The years have certainly Ambushed me that's for sure. Now over 30 🤮.
The Illegitimate Children
The years were not the only ones to lay down a surprise attack, so were these painted Genestealer Cultist.
Nothing better than scatter
I smashed through them in less than a week, and somehow they look better than the rest of the shit I paint...
I actually got to use my brutes
As for the big birthday Bonanza after 6 hours of explaining the rules we quit to head home. While the game remained unfished it was clear I wasn't going to win or force the draw having engaged on to many fronts in the multiplayer. It was probably going to go the way of a cult.
The Final Boardstate
The Inch Grid was both great and confusing for new players.
So I was one the Campaign Arbitrators on the Last local campaign. This wrapped up last week. It was great fun but also a lot to manage with Weekly oversight needed from me and Selby. Its like being a player and a DM in DND. Good thing there are two of us able to keep each other in check and Daimon as a tiebreaker who chips in occasionally.
Please feel free to download the Campaign Document here.
The final scenario was a 6 player multi with everyone who had bought a ticket to the game. In short Sean slowly walked around a 4x4 board with his 4" movement Goliaths and eventually after 5 hours was the last one standing as the final attacker blew themselves up with an overcharged plasma pistol.
The scenario can be found here and I have posted a map of the layout above. You can see Wellywoods short overview below with highlights such as seeing me standing about or watching me drop a template on someone elses models (I hate myself for things like this, at least they were not painted so not too guilty).
Daimon who runs Wellywood is leaving the country so that was the last campaign I will be apart of on the channel (unless he comes back to Wellington...) before he left he did an Interview with me and Selby, of which I hate because he didn't tell me my hair was a mess for the entire video...
I may do a skirmish video with him for one last piece of content before he leaves but I am not sure.
Onto the next big thing I am doing a special game of Necromunda for my Birthday. I have roped in some friends and will be doing a 4 player multi. We will be doing Border Dispute but in an effort to reduce set up/packdown, how much I am transporting etc I will be using my Tenfold Dungeon to create a zone mortalis style complex. I will also transport the minis in the Tenfold Boxes. The layout for the game has been settled on, with a nice long map and with gangs starting next to each other but due to the doors will find it easier to attack the player on the opposite side of the board.
I do love making maps.
Here are the Gang Relics, Aim of the Game to keep your relic safe and defile all the opposing gangs relics.
Protect the Precious
3 of the Gangs are ready to go and Necromunda is great for bringing in that RPG part with the narrative aspects so I have given each of the painted gangs a short backstory. Lets hope I can paint the 8 models needed for the last gang in a week, until then they will hide away in secret.
Janus Draik now a rebel lord on the run from the law for his political heresy. Down in the underhive he carves a out a new place to rule aided by his seer, ex house staff and some hired guns. Dragging around his most prized possession: a statue of a Howling Griffons space marine.
'Hyli ⭐' - A gang of skilled tech savvy members of house Van Saar. They honour a hero of ancient terra past. Fitted with tech from the lost ages or experimental new research some few even willing to upgrade themselves. Lead by Glasear who aims to one day eat a fruit from his precious tree, a pleasure few in the hive would ever hope to experience.
The Death Lotus clan is lead by the charismatic Jhor'dan. Able to call upon the gods for inhuman strength and aided by dark powers from Auriok the psyker he and his followers shall take the area. Having planted their flag to stake their claim.
Well I can admit I was extremely slack last year. In terms of what I achieved since my last post we have 2 more marines painted (eeek Pathetic) . I stopped for a bit as I just wasn't quite happy with the paint scheme, it felt like it was missing something and the white on the arms just bothers me so I tried to change it slightly for these two with some recess shading, still not happy though.
I made and painted these 3 Warriors and their Alpha, I think honestly considering they give you 4 bodies and 4 heads that its just rude there are only 3 sets of legs.
Thankfully I had a spare hive tyrant tail that made for a nice serpentine look that helps the Alpha differentiate a bit more.
And I painted my 'Exocrine'.
Not to mention I finished Ganesh and co who I am quite happy with and was probably the most interesting project of the year.
What Will Be
2022 is off to a good start with me having already painted 5 models which is almost as many as I painted last year. I started with the Christmas gift which was an infinity model and painted him using the new metallic paints I also got for Christmas.
I also knocked out these Blackstone Fortress/Necromunda Minis in record time. The Tau mini was from when I was a kid, he had already been painted (poorly) but adding several layers of stains and grime (also a new Christmas present) with some basing and his lens coloured in he actually looks decent
Now I am setting some goals for this year. I have things I need to get done, such as these 3 marines who are still waiting for me to figure out how to paint white.
These Enforcers who will be doubling up their patrols in both Necromunda and as Scouts in 40k.
And for some silly reason I got the new GSC codex and my Pure Genestealer Army is getting some new units.
The Neophytes are looking okay and should be distinct enough I hope, I have some special weapons being printed for the mining laser and grenade launcher as I couldn't work out how to represent them with the parts I had.
Rockgrinder looks nothing like its GSC counterpart but at least its the right size or close enough.
As for the HQs the Space Hulk Genestealer I used has a terrible pose and is impossible to take a photo of but I am loving my Zen Magus the Spiritual leader for my army, though I am stuck as to what to do about making him an organic staff.
Well that all folks, hopefully I can keep myself honest this year and post more updates as well as start getting my photography skills back up to scratch.
Here is the Virago! Now most Tyranids seem to be named after either derogatory terms for woman or odd organs and bodily processes. Looking at my Big Beasty I decided I had to go with a derogatory term for a woman as I felt it was very feminine. Virago however is not just derogatory it also signifies a warrior aspect; a strong woman.
Would you look at that two other Nids are mentioned as Similar
Taking it to the Tournament I dubbed it the Virago Pattern ShadowSword as it was counting as a Shadowsword. The tournament however hadn't even begun and I was getting questioning looks and people confirming if the TO had okayed it. Mainly from an Imperial Guard player who said that in alot of Tournaments he struggled to move his Guard Super Heavies due to their width. This was due to how the alot of tables were building heavy with Terrain in New Zealand Tournaments at least and his tank often couldn't fit down the main street of the tables let alone any alley ways. And fair enough despite being longer and slightly taller mine was about half the width and really did go wherever it pleased.
Onto the First Game, my Opponent one of the best in New Zealand rolled his eyes when I mentioned it was a ShadowSword and for the sake of me not gaming for advantage wanted to check the table for terrain pieces that a normal ShadowSword could not take cover behind but mine would, arguing that they couldn't block line of sight. Of course I agreed, I didn't want anyone thinking it was done for advantage, the conversion was purely for aesthetics. Thankfully we were playing on Pete Dunns Airport crash table where there is either no terrain or huge terrain and it was agreed that we didn't have to make any changes to how we dealt with line of sight.
In the Second game I was once again asked are you sure and that I had the TOs permission. My opponent said if it was his choice it was a no go (He did mention he would accept it as a Barbed Heirodule) but as I had the TOs permission (which he added was not sure how that happened) then that would be the last he said on the matter as I had the 'go' from the one person that mattered (Thanks Hagen). He then promptly detonated my Warlord on the first turn to teach me a lesson. When the Virago returned fire on the Riptide sticking out I forgot to check and yes hidden out of sight but next to it was a large squad of Shield drones. The Virago died next turn and I had wasted the one round of fire it had graciously been granted.
In game 3 I had now lost both my games so hard that I was against a young and enthusiastic player who really didn't care about gaming for advantage he just thought it and my army looked really cool, he was the first opponent to praise its looks. This was a fun and chill game and much needed as I was basically asleep at this point, I lost despite it being a close game due to the fact he picked the deployment side with the Superior Objective and I got the Inferior because otherwise we were tied on score and held the same number of objectives at end of game.
Game 4 I got the one opponent who was there entirely for the Pretty Toys, Photos and the Smooth Ass I had just sold him. He was quite happy with the aesthetic of the Virago and the counts as (or at least I was led to believe so).
For game 5 I got another experienced player but this time they were all good with the Virago and thought it was awesome that on first glance my army looks like a Nids army until you inspect it and find the Genestealer detachment and the Virago. He won first turn and promptly made sure that Virago was looking good from the side lines instead.
Overall I think I got about 6 or 7 people expressing that they thought it was cool over the course of the tourne and about 4 people who thought it shouldn't count as a ShadowSword some went further to say it would be a good counts as for a Barbed Heirodule but sadly most NZ tournaments are very strict on ForgeWorld models and don't allow counts as or in Hagens case anything FW with the titanic keyword.
Additionally I don't think I played the army or the Virago right, it should have been more forward and aggressive or hidden better and I hid it in the matches I shouldn't have and left it out in the open on the matches where it should have stayed hidden. Moral of the story is that sleep is important if you want to play well.
Going into 9th it will be costing me an arm and a leg in terms of CP to play it as a Shadowsword in a Nids army and even then the Barbed Heirodule will cost a fair chunk of CP. So despite it now being my favorite model I will be hamstringing myself to put it on the table.
Last but not least for I did hint at it, here is the first draft on the next character for my Genestealer detachment. Please take a guess at what you think its going to count as.
Here are my loyal 17. The Genestealer Detachment. These bad boys are here to unlock the the 'Virago' Pattern ShadowSword. Being a Pure Genestealer Detachment they get a 6+ Lightning Reflex invunerable save on all the units that don't already have lightning reflexes. Consisting of 1 Patriarch, 1 Abominant and 3 units of 5 acoloytes.... now lets take a closer look at each squad.
The Original Design
These boys were the original design for the acolytes, slightly more upright and slowly pistolering their way towards you.
The Quick Save/Dynamic Design
This squad started the process for each squad having a different pose, it all happened when I messed up one of my models and then decided it could be saved by having a totally different pose and piece of the Killa Kan I ripped up to bounce off, originally just going to be a squad leader it turned into a full squad when I messed up two more. I think only the one leaping over the leg was intended to be in this squad from the beginning..
The Harlequin Design
Probably the most and least fun unit to do, they make them feel so much bigger and deadly but they were also a pain in the ass with all those knee replacements. Then again most units needed hip and ankel surgery so it was only a little more pain on and existingly painful process.
The Abominant
I had the idea of using crushing claws on a broodlord as the Abominant since the model got spoiled, however that looked terrible, it did not look good in an upright pose and to get it looking awesome and in some sort of animalistic pose across all 6 limbs would not fit on the tiny abominant base. Instead they got turned into the BioHammer we see today, more fitting for the required cave mans first step pose on his teeny tiny base.
YOU ARE MINE!
The Patriarch himself was the first model done for the detachment, originally posed on a pipe when I got him it had to be fixed, considering my nids were already based on grass and dirt.. I feel the result makes him stand out from the rest and provides a nice narrative.
