Sunday 20 May 2018

Adaptive Subroutines


 So, the up and coming Maelstrom XI tournament is in three weeks time... and I still have to paint:
1 Carab Culln the Risen
1 Culexus Assassin
10 Tac Marines
1 Thunderfire Cannon
1 Techmarine Gunner
1 Primaris Ancient
1 Razorback twin lascannon

Fortunately, I'm so bone idle I haven't submitted my list yet.  I'm not even sure when the deadline is to be honest.  It was pretty clear that my army wasn't going to be finished in time and I really didn't want to rush it anyway.  The thought of taking grey plastic to a tournament fills me with visceral horror so a back up plan was needed.


Having played all of two games with Necrons in 8th edition (and losing both) I have decided it would be a good idea to use them.  I'm not sure what unhealthy impulse drove me to pick up the soulless robots.  (I've had my eye on the Forgebane box for a while now, so maybe that was it). I absolutely should have taken Tyranids but my list was basically Flyrant and Hive Guard spam which just did not get me excited for some reason.  Plus they're all painted so no hobbying to be done.   So I went with the Necrons. 
Pie Jesu Domine

The new codex seemed to have some interesting combinations and I wanted to try out my C'tan Shards.  I reckoned that I'd only have to paint two or three models (a smashed up Imotekh/Cryptek and The Nightbringer) so it would give me a nice easy run in preparation for the event.  All of the unfinished models were finecast, which was a bit of a downer and I'd much rather have the cool, new, skateboarding Cryptek in my army but it seemed a shame to let the old guard rot in hobby limbo for another five years.

Shake ya booty!

I don't think he turned out too badly in the end.  However, by this time, I was list building and wanting to try out new stuff.  I quite enjoyed using the new C'tan rules and big blobs of warriors are as resilient as ever.  They don't kill very much though.

My initial outing against Rory's Orks was predictably a bloodbath.

A deep dive into the bits box revealed that I could cobble together 3 Heavy Destroyers.  I much preferred their no-nonsense, almost spartan use of dice.  They only get 1 shot each but you can re-roll everything with a bit of trickery and burn large, neat holes straight through most tanks.

No!  I'm Alpharius!

So that meant that I would have to convert and paint another 3 models and I decided that, while I was at it, I could spruce up the Doom Scythes too.  I completely edge highlighted one of them in a frenzied, neurotic evening session.  The results were probably not worth the effort (see old vs. new side by side below) but I felt much better.


The base was looking a bit tatty and monochrome though.  So I threw some Agrellan Earth on it.  I didn't want to get rid of the green crystals so I just blobbed the technical paint around them in a sort of spiky pattern.  I'm quite pleased and surprised with the results.  Its almost like I just forgot to finish them last time round.


I'm busy converting one of the destroyers and actually looking forward to painting it.  I should still be able to finish the Red Scorpions in time for Fields of Blood in September, but more importantly I'm still cruising.


18 comments:

  1. The Agrellan Earth on the crystal base looks amazing! I loke the Cryptek as well, but I'd stick him on a 32mm base so that the feet wouldn't overlap - then again I'm not sure how that would affect gameplay... Lookg forward to what to get on with those Destroyers.

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    1. Cheers Xarfai. All my rank and file Necrons are on 25mm and I can't be bothered rebasing them. I suppose I could just do the characters. It will make their buff bubbles slightly larger!

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    2. I kept my Warriors on 25s, but did my Immortals and Characters on 32s.

      On a similar note, have you checked out TTAdaptors? I really like them for updating my old metal CSM to 32mm.

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    3. Yeah, I'd probably go with those rather than pulling models off the bases. But why? My 25mm Necrons are perfectly legal. Ok, they fall over a lot but I can live with that.

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  2. Those look fantastic, man! Really dig how the crackle paint on the bases turned out, that's a striking effect and really looks ace. Good stuff!

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  3. Wait! Is this a third army?

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    1. Pretty much, yes, although I've had a Necron army for years now. I bought the Deathwatch Overkill box but my GSC don't count as a fourth!

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    2. Crikey didn't realise you were a millionaire :-)

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    3. A lot of my crons are second hand, to be fair. Thanks for reminding me that I spend too much money on this hobby, Rob!

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  4. What dynastic code will you use? Try Novokh against Orks for even more brutality! Transcendent C'Tan are awesome but the only model is loathsome. I used the Inquisitor daemonhost Cherubael for mine.

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    1. I didn't know there was a model for Cherubael. Interesting! I was going with Sautekh so that my Doom Scythes hit on 3s with heavy weapons. They don't get power of the machine spirit or anything like that, or do they?

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  5. Doom Scythe! Doom. Doom! DOOM!

    I always get a bit carried away with that ;)

    That basing looks fantastic! Looks like Necron stuff busting up through the surface of an apparently barren world.

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    1. Yeah, it was a total accident but I'm really quite chuffed with it, thanks. The Doom Scythes have been fairly ineffective on the battlefield so far, even with the Sautekh keyword. The low number of shots on the Death Ray and AP0 on the cannons make it whiff consistently against -1 to hit armies. Too late to go back now!

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  6. Great work! It's amazing how much difference the highlight makes to the Doom Scythe.

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    1. thanks Mike. Only trouble is, I can't be arsed doing the other one now. I know, I'll change my list!

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    2. But they did so well in all the play testing! Don't change the list unless you are replacing one of them with a based Tesseract Child..

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    3. Changed my mind about half a dozen times already. I've ditched everything and started painting The Nightbringer which does not bode well. My final list is likely to be a hot mess. Another tournament drubbing...

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