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Love those stormtroopers! Where you get the heads from?

They're converted Valkyrie door gunners, further back in this thread somewhere is the WiP shots showing the construction. Check it out if you fancy.

Really glad you like them there's a Valkyrie and some Karskin in the same scheme to accompany my Inquisitor.

EDIT: Found it check the bottom of P16 for the builds should you wish to.

On with the BatRep!!++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And he failed to seize the initiative..

Turns 1 & 2--------------------------



My turn was pretty uneventful, and didn't warrant any photos. I put some fire into the sea of Gaunts nabbing a few with bolts and thunderfire shells the Devs managed a couple of wounds on flying baddies. The Nids surged forwards a mass of bodies. The Zoanys put some ZZaap down on my Sterns (apparently the Cat didn't block LoS, true line of sight says otherwise...) and they were forced to go to ground, the other tried the same trick on Tack 2 (las/Plas and got a couple).



The Flyrant swooped in and demo'd his new BS4 by killing all but 2 of Tack 2 (everyone hates them apparently). Ow.



My turn 2 started with the Termies teleporting into my own backfield as there were too many big bugs close to his 'rear'. I popped my Dev Doctrine as I wanted to shoot up his dangerous flyers and I fully expected to get charged a lot next turn.



There next followed a string of ones when I only really had this shooting phase before I was up to my Lyman's Ear in bugs....



Many TMCs were hit by rubber bullets..



Not funny anymore guys...The Devs compounded their failure in the Tau game by being really useless...GNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNnnnnnnnnnnnnn



The Thunderfire single handedly got me back into the game by blowing a massive hole in the Garg swarm killing around 10.



Still some cagey short range rerollable volleys from the Tacks and Termies scored a few hits, wounds and failed grounding tests on the lead flyers...but pathetic damage considering how much flack was thrown....



Nids turn 2 began with the Stealers outflanking perfectly to threaten Dev 1 on the edge of the table, I'd be hard pressed to gain LoS with another unit to help them out..a flurry of assaults began..



The Tyrranofex again failed to kill a Rhino whilst the Hormies pelted into charge range of the pinned Sterns, as they were pinned he wouldn't have to roll 3 dice as charging cover, as we all know, charging through cover is basically impossible.



However the Sterns were rerolling overwatch and they don't just hand out those white helmets (I really need to paint this unit). In a blaze of hellfire rounds they gunned down 5 on the way in. Striking first in combat they killed a futher 5, not bad for the 6 survivors. The gaunts swarmed over them and killed 2 of the mighty heroes. A vibration in the ground warned them that these small beasts were merely a distraction from a larger threat that was approaching..



The Gargs also charged in taking 2 losses from overwatch (thanks Dev Doctrine!) and locked the Tack 1 in combat.





The Flyrant swooped right up to Tack 3 expecting to hose them all to death in a torrent of brain leech worms as he had with Tack 2. These guys had clearly seen the results of the Dakka and ducked suffering only 2 casualties.



As the beast charged it was met by a hail of overwatch, whilst it laughed off the bolter hits it suffered a wound and was concussed by a (re rolled) hit from the Grav Pistol (it was striking last anyway), the Marines failed to wound it in CC however. The leader beast was clearly groggy however and it only managed to decapitate 1 marine.

That's all for now, stay tuned folks!!

At this juncture I'd like to point out that this second turn was probably my most effective shooting phase that I've ever had with nids and against marines no less.
Combine that with the fact that my saving throws had been well above average and that Randy's marines had been having some serious calibration issues (the tech marine had obviously prioritized and spent the last few months avoiding the missus at the end of the garden, in his shed reading 'art' magazines, smoking fags and supercharging his tfc) and things were looking good.
I was happy to have some models in combat at this stage too and some guaranteed charges for next turn.
With no victory points on the board at this stage and a few heavily depleted units skulking about, first blood was still up for grabs. I just needed to keep the pressure on and surely the imperial outpost of Balzac II would fall to the hive mind.

Sorry I've not contributed much til now, I've been flat out.
Thanks for putting in the effort doing this Randy, it's another great read, can't wait for more.

Sounds like the dice are having fun at your expense. Not much for that.

Fun read so far.

Rad hope you enjoy it all, I hope to finish/do most of it tonight. In other news I finished off my new Devs (seen unfinished in his report) yesterday (will do pics soon) so that's pretty cool and I started cleaning the parts for a Cassius conversion.

TTFN

Where's the report? I know your type, you'll probably try and feed us some kind of cock and balls story about Dakka being offline last night.
Shame.

I'd love to feed you my cock and balls but I can connect on my mobile but not the lappy, not sure why. Will try to sort it.

Then do it on your mobile. Quit shirking, we'll have no more excuses, it shouldn't take you much longer on the mobile anyway.
:SwishCrack:

Probably best head to Nuts and Bolts if you cant get it working.
My PC's fine so it's unlikely to have anything to do with seagulls or cider if that narrows it down a bit.
I'm pretty sure that that's how the internet works in Bristol, right?

That's how it works everywhere right?

Turn 3



On the right units moved into better firing positions, the Rhino was used to block the Exocrine's LoS, not used to that volume of AP2 shooting from the nids. The Captain and bodyguard debussed and prepared to assault the Flyrant next turn.



Continuing it's mission to keep me in the game by itself, the Thunderfire targeted the central unit of 20 Hormies and after a flurry of hits blew 17 of them back to biomass....owww



The Hive Crone had flown into my Delpoyment zone after ineffectually Vector Striking some Tacks and firing tentaclids at Rhinos, Dev 1 fired at it, selflessly ignoring the Stealers just below them, but to no avail. The Termies managed to blow it out of the Sky with AC fire claiming first blood.



The Assault Marines to the right in this pic, could only manage to get to see 1 Stealer and decided flamer it catching another 4 in the conflagration but leaving them of of LoS for a charge..the Devs would be fending for themselves.




The other unit of Devs spied a big unit of Hormies on the right flank and put down some covering fire for the 2 survivors of Tack 2...and managed to gun down 10 with Frag missiles and Signum'd Heavy Bolter fire..



Tack 1 punched out a few more Gargs who tried 'Blinding Venom' with no luck..reducing the unit to 2



The mighty Sternguard stabbed their Hormies down to 4 critters who were then broken and run down as they were out of Synapse..



The Flyrant slew a few Tacticals who scored 2 wounds but the beast managed to save both and continued the fight on 1 wound...




Automatically Appended Next Post:


State of the battle, the Marines are holding on after weathering the small critters, but here come the big bugs....



Alex's new toy, freshly painted was looking for tasty treats and spied the Sterns.."You'll never make that charge, charging cover is impossible and you're miles away, you'd need to roll like 3 6s or something"...



Bam...the horrible monster takes a wound from hellfire overwatch and then kills 2 of the superhero veterans, there's a dull thunking noise as I remember marines have 'Krak' grenades and the survivors claim a wound with one.



On the right the Hormies recently hit by the Devs charge the last 2 of Tack 2 and kill one, the Vet Sarge fights on..



A Zoanthrope drifts into range and blows up the Rhino annoyingly leaving my command squad in LoS of the Exocrine who proceeds to kill 2. feel no pain or no.



The Flyrant finds his groove and slays 3 of the SM, whose 2 remainders pull kraks to attack the leaderbeast but fail to claim it's last wound again...



The last Rhino, skulking in a corner, is trashed by the Tyrranofex who finally hits something.



The outflanking Stealers pounce on the Devs who manage to kill 3 with overwatch and striking first, the Stealers also kill 3.



Happy now, I'll try and finish it tonight.....



I didn't say stop whipping though..

My arm is getting tired now. Now go and think about what you've made me do.

There's a couple of points of interest here regarding the newer beasties.
Firstly Exocrines are nasty against marines.
Secondly Tyrannofexes are OK half of the time against rhinos.
Thirdly Crone did nothing other than draw fire, didn't hit once with anything but i'm sure he could get his points back or give nids a good chance at grabbing first blood on a different day.
I'll continue to use one for a while.
Fourthly Haruspexi are fantastic at getting into combat if you can roll a triple six consistently.
They are awful in combat and may well be my new Pyrovore.

Worth a read......
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cock%20and%20bull%20story.html
I'd assumed it was more about farmers/breeders bragging about their stock, possibly not.

And Dakka flyrants are even nastier. I also noticed exocrines get +1 to hit if they stay still which is pretty good. We should get better on when you can use psi powers too as you may have been missing opportunities there.

I love all those stories about where phrases/nursery rhymes etc come from.

 RandyMcStab wrote:
We should get better on when you can use psi powers too as you may have been missing opportunities there.

That's all very technical sounding, I suppose you're talking about those 'book rules' that I keep hearing about.
Not sure it's for me but I'll try anything once or twice.

Thems the ones. I think with that codex you need all the help you can get.

Had a lot of connection problems last night, some 502s, so aim to finish the rep tonight.





Automatically Appended Next Post:
Turn 4



My turn began with the Termies moving to support the embattled Vet Sarg, the only survivor of Tack 2 (so worth a KP)..



The massive veterans smashed into the tiny gribblies but not before they slew the last survivor..but as they are all slow n stuff they had no chance of a sweep, so the critters fled back towards their lines..



The Assault marines with the aid of the 'Assault Doctrine' charged the Hentaifex and caused a wound with HoW as well as another with a well placed Krak, the Sterns failed to take the monster's last and so were eaten gaining it a KP and, we remembered, a a wound.



The Sarge of the Assaults did the honours and powerfisted the beast out of it's misery however.



The Tervigon had only spawned for the first time last turn, worried about giving away free KPs, the 10 Gants managed to kill a Tack from squad one who then called in the Thunderfire, true to form the cannon slew the entire unit of 10...



At the tensest point of the battle the Captain had to make a short charge through cover which he magically passed, tossing his stormbolter to a bodyguard he readied his mighty relic blade, the alien beast recognised another leader and backed off throwing a marines head still in it's helmet at the Captains feet. Captain Ivor (Biggun) accepted the challenge and the 2 flew at each other with pure hatred (not the rule) fueling every stroke...We both had the same initiative and the Nid monstrosity plunged two talons through the mighty captain's midriff, Ivor laughed "Ha that's only my 4th and 8th kidneys you've damaged, take this!" His vorpal blade went snicker snack and claimed the Tyrant's last wound.



The fight had been close, the marine had only hit and wounded once but the Tyrant had no Invun, the monster hit and wounded twice and I failed both Invuns like a boss. We discussed whether it would be better to 'Smash!!' in future as only one of his two attacks would have needed to get through. The heavily wounded captain consolidated towards the Tervigon and the 2 survivors of Tack 3 fell back to try and conserve their KP.



The last Stealers finished off the Devastator marines and consolidated well out of sight to preserve their KP..



The Nid turn began by the Stealers getting under a underhang to try and stay safe from the turbocharged thunderfire..



The Warriors (remember them?) finally made it into range to score no kills on Tack 1, some skulking hormies can just be seen behind them, trying not to give away their KP. The Tyrronofex failed to make an impression on the game again.



The other hormies, less circumspect than their brethren threw themselves at the last 2 Tacks from squad 3..



The marines stood their ground and killed 3 for no loss..



RAWRG, the Tervigon assaulted the Captains posse and slew 2 of his guard suffering a wound or two in return..

Here we decided to end it as time was advancing and the battle was pretty much played out..





It ended in a Marine Victory which was a surprise to me as I felt on the back foot for most of that game. The new Nids did have some new tricks, lots of Psi powers did fly about but I made something like 3 out of 5 DtW rolls, I think Alex may have forgotten the odd spell in the heat of battle too. The Exocrine was good, sniping guys here and there and definitely made me move more cagily. The Hentaifex was a bit meh but we forgot the gets a wound back from a kill thing (only one a turn though I think) and I'm not sure now that we did the 'gets a new attack per wound' thing in the second round of combat.

I expect 2 FlyDakkarants, 2 Exocrines, maybe a few Dakkafexes and dropping the Tyrranofex and Hentaifex would improve this list a lot, I also think arming the Warrioirs with whatever Stranglers and Venoms you can fit in there would help them actually hurt something (though they are providing a valuable Synapse backstop), and I look forward to some more battles soon, I'd like to get some of my new stuff built so I can drive it about making BRRRRRrr Bbrrrrrrrr noises in a few games before they get painted.

Hope you liked the battle it was a lot of fun.

Keep watching the skies..

Nice one mate. Great read as always.

I'm not sure about adding too many more mcs to the list. I understand that they'd be a bit more survivable but then what would you have to target with that fracking thunderfire cannon?
I don't really want to run pure nidzilla but the list could certainly use a few small tweaks.
Overall I'm fairly happy with how the new book works, I've just got to get my head round a few bits.

Can't wait to see your new bits as they come out of the manufactorum and it'll be great to give them another scrap when we next get a chance.

Nah I don't think you should do pure Nidzilla, I liked the carpet of little beasts (the Thunderfire can't roll that many hits that often) and a balanced approach seems much better. But I do think some of the newer MCs seem to work for their points a bit more (Dakkaflyrants, Exocrines) the Tyrranofex has probably accounted for 3 Vehicles in all the games we've played added together which is somewhat underwhelming (though they are much cheaper now).

Not tempted by Venomthropes?

I'll show some pics of the Cassius I'm doing slowly soon, see what you think.

Tfexes are pretty lame with the rupture cannon but I kinda like the aesthetic and theme of large gun beasts.

I've thought about venomthropes but they take up a valuable elites slot and I've got tonnes of decent terrain that blocks los anyway.
I'd consider using them with a walking tyrant for a bit of additonal survivability.

Looking forward to seeing Cassius as he progresses, the official model is really weird so whatever you do is bound to be an improvement.

Yeah I hate the original, it's terrible. I'm basing mine on the new cool looking art from the codex..



Rather than this...

I do agree with the Cassius model showing it's age. A kitbash should do some justice and look really well.

Just did my own chaplain on my PM blog. Came out really good imho.

 deadmeat85 wrote:
I do agree with the Cassius model showing it's age. A kitbash should do some justice and look really well..

Yeah, with all of the new kits out some of the older models just don't stand up well at all. Case in point: Ragnar Blackmane.
Kit bashing really is the way to go.

Yeah Ragnar is a nice old Jes sculpt but things have moved on since 92 or whenever. The cassius model has always just been ugly. Tigurius isn't really better either.

I'll try to upload some new pics tonight.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So here's the beginnings of my Cassius, the components anyway..



Found a guy on eBay selling bits from the new FW kits, snagged this (and indeed all my FW for this conversion) body, I think it's from the 'Destructors' or something, the boxy bits on the legs are holsters (that a BP could actually fit into)..



I got these Mk III shoulder pads as well, I've subsequently gone off these for this model..



Arms from various FW kits, one the wield the Crozius and the other the combi bolter..



Banner arm from the Command Squad sprue ordered off Bits and Kits, chopped at the wrist and with a trimmed shaft (oh er) it'll make a workable crozius.



Casting around for a fancy bolter I found this one from the Black Reach set, I trimmed off the arm holding it and added a handflamer I've had lying around since 2nd Ed. This is just the basic stage, much more to do..



I got a set of these from Zinge Industires, 'Wrapped Wire' in a variety of sizes, though now I think only the dinkiest will be any use for this project..



Standard backpack, I've drilled it and added a bit of plastic rod, the crest is off Marneus' banner pole, I'll add the laurels with GS, the blue tack is for planning..



The head is the alternate head for the new plastic Chaplin, I bits ordered it off eBay, I wanted a slightly unusual head with lots of bionics. These are the shoulder pads I'm going with, they're just the Techmarine ones off the vehicle accessory sprue, the others seemed too bulky..



Too bulky I think..



Bulky enough...I want him to look big and chunky as he's T6..

See what you think, it's very early in this build, there's more to follow..

 RandyMcStab wrote:




Bulky enough...I want him to look big and chunky as he's T6..

See what you think, it's very early in this build, there's more to follow..

It's looking really good. The armour all lines up nicely.

I think the flamer looks too unwieldy under there myself. Perhaps something a bit slimmer?

 RandyMcStab wrote:



Standard backpack, I've drilled it and added a bit of plastic rod, the crest is off Marneus' banner pole, I'll add the laurels with GS, the blue tack is for planning..

Is that 'The Scream' by Edvard Munch, lovingly sculpted into Blu-Tac?

MGS's facetious comment aside I love how you've sculped a 'Take me to your dealer' alien on the backpack.
It's got just the right blend of 'Vietnam', 'Dazed and Confused' and '14 yr Old Boy's Bedroom'
It's this kind of attention to detail that makes you a real pro. I mean come on, you won't even be able to see that extra detail when it's attached.
Very post modern.

Glad you like it, as to bulky combi weapons have you seen the new combi flamer? I deliberately set out ti mount the combi element as a 203 style add on, I don't see why the bolter element suddenly needs less room on the GW ones, it's daft.

Here's the rest of the shots for 'Infernus' (the combi weapon).



I added the fuel tank to the other side of the shooter after removing it from behind the hand flamers nozzle.



I waited for the first lot of GS to set and then added some detail to this side..



The other side had detail added too, I made a tube from the nice Zinge cable leading from the tank to the business end and little clamps holding the tank in place.



Here it is attached to the shooty arm, I made a bit of the bolter grip extending below the fist..



Pew Pew Pew

I really like this as a weapon, it's not OP and it's very characterful. It's a MC bolter which loaded with Hellfire shells exclusively (Poisoned 2+) and (obviously) a combi flamer meaning he's got utility against big and little bugs.

As to the other point, yes, Cassius is an Edvard Munch fan, he particularly likes the crushing sense of loneliness, isolation and despair it evokes. But then he always was a big softy.

Hope you like it all..


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Alex Kolodotschko wrote:
MGS's facetious comment aside I love how you've sculped a 'Take me to your dealer' alien on the backpack.
It's got just the right blend of 'Vietnam', 'Dazed and Confused' and 14 yr old boy's bedroom

I'll sculpt a fatty boom batty on.....

Sweet. It's about time your army got some character.
Just a thought, have you ever tried 'grey stuff'.
I may be able to dig some out, not sure of I've got any left from the shop.
It just sprang to mind looking at the bits of that bolter you've sculpted. If I'm being hyper-critical it looks a little soft, although it's obviously far smaller than the pics irl.
Apparently it's a bit easier to sand and get sharper edges from without tearing.
I've only ever used it for gap filling and crap like that but it could be worth a shot?

Man, I am loving that yellow and brown 'nid color scheme! Great work on the marine conversions. Modeler after my own heart!

The battle report was.fun to read, and.I like seeing the new models! The combi flamed is really cool.

Alex Kolodotschko wrote:Sweet. It's about time your army got some character.
Just a thought, have you ever tried 'grey stuff'.
I may be able to dig some out, not sure of I've got any left from the shop.
It just sprang to mind looking at the bits of that bolter you've sculpted. If I'm being hyper-critical it looks a little soft, although it's obviously far smaller than the pics irl.
Apparently it's a bit easier to sand and get sharper edges from without tearing.
I've only ever used it for gap filling and crap like that but it could be worth a shot?

I've never had a go with it no, I'm not sure you could sand any of these surfaces as they're so dinky but I assume it's a bit stiffer (oh er again readers)? I'd be happy to give it a whirl if you've some lying around for sure.

Warboss_Waaazag wrote:Man, I am loving that yellow and brown 'nid color scheme! Great work on the marine conversions. Modeler after my own heart!

Check Alex's blog/showcase there's bleeding faaasands of em.

Alex's Hive Fleet Clicky

Glad you liked the modelling managed a bit more today, might get to post it later.

Sageheart wrote:The battle report was.fun to read, and.I like seeing the new models! The combi flamed is really cool.

Glad you liked the report, it was a fun one, first go with our new books vs each other. Glad you liked the Combi bolter, it was a fun build.

Just had a dig down in the dungeoun, nothing but Goose Dragons left really.
I'll probably get some at some at somepoint and you can have a go as I quite enjoyed my experience with it.
It's not so much that it's sandable but more that you can make up smaller individual shapes that will stay sharp, hard and stiff (oo'er) then glue them together laterer.
Hard to explain but yeah.

Thanks for the plug, the flamegun looks pretty.