1) I’ve only played as ‘Nids once
2) My army is currently not yet painted3) Throne of Skulls starts in less than a fortnight
Yes, those may appear to be significant drawbacks
because, well… they are. Nevertheless,
it’s a challenge, and the only time I get painting done is when I have a
deadline, so let’s see if I can rise to the challenge or remain flac… You know,
I probably shouldn’t finish that sentence.
Oh well, I have a list mapped out with a (relatively low) model count,
the weird basing paints should make that aspect of the work quicker and easier
and I have a colour scheme sorted that, after a test paint, looks fairly decent
by my own admittedly low standards.
Colour wise, I’m going for a fairly dark scheme, using
the lazy man’s version of colouration: black undercoat. However, I have worked on how to disguise my
laziness with washes and drybrushing.
The basic Tyranid model (for me) can basically be split down into three
broad areas: flesh, carapace and weapons.
The flesh would be drybrushed with a dark blue and then a very light
blue, hopefully to emphasise the darkness without making it look too lazy. The carapace would be mottled with dark read
and then the plates would be edged with a very bright red to draw the eye, and
also to detract from the mottling. I
wanted the the red mottling to be a subtle effect, but the usual red paints
came up a bit bright from my liking.
Fortunately they darkened down a touch when dried and contrasted with
the bright red edging. The final choice
was actually the hardest for me: what colour would I paint the weaponry? This was tricky as I wanted a third clear
colour on the model, but didn’t want to mess up the black/bright red contrast I
had going. Bone and flesh were too
bright and ended up competing too much with the red edging on the
carapace. Eventually I settled for a
dark brown with a drybushing of a pale flesh shade to break up the colour
without overwhelming the rest of the scheme.
The end result now basically looks a bit like an inverse
Hive Fleet Behemoth scheme, which is fine by me. The blue drybrushing tended to make the flesh
look more dark blue than black, but you could see detail and the carapace contrast
still worked, so I’m not going to complain if the scheme took a couple of steps
outside of my original plan. And so,
Hive Fleet Begorrah was born!
Next comes the list itself. What with the time restraints and everything,
I really couldn’t go for a full swarm approach but (for once) that was fine by
me. I have a habit of assuming I have
too few models on the field, so I tend to shy away from the low count expensive
choices (with a couple of exceptions) and focus on having a lot of (preferably
scoring) bodies on the field at the start of the game. It explains my love for cultists. Well, half explains it. I mean, I’ve still gone for a big old squad
of Gaunts as a core hub. Not only for
the immense amount of anti-personnel flak you can get out of them with
devourers, but also as a handy meatshield for my HQ choice.
I really like the Tyranid Prime as an HQ, which is an
opinion I’ve had a few of my friends cock an eyebrow at. Sure, it can’t hit as hard as a Tyrant but
it’s no slouch in that department either.
The main use for him is as a survival source of Synapse. The problem I have with Tyrants (other than
the predictable ‘because everyone else is using them’ bullshit I like to fall
back on) is that they are not a reliable source of control for the rest of your
army. They are big scary bastards and
attract bullets appropriate to their station.
Especially the flying ones. When
it comes to maintaining control, the Independent Character status that the Prime
has is worth the points bump. The
ability to abandon one squad and then join another, all the while taking 2+
Look Outs against any incoming damage provides more survivability than simple
high toughness Given the potentially
disastrous consequences of Instinctive Behaviour, this is definitely a big
deal.
To round out my advance, I’ve also decided to pack a trio
of Carnifexes. You barely ever saw them
last edition, but I get the feeling that they will be making a comeback with
the new codex. It’s amazing what a 25%
points drop will do for a creature isn’t it?
Add in the other tweaks and they are a very solid choice now I
think. Looking at the tweaks made to
these guys, I’m very happy with them.
Veen the little things, like upping the Initiative value to two, is
immensely useful. I’ve heard people ask
what the point of that is, along with the point of giving them assault grenade
equivalents. There is a very good reason
for this and it’s simple: they will strike before powerfists. Before it was a mutually assured destruction
thing, where both the high Strength Unwieldy guys would die, but take the Fex
down with them. Now though, a charging
assault Carnifex stands a good chance of getting to grips with a Terminator
squad and walking out the other side.
Yeah, it’s contextual, but the times when it kicks off will be well
worth the 5 points!
That said, the primary niche for Fexes is probably going
to be as a S6 flak battery. With a
horrifying number of shots, twin linking and a good enough strength to trouble
the most armoured flyers in the game, this is the best anti-air choice in the
dex if you don’t want to field flyers yourself.
Not only that, but against massed infantry and light vehicles they also
do the business and can punch the spine out of almost anything, and all for 150
points. Needless to say, I have more
than one of these. Although, I haven’t
gone whole hog. I’ve decided to kit one
of the Carnifexes out for assault. This
is for three reasons. The aesthetic
reason: Carnifex devourers don’t look meaty enough. They pack a hell of a punch to be sure, but
they just look too small. I’m not keen
on them. The assault Carnifexes look
legit though. The claws and scythes all
look like they have an appropriate amount of heft behind them. The practical reason: Monstrous creature Devourers are really
annoying to get hold of. Each Carnifex
kit comes with one set, and you’ll be wanting two. They also don’t seem to come with any of the
other MC kits. Even after scrounging
from my friends, I was one set short, and I didn’t want to shell out Forge
World prices and run the risk of them not turning up in time for the
tournament. So I bought another Carnifex
box and thought; well, seeing as I have another Carnifex kit lying around, may
as well use it! Finally Gameplay: It can
punch really hard. Kind of simple, but
some reasons don’t have to be complicated.
After a while, I decided to kit him out with crushing claws just in case
I run across multi wound T5 montrosities or superheavies. I now never need to smash, unless I really
want a reroll on armour pen!
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