More Cheese Grommit?

He's big, he's bad, he's a floating brain!! The Doom of Malantai has drifted eerily into every tournament list I've seen this year, and for good reason. He has the potential to wreak havoc upon an unwary foe and at 90 points (plus 40 for your Mycetic Spore, of course) he's a cheap date. So why aren't I jumping up and down with glee as a Tyranid player, with this gift of a unit in my Codex? Well, that's what I hope to address in this post...

1+ The Doom of Malan'tai
So is he really that great? This is of course a matter of opinion and how you play the game but based on my experience I have to say you're damn right he is! For such a small investment the threat of him alone is almost worth it. Either your opponent underestimates the scale of the destruction the Doom's capacle of, or you force him onto the defensive (either in cover or in vehicles) and to spread out. If he does the latter he has for a start lowered the body count in his army by taking all those transports, which are for the most part easily handled by the trusty Hive Guard (and Monstrous Creatures later). Secondly, and importantly, if he spreads out to deny you multiple targets from the 6" radius of Doom, he allows you to adopt an offensive approach with fast or deep striking/outflanking units, focussing a large part of your army upon a small part of his. Merely by including the Doom in your list you are inviting your opponent to screw something up.

Toughness 4? -Pfft!
Yes, Instant Death is his one weakness, but it is his ONLY weakness. Trying to instant kill the Doom is the most reliable way to kill him, especially once he starts leaching up wounds. So you know that on the turn he arrives, the Doom will have every Missile Launcher, Lascannon, Rokkit & Railgun pointing sqarely at him. Your opponent is forced to divert all of those expensive weapons on this 100-point guy, meanwhile Hive Tyrant, Tervigons and Trygons scuttle up the field happily towards their eagerly awaited meal. There are of course a couple of things in the game that ignore invulnerable saves but they are in such a minority that they're almost not worth factoring into consideration.

WHAT? Spirit Leech still works while he's locked in assault - and in my turn too???
There are few things as demoralising to an opponent (and this is speaking from bitter experience) of being on the receiving end of your first serious Dooming! If you're not equipped for him he's very difficult to shift once he gets up and running. Even if his impact attack isn't crippling (and quite often it is, I've seen him take out whole units of Khorne Berzerkers, multiple monstrous creatures, scores of guardsmen and gaunts), if allowed to fester in your opponents backline he can begin to seem like a one man army.

A No-Brainer
The Mycetic Spore is the real power behind the Doom's punch. On the turn the Doom arrives, he still gets to use his Spirit-Leach, and use his psychic shooting attack if he likes. He gets to do this without fear of reprisal, there is nothing the enemy can do to stop you trying this. Barring a disastrous Deep-strike scatter roll, you should be able to get you opponent taking at least one of those nasty 3D6 Ld tests on the turn the Doom arrives. Buying the Doom buys you a free hit, a cheap shot, a swift kick to the shins to distract your foe whilst your other units close in. Even if you should be so unlucky that when he hits home he has little effect on the battle and is dispatched a turn later, you've only 'wasted' a small portion of your army. You're Tryanids, there's plenty more where that came from!!

The Doom of 40K?
Well I suppose he stands up to the fluff - maybe he's just about powerful enough to destroy an entire Eldar Craftworld (really, Robin Cruddace? Not one of those guardians managed to pop off a Bright Lance at him?). I say this in jest of course, he's far from invincible. He's just a very cheap trick. In the current gaming climate just about every army has one (in some cases two or three) in their arsenal. The individually-armed Nob Bikers, the Jetbike Seer Councils, Necron Monoliths, Mephiston The Lord of Auto-win, Rune Priests... the list goes on. Now I don't have a problem using powerful units - I'm partial to a bit of cheese, I can take quite a lot actually! And I have no problem facing off against these super-units. In a tournament setting anything's fair game. Whilst I admire my regular gaming opponent Kenny for his refusal to resort to running 'Twin Lash' in his Chaos Marines lists, this attitude seems to be in the minority. Of course people use and abuse the lists to get the most out of them, most people want to win! I think what these units do more than anything is expose the gap between players' expectations of how the game should be and how it is; and more importantly the gap between the Games Designers' ideas about what they've written and how it will be used and abused on the tabletop. More and more in White Dwarf articles, the re-formatting of Throne of Skulls etc., GW seem to be discouraging people from using the rules they've written to win games. They seem to have acknowledged, albeit indirectly, that there is inmbalance in their rules system and the army lists but they're kindly asking us to 'play fair'. Surely the best way to get players to play fair is to work fairness into the rules, not tie themselves in knots with ever increasingly extravagant and convoluted special rules? Anyway this has already turned into more of a rant than I'd intended - does anyone else feel as though 40K is descending into battle of the super-units? Or then again, is that what it always was, is and ever shall be?

-Askepios

Rapid-Fire! 2010 - Stirling

I attended this great event last year, bringing along the Orks of Waaagh! Blaktoof. It was my first proper tournament (think I finished third last?!) and I was really impressed at the high standard of play and company. I think that, whilst tournament play is by its very nature strongly focussed on trying to win each game as mercilessly as possible, a friendly atmosphere and sense of camaraderie is very important. Suffice to say I was really looking forward to going back this year and had thought long and hard about my army list. Of course the Tryanids of Hive Fleet Askepios were my weapon of choice for the event, here's my 1750 list:

Hive Tyrant with Lash Whip & Bonesword, Old Aversary, Hive Commander
(Psychic Powers Paroxysm & Leech Essence)
3 Tyrant Guard
2 x 3 Hive Guard
The Doom of Malantai in a Mycetic Spore
2 x Tervigons (Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, Catalyst, Cluster Spines)
2 x 10 Termegants
2 x Trygons with Adrenal Glands

No surprises for anyone there then!

Game One - Seize Ground, Dawn of War
Finding ourselves randomly assigned to Table 1, my opponent Mark and I set about the first game - 5 objectives, my favourite! Mark was using his friend's Ultramarines, which though very nicely painted, I didn't manage to get a picture of (sorry!). The list was something like:

Captain with Relic Blade & Digital Weapons
Dreadnought with Assault Cannon & Extra Armour
5 Assault Terminators with Lightning Claws
Tactical Squad with Missile Launcher & Flamer
Tactical Squad with Missile Launcher & Flamer, Sgt. with Power Sword
Tactical Squad with Missile Launcher & Flamer, Sgt. with Power Fist (in a Rhino)
Scout Squad with Missile Launcher & a couple of sniper rifles
Full Devastator Squad with 4 Heavy Bolters
Predator Tank (Autocannon & Lascannon-sponsons)

We placed objectives (one in the middle, one in each quarter), I won the dice-off and chose to go 2nd. In objectives games very often getting the last turn is more important than getting first turn, and I figured that by forcing him to set up first I'd at least get to see where his big guns were going to be. He deployed a tactical squad in cover at either end of his deployment zone, put his Termies in Deep Strike, his Scouts into Outflank, and the rest coming in on T1. I answered with 2 Tervigons, deployed in cover, opposing the marines. I kept the Trygons and the Doom in Deep Strike, everything else coming in on T1.

He brought his Devastators on in the middle, giving them a good field of fire, backed up by the Tactical Squad in the Rhino and the Captain. To my right the Predator trundled on and opened up at the nearest Tervigon, failing to wound the brute. The Dreadnought came on to oversee proceedings on the left of the table. My Turn and on came the Tyrant with his Guard, making for some area terrain in the middle of the table. Both Tervigons spawned a healthy brood and cast catalyst (one on the Tyrant, the other failed). The Hive Guard took up positions at either side of the table to later advance and deal with the Dreadnought and Predator.

T2 saw the marines staying put to shoot. They didn't have too many tempting targets at this stage so I took fairly minimal casualties from shooting. Onto my turn and (thanks to +1 reserves from Hive Commander) down came the Doom to the left of the table, whilst both Trygons popped up to say hello to the marines on the right. With minimal scatter they were well placed for an assault next turn. At the rear, gaunt-spawning continued apace and I now enough to start making a move towards the objectives, keeping the Tervi's in cover of course! The Tyrant continued his advance, while the Doom inflicted casualties on 3 nearby units. Readying to use cataclysm on the Devastators, he failed his psychic test but survived the perils of the Warp - oh well, worth a go!

Subsequent turns saw the Scouts Outflanking to my left, but without support they were dealt with by termegant shooting and assault. The Doom, assaulted by the Dreadnought, miraculously survived 3 or 4 rounds of combat with the mechanised veteran, ammassing himself up to a mighty S10 from the nearby marines (whilst whittling them down) and eventually besting the Dreadnought. He'd done sufficient damage to the scoring units on the left hand side of the table that the Gaunts were able to grab the objective the marines had been guarding.

To the right of the Table, one of the Trygons dealt with the Predator whilst the other started work on the Tactical Squads. The subsequent counter-attack from the Power-fist squad and the Captain was enough to drop one of the beasts, but not both. I'd cleared enough space that as the Gaunts advanced they were able to grab the marine's objective on the right hand side of the table. The central objective, which had never been challenged, was grabbed by the Gaunts.

The arrival of the Terminators in my Deployment Zone on Turn 4 game me pause for thought however. All of my hard hitting units were well up the other end of the table and in no position to repel the veterans. It came down, once again, to the Gaunts to do the work! Massed fleshborer fire dropped, I think, 3 of them, whilst the Hive Guard managed to cause another casualty. Some good luck there me thinks, then again you can only roll so many 2+'s before you roll a 1! Anyway the last one was dealt with in assault and that was that. A great start to the day - I had all the objectives! Full points for game one.

The break between Game 1 & 2 was deliberately to allow folk to wander around and inspect armies, placing their votes for best army. There were some really stunning armies on show. I had to get a photo of Richard Simm's rather innovative Adeptus Mechanicus force, which was being played 'Counts as' using Codex Tyranids.

Game 2 - Capture & Control, Spearhead
I was in for a treat here, one of my favourite things about going to events is seeing how creative people can be with their armies. My opponent Euan had gone to great lengths to put together a heavily themed army using mainly Space Marine & Necron parts, which looked so awesome I had to catch a (sorry, rather blurry) snap of them!
The army played using the Chaos Space Marines codex, with the list being something like:

Ahriman
3 x Thousand Sons Squads (of about 8) including Aspiring sorcerors
Chaos Dreadnought with TL Lascannon
4 Terminators with Mark of Slaanesh
Defiler with 2 close combat weapons
Predator with TL Autocannon
2 Obliterators

An uncomfortable amount of AP3 capability in there! And all those 4+ invulnerables were sure to take some of the punch out of my monstrous creature assaults. On the other hand I knew that one advantage, or potential advantage, I could bring to the table was superior numbers. Some good rolls for gaunt-spawning and I've have the ability to make the tainted marines take lots and lots of saves!

We rolled off and again I had the choice to choose first or second. Again I chose second, eager to see how Euan would set up before committing my own force. We placed the objectives, as per the house rules for the game, outside our deployment zones and a minimum 6'' from the table egde, so no matter what we'd have to move to get them! Euan set up his whole army minus the Obliterators who went into Deep Strike. Looking at the table and not liking the look of my own table quarter (far from objectives, no cover - no good at all!) I took a gamble and tried something I've never done before - and didn't deploy anything. The whole lot went into reserve, with one Tervigon outflanking, and the Trygons and Doom Deep Striking again.

Early turns, unsurprisingly, were uneventful as the marines secured their home objective whilst marching on mine. Turn 2 saw the arrival of the obliterators, which was unlucky as I still had no units on the table. My turn 2 saw the arrival of the Tyrant + Guard, a unit of Hive Guard, a Tervigon and a termegant brood from my board edge. A lucky outflanking roll saw the Tervigon arrive just where I wanted him, obscured by a multi-storey car-park of a building where he'd be safe for a turn at least. The Trygons arrived near to the Tervigon, threatening Euan's objective but little more.

Over the next couple of turns the Tyrant, guard, a tervigon and termegants overcame the two marine units that had marched on my objective. The Hive Guard provided some supporting fire, hampering the predator. They were subsequently charged and killed by the Defiler, who was then counter attacked and destroyed by the other hive guard unit that arrived from reserve next turn. With the home objective secure, eyes turned to the away objective...

By the later turns only one of the Trygons had taken wounds from shooting. The Tervigon had ensconced herself in the multi-storey and had been pumping out a rather obscene number of gaunts. The Terminators made a sterling effort to try and shift the mass of bodies, supported by some inferno bolter-fire, and Ahriman himself joined the fray, instant killing the full-strength Trygon!! He'd doen himself proud, but fell soon after, as did the marines and Terminators, leaving only the badly-damaged Dreadnought engaged in combat with the wounded Trygon. The game ended and I'd secured both objectives - my gamble in keeping the whole army in reserve had most definitely paid off - thanks Hive Commander :)

Game 3 - Pitched Battle, Annihilation

Last game, and the one I'd already been most nervous about. Historically I've not performed well in kill points games so had been practising hard - I just had to hope it would be enough! Especially as I was up against last year's winner Donald McCallum, who was this year using Tyranids. Past experience of Nids has never gone well for me (see Britcon!) - it wasn't going to be easy!

Donald's list then:

Tyrant with 2 x talons, Paroxysm & Leech Essence, Hive Commander

5 Ymgarl Stealers

Deathleaper

The Doom in a Spore

2 x 5 Genestealers with Broodlord

Termegant brood

Tervigon with toxin, adrenaline, catalyst

Mawloc

Trygon Prime

I won the roll-off and chose to go first, setting most of the army on the deployment line. The flanks were guarded by Trygons, Tervi's and Hive Guard, shielding the 'easy-pickings' gaunt units; whilst the big ol' Tyrant went square in the middle, ready to respond to the threat wherever it emerged. Donald deployed no units, turning my trick from last game against me! My tension levels rose in the eerily quiet early turns as my forces gravitated towards the centre of the board, away from any edges that might be hiding outflanking genestealers or terrain that might be housing those wacky ymgarl stealers!

Wave 1 of Donald's attack saw the Trygon Prime & Mawloc arriving behind my lines, to my left. The Ymgarls appeared from the cracks of a crater midway up the left flank. A unit of genestealers joined the fight on the left flank, whilst the Tervigon lumbered on the Donald table edge. I sustained some damage from the Mawloc surfacing and the genestealers but was left in a position to move everything far enough away from the Trygon Prime to stop him charging, and get some help to the units the stealers had hit.

Wave 2 (so turn 3) saw the arrival of everything else. My Doom arrived over by the Trygon, Mawloc and 'Stealer central, causing a few wounds here and there. Donald's Doom decided to capitalise on the bunched up formation I'd put myself in trying to get out of charge range of his Trygon. No biggie, I thought, remembering how surprisingly the mediocre the Doom's attack can be on occassion, but I was in for a shock: Down went both my Trygons, all the Tyrant Guard and an unwounded Tervigon was crippled, hobbling along on his final Wound. Once the models were off and wound counters allocated, we each took a moment to consider the impact of that attack. The game had taken a sharp turn in a direction that did not look good for Hive Fleet Askepios.

In desperate need of reinforcements, I spawned gaunts from both Tervigons. Perhaps tired from the previous games, they each spawned minimal (7 or 8) broods and dried up. Enraged by the destruction of his Trygons, the Hive Tyrant ordered the nearby Hive Guard to open fire on the pulsing Doom of Malantai. Some sharp shooting spelled instant-death for Donald's Doom, whilst mine found itself embroiled in combat with some genestealers and their broodlord. He did however manage to inflict some crucial wounds to aid in the neutralisation of the mawloc, trygon and ymgarls. Deathleaper met his end (I think!) to yet more heat-seeking harpoons form the hiveguard. A combined arms assault (Hive Tyrant & gaunts with Tervigon support) saw off the gargoyles in a flash, whilst Donald's Tervigon set up a gaunt farm that swiftly set its sights on my crippled Tervigon. Miraculously the beast held on in there despite a flurry of poisoned attacks, the 3+ armour and FNP were much needed! To my right flank the Termies and Hive Guard met their end to the Winged Hive Tyrant. However thanks to some sneaky useof my Tyrant's paroxysm the Flyrant didn't chew through those units as quickly as might have, meaning they were all he got through in the game.

I'd been keeping a rough tally in my head, ever conscious of the unique kill points allocation rules in play for this mission (3 for HQ's, 1 for Troops, 2 for everything else, with an extra point awarded for each section of the enemy's FO chart wiped out) and trying to focus my attacks accordingly. As we sped through the final turns, trying to cram as much carnage into our alloted time as possible, all I knew was that it was going to be close.... The final tally of 15 to 12 in my favour was testament to that! I'd won by the skin of my gribbly teeth!

Conclusion

So ended a really enjoyable day of 40K. 3 wins out of 3 games and healthy complement of victory points meant that I just scraped through to win the event, which made it all the more enjoyable! I was really pleased with my performance in each of the games. In Game 1 both the army I was up against and the scenario were strongly in favour of the type of army I've come to use with the Nids; Game 2 was the first time I'd used the null-deployment tactic, a gambit that proved succesful; and Game 3 I managed to hang in there after a crippling 'Doom'-ing by focussing on maximising kill points. As usual I made plenty of mistakes but every game is a learning curve - and for once the things I did right seemed to have outweighed those I did wrong! I was pleased also with the army as a whole, it was versatile, tough, maneuverable and had good offensive capability. There's a reason most Nid armies seem to be much of a muchness these days - it's a formula that works! I'd still be interested to see how it fares against mech-spammed Imperial Guard, but that's a challenge for another day!

To finish off, here's another photo of Euan's excellent xeno-corrupted marine army, which won the 'Best Army' prize - well done!

Battle Report - Tyranids vs Space Marines

This grey autumn saturday saw a well-rested Hive Fleet Askepios take on the Space Marines of the Screaming Eagles Chapter on their home turf! A fun day spent at the operational HQ of Da Klub's Big Boss (aka Steve), this also served as a much needed practice game for the upcoming Rapid Fire! Tourney in Stirling. Since we both had the day free we decided on 2000 points a side, and a straightforward Annihilation Mission. The only random aspect was the deployment, which we rolled up as 'Dawn of War'. Steve drew his forces from his almost complete ENTIRE COMPANY of proper, no-nonense Codex marines, pictured below:

Yup, I was impressed too! Steve's actual army list went a little something like this:

Company Captain with Relic Blade

Command Squad with 4 Meltaguns & Company Standard

Dreadnought with Assault Cannon

Dreadnought with Multi-melta

5 x Full Tactical Squads with an assortment of Assault and Heavy Weapons (a couple with Power fisted Sergeants)

2 x Landspeeders

2 x 5 Man Devastator Squads, 1 with 4 Missile Launchers & 1 with 4 Heavy Bolters

Predator Tank with Autocannon and Heavy Bolter Sponsons

Whirlwind Tank

With over 60 marines on the table, the Tyranids were going to have to earn their meal-tickets today! The list I'd chosen was my best effort to recreate the sort of army I'll be taking to Rapid-Fire, scaled up to 2000 points (and without the Doom of Malantai - who just doesn't belong in friendly games!).

Hive Tyrant with with Old Adversary and Hive Commander, Paroxysm & Leach Essence, Heavy Venom Cannon & Toxin Sacs

3 Tyrant Guard

3 Zoanthropes in a Mycetic Spore

2 x 3 Hive Guard

2 x Tervigons (Toxin Sacs, Adrenaline, Catalyst and Cluster Spines)

2 x 10 Gaunts

2 x Trygons (Adrenaline)

3 Biovores

I won the roll-off and chose to go first, setting up the Tervigons provocatively on the half-way line. With plenty of cover for my inevitable march across the table, I reasoned that it was best to take the opportunity to push Steve's initial deployment forces back out of the city ruins to cling to his board edge, out of LOS of my army which would be largely coming on from my own edge on Turn 1. The Trygons and Spore went into Deep Strike, whilst the 2 Gaunt Broods were held in reserve. Steve deployed 2 Tactical Squads centrally, one atop a large terrain piece to my left, the other behind that terrain piece, covering the corridor between it and the adjacent building. He didn't manage to seize the initiative, so it was game on!

Turn 1 was rather uneventful. My forces moved and ran as far forward as they could; whilst Steve's were left either withouth targets due to intervening terrain, or unable to fire due to having to move to enter play from his board edge. Turn 2 kicked off to an earthshaking start as the Trygons burst through the concrete into play. As they wouldn't be assaulting anyone this turn I maneouvered them both behind a large building, whilst the Tervigons did what they do best! Each spawning a respectable-sized brood of gaunts as back up, they hurled themselves forward to meet the Space Marines. The Tervigon to the left and her Gaunts got the charge on a Tactical squad, as did the freshly spawned Gaunts to the right of the table. Regrettably neither assault was very decisive for me, resulting in no kill points. In Steve's turn he managed to take out the Tervigon to the right, the whose psychic death-throws reaked havoc with the nearby embattled gaunts! A similair fate awaited the Tervigon to the left, resulting in a very unusual scene:

Gaunts - not fighting, not dead, but running away! With my first wave in tatters, it was up to the Trygons to start bringing home the bacon until the Hive Tyrant got close enough to do some damage. Turn 3 saw the arrival of the Zoanthropes, who landed bang on target in front of the Predator. 180 points worth of anti-tank nastiness focussed their psychic energies in preparation to blow the battle tank into smithereens... well not quite. One failed his Psychic Test, the other 2 missed. Zoanthropes eh? Needless to say they suffered a few casulaties in Steve's ensuing shooting phase. Meanwhile the restless Trygons slithered forth from the ruined building and pounced, one on a Tactical Squad, the other on the Command Squad and the Captain. The Tactical Squad suffered a few casualties, whereas the Command Squad and Captain were destroyed. Wary of 2 Dreadnoughts with itchy trigger fingers, I consolidated the freed Trygon into what I thought was a safe position. In fact I'd condemned him to death by placing in the fire corridor of the Missile Launcher-armed Devastators! He went down in Steve's shooting phase - a very careless mistake on my part! By the end of Turn 4 the Hive Tyrant still hadn't hit home, which was beginning to concern me! With a superhuman effort he and his Guard lugged their massive bulk onto the bulding roof to their left, and bellowed before the remnants of 3 Space Marine Squads positioned there. The remaining Zoanthrope redeemed himself by exploding the Predator before being reduced to a gooey mess. The Hive Guard had by this point only taken out a Land Speeder each, and were now left distinctly short of tempting targets, and struggling to stay in synapse range. There was little I could do with them without risking a kill point or two, so they adopted a defensive lurking stance in the central ruined building. The remaining Trygon, having been met by and defeated one of the Dreadnoughts, had developed a taste for armour and charged the remaining Dreadnought to earn a last kill point before giving up his last wounds to massed Heavy Bolter and plasma fire.

My only real player now was the Hive Tyrant and his Guard, who managed to get the charge and chewed through the unit he hit first. He weathered a storm of shooting and managed to get a two-for-one charge, hitting the remnants of a Tactical Squad and the hated Missile-Launcher-armed Devastators. The game went right on Turn 7, which meant the loss of the Tyrant Guard to massed shooting, but also the loss of Steve's Whirlwind to the enraged Tyrant's Bonesword (the old tyrant ended the game on 1 wound!).

Meanwhile, feeling brave, the Hive Guard passed their leadership tests and egded forward to try and claim another kill point for the Hive Mind - But it wasn't to be. Final result: Tyranids 11, Space Marines 7; Tyranid Victory!

I always struggle with Kill points missions. A big part of my army is the Tervigons, who rely on spawning gaunts for their effectiveness. Whilst this is only ever a good thing in objective missions, with Kill points though spawning is seldom a good idea as it offers your opponent some very easy kill points, leaving me with 2 very expensive but rather mediocre Monstrous Creatures in my army! The only thing I might have done differently with the Tervigons might have been to pair them and use their combined clout to attack a single squad, rather than setting them up to take on a squad each. Another option would have been to hold them back until they could benefit from the Hive Tyrant's 'preferred enemy' buff, but they'd have been waiting a while for that! I didn't make great use of the Hive Guard in this game - they each took a kill point but were then left without much of a plan - usually these guys are amongst my star players but I'd starved them of targets. I think the lack of transport tanks in Steve's army worked in his favour in that respect. Star-player award though has to go to the Hive Tyrant with his Guard. They may cost over 400 points but they're hard as nails and can take out just about whatever you throw them at. In many ways he's what every Tyranid needs to be: A close combat monstrosity with the resilience to actually make it there!

Studio McVey's Isabella - Coloured in!

She's been finished for a couple of weeks and was growing impetulant that she wasn't yet strutting her stuff on the blog, so without further ado, here's my effort at painting Isabella from Studio McVey's miniature range.

One of my aims for this project was to try and hold back the colour scheme. Everything I paint seems to be very bright and brash, with bright red or yellow appearing on almost every model I've ever painted! So I tried to limit my palette a little this time (though some red may have crept in there - ahem, check her scarf, ahem).

The jacket and jeans were both shaded and highlighted from a foundation based on Citadel's Space Wolves Grey. Painting denim was a new challenge, I've tried to go for a 'sandblasted' look here, using thin lines of different shades applied with plenty of water in the mix. I then washed them with Gryphonne Sepia, and repeated the process a couple of times to get the highlights. The jacket, obviously, is space wolves grey blended up to skull white, again shaded with Gryphonne Sepia. However I then did several very thin washes of skull white over the whole outer jacket to lighten the general tone, which also unified the various stages of highlighting quite a bit.

I tried to downplay the brown waistcoat and leathers so that nothing was jumping out and detracting from the face, again a fresh challenge for a 40K painter to try something very feminine, conveying some expression other than a "Grrr I'm gonna kill you!" grimace. The base colour for the skin was Dheneb Stone, shaded with (yet more) Gryphonne Sepia and then highlighted with Bleached Bone and Skull White being gradually added to the mix. I had a go at alluding to her wearing some make-up and cosmetics too, though not sure if you'll be able to spot them! The mascara's the most obvious, but there's also some light blue eyeshadow and a pinkish lipstick on the face, with (hopefully matching) red nail varnish.

I think if you're going to lavish attention on a single model, you're naturally going to spend a lot of time looking at it. In this respect, she was a nice break from slavering beasties!

Have you painted a model recently that was break from the norm for you? If not I'd throughly recommend giving it a go!

Hive Nodes

Ever-adapting, the spawning vats of Hive Fleet Askepios completed the final touches on these nasty characters today! Tyranid Warriors bolster the swarm by providing synaptic control but are also fearsome adversaries in their own right - especially set up as these guys are with Lash whips and Boneswords. I'd painted up my Warriors years ago, kitted out with Rending claws and deathspitter - not exactly a deadly combo, even under the previous Codex! Unsurprisingly they've sat on the shelf for soem time - but they're such cool models I needed some excuse to start fielding them again. So with a little ingenuity and fishing in the trusty bits box I was able to convert them into real killing machines.


For the bonesword arms I've used deathspitter arms, with the gun cut off. For the blades I've used the 'scythe' from the scything talons Warrior special weapons sprue (which I had loads of left from Hive Guard conversions!), shaved into that sort of rapier shape that seems to work. Some extra caraprace pieces and toxin sacs hide the joins well enough (I hope!).

The lash-whips I think any 'Nid player will recognise as the 'feeder' arm from the Heavy Venom Cannon on the Monstrous Creature sprue. Cut down and shaved to a tapered point, I think they look the part. I cut some of them up to get the whip flailing in different directions, with some overuse of poly cement then filed down to hide the joins. I might go back and slop some PVA glue on the ends to give them a gooey wet-look!


So there they are, ready to go. And what could be more of a head-ache for an opponent than three so-armed Warriors? How about six of them, accompanied by a Tryanid Prime?!
Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

Counter-Attack! Edinburgh 2010

Having given good account of themselves at Britcon, the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Askepios turned their gaze north to the Scottish capital! Run by the Edinburgh League of Gamers, I'd heard about this annual one-day tournament from my regular opponent Kenny. He'd emphasised the friendliness of the competitors as well as the quality of players who generally attend, and was offering a lift - how could I resist? All I needed was to trim my list down from 2000 to 1750 points and I'd be set! Here's what I ended up taking:

A Hive Tyrant with Heavy Venom Cannon, Old Adversary, Hive Commander & Acid Blood
2 Tyrant Guard
2 units of 3 Hive Guard
The Doom of Malantai in a Mycetic Spore
2 Tervigons with Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, Catalyst & Onslaught
2 units of 10 Termegants
2 Trygons with Adrenal Glands

GAME 1 - Capture & Control, Pitched Battle

versus Chaos Space Marines:

Winged Daemon Prince with Lash of Submission

Chaos Sorceror with Lash of Submission

2 units of Khorne Berzerkers in Rhino transports

1 unit of Plague Marines

1 unit of Chosen Marines

1 combat squad of Chaos Marines

3 Terminators with combi-meltas

3 units of one Obliterator each

So my first game would see me facing the dreaded 'Twin-lash' for the first time ever. Knowing the Spiky Marines Codex and having had plenty of experience fighting against the other elements of this sort of army though I was fairly confident about this one. Our objectives placed at opposite corners of the table, he got first turn and set up the core of his troops round his objective. Those Plague Marines were gonna be hard to shift! He kept 2 of the obliterators and the terminators in reserve. I put everything but the Doom on the table, with the Tyrant as close to his objective as I could get him, ready to stride forward, backed up by a Tervigon + gaunts. The Trygons set up shop centrally behind a huge ruin, out of sight of the Chaos guns as much as possible. Tervigon number 2 held the fort on my objective. In the early turns I was mainly reacting to his reserves and the advance on my objective. The Doom put an unprecentedly effective stop to this - destroying an entire unit of Khorne Berzerkers the turn he arrived! This took the wind out of sails to such a degree that the Tervigon guarding my objective really only needed to sit there spawning gaunts to fend of the rest of the Chaos Marines. With my own objective looking safe, the Tryant began his implacable advance to the right hand side of the table, while the Trygons made a bee-line for each of the Lash HQ characters. With close combats and consolidations giving all of these units some much needed extra movement, I was eventually swarming his objective. The plague marines held their ground though, so I couldn't quite claim the objective for the Hive Mind, but as my own was secure that was enough to win me the first game.

Game 2 - Annihilation, Dawn of War

versus Orks

Cybork-Biker-Warboss with Power-klaw

Big Mek with Kustom Force Field

5 or 6 Cybork Nob Bikers with 3 Power-klaws, 2 or 3 Big choppas, Painboy, Waaagh! Banner

10 Cybork Nobs in a Trukk with similar equipment as above (Troops)

12 Boyz with Power klaw Nob in a Trukk

20 Boyz with Power Klaw Nob in a stripped down Battlewagon

30 Boyz with Power Klaw Nob

This mission featured a special rule which meant any non-vehicle units which were destroyed would re-appear from reserve from the owning player's board edge. So pretty much all of the army would be on the table all the time. And it was Orks versus Tyranids. And it was kill points. Both my opponent and I knew from the start we weren't going to get through many turns! Assaults were in full swing from Turn 2, I think we got to Turn 4 before time was up - brutal!

The Heavy Tyrant advances towards the super-tough Nob Bikers.... by this point it was pretty much all over! Some terrible deployment as my army scuttled onto the Table on Turn 1 saw me position my Trygons behind cover on one flank. What were they doing there? What were they hiding from? Who knows what I was thinking. Anyway, this gave my opponent the generous option of simply arriving from the other flank and rolling through my units one by one. As I'd made the mistake of doing in previous kill-point games, I also made life easier for him by using the Tervigons to spawn gaunts. Some very easy kills for him there. Then as my units started recycling from my board edge, he was supremely placed to take them out as they arraived. It was a true and almost utter Annihilation. No points for me then!! But a fun game nonetheless, as is always guaranteed against the Orks!

Game 3 - Seize Ground, Spearhead

versus Space Marines

Lysander - with a full unit of sterguard veterans

4 full units of Tactical marines (no power weapons or fists)

2 5-man Scout squads

A Devastator squad with Missile Launchers

an attack bike and a Whirlwind Tank

Looking at this list the main threats were Lysander and his veterans, and the Devastators. The special rules for the scenario which saw every building either smoking or on fire helped with both of these however, making every scenary piece either Dangerous, blazing ruins or blocking line of sight with plumes of smoke. So Lysander's advance was hindered by the flaming buildings and the Devastators could hardly draw line of sight to a single one of my units. My opponent Joe was a pleasure to play against, a very nice guy, making jokes as the game progressed (i think my Monstrous creatures sort of suited his suggested names of Tricia, Karen, Sharon.... lol!). By turn 4 I'd ploughed through most of this predominantly-infantry army and the game ended with me holding 4 objectives. I really felt for Joe when Lysander, his sternguard bodyguard destroyed, made a heroic last charge towards a Trygon, and was killed before he could lift his great Thunder Hammer to land a blow. But that's the way the dice roll sometimes...

So ended a thoroughly enjoyable tournament. I finished 4th of 14, which I was really pleased with. Kenny finished 2nd which of course he was pleased with - hopefully we did the highlands proud! However no prizes were awarded for winning the event, instead there were some different categories, just for a break in the usual routine. I picked up a prize for the second-greatest margin of victory in a game, with Ian the Ork player (who probably scored those points in Game 2 against me!) taking first place in that category. Best army went to Jamie Farquhar - his Space Wolves can be seen above. Jamie's work is prolific and of an extremely high standard. I faced his Iron Warriors at Rapid-Fire Stirling last year, which also saw him take home the Best Army award. Anyway, here are some pics of other armies from the event!

Above - Kenny's Chaos Marines, headed up by a summoned Greater Daemon!
Below - I had to get a shot of this ace Eldar Seer Council - on hover-boards!!


Above - Commander Farsight leads his Tau Battlesuits into battle

Below - Part of the Dark Angels force that got my vote for Best Army

Britcon 2010

August 13th this year saw Hive Fleet Askepios attend it's first weekend tournament. Run by the British Historical Gaming Society, Britcon is one of the larger UK events in the wargamer's calendar. With roughly 400 attending over the course of the weekend, and competitions in every game system from the ancient majesty of Field of Glory to the grim future of Warhammer 40,000, it was a bit of a daunting prospect to say the least! Perhaps it was this trepidation that contributed to my crminally forgetting to BRING MY CAMERA to the event.....

So how did it go? There were 16 competitors in the 40K event and I came 6th. Not amazing but not terrible - pretty much where I expected to end up! I posted my army list a few posts back and, having seen some of the other Tyranid armies (there were 5 of us - the infestation is spreading!) there are a few changes I'll be making to my own list. For a start I'm all turned around on the Hive Tyrant - teamed with a unit of at least 2 Hive Guard he's damn near unkillable and really boosts the rest of the army. Still overpriced but, I've concluded, worth taking. Then there's the Doom of Malantai... who I think is set to become as much a mainstay of any competitive Nid army as Vulkan He'stan is to the Space Marines.

As for the individual games I had 2 (non consecutive) games against the same opponent - which it transpired shouldn't have happened (we did raise it at the time with our Unpire only to be told just to go with it so what were we to do?) - a young Chaos Space Marine player who won the Junior Trophy for the whole event. I secured a pretty sound victory both times against him, though he made me work for them more than I'd have liked! For a 14-year old he knew his stuff and in fairness to him I think the 'cheesiness' of my list carried me most of the way toward victory. 2 Tervigons and 2 Trygons PLUS loads of suped-up Hormagaunts PLUS an 'Elites' section crammed with anti-tank: The list was designed to give mechanised marine armies of any description a hard time, which it did with aplomb.

I had 2 games against fellow Tyranid players, both of which I lost 32-0 - the largest margin of loss possible at the tournament! I scored 0 points for both of those games. Funnily enough though, the first of these Nid-v-Nid games was for me the most enjoyable game of the tourney. The mission was 'Home and Away', aka the 'draw' mission. We both deployed defensively and spent the first few turns sizing each other up, advancing cagily. The most tense game of 40K I've ever played, until Turn 3 when I spied an opening in his line and charged. The charge wasn't as effective as it needed to be, which gave him the opening he needed to bulldoze his way to my objective. You can actually see his coverage of the event at: http://maws40k.blogspot.com/2010/08/britcon-2010-aftermath.html
The second Nid v Nid game I found rather demoralising as I'm terrible at 'Kill Points' missions, and through no fault of my opponent I was just getting a bored of the Doom of Malantai killing everything around it! That second gamewas the only time I was wishing for my trusty Orks - they'd have shown those Nids 'how ta fight proppa', or at least had a hoot trying!

Games 3 & 6 were against Space Wolves armies. I LOVE fighting against Space Wolves. As an assault based army with a respectable supporting fire capability, they always present an interesting challenge. Charging them can sometimes be the worst option - what choices does that leave a unit of hormagaunts? Not many! So how did I win both games? Generally by hugging cover and drawing them to me, popping transports to ensure any charge is on my terms as they advance. Meanwhile those of my units who can deploy by deep strike can upset his backline or any outflanking units. Usually the Sons of Russ can be goaded into charging a unit of termegants, which can usuaully hold their own when supported by a Tervigon. Then when my turn comes round my Hormagaunts (or of course some freshly spawned termegants) can dispatch any Blood Claws or Grey hunters that have their sights set on forging their own sagas of valour in battle!

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable event which taught me a lot, and was made all the better by the offer of free tickets next year for all those who attended!

And for anyone who made it this far here's an unrelated picture of one of my tyranid shrikes, who unfortunately had to sit it out at Britcon!

The Hive Mind Adapts....

With the release of the latest edition of Codex Tyranids at the start of the year, it's been a rather gribbly 2010. So I'm going to look at one of my favourite new units and, hopefully in a later post, show you how I made mine. These guys are the bane of light vehicles, and can threaten anything on the table without needing to see it - that's right, it's the Hive Guard.

So firstly, yes, my Hive Guard are a slight departure from the official GW model (a google image search of 'Hive Guard' should bring him right up). It wasn't exactly love at first sight when they unveiled that model, and at £12 per guy I'd written them off as a possibility for inclusion in my army list. Only later when I read the Codex did I see them as a must-have. So after some thinking, sketching, and bits box raiding, I now have six of these monstrosities to worry enemy armour.

So what's so great about them? First of all, they're tough. With T6, 2 wounds and a 4+ armour save they can weather a fair bit of abuse. They've got a brilliant gun that fires 2 S8 shots per turn (and are good shots to boot!), and an unusual special rule that lets them fire it at stuff they can't see. They are in my opinion the most satisfying anti-tank option in the Codex. They have a further reach than Zoanthropes (especially if enhanced by the Tervigon psychic power 'Onslaught'), and better ballistic skill than Tyrannofexes. And even though their gun is not quite as strong as the Heavy Venom Cannon, it can actually blow tanks up, rather than causing ineffectual 'shaken' and 'stunned' type results, which many vehicles ignore or downgrade. I certainly wouldn't take to the field without these guys - go Hive Guard!!

Fighting Talk: Askepios' Tournament Calendar 2010!

Most, if not all, of my hobby activity this year has been tournament motivated: Play-testing the new Tyranid codex; army list number-crunching; frantic painting sessions to get models to an acceptable painting standard. I feel I got off to a good start for the year by attending Conflict in April, coming 8th with an Orks/Orks doubles team. Next on the agenda is Britcon in Manchester (August 12th-15th). Signed up this week also for Counter-Attack, a one day tournament in Edinburgh which takes place the weekend after Britcon; and I've informally nabbed a place at Rapid Fire which is in Stirling later in the year. Who needs Throne of Skulls?!

Front and centre of my focus this year is the Tyranids. I'd had precisely no luck with them in their previous incarnation but the new book, though far from perfect, presents plenty of solutions for the main things 'Nids struggled with in the past: Tanks; and getting shot to bits before coming anywhere near assault range. For anyone who's interested, here's the 2000 point list I'm taking to Britcon in a few weeks' time:

HQ

Tyranid Prime

(Deathspitter, Lashwhip & Bonesword, Adrenal Glands) - 110

ELITES

3 Zoanthropes - 180

(Mycetic Spore - 40)

3 Hive Guard - 150

3 Hive Guard - 150

TROOPS

Tervigon (Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, Catalyst) - 195

Tervigon (Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, Catalyst) - 195

10 Termegants - 50

10 Termegants - 50

19 Hormagaunts (Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands) - 190

19 Hormagaunts (Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands) - 190

HEAVY SUPPORT

Trygon Prime (Adrenal Glands) - 250

Trygon Prime (Adrenal Glands) - 250

So there it is. I've had a lot of success with it so far. The Tervigons are definitely the key to this army: Spawning more termegants to add further weight to the assault or grabbing objectives; conferring benefits to the smaller creatures (synapse for all of them, counter-attack and the effects of his own upgrades get passed to nearby termegants, whilst catalyst gives those buffed-up hormagaunt units the Feel No Pain special rule to make sure they hit home hard). Hive Guard are also key, taking shelter behind cover and busting tanks with their no-line-of-sight-required Strength 8 guns. The Trygon Primes don't need much explanation (well what would you do with a Toughness 6, 6 wound Monstrous Creature who is Strength 7 & has 7 attacks on the charge? CHARGE!).

I had to think a bit in light of the FAQ that GW recently released for Codex: Tyranids. When I wrote the list I was teaming the Tyranid Prime with the Zoanthropes and Deep-striking them all in with the Mycetic Spore. The Zoans can blast away the turn they arrive, and the Prime is there to gallantly take any Lascannon hits directed at the Zoans, then run riot in the enemy lines next turn. The FAQ disallowed this tactic so I was in doubt for a while as to whether I wanted to keep the Prime in the list, or re-jig a few things to get another Tervigon in there as my HQ. (Why not a Hive Tyrant you ask? Well I have issues with this Codex's version of the Hive Tyrant but that's maybe for another post.) Anyway as you can see I've kept the Prime, mainly because I didn't feel confident I had time to build and paint the 3rd Tervi before the competition, but also because after a couple of practise games with the new ruling I've found he can do plenty of damage marching in on foot, and he provides more handy synapse.

That's it from me for now!

From the sublime to the ridiculous

A recent and eagerly-awaited arrival, I was instantly taken with the Isabella miniature when I came across it on the Studio McVey site. In their design notes they've quoted Blade Runner & Phillip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' as influences for the character, both of which are magnificently prominent in the final sculpt. I've kind of super-imposed a touch of Joss Whedon's 'Firefly' in there too though - she looks like the kind of lady that would never tire of giving Malcolm Reynolds a hard time! Though she'll be a challenge (she's TINY!) I can't wait to paint her and I'm still mulling over schemes at present. My first instinct would be to go typically cyber-punk with grimy leather browns and perhaps some muted reds but I'm leaning more towards an arctic colour scheme: White coat, blonde hair and some turquoisey blues and browns for variety. Watch this space!

....And to the ridiculous it seemed about time I posted a pic of something I'm working on at the moment. So - termegants! They may not be pretty, but what can I say? There's 20 of the lil buggers! If you use your models for gaming as I do there comes a point at which you realise that life's too short and you just need to get guys on the table to field a decent army. These ones I've just about got 'painted' to a sort of minimum satisfactory level for playing games. The Tyranid army I'm putting together for this year's Britcon event needs a minimum of 60 termegants so I've a few more to do before August - I'd better get painting!

Tiny Dancers

As I'm currently engaged in production-line painting Termegants for my ever-growing Tyranid swarm, I'm not doing much quality painting just now. I hope to get some of the better pics of Hive Fleet Askepios up soon but until then I hope you enjoyed the above 'archive' pictures of my Eldar Harlequins.

These guys (and girls) were a joy to paint, primarily down to the uncluttered and dynamic nature of the sculpts. It was also an opportunity for me to try my hand at the signature Harlequin diamond pattern - the turquoise and yellow diamonds that appear on every model. This was acheived by painting a grid with a watered down blue/black ink over a yellow basecoat, then filling in and highlighting (not as easy as it sounds - steady hand required!). I've also tried to use different complimentary and contrasting colours on each model to give them some individuality. The overall effect is perhaps a bit garish but fitting, I think, for a flamboyant dancing troupe that migrates around Eldar Craftworlds pretty much as they please, sitting somewhere between the role of the court jester and the Grim Reaper.

My Eldar army lies in a somewhat fragmented state at present - much like the Eldar civilsation itself! - a shadow of its former glory. The Harlequins were meant to kick start a return to regular game-play for my Eldar but it never quite happened! Long term I still fully intend to get the army back up and running, and as Games Workshop have some new releases planned for them later this year that could be a good opportunity.... the skeins of fate and probability are fickle masters!

Prepare to (be) Board...

Hello and welcome to the inaugural post on my new blog. The main purpose of this blog will be to share pictures of models I've painted. I'll also be briefly explaining the background of the models - most (if not all) of which are from Citadel Miniatures' Warhammer 40,000 range - to give an idea of what drew me to them; and letting you know about any special conversions or assembly/painting challenges I encountered along the way to finishing them. As I use many of these models for gaming, I'll also no doubt be doing a few posts letting you know of my exploits on that front.

So these first pics are of models from Games Workshop's surprise 2009 release, Space Hulk. Above is Sergeant Lorenzo, to the right is Brother Scipio, and below is Brother Zael: Terminators of the Blood Angels Space Marine Chapter. These guys have been tasked with cleansing the eponymous Space Hulk (a huge interstellar craft) of the xenos scourge known as the Genestealers; pitting mighty armour, ranged weaponry and righteous faith against the ferocity and numbers of an alien infestation. Games of Space Hulk are fast paced, tense affairs and represent desperate close-quarter combats within the claustrophobic confines of the Space Hulk's labyrinthine corridors.

For the paint job I took a lot of pointers from White Dwarf 357's 'Eavy Metal Masterclass by Anja Wettergren, as this was a first for me in that I'd never painted Space Marines and also in that I'd never actively sought to recreate an aspect of the Warhammer 40,000 universe verbatim before. With these guys I felt the sculpts were so evocative of the characters described in the game that I felt I'd be doing them an injustice in not trying to reinforce this with the paintjob. Points I'm particularly pleased with here are the deep red hue of the armour, the parchments and lettering on Zael & Scipio's armour. Feel free to let me know what you think!