Jabberwocky Rises: Neurolictor Conversions

[Reskin]

Dude, that pink/flesh colour on that monsters wings, what is it? how did you do that?

[Xenith]

Dude, that pink/flesh colour on that monsters wings, what is it? how did you do that?

 

That's literally just volpius pink contrast over grey seer spray undercoat. 

 

I blocked in the blue fingers, then used a 50/50 volpius to contrast medium mix. It might actually have been 25:75 to make a thin paint. Once I'd done the edges neatly, I used broad horizonaltal, messy strokes to intentonally try and leave brush strokes in the paint, to simulate muscle fibres in the wing membrane - where this wasn't apparent, when it was dry I did some more transverse strokes with the same mix in another coat. Took maybe under an hour including drying time. Contrasts rock. 

Edited November 25, 2020 by Xenith

[Xenith]

You can see the effects of the same paint mix on the head and neck of my broodlord on page 5. The brood lord head is definitely 25:75 volpius:medium, with maybe 2 coats, while the neck muscles are pure volpius. 

[Xenith]

I had a nice weekend of making stuff:

12 Hormagaunts

Tyrannofex

~8 Genestealers

[3 Outriders]

At the moment I only have minimum sized troop choices, so these bring some sorely needed durability to the horde. I also really lack any kind of anti tank/anti armour, to the T-Fex gets built. I really want to magnetise it, but realise I should maybe have done this before assembling. I'll give it a go anyway - I think I can make a good go of it - or mag the connections at the gun and pin the arms at least.

[Xenith]

So I managed to get my first game with Tyranids in 20 years last night, it was really fun. It as the same opponent and list as my last BA game and report., namely 1200pts Incursion.

His list

Captain - Hammer of Baal, jump pack, storm shield, death visions

Lib dread - WARLORD, Quickening, Blood Lance, artisan of Baal (halberd).

5 Intercessors, bolt rifles, power sword

5 TH/SS Terminators

6 Death Company, 5x bp/cs, 1x TH

3 Inceptors

Land Raider

Jabberwocky:

Hive Fleet Traits: Reroll advance rolls, Metamorphic regrowth.

Neurothrope - Resonance Barb, Catalyst, The Horror, Warp Scream, Smite.

3 Warriors - 6x Boneswords, 2x Spitters, 1x Strangler, adrenals

18 Termagants with fleshborers

12 Hormagaunts with Adrenals

3 Ripper Swarms

3 Hive Guard with Impalers

3 Zoanthropes - Smite (forgot to take another power)

2 Lictors

Trygon - Monstrous Size, Pincer tail

Carnifex - 2x Scytals, adrenal, spore cysts

Harpy - 2x HVCannons

Mission: Shifting Front

Primary: Take and Hold

My secondaries: Engage, repair teleport homer, Mission Secondary (3pts at end of turn with 2 units in opposing DZ, 5pts if one is within 6" of opposing table edge)

Opponents' secondaries: First strike, Linebreaker Psychic ritual,

Naturally, I lost the roll for first turn. I still haven't gone first since 7th ed.

Deployment

Cinematic shots of the Horde

BA T1

Objective one was to tie up that Land Raider which would cause havoc with my big beasts. My opponents target selection wasn't on point, the storm bolter went into the 'gaunts and the HBolters and lascannons went into the zoanthropes, causing 2 wounds (!). The hunter killer went into the harpy, knocking 4 wounds off. Libdread jumped out and smote the zoans, killing one off. Something caused a few wounds on the Trygon.

Nid T1

My turn - the gaunts bounded forwards to within unfailable charge range of the raider and get engage. Everything moved up basically to try and cut the head off the Libdread. Cast catalyst on the zoans, then 2 smites, a warp scream and the impaler cannons later, the librarian was a smoking pile of metal. The harpy flew to his board edge to get engage and the mission objective, then shot the intercessors killing 2. Warriors moved up to claim the central left objective.

BA T2

Thammernators move forward to splat the canrifex. smash capt and death co thread the needle and land on my flank >9" from the warriors and hive guard. Death co shoot and wound a warrior, then fail the charge, smash capt also fails the charge a command reroll gets the death co into the warriors, and the thunder hammer guy alone gets 3 hits, wounds and kills. Inceptors land to my right - opponent wanted to shoot the trygon, but I suggested the gants might be better - you'd get 2-3 wounds off the trygon while he stood a good chance of wiping that unit of gants out. After some terrible rolling, 4 gants were dead, and the inceptors failed the charge into the carnifex. Land raider shot everything into the gaunts, killing all but one, who then died to morale as I took them from the wrong side, leaving them out of synapse range. Live and learn. Terminators charged and splatted the carnifex then consolidated to closer to the thropes.

Nid T2.

Rippers and lictors came on in BA DZ, to secure the objective game. The harpy flew over the intercessors, getting 3 hits. I think I played this wrong and gave them D3 mortals each when I think it's only one, but the int's were wiped. Zoans backed off from the hammernators, trygon went after the land raider, charging and causing 8 wounds (S8, AP-4, D6+1D from monstrous size). 2x smites and a warp scream killed off 2 terminators. The hive guard shot the DC killing 2, then shot again, killing another 2, the last one then rolled a 6 on morale and died!

At this point we had to call it and pack up, but it was a Tyranid victory!

Middle of opponent's scond assault phase:

End of Round 2 and game:

My Objectives:

Take and Hold - 5

Engage - 6

Mission - 5

repair teleport homer - 5

Total - 21

Opponents' Objectives:

Take and Hold - 5

Psychic Ritual - 0

First Strike - 0

Linebreaker - 4

Total - 9

Edited December 1, 2020 by Xenith

[WarriorFish]

A good win, they looked great on the table :tu: I think your opponent helped you by going toys before boys as his expensive units means fewer to handle yours. That you had any gaunts left at the end is telling :P Did you miss an entry in your army list as you have a big beast in the pictures? It'd be good to hear how the units performed :)

[Xenith]

EDIT: Added additional write-up to the above. 

 

A good win, they looked great on the table I think your opponent helped you by going toys before boys as his expensive units means fewer to handle yours. That you had any gaunts left at the end is telling Did you miss an entry in your army list as you have a big beast in the pictures? It'd be good to hear how the units performed

 

Thanks! yea, we had a chat after the game and said what I would have done. I think he's falling into the trap that if it can deepstrike, it should deepstrike. He'd really be much better off leaving everything on the table to do damage t1. He'd have definitely won this game with a T1 charge from the DC and captain, and an extra round of shooting from the inceptors. Good catch on the trygon, was writing the list from memory and for some reason didnt look at the pics...

[Xenith]

[Xenith]

His list

[CAP] Captain, MC Stalker bolter, MC power sword, Chapter master, Angels artifice, something of the chapter

[LT] Lieutenant, MC Stalker, Dragonfire rounds,

[iC1] 5 intercessors, stalkers

[iC2] 5 intercessors, stalkers

5 infiltrators, comms relay

[AG] 3 Aggressors, boltstorm - strategic reserve

[RV] 5 Reivers, grav chutes - Off board

Servo turret - lastalons

[VC] Vindicare assassin

Jabberwocky:

Hive Fleet Traits: Reroll advance rolls, Metamorphic regrowth.

[N] Neurothrope - Resonance Barb, Catalyst, The Horror, Warp Scream, Smite.

[W] 3 Warriors - 6x Boneswords, 2x Spitters, 1x Strangler, adrenals

[T] 18 Termagants with fleshborers

[H] 12 Hormagaunts with Adrenals

3 Ripper Swarms - burrowing

[HG] 3 Hive Guard with Impalers

[Z] 3 Zoanthropes - Smite (forgot to take another power)

1 Lictor - lurking

[TG] Trygon - Monstrous Size, Pincer tail

[C] Carnifex - 2x Scytals, adrenal, spore cysts

Mission: Mission 1 Incursion

Primary: Take and Hold

My secondaries: Engage, repair teleport homer, Assassinate

Opponents' secondaries: Linebreaker, assassinate, abhor the witch

Naturally, I lost the roll for first turn again, I still haven't gone first since 7th ed.

Deployment - units concealed by terain as described in above list. We'd deployed terrain to be a long table edge game, then rolled a short. Technically we should roll mission then place terrain, we'll do that next time. This left him with 2 massive open fire lanes on either side of the board, so we deployed cautiously. Opponent deployed too cautiously in my opinion, his key stuff couldn't shoot T1.

I clustered in the shadow of that large central ruin to block as much LOS as possible, thinking my monsters could move through - this was a mistake.

His T1, servo turret is out of 24" range, so does nowt. IC1 shoots my carni and does 1 damage. Vindaicar headshots the trygon, with the stupid 'extra mortals on a 3+' rule and did 4 W. Infiltrators move forward and pop a couple of gaunts.

Start of my T1 move phase - only the gaunts have moved.

My T1

Most stuff moves forward, trygon and carni hide behind the ruin until I can thin his ranks some, hormies bound out in an attempt to lock down his forward troops. Zoans stick out the side to draw LOS to the infiltrators for smite, as does the neuro. Carni and trygon regen wounds. Zoans smite the infiltrators, killing one. I cast catalyst on the zoans, the horror on the servo turret, and smite the infiltrators killing another. Hive Guard reach out 36" and shoot the servo turret. All hit, 4 wounds, 2 failed saves, 5 damage and it went down. I then single minded annihilationed them to shoot IC2 in the ruins and did nothing. Oh well. Horms charged the infiltrators and did nowt, and lost a few in return.

End of my T1

IC1 and IC2 moved forward to try and get to objectives before I swarmed them. The reivers dropped down to try and kill my neurothrope, as he had 10pts riding on killing it as a psyker and warlord. Vindicare shot a zoanthrope, saved by invun. IC2 wounded the carni twice. reiver pistols did nothing. reivers charged and failed, command reroll got them in. 21 attacks killed a zoan for no return damage, then he consolidated into my neuro.

End Opponent T2

My T2

Forgot monsters cant breach terrain, so had to go the long way round. terms, trygon and carni advanced out to the left flank to brave the wrath of the vindicare. Horms fell back, but forgot to move into an extra table quarter (doh). Lictor came on behind the vindicare to get table quarter and repair the homer, rippers came on mid-table as they couldn't get into opposing DZ. Zoans smited, then neuro catalysed the zoans, smited then warp screamed the reivers leaving 2 alive. Hive guard shot the infiltrators in the middle killing all. Warriors tried to charge reivers to bail out my neuro, but failed a 6" chare even with command reroll. Reivers pass morale.

Opponent T3

IC1 moves to intercept rippers, reivers fall back, aggressors appear 9" away in my DZ (!). Vindicare shoot the lictor causing 3 damage, then passes an incredible 12" charge to kamikaze 6" down and 6" across to piledrive the lictor into the dirt. Aggressors cannot target hte neuro as its within 3" of the warriors, canot shoot the warriors, so shoot the zoans...18 shots, ~10 hits, 4 wounds...4 saves. Whoops. They then failed the charge into the zoans, then failed again on a command reroll. IC2 shot and wiped the gaunts, then charged the rippers killing 2 bases. Still in synapse so ok.

End opponent T3.

My T3:

Zoans and neuro pivot to make the aggressors the closest targets for smite, warriors shuffle to draw LOS to them and give synapse coverage to the right flank, but that doesnt matter anymore, I can unleash the beasts. Trygon darts forward to within 2" of IC2, carnifex moves as close as possible, gants shuffle round the objective. Catalyst on the zoans, then smote the aggressors rolling a 10...+1 from the resonance barb, allowing me to roll D6 mortals, which was a 4. 1 down. Warp scream, then smite from the zoans left 1 on 1 wound. The warriors shot, getting a 6 for barbed strangler shots, the BS and Deathspitter managed 2 wounds on the last aggressor, and 1 failed, wiping the squad. Hive guard fired on the Lt scoring 2 wounds. Now, murder. carnifex was 8" away and made the 7" charge with adrenal glands. trygon made the charge, needing to score -1 on 2 dice to fail. The trygon made 7attacks wounding on 2+ due to monstrous size, each doing D6+1D, auto killing a primaris. 4/5 died. the carnifex then piled in, swinging his massive base around to tag the Lt in combat, killing the last intercessor, the consolidating into the Lt.

End my T3

His T4

Pretty much over. IC2 shot the trygon and failed to do much. vindicare moved up and shot the trygon for 3 wounds. Captain charge the carnifex with the MC power sword doing 4 wounds, carni kills the Lt in response.

My T4

I'm holding my home objective, the left one, and contesting my opponents home, so I score one, two and more. Trygon moves up to the captain, warriors move to get LOS on IC2. Catalyst on the zoans, 2x smite and warp scream, with the hive guard shooting wipes squad IC2. Trygon charges captain, 7A rerolling 1's, wounds on 3+ vs a 4+ invulnerable let 2W through, then I rolled a 1 for damage...command reroll to a 6 causing 7 damage to the captain and killing immediately.

Then we had to leave, so called it. The lone vindicare, all that remained of the Grey Lizard space marine strike force slinked off to report the loss of the assets to his masters in the temple.

End of game:

My Objectives:

Take and Hold - 5+10+15 = 30

Engage - 2+2+2 = 6

Assassinate - 3+3 = 6

repair teleport homer - 0

Total - 42

Opponents' Objectives:

Take and Hold - 5+10+5

Abhor the witch- 0

Slway the warlord - 0

Linebreaker - 0

Total - 20

Again, MVP's were the Neurothrope, Zoanthropes, Hive Guard and Trygon. 3 Zoans is decent, but I'd really like a 4th. Any larger games a priority will be to get 5. The second lictor really hurt, as my special deplyment units were effectively countered this game. I could do with another unit of rippers. The termagants dont need to be 18 strong, I might reduce them to 10-12. dropping to 12 would let me get some more rippers.

The warriors have been pretty weak, mainly giving synapse coverage, but this can be fixed with more Zoanthropes. I need to try this out some more.

Edited December 10, 2020 by Xenith

[The Pounder]

Thanks for the write ups! Very informative.

 

Your swarm really does look great on the table!

[Xenith]

Thanks for the write ups! Very informative.

Your swarm really does look great on the table!

Thanks! I'm really happy with how they came out - always been a bit nervous around bright schemes - but I think they look good, and more importantly, are getting faster to paint!

I smashed out a unit of 12 gaunts on New Year's Eve, which is super quick for me - contrasts really make this go fast. To make it even faster, I've now pre-mixed my Akhelian green once I had a half full bottle of contrast paint - I chucked in a bunch of ahkelian to make a roughly 50/50 mix which is what I was having to hand mix every 10-15 mins when painting, taking another 5 mins. This is a time saver and I reccomend it heartily.

With those 12 gaunts done, I could add them to the display of 'all models done in 2020', of which this is the Nid section:

It's not actually a massive amount, maybe ~500pts or so, but I have a whole lot more nids to paint. Now that I completed my 2020 goal of finishing the Blood Angels 4th Company, I can devote a bit more time to my other armies. I'll still be painting marines, but maybe more as one-off pieces in my Primaris Project.

With that new Akhelian mix in tow, I then set about slapping it onto a Tyrannofex. This acid spray beast will be fun, especially with smaller tables in 9th. Should be in range T1, possibly even for the double spray!

[Xenith]

 

 

Dude, that pink/flesh colour on that monsters wings, what is it? how did you do that?

That's literally just volpius pink contrast over grey seer spray undercoat.

I made a mistake on that one, the wings are 50/50 flesh tearer red to contrast medium, painted in streaks to get that effect.

[Xenith]

I've pretty much finished my Tyrannofex, the wash on the base is drying as we speak. At ~190pts, he's almost a third of the points of the total amount of nids I painted last year. Let's see if I can beat that!

[Xenith]

So I got my Tyrannofex finished, this model was pretty fun to paint, maybe less fun to make, it's pretty fiddly in places. As with the harpy, this represents another maturation of my colour scheme - the pink soft bits are gradually getting phased out for pure flesh tearers red, as it's pretty close to screamer pink, and it also has this icky satin sheen that changes up the texture of the model a bit. Tis is mainly a speed thing - screamer pink needs to be watered down to settle into recessed vents, and volpius pink doesn't go over the blue base well, but Flesh Tearers Red has both pigment density and flow quality to cover and sink into recesses. Honestly, painting all those skin vents has never been so quick.

So:

Undercoat grey seer

Hard tissue/exoskeleton: 50/50 akhelian green/contrast medium

Carapace: grey seer tidy up; all over 50/50 magos purple/medium; chunky recess shade pure magos; feather highlight grey seer; feather highlight corax white, preserving brush strokes for texture effect.

Soft tissue: pure Flesh Tearers Red.

Talons/hooves: 50/50 shyish purple/medium. Additional coat to bed of talon.

*just realised on upload that I forgot to paint the vents/muscle on the rear right leg. The things you see when zoomed in.

Edited January 19, 2021 by Xenith

[WarriorFish]

Nice work, I think the carapace recesses came out very well here :tu: Good to see your fleet continuing, what is next on your list?

[Xenith]

Yea, I took a bit of a different route and did a whole-armour plate shade/glaze this time, as opposed to recesses only, which I think gave me a more pronounced colour change across the whole thing. Next up for Nids is probably 3 more Hive Guard, or a Hive Tyrant - to combine Psychic and melee. I'm thinking in smaller games I might be able to sub in the the tyrant for the Neurothrope+Carnifex, in order to fit other stuff in if I have to. 

 

The Hive Guard were a gift, so higher on the 'to paint' list. I'm thinking of doing something fun with them and trying to shake up the poses a little, maybe make one an 'Alpha'.

[Xenith]

Got another 8 stealers done!

That's 16 painted total now. Need a few more to be really threatening.

[INKS]

Your nids looks great. love the paint scheme.

[Xenith]

Your nids looks great. love the paint scheme.

Thank you! Took a while to settle on the scheme, and then some adjusting for contrasts, but it's at the right level of looking good on the table, but also being fast to paint.

I've got some work done on the Hive Guard I got for Christmas. As these were a gift I wanted to make them special somehow. I added one chitin shield from the Tyrant Guard part of the kit to the left side to act as a gun shield, protectin the vulnerable right flank/shoulder, which is exposed when they shoot. these guys have been learning from Primaris marines. The last model is then a Hive Guard Alpha, with bigger arms, dead marine, and two gun shields. The plan was initially to have him wielding the gun one handed and waving the other arm about like a marine sergeant, but that involved some cutting and resculpting of the gun barrel, which I'm too lazy to do, so he has the larger pose and bulk of the shields, but will be aiming as normal. I was tempted by a head swap, but couldn't think of a good alternative. Depending on final gun position, I'll also add the sternum-nubbin to give him a more enclosed chitin cowl.

Edited March 18, 2021 by Xenith

[The Pounder]

The Hive Guard will look great in your scheme.

 

I also like that you’ve given them a more armoured look.

[Xenith]

The Hive Guard will look great in your scheme.

 

I also like that you’ve given them a more armoured look.

 

Thanks Jud! Yea, I wanted to do something special with this unit, and was amazed that the Tyrant shoulder shields actually fit on the torsos when holding the guns, so it had to be done! 

 

On another note, I've been playing a lot of marines lately, due to a tournament, and painting a lot due to Indomitus+Primaris in general. I am really looking forward to putting the marines on the shelf for a while and breaking the nids out again. I need at least another 6 hormies though, taking me up to 30 for a full unit, maybe more stealers, and to get this fire support made. 

[The Pounder]

I’m with you, I’m currently trying to work on two armies at the same time.

 

My Nids will probably get more attention when the new codex drops.

 

So much to do, so little time!

 

Good luck with the tournaments and Hormagaunts!

[Xenith]

So I'm organising a bit of a Crusade campaign with my local group, as we have a few starting new armies, and a few new members who are just getting into the hobby - the time seems right to get started on this!

 

I was tempted to start Genestealer cults, but in the end I'm going with my Nids, though to join in with the slow-grow aspect, I'll only be fielding new units in the crusade list where possible. TYRANIDS key word should also allow me to stick a unit of neophytes or two in there if I want.

 

My 25PL starting army will be this:

 

++ Patrol Detachment -2CP (Tyranids) ++

+ Configuration +

[Reference] Discipline: Hive Mind

[Reference] Extensions of the Hive Mind

Battle Size: 1. Combat Patrol (0-50 Total PL / 0-500 Points)

Detachment Command Cost

Gametype

Hive Fleet: Jormungandr

+ HQ +

Neurothrope

+ Troops +

Hormagaunts: Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs
. . 20x Hormagaunt: 20x Scything Talons

Termagants: Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs
. . 10x Termagant (Devourer): 10x Devourer

+ Elites +

Lictor

+ Heavy Support +

Tyrannofex: Acid Spray, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs

++ Total: [25 PL, 1CP, 577pts] ++

Created with BattleScribe (https://battlescribe.net)

 

Leaving me another 25PL to play around with as my starting roster. I really want a Hive Tyrant in there asap as I think they'll become amazing with upgrades, but also potentially a Tervigon to take advantage of free spawning in narrative games. Other priorities will be 3x zoanthropes as they're monstrous, and 3x Hiveguard as they're also ace, then onto an Exocrine for useful support.

 

I'm not really a massive fan of many of the Hive Fleets, but I dont want to be gamey and take the endless regeneration custom fleet trait, though taking pack hunters and biometallic cysts is very tempting. Jormungandr gives everything basically +1 save, which is invaluable, and synergises incredibly with chameleonic mutation/adaptive camouflage, and lictors, who go to a 3+ armour save. 

[WarriorFish]

The Neophytes could be handy as a snack for any nid that gets hungry during the battle I wouldn't worry about the Fleet rules, you're already looking to make use of the advantages and so would everyone else. The only thing that's gamey to me is changing the ones you use, which is a form of list tailoring - once you decide what you want you should stick with it This also helps when you, for example, have been using Iron Hands rules for years and then it becomes "cool" but at least everyone knows you were there before it was "cool" and will still be there afterwards

 

Either way, I wouldn't worry much about anything. A slow-grow campaign with new hobbyists is all about the hobby itself so it's a good opportunity to try out things you might not normally, especially given games have been in short supply lately Don't forget to let us know how it goes with plenty of pictures and batreps

[Xenith]

Yea, I figured I'd stick with an official hive fleet as the only good custom trait is the regen one, and the others apply to only certain models. I was really really tempted to go horror from beyond and all the Ld modifying adaptations for some shenannagins, but I thought I'd keep it simple in the end. It'll stay as Jormundandr through the campaign. This is really an opportunity to play around with the fleet and get some left field units on the table.