Heresy Incoming!

Well, theres recently been a teaser sent out in an email by Forge World. It's also on GWs main site. Im not going to link to it, but it is literally on their front page.

Anyways: AHHH!!!!!!! HERESY!!!!!!!!

Wow, ok. But this post is mostly about my PH army and where it stands at the moment. This blog is mainly focused on Tyranids, but is also partially about Chaos Space Marines. (expect a lot more of that starting in a few months...) Anyways, with at least two, probably three books coming for the Horus Heresy, from Forge World, this changes a lot of things for my army. Right now, I have a highly incomplete army, fully painted for what I have.

22 Marines, melta/missile launcher squads at the moment, with two sarges each so I can go Power Fist or Axe. This may change to Auto cannon depending on the new codex. Oh, and none of them have heads. Im going to do a Maxmini order at some point, once my Tyranids are fully rekitted out for 6th edition.

10 terminators: 4 (Power/Chain)fist/stormbolter, 1 powersword/stormbolter, 1 captain with Hammer and a Librarian with a Storm Shield, plus two guys with Combimelta/Powersword. I have another guy who isnt really built at the moment, I ll do something with him later. Ok, these guys are basically a loyalist or traitor Terminator squad, as I choose, and I ll decide on a loadout with the new codex, but I ll probably want a few fists and I ll probably want a few Combi Meltas. These are based off of GK Terminators because the helmets look cool and they look like mini Contemptors. Fully painted, except... no Shoulder Pads. (see, maxmini order above.)

5 Custodians: converted from Sanguinary Guard (legs/torso/arms) with High Elf heads, GK halberds and SM bolters attached (and backpacks/banner) Fully painted and DONE. Gold!

Contemptor Dread: I picked him up Cheap, he looks awesome. And he's stepping on an Imperial Fist Dread. Why not? He's magnetised at the moment with two Dread CC weapons, but of course I ll have more options made when theres a new codex... Fully Painted and done.

Power Armor HQs: A librarian who I modeled conjuring up Flame, and sending a little fire daemon flying around. My Warsmith has a a converted servoarm with Nade launcher (which CSM dont have... oh well) and a TH and Combi Melta. A captain with TH, Combi Melta pistol, and a jump pack. Then, a headless captain with a Hammer/shield. I also have a chaplain with a mace, I used a Sanguinary Guard helmet.

Thats the state of the union right now, not really an army, and with no transports, and most models headless! I have played no games with them, theyre currently just a frame work for building off of with Codex CSM, and eventually for the FW books (which may be fully legal by then...)

And, I ll probably have two allied detachments, one of Daemons (Tzeentch/Slaanesh/Khorne probably) and one of Imperial Army, as an excuse to make some WWI German looking Guardsmen (the Freikorps of Kreig) and to add some highly appropriate artillery to the army.

At the moment, theyre mostly off to the side except for daydreaming and staring at longingly. I by no means have given up on Tyranids, I just need a new army paint wise. I really have three models to paint left for my Tyraids for a while, theyre just all big MCs. (Two Tervigons and a Tyrant/Swarmlord) However, as I test out, I may add more models to my Nids. Id expect to be done with them (buying wise, not playing wise!) by Christmas, which I will then use as an opportunity for a massive Maxmini purchase.

RTT game 3 1850 vs. SM

Come game 3, I find myself one of three 2-0 players, but playing against neither of them. Im not sure if they had more points than me, but my opponent ended up being a SM player whos was 1-1 on the day.

My list is of course, the same as as the last two.

His list:

SM captain on bike, with Relic Blade (we believe Relic Blades are unusual, and ALWAYS +2 Str. and Ap. 3)
SM Librarian on Bike. He had some power that could be a flame template.
SM Command Squad on bikes, with max power swords.
2 Tactical Squads with Missile Launchers and plasma/combiplasma and rhinos
2 Auto/Las predators
5 Devestators, 4 Missiles and a Lasback.
3 HBolter/Typhoon Missiles Land Speeders
5 Scouts with Snipers and HBolter

Warlord traits: Two equally useless things, I think he lowered the Ld. of nearby units or something laughable.

Mission: Pitched Battle, 5 Objectives. We each have one in our Deployment zone that is a targeting array if we hold it and a Str. 4 bomb that goes off on a 1 if our opponent does. Secondary is Line breaker and First Blood

Psychic Powers: I believe my opponent hadnt looked at psychic powers seriously or had played against a psychic army in 6th yet. He seemed surprised when I described the various Biomancy powers.
Swarmlord: Life Leech, Enfeeble, Warp Speed, Haemorrhage
Flyrant: Iron Arm, Life Leech
Tervigon 1 Endurance, Warp Speed, Hemorrhage
Tervigon 2 Iron Arm, Enfeeble, Hemorrhage

He starts off deploying objectives on my left, so I follow that pattern and try to overload that side. We end with one in the top left (top is his DZ) one in the bottom left, and two in between but still to the left, with one closer to the right, but still near the center.

Deployment: Space marines: He sets up a general gunline, with both tac squads combat squadded and on an the far sides in area terrain. The Preds, lasback, and Devs form a center block in the center of his zone, with the Bikes also hanging out there. His scouts are to the far left on the objective behind some area terrain.  He has two LSs to the left and one speeder to the right.

Deployment Nids: the objective in my DZ is behind a LoS blocking hill, so I put one brood of gants on that, with the Flyrant next to them. I then overload the left with Hormagaunts, and both Tervigons, plus the other gaunts and Venomthropes there. I put on Hive Guard brood on each edge, with the Swarmlord in the center and my other Hormagaunts to his right. I take a risk here, since I know he has first turn. With that many missiles (12, plus 5 lascannons and 2 Autocannons) I decide to bunch up my right side Hormagaunts. Theyre in cover, and should hopefully buy me a turn for my MCs to get their powers up and running.

Space Marines turn 1: He only moves his land speeders around a little, then opens fire. Most of his missiles go into the right Hormagaunts, and I lose abou half after cover saves. The other missiles kill 3 or 4 of the right Hormagaunts. Las and Autocannons on the preds do little to no damage, and the snipers sucessfully take out a Hive Guard. He seems surprised by the large amount of Toughness 6 I have.

Tyranids turn 1: Everything runs straight up, with Iron Arm and Feel no Pain bouncing around. The Flyrant moves 24" straight up towards him. my termagants up front claim another objective, and Hive Guard kill a few marines in a missile combat squad. My other Hive Guard kill a Rhino, so I get First Blood. He is even more shocked when the Tervigon with Iron Arm gets T8, and is now immune to bolters.

SM turn 2: He again holds his ground, firing away. My Flyrant takes a wound but absorbs a lot of Firepower. He surprises my by using his missiles to again bomb the Hormagaunts, who are still in cover. He takes a few off of both squads. Bolter and other fire kill a few more, and he loses a plasmagunner on the right. His combat squad that fell back auto regroups, and moves up to shoot again. I lose another Hive Guard on each squad.

Tyranids turn 2: Hormagaunts on the right advance up past some trees, on the left they move up into the cover of a hill. Otherwise, the advance continues. I blow up one land Speeder on the left with Hive Guard, and stun another on the right. The flyrant successfully multi assaults the scouts and Combat squad in the forest, he kills one in each squad. They both hold. Again, psychic powers go off for buffs all over, including FNP on the left Hormagaunts.

SM turn 3: He moves his bikes out to play, coming at my left hormagaunts. More shooting finishes off my left Hive Guard and kills the right Hormagaunts after pouring lots of bolters into them. I also lose another right Hive Guard. He makes a 10" assault on the Hgaunts to my dismay. I kill two before being butchered, the T5 means nothing to poison. In assault the Flyrant kills the combat squad, and the scouts fall back.

Tyranids turn 3: His Bikes are now in the open, and I have a nesty surprise for them. The Flyrant lands right in front of them, and a Tervigon charges from the other direction. He "Denies the Witch" and passes my first Enfeeble, taking him down to Str. 3 T. 4 My Flyrant boosts to Strength and  Toughness 8, and charges in. My Tervigon has a long charge but makes it as well. Overwatch cant possibly wound the Tyrant, to my amusement. When the smoke clears, I have taken no wounds, and everything except his one, wounded librarian is dead.

SM turn 4: He seems shocked at how fast his mini Deathstar went down, but really has no choice except to open fire at the encroaching swarm. He does a smattering of wounds, and kills the last Hormagaunt on the board. My other Tervigon is down to only a few wounds remaining. In CC, his Librarian stands no chance and dies horribly.

Tyranids turn 4: Flyrant and tervigon shuffle around, the Tervigons on an objective and the Tyrant just gets into the woods. More general advancing, my Swarmlord is angry at being denied Combat and runs into the middle in front of the Devestators, but in Venomthrope cover. My other Tervigon shifts towards the objective on the right, but is still far out.

SM turn 5: He knows this is the last turn, and moves a combat squad onto the right objective. He finally realises how much the Venomthropes have helped me survive his shooting phase, and a Landspeeder and two combat squads manage to take them down. His Preds kill the Tyrant guard and manage to wound the Swarmlord once. I stand there screaming at the gunline, only for the Devestators to score 4 hits and wounds, blinking out the Swarmlord.

Tyranids turn 5: Spawning! I hold two objectives now, and spawn gaunts onto the top right one, the move my Tervigon onto a 4th objective on the left. The middle Tervigon spawns gaunts that claim the right objective, but its still contested by marines. Various shooting kills the one marine within 3", as he was the closest model. Finally, the tyrant swoops down and murders the scout survivors who had escaped him before and were huddling on the objective on the top right.

Tyranid Victory! Final score, 17-1. (3x5 for objectives +1 +1 for first blood and line breaker. He also had turbo boosted a Land Speeder into my zone to get line breaker.)

Post game: Well, I got the max victory points there, in what was by far my easiest game. He played a good game, but Tyranids are tough in objectoves, and he couldnt kill all the Monstrous creatures. He actually had most of his army intact, with two landspeeders, two predators, three combat squads, a rhino, razorback and Devestators left. I just managed to kill every unit that could threaten my objectives, and last turn I spawned onto two more.

Tournament Review: I won the whole thing, with Second place going to another 3-0 Nids player, and 3rd to the 2-1 Blood Angels player who lost last round to the second place winner. The tournament had a fairly balanced field, with two each of Guard, Tyranids, and Space Marines, and then one each of Blood angels, Dark Eldar, Tau and Orks. I donated all of my profits to a great cause, and by that I mean I bought a Swarmlord to replace my ill-suited Carnifex.

Overall, Tyranids look great! A combined 6-0 for Tyranids today, I think the new psychic powers and the change to fearless are amazing for us.

RTT game 2 1850 vs. IG

In my first game, I escaped with a Win in a brutal game against Drop Pod vulkan marines. Now, I find myself matched up against my Guard playing buddy who I drove up with. (He's also the guard player from my previous Battle Reports. For the record, I hate his shooting phase.)

His list:

CCS (dual flamer, vox, and something else. Maybe 3 flamers) His warlord
LR Demolisher
Regular Russ with HBolters
PCS with 4 flamers
50 guys (1x20 man with 2 Autocannons, 3x10 man with flamer) Also, after out last game, he has added DER KOMMISSAR
2x3Lascannon HWTs
1x3 Missile Launchers HWTs
Meltavets in Chimera
Vendetta (in reserve with PCS inside)

Marines:
10 tacs, missile flamer,
Captain with fist
5 assault marines with fist

My list is the same as last time of course, but here it is:
Swarmlord
1xTyrant Guard
Flyrant wwith dual Scytals
2x3 Hive Guard
1x2  venomthropes
2x Hormagaunt Brood w/ Adrenal and Toxim (19 and 20 models)
2x10 gaunts
2x Tervigons with 3 Powers

Mission: a Custom mission where one gets a victory point EACH TURN for each table quarter you hold. Deployment was Vanguard strike, the diagonal line that gives your opponent an insane amount of space to deploy back in if theyre a shooting army. The army with the most Elites and Fast Atack combined (me) takes first turn, and the secondary objectives are Linebreaker and Kill the Warlord.

Warlord Traits: No impact on the game at all. I modified his reserve roll by one, and he either passed or failed by a wide enough margin that it wouldnt have mattered. His was leadership based or something.

Psychic Powers:
Swarmlord: Enfeeble, Warp Speed, Endurance, Hemorrhage
Flyrant: Warp Speed, Endurance
Tervigon 1: Enfeeble, Warp Speed, Endurance
Tervigon 2: Haemorrhage, Iron Arm (after getting Iron arm, I roll on telekinesis in hopes of the shield, but instead get Gate of Infinity. Nice, but with so many models on the board, scatter is too big of a risk.)

Pregame thoughts: With table quarters, I can easily hold the one entierely in my zone, and I can throw gaunts out to grab the side two. This will force him to move and at least contest the others, and I can contest his fairly easily. Note that vehicles can neither contest or claim, thankfully.

Deployment:

Tyranids: I use my usual stance of a wide deployment along the front, again with Hive Guard on both flanks. The Tervigons are in the center with the Swarmlord and Venomthropes, my Hormagaunts are center and right of my lines. I put one of my gant squads far back in my quarter in area terrain, and I put the other on my far left so that I start the game with 3 table quarters potentially claimed.
 He has some tall rocky terrain in the center of his zone, so if I overwhelm him on the right I will have cover and maybe blocked LoS from most of what he puts on the left, his army is too numerous to be able to fit it all on the right so I know he ll have some firepower there.

IG deployment: He puts both russes with two infantry squads in front on my right, (contesting a table quarter) and his 20 man blob with the SM captain to the left, along with the Meltavets. His Lascannon teams and Missiles are also to my left, so if I continue with my plan to go right I ll be in cover and possibly block LoS. His assault marines are a counter punch behind the two Russes, while his Tac marines are next to them for Missile Launcher shooting and to support the Assault marines Id guess. His CCS is in the far back of his lines with an Infantry squad.

Turn 1: Well, he siezes the initiative on me. I dont know how he does this, but he does this only to me... Yikes. No night fight either.

Turn 1 Guard: No moving, he just unloads. All his lasguns are out of range, but Pie Plates and Lascannons mean that my left side Hive Guard are evaporated completely. I think I also take a single wound on a Tervigon.

Turn 1 Tyranids: I really, really, hate guard. I just lost half of my guns in turn 1, and now I'm about to charge right into his teeth. I just need to tie him up while my gants win the game by sitting on table quarters. I move and run everything up, with no spawning, but orienting my forces slightly to the left as I do. My surviving Hive Guard kill 5 Guardsmen in front of the regular Leman Russ, but they pass morale. Psychic powers means that Im throwing FNP all over, onto Hive Guard, the Swarmlord, and the Flyrant, who had swooped up and is range to charge an Infantry squad, but he is hiding out of LoS at the moment. The Tervigon closer to the left gets Iron Arm up to Toughness 7.

Turn 2 IG: His vendetta comes in and keeps the PCS inside. It is on my left in no mans land, and he it manages to kill a Hive Guard. His movement is notably his Meltavets chimera moving 18" straight towards the bottom left table quarter, literally moving on the board age to skirt the threat range of my army. This contests a table Quarter, we each now hold our own. Other shooting wounds the Iron Arm tervigon againt, and I believe the Swarmlord. I probably lose a gaunt or two.

Turn 2 Tyranids: Nothing really to do except charge forward again, and try to push him out of the top right table quarter so that I can claim it. Everything advances towards his lines, I try to target his Vendetta with Hive Guard and fail to roll above a 3 to hit. Yikes. The Flyrant jumps out and promptly eats the whole infantry squad in front of his Demolisher. Everything else is advancing and running, with Endurance firing off all over. I think my left H gaunts, the Swarmlord and the Flyrant recieve it.

Turn 3 IG: His Demolisher, Russ and infatry all advance towards my lines. I wasnt expecting that at all, but now it means my Flyrant is horribly exposed, and a combination of Lascannons, missiles, and bolters proceed to remove him from the table. The Russes and the depleted infantry squad open up into my army, I think I lose wounds on the Swarmlord and a Tervigon,  but only lose a few gaunts. His vendetta doesnt like its options and leaves the board. His meltavets move next to my cowering gaunts and light them up, killing them all. The quarter is still contested by me.

Turn 3 Nids: I finally have units in range, and charge the swarmlord into the Russ and two brood of gaunts into the infantry squad, the Swarmie and  the Hgaunts make it,  I destroy him utterly in both assaults. I consolidate closer to his tanks to make pie plates risky. Hive Guard cant damage the Demolisher, and I throw FNP around like candy. At this point, most of my army is in cover or out of LOS from the blob and HWTs, as I surge up his right. I also pop gaunts out in my right Tervigon, but double out.

Turn 4 Guard: His vendtta comes in on the far right, and takes a wound off of the Swarmlords guard. His Demolisher also hits the Swarmlord, but fails to wound. The blast catches and kills one Venomthrope though. His Assault Marines pistol and shoot the gaunt brood I just spawned. Hilariously he fails all three saves I make him take, but still kills a lot, and is locked. I LOVE the improved Fearless! More shooting from his left wounds my left Iron Arm Tervigon, and kills a handful of Hormagaunts.

Turn 4 Tyranids: I advance both Hormagaunt Broods. The one farther to the right tries to go around the wrecked Russ and hit his Tac squad, the other goes through terrain at the blob. I fail the charge on the right due to overwatch and flamers, but I make it on the left. Of the seven models that were alive at this point, 1 survives the overwatch and blows, tying the blob up for next turn! Go Fearless! . (I had enfeebled the squad to this purpose.) Hive Guard whipe out a Lascannon team. The Tervigon was about to charge the Demolisher, but had its lane blocked by the Hormagaunts who almost assaulted the marines. Poor manuevering on my part... gaunts kill the last marine in combat, except for the sarge with fist.

Turn 5 IG: He moves his vendetta into my bottom right corner, and has no targets. However, he does drop off the PCS finally and scores a slight scatter next to my termagant brood, my only unit still in that corner. After the flamers go down I m stripped to five models. (If he had hit his scatter Id have been toasted.) I miraculously survive and plan vengeance. His blob is tied up, but kills the lone Hgaunt with ease in assault. His Demolisher blasts the Swarmlord and I lose his guard. More shooting whittles down some wounds on the Tervigon and kills the Swarmlord, but both Tervigons are still barely alive at the end.

Tyranids turn 5: My one venomthrope moves up to ensure that Im still contesting his quarter, while I spawn gaunts to make sure that the bottom left is also contested. The gaunts fleshborers, Hive Guard, and both Tervigons kill the PCS with shooting, I hold that table quarter again. My last Hormagaints about face from the Tac squad and kill the last Assault sarge, giving me a second table quarter. (his Demolisher can nont contest)

At this point the game ends, with me having a majority of the points. I accidently kept my tally on the score sheet, which I had to turn in later, so I dont have it written down. The final tally was fairly close, with him killing my warlord and both of us achieving linebreaker. In the end we both had our own quarter most of the time, but I had claimed the top right and bottom left for a turn each.

Tyranid Victory! At this point Im at 2-0 and have a handy amount of battle points. Of the 10 players, theres a BA and another Nid player who are also 2-0.

Thoughts on the game: Sieze sucks, but I had a mission that favors me more than him. He had most of his infantry left at the end, but all in his quarter, and I couldnt kill the damn Vendetta. I hate that thing. Still, I held the objectives and felt good, but Ive had a pair of brutal games so far, both of them high scoring, so I have a lot of points so far.

On to round 3!

Doom! Doom! THE FLYRANT GUARD!

In response to the cheese of several new lists I have seen, here is my own answer to them. I believe that I am the first person to do this, but if anyone knows better, please point out where! I had posted this idea on Synapses blog, but never really mentioned it since.

Relevant post on Synapse

However, I have now decided to get the publics opinion on this... Does it work?

The whole point here is a Tyrant Deathstar being hit only on 6s to shooting.

The main idea of this is simple. In 5th, units moved at the speed of their slowest model. In 6th, you must retain coherency. So, a Flying Hive Tyrant could join 3 Tyrant Guard, as there are no rules saying he can't. He may move however he wishes, but he must maintain coherency. Now, below are the tools and models I will use to demonstrate. The large base is a flying Hive Tyrant. The Medium bases are Tyrant Guard. This also shows their initial deployment. Consider the White dot on the large base as the Flyrants facing.










Now, declare turn one that the Tyrant is Swooping. He is hit on 6s when shooting. So long as he is the closest model to the firing unit, the WHOLE UNIT is hit on 6s. Now, First turn he MUST move 12" to remain swooping. See below, as to how that would work. Still in coherency, still Swooping. Now, Run the Tyrant Guard straight up, so the Tyrant is still barely ahead, so that you can do the same thing next turn. (If you were to roll 1's several turns in a row for runs, this wont work as it will eventually collapse. Glide for one turn to get in a good position, then keep going.) When moving the Flyrant, he should be at 45 degrees from straight ahead at all times, so that 90 degrees turns can move him consistently.

*NOTE ON THE BELOW: The arrows do NOT show where the model was last turn exactly, just its general motion, as limited by the edge of the picture.*

When in assault range, simply drop down to glide mode and hit things!





 
 

Issues with mixed flying units:

 I would say that the Tyrant Guard can be assaulted, which would then draw the Flyrant into assault, but that the Flyrant can't be the model assaulted.

Shooting: Templates that hit the Tyrant Guard cause hits, but not the Tyrant.

If the Tyrant falls, the wound from that, RAW, CAN be allocated to a guard.

Added tips: Add a prime for resliency, if the guard die you're stuck walking.

So, any questions or concerns? Of course! But if you see a legal rules issue, and can back it up with cited rules, please say so!

7/21 RTT 1850 Game 1 vs. SM

Well I made it to my FLGS approximately 2 minutes before the RTT started on saturday, and had barely unpacked before first round pairings went up.

My list for the game (and the next two as well!)

Swarmlord!
1xTyrant Guard (the idea here is to use the SLs majority toughness if I get Iron arm, which sadly happened only once for the RTT)
Flying Tyrant, 2x Scytals
2x3 Hive Guard
2x Venomthrope
20 Hormagaunts (Toxin and Adrenal)
19 Hormagaunts (Toxin and Adrenal) *I'm really OCD about unbalanced squads, 19 feels wrong...*
2x10 Termagaunts
2x Tervigon (Catalyst and Onslaught)

My Opponents list:

SM:
Vulkan (warlord)
10 Combimelta Sternguard (with the big V) in Pod
2x Flamer/MulitMelta Tac squads, with Meltabomb sarges in Pods
Ironclad with Melta and heavy flamer in Pod
Land Speeder with MM and HFlamer

BA:
Captain with chainfist/LC in Termi armor
5x Assault marines in Pod (with captain above)
Libby Dread in Pod
Fast Vindicator

Psychic Powers:
Swarmy:  Iron Arm, Life Leech, Endurance, Hemorrhage
Flyrant: Iron Arm, Life Leech
Tervigon 1: Iron Arm, and crush and shockwave from Telekinesis (after getting IA, I rolled to see if I could get Telekine shield, which is freaking amazing for Nids.)
Tervigon 2: Endurance, Life Leech, Iron Arm

Warlord Traits: Two equally useless things (Both objective based)

Mission: Dawn of War deployment, with Kill points (Purge the alien maybe?)

Thoughts: I hate kill points with a passion, but at least Drop Pods should make it easy. Every Mission should be objectives... My opponent has a very "Balls to the Walls" approach and favors DSing armies, his list isnt a surprise. He also has a huge fear of gaunts, as in our last game he deep struck 10 TH termies in front of my army and took over 150 poisoned attacks in the face.

I get first turn (I chose to, so I could get Iron Arm off before he hit the ground, you can see I rolled well and got it on all 4 Beasties!  I can maybe even kill the two units he would probably start on the board for an early win.)

Deployment: I blob up in the center of my zone, he puts the Vindicator and LS out of LOS (lol... Hive Guard surprise!)

Turn 1 Nids: I blob up in the middle, with gants in reserve, and run into the center of the board with my Hormies spreed out on my flanks so he cant DS in too close, and so flamers will hurt less. Iron Arm everything, and then my two squads of HG each are on flanks as well, but fail spectacularly to kill either the LS or Vindi. My Flyrant has flown and run into a ruin and run, so is very close to the Vindi and has a 4++ cover save.

Nids: 0 SM: 0

Turn 1 Marines: I smile inside as he Deep Strikes his Libby and Ironclad dread close to me. His 10 Stenguard go right next to the Flyrant in melta range and deploy in Combat Squads. His Vindi moves up 12 gets a hit on the Swarmlord, and Im out of Venomthrope range (stupid me...) The Tyrant Guard is killed as a result. He gets first blood due to that. He then unloads Meltas into my T8 Flyrant, and despite needing 6s to hit, he gets three hits and wounds, and I fail 2 saves. I then fall on my ass and take another. His other combat squad fires all 5 meltas and toasts his last wound.

SM: 3 Nids: 0

Nids turn 2: Wow, that hurt more than I thought, but I think I can recover. One Hormagaunt Squad gets up close to the Sternguard combat squad without Vulkan, the Swarmlord runs at the Libby Dread, and I send a Tervi after the Vindicator. My other Tervigon in my back lines and runs at the Iron clad but is too far this turn to charge. I do Iron Arm all over, and I think I fail one with a perils on the back Tervi. Hive Guard Smash the Vindicator and the Land Speeder. My entire Left Flank collapses in, getting far from the Ironclad while the Tervigon gets in range to intercept it next turn. I then make a HUGE rules error and use Warp Speed on my Swarmlord (he doesnt have it!) and then charge the Libby. However, I dont believe this altered the game. I already struck first, and didnt need the fleet reroll. For the extra attacks, I got 1, and shook it twice. Lets say the one attack I shouldnt have had was a damaging one, so it has two hull point left instead of one (shaking does nothing in CC) This has no actual effect on the game, as you'll see next turn. Anyways, the Libby does a wound back. The Tervigon mulches the Pod the libby dread was in, and my Hormagaunts rape the sternguard but only consolidate one inch... crap. The other squad and vulkan look mad.

Nids: 4 SM:  3

Marines turn 2: An epic fail in Drop pods, none show up. He has few units on the board, the Ironclad tries to get at the Hormagaunts but is out of range to charge after flaming two. A few drop pods stormbolter a gaunt or something. Vulkan detaches and flame some of the Hormagaunts, then the sternguard shoot some ignore cover round and kill a bunch. Vulkan decides to assault even though he's 11" away, and to my fury he makes it. I wound him once and lose 3 Hgaunts. The Swarmlord then explodes the Dreadnaught 3 times in Close combat, ( instantly killing it regardless of any hull points from the last round of CC, which is why I dont think the Warp Speed cheat on my part mattered. It was still a bad mistake to make, however.)

SM: 3 Nids: 5

Tyranids turn 3: both of my Termagaunt units are in, and kinda huddling up in my back field, but spread out so any drop pods will have to be far to my right or left. My left Tervigon who was going after the Ironclad drops back to shepard the gants, as my one that just killed the Drop Pods is in easy range to do the job. The Swarmlord runs towards Vulkan, as does my other Hormagaunt brood. Iron Arm all over, but the stupid one in the back Perils and fails AGAIN. Sigh. Hive Guard pop the Iron Clad and damage the Sternguards Drop Pod I think. The Tervigon then charges and kills the Ironclads drop pod. The swarmlord charges Vulkan but is out of range, the Hormagaunts make it and I manage to wound him 14 times. Amazing rolls on his part leave him alive, and he cuts the brood he had been stuck with down to one model.

Nids: 7 SM: 3

Turn 3 SM: He gets his two tac squads in, one deepstrikes by my back gaunts, flaming and doubletapping to kill one brood, the other is at 9 models. The other deepstrikes right by the vulkan combat, next to a Hive Guard brood in ruins. He flames and double taps, which wipes them after the Sternguard combat squad shoots some 2+ poison shots or something. Vulkan kills the lone gant and then dies horribly. (+1 for kill the Warlord)

Nids 9: SM: 6

Turn 4 Nids: The Swarmlord and my front Tervi go up towards the 10 man squad and Sternguard, as do my freed up Hormagaunts. Overwatch kills a few Gaunts and I roll poorly to only kill a few marines, but lose a few in return. The Swarmy perils but passes Iron Arm, the back Tervi finally doesnt peril and charges the freshly Deep struck Tac squad that killed the gants. She kills 2 and takes a wound from Krak grenades.  My surviving Hive Guard brood take the Storm bolter off of a pod.

Nids: 9 SM: 6

Turn 4 Marines: His last pod comes out behind my Tervi in combat. He jumps out his captain next to her for an assault next turn, and the assault squad jumps out to pistol a few gaunts out of the 9 man brood. His sternguard charge the Hormagaunts and kills them all, although I whittle down the tac squad first. They are at 4, while the Sternguard has 5 models. My tervi challenges the melta sarge and makes him step out, then kills a grunt and loses another wound (she's at 2)

SM: 7 Nids 9

Turn 5 Nids: I charge a Tervigon into the depleted tac squad, and maybe kill one but take wounds. The other Tervi fails Iron arm and kills a marine or two. My gants shoot the assault marines and kill one maybe. The swarmlord was out of range to charge anything, and Hive Guard do nothing sadly.

SM: 7 Nids: 9

Turn 5 SM: His captain charges the Tervi and in a challenge kills her, only to die at the same time to a Smash for Str. 10 attacks. His marines pistol and kill the last Termagaunts, and his Tac squad consolidates closer. The Tervi is taken down to two wounds by Krak grenades after the Sternguard also charge her.

SM: 9 Nids 10

GAME SO FAR: Oh boy, I have 6 models on the board... I have 2 Venomthropes and 2 Hive Guard huddling near the Tervigon combat, which the Swarmlord will soon join, and he has an assault squad and most of a Tac squad about to charge up through my lines vulnerable units. If the game ends, he has line breaker and a tie.

Turn 6 Nids: Swarmlord charges the Sternguard and kills a few. The Tervi kills a Tac marine, theyre at 3 models left. Swarmie is down to one wound at this point, from grenades and random perils and maybe a storm bolter or something... not sure how that happened. My Hive Guard again dont kill a drop Pod. My locked Tervigon spawns a ton of gaunts who high tail it towards his deployment zone, giving me linebreaker.

SM: 9 Nids: 10

Turn 6 Marines: Between pistols, stormbolters and the tac squad going full auto, he kills the Venomthropes. In combat I kill a few more marines, I'll be done with them next turn no question.

SM: 10 Nids: 10

The game is a dead tie again if it ends... yikes...

It doesnt!

Nids turn 7: I kill everything in the combat and consolidate away, the Swarmy gets T8 thank god, F U bolters! Hive Guard shoot and charge the assault marines in front of me, tieing them up with T6 wounds.

Nids: 12 SM:  10

SM turn 7: He needs to kill the swarmlord, if he does its a dead tie. Im out of range though to charge, and he cant touch me with bolters. He throws a krak grenade but cant do it. The Drop Pods shoot my Tervi but cant wound her enough to punch through the 3+. Hive Guard and assault marines are locked.

FINAL: Tyranid Victory! 13-11 (+1 to each for linebreaker)

Wow... one game into the tournament and I'm exhausted. Drop Pods just got sick with flamers and 6" deployment. Losing the Flyrant early hurt a lot, he is a boss flying around eating things usually. MCs are awesome when you use their powers fully ( I forgot a few times here...) and I now hate krak grenades. But at least you can challenge the meltabomb sergeants out of the way. That was a bloody battle, I thought Id have an edge with him deploying so close, but he did a great job of culling the horde.

1850 6th Edition game 2

Ok, first of my Batreps for the next few days, this an 1850 rematch of my last battle, so Tyranids vs. IG!

My list is the same as last time.
2x Tervigons with 3 psy powers
Walking armored shell dakkarant, 2 guard
Scytal Flyrant
2x3 Hive Guard
1x Venomthrope
2x20 Hormagaunts
2x10 gants

My opponent added a little more on the marine allies:

Fist Captain
Tac Squad in rhino, missile flamer
5x Assault marines with fist

His Guard were roughly as follows:

CCS with 2x flamers, vox, banner
PCS with 4x flamers in vendetta
50 guardsmen with 2 Autocannons and a bunch of flamers
3 Meltavets in a chimera
LR Demolisher
plain Russ
3x Missile Launcher HWT
2x3 Lascannon HWT

Mission: The kill point one, with the Vanguard strike deployment.
Warlord trait: Night Fight first turn for me, (yay!) and for him, the roll an extra dice to run thingy.
Psychic powers: I seem to have lost the sheet I had it written on, but the Flyrant notably got Iron Arm, as did one Tervigon. The other got Enfeeble and maybe warp speed, and then the walking tyrant basically gave himself Endurance the whole game.

Deployment, Tyranids:


The Flyant is out of LOS, otherwise I have a broad front with Hive Guard on the flanks and my other MCs in the center.


Typical Guard Deployment. His blob is shielding everything, and he's naturally in the far back corner, giving me a lot of ground to cover... (His assault Marines are out of LOS, behind the Red Tent thing to the left of the above shot.)

Turn 1 IG: He siezes, but between Night Fight and the Venomthrope, every unit in my army has a 2+ cover save. He fails to cause a wound after lucky rolling on my part.

Turn 1 Nids: Everything I have flies or runs straight at him. Flyrant is T9, and out of LOS near the red tent that the Assault marines are by. Hive Guard move up mostly out of LOS into the forest. We determine that the Mysterious forest is a Razorwing nest. My right side Hive Guard break cover and run a full 6" and make it into the shelter of an Aquarium Roman temple thing

Turn 2 Guard: He focuses fire for the most part on the (not Iron Arm) Tervigon who was in front at the moment. She is dropped by several wounds, I think some sporadic shooting may kill a few Gaunts or something. His vendetta I think fails to come in.

Turn 2:. A general advance is made, with my wounded Tervigon Life Leeching a blob member, shes now at 3 wounds. The Dakka Tyrant is in range of the blob and kills an impressive amount. The blob is at -1 leadership and despite the banner reroll, falls off the table! Holy crap! My opponent mutters something profane about needing a commissar. Right Hive Guard Immobilise a Chimera with one hull point left, and so blocking the rhino behind it. He'd have to move his HWTs to move the rhino.  Lastly, my Flyrant hits T9 again and attacks the Demolisher, Immobilising it and taking off two Hull points.

Below is the end of my turn 2: Depleted, huh? You can see his regular Russ, his Demolisher and my Flyrant are just out of the frame to the left.


IG turn 3: The Vendetta comes in and lines up on the Hive Guard on my left flank, dropping off the PCS by the Hormagaunts. They roll a direct hit. Other than that there is little movement, just shuffling his Russ. He then opens up, wounding my already wounded Tervigon, and wounding a Tyrant Guard. I also lose a Hive Guard to the Vendetta, and another takes a wound. The Flamer squad is partially blocked by the Vendettas base and only kills 5 H-gaunts. In assault my Tyrant finishes the Demolisher.

Nids Turn 3: Both my gant squads come in, they sit in my backfield and do nothing all game, and are never involved at all. My Flyrant gets ready to punk his CCS. Oh yeah, he's T9 again. Lol. My Hive Guard kill a Lascannon team or two, the depleted brood by the Vendetta kill a few of the flamer PCS so that the Hormagaunts take less overwatch. Hormagaunts lose a few and absolutely destroy them. General advances again, my Dakkarant is out of range of anything and runs. Everything else is running at him. (It's a bit annoying how far back he deployed... Not that I blame him.) The flyrant kills everyone in the CCS except the Commander, who rolls snake eyes and sticks in.

IG turn 4: More shooting, not much moving. His assault squad jumps the Hormagaunts, I roll bad and fall back after losing a lot (and very, very stupidly being 13" away from my Tervigon.) His Vendetta zooms around and I think wounds my Iron Arm Tervigon, who is now closer than the wounded one. He also kills the Venomthrope. The Iron arm Tervi one takes a few more wounds I believe. In assault, his Officer makes a few 5++ saves and my Tyrant is awkwardly locked.


Nids turn 4: I desperately try to shoot the Vendetta down, I may get one hull point? My wounded Tervi moves back and enfeebles the Assault squad, my H gaunts auto keep falling back but are now in synapse and so auto regroup. Hive Guard go hide in the forest and take two wounds from Razorwings, there is now one wounded Hive Guard in the squad. The Tyrant kills the Commander and my stuff moves around in general, trying to down the damn Vendetta.

Guard turn 5: His assault marines again attack my H gaunts, who do better and kill two marines before getting cut down to 1 model. Vendetta moves and guns down a Hive Guard on my right. More IG fire wounds the Flyrant once and kills a Tervigon. He even disembarks the melta vets and Marines, but T9 is amazing.


Nids turn 5: Flyrant goes T9 AGAIN! Wow. Hormagaunts are getting closer, and I keep shooting the damn Vendetta, failing miserably. Tyrant eats a few Lascannon teams. The wounded Tervigon Warp Speeds and assaults the assault marines, who finish the last Hormagaunt and are cut down to the sarge, who falls back an impressive 17". Straight towards my last Hive Guard... crap.

IG turn 6: The Vendetta is forced off the board, everything else wounds the Flyrant once, and then manages to wipe out the Hormagaunts in their face. I also lose a Tyrant Guard I think. His lone assault marine sarge charges the lone Hive Guard in the forest, and takes a single hit from the razorwings, which comes up a 6! Go rending! I find this hilarious, that one of the Emperors chosen was killed by an angry pidgeon...

Nids turn 6: I assault the Vets with my Flyrant, who lose a few then fall back. (He fails his Iron Arm psy check.) My lone Hive Guard takes a hull point and Heavy Bolter off the Russ, the others destroy the Chimera. The Tyrant on foot I believe kills a few Marines.

IG 7: The Vendetta comes in, and kills the last Tyrant Guard, and other shooting whiffs on the flyrant somehow and wounds the walking Tyrant. I also lose my Hive Guard in the forest. He assaults marines into the Flyrant, I challenge the captain who declines, then kill a few who fall back. (We forgot he can use Krak grenades...)

Below is end of Guard moving phase.


Nids 7: I miraculously down the Vendetta! The Dakkarant finally gets a hit and takes its last hull point. My army is just about gone, but Im up on KPs by a lot, so I assault the Captain with my Flyrant, only to perils my Iron Arm check and then get promptly punched in the face!

END GAME: I have a Hive Guard squad, a walking tyrant and a wounded Tervi left, as well as two gant squads in the far back. He has most a marine combat squad, a missile team, a rhino and a damaged Russ.

Tyranid Victory! I believe the VP total was something like 12-7.

Wow, that was bloody! The Flyrant won me almost all of my points, and the Dakka Tyrant killing the blob was pure win. Still, he made me pay even after early losses and I was really down on models at the end. I think he played the game right, I just got pretty lucky on a few things. Kill points suck, and the far back deployment means I was lucky to escape with a victory.

Batreps Incoming!

I have 4 Battle Reports coming in the next few days, and if I'm feeling good maybe a short tactics article. I've been out for a week, but I have a single Batrep with pictures, and 3 from an RTT today.

For the RTT, I tried a new list, with the Swarmlord, a Flyrant, 2x20 H gaunts, 6 Hive Guard 2 Venomthropes and 2 Tervis (plus the obligatory 2x10 gants) No spoilers on how I did, but my three opponents were Marines, Guard, and Marines again. As a side note, I proxied (gasp!) a carnifex for the swarmlord, but to redeem my shame I bought a Tyrant kit, who I'm in the process of magnetizing! yay!

Tyranids now a fast army?

It's generally agreed that 6th will take a little longer than 5th edition on average to play. This is partially because of learning new things, but also from things like wound allocation and challenges. This actually shouldn't slow us down, as our units are almost always the same model, just x 20! In my first game, my turns actually took less than my opponents usually. Tyranids dont have characters in squads, except for Broodlords and tyrants (but I dont use Broodlords) and we only have a few options for different save units.

In 5th, we had a bit o a reputation as a slow playing army, but with other armies going infantry heavy, and other rules that mostly apply to other armies, I think the Bugs may be just as fast as any other army out there to play.

1850 vs. Imperial Guard

*Image snagged from Fritz40k*

Well I finally got my first game of 6th Edition in tonight, against an IG player who runs a mixed armor/infantry army. As it was our first game, I decided not to take pictures, I'll try to next time.
My warlord was the walking Tyrant, he got the re roll reserve one. Whoopie. His warlord is the CCS officer, who gets the +1 assault range one. Lol!

My list:

Armored shell Tyrant, 2x TL devourers, Old Adversary, two guard (pyschic powers: enfeeble and hemorrhage)
Flyrant with 2x Scything Talons (psy powers: leech and hemorrhage)
2x3 Hive Guard
1 Venomthrope
20 Hormagaunts TS AG
19 Hormagaunts TS AG
2x10 gaunts
2xTervigons with catalyst onslaught (pys powers: First: Iron Arm, the FNP one. Warp Speed. Second: FNP one, leech essence, hemorrhage)

His list (roughly)

CCS with banner and Power Fist, and medic. Two flamers maybe?

PCS with 4 flamers
4x Infantry Squad, 2 with Autocannon, all had Grenade Launchers
2x3 Lascannon teams
Veteran Squad, 3 Meltas, in Chimera
Basalisk
Leman Russ
LR Demolisher
Hellhound

Aegis Line

Allies:
 Space Marine Captain with Fist
Tac Squad with Flamer and Las, and a Rhino

Mission: Dawn of war, Relic

Pre Game Thoughts:
My opponents list isn't ultra competetive, but it's solid and shooty enough to worry me slightly. My plan is to have a tervigon grab the relic and then just hide while the rest of my army gets in his face. And to learn all these fun new rules of course.

Deployment: I have first turn. With the Relic in the center, I line up a Tervigon directly in front of it. Not the Iron arm one, I'm not sure why I didn't. I put my flying Tyrant on my far right flank behind a bunker. Tervigon and Tyrant Star all go in the middle, with the Venomthrope behind and Hive Guard nearby. Two big blobs of Hormagaunts are also on the side, ready to rush around the central ruin (with Relic inside) I have two gant broods which will mostly useless. I stick one in the far back in case I need to pick up the relic if he kills my Tervi, and put the other on the far left to sneak up and get "Linebreaker", as theyre far away and shouldnt be shot.

He has the aegis line slightly to the right of the objective and back 12", and two of the infantry squads, as well as both Russes and the CCS are behind that. Behind the line is a mysterious forest, with both lascannon squads in it.  In the center he has 5 marines with a Lascannon, and behind them 10 guardsmen with an autocannon, all in a peice of area terrain. Left of that is the chimera with Vets. Finally, on the left, he has another infantry squad in area terrain, with the Basalisk and hellhound behind that, and the rhino with combat squad and captain next to that.

Turn 1 Tyranids: Just kidding! He steals the initiative. Crap in a hat.

Turn 1 Guard: Thank God, Night Fight goes off, giving me uber cover from the Venomthrope on everything near him. My left gaunt squad gets halved by Space Marines shooting out of the rhino (4 shots 4 wounds, 4 failed cover saves. The chimera kills another to cut them down to 5. Other than that, lascannon shooting and the Russes manage to take a wound off one Tervigon, due to the 2++ cover from Night Fight and the Venomthrope. The Venomthrope also takes a wound from a Russes Heavy Bolter.

Turn 1 Nids: Well I survived the sieze rather well, thanks to Night Fight, other wise I could have been seriously hurt. My Flyrant flies around to the right side of a bunker on the far right, only one lascannon team can see him, I'm hoping to draw their fire. Everything else makes a general advance, one Tervigon gives himself Endurance (FNP, and It Will Not Die) while the other uses Iron arm to go to T7. Nothings in assault range. One HiveGuard squad targets a Lascannon Heavy Weapon team and kills two, the other takes two hull points off of a rhino. Fleet and Hormagaunts running is amazing.

Turn 2 IG: The vendetta comes in on his left side and lines up on my left squad of Hive Guard. A little shuffling around on his part, not too much. The Basalisk and regular russ combine to take out the Venomthrope and wound a Hive Guard. Demolisher takes a wound off the Tervigon near the Objective. His Hell hound moves up 12" and shoots it's Inferno Cannon and kills 5 Hormagaunts. Auto cannon fire bounces off the the Tyrant Star, and his two Inf. Squads behing the line shoot down a few Hormagaunts that are now really close to them. He rolls poorly and only kills a few. His full Strength Lascannon team decides to shoot my Flyrant, and hitting on 6s, they wound him Twice! :O Vendetta strips a wound off a Hive Guard and drops off the flamer PCS, but they scatter away from the Hormagaunts and can't flame. They then run back out of charge range.  Finally, the Marines and Chimera target the left Gaunt Squad and they break and fall off the board. He also got First Blood this turn for the Venomthrope.

My Turn 2: I'm annoyed by the Tyrants wounding, so I jump up in "glide" mode, and leech a wound back of the HWT, and get reay to assault. Hormagaunts run forward, one is close to the Aegis line and will assault. Hive Guard rip the Inferno cannon and two Hull points off of the HellHound. The other HG take a hull point off the chimera with poor rolling. Tervigons advance, one is now very close to the relic, he FNPs himself. The other runs towards the Aegis line, and makes himself Toughness 9! Tyrant Star uses Enfeeble on an Infantry Squad, who are then assaulted by on Hormagaunt Squad. I get an easy 11 from Fleet re rolls and overwatch kills 1 maybe. I do 27 wounds to the squad, and eat through the lasguns. He finally has to allocate to his sarge, and his 14 wounds still to save. This guy made 7 5+ saves in a row! He failed his 8th, and then "Look out Sir!" -ed onto the flamer, and then made the next two saves. We were both laughing our asses off, but I was actually getting worried. Thankfully he failed his ELEVENTH save and didn't look out. I wipe the squad and consolidate between the forest and the Aegis line. The Tyrant assaults and kills the HWTs of course.

IG turn 3: Behind the Aegis line, both Russes, the Inf. Squad and the CCS all turn to face the gaunts and Flyrant suddenly in their lines. The Veteran Chimera rolls up behind the ruin and also aims that way. When the smoke clears i'm down to 8 Hormagaunts and 0 Flyrants in the area. The Vendetta flies off the board. An extra infantry squad and the Marine lascannon also had to help take down the Flyrant. At this point he's shot most of his army, a few lasguns ring out and I think I might take a wound on a Tyrant Guard.

Tyranids turn 3: Hive Guard take another point off the chimera and wreck the Rhino with marines inside. The Tyrant Star gets within 18" of the disembarked Marines and kills all 3 regular bolter Marines. (Now a sarge, flamer and captain.) The surviving Hormagaunts assault into an Infantry Squad and whipe them out but lose one in return from overwatch. One Tervigon grabs the objectvie and runs back, the other goes to T7 and runs towards the Russes. The other Hormagaunts and the 10 man gaunt squad are hanging back guarding the Tervigon with the objective, who gives herself Endurance and Regenerates a wound from "It will not Die!"

IG turn 4. The regular Russ and an infantry squad, as well as the lascannon Marine Squad, wipe out the Hormagaunts in their midst, the Demolisher takes a wound of the Tyrant. The Vendetta comes on the board and kills a Tyrant Guard. Basalisk fire scatters of, and everything else in his army targets the Tyrant. I laugh like a maniac and make all of my saves. His chimera immobilises itself trying to get it's melta vets into range.

Nids turn 4: My Hive Guard all try to snipe the Vendetta but fail horribly. The Iron arm Tervi gets T9 again and gets closer to the Russes, but not enough to assault. The Tyrant Star shoots into the PCS and whipe them, other than that I'm shuffling around, guarding the Relic. One Tervigon spawns some gaunts who shoot into the Hellhounds side armor and glance it to death. The other spawns a brood into his far right corner as linebreakers.

Guard turn 5: His Vendetta hovers and moves back, wounding a tyrant Guard and my Tyrant. massed autocannon and las fire, with extra Heavy Bolters, means my tyrant is down to one wound, as is his last Tyrant Guard. Both Russes point their guns into the T9 Tervigon and knock two wounds off. His meltavets disembark and take down a few of the spawned Gaunts, as do the marines nearby.  His captain's marine squad advance on my Hive guard but fail to wound.

Nids turn 5: My Tyrant goes crazy and charges towards him, using his Devourers to snipe his CCS in the far back of his army, whiping them out and giving me "Kill the Warlord". My Tervigon with the objective hides behind some ruins, while the other charges a russ and whiffs horribly. He does spawn Gaunts though, who charge one of his annoying infantry Squads. My Hormagaunts advance to try to kill his marines with the Lascannon. I make my 11" assault, but then overwatch kills an amazing 3 gaunts (2 bolters and a lascannon =3 6s to hit...) and I'm out of range again, so no assault. Boo. Hive Guard take advantage of the skimming Vendetta and destroy it through Hull points. My Tervigon who attacked the Russ spawns some Gaunts who go and attack the Infantry Squad in the back, and awkwardly lose combat. But hey, no No Retreat!

Note: I'm pretty confident now, as I have the objective and now that I've killed his warlord, I have 4 points and therefore can't tie from him having the three secondary onjectives. If the game ends now, I win 4-2. (He has the marines with captain in my Deplymeny zone, and First Blood)

Guard turn 6: He rolls a 4, and so it continues! He starts by killing off my Tyrant, and his marines and Veterans whipe out the gaunts that had killed the Hell Hound Earlier. His Demolisher and Basalisk scatter off of my Tervigon with objective, and his regular Russ backs away from the failtastic Tervigon, wounding him once. His marines and captain just chill in my deployment zone plinking away at the Hive Guard. He has an infantry Squad who also fails to hurt the Hive Guard.

At this point he's running low on guys, but has a few Vehicles left.

Tyranids turn 6: I spawn more gaunts who run at the Infantry Squad, and a Tervigon charges the Leman Russ, and only takes off a Hullpoint and one Heavy Bolter. My enraged wounded Tyrant Guard charges and kills one marine. My Hive Guard fire into various targets but fail to do much I think. My Hormagaunts swing around to charge something, but there really arent any targets as his Demolisher is rear armor 11.

Turn 7 he fails to do much, my Hive Guard kill his marines in my deployment zone, my Tervigon FINALLY kills the Russ, and the other (with objective) charges and wrecks the demolisher. Hive Guard shake and strip Hpoints off the basalisk and take the Chimera down to one Hullpoint left. Hormagaunts kill the last marines on the board, and the gaunts wipe out the Infantry Squad I'd been fighting for a few turns.

IG remnants: Basalisk, one hull point, Immobilised Chimera, one hull point, a depleted Vet squad and one Infantry Squad with Autocannon.

I had both Tervigons, and 5 of my 6 Hive Guard, as well as a Hormagaunt brood and 3 gaunt broods milling around.

Result: Tyranid Victory! 5-2 ( I had Linebreaker, Kill the warlord, and objective. He had the First Blood and killed my warlord)

Thoughts on 6th: This was my first game, and it went well. I'm not sure if Hive Guard got better or worse. MCs definately improved, and Biomancy is amazing. Hordes may have gotten slightly worse overall, but they're still good in my mind. I should have another game this weak, I'll try to take pictures. I think I'm going to try out Gargoyles, as they were a staple unit in 5th Edition.

A reaction to BOLS

Well, I finally got to read a rulebook last night! And then this morning, BOLS put out an article on the pros and cons of Nids and 6th edition. The below is a direct copy and paste.

Tyranids Still Suck Eggs1. No change through charging through cover, still I1
2. Removing casualties from the front pushes squads back, increasing needed assault distance
3. Overwatch means you get shot on your turn as well as your opponents.
4. Overwatch removing casualties from the front pushes squads back, increasing needed assault distance
5. No assault from outflank
6. No assault after run/fleet (previous average 15 inches, new average 13)
7. Thanks to Krak Grenades all Marines Str 6 vs. MC 8. While Fearless, cannot go to ground
9. No way to effectively deal with flyers, as vector strike is base strength+d6, the best you will get will be glance on a 4+. Forget about hurting a Stormraven.
10. It is actually easier to put a wound on a Flying Hive Tyrant when he is flying than on the ground, thanks to grounding checks. (about 1% easier)
11. Focused Fire will shred hordes even partially out of cover, meaning you will have to be hiding all the time.
12. Overall reduced cover saves.

Tyranids are Awesome
1. Vector strike makes the flying Nids a real threat
2. Smash means all your big bugs can kill whatever they reach
3. Tyranids will be fielding HUGE numbers of psykers
4. Fear on big bugs
5. Hammer of Wrath on big bugs
6. Dual Force Orgs at 2k make the bugs brutal at larger point sizes

Looking at the above, it seems like there are far more cons than pros to the switch. However, I think that the author missed out on quite a few important changes.

7. No retreat is gone! Long live the horde! Our hordes are now lasting twice as long against things like dreads and terminators that we cant hope to kill. A good spawn from a Tervigon can hold up a Dread or a hero for several turns now. Mephiston for example, is now going to have to kill every gaunt the old fashoined way, and if you put 15 or so into him, that ll take a solid 3 or 4 assault phases easily.

8. Vehicles are paper. Every unit we have can now charge and hurt a vehicle with ease with the new hull point rules. Gargoyles with furious charge can take down a rhino without even blinking. If that rhino didnt move, 9 Gargoyles can wrap it and kill it on the charge, and instant kill the squad inside. And with a 24" threat range, thats not going to be as hard as it sounds!

9. Wrapping vehicles. This plays with the above, but now that hordes are a viable way to kill vehicles, the amount of gaunts needed will probably also be enough to wrap around a transport. Units that disembark must be placed in contact with the exit point before they can move, which with 3" consolidations before we strike, will be very easy to close down the hatches.

10. Hive Guard are still beastly. With new cover rules, vehicles are now very easy to give cover to, against every army in the game, except... for... us. Yep, that rhino with guys in front can now ignore lascannons with a good roll, but Hive Guard can trash it with ease. With glances being a factor, Hive Guard are also now better against Av. 13 and 14. Also, Hive Guard ignore Night fighting for all intents and purposes now, which is awesome as Night fight is now a whole lot more common. A 5 turn game now has a 75% chance of Night fight in at least one turn, which gets more likely with a turn 6 or 7. This makes our stuff more survivable without affecting our main anti armor shooting at all. Zoanthropes are usually close enough by the time they shoot that they ignore the effects.

11. Fleet allows re rolls of runs. Everyone complians that fleet is now shorter assault ranges, but its also longer runs, which means that by the time we are in range, we ll be closer, and wont need as much of a charge range!

12. Ymgarls +1 toughness works against Overwatch. A 10 man tac squad with flamer (and it looks like plasma will be standard now) kills about two 'stealers on the charge. Ymgarls however, can weather that with ease, as a bolter will only hit on 6s, wound on 5s, and they get saves. That same Tac squad with missile flamer gets less than one wound in before they probably get slaughtered. Also, just as a side note, cover saves apply! See below...

13. Venomthropes! I was the only Bug player I knew who used venomthropes in 5th, but now they look AWESOME. One of the larger changes is "focusing fire" to models not in cover. Now that cover is on a per model not for the whole squad, Venomthrops really come into their own. Having one trailing gaunt in range suddenly takes 33% off of your casualty rate as your opponent can no longer just kill the ones not in area terrain. And yes, having one stealer nearby before you charge gives cover to overwatch fire. Boom!

14. The bonesword. Boneswords now "ignore all armor saves" which is technically the same, but everything else power weapon got nerfed. Warriors and shrikes now eat Terminators as they strike well before them, and can slice them apart. With consolidation for both units, Lash Whips now let you get more models into base contact for Initiative one goodness. A prime with LW/BS and poison now rerolls on (usually 3s) to wound, ignores all armor saves, and in a challenge will hit before his opponent every single time. Powerfist in a tac squad versus warriors used to be doom, now, he is just about guarenteed to get killed. Most hq characters will also get smoked by a prime, short of Lysander and Draigo.

15. Preferred Enemy: I think that we ll have to be more shooty to compete now, and Tyrants certainly can help with old adversary. Imagine devilgaunts in range of that! Pure, pure evil.

16. Armored shell means a walking Tyrant will dominate CC. Paladins got you down? Boom, ap. 3!

I think the Bugs are definitely getting better. Not broken, but viable to be sure.

Also, Im under the impression that a "Vector Striking" FMC can smash.  Is there something I missed to disallow that?

Order Shorted

This saturday, I went to my local Game Store to pick up my book, and was grieved to learn that the shipment had been cut, and only four of the 14 books the store ordered had arrived! I don't know if this is an issue with GW or the postal service, but a few calls later and every store within an hours drive was sold out!

Either way, I direct ordered a copy from GDub directly, which should be here this week, so sadly I am now bookless until fate (or FedEx) smiles on me.