A different view of the new Space Wolf Codex

A couple of days have past now since I got the new codex so I thought I would share my thoughts on what I have read. I'm not going to do a full review of the codex, there are plenty out there like that I thought instead I would remind you what the list I was most commonly playing was at the end of fifth and compare the two.

This is the list I took to my last major tournament which was 2012's Caledonian open (was it really that long ago?)

HQ1: Rune priest: living lightning, Murderous Hurricane, chooser of the slain, wolf tail talisman [115]
HQ1: Rune priest: living lightning, jaws of the world wolf, chooser of the slain [110]

Elite 1: Wolf Guard Pack: 3 Wolf Guard, 3 Power Fists, 3 Combi Meltas [129]+ TRANSPORT1
Elite 2: Dreadnought, 2 Twin linked Autocannons [125]

TROOP 1: Grey Hunters Pack: 7 grey hunters: meltagun, mark of the wulfen, wolf standard [135] + TRANSPORT 2
TROOP 2: Grey Hunters Pack: 7 grey hunters: meltagun, mark of the wulfen, wolf standard [135] + TRANSPORT 3
TROOP 3: Grey Hunters Pack: 7 grey hunters: meltagun, mark of the wulfen, wolf standard [135] + TRANSPORT 4
TROOP 4: Grey Hunters Pack: 6 grey hunters: flamer, mark of the wulfen [105] + TRANSPORT 5

FAST 1: Landspeeder Sqn: 1 Landspeeder: Multimelta, heavy flamer [70]
FAST 2: Landspeeder Sqn: 1 Landspeeder: Multimelta, heavy flamer [70]

HEAVY 1: Long Fangs Pack: 5 long fangs+1 Squad Leader, 4 missile launchers, 1 lascannon [155]
HEAVY 1: Long Fangs Pack: 5 long fangs+1 Squad Leader, 4 missile launchers, 1 lascannon [155]
HEAVY 1: Long Fangs Pack: 5 long fangs+1 Squad Leader, 4 missile launchers, 1 lascannon [155]

TRANSPORT 1: Razorback: lascannon + twin linked plasmaguns [75] [Elite 1]
TRANSPORT 2: Rhino [35] [Troop 1]
TRANSPORT 3: Rhino [35] [Troop 2]
TRANSPORT 4: Rhino [35] [Troop 3]
TRANSPORT 5: Razorback: lascannon + twin linked plasmaguns [75] [Troops 4]

So obviously the place to start is the HQ's.

As I said on my (triumphant) return to blogging I only managed a couple of games of 40K in Sixth and I'm yet to experience Seventh but at the minute Rune Priests would still be my go to HQ choice. From reading the rule book Psykers seem more important than ever and can you really risk going into the game without them?
Obviously you no longer get to pick your psychic powers. Without playing it seems like all the powers I took have been seriously downgraded, on average you get the same number of shots with LL but it used to have unlimited rage. MH has got less shots but it is rending now JOTWW now only effects a single model rather than a line and monstrous creatures can't be targeted (not sure what the point of it is then) there's also no chooser's any more unfortunately for that +1 to ballistic skill. So slightly cheaper but surely you need the add ons of psychic hoods and psyker level two.

What's everyone else's opinion on the Rune priest now?

Look out for the next post covering Elites and Troops.

Death From Above 1979

Tonight is my second game of errata'd 6th edition (oh, what's that? We're calling it 7th ed? Okay, I'll try and remember that)

After a game last week at 1000 points, this week we're stepping up to 1650. Andy is taking part in an ETC style team event and so wants to try out an Ork list for that. Part of me wanted to be a bit of a jerk and come up with a specific anti-Ork list: lots of Flamers, lots of 2+ saves. "This Whirlwind? I've been using one of those for years!" (could be just the sort of thing that you'll see at such an event to be fair)

However, there is just too much stuff in the new Space Wold codex that I wanted to try out on the table so I've gone with more of an all-comers list:

Wolf Lord, Runic Armour, Wolf Claw, Wolf Helm Of Durfast, Thunderwolf

2+, 4++, re-roll to hit, re-roll to wound in combat, +1 S, +1 T, +1 A, +1 W. Pricy but quick and deadly

3 Thunderwolves, 1 Storm Shield, 1 Power Fist

Kept this unit pretty basic but along with the Thunderlord they should do a lot of damage if they can make it into combat

10 Grey Hunters w/CCW, 2 Melta Guns, Wolf Guard Pack Leader w/Combi-Melta, Drop Pod

10 Grey Hunters w/CCW, 2 Flamers, Wolf Guard Pack Leader w/Combi-Flamer, Drop Pod

10 Grey Hunters w/CCW, 2 Plasma Guns, Plasma Pistol, Wolf Guard Pack Leader w/Combi-Plasma, Drop Pod

The Swiss Army Knife of the army, with a mixture of special weapons they can do a bit of everything

9 Blood Claws, Power Weapon, Flamer, Lukas the Trickster, Drop Pod

12 point Space Marines with Rage and Counter Attack? Count me in

Lone Wolf, Terminator Armour, Twin Wolf Claws

They have ret-conned the ret-conn so we can teleport again. Happy days (mainly because my run rolls for Lone Wolves have always been absolutely awful and this means that I can drop him right into the action)

5 Fenrisian Wolves Since they can score now, these are just a cheap Objective claiming unit

Murderfang, Drop Pod

If Mr Angry Pants can survive a turn of shooting, he'll do some serious damage. However, as Kurtz said, "if is the middle word of life"

Now there are probably some people waiting with baited breath; "come on then Gav" they're saying, "what's the brilliant trick here? Drop the Pods Objective Secured Pods empty so the enemy has to spend 5 turns destroying them while you claim the other Objectives?"

Sorry, to disappoint, but there really is no trick here - the idea of the list is simply to push as many units down your opponent's face as possible. The plan is that 30 Grey Hunters come down, do as much damage as possible and then line up for a Turn 2 charge along with the Thunderwolves.

Hopefully that will be too many targets for the enemy to deal with and so carnage will ensure (NB better blogs than this one would probably use the term "threat vectors" at this point)

Then Murderfang, the Blood Claws and the Lone Wolf arrive to clear up what's left. Looks like a very simple plan on screen, let's see how it actually translates to the battlefield.

40K GT 2013 - Day 1

I’ve been struggling to make tournaments this year so it was with great excitement that I set out on a cold Saturday morning last weekend to attend Heat 3 of the 40K Indie GT up in Warrington. The venue was fantastic with loads of room around every table so you could easily play Hammer and Anvil, and in fact it made playing every game that little bit easier. The tournament was well run and pretty much ran to time without incident. The food was pretty good to!

It was also a weekend of exceptional gaming, at least, I think it was. For the most part it was going on around me and a very long way away from the tables I was on (no offence to my opponents, they were all rather good). I however stunk up the joint, and for once I’m not talking about bad gas!

As some of you will know from my recent posts, my practice has been limited and I’d been really struggling to settle on a list I was happy with. Over the course of the weekend I really learnt a lot about the Marine codex and why the list I’d taken was really quite poor. But I’m getting ahead of myself, Here’s my list and here’s a run-down for the games on Day 1

Codex Space Marines.

HQ
Tigurius

ELITE
Sternguard (5) – 3x Combi-Melta; Drop Pod
Sternguard (5) – 3x Combi-Melta; Drop Pod

TROOP
Tactical Squad (10) – Plasma, Heavy Bolter, Combi-Plasma; Drop Pod
Tactical Squad (10) – Lascannon
Scout Squad (10) – 5x Bolt Pistol & Combat Weapon, 5x Sniper Rifle

HEAVY SUPPORT
Thunderfire Cannon
Devastator Centurions (3) – 3x Grav-Cannon & Grav Amps, 3x Missile Launcher
Land Raider

Game 1 vs. Necrons with Tau Allies; Hammer & Anvil deployment playing Crusade

GT Heat 3 - The Final Countdown

Here we are again, less than two days until a tournament and I’ve not really decided on the list I’m taking and some of the core units I know I will be taking are still unpainted. This weekend is going to be all about trying not to lose too badly … again!

As far as the list goes I’m settled on a core I just can’t stop fiddling with the “edges”. Here’s my current flavour-of-the-minute list:

Primary Detachment : Codex Space Marines

HQ

Tigurius

TROOPS

Tactical Squad (10): Meltagun, Multi-Melta, Combi-Melta; Drop Pod

Tactical Squad (10): Flamer, Lascannon; Rhino

HEAVY SUPPORT

Thunderfire Cannon

Devastator Centurions (3): 3x Grav-Cannon & Grav-Amp, 3x Missile Launcher

Land Raider

Allied Detachment: Codex Blood Angels

HQ

Mephiston

TROOPS

Assault Squad (10): 2x Flamer

Wow! When I write it down like this it look incredibly light on models!

The Primary Detachment is set up to provide durable scoring, my Centurion/Tigurius/Land Raider unit (Bullet Magnet) and a Thunderfire for flavour. Since my game against Alex I’ve been really trying to work Mephiston into the list … because he’s amazing; and a lot of what’s on the table these days, he is almost designed to bully. I also love the scoring Assault Squad from a manoeuvrability point of view and the double flamer can be placed to do maximum damage to some tucked away scoring unit.

The glaring weakness of this list is that if I come up against Tripple Heldrakes, it’s toast – literally. The omission of anything which can take out a flier is entirely intentional. At this point level I have struggled to add in an air threat without seriously crippling what I can do on the ground so I’ll just accept the fact that I’m completely boned if I come up against Heldrakes.

And in typically “me-style”, while I’ve been sitting here typing this I’ve come up with something else to share with you which packs in more bodies and possibly has more punch:

Codex Space Marines

HQ

Tigurius

ELITE

Sternguard (5): 3x Combi-Melta; Drop Pod

Sternguard (5): 3x Combi-Melta; Drop Pod

TROOP

Tactical Squad (10): Meltagun, Multi-Melta, Combi-Melta; Drop Pod

Tactical Squad (10): Flamer, Lascannon

Scouts (10): Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon; Land Speeder Storm: Heavy Flamer

HEAVY SUPPORT

Thunderfire Cannon

Devastator Centurions (3): 3x Grav-Cannon & Grav-Amp, 3x Missile Launcher

Stormraven Gunship: TL Multi-Melta, TL Lascannon

And even as I write this I’m thinking I could trade the LS Storm and the Stormraven and get a Landraider back in the list! Oh dear.

Anyway, I like this list from the alpha-strike Sternguard point of view (though it’s been done to death and is reasonably easily countered) and it has air defence in the form of the Stormraven.

Maybe I should just flip a coin!

Anyway, I’ll just finish off with some pics of the Work-in-Progress on my Centurions and Tigurius.

UK GT Heat 3 – Prep and List Building

With the UK 40K Indie GT on the horizon I really need to get off my butt and put in some practice. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about lists recently and am still undecided as to whether to go with Space Marines or Tyranids. Here are the two lists I’m stuck between:

Tyranids – 1650pts

Hive Tyrant – 2x Devourers w. Brainleech Worms, Hive Commander, Wings

Hive Tyrant – 2x Devourers w. Brainleech Worms, Wings

Doom of Malan’tai – Mycetic Spore

15 Termagants

15 Termagants – Devourers

Tervigon – 2 Powers, Toxin Sacs

Tervigon – 2 Powers, Toxin Sacs

2 Carnifexes – 2x Devourers with Brainleech Worms each

Space Marines – 1650pts

Tigurius

10 Tactical Marines – Meltagun, Multi-Melta, Rhino

10 Tactical Marines – Flamer, Lascannon, Rhino

5 Tactical Marines – Lascannon

Stormtalon Gunship – Skyhammer Missiles

Stormtalon Gunship – Skyhammer Missiles

Thunderfire Cannon

3 Devastator Centurions – 3x Grav-cannons and Grav-amps, 3 Missile Launchers, Land Raider Redeemer

5 Devastator Marines – 4x Missile Launchers

Tyranid List Building Thoughts.

Boom! goes the dynamite.

 After playing Tyranids exclusively since around November last year and capping it all off with a fairly good performance at Blog Wars a couple of weeks ago I’ve been giving my list building strategy a bit of a rethink. Over the last few months I’ve experimented with a few different builds but a few things have remained consistent, firstly the mandatory inclusion of two Carnifexes with two Twin Linked Devourers each and a Tyranid Prime to nestle between them, two Tervigons and two 10-man units of Termagants to make them troops. Beyond these building blocks, I have experimented with Flying Hive Tyrants, Zoanthropes, Hive Guard, Mawlocs, Trygons, the Doom, Raveners and Gargoyles.

So a fairly broad spectrum there, but recently I’d settled down into a more shooting focused build involving Hive Guard, the Carnifexes and a couple of deep striking Monstrous Creatures and indeed this was reflected in the list I took to Blog Wars. However I felt a very significant lack of range and I also realised that such is the power of weight of firepower available to some armies at the moment, that managing your opponent’s range to you is also of great importance to the survival of an army that needs to get in close such as my ‘nids.

In an attempt to address some of these issues I’ve rethought my policy on list building with Tyranids so here are a couple of lists following a different philosophy of play-style:

AoA Khorne List – 1st Play-Test

Grazer offered to give me a game this Thursday and was happy for me to proxy my little heart out to try out a Khorne CSM/Daemons list I’d been thinking about for the Age of Armies project. So, I’ll just dive straight into the list (and the proxies!):

Chaos Space Marines (Primary)

HQ
Chaos Lord (Mark of Khorne, Axe of Blind Fury, Juggernaught) (Carnifex)

TROOP
Khorne Bezerkers (x8 w. Rhino) (Assault Marines & Rhino)
Khorne Bezerkers (x8 w. Rhino) (Assault Marines & Rhino)
Cultists (x15, Sgt w. Shotgun) (Grazer’s own Squats!)

FAST ATTACK
Helldrake (Baleflamer) (Winged Hive Tyrant)
Helldrake (Baleflamer) (Winged Hive Tyrant)
Chaos Spawn (x5, Mark of Khorne) (Raveners)

HEAVY SUPPORT
Maulerfiend (Tervigon)

Chaos Daemons (Ally)

HQ
Bloodthirster (Swarmlord)

TROOP
Bloodletters (x10) (Genestealers)

FAST ATTACK
Flesh Hounds (x8) (Various 40mm Nids)

HEAVY SUPPORT
Soul Grinder (Trygon)

Silver & Gold and Other Army Lists

The 40kUK Podcast are currently instigating a hobby event called “Age of Armies”, you can find out more about it here. But suffice to say it’s an army building challenge requiring you to build and paint a new army over the course of the year with a view to bringing it to a tournament at the end of the year, possibly the Autumn Throne of Skulls.

I’ve always wanted to do one of these events but they’ve always seemed to fall at times that weren’t convenient for one reason or another but this time, I’ve just finished my Tyranids, my Marines are just expanding into 6^th edition and my Orks may never surface again ... so I quite fancy doing something new. The premise is that you acquire the equivalent of £50 worth of models for your army each month which is pretty achievable I think but what I really like about this is the intention for everyone involved to attend a tournament together at the end of the challenge. This sounds like a lot of fun.

The big question though, is what army should I do? I’ve been really tempted to do a Chaos Marines (Khorne) Primary with Ork Allies army because I have always loved the Chaos Marines from a fluff perspective and it would give my Orks a focus again. However I pretty much have all the Ork models I’d need painted up so that’s probably a no-go from the point of view of this challenge.

The list I’d considered at 1850pts was:

Battle Brothers - Decision TIme

A Quick Decision is not Always the Best Decision.

Man! It took us a couple of weeks (maybe months) finally settled on the following list for the Battle Brothers Tournament two days before-hand! It's a slight tweak on the list we play-tested against Grazer earlier that week:

HQ
Lysander
Librarian w. Force Axe, Null Zone and Gate of Infinity

ELITE
Sternguard x10 w. 3x Meltaguns in a Drop Pod
Assault Terminators x5 with Thunder Hammers & Storm Shields

TROOPS
Tactical Squad x10 w. Meltagun, Multi-Melta in a Drop Pod
Tactical Squad x10 w. Plasmagun, Heavy Bolter in a Drop Pod
Scout Squad x5 w. Sniper Rifles

HEAVY SUPPORT
Thunderfire Cannon

FORTIFICATION
Aegis Defense Line w. Quad-Gun

For better or worse this is what we're taking, it feels familiar and comfortable to me and as long as we can stay away from Murderous Hurricane I'm hoping that Lysander will be able to make it to the end of a couple of games this time!

Brothers in Arms

B.A.S.M. ... Kinky?

Games Workshop’s, Winter, “Battle Brothers” Doubles Tournament is nearly upon us and, in typical style, Gav and I only managed to sit down and agree on a list last weekend. While we were both completely sober in this endeavor we have had exactly no practice and I have the majority of 6^th Edition experience with less than 15 games played (over 1000pts). Oh, and add to that the fact that we’ll be using a Space Marines/Blood Angels list which neither of us have any experience playing (it’s been all Tyranids for me and Gav is Mr Space Wolves), and I think you can understand why expectations for success will be set rather low ... for a change!

When I said we had “agreed” on a list, what I meant to say is that we had agreed on 95% of a list but there is still a little discussion going on over fine details so without further ado here’s what we’re currently mulling over:

Tweaking the Parasite

After a bit of a fail a couple of weeks ago with a list featuring The Parasite of Mortrex (read about it here), I think it would be a bit hasty to just discard him as my failure was more to do with me than him, or any unit in that army. So lets have a think about what it is I can do with an army featuring the Parasite, how can I build something that I could use successfully around him.

Firstly he needs a retinue, you can't expect a T4, 3+ save unit to just wander across the board into whatever combat it likes. The obvious choice is Gargoyles because they're jump infantry too, I've been using Raveners because I have the models. However, there's no question that Gargoyles are far better value for points both in terms of wounds and offensive capability against stock infantry, and it's against stock infantry that the Parasite should be applied. It's worth noting that the Parasite is something of a bully unit, he's really not that good against anything with a half decent save and his S6 lets him wound most infantry on a 2+, with 5 attacks on the charge you can't rely on rending to win you a fight when charging a unit of terminators, or even regular Marines. His high strength does mean that he's good against vehicles and you might think that Raveners make more sense if that's how you're going to use him, but Gargoyles with Adrenal Glands (I would always give them Toxin Sacs) are still better value.

Right, so you've got the Parasite and a chunky unit of Gargoyles to hide him in, but I don't think this dictates a play-style. It would seem an obvious choice to try and build a list that races across the table to engage the enemy as soon as possible, however I'm really not sure that's going to be particularly effective. I think with the right tactics, the Parasite and his Gargoyles can be an effective distraction/harassment unit with limited support or a counter attacker with next to no support. What I'm going to do instead is build a mid-table gun-line style army which is pretty easy to do with 'nids.

Following this strategy, the next unit I'm going to add is two units but I think they are rather brilliant together; a Tyranid Prime with Lash Whip, Bone Sword and a Deathspitter and two Carnifexes with two Twin-Linked Brain-Leech Devourers. This is one highly durable, devastatingly shooty unit that also packs a mean punch in close combat. So far it has been the stand-out unit in all the 6^th Ed games I've played so far and I don't think I'd feel particularly comfortable leaving it out. Besides being able to put a serious hurting on pretty much all infantry, heavy, elite or otherwise, it's also effective against light armoured vehicles and Flyers. I've changed the load-out of the Prime to include a Deathspitter to mean he's got something to add at range and the lash-whip means he can confidently charge into cover with the 'fexes should the need arise. With that in mind, adding frag spines to the Carnifexes may not be a terrible idea, as Necrons are so popular and going first against them, even in cover, is going to be a big advantage!

Shoring up the firepower at mid-range are two units of three Hive Guard. There's not a lot to say about these guys that has not been said already. T6 with two wounds gives them the durability factor and a gun with two S8 shots each that ignore cover (most of the time) gives them some undeniable firepower. In my previous list I ran two units of two Zoanthropes, there were to act as unit support to buff key bugs with Endurance or to debuff enemy units with Enfeeble. Lets just say that the whole random power thing did not work out for me and they ended up being 240pts of comparative uselessness! I can only think that 300pts of Hive Guard will significantly outperform my experiences with the Zoanthropes and at least be more consistently useful.

Lets move to the core of the army, Troops. No surprises here, I'm going with two units of ten Termagants and two Tervigons, I'm not totally convinced that it's is enough but it's a staple and I'm not going to make a significant change just yet. In terms if load-out, I'm dropping the Crushing Claws I have used previously to save 50pts. Other than that I'm still taking three powers, Toxin Sacs and Cluster Spines and running the Termagants as they come.

This leaves me with 270pts left to spend. I want a list that's shooty and I have high volume mid-range shooting pretty well covered, all of this shooting is relatively high strength and can handle most vehicles and infantry. Since the meta is typically troop focused at the moment, adding some long range anti infantry shooting would seem a reasonable addition and for 90 points 2 Biovores look to be good value. I like the large blast and the fact that you can try to snipe specific models out of units with it, the range is also significantly longer than anything else in the list so I like what that brings to the army.

180pts left and I'm coming back to the Parasite and what he and his unit bring to the Army. Sometimes you're going to be content to sit at midfield and shoot, waiting for the opportunity to counter attack. Sometimes, however, you want to be able to go on the offensive, even if it's a feint, and a single unit is not going to be a significant threat and will be too easy to focus firs down. So I think I'm looking for another unit to support an offensive or harassment tactic. First thought is to give the existing Gargoyles Adrenal Glands (I already give them Toxin Sacs) and then by a second 20-man unit with the same load-out. However, I think what I want is something different, which I can use differently, also 40 Gargoyles are going to be very hard to manoeuvre effectively because they are pretty damn bulky.

I might come back to the Gargoyles later but for the moment I'm going to try a Mawloc with Toxin Sacs. With his Terror from the Deep ability he can get across the board quickly and be a threat, he's pretty tough and hit and run lets him get away to burrow again if he gets into trouble. On his own he's not a big threat and pretty easy to deal with, but used in conjunction with the Parasite's unit I think it will make for an effective tag-team and may allow both units to pick the specific targets they need to engage in order to be effective.

So this represents the development of my Blog Wars 4 List, the Zoanthropes, Raveners and Trygon are gone and in their stead we have Gargoyles, Hive Guard, Biovores and a Mawloc. I'll let you know how I get on.

HQ
Parasite
Prime – Lash Whip & Bonesword, Deathspitter

ELITE
Hive Guard x3
Hive Guard x3

TROOPS
Termagant x10
Termagant x10
Tervigon – Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs, 3 Powers
Tervigon – Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs, 3 Powers

FAST ATTACK
Gargoyles x20 – Toxin Sacs

HEAVY SUPPORT
Carnifex x2 – 2x TL Devourers w. Brainleech Worms each
Mawloc – Toxin Sacs
Biovore x2

Rolling Less Than 10 on 3D6 and Other Stories

Parasite of Mortrex

A BLOG WARS 4 TALE

Strap yourselves in readers and grab some popcorn, this is a long one and it’s going to get emotional!

This weekend saw Blog Wars 4 take place at the Eye of the Storm venue in Mansfield (part of the Maunsfeld Games store). This is an event the Blog has always tried to support but, thanks to a poorly scheduled holiday, I’d not been able to attend the last one so I was really looking forward to making a come-back at the first one of 6th Edition!

I had promised that, as a penance for missing Blog Wars 3, I would re-double my efforts to get my Tyranids completed in time for this tournament and thanks to some late night painting sessions (concluding at 1:30am on Friday night) I managed to put the following list on the table (complete with 15 ripper bases – which never saw the light of day!)

Parasite of Mortrex
Tyranid Prime w. 2x Boneswords & Scything Talons
2x Zoanthropes
2x Zoanthropes
10x Termagants
10x Termagants
Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, 3 Powers
Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, 3 Powers
6x Raveners w. Rending Claws
2x Carnifexes w 2x Twin-Linked Devourers (w. Brainleech Worms) eachTrygon

A section of the Hive Fleet

Blog Wars requires you to field a unique or special character as it’s only list composition restriction, this is something I quite like and has previously seen my Ghazghull face off against Commissar Yarrick in an epic smack-down for all the marbles (on the bottom table). We were playing 3 games with the objectives and deployments pre-set as part of the rules pack. If you want to read all the details about the tournament you can have a look at the From the Fang blog (who organise the event) here.

So, on to the games and a day that would see 3D6 leadership tests loom large in my fortunes:

Game 1 vs Dark Eldar/Eldar - Greg Pikos
Crusade (5 objectives) / Vanguard Deployment

The Baron
Haemonculus
5x Wracks
5x Warriors w. Blaster in Venom w. 2x Splinter Cannons
5x Warriors w. Blaster in Venom w. 2x Splinter Cannons
13x Hellions w. Helliarch
6x Reavers w 2x Heat Lance
s6x Reavers w 2x Heat Lances
Ravager
Ravager
Voidraven Bomber

Aegis Defence Line w. Quad-gun

Farseer w. Runes of Warding & 1 Power
5x Rangers
3x War Walkers w 2x Scatter Lasers each

Greg's Circus themed Dark Eldar

OK, multiple objectives, I like that, I know where I am with objective missions; Dark Eldar with a Runes of Warding Farseer ally, not so good, lots of poison shots and table-wide psychic defense which is really going to put a damper on my day. 

I got to pick table edge and deploy 3 of the objectives but I lost first turn, not actually all that bad in an objective game but he would get the first opportunity to unleash all his dakka at me. I deployed fairly conservatively knowing that as we both had speed I could well get off a first turn charge with a bit of luck. 

Speaking of luck, Greg forgot to cast Prescience so his War Walkers were not as devastating as they could have been. His Reavers jockeyed for position and the Baron led his Hellions forward with a couple of cheeky pain tokens and ran for cover in a ruin in the middle of the building. I advanced and took out a Venom with a volley from the Carnifex unit (1st Blood) and typically one of my Tervigons bunged up after spawning only 5 ‘gants. The Hellions looked threatening and would certainly get a charge off in the next turn so I decided to risk attempting a pre-emptive charge against them with the Parasite and his Raveners. A roll of 11 got me in comfortably but I’d be striking last thanks to the lack of grenades. At this point luck was clearly on my side because his entire unit (with the extra attack combat drugs) managed to kill off only 1 Ravener and one of those wounds was caused by overwatch fire, I should also mention that I made five 5+ saves on the Raveners. My return flurry accounted for 4 hellions and the Baron (Warlord) who managed to fail his very first Shadow-field save. I win by 4 But the Hellions hold firm thanks to a nice low leadership roll!

After all that Greg looked somewhat deflated, perhaps he had forgotten about the monumental amount of firepower he still had at his disposal, and this turn those War Walkers would be Twin-Linked! The opening salvo vapourised my Trygon with wounds to spare and he also managed to knock a couple of wounds of the Tervigon on my left flank, those Reavers were also getting worryingly close. We then returned to the epic combat in the centre this time it was much closer but I still managed to win combat by two wounds and that proved to the boo much for the Hellions who ran and were cut down by the Parasite and his 4 remaining Raveners who had a bone to pick with a Farseer.

My turn saw the last Venom over-killed by the Carnifex Unit and a slow advance by the rest of the Horde. I forgot to mention that in turn one I only got two psychic powers off and put wounds on 3 Zoanthropes and a Tervigon thanks to Perils from the Runes of Warding so I had decided not to risk casting anything in Turn 2 as I was very pleased to be well within strike range of the Farseer and his unit of Racks behind their Aegis Defence Line with the Parasite and his rampaging Raveners. The combat was short and sweet the Eldar broke, ran and were cut down, but that left me vulnerable out in the open and at the mercy of Rangers, warriors and the Quad Gun (the War Walkers could also be brought to bear if necessary).

As expected, Greg made short work of the Parasite and his squad and, now that I’d also lost the Trygon as well (who took two squads of gants with him), that really took the punch out of my army. The wounded Tervigon on the left flank fell to Hellion fire and the one in the centre was brought down to its last wound by the War Walkers. I was very much back on the back-foot and trying to figure out how I was going to salvage a draw out of this.

I was able to swamp an objective at the back of the board with my remaining ‘gants but his Reavers were able to assault into the unit to contest (need to work on my placement). Greg was able to take an objective behind his defence line, uncontested, with the Rangers and also held an objective with a small warrior squad on my left flank. My remaining Tervigon was, however, within strike range of this, so I charged in and easily wiped the squad for what I thought was a solid draw. Unfortunately I had forgotten that his Reavers were still in combat with a single termagant very close to the same objective. If I’d have realised, I’d have charged my two remaining Zoanthropes into the combat, but as it was he easily took care of the Termagant and consolidated far enough to contest the objective.

The game ended in a 9-16 loss but it was an extremely enjoyable game which swung back and forth on almost every turn and really could have gone either way. Credit to Greg, he played a blinder and didn't let the early loss of his big Hellion unit get too him. 

Game 2 vs Necrons – Michael Towers
The Relic / Hammer & Anvil Deployment

Imotekh the Stormlord 
Overlord w res orb 
Royal Court: Harbinger of Eternity w. Chronometron; Harbinger of Despair w. Veil; Lord w. Mindshackle Scarabs & Warscythe 
Royal Court: Harbinger of Eternity w. Chronometron; Harbinger of Despair w. Veil; Lord w. Mindschackle Scarabs & Warscythe 
20x Warriors 
20 x Warriors 
5x Warriors w. Night Scythe 
5x Warriors w. Night Scythe 
5x Warriors w. Night Scythe 
5x Warriors w. Night Scythe 

I’ve got to admit that I felt pretty confident about this one. Michael and I had played recently, in game 1 of the last Open War, and I was keen for revenge. I felt this list was less difficult to deal with because the Spyders, Scarabs and Wraiths that he’d brought to Open War were no more, also I managed to get first turn so I knew I had a great chance of getting to the relic with some spawned ‘gants on turn one and putting myself in a strong position early. As it turns out I was not prepared for the trixy-ness and down-right shooty-ness of this list.

Turn 1 - Lookin Good!

As planned I moved up on turn 1, putting my ‘gants in easy strike range of the Relic with the rest of the army in support and the Raveners with the Parasite partially in front to provide a screen. Michael had placed both of his blob squads right at the back of the board, well out of my range. However on his turn he Veiled right behind my lines and decimated the two back-most ‘gant units (First Blood). This, combined with a particularly devastating round of lightning strikes from Imotekh (including 6 hits on the Parasite’s squad – I took my chances saving 4 on the Parasite and passing the other two to Raveners who couldn’t make their 5+) lead to a pretty successful turn for Michael.

Fortunately his veil shenanigans had put both units in range of most of my army so I levelled all available guns at the squad with the least cover and took it down to a manageable size for my Poison/Furious Charge ‘gants and a Tervigon to charge. The combat was a great success and the unit was wiped but the Lord stood back up.

On Michael’s turn two he got 3 of his Croissants (Night Scythes) on to the board and they took no time in focussing down the ‘gant squad on the Relic and taking a couple of wounds off a Tervigon. Imotekh’s lightning storm put another 6 strength 8 hits on the Parasite’s unit wiping it. Bad times but to make matters even worse he also put 4 wounds on my Trygon which was finished off by the left over Night Scythe shooting. This was starting to look bad. The solo Lord charged back into the Tervigon who passed his Mindshackle test and put the Lord back down, only for him to stand back up! Most annoying!

Turn 3 started off with my Tervigon in the centre spawning another 10 ‘gants onto the Relic, and this time I could get it to the one at the back giving me the chance to at least move it towards my swarm next turn. Next I decided that Imotekh had done quite enough damage so I levelled as much firepower as I could at his squad but his 2+ save combined with amazing we’ll be back rolls saw only a handful of warriors dead, on the up-side I did manage to get his Chronometron Cryptek who did not get back up – bonus!

The death of the Trygon meant that I only had a unit of 10 ‘gants in charge range of Imotekh’s squad but I wanted to at least tie them up for the big fellah’s who would be in range next turn. Those brave Termagants made the charge but the combination of withering overwatch fire and Warscythes put a swift end to their efforts and Imotekh was free to reposition next turn. The same could not be said of the solo Lord who was swamped under ‘gants who were less than effective but ensured that he could not charge the Tervigon next turn.

Thankfully Night Fight ended on this turn so no more evil lightning. I’d smugly positioned so that the Night Scythes could not get another volley off ... so instead they dropped off their Warrior units, this combined with the 4th Night Scythe turning up to lend some firepower, and Imotekh’s squad (he’d veiled back to the edge of his deployment zone) saw my Termagant squad with the Relic wiped again!

I was running a bit short of troops now and I’d lost a fair amount of punch from the army. However all of his troop units (bar the one in the newly arrived Night Scythe) were in the open and I gambled to try and wipe all of the 5-man units and put a hurting on Imotekh. My Prime detatched from the Carnifexes and charged the unit on my right flank (wiping them), my Carnifexes overkilled the rear-most unit and I put a unit of ‘gants in tenuous charge range of the nearest (which they failed). The Tervigon in the center fired his Cluster spines at Imotekh’s squad and did enough wounds to knock over the Veil Cryptek who failed to get up – nice! Sadly though a fair number of the warriors did get up which meant that Imotekh still had about 8 warriors with him and the other Lord, quite a daunting prospect. At the back of my deployment zone the solo Lord was still alive and kicking so my Warp Speed buffed (+1) Tervigon piled into him and in an epic simultaneous combat they both fell ... and neither got back up. Probably not worth the sacrifice of a Tervigon given my current position and lack of troops but it did feel good to see that 2 come up on the dice!

The surviving Warriors took to their Night Scythes and fled the board, knowing they would be back next turn. Imotekh advanced and his unit and the remaining Night Scythe continued to pour fire into my remaining ‘gants leaving none alive.

The game was in the balance but with very few troops left I felt right on the back foot, despite having good table position I could not continue to take the firepower those Night Scythes could dish out. I buffed up my remaining Tervigon (with only 2 wounds left) with Endurance and Iron Arm (+3) and went for the Relic, I put everything I had left, the Carnifexes and the Tervigon’s Cluster Spines into Imotekh’s unit. Sadly 2+ saves combined with unerring we’ll be back rolls meant that this achieved exactly nothing and the Necrons just kept coming.

The Night Scythes returned but my T9 Tervigon laughed off their firepower without taking a wound so it was with a glimmer of hope that I accepted the charge of Imotekh’s squad. But this Tervigon was clearly convinced that these were not the Necrons he was looking for as he failed his Mind Shackle test and promptly killed himself.

So, end of turn 5, the Relic is unclaimed, Michael has First Blood so if it ends here, he has it by 1.

Erm, where'd everybody go?

We go to turn 6. One of Blog Wars special rules is that your Special Character is scoring, so as I have no other scoring units left, it’s up to the Tyranid Prime to show his quality. He jumps on the Relic and his trusty Carnifexes flank him boldly, again pouring an utterly ineffective 24 shots into Imotekh’s squad – they clearly have a destiny to fulfill! Michael disembarks everything and puts everything he has left into the fexes killing one and wounding the other, and so Imotekh’s unit charges. The overwatch is ineffective and a challenge is issued. Amazing I think, I decline forcing the Prime out of the combat and amazingly the Carnifex survives.

Again it comes down to another dice roll, I have the Relic so it’s 3-1 to me ... it’s a 5 so we go on! Damn!

This time the challenge is not issued so no hiding for the Prime, I pass my mind-shackle test but the Carnifex buys the farm leaving the Prime on his own for the last round of combat and all the marbles.

Sadly the Hive Mind has realised that Necrons do not make for good eating (not enough biomass to assimilate apparently) so the suddenly dull minded Prime fails his mind shackle test and removes his own last two wounds.

That’s the game, I’ve been tabled. It went from a game with only a few points in it either way to a 5-25 defeat and I’ve gotta be honest, that was pretty crushing and I had a somewhat frowny face on. I hope I wasn’t too outwardly grumpy because it was an epic game and Michael was a fantastic opponent who played a great strategy pretty much to perfection. He really knows his Necrons and is a lot of fun to play against, I hope I get a chance for revenge (again) in the next tournament we’re at! 

Game 3 vs Grey Knights – Nathaniel Gibbs (No Blog) 
Purge The Alien / Dawn of War Deployment 

Inquisitor Coteaz 
Grand Master w. MC Psycannon & Daemon Hammer, Psybolt Ammo 
10x Grey Knights w. 2x Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo, Rhino 
10x Terminators w. 2x Psycannnons, 3x Daemon Hammers, 7x Halberds, Psybolt Ammo
5x Interceptors w. Psycannons 
5x Interceptors w. Psycannons 
Dreadnought w. 2x Autocannon & Psybolt Ammo 
Dreadnought w. 2x Autocannon & Psybolt Ammo 
Nemesis Dreadknight w. Heavy Incinerator & Personal Teleporter 

These Grey Knights look somewhat "Custodeal"

No offence to Nathaniel (I know he’s a reader) but after the last game I was not in the best frame of mind for facing off against a gun-line with a huge, terrain-less kill zone in the middle. I took one look at his super-shooty Grey Knights and the table lay-out, briefly considered playing cagily around the terrain on the edges trying to deny kill points but then just thought f**k it I’ll clog his guns with my bodies and if I can get my Raveners into his Terminators I’ll take my chances.

Things did not start well when he gave me first turn and promptly stole the initiative without the need for Coteaz’s re-roll. A Zoanthrope unit vanished before they could send a distress signal to the mother ship (First Blood)! The rest of the bugs were left largely unscathed and he pushed his Terminators forward positively goading my Raveners to attempt a first turn charge.

And so the ‘nids charged like the Light Brigade into the waiting guns of some lovely gold Grey Knights.

I’ll not go blow-by-blow here because if you’ve made it this far you’re probably losing the will to live, but I will go through a few highlights. The Parasite and his crew made it into contact with the Terminators and managed to kill about 3 of them over two rounds of combat before getting punked by the Daemon Hammers.

The Carnifex unit was as reliable as ever, wiping out an Interceptor squad in a single volley and severely reducing the 10-man Strike Squad over two rounds of shooting before succumbing to combined weight of arms. The Prime was not present at that point however, as he had detached to try and sort out a Dreadknight who was tearing through the back field due to an inability to fail to activate his force weapon despite being in the Shadow of the Warp the whole time and so it was that he took down the Prime without the nid general being able to land a blow on the big fellah.

The rest is not worth the telling, suffice to say that it was all over by turn 4 as even the big bugs could not resist the weight of fire leveled at them. Another 5-25 defeat, this had not been a good day. But again Nathaniel was a great opponent, very likable chap who had the misfortune to catch me in a somewhat dispirited mood and not minded to put up much of a fight, hopefully I can give him a better game should we meet again. 

You’ll have read that Graham was battling away on the bottom table vying for another Wooden Spoon in a nip-and-tuck battle that attracted quite an audience towards the end. What he and everyone else in attendance didn't know was that me and my little rain cloud had quietly put the bottom of the table beyond doubt. So with two emphatic tablings to finish the day I took the dubious honour of the Wooden Spoon, the first certificate I’d laid my hands on at a tournament since picking up a Wooden Spoon for my very first tournament way back in 2009 at Open War 12.

What can I take away from this experience? Firstly it’s not as bad as it looks, my first game was excellent against an army list I really think was a bad match up for me on paper. Sure I got lucky to wipe the Hellions so easily and who knows what could have happened if I’d been a bit less cavalier with my Raveners after that. Also if I’d not missed that lone ’gant tied in with the Reavers I could have got a tie out of the game. Against the Necrons in game 2 the 5-25 scoreline does not do justice to how close the game was and but for a dice roll I’d have had it won (narrowly) at the end of turn 6. The Grey Knight game was a bit of a write-off but if I’d cared about the result I could have done a number of things differently, sorry again to Nathaniel – I’ll give you a better game next time.

I don’t know what you think but to my mind all of these opponents were pretty bad match-ups for me. I thought I had a good chance against the Necrons but they really surprised me with their resilience and sheer weight of fire-power, I need more practice against what is surely one of the more powerful Codices at this point in 6th.

I think the list is OK as it is, I’ll probably tweak it but it’s going to be hard to get rid of the Carnifexes because in 6 tournament games (Open War & Blog Wars) they have been nothing short of amazing. The Trygon was fantastic in Open War but did exactly nothing in any of these games also I think that Crushing Claws on the Tervigons is probably not worth the points. They can be fantastic but I really didn’t get the opportunity to use them enough for me to really think I’ll miss them to save 50pts.

The Zoanthropes were definitely a total bust, I can see the reason why some people like them but I had no luck getting them the powers they need to be force multipliers. In game 2, between the four of them I had Smite, Warp Speed, Iron Arm, Life Leech and a single Enfeeble, likewise in game 3 where one unit had Smite x2, Haemorage and Life Leech. The fact of the matter is that if you pull the less useful powers with the frequency that I seem to get them, you really start questioning why you are spending 240pts on two units of 2! In the future I’m going to drop them and rely on the Monstrous Psykers to buff themselves.

Lastly, the Parasite and the Raveners. I like both of these because you just don’t see them. I can’t deny that Gargoyles are simply better point for point than Raveners but I’m going to stick with them, at least until I’ve painted 20 Gargoyles! The Parasite’s problem is that I could have a Flying Hive Tyrant instead of him and I’m really struggling justifying not doing this to myself. I really like him in theory but I forgot about the toughness tests in the heat of battle so my 15 ripper bases stayed quietly in my case for the entire tournament. Though, to be honest the only game where this would have come significantly into play was game 1.

So, all in all expect a few small changes for the next tournament but by-and-large I am happy with the army and I’m not going to over-react to what was something of a “bad day at the office”! 

Roll on Blog Wars 5!

The Week That Was ...

I'm in a glass case of emotion!

26^th October – 1^st November

Chaos Win

Looks like I may have done well to avoid playing Mick’s Chaos list last week because I was roundly spanked by Gav’s Chaos Marines/Daemons list this Thursday. In fairness the list is something we’re working on together for the Battle Brothers tournament in January so Gav cannot be held wholly responsible for the giant slice of gorgonzola that he served up to me and, but for some poor dice and poor decision-making, I could have done a lot better. Before I spout off about the game here’s an overview of the lists:

1500pts - Purge the Alien/Vanguard

Marines/Daemons:

Huron

Great Unclean One of Nurgle

Flamers of Tzeentch (5)

2x Chaos Space Marine Squad (14) 2x Plasma, 1 Sgt w. Lightning Claw

Pink Horrors (5) w. The Changeling

Helldrake w. Baelflamer

Screamers of Tzeentch (5)

Obliterators (2) MoN

Tyranids

Prime w. 2x Boneswords & Deathspitter

2x Hive Guard (3)

2x Termagant (10)

2x Tervigon Crushing Claws, Cluster Spines, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, three 6^th ed Powers

Raveners (5) Rending Claws

Carnifex Brood (2) 2x TL Devourers each

I went second but due to Huron’s Trait I was basically deploying blind as Gav rolled a 3 for his number of units able to infiltrate. I set up a fairly balanced front but with the ‘fex/Prime unit  on my left flank in cover but within reach of his Oblits, and the Raveners dead centre. I also held both units of Termagants in reserve. Gav infiltrated his two large Marine Squads in cover to my right with Huron’s unit more towards the centre.

The first turn began with Gav getting his preferred wave so down came the Screamers, right in front of my Raveners, and the Flamers, right between my Carnifexes and a unit of Hive Guard. The Screamers turbo-boosted over my Raveners causing about 3 wounds and the Flamers took two wounds off the Prime and one off a Carnifex. Could have been worse! In my first turn I poured the Carnifexes into the flamers reducing them to two models and the two Cluster Spines and Hive Guard into the Screamers, reducing them to two models as well.

Poor decision #1 I did not spawn any ‘gants because this is a VP scenario and I did not want to contribute more VPs to the pool. However if I’d had the units available I’d have been able to mop up the remaining models in each unit giving me 2 VPs for the kills and an extra one for first blood. The ‘gants would have been in a relatively safe position and able to react to the next wave of Daemons to drop.

Poor decision #2 I charged the remaining Flamers with my ‘fex/Prime unit. The overwatch fire caused 3 wounds killing off the wounded Carnifex and the resulting combat only succeeded in killing 2 of the remaining 3 Flamers. This was largely caused by my decision not to shoot the remaining Flamers with the nearest unit of Hive Guard though as they could probably have finished them off!

Poor decision #3 Charging Huron’s unit with my Raveners, through cover, at a distance of 9”. Obviously this was unsuccessful and the overwatch fire took the unit down to 3 models. Not good!

Sure enough Gav got the Great Unclean One and the Horrors next, blocking the progress of my ‘fex/Prime unit with the big fella and putting the Horrors in my backfield to give me another reason to think twice before advancing on his juicy units of Marines. His shooting was effective, finishing off the Raveners in the middle and taking a wound off the Tervigon on the extreme right flank. My shooting phase, however, was much more productive ... for Gav! I chose to spawn two units of ‘gants this time and one of the units in reserve came on, from here on in I think the rest of the turn can be summed up as follows:

Poor decision #4 I chose to shoot at the Pink Horrors! Sure enough the unit of Termagants failed their leadership and shot at the recently spawned unit of ‘gants killing a couple of models. Then (less stupidly – but no less unsuccessfully) my Tervigon failed his leadership test and plonked his pie-plate on top of the depleted ‘gant unit finishing them off.

Poor decision #5 After charging the Great Unclean One (who was Enfeebled I might add) with a bunch of poisoned ‘gants I also piled in my Carnifex and Prime. If I’d rolled better this would have been fine but as it was I got stuck in combat for another 2 player turns eventually losing the Prime to a challenge and everything else along the way. Only taking the Great Unclean One with me thanks to a Warp Speed buffed Tervigon charging in a turn later.

The rest of the game was rather academic since I lost all three secondary conditions and was behind on VPs even without those. I definitely could have played it better but at least I’m seeing what I’ve done wrong and hopefully I can correct this in the future.

I’m not putting it all down to my mistakes either, Gav played a blinder (clearly still sore about Space Hulk the previous week), but I think that if I’d kept my wits about be and not been quite such a knuckle-head I could have given him a bit more of a game!

If I could do it all again I would have spawned ‘gants in turn 1 and not allowed the Daemons in my back-field slow my advance. Also I should have just tar-pitted the Great Unclean One with poisoned ‘gants, they would have killed him eventually and I think my Monstrous Creatures would have had a good chance at wiping the Marine squads if they’d been able to get there!

I think that playing Tyranids, more than any army I’ve used before, requires you to have a rock solid plan going into a game and a number of factors (some of which may be out of your control) can quickly wreck that plan making recovering anything from the game very hard work. Not to mention that if you plan poorly or make silly mistakes during the game, any chance of being competitive can very quickly go out of the window. This is undoubtedly a lesson that applies to all armies and it’s a testament to my lack of success at tournaments that I have not been able to learn this lesson to date. Perhaps my experiences with Tyranids will make a better player out of me!

And in other news

Overpowered units. When 6^th was brand spanking new, everyone was asking, “How are you going to deal with Flyers?”. I think that in most situations (even though this question still pops up more often than not) my answer is, “I’m just going to ignore them”. Admittedly it’s going to be very hard to ignore multiple Vendettas when playing a Monstrous Creature-heavy list, but in that case I will try to force them to Hover to make the most out of their Lascannons and at that point I need to be in position to jump on them with something killy! Perhaps this is a naive position but I’m going to drop shooting capability from my next test list and see how it goes.

Now the overpowered unit label seems to have been applied to those troublesome Screamers and Flamers from the Chaos Daemons Codex and I have to say that they certainly do worry me, particularly as I’m probably not going to be carrying any significant shooting in the next few test lists. However if you play a list with a suitable amount of shooting in it, and as this is 6^th ed you really ought to be able to shoot, I can’t see these units being unmanageable. If you put fire-power into them they will crumble and then what has the list got? Probably some very poor scoring units with low survivability and a Monstrous Creature or two, this should be manageable. If a game is balanced you should not be able to win easily, it should be tough, it should be a challenge. And I really don’t qualify 27 Screamers and 27 Flamers as an “I Win Button”.

Let’s hear your thoughts, I’m sure you all have some!

Blog Wars 4 - Tyranid Test List (1)

With a little over a month until Blog Wars 2 I'm about to test the next iteration of my Tyranid list containing the compulsory Special/Unique Character.

HQ

Tyranid Prime w. 2x Bone Swords, Deathspitter, Regeneration

ELITE

Doom of Malan'tai w. Spore Pod

3x Hive Guard

3x Hive Guard

TROOPS

10x Termagants

10x Termagants

Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Cluster Spines, Adrenal Glands & 3 Powers

Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs & 3 Powers

FAST ATTACK

5x Raveners w. Rending Claws

Heavy Support

2x Carnifexes each w. 2x TL Devourers with Brainleech Worms

Trygon w. Adrenal Glands

I wanted to go for a Gargoyle list with the Parasite but I don't have the models and I have other things to be spending my money on this month so I've gone for an alternative route with the Doom, Raveners and a Trygon. The Trygon was one of the heroes of Open War for me so it's not a big stretch to get him in again here, I also feel that the Doom is a strong choice with the propensity for foot lists at the moment (he is a bit fragile though).

It's the Raveners which I'm not sure about; on paper they look very tasty being very fast (beasts) and with 4 attacks per model (in this case they are also rending ++) they should be pretty killy. On the down-side though despite the 3 wounds they have there are T4 and do not have Eternal Warrior so they're not too hard to kill from range, also they only have a 5+ save so they either need psychic buffing or they have to pick on units they can cope with comfortably.

For the purposes of trying them out though I'm pretty confident that the good could outweigh the bad so I'm approaching my first test game on Thursday with some optimism for them. I'll let you know how it goes!

Tyranid List Development

I learnt a lot about playing Tyranids at Open War this weekend, and even though 3 games isn’t enough to say anything definitive about how a list works, it’s given me a good idea of where I think my current list can be tweaked, and of the units I would like to try out.

Firstly the core of the army will be as follows:

Prime w. 2x Bone Sword & Deathspitter – 95

Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs & 3 powers – 225

Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Cluster Spines, Adrenal Glands & 3 powers – 225

Termagants – 50

Termagants – 50

Carnifex Brood w. 2x Twin Linked Devourers w. Brain Leech Worms – 380

Core price = 1025pts

The Prime was great but the scything talons were not that useful, I feel that by dropping Regeneration and replacing the talons with a Deathspitter he becomes more synergistic with the Carnifexes he accompanies and doesn’t really lose anything significant.

The Tervigons were “money” all weekend and I felt that the Zoanthropes were a little exposed; so by taking an additional power on the Tervigons I increase their chances of getting useful powers and they can potentially offset the buffing role of the Zoanthropes. Adding Crushing Claws to both of them as well gives them a significant boost in Close Combat making them a serious threat as well as being a scoring Mummy Bug/Unit Buffer – great value for points.

The Termegants are necessary to get the Tervigons as Troops. I think I will be more cautious with these guys in the future, probably reserving them most of the time as they proved to be very fragile.

Lastly the Carnifexes were brutal, their anti-infantry shooting is an impressive sight to behold and they’re handy in a scrap too, particularly with the Prime in tow to challenge any tricky special characters.

This give me a list at 25pts over 1000, so to make it fit into a 1000 point game I would probably just drop a set of Crushing Claws on one of the Tervigons.

In order to get up to 1500pts I think I would always add the following:

3x Hiveguard – 150

3x Hiveguard – 150

2x Zoanthrope – 120

I really noticed the lack of anti-vehicle fire-power; the Carnifexes are very good at light armour but anything over AV12 is beyond their power to damage unless they get really close. Two units of 3 Hive Guard should sort out these problems in short order, and I say this with an apology to the readers who told me before the tournament that they should be in the list. I thought I could get along without them and I really did miss them, so you were right and I will take better heed of you in the future.

My original concept was to use Zoanthropes as unit buffers and this worked reasonably well but they made for easy kill points and soft targets in general. Adding them in here is not something I’m completely set on as I could take Doom in a Pod with the points I have spare but I do believe that psychic buffs are critical to the success of Tyranids at the moment so I’m going to stick with this model for a little while at least to see if the concept works out.

With the remaining points to build towards a 1500pt list I’m probably just going to increase the number of Termagants in each unit to improve their durability. As mentioned above, units of 10 were very noticeable in just how easy they were to kill over the weekend.

From here to get to 1750 and 1850pt lists I go two different ways, in both instances I will drop some of the additional Termagants added in the last step to make the points work.

At 1750pts I would look to add a Hive Tyrant (flying or walking is yet to be decided) probably with Old Adversary. If on foot I’d want 2 Tyrant Guard and Lash Whip & Bonesword with Scything Talons and Reinforced Shell and if flying I’d go with 2x TL Devourers.

At 1850pts I would take the Parasite and one or two big units of Gargoyles (depending on the points available). Closing the distance to your opponent is so important for this army and Gargoyles supported by the Parasite have a good chance of getting there quickly and in a big enough unit they will hopefully have the bodies left to do some damage and tie up something useful once they get there.

That’s it for thoughts on the ‘nids right now, I’m off to build some Gargoyles!!