Death Of a Bio-ship

+++Once we had called out to our sisters daring each other to swim into the deep warp. Ever deeper we swam, laughing as we went, calling back to our sisters to follow+++

+++Silence+++

+++Regeret+++

+++Oh! The great mother had called to us with warnings, but we had not listened, The Deep warp is a treacherous thing, filled with many dangers. One had seen us and risen from the deep. Its claws had gouged our flanks, its Fangs had bitten through our hide, its breath had warped our very Genes, We struggled, for many ages upwards, ever upwards towards the materium, wile the Dragon fought to take us down to feast+++

+++Alone+++

+++The Dragon let us go, laughing as we fought into the calm shallows of the Warp. Echos of the Dragons laughter still rang though the Warp even as it slipped back into the oily depths. Pain racked our frame, plasma leaked from the canyons carved through our flesh. Then we saw. We saw with a sorrow that rang through our soul. We we alone. The comforting siren song of the Great mother was gone. The Hive mind was gone. we were alone+++

+++Silence+++



+++Pain+++

+++Whispers+++

+++Whispers in the Darkness, whispers in the Materium above. We see a world in the rippling sunlight above, A prey planet, we are tired, the Pain is too much, No longer can we roam the wilderness searching for the great mother. At prey planet we can rest. At a prey Planet we can Whelp. At a prey planet we can die+++

The hilside was silent and dark. A gentle zepher swept around the crest of the hill, playing with the tall grass and shrubs that grew there. A rodent sat on its haunches scanning the overcast sky for threats as it chewed on a nutritious root it had discovered there.
It started when the boom rolled over it. Above it the low hanging canopy of clouds were rent apart as a stupendous claw glowing red hot, emerged. It was quickly followed by the bulk of the Hive Ship. Fragments of flesh and chittin the size of mountains, trailing fire surrounded the dying hive ship in a halo of shooting stars.

The Rodent started for the protection of its burrow seeking shelter from the horror bearing down on it, but nothing could protect it from the impact as the hive ship ploughed into the earth destroying the hill; burrow; and rodent in the same firery instant.

Quiet slowly returned to the new valley where once there had been a Hillside a deep scar had been cut for miles in the black earth. At the head lay a monstrous heap of steaming blackened meat. Ropes of intestines large enough to channel rivers lay in coils arouns a split in its side. The dying corpse of the Hive ship shuddered and lay still for the last time. Down near the base of the great beast deep in a recess between cittn slabs that had once held vaccuum at bay, a sphincter relaxed and slid open. Liquid gushed from the opening in a torrent, carrying with it misshapen leathery sacks, quickly abaiting to a trickle. First one, then another, then more of these orifices fell slack and discharged their cargo of Tyrainits onto the soil of a new world. Soon the feeding would begin.

Battle log 29/05/09

Game in the H'Russ campaign last night vs the Eldar. The game started badly with me Loosing deployment and initiative roll. The game was spearhead; Annihilation; 1750 pts.

Biel Tan deployed first and chose to set up quite close to the deployment line. I was put into a corner with not much cover and forced to endure a round of shooting From the Biel Tan.

I was very surprised when a unit of guardians actually moved towards me. I lost Lost 11 Gaunts in the first round off shooting! and a wound off of the leaping warriors, before the wall of Chittin began to roll forward. I thought it would be much worse than that.
Geiger continued its advance before the shooting phase began
I blew a Bright lance off a tank with a Venom Cannon from the Gunfex and killed a few guardians and a Death Jester with shooting. The Venom cannon continued to do its job throughout the game stunning vehicles.

Leaping Warriors had a target in the first round and charged the Guardians who had moved closer earlier, anihilating then in a sigle round of combat. My turn ended with only a few dead on either side.

Turn two fire concentrated on the stealers and gaunts again wiping out the remainders of two gaunt screens and leaving the last one with a single model.

Counter charges from Banshees into the leaping warriors didn't go well for either side with the Warriors going down in droves but punnishing the banshees in return.

Turn three was really the endgame as the Hive Splinter Geiger Assault line reached the Eldar lines.


In one turn the Eldar line dissapeared:
On the nid Left, the Fire Dragons and Shining Spears were both massacred by the Brood Lord and retinue, In the center One of the wave serpents was destroyed by the Assault Fex; and the other stunned again; on the right a mob of genestealers contacted a the remaining guardian
squad and the Death jesters, anihilating all but one Death Jester.

Shooting from the GunFex'es consort Warriors demolished half of the Dire Avengers unit.
Fourth turn for the Eldar was quick as there was not much left.

Battle Log 01/05/09

Two new games played last night outside of the H'rus campaign. Both using the H'rus campaign 1000Point Infiltrator army of Genestaelers and Lictors.

The First was against Space Marines: Dawn of War; Annihilation; 1000pts.
When the armies first went down I thought I was a gonner, then when the brood lord and retinue got caught out in the open after a failed charge after infiltration I thought that was definiately it. However My opponent, PR proved to be almost as bad as me with rolls and killed a single Stealer with bolter; heavy bolter and Frag Missles from two full squads!
Next turn the BL ploughed through the first squad and even managed to hide in the combat through his turn and allowed be to charge on the subsequent turn. Things really started to look like they were going my way. Alas by the time the smoke cleared in the 6th turn PR had won by one kill point. Best sort of game Fast! Furious! Fun! and Friendly!

Game two was Eldar: Dawn of War; Capture and control; 1000pts. I was on even less happy ground facing this army. All motorised, against a veteran beardyhead player. I took the first round of shooting on the chin with a blade storm accounting for 5 of my Brood lord retinue before they even moved. However Infiltration and charge worked well and the BL was in close assault by turn 1, assaulting the Dire Avengers over a barrier of pipes. I was expecting to go last (No flesh hooks) but imagine my surprise when I went simultaneously with his exarches! Then he revealed the shimmer sheild dropping all of my models attacks by one! Quite a rude shock all round. Still the Brood lord held out for long enough to let another squad get close enough to join the fight. Two lictors joined the same fight and both died in the first round of combat. That armour 5 thing on lictors just bites!
Still the BL eventually wiped out the Dire Avengers and the bikes that caqme to help. I swung the army around and fled back to the VP locations in turn 4 collecting and exploding a wave serpent along the way. The fire dragons the
Wave serpent was carrying tumbled from the wreckage and took a fierce revenge on one of the 'stealer squads that had slotted their ride. Then the inevidable happened and they wnt down under a wall of Chittin. I consolidated onto the VPs on turn 5 and the game ended! I am sure another turn and I would have been annihilated by his remaining Falcon and Vypers!

So two games one loss and one win. Not a bad evenings work for a board with little or no area terrain on it.

Lesson one is to get rid of the implant attacks
Lesson two is consider replacing one of the scything tallon squads with another toxin sac squad. These seem to be more effective, although the opposition always seem to be more scared of the ST models.

Prey Planet H'Rus

The terse encrypted warning came from one of the picket patrols
To: HEF Command
From: ST-P2.
Message: Tyrannid troop movements detected in our sector. Co-ordinates are being transmitted via secure channel.

The reposnse was equally brief.
To: ST-P2
From: HEF Command
Message: Understood. Shadow enemy forces, do not engage. Repeat: do not engage. Independant direct action will be taken.

Shas'O Tyrnax considered his options. This will need more than a simple patrol...

As the picket patrol made its careful progress through the greats forrests of the easter continent, The firewarriors of ST-2P, gazed with renewed attention into the foliage surrounding them. Completely unaware the forrest was staring back. A lictor had picked up on the path of firewarriors shortly after the patrol-in-force had left the FOB. It observed their movement carefully, following its genetic programming, instinctively marking an invisible trail for others of the hive to find. Soon it would be feeding time.....

Painiting Hive Splinter Nostromo

Tooling about the inter-webs one day I came across a web site with some pictures I just loved. They were Tyranids made to look much closer to the Geiger biomechanical nightmares from wich the Tyranids sprung in the first place.
Now this picture clearly did not come from the web iste that was hosting it, it was an imperial guard website after all. So excited by the one picture I found I dove back into the web-soup to look for any other pictures or better still find the font website for these marvelous creatures. Imagine my delight and surprise when I not only found the source website, but that it contained well written tutorials describing how to sculpt AlienNid heads and how to paint the swarm!

This all co-incided with my slow drift away from my IG Army project. I was casting about for somthing new to do and I had found it. I would build an AlienNid army!
I have built a modest Tyranid army before called Hive Fleet Germanicus, which was a swarm army. It had very few Monstrous creatures in it. This time I was determined to have somthing a bit more balanced, Besides the prospect of painting another 200 Gaunts didn't really appeal. I will eventually get around to these sorts of numbers, but ths time I'll concentrate on the Big-Ones first and come back to the blocks of gribbles afterwards.

I follow the painting guide on the AilenNids website reaonably colsely but with a few variations to get the slick oily-green look the Aliens from the 1st movie had.

Paints
Chaos Black spray can
Chaos Black
Billeous Green
Space Wolves Grey
Mithril Silver
Windsor Newton Apple Green ink
Windsor Newton Black ink

Under Coat
Chaos Black spray can. Alway a good idea. It has better sticking power than straight acrylic on plastic.

Base Coat
Mix 1:1 Chaos Black and Billeous Green. Don't worry if this looks light in the pallette, it is the mid shade and will darken up once applied. This is applied in a 'wet' or heavy drybrush over the whole model, leaving the mjority of the model recesses black
I understand GW no-longer makes Billeous green. It is a very bright clean yellow shade green. Not sure what the modern equivalent is yet.

1st Highlight
Space Wolves Grey. A very light drybrush of Spacewolves grey came next. Technically a 'scrub' over the whole model. The idea is to pick out the extreme highlights only.

2nd Highlight
Mithril Silver. A very light drybrush of Mithril Silver came next. Technically a 'scrub' over the whole model. The idea is to pick out the extreme highlights only

Blocking
With the Mithril Silver open do a heavy drybrush on the teeth, claws, talons, spines and hooves.

Touch up
I sometimes clean up any drybrushing that has too much coverage on flat planes by just re-painting with the basecoat mix.

1st Wash
6:1:6 mix Windsor Newton Apple Green ink: Windsor Newton Black ink: Water. Wash the whole model. The trick is to not darken up too much.

2nd Wash
1:1 Windsor Newton Apple Green ink: Water . Ofteh more than one layer here just to give the hint of green on the silver bits, tie all the layers in and give depth to the gloss sheen.

Edging
I sometimes clean up some of the extreme edges by edging with a flat brush and Mithril Silver. Too much of this at this stage can be overwhelming though. This is only to bring out the highest points again.

3rd Wash
Windsor Newton Black ink. A targeted wash to the extended head of the Nid.


And Rest!


This is best done in large productions of figures, applying each coat to the entire block at the same time. This technique can take as little as 2hrs to pump out 24 gaunts! Believe me if you paint horde armies this is very important!