I own a Tyrannofex. I own a Tyrannofex I modelled myself and only just finished. I own an outdated Tyrannofex.
I own a lot of hatred for GW.
Let’s see whether my outdated model is any good though. Is it worth the points? Conventional wisdom says no, but I’ve been scoping out the forums and I’ve decided that, actually, it could have a place in a list like mine. Will it do well? Have I wasted my time? Will I be posting a smashed Tyrannofex to GW with ‘You make crap rules, you make models late’ written in my own blood? Read on and see…
ARMY LISTS
VILE OSSUARY (Western Reach Swarmarm)
HQ
'The Scourge of the Sons' Tyranid Prime w/ deathspitter, lash whip and bonesword.
Troops
'The Punchline' Tervigon w/ Onslaught and Adrenal Glands.
10 Termagants
7 Genestealers
6 Tyranid Warriors, w/ deathspitters and one with barbed strangler
Elite
3 Hive Guard
3 Zoanthropes
1 Venomthrope
Fast Attack
4 Shrike, 3 w/ lash whips and bonesword and 1 w/ venom cannon
Heavy Attack
‘The Iniquitous Bulwark’ Tyrannofex w/ rupture cannon, cluster spines and desiccator larvae
DEATHWING
HQ
Belial
Interrogator-Chaplain in terminator armour
Troops
3 squads of Deathwing, each armed with:
Cyclone missile launcher, power fist and storm bolter
Thunder hammer and storm shield
Chainfist and storm bolter
Power fist and storm bolter
Power fist and storm bolter
Heavy Support
2 Land Raider Crusaders.
SET-UP
We rolled Capture and Control, and both opted to place objectives in the centre of the table. Here they are:
We rolled Pitched Battle, and Dave won the toss, opting for me to go first. Here's the set up of both sides:
As you can see, I placed everything in the centre of the table, Tyrannofex and Tervigon at the front, providing cover for everything else and receiving cover from the Venomthrope.
Whereas the Dark Angels deployed in the centre, with one unit in one Land Raider and the Chaplain in the other (in the unpainted white one.)
TURN ONE
Belial clearly ate his Ready Brek this morning, and seizes the initiative. The Land Raiders move towards the centre, closely followed by the terminators. One unit leaps out of the Land Raider to stretch their legs and, well, generally shoot shit up. The Land Raider at the back decides to sound its starter’s pistol: it’s out of range of its chosen target - the Tervigon - and its bolter fire and melta blasts patter harmlessly through the leaves of the forest. The Tervigon does, however, start taking flak from the terminators: one unit lands a single wound, which she saves; the second unit does better, landing a wound on the Punchline which she fails to save; the third unit follows up with some holy bolter fire, but the Tervigon saves; the remaining land raider switches the assault cannon to ‘on’ and pounds some 50mm rounds into her hide for another wound. Having taken two wounds, the Nids are unperturbed as we move into the second turn.
The Tervigon shoots out fifteen termagants. That’s right folks, that perfect roll of 4, 5 and 6. She hurls them forwards in front of her, and they advance forwards on the terminators. Everything else just moves forwards, with the unit of termagants at the back taking a quick easterly path to take the objective. The Zoanthropes are within range of the land raider, and warp lance it. TWO MISS! TWO! Cursing my luck, the dice gods ignore my insults and gift me with a 'penetrate' and a ‘Vehicle Destroyed’, turning one Land Raider into molten slag. OK, the Tyrannofex is next up. Let’s see how he does. I roll the dice. Two 3’s. BS 3. Who the hell gives the long range super weapon unit a BS of 3? Thinking it’ll do better next round, I try not to swear too much.
The Shrike miss, and then the Tervigon onslaughts the warriors forwards. They charge through the fence and then open up on the terminator unit the termagants are against. It lays down six wounds, and two manage to penetrate the armour. The Hive Guard fire at what’s left, but they save. The 15 termagants, new to the world and dewy eyed in innocent wonder, fleshbore them. Under the hail of fire, the storm shielded terminator is cut down. They quickly follow up with an assault.
So, here’s a rules question: the termagants were such that the first model didn’t have to make a dangerous terrain test. However, according to the strict assault rules, three or four had to charge across the minefield in order to make (the obligatory) contact with the enemy. Do *they* have to make dangerous terrain tests? We couldn’t resolve this question, and decided ‘no’ (very kind of Dave on that one.)
Okay, back to the game. The termagants end up in 6” of the Punchline and get her adrenal glands, with which they manage to wipe out the remaining terminators. Not bad boys, not bad at all! They only manage to consolidate an inch, which is a shame as I was hoping to hem the rest of the terminators in good and proper. Ah well. Here's the end of the turn. Note that second crater (and, of course, the absence of the terminator squad; the other one is the one that got out.)
TURN TWO
The Chaplain leaps out of the Raider, joins a unit and everyone moves forwards. Hemmed in by the termagants to some extent, they are corralled towards the forest. The Land Raider, meanwhile, does a little 6” move and then pivots to face down the horde. Eying up the Genestealers, the Land Raider fires and takes out 4. A unit of terminators manages to blast the remaining three to kingdom come. The final unit settles on the termagants as a threat: clearly the terminator fumbles as he loads his ammunition for the scatter die indicates that the missile lands back on the squad! Alas, to no effect. The rest of the fire pops the head off a few. Belial quickly follows up with a charge and manages to wipe them out before consolidating with his unit into the nearby wood.
Right, over to the Hive Mind’s turn. The Tervigon constipates, but gets another 13 gants out on the field of battle. I decide to keep with the plan of hemming in the terminators and stopping them from advancing, so I spread them out in a line. The warriors flank to the west; the shrike come forward; the Tervigon darts to the east to support the Zoanthropes and Tyrannofex; she onsalughts the Zoanthropes who charge forward and shoot the remaining land raider. Another good bunch of rolls immobilises it and blows off the melta. The Fex, on the other hand, again misses with the Rupture Cannon (3 and a 1.) I decide to fire the gants first, realising that the strangler of the warriors might scatter and wipe them out: they fire on the Chaplain unit and, amazingly, kill two in a hail of fire. This is better than even the Warriors, who reign Deathspitter fire down on the forest and take out one of the terminators with Belial. Weighing it up, I settle on charging in with the Termagants: this is to no effect, and the return attack wipes out ten of them. I’m happy with this, as it ties up the terminators and prevents them from doing anything useful on their turn. So, no complaints there.
TURN THREE
The Deathwing remain where they are and start shooting. The tank fires on the Zoanthropes, but those warp shields hold up well and they take but one wound. The forest unit eye up the Venomthrope and fire, instant killing him with a missile. C’est la vie – although in retrospect I see now how great a Venomthrope is in a game like this. With a limited number of units, it must be quite a pisser to be forced to use one of them to blast the ‘thrope up rather than shooting at something more… useful.
We then shift to the assault. Funnily enough, the remaining termagants don’t fare so well and their corpses soon litter the battlefield. The Chaplain's unit make a 5” consolidation across the crater of raider slag as they head towards the Zoanthropes.
Over to the Hive Mind. Everything shuffles around a bit, with the warriors positioning themselves behind barbed wire and the Shrike flying forwards to face down the Chaplain and his pals before they come in on the Zoanthropes. I’m learning and make the 100% correct choice to ignore the Land Raider and instead burrow warp lances into the skulls of the Deathwing: they manage to take out one of them. The Tervigon follows up with the Stinger Salvo, to no effect, whilst the Hive Guard fire and get another one. The Warriors, standing mere metres away from Belial, send more waves of gun fire into the forest, killing two more terminators and wounding Belial.
The Shrike move on in, lash whipping them and boneswords flurrying. After talking it over with Dave, I realise that the Chaplain as a power weapon, but won’t instant kill me, whilst the lone Cyclone Launcher has a meaty power first with ‘Shrike Tenderiser’ on it. So I send all my attacks in on the Launcher. Hitting with 6 wounds, he manages to save all but one, which is one more than he needs to stay alive. (That, for the unobservant, means he dies.) The Chaplain comes back on them, to no effect. Here they all are:
And here is the Scourge and the warrior unit lined up to face off Belial:
TURN FOUR
Okay, it’s not looking good for the Deathwing. Belial makes a break for his home objective. He starts by assaulting in on the Shrike, and in the assault comes in so he isn’t in base to base contact. Now, it’s as I write up this report that I realise we did the rules wrong: independent characters have to assault first, no matter what, so this would’ve led to him being lash whipped. Ah well, we’ll remember for next time. The Shrike manage to get in and kill one terminator, but the rest just power fist them to a pulp with instant kills raining down like confetti on Rush Limbaugh at a Twats R’Us parade.
Over to Vile Ossuary. We all move in towards the one remaining unit. The Hive Guard manage to blast Belial to pieces (Dave had a little stunned look at this point). And the Fex? Well, that fires and hits for once. But to no effect. The Warriors, on the other hand, fire on the lone troop, finishing him off. The Zoanthropes have some bum luck – one misses the psychic test and the other just misses.
At this stage, it’s clear I’ve won. There’s only the Chaplain and a knackered Raider left, so no way to claim any objectives. Dave would have to clear and contest the other one, which is miles away, whilst simultaneously preventing my dudes claiming the northern one. So he's lost.
WE PLAY ON! Let’s see if I can table him….
TURN FIVE
The Land Raider opens fire on the Zoanthropes, killing one. The Chaplain also fires, to no effect, before assaulting for a wound. My guys just all charge in (the ‘Fex misses the immobilised, stationary Land Raider…) The Chaplain finishes off the Zoanthropes.
TURN SIX
The Chaplain goes for the ‘Fex, doing a wound whilst the Tervigon smashes the hell out of the Land Raider. After her failure at exactly this sort of thing in previous games, I’m pleasantly surprised when it explodes in a shower of cogs. The Chaplain takes another round of assault, but to no effect on either side.
Hoping for a seventh turn to finish him off with a bunch of warriors, the die unfortunately comes up with a game end.
Here we all are, with the Tervigon eyeing up that third crater where once a stoic land raider sat, and the Tyrannofex locked in combat with the Chaplain:
And a shot of my termagants sitting comfortably on the back objective:
RESULT
Tyranid win: one objective versus none. The Chaplain is the only figure left on the table. Pretty good going.
WHAT I LEARNT
I learnt a lot of things.
Hemming in and target choice: I’m getting better at this game. Two things I noticed that, earlier, I wouldn’t have would be shooting the termies and ignoring the land raider at the correct moment, and moving the termagants up to hem my foe in so he couldn’t even advance. They weren’t the greatest tactical decisions ever, but certainly *failing* to make them would’ve been a big failure on my part. So I’m happy with my continuing advancement as the Hive Mind.
Rain of fire: As my list becomes more shooty, I’m seeing more and more how deadly it is to chuck a bunch of dice and see what can survive it. I was, to be very fair, quite lucky. But, even then, a terminator’s life span is limited with that many shots coming in.
Onslaught rocks. It really does. Very impressed. Casting it on the Zoanthrope’s *really* made a difference: it effectively increases the range of their weapon to 18+1d6". Given my worries with Catalyst in this list, I’ve opted to swap it permanently for Onslaught.
Warriors rock. This game they did the business. The Prime is SO worth the points in a squad that size – as everyone is boosted to BS4, the number of hits you get is increased by about 6 every round, so an average of 4 wounds needing to be saved and, well, that’s a lot of wounds. I remember them being stuck behind the barbed wire, refusing to charge on in, seeing how long it’d be before Belial snapped and charged them. Which, fortunately, he never did… They were, definitely, the men of the match (and, of course, the Zoanthropes – but blowing up tanks, well, that’s just them doing their job.)
Two minds on the Tyrannofex. So, it missed. In that game, only a single shot landed. I also couldn’t tell you how great it was for its intended purpose – to wade on in and do carnage. Given the proliferation of power weapons on the Deathwing’s side, I wasn’t desperate to send him on in in this fashion. He might do better against other lists. We’ll have to see. Certainly, if Fritz is right that Preferred Enemy is definitely going to give twin linking in the next edition, then that’ll be all kinds of better, increasing them to about BS 4.5 when a Hive Tyrant is alongside. (Indeed, if Fritz is right, then that Hive Tyrant has GOT to go in, since it’ll make this list so much better. Could it replace the Tervigon? Or do I just start demanding that we start playing 2000 point games? Or am I getting ahead of myself discussing rumours about future editions? Probably the latter…)
Conceivably one less Shrike… Having played against the Orks and the Deathwing, I see the Shrike aren’t all that. I’ve already modified them in one way, and now wonder whether I could shave 50 points off by dropping one more when fielding the larger unit, taking them to 5 and not 6.
I believe dangerous terrain is on a model basis so that the 4 guys would have to take a test, but its just them.Also, why would he get his terminators out of the land raider where they can die to the only thing that kills them alot, Tons of dice.
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