Thursday, January 28, 2010

My first encounter vs. the Tyranids...

What I've designated as being 'Hive fleet Hillbillie' descended upon my beleaguered world of Podunk (yes, this IS Tennessee) and much blood was shed. 1500 pts., Imperial Guard vs. Nids, annihilation, Dawn of war, Nids had 1st turn.

Our intent was to record a proper battle report, but having never actually tried that before, the idea went out the window as soon as the dice started rolling, and for that I do apologize. I think it might be easier to observe a game & take notes for a battle report than to actually play in it myself. I took a bunch of photos, but the caffeine was flowing to the extent that the 'anti-hand shaking' feature on my digital camera was overwhelmed and as a result epically failed.

Turns 1-5 were more or less just point blank shooting & the grizzly deaths of guardsmen. The start of turn two saw close to 100 minis (if not more) on the table, by the end of turn 5 there were close to a dozen, if that. The only notable actions being my command squad wiping out the Warriors in HTH with only light casualties, the cyclops driving into a brood of gaunts & killing 5 of them (the cyclops is a FW mini that's basically a remote controlled bomb & is based on a weapon used by the Germans in WWII, in 40k it tends to get blown up well short of any targets) & the Tyrant staggering out of close combat with only a single wound left (which he promptly regained in the final turn with a psychic power of some sort, rather upsetting that bit was).

The game ended in a draw. Much fun was had, and any game in which both sides suffer approximately 90% casualties is a good one in my book! Over all there wasn't much in his Nid list that jumped out @ me in comparison to the last codex (it was his 1st game with them, so more of an experiment than anything). About the only one being that psychic power that allowed the tyrant to regenerate all of its wounds back, like Tyrant's aren't hard enough to kill in the first place!

Again , my apologies for my EPIC FAIL in trying to describe the battle, such is the work of amateurs I suppose. Below are the only two salvageable photos of the evening. The first being my game table prior to deployment (and my caffeine intake as well), and the second the Executioner & conscript platoon, watching the battle from a distance, and completely unaware that their doom lurks behind them.

Table

Genestealers!

7 comments:

Da Masta Cheef said...

Reading back through this post this morning, my impression is: FAIL.

I think that once I realized the battle report idea hadn't worked out, I should've shelved the idea & posted something else. This reads like something between a wasted effort & a disaster.

I think I'll stay away from the battle report concept for a while. Sorry guys, I'll try to do better next post.

Dverning said...

Pfagh. I've seen worse and you learned something. Stick at it and do better next time.

I had a bigger reply with some tips, but it ballooned enough that I just did a full post on it.

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

I agree with pony-boy. We all have to start somewhere, and you've certainly learned from this batrep. His post on batreps in general is a good starter though. You should definitely check it out.

Da Masta Cheef said...

lol, my opponent from last night called & said 'hey check out your page, you're getting some traffic on the battle report attempt!'

Yes, yes, thank you for the tips! I've bookmarked that specific post for the next time I give a batrep a try (thanks for linking my page too, was quite surprised to see that despite knowing it was purely for reference). Yes focus (or rather the lack there of) was/is an issue. Its a new camera, and unless I have it on its little tripod doing a close up, all my photos seem to come out terribly fuzzy. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong!

Thanks again for all of the help!

Dverning said...

Bah. I give credit anytime someone's post inspires something. Heck, sometimes I link posts/blogs just because I feel they deserve an extra look or may have been missed. We're a group, not a bunch of crows trying to drown each other out. So if it sends a few more peeps your way, it did exactly what I intended.

Dverning said...

Oh, totally forgot. Try playing around with your ISO settings. Those are the digital version of shutter speed and can make a big difference. Try for a lower number, which means faster capture speed. It won't have as much crisp detail, but will also have less shaky cam effect.
It may have gotten missed in the article, but I suggest reading this post. It's a rehosting of one of the best articles I've read on digital cameras and miniature wargaming.

Da Masta Cheef said...

Yup, that was another good read. Just the simple suggestion of using the timer WITH the tripod has worked wonders with my focus issue (am probably still up the creek when photographing people though).

Thanks again!