Bigger Bugs Pt 16

   While painting my recent batches of swarms I realised that if I wanted to play a big swarm list I would need a way of keeping the teeming mass going, so I picked the Tervigon off the shelf behind me and gave it a quick paint job.

   I hadn't realised that this thing was a HQ monster when I bought it, thinking it was just part of the swarm, but by running this I was able to free space for some more swarms, which never hurts. While it's the same kit as the Tyrannofex, I'm actually quite pleased by how different it looks, so many duel model kits just look like the same thing with different arms, but this one does look like a new monster.

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The Swarm Pt 12

   Carrying on with the idea of getting swarms painted up, I've picked my other most useful swarm unit the last of my Hormagaunts. To be completely honest, this unit is so over due that it is ridiculous and the fact that I've not got more than 2 boxes this many games in seems a little daft too*.

*but I'm not sure I could face painting an extra 10-20 swarm models at this point

   I've got a game lined up where I want to run a full swarm army to use the Endless Swarm detachment as I love the idea of having more models at points in the game than I started the game with, for 2cp I can bring a whole 20 model unit back onto the board . . .

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The Swarm Pt 11

   Despite being close to finishing all of my current Genestealer Cult models, I've changed tact after a bit of a think. I've mentioned that the current campaign now has an end date, so I thought I had better focus on the main army for the conflict so I can get as much of it on the table as I can.

   I figured the best thing to start with is another swarm unit and the one I fancied painting the least was the last unit of Gargoyles, if you are going to force yourself to paint, you might as well go hard.

   These are painted the same as the other 10 I have already done - one of my first swarm units - but these have their bases finished in time for the photo.

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Pushing The Advantage

   With the Battle of Arccaster breaking the biggest single swarm on the planet of Fratribusia, the Imperium was fast to try and capitalise on their victory, hunting down survivors and surgically hitting any other build ups of Xenos, but the Imperial forces were not blessed with the numbers they had at the start of the war and certain gambits had to be attempted.

   While in other areas the supposedly defeated swarm went on the attack leaving the Imperial defenders scrabbling to hold the line.

   This ended up being a real period of revival for the Tyranid cause, the Imperium had found itself over stretched and the Xenos fully capitalised on this dragging a strong Imperial victory much closer to a draw.

+++ Message to the Governor General +++

My Lord

Scans of the jungle show a build up of titan sized organisms.

I suggest an immediate strike.

 House Steinschild stands ready for deployment.

 Thought for the day: Life is the Emperor's currency, spend it well

 +++ Message Ends +++

   Using another White Dwarf 'Bunker' scenario, this time "Suffer No Rivals" which puts the victory point focus not on the objectives in the centre of the board but in individual models in the opposition's army, we decided to build a mission based around two super heavy (I miss that, that term has gone from 10th edition) models and use the warlord as the second objective.

   The game was played out between my brothers with me just controlling the Imperial Knight (which I lost turn 1!). I was mostly just enjoying watching my brothers playing a game, but I was determined to fight the Hierodule in combat, so saved my main gun for a different target - which was a mistake. 

  With another Imperial victory, we decided to pit my brothers back against each other again, this time in a combat patrol*. For reasons completely unknown, my Tyranid playing brother hid his Termagaunts behind his other beasties, which meant that by turn 2 he had a lot of termagaunts left and not much else, but once he realised what the list can do he managed to pull a win out for the aliens.

*while I tamed the toddler

   The last game was another combat patrol using my own sisters of battle, mostly just for a bit of variety in colour on the table.

Despite the Imperium killing the first titan sized organism spotted on Fratribusia in a well-planned strike, the loss of an irreplaceable Imperial Knight while doing so has severely weakened humanity’s cause. With this loss and multiple small victories across the breadth of the planet the Tyranids are once again in resurgence and control of the planet is slowly slipping away.

There are reports of massive spawning chambers breeding huge new broods of lesser Xenos, can the Imperium hold back this new threat?

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The Cult's Specialists

   The last unit that comes in the combat patrol box are the Acolyte Hybrids. The box comes with 5 that I built as per the instructions for the box (as combat patrol gives you no options on how a model should be armed) while the second 5 I bought separately and used to make the unit a touch more competitive in full lists.

   While I was buying the second box of Acolyte Hybrids, I also picked up a Kellermorph. When I first got into 40k in 3rd edition, characters were definitely a useful thing to have in your army and gave you something to get attached to, but you rarely took more than 1 or 2*. Modern 40k, characters are where big buffs come from and are almost must haves in multiples. Genestealer Cults are one of the armies that really benefit from having some floating about and the Kellermorph is one of my favourites**.

*some armies didn't have more than 1 or 2 options

**at the point of not having yet played

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Mining Machinery Turned Tank

  Another model that came in the Genestealer Cult combat patrol is the Goliath Rockgrinder a piece of mining machinery that the cult are using as an armoured vehicle. I painted the guy on the back with the second batch of Neophytes to save some effort, but I was slightly stuck on the vehicle's colour scheme.

   Then having a think about what colour looks good as an off-grey without being grey, I saw there are two flesh colours in the range that are more of a light greeny-grey than flesh. So I bought some pots and did a test scheme with a green wash in between and have to say I am really pleased with the end result its a horrible colour but that's kind of the point, it feels like a cheap paint*.

   I decided not to tie the other main colours onto this vehicle leaving as a separate thing - in my head the colour you paint a work vehicle doesn't need to match worker overalls, but with the guy on top and other vehicles in the army, it should end up looking natural in time.

*got ideas for other things to paint in this now . . .

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Chaos Rising

   At some point soon we plan to wind up the Fratribusia Campaign as even good things have to come to an end, which has left us talking about what the plan for next year is. The two Imperial players are still building their first armies, so it makes sense for them to stay the side they are, which meant the two Tyranid players would be the opposition. We spoke about a Badab war style campaign of Space Marine chapters but I think we have settled on going fully Chaos.

   While the plan at the moment seems to be to stick to Combat Patrols for the first phases of the campaign, it is the perfect excuse for me to tidy up the last few units of Chaos in my backlog - this unit being one of those.

Ignore the guy at the back with the Heresy era Dark Angels pad . . .

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