Tyranid Emergence

I'm a little bit late to the party, but I've put together a scenario that fits in with this month's FTW collaborative post topic: Tyranids.

Battles to defend against ravening tyranid hordes are the norm. Nothing stirs up faith in the emperor like a sea of teeth and talons. But what about when the poor bugs are just minding their own business? What about after the epic battles are over? I imagine there's still a lot of cleanup work after a hive fleet has been driven off.

This scenario pits an attacking force against a swarm of tyranids that have been hiding underground. The attacker's goal is to seal the burrows the tyranids are using to get to the surface. The tyranids are trying to escape so they can spread to other parts of the planet. The game is probably best played at 1500 to 2000 points. It would also work to replace tyranids with necrons or orks. In this case they'd be emerging from crypts or caves instead of swarming from their nests. The scenario could also be easily modified as a planetstrike variant.

Setup: The defender places d3+2 objectives on the table. The first objective is placed in the center of the table. All other objectives are placed no closer than 12" to another objective, and no closer than 18" to any table edge.

Deployment: The defender deploys as many of their units as they want so that each unit has a model within 6" of an objective marker, and does not have a model closer than 12" to a table edge. The attacking player sets up second and gets the first turn. The defender may attempt to seize the initiative. Units under the attacking player's control can be setup within 12" of any table edge.

Special Rules:

• Shut that Hole: Each objective marker counts as an AV 11 stationary vehicles that can only be damaged in close combat. Any glancing or penetrating hit destroys the marker. Once destroyed remove it from the board. The attacker scores one victory point every time this happens.
• The Swarm Emerges: Whenever a defending unit comes on from reserves it must deploy using an objective marker as though it was a table edge. Any unit that deploys using deep strike rules may deploy within 6" of an objective marker without scattering. If a defending unit is forced to fall back towards a table edge then treat the nearest objective marker as the nearest table edge.
  
• Spread the Swarm: At the end of the defender's movement phase any non-flying troop choice defending units control that have at least one model in base contact with a table edge may be removed from the board. The defending player scores one victory point every time this happens.
• Without Number: Non flying troop choice defending units that get destroyed or move off the table edge are placed in reserves.

Victory Conditions: Determine the last turn of the game as you would for a Capture and Control mission. The winner at the end of the game is the player with the most victory points. Note that the game automatically ends when the last objective is removed from the board, or the defender scores more victory points than the number of objectives at the start of the game.

WIP: Termagant

Clicking around on links today I stumbled upon a Quick and Dirty Tutorial for painting up a termagant. I was inspired and since I've got a bunch of unpainted termagants lying around I thought I'd grab one up and see how it goes. To the left is the fruit of my labors. I've chosen a different color scheme than the one in the tutorial, but I think it worked out pretty well. Although if you've seen the razorback I'm working on you might agree that I'm using too much green and brown for my current projects. The colors just go together so well.

I'm not super happy with how the wash came out. Just like the razorback it seemed like it went on way too splotchy. The tutorial used devlan mud and it seemed like it came out really smooth so I'm not sure where my technique is going wrong. Well, I've got about 40 of these buggers to practice on so here's to hoping things improve with practice.

The last thing I want to mention is that painting this guy took very few colors. Using only eight bottles of paint, this is a project that's really easy to carry around or leave in a small box to pick up whenever you have a spare half hour. I'd definitely recommend the tutorial for anyone in desperate need of getting their bug army in tabletop condition.

WIP: Warhound Turbo-Laser

One of the projects I'm working on concurrently with my razorback is a turbo-laser for my chaos warhound. The barrels are made half inch PVC pipe and the tip is from the narrow end of a one inch to half inch reducer coupling. The rear housing is a modified build of the megabolter housing from some warhound plans I found online (In the interest of giving credit where it's due you can find the plans here). It's just made out of a cut up cereal box. The PVC pipe I've got is a bit softer and easier to work with than the standard rigid stuff you find at the hardware store. It's called Vanguard PEX tubing and it submits to being easily carved and shaped with a hobby knife, but it's still rigid enough the barrels don't droop. It probably wouldn't be appropriate to use it for anything that needs to support weight, but when I go back and add some detailing to the barrels I'll be able to carve directly into them.

With the main build-out and housing done the next stage is to put in some detailing. I'm thinking a vent or two. Some wire running the length of barrels and a chaos symbol spread across the top and side of the housing. Also some plates and rivets so it looks more like an armored weapon than a cardboard box.

Once this prototype is done I'll use the cardboard housing as a template to redo the housing in more durable plasticard or thin masonboard.

WIP: Space Marine Razorback

The razorback has a good coat of paint on it now. The main colors are the GW foundation paints Tausept Ochre and Orkhide Shade which I think go together pretty well. The color scheme is as close to what was in my head as is possible.

There's still probably a few hours of detailing work to get through before I can declare it done, but I can feel how it's going to look when it's completed. Once this guy is done I can move onto modding and painting up the squad that's going to ride in it.