The shopping continues...

I've been entertaining myself with some very geeky retail therapy and have just bought this:


Coronis Campaign Collectable Card Game. It's a now oop game that pits the Guard against the 'Nids on Coronis IV, I thought it might help with generating some mini-campaign ideas...

And this:


White Dwarf 183. It's got a section on the Valhallans in it (and Epic scale Nids).

And... (no picture here, it'd be too dull), some more paints (5 at 3 Euros a pot) and more plastic plasma guns and plasma pistols (stupidly I didn't buy the chainsword and bolt pistol I need). Why do I need them? To convert my next ebay purchase which is going to be the dude on the left in the picture below (he'll be my Commissar):

List version three

And on we go again...

• Company CS (Plasma Pistol, 4 Plasma guns, Chimera – ML, HF)
• Platoon CS (4 Flamers)
• 3 Infantry Squads (Grenade Launcher, Missile Launcher) 1 Commissar (Plasma Pistol, Power Sword)
• 2 Veteran Squads (3 Meltaguns, Chimera – ML, HF)
• 1 Vet Squad (3 Meltaguns, plasma pistol) (Will ride in a Vendetta)
• 1 Vendetta
• 1 Leman Russ Executioner (lascanon, Plasma Cannon sponsons)
• 1 Leman Russ Demolisher (Hull mounted HF)
• Griffon (HF)

I've posted the list to an Imperial Guard forum to see if anyone can help me out. That's here.

Tervigon

Hi Paul, browsing the internet brought me to a conversion kit that makes up a Tervigon, it might be worth a look?

Tervigon kit here...

Looks like it'd cost about £15-20 posted.

Just spotted that they sell them on ebay here.

happy birthday!

Hello birthday boy,
I hope that you got to Germany ok and that you travel was event free.
I'm just going to glue a couple of genies together now (it's the first time in days that Rosie has been asleep before 10 - I'm knackered).
Remind me, are you back in a week?

P.

Spanked!

Another outing for the vailant guard last night, this time at 1500 points. Same tragic outcome! The scenario wasn't in our favour (we had to set up in the centre of the board and went second) and I made a few mistakes. My first mistake was that I didn't design a list with the scenario in mind, the second was that a couple of my units were in charge range from turn one (not that I had much choice), the third was that I didn't know the rules about disembarking from destroyed vehicles and one of my units had to miss a turn as a result (and then died). As a result I was on the back foot from turn one. I did manage to kill a fair bit of stuff and had a couple of vehicles left at the end but it was never going to go my way.

Highlight of the match: Sly Marbo appears from reserve and throws a demolition charge (Large blast, S8, AP2) at a unit of tyranid warriors. The odds say that three should die. Instead it moves onto him (quite unlikely as he has BS5 and can shift the scatter by that much) and kills him instead (he had a 3-up save). Then, the Vendetta that was poised to finish off the remains of the unit fails to score a single would with three twin-linked lascannons. That same Vendetta would then fail two 4 up saves in a later turn and be taken down! All I can say is that while I probably deserved to lose moments like this really sealed my fate.

Lessons learned (the hard way):

1) Sometimes it's better to be wiped out in combat than to survive the initial assault (in order to be able shoot at the attacker).
2) Learn the rules (of the armies and the book in general).
3) Remember that lots of Tyranid stuff can assault 18".
4) I think I need a better army list.

Chimeras are go....

After an evening of sniffing glue and watching Death Race on tv I now have three built Chimeras. Got a game on Tueday (1500 point game of a mission called First Contact from the Battle Missions book). Should be a good one, my motto for the game: 'don't get out of the tanks...'

Naming names...

With your story request in mind, I've found a list of Russian (Valhallan) names, I'll allocate them as and when...

FORENAMES
SURNAMES

For now we have:

• Colonel Resnikov
• Commissar Golovkin
• Lieutenant Veis
• Sen. Sergeant Zukov (Vet squad leader)
• Sen. Sergeant Tomilin (Vet squad leader)
• Sergeant Pravdin
• Sergeant Mahkno
• Sergeant Kenin
• Major Levkova (Tank Company Commander and sole survivor of the last battle)
• Captain Loffe (Vendetta Pilot)

To arms!

Last night the Valhallans got their first crack at the Tyranids in a 1000 point game of Annihilation (kill points for units destroyed). The Guard had a Vendetta, a chimera full of Veterans with 3 meltas, a merged squad of 20 men with a commissar and a couple of lascannons, a platoon command squad with 4 flamers, an Executioner tank and a company command squad in a chimera with 3 plasma guns. The Tyranids had: a Tyranid Prime, 3 Tyranid Warriors, 3 Tyranid Warriors, 3 Hive Guard (split into two units), 15 Hormagaunts, 15 Hormagaunts, a Biovore, and a Trygon.

On set up the battle looked like this:


The guard had the first turn and managed to shoot about nothing (3 little dudes died). In return, the Nids killed the Vendetta and half of the big troops squad and most of them advanced to the middle of the table.

Turn two, with less shooting than before saw the guard do not much but the Company Command squad did move forward 6 inches! In response the Gaunts smacked up the Guard who were hiding in the wood. The Tyranid Warriors killed the CCS's chimera and they got out (handily running behind it out of combat range). The Trygon arrived in the middle of the battlefield and went RAAAAAAGH!
Turn three was my favourite as the Company Command squad, and the Leman Russ tank, managed to kill the Trygon (it took six re-rollable plasma gun shots and 5 plasma cannon shots to fell the beast). This involved me reading the rules for Monstrous Creatures who, thankfully, don't get cover saves unless they're 50% obscured. Paul wasn't too pleased! My Platoon Command squad ran through the woods and flamed all but one of the little bugs who'd just killed their friends. The survivor, because he was near a synapse creature, was able to rally and would then hide so I didn't get the kill point! In response to my good turn, the Nids massacred the Company command squad and killed the other Chimera with shooting.

The following turns involved the Nids killing everything and losing a little in return to shooting. On the last turn this was all that was left of the valiant Valhallans:

Believe it or not the tank survived!

In the end I had three kill points, Paul had five. Although I was almost wiped out, if I'd had a couple of luckier dice rolls it would have been a draw (he had a couple of units that were close to dead that could easily have died). Looking at the table, a victory for the Nids looked much more sensible, the only reason I could have drawn is that my army (by no intention of mine) had very few kill points to give up while Paul's had loads).

Good fun but scary for the Guard who found themselves out-gunned (a surprise) and out-fought!

Spraygun...

Tonight has been quite productive, I've based the men that were built, undercoated the tanks black and then basecoated them (and my hands) Adeptus Battle Grey using the GW spray gun. I'm not entirely convinced that it's a good thing and it's certainly no better than a can of grey spray paint would have been. The paint has gone on, it's not entirely smooth but as I'm going to apply whitewash with a sponge tomorrow that doesn't really matter. I'm a bit nervous about using it on the Vendetta though. I might practice a bit on the next bunch of tanks if they ever come (they're awaiting stock at Wayland).

Tomorrow you might just get a picture of the army as it stands.

tell me a story

My thought for the day is that I want to use our bettle to try to write a battrle story - I'm imagining a plucky group of Imps ready to defend an outpost (to the last man), knowing that a swarm of nids are heading their way. Wave after wave of gribblies pooping out yet more of the blighters.

Other than that, I'm shattered and heading to bed now.

Oh by the way, I have noted the hint about the lehmen russ tank. I'll have a look at how much they are and see if I can get one to wend its way to you.

Hybrid Bus Fleet

Imagine my horror as, with Tyrannids on the brain, I saw this message in my work emails:

Subject: Hybrid Bus Fleet Hits Oxford Road

Of course, it only took a second to realise that it wasn't actually a new Tyrannid spawning...

Vendetta

I got a little more done tonight with the completion of the Vendetta. I also made the happy discovery that the Forgeworld upgrade kit meant I could ditch one of the lascannons (the one on the side). Why good news? Because I'd lost the lascannon from my Leman Russ and a bit of scalpel work converted it into a fine replacement for the missing piece.

Tomorrow night, all being well, I hope to base the troops and also to try out the GW spray gun which I'm hoping to use to basecoat all of the tanks and maybe to lay down a base coat on the troops too. I've read such awful things about the spraygun on the internet that my hopes aren't high.

Finally, I've stuck the various unused weapons from the Valkyrie (door gunners, rocket pods and missiles) up on ebay to raise some more cash for the war chest!

Wayland 1 : Wallet 0

Hello there,
I've ordered more stuff from Wayland. It's the main thing that I am without, namely the hive guard unit. I have also ordered more wee gaunts for the big griblly to poop out. Now I can relax a bit on the buying front (thank goodness, as this has been as expensive few weeks) and just keep an eye out on the e bay for some gaunts and anything else that looks good (like a venomthrope).

I now need to get on with undercoating the things that I have built lately (probably a job for the weekend) and finish building the rest of the army. Then its time to get the paint pots out. So much left for us to do and yet there's so little time...

Left to paint:
Around 40 gaunts
2 Trygons
1 tyranid prime
1 gaunt pooper
10 gene stealers
3 hive guard

Probably some other stuff too that I've forgotten.
Chances of getting it all painted.... not much. Will have it all built and undercoated though, AND some stuff painted.

How are you doing? Will set a date soon,

P.

Hello there Top Gun,
I too have started buying stuff - my order from Mayland has been taken to the Post Office collection point, there by giving me a Saturday job. It's another Trygon and a zoanthrope.

At the moment my shopping list consists of:
More termagaunts
More Hormagaunts
3 Hive guards

The number of termagaunts needed is especially hard to judge as I have one of those aliens which breeds more of them ever turn... dirty!

I am also tempted to buy a couple of venomthropes, but I'm not really sure I have room for them in my army. Something else would have to go. On the plus side, I do think they look cool in a squid like octopus way (they're the things with the big tentacles incase you're not sure).

I have spent the last couple of nights starting to buiild my first trygon. It's one of those finely balanced models which need the glue to have dried on the previous part before you can glue the next part on - a bit annoying. Still, by Sunday it will be built. based and undercoated, along with 16 terms, 16 horms and 3 zoanthropes. Next week I start putting red paint on things! Bring it on!!!

Buying stuff...

After some decent ebay sales I've begun my shopping. So far I've bought:

Forgeworld Vendetta conversion kit
3 Chimeras
6 laspistols
2 plasmaguns
Meltagun dude
greenstuff
2 tyrannid skulls

I need:

1 plasma gun
1 mortar firer
3 60mm round bases
Leman Russ tank
Paintbrushes
Figure cases (that's too dull to think about)

If you fancy buying me a Leman Russ tank (or part of one), it'd make my birthday!

All quiet on the Eastern front...

Not a lot to report, I've been basing stuff (the good news is that the troops for a metal army don't need building, the bad news is that lots of mine haven't got base tabs and need pinning, oh and I'm drilling out gun barrels...) They'll all be based by the end of the week. I've also just failed to order from Wayland, I'll retry tomorrow but the good news there is (a) they have free shipping (code: FREESHIP), and (b) I have enough from my ebay sales to buy all three Chimeras!

Oh, and expect a text about the IG codex.

Your army list2 still looks like a whole bunch of heavy shooting is going to be levelled against the swarm... I hope you are going to need it!I intend to swarm all over you!

One of my things to buy is going to be the Imp Gaurd book so I can find out what all thise nasty things do.

I also went in to a GW store today (bought a pot of paint) and happened to mention this blog / match up we have organised. The manager was frothing at the proverbial. He said things like: "Classic match up! Gaurds against 'nids, classic!"

I think he approves.

Sleep well... dream of your beautiful world before the nids come and suck the precious life out of it...

Army list version two...

A new list is born….

Company Command 190
4 plasma guns, officer of the fleet, chimera (H Flamer)

Infantry Platoon 435
Platoon Command + 4 flamers, Chimera (HF)
3 squads G Launcher, Las Cannons (1 x Commissar)
Heavy Weapons Squad (3 x Hvy Bolter)
Vet Squad (3 meltas, Chimera) 155
Vet Squad (3 meltas) (Vendetta riders) 100
Vendetta Gunship 130
Griffon Hvy Flamer 75
LR Executioner (Plasma Sponsons, Lascannon) 245
Leman Russ (lascannon) 165
TOTAL: 1495

And why these changes? First up, I don't have the models to provide the Special weapons squad (hence the Hvy Bolter squad). Second, I wanted at least one commissar in there (the infantry unit he's with may be joined to another one to make his abilities better). Third, I didn't like the idea of ratlings, they're a bit too daft (an I don't own any)...

Jobs to do:

Buy:

3 Chimeras, 1 Leman Russ, 1 plasma gun, 1 melta gun, 3 Hvy Wpns bases, Officer of the fleet, mortar firer, 6 plastic laspistols.

Build/base infantry.

Build 4 tanks

Convert 1 x plasma gunner, 2 x melta gunners, 6 officers to carry laspistols.

Paint it all..... Mwahahahahahah.....

I've written a list of jobs that I need to do week by week as we lead up to the show down. it's quite an ambitious plan and includes:
By 12th March: have all hormagaunts & termagaunts built and undercoated.
19th March: All gene steallers and trygon built and undercoated - start painting trygon
26th March: Finalise army list and ensure that everything is built and undercoated - continue painting trygon
2nd April: Trygon completed. Base colours on all gaunts
9th April: Base colours on all beasties.

Obvously I'm not sure of the date that we are going to play on, but I'm guessing I'm getting close to D day at htis point. Hopefully you will face a tyranid force with a nicely painted centre piece model and lots of table top standard models which I can trhen complete at a more liesurely pace (I may well be sick of the sight of the blighters by the time we start throwing any dice). Anyway, let me know your plan of action!

Departmento Munitorum

'The Departmento Munitorum is a department of the Administratum devoted to the general administration, supply and command of the Imperial Guard, however despite its neccesity it is often viewed by Imperial Guard as ineffective. The Munitorum has ultimate responsibility for the raising of new regiments, training of troops, provision of equipment and supplies, and transportation of troops and equipment to and from theatres of war. It is primarily a logistical organisation, like the Administratum, but while the Administratum deals with civilian logistics, the Munitorum deals with the logistics of war.' (Lexicanium)

With reports of the inbound Hivefleet mounting, the Departmento Munitorum is gearing up for war, finally relenting to Chenkov’s desperate calls for men and materiel… Requisition orders are drafted and ready:

The Wayland Forgeworld:

3 x Chimeras - £49.20

1 x Leman Russ Battle Tank - £24.60

The Forgeworld Forgeworld:

1 x Vendetta upgrade kit - £14.30

BitzBox Forgeworld:

4 x Catachan command laspistols - £1.20

2 x plasma guns - £2.00

2 x Cadian Command chainsword - £0.80

1 x Leman Russ lascannon - £1.50

Forgeworld Ebay:

More Valhallans… £??

Forgeworld GW Mail Order:

Imperial Guard Lord Commissar - £8.20

Imperial Guard Commissar with Powersword - £8.20

6 x 60mm round bases - £5.10

Wow, that's a lot of artillary that the nids are going to come up against. I will need to think of something clever to avoid having the poop shot out of my devouring swarm... Not setting up a room length apart will of course help.

I have been toying with buying some venomthropes. They're the ones that look a bit like an octopus and I quite like them. The only problem is that I am starting to want most things in my army now and need to stay a little more focussed.

Tonight I have glued together 4 little gaunts. Every little helps!

Mustering the Valhallans

In preparation for the inevitable shopping trip, here's a list of what I've got so far.

TROOPS:
Commander Chenkov
Platoon Leader
4 sergeants
29 lasgun dudes
3 meltagunners
3 grenade launchers
9 flamers
3 radio men
4 lascannons
3 hvy bolters
3 missile launchers

VEHICLES:
Griffon
Leman Russ Executioner

MISC:
1 tank driver
4 tank riders
5 spare radios
3 plastic plasma guns
1 plastic meltagun