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

 

Hive Fleet Leviathan - Work in Progress

The Necrons are now on the shelf and the Tyranids should have been putting in an appearance at my local gaming club tonight but unfortunately I hadnt made enough progress on them and the codex (still not read it at all) so I had to delay their first showing.

I am however quite pleased with how much progress I have managed to make in the time that I have had available and I am now pretty confident that I will finally be able to give the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan their first showing on the battlefield next week. So, here are some work in progress shots of what Im currently building and painting:

Tyranid Army Building - Advice Required

I have been building up my Hive Fleet Leviathan army over the last year or so but I've not really put a great deal of thought into which models to buy. Originally I just started off with a handful of random purchases and I was then able to buy a second hand Assault Brood set. Since that time I haven't really bought much for the Tyranids as I wanted to get to a point where I felt my Necrons were "finished".

Now that the new Tyranid codex is about to be launched, along with a host of new models, I think its nearly time to put the Necrons back to slumber in their Tomb World and for my version of Hive Fleet Leviathan to take to the gaming tables. I currently have a limited budget (probably about £200 max, ideally a bit less) to spend on some new models so I'd appreciate any advice from anyone as to what else I should consider buying. It should be noted that I know very little about Tyranids as I've only ever played a couple of games against them so I really am a bit clueless at the moment as to where to go next, the models I currently own are as follows:

• Flying Hive Tyrant
• Hive Tyrant (unbuilt)
• Tervigon
• Trygon (unbuilt)
• Carnifex (unbuilt)
• Carnifex with Deverourers
• Carnifex with Talons
• 24 Genestealers
• 32 Hormagaunts
• 9 Warriors
• 8 Rippers
• 32 Termagants
• 10 Gargoyles

Hive Fleet Leviathan - Flying Hive Tyrant

I've been working on this particular model (on and off) for many months now I'm really happy to have finally finished it. The Hive Fleet is starting to take shape now and with the new models due to be released soon, and more importantly with permission from the wife to buy quite a lot, I'm hoping to have my new Tyranid army up and running before the end of January (with the slow rate I which I paint these models it will probably be a very long time before I have a fully painted army though :-( )

First blog post in a long time - Termagants

So, due to the birth of my daughter (Mia) in March my spare time has been rather limited and I havent really been able to get a lot of painting done. However, I have managed to completely, for now at least, finish painting my Necron army and I have then recently returned to my Tyranids (via a short detour with some Eldar).

If I get a bit more spare time over the next few days then I will try and get some pictures of the finished Necron army uploaded, in the meantime here are some pics of my first 16 Termagants from Hive Fleet Leviathan.

Shelves for Paint Storage

I only managed 1 post on this blog in the first two months and here is my third in the last fifteen minutes, apologies for the overload but finding spare time isn't so easy at the moment. A friend of mine built me some shelves for storing my ever expanding paint collection on as I was getting fed up of having them all stored in a box. So, I now have all my paints directly in front of me as Im sat at my desk and I have to say I find it to be a much more pleasant working environment.

Steve C - Thanks again for taking the time and effort to sort these for me, much appreciated :-)

Unit of Genestealers

As well as working my way through cleaning up and assembling Sedition Wars over the last few weeks I also managed to paint my first unit for my new Tyranid army, in this case it was Genestealers. I stuck with the Hive Fleet Leviathan colour scheme that I tested on a Hormagaunt earlier in the year but this time I cut the number of steps down a bit so that I could paint them a lot quicker. The end result isnt quite to the same standard but its close enough and will save me a hell of a lot of time.

 

Sedition Wars : First batch painted

I've finally finished painting my first batch of Sedition Wars miniatures, I've also managed to get all of the rest of them assembled and undercoated now so hopefully should get some more done soon. A lot of other people have already commented about the amount of flash and mould lines that needed cleaning up and I have to say I really found the process of getting these ready to be very tedious. I also still need to get my head round the rules of the game, I've very quickly skimmed through the rules once already but didnt really find them to be very intuitive so further studying will be required.

Anyway, here are my first painted Vanguard :

First post in quite a while

So this is my first post of the year and my first post in well over a month. I've been working on quite a few different things in that time so here is it a bit of a rundown:

Necrons

I've just about finished with my Necron army I think, for the time being at least anyway. I sold off a few assorted bits on ebay and now Im just left with 5 Deathmarks, 5 Destroyers and 3 Overlords/Characters left to paint. Im still intending on gaming with them for quite a while yet though and have managed a couple of games down at York Garrison so far this year.

Tyranids

Anrakyr The Traveller

Just finished painting Anrakyr The Traveller, definitely one of my favourite Necron models so far. I actually used him in a game for the first time last night but i didnt really get chance to see what he can do as he got stuck in an assault from turn 2 onwards. Im thinking in future though that where I would normally choose an Overlord just to get access to a Royal Court I may well go for this guy instead as I dont think he really costs too much extra (when you factor in his wargear) and he offers some interesting opportunities with his Mind in the Machine special rule.

Anyway then, here he is...

Tournament Report

So, as mentioned in my previous post (40k Tournaments) I attended my first ever 40k tournament at the weekend. It was a doubles tournament organised by my local club (York Garrison), consisting of 1850 points per side. Overall it was a really fun day and very impressively run throughout by Peter (Mid-Table Obscurity) and Bennett (Damn Dice).

My partner, Ross, and I actually won the tournament, but I won't really dwell on that one too much as Ross is the one who deserves the credit for it (that really isn't just me trying to be modest as Ross was responsible for virtually every single tactical decision and manoeuvre that our team made). Still, I thoroughly enjoyed participating in it and I was able to learn a hell of a lot from playing alongside Ross as he is a very experienced 40k player, and a friendly bloke as well!


Both Ross and I were using Necrons and the list I played with was pretty much as follows:

40 Tournaments

It's now just over a year since I returned to 40k and pretty much a year exactly since I went down to my local club (York Garrison) for the first time. One of things that I quickly discovered were "tournaments", surprisingly these were actually a completely new concept to me (from a 40k point of view) at first as my previous experiences with 40k, and wargaming in general, pretty much took place on someone's dining room table and were often cut short by the need to return the dining room table to the purposes of food consumption. It became apparent straight away though that there are a hell of a lot of these that occur and that they are a huge part of the hobby now. It may well actually be that they were a huge part of the hobby in the early 90s as well but I certainly didnt know about them at the time.

Of the people I've met and played against over the last year there have been quite a few who seem to take these tournaments, and 40k in general, extremely seriously. To me 40k is a very casual game that I play because I enjoy it and I couldnt really care less whether I win the game or not, as long as it is fun. I know that sounds a bit cheesey but some of these people really do take it very, very seriously indeed. Not that there is anything wrong with that, its just that (in my very limited experience so far) quite a few of them also seem to be a very cliquey bunch who dont always have a lot of time or interest in those of us who's lives aren't quite so focused on 40k. Again, there isn't necessarily anything at all wrong with that but it has definitely turned me away from tournaments a bit really as some of these people have just been downright unfriendly and haven't in anyway inspired me to want to play a "fun" game against them.

This post isnt intended at all as an attack on tournament players (I've also met a lot of extremely friendly ones), Its pretty much just a ramble about how I have found things so far and the prompting for me to write it is that I have finally given in and decided to attend a tournament myself this saturday. It's a doubles tournament down at York Garrison and Im partnering up with another Necron player, quite curious to see how it all goes really and once its done I'll try and get something posted on here about it.


"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that"        :-)

Project List - Update

Towards the end of October I wrote a post about some new rules that I was trying to work towards to try and get my model collection back under control. The post was inspired by one I found on The Responsible One's blog so I cant really claim the credit for thinking up any of it.

So, after writing the post I then created a Google spreadsheet and started documenting all the different projects I had on the go and then kept it up to date as I progressed through the month of November. Once Id finally found every project that I should have been working on the total number was 43. I managed to keep myself restrained in terms of new purchases and I got quite a bit of spare time to work on things and managed to complete 11 different projects during November.