(1) Eldarad is unfair. I mean mind blowingly, insanely, wide-rangingly, words-tacitly-and-implicitly-endorsed-by-David-Cameron-about-Nick-Clegg-just-before-the-AV-vote, unfair. His unfairness stems from three sources: the ability to redeploy, Mind War and that damn Rune of Warding. Your Tyranid army wants to be utilising the terrain to the fullest capability, so it's handy if you get to see where your foe is placed and then set up in response. Given Eldarad, you're boned as he just redploys. Mind War is also unfair. That'll squeeze your Carnifex like a heeled boot squashing a sadomasochist's testicle. One round, and he's dead.
(2) That Rune of Warding deserves its own mention. Rolling 3d6 for psychic tests, and taking damage on a 12+, means that the Tyrant and Zoanthrope will rarely get their powers off, and probably kill themselves in the process. Scrap the Zoanthrope. I'm undecided about what to do with the Hive Tyrant (a fortiori, the Swarmlord). The Tyrant can do things other than psychic stuff (unlike the Zoanthropes), so you might want to keep him. A flying, deep striking tyrant armed to the teeth can be a nice addition to a combat force, and there's no real substitute for it (as neither the Tervigon nor the Tyranid Prime have that kind of deadliness to them). Downside: you're paying points for psychic powers that you'll never, ever use. Doubly so for the Swarmlord who, I am sure, must be devastating when he and his psychic powers get unleashed. Fairly certain a deep striking Tyrant is still well worth the effort. But we'll have to see.
(3) Eldarad is not only unfair, he's got other fair but deadly powers. Like Doom, Guide and Fortune. And the ability to use them when he's sat in a tank. Basically what happened to me was this: the tank flew around supporting everyone and I couldn't get into the tank. Every now and again it'd stop, drop off 10 Dire Avengers, Dr Dre would Doom the target, and Guide the Bladestorming Avengers. Result: each and every time, without fail, a dead unit. Gone. Obliterated. Nadda. They then get back in, and fuck off. That they can't shoot next round is by the by when they've left.
(4) Eldarad is unkillable. Forget killing him. Once you get him out of his tank, the guy is going to Fortune himself. Tyranids don't do well with saves, especially not invulnerable saves. Rolling for 3+ twice means he'll only fail his save 1 in 9. He has three wounds. So you're looking to inflict an average of 27 wounds before you kill him, and there's a good margin of error both ways. (And if he's not in the tank, he's probably with a bunch of other people you have to kill in the meantime). Presumably the Swarmlord would make much shorter work of him, but that's a 280 point monster who has lots of psychic powers that won't get used, all for killing Dr Dre. I think I might stop trying to kill him. I got a bit too tempted by that during each game. Better to kill everything around him. Easier, too...
(5) Eldar missile launchers are bastards. Instant kills on the Warriors nearly made me cry. And that Crack Shot Exarch business is a nightmare. So, when it comes to my mid power greeblies, they're nightmarish. I think the lesson here is not to concentrate too much on warriors. Smaller guys, like hormogaunts, are fine as missile launchers aren't blast weapons. Bigger buys, like Carnifexes, don't kill instant killed so it's less of a problem. But, yes, if I ever field warriors again I'm going to keep an eye on those exceedingly deadly missile launchers.
(6) Tanks. They hurt so much. You need Hive Guard. I hope. I say 'hope' as my Hive Guard are now gluing, and I haven't tried them yet. But I hope they work, because other than that I HAVE NOTHING TO DEAL WITH TANKS. First, I tried using Zoanthropes. The first game, when Mal wasn't Warding me to buggery, this kinda worked, although those S 10 warp lances are useless when the Eldar tanks limit the incoming strength to 8 (which, cunningly, is what the strength that the Hive Guard are firing at). They kinda worked, but Hive Guard are clearly superior (not even having fielded them, I can see that). They fire through terrain; they fire twice; they cost 10 points less; they're Str 8 which is the max you'll be firing at anyhow; unlike the Venom Cannons they're not blast so you won't sheer your own face off when you shoot them.
The only alternative was a Carnifex with twin linked brain leech devourers (I reckon two sets, although I tried using bio plasma I think two sets is better) in a Spore. The Spore deep strikes in on the ass end of the tank, blasts it and hopefully blows it up (this worked relatively well, but clearly you're going to come a cropper when it fails to land behind, or - worse - strikes off of the table).
People have suggested cracking them open with my monstrous creatures. I discount this out of hand. A grav tank will fly away. Only an idiot would let it sit there idly in range of an MC. I mean, I might get lucky and stun the crew whilst it's within range, but that's leaving things to chance, not coming up with a tactic to deal with a mechanised force. I'm wondering whether Imperial Guard will prove to be as problematic (and look forward to finding out when I play Leo).
(7) Loadsa guys. Yup, a horde army is what you need. All of the above leads me to conclude that a horde army is so the way forward. The bigger the better. I might buy another battleforce, and might start fielding units of 30 stealers running in behind 30 hormogaunts. See how that goes. Similarly, I might try splitting my units down to smaller sizes. Two units of 10 termagants are not going to be bladestormed in one round, and the other unit can leap on the Eldar. Downside: when that Annihilation game comes up, that's two easy Kill Points rather than one more difficult one. I might experiment anyhow.
(8) Speaking of termagants, they're ace. 50 points buys you 10 of the rat like little buggers as objective capturers. They don't have to do anything but capture an objective. Even if it causes some jet bikes to have to get caught up killing them, they're still worth it. And if you want to HOLD an objective, then 30 of them for 150 is a good deal too. As was said on Sunday 'It'll take a helluva lot of jet biking to take that many gants out.'
After talking it over with Mal, I might substitute Hormogaunts. That way, when someone assaults them to tie up the objective I might have a hope of winning. Downside: I don't own that many hormogaunts, and I think it's insane if I buy yet another battleforce given I have loadsa figures (yes, yes, I know I said above I was already going to buy another battleforce - my GW buying habits are just a bit schizo).
(9) Tervigons are ace. I might keep fielding one to see how it goes. Given I'd have to convert the model, and the skinny is that GW might release one soon, I'm loathe to pay for one at the moment only to discover that they're not as good as I thought. But, yes, in most cases they come before a Hive Tyrant (I'd field five of them if I had the termagant models. You get about 30 gants out of a Tervigon before it gets its temporary hysterectomy, and I don't have 150 gant models, never mind the 50 odd gants you'd probably want to field alongside them). Even after attrition, I reckon you'd get 100 gants running around the field by turn 4, which has to be pretty neat. Anyhow, in short, Tervigons are ace and clearly a ploy by GW to (i) make you buy multiple models to convert them and (ii) buy more termagant models than I have lice.
I learnt other lessons too. I'll muse over them before blogging them.
Oh, and what's that you ask, what about the THIRD loss - if shit army design accounts for two, what accounts for number three? Well, cut to the morning after that defeat (which, chronologically, was the first). Having been defeated by the Eldar by the narrowest of margins, Mal suggested that I play at 1710 points whilst he played at 1500. When asked why, and thinking he was mocking me by giving me a handicap, he explained that late that night he realised his army had 'accidentally' been 210 points up. Sure Mal, sure. Lanky bastards...
