Battlereport: The Empire vs. Tyranids

You read that right. After breifly discussing it, Mike and I disided to try mixing the two more poplular GW systems, and running a 40k vs. Fantasy game. He used a 1750 point Tyrannid list, and I used my tourney list:
LORDS:
Arch Lector, AoMI, War Altar, Hammer of Judgment, Van Horstrum's Speculum: 305
Wizard Lord, Lvl4,Armor of Taurnus , Dispell Scroll: 270
HEROES:
Warrior Priest, Heavy Armor, Shield: 96
Warrior Priest, Heavy Armor, Greatweapon, 98
Captain, BSB, Full Plate, Enchanted Shield, Dragon Bow.113
CORE:
30 Swordsmen, Full Command, 205
30 Halberdiers, Full Command, 170
30 Halberdiers, Full Command, 170
30 Flaggalents, Prophet of Doom: 310
SPECIAL:
2x Cannons: 200
2xMortar:150
Rare:
Helblaster, 110
Steam Tank: 300
His list (approximatively)
Swarmlord
Tyranid Prime w/ 2x bone swords
~accompanied by 5 warriors

20 "Devil"gaunts{with devourers)
20 Termagants
20 Hormagaunts
2x Zoanthropes
1x Tervigon w/ Cluster spines, AG,TS
1x Biovore
1x Trygon
Setu/deployment:
We played on a 6by4 standard table, with a fence dividing it in two parts, and several buildings on my side. Mike deploys first, moving his bug horde as close as possible to my lines. I respond by deploying right on the table edge, with my cannons and mortars in buildings.

His deployment, with a trygon and a pack of genestealers in reserve.

Turn 1 (Tyranids)
The gaunt packs rush forward over the fences, along with the Swarmlord and Warriors. The Tervigon launches its cluster spines into my 30 man Swordsmen unit, killing. In one turn, though the Swordsmen hold. The devilgaunts turn their attention to my Middenheim Halberdiers (the blue ones) and kill 3 with shooting.

Turn 1 (Empire)
Having lost a massive chunk of troops, I begin by attempting to cast Pit of Shades on the Tervigon, and fail casting it by one. Having spent all my spell dice on attempting to cast PoS, I begin my shooting phase by unleashing a fusillade of cannon balls at the Tervigon, causing 3 wounds, and blast a pack of Guants with mortars, killing 6.
Here is how things are looking by the end of turn one:

Turn 2 (Tyranids)
The Tervigon spawns more 6 Gaunts, while another pack of the bugs move forward, near my Steam Tank and Swordsmen, while the genestealers outflank into the side of my lines. My middenhiem Halberdiers come under fire again,and all but the Standard Bearer, Champion and attached Warrior Priest and BSB survive. The genestealers charged into the rear of the Talebecland Halberdiers, scything through them, an causing them to flee, but they do not escape, and are consumed by the genestealers, who consolidate near my War Altar.

Turn 2 (Empire) Taking the initiative, I charge into a pack of gaunts with my * remaining Swordsmen, as well as my Steam Tank. Magic is uneventful, as Pit Of Shades scatters and kills all of one gaunt. I unleash a fusillade of fire from my artillery batteries, blasting apart several gaunts under continued fire from mortars,cannons and my hellblaster, but its not enough. My Steam Tank crushes several Gaunts under its immense bulk, and combined with my few swordsmen, I manage to win the combat with the gaunts, but they do not break, and the fighting continues.


Turn 3 (nids)
The Trygon deep strikes behind my Steam Tank, and the genestealers assault my War Altar, while the Swarmlord engages my Arch Lector in single combat. A pack of Gaunts charge the Middenheim Command group.

and kill the Standard Bearer and Unit Champion, leaving my BSB and Warrior Priest to stem the tide of bugs with their 2+ and 5+ saves, respectively.
The Swarmlord manages to land a hit on my War Altar, causing a wound, while my Arch Lector hits the Swarmlord, but his hammer blow bounces of the beast's carapace. The pack of gaunts attacking my Steam Tank/Swordsmen turn all their attention to the swordsmen, as the T10 +1 Save Tank proves to difficult to kill. The Swordsmen prove a match for the Gaunts and the combat is tied, though both sides take loses.

Turn 3 (Empire)
Magic fails me again, so I switch to shooting. I target the Tervigon with a cannon, and finally bring the huge beats down, while focusing the rest of my shooting on killing gaunts with Mortars. In Combat, my BSB fails a save, and is killed, leaving my Warrior Priest to hold my left flank single handedly.

My Swordsmen fail to hold off the gaunts for long, and almost the whole of them are slain, leaving the Unit Champion to flee the field, and the Steam Tank to endure more blows. I use Van Horstrum's Speculum to swap Stats with the Swamrlord, and my Arch Lector begins to lay down the hurt on the now weakened Swarmlord, while easily ignoring the hits from the swarm of genestealers attacking the War Altar.

Intermission: At this point, the food we ordered earleir arrives, and i deploy my secret weapon: Food. I attempt to lure the nid hordes to the large boxes of chicken lo mien and sesame chicken.

To no avail.


Turn 4 (Tyrnaids)
The tyranid warriors launch a barrage of living bullets into my flagellant horde, killing 18, following after with an assault, and wiping out the remaining flagellants. The Trygon attempts to kill my Stank, but it makes all its saves. My Arch Lector goes first in the Swarmlord/Stealer combat, and kills the Swarmlord, seen here:

And with that we called it, as only my Steam Tank and War Altar remained, along with a few War Machines. This was a pretty odd game. Originally I had though that the cross system balance was fairly good. i was wrong, the sheer fire power available from a 40k army is absurd. Its almost like as was playing against dwarfs.

Dose O' Hobby 12/13/10

The army is coming along much more quickly than I had anticipated, which has freed my up to do some conversion work. First on the list is my Steam Tank, which I have replaced the main gun with an old metal Helblaster Volleygun barrel:


The main body of the Steam Tank was done with a drybrush of Chainmail, the gold/bronze engravings and designs wheredone with a mis of Inca Gold (from FolkArt) and Dwarf Bronze. The shields where painted in various provinces' colors, namely the colors of Altdorf, Nuln, the Ostermark and Talabecland. I filed down the top and bottom parts of the gun barrel to allow it to fit in the slot for the cannon, then used Green Stuff to hold it in place, and covering any places where the Green Stuff was visible with ribbons from the Brettonia Knights of the Realm kit, and painted the wax seals Hawk turquiose. When I finally get the entire army done, he color tieing it all together will be turquise, as the various state troops units are all from different provinces, and have different color schemes, namely the purple and yellow of the Ostermark swordsmen unit, my recently finished unit of Halberdiers, which are painted in red and yellow, the colors of Talabecland, and my another unit of Halberdiers, which are blue and grey, from Middenland., see below:


And finally, I've added a Warrior Priest of Ulric to the army, replacing one of the Sigmarite priests. He still "counts as" a WP of Sigmar, but I felt that he would help explain why a body of troops form the Ulric-worshiping Middenland be in a mainly Sigamrite army. I based him in white, then painted the armor in two layers, first Darf Bronze and then Chainmail. The hair is Sunburst yellow, which was then brushed over with Calthan brown and then brushed over again with Sunburst Yellow, and his skin is Tallarn Flesh. The Fur cloak is white, which was then layered over with Astonomicon Grey, then White again.




*As as side note, every unit in the army has been washed using Miniwax Red Oak wood finish, which I am using to speed up the painting of the army, as it really brings out detail without too much work. Normally I would stick to washing and highlighting, but I have had to use dip on this army just to get it finished in the short amount of time I have.

Empire army fully half done.

The army is coming along nicely, and after some quick changes to the list, adding a few mortars, a cannon, a tank, and I have an army I can manage to paint in time. I have, fully painted and based, 30 Swordsmen, 15 Halberdiers, 30 Flaggelants, my war Altar, the Steam Tank "Sigismund", and two artillery pieces, as well as both Warrior Priests and the Arch Lector. This leaves me with the task of painting: 3 Artillery Pieces, 45 Halberdiers, a wizard and my battle standard bearer. Here is an overview of the amry, cut into several pictures, as, even though it is only at 2500 Points, the model count is absurd.I couldn't get a super clear shot as my camera is still on the fritz, but on the plus side, I got a sandwich. Tasty too.

Dose O' Hobby 11/5/10 (War Altar Conversion)

Only two months till Coastal Assault and I am hitting crunch time to get my army done. With that in mind, I decided to do a time consuming and costly conversion, because painting 100+ models is not anywhere near enough work for. I've based it off of the Screaming Bell kit. Here is a work in progress, I have the thing in three parts so far:



I used a base of Krylon's plastic primer (Brown) on most of the thing, followed by washing the wood in Miniwax wood stain (Red Oak 215). The metal bits are the usual Dwarf Bronze, with the exception of the spiky metal halo around the bell, which is FolkArt Shining Gold. The Arches are based with Astronomicon Grey and the ropes are American Buttermilk. The Griffin is FolkArt Shinning Gold. I'm planning to finish up the first layer of paint on the whole thing, then do highlights an detailing after the tournament. I shaved off all the Skaven iconography by first cutting layers of plastic off, then filing the surface smooth. U cut off some of the spikes, but kept others, the reasons for doing so being A) I didn't want to waste three hours filing off all the spikes, and B) I think it makes sense that there are spikes , to prevent anyone climbing up on the thing (the damn thing has cut me like three times so far, those plastic spikes are really sharp.)

I've also done some modeling on the poor bloody infantry, making my Battle Standard Bearer from bits from the Flaggelant, Outrider, Greatswords, and Zombies kits. Having realized I am basically running a Witch Hunter themed Empire army, the BSB is a crazed preacher, holding up a pole with a strung up heretic (also, he has a gun):


I've green stuff some tatters of what was once a banner, and I plan to paint over it with the phase "Somit gen ketzer", which translates into "Thus unto heretics", apparently, as my German 2 skills have left me and I had to use a translator.

I've also worked on some more unit filler to try and get the most use out of the smallest amount of models. Here we see a Goblin and a Man wrestling in a tree.

This is going into my halberdiers unit.

As for the promised Battle Report, I don't have one. The first play test of my tournament army was against a dedicated Dwarf gunline, using the Battle for the Pass scenario. Suffice it to say I never got across the board.

Dark Eldar and State Troops

I've received the a modest shipment of DE kits to begin my army which I probably won't actually paint or game with for a while, as I am going into maximum overdrive to get my fantasy army done. Here, have a picture:

Taking stock, I have, in my possession, one Kabalite Warrior kit, one Wych Kit, one Raider, a three pack of Reavers, and the metal Archon Blister.

On to Fantasy, here is part one of my Empire troop choices, starting with State Troops:
SPEARMEN: The ubiquitous spearmen. If you want to get fluffy, than these guys are for you. Sadly, they really do not preform in game as well as in the fluff. First, lets look at their statline
M4 WS3 BS3 STR3 T3 W1 I3 A1 LD7
With a modest profile, like most State Troops, they need to be used in numbers to be effective. Their spears allow them to fight in one additional rank, but, with only WS3 S3 T3 I3, they will likely go last in a combat, and will have to be taken in excess of units of 40, for 3 reasons, A: They die in droves B: They will not hit or wound half of the time and C: To take advantage of their extra rank attacks, then you are more or less forced to field them in a horde, a very costly horde, that will have to be very large because, as said before, they die A LOT.

SWORDSMEN: "Dashing figures on the battlefield/Expert blade masters". They share the same stat line as all State Troops with the exception of their weapon skill, which is a 4. Along with their shields, giving them a +5 Armor Save and a +6 Parry save, they are the most durable state troops with the exception of Greatswords. WS4 means that they will hit slightly more often, and the +5 save gives us some insurance against STR4 attacks form Halberds.With STR3 they will still struggle against tougher models, but Swordsmen excel as a defensive block. 30 Swordsmen Five wide and Six deep will hold out a fair while, assuming you have a BSB/General/Priest nearby/in the unit. However, they are one point more expensive, which CAN add up if the unit is too big.

HALBERDIERS:
Arguably the best choice out of the three Core State Troops CC choices, Halberdiers give up the extra fighting potential of Spearrmen or the extra armor of Swordsmen for a +1 to Strenght. Is it worth it, I would say yes. While they do have the rather modest Weapon Skill of 3, a STR4 wound will remove the Armor save form lightly armored troops (Elves, Skaven, Gobos) and weaken the armor of heavy infantry (WoC, Dwarfs), and the STR4 hit will wound fragile models (again, Elves, Skaven, Gobos, and even other State Troops and Brettonians) while making it easier to wound tough fighters (again, Dwarfs, WoC, and Saurus, Orcs, etc). These guys work well in most any number. 15-25 man detachments to lend some punch to Swordsmen and Spearmen or in huge 40-50 man hordes and battlebuses to really hurt your opponent.

FREE COMPANY:
With the same staline of a Spearman/Halberdier and no armor, you may wonder as to why someone would take these guys. The reason? Two attacks. These guys, if they survive to hit back, can unleash a torrent of Str3 attacks. I see them as the poor man's flaggelants.These guys in a horde with a Warrior Priest get 40 hits with re-rolls, and will be cheaper than Swordsmen if fielded in a 30 man throw away horde (this really only fits into larger games however) Augmented with some magic (Flesh to Stone, Mind Razor, Speed of Light, etc) they will cut throw a lot of models.

HANDGUNNERS:
With a respectable BS3, and their hard hitting STR4 AP handguns, the Empire's finest riflemen can pack a punch against both light and heavy infantry. Move or fire combined with a 24" range means that positioning will be important, but if they get a good view of the field they can really hurt your opponent, as well as providing ranged punch to CC units as detachments, and giving the unit marksmen a Long Rifle can put the fear of Sigmar into your opponents Champions and Characters.

CROSSBOWMEN:
Giving up the hitting power of handguns for greater range, crossbowmen excel at massed supporting fire. Multiple units of ten spread throughout the table will be able to rain a hail of bolts on anything in sight.

ARCHERS:
Being Skirmishers, they can;t hold up in CC like Handgunners and Corssbowmen can, but being able to roam the battlefield raining arrows in massed volleys can prove to be useful, and Huntsmen allow for a very annoying, very effective hassling force.

SPECIAL:
GREATSWORDS:
Heavily armed and armored, with Stubborn and Ld8, massed Greatswords form an excellent anvil and when supported by other troops can be a deadly hammer. However, they have a rather poor weapon skill for a "elite" infantry at WS4, and their Great Weapons, while adding a devastating +2 Str, make them ASL, so they can be killed before they get to hit back. However, if supported by detachments of swordsmen or halberdiers, as well as handgunners or maybe archers, Greatswords can cut through the toughest foe.

Dose O' Hobby 11/20/10

With Coastal Assault approaching at breakneck speed I am struggling to get my army fully painted and based. I have set myself to attempt to finish a unit per week, so we shall see how that goes. Here is the first complete unit, a thirty man Swordsman Regiment, "The 8th Mark Wardens", changed from the "8th Mountaineers" who will be my Halberdiers regiment. I am trying to give each unit some character, so the 8th gets to use one of my many unit filler bases, as well as the Unit Champion being made from the Empire General kit.



Also, here is what my list for that tournament is probably going to look like:
LORDS:
Arch Lector, AoMI, War Altar, Hammer of Judgment, Van Horstrum's Speculum: 305
Wizard Lord, Lvl4,Armor of Taurnus , Dispell Scroll: 270

HEROES:
Warrior Priest, Heavy Armor, Shield: 96
Warrior Priest, Heavy Armor, Greatweapon, 98
Captain, BSB, full plate, shield, 85
CORE:
30 Swordsmen, Full Command, 205
Detachment: 15 Halberdiers, 75
Detachment, 6 Handgunners, 48

30 Halberdiers, Full Command, 170
Detachment: 15 Halberdiers, 75
Detachment, 6 Handgunners,48

30 Flaggalents, Prophet of Doom: 310

SPECIAL:
2x Cannons: 200
Mortar:75
30 Greatswords, full command, 330

Rare:
Helblaster, 110

My main concern is that all my lords and heroes are somewhat vulnerable, so I will probably be tweaking this list. I will be posting part-1 of my Empire troops analysis, and expect a battle report on Sunday, with an update on the Road to Korpslieb on Monday.

Rules for fielding Sigmar.

As I am currently in Pennsylvania, I can't update with any modeling or painting goodness, but I have been thinking up some rules for fielding Sigmar. Keep in mind, this guy was basically, at least according to fluff, a demi-god, so here goes:

Sigmar, the first and greatest Emperor, 725 Points
WS:8 BS:7 S:5 T:5 W:5 I:6 A:5 LD:10
Equipment (cannot be changed):
Skull Splitter: Gifted to Sigmar by Kurgan Ironbeard, this master-piece of Dwarf weapon-craft ignores all armor and ward saves, any unsaved wounds become D3 wounds.
Mastercrafted Gromil Armor: Forged by master dwaven armorers, this suit of shinning plate confers a re-rollable +3 save that ignores attack strength for calculating armor saves.
Pendant of Sky-Iron: A rough-cut gem sits in the center of this pendant, gathered from the landing site of a comet, it glows with a magical power which confers a +3 ward save and magic resistance(1)

Special Rules:
God Amongst Men, Daemon amongst all others: Sigmar stands a head taller than the tallest man, and his visage inspires courage in all who behold him, and fear in his enemies. Sigmar and any unit he joins are Immune to Psychology, and are also Stubborn. Sigmar causes Fear in any non-human enemy. with the exception of Dwarfs.

Slay Goblinoids whereever they are found: Sigmar and any unit he joins Hate all greenskins, as well as causing Terror in Greenskins

Pride of a Nation: Sigmar cannot ignore a challange

Glory of the Emperor: Any Empire unit within 18 inches of Sigmar may use his leadership for all leadership tests.

So what do ya'll think?

Empire unit filler, part two, now with %100 poorer lighting.

Here is the second bit of filler that I've done, instead of actually painting my army. the idea I had while making this was "If the Flaggelants will chain themselves to statues, how does the Empire treat prisoners?". in short, I took a 40k Ork Boy, cut him up, and chained him to a ruined plinth from the Arcane Ruins set, then placed two empire soldiers in front, one with a standard another with a horn, and one has a broken sword... anyways, the paint scheme is the same for all my empire, the usual Warlock purple and Sunburst yellow, same deal with the water as well, and the blood. I painted a trail of blood from the top of the plinth and it goes all the way to the murky water and mixes in. I think this piece really captures the inherent brutality of what Warhammer is, a wargame, where we make little plastic men kill each other with little plastic swords.

Empire unit filler, part one

I've found myself in need of Halberdiers, so I'm creating some unit filler for my 40 man Swordsmen horde. Here is the first piece, using a 40mm base, and pieces from the Flaggelant and Empire Chapel kits, and GaleForce 9 grass. I'm tempted to make this count as a musician and standard, as the enoous statue and screaming fanatic are pretty easy to spot, especially since the flaggelant isattached to the statue by a chain and is dragging it with him. I think I will name him William Phips (cookie for reference). Tell me what ya'll think please:




Here is how I went about painting it:
first, William Phip, who was painted looooooong ago, I think in June or August. Walmart quality Black, dark Blue, and white for his clothes. The mud is calthan brown with Ultramarine Blue and the blood is Scab Red layered (a bit heavily ) with Mechrite Red. The water is based in Calthan Brown, then Ultrmarine Blue, followed by Hawk Turquoise, and the white water effect is Hawk Turquoise mixed with simple white paint. As with the blood, after the paint dried, I applied a thin coat of Krazy Glue for a shiny-wet effect. The Statue is FolkArt Inca Gold, then Dwarf Bronze, with Hawk Turquoise highlights. If you focus, one of the statue's faces is crying tears of blood. Angsty I know, but i thought it looked cool.

First half of Empire Swordsmen-done

I have manged to finish re-painting and basing a solid twenty Swordsmen for coastal assault. The have been painted using a black basecoat followed by Warlock Purple for the purple areas, a white basecoat and then Sunburst Yellow for the yellow bits, various mixes of Tallarn Flesh and Dwarf Flesh for the skin, Hawk Turquoise for the feathers Stirling Silver for the iron.steel and Dwarf Bronze for any copper or bronze areas. The basing was done with wood glue, Galeforce Nine Static Grass (green) and Calthan Brown. Once I have finished painting the entire army, I will begin doing highlits and touch ups, but here they are in their base 3 colors of purple, yellow and silver, the first half of the Ostermark 8th Mountaineers:

Them Army vote off, modeling fun with skeletons, Battlefoam case review and new Death's Kingdom miniature

Howdy readers, I've got some interesting things to share today, first, I've narrowed down my choices on creating a themed army to two, namely, 2500 Points of Witch Hunter Empire or 2500 Points of Frankenstein-inspired Vampire Counts. Work would begin in roughly a month'd time, so which ever is more favored by you, the reader, will be chosen. just post a comment telling me which I should do or chastising me on poor section of armies, the later of which will be promptly ignored.

Secondly, I'm in the final haul to finish up all I will need for my table top exxxxxxxxxttttrrrrraaavaganza next week. All that is left to model and hopfully paint are roughly twelve Skeletons, here are six I have built today, using a mix of Zombie and Skeleton Warrior bits:


I wanted to give these guys a "rising from the grave look". Once I base them with some brownish "freshly turned" soil.

I wanted to make these skellies like like they where put together and revived with what was on hand, namely both bones and corpses, so they still have some fleshy bits on them. I'll likely have these guys finished, along with the rest of the skellies, in about two weeks, maybe a bit more.

I received my PACK 432 Battlefoam bag a few weeks ago, but I figured I should post some pictures and talk about how great it is. The bag holds about 7 and 1/2 inches of foam (in terms of thickness), along with several pockets that can hold various things (dice, rulers, templates, super glue, hammers), and the bag is re-enforced with hard plastic plates so I won't crumple. My only complaint is that the there is no way to secure your foam with the exception of filling up the entire bag, but that isn't really an issue with the bag in itself.
Here, have some pictures:





And last, and the most horrifiying, is this (NSFW) thing. It is a masterclass in "what not to ever sculpt", but I suppose that the more perverse of you Chaos army players may find use for it.

New stuff abounds!

I've finished the main quest of Fable 3, and come bearing gifts of pictures! I've received the new Citadel Painting Station and the Citadel Cutting Mat, which has cleaned up my desk to no end. Here's a picture:

I've managed to fit most of my paints and brushes on it. Anyway, I've managed to finish up a Warrior Priest and five more State Troops. The Warrior Priest looks good enough form far away, but I really should have thinned my paints:



The Skin is Tallarn Flesh, then a mix of 1:1 Dwarf Flesh and Talarn Flesh. The stubble I made by mixing Astronomicon Grey with water, till it had an almost milky consistency, and then applied it in layers. The metal is the same metalic paint I always use, brushed with Leviathan Purple. The Robe/Cape is made of multiple layers of Scab Red (my favorite color). The Hammer's head is a mix of Dwarf Bronze and Walmart Metal, then washed with watered down Hawk Turquoise. The cover of the book is Graveyard Earth, and metal details are Dwarf Bronze. The pelt on his back is Astronomicon Grey highlighted with white.

Derpo Complete, Undead, and Coastal Assault Empire

I've finished up Derpo, seen below, and the paints I used, in this order are:
Basecoat Tallarn Flesh, followed by Dwarf Flesh, then Devlan Mud. Highlights on the scars with full Dwarf Flesh. Hair and beard where FolkArt Pure Orange. The Axes where Graveyard Earth hafts, Dwarf Bronze for the metal, and now for the blood. I started with Scab Red, then applied Blood Red, then a wash of Baal Red.

And here is the first Undead I've done for Castle Grewyn. I used Skull White, then washed Devlan Mud over it for the bones, FolkArt Silver Stirling for all the metals, then washed them with Badab Black. The Robes are Scab Red. Taking a tip from White Dwarf number 369, I used Hawk Turquoise to make the skeleton look like he is filled with an arcane light. Also, the shield is Graveyard Earth with Badab Black in the crevasses, with a Scab Red symbols on it.

And here is the basic color scheme for my Empire army, basically Warlock Purple and Sunburst Yellow, more detailing when I've based the entire Coastal Assault force.