Hive Fleet Vile Ossuary Battle Force

Right, this is it, my final battle force at the moment:

HQ

'The Scourge of the Sons' Tyranid Prime w/ deathspitter, lash whip and bonesword.

TROOPS

'The Punchline' Tervigon w/ Catalyst and Adrenal Glands
10 Termagants
11 Hormogaunts
6 Genestealers
5 Genestealers
6 Tyrand Warriors, w/ deathspitters and one with barbed strangler

Elite

3 Hive Guard
2 Hive Guard
3 Zoanthropes

Fast Attack

6 Shrike, 5 w/ lash whips and bonesword and 1 w/ venom cannon

Rationale


Disclaimer: A lot of the ideas for this list, in particular the better ideas, come from Malcolm as we discussed 40k, after our second weekend bash, over a pint in Bacchus Bar in Birmingham (a bar I highly recommend given that there are only a handful of even half decent bars in Birmingham in the first place.)

The Tyranid Prime: HQ slots for Tyranids aren't great. I own a Hive Tyrant, but he's crap (so crap, I call him 'The Joke'.) Heavily overpriced, it's just not worth it. The Swarmlord strikes me as similarly problematic. Tervigons are worth every penny, but I haven't opted for a two Tervigon list (mainly, to be honest, for monetary and storage reasons at the moment.) The Parasite will feature in a fast attack list, but not this one. That leaves the Prime.

And he isn't a bad choice. Sticking him with the Warriors boosts them, and as I have a few of them I get an increasingly larger benefit; arming him with the lash whip means that when an assault rolls around I can reduce two models or so down to I1 without having to pay the extortinate cost of arming every model with lash whips; most importantly, the bastard can absorb the las-cannon shots that would otherwise lay waste to a Tyranid Warrior. (Downside, S10 still instant kills which, one day, I'll forget as I stick the S10 wound on him and watch him shrivel dead in an instant.) I did have him loaded up with Regeneration for just this reason, but I see now that this was a mistake - if someone wants to waste your warrior squad they'll do it within a turn of Dark/Brightlance fire / Lascannon fire and I'll never have a chance to even pick up the die and have the measly one in 6 chance of regaining the wound.

Tyranid Warriors: Fragile, as I am discovering to my chargrin. Nonetheless, 6 of them packs a devastating 18 shots a round, and in combination with the Prime they can actually shoot straight. I'm still waiting to see them realise their full potential as they keep getting lodged in terrain or on the wrong side of the board. But they are, supposedly, the backbone of the army. (That was the intent when the army list was first designed.) I can see that potential still when I start using them right. They have made the list into a more shooty list, which has really helped (it was demoralising to just sit and watch swathes of Nids get mown down in turns 1-3; at least now I can do something.) I've swapped out the venom cannon for the barbed strangler because (i) I decided to give the Shrike a cannon (see below); (ii) having some variation is always a good thing; (iii) that barbed strangler, firing at BS 4, is going to be a very effective anti-horde weapon. I hope. I'm yet to see this change in action, except for one game against the Eldar.

Termagants: I've bought them solely to get me a Tervigon as a troop choice. Well, almost. 50 points is cheap for a troop unit that can be used solely to claim an objective. Reserve them every game. In an objective game they can come on from reserve and claim an objective on my side of the board. In a kill points game they're too fragile so need to come on in a place where they can just hide. Although the option is always open for them to run on and assault a unit that has somehow strayed on my side of the board and I need to tie up - but I don't see that happening too often. (I tried that with the Deathwing I was fighting, and it was utterly ineffective.)

Tervigon: If you need to ask, you haven't read the Codex. I am in two minds about Catalyst. With so many units on the board, FNPing one of them is no big problem for the enemy - they can just shoot one of the many other units that's in their way. So all I'm doing is asking my foe to pick a different, perfectly viable, unit to shoot at. But for 15 points, I figure it's pretty useful. The Adrenal Glands are more tricky. I want the termagants I spawn to have adrenal glands, in order for them to be able to crack open rhinos. But getting the Tervigon with 6" of them when this happens looks very tricky. My Tervigon spawns the termies 6", which then move 6" and then assault 6", so spawned termies have an attack range of 18", invariably running a good 6" ahead of the Tervigon in the first place. So when they charge in, they are out of range of the glands. I need to pay careful attention to how often it is that the little blighters are getting the glands benefit. Saying that, in the last game against Eldar exactly this happened and they could've taken out a tank, so it also remains in.

Hormogaunts: I was in two minds about these, and then admonished myself. The hormies are your defensive shield, providing a 4+ cover save on legs. With the Bounding Leap ability you are unlikely to end up tied up behind your defensive shield, as you would be with termagants. Too many games have left me with the termies advancing 1" in the run phase, thus scuppering everyone stood behind them. The hormies have no such worry, and you'll almost certainly have them running far ahead. And they are deadly, so the enemy has to shoot them lest they get massacred when they come close. As they're my mobile shield, it's pointless boosting them up with glands of toxin sacs. I've settled on 11: any more is a waste. If any hormogaunt is alive when I arrive at the enemy side, that's points I could've been spending on something entirely different and probably more useful.

Genestealers: The outflanking stealers can leap on table edged objectives. If the enemy tries to game it and instead place the objectives in the centre, that's fine too as the stealers have a kill range of 13-18" when they come on, and could come on on either side, thus pushing the enemy into the central three feet, limiting the places they can manoeuvre. (All Mal's idea.) A damn good buy. I thought about boosting them, but even as bog standard stealers they still seem to dish out the damage so more bonuses might make them too effective (remembering that, ideally, you want to take two assault turns to wipe out an enemy unit.) I ditched Ripper Swarms in order to get a second unit, maximising my chance of getting at least one unit on the correct side of the table. That makes them a bit of a suicide unit, in so far as I doubt they'll last long in units this size, but that's fine by me.

Hive Guard: The only question you should be asking is why I don't have 9 of them.

Zoanthropes: And the reason is I needed to make room for these guys. I need some anti-LR. And they're bloody resilient. I did spod them, but was in two minds about it. Having read the FAQ I've seen that if I spod them then I'm obliged to bring them down in the spod, which doesn't work for me at all. So I've added one extra, and hope that this one extra will give them some longevity to get into position and shoot the Land Raiders. I might regret this approach, and swap the spod back in. We'll see how it goes.

Shrike: I fell in love with these guys. They are flying killing machines. At over 300 points they're expensive flying killing machines. My biggest fear was that every game they'd get shot apart as they came in for the kill. What's worse is that their armour save is gash, and the only way to get a cover save in many circumstances is to sit in difficult terrain (thus generating dangerous terrain tests every time they take to flight.) This fear has proven to be somewhat unfounded in so far as they turned out not to be the killing machines I had hoped for. Against anyone armed with power weapons, they're like matchsticks with claws. I've since managed to live with the fact that they're not everything to everyone (what 40k unit is?) and re-evaluated them. I added a venom cannon. This way (i) if I come across an army where my Shrike are not 'all that' they can at least shoot the buggers; (ii) if I meet an army where my Shrike *are* 'all that' I massacre the enemy unit on one side of the table and will still be able to do something to the other without spending two turns trapsing ove there; (iii) this is the biggy: I'm swapping out a lash whip and bonesword for a cheaper weapon that saves me 5 points (and allows me to buy another homorgaunt), the benefits of the lash whip are guaranteed by the rest of the unit (only rarely will it make any difference whether that model has a whip whilst the other blokes do!) and the loss of a bonesword, in return for shooting power and an extra model is well worth it. Well, well worth it. Oh, and (iv) the Shrike can shoot with the venom cannon, bust a tank open and then charge on in, whereas the Warriors - who are primarily shooting and not close combat - won't reap that benefit.

I'm still not done tinkering, and I'm very sad about the loss of my spinefisted tunnelling ripper swarms. I have noticed, though, that I have about 21 ripper swarms knocking around and so the idea of having a ripper swarm based list isn't out of the question either. (Although they use up a troop slot as the buggers can't claim objectives! I ask you...)

Hive Fleet Vile Ossuary versus Deathwing (Part Two)

So, I get to fight off against Dave's Deathwing again. I've changed my list since last time to include yet more anti-tank troops, so I'm intrigued as to how it'll play out.

DEATHWING

HQ

Belial w/ Lightning Claws

Librarin w/ combi-melta

TROOPS

5 Deathwing Termanitors: 1x Cyclone Missile Launcher; 2x lightning claws; 2x Thunder Hammer.

5 Deathwing Termanitors: 1x Cyclone Missle Launcher

5 Deathwing Terminators: 1 Apothecary; 2x Lightning Claws; 2x Thunder Hammer.

HEAVY SUPPORT

2x Land Raider Crusaders

HIVE FLEET VILE OSSUARY

HQ 

'The Scourge of the Sons' Tyranid Prime w/ Deathspitter, lash whip and bonesword

TROOPS

'The Punchline' Tervigon w/ Catalyst and Adrenal Glands

10 Termagants

11 Hormogaunts

5 genestealers

6 genestealers

6 warrior, one with barbed strangler, 5 w/ deathspitters

FAST ATTACK

6 Shrike, one w/ venom cannon, the rest with lash whips and bonesword

ELITE

3 Hive Guard

2 Hive Guard

3 Zoanthropes

MISSION SET UP

Having played two annihilation games last time, there was some sense of relief when we rolled Capture and Control with a Dawn of War set-up. Dave won the roll off, and chose to go first. We set up the objective markers as below - the top one that is circled is actually behind the ruin wall. 

And here's a shot of the table from a different angle:

DEPLOYMENT


Dave chose to deploy one unit of terminators in the centre of the table near the objective behind the ruin wall, the other he deployed alongside Belial in the forest. I opted to deploy nothing, and for it all to come on in the first turn, with just the unit of ten termagants in reserve. (I had hoped to infiltrate some stealers, but he set up so he had a good LOS in all directions. Or so I thought! Looking back at the photos I can see that I probably could've stuck them all behind the hill! D'oh!)

TURN ONE


I watched as his two land raiders rolled on from the northern edge. He then did a Deathwing assault with the remaining unit of terminators who DS'd in the middle of the table right on my side. With nothing to shoot, it was over to me.

I brought every frickin' thing on with the intent of wiping out the Deathwing Deep Striking unit that had the temerity to invade my table half on turn one. I rushed too quickly, and moved some things on in the wrong place - the zoanthropes were a little too far over to the west. But it was an impressive sight to have all of the Tyranids right there, facing down the space marines.

 The unit stood just in front of me got all barrels from the warriors, who refrained from blasting away with the barbed strangler as it'd clearly blow their own faces off. After some particularly poor rolls on the Dark Angels's part, three were killed! Not. A. Bad. Start.

I manoeuvred the eastern most unit of stealers to assault, whilst mostly everyone ran forwads. I foolishly left my hormogaunts in cover, and my stealers out of it. The Hive Guard opened fire on the middle unit of terminators, killing two after some pretty poor saves (I only realised afterwards that we failed to do Night Fighting for being in Dawn of War. D'oh! One day, I'll play this game and remember all of the frackin rules.)

The stealers carried out their assault, finishing off another terminator and  leaving me with the magic number of just one left (this was after some neat rends.) The come back wipes one out.

And here's how the other side of the table looked like on the end of the first turn.

TURN TWO

The middle Land Raider Crusader moves up and the three terminators who had survived the Hive Guard's deadly assault of impaler shards scooch on into it. It opens fire into the stealer squad that's left out in the open. After the assault cannon stops spinning, four are dead and one's left on his tod. The eastern land raider, with the librarian in it, rolls over the hill. It also fires, but is out of range by just that little bit.

In the assault, the lone terminator from the Deathwing assault fails to see off the stealers who claw open his armour and start investigating his innards. They move on up.

Over to the Tyranid turn and the Tervigon spits out sixteen little darlings, but constipates on the first turn. It manages to lay some Feel No Pain love on the larger Hive Guard unit. Everything else simply moves up, with the stealers and termagants heading eastwards towards Belial.

The Hive Guard fire, taking out the western land raider, immobilising it and blowing off its assault cannon. No more 'spinny spinny, die die' from that particular piece of kit! The Warriors take a peek around and have a look at Belial. They lay down some fire, but to no effect. The Shrike, however, (in the next pic they're just to the left of the ruin, off camera) fire their venom cannon and get a wound on the squad, taking one of the models off as a terminator falls foul of the brutal poisons of Hive Fleet Vile Ossuary. The second lot of Hive Guard fire, again on the land raider, but - whilst they happen to JUST be in range - there's no effect. The Zoanthropes try to blast the land raider but are out by the smallest fraction of an inch (the kind that, if I had positioned them correctly, wouldn't have mattered.)

And here's a shot from behind, from the Deathwing's point of view:

TURN THREE

The far eastern land raider advances down the hill another 6", signalling its intent to fire... The terminators on the eastern edge with Belial spread out, having been shot by my template weapons, but their difficult terrain roll only lets them get 2" away.

The immobilised middle land raider cranks up its two hurricane bolters into the hormogaunts. I've strung them out so half are in the forest, and the bolters only take out three. The multi-melta fires into my Shrike, but misses. The eastern tank fires into the stealers that have just finished off their mates, and after the bolter and assault cannon fire has ended, all five lie dead. The multi-melta catches the Tervigon in its sights, but she's ever so slightly out of range.

Over to me. Everything advances. I mean, what do you expect me to say? I'm a Tyranid army, we ALWAYS advance. The Tervigon puts down Feel No Pain on the warriors this time, as I suspect they might come in for a hard time. The Warriors fire, but only get one in. After the rolls are made, more than a few wounds have been taken but the Feel No Pain scrubs them all clean. FNP'd  terminators = unfair.

The Zoanthropes have now moved up into position and can see the front nub of the immobilised land raider. Wanting to get rid of it, they fire warp lances; all of the tests are passed but one of them is stopped by the psychic hood. I get two penetrating hits as the Hive Mind's sheer willpower cracks through the ancient armour plating of the Emperor's devil machine, but the damn cover save stops any damage being inflicted. The Hive Guard also all fire, but to absolutely no effect. Meanwhile the remaining stealer strikes out on his own towards Belial alongside the termagants, and they move on through the ruin wall.

And here's how it looks on the other side:




TURN FOUR


The land raider moves forwards and pivots. Belial charges out on his own to meet the genestealer whilst the squad he's just left move out to meet the termagants.

The immobilised land raider is still going strong and bolters chug supersonic rounds into the termagants, killing four. The multi melta draws a bead on the Tervigon, but - as was a running theme during this game - misses. The fully operational land raider fires its bolter, multi-melta and assault cannon into the termagants, mowing down eight of them. Machine spiriting the other sponson, it ends up being just out of rapid fire range and so kills only 2 more. Belial's terminators fire, killing another two termagants, leaving just the one left. They assault it, and Belial assaults the lone genestealer. Just witness the OUTRAGEOUS bullying the space marines are partaking in. Look at my poor guys:

Unsurprisingly, the squad in armour that can survive plasma temperatures make short work of both my guys. Here they are 'victorious' as they walk away from the corpses of the younger, smaller guys that they so enjoyed picking on:

Over to me. The Tervigon cocks up her psychic test and fails to Catalyse herself. The Warriors move east to get a decent shot on Belial's crew, and the termagants come on from reserve to aid them. The Hive Guard, a little worried by how close Belial's men are, move west. The remaining few hormogaunts dart out and bivouac down behind the ruin, out of LOS of the land raiders. The Shrike move well over the map, but  keep ensuring that the venom cannon has the tinniest bead of an LOS onto Belial. They fire it, but to no effect. The Hive Guard fire on the eastern land raider, but turn up nothing. The Zoanthropes channel the Hive Mind again - one gets hooded by the Librarian, the next misses his shot and the final one hits but rolls a '1' for penetration. No effect.




The warriors fire everything they have on Belial whilst he's stuck out in the open and away from the Apothecary. They manage to effectively kick him in the shins, doing a single wound to the bugger. The termagants have a stab too, but with only four of them in range those fleshborers (shock horror!) do nothing at all.

 The Tervigon charges the immobilised land raider, desperately trying to crack it open to get to the troops inside and remove the bastard thing from contesting the objective. With four attacks she automatically hits, but even rolling 2d6 for armour penetration she fails to get a penetrating hit! The scandal!

TURN FIVE


The depleted terminator squad dive out of the land raider as the Tervigon's paws bash against the side. The Librarian, force weapon in hand, heads out of the other Land Raider and towards the Tervigon. Here's a picture that a low-orbit Imperial probe got as it passed by:

Belial and his mates on the other side regroup, moving onto the objective and Belial rejoins the unit. The immobilised land raider fires its bolters and multi-melta into the Shrike. Two are killed. The other bolter fires into the warriors on Belial's side, but inflict only one wound. The other land raider decides to follow suit, killing one of the guys and wounding another. Notably, the Prime takes the melta shot that hit, making me proud of his appearance in the ranks to stop 'anti-splat' action (a.k.a. instant death.) Belial's guys fire on the warriors as well, but to no effect.

The terminators that have just disembarked open fire on the Shrike, killing two more. Whilst the Librarian pulls out that fancy combi-weapon and meltas the Tervigon for a wound. This is quite by the by as the Librarian then charges in and force weapons the Tervigon to death.

Over to me again. The Shrike move onto the ruin itself, making their dangerous terrain test.



The Zoanthropes fire again, and again one of their shots is stopped by the psychic hood. They manage to only blow off the multi-melta of the disabled vehicle. In hindsight, I should've shot the fully operational one rather than trying to finish off the damaged one. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

The Hive Guard decide to turn their attention away from anti-tank and to anti-infantry. They let loose their wall-penetrating shots to take out two of Belial's men. The Venom Cannon from the Shrike, now hoisted high in the air on top of the ruin, again fires but, again, to no effect.

I then have a decision to make: do I assault, or not? Having witnessed what they did to me in the last game when I got up close and personal I was in two minds, but decided to have a go. Which was clearly the correct choice as the odds were in my favour! I move the warriors forwards, and swiftly decide to have the termagants to join the melee given their life expectancy facing off the weapons on the land raider is most limited.

Belial, claws spinning, lands wounds on two of the warriors. Over then to the Prime, who - bonesword in hand - cleaves the remaining troops in two. The Tyranid warriors, rounded on by his success, attack Belial, killing him. Everyone consolidates over, with the warriors managing to move into cover: 

So, this is it, we've got one objective contested and I've just wiped out the units on the other. I have one objective, and he's got none! We roll for game end and... it goes on! Denied! I have a feeling that the tank, which I frankly can't get into, is about to tank shock me and contest the objective I've just cleared.

TURN SIX


Dave tank shocks me, contesting the objective I've just cleared.

Everything else stays where it is. The Terminators on the western side next to the immobilised tank fire into the Shrike, but their cover save secures them safety. The immobilised land raider then fires into the Shrike, inflicting a wound. It also lets rip with the other bolter all the way over the other side of the table, killing a termagant. The land raider that's just tank shocked my boys fires on them, but they're very much in cover and safe as houses.

The terminators then assault the Shrike. The Shrike manage to take one down, but the terminators kill both of the remaining Shrike with their power gloves. The Librarian activates its force weapon and charges the Zoanthropes, tying them up in an assault.

I shuffle my termagants and warriors around on the objective I have no hope of claiming back. Then I turn my attention to the other objective.

Damn. WTF? Damn. How am I going to get into those tanks? Damn. I decide I have to free the Zoanthropes if I'm going to get rid of the land raider and will also have to kill the remaining troops. If I can do both of these things, I can claim the other objective. The hormogaunts stop hiding and charge the terminators on the other side of the ruin, drawing a wide circle around the other side before coming on in. The Hive Guard fire through the wall, to no effect, and then charge in on the same assault. The Tyranids have no effect, and the Terminators simply kill the hormogaunts after they take all the damage for losing the assault and being fearless. (I read the rules in horror realising the Hive Guard took the same wounds as well, but they made their saves.)

Meanwhile the other two Hive Guard assault the Librarian. He screws up his force weapon activation from Shadows in the Warp. Nonetheless, the Zoanthropes take a wound.

And here's a shot of both assaults in one:

We roll for game end. I need one more turn and a helluva lot of luck. It goes on!

TURN SEVEN


That's right, it's down to the wire now. The tank on the eastern edge simply pivots. I point out that it's irrelevant what happens at this stage on that side of the table, but Dave wants to wipe out one of my units. Fair enough. The immobilised land raider fires into the warriors, but to no effect, whilst the tank shocking raider meltas the warriors and misses. With its assault cannon and hurricane bolters it fires into the termagants. I hurl them to the ground, getting them their 6+  cover save. When the dust has settled, and I've made three saves, a single termagant sits there, grinning to himself.


Then we immediately go to assaults. The librarian again fails his force weapon roll, and comes to a draw with the Zoanthropes and Hive Guard. The Hive Guard on the troops next to the objective manage to club the storm bolter wielding terminator into the ground. STOMP STOMP STOMP.

Now it's my turn again. Damn! No way to clear these guys off unless I am very lucky and finish off both the librarian and the Cyclone Launcher terminator, and the land raider is 3" away from the objective. But there's nothing I can actually do except move straight to the assault phase. I manage to kill the remaining terminator troop choice, but the Zoanthropes/Hive Guard again draw with the Librarian. Damn. Clearly that objective is now contested. So, at the end of the game, both objectives are tied up and it's a draw.

Here's the objective where I just finished off some of the Deathwing and was left with the librarian:

And here's the other one where the warriors and termagants are all over it, but with a Land Raider getting in on the action:

OVERALL


This was just a great game, a real nail biting experience. Again, I was faced with tank-related problems. But it's not as if I can get anymore anti-tank on the list! I'd complain about unlucky dice rolls, but given what happened when I mowed down the terminators in the first turn, I won't shout too loudly.

I'm also starting to think I should be more open to FNPing units like, say, the termagants. If they'd stayed a live a bit longer, I'd have had a bit more flexibility in a few places. I've also learnt that Hive Guard are crap against Land Raiders. I'd be there all day trying to take one out, and immobilising it - whilst it might be useful in a few cases - isn't going to be all that useful with a mobile death fortress, since losing the 'mobile' adjective doesn't exactly cause it too much pause for thought...

Getting to grips with the Tyranid FAQ

So, the FAQ update has arrived. I’ve gone through it, which I haven't done since ages ago when I was learning the basics, so it also means that I'm coming to grips with some of the older FAQs. I’m going to mainly complain talk about the old and the new stuff.

Some of the changes are clarifications that are just interesting to see made.  Until reading the FAQ, for instance, it had never crossed my mind that I could deep strike my Tyranid Prime with the lictor brood. Which, I’ve just realised, would’ve been cool as it increases the likelihood of the lictors survival, and on the turn after DS a prime loaded with lash whip and bonesword could do a damn fine assault; shame we can’t do that anymore. Personally, I think that such a move is so cool that they should’ve let it stay. (And you’d have found a two prime, 6 Lictor list heading your way sometime soon.)

There’s a lot to whinge about. The FAQ clearly conflicts with rules in the book, such as the prohibition on the Prime spodding it with a brood (what’s *that* about?); the absurd ruling that assaulting a venomthrope doesn’t reduce you to I 1 in obvious contradiction to the rules about terrain tests during assaults forcing you to do exactly that; gratuitous constraints on multiple Hive Commanders not being able to Outflank multiple units; an acceptable, but still whinge worthy, ruling that lash whipped units can go on to boost their initiative using their other powers; the unacceptable, and most whinge worthy, ruling that the lash whipped individual’s initiative shoots back up on the Sweeping Advance in obvious contradiction to what the rules say (as they explicitly say that the I remains at 1 until the end of the assault phase.) Minor stuff, I suppose, but it just feels like they’re really pissing on the bloodied, broken termagant shaped body that is the Tyranid codex. It’s not like the list is over-powered in the first place, and I don’t think keeping these rulings the other way around breaks the game or anything. I don’t know: maybe the guy who plays Nids in GW is just a gawd so they keep laying the pain on him via FAQs in the hopes of scoring a win against the scuttling horde.

I think I have to take a moment though to really screw up my eyes and mewl about one of the (older) FAQ rulings that a Spore can’t come down without the unit in it even though it’s listed as a dedicated transport. What’s galling about this is that, in the Space Marine Codex FAQ, it’s explicitly stated that the drop pod for the genetically engineered Frankenstein freaks can come down with no-one in them. MADNESS! So not only are their pods cheaper, and get to choose to what to shoot at, and have a far superior BS, and are a harder to kill vehicle, but they're also being screwed on simple rulings. Not only is this disparity painful rules wise, but it makes no sense: how is it that the unmanned drop pod can fall from the sky, but the living creature that is a Spore somehow can’t manage this feat unless its body is filled up with troops? Is it like an obese MacDonald's addict which refuses to do anything until you've stuffed its body full of meat? It’s not like the termagant or hormogaunt brood is *piloting* the damn thing, so I don’t see how their absence makes a blind bit of difference. This means my decision to Spod the Zoanthropes now seems to be a slightly poorer one. If I spod them then they have to sit in reserve when I might desperately need them from the get go. I think that, rather than spodding them, I’ll just buy an extra one instead and have them walk on in. That extra 3+ inv. save and 2W should, hopefully, give them at least some longevity so they can get into position. It also kiboshes my plans for Spod Spam (a list of 6 troop units with spods, that all deploy on foot and them the spods DS in to make it really difficult to have an objective uncontested and/or provide a wall of LOS blocking terrain; but why are you reading this bit? I can't do it anymore, unlike the Space Marines. So I might design a drop pod spam list...)

But there are upsides. Some minor upsides include making the Tyrant Guard a single kill point when combined with the Hive Tyrant. I’ve also noted that my Zoanthropes can each use different powers even when in the same brood (for no discernible reason.) That is conceivably going to prove useful. Also, should my Prime ever be alongside the termies and the Tervigon he’ll get the benefits of the adrenal glands and toxin sacs. But this is chump change; nothing here allows me to really monopolise on the list or bring anything to bear that I don’t think I could’ve brought before hand.

That is except for the Hive Guard. Now nothing provides cover saves except terrain you’re in and terrain you’re touching. Goodbye Fast Skimmer saves for Eldar! Oh yeah baby! That’s right, my chances of taking down those tanks have just doubled. Ork bikers, as well, take the pain. This will be a bugger to Harry and Mark, both of whom have been playing orks. (And, last game, I gave Harry their smokey save on the grounds that I *thought* that would’ve been the correct ruling; now I’ve been FAQed to a better position.) Harry has already tried to stick his bid in for them counting as being 'in terrain', but alas I think it’s pretty clear that this is not the case. This is doubly so as the semi-nerfing of the venomthrope says that the venomthrope’s spore cloud, which gives the ‘thrope a cover save, doesn’t count as a piece of terrain. Presumably the same applies to the ork bikes: they aren’t in terrain and my impaler cannons will be shooting orky exhaust tubes sometime soon.

Horus Heresy

For those of you who don't know, back in October we all went over to Spiel in Germany. Whilst over there one of the purchases I made was Horus Heresy. Unfortunately because of bag restrictions I couldn't get it back to Birmingham and had to wait for Malcolm to bring it over (he did put some money in for 1/4 of it, so this isn't so bizarre.)

You know the drill: it's a multi-counterfest two player game where one person plays Horus and the other plays the Emperor fighting it out for control of Earth at the very end of the Heresy. As Mal pointed out, it's not clear who you should be vying for. After all, the Emperor is unremittingly evil, killing absolutely anyone who fails to toe his very exacting standards. Although I still confess I have a hard time understanding why anyone joins chaos; if I was just some random schmoe I'd be planning to spend my life boozing and getting laid, but as soon as I saw that the mesdemoiselles of the Traitors were chaotically mutated freaks I'd be thinking 'Heh, those loyalist chicks have fairer skin, smell nicer and don't have tentacles.' I don't think anything would make me go for Horus's side. Anyhow, I digress...

The main game mechanic is an initiative track. You both start at one end and as you take actions you move  down it. Whoever has spent the least initiative gets to take the turn. As the initiative track advances, various stages are marked telling you to refill your selection of Order cards (which you use to make actions); play a scenario-dependent Event card; check to see if Horus has won (if, after half way through, he has four spaceports, he's won); and if the game ends (when you reach the end of the track - at which point Super Fascist Jim, otherwise known as the Emperor, wins the game.) Throughout, the Traitors get to bombard the loyalists, turn them to chaos and generally beat up on them. Given that they have to control four locations (the spaceports) and the Emperor needs to hold out until the end of the initiative track, they've got a tough task ahead of them so need all the help they get.

The game's fun. Lots of rules, but not an insane amount. I'm fairly sure one or two play throughs will do you just fine. Here's how our game went:

So this was set up. Just after this Horus blows the crap out of my men with his defence lasers and orbital mounted rail guns, before converting some of the dudes to the Dark Side. It's pretty mean.

Indeed, he managed to convert almost everyone in the bottom right to the Ruinous Powers. He then drop-podded a load of Slaaneshi forces there, dropped a load of Khornate forces on the bottom left next to the spaceport that he bombed the crap out of, and then gave me the hat trick by dropping a load of Nurgle dudes in the north.

I moved some dudes in the Imperial Palace out to meet Mortarion and his forces, and then the Master Fabricator to meet the Khornate Forces. I was a bit against moving fellas to fight outside of the Palace walls because I couldn't shake the feeling that the game was about the Emperor hiding in his Palace and Horus hiding on his ship and waiting for the end game to play out with one fighting the other.

This understanding of the game, by the way, is deeply, deeply flawed.

So a little while on, I've made fatal errors of moving troops to reinforce the Emperor on the eastern part of the palace. Here they are:

It's very pretty to see that many loyalists in one location ready to fight the enemy. But it's not a frackin' spaceport that they were defending. So the traitor forces moved on in, slaughtered everyone they found in my undefended ports and won the game:

As I write it in black and white I see how bloody foolish it was to not concentrate 100% on defending the ports. I mean, I realised at the time, but there had - in the name of learning the rules - already been a lot of backtracking as we figured out what was going on. So even though I knew I made fatal mistakes I didn't call the toss. And then lost.

But next time, and given the game is fun there will be a next time, I'll know exactly what's going on and have a better idea of what tactics to use. Doubly so given that I'll have a chance to read that nice, meaty rulebook.

The Struggle for Lustraedkel IV Continues!

Led by the fearless Scourge of the Sons (that's my new name for the Prime who beat James's Thousand Sons) the struggle for Lurstradekl IV continues as the Eldar maliciously invade Tyranid controlled territory!

Hive Fleet Ossuary

HQ

'The Scourge of the Sons' Tyranid Prime w/ regeneration, deathspitter, lash whip and bonesword.

Troops

'The Punchline' Tervigon w/ Catalyst and Adrenal Glands

10 Termagants

18 Hormogaunts

5 Tunelling Ripper Swarms w/ Spinefists

9 Genestealers

6 Tyrand Warriors, w/Deathspitters and one with Venom Cannon

Elite

3 Hive Guard

2 Zoanthropes in a Mycetic Spore armed w/ twin-linked deathspitter

Fast Attack

6 Shrike, 5 w/ lash whips and bonesword and 1 w/ barbed strangler

TOTAL: 1499

Eldar Battle Force

HQ
Avatar of Khaine
Eldrad Uthran

Troops
10 Guardian defenders, w/ scatter laser
6 Jet bikes, w/ 2 shuriken Cannons
9 Dire Avengers, w/ Exarch, Xtra Catapult, Bladestorm
Dedicated Transport 'Dire Serpent': Wave Serpent w/ Twin Linked Eldar Missile Launcher and Spirit Stones

Elites
5 Howling Banshees w/ Exarch and Executioner
5 Fire Dragons
Dedicated Transport 'Dragon Serpent': Wave Serpent, w/ Twin linked Shuriken Cannon, Star Drive and Spirit Stones

Heavy Support
Falcon Grav-Tank w/ Scatter Laser and Holofields
3 Dark Reapers w/ Exarch, Eldar Missile Launcher and Fast Shot

POINTS 1500

 We set up the terrain as follows:

 We rolled Seize Ground, placing the objectives here:

We rolled Spearhead. I won the toss, and decided, perhaps incorrectly, to go first. Always a hard choice to make: get the benefit of choosing what I think is the best terrain versus the Eldar getting a sneaky win near the end. Here’s how set-up looked on the Tyranid side:

And here's how the Eldar set up (notice the dark reapers hiding out up top - don't worry, you won't have to notice them for long.)

And here's a full table shot:

TURN ONE

The Tervigon risks it for a biscuit and uses Catalyst on the Shrike. One wound later, she decided that wasn’t such a hot idea. Damn runes of warding! She nevertheless spawns thirteen termagants. My hormogaunts charged and the warriors, with their (all new and shiny) barbed strangler, fire at the dark reapers (remembering what they do to warriors from the last game...) They take out one. The Hive Guard get another. The Shrike with the venom cannon take out the last one. No more Dark Reapers! Result! (Mal commented on how shooty my army appears to have become since we last played.)

Over to the Eldar. It’s Guide on the Grav Tank, Jet Bikes and Fortune on the Dragon Serpent (that is, the Wave Serpent with the Dragons in them.) I got that sinking feeling – if he’s guiding his guys, he’s about to shoot up mine… The Falcon fires, and after a poor set of rolls do only two wounds on the Shrike. The Guardians fire their Scatter Laser on the Zoanthropes which bounces harmlessly off of their warp shield. The Jet Bikes then follow up likewise. Four wounds. THEY FAIL ALL THEIR SAVES WITH A 1,1,2 AND 2! Very unhappily, I remove the models as my anti tank maestros, who have only managed to step forward and not fire even a single shot, are taken off of the table.

The Eldar missile launcher from the tank whacks 6 hits into the shrike, getting two wounds and killing one. The Jet Bikes then do the Eldar Shuffle and fall back behind the ruins, out of range of my Hormogaunts. Dancing cowards, that’s what I call them.

Here's how the Nids looked at the end of the turn. Note the empty spot where the Zoanthropes should be... 

Here's Eldrad and the Cowering Crew:

TURN TWO

The Tervigon uses Catalyst on the Hive Guard, getting them. The Ripper Swarms deep strike in, scattering 7” but harmlessly appearing next to the jet bikes. The termagants also come up good, and I put them on at the far end to claim an objective. The Tervigon spits out 14 more termagants which charge back towards the objective deep in my deployment zone. My guys, honest, burly blokes just looking for a good meal, slowly advance forwards.

The Swarms shoot, but only kill one jet bike. The Hive Guard fire, but only get a single glance on the tank which then makes its fortuned save. The hormogaunts charge through the wire, losing only one man to the 17 Dangerous Terrain tests they had to make. They then hurtle through the ruins and into the guardians who are just in range of their charge. Attacking through cover means they’re on I1, and they lose two of their brothers in arms. But they claim 8 Guardians in return. Let's get a shot of them in action:

Over to the Smelldar. (See what I did there? It’s because they smell.) Eldrad guides the tank, and dooms the hormogaunts and shrike. The Dragon Serpent rolls forwards and drops the Fire Dragons who squirt melta all over my flying shrike, instant killing two models (one was saved by the barbed wire cover save!) The Falcon, though, follows up with shots and finishes them off. The Dire Avengers, meanwhile, get out the back of their tank and shoot up the swarms, taking out three bases. The Dire Serpent then misses with its attacks on the swarm.

The Hormogaunts are assaulted by Eldrad and the Banshees. Oh, and the Jet Bikes. Ah, yeah, I remember –that Avatar bloke too. Yup, almost the entire Eldar army charges in on my hungry little men. Here's what it looks like:

The Banshees drop them to I1, and they’re wiped out. So here's a picture of the slaughter a mere few seconds later.

TURN THREE

The Tervigon continues to Catalyst the Guard, as I figure that, without them, I’m sunk. She then craps out another 11 termagants. The Stealers manage to get in on time, outflanking on the correct table edge. The Mycetic Spore also deploys, just failing to get in behind one of the tanks.

Everything advances. The two termagants squads closest to my starting point make their synapse, and here's the furthest unit rounding the hill to get a bead on the Fire Dragons:

The ripper swarms unfortunately fail their synapse test, and just charge the Banshees. Aha, that’ll work boys (not...) They don’t even manage to have the sense to shoot their bloody guns... The Hive Mind needs to work on that.  Fortunately, they roll a 6 on the instinctive behaviour test and only take a single wound for being out of synapse.

The Warriors fire the Strangler,  which scatters onto the Jet Bikes. Whilst the screams of agony from the riders are loud and easily heard, there’s no actual effect. They're just crying for no reason. The Deathspitters rain down Niddy Death onto the Banshees, taking two of them.

The Hive Guard shoot the Dragon Serpent, immobilising it and stopping it from firing next turn. Which is just as well! The termagants also shoot, taking out a Fire Dragon. The Tervigon salvos to take out another, and then they fall back 7”, which is right back into the Fearless Aura of the Avatar. (I always think of him like a giant blue smurf having seen James Cameron's Avatar.) The Mycetic Spore does a poor show on blowing up the tank, and has no effect.

In the assault phase the stealers dual assault the Dire Serpent and the Dire Avengers. As they go through the crater, they’re on I1 and the Avengers manage to claim a Stealer life before they come back. They split their attacks. 16 go on the tank and 8 on the Avengers. The tank explodes (GO BOYS, GO!) and the stealers manage to take out a single Avenger, making the combat a draw. But the resulting tank blast does an extra stealer model of damage. Here they are with the extra crater where the Dire Serpent was:

The Swarms, driven by bloodlust, try to eat on the Banshees and Eldrad, who slaughter them easily. Probably like dusting spiders off of an old jacket.

Over to the Eldar. The Stealers get Doomed as do the Termagants on the farthest edge. The Banshees swivel, and attack the stealers whilst Eldrad heads off and gets back in his tank like a James Bond super villain demonstrating his cowardice of leaving his mooks to fend off the good guys whilst he makes good his escape. The rest of the army moves so they get a good bead on the termagants who come on the table edge. The Fire Dragons move to the barbed wire and fire into the Hive Guard. Smacking into them with 2 hits, I laugh loudly when they roll snake eyes for the wounding. The Guardian scatter laser opens up, killing one of the far termagants. The Bikes fire, taking out another 2 as the termagants heroically cling to the hillside and claim their 4+ cover save. The tank fires the scatter laser, taking out two more, but I manage to make up for this with a snake eyes of my own on the morale test. The Avatar, meanwhile, sprints across the board.

In the assault phase the stealers are down to I1 because of the banshees, but the same is true of them as they assault through the Dire Serpent’s smoking remains. The combined forces wipe out the stealers, but fortunately leaves more Dire Avengers than can fit in the tank with Eldrad. Here's the Eldar force:

And here's a full table shot of the end of the turn:

TURN FOUR

The Tervigon gets another nine termgants. The termagants shuffle around so they can get the best balance of cover, LOS on the Fire Dragons and being close to the objectives. The Warriors line up on the Avatar. The Spore shoots out, and wrongly I shoot the guardian when it should shoot the bikes (my bad). It kills one, as the cover saves from the bikes keep the other guy safe.

Time to play spot the difference between the next two photos:

That's right, the assembled mass of Termagants shoot the Fire Dragons, taking out three and killing them. The Hive Guard fire on the tank with Eldrad in it, but this only results in it being unable to fire. The Warriors fire on the Avatar, and it turns out that the giant Smurf has some tough armour as they bounce off entirely. The Tervigon runs through the barbed wire. (Mal claims this is the biggest mistake of the game. He's probably right - see below.)

Over to the Eldar. Eldrad’s mobile Coward Fortress, otherwise known as his tank, gets Fortuned, followed by Dooming the termagants and fortuning the Banshees. The Avatar moves to attack the Tervigon, slamming his spear on the way in for a wound. The Jet Bikes move to the remaining termagant unit, and fire. This kills four, leaving only one. The Dragon Serpent fires, but after the 3+ save gets only one.

The Eldar were running low on troops now, and that Lone Guardian runs up the hillside to claim the objective. Which, ironically, was when Guns And Roses’s ‘Run for the Hills’ came on the music player. Perfect timing. Here he is, dancing to that glorious tune:

The Banshees assault the warriors, whilst the Avatar gets jiggy with the Tervigon. The Banshees do all their attacks on the Prime, but his high toughness means they only do one wound. Cocking his head quizically, he swings his sword and cleaves their heads off, wiping them out. The consolidation allows the Nids to make their way through the ruins, lining up on the Dire Avengers. Smurf Boy, on the other hand, does two wounds on my Tervigon who ineffectually pats him on the head for his trouble.

TURN FIVE

Things are getting tense. The Prime fails his regeneration, whilst the Tervigon spits out another ten termagants. The Warriors shoot the Avengers. This leaves one. Intending to assault them and then move forward on the consolidate I’m less amused when my overzealous spore wipes out the Exarch because it involuntarily fires. Here they are, peering at the jet bikes in the distance and wondering where their chance to assault and consolidate an extra 9" has been pissed away:

The ten termagants from the Tervigon eye up the Lone Guardian and fleshborer him to death. The Eldar are down to one troop unit, and it doesn’t look good for them. The Hive Guard move to take out the jet bikes, but only get one. As we move to assaults, the Smurf finishes off the Tervigon which instantly denies half the table Synapse. Hmm…

The Eldar tank shocks one of the objectives, causing the now unsynapsed termagants to fall back from it. The Avatar charges the next objective, hurling a spear at the termagants he sees there. He hits but the spear of Khaine fails to wound. I can imagine my lads holding it high in pride at how it doesn't stop them fighting on.

The tank and the jet bikes go Ripley on the termagants and kill four of them, before the Avatar assaults the other termagants, getting five of them and causing them to flee.

I desperately need the game to continue, which it does!

TURN SIX

The unit that’s just been shocked by the Coward Mobile makes its test to regroup, and then turns back to return to the objective. Everything within range of the Jet Bikes fire, so that’d be the warriors, termagants and Hive Guard, but only one of the bikes dies. ONE! Not good. 

The Avatar gets surrounded by termagants who test whether a fleshborer can be a molten-skin-borer. The answer is 'No' and they continue the run of inflicting no wounds on the Elf Smurf God. Here they are:

Over to the Eldar. The termagants next to the bikes get doomed. Eldrad then gets out of his tank and the tank shocks the termagants on the next  objective along. They make the leadership test, but the tank is JUST within the 3” range to contest. It was actually out of range but the pivoting got it in. That tank then manages to scatter laser the doomed termagants on the other side of the table, taking out two of them. The Fire Serpent, downed but not forgotten, does another one and the jet bikes shuriken to death a couple more. This leaves just the one.

Eldaad then Eldritch Storms the incoming termagants, blasting six of them to pieces and causing them to fall back.

The Avatar hurls his spear at the termagants in his neighbourhood, killing one (they can’t, apparently, do the same trick twice in a row and survive.) His assault kills a few more and when they fail their leadership test he Smurf Chases them and gobbles them up.

So it leaves one termagant contesting the objective with the bikes. They move in for the assault and, unsurprisingly, kill him. Eyeing up the table, and seeing another sneaky last minute Eldar win perpertrated by tanks that I failed to blow up, and seeing how close I am to wiping out that one unit and claiming the only objective that the Eldar aren't contesting, we roll to see if there’ll be another turn.

As I sob, surrounded by tears and dead Tyranids, it comes up with a ‘1’. Another Eldar victory and my success is denied! Lanky bastards Ltd. strike again.

(Good game though.)

Here's the objective in my deployment quarter at the end of the game. You can see Eldrad stood next to the objective, and the Coward Mobile hovering over the other one next to a bunch of stalwart termagants.

And here's the Avatar stood next to the objective that he cleared the termagants off of:

And, just to show the final objective, and how close I was to taking it, here are the bikes next to the hill objective, with the Hive Guard just stood off and the Warriors charging to reclaim it. One more turn would have given me a damn fine change of getting on in there. Ah well, maybe next time.

Reflections

I played a damn good game, and the god of dice was very kind to me. But, once again, the last minute zipping-power of the Eldar managed to claim victory from me. I really need to finish off the tanks in every game in order to prevent this sort of madness. It was bad luck that the Zoanthropes died. But, mainly, I made some good choices and I'm happy with putting psychic users back in a list against Eldar and their runes of warding.

As Mal said, the worst problem might be when I moved the Tervigon past the barbed wire and towards the tank. This was part of my continuing aggressive strategy and, in this case, I might've been too aggressive. I should've held back and then the Smurf would've had to make his roll to assault, and I'd have had another turn of seeing off the tank. I needed at this stage to hold back, and use my Tervigon to ward off the bloody thing. Downside, that doesn't prevent the last minute Eldar tank shock moving me out of the way. So even this error might not have been that terrible. 

Definitely happy with the Spore, although I'm in two minds about those ripper swarms. Are they really worth the points? Or would an extra Zoanthrope or Hive Guard be better? I'll have to think about it. Just in time for 6th edition to come out and for me to have to change my list entirely...