Take the Last Train to Doucheville: Spamming the Devourer...

...And I'll meet you at the station.

The mighty Douche-afex, I mean, Dakkafex.

I'm now a member of the douchebag elite. My hand was forced, I swear...I found myself buying fleshborer hives from ebay and the next thing you know, I've got another flyrant built and a dakkafex. I'm spamming devourers in the next incarnation of my Tyranid army in a tournament this Saturday and I'm getting a queasy, freshly teabagged feeling about it.

I have a different take on playing 40K (read: broken ideology), I believe that comp should exist for the benefit of others the same way that a seat belt law exists--to protect people from their own idiocy. I think armies should be creatively built with as few repeats of units as possible. That said, I also don't like ass whoopings in the name of "Forging the narrative" a term I find runs down the side of my leg and into my shoe like unplanned diarrhea in public. So, I'm conflicted about the whole thing, as I'm sure most gamers are. Right? I mean, we all want to play with the cool stuff that we want to put together and paint up nice, but cool doesn't always equate to badass in 40K, which is a goddam shame. It's a reflection or our greedy, stupid nature. I mean, we all know the condom is sitting right there in the drawer but damn, it feels so much better banging in the raw.

Forging the narrative is a term often used to describe how the douchebags of 40k, the top gamers who I will call the spamming elite, would like people to think of how the game should be played. It's the fine-line between competitive gaming and the fun of the hobby. You know who I'm talking about. They're the dudes who build the waveserpent and imperial knight armies and then proclaim they are "Forging the narrative."

I'll tell you what they're forging, a fly-teeming pile of horseshit.  It doesn't take a genius to know what the good units are, but it takes a real player to win with the mediocre stuff that's cool. These guys are forging a narrative just like I'm outsizing Mandingo.

But let's focus on the why. Why have I decided to bulk up my once no-repeat-unit list into something with two flyrants and a dakkafex? Yeah, not just 12 twin-linked S6 shots but 36...I just opened the door to Doucheville...

Well, the tourney I'm attending on Saturday is well known for tough lists and allowing unpainted units. Although I'm not going whole hog like some and bringing four flyrants (You know who you are. Shame, shame.) I do need some advantage. I do want to test my army in battle and I don't want to get assraped and play in the bottom tables at the end of the day against some kid being chaperoned by his mom (This actually happened to me at a GT). But I am bringing units that I just love, like the tervigon, that the competitive circle now shuns. Tyranid armies these days are a collection of flyrants with the gargoyle formation from Shield of Baal, a malanthrope, a hierodule and not much else. It's a little sad.

So there it is. Sometimes you need to fight fire with fire and at the end of the day I'll be happy I painted this sucker up. Without further ado let's meet the chap.

Here he is. He's on the top shelf next to the now irrelevant walking tyrant of yore. What a model. I didn't think painting up a second one would be fun, I was wrong.

And here we all are together. Spamtime.

 Here's a group shot of the army all painted up. A few items still need work, but overall I'm feeling good about the look.

 Another angle. Shit's looking tight these days. Lots of monstrous creatures = less time moving little guys around = win.

Ah objectives. Remember when it was a requirement at a tournament to have three of your own objectives all painted up?

At any rate, I'd like to know other people's opinions on the matter. Not many people read this blog but it'd be nice if they'd chime in once in awhile. The hobby world seems somewhat divided on the matter. As a painter, I'm going to try to enter a competitive environment after time spent away. We'll see what happens.

Stay tuned.