The Shame of Lictors

Im hoping to find the time to play a lot more 40k over the coming few months than I have done over the previous 6 or 7, although finding opponents still playing it down at my local gaming group is proving very difficult. I have been working hard on expanding my Tyranid army and have completed the painting of quite a few models recently (more blog posts will hopefully follow soon) but after reading about a popular new "net list" that a guy known as Vect seems to have come up with recently I really liked the sound of it and decided to add a pile of models that I didnt previously own.....Lictors!

The basic idea behind the list is to use a large array of lictors (nine in total, including Deathleaper) to allow three different Mawlocs to be able to precision deep strike when they are deployed and thus causing optimum damage upon arrival. I wont go in to all the details of it as you can follow the link above to see some more information on it, or search for the term "Lictorshame" as that is what the list appears to be known as :-)

It would definitely appear that a very specialist list like this is going to be very situational, and therefore a lot of people probably wont like it, but I just really liked the sound of it and wanted to give it a try as I think it will probably quite good fun to play. I dont intend on using the exact same list as Vect but I definitely want to go for something similar so I really needed to acquire lots more lictors (Deathleaper on his own just wasnt going to work) and I will also need a couple more Mawlocs very soon as well, but that is going to have to wait until after pay day.

At £15.50 per model for the lictors, and given that I wanted eight of them, I soon turned to ebay to try and pick up a few bargains. However, I failed completely at this as they seemed to all be selling for very close to full price. As a result of this, I turned to a source I had never used before (and dont really want to name on here) and placed an order for the following models....

Overall I am thrilled to bits with how these turned out and, as much as I will continue to purchase from GW, I will definitely be ordering some more models from this supplier very soon. The supplier in question doesnt have any Mawlocs so those will definitely be coming from GW but I do like the look of a Dimachaeron and a Barbed Heirodule so will hopefully be adding those soon.

Just in case anyone is curious, here is a clue as to where I purchased these from...

Tyranid Neurothrope and Zoanthrope

This is my first post to this blog for many months, unfortunately real life has interfered a lot with my wargaming in recent months but hopefully now I will be back for a while. Prior to this week I havent done any painted or gaming since about June time but a few days ago I did pick up a brush and paint a Zoanthrope, then this morning I saw this image of an upcoming GW release and decided that I didnt want to buy the new plastic Zoanthrope/Venomthrope kit but I probably will want to use one of the new Neurothropes

I had a bit of time to spare today so I thought I would have a go at making my own version of the Neurothorpe based on this image. I wasnt really too bothered about copying it exactly so this is what I came up with:

I am by no means a master of the kit-bashing, sculpting type skills used with this sort of work but it was fairly simple and Im quite pleased with the results

I also painted a regular Zoanthrope a couple of days ago so here are the two of them alongside each other

Tervigon - Finished

I've tried to take a different approach to my painting over the last week or so and have attempted a "little and often" approach of doing at least a few minutes every evening, rather than trying to find time for a longer session. So far, its working quite well as I have got a lot of base coating done on a variety of different 'gaunts, 'thropes and 'fexes and have finished the set of numbered objective markers (forgot to take any pics of those). I have also just finished painting this Tervigon, I originally started it a long time ago (probably over a year ago) so Im glad to have finally managed to find the time to tick this one off the list.

Hive Fleet Leviathan - Current work in progress

As per normal these days I have had a very limited amount of time to do much in the way of painting and blogging. I did, however, manage to get some time to paint recently so thought I'd just show some of the current state of my ongoing Tyranid progress

First up are some Warriors, I'm currently only working on a batch of three of these but in total I think I have twelve to do. A lot of people dont really rate Tyranid Warriors due to their high points cost and the fact that despite their 3 wounds they can be instantly killed by strength 8 weapons due to only having toughness 4. So far though theyve done fairly well for me and Im going to stick with using them for a while longer

This one is pretty much finished, the other two arent

Exocrine

The first couple of games that I used the Exocrine I wasnt too convinced by its usefulness, after a few more games with him though Im currently finding him to be pretty much a certain pick ever time. He's not exactly amazing but with 24" range and 6 shots that are AP2 (I dont tend to use the blast very often) I think he is another unit that brings something that is quite lacking with the rest of the 'nids. Also, the fact that he is a Monstrous Creatue means that he is far from useless should he end up in combat.

 

 

Biovore Brood

These guys are definitely not my favourite Tyranid model (aesthetically speaking) but I do find them pretty useful in the game. Firing a large blast at 48" is definitely something that the Tyranids dont have a great deal of options with and its such a bonus that if the first blast misses that it isnt a complete failure as it creates Spore Mines instead.

My plan with this blog over the coming weeks/months is to try and write a few more meaningful articles to focus a bit on my experiences so far with the new 'nid codex, for the time being though its just going to have be more pictures of the models Ive managed to paint recently.

 

Deathleaper - Hive Fleet Leviathan

Just finished painting Deathleaper a few days ago so thought I'd post a few pictures. This is the first metal model I have painted in a while (execept for a few Necron scarabs) as I picked this one up off ebay. Hopefully I should have a few Biovores painted in the next week and then its on with the Exocrine and Tervigon that I have already started.

 

Mawloc

I finished this Mawloc a few weeks ago but hadn't previously had chance to post any pictures of it. So far I have only played two games with the 'nids and have only used the Mawloc in one of those so I can't really comment on how useful it is.

If I can find some time over the next few days I am planning to post up some of my thoughts on the new Tyranid codex, I am a long way from being an expert on such matters but I have enjoyed using the army so far. In the meantime here are the pics of my Mawloc from Hive Fleet Leviathan