RTT 12/1 2000 points Tyranids

Hello all! I'll be going to an RTT tomorrow, and I'll be again trying out my new take on Nids. I don't expect this to be a very large RTT, but that's no reason not to give it my best shot! Here's the list I'll be bringing... This is my recent 1850 list, plus three Hive Guard. It is dual Forge Org, but the original list had 2 HQ and 4 troops, just adding a 4th Elite choice...

Flyrant, Devourers Old Adversary
Flyrant, Devourers Hive Commander (Warlord:  )
2x5 Ymgarls
3 Hive Guard
Doom in a Pod
2x10 gants
2x Tervigons (Tox/Adrenal) with three powers
2x Trygons
The Hive Guard are just a convenient points filler, plus quite useful. Having a little more shooting will discourage tanks from coming closer, which will leave them vulnerable to my reserves turn 2+. Again, my basic design plan here is a tough core that can hold objectives and shoot (Troops plus Hive Guard) and will drop a mean, mean hammer turn 2. The Doom, 2 Ymgarls, 2 Trygons, and 2 Flyrants zooming up hurts stuff, plus by turn 2, sometimes 3, the Hive Guard are in range for more fun. My army is very tough, with 38 Toughness 6 wounds, plus the extra bodies my Tervigons always supply, and the "get in your face" nature of it highly encourages my opponent to kill all my units the turn they come in, or suffer brutal consequences. The Doom can suck up tons of firepower occassionally, and will spare my Trygons the attention they deserve, while Flyrants make unattractive Targets unless you commit to killing them... hard to do with so much in your face. Reports incoming, of course! I admit, the list looks great against Gunlines, but could suffer against Crons or potentially classic GK lists. Daemons, I'm not sure how I'd fare...

Batrep: Nids vs IG 1850



So this Batrep is a bit of an old game, I played it over a week ago. Details may be a bit hazy, but I'm trying to write a batrep for every game I play with Nids in 6th.

My list: BeakyCon minus 3 Hive Guard

Flyrant with dakka
Dakka shellrant, OA 1x guard
3 Hive Guard
2 Zoanthropes
3 Tervigons, with three powers, Toxin Adrenal and one has Crushing Claws
10 gants
20 gants
20 gants
2 Biovores

My opponents list:
CCS, with a banner and a few flamers
4 flamers PCS
50 man blob with two Autocannons and flamers
10 meltavets in a chimera
Basalisk
Aegis with Quad gun
Space Marine Captain with fist
five scouts
Vendetta
Leman Russ with Heavy Bolters and a Lascannon
Demolisher with a Las cannon

Warlord Traits were both useless and forgotten. Night Fight was non existant all game.

My Psychic Powers: I lost the list I wrote them on, but I do know the gist.

Flyrant: Smite, Life Leech
Tyrant: Smite, Enfeeble
Tervigon 1: Iron Arm, ***, ***
Tervigon 2: Iron Arm, ***, ***
Tervigon 3: Iron Arm, ***, ***
Zoanthrope 1: Psychic Shriek, Terrify
Zoanthrope 2: Psychic Shriek, ***

The Mission: The Scouring? Unsure of name... it had 6 objectives of random point values, and then FA were scoring. Vanguard Strike as deployment.

The Board: Far, top left was a large bunker (2 of the objectives were there) To the right of that was a third objective, which was wrapped up by my opponents Aegis line. There was a ruin ti the bottom left with an objective in it, a matching bunker bottom right with an objective behind it, and a roughly central objective in a wood.

My opponent has the opposite side for the above, just to clarify.

Objectives: He gets 4, 3, 2 and I get 1, 2, and 3. My backfield is the 1 and 2, being practically worthless.

Deployment: Nids: Three Tervis and Tyrant right up front, as usual. Flyrant to my left, Hive Guard and Zoeys hide behind a wall of gants, and 10 gants babysit the 1 point objective on my bottom right.

Deployment IG: The Blob is up top of the Bunker, with HWTs behind them and on the right parapets. Captain is on the Quadgun right next to it, and attached by a guardsmen chain. Scouts deploy closest to me, behind Aegis, shielding the Demolisher. His regular Russ is far right, in front of the Meltavets Chimera. Both Platoon and Company Command Squads are behind the bunker, with the Basalisk. Vendetta is reserved.

Turn 1 Nids: One Tervigon Spawns, onto the bottom left objective. Everthing advances/runs. Flyrant shoots and whipes out Scouts after they fall back off the board. First Blood Nids.

Turn 1 Guard: Moving is non existant. Shooting Kills two Hive Guard, wounds the last.

Turn 2 Nids: All Tervigons spawn, no doubles. Gants shoot the blob, kill a few. Lone Hive Guard wounds the Quadgun, which the Tyrant finishes off.

Turn 2 IG: The last Hive guard dies, and three of the 4 gant squads up front are destroyed. Tehre are a few scattered remnants, one has a lone survivor.

Turn 3 Nids: All Spawns, no doubles. The gants pore firepower into the guardsmen, and the Tyrants finish the Captain off after an enfeeble goes off.

Turn 3 IG: The Biovores are killed off. Theres a random wound on a Tervigon, but again the gant broods are just mauled. There's a brutal battle of atrition right up front, but the rest of the Nids are getting closer... Vendetta comes in, which is how the Bios died.

Turn 4 Nids: All Spawn. NO DOUBLES. His blob is getting whittled down by constant firepower from Fleshborers. He loses a HWT squad to Devourer fire, and then his Commissar is sniped out by Tervigons.

Turn 4 IG: Again, his Firepower is holding off the encroaching swarm, but this turn there are a few more survivors...

Turn 5 Nids: I spawn, two of them double out. The gants pour over the edge of the bunker, and shooting whipes out the blob to a man. The Flyrant has also mounted the parapet.

Turn 5 IG: His Vendetta flat-outs and is in range of the 2 point objective. Lascannons kill 2 gants, and the Lascannon on the demolisher kills one more, forcing a check. They fail and go off the board. Basalisk hits the 10 on my 1 point objective, they fail their check and fall off the board. One surviving HWT gets the objective on the bunker, lascannon fire kills the only gants in range to contest. Meltavets disembark. PCS runs up and flames a few gants, claiming the Aegis objective.

If the Game ends now, my opponent holds 4, and I hold 1... at the end of my turn, I had been leading 4 objectives to 0! The game goes on... my opponent concedes now. I would have had rear armor shots his Vendetta, and couldve spawned onto that objective. Also, I had plenty of gants posed to overwhelm the Bunker and Aegis objective, while the Flyrant would've dropped onto the Meltavets and wrecked them.

Final Thoughts: My opponent played a great game, and was in a great position to win. This was agreat game, and really shows that you have to focus on the win. I got way too caught up on killing the Blob. I did turn 5, but then didn't have a chance to run onto objectives... This was only a friendly game, so we did play a bit relaxed, but great game nonetheless!

11/17 Tyranids vs. BA 1850

Hello hello! My original plans for the weekend involved going to an RTT, however I mixed up my dates, and so there actually wasn't one today. Still, I made the trip, and got in a quick 1850 Pickup game...

My Opponent's list: Blood Angels

Reclusiarch Chaplain (Warlord trait is bonus for killing a character in challenges)
7 Death Company in Rhino, two fists and a Power sword
3x Sanguinary Preists with Power Swords
3x 5 man assault squads in AssCannon razorbacks
5 man assault squad in a rhino
2x Baal Predators with AssCannons and Heavy Bolters
2x Vindicators

My list:

Flyrant, Devourers Old Adversary
Flyrant, Devourers Hive Commander (Warlord Trait: Conqueror of Cities)
2x5 Ymgarls
Doom in a Pod
2x10 gants
2x Tervigons (Tox/Adrenal) with three powers
2x Trygons

Psychic Powers:
Flyrant 1: Enfeeble, Smite
Flyrant 2: Enfeeble, Life Leech
Tervigon 1: Iron Arm, Enfeeble, Endurance
Tervigon 2: Endurance, Life Leech, Warp Speed
Doom: Psychic Shreik

The Mission: Crusade (3 objectives) and Hammer/Anvil. There was one objective in the dead center, and one bottom left and one top right, from my POV by my short table edge.

The Board: All ruins (yay!) there were three small ruins in the far top, then two to the left and right of the center objective, and two more in my DZ.

Deployment: BA: He put his two Vindis to the right, his two Baals in the center, and the 3 RazBacks behind them. The DC rhino was behind this, and the normal Rhino in the far, top right ruin.

Deployment Nids: I put the two Tervis in the left and right ruins. The left one is farther up. The flyrants are in the two ruins, and 10 gants are to my left by the Objective. 10 gants are outflanking, the Trygons and Doom are in reserve, and the 2 Ymgarls are in the far back Ruins, directly left and right of his objective.

Turn 1 BA: Both Baals scout and move, blasting the left Tervi and taking a wound off. The far back normal rhino immobilised itself despite Dozers, and his DC rhino goes far left and around a ruin, barreling down on my wounded Tervi. His other vehicles advance, for no shots. Three 5 man squads jump out, to try and fill the three terrain peices in his backfield.

Turn 1 Nids: Both Flyrants swing hard right, and each light up a Pred via side armor. One is left alive, with one hull point. Spawned gants assault and finish that one off from my left Tervigon. That Tervigon gives itself Endurance and regains a wound from "It will not die".

Turn 2 BA: One assault squad moves up and jumps out of its Razorback, as do the DC, right in front of the gants. The other 2 AssBacks pull back slightly, as do the Vindis. Shooting whipes out the spawned gants.

Turn 2 Nids: All reserves hit at once. Doom scatters 12", and so can only hit the far right disembarked squad. He kills 3 of them. Both Trygons land near his objective. Shooting immobilizes a Razback. Ymgarls come in, due to his guys being there I lose 2 n the left, and one in the right squad. They assault, lose one each and kill a few marines, everyone holds. The DC are enfeebled and blasted by the Flyrants. He's hot on saves, but still loses all but two DC and the Chaplain. The Tervigon then charges and kills the Chaplain in a challenge.

The game at this point: His troops are locked in combat or surrounded. I'm virtually undanaged and about to hit hard. The next turn would have gone like this... He's locked in assault, maybe finishes the Ymgarls maybe not. He'd blaze away at the Trygons, and if he's lucky would kill one. Then, the Doom would kill one squad, the two Trygons would each smash another, and his 5 man assault squad in my territory would've been gunned down by the pair of Flyrants, any survivors killed by the Flyrants assaulting. He was on the back foot, as I'd smashed his Preds and DC, and completely ruined his push for  the center objectives. Plus, I had Linebreaker First Blood and Warlord, while my opponent was unlikely to get any of those. One more turn would have been disasterous, I would have probably killed 6+ units. The game was called by my opponent here.

Thoughts: This felt like 6th vs 5th edition, I think my opponent's list was very 5th oriented, with MSU spam. It was a good inaugural battle for the new list I'm trying, and the "Threat Overload" worked quite well. Of course, more testing comes ahead! I also picked up the new Chaos Codex and then two novels to keep me busy, Fear to Tread and Shadows of Treachery.

Building a better Tyranid army: 1850

 



With the knowledge gained from 21 games of 6th edition, I've been slowly improving my Tyranids, to the level that gave me a 4-2 record at Beakycon. Still, I think I can do better. My last list design was focused purely on objective holding and being tough as hell. It worked in that regard, but I suffered in Kill Point games (or when the dice didn't like me). So, I'm now thinking about reworking my army to cause as much destruction as possible. This new list won't be a guarenteed "auto win", or even an improvement, but I think it'll be worth giving a try. Since both the next RTT, and the next GT, I plan on attending are1850, This is what I'll use:

 

Flyrant with Devourers and Hive Commander

Flyrant with Devourers and Hive Commander

5 Ymgarl Genestealers

5 Ymgarl Genestealers

Doom of Malan'tai in a Spod

Tervigon with Tox/Adrenal, 3 powers

Tervigon with Tox/Adrenal, 3 powers

10 gants

10 gants

Trygon

Trygon

 

The idea here is very, very simple. Turn one, Tervis and Flyrants hide in cover, using Psychic powers to be very durable. Then turn 2 the Hammer drops. The Doom, 10 Ymgarls (who will assault), 2 Trygons and 2 flyrants will hit my opponent in the jaw. This is more than almost any gunline will be able to handle, and with any luck I can overwhelm and wreck my opponent. All my reserves come in automatically, and then the fun begins. Exposed infantry will get shredded by the Doom, and between the 2 Trygons (6 str. 5 shots EACH) and the Flyrants (12 Twin linked shots EACH)  I will probably be able to kill 2/3 light vehicles in that alpha strike turn. Finally, Ymgarls will choose and murder whatever two threats I see as most capble of killing me. Long Fangs, Psyflemen, etc. The best part is, none of these units can scatter into my opponent. Trygons and the Spod all ignore that, while Ymgarls just pick a peice of terrain to jump out of. I already have all of these models, (yay!) so as a "test" list it's perfect. If it doesn't work I've lost nothing. The Tervigons are really only there as a tough objective scoring unit, but if I need to I'll be more than happy to run up and hit something, while spawning all the way. Ironically, this lists weaknesses include what my last list was ideal against. A 9 flyer Necron list, which I beat at BeakyCon, would give me a hard time, and Daemons would be able to react and murder me... If I played Tzeentch Daemons I'd have to castle up and spawn like heck, and try to fend off the flamers long enough to charge the bastards.

Rules Questions of the day

 

Here we have a few rules questions of the modern 40k meta... these pop up all the time, in between FAQs. You've heard of some, I'm sure. but some are new to me. At least one probably has an easy answer.

 

Shamelessly stolen from Dakka's YMDC:

"Necrons over here are very tough to beat in this mission (the relic). A unit grabs the relic, jumps into a night scythe, which automatically crashes, sending the unit into reserve. This doesn't trigger any of the conditions for the unit to drop the relic, so it would seem that it goes into reserve with them.

Can anyone come up with a solid rules argument that prevents this, or is just another little boost for the tin men?"

Wowie!  Check this one out. Here, I would say that the Relic is placed in the wreckage (but does not scatter). I believe that is part of the wording for having the Relic in a vehicle. Still, it's a weird one!

Next! Can wounds be allocated to models out of range? This came up at BeakyCon. The BRB says that you can't shoot units out of LOS or out of range, but only says you can't allocate to models out of LOS. The Beaky judges decided that there was no rule saying you can't allocate to models out of range, and therefore you can. (In game: My dakkatyrant was in range and LOS of one Ork boy, but ended up killing several that were 19-20" away.

And here's another! Yet another on the DoomScythe... How are cover saves determined? I assumed it was an only-area terrain thing, but then looked it over later and saw no RAW reason it's not a pure LoS issue.

Another: The Psychic Shreik psychic power, is a witchfire attack. Therefore, it must be rolled to hit. But say a character, (the Doom of Malantai) is using it and hits with a 6. Precision shot! Now, as this could potentially cause multiple wounds, are ALL now allocate by the Nid player? (It's effect is a 3d6 leadership check, a wound for every point failed by, no armor or cover saves.) You can see how many wounds this causes against a low LD army. A 6 to hit could easily kill the special and heavy weapon carrier, and then put a few more on the Sarge for him to Look out Sir. Quite nice.

Terrify strips Fearless from a unit and makes them take a test... so, how far would a FMC fall back if swooping...? (All FMCs are fearless base, for the record)

The Forewarning Divination power gives a 4++ save to a unit. Initially, I thought this wouldn't stack with, say, a Nemesis force Sword on a Strike Squad Knight. (I saw the 4++ as a set Stat, that by BRB rules would be applied aftr a + or - modifier.) Then, I realized, how does Mark of Tzeentch fit? By that reasoning, MoT wouldn't help if a model has a set Inv save, which is perposterous. So, it's uncertain, but I'd say that Forewarning is great with NFS.

Last, I want to (again) complain at the lack of Force Spears... I have a Librarian with one! There are Power Spears! Why no Force Spears? The BRB says to look at what the weapon looks like... The power weapons rule clearly shows a Spear doesn't fit any other category, so where does my Force Spear armed Libby fit in? I could really call it as any I suppose,but I want a spear...

I may think of more rules questions, or you might. Chime in eitehr way! Plus, some of these probably have answers (like the Doom Scythe one, which I expect does.)

EDIT: One last question, does Enfeeble (or other stat modifying powers) stack? The BRB says the effects of different powers are cumulative, however some people believe that the same power twice is not different. I personally disagree, as it is a seperate power being used by a seperate psycher, but there is no real clear cut answer... the problem here is what is implied by the word "different".