Relic Knights: Captain Harker

So I have a new miniature game, Relic Knights! I have yet to play a game, but managed to get my hands on a faction, the Starlight Corsairs. They have a pirate thematic to them so that's fun. This is my first attempt at a paint scheme for them. I am horrid at painting faces so his face is unpainted (I tried to paint it but failed 3 times). I used a mix of GW and P3 paints and washes. He took approximately 4 hours without the priming and sealing time. Hope you guys like it! I will paint his face after I get some better brushes and more practice on 'lesser' dudes.

 

Sad Hobby News

So I needed to sell off my Warmachine models a bit ago and didn't get to finish painting them. :( This means that I will no longer be posting my paint jobs and have removed them as armies of mine. However, I have acquired some new models for a different game... details to come :) maybe if I can get around and motivated again I will paint a few and post them! Infinity has a new rule set so we are relearning the game and that also means I may have some of those posted soon! Stay tuned for exciting things are in the future!

As a side note, I will be posting deck-lists for the card games I am playing. Seeing as how I am branching out, I might as well do it properly! More to come!

The Sword and Bow

L5R.. A great Game! And a worthy expenditure of my Christmas free time! No seriously, I am sick and stuck isolating myself :P Anyways… This article is the second in a series that I am writing to tackle topics for new players. This topic is preparing your deck for the military game.

Military wins are by far the most common and most straight forward way to win. Blow up your opponents’ provinces and BINGO! However, new player might find this route to actually be quite a challenge. It is a high risk route since the victor takes all in battle. So let’s start with the basics that you need to focus on.

FORCE

The #1 factor in the military game is force. I don’t care what kind of fancy tricks you have, if you can’t produce enough force you can’t take provinces. So that is the first thing to look at when building your deck for the military win. Do my personalities have enough force? 4 force is great while having 5 or more is a fantastic advantage that only a few cards give. You will find more personalities for the military game will fall within the 3 force range, however. If you can’t justify a 2 force or lower personality in the deck, do not put them in.

Another factor to think about is attachments. Weapons and followers add very powerful bonuses and more force to your army. They provide protection from kill cards and certain strategies. Never forget them as you will want a few of both in your deck.

The third factor to consider in boosting your effectiveness is your force boosting strategies. There are plenty of cards that add to your force, helping give you an edge in the battle. And do not forget the strategies that help negate penalties your opponent has given your personalities.

Now that I mention penalties, that is the next part of the military game. NERF THE CRAP OUTA YOUR OPPONANT! MAKE THEM CRY LIKE THE LITTLE SISSIES THEY HAVE ON THE BATTLEFIELD!... sorry.. I got a little carried away…. Sometimes cards will be able to give penalties to your opponents’ cards which make your own force more effective. It doesn’t matter if you play defensively or aggressively, force penalties are very useful. Scorpion Yojimbos are notorious for their force penalty abilities.

Don’t forget to show up! If your personalities are sent home or otherwise removed from the battle, their force goes with them :P

A VERY important factor to consider in force is if a card is bowed. Once you bow the card, it no longer contributes force to the army. Many abilities require you to bow to use them, including ranged attacks and similar abilities. Consider then if your loss of force is worth the damage or ability you are trying to use. Also many strategies can bow cards, which is always something to anticipate. One thing to consider is your ability to straighten cards. It is very likely your opponent will bow cards of yours or you might do so in by choice. Being able to straighten a bowed card is HUGE and can drastically change the outcome of the battle. If your personality or follower is bowed, he can’t use his abilities and is not helping you win. The same goes if you can bow your opponents’ cards. This fact makes the Scorpion Bayushi Toshimo so dangerous (look him up. If you see him in battle, get rid of him quick.)

The last thing to consider is ways to hit the province strength directly. There are a few cards that allow you to weaken the province, which of course makes your military that much better at destroying it.

ACTIONS

Now that we have hit on force so much, it is time to look at another aspect of building a military deck. Battle Actions. Do you have enough? There are never too many, but definitely too few. You want to have battle strategies on both personalities/attachments and on strategies in your hand. Why? You want to be able to counter your opponent as much as you can. The more actions you have, the more options available. If you have more available than your opponent, you have a distinct advantage. In a later article I will cover basic ‘staple’ category cards. They will not be necessarily specifically named cards, but rather certain types of effects you want included in your deck.

THE TABLE

Now building the deck is good and fun, but what about playing it? Many overlook the difficulty of the military game at first. It is high risk due to the fact that if you lose, you lose everything involved and possibly give a massive swing of honor to your opponent. There is the game of the East and West Gate. Player 1 take a province, goes home bowed. Next turn he loses a province, and then takes one, and so on. This is the military vs military match-up and it is inevitable. It is a game of momentum. If you can take that first province, you have the pressure and the production advantage. If you lost one first, you are behind and need to both defend and take a province to level the playing field or you need to take more than one province in one attack. Unicorn have the tendency to take a province or two early by using cavalry shenanigans, so watch those shifty ponies. O.o

The basic military deck archetypes are as followed:

Rush or “blitz” deck – This deck focusses on getting out fast and cheap personalities to bum rush the opponent. I have also seen this strategy with followers and kensei to get large boosts of force early. They are generally hard to defend against early game but lose their advantage late game. They have the advantage of putting opponents off balance and they disrupt the production capabilities of their opponents. Generally quick games.

Midgame deck – This is about building a strong military and attacking when you believe you can leverage your power against your opponents.’ It is the most common to see because it is reliable. It really doesn’t ever lose strength and has the most dependable start. It is weak early against the rush decks and if you face a heavy control deck (i.e. dishonor or honor runner) then you will face some issues and challenges. Be careful here, If you lose a large part of your force then the game is likely over right there as you will likely not have the time to rebuild your army.

Big Units – This is the highest of risk of the military styles, but has immense rewards. The “Pony Train” deck uses this strategy. It is about creating one or two uber units through followers and weapons. It is highly attachment based and conversely, expensive with the amount of gold you are dumping into them (you will cycle through your deck less if you do not produce or discard out of your provinces). This style has huge swings in game momentum. They can easily take out a couple provinces without much ability for the opponent to retaliate. However, should they lose that uber-unit, they lost MASSIVE force and momentum. It is heavily reliant upon getting a good economy set up and drawing attachments. That said, attachment kill neuters this deck.

“Breeder” deck – Although not quite as prevalent anymore (though still here), this deck just keeps pumping out small personalities. This deck never will be ‘weak’ during the game. It is hard to destroy the armies since they boast so many personalities and control decks have a hard time keeping up with their numbers. It is versatile and can function as a blitz and midgame deck. This deck does need to rely on fate cards in battle as generally these little weenies have few to no abilities of use on them.

While a lot of this seems highly detailed, most of the information is learned through playing the military game. You will need to be bold, risk your armies, find victory, and suffer defeat to get the hang of all the complexities of the decks. Given enough time and practice, you will be a feared battle tactician whose enemies will cower at your sight. I hope you find success in your military campaigns!

Merry Christmas!

Building Decks In L5R

So we have a lot of new players joining our L5R community. While some of these players are grasping the basics of the game, I figured it would be good to give them a little help in understanding the more complex parts of this game. I will be covering the several basic win conditions in the game and ways in which they can be achieved affectively. Now remember I am not getting clan specific, although I may use clan specific cards to show examples of tactics and abilities. Without further delay, let’s get started on our first topic!

When I think about playing a new card game, one of the first things that comes to mind is the deck construction. I have met many people for whom this is also the case due to the fact most people find L5R after they play another game (not always the case, but has been the common case for me). When we build decks we have many questions that come to mind.

How many cards in the deck?

How many of what kind of card should I include?

How many of this card is enough/too many?

Are there cards that are auto-includes or that I should avoid?

These are basic questions that are at the surface of the deck construction topic. In order to address all the complexities of deck construction in relation to the deck strategies, I will cover each win condition along with some general guidelines for building that deck. For now, let’s stick with some very basic principles that can be applied to most decks, even those designed for different win conditions.

First of all, a basic concept for any card game is trying to have the smallest deck size possible. This is so you can find the cards you need quickly without much effort. While it might seem tempting to squeeze in one or two extra cards, you will be surprised how much that would change the statistics of the deck. This means that for this game we want 40 cards in each deck, no more.

*Dragon has one particular variation due to the current stronghold automatically bringing a ring out of the deck. This can be taken advantage of by having now a 39 card deck. However, what is very common to find is the Dragon decks build with 41 cards so after the ring is removed they have a standard 40.*

Next is how many of each type of card should I have? The answer is different based on certain variables, but the general skeleton for construction is as follows:

Fate:

6-9 Weapons/Followers

1-2 rings

30ish strategies

*Spells are a different monster all of their own. If you only run a few of them, they fall within the strategy category for deck construction. If you are running a heavy shugenja deck then this will change (I will cover that later).*

Dynasty:

20-24 Personalities

16-18 Holdings

0-2 Events

*You should not include more than 2 non-gold producing holdings. Events take up some of those non-gold producing slots as well. The problem with events and non-gold holdings is that their abilities may be awesome, yes. However if they show up at the wrong time (i.e. as your first cards), many times this will set you back quite a bit in production giving your opponent a gold advantage.

That is the core skeleton for MOST decks. Some vary quite a bit based of the strategy they use. If you use a kensei/weapon deck you will run more weapons. If you run a follower deck, you will have more followers. If you run a primarily shugenja deck, you might not have any strategies at all! In an enlightment deck you need all five rings so that takes up more slots in your deck.

These are some simple things to think about and apply to your own deck building. One thing to remember is the deck is yours. This means you can make it however you want in regards to distribution of card types. Just playtest your deck and figure out what you think works best. The next article will tackle the first and most common win condition in the game: Military. I will cover the basic concepts involved in the Military game and some specific strategies and tactics to use both in building your decks and fighting it out in the game. Until then!

Branching out

I am branching out with my games and my articles. Life is getting so interesting but I am finally able to dedicate some time to my games. I will continue to do articles on miniature games, but I am also branching out towards a few new games. One particular game is called the Legend of the Five Rings or L5R for short. It is an Asian themed TCG run by AEG (of whom I have become a huge fan as of late).  I will be posting over the next week a series of articles related to this game. I have also almost sold all of my Warmachine miniatures for now :'( but I will have more time for my other games. Soon I will have the miniatures of a friend painted for Infinity, I have some Tyranids sitting in front of me ready for their paint, and I am about to get into another miniature skirmish game, Relic Knights. I look forward to the future here as I am getting the opportunity to travel a small amount and demo certain games for other game stores. Stay tuned and I will post updates and article aplenty!

Update

Alright, its been several months since I have been actively painting and playing my games. Life has gotten crazy with things such as a baby on the way.. you know... nothing terribly life changing... :p but now that things have calmed down a bit, I am back at it! By the end of tomorrow I should have some more painting finished and ready to post. Games will be happening less often but I still plan on posting as much as I can. Now with 7th edition 40k out, I will also be doing new tactica (after getting in a few more games). 
As you may have noticed, I mostly do Tyranids (almost exclusively) and that is because I have sold all of my other 40k armies to focus on one. I will rebuild my Space Puppies later after I have the means to create my dream hobby army of samurai marines. But right now my bugs are my focus.
My Skorne is also all gone making roome for focussing on Cryx. However due to needing some extra cash for raising a new kid and stuff, I will be selling a large amount if not all of my Cryx models (only to be rebuilt later I promise!) after I finish painting them. 
As always I hope you guys enjoy whats to come! 

Explained Absence and New Game?

So I have been very busy with school and have discovered a new trading cards game (for me) called Legend of the Five Rings. This and school has taken up my time but I am about to get back into the swing of things. I am rather excited for a new miniature game I am about to try out call Relics. It is made by Tor Gaming. I am rather excited and I will be getting the stitch-doll faction and painting them up. Hopefully soon I will have more photos of projects to post so stay tuned!

Helleana of the Coven of Garlghast

Here is Helleana of the Witch Coven of Garlghast. She is painted in the same way as Selene so if you are interested in knowing what I did, check that post out :) I am still experimenting with the skin tones. I am not quite satisfied and might go back after I pick up a new lighter flesh paint in stead of using the off-white. At the bottom is the two witches I have completed and the third shall be done soon! Enjoy and please comment! :)

Selene of the Coven of Garlghast

Here is Selene! She is the first of my Witch Coven to be painted. I shall have the others on here soon! 

She was actually quite the experiment. I used her to define the scheme I am going to use on all my Cryx models. I use Ironhull Grey (P3) on all the fabric and cloth after which I washed using Nuln Oil (GW). I did this a couple times to add depth to the colors. The metal I wanted to do using non-metallic metal methods, but I still am terrible at them so I used Blighted Gold (P3) for the armor pieces and Pig Iron (P3) for any other metal. The blade is Pig Iron with Quick Silver (P3). I applied a Nuln Oil Wash to all the metal and highlighted with the corresponding color and then Quick Silver on various edges. I used the old Dwarf Flesh (GW) on the skin followed by Menoth White Base (P3). I washed using Agrax Earthshade (GW) and reapplied the base conservatively to let the undertones show around edges. I then highlighted that Menoth White Highlight (P3). The base was painted using Necrotite Green (P3) then based with basic, fine sand. The sand was painted carefully with Cryx Bane (P3) so as to let some seep down to conceal the green underneath but not so as to conceal all the green. I then watered down old Golden Yellow (GW) then applied it to the base in-between the sand. I dry-brushed the sand again with the Cryx Bane then lightly dry-brushed with Cryx Bane Highlight (P3). I use some small decor pebbles from wally-world and painted them old Snot Green (GW). I then applied the watered down Golden Yellow then dry-brushed Necrotite Green. I highlighted with the Necrotite Green on the edges of the rocks to define them and then gave it a Thraka Green (GW) wash. I followed up by applying the GW paint-on gloss. The vision arc was painted with Snot Green, dry-brushed with Golden Yellow, dry-brushed with Necrotite green, then lightly dry-brushed with Snot Green. I have yet to seal the paint, but that is next. Hope you like this lovely lady. I look forward to using her and her sisters in the Journeyman League we have running.

Supreme Aptimus Zaal

This is my main Hordes Warlock. I am gonna do some highlighting on him particularly the reds, but this guy is my pride and joy. The best model I have ever painted (in my opinion). I am getting my Warmachine and Hordes models dusted off and trying to finish painting them. He has been painted for some time now, I just figured I would share him :)

Behemoth vs. Farsight Enclave

So this is my first attempt at a video bat rep so forgive any mistakes and imperfections. Next time it will be alot more detailed. Enjoy and please leave comments!

Building a Tyranid List: Themes

When Building lists, I love to theme them to particular styles of play or even pure thematics. My favorite happens to be a Maccragge vs Behemoth them (what I am working to convert my army to). But this goes beyond cosmetics. Building a themed list can be a great fun and usually quite a challenge. For those who are used to playing with steamrolling, power-playing lists, this is not for you. Many of the themes we can use are not highly competitive or at least take more skill to use than going with the "meta" lists. So as you continue to read, be warned that these are more for fun than effectiveness, but do not underestimate them. 

Our first Theme is based on a hive fleets first encounter on a planet. This theme is about guerrilla warfar and ambush tactics. With the addition of the Vanguard Dataslate, we can field a separate detachment of Lictors or Genestealers that adds a bit of flavor and fun. Aside from these (which I will talk about in a different post) here is an example of a vanguard list. This list is perfect for a Leviathan paint scheme.

Deathleaper

3x Lictors

3x Lictors

3x Zoanthropes

15x Genestealers + Broodlord/acid blood

15x Genestealers + Broodlord/acid blood

30x Termagaunts

30x Termagaunts

3x Warriors/rending claws , 1x Deathspitter (5 point dump)

=1500

This is centered around using the genestealers and the lictors to harass and pin down the opposition. The weakness of this kind of them is lack of dedicated anti vehicle/heavy infantry. That is the only reason the Zoanthropes have been included in the list (and synapse). The second issue is synapse. While lictors have high leaderships and genestealers do not need synapse, the rest of the army does and a group of fearless genestealers is kinda scary. Another option which is a bit more gutsy is to take horamagaunts instead of termagaunts. this means they are less likely to be useless failing synapse, but they could just kill themselves instead. This is a fun list type, but very difficult to use, especially against marines who can outlast you.

The second list that comes to mind is the flying list. It is rather easy to make one. Use flying tyrants, harpies, gargoyles, shrikes, and if you really want to, flying rippers. The troops are harder to make fly, but a few units of gaunts isn't that hard to adapt to especially if you use hormagaunts who can actually keep up with your flyers. This list is all about hitting fast and hard. Its a high risk high reward strategy that tends to die more often then win. But there are few things more frightening than seeing an entire brood of gargoyles and shrikes coming straight at your face. The issue here is it does play well to objectives without some serious strategy. It likes to engage the enemy and kill them, which is still a viable option. also if you want large broods of flyers it is gonna cost you some points/money. Fun but difficult list.

The next theme is a subterranean assault. I know a guy who runs a variant of this and it is nasty when used right. You max out all trygon primes and bring 3 broods of raveners. bring a brood or two of lictors to prevent scatter and tada! nasty deepstriking mayhem (you could also add a flying tyrant for deepstrike). Bring some gaunts in the rear (maybe a tervigon troop) and you can do some heavy damage with a wave assault. Also bring a comm relay for reserves since you cant get the upgrade on a standard tyrant anymore. The ONLY way for this list to be viable is three trygon primes for synapse. Any other way to run it has been unsuccessful from everything I have seen. If you love the idea of dropping three MCs on your enemy and smaller yet no less nasty worms, then this list is for you!

The next two lists are not too uncommon (actually they are the most common). Swarm and Nidzilla. Nidzilla is bringing MCs and as many multi-wound or high toughness things as possible. Runs the risk of getting shot to bits by heavy weapons, but so cool to see so many big bugs moving forward. Swarm is bringing the tervigon (maybe 2-3) and using warriors for synapse. You rush tons of little guys at your enemy while supporting with specialized elites (zoanthropes) who do what your gaunts cannot. Also a wonderful list to see fully painted and on the tabletop. 

I didn't give lists for most of these due to how easy it is to see a functioning list. I see the vanguard theme as the most difficult to use due to its fragility. Now these aren't the only ones you can make. Try creating a digestion theme using organisms involved in the final stages of the planetary digestion or perhaps pick a hive fleet and try to theme around their recorded strategies (lictors being very common in leviathan). If you think of any others post them and I may try them out! hope you enjoyed this section of my Tyranid Tactica!

Tyranid Renovations: Carnifex Conversion

Here is my latest creation! I got this guy from another player through trades. He had the body on backwards but arms weren't attached. I ripped him off the base and put him on a walker base (courtesy of Dan). I put crushing claws and scything talons on him as well as an adrenal gland. In his claws and on his base are parts from a rhino (suitably chosen to be a Ultramarine rhino, dedicated to my classic nemesis Michael) as well as a marine arm severed but still grasping the side of a stormbolter. I added spines inspired from the covenant hunters as well as extra bit here and there. overall I was surprised how much I liked the backwards torso for I was a bit skeptical at first. I now love this guys and cant wait to see him waltzing across the battlefield straight at my opponent. Stay tuned for his paint job!

Bloodbowl Conversions

So here is some dark eldar and dark elf conversions for bloodbowl. This is the team my friend is going to use in the upcoming league. I kit-bashed kabalite warriors and witches from the dark eldar range and the dark elf corsairs. The first photo is the linemen using primarily warrior bodies, mixing in witch heads and using different witch arms and even a corsair arm. The second are the blitzers using corsairs. The third is the assassin. Forth is the runners using witch models. I used the corasair sword arms on the blitzers but snipped the sword turning the fists into brass knuckles. I love the idea of the dark elves running onto the field with weapons so I didnt remove them from the arms. I have a dark elf witch on order from ebay to use later. I am debating the color scheme so stay tuned for that!

Building a Tyranid List: Heavy Support

Ok so here is where our lists have some real difficulty in choosing what to bring. Pretty much all of the choices are viable and useful in the right strategies. Lets start with what accounts for our only artillery. Biovores. Biovores are great anti infantry being one of our two creatures with 48" range and barrage shots. They absolutely wreck tau infantry lines, eldar, and guard infantry while still posing a threat to others. Their instinctive behavior is great for them unless you roll the worst result, in which case they cant do anything. i bring these guys in any game I can fit them in after my other first-pick options.
Speaking of first picks, one of the most iconic creatures to see on the battlefield is the carnifex. this guys is just as beastly as in the last edition but cheaper! I run him as a cannon fex (stranglethorn/brainleach worms) but he has so many options to choose from. he is great to just pay for him and run him at tanks. He draws a lot of fire and if he is a single model unit you need not really fear instinctive behavior. beware though, bring a brood and they might do some hefty damage to each other if you don't keep them under control. He is just a great pick for heavy support.
Our next pick is our tyranofex. This guy has our long-range strength 10 shot. he is good for what he does, but I personally don't bring these guys. they are good at killing all but the toughest vehicles (still able to take them down with luck however) and if you wish to bring his antis infantry option he can do a lot of damage in both rolls. he is almost always brought for anti vehicle due to the strength his his shot, but don't discount this guy. He is our only 2+ armor save and plenty of wounds to soak fire. A good pick, I just prefer zoanthropes for my anti-vehicle.
Next is our trygon and the trygon prime. The trigon is still a mele beast and throw a 6 would MC behind an enemy line and he will cause some chaos. His synapse counterpart, the prime is also fantastic as it add more synapse wherever you want it and he bring 12 shots out of a deepstrike instead of 6. I know a guy who runs 3 of these and groups of raveners. His deepstrike list works rather well and is probably the only one I have seen do so well. These guys are great but once again, I have another pick.
The mawloc. This guys just became awesome in this edition. When he comes up hit AOE hits, then if he cant be placed, then you do it again. If it still can be place then you roll a mishap. what makes this great? you have a 1/6 chance of death with the other options being misplaced only to burrow next turn or delayed to come up again! I bring at least one of these guys in an attempt to eat heavy infantry. I have destroy plenty of wraithguard, terminators, and light vehicles with him. Great worm. Use him to disrupt or hunt down those high armor save units. Be warned, he does scatter as per normal deepstrike so don't rely on him too much.
Now we have the exocrine.... ermergerd I want to buy this bug. He is good because he brings a large blast marine killing plasma cannon. He is also a multi wound MC so he is decently durable. Use him against marines and their equivalents. I give this guy a thumbs up :)

Now the problem with these options is something you can kinda see from my comments.... where are the bad options? They are ALL good. Maybe some are a little more for specific lists, but even in a general list these can all be used. Now you just have to decide how is my list going to synergize the best. Do you want a purely shooty bug? Bring the biovore. Shock and awe? Trygons and Mawlocs. Most of these are MCs so even the exocrine who is made for shooting can do something in H2H. Be warned though, for these are mostly single model units that can be easily focused and taken down in one turn (if they try hard enough). If you put a deepstriker out of position, or give their weapon teams open firing against them these bugs will go down. Beware of devastators, railrifles, etc. They will not find them anything but a single target to focus. Bring a venomthrope and they can get a minimum of 5+ cover (except against the lousy tau flashlights). Be smart with them and you can dominate. I hope you enjoyed the commentary on the overview of units. I will be further delving into list building and other synergies between units next. Stay tuned!

Off-Topic Painting

Here are just a few painting projects for the viewing pleasures. I have taken a small break from 40k painting to paint a model for a friend and to start painting my new Skaven army. Prob gonna touch up that banner to see the symbol easier.

Building a Tyranid List: Fast Attack

OK so we are about to tackle the fast attack option for the Tyranids. Lets start with the shrikes. I love the idea for these guys, but I do not know if I would vouch for these seeing as how they have very little defense. Basically you get a Tryanid warrior with wings and a worse save (5+). Their redeeming feature is they are jump infantry synapse. So if you ran them behind gargoyles they can provide synapse as well as get a coversave. I do not like them because bolters take them down rather easily. They are too fragile for their cost and use. However, I love the forgeworld models and have contemplated a flying list using them. You can deepstrike them, fly them around, and do some fun stuff with these guy, but I just think their function is better preformed by others. These guys cost the exact same as the normal warriors and have many of the same upgrades so feel free to try them out if you want fast synapse and cool minis.
Next we have raveners. These resemble warriors with snake tails, but are a little different. They are lower leadership, not synapse, feed, and the best part is beasts. These guys are some of my favorite models but I have never been able to justify bringing them for what I do. I do know a guy who uses several of these, however, and he finds them quite effective. They can be absolute terrors in H2H so try to get these guys there (shocking :P trying to get a nid into H2H). I think they have their uses depending on your strategy. they are great to deepstrike into or behind cover due to being beasts. this guarantees a coversave and a likely charge next turn. Now these guys get a very cool character who was absent in the last codex: The Red Terror. On his own he is almost as much as three raveners, so he is not price efficient. I however would love to use him because of his swallow whole rule. If he hits with enough attacks, he can swallow a single model. This is NOT instant death so eternal warrior is no defense. Now he cant do it to very bulky or extremely bulky, but still. I love the image of his swallowing that annoying character with 3+ wounds and ridiculous saves. Not a competitive choice, but the Terror is a lot of fun. Overall, raveners have their place in specific army tactics and strategies... just not mine
Skyslashers...... flying rippers.... why... just.... why.... I mean cool idea, but these are just as bad as their normal counterparts. Still, apply them like I suggested in the troop evaluation and they can be useful...ish.
Gargoyles! one of my favorite units in the codex due to how they look flying toward your opponent en mass. I was initially upset at the change of blinding venom which is what made them so good last codex. Now they have changed. Instead of bogging down an opponent with tons of attacks to kill them, you want to blind them. This changes them from a killy unit to a support unit. They are useful still as mobile cover and now flying them in from to take the initial over watch fire then apply blind softens the opposing unit up for other stuff. Now these guys are only initiative 4 so they will be attacking at the same time as many models meaning they do not get to apply their debuff first round before the enemy attacks. These aren't quite as good as last edition, but still useful with goo synergies.
Harpy. The model I wish was a better sculpt. I personally hate the model as it looks like a bloated flying fleshbag. Oh well. I like the anti infantry uses of the harpy. It bring a lot as a flying anti infantry MC. Bring it just for that. It is not a necessary bring but a cool idea. Bring it and use it to bomb light infantry and MAYBE assault if the target is a weaker target (tau, guard, etc). It will basically rape anything not meant to kill elite classed units. 
Next is the Hive Crone. This flying bug has one big shiny strategic value... our ONLY dedicated anti-flyer ability. Its vector strike is strong against flyers and its arsenal isn't half bad. More useful than the harpy due to our abundance of anti-infantry already. I have yet to try either of these flyers so I cannot vouch for either by experience.
Spore mines. Got extra points you just aren't sure where to put and you cant just add more gaunts? Use these! they arent amazing as a bought unit but still kinda cool. The Biovore unit drops these anyway so I never bring these guys but if you want a cheap deepstrike kamikaze unit that can potentially hit at strength 10, go ahead and bring em. They are great distraction because you have to shoot at them to kill em without blowing up. Now this make the free biovore ones better, but don't be shy about these ones if you really wanna try them out. just don't rely on them due to having "instantly killed" in their hidden profile. Fun, but not competitive.
That concludes our fast attack! Now obviously unless you build a list geared to use them, this is our most available slot group on the FoC. The choices give very interesting options for different strategies. Do not be afraid of trying different units against different opponents. Some are better than others. I hope you enjoyed this section and feel free to add anything in the comments!

Building a Tyranid List: Elites

So now that we have covered the basic troops and HQs, we want to take a look at our elite section. This used to be the most hotly contested section for our codex in 5th. Due to several characters moving to different slots of being removed all together, this is not so difficultly filled any more.
Lets start with the pyrovore. I mentioned in the last section that rippers weren't the worst thing we have. THESE GUYS ARE! These guys are just bad. If you want flamers, pay for thorax swarm templates. Cheaper than the pyrovore and it leave the slot open for other elites. Pyrovores are really only good against orks or other nids anyway. His acid maw attack is good except you trade all attacks for it. Just not so great.
Next is the lictor. Now I love what these guys are, their fluff, and pretty much everything except for their rules. Don't misunderstand me though. They have their uses. They don't scatter when they deepstrike and if you infiltrate them they are beacons for anything else coming in. They are also great for shooting tanks in their back armor. A local guy just enlightened me to an interesting strategy. Lictor infiltrates or deepstrikes in area terrain. He gets shot so go to ground. You will have a 2+ cover save. Next turn move a flying tyrant into synapse with the Lictor, Lictor automatically stands up and acts as normal. A bit shinaniginny but kinda cool. I haven't used it yet but I plan to try it.
Overall they aren't terrible but are outshined by the other options.
Next we have the hiveguard. These are still our go-to light vehicle hunters. They now have an option for haywire but lose their ignores cover weapon. Use them to snipe vehicles especially those with jink saves. I usually bring one unit to deal with vehicles but they aren't auto bring.
Venomthropes have a new value. They lost the defensive grenade and passive miasma damage and now are lurk. What they did gain is they grant shrouded. This is huge giving them a 3+ in most cover and even MCs will gain that now. Great defensive unit. I bring a unit in medium to large games. I have strung out a unit into a ruin while guarding my tervigon from a charge. Because wounds are taken on the closest model, the ones in the ruins got the 2+ cover.
Next is the zoanthropes. These have always been useful if not necessary. They still kill both tanks and heavy infantry, but now can be a support as well with the extra power they get. Being synapse is invaluable and Brotherhood of psykers is a double edged sword but these guys still pull their weight. I always bring them before any other elite option. Most certainly our best ranged anti-vehicle.
Haruspex, the new bug. It's ok as a MC mele destroyer,but that function can be fulfilled by any other MC. The advantage this bug has is its elite, opening up the now more coveted heavy slots. His ranged shot is cool but not the most useful thing and he is gonna be a beast in H2H, only killable by Ranged shots or heavy terminator equivalents. Overall he is meh and I would rather the points and slot be given to a different unit.

These are our elite options and they aren't bad. There are no autopicks (except maybe the zoanthropes) so you can cater to your own strategies. I like the flexibility and I have seen all the options used successfully except for the pyrovore. The biggest downside to these are low model count with the non-MCs. And these units cannot be split like marines so you have to think about where you want them focused. Look for the next section and feel free to add any extra points in the comments!

Tyranid Renovations: Broodlord

Here is the finished broodlord. I wanted to have a scheme different from my main behemoth (as genestealers are many times from separate fleets). I used a black primer and the basecoated the flesh with exile blue (P3) and the carapace/thorax with beaten purple (P3). I used an extensive combination of highlights and washes using temple guard blue (GW) for the flesh highlights and different mixes of beaten purple and genestealer purple (GW) for the carapace/thorax highlights. The washes were using nuln oil (GW) and guilliman blue (GW). The talons were based with the old GW paint, scorched brown. I then used menoth base (P3) followed buy drybrushing the brown again followed by a drybrushed menoth white highlight. Then I washed the talons with nuln oil. Teeth are menoth white base followed by the highlight and the tongue is the old GW snot green. The eyes were painted with snot green, then guilliman blue wash, the old GW golden yellow. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Tyranid Renovations: Termagaunts

This is my 30 man termagaunt squad. I am using the same paint scheme as my tervigon but the guns are base painted Cryx Bane Bases and then painted Cryx Bane Highlight. I am going experiment with other colors on the weapon symbiotes. And for the record, these guys look AWESOME on the table. Enjoy and look out for more!

Building a Tyranid List: HQs and Troops

Ok so I have decided due to the prevalence of reviews (albeit negative ones) I am going to start the strategic review now and finish the codex review later.

Ok so to start, lets begin with list building. We need on HQ and two troops. HQ options have increased due to additions of the special characters as HQs. However, out of the list we have only a few competitive choices. The Old One Eye and the Prime have very little efficient use. Due to the Prime`s price increase, he takes up points better spent elsewhere. He is only worth it in a warrior/shrike list. Use him to buff them. One Eye is cool and a brutal carnifex, but he is not synapse which cripples you from the start even with his special rules. Only take for fluff in my opinion, even despite his durability. Not a ton of strategy to him as he is mostly just a fex.
Next we have the Swarmlord and Deathleaper. I still hold these viable in limited scenarios, but you need to know who you are facing. Deathleaper I love, but competitively he is lackluster. Against psykers he is amazing but way too easily killed by tau who are big in current meta. Do bother him as warlord if you can help it. His trait is exceedingly dangerous to take advantage of against all but maybe tau and some guard. Swarmlord is the only walking tyrant going to be brought in competitive play. His 18 synapse is fantastic and he is still a H2H beast, but he is more expensive and NEEDS tyrant guard to protect him as he trudges across the board. Not as versatile but still a solid fighter. He can actually survive against hammers because of parry so don't be afraid to dual non-eternal warrior characters.
The tervigon will almost never be brought as an HQ due to her usefulness as a troop. Moving on.
The tyrant is our star in this area. Put wings on him and he will hunt down the enemy with ease. Two psykic powers and good upgrades make him a fantastic choice for HQ. Many people will bring 2 of these bad boys. Competitively, he is the most flexible and viable option. Be careful with powerfists  and terminator units with hammers. You can be chewed up easily by them. Use him to hunt psykers and low to medium level characters.

Next is troops and woah boy we got troops. The least valuable (and I will never bring them willingly) is rippers. Expensive for what they do, we have better uses for the points. If you really want them, they do have some usefulness. The can be good tarpit units against things that can't instant kill them. Give them poison and they could kill something. I am still not a fan, but they aren't the worst thing we have.
Next is warriors. These are budget synapse creatures and that is their main value. I have seen them in action and the H2H variants are more effective by far. Unless you build a large warrior list, bring these guys only for the synapse IF you really need it. (FYI other people prefer these as staple synapse due to their price and versatility. If you like them don't be afraid of bringing them. They are actually a good solid unit if used as a core. I just prefer other options.) Warriors can be rather nasty up close and decent ranged so they have a lot of versatility and that's their value.
Next is genestealers. These guys get mixed reviews but have been mvps for me. As long as you bring a broodlord these guys are definitely worth it. Without him they are just ok. Now with the way reserves work, outflanking is very risky because you can't determine where they come in reliably and no guarantee you will have cover which is important because no charge out of the outflank. They will definitely bring the scare factor, but one round of shooting will annihilate them against most armies. These are worth bringing if you bring a medium to large sized unit (10-20 + broodlord). Outflank to create pressure on the sides of the field, but be aware of the terrain. My personal tactic is infiltrate to create and imminent threat for them to focus on. If they survive turn one, they are 9/10 going to be in H2H turn two. I wouldn't bring more than one unit due to cost and efficiency.
Next is our gaunts. First lets talk hormagaunts. These guys at first glance are worse from their last edition, but they aren't bad. Their are cheap at 5/model with ubergaunts still costing 10/gaunt. They are actually faster than before with their leap rule. They will run 4 inches GUARANTEED. And they have fleet so they can get up to 9 inches. And that means a reroll on the charge too. They are cheap, fast, and under the synapse of a flying tyrant, they are fearless. These guys are great at tying down that unit that loves to shoot. Get them close and even an overwatch can't stop them. The are great for things like wraithknights and any other low attack, high damage combatants. They can bog them down and with poison they can kill them with sheer number of attacks. Great unit even after the loss of scything talon rerolls.  I bring at least one large unit to run forward alongside or behind the genestealers. Two units in larger games.
Now termagaunts. These guys just became fantastic at 4pts all the same stats. A full unit of them is necessary for the tervigon to be a troop But that's ok! We love these guys. Arguably the most efficient unit in the army. Upgrades not necessary unless you want the poison.
Overall our gaunts are great. Cast catalyst on them and tada! Super difficult to kill especially with cover. Both have their purpose but both are part of the swarm strategy. Kill them with numbers.
Last troop is the tervigon. This broodmother is a beast as a troop. T6 scoring MC? Yes please. You have to take a full 30 man unit of termigaunts making her more expensive, but she is worth bringing at least one which most competitive nids will still do. Do to the price increase we won't see them spammed, but still prevalent. She is tough, a psyker, a MC... all the good stuff. Watch for hunters (TH terminators, etc.). They can carve her up with ease. Throw her behind her babies and she will be golden.

This is the first bit of my strategic review. Feel free to comment and give suggestions.

Behemoth vs Astartes Ultra and Dark Angels

Today I played a large (3000pt) game with two friends, Mike with his ultra marine and Sam with his Dark Angels. I of course used my Behemoth Tyranids. Each of them brought 1500 points in models while I fielded a full force with 1 extra heavy slot. Here is my list:
Flyrant w/psychic scream and onslaught synaptic, lynchpin
Swarmlord w/paroxism, onslaught and warp blast; synaptic lynchpin
3 Hiveguard w/haywire
3 Venomthropes
3 Zoanthropes w/onslaught
Tervigon troop w/ catalyst
30 termigaunts
30 ubergaunts (full upgrade hormagaunts)
30 ubergaunts
20 genstealers w/ broodlord and scything talons
3 warriors
2 mawlocks
1 cannon fex (carifex w/biocannon and brainleach worms)
3 biovores

 I dont know their lists except the Ultramarines were led by Calgar. They allowed me two warlords since they each fielded one. Here are the deployments:

 We rolled up the Big Guns Never Tire scenario which made me very happy sitting my biovores on the objective. Dawn of War deployment, in which they won the roll of to go first but gave it to me in order to have my stuff get a bit closer on my own so they could shoot at it. Nightfighting is in effect turn 1. I infiltrated 18 inches away and just advanced all of my stuff, using onslaught on my zoanthropes (the only major psychic test this turn). My units moved up in the shooting phase, with the zoanthropes successfully blowing up the DA landraider. This was pivotal due to the banner giving all bolters (including the Crusader's bolters) salvo. Tervigon pooped out a little unit. we found the objective the biovores were on to be sabotaged! The first forest in the middle was iron bark and the one my genestealers were in was carnivorous which ate 1-2 genestealers. Marines' turn. They killed a decent amount of my 20 genestealers then proceeded to assault them with the terminators. This cost all of the terminators their lives and no genestealers died. Put a wound on my flyrant and killed a few gaunts then put a wound on the zoanthropes. That was about it.

I am sry I failed to get pictures this turn. Turn two I failed to get my genestealers into any combat. My tyrant killed the devestators on the right flank (which I regret are in none of the photos) My zoanthopes succeeded in immobilizing the land raider redeemer. My mawlock pulled a derp and nearly scattered off the table while the second didnt come in.pooped out more gaunts and moved up more. The marines went to town and shot the rest of the stealers to death. The dreadnought attempted to get into combat with my tervigon but despite trying to unload on the intervening unit and the assault doctrine, he failed to close the charge. the terminators did not fail to charge my hormagaunts however. This initially was bad due to them losing 3 of the 6 on the charge due to my initiative. The veterans shot and killed most of the zoanthropes (2 models). And calgar dropped my mawlock down to 2 wounds and I failed my hit and run.
Next turn I wreck the predator, and destroy a flamer on the landraider. I shot most of the ground units to near death, wand assaulted the remaining 2 models in the DA command unit with my tyrant. My Swarmlord failed his charge. The terv finally dried up on a decent roll. The mawlock ate a few of the stern guard but mishapped due to the landraider becoming delayed. My hormagaunts assaulted teh veterans, dealing substantial damage. Cagar killed the mawlock. The marines proceeded to kill ALOT in this shooting phase including the last of my zoanthropes. A full unit of spawned gaunts died and some spore mines but no other full unit. Calgar attempted a Golorious Intervention to spare Sam's hq from the nomnom of the tyrant, but failed and was forced to see him be devoured by the tyrant. His dreadnought assaulted the termigaunt unit.

 During our fourth and last turn, my carnifex charged and killed the walker. All but the chaplain were dead in that combat. Calgar and the tyrant were in a challenge with Calgar taking 2 wounds. My mawlock ate all but 1 of the tac squad in the open. Sam had to leave so we called it at that point. As it stood, they had an objective held by scouts on the far opposite side of the battlefield: 3pts. They killed my mawlock: 1pt. Total of 4 points. I scored first blood on the landraider: 1pt. I killed one warlord: 1pt. I killed the landraider, a devestator unit, and the predator: 3pts. I had my mawlock in the deployment zone for linebreaker: 1pt. And I held an objective: 3 pts. Total is 9 points.

I was sad we had to end the game, but it was a good one. Alot of things died on both sides. The only reason much of mine was still alive was due to the iron bark conferring a 3+ save then the zoanthropes granting shroud giving a 2+. They had deployed scouts to cap an objective on the other side of the field which kept them out of the game due to where I had deployed. I had planned to keep the focus centralized on the far right of the board in order to nullify ant long range they would have brought on that side. The banner in the DA was stupidly annoying giving so many salvo shots. I should have killed that unit on the rocks sooner but I was focused on other things. The fact I destroyed the landraider on turn one changed the game for me. I was very lucky there. My genestealers did what they were supposed to do by soaking fire and actually killed an entire unit of terminators. A few failed charges ensured more nids died on their turns and it cost me. My warriors were quite useless, maybe inflicting one wound the entire game. Their synapse was not even useful due to other synapse already overlapping theirs. My strategy to focus the game was effective and it helped to limit the damage I took while allowing me to focus my own damage. I had a few lucky rolls and some horrendous scatter results, but in the end I had locked enough in combat and destroyed enough to carry the day. The objectives were not that influential but the mysterious forests were. I had good luck on my side and it was a good game against the marines who made my nids bleed for their victory. I had fun and look forward to more games!

VIP: DA Tac Squad on the rocks. The salvo from their weapons killed soo many gaunts, but such would not have happened without the banner so the command unit gets an honorable mention! What destuction!

Ultramarines: the Veterans and their Landraider for cooperating to annihilate my zoanthropes. Fear these guys! (no seriously, they had Fear)

Behemoth Tyrnaids: Zoanthropes for melting on landraider and immobilizing another. Good on ya bugs!