1999 armoured phalanx

[glassiya]

Last few games I've been having fun with this list:

== HQ ==
Hive Tyrant Brood (350 pts.)
Hive Tyrant (1) - Twin-Linked Devourer - Brainleech Worms, Twin-Linked Devourer - Brainleech Worms, Armoured Shell, Regeneration, Paroxysm, Leech Essence, Old Adversary = 285 pts.
Tyrant Guard (1) - Lash Whip = 65 pts.
Tyranid Prime (1) - Deathspitter, Lash Whip And Bonesword, Toxin Sacs, Regeneration = 120 pts.

== Elites ==
Hive Guard Brood (2) = 100 pts.
Hive Guard Brood (2) = 100 pts.
Doom Of Malan'tai Brood (130 pts.)
Doom Of Malan'tai (1) = 90 pts.
Mycetic Spore (1) = 40 pts.

== Troops ==
Tyranid Warrior Brood (205 pts.)
Tyranid Warrior (3) - Deathspitter, Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs = 120 pts.
Tyranid Warrior (1) - Barbed Strangler, Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs = 45 pts.
Mycetic Spore (1) = 40 pts.
Tyranid Warrior Brood (205 pts.)
Tyranid Warrior (3) - Deathspitter, Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs = 120 pts.
Tyranid Warrior (1) - Barbed Strangler, Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs = 45 pts.
Mycetic Spore (1) = 40 pts.
Tyranid Warrior Brood (205 pts.)
Tyranid Warrior (3) - Deathspitter, Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs = 120 pts.
Tyranid Warrior (1) - Barbed Strangler, Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs = 45 pts.
Mycetic Spore (1) = 40 pts.

== Heavy Support ==
Tyrannofex (1) - Acid Spray, Stinger Salvo, Thorax Swarm - Desicctor Larvae, Regeneration = 280 pts.
Tyrannofex (1) - Acid Spray, Stinger Salvo, Thorax Swarm - Desicctor Larvae, Regeneration = 280 pts.

== Total ==
1975 pts.

Kinda slow, but in a bulldozerish way. The only thing on a table is three monsters in 2+ and two squads of Hive Guards between/behind them, who slowly move through the table and shoot everything that comes in range. All troops consist of podded warriors, who can drop back there to hold objectives, or fall behind the enemy lines and unleash havoc along with Doom. Prime is the warlord, and his location depends: if Tyrant rolls IA, of course Prime joins the Tyrantstar; otherwise, he can shield/control HGs, or join to one of Warrior squads - f.e., the one that's holding the Relic.

I had three games for now with that: one draw with Tau, one win against DA, and one loss against Eldar. Space Elves are natural counter to that list with their speed and amount of ap2, but considering they counter pretty much our whole book, that's not surprising.

Any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.
Just. No tervigons.
There are lot of other threads for them.

[bolk]

I haven`t played against the new Eldar much, but I would have taken 2 x 3 Biovores and a Trygon instead of the T-fexes, and 2 x 3 Hive Guard. Probably Hormagaunts too with Toxin Sacs.

[Jabberwocky]

I like it, but I'd maybe change up the warriors so 1 unit is backfield and others are geared to be more forward, saving points on a spore.

[glassiya]

Oct 30, 2013 15:10:28 GMT bolk said:

I would have taken 2 x 3 Biovores and a Trygon instead of the T-fexes, and 2 x 3 Hive Guard. Probably Hormagaunts too with Toxin Sacs.

barely. The whole point of that is having pure t6 mostly in 2+ on the table. Bolters and stuff are really useless against it, and krak missiles with heldrakes just bounce off 2+ save.

I like it, but I'd maybe change up the warriors so 1 unit is backfield and others are geared to be more forward, saving points on a spore.

My experience with warriors shows that they're pretty decent even in shooty version, and scythings usually are enough to chop through basically everything (their sheer durability and number of attacks with rerolls make up for that). Basically you don't need swords against everything up to Terminator, and you just don't want your warriors near those, swords or not.

About spore - maybe. It's just that I prefer more customizable strategy - sometimes I can hide all of them in my deployment, sometimes I can drop all of them on the enemy's heads. Sometimes I can make a decent losblocker with 4 spores in a row.

I actually had Hive Commander before (see those 25 points lacking?), but found it completely unneeded, considering I ofter WANT my trops to come out later. Didn't find anything to spend those points on, though.

Maybe I could drop down some warriors and add one HG for each unit...

[gigasnail]

let us know how it works out for you longer term. it's certainly not the normal list.

[glassiya]

it's certainly not the normal list.

best compliment I could expect. ^^

[hiveoram]

nice list! i'm wondering if this could be cut down to 1500 or 1000 points, or is it only viable with that much?

[bolk]

Oct 31, 2013 4:04:03 GMT glassiya said:

Oct 30, 2013 15:10:28 GMT bolk said:

I would have taken 2 x 3 Biovores and a Trygon instead of the T-fexes, and 2 x 3 Hive Guard. Probably Hormagaunts too with Toxin Sacs.

barely. The whole point of that is having pure t6 mostly in 2+ on the table. Bolters and stuff are really useless against it, and krak missiles with heldrakes just bounce off 2+ save.

Indeed, but I was thinking versus Eldar, considering all the twinlinked shots with rending, speed and guns with Instant Death which you mentioned. So they were suggestions just for Eldar. I really like the list, T-fex with Regen is a wall of almost unkillable acid fun, and Warriors are awesome models

[coredump]

With all of that T6 floating around, it makes the warriors a less likely target for things like Lascannons.
OTOH,
With all of that 2+ Sv floarting around, it makes the warriors a much better target for things like Krak Missiles.

I would also think about dropping the spores for the warriors. But I don't like too many reserves... I think it will matter alot on how much S8+ AP3 (or worse) shooting is in your meta. Since those should definitely target your warriors first.

I think the regeneration on the TFexes is a waste of points. How often do you think that will keep your TFex from dieing? T6 6W 2+ save..... hard to take down.
Likewise, I would probably skip it on the HT. (but keep it on the Prime)
Thats another 80pts you can play with, 200 if you drop the spore pods.

Could think about putting Old Adversary on the HT.

[glassiya]

Could think about putting Old Adversary on the HT.

second one? )

good point about kraks and warriors. Although I rarely meet kraks these days. If I do though, warriors will be hiding in cover, silently scoring, while main assault team attracts fire.

Regen is questionable, sure, but I have a nasty habit of rolling 6'es just when I need them. So... I'll try to give it a shot. Also, ast time my T-fex died when he was fighting Riptide. In melee. Sounds funny, but - Rip has its 3+ nova invul. We don't. Basically, regen is the only thing we have that can somehow compensate that.

Thanks for an honest opinion, anyway.

[Jabberwocky]

I actually rate regen quite highly. It may be expensive on a Tfex but it can win games.

On a Tyrant, it's an absolute bargain, especially coupled with endurance/iron arm.

The thing with regen, is it works best when there are less weapons that are effective against you, effectively slowing the enemy rate of fire/wounding. Armoured shell is perfect for achieving this.

[glassiya]

Played with this against CD screamerstar - 9 screamers, 4 Tzeench heralds, Grimoire, and 2++ with rerolls. The rest was Kairos, A LOT of horrors and allied chaosbikers with Sorcerer leading them and some cultists taken as scoring troops. Table had some terrain of course, there even was some LoS blocking building in the middle, but that was totally unimportant, since most of or actions happened in the open, and cover/difficult was mostly or completely unimportant.

To be honest, I blantly forgot about amount of shooting Tzeench daemons can unleash, and even more so - wasn't paying attention to what psypowers my opponent got, and deployed my troops in a simple "t-fex HGs Tyrantstar HGs t-fex" blob. And was seriously punished for that.

After the very first Daemon turn suddenly I had Tyrant with 1 hp left, Prime as well; poor Tyrant Guard wasn't even that much lucky. My pride and joy! Misfortune and tzeench's primaris make a nasty pair indeed. Basically, after this I was ready to shake hands with an opponent and start a new game, but somehow made myself to continue. Oh, and Sorcerer on a bike puppetmastered one of t-fexes and amed its torrent to my HGs. One is down.

My 1st. Prime leaves Tyrant and hides in HGs, trying to get me "Save the Warlord" achievement. Tyrant goes forward and stands proudly, being ready for his bolivian army ending. He even enfeebles Screamers and all army shoots in them with no effect 'cause of 2++ with rerolls. Silly me, didn't really got all the horror then.

CD 2 turn. Several packs of horrors come out here and there. Kairos tzeenches out at the poor misfortuned Shellrant, trying to mercykill him. Beast stands. Then heralds rage out at him. BEAST STANDS (it was something like 12 wounds with forced save rerolls, so basically he had to roll 24 dices without a single 1. He made it). Finally Bikers had to shoot him down with their plasmas, and while the Tyrant dies, he saves all his army from being shot down as well. Damn hero of war. Also Sorcerer tries to cast something but gets a Peril, overshaded by HT's awesomeness.

My 2nd! Reserves come out - doom and 2 warrior squads fall all around the table on a way to cover all his army with Shadow. Each squad shoots at his own target, reducing the amount of horrors on a table (although I forgot to use their Barbeds. What an idiot, am I not?). Especially interesting and unexpected turn of events with Kairos - he gets some wounds drained by Doom, then he gets grounded by a random HG shot, gets spikes and acid from both t-fexes and remains in a single wound. So close...

3rd turn. This is when daemons started to doubt. Having Shadow over every single spellcaster greatly decreased their capabilities, but 4++ and book still worked just fine. Slowpoke cultists arrived in his deployment, last horror unit dropped deeply in mine, behind wounded Prime and Hivies - however those were scattered just to their potential targets, and are NOT pleased by that. Kairos flees from the board, everything else shoot and then assault their closest hostiles. Still don't know why. So - one squad of horrors charge warriors, bikers and 2nd horrorsquad charge another warriors (surprisingly bikes didn't made it), and for some unknown to Gods of Chaos reason, Doom is charged by both fishes AND nearby horrors. Yummy! - he says to himself. Most combats are pretty much one-sided: my warriors successfully survived charge of nobs and slaneshites in past; just what horrors expected to do with them, is far beyond my imagination. Unsurprisingly, pinkies got slaughtered (3 attacks per base 3+ with rerolls of 1's to hit and 3+ with rerolls to wound is pretty nasty thing), one unit instantly, 2rd held on till next phase. Much more fun was in the combat around Doom - he began to feed on the horrors' misery, like, literally, and completely ignoring raging lampreys, which tried to bite him through his warp field.

Nids 3rd! Last warrior reserve still hangs somewhere on the orbit. Doom endurances himself. Free warriors move to the Screamers blob, ready to pile in there. So does one of t-fexes. Second one manages to do better - it attempts to charge bikers, even sacrificing its shooting to not risk with increase charge range. Prime and his HGs turn around, say "Hello" to new guys, and shoot and assault them as well. All charges are successful: lampreys now are locked with a lot of wounds too tough for them to chew, HWGuys begin their close combat rampage, reminding daemons, that they are still Heavies, at least till December comes out, and T-fex begins to slowly, but purposefully crush his Angels of Hell wannabes. One warrior squad that was locked with horrors, finished the meal and consolidates towards closest objective.

Daemons 4th. Kairos arrive from his table side, hangs in the air and attempts to shoot some witchfire power at the warriors. And while he smartly stays out of shadow, Warrios still roll 6 on their Deny roll and calmly shrug off his spell. Rampage continues: notable, the guy with 4++ fails to cast it, BUT warp storm gives daemons +1 to their save, that is practically the same! No fail on the book, of course, and the blob is still practically immortal. Although they aren't really winning either - Doom remains at the same health, thanks to FnP, free Horrors and maybe IWND if I didn't completely forgot about it. Have I mentioned my idiotness today?, Fex and Warrios take for a wound or two, but they can take it. Another fexy gobbles up remaining bikers - only Sorcerer remains, and still refuses to fail his morale check, defiant to the end. I guess, all this time he served the wrong god, cause it was clearly Khornate thing. Cultists slowly move to the farthest objective, hoping no one saw them.

Nids 4. Last spore comes at last! It falls just near flying Kairos, unloading a bunch of locked'n'loaded Warriors. They unite their firepower with their nearby comrades, Fateweaver (in 3++ now, mind you!) gets shot town, but survives the crash... and then gets a deathspitter worm in the eye (a single fail in a bunch of 5 or 6 saves. Ouch). He's gone in the warp, slay the Warlord is taken, and warriors calmly conquer the objective, knowing nothing's gonna move them from it. Doom, still Enduranced to the teeth, continues - sadly, horrors are dead by now, so he, along with Fex and Warriors, continues to bang his head in rerolling 2++. And even manages to land a single wound to them - first and only one for a whole game. Like a champ. Bike Sorcerer, although, in a totally "YOU SHALL NOT PASS" moment manages to wound a beast with his staff (beast fail its 2+ save), loudly eclaims activating a Force... and gets electrocuted by his own stuff. A second peril. Guy, no offence, but I really think sorcery is just not your thing, you really should've join that big red horned guy.

Chaos 5. Pretty much whole Daemons turn results in our overly long fishing party. No one wins - Doom stands like a Rocky, warriors are pretty sturdy guys too, and regenerating t-fex is just plain unkillable. I don't even roll their attacks - there's no point. This is what happens when unstoppable force meets an immovable object, I guess. So pretty fast it's my turn again, and...

Nids 5. ...just when we thought this combat is a bit slow - a second t-fex (sorcerer one) joins the fun! Warrior units in enemy deployment at last have a time for a lurking Cultists out there, and send them two presents in form of strangler seeds. Two (almost) hits on scatter rolls, and daemon player just takes them off the table, not bothering with dice.

I roll for the end of game, and it had to continue - but both me and my opponent agreed, that end won't change. That hirudotherapy session iss going to last just forever, while all his table are belong to us. So basically, when he's got one First Blood point, I was holding 1 objective (potentially 2, if game longer for two more turns and warriors were fast enough), Warlord and Linebreaker; 5 points against 1, with most of my army being live and well - was pretty good for me, and completely unexpected with fluffy list like that. Of course, CD lack meltas, lascannons and powerfists, so there's not much that they could do to this kind of army; but seeing this incredible totally unkillable combo, that sheer amount of spells and shooting, and knowing that any stand'n'shoot list couldn't do ANYTHING but watch Screamers suck them dry - feel that this was a somewhat honest fight.

So we both agreed that the game turned out much more interesting than it seemed on 1st turn - the tide was turned, and in very cinematic way.
Hope you liked it as well.

p.s. and yes. He didn't failed his daemon book not a single time. So screamers had their shield of fate THE WHOLE FREAKING game. Now that's something about synergy - not lictor or venomthrope guano! I wonder, if it was designed that way from beginning, or is this combo purely accidental? If former - I want more of these! They sure are more interesting than standard Heldrake or Riptide spam.

[Kwodd]

Looks like a lot of fun, this is the type of list I hope to use with the new codex. Hoping to fit 3 shellrants and 12 hive guard on the table. Carnifex or Tyrannofex as cherries on top.

[FTGT-BeeCee]

I think a list like this is a good idea. It is my hope that somehow warriors won't get instagibbed from str 8 and then they become great! Kudos for breaking the mold on this list and you have units in there that will probably get a buff so if you are having fun with the list now, just wait for the new codex!