ATC Adventure Chapter #2: Crunch Time

ATC is now just three weeks away and the pressure is on!  I've been painting like freak, picking up a brush any time I have 10 minutes or more of free time.  I've included a couple shots of genestealers I've been batch painting as a teaser.  I still have to do eyes and bases, but I'm pretty happy with some of the new techniques.

ATC Adventue: Chapter 1

I have the amazing opportunity to travel with DaBoyz crew from Rochester, New York to Chattanooga, Tennessee next month for the American Team Championship tournament.  This is exciting to be for several reasons.  At 31, I'm the youngest on the team and with only 12 months of 40k under my belt, I'm the least experienced.  As such, I had no expectations when Aldonis dropped by our local forum to promote the event and I volunteered to represent the Tyranid codex.  You can imagine my surprise when somehow I made the team, especially with so many prominent nid players in the club.

This article and discussion will act as the first chapter of an adventure through list building, army painting, playtesting, and concluding in our trip to the event and my tournament batreps.  If you aren't familiar with the format, the information is here:

http://www.diceheadsiege.com/2673.html

Hive Commander Profile: "Crispy"

I'm excited to bring you my first "Hive Commander" profile featuring my buddy Chris P. ("Crispy" on blogger).  He's supplied me with some thoughts on tyranids, pictures of his models, army lists, and tournament results.  This will also serve as a Q&A forum so feel free to ask him questions directly.

Doom and Gloom

If you're involved at all with the various tyranid blogs and forums, you've noticed some bad vibes on how people think the new grey knights will roll us.  I've been proxy testing to get the feel of how to handle them and figured I'd write down a few first impressions and points worthy of discussing regarding our future as they may change it.  I tried to organize my thoughts, but failed epically, so pardon the random tangents.

1850 RTT - Game 3

Game 3 was against Rob M.  I've seen him at the shop just about every week for 40k open play night, but we've never faced off.  He took 1st last month in the non-comp tourney with dark eldar, and I know he has other armies in the works, so I'm guessing he's a pretty solid player.

His list:
CCS + plasma x3, medi pack, officer of the fleet, pw
Lord Commissar + pw, cloak
Inquisitor + tarot, hood, 2x hiero, 2x mystic
PBS x8, overseer + chimera, hb
Infantry platoon; PCS + hb, s1 plasma/lascannon, s2 plasma/lascannon, s3 grenade/hb, s4 grenade/hb
Vet squad + melta x3
Vet squad + plasma x3 + chimera, hf
Vendetta
Armored Sentinels x2 + ac
Manticore + hb
Hydra x2 + hb's
Russ + 3 hb's

Hive Fleets report in from around the world!

Ian, a follower and nid player from the Phillipines reported in this week that his swarmlord army secured overall victory at his club's gladiator circuit!  The final round found him facing off against another nid army.  Good job Ian!

http://galleriabasterds.blogspot.com/2011/04/hive-fleet-conqueror-conquering.html

Erle, a follower from Belarus also reported in with a beautiful batrep against Imperial Fists.  Check out the paint jobs and terrain!

http://hive-fleet-hyenna.blogspot.com/2011/04/1000-pts.html

hyv3mynd discusses Tyranids on the 11th Company Podcast

Pat interviewed me about my lists, painting, conversions, and tactics for the 64th Episode of their podcast here:
http://www.tangtwo.com/11thcompany/podcasts/episodesixtyfourfinal.mp3

My portion of the interview starts about 1:33:00.  Purgatus follows my segment speaking about his adventures in Nids and his blog.

1850 RTT- Game 2

My second game was against Paul.  He's a local veteran of the scene, but we've never had a chance to face off.  I've also seen him place in the top three of several other tournaments with some unconventional lists, so I know he's a good player.  He brought out his daemon hunters for one last hurrah before the new codex is tournament legal.  This was also my first (and last) game against daemon hunters, so I really had no idea of what to expect.

Paul's list (I'm probably making some mistakes in here):

Grandmaster + terminator retinue

Inquisitor + some melta guys

10 PAGK's

10 PAGK's

10 IST's

Dread + lascannon

50ish guard on foot including 40 guys with a commissar, lascannon team, missile launcher team, and melta command squad

1850pt RTT with Hard Comp - Game 1

I've been dying for some games so I called in some favors, got the day off work, and threw together a list.  To recap, the format was:
- No special characters or named upgrades
- No modifying the force org
- No more than one av14 vehicle per army
- No more than 2 dedicated transports
- HQ, Elite, Fast, and Heavy units are 0-1 so no dupes

My list:
Prime + bs/bs, devourer, regen, ts
Tervigon (HQ) + ag, cat, claws, cluster spines, ts
Hive Guard x3
Genestealers x20
Genestealers x20 + broodlord/st, toxins
Termagants x15 + devourers
Warriors x8 + deathspitters, strangler
Tfex + cannon, cluster spines, desiccator larvae

1850pt RTT - Hard Comp

Saturday is the monthly tournament at Millennium Games.  I was originally supposed to work, but was able to get the day off after all. so I threw together a list quickly.  Here's the format:

1850pts.  No special characters or named upgrades.  Max 2 dedicated transports per list.  No more than 1 av14 vehicle per army.  Every unit except troops is 0-1 (no spamming).

I'm not a fan of comp, but a least when it's hard comp, everyone faces the same consequences.  Much better than when you can bring anything, but stand to be penalized in points by a judge or player.  It still encourages gaming the system, especially by armies with strong troop selections as they are still unrestricted.  However, I haven't been getting nearly enough games in so I'm going to go get some games in.

Tyranids take 4th at the Adepticon Championships!

(photo from BoK)

Some of you may have already heard this...  Jay Woodcock <DaBoyz> climbed all the way up to 4th out of 256 players in the Adepticon 40k Championships.  Jay also happens to be a pal of mine and a teammate for the our local club's <DaBoyz> crew I'm going with to the ATC (American Team Championships).  I've also had the pleasure of playing against Jay's:

Nids: http://synaps3.blogspot.com/2010/12/millennium-invitational-game-2.html

SoB: http://synaps3.blogspot.com/2010/12/2k-batrep-vs-sisters-of-battle-guard.html

and Orks: http://synaps3.blogspot.com/2011/03/last-man-standing-game-3.html

Jay is a cool dude and a great general.  I chatted a bit with him about Adepticon and decided to share his list and some thoughts so we can all discuss.

Hobby: Broodlord Kitbash

This is a project I actually did about 6 months ago.  I'm not a fan of the metal broodlord model, but I do like the unit.  I just don't feel like his look meshed well with normal genestealers.  His head isn't bulbous enough and those little t-rex gimp talons don't look like they could scythe anything.

I wanted something that looked like a normal genestealer that evolved a couple steps past the rest of the brood.  I also like my conversions to represent the difference in stats and wargear.  Broodlords are faster (initiative), stronger, have more attacks, and better armor so I wanted to represent all of those things in the new model.  I also like to keep costs to a minimum when possible, so I wanted to do all these things with extra bits from the kits I've already purchased.

The good, the bad, and the ugly...

Here's a small update to fill you all in on what's going on here.

The Good:  I'm working on building, painting, and practicing with my ATC (American Team Championship) list.  I'm going with DaBoyz (our local game club), which is really cool because these guys are true veterans of 40k.  At 31, I'm the youngest on the team and with only 1 army, I have the smallest collection.  They're all amazing painters and great generals on the table.  Our team consists of Shaun Kemp (ETC Nid player for America 2010), Jay Woodcock (DaBoyz GT TO), Chris "One of Everything" Courtney, and Joe "Fishboy" Johnson (who also wins best painted just about everywhere he goes).  I've already had my butt handed to me twice practicing our lists and the special format.  It's a real treat getting to play the best guys in our area.

The Bad:  I'm taking pictures and notes for batreps, but due to the format that allows teams to choose the match-ups for ATC, I will not be posting them until after the event.  Gotta keep our lists and strategies classified for now!  I can tell you I'm bringing my tyranids (duh!) and I've been playtesting a unit or two that I've never used.  I hope I can make it work and give you all some quality content after the event.  So no batreps for a bit, but a lot to come later.  In the meantime, I'll fill in with hobby content and hopefully some guest batreps.

The Ugly (My Face):  I've been contacted by the 11th Company (http://www.tangtwo.com/11thcompany/) to do an interview about myself, the blog, and my army.  I'm still working on a date so I'll let you know when it's done and available.  For those who don't know me, I make chocolate for a living and Easter is kicking my butt right now.  Being a newlywed also, having 3 dogs, and 2 saltwater aquariums actually leaves me with very little free time.  Anyways, stay tuned and hopefully I'll have some good stuff coming up!