2010: the year of the brush

So in order to prioritize things:

1. Prime and paint 2000 point Tyranid army. (8 Genestealers still need to be assembled.)

2. Paint Stompa, Mega-Dread, Shokk Attack Gun battery, Ghazghkull and a small army of Nobz for my Orky Apocalypse. (Assembly needs to be done for the mass of Snotlings in the SAG battery)

3. Finish painting 2250 point Lizardman army to a better then table-top standard. (10 SKinks are already done! Yes!)

4. Paint the rest of my Marines: Pedro Kantor, Command Squad and Captain, Dreadnought, 10 Sternguard, 7 Assault Termis, 3 Drop Pods, 1 Predator, 1 Razorback, finish Devastator Squad. That would leave me with over 3000 points painted.

5. Finish the Monoliths for the Necrons! I got all the fancy red plastic and I need to complete the vision!

If I get all this done this year I will be a happy gamer!

Tyranid Game 1 review

I got my first game in with the new Tyranid codex the other day against a Space Marine army that featured Vulkan, Telion, AND Chronus. Here is my list, how each unit performed and what (if any) changes I plan to make.

I tried to make a list built on synergy that captures the essence of a Tyranid attack with creatures popping up all over the place... the only unit I spam is the Trygon but it's so cool I had to take two. Overall I was pleased with how the list worked. My reserve rolls were utter shit even with the Hive Commander upgrade and I was behind early due to this slow start. But I was able to weather the potent marine shooting for the most part and in the end was able to come out on top (mission: Annihilation/Pitched Battle).

The List
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Hive Tyrant: I took him mainly for the Hive Commander upgrade so I could out-flank with my Hormagaunts and add +1 to my reserve rolls. The Paroxysm psychic power is ace and made a unit of Assault Terminators fight with WS 1... they got eaten. He was attached to a single Tyrant Guard but this was not enough as he was still gunned down in the bottom of the 2nd turn by the Redeemer and Telion's huge-ass sniper squad. A 2+ save is in the Hive Tyrant's future.

Tyranid Prime: The beast of the match. Armed with Lash Whip, Bonesword, Scything Talons and Adrenal Glands he massacred the Assault Terminators almost single handedly and then butchered the Scout squad (killing 7 in 2 rounds of combat?!?). He was lucky to survive Telion's sniping on the way in and all the other shooting but still... This unit is a mainstay.

Zoanthropes: Didn't do too much but killed a few bunched up Sternguard before being boltered to death. Still, I would not leave the Hive without them.

Ymgarl Genestealers: I had my doubts and still do. They arrived late from reserve and while plagued with horrible dice at first they were great in mopping up a Drop Pod and a Tactical Squad. I actually played them wrong in that I chose my hiding area before my opponent deployed (it's after both delpoy) and I also only chose a new morph ability in my assault phase (it's every assault phase)... oh well, next time I'll use them right haha.

Warriors: I like Warriors. The shooty Warriors didn't do much... they acted as mostly a Synapse anchor and are really only there to claim objectives. The Assaulty Warriors with claws, talons and Adrenal Glands were the perfect body guard for delivering the Prime. They got blasted apart by lascannon and missile launcher, but held up really well against everything else.

Gants/Gaunts: Gants died horribly but set up the counter-charges for me, this is what they do so the 5pt Gant is perfect as far as I'm concerned. The Hormagaunts I gave Toxin Sacs which I think is better for them then Adrenal Glands and chose to out-flank them. They arrived too late in the game to participate other then running Telion off the table who was fleeing in terror from the Prime, haha.

Genestealers/BroodLord: I gave them Adrenal Glands but I think I will drop this upgrade in favor of Scything Talons. S5 on the charge sounded nice but the extra wounds it caused seemed to be cleverly canceled out with the Rending wounds due to allocation. The Broodlord eventully went toe to toe with Vulkan and came out on top after about 4 or 5 rounds of combat. I got Hypnotic Gaze off twice but was beat both times on the LD dice off. Oh well... still not bad though.

Carnifex: meh. He got annihilated on turn 1 by podding Sternguard and Chronus' Predator of Doom. I think he is there just to take the heat off the Hive Tyrant really. I think I need him but we'll see.

Trygon(s): As awesome as I thought. I took two of these bad boys and good thing. The first one came in and ate a Rhino before going down. The 2nd one came in and ate Chronus' Predator then survived on 1 wound to eat the Redeemer.