
Genestealers (5) – Toxin Sacs, Broodlord Upgrade (BL – Scything Talons)
Genestealers (5) – Toxin Sacs, Broodlord Upgrade

Heavy Support

Mawloc
Mawloc
Trygon – Adrenal Glands

Total Points – 1849pts

Game 1: Capture and Control, Dawn of War vs. Blood Angels

Let me start off by saying that this game actually shouldn’t have taken place. What I mean by that is my opponent was a 13 year old kid with a barely painted army who couldn’t grasp the basic mechanics of the game, let alone enough to play in an actual tournament. Before we even set up I knew the game wasn’t going to be close. He placed his objective in a building, fairly close to the center of the board and I placed mine on the complete opposite side in a crater. Since he won first turn he combat squaded the Tact Squad in the building with the objective, placed his Chaplain on a Bike in the middle of the board on the center line and infiltrated his scout squad about 13” from my board edge. Everything else came in on turn 1 except Astorath and the DC which he opted to deep strike. I in turn just held my entire army off the board to walk on turn 1. Here is Nick’s list:

HQ

Chaplain on a Bike
Astorath

Elites

Sanguinary Priests (2) – Power Weapons, Combi-Meltas
Furioso Dread – Dread CC weapon, heavy flamer, scatter cannon (or whatever it’s called lol)

Troops

Tactical Squad (10) – Missile Launcher, Flamer, Power Fist
Scout Squad (5) – Sniper Rifles
Death Company (5) – Assortment of power weapons, thunder hammers, inferno pistols, etc… (basically everything you could give them…it was crazy how much this squad cost)

Fast Attack

Baal Pred – Assault Cannon, Heavy Bolter Side Sponsons
Scout Bike Squadron

Heavy Support

Predator – Autocannon Turret, Las Cannon side sponsons



High Points:

- The game lasted 45mins of the 2 hour allotted time.

Low Points:

Sigh, where to begin?
- I knew Nick would only focus on killing me, so I brought out the 20 strong squad of Termagants onto my own objective and sent 1750pts worth of Tyranids at his objective.
- Nick decided to deep strike his death company squad 6” from 1450pts worth of Tyranids which were wiped out to a man the following turn after being charged by a Trygon, 25 untouched hormagaunts with Catalyst and 12 Termagants I spawned (as this is all I could fit in base to base)
- The one stealer squad wiped out the Scouts turn 1
- By turn 3 almost my entire army had swamped his objective and the only kill point he managed was killing 2 Venomthropes because I couldn’t make a saving throw to save my life





Final Result: Tyranid Victory. I held both objectives and killed him to a man by the bottom of turn 3. This is the type of game that just shouldn’t happen in a tournament. Nobody has fun when one person gets trounced especially to this degree. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Nick had any concept of what was actually happening, but alas he didn’t. He just seemed confused at every point and was flustered even by the concept of rolling dice. I would have to say it was easily one of the worst games I have had in a tournament as it was literally a “bye” to the next round.

Game 2: Kill Points, Spear Head vs. Sons of Medusa (aka Space Marines)

This game was against my good friend Jon Wong and his optically devastating Sons of Medusa. I knew what was in his army before hand as we had been sending lists back and forth so I knew that this was maybe the worst combination of missions and deployment as Jon has nothing by long ranged anti tank firepower. Jon set up his parking lot/gun line in a line about 15”-20” away from the center while I set up everything but the two infiltrating stealer squads and the Trygon as close to the center of the board as possible. I knew Jon had an ultra death Sternguard squad with 8 combi meltas so I was trying to figure out how to have my Tervigon live past turn 1. I noticed I had a building with no windows or doors, so no line of sight, so that is where he was set up. I then infiltrated my stealers closer to the back side of his army, 18” away where if Jon wanted to shoot at me he would HAVE to shoot through cover. Jon gave me first turn so off I went!

Sons of Medusa

HQ

Lysander

Elites

Sternguard (10) – 8 Combi Meltas, Sergent w/ Powerfist, Drop Pod
Dreadnought – Auto Cannon
Dreadnought – Plasma Cannon

Troops

Tactical Squad (10) – Melta Gun, Missile Launcher, Serg w/ Power Fist, Rhino
Tactical Squad (5) – Melta Gun, Razorback w/ Twin Linked Las Cannons
Scout Squad (5) – Just CC weapons I think

Heavy Support

Land Raider – Chronos Upgrade (so BS 5)
Predator – Autocannon Turret, Las Cannon Sponsons
Predator – Autocannon Turret, Las Cannon Sponsons



High Points:

- The Genestealers were Ace this game. The first squad managed to fleet 6” the first turn, reaching cover and being very much in charge range to the battle line for turn 2 (which it did, wrecking one of the predators). The other squad took a full round of shooting from the stern guard using “Bolter Drill” from Lysander (ie re-rolls all misses) and they used the “Ignore Cover” ammunition. The Broodlord was all that was left with full wounds.
- The Hive Guard just had their way with Jon’s battle line. Every time they shot something died…every…time.
- Mawlocs wrecked havoc on the parking lot, sending tanks in multiple directions, immobilizing one of the preds and just getting in Jon’s face.

Low Points:

Well, all these belong to Jon lol
- The previous game for Jon was against a Necron army with THREE Monoliths. Chronos by himself wrecked 2 and immobilized one lol. So, naturally, this game he missed 3 of the 4 shots in the first two rounds (this is on a 2+ with a re-roll)
- That luck continued for the first round as I either saved all incoming shots (Zoans never failed a save, took about 6 or 7 of them from Las Cannons) or he just flat out missed.
- I think the biggest one was how he deployed his Sternguard Squad. He was far too aggressive with his deployment of them, trying to force them into place to kill a high priority target on turn 1. He shot at the one stealer squad which just due to the nature of the 5 man unit is virtually impossible to kill with that squad (on average you need to do THIRTY wounds to kill the 5 guys, I will explain later :). He should have either deep struck the squad BEHIND my lines in hopes of killing the Hive Guard or deployed them in his battle line to help defend against things like the Mawlocs or Trygons.





Final Result: Tyranid Victory. By the time the Trygon came up on turn 3 Lysander and the Sternguard were almost dead and only the tact squad, Chronos and one of the Predators were still functional. I still had almost my entire army so Jon just conceded (but not before we figured out how long Lysander could last lol). Overall it was a fun game, Jon was a great guy to play against and took everything in stride, and when stuff goes wrong, dice wise, it can be difficult to do lol.

Game 3: Seize Ground (5 Objectives), Pitched Battle vs. Tyranids

This game was against the OTHER Tyranid player in the tournament. I thought it was pretty cool that at this point the only two armies that went 2-0 were Tyranids. Tyler’s army was awesome. It was perfectly designed to take on imperial armies with a combination of lots of bodies and massive toughness. His was the army I knew would give me the hardest time. He has significantly more toughness then I did (including a 700pts Deathstar Squad and a Tyrannofex) and my Mawlocs are almost useless against him. It was 5 objectives which was good as my stealers really gave me an edge. I knew the only path to victory was side step and bait his Hive Tyrant Death Star while putting all my focus on killing all his troops (killed 8 units of troops by the end of the game lol) and try to outlast him.

Tylers List:

HQ

Hive Tyrant – Bonesword, Lashwhip, Venom Cannon, Old Adversary, Regen
Tyrant Guard (3) – Lash Whips
Tyranid Prime – Dual Boneswords, Regen

Elites

Hive Guard (3)
Hive Guard (3)

Troops

Termagants (10)
Termagants (10)
Tervigon – toxin sacs, adrenal glands, catalyst
Tervigon – toxin sacs, adrenal glands, catalyst

Fast Attack

Gargoyles (27) – Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands

Heavy Support

Tyrannofex – Rupture Cannon

High Points:

- Genestealers won me this game. I infiltrated both squads, one of which was on one of the objectives in his deployment zone which was on a high bastion tower. There was physically no way he could get up there so the squad just went to ground the whole game for a 2+ cover save basically eating up 5 full turns of shooting from 6 hive guard. The other squad I botched their deployment and they served as a speed bump for the Gargoyles (but, making them take tonnes of dangerous terrain rolls).
- Trygon earned his keep. He killed a squad of Termagants , a Tervigon and a squad of Hive Guard by the time the game ended
- Tyranid Prime did extremely well this game. He “bonesworded” a Tyrannofex and then a turn later “bonesworded” the last remaining Tervigon which was Tyler’s last troop unit

Low Points:

- I had the perfect placement for my second unit of infiltrating Genestealers then at the last second I doubted myself and moved them to a spot where they were just devoured by Gargoyles. I think if I had left them where they were it would have been a much quicker game
- My Zoans did virtually nothing this game. I killed a couple termagants, did a wound to a Tervigon, then they took 5 impaler cannon hits failing every single one
- I miss-placed a unit of spawned termagants which ended up opening a lane for Tyler to engage my Tervigon with his own Termagants. I thought this was going to be the end but due to some inspiring rolling from my tervigon I ended up fighting off the Termagant swarm.









Final Result: Tyranid (mine) Victory. The game ended on turn 5 with me holding two objectives to Tyler’s zero (he had no troops left at this point). Overall I played this game very well using my Mawlocs to distract the Deathstar away from my own objectives and I had a great use of counter attacks with my different units. The biggest thing is I ONLY attacked his troop units while he spread his focus too thin on my supporting units that didn’t matter. I think this game also helped me prove two of my opinions on this army. 1) Tyrannofex’s suuuuck lol. He killed virtually nothing and got chopped to bits by my Tyranid Prime (so a 100pt model killed a 265pt model in cc). 2) Venom Cannon’s are the biggest waste of points on a Tyrant. Tyler spent most of the game shooting me with the Venom Cannon instead of running his insane close combat unit forward. This one thing more than any other won me the game as it left his Tyrant too far away to effect the game.

Final Tournament Standing: First Overall, Best Painted. I won every single category I could (since it was just most games won and best painted). It was one of the most dominating outings this army has had to date.

Army Thoughts: The list worked incredibly well as it was very flexible. It just feels like the most complete army I have brought to a tournament to date. 5 scoring units really helps as well. The biggest thing though is this army is FUN to play. Lots of interesting units and massive synergy.The only things I would change might be switching the Mawlocs to Trygons. That’s about it. The one group of units that surprised me the most were the min sized Genestealer Squads with the Broodlord. These squads are incredible. They have two main things going for them.

1) They are so small they can infiltrate virtually anywhere. The only reason I won that last game is because the squad was just small enough to infiltrate out of sight onto an objective.
2) Due to their small size they get forgotten and aren’t a priority target. This happened almost every game. Against Marine armies this squad is very deadly. They still get 17 WS6-7 attacks on the charge that re-roll virtually all wounds with rending. You end up getting something like 3-4 rends on the charge. They can threaten vehicles and small units alike. I love them lol

Tournament Thoughts: I am going to go on kind of “Rant” so bare with me here lol. When I first signed up for this Tournament the poster with all the information on it said “Prizes for first place, second place, third place, best painted and best sport”. So I figured I would at least have a shot at best painted and best overall. After driving an hour and a half to the event I ended up talking with one of the guys that runs the game club and he informed me that “In order to make sure people don’t bring ‘Leaf Blower’ type lists we are just going to ‘randomly’ give out the prizes”. This made me do a bit of a double take as it meant there is no reason to do pretty much anything. Nothing the players did had any impact on what would happen through the day. It transformed the event from a tournament to a club game day. I also thought since if the organizers were so worried about this type of thing that they would have had some sort of comp score or have other soft scores impact the final overall score (like painting, sports, etc.). The “Tournament’s” only scoring method was through battle points. So they wanted a soft score type tournament when they set it up to be Ard Boyz.

Another strange thing was after the first round the fellow running the event called my name out for best painted, but then called another guy’s name as well to come get a prize (with NO indication of what he might of won). So he got there first, getting the prize I wanted so I ended up getting stuck with a box of Wyches (which was the worst prize there). There was no more mention of prizes and I figured they would do the “draw” after the last game but once I finished my last game I noticed everyone already had their prizes. The thing that REALLY bothered me was they just gave out the prizes to their own members with no “random draw” at all (nether Jon nor I received any of these “random” prizes). So the first kid I played (who plays blood angels) got a Storm Raven, and so on. The prizes ranged from a Space Wolf Battle Force (the best prize, who was “won” by someone playing IG who came in the middle of the pack) to a box of Wyches (the worst prize). If I am speaking honestly I felt cheated and I felt that it was under handed to just change everything about the tournament on the day of the event to better benefit your own members. If they wanted a “Members Only” event then they should have put that on the poster. Another great thing is that I had to pay an EXTRA $10 over everyone else just to participate. Sigh lol.

One thing I wanted to ask is how would you guys feel if you travelled 150kms to an event to have everything about it changed (very much not in your favor)? Am I over reacting as far as being “irked” over how things went down? I would love to hear from you guys