Terminus Est

Necron Tremor Spam

2012-01-27T15:55:00.000-05:00

Just a brief update on the Necron front-I have been working on the development of a Necron Tremor Spam list to punish the mecha meta. This is top secret for now but next month I will post more details.

My thoughts on the leaked 6th edition

2012-01-25T13:16:00.000-05:00

Some of you might remember that GW leaked fifth edition rules prior to their official release—the pdf was well written and in line with what I would expect from GW... No typos, no grammatical errors, etc. On the other hand the 'leaked' sixth edition PDF looks like garbage in comparison... Lots of typos and lots of grammatical errors... It looks like it could have been written by an average teenager to me. The rules are extremely complex and very hard to follow.

What I want for sixth is a very tight set of rules that are well written plus easy to understand and apply. All this blah blah blah about how stale is 5th edition isn't going to change anything. We all know 6th will be released some time this year so don't get yer knickers all knotted. Oh and be very careful what you wish for... More complex invariably means more arguments and more time required to play. Fifth edition is the best yet and it fixed a lot of the problems with fourth edition. Hopefully sixth edition will be even better and address the problems we have found in fifth edition.

Some Termagants by Next Level Painting

2012-01-24T09:41:00.002-05:00

Warriors and Prime by Next Level Painting

2012-01-23T10:25:00.000-05:00

Current Thoughts on Tyranid Reserve Army

2012-01-22T23:27:00.000-05:00

I had the opportunity to play in a local tournament yesterday and managed to place in the top three so I'm happy with the results. My army did very well versus Space Marines in general. One game all my reserves arrived on the second turn which I think is very hard for any opponent to handle-that game I was able to devastate the opponent mostly with shooting in a single turn and the Yrmgal genestealers were simply amazing combi charging two units and smashing them. I had one tough game that knocked me out of the top spot but still overall I fared well in that game. Based upon these results I am happy and feel that all the hard work involvimg frequent play testing is finally coming to fruitition.

There were was a total of four Tyranid armies there and I placed the highest of them all. There was another Tyranid army there using lots of reserves but it got bashed hard versus a very mobile shooty dark eldar army knocking it out of contention to place. Another Tyranid army using the classic Tervigon approach also was smashed by the same dark eldar army. The tournament was 1850 points so I dropped the Doom of Malan'tai from my list-he was definitely missed and I think he would have fared very well versus any of the Space Marine armies there. Space Wolves took first place and I didn't have the opportunity to fight that army but looking at the list I think I could have given it a good fight as my army is designed to beat Grey Knights and Space Wolves.

I'll be playing in another RTT next weekend and am setting my sights high. I was very happy with the results of how my army performed this weekend and the Tyrant was a welcome addition to my list. That is all for now.

Review of Next Level Painting

2012-01-22T00:21:00.000-05:00

I recently had Next Level Painting (NLP) commission my Tyranid army for painting. Here is my review:

* Did the army meet my expectations?

Actually the army exceeded my expectations and I rate the it a five of five. I gave NLP lots of advice how I wanted the army painted and how I wanted it to look. Everything I requested was met to my full expectations plus some.

* How was the army packed?

There were no broken models upon receipt. When you are paying to have an army painted that you built yourself with lots of awesome conversions it says a lot to me when what you receive has no broken models. I have had lots of armies and units painted on commission and typically there is always some damage when you revive them courtesy of the courier. NLP takes the time to properly pack your army when they ship it back to you. I can take the army out of the box and play the next day.

That is all I have to say. There are lots of painting services available now. You want the best your money can buy. NLP is tops in my opinion.

Doom of Malan'tai by Next Level Painting

2012-01-20T18:18:00.002-05:00

Hormagaunts by Next Level Painting

2012-01-20T15:48:00.000-05:00

Here is a teaser picture of some of my gaunts painted by Kenny Boucher from Next Level Painting...

New Broodlord by Next Level Painting

2012-01-20T09:41:00.002-05:00

Here is my Broodlord painted by my good buddy Kenny Boucher. I have dubbed my hive fleet the Colossus. I have also included pictures of the genestealers as well.

New Trygon Prime (More pictures !!!)

2012-01-19T10:44:00.002-05:00

Here are some pictures of my Trygon Prime painted by Kenny Boucher of Next Level Painting. Enjoy !!

Death Company Razorback by Kardion (from Bolter and Chainsword)

2012-01-17T18:18:00.002-05:00

I saw this over on the B&C BA forum and thought I would share it here:

- Link to Death Company razorback -

Necron FAQ

2012-01-16T11:23:00.002-05:00

So GW finally stopped caving into the Imperialists...

Link to GW Necron FAQ

Tyranid Reserve List Advice from hyv3mynd

2012-01-14T13:53:00.003-05:00

Introduction
I have been in contact with Aaron from over on the Hyv3mynd Tyranid blog seeking his advice how to better tweak my current army list. Aaron and his wife just had their first child yesterday so a big congratulations to them on the new family member. Aaron was gracious enough to take the time to look at my army and has provided some very thoughtful and much appreciated feedback which I share below. I have been following Aaron's blog since its creation last year - its a great source of knowledge, tactics, batreps and analysis for anyone that plays Tyranids. You can find a link to Aaron's blog over to the left here in my blog roll. Aaron is another serious Tyranid player who thinks the race is competitive and also has lots of tournament experience with his beautiful bugs including participation in last year's American Team Championship (ATC) event.

My Current 2000 point Army List

HQ
Hive Tyrant - wings, twin linked devourers w. brainleech ammo, bone sword & lash whip; Hive Commander; Paroxsym & Life Leech
Tyranid Prime - bone sword & lash whip, scything talons, adrenal glands

Elites
Doom of Malan'tai - mycetic spore
2x Zoanthrope - mycetic spore
10x Yrmgal genestealer

Troops
15x termagant - devourers - mycetic spore
10x Hormagaunt - adrenal glands & toxin sacs
3x Warrior - bone swords & lash whip, 2x deathspitter & barbed strangler, toxin sacs - mycetic spore
15x genestealer incl. Broodlord - scything talons & toxin sacs

Heavy Support
Trygon Prime - adrenal glands

As you'll see below I was very happy that rather than attempt to completely overhaul my list Aaron provided useful suggestions how to tweak what I've got to make it more competitive.

Aaron's Feedback
Here is what the Hyv3mynd had to say. Note that Aaron is aware I intend to take my army to some major national events.

On the Concept of a Fully Reserved Army
I'm liking reserve armies more and more these days. My Dark Eldar army is being built as a reserve/WWP army. My biggest loss at our local GT was against Jon Willingham when he took me by surprise by reserving his whole army. It can be the ultimate tool in controlling the flow and pace of battle. It can also be the most difficult list style to master as smart opponents will be able to dodge most of your tricks. Sacrificing 1-2 turns of shooting and assault can also put you in a tough position to cause enough damage to win a mission. These types of lists can be the most fun to play because every game will be unique depending on which reserves arrive and when. They can also be the most frustrating because there will be times when the dice totally screw you.

That being said, a list like this really needs to be tuned to inflict maximum damage in the reduced turns it will see and complete the mission objectives. There's a few things I would change in the list. Keep in mind these opinions are based on my personal experience and local meta and they may or may not help in your area or the tournaments you'll be at.

Suggestions for my Current Army
Most of my suggestions are based on increasing damage output and reducing easy KP's, assuming objectives and KP's will be your primary objectives. Here's my version:

- HQ -
Hive Tyrant - wings, devourers, whip+sword; Hive Commander; paroxysm & leech essence (270)

-Elites -
Hive Guard x3 (150)
Zoanthropes x3 - mycetic spore (220)
Ymgarl Genestealers x7 (161)

- Troops -
Devilgaunts x15 - mycetic spore (190)
Warriors x4 + whip/swords (180)
Genestealers x14 + broodlord/scytals, toxin sacs (286)
Genestealers x14 + broodlord/scytals, toxin sacs (286)

- Heavy Support -
Trygon Prime + adrenal glands (250)

So I added some redundancy which is important in reserve lists. If genestealers are filling a specific role, two units will give you a better chance to have them when and where you need them.

Your foundation is strong against infantry and weak against MSU mech, so I added a zoan and 3 Hive Guard who will walk on. Janthkin uses hive guard like this in his reserve list and makes them work. Bring them on where they can reach a target or behind BLoS terrain.

I got rid of the DoM because he's too situational and unreliable IMO. If you're up against mech spam, he's useless. If he scatters too far, he's useless.

I also dropped some spores as they... give up easy KP's. The Warriors are on foot now, but you can outflank them with Hive Commander or walk them on the long edge for Capture & Control.

This list also has more scoring bodies, more anti-tank, and harder hitting units IMO.

2-3 hard hitting outflanking units will make your opponent choose between a central deployment or risk getting hit from the side. Use that choice wisely when choosing a place to hide the Ymgarls. They are your best disruption unit as they're the only ones guaranteed an assault the turn they arrive if your opponent avoids the edges.

On Tactics and Strategy
Place objectives as close to the edges as possible so the outflankers will count. Zoans never need cover so you can drop their spore in their wings and use them to provide cover to arriving genestealers or Warriors.

Don't be afraid to deploy the Tyrant, Hive Guard, Trygon, Warriors, and infiltrate the genestealers if you're going first against certain lists. The key to lists like these is to not get trapped in the same mindset going into each game.

Conclusion
So there you have it. I will be testing this list soon and should have some new batreps to share here.

Crawl

2012-01-13T22:51:00.001-05:00

Now that I’ve found you
When my time has gone away
The words I say
This way might help you through
And I feel like it’s gonna rain
To wash this from you

So addicted to the pain
It’s the pain that drove you crazy ...
Your mind is closing in
A fight that you might not win
It’s even making me insane

If you crawl
I’ll follow, I’ll follow !
Don’t walk away
If you fall
I’ll follow, I’ll follow !
Don’t walk away

I think of all things that just got lost
Now that you find me
As if I had just had shuffled off
Now that you find me
When my time had gone away
The actions played
They broke your world in two
And I feel like it’s gonna rain
To wash this from you

Crawling
What Is and what will never be
It’s the pain that makes you crazy ...

Tyranid Reserve Army Layering

2012-01-10T18:33:00.003-05:00

The following text diagram serves as a simple illustration to show how I often layer my army.

________________Trygon Prime

______Hive Tyrant

__________________________Termagants*

________________Warriors*

---Genestealers

_____________Prime & Hormagaunts

Notes:
* denotes unit is mounted in mycetic spore
_ denotes unit deep strikes onto table
- denotes unit outflanks

The diagram does not show the Zoanthropes and the Doom of Malantai as their individual placement is typically independent of the other units. The Hive Tyrant can be inserted at any level following the Trygon.

The Nature of the Beast (Tyranids) • new content added

2012-01-08T21:25:00.011-05:00

Introduction
Let's start off by taking a closer look at how Tyranids in general have performed in fifth edition for competitive play. The new codex ushered in a host of new units such as the Doom of Malan'tai, Trygons, Mawlocs and the Tervigon just to name a few. Long standing units that have taken a traditional role in Tyranid armies such as the Carnifex suddenly took a back seat to these new units. Unfortunately this new era of monstrous creatures and other monsters did not bring about the same level of competitive play that could exceed or even match earlier codices. It is general knowledge that Tyranids are currently considered non competitive for many reasons. No Tyranid army I know of has won a major event since the release of the fifth edition codex.

Hitting your head against a brick wall is an exercise in futility—sure it feels good when you stop but knowing its a brick wall you have to ask yourself why are you repeating something that is known to fail. I am open to constructive advice how to improve my army but I also have no desire to replicate what has already been done when we know it doesn't have what it takes to meet the goals I have set for myself. I have taken up Tyranids as a self challenge to develop a competitive army that can reach the top tables at a major event. I may fail but I will give it my best effort. You don't see a lot of veteran players taking Tyranids to major events and for good reason but I have to just see for myself if I can do better. Even if I should fail I will know that at least I tried.

Typical Army List Builds
Let's take a look at what we have typically seen fielded for Tyranid armies in fifth edition. Here is one such abbreviated list:

Hive Tyrant w. 2-3x Tyrant Guard (HQ)
Tervigon (HQ)
3x 3x Hive Guard (Elite)
2x Termagant broods (Troop)
2x Tervigon (Troop)
2x Tyrannofex (Heavy Support)

The core strengths of this list is good synapse coverage across the board coupled with the ability to pop light armor (Hive Guard) and it has some ranged shooting to deal with heavy armor (Tyrannofex). The army also has or can produce an ample number of scoring units to hold objectives. One obvious weakness of the list is that it gives up lots and lots of easy killpoints. Anther major weakness of such a list is that is does not perform well versus top tier armies such as Imperial Guard, Grey Knights and Space Wolves for obvious reasons. A list such as this one was very popular following the initial release of the new Tyranid codex and was designed to handle the heavily mechanized meta we see so prevalent in fifth edition.

Sure the Tervigon is still very popular and for good reason but it is also vulnerable. It's low initiative is a major problem versus the Space Wolves' psychic power Jaws of the World Wolf as well as other game mechanics that force removal of said unit due to failing an initiative test such as the Grey Knight psychic power Warp Rift. The Tyrannofex is expensive (equivalent to landraider in cost) for what you get - two BS3 S10 shots at long range plus it must bypass the plethora of cover saves abdundant in fifth edition.

I have seen some variations of the list presented above as well as some alternatives. Here is one well proven slightly altered list:

Swarmlord w. 1x Tyrant Guard (HQ)
3x Hive Guard (Elite)
2x Hive Guard (Elite)
Ymgarl Genestealers (Elite)
Termagants (Troop)
Tervigon (Troop)
15x Genestealers (Troop)
8x Genestealers (Troop)
Gargoyles (Fast Attack)
Tyrannofex (Heavy Support)

There are many similar elements between the two lists—this one though is a hybrid list as the genestealers can outflank and the Yrmgal genestealers start the game dormant on the table. Again there is a Hive Tyrant with Tyrant Guard... the Tyrant Guard is included to provide the ability to provide a cover save for the Swarmlord. The Swarmlord is the best choice for a walking Hive Tyrant—of course you're paying for all the awesome abilities the Swarmlord brings to the army including the ability to outflank one Troop choice (i.e., Tervigon or termagants). There are Hive Guard and one Tyrannofex to handle armor at range. Gargoyles are another popular unit and provide mobile cover to other units. The Tervigon and termagants as noted above provide an ample number of scoring units.

My critics most often point directly to these types of list when offering suggestions how I can improve my own list. At the end of the day though the results are the same—no major wins for Tyranids in fifth edition at any big events and I don't believe that is going to change while fifth edition is still in effect.

An Alternative Approach
If you follow my blog you know that I advocate the use of a fully reserved Tyranid army to address the short comings of typical Tyranid armies such as the two I have listed above. Here is my abbreviated army list for reference:

Hive Tyrant - wings & Hive Commander (HQ)
Tyranid Prime (HQ)
Zoanthropes - mycetic spore (Elite)
Doom of Malan'tai - mycetic spore (Elite)
Yrmgal genestealers (Elite)
Warriors - mycetic spore (Troop)
Hormagaunts (Troop)
Termagants - mycetic spore (Troop)
Genestealers w. Broodlord (Troop)
Trygon Prime (Heavy Support)

I used to run two Trygons and just recently dropped one to include the Tyrant based upon feedback I've received online. The Tyranid Prime is attached to the Hormagaunt brood and together they come in from reserve along my long table edge. This choice invariably always draws major criticism—Tyranid pundits are upset that I give up fleet and bounding leap for the Hormagants since I attach the Alpha Warrior. What they fail to realize is that the Hormagaunts provide a cheap source of ablative wounds for the Prime which allows me to take advantage of fielding an Independent character as an HQ. I always have the option though to detach the Prime from the gaunts once they have arrived from reserve if I were to need the better rate of mobility for the gaunts but to be honest I have never once come upon this situation. My list has lots of major threats that can't be ignored and forces my opponent to react. The Zoanthropes are my ranged answer to the occassional landraider while the termagants are there to deal with heavy weapons teams such as Long Fangs. I readily admit the Zoies have some issues such as getting past an opponent's psychic defense but just their presence alone is often enough. Typically versus a landraider you can neutralize its threat simply by immobilizing it since they are most often transporting a dedicated melee unit such as assault terminators.

Null Zone Deployment
My army works on the strategic principles of Null Zone Deployment (NZD) which I learned from Fritz over on his blog Fritz 40k (refer to the blog list if you're interested). One of the basic principles of NZD is you can place the bulk of your army where you need it the most and avoid deathstar units like Draigo and his Paladins. Fielding a Tyrant with Hive Commander means that the bulk of your army should arrive from reserve during the second turn. You can saturate an area of the table and quickly overpower a portion of your opponent's army focusing on destroying their troops. Note that 75 percent of your army should arrive during the second turn if you field a Tyrant with the Hive Commander option since they come in on a 3+ versus 4+ during your second turn. Many of the units in my army are fast due to fleet so I can quickly redeploy much of my army as the game progresses following the second turn.

A very important aspect of NZD is where you place the objectives... You should place your objectives so that they are spread far apart—small elite armies like Draigowing will then struggle to hold them. Tyranid armies in general tend to have many units (you should have 4-5 troops) so they have an inherent advantage winning objective based missions. This is the same strategy I would use versus Imperial Guard—force them to spread their scoring units so they can't support each other. Imperial Guard armies heavily rely upon their chimeras to protect their scoring units so you want to prioritize targeting their transports... Focus on killing their troops as soon as possible. I like to place one Seize Ground objective marker close to either side of the table so my genestealers can outflank and assault enemy units camped there. You want an objective on each side of the table because there is a one third chance an outflanking unit will arrive on the wrong side—placing an objective marker on both sides means there is no wrong side but it's important to note that typically there is one side you'd prefer for your outflanking unit to arrive (for whatever reason).

An Inherent Disadvantage of the Fully Reserved Tyranid Army
The major weakness of my army list is that the mycetic spores give up very easy kill points—one rocket and a spore is toast. The good news is a lot of tournaments are now using a format that features the three objectives (Seize Ground, Capture & Control and Kill Points) such that they are equally weighted rather than tiered primary, secondary and tertiary (P/S/T) objectives. Whoever takes the most victory conditions wins the game. I've also noticed that kill points are not often chosen as a primary objective at other events such as those that use the P/S/T format. This relatively new type of format allows you to focus on winning by holding the most objective markers and you can effectively ignore kill points. The American Team Championship (ATC) uses this format and it's gaining popularity across the country. There is a large GT in California to be held soon that will also use the W-L format with equally weighted objectives. I used this format at BeakyCon last year and it was well received by everyone who attended.

If on the other hand you know ahead of time that an event you're considering attending will feature two out of five missions with kill points as the primary objective then you could be in store for a long hard weekend—so always keep that in mind! You typically have to place your spores directly in harm's way to get the most out of the units embarked in them. Tyranids are quite capable of killing lots of enemy units but a deficit of 3-4 kill points is very hard to overtake.

Ranking the Fully Reserved Tyranid Army
Would I rank a fully reserved Tyranid army as top tier beside IG, GK and SW? The short answer is no... The long answer takes a bit more time to fully address and I think a better question is can such an army consistently beat the top tier? The long answer is yes but it will require near perfect play and some degree of luck. In regards to luck I think anyone who has won a major event and is honest will tell you that they had their fair share of good luck when they needed it—be it good matchups, missions that suited their armies and plenty of hot dice rolls.

Conclusion
Most often I think it is the general and not the army that wins a major event and the top players eventually learn how to exploit popular Internet meta lists. We can just stick with the top tiered armies or we can challenge ourselves and diversify. I like to build exotic lists that are unique and can exploit the meta. I have done very well in the past with armies such as the 13th Company and Deathwing (prior to the recent inclusion of the 3++ stormshield). For me it's more thrilling to do something new and succeed rather than follow others along the well trodden path... Especially when we know ahead of time that it doesn't work. Maybe I would have done better over the course of the many national events I've attended if I had taken Internet meta lists but that's not what I'm about at the end of the day.

When I first started to discuss Draigowing on the Internet it was generally dismissed as a weak low model count army then suddenly everything changed overnight when Blackmoor took second place at the NOVA last summer. That is just how fickle is the Internet.

A fully reserved Tyranid army built right can indeed exploit the current Internet meta lists. No it's not easy but it can be done. All my comments on my current army are based upon actual games and experience—it's not theory hammer and I'd like to think there are some (maybe only a few) who can appreciate that aspect—these types are my primary target audience.

Exalt.

2k Batrep - Draigowing vs Imperial Guard

2012-01-07T19:58:00.004-05:00

I'm still waiting on my Tyranids to be painted and still working on my Necrons so this weekend
again I decided to break out my Grey Knights for another pickup game. I used the exact same list as last weekend:

Lord Draigo
Librarian - master crafted warding stave, 2x servo skull, Might of Titans, Sanctuary,shrouding, Warp Rift

10x Paladin: fully complex w. 4x psycannon
10x GKT w. 2x psycannon

Psyfleman
Psyfleman

Sorry I don't have an exact list for the IG army. Off the top of my head it included the following units:

Colonel Straken w. command squad - chimera
Primaris Psyker (attached to melta vets)

10x melta vets - chimera
Platoon blob w. Commissar: 3x lascannon, plasmaguns, sergeants w. power swords
3x autocannon HWS
5x guardsmen w. 3x grenade launcher (ride in Vendetta)

Vendetta

Devildog

Leman Russ Demolisher squadron (lascannons)

Leman Russ

Colossus

10x Battle Psyker Squad

Mission
The mission was Capture and Control with Dawn of War for deployment. I won the roll and opted to go second. I rolled for the Grand Strategy and made both psyflemen scoring. My opponent deployed his blob on a covered hill sitting on his objective marker. All the rest of his army would come in from reserve on the first turn. I placed my objective marker back in a corner of my deployment zone with some decent cover deploying the Librarian attached to the Paladins off beside my objective in hard cover. Both psyflemen would walk on the first turn with Lord Draigo and the GKT opting to teleport.

Pre Game Analysis
I don't have a good track record versus IG in 5th edition to be honest—luckily the mission is not Seize Ground with five objective markers. I opted for a very simple strategy—Lord Draigo and the GKT will go for my opponent's objective marker while the rest of my army will defend my objective marker. I am counting on Lord Draigo to survive one round of shooting following deep strike then converge on the blob and slowly NOM NOM NOM them to death. Draigo is a beast and can suck up some pain then dish it right back. The rest of my army has solid cover and can shred AV12. The Librarian as usual is key to securing victory and must come through in the clutch casting his psychic powers.

Turn 1 - Imperial Guard
Everything not on the table comes on with a good contingent of the army moving into position to support their blob. Vendetta comes on the far table edge safely tucked away while Straken and his posse roll on in their chimera behind the blob. PSB walks on behind the blob as well. Colossus also comes in on the far side of the table. The Demolisher squadron and Devildog come in along the opposite side of Paladins and will be out of range this turn. Chimera full of melta vets pull up behind the Devildog for some hard cover. IG doesn't spot my Paladins and that's it.

Turn 1 - Draigowing
My psyflemen walk on hiding behind cover. Paladins move up closer to blob (remaining in cover obviously), target the Devildog and whiff.

Turn 2 - Imperial Guard
Demolishers, Devildog and PSB move up in range of my Paladins and cut loose with a deadly salvo. My Librarian botches his psychic test for Shrouding and then the bombs drop. One pie plate hits while the other scatters off. I fail my first four cover saves—SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT. I then lose another Paladin to a stray lascannon and the PSB successfully cast Weaken Resolve beating the reinforced Aegis on a psyfleman. Luckily the small blast from the Devildog scatters wide. I'm thinking this game is probably already over now but decide to stick it out and see how everything plays out. Paladins fail their morale check and fall back missing the board edge by a couple inches... That would have pretty much been the end of the game otherwise.

Turn 2 - Draigowing
Lord Draigo and his GKT teleport onto the battlefield scattering 10" straight towards the blob but don't mishap. Paladins auto rally and move back up into cover with both psyflemen side by side for protection. Lord Draigo and GKT target the blob but only manage to drop six due to some fiery hot cover saves. Paladins target the Devildog and rip off its turret. Psyflemen target a chimera full of melta vets riding in a chimera parked behind the Devildog but only manage to shake it.

Turn 3 - Imperial Guard
As much of the IG army that can target Lord Draigo and his GKT take aim and lay massive waste to the Grey Knights. When all the smoke clears all that is left standing is Draigo and two terminators (made a ridiculous amount of cover saves this turn). The PSB then successfully cast Weaken Resolve targeting Lord Draigo and his remaining terminators—they fall back 6" and there's nothing close by to prevent them from auto rallying the next turn... IG should have parked the Vendetta right beside them. I was actually hoping that all the GKT would die so that Lord Draigo would revert back to being Fearless so it worked out okay this turn after all.

Turn 3 - Draigowing
Lord Draigo auto rallies and moves up in position to finally charge the blob. Paladins and one psyfleman take aim on the Devildog—destroying the last of its weapons and immobilize it. The other psyfleman manages to stun the chimera full of melta vets. Lord Draigo then assaults the blob—NOM NOM NOM... He kills four guardsmen and takes no wounds in return. Blob then pass their morale check and pile in around Draigo.

Turn 4 - Imperial Guard
Straken and his command squad pull up in their chimera beside the battle between Lord Draigo and the blob. Vendetta moves into position to fire upon one of my psyflemen. Demolishers move up to drop more pie plates of death on the Paladins and psyflemen. Vendetta explodes one of the psyflemen but the Paladins and remaining psyfleman stand tall. Lord Draigo continues to NOM NOM NOM the blob and they pass their morale check.

Turn 4 - Draigowing
This will be a critical turn as we are playing random game length. I'm holding my objective marker with the remaining psyfleman and Lord Draigo is contesting the other. I need to stop the melta vets from moving into position to contest my objective and shoot down the Vendetta since its carrying another scoring unit. Lord Draigo is doing just fine and is whittling down the blob slowly but surely.

Librarian successfully casts Warp Rift popping both the Devildog and the chimera full of melta vets. Melta vets pop out the rearside of the burning wreck and pass their leadership tests. Paladins and psyflemen both whiff on the Vendetta. Draigo continues to NOM NOM NOM the blob reducing them to just a handful of guardsmen.

Turn 5 - Imperial Guard
Straken and his command squad decide to remain inside their chimera and play it safe while the Vendetta moves flat out towards my objective but is still well outside of 3" from my objective marker. The wrecks from the Devildog and chimera is shielding the Paladins from the Demolishers and PSB. The meta vets move forward to target the psyfleman but are just outside of half range. Again my Librarian botches his psychic test while attempting to cast the Shrouding and takes a wound from Perils of the Warp... Really bad day at the office for him. Melta vets whiff on the psyflemen then Lord Draigo finishes off the last of the blob and walks onto the enemy objective marker.

Turn 5 - Grey Knights
The Librarian splits off from the Paladins to assault the melta vets. The Paladins target the Vendetta inflicting three penetrating hits but it passes all three cover saves. The psyfleman then shoots down the Vendetta and one guardsman dies in the ensuing explosion. The Librarian then botches his psychic test for Hammerhand and dies from Perils of the Warp failing his first 2++ save... Wow !!

We roll for the sixth turn and up pops a 2... I'm holding my objective counter and contesting the enemy objective marker... So I end up with a close win. Note that the melta vets were less than an inch away from contesting my objective marker. I think that if the Librarian had charged the melta vets and not broke them the pile in move would have moved them inside room to contest... Pretty crazy.

Post Game Analysis
Well it was pretty dumb to have cast Hammerhand for the Librarian even with a 2++ save... Just really wasn't necessary but still worked out for the win. I think my opponent should have been more aggressive with Straken and his Vendetta. Straken ended up not contributing to the battle and might have been able to finish off Draigo in melee. The opening four failed cover saves plus botching Shrouding with my Librarian during the second turn took me right back to the second half of my previous game versus Space Marines last weekend. Luckily fate decided to be kind a bit after the initial run of bad luck and I was able to make a game out of it sticking to the plan. IG does not really have an answer to Lord Draigo in melee and once he got stuck in combat he did what he does best for the rest of the game.

Repost from Bell of Lost Souls - Comic Hilarity

2012-01-07T11:47:00.002-05:00

EDITORIAL - Writing Articles for other Blogs

2012-01-06T19:39:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone !!

What a week at work. Very busy and not so much time for the Internet. As you're probably aware there is some very interesting aspects to the Internet:

—Everyone has access
—Everyone has an opinion
-Not everyone knows what they are talking about when they post
-Unfortunately some people are intentionally misleading—their sole intent is to create discontent

It is the last category that I have a real problem with as they are dishonest people. They have no shame whatsoever and love nothing more than to pull the wool over the eyes of those foolish enough not to know better. To me they deserve what they get and I love to see people call them on their bullshit.

That is all for now .

Horde Mentality

2012-01-05T19:29:00.006-05:00

Here is my first in a new series of tactical articles that will transcend specific armies. The first article is dedicated to two very specific types of dedicated assault armies - horde versus elite. I'm talking about armies that must win the game in the assault phase. These armies can have a good contingent of shooting but push come to shove must win by out slugging the opponent.

Horde armies such as Orks and Tyranids have mechanisms set in place that make their large blocks of units fearless during the beginning of a game. Orks are fearless if their number of models is greater than 10 while Tyranids use synaspe. A large horde unit such as Ork Boyz or gaunts that are fearless will bleed wounds versus an elite dedicated melee such as Khorne Berzerkers due to the No Retreat rule. This is one of the basic drawbacks to a horde unit. On the other hand if the horde unit was not fearless then there are high odds they would swept after losing a combat to an elite dedicated melee unit. There is a balance in this aspect as the large horde unit is cheap for the points while the elite dedicated melee unit probably will cost more points.

Not being swept means that the horde unit has a chance to lock the elite unit for a turn following the initial charge. If the horde player can then charge the elite unit with another unit they have negated the charge bonuses associated with the elite unit. Take Death Company as a prime example—on the charge they are at least three times as good as receiving a charge. It is what it is.

At one time Tyranids were better than fearless prior to fifth edition. For example in third edition for a mere 10 points a brood of gaunts could upgrade one model to Ld10—this was before fearless was in effect for 40k. To me this was a broken mechanism and has been addressed with the newer ruleset.

Chaos Space Marines

2012-01-04T22:22:00.003-05:00

Chaos Space Marines... Are they just around the corner again ?

Heh .

Necron FAQ

2012-01-02T14:43:00.003-05:00

Well the Necron FAQ should be released soon as the codex has been out for awhile now and people have played lots of games and reported problems with the rules that need to be addressed. I ran a poll here last month asking the question would the Necrons be nerfed by the FAQ—the votes were fairly split so there is a definitely a good number of players who believe the Necrons will make out okay if the results of the poll are any real indication.

Let's take a moment to look at some of the more eminent problems that have surfaced with the new Necron codex:

1) The first and most commonly cited rule is Spyders spawning scarabs. As the rules stand now (RAW) each scarab that is spawned can be placed in a conga line to effectively reach across the table and ensure a first turn charge. I think that the FAQ will simply state that spawned scarabs must be placed within 2" of the unit to which they attach. It's a simple solution and fixes the problem.

2) The second and commonly cited rule is can Spyders spawning scarabs take the unit of scarabs above their full number (10). The rule in question specifically states this can take the scarabs beyond its starting size. I think this is a dumb question as there is nothing to indicate they can't. If this were the case then both Spyders and scarabs would be worthless in my opinion. This one looks to be the sad case of Imperial players trying again to nerf yet another xenos codex like the disaster that happened to Tyranids. I don't think the FAQ will address this as its self explanatory as far as I'm concerned.

3) The third issue is one I've just come across and spotted it in the Official Rules forum over on Bolter and Chainsword. It seems very silly to me and is a good example of how reading one set of particular rules in a vacuum doesn't always lead to sound analysis. Basically their RAW premise is that because of the way the rules for Reanimation Protocols and Everliving are written units with the Everliving rule never get to roll for their Reanimation protocol - NEVER. I'm not going to digress into the nonsense underlying their interpretation - it is just silly at best and what happens when RAW advocates over analyze the rules. As usual they blame GW for poorly writing the rules - this is always the first step taken to exploit the rules. You first have to make a case that the rules are poorly written before you can then exploit them. Honestly can you see GW releasing a FAQ that states units with the Everliving rule never get to roll for Reanimation Protocols ??? Why the heck did GW even bother to put it in the codex ?? I think anybody with a lick of sense understands how the rules work for the Everliving - it doesn't even really need to be touched upon in the FAQ.

Does GW always use RAW to answer questions in their FAQs? No of course not. RAW is important but then again it does not always produce valid results as some people like to go to extremes and over analyze the rules. For example remember when the RAW camp was stating that Nemesis force falchions should grant +2A? How silly was that one?

So we should be seeing the Necron FAQ up quite soon. Should be interesting to say the least.

Two games with Grey Knights this weekend

2012-01-01T23:13:00.000-05:00

I've sent off my Tyranid army to be pro painted and have still lots of work left to complete for my new Necron army. I'm enjoying reading Necron batreps on the Internet and think they are a competitive army—Wraithwing it seems is trending up and appears to be a solid counter to both mech and gun line armies. It will be very interesting to see how the new Necrons fare next year in the tournament circuit.

I decided to break out my Draigowing this weekend for a couple of games. Here is my abbreviated 2000 point list (don't have my Army Builder list with me):

Draigo

Librarian - Master crafted warding stave, Might of Titans, Sanctuary, Shrouding, Warp Rift, 2x servo skull

10x Paladin:
1) Daemonhammer & psycannon
2) Master crafted daemonhammer & psycannon
3) Daemonhammer & master crafted psycannon
4) Sword & psycannon
5) Sword & stormbolter
5) Falchions & stormbolter
6) Master crafted falchions & stormbolter
7) Falchions & master crafted stormbolter
8) Warding stave & stormbolter
9) Apothecary - Halberd & stormbolter
0) Standard Bearer - Brotherhood banner & stormbolter
- Psybolt ammo

10x Grey Knight terminator:
Justicar - Halberd & stormbolter
2x Halberd & psycannon
2x Daemonhammer & stormbolter
5x Halberd & stormbolter
- Psybolt ammo

Dreadnaught - 2x twin linked autocannon, psybolt ammo

Dreadnaught - 2x twin linked autocannon, psybolt ammo

1st Match vs Grey Knights
The first game was a mirror match versus another Grey Knight army:

Grand Master - Master crafted warding stave, incinerator, psykotroke grenades, rad grenades

Librarian - Master crafted warding stave, Might of Titans, Sanctuary, Shrouding, Warp Rift

6x Paladin:
1) Daemonhammer & stormbolter
2) Standard Bearer - Brotherhood Banner & psycannon
3) Apothecary - Halberd
4) Sword & stormbolter
5) Master crafted word & stormbolter
6) Halberd & stormbolter

Landraider Crusader - pintle mounted multi-melta

5x Grey Knight Strike Squad - Psycannon & Razorback w. twin linked lascannon
5x Grey Knight Strike Squad - Psycannon & Razorback w. twin linked lascannon

Vindicare assassin

Dreadnaught - 2x twin linked autocannon, psybolt ammo

Dreadnaught - 2x twin linked autocannon, psybolt ammo

This mission was from BeakyCon - Seize Ground (3 objective markers), Capture & Control, Killpoints - all equally weighted. Whoever holds the most objectives at the end of the game wins. If there is a draw the tie breaker is pure victory points. Game goes six turns then there is a seventh turn on a roll of 4+. Deployment was Dawn of War - I went second opting to hold everything off the table and walk it all on the first turn. Lots of terrain (nice!). Two of the Seize Ground objective markers were in my oponent's deployment zone so I would have to play aggressively. My opponent deployed one Strike squad on the table and would walk on the rest of his army the second turn.

- Pre Game Analysis -
Like I said above I knew I'd have to play aggressively and my goal was to win on Seize Ground and Killpoints. I was worried about the Vindicare as it can pop my dreads, select its targets and negate Draigo's invulnerable saves. I opted to start off by keeping both Draigo and the Librarian outside of range of the Vindicare while focusing fire on the Vindicare with my psyflemen and psycannons. I opted to go for Seize Ground as I had more boots on the ground and felt my Paladins could soak up a lot of damage while dishing out even more in return.

-Game Synopsis -
By the third turn I had killed the Vindicare and could throw everything forward, losing one psyfleman in return. My Paladins made a screen for the GKT (Draigo and the Librarian attached to my GKT). On the fourth turn my opponent engaged my Paladins with his two HQ and Paladins charging them from the LRC. As predicted my Paladins held the line then I counter assaulted with my HQ and the GKT. I was also able to multi assault one of the Strike squads. The Strike squad was mulched and it took a couple of turns to kill off the enemy HQ and his Paladins. Weight of numbers worked well to mitigate the effects of the enemy grenades. After that I destroyed the other Strike squad and the LRC. A big turning point in the game was the second Strike squad failing to reach assault rolling snake eyes for their difficult terrain test... Their psykout grenades would have botched my Paladins. End of game was a draw - I had Killpoints and my opponent had Capture and Control so I won on victory points.

- Post Game Analysis -
My Paladins were MVP destroying everything that came their way plus some. A full unit that is complex can soak a lot of wounds and dish out the pain. They took the charge and setup my GKT for the counter punch which won the game. Lots of intense psychic battles between the two Librarians with their hoods. Once I had destroyed the enemy Librarian my psychic powers were unchallenged and put my army over the top for the win.

2nd Game versus Space Marines
Here was my opponent's army list to the best of my memory:

Librarian - Null Zone & ???

10x tactical Marine - lascannon & plasmagun, power fist - rhino w. extra armor
10x tactical Marine - multi-melta & meltagun, power fist - rhino w. extra armor
10x tactical Marine - missile launcher & meltagun, power fist - rhino w. extra armor
10x tactical Marine - missile launcher & meltagun, power fist - razorback w. twin linked heavy bolter & extra armor

Landspeeder Typhoon w. heavy bolter

Attack bike w. multi-melta
Attack bike w. multi-melta

Vindicator - extra armor
Predator - autocannon turret & heavy bolter sponsons

5x tactical terminator - chainfist & assault cannon
5x tactical terminator - chainfist & assault cannon

The mission was Seize Ground with three objective markers and random game length. Again lots of terrain. Deployment was Dawn of War again and I had to go second again. Two of the objective markers were in my opponent's deployment zone so again I'd have to play aggressively. My opponent deployed one unit of tactical Marines combat squadded with the Librarisn joining the combat squad in the razorback. I opted to start with my entire army in reserve - deep striking both terminator units (HQ attached to Paladins) and walk on both psyflemen the first turn.

- Pre Game Analysis -
Even with two terminator squads the Space Marines were no match versus my army in melee so I really wanted to capitalize on that big strength. The main threat was the Vindicator so that is what both psyflemen would focus fire. I knew the attack bikes would hunt my psyflemen but oh well if I could pick off the Vindicator they would fulfill their role. I wanted to deep strike into a midfield position using terrain to block enemy shooting and move in to capture two objective markers. The third objective marker was far away—I had no way to reach it other than combat squadding my GKT which I didn't want to do. My opponent combat squadded two of his tactical units for six scoring units... He had three times as many scoring units but my terminators can handle tactical Marines very well. I had chosen to use my two servo skulls as bait to try drawing out an enemy unit for an easy kill.

- Game Synopsis -
The first half of the game my dice were on fire and my opponent couldn't get one break with his... His Vindicator had one shot that drifted completely off my GKT then one of my psyflemen popped it win one penetrating hit that snuck past a 3++ cover save. Both of my terminator squads got great deep strikes with excellent midfield position. By turn three my HQ and Paladins had wrecked one enemy flank and were holding one of the objectives plus my Librarian consistently shut down my opponent's Librarian. The second half of the game my dice went ICE COLD for armor saves - fourth turn all my GKT died to bolter fire failing the first four armor saves in a row. The apothecary paid for himself as my Paladins also began to fail one armor save after another - it was amazing how many 1s I rolled! Aaaargh !! Still my Paladins fought it out trying at first to stretch out to hold the first objective and contest another. By the end of the game there was one Space Marine terminator left that held and cost me the game. It was very close and very hard fought—Draigo split off one his lonesome accounting for the Space Marine Librarian, a combat squad, partial kill of another combat squad and an attack bike.

- Post Game Analysis -
As I was packing away my army I realized I had not deployed one of my Paladins (armed with a pair of falchions)... Wow how dumb of me as those four extra attacks each round of melee would have surely killed the lone Space Marine terminator ! We even rolled a few attacks to see how it would have played out if I had fielded all ten Paladins. I also forgot to reroll 1s when wounding for my Paladins as well (Grand Strategy)... For some reason I always seem to forget that one unfortunately. So I should have had a draw but my transfixed mind ended up costing me. That's why we playtest. :D

It was still one heck of a game and I had a great time playing both games. It's nice to have the opportunity to break out my Grey Knights again.

Best of 2011

2011-12-31T20:21:00.000-05:00

Here are my top choices for 2011:

Best blog - Fritz 40k
A true genius in my opinion with a very unique tactical take on the game. If there is one person I'd like to meet its Fritz. His Tyranid tactica is sublime. Fritz has the ability to look at a codex in a different light and is open to experimentation. I have learned a lot reading his articles this year... Really great stuff indeed. Five stars.

Best Tourney - WarGamesCon
Go and find out for yourself. A truly competitive event that is well designed, well run and everything is above the board. Five stars.

Best Army - Grey Knights
Mat Ward writes great codices. If the rest of the developers were in his league the game would be that much better. There is a lot of hate on the Internet towards Mat but his books tend to be very popular. Mat can design a codex that merits the background of the army. Mat also pushes the envelope and creates new things which is sorely needed to keep the game fresh. Five stars.

Best Black Library Novel - The Red Duke
The end of the novel was shit but the story was so good and so well told its okay. Three stars due to the poor ending but still definitely worth the read.

Best Mini - Lelith Hesperax
A fanatastic miniature if ever there was one. Too bad her rules were botched. Dark eldar are my biggest disappointment this year. Phil Kelly did not do dark eldar the justice they deserve. Five stars for Lelith but a big thumbs down for the codex.

That's pretty much it and to everyone here is hoping you have a fantastic new year. Be safe and have fun. Sixth edition is right around the corner—should be a blast.

G

Tyranid Challenge • Help Me Build a Better Reserved Army

2011-12-29T22:00:00.000-05:00

Introduction
This thread I'm asking you to help me build a better fully reserved Tyranid army. The foot slogging army has been proven to not be a competitive list, never placing in the top five at major national tournaments such as Adepticon, NOVA and WarGamesCon since the inception of the new codex... Tyranids are currently at their weakest nexus for over the past decade. It sucks but it is what it is. Should have, could have, would have isn't getting it done on the top tables.

I realize there is a lot of love for Tervigons and the Tyranid deathstar but they just don't cut the mustard. This is the truth - lots of so called top players in the US mentally wrecked themselves trying to create a meta net list to stomp other armies such as Space Wolves and Imperial Guard but they all came up short. These armies commonly featured units such as Tervigons and Tryannofex along with the Swarmlord. I do want to build the best fully reserved Tyranid army that can consistently beat Imperial Guard, Grey Knights and Space Wolves. I have had good success beating the two latter armies and will soon be testing my list versus the former. My goal is not to create a meta net list—that has never been my goal nor will it ever be. This is where you can help me.

My Current List
Here is my current 2000 point army list:

Hive Tyrant: Wings, Adrenal glands, twin linked devourers w. brain leech ammo, bone sword & lash whip, Hive Commander, paroxysm & leech essence

Tyranid Prime: Adrenal glands, scything talons, bone sword & lash whip, regeneration

Doom of Malan'tai - mycetic spore

10x Yrmgal genestealer

2x Zoanthrope - mycetic spore

10x Hormagaunt: Adrenal glands & toxin sacs (attached to Tyranid Prime)
15x devilgant - mycetic spore
3x Warrior: bone swords & lash whips, toxin sacs, 2x deathspitter & barbed strangler - mycetic spore
15x genestealer incl. Broodlord: Toxin sacs & scything talons

Trygon Prime

So there is my list...
What would you drop and what would you take in its place? Like I said above the Tervigon has already been suggested in place of the Warrior brood. I'm hoping to see some solid suggestions! This is the army I intend to take to the ATC and WarGamesCon. Let me know what you think about it.

How to Synergize the Tervigon with a Fully Reserved Tyranid Army

2011-12-28T22:47:00.002-05:00

Introduction
Here is my first guest post in a long time. It comes by way of my good friend—Christopher Lackey, whom I met over on the 40k Wrecking Crew forums. Chris has been playing 5th edition Tyranids a lot longer than me and has some great advice—hence the reason why I'm posting this article of his to share with everyone else.

If you follow this blog then you know my current army is a fully reserved Tyranid list. You'll probably also know that I'm opinionated and can be quite stubborn at times. That said I am willing to take good advice from others (as hard as that might be to believe). Lots of people such as Alex Liao have suggested the inclusion of a Tervigon in my existing list so I think it's time to delve more deeply into this particular subject.

Current 2000 point Tyranid Army List
Here is my current abbreviated list as a reference for this discussion:

Tyranid Prime + 10x Hormogant
Flyrant: Hive Commander, pair of twin linked devourers w. brain leech ammo, lash whip & bone sword; paroxysm & leech essence

Doom - mycetic spore
2x Zoie - mycetic spore
10x Yrmgal genestealer

15x devilgant - mycetic spore
3x Warrior: bone swords & lash whips, toxin sacs, 2x deathspitter & barbed strangler - mycetic spore
15x genestealer incl. Broodlord: toxin sacs & scything talons

Trygon Prime

1st Comment - Old Adversary Suggested for your Flyrant
"I just don't have the points for Old Adversary. Most of my sheet is WS5
or better so it's okay. I noticed the guns are usually lots better than
casting Paroxsym. Thoughts?"

Here is Chris' first gem of wisdom:

—Remember as a monsterous Creature you can shoot two twice a turn. So if you have lash whip and bone sword plus twin linked devourers with brain leech ammo you can shoot your 6 shots AND you can cast paroxysm on the targeted enemy unit.

Paroxsym causes your opponent to hit even your termagants on 5+ in melee... Your weakest units hit on 3+. If you have Old Adversary then you hit on 3+ and get to reroll all failed hits. It can make a world of difference when mean old Abbadon suddenly has to hit on 5+ versus his normal 3+.

The main thing to take away from this is that you can shoot your gun and still cast paroxysm.

2nd Comment - Take a Tervigon as a Troop Choice
"I am not a fan of the Tervi. Doesn't fit with a reserved army."

—Since you already take a unit of termagants you can take a Tervigon as a troop choice and since you take HIve Commander for your Flyrant you can give a troop choice Outflank -> So you can have a Tervigon outflank. On top of that you can have an exhaustive supply of troops (barring rolling any doubles on 3d6 dice to spawn more gants)... It's really hard to beat Nidz in objective based games while your Tervigon is spewing out more gants each turn!

Also if you purchase toxin sacs and adrenal glands for the Tervigon... Any unit of termagants within 6" the Tervigon can do all of the following:

- Use its leadership for any tests
- Gain Counter Attack *
- Have toxin sacs and adrenal glands *

* If spawned by the Tervigon

So if you assault with your gants and utilize your movement phase correctly you should still have at least one gant within 6" of the Tervigon.

If you have the Flyrant nearby then you can hit on 3+ and reroll failed hits while wounding on 4+ due to toxin sacs and reroll wounds versus T4 units due to adrenal glands. On top of all that you can cast Feel No Pain (FNP) on one of your units. The combination of these units and the synergies they bring are insane !!

Suggestion—Drop the Warrior brood to make room for a Tervigon.

Here are some more advantages the Tervigon has over the Warriors:

- Synapse with 18" range versus 12" (i.e., Dominion)
- Cast Feel No Pain on units like your genestealers, Flyrant and Trygon Prime *
- Much better equipped to crack open vehicles being a monstrous creature (S6 plus 2d6 armor penetration)

* Note that FnP cast on a monstrous creature is a solid counter to missile spam plus if you properly layer your army then you've also got the 4+ cover save as well... It's very difficult to sneak a wound past two 4+ saves!

Conclusion
So there you have it. There are plenty of people who have a lot more experience than myself when it comes to playing Tyranids. I'm always learning and want to improve my list. I just shipped by army today to be pro painted so I'll be taking a break from Tyranids for a couple weeks—but who knows, maybe I'll build a Tervigon next year and give it a fair test

Remember though that while my Warrior brood is small it's a strategic node in my synaptic network - its primary function is to provide synapse in the midfield and take objectives late in the game. I love my Warriors so it'd be hard for me to drop them but I'll probably give the Tervigon a fair chance soon enough.

Thanks to Christopher for his excellent advice—it was pretty much a primer for me and it's greatly appreciated. A lot that's been said is common knowledge for those playing Tyranids but I think this is excellent advice for those just starting to take a look at the codex.

Thanks again !!

Tyranids vs Imperial Guard • Part II

2011-12-27T17:38:00.000-05:00

I have already posted one brief article that dealt with the subject of Tyranids versus Imperial Guard. As we all know it's a tough matchup for the Bugz. That said it's not impossible to beat IG with Tyranids. While at first glance it certainly might feel like barring crazy luck it's a fore drawn conclusion which is not the case. I will be covering in detail how I match up my army versus Imperial Guard for the win in a brief series of continuing articles.

The Giant

2011-12-27T09:57:00.001-05:00

It’s not so bad, I’m Dr. Strange
My broken heart, I have to face
My broken heart, Hell’s on its way

My time to start, procrastinate
I feel alive, I fucking hate
There’s nothing left, there’s nothing right
If there’s no point, why do we fight?

Welcome to my vicious circle
Trying to escape, break out!
Playing with my knife until it cuts me
Giant walking, no more talking
In my way and one way out
Fighting me forever, I’ll break the giant down

Caught between the lines of right and wrong yeah
Caught between the things that I don’t know
Up and down the mountain climbing, climbing
Drowning in a ocean to find my soul

I have to win, I never lose
I’ll have my way, you have to choose
War all the time, I’m fucking fierce
War all the time, what do I fear?
The giant walks, the giant eats
Out of control, the giant beats
And breaks you down, with all your might
With nothing left, and still I fight

Army Comp - The King is Dead

2011-12-25T16:20:00.003-05:00

I have never been a big fan of army composition. Now keep in mind I've never played Fantasy and to be honest I'm kind of glad after reading this thread on a local forum:

http://forums.anthem-games.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4117&sid=753ff371c92e7b27420ad2f4577de6e3

That is a lot of rules to remember and one codex army is outright banned from play. How would you like to travel to a tourney and then the TO tells you that your Grey Knights or Imperial Guard have been banned from play? Oh well.

I've never heard of anyone using or enforcing comp for Warmachine. Can you imagine a ban on rooks in chess? Casual play with friends you know what is cool and what is not. Tournaments are for competition - there are no awards for participating. I know when I first start playing in tournaments it took quite awhile before I ever won anything. GW did have rules for comp in 40k at one time - it was very biased towards Imperial Space Marine armies. For example if you played Chaos Space Marines and took a squad of Khorne Berzerkers you automatically lost some points. Eventually it was dropped along with their wacky missions.

There is a rumor 6th edition will have no FoC. If so (who knows) that will be a real kick in the nuts to comp.

WarGamesCon 2012 • June 21—24 • Austin, Texas

2011-12-22T22:36:00.002-05:00

Tonight I'd like to talk a bit about a fantastic 40k GT that also includes lots of other popular gaming systems - WarGamesCon - hosted by my good friends, the fine fellows over at the Bell of Lost Souls—Jwolf, BigRed, Goatboy and Darkwynn to name some of the BoLS crew. They run a tight ship, are very well organized and have created an excellent tournament system that's been well proven over three years now. I have attended the past two years and have to say it is by far the best event I've ever experienced in most every way.

The 40k GT is designed for competitive play and has always produced one player who has the best record at the end of the tournament. You play lots of games over the course of the weekend and have the opportunity to spend some quality time with a host of great people. If 40k is your big thing then make sure to bring a friend along as there is always a team tournament on the Friday evening to kick things off.

I am very happy to say that with only one notable exception I have thoroughly enjoyed every game. The missions and overall scoring system are well designed. No army composition as well is something I look for when deciding where to travel. You see lots of beautiful armies and play some very exciting games. The overall cost to attend is easily affordable—there are lots of cheap flights in and out of Austin and the hotel where they host the event is economically priced. I fly direct on Southwest - total time in the air is around two hours from Tampa.

The BoLS crew is looking to expand the event so if you're seriously looking for a fantastic event to attend next year then look no further than Austin. Believe me when I say you'll be glad you did. I noticed there was a considerably larger number of tables this year and I'm sure there will even more next year.

Currently I'm planning to bring my Tyranid army for 2012. Based upon my past experiences at WarGamesCon I feel comfortable bringing an army that is considered by many to be less than competitive. There's always a wide array of different armies so you don't really have to worry much about facing off against GK, IG and SW each and every game which is really nice. This past year I brought my Draigowing and faced the following armies -

• 2x Dark Eldar (one was a skimmer armada while the other was a Webway Portal variant)
• Blood Angels
• 2x Orks (one fully mech with Ghaz and the other was infantry horde)
• Tyranidz
• Grey Knights

So no IG or SW this year for me.

The previous year I brought my Blood Angels and faced the following armies:

• 3x Blood Angels (DoA, landraider armada and a mixed list)
• Imperial Fists
• Eldar
• Imperial Guard
• Space Wolves

So as you can see the variance has grown by leaps and bounds. : )

If you're thinking about attending then check it out ! There is a link to the WarGamesCon site up in the top right hand corner of my blog. Go ahead, click on the picture of their logo and take a peek !

About those Whiners...

2011-12-22T10:52:00.002-05:00

Modifications to Tyranid Reserve Army

2011-12-20T23:26:00.000-05:00

I have made a few changes to my existing list. These changes are based upon good feedback over on BoLS. This past weekend I played a game versus Space Wolves with my prior list and pretty much got tabled (first time). The Space Wolf army has two Wolf Lords on Thunderwolf mounts, two squads of Thunderwolves, two squads of Grey Hunters (one mounted in a rhino & one mounted in a drop pod), two squads of Long Fangs, a Lone Wolf and Rune Priest... Only two scoring units but still pretty darn tight.

The major change to the list was dropping one Trygon Prime in exchange for a Flyrant with twin linked devourers (brain leech ammo), bone sword & lash whip plus Hive Commander. I had to shave a few points elsewhere in the list so I could take the option for Hive Commander and it worked out okay. I am used to playing games where the majority of my army arrives during the third turn when using two Trygons.

Tonight I had a rematch versus the same Space Wolf army (my buddy Mat) debuting the new Tyranid list and won by a fairly solid margin. The +1 for reserves due to Hive Commander was huge so I think I'll be sticking with this new list and test it out more. I just happen to have the Forge World Hive Tyrant with wings laying around plus some sprues with devourers arms for Tyranid monstrous creatures so I should have the model assembled and ready to go by the end of the year.

One Trygon teamed up with the Flyrant was much more effective versus two Trygons in melee - together they cancelled out the strengths of the Wolf Lords in melee and eventually took them both down... The lash whip was very effective versus the Wolf Lord armed with a Frost blade and Saga of the Warrior plus T6 blunted the other Wolf Lord's S10 thunderhammer. The genestealers went through the Thunderwolves by the way.

I am also going to drop adrenal glands on the Warriors in exchange for toxin sacs... Versus T5+ I think this is the better combination with bone swords and lash whips.

I'm very excited about the new list and this is what I plan to bring to my first Grand Tournament for 2012.

New Year's Eve

2011-12-20T15:07:00.001-05:00

Filthy with the knowledge I'm
Planting seeds, spreading the disease
Rip away, tear up the beans

Ravaged, it's all so damaged
You're locked in

Disinter the ancient ways
Deaf to all that dare to pray

Ravaged, never as savage
And that's the

Price you pay, open the door
Find the monster, start the war

I'm bound to, bow down to

I am become Death, destroyer of worlds
A menial place in this infinite swirl
Your pitiful lives, and none more the wise
The human condition is dropping like flies
Unleashed is the beast, the worst of the least
From sheer depraved evil like some Judas Priest
Having his way, my canvas unfurled
I am become Death, destroyer of worlds

Reign, reign
The ending of yours has begun
The ending of yours has begun

Who will stand with me in victory?

Chose to trust me better still
You gave your eyes your own free will
Invulnerable, your boil conceit
I'm leaving you stunned in defeat

Ravaged, so bloody ravaged
You take this

Brutal beating at my hands
Uncivilized my victory stands

Ravaged, never as savage
And that's the

Price you pay, open the door
Find the monster, start the war

Screaming, rapid fire genocide
Screaming, saints in Hell are running wild
Rage, the prelude had begun
Now your epitaph is sung

Pounding, monolithic fists of stone
Pounding, on the sinner to atone
Rage, the prelude had begun
Now your epitaph is sung

I am become Death, destroyer of worlds
A menial place in this infinite swirl
Your pitiful lives, and none more the wise
The human condition is dropping like flies
Unleashed is the beast, the worst of the least
From sheer depraved evil like some Judas Priest
Having his way, my canvas unfurled
I am become Death, destroyer of worlds

Reign, reign
The ending of yours has begun
The ending of yours has begun

If you look for a monster you'll find one
The ending for all has begun

Merry Christmas from hte Blow Fly

2011-12-19T10:17:00.000-05:00

Tyranids vs. Imperial Guard

2011-12-17T22:05:00.023-05:00

This an interesting matchup... two armies both designed by Robin Cruddance... They are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. People often ask me how I approach a game versus IG with my Tyranids. You don't see many batreps where Tyranids beat IG. It's the toughest matchup in my opinion - you've really got your work cut out to crack open their chimeras and they will blaze you with shooting each and every turn. This is one army you'll need some LOS blocking terrain to stand a chance. The good news is if the game is objective based you've got a chance. IG must dedicate two thirds of the game to shooting then finally commit to taking objectives.

Here are your advantages versus IG if you play a fully reserved Tyranid army:

— Just as with any reserved army there are less turns for IG to shoot. Your monstrous creatures will be shot off the table. You want as a small footprint as possible to deny their shooting.

— Synapse means you don't have to worry about their Battle Psyker squads running your best units off the table.

- IG has to roll up in their transports to take objectives. Every unit you've got can beat them in melee.

Most every army except for Tau owns IG in melee so it's not something special for Tyranids but you've got to focus on your advantages. To beat them you need to mitigate their shooting and deny them objectives. It can make for a boring game but you've got to work with what you've got. That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

Tyranid Army Analysis - Synaptic Network

2011-12-13T23:28:00.002-05:00

Introduction
This is my first advanced article for Tyranids. So far I've been posting articles covering individual unit analysis and a few batreps to serve as examples how the army works as a whole. If you've been following this series of articles you'll know that I'm an advocate of running a fully reserved Tyranid army so keep that in mind while reading this article. The purpose of this article is to provide in depth analysis covering an important aspect how to play the army.

My Current Fully Reserved Tyranid Army List

Tyranid Prime * + 10x Hormogaunt

Trygon Prime *
Trygon Prime *

20x termagant w. devourers - mycetic spore
20x genestealer incl. Broodlord
3x Warrior * - mycetic spore

2x Zoanthrope * - mycetic spore

Doom - mycetic spore

10x Yrmgal genestealer

* Synapse

Synaptic Network
40 percent of my units provide synaspse and I've found this to be a good ratio for the particular army list presented here. There is enough synapse to provide adequate support for the army as a whole and to be honest I've never had a problem with not having enough synapse.

Genestealers are not subject to tests for instinctive behavior and the a Doom is Ld10... So if you think about it I really only need synapse for the termagants (Prime is always attached to the Hormogaunt) and like I said so far its never been a problem.

The Trygons provide roaming synaptic support and are usually the first to die since they typically fight on the front line.

The Tryanid Prime is attached to the Hormogaunts - the Prime comes in from reserve on my long table edge providing synaptic support from the rear of the army and moves forward over the course of the game to fill any holes left in the synaptic network when the Trygons are destroyed. The Prime can also arrive from a burrowed hole left by a Trygon if I need him to start on the table in a forward position. Usually it's best to bring on the Prime from the rear as I'll place an objective marker in my deployment zone - typically I prefer to clump my Capture & Control objective marker close to a Seize Ground objective marker. My opponents have to work their way through the rest of my army if for some reason they want to focus on eliminating the Prime and that means inevitably they will suffer heavy losses as a result of playing aggressively.

The Warriors are a midfield unit for synaptic support and often end up babysitting the devilgants. If the devilgants break then there is a least one synaptic unit close by behind them to halt fall backs (e.g., the Prime).

The Zoies are obviously intended for shooting - they can come in anywhere specifically needed to target key enemy vehicles such as landraiders. As such I don't focus on placing the Zoies to provide synaptic support but they can provide redundancy if necessary. Redundant synaptic units are like having dual antennas - if one should fail then there is another in place to provide immediate backup.

Shadows in the Warp (SitW)
Tyranids are one of the psychically gifted races in 40k and they have their share of effective psychic powers. SitW has a limited range so you must play aggressively so it can impact the game - this is an advantage the Trygon Primes can provide - they are T6 and have six wounds so they can usually last at least a turn or two while dampening enemy psykers.

The odds are roughly 50 percent that an enemy psyker with Ld10 will fail a psychic test due to SitW - that's actually pretty good but it can be potentially enhanced by the Broodlord's psychic power Aura of Despair. The Deathleaper has the ability to drop one enemy psyker's leadership by d3 and works well in a fully reserved army tailored to beat Grey Knights. Let's face the facts - if you play in competitive tournaments there is a reasonable chance you'll end up fighting against Grey Knights one or two games... heck maybe even three times at a large event ! Don't despair though. If you can shut down Grey Knight psychic powers it opens the door for your melee units to wreck havoc.

A squad of Paladins with an attached Librarian are the supreme lords of battle... Normally you can't charge them and expect to win as they will crush anything and everything in melee. If we factor in SitW and the Deathleaper's ability here are the odds to shut down the Grey Knight Librarian. On average the Librarian will be reduced to Ld8. If you have a Broodlord nearby you might even be able to reduce the Librarian to Ld7 at a key point in the game. On average a roll of 3d6 results in a total of 9 to 11 so if you pull this off the odds are actually well in your favor ! That means at the critical point in a game versus Grey Knights you'll block their psychic power Sanctuary... Your genestealers then launch an assault versus the Paladins and you p0wn them. Pretty amazing and believe me when I say your opponent will never see it coming - they are just that confident.

Conclusion
I've discussed how to build an effective synaptic network for a fully reserved Tyranid army. A direct offshoot of this approach is you'll also have SitW spread out across the table as well. If you want to take advantage of SitW then it pays to enhance it using either or both a Broodlord and the Deathleaper. You can always take a more defensive stance but if you want to play aggressively then these tactics can help. Finally remember that an enemy psyker automatically suffers Perils of the Warp if they roll a double 1 or 6 on 3d6 due to SitW.

The Tendril Descends... Tyranids vs. Blood Angels (Re posted)

2011-12-08T19:42:00.026-05:00

This past holiday weekend I drove down to Fort Lauderdale to hook up with one of my good gaming
buddies from 40k Wrecking Crew, Brian Poole. Brian came in 2nd place overall at BeakyCon this year and is no slouch.

Billikenz my pet baby Pitbull was sad to see me go and gave me her infamous sad face look as I stepped out the door to leave my apartment...

Army Lists
Here is my 2000 point Tyranid army list:

Prime - dual bone swords, scything talons, adrenal glands, regeneration

Trygon Prime - adrenal glands
Trygon Prime - adrenal glands

10x Yrmgal
Doom - spore
2x Zoanthrope - spore

10x Hormaguant - adrenal glands (Prime's retinue)
16x Genestealer + Doomlord - sycthing talons & toxin sacs
18x Termagant - Devourer - spore
3x Warrior - dual bone swords, 2x deathspitter, barbed strangler, adrenal glands - spore

Here is Brian's 2000 point Blood Angels army list:

Librarian - Shield of Sanguinius & Unleash Rage

10x Death Company + Lemartes - 4x power sword & 2x power fist
Death Company dread - pair of Blood Talons
10x Assault Marine (jump packs) - 2x meltagun & power fist
5x assault Marine - flamer - Razorback w. heavy flamer
5x assault Marine - flamer - Razorback w. heavy flamer

7x assault terminator - 3x lightning claws & 4x TH/SS
Sanguinary Priest

Landraider Crusader - multi-melta
Stormraven - TL multi-melta & TL lascannon & extra armor

Mission
We used the BeakyCon mission - killpoints, Capture and Control plus Seize Ground are all equally weighted - whoever takes the most objectives wins. If there is a draw on objectives then it goes to pure victory points to decide the winner.

Deployment
Deployment was Pitched Battle and there were four objective markers for Seize Ground. There are six turns with a seventh on a roll of 4+ on 1d6. I lost the roll for deployment and had to go first holding my entire army in reserve. :/

Pre Game Analysis
It really sucked to have to go first since I play a fully reserved army. I was very excited about this game though and the opportunity to test my list versus a veteran tourney player so I just told myself to deal with it. I knew I had to focus on two strategies:

- Kill the three scoring units
- Use disruption to keep the opponent off balance and take control the game

Over the course of the game it was amazing how much the terminators and Death Company could quickly destroy but slowly turn by turn I was able to inflict damage in return and keep my sights focused on the win.

Deployment
Brian started with his whole army in reserves which was obviously very bad for me since I play a fully reserved army. The Stormraven was loaded with the Death Company and Death Company dreadnaught. The Librarian and Priest were attached to the terminators in the Landraider Crusader.

Turn 1 - Tyranids
Crickets chirping ...

Turn 1 - Blood Angels

Crickets continue chirping ...

KP: 0 Nidz - 0 BA

Turn 2 - Tyranids
I called upon the power of the ancient Hive Mind to work a little magic upon my tendril... I then rolled for my reserves and the only units to arrive was the Doomlord with his huge brood of genestealers... they luckily decided to outflank on the side of the table where most of the objective markers had been using a huge grove of bushes for cover. The table had just been turned ! HA !!!

Turn 2 - Blood Angels
Brian rolls for his reserves and in comes all three of his troops. Brian uses the two razorabacks to shield his jumpers.

KP: 0 Nidz - 0 BA

Turn 3 - Tyranids
I roll for reserves and in comes one Trygon Prime, the Yrmgal genestealers, Doom and my termagants. The Trygon burrows up for some juicy shots on a razorback while the Yrmgal genestealers pop out of a central piece of terrain moving up close to eat anything that spills out. The Doom and termagants land in their spores to target the jumpers. The Doom unleashes spirit leech and consumes seven assault Marines boosting his strength up to a mighty S10. The termagants then finish off the rest of the jumpers. The Trygon then immobilizes the razorback and knocks off its heavy flamer with a hail of deadly bio shots. The Yrmgal genestealers run to surround the razorback then close hatch the Marines inside when they wreck the transport in melee. Two enemy scoring units down now... one to go.

Turn 3 - Blood Angels
The Landraider Crusader and Stormraven both arrive from reserve. The Landraider Crusader moved up to tap the termagants along with the remaining razorback while the Stormraven rolled up so that the Death Company could charge any remaining termagants and the Death Company dread could charge the Doom. The razorback moved in a blocking position to cut off the Yrmgal genestealers. Note that the Death Company was very careful to avoid the 6" Spirit Leech range of the Doom while disembarking from the Stormraven. The Stormraven attempted to take out the Doom with the multi-melta but the beast passed its invulnerable save. As expected the died quickly but the dreadnaught was in for a big surprise as the Doom was juiced all the way up to S10 and proceeded to crush the metal behemoth with a punishing haymaker of destruction... BOOM !!!!!!!!! The Doom then consolidated back into a wooded area. The Death Company also consolidated away from the Yrmgal genestealers tucking into a covered area.

KP: 4 Nidz - 1 BA

Turn 4 - Tyranids
I rolled for reserves and again the Hive Mind continued to unleash more bio death onto the planet surface... The second Trygon burrowed up close to the Blood Angels line to wreck havoc and disrupt their battle plans. The Warriors also dropped from the sky in their spore and landed safely in position to support the second Trygon. The Zoanthropes are the last to arrive landing close to the center of the table. Finally the huge genestealer brood begins its trek to the promised land and burst forth from the bush.

The Hive Mind sends in the first Trygon to take down the Landraider Crusader while the Yrmgal genestealers flank around to assault the Death Company. A couple of Death Company Marines are eaten by the Doom's spirit leech then the beast drops his S10 pie plate on the Landraider Crusader... I roll a 1 for the armor penetration. The second Trygon fires at the remaining razorback and blows off its heavy flamer. The Zoanthropes fail to inflict any damage on the Landraider Crusader. The Trygon can only manage to rip off the Landraider Crusader's multi-melta in melee and the Yrmgals trip over difficult terrain in their attempt to get at the Death Company and then are trampled under power armored boots.

Turn 4 - Blood Angels
The Tyranids are now exposed on one flank and the Blood Angels are ready to exact revenge for their fallen brothers. The Landraider Crusader pulls back to unleash the assault terminators while the Death Company make a run towards the middle of the board but will fall short of assaulting. The razorback wisely starts to fall back towards the objective markers. Both the Landraider Crusader and Stormraven then line up to drop the Doom and blast the wicked alien creature off the table. A PotMS shot from the Stormraven also makes short work of one of the spores. The terminators launch an assault into the first Trygon (whom eats two terms) and then pummel it to death with their mighty hammers.

KP: 4 Nidz - 5 BA

Turn 5 - Tyranids
The Tyranid Prime finally shows and his posse head straight ahead towards the other side. The genestealers continue to push across the midfield. The Zoies then drop some S5/AP3 blasts on the Death Company and charbroil a couple to burnt crisps. Heh ! The remaining Trygon then charges the Death Company while the Warriors charge the assault terminators. When all the blood and gore has come and gone only Lemartes is left from the Death Company and scores a couple of wounds on the Trygon in return... the Warriors died a valiant death dragging down a couple more assault terminators.

Turn 5 - Blood Angels
The razorback, Landraider Crusader and Stormraven all fall back on the objective markers while the assault terminators make ready to charge the Trygon and rescue Lemartes from its evil clutch. The Trygon rips apart more terminators then falls to their hammers. The terminators consolidate towards the objective markers while Lemartes stands his ground.

KP: 4 Nidz - 7 BA

Turn 6 - Tyranids
The Blood Angels have run rampant but at a steep price. With only one to two turns left their assault has been blunted. The genestealers move onto the objective markers slithering all around the razorback while the Tyranid Prime leads the Hormogaunts across the open ground in defiance of fading Imperial might. The two Zoies then fire a couple shots into Lemartes then assault the death god - he will be tied up for the rest of the game harmlessly flailing at the pair of psychic bio constructs. The genestealers then crash into the razorback and rip it to shreds. The assault Marines fall out on the rear side and luckily pass their tests.

Turn 6 - Blood Angels
At this point I could not catch up on killpoints so it would come down to the objective markers. I had left my Capture & Control marker behind but it was possible I could hold Brian's. Brian would have to try to contest both Seize Ground and Capture & Control with his remaining forces. Brian wisely mounted his last assault squad into the Landraider Crusader with the Priest and Librarian then positioned the tank and Stormraven to contest. Shooting was inconsequential.

KP: 5 Nidz - 7 BA

We roll to see if it will go to a final turn 7 and up pops a 6 !!! If the game had ended Brian would have won on killpoints.

Turn 7 - Tyranids
Finally the Tyranid Prime arrives along with his posse of Hormogaunts... I can put my rending attacks into either the landraider or Stormraven... at first I was going to go for the tank but then Brian was really cool and said it was a much wiser bet to focus on the Stormraven (for sure... duh! THANKS BRIAN !!!) The big bird was then ripped from the sky.

Turn 7 - Blood Angels
The objective markers for Seize Ground are spread too far apart for Brian to contest them all so in the end I win on victory points since we were tied on the primary objectives (i.e., kill points versus Seize Ground).

KP: 6 Nidz - 7 BA

Post Game Analysis
It was a really crazy game indeed and came right down to the wire. The balance of power swung back and forth throughout the game which kept it very exciting. The first major turning point in the game was the second turn when only my brood of genestealers arrived from reserve and luckily outflanked on the side of the table with the majority of the objective markers. The second major turning point was when both the first Trygon and Yrmgal genestealers failed to score any major damage in melee. I was worried about the Tyranid Prime showing up late but due to a couple of good rolls for their runs they were able to reach the objective markers by the final turn and the Alpha Warrior came through like a champ tearing the Stormraven down to help secure the win. I have switched over from two genestealer broods, combining them both into one super unit. The big brood can obviously sustain more damage and dish out more punishment - like I said I got lucky that the brood outflanked onto the side of the table with the most objectives - otherwise the game would played out differently.

I think this game showcases some strengths of playing a fully reserved Tyranid army. It's nice to be able to place your units where you need them the most. I'm thinking about switching out one of the Trygons in exchange for a winged Hive Tyrant. It will be interesting to see how a second HQ with the Hive Commander option can enhance the army.

Great game !!

Necron FAQ

2011-12-06T23:53:00.000-05:00

So I'm wondering what is in store for Necrons when their FAQ is finally released by GW. On the one hand the codex was written by Mat Ward and I kind of find it hard to believe that he'd let one of his own books be on the receiving end of the typical GW treatment for the 5th edition xenos races. On the other hand we have seen just what GW has done to neuter other xenos armies such as Tyranids. It's up in the air but I'm a little optimistic that they will be kind.

Here is a partial Imperialist wish list for some of the nerfs they want inflicted on Necrons:

Canoptek Scarabs & Spyders
— Entropic Strike does not take affect until the initiative step of the scarabs
— Scarab swarm can never be larger than the maximum size you can purchase (i.e., less than or equal to 10 bases)
— Restriction on the scarab conga line when spyders spawn more scarabs (e.g., a newly spawned scarab base can't be placed more than 2" from the swarm to which it is attached)

Canoptek Wraiths
— Initiative modifiers work versus whip coils (e.g., a Grey Knight with a Nemesis Force Halberd strikes at I3 when in base contact with a Wraith armed with a whip coil)
— Wraiths are reduced to I1 when launching an assault through difficult and|or dangerous terrain)

Most of these would be a change to the existing rules for the new Necron codex - kind of sad if you ask me. I've put up a poll asking you what you think will happen with the FAQ. Let us know what you think.

Tyranid Unit Analysis - The Unsung Heroes, Warriors and termagants

2011-12-04T20:56:00.004-05:00

Introduction
This article covers two units that don't seem to get much attention - Tyranid Warriors and termagants. Used together they can provide a powerful synergy. You have a small synaptic scoring unit that can shepherd another large horde like scoring unit. Together they can control objectives and are hard to remove if stuck in cover. I like this combination better than using a Tervigon as both these units function better when mounted in mycetic spores. If you have been following this series of articles you'll know that I play a fully reserved Tyranid army.

Warrior Brood
Tyranid Warriors don't seem to get much love these days but still they are a troop choice and provide synapse - both of which are very important for any Tyranid army. I typically use mine as a midfield anchor in my synaptic network and they don't see much action on the front lines as most often they shepherd other troops such as my termagants. Mine are armed with deathspitters and a barbed strangler so sometimes they have an opportunity to shoot. Recently I have been using them for melee action and truth be told I have found them to be solid. Their main weakness is T4 - power fists make them quickly disappear. Still though if you arm them with bone swords (count as power weapons) and adrenal glands they can hit hard. Warriors have three base attacks and are WS5 so on the charge they generate a large number of attacks. I run a brood of three Warriors mounted in a mycetic spore. Mine are also equipped with lash whips which I consider to be a good defense versus the Grey Knight psychic power Sanctuary. You don't have to worry about losing the brood to a bad roll for dangerous terrain since Warriors are a multi wound unit. They are very good at eliminating many MEQ units such as Strike squads, Grey Hunters and even Death Company - the trick of course is to make sure they charge which shouldn't be too hard to do if you use other units to screen them. They are deadly versus an IG blob since they can kill large numbers of guardsmen each round of melee and can absorb wounds from the enemy power weapons.

Here is how I kit my unit:

2x bone sword & lash whip, deathspitter
Bone sword & lash whip, barbed strangler
- adrenal glands

They cost around 200 points when mounted in a mycetic spore and I think they are a real bargain. If you throw them in harm's way they will probably die eventually so make sure it's worth the risk of committing them to an assault. They can hold an objective and provide synaspse so often it's better just to use them as another node in your synaptic network. My unit is fairly cheap for what you get and they are extremely versatile. You don't hear much about them but I think they are a great unit and can work in most any Tyranid army.

Termagants
I run a brood of 20 termagants armed with devourers and mount them in a mycetic spore. That equates to 60 S4 shots the turn they land. As such they are an excellent deterrent to enemy infantry units. Versus a T4 unit they should inflict 15 wounds which equates to five dead Marines. It might not sound like much but if you can target a squad of Long Fangs they'll make their points back quickly. Obviously they will mulch a squad of dark eldar Warriors. The devourers cause -1 leadership if the targeted unit suffers a wound which can help versus Grey Knights, especially if you stack this with other leadership reductions such as the Broodlord psychic power Aura of Despair - it works well with Shadows in the Warp too. This particular build is often referred to as devilgants.

It's a large horde like scoring unit that can hold multiple objectives. They don't necessarily have to fire their bio weapons to help you win a game. Stick them in cover on top of an objective with a synaptic unit closeby and your opponent will have their work cut out to eliminate them. Sometimes I drop them right on my opp0nent's front porch with no synaptic support. If they fall back I'll have a synaptic unit positioned behind to halt them.

They are another relatively cheap unit that can fulfill multiple roles. One of the main strengths of Tyranids is you have access to lots of cheap scoring units which is powerful in fifth edition.

Tyranid Army Analysis • The Counter Punch

2011-12-04T08:59:00.001-05:00

I played in a local tournament today. Due to an irritating quirk in Army Builder I ended up playing an 1805 point army instead of 1850 - it didn't affect my final results but damn it's really annoying. I was planning to play my Draigowing but someone showed up without an army so I let him borrow my Grey Knights and I played my Tyranids instead.

Here is my army list:

HQ
Alpha Warrior - bone sword & lash whip, scything talons, adrenal glands (attached to the Hormoguants)

Heavy Support
Tyrgon Prime

Elites
Doom - mycetic spore

10x Yrmgal genestealer

2x Zoanthrope - mycetic spore

Troops
3x Warrior - bone swords & lash whips, 2x deathspitter, barbed strangler, adrenal glands - mycetic spore

10x Hormogaunt - adrenal glands & toxin sacs

20x termagant - devourer - mycetic spore

18x genestealer + Broodlord - scything talons + toxin sacs

The addition of the lash whips are used as a counter versus the Grey Knights psychic power Sanctuary.

We were using the BeakyCon mission format - killpoints, Seize Ground (4 objective markers each round) and Capture & Control. All three objectives are equally weighted. If the game ends in a draw then the winner is decided by victory points. There were three rounds and each used one of the three deployments from the rulebook.

The first game was versus a Blood Angels DoA list. Deployment was Spearhead. I ended up winning with max points. My opponent was a bit sloppy selecting his landing points when deep striking and I overran his army be sheer weight of numbers.

The second game was versus Grey Knights (not my army; Pitched Battle for deployment). I got ahead of myself during the beginning of the game and forgot to use Null Deployment for placing objectives plus the Doom and Warriors both mishapped due to Warp Quake - I ended up losing... My first loss with Tyranids in a long time. It happens and served as a mental reinforcement how my army should be played. A couple of mistakes and|or some bad luck is very hard hard to overcome versus a top tier army... I would have loved to see how the game could have played out if either the Doom or Warriors had not both been lost to mishaps... Warp Quake is a true bitch. I also lost eight genestealers during one dangerous terrain test due to the Grey Knight psychic power Sanctuary - that hurt a lot and I just couldn't recover. My opponent pretty much played a perfect game. All of the objective markers were placed close together which is a really big no no versus Grey Knights... I played right into their hands. Oh well like I said it was a lesson and that's very important.

The third and and final match was versus a shooty Ork horde list... Shooty Orks can lay down a metric ton of firepower ! The Doom was a beast coming down the second turn and slaughtering the green tide right and left but I got behind on killpoints early and could never make up the deficit. Ork horde can soak up lots of damage and win melee solely by sheer of weight of numbers. It wasn't looking good at all but finally the last turn my genestealers came through like the champs they are and I ended up winning by a margin of 2 to 1 on objectives (Seize Ground plus Capture & Control). I got a great consolidation roll (6) after finishing off a remnant squad of Boyz taking both Seize Ground plus Capture & Control - if it had gone to victory points I would have lost. That said a big brood of genestealers lead by a Broodlord is one heck of an awesome melee unit !!

I ended up in fourth place overall only two points overall behind third place. The Grey Knight player I lost to took third place and the player who borrowed my Draigowing took second place. Mech eldar took first place beating out the Grey Knight player I lost to in the second round.

Something interesting I've noticed about my Tyranid army is they tend to win by coming back late in the game - the opponent takes heavy losses over the course of the game then what is left of my army is still strong enough to finish them off taking enough objectives for the win. It's usually either the genestealers or Alpha Warrior attached to the Hormogaunts who win it for me. It's funny how the wins seem to always play out - I take lots of losses over the course of the game, bleeding killpoints but in return my army slowly whittles down the opponent - finally what they are left with isn't enough to win.

I'm still working on my batrep from my game last weekend versus another Blood Angels army... Lots of pictures. It was a true nail biter so keep an eye out.

The BS factor vs Xenos

2011-12-02T10:59:00.003-05:00

This kind of sucks and I think people need to be aware of it. Lots of people that play Imperial armies have started to feel very entitled. For example whenever a new xenos codex is released they develop a list of things they don't like about the army and then they lobby GW to FAQ them out of existence. Right now there is lots of hate for Canoptek scarabs and spyders... Imperial mech players want them nerfed to the point where they are no longer competitive. We all saw what GW did to Tyranids with the FAQ. I sure hope this doesn't happen to Necrons. It bothers me that people who play IG, GKand SW have the balls to complain about any xenos army. Seriously.

Pay attention if you play xenos... Stand up for your armies.

The problem with Tryanids

2011-12-01T21:37:00.001-05:00

I used to laugh at 5th edition Tyranids. It is probably one of the worst written (if not the worst ever) codices published by GW. On top of that a lot of people have come to recognize that GW is shafting all the xenos armies. Orks were the only exception - their codex was released for 5th edition and was highly competitive at the time. Some people claim that Orks are a fourth edition codex but I strongly disagree as it was released towards the tail end of 4th edition - it is obvious to me the codex was written with 5th edition in mind. Except for the new dark eldar all of Phil Kelly's codices share a common theme - there are a few super units that are pretty much must take (e.g., Nobz, Lootaz, big squads of shoota Boyz, battlewagons with def rollz, Mek Boyz with KFF, Ghaz, etc.) and the rest are eye candy at best for the most part. There is not one xenos codex released for 5th edition on par with Imperial Guard, Grey Knights or Space Wolves.

Often when I tell people how much I enjoy playing Tyranids and that I think they are competitive I see the chuckle in their eyes. When the Tyranid 5th edition codex was released some of the 40k Internet gurus were very excited about the army and put forth a lot of effort to design a competitive army. It never quite worked out for anyone though and eventually Tyranids were labeled as at best a fun army but definitely not competitive. The image stuck. I never thought any of the net lists I saw were all that great to be honest as they all revolved around using waves to win. I've talked about waves before - it doesn't work well at the competitive level for Tyranids. Waves work on the premise that you start with the majority of your army deployed on the table and that has always been the biggest reason for the epic levels of fail. Around the same time that the gurus were playtesting their Tyranid lists I theorized that a fully reserved army was the way to go. The best units from the codex are genestealers (including Yrmgal) and Trygons. The Doom is also an uber unit but doesn't always perform well on a consistent basis. Carnifexen were nerfed along with the Hive Tyrant plus they are both overcosted for the points. There are some really cool units like Lictors and the Tervigon but due to inherent design problems with the codex they cannot consistently perform well versus the three top armies... It's very much an uphill battle.

The problem with Tyranids is the stigma associated with the codex that it's not a competitive army. A couple of months ago I approached a good friend and asked him if he would sell me his Tyranid army, which he did. This allowed me to start playing Tyranids quickly without much effort to build the army. It's a fully reserved army and only required a few minor tweaks to bring it over to how I wanted to play. I have had lots of success and found the army capable of defeating the top three armies on a consistent basis. I've had more than my fair share of awesome dice but it takes more than just dumb luck to win with Tyranids. That to me means the army requires a skillful player to win. It is what it is. Take only the best units and go from there. Tyranids are scary monsters in melee, have some decent shooting and are quite mobile. If you successfully put that all together and stick with it you're eventually going to do well. Stick with it is my advice.

Repost - Daemons vs. Salamanders batrep • by Next Level Painting

2011-11-30T22:54:00.005-05:00

Here is a repost of a great new batrep pitting Kenny Boucher's daemons versus Donovan (whom wrote the batrep) playing a client's commissioned Salamanders. Kenny is the airbrusher for the professional painting service Next Level Painting and is one heck of an awesome painter. His skill with the airbrush is truly unbound. Enjoy the pictures of these two armies he painted. It's an awesome batrep and shows how daemons can perform versus a well designed mechanized army.

In my opinion it's typically an uphill battle for Space Marines versus daemons.

http://nextlevelpainting.blogspot.com/2011/11/battle-report-salamanders-vs-demons.html

Note you'll have to copy the link and paste it into your browser. Blogger doesn't support the iPad well with its link command unfortunately.

Mephiston by DV8

2011-11-28T11:06:00.000-05:00

Here is a highly converted and very well painted Mephiston.

Here is more of his Lamenters over on the Bolter and Chainsword:

DV8's Lamenters

Necron Unit Analysis - Heavy Support

2011-11-27T13:26:00.002-05:00

So let's take a look at what Necrons have in the way of heavy support:

— Doomsday Ark (175)
— Annihilation Barge (90)
— Monolith (200)
— Doom Scythe (175)
— Canoptek Spyders x3 (150)

Three of the choices listed above are quite pricy pointswise for what you get - that being the Ark, Monolith and Scythe. The Ark and Scythe don't seem well thought out to me in terms of overall design and what they can offer on the table. The Ark is not that useful in my opinion since it must remain stationary to drop the S9 AP1 pie plate. It's not ordnance either... S10 might have made it worth a try. The Scythe does not have Quantum Shielding... What's up with that ?? So it's bacically a one shot wonder... Not worth it to me. The Monolith as we all know got hit hard by the nerf bat - we all knew it was going to happen too... Just not worth it to me even with the reduced cost in points. Everyone knows all about the Spyders as they are a very big part of the Scarab Farm rage. Spyders are definitely worth the points if you are using the Scarab Farm... So one dimensional but well worth it for a specific build.

So this leaves us with the Annihilation Barge which at only 90 points I feel is the best choice overall. The Barge has Quantum Shielding (AV13 on front and sides until it suffers a penetrating hit then reverts back to AV11) which is important as it can ignore all S6, S7 can only glance and S8 needing a 6 to penetrate as well. The Barge has Living Metal as well so it's quite resilient versus the majority of shooting we typically see now. This is the best bargain for Heavy Support and is a solid shooting platform with the twin linked Tesla destructor and Tesla cannon. You also have the option to trade the Tesla cannon for a Gauss cannon - I prefer the former for the potential higher rate of shots plus S7 is good versus light armor such as rhinos and even chimeras. So the Barge is quite good as both anti infantry and versus light armor. At only 90 points it's cheaper than a SM Predator and can generate a decent amount of firepower. It's range is limited but that's okay... If you build the right list your opponent will hard pressed to focus a lot of firepower on the Barge.

You don't seem to see much talk on the Internet yet about the Annihilation Barge but I think eventually it will catch on and take notice. You can easily afford a pair due to the relatively low cost and then you've got a nice battery of S7 shooting. That still leaves one slot open for some Spyders if you want to run a farm. What's not to like ? Seriously.

Necron Army Analysis vs. the Top Tier

2011-11-26T18:05:00.001-05:00

Time for some more Necron madness ! As I've said elsewhere Necrons have already been labeled as non competitive by a portion of the Internet, ranking them at best as a mid tier army along with dark eldar and Tyranids. I think it's a bit early to start making such bold statements. At worst focus on taking the best units and go from there.

Can Necrons consistently win versus the top three - Imperial Guard, Grey Knights and Space Wolves? In an attempt to answer that query in a meaningful manner let's take a look at the strengths of Necrons and see how they stack up against the weaknesses of the top three to see if they can be exploited.

Here are my picks for the main strengths of Necrons:

— Shooting
— Entropic Strike
— Mobility
— Resilience

The first two are offensive in nature while the third is strategic. The fourth is defensive and no longer do we have to worry about being phased out, so while typically we don't want to engage in protracted assaults it's not quite as devastating as it used to be back when you could automatically lose a game.

Here are my picks for the main weaknesses of the three top tier armies:

Imperial Guard
— Assaults
— Holding Objectives

Grey Knights
— Low Model Count
— Holding Objectives
— Mobility

Space Wolves
— ?

I can't really think of any major weaknesses for the pups as they are very well rounded and can excel in every phase of the game. Versus IG and GK though you have some weaknesses that are readily apparent (at least to me) and can definitely be exploited...

Versus Imperial Guard
I think you can beat IG by assaulting them (including scarabs versus their armor - Entropic Strike) and by holding more objectives. The main strength of IG is their devastating amount of shooting - Necrons have an automatic counter to this via Reanimation Protocol. If an IG player decides to bubble wrap their armor with guardsmen to hold the scarabs at bay then blast them first and keep the scarabs safely tucked away in cover until you can shred the meat shields with your shooting.

Versus Grey Knights
Build a mobile army with at least four troops. Avoid assaults unless you're sure you have a clear advantage. Again focus on holding more objectives.

Versus Space Wolves
This is the tough one as there isn't much yet I can think of that you can exploit. Once I'm able to start seriously playtesting my army I'll spend some time focusing on how to beat Space Wolves. In general Necrons can lay down a prodigious amount of firepower and I think it's on par with any of the armies I've listed here so that is always a strength obviously - this your main strength versus Space Wolves.

Conclusion
Like I said really it's too early to say where Necrons will rank. We need to see how they fare in tournament play to get a better informed opinion. My gut instinct tells me Necrons can beat the top three and I think they can do quite well versus both IG and GK.

An epic struggle for supremacy

2011-11-25T23:27:00.003-05:00

I remember a boss once told me "You get taken out when you get fat dumb and lazy". It's very true and I've seen it happen so many times. Whatever happened to the Romans with their mighty legions? Whatever happened to Alexander the Great? Once you lose your edge it can be hard to get it back and then sometimes it's too late - you get taken out.

Consider this - we all play a game where luck can and does make or break you. It is what it is. If you are a competitive gamer I think it's very important to test yourself. Sure a top tier lists like Grey Knights or Imperial Guard is hard to beat... Same thing for Space Wolves. I have been told more than once that you have to bring a top tier list to beat other top tier lists. How boring would the game if those were the only three armies everyone plays. Who is to truly say that Tyranids or dark eldar can't conistently beat the top tier lists? Some people are already writing off Necrons as a non competive list or stating they a spoiler army at best - I don't believe it. It will take some time to validate these statements as true or false... For now it's too early to say.

Certainly Imperial Guard, Grey Knights and Space Wolves are well proven and fill the top tier but they can be beaten. It can be quite refreshing to play other armies though and it's helps a lot to expand your tactical acumen. Recently Nick Rose (Darkwynn) from BoLS won two major GTs back to back with Black Templars. Kenny Boucher (3skullz) from 40k Wrecking Crew took second best overall at the Feast of Blades with daemons. It can be done.

I distinctly remember Draigowing as being commonly derided as a non competitive army then in less than the span of a week they were suddenly labeled totally WAAC after Alan Hernandez (Blackmoor) rolled through the top tables at NOVA this past summer with his brand of Draigowing. I used to write lots of articles about Draigowing but there is a lot of hate out there so I decided to try my hand at Tyranids, an army that has been labeled as non competitive by the Internet.

Question the authority of the Internet and think outside the box. You'll be glad ya did. Well at least it seems to work for me.

xD

Holiday batreps

2011-11-25T21:49:00.002-05:00

Soon I'll post up the Nid vs Blood Angels report - it was an amazing game.

Necrons Lychguard & Canoptek Wraiths

2011-11-22T23:00:00.001-05:00

So let's talk about Lychguard and Canoptek Wraiths now that all the hype has started to die. My thoughts are currently you want two dedicated melee units at 2000 points. It might seem like a waste of points - the new Necrons have been billed as the ultimate midrange shooting army and you're giving up a good chunk of points to take not one but two dedicated melee units, thus reducing your overall shooting each turn. Is it really worth it? I have always designed all my armies to have a melee component even if it's very shooty. Solid melee units can prevent the opponent from quickly rolling through one of your flanks - that could be important for an army that people are saying folds up once the assaults begin. Lychguard are slow but can hit hard like a ton of bricks while Wraiths are mobile and can also hit hard as well. I plan on fielding both the Ghostwalk Mantle (Obyron) and a Veil of Darkness (Cryptek) in my portal army. This provides the ability to quickly reposition two units (Immortals) and keep them out of harm's way. That combined with two dedicated melee units should go a long way towards stymying an aggressive enemy assault.

Lychguard
Lychguard, when armed with Hyperphase Swords and Disruption Shields, are in many ways the Necron equivalent of assault terminators. While they will do just fine versus a squad of tactical Marines their true measure is determined by how well they will fare against other dedicated melee units and they should alright versus say a squad of Grey Hunters or Blood Angels assault Marines. I see them more as a deterrent rather than an assault unit that can take down say a squad of Khorne Berzerkers. Use them as a screen to deny the enemy a straight unimpeded lane of assault into the heart of your army. If they can tie up an enemy unit for a turn or two and dish out some wounds before they are destroyed it provides valuable time to reposition the rest of your army and they lay waste to them with your prodigious levels of shooting.

A unit of eight Lychgusrd is fairly costed and can both absorb some damage then dish it right back as well. I wish you could take a mix of weapons as a couple of Warscythes could go a long way and make the Lychguard more versatile. For whatever reason (overly balanced ?) Mat Ward was much more conservative when he designed this unit when compared to the Canoptek Wraiths. Lychguard do have the Reanimation Protocol though which is a big plus for them as compared to Wraiths. The choice though between the two weapons for Lychguard (i.e., Warscythe versus Hyperphase Swords and Disruption Shields) is simple to me. The Disruption Shield will make them last awhile longer in melee plus if they get right up into the enemy's grill your opponent is going to have think hard before shooting them with any weapon that ignores their 3+ armor save such as meltaguns.

If you attach Obyron to a squad of Lychguard that opens a lot more possibilities - Obyron can teleport with his Ghostwalk Mantle and has the option to leave an assault unlike a Necron Lord with a Veil of Time... Plus Obyron is a beast in melee. Teleport in beside the Nemesor one turn (i.e., no scatter if within 6" of the boss) then launch an assault the next turn, do your business, then teleport back out again - opponents are going to hate that - especially if the 6th rumor comes to pass that each turn sequence of phases will be changed to move|assault|shoot.

Lychguard are a counter assault unit to shield your other units. As such they are defenders, not aggressors. Lychguard should provide a tough speed bump to prevent the enemy from assaulting your more fragile units that can't take a hard charge. You can also use them more aggressively if you attach Obyron... So there at least a couple of options.

Canoptek Wraiths
I feel that Canoptek Wraiths are the best dedicated melee unit in the new codex - you can field twice as many per unit, they have two wounds apiece, can rend, can be semi complex, have access to wargear that reduce enemy models in base to base contact to I1 (i.e., Whip Coils) and access to S6 R6" pistols (i.e., particle casters). Mat Ward was very good to this unit and they now have more star power than before. The only two things they lost are the lack of the Reanimation Protocol and no longer move like jetbikes. Wraiths are now jump infantry (so a bit slower but still quite mobile) and can still ignore terrain. Overall they got more than they lost for roughly the same points and that's pretty awesome. Wraiths are an aggressive unit that can act as a vanguard for your army reaping havoc in the enemy line early in the game and provide disruption causing your opponent to react.

Conclusions
I've proposed the use of two dedicated melee units - Lychguard and Canoptek Wraiths. If came down to one over another I'd take a full squad of Wraiths with some Whip Coils and particle casters. These units act as a shield blocking enemy assaults or can move forward taking the fight to the enemy.

Blood Strike (Blood Angels novella)

2011-11-22T17:05:00.000-05:00

The story has almost come to an end now for those of you that have been following...

BLOOD STRIKE

Draigowing (2.5k) and Tyranids (2k) lists for Holiday Throw Down

2011-11-21T13:51:00.004-05:00

I will be traveling down to Fort Lauderdale later this week to get in a few games with my good 40kWC buddy Brian Poole. My car is already loaded full of booze. We will have two matches both using the BeakyCon mission:

Grey Knights vs. Chaos Space Marines (2.5k)
Tyranids vs. Blood Angels (2k)

Here is a link to Brian's army lists:

Brian's Army Lists

Here is my Draigowing list:

Draigo
Librarian - Dark Excommunication, Might of Titans, Quicksilver, Sanctuary, Shrouding, Warp Time, Master Crafted Warding Stave, 2x servo skull

10x Paladin:
01) Psycannon & daemonhammer
02) MC Psycannon & daemonhammer
03) Psycannon & MC daemonhammer
04) Psycannon & sword
05) Falchions & stormbolter
06) MC Falchions & stormbolter
07) Falchions & MC stormbolter
08) Sword & stormbolter
09) Warding Stave & stormbolter
10) Brotherhood banner

- psybolt ammo

10x GKT:
Justicar Thawn
2x daemonhammer
2x psycannon & halberd
5x halberd

- psybolt ammo

NDK - personal teleporter & heavy incinerator

2x psyfleman
Venerable psyfleman

Sick stuff for sure !!

Here is my Tyranid genestealer cult list:

14x Genestealer - Toxin Sacs & Scything Talons
Broodlord

10 Ymgarl Genestealer Brood

Tyranid Prime - Pair of Bone Swords, Scything Talons & Adrenal Glands
10x Hormagaunt Brood - Adrenal Glands

3x Tyranid Warrior - Bone Swords, 2x Deathspitter, Barbed Strangler & Adrenal Glands
Mycetic Spore

18x Termagant - Devourer
Mycetic Spore

The Doom of Malan'tai
Mycetic Spore

Trygon Prime - Adrenal Glands

Trygon Prime - Adrenal Glands

2x Zoanthrope
Mycetic Spore

Tyranids Unit Analysis - Zoanthropes and The Doom

2011-11-19T20:44:00.000-05:00

Introduction
Hive Guard are much more popular than Zoanthropes - I respect what Hive Guard can bring to the table but they don't work well in a fully reserved army... This is because like many Tyranid units Hive Guard are Ld7 and must test for instinctive behavior. Therefore Hive Guard require another unit with synaspse close by to babysit them... So I think you can see why Hive Guard don't work well in a fully reserved Tyranid army such as what I'm currently running now.

Zoanthropes
The first thing everybody asks you when you tell them you play Tyranids is "So how do you handle landraiders ??" This is why I need a unit of Zoanthropes and mine are mounted in a mycetic spore. I can can place them such that when they arrive they are in range of any tank I want to shoot. If I'm playing against Grey Knights and they have Warp Quake then I have to place them more conservatively depending upon when they arrive - and that is okay... Most often landraiders are used to transport a melee unit so eventually they will have to make a move that brings them in range of the Zoies. Honestly I can't remember the last time I saw someone use a landraider as dedicated heavy support sitting still all game and firing it's lascannons. By playing the positional game versus smaller armies you can force your opponent to react and move towards you. Back to the annoying question, I also run two Trygons and they can reliably pop landraiders as well - S7 (adrenal glands) + 2d6 for armor penetration - 7 attacks and rerolling all missed hits due to their pairs of scything talons. You always want redundancy for the tasks at hand when possible.

Zoies don't tend to last long once they have arrived so you need to make sure they do something useful while you've got them on the table. They provide synaspse so you don't have to worry about them running away but I don't consider them an important hub as part of my synaptic network... Like I said they usually don't stick around for long.

Zoies have two psychic shooting powers - one is a S10 AP1 lance with an 18" range... Obviously this one is for popping landraiders. They can also fire a S5 AP3 small blast which is great for soaking Marines. Zoies need to be fielded in either squads of two to three so they are reliable... A trio is best if you can afford the points for a third model. Zoies have to pass a psychic test (Ld10) and then roll to hit (3+ on BS4) so psychic hoods can be a problem plus they can outrange you. Still they are your best bet to crack armor at range.

The Doom
In many ways I believe the Doom is THE best unit for the points in the Tyranid codex. If you mount him in a mycetic spore the Doom can be very dangerous. His leech essence power (which does not require a psychic test) is guaranteed to work twice before the enemy can react since it goes off at the start of each shooting phase (that's right, both yours and your opponent's). The trick is to make sure if you're playing against a mech army that you pop some transports before he arrives so that he will have some hopefully ample targets to leech. Again if you're playing against Grey Knights with Warp Quake you have to be careful where you bring him onto the table as you really don't want a mishap. The Doom is a major threat to Grey Knights as they are small in number and he has the potential to kill a large number each turn. The Doom also can lob a S-X AP1 large blast template each turn during your shooting phase. The strength is equal to number of wounds he has leeched (up to maximum of 10) so it's possible for him to flatten a squad of Paladins with one shot. Like I said the Doom is a major threat to Grey Knights (or most any army) - as such I believe he is a Must Take unit. The Doom only costs 130 points total when mounted in a bare bones spore - a real bargain in the codex for sure if ever there was one.

How Zoanthropes and the Doom Affect the Enemy
Both of these have the potential to wreck major havoc if left unchecked so your opponent must react - they cannot be ignored. As such I use these units very aggressively to force the enemy to react - this takes the heat off the rest of my army and allows me to better position my army while my opponent is reacting. Both units are fragile and will fold fast if hard pressed but that is okay - I don't ever expect them to make it through to the end of an entire game... They are über shock units that must be dealt with quickly or else they can inflict a lot of damage. Their threat is more powerful than their potential because they cannot be ignored.

Conclusion
Zoanthropes and the Doom form up a signicant part of your fire base in a fully reserved Tyranid army. The former are a primary defense versus heavy armor while the latter is an elite infantry killer. Mounting them in mycetic spores allows to place them optimally when they arrive. Due to their high threat they don't tend to last long once they've arrived but they can inflict key damage and takes the heat off the rest of your army for a turn or two.

Tyranids Unit Analysis - Alpha Warrior

2011-11-18T21:40:00.001-05:00

Introduction
Here is my second article on Tyranid unit analysis. I am going to discuss the use of an Alpha Warrior as my one HQ... That's right I only take one HQ in my reserve army. Your other two choices are Hive Tyrants (including the Swarmlord) and Tervigons. I know that Tervigons are very popular and easily accommodate positional play. While I definitely rate the Tervigon as a better choice than the Hive Tyrant I think they both are not going to help you reach our goal of the maximum level of competition we are aiming for here. Hive Tyrants should have a big red bulls eye painted on them and a sign that says "Shoot me!!!" So often I have personally seen a Hive Tyrant (including Tyrant Guard) shot off the table before they can launch an assault. They have four wounds, no invulnerable save and are not Eternal Warrior. This includes the Swarmlord as well - he has only one extra wound and no invulnerable save versus enemy shooting.

It seems clear to me that Robin Cruddance was much more excited about the new monstrous creatures... All the pre existing monstrous creatures got shat on with a big dump. I use two Trygon Primes and to me they are the equivalent of an HQ choice since they are big, fast, shooty, provide synaspe and are real monsters in melee. Tyranid players from 3rd and 4th edition all seem to hate the Trygon - they still have a lot of issues with the big nerf to their Carnifexen - that is not a logical approach though to building a Tyranid army that is designed for their maximum potential of competition.

The Alpha Warrior
Here you have an HQ that has a lot of good options for melee and is relatively cheap for what you get plus the Prime is an independent character. His only weakness is that he cannot fleet. My Prime has killed his share of Imperial big baddies such as Wolf Lords mounted on Thunderwolves... I always make sure to soften up those Imperial goons first and the Prime has never failed yet to finish the job.

I like to kit mine as follows:

— Pair of bone swords (instant death)
— Scything talons
— Adrenal glands

A bone sword and lash whip are also another great choice and only costs 5 more points than the pair of bone swords. I prefer to have the ability to inflict instant death and have found that with adrenal glands the Prime is usually hitting first in melee anyway.

Built as such he does not cost many points and is a great HQ in terms of what you get. The Prime doesn't really need anything else in my opinion. His role is to come in from reserve along my long table edge with a brood of 10 Hormagaunts. The Alpha Warrior provides synapse to my back line and is a solid counter assault unit to take back objectives. His brood is also very cheap pointswise and serves as ablative wounds plus they are a scoring unit. I never have to worry about them running away either.

If the Prime could join a Warrior brood in their mycetic spore I'd probably run him as such but sadly this is not the case due to the poorly written Tyranid codex. It doesn't make much sense but it is what it is.

Conclusion
So by taking the Prime I eliminate the inherent weaknesses that come from fielding Hive Tryants and Tervigons. This approach saves lots of points that can go towards fielding a pair of Trygon Primes which are the best of the Tyranid monstrous creatures.

Tyranids Unit Analysis • Genestealers

2011-11-16T22:29:00.000-05:00

Introduction
I'm going to provide a series of articles on individual unit analysis for Tyranids. I am only going to cover the units I use as I have no in depth experience with others. Note that I use a pure reserve army - that is no unit starts on the table deployed prior to the first turn. I'll cover how and why I bring each type of unit onto the table in each of these articles.

Reserving your Entire Army
The beauty of a pure reserve army for Tyranids is threefold:

1) Foremost you can eliminate the restrictions of normal deployment. I have played many games versus Tyranids over the years with shooty armies... Typically only a few battered Tyranid units would get close enough to my battle line to inflict any serious damage and I had dedicated melee units waiting and ready to counter assault. Cover saves were much harder to come by prior to 5th edition so dedicated shooting versus Tyranids was very effective and they would often suffer massive losses while crossing open ground during the first two turns.

Outflanking, deep striking and mycetic spores are the three main methods to hold your Tyranid units in reserve. Genestealers have the option to infiltrate as well as outflank - I've found outflanking to often be much more effective. It's important to place some of the objective markers close to both short table edges so that if a brood of genestealers arrive on the wrong side while outflanking they can still control an objective marker - genestealers are a scoring unit so take advantage !

Yrmgal genestealers can arrive from reserve in a piece of terrain then move, fleet and launch an assault the same turn. As such Yrmgal genestealers can be an effective counter versus an opponent that castles their army smack dab in the middle of their deployment zone.

So basically you're running a three pronged attack with your genestealers - the regular genestealer broods attack along either flank while the Yrmgal genestealers push towards the center. As such it's hard for opponent to completely deny them a charge when they do arrive.

Waves
Prior to 5th edition one of the main tactics was to run your Tyranid army in waves. The first wave was composed of fast cheap units such as gargoyles and Ravenors - Their main purpose was to tarpit the opponent and quickly eliminate the threat of enemy shooting - note that mechanized armies could ignore the first wave for the most part but back then metal bawks were often burning death traps; that is, you didn't see a lot of effective mechanized armies in 4th edition... Many armies were comprised mostly of infantry.

The second wave was also composed of more fast hard units such as winged Hive Tyrants to come and destroy enemy units or cripple them to the extent that they were no longer a real threat.

The third and final wave was composed of units such as genestealers and Carnifexen to finish off the enemy. 4th edition Tyranid lists were dominated byba large amount of Carnifexen - up to six T6 4W units that could lay down a withering amount of midrange firepower. Carnifexen taken as heavy support had access to a 2+ armor save so they were fairly immune to missile launchers. That's all changed now and Tyranids in 5th edition have been designed to be fielded as a horde which is true to their fluff. It is what it is.

2) Holding your entire army in reserve cuts down on the amount of damage your opponent can inflict via shooting during the first part of the game - at least two turns if you happen to go second. It's quite helpful and a much better approach rather than using waves.

3) Third is the psychological advantage you can gain... Your opponent doesn't know where you'll arrive and this can force them to possibly make some big mistakes during their initial deployment. Psychology is very important for any game. You want your spirits to be up but you also don't want to be overconfident as well.

Genestealers
Genestealers have always been a top unit and in both 4th and 5th editions they are a troop choice. At first I thought genestealers should be your only troop choice for 5th edition but I've learned that gaunts are really good too if you've got enough synapse to spread around the battlefield. I field two units of 10 genestealers (both with a Broodlord) and one brood of 10 Yrmgal genestealers. My two troop choices have scything talons and toxin sacs. Scything talons lets you reroll ones to hit and toxin sacs let you reroll wounds versus enemy units that are T4 or less. Basically the philosophy here is to generate as many rending wounds|armor penetrations as possible. Genestealers can fleet, are I6|WS6 and don't have to take tests for instinctive behavior. They can also either infiltrate or outflank as I mentioned in the beginning of this article. Genestealers are a true workhorse and win games. They are also T4 which is pretty darn good for any non power armor army. They are your vanguard (i.e., first wave). Genestealers can roll right through most any enemy unit in melee except for landraiders and Monoliths.

So I've got 30 models that are total hard asses. Most Space Marine armies will be hard pressed to put that number of elite bodies on the table. On top of that I've also got close to the same number of gaunts. There is no Space Marine army that can field as many models and perform as well in my opinion.

Broodlords
The Broodlord functions like a Space Marine sergeant - it is a squad character that cannot be picked out in melee. The Broodlord is the equivalent of an HQ with three wounds, S5, T5, I7 and more base attacks than the basic genestealer plus they are cheap for what you get points wise. The Broodlord can eat a wound from a missile launcher or lascannon and keep on ticking... As such they can soak a couple wounds just like Draigo does. Broodlords also have a built in psychic power Aura of Despair that lowers enemy leadership by -1. Couple this with the Tyranid psychic power Shadows in the Warp and you can mess with Grey Knights - believe me when I say they don't like that either way you serve it up to them. Every time you block any Grey Knight psychic power is a great thing for Tyranids. For example if you hose up their psychic power Sanctuary a full squad of genestealers assaulting a squad of Paladins will really hurt them... At worse you are striking simultaneously in melee versus halberds and all those rending attacks bypass their 2+ terminator armor save. Strip off each Paladin's first wound and they are no better than a Grey Knight terminator in melee versus genestealers. If you must engage Paladins in melee it's all about taking them down one notch at a time.

Yrmgal Genestealers
Like I said I take one squad of ten. They are immune to the Grey Knight psychic power Warp Quake and can arrive from reserve right in the middle of the table. Yrmgal genestealers have the ability to morph +1 attack, +1S or +1T each turn. Basically the way it plays out is you first morph +1A followed by +1S then keep repeating ad nauseum. +1T is not that great compared to the other two morphs... It is what it is. Yrmgal genestealers also have a 4+ armor save so they have some decent protection from bolters other than being a basic T4. They are an elite choice. Tyranids have unfortunately lots and lots of great elite choices - the only two I take are the Yrmgals and Zoanthropes.

Conclusions
So I have told you a bit about how I play my army and what are the most inherent strengths of genestealers in general. Tyranids are now truly intended to be played as a horde army which is true to their background. Genestealers work very well in a full reserve army since they can outflank.

Necron Canoptek List 1.0 (2000)

2011-11-14T23:40:00.000-05:00

I was talking to a good friend this afternoon who has playtested a similar list to the one presented below. He has won some big events in the past and gave this list his blessing. He wrecked quite a few armies over the weekend testing this out. There is lots of synergy here and this might be one of the better builds until everyone figures out what's going on.

HQ - 360
225 Imotekh the Stormlord

Provides potentially multiple turns of night fight to give you time (if necessary) to properly position your scarabs - an obvious choice. His lightning wrecks mech... Random but still great versus parking lots.

Royal Court - 135
075 Necron Lord (35): Warscythe (10) & Res Orb (30)
060 Cryptek (25) - Harbinger of Despair (5): Abyssal Staff & Veil of Darkness (30)

Protection for Imotekh keeping him out of harm's way. Attach the HQ to one of the Immortal squads.

Troops - 510
170 10x Immortal: Tesla Carbine
170 10x Immortal: Telsa Carbine
170 10x Immortal: Gauss Blaster

Some people are on the fence about this unit and Tesla carbines in general - I kept my ratio at 2:1 (Tesla to Gauss) to keep my options open. The HQ can go with the blaster unit since Imotekh is a Phaeron to simulate one shot carbines when outside of rapid fire range.

Elites - 260
260 C'Tan Shard (185): Grand Illusion (40) & Writhing Worldscape (35)

Being able to redeploy your scarabs and possibly the Wraiths can be huge. Vehicles on average will fail dangerous terrain tests every one out of three times plus it's going to be pure hell on enemy infantry whenever they have to slog it.

Fast Attack - 560
150 10x Canoptek Scarab
150 10x Canoptek Scarab

The verdict is in now... Scarabs are the bomb. Sure they don't like S6+ but if they go to ground they've got a 2++ cover save being swarms. You'll either have to get up close to use templates or engage them in melee with S6+ attacks.

260 6x Canoptek Wraith (210): 4x Whip Coil (40) & 2x Particle Caster (10)

This is your heavy hitting dedicated melee unit plus they work well when combined with the scarabs.

Heavy Support - 300
150 3x Canoptek Spyder
150 3x Canoptek Spyder

Their main purpose is obvious - generate more scarabs to extend their reach. They will also provide an excellent shield for the HQ and Immortals.

Repost - Spyder Gawdz

2011-11-14T10:06:00.000-05:00

From Laughter of the Thirsting Gods...

Spyder God

Necron Portal List. 2.1 (2k)

2011-11-13T21:14:00.003-05:00

Here is another crack at the second list. I've dropped the Overlord to free up points to include a Night Scythe for the Lychguard. They are lead by another Lord for the Warscythe and 4+ RP. I have also dropped the Canoptek Spyder and bumped the scarabs back to full strength.

HQ
185 HQ1 Nemesor Zandrekh: Res Orb
160 HQ2 Vargard Obyron: Ghostwalk Mantle

Royal Court
075 HQ3 Necron Lord (35): Warscythe (10), Res Orb (30)
075 HQ4 Necron Lord (35): Warscythe (10), Res Orb (30)
060 HQ5 Cryptek (25): Harbinger of Despair (5), Abysmal Staff, Veil of Darkness (30)
055 HQ6 Cryptek (25): Harbinger of Destruction (10), Eldritch Lance, Solar Pulse (20)

Troops
170 T1 10x Immortal: Tesla carbine
170 T2 10x Immortal: Gauss blaster
130 T3 10x Warrior: Gauss flayer

Here is how they are paired:

HQ1 (ROB) + HQ5 (VOD) + T2 (Gauss)
HQ2 (VOD) + HQ3 (ROB) + T1 (Tesla)

Again only two teleporting units. HQ4 attaches to Lychguard (directly below).

Elites
460 8x Lychguard: Hyperphase swords & Dispersion Shields + Night Scythe (100)

This forms up a strong mobile counter assault unit and should be fairly durable with one of the Necron Lords attached for the 4+ and a Warscythe.

Fast Attack
260 6x Canoptek Wraith (210): 4x Whip coil (40), 2x Particle caster (10)

150 10x Canoptek Scarab

Total = 1990 points

Necron Portal List 2.0 (2k)

2011-11-12T20:55:00.000-05:00

I have been fighting a cold with the change of weather down here in Florida... Not feeling up to working on my list much the past few days. I slept a lot today and then sat down with the codex again. Here is what I came up after reviewing my original list and sorting through the feedback over on BoLS. Note that I want to play a pure infantry list with some decent dedicated melee units.

HQ
195 HQ1 Necron Overlord (90): Phaeron (20), Warscythe (10), Phase Shifter (45), Res Orb (30)
185 HQ2 Nemesor Zandrekh: Res Orb
160 HQ3 Vargard Obyron: Ghostwalk Mantle

Royal Court
075 HQ4 Necron Lord (35): Warscythe (10), Res Orb (30)
060 HQ5 Cryptek (25): Harbinger of Despair (5), Abysmal Staff, Veil of Darkness (30)
055 HQ6 Cryptek (25): Harbinger of Destruction (10), Eldritch Lance, Solar Pulse (20)

Troops
170 T1 10x Immortal: Tesla carbine
170 T2 10x Immortal: Gauss blaster
130 T3 10x Warrior: Gauss flayer

Here is how they are paired:

HQ1 + HQ3 + T2
HQ2 + HQ5 + T1
HQ4 + T3

So now only two teleporting units to save some points by shaving down on HQ. The Harbinger of Destruction (HQ6) can join a unit bested suited to the mission (deployment, nemesis, etc.).

Elites
360 8x Lychguard: Hyperphase swords & Dispersion Shields

It would be very interesting to pair this unit with Vargard, the Necron Overlord and the Harbinger of Despair. I think they could beat down assault terminators. *evil*

Fast Attack
260 6x Canoptek Wraith (210): 4x Whip coil (40), 2x Particle caster (10)

120 8x Canoptek Scarab

Heavy Support
050 Canoptek Spyder

That's it.

Spyders generating Scarabs - You Make the Call

2011-11-12T17:27:00.003-05:00

Pretty good for a laugh...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/408474.page

Here is a dirty Canoptek trick to get the most out of your Spyder swarms. Suppose you are playing a game with Pitched Battle for deployment. Assume you have won the roll to go first. Deploy your ten Spyders so that at least five are right up at the 12" mark:

(S) Spyder, (X] Scarab

S X X
...X X
S X X
...X X
S X X

The first Spyder adds a base which you can deploy in front and up to 2" away to maintain unit coherency:

S X X
...X X
S X X --X
...X X
S X X

This placement extends your range by another 4" (2" for base size and 2" for coherency).

Next the second Spyder adds another base:

S X X
...X X
S X X --X --X
...X X
S X X

This second scarab adds another 4" total extending your range.

Finally add the third scarab:

S X X
...X X
S X X --X --X --X
...X X
S X X

So you have doubled the distance you originally deployed out to 24". The maximum charge arc on the first turn is as follows:

24" (due to the three freshly spawned scarabs)
+ 6" (movement)
+ 6" (fleet)
+ 12" (charge)

= 48"

So you can pretty much reach all the way across the table in one turn. You can take a second unit of Spyders if you want to further extend the scarab line.

Blood of Kittens blog is online again now : )

2011-11-11T14:11:00.001-05:00

Found out Nick has moved his blog to a new server

: )

Positional Play for Tyranids and it's Strategic Importance

2011-11-10T23:54:00.002-05:00

Introduction
If you have followed my blog over the past couple years since its inception you'll know that I written the vast majority of tactical and strategic articles about the following fifth edition armies in the order as immediately outlined below:

— Daemons (Khornate)
— Blood Angels (Descent of Angels - jump infantry)
— Dark Eldar (mechanized)
— Grey Knights (Draigowing)
— Tyranids (Reserve army)

The first two armies are your basic rocks - very simple to play and almost solely dedicated to melee. Dark eldar was the first xenos army and my first excursion into a fifth edition army with a heavy shooting element. Draigowing is fairly static army that excels at both shooting and melee - Grey Knights are one of the top armies currently. I then recently decided to start playing Tyranids after buying an army from a good friend here in Clearwater.

I started playing Tyranids as a ringer in a small local tournament facing off against a daemon army then two Grey Knight armies. I realized over the course of the three games that Tyranids are much better than I had originally given them credit and decided to give them a serious go. I did toy around with Tyranids for a short time towards the end of playing my Khornate daemon army but did not extensively play them at that time. A lot of my current tactics though are still based upon those thoughts; since then I have heavily modified the original list based upon both what I have available and the removal of expensive units such as the Hive Tyrant which I have since found to be largely ineffective for their points cost. My current Tyranid army has five troops which is very rare for me as most often I will only play with two to three scoring units. Daemons, Blood Angels and Grey Knights can win by massacring the opponent over the course of the game. Dark eldar are very fast and can dish out a lot of punishment. I have learned the most during fifth edition in general playing Tyranids and a lot of what has been learned has come from having those five scoring units. Tyranids need to use positional tactics to win versus the top armies such as Grey Knights and Space Wolves. I haven't had the opportunity to play my Tyranids versus Imperial Guard yet but my gut instinct tells me that IG is soon going to slip from the top tier due to the introduction of the new Necrons.

A Couple of Caveats
1) I have to say that while Tyranids have turned out to be better than I first thought the codex along with its FAQ are the worst written rules I have ever read and that goes all the way back to the beginning of third edition. There are many small things that could easily have been implemented to have delivered a much better codex overall without making the army as a whole broken or over the top. Your finished work is a reflection of yourself. My philosophy is don't start anything unless you plan to do a top notch job and you should always be meticulous to the nth degree when necessary. The Tyranid codex as a whole is epic fail in my opinion. You have to just ask yourself the question "Were 5th edition Tyranids intended to be a non competitive army?". It also seems like each codex that was released following Tyranids were all designed to effectively curb their strengths. I won't waste any time rehashing what are the major problems faced by a Tyranid player as they are all very well known to most everyone who has avidly played 40k over the past couple years.

A reserve army can overcome a lot of the inherent weaknesses in the codex and you can definitely design a solid army. To do so requires that you focus on fielding only the best units such as genestealers and Trygon Primes. You also need to have synapse spread throughout your battle line. Still most often versus a top tier army when you do win it will be by only a small margin at best. I know that the majority of my wins versus Grey Knights and Space Wolves were all decided by a few key rolls of the dice towards the end of those games. Overall my luck has been quite good and I'm very thankful. You must always be honest with yourself if you want to win consistently with Tyranids. It is an army that can't survive mistakes and you have to make a lot of good decisions over the course of each game.

2) To win with Tyranids requires a fair amount of terrain (fair being at least 25 percent as a minimum) as well as some pieces that block line of sight (LOS). Unfortunately for whatever reasons often when you go to a tournament the tables don't have much in the way of terrain. Barren tables are really bad news in general for Tyranids... Your army can be reduced to targets lined up across the table waiting to be shot down, one right after another. It is what it is and there's no getting around that in the grand scheme of things. The rulebook does tell us there should be at least 25 percent terrain on a table so always keep that in mind.

Positional Tactics for Tyranids
A lot of players are already aware of this style of play and you see it a lot in the plethora of MSU (many small units) armies that have cropped over the course of fifth edition. MSU is nothing new - its been around for as long as I have played and it has always worked well for many Space Marine armies. So what's good for the goose is good for the gander. That is if it can work for mechanized armies such as IG chimera parking lots brimming full with units such as undercosted veteran squads and SW razorspam then it can work for Tyranids as well. For example the mycetic spore is one of the best things to happen for Tyranids - you can safely position a large portion of your army where you need them the most. By playing a reserve army coupled with good placement of objective markers you can overcome both the inherent restrictions of deployment and also control key objective markers across the table top as a game progresses. On the flip side mycetic spores give up very easy kill points but that is the case with many armies such as IG and Orks. If you want to have your cake and eat too then you're going to have to work hard for it. Don't get me wrong as I'm certainly not advocating the MSU approach to designing a competitive army and that would go against the inherent horde theme for Tyranids. What you will need though as already pointed out is at least five scoring units and the majority should be composed of at least ten models each. I do run a unit of three Warriors mounted in a mycetic spore - they are there first and foremost as a synaptic anchor in the rear of my army - placed as such they can also halt broken units that are below 50 percent and falling back towards my long table edge.

Good placement of objective markers is fundamental to winning with Tyranids. You want to spread them out and place objective markers in key positions that will force your opponent to expose their units. Genestealers can outflank and they are very good at quickly reaching over extended enemy units. Yrmgal genestealers can basically arrive from reserve in the center of the table and hit an enemy castle head on. Both genestealers and Yrmgal genestealers are immune to the Grey Knight psychic power Warp Quake. Small elite armies such as Grey Knights have a problem controlling more than two objective markers - sure Grey Knights can field a high percentage of scoring units but they are still most often small armies with not many units. You can also place at least one objective marker (e.g., Capture and Control) deep inside your deployment zone where it will be very hard for your opponent to reach - if they do try to control or contest these markers then again you are forcing them to expose their units.

You have access to a large army and can cover a lot of ground. Tyranids also tend to be fast with fleet which is another advantage that works well with a large army. By spreading synapse across your army it will force your opponent to work hard to remove the bulk of your army. You want to protect your units with synaspse. My current Tyranid army has roughly one half of the units with synaspse (not including spores). My pair of Trygon Primes have to fight up front and will both inevitably be destroyed over the course of a game but they are there in the early stage of a game providing forward synaspse until my other synaptic units can move into key positions to anchor the bulk of my army. I've already discussed the main role my Warriors play providing synaspse. My Alpha Warrior is joined to a brood of Hormagaunts - they have to come in from reserve along the long edge of the table. They act as a counter assault unit and can take back objectives as well as extending my synaptic bubble. They can also pop out of a burrowed hole left behind by a Trygon - while this does allow you to place the unit towards the front over on a flank is nice but it's totally dependent on your rolls and more often than not I have found my reserve rolls unfortunately don't coincide that well to take good advantage... If it's there though I use this special deployment when it's advantageous to do so... It's extremely rare though so keep that in mind.

Abbreviated Tyranid Reserve Army List
Here is my abbreviated reserve Tyranid army list:

Genestealer Brood x2 {outflank}
Yrmgal Genestealer Brood {hibernate}
Trygon Prime* x2 {tunnel|burrow}
Termagants (mycetic spore)
Alpha Warrior* + Hormogaunts {normal reserves}
Doom of Malantai (mycetic spore)
Zoanthropes* (mycetic spore)
Warrior Brood* (mycetic spore)

* Synapse

I've noted how each unit arrives from reserve and which ones have synapse.

Conclusions
So I have covered how to use positional tactics to win consistently with Tyranids. You should only take the best and most effective units available from the codex if you want to emulate my style of play.

Some of the Tyranid units I eschew the use of (that is I don't use them) are as follows:

— Biovores
— Carnifexen
— Gargoyles
— Hive Guard
— Hive Tyrant | Swarmlord | Tyrant Guard
— Lictors
— Mothra ( :p )
— Pirovores
— Tervigons
— Tyrannofex
— Venomthropes

I'm sure my self proclaimed choice of which units I have decided not field will have some of you responding in total disagreement. So be it ! They all have some major weaknesses which all can all be easily exploited by the majority of other armies and that's the main reason why I don't like them. There are other units such Raveners, Shrikes and ripper swarms that could possibly work in a full reverse list but I'm overall very happy with my list I posted above.

Nemesis Dreadknight Tactica

2011-11-08T21:37:00.004-05:00

Here is my first tactical article on the technical application of the Nemesis Dreadknight (NDK).

First up is how I kit mine:

— Personal Teleporter (PT)
— Heavy Incinerator (HI)

I am not a fan of the sword as it's expensive plus you give up one attack. An NDK with two Doomfists has a base of four attacks and five on the charge. The NDK is WS5 so he is hitting most units on a 3+ which is good enough for me. They can pound the heck out of armor in melee since they are monstrous creatures (2d6 armor penetration coupled with S7 via Hammerhand) and should be able to take out a five man squad of Marines in no more than two rounds of melee. Versus a razorspam army an NDK can quickly roll up an entire flank - pops transports with your psyflemen and psycannons while your NDK eats whatever spills out.

I have always outflanked my NDK - nothing on the table can hide from his HI template the turn he arrives by using his shunt move... 30" onto the table from either short edge plus another 12" to place the template plus another 8" for the template. That's a total distance of 50" ! Therefore the NDK can always cover more than the length of the table (roughly 70 percent) in one turn with the HI template. If you're playing against an army with lots of mech it's fairly easy to drop the HI template across the rear sides of two vehicles. I remember one game versus Imperial Guard when my NDK destroyed a squadron of two Leman Russ using this tactic. Sure the dice were very hot but it can happen. The NDK was shot off the table the following turn but he had left a big mark with two smoking craters. This tactic is also useful if you need to dig out a heavily entrenched enemy troop such as dark eldar Warriors.

Another tactic I have used with the NDK is to use his shunt move to cut off an assault from an enemy unit versus my Paladins or Grey Knight terminators. The NDK has a huge base so it's quite easy to position him in such a manner as to completely block off another friendly unit from the enemy charge arc. This tactic buys you some much needed extra time and helps to ensure your Paladins, Grey Knight terminators or a squad of Purifiers will be able to charge the following turn rather than be charged. I used this tactic once to prevent a large squad of Death Company mounted in a Blood Angels Stormraven from assaulting my Paladins. The next turn my Librarian successfully cast Quicksilver and the Paladins cut down the entire squad of enemy Death Company.

Returning to the topic of options (wargear) you can spend lots and lots of points on an NDK such as including a gatling heavy psilencer as a second weapon. Sure the big gun looks really cool but as I said in the beginning I just stick with the personal teleporter and heavy incinerator - he costs almost as much as a landraider equipped as such and to me there is no need to tack on any more unnecessary points. The personal teleporter while very expensive is a must have - a walking NDK will be shot off the table more often than not before he can launch one assault. If you are going to spend all those points it's worth it to take the teleporter as it makes the NDK much more of a big threat, which is exactly what you want.

Typically I will only ever use at most one NDK and that is only for games at 2500 points or more. The NDK is situational at best while psyflemen always tend to do well and are roughly half the cost each - so you can almost afford to take two psyflemen in place of one NDK. An NDK can make for some exciting moments in a game though so there is always that potential. Versus armies such as lance heavy dark eldar the NDK has a very short predicted life span on the table - the enemy will quickly blast him into a pulp from a position of safe range and there's not much you can do to prevent it either. Sometimes the NDK is nothing more than expensive fire magnet drawing enemy firepower away from the rest of your army so in my opinion the NDK is more of a fun unit to play as opposed to a really competitive melee beast. Sure there are times he will shine but there will probably be more times when he comes and goes just as quickly.

Necron List (2k) version 1.01 w. new commentary

2011-11-07T17:41:00.002-05:00

I have decided to drop the C'Tan after speaking with some friends. I'm not sure exactly what I will do with these points... I could take another squad of scarabs but really I think one is enough for now. Supposedly the Deathmarks are very hot so I am considering taking them when sixth edition is released. A big block of Warriors and a Monolith is yet another consideration.

- HQ -
Necron Overlord: Phaeron, warscythe, res orb, tachyon arrow, phase shifter, weave (240) {H1}
Nemesor Zahdrekh (180) {H2}
Vargard Obyron (160) {H3}

1st Royal Court
Necron Lord: warscythe, res orb (75) {H4}
Cryptek - Harbinger of Despair: veil of darkness (55) {H5}

2nd Royal Court
Cryptek - Harbinger of Despair: veil of darkness (55) {H6}

- Troops -
10x Immortal: tesla carbines (170) {T1}
10x Immortal: gauss blasters (170) {T2}
10x Immortal: gauss blasters (170) {T3}

The units above are paired up as follows:

H1 + H5 + T2
H2 + H6 + T3
H3 + H4 + T1

All there combined units have Veil of Darkness and the Res Orb plus the first unit is relentless as well. If you remember how nasty was one squad of Immortals teleporting this is 3x the pain. Nemesor can boost a squad with Tank Hunter making those Tesla carbines S6 and better able to crack light armor. The Wraiths are really good this time, even better than before... They can work well versus mech in conjunction with the scarabs... Nemesor buffs the scarabs with furious charge so they strike first versus armor inflicting damage via Entropic Strike then the Wraiths cut right them like tin foil - this tactic came from another club member of 40kWC.

I would like to take a wide array of choices to keep the army balanced rather than say spam scarabs.

- Fast Attack -
5x Canoptek Wraith: whip coils, 2x particle caster (235)

10x Canoptek Scarab (150)

- Heavy Support -
3x Canoptek Spyder (150)

1st Necron army list (2000 points)

2011-11-06T12:16:00.001-05:00

- HQ -
Necron Overlord: warscythe, res orb, tachyon arrow, Phaeron (180) {H1}
Nemesor Zahdrekh (180) {H2}
Vargard Obyron (160) {H3}

1st Royal Court
Necron Lord: warscythe, res orb (75) {H4}
Cryptek - Harbinger of Despair: veil of darkness (55) {H5}

2nd Royal Court
Cryptek - Harbinger of Despair: veil of darkness (55) {H6}

- Troops -
10x Immortal: tesla carbines (170) {T1}
10x Immortal: gauss blasters (170) {T2}
10x Immortal: gauss blasters (170) {T3}

The units above are paired up as follows:

H1 + H5 + T2
H2 + H6 + T3
H3 + H4 + T1

All there combined units have Veil of Darkness and the Res Orb plus the first unit is relentless as well.

- Elite -
C'Tan Shard: writhing worldscape, grand illusion (260)

- Fast Attack -
5x Wraith: whip coils, 2x particle caster (235)

8x Scarab (285)

- Heavy Support -
3x Spyder (150)

90 points left to play with... Will probably take a Cryptek (Harbinger of Destruction) with a solar plus.

Very mobile army, no vehicles (YAY!!!), solid dedicated melee units plus lots of nasty tricks.

The Tendril Descends - Part III • Tyranids vs. Grey Knights

2011-11-05T21:45:00.000-04:00

I had the opportunity to play another game versus Grey Knights again today. I was running my standard list (abbreviated):

2x Trygon Prime - adrenal glands

Alpha Warrior + retinue (10x Hormogaunt w. adrenal glands)

Genestealer Brood w. Broodlord
Genestealer Brood w. Broodlord
Devilgants - mycetic spore
3x Warrior - mycetic spore

Zoanthropes (Zoies) - mycetic spore
Doom of Malantai- mycetic spore
Yrmgal genestealers

We used the BeakyCon mission - killpoints, Capture and Control plus Seize Ground are all equally weighted - whoever takes the most objectives wins. If there is a draw on objectives then it goes to pure victory points to decide the winner. Deployment was Dawn of War and there were five objective markers for Seize Ground. There are six turns with a seventh on a roll of 4+ on 1d6. I lost the roll for deployment and had to go first holding my entire army in reserve.

Here is my opponent's army list:

Brother Captain - psykotropic grenades, master crafted warding stave, incinerator
Librarian - master crafted warding stave, Might of Titans, Quicksilver, Sanctuary, The Shrouding

Vindicare assassin

Psyfleman

5x Grey Knight (Strike squad) - psycannon - razorback w. twin linked lascannon
5x GKT - Brotherhood banner, psycannon, daemonhammer
5x GKT - Brotherhood banner, psycannon, daemonhammer, 2x halberd

Landraider - pintle mounted multi-melta
Landraider Crusader - pintle mounted multi-melta

The Brother Captain and Librarian were attached to one squad of GKT mounted in the landraider Crusader while the other squad of GKT were mounted in the landraider.

Pre Game Analysis
There was a fair amount of LOS blocking terrain. The Grey Knight army is very small and built around the two landraiders which in theory should cause a lot of problems for Tyranids. With five objective markers for Seize Ground I felt I could take that objective and try to push on Capture and Control late in the game. I clustered the Seize Ground objecive markers such that I could control the msjority of them at a fairly safe distance. My plan was to play aggressively with the following units:

2x Trygon Prime
Yrmgal genestealers (deployed in a central building)
Doom of Malantai
Devilgants

The rest of my army would focus on holding objectives.

GKT are solid as a troop choice but with only one wound apiece as opposed to two for Paladins they don't worry me nearly as much. I felt I could play aggressively and did so.

1st Turn - Tyranids
Crickets chirping...

1st Turn - Grey Knights
The Vindicare had infiltrated into a building along my opponent's long table edge and the rest of his army rolled onto the table the first turn forming a castle along his long table edge just off from the center of the table. My opponent forgot to cast Warp Quake but that didn't really affect the game as I brought in all my deep striking reserves from a safe distance.

Killpoints - Nidz: 0, Grey Knights: 0

2nd Turn - Tryanids
I rolled for reserves and in came the Yrmgal genestealers, one Trygon Prime and the Zoies. The genestealers hopped out of their building using intervening terrain to hide safely. The Trygon came in behind a central building in position to assault a landraider the next turn while the Zoies came in close to the landraider Crusadsr to fire at the tank. The Zoies all either failed their psychic checks or were shut down by the Librarian's psychic hood... It was a very disappointing moment for me.

2nd Turn - Grey Knights
The landraider Crusader moved up into an aggressive position to challenge the center of the table. The GK army lined up all their guns versus the Tyranid Prime and Zoies. When all the smoke had cleared the Trygon Prime was down to it's final wound and their was only one Zoie left plus their spore was destroyed.

Killpoints - Nidz: 0, Grey Knights: 1

3rd Turn - Tyranids
I rolled for reserves and in came one brood of genestealers, Warriors plus the Alpha Warrior with it's posse of Hormogaunts. The Genestealers outflanked coming in one my short table edge. The Alpha Prime and it's posse came in from reserve on my long table edge grabbing both a Seize Ground objective marker and my C&C objective marker well hidden behind terrain. The Warriors dropped on a Seize Ground marker also hidden by terrain. The newly arrived genestealers took up a defensive position close to another Seize Ground objective marker. The Yrmgal genestealers moved forward a bit to support the Warriors. The lone Zoie passed it's psychic check, hit and beat the Librarian's hood then rolled a 1 failing to inflict any damage to the landraider Crusader. The Trygon Prime then assaulted the landraider Crusader, immobilized it and ripped off it's assault cannon... Finally some damage was inflicted - not much but something.

3rd Turn - Grey Knights
The Brother Captain and his retinue including the Librarian all dismounted out of the Crusader moving into position to assault the first Trygon Prime if necessary. The rest of the army hung back lining up shots on the Trygon Prime and lone Zoie. When the smoke had cleared the Trygon was destroyed along with the Zoie but the Warrior's spore had managed to survive intact. The Brother Captain and his retinue were left out in the open, which I would need to capitalize on the following turn as I felt this was my opponent's first and biggest mistake.

Killpoints - Nidz: 0, Grey Knights: 4

4th Turn - Tyranids
I rolled for reserves and in came the second Trygon Prime, second genestealer brood, Doom and the devilgants. I placed the Doom, Trygon Prime and devilgants to target the Brother Captain and retinue. The second genestealer brood also outflanked coming in on my short table edge as well. I was well ahead on holding Seize Ground markers while far behind on killpoints. I really needed to make something happen this turn. The Yrmgal genestealers moved forward into position to assault the next turn. Along with the Doom's Leech Essence every Tyranid bioweapon was trained on the Grey Knight Brother Captain and his retinue. When the smoke cleared there was only left the standard bearer from the GKT squad plus both the Brother Captain and Librarian had lost a wound apiece. The devilgants had really laid some epic waste! There was no way I could overtake the difference in killpoints but now I was dominating the center of the table.

4th Turn - Grey Knights
Again the Grey Knights trained their mighty guns upon the xenos horde and fired away. The Doom along with it's spore were both destroyed and a few of the devilgants were blown off the table. The Trygon Prime lost half it's wounds as well. The Brother Captain and the remnants of his retinue were just a tad short of a charge on the Trygon.

Killpoints - Nidz: 0, Grey Knights: 6

5th Turn - Tyranids
It was time to take complete control of the table center and move into a position to contest my opponent's Capture and Control marker the next turn. The Yrmgal brood moved forward along with the Trygon Prime to assault the Brother Captain and his retinue. The Warriors came out from hiding to shoot them as well. Shooting from the devilgants destroyed the squad and then the Trygon and Yrmgal genestealers both assaulted the Crusader ripping off the multi-melta as well as one of the hurricane bolter sponsons. I had grabbed three quick killpoints due to poor armor saves and might have a chance to go for my opponent's Capture and Control marker the next turn. Like I said there was no way I could come back on killpoints but now I was in a position to win outright on objectives.

Turn 5 - Grey Knights
The landraider moved forward to cut off the approach to his C&C marker from my devilgants. Shooting saw the second Trygon Prime finally destroyed.

Killpoints - Nidz: 3, Grey Knights: 7

Turn 6 - Tyranids
The Yrmgal genestealers disengaged from the Cruasder using the immobilized hull to shield them safely from the rest of the Grey Knight army. I made the decision to wait and see if the game would go a final seventh turn to make a run for the enemy Capture and Control marker... They were too far away to launch an assault on another enemy unit - it would have been foolish to put them out in the open. The devilgants moved up within synapse range of the Warriors and targeted the Vindicare, removing the assassin.

Turn 6 - Grey Knights
Not much shooting now in the way of the Grey Knights plus the landraider was too far away from the Seize Ground objective markers I was controlling. My opponent had been too cautious with second unit of GKT and it might cost him the game. We rolled for a final seventh turn and the game ended. My opponent had killpoints, I had Seize Ground and it was a draw on Capture and Control so the game would be decided by pure victory points... We added them up and I won by a very slight margin of three victory points.

Post Game Analysis
My game plan had come through but only by the smallest of margins. I used approximately half of my army to hold objectives while throwing the rest at the enemy. Both the Doom and the Zoies were epic fail, especially the Zoies. Only a bunch of really poor armor saves on the part of my opponent swung the outcome of the game in my favor but that was in a way a trade off for the very performance of the Zoies. Having five objective markers for Seize Ground was a big advantage for me and I made the most out of it. So while not a truly impressive win it was still a win none the less.

Email in - Tweaking a 2000 point Blood Angels Hybrid List

2011-11-05T11:14:00.001-04:00

It has been quite awhile since the last time I wrote anything about Blood Angels. I received a request to tweak a 2000 point hybrid Blood Angels army list so I decided to share my feedback here...

"Hmmm... I cant seem to get it all to fit with meph and sang... I can get meph with a reclusiarch, how do you get it all to fit at 2000 pts?"

HQ
250 Meph
130 Reclusiarch

Elites
175 Furioso Libby
125 2x Sang Priests (jump, foot)
210 5x Termies (3x LC, 2x TH/SS)

Troops
235 10x Assault (PF, Melta, Melta)
235 10x Assault (PF, Melta, Melta)
135 5x Assault +Rhino (EA, Blade)
135 5x Assault +Rhino (EA, Blade)
135 5x Assault +Rhino (EA, Blade)

Heavy Support
200 Stormraven (MM, TLLas)

(1965)

Here is my feedback:

250 Meph

Great choice... The Lord of Death is a beast and synergizes very well with mech armies.

130 Reclusiarch

Another great choice but if you drop the Furioso you could save some points and just field a Chaplain. Chaplains can be a real work horse for BA - especially so in a melee oriented army.

175 Furioso Libby

Drop him to free up some points. As already said your got your hood via Mephiston. If you really want a dread I'd just go with the standard Furioso - Blood Talons can be game winners.

125 2x Sang Priests (jump, foot)

Solid choices and essential for most any BA army. I assume one will roll with an assault squad (jumpers) and the other will roll with the terms. You saved a few points by not taking power weapons but I think this would be a great upgrade for the priest who'll run with the assault squad - the combination of a WS5 power sword and a power fist (sergeant) is very strong... You can blow right through enemy dedicated melee units such as Berzerkers (assuming you get the charge).

210 5x Termies (3x LC, 2x TH/SS)

Awesome unit - I'd run 3x TH/SS & 2x LC

235 10x Assault (PF, Melta, Melta)
235 10x Assault (PF, Melta, Melta)

Very solid units - the core of your army. Fine as is.

135 5x Assault +Rhino (EA, Blade)
135 5x Assault +Rhino (EA, Blade)
135 5x Assault +Rhino (EA, Blade)

To be honest I don't like these units as they are nothing more than mobile objective grabbers which to me is a waste of points as you're not realizing their full potential. I would find the points to add a meltagun and power sword for each of these three units.

200 Stormraven (MM, TLLas)

Standard kit for the raven - I'd definitely bolt on some extra armor as it can save your bacon time and time again. The last thing you want is your raven sitting there like a duck when for a mere 15 points it could have sped away to safety and do something useful such as contest an objective.

So like I said I've mostly just tweaked the list for better optimization of the existing units.

Necron Tutorial by Mat Ward

2011-11-04T16:44:00.000-04:00

Mat Ward's Necron tutorial

Walking in your footsteps

2011-11-03T13:54:00.002-04:00

Fifty million years ago
You walked upon the planet so
God of all that you could see,
Just a little bit like me
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps

Hey, Mr. Dinosaur
You really couldn't ask for more
You're God's favorite creature
But you didn't have a future
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your foorsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your foorsteps

Hey, mighty brontosaurus,
Don't you have a lesson for us
Thought your rule would always last,
There were no lessons in your past
You were built three stories high
They say you would not hurt a fly
If we explode the atom bomb
Would they say that we were dumb, well
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps

They say the meek...shall inherit the earth
They say the meek...shall inherit the earth
Walking in your footsteps...footsteps...footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps...footsteps...footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps

Increase the value of your gaming time

2011-11-02T21:52:00.003-04:00

Reposted from Laughter of the Thirsting God ...

One way to increase the value of your gaming time is by helping out an opponent that is not as experienced as you are. Assuming you aren't in a tournament(or even if you are if you like a challenge) give pointers to your opponent so that the game isn't a waste of time. Many players gleefully rub their hands together and chuckle evilly when witnessing a rookie making a game losing mistake. Mistakes in the deployment phase can lead to a game that is almost a foregone conclusion. Go ahead and educate them a little so that you don't waste an hour or more of your time. In these kind of games there is simply no sport, so be a good sport and ask them if they are sure they want to do that. While it is true that they would learn a little more from experience than having their potential error explained to them they will have plenty of other opponents to let them fumble around and you will be wasting less of your own time.

BeakyCon army photos

2011-11-02T08:05:00.002-04:00

Enjoy (from Aaron Hagney):

http://s229.photobucket.com/albums/ee292/dblahag/Beaky%20con%202011/

BeakyCon GT Report

2011-10-31T16:21:00.000-04:00

This past weekend saw the inaugural debut of BeakyCon held at the Marriott hotel in the Tampa airport (Florida). We had just under 40 players. This was a competitive track 40k tournament with no soft scores. The top four players from Day One would move into the Golden Bracket for Day Two while the rest would slug it out in the Silver Bracket. Normally I am not one to take a lot of pictures but I decided it would be nice to have a few for this report and help tell the story about the GT.

My partner Matt Douthat and I arrived at the hotel early on Friday to start the setup. There was a lot of work hauling in the tables but finally late in the afternoon we had them all in the ballroom and could take a short break to eat.

Others started arriving around 5pm to help start placing the terrain. Harold Cowan from Bradenton loaned us enough terrain to cover 12 tables and his stuff is really pretty awesome. Here you can see some of his terrain we used for the Golden Bracket on Day Two.

There were quite a few of there on Friday evening so we had some open gaming then called it a night. I got in my one game of the weekend versus a drop pod Space Wolf army played by my good buddy Teddy Woody.

Scott Lester was one of the first to arrive and also helped us break down on Sunday afternoon which was very much appreciated. :D

Each morning started at 7:30 am so it was time to get some shut eye. The next morning Matt and I grabbed some breakfast and then opened up the registration. Everyone was prompt and the first round started on time.

We had a great crowd there and I really don't remember any big issues over the entire weekend. Everything ran smoothly. James Caudill from Anthem Games arrived in the afternoon bringing lots of stock from his shop. I'm pretty sure James sold a lot of glue and dice over the course of the weekend.

We had three rounds on Saturday so lots and lots of games. There was a lot of Space Marine armies but there was a good representation from other armies, especially dark eldar. A couple of players brought their Tyranids so I was very interested to see how they would do since this is my current army.

Saturday finally came to an end and we had our four players who fought their way through the ranks to the Golden Bracket...

Brian Poole, Grey Knights

Nick Aad, Dark Eldar

Alan Blakesborough, Grey Knights

Max Rodriguez, Imperial Guard

Our top seed for the Silver Bracket was undefeated as well but due to not having a fully painted army just missed placing into the Golden Bracket as there was five bonus battle points. This was Brad Bitler playing Space Wolves.

Brad is a great painter but always so busy painting for friends he did not have time to complete his own army. Here are a couple of some dark eldar characters he has painted.

I went out to dinner with some friends then eventually headed over to a local microbrewery with a friend to sample some of their warez. The hour grew late and finally we had to go back... oh well.

Here is some of the prize support we gave away:

We handed out a total of four armies to our winners. There was also some awesome prize support from Games Workshop and Battlefoam as well.

The second day started... two rounds for the Golden Bracket and three for the Silver. The players in the Golden Bracket didn't have to show up until the second round on Sunday (lucky bastards...). Heh! There were more rules questions to answer on the second day so Matt and I kept very busy. Here is some of the action from the Golden Bracket (Grey Knights vs. Imperial Guard & Grey Knights vs. Dark Eldar):

Brad was very busy in the Silver Bracket holding down the top seed there. The final round for the Golden Bracket would see Grey Knight versus Grey Knight in a mirror match (Coteaz versus Mordrak). The two GK armies had racked up so many battle points over the course of the first three rounds that they would take both first and second place. The final round for the Silver Bracket would see Space Wolves versus Mason Martindale's beautiful mechanized eldar. Here are some pictures of the final round of the Silver Bracket.

It would be Orks (Mark Miller) versus Salamanders (Harold Cowan) vying for second place in the Silver Bracket.

We gave the top two tables a few extra minutes to finish their games. As expected Grey Knights came out on top while Brad Bitler's mighty Space Wolves took the Silver Bracket. Mark Miller's green horde came in second place for the Silver Bracket. We handed out the awards and the weekend finally came to a close. It was a fantastic time indeed.

- The End

BeakyCon Complete Final Standings

2011-10-31T10:32:00.003-04:00

Complete Final Standings

Gold Bracket

1. Alan Blakesborough (Grey Knights)

2. Brian Poole (Grey Knights)

3. Max Rodriguez (Imperial Guard)

4. Nick Aad (Dark Eldar)

Silver Bracket

1. Brad Bitler (Space Wolves)

2. Mike Miller (Orks)

3. John Lennon (Tyranids)

4. Cliff Kump (Imperial Guard)

5. Joseph Sledge (Grey Knights)

6. Scott Lester (Grey Knights)

7. Mason Martindale (Eldar)

8. Harold Cowan (Salamanders)

9. Teddy Woody (Space Wolves)

10. Bruce Merker (Dark Eldar)

11. Rich Banks (Space Wolves)

12. Alex Aguila (Grey Knights)

13. Aaron Hagney (Tau)

14. Gabe Dieguez (Dark Eldar)

15. Ray Ortega (Space Wolves)

16. Chris Kosanke (Dark Eldar)

17. David Dos Passos (Grey Knights)

18. Jake Harai (Deathwing)

19. Brandon Irlbeck (Tyranids)

20. Chris Winans (Blood Angels)

21. Norse Hutchens (Tau)

22. Chip Witte (Chaos Space Marines)

23. Wilson Annichiarico (Eldar)

24. Kurt Williams (Deathwing)

25. Rob Carr (Space Marines)

26. Dean Morton (Blood Angels)

27. Tommy Tully (Space Wolves)

28. Shawn Phippen (Deamons)

29. Scott Hutchens (Imperial Guard)

30. Blake Gerger (Space Wolves)

31. Brandon McSween (Grey Knights)

32. Victor Hanby (Imperial Guard)

(Did not list players that dropped)

Army Counter:

Blood Angels - 2
Chaos Space Marines - 1
Chaos Daemons - 1
Deathwing - 2
Dark Eldar - 4
Eldar - 2
Grey Knights - 8
Imperial Guard - 3
Orks - 1
Space Marines - 2
Space Wolves - 6
Tau - 2
Tyranids - 2

BeakyCon Final Results

2011-10-30T19:33:00.005-04:00

Golden Bracket
1st place - Alan Blakesborough, Grey Knights (Easley, SC)
2nd place - Brian Poole, Grey Knights (Fort Lauderdale, FL)

Honorable Mention
Nick Aad (Miami, FL)
Max Rodriguez (Miami, FL)

Silver Bracket
1st place - Brad Bitler, Space Wolves (Miami, FL)
2nd place - Mike Miller, Orks (FL)

Best Army (Tie)
Chris Winnans - Blood Angels (Largo, FL)
Mason Martindale - Eldar (Naples, FL)

Players' Choice
Aaron Hagney - Tau (Naples, FL)

Thanks to everyone who came out and for all the fantastic support !! I'll be releasing a comprehensive tournament report later this week with lots of pictures.

Here is a special thanks to the following individuals for their support that above and beyond the call of duty:

— Matt Douthat (Clearwater, FL) - my right hand man... Couldn't have done it without him
— Harold Cowan (Brandenton, FL) - brought terrain for 12 tables
— Aaron Hagney (Naples, FL) - provided all the tournament documentation (big job and very well done)
— Chris Winans (Largo, FL) - helped us prepare all the tabletops
— James Caudill (Tampa, FL) - our local vendor (Anthem Games) who provided lots of excellent support
— Alex Aguila (Miami, FL) - brought seven other awesome players along with himself from the Miami area
— The wonderful staff at the Marriott

Many others also provided fantastic support which helped to ensure a great inaugural event. Thanks again to everyone who came out !!

BeakyCon Finals

2011-10-30T15:15:00.002-04:00

Final Round Golden Bracket - Brian Poole vs. Alan Blakesborough

Final Round Silver Bracker - Brad Bitler vs. Mason Martindale (eldar)

BeakyCon 2nd Day Pairings

2011-10-30T11:43:00.000-04:00

Golden Bracket Round 1 Pairings

Brian Poole (GK) vs. Nick Aad (DE)
Alan Blakesborough (GK) vs. Max Rodriguez (IG)

Silver Bracket 2nd Round

Brad Bitler (SW) vs. John Lennon (NIDZ)

BeakyCon kicks off with a big blast !!

2011-10-29T09:38:00.000-04:00

Over 40 players here today. Tourney reports to follow.

: )

Directions to the Ballroom West - Hillsborough Room

2011-10-28T13:36:00.000-04:00

When you enter the lobby go to the left and there is a hallway that leads to all the ballrooms. Go all the way to the back until you see the Hillsborough Room. That's where the GT is going to take place.

G

BeakyCon conference room update part II - Ballroom West

2011-10-28T09:54:00.001-04:00

We have been moved to a larger ballroom to better accommodate our venue. It will be held in the Ballroom West on the lobby level.

G

BeakyCon - conference room update

2011-10-28T07:59:00.002-04:00

The conference room we will be using might change so ask at the front desk when you arrive at the hotel where the Warhammer 40k tournament will be held. I'll post it up today when I find out the final details.

BeakyCon - Broward Conference Room

2011-10-27T12:53:00.003-04:00

BeakyCon will be held in the Broward Conference Room at the Marriott in the Tampa airport.

Less than 48 hours and counting !!

2011-10-27T10:43:00.000-04:00

BeakyCon kicks off in less than 48 hours now and counting !!

Long Black Poisoned Claws

2011-10-26T19:34:00.006-04:00

I was talking to my good buddy Hod over in Orlando this afternoon about his list and it seems we both have very similar philosophies in regards to playing Nidz - Hod is kicking butt as well.

There are certain units that are very expensive and can suck. The following immediately come to mind:

— Hive Tyrant (4 wounds, not an Eternal Warrior)
— Tryannofex (BS3)
— Carnifex

On the other hand there are very cheap units that can really kick the enemy right in their shards. These units are the gants... When in synapse range you have nothing to worry about and spreading synapse around is easy to do as well... Half of the units in my army provide synapse... One third of my units provide Shadow in the Warp.

Trygon Primes and genestealers are the top units, the true work horses of the army. Broodlords are so often overlooked but are a means of adding more HQ like characters to your army plus they cannot be singled out in shooting or melee - heck a Broodlord can drop enemy -1 Ld via the psychic power Aura of Despair and it stacks as well. Mix this in with Shadow in the Warp (SitW) and you can easily mess with the Grey Knights. Most Grey Knight units are Ld9 and can only cast one psychic power per turn - the combination of Aura and SitW really curbs their use of psychic powers... Even their Librarian will be hard pressed at times. Every time you successfully block an enemy psychic power is a win for the Hive Mind !

What's not to love about Tyranids? They live only to eat, breed and fight plus they have a plan for total domination. Everything will be eventually assimilated - resistance is futile ! Only the Tyranids have a real plan. What's not to love ?

Part II • Descent of the Tendril - Tryanids vs Grey Knights

2011-10-23T11:30:00.000-04:00

Deployment
The Grey Knights were deployed in a castle with the Vindicare assassin and one psyfleman placed on top of a tower. The landraider was placed in the center of the castle with one razorback on either side. The castle was situated over in one table quarter of my opponent's deployment zone.

I held my entire army in reserve and chose a large building in the middle of the table to infest with my Yrmgal genestealers. The other two genestealer broods would outflank. The Alpha Warrior with his Hormagaunts would come in off of my long table edge. The rest of my units would deep strike.

There were two Seize Ground markers in my opponent's side of the table along with his Capture and Control marker. I had one Seize Ground marker on my side of the table along with my Capture and Control marker placed in the far corner table of my deployment zone. The large building in the center of the table provided ample LOS blocking which I could use as a big screen when my units came in from reserve.

My immediate plan was to pop the razorbacks and get at the small Strike squads early to shutdown Warp Quake. Note that I have four mycetic spores which are really easy kill points for the Grey Knights.

Turn One - Grey Knights
Everything sits still.

Turn One - Tyranids
* Crickets chirp *

Kill Points: GK-0 Nidz-0

Turn Two - Grey Knights
The Strike squads pop Warp Quake and fire their smoke launchers. All vehicles move just a bit.

Turn Two - Tyranids
Here is what came in from reserve:

• Trygon Prime
• Yrmgal genestealers
• Genestealers
• Warriors
• Termagants
• Doom of Malanti

So over half of my army arrives and I do not have to worry about being piecemealed to death. I bring the Trygon in behind the central building along with the Yrmgal genestealers and Doom. The genestealer brood arrives on the short table close to the Grey Knight castle and will assault one of the razorbacks. The Warriors and termagants drop in back over by my Capture and Control marker safely tucked away for now. The genestealers fleet over towards the razorback, assault it and destroy it. One Grey Knight dies in the explosion. The Broodlord had successfully cast Aura of Despair at the beginning of the assault phase - the Grey Knights then fail their pinning check. Warp Quake has been shut down on one side of the GK castle!

Kill Points: GK-0 Nidz-1

Turn Three - Grey Knights
The Grey Knights train most all their guns on the brood of genestealers and Trygon Prime. All that is left of the genestealers after the smoke has cleared is the Broodlord with one wound and one genestealer. The Trygon Prime is down to three wounds. The Grey Knights also pop the two spores as well.

Turn Three - Tyranids
Here is what came in from reserve:

• Alpha Warrior with Hormogaunts
• Zoanthropes
• Genestealers

The Alpha Warrior and it's posse come in using the central building for cover and fleet towards it. The second brood of genestealers also come in on the short side of the table over by the GK castle and will be able to lend support to the first brood. The Zoies drop down right beside the landraider. The Yrmgal genestealers come out from behind the central building to assault the remaining razorback. Shooting sees the Zoies' spore drop a wound on the assassin while the Trygon kills two more of the Grey Knights in the first strike squad. Both of the Zoanthropes are blocked by the Librarian's psychic hood unfortunately. Assault sees the first Strike squad destroyed and the Yrmgal genestealers destroy the second razorback. The genestealers consolidate into a crater and the second Strike squad pass their leadership tests. At this point I'm actually ahead on kill points... Pretty crazy !! We are tied on both Seize Ground plus Capture and Control so I'm ahead by one kill point.

Kill Points: GK-2 Nidz-3

Turn Four - Grey Knights
It's time for the Grey Knights to go to work now. They've still got lots of firepower to dish out plus the deathstar is fully intact and very mobile thanks to both of the Zoies whiffing.

The Paladins along with the Grand Master and Librarian disembark to line up shots on the genestealers while the landraider and one psyfleman target the Trygon Prime. The genestealers go to ground - one Broodlord and a couple of genstealers manage to survive. The Trygon goes down after failing two cover saves and an armor save. The assassin takes a shot at one of the Broodlords and misses. The other psyfleman pops the Warriors' spore. The lone Strike squad shoots the Yrmgal genestealers but only manage to kill two then charge them and are cut down by the brood. Both the Zoies and their spore are left intact amazingly.

Turn Four - Tyranids
The Grey Knights have surged back but I've still got plenty of units left. I need to shut down the landraider this turn to make sure the deathstar cannot reach around the central building. In comes the last Trygon popping in behind the central building - it's getting a bit crowded back there now. Heh . The Yrmgal genestealers head over to assault a psyfleman while the termagants start to slog forward into synapse range of the second Trygon. The Zoies line up a second salvo on the landraider and manage to immobilize it. Their spore fires on the assassin again and drops him! W00T !!! Assault sees the Yrmgal genestealers rip both arms off of the psyfleman.

We are now tied on all three objectives but I know I'm going to give up a good number of kill points the following turn. In turn the Grey Knights only have a few kill points left to give up and they are all highly resilient. I need to start focusing on contesting my opponent's objectives... I've still got lots of units left with a healthy amount of synapse so I'll have to try to flood his area with more units than he can kill. Immobilizing the landraider was pretty huge this turn.

Kill Points: GK-5 Nidz-5

Turn Five - Grey Knights
The deathstar has to make some hard choices now. The only target they can see are what's left of the second genestealer brood which can also be targeted by the landraider. The psyfleman in the tower can't see much either. The deathstar opts to focus on the Zoies as they are too far away to reach the Yrmgal genestealers this turn. The landraider destroys the last of the genestealer brood while the deathstar aces the Zoies. The psyfleman in the tower destroys the last spore. The Yrmgal genestealers manage to immobilize the psyfleman.

Turn Five - Tyranids
I bring forward the brood of 20 devilgants using the Trygon as their primary synapse anchor. The Alpha Warrior along with it's posse come around the far side of the building using it for cover. The next turn these units can swarm the Grey Knights. This turn the Yrmgal genestealers finally manage to destroy the psyfleman.

The deathstar is left holding two of the Seize Ground markers and their Capture and Control Marker as well plus the Grey Knights are now up by two kill points (which as I've said will be next to impossible to overtake).

Kill Points: GK-8 Nidz-6

Turn Six - Grey Knights
Again the deathstar has some tough decisions. If they go after the Yrmgal genestealers they will move off of their objective markers... Nothing else is in their range and the landraider is facing in the wrong direction to shoot anything. The psyfleman in the tower targets the Warrior brood and kills two but the third is safe behind cover holding my Capture and Control objective. The deathstar shoots at the Yrmgals who have cover but only manage to kill a couple and they pass their leadership test.

Turn Six - Tyranids
The Alpha Warrior and his posse hop back to hold my Seize Ground marker behind the central building while the devilgants anchored by the Trygon surge forward again careful to remain outside of the deathstar's assault arc. The Yrmgals move and then fleet to contest the Grey Knight's Seize Ground and Capture and Control markers. The lone Warrior is sitting safely on my Capture and Control marker. We roll the dice to see if there is a turn seven and the game ends. I end up winning two objectives to one.

Post Game Analysis
If the game had gone onto a final seventh turn the deathstar would have killed the Yrmgals then I would have moved up the termagants to contest the Grey Knight objectives again. I think this was a good example of how to use Null Zone Deployment tactics to counter Grey Knights. I was able to neutralize the amount of damage the GK deathstar could generate while systemically removing other units over the course of the game. The last turn I was in a good position to contest for the win.

Part I • Descent of the Tendril - Tyranids versus Grey Knights

2011-10-22T20:40:00.052-04:00

I had the opportunity this afternoon to get in a match versus Grey Knights with my tendril. I was using almost the exact same list as in my recent game versus Space Pups. Grey Knights are a tougher matchup due to their many inherent advantages versus Tyranids but I was focused on exploiting their inherent weaknesses. Deployment was Pitched Battle. The mission used the BeakyCon 40k format - three objectives all equally weighted - killpoints, Seize Ground plus Capture and Control. Whichever player takes the most objectives wins the game. If there is a draw on the three objectives then victory points are used as the tie breaker.

Tyranid Reserve Army List (2000 points)

Here is my abbreviated army list:

Alpha Warrior - pair of bone swords, adrenal glands & scything talons

Trygon Prime - adrenal glands
Trygon Prime - adrenal glands

10x Yrmgal genestealer
2x Zoanthropes - mycetic spore
Doom of Malanti (DoM) - mycetic spore

20x termagant w. Devourers (devilgants)- mycetic spore
10x genestealer w. toxin sacs & scything talons incl. Broodlord
10x genestealer w. toxin sacs & scything talons incl. Broodlord
3x Warrior - adrenal glands, 2x deathspitter, barbed strangler, pair of bone swords - mycetic spore
10x Hormogaunt - adrenal glands & toxin sacs

Before I go into the detail of the actual batrep here is the background for my army. A splinter of the Gehuibius fleet has come upon the fringes of the easternmost Imperial system. Psychic gestalt is powerful in the area for some unknown reason and the Tyranids are feeding upon it in droves. While this area is not of any particular importance to the Imperium it has been chosen as a training ground certain chapters of the Astartes. At first victories seemed almost easily assured but now losses are starting to mount and there is a concern as the splinter has drawn back the attention of it's parent tendril. A huge number of Hive ships are reported returning to the area en masse. What once almost considered a farce is now a steadily growing concern. More resources are being committed to staunch the ever increasing rapid xenos growth.

Pre Game Analysis
As I said Grey Knights have a lot of inherent advantages versus Tyranids (e.g., psykout grenades, psychic hood, Warp Quake, etc.). Grey Knights can easily pull a victory but it seems that Tyranids have to work it really hard for a win. The mission featured three equally weighted objectives - kill points, Seize Ground plus Capture and Control. My army has lots of scoring units so I have to focus on taking the objective markers. I am playing a pure reserve army and have switched out my Hive Guard for Zoanthropes. Small elite armies such as Grey Knights need to castle so using Null Deployment tactics can take away some of their inherent strengths. Tyranids have some psychic defense so I would need to exploit that facet of my army. My opponent only had three scoring units (two Strike squads and the Paladins via the Grand Strategy) so I concentrated on taking out the weak ones (i.e., Strike squads). Strike squads have the psychic power Warp Quake to nerf deep striking units but fortunately Tyranids have ample other methods of entering the battlefield via reserve while still coming in close to the enemy. My game plan was to win on Capture and Control plus Seize Ground. This strategy meant I would have to take some risks and saturate the area on the battlefield holding the most objectives.

One my strategies versus small elite armies is to place objective markers close to a short table edge where I think my opponent will castle so my outflanking genestealers can quickly hit any enemy units deployed to guard those. I also try to avoid combat with the more resilient Grey Knight units such as Paladins... They will just chew you up and spit you back out so there is no reason to engage them in my opinion.

Abbreviated Grey Knight Army
Grand Master - psychotropic grenades, rad grenades, warding stave
Librarian - Might of Titans, Quicksilver, Sanctuary, Shrouding, Warp Rift, warding stave

5x Paladin - Brotherhood banner, psycannon, 2x daemonhammer
Vindicare assassin

Dreadnaught - 2x twin linked autocannon, psybolt ammo
Dreadnaught - 2x twin linked autocannon, psybolt ammo

Landraider Crusader - extra armor, multi-melta

5x Grey Knight (Strike squad) - psycannon, daemonhammer - razorback w. twin linked lascannon
5x Grey Knight (Strike squad) - psycannon, daemonhammer - razorback w. twin linked lascannon

The second part of this article will feature the actual battle report. The batrep should be up very soon.

Descent of the Tendril - Tyranids vs Space Wolves

2011-10-21T22:27:00.002-04:00

I had the opportunity to recently play a game with my current Tyranid list versus one of the better SW players in my area. The mission used the BeakyCon 40k format - three objectives all equally weighted - killpoints, Seize Ground plus Capture and Control. Whichever player takes the most objectives wins the game. If there is a draw on the three objectives then victory points are used as the tie breaker. We randomly rolled for objectives and got Spearhead.

Here is my abbreviated army list:

Alpha Warrior - pair of bone swords, adrenal glands & scything talons

Trygon Prime - adrenal glands
Trygon Prime - adrenal glands

10x Yrmgal genestealer
3x Hive Guard (note that in the future I'll switch this unit out for a couple of Zoanthropes mounted in a mycetic spore)
Doom of Malanti (DoM) - mycetic spore

20x termagant w. Devourers (devilgants)- mycetic spore
10x genestealer w. toxin sacs incl. Broodlord
10x genestealer w. toxin sacs incl. Broodlord
3x Warrior - 2x deathspitter, barbed strangler, pair of bone swords - mycetic spore
10x Hormogaunt - adrenal glands & toxin sacs

This is a reserve list with only the Hive Guard starting deployed on the table. After discussing my list with some other respected Tyranid players I've come to the conclusion that Zoies are a better choice since they have synapse and don't need another unit with synapse clode by to prevent Instinctive Behavior tests. The Alpha Warrior is attached to the Hormagants and depending on how my rolls for reserves play out I generally prefer for them to pop out of a burrowed hole left behind by one of the two Trygon Primes. Genestealers typically outflank and obviously the Yrmgal genestealers manifest themselves such that once they become active they can immediately charge a close by enemy unit. The termagants drop in and lay waste to an enemy unit - 60 S4 shots can definitely do some real damage and they can usually target an exposed unit. The Doom of Malanti also drops in from reserve and does it's thing - hopefully working in conjunction with one of the Broodlords (Aura of Despair for -1 Ld which is cumulative if the other Broodlord happens to be in range as well). The Warriors are there mainly to extend the synapse bubble and anchor my backfield - they are not intended to see much action. The two Trygon Primes are basically deterrents and take some of the heat off the other units plus they can extend the synapse bubble from the front.

Here is my opponent's abbreviated Space Wolves list (it's been more than a week since I played this game so my memory is a bit rusty):

Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf mount - thunderhammer, stormshield, runic armor, wolf tooth necklace, Saga of the Bear
Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf mount - frost axe, stormshield, runic armor, wolf tooth necklace

Rune Priest - Living Lightning & JotWW
Rune Priest - Living Lightning & Murderous Hurricane

3x Thunderwolf cavalry (TWC), stormshields, power fist
3x Thunderwolf cavalry, stormshields, power fist

5x Long Fang - 3x missile launcher, 2x lascannon
5x Long Fang - 2x plasma cannon, heavy bolter, 2x missile launcher
Vindicator

10x Grey Hunter - power fist, meltagun, plasmagun - rhino
5x Grey Hunter - plasmagun
5x Grey Hunter - meltagun

As stated above the deployment was Spearhead. I won the roll and opted to go second. My opponent deployed in a castle over in one of his table quarters. One Rune Priest was attached to each of the Long Fang packs. Each Wolf Lord was attached to one of the TWC. I hid my Yrmgal genestealers in a building close to his castle and held everything else in reserve - that's how the army works !!

Turn One - Space Wolves
Both TWC shuffled a bit.

Turn One - Tyranid
* Crickets chirping *

Turn Two - Space Wolves
Again the Space Wolves shuffle a bit in preparation for the soon to come pandemic Tyranid infestation.

Turn Two - Tyranids
In comes one Trygon Prime, the devilgants, one brood of genestealers, Yrmgal genestealers and the Doom of Malanti. The Trygon Prime burrows out from the ground close to one of the five Grey Hunter squads while the devilgants land right in front of a Long Fang pack. The genestealers come in from reserve on the short table edge close to a squad of TWC with the Saga Lord and the Yrmgal genestealers emerge from their slumber to join forces with the other newly arrived brood of genestealers. The DoM drops in close to the castle over beside the TWC that the genestealers are going to multi assaulted. My goal this turn is to remove as many enemy units as possible with as little overlap as possible. The Trygons will be bait units to draw away the TWC so I can pulverize the lil dawgs with my other units. At the beginning of the shooting phase the DoM sucks up a few wounds from a couple of units... Each wound adds to the strength of his pie plate so it's all good. The devilgants shoot down a unit of Long Fangs leaving only the Rune Priest as a bystander. The Trygon fires into a five man squad of Grey Hunters and drops one. The spores fail to inflict any damage. The DoM fires upon a five man squad of Grey Hunters but it scatters off course. The genestealers fleet towards one unit of TWC outside of cover - both units will be able to run the tag team in the turnbuckle. After the charge there is one Thunderwolf left with one wound as well as the Wolf Lord with two wounds... I opted to grant the Yrmgal genestealers an extra attack so that was a whole of attacks directed upon the TWC. In return the last TWC and Wolf Lord scores a few wounds versus the broods and pass their morale check. It was a good turn for the tendril.

Turn 3 - Space Wolves
The free unit of TWC move towards the Trygon Prime and the Vindicator lines up a shot on the devilgants. Shooting sees the Trygon Prime lose a couple wounds and the Vindicator's pie plate scatters off a bit taking out about a third of the devilgants. The remaining unit of Long Fangs and both Rune Priests target the Trygon Prime as well dropping another couple of wounds. The devilgants are outside of synapse but pass their morale test and hold onto their position. The free TWC assault the Trygon Prime and take down the gigantic beast. The two broods of genestealers then drop the one TWC and the first Wolf Lord consolidating around the Long Fangs and Rune Priests.

Turn 3 - Tyranids
In comes the last squad of genestealers arriving on the opposite short table edge along with the other Trygon Prime and the Alpha Warrior attached to the Hormagaunts. I will use the newly arrived unit of genestealers to claim objectives while the Alpha Warrior and his brood come in off the long table edge hiding behind cover... They are in position to charge the free TWC as a counter assault unit following the predicted charge versus the newly arrived Trygon Prime. The devilgants pass their instinctive behavior test and line up to soak the remaining unit of Long Fangs. The other two units of genestealers move into position to assault any survivors. At the beginning of the shooting phase the DoM sucks up another couple of wounds. The devilgants target the Long Fangs and kill all but two including the attached Rune Priest. The Trygon Prime peppers a five man squad of Grey Hunters and drops one. The DoM then drops it's pie plate and blows the demolisher cannon off the Vindicator. The genestealers then assault the last two Long Fangs and take them out then consolidate towards the rhino transporting tje squad of 10 Grey Hunters. Another good turn for the tendril - everything is going according to the Hive Mind's plan.

Turn 4 - Space Wolves
The free unit of TWC along with the second Wolf Lord move into position to assault the Trygon Prime. The remaining Rune Priest moves into position to assault the devilgants. There is little shooting quickly followed by the assault phase. The Trygon Prime is hammered but the devilgants hold versus the Rune Priest and score one wound in return.

Turn 4 - Tyranids
The three Warriors finally arrive dropping in to provide synapse for the devilgants. The first two broods of genestealers and the Alpha Warrior with his posse converge around the free TWC. There are no enemy units close enough for the DoM to suck wounds so it drops it's pie plate on the Grey Hunters' rhino and destroys it. The Grey Hunters pass their tests and hunker down. The TWC and second Wolf Lord are all destroyed in the assault phase by a massive combi charge.

At this point the writing is on the proverbial wall - the dawgs have suffered a horrid amount of losses while inflicting little damage in return except for the pair of Trygons. We play it out and I end up winning the game by two objectives to one (killpoints| Seize Ground versus Capture and Control).

Conclusion
Like I said everything went according to the plan. The Trygons were bait to pull the TWC away from the lil dawgs. My reserve rolls were average and the army performed as expected. I think my opponent's biggest mistake was to castle his army as the genestealers got into his lines early and quickly swept through while avoiding any enemy shooting in return... That was huge. The second mistake was deploying the castle in a corner where they could quickly be reached by my genestealers.The Alpha Warrior with his Hormagaunts were devastating versus the TWC - Tyranids as a whole are very mobile and can lay down lots and lots of attacks... It's all about getting them into position to shoot and assault. You need to get in quick and wreck as much havoc as possible. I've lost to this same SW army twice with my Draigowing so as far as I'm concerned it's no joke. I bought the bulk of my Tyranid army from this same player - I don't think he was expecting what happened. I made a few tweaks to the list presented here such as dropping a winged Hive Tyrant in exchange for the Alpha Warrior and converting a Mawloc into a second Trygon Prime.

Institutionalized

2011-10-19T17:54:00.001-04:00

Sometimes I try to do things but it just doesn't work out the way I want it to, and I get real frustrated and then like I try hard to do it, and I like, take my time but it just doesn't work out the way I want it to. It's like, I concentrate on it real hard, but it just doesn't work out. And everything I do and everything I try, it never turns out. It's like, I need time to figure these things out, but there's always someone there going “hey mike, you know we've been noticing you've been having a lot of problems lately, you know? You need to maybe get away. And like, maybe you should talk about it, you'll feel a lot better.” And I'm all like “oh, nah, it's ok, you know. I'll figure it out. Just leave me alone, I'll figure it out, you know? I'm just working on it by myself.” And they go “well, you know, if you wanna talk about it, I'll be here, you know? And you'll probably feel a lot better if you talk about it. So why don't you talk about it?” I go “no, I don't want to! I'm ok. I'll figure it out myself!” But they just keep bugging me, they just keep bugging me, and it builds up inside.

So you're gonna be institutionalized.
You'll come out brainwashed with bloodshot eyes.
You won't have anything to say.
They'll brainwash you until you see their way.

I'm not crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!
You're the one that's crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!
You're driving me crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!

They stuck me in an institution,
Said it was the only solution
To give me the needed professional help to protect me from the enemy, myself.

I was in my room and I was just like staring at the wall thinking about everything, but then again I was thinking about nothing. And then my mom came in, and I didn't even know she was there. She called my name and I didn't hear her and then she started screaming “Mike, Mike!” And I go “what? What's the matter?” She goes “what's the matter with you?” I go “there's nothing wrong, mom.” Shes all “don't tell me that! You're on drugs!” I go “no mom, I'm not on drugs. I'm ok, I'm just thinking, you know? Why don't you get me a Pepsi?” She goes “No! You're on drugs!” I go “mom, I'm ok. I'm just thinking.” She goes “No! You're not thinking, you're on drugs! Normal people don't be acting that way!” I go “mom, just get me a Pepsi! Please, all I want is a Pepsi!” And she wouldn't give it to me! All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me! Just a Pepsi!

They give you a white shirt with long sleeves!
Tied around your back, you're treated like thieves!
Drug you up because they're lazy!
It's too much work to help a crazy!

I'm not crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!
You're the one who's crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!
You're driving me crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!

They stuck me in an institution,
Said it was the only solution
To give me the needed professional help, to protect me from the enemy, myself.

I'm sitting in my room, when my mom and my dad came in. they pulled up a chair and they sat down. They go “mike, we need to talk to you.” And I go “ok, what's the matter?” They go “me and your mom, we've noticed that lately you've been having a lot of problems, and you've been going off for no reason, and we're afraid you're going to hurt somebody, and we're afraid you're going to hurt yourself. So we decided that it would be in your best interest if we put you somewhere where you could get the help that you need.” And I go “wait, what are you talking about, WE decided? MY best interests? How do you know what MY best interest is? How can you say what MY best interest is? What are you trying to say? I'M crazy? When I went to YOUR schools, I went to YOUR churches, I went to YOUR institutional learning facilities? So how can you say I'M crazy?”

They say they're gonna fix my brain.
Alleviate my suffering and my pain.
But by the time they fix my head,
Mentally I'll be dead.

I'm not crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!
You're the one who's crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!
You're driving me crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!

They stuck me in an institution,
Said it was the only solution
To give me the needed professional help, to protect me from the enemy, myself.

Doesn't matter, I'll probably get hit by a car anyways.

Statistics for armies registered for BeakyCon (courtesy of Tabletop Conquests)

2011-10-17T17:24:00.003-04:00