Welcome Back

Real life has stopped me blogging for a couple of weeks, along with gaming and painting. I am hoping that after last nights battle of Tyranids versus Ultramarines I can get myself back on track. The battle last night was something of a surprise choice, I have not played Nids since the v4 Codex and it was only a couple of articles on Bell of Lost should that got me thinking that I should give them a game or two. They recommended playing 10 point Hormagaunts, a basic model upgraded with poison 4+ and furious charge, meaning you can re-roll failed wounds on the charge. They has also been an article on Venomthropes with their cover saving abilities, I am partial to taking a Big Mek with custom forcefield for exactly the same reason so for similar points I took two of them as a unit.


As you will have seen throughout my lists I am a fan of numbers, quantity has a quality of its own as Stalin would say. However yesterday I chose the Swarmlord to lead my army, this was because I thought it could (mistakenly) scout a Troop and would probably be able to slay Marneus Calgar in close combat. Calgar chose to sit this battle out, wisely with hindsight. I also took a 10 man squad of Ymgarl Genestealers for their ability to pop up in terrain and move/ assault as normal. The ability to change characteristics was just icing, my plan was to sacrifice them to destroy any vehicles in their firebase. Rounding the army off was a 200+ point Carnifex, armed with a Str9 Heavy Venom Cannon and regeneration as I had spare points. All in all an Elite army with just 76 models in it, I have played games with more Chaos Space Marines in the list in 1.5k points.

Half the Ultras set up on the table, the remainder were off table ready to deep strike. Myself and my Nid co-player each set-up on a flank and played refused centre as the Ultras seized first turn and got ready to open fire. At least until the Drop Pods started to fall, land in the centre of the table and block line of sight. Two turns of gunfire later I was able to hit the enemy lines, at that point I had lost two wounds on the Swarmlord (he stole one back), a wound on the Hive Guard and seven gaunts bit the dirt; from two turns of gunfire. My gaming buddy got to charge turn one due to drop pods antics his Hormagaunts charged a Tactical squad killed one and were reduced to three models due to being fearless. My worst fears of gaunts were being realised…

To cut a long story short a combination of preferred enemy when fighting Sternguard, reducing the Chaplain and his Terminator Squad to WS1, re-rolling wounds due to poison/ furious charge combo were my highlights of the battle. Squads got annihilated all over the table except those fighting the Genestealers who could not buy a rending if there was a £20 note sticking out of their back pocket. On turn 4 they finally remembered what to do and rended six Marines finishing the squad off. Turn six and the Ultramarines are reduced to one Drop Pod as their last figure, a Captain, dies in the claws of a Hive Tyrant (this after making six consecutive invulnerable saves over the course of the battle).

My losses were limited to around 20 gaunts, three Genestealers and the two wounds on the Swarm Lord/ Tyrant Guard. My Nid buddy had lost a Carnifex; the Trygon was down to its last wound and around 30 gaunts – it was a massacre. I feel inspired to make time to paint and whilst I want to put a few bits together for the Nids I will instead be painting Red for World Eaters and Pink for Emperors Children, and having a look at fixing the newly acquired Hellhammer/ Baneblade.