Warhammer World Photobomb pt1.

Here's my obligatory selection of cool things from Throne of Skulls. First up this Warhound Titan with glowing eyes.

He came with some Maulerfiends

three of them in fact.

and some 'X-fighter' style Chaos Marine Bikers

It was well executed but I don't think it got nominated for best army which just goes to show, you can't guarantee anything.

Even when you got to town making all these stunt poses to 'amuse your opponent', so it was claimed.

Although I think I'd have been more terrified than amused opposite the Maulerfiends and a Warhound, despite how mych fun the bikers were ;)

Not sure how the defence network came into the mix but a really cool idea.

Liam's Nurgle Daemon Prince next to a Forgeworld Greater Daemon of Tzeentch, which it beat for best Monstrous Creature. I'd have been been quite despondent next to such an enormous beast but it just goes to show that size isn't everything.

Otty's Tyrannofex alongside The Great Maw.

A Harridan also on display.

Individual model entries. Of note in the left pic is Ben's Ghazgkhull Trakka top right, Otty's green Genestealer [converted from one of the Space Hulk models, with Tyranid Warrior Scy Tals] and my Hormo/Termagant middle left on the righthand picture

More entries.

Liam's Typhus conversion and a Tyranid Warrior with a big a$$ gun

More of Proiteus's Gretchin 'Imperial' Guard with a Las Cannon mounted on an old epic Land Raider no less.

Flyers.

Mechanised vehicles and walkers, mmm, pink Rhino!

More mech.

Ork vehicle and Nurgle Rhino.

Wraithknight and Space Wolf Imperial Knight

Closer look at the Space Wolf Imperial Knight, really cool.

Conteptor Dreadnought next to my Reaver Titan which lookd tiny in comparrison to some of these other walkers.

More Contemptors.

Liam's Hellfly and other entries.

Liam's Hellfly and other entries.

Liam's Hellfly and other entries.

Ben's Stompa, the non-metallic brass on the guns is really good close up

Warhounds both loyalist and heretical.

Iron Warriors, my Genestealer head will grace the base of one of these eventually.

A lot of work has gone into these when you consider that a silver colour scheme can be quite straightforwad.

Old Skool Rhino roolz!

Loved this army, the burgundy colours matching throughout.

The bikes too are really cool

Nigel Bartlett was next to me for one of my games but I snapped this pic of his Eldar Corsair's on the Saturday. Metallic colours throughout, I love seeing this, you rarely see metallics outside of silvers and golds and these were executed beautifully.

Typhoon! I would love this, I've no idea how good Tyrpoons are, I've only got the one, want at least two but this looks awesome.

And the rest of the Blood Angels to go with them.

This Daemon arny was immense. I've no idea why this didn't get nominated but uit was fantastic and the lava themed bases throughout - awesome.

Horrors, nurglings and flamers.

Seriously how cool is this?! They look great, how did this not get nominated? I can only think it was commission painted because it's a travesty not to have been included.

More still to come in part 2.

Throne of Skulls March 2014 - Conclusion

So that was it, my five games and a little less indigestion than normal. Lets look at some of my units and how they fared:

Winged Hive Tyrant

To think when I first started taking a Flyrant it was something I felt compelled to do, that he was a liability. For some reason in the new codex he's become indispensable. That reason is probably his Character status and the Tervigon's lack and therefore inability to be your Warlord. He's still fragile and didn't always survive the game but his mobility is awesome. I must learn to utilise him better though. I keep giving up his advantage - the wings and shooting and engaging in protracted assault he cannot win, so I'll think on that.

Tervigon

Tervigons are still good and being forced to take one as a HQ means you know which one you can afford to sacrifice when it come to securing an objective. My spawning was bad, I even elected not to spawn so the Termagants could appear in a prime location later in the game. I'm not sure whether that was best thign to do and made a mockery of the extra Termagants painted but they're split decisions and quite a lot of the time my area was congested anyway so putting more gaunt sinto the mix would have gummed everything up!

Termagants

Little beauties, that 30 strong brood just goes on, I can't believe they took out the Wraiths and being able to spread so far across the board and still stay within synapse - the most under-rated but useful choice in the army.

Hive Guard

So they're now BS3 which gives them a 50:50 chance to hit and I'm thinking they're now a 50:50 unit. Sometimes they'll do exactly what I want and others nothing. They can really have an effect on a game and certainly warrant your opponents attention which means they get tied up in combat but they tend to hold their own. They'll nearly always be part of my list but I mustn't rely on them as much now.

Zoanthrope

He's really useful, his BS3 is handy on the Quad Gun. he can get up and down the Skyshield with ease, though not fit underneath :( and it was often his back field Synapse that kept everyone in check a solid performance I think the 'Dorsal Nucleus of the Vagus node' only died once!

Trygon

Once again the bridesmaid perhaps. The Trygon did a few things, mainly soaked up firepower, I probably need to try a Mawloc again to see if I can get the same distraction effect as the Trygon for less points

Biovore

I don't think he was effective as usual. He had his moments but he's done better. One isn't much outlay really so I'll probably still keep him in a list and they're always useful as a scoring unit in Big Guns Never Tire - I must remember he's now 3 wounds though!

Spore Mines

They were took for a bit of fun really although most people didn't get the joke. I'm glad I took them though as I found out ways to use them, they're useful against things that don't have any ranged weapons to overwatch but as evidenced when they got at the Zombies how many can they actually kill? It's only a large blast, actually I should look at the whole Assault process a bit more, the pile in moves etc. Maybe there would have been more in contact...? Something to look into though , for instance should the models on the first floor been hit? Barrage rules suggest not but the Assault rules state anything in assault can hit models on the floor above... Spore Mines offer up more questions than answers.

Bastion

Survive 3 out of 5 games, lost me First Blood. I still want to take it for the LoS blocking in turn one [and it's easier to transport/set up] but I think the Skyshield can fulfil some of that roll and the Aegis can get me the Quad Gun too. The Heavy Bolters were surprisingly useful though, even on auto fire the Hive consciousness was strong in this bio-construct.

Quad Gun

Well I finally got to fire it, quite a few times too and it was ideally placed to survive almost any return fire. With the Zoanthrope at the controls it was a really good choice but I should have used Interceptor a bit more.

Aegis Defence Line

Help or hindrance, who knows, but it's a mandatory requirement of Strongpoint. I really think it makes a statement. Probably the least imposing part of the formation but it's the line in the sand that demarcates what is yours and you need to cross it to take what is mine [obviously the picture below illustrates how easy that can be but we all make mistakes].

Skyshield Landing Pad

The highlight of my army perhaps? This thing keeps me alive, so much so I can't seem to wait to get off the damn thing. It's a total bottleneck though, funnelling those Tervigons into one of it's sides/corners where they struggle to get the 6" move to get off the damn thing. Once again I need to find a better way to use it, more practice no doubt.

The New Tyranid Codex

When I'm wrong I'll admit it so I can honestly say having played 6 games in 3 days the Codex still sucks! Ha, ha! I did only win two games but I'll admit the sky is not falling, there are ways to play but I think the only real options for the models I have is to play around with Fortifications and they're not really part of the Codex. But I can live with that, I have some of the Leviathan data slates so I actually fancy running the various Genestealer broods just to mix things up. They look like First Blood served on a silver plate but it could be fun. Overall though there's stuff I can work with so I won't be giving up just yet. However, there are still some glaring omissions - the Spore Mine rules need huge amounts of clarification but there are still elements that are broken and the Codex failed to fix things the players had been calling for. That's the last of my moaning though, time to deal with what we've got.

Warhammer World Events

I think we were quite concerned about what Throne of Skulls would be like with Lord of Wars involved. I didn't face any so it's difficult to judge but I don't think we're going to abandon the event because of theis 'brave new world'. It's still good value and still a great event. I'm disappointed at the loss of the best Fortification prize but obviously winning the best army prize makes up for that in spades. 

I also saw recent proposals to change the main hall, adding more shops and exhibition halls. There were considerably less players competing this time, maybe that's in preparation for a reduced hall size. I'm not overly keen on the idea but when you're playing you don't really notice much beyond your own 6'x4' anyway!

So I look forward to going again, can't say for certain when that will be but me and my buddies will return.