Tyranid Game 1 review

I got my first game in with the new Tyranid codex the other day against a Space Marine army that featured Vulkan, Telion, AND Chronus. Here is my list, how each unit performed and what (if any) changes I plan to make.

I tried to make a list built on synergy that captures the essence of a Tyranid attack with creatures popping up all over the place... the only unit I spam is the Trygon but it's so cool I had to take two. Overall I was pleased with how the list worked. My reserve rolls were utter shit even with the Hive Commander upgrade and I was behind early due to this slow start. But I was able to weather the potent marine shooting for the most part and in the end was able to come out on top (mission: Annihilation/Pitched Battle).

The List
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Hive Tyrant: I took him mainly for the Hive Commander upgrade so I could out-flank with my Hormagaunts and add +1 to my reserve rolls. The Paroxysm psychic power is ace and made a unit of Assault Terminators fight with WS 1... they got eaten. He was attached to a single Tyrant Guard but this was not enough as he was still gunned down in the bottom of the 2nd turn by the Redeemer and Telion's huge-ass sniper squad. A 2+ save is in the Hive Tyrant's future.

Tyranid Prime: The beast of the match. Armed with Lash Whip, Bonesword, Scything Talons and Adrenal Glands he massacred the Assault Terminators almost single handedly and then butchered the Scout squad (killing 7 in 2 rounds of combat?!?). He was lucky to survive Telion's sniping on the way in and all the other shooting but still... This unit is a mainstay.

Zoanthropes: Didn't do too much but killed a few bunched up Sternguard before being boltered to death. Still, I would not leave the Hive without them.

Ymgarl Genestealers: I had my doubts and still do. They arrived late from reserve and while plagued with horrible dice at first they were great in mopping up a Drop Pod and a Tactical Squad. I actually played them wrong in that I chose my hiding area before my opponent deployed (it's after both delpoy) and I also only chose a new morph ability in my assault phase (it's every assault phase)... oh well, next time I'll use them right haha.

Warriors: I like Warriors. The shooty Warriors didn't do much... they acted as mostly a Synapse anchor and are really only there to claim objectives. The Assaulty Warriors with claws, talons and Adrenal Glands were the perfect body guard for delivering the Prime. They got blasted apart by lascannon and missile launcher, but held up really well against everything else.

Gants/Gaunts: Gants died horribly but set up the counter-charges for me, this is what they do so the 5pt Gant is perfect as far as I'm concerned. The Hormagaunts I gave Toxin Sacs which I think is better for them then Adrenal Glands and chose to out-flank them. They arrived too late in the game to participate other then running Telion off the table who was fleeing in terror from the Prime, haha.

Genestealers/BroodLord: I gave them Adrenal Glands but I think I will drop this upgrade in favor of Scything Talons. S5 on the charge sounded nice but the extra wounds it caused seemed to be cleverly canceled out with the Rending wounds due to allocation. The Broodlord eventully went toe to toe with Vulkan and came out on top after about 4 or 5 rounds of combat. I got Hypnotic Gaze off twice but was beat both times on the LD dice off. Oh well... still not bad though.

Carnifex: meh. He got annihilated on turn 1 by podding Sternguard and Chronus' Predator of Doom. I think he is there just to take the heat off the Hive Tyrant really. I think I need him but we'll see.

Trygon(s): As awesome as I thought. I took two of these bad boys and good thing. The first one came in and ate a Rhino before going down. The 2nd one came in and ate Chronus' Predator then survived on 1 wound to eat the Redeemer.

Combat Patrol League batrep1

Ordo Fraternitas Combat Patrol League: Battle Report 1

Gornutz was not pleased, but then again he rarely was. "Zoggin' trees!" He yelled for the umpteenth time. The vast under-growth had slowed down his advance and to Gornutz this was unnacceptable as it meant Blarnok's boyz may get to the action first.

Leading the way through the tangle of woods, Gornutz emerged into a clearing and caught sight of the enemy for the first time cowering in cover like a typical human. Gornutz could feel a pulse of energy well up inside as the enemy was now within striking distance! "Der dey are boyz! Get 'em!" With a rousing Waaagh! the boyz surged forth.

As his boyz pushed forward Gornutz looked over at Blarnok's boyz squabbling amongst themselves, their advance on the right flank stuttering. Gornutz mused for a moment, "Serves dat fluff Blarnok right fer not keepin' proppa respekt amongst da ladz." Gornutz would be Gork-damned if his boyz ever got that unruly as to create a delay from getting stuck in a good scrap!

Entering the undergrowth where the enemy was lurking Gornutz stumbled and fell as a searing blast of melta shot overhead which incinerated Narnar, the nearest boy behind him. "Zoggin' trees!" The difficult terrain did more to infuriate the Nob than the enemy guns. "Dem pewpew-lazurs weren't fit fer grots!" Gornutz had told his boyz. But now that Gornutz had failed to close the distance the initial push had failed and his boyz were shot to pieces as they got caught in the open. Several of his boyz were lit up in a swathe of flame that would make any Burna Boy greener with envy. Gornutz was momentarily impressed with the fact that the humans had brought a proper weapon and also Gulgog's burny dance, the ork warrior awash in flame was too dumb to realize he was already dead but was determined to club the 'oomie tank with his Shoota anyway.

"Come on ladz! We'ze orks and we'ze built fer winnin'!" cried Gornutz, rallying the boyz for a renewed assault wrecking the human tank. The humans evacuated the smoldering wreck, desperately shooting the still dangerous gaggle of orks bearing down on them. "Der's no escape 'oomies... I'm gonna ta clobber tha lot of yooz!" Then the world turned red in a maelstrom of death...

After the butchering of the human squad (and taking shelter behind the wrecked Chimera, he was lootin' see?), Gornutz could hear the human leader off in the distance giving orders to retreat. Gornutz had always thought that human-talk sounded like grot farts. Their nasally voices annoying but not as annoying as those zoggin' trees...

Fantasy, 40k, and Forgeworld... oh my...

There really isn't enough time in a day to give this great hobby all the time it deserves haha...

So last Tuesday I went from having just this painted for the Fantasy Tale of Four Gamers...



...then two days of work later... I woulda had more done but something about Dark Elves being released for the BloodBowl PC game...


It ain't much to look at, but it's 3 or 4 colors and a painted base... good enough for this period of To4G, and once I get more time it'll be better. I slacked because I spent my free time building 1500 points of Lizards for a big game of Fantasy the previous week only to have them get eaten by that thrice damned Hell Pit Abomination...

Beginning this weekend is also a 40k Combat Patrol league starting up which promises to be awesome with over a dozen players in the Ordo participating. My plan? Throw a bunch of Orks at it and see what happens...


What else are 45 Orks good at? Advancing around this!


That's right... this bad piece of work will be getting some much needed attention very very soon...

Lizardmen

I got back into Warhammer Fantasy through a Tale of Four Gamers league (funny how that works!). Honestly, I was never into Fantasy but for a handful of games with a High Elf army waaaaaay back when (4th edition?) So I decided what the hell.

Well the league fell through and with the release of 8th edition looming I sit and wait with the patience of the Great Toads...

I've played about 3 games so far and have about 2500pts... waiting... soon the time will come...

This week in gaming.

A pretty intense week of gaming for the week ending Nov. 7, 2009. On Tuesday the local PlanetStrike League came to an end. Unfortunately the last week of the league kind of petered out with people not getting in their last game because of being burned-out on PlanetStrike, scheduling conflicts, or what-not... but the League was great fun and barring the loss of momentum at the end was very exciting and added a fun new twist from just a typical Tuesday night pick-up game. The group certainly put the PlanetStrike missions through the ringer with an assortment of different armys... good games and good times.

In the seven games I played I ended up going 5-2 with my Necrons. I faced Space Marines, Orks, other Necrons (see battle reports), and Eldar. I may write up a more detailed break-down of armys and missions soon depending on time.

On Friday I had the chance to meet up with an old gaming friend I hadn't seen in a very long time. He and I played a 3-way battle with a friend of his he brought along. It was 1500 points each side with objectives being in each of the three deployment zones and 1 central objective worth 2 objectives. I used my Necrons against my old friend's Orks and his friend's Straken led Imperial Guard.

The Orks and Necrons battled it out while the Imperial Guard reserves slowly trickled in... realizing the Guard stood the best chance of victory a hasty alliance was formed between Necron and Ork but too late as the Imperial Guard won the day downing the re-reanimated Destroyer Lord in the bottom of turn 5 which would be the last of the game and claiming sole possession of the central objective in the name of the Emperor! A really, really fun game that saw the Deceiver and a 10-man squad of Mega-Nobz play cat and mouse and a Valkyrie's missile pods bombard a close combat of Orks and Necron Warriors with it's missile pods among other things!

The following day saw my first game of Warhammer Fantasy in over 10 years! I had assembled a 1000 point army of Lizardmen in quite literaly the 11th hour to face off with Rhellion's new Skaven horde. Despite some movement tray.. err... malfunctions and stumbling our way through the rules it was an enjoyable game. The Lizardmen took a severe pounding early on from a Warpfire Cannon and horrible generalship on my part. But once the Saurus and the Scar-Veteran got stuck-in the ratment had no answer. This is but the start of what is sure to be a long and bitter rivalry!

After this game I broke out my Orks against Shining's new mechanized Vulkan list for a good 1850 point scrum. The mission was Capture and Control and Pitched Battle. I was able to achieve victory by holding my objective with a 30-man Shoota Boy mob holed up in a 2-story ruin while another unit of boyz conga-lined down the side of the table and was just able to assault the Tactical Marines holding their objective in turn 6. Of note in this game was the Redeemer immobilizing itself in some ruins and the utter ineptitude of the Big Mek's Shokk Attack Gun... while it did not do anything crazy, it missed horendously and obliterated my Burna Boyz causing them to flee right as they were about to charge some Assault Terminators! My Lootas did really well as did my lone Rokkit-Buggy that somehow drove unmolested through the middle of the battle field and ended up in the enemy DZ destroying the Chronus (err... Abrahms) upgraded Predator with a side shot!

This concludes... this week innnnn war-gaming.