Category: tyranids

Jun 23 2013 June 23, 2013 June 23, 2013 2Comments by cuzzle

Batrep: Eldar vs Tyranids

Posted in 40k, eldar, mymeara, tyranids

Played my game with Michael today.  We played at a newer game store near his house Gameshire.  It’s got some real nice tables and is well lit and clean.  Seems like a friendly place to play.  We ended up rolling mission 5, Elrdad’s Will and Hammer and Anvil deployment.  He took first turn and hid most of his army.  He was playing his  Tyranids and didn’t have the tools to really take care of all of my skimmers.  He really struggled to do much of anything the first few turns of the game, as he was scared to run his little bugs out into my fire lanes.  I managed to kill off a lot of his stuff by the end, leaving only a couple Genestealers, a single Hormogaunt and a couple Hive Guard at the end of turn 5.  He did bring down two of my Wave Serpents, the Nightspinner, the Rangers, a squad of Dire Avengers and all but one Wraithguard (who would have died had we opted to continue on).

The stand out units of the game were definitely the Wave Serpents.  Loading them out with Scatter Lasers and Shuriken Cannon is just disgusting the amount of firepower they put out.  I managed to roll two 6’s for finding out how many shots the Serpent Shield would have and just managed to tear units apart, I think it’s probably the best transport in the game with how survivable, fast, and damaging it is.  It’s kind of sad that it vastly overshoots the Falcon and doesn’t take up a slot being a dedicated transport.  The jetbikes were also awesome, but only because they were able to turbo boost across the table and take his objective.  I liked the Dire Avengers over the Guardians as I found that extra 6″ and the 4+ armor save really helped to keep them alive.  The Wraithguard with D-Sythes were also very nasty, instant killing a Mawloc, though they were brought down by Genestealers, but required a multi-assault were one unit was all but wiped out on over-watch so the second could get into close combat.

It was fun to play, but I did feel a little bad for the Tyranids, as they are really showing their age/bad codex writing.  It doesn’t help that Michael doesn’t like Tervigon’s which seem to be the real useful unit in codex.


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Jun 13 2013 June 13, 2013 June 13, 2013 2Comments by cuzzle

First Game with New Eldar

Posted in 40k, eldar, tyranids

A few pictures from my first game with the new Eldar codex. It was an odd game, as there was a new player in the store who had just assembled a couple Tyranid models so he took 500 points of Tyranids and I took 1500 Eldar and we fought a Dark Angels player with 2000 points.  My list was just made to try a couple different things and isn’t really optimized in any way:

Eldar 1500
HQ: Farseer with spirit stone
Troop: 10 Guardians w/ scatter lasers
Troop: 10 Guardians w/ scatter lasers
Troop: 5 Rangers
Troop: 4 Jetbikes
Elite: 5 Fire Dragons in Wave Serpent w/ scatter lasers
Heavy: Wraithknight with suncannon and scatter laser
Heavy: 3 War Walkers with scatter lasers
Heavy: 1 Fire Prism

Tyranids:
1x Tervigon w/ some upgrades
10x termagaunts
1x Trigon Prime

Dark Angels Double Wing:
2x 10 man Terminator Squads
2x Full Bikes with Attack Bikes
3 Whirlwinds

Things were looking pretty terrible after first turn.  I’ve never played Dark Angels before and didn’t realize what deepstriking Terminators could do, not scouting bikes.  Everything was right in our face turn 1 and he obliterated most of our troops and my Farseer turn 1.  The whirlwinds all ignored cover and each hit deleted my crappy troops that were needing cover.  By the end of the turn the only troops we had alive were about 3 guardians and the Tervigon.

We decided to at least play a turn or two to see if we could do anything, and it turned out we could!  The Wraithknight showed his value when he obliterated 6 of the Terminators with his 3 TL plasma cannon blasts on terminators which were bunched up from deepstriking.  The War Walkers, Fire Prism, Wave Serpent and Fire Dragons then unloaded into Belials terminators and brought them down by half.  Everything that could assault at that point did assault to try and be locked in combat to take cover from the Whirlwinds.  The Trigon and Wraithknight charged the remained 4 Terminators at wiped them out and only taking a single wound back.  It’s pretty awesome for Terminators to need 4’s to wound.

Turn 2 was very little shooting for the Dark Angels as most everything was hidden or locked in combat.  The bikes did manage to shoot and then assault the Tervigon to death and put a wound or two on the Trigon.  On the Eldar turn, the suncannon obliterated the other bike unit, while the Trigon and Fire prism whittled down Belials terminators.  The Crimson Hunter came on and killed a whirlwind, but just barely.  The Exarch upgrade saved it as he rolled 1,2,2,4 to hit and managed to strip the hull points off.  The Trigon charged in and killed Belial, but the last two terminators managed to take his last two wounds.  We ended up calling the game at that point as we were both pretty much out of troops and the new guy had to run.  It was fun, and the parts that did survive the beginning were really fun and effective.  Sadly I didn’t get to try a bunch of things as they all died early on.

A few observations.  I think we are going to see a return of mechanized Eldar.  Wave Serpents are really good, and the troops are just to squishy to be out.  The Wraithknight is amazing, and while there are some bad match-ups (poison) it is just extremely hard to kill.  Plasma guns need 5’s to wound!  I like the suncannon upgrade, but it runs 300 points to kit it like that.  I can see a place for the stock models though at 240 and it seems a fair price for the incredible toughness.  Guardians were pretty lackluster.  There is too much cover ignoring weapons and I wouldn’t count on them as my soul troops choice.  I think a unit or two of Wraithguard might be needed to provide some survivability along with Jetbikes for mobility.  The crimson hunter is pretty nice, but I really think it needs to exarch upgrade to make sure it can fill it’s roll.  Finally the Heavy slot is just amazing.  Pretty much everything in the slot will be effective.

To close, the game was a blast to play, and it really seems like the codex will have a lot of different builds that will be fun to play.  I can’t wait to explore it more as I get more games in.


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Feb 24 2013 February 24, 2013 February 24, 2013 NoComment by cuzzle

Game: Eldar vs Tyranids

Posted in 40k, eldar, tyranids

Michael and I played a game this afternoon. 1850 points and he ran his Tyranids while I did my Eldar with a small ally contingent of Tau. We ended up rolling Purge the Alien with diagonal deployment, which was probably the worst scenario for Michael’s Tyranids. My list had a lot of shooting while his had pretty much none. The Farseers also gave him some serious problems with psychic powers.

The main issue with my list was that it’s kind of boring to play. Cast a bunch of psychic powers and then unload shots on enemy. I’m going to have to modify a bit to get some movement back in.

The highlight unit for me was the Harlequins with Eldrad attached. They finished off two squads of Genestealers, a Tervigon and a bunch of Hormogaunts. They can cause some serious hurt with the right psychic powers and 40 rending attack on the charge is really scary for most people. I will have to eventually pick up the actual models, which scares me a little as they look like they will be really hard to paint.

Eldar Deployment
Eldar castled up with Tyranids accross
Tyranid deployment
Eldar base
Fire warriors (proxied guardians) line up for firing.
Hive Tyrant eating Fire Warriors

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Nov 12 2012 November 12, 2012 November 12, 2012 NoComment by cuzzle

Lamenters versus Tyranids

Posted in 40k, lamenters, tyranids

Michael and I played an 1850 point game today that was a lot of fun.  We played the Relic Mission and Dawn of War deployment.   Michael had first turn and hid everything behind ruins (which with his Warlod trait gave him 3+ saves) and infiltrated the genestealers.  I put my Land Raider center and flanked it with predators with all my marines hiding behind.

First turn we had a bit of wait and see as neither of us wanted to be stuck in the center giving the other player easy charge lanes.  We both moved up a little and positioned.  I did kill a couple hormaguants with the Vindicator, but FNP genestealers from pyschic powers and also 5+ invuls prevented too much damage on the first turn.

Second turn both mawlocs deepstruck, destroyed the Vindicator and killed a couple marines.  His Tyrant dropped down to try and bust the land raider.  He did pen, but only managed to shake it.  My turn I unload everything in the mawlocs behind my line and manage with the charge to kill both.  I also brought the Tyrant down to 1 wound and charged the hormagaunts that were approaching the relic with the death company.   50 re-roll to hit and wound attacks later they were gone.  I also flamed and assaulted the genestealers on my flank Though FNP saved them big time.  In the end we both killed about half our units there.

My warlord had possession of the Relic (thanks to his Warlord trait making him Scoring, but the unit had a Trygon on one side and 12 Genestealers on the other.  The 10 death company were wiped out, but the Reclusiarch in a challenge with the Brood lord stayed up thanks to his invul save.  They were finished off by the Trygon but managed to thin a couple out on their way.

The rest of the game was a big scrum in the middle.  I still had a few shooting vehicles with nothing interesting to shoot, and I poored all my infantry into the middle to try and keep his troops from picking up the relic.  In the end all my troops were wiped out, he had 3 genestealers left on  a flank, too far away to get the relic, but giving him linebreaker.  We both killed each others warlords, but he had first blood.  So the Tyranids won 3-2.  The game was a blast and really close.  We each had fun moments and it was a particularly bloody match.  One of the best games we’ve played together and we both had a lot of fun.

Lamenters:
Reclusiarch
10x Death Company
1x Land Raider Crusader
10x Assault Marines (PF, Plasma guns)
10x Assault Marines (PS, Flamers)
5x Sanguinary Guard with banner
1x Priest with Jump Pack
1x Vindicator
1x Predator w/ HB
1x Baal Predator w/ Flamestorm
3x Bikes with plasma guns

Tyranids:
Hive Tyrant w/ Wings and Lash Whip
12x Genestealers Broodlord and Toxin Sacs
12x Genestealers Broodlord and Toxin Sacs
20x Hormagaunts w/ Toxin Sacs and Adrenal Glands
3x Hive Guard
1x Zoanthrope
1x Zoanthrope
1x Mawloc
1x Mawloc
1x Trygon Prime


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Aug 20 2012 August 20, 2012 August 20, 2012 NoComment by cuzzle

Battle of Epsilon Corvi

Posted in 40k, lamenters, tyranids

Battle of Epsilon Corvi – Mission 2.

Initial board setup
Initial board setup
Lamenters Deployment
Lamenters Deployment
Tyranids Deployment
Additional Deployment
Flying Hive Tyrant moving forward first turn
Assault Squad getting assaulted after flaming Genestealers
Lamenters advancing forward
Mephiston taking on last Zoanthrope and two Genestealers
Mission: The Scouring (6 random objectives, fast attack scoring)

Deployment: Vanguard Strike (Diagonal)
Points: 1750 (kind of)

Lamenters list is here.

The Tyranid list is below.  Sadly there was a mistake on the expected points value, and the Tyranids were only 1500 points.  This definitely skewed the game in my favor.

HQ:
Hive Tyrand (wings)

Troops:
8 Genestealers (toxin sacs)
1 Broodlord

8 Genestealers  (toxin sacs)
1 Broodlord

24 Hormaguants (adrenal glands, toxin sacs)

Fast:
12 Gargoyles (adrenal glands, toxin sacs)

1 Harpy

Elite:
2 Zoanthropes
2 Zoanthropes

Heavy:
Trygon Prime

Tyranids had first turn and they slowly advanced up the middle.  Nervous about the flamers in the front of my army, they tried to stay back a little, but not far enough, as the flamers were able to move in and wipe out one of the units of Genestealers.  A couple marines got killed by the force dome psychic power as there shots  bounced back.

The next turn the Gargoyles, Hormaguants and Trygon wiped out the two squads.  The free overwatch hits with the flamer managed to thin out the Gargoyles pretty well, but didn’t do much to the larger creatures.  The other unit of Genestealers assaulted an assault marine squad in cover, and with the lack of grenades, were fairly ineffective.  The Vanguard Vets came in and assaulted a unit of Zoanthropes and killed one, while Mephiston made a huge 10″ charge and killed the Trygon, Mephiston with Iron Arm and Warp Speed made him super nasty in combat.

Third turn the Hormaguants charged into Mephiston and managed to bring him down to one wound but the Sanguinary Guard joined in and wiped the unit out.  The flyrant charged into the vanguard veterans and killed two, but the return attacks finished off the big bug.  The genestealers lost combat and ran, though they managed to get into cover.

Fourth turn was mostly re-positioning and the movement toward objectives.  While a few smaller combats finished up.  Going into the last turn the Tyranids were down to the Harpy, one Zoanthropes, and a couple Genestealers.  Mephiston was stuck in combat with the Zoanthrope and genestealers, and an assault squad managed to ground the Harpy and the TH/SS Terminators pounced on it out of the Land Raider.  The game ended on turn 5 with a great victory to the Lamenters.  They of course had a huge upper hand since they were playing with 250 more points!  Always check lists before you start a game.

The game was a blast, and we have two more missions in our mini-campaign.  Learned a bunch of stuff about 6th edition and the army, and I’m really enjoying the new mechanics and play-style.  We played with mysterious objectives this game, and they really didn’t have any impact on the game.  Even the sabotaged one never blew up the entire game.  We never remembered challenges, and I keep forgetting to throw grenades, something I’ve been wanting to try and always forget!  Can’t wait for another game.


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Jun 24 2012 June 24, 2012 June 24, 2012 NoComment by cuzzle

Last Game of 5th Edition

Posted in 40k, eldar, tyranids
For my last game of 5th Edition I decided to bring out my ignored Eldar army, Michael came over and we played the Battle Missions Book mission, Infestation.  This represents the end of a Tyranid Invasion and the planet is destabilizing (as a result all area terrain is dangerous).  The Eldar deploy completely in one table-quarter and the Tyranids get the other three (though they can’t deploy within 12″ of my deployment zone.  In addition the Tyranids all get Stealth, and the Eldar all get Preferred Enemy.  I was really excited to play a different mission, as I am more of a thematic gamer, and don’t rally like the standard missions in the book.

I won’t go into all the details but the Eldar won 8 Kill points to the Tyranids 3.  The MVP’s for the game were definitely the War Walkers who with Doom and Guide erased much of the giant Gargoyle  swarm and the Hive Tyrant.  They took a nice dent out of some Genestealers and the Zoanthropes as well and only lost a single weapon (they were nicely bubble wrapped and he didn’t have any long range shooting).  The other was actually the Guardian squad.  They were fortuned up on the second turn and the Warlock and one normal guy actually survived a squad of hormagaunts and Genestealers assaulting into them.  That allowed me to focus fire on some incoming squads and probably won me the game in the end.
The Striking Scorpions were the biggest fail of the game.  Another screening Guardian squad would have been just as effective and cost way fewer points.  The Shining Spears were better than I expected, but just don’t have enough attacks to do much for their point cost.  The Night Spinner was fun as well, but not better than another 3 War Walkers would have been.  In the future I would drop the Spears, Night Spinner and Scorpions and pick up two more Guardain Squads, a small unit of Pathfinders and 3 more War Walkers.
One problem the Eldar have with the Tyranids is the high initiative, something that they depend on to survive. The Tyranids on the other hand have trouble dealing with the massive amounts of fire (24 Strength 6 scatter laser shots, and 30 Bladestorm shots with doom and guide is rather disgusting).  I had a ton of fun playing, though I’m excited to see what 6th edition will have to offer.  

Eldar – 1997 Points

HQ: Eldrad Ulthran
HQ: Avatar
Troops: 10 Dire Avengers, Exarch (Bladestorm ;  Defend ; Power Weapon; Shimmershield)
Troops: 10 Dire Avengers, Exarch (Bladestorm ;  Defend ; Power Weapon; Shimmershield)
Troops: 10 Guardians (Scatter Laser)
               1 Warlock (Enhance, Singing Spear)
Elite: 10 Striking Scorpions, Exarch (Scorpion Claw)
Elite:   8 Harlequins (Harlequins Kiss)
            1 Shadowseer (Harlequins Kiss; Fusion Pistol)
            1 Troupe Master (Power Weapon; Fusion Pistol)
Fast Attack: 5 Shining Spears, Exarch (Skilled Rider ; Star Lance)
Heavy Support: 3 War Walker (2x Scatter Laser)
Heavy Support: 1 Wraithlord (2x Flamer; Missile Launcher)
Heavy Support: 1 Night Spinner (Holo-Field; Spirit Stones)

Tyranids – 1999 Points

HQ: Hive Tyrant (Lash Whip & Bonesword; Adrenal Glands; Implant Attack; Regeneration; Toxic Miasma; Wings; Leech Essence; Paroxysm)
Troops: 8 Genestealers (Toxin Sacs)
Troops: 8 Genestealers (Toxin Sacs)
Troops: 8 Genestealers (Toxin Sacs)
Troops: 12 Hormagaunts (Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs)
Troops: 12 Hormagaunts (Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs)
Elite: 3 Zoanthropes
Elite: 3 Zoanthropes
Elite: 8 Ymgarl Genestealers
Fast Attack: 24 Gargoyles (Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs)
Fast Attack:  5 Spore Mine Clusters
Heavy Support: Trygon Prime (Adrenal Glands; Regeneration)
Eldar castling in corner

Genestealers finishing munching on some Guardians
Avatar versus Genestealers 
Dire Avengers hiding on roof of building
End of game result
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May 04 2012 May 4, 2012 May 4, 2012 NoComment by cuzzle

Lamenters vs Tyranids

Posted in 40k, lamenters, tyranids

So I managed to get a game in today after a month and half or so of not playing.  I played Mark from The Overlords Podcast and we played all three mission types in Bay Area Open style.  We did do a few things wrong, in that we did all five objectives for Seize Ground rather than just three, and we did an even distribution Nova style instead.  I would be interested to play the “correct” way in the future.





Lone Terminator holding out against Swarmlord


HQ: Librarian in Terminator Armour – Epistolary, Unleash Rage, Sanguine Sword

Elite:
Furioso Dreadnought – Heavy Flamer, Talons
2x Sanguinary Priest – Jump Pack, Power Sword
Terminator Assault Squad – 5x Lightening Claw, 5x Thunder Hammer
      1 Land Raider Crusader – Multi-Melta

Troops:
Assault Squad – 2x Melta, 1 Power Fist, 1 Infernus Pistol
Assault Squad – 2x Melta, 1 Power Fist, 1 Infernus Pistol

Fast Attack:
Baal Predator – Flamestorm Cannon

Heavy Support: 
Stormraven Gunship – Lascannon, Multi-Melta

Tyranids List (from what I remember):
HQ:
Swarmlord with Tyrant Guard Attached
Elite:
3x Hive Guard
3x Hive Guard
Troop:
30x Termagants with Devourer
10x Termagants plain
1xTervigon
8x Genestealers w/ Broodlord
Fast:
3x Shrikes w/ Lashwhip and Bonesword
3x Shrikes w/ Lashwhip and Bonesword
Heavy:
Trygon
Trygon
We had spearhead deployment and I won the roll, but elected for Mark to go first.  He deployed everything except his Trygons.  I deployed everything, but the Storm Raven full of Terminators plus Dreadnought and outflanked the Baal.
On his first turn he moved most everything up, and shot a few marines dead with the Hive Guard.  On mine I moved up, skirting to the side away from his infiltrated Genestealers on my right with the Assualt marines and moved the Land Raider up to let the Terminators get an Assault on the Hive Guard and giant Devourer termagant group.  I managed to kill on the Hive Guard with shooting and then multi-assaulted the HG and termagants with the terminators plus Librarian.  They managed to wipe out the Hive Guard and put a bunch of wounds on the gants as well.  The fearless wounds killed off the last wound on the Hive Guard and took a few more of the little bugs out as well.
On turn two both of his Trygons came in, one on each side of my Assault Marines and had some ineffectual shooting.  He brought a unit of Shrikes into the Terminators, but was just short of getting the Swarmlord into the Terminators.  He did kill the Librarian rather easily and another of the Terminators.  On my turn the termagants were finished off, as well as the Shrikes, but he was able to position his Swarmlord to charge them on the next turn.  I unloaded both assault squads into one of the Trygons and then assaulted it.  One of the squads was at BS/WS: 1 because of a psychic power but actually managed to hit more than the unaffected squad.  They did just enough wounds to kill it and consolidated in opposite directions towards different objectives.

On turn three he wiped out both of my troop squads, one with a Trygon, the other with the remaining Shrikes.  His Swarmlord charged into my Terminators and killed two, leaving one lone Terminator to fend for himself.  It was looking nasty for the Lamenters but both the Storm Raven and the Baal managed to come-in from reserves.  The predator outflanked into his deployment zone and roasted the 5 termagants the Tervigon has pooped out on the first turn.  The Storm Raven moved on and split the Terminators off to one side and the Dreadnought off to the other.  The Furioso toasted the Genestealers with a heavy flamer and then assaulted, and I got to see the magic of the Blood Talons which chewed through the entire squad.  The Terminators charged the Trygon and brought it down, while the Land Raider zoomed up to shoot at some Termagants that were running away to grab an objective.

At this point my only hope for even a tie, would be to kill off his troops remaining: 3 termagants on the other side of the board, and the Tervigon on the other side that was down a couple wounds from pot shots.  He charged in and immobilized the Land Raider, while I made a desperate gamble and jumped out the Sanguinary Priest inside to shoot and charge the Tervigon.  Brought him down to one wound, which he then destroyed the Land Raider and priest in retaliation.  The Baal zoomed up and flamed the Tervigon as well bringing him down to a single wound.  He immobilized the Storm Raven and killed off all but one Terminator as well.  On turn five I was down to one Sanguinary Priest, One TH/SS terminator, and an immobilized Storm Raven.  I shot and killed the Tervigon from across the board with the Storm Raven’s Lascannon and then made  a beline across the board with the Sanguinary Priest in the hopes of catching the two termagants still alive to kill of his last troop.  It went to turn 6 and I managed to shoot and kill one gaunt who fled off the board bringing the game down to kill points.  After counting up KP’s I had killed 10, while Mark had killed 9.  Victory was mine.  Though at a horrible cost.  Only a lone Sanguinary Priest was alive!  He will definitely be getting his paint job improved as a reward!

I had a ton of fun playing, and Mark really helped me play better.  He had a bunch of suggestions as we played and helped me understand the army much better.  He’s a real stand up guy and a ton of fun to play against.


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