The Hive

My Miniature and Tabletop journey

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2000pts game vs Chaos Daemons - 4:16 loss

Invasion Fleet (1970pts)

Broodlord (95 pts): Broodlord Claws and Talons

Enhancement: Perfectly Adapted (+15 pts)

Hive Tyrant (220 pts): Warlord, Monstrous bonesword and lash whip, Heavy venom cannon

Enhancement: Adaptive Biology (+25 pts)

Neurotyrant (135 pts): Neurotyrant claws and lashes, Psychic scream

Enhancement: Alien Cunning (+30 pts)

Winged Tyranid Prime (65 pts): Prime talons

10x Gargoyles (85 pts): 10 with Blinding venom, Fleshborer

20x Hormagaunts (65 pts): 20 with Hormagaunt talons

10x Termagants (120 pts): 10 with Chitinous claws and teeth, Termagant devourer

10x Termagants (120 pts): 10 with Chitinous claws and teeth, Termagant devourer

10x Genestealers (150 pts): 10 with Genestealers claws and talons

6x Von Ryan's Leapers (140 pts): 6 with Leaper's talons

6x Zoanthropes (200 pts)

1x Maleceptor (170 pts): Massive scything talons, Psychic overload

1x Norn Emissary (260 pts): Monstrous rending claws, Monstrous scything talons, Psychic tendril

1x Tyrannofex (200 pts): Powerful limbs, Stinger salvoes, Rupture cannon

Unit Notes:

Norn Emissary - Survived 5 rounds on marked objective killing Stalker in melee. Good survivability, shooting still a bit disappointing due to only two shots and random damage on melta and snipe.

Maleceptor - Very good survivability with good damage output, withstanding three rounds surrounded by stalker, demon princes and blue horrors. Feel No Pain from Stratagem makes it very hard to kill.

Von Ryan's Leapers and Gargoyles - Bad placement (inflitrators too close to the enemy shooters and gargoyles in enemy deployment) resulting in evaporating on turn they were put on the table.

Broodlord with genestealers - Didn't manage to do much, killed by shooting flamers (their ability to shoot after falling back didn't help).

Zoanothropes with Neurotyrant - Good overwatch due to quite strong flamer. Shooting on 2+ results in good shooting although also random damage.

General Notes:

No Shadow in the Warp used - Demons heal on passed battle-shock so using it would be risky.

Invasion fleet ability wasn't used as much (sustained hits on infantry) - Horrors weren't targeted as much to not split them. Mounted and Beast keywords don't exist in ability rule so no buff applied versus them:/ Might change detachment to Crusher Stampede or Synaptic Nexus .

[nornemissaryrules]

Norn Emissary finally repainted!

The second part of painting has been mostly done at our local club painting session. Someone there pointed out that the infestation at the base might be from other hive fleet fighting for domination with Behemoth.

I really like that idea, both for lore purposes and as a way to not put the same colors on the model and base.

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Painting comparison:

Old swarmlord (2023)

New Hive Tyrant (November 2024)

(and yet the base is still not done XD)

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Tyranid Headcanons:

Because the only lore poor bugs have is the one made up by Imperium/Mechanicus. So here are my thoughts on the Tyranids:

Swarmlord

Big Bad Guy

Can come up with strategy securing his victory due to bring respawned so many times he knows how to counter most races (most because orcs are too random to prepare for)

Can communicate telepathically with other races, but even when he does it's only to disturb the enemy

Calls others races "meat" and "biomass" - he knows how they are called, just doesn't care

His sabers are connected to him, but if for some reason (he wants to use his fingers or the saber broke and needs to grow another) he can detach them.

When he's sure of victory he laughs. And the whole army laughs with him (as much as their mouths allow them). If you see a Tyranid smiling, you are dead.

Deathleaper

The sneaky one

Can turn invisible

Learns other races languages to be able to read the strategic data from written logs

He sometimes tries to speak in human/eldar/t'au

Is often spawned as alpha spawn for recon purposes

Doesn't want to give up the synapse link when later hive tyrants are spawned to lead the armies, especially if it's Swarmlord (is jealous)

Old One Eye

Big dumb brute

Is barely smart enough to lead the three carnifexes he sometimes gets under command

Perfect distraction carnifex

Is super tough - you can freeze, burn, shoot, cut him and he just shrugs it off

Too silly to realize he should be dead because of the damage

"T'is but a scratch" kind of deal

Misc.

All gaunts are like flies - after reaching adulthood they live only approximately one day. Why waste biomass on giving them digestive system if they are cannon fodder anyway?

Psychophage is usually deployed after battle to "clean up". I like to imagine that he does vacuum cleaner noises whole stuffing his maw.

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Somehow totally forgot I still have this little guy (from an era when I was maining Necrons)

I always loved the idea of Canoptek Constructs as both caretakers and pets for their masters and I just couldn't stop myself from making this one.

Doomstalker (to Overlord): Master! Look! *Turns away and fires the canon. Brief flash of light. Shockwave sweeps over the battlefield. In the distance explosion forms a mushroom cloud. Doomstalker turns back awaiting master's reaction*

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Shout-out to @alphaxenos for motivating me to actually sit to finish my Norn Emissary's carapace (im too tired to actually finish the skin highlights today as well😅)

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Stepping to the side from painting Tyranids, got my hands on Marvel Crisis Protocol model. Doc Ock in full glory. Only the base is left, and that's the only part I wasn't sure about.

Grey, city looking terrain? Warm sandstone, as if he's just leaving his lab? Something else?

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My latest painted Tyranid model - Winged Tyranid Prime. Changed from my old brown color scheme to Behemoth.