The next day we had a few more people in for a game, so rather than playing Harry and the Angels I ended up fighting Leo and lots of Cadian Imperial Guard (figures provided courtesy of John; all were gorgeously painted.) There were no vehicles, so it was Shank's Pony all round for them. We opted for 1000 PV per side in the hope of going faster (I wanted 750, but Leo said that it'd take him four hours to make a 750 list. I made my 1000 PV list in slightly under five minutes.) The game, however, did not go fast: it was five hours long. Every figure having different weapon options made it tricky on the dice rolls.
I should've done a battle report, especially as everything was well painted. But, in short, we played objectives. I placed a 10 termagant squad out of synapse range, which managed to wheel around and into the first objective - the imperial bastion - where it sat, happily, for the rest of the game. (Lucky rolls on two Instinctive Behaviour tests meant they managed it.) And this was the first of many lessons to me that worrying about synapse range is overrated. Specifically, I learnt the following: I can send a unit forward, massacre someone in an assault and be left in the open (as oft happens with nids) and then, when I get shot at, go to ground. At this point, I get shot up, but save a few extra guys on the save, who then flee after they fail their leadership test. And they flee RIGHT back into synapse range, where they instantly rally, and lose the penalties of going to ground, ready to get back into the melee. It's not as if the getting shot to crap bit is a good thing, but it's better to go to ground than do nothing at all.
The other two objectives were harder fought. One was defended by my Tervigon and three Hive Guard. At the end the Tervigon was shot to crap by everything and the kitchen sink, two Hive Guard were dead and the last one was making his Leadership rolls to stay in there and contest the objective. Good lad. The final objective was Hill 421 in the dead centre of the map. That was where the fight was all fought, with lasgun fire and flamer fire and melta bolts flying through the air. Leo thought he had it all wrapped up, and then the Warriors - six plus the Prime - who, once again, had spent the game trudging at 3" a turn (they kept making crap difficult terrain rolls) ran up and fucked everyone they found there. I broke the Prime off at one point to single handedly mow down a unit in hand to hand before running back to join the main group (which, frankly, bought my warriors just enough time to survive and claim the objective.) That unit ended up with one damaged Prime and one remaining Warrior. The game ended on turn 6. I had two objectives (the bastion and the hill) and contested the third with the Hive Guard. I think one more turn would've caused me problems - that Hive Guard would be unlikely to survive, and that warrior and Prime would've been lucky to contest the hill. I think they'd have died. Then the result would've been 2 to 1 in Leo's favour. But, then, there *was* no Turn 7, so who cares about this counterfactual fact?
Everytime I play now, I reread the rules. This time, I discovered that the things we did wrong were:
* Wound allocation. I realised that we did it slightly wrong for my Tyranids (in Leo's favour) and very wrong in Leo's case. We never did wound allocation for the Imperial Guard, which would have resulted in a lot more special troops lying dead on the field than there were. As it was, we were just removing the lasgun armed soldiers first.
* My stealers, which outflanked on turn two right into the body of the guard army, should've assaulted two units at once. As it was they wiped out the Veteran sqaud and then got shot to shit. If they multi assaulted they'd have done far far better. Dumb ass me. This would also have forced the Guard to spread out a bit more for fear of the multi assault. Not so much that we did it wrong, but that I should've done it better...
* At one point the Hive Guard was hiding behind a ruin. Whilst some guardsman could see him - and had LOS - I reckon others didn't. We should've checked to see how many could shoot him.
Monday, 12 December 2011
Saturday, 10 December 2011
Hive Fleet... Vile Ossuary versus Dark Eldar
Right, first I'd like to announce a change in name for my Hive Fleet. Heimdallar was naff - far too austere and pompous for a Tyranid fleet. I'd thought about Hive Fleet Corpse Fly, and was going to settle on that, but after suggesting it in the pub, Stewey suggested Ossaury. (Don't know what it means? Look it up; it'll be a learning experience.) I've embellished and gone for Vile Ossuary. So, unless someone has objections or better suggestions, Hive Fleet Vile Ossuary will be what people are facing in the near future. Anyhow, back to the game.
So James was playing, effectively, for the first time. I had to teach him the rules. First lesson: we should've played 750 points but, because one of us was sleep deprived from having been awake for 30 hours, so we somehow settled on a 1500 point game.
OK, the game itself was a training game so I'll say little about it. But I did learn some things about the Dark Eldar. First, they break like twigs. Until they've picked up that first Pain Token, they snap like twiglets in a Cliff Clavin's Mouth. Their low toughness and low saves make them exceedingly vulnerable. The list which was played - I won't say James's list as I helped come up with it - was not great. The footwalking Elite Kabbalite Trueborn threw their lot in with an Ancient Homunculus, and - sat in a forest with their weapons levelled - got chewed up by the horde. James correctly put Nightshields on his vehicles, and they all fared a lot better. However, he still got too close and they got gnawed on. I think the best plan is for the Dark Eldar to sit on their skimmers and just shoot away, picking up pain tokens, until absolutely necessary, and then coming in for an attack. Those Wyches are pretty mean - they can go toe to toe with Tyranids. Incubi can't - at least not in the fielded numbers - but Dark Eldar, in general, can. In fact, having looked through the Codex (which I bought on the train over) they look sweet. Lots of options, lots of choice, and lots of really cool stuff. The pain token that gives FNP easily makes up for their crap save, and I'm *certain* James will figure out the rules and the tactics and start mopping people up with his Dark Eldar. We didn't really end the game - I was ahead in Kill Points when we called it quits at the end of turn 4, but even then it was close (admittedly, I got overconfident and sent my Tervigon against the Huskbladed armed Archon and Wyches, ending its life. Also, many kill points were missed by James by poor dice rolls leaving the odd figure in a unit alive. 3 Genestealers, a single ripper swarm, a single termagant and a single Shrike were hiding in a forest when we ended the game - 4 Kill Points ripe for the slaughter.) I think it was close, although I should've been more careful. Like, A LOT more careful.
Notably, lots of rules questions were raised such as:
* Can the unit in an open topped vehicle shoot a different unit from that which the vehicle shoots at (we said yes.)
* If a figure is hit by a Huskblade, and it has Feel No Pain, does it get to make a Feel No Pain roll to ignore the unsaved wound which would otherwise result in instant death (by my reading of the rules, I said no. Hence a few figures died with no FNP roll.)
* Can vehicles run in the shooting phase? (I said no.)
* What does a two handed weapon do? (As far as I can tell the only result is that you can't wield another weapon. There's no extra attack or anything.)
Answers on a postcard please.
I look forward to everyone at the club learning the rules so we can stuck into some proper battles. I think James might want to either buy somemore skimmers, or only play at a points value where all units can be in the skimmers - outside of them the Dark Eldar are just tasty twiglets on legs. I might be wrong - might just be a Nid orientated way of looking at things. Certainly, I think that a Drak Eldar list exclusively made up to defeat Nids will easily wipe the floor with me. Man, Dark Eldar can probably do a number on me just as much as regular Eldar. However a tournament/campaign list will be less successful, I think. So I look forward to running the first LWA campaign and finding what James fields in his army when he can't just think about killing me and has to think about handling all comers.
So James was playing, effectively, for the first time. I had to teach him the rules. First lesson: we should've played 750 points but, because one of us was sleep deprived from having been awake for 30 hours, so we somehow settled on a 1500 point game.
OK, the game itself was a training game so I'll say little about it. But I did learn some things about the Dark Eldar. First, they break like twigs. Until they've picked up that first Pain Token, they snap like twiglets in a Cliff Clavin's Mouth. Their low toughness and low saves make them exceedingly vulnerable. The list which was played - I won't say James's list as I helped come up with it - was not great. The footwalking Elite Kabbalite Trueborn threw their lot in with an Ancient Homunculus, and - sat in a forest with their weapons levelled - got chewed up by the horde. James correctly put Nightshields on his vehicles, and they all fared a lot better. However, he still got too close and they got gnawed on. I think the best plan is for the Dark Eldar to sit on their skimmers and just shoot away, picking up pain tokens, until absolutely necessary, and then coming in for an attack. Those Wyches are pretty mean - they can go toe to toe with Tyranids. Incubi can't - at least not in the fielded numbers - but Dark Eldar, in general, can. In fact, having looked through the Codex (which I bought on the train over) they look sweet. Lots of options, lots of choice, and lots of really cool stuff. The pain token that gives FNP easily makes up for their crap save, and I'm *certain* James will figure out the rules and the tactics and start mopping people up with his Dark Eldar. We didn't really end the game - I was ahead in Kill Points when we called it quits at the end of turn 4, but even then it was close (admittedly, I got overconfident and sent my Tervigon against the Huskbladed armed Archon and Wyches, ending its life. Also, many kill points were missed by James by poor dice rolls leaving the odd figure in a unit alive. 3 Genestealers, a single ripper swarm, a single termagant and a single Shrike were hiding in a forest when we ended the game - 4 Kill Points ripe for the slaughter.) I think it was close, although I should've been more careful. Like, A LOT more careful.
Notably, lots of rules questions were raised such as:
* Can the unit in an open topped vehicle shoot a different unit from that which the vehicle shoots at (we said yes.)
* If a figure is hit by a Huskblade, and it has Feel No Pain, does it get to make a Feel No Pain roll to ignore the unsaved wound which would otherwise result in instant death (by my reading of the rules, I said no. Hence a few figures died with no FNP roll.)
* Can vehicles run in the shooting phase? (I said no.)
* What does a two handed weapon do? (As far as I can tell the only result is that you can't wield another weapon. There's no extra attack or anything.)
Answers on a postcard please.
I look forward to everyone at the club learning the rules so we can stuck into some proper battles. I think James might want to either buy somemore skimmers, or only play at a points value where all units can be in the skimmers - outside of them the Dark Eldar are just tasty twiglets on legs. I might be wrong - might just be a Nid orientated way of looking at things. Certainly, I think that a Drak Eldar list exclusively made up to defeat Nids will easily wipe the floor with me. Man, Dark Eldar can probably do a number on me just as much as regular Eldar. However a tournament/campaign list will be less successful, I think. So I look forward to running the first LWA campaign and finding what James fields in his army when he can't just think about killing me and has to think about handling all comers.
Thursday, 8 December 2011
A War of Two Darks: Heimdallr versus Dark Eldar; Heimdallr versus Dark Angels
Right, my Hive Fleet has not one, but TWO matches lined up for the weekend. On Saturday I'll be fending off James McD's Dark Eldar, before fighting Harry and the club Dark Angels on Sunday.
I haven't settled on my army list, but I've decided - for the sake of experience for fighting tournaments and for the sake of fairness (neither Harry nor James have played all that much) - to use the same list for both matches (well, unless I tweak it in light of how I'm playing.) Plus, I'm not entirely sure what to use against Dark Eldar, so I may as well stick with my standard list. I'm thinking I might swap some stuff around from the list I last played:
(i) Catalyst on the Tervigon, otherwise I'm just wasting its psychic potential.
(ii) Adrenal glands on the Tervigon so I can boost adrenal glands on the Termies so I can take down lightly armoured vehicles.
(iii) Seriously consider adrenal glands on the stealers for some higher killing power, and - again - to boost their anti vehicle potential.
To make room, I think I'll downsize the stealers and ripper swarms. I've thought about Zoanthropes, but decided I can live without. (Those stealers could well go in my final list in any case - more venomthropes might be better instead.)
Tactics wise, I'm thinking that the Space Marines are the least dangerous worry here. Their vehicles are going to be a ball ache. If a Land Raider arrives, it'll also be a ball ache as I've got little to take it out - hopefully the HG can either blow it up or glance it enough to stop it moving so my Tervigon can rip it open. Meh. It's only a Land Raider; those las cannons are nasty, but las cannon fire is a fact of life in the brutal world of 40k, right? The space marine army will probably get whacked with the common or garden tactic of me charging towards them en masse and not stopping until I've killed everything. This time I'm going to play it even more mindless than with the Thousand Sons, and pile everything into one enormous blob - last game I seperated the Warriors and some HG into a right flank and that just seemed not to work. Unless the marines split into two, I won't split into two.
Dark Eldar, on the other hand, are an unknown quantity. I don't know the Codex past the basics. I've used Google which, unsurprisingly, brought me back to Fritz:
http://saimhann.blogspot.com/2011/04/epic-tyranids-vs-dark-eldar.html
But that didn't give me tactics, just a portent of being wiped out utterly. Hmm... not good. So I'm expecting a lightly armoured, fast moving death force that can actually go toe to toe with me in close combat. Fortunately, I still reckon nothing can go toe to toe with my Shrike. So his best close combat troops have to be the target of my Shrike. I need to scent them, hunt them and scythe them before they can kick into action. Plus, if he does go close bomat heavy, then my major weakness - of having to get to my foe - is eliminated. Presumably he'll at least hang off a little, building up Pain Tokens.
His lightly armoured raiders are going to be zipping about that map, open topped firing on me. I think the best bet might be to spread out - the exact reverse of what I'll do to the Emperor's Best. If I occupy a quarter of the map, and push my front forces close to his table edge, then he'll be forced to flank me or face me. I'll stick the Hive Guard on the flank and Warriors on the centre flank. If he sits in front, he'll get whacked by the adrenal glanded termagants (if the Tervigon survives) as well as their small arms fire; the small arms fire of the Tyranid Warriors; even the Shrike can get in on that kind of party. The Ripper Swarms are useless unless I crack open a raider on the first turn or two. Damn. The stealers will be more effective - if they come in on the table edge I've forced him onto, he'll get hit by them. if they come in on the other table edge, at least they'll be with my army and not sat on their own twiddling their claws.
This won't be a bloodless affair, and I fear that my lack of Codex Fu will mean that some of what I've just said will fuck me up. But the current plan is: dominate the space in order to dominate the game, and hope that the poisoned weapons and close combat skillz don't entirely out match my own.
I think I'm developing an Eldar phobia...
I haven't settled on my army list, but I've decided - for the sake of experience for fighting tournaments and for the sake of fairness (neither Harry nor James have played all that much) - to use the same list for both matches (well, unless I tweak it in light of how I'm playing.) Plus, I'm not entirely sure what to use against Dark Eldar, so I may as well stick with my standard list. I'm thinking I might swap some stuff around from the list I last played:
(i) Catalyst on the Tervigon, otherwise I'm just wasting its psychic potential.
(ii) Adrenal glands on the Tervigon so I can boost adrenal glands on the Termies so I can take down lightly armoured vehicles.
(iii) Seriously consider adrenal glands on the stealers for some higher killing power, and - again - to boost their anti vehicle potential.
To make room, I think I'll downsize the stealers and ripper swarms. I've thought about Zoanthropes, but decided I can live without. (Those stealers could well go in my final list in any case - more venomthropes might be better instead.)
Tactics wise, I'm thinking that the Space Marines are the least dangerous worry here. Their vehicles are going to be a ball ache. If a Land Raider arrives, it'll also be a ball ache as I've got little to take it out - hopefully the HG can either blow it up or glance it enough to stop it moving so my Tervigon can rip it open. Meh. It's only a Land Raider; those las cannons are nasty, but las cannon fire is a fact of life in the brutal world of 40k, right? The space marine army will probably get whacked with the common or garden tactic of me charging towards them en masse and not stopping until I've killed everything. This time I'm going to play it even more mindless than with the Thousand Sons, and pile everything into one enormous blob - last game I seperated the Warriors and some HG into a right flank and that just seemed not to work. Unless the marines split into two, I won't split into two.
Dark Eldar, on the other hand, are an unknown quantity. I don't know the Codex past the basics. I've used Google which, unsurprisingly, brought me back to Fritz:
http://saimhann.blogspot.com/2011/04/epic-tyranids-vs-dark-eldar.html
But that didn't give me tactics, just a portent of being wiped out utterly. Hmm... not good. So I'm expecting a lightly armoured, fast moving death force that can actually go toe to toe with me in close combat. Fortunately, I still reckon nothing can go toe to toe with my Shrike. So his best close combat troops have to be the target of my Shrike. I need to scent them, hunt them and scythe them before they can kick into action. Plus, if he does go close bomat heavy, then my major weakness - of having to get to my foe - is eliminated. Presumably he'll at least hang off a little, building up Pain Tokens.
His lightly armoured raiders are going to be zipping about that map, open topped firing on me. I think the best bet might be to spread out - the exact reverse of what I'll do to the Emperor's Best. If I occupy a quarter of the map, and push my front forces close to his table edge, then he'll be forced to flank me or face me. I'll stick the Hive Guard on the flank and Warriors on the centre flank. If he sits in front, he'll get whacked by the adrenal glanded termagants (if the Tervigon survives) as well as their small arms fire; the small arms fire of the Tyranid Warriors; even the Shrike can get in on that kind of party. The Ripper Swarms are useless unless I crack open a raider on the first turn or two. Damn. The stealers will be more effective - if they come in on the table edge I've forced him onto, he'll get hit by them. if they come in on the other table edge, at least they'll be with my army and not sat on their own twiddling their claws.
This won't be a bloodless affair, and I fear that my lack of Codex Fu will mean that some of what I've just said will fuck me up. But the current plan is: dominate the space in order to dominate the game, and hope that the poisoned weapons and close combat skillz don't entirely out match my own.
I think I'm developing an Eldar phobia...
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