Message Received by Battle Barge Glad of War, in service of the Rune Bearers chapter of the Adeptus Astartes;

My Lord Grettir;

Since my last missive, Splinter Fleet Mordiggian, once considered a small and worthy of little notice, has shown a cancerous growth, and many of the more frightening genus of Tyranid have spontaneously arisen within its ranks.

Thanks to Inquisitor Kryptmann’s gambit, this Splinter Fleet spends much of its time combating the Orks. Many clashes have been witness by out remote seers, and with the preponderance of the genestealer genus. While I do not favor either side, for both are xeno abominations which must be purged from the galaxy, it is frightening to report that many Orks have fallen to the genestealers claws, and that this causes me to worry that about wisdom of Kryptmann. If this splinter fleet unlocks the secrets of Ork fury or adds the Orks’ instinctive craftiness to the Tyranids already formidable combat arsenal, I fear for the existence of the Imperium, especially as the splinter fleet has begun the process of autologous diversification, as seen on the Anphelion base. A trygon has emerged where there was none before, as have tervigon specimens, which would account for the rapid increase in the number of termagants that the splinter fleet is able to bring to bear.



More disturbing it the emergence of Mordiggian’s first Hive Tyrant, seen here with a tyrant guard and zoanthrope just before it destroyed a large number of Ork nob bikers. The terrified astropath that viewed the emergence of the tyranid monstrosity died of fright after transmitting this picture. The terror and destruction that this horror brings with it cannot be underestimated.



The greatest setback experienced by Mordiggian was an encounter with the Blood Angels, seen here as a brood of zoanthropes attempt to conceal themselves from the Blood Angel Thunderhawk under the strange and undoubtedly warp-tainted skies of skies of Stromsholt. Though defeated, the splinter fleet was not exterminated, and the menace has emerged again, like a disease or destructive weed, from another quarter.



Most recently, the splinter fleet has been seen to use mycetic spores, living meteors which, once grounded, pour forth countless termagants, which in turn pour death into an unidentified Space Marine chapter seen here.



This hive grows at a frightening rate, and I have no wish to be present if it turns its attentions to Eorthscraef, or any of our sector. Once again I humbly beg that the Rune Bearers dispatch a contingent of their extraordinary warriors to exterminate this peril before the lives of more Imperial citizens are endangered, their property destroyed, and their usefulness to the Emperor crippled or eliminated altogether. We shall, of course, defer to whatever judgement your worthiness decrees.

May the Holy Emperor guide your hand in delivering us from this frightful menace,

Johann of Eorthscraef

Splinter Fleet Mordiggian for Battlefleet Gothic

Dodging classes and work, I've managed to collect and paint up an acceptable fleet, although several of the escorts still need painting. I've got a thousand point, sixteen-model list... but I was painting first and adding up the points later.

This is Splinter Fleet Mordggian, as it currently stands. One official Hive Ship. The snail-like ships are Phalons from Ground Zero Games' Full Thrust. I like the Phalon models a great deal, the battleships make excellent capital ships and the smaller scouts are good drones. Top left is a Shadow Scout with the tentacles put on backwards. I thought it came out kind of cool.



On the right is a a Phalon Mothership. The shells have these wonderful swooping patterns on them, and it was worth the extra painting time to emphasize them. On the left is a Phalon Corvette, which will be an escort drone. The middle is a little guy I found from Reaper Minis: the Rift Blights, which are ridiculously cool as tentacle drones. They come in two flavors: Spaghetti, and Spaghetti with Meat (pictured). There will be more on these guys later



A Phalon Battleship on the right, and I'm fairly pleased with the way the pattern on the shell came out. To the left is another Rift Blight. These guys painted up very nicely, although I'm not a particularly good photographer. In the back is that Shadow Scout.



Three Phalon cruisers (left and right are heavies, a battlecruiser in the center) that are going to substitute for torpedo Kraken. I think the camera focused on the hive ship's tentacles, instead of the other ships.



This is the best picture I made. It's a Rift Blight from Reaper Minis, and it's such an awesome model. The tentacles have teeth on them, which you can actually see in this picture.



The "Spaghetti with Meat" Rift Blight. It's a got a huge, exposed brain, but also the same sort of thorny tentacles. These guys are going to look great chowing down on Imperial ships.



Next I have some larger ships to build. The Phalon Carrier is just about the size of the Tyranid Hive Ship, and my next figure is going to be a Goroloth Drone, which is about the same size. The larger Goroloth mini, as yet unacquired, is between an quarter and a third larger than that. My big guy, however, is going to be the monstrous Armorcast Kraken, which will dwarf both of these.

Message received by Battle Barge Glad of War, in service of the Rune Bearers chapter of the Adeptus Astartes

My Lord Grettir;

Contact has been reestablished with the xenos provisionally designated Splinter Fleet Mordiggian



As my lord can see, Splinter Fleet Mordiggian has grown significantly since the last report was submitted. Previous contact was with small forces which displayed minimal diversity. This is sadly no longer the case. Recent sightings have indicated large numbers of genestealers, termagants and hormagaunts, indicating the explosive growth and rapid development of the Splinter Fleet.



Larger genus have been seen at a distance. To the right, a Trygon can be seen, and an enormous Tyrannofex crawls below it. I think I need not remind my lord the dangers such horrors present. Where before this splinter fleet had a single zoanthrope, now there are two. Two hyperintelligent psyker minds now guiding these Tyranid horrors.



Most distressing is the identification of this enormous Tervigon, capable of spawning hundreds of hormagaunts. None of this genus have previously been seen in this sector.

The fleet is known to have clashed inconclusively with Chaos Space Marines and was badly mauled by incursions of Eldar as well as Orks. None of these have managed to rid us of the menace.

I pray that my lord would make haste to deal with this tenacious enemy. The Adeptes Astartes have ever been the hope and savior of Mankind, and the Rune Bearers known for their victorious action against the Tyranid foe.

May the Holy Emperor guide your hand,

Johann of Eorthscraef

Carnifex vs Angry Marine

I like to tell stories. This comes through even when I paint the models of Splinter Fleet Mordiggian. A picture is worth a thousand words, so here's some flash fiction about an Angry Marine and a Carnifex.

Splinter Fleet Mordiggian: First Encounter

Warning: This is an ENORMOUS NERD POST!

The Imperium of Man has received reports of a heretofore unencountered strain of xeno, hereafter designated Splinter Fleet Mordiggian.

After three months of painting and learning the system, I put five hundred points of Tyranids on the table. And I enjoyed myself a great deal.





You're looking at 10 Termagants, 10 hormagaunts, 3 warriors, 1 zoanthrope, 5 genestealers, and a Crocodile Games Scarab Ogre standing in for my Tyranid Prime.



This picture shows a bit more of the detail of my paint scheme, which was inspired by Destroyah in Godzilla vs Destroyah. Also, the Santa Fe Good Taste Factory told me that no matter what I did, I had to kill Space Wolves. So a few of my bases have remnants of a Space Marine chapter, the Rune Bearers. The pieces are taken from a Space Wolves set. I got close to fifty heads on sprues, which will make excellent gristly trophies for a long time to come.

I was massacred in the first game because I had nothing to penetrate the armor of his Kans once my Zoanthrope was gone. In my second game I managed to pull out a tie against the Sisters of Battle in a very enjoyable and even game. I think I like Warhammer's declaration that some battles are not victories; it's entirely acceptable for neither side to win. God knows there have been enough inconclusive battles in history.

I'm enjoying Warhammer's feel. It's more of a wargame than Warmachine. Yes, the buy-in is significantly higher, but there's more a feeling of Clauswitz's "everything is more difficult in war" philosophy. When the dice roll, I calculate what should happen. But the dice (reality, fate, miscommunication, the incompetence of subcommanders, the ammunition got wet, etc...) tell me what did happen. I don't think the "fists full of dice" mechanic is particularly elegant, but it seems to insert an acceptable amount of random into the situation by dispersing it.

Warmachine, now that I've got the experience of two minis wargames, feels much more game-y, on the Gameist-Narrativist-Simualtionist spectrum. If you line up these three special abilities, you should be able to massacre the other guy's Warcaster. Warhammer tells you that you need the right tools that should take down the enemy (you really need armor piercing attacks against tanks, for example). Heroes are present, but they aren't the overwhelming power they are in Warmachine.

I had a good time.

Falling Out of Love

My relationship with certain media franchises can best be described as a romantic one. Certain things I just fall in love with: Godzilla, the undead, Klingons, Fallout, the Diskworld, Ancient Egypt, Cthulhu, Wing Commander, and many others. Some stay. Godzilla, for example, is something I can return to many times a year with complete enjoyment.

Every now and then, however, I fall out of love. Something switches, either in me, or the franchise, and it loses its luster. It happened a few years ago with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Le Comte Saint Germain, I'm sad to say. I'll always look back on those books with fondness, but I don't think I'll ever read a new one. It's kind of sad, because it's a part of my life that I enjoyed, and now am leaving behind me.

Over the last two months, I've fallen out of love with Warmachine. Which is a pity. I played the game pretty much on a weekly basis for two years, and spent a lot of time painting up my little miniature army. I like the painting, but the game has evolved into something that is unbalanced. It has become frustrating to play. Much as I hoped Mark 2 would fix the problems that annoyed me, the game still had problems which made it unplayable for me.

The sad part is, the loss of me has resulted in the implosion of Warmachine in Bennington. I was the guy who started off Warmachine, and it appears that without me, there isn't enough interest to sustain itself. Partially I feel guilty because this means the store has a lot of stock that is going to just sit on its shelves. And I don't get to socialize with some of the Warmachine players anymore. I've started a mini painting night, and that's providing me with a good hour and a half of serenity, the aspect of the hobby I enjoyed most.

What am I painting, you ask? Tyranids from Warhammer 40K. And yes, I can already see the signs of love. I bought the older Tyranid books in order to have a sense of their history. I've even bought a novel that involves them, but in my defense, I know the author.

Fallen to the Dark Side

I always wondered how it was that Warhammer players ended up with three of four armies. I mean, isn't it difficult enough to really get one army down pat and play that particularly well? Apparently it isn't.

And now I know. Because I bought a few tyranid models, specifically because I wanted a force that looks like



this




Why these colors? Because when I was watching Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, I thought to myself... "Tyranids would look great in that color scheme. I know I haven't fully succeeded, the skin coat needs to be darker, more charcoal than the light gray it is. But I'm quite pleased with the red highlights, though. Here's a screen cap of Destoroyah for comparison: