The Great Devourers

Another one of my favorite armies in 40k would have to be the Tyranids. The fact that it takes all of the best resources the Imperium has to kill one tendril of its unimaginably massive hive fleet (ie the Battle for Macragge) is one reason for this. The other is how they continue living. As long as they are not the only living thing in the universe then they will always be killing, murdering, and being modeled into comical armies for table-top war games. They also remind me a lot of the Kroot's survival mechanism times 100. Kroot eat to change subtly... Tyranids eat to become new species.

I've always wanted a Tyranid army since I was 12 and was first learning about 40k. These desires only were magnified a year later (or so) when I played against my first Tyranid army. I got tabled and lost horribly.... on turn 2.... but then I played again and to keep one unit alive until the end! And I continued to play against this opponent until I was almost drawing a couple games. Sadly we got deployed not long afterwards and has only recently come back. But since I've seen a Tyranid army here, then here for a little bit. It was only recently that I actually started my own Tyranid army with the present of a Tyranid Battle Force set for Christmas this year. I got so excited that I just got right to building and such and bought the codex next time I was at my local game store. In the couple months since I've worked it up to a 1750pt army (which is pretty good when you don't have any time of income).


Let me start by explaining the fluff of my army. After a little research into the Tyranids I found out that before a Tyranid invasion they send out spores that supercharge the plant growth. And if Earth is anything to model other planets by, then about 90% of most planets will be plants anyway. So it doesn't take much to convince somoene that Tyranids eat about 85% plants and 15% other stuff. So why are all these Tyranid armies modeled as though they are only carnivores and only eat other animals? Which is why I have created Hive Fleet Flora!!!


My Tyranids have a green exoskeleton, a brown carapace, and a megenta coloured miscellaneous pieces such as the tongue and ammunition. They are fun to paint, mostly combinations of washes and dybrushing. None of them are based because mostly I don't know how I want them. I have very few of these buggers fully painted, most of them are all very close to being finish though (I ran out of the colour I highlight the carapace with and haven't felt like getting a new pot yet). So I don't have many pictures of them but I'll post them later.


My army is very much in the extremes, all my guys are either extremely shooting (ie my Tyrant) or extremely close-combat oriented (ie my bull-dozing, 250pt point monster fex). I noticed the only way to make these guys better in combat is give them scything talons (or crushing claws in the case of Carnifexes). Unlike most armies, giving them guns doesn't hurt their combat ability. So now you can shoot a million shots and still be just as devastating in combat, so most of my guys have big guns (or small guns in the case of gaunts and rippers... yes I even give my rippers guns). And how would you like being shot at with vicious beetles, and then being pounced by a dump truck sized killing machine? You wouldn't. And neither will be opponent.

With that I'll bring this to a close (mostly because I just got up and can't think clearly) so I don't waste any more of your (or my) time.

Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Vortex!!!

I just got done fighting an Apocylpse game earlier today that was 18K per side. There were 6 of us on our (the good guys) side so we each got 3000pts to work with. Now normally thats easy to fill but due to past Apoclypse games that went on and on and on and on... I decided to do something with a little more killing power.

I managed to convince everyone to waver the 0-1 restiction on the Vortex Grenade! stragetic asset for me. Thus I did what was natural and that is to fit as many Vortex Grenades in 3000pts as possible. I managed to get 8 HQ choices and 7 Vortex Grenades in at 3000pts with another from my free asset to a total of 8 Vortex Grenades!! Now if you are still under a rock and don't know what Vortex Grenades do, they are a small blast template with a range of 6" and counts as ordnance. And because there are no infrantry units in all of 40k except this one situation that have an ordnance weapon, there is no place that says you cannot move and fire ordnance. Basically everything under it is removed: terrain, modals, Monoliths, etc. or if its a Super-Heavy or Gargatuan it takes D3 structure points or D6 wounds respectively. Then it is not removed but instead continues to float around in a random direction. So this little baby is a monster.

I deployed two of my 8 guys (a Jump pack-less captain and Mephiston). Mephiston murdered a 9man Deffkoptas squad and took one wound (from Perils of the Warp) and the other guy's granade scattered one inch away from both him and a bulding full of 60 guardsmen on my own team! But then my units started deep striking and blowing things up (I'll spare you the details). Long story short I killed a Warhound Titan, Stompa, 3 Monoliths, 2 Loota Wagons, and some mischallenous things with my Vortex Grenades and only friendly fired 2 Rhinos and a speeder (both belonging to the same player with a total of 700 something loss... he thought the Vortex Grenades are a bad idea). And in the end they consumed almost all of the terrain on the board.


This is something I've wanted to do since Apoclypse first came out and I am very glad I did because I thought it was a blast (haha that was a funny...). Though toward the end I was accused of "cheese" and such nonsense, at which I told them they could have brought some cheese if they had wanted too. Instead they were all just just crackers they I ate with said cheese. I doubt I will be allowed to ever to do this again but I had fun with it this time and I am glad I did.


But like after all Apoclypse games I am sick and tired of it and will never play one ever again because they are long, boring, and time-consuming (I got one scheduled for two weeks from now... curse this wretched addiction...). Though at least I got some painting on my Tyranids done....

The best army I ever played.

Well I figured maybe I should give you guys a little look into the armies I've played more in depth and I think best place to start is with the best army I ever played with in all of 40k. Kroot Mercenaries. For those that do not know Kroot is an auxiliary force mainly employed by the Tau. But not all Kroot have sworn their loyalties to the Greater Good. Small mercenaries bands lead by Master Shapers travel the universe in their Warshperes. Unlike the Tau, Kroot are capable of warp travel. Kroot have a Tyranid feel to them as well. The reason for these mercenary warbands is to go out looking for genetic material to consume, and Kroot have a special digestive system that allows them to absorb the DNA of organisms that they eat. The Master Shaper's job is to make sure the Kroot eat the right things to get the best benefit possible. Kroot are mostly paid by the employer allowing them to eat all dead (both enemy and friendly alike) as well as occaisional wargear. the most common Kroot hybrid is the Ork-hybrid, because Pech (Kroot's home world) was once invaded by a small Waaagh! by the Orks. Even though the Kroot were a very primitive race then, after 20 long years of war the Kroot actually destroyed all of the Orks (thanks to Anghor-Prok, the shaper who united all of the Kroot to fight the Ork menace) by some miracle. They eventually figured out that if they did not immediately eat the Ork corpse, they would shoot forth spores which would grow into more Orks.

Because of this the variety of Kroot Mercenaries are enormous. No two warbands are the same. After a period of time, though, all Kroot report back to Pech to add their genetic material to whole race. And thus Kroot get the DNA they need but cannot get under the employment of the Tau, who frown on such carnivorous habits.

To me the Kroot have the best fluff out of anyone, despite how little it is (Thank you Andy Hoare). Unforunately though Kroot Mercenaries are no longer allowed in 5th edition. Though they aren't very playable anyway in 5th edition if you plan on winning a game or two. The worse loss for them is the loss of the ability to consolidate into combat. In 4th edition my kroot could charge, and then just stay in combat where its safe and not worry about anything in the world. But now they charge and have no choice but to wipe out units and then say "Hey! Shoot us with our 6+ save!". Though now looking back I can't think of many things that were too wrong with them in 5th because its been too long since I tried. And now-a-days I miss that army so much. Now my only hope to play them is to wait until Vassal gets some sprites for them (yes I'm on Vassal, my user name is Shaper Jhae).

They were also a fantastic army for conversions. Because all you had to work with was a box of Kroot Carnivores and a Shaper blister. And you had to make 9 units out of that. I have some pictures of them as well. We're start with the biggest monster in the army, the Shaper Council.


Now my Shaper Council was truely a monster unit. I gave them each an Eviscerator and 2 hounds. They would run in and when they were dealt wounds it was to the hounds and then they would murder with 20 Eviscerator attacks, no vehicle, MC, or infantry unit could survive it at the time. It was truely epic. Occaisionally they would be given "wings" (which is the the jump packs are chained to them for, as well as a 100 pound badge of office).


I also had 8 Krootox...





As well many hounds and such but my pride of the army was the custom made Great Knarlocs...



Now the cool thing about these little guys is that they were made from little $1 dinosaurs (as opposed to $80 Forge World ones). I made two of them, my second one of course was A LOT better than the first to the left. These guys don't look extremely good but regardless it's hard to not be proud of them.

But eventually this army had come to an end for me. My LGS stopped letting me use them in tournaments and not man people wanted to play against them. They often got frustrated with their first turn charging tactic.


This army is now being recycled into a Dark Eldar Wych Cult army though and are (in my opinion) looking great so far. In a later post I will go into greater detail about that though.




And with that I think I will bring this sad sad story to an end.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned.

Shaper Jhae