Spite for the Dice Gods

A Wee Update: What's Next on the 40k Front

2010-10-26T21:04:00.003-05:00

Here are my goals for the time being: I would like to put up at least a post a week in this blog. I enjoy blogging about the hobby (I make a pretense of being a teacher, and I enjoy spreading knowledge and discussing little plastic army men).

Current Army Project

Currently, I've been playing heavy with the Tyranids. Despite the utter curb-stomping of the previous game (sharp opponent + solid enemy army list + inability to roll well = DEATH) I enjoy the TMC/Venomthrope Stelek list.

I've got a Carnifex in the works on the bench (gotta convert the arms, then attach them) and I'm pondering ways to convert up Venomthropes. I like the idea of poison-cloud-bleching bugs, though I think I'm going to go for more of a walking smoke-belching factory than the floaty tentacle thing.

I also have the remainder of my Hive Tyrant's arm bits (wings/scything talons) to complete painting. Pictures will eventually be forthcoming, but at the moment I'm not sure I have access to a solid camera. I'll sort that when I sort it.

Up Next: Power Armor

A while back, I'd contemplated starting up a Space Wolf army, and a Blood Angel army, and so on and so forth. At this point, I've acquired a few boxes of Thousand Sons marines, most of the armor I need, and I have a fair amount of other stuff (then I got Indoctrinated* by Warmachine...).

I intend to make this a work of love with conversions, as I'm a big fan of the Thousand Sons sculpt and fluff. On the other hand, their rules...well, I'm just not feelin' the CSM book. I also like the idea of marine cavalry, and I have a number of Chaos Knights left over from when I thought about doing them as cheap bloodcrushers. I think I'll be using the K-sons as the Wolf Guard stand-ins, and it'd be an easy-to-ID one.

I also owe RayJ a thanks for convincing me on the tabletop that they're as solid as I'd thought. Not unbeatable by any means, but certainly contenders. That, and I dig the idea of death-seeking warriors and all things Space Wolf in general.

In Parting

I want to thank everyone for bearing with the decreased activity as of late. Some life stressors have finally died down or bowed out. I'd like a few thoughts on what everyone would generally like to see; I'll probably end up doing unit breakdowns and the occasional batrep. When I get inspired for neat conversions and such, they'll probably show up.

I'm aiming to get a couple matches in a month, as they tend to eat a Saturday morning without a hell of a lot of trouble.

*Points for you if you get the Mass Effect pun. Slaps for you if you don't.

On Space Wolves, Tyranids, a Game, and News in General

2010-10-17T22:14:00.003-05:00

I managed to clear time for a good 2,000pt matchup with RayJ. As I am told a picture is worth a thousand words (and he brought the camera) I figured I would sum up the battle report with a picture.

My 'nid army was something like:

Tyrant w/ 2x TL Devourers

3 seperate Venomthropes

2 Tervigons with Catalyst

2x10 Devourer-gants

2 Harpies w/ TL Heavy Venom

2 Tyrannofex

RayJ's list, from memory, had something like:

Logan Grimnar

2 Rune Priests (Living Lightning each, and some other random power that had no impact)

2 Lone Wolves (Terminator Armor, Chainfist, Storm Shield. You were expecting?)

2 Wolf Guard Squads (Sarge in terminator armor with Cyclone missile launcher, powerfists?)

2 Grey Hunter Squads (double melta, and a Wolf Guard in the lead)

2 single Thunderwolf Units (Fist/Shield)

2 Long Fang Squads (3 missiles, 2 lascannons each).

The Scenario

The crater describes the end state of my army. It's been a long time since I've been tabled. We rolled up Kill Points and Table Quarters. I won the roll to go first, brain farted, and made the grave error of going second. His stuff set up with the four melee speed bumps up front, then the hunters and Wolf Guard behind, and finally the Long Fangs with a commanding view of the field.

I set up with an eye towards making sure his Thunderwolf Cav can't get a first-turn charge off. His shooting drops a Tervigon (which takes out a chunk of one of the Devourer-gant squads. Stupid 'Brood Primogenitor' rule). At that point I'm beginning to realize what my cover saves are going to look like.

So, I unload a whole lotta gunfire into his approaching stuff. I am for the t-wolves because of their speed; I probably have another turn before the Lone Wolves reach my line. I have a metric crap-ton of anti-personnel shooting.

I inflict one wound on one of the T-wolves.

Yep. Gonna be one of them games...I made a few mistakes here and there, but my utter inability to roll cover saves or inflict wounds on the other guy (I kid you not, I had a TYRANNOFEX die while sucking up an amazing total of 8-9 wounds. Inability to make both a 2+ and a 5+....).

The Lessons

Naturally, in retrospect I should've gone first. Tyranids have very little shooting that reaches out more than 24 inches, and Rupture Cannons aren't the most reliable things for killing infantry at range. (Besides, they were trying to force instant death armor saves on T-wolves, which seemed like a good idea at the time.). It's a plain nasty Space Wolf list, and while I always figured Long Fangs were nasty, I'm now very, very, very sure that I dislike them greatly. When you get down to it, most armies don't have good ways to kill infantry from over 24-36 inches (excpeting IG Russes in some cases).

On the bright side, RayJ was a fun opponent to play against (which seriously mitigated the fact that I'm still sore from what the dice did to me...) and it was nice to not play Imperial Guard. I'm not knocking IG, but when you play against it for a while, a change-up is nice.

Other Bits

On the other bright side, I found out I'm getting transferred out of the high-intensity soul-crushing office* at work in a few weeks. What does that mean for you, dear readers? (Assuming there are still some out there, I know I've not been prolific as of late).

Hopefully, it means articles more than once a month.

Anyone interested in taking a look at a gallery of 'nid pictures can find my Tyranids here. It's what I've been laboring on for the last year, though I must warn you that picture quality is not necessarily what the interweb slang would call 'uber.' I think it's more 'servicable' myself.

*Seriously am getting out of the nasty stuff, which is just in time. I seldom bring personal matters onto this blog, though work stress was starting to leech into everything else (including chronic tension headaches, which you get AWESOME meds for...) and it's a matter of either a) not having the time/urge/opportunity to blog at the same time, or b) not wanting to inflict a Grim, Dark, Bleak, Bitter-er than usual rant on the potential passer-by.

An Interesting Point on the Nature of Competition

2010-09-30T20:36:00.003-05:00

Honestly, I tend not to post about other people's posts. It's a principle about avoiding interweb drama. I had enough drama in high school, and I get more than enough in the way of office politics.

That being said, Black Legion Matt has an interesting point about the nature of competition. His statement is something about list variation does not mix with a level playing field. Now, I agree with this to an extent, but I also think list variation is a part of what makes 40k interesting.

Agreement

Honestly, there is something to this. Games like chess and checkers involve a predictable field of battle, and give each player identical armies (and in the case of checkers, uniform playing pieces).

The only real difference between the respective forces is that one side goes first, and one goes second. Not being a chess/checkers expert, I have to assume that there are tradeoffs between going first and second, and if not, there's at least the 50/50 shot (...I suppose that depends on the playing format? I'm making assumptions here) at getting it. I suppose you could try to go at the same time, but I don't think the games are set up that way, and the difference between first/second is just something that's built into the game.

The bottom line? Since first/second is generally random and the armies are identical, it's purely a case of player versus player.

The Disagreement

Frankly, if you wanted to play with uniform armies, you'd either play chess/checkers, or you'd have some kind of agreement with your opponent prior to a game that allowed for variety in army builds. Given the cost of the game and the allowance for variation in builds, I've got to kind of say if you're playing the game, part of you is tacitly in agreement with variation in army build.

So, I'm assuming you're cool with variation in army build. Where do you go from there?

Balancing Armies

Now, this is much, much easier said than done. Ideally, though, this is the solution to varied armies. Now, all the armies abide by the same Force Org charts (3 each Elite/Fast Attack/Heavy Support, 2 each HQ, 6 ea Troops; required 1 HQ/2 troops). They also abide by the same points level.

The stuff in the game (troops, vehicles, monstrous creatures) dictates the type of destructive tools you'll need. Now, honestly, here's where I think a lot of the variation gets screwy. The easy example is the mighty melta weapon. Some armies have access to it (Tau, the Marine armies, Imperial Guard, Eldar, Witch Hunters, Daemon Hunters) and some do not (Tyranids, Necrons, Orks, Dark Eldar).

Consider the effectiveness of melta weapons against vehicles (which are good because of Vehicle Damage Rules that say a 35pt Rhino can take the same number of AP1 hits as a 250+ point Land Raider) and the prevalence of vehicles in lists that can take a lot of them (Imperial Guard and Razorback-spam being a couple of the prototypical examples) or Tyranids, who can roll with a heap of T6 multi-wound monsters. It's easy to see that the people that can bring and effectively employ such weapons are in good shape.

The codices

So, having access to the right capabilities is crucial. Now, here's where we get to the meat of the problem. How does your army handle various types of threats? Vehicles are just the easy example, since they're prevalent. If you want another sample, look for psychic powers and/or psychic defense, and the effectiveness thereof.

The simplest example here is the Ork army. What do they have for anti-tank at range? Lootas. (Ok, they can take missiles as well, but considering you get only a few per squad, want to take large squads over multiple squads most of the time, and have a mighty BS2...yeah). Problem? AV13 and 14 at range are issues. So, how do you kill heavier armor? Assault it with...power klaws. Either by having your armored kanz walk up and punch, or committing a squad full of boyz and hoping the one Klaw can do the deed. Neither of these are attractive.

The other answer involves Deffrollas, which is committing a vehicle to a 12" move and hoping it can do some S10 hits to a heavy vehicle. Full stop, end of story, those are your options. And your psychic powers? A random power of questionable utility, and no meaningful way to stop others from casting powers.

I don't want to use Orks as the buttmonkey here, but they're just a simple example. They're lacking a couple of capabilities that make it hard to build a balanced ork list. I'm not saying it's impossible, but when someone like Space Marines can drop 200 points on a troop unit that has a meaningful anti-tank weapon (BS4 multi-melta), a workable anti-troop capability (a flamer, a bolt pistol and 8 rapid-firing bolters) and a transport it can fire the anti-tank weapon out of (Rhino not moving) then, well...yeah.

Symmetrical armies?

No, we covered that; it's probably not what people are paying $300-500+ on an army to play when a chess set is probably a lot cheaper. The core, then, is to give everyone the capabilities they need. At that point, it is on the players to bring all of the tools. Let's be honest, while some people play more (or less) 'cut throat', everyone plays to derive some enjoyment out of the game, and most people don't enjoy getting monkey-stomped.

Hell, most people don't enjoy giving out a monkey-stomp; you either wanted a challenge or feel bad for the other guy (and either way, it's somewhat counterproductive, since crushing people mercilessly and just gloating about it aren't healthy for the hobby).

So, what's the answer?

SIMPLE! (/sarcasm). Symmetrical capabilities. Everyone needs a reliable way to accomplish their missions: you need both access to competent anti-infantry and anti-armor capabilities, and you need to take them.

I don't care how good a player you are, if you bring as many power-armored bolter guys as you can and I bring a couple land raiders and some tanks, you're probably screwed. Now, the Space Marine codex is a solid book with plenty of ways to get the capabilities you need; you as the player need to bring them.

The Problem

So, we've solved the game's problem: you just have to bring the right tools for the job. Now, the issue: not everyone has access to the tools. Necrons are the easy example here: no transports, one option for troops that's basically a slower tactical squad sans weapon options, and one gun with a strength better than 6. The rules for 4th edition made them fine, the rules for 5th? Not so much.

So, what's the Necron player's situation?

Honestly, pretty crappy. You either try to find a build that works while you lack some crucial tools (I'm not saying necrons need psychic powers, but a psychic counter would be nice...) and hope that your player skill is enough to make up for it, or...you get a new army.

Considering the cost involved in starting up a new army (even using e-bay or other discount methods, that's a few hundred bucks) I think that's a pretty crappy answer. The other option involves getting an update to the rules, but GW's release schedule for codices is...sometimes slow (I'm looking at any Dark Eldar fans that have kept their armies for the past however many years...).

Even my pet Tyranids were in the same situation not too long ago, and honestly? I had a 'nid army, sold it off, and then got back into it when the new book came out. Did I lose my love for the 'nid fluff and spontaneously recover it when the book came out? Or, did I get tired of trying to kill vehicles by running melee-fexes at them or hoping to glance them to death with S6 AP-, or when my best long-range gun was S8, single-shot, BS3? (Pro tip: it was the latter, and dying a little inside when the rules said I had an uphill fight).

The Answer

And this is the part where I propose a comprehensive solution, right? Well, honestly...the best I can think of is that GW should consider updating the rules a little more often. 4th to 5th edition was a major sea change, and the armies that had access to the right tools could be more competitive.

If you give someone a few tools to tide them over and have some semblance of competitiveness, you're going to keep that player happy, and they're more likely to keep them in the game. The alternative is to have people impose artificial, arbitrary limitations on the game, which isn't necessarily going to make the balance any better, only different.

TL, DR?

Update the freaking books more than once every few years when you radically change the rules, or it ticks people off, and keep people angry long enough and they probably stop dumping hundreds of dollars into your game...

On Harpies

2010-09-22T21:59:00.004-05:00

At last, I have finished my Harpy conversions. And, of course, I feel the need to share them and to wax poetic about the care, feeding, and employment of harpies. The first picture puts them alongside some devourer-packing Termagants for a sense of scale.

They are PRETTY. YES. THEY ARE. Side view. Coat hanger bracing FTW.

Another side view.

This is probably not what you want to see.

Construction

A cookie if you spotted the ingredients already. It's not an exhaustive list.

1) Old-school Hive Tyrant

2) Dragon Wings from WH Fantasy

3) Pair o' Venom Cannons from Warriors

4) pair o' scything talons from the trygon/mawloc kit.

The limbs were generally chosen for sake of scale. The general scale of the thing was built with transportability in mind. The wings are pinned on, as I simply could not make magnets work that well. They're secured to the base at two points; there's the coat hanger and there's an additional point on the tail, be it the base or the jutting building wreckage.

Tactics

Mobility

First off, the Harpy is fast, as it's basically monstrous jump infantry. It can get a good 12" move each turn and then fire off both of its weapon systems. However, synapse means that you will probably NOT use it to rush across the field, and frankly there's no need to close with the enemy that much. 18" is just fine for infantry-hunting, and 36" is fine for shooting at larger targets. Use the speed not to advance, but to set up shots.

Shooting

Honestly, you brought this thing because it's got guns. It starts with a twin-linked stranglethorn cannon, but I highly recommended paying 10 points to go to the twin heavy venom cannon. Why?

Simple: suppressive fire against vehicles. With twin-linked, the gun's got a base 50/50 shot of landing where you put it, just from rolling a hit with the scatter dice. More refined odds involve 2d6-3/ (size of the vehicle) and are a bit too tedious to put here. S9 has a good chance of glancing, and even with a -1 to damage from a penetrating hit it's likely to at least keep a vehicle from shooting, and will do damage 50% of the time on a good pen. Mostly, though, it's to shut those frakking tanks up for a bit. Use the mobility to line up flank shots if necessary, and you can always try to ping multi-wound T4 guys in a pinch.

In closer, you should've equipped Cluster Spines. Large blast, S5, AP-. Quantity over quality of hits, but it wounds most infantry pretty readily.

In really really close, you get the once-a-game Harpy Crap-over. You just have to move over an enemy model, and then you can barrage d3 S4 AP4 Large Blasts on top of them. Hilarity can ensue.

A word of warning: bad rolls on danger-close shots CAN hit you. As you are T5 with a 4+, it's reasonable to assume you can wounder yourself, and I kinda helped a harpy kill itself with its own large blasts.

Assault

Well, as a monstrous creature you ARE ignoring armor, and rolling 5+2d6 against vehicles. You get two base S5 hits, so pick your fights carefully: go for depleted units or go in with friends. You won't do much more than polish off a couple non-melee guys by yourself. Still, you do have Sonic Screech, which translates to assault grenades and making the enemy go at 1/2 initiative (rounded down), so if you can get buddies in there it's a good time to go to town.

Even so, I probably wouldn't try to fist-fight a dreadnought unless it's wounded or minus the Dreadnought CCW, since you'll get maybe one good penetrating hit on it in melee.

Durability

This is where some folks start quibbling about the 170pt price tag: you have four wounds at T5 with a 4+ save. At danger close, you can harm yourself with your own spore mine offal. Autocannons can ding you up, and a rail gun will break you in half.

I've got four answers for that:

1) in a pinch, hide behind another MC or grab cover if you can find it (or, say, a venomthrope).

2) ...so there's ONE ARMY that can insta-gib you at range. One. Crap happens. Are you seriously going to make your decisions based on ONE graphic mis-match? That's being a wee bit disingenuous.

3) Make sure harpies aren't the only monstrous creatures in your army, because, um, well, they won't like the attention.

4) when you get down to it, stuff like missile launchers and lascannons will wound you on a 2+ and take away your armor save ANYWAY, so how's the T5 and 4+ change that? Other than autocannons and rail guns, you're more or less identical to other MCs in terms of heavy weapons (...excepting heavy bolters, I'll grant, but they're not too common other than dakka-preds).

Overall

Harpies are mobile suppressive fire that get nastier up close. They're snipers with a point-defense system and some assault power. Use them to suppress/harass armor at range and from the flanks (since it's one of TWO guns that fire more than 24" and can harm vehicles in the 'nid book). If infantry closes, unload spore mines and cluster spines on them, and watch the wounds pile on. Take them as part of a shooty army (IE: consider Tyrannofexes, and/or hive guard/Venomthropes) to augment your long-range vehicle-harassing capabilities.

They're not all bad, but they're not auto-includes in all 'nid armies.

Tyranid MC-Heavy with Venomthropes

2010-09-11T19:38:00.004-05:00

I apologize as it's been a while since I've posted; the Warmachine league's been in motion and I've been busy hacking away at that. Additionally, I've gotten a little 'eh' about running the same Tyranid army over and over again. I borrowed a Stelek army, the Venomthrope list in particular. It consists of:

Hive Tyrant; 2x Devourerers, Adrenal Glands, Paroxysm & Leech Essence
Venomthrope
Venomthrope
Venomthrope
10 Termagants w/ Devourers
10 Termagants w/ Devourers
Tervigon w/ Catalyst
Tervigon w/ Catalyst
Harpy w/ Cluster Spines, TL Heavy Venom Cannon
Harpy w/ Cluster Spines, TL Heavy Venom Cannon
Tyrannofex w/ Cluster Spines, Rupture Cannon
Tyrannofex w/ Cluster Spines, Rupture Cannon
Carnifex w/ 2x TL Devourers, Adrenal Glands, Frag Spines

I admit it's got some stuff I'm not used to, like spending for Devourers on the Termagants and actually running a shooty-fex. On the other hand, I'm not used to being without Hive Guard and the Adrenal/Toxin glands on the Tervigons.

My opponent was one of my old disciples (assuming he doesn't mind me calling him that) and rolled with a good ol' Black Templar double Crusader list. It was something like:

Emperor's Chump w/ Preferred Enemy Vow
Marshal w/ hammer, shield, artificer armor
5 Terminators w/ Furious Charge (4 claws, one hammer/shield)
5 Terminators w/ Furious Charge (4 claws, one hammer/shield)
9-man Crusader Squad (Fist, Meltagun, 2x Newbs); Rhino
9-man Crusader Squad (Fist, Meltagun, 2x Newbs); Rhino
7-man Crusader Squad (Plamsa gun, lascannon)
MM/HF Speeder
MM/HF Speeder
Land Raider Crusader
Land Raider Crusader

Scenario: Annihilation
Setup: Dawn of War

Deployment

He set up the objective-camping Crusader Squad on a hill with a good, central shooting position, as he rolled to go first. I set up the Tervigons and the Hive Tyrant behind some cover. Since he's got the speed, I'm fine with going second. He's left his mechanized assets in reserve, because he might as well set up to react to my deployment, as my guys are much slower. I opt to not even try to seize the initiative.

Black Templar Turn 1

Fairly stock BT deployment: he puts the speeders as far downfield as he can, and keeps his troop transports in a central position. He decides that he'd rather put his objective-camping squad to use, and moves them up.

Tyranid Turn 1

Here's Tyranid deployment. I try to keep it central, angling a little towards one flank.

My shooting ends up exploding the speeder on the right, and I manage to shake up the speeder on the left. That's all my shooting does, but I'll take it. The Tervigons crap out a forward screen, as I think putting the Devourer-gants into that duty is a waste of some anti-infantry firepower.

Black Templar Turn 2

He boosts th speeder over to the flank, and gets the save. His objective-sitting squad hoofs it up the field, and that's about that.

Tyranid Turn 2

Of all things, the forward Termagant squad glances his speeder once, gets through the cover save, and immobilizes it. This is somewhat inconvenient for a fast skimmer that moved flat-out...it's vaguely anti-climatic as I'd positioned a fair amount of shooting to kill that thing off. My anti-vehicle shooting does crap-all past that, though my left-side squad of Devourer-gants and the Carnifex reduce the objective squad to a lascannon and plasma gun. They promptly flub their morale check, in dice luck that's going to be all too common for my opponent this time around.

Black Templar Turn 3

He moves up, popping smoke on the Rhino on my right flank. His other Rhino promptly immobilizes itself on terrain. Land Raider Crusaders disgorge their cargo and open fire, knocking some wounds off the Harpy on my right, and the Plasma gunner blows a termagant to hell.

Then, the dice make themselves known. The venomthrope dangerous terrain checks kill three terminators on their way in, then Terminators do what Termiantors do to anything they touch in close combat.

Tyranid turn three goes something like this:

Terminators on the left flank go away under a heap of devourer fire; two of them on the left flank go away. In my excitment at his ability to roll 1's repeatedly at armor saves, I forgot to take a picture. The others turn their guns on his disembarked marines, and it becomes a VERY inhospitable place as there's one plasmagunner left from one squad, and the other squad has a wounded Marshal, a meltagun, a Neophyte and a couple other space-bobs.

Black Templar Turn 4

The remaining two terminators get themselves dead because they have no Frag Grenades, and fourteen termagants are apparently angry. He puts more gunfire into my carnifex and the right-side harpy; they end up with one wound each. He's also unable to roll anything more than 1's to move his half-strength Crusader Squad; this includes the difficult terrain AND the run. Freakin' wow. He throws the other Crusader squad into my right flank and KOs the squad there. Big shock.

Tyranid Turn 4

The wounded carnifex breaks into a screaming run, finds itself a land raider, inflicts four penetrating hits on it and kills it. His commander eats two wounds and falls on a pair of 1's, and a withering barrage of devourer fire and templates kill them off.

The harpy on the right (which is conspicuously absent from this pictures) flew over that Crusader squad, took a spore mine dump on it, killed some, took a shot with cluster spines, scattered the spines onto itself, wounded itself, and killed itself. EPIC FAIL.

The Tyrannofex wanders into the survivors of that squad. It eats a couple of wounds, then steps on the Emperor's Chump repeatedly.

Final

He has a Land Raider Crusader and Rhino left at the end. This has been one of the most comprehensive crub-stomps I've seen, and honestly? It was the dice. I've never seen that many 1's that fast for armor saves so often. He played it pretty much correctly, though when you get down to it Double Land Raider Crusader + Terminators = straightforward plan. I throw up termagant screens, hope they'll hold, try to take out Termiantors before they can do too much damage.

Thoughts on the Tyranid Army

I'm beginning to see some of the logic behind this army. The Venomthropes were inordinately effective with regards to forcing dangerous terrain checks, but costing the enemy extra attacks and giving me cover saves is nice. After the game, he wondered if he would've been better off trying to potshot them with a lascannon, but I'm not too sure, since the answer is 'go to ground for the 3+' if it's not 'hide behind something scary.'

That IS a lot of monstrous creature love. The Harpies are the least durable, and their speed is more of a 'rapid response' thing than a 'look at me I'm fast!' thing. The thing is, their firepower is somewhat comparable to the Tyrannofex, but they're only useful for the suppressing aspect on vehicles. Sometimes, shutting the guns up is enough. I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised by the Harpies. I expect to have pictures of them up eventually, as they're now on the paint bench.

Devourer Termagants are a NASTY anti-infantry shooty force. Even at BS3, that's still 30 S4 shots. THey don't go on the front lines, but since they don't have enough AP to make it worthwhile.

I can even see the point of the Carnifex; the shooting is lovely and there's that whole S10-against-vehicles thing that's nice. That's one of the downsides of thea rmy; the Tyrannofex guns are the only real way to kill vehicles at range, but that's enough Devourerers to say 'slow down a little there,' and you can punch the crap out of them in a pinch.

Final

I'll be curious to test this army against other matchups, as I feel this would've been closer had he not rolled a crap-ton of ones. I would've had to commit monstrous creatures to close combat, and probably taken more losses. I know that's a pretty solid Black Templar build, but sometimes the dice just kill you, hard.

Tyranids: Base Size

2010-08-09T22:48:00.003-05:00

This is a follow-up to my commentary about GW being responsive. One thing I've seen some debate on is the base size for the as-yet-unreleased sculpts for the Tyranid codex.

Tervigon, Tyrannofex, I'm looking at you, mostly. However, I can see some room for debate when it comes to the Harpy as well, and maybe even the Parasite of Mortrex.

Page 3 says that if your model comes with a plastic base, you should use that. If you're using a larger scenic base, then you should 'make sure it is ok with your opponent.' This tells us nothing about units that are without a model. I believe that putting stuff on a smaller base than intended is usually frowned upon (especially if it's a 40mm vs. 60mm deal, IE Bloodcrushers), and putting stuff on a larger-than-intended base is usually considered ok-ish if it's for modeling purposes and/or doesn't confer you a huge advantage.

The source of this post actually comes from a time when I was playing my Tyranids and someone actually walked up to me out of the blue and told me I was some win-at-all-cost cheating jerkass for putting my Tyrannofexes on a small base. His evidence was that "He had seen a rumor on a forum of a forthcoming tyrannofex kit, and it was on the new large oblong base," and that since I wasn't privy to the internet rumor (as I don't hit forums very often; staring at a screen for 8 hours a day at work doesn't make me keen to do another 3-4 hours of that at home...) I was obviously a terrible person for scratch-building a model that he did not approve of, which brings me to:

Raptor's Pro Tip On Courtesy

If you think someone is disobeying the rules, endeavor to make your point logically and point to the rules. An internet rumor is an internet rumor, no more and no less.

Back to your regularly-scheduled blogging...

His logic was that by putting the MC on a smaller base, I was actually looking for an advantage because he 'couldn't fit as much in melee with it.' Well, let's go back to the part where there's no official kit. Could GW have bothered to put out a base size indicator? Honestly, if they'd done this when they released the codex, we'd all be fine. Instead, since the new book significantly de-values the Carnifex, there are plenty of folks using Carnifex kits to construct the new MCs, and people using both of the high-end bases.

The Nuts and Bolts

What it boils down to is a contrast between the 60mm round and the big oval base (henceforth referred to as BoB for comedic and space reasons).

So, let's look at the game effect a 60mm and a BoB would have on the two new MCs most likely to come on the BoB.

1) Tervigon
Frankly, I think the BoB favors the Tervigon. You want your Termagants within 6" to benefit from the glands and Counterattack the critter-spitter came with. You want other stuff within 12" or so to benefit from your psychic powers.

Honestly, I think if I've got a choice between base size, the BoB is a clear winner for the Tervigon, simply because it offers a great increase in ability coverage. Take two of those, put them long-ways-forward, and see how much of your front you cover. The flip side is that you'd have to work your assault screens a little more diligently, but you'd be much more likely to get the benefit as well. You'd also have a much greater area to place your newly-spawned termagants, but the death throes from it would reach further.

If I had to eyeball it and guess, I'd say it maybe doubles the coverage?

2) Tyrannofex
I don't think this one wins so much from the larger base. You have a 48" gun (...unless, for some reason, you decided to take the Assault 20, S4 gun on a BS3 platform or the short-ranged flamer), so technically you get even more coverage. The shorter-ranged weapons DO gain some range off it, and your flamer gets placement options (so you can do things like poke an edge out and kick off a shot between your troops, but that's something you could probably finagle anyway...).

I think it's so-so at best for benefits. You do get more coverage out of your guns, since it measures from the base edge at the model's eye. It's probably not the same kind of benefit as the Tervigon, because honestly, what's another inch or two for the gun in a couple directions?

The Others
Should the Harpy get a 60mm or a BoB? Good question. Given the range of its gun, it's not such a huge deal. The question the Harpy has to answer is how the base size interacts with the spore-mine-on-black-car ability: you want to fly over the enemy to hit him with the mines. A larger base allows you more freedom to just 'graze' a unit, but also makes landing placement more difficult. I'm not sure if it's a benefit or not.

The Parasite of Mortrex? I'd wager most folks are modeling this one up like an upgraded Shrike or Alpha. I am ASSUMING the Alpha goes on a 40mm since it's an upgunned warrior, and by that logic I'd say the Parasite went onto a 40mm as well. I suppose a larger base increases the are of effect for its Synapse and 'don't die, little Rippers' special rule, but I don't see that as being a huge advantage.

Bottom Line
I wish GW had simply released some guidance as to base size. Frankly, since you're releasing the codex and some sweet units that have no models, you've got to expect people will kit-bash them. Is it really that hard to put a little blurb in there about base size?

Then again, I've also seen the 'joy' that comes from having stuff with an ambiguous footprint; there's no hard-and-fast guidance for how much space a Defiler/Soul Grinder should take up. Are they sweet models? Yeah. Can they have as big or small or irregular a footprint as you like? Yeah. I've seen some folks answer this by putting them on a base, though it's best if that base is detachable so that it can move through terrain.

On the BoB in general
This one gets more into the op-ed mode, but does anyone else have lukewarm feelings on this thing for foot units? I mean, I can understand it on Flyers; you want the size and shape for stability, and you're measuring to the Hull for shooting purposes anyway. It all works out.

My issues with it are the potential difficulties involved in basic movement. On a round base, your facing is irrelevant as you will always take up the same amount of space. Vehicles care about facing because it determines the armor, and on vehicles with potentially confusing facings they often have identical armor values (...not sure where you'd draw the 'x' to divide up a Wave Serpent, but at least the front and sides have the same AV, and frankly it deserves to die if you let someone get a rear arc shot on it...). Honestly, I don't think it's THAT big a deal, but it is a bit annoying.

So, spinning in place, yes/no? It DOES change how close you are to the enemy; is that movement? Honestly, I'd rule it as yes, and just try to be careful when I rotate the base as I move. No one's given me any trouble for how I've moved it, but I've also only run Trygons a few times (...then the Reserves Nerf Bat hit, and I was a sad panda).

Conclusion
I wish GW would put out some conclusive guidance on base size. It wouldn't be that difficult for GW to do; it honestly wouldn't. I have a hunch, though, that the first we'll know about an 'official' base size is when GW finally produces a kit. Given that it's taken them a long time to release the Manticore/Deathstrike kit and the Space Wolves are STILL waiting on a Thunderwolf other than the hero (AND it's metal, and thus a pain to mod...) I'm not expecting anything 'til mid-2011 at best.

Look, I can appreciate that it DOES take time to craft and then produce a new sculpt. In an ideal world, I'd try to make sure that the big-ticket items (IE: Thunderwolf Cav) are ready to go with the codex release. In lieu of that, though, I'd like clarification on stuff as closely related to gameplay as base size.

Right now, my Tyrannofexes and Tervigons are on 60mm bases, and if/when I get guidance that they should be on the BoB, I'll put 'em on it.

More Thoughts on Tyrands, Post-FAQ, and Other News

2010-07-31T20:07:00.004-05:00

I'll start with the 'Other News.' Posts have slowed down to an extent, and there are two reasons for that:

1) Work was consuming my soul gradually

2) I started playing Warmachine/Hordes

That being said (and despite some bottled-up annoyances/disillusionment with GW) I don't intend to out-and-out quit 40k. I mean, I own Eldar, Tyranid, Tau, and Black Templar armies and the nucleous of a basic loyalist space marine army. That's a hell of a lot of money to just walk away from, and I'm not too into selling it off when I'm just drawing down the game a bit.

That being said, since this blog gets a lot of 40k traffic and I tend to blog based on my experiences (Hey, writing it down is educational for me AND sometimes helpful to the community) I'm likely to start up a Warmachine-based Spite Blog. (Shameless Plug: Check out Spite for the Unblighted. )

I still intend to post 2-4 reasonably in-depth articles for Warhammer 40k a month, but I'd like to chronicle my experiences with Warmachine/Hordes as well.

Ok, we've got the 'other' part out of the way.

Down to the Bugs

So, what's changed for what I'll take in an army with Tyranids? Annoyed though I am, here's the list of stuff that I'm less likely to take because it's a pain in the tail to get +2 to reserves rolls:

1) Drop Pod Zoanthropes

These guys got kicked in the balls by the ruling. Look, when you've got an 18" gun of DEATH for vehicles, well, you might be a target priority. Just saying. And you're the main way this army stops Land Raiders? Ouch.

Not to get ranty, but either you hope the other guy lets you shoot his Land Raiders/expensive tanks with your Zoanthropes, or you um, y'know, get hosed/hope your MCs can assault them.

2) Anything Else in a Drop Pod

Ok, honestly, what makes me nervous about facing Drop Pod marines/outflanking IG skimmers and the like is the part where it craps out template and/or melta weapons in their preferred range. We can crap out Warriors or a heap of Hormagaunts, which are considerably less scary. The stuff with guns gets to shoot them when they arrive. Our guys have to wait a turn to move into position, and if Synapse isn't close, you have to hope you make that Instinctive Behavior check. If you're not in cover, then, well, ouch. So long. Nice knowing you, little guys.

3) Trygons

Ok, sure, technically you can keep them in on the table, but if you want to get to the enemy (Hey, T6, 6 wounds and a 3+ with a model THAT freakin' tall, you aren't getting cover at all, ever. Sorry. Wait, are there MISSILE LAUNCHERS on the other side of the table? Oh, s- BOOM!).

Best-case scenario: arrive turn two, weather a turn of gunfire. Turn three, assault something. Hope to stay in assault. (It worked once: hit a big squad of IG, and his COMMISSAR decided to be an epic hero and held in assault against 5 genestealers and a Trygon during my assault phase. Then he died so very, very horribly in his...). Turn four, repeat.

Downside? You don't start being that productive until the turn after you arrive. 6-12 shots off your personal static electricty at a mighty BS3 do NOT actually make you that scary in shooting; it's like giving a helicopter pilot a sidearm: it gives them something productive to do when they're shot down and waiting to get killed off for raining hellfire missiles on folks.

4) Mawlocs

Best-case scenario? Arrive turn two, deep-strike onto something. Hilarity ensues. Turn three, thank the enemy for NOT killing it, fall back into reserves. Turn four, emerge again for more hilarity. If you still exist in turn five, think long and hard about going back underground or staying topside, since you give away your points if you're in reserves on turn five and turn six doesn't roll around.

Outside of popping up and screwing up stuff, you have a mighty WS3 and three base S6 monstrous creature attacks. Hope no one wants to assault you, and if no one does, consider assaulting them.

5) Any of Your Other Elites

Seriously, unless it's a Venomthrope, has anyone else even taken other Elites choices? I mean, a walking flamethrower is cool and all, and so are Ymgarl stealers (at least in theoryhammer) but that means giving away all your shooting, which just doesn't do much. (Except for my last game against 'nids as Tau; watching the other guy seize the initiative and his one Tyrannofex popping your Hammerheads on turns one and two while they kill a mighty total of FOUR hormagaunts is, um...I needed some Jack straight; not Gentleman Jack because I was just going to THROW IT DOWN THE HATCH and that'd be rude to the good stuff...)

So, What Now?

Well, frankly, most of the time a solid core for a list for me starts with 20 Termagants, 2 Tervigons, and 6 Hive Guard. This is still 490 points of troops and another 300 points and 2-3 of your Elites choices.

As it stands, then, there are a couple of lists I'm down to considering.

1) Shooty Bugs

Take 3 Tyrannofexes and a Prime. You're at 1680. At this point I consider either more shooting (you might be able to fit in a couple of Harpies with Heavy Venom Cannons) or some mid-range shooty/assault support in the form of a warrior squad, or even filling out my Fast Attack with Spore Mines for the laughs.

2) Horde Bugs

Take a couple of Primes as HQs, take six Hive Guard, three Venomthropes and three Tyrannofexes. This costs you a minimum of 1420 (ok, maybe drop a tyrannofex) and then fill the rest of that with things that scuttle and bite.

Hope you don't meet Land Raiders or mech spam.

3) Try Reserves Anyway

Now, thing is, there's STILL a way to get +2 to reserves off the bat; you take the Swarmlord AND a Hive Tyrant, because Alien Cunning and Hive Commander still stack. Here's what I can think of as a prototype for that list:

Still Looking For That +2 Reserves, Thank You Very Much...

Swarmlord [280]

-3 Tyrant Guard w/ Lash Whips [195]

Hive Tyrant [220]

-Heavy Venom Cannon

-Lash Whip/Bone Sword

-Hive Commander

-Leech Essence, Paroxysm

Tyrant Guard w/ Lash Whip [65]

2 Hive Guard [100]

11 Termagants [55]

Tervigon [195]

-Catalyst

-Adrenal Glands

-Toxin Sacks

Tervigon [195]
-Catalyst
-Adrenal Glands
-Toxin Sacks

7 Genestealers w/ Toxin Sacks [119]

Mawloc [160]

Total: 1999/2000

Thoughts

I feel light on shooting, but that's because I don't have Tyrannofexes. On the flip side, I can ram the Swarmlord down someone's throat with Feel No Pain, and potentially threaten them with the other Hive Tyrant.

The Mawlocs and Genestealers are supposed to make folks worry; with the Swarmlord I can reliably place them on the side I want, and then the Mawlocs SHOULD be there on turn two. Hopefully I've put the enemy into disarray, and then the brick of tyranids starts advancing.

Cons? My significant shooting doesn't reach past 24", as the Heavy Venom Cannon will at best annoy the other guy by making his heavy armor not shoot for a turn, or if I'm lucky take a gun off. (which is cool against people with just one main gun, mind you...).

What would I change? I'd frankly LOVE to get another big critter in there. As it is, I could maybe drop a Hive Guard off the Swarmlord and lose the Genestealers, then go up to a third Mawloc and find a place to put that other ~25 points.

Anyway, thoughts/curses/well-wishes/rotten produce? I'm looking at you, TKE.

Tyranid FAQ: A Slight Rant

2010-07-13T19:42:00.005-05:00

This is a slight rant, but more an expression of some disappointment in the Tyranid FAQ. Honestly, this blog tends not to get a lot of my ranting posted on it, and I think there are folks that tend to do it in a more entertaining fashion. As such, I turn to the internet for pictures of cats with captions to express my feelings.

I want to start by saying that the 'nid FAQ is not all bad.

Honestly, GW deserves serious props for answering contentious questions clearly and concisely.

"Doom hits stuff in vehicles, y/n?" Nope. It's clear, concise, and resolves a contentious issue.

"Is the Mawloc really supposed to be able to deep strike into stuff?" Yes.

"Can I single out a Tyrant with a retinue of Guard?" Nope.

These are clarifications that are handy. It would have been nice to have it in the codex to begin with, and the near half-year of waiting for it is a wee bit annoying. But, it's clear now, and it's stuff we wanted/needed clarified.

There's really one major disappointment, as far as I'm concerned:

Hive Commander Does Not Stack.

Big deal, you say? Well, it honestly doesn't come as a surprise. The IG Advisor that buffs reserves doesn't stack, either. So, why is this getting to me?

Tyranids have a fair assortment of deep-strike-capable units, including:

1) Pretty much every foot-mobile troops choice via mycetic spores (and Raveners...)

2) Spore-podding Zoanthropes

3) Various jump troops (Gargoyles, Shrikes, winged Tyrants)

4) Trygons

5) Mawlocs

Note that marines that rely on reserves have buffs for them; a full drop-pod army can guarantee half of it arrives early (well, unless you're Dark Angels or Black Templar). Blood Angels, whose schtick is falling from the sky screaming with jump packs, get a buff on that reserve roll, too. Sheesh, even Daemons can guarantee half of a deep-striking army arrives (albeit, the rest of their special rules and unit selection works to offset that...).

The Implications

Now, on the bright side, spores and trygons cannot deviate into units (and the Mawloc WANTS to, so yeah). On the down side, the best you can get for a reserves buff is +1 to the roll. So, if you want to see your units arrive anything other than piecemal, you want to bring multiples. Common sense, right? Here's the problem:

The more deep strikers you bring to make sure you get enough of them early, the less you have on the table.

This is called 'handing yourself over piecemal.' Too little on the table, and you might not have much of it left when the backup arrives. It's bloody challenging to try to make heavy deep-striking work. Most deep-striking units are going to be around 200 points. Trygons are 200 base; Mawlocs are around 160-170; pods are 30 points and a Warrior squad is easily 200 points. Hormagaunts are a toss-up because Feed - Synapse = potential hilarity ensuing if the enemy can bait you somewhere. (Or just drop a couple flamers on you, then it's a BBQ...I wonder if they scream like lobsters when broiled?).

So, I want two of my deep-striking units to arrive and threaten the enemy on turn two so I can hit him on turn three. I take three deep-striking units (IE: three Trygons). 600 points of the army, easy. I add in a hive tyrant + guard, 250-300 points (admittedly, it's also a nasty unit in its own right and a melee rock for smashing over someone's skull, AND a quality psychic unit). Then, I hope that the enemy army can't nuke 'em both, and I try to threaten him. I also hope that I can roll well, because most armies CAN handle a single Trygon in a turn. You buy some time, lose a Trygon, and then they show up turn three and you hope that they have time to do enough damage (Because they won't hit assault 'til turn 4, now...).

Second-order implications

Ok, I'm probably mis-using the term, but if deep-striking isn't so reliable, it follows that I want to make sure other items in my army ARE reliable. Let's go to that contest Elites slot, which is usually a Hive Guard vs Zoanthrope debate. Now, Zoanthropes are short-ranged, and there are two ways to try to shore that up: Onslaught (hope you roll well on that run...) and Mycetic Spores, which can deliver you into Warp Lance range.

Well, assuming you get the reserves roll right. So, you've put 2-3 Elites slot into Zoanthropes in pods, and you might have a Venom Cannon on the tyrant(s). Zoeys are already more or less single-use (Ok, you might get more, but do you really want to gamble on that?), and frankly, I'd like my anti-tank on the table fast to keep the enemy from doing damage to me. They're a little less reliable, now.

Bottom Line

What's this mean, overall? Less options for effective builds. That's my major complaint about the Hive Commander 'clarification.' Double hive commander can no longer get me results similar to a drop pod assault. Drop pod marines? Reliable and nasty. Reserving 'nids? Asking to come in piecemal.

Honestly, it feels like unless I'm wearing power armor or flak armor, I should get accustomed to fewer options.

Honestly, it's a hit. Pure and simple. It doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense, from a standpoint of promoting versatile builds. It's not encouraging me to go out and buy 9 Zoanthropes (...ok, the cost was kind of keeping me from that anyway). It makes me a little annoyed I have three Trygons, and it makes me wish there was a freaking official model for the Tyrannofex (since it's pretty much the only heavy support choice I run for a serious build).

Anyone else feel like this? I'm kind of annoyed when I get all psyched up, have a couple builds ready, and then my models get FAQ'ed.

Blood Angel Brainstorming, Part 2

2010-07-04T01:19:00.004-05:00

So, at some point I'd said I would offer up another list for Blood Angel Brainstorming. Part of me still has a hankering to do BA mech-style, but my main goal is to use flying psychic dreadnoughts to punch the enemy in the face, or force-weapon monstrous creatures to death.

Anyway, here we go: BA Mech attempt 1:

Librarian [100]

-Sanguine Sword, Blood Lance

Elites

Furioso Dreadnought w/ Librarian [175]

-Wings of Sanguinus, Blood Lance

Furioso Dreadnought w/ Librarian [175]
-Wings of Sanguinus, Blood Lance

Troops

5 Assault Marines w/ Flamer, no jump packs [105]

Razorback w/ TL Assault Cannon, Search Light [56]

5 Assault Marines w/ Flamer, no jump packs [105]
Razorback w/ TL Assault Cannon, Search Light [56]

5 Assault Marines w/ Flamer, no jump packs [105]
Razorback w/ TL Assault Cannon [55]

6 Death Company, 2 Thunder Hammers [180]

Death Company Dreadnought [125]

8 Scouts [148]

-Sniper Rifles, 1 Missile Launcher, Camo Cloak

Fast Attack

MM/HF Speeder [70]

Heavy Support

Storm Raven [230]

-TL Multi-melta, TL Assault Cannon, Hurricane Bolters

Total: 2,000/2,000

Thoughts

This is admittedly a stab-in-the-dark draft mixing in stuff I think I like and stuff I think could work.

The dreadnoughts take wings of Sanguinus to get up-field. I'm torn on the second power. The lance is nice for taking out armor that's moved quickly, though I'm also tempted by Unleash Rage to get the most out of the force weapon or dread CCW.

The assault marines are riding razorbacks as a means of saturating the field with armored targets. In a regular marine army I'd take the lascannon/plasma gun to sit back and shoot. With the speed, though, I can try for flank shots with the assault cannons. They get a flamer because it's the weapon that can operate by itself. The othe real troops choice is the assault squad with meltaguns/powerfist/heavy flamer.

The MM/HF speeders are still more armor saturation, and of course nasty targets in their own right.

Scouts sit on the home objective, freeing me up to head upfield and grab flank shots. Sniper rifles and a missile launcher let them try to contribute.

The Storm Raven carries the Death Company kit, and provides a wildcard for the army. If it's in your face kicking out the guys in black, then you have some incoming issues. Past that, it's a capable gunship in its own right.

Honestly, that leaves me with about 100 points for HQ, and I'd rather get a little bit of CC prowess, so I get the librarian. I'm not really sure what powers to give him, so we'll take the Blood Lance (just in case) and Sanguine Sword. Nothing says 'I hope you die' like an S10 power weapon to the brainpan.

Reservations with the List

Honestly, my gut says it's a little disjointed. I have decent armor saturation (3 AV10 speeders, 3 AV11 Razorbacks, 3 AV13 Dreadnoughts, and an AV12 fast skimmer holding another dreadnought) with six light vehicles, 3 heavy-ish from the front, and another medium in the back that I could theoretically deep-strike with some degree of accuracy.

The other option that comes to mind is trying to go for jump pack troopers, but that would mean dropping one of the flying dreadnoughts for FNP priests. Gotta avoid that attrition...but that would reduce me to a pair of flying dreadnoughts and the likely-deep-striking Storm Raven.

Another thought is dropping the speeders and trying to get some autocannon/las predators in there (yay more hefty armor!).

At any rate, that's what I've got at 2AM after sleeping only 5 hours the night before.

Thoughts/inputs/curses/prayers to the porcelein deity?

Blood Angels Thoughts on Request, Part 1

2010-06-22T19:41:00.004-05:00

This is a request in from Boc, an old disciple of Spite and provider of random inspiration. For the record, it's more like genetically-engineered supermen raining from the sky screaming hallelujah unto the Emperor, and that's good enough for them.

On my way towards finding a list, I think it's important to discuss what makes the Blood Angels stand out as marines. Ok, yes, we're all used to ignoring morale rules, and getting ready to shoot a bunch of T4, 3+ save guys that just don't quite.

So, what makes the Blood Angels special? Here's what jumps out at me:

Blood Angel Core Competencies

The Jump Pack Army

Assault marines are a troops choice, and a viable one at that. While costly, you can take ten of them, give them a pair of meltaguns, a powerfist, and a welter-weight flamer. It'll cost you 245 points, but it makes for a quick, versatile troops section that's not bad in combat. You'll look for a little more punch elsewhere, but this is a solid building block, and there are plenty of choices available that can pace them.

The other thing worth noting with the Jump Pack army is Descent of Angels. Holding jump packers with this rule in deep strike? You get to re-roll the reserves roll (so you've got a 75% chance of coming in ON TURN TWO) and you roll scatter dice + 1d6. Yeah. You heard that right; it can and will rain men where you want them. Sick, isn't it?

Feel No Pain/Furious Charge bubbles

Sanguinary Priests can grant Feel No Pain and Furious Charge to units within six inches. You can get three per elite slot, and kit them out with jump packs, bikes, or terminator armor. On the down side, they're 50 points bare, and go up from there.

The Fast Vehicle Army

Most of your vehicles are indeed Fast (and the land raider can deep strike, so yeah). Predators? Get a firing position again. Razorbacks and Rhinos? Get your troops or guns where they need to be. Oh, and you can take six predators now; the Baal Predator can fit into the Fast Attack slot. You can put heavy flamers or heavy bolters on the side, and the turret can take the stupidly nasty Flamestorm Cannon, which is a flamer with S6, AP3. Smells like roasted geneseed...

Note also that your vehicles ARE a little more expensive, but you're FAST. Use it, man.

The other big vehicular debut is the Storm Raven. Want to air-lift a dreadnought? You can now. AV12 all-around and immune to melta, it's also a Fast Skimmer that can put guns and troops where you want them when you need them there. In larger games, I think you can make room for one just for the sheer utility it brings to the table.

Dreadnoughts of Nasty

Note that regular dreadnoughts (IE: the ones often seen either falling out of a drop pod with MM/HF or sitting with a pair of twin autocannons) are now heavy support. You can get the Possessed Death Company Dreadnought as a troops choice if you take a Death Company unit. Or, you can get the Furioso Dreadnought, which has an AV13 front, and can be a librarian with a jump-pack-like power.

Your mileage may vary, but I've got a soft spot for the flying Furiosos.

Death Company

Relentless, feels no pain, and can't score. Thankfully, they're not compulsory. You can take them if you like, and they have plenty of melee options. Downside: yeah, they got a little bit of Rage going on. They don't require a Sanguinary High Priest to give them Feel No Pain and Furious charge, but they ARE 20 a head now, and 35 with jump packs. You can also have a 30-man-strong Death Company if you so desire. I suppose you could theoretically have the most expensive single squad in the game if you want with 30 flying thunder-hammer-toting maniacs, which would cost you around 1900 points.

What To Do With This Stuff?

One crucial difference between this book and the regular SM book is that you lose combat tactics, and instead get the Red Thirst. Basically, this gives your guys a small chance to trade And They Shall Know No Fear for Furious Charge and Fearless. Neat, yes, but it DOES keep regular bolter guys from trying to break off and fire again during your turn. That being the case, when you get into a fist fight, you either win or come home in a box.

Your first question with the BA army is do you want to do foot (IE: Jump Packs) or mechanized, and then there's a question of the flavor of mechanized.

Honestly, if you're not going to play with the extra goodies in the book, go use another marine codex. You can't just plug 'n' play your SM army, or even your old BA army. It's as simple as that. Note that you DO have a lot of the same/similar units; you still have sternguard/vanguard vets (and vanguard's still not worth taking, really), terminators, land raiders, MM/HF speeders, scouts, and so on and so forth. Your HQ set and librarian powers are different, but most of the new guys are pricy and I'm going to focus on some of the newer stuff.

So, what would I do? Frankly, I'm drawn to two of the army types:

1) Half-Dozen Predators of Death

2) Jump Pack Marines from Hell

With Boc's request in mind, I'm going to set out a rough pair of lists, and explain my choices in both of them.

Predator Demolition Derby

Well, first off, I'm going to use Assault Marines as my core. Three units of 10 guys + 2 meltaguns + powerfist + hand flamer cost me 735.

My heavy support predators will be lascannon sponsons with turret autocannons. Why? I need the long-range firepower to stop/slow transports more than I need anti-infantry. Trust me on that. This puts me at 1140.

The Baals? I will take Flamestorm cannons on them, and nothing else. Why? If I had sponsons, I would a) have to move slower to use them, and B) be unable to put them side-to-side, thus forming a nice wall for my jumpers to hide behind. Three of them put me at 1485. Why not take the assault cannon? It's inferior for cover-busting, and it's honestly not that great at hiding armor. I'm taking it because it is abjectly frightening to infantry, and I can push them up the field quickly.

Let's take stock. Right now, I have 30 troops, an advancing wall of three short-ranged, nasty tanks, and three guys sitting back and attacking lighter armor. I have about 500 points, and at this point, I need an HQ minimum. I also could use a couple of those Feel No Pain bubbles, and something to deal with nastier CC troops. Powerfists are nice, and furious charge + flamers + massed pistol/sword beatings can handle crunchier targets while giving me a backup weapon, but I'm not sure if that'll be enough against heavier targets. Let's do some math (and assume I get a Furious Charge) off at:

T6, 3+ save monstrous creature, assuming a 4+ to hit.

Powerfist: 3 swings, 1.5 hits, 1.25 wounds, or one.

Regular Swings: 27; 13.5 hits, wound on 5+ for 4.5 wounds, so 1.5 get through. Not that overwhelming.

Against Terminators:

Powerfist: 3 swings, 1.5 hits, 1.25 wounds, probably bag a regular terminator, questionable against a storm shield packer.

Regular attacks: 27 attacks, 13.5 hits, wound on 3+ so you get 9 wounds, and 1-2 get through. Also not so great.

Ok, my hypothesis is confirmed, I need nastier weapons. I have 500 points. Two Sanguinary High Priests and a Librarian with a jump pack puts me at 1760. I just have room for a shiny, nasty unit of Sanguinary Guard. I'll give them a powerfist, and then a pair of Infernus Pistols for taking wounds off harder targets. These guys have four mastercrafted power weapons on the (furious) charge, which will do a number on harder targets. Plus, they look cool.

This leaves us at 1990. Let's go ahead and give the Librarian a hand flamer or something cool like that, and call it 2,000. What's that look like?

Ride of the Predators

Librarian [135]

-Jump Pack, Hand Flamer

Powers: Sanguine Sword (melee at S10), Unleash Rage (Preferred enemy for self/unit)

Elites

2 Sanguinary Priests w/ Jump Packs [150]

Sanguinary Guard [230]

-Powerfist, 2 Infernus Pistols

Troops

10 Assault Marines [245]

-Powerfist, Hand Flamer, 2 Meltaguns

10 Assault Marines [245]
-Powerfist, Hand Flamer, 2 Meltaguns

Fast Attack

Baal Predator w/ Flamestorm Cannon [115]

Heavy Support

Predator w/ Autocannon, Lascannon Sponsons [135]

Total: 2000/2000

Overview

So, recap:

3 hefty troops units waiting to crush face; you should be able to get Feel No Pain/Furious Charge coverage on them all.

Sanguinary Guard may be five guys, but they should also be furious charge with mastercrafted power weapons, and 2+ armor.

Librarian goes where you think you'll need Preferred enemy or an S10 fist to the gonads.

3 Predators provide a screen/flamer threat.

3 Predators sit in the back and provide you with long-range fire.

The one worry I have with a list like this is against shootier enemies, but in such a case you can deep-strike your units if you think it's necessary (and you'll get them reasonably quickly). You can also combat-squad the anti-tank elements if you feel you need to get the meltaguns in there, and I think the d6 scatter plus deep-strike placement is at least worth a look and experiment, as you don't necessarily NEED the +2d6 against lighter armor.

This being a wall o' text, I'll follow up with the Flying Dreadnought brainstorm in another post, just for sake of everyone's sanity.

Feedback? Thoughts? Faced anything or run anything like this before?

Swarmlord & Friends: Abbreviated After Action

2010-06-17T21:36:00.003-05:00

I apologize, as there would've been pictures had I had any brainpower left after dealing with a day of epic-level stupidity at work. I just have no words to describe it adequately; someone talking about training suggested a mentorship for letting the new guys learn 'the why behind the what.' I have to say that knowing the 'why' is kind of like being the protagonist in one of Lovecraft's shorts: the knowledge brings only pain and insanity.

So. That aside, here was the situation:

'Nids
Swarmlord + 3 Whip-packing Guard
3 Hive Guard
3 Hive Guard
Deathleaper
10 Termagants
11 Termagants
Tervigon w/ Onslaught, Catalyst
Tervigon w/ Onslaught, Catalyst
8 Genestealers w/ Poison
Trygon w/ Furious Charge
Trygon w/ Furious Charge

Vs

Imperial Guard
Co. Command w/ Meltas, Vox, Chimera (laser/flamer)
Co. Command w/ Vox
Chimera Melta Vets
Infantry Platoon
'toon command, vox
20 guys w/ 2 Lascannons, Commissar, couple power weapons, vox
30 guys w/ commissar, 3 autocannons, some power weapons, vox
Special Weapons Squad w/ flamers
Heavy Weapons Team w/ missile launchers
Hellhound w/ hull MM
Hellhound w/ hull MM
Leman Russ w/ Sponson bolters, pintle stubber, lascannon
Leman Russ w/ Sponson bolters, pintle stubber, lascannon
Leman Russ Demolisher w/ hull flamer

Scenario
Capture and Control, Pitched Battle Deployment

The Battle in Brief
IG won the first go. He deployed an objective in a corner, screened by his footbound infantry. Russes in central deployment, with melta-vets and a hellhound on either flank. I put my objective across from his, and hung on the side across from him. Hive Guard on one side and in the middle; and a fairly even split of assets past that. I failed to seize.

Turns 1 and 2
I have to admit that off the bat, he had some awesome shooting and I couldn't roll a save worth a crap. I lost two hive guard, a couple wounds off the Swarmlord, and took some damage here and there. Notably, the Hive Guard had to Onslaught into position in the middle, flub their shooting horribly, and lose two of them to counter-fire from a hellhound, the demolisher, and melta. I only really suppress ONE of the bloody hellhounds...ouch.

But, come my turn two, Swarmlord's still around...and I get everything. The Genestealers appear on the correct flank (the one with assault targets as opposed to the flank waaaay out there with nothing to hit) and promptly grab themselves a 20-man + commissar squad (Deathleaper had penalized the Commissar's leadership and at least tried to work that angle...). Punchline: due to a Trygon scattering to an inch of that squad, he couldn't pile in for crap. Ouch.

Insult to injury: he gets a hellhound and a chimera hull flamer into termagants; kills a whopping 4 out of 10, between rolling a heap of 1's with the hellhound and the other squad makes some awesome feel no pain rolls.

Turns 3 and 4
Sadly, he'd committed his melta assets too early to harming the Swarmlord and one flank's hive guard. I managed to take those out in the previous turns, so he had about a turn before the Trygons went to town on me. He managed to shoot the crap out of them, but kill neither. His commissar takes out another genestealer, and they hold on turn 3. Punchline: he holds out as the last man on HIS turn, staring at four genestealers (...yes, he killed the other four in the squad) and a Trygon that are Not Amused.

The other Trygon ate itself a russ, and grabbed a position for the assault on his objective.

My turn 3 gets gruesome; his stuff starts dying. Deathleaper popped out behind the Vendetta, hit a shot, and wrecked it. Thank you, flesh hooks. The special weapons team managed to flub their morale check, and my original 11 termagants had more or less made it across the field.

By his turn four, he's got a stunned hellhound looking at a hungry Tervigon, a pinned squad of flamers looking at an advancing group of Termagants, a lone missile launcher looking at 8 angry termagants, my objective firmly in hand, and the four genestealers, two tervigons, and Swarmlord looking at his objective hungrily. I have two hive guard left; one of them survived a heap of shots only to go down to an exploding hellhound.

As the store was planning to close, we called it at the end of my turn four. I had two Trygons into a 30-man squad suffering from Paroxysm, and four genestealers had cleaned his other command squad off his objective and were contesting it (might have had it after pile-in moves). Deathleaper had pegged his other Russ and tear off the cannon.

Thoughts on the New (to me) Units
Swarmlord and Buddies
Frankly, 3 tyrant guard are pretty much essential; against gun-heavy lists if they want him dead, you'll need all the protection you can get (and Catalyst). He made it to turn two by the skin of his teeth, and then they had more immediate threats. My opponent DID target him explicitly to try to screw up my reserves plan.

Against Guard, honestly, a bunch of S6 preferred-enemy insta-gib attacks that force re-rolls on invulnerable saves is just a little bit of overkill in assault.

Deathleaper
This is the first time I've fielded him, and I can see the merit. Admittedly, all he really did was make one guard squad Ld8 stubborn instead of Ld9. I think I might have played him conservatively, but the thing is that assaulting the 20-30 man squads is not gonna work, and the missile team can insta-gib him. Threatening rear shots on vehicles is reasonably nasty, but I think it's just a matter of target selection this time around.

Onslaught on Tervigons
Catalyst will still be my go-to power. I went with catalyst for two reasons:
1) get Swarmlord into position while still being able to use his powers
2) extra range on Hive Guard

I feel justified on number two as I've got all of two shooty units, and I need to get as much use as possible out of them. If I can get another turn of shooting out of them because of extra movement (or making up for a craptastic Difficult Terrain roll) then it's worth it. In this army, the Swarmlord is probably gonna get Catalyst, so that leaves an Onslaught to hand out.

Trygons
Getting them in early helps, and getting them in with as many threats as possible helps. Coming in on a 3+ helps, and the genestealers are also a credible threat, especially if the enemy's close to the flanks. Still, if I get them in early, they'll do damage. The enemy gets...one turn...to drop them.

Genestealers
Frankly, the Swarmlord makes them work a little better. I get the reserves bonus (well, it's mandatory under Alien Cunning) but I also get a re-roll on the side they arrive. Since there's normally a 66% chance of making it in on the desired side, Swarmlord bumps that up to 88%.

Poison is useful for boosting lethality, pure and simple. 'Stealers have S4 and I6; S4 is really the place to be for poison outside of S6 (as S4 + poison on 4+ translates to 75% chance to wound per hit against most infantry) and you don't really NEED I7. You do get a slight perk as it gives you another chance to see a rend on toughness-based targets. It translates to about a 25% chance to score a rend per hit if you get the re-roll.

Bottom line, though, with the Swarmlord the outflank becomes a serious consideration, because your enemy has to assume that you WILL get them on the correct side more often than not. The 'stealers force your enemy to avoid keeping stationary vehicles close to the edge (...not necessarily an issue unless it's a gun platform) and make sure everyone's got terrain in the way. It doesn't make them an auto-include in the army, but I think a unit CAN be a performer.

Overall
Honestly, both me and my opponent were a little out of practice, so there's that to factor in. The play was not top form, and the dice were a bit wonky (average on the long run, but some wild swings on the individual rolls, like my early 3+ save fails and inability to fail later on).

I think the Swarmlord works okish with this setup. I do miss having three groups of hive guard for the ability to split fire (both incoming and outgoing). I think Deathleaper is much nastier when I'm screwing over psykers. I think the Swarmlord IS a bit hit-or-miss, as sometimes that kind of melee killing power is overkill.

Certainly, Trygons + Genestealers can throw someone on the back foot, and if the enemy commits assets too early, well, they get hurt.

Other experiences with the Swarmlord?

Special thanks to Chumbalaya for recommending genestealers on that count...

Pondering the Swarmlord

2010-06-13T11:44:00.003-05:00

I've been thinking about what I'd like to do to get away from the usual list I run that centers around Hive Guard and Tervigons and Tyrannofexen. It's usually led by a Tyranid Prime. So, I figured I'd turn around and go for the big nasty in our HQ choices: the Swarmlord.

On the Swarmlord
First off: the Swarmlord can grab preferred enemy, and inflicts instant death and forces re-rolls on invulnerable saves. He's also the only unit outside of Zoanthropes to have an invulnerable save in the book. Neat, huh?

Beyond that, he's prime psychic support. All the powers you'd want (...not that a lot of them are that awe-inspiring outside of Paroyxsm) and the ability to fire off two in a turn. On the downside, the bulk of your psychic powers are shooting attacks, but you've got no fleet and the urge to crush face in assault. But, we have a way around this conundrum: Onslaught! And Tervigons are cool as is, so it's not like you're necessarily sacrificing anything to get 'em.

The other big perk is 'Swarm Leader.' During your shooting phase, you can give a unit within 18" Preferred Enemy, Furious Charge, or Acute Senses. All nice, yes? If the Swarmlord is going in himself, he's probably going to grant himself Preferred Enemy. Most units you have that you want in assault have or can readily get Furious Charge, and Acute Senses is so-so. The prime scenario I envision (other than a preferred-enemy Swarmlord) is something like a heap of preferred-enemy fully-glanded unit of Termagants going into a unit of whatever you like being subjected to Paroxysm.

So, the Swarmlord is a brute. What do do put with him? Here's a brainstorm I had with the idea of using a Swarmlord and some of the other stuff I've been painting recently.

Swarmlord and Friends
Swarmlord [280]
-3x Hive Guard w/ Lash Whips [195]

Elites
3 Hive Guard [150]
3 Hive Guard [150]
Deathleaper [140]

Troops
Terivgon [210]
-Cluster Spines
-Toxin Sacks, Adrenal Glands
-Catalyst
-Onslaught

Terivgon [210]
-Cluster Spines
-Toxin Sacks, Adrenal Glands
-Catalyst
-Onslaught

10 Termagants [50]
11 Termagants [55]

Fast Attack
4 Raveners w/ Rending Claws [140]

Fast Attack
Trygon w/ Adrenal Glands [210]
Trygon w/ Adrenal Glands [210]

Total: 2000/2000

Thoughts
Swarmlord gets a full tyrant guard because, oh, I'm pretty sure people would rather shoot him to death before he does something drastic (like get into assault). Tyrant Guard get whips as a measure of cutting costs and to back up the swarmlord; no one really needs to go before him as far as I'm concerned.

Elites? Not a big surprise. Requisite six hive guard, and Deathleaper is in there to try to cripple any psychic hoods or enemy psykers.

Troops are kind of the same as usual; it's the Tervigon core. The only difference is that they pack Catalyst and Onslaught alike. Why Onslaught? Well, Hive Guard are nasty but only have a 24" range, and the Swarmlord wants to push ahead and still benefit from his psychic powers.

The Raveners and Trygons are a bit of 'I want to try something new' and they're assault-oriented. I'd love five raveners, but I'm just short of it (I had 25 left; that went to Adrenal Glands on the Trygons and the requisite spare Termagant. Plus, I've got some reserves manipulation. I should be able to get 2-3 of them in on turn two, and since the whole army is running at you and baying for your blood,* well, yeah...

So, thoughts/feedback? Swears?

*...I'm pretty sure tyranids actually advance silently, according the fluff. It just makes it creepier.

Tervigon Conversion Pictures

2010-06-06T17:48:00.002-05:00

I'm going to let the tactial deep-thinking go by the wayside for a little bit since I finally got off my tail and got access to a camera. Here come the tervigons! They're a carnifex kit with warrior scything talons (...I don't see much point in melee upgrades past the double-glands for these guys, but I suppose I could justify Scything Talons) and a foam ball to bulk up the back. Like the Tyrannofexes, I'm going for simple but effective. One of them's even taking a termagant-dump.
Front and back. Mmm, green stuff and foam for the bulking out.

I figure the big tongue works as a toxin-type upgrade. If you look closely at the ribs on the bottom, there's the adrenal gland. With all the other gooey bits up top, I just couldn't find a good spot to slap the gland. The pointy carapace bit servs me again as cluster spines, though I suppose it could also do the Stinger Salvo in a pinch.

Side view; one of them has the talon atached to a chunk of the base and the other's doing just fine.

And finally, a bit of a top view. If I shot directly from the top, well, there'd be the shadow from my hand and all.

I know there's no way they'd actually fit the 20 bajillion termagants in there, and the max production they could make out over the course of a game is 15 per turn (that's a 4, 5, and 6, so no doubles) for seven turns, or 105 termagants. There's no way you're fitting that much space into anything you really want to field and justifying it being able to move under its own power.

I figure that the tervigons carry a crap-ton of embryos, and then use some kind of internal fuel source to rapidly hatch them and grow them and fire them out. Thus, when you see doubles, it's the fuel source burning down, or some other internal ammo-depleted type of deal.

Tyranids in Drop Pods: More Thinking Involved

2010-06-03T20:38:00.004-05:00

I blame this in part on Chumbalaya for making me think more, and blame work for not getting to it sooner.

In part, I'd like to get out of my comfort zone; I usually play with som hive guard, tervigons, and usually tyrannofexes past that. Is it solid? Reasonably so. However, it IS potentially a rut, and I don't think I'm using all the 'nid codex can give me, and frankly, I picked it up over Tau and Eldar because I wanted variety in my builds.

With that in mind, I'm going to run down stuff I think might or might not fit into a 'nid drop-pod/reserves list.

A Crucial Difference

Now, the other well-known arrives-in-pods lists is, of course, the Space Marines. One of the things that Marines can do that I like is bring units suited for engaging multiple targets, AND make sure they get what they want when they want it (well, other than the BT codex; the others get Drop Pod Assault) and can usually bring units capable of engaging a variety of targets (IE: MM/HF dreads, MM/flamer tac squads, combi-toting Sternguard, etc.).

Tyranids? We tend not to have as much duality, so I've got to get away from my preconceptions of what a drop-pod list 'can' do, and think about a Mycetic Spore list.

So, on to the choices, run down by Force Org slots.

HQs

Tyrants

Hive Tyrants get Hive Commander, our reserves manipulation. You get two things for the 25 points: first, +1 to reserves (optional unless it's the Swarmlord) and you get to designate one unit to outflank.

Tyrants can take wings for speed/mobility, or take a couple guard for durability and give you a 'starts on table' core. I'd think about either whip/sword + heavy venom, or look into devourerers. The Guard can probably run naked.

Tyranid Primes

Primes really only give you two things in a spore list: more points to play with, and the ability to slap synapse into any unit. The former means you're not getting the Hive Commander perk, and the latter gives you the ability to slap it in with 19 hormagaunts for comedic value.

HQs Overall

I have to lean towards Tyrants here. I think you need to try Spores at a larger points level to get enough, and because you want a Tyrant or two to make sure you can get them there.

Elites

Again, this is where we're getting the guns. For that reason, I'm not gonna touch the other reserves.

Zoanthropes vs Hive Guard

This is your big question, honestly. I think if you're gonna focus on pods, you should give serious thought to Zoanthropes. Zoeys are your 'kills the tank' option. If you're reserving Hive Guard, there's the issue of getting them into range, or starting with enough on the table to mak sure they don't get splattered on turn one.

Deathleaper?

Ok, you're taking Deathleaper for one reason: you want your Zoanthropes to get Warp Lance off. That's why you brought them. Deathleaper can give you better odds; even a Ld9 hood is a decent step up in chances to win the dice-off. If you manage an average d6 roll and knock them to Ld8 for the hood, then so much the better: it's pretty much sunk.

That aside, Deathleaper is ALSO just plain fun to field. You're NOT bringing him for the whole +1 to reserves, since he has to be on the field to use it.

Troops

Well, we need 'em. I think you can get serious mileage out of Tervigons/Termagants, though Warriors are also a nasty thing to put in a pod.

Tervigon/Termagant

But a Tervigon doesn't fit in a pod! Ok, wait. Go read Hive Commander. I'm not always a fan of outflanking, but a Tervigon has the potential to open up a whole new front in a fight when they walk on. First there's one, then there's 10 termagants, then 20...and you suddenly have to worry about that.

Termagants, well, you can slap them in pods, or just run them normally. You can at least buy pods for them and have the option, and I might think (I'm not sure how long) about throwing Devourers onto them for range, and for the ability to lay down a reasonably withering torrent of fire should I decide to land them and shoot things. I mean, a minimal 10-man squad IS throwing out 30 dice.

Warriors

Frankly, you're running these as a Deathstar distraction. 5-6 of them, whips/swords, devourers and a venom cannon. Ok shooting, but NO ONE wants that hitting the lines next turn. No one. You're looking at close to 300 points for that assembly, but it DOES have to be taken seriously. However, IG with russes might just LOL at this and feed it pie, but that's part of the game. Then you can cry a little.

Hormagaunts

Now, you CAN slap 20 of these in a pod, or 19 plus Prime. Frankly, I think this falls under a similar use as Warriors, though cheaper. Do worry about flamers, but on the other hand, Hormies CAN pretty much auto-pilot. The downside? If you're outside of synapse, they might just throw a tank at the hormies and laugh; if they move it well enough it might take a couple of glances but they can buy time.

Fast Attack

Frankly, there are two choices here for deep-striking: Raveners and Shrikes. I don't think Harpies have a place in a deep-striking list; while they can, you want them on the field shooting, and they benefit from having other targets to draw fire. I mean, they ARE only T5 with 4 wounds and a 4+ save. Target saturation is a survival mechanism for them.

Raveners

These are your cheap deep-strikers. 35 points a head for beasts with rending claws and speed 'On you next turn!' I like them because with rending claws and a solid volume of attacks, they're a legitimate threat to vehicles AND troops (...though should probably avoid Dreadnoughts, especially AV13 front-armor ones...)

The only downside is that compared to the rest of your army, they're less adept at deep-striking since they have no defense against a mishap.

Shrikes

Go read the warrior entry; remove the pod, add wings and reduce save to a 5+. Take the speed of 'on you next turn.' If you thought Warriors would draw fire, these things will SERIOUSLY do it. However, they're also 50 points a head for whip/sword + scything talons, and they do give up their ability to shoot in order to beomce adept at melee. Limits them somewhat, but seriously, they're gonna be assaulting something and praying they don't hit a dreadnought.

Given the cost, though, I'd almost lean towards regular warriors because I can put them in a drop pod and make SURE they land alive, instead of scattering a 250+ point unit off the table. Whoops.

Heavy Support

I'm inclined to look at three choices for heavy support in context of a drop pod list: Tyrannofexes, Carnifexes, and Trygons.

Tyrannofex?

Ok, it doesn't fly/fall with style. Why is it in here? Simple. It has the range to come on from reserves and contribute from the get-go. It's tough enough to survive all but the heaviest of firepower (or at least the highest of AP...) for a few turns. And, as long as you have the enemy on the back foot, they probably won't tie it up in melee. Failing that, it still has nasty close-in firepower with the flamer and cluster spines, and the durability to deal with melee for a turn or two unless they brought a heap of poison boneswords or powerfists.

...Carnifexes?!

Blame it on Chumbalaya, but I think he's got a point here. Twin-linked devouerers won't KILL vehicles, but it WILL allow a Carnifex to throw out some suppressing fire. I admit I haven't tested this theory out, but I can see some potential.

You're taking the Carnie for suppressive fire. A dozen S6 shots at BS3 twin-linked should quite down/stop most lighter vehicles, and if you can nail it with S9+2d6 melee attacks after that, you've probably solved a tank problem.

You ARE losing your re-rolls in melee and paying 190 points + pod for the thing, but it's one of the few versatile(ish) choices we can drop in. In a pinch, it's got a reasonable(ish) chance at passing Instinctive Behavior, and the enemy is pretty much sacrificing anything used as bait against it, or they're killing it.

Trygons

Pretty simple: survive a first turn of fire, then assault things with a heap of S6 MC attacks with re-rolls to hit. I'd think about finding points for Adrenal Glands, if only because S6+2d6 has given me issues against heavier armor often enough. It's also an edge if you attack other monstrous creatures (wounding on 3+ against T6? Yes please?).

Loading Out the Spores

Base 40 points, and you get some S6 attacks out to six inches. It'll do something if you actually land close enough to hit the enemy, but that's cutting it close. You have two real weapon options, the way I see it: Cluster Spines give you a large blast for your crap BS, and a Heavy Venom Cannon can potentially suppress vehicles. However, the guns ARE an investment in points, and I'd probably look to those last.

Overall

I've got whiskey and Mass Effect calling my name now (and some frustration because Blogger decided to try to EAT the post...). I am curious to hear from others who've tried reserves-heavy 'nid lists, and faced them. I think it can work, I think the tools are there, I just think it's gonna have to run it differently than other ones.

Thoughts, feedback, and insults are welcome.

Tyranid Brainstorm: Air Mail or Ground? BOTH!

2010-05-27T21:34:00.002-05:00

I apologize for slow responses on the previous thread, though I'd had some ideas percolating. Here's a thought for some aggressive buggy goodnes that's a departure from my usual sit 'n' shoot list. I mean, I haven't played Tau in months but I'm playing my bugs a lot LIKE the Tau, and that kinda defeats the purpose...

So, here we go:

HQ
Hive Tyrant [255]
Wings, Hive Commander, 2x Scything Talons
Paroxysm, Leech Essence

Hive Tyrant [255]
Wings, Hive Commander, 2x Scything Talons
Paroxysm, Leech Essence

Elites
2 Hive Guard [100]

2 Hive Guard [100]

2 Hive Guard [100]

Troops
11 Termagants [55]

10 Termagants [50]

5 Warriors [265]
Whips/Swords, Toxin Sacks, 4x Devourers, Venom Cannon

Fast Attack
5 Shrikes [290]
Whips/Swords, Toxin Sacks, 4x Devourers, Venom Cannon

16 Gargoyles [18]
Toxin Sacks, Adrenal Glands

Heavy Support
Trygon [200]

Trygon [200]

Total: 1998/2000

Thoughts Behind the List
This originally started out as a Flying Circus of Insanity, and in lieu of Trygons I'd fielded another brood of Shrikes, and taken Old Adversary on the Tyrants instead.

The idea is that gargs screen shrikes screen tyrants, and then a trygon or two pops up on turn 2. Backfield synapse comes from the Warriors (who are still capable of taking out anything short of a Dreadnought or heaps of S8+ abuse), while Termagants provide objective support and the hive guard, well, do what hive guard do: feed things S8 shots and don't care about cover.

Thoughts? Am I better off going with double shrikes instead? Double shrikes feels more focused, and there IS the issue of keeping all that stuff alive against a shooty army. I do worry that I might be diluting my theme a little.

Feedback/thoughts are, as ever, welcome and appreciated.

Reader's Choice/Requests on Tyranids

2010-05-22T18:58:00.003-05:00

It's been almost two weeks since my last post. In part, I've not really managed to get a game in; last weekend things went nuts and poor communication this time around meant I lurked in a gaming store for a bit, then bought some foam for my Warmachine project.

Lately, I've been delving into the 'nids. I think I'm getting comfortable with some of the ways they play, but admittedly, I've not yet tried everything with them.

Stuff I have Used
Primes
Footslogging Melee Warriors
Tervigon/Termagant Core
Hive Guard
Tyrannofexes

These, I'm pretty comfortable with.

Stuff I have NOT used so much
Trygons
Hive Tyrants
Zoanthropes
Hormagaunts
Mycetic Spores
Biovores
Harpies
Lictors
Raveners

I'm curious to hear what readers have thought of these. Please, share experiences both in fielding them (bonus points if you provide context of lists/scenario...) and in fighting against them.

I admit I'd like to try Hormies and Raveners, and I'll EVENTUALLY get those bloody harpies converted...

Stuff I Don't Use Much, But Have A Pretty Firm Opinion ON
Spore Mines
-90pt filler/diversion, or look elsewhere

Carnifexes
-I'd not take more than a couple of 2x scything talon in a brood, if that.
-No, frag spines are NOT really worth it. The only time you really care about them is charging heaps of powerfists in cover, and powerfists will generally kill you.

Venomthropes
-Solid support, BUT only in certain builds.

Pyrovores
-....why? Competes with your honest-to-god shooty units and kills infantry. What do we have that CAN'T carve up infantry in other slots

THere are probably others.

At any rate, I'm looking to viewers/readers for inspiration here. Work's been more insane than usual, so I've got less brainpower to go around.

Carnifex Support v BT Land Raiders

2010-05-13T21:31:00.006-05:00

Alright, I've had this batrep sitting for a bit, but it's been a busy week. Also, the game's a bit hazy-ish since I saw Iron Man 2 at 11:45 the night before, so yeah. At any rate, I'd intended to test Carnifexes out as a support element.

Tyranids
Prime w/ Whip, Sword
2 Hive Guard
2 Hive Guard
2 Hive Guard
10 Termagants
10 Termagants
Tervigon w/ Catalyst, toxin/adrenal
Tervigon w/ Catalyst, toxin/adrenal
5 Warriors; whips/swords, 4 Devourers, Venom Cannon
2 Carnifexes
Tyrannofex w/ Rupture Cannon, Cluster Spines
Tyrannofex w/ Rupture Cannon, cluster spines

As you can see, it's a reasonably basic shooty setup. Warriors and two carnifexes provide assault power, tervigons and termagants provide board control. I've got plenty of synapse, and against tougher melee adversaries I can chuck the Prime in with the Warriors to give them WS6 and BS4. I opted for guns on the warriors so if I can't assault, I still have SOME damage output, and losing the scything talons (when it's just one pair) isn't necessarily that harmful.

VERSUS Black Templar
Emperor's Chump, Preferred Enemy Vow
5 Terminators [4 Claws, 1 Hammer, Furious Charge]
5 Terminators [4 Claws, 1 hammer, furious charge]
7-man squad w/ las, plas
7-man squad w/ las, plas
Crusader Squad w/ Fist, Meltagun in Rhino w/ EA, Smoke
Crusader Squad w/ Fist, Meltagun in Rhino w/ EA, Smoke
MM/HF Speeder
MM/HF Speeder
Land Raider Crusader w/ EA, smoke
Land Raider Crusader w/ EA, smoke

This differs from his previous version in that he dropped the 81pt Grey Knight Brother-Captain, and added more troops to his various squads. Still, it's a nasty Big Freaking Rock army. Double raiders mean you CAN get at least one squad there, and with re-rolls and furious charge lightning claws, well, most stuff with a toughness value goes away.

Scenario
Deployment: Dawn of War
Objectives: 5 objective markers
BT wins first-turn roll-off; tyranids seize the initative.

Tyranid Turn 1

I start with my Tervigons on the table; they crap out a front line and everyone else runs on. He starts with the camping las/plas squads; I've highlighted them in a red box and put the objectives in the red circles. Given the deployment sides, I've got to press forward and grab objectives; he needs to hold his line and secure one of those across the table from him.

My Tervigon on the right promptly runs dry.

Templar Turn 1

Lots of stuff drives on. His las/plas squads opt to get into a better shooting position, in lieu of chancing night-fight rolls. His speeders scream across the table, threatening to play with fire. And my troops.

Tyranid Turn 2

I advance. Chances are, I didn't do it enough, but we won't know that for a few turn, will we? I make sure his speeders go away; it helps that he can't make a 4+ save. The one on the left gets immobilized moving flat out, and the one on the right explodes. I can't do more than shake/stun his Rhinos; I engage them because I might actually STOP them as opposed to chance damaging the raiders, and then have everything arrive intact.

Turn out I'm taking a leak into the wind, other than killing the speeders.

Templar Turn 2

Big surprise: he drives forward, pops smoke. He fans out to get troops near objectives, and the Raiders position for launching fighters. I think of Land Raider Crusaders as short-ranged carriers with a nasty fighter screen; right now they're getting into range. His lascannons busy themselves with rolling 1's and 2's as often as possible.

Tyranid Turn 3

I somehow immobilize both Rhinos even through smoke. That's really it, other then the fact I can't make psychic rolls (and actually drop a wound off one of my Tervigons because of box cars). The tervigon on the right manages to crap out an amazing FIVE Termagants; I give in to a wild hare and throw them across the field to shoot and assault one of his scoring squads. As expected, I kill a few, but the Termagants fail morale and actually get away. It provides a moment of comedy, and it's about all I can think of doing with a whopping 4-5 in one brood.

Black Templar, Turn 3

His Crusader squads pop out of their beat-up Rhinos, and move towards objectives. Land Raiders advance and disgorge cutty death.

One crusader squad can't make terrain rolls worth a crap to get into warriors. Termagants go down in flames. Or, up in giblets (but no gravy). Big surprise; twenty WS4, S5 attack that re-roll hits and wounds kill 10 termagants really hard...

Tyranid Turn 4

Hello, back foot. Time to repulse that assault. Warriors and other fire converges to waste four terminators on my right flank, and the TH/SS terminator responds by...running away. The other squad holds fast, and I throw my carnifexes into it. Gotta sort those before they sort my army.

My opponent can't make 4+ cover saves, but CAN make 5+ invulnerable saves. One carnifex was softened up prior to getting into assault, and gets lightning-clawed down. Sad, isn't it? I don't get to deploy my Warriors (more importantly, I don't get to MOVE them) to finish off the TH/SS termie, but he is within six inches still.

Black Templar Turn 4

My opponent plays a sound game; he moves to lock down two forward objectives and put a Land Raider on the last one. Operational land raiders make me sad, but I at least have a Carnifex I can put into that one. Right? And I've got Tyrannofexe in position to shoot and assault them.

Tyranid Turn 5

Funny story: warrior squad versus Crusaders doesn't work out for the Crusaders. I beat up the Land Raiders, but don't kill them. Being turn five, I try to harm the squad on the right as well; this turns out predictably poor. Still, you can't always rely on getting turn six...

Black Templar Turn 5 (FINAL)

...because you won't always get one. He's got Land raiders contesting two objectives, and troops on the others. Game to Black Templar.

Thoughts

Overall, I probabably could have stood to move my guys up a bit more. I sometimes have issues with aggression (or lack thereof) and I think it showed here. Also, don't play games on six hours of sleep; it probably doesn't help.

Past that, twin land raiders is just a nasty build; I'm not 100% sure this is the tip-top BT build but it is plenty dangerous. I couldn't handle the raiders in time, and didn't get into position fast enough to challenge him.

Warriors and Primes and Guns

Honestly, I think there's something to be said for keeping the devourers on your guys. You can get productivity out of them without having to assault (and you can't always asssault). If you have them with a prime, that's a good number of shots at a decent BS.

Regarding talons, well, it's a bit like this...if you have a decent WS (5+) then you'll hit most of your enemies on a 3+. Since you re-roll ones, you re-roll half of your misses (since you miss on a 1 or 2). I mean, obviously double talons is sweet, but I'm a bit partial to the guns. Call it more of a tactical decision, since with poison you're going to do fine with wounding.

Carnifexes

Alright...for 320 points, not bad. I lose a rupture cannon (and some points on top of that) but gain a decent anti-tank, anti-infantry assault unit. Even so, I've got to be careful about what I put them into. TH/SS termies can turn them into hash and keep going. I have to slap termagants into hard-core, low-volume-of-attack units and gum up the works, or throw warriors at them.

If I see dreadnoughts (barring ones with farce weapons...) or vehicles, or lower-strength guys, then it's time to party.

All in all, whip/sword/poison warriors can tag just about everything that a carnifex can (if not better) other than dreads and vehicles. I guess in that sense, it's a decent compliment.

Wrapup

I should've pressed up; he was gonna get a turn three assault any way I looked at it and I probably should've gotten better board position. Past that, sometimes the dice just don't help you out with killing high-value targets.

Feedback/Thoughts?

Making Carnifexes Work 2: As A Support Element

2010-05-06T21:41:00.002-05:00

First, I'll beg everyone's forgiveness; last week was a rough week, and this week has been a heap of training and more ramping up to insanity at work. My mind's not as much into the game as usual, mostly because making money is draining.

Sad, I know, but that's life, right? Gotta use the skills to pay the bills, first, and the excess goes into actually enjoying life.

That aside, here's what I was thinking of using to test carnifexes as a supporting element of the army. Anyone with hardcore assault units can shoot you to death; horde armies can wear them down, and even with aburd dice luck to his terrible luck, I still lost to guard.

So, how do we use carnifexes as a support element? Don't take many. 2 is probably plenty. They'll cover the heavy lifting. Dreadnoughts, land raiders, that kind of thing come in? Ok. Neat. Let's go trash that stuff with carnies. Hordes? Gotta bring something to take out more numerous enemies.

We'll also need actual guns, and then synapse and scoring troops. So, what does that leave me with?

HQ
Tyranid Prime [Lash Whip, Bone sword] 95
Elites
2 Hive Guard [100]
2 Hive Guard [100]
2 Hive Guard [100]
Troops
10 Termagant [50]
10 Termagant [50]
Tervigon (Catalyst, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacks) [195]
Tervigon (Catalyst, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacks) [195]
5 Tyranid Warriors (Whip/Sword, Toxin Sacks, Devourerers, 1 Venom Cannon) [265]
Heavy Support
Tyrannofex w/ Rupture Cannon, Cluster Spines [265]
Tyrannofex w/ Rupture Cannon, Cluster Spines [265]
2 Carnifexes [320]

Total: 2000/2000

All in all, I think it's a step up from the previous list. We've still got a good number of monstrous creatures with a half-dozen. Compared to the previous carnie-spam list, we dropped the Venomthropes and four carnies for Tyrannofexes and warriors.

So, now, we have guns (same number of hive guard, and now two rupture cannons to trash things at range), and we have lighter-weight, more numerous attacks from the warriors.

Thoughts?

Carnifex Spam Batrep

2010-05-01T00:43:00.006-05:00

I decided to give the massed carnifex list a shot, as it had generated a heap of discussion. I ended up running an atypical scenario (from the Kalm Before the Waagh!, a heap of drama prevented me from being there but he'd made it) against an army that my oppenent was like 'well, maybe it'll do something interesting' though he had his reservations (which turned out to be correct).

So, at 2,000 points I had:
Tyranid Prime [Scything Talons, Devourer]
3 Hive Guard
3 Hive Guard
3 Venomthrope
Tervigon [Toxin, Adrenal, Catalyst]
Tervigon [Toxin, Adrenal, Catalyst]
10 Termagants
10 Termagants
2 Carnifex
2 Carnifex
2 Carnifex

My Logic: 'I wonder what a Half-Dozen Carnifexes will do with Venomthrope and Hive Guard Support.'

Chaos Space Marines
Slaaneshi Lord w/ Daemon Weapon
Berserkers w/ Fist Chump
Plague Marines w/ Fist, Flamers, Rhino
Plague Marines w/ Plasma, Fist, Rhino
CSM w/ Chaos GLory, Fist, Melta, Rhino
CSM w/ Chaos GLory, Fist, Melta, Rhino
Noise Marines w/ Sonic weapons, power weapon chump, Rhino
Oblit x1
Oblit x1
Land Raider w/ Posession
[NB: he'd overcosted his Land Raider; he'd been looking at the Space Wolf book and forgot his didn't have PotMS, so he was short about a marine or two]

His Logic: 'I Wonder What A Chaos Rhino Rush Will Actually Do'

Scenario: The 'Urty Dozen
Primary: Get Your Most Expensive Unit Killed (Dead mercs collect no paycheck and are thus free...)
Secondary: Objectives [6 total]
Tertiary: Kill at least one enemy HQ
Fourthiary: Victory Points

Deployment: board divided into six equal chunks. Players dice off; the winner then drops 3d6 (re-rolling any duplicates) and gets the correspondingly-numbered chunks. I ended up with two on one short side, and one on the far corner. Then, I won the roll and forced him to deploy first and go first. Hey, he's got mobility on me out the yin-yang and it's not like I can stop more than two rhinos tops before he gets there.

Deployment

Red circles highlight the objective. Unsurprisingly, he deploys in the middle. I take my two adjoining segments and termagant-screen my force. I figure that he'll hit me, and then I'll have to weather the initial hit and push out to force him off objectives. Hive Guard on either flank mean I should be able to get at least one brood to draw a bead on anything, since my butt's against the 48 inche side. (actually not, since there's a BOOK CASE there...)

Here's another view of the deployment. My Tyrannofex conversions, my semi-converted Tyrants, and a couple of old mech-daemon conversions are my Carnifexes, and the mech-daemons are standing in as my 'KILL MEEEE!' objective, since two carnifexes are 320 points. I fail to seize the initiative, and this is fine.

Chaos Turn 1

Chaos advances and fans out. Noise Marines move up to grab a flank with an objective and a good view for pouring fire onto one of myo bjectives. His Land Raider drives up, spits out Berserkers, and proceeds to eat ten termagants. His powerfist champ and two others bite it on the way in thanks to the Venomthrope dangerous terrain checks. His plague marines move up and only rapid-fire ONE venomthrope down, and wound the other. That last Rhino is busting toards the back, to conga-line and grab two objectives.

Naturally, the oblits are in reserve.

Tyranid Turn 1

Ok, well, time to do something about that. I explode the horse that the Plague Marine Squad (with attached lord, the white fig) rode in on, and the Rhino that a CSM squad was in BEHIND his land raider. Thought you could hide, did you? Carnifexes move up to engage his plague marines, his berserkers, and his land raider. Tervigons spawn; one closer to the bottom of the picture runs dry. One at the top promptly craps out 10 Termagants to replace the ones that the berserkers ate.

Berserkers? Gruesome death. Land Raider? Explodes. Plague Marines? Lord insta-kills BOTH OF MY FREAKING CARNIFEXES WITH SIXES TO WOUND. I die a little on the inside. He celebrates.

Chaos Turn 2

Noise marines move up, fire on termagants. Plague Marines with a commanding view open up on carnifexes that ate the land raider. His marines that got out of the exploded rhino (well, the 8 that made it out...) also open fire on the carnies. The carnies do not appreciate this, and are hurt. One oblit falls off the table and dies horribly; the other blowtorches some termagants.

His Lord and Plague Marines get into the tervigon and termagants (due to poor placement on my part and a solid multi-assault). TERVIGON IS INSTA-GIBBED BY SLAANESHI LORD. Termagants die a deadly death.

So far, the Slaaneshi Lord has single-handedly killed 515 points of my army. He costs 135. I am a sad, sad freaking panda.

Tyranid Turn 2

Well, I've got to handle this. Two carnifexes are detailed to end the plague marines and the slaaneshi lord, along with a squad of termagants, who will be on strict orders to MAKE SURE THAT THE FREAKING SLAANESHI LORD DOES NOT GET INTO B2B WITH MY CARNIFEXES. I do NOT want to see more insta-gib sixes. Other carnifexes advance towards his CSM squad that just can't seem to move through cover away from two large, hungry, pointy things the size of building running at them with murderous intent.

The Tervigon craps out another 10-11 termagants.

Assault happens. At the end, I lost a beat-up carnifex and some termagants in exchange for the Slaaneshi lord, the oblit, and most of his plague marines. I am quite satisfied. This happens in part due to the fact the lord rolled a '1' for his daemon weapon. Whoops.

This actually defines his luck; he rolled either very hot or yahtzee'd on ones. Seriously. He yahtzee'd on ones like TWICE. Considering that he pretty much was looking at 3's to hit and 3's to wound (or sixes) it was pretty surprising.

He cries a little on the inside when the lord died. Sorry, that 135 points ONLY buys you one quarter of my army.

Holy freaking hell. I would've cried if that lord had run through more of my army. As it is, I luck out and pass the instinctive behavior on the hive guard, and the termagants just kinda lurked.

Chaos Turn 3

His advance is blunted. At this point he's got two objectives locked down solidly in the back, but his inability to roll difficult terrain is probably gonna cost him that Chaos Marine squad. His Noise Marines shell my Termagants (who go to ground, lest they fail a morale check from casualties and run off the board) but they weather it with aplomb. (Ok, not really; they just hid really well in a house. Same thing, right?)

Amusingly, I can make cover saves against meltaguns and plasma weapons, but bolters take wounds off my freaking carnifexes. I got cover because one hid behind a house. A HOUSE. Ok, more like INSIDE the house, then somehow walked out and left it intact. Go figure.

Speaking of the chaos backfield, you can see the conga line.

Tyranid Turn 3

Wall of Termagants advance; Tervigon craps out MORE. The Prime splits off from his hive guard buddie and wanders over to provide synapse while the Tervigon dumps Domination to make sure. (or maybe that was last turn? Not sure, but I did actually use that 18" synapse range).

I fire on his Noise Marines and nothing happens. My other hive guard are a couple inches short of hitting anything (other than the Chaos Marines, and I want to try to get to them with the carnifexes. I've also shot myself out of assault range more than once.)

Two Carnifexes + 8 Chaos Marines = Two Carnifexes. They had to get into terrain, but the powerfist didn't kill anyone. One 'fex only has a single wound left, though.

Chaos Turn 4

There's not a lot left to do now. He moves the Rhinos up in preparation to contest objectives, since the game lasts either 5 or 6 turns. Plague marines back up, rapid-fire the 'fexes, and actually drop one. Noise marines backpedal out of terrain and fire. My Tervigon finally runs dry this turn.

Endgame

I'll summarize, since A) I forgot a few pictures, and B) it was pretty much over. The carnifex on the flank managed to get into his Noise Marines (...and eat them). The other carnifex got into and through his plague marines, tagged a rhino, and then died in assault with his remaining squad.

End Result:

Primary: Chaos

Secondary: Tyranids

Third: Tyranids
Fourth: Tyranids

Survivors

Tyranids:

Prime

1 Venomthrope

1 Tervigon

1 Carnifex

40-50 Termagants

Chaos

7 CSM

Thoughts on the game and the lists

The Scenario

The scenario was admittedly atypical. It kept us maybe 14 inches apart, though it's possible I could've avoided the first turn assault anyway. As it was, it worked out for me, since I dropped about 500 points of his army on turn one.

Getting the most expensive unit killed is sometimes a bit odd, but the other objectives were reasonably normal. I mean, headhunting the HQ is usually a good idea; most of the time they add something to the list.

The Freaking Slaaneshi Lord

In a sense, this was dice luck. On the other hand, such lords are iffy against stuff you really wanna insta-gib (while you can wound tyranid warriors with their T4, they'll have whips and swords and shank you 'til you're dead before you can go, in all likelihood).

Still, with enough attacks, you can hope for those sixes. It was just NUTS to see instant death worth something. If we really wanted to talk about a chaos HQ for hunting MCs, though, I'd look to Kharn (...because, well, it's freakin' KHARN but he does need fours to wound...) or a Nurgle Lord with Daemon Weapon (they're like poison lightning claws against regular troops, and still the poison helps against T5+ enemies, so yeah...)

The Chaos List

Long story short: he was hella short on firepower. He just didn't have a good counter to monstrous creatures in general past 'hope the hidden powerfist works after you soften them up with meltaguns before the charge.'

The Dice

...wow. My opponent's dice luck was all over the freakin' place. Seriously, the Venomthropes just about paid for themselves in the number of guys that flubbed dangerous terrain checks. I think it was a powerfist zerker, two more zerkers, then at least one plague marine (With a flamer, no less..).

Plus, he got the '1' on the daemon weapon at the exact wrong time. On the other hand, he ALSO got the sixes at the exact right time. He also managed to immobilize a crucial contest-capable rhino on terrain.

I also managed to explode half the vehicles I killed, so yeah. I ALSO had a Tervigon produce for four straight turns, so I got a total of 5 extra broods, or about 25-30 termagants. Swathes of 'em died, though, but BFD. I got more (...usually.)

The Venomthropes

Ok, honestly, unless you can hide them out of LOS, most enemies ARE capable of dumping enough fire on six T4, 4+ save wounds in a turn or two to kill 'em all off. He almost did that in the very first turn, and the noise marines KO'ed another at some point.

Still, the defensive grenades and cover have their place in some builds. Venomthropes don't belong in every army, but if you're going MC heavy (...maybe, really does depend) or going for a swarm( and want to make sure you can get cover) then it might be worth a shot.

Note, though, that like the Tervigons, it forces you to stay close and pay attention to your formation. You want at least a few guys trailing back to the magical 6-inch bubble that the venomthropes have for giving you cover/defensive grenades/dangerous terrain.

The Carnifexes

Admittedly, Living Battering Ram has a place. It helps to go before powerfists, and if I could find 30 points without a major problem I would probably think about giving them Frag Spines. On the other hand, most armies with nasty assault troops can get the charge off, and it doesn't matter that much against shooty armies.

Honestly, the 'fexes didn't face any uber-threats on the table. Two of them can nail a semi-damaged squad with decent rolls (needing 4's to hit, they should be able to kill 5-6 guys a turn) and on the charge? You're talking 7-8, and getting up to ten is possible (unless you're charging plague marines).

Even with Run moves, these guys are freakin' slow. And, well, you NEED to run them. The other worry is getting ahead of your synapse support, since Feed/Rage can be used against you and you're not always gonna make that Ld7 check to avoid being a stupid mountain of hungry, fanged, muscle with talons as long as a sedan. (I feel like I should make jokes about why T-rex is angry with regards to the functionality of his arms; t-rex at least had hands...).

And, of course, he had no dedicated melee units. If the enemy can soften up the carnifexes (...which, admittedly, most lists can) then they can probably take 'em out in assault. Pure assaulty lists can probably hurt them too; stuff like thunder-shield termies hurt and even t-wolf cav can put the hurt on.

Carnies are reasonably durable, but (lack of) speed can kill. Tomorrow I go against IG, so we'll see ho that works out. Stay tuned for another batrep.

Hive Guard

...deprived him of his mobility, and kept the Rhinos from potentially denying my the objectives. Without them, he could've just kept moving them and tank-shocking termagants around. What are Termagants gonna do if they can't furious charge the thing, try to get behind 'em and do damage with with BS3, S4 guns?

Overall

Ok, end of the day, that was an interesting match. I don't think this validates carnifexes by itself, as they really didn't have to contend with any major threats. Even then, I still lost more than half of them. I probably would've kept one more alive had the slaaneshi lord not killed BOTH of them, but even with Kharn or omething ele in his place I would've probably lost at least one. Actually, Kharn + a powerfist champ still probably would've KO'ed both, but it just would've taken longer (unless I lucked out and KO'ed Kharn, but that depends on which Carnie got wounded and which one got into assault with Mr. Kharn.)

I'm playing against IG tomorrow. Should be interesting, since this player generally does bring a pretty nasty IG list. Failing that, it'll probably be double-crusader Black Templare with Furious Charge lightning claw terminators.

Either way, both of those will be a bit rougher on the 'fexes.

Comments/Thoughts/Rage? Due to Powerpoint Making Us All Stupid, I haven't had a lot of time lately to blog. (Staring at slides for 5-6 hours a day and then having to review them or brief them the other 2-3+ hours does sap your brains and will to look at a computer screen, lemme tell ya. For like two and a half weeks straight.)

Carnifexes: Can you make them work?

2010-04-24T17:00:00.003-05:00

I admit it, I'm trying to like the Carnifex in the codex. But, the question is, what do I use it for? With the plethora of new critters/options, it's now a good question as to just what you CAN do with the 160-point bugger.
What Does it Have Going For it?
Well, you have good ol' Monstrous Creature durability. T6, four wounds, and a 3+ armor save. And, now, you can take 1-3 per slot (more on that later...). You start with four WS4, S9, I1 attacks (I3 on the charge, and you're the one thing in the fething book that can take frags; go figure). You start with double scything talons, so you can re-roll anything you don't tag, and you'll generally hit on 4's (barring vehicles, crappy troops, or assault troops). Lone carnifexes can also take mycetic spores.

What Can it do?
Now, here comes the real question: just what are you going to DO with the carnifex? Basically, you're going to think about either shooting OR assaulting, since you can't do both at the same time. Furthermore, buying guns loses you one or both sets of scything talons, which seriously impacts your ability to wreck things in melee.

Note also that in a unit, each 'fex must be equipped identically; I guess there's just too much room to abuse three seperate carnifexes for wound allocation. (Then again, they could theoretically soak 10 wounds before losing ANY combat effectiveness, so yeah.)

So, for shooty, the options are:
1) Take a Heavy Venom Cannon.
It's reasonable for suppressing fire, as S9 can usually get hits on vehicles and slow them down. On the negative side, it's still -1 to damage rolls and you're only BS3.

While you're CHEAPER than a Tyrannofex (he's 265 with his rupture cannon, you're pushing 200) he's much better at killing armor with two S10 shots, and landing at least one of them 75% of the time.

2) Take a Stranglethorn Cannon
Mmm, S6 large blast. Ok, doesn't do crap-all against vehicles (well, nothing that a Hive Guard can't do better and cheaper) and it's okay for anti-personnel work, but that's still an 'eh' weapon, all things considered.

3) Devourers
Bright side? You're twin-linked. Down side? You're short ranged (almight 18") and not going to hurt vehicles at all. If you're committed to going shooty, take them to get a little extra oomph (points permitting) and if not, well, honestly, you should have more efficient ways of killing infantry.

When it comes to assault:
1) Crushing Claws
...leave them at home. 25 points for +d3 attacks. You have four with re-rolls, or you can get 5-7 without re-roll. You need dice to go in your favor to get any mileage out of this; with 4+ to hit you need to get 6 attacks to get mileage; with a 3+ you need to get all +3 attacks to make it work for you.

2) Adrenal Glands
Yay, Furious Charge! IF you actually get the charge, you got at I4, S10 (since you get +2I on the charge for being a really big, angry thing). The only time you'll care about being S10 is against Wraithlords and AV14. AV10 rears get auto-penetrated by S9, and you should be able to tag AV14 on average; 2d6 usually gets a 6-7. Leave 'em at home.

3) Frag Spines
...if you have five points, I guess? Mostly, this is for getting to go before stuff like units full power powerfists, since you still don't go before dreads (unless you bought Furious Charge). It's cheap, so it falls into the filler category.

4) Toxin Sacks
You're S9. Unless it's a wraithlord, you wound it on a 2+. This beats a re-rolled 4+. You already nuke multi-wound T4 on a 2+. You don't need these, frankly.

Now, Why Would We Use This?
So, you want to shoot? The Hive Tyrant is comparable in terms of weapons and BS, and brings you better support abilities for the guns you can get. In a pinch, you can ALSO get tyrant guard and get more durability.

If you want to kill heavy armor, the Tyrannofex is more expensive, but has a better gun for killing heavy tanks. It also has nastier point-blank weaponry, a better save, more wounds, and loses one attack and one WS (and is only S6, but BIG DEAL).

If you want to drop-pod it, you're inferior to the trygon. It's faster (thanks to fleet), it's got a gun (for what it matters; BS3 with assault 6, S5, AP5), more attacks (6) and it has more wounds. The spore gets a gun, but gives up a KP (or VP) as well. Frankly, I'd consider going with the Trygon here.

So, then, what would we use the carnifex for? Stuff shoots better and deep-strikes better. Also, Warriors are a source of power weapon attacks (though Warriors are more expensive) and a Tyrant + guard CAN be a nasty counterassault element. S9 insta-kills most multi-wound stuff you'd want to insta-kill. So, it IS a potential substitute for Warriors and nasty counter-assault.

Using Them...
My thought is thus: Keep them on foot, MAYBE take frag spine if you have them. There's no benefit to the assault upgrade, and there are better guns.

Run them at the enemy as a target. Bring along either hormagaunts or termagants as a means of KO'ing infantry, bring some guns to take care of enemy tanks, and go to town. I don't think it's necessarily the best way to go, but I think you might be able to work it.

Possible Example...

I would start with something like this:

6 Hive Guard (for killing light transports; could go up to more) [300]
2 Tyrannofexes (for long range fire) [330]
Unit of 2 Carnifexes (no upgrades) [320ish]

This is about 1,000 points. You've got a good set of four monstrous creature; I'd think about more. You've got the means to dismount the enemy infantry; you just need synapse.

An Alpha hiding in the hive guard is an option. Alternatively, a couple of Tyrants could be nasty mobile synapse; if you're going with hormagaunts you could try to give 'em Preferred Enemy.

Tervigons boost your MC count, at least.

Anyone else got any thoughts on using Carnifexes? This is the best I've got. When I get back to my codex, I'll crank out a list. Again, I'm not sure this is the best way to run bug, but it's what I've got. Throw the Carnies out there to draw fire; if they CAN get into assault they can do some damage.

Tyranid Troops Choices

2010-04-19T19:28:00.003-05:00

I believe I'd promised the other week that there'd be a breakdown on Tyranid troops. Well, after a nutty week, a crazier weekend (and neither of those in the good way...) and a short nap and bike ride, it's time for that breakdown.

The way I see it, there are three basic focuses on Tyranid troops: Termagants/Tervigons, Hormagaunts, and Warriors. They can mix to an extent, but you should usually pick one and run with it.

Termagants and Tervigons
Also known as: '...how do I build this big guy, and how many of these little things do I have to PAINT?!' (the answer: I'll have my conversion of one up soon as I do cleanup on painting, and the latter is about 50-60). This is one of the popular ones on the inter-tubes so far as I can tell; everyone is enamored with the ability to spawn endless hordes of them.

This generally takes the form of two units of ten Termagants (50 points each) and two Tervigons taken as troops choices with adrenal glands, toxin sacks, cluster spines, and either Catalyst or Onslaught (195 each). Grand total? About 500 points.

T&T Pros
1) Quantity Problems are Usually Solved.
You can crank out 3d6 termagants per tervigon per turn. Averages suggest that you'll get two turns of production before you see doubles, and you'll produce 10-11 termagants each go. That means you can guess on a couple of units of ~10 termagants. This means in an objective game, you can casually crap out something to sit at home, then advance.

2) Termagants Get Nasty with Poison, Furious Charge, and Counterattack
Individually, a Termagant is crap. It's basically a guardsman with a BS3 bolt pistol and a 6+ save that 'benefits' from fearless. You generally hit on 4's, wound on 4-5's, and die in combat to fearless wounds.

Now, give yourself poison (always wound on that 4+) and furious charge (re-roll that 4+ against T4 on the charge, and against T3 all the time). That's kinda nasty. If you get charged, you get a Ld10 roll to get Counterattack. All this for the low, low price of staying within 6" of the Tervigon (read: making sure ONE GUY is within that crucial six inches).

3) Charge Range
A freshly-minted unit of Termagants can reach out to 18". You spawn within 6" of the Tervigon, you get your 6" move, and your 6" assault. It's worth considering, since a unit of 10 of these with Furious Charge can put some solid hurt on stuff.

4) Psychic Support
Do you like handing out Feel No Pain? Yeah, the Tervi can do that. The big draws of FNP are making units like Warriors and monstrous creatures much more durable, or helping your little guys take small-arms fire or Fearless wounds.

5) Anti-tank
In a pinch, your Tervigon ought to be charging with four S6 monstrous creature CC attacks. Don't underestimate the graphic damage that S6 poison can do to another monstrous creature. I lucked out against a buddy's bugs (really, really lucked out) and a Tervigon ate HALF of a Trygon in one assault phase. (His other Trygon promptly prioritized the Tervigon it was facing, and put four wounds on it...)

T&T Cons
1) Kill Points
Termagants aren't THAT hard to kill, and against something like Land Raiders or faster assault armies, you're going to use the first rank to absorb the hit as best you can. In KP games, don't spawn unless necessary.

2) Traffic Jams
It's a lotta guys, and the biggest problem? If you really want to get the benefit of the poison/furious charge, you need a guy within 6" of the Tervigon. It's very easy to let a moment of inattention cost you.

3) Shoot the Big One!
Note that losing a Tervigon inflicts 3d6 S3 hits on all Termagant units within 6". KO'ing the Tervigon thins the horde, and renders Termagants merely an annoyance instead of nasty.

A final note...
While Termagants are pretty much crap without a Tervigon to buff them, a minimal unit or two of ten make cheap objective-holders even if you're focusing on Warriors or hormies. You don't REALLY want to sit hormies back at home; they can actually kill things in assault without a mommy bug nearby shouting encouragement like an annoying soccer mom.

Hormagaunts
I covered Hormies a bit here, but the short version: buy adrenal glands and toxin sacks. It's worth dropping 10 points a Hormagaunt for something that charges at I6, and throws out a metric crap-ton of poison attacks that wound 75% of the time against basic troopers (excluding Plague Marines, that is...). Consider 40-50ish or so in a 2,000 point list, ideally in 3 or so units. You want to balance KP, the ability to get there in sufficient strength, and the ability to engage enough of the enemy.

Hormie Pros
They're quick, lethal, and...well, that honestly sums it up. They're capable of dragging down monstrous creatures and just about any infantry in sufficient numbers. In a pinch, you can S4 charge a vehicle and glance the crap out of it.

Hormie Cons
Downsides? While you CAN tag vehicles, you really need support to kill them for you so you can get to the nougat center. Dreadnoughts MUST be a priority, since a dreadnought can tie you up indefinitely, and pile-in moves might make it difficult to actually get something into assault to deal with said Dreadnought.

Past that, folks DO know they're dangerous, and WILL prioritize them. You, in turn, must bring a means of dealing with things like Hellhounds and heavy flamer landspeeders. I suggest Hive Guard, and possibly Tyrannofexes, depending on the build.

Also, if you're used to playing Tervis/Termies, you might think 'Oh, I can get more!' ...well, you CAN'T. Sorry.

Warriors
Warriors are the 'elite' choice. They're a nasty melee unit with some token shooty, but MAN is that melee nasty. The average warrior unit should carry lash whips and bone swords along with Toxin Sacks. Adrenal glands are optional, as Warriors are 50 points with the whip/sword and poison. Going up to S5 on the assault isn't that huge; the best it'll do for you is...um...get that re-roll against T5 targets, which is a short list: marine bikes, plague marines, warbosses, and ork bikers.

Note also that you CAN kit warriors out for shooty rolls. Deathspitters are 5 points and instead of the Devourer's S4 AP-, you get S5 AP5 for your three assault shots instead.

Warriors are ADEQUATE at anti-infantry fire. Don't tell me an S6 venom cannon is a viable source of anti-tank; it's for the wound allocation and the occasional shot that softens something up. S5 is simply not going to damage vehicles (...ok, I'm sure someone will say 'but what about open-topped AV10? Good job, it can do that. Big deal. Ask the Rhino and Chimera what they think about S5 gunfire. Go on, ask.)

EDIT:
You CAN pay 35pts per warrior to get someone with three S4 WS5 attacks that re-roll ones, and they have three S5 AP5 BS3 attacks at range. It IS extra synapse, and honestly it IS a possible camping unit.

However, if you want a camper you can spend 50 points on ten Termagants that just sit back and go to ground. In theory, the enemy should have to go through your army ANYWAY to pick off your objectives, so deal with it. I'd rather put 50pts to camp than 105 minimum for shooty warriors.

And, if it's anti-infantry you're after, you get it in much better quality going into assault. Sure, it's 50 points for whip/sword/poison, but it's the ONLY place you can get a unit full of power weapons that's NOT a monstrous creature.

While you CAN make warriors shooty anti-infantry, I just can't recommend it. They don't shoot that well, and they're a nasty second-hit assault unit capable of doing tremendous damage.

Warrior Pros
Warriors are ludicriously dangerous with whips and swords. Got an enemy MC in your lines? Charge them with a handful of warriors. You're going to go first, or simultaneously at the worst (you strike at I1 going into cover; anyone in base with you goes at I1 thanks to the whip). Take scything talons for the re-roll, and assuming you hit on 4+, you're going to crank 4 attacks/warrior on the charge, and then that's 20 attacks, 10 hits, one or two re-rolls generating another hit or two, and then an average of 5-6 wounds. If you hit on 3's, it gets worse, and pretty much guarantees nuclear death to any MC you can touch.

Great, ain't it? You might drop 15 points on a Venom Cannon just to get an S6 blast in there, or to use for wound allocation purposes. It's an optional thing.

I suppose you could go double swords, but you lose your ability to go into cover effectively, or horrifically subdue targets. You do get better at the insta-kill, but that's a very situational thing, given the prevalence of Eternal Warrior. (the list would be: nobs, warriors, some monstrous creatures, and some ICs).

Warrior Cons
You can't engage vehicles effectively. At best, you can drop another 20-30 points for furious charge to get S5 hits into the rear, but frankly, you should be using hive guard and monstrous creature assault to kill vehicles. It's what you have.

You are also a magnet for S8+ fire. If you are going to run a lone unit of warriors as melee support (which is perfectly viable) then you need other high-toughness targets to force the enemy to prioritize.

If you are going warrior-heavy (which is very possible) you'll be on the lower end of the model count, but you'll also have a crap-ton of T4 4+ wounds to force him to wade through.

You're not fleet and don't have Move Through Cover. 'Sad Face' is all I can say about that.

Final Note On Warriors
If you need a little extra assaulty punch, and you can spare 250-300 points, you can get 5-6 warriors to bolster the lines and get a little extra synapse. It's mostly for the extra CC power, but it's a support option to consider. (Well, them or Shrikes...which are just a huge bullet magnet because you only have to watch them rampage through your troops once...).

But Wait, What About the Rippers?
Well, they don't score. You can't really build an army around them, so they're firmly in the 'support/filler' bin. For hilarity, you can buy them the ability to deep strike. Past that, if you have the spare points, consider poison. If you have enough points to get more than 4-5 bases, consider a better investment.

They're not bad as a tarpit, but you need to be in Synapse, because if the Hive Mind isn't reminding them to breathe, then they kind of die when they flub that ld6-ish Instinctive Behavior check. Then they Rage at something. I had them rage at an immobilized Land Raider after a bad deep strike, which was good for the laughs.

...and the Genestealers?
But Raptor, you forgot the genestealers!

Indeed, I did. However, let's do some thinking. A 'stealer is 14 points base; 17 after you grab poison. You're already S4; Furious Charge doesn't do much on top of Rending.

So, let's compare a poison stealer (since S4 gives us a lovely chance to re-roll wounds against most anything we'll attack) to the 10-point hormagaunt.

Speed? The Hormie is faster.

Number of wounds? You get almost two hormies for one 'stealer.

Durability? I'd rather have more wounds, given that there's effectively nil save attached to this thing. A 5+ is NOT much better than a 6+; you still get pasted by small-arms fire and flamers, and the T4 isn't a major help, honestly, when you have the choice between more wounds. You should be in cover anyway.

So, let's do some quick math. Let's go with 170 points; that's 10 lethal 'stealers and 17 pumped-up Hormies.

Charge: 51 attacks from the Hormies > 25.5 hits + re-roll 1/3 of your misses = 29-30 hits. Vs troops, that translates to 15 wounds, and re-rolls bring you up to 20-21 wounds. Oouch.

30 Stealer attacks; you'll get 20 hits. You'll get ten wounds (and about a rend) off the bat, then re-rolls should grant you another 5 wounds and MAYBE another rend, so you get ~15 wounds and 2 rends.

So, let's drop the poison and get more stealers! We can get ~13 stealers; that translates to 39 attacks, 26 hits, 13 wounds with ~2 rends.

What did we learn? Unless you're trying to rend down vehicles (and maybe you're noticing a theme: KILL VEHICLES WITH STUFF IN OTHER SLOTS! INCLUDING DREADNOUGHTS!) the hormies are nastier.

The only major perk genestealers have (past their ability to infiltrate, and I'm sure someone will try to outflank them for the lolz and questionable disruptive value) is that they don't need Synapse and have Ld10, so they're fine to operate solo.

Mine are getting converted into other things, if that tells you anything. If you want heavier melee punch added to your force, get WARRIORS; sure they cost 50 points to equip for assault but a warrior is so much nastier than a genestealer it's not particularly funny.
Troops Roundup
I have to reiterate that it's best to pick a focus on your troops and roll with it.

Tervigons + Termagants provide a tide of bodies that are great for taking objectives and deceptively nasty in melee (until someone caps the Tervigon in the midst of its horde...). Tervis can even provide a little S5 large blast fire support. You get a troop package that can handle troops and MCs alike (depending on who hits what), and you are committing to at least a couple more monstrous creatures.

A unit of Warriors can provide melee support, points permitting.

Hormagaunts are a scuttling wave of 'I touched in in assault, buried it, ate it, and went looking for its family.' They'll take losses, but are deadly en masse. It's crucial you bring enough, and you bring anti-tank. It's not a bad idea to consider 50-100 points of Termagants to sit in the back and cheer (when they're not going to ground) on an objective.

Warrior-heavy does cut down on your model count, but Warriors are also just plain nasty to anything they can touch in CC; while they have fewer attacks than Hormagaunts they can get POWER WEAPONS that can KILL YOU INSTANTLY and whips that MAKE THEM GO BEFORE YOU HIT. Read the caps and you kind of get a neat summary. You're also allergic to S8.

When you get down to it, all the troops choices are geared towards tearing up anything that has a toughness value. Bring anti-tank or you will suffer.

Questions/comments/feedback?

Coming Soon:
-Pictures of Raptor's Tervigon conversion(s)
-Thoughts on Making Carnifexes Work

Pondering Tyranids: Using Hormagaunts

2010-04-10T01:40:00.003-05:00

This one's prompted by King Elessar. Personally, I have like 40-50 of the bloody things myself, and I'd like to figure out a good way to use them. Here's my first draft and the logic that goes with them.

The Hormagaunt

Now, the big pro of the Hormagaunt is that it's cheap and potentially nasty, as well as being swift. It has Move Through Cover and drops 3d6 and takes the highest for the run, and then it has Fleet so it tries to get into your face.

Now, the cons? It's WS3 and S3, and also has the average 'nid T3 and 6+ save. Basically, it's a horde choice. You'll need a lot. That's not so bad. Plus, when upgraded, Furious Charge (at I6 if you're not going into cover...) and Poison can really, really pile on the wounds.

However, when you add the glands, you go from a 6pt unit to a 10pt unit. Why double the price? Honestly, I'm a fan of the glands. Why?

1) Poison: Ability to Wound Stuff

Ok, sure, you have a lot of attacks (2 attacks per, 3 on the charge) and you get to re-roll the 1's on your attacks for your Scything Talons. Downside, you're only S3. So, you wound wimpy T3 infantry (that, honestly, you'll be maiming up anyway with volume of attacks) on a 4+, and then you need a 5+ to tag the average T4 melee fellows you'll see. Poison lets you tag ANYTHING on a 4+ (like, oh, those nasty T4 infantry) and it lets you mob the ever-lovin' crap out of monstrous creatures, which would normally get surrounded and just much on your target.

2) Furious Charge: Versatility

So, you're S3. Now, if you have poison, you start wounding T3 targets on a 4+ with a re-roll; so you'll wound targets 75% of the time. Furious Charge lets you do the same to the T4 infantry, which is nice against a heap of the T4 targets.

Second point? S3 can't tag vehicles. S4 can. It's a minor bit of versatility, but you can at least torrent vehicles. I think if I was going to leave a gland out, it would be the Furious Charge.

Numbers on Hormies

So, let's take 60 points. You get 10 regular hormagaunts, or 6 upgraded hormies. Numbers look like so, assuming a charge and no cover:

T3 Targets

Normal: 30 attacks > 17.5 hits > 8.75 wounds

Upgraded: 18 attacks > 10.5 hits > 7.87 wounds

Conclusion: Ok, the cheaper ones win out here due to volume of attacks, but the re-rolls to wound help out.

T4 Targets

Normal: 30 attacks > 17.5 hits > 5.8 wounds

Upgraded: 18 attacks > 10.5 hits > 7.87 wounds

Conclusion: Upgraded is starting to show...

T5+ Targets

Normal: 30 attacks > 17.5 hits > 3.5 wounds

Upgraded: 18 attacks > 10.5 hits > 5.25 wounds

Conclusion: Upgraded wins, hands-down.

VS AV10-rear vehicles

Normal:...Nadda

Upgraded: 3 glances against an immobile vehicle, 1.5 against combat speed, precious little against flat out.

Again, bear in mind that this is just 60 points of Hormagaunts; I picked 60 because it's easy enough to work with. Realistically, you WILL be taking larger units (...so that some of them get through.)

So, Why Updgrade?

Poison is going to do good things for your ability to harm things. You can tag monstrous creatures, and you can seriously threaten anything else. You trade off some numbers, but your lethality goes through the roof. Honestly, Furious Charge is a big buff since it gives you the re-roll on T4 as well, and frankly T4 is worth tagging hard.

The Army List

Tyranid Prime w/ Whip, Sword [95]

Elites

3 Hive Guard [150]

Troops

14 Hormagaunts, Toxin Sacks/Adrenal Glands [140]

10 Termagants [50]

Fast Attack

19 Gargoyles, Toxin Sacks/Adrenal Glands [152]

Heavy Support

Tyrannofex; Rupture Cannon, Cluster Spines, & Desiccator Larvae [265]

Total: 1994/2000

The Logic

Simple: throw a HORDE of nasty troops at the enemy. Gargoyles give you an element of speed and additional targets, though admittedly I'm somewhat worried about their ability to outstrip Synapse range. Mostly, I chucked them in there because I like the models and have 40 of them. They could probably go.

The Hormagaunts are there because we're trying to build with them. Glands give them lethality, and we take multiple units to bring multiple threats.

It DOES look a little light on synapse, doesn't it? Well, here's the logic. I'm a little light on monstrous creatures. The cost of monstrous creatures is pretty hefty any way you cut it; if I wanted a tyrant I'd be dropping both of my primes AND a good chunk of gribblies to fit him in, and then he'd be the prime target. As it stands, there are more than enough units to hide a Prime in.

I feel like I can get away with just a couple of Tyrannofexes, largely because of thee 2+ save. You've got a LOT of army to go through to assault them or melta them, and unless you have a crap-ton of lascannons you're probably just NOT going to engage the things. They provide long-range heavy anti-tank work.

The Hive Guard are there to crack any and all light armor they can draw LOS on. Accurate S8 gunfire is just nasty, and can also reliably wound anything you shoot it at AND insta-gibs all those annoying T4 multi-wound models.

The Termagants are objective-sitters.

Thoughts on the List; Possible Changes

Well, I'd hate to see Land Raiders, since all I've got are the Tyrannofexes for killing them. With the pure horde setup, I'm not really willing to go with Zoanthropes, since that means looking into hive tyrants, and that's a pretty sweeping change.

If I WERE going to get a third Tyrannofex, I'd probably drop a Hive Guard from each unit (150 free), contemplate dropping a Termagant unit (200) and then go looking for more points from somewhere, trimming gargoyles.

Your other priority target is any Walker; you CANNOT kill Dreadnoughts in melee (but should be able to shoot them to death reasonably well) but you should be able to take them out with shooting. Should be.

Thoughts, feedback, comments, etc? It's a rough draft hatched at 1AM, so take that into consideration.

Coming soon: thoughts on running Carnifexes.

How to Strip Paint from Plastic Models

2010-04-08T21:02:00.004-05:00

What? A product review on Raptor's blog? What's going on? Is he bribed, brainwashed, or did he just not open the door in the workshop? None of the above. I actually found an amazing product for removing paint from plastic minis, and I felt the need to share.

It's called 'Krud Kutter Graffiti Remover.' If you're like me, you might be a bit...frugal. (Or just a cheap bum. Also good, right? I like honesty sometimes.) Now, metal models are a pain in the butt in terms of customization (and often pinning, for that matter) but it is very easy to remove the paint from them. It involves a glass you'll never drink out of again, and some acetone.

In fairness, if you're willing to take time and be both patient and quick, you can dunk plastic models in acetone and scrub them real quick, but this is sometimes known as Asking For Trouble, for if you're too long the plastic gets infirm.

Now, the the directions say to spray the surface and let it sit, but I found it more useful to simply pour some of the Krud Kutter out (...man, I feel like an ork when I type it out...) and cut it with a little water to make it go further. It's safe to soak plastic stuff in overnight, though it probably works faster. Afterwards, attack it with the good ol' toothbrush. You might need to soak it twice, but no more, and it works a WHOLE LOT FASTER than the standby of Simple Green.

The only downside? It is a little more expensive than Simple Green, but I believe you can get more actual WORK out of the Krud Kutter (WAARGH!) per unit volume (since the paint softens up, but doesn't necessarily flake off and darken/pollute the solution like I've had with Simple Green).

Anyways, that's your quarterly painting advice from the Raptor. Enjoy.

Also, it doesn't have NEARLY the distinct smell that Simple Green does.

Breath of Fresh Air

2010-04-07T19:16:00.004-05:00

In other news, I finally had a go at something NOT in power armor, fatigues, or chitin. I also tested a new Trygon list, and have some thoughts on that.

Thoughts on Triple-Battlewagon Loota Orks
I got a game in with one of the nastier locals, who was fielding a triple-loota list in battlewagons with Ghazgull, 3 Meganobs, and a couple of Trukk Shoota Boy Mobs. Add in the fourth battlewagon as the Meganobs' designated transport, and Deffrollas all around, and it's a reasonably intimidating list. I think it's pretty nasty, as far as orks go.

Deffrollas are a pain against monstrous creatures (and likely vehicles/dreads), so that's an element of counterassault. They're not as bad as you think they are, but they're still potentially nasty. Death or Glory earns you on average seven S10 hits, so think about that carefully first...

Lootas...are random. Big surprise, I know. S7 hurts, though I had the absurd ability to make 3+ MC saves like I was a marine player. Between Feel No Pain and hiding a Tervigon, the Lootas managed to account for a Tervigon, chunks of Trygons, and a Tyrant Guard throughout the game.

Triple-Loota Pros
-Withering Firepower in the form of the Lootas; killing AV14 with a 14+ at range is annoying. But, you can always flank them, I suppose...
-Deff Rollas ARE reasonably nasty; I'm not sure I'd want to get a Land Raider near them since good rolls CAN pile up, and they don't much care about how fast you went.

Triple-Loota Cons
-Moving the Battlewagons IS an issue; if you move them (or they get shaken) you don't get to shoot the lootas
-Without Battlewagons, you're relying on Trukks to advance up the field. Let me know how that works out, especially when they advance out of the KFF. (My Hive Guard loved it, though...)
-Ultimately, you're going to have problems claiming objectives. The end result was a draw.

The Triple-Trygon Build
Mine went a little something like this...

HQ
Hive Tyrant
-Whip/Sword
-Heavy Venom Cannon
-Paroxysm & Leech Essence
-Hive Commander
Tyrant Guard w/ Lash Whip

Hive Tyrant
-Whip/Sword
-Heavy Venom Cannon
-Paroxysm & Leech Essence
-Hive Commander
Tyrant Guard w/ Lash Whip

Elites
2 Hive Guard

2 Hive Guard

2 Hive Guard

Troops
10 Termagants

10 Termagants

Tervigon
-Catalyst
-Adrenal & Toxin

Tervigon
-Catalyst
-Adrenal & toxin

4 Ripper Swarms

Heavy Support
Trygon
Trygon
Trygon

Thoughts on the List
First off, it's got decent range; the Venom Cannons give it some suppressive punch and there's the almost-default wall of hive guard backed up by the core of Objective-holding Tervis and the 'Launch ze Fighters!' of the wall of Termagants.

Rippers are, admittedly, filler. I didn't feel like dropping a single cluster of spore mines, as if you're GOING to try to screw with deployment you want the full three clusters (and therefore, 90 points into it).

Now, my major concerns with the list:

1) Double Tyrants
In part, this is my counterassault. Lash whips + bone sword = carnage. It also means that I'm probably gonna get all three Trygons on turn two. Heavy Venom Cannons are just nice suppressing fire.

Admittedly, I almost dropped the Rippers for Devourers and boneswords on the Guard, but I'd rather the counter-assault threat.

On the other hand, that tyrant config IS a solid 280ish points or so. I could easily get a pair of Harpies for suppressive fire and a little more mobility.

2) Mobility
My worry (at least, as it turned out in Table Quarters) is that the Trygons pop up on turn 2, and the rest of the army is a little behind. As nasty as they are, most enemies should be able to at LEAST kill one, and since they're the primary threat at the time...

3) Scatter Rolls
...so, there's nothing like getting 11 inches away from the side of the board, and rolling box cars on the scatter...happens to everyone, right?

It's very easy to get screwed by the scatter roll on this. I managed to mishap one (and get it slapped in the far corner). Hopefully, the worst that can happen is you fall back, but there's always the chance you can play creative (since you can't scatter into units on either side, but you CAN fall off the table).

4) Army Composition
Personally, I could probably stand to be more aggressive. That aside, I'm not sure walls of termagants are the way to go. I wonder if it's worth switching around the core, and grabbing a couple of large squads of Hormagaunts and moving out. On the flip side, that would dilute my MC count and make the Tyrants priority targets. I'd also have to consider how to hold objectives in my backfield, which would likely mean a Warrior squad and a couple units of Termagants.

Chances are I'll keep it the same for some testing, and work at being more aggresive.

Thoughts/feedback/commentary/word to your mother?

Tyranid Armies Raptor has Tested

2010-03-29T22:50:00.002-05:00

Currently, I've tested one real army type, and that's bringing Hive Guard with Tyrannofexes for a solid gun line, and packed Tervigons in for psychic support and troops.

Tyranid Big Guns, Model 1
Tyranid Prime
3x2 Hive Guard
2x10 Termagant
2 Tervigons, Catalyst, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacks
2x18 Gargoyles, Toxin sacks & adrenal glands
6x Shrikes, Lash whip/bone swords & scything talons
2x Tyrannofex, Cluster Spines & Rupture Cannon

Tyranid Big Guns, Model 2
Tyranid Prime
3x3 Hive Guard
2x10 Termagant
2 Tervigons, Catalyst, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacks
3x3 Spore Mines
3x Tyrannofex, Cluster Spines & Rupture Cannon

Basic Thoughts on the Components & the Whole
This kind of firepower is adept at taking out vehicles. Hive Guard allow you to hunt light mech, while Tyrannofexes can hunt light mech and threaten heavier armor. Don't RELY on them to KO the heavier stuff, but they might be able to slow a Land Raider (I mean, you're happy if you just immobilize the thing).

You will be using the Tervigons as point-defense; you'll basically be launching waves of beefed-up Termagants at anyone that wants to assault you, and the monstrous creatures CAN be thrown into assault. Timing's an issue, since you don't want the Tyrannofexes in assault longer than ncessary. That said, T-fexes and Tervigons both have four S6 power weapon attacks, though the Tervis are poison, so you're generally looking at a 4+ with a re-roll to carve something. (...unless it's, I dunno, a Wraithlord? Then it's just a 4+)

Against infantry, you have Cluster Spines, and in a pinch the Tyrannofex thorax swarm. S5 AP5 is reasonable; it'll wound most things handily, if they don't have better than a 5+, well...

The Tervigons and Termagants
The obvious con? Kill points. Against something like a double-raider army, expect to lose at least two units to screening your assets and absorbing the assault. If the enemy gets close, you shoot the crap out of them, then make sure your Tervigons are close enough to buff the termagants.

On the bright side, the Tervigons can score, and you should be able to solve your troops worries, unless your dice are bad. On average, you'll get about 20-22 termagants out of each Tervigon, and you'll get that over two turns. 3d6 should see doubles after a couple turns or so, and rejoice if you get more. Cry if you see three 1's the first time you drop the dice.

Cons with the Build
The latter build lacks speed and mobility. You'll have to plan ahead to take the objectives downfield, since there's the issue of your slow speed. I like that build one has some speed to it; the Gargs and Shrikes are a mobile reserve AND good for cleaning folks off objectives in a pinch. The gargs function as added punch, and a flying cover save.

Frankly, if you're going to range far ahead, you either need shrikes/warriors to detach and advance, or you need to make sure you can get Dominion off reliably, and trail some gargoyles back. However, if you get out of synapse, bear in mind that gargoyles have something like Ld6 and can't survive losing a combat.

The Mobile Element
Think of Gargoyles as a crossbreed between Hormagaunts and termagants that can't score. You have speed, a gun, and are reasonable on the charge; on average 20 gargyles will hit about 20 times; you'll auto-wound 2-3 times and you'll probably rack up another 8-10 wounds, roughly, after that. Not BAD, but you're still T3 and have an amazing 6+ save.

Shrikes...well, I think I'd prefer poison; it costs a little extra but it lets you tag monstrous creatures and makes you nastier against the smaller gribbles; S4 that wounds about 75% of the time against T3-4 is not bad at all, AND can handle larger gribblies. The downside is the 5+ save, so you HAVE to bring 5-6 or so, and it's an expensive unit. Use cover, don't fear the terrain checks, and trust the lash whip to even things out for you when you have to go into terrain.

The Prime
I've grown to like the prime. On the one hand, a Hive Tyrant is much nastier in combat, and can bring a heap of support abilities/psychic powers to the table. On the other hand, a tyrant with guard and a gun is close to 300 points. A Prime with the minimal whip/sword is 95 points, and can hide in a unit. He's a few extra anti-S8-hits in a Warrior unit, or a little extra durability for a Hive Guard unit, and it's hard to ferret out THAT synapse.

In the Future...
I'll be testing out triple trygons, and eventually harpies. Zoanthropes are on the to-build list for April, as well (albeit scratch build, but I'm not buying 9 of THOSE too. Hive guard are cool and will see lots of use. Not necessarily the same for Zoanthropes).

Also, I intend to test Hormagaunts as the core as well, perhaps with some Warrior support. We'll see.

Tyranid Experiences, Part 2: I like guns

2010-03-27T22:13:00.004-05:00

I've got a few more games with the bugs under the belt, and have tweaked the builds a little. I'm still forming opinions on some units, and I figured I'd share my thoughts.

I have to apologize for the lower number of posts in March; admittedly that's because I spent about a week down with allergies + sinus infection, and the antbiotics pretty much floored me for about a week.

Hive Guard: I LIKE GUNS!

Ok, honestly, I have to recommend the Hive Guard. This might be a bit of a no-brainer, but these guys are a solid army-enhancing support unit for just about any 'nid army. S8, BS4, 24 inches, and no need for LOS means they're easy to use and can sort out most light armor.

Note that their range is only 24 inches, so against longer-ranged armies you will have to move up to engage them. Then again, if you know the enemy isn't going to come to you, you can deploy forward enough to try to get to them, and unless it's a fast, mobile army you can probably bring them to bear. I know that when I go back to guys with REGULAR guns, it's going to mess me up.

Note also that in a pinch, T6 with a 4+ save can stop-gap a good number of troops if it really does come to that. I had to throw them into assault once in my recent game against double-raider Templar, and it's really hard for stuff like regular space marines to wound 'em with S4. Obviously, this doesn't apply against hard-core melee troops with access to poison or higher strength. It's not something you WANT to do, but it's worth keeping in mind that you CAN sacrifice shooting to hold up lesser troops.

Bottom line: unless you're going for an aggressive posture with drop-podding Zoanthropes (or taking Zoeys with Onslaught-packing Tervigons) then you can probably make use of Hive Guard in your army more often than not. I own 9 now.

Spore Mines: I'm in your DZ, fouling up your deployment...kind of

I've used spore mines a few times now, and the jury is still out. As far as I can see, the major appeal of spore mines is to try to foul up the other guy's deployment. If you want to do this, I would suggest taking three units of three. Past that, it's a matter of making an educated guess about your opponent's deployment, and then chucking spore mines in those locations and hoping they land in a manner that hampers the enemy drop zone.

Once they're down, you can't rely on the mines to do any damage. They move 1d6 in a random direction, and detonate if they end any movement phase within two inches of the enemy. It's an S4, AP4 large blast. It might occasionally draw fire IF it gets close to something. Worst-case scenario, it will let troops that can shrug off the blast assault it and get a consolidate move off it, or something like that.

Bottom line: if you aren't using your fast attack slots and have 60-90 points to spare, you might be able to futz with enemy deployment. Obviously, if the enemy has drop pods or something like that, well, you might not DO that much...

Trygons: ...that's a pretty big mole to whack

I've used triple-trygons once, and it was in a Battle Missions game where only fast attack could start on the table. My initial thoughts with Trygons was to play reactively; see where the enemy deploys and then slap them down accordingly. I got my reserves in first, and Chaos had a Defiler and most of the rest of the army were fellows in Rhinos, along with obligatory Obliterators.

I picked up two lessons from that game:

1) Have a backup plan for Trygons other than 'react to the other guy', like 'slap them on an objective' and dare the other guy to come play

2) Six wounds at T6 with a 3+ is REASONABLY durable, but things like Oblits, that can deep-strike accurately and peg you with twin-linked plasma guns....yeah. You're a melta magnet, hence you bring multiples

Tyrannofexes: Ka-BOOM

You'll bring tyrannofexes only in shooty armies, and you'll bring 2-3 of them. They have a 48-inch reach, which means it's difficult to out-range them. They have an S10 gun, which means they're pretty good for nailing light armor, and can in a pinch threaten heavy armor. Note that even though you ARE S10, you'll still need a decent amount of fire to down land raiders. I would take them with units of Hive Guard, just to get good weapons coverage and to make sure you can halt any lighter armor swarm in its tracks.

Note that like trygons, these guys dictate your army. You will want to screen them, but in a pinch the cluster spines and thorax swarm CAN do some damage to larger numbers of lighter troops. This is a stop-gap measure, but it's good to bear in mind. If you do deal with Land Raiders and the like, still be prepared to punch them out.

Tyranids and Heavy Armor

Admittedly, I have yet to test Zoanthropes. I've still got to kit-bash them together and all that jazz. I like the Hive Guard model, but I have some plans for kit-bashing some reasonable Zoanthropes together out of Trygon bits.

Frankly, I have to conclude that 'nids have three options for killing heavy armor:

1) Shoot it with Zoanthropes

2) Shoot it a lot with Tyrannofexes

3) Punch it repeatedly with monstrous creatures

Against Land Raiders, 'immobilized' is a very tolerable result, as it prevents them from getting closer. Generally, you want this BEFORE the enemy gets close.

The worst nightmare for 'nids would have to be a later-game objective-contesting move from a Land Raider. You have GOT to take it out, and all the MCs other than the Carnifex have around S6, so you have GOT to devote them to assaulting it, and may not nail it first time around.

Summary

Hive Guard have a place in just about any army; every 'nid player should have at least a half-dozen.

If you aren't running any fast attack, 90 points in spore mines can provide a chance to disrupt enemy deployment against most builds.

Trygons are nasty, but not invulnerable, and you need a backup plan in case your enemy doesn't deploy normally.

Tyrannofexes are legitimate long-range threats with a nasty point-defense system, though they are army-warping units.

More to come as I get more games in with the bugs.

First Outings with Tyranids

2010-03-19T19:16:00.004-05:00

I finally fielded my happy, happy little swarm of gribbles, and managed to eke out a couple of wins. I did not think to take my crappy little camera, and today, well, I'm still a weeeeee bit out of it on antibiotics. (Allergy season startup + sinus infection = floored raptor, add in the scorched-earth antiobiotics and I was motionless from about noon Wednesday to 4PM Thursday, and fading in and out of delightful madness today).

So, the list I ran with:
Tyranid Prime w/ 2x Boneswords
3x2 Hive Guard
2x10 Termagants
2 Tervigons w/ Toxin, Adrenal, Catalyst
6 Shrikes w/ whip/sword
2x18 Gargoyles w/ Toxin, Adrenal
2x Tyrannofex w/ Cluster Spines, Rupture Cannon, default thorax swarm

Played two objective games; one against Black Templar double-raiders and one against Tyranids.

Brother-Captain w/ Hood
Emperor's Chump w/ Preferred Enemy vow
2x 5-man assault termie squads (4 claws, 1 hammer/shield)
2x8-9 fellows in Rhinos w/ melta, fist
2x5 man las/plas
2x mm/hf speeders

Tyranid List:

Swarmlord w/ 3 Tyrant Guard
3 Zoanthropes
2 Hive Guard
2 large squads of Hormagaunts (~20)
2 small squads of Termagants (~10)
4 Warriors w/ Swords, Devourerers
3 Raveners
Tyrannofex
Trygon Prime

General Tyranid Thoughts
On Land Raiders
Frankly, I figured I'd shoot his support before I shot his raiders. This proved to be wise, as I had some good rolls and managed to total his Rhinos and ruin his speeders in 1-2 turns. (Well, he made the mistake of leaving a rhino in range of Hive Guard on turn one, so it got maimed, and the Tyrannos accounted for the other one and a speeder).

You will have to give yourself over to the idea that you're gonna be doing one of three things to kill a Land Raider:
1) Shoot it with a Zoanthrope
2) Shoot it with a Tyrannofex
3) Punch it repeatedly with a monstrous creature

The raiders were a pain, in part because even after one squad of termies broke from shooting and ran, he slapped one on my objective. I won the game against the Templars because it went into seven turns and I managed to kill the Raiders on turns six and seven. Admittedly, that was some pretty poor Tyrannofex shooting there, and then a Tervigon wandered over and punched one in the explosives.

Hive Guard
I haven't run the new Zoeys yet, but with everyone and their dog packing some kind of psychic defense, I have to admit I like the reliability of two S8 shots at BS4. These things are happy to maim up lighter mech, and against any T4 multi-wound bug? Ouch. My tyranid opponent made the mistake of leaving Warriors in the open for a turn, and they paid for it. They're also good for taking out Zoeys, or at least forcing instant-death saves.

Tyrannofexes
Now, I know there have been some critics of the t-fexes, but I have to say they have a place. Why? Several reasons.

1) S10 shots
2) 48"
3) T6, 6 wounds, 2+ armor save

S10 means it CAN threaten AV14, but against lighter armor? Two shots at BS3 mean that 25% of the time you'll see 0 hits, 25% of the time you'll see 2 hits, and 50% of the time you'll see a hit. Against Rhinos, Landspeeders, and even AV12 (other than Eldar skimmers...) you're probably gonna get a pen. Seriously, it's some decent firepower.

48 inches means you can shoot pretty much from the start. Considering that you NEED all the shooting you can get to stop/slow mech, this means there's nowhere to really run.

The durability means that against shooting, either the opponent brought a crap-ton of lascannons or he's not going to bother engaging your Tyrannofex at range. He'll either melta it, throw powerfists/thunder hammers at it, or ignore it. That means you get to shoot, and you'd BETTER screen the bloody thing.

As an added bonus, the Cluster Spines and flamer templates are nice point-defense goodies. I lost the Gaunt screen to a Hormagaunt charge in game two, and dealt with this by burning half the brood (bad consolidation roll) with the t-fex, and gunning the rest down with fleshborers.

Bottom line? It's a solid performer, but it is for a shooty-heavy build.

On Gargoyles and Shrikes
I won't lie; I was a little worried about taking these guys. I like the gargoyle sculpt, and I figured that the Shrikes would provide some punch/synapse. It gave the build some speed and a rapid-response element, which turned out to be useful.

The down side? Hello, traffic jam. Thank god I didn't see a crap-ton of templates or such early on, as that's just a lot to deploy. Additionally, that's a LOT of ground to cover; Gargoyles will be taking dangerous terrain tests, but you should be able to avoid moving through terrain for the assault.

Shrikes? Mmm, power weapon love. The whip is absolutely a keeper. Instant death is nice and all, but robbing the enemy of the initative is big. Going into cover? It's 4th-ed frags. Going into a faster creature? Slap one in base-to-base contact. Shank with power weapons. Enjoy.

The gargoyles help in a charge, but honestly you need a little more punch to take stuff down. They DID manage to drag down a Tyrannofex, but that was after knocking off one wound with massed small-arms fire, then going poison + to-hit wounds all over it. Granted, it TOOK several turns, but it stopped the big brute.

Still, there's nothing like watching 10-20 of them around a target, and seeing a few heads and powerfists above the mass. It made it totally worthwhile.

The Swarmlord
...what a beast. Frankly, as 'nids, I don't have enough high-AP shooting to reliably drop wounds on him. Ok, we have plenty of S8-10 fire available, but sometimes it was going elsewhere and we've all played Space Marine players with hot dice before, right? This guy took some serious dog-piling to drop. I managed to KO one guard before it got there. Then, I threw Termagants, Gargoyles, and Shrikes at it, and drug it down over a couple of turns. It managed to kill a heap of gargoyles, termagants, and all but one Shrike (which was busy holding it down).

Lesson learned? GET POISON ON THE BLOODY SHRIKES. Would have made it SO MUCH EASIER.

Still, all things considered, the Swarmlord is a nasty foe for bugs to deal with. You pretty much have to drown 'im in poison weapons and expect to take heavy casualties. As well it should be, for 280+ points of the army...

Tervigons
Or, 'we have reinforcements!' Anyone who's pulled off the Kroot Shield knows what I'm talking about. Round one, I managed to spawn one brood each, and game two I managed a total of four broods. Honestly, it's enough. You get into some serious traffic-direction issues in the backfield...

On the other hand, there's a LOT of fun to be had with Catalyst. Fun uses for Feel No Pain include:

1) Making Termagants last
2) Making Gargoyles last in the open
3) Keeping Shrikes alive against small arms
4) Softening the impact of 'No Retreat!'

Number four was the big one. There are some furballs you're just not gonna win quickly. You're going to have to wear the enemy down, and the problem is lsoing troops with 'No Retreat'. Well, now you lose half of them. If the enemy doesn't have power weapons or the like, then you can last. Plus, your piddly little T3 6+ save fellows can actually endure a little more abuse. Why, you're about as tough as an Eldar Aspect Warrior!

General Tyranid Thoughts
Traffic direction is an issue. This army's deploying something like 60-70 figs off the bat. No tanks. The only thing that relocates more than 6" a turn are the flyers. With Tervigons, you're dropping even MORE of them on the table.

The games have been close so far, and I think that might be partially due to the build, and partially due to getting used to a new playstyle. This current build reminds me of my Tau, except I can actually fistfight in a pinch.

Mild Apology
I'm still a tad bit loopy. This crud actually started ramping up around last Sunday, but didn't hit in full force 'til Wednesday. There'll be some more lucid-sounding points eventually.

Non-Basic Army Building: Psychological Warfare

2010-03-08T22:25:00.003-06:00

I file psychological warfare as a non-basic part of army building because it's in your head, and in your opponent's head. As such, it's harder to guess what will work on any given individual. The short version of psychological warfare: the percieved danger of a unit causes an opponent to deviate from their battle plan.

Note this is the percieved danger, not the actual danger.

Psychological warfare is, simply put, about screwing with the other guy's head. At the moment, the best I can think of is to offer some examples of psychological warfare units, and how/why they are percieved as such. Note that this is not an exhaustive list of psychological warfare units; it's just an example of some and a few thoughts on why they qualify.

The Doom of Malant'ai

Well, let's go right on ahead and start with the one everyone's talking about. See, part of its impact is the fact that everyone seems to be talking about it. It's all 'OH MY GOD! IT CAN GET 10 WOUNDS AND THROW OUT AN S10 AP1 BLAST! IT CAN KILL 10,332.77721 INFANTRY IN ONE PHASE!' And then there's the whole rules debate about whether or not infantry in transports are effected by the whole 'psychic vampire' deal.

Now why, exactly, do people worry about it? Here's what I can think of:

1) On a good drop, it can potentially effect several infantry units

2) It can potentially force morale checks/retreats on said infantry units

3) It turns around, has 7-10 wounds to its name, and applies a thermonuclear psychic blast to something important

4) Oh, and it also arrives via drop pod, so there are fewer issues with mishaps

So, we've established (in people's minds) that it can potentially ruin your day single-handedly. Ok, now let's pierce the psychological veil:

1) the average roll on 3d6 is 10-11; most units have ld 8-10. This is 1-3 casualties. Big whoop.

2) S8 doesn't care how many wounds you have after you fail a save

3) Can't shoot that psychic blast if you're in assault

4) Psychic hoods, etc. still stop the Cataclysm

Now, the Doom probably WILL kill some infantry (if it hits 'em in transports), but unless you really cluster up and give the doom a sweet spot to land in, it'll kill a few, and hopefully your army has some S8 around to deal with the problem. Can you hit it with three S8 wounds? Then you can probably solve the problem. Or, can your army take out a marine squad in a turn? Then the worst the Doom did was absorb fire.

Guardsman Marbo

Marbo is, in my mind, a bit more credible of a threat than the Doom. Marbo is a mere 65 points for a guy with Stealth that appears where he wants to. Once there, he has a nasty pistol, a demo charge, and poisoned melee attacks.

Why is he scary?

He can't be within 1" of the enemy. He is one infantry unit. It is very easy to leave a hole (as he only needs a 2inch + 20mm hole to appear in) he can inhabit. Then, he chucks a demo charge at something expensive.

Rambo basically makes you ask 'did I deploy in such a manner as to deny the enemy a demo charge shot into the rear of a vehicle?

Basically, he's enough of a bargain (in non KP missions, anyway) at 65 points to make the other guy deploy a little more carefully.

It's nastier against armies that have multi-wound T4 creatures, as S8 can insta-kill priority targets like Crisis Suits, Tyranid Warriors, and Zoanthropes just to name a few. It also can harm vehicles, especially if you tag them from behind.

On the other hand, once he chucks the demo charge, Rambo is not THAT frightening. He'll throw out pistol shots, or try to stab something, but you can usually turn around and just shoot him down or assault him. All he does after the demo charge is beg for bullets and a gruesome death.

Indirect-Fire Artillery

This is actually a category as opposed to a specific unit. Basically, something like a Whirlwind or Basilisk sits back and chucks explosives at you, and you can't shoot it back (unless you have ordnance of your own). This is frustrating because it feels 'unfair'; nevermind that your opponent paid points for it normally. It's shooting YOU, but YOU can't SHOOT IT BACK! It's frustrating for some folks.

Outflanking Troops

But, but, what happens if they're suddenly on your flanks? The scare value of outflankers depends on the outflankers and what they can actually do when they get there. You're gambling that you'll get your troops on the right side (66% chance, or the same as a power armor save before any re-rolls) at the right turn (...good luck computing those odds) and they'll be able to do something (which is rather up to your opponent).

If you're outflanking a smaller unit or only 1-2 selections, it's not a credible threat. If you outflank too much, you risk diluting your main forces. I mean, you COULD outflank a Land Raider full of Terminators*, but what happens when it shows up on turn 5 and 600 points of your army did precious little?

It's a gamble, but it's one I honestly don't think much of. However, that's me.

Psychological Warfare versus Legitimately Deadly Stuff

Some units draw fire because of their percieved danger. Other units draw fire because they actually ARE that frightening. Here are some examples of units that draw a heap of fire just because of the damage they can reliably do to your army, and they'll rarely last a match.

Space Marine Land Speeders w/ Multi-melta, heavy flamer

Did you bring tanks? It can nuke 'em. Did you bring non-power-armor infantry? We can roast 'em. It's an AV10 platform that's in your face, threatening your assets with death on turn 2. The only armies that don't abjectly worry about them are those that tend to 'spam' stuff like razorbacks or chimeras. Anyone relying on heftier tanks or camping infantry have GOT to pay attention to these things, or risk losing expensive tanks or swathes of infantry.

Tau Piranhas

They have BS4 meltaguns. They are fast. They can get in your way. They are AV11, so you HAVE to use anti-tank weapons on them. Oh, and did I mention they'll block you and/or kill your expensive stuff if you don't handle them? They may not always kill stuff, but they CAN impede progress and buy time for the Tau player, which is well worth it.

Eldar Fire Dragons

How do 5 meltaguns at point blank strike that Land Raider, monstrous creature, T4 multi-wound unit, etc.? I think the answer is 'very nicely' if you're Eldar, and 'OW!' if you're not. Fire dragons draw so much fire because they really ARE that good (and cost-effective) at killing stuff. They're a legitimate threat to any armor short of a full-on infantry horde.

The Real Perk of Psychological Warfare

The real goal of psychological warfare is to make the enemy make a mistake. You're bringing a unit whose percieved danger is out of proportion to their actual danger, or at least you hope that's how the other guy views it. Is it viable? The answer is actually the two most powerful words in the English language: 'It Depends.' It depends on the unit you're calling on to do this task, and on how the other guy percieves it.

That's why I consider psychological warfare a gamble. It will work on some people some of the time, and you're hoping that's enough.

*Provided you take Khan, and take the Land Raider as a dedicated transport.

Painted Tyrannofex

2010-03-04T22:35:00.002-06:00

So, I finished painting this monstrous, walking gun-beast thing. I've constructed a white backdrop for pictures, and attempted to locate a better camera than the one I've sort of been given. (There was a reason it was a 'gift'...)

Enjoy. The thing was fun to convert, though my paint scheme came out a bit bluer than I'd thought, but I kinda like it. at any rate, I don't feel like stripping this one and 20 Termagants.

Army Building 101: Essential Capabilities

2010-02-28T15:22:00.004-06:00

This article springboards off of my posts on evaluating units honestly and making tradeoffs. This is a little basic, but you need to bring the tools to do three basic things:

1) Hold Objectives
2) Stop Enemy Armor
3) Kill Enemy Troops

You need to hold objectives in 2/3 of the games, but make sure that you don't actually hurt yourself when it comes to killing the other guy. When it comes to stopping the other guy, you want to be able to stop vehicles AND enemy troopers.

1) Controlling Objectives
Objective games break up into two categories: 2 objectives, or 3+ objectives. The number of objectives changes the way you play, but not necessarily how you build. Controlling objectives comes to two things:

1) Hold Objectives
2) Deny Objectives

Hold Objectives
You need troops to hold objectives. Once you hit 1500+ points, I suggest 3 troops just as a rule of thumb. The number you take ultimately depends on your army, as some troops selections are nastier/more resiliant than others. If you take too few, the other guy might decide to just KO your troops and make you fight for a draw. It's a very real risk, and it's happened to me.

You have two basic choices for holding objectives: You can take a dedicated squad to hold it, or you can just bring several mobile choices and make sure you have troops on the objective by the end. If it's a dedicated squad, ideally it's got a long-range weapon or two in it (IE: Space Marine Scouts w/ Sniper Rifles, Missile Launcher, Telion, camo cloaks).

Deny Objectives
There are two ways to do this: kill the troops on/near them, or contest the objectives. If you have stuff within 3" of the objective, then he doesn't control it. We'll cover the 'killing them' part later, but the short version is that corpses don't hold territory*. Contesting objectives usually involves swift, cheap units. Sometimes it's a Tau Piranha or Marine Land Speeder, but empty transports can do the trick as well. In a pinch, you can tank-shock people off objectives as well, unless they're in a transport.

2) Kill Armor
Vehicles (and monstrous creatures) are a fact of life in 40k. You need to be able to stop them, or they'll run roughshod over you (sometimes literally, see 'deny objectives'). In terms of killing vehicles, you're looking at two basic types: lighter, and heavier. Lighter vehicles are AV10-12; Heavy is 13-14. You need different kit to take them out. Note that vehicles may not always DIE when you damage them, but sometimes it's enough to shake/stun them or knock off the main gun.

Light Armor
Usually, weight of fire is enough to harm/kill lighter armor. Things like scatter lasers and autocannons are your weapons of choice against lighter armor; S7 lets you threaten AV12 and usually comes in decent numbers. Most S8 weapons don't have the weight of fire to do the trick.

Most light vehicles are faster, and most transports are lighter-weight vehicles. Additionally, some heavier-weight vehicles have weaker flank armor (IE: A Predator has AV13 in the front, but only AV11 on the side).

Heavy Armor
Sometimes, the autocannon just isn't gonna cut it against your target. Sometimes, you need melta weapons or rail guns. Why melta? If you can deliver it to 1/2 its range, you get 2d6 for damage penetration, and s8 + 2d6 averages to 15, which is a penetrating hit. AP1 is icing on the cake, since it's +1 to damage results, or a 50/50 shot of killing the vehicle on a penetrating hit.

Some armies have access to S10 shooting (Tyranids and Tau), and this has the raw strength to go through AV 13/14.

Taking it for the Team
Note that with melta weapons, you probably WON'T get a second shot, AND you are close to the enemy. It behoves you to have some cheap, sacrifical melta units just so you can take out higher-cost targets. Triple land raider sounds fun until someone trades 3 landspeeders or 3 squads of guardsmen for 750-800 points of your army.

Vehicles and Assault
Most vehicles have AV10 in the rear, so monstrous creatures, powerfists, dreadnoughts and the like can damage or kill them. Vehicles can counter this by moving and making it more difficult to hit, but lose the ability to use some of their guns.

On Monstrous Creatures
While there are some differences between vehicles and monstrous creautres, know that the same stuff that hurts vehicles usually wounds monstrous creatures. You generally want to throw AP2-3 fire into monstrous creatures just to deny them armor saves.

3) Killing Troops
Like vehicles, troops tend to come either in larger numbers of cheap, not-so-durable guys or fewer, tougher troops. Compare the Termagant, at 5 points, with an almight S3, T3, 1 wound and 6+ save to the Plague Marine, with T5, a 3+ armor save and Feel No Pain. Note also you can get 4 termagants for one plague marine...

Now, with infantry, you generally want to pile on the wounds. Weight of fire works on infantry in general, as you'll generally wound/kill the lighter troops and you'll force the heavier ones to take more saves (which they will eventually fail). Note also that infantry love cover and will generally have access to at least a 4+ save; marines and their ilk can operate in the open and fear far fewer weapons.

Weapons of note for anti-infantry work:
1) Flamers
2) Blast Weapons
3) Small Arms
4) Assault

Flamers
These are generally for killing lighter stuff; S4 AP5 or S5 AP4 combined with no cover saves is good for nuking as many orks/termagants/non-marines as you can fit under a template. It'll still force saves on marines and the like.

Blast Weapons
Blast weapons LOOK good on paper, but if the enemy uses their 2" coherency to the max and lines up properly (IE a line instead of a group hug) they can make sure you don't hit that many troops with a large blast. On the other hand, blast weapons in crowded areas are likely to hit at least SOMETHING, but this can include your troops if they're nearby.

Small Arms
Frankly, most infantry have these. It's not your ideal weapon, but if you catch the enemy out in the open or shoot enough of them with these, they'll work. Everyone laughs at lasguns until 30-40 guardsmen point them at you...And even a 10-man tactical squad can crank out a fairly respectable number of wounds.

Assault
Not everyone belongs in assault. Those that do tend to have either a LOT of attacks, or good quality of attacks (IE: ignore armor saves and decent strength) or both. The poster child for heavyweight assault troops is the Thunder Hammer/Stor Shield Terminator. While they only have 2 attacks each, they are hard to kill (T4, 2+ armor save, 3+ invulnerable save) and hit hard (S8, ignore armor saves, and survivors go at I1 next time). The flip side is something like the Hormagaunt, which is only 10 points for something with S3, poison, and 3 attacks on the charge with Furious Charge and I5 base.

In Summary
While this IS a critical-hit wall o' text, I (and others) could easily go into more detail on the various points. I think I've covered the salient, basic points for the scenarios you'll commonly see. I mean, most of the time you'll have to deal with objectives, and all armies can bring vehicles (or MCs) and infantry. I will probably try to break these points out in greater depth for my next few non-hobby articles.

In the mean time, I've got a heap of bugs to paint, and still have Tyranid Primes, Hive Tyrants, Hive Guard, and Harpies to convert. There's also 30,121.57 Termagants to paint. Finally, there are the Trygons to build...but it's all good.

*Unless it's zombies.

Evaluating Units Honestly: Opportunity Cost

2010-02-25T21:38:00.005-06:00

Aside from being a stupidly catchy song and amusing video, the song emphasizes a point: "You can go with this, or you can go with that," (Or you can blow it up, but we're trying that too, aren't we?). Blame Haihastur too for this one, since he touched on it in the comments here.

Defining the Term
'Opportunity cost' is a $20 term you'll hear in economics class that explains the idea that 'there is no such thing as a free lunch.' So, let's say someone buys you lunch. You spend time, go with them, eat, and may or may not enjoy yourself, the food, the company, etc. Right? Perfectly plausible.

See, the thing is that the lunch never cost you MONEY, but you still had to spend the time. You could have eaten somewhere else with different company, or simply worked through lunch and gone home early that day (assuming your workplace would let you).

The fancier definition is that when you pick one option, the opportunity cost is what you give up from the second best option. IE: I have $1 and a vending machine. I can buy a Nutty Bar (mmm, peanut butter and chocolate...) or a Coke (mmm, cleans engine parts AND refreshes!). If I buy a Nutty Bar, the opportunity cost was the coke. If I buy a coke, the opportunity cost was the Nutty Bar. If I don't buy anything, the cost of $1 was not eating from the vending machine.

Make sense?

Opportunity Cost in 40k Terms
Let's walk away from the vending machines in the break room and look at the force organization chart. I'm allowed 2 HQ choices, 3 elites, 6 troops, 3 fast attack, and 3 heavy support. I'm also allotted a certain amount of points per game, and I'll generally have to field one HQ and two troops selections.

We'll have to compare Opportunity Cost two main ways in 40k: force org slots and points.

Force Org Slots
Here, we're comparing options within a given force organization slot. Well, we have to have an HQ, and we have to have two troops (and will often go for at least a third, depending on the army). These are non-negotiable slots, so what we put in them is part of the army's 'theme' (in that you want something like light or heavy mech, or foot, or massed MCs, or horde, or whatnot).

Similar Roles
Here, we're talking support. It's simple, because we can limit our comparison to the slot. This is where Haihastur started this. If I recall correctly, he's not a fan of Vindicators in the Marine codex (and frankly, I'm not either), but prefers Whirlwinds to Predators.

Well, we have 3 heavy support slots, and we probably want to at least duplicate the choice for sake of reliability/resiliency (aka, redundancy). So, we're comparing the capabilities of two potentially disparate units. We should ask ourselves:
1) What capabilities does it bring/what does it kill?
2) What does this do for the rest of my army, potentially?
3) What's the point cost?

The Heavy Bolter/Autocannon Predator is more or less the same price as the Whirlwind, so price isn't an option. We then need to ask what do they do, and what do they bring for the army. This is a nutshell example, so I'm not going to give you all a full Vindicator vs Predator comparison. Short version:

Predator
-Worry light armor w/ heavy bolters, autocannon
-worry medium armor w/ autocannon
-durable AV13-front vehicle; one more target to deal with
-worry monstrous creatures & infantry, but loses effectiveness to cover

Whirlwind
-maim up infantry w/ S4, AP5 ignores-cover shot
-prefers to hide
-single weapon system = one damage result to gimp it.

My opinion leans towards the predator because it can do more than the Whirlwind (engage vehicles/MCs/infantry), even though the Whirly can scare lighter infantry even if it's in cover (assuming they're AP5) and can still respectably wound heavier infantry with the S5 shot.

Disparate Roles
So, let's look at Fast Attack for Space Wolves. They can bring the respectable space marine land speeder, but also have Thunderwolf Cavalry. Both need to be brought in numbers, so they generally preclude the other. Here, we're talking about something that potentially flavors the army; bringing 10-15 thunderwolvs is a hefty points investment and makes them the centerpiece of the army (and they can be a bloody scary one at that).

A tyranid example would be 2-3 Tyrannofexes versus 3 trygons. Taking Tyrannofexes means you've got a ranged shooty core to the army, whereas 3 Trygons means you're going to be in the enemy's face and that'll dictate how you build the army.

The same can easily be said for any Space Marine commander with Chapter Tactics in lieu of combat tactics, or any strong supporting HQ figure (IE: Farseers for psychic support/defense, Hive Tyrants for reserves manipulation/preferred enemy, etc.)

Comparing Capabilities
The other basic form of opportunity cost comes in the form of similar capabilities in different slots. This is something you'll find more of in newer codices, as this allows you much greater flexibility in terms of making an army, but complicates army building a bit since you're weighing more options. (I'll take the extra work, personally).

Let's look at the IG book. I don't know about you guys, but I like poofing infantry in great bloody swathes. Do you like that? I also like chunky spaghetti sauce, but that's unrelated.

So, if I want to KO swathes of infantry, I have several choices, including:
1) Hellhounds in Fast Attack
2) Valkyries with Missile Pods in Fast Attack
3) Multiple Chimeras w/ Hull Heavy Flamers in troops, other slots
-possibly Platoon Commands in aforementioned chimeras with flamers, too
4) Leman Russ Eradicator in Heavy Support
5) Colossus Siege Mortar in Heavy Support

All of these are capable of doing horrifically graphic things to infantry, though not all capabilities are necessarily equal.

My evaluation will also depend on what other essentially capabilities I can get in other slots, so I'm still doing some intra-slot comparison. I could take Hellhounds (which can get hull multi-meltas for some duality), which means I need to get some more reliable anti-tank elsewhere (Maybe troops or heavy support, but not Vendettas. Maybe Hydra flak tanks and meltagun squads?). Or, maybe I take the Russ Eradicators, filling up my heavy support and leaving me with the need to bring anti-tank in other slots (Maybe vendettas or melta squads?).

Wrapup: Opportunity Cost and Army Design
Basically, you need to start by knowing what your army can give you in what slots. Some armies make this simpler than others. With Eldar, I know I want to bring Fire Dragons to kill heavy tanks, because they're a solid option (...and I don't really have other good options for killing tanks). I can supplement it with S8 guns from transports and falcons, but I just don't have any other comparable punch, so the rest of my army can fall in after these choices are locked in.

On the other hand, better-designed armies can bring the capabilities in various slots. Here's where you have to do the work and take the concept of opportunity cost into account: you want redundancy so SOME of your tools live to do the jobs, so you're going to generally make one choice for the non-troops slots and duplicate it. That's why you need to get a grasp of tradeoffs.

Hopefully, this has been beneficial (or at least thought-provoking), but it seems like tradeoffs are A) a complicated part of army-building at times, and B) sometimes overlooked.

Evaluating Units Honestly: 'Making Back Your Points' is Overly Simplistic

2010-02-20T21:53:00.004-06:00

Now, in all honesty when you analyze units, you can't just math-hammer them and say "Well, this unit is more effective at killing XYZ than that unit." Sometimes, you have to take a look at what a unit does for you, or to the opponent, and it's not always 'kill lots of things.' I'll start with a few simple examples.

The Rhino (and other Transports)
It's 35 points. It has a storm bolter. How often does a lone storm bolter do something more spectacular than take out the odd infantry straggler? The Rhino doesn't kill things. It might tank-shock someone and kill some moron trying Death or Glory.

So, how come you see people taking them? This one's the 'gimme' example. The Rhino (and any transport) keeps your infantry from eating small-arms fire from the get-go, and gets them places faster. For 205 points, I can take 10 tactical marines with a flamer and multi-melta, and get them into position to use them. I can drive up, pop smoke, and move up again and make the enemy worry about a multi-melta near their lines. Or, I can tank-shock infantry, pile out of my box and flamer/rapid-fire my new friends. Or, I can take a shorter tank-shock and do the same thing.

All that for 35? That's a bargain.

Kroot (and other 'bubble wrap')
I pay around 120 points for 10 Kroot and 7 Hounds. How often do they kill stuff? Well, there was that one time they took out a chaos Raptor squad... But beyond that, no, they really DON'T kill stuff. They fold like wet paper sacks in hand-to-hand, they die to flamers in a comedic and terrible fashion, and can kind of rapid-fire stuff. Kind of.

So, why do I take them?

It's called a 'meat shield.' Bubble wrap is another term I've heard, but I prefer meat shield since I've bought lunch meat that comes in tupperware containers explicitly for carting around heaps of plastic infantry that have a generous amount of clear coat on them. Plus, it's good for a laugh when you put your meat shield back into a meat container.

Case in point today against Tyranids: A Trygon pops up near my lines. There are a heap of Kroot between it and juicy targets like a Hammerhead, Broadside Team, and a couple of Crisis Suit teams. Had I not taken the Kroot, I would have had ONE turn to kill the Trygon (which is not necessarily a given, with 6 wounds at T6 with a 3+, even with plasma rifles) before I lost something important. Instead, I took off four wounds with a heap of gunfire, lost a Piranha to it, and then had a Crisis Suit squad go up to BS5 from markerlights and nuke it.

Against meltaguns and the like, you have to do something like tank shock the kroot out of the way to deploy within 6" and get your crucial 2d6 penetration. S8 on AV13 is not a gimme by any stretch of the imagination, but S8+2d6 is a Hammerhead in trouble. It does stop annoying alpha-strike tactics like scout-moving a Vendetta up, and meltagun+meltabomb rushing a Hammerhead, provided you space out and deploy properly.

The Piranha (and other fast, generally-expendable threats)
Here's another short story abou Tau and sacrificing units for the greater good. I field two squads of two Piranhas; they pack Fusion blasters, BS4, and one mounts a Disruption Pod while the other carries the wargear that lets me split fire.

So, one of my buddies was getting into Black Templar, so he's rolling a pair of Land Raider Crusaders with furious charge lightning claw terminators. Ouch. Well, we set up in table quarters, so I rush my Piranhas up in front of his Raiders. He HAS to deal with them; there is a very real chance I can trade 300 points of my army for 500+ of his, and force his terminators to run at me. Considering plasma rifles and markerlights are involved, this doesn't bode well for the Terminators.

So, he shoots at them a little, and I get my shots at his Raiders. Four meltaguns and three railguns later, I've managed to...shake...a single Land Raider. Even with smoke, you'd think all the fething AP1 fire might do some damage. Nope. Sorry. HOWEVER, since these are vehicles, he can't tank shock through them. At this range, he can get an S4-5 ram off on AV11 with a 3+ dodge save. If he does NOT halt and engage them, they'll simply try again next turn. So, he spends a turn or two repositioning and brutally gunning them down.

The Piranhas did not kill a bloody thing.

The Piranhas cost him two turns of movement.

The Piranhas dictated his game, and in turn gave me the time I needed to immobilize one Raider and kill the other.

My Point on Meat Shields and Other Expendables
Sometimes, just being there is enough. Cheap infantry can buy you a turn against assaulty armies, and cheap, fast vehicles that are a credible threat (IE: Multi-melta/Heavy flamer land speeders as well as Piranhas) HAVE to be killed. It's the fact that you can pay points and troops for time, or make them dictate your opponent's movements that makes them worth it.

Rambo, Deathleaper, Doom of Malant'i, and Company
Another category of 'doesn't make points back' is the type of unit that makes you change your deployment and target priority.

Let's be honest: Rambo doesn't often kill much. Marbo appears, chucks a demolition charge, and draws some fire. If you left the opening, Rambo chucked it at the back of a vehicle or at some infantry that weren't in cover. I mean, some good deployment counters that. Additionally, if you spread out in terrain, you minimize the places that Marbo can actually be placed.

Deathleaper and the Doom fall into the same category (though the Doom kind of needs some clarification on its Psychic Vampire crap. At least it's not sparkly like diamonds, right? Right). Worst comes to worst, the Doom kills some infantry, and then you hit it with S8 until it fails a save. Doesn't matter how many wounds at has if it suffers Instant Death.

Outflankers: Or, sometimes the bluff isn't worth it
Now, another category came up from an onlooker. He talked about "Man, you have a hammerhead right on the flank. Some genestealers would be nasty, there."

Not really. First, I can deploy away from the flanks. Oooh. Ahh. It's not THAT hard to get away from foot infantry. Second, in this particular situation, the Hammerhead had moved 12 inches. Had 8 genestealers actually charged it, they might have gotten ONE penetrating hit. (8 stealers = 24 attacks; 6's to hit means 4 hits, which means MAYBE one penetrating hit). Oh. Then the Hammerhead zooms away 12", takes a shot, and some of the rest of my army nukes the stealers, or weakens them sufficiently for me to ignore them.

Ok, outflanking CAN be annoying. On the other hand, there are some problems with it.
1) Reserves. Did you show up on time?
2) Entry Point. Did you show up where I needed you?
3) Impact. Did you do something useful when you showed up?

See, with Khan, I could theoretically outflank a Land Raider Crusader (provided I take it as a dedicated transport) full of assaulty goodness. I could also not see it 'til turn 4-5 and have it arrive on the other end of the table, and there's 450+ points that did not actually KILL anything.

Admittedly, some armies have reserves manipulation and outflank entry manipulation (IE: IG command squads). That helps to an extent, but you can still use things like, oh, meat shields to work around it.

This isn't to say that outflank is ALWAYS useless. However, if you want the enemy to pay attention to your wildcard threat, it should be less of a threat and more of a promise.

In Summary
When you're analyzing a unit, lethality isn't everything. You have to look at the army as a whole; what can each part bring to the table and what does the sum of the parts do for you? If you're going to play expendable units, make sure they're expended usefully. I mean, stuff's gonna die, so get the most out of it and make it work for you. If you're going to bring a bluff card, make sure it's something the enemy HAS to take seriously and make sure it's a somewhat reliable bluff card.

Humor and WiP

2010-02-16T22:29:00.003-06:00

MY TOOTHBRUSH!
This is a slight crop, so pardon the quality. However, I had to share what happened when I was trying to remove the arms. I put the toothbrush in there, applied a little lever action to remove his other arm, heard a snap...I worried about the model, and realized my toothbrush was too short. Oh, well. I mean, we've all broken things and hurt ourselves doing modelling stuff, but this was just too funny. And yes, this is the pose it happened in.

Here's a WIP shot of my paint scheme. The fleshy bits are generally done, and the carapaces are in progress. The detailed bits will be in green (IE: tyrannofex tongue, maybe claws here and there). The weapons will be the squad markers, since you can apparently get away with making the bioweapons somewhat different than the rest of them.

Finally, I started on the first hive tyrant. Nothing fancy; just magnetized arms and the good ol' dragon wings. It needs a little green stuff work, and I think I'm going to go with an urban theme for the bases to match the scheme.

Coming Up in Modeling

15 Gargs completed and to be painted this month.

6-9 Hive Guard to be converted/painted from warriors.

Coming Up in Gaming/Tactics/Reviews/Etc.

Thoughts on the Parastie of Mortrex

Brainstorms on HQs

Draft 1, Tyranids

2010-02-13T22:43:00.003-06:00

Here's the first list I'm working towards for Tyranids. I'm going for a bit of a mix of shooting and assault. Thoughts?

HQ
Hive Tyrant [255]
-Wings
-Old Adversary
-Double Scything Talons

Elites
3 Hive Guard [150]

3 Hive Guard [150]

Doom of Malanti [90]
Mycetic Spore [40]

Troops
10 Termagants w/ Fleshborer [50]

10 Termagants w/ Fleshborer [50]

Tervigon [180]
-Adrenal Glands
-Toxin Sacks
-Cluster Spines

Tervigon [180]
-Adrenal Glands
-Toxin Sacks
-Cluster Spines

Fast Attack
20 Gargolyes [160]
-Adrenal Glands
-Toxin Sacks

20 Gargolyes [160]
-Adrenal Glands
-Toxin Sacks

Heavy Support
Tyrannofex [265]
-Rupture Cannon
-Cluster Spines
-Desiccator Swarm

Tyrannofex [265]
-Rupture Cannon
-Cluster Spines
-Desiccator Swarm

Total: 1995/2000

Thoughts
Hive Guard and Tyrannofexes provide support; Tyrant and Gargolyes apply pressure while the Tervigons provide backup and objective support. The Doom just suggests you deploy carefully.

My worry is that I'm a little too in the middle here. I've got some shooting, I've got some assault, and I've got the Tervigons for objective support, but I wonder if I should drop the Tervis and go with Hormagaunts instead. I mean, I could make the transition from about 40 gribblies flying at you to ~80 of them running at you, and probably transition the Doom into an Alpha for rear syanpse support, and break the Hive Guard into 3x2.

Feedback & suggestions?

Tyrannofex Conversion, Complete

2010-02-11T20:12:00.004-06:00

And lo, I have completed my Tyrannofex conversion from a carnifex kit. I strayed only a little, and that involved using Genestealer scything talons (...because who runs those on stealers?) and a couple random carapace plates. Anyway, here we go.
Imposing? I like to think so. Rupture Cannon, cluster spines, and in lieu of building a generally-unnoticeable torso swarm, I decided I'd let the bio-plasma head represent the thorax swarm. I mean, come on, it's close enough to a breath weapon, right? Besides, I like the mental image of the tyrannofex yawning wide and vomiting forth a wave of bugs.

Who says you have to have a feeding tub attached to the gun? It always seemed a little odd to have the gun STUCK like that. So, I gave him a hand. A big one. So it can ozzie osbourne someone in melee. I mean, come on, big mouth, hand, human-sized things about to scale. You get the idea.

Just for sake of completeness, a shot from behind. I have since added some of the thornback bits to cover that ugly seam on the back.

And, from the other side. If you see a little bit of green on the forward legs, it'sbecause I cut and re-aligned the shoulder a little bit. My second Tyrannofex has come along much faster, and were you to use this process I would highly suggest fixing the gun up first, and then making sure that the crushing claw limb conversions can be properly posed.

Now, please forgive the flash, but the picture came out well enough. This is one of the monstrous-creature sized scything talons. Chop the talon off at the wrist. Then, based on the gun's pose, I cut the elbow joint (and removed the pointy elbow bit, since it would get in the way) and put a teeny bit of sprue in there just to brace it. It was later green-stuffed, and if you look close at the crab-limb conversions you can see where I did the chopping and rotating.

The scything talon lost the 'thumb', and I eyeballed the cut on the talon itself after gluing the upper limb into place. I actually glued the tip of the talon to the rupture cannon, and after that set the genestealer talons got glued on.

I have a little GS stuff to do here and there, and may yet bulk up the gun-bracing forelimb just so it doesn't look blatantly like a cut-up scything talon, but the conversion is about 95% complete.

For the previous steps, see:

Tyrannofex Phase 2

Tyrannofex Phase 1

All things considered, this was not a terribly difficult conversion. As some have remarked, GSing organic stuff is a whole lot more forgiving than mechanical crap. All you need to pull it off is some water, patience, and my preference? Dental hygiene tools, and you can get those in the pharmacy/personal care section of your grocery store.

Tyrannofex WIP 2

2010-02-07T22:41:00.003-06:00

Busy week, but I found time for some modeling. I've also committed to the HAAWGS painting initiative, and the Tyrannofex is on the menu. I also picked up the remaining Carnifex kits I need for the Tervigons and Carnifexes. Anyway, the Rupture Cannon is a two-stage weapon, so I went about cobbling together an over-and-under weapon out of Carnifex weaponry.

Here, you see the ingredients, step one, and the end result: you will need the Stranglethorn Cannon, and the MC Deathspitters. Not like anyone would USE those, right? Right. Cut the cannon part off the Stranglethorn, and trim the lower feed tube and the top of the barrel. You want the part you chop off the gun to look like the part that comes from the sprue. (This would make more sense if you look at the MC gun sprue)
Next, you cut the bottom of the deathspitter off, file it flat, line them up and glue them together.

Once the double-deathspitter dries, we add the stranglethorn bits one after the other.

Glue to the arm again, add green stuff, and bam. Done.

At this point, all I have left to do is add the head, pose, and assemble them. Then, there's figuring out what to do for the other arm. I'm leaning towards making it a supporting arm, and just running the ammo tube alongside it.

Also, for the head, I'm going with the bioplasma head. Rather than building a thorax weapon, I think I'm going to just call it a breath weapon.

Pending Tyranid Projects

In other tyranid news, assembling termagants and hormagaunts is time-consuming, but that's not a huge surprise. The next conversions will be Warriors into Hive Guard, and then Carnifex kits into Tervigons. Eventually, I'll do something for mycetic spores, if/when I decide I want them. I'll be magnetizing a Hive Tyrant as well, and likely his Hive Guard so I can swap between shooty walking tyrant, winged melee wrecking ball (Hey, let's give Preferred enemy to 50 gargoyles. It'll be fun!) and the Swarmlord (...so, y'know, I can crank out a stupid number of instant-death power weapon attacks on the charge. It will be win. You will see.)

Other Projects

The Green Templar are almost done as an army. I have five initiates to finish basing (which is to say a paint, a wash, and a paint) and five to add colors to. Then, there'll be a family shot. Then, well, it'll be on to painting the bugs.

Tyrannofex Conversion, WIP 1

2010-01-30T00:34:00.002-06:00

The Tyranid codex has a fair few critters without models; IE the Harpy, the Tervigon, and the Tyrannofex. While I've seen some debate on the Tyrannofex (though Haihastur brings up some things I'd worried about in the comments, and I welcome the opposing viewpoint. I kinda hope I"m not building something I'm going to shelve 'ere long...). So, I set out with the goal of making a Tyrannofex out of the Carnifex kit, and it's a swell kit, lemme tell you. A pity they kinda neutered the 'fex in the 'dex, but what do you do?

My initial vision is something like a larger Hive Guard. Four limbs, and then the gun arms. I'm pondering an over-and-under kind of weapon, since the Rupture Cannon is apparently a two-stage weapon (first the tick that pops and coats the target with jell, then the second shot that detonates it). But, first, we have to have the bracing arms.
This is step one of the process. They're kind enough to give me three carapace-tops for the 'fex. I used the one with the little pointy spines (since I'll be giving the Tyrannofex Cluster Spines without fail), and butchered the smooth one and the spore cyst one.

And now, a use for the crushing claws. I mean, it's not like we'd equip the carnifex with them. You can see on the right where it's a pretty clean cut between the claw and the wrist, and then chop the lower claw off. Then, it's a matter of glue and patience.

And now, the finished forelimbs. In lieu of using green stuff all the way through, I build it up with layers of hot glue. Hey, it's a lot cheaper than greenstuff, and sets faster. Then, it's two layers of green stuff; one for the details on the side, and a seperate application of the scale-top bits.

And now, a showcase of my terrible photography. I took a few shots of the modifications to the torso and waist. In order to make the thing taller, I severed the 'fex waist/tail, and reversed it. Instead of having a hunched S-curve to it, the model stands a little taller. Note that you'll have to remove some bits to make the torso fit.

The Grey Knight has graciously volunteered to hold up the curing torso/leg joint. I intend to offer updates as I work, and better pictures than the last one. Had to get the girlfriend to take the completed forelimb pics; I was just having a case of the Fail there.

Tyranids and Big Guns

2010-01-26T21:03:00.004-06:00

Tyranids have a heap of new options when it comes to throwing out the pain and suffering in the shooting phase. The previous codex simply did not have enough punch to stop vehicles reliably with guns. That is no longer the case, and you can bring a significant shooting game to the table. I'll go into my thoughts on the major ranged combat options in the book, and possible support units for them. And, they're all lovely Assault weapons, so you can pop shots AND move and fistfight, should you want to do so.

By 'major' ranged stuff, I'm talking about a unit that's actually focused on shooting, as opposed to something like a Trygon or Tervigon, which simply has the option to make ranged attacks.

Common Shooting Options

There are a couple of ranged weapons that several creatures share, and that you can use to bust armor. These guns are:

Heavy Venom Cannon: 36" S9, AP4, Small Blast, -1 on Vehicle Damage Chart against closed-top

Stranglethorn Cannon: 36" S6, AP5, Large Blast, Pinning

Devourer w/ Brainleech Worms: 18" 6 shots S6, AP-, -1 to morale checks from shooting if they inflict an unsaved wound

Cluster Spines: 18", S5, AP-, Large Blast

Stinger Salvo: 18", S5, AP4, 4 shots

Thorax Swarms: Template, with profile:

-Electroshock beetles, S5 AP5

-Desiccator Larvae: S1, AP-, wounds on 2+

-Shreddershard Beetles: S3, AP-, Rending

This is the basic monstrous creature menu for guns. The Heavy Venom Cannon is your main support option, as it's passable against infantry and capable of inconveniencing vehicles. It's not so hot for killing armor, but can at least damage it.

The Stranglethorn cannon is usually an option alongside the Heavy Venom cannon. S6 harms its effectiveness against vehicles, but it's still a fine way to inflict wounds on footsloggers.

The Brainleech-packing Devourer is the good old high-rate-of-fire monstrous creature gun. You want infantry and monstrous creatures to eat it? This is how you feed them.

The Stinger Salvo is a backup gun for larger monstrous creatures, and can usually be exchanged for Cluster Spines. Given the BS3 on most of the creatures that can get these, I'm inclined to go with the spines for the large blast template, unless you really want to use S5 for anti-vehicle work (...which might scare AV10 a little) or think you can't get more than two hits average on the blast weapon.

The Thorax Swarm is another one of those backup weapons on larger monstrous creatures. It comes with the S5, AP5 shot, and costs points to upgrade. Frankly, I'd rather spend the points on other things. I consider it a point-defense system; if you have to use it things have probably gone downhill, or you're already winning.

The Weapons Platforms

The Hive Tyrant

The first decision you need to make is whether you want winged or walking. The Hive Tyrant's abilities are support-oriented, and put on a nasty chassis. If you're going to bring guns on it, though, here are the thoughts:

1) Winged Tyrant w/ 2x TL Devourers [260]

This is a bit of a 'classic' loadout. It's purely short-ranged shooty; a dozen TL shots at S6, BS3 means an average of 9 hits, and 8-9 wounds on infantry. You still have decent assaulty capabilities, too. This is really the multi-role tyrant, though it costs you a hefty 260 points. You can drop 15 off the price and keep the whip/sword combo if you want, but that dilutes you a bit more, and you might just consider wings and melee.

2) Walking Tyrant w/ TL Devs, Heavy Venom Cannon [210 + vet abilities + Tyrant Guard]

This is the basic multi-role walking tyrant. You will want to pay another 120 for a couple of Tyrant Guard, just to keep you alive longer. You can inconvenience vehicles, and scare infantry. Drop 10 points to go double-devourers, but expect to spend some time running. Additionally, pick up the non-shooting powers for your support stuff.

The Harpy

Honestly, this is one of my favorite additions on paper. It's a fast attack choice that's basically a flying gun. It starts with a Stranglethorn Cannon and Stinger Salvo, though I would promptly upgrade to the Heavy Venom Cannon and Cluster Spines. 170 points for instant duality; you can harass vehicles at a safe distance, or harm enemy infantry that get in close. In a pinch, you can go punh something.

The downside is of course durability, so prepare to bring a pair of harpies and some other monstrous creatures. Still, I think it's a strong addition to an MC-heavy list, and its durability just begs more questions about target priority.

The Carnifex

Say hello to the red-headed stepchild of the codex. It got a hefty cost increase, lost its ability to be taken in the elite slots (...which is not actually a bad thing), but can come in broods of 1-3. So, what can you get on the Carnifex for guns?

About the same as the tyrant. You get one big gun, and a choice between Deathspitters and Devourers. The problem is that if you want big guns and anti-tank on the Carnifex, you have the shootiness of the tyrant and close to the cost of the Tyrannofex, but you don't have the Tyrant's support capabilites or the Tyrannofex's sheer firepower.

Frankly, I'd skip the Carnifex as a gun platform unless you were just totally opposed to the Tyrannofex. The Carnifex with Venom Cannon and TL Devourers costs 200 points; the Tyrannofex with Rupture Cannon costs 265, and I can tell you that those 65 points make a HUGE difference.

The Purpose-Built Gun Beasts

In addition to our more versatile monsters, we have three guns that are bodies, more or less: the Zoanthrope, the Hive Guard, and the Tyrannofex.

Zoanthrope

Ah, the Zoey. They come in broods of 1-3, and have two guns:

-S10, AP1 Lance at 18"

-S5, AP3 Small Blast at 24"

Scary, yes? We have duality. The downside is that we are a huge target; T4 with a 5+/3++ and two wounds makes you worry about S8 weapons, and people will do their level best to gun these things down, because they ARE that lethal. Frankly, a full brood of these should be able to maim/nuke just about any armor in a single round, and can put the hurt on infantry, two.

The achilles heel? Gotta pass those psychic tests. People that bring psychic tests can put the hurt on the Zoanthropes.

Hive Guard

T6, 4+, two wounds, and a, S8 AP4 Assault 2 24" gun that doesn't care about LOS. Compared to the Zoanthrope (its fellow elite), you're trading some graphic firepower for reliability. You only get cover against the Hive Guard if you're in or touching terrain, as well. This means you can slap Hive Guard behind a wall, pull the trigger, and the enemy might not be able to see you to shoot back.

The downside is of course the short range, and like the Zoanthrope you can get sorted in melee without that much of a problem. On the bright side, your T6 means it takes some serious firepower or specialist kit to drop you.

The Tyrannofex

Anyone like S10 guns? You DO? What about an S10, AP4, Assault 2 gun with a 48" range that can't be blown off the carrier? Are you willing to pay a bit for it? Then the Tyrannofex is your buddy. 265 points nets you a monstrous creature with T6, 2+ armor, six wounds, and a BS3 to go with the Rupture Cannon, Cluster Spines, and the basic thorax swarm. Screen it well (since it can't fistfight worth a darn, and anyone with a hidden powerfist can eventually grind it down...) and it will do wonders for you.

Supporting Your Guns

As your guns are not vehicles, they can be tied up in assault. As such, you will want to consider little gribblies as shield, but be aware that they can still get tank-shocked through.

The other issue with our guns? Some of them are shorter-ranged. See the Hive Guard and Zoanthropes in particular, but don't overlook the Devourer-wielding nuts, either. How to fix this? Consider the Tervigon: Onslaught lets you run AND shoot. Get an extra d6 of movement, and you might get range a little sooner. As an extra benefit, the Tervigon can ALSO produce meat shields for your guns.

The Zoanthrope can take a Mycetic Spore and guarantee the chance to shoot, but this entails building in reserves manipulation (IE: at least one Hive Tyrant) and may not see them arrive when you need them, or where you need them. But, it IS an option.

Summary

1) Hive Tyrants are support units for your army, but can take decent shooting.

2) Harpies are a solid support element with the Heavy Venom Cannon and have some versatility, you're certainly committing to bringing multiple MCs.

3) Carnifexes...skip them for shooting. Tyrant has similar capabilities and support options; Tyrannofexes are simply superior for popping vehicles.

4) Zoanthropes are graphically destructive, but have short range and are vulnerable to psychic defenses

5) Hive Guard are solid performers, but still short-ranged

6) Tyrannofexes are flat-out dangerous, but require support and have some accuracy issues.

7) Tervigons can help you with that 'range' problem with Onslaught

The Opinion Side

Frankly, I'm planning on converting Hive Guard from Warriors. I'm also planning on converting Tyrannofexes from Carnifex kits; one of those is actually WIP. I will post pictures. So far the thought is to make the Tyrannofex look like a larger hive guard, using some spare carapace bits and the like.

I think that the Hive Guard and Tyrannofex make a good team; one hunts lighter armor and the other can nail any armor value out there (...unless your dice decide you can't hit). I'm looking at running 3x2 Tyrant Guard and at least two Tyrannofexes, with Tervigons as support.

I'd like to say I'm original, but I think this is just going to be a solid kind of build for the bugs. Part of me wants to roll it with double winged tyrants, or fit some Shrikes in there, though.

Tyranids: Trygon v Mawloc

2010-01-23T21:40:00.005-06:00

Or, Death From Below. Frankly, it's a beautiful kit, though there are some sweet conversions out there (like this 2007 one I found on a French guy's site). That aside, the Trygon and Mawloc compete for slots, and have some different capabilities. I'm going to go over their similarities, their differences, and ofter some thoughts on their employment.

Similarities

They're both deep-striking monstrous creatures with a pretty ridiculous amount of wounds. They're both pretty reasonable troop-killers, and as monstrous creatures vehicles ought to be wary.

The Deep Strike

The Mawloc's chief use requires deep-striking, and the Trygon still benefits from it. Neither of them can mishap on the deep strike unless they scatter of the table, though. In that regard, deep-striking them only subjects them to reserves rolls.

Note carefully that you cannot assault on the deep strike. However, it's hard to end up out of assault range with the natures of their deep-strikes.

Killing Things

Both of them drop S6, armor-ignoring wounds on things on the attack. As monstrous creatures, when they assault they also throw 2d6 for armor penetration. However, they only hit at S6, which means multi-wound T4 boggarts can be...annoying...for you, to say the least. At least you can get poison and furious charge to give you a little more lethality.

Durability

Six wounds, T6, 3+ armor saves. Ouch. That's a whole heap of wounds to deal with. There's a good chance you'll survive to make it into hand-to-hand, though you do worry about powerfists. Also, should anyone wander up to you with a bonesword and manage to land a wound...ouch. Ld8 base is potentially worrisome, since you are NOT immune to instant death. However, it does take specialist kit to inflict that instant death on you (IE: Force Weapons, Boneswords, small children and pets rampaging across the table...).

Instinctive Behavior

Feed. IE: go forth and try to eat that thing. Honestly, while the enemy CAN bait you with expendable stuff (or stuff you don't want to assault), you weren't really taking these for the shooting, were you? I mean, if you wanted shooting in the heavy support slot, you would've bought a Tyrannofex, right?

The Difference is in the Damage

Honestly, there's only one real difference between the Trygon and Mawloc: how they do the damage. The Trygon generally wants to carve you into little pieces, and the Mawloc wants to take a big ol' bite out of you.

The Trygon: Stabble-stabble-stabble

On the deep strike, the Trygon's essentially a drop pod: if he would scatter into another unit, reduce scatter so that he does not. (or she, if you prefer; I'm sure an Aliens-like head crest would look nice on a Prime). On arrival, you can choose between firing a half-dozen S5 shots (or a full dozen if you upgraded to the Trygon Prime) at BS3. Or, you can run.

The turn after that, you're a monstrous creature (so you have Move Through Cover) and you're fleet (so you get a run). That's a pretty dangerous combination for something that just plunked down pretty much right in front of your lines. Then, you have six base attacks at WS5 that re-roll misses in close combat, since you have two sets of scything talons.

You worry about hidden powerfists in units, and running up against units full of S6+ power weapons. Anything else is meat. With I4, there's a good chance of ruining I3 walkers before they even knock a wound off, and even Ironclads step lightly around you. If you can catch a Land Raider that moved slower, you might be able to do some damage (...but then, y'know, there's the CONTENTS of said Land raider to contend with...).

On the bright side? Once you reserve in, it's pretty much a case of 'run here, assault this.' You'll arrive, the enemy has a turn to run away or kill you, and then you should be in it. A faster army might give you some trouble (IE: fast skimmers that can afford to relocate).

The only other real note is that you can upgrade a Trygon to a Trygon Prime and get yourself a Ld10 Synapse Creature that popped up right in front of the enemy lines.

The Mawloc: Om-nom-nom

And here we get to the crux of the matter: while the Trygon is a relatively straightforward assault machine, the Mawloc's use is a little more nuanced. It's this not-so-little rule called 'Terror from the Deep'.

Basically, you WANT to deep strike onto the other guy. When you emerge (ideally under people) you lay a large blast template where the Mawloc would emerge, and everyone under it eats an S6, AP2 hit. Vehicles take the hit on the rear. Then, the Mawloc gets placed, and everyone gets shoved 1" away from the base. If you're in assault, you stay in assault unless you just CAN'T. If you can't be moved out of the way period, you're dead.

Some caveats on this:

-This is not a monstrous creature assault hit, so you're not getting +2d6 armor penetration

-There's a bit of a question on whether or not cover applies. It's not a shooting attack, though; it occurs in the movement phase (the closest rules analog would be the Eldar Prince Yriel's Eye of Wrath special attack)

-Resolving this is going to just get...interesting (and fun)

Once the Mawloc hits, shoves everyone around, and generally makes a nuisance out of itself, it's got 3 base attacks at WS3, and I4. The I4 only matters because of hit 'n' run. Additionally, the mawloc can put itself back into reserve, and automatically enter the next turn. However, it cannot put itself in reserve on the same turn it arrives.

The easy way to deal with this (as Faolain noted) is you start the Mawloc(s) on the board on turn one. They burrow, go back into reserves, and arrive on turn two. Then you can pull them back on turn three, launch them again on turn four, and turn five you get the choice to pull them back and gamble on turn six, or keep them where they are.

Damage and Reliability

Now, when you get down to it, you're paying in the 170-200pt range for either of these. The durability is the same, the reliance on reserves is about the same, and it boils down to who slings more damage.

Here's where I have to lean towards the Trygon. The Trygon arrives, gets shot at for a turn, and then probably gets into assault. The Mawloc arrives, hopefully lands on something (as you ARE rolling 2d6+scatter, so you hit on-target 33% of the time) and then considers going back into reserves or assaulting something. The Trygon cranks out a pretty high number of attacks with re-rolls to hit. The Mawloc might be able to eat a stationary vehicle, and has a 66% chance of hitting and running so it can go back into reserve.

EDIT!

Note that if you look carefully at the rules, at the moment there's nothing in the Mawloc rules that allow it to deep-strike onto a target! You MUST deep-strike no closer than an inch to the enemy, and hope like hell that scatter onto the enemy.

This kind of kills the Mawloc for me, until they FAQ it.

The problem lies in getting the Mawloc's ability off. Suppose, best-case scenario, you get a Mawloc in on turn two. It arrives, eats something. Turn three, back into reserves. Turn four, auto-arrive. Turn five rolls around, and you're left with a question: do you put yourself back into reserves and hope there's a turn six (...which is pretty reasonable, since there's turn six on a 3+ barring time considerations) or just go to town hitting and moving things? The problem is that if you're wrong, and the mawloc ends the game in reserves, the enemy gets credit for destroying it. Whoops.

The trygon...just gets there, and starts cutting things.

Why Look at the Mawloc, Then?

For a minute, let's go look at the Callidus assassin. She has the ability to move an enemy unit during their deployment. Do you know what else lets YOU move the enemy? There's the Lash of Submission, which can be fun with plasma cannons against people not in a transport. There's the Pavane of Slaanesh, which hardly ever sees use (...seeing as how you need the Masque, or a Herald of Slaanesh).

Now, what abilities do you know of that damage the enemy, AND let you move them?

What happens when he's got a scoring unit on an objetive, and you damage them, force a morale check, AND slap a six-wound monstrous creature on the objective?

Can you think of some nasty uses for this? Yes, you can. You might not even HAVE to go back into reserves. You might not even have to win the assaults. If the enemy can't kill you in CC, and you can wander around objectives with a Mawloc, you can cause some serious mayhem. Now, a Trygon will be nasty in CC, but you can potentially screen higher-value targets from a Trygon. There's nowhere to hide from the Mawloc. It can hit you, wherever you are on the board.

It's this ability to potentially hit anywhere that makes the Mawloc so nasty. It's kind of like ordnance: flinging large blasts makes people spread out. A mawloc makes people spread out, and makes them worry that it will pop up somewhere inconvenient. I think that a lot of people might overlook these tricks.

Things to Use With Either of Them

Well, first off, take a couple of them, either way. Redundancy is your friend, unless you're throwing a Trygon out as a wild card.

Second, consider reserves manipulation. Trygons can start on the table, but you're still moving 6" and running to make it to the enemy. Consider a Hive Tyrant with the +1 to reserves upgrade to get the big cutty snake thingy on the table faster. Note that you also want guns. While either of these can damage vehicles, you'd really rather hit troops and just EAT them in shorter order.

The Mawloc can be kept in reserve, but given its ability to go back into reserves and guarantee arrival next turn, I'm not sure I'd ever start it in reserves unless you're playing Dawn of War, then I'd walk on, and burrow.

Additionally, you don't have frag grenades. Be aware of that fact. It'll only really hurt you if massed powerfists/relic blades/Grey Knight Terminators have cover, but I had Black Templar termies in cover knock four wounds off a Trygon just because the Trygon didn't get its I4 on the assault.

Finally, a word on regeneration: it's pricy, but I think six wounds is enough to keep you around to make some regeneration rolls. One-rounding a carnifex isn't out of the question, but those two extra wounds make a difference. Unless you meet massed melta/plasma that's in a position to deal with you, you're gonna last. However, if you DO take regeneration, take it on pretty much everything that can take it. Otherwise, regeneration just means 'One-round me or ignore me in favor of something you can one-round.'

Overall

Both MC 'chassis' are hefty, resilient, and will never see a cover save. Neither of them are god-like in assault, but can do some serious damage to people without specialist kit.

The major difference is this: do you take the Trygon for its simplicity and brutality, or do you take the Mawloc and do dastardly deeds with Terror from the Deep?

Tyranid Thoughts: Overview, First Impression

2010-01-18T11:05:00.003-06:00

Like everyone else, I've just laid hands on the Tyranid codex. I've given it a couple of read-throughs, and am thinking long and hard about which units I'll need to buy in order to run several types of armies, as I believe this is a book that will let me have options and different types of armies.

The problem, of course, lies in actually BUYING everything. But, hey, as far as codex design goes it's a good problem to have, right? Anyway, on to some reflections on the book as a whole, since it IS a total revamp of the bugs.

So Long, 0-1 Choice

Redundancy is important; 0-1 choices are not redundant, not reliable, and thus often skipped. Thankfully, GW did away with that mess. This changes Zoanthropes, Biovores, Lictors, and Winged Hive Tyrants.

Guns

The bugs can shoot now. The Elites, Fast Attack and Heavy Support can all bring some tidy weaponry now. There are four nasty new anti-tank guns making the rounds in the army:

Rupture Cannon: S10, AP4, 2 shots, 48 inches. It comes on the expensive tyrannofex, but considering that you can't blow it off the fex and you can screen the thing with cheap fodder to keep it shooting every turn? Ouch.

Impaler Cannon: S8, AP4, 2 shots, 24 inches, ignores LOS. Hive Guard are walking T6 gun platforms. Mmm, kill that light armor and wound anything you can shoot at on a 2+, generally.

Warp Lance: S10, AP1, Lance, 18", single shot. Zoanthropes can now kill armor in a bad way. 3+ to penetrate any armor at the worst? Zoeys in drop pods? Yes please. Psychic defenses are mandatory, or did you know?

Heavy Venom Cannon: S9 Blast, 48", -1 on the damage charts unless open-topped targets. The downside is that they're not as damaging as the other weapons and their accuracy depends on the size of the target, but the upside is that they're blast weapons so they can engage troops as well, and S9 hurts.

For pure anti-troop work, the other highlight is the Cluster Spine: S5, AP- large blast; most shooty monstrous creatures can mount one on the carapace. Suddenly, they can dump wounds on infantry as well. Most other anti-infantry weapons work on the principle of volume of fire, though there are some templates available in the army.

Where did that come from?

Tyranids picked up drop pods and deep-striking monstrous creatures. They also picked up the means to boost reserves, via Hive Tyrants and Lictors that have arrived. Better yet? The Spores and purpose-built Deep Striking monstrous creatures have rules akin to the Marine drop pod that keep them from scattering into other units and rolling on the mishap table.

The Mycetic Spore is available to a number of units, and can take either a single monstrous creature or up to 20 smaller gribblies. This pod is simply a huge utility; there's nothing like 2-3 carnifexes drop-podding on a flank to get you worried sometimes. Sure, that Warp Lance has an 18" range, but the Zoanthropes started in that range AND get the shot off.

Additionally, the Trygon and Mawloc can deep strike naturally. Both are 6-wound beasts with the ability to draw a hefty amount of fire and influence the game. Trygons are simply melee beasts with a heap of attacks, while the Mawloc is basically a Tyranid shout-out to Tremors. Personally, I'm leaning towards the Mawloc just for the sheer amount of tricks that you can pull with it.

Poison, Furious Charge, Power Weapons Oh My! Melee, Tyranids, and You

Most of the army can buy Adrenal glands for a lovely 4+ poison. I'd say this is pretty much mandatory on Hormagaunts, since S3 just doesn't go that far. It gets discretionary on the larger creatures; poison ALWAYS wounds on 4+ but gets a re-roll on the wound against targets when your strength is equal to or greater than their toughness. 4+ with a re-roll is inferior to a 2+, but not by much. (15% for a 2+ as opposed to 25% for the 4+ with re-rolls). I still would probably consider it on the S6 monstrous creatures, as it benefits them on larger targets (IE: T5+).

Past that, Adrenal glands grant you furious charge. The initiative bonus would be cooler if YOU COULD GET FRAG GRENADES ON STUFF IN THE CODEX. This is one of the things I noticed that's a bit inconvenient: there are about two units that can take something close to frag grenades:

1) The Carnifex (who goes to I3 on the charge, admittedly)

2) Lictors (who start in terrain)

Addtionally, the Bone Sabre got an upgrade in a big way: it's now a power weapon, and any multi-wound critter that gets hit by them takes a leadership check or suffers instant death. Warriors and Hive Tyrants can take these, and frankly, this scares the poop out of a lot of multi-wound creatures.

Scything talons no longer grant extra attacks; they grant re-rolls. This means a unit with two sets essentially has preferred enemy. Just a note.

No More Eternal Warrior

Bugs lost Eternal Warrior. A lot of folks bemoan this, but there are now a LOT of 2-3 wound T4 models on the board in addition to a heap of T6 monstrous creatures. What's this mean? Now, a missile launcher or lascannon can have a 50/50 shot of popping a T4 critter in cover, OR a chance at knocking a wound off a monstrous creature. Now, there are target priority issues instead of all the big guns ALWAYS going into the big ones.

Tervigon

This merits much more discussion that I'm going to give it in an overview, but the short version: it's a 6-wound monstrous creature with the ability to drop 3d6 Gaunts in a new unit each turn, and provide psychic support/Synapse. The only thing that stops them is any doubles on the 3d6 mean they're tapped out of Termagants for the remainder of the game. I'll cover this guy more in-depth later. Trust me, it's a huge influence.

Summary

Frankly, I could keep going for some time, but I'm going to stop with the critical hit wall o' text. In short, the Tyranids picked up some brand new capabilities, and got tweaks to old ones.

1) Tyranids have anti-tank and anti-infantry shooting with fair range, now.

2) Tyranids have drop pods and other reliable deep strikers, AND the ability to enhance reserves rolls.

3) Tyranids can take poison on just about everything, and furious charge. Too bad they left frags at home (AKA: get COVER against them...)

4) They lost eternal warrior. Now you have target priority issues.

5) Tervigons.

I'm going to give the various segments on the book their own special treatment later on, and pick out some units (IE: Tervigons, Mawlocs) that deserve some special treatment and explanations. It's a good day to play (or get back into) the bugs.

Monstrous Creatures versus Vehicles

2010-01-14T20:32:00.005-06:00

Most codices field monstrous creatures as a support element: Dark Eldar get the insane Talos, Eldar can field Wraithlords and the Avatar, and the chaos books field Daemon Princes.

With the Tyranids, though, there are no vehicles: there are merely monstrous creatures. As such, monstrous creatures fulfill the same role as tans. The chief advantage of the monstrous creature is that while vehicles have excellent durability from the damage chart, monstrous creatures have greater stamina in terms of doing damage.

A Matter of Wounds

I'm going to be arbitrary here, and take a hive tyrant with a pair of devourerers and a heavy venom cannon. Place it opposite a Space Marine Predator toting Heavy Bolter sponsons and an autocannon.

Aside from range, they're roughly similar in terms of guns: anti-personnel suite, and a weapon suitable for attacking lighter armor and heavier infantry. Following me so far? Have the image of a happy little hive tyrant, and our stout, chugging Predator?

Now fire a meltagun at them from within 6". Let's assume it hits, and neither of them have cover.

The Predator might:

1) be stunned, and unable to move/shoot for the next turn

2) lose a weapon

3) be immobilized

4) be destroyed

5) Explode violently, sending shrapnel and chunks of space marines into innocent bystanders

The Hive Tyrant might:

1) Lose a wound

2) Die, if that was its last wound

Capabilities, and loss thereof

Every roll on the vehicle damage chart has a 33% chance of temporarily inconveniencing a vehicle, 33% chance of degrading its capabilities permanently, and 33% chance of killing it outright. The exact numbers change depending on the AP value of the weapon.

Additionally, some vehicles may have an immunity to shaken/stunned, and while that's annoying as all get-out (...nothing like getting shaken/stunned results against Soul Grinders and Defilers, lemme tell ya) it's not that common, and even with extra armor, you can keep vehicles from shooting for a turn.

What does this mean? It means that even if you don't kill a vehicle, you can reduce its ability to participate in the fight, sometimes in a significant manner.

What use is a Land Raider Redeemer that's immobilized on turn one?

How's an immobilized Wave Serpent going flat out going to land? [Hint: not very well]

What use is a Hammerhead without its Rail Gun?

How's that Dreadnought going to do in assault without its Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon?

What's a stunned vehicle going to do when there are powerfists nearby?

How's a Leman Russ Demolisher feel when you forcibly removed its battle cannon?

Sometimes, even shaking or stunning is enough. If you shake something like a Hammerhead or a Leman Russ Demolisher, you've kept an expensive gun from contributing to the battle for a turn, and that may buy you some breathing room you desparately needed.

Stunning a tank near assault troops can sometimes be very unhealthy for a tank; S6+ attacks against the rear armor of 10 are...painful...en mass.

The Flip Side

So, just how do you lock a monstrous creature's guns down, or hold it in place? Oh, and for fun, realize that a monstrous creature can move and fire two guns, regardless of strength or class, and how this doesn't always hold true for vehicles*.

Simple.

CHAAARGE!

Sure, the Wraithlord has S10, ignores armor saves, and all that good stuff. He also has...2 attacks. So he got charged by 20 termagants that have Synapse support. So, Mr. Wraithlord, what're you doing for the rest of the game? That's right, squishing a gaunt a turn. Real productive, that. Bet you wish you were firing those heavy weapons, or wandering around flaming things, or insta-gibbing stuff like Warriors. But, you're NOT. You're playing patty-cake with largely inconsequential troops.

Also, cry if the other guy has lots of poison attacks. Your expensive T5-6 just got negated. Wraithlords HATE poison...

The downside is that a monstrous creature has two settings in melee: full blast, and d-e-a-d dead. That Trygon that's in a fistfight with you? Yeah, he's swinging all those attacks until you drop him, as opposed to, say, a Dreadnought. Mr. Dreadnought is big and bad and crushing you with S10 power weapon attacks until, y'know, someone with a powerfist breaks that dread CCW off. Then the dreadnought tends to go bye bye.

Cons of being a monstrous creature

While you're not going to lose combat capability each time you get wounded, you ARE still vulnerable to anti-tank weapons. As a slight con, melta weapons don't care about getting within half range of you, since S8 is S8 at all ranges.

Cover is harder to find, too. It's not impossible, but Vendettas are a royal pain for you.

Cover is not always enough, though. Toughness means that even small arms are a (small) threat to you. Bolters will NEVER harm a Rhino's front/side AV11; but bolters CAN wound T5-6. T5 monstrous creatures feel this keenly, which means stuff like Daemon Princes and the Harpy. 5+ to wound isn't bad if there are 6-10 shots like that, or enough melee attacks. However, T6+ ones tend to worry much less, but a 1/6 chance to wound isn't the same as 'Cannot Be Damaged'.

Even though you ignore armor saves in assault, monstrous creatures not inclined towards close combat CAN be tied up by large numbers of expendable troops. Furthermore, larger squads with a powerfist in them can kill you (...albeit, at a cost to themselves, BUT 4-6 marines are usually a decent trade for a monstrous creature).

Monstrous creatures that want to get into assault may have problems as you are slow, unless you have wings or deep strike (or deep strike WITH your wings). Deep striking into assault range also carries the issue of sitting there and bellowing 'SHOOT MEEEE' to the other army, which is something you have to work around.**

Monstrous creatures with guns tend not to have the same level of firepower as a vehicle. This is likely to balance out the fact it's harder to stop them from shooting.

Speaking of vehicles, vehicles can simply tank-shock troops off an objective. Even if they pass that morale check, the people move aside. If a monstrous creature wants to pull that trick off, you're hoping for an assault that leaves you within 3" of the objective to contest (or just, y'know, killing the guys...). Furthermore, monstrous creatures are technically vulnerable to tank shock. You get one attack against the front armor, and if you're one of the lower-strength monstrous creatures, the odds get a little long against toughter targets. Plus, you have to STOP the thing, so even if you penetrate, it's a 50/50 shot that you'll stop/kill the thing. Or, you just got run over, good job...

Summary

I think with Tyranids coming out, it's worth noting the differences between vehicles and monstrous creatures, since the Tyranids can and do press monstrous creatures into service as gun platforms.

1) Monstrous creatures fight at full strength until death***; vehicles can die in a single hit or lose weapons/mobility temporarily or permanently

2) Monstrous creatures can always move and shoot two guns; moving vehicles can limit their available firepower

3) Monstrous creatures are generally slower than vehicles, but see item 2 for the compensation.

4) Monstrous creatures can be locked in assault, for better or worse.

I think that wraps it up for the major ones. I think the MCs have more combat stamina because they're based on wounds, though this can be a double-edged sword.

*Mr. Predator is sad. When he drives, he can fire ONE gun, while the tyrant can stomp around all day firing every gun it holds. Mr. Predator thinks that makes the Tyrant intolerably arrogant. So, the Tyrant kicked the predator over.

**I'd suggest giving them lots of scary targets and asking if they can kill them all.

***Which may be Instant Death, in some cases. OR poison.

Minor Tweakage, and What's Coming

2010-01-13T21:44:00.003-06:00

I want to thank my readers for the input. I've tweaked the font colors and layout slightly.

Now, I'm keeping the layout simple; I've just switched to a whiter font to up the contrast between text and background. I prefer simple because it makes it easier to navigate the page; it's just less distracting to the eye.

As for the articles themselves, I'm going to aim to keep the content fresh. I think a little intro isn't a bad thing; I could probably do a little better to write an intro paragraph on some of the articles.

Pictures, too, can be good. I'm going to try to get more batreps with actual pictures. I try to spruce up most articles with at least a little bit of picture love, just to keep it from being the wall of text to the face. I'll make sure most of them get at least a small picture up front, since I do think it makes it more pleasing to the eye.

Content-wise, I'm mostly pleased; I'll keep with the logic of my list-building and with the unit analysis. I'm personally trying to work up to an army-level understanding of things; I'm not 100% confident with slapping a whole list together but I'm pretty confident in my ability to figure out good uses for a unit. I think, though, this is one of the things keeping me from being an upper-tier general. (That, and the tendency to every now and then do something out of stupidity and/or inattention to detail. Whoops.) I'm also going to try to be less reactionary in general to other's posts, though I think some of that's from occasional burnout with work. Work is...somewhat stressful; I've had worse jobs but the demands go from reasonable to insane and back again with the drop of the hat. But, it's a job and a paycheck, and I'll take what I can get.

What's Up Ahead
I'm going to get a round or two in against new Tyranids come this weekend.

I'm also going to lay hands on the Tyranid 'dex this week, so you'll get some impressions on that.

Last question: should I get a spite for the dice gods e-mail? I think I'm probably going to cave and do it, just because it'll give me some fuel for writing.

Oh, and a 5k brawl with Boc at some point. I WILL EAT YOUR SPACE ELVES! Albeit, with a combined force of stuff.

In Review

2010-01-07T22:12:00.002-06:00

In review? This time, it's this blog.

I'm using the new year as an excuse to ask you, the reader, what you come to this blog for, what you'd like to see more of, and what you'd like to see less of. I'm doing this in part because this blog is a hobby of mine and I'd like it to be helpful to readers. (the other part is that I've caught The Crap and it's snowing, so I've got some spare time.)

So, on that note:
Layout of the blog, good, Y/N?
Bat-reps, good, Y/N?
Unit Analysis, good, Y/N?
Larger army-type analysis, good, Y/N?
Anything I'm missing here that you'd like to see, Y/N?

I'll tell you some things I won't really get into, though.

This blog will never be a hot one for painting tips. I might show off my work (such as it is) but honestly, there are better places to go for painting advice.

I will probably not do much on modding stuff, honestly. There are better places for a how-to, but I'll show off anything that looks neat to me that I've pulled off.

Anyway, comments, questions, feedback. Please.

Foot Armies Space Wolf Brainstorming

2010-01-02T19:44:00.005-06:00

Blame this one on the beating the Black Templar took today, along with Stelek's 'Top Ten Units of 2009' post.

On the BT Front
Fact is that there's just not a ton you can do if the enemy wants to make your troops go away and they're all on foot.

This time around, the Guard player wasn't nearly as frightened of the Templars, so he blew the hell out of my troops.

Had I been really, really lucky with the dice, I might have actually won because he wasn't paying quite as much attention to the objectives. I would have had to have a Terminator get a better 'run' roll (...or not have, y'know, botched his bloody morale check...) to get within 3" of one objective, and have the game end on turn 5; that would've made it 2-1 in terms of objectives.

As it was, I had the Grey Knights, a random BT terminator, and about 9-10 guys in power armor alive at the end when I conceded.

Highlights included a Hellhound and a lone marine with a lascannon trading shots for about 3 turns. Additionally, two surviving terminators took two wounds and pulled snakeyes on the armor saves. Yay. I really needed that.

The short version of his list was:
Company Command w/ MEltas in Chimera
Allied battle sisters w/ flamers (borrowing 'toon command's Chimera)
2 melta-vet squads
toon command w/ flamers
30-man 3x autocannon + commissar platoon
2 Hellhounds (Hull meltas)
Vendetta w/ Heavy Bolters
2 Russes w/ Lascannon, Sponsons
1 Demolisher w/ HHF

I managed to do SOME damage, but not NEARLY enough, obviously.

Bottom line with Foot Armies?
Mech up. If you don't have a crap-ton of guns (...IE: Tau, IG potentially) or speed (SW Cav Lists) or have a heap of monstrous creatures and/or speed (IE: up-and-coming Tyranids) then you're just not gonna do that well against a decently-run, decently-built mech-heavy force. (Or Tyranids, probably.) I consider myself a decent player (...I just sound smarter on the internets because I wrote way too many papers in college) but I'm just not seeing a real decent way to make this list work against nastier opponents. I might've been able to win that Chaos match from last time with better target priority, but against a lotta tanks + a lotta guns, it's uphill.

On to Space Wolves
So, another brainstorm. This brought to you in part by the Stelek post mentioned previously, and in part to me realizing that I'd be able to pull this together without a lot of money spent (...just need to get a few Dreads and a few tanks and some bits). Basically, the goal is "I Go First. You Get Hurt." To that end...

HQ
Bjorn the Fell-Handed [270]
-Assault Cannon

Inquistor Lord [82]
-Bolt Pistol, CCW
-Hood
-Emperor's Tarot
Retinue:
3x Heavy Bolter Servitors [87]
2x Mystics

Elites
Dreadnought w/ TL Autocannons [125]

Dreadnought w/ TL Autocannons [125]

Troops
5 Grey Hunters w/ Flamer [80]
Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasma Gun [75]

5 Grey Hunters w/ Flamer [80]
Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasma Gun [75]

5 Grey Hunters w/ Flamer [80]
Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasma Gun [75]

5 Grey Hunters w/ Flamer [80]
Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasma Gun [75]

Fast Attack
4 Thunderwolf Cavalary w/ Thunder Hammer [230]

4 Thunderwolf Cavalary w/ Thunder Hammer [230]

4 Thunderwolf Cavalary w/ Thunder Hammer [230]

Total: 1999/2000

Now, I could theoretically turn the Inquisitor into a Multi-melta bunker in a Rhino; I'd need to find at least 20-30 points to upgrade the bolters to multi-meltas, and then get them a Rhino (50 points from the DH 'dex, 35 from the Wolf 'dex)

Logic behind the choices
Bjorn + Inquisitor means I'll usually have a +1 to my roll for first turn, AND a re-roll. From there, I need to take as large an advantage as I can with that, so it's a mix of guns and/or cavalry.

My best choice for firepower/durable scoring units is (I feel, anyway) 5 Grey Hunters with a flamer in the shooty-back. They can torch smaller squads and potentially beat them down in melee. Also, since I'm running 5-man squads with my Templar, I can just give a guy a flamer and they're suddenly interchangeable (...and I'll have to change out a plasma gunner, but what the hell, right? That's 4-5 guys, or a couple of those small unit boxes).

Bjorn gets an assault cannon because I'm too cheap to give the boggart a lascannon; he's ALREADY 270 freaking points. He can amble up behind the Thunderwolves.

The rifleman dreads are in there for four reasons:
1) They'd be hella fun to convert
2-4) dakka, dakka, and dakka

They can help me work over lighter armor and put a hurt on things at range. Now, in fairness, that's 250 points of shooting. Given the slots, I could get some other stuff for that price; I could probably shave some points and fit in three dakka-preds. However, the Dreadnoughts can move and shoot, and while they don't throw out as many shots as the Predators, the Dreadnoughts can threaten armor with all their shots, and are more accurate with it. Plus, they can scrabble onto rooftops if needs be. I'd probably look into Typhoon speeders if, y'know, I wasn't planning on running Thunderwolves.

As I have thunderwulf cav, I am not quite so worried about killing infantry, so yeah.

Thoughts on that?

Other brainstorm: if I were going to try to run footslogging Terminators, here's what I'd probably really roll with:

Space marine codex
Shrike, Null Zone Librarian, ~10 TH/SS terminators infiltrated.
2-3 Tacticals in Rhinos with multi-melta/flamer.

Fire support to taste.

The draft (that I'll probably never field) looks something like:
Shrike [195]
Libby w/ Termie Armor, Storm Shield Null Zone, Might of the Ancients [140]
9 TH/SS Termies [360]
2 Rifleman Dreads [2*125 = 250]
3 MM/Flamer Rhino-Tacs [3*205 = 615]
1 Las-plas razorback + squad [165]
3 Dakka Preds [3*85 = 255]
Total: 1980/2000

I could drop the Rifleman Dreads for 3 HB/Typhoon landspeeders, which would trade some firepower/durability for mobility and the ability to hide and/or get off some shots.

The basic idea would be to infiltrate the terminators with Shrike, then rush the tacticals forward to melta-bunker and support them. The rest of the army sits back, makes loud noises, and ideally targets transports so the fleet terminators use hammers to introduce forehads to brain pans.

The Librarian either Null Zones enemy CC specialists with invulnerable saves, or activates Might and swings at S6 with 2d6 for armor penetration. Any of the shooting powers would invariably work to keep me out of assault, and with the Might he's at least vaguely comparable to a Gray Knight Terminator.

Shrike hangs out and plays cutty cutty stabby stabby with the rending lightning claws, or splits off to go eat a smaller squad on his own. Depends on what I need done. He also makes sure the Librarian's hood will actually be in range (or close to it) from the get-go.

And that's your wall of text to the face for the day.

Forays into Footslogging: No Forgiveness

2009-12-30T01:01:00.003-06:00

The picture should give you an idea of how the second march of the Green Knights went. The answer is 'not very well.'

Talking about it after the action, my opponent mentioned that playing a footslogging army can be a huge learning experience in terms of planning, and an appreciation for what mobility gives you.

I think he's right.

Background

My army? The Black Templar Termy Army + GKT friends.

He rolled with Chaos that looked like:

Winged Nurgle DP

Nurgle Lord w/ Daemon Weapon

2 Dreadnoughts w/ Missile Launchers

Plague Marine squad w/ fist champ, 2x plasma in Rhino

2 CSM squads w/ Chaos Glory, fist, 2x flamers in Rhinos

small squad of summoned lesser daemons.

Defiler

3x Oblits

Scenario: 4 objectives, Pitched Battle

Things Fall Apart

So, he let me go first. This is not generosity on his part.

This is him letting me spread myself out, while he can then concentrate his forces. I have to basically take half my DZ to give guys cover, and then place the Terminators across the front. It's a matter of cover, since there are a crap-ton of plasma weapons and a battle cannon out there. I am not surprised when a Defiler gets crammed into a corner, and his Rhinos go across from my objectives.

Target Priority, what?

My gut tells me that I hate Obliterators, so instead of shooting at his Rhinos, I drop a full squad of Oblits s he is unable to make a cover save against lascannons. My Grey Knights pop the Plague Marine/Lord rhino.

This is, honestly, where the game goes way downhill for me. On the bright side, he's down three oblits, and his plague marines are walking.

On the other hand? ALL his marines should be walking, or at least another squad should be. A couple turns later, I've shot down the plague marine squad, but his lord, two CSM squads, and the Daemon Prince are in my lines. It goes downhill from here.

By 'downhill' I mean that after five turns, the remains are:

Him:

1 beat-up CSM squad in a rhino on one of my objectives.

1 squad of Oblits

Defiler

Lesser Daemons on an objective in his DZ

1 Rhino minus its pintle combi-blter

Me:

Brother-Captain

Castellan w/ some of his squad

one Elite terminator squad

one initiatate (one GUY, not one squad)

The Lessons here...

As we can see, his target priority was killing my troops. Between my error in target priority and his exploitation of them, well, that was pretty much game. I did not take away his mobility advantage, and that cost me. Instead of having another couple turns to shoot at his troops (and maybe nuke a second squad) I ended up having to try to crack the transports, and then deal with his troops. Better target priority would probably have let me KO another rhino or two, then feed the Oblits lascannon death while hitting his troops with small arms fire.

Deployment is Bloody Important

In terms of movement, well, obviously I have to kind of figure out where I want my guys to go pretty much from the time I set them on the table. On the other hand, it's hard to NOT cluster up in deployment. This is painful because it'll let the enemy multi-assault, and/or abuse you with blast weapons. I'm not sure I have an answer to this, especially if there's a Battle Cannon or three in the other side's back field. On the other hand, spreading out too much means I'm not going to reinforce my line, and I'm subject to having a flank targeted and consumed.

I'm much more used to being on the other side of this kind of tactic. It hurts, I'll tell you that much from being on the recieving end. It hurts because it works; you take that much longer to respond to any development that requires repositioning forces. On the other hand, I think this is a huge lesson to pick up from this army.

Holy Stupidity and Assault

Holy Rage is really cool until someone WANTS to be in assault with you. Then, they'll abuse it. That also cost me some shooting, as my guys got indignant when shot at, then rushed into assault range, and...yeah. Another turn of shooting, lost. Holy Rage is neat against shooty armies, but painful against someone who is trying to draw you in.

And when you get down to it, a 10-man squad is a decent enough match for terminators, for the most part. If they can get the charge off, they might drop one with shooting, might drop another with assault at initiative, then it's down to three, and they might manage to make a trade of it after another phase.

Speed Kills

It also hurts when, y'know, they have higher-initative power weapons. Nurgle daemon weapons are basically +d6 attack lightning claws, and can also butcher monstrous creatures. So, of course, the Lord rolled a '6' when he got into assault, and wiped the squad. The Emperor's champion managed to shank him back (two failed saves combined with a wound from the shooting), and then he got drug down by the squad. Similarly, 5+ invulnerable saves will not actually protect Grey Knights from a Daemon Prince.

Forgiveness

Simply put, a foot-based list does not offer a lot in the way of forgiveness. You do it right and kill the enemy's mobility really quick, or, he schools you hard. With this army, there's also the risk that the enemy will pop troop units, which means you're stuck trading lascannon fire for movement. Given Holy Stupidity, you might be moving them back into cover/on objectives anyway. That aside, this list is an interesting one, just with some idiosyncracies I'm not used to. Maybe it was not the army to take to the table after a month-long game, yes? Oh well.

Obligatory Tyranid Comment

I am really not looking forward to what a Mawloc or two would do to this army. I think the answer is 'wreck it hardcore.'

Highlights

And, of course, I choose to laugh at the funny stuff and learn from mistakes, rather than cry over the pretty comprehensive beating I got. The highlights include:

-the Brother-Captain managed to put the killing wound into the Daemon Prince, avenging his squad

-the Emperor's Champion managed to get two hits and two wounds into the Chaos Lord, who promptly failed both saves

-the surviving Obliterator squad kicked out a lot of plasma cannon fire, only to see a '1' half the time, and scatter off target later on. Unsurprisingly, they switched to lascannons by the end for anti-personnel work

-One Dread fire-frenzied into the back of a Rhino, immobilizing it. It later repaired itself, though.

-Another dread charged into the squad consisting of the Castellan, 2 powerfist termies, and the brother captain. He missed all four attacks, and promptly lost his CCW. We played this out all the way, and by the end of the game he missed a total of EIGHT attacks, and ended up immobilized and weapon-destroyed.

-the Defiler survived 24 assault cannon shots (insult to injury: no damage results were worse than shaken/stunned) though had found cover.

Army lists: One Solid, or Several? Or, why I'm (probably) getting a Tyranid Army

2009-12-23T21:49:00.002-06:00

Honestly, there is only so far that theory-hammer will get you. You know that things like redundancy and mobility are important. You can do some math-hammer in your head. However, you need to play games in order to really see concepts in action, to see them succeed or fail.

Playing the game of course involves an army list. And here lies my point: are you one of the folks that aims to have a single army list, or do you switch among several?

The Single Army List
Technically, I have a couple of 'single' armies right now. My Tau army is a Stelek army. My Black Templar are an adaptation of a Stelek army (Credit where Credit is due). The BT are also build so because I had a bunch of Termies laying around from Deathwing days, but no urge to play with the DA codex.

The goal of the single army list is, well, to get one generalized all-comers-capable list. The Tau are prone to this because the codex doesn't have a lot of options. The Black Templar are this way for me because I have no great urge to re-start a marine army.

The basic pro of the single army list for a codex is that you stop worrying about building the army and can focus solely on using your army. I've played a decent number of games with them, and most of the time after the game I'm asking myself 'How could I have used my units better' instead of 'how could I change my army build?'

In a sense, this is the major benefit of the single army list. Once you have decided on the list, you are free from worrying about changes to the list. It is a way to cut down the brainpower associated with the after-action analysis. It also increases the benefits of practice: you will gain a better idea of what each unit can do on its own and in the context of the army list as a whole.

Economically speaking, the benefit of a single army list is that you have fewer models to buy. You buy everything, paint it, acquire foam trays (or whatever your storage/transportation solution is) and you are done with the economics and logistics consideration.

Multiple Lists or the Evolving List
This approach involves changing up your list. In a sense, everyone will start here at one time or another unless you pull a solid-looking list off the 'net. You'll start with the basics, expand to a full range of models, and experiment with your list. You'll change based on your fancy.

The bright side? You start to get an appreciation for the various units of the codex. You can learn and adapt. You can take a fresh list, and take a break from another list you run. This is what I'd done with my Eldar before I started scrapping builds bit by bit, and settled on a small core (or, more accurately, got fed up with the lack of options). This allows you to own a lot of the cool stuff in the codex, even if you couldn't conceivably use it all the time.

You'll probably have a core you start from; at the minimum it'll be a couple troops units. You might change up the supporting elements, increase the number of troops choices and change, or whatnot. It's kind of an organic expansion; you decide this will be neat so you proxy it, run it, decide it works, and buy it. Once you have enough stuff, you can change your list from week to week.

Economically speaking, you're always going to have some surplus units. Why? Because your unit stock rotates. One game you might use a unit, another game it might sit out. Some stuff might get used all the time; this is usually a couple of troops units and HQs.

Some chassis might be useful all the time, but in different configurations. Marines are the prime example for configurable chassis; the Rhino body covers so many designs. I mean, with magnets you can make a Rhino chassis double as a Predator, or you can simply replace the top to make it pull double-duty as a Razorback. Similarly, a Land Speeder can drastically change roles from, say, a multi-melta/heavy flamer suicide job to a heavy bolter/typhoon fire support model.

Sometimes, it's just a squad with slightly different loadouts. You'll always want some bolter marines, but sometimes you want to switch special and/or heavy weapons, or the sergeant's kit. In this case, you'll have some spare models on a squad level, but you'll generally get a lot of use out of the basic grunt with the standard weapon. (Hey, you'll always need some bolter marines...)

Pros and Cons
Pros
The Single List
-Less effort involved in post-mortems; only ask 'how could I have done better?' instead of potentially getting distracted with 'what could I bring?' Analysis is simplified, basically.
-Easier to pack/carry
-fewer models to buy
-Easier to gain experience with a specific set of units/armies/scenarios; mastery of the list comes faster.

The Evolving List/Multiple lists
-Better idea of what any given unit of your codex can do.
-Opponents always on their toes if they're not sure what you bring
-Variety is its own reward; you can avoid being stuck in a rut

Cons
The Single List
-entirely possible to get 'stuck in a rut'; sometimes you just want a break from The List
-opponents may start getting an idea how a well-tuned version of your list works; this con's magnitude depends on whether or not they start gunning for you, as it were.

The evolving list/multiple lists
-Harder to analyze/attain mastery of the lists; you may be asking yourself 'how could I make a better list' in addition to 'how do I use my assets better?'
-More money/time involved in modeling; and you will always have some excess.
-More special rules to remember, especially if your different lists are across codices

Overall
This is one of those 'different strokes for different folks' kind of deals; I don't think there's a right answer. However, I'm more a fan of the multiple-list approach. The BT and Tau are pretty much static for me. However, between the two of them, I can radically switch the type of army I have from pure shooty to semi-shooty/punch, from hybrid to foot.

Why is this a good thing, if it makes it harder to master a specific list?

The answer is that it lets me take a break from the list. The more you play the same list, the more you adopt the mindset involved. In a sense, this is useful; you start remembering the idiosyncracies of units (IE: Eldar psychic buffs at the beginning of the turn, weapon capabilities for the Tau, all those special rules for Marines...) and making use of them.

On the other hand, it can potentially give you blinders: you start looking at everything from one POV. If you expand your point of view and know the mindset of your own army AND the army across the board from you, then you have an advantage. Knowledge is a source of power, after all.

Then, your real question is whether you want multiple lists out of multiple codices, or you want to get several lists out of one codex. Personally, I think that multiple lists out of one codex is a solid idea: if most/all of the units out of a codex are useful, then people will buy them, collect them, and get attached to the army (and thus the game). That's more of a personal opinion, though; I don't have any research to back that up.

*Any incoherency in this article may be due to the fact that I had a drink or two while blogging to celebrate A) being off for the holidays for a bit, and B) having officially picked up my MBA. HUZZAH! also, C), I have the Guinness and Irish Creme necessary for Irish Car Bombs.

Avatar

2009-12-21T22:31:00.004-06:00

No, not the Bloody-Handed god, but the movie. I'll relate it to 40k, though, by the end. Just watch.

The Movie
In short, go see it.

Now, I will tell you that you have heard this kind of story before. Have you seen The Last Samurai? Catch Dances with Wolves, if you're not really in my generation? Read something like 'Things Fall Apart' in any of your English lit classes? Then you have an acquaintance with the story. The suspense probably won't keep you on the edge of your seat.

No, it's the visual effects that you're paying to see. Frankly, I forgot that I was watching a CG-heavy film pretty much off the bat. All of the creatures move realistically.

The attention to detail in the critters is pretty astounding. Other than having a thing for six legs and long-limbed aliens (...which, in fairness, you can chalk up to a lower-gravity world), it pretty much looks like a jungle. Hell, all the stuff in the jungle looks like it belongs. There's a nod towards creating a fully believable ecosystem, for example. A lot of films just don't seem to have that kind of detail in them. I mean, I like aliens. It's part of what got me into 40k: neat aliens. (Mmm, here come the Tyran- wait, I was on another subject...). Moreover, I like believable aliens. The ecosystem of Pandora reads right.

And, well, frankly, I always wanted a pet dragon-thing, but I was always afraid to ask. Plus, I'm pretty sure feeding and cleaning up after it would be a pain. Still, if you think bird crap is bad, think about training your pet to dive-bomb a rival's vehicle.

The military hardware is also pretty sweet-looking and well done. The mechs (they're not powered armor because you sit in them...) are a believable size. They're integrated in the forces believably. Hell, given the terrain, you'd not even want to THINK about wheeled or tracked vehicles. The control system is similarly intuitive: screw the joysticks, you pretty much have gloves with some braces and wires attached for the arm controls, and presumably pedals. That way, you can take someone with some infantry know-how, train them on the controls, and then just get them to realize that they're a 15-20ft tall infantryman with a redefined version of 'handheld' weapons. All the VTOLs are neat as well.

Amazingly, Sigourney Weaver is in this one without trying to kill the aliens. Then again, the aliens aren't trying to use her body as a yolk sack for their young.

And Now, That Promised 40k Tie-in
Hey, you've all heard of Death Worlds, right? Right. Well, Pandora IS one. The atmosphere can kill you in a few minutes. Gas masks are standard issue. That also makes the atmosphere the slowest killer on the planet. The native humanoid species favors a hunting bow, and if putting a meter-long stick through your heart/lungs/other important bits isn't enough, the neurotoxin on it takes you out within a minute.

And, well, the wildlife? The protagonist's first outing on the planet kind of sums it up. He's approached by a large, six-legged hammer-headed armored rhino the size of an elephant. Mind you, he's in his Avatar body, which is about 9-10 feet tall and wielding a machine gun like mere mortals wield an assault rifle.

"So, what do I do, shoot it?"
"No, no, it's territorial! Just stand your ground! And, your gun isn't big enough to hurt it."
Jake yells and makes threatening gestures. Creature runs away.

Creature runs away because there is a 12-foot-tall-at-the-shoulder six-legged armored panther thing walking up behind Jake.

Doctor's pro tip: "No, no, this is the one you run from!"

Everything else is just hungry and/or generally inimical to human life.

On the movie technology front, if they can pull off this kind of feat, then they can bring Tyranids, Necrons, or anything else in the 40K universe to life. This, of course, assumes they have the budget involved. I believe motion capture is a bonus as well.

Overall
I enjoyed the movie. Definitely see it in 3D in the theaters if you're going to see it. The story isn't bad. The story is enjoyable, but not original. Then again, a movie sells an experience, and more movies these days are about a neat experience than they are about a heady, in-depth plot. I mean, you can do that with movies, but I honestly think books are better at giving us depth, breadth, and all that stuff.*

Go see the movie for the eye candy and the thrill. Oh, it's also about two and a half hours, but you won't notice the time unless you had a hefty drink prior to entering the theater. You won't want to leave once it spools up.

*I know there are exceptions to this, but good books like the actual Starship Troopers novel, anything Dune, anything Asimov wrote...some stuff just isn't going to make the trip from several hundred pages of novel to a couple hundred pages and ~2 hours of screen time.

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I still read. On the other hand, I think that a good TV series can pull it off, but we're talking something like 12-20 or more hours of storytelling.

Eldar: Back In The Box

2009-12-15T22:35:00.003-06:00

After some thought, my Eldar are probably going to take a break. They've been fun, but I'm starting to feel their age, and I'd initially gotten them because I could get several builds out of the codex. However, I don't much feel that's the case any more.

Maybe I just need a break from them, but I think I may be setting them down until I see a new codex for them.

Options (and lack thereof) in Builds
Frankly, I feel like the only real way to run Eldar is either fully or partially mechanized. If we're partially mechanized, then it's because we have Rangers, Guardian Jetbikes, or a Seer Council.

Once you get to that, well...it's all into the 'vagaries' of the mech build. Which brings me to the 'glut' of 'quality' options I feel that the Eldar have.

Eldar 'Choices' in the Force Org Chart
HQ
The Autarch? No, not really. While he's got okish saves, and a neat reserves ability, he just doesn't DO a lot on the field. He usually ends up being a high BS meltagun and a power weapon, if I bother to bring him and not something like, oh, a Vyper.

Phoenix Lords? Crap, for 200 points in a pure fighting HQ, I want to be able to eat a squad in a turn. These guys? They can't, and they don't have a real impact on the build. Sure, some of them are cool (IE: Maugan freakin' Ra), but for 190-200 points? They just don't DO much.

That really leaves me with a Farseer, a Farseer on a bike, or Eldrad. If it's a Farseer on a bike, I've committed to either a Seer Council or a Guardian Jetbike Score-Squad.

The Seer Council is a SWEET wrecking ball...unless the other guy brought psychic defenses. Then, well, you have a 600pt squad that is about as durable as space marines in cover. On the other hand, he has about a turn to hurt them before they get in his face and start killing things, so it's a gamble. While I had fun modelling and painting them, playing them gets dicier as people start learning to take psychic defenses, and soon it becomes 1/3 my army in one basket, which means if they fold without doing a lot of damage, I am in trouble. If they don't, I'm in good shape to start cleaning up.

Elites
So, we have two Fire Dragons in Wave Serpents. Really. It's pretty much mandatory if I want to actually KILL armor/monstrous creatures reliably. Sometimes they get a sixth guy, the Exarch w/ heavy flamer. Sometimes they're just five fellas with meltaguns. On the one hand, honestly, they're among the nastiest anti-tank troopers out there. On the other hand? Um. They're one use. I don't care who you're playing; unless you get lucky with placement the enemy WILL nuke them (or their ride, if not both) next turn. They're not suicide troops so much as major target priorities.

Other than that, we have...let's see, Scorps and Banshees, which both have issues launching assaults out of Wave Serpents. Then there's Harlequins, which aren't bad, but have issues with being shot at (...should the enemy get lucky and see you before you assault him, well, you have 5+ saves to keep you safe, and those will surely work...)

Troops
So, we have Dire Avengers, suicidal Storm Guardians, camping Rangers, Wraithguard, and Jetbikes.

Dire Avengers just don't do enough damage. Even with Bladestorm and Doom, you just won't drop a ton of targets if they have cover, and/or go to ground, or are Marines. Usually, the only time mine hit the board is if their Falcon pops.

Storm Guardians are spiffy with flamers, but...gee, T3 and a 5+ save will do what for you? Get you killed because you fell out of the back of a Wave Serpent? Yeah. It will do that for you, but you'll at least KO infantry in cover, which is something the eldar need help with every now and then.

Guardian Jetbikes usually mean a Farseer riding with them, and while not bad, they don't do a lot other than fire shuriken cannons at 24". Every now and then, they might torrent an enemy infantyr unit that gets close. I might also be a little jaded about that one time I had one move into cover, lose enough guys to take a morale check, and run off the board on turn one.

Fast Attack
...I run Vypers every now and then, poitns permitting? They are not bad, but still, I can't help but think of the days of Space Marines, when I dropped 70 points for an MM/HF speeder, or 90 for a HB/Typhoon speeder, and it was good. The Vyper is reasonably versatile as well, but still feels like a pale shadow of the Land Speeder.

Shining Spears, Swooping Hawks, and Warp Spiders don't really draw the attention, though Warp Spiders did at least work for me a bit here and there. Still, the AP- was a huge turnoff for versatility.

Heavy Support
I tried Wraithlords/Wraithguard. Too slow, and there's only so much durability will do for you. If the other guy can sucker punch you, well, it hurts. Additionally, there's only so much that shooting will do for you, and Wraithlords take too long to get into melee.

War Walkers are neat, but S6 only gets you so much. Additionally, they're bloody expensive; $90 a squad before tax.

That pretty much leaves me with Falcons (Scatter Laser + Shuriken Cannon + Holofield) holding Dire Avengers and a Farseer in the back and a Fire Prism w/ Shurikannon. It's a decent firebase, but doesn't make for a ton of variety.

Wrapup
I just feel like there's not a lot I can do with the Eldar. And, the thing is? I got into them thinking that I could do several builds with them, and purchased accordingly. Well, now I've gotten rid of the Wraithguard, the Wraithlords, and have it pared down to what I use.

I'm running 5-6 grav tanks, I'm running ~10 Dire Avengers, I'm running a Farseer, I'm running two Fire Dragon squads in Wave Serpents...and that's kind of the start of Mech Eldar. There just ISN'T that much that I can do with the codex, I feel. And, the thing is, my ranged firepower is only so-so. With a pristine army on turn one, I can crank out:
3 TL Bright Lances
2 TL Pulse Lasers
Prism shot
2 Scatter Lasers, sometimes.

That just isn't a lot of lead. It doesn't always do the trick.

I don't know. Had I gotten into Eldar with the knowledge that I'd be playing Mech Eldar and Mech Eldar alone, I think it might have been a different story. I don't necessarily want to be 'Mr. Bandwagon', but on the other hand, the new codices DO have some draw in terms of the number of builds they put out. I've enjoyed the modeling project that is my BT army. The Tau are fun, but I was never under the illusion that they'd have another real build I was into before a new codex came out.

Maybe if the new 'nids look cool, I will return to the bugs. If not, maybe space pups. Or, I might just hold tight with two armies and save my money.

/Frustration, Annoyance (Hey, it happens to all of us, yes? Yes.)

On the Siege-Wing

2009-12-13T22:23:00.002-06:00

Next post gets prompted by a comment in the post on Vindicators a few days back; a request for thoughts on 'Siegewing.'

Siege-wing is a Dark Angel build that involves filling your heavy support slots with Vindicators, and takes Deathwing Terminators as troops. Since this is a fairly specific list request, I'm going to go through a step-by-step process as I 'build' it out, and explain the logic and use of the pieces.

The Build Process
Well, since we are DA Deathwing, we have to take Belial (130 points), and I figure you might as well give him Lightning Claws and use that high initiative to maybe gut some troops and crank out a decent number of attacks.

Then, we're taking a minimum of two Deathwing terminator squads. They start at 215, and the assault cannon is, frankly, a decent choice of weapons. Walking troops don't get to use flamers by default (...please, tell me someone that will LET you walk up and use them) and the Cyclone launcher is...eh. (If/when DA ever get updated to have the 2-shot regular missile launcher for it, you drop the assault cannon like a bad habit). Then, we grab a chainfist to at least worry heavy armor.

The Core
So, our start is:
Belial [130]
DW Termies w/ Assault Cannon, Chainfist [250]
DW Termies w/ Assault Cannon, Chainfist [250]

Total: 630

Core Expansion: Theme Set
We then promptly add three Vindicators with Dozer Blades; 130 each. Let's also add a third terminator squad, just to have a decent number of troops in there.

So, we have:

Belial [130]
DW Termies w/ Assault Cannon, Chainfist [250]
DW Termies w/ Assault Cannon, Chainfist [250]
DW Termies w/ Assault Cannon, Chainfist [250]
Vindicator w/ Dozer Blade [130]
Vindicator w/ Dozer Blade [130]
Vindicator w/ Dozer Blade [130]

Total: 1270

Fleshing Out Capabilities
We have three troops choices (that are at least fearless), and three Vindicators. The Vindies can do some lifting for vehicle-killing, but share the same range issues as our terminators. So, we'll look to Dreadnoughts to bring in some longer-ranged punch. Since we have enough high-strength attacks available in the army, we can readily get a missile launcher on the dreadnought. From there, our 'free' heavy weapon choices are:

Twin-linked autocannon
Heavy Bolter
Assault Cannon
Multi-melta

Or, a TL Lascannon for +20 points.

I'm going to back the autocannon, here. Why? Range is one of them. You want to try to stop transports and harass smaller, faster units from as far away as possible. The autocannon does this for you. The lascannon shares the range, but cannot then be used against infantry that well, and frankly you're looking to Vindicators or Chainfists to handle heavier armor.

So, I'd go for the 135 TL Autocannon/Missile Launcher Dreadnought.

Belial [130]
Dreadnought w/ TL Autocannon, Missile Launcher [135]
Dreadnought w/ TL Autocannon, Missile Launcher [135]
Dreadnought w/ TL Autocannon, Missile Launcher [135]
DW Termies w/ Assault Cannon, Chainfist [250]
DW Termies w/ Assault Cannon, Chainfist [250]
DW Termies w/ Assault Cannon, Chainfist [250]
Vindicator w/ Dozer Blade [130]
Vindicator w/ Dozer Blade [130]
Vindicator w/ Dozer Blade [130]

Total: 1675/2000

The Remainder
We have 325 points to play with. Not bad, right? Not bad. What do we have in terms of capabilities?

Light/medium long-range anti-armor (Dreadnoughts)
Fearless Shooty/semi-decent CC troops (Terminators)
BFGs on wheels (Vindicators)

Here's a brainstorm for you: a home-base scoring squad that helps give us more armor, and contributes a little long-ranged firepower:

5 Man Tactical Squad w/ Flamer [95]
Razorback w/ TL Lascannon [80]

It doesn't really move. The enemy has to spend long-range anti-tank weapons to STOP the thing, and the enemy has to worry about three AV13/11/10 guys closing, 16 terminators, and three dreadnoughts pouring on the support fire.

This puts us to 1850. We have an HQ slot open, two troops slots, and three fast attack slots.

I would propose two choices:
1) Two MM/HF speeders (75 points each; 2000 on the dot)
2) DH Inquisitor Lord w/ Hood, Emperor's Tarot, Auspex
2 Heavy Bolter Servitors
3 Mystics
[15o]

The MM/HF speeders keep it pure-ish Deathwing (at least pure Dark Angels), and give the enemy some more immediate threats. The Inquisitor Lord can help you get first turn (and that important 12" move + Smoke) and if anyone Deep Strikes, well, you have an S10, AP2 surprise for them. Technically there is fire support as well, with a couple of Heavy Bolters.

Personally, I kind of lean towards the latter.

For You Purists
If you are not a fan of the Razorback score squad, I would consider still adding more troops. In a sense, a 5-man power-armored Grey Knight psycannon squad isn't a bad score-camper at range. However, they do cost you 200 points. Hopefully the enemy has other places to look.

Otherwise, you're pretty much committing to another DW Terminator Squad (250) and leaving yourself with 75 points. I would seriously consider shaving some points to add a Grey Knight Brother-Captain with Psychic Hood (81 points). At LEAST get that psychic hood in your army. Drop a missile launcher off a Dreadnought or something. Make that fourth DW Squad a Cyclone Missile Launcher and sit it at your home objective or something.

If you are really, really pure and want to stick to the DW 'dex, then you're going with a MM/HF speeder, because that's what you have points for.

Suggested List: Siege-Wing with Inquisitorial Allies
HQ
Belial w/ Lightning Claws [130]

Inquisitor Lord w/ Psychic Hood, Emperor's Tarot, Auspex [150]
-2 Heavy Bolter Servitors
-3 Mystics

Elites
Dreadnought w/ Missle Launcher, TL Autocannon [135]

Dreadnought w/ Missle Launcher, TL Autocannon [135]

Dreadnought w/ Missle Launcher, TL Autocannon [135]

Troops
DW Terminator Squad w/ Assault Cannon, Chainfist [250]

DW Terminator Squad w/ Assault Cannon, Chainfist [250]

DW Terminator Squad w/ Assault Cannon, Chainfist [250]

5-man Tactical Squad w/ Flamer [95]
Razorback w/ TL Lascannon [80]

Heavy Support
Vindicator w/ Dozer Blade [130]

Vindicator w/ Dozer Blade [130]

Vindicator w/ Dozer Blade [130]

Total: 2000/2000

The Logic
Advance Terminators up the field BEHIND the Vindicators. Vindicators scare things, draw fire. Dreadoughts and TL Las-Back prioritize targets that can kill Vindicators/Terminators and the enemy's mobility. Vindicators prioritize heavy armor. Terminators use assault cannons on lighter armor as it permits (more fun if you can open up shooting gaps in between vindicator flanks for assault cannon shots) and punch out tanks/non-assaulty infantry.

Note that since terminators have a 2+ armor save, but only a 5+ invulnerable, you can lose terminators to more dedicated melee troops. A few guys with decent-strength power weapons at initiative can and will make hash browns out of an expensive terminator squad, so be aware of that and prioritize accordingly.

The Inquisitor's tarot helps you get first turn, and his hood helps keep psychic powers off you. If you want, you could skip the heavy bolter servitors but I am not entirely sure what you would do with the points saved. I mean, it's 50 points in an army that spends points in large chunks.

List Pros
Decent mobility/mechanization. If you go first, you push Vindicators up and run Terminators behind them. You have decent long-range power, and decent infantry. Your forward scoring troops are Fearless; your rear-echelon guys are in a vehicle. You have psychic defenses that aren't bad, either; a Ld10 hood is almost as effective as a Rune Priest's Rune Staff (but without the pesky 24" range), but not quite as nasty as Runes of Warding.

You laugh at monstrous creatures, because of powerfists and a decent amount of high-strength shooting.

You have old-school 'glance only' smoke on your vehicles.

List Cons
You're bringing Vindicators, which are nasty, BUT also a lot more frightening then they are effective. Additionally, if the Vindicators go down or have bad shots, you're in trouble, since you're relying on them to do some of the scaring.

Terminators are, as I mentioned, not the highest-end melee troops. Higher-initiative power weapons can do nasty things to your 250pt squads. Vindicators also have to be wary of accidentally scattering onto your terminators, and I feel that's a major concern with the Siege-Wing list: you can quite accidentally help out your opponent with careless deployment/shooting and just plain bad dice on the Demolisher Cannons.

Other than terminators as troops, you're still rolling with the Dark Angel codex, which does kind of hurt your options. Compare this list to the vanilla Space Marine list at the end of the Vindi Post and...yeah. You're just shorter on options.

Model count is...decent.

Ultimately, though, if Siege-Wing is what you want, I think this is a decent enough list. I'm not sure Siege-Wing is necessarily upper-tier in terms of armies, but what the hell.

Black Templar and Friends

2009-12-13T11:12:00.003-06:00

I kicked around the BT list I had a little bit, and realized there was one spot I really wanted to cover: vulnerability to psychic powers. Admittedly, there are some things out there that well and truly worry a foot army in terms of psychic powers; those tend to be things like Lash of Submission and Weaken Resolve, for example. Doubtless there are others, but those come to mind as "Oh, cool, say goodbye to that squad..." which gets kind of old when you don't have THAT MANY 250pt squads running around. (Ok, I'm sure 5 terminator squads seems like a lot, but when you get down to killing stuff, it's not.)

Here's the next idea on the list originally inspired by Stelek.

HQ
Castellan [110]
-Storm Bolter
-Power Weapon
-Terminator Armor
4 Sword Brethren Command Squad [215]
-Tank Hunters
-2x Assault Cannon

Brother-Captain [113]
-Psychic Hood
-Psycannon
-Auspex
3 Grey Knight Terminators [163]
-Psycannon

Emperor's Champion [140]
-Accept Any Challenge, No Matter The Odds

Elites
5 Sword Brethren Terminators [255]
-Tank Hunters
-2x Assault Cannon

5 Sword Brethren Terminators [255]
-Tank Hunters
-2x Assault Cannon

5 Sword Brethren Terminators [255]
-Tank Hunters
-2x Assault Cannon

Troops
5 Initiates [101]
-Lascannon
-Plasma Gun

5 Initiates [101]
-Lascannon
-Plasma Gun

5 Initiates [101]
-Lascannon
-Plasma Gun

5 Initiates [95]
-Lascannon

5 Initiates [95]
-Lascannon

Total: 1999/2000

Would that I could get a Targeter on the Brother-Captain, but I can't. The Auspex is a neat little thing for 2 points, and I had it left over. I'd initially thought about a full 5 GKT in the HQ slot, but dropping one let me pick up the second psycannon, so it didn't totally dilute the long-range firepower. The psycannons drop one shot and go to S6 for another foot of range, and while I'd like them to get more range, it's what I have for shooting options. On the other hand, the GKT are a little more durable (yay, shrouding! Lead from the rear, boys...) and bring that lovely, lovely Ld10 psychic hood. They also know what I4 actually is, other than 'when they hit you'.

That aside, 18 of the 19 spare points got sunk into plasma guns. Why? Because it's either another special weapon (I could have gone flamers, I suppose, but that doesn't mix well with lascannons unless as a point-defense thing) or another power-armored body.

On the Vindicator

2009-12-08T22:07:00.005-06:00

I had a request in to offer a review of the Vindicator. I think I should probably toss up some kind of e-mail address for the blog, in case someone wants to solicit my $0.02 on something. Thoughts on this?

The Vindicator at a glance
So, on to the big box with a gun. It's a regular tank off the Rhino chassis, which means you have AV13/11/10. You have a front hull-mounted gun, which means you have a 45-degree arc from the gun barrel. This gun is a BS4, S10, AP2 Large Blast weapon.

In other words, you're going to be driving directly at the enemy and closing the range. It means you are big and scary, and a priority target. Basically, you're buying a Demolisher cannon on wheels, and driving it at the enemy.

The Demolisher Cannon
This is what you're really buying when you get a Demolisher. S10, AP2 Ordnance sounds like serious business, but is it really all that it appears to be? I mean, AP2 means troops don't get armor saves, and S10 + Ordnance means you're a serious threat to armor, right?

Versus Infantry
If you can catch infantry in the open (especially tightly-packed, like they just got out of a transport or had it explode around them) you can annihilate them with a well-placed shot. Anything short of thunder hammer/storm shield terminators or Seer Councils are going to quake in their boots, and those two durable units don't much like the reduction in their saves.

However, cover is everywhere these days. Or, at least, it should be readily available if you play with the recommend amount of terrain on the board. With a 4+ cover save available, all a Demolisher Cannon really does to infantry is inflict instant death and force marines/terminators to take cover/invulnerable saves.

Versus Vehicles/MCs
Monstrous Creatures are probably just plain out a wound when a Demolisher cannon goes their way.

Vehicles, on the other hand...S10 ordnance can penetrate the heaviest armor; 2d6/highest gets through AV14 more often than not. However, you're not AP1, so you have a 1/3 chance of hurting the vehicle, 1/3 chance of killing it, and a 1/3 chance of...not doing much at all. On the other hand, if you're firing it at a higher value target, well...it's something, at least.

The Chassis
AV13/11/10 is moderately durable, provided you're shooting at it from the front. The problem is that the Demolisher Cannon has a 24" range, so you're going to have to run into midfield to use the thing.

This range means three things for the chassis:
1) If the enemy brought melta (and they should), you're driving into its range.
2) Remember those AV11 flanks? You're going to have to watch them. The other guy (or gal) certainly will.
3) You are also going to wander close to enemy assaulters, provided they are alive.

You are also a 'normal' vehicle in terms of speed, so you will have to move 12" and pop smoke on turn one, and other turns are either a 12" move, or a 6" move + big bada-boom. Those are your two speeds. You want to consider the move moreso when the enemy might be able to assault you. AV10 on the rear means S4 troops can punch you, and frag/krak grenades are also a worry. At least get the 6" move to open up the range and force 4+ to hit rolls on assaulters.

The Vindicator's Impact on Field
As I mentioned in shooting, your gun is more effective on paper than in experience. It is decent enough for maiming up infantry (and choice targets include multi-wound stuff like Nobs, Crisis Suits, and Broadsides, for example). It can threaten any vehicle in the game. However, it still gives people cover (and in some cases, wounding basic infantry on a 2+ and forcing a cover save means you are no more spectacularly effective then, say, a multi-laser or heavy bolter against low-save troops) and it is not an AP1 weapon against vehicles.

However, the Demolisher cannon IS a big gun, and it IS versatile. You only need to fire it once and have it do something epic for the opponent to worry about it. Most people will at least percieve the Demolisher Cannon as a solid threat, and if they underestimate it, well...yeah. Beat up a Land Raider with it or otherwise maim up an expensive unit (IE: Terminators with the standard 5+ invulnerable).

Additionally, the enemy is unlikely to keep targeting the Vindicator if they knock the gun off, or if they immobilize it when it is mostly out of range. If you have a neutered Vindicator, you can still use the chassis as mobile terrain and tank-shock fodder. If you have an immobilized Vindicator, there is little you can do but keep a watch for anything that wanders into range.

Kitting out the Vindicator
For regular space marines, go ahead and pay 10pts for the Siege Shield. For Chaos Marines, take the Dozer Blade, even if you can't use it when going more than 6". Why? Your gun is short-ranged. You want to be able to take the most direct path to the enemy, and not get immobilized in terrain. Furthermore, if you get immobilized early on, you're not that useful.

All other options are secondary. A second storm bolter, hunter-killer missile, or havoc launcher (for the chaos boys) will not actually make you that much more lethal. They give you an extra gun to plink with if your Demolisher cannon goes away.

This includes Extra Armor. Since it costs 15 points (...unless you're Black Templar and it's 5) and is only used 1/6 of the time for damage results (regardless of whether it's a penetrating or glancing hit), you can safely leave it at home.

The Black Templars and the Vindicator
The good ol' BT have a few different options that help make their Vindicator more dangerous than the stock version. BT smoke launchers are the old 'may only glance' as opposed to 'I have a 4+ cover save.' Not bad. Worse, though, is the Power of the Machine Spirit. PotMS can move the vehicle 6" straight ahead and fire a single weapon at BS2, even if the vehicle is shaken or stunned.

So, the BT Vindicator costs 163, but ignores shaken/stunned results, has superior smoke launchers, and the dozer blade. You get what you pay for, but you're still in trouble if they KO your gun. On the other hand, you are in a prime position to start cranking shots out on turn 2. Move up 12" turn one, pop smoke, laugh at glances, move 6" next turn, shoot. 42" of gun range over two turns, and hard to stop.

DA/BA Vindicators have access to the old-school smoke, but not the Power of the Machine Spirit.

Thanks to Dverning for pointing this out.
The Vindicator in your army
I have two basic directives for you when building an army list with Vindicators.

1) If you want to actually shoot the Demolisher cannon, bring THREE Vindicators. The thing is a huge fire magnet because of psychology. One will get nuked out of hand. Two might get a shot off between them. Three? Now we're cooking with high explosives.

2) Since you are throwing S10 AP2 Large Pie out, don't bring assault troops. No one wants to be in front of a Demolisher cannon. Your own troops are included. Friendly fire, isn't.

Rough Sample Army Lists
Disclaimer: it's been a bit since I've built up lists for marines. These are not necessarily optimized, and are intended to get you started. Feedback on them (and indeed any part of the article) is welcome.

Space Marines
Librarian [105]
-Null Zone, other power to taste

Elites
Dreadnought w/ 2x TL Autocannon [125]
Dreadnought w/ 2x TL Autocannon [125]
Dreadnought w/ 2x TL Autocannon [125]

Troops
5 Tactical Marines; Combi-flamer on Sarge [100]
Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasma [75]

5 Tactical Marines; Combi-flamer on Sarge [100]
Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasma [75]

5 Tactical Marines; Combi-flamer on Sarge [100]
Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasma [75]

10 Tactical Marines, Flamer, Multi-melta [170]
Rhino [35]

10 Tactical Marines, Flamer, Multi-melta [170]
Rhino [35]

Fast Attack
Land Speeder w/ Typhoon Missile Launchers [90]

Land Speeder w/ Typhoon Missile Launchers [90]

Heavy Support
Vindicator w/ Siege Shield [125]
Vindicator w/ Siege Shield [125]
Vindicator w/ Siege Shield [125]

Total: 1970/2000

Rationale: Call me a little influenced by Stelek as of late, but I'm feeling a little shooty today. Vindicators lead the charge. Rhinos can bookend the charge, just to force the enemy to shoot AV13 front armor. Tacticals in the Rhinos can play cleanup or multi-melta bunker out the fire point. Dreadnoughts and Land Speeders provided a good hail of fire against infantry, monstrous creatures, and light/medium armor. The librarian rides up in one of the Razorbacks and provides psychic support. Should you meet an enemy with invulnerable saves, you feed that enemy Null Zone and as much AP2 fire as you can. You then may watch the enemy cry. (hopefully). Razorbacks serve as your backfield claiming units, and the units within can clean up infantry stragglers.

You have 30pts of spares; 35 if you drop the melta-bombs. You can pull a combi-flamer to free up 45 points, and give your Vindicators extra armor and make them that much more frightening.

Chaos Space Marines
HQ
Chaos Sorcerer w/ Mark of Slaanesh, Lash of Submission [125]
Chaos Sorcerer w/ Mark of Slaanesh, Lash of Submission [125]

Elites
4 Chaos Terminators [155]
-Chainfist/Heavy Flamer
-3 Combi-weapon

4 Chaos Terminators [155]
-Chainfist/Heavy Flamer
-3 Combi-weapon

Troops
7 Plague Marines [226]
-Powerfist on Champ
-2x Meltagun
-Personal Icon
Rhino [35]

6 Plague Marines [203]
-Powerfist on Champ
-2x Meltagun
-Personal Icon
Rhino [35]

5 Plague Marines w/ 2 Meltaguns, Personal Icon [140]
Rhino [35]

5 Plague Marines w/ 2 Meltaguns, Personal Icon [140]
Rhino [35]

10 Chaos Space Marines [215]
-Champ w/ Fist
-Flamer
-Autocannon
-Icon of Chaos Glory

Heavy Support
Vindicator [125]
Vindicator [125]
Vindicator [125]

Total: 1999/2000

This one is much rougher, since I have even less experience with the chaos marine codex. The biggest problem you'll face is that CSM get all their long-range firepower in the Heavy Support section, and you're spending it on Vindicators. The Lash Sorcerer is a natural fit for the big AP2 template of happiness; if you can pull it off you can get everyone to hug outside of cover and play the game of 'how many templates does it take to make you go away?'

Past that, we have some expendable melta, we have some transports, we have a home-base scoring squad, and we have mobile reserves in the termiantors. The combi-weapons are up for debate; melta need more careful placement whereas plasma are more tolerant of placement and have a better rate of fire. If only Dreadnoughts couldn't go crazy and pump shots into your rear, I'd try to set them up as heavy support and go for the TL autocannon + missile launcher setup. They can't, though, so I'm leery of kiling my Vindicators for you.

The other thought that strikes me for the Chaos list is dropping the babysitter squad, adding a couple PM back to the big non-sacrifical squads, and then going for a few squads of summoned daemons. Why? In the rear, they're cheap objective holders. In the front, they can be cleanup units, but again run the risk of getting Vindicator'ed. Still, it's what Chaos has.

The biggest problem becomes obvious when you compare this to the Marine codex version: the marines can still bring solid long-range firepower, whereas Chaos' heavy support section is a cut-throat competition for killyness, and about the only place in the army you can get real firepower over 24 inches.

Comments and feedback welcome. I'm like as not to edit this, since I wanted to finish it before racking out for work + exam tomorrow.