During my Warhammer 40k career, I have never really moved out of my comfort zone all too much.  I started with the Orks and that was a solid choice for me.  It gave me the great close combat I needed, and a huge horde army that allowed me to lose guys in mass and keep on ticking.

All of this was in high school though, and my thoughts on tactics were nothing more than “If I have more guys, I will win”.  As I have gotten older and moved into 4th and 5th editions of Warhammer 40k, I have most certainly changed my strategic output quite a bit and am now open to different approaches.  I tried to go with Chaos Space Marines when I came back and it just didn’t really resonate with me, so I immediately started to buy up my Orks and Tyranids like I had wanted to.  The main purpose and reason for why I wanted to try out the Space Marines, was because it was completely unlike anything I had tried before.  I wasn’t ready to play an army with so few models, nor did Chaos ultimately spark my desire to have a fluffy army.

That is all about to change on August 21, 2010 at Games Day.  There, I will be picking up my new Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought from Forge World.

The confidence and experience that I gained while playing in Paul’s Basement League have really helped me think about how to play different armies and play something that is not necessarily immediately in my comfort zone.  So with this new found ability to think outside of “I need to outnumber my opponent” and my desire to have a very fluffy idea for an army, I am going to compiling a Space Wolves force.

The biggest thing that attracted me to the Space Wolves was the new found ability that they have to field an all Terminator army, or WolfWing as people have been deeming it.  The idea of going from two horde armies, to an army that is min/max was kind of enticing.  Not to mention that it is going to be a cheap army to compile.

As I looked around though, there are a lot of Space Wolves players now, so I had to think of a way to distinguish them, something that WolfWing by itself wouldn’t accomplish.  So I did what I always do and started to look over the army list and circle the unit types that I like.  After I was done and started to read their fluff, I realized that the kind of force I was building was one filled with Space Wolves veterans.

• Logan Grimnar
• Njal Stormcaller
• Bjorn The Fell-Handed
• Arjac Rockfist
• Wolf Guard w/ Terminator Armor
• Dreadnoughts
• Lone Wolf
• Thunderwolf Cavalry
• Long Fangs Pack

The main bulk of the force is going to be filled with Terminators, the best marines that the Space Wolves have to offer given the honor of wearing tactical dreadnought armor.  This will be possible by using Logan Grimnar which makes Terminators into Troops.  While this means I won’t have a lot of models, the models I do have will be uber, especially considering that Logan makes his attached squad infinitely better.

Beyond that, my love of Dreadnoughts is pretty well documented.  I mean, how can you not love them?!  I wanted to make sure I had a Forge World Dreadnought so that I could give the unit a really unique and special look when it’s put on the field.

From there, I really liked the idea of Thunderwolf Cavalry.  Older marines who have spent years taming the native Thunderwolves to the point where they could be rode.  Expensive in the game, but add such a menacing look, feel and fluff to the army that I am starting to build.  It was also the first departure I am having from a true WolfWing force, and moving closer towards an old geezer army.

I finished up the idea in my head with packs of Long Fangs and Lone Wolves.  I really liked the idea of marines that have survived far longer than they ever should, long after their original Blood Claw squads have been defeated.  For the the Lone Wolves, they fight on hoping to regain their honor.  For the Long Fangs, they have seen so much war and fighting, that they can do the most damage in the back picking out multiple targets.

So what is the fluff that I have moving around this specific force?  I originally thought about working out a story of a 13th Company force.  I made slight changes to it in my head because of the heavily influenced idea that the 13th Company is filled with Wulfen.  I like the idea of Wulfen but it’s something that I just didn’t want to deal with.

A story that interested though was a comment that the story writers have had Bjorn say on multiple occasions.  That was a quote along the lines of “I am waiting for Russ to come back”.  I picture this as a small force led by Bjorn and Logan who sniff out rumors of possible 13th Company locations, that goes out and tries to find out where they are and if they find survivors in the Warp, bring them back into the fold and try and curb the Wulfen curse.  Following each lead bolsters their small numbers of old, wise, elite marines, and it also gets them one step closer to reuniting with Leman Russ.

Anyway, that’s what I’m working on next.  I think it will be a really fun experiment, especially since I will be using them for the upcoming PBL Escalation League.  It will be fun making a 200 all Terminator Kill Team.  Going to be so much fun.  =)

Now is not the time to get weak though because I have much more geekiness to partake in.  I have an upcoming World of Darkness campaign night to Game Master, and that is certainly take a lot of my time.  On Saturday though, after a long time of that, I have another trip down to South Jersey for the next round of PBL.

As we have documented on this space before, I have been working on my Tyranids in many different facets over the past few months.  I have gotten a good army build going thus far, and I have improved greatly in painting them.  Now though it’s time to move onto some of the conversion work, specifically for the Harpy and Tervigon.

My progress on the Tervigon has been slow, mostly because I am cannibalizing one of my older Carnifexes in an effort to save money.  Basically in my army composition, I replaced a shooty Carnifex with a Harpy, so therefore it is fine for me to rip it apart and make it into a Tervigon.  The body is looking fine, but I need to work on the Talon legs and that I simply have not done in a while.  I think I have come to a good spot to get the legs on there, I just need to sit down and do it.  I’m hoping it will be done by Saturday.

The Harpy on the other hand, I have made some decent progress with.  As you can see on the right, it is starting to take shape and is looking very much like a focal point of the army.  This has been the current build structure for what is there right now.

• Bought the new Nazgul on Winged Beast boxed set and used that as a base.
• Cut the tail off, and replaced it with the toxin stinger from the Trygon box.
• Placed two venom canons with acid sacs on the wings, and will cover them up with green stuff to look a bit more natural.

I still have some work to do though.  The greenstuff work is very important, and also I need to finish up the neck and head work.  I have learned that a Tyranid Warrior head is too small, and a Carnifex head is too large.  I am probably going to get a Tyrant Head to work with, or I am going to use one of the Trygon head carapaces and green stuff a face around that.

That all being said, any suggestions on what I should try would be very welcome.  I’m hoping to have all of this done by Saturday so get those comments in early!

Once I get to PBL on Saturday, I’m looking forward to getting some games in and I hope that I can continue my winning ways.  Like I have said often as of late, I have a target on my back now and victories are going to be very difficult to come about.  If nothing else, I just want to try and get two different opponent games in so that I can get closer to that campaign condition.

If you have a challenge, then please feel free to use the comments below, and I will do my best to uphold all of them.  Until that day though, prepare for the next iteration of the Hive Fleet.

*UPDATE*

As promised, after I did some house chores last night I started work on my two new Monstrous Creatures.  I decided to try out some new techniques and work with greenstuff (in this case grey) and see what I could do.  I posted the pick on the right of the finished product that I’m extremely happy with.  Here are the steps that I took to get to that point, building from figure I showed you above.

• Took the Fel Beast neck and clipped off the tongue and spines.
• Used a Mawloc head plate and glued that to the neck piece.
• Used my clippers on a standard Carnifex head and cut off the top plating, and cut half of the face.  Specifically everything after the jaw bone.  Sanded down the top of this piece and the back so that they were as straight as possible.
• Glued the Carnifex face at the front of the neck piece, lining it up with the Mawloc head plate, and the bottom part of the neck.
• Used the Privateer Press modeling putty to fill in the gaps I had created and smoothed it out to make the face look more natural.
• Cut down the Toxin Sacs for the venom canons, put them close to the body, glued onto the wing on either side.  Used the putty to again make it look a bit more natural.
• Cut down the venom canons on the top of the wings so it didn’t have a blatant arm muscle on it, so just the gun.  Again, used putty to go over this and make it look like the gun was a natural extension of the wing.

And that was that!  I am happy in that the model now has the Tyranid feel, while still being a Lord of the Rings model as a base.  The additional bitz I used feel natural and don’t look out of place, and really that’s all I can ask for at this point.  Comments on my first greenstuffing experiment?  I know it’s not the best picture but as per usual I left my normal camera at someone else’s house so my DROID will just have to suffice.

Thanks to the awesomeness that is Steam Dan we have started preparations to start up a LAN / Hamachi gaming group.  Translation, all of the friends in our group are going to get together and play a crap load of video games.  Honestly, nothing could be bad about this prospect.

In response to this idea and while trying to figure out what our first event would be, I have composed a Co-Op competition that I believe would be a crap load of fun.  What follows below is the structure that I have setup.  The basis of this idea, is my attempt to get some Co-Op gaming in, along with some multiplayer team fun.  I also want something that will take up most of the night / weekend and has stats.  It is with all of that in mind, that I have decided to go with a L4D marathon.

Here is the setup in my head, along with the requirements.

Requirements

• An absolute number of 8 people.
• Each of these 8 people must have Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 (combined total of $70 on Steam)
• Each person must have, or be provided a computer that can play said games.
• Each person must never grow tired of killing zombies

The Marathon

1. Of the 8 Players we have, for fun purposes we pull names out of a hat.  First person picked, gets to pick their survivor of choice.  Then second person from the hat chooses from the remaining survivors, and so on until all 8 players have a survivor.

   This will be their survivor for the rest of the marathon, until the Grand Finale.  Players should note that once they pick that survivor, it will determine whether they are playing L4D or L4D2 for the rest of the day.  Choose wisely!

2. Once we have our two groups of 4 survivors, those teams will split up and boot up their game of choice.
3. From there, each group will go through the process of playing through every single Campaign that is available in L4D / L4D2 from the beginning until the end.  Every single map will be played (difficulty being determined), and if the group dies at some point, they will restart that map until they finish it.
4. Stats are tracked at the end of each campaign segment and we will be using that information to dole out points to exceptional survivors.  A full list of stats and point values are still being determined but this information is available after a campaign is completed so it will be readily available.
5. At the end of each survivor group finishing their game, all the point values will be tallied up and the top two survivors from L4D and the top two from L4D2 will be selected as the winners of their campaigns.

The Showdown

1. The 2 L4D winners and 2 L4D2 winners will now combine and play an assortment of L4D and L4D2 multiplayer modes.  When possible, the winners will use their survivors.  If their survivors are not available because we switch games, they will flip a coin for the other two available survivors.
2. The other 4 players will be playing as infected and their goal will be to get the most points and survivor kills possible.  While you are out of the running for top survivor, you can now get top infected!
3. Stats will once again be compiled (point system pending), and at the end of a still to be determined amount of multiplayer games, a winner will be announced for both Survivors and Infected.

That’s my idea and plan.  What does everyone thing?!

I came into the weekend sporting a record of 2 wins, 0 losses and 1 tie.  Solid start, but this week was going to really make or break my chances to win the league.  Was lucky enough to fit in two games this week, and I am proud to say that I came away with two victories.  My first game was against one of my best friends, tQ and his Imperial Guard.  We played Pitched deployment with Seize Ground Objectives, and the end result was 4-0 in favor of me.  It sounds like a lot but the game was very close, and also had a little bit of a friendly controversy.  For a specific rundown of the game, Read the Battle Report at tQ Studios.

We both forgot some special rules and weapon upgrades that we had, and so the game might have turned out differently.  tQ and I though are good sports and thankfully no bad feelings were exchanged and we really look forward to the next game!  Even with all of that though, I learned some nice pointers from the match.

• 1750 points is where my army starts to really sing.  Gives me 2 more Zoanthropes for more consistant tank busting, and all my Monstorous Creatures gain regeneration.  Just makes my balanced list more durable.
• Tried out the Harpy and I really like it.  It gives me yet another Flying Monstrous Creature with a twin-linked Venom Cannon / Regeneration for less points than a Carnifex.  Fits in with my reliance on flying bugs.  Also, Hive Guard did well, but I will need to not run squads of one each, run one squad of 2 for redundancy.
• Outflanking Genestealers continue to impress.  Giving a squad of Hormagaunts outflank via the Hive Tyrants special rule is also great.  Might have to give that ability to a squad of Tyranid Warriors in the future.

After my match with the Imperial Guard, I played my good friend Corey and his Bad Moon clan Orks at 1500pts level.  I pretty much played the same list as I did against Pedro.  You can read the full army list here.  Only difference from that list, is that I dropped the Venom Cannon Carnifex, replacing it with a Harpy and giving the Tervigon the psychic power to grant Feel No Pain.

The game for this game was once again a Pitched deployment which gave me the full field, and objective was simple Kill Points.  I had the first turn on this go around, and I used it to my full advantage.  I quickly rushed my full army up, keeping my Genestealers in reserve and deep striking the Trygon.  The first two turns were not pretty for Corey and da Ork Boyz, as I was able to destroy two trukks and one battlewagon and left many of his Orks having to footslog along the board.  Second turn got worse for Corey, as I was able to bring in my Trygon Prime and my Genestealers.  The Genestealers were able to quickly destroy his entire Loota squad, and the Trygon put some serious hurt on one of the Slugga Boy squads with his 12 shots.

Within the first two turns, I had tallied up about 6-7 kill points and had not given any up.  The rest of the game was much closer to that, and Corey quickly began to use his Power Klaws and his great number of close combat attacks to his advantage.  Second turn saw Corey get his Kommandos outflank in, but it took them two full turns to kill 3 Tyranid Warriors, and lost most of their squad in the process.  Even after they were able to kill the Warriors, they died in a hail of Termagaunt fire.

The Orks were also able to start inflicting some damage as Corey uses Ghazghull very effectively, taking out the Trygon, and Zonathrope in quick succession.  Even with the accompaniment of a Pain Boy and Nobz though, Ghazghull and that squad was just far too exposed in the middle of the table and was taken down in size due to small arms fire and then finally killed my the Genestealer Brood.  Making matters worse, was at the end game, Corey’s Stormboyz were just about to deep strike in, but landed on my Hive Tyrant.  This causes a mishap and I put the entire squad way in the corner and out of position.  Even though that squad eventually was able to kill the Tyrant, it had taken far too long to get to him and by that point the game was over.

Like any other battle, I learned a few things from this as well.

• I already knew that Orks were durable in close combat, but this game really proved that.  While my Tyranids are amazing in close combat, they simply don’t have enough attacks to wipe out an entire Ork squad, no matter what it is.  When the Orks eventually fight back, it’s just too many armor saves to make, and I will slowly lose.
• Having squads of 1 Hive Guard each, really hurt me in Kill Points.  Once the enemy gets them in close combat, despite their Toughness 6, I am essentially giving away Kill Points for free.  I will resolve this by keeping them closer to my Tervigon and his brood of Termaguants.
• The Trygon deep striking in is still working, but in a game like this, I simply lost him too quickly due to being too close to Power Klaws.  For a game against Orks, where their BS and weapons are really terrible, I should elect to keep him on the table and use his Fleet ability to get into position, and then open fire.  This will make sure he has smaller creatures to protect him, and open up close combat opportunities for him.

So at the end of the weekend I have been able to come away with 4 wins, 0 losses and 1 tie, gain some painting points, and am now up to 7 Hexes.  I need 10 Hexes to win, along with playing 8 different opponents.  Thus far I have played 5 different people so I’m close to being able to win soon, but the level of competition in PBL is far too great.  I expect a lot of close games coming up and I most certainly have a target on my back now so it’s going to be exceedingly difficult to win.  That being said, I’m just happy to get some good games in, and glad that my Army List and tactics are proving to be up to snuff.

[View with PicLens]

This is not the first time she has surprised me with Warhammer related activities.  It was a few months back where I needed a partner to play with as my Tyranids were going against a Tau / Space Wolves team, and Katie picked up my Orks and helped me to victory.  The more I have told her about the Orks, the more fun she had with the models and the fluff.

So of course when she wanted to paint last night, I gave her one of my Trukk’s and said, “Have fun!”  I think she’s doing a great job with it, especially considering my limited painting pot colors that I currently have.  With her painting my Orks I set back to work on finishing up my Tyranid Warriors and got 5 out of 6 finished.

Overall I am really happy with the fact that this nerdy little hobby of mine is something that I can share with the woman I love.  Have some fun as you take a look at some pictures from the event!

[View with PicLens]

While I had fun painting regular marines, it doesn’t mean I was great at it.  As you can see, I definitely had some room for improvement …

Not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but not fantastic either.  I didn’t work at all with any sort of watering down of colors, no washes, no drybrushing.  For the most part, the only thing that had changed from when I was working on my Orks back in High Schools, was that my hand was a bit more steady.

With the Tyranids, what drew me to them was the models look fantastic, they play more to my balanced style, and from what I had heard, they were easier to paint.  As I have spent the past few years working on them, I can now say that I absolutely love painting them.  While my quality could only be best described as table worthy, I am still having a lot more fun with it!  What I wanted to present to you tonight was a look at the kind of progress that I’m making and hopefully people can offer suggestions.

I am do this fairly standard as I started with Hormagaunts and Ripper Swarms, the basic troop choices.  Now I am starting to move up in Tyranid Warriors, and I can already say that I’m love the bigger models.  More space to work, more detail to work on, and they simply look fantastic even by my standards.

At this point, the figures had been assembled for years.  Time for Prime!

My favorite unit, Genestealers, start to take their icy color.

Hormaguants lead the assualt as the first painted units.  The Warriors are soon to follow.

Hormaguants, Genestealers and Warriors, oh my!  Now the army is starting to look fearsome!

This past weekend as I part took in Paul’s Basement League, Week 2, I went into the event knowing that I was trying things that were out of my comfort zone.  I was taking a bevy of new units that I had never used before, including Gargoyles, Hive Guard, a Tervigon and the mighty Trygon Prime.

I was also playing Pedro one on one for the first time in 3 years.  The last time we played, different armies represented us.  He was protecting his rune priest as he rolled with his Space Wolves, and I was attempting to out Close Combat him with my Chaos Space Marines and their upgraded Chaos Lord.  He beat me on that day oh so long ago, but the match was close.

With all of that in mind, Pedro and I strode up to the snow table at Paul’s and the match was setup for Dawn of War deployment, with a mission type of Capture & Control.  With the exposition out of the way, now I can get into my specific thoughts on how the new units did, and how I feel like my Hive Fleet is doing through three games.

I did two things that I don’t normally do.  I used Deep Strike with the Trygon, and that worked out ok.  I’m not necessarily sold on the concept.  He came out and fired 12 times at the closest squad and did some damage.  He was also tough enough to survive small arms fire and some close combat, even with his average initive 4 going last against the fast Eldar.  I just would have prefered fleeting him up I think.  I think he would have done more damage.  Then again, the effect he had with being that close to the enemy, is pretty good as a psychological factor, not to mention that it is a fire magnet to take off the heat from my many other figures.

The second thing I did, was use outflank with a brood of Genestealers coupled with a Broodlord.  That entire squad worked out perfectly and I can completely understand why Josh and his Imperial Guard use it so much.  They came out on exactly the right table edge, kill a group of Pathfinders in front of them, held the enemy objective, and were able to kill off a weakened Harlequin unit gunning for them.  I feel like I will be doing this a bit more often in the future, and feel like it can most certainly help me out against other opponents.

The biggest thing that this new balanced list has going for it, is that I am able to make an opponent go on the defensive very quickly, and it’s tough for them to prioritize what they should take out first.  By the time the Genestealers and Trygon had come out in the enemy backlines on turn 2, I already had Gargoyles, Flyrant and Carnifex starting to take pot shots at the front of the army.  Add to that, my Tervigon which spawned a total of 34 additional Termagaunts when the game was over, and it’s insane to try and figure out what to shoot at.

Speaking of the Gargoyles, I really felt like my change from Hormagaunts to Gargoyles for the same amount of points worked out really well.  They offer consistant speed with their 12 inch movement, and also have automatic wounds (AS allowed) on to hit rolls of 6.  Plus from a fluffy standpoint, they really work well with my Flyrant and give the army a really great look.

The list has a bit of swarm, and a lot of monsterous creatures to keep people occupied for awhile.  The hive guard which I tried out, didn’t get a chance to do much as the Dawn of War deployment really had them moving a lot more than they should.  I still believe in them and feel like they can give me the necessary tank busting that I need.  With them, Carnifex with Venom Cannon, and the Flyrant, I feel like I can take out tanks when needed.  I haven’t had too much of a problem, but we shall see as I face more mechanized armies in the future.

Overall I am pleased with the codex and feel like it is a very balanced effort from Games Workshop.  I can only hope that the rest of the codex releases this year are as on point as this.

If you’ll excuse me now, I’m off to think about the potential for an all Tyranid Warrior Brood.  =P

What follows below is my second attempt at a list for the second weekend of Paul’s Basement League.  I’m hoping that I have enough fluff, tank popping, redundancy, and new fun models to keep the games close and me happy.

As always, comments are of course welcome but a few notes so you know what I was thinking when I put this together.

• I went with a Trygon Prime, to maximize my Synapse network, and to get more firepower.  He is 40 points more expensive, but his gun shoots 12 times now, and increases to 18″ range.
• It was a tough decision to get rid of my beloved Acid Tyrant but the reasons are a few.  Namely, at this point people have started to ignore him, and I need people firing into him for no reason at all.  Next, he and his guard cost 350 points.  I felt like I needed more options and I can do his job with a Carnifex for cheaper.
• Hormaguants suck now.  Gargoyles rock and can provide a cover save to my Flyrant.
• I like the idea of the tarpit Tervigon, but I couldn’t bring myself to use anymore than one.  Points wise and fluff wise, I just think more than one is lame story wise.  None the less, a toughness 6, 6 wound MC that counts as a troop and can hold objectives just rocks.
• Hive Guard look so amazing!

Hive Fleet Cerebus

HQ

Cerebus DNA Strand Tyrant (230 points)
Hive Tyrant
- 2 Scything Talons
- Psychic Scream
- Life Drain
- Wings

Elites

Hades DNA Strand Zoanthrope (60 points)
Zoanthrope
- Warp Blast
- Warp Lance

Anubis DNA Strand Hive Guard (50 points)
Hive Guard
- Harpoon Cannon

Anubis DNA Strand Hive Guard (50 points)
Hive Guard
- Harpoon Cannon

Troops

Corporal DNA Strand Warriors (90 points)
3 Tyranid Warriors
- Scything Talons
- Devourer

Corporal DNA Strand Warriors (90 points)
3 Tyranid Warriors
- Scything Talons
- Devourer

Spartan DNA Strand Genestealers (140 points)
10 Genestealers
- Infiltrate
- Rending Claws

Master Chief DNA Strand Broodlord (60 points)
Broodlord
- Infiltrate
- Rending Claws
- Aura of Despair
- Hypnotic Stare

Inferno DNA Strand Gaunts (60 points)
12 Termagaunts
- Fleshborer

Brood Mother DNA Strand Tervigon (170 points)
Tervigon
- Thorn Volley
- Dominate
- Toxin Sacs

Fast Attack

Whelping DNA Strand Gargoyles (60 points)
10 Gargoyles
- Fleshborer

Heavy Support

Raiden DNA Strand Trygon (240 points)
Trygon Prime
- Enhanced Bio-Electric Field
- 2 Pairs of Scything Talons

Ripley DNA Strand Carnifex (200 points)
Carnifex
- Heavy Venom Canon
- MC Devourer

Total: 1500 points