Love your Army!

Nick speaking,

About five years ago, you would hardly ever see my Eye of Terror Space Wolves 13th company on the table, in actual fact if I hadn't put so much time, effort and money into converting them all, I probably would have sold them off by now. With the lack of vehicles and an aging Codex compared to the new shinny editions, I started to lose my enjoyment for them.

Back in those days I was mainly playing against Blood Angels, and that was probably the real reason for my lack of love for these guy's. With their fast moving Jump packs, horrible Death Company and Honour Guard units, it was always hard for me to control the game, especially without any vehicles! When you coupled the BA fast movement with furious charge, close combat was always a problem for me, even though I was a CC army?

So for a while I shelved my Wulvenkind in favour of my Necrons, but when I got my copy of the first GW 'expansion book' Cities of Death in 2006, it occurred to me that my 13th Company could make an ideal army for Cities of Death! With all the buildings around I could avoid being shot at, and so giving me no disadvantage in not having vehicles! So with that inspiration, I got started on my Ruined Buildings terrain...

The Cities of Death Codex was the first inclination of where GW was going with fifth edition, as it was here that we saw Troops only as scoring units for the first time, and this was ideal for my Wulvenkind. I no longer had to take my points heavy ten man units to try and walk across the board, I could take several five man units and sneak them around the heavy terrain claiming objectives!

I suppose the long and short of this post is that different scenarios and missions can have a big impact on your armies ability. Back in forth edition, GW gave us all the extra scenarios for free, but now they sell them to us in the form of  'expansion books'.

I have not gone down the route of  'Planet Strike' or 'Battle Missions' yet, but If you are starting to get a bit fed up with your army for whatever reason, just get a few of your willing buddies to give something else a try instead of the three standard missions, and you may just get some love back for your army again...

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New Necron Codex Review - Necron Lord

Nick speaking,

So, moving onto HQ units in this New Necron Codex Review series, is the mighty Necron Lord. And lets face it he needs to be mighty, as at the moment apart from the point expensive C'Tan, he's all we've got!

Although I own three foot Lords, which were great to put in amongst your walking phalanx in forth edition. Nowadays I stick to my two Destroyer Lords. Destoyer Lords are great for getting away from huddling around the Necron Orb. Without the Orb and with the freedom of a Destroyer base, all of a sudden the Lord can take on a whole new role.

Join a Destroyer Lord to a unit of Scarabs Swarms and send them out as a delivery system for the Lords still fantastic Wargear. Turbo boost them out on turn one, get into terrain on turn two and pop of Nightmare Shroud on as many units as you can. Use the Scarabs and Lord to draw fire, taking advantage of the 2+ cover saves. Get into the back ranks and de-mech those objective holding tanks with the Lords Warscythe!

Oh and don't forget to ALWAYS take Solar Pulse, with a 33% change of  Night Fight, you just have to have it, there is nothing better than coming on the table edge on turn one in Dawn of War, and shooting you Destroyers at 36" during Night Fight.

So what is wrong with the Necron Lord? Well I have heard rumours of new variants of the Lord with a tiered points cost, and if this is true, then it sounds great. Personally, I don't mind that I only have one Lord to choose from at the moment. But, I would like to see the usual points reduction on it to come in line with current Codex's.

The only thing that I find very annoying with the Lord is his Weapon Skill four! Please, please make him Weapon Skill five so that my Warscythe can get through to actually cause a few wounds!

So what do you think of the Necron Lord? Keep him similar to he is now? Totally revamp him? Add more Lord options?

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RetributionAngel TAGing YOU Video Response

Nick speaking,

If you haven't seen already, YouTube's RetributionAngel has put up a video for wargamers to start tagging each other. It's a set of twenty questions about Wargaming for you to answer, so that your viewers may gain more insight into you and your hobby. This was my video response...

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Bringing the broods to life - Carnifex

Nick speaking,

Here is the latest brood in The Stinger Hive Fleet to get a coat of paint. I do plan on revisiting it at a later date to do some blending work on the scything talons, but at this stage, I just want to push out as many painted models as I can...

Next up, Zoanthropes...

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Mech Eldar Vs Chaos Daemons (not video)

Nick speaking,

After just finishing my additional two Forge World Wave Serpents, it was time to put them to the test. I have been messing around with one Serpent for a while now, but I always knew what I was going to do with my three tanks when I eventually got them done! Banshees, Dragons and Dire Avengers, all maxed out! Just for some fun...

This is what my six tank list looks like in this battle report:

1x Serpent (EML/Star Engines/Spirit Stone)

9x Dire Avengers (Exarch/Twin Cats/Blade Storm)

1x Doomseer with Doom and Runes of Warding

1x Serpent (Shuriken Cannon/Star Engines/Vectored Engines/Spirit Stone)

9x Banshees (Exarch/Executioner/War shout/Acrobatic)

1x Doomseer with Doom, Fortune, stone and Runes of witnessing

1x Serpent (Shuriken Cannon/Star Engines/Vectored Engines/Spirit Stone)

9x Dragons (Exarch/Fire Pike)

1x Falcon (Scatter Laser/Shuriken Cannon/Holo Fields/Star Engines/Spirit Stones)

5x Dire Avengers

2x Fire Prisms (Shuriken Cannon/Holo Fields/Spirit Stones)

We roll off and get Seize Ground with three objectives and pitched battle. I try and manipulate the objectives into the open and heavy on one side as I don't want to be immobilised on terrain, when It comes to contesting. I win the roll off and take first turn so that I can choose the side of the board with no objectives, I want my opponent to hang back near the objectives ready for me to shoot and tank shock. I deploy my two Prisms, Avenger Serpent and Falcon on the left, and the Dragon and Banshee Serpents in the middle ready to cover either side as needed.

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Beans for Painting!

Nick speaking,

Beans? Yes, but not baked beans, I mean bean bags! Whether you buy or make them, if your painting at a table, these can really help. It usually gets quite uncomfortable resting your hands, elbows or forearms on a table for more than a short period of time, but not any more! With only two beans bags you can get comfort and steadiness all at the same time...

Yes, that is my jetbike you can see, OK so on with the painting...

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New Necron Codex Review - Pylon

Nick speaking,

So the question is, will the Necron Pylon make it into the New Necron Codex?

Looking at some of the latest Codex's that have come out, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it did! Just look at the Nid Trygon and Blood Angels Storm Raven! But what should be done with the Pylon if it makes it into the new Codex?

At it's current 420 points, I have rarely used my Pylon, I don't get enough time to play larger games, and fitting it into a 1,500-2,000 point game is hard work, unless you are playing just for fun. The Pylon does make a great piece of terrain though, and I have probably used is more as terrain than an actual model!

Speaking from a personal point of view, I would like to see the Pylon in the new Codex without structure points, and at a reasonable points cost, I would imagine about 200 points? At least then I would get to use it more, even if it was only in fun games more than competitive ones!

The Necron Pylon is a great model to have on the table, but will it happen?

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IDICBeer Plays Man O' War

Nick speaking,

A few weeks back my buddies and I thought we would have a bit of fun, and so we got out my buddies old Games Workshops 'Man O' War' game from the back of his cupboard...

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Bringing the broods to life - Mycetic Spore

Nick speaking,

After a lot of messing around and trying to make my own Mycetic Spores, I finally decided that the Mega bloks Plasma "Hatchers," were going to be the easiest way to get myself some pods until GW makes us a model. That said I think the Hatchers are so good as Nid Pods, that I might not even bother with the real thing when they eventually come out!

Just in case you haven't heard of Plasma Hatchers, This is what they look like when you buy them...

I have ended up with nine of these Plasma Hatchers, and here are a few pictures of my first finished Stinger Hive Fleet Mycetic Spore...

 

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New Necron Codex Review - Tomb Stalker

Nick speaking,

Well, well, I certainly wasn't expecting to have an additional Heavy Support choice to review in my New Necron Codex post run, but the Tomb Stalker is here, and it deserves a review...

Obviously to review something like this requires a few test games, and rather than building brand new lists around the Stalker, I have found that he seems to fit into any list that would normally have three units of Warriors just fine. Dropping one unit of Warriors and taking the Tomb Stalker instead, gives you an extra dimension to lists like the 4th edition 'Wraith Wing' and current 'Capstone' type lists.

I tend to favour the deep strike tactic with the Stalker, and use it to either support your army or to get him into the enemy ranks, depending on how the game is going when he arrives! Just remember not to get disappointed when he dies, always expect that to happen, as long as he can distract/devastate enough before he goes down then he's done his job.

As for his stats, well, I was a bit disappointed in his shooting ability, but then again I am used to the Trygon Primes cheeky twelve shots! But putting that aside, why toughness seven? All it means is that it can't be hit by anything at strength three, and lets face it, not many people would throw a strength three unit at it except maybe Howelling banchees with their dreaded power weapons! Most people will just shoot it out.

I don't know how many points it cost to have toughness seven as appose to toughness six, but I would like to have seen some sort of invulnerable save, even if it was only a 5+, instead of the extra toughness!

So what do you think of the Tomb Stalker? How are you fitting him into your lists? Is he worth the points? Will he make it into the next Necron Codex, and how should his stats be changed from the current experimental ones?

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Eldar Hornet Announced

Nick speaking,

Forge World announces the Eldar Hornet is available for pre-order...

The Eldar Hornet, is a brand-new addition to the Eldar range. One of several new Eldar units that will feature in the forthcoming Imperial Armour Volume 11, this complete resin kit may be armed with a full range of Eldar weaponry and is supplied with two resin Pulse Lasers, and a plastic Eldar heavy weapon sprue, to allow you to refine its potent weaponry to a specific battlefield role.

 

The Hornet is a light tank employed by Eldar armoured forces in a fast reconnaissance and raiding role. Piloted by a single crewman, it can be found in the forefront of Eldar aspect warrior assault waves, speeding ahead of heavier Falcons and Wave Serpents and often operating alongside other high-speed attack craft such as jetbikes and Vypers.

Click here to get the experimental rules...

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Ruined Buildings Insight - Part 2

Nick speaking,

Following on from the first video, this video looks at the rest of my ruined Cities of Death terrain with a bit more insight on how I painted them...

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Ruined Buildings Insight - Part 1

Nick speaking,

I have had a few requests lately for a closer look at my Cities of Death terrain. Here is the first video I made last year, with a bit more depth and insight into my ruined buildings...

Part two to follow...

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