Shield of Baal - Part II: Hunters in the Dark

   And now, as promised, the first battle in the Shield of Baal: Deathstorm campaign!

   After much painting and preparation, Jay Griffiths and I squared off for battle. Jay brought Blood Angel Terminator Squad Alphaeus and their fierce leader Captain Karlaen. all beautifully painted and thirsting for blood! (Click the links above to see Jay's excellent blog where he showcases these figures).

   Squaring off against him was my small Genestealer swarm, The Children of Cryptus. In this scenario the Terminators need to get their Captain off the far side of the gaming table, fighting storm bolter versus rending claws against an endless horde of Genestealers, (...endless, but never more than eight at a time).

   The terrain is meant to simulate an underground complex on the planet of Phodia, which has been overrun by Hive Fleet Leviathan. The Blood Angels have been sent in to locate the planetary governor, or failing that a member of his family, or at the very least a sample of his blood. In the governor's bloodline the Blood Angels hope to find a cure for their genetic curse... of Space Vampirism! 

The game table for Mission 1.

 

An awfully long way to march on foot!

 

   Jay set his marines up in close order, and seized the initiative from the lurking xenos, as is right and just for the servants of The Emperor.

The armour of their faith protects them!

 
   The marines advanced quickly, heedless of the unclean alien. In this mission both players moved and took actions with their models as individuals, rather than squads. In a sense it was a 40K version of Space Hulk, on a very very big board.

Claws in the dark!

   The Terminators pushed hard past the initial wave of bugs, but to simulate the unending tide of the Hive Mind every dead Genestealer returned to the game as Ongoing Reserves in the next turn.

 

Pushing on toward the middle of the table.

 

   My strategy was a simple one... pile on the hurt! Each returning Genestealer had a chance to Deep Strike onto the table, or come on from one of the two short edges. I positioned every Deep Striker directly in the middle of the marines. My hope was to overwhelm them with targets. A model that Deep Strikes can't charge in the turn that it lands, so every one of my bugs had to survive a hail of fire before it could strike.

   Through a combination of luck and perseverance my green monsters managed to swarm Captain Karlean. In spite of his strength of will, not to mention a big-assed Thunder Hammer, the Genestealers pulled him down. 

  

The Captain goes down swinging!

 
   This was a fatal stroke for Jay, as this meant he could not win the mission. Embracing his hate, Jay refused to surrender, and Squad Alphaeus pressed on. I threw wave after wave of bugs at him, and in the process learned just how deadly flame weapons were on Overwatch. Ouch!

Charging the flamer marine from three sides at once!

   Fire and bolter cleared the way, and the marines marched to the centre of the board. At this point my clever idea of painting my Genestealers in colours that matched the table backfired. For three turns I completely forgot one of my models, who I had placed on the balcony of a building.

Spot the missing Genestealer?!

   As relentless as their advance was, the tide of xenos was even more so. One by one the members of Squad Alphaeus went down, until only the flamer marine survived. In the end he, too, succumbed to claw and fang.

Going out in a blaze of glory!

   And so our first game of Shield of Baal came to a bloody end. This was a great scenario for getting my feet wet in the new edition of 40K. The workbench has been humming along, and my Tyranid Warriors and Carnifex(!) stand ready for the second mission -- Storm of Blood!

More soon! And, as always, thanks so much for visiting my little corner of the web.
-Andrew

Shield of Baal - Part I: Chicken Wings and My Little Pony

   It started with some chicken wings.

   Specifically, Jay Griffiths and I went out for chicken wings a couple of months ago. As is always the case when we get together, our conversation turned to gaming. Innocently, Jay mentioned that there was a new Games Workshop box set campaign featuring Blood Angels and Tyranids, called Shield of Baal: Deathstorm.

   I looked up from my wings, intrigued.

   You see, I haven't played Warhammer 40,000 since 2009. This is something of an issue for me, because it is, by far and away, my favourite of all games. Since the '80s I've been collecting, painting and gaming in the 40K universe -- often with Jay himself. But, with the diaspora that followed the end of Games Workshop Canada, and my professional move to a company that focused more on role-playing and board games, my interest waned.

   The very first games Jay and I ever played of Warhammer 40,000 were Space Marine vs Tyranid battles, so his mention of a new set grabbed my imagination. Soon we were plotting to jump back into the grim darkness of the far future.

   Just when I thought I was out...

   We split the box set, as is tradition, and I scuttled home to paw wretchedly at my new Tyranid sprues. Strange, old feeling began to well up inside me, as the old familiar madness took hold. My first thought... What colours should I paint these monsters?

   And my first problem. In the campaign, the forces of the Imperium wage desperate war against the Tyranid hive fleet code named Leviathan. The problem is, the GW studio chose to paint the Leviathan models in what I can only describe as 'My Little Pony' colours.

My Little Pony - Devouring is Magic!

   You see what I mean.

   I briefly considered going with a colour scheme reminiscent of the xenos from Aliens, one of my all-time favourite films and a clear inspiration for the Tyranid army. However a quick scan of the interwebs revealed that this is so common, it seems almost every Tyranid player uses this sort of dark blue-black colour scheme. Plus, I already have an army of actual Aliens waiting to be painted up, so that seemed redundant and uninspired.

   Looking over the new models in the Tyranid range, I saw that most of them were very tentacle-y. Then it hit me... Why not go with a Cthulhu-themed colour scheme? If Tyranids are supposed to be nightmare creatures from beyond the stars, who better to pattern their colours on than unnameable horrors from beyond time and space!?

   A quick glance through my excellent new Cthulhu book Scott Kelly gave me for Christmas gave me a perfect image to inspire me. An image of Cthulhu as a mottled green-brown monstrosity!

Tentacular!

   I set to work immediately on my first unit; eight genestealers of the Phodian swarm. As usual I used my tried and trusty Army Painter products. I started with a base of Angel Green spray. Then I painted big splotchy marks of Goblin Green and Monster Brown over the body. Next I lightly drybrushed the whole model with Necrotic Flesh.

   After that I brushed on some Strong Tone Quickshade and left it to dry for 24 hours. Afterword I painted the claws, teeth and eyes, leaving the overall model shiny to convey a feeling of slimy ooze. I ended up with this.

Slimy horror from beyond!

   Definitely not My Little Pony! This was a simple, easy approach that let the detail of the figure do the work, and took advantage of the strengths of the Army Painter system. Now I have miniatures of space monsters that actually look like space monsters. As a bonus they blend in with my terrain the way true sneaky creatures like genestealers should.

Spot the beasties!

   Next time we'll descend into the madness of the swarm-infested world of Phodia to see the first brutal encounter between the Blood Angels and Hive Fleet Leviathan!

   ...and thanks, as ever, for visiting my little corner of the web!

See you next time!
-Andrew