When I arrived, they were going through some D&D stuff, but Nick was still all about throwing down versus the Nids. We decided on 1,500 points and lists were started!

I had decided, based on previous games that Carnifexes are out and Tervigons were in. I also decided to try out the Ymgarl Genestealers and my brand new converted Tyranid Prime with boneswords.

Nick won deployment, so I started laying down my whole army. It seems that Nick and his friends go back and forth deploying units from the Force Organization Chart (FOC) in a certain order. Either way was fine by me. I went through and explained what everything was and showed him the units in Reserves. He had asked which units had Fleet as well and I told him.

Nick’s list included several Crisis Battle Suits (?) with all manner of weaponry, a special character named O’Shova (sp), a couple of tanks, a unit of Stealth Suits and a few units of Fire Warriors. Below is my list:

• Tyranid Prime (Boneswords, Adrenal Glands)
• Genestealers x8 (Broodlord, Adrenal Glands)
• Ymgarl Genestealers x8
• Tyranid Warriors x3 (Deathspitters, Barbed Strangler)
• Tyranid Warriors x3 (Deathspitters, Venom Cannon)
• Tervigon (Catalyst, Adrenal Glands)
• Termagants x10
• Hormagaunts x20 (Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs)
• Raveners x3
• Zoanthrope x2
• Spore Mines x4
• Spore Mines x5

As usual, I don’t remember every detail, so I’ll try to describe how the game went in a summary. I did remember to deep strike the Spore Mines prior to deployment, which worked as I hoped to put him on the defensive in his deployment strategy. My first turn, the Spore mines scattered all over the place, the Tervigon generated 11 Termagants, the Hormagaunts moved, ran and Assaulted his Stealth suits, who’d deployed near the middle of the table and subsequently wiped them out, a shot from a Venom Cannon took out a Crisis suit in the back of his deployment zone and caused panic. In his first turn, he was able to kill off some Termagants and a few other small things and he Assaulted the Hormagants with his character and a few Crisis suits. The Hormagaunts ended up getting wiped out in return. Later on, the Genestealers arrived via outflank right near his Devilfish, which had already disembarked, The Raveners showed up right in front of his character and Crisis Suits, and the Ymgarls hung out in dormancy for the moment and the Tervigon created 13 Termagants. The Genestealers junked the Devilfish since it was working toward killing off the Zoanthropes and no other Assaults happened. His character group shot at and assaulted the Raveners and the Ravener was able to do some damage back. Lots of Genestealers died to the guns of some Fire Warriors and some Crisis Suits nearby. The following turn the Ymgarls arrived and killed off a Crisis suit in Assault, O’Shova survived a barrage of weapons shot at him, the Genestealers went up against the Crisis Suits and killed maybe one of them.

I think it was about here we had to call the game. I think in the end, the Tyranids might have pulled out a win if we’d been able to continue. Nick had yet to play against the new Nids and now says he might have built a different army using more Fire Warriors. I agree that would have changed the game a lot! In either case, the game was a blast and I look forward to playing Nick again.

His list:

• Leman Russ (Battle Cannon, Heavy Bolter ?)
• Leman Russ (Battle Cannon, Heavy Bolter ?)
• Veteran squad (3x Melta, sergeant w/Bolt Pistol, Chimera w/Multilaser and Heavy Bolter)
• Veteran squad (3x Melta, sergeant w/Bolt Pistol, Chimera w/Multilaser and Heavy Bolter)
• Veteran squad (3x Melta, sergeant w/Bolt Pistol, Chimera w/Multilaser and Heavy Bolter)
• Veteran squad (3x Plasmagun, sergeant w/Bolt Pistol, Chimera w/Multilaser and Heavy Bolter)
• Stormtroopers (Chimera w/Multilaser and Heavy Bolter)
• Valkyrie (Lascannon)

My list:

• Hive Tyrant (Hive Commander, Paroxysm, Leech Essence, Armored Shell, Stranglethorn Cannon, Scything Talons, Tyrant Guard x1)
• Zoanthropes x2
• Tyranid Warriors x3 (Deathspitters, Barbed Strangler)
• Tyranid Warriors x3 (Deathspitters, Venom Cannon)
• Termagants x20
• Hormagaunts x20 (Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs)
• Genestealers x8 (Broodlord)
• Raveners x3 (Scything Talons)
• Spore Mine Cluster x4
• Spore Mine Cluster x4

The mission was simply to kill everything!

I put the Hormagaunts in Reserve to utilize the Hive Tyrant’s Hive Commander ability to outflank. He put his Stormtrooper unit in Reserve as well. This time I remembered to Deep Strike my Spore Mines properly and each ended up pretty close to where I wanted them.

JR won the roll for first turn and deployed along his back line. I deployed everything except the Raveners and aforementioned Hormagaunts. He opened with having the Valkyrie perform its Scout move and open fire into my Genestealers, who Infiltrated into some area terrain. He then fired at them using his Chimera weapons available to him. In the end of the shooting phase, all of the Genestealers had died and the Broodlord had suffered a wound. I also lost a number of Termagants and maybe a Warrior. My first turn, several Spore Mines left the table (probably because I was scattering them 2D6″ instead of just D6″) and two ended up near some tanks. Turns out their explosion could do nothing against them. The Zoanthropes fired at the Valkyrie, which brought it down (turns out I used Psychic shooting attacks wrong by only doing the Psychic test).

Second turn, he wiped out more Termagants and both units of Tyranid Warriors due to Instant Death. The Broodlord survived the deluge. The Broodlord attempted to assault a Chimera, but failed to do much to it. Hormagaunts arrived and assaulted a different Chimera, doing very little as well. Zoanthropes took some shots at a Leman Russ, which passed its cover saves.

Third turn, the cimera in combat with the Broodlord attempted a tank shock on him. The contents of the tank unloaded from it and filled the Broodlord full of melta death. Shots were fired at the Hive Tyrant, killing the Guard and wounding the Tyrant. Hormagaunts still failed to do any real damage to the Chimera, except maybe a Weapon Destroyed. Carnifex moved closer and killed off the empty Chimera and the Zoanthropes wasted a Leman Russ. Hive Tyrant assaulted the Vets in the open, but not before killing a few with Leech Essence and reducing their WS and BS to 1 with Paroxysm (I’m not 100% sure that was legal). Three Vets survived and ran where the Tyrant couldn’t catch them. Hormagaunts finally destroyed the Chimera and since the guys inside had no way to get out with the Hormagaunts blocking the one access point, so they died as well. Raveners arrived to stand in the open.

I think we called it very soon after that and I might have my sequence all messed up, but that’s the gist of how it went down.

In the end, we totaled the kill points and each of us had 4. I got two Chimeras with troops, a Leman Russ and the Valkyrie. He got the Termagants, two units of Warriors and the Genestealers with Broodlord.

A very fun game and it was cool seeing JR again for the first time since probably Gen Con 2009.

It was also awesome getting a bunch of Khador stuff from him on the cheap!

Fred and I, after a week or two of delay, were finally able to play a decent-sized game of Warhammer 40,000. This would be my third game with the Tyranids for me and probably Fred’s third game with his Necrons.

His army:

• Necron Lord (Staff of Light, Resurrection Orb, Veil of Darkness)
• Necron Destroyer Lord (Staff of Light, Resurrection Orb, Destroyer body)
• Necron Warriors x16
• Necron Warriors x16
• Necron Warriors x15
• Necron Destroyers x3
• Scarab Swarms x5
• Scarab Swarms x5

My list:

• Hive Tyrant (Hive Commander, Paroxysm, Life Leech, Scything Talons, Stranglethorn Cannon)
• Tyrant Guard
• Termagants x20
• Hormagaunts x20
• Raveners x3
• Genestealers x8 (Broodlord)
• Tyranid Warriors x3 (Deathspitters, Venom Cannon)
• Tyranid Warriors x3 (Deathspitters, Barbed Strangler)
• Spore Mines x4
• Ripper Swarms x4
• Zoanthropes x2

The mission, which I don’t remember the name of, gave us 4 objectives to control and the deployment was table quarters.

After deployment, I then realized I made a mistake with my Spore Mines. I completely forgot to Deep Strike them. I decided I’d just deploy them into an unoccupied table quarter to be fair. Fred took the first turn of the game, which mostly consisted of him moving his army forward. He moved one of his Warrior units close to the center most objective placed in some ruins. I think he might have got off a few shots into the Termagants. My first turn consisted of trying to take out some things with the template weapons I have. I was able to knock over a couple of Destroyers, which was better than I expected. The Termagants were able to shoot at and assault a unit of Scarab Swarms, killing all but one of them.

Second turn, when rolling for his Destroyers, two of them were removed. Fred then solidified his position closer to the center objective and one other objective farthest away from my army. Some shots were fired, but not much died. He moved his unit of Scarab swarms close to the Carnifex and a Spore mine to try and blow it up on my own guys. I think he might have inflicted a wound this way. The same Scarabs assaulted the Carnifex, who killed 3 swarm bases due to Instant Death. I felt kinda bad since Fred did not realize how that rule worked. One of my Zoanthropes took a wound from shooting. The termagants freed themselves from the final Scarab Swarm. In my second turn, I rolled for reserves and outflanked with the Hormagaunts (thanks to the Hive Tyrant) and genestealers; the Raveners were still stuck out in limbo. When rolling for which table edge, they both came in on the same edge as my table quarter, farthest from the action. Again I tried displacing the Warriors from the center objective by firing “pie plates” into them. This knocked over a few, but failed to outright kill any of them. The Ripper Swarms assaulted the Destroyer Lord and failed to do much. The Carnifex finished off the Scarab Swarms left to him.

In Fred’s third turn, he managed to wipe out the Termagants and a couple of Tyranid Warriors through shooting. He assaulted the Zoanthropes with his Necron Lord on foot and destroyed them. Actually, now I’m losing track what happened when. I know that same Lord also later assaulted the lone Tyranid Warrior instead of the Hive tyrant, who I was hoping he’d assault. In either case, the Carnifex assaulted a unit of Warriors, destroying a few and the Tyranid Warriors moved close enough to the objective to contest it. Hormagaunts and Genestealers moved close enough to another objective to claim it outright. The Raveners arrived to stand around looking mean and the Tyrant assaulted the Necron Lord on foot only to whiff on all his attacks.

We had to call the game there since the store was closing. Fred, of course, won the game due to his ability to claim and hold objectives with the nigh unkillable Warriors. Man, those are tough cookies!!

Per the usual, an awesome game and one I’d like to have a rematch on!

I’m not going to try to remember the lists we used or specific things that happened in the game since it was really a “demo” of sorts. I will, however, say that the Tyranids decimated the Imperial Guard via mostly shooting attacks.

It was a fun game, if a bit frustrating when trying to remember all the rules. I’m hoping he got a good feel for them and that we’ll play again soon!

Since I had no idea exactly how many models Fred had, I estimated he’d have 20 or so Warriors, 3 Destroyers, 3 or so Scarab Swarms and the Lord. Turns out he has 70+ Warriors and probably 10+ Scarab Swarms. It also turns out he has a Necron Destroyer Lord as well. In either case, I thought an 800 point game would work well for learning the game and for me to learn the new Tyranid codex, not to mention 800 points is just below what I have painted.

Here’s the list Fred ran:

• Necron Lord (War Scythe, Resurrection Orb, Veil of Darkness)
• Necron Warriors x11
• Necron Warriors x11
• Scarab Swarms x3
• Necron Destroyers x3

I ran:

• Hive Tyrant (Stranglethron Cannon, Bone Sword, Lash Whip, Armored Shell, Paroxysm, Leech Essence)
• Carnifex (Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, Bio-Plasma)
• Tyranid Warriors x3 (Deathspitters, Venom Cannon)
• Tyranid Warriors x3 (Deathspitters, Barbed Strangler)
• Genestealers x8 (Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs)
• Termagants x20

We played the Capture and Control scenario with Pitched Battle deployment. I won the roll and decided to deploy and go first.

In the first turn or two, my shooting did pretty much nothing. His Scarab Swarms ended up assaulting the Termagants and the Gaunts won combat a few times until the little buggers were finally gone. None of my shooting managed to do anything until the later turns and his “We’ll Be Back!” rule kept whatever I did wound on the table. His destroyers nearly wiped out a unit of Tyranid Warriors and the Carnifex didn’t get into combat until much later. The Genestealers, which I’d forgotten about until probably the third or fourth turn showed up on the table edge nearest his Necron Warriors squad who’d just been Veiled there by the Lord. The Genestealers ended up wiping the unit and the Lord with them. The following turn the Carnifex finally assaulted a Warrior unit, destroying it and then we called the game since all he had left were the three Destroyers and so would Phase Out anyway.

It was a really good game and even though Fred lost, he’s still interested in playing again and at a higher point value. I lent him my 40K book to read up on the rules and he gave me some models to take home and repair for him. I finished what I could of the Destroyers this morning and started working on some Scarab bases. Some bits will need to be ordered to get everything where it needs to be, but that shouldn’t take too much money or time.

On a side note, Fred was able to acquire some Necrons (for free!!), so we’ll probably be throwing own this Tuesday. It’ll give me a chance to remember the 40K rules, learn the new Tyranids and for him to learn the main rules and his army. The only sad thing about the Necrons is the amount of metal models that are pretty much essential, unless you want to buy more of the plastics and do some conversion work.

• Tyranid Hive Tyrant
• Tyranid Tyrant Guard
• Tyranid Warriors (improved!)
• Tyranid Genestealers
• Tyranid Zoanthrope
• Tyranid Lictor
• Ogre Kingdoms Bulls
• Ogre Kingdoms Ironguts

Enjoy!

First of all, I’ve gotten a bunch of Tyranids painted in preparation for the new Codex. I also went back and repainted weapons on the three Warriors I’ve got posted on the blog already. I may repaint the weapons on the Termagants as well, but that’ll come later. Since no one knows yet what the best loadouts on the Carnifexes and Tyrants will be, I also went through and magnetized a bunch of weapon arms for them. I love the customization possibilities, but the weapons do have trouble staying upright, especially the metal bonesword and lash whip. So far, this is what’s painted:

• Hive Tyrant
• Hive Guard
• Zoanthrope
• Lictor
• Genestealers x8
• Termagants x12
• Spinegaunts x10
• Screamer-Killer Carnifex
• Warriors x6
• Ripper Swarms x3

Next up will be assembling/painting another Tyrant Guard and a Zoanthrope and painting another 20 Termagants. I also have about 20 Hormagaunts to get through as well. I’ll be getting the codex and probably a Trygon on the 16th of January.

In addition, I have picked up some Imperial Guard as well. I’m going with the ‘Nam theme using the Catachan models. What I have so far is:

• Catachan Jungle Fighters x40
• Catachan Jungle Fighters w/Plasmagun x7
• Catachan Jungle Fighters w/Flamer x2
• Catachan Jungle Fighters w/Grenade Launcher x2
• Catachan Officers and Sergeants x5
• Catachan Heavy Weapons Teams w/Missile Launcher x3
• Catachan Command Squad box

Coming in the mail are:

• Valkyries x2
• Catachan Jungle Fighters w/Heavy Flamer x2
• Catachan Jungle Fighters x10

I still want to pick up a few Sentinels and maybe a Chimera. I’ll need some special weapon guys like meltaguns and some more Heavy Weapons Teams, but those might come much later.

On the Warhammer Fantasy front, I’ve been playing nearly every week in our local Warhammer Fantasy League. This week we are up to 600 points. So far, I have not really done well with the Ogres, but I still think they are a fun army. I’m trying really hard to figure out how to do well at these low point levels and against a lot of much newer armies. Greg (a local Skaven player) has been my most frequent opponent and probably the guy offering the most advice to improve the Ogres’ performance.

On the painting front in Warhammer Fantasy, I have three more Bulls and three more Ironguts painted. So that makes the following painted so far:

• Ogre Bruiser
• Ogre Bruiser Battle Standard Bearer
• Ogre Bulls x6
• Ogre Ironguts x6
• Gnoblar Trappers x8

Next on the agenda for the Ogres is probably a Butcher, three Maneaters and maybe two Leadbelchers. I am loathe to start on the Gnoblars because there are so many of them to do.

As you might be able to tell, most of what I’ve been doing is related to Games Workshop. I’ve (mostly) decided to focus my efforts on the GW games since finding models is really easy and one can pick and choose their opponents since there are so many.  I have grown really tired of investing in the smaller minis games (Malifaux, Uncharted Seas, Infinity, etc.) only to see the player base dwindle into nothing. At least with GW games, I’ll be assured to at least have people interested in acquiring the models should I decide to switch armies.

Howevr, on the smaller minis games front, there is a lot of buzz about Firestorm Armada. I did pick up the book and have read through it. I told the locals that if I see the game being played regularly in the next few months, I may buy in. Along those same lines, I played a game of Uncharted Seas at Games To Die For with Dave last week. He ended up winning, but it inspired me to paint my Shroud Mages fleet. I got them all done in the course of one day.

In the very near future, there will be new photos posted of the models I have painted in the last month. I just need to get the motivation to pull out the camera equipment.

To those who keep up with this blog, even though I don’t update it very regularly, I appreciate your support.

I’ve also been working on finishing some Ogre Ironguts as well. I hope for them to be done by next week.