Purge Additions + Steel Brethren

So it has been quite a long time since my last post, but I have made up for it with quantity and quality. I've added a few units to the Purge, An entire unit of Steel Brethren(!) and a WIP of a Punisher Havoc marine (so the other one doesn't feel so damned lonely).






Next up we have the new unit of Steel Brethren. These guys are from the idea of starting a themed Seige of Vraks style Warband. I was using my old 13th company army as stand ins in my 1k chaos list, and just decided to paint up the whole unit so they better fit with the army AND could be used on the table top(!). It was a very spur of the moment idea in which I decided to forgo stripping the paint off 'thems and just dive in. They have a bit more paint on them than I usually find acceptable, but in the moment that didn't seem important; I still am happy with them for a very quick paint job (4-5 hours to do all 20).










And the lonely Punisher.

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

Dark Eldar Invade Real Space at Winter War!

Over the weekend my local game stored held a small tournament (16 spots…but only 10 showed up since this is Calgary where Fantasy rules the roost). The one really neat thing about this tournament though is that it used the rules from the GW supplement “Spearhead”. I know most of you probably groaned when reading that but after playing a couple of test games and then this tournament I have to say it’s actually really fun. The thing I liked about it was the fact that it breathes some much needed life into an incredibly stale game since there are so many different types of Spearheads that drastically change the game and really make you think outside the box as both how you want to set your army up and planning on what could potentially come your way. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Spearhead I am just going to do a quick rundown for you:

- The game is played from short edge to short edge so the long board edges would be the sides you outflank from (if you can). This means that the range of your weapons really comes into play since you are using all 6 feet of the board
- The Force Org chart is changed so nothing is mandatory (so troops would be 0-6 for example). The main change is that ALL Tanks and Walkers can score in addition to your Troops section and any Spearheads that you take also can score (so my first opponent had something like 22 scoring units lol)
- The addition of Spearhead Formations. These fit outside the main Force Organization and normally are built towards Walkers or Tanks with some for troop transports and skimmers (18 in total). How they work is you have to take up to 3 Units of Tanks/Walkers for a specific Spearhead and they all have to be the same unit (so 3 Predators for example) but they don’t have to be armed the same (so you could have a “Dakka” Pred, a Lascannon Pred and a Pred with an Autocannon for example). You pay a certain amount of points ranging from 15 points to 90 points and it gives you special abilities like a 5+ invulnerable save or the ability to fire all their weapons once before the game starts, etc. As long as the units within the Spearhead stick with in 4” of each other they are also able to fire one more weapon then they would normally be allowed and they can fire that weapon at a different target if they want (so a Chimera could move 12” and still fire it’s multi laser, or move 6” and fire its multi laser at one target and heavy bolter at another for example).

With all that in mind it took me a while to decide on what type of army list I wanted to take for my Dark Eldar. When looking at the different Spearheads there seemed like a massive potential for some soul crushing Alpha Strikes if you didn’t win the first turn or depending on the Spearhead before the first turn lol. With all that in mind I decided to do a Hybrid reserve bomb army using a Web Way Portal and one of the dirtiest Spearheads, which is Mechanized Assault (choose 3 transports which outflank turn 1…along the long table edges…right in the middle of your opponents deployment zone with a web way portal). I also chose a Spearhead called “Skyfall” for my 3 Ravagers which allowed them to come in via Deep Strike and shoot all their Dark Lances against the side armor of anything they are shooting at regardless of facing to represent them shooting as they are landing. Here is the list I used:

HQ

Haemonculi - Web Way Portal

Elites

Trueborn (4) - 4 x Blasters

Troops

Wyches (10) - 2 x Hydra Gauntlets, Hekatrix w/ Agonizer, Haywire Grenades
Wyches (10) - 2 x Shardnets/Impalers, Hekatrix w/ Agonizer, Haywire Grenades

Fast Attack

Reaver Jetbikes (6) - 2 x Heat Lances
Scourges (5) - 2 x Haywire Blasters
Beastmasters (4) - 10 Khymera, 2 Razorwing Flocks, Clawed Fiend

Heavy Support

Talos - twin linked haywire blaster, chain flails, extra close combat weapon

Mechinsed Assault Spearhead

- 3 x Raiders w/ Flicker Fields (both wyches and trueborn with haemonculi in here)

Skyfall Spearhead

- 3 x Ravagers w/ Flicker Fields

So how the list works is everything gets held in reserve with the Wyches and Trueborn outflanking turn 1 into my enemies deployment zone for me to drop off the Web Way Portal. After that I now have the option of having stuff come out of the WWP in my enemies deployment zone or to come in via reserve or deep strike (in the case of the scourges) on my side if there are units there. I was a bit nervous going into a “Tank Tournament” with so little ranged anti tank (I have 238pts into a unit that is ONLY anti infantry in the form of the beast pack) and so few scoring units since Dark Eldar don’t have any “Tanks” or “Walkers”. My other big worry was how this army was going to fair with so little on the board turn 1 right in my enemies face while everything else in my army comes in piecemeal. There was a big chance that my stuff would get shot up in little chunks leaving me with nothing to retaliate. My hope was to win at least one game while having my mighty TALOS do something (in which case I would yell “TALOS!” in my best heavy metal rocker voice).

Game 1: Mechanized Guard

Le Sigh. So my biggest “nightmare army” is obviously my first opponent (and surprisingly the only army at the tourney where I didn’t give myself much chance lol). We actually joked before the game on how I was just going to flail all over his army while he just shoots me to bits. At least there was virtually no terrain on the board lol (again…le sigh). Even before the game started I knew what kind of up-hill battle this was going to be and decided that while I will probably lose I will try and take as much of the Imperial scum with me as I could.

The scenario was 5 objectives, one big one in the middle of the board with 4 others in the middle of each quarter. Every scenario for this tourney had a special rule and the special rule for this scenario was the middle objective was an alien weapon of unknown origin that shoots a massive laser (str 9, ap3) in a random direction at the start of each players turn. I figured that worked in my advantage since I only have open topped, low armor vehicles…wait…dammit! Here is Cory’s list (keep in mind I don’t know it exactly since I haven’t played the current Guard very much and when you are faced with a million chimeras it all looks the same lol):

Cory’s Army:

- 9 Chimeras with command squads and an infantry platoon
- The one infantry platoon forms into a blob squad with two auto cannon heavy weapon squads
- Mechanized Assault w/ 3 Chimeras w/ vets in them (2 melta squads, one flamer squad)
- 2 Basilisks

So when looking through that list he has 12 (yes 12) chimeras all with Multi Lasers and Heavy Bolters (so 36 shots of EACH a turn). It doesn’t really matter if I even blow up half of them in one turn because whatever I don’t kill will easily be able to shoot my tanks out of the sky…or so I thought. I managed to win the roll for first turn in which I gave it to Cory so he would effectively lose one turn of shooting while I would still have 5, so here it goes!

Highlights of the Game:

- I managed to get the side I wanted for outflanking which was RIGHT beside his massive Guard Blob which happened to be a huge piece of terrain to hide my stuff. Cory was smart and popped smoke on all his tanks to protect them from what I had incoming. My Trueborn managed to hit all 4 times and then penetrate all 4 times on his Command Squad’s Chimera (they had 4 flamers…do not want lol) and then he proceeded to make ALL FOUR cover saves lol. In fact he didn’t fail a single smoke cover save the entire first round which helped my cause immensely lol.
- I completely underestimated the durability of the massive guard blob squad. My Wyches charged in, did something like 25 wounds (he made almost half his saves on a 5+) and did quite a bit of damage back. In fact, after a couple turns he had whittled me down to the point where I just didn’t have the power to fight back and they managed to kill 20 wyches in close combat.
- Turn 2 my Skyfall Ravagers came in and changed the game to the point where Cory wouldn’t recover. Basically I managed to Stun/Weapon Destroy/Immoblise/Wreck 5 tanks on the turn they landed creating a complete pile up in the middle of the board making sure that almost anything that could fire back at me would give me a cover save. At the start of turn 3 I looked Cory in the eye and said “just so you know all 3 of my Ravagers WILL be here at the start of my turn”. He scoffed and got onto rolling. By the end of the turn taking an entire parking lot worth of shots which included 3 melta guns in melta range and a basilisk shell I lost a single Dark Lance from the squad. That’s it.
- The “Alien Artifact” blew up 3 of Cory’s tanks, while doing nothing to me lol. He just had SO MANY tanks in the middle of the board you just couldn’t draw a line out without blowing something up. My Talos got hit at the end of the game but I already had a pain token so I laughed it off.

Final Result: Victory! I ended up winning the game 2 objectives to 0 with a mad dash right at the end of the game (start of turn 5 he had 4 objectives and I had none with only 5 minutes to do my entire turn). I managed to contest the middle objective with my Jet Bikes and kill the squad of guard on the other with my Talos. My scourges came in turn 5 and wiped out another squad of guard on an objective in my deployment zone while both my remaining Ravagers turbo boosted to grab the two un-contested objectives. One thing I really enjoyed about this game is that Cory is a very smart player and really focused on the objectives. So many times in games I find people going after the stuff that doesn’t matter (aka not scoring units) but he kept his focus and went out of his way to remove any and all of the things I had that I could use to win the game (just 2 out of 9 scoring units of mine left at the end of the game). This was an incredibly hard game to win and to say I was surprised that I came out with a victory is an understatement.

Game 2: Salamanders

This game was against a fellow named Anthony Dalla Lanna and his Salamander list. Every since I got into the tournament scene here in Calgary Anthony is one of the people who basically win everything (mostly best general and overall) so I knew this was going to be a super tough game. I had two things working in my favor for this game. The first is that he didn’t have any spearheads at all and the second is before I saw what he brought I already knew exactly what was in the army since he has been using the same force since the 5^th ed Space Marine book came out and to be honest his list hasn’t aged well (only two scoring units).

Our mission was a modified Kill Point mission where you also earned Kill Points for each unit of yours that were still functional in your opponents half of the table. This obviously is a MASSIVE advantage for me since my entire army will be coming out of his half of the table lol. This was the only mission that didn’t have any really crazy rules so it was just business as usual. As with the first game I won the roll off to see who goes first (which is massively important playing Anthony) and I made him go first.

Anthony’s Army:

Vulkan
7 Terminators + Land Raider Crusader
2 Tactical Squads (one combat squaded in a Razorback w/ a twin linked heavy bolter, the other in a drop pod with flamers and a multi melta)
2 Iron Clad Dreads in Drop Pods with Hunter killer Missiles
2 Vindicators

Highlights of the Game:

- First turn the Trueborn managed to blow up a Vindicator. On Anthony’s turn he deep struck his Ironclad right beside them flaming them with a heavy flamer (he figured he would just wipe them out not realizing the Haemonculi gave them a pain token). Two managed to live and they passed their panic test. The following turn (my turn 2) they blew up the Land Raider (got a “6” on the damage chart) and killed a Terminator in the explosion. 108pts well spent lol
- The start of his turn 2 he fired his Land Raider at my two turbo boosting Wyche Raiders and managed to blow them both up with a Multi Melta and Assault Cannon. Lost only 2 in the explosion (the other one was just wrecked) and they both managed to pass their pinning tests
- We talked for a minute about what happens when someone rolls “double 1’s “ when assaulting through cover as the rules state that you can’t be within 1” of an enemy if you aren’t in combat. So I said obviously the charge would fail. I then roll my difficult terrain roll for the Wyches assaulting his 5 man combat squad (I figured a quick pain token) and then of COURSE rolled “Double 1’s”. What are the freaking odds on that lol?
- My Beast pack showed up just in time and rushed his Terminator squad. They managed to kill 6 Terminators and broke Vulkan (who was escorted off the board by my Scourges that showed up the following turn). They were completely ace this game.

Final Result: Victory! I won the game 15kp to 5kp as I had my entire army in his half and I had earned more kill points then he did. Basically from turn 1 I had Anthony on the ropes and he was just playing the “reaction game”. The Web Way Portal in particular messed him up since he couldn’t get far enough away from it or surround it. Overall, like the first game, it was a really hard fought and more importantly fun game.

Game 3: Grey Knights

Grey Knights are an army I have only faced once and have heard complete horror stories about. There are a bunch of things that (in my mind) are totally broken in this book like Auto Cannon Dreadnoughts, Grenades and Paladins. Good thing to note that my opponent had all of those lol. What was even better was that his Autocannon Dreads were in a Spearhead which gave them Tank Hunter lol (so now they were each firing 4 x Str 9 twin linked shots against vehicles). Good times.

Our Mission was probably the strangest one of the day. It was 4 objectives, 3 minor, 1 major and the 3 minor are placed in one board half while the lone major objective was placed in the other (the minor ones are worth 1 each while the major is worth 3). The “weirdness” comes into play turn 4 since the 4 objectives are supposed to be fragments of an alien ship or something and you have to randomly roll to see if any of them explode (one explodes for a large blast of Str 10, ap1 while the other three do an EMP pulse which causes a glancing hit to anything within 6”).

My opponents name was John and he drove all the way from Grand Prairie to be there. The list was actually pretty fun to play against despite my earlier run down of the negative fun options of the GK army once you boil it down and he was a great opponent to play against. Here is his list:

John's Army:

Librarian (sanctuary and something else…he never used either so it didn’t matter lol)
Inquisitor w/ grenades (ugh)
Paladins (7 believe, all with halberds, 1 hammer, 2 psycannons)
3 x 10 Strike Squads w/ Rhinos, 1 demon hammer, 2 psycannons)
2 x “Psyfleman” Dreads (dual str 8 autocannons) w/ Tank Hunter Spear Head
(all squads had psy-bolts to make their storm bolters str 5)

Highlights of the game:

- This game for me was all about controlling the objectives by limiting my opponent’s movement since he was castling in a building in the corner of the board. I went out of my way to focus all of my anti tank firepower on his Rhinos and I managed to blow them all up early on in the game. This one thing decided the game.
- The rest of the game was about maiming his regular Grey Knights while either avoiding or distracting his Paladin squad.
- My Ravagers came available for deepstrike on turn 3 and scattered about 5” away from one of the objectives JUST in time to get “EMP’d” at the start of turn 4. Luckily only one Ravager was in range for that glancing hit…and un-luckily my opponent rolled a “6” on the damage chart wrecking it lol. What else was nice was to see the large Str 10, AP1 blast be RIGHT beside my unit of wyches that were near the middle objective. The best part of that is they made all their cover saves lol. Strange stuff.

Final Result: Victory! This game was won during deployment as I ended the game with 4 objectives to his 1. John never once tried to get to the other objectives and just camped his lone one (I think the farthest either of his Dreads moved was up or down one level). He also took all the “bait” I offered him like charging my beast pack into the middle of his army in an attempt to pull the Paladins off his home objective (which he did). John opted to leave his basically unstoppable Paladin squad on his home objective instead of moving them to the far objective in his half of the table which my Web Way Portal was sitting on. He just shot down a raider or two or tried to kill my scourges at range. John was a great guy to play against though and like the other games was really fun and I would happily play him any time as I voted him “best sport”.

Final Tournament Result: First Overall!

I managed to win all my games and had the highest marks for painting (don’t know how I did in sports but hopefully I wasn’t a massive douche lol). It felt like to me that nobody was prepared for the type of list I was bringing to this tournament since everyone else just had a stand up and fight type army. I was determined to play this game on my own terms and dictate the flow of the game (which is, as a player, typically how I win) and it worked perfectly.

Despite there being only 10 people at the tournament there still was quite a bit of fierce competition with some pretty tough lists. I think I am the only one who actually won all 3 games. The tournament was also run fairly smoothly with only a couple weird things on some scores and whatnot but it was all pretty minor. One thing that was nice and a big change from most 40k events you go to lately is how laid back the atmosphere for this one was. Even normally really competitive people were just letting thing slide and taking everything in stride (myself included).

As far as the special twist for the tournament (aka using Spearhead) I would have to say it was successful. The armies were all really fun to play against, lots of challenges and it really made you think outside the box and change how you approached the game. Kind of sucked that I was the only non-imperial player there (2 blood angles, 2 space wolves, 1 marine, 2 grey knights and myself) but alas due to GWs release schedule for 5^th ed (6 imperial vs. 3 xenos) that is the climate we live in. I think it is really good to participate in this type of tournament every once in a while just to keep things fresh and for me it keeps me sharp. I am also REALLY pleased with the performance of this army as this was their first tournament and they haven’t disappointed. I hope you enjoyed the battle report and hopefully I can get more in (both tournaments and battle reports) and get them posted up on the site.

Now for Something Completely Different...

...A man with a tape recorder up his nose.

Now that my Dark Eldar army is almost complete (just have a second Razorwing and the Hellions left) I felt it was time for something new. These days I am finding 40k is getting incredibly stale mostly due to how the only armies you see any more are either Marines (mostly GKs now) and some Imperial Guard. I am just not feeling 40k like I used to and I am hoping that 6th edition (with maybe a massive Errata for the Nid Dex? :D) will change that. Since 6th ed isn't coming out till the summer of next year I figured I would really change things up and try something new...

...OGRES!

That's right, Warhammer Fantasy Ogres. For those of you who know me this is the first time I have done anything for Fantasy since 3rd edition (almost 20 years), so it is a big change for me. A friend of mine gave me the Ogre Army book, the IOB rule book and a box of ogres to get me started. I also managed to trade some stuff for an Ogre Battalion and a Thundertusk which is also really cool. My goal is to paint up 2500pts so I can get the feel of Warhammer Fantasy after being away from the game that long. I have finished up some test models and I finally hit something that I was really happy with. So here is my 3rd attempt at doing Ogres:









The first couple of tries I either really didn't like the skin colour (the first test model...way too much shadow grey) or I found I did too much "streaking" on the skin (similar style as my Tyranids brown colour). This one I pulled back how much I was doing with the skin and made the choice to do less as far as highlighting goes. I also plan to do a lot with extra details (its going to be an Ogre raiding party on Imperial lands, hence the shoulder shield) and scenic bases.

Let me know what you think and if there is anything you would change on this guy!

Lest we forget....

I just wanted to say thank you to all the Men and Women in uniform that have served their country over the years and paid the ultimate price for our freedom.  Their sacrifice will never be forgotten and I am eternally grateful.