Fred - 2018 Painting Diary

[fred.]

Thanks chaps

The pictures on the painting sticks really do look messy as an image

[fred.]

Some more painting - an entirely different set of figures. I do seem incapable of finishing anything at the minute...


Epic Tyranids

Got this lot done yesterday, ones at the front where painted and based, the ones at the back just based (along with some running repairs).




And Big George at the back is predictably still WIP...

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Oh, Those are beautiful.
Must start my elder aspect warriors soon.

[Techno]

Really zippy !! 

Cheers - Phil

[fred.]

Thanks chaps.

Oh, Those are beautiful.

The 'nids don't get called that often, but I'm sure they will appreciate it.

Must start my elder aspect warriors soon.

Crack on - epic is so quick to paint. But the armies are big. But the two kind of even out.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Two commissions on the block at the moment, when they clear, I can feel some fire dragons coming on.

Never going to use them, but I feel I should do them first as for a long while they were the only aspect warriors in the job lot I bought...

[lowlylowlycook]

Well, we better ask the mods to nuke this thread from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure.

[Techno]

 

Cheers - Phil

[Womble67]

They look really good Fred

Take care

Andy

[fred.]

Been painted up some 28mm 40k Tau figures the last couple of weeks. Another scale. Another game...

We played a 3 player game on Friday, and I then played through a solo game, Nids vs Tau yesterday afternoon while cooking Sunday dinner.

The Tau were the same Team that I had used in the 3 player game. A Pathfinder Leader, an XV25 Stealth Suit (veteran), Pathfinder Gunner with Ion Rifle (sniper), Pathfinder Gunner with Rail Rifle (Comms), 2 Firewarriors, 1 Breacher, 1 Recon Drone, 2 Gun Drones. So lots of shooting, and good mobility. The only unit with any melee ability is the suit.

For the nids, I went with 2 lictors, one veteran one combat specialists , a melee Tyranid Warrior Leader and a Tyranid  Warrior with a Barbed Strangler. I was rather limited by the figures of my mate's I happened to have on hand.


For the game board I used 4 cardboard game boards from another gaming mate - I think from one of the GW boxed sets that he just wanted the figures for. These work great, they make it very easy to setup and deploy as they mark the game in to quarters. I had been looking at them thinking about making some 3d terrain to match the pictures - but they seem to work fine as is, with just the images giving a look to the ground.

Turn 1


Veteran Lictor advanced before the game starts - 9" + 1d6" is a long way forward! Nids win initiative, first turn charge from this Lictor. The other lictor lags behind a bit.
For the Tau their Greater Good rule, allows loads of Overwatch, but to no great effect. The Stealth suit is so close to the start of the Lictors charge that Retreating seems pointless. The drones near the suit move apart a bit to make consolidate moves harder. FLY is very good here as they can still shoot.

For the rest of the Tau readying isn't particularly useful, as with only 1 shooty Nid, and it has first shot, the others mill around a bit to try to improve their positions.

In the shooting phase the Nid Warrior manages to roll 6 shots, I probably should have split these, but instead fire them all at the Ion rifle sniper. Who ends up very dead.

The Tau in the building put loads of fire into the Lictor at the back. 5+ save is a bit rubbish, ends up with 3 wounds and 2 flesh wounds.

The warrior in the building takes a few hits bit saves them all.

The melee is a slap fight. Which isn't good for the lictor, who was really expecting a win, hitting on 2s and wounding on 2s, but the suit saves on 3s.


Turn 2
Tau win initiative.



Suit and drones fall back from the lictor. Drone on the far side moves towards Nid deployment zone.
Lictor that was in melee, charges up on to the second floor - but target (rail rifle pathfinder) retreats, meaning a failed charge. Lictor goes in anyway, as its in cover, and won't have fart to charge next turn.  Tau don't have much overwatch but manage to cause a wound.
Other Lictor drops back, partly chasing drone.
The combat warrior moves through the building.

Tau shoot the lictor off the floor area. And the drone manages to kill the other lictor.
The warrior with the strangler is ineffectual - just 1 attack this turn

Looking a bit tricky for the Nids

Turn 3.


Warrior in the building waits for a last turn charge onto the objective
Warrior with the strangler readies.

Tau dance around, drone on far side advances round the building.
Tau on the near side advance on the building to try to shoot through the windows - only the breacher gets far enough

Lots of shooting, lit the shooty warrior up with Marker Lights, using 3CP, he makes lots of armour saves...
Warrior with strangler rolls 5 attacks, targets Rail Rifle and Fire Warrior in the building. Gets a wound on the Rail Rifle pathfinder, but he uses a CP to give  a 5+ FnP save which he makes.

Turn 4


Tau move to take middle 2 objectives
Warrior charges Stealth suit on the objective. Ineffectual overwatch from 3 units.

Warrior with the strangler targets the recon drone on the objective, lots of attacks, hits and 2 wounds, and rolls for out of action.  Clearing the objective

Lots of shooting back at warrior causes 2 wounds. Then the drone at the back shoots and kills him
The melee in the middle is another slap fight - the warrior does get 4 hits, and 3 wounds, but the suit saves them all.

Remaining Warrior easily passes break test (Ld 9 is good)

Roll for end of game, ends game, Nids go for a re-roll, and game still ends.

Tau victory 6-2,  1 objective and 3 kills, vs no objectives and 2 kills.

Overall
Interesting game.
The nid list was not ideal. 3 lictors and a shooty warrior might have worked. The melee warrior was just too slow, so I was very cautious with him. But I suspect lictor, warrior, and 8 or so gaunts would be best. With just 2 lictors there is space to run away - although checking Nid tactics Metabloic Overdrive would have helped get the other lictor in on turn 1, which even if it causes a mortal wound isn't a big problem for a lictor.  I also short changed the lictors with 3 wounds, they have 4. They can absorb damage but take quite a lot due to poor save. The warriors made loads of armour saves.

Overwatch - even Tau many shot overwatch doesn't do much against multi-wound models. Or I suspect multiple chargers.

More shots is good! Seems better to shoot more than have few harder hitting shots. With relatively few targets the Tau could concentrate their fire which was very effective.

The smaller table changes things. Also the deployment zones were much bigger, than the deep triangles we used on Friday. Lots of fast nids would have been right in the action very quickly.

Its good that combat focused force seems playable vs a very shooty one.

[Techno]

Great stuff, Forbes ! 

Cheers - Phil

[Womble67]

Looks really good Fred

Take care

Andy

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice one Forbes

[Matt J]

Cool Forbes  - is that standard 40K rules or killteam? (been thinking about delving into killteam)

[fred.]

Thanks chaps

Matt - Kill Team rules. Lots of my gaming group are big into 40k. But I've never been able to face the effort or cost of full on 40k. Plus I find the rules far too fiddly for the model count involved. Kill Team solves all those problems with something like 5-15 figures doing you steam for most factions.

All you need is the core rule book around £25. You are likely to have terrain and perhaps even figures.