Pic update

Well let's start off with the battle against Marines. I fought a Canadian who will sadly will leave today ..back to Canada. Good fight. A bad start positioning the best devastator sq did him in among other things. And that it was an Alpha Seek & Destroy didn't help much either. No infiltrate *pfew*. I made some major tactical errors too and held back my gaunts far from the 15" deployment, but IIRC we didn't measure minimum distances between sqs although I think it was alright (gaunts didn't hit on turn one so there was a fair distance).


As you can see..there was quite some fighting going on. Rhino's being threatened etc.


Well..as said before..wrong base coat but it won't be too much of a problem I hope. The black is done. Next up is maybe a wash..but I think I'll skip the wash on this one cuz you won't be able to see it.


Not the best of pics but it should do. I red inked the brains of the Thrope. 2 different skin base coats. The darker was wrong..but well It'll look just fine when it's done. Black is fine.



Just needed to clicky my devgaunt. No highlighting just plain painting but it looks table top quality: no uglyness.



Well this nasty guy is a WIP that I fear. It's only one flamer..but it can fly fast and burn fast.
Well that's quite the pic update if you ask me. I might upload the pics a little bit smaller next time. 800x600 might still be a bit big..and well it's photobucket, maybe I should look for a Pbase.

Noorderspel 2006

Half of april there will be some sort of northern gamesday (north as in the north of the Netherlands) which will also feature a 40K tournament (also fantasy..but I don't give a ****). I've been organizing the tournament for 2 years because the year before there was no 40K tournament which we found quite stupid.
This will be the 3rd time organizing and the first time it will be bigger than 400 pts.

It will most likely be a 1000pt tournament with only codex stuff (so no special FW stuff). I don't want to pull it to a 1500pts tourny because even people who aren't busy for very long should be able to participate but I still want people to be able to have a bit of a bigger fight than the combat patrols delivered.
As organizer I probably won't be able to play myself (damnit). Maybe if everyone's busy and someones been 'knocked out' (of the tournament :) ) I can try and devour them, so I WILL bring my nids.

Last year there were about 20 players. I hope that this year's tourney sees an equel amount or even an increase in players.

New list try-out

So I took up the codex again and figured out a way to introduce the WIP Broodlord and maybe even zoanthropes and a VC carni to my game.

It came out like this:

HQ: Flying Tyrant (like before)WS 6, S6, IA, Wings, Warpfield, 2x talons @ 194
--> fast and it can hold it's own against almost anything for a while.

HQ: Broodlord (with carapace & fleshhooks) + 6 genestealers all with fleshhooks (incl. broodlord) @ 185
--> just wanted to try this. The fleshhooks are because this sq will most likely have to attack sqs also infiltrated which will be in cover.

Troops:
16 hormagaunts = 160 -> run and hit assault fast
15 hormagaunts = 150 -> run and hit assault fast
10 Fleshborergaunts Without Nr = 90 (don't know if it's usefull..but gotta try to irritate the enemy)---> interchangeble (sp) with 18 spinegaunts..(I miscalced and this is a last minute solution) -> I really want to use WO sometime and see if it's worth it. Otherwise just for psychological effect or to piss him/her off.

3x Leaping warriors tooled up (WS,S,I,Fleshhooks,Talons,RC,carapace) @135
3x leaping warrios: same @135 ---> they've proved themselves @ synapse is always nice
1x Lictor @ 80 -> hope it conveys the preferred enemy. Not planned at first..

1x Ravener with Rending + Talons = 40
1x Ravener with Rending + Talons = 40 --> gaunts speed, 2 wounds, rending, low profile

2 Zoanthropes with Wblast + synapse @ 130 (keeps them from being instafragged)
--> with 2 of em..I hope at least one of em hits anything. Either S10 or S5 either would be very nice.
1 Carnifex with Venom Canon + Talons upgr: enh sens, carapace @ 161 --> long range pounding..I hope.


I think this should be able to bust tanks: 2x wblast, 1 venom canon @ S10 a flying tyrant and quite some rending stuff, but also be able to take on more sqs using the gaunts, weakening sqs with some heavy fire wblast ap3 for instance assisted by the raveners and warriors. The lictor wasn't planned at first..It should've been the the spinegaunts AND the WO gaunts..but I came 10pts short. The lictor can't hold it's own for too long but if it comes on the right turn..it can be a very nice addition and a fear factor.
Comments, ideas, hatemail...bring it.

3000 vs 3000 shoulder to shoulder with T1000s. 4 of 4

The enemy set up the 6’by 6’ table which is just OH so big but I was ensured we had more than 6 turns…which should be enough if my monsters would be alive after that…
The Necronids faced IG,SW and Vanilla marines at 1000pts each. I dropped my 2 lictors and called for my VC tyrant with guards, 15 more hormagaunts, 18 spinegaunts and a BS Carnifex to fill er up.
I figured first few turns wouldn’t be too much of a hassle except for running along cover and keeping out of LOS. The opponents got to infiltrate and deepstrike terminators. That was something to be feared. They infiltrated with (almost?) everything they had in the center building keeping that heavily fortified with IG heavy guns and SM scouts and tacticals.
The necrons might have been a bit on the safe side not using their Veil of darkness earlier but hey..it kept them alive and kept the opponent (we only had until 9 pm) from gaining Victory points. I ran synapse everywhere I could and ran steadily forward. I got shot up a bit by some ordnance, not too bad and 6 of 8 stealers got shot to pieces by Rico’s terminators and landspeeder (I hatesess speeders). The necrons tried to shoot up the sqs in the building but 4+ coversaves proved a very good safe haven, but some guys died nonetheless. In 3rd or 4th turn the Monolith showed up wreaking some small havoc on the sqs inside the building. My carni shot up some models too and in the meanwhile the enemy tried ordnancing the Lith to oblivion even more because some spinegaunts were running alongside it and they figured they couldn’t go wrong. Well the Lith didn’t get a scratch and in the end only 5 spinegaunts (25 pts) got killed. A lone ravener was a bit too brave running in on his own…not expecting to get pounded by normal attacks from terminators instead of even with cover initiative against him getting first strike because I’d expected powerfists. He got wasted. Tactician Erwin at work. No pain no game. Hormagaunts ran up killed some scouts and consolidated into the terminators KILLING 2 !! of them but getting slapped around themselves too. Cuz of synapse they sticked around. To my surprise behind all the monstrous creatures just outside assaultrange I saw 3 leaping warriors which looked like they were in range. Erwin was kinda shocked to see them leaping over my TMC’s and slaughter the terminators. I didn’t plan this..but it sure came in handy! The next turn the enemy shot us again but not too bad..but we sadly were out of time. There was still a lot left undone on both sides. The necrons thankfully destroyed the sentinel putting a lasscanon out of commission in I first turn. Next to that almost all the killing was done inside the great building. Although there was a small assault going on between some of my genestealers and Rico’s terminators which IIRC didn’t end because the timelimit.
Hindsight: GREAT game. We should definitely do this again. Take at least a day for this and try not to waste to much time arguing or deciding what to do with 1 shot ..or deciding where to run up to. Hindsight for the opponent: they really tried to do in my flying tyrant but I was wary enough to put it behind cover again and let it wait till assault was going on (didn’t have time to get it in the fray anymore). They simply put to much of their force in one building leaving them open for destruction by the Lith and assault by my main force. If time wasn’t short I would’ve been in consolidation heaven. Oh and my carnifex got shot to pieces..they were more scared of that than of my Tyrant with 2 guards..which is usually more aggressive in CC strangely. Hindsight from the enemies of the imperium..: Necrons should have Veiled of Darknessed and shot the crap out of something in stead of doing NOTHING for 4 turns but waiting. The necron warriors also did nothing. The destroyers did a good job delivering surpressing fire on the large building killing sqs slowly and keeping a dreadnought from firing. Heavy Destroyers were missing a lot but killed a sentinel. My nids did their best. I should’ve kept my flying tyrant behind cover in the first couple of turns instead of flying off to get shot at for 2 wounds only to fly back behind cover and wait again. My stealers got shot up..but did some minor damage. The raveners were also a minor success running up into the terminators but at least one got powerfisted out of synapse STUPID stupid stupid me. The rest went quite well. Except that after we would have gotten through the heavily defended building we would have had quite the walk up to the next flesh. In victory points we won..but I can’t call a half finished battle a win..tides change and there was plenty back there to get shot by. When can we do it again???? Maybe even include IW as ally hehe.

can't believe I just typed 5 pages A4 without pause...need sleep and something to drink..not in that order.

3rd battle (3 of 4)

Nids vs IG.
Even though I know Gerrard likes to boast about how great his army is and how every opponent will be completely defenceless and utterly destroyed and decimated I knew I might have a change, even with him bringing the feared basilisk and a Demolisher with big ordnance weapon (s10 ap2), 2 plasmacanons on the side AND a lasscanon. The rest of his army might be battle hardened veterans with all kinds of fancy drills but with only t3 they would die more easy than the usual food especially with saves almost rivalling my own.
I knew my tyrant would have a hard time getting to him but he might draw enough fire to keep the rest of my army going. Maybe this field was filled with a bit more cover than usual but not cheese-like and Erwin half half told me to put down another thing which I did and my opponent agreed without breaking a sweat.

I lost 1st turn for the first time in 3 games to my opponent. *I should have offered something more to the gods* I kept well behind cover fearing the direct fire of the basilisk. I was told it was S HIGH with ap2 (in the end it was ap3 but pfft who cares about a dead tyrant anyway it would have probably died even without the basilisk). I ran everything as close to cover and behind cover hopping as I could. My ravener shot some guard (yay..if I paid attention I would have known that 3 more guard would have been killed rolling 2s..but they died later on). My flying tyrant and my Ravener assaulted a Sentinel with lasscanon, which had wounded my tyrant once. My gaunts were hit once or twice with ordnance and I lost one warrior to it but it proved more of a fear factor weapon scattering as it did and me saving my cover saves. It could have done a lot of damage though if it had hit right.
On the left flank my genestealers hit enemy ranks and ate their way through a sq in two assault turns (that’s how I like it..consolidating, moving, fleeting assaulting again in my turn). They ran into the next and the next sq. In the meanwhile the explosion of the sentinel killed about 5 men of the IG sq which was on the right flank leaving my guys unharmed. The Raveners took a damn while but finished the sq at last. My Tyrant died because of major tank fire (lass, plasma and the basilisk). I was getting a bit depressed I had hoped to assault the tanks with my might tyrant which would munch through the tanks like they were made of cardboard. I would have to rely on rending. My opponent was very happy to make an understatement. His brother felt the need to grab my tyrant and show the house that the mighty tyrant fell. Thankfully he didn’t break anything..(maybe he kept Rico at arms length :P). I was resolved not to give in and show my yet again boasting opponent the power of rending even against armour. My lictors popped up and 2 raveners assaulted the basilisk and a lictor assaulted the demolisher. Nothing. Just warming up I guess… But I got more than only them. I ran my yet again very successful stealers up to the basilisk, a Ravener at the demolisher and the other staying behind for the basilisk. I threw in the lictor again and a sq of warriors. The tank was finally destroyed succumbing to the Ravener. The Basilisk got a crew stunned & shaken and a weapons destroyed. To my opponents surprise I left the major gun alone and went for the Hbolter in the hull. I found that he couldn’t shoot next turn and if he could have..he didn’t want to risk scattering on his own tanks destroying himself with high strength but he could have done some damage with the Hbolter. Throwing in some more rendingness from 2 remaining stealers which after running for a turn decided to give it another go and destroy the basilisk. Oh wait…did I mention there was an objective..take & hold? Well some warriors had been in proximity for about 3 turns I guess. The HQ with some body guards and some remaining kserking (sp) weren’t much of a challenge for overwhelming numbers. I don’t know much about the codex…but fielding more troops has a bigger priority when you’re IG then fielding expensive T3 guys. I don’t like the prospect of having to fight like 10 sqs of almost free s3 t3 guys. They won’t be easy to chew through…that much food could hurt even my stomach.
Hindsight: Tyrant died but did kill a sentinel resulting which blew up resulting in the usefull death of 5 guard but got killed. I expected as much but it still wasn’t pretty to see 1/5th of my points die. Cover is a lifesaver and although ordnance can be very mean and devastating it can also be to big of a gamble if they make up such a big part of an army. My rending did the rest. It took some convincing but both tanks even the heavily armoured demolisher was destroyed.

This was the last single fight of Nids vs food.
Sadly ..or luckily for my nids..I didn’t get to fight the IW. He got sick (again!!!) and had to be picked up by the chaos gods for a drive home. I don’t know how well I would have faired against 3! Predators and the deamon prince and and and…argh. I think it would have been to much killing power. But that’s for another time. In the meanwhile I won 3 out of 3. I think Erwin killed the most of my army compared to the other two.

2nd battle (2 out of 4)

2nd Battle vs Vanilla Marines.
I always crap my pants going up against Erwin’s marines. If I’ve learned anything it is that he’s quite the tactician and is able turn the tide when things look rough. And assault marines with Furious charge are NOT funny. (he brought a small devsq, 2 tacticals and his ass marines and his Dance commander (uber assault dude)
There was only one possibility to keep my tyrant till assault. And that was to get first turn and fly behind one building. So I set up my tyrant on that side of the field and when I WOOHOO gained 1st turn I directly flew it behind size 3 cover leaving Erwin furious because he couldn’t shoot at it anymore. Hopping from cover to cover suffering only minor casualties I finally ran into assault with a Tyrant at full strength. I left my stealers behind to counter assault assault marines, but in the end I was playing to safe leaving them to do nothing.
My hormagaunts were making saving throws and normal saves like they stole freaking PA or something. Erwin lost his LD test and I ran the first tactical sq into the ground. They didn’t do anything like that in a while. Consolidating into the next sq Erwin was getting depressed because in the meanwhile my Tyrant assaulted his dreadnought and destroyed it (pfft not strange with 6 attacks 2d6ing at I5). The Tyrant finally paid off (except as fear factor). More and more of my army began hitting Erwin’s ranks (2 raveners, and some warriors). Once my tyrant broke through he got shot at by the darn Devsq getting him wounded, thankfully again, not killed. The assault marines kicked in and I almost peed (sp) my pants because I knew they can hit VERY hard and the dance commander was with them which was like a T4 version of my flying tyrant with an 4+ inv save and twin lightening claws! They reaped where they could but eventually there were too many targets and they were slowly overwhelmed. A special note goes out to 1 of my lictors who scattered to death while ‘deepstriking’ into one of Erwin’s sqs. The other decided to drop somewhere more safe and got hold of some action. The last ones to go were some remaining assaultmarines & some dev sq marines.

Hindsight: 1: I was very lucky to roll a 1 on the Alpha, Beta, Omega chart. If Erwin got to infiltrate his army the outcome could have been very very different. 2: I was lucky to get 1st turn and fly my tyrant behind a building and keep it cowarding there for a while.
3: my gaunts were acting like little PA packed beasties saving ridiculous amounts of wounds and sweeping the floor with an Tactical sq and consolidating into the next keeping Erwin from shutting down my assault. My tyrant proved to be a little more than just a fear factor destroying the dreadnought and although few, some marines. I shouldn’t have left my stealers behind. After the slaughter against Rico they deserved some change of diet but didn’t get any food at all and were left unused. I think if not for point 1 & 2 I might have done a lot worse. Getting lucky with saves is just random (except for the holy sacrifices made to the altars of the dice gods ^^ ).
You wanted battlereps? You got battlereps! See next post for the next battle.

1st out of 4 ..Blogging hell

So we had a weekend of battle. Although we slept through our saturday morning (and sunday's as well) and most people didn't show up until short after noon we had plenty time to do battle.
We agreed to play in 1000pts because of the possible upcoming tournament with 1000pts in april.

I had the following:

HQ: Flying Tyrant: ws6, S6, I5, double talons, warpfield @ 194

Troops: 8 basic genestealers @ 128
16 basic hormagaunts @ 160

Elite:
3 leaping warriors: ws 5, s5, I5, talons & rending claws, fleshooks @ 135
3 leaping warriors: same @ 135
2 Lictors @ 160 pts

FA:
1 Ravener: talons, rending claws + deathspitter (had 6 points left) @ 46
1 Ravener: talons & rending claws @ 40 pts

I know it isn't a very swarmy list but it kinda was a rending fest and still 35 models. I knew I wouldn't be able to field another strong synapse keeper (next to the flying tyrant) and if my opponent would be able to concentrate heavy fire and I would have lots of gaunts running around my army would be running for the edge in no time. So I had to have a back up plan. And that is called: run synapse..oh wait out of points so forget the company of too many gaunts. I decided I could run some nids who didn't need to much synapse (raveners, lictors and of course the stealers). Because I don't have more than 10 stealers at the ready I had to run the Raveners. Which aren't a bad choice I might add being as fast as hormagaunts nowadays but are keeping a low profile if they aren't running in large packs. Not bringing an army packed out with carnifexes or to much shooting (only 1 single deathspitter just to fill up some points) I didn't feel my army was cheese or overpowered. If my opponent would be able to shoot down the right things (hard to choose but still) he could put my dinner to a stop.
Battles fought in order of appearance :P : Space Wolves (Rico), Space Marines (Erwin), Imperial Guard (Gerrard) and finally running shoulder to shoulder with Necrons (Rolf) against the space wolves, space marines and the IG although the Nidcrons had adjusted their lists to 1500 pts each to be able to stand up to 3x 1000.

Nids vs Space Dogfood
So Rico decided to dust off his DA marines coming up with quite some frigthening stuff. A dreadnought with twinlinked lasscanon, a landspeeder with Hbolter & asscanon (have I ever said how I HATE landspeeders!!!), 2 tactical sq's with some plasma fire (argh no ze ap2) and a terminator sq and I've got bad memories of Rico's terminators holding on to their dying breath for like forever!!! (why won't you just be good food and DIE!)

Thankfully I had first turn and although there was normal cover this gave me the opportunity to probably assault Rico before he could shoot me twice which would be painfull!
Rico decided to down the Tyrant by all possible means which seems very wise but because he didn't have to many sqs he would have to face the rest of my army. For a moment he had me scared firing the dread, the landspeeder with ass canon and some plasma at me but thankfully the dicegods were against him and on one occasion in favour of my warpfield! My Tyrant survived the first turn of fire with 2 wounds left and so did the rest of my army (with lots more wounds left). I think he killed some gaunts but not too much. But cuz of 1st turn I was already quite close.
2nd Turn
NEWSFLASH! the Ravener missed his shot! that was unexpected at bs3 ...NOT. But who cares about shooting anyway! The rest of my army rushed forward. I kept 1sq warriors in cover to come join the fight later on. My hormagaunts ran into the DA like there was no tomorrow (there wasn't for the DA anyway). My 2 Raveners supported and I think 1 sq of warriors turned up later on. My Stealers and my flying tyrant decended on the other sq. The landspeeder zoomed around for a bit shooting the off nid IIRC.
On Rico's left flank there didn't happen much because my nids forgot they had RC's with them and didn't kill to much. On the other side my genestealers killed so many marines Rico decided to put my Tyrant out of b2b leaving him to do ..NOTHING.
I'm losing the turntaking in my story but that isn't too important.
The gaunts got kicked around for a bit but slowly they with the aid of the raveners and eventually all the warriors killed the sq and Rico's HQ (he wouldn't die easily with 4+inv save..he fought bravely).
The 2nd assault turn saw the stealers wiping out the tactical sq and bringing my workless tyrant and stealers in b2b with the dreadnought (gotta love consolidation).
Being the Initiative whores with I6 the stealers decided that mister fancy pants flying tyrant wasn't needed to do in the Dreadnought and popped it. On the other side 2 lictors popped up one of them helped some remaining hormagaunts to hit on 3+ (they ate doggie brain in advance..darn korean nids). They were able to slowly kill everything on that side of the battle. The stealers and the tyrant being done with the dreadnought decided that more canned food was needed. Darn landspeeder. But what the hell I'm in range to assault with the stealers and the workless tyrant. Initiative total prostitutes action again they destroyed the landspeeder jumping like hungry crocadiles from a pit.
Than the nids turned their heads..look there up in the sky! up in the sky? Up in the sky! Deepstriking terminators. Could Rico kill some more nids today? Yes he should be able to. I think he shot at something ..I think it were the gaunts who took some mean ass fire. My stealers being done with the speeder directly turned aside for some good oll space hulk action and again without consulting mah mean ass flying tyrant ate the terminators only loosing 1!!! of their own.
Hindsight: My tyrant was just being big and scary doing NOTHING but fly around and scare the crap out of Rico. The major part of my army was busy killing one small tactical sq and an HQ while my stealers orally raped everything that wasn't Nid or remotely smelled like space wolf. Yay for the stealers. Can I make them veterans now?
I end it here so that you can take a rest before reading the rest of this blogging hell.

2 days of 40K!

That's right an entire weekend of it. Battlereports for good or for worse will follow. If my army dies a couple of times...I will see it as a positive way of natural selection in the Hyve.