hyv3mynd's Hectic World - Painting, Playing, and Prepping

I'm going to throw a lot at you this week.  The approaching summer brings on the "slow season" for my day job.  On the horizon also is Parkhammer '13 which is the first official "event" of The Grand Strategery, the gaming club founded by authors of this blog.  While it's not a formal tournament, it will be a fun day of gaming and barbequing with friends and family.  DaBoyz have also announced the dates and venue for their 2013 GT so I'll toss in some list ideas for your review.

First off is a tutorial/WIP for my Sorceror of Tzeentch.  This model was chosen to be the focus of a painting competition at Parkhammer.  This will be my first entry into a painting competition (aside from trying for "best painted" at local events) and I'm pretty excited to spend some serious time on a single model.  This portion of the WIP will also serve as a tutorial for airbrushing small infantry models.  Since it's a competition model, I'll be taking steps that I normally wouldn't when painting an entire army.

Tyranid Terrain: Carnivorous Plants and More

This past week has been a real productive one for me in regards to hobby-related projects, which is a good thing because my hobby time these past few months has been pretty hit and miss. Here is a run down of what I was able to accomplish in the past week. First I was able to pick up Betrayer by Aaron Dembski Bowden. As a huge fan of Aaron's writings and the Word Bearers I was pretty stoked to start reading this book. I am about half way through the book and it has so far exceeded my expectations. While the book does deal with the Word Bearers and their actions going on at the same time as the events in Know No Fear, it deals more with the World Eaters and their involvement in the campaign against the Ultramarines. For someone who did not know much about the World Eaters I find this book interesting as it fleshes out Angron and Kharn (especially Kharn) as characters that you can somewhat feel for. One of the best lines in the book comes right from the opening pages, as a quote from Kharn: "The wolves will always come to heel when called. In that regard, it is a mystery why they name themselves wolves. They are tame, collared by the Emperor, obeying him at every whim. But a wolf doesn't behave that way. Only a dog does. That is why we are the eater of worlds, and the War Hounds no longer." - Eight Captain Kharn. - Excerpt from Betrayer.

Showcase: Mangler Squigs

     Here are my finished Manglers. There's a few differences from previous WIPs that may not be immediately apparent. Foremost, I had to change the attachment to the bases. The legs of the Manglers felt too weak for the amount of resin they were supporting. There was quite a bit of flex, and I didn't feel that it would hold up in the long run. To remedy this, I sculpted up some tree roots and a large mushroom around 1/16inch brass rods. The rods extend from the base, halfway into the body, giving much more support.

     Check out more views below the fold.

May Tournament Recap

This month's local event was a 1999pt tournament with an allowance for one forgeworld unit as long as it wasn't superheavy, gargantuan, or a d-weapon.  Scoring was battle + painting.  One of the cool perks this month was the DaBoyz team from Adepticon brought in their Tau terrain to play on.  More pics of their project can be found here.

Showcase: Savage Orcs

     Aside from a few touch-ups, here's my newly finished Savage Orc Boyz. I still have a little bit of work to do on the boar boyz, but I thought I'd share these guys. I tried to mix a couple of different tattoo styles. On most of the bodies, I used the standard GW style, doing arm bands and other tribal effects. For the faces I tried to do a few of the common tribals, but I also tried out split faced schemes.  

Tyranid Terrain: Digestion Pools Pt III

In this article I will wrap up the series on a tyranid digestion pool. Looking back at the first two articles I am pretty pleased with how building these pools have gone. As I mentioned in the first article, I was kind of apprehensive about building tyranid terrain as it was something out of my comfort zone. I did a lot of experimentation and there were plenty of trial and error going on during the process but overall I am pleased with the final product and I am ready to move onto the next project. But before I get ahead of myself, let's wrap up the digestion pool tutorial.

In the first article I built up the borders of the digestion pool and in the second article I added the poisoned fronds and the gooey inside walls of the pool. In this article I will be adding the vegetation to the bases and paint up the pool.

Daemon Codex - Troops

Somehow I feel like reviewing the Daemon book is taking an awful long time, but that is probably a good thing.  The book is certainly complex, it has a lot of synergy, varied options and diverse selections.  That being said, those things do not really exist in the troops slot.

As a whole, Daemon troops have very few real customization options and each troop choice really has one unique upgrade in the form of a banner.  For starters - I do not think it is worth putting Icons on the troops choices for the sake of having an icon to Deep Strike.  Troops are never going to be far enough forward to merit the Icon over simply scattering as normal.  Second, for troop choices that might be left in reserve it is not bad to bring an Instrument to guarantee units arrive as groups - or at least push up the odds of this happening.  It is not worth taking an instrument to avoid/inflict Warp Storm results - that is just a bonus once the unit happens to be in play.  If a significant portion of the army does plan to arrive via Deep Strike reserves - just get a Comms relay and skip the Instruments altogether.

I am also only discussing those troops that can score - I will discuss Nurglings separately as they fulfill more of a disruption role.

Warhammer 40k Demo Day

Next weekend a group of us will be hosting a warhammer 40k demo day at Millennium Games in Henrietta. If you, or someone you know, is new to warhammer 40k or have simply been out of the game for awhile then stop by next Saturday, May 25th to learn about the game.

We will be running small, squad sized demos for those who are brand new to the game and 400-500pt demos for those who are familiar with warhammer 40k but have not played under 6th edition.

We will have multiple armies on display and be available to answer questions about the game, talk about the different armies, painting techniques, modeling, and more.

So stop by next week and see what warhammer 40k is all about.

The important stuff:

Where: Millennium Games http://www.millenniumgames.com/
Date: Saturday, May 25th
Time: From 12:00pm - 4:00pm/5:00pm

Tyranid Terrain: Digestion Pool Part II

Welcome back to part II of building a tyranid digestion pool. My goal was to have this project finished for this week but real life reared its ugly head and I got set back a few days. Plus our blogging scheduled got a bit shuffled with the announcement of our Parkhammer 2013 event. So without putting this off any longer, lets take a look at what I was able to get done in the past week.

New Table: The Jungles of Nadine Prime

 I recently completed a new set of terrain to be used for a narrative 2v2 game a couple weeks ago.  This is a compilation of the project steps from start to finish.

Manglers! & More WIPs

     Just a quick update today. This week has turned into a beast at work, but I'm looking forward to getting in a laid back game of fantasy Wednesday night. Right now I'm a bit brain fried.

     Anyway, I've just about finished my two Mangler Squigs. All I have left is a little bit of basing work. 

Thoughts on Latest Daemons vs Necrons Game

I had the chance to have a friend over last week to catch a game of 40k.  He is relatively new to the hobby - just started painting and has a fledgling Necron army.  It has a fairly wide variety of models - so it fits well with the kinds of armies I am used to seeing and it might reflect a little of my own bias for diversity.

Since it seems most of my games come during tournaments - I think I have played less than 5 non-tournament games in the last 6 months - I really appreciate the chance to grab a laid back 40k game.  This is especially true with my own hobbying stuck in a bit of the doldrums.  I have a ton of unfinished models and I am struggling to find time to paint them - when I do have time it is a bit overwhelming.  I think a set of 'painting challenge' posts may be necessary to kick start myself a bit.

Regardless, this is about playing a Necron army with Daemons and some thoughts some thoughts on unit performance, strategy and list building.  I brought with me the following 1750 list:

Parkhammer 2013 @ Watkins Glen State Park, June 29th

     For those that can make it down to Watkins Glen at the end of June, The Grand Strategery is hosting Parkhammer 2013! What is Parkhammer? It’s a family friendly, laid back gathering of gamers in the Upstate NY region. We’ll have tables set up for gaming, grills going all day for food, and other activities. In addition to what we have planned, the park offers multiple playgrounds for kids, a couple of pools for swimming, and trails for hiking.

Hyv3mynd at last year's Parkhammer event

     The way I see it, we have an extensive network of gamer friends that we only get to see at competitive events like tournaments and GTs. Why not have a relaxed day at the park, get a few games in, and eat some good food? On top of that, you get to bring the family with you. Everyone wins. 

     If you’re interested in coming, shoot me an RSVP at kommandochrisp@gmail.com. For more specifics, and to see what events we have scheduled throughout the day, check below the fold. 

Orc & Goblin WIP

     After getting a little frustrated with the bone painting technique on my Savage Orcs, I took a little break from Orcs & Goblins. Pulling me back into the O&G groove, I started to clean up a set up Mangler squigs.
 

 

            The first thing I noticed with these guys that differ from many of the other models I've been working it, is the texture of the skin. The next time you happen by one of these guys, take a close look at them. For the most part, the models I've been working with haven't had subtle details like this. Tyranids have some texture, but not like this. Even the Arachnarok Spider doesn't have this level of detail, and they were released around the same time for the same army. If this is the direction GW is going with its finecast models, I think it's good.

Tyranid Terrain: Digestion Pool Part 1

My last series on building themed terrain dealt with creating city ruins with basic tools and materials and this next series will follow along with the same premise but this time I elected to build tyranid themed terrain. Why tyranids? Well, way back in 4th edition I attempted to start a tyranid army but that never went far and I ended up selling the meager collection I had started, but my love of tyranid fluff has never stopped. The idea of an unstoppable mass that cannot be reasoned with or negotiated with and that is geared with the simple purpose to consume all matter for the hive fleets is a scary prospect. For with the tyranids it is either kill them all or face utter annihilation.

In this series I want to build terrain that represents the latter stages of a tyranid infestation. By this time much of the resistance would have been wiped out, leaving the planet ready for consumption. At this point the alien spawned vegetation would be in full growth and in the process of breaking down all matter to be consumed by the ripper swarms that will soon erupt and ingest everything in their path. The rippers would then immerse themselves into the digestion pools where all of the biological matter will be reduced to an acidic gruel that will then be sucked up into the awaiting hive fleets in low orbit. So my first project for the tyranid series will be to develop some digestion pools as a test to see what I could do to create something that is totally alien and has an organic quality that none of the other 40k races have.

Daemon Codex - Elites

The previous generation of the Daemon codex featured an Elites section packed with undercosted, high performing units.  There was not really any comparison between the Elites slots with any others - it was obviously the best.  Although the names of the units remained unchanged - all four elites selections now play completely differently from their previous incarnations - I think it is actually confusing that they have the same names as before.

Overall, the Elites slot is well balanced - all four options have their uses and it does not make sense to simply replicate one of the selections 3 times and call it an army - unlike the previous codex or updated codex.  I have included some hastily snapped photos of my progress on each unit along with an analysis of it on the field.

Tournament Photodump and Results

I've been falling behind on battle reports and tournament results due to the amount of 40k content flooding into my life.  Some of the authors have a big (4k per team, 2v2) game this weekend and our monthly tournament the week after so I've got to unload the content I've been sitting on or else I'll never catch up.

Tyranid Tournament Wrap-up

     It's been a hell of a few weeks, including a small tournament that 4 of our authors made it out to, an all-nighter at work that obliterated my post for last week, and a smattering of modeling to expand the swarm.

This scene sums up my game against Calypso2ts. Well played sir, well played. 

     The tournament in Syracuse we went to had an interesting comp system.  I know a lot of people don't like comp, but I've never really had a problem with it. I figure that it's just another way to play the game. Because I travel to events a lot, I like to try and conform to what our hosts want to see. Going into this event, I was at -1 on the comp scale.