Last weeks venture to play 40K I met two new players who were Daniel and son or guy with hat, I forgot the other guy's name. Both were looking to play a game and were not use to the normal phenomena of waiting 40 minutes to play 40K. What was first offered from the new guys was a dual game was quickly shot down by Mac, nice call. Mac with his Chaos Space marines took on the guy with hat, while I took on Daniel's tau with my Tyranids.
While Daniel took a bit of time to create a nice well balanced list I got to sit down with Rob to learn about some ancient history concerning the Manei Domini.
I used what seems to be my normal 1500 points list which uses just about everything I like to use and does a good job. I thought about swapping the Raveners and the Biovores for a Mawloc, but the leftover points always leaves me wanting and wondering. Other thoughts have made me think of swapping the Tyrant Guard for a flying Hive Tyrant, but I really need to read up on the rules for flyers. So here where our lists.
Tyranids
Hive Tyrant w/ 2xTL Dev
Pychich Powers - Primaris, The Horror, Paroxysm
Tyrant Guard x 2
*The Hive Tyrant had two offensive powers, one good for scaring off enemy units and the other for weakening or shutting down enemy units.
Zoanthrope x 2
Pychich Powers - Primaris, Paroxysm, Warp Blast
Zoanthrope x1
Pychich Powers Primaris, Onslaught, Warp Blast
Hive Guard x2
* Usually all of the Zoanthropes are in the same brood, for this battle I split them up for better survival and synapse coverage. The additional bonus was a bit more psychic power. The dual Zoanthrope brood's additional power may prove useful leaving the single Zoanthrope brood to utilize the Warp Blast power
Tervigon "Momma" w/ Stinger Salvo, Scything talons, The Maw-claws of Thyrax
Pychich Powers - Primaris, Catalyst
Termagants x 30
* Momma's additional power should prove useful as always
Raveners x 5 w/ Scything Talons, Rending Claws
Bivores x 3
Carnifex w/ 2xTL Dev, Spine banks
Exocrine
* Someone reminded me of the Exorine's BS being +1 if it doesn't move so +1 to you sir
Tau
Commander w/ BattleSuit, Iridium battlesuit, Plasma rifle, Cyclic Ion Blaster, Airburst Fragmentation Projector,Onager Gauntlets, Shield Generator, Kitchen Sink, and a Puretide Engram Chip
Ethereal
Firewarriors x 12, bonded
Firewarriors x 12, bonded
Firewarriors x 12, bonded
XV-104 Riptide, Ion Accelerator, TL Smart Missiles, and Stimulants
Stealth Suit Team w/ 4 x XV15 battlesuits w/ burstcannons and 2 x XV25 battlesuits with fusion blasters
Pathfinders w/ 7 Pulse carbines and Marker lights, and 3 with Rail rifles
Hammerhead Gunship w/ Railgun, TL Smart missiles, Disruption pod, Target lock, and Submunition rounds
XV88 Broadside x 2 w/ TL High Yield Missile pods, TL Smart Missiles, Seeker missiles, and Stimulants
* I have faced everything here before except a Riptide so this will be a learning experience. If all things the always useful idea of ignore it may come into play.
Deployment
Six random objectives were placed on the board and they revealed before the first turn.
The thing about this board was we left it as is when we played on it so it had a nasty dead zone between both sides. I figured Daniel would place his three objectives in his deployment zone like myself, but he boldly placed one in my deployment zone.
Before deployment the six objectives were placed
- Tau Objective 1 - In the ruins on the Tau's right flank
- Tau Objective 2 - In the ruins on the Tau's left flank
- Tau Objective 3 - In the ruins in the middle of the Tyranid's northern deployment zone
- Tyranid Objective 1 - In the ruins on the Tyranid's left flank
- Tyranid Objective 2 - In the ruins on the Tyranids's right flank
- Tyranid Objective 3 - Behind the hill in the middle of the Tyranid's southern deployment zone
Obviously Tyranid's don't deploy objectives so it must have been a bunch of junk the Tau empire lost and want to reclaim.
Tau chose to go first.
The Tau's warlord trait seemed to be about as useful as flock on the board. Perhaps a grass cover save would have been better.
The Tyranid's warlord trait added +1 to the seize the initiative giving their roll a 5 and they fail to seize the initiative.
Night fight was is in effect.
With the new rules of any unit being able to claim objectives, I spread my Tyranids as much and as safely as possible. This allowed me to possibly claim up to four objectives on the first turn. With this in mind I didn't need to move most of my units at all depending upon their revealed point values. This left me with a few units to move around according such as the Hive Tyrant and the Raveners and to some extent the Zoanthropes. I knew Daniel had a reserves unit and I could possibly be forced off an objective or even shot off an objective such as the case with the Biovores so I had to be aware of them till they arrived from reserve and deployed.
* Blue and green markers are reminders for the presence of psychic units
* Blue ice dice are the psychic unit's rolled psychic powers
After deployment the six objectives where revealed
- Tau Objective 1 - (2) In the ruins on the Tau's right flank
- Tau Objective 2 - (2) In the ruins on the Tau's left flank
- Tau Objective 3 - (3) In the ruins in the middle of the Tyranid's northern deployment zone
- Tyranid Objective 1 - (3) In the ruins on the Tyranid's left flank
- Tyranid Objective 2 - (4) In the ruins on the Tyranids's right flank
- Tyranid Objective 3 - (1) Behind the hill in the middle of the Tyranid's southern deployment zone
Tau near two objectives and Tyranids near four objectives already placed the Tau into challenge mode. The Tau will need to come to the Tyranid lines or try to shoot them off their objectives.
Turn 1
The Tau forced moved their entire East flank forward with the commander leading the charge forward. The Pathfinders entered the ruins in front of them, the Firwarriors in the open moved forward with their commander supported by the Hammerhead behind them. The Firewarriors in the center ruins moved forward out of the ruins slightly with the Riptide in front to provide support.
With night fight rules in effect, the Tyranids thought the Tau shooting would not be as good, but the Ethereal reminded his followers to be rock stars and announced to the Tyranids.
 |
| DEAL WITH IT! |
The Tau used their special sunglasses. The Tau concentrated their firepower to eliminate a third of the large Termagant brood along with adding a single wound on the Exocrine.
Momma ordered her Termagant brood forward to close the opened gaps. The Carnifex climbed atop the ruins to perch itself for a higher vantage point. The Hive Tyrant pressed the Hive Guard to bash through the windows of the ruins into safe hiding so they could use their weapons with no LOS. The Hive mind sensed the Raveners eager willingness for biomass consumption and necessary casualties, but ordered them like the Hive Guard to bash through the windows of the old ruins to safely close the distance to their targets ahead.
* The Hive Guard were placed on the top of the ruins in the places where they would be in the ruins for simplicity. The same idea was used for the Raveners.
Momma angered by the sight of her large brood being decimated attempted to prognate more of her lesser Termagants and succeeded with a small brood of seven Termagants. However, Momma's anger got the better of her and the stress was too much for her brood pronating organs to process anymore Termagant order for the Hive Mind.
The Tau commander saw this as a blessing, the Hive mind knew the Tau's battle strategy was a fault and foresaw no need to lose additional troops.
* Psychic Phase
So far it is not bad, I like it a lot better than challenges even thought it is much different. In this battle the Tyranids had a ton of psychic potential leaving the Tau at the mercy of what the Tyranids initial roll would be. This gave the Tau to some degree a buffer, but a buffer which had to be carefully used.
The first Tyranid psychic phase was good with a few warp blasts being tossed on the Firewarriors moving out of the center ruin and Feel no Pain being applied to the Exocrine courtesy of mamma. The Tau focused on trying to deny the Feel no Pain application than trying to deny the warp blasts which did far more damage.
The first Tyranid shooting phase opened with the best Biovore barrage any Tyranid commander could ask for. All three blasts hit directly on target to the Firewarrior squad in the open awarding a total of 27 hits. The lone shroud save did nothing to help the Firewarriors as they were bio-bombed into oblivion.
The Exocrine's original target was the Firewarrior squad, but since it had been eliminated the Tau commander was too tempting of a target and was fired upon. The Tau commander was killed in a horrendous volley of alien firepower.
Between the Carnifex and the Hive Tyrant, the Hive Tyrant was able to wound the Riptide.
* The Tau commander dying was just an offset I suppose. Daniel managed to fail a great deal of 3+ invulnerable saves than I expected. I also thought moving his commander out was dangerous, but I think it is a play style to in a sense marshall his troops and show a no fear atitude. Not the same for my Hive Tyrant which usually cowers at times till it can safely move acrooss, lol.
 |
| The purple die near the Tervigon is not a wound die. |
Turn 2
The Tau's Stealth Suits arrived and deployed behind the Tyranid lines placing themselves by the hill slightly to the left behind the Biovores. With the Stealth suits deployed, the rest of the Tau movement was simple with the Riptide moving to the right flank and the Hammerhead moving up to cover the gap produced by fallen comrades. The Tau's shooting was something to be desired as well with only a single wound going to the Exocrine, I think, a few more Termagants being killed and a sadly single Biovore dying from the stealth suits. The Tyranid's were expected the loss fo the Biovores after there nasty barrage before.
The Hive mind's response to the Tau at this point was respond and push forward. The Tau commander was feeling a sudden iminent loss for the Stealth suit team. The Termagants moved to their position along with the Hive Tyrant and his Tyrant guard. The single Zoanthrope brood tuned to face the Stealth suits while moving to a safe position. The Exocrine pivoted around to assure complete destruction. With almost the entire left flank of the Tyranid force responding to the Stealth suits, the Hive mind still pushed the Raveners out of the ruins and into the ruins before them to assault the Tau Pathfinders hiding within.
The Tyranid psychic phase had the Zoanthropes warp blasting more Firewarriors from the center squad in the center ruins. The time he Tau tried to deny this compared to tryingt o deny the Feel no Pain application.
Tyranid shooting was even more destructive. The Biovores missed the Firewarriors in the center and left a large spore mine cluster to the right of the Riptide and way too close to the Firewarriors in the ruins to be ignored. The Hive Guard impaled a Broadside battlesuit while the rest of the Tyranids on their flank completely decimated the Stealth suits. The Termagants failed to do anything, while the Tyrant killed all but one allowing the Exocrine to finish off the last suit.
Tyranid assault phase had the Raveners assault the Pathfinders in the ruins. The Pathfinders struck first dropping two before the Reaveners tore more of the Pathfinders into pieces. The Pathfinders held there ground for now.
 |
| Stealth suits? What stealth suits? |
Turn 3
The Tau were presented with little movement options. The Riptide moved to the center Dead Zone to support the three remaining Firewarrirors from the center sqaud dashing for the center cover.
Tau shooting concentrated on various threats the spore mines, Biovores, and the Zoanthropes. The spore mine cluster could not be ignored, the Biovores were especially dangerous for fear of the Ethereal getting bombarded causing a serious morale loss, and the Zoanthrope were simply terrorizing the Firewarriors and getting within leathal range of the Hammerhead. The Firewarriors in the ruins killed the spore mine cluster. The Broadsides and Riptide combines firepower to at the Biovores removing them. The Firewarriors and the Hammerhead combined firepower at the dual Zoanthrope brood and kill one and wounded the other.
With the exeption of the wounded Zoanthrope, although leaving only one left was still a 50% reduction in
there offensive cability. I think Daniel's descisions on which target's to shoot were tactically sound on what he could and could not harm.
The Pathfinders in the ruins continued to hold despite loosing more members of thier squad.
* We weren't sure if a spore mine clsuter automatically explodes when wounded, so we left it as not exploding to be sure. I couldn't find anything in the codex entry about it at the time.
When it was time for Tyranid Hive Mind to act, the Hive Mind turned the Hive Tyrant as he turned his own Tyrant Guard around towards the Riptid. Mamma ordered her Termagants in the center to chain the brood between the Exocrine and the hill top were the Biovores were previously. The Zoanthrope broods were rushed forward as well.
Tyranid psychic phase proved useful and useless, the Hive Tyrant smacked the Riptide causing its WS and BS to drop by 3 each and the Zoanthropes failed to wound the Riptide with a warp lance and failed to cast warp lance against the Hammerhead.
Tyranid shooting saw the Firewarriors in the center loose more lives by the work between Mamma and her Carnifex perched above. The Hive Tyrant and the Exocrine had enough combined firepower to punch through the Riptide's shield and wound it.
The Hive Tyrant attempted an assault on the Riptide which failed with no damage incurred. The Raveners tour apart the remaining Pathfinders.
Turn 4
Tau movement started with the three leftover Firewarriors in the center moving to the cover in the middle of the dead zone. The Riptide moved back a bit, but still remained the front unit in combat. The Hammerhead moving ahead just a bit and to the left a bit to gain more targets and hide from the Exocrine.
Tau shooting was light. The center Firwarriors failed to down the nearby Zoanthrope. The Hammerhead tried to use a large blast weapon on the Termagants to perhaps shoot them off the objectives, but the shot scattered killing only a few Termagants. The Hammerhead also failed to kill the nearby Zoanthrope. The Riptide's shooting turned to garbage by the Hive Tyrant's paroxysm power needed the help of the lone Broadside managed to kill a Tyrant Guard and wound the other Tyrant Guard leaving the Hive Tyrant unharmed.
The same Tyranid broods which moved ahead previously were ordered to do the same along with the Exocrine moving to switch sides. The Raveners were kept in place to claim the objective.
Tyranid psychic phase was dangerous. The Zoanthrope near the Hammerhead warp lanced the Hammerhead and immobilized it. The Hive Tyrant continued to bully the Riptdie and smacked it causing its WS and BS to be reduced by 3 each again.
Tyranid Shooting was concentrated on the Riptide an Broadside as the entire Tau left flank had collapsed. The Hive Tyrant caused what damage it could to the Riptide while the Exocrine completely finished it off by punching through its powered up shield. Mamma and her Carnifex finished off the Firewarriors in the center as well.
End Game
Once turn four passed the Tau commander conceded the battlefield to the Tyranid Hive Mind.
Final Victory Points
Tau
+2 Objective
2 Total
Tyranids
+ 13 Objectives
+1 First blood
+1 Slay the warlord
15 Total
* Examining the objectives again I removed destroyed units from adding points.
Thoughts
Daniel was using a set of older GW dice from a green tin, I recommend he fired those dice and towrds the third turn or so he began to agree.
Daniel's list was a great mix of what his codex could do, but I believe some units were a bit on the pricey side. It would be interested to go again seeing his maybe use the same list or free up some more points for some more group units.
Daniel's decision to place an objective in my area was bold, but bad in the end. My Tyranid list is build for shooting, but has some close combat abilities, however it has limitations so it is no means perfect.
The Riptide was a tough bastard to bring down absorbing more firepower then I could ever believe, but nothing holds better then Bob's Eldar, those things can tank!
Paroxysm is dangerous when used correctly and if the roll is decent.
I forgot my Raveners were equipped with rending claws so they should have killed the Pathfinders off sooner, but no worries.
I think Daniel may have been surprised by the amount of wounds the Biovores and the Raveners had, they come to a great advantage to low non-instant death weapons.
Daniel kept trying to kill the Exocrine, but how it was deployed next to the ruins it was 75% in cover from both points of view of the Hammerhead and the Riptide. The no cover allowing missiles it made all its normal saves most of the time.
The idea of any unit being able to claim an objective is great when you have low troops count to help balance the rest of an army.
The Exocrine moving little as possible really helped in shot output.
I considered reviewing certain units of the Tyranid code from my own opinions, but I can leave it to another time if anyone cares to here my blabber.
Overall it was a great game and a great chance to see how different units interact on the battlefield.
