Update - Tyranid Prime

Those last weeks I've been busy with lots of things at the same time: exams, job interviews, family... and regarding the hobby, I've been working on lots of projects (all at the same time): imperial guard commissions, my eldars (I have two serpents half-finished already hehe), Space Hulk, my GD project, Blood Bowl... and of course my tyranids.

Even though I'm not pleased with the last changes made to the army, I like my bugs too much to simply put them in the shelves and forget them. I've managed to design a 1.000 point list that will require minimum additions to my current army. This will allow me to keep playing small games with them while I finish the rest of my projects and feel like working more seriously with Tyranids again.

For the list I need:

- Two Hive Guards: great minis indeed, but a real pain to assemble. I will say it again: a real PAIN. The arms and legs didn't fit well in their holes and I had to pin most of them and use loads of greenstuff (greystuff in my case, as I'm using now super sculpey). That took me lots of hours, and even a phonecall to my local GW store just for the sake of complaining. Eventually I got both properly assembled, this afternoon I'll base them and tomorrow they'll be primed.

- One Trygon: no comments on this, simply a great mini with great rules and a relatively low price. Already assembled and primed, I have to paint it - I estimate between 6-8 hours.

- One Tyranid Prime: hah, there is no specific model for this bug. I suppose that GW wants us to get creative for the moment, and although I'm not too fond of self-made conversions - strange for a tyranid player, ins't it? - I picked the glove up and started thinking...

First, I wanted a close combat oriented leader, with a main role of "character killer", so twin boneswords were an obvious choice, and I decided to complement them with a pair of scything talons (because those are cool and came for free). I also decided to give him toxin sacks to maximize the chances of causing a wound (watch out Wraithlords out there!) and nothing else, so I could use it as a dangerous and at the same time cheap model.

Once the main options of the model were chosen, came the period of innovative design. I wanted it to stand out among other warriors, but didn't know very well how to do so if it was going to share most parts (arms, legs, torso...) with them. Then I read an article on the GW webpage and I found the solution. But that meant using lots of pieces and spending a considerable amount of money, unless...

... unless I could take advantage of some models I had laying here and there, and at the same time order some bits from one of those online stores that trade with GW kits (thanks Bits & Kits UK for that), and look for something special on e-bay. So I took my old Death Leaper - got it a couple of years ago, when the model appeared for the first time, and had only primed it - and chopped its arms and head, so I could use its legs and torso (with the plus of a cool looking stinging tail). Then I ordered a couple of scything talons and a head from the Ravener kit, because they are bigger and more vicious-looking than the ones in the Warrior kit, and the head has side mandibles and those look great too. And for extra armor, I gathered a couple of armor plates and toxin sack upgrades from my own bit box (full of different biomorphs after years of collecting nids).

And then I arrived to the most delicate point of my conversion: the boneswords. I had simply no idea of how to do them, and was thinking on doing something similar to this (thanks Bigred from BOLS) when while having a look on e-bay I found a perfect solution: a bet on some old plastic Tyranid Warriors from the Space Hulk set... that I won! I simply cut the hands with boneswords and attached them to the typical deathspitter set, adding to the arm with the weapon the back piece of its counterpart to make them more balanced. And tada! The model was finished!




I'll prime it tomorrow with the Hive Guards so I'll have it ready for painting... hope I'll manage to have it ready for gaming in no more than a couple of weeks!

YouTube rocks

Too funny not to post it XD

Thoughts and planning

New year, new focus, new codex. As a dedicated tyranid player, I’ve waiting eagerly the release of the new codex for the last months. Now I have it in my hands, and I’m completely puzzled!

This is definitely not a revision of the army but a completely new and different one, that will demand a different scope and of course a change in mentality for all the hive minds all over the world. Now the carnifex is not a good bargain, but the new trygon is, as well as the zoanthrophes. Warriors change completely, the tyrant is both a close combat monster and a point sucker; and how many new units are there in the book?

Woah, this is gonna need time to analyse properly (that’s not neccesarily bad) and of course, big changes in my army list (and that is bad). I’m not sure what I’m going to do with my five ‘fexes, and I’ll need one or two trygons, and a new carrying case, and probably convert some tervigons, and...

Man, too much work for an army I had already completed (assembled and mostly painted). It’s like starting with it again! That’s not fair, not fair at all. I feel really frustrated.

Mmmmm, frustrated. I don’t like frustration. I always try to change it into a different feeling. What about... challenge? Yeah, challenge will do this time. What about creating a cool new army? That sounds really good... but to tell the truth, I don’t feel like working more with the bugs right now; I’m not excessively motivated...

What about my old (and half-forgotten) eldars? I see a unit of guardians, a vyper and some dire avengers over here... mmm... I have an idea.

Alaitoc is back.

My new Tyranid tactic

Before I start working on my entry for the local GW painting contest, I think it’s time to finally post those thoughts I’ve recently having in my mind. They all started when reading some post of my fellow bloggers, and took shape in a battle report I finished last February (soon to be published here, I promise). That was a special battle not only because my opponent was a great guy and brought with him a balanced (although hard) list, but because that was the first time I used my newly developed game tactic: the “reserve all” tactic.

Ok, I know, you’re gonna tell me “Hey, that’s not new, lots of people are using it out there with big success”, and that’s true. But on the very basis of this tactic I approach it from a different point of view. See, most of the guys who use it have fast armies mostly comprised of vehicles, skimmers, bikers and similar units; and take advantage of this tactic by a counter-deployment to their opponent’s army. They rely on confusing their opponent, and then strike first (and strike hard). They keep moving fast and concentrating their attacks in specific opponents/critical objectives, behaving like a surgeon with a scalpel. This tactic has been extensively used by guys like Fritz from Way of Saim Hann, and has proved to work well.

My approach is similar, but different. My army has no vehicles, no skimmers, and no very-fast units (I don’t use raveners or gargoyles – maybe if they become plastic…), so every model on the table moves 6” plus 1D6” if they run, and that is a VERY slow army. But, on the other hand, I field four units of 15 gaunts, a brood of shooty warriors, an ALWAYS outflanking Broodlord (outflanking is almost the best new rule of 5th Ed. for my bugs), a couple of zoanthropes and four monstrous creatures (one Tyrant and four ‘Fexes). And now guys, that is a BIG amount of models to kill (a total amount of 104 wounds, generally immune to instant death).

What do I do with this? Simple: overwhelm my opponent. It’s easy, you’ll see: I generally choose to go second, and after my opponent has deployed his units in cover, strategic places and so on, I simply declare everything to be in reserve (and the Broodlord to be outflanking). This gives me two strong points and two weak ones, explained as follows.

The first strong point is that my opponent spends his first and second turn shooting at nothing; and two turns without putting wounds on my models means that in the final and most critical turns of the battle I’ll have most of my models on the table, an amount that usually doubles that of my opponent. That’s great when you’re facing loads of gaunts and monstrous creatures, and puts a lot of pressure (and fear) on my opponent as he sees that he’s running out of time to damage severely my army, while I simply overcome his defences with a ton of bodies.

Second strong point is double: this deployment effectively allows me to counter-deploy my opponent concentrating my units where they’re most needed. This is specially useful in a spearhead deployment, when my reserves can come form ANY point of my own board edge, thus ignoring the initial limitation of deploying only on my quarter side (and having to walk a looong way to exchange “opinions” with the enemy). This deployment also gives me the first shooting turn, that meaning that I’ll strike first. Yeah, well, I play with ‘nids, and you may think that my shooting is poor. But that’s the mistake that most of my opponents make: with my full army I place every turn two S5AP3 small, two S8AP5 pinning big, four S6AP5 small, and one S4AP5 pinning big TEMPLATES (the new rules for templates are by far the best new rule of 5th Ed. for my bugs), plus some short-ranged fire (30 fleshborers and 30 spinefists and a Dakkafex). I’ve lost count of the amount of space marines I’ve killed by just spitting acid, throwing carnivorous beetles and worms, shooting toxic needles or growing strangler plants inside my enemy’s lines. And for specially recalcitrant units, the energies of the Warp Blast are like music to my ears (get a “hit” against a unit of marines in open field and you’ll know what I mean). I assure you that in my games, I almost kill more enemies in the shooting phase that in the close combat one, and that means something!

But every head has its tails, and this tactic is far from perfect. Its main weak point is the “randomlyness” inherent to reserve deployment. I mean, I’m not sure of which units or at least how many of them I’m going to have deployed each turn; these could be the units I need most at that moment or simply a bunch of good-for-nothing bugs. This is something very dangerous especially with the gaunts, who specially rely on the proximity of a synaptic creature to do their job properly. To counteract this risk I field enough synaptic creatures to hold my lines tight (my zoanthropes are also synaptic creatures, of course). I’d pay gold for a tyranid-eldar autarch, but the only unit I have that affects reserves is the lictor, and I’m not gonna field one of these for their 80 point cost just to get a re-roll for reserves each turn he’s alive, sorry. At 1.500 points I think he’s a waste of points, so I have to live with the burden of not knowing with what I’m going to play each turn; but on the other hand this adds more dramatic intensity to my games, and I appreciate that very much.

The second major disadvantage of this tactic is that, as exposed previously, my army is quite slow, and thus its performance depends heavily on the length of the game. If the game ends soon (according to statistics this means 33% of all games), I’ll have had barely time to approach my enemies and probably had chewed them less than they deserve. But if the game extends to turn six (or seven), business is done, and then it’s up to my opponent to prove if he’s a good general and can stop my army doing his job well (because my army is not unstoppable at all, you see, I’ve just prepared it as a good all-rounder list) or if he’s just one of those cheesy players I usually face (and hate despise dislike so much) who only prepares lists with the best units of his rulebook thinking in a single type of battle and doesn’t know what to do and how to use them properly if surprised by a tactic like mine (and will subsequently be assimilated by my genetically enhanced troops).

5th Ed. and this tactic have radically changed my approach to WH40K games, making of them a more interesting tactical challenge. Of course, I still retain some of that like for the random events all old WH Orc&Goblins players have (you’ll never have enough fanatics, squigs and black-orc-animosity-stoppers in your army!), and that makes much more fun out of my games (at least for me). I’ve enjoyed this new way of playing for the last moths, and just in case I had any doubt, results are there: three victories, one draw and one loss. And that loss was almost a draw, and nearly a victory; I played against a cheesy eldar army with ten wraithguard and avengers as basic units, with an Avatar and Eldrad and all that fluff, who went lucky and had the battle ended in turn five in a capture and control game… because in turn six his army would have run out of basic units (the Avatar and Eldrad were already dead), and in turn seven simply wiped out. Tails that time, heads for the next one :)

Miscellaneous

Hi again! It’s been three weeks since last time I posted on my blog. Did you think I was being idle all this time? Not at all! I have a big bunch of news to write here, but not too much time; so I’ll try to be as brief as possible, without skipping any of the things I’ve been doing lately. Hard but...

First of all, painting job. I’ve finished another brood of ten termagaunts, already varnished and ready for battle. This means another ten points for my score, yes! I’ve also started painting two tyranid warriors to complete my five-bug brood; they’ll be ready for next week (and then I’ll add another four points to my score, yes yes yes).

But that’s not all. I’ve been told that there is a painting contest in a hobby shop in my city, and I’m planning to present my squad of dire avengers. For that mean, I have to finish painting the exarch of the squad (another point) and prepare a base to show them in all their glory. I’ve been looking for a circle-shaped one, but can’t find any with the proper size, until this very afternoon I entered a carpentry which was ending business and found some great ones at half price! I’m glad with it, and now I only have to model some terrain with a bit of clay (I’m not scared about that although it’s the first time I model terrain, but any help or advice will be really welcome).


In the picture you can see the base I got, and also two things more: first, a small tool case I’m gonna use to keep the tons of bits I have scattered around my home (that I’ve also bought today – great shopping day indeed); and second, some miniatures that belong to my recently started project... an army of Gondor for the new “War of the Ring” game! I’ve to admit that I never thought of getting some of the LotR minitures, not because of their quality (some of them are quite good indeed) but for the gaming rules used, that I disliked very much. But hey, the new system uses batallions of troops. Batallions! I’m imaging a couple of hundreds of soldiers in the board fighting each other in a somehow “historical” style and... well, can’t stop drooling :) Some of my mates had already started their armies and I simply couldn’t resist... so I picked up an army that was not being used yet, and chose the Gondorians because 1.They seem really easy to paint, and 2.I’ll be able to field lots of beautiful armoured soldiers, that can be led by Gandalf or Aragorn himself! Besides, I’have access to some really special units, like the Army of the Dead, and can include some allies too (although I think I’ll favour a “pure” Gondor army). At the same time, I’ve had an idea about how to make easier their storage, and have decided to magnetize them all to their movement trays, and then I’m planning to magnetize the trays themselves so they can stick to a metal tool case I have yet to buy.


I’ve calculated that I can keep the whole army in a medium sized case. That would be great because I don’t have so much room left at this moment! I’m using some magnets I got from the internet (as opposed to the USA, it’s difficult to buy them where I live). The result is simply terrific; and I’ve started calling it “Lord of the Magnets: the Game”, hehehe.

Wow, it’s late again. I haven’t finished writing all I wanted to, and in fact I’ve left the best part of it! Well, although I’m extremely busy lately, I hope I’ll post the remaining stuff in the following days... I’ve been working on it really hard!

Emperor's Fist Campaign - First games

Well, I have already played my first two games at the “Fist of the Emperor” campaign. According to the draw, I had to play both in a shop I had visited a couple of times. Attention was excellent there, and their gaming table and scenery attached was of a very good quality. That was a nice start.

My first opponent was an old space marine player I haven’t met before. He fielded an Ultramarine army which included models of the 80’s – early 90’s, such as devastators with a shoulder-mounted heavy weapon, the old space marine captain (the one with the helmet like the new Sicarius) and, best of all, a predator of legend. All FULLY painted. It was a real pleasure to play against such a cool and balanced army, moreover when the opponent was also very friendly and easy going. And it was great to get my ass kicked by 7-4 in a spearhead annihilation mission by this army. If only half of my games were played against such a great army & opponent…


My second opponent turned out to be a bit more of a disaster. He got almost one hour late to the shop, but I admit that having forgotten your wallet at home means a bit of a mess when trying to get to the subway without money. This time we played spearhead but with the seize ground mission, four objectives in total. The game was a pain for me, having to deal with the only army I’m not ready to face: more Tyranids. In a great performance of “Brood War”, we almost annihilate each other before reaching turn five, where although I was pressing strongly his lines, he was holding 2 objectives for my only 1; then the dice decided to go for another turn, and I wiped his remaining troops from the table for a victory on my side. Hurray!

Now I got some spare time before the games to be played on February, so I’d better finish those termagaunts once and for all (still zero points in my painting score – no way!)

Last test for the Tournament

Briefing: again, another battle report of my bugs. But this time, and as promised, with pictures! They may not be the best shots I could have made, but I'm proud of the result :)

Last Saturday I enjoyed a game against one of the usual customers of my local GW store. We played a 1.500 points battle in an Imperial world, where old buildings and vegetation mixed together as the result of the effects of a Tyranid bio-invasion and its common bio-spore bombardment. The Salamander space marines took defensive positions to face the incoming alien horde…

The battlefield in all its glory. The Baneblade didn't take part in the battle (luckily)

The dice decided for a seize ground mission with four objectives, with me placing two in no-man’s land and in the open, and my opponent placing two close to a table border, one of them in cover. The pitched battle deployment gave him control of that table border (d’oh!), where he deployed his troops: sniper scouts, a venerable Dreadnought and a Thunderfire cannon in some ruins on the left flank, a Whirlwind and a tactical squad (divided in combat squads) on the right flank, and a Demolisher, Tu’Shan and five tactical marines (another combat squad) in the center; plus two Ironclads with drop pods in reserve. I went for a change in my usual tactic of dividing my army in two and avoid the central part of the board – the why of this, well, I’m not sure yet; I think the idea of having Ironclads appearing in front of me and blocking my advancing route scared me :P – and deployed in a line: twenty gaunts on each flank and ten in the center, having another ten in reserve (to fill gaps and capture objectives), shooty Warriors, the Dakkafex and a Zoanthrope on the right flank, a heavy Carnifex and another Zoanthrope on the left flank, and my Hive Tyrant and the remaining Carnifex in the center. I reserved as always my Broodlord and his small retinue to do an outflank attack.

The left flank with the gaunts, zoanthrope and heavy 'fex

Right flank with gaunts and Warriors, threatened by an Ironclad Dreadnought

Center of my deployment. Note my Tyrant hiding behind a building to avoid lascannon fire

I failed to seize initiative and the battle began, with an Ironclad pod landing on my right flank, where I just had a Dakkafex (who sucks at close combat) and a Zoanthrope to deal with it. The Thunderfire cannon killed most of the central spinegaunts in his first salvo (where did this weapon came from??) while the Whirlwind fired and missed completely (I’ve noticed that indirect fire is everything but accurate). The scouts killed a few spinegaunts on the left side. In my turn, I responded with a general advance of my troops and a very poor shooting phase, killing only three miniatures after placing five small and three big templates (not a good start, actually).

At the beginning of turn two, another drop pod landed in my left flank and another Ironclad emerged from it, burning one of the spinegaunt brood with his heavy flamer that, thanks to Tu’Shan, counted as twin-liked; leaving only one gaunt alive. The Thunderfire cannon killed some termagaunts, while, the Whirlwind missed again, and some spinegaunts of the right flank were killed by frag missile and bolter fire. Some wounds were placed on my Tyrant Guard and the Carnifex of the center by lascannon fire and Demolisher shells too. In my turn, the Broodlord appeared in the left flank and run towards the building where the scouts and the Thunderfire cannon were hiding, and my reserved termagaunts appeared in the center-right of my former battle line. I moved my Dakkafex towards the right edge of the board, trying to use it as a bait for the Ironclad, and fired to a combat squad on range, killing two marines. Both Zoanthropes in both flanks failed to hit both Ironclads (both+both+both = d’oh!!), and the rest of my shots failed to do anything. In the assault phase, the heavy ’fex on the left flank charged to the Ironclad and suffered a wound, destroying one of his close combat weapons in the process. If the start hadn’t been good, this second turn hadn’t also been too good for my army.

Turn three began as always: the three times damned Thunderfire cannon blowing up my gaunts – at this point I had lost over 60% of them, and that was a real problem because they were my only scoring units – and the Whirldwind missing again. Tu’Shan and his retinue advanced to face my Hive Tyrant in the close-and-personal way, while the venerable Dreadnought on the left flank killed a few genestealers of the Broodlord retinue with his heavy flamer first, and then charged the unit. On the other flank, the Ironclad killed a Tyranid Warrior but this was a mistake my opponent realized soon, because I removed the closest miniature to the Dreadnought and thus it wasn’t able to charge (and smash) the rest of the unit. The Whirlwind missed his shot, and another wound was put in the Carnifex on the center. During the assault phase of the left flank, my Broodlord and his genestealers destroyed the venerable Dreadnought before it could attack (at last a strike of luck!), losing one of his members when the machine exploded; and the heavy Carnifex lost another two wounds to the Ironclad before destroying it completely. Two Dreads less were good news for me, and my turn started with the Broodlord entering the building towards the Thunderfire cannon with very, very bad intentions; and the wounded heavy ‘fex advancing towards that building too, and fired towards the exposed side of the Demolisher, hitting it (S8 impact!) but being unable to penetrate its plating of 11 and failing in his task of preventing the tank from firing in the next turn. In the right flank, the Dakkafex killed another space marine; while the shooty warriors killed another three and pinned them, and the Zoanthropes were unable to hit anything (again). The assault phase had the Broodlord charging the Thunderfire cannon and tearing the Techmarine operator apart. Now this was a good turn, third time lucky I suppose :)

The Broodlord making a mess of the Salamanders' troops

Turn four had Tu’Shan charging the Hive Tyrant and the remaining Ironclad taking the bait and rushing forward the Dakkafex. The combined fire of the sniper scouts and the Demolisher finished my heavy ‘fex, and the Whirlwind missed his shot again (Mental note: if I ever have to use it, never rely on indirect fire). The rest of shots from the Salamanders were ineffective (does this word exist in English or am I making it up?). In the assault phase, the Ironclad shredded the Dakkafex (four hits, four wounds, bye bye Dakkafex), and then came the big combat between the big guys. My Tyrant attacked first due to his I6, and with his WS6 and four attacks he managed to kill… one space marine. Tu’Shan hit him three times, but failed to wound the monster; and the Tyrant Guard killed another marine. But then, the veteran sergeant of the squad put two wounds on the tyrant thanks to his power fist, and I knew he was doomed. In my fourth turn I swarmed the two objectives of my side with my remaining gaunts (28% of the initial ones) and fired my weapons to the marines to no effect. In the assault phase the Broodlord ate the sniper scouts, and the Tyrant killed two marines before being finished by Tu’Shan himself. As a response, the Tyrant guard killed the remaining veteran with power fist, but The Chapter Master of the Salamanders stood firm.

My Tyrant was not enough to defeat the Salamanders' Chapter Master. Next time I'll have my revenge...

And this was the end of the battle, because it was getting late and I had to go to my grandma’s for a family meal. I was declared winner for two objectives to one, but I would have liked to know what would have happened with one or two turns more. Probably Tu’Shan would have advanced, destroying everything in his path and contesting one of my objectives. Or maybe I would have finished the combat squad holding one of his objectives with my templates. Anyway, a great game, in which the only thing I missed was a higher amount of painted miniatures, and that has giving me the urge to paint more of my bugs. Hopefully for this Sunday’s battle (the first of the “Fist of the Emperor” campaign) I’ll have finished another unit of termagaunts I’ve been recently working into, and this will mean my first painting points of the year!

Tournament list test

Briefing: again, this is a long post which deals about playing with tyranids; no eldar stuff in here. And I've been writing for over an hour, so it can be a bit dense. Am, I forgot my camera at home, so no pictures in this post. This all can make the reading a bit dull; be warned.

Okay, I had my ‘Nid army list ready for action (I love old Duke Nukem 3D sentences sooo much…) and it was about time to play a couple of friendly games with it before the beginning of the Inter-Store Tournament. I arranged a battle versus one of the red shirts of my city, who also happens to be a really nice guy and a good friend of mine, and we met for the challenge of beating his new and quite cheesy Space Marines (SM) with my hyperactive bugs.

I’ve been using for some months some of the quick reference sheets published by the bloggers of From the Warp (thank you so much), so it has become a piece of cake (Nukem rules again!) the previously tedious task of setting objectives, deployments and that stuff. The dice decided that we were going to play a Seize Ground mission with three objectives, which were placed in no-man’s land and quite symmetrically – one close to the left border of the table, another to the right border and the last one more or less in the center of the table. Only the objective on the right border (from my point of view) was in cover, and it was the one deployed by my opponent. I deployed mine in the open because, although I don’t know why, there seems to be a psychological rule saying that if one objective is in cover, you must reach & hold it as soon as possible; whereas if the objective is in the open, it becomes much less tempting, and you’ll have time in the last turns to approach and take it. I didn’t want to see quick-deploying marines reaching the objectives in turn 1 (or 2) and entrench there, where they would be difficult to throw out; and I had also been reading some tactical thoughts about placing objectives in the open in The Way of Saim-Hann blog, so I wanted to give this tactic a try.

Once the objectives were placed, the dice decided for a Dawn of War deployment, what had me taking first turn and deploying my Hive Tyrant and his retinue in the very center of the table, with one unit of spinegaunts to the right and another to the left. While deploying I had a funny idea and deployed the gaunts in a row, so I had the imaginary line that divided the board in two halves almost completely covered with my ‘nids. This was a great tactical movement, because in Dawn of War the player who deploys second can place his units anywhere in his own half of the board but not closer than 18” to any enemy unit. My deployment effectively restricted his deployment area to a maximum of 6-7” from his own table border, thus preventing his squads from occupying the ruins he had in his half of the board because they were placed more towards the center of the table. I’ll have to write down this tactic for further battles… The SM deployed a tactical unit in a rhino close to the right border, obviously aiming at capturing the objective in cover, and a squad of scouts in a building placed really close to my table border (pesky infiltration rules); while I declared that my Broodlord was attempting a flank advance (more pesky infiltration rules).

My opponent failed to seize initiative and the battle began. All my army but the infiltrating Broodlord came from my border, and the scouts were annihilated by a fire storm of fleshborers, deathspitters and devourers (my dakkafex killing three of them), while the Hive Tyrant advanced lonely and the spinegaunts in the center of the table lurked while waiting for additional synapse control. In his turn, my friend deployed a drop pod (my first drop pod!) with a tactical squad and a Chaplain in the left side, backed by a Land Speeder Tornado, and a Land Raider Crusader with seven assault terminators (four with thunder hammers) in the center of the board. The termies disembarked and run towards the Tyrant, while a squad of devastators ran behind the Land Raider towards a good-and-in-cover fire point.

At this point, I had to change all my tactical principles. The seven-man termie squad was by far superior in hand-to-hand combat to any of my units, even my Hive Tyrant. The new storm shields rules give them a 3+ invulnerable save, so an assault with my Tyrant or my ‘fexes would result in perhaps a termie or two less and surely a big bug less in my army, something I couldn’t afford if I wanted to win. What could I do then? Well, fortunately my army has a good resource to deal with these events, and it’s my brand new “Wound Saturation Tactic”; or in more common words, “fire everything over there”. Deathspitter and barbed strangler templates, coupled by fleshborer and devourer fire would help me thinning the ranks of these super-humans. So the Tyrant withdrew shamelessly (and running!) towards my table border while most of my army fired relentlessly to the terminators. Meanwhile, a Zoanthrope took control of the left flank, and the Broodlord deployed in the right side (pity, because I wanted him in the left side in order to eat that chaplain) and finished with the SM tactical unit that had already (and predictably) occupied the objective in cover in a single close combat round (he killed five marines and his retinue another five - perfect result). I didn’t know that units who flanked could assault the very turn they entered the table, but one of the redshirts nicely pointed in the rulebook that non-assault-when-you-deploy rules are only applicable to deep striking units. Good new for my stealers, indeed; and second squad out for the SM army.

My opponent moved his troops, and while his Land Raider and terminators advanced forward, his devastators reached a good-and-in-cover firing point; and the squad of the chaplain occupied some ruins close to the objective to the left. A rain of fire was directed towards my heavy Carnifex, and after failing a big bunch of armour saves, he was dead; as it was later the zoanthrope controlling the left flank (the remaining zoanthrope moving towards there to prevent the gaunts from falling back). In return, another Carnifex charged and destroyed the Land Raider, and some terminators died to acid projectiles. With the destruction of the Land Raider, the enemy’s forces were severely damaged, leaving (literally) a big hole in the center of his battleline, but nonetheless the SM kept pushing forward.

I was taking the upper hand, but the battle was far from won. His Chaplain squad could advance at any moment and contest the left side objective, hold by the moment by my gaunts, his devastators could do the same with the central objective, and his terminators were heading towards the right side objective. Besides, he had a fast moving Land Speeder that could contest any objective. But I knew that everything he could get at that moment were contested objectives, so I had a draw assured at minimum. I went for the win, firing wildly to the terminator unit until only two members remained, and then, to my surprise, they failed their morale test and flew, unable to regroup due to the proximity of my Broodlord and his retinue!! This unexpected event, coupled with the destruction of the rhino by the tyranid warriors, left the right side objective in my hands without opposition. The Land Raider-destroyer Carnifex advanced and engaged the devastators in close combat, finishing them. The central objective was also mine! And at this point, in the 6th turn, my opponent elegantly conceded defeat because all he could do was contesting one objective (the left one) with his Chaplain squad and another with his Land Speeder while I kept one controlled. Tyranid victory!

Some thoughts after the battle: I felt really uncomfortable during most of the battle, because I’m not used to face better hand-to-hand units than mine, but luckily I was cold-blooded enough to keep exploiting the strongest points of my army and, although using my troops in a somehow odd way, managed to achieve a good result. Placing two objectives in the open was a great idea too, because my opponent didn’t dare to approach them at the beginning of the game and preferred to stay in cover, close to them; which allowed me to swarm them with my gaunts to control/contest them. My opponent didn’t play very well, he should have advanced the Land Raider at top speed and disembark the termies in front of my lines, directly assaulting them, instead of walking through the battlefield while being shot to death (although at a very low rate thanks to that incredible armour). My inability to deal with vehicles was stated again; it was a lucky roll what I got to destroy the Land Raider, but the Land Speeder was a constant pain I couldn’t shoot down; and it took me four turns to destroy a fast-moving and empty rhino in close combat – and it needed to be stunned first with a deathspitter salvo. I think I’m gonna have trouble with mechanized lists.

Inter-store tournament

After more or less one month without visiting my local GW store, I paid it a visit last Friday, with the idea of arranging a game (with my tyranids) against anyone wanting to. As I got in, a new advertisement hanging from a wall attracted my attention. It read something like “New WH40K Campaign: Fist of the Emperor”, and was an event organised by some hobby stores of the area (GW and non GW). These events are rather infrequent where I live, and it gives me the opportunity of enjoying at least twice games per month, so I knew I have been very, very lucky to know of this on time, because I had to fill in my entry on Monday the latest. The very Saturday I was back in the store, with a copy of my army list and the money for the registration.

Both this inter-store championship and my list – and the way – I play with tyranids have already been mentioned before, so I will just make a mental exercise of reminding myself what I have to do (I’m not a frequent gamer, so this reflection is more than necessary). Well, I have this terrifying beast of Hive Tyrant and his tyrant guard, who remain yet to be beaten in close combat. These will advance relentlessly towards the enemy through cover (if possible), and will be backed by a zoanthrope and some units of gaunts (about 30 gaunts), and maybe the Dakkafex too. This will give my opponent a clear objective to shoot, won’t it? Meanwhile, the warriors will take a nice firing place and spit acid death over the battlefield, and some other gaunts (about 30 again) and another zoanthrope will hold back to take objectives and that stuff. Two Carnifexes with barbed stranglers and scything talons will hold back for the first turns (if possible, in cover) firing and weakening infantry squads, and then will advance while firing to exploit the holes made by the kamikaze assault group and hopefully cause havoc in the enemy lines (this tactic worked sooo well in my last game that I want to repeat it as many times as possible). The Broodlord and his retinue will outflank the enemy, working at the same time as a bait/fire magnet that if manages to reach an objective, will probably chew it up completely.

That’s mostly all. I tried to keep it simple in general terms, but if I face an army that I know that will kick my ass if I play in this way, I’ll try to think of an alternative. My main “Plan B” is negating a possibly disastrous deployment by reserving everything, although this is a very risky tactic, useful only if I play Kill Points missions (my weakest with this army list). Anyway, the best way of improving my tactics is playing games, so I’ll try to learn something from every one of them; and hopefully in a few months I’ll be a hard challenge in the battlefield for any opposing general.

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Army List – Hive Fleet Nidhågg

HQ

- Hive Tyrant: all kind of close combat directed biomorphs, scything talons, bonesword & lash whip, Psychic Scream. Retinue of two tyrant guards
- Broodlord: feeder tendrils, toxin sacks, flesh hooks and reinforced carapace. Retinue of six genestealers

Elite

- Tyranid Warriors (5): toxin sacks, reinforced carapace and scything talons. Deathspitter (4) and barbed strangler (1)
- Carnifex: enhanced senses, twin-linked devourers (2)
- Carnifex: scything talons and barbed strangler

Core units

- Spinegaunts: three units of 10
- Termagaunts: two units of 10, one unit of 11

Heavy Support

- Carnifex: a more resilient one. Scything talons and barbed strangler
- Zoanthropes (2): Warp Blast and Synapse Creature

Total: 1.500 points, six scoring units (good!), sixteen kill points (d’oh!)

Monday night game

Briefing: this post is quite long, and deals about playing with tyranids, currently my main army; so no eldars today, sorry. Nevertheless, if you want to get some gaming tips to use with or against these bugs, you are welcome to keep reading :) And of course, if anybody has a comment or suggestion, is also very welcome to write it down.

Last Monday I went to my local GW store, where I had to play a game against one of its friendly red shirts. Where I live, games are usually played on a 2.000 point basis, but for this time we agreed on playing a 1.500 points battle. Why? Well, basically two reasons: first, I’ve lately realized that playing against 2.000 points of nids (my army) means a battle of no less than 3 hours, including deployment and that stuff. I suppose that’s normal when you have an army of around 100 miniatures; I wonder how long will it take me to play a “Green Tide” ork player… but I’m sure it will undoubtedly be very funny! The second reason is the organization of our imminent inter-store championship; where gamers of all my area will be competing for several months, each one defending one gaming store of my county; and all the battles must have a maximum of 1.500 points per side, so this was an excellent occasion to make trials with different army lists.

I always play with the same army, more or less. It is composed by the minis I’ve got with the passing of the years, from different presents such as battleforces, plastic boxes and so on; so I have to stick to those minis I have, and I can’t make big variations in my army list. That’s not a problem, because these minis are the ones I like most (gaunts, carnifexes and warriors mainly), and are mainly made of my favourite wargaming component: plastic.

So then I ran an army with a close combat Hive Tyrant with two tyranid guards (which to date have simply eaten everything that has crossed their path – including a C’tan), and an infiltrating Broodlord with a retinue of 11 genestealers. Fire support was provided by a unit of six warriors with deathspitters, two zoanthropes with warp blast and two Carnifexes with barbed stranglers. Basic units were sixty gaunts (half termagaunts, half spinegaunts) in six units of ten, whose mission was seizing objectives. My opponent played Dark Angels, and had four squads of five marines, one five-man squad of the Deathwing, a Land Raider Crusader, a Whirlwind, a Demolisher and a Venerable Dreadnought, all commanded by Belial. Mission played was “Seize Ground” with four objective markers, with the “Pitched Battle” deployment.

I won the roll for starting the game, so I deployed first. Everything was in cover (just in case he stole me the initiative and got first turn), but the broodlord, who was in reserve to outflank the enemy. My enemy did more or less the same. First couple of turns were excellent for the nids, thanks mainly to the new rules on templates, and in my very first turn I killed 7 space marines just shooting with the warriors (five small s6 templates and a big s4 one are nothing to laugh at) and the carnifexes (adding another two big s8 templates). I call that tactic “wound saturation”, ‘cause even the finest power armour of the galaxy can’t protect all your soldiers when the enemy causes more than twenty wounds to your units in a single shooting round. That tactic is now even better, due to the new rules on wounds allocation, and a couple heavy/special weapons were lost for the marines (nice!). My opponent was surprised of this firing power – he wasn’t expecting that from the nids – and we changed roles; he advancing towards my fire line whereas I was re-deploying my troops and firing at him.

The only unit of my army that advanced forward like a furious juggernaut was the Tyrant and his retinue, managing to kill a unit of marines and destroying the Dreadnought before blowing up in a cloud of ichor and dribble when the Demolisher got a direct hit on them. It was not a problem, because their work was done; they diverted most of my enemy’s firepower – and I must say that it was hilarious when he managed to get two wounds on the tyrant firing just bolters – and destroying part of the marine’s army (at the end we made some calculations, and realised that the big guy had paid his points back – wooo!!). On the other side of the board, the broodlord advanced relentlessly towards the enemy, under a rain of fire that was wiping genestealers from his retinue very, very fast.

I kept holding back and firing my enemy until turn 4, when I advanced to claim the objectives. The already punished units of marines were not rival for my carnifexes (which also had scything talons – who said multipurpose ‘fexes don’t work?), and they wiped out two combat squads and the Land Raider. The Broodlord survived a specially intense turn of fire, in which the Crusader fired everything it had to him and the last member of his retinue, and again thanks to the new wound allocation rule it caused him four bolter wounds he saved with his reinforced chitin (3+ armour save), while the genestealer died from two wounds of assault cannon, two of bolter fire and one of multimelta. Then, he chewed up a combat squad of marines and the whirlwind. Nasty beast :)

On the other hand, the Deathwing squad advanced towards one of the objectives no matter the rain of fire falling on them. Albeit I left the unit very, very weakened – leaving just a lightning claws terminator and Belial himself – this couple managed to open a bloody path through three units of gaunts (killing one every turn) and a zoanthrope, and there they stood claiming an objective (Belial’s special rule allows him to pick terminators as core units, being able then to hold objectives)… until the warriors shot them and killed the last termie of the unit.

After seven turns, my opponent only had the Demolisher and a wounded Belial remaining, while I was controlling two objectives. Great victory for my bugs!

As a conclusion of the battle, I must admit that the few games I had played before under the new 5th ed. Rules had served me well in tactical terms; thanks to what I’ve learned from them I knew well how to time my movements, and for the first time in years I had a real tactical plan with my army, instead of just deploying and advancing wildly towards the enemy. New template rules are terrific with some troops, and the tyranid warriors were claimed “unit of the game”, killing in total 10 space marines and the last scoring termie (the one mentioned above), and even wounding Belial himself, just with shoots and more shoots; and providing the synapse necessary to allow my gaunts to hold two objectives; having lost just two members out of six. Amazing performance! The Broodlord was also terribly effective when it reached combat; now the feeder tendrils allow you to repeat all failed rolls to hit and that rule is terrific! The Hive Tyrant was also good, a close combat behemoth as always, although he was dead for turn three; and the Carnifexes also did an excellent job. Nice!

Next game I’ll make a “small” adjustment to this army list, dropping from eleven to six the retinue of the Broodlord and reducing the squad size of the warriors to five, to count with some more punch… in the form of a Dakkafex, a Carnifex with two twin-linked devourers. Cool!!