Jabberwocky Rises: The Consuming Wraith

[ZeroWolf]

Those came out beautifully! Great work 

[Xenith]

Thanks! Still basing to go, but that's enough for the CTA!

[Xenith]

Busy weekend but I managed to get the base blue down on my VRL's, and tidied up the white - next I need to get the soft bits done, and the armour plate recess shade, then they're nearly there! 

[Xenith]

I'm setting up a Crusade Campaign in my local club, following the rules set out in the leviathan supplement, using that campaign. I'll be using my nids, who will eat all before them!

[ZeroWolf]

Good luck! I've  been wanting to start a crusade campaign but I've got less than 1000pts

[Xenith]

I don't think that should be an issue - 10th ed crusade is maybe unclear, but the 1000pts is a limit for your starting roster, and just like in 1000pt games, you could actually bring 950, or 750pts if you wanted, you can start your 1000pt limit roster with 500pts worth of models, and challenge people to 500pt games. 

[ZeroWolf]

I see, maybe there is hope after all.

[Xenith]

Bit more work over the weekend, and I managed to get my Winged Prime finished as well as the neurothrope. I have a feeling GW will try and put another winged prime or other kit onto us, and because I'm crazy, I mangetised the upper claw arms of the prime so I can switch things around if it actually gets options in the new book.

 

 

 

The exoskeleton on the neuro I'm not 100% happy with, I had an issue with my corax white that saw it go on quite furry, so there is a surface texture there that's significantly matted down the overall effect - I'm hoping that it will come out in the wash with a satin varnish over the top, or maybe even a gloss to loven it up. 

 

[ZeroWolf]

Beautiful work, love the pink tint to the bones.

 

I hardly ever use Crovax White as mine have devolved to odd clumps of paint. Not sure how GW messed up a colour that badly, but they did.

[Xenith]

Thanks! There's definitely more pink/magos purple on the carapace than I usually do, this has been dialled back with some drybrushing, as I've been tweaking my technique. This has been based on two painting videos from Artis Opus, the info from which I've taken on board:

Carapace with contrast and shade

Spoiler

Drybrushing

Spoiler

 

 

After watching these vids, I basically realised I'm almost already doing the first, just by picking the complimentary colour and adding two wide, thinned shades to my carapace. On the last new models (neutotyrant, neurogaunts, prime, screamer) I've actually changed this up to apply a very thin contrast 4:1 medium to magos purple all over the plates, as opposed to just in the recesses, and then do another one to build up the colour. The broad shade in the recesses produced a solid line at the edge of the paint which I then always had to go and tidy up, while this method builds up the purple in the recesses and subtly picks out the other details on the carapace. 

 

It does, however, thinge the whole white carapace purple, which while also looking good, is not what I wanted, so I had to go back and whiten it up. Using the second video's guidance, like not wiping onto a tissue to keep moisture on the brush, I went back over and drybrushed the carapace to try and blend the purple tinted plates back to white - you can probably see this best on the Neurotyrants forehead plate, and the big crown thing it has, and also here:

 

 

It's always nice to add more tools to your belt, something I haven't done in a good while. I'm a fan of the all over contrast and will likely keep doing it. This method lacks the texture that my previous does, so I might go back and add streaks of corax white to the upper bony parts to make it look more ridged. 

[ZeroWolf]

Helpful hints there, I'll have to watch those videos later 

[Brother Nathan]

coraz seem sto be a very od consistancy, mines lumpy watery and i cant fix it.. seem to be a paint issue mind as ive heard it elsewhere. good save though!

[Xenith]

9 hours ago, Brother nathan said:

coraz seem sto be a very od consistancy, mines lumpy watery and i cant fix it.. seem to be a paint issue mind as ive heard it elsewhere. good save though!

 

The spray needs to be done from really close or it dries and goes powdery on the model. Corax pot paint is still one of my favourites: it has amazing coverage, but it starts to clump fast, you need to keep adding drops of water. 

14 hours ago, ZeroWolf said:

Helpful hints there, I'll have to watch those videos later 

 

Thanks! The one with peachy is more talking about the guy, Byron, who set up element. The tips and theory on drybrushing is throughout, but it's a long watch. Enjoyable though. 

[Nexus17]

That Prime looks awesome. I really like the red/orange parts - very vibrant against the rest of the scheme.

[Xenith]

Thanks! In the joints, where the cartilage is, it's straight flesh tearers red over white, on the wings it's 50/50 flesh tearers/medium over white also, but it comes out a bit thin and streaky, perfect for flesh! 

[Xenith]

Been a few days, but I've got my local clubs Leviathan Crusade campaign up and running. If youre interested, the Levi missions and rules are quite fun, if poorly written in places (mainly in terms of written by someone that knows exactly what they mean, but is not clear to an outsider). 

 

So far, the first 2 missions have been Scattered Supplies, to represent imperial armies recognising the threat and mobilising, then insurgency to represent internal threats manifesting to delay the war effort. 

 

I ave to say, 2 standout units have been the Haruspex (probably not unexpected) and weirdly, gargoyles. The haruspex is a straight menace, big beast, loads of attacks, high S and T and enough wounds to absorb damage. Field some zoans near him though to get the most from lascannon protection, and find a way to get more CP on the table as this guy is a target for the FNP strat. Gargolyes are also great, but in terms of completing agendas - they do little else, but have been hoovering up XP like nobodies business! I think I need to rein them in a bit and remember that they're not mission secondaries, but a nice XP bonus. Thing is, all my other units are mission critical, so I can't afford things like my haruspex not charging, or my zoanthropes not shooting, for objectives like contaminate objectives. 

 

The Maleceptor is also a good unit, though probably overcosted - I didn't realise the blast was S10, which makes it some of the best antitank in the army, albeit at 18". Mine wiped a unit of wolfguard and wolflord in my first game, which was amazing, then after that game rolled +1A and PRECISION for his blast, which isn't too bad -  I was hoping for -1AP, but precision is ok, and will make killing wolf lords easier in future. 

[Xenith]

Finally got my copy of the nid codex and had a read through. Nothing groundbreaking, and kind of disapointed really. The alternate detachments all feel inferior to the Invasion swarm (the all rounder) as they focus on some very specific elements/datasheets of the codex. I like what they 'tried' to do though, however I don't think it succeeded. In practice, no one is really, regularly running things like 120 gaunts, or only monsters (even then, only monsters are better in the invasion swarm, IMO). Many of the cool elements are then countered by nid rules. Hormagaunts run towards the enemy when they get shot? Awesome. Reducing synapse to 6" meaning they immediately run out of synapse range and get battleshocked when they invariably lose >10 models? Not so great. +1 to hit when wounded? Great. Losing that bonus when more wounded? Silly. 

 

The book also suffers from the standard 10th ed stuff where units can't join certain other ones, and pretty much all nid monsters can't shoot into combat as they have blast weapons. Kind of dumb, especially as the weapons nids have are not game breaking in any way (stranger, venom cannon?). They could do with an additional rule called 'selective pathogens' or something that lets them fire blast in melee at -1 to hit.  

 

Certain relics, due to the change in psychic powers, loss of certain characters and monster rules, means there is maybe one model they can go on, further restricting your model choices. Certain things will only even go on a neurotyrant - such as will of the hive mind for +1S and AP on the flamer. I think there's a crusade relic that allows rerolled hits and wounds, however the only character it can be given to hits automatically with a torrent weapon.

 

It really feels like they wrote this codex for 9th ed before they decided to scrap most of it and shake up how characters and psychic powers work, which is a massive shame. 

 

In other news, I'm on a 3 game winning streak with my nids in the crusade campaign, and the crusade content is decent overall if you play that way - you have to roll up a type of world that you'll be invading, and collect biomass to move onto the next stage of consumption. You can then use that biomass as semi-requisition points, and have some restrictions on other requisitions. 

 

After 3 games, I have a couple of units on nearly 15 XP, so ready to get their second battle honour (or third, if you count the tyrannic war track), my tyrant has levelled, and my neurotyrant has put some work in. Maleceptor continues to be a workhorse, though I think now overpointed as they cannot use the blast in melee. The 6" aura has come into play once in 3 games with him. The Haruspex died fast last game due to bad positioning and eating a charge from 10 advance and charge chosen (really? We get advance and charge on gaunts, lose it on stealers, and their strongest unit gets it for free?) however the counter assault wiped that unit. Harry really needs some boost to resilience, like -1D, or FNP.

 

In my last game I tried out crusher stampede and spent the entire game wishing I'd chosen invasion swarm instead for the regenning gaunts, FNP and sustained hits. I'd rather have sustained hits than +1 to hit if I'm wounded (they're statistically the same anyway, except I dont have to be wounded). The mortal wound strat is nice, but 3MW for 1 cp feels bad now. This might have been good at the start of 9th. 

[ZeroWolf]

Sad to hear about the codex, though I'm expecting mors buffs our way...unless we're dead on 50% win rate

[Xenith]

Hopefully! I have no idea what WR Nids are on at the moment, however if it's above 45% I dont think we'll see any change. Hopefully GW looks at all detachments and tweaks them instead of just overarching rules. The detachments could do with a boost, IMO to bring them up to the level of the Invasion Swarm. 

[Xenith]

In the ongoing travails of Jabberwocky, I've had my 4th Crusade game, Secure the archives vs a teenage member of the club that's been getting regularly beaten severely by another (teenager) in the group and was afraid might lose enthusiasm, so I went in with a fun game in mind, and hoped to have a close game at least. 1250pts, I brought the tyrant, venoms, carnifexen, he was using a DA successor...and brought a Knight Castellan.

 

For the first time ever I chose the lethal hits option hoping I could do something with mass firepower, however it wasn't to be. I could barely roll a 6, and then the redemptor in the army had a 2+ Even the zoanthropes struggled as the dread passed every damn armour save it had to make.

 

I was trying to go for board control and win the game as my units got deleted, however I rolled badly for the objectives and the ones in my table half were systematically removed meaning I had to walk into the guns.

 

We called it after turn 3 at 50-25, and a sound beating for the nids. I made plenty of mistakes, including to lock units down forgetting about desperate escape, and how you might as well just charge in and kill.

 

The short range firepower of the nids is still crippling, and I think I need to get an exocrine into the force, however I only have the one body for the exo or haruspex, so I might have to get creative with some conversions. 

 

In other news, I pulled the trigger and picked up a Norn Emissary with birthday money (woop), and will get to making that asap. It's point intensive, but I think it'll be a monster with some crusade upgrades like a weapon upgrade like extra shots or damage.  

 

 

Edited October 10, 2023 by Xenith

[Brother Nathan]

Sounds like a good game and reinforces what im finding... nids cant kill as effectively as they did. You need to play to outscore... dunno about you but id rather loose such a game and give a struggling player some encouragement whilst id rather smash tryhards... 

[Xenith]

15 hours ago, Brother nathan said:

id rather loose such a game and give a struggling player some encouragement whilst id rather smash tryhards... 

 

Oh yea, that was definitely the goal with this, I brought a weaker army (and I've already been using weak units in my crusade) and was a bit blindsided by the knight! That said, I did say what mission we'd be doing, and told them to bring enough scoring and some stuff to kill monsters - which he did in abundance!

 

This kids been thrown into too many 2k games I think and was struggling against the other teenager that always seems to misread the rules in their favour, so I thought we'd get a game in as something different for them, and hopefully not a pasting. They seem to be enjoying the crusade format, and the smaller games work for them better I think - fewer rules to remember and they can get used to using the same units over the course of a few games.

 

Agree on the board control - In this game I forgot the fundamental axiom of nids which is that you'll lose models and dont be afraid of it - it's just harder in crusade where the scars actually can be quite bad. I think my army really needs another unit of Hormagaunts - the unit of 2 is great. but once they're down I don't have many more things. The carnifexes have been massively underperforming, I might drop them for the Emissary, or try and get some more gaunts in. 

[Xenith]

New nids crusade battle report in my blog!

 

 

[Xenith]

New Battle report on a 1250pt game vs Votann in my blog! This was my first fight against them, and my first time using the Emissary, I break down my thoughts on it in the after action report! 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by Xenith

[The Pounder]

Great battle report! Congrats on the win.

 

It’s a shame you don’t rate the Norn it looks amazing!