The Scuttling Horde
So turned up at the club last night having been informed by Rich that I was due a mystery game. He said my army was well set up for it. Ok, so some sort of MEQ then.
So there's a bunch of tyranids in front of me then. Right. It didn't even appear to be Rich trying to set me up, he generally considered I had an army built to kick arse. Er, sure, out of small numbers in power armour. This army is good against MEQ and I'd take it against a light infantry force like Tau or Eldar. Against horde it is fighting on the back foot straight away... there is only one flame weapon inthe entire army... and that's on a basilisk (wysiwyg is the way I play, and figured the hull weapon never gets used on a basilisk anyway. By the time the enemy get's that close, I'm usually dead.)
We had to fight over 5 objectives, DOW setup. I get to deploy first, so set up my chimeras along the centre line to pen him as far back as possible. He deployed a tyrant and two swarms on my right flank, nothing on the left or centre. My first turn, well my basilisks rolled on my left corner. Bit of a problem from any outflankers, but I wanted to get as many barrage shots as possible on him while I could. My executioners took up position in the centre, where they could see most of the objectives. The vanquishers rolled on the right planning to take a shot at his tyrant in turn 2, and also to provide a tempting target for outflankers should he have the choice (keep those basilisks alive as long as possible!) The chimeras reversed 6-12" across the line, positioning themselves on 3 of 5 objectives. He had a couple of shoty carnifexes walk on, a combat fex, and a couple warrior squads. everything else slithered or chittered forwards. And ran. 5 or 6 for everything. Eager little bastards.
Turn 2, the executioners tore through one of the squads of warriors. Left two (one limping) plus a scattered shot knocked a owund off the combat carnifex. Picked most of the wounds off his tyrant, which then absorbed some more shooting as the temptation to finish him off quick was there. Killed some of his leapy sythy gaunts. And generally held the line. His turn 2 was punishing. 2 lictors, the rippers, and the genies with broodlord arrived. Combined with the leapy sythy gaunts being in range of a chimera, i lost my right flank. chimera and 2 vanquishers, and the lictors killed the executioners. My basic plan to tempt him along the right and then flip my line of battle to hold the three left of centre line seemed a bit optimistic, as he'd torn through my right flank in pretty short order.
Turn 3 I tidied up where I could. Pegged the annoying lictors, barraged a bunch of the broodlords cohorts that were nicely bunched up after killing my tanks, and jumped 4 meltagun out of a transport to go for his combat fex. 4 shots... 4 misses. Well you lot were useful weren't you?!? They were promptly eaten in his turn, the survivors fled (incidentally, in the 2 turns they were fleeing they managed to get off another 4 shots. 1 hit. From 8. Godamnit!) The broodlord took a couple of genies into the building nearest an objective, to get out of the rain (read basilisk barrage) The swarm steadily advanced, and here's where I think they made a mistake. They charged a chimera. He couldn't hurt it, but he said it got him a bit closer to me for next turn. True, true. But it also bunched you up nicely, so when my chimera drove away...
Turn 4, basilisks ordnance some gaunts to perfection. 29 hits. 23 wounds. That'd be 22 dead gaunts then. Awesome! Took some more shots at the annoying carnifex. Hitting with 3 out of 3 on mulitlaser, 3 out of 3 on heavy bolter, both shots from the autocannon, but the plasmagun, the only thing that will ignore his 2+ save...? no, both shots miss. Every single chimera had a similar pattern. On his turn, that fex then got among me and started munching on chimeras and whatever fell out of them. Including my command squad. Which the commander survived. Had to pass a Ld test of 5... did! Which kept the carnifex safe in combat for turn 5, preventing the fleeing meltaguns that had to run directly past him from trying to pick off his last wound and free up the objective for my troops. Also in this turn, his genies turned up, and swarmed all over the basilisks. No more support fire from them then. And to add insult to injury, his gaunts came back on... godamn without number rule. Still, at least they're a long way from me now, though nicely positioned to pick up his objective (I'd been wondering why he'd not left something covering that.)
Here is where I must put on something crucial that I forgot last night. Basilisks are open topped. Which means +1 to the damage table. So when he wrecked them both, they should have exploded. Which would have been a very satisfying way of thinning out his genie squad.
Seeing the carnifex was immovable for a turn, the chimera swapped to another objective. A couple of empty chimeras that had been doodling around trying to herd squads together for barrage shots went and contested both his objectives. My troops sat on another one. They were then joined by some warriors who failed to kill the chimera, but contested the objective just fine. The fex saw off my foolhardy commander, then took it's place atop the objective.
End of turn 5, Guard - 1 Nids - 1 contested - 2 unclaimed - 1. Roll... we play on.
Turn 6. I send a squad round to pick off the genestealers that are claiming his objective. Also sent in a chimera to contest directly. Sent another empty chimera to contest where the first one had left. Tried shooting the fex some more, though killed off the hive tyrant that was bearing down on me. Inched as far as I could away from the advancing genies while staying in range of the objective. Killed off the broodlords pals, meaning he could no longer claim the objective. His turn 6, his genies advanced. His fex finished off a fleeing squad. His rippers avenge his genies, taking away any chance I had of stealing the objective off the broodlord. His fleet roll for his genies was crucial - 4+ would get him in range of my objective (and assault range of my tank!) He rolled a 5. Bugger. The genies killed the chimera and sat on the objective.
Turn 6 - Nids - 1 unclaimed - 2 contested - 2. Roll... we play on.
Turn 7 it's all or nothing. Thinking the single wound carnifex will be an easier kill than the three warriors in front of me, I get the squad out of the chimera on my contested objective and head back to face the beast. I get within range of the objective. My chimera, knowing the broodlord can't claim the objective, throws itself in to contest the gaunts objective with the other chimera. The squad that had their chimera torn apart around them prepare to unload and try to kill as many of thegenies holding his objective as possible. Shooting. The plasmagun is the only gun in the squad that can hurt the fex. Misses. Twice. And toasts himself too. Great. Every other chimera I had spare fired at the fex too and eventually brought him down, giving me the objective. The other squad shot the genies, but missed withthe majority. Oh well, that'll be them dead next turn then. His turn. His genies abandoned thier objective, safe in the knowledge that the squad that had shot at them were 4" from the objective. The genies fleet towards my scoring unit (as do the warriors.) The fleet rolls are good enough, both squads get in, and massacre my unit. The genies hold the central objective for a result of Nids -1 contested - 1 unclaimed - 3. I have a few chimeras doing laps and a squad of men 4" from an objective saying "What just happened? where'd the Nids go?"
This was a good fun game. It was very close. Though I do wish I'd had a different army build. Normally I bring Straken and the catachans and have flamers coming out of my arse. And play marines. My most balanced armies were two infantry platoons, one with meltas the other with flamers. Oh how I'd have loved to have brought those. But such is life. I did think this list was a bit MEQ biased after I'd written it, but for a horde army they didn't do all that badly. Don't want to imagine how bad it would have been if he'd gopt first turn and been able to deploy halfway across the board though... that would have been a massacre!
So there's a bunch of tyranids in front of me then. Right. It didn't even appear to be Rich trying to set me up, he generally considered I had an army built to kick arse. Er, sure, out of small numbers in power armour. This army is good against MEQ and I'd take it against a light infantry force like Tau or Eldar. Against horde it is fighting on the back foot straight away... there is only one flame weapon inthe entire army... and that's on a basilisk (wysiwyg is the way I play, and figured the hull weapon never gets used on a basilisk anyway. By the time the enemy get's that close, I'm usually dead.)
We had to fight over 5 objectives, DOW setup. I get to deploy first, so set up my chimeras along the centre line to pen him as far back as possible. He deployed a tyrant and two swarms on my right flank, nothing on the left or centre. My first turn, well my basilisks rolled on my left corner. Bit of a problem from any outflankers, but I wanted to get as many barrage shots as possible on him while I could. My executioners took up position in the centre, where they could see most of the objectives. The vanquishers rolled on the right planning to take a shot at his tyrant in turn 2, and also to provide a tempting target for outflankers should he have the choice (keep those basilisks alive as long as possible!) The chimeras reversed 6-12" across the line, positioning themselves on 3 of 5 objectives. He had a couple of shoty carnifexes walk on, a combat fex, and a couple warrior squads. everything else slithered or chittered forwards. And ran. 5 or 6 for everything. Eager little bastards.
Turn 2, the executioners tore through one of the squads of warriors. Left two (one limping) plus a scattered shot knocked a owund off the combat carnifex. Picked most of the wounds off his tyrant, which then absorbed some more shooting as the temptation to finish him off quick was there. Killed some of his leapy sythy gaunts. And generally held the line. His turn 2 was punishing. 2 lictors, the rippers, and the genies with broodlord arrived. Combined with the leapy sythy gaunts being in range of a chimera, i lost my right flank. chimera and 2 vanquishers, and the lictors killed the executioners. My basic plan to tempt him along the right and then flip my line of battle to hold the three left of centre line seemed a bit optimistic, as he'd torn through my right flank in pretty short order.
Turn 3 I tidied up where I could. Pegged the annoying lictors, barraged a bunch of the broodlords cohorts that were nicely bunched up after killing my tanks, and jumped 4 meltagun out of a transport to go for his combat fex. 4 shots... 4 misses. Well you lot were useful weren't you?!? They were promptly eaten in his turn, the survivors fled (incidentally, in the 2 turns they were fleeing they managed to get off another 4 shots. 1 hit. From 8. Godamnit!) The broodlord took a couple of genies into the building nearest an objective, to get out of the rain (read basilisk barrage) The swarm steadily advanced, and here's where I think they made a mistake. They charged a chimera. He couldn't hurt it, but he said it got him a bit closer to me for next turn. True, true. But it also bunched you up nicely, so when my chimera drove away...
Turn 4, basilisks ordnance some gaunts to perfection. 29 hits. 23 wounds. That'd be 22 dead gaunts then. Awesome! Took some more shots at the annoying carnifex. Hitting with 3 out of 3 on mulitlaser, 3 out of 3 on heavy bolter, both shots from the autocannon, but the plasmagun, the only thing that will ignore his 2+ save...? no, both shots miss. Every single chimera had a similar pattern. On his turn, that fex then got among me and started munching on chimeras and whatever fell out of them. Including my command squad. Which the commander survived. Had to pass a Ld test of 5... did! Which kept the carnifex safe in combat for turn 5, preventing the fleeing meltaguns that had to run directly past him from trying to pick off his last wound and free up the objective for my troops. Also in this turn, his genies turned up, and swarmed all over the basilisks. No more support fire from them then. And to add insult to injury, his gaunts came back on... godamn without number rule. Still, at least they're a long way from me now, though nicely positioned to pick up his objective (I'd been wondering why he'd not left something covering that.)
Here is where I must put on something crucial that I forgot last night. Basilisks are open topped. Which means +1 to the damage table. So when he wrecked them both, they should have exploded. Which would have been a very satisfying way of thinning out his genie squad.
Seeing the carnifex was immovable for a turn, the chimera swapped to another objective. A couple of empty chimeras that had been doodling around trying to herd squads together for barrage shots went and contested both his objectives. My troops sat on another one. They were then joined by some warriors who failed to kill the chimera, but contested the objective just fine. The fex saw off my foolhardy commander, then took it's place atop the objective.
End of turn 5, Guard - 1 Nids - 1 contested - 2 unclaimed - 1. Roll... we play on.
Turn 6. I send a squad round to pick off the genestealers that are claiming his objective. Also sent in a chimera to contest directly. Sent another empty chimera to contest where the first one had left. Tried shooting the fex some more, though killed off the hive tyrant that was bearing down on me. Inched as far as I could away from the advancing genies while staying in range of the objective. Killed off the broodlords pals, meaning he could no longer claim the objective. His turn 6, his genies advanced. His fex finished off a fleeing squad. His rippers avenge his genies, taking away any chance I had of stealing the objective off the broodlord. His fleet roll for his genies was crucial - 4+ would get him in range of my objective (and assault range of my tank!) He rolled a 5. Bugger. The genies killed the chimera and sat on the objective.
Turn 6 - Nids - 1 unclaimed - 2 contested - 2. Roll... we play on.
Turn 7 it's all or nothing. Thinking the single wound carnifex will be an easier kill than the three warriors in front of me, I get the squad out of the chimera on my contested objective and head back to face the beast. I get within range of the objective. My chimera, knowing the broodlord can't claim the objective, throws itself in to contest the gaunts objective with the other chimera. The squad that had their chimera torn apart around them prepare to unload and try to kill as many of thegenies holding his objective as possible. Shooting. The plasmagun is the only gun in the squad that can hurt the fex. Misses. Twice. And toasts himself too. Great. Every other chimera I had spare fired at the fex too and eventually brought him down, giving me the objective. The other squad shot the genies, but missed withthe majority. Oh well, that'll be them dead next turn then. His turn. His genies abandoned thier objective, safe in the knowledge that the squad that had shot at them were 4" from the objective. The genies fleet towards my scoring unit (as do the warriors.) The fleet rolls are good enough, both squads get in, and massacre my unit. The genies hold the central objective for a result of Nids -1 contested - 1 unclaimed - 3. I have a few chimeras doing laps and a squad of men 4" from an objective saying "What just happened? where'd the Nids go?"
This was a good fun game. It was very close. Though I do wish I'd had a different army build. Normally I bring Straken and the catachans and have flamers coming out of my arse. And play marines. My most balanced armies were two infantry platoons, one with meltas the other with flamers. Oh how I'd have loved to have brought those. But such is life. I did think this list was a bit MEQ biased after I'd written it, but for a horde army they didn't do all that badly. Don't want to imagine how bad it would have been if he'd gopt first turn and been able to deploy halfway across the board though... that would have been a massacre!
It's been so long since I played a Nid army. Looks like these guys would give my Nurgle a run for their money! Look forward to playing them soon then :D
ReplyDeleteBoLS has some new Nids rumours. I'm undecided about the new codex. I've had a nagging feeling for a while to make a Nid army, but the new model just looks like some sort of weird kitbash.