BATREP: 1850 Nid v Guard - Battle Mission

In the face of the neverending devourer ... the guard employ Orks...

Further to my previous pasting by my friend and colleague, Mark 'Ironside' - we rescheduled another game. I was to get the chance to rethink my horde to get to grips with Mech armour ... while Mark would put together a more fluffy/mixed guard force.

After last minute chats, we agreed that the Guard wouldn't go all infantry and that a mixed force would offer me the best challenge. This is my fifth outing with the new nids ... and I'm still getting to grips with the play-style (being more used to Guard and Tau gunlines) and the special characters I roll with.

TYRANID ARMY LIST - Hive Splinter Orubus

• Tyranid Prime: Lash Whip and BoneSword, Devourer, adrenal glands
• Parasite of Mortrex
• 2 x 1 Hive Guard
• Doom of Malantai in a basic Spore
• 20 basic Hormagaunts
• 4 Warriors with rending claws, toxin sacs and deathspitters in a spore
• 10 Termagaunts
• 5 genestealers
• 5 genestealers
• Tervigon with Regen, Catalyst, toxin sacs
• 20 Gargoyles with toxin sacs
• Trygon with regen
• Trygon with regen

GUARD ARMY LIST - Mark's Defence Force

• Primaris Psyker
• Infantry Command Squad - Autocannon, meltagun
• Squad #1
• Squad #2
• Squad #3
• Squad #4
• Squad #5
• Veterans with 2 plasma and a meltagun
• Lascannon HWT
• Missile Launcher #1 HWT
• Missile Launcher #2 HWT
• Mortar Team #1
• Mortar Team #2
• Hellhound with heavy flamer
• Hellhound with heavy flamer
• Vendetta
• Punisher with Pask and 3 Heavy Bolters
• Leman Russ with heavy flamer
• Leman Russ with heavy flamer

Marks getting really into his duel hellhound list (impressed on him by your truly) and apart from dropping the vendetta and taking yet more mortars ... this is probably what i'd take (but with more flamers ... grrr)

To keep things interesting I suggested we play a battle mission rather than a standard conflict. This would give us a chance to showcase Jervis' big new idea ... and the Nid one's seemed particularly tasty! As I jumped this on MArk that evening, I gave Mark the choice of the Nid mission he'd defend.

He opted for 'Wave Assault' (Pg:84)

WAVE ASSAULT DESCRIPTION

For those that haven't bought battle missions yet, wave assault requires the 'non-nid' player to deploy anywhere more than 12" away from 3 board edges. The Tyranid player then divides their army in to three equalish sets of units. These 'sets' then arrive in a random order in turns one, two and three. The objectives are based in the centre of the board and 18" away from the centre line of the 'nid-edges'.

DEPLOYMENT

Our lictor viewed the smelly objectives, surrounded by tasty tasty treats (otherwsie known as guardsmen)

Mark deployed everything except the 'fast attack' options (with his vets inside the vendetta). The standard guard squads formed up around the Leman Russ battle tanks, with the Punisher sitting pretty in the middle. The Heavy weapon teams sat well back in a handily placed central bunker complex (oh, how did that get there? LOL) and hunkered down for the battle. Mark strategy was going to be to blast me away from the centra of the board with some serious firepower.

DIVIDING THE WAVES ...

Never having done this before, I sort of worked it at random ... and made some blinding mistakes!

Wave 1

• Tyranid Prime and four warriors in a Spore
• Doom of Malantai in a Spore
• Tervigon
• 5 Genestealers

Wave 2

• Parasite of Mortrex with 20 gargoyles
• 1 Hive Guard
• 10 Termagaunts
• Trygon

Wave 3

• Hive Guard
• 20 Hormagaunts
• 5 genestealers
• Trygon with regen

Anyone else notice the blinding mistake. No Synapse in Wave 3 ... guess which wave turned up first!

TURN 1: It's just a jump to the left!

The Hive Guard, Hormagaunts and Genestealers arrive on the left hand flank, while the Trygon deep strikes in the middle to cause maximum problems. Hive guard immediately fails his leadership and hides ... hormagaunts keep their nerve and keep to some cover for this turn. The Guard turn their ire on the Trygon, with Commander Pask with BS4 20 shot reroll to wound punisher cannon leading the way ... he goes down in a hail of rapid fire death and nastiness. Oh dear. The battle cannons open up ... killing half the Hormagaunts and 3 genestealers. Wierdly both units pass their leadership tests!

And in normal vision ... Mark sets up three layers of dakka to meet my horde!

TURN 2: And a step to the rigggghhhht!

Wave 1 arrive. And the Tervigon turns up and spouts 10 termagaunts onto the board. Forget to Catalyst the stealers though ... doh! The Spore land brilliantly and the Doom kills several heavy weapons teams and forces a standard squad to run off the board due to casulaties. The Tyranid Warrior and Prime also hail fire on the enemy ... but the lack of a rear armour shot thwarts them. They do drop into area terrain. The Hive Guard flips again (and I mistakenly keep him in 'cover' not 'area terrain' ... this is a mistake. The hormagaunts flip out and run, skip and jump a guardsman squad ... causing a not inconsiderable massacre. The Hive Guard pop shots at a unit and 2 genestealers move up behind the spore/warriors on the left flank.

The Prime leads a desparate charge down the middle ...
hang on we're nids ... munch munchy, crunchy crunchy!

Guardsmen respond. The lasgun fire drops a genestealer, while a missile launcher barrage kills the Doom (when won't I roll a 1 or 2). The combined fire of lascannons etc is weathered by the warriors in cover (while the prime take some strategic lascannon hits and battle cannon hits) ... on the other flank a peppering of lasgun shots is followed up by a hellhound, who kills 4 termagaunts and all but two genestealers... hmmm. Meanwhile Pask proves wholely useless against the Warriors.

TURN 3: ...bugger that, right down the middle boys!

The Hormagaunts go on to massacre the command squad (left hanging by a vagrant Primaris Psyker avoiding 'shadow') The last wave arrive and the gargoyle flood on to the board ... nicely spread out. Both hive guards pass their leadership this turn and subsequently do nothing against the leman russ in range.

The remaining 2 Warriors and Prime charge the leman russes in front and score multiple hits.. immobilising both of them and removing the battle cannon from one. The Tervigon spouts another 8 termagaunts and they flood the board as the genestealer (catalysed this turn) make a run at the hellhound. The termagaunts open fire on the guardsmen in the open and start demonstrating their grit ... downing several.

The lone genestealer on the right flank charges a squad of seven and kills 3 ... but gets taken down in return... more hormagaunts, check?!? The two genestealers manage to hit the Hellhound, but fail to penetrate it ... another 6 anyone?

The Trygon attempts to repeat the genius of its forebear ... deepstriking in the middle will work this time 'surely'.

The Guard get the other hellhound and vendetta. The vendetta arrives on the left flank and immediately turns my 'out of place' hiveguard to pate! Lurk in AREA TERRAIN next time please! The other hellhound comes on in support and adds its attack to the hurt raining on my warrior squad... but now at toughness 5 ... they weather it well, but fall at the last shot!

The Trygon finds that the bad plan first time was a bad plan second time round ... and goes down to flashlights ... yes flashlights - damn you guardsmen! The Termagaunts take a creaming from the hellhound and the genestealers get wiped out with krak missile. FNP, hah! The Doom attracts some serious firepower. The Primaris moves up to engage and forgets about synapse/shadow and subsequently does himself an injury! The Gargoyles attract serious mortar and punisher fire, but only lose about half ... not bad.

The Myetic Spores get pummelled to goo too. So at the end of this turn I have the Doom and his gargoyles ... a single hiveguard. 24 Termagaunts, a Tervigon. Not good.

TURN 4: Fight fight fight!

I'm seriously stretched for synapse now ... The Parasite charges another Leman Russ and kills its cannon too, damn you dice. Meanwhile the Tervigon moves up to take an objective. It spouts out more termagaunts, which shoot up more heavy weapons and guardsmen ... some more run away! The hiveguard lays a shaken result on the right flank hellhound, but fails to kill it (another poor penetrating hit!) Termagaunts move up and claim one objective ... shooting off the guardsmen.

Termagaunts Horde and Tervigon secure an objective ... while the Parasite plays
pattycake with the guardsmen ... producing 8 swarms!

The remaining 3 Hormagaunts show their pace as they race across and kill the Primaris Psyker ... but fail to make it back to cover...

Guard shooting is the worst of the game. A number of gargoyles, termagaunts and other die ... but nothing in the numbers I expected. Importantly, the hiveguard survives. The Vendetta flies up to grab the centre most objective, while the hellhound moves up at full speed to contest another.

TURN 5: Breeding a new army.

Tervigon finally sparks out this turn, with another 10 Termagaunts. She Catalysts up and sits on the objective. In addition, the Parasite leaps a terrain piece and dives into combat with the final troop choice in range. The ensuing comabt in drawn (thanks to three great 5+ saves by the guard) and the remaining gargoyles are dead ... but 4 new rippers burst to life and swarm over the central objective.

Pask comes a cropper on some uneven ground (better get out and push you bugger)

In the enemy turn, the punisher moves up to contest the centre but Pask proves a better commander than driver ... resulting in an immobilised tank! The hellhound weathers the hive guard fire (only now do I realise I rolled the hiveguard at BS3 all battle (doh!)) to contest. The other hellhound moves up and (ignoring the Tervigon) drops a S6 murder template over my swarm ... killing all. The veterans then disembark to capture both central objectives.

We roll a 1.

Final Score ... a close 2:1 to the guardsmen!

CONCLUSIONS

Is this battle mission supposed to put me at an advantage??? Ok, there wasn't one. It was actually a really well balanced game and very very fluffy - which is what I like. In addition, the performance of the Prime and the Parasite were superb. The Tervigon soldiered through, pooping out termagaunts (much to Marks dislike)... but the main thing was what I learnt about deployment.

What made a refreshing change was that my 'anti armour' options really worked this game. Mark had nearly as many tanks as our last battle, but the anti-mech options worked this time. The Hive guard are a solid option... while limited against leman russ, they excel against hellhounds and vendettas (especially if you remember they're BS4!) ... The Prime and Warriors are currently a little wasted in antitank duties ... and hopefully a bit of FNP from the tervigon would offer them all out into the open and assaulting the flanks!

Tervigons. I'm a little afraid of getting Tervigons into the mix ... but they are actually far more durable than I give them credit. Hiding the Tervigon behind my Warrior unit would have given her a 4+ cover save, and them a 4+ cover (assuming random hormagaunts in the way) and 4+ FNP!

Add into that the ability to drop a FNP on a deepstriking Trygon and I'm laughing. It's clear from this battle that I need to work on my unit synergy far more.

With this in mind, I should have grouped the Spore mines and Trygons in a single cluster ... offering me a chance of delivering some serious pain. The Hive Guard were great ... but they don't need to be separate. Hiding them behind the Tervigon would offer me better options.

As a third group, the Parasite is the ultimate horde leader. Dropping Hormagaunts and Gargoyles and Termagaunts under his wing would have made more sense. As such, if I played again ... I'd take the following:

Group 1 (4 units): Prime and Warriors (walking), Tervigon, 2 x HiveGuard

Group 2 (4 units): Parasite and Gargoyles, Hormagaunts, Termagaunts, 8 genestealers

Group 3 (5 units): 2 x Trygon, 2 (separate) Zoanthropes in Myetic Spores

These units are also useful to remember for the main game as well as they offer useful synergies in speed.

Tyranids Adaptive Style...

Further to a recent poll ... I'm pleased to say that the classic Zoanthrope won! With the Tyrannofex and Hiveguard bringing up second and third. Thanks to everyone that voted...

In light of the many suggestions and my 13-2 pasting at the hands of mech guard ... I've been mulling over the Nid choices that I could take.

This is the current list I'm running, it's still based around the core of the parasite and the Prime ... both of which are performing well for their points!

So here goes:

• Tyranid Prime: Lash Whip and BoneSword, Devourer, adrenal glands
• Parasite of Mortrex

• 2 x 1 Hive Guard
• Doom of Malantai in a basic Spore

• 20 basic Hormagaunts
• 4 Warriors with rending claws, toxin sacs and deathspitters in a spore
• 10 Termagaunts
• 5 genestealers
• 5 genestealers
• Tervigon with Regen, Catalyst, toxin sacs

• 20 Gargoyles with toxin sacs

• Trygon with regen
• Trygon with regen

Tactical shifts...

The Hormagaunts play fast bullet screen while the termagaunts and tervigon (plus offspring) hold objectives. The Gargoyles run with the Parasite (and do not deepstrike!) and pick their fight to provoke lots of spawn. The parasite can then join the spawn when his Gargoyles are used up! The genestealers attempt to infiltrate at point blank or flank ... depending on whether we have first turn. The hiveguard set up shop with the tervigon and wait for the Hellhounds to close... generating lots of immobilised and other effects.

The Doom, Tyranid Warriors and Prime and the two trygons deepstrike ... but I'm learning with deepstrike to go slightly 'out of range' on one flank. This limits the fire power shooting at you and can also 'chase' some enemies into the arms of the parasite!

That said the Doom and the two Trygons are generally dying on the turn they arrive. The 'up front' effect of the Doom putting him at point blank range to a lot of return fire power. opponents are leery of letting any of these into close combat and therefore the doom and trygons are yet to raise a claw in attack!

I'm actually still unconvinced by the doom's effectiveness. Especially given it's 'heat'... 30 more points for 2 anti-tank shots seems good odds. Perhaps Zoanies are the way forward... but the doom is a lot of fun. It's just too easy to roll a 1 or 2 versus a missile launcher or lascannon hit...

That said, a couple of Zoanies would offer a dependable shot at Pask in his Punisher ... which is an awesome anti-nid build ... those 29 BS4 reroll to wound S5 shots against MC's really add up!

The genestealers are yet to succeed at all. They've singularly failed to jump the enemy OR kill any of the mech they've gone after. 6's to hit, followed by 6's to penetrate is a big ask. I'm half tempted to cash in those boys for another Zoanie and maybe a lictor.

With this in mind, here's the list I'm currently thinking on for facing mixed guard:

• Tyranid Prime: Lash Whip and BoneSword, Devourer, adrenal glands
• Parasite of Mortrex

• 2 x Hive Guard
• 2 x Zoanthropes in a basic Spore
• Deathleaper

• 20 basic Hormagaunts
• 4 Warriors with rending claws, toxin sacs and deathspitters in a spore
• 10 Termagaunts
• Tervigon with Regen, Catalyst, toxin sacs

• 20 Gargoyles with toxin sacs

• Trygon with regen
• Trygon with regen

The addition of Deathleaper gives you a great anti-psyker/leadership boost. Plus he's nice and durable when dropped into that area terrain with the heavy weapon teams. I really lacked a close-in elite choice to throw at the heavy weapon teams in the last game. If I decide I want to take stealers again ... I can downgrade him to a normal lictor (who'd do nearly as good a job!).

What do you think?

Rules Check 1...2...1...2...

An excellent HULKSMASH by MAURICIO HERRERA. Check out Mauricio's work at DeviantArt. Reproduced without permission, will be removed on request.

Have you ever had a game where you've got the rules right all the way through ... where you just missed things, or your sub-conscious did a special on you, and you realised that you spent most of the game moving and firing everything at the enemy ... I have, many many many times.

I wouldn't call it out and out cheating (although I know some movement fudgers who practice the above as art forms...) but somehow our little brains get 'set'. We end up fighting against the dying of the light over the most obvious and bizarre interpretation of a clearly written rule...

... Weird innit?

Now my approach ... it should be said, is to be fairly pedantic about the rules. I'm a bit of a stickler for sticking to them. I want to win on the merits of my tactics and armylist and its exploitation ... as well as some lucky dice rolls. I generally let the grey areas slide for the ease of play ... and importantly I'm more about having fun than winning... but is that's true, why do I commit the above sins? Perhaps its the inner HULK ... creating a better playing environment through the subversion of my subconsciousness. A case of 'HULK CHEEEEAT!'. Maybe?

Here's a selection of some of those 'rules' arguments or hypocrisies that beggar belief:

Firing Ordnance Weapons

In an effort to improve my '5th Edition' gameworthyness (and because I've read all my codeci 10 times over now), I've started rethumbing through the main rule book. In a moment of shock I realised that I'd been cheating in the last 'n' games (where n is the number of games that I'd been cheating in)... when a vehicle fires an ordnance weapon it can fire NO OTHER WEAPON THAT TURN (NB: Even defensive weapons are unable to fire ... Pg 58)! The exception is the Leman Russ ... that can fire its main weapon AND one other weapon. I'd been dakka dakka-ing away quite happily with everything I had!

This makes a huge difference to the way I play and the options I usually roll with. As an Imperial Guard Player it also gave me a huge advantage to shoot everything (dah?). I think what had happened was my 'cheat-HULK' had got the movement rules confused with the ordnance rules (easy to happen if you are green and a bit thick) ... and assumed the 'not firing all weapons' was down to the movement and not the huge massive great Demolisher Cannon firing...

Clearly, my reanalysis of the rules makes for some interesting thoughts, and makes tanks like the annihilator and punisher leman russ (let alone the no-cover-save variant) much more tempting....

Infantry Cover Saves

This one is weird. I ended up on the wrong side of half the club over this one. And even when the rule was read objectively and digested, I had a number of 'unconnected' gamers arguing against the very rule.

The rulebook clearly states "When any part of the target model's body (as defined on page 16) is obscured from the point of view of the firer, the target model is in cover." So if the toe of my rough riders is hidden behind a piece of hill - they get a 4+ cover save. This caused absolute uproar ... but I'm right (I know I am ... CHEAT-HULK says I am!)

The rulebook then goes on to say ... "This is intentionally generous, and it represents the fact that the warrior, unlike the model, will be actively trying to take cover..."

This is different from the 50% of the unit in cover ... or Monstrous Creatures and tanks gaining cover saves (50% or more of the unit hidden by the way ... I checked it ... I know, I'm too kind!) but somehow people couldn't disconnect the actual 'true line of sight' from the metaphoric 'model'.

50% of a unit in cover

This one also throws up weird 'HULK CHEAT!' moments. I have 75% of a unit obscured behind a wall (don't panic HULKERS, it a solid and relatively high wall!) then that unit has a 4+ cover save. Yes? Yes! If 51% of the unit is in cover ... then they all get a normal cover save!

If you can't decide (ie its exactly 50/50, or you can't count to 10) then you may 'choose' to forgo your proper cover save for one with -1. IE 5+ instead of 4+. My fellow club members had apparently adopted this as THE RULE (HULK) ... rather than taking it as guidelines for adoption based upon mutual consent. Even the rulebook is fairly fluffy, indicating that this option is .... 'faster (albeit less precise)' ... so a good option?

Weird...

Barrage Weapons

This one I get big time. Barrage weapons fire indirect, so the cover save is dictated from the centre of the template, NOT the firing position (ie through the trees on the way in). If you can see the target AND are firing indirect, you gain BOTH the templatie explodie benefit AND the minus BS to hit reduction.

I love mortars. I use them a lot and my explanation of this rule is well versed. That said, I found myself on the receiving end of a barrage recently and was half into a 'hang on a minute...' moment when I realised what I was saying.

It doesn't feel fair. At all.

Charging into cover

Can't wait for the arguments over this one. Check out the brilliant breakdown at Maunderings of a 40k player ... this ruleset has become more important since flesh-hooks (frag grenades) were dropped in the Nid army. Now players facing nids can expect to 'hit first' when defending from cover. This gives them a significant chance of chumping the genestealers or hormagaunts before nastiness ensues. As such ... it can become a contentious area.

Simply put (as Dverning confirms) ... if you have any models sticking out of that cover, the attacker can opt to charge that model without resorting to a difficult terrain test (DTT). No DTT, no Initiative 1 - you are all kinds of red red gravy!

At this point, many players 'HULKs' will be writhing. How can this be true. Surely you must charge into and onto me in cover and therefore I should batter you down. Check out the breakdown from maunderings ... its convincing.

The Rough Rider Effect

Sometimes a rarely used unit comes along and attracts a little attention. In one game, my opponent was running Assault Marines at me. I charged in my 'one-shot' rough riders. He'd been playing alongside me in a doubles tournament and seen these guys kill termies, smurf bikers and Tau Crisis suits ... he should have known better.

PENFOLD: "Assault Marines, Initiative 4"

Suneokun: "Roughriders, Initiative 5"

PENFOLD: "But strength 3..."

Suneokun: "Strength 5"

PENFOLD: "But power armour..."

Suneokun: "Power weapons"

PENFOLD: "...in cover?"

Suneokun: "Frag grenades"

PENFOLD: "HUUUUULLLLKKK CHEEEEAAATTT!"

My two squads of 55pt roughriders charged 22 inches and killed 6 assault marines. The assault marines beat the rough riders, but they held them up for one more turn before being killed off. At which point my Leman Russ had zero'd them. Kaboom?

Allocating Rerolls by accident

I'll put this down (mostly) to the new tyranid codex. The codex has a lot of random rerolls and autowounds bouncing around. The rending rules are complimented by blinding venom (auto-wound on a 6 to hit), one scything talon (reroll 1's), two scything talons (reroll all misses), preferred enemy (reroll misses, but not against vehicles), special rending (deathleaper rending on a 5 or 6), impregnation (parasite cause D6 ripper bases on a failed toughness test) and so on and so on.

As Space Wolf players will attest, it's difficult to remember which dice you have to reroll and which you don't... tricky.

In one game I attributed scything talons to the parasite (who has rending claws) and forgot to autowound from all the 6's from the gargoyle charge on Pedro Kantor (they died!) ... it's awfully confusing.

Great player arguing that the tail of a Vendetta was not part of its 'hull'

This particular fraccar occured during a brilliant tournament game where my aforementioned PENFOLD and I hammered a dirty Space Marine and Guard list with our brilliant Space Marine and Guard list. Effectively it was our mortars and terminators versus their Vendettas and Smurf Bikers (filthy cheating min-max army list ... pah!).

During the game an ordnance battle cannon shot scattered off the centre of one vendetta and hit a perfect strike on the tail of its accompanying skimmer. At this point my opponent declare this a 'miss' as it hadn't hit the 'hull' of the vendetta and 'wings and tail don't count' ... hang on a minute...

HUUUULLLLLKKKK CHEEEAAAATTT!

The conversation that followed was bizarre and entertaining. And pulled adjacent players off their own tournament games ... it was intense. I found myself in the minority again (IT IS probably just me ... people do enjoy arguing with me ... probably cause its great intellectual fun (and not because I'm an arse ... honest!)) with my fellow gamers arguing the difference between a hull and a wing and a tail. I pointed out that there is actually no 'hull' on an aircraft. There is a fuselage, wings and a tail ... the hull refers to the whole vehicle. The rulebook bears no interest in whether you are running a tank or a plane ... they both have hulls!

This stumped everyone, but in true hulky fashion, they would not give way to the logic of Bruce Banner. We rolled a 4+, and he saved the penetrating/wrecked roll. We played on. I'd like to think that the 'Gods of fairness and equilibrium' looked kindly on my plight ... cause we hammered them to death with small arms fire and won 12/4.

Conclusion

We all have a little of a mini-hulk inside us ... and wargames is the perfect place to go green (better than over your job, girlfriend, car, house or children anyhow!) ... I hope the above examples have amused you and help you know.

For you are not alone. HULK.

Mycetic Spore #2: Ravening Horde...

Further to my first Mycetic Spore: Xzandrate made the following comment

xzandrate 6 days ago

I like that alot.

My only complaint, as it is with alot of sports, is there isn't enough representation of impact, or demonstration of how it slowed descent(yes I'm waiting for the big dandelion seed spore).

I'm thinking that the trygon bases may work best, with the spore on one end, and a small impact trail on the rest.

This is exactly what I love about blogging and the feedback it generates. When I read this, something in brain went 'ping'. His comments were exactly right. I'm not too bothered about making the 'impact' too realistic ... but a Trygon base ... pure genius. That would allow a little 'crash and drag' to add to the drama!

From this, my latest Mycetic Spore was born. To confirm ... This was built from bits, a 50p tennis ball sized polystyrene ball and some plastic-card (£1.05 for A4) ... so total cost (about £2! for a S6 monstrous creature drop pod!) - joy!

Carnifex and Genestealer Mycetic spores ... (like they will ever have a carni or stealers in them?!?)

Design Concept...

With my first spore I wanted to give the impression that it had impacted almost vertically and that the Carnifex was 'shakily' slicing his way out... I was very limited by the size of the base ... and therefore could do little to 'implant' the spore into its surroundings. Thus the spore actually looks more like it managed a drop pod landing ... which is highly unconvincing!

Unlike the first Spore I wanted this one to have more dynamism to it's impact. The Trygon base is definitely the way to go here and immediately makes the model more appealing. Gaming wise I can see the 'big base' as being more of a problem, as it will collect more firepower ... but so what?

Front view of the 'exploding' stealers. Note that I sacrificed and old and new stealer to the cause ... nothing like a retrospective!

The first thing I did was to slice of the bottom of the ball to bury it in it's trench. I then used the leftover polystyrene to build up the displaced materials behind it. To further to idea of 'momentum' I kept to a single 'crack' and modelled a series of genestealers bursting from the hole.

Why genestealers ... well they capture the attention don't they? In addition, the new codex funnels these guys towards a more small unit or commando role. This means that large horde of stealers are a thing of the past ... and the chance to actually field my 28 stealers outside APOC games was minimal. Perfect sacrifices!

Rear shot showing the trench ... built of polystyrene and cork 'rocks'.

I decided against the 'fronds' of the first spore as I wanted a more 'immediate' effect ... like this spore was still sliding to a halt as the stealers emerged. The 'scoring' was all done by experimenting with polystyrene cement (plastic glue), superglue and PVA (for the 'hardened' bits) ... see the post for my First Spore for more detail on how to get this look!

What do you think? Comments welcome (as usual!)