O Alladin, Where Art Thou?

Hey all! I am here!

It's been a bit tough trying to carve out some time write up a few. Lots of stuff going on, both hobby related (good!) and unrelated (still generally good, but boring!). The plus side of this is that my free time has generally been spent painting, modeling and gaming. The downside is that this newfound hobby motivation is keeping me away from the blogosphere, and I am missing lots of cool stuff.

On the modeling side of things, I am still working on finishing up odds and ends of my Tyranids. Mainly magnetizing weapon loadouts, with the largest part being the 5 Brainleech Devourer arms still waiting to be built.

One game I played looked like this, except the exact opposite. Read more to find out how!

On the painting side of things, I really want to finish up the rest of my Inquisitorial Henchman Squad.  The Ripper bases were technically next on my to-do list to paint, but I think I will opt for the Unsanctioned Psykers instead. It will be my first foray into flesh tones, so am nervous/excited about that!

I also have chosen the colour scheme for my Tyranid bases. Even though the plasticard flat-rock design is identical to my GK's, I felt a different colour would work better. Plus, having all my armies based identically would be a bit bland, methinks. That said, I will try and remember to put a test photo up soon.

From the gaming side of things, I played another two games, the first being a wholeheartedly disaster of an affair vs a Revenant Titan and support. I went into it pretty cocksure, with some decent strategies I thought would be able to win me some Maelstrom points and neutralize the Str D pie-plate hurt, but once the dice started rolling I made some pretty boneheaded moves, coupled with Eldar being generally tricksy buggers, meant an abysmal outcome for me.

Without going into much detail, We played Vanguard Strike, and he hid most of his support units in the back end away from harm. I rolled poorly for first turn, but with Escalation bonus and Strategic Warlord trait, I managed to get my Seize the Initiative roll to 4+..... and promptly failed it. Then, he wiped out all of my Shrouding, plus my Crone and TFex in one round of Revenant. My Flyrants were still good, so I thought I still had a chance.... until a poor positional play by me allowed him to target a lone hormagaunt with his blasts and StrD my poor Swooping Flyrant due to scatter. Also, 3 Hornets with 12 Str8 Ap2 shots helped by Guide felled one Flyrant on Turn 2. By the top of Turn 3 we called it, as I had a Warrior Squad and some scattered gribblies from Endless Swarm left, and he lost all of 2 HP on his Revenant. My goal wasn't even to engage it, but positionally I had fewer options. If I had went after his Hornets first, and kept my Flyrants well away from my foot swarms, I could have at least neutralized his ground forces pretty quickly. Alas, it was not the case...

The next game I played was the long-awaited "Title Match" for our Campaign. I had controlled the Palace from Turn 3, and was challenged by Tau for Turn 4 (almost a month ago!). I will write up a quick battle rep if I have time (didn't take any pics, damn it) later this week.

Aside from that, I have a 2vs2 match scheduled in a week or so. 1750pts per player, Nids/Nids vs Tau/Orks. Should be interesting, the other Nid player and I need to decide how cheap we will go (he plays assault Nids exclusively, but after being tabled by the Tau player he is contemplating some Dakka as payback). Will hopefully get more into that in a future post.

And that's it! I will try to post a few more times this week and next, but after that you my not see me until mid-May, as renovation and other events keep me occupied. Hopefully I can jump right in after the dust settles and keep my current productivity pace.