Changes is Inevitable

So I have yet again made changes to my 1000 point army. This time I dropped 4 termagaunts and added crushing claws to one of my Fexes. I liked it a lot better. The D6+1 attacks is so much better than the regular 4 scything talon attacks. I had one round where I had 9 attacks (I should have had 11, but I kept forgetting my bonus attacks for charging and the tusks).

As I just said I forgot about the extra attack for charging when I used my Hive Tyrand and Fexes (but remembered it when I did the hormaguants). I really need to get better at that.

This test of the 1000 point army has solidified my choices in taking more shooty units when I get to 1750. It's just so much better to have a guy who attacks with 6 or so shots and then assults with 5 or so attacks. You can do so much damage with one guy in one turn.

I almost wish I would have had Marc hold off on primering my Fexes. Now I'm thinking every fex should have had a devourer at least. So much more power there.

Oh well I can always try to put it on them later or just get a few new fexes. The only thing it looks like I lacking for my 1750 point army is another set of warriors. I'll be posting lists again soon.

Kickin' It Up a Notch

We've been discussing the future of our game. Eventually we'd like to each get a tournament army together and maybe even do a campaign. It's going to take a lot of work to do this and one of the first thing that has to be done is for the armies to get up to 1750 points.

I've begun to re-evaluate my 1000 point army yet again. I like it, don't get me wrong, but I think I can tweak it some more. I'm considering dropping four shooty gaunts to put crushing claws on one of my Fexes.

For 1750 I'm thinking about adding genestealers, shooty ripper swarms, shooty warriors, and a sniper-type-fex. This army is turning out to be a lot more shooty then I expected, but I'm really liking the 'nids. I didn't expect to at first.

I forgot to mention in the last game we played I was really digging the Hive Tyrant changes I made. Now he can be as lethal in shooting as he can in hand to hand. 'Nids are by far not the best shooting army, but they do have their moments.

I'm hoping I can get some of the others interested in contributing to this blog. I'd be nice to see the battles from different points of view.

Purple Haze Version 5 in Action

Tonight I did my first battle with my most recent army list. It's the 5th iteration of this army (version 4 never even saw the table). We played a 2 on 2 objective game where you start with an objective in your deployment zone. Thom and his Tau were teamed with me and Kyle and his 1000 Son's Chaos Space Marines were teamed with Marc and his Imperial Guard.

Marc and Kyle set up first and lined up on center line of the table. The rules were each side deploys an HQ and two troops and the first turn is night. Thom and I are forced to line up on the edge in order to deploy 18 inches from them.

The battle appeared to be going in favor of Kyle and Marc. Marc had parked a tank in the opening between two building, one of which contained his marker, in order to force me to take the long way around to him. Kyle had a troop planted on his marker and used the rest of his army to advance on Thom.

Thom and I had to spread our guys out so much on the second turn that I had to deploy one of my termaguant troops clear over on his side of the table. They took a wound and promptly failed their leadership test (no synapse creature even remotely close) and disappeared off the table edge. In the mean time two of my hormaguant troops ripped through Marc's men, but took about 25% casualties from shots.

By turn 4 I was down to two hormaguant models from a single troop, one carnifex, my hive tyrant, and a troop of termaguants. I was trying to get my hive tyrant in range of my termagaunts in order to get them to stop lurking and move to the scoring marker. Marc sent a missle barage in their direction though and wiped them out.

Thom destroyed Kyle's Space Marines near his marker, but lost his ethreal to Kyle's 1000 Sons troop. He had one troop left. It looked like it would end in a tie. Thom had Kyle's defiler and two 1000 Sons staring him down. I had a squad of snipers moving in on my last two guants. I was able to take my hive tyrant and shoot some of the snipers then have it any my two guants wipe them out in hand to hand. The consolidation made the two guys a scoring unit.

Thom concentrated his fire on Kyle's defiler and wiped it out, then he used his drones to take down Kyle's last 1000 Son. Even his plus 4 invulnerable save couldn't save him. Thom took the second objective with the guys on his Devilfish.

All in all it was a fun game and Thom and I won too. My army and Kyle's played a lot better than before. I can't wait to play again. :)

The Source of My Army Name

As promised here is the source of my army name. I wanted to do a purple, green, and orange army. I know that probably doesn't sound that appealing, but I like how it turned out. The color of the sand on the base is the same color of the table we play on, so he'll blend in nicely.


When I told my cousin, Marc, of my color choices he kinda looked at me with a "you better not be serious" look, but I have to say I like the results. I originally though green body, purple carapace, but I'm glad I changed my mind.

That purple is a single color wash. It has to be gone over several times because the paint just wouldn't adhere to the primer. The green is about 4 different shades, and the orange is two shades of brown one of orange, one mix of orange and yellow, and one of yellow.

It was a lot of fun... only 53 more models to scrape, glue, and paint.

Raising an Army

I've begun to work on my 40K army list. I'm playing with a group of family and friends. Each of us has successfully selected a different army. I'm going to play Tyranids.

My army list has gone through several iterations already, but here is how it stands now...

1000 Pts - Tyranids Roster - Purple Haze

HQ: Hive Tyrant (1#, 190 Pts)
1 Hive Tyrant @ 190 Pts
Bio-plasma; Toxin Sacs +1 St; Winged; Scything Talons (x1); Twin-linked Devourer (x1); Synapse Creature; The Horror; Warp Field

Heavy Support: Carnifex (1#, 156 Pts)
1 Carnifex @ 156 Pts
Acid Maw; Adrenal Glands +1 WS; Extended Carapace +1 Save; Tail Weapon - Scythe; Tusked; Scything Talons (x2)

Heavy Support: Carnifex (1#, 156 Pts)
1 Carnifex @ 156 Pts
Acid Maw; Adrenal Glands +1 WS; Extended Carapace +1 Save; Tail Weapon - Scythe; Tusked; Scything Talons (x2)

HQ: Warriors (3#, 113 Pts)
2 Warriors @ 113 Pts
Enhanced Senses +1 BS; Extended Carapace +1 Save; Toxin Sacs +1 St; Scything Talons (x1); Deathspitter; Synapse Creature
1 Warriors @ [41] Pts
Enhanced Senses +1 BS; Extended Carapace +1 Save; Toxin Sacs +1 St; Scything Talons (x1); Barbed Strangler; Synapse Creature

Troops: Hormagaunts (8#, 88 Pts)
8 Hormagaunts @ 88 Pts
Extended Carapace +1 Save; Scything Talons

Troops: Hormagaunts (8#, 88 Pts)
8 Hormagaunts @ 88 Pts
Extended Carapace +1 Save; Scything Talons

Troops: Hormagaunts (8#, 88 Pts)
8 Hormagaunts @ 88 Pts
Extended Carapace +1 Save; Scything Talons

Troops: Gaunt Brood (8#, 40 Pts)
8 Gaunt Brood @ 40 Pts
Spinefists

Troops: Gaunt Brood (8#, 40 Pts)
8 Gaunt Brood @ 40 Pts
Spinefists

Troops: Gaunt Brood (8#, 40 Pts)
8 Gaunt Brood @ 40 Pts
Spinefists

Total Roster Cost: 999

Created with Army Builder
Copyright (c) 1997-2006 Lone Wolf Development, Inc. All rights reserved.

I originally had my entire army as hand to hand by taking 4 warriors with rending, scything and leaping and no shooty gaunts. Fexes also had Extended Carapace, Bonded Exoskeleton, and Reinforced Chitin and my Hive Tyrant was all hand to hand.

But when I last met with my cousin, Marc (playing Imperial Guard), he suggested I change the warriors to be shooty and add a troop of gaunts.

I decided he was right and made up an army list with a venom cannon and one group of 8 gaunts. Then when I got home I got to thinking about it more. I really should have even more models then I did.

Part of the point of Tyranids is the number of guys you can have on the table. I decided to drop the two extra defense on my fex and add two more troops of gaunts (at the minimum 8). Now I field 6 troops which is great for any objective game. I also changed the guns on my warriors to be template weapons and gave my hive tyrant a gun that gives him just as many shots as he has hand to hand attacks (and he can shoot and assault).

I think this is a more well rounded list. It also offers versatility because as you grow the army you can combine the smaller troops into large broods. At 1500 points I expect to take some genestealers and they will need another troop slot, so I'll probably combine the 6 broods of 8 into 4 broods of 12.

Incidentally the current name comes from my paint scheme since purple is my primary body color. I'll post a picture of my first painted piece soon.