Tyranid Terrain

Greetings!  A while back, sometime around 4th edition 40K, I had built up a Tyranid force and focused mostly on Genestealers and Gaunts.  It was a purely recreational force. Eventually, I had made several bits of terrain based mostly on what I could scrounge from the box set Battle for Macrage.  I did make a few spires but modeled them on a more H.R.Giger's style and the Thralls of the Fallen Empires set from Magic: the Gathering.. Here's an older post with picks of the spires and the old Hive Fleet.  There were also breeding pits, hive nodes (built up versions of those found in the box set) and even some mutated vegetation and overrun ruins.  A lot of it got recommissioned into later terrain except for the spires which I put up for sale as they were along with all the Tyranid army since I had begun to play Tau more often.


Now that 6th edition has arrived, and terrain has begun to take on a bit more significance, I've dove back into making Tyranid terrain.  To start off the adventure, I've made some spires. These are two different building techniques. One uses plaster cloth over foam and the other is built up from card stock.  Both are detailed in hot glue. I decided to paint them in Hive Fleet Behemoth's color scheme.

You can click on the above image to see a larger photo.  The black primed gaunt is to show scale. I chose to go seven to eight inches tall since that's about how far up a typical flier reaches above the table.  Next up will be some hive nodes and a few digestion pools along with the tortured vegetation and overrun ruins. 

Imperial Guard Display Board-Elements

This project was to produce several elements for use on an Imperial Guard Display Board.  Marc wanted some sandbags for his Heavy Weapons teams, a couple of Tank Emplacements and a hill for his Command Squad. Since the hill had to be blended in with the rest of the display, it didn't need to be finished beyond a substrate and surface preparation. I did create the sandbags and wall but built these in a way that they could be added after the hill's integration and finishing.  I also included a few camouflage nets to add to the tank emplacements and command hill.  Again, these were not fixed to place so as not to be a speed bump when Marc paints the hills and emplacements to match the rest of his board.

Enjoy!

Battle Report Blood Angels vs Raven Guard

No photos this time as this game was played under a time constraint, so I'll have to rely on my narrative skills to relay the events of my most recent game:

Raven Guard (Marc)
Shrike
Terminators (lightning claw)
Vanguard Vets
2 Tactical squads in Drop Pods
1 Squad in a Laser Cannon Razorback
Dreadnought with two Twin Linked Auto Cannons
Scouts
...I think that's it.

Blood Angels (Moi')
Terminator Librarian (Fear of Darkness, Unleash Rage)
Death Company (Hammer, 2 Power Swords, 2 Chain Swords)
Death Company Dreadnought (Mag Grapples, Blood Claws, Melta, Heavy Flamer)
2 Assault Squads of 10 models with Laser Razorback (2 Melta, Power Fist)
Sanguinary Priest (stock load out)
Baal Predator (Flamestorm, Heavy Flamers)

My strategy:
Combat Squad for any mission having 4 or more objectives.  Everything starts on the board (except Dawn of War) with Baal in reserve to outflank.  For Dawn of War, only Death Co. and Librarian deploys.

Terrain Agreement: True Line of Sight.  No area terrain (there weren't any ruins or trees) only two of the 3 spires are impassable. No dangerous terrain.

We roll: Seize Ground (5! Objectives!  C'MON!) Dawn of War.  Objectives get grouped at the south end of the board.  I loose the initiative but he elects to go second.  Death Co. deploys as far forward as possible but I divide them: Dread mid board and Jumpers at the south side.  Razor back with 5 models deploys across from the Death Co Dread.  He then drops infiltrators: Scouts and Shrike attached to Terminators and loiter at the north end with scouts in difficult terrain.  I start to think about how to remove Shrike, The Terminators and the Scouts before turn 2.  He goes to seize the initiative...rolls a 3.

Turn 1, Blood Angels.

I combat squad my Assault Marines putting the Meltas and Fist of each in their respective Razorbacks and march one towards the nearest objective making a clear and open challenge.  Also moving are both Death Co.  Then I tank shock the Terminator/Shrike unit with Razor 1 and force them to fall back. Another tank shock from Razor 2 against the scouts pushes them out of difficult terrain.  The fourth combat squad comes in behind the scouts.  Everyone jumps out of the Razorbacks and start pouring into the scouts and Terminators.

Turn 1, Raven Guard
Shrike and Terminators fall back some more. Drop Pod hits the north end, Auto Cannon Dread marches on.  His Laserback grants the Death Co. Dread the Emperor's Peace. Auto Cannon Dread starts to work on the Death Co. Jumpers and I start loosing models.

Turn 2, Blood Angels
Those that can, embark and a Razorback launches after the retreating Shrikenators.  The second Razorback hurls itself at the newly arrived Tactical squad but they dodge it.  The assault squad that marched in at the north end begins a sprint towards the objectives at mid board.  The Death Co. moves in on the Autocannon Dread.  More firing into Shrikenators thins the unit out a bit. The Librarian introduces the tactical squad I couldn't shock to the Darkness and they break.  No need to assault.

Turn 2, Raven Guard
The Shrikenators and Tactical Squad continue their retreat. Second of his Drop Pods hit along with the Vanguards using Heroic Intervention.  More shooting thins down the Death Co. to just a Hammer, Lemartes and a Power Sword.  The Vets throw themselves at the assault squad camping out on an objective and reduce them to one guy with a chainsword.

Turn 3, Blood Angels
Baal comes in from reserve outflanking.  My plan is to rush the newly arrive tactical squad at the south end of the board and vaporize them.  Then, when my last assault marine in the nearby close combat falls to Lightning Claws, fry the Vanguards.  Only I roll the opposite direction so the Baal comes in at the north.  At least it can help push the retreating units off the table.  I claim the objective near my Librarian and make for the mid board objectives.  The Death Co. Assault the Auto Cannon Dread and does nothing.

Turn 3, Raven Guard
The retreating units inch ever closer to the edge of the world.  Only cursory shooting from drop pods and Dreadnought to no real effect.  The retreating Tactical Squad does manage to break an Assault Squad and they fall back towards a Laserback.  The Laserback breaks for the south east objective and deploys it's five marines on it.  Death Co. finally in sight and range of a target they could fight...but no...they're too busy raging against the machine.   Vanguards mop up then hop north to contest objectives.

Turn 4, Blood Angels
The retreating Assault Squad Knows No Fear and manages to get it's head back in the game and its collective rumps back in a Laserback.  Said Laserback then Mach Vs to the mid board objective and lands its.  I'm telling you, dozer blades are so WORTH IT!  The Baal mimics and manages to put itself between the two retreating masses of models and withing 6" of each. The rest of the forces push towards objectives which, at this point, may as well be on another table.  The Deatch Co Jumpers chase the Autocannon Dread some more.

Turn 4, Raven Guard
More retreating.  The Autocannon Dread pulls back into the south east corner. The vanguards are on their way to the Librarian (it looks like that, though he could break east and go to the mid board objective). The south board tactical squad claims that objective.  Then the Laserback launches up the hill and bumps into my Laserback nullifying my claim on the mid board objective.

Time gets called and the game ends.  Raven Guard wins 2 to 1. We both agree that the Baal's missed opportunity swayed much of the game, but it was my reaction to Shrike, Terminators and Snipers that assisted.

Overall thoughts:

So keeping the Dozer Blades.  May be thinking of starting the board with the Death Co. Dread and Deep Striking the Jumpers so that they don't get too distracted. The other option is to loose their packs and stuff them in a Rhino until the time is right.  Ultimately, I like to put the Jumpers in a Storm Raven and DoA on select targets but the tourney I'm playing in has a comp and it would cost me.  It may also be prudent to start the board with the Baal. It's fast and could easily catch up and support if a deployment goes against my expectations.  I'm considering replacing the Razorbacks, or at least one, with Rhinos so I could get the whole assault squad down board if needed when I don't combat squad them.

Some sets of terrain I did for GEG

It was great seeing my terrain in use during the opening of the CoC. Based on the responses and opinions I got from some of the players, it seems that the terrain not only looked well, but played well. Here's a few pics I took at the tournament.

 Island terrain set.  I'm planning a fully modeled board with larger pieces of terrain that can be moved about for variety.

 Here's a detail shot of the Island center piece.  I like the way the cave turned out.

 Here's the Snow set.  Based on the Battle of Hoth complete with a Wampa cave.

A detail shot of the Wampa along with gratuitous art label nested in the cave.  Sculpting the Wampa was a lot of fun.  I researched the creature through several sources and noted that it would only be a head or two taller than a Space Marine. I went with a slightly larger scale to make it look more menacing.






Here's a shot of my brother's army on the board I made him.  It's 24"x24" on expanded foam based on hard board and included some ruins and rubble terrain.

Great Escapes' Contest of Champions 2012

1250 Blood Angels
Opponents:
Raven Guard
Chaos Daemons
Black Templars

Results:  3 losses
Impressions:
I feel I performed better with my Tau in last year's opening event than with the Blood Angels which only reinforces what I should have remembered and done: play the army you plan to play.  To be honest, I built the list from a gun line perspective with  Laser Cannon Razorbacks and a Devastator when I should have remembered that the Blood Angels are all about Close Combat. I gave myself only a few practice games and really should have clocked at least a game a week over the winter break.  Familiarization of a list is not something you have just by building it; there should be as many games as possible with that list before the tournament.  So I'll not be faulting my choice of units but rather my poor tactics and limited strategy. 

As for my opponents:  Each was as much fun to play against as I could hope for.  It's a good feeling to walk away from a lose and still feel that the game was good. 

Some shots of the games and the armies my Blood Angels faced

First Round: Raven Guard featuring 2 Landspeeders, Bikes, Scouts, TermiCaptain with Terminators and two Tacticals.  You can see from the first photo that I wasn't really paying attention to the missions and the army.
Sometime along mid game, I remembered that I was playing Blood Angels and having lost the LasCans and Demolisher, dove into my opponent.  Live and learn...assault marines are for assaulting.




Not too sure what I was hiding for...old habits?

 One fun moment of the game was tank shocking terminators. 

Round two was against a beautifully modeled and customized army of Chaos Daemons using mostly Slaanesh units.  My deployment felt a bit more thought out. I knew that the Seekers would be fast, but somehow forgot that my Baal Preditor would have more fun with them than the Daemonites.







Daemonette "Mermaids" advance on an immobilized Razorback.  It got exploded,  so the AMs inside weren't destroyed right off. Lyzz had the Daemonettes encircled about the Razorback.

 A Herald of Slaanesh; my VIP target. 

 Another fun moment:  Terminators, led by the Librarian, versus a Daemon Prince/King Crab.

 Last round of the day went fairly quick.  A single objective with table quarters added to the fun that is the good old fashioned annihilation mission. By this time, I was really getting the swing of the Blood Angels and was having a good time with the Baal Predator. Deep Striking Terminators into the open, while good for avoiding mishaps, is lethal when done in front of a Land Raider.  Last time I challenged one of them was the last time I used Tau Stealth Suits with Fusion Blasters.

 The remains of the Terminator unit scrambled up the hill to claim only to be reminded who the true king of the hill would be.

The southern end of the field was pretty much too far away to do anything useful.

Forest Battle Terrain

The Forest Battle.  Approximately 6 square feet of terrain.  This set was originally themed on the Battle of Endor and was to include ruined huts and platforms. (You can see the original notes here)  After I began to assemble the core elements I began to see the set for what it wanted to be.  So I set aside the original concept for a latter project.  This result is more flexible as it could be used for both 40k and Fantasy Battles.
I'm looking forward to playing it.

Enjoy!

Ideas for Terrain Sets

I've been designing and building sets of terrain for my local game store, Great Escapes Games and it's been a great opportunity and lots of fun.  The only problem is that I've yet to build a set of terrain for use at home.  So, while I work on a Forrest Battle set for the upcoming Contest of Champions, I began work on a set that could be used in 40k.

After some initial sketches and a rough plan for number and size of pieces, I start off the building process by making a test piece.  The one pictured here is near completion with only the windows and door to be detailed.  There aren't any other in progress photos because I didn't think to take any...I'll try not to let that happen any more.  The concept came from Riddly Scott's approach to set design in Blade Runner - Retro Fitting.  I'll have several structures taken from various architectural periods and regions and then muck up the facades with bitz and gubbins.  It'll have an overall Steam/Diesel Punk feel but be well within the scope of W40K.

As for the Forrest Battle set:  I've completed the test piece.  It measures 6" x 9" by 5" tall.  The fallen branch was sculpted out of balsa wood, the broken tree trunk was sculpted from polymer clay. 

Here's a shot of the notes for the set.  As you can see, it's themed around the ruins of a forest encampment. The dimensions indicated are just a rough idea based on 25% table coverage.  After the test piece was done, I'm opting for many smaller pieces of terrain that could be grouped together to form large areas of cover or spread out to allow for more open play.  Smaller pieces, like the  6"x9" test piece, can be inter mixed with the existing terrain so several tables could benefit from the theme.  There will be one or two larger models with multiple levels.











To be updated....

C!nder