Cool Marines Hold Their Bolter With One Hand

 
See the problem with holding your bolter with two hands is that you then don't have a hand free for your knife and as we all know the knife is the absolute pinnacle of Imperial technology.

And seeing as the leading marine on holding your bolter in one hand is currently in the colours of the Children of the Emperor I was lost with what to do to complete the squad, thankfully the Monkey Chukka came to the rescue. When I asked if he had any spare reiver heads (upcoming project) he gave me what was left on the sprue including bits to make most of a reiver with no arms, one mismatched leg and one leg that was missing half the shin and foot.

The rescue mission has been mostly successful and I feel like hes coming out okay the only thing is he still looks very much like a revier not an intercessor. So my question is do I leave him as is and have him finish the squad or do I make him into a Phobos Captain or something? 

Hey Guys look at my Knife

Thats not a Knife this is a Knife

Thats not a knife thats a Sword

No this is a Sword!

Now wasn't that fun, they all still need a little bit of work but then they can go rampage with their knives out.

Starting a new Chapter

 

Even though I have finally found a base that goes well with my custom chapter Children of the Emperor I have since decided not to go ahead with the colour scheme as it didn't stick out enough. This is why I have since gone with a much stealthier Chapter that sticks out alot more. Behold my Necropolis Hawks. 

Originally some dudes custom chapter that somehow ended up in the Vigilus Campaign books.

I really like the colour scheme and feel like the army should certainly pop visually on the table. Especially with the combination of the alien landscape they are running across.

I am currently thinking about decals and whether I bother with finding/getting Hawk head one or just slapping the wolves icons on and renaming them the Necropolis Wolves.. 

My starting lists are going to based around two of the elite version starter kits as well as the squad of intercessors (-1), 6 eliminators and the techmarine from the Children of the Emperor Project. Not sure what I am going to do to get that 5th intercessor as I went to the shop and its $33 for even just the one that comes with the learn 40k magazine.

As for the Necron halves my son has started his own army. Look if a 5 y/o can paint an army to a table top standard and feel proud about it so can you (I'm pretty proud of him as well).

Well to start with we came up with a colour scheme, he said he wanted it like the artwork and between the two main colours he saw he went with Sautehk. This meant silver necrons with alot of green, and he wanted them fighting on mars while it was snowing, with extra glitter.

For the models we started with the skorpehk destroyers as they these were his favorite. I painted one doing each step too show him how its done then he would paint his two as we went, this went pretty well and he stayed pretty strictly to the guide lines apart from when he I told him what the Plasmacyte does and then he painted one glowing all the way up the spine as it was the one being powered up, a cool little touch.

Next up we did 5 warriors, this time he was super stoked about having them all charge up. He was ready to give up half way through though but I told him we could paint the scarabs once he did these ones so we eventually got them finished. The 3 scarabs were rocked out in record time leaving us with 5 more Warriors as WIP at the moment, I feel like these ones wont be done in a rush however as he doesn't feel they are as cool. He also has the Necron Half of Indominitus so he has alot more Necrons to go through and I feel like I might have to Skorpekh the entire army for him.

Fields of Blood 2020

 

The Armies Finished and On a Finished Display Board!

Okay now that I have had time to recover here is my take on Fields of Blood, the most narrative hobby driven major tournament to be found.

Firstly here is the list that I ran:

+ Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment -3CP (Tyranids) [23 PL, -4CP, 460pts] ++

+ Configuration +

Hive Fleet: Leviathan

Detachment CP [-3CP]

+ Stratagems +

Progeny of the Hive [-1CP]

+ Lord of War +

Barbed Hierodule [23 PL, 460pts]

. Adaptive Physiology: Dermic Symbiosis

++ Battalion Detachment 0CP (Tyranids) [77 PL, 11CP, 1,540pts] ++

+ Configuration +

Hive Fleet: Leviathan

Battle Size [12CP]: 3. Strike Force (101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points) 

Detachment CP

+ Stratagems +

Bounty of the Hive Fleet [-1CP]: 1 Extra Bio-artefact

+ HQ +

Broodlord [7 PL, 125pts]: Power: Smite, Power: The Horror, Resonance Barb

Hive Tyrant [9 PL, 200pts]: Adrenal Glands, Lash Whip and Monstrous Bonesword, Monstrous Boneswords, Power: Onslaught, Power: Psychic Scream, Power: Smite, The Reaper of Obilterax, Toxin Sacs

. Adaptive Physiology: Murderous Size

Hive Tyrant [12 PL, 240pts]: Adrenal Glands, Monstrous Scything Talons, Power: Catalyst, Power: Psychic Scream, Power: Smite, Two Devourers with Brainleech Worms, Warlord, Wings

+ Troops +

Genestealers [12 PL, 165pts]: 11x Scything Talons

. 11x Genestealer: 11x Rending Claws

Ripper Swarms [2 PL, 36pts]

. 3x Ripper Swarm: 3x Claws and Teeth

Ripper Swarms [2 PL, 36pts]

. 3x Ripper Swarm: 3x Claws and Teeth

Termagants [9 PL, 181pts]

. 14x Termagant (Devourer): 14x Devourer

. 11x Termagant (Fleshborer): 11x Fleshborer

Tyranid Warriors [4 PL, 102pts]: Adrenal Glands, Flesh Hooks

. Tyranid Warrior: Deathspitter, Scything Talons

. Tyranid Warrior: Deathspitter, Scything Talons

. Tyranid Warrior (Bio-cannon): Scything Talons, Venom Cannon

+ Heavy Support +

Carnifexes [12 PL, 290pts]

. Carnifex: Bone Mace, Enhanced Senses, Heavy Venom Cannon, Spore Cysts, Two Deathspitters with Slimer Maggots

. Carnifex: Bone Mace, Enhanced Senses, Heavy Venom Cannon, Spore Cysts, Two Deathspitters with Slimer Maggots

+ Flyer +

Harpy [8 PL, 165pts]: 2x Heavy Venom Cannon

++ Total: [100 PL, 7CP, 2,000pts] ++

I got a whopping 8.5 out of 10 for army selection which meant that the judges found my list to be fluffy and noncompetitive. Just to add some fluff bonuses I was the only person to secure a grudge match vsing Chris Parkins Blood Angels in Round 1 for a glimpse of the War on Baal (I have no grudge against Chris and have never played him before, Grudge purely faction based for narrative). Turns out it was a successor chapter called in to defend the home-world.

And what a game it was, being soooo early in the morning and only my 2nd game of 9th (and technically only my 3rd turn of 9th) going first I took one look at the rules saw Objectives didn't matter till round 2 and promptly advanced my whole army off the objectives in my deployment zone... this was a mistake as they matter at the beginning of round 2 before you move...

I also failed to remember adrenal glands gave my Whippy Boi +1 to his advance (I remembered it on the charge) so he failed his charge by 2mm. From here I failed to stay in the game and my HQs all went to down, my rippers died to morale tests and I got stomped. Highlight however was when his captain charged whippy boi and killed him only to find that meant whippy boi fought him twice and killed him..

Game 2 was against a player I often talked to at Tournaments but had never actually played. Master of the Guard Regan Ridge. Today he had some sisters along to make sure his guard stayed on the path of the right and pure. This was a tough game with me again going first but again forgetting the +1 to Whippy Bois advance and this time failing the charge by 1mm. 

He had lost a base while painting.. 

Tank Commanders did too much work however and between some poor choices in secondaries (I was still trying to work out what worked at this stage) I had yet another loss on my hands.

They just don't die.

Next up was a mountain of shit, quite literally as I faced of against Nurgles filthiest - Alick Harris. This game was quite the laugh with me putting in just over 100 shots over 2 turns from my gaunts to kill 1 squad of Nurglings and 100 melee attacks from my genestealers, broodlord and flyrant to kill the other squad of nurglings, between the 3 turns we had as we both rolled 100s of dice for attacks. saves and feel no pains that didn't result in alot of damage on either side. He did have more sticking power however and though a single gaunt survived to ruin his well laid plans. After spending most of the game laughing about how hard nurglings were to kill Alick got my vote for best opponent (I must not have been the only one to laugh at how frustrating the nurglings are as Alick got the award for Living Saint at the end of it all.)

At the end of day 1 I had 2 games only go to turn 3 and 1 to turn 5. Was I playing slow or was it the Guard and Nurgles fault? Probably both.

Day 2 saw day light savings come and ruin life as we basically had to start at 7:30 in the morning thanks to everything moving by an hour (why I sign up to FoB knowing this happens day 2 every time is madness). To make matters worse I had to start the morning vs Tau (Michael Price). Despite being a terrible idea my genestealers were lined up for the first turn charge so they took it. After the majority of his army overwatched me the remaining genestealers stumbled into combat with the Ghostkeels locking them down for Whippy Boi to make a massive charge and engage one from behind. This also lined him up to consolidate into the line of firewarriors protecting his main castle. Whippy Boi got the whopping 9 damage roll off for the first time in the tourne to take the ghostkeel down and cause havoc.

 Panic ensued as after he disengaged from Whippy Boi and locked in the Kauyon with Shadowsun meaning his Warlord was now in heroic intervention range and exposed to Whippy Boi. Whippy Boi tried his hardest to live but couldn't survive the firepower of an entire Tau army going with shoot the bug in our face. However thanks to some strategic play I was able to eventually pull out a narrow win. Game ended round 4.

As punishment for finally winning a game I was put up against some Ultramarines with all the tools. Chris Sims had Calgar, Tigurius, Leviathan Dread with Double Butchers and a Lieutenant with a Seal of Oath. Once again going first for the 5th time Whippy Boi ran in a straight line and this time I remembered the +1 to advances and he managed to just make the charge into the Leviathan Dread. This became the battle of 4+ invulns as neither side took damage. Calgar eventually moved to join in the fray but between 2 smites (one of which went big!) and a Psychic Scream he fell to mortal wounds from full HP. Tigurius also bit of more than he could chew as Whippy Boi repriortised when he charged in. It was a close game, the Tyrants held out for sooo long but eventually fell down leaving a large gaps in my synapse. Playing the objectives however I managed to sneak out the narrowest win at 49-48. It might have been bigger if I hadn't wasted a secondary on 'while we fight we stand' that got 0 points, the thinking was he had almost no anti tank and I could focus that first but the Oath was a game changer in terms of taking out the Heirodule.

         

Finally for Game 6 I was up against Steve Hills beautiful GSC, I would have to say he was my best dressed opponent in terms of painted models but I didn't get any photos of the game as he requested that we fast play as he had to be packed up and leave by the time the game was meant to be finished as he had a plane flight out of town. He said he was going to leave tactics in the dust and simply run it down mid and may the better fighter take victory. With him going first and barely denting me in the shooting phase this opened me up for the easy counter charge, while the middle ground objectives were contested early I was smashing the fight and quickly pulled ahead. Finally it seems I had picked the right secondaries as I was able to get max points for them and only 10 points shy of maximum primaries by the end of the fiesta.

All in all this leaded to me being the 2nd Best Nids player at the tournament. However with the only Nids player above me being on the podium with a 3rd place finish they got a real trophy and the Best in Faction trophy fell down onto my lap much to my surprise.

Not Pictured one more Mek and 10 more gobbos for 2000pt Brigade

As always the hobby side of things gets amped up by a tournament and with my Nids being almost 'Done' I have shifted my attention back to my Orks. Lets see how long it takes me to tackle this long awaited project (Or how long it takes the butterfly to flutter onto something else). I have already started updating the paint job on the yellow truck. I got it 2nd hand and a bit over half painted, well better painted than I could at the time I got it but now I finally feel confident in finishing the paint job and making it something that I can call mine.

Welcome to my side of Town.

So they say the area once paid tribute to an ancient champion of Terra. Perhaps it was once even an arena for warriors to emulate such triumphs, however now it is continuously torn apart and renovated by its ever changing residents. 

The ramshackle pieced together shacks are regularly destroyed, scavenged or repurposed by the ever changing gangs passing through.

So basically my Metro Morph terrain came through from Crowd Forge Studios. First thing I had to do was see how much I got in a box. 



I got 2 Core Sets, 1 Elevation set, 2 extra packets of Protection/Repair Stickers and 1 extra set of clippers. Honestly if I could retrospectively change my order the only thing I would change is ordering another set or 2 of clippers as towards the end of the city I was wishing I had more T and Cross clips but only had an abundance of L clips left. I found a use for the L clips however and pop outs from the doors and floor extensions to build barriers and cover on walkways and rooftops. Though I did end up using a floor piece as a very large wall..

The sets came with lots of decorative stickers and stickers to hide the clippers or repair/protect parts of the cardboard where it will fray. I found this very useful as my eager hands damaged a few pieces popping them out of the frames. I only used a few decorative stickers as I felt most were to jarring compared to the terrain but did pick two I liked to see what it could look like. 

What you see uses every single piece I got sent and every single clipper, I did have to leave one slanted wall/roof freestanding on the side but it was the last thing and I had run out of T clips which are needed to stick it to any of the other buildings.

It was 4 storeys high and you can climb onto almost every part of it, in fact only two floor pieces cannot be accessed in the build.

Robs in the secret passage

But he still can't get on that roof.

The board beneath is a 900mmx1200mm corflute sign that was given away after the bookfair it was advertising had passed. I gave this a very quick spray paint with the sprays I had available and seeing as Orange was the fullest can I couldn't pass the opportunity to pay tribute to my favourite esports team fnatic. 

I had so much fun making this city and I know every time I set up the board its going to be different, which is both the greatest funnest part (Honestly I had more fun setting up that table than I have playing any table top game) but also the most frustrating part, that literally took me hours to set up and isn't something you could whip out just before a game.

Once I was done with it, I packed it away nicely sorted into Horizontal pieces such as floors and walkways, and vertical pieces of even height such as walls, ladders and pillars and finally oddpieces such as the triangles, uneven height walls, overhangs and my door barriers.

The fact that it comes precoloured, its very sturdy (held my metal flying hive tyrant or a full bottle of PVA glue easy), is so modular, was rather affordable and my only gripes were with the lack of clips I would definitely recommend this terrain. The ratio of L clips to T and Cross clips impacted how I wanted to set up the terrain and that the Elevation set came with one less bag of clips but just as many pieces and more pieces that depended on T and Cross clips (You can't L Clip floors and walkways together) was really my only frustration but to anyone reading this and buying their own thats easily fixed with a minor surcharge to get more bags of clips. To make life easy so you don't have to google it you can find the website here: https://crowdforgestudio.com/project/metro-morph/

Edit: Updated with Death Watch Tiles as requested, they work really well as a base and give it a deep hive feel as they have gaps between the walkways and detailed depths with pipes and more walkways shown below. The smaller size would be good with lots of levels which can easily be done and would be great for a transportable 1v1 3D layout.