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2018/02/13 17:06:10
Subject: Tyranids! Weird Warriors from Outer Spaaace!
Woooo!!! Well I hit my end of February deadline, sort of. Everything done except the bases, do they count?
After some long extra hours I was able to get the wash of Seraphim Sepia on, and then do all the details for the models to finish up the painting. Rather than post each individual phase here, this one pic sorta wraps it all up. I did the weapon details prior to washing them, this was done with Yriel Yellow, and the "sacs" on the gun were hit with a bit of Camo Green. Then the old Firey Orange post-wash to start the little carapace decorative highlights, Yriel Yellow again, and then a washy Mephison Red to bring the edges back down and enrichen the color a bit. Same for the Zoanthropes, except I started with red on those guys and worked up.
I was able to get sand and paint on all the bases (72 models total) in time for my first game with them. Just some static grass and cleanup with black on the base itself and we have ourselves a finished product.
My first game out with them post-paint was cut short for time, but overall was a mutual slaughter with the Nids having a bit of an advantage at the end. I made a couple mistakes, mostly just throwing my models on the table being happy that they were basically done, but I'll have to improve my generalship for next time around. I think some reorganization of squads is in order, and I'll have to rank up better to protect my shooting a bit more. Also our local Primaris-only opponent has tightened up his list and improved his own generalship a bit since the last time we fought, giving me a bit of a headache mid-game using his Repulsor to charge multiple units and stopping a lot of my firepower for a crucial turn. That said, the loads of Deathspitter shots from the Warriors was awesome. I've already begun organizing my next batch of Warriors with more Deathspitters, since overall I think they're more useful than the Boneswords. It may be a little while before I want to paint Warriors again, but we'll see how they play over the next month or two.
Hopefully I can get the bases done before my next outing with them.
Damn dude, way to see a crazy project all the way through, awesome result when out in force
Small thing, what colors did you use for your basing? I've been looking for a simple badlands scheme for my (very pale) daemons, that might fit the bill.
Thanks guys! I'm really happy with how they turned out as an army and looking forward to adding to it. I'm not sure what unit do next yet. I have a bunch of the original Genestealers though, so that's high on the list. I also have some Raveners scheduled to show up at some point, and that's going to improve my maneuverability as I'm playing Jormangundr and they'll allow my Warriors to come up out of tunnels. That should be pretty epic.
Boss Salvage wrote: Damn dude, way to see a crazy project all the way through, awesome result when out in force
Small thing, what colors did you use for your basing? I've been looking for a simple badlands scheme for my (very pale) daemons, that might fit the bill.
- Salvage
I cheated a bit on the bases, using an artists acrylic as the base coat because it's cheaper by volume and a tube lasts for years. Plus I can water it down a bunch so it spreads nice and easy over the sand. I used M. Grahm Artists' Color, either Raw Umber or Burnt Umber, I forget which. I have tubes of both in my mini-paint case and honestly I just use the one that I can open at the time. Looking at the bases, I probably used Burnt Umber as the base, which is a little redder. Raw Umber is darker and a little cooler. Over that I drybrush Tau Light Ochre, and sometimes a light brushing of Screaming Skull. I was a little worried that if I lightened the bases on these guys too much it would blend too much with the brown on the model, so I'll take them to the gaming tables a few times and see if they want that last dusting or not.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/03/08 18:25:51
Appreciate the breakdown. I actually have some old Delta Ceramcoat 'Burnt Umber' that's one of my favorite brown paints, may see how that works out for me along with the ochre.
*looks back at the game shots and marvels at the horde of alien weirdness gawking their way towards the UM *
Fantastic! It is surprising how much a modern paintjob can save old, seemingly bad models. And those warriors are surprisingly big! The orange spots really pushed the look from decent to really good.
Imo the orange was crucial to the scheme, otherwise it was too bland. I wanted a scheme that was sort of natural and dark-ish, so that it looked semi-realistic and threatening, but it needed a little pick-me-up at the end. I took inspiration from poisonous frogs and deep sea fish.
Yeah the old Warriors are taller than the new ones, although the new ones are bulkier. I got a shot of these guys vs. some of the new Primaris. Nice to know primaris marines aren't the biggest troops in the game
Really fun shot! I love the retro sci-fi look of these Warriors. It’s amazing just how much detail they have, especially considering that they were hand-sculpted all those years ago. Once again, really superb paint jobs. It will be fun to see what other battles they get into, and what other additions you might make! Perhaps you can find an old-skool metal Tyrant/Flyrant, or some Gargoyles?
Amazing work. You really have put the hard graft in and its paid off mightily! Nothing but love for this project and huge respect for a job seriously well done.
It's been a while since I've done any painting on my Nids (although I've done a great deal of collecting/playing), and it's time to get some brushwork done. In playing the "Warrior Horde" and tooling around with it, it's been clear that I could use some more anti-vehicle capability. A popular unit for this is the Hive Guard, but looking at the stats of the Impaler Cannon, and comparing them to the stats of the Venom Cannon, they're virtually identical. So, the initial anti-tank solution for my particular collection was pretty obvious. I found a bits re-seller on ebay and ordered 18 Venom Cannons. I mounted them low for a believable center of gravity, and then gave the models boneswords because A: It looks better than putting the old claws up there, and B: The Boneswords have come in really handy vs. stuff like Custodes with their 2+ armor save. I invested in some Hive Guard too, as they're some of the cooler Tyranid models imo. Those are in line to paint right after the Warriors.
Amusingly, the ready-made army is super easy to make in 1000 point blocks.
I've never actually seen old school Nids in the flesh, with the exception of a few carnifex! Gorgeous army and I'm amazed you had the motivation to paint so many of the same model in one sitting.
It's giving me an urge to dig out my Tyranids again, I started in 5th edition with them when they had the 4th edition codex and shelved them halfway through 6th.
How do the warrior broods perform? With so many multidamage weapons are they sticky enough to be worth their points?
@Cosmic: Yeah, those are 1st edition metal Genestealers. I've got them built up now and they're awesome. They're a little more bloated and gross looking than the new ones, which are more sleek. I have the metals and a bunch of the old Space Hulk plastics. I think those will be the next big batch of things I do.
@Tyranid Horde & Boss Savage: The "Tyranid Warrior Phalanx" has been my "fun" army, and has had mixed, but generally positive results. I've been running them as Jormungandr, which gives them a 3+ save, which helps a bit. I'll try to summarize my experience below:
Spoiler:
The first versions of the list had seven squads of nine, either mixing boneswords in or running pure Deathspitters, plus two primes and three Neurothropes.
As luck would have it, I wound up fighting a Guilliman-Priamris army a bunch of times. These wound up being roman-style blocks of buffed infantry slamming into one another, with the Nids coming out on top something like 4 out of 5 times. 180 odd Deathspitter Shots and a bunch of Smites tended to out-damage Hellblasters, Intercessors etc. is a stand-up fight, and towards the end Guilliman would get Smited down amid the corpses of both armies by the Neurothropes. But often the takeaway was that killing Repulsors with Deathspitters was an uphill battle.
They fought a Guard list that involved a "somethinghammer" Superheavy tank with a gun that did a flat 3 damage, and that thing tore the Warriors up pretty good. The Warriors and Neurothropes eventually killed the superheavy, and carved out the middle of the table something fierce, but couldn't withstand the additional Leman Russ tanks pounding them form the distant flanks. Amusingly, I wound up winning that game as it ended on turn 5 with my only remaining model, a Neurothrope, passing a bunch of saves like a champ and floating away with the Relic. Hah.
They fought another Tyranid list, (Kronos, I think) and got killed. It was an Open War game and my first takeaway was that I divided my reserves poorly and suffered for it. The second takeaway was that, again, my lack of anti-tank firepower was really hurting me, as it took far too long to kill a Tyrannofex that was spraying acid on my Warriors for a few turns. That was an ugly battle.
I fought a 3K game vs. Custodes and my army included a ton of Termagants in the additional 1K. The 2+ armor for the Custodes turned into a real tough nut to crack with just Deathspitters, Devourers and Fleshborers. I also played kinda poorly in that game (and heroically failed a crucial Genestealer charge). But again, it was the lack of heavier firepower that hurt. However, in that game the importance of Boneswords becaome more apparent. That -2 AP really began to prove itself against the 2+ saves. Lost that game, and it was clear that it was time to adjust things.
- - - - Warrior Phalanx v2 - - - - -
The following games are after reducing model count for Venom Cannons.
First game was against Custodes. The Venom Cannons helped bring down harder targets, and the range helped immensely for focusing fire on specific targets. Again, the Boneswords really helped too, and multiple squads teaming up on Shield Captains did good work. Win.
Next Game was against Custodes and Space Wolves. Big 3K game where I brought nothing but models with 3+ wounds, for kicks. Additional points were filled with more Warriors armed only with Boneswords (because they were painted), Hive Guard, Raveners, and two additional Neurothropes for a total of 4. I feel like the Venom Cannon output was rolling poorly, but despite heavy losses, I managed to swing to one side and kite much of the opposing army while keeping my damage output high. Win.
The latest match was against the dreaded "loyal 32" Guardsmen, Custodes and a Castellan Knight. This game was weird again, because we used the Open War cards. We literally deployed right next to each other, and I got first turn, giving me a huge advantage. I won out after a massive, messy scrum in the center, eventually killing all the Custodes and Guard, and running away from the Knight who was about half-damaged. I'd say I only won because I played some close combat tricks to minimize the damage the Knight could do by locking my squads in combat, if my opponent had gotten first turn I don't think I would have stood a chance,
- - - -
Most of the games with the Nids have been on the casual side, and overall the army lacks sophistication. It's like piloting a battleship for the most part, as it just winds up being a huge slow-moving blob. That said, it takes damage like a champ, and deals it out pretty nicely too. D3 damage and 2 damage weapons hurt, but that 3rd wound on the Warriors slows them down quite a bit. They murder screens like nobody's business, in that game against the Guard I think I had one round where I decided to take out Guardsmen from the center of the table and I want to say I killed 60ish of them with shooting at 24" range. The fact that each Warrior has 3 attacks in CC, and the Boneswords get 4 with a -2 AP, is pretty awesome. I don't feel like I've been leveraging that very well until the last few games. Zero maneuverability though. It's a fun concept of an army but it's a bit monotonous. Overall it's a skew list that will do well if the enemy doesn't have a good answer to the 3W Warrior. But some weapons will really wreck them, and because the army lacks mobility, it can be very vulnerable. There are some major lists that I haven't tried it against either, so there are big holes in my experience here.
However, what the list lacks in sophistication, it makes up for by looking villainous. I also feel like I'm just not particularly good with Tyranids yet, I don't feel fluid with the Stratagems or like I'm using their movement/placement to the fullest.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/11/07 05:42:52
Insectum7 wrote: However, what the list lacks in sophistication, it makes up for by looking villainous.
Thanks for the recaps, and I have to say the horde has done better than I expected I do wonder what you've got when up against Eldar, with their speed + guns, but like you say 3 wounds is weirdly strong, as there really aren't many damage 3 guns that I know of, and random damage is pretty likely to get stuck in the first dude's body, especially the D3 variety.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/11/07 15:05:48
Love this army! Was inspiring to see this plog when I got back into 8th edition, helped me revive my own Nids army that also include a lot of old models from back in the day, and also made me purchase more Warriors (but thanks to you they are a bit more rare nowadays it seems ).
I still managed to get a very sweet lot for very cheap, but had to do some work to replace the missing parts (mostly swords and chest piece that I made mold off)!
Hope to see more of it soon!
Fantasy armies - Retired (Tomb Kings, Vampires, Empire, Chaos Warriors/Daemons, Dark Elves)
Tyranids army - Ever evolving, but about 10k pts
Custodes - 3,500pts (Fully painted yay!)
Thousand Sons - 4,000 pts
Eldar - 3,000pts
2018/12/14 08:54:40
Subject: Tyranids! Weird Warriors from Outer Spaaace!
Great to read the reports and to see you loving the army on and off the battlefield. That's the sort of attitude that really endears this hobby to me.
Those warriors definitely look intimidating on the table - they tower over the Primaris! The venom cannons are a surprisingly clean fit - excited to see the Hive Guard - and whatever the monster in the blister is!
t z you are k
2019/08/21 05:20:57
Subject: Tyranids! Weird Warriors from Outer Spaaace!
Oh. Mah. Gawd. It's been a while since I've posted an update here. Thanks for all the comments!
But that's not for a lack of painting and playing. (Taking pictures, then processing and uploading images is just weirdly time consuming.)
So I've been adding to the army to give me some more flexibility on the tactical front, and so far this is what I have painted up.
I think this one was a 3000 pointer and might be the first game I had the Hive Guard alongside the Venom Cannon Warriors as well. The Venom Cannons are doing great work for me on the table, as they're essentially the same class of weapon as a Hive Guard, just embedded in the Warrior units themselves. Is it ideal? I dunno, but it does a pretty good job of solving some of the anti-tank issues I was having when I first took the army out.
Spoiler:
Continuing the army. . . Space Marines (which are my primary army) are getting so much flak about being OP and spoiled for choice right now, that I'm really happy I have an "underdog" Tyranid army available to me. (It's so much more fun to win with an army that's percieved as the underdog . So I've been more inspired to do Nids rather than SM for a bit. To help with making my collection more competitive/flexible, I've got some other things on the way which will help me complete a Tyranid Brigade. I've got some Ripper Swarms and a collection of Lictors (somehow I wound up with 4 Lictors plus a Deathleaper), this along with the new Raveners and Biovores will make it easy for me to build a Brigade + Battalion. There's a case to be made that I should get the Psychic Awakening book with the new Tyranid updates, too, but it's likely that for any game in the near future will be just among friends and I won't need to be on the bleeding edge of competitive builds. Besides, everyone else would expect me to have Genestealers in my lists by now, and that's still a big NOPE! I have lots of the original plastic Genestealers, and I've slowly been re-positioning arms to make them less identical. That's taking a while and slowing me up on that front.
Those warriors definitely look intimidating on the table - they tower over the Primaris!
What's surprising to me is that they feel like they tower over the current Warrior kit. I built a couple out of curiosity and I'm sorta disappointed. It's a cool model and I like the design, I just thought they would have been slightly larger than they are. I'd still like to do a squad of the current kit, but I'm less enthused about it now. (and it's not like I'm lacking in stuff in the painting queue right now.)
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2020/01/18 00:18:24
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