Its a dangerous place at these Tournament thingies

[monkeychuka]

Just got back from a 1550pt tournament which was a rollercoaster ride. I posted my list and and games here: monkeychuka.blogspot.co.nz/2014/08/call-to-arms-2014.html

My list was
2 x Hive Tyrant - Wings - 2 Brainleech Devourers- Electroshock Grubs (I never fired the grubs once)
2 x Zoanthrope
1 x Venomthrope
2 x 12 Termagant Brood - 7 Fleshborers 5 Devourers
2 x 3 Ripper Swarms
3 x Warriors - Stranglethorn Cannon
11 x Gargoyles
12 x Gargoyles
2 x Crone
1 x Carnifex - 2 Brainleech Devourers

be gentle with me...

[drranek]

Great write up mate, really enjoyed it. Sorry it didn't go better, at least your models look amazing!

[N.I.B.]

Yup, that's one awesome looking army you've got.

[gigasnail]

army's gorgeous. i'd have gone with two fexes instead of two crones, and malanthrope/venomthrope instead of two zoans (if allowed FW), but there's nothing really wrong with your army man.

[coredump]

First... nice army. *really* cool terrain effects.
Congrats on the BP prize, seems like there was plenty of tough competition.
Did you really make a "Go Nids" banner for your BLord?

Okay, what was the Tau display board made out of?


As for your list... I think the reason it didn't have 'staying power' is a lack of killy units.

The flyrants are killy, and so is the fex. But that is all you have for 'teir one' killy.
Crones are killy against air, and pretty good against Xeno troops in cover, but kind of weak against almost everything else.
As for the rest... lots of support units and gribblies etc. You can slow the enemy down, but don't have much to take him out. If you lose one of your killy units early...it goes downhill fast.


I would... drop a zoan, warriors, gaunts, and a crone. This gives you about 425 pts to spend on more killy units.

I would have either saved some points and put the gargs into 1 brood of 16ish, or spend some points and made them into two broods of 16ish.

If allowed, swap the venom and zoan for a malanthrope.

You could had in another troop unit if you really want, but I think you really need more units that can be a threat.

If you like my advice, and it helps; you could always offer to paint my Nids as a thank-you....

Just sayin'....



.)

[monkeychuka]

Aug 18, 2014 0:24:53 GMT coredump said:

I think the reason it didn't have 'staying power' is a lack of killy units... ..If you lose one of your killy units early...it goes downhill fast.

Aug 17, 2014 23:34:25 GMT gigasnail said:

i'd have gone with two fexes instead of two crones, and malanthrope/venomthrope instead of two zoans

Agreed. Malanthrope is on my conversion table as we speak (might take a while) and I bought IA4 last week. Forgeworld wasn't allowed at the tournament but I take your point. The Crones were pretty ordinary (We were allowed to ally with ourselves, hence the 4 Fast Attack slots) In comparison, 12 St6 TL shots is just so reliable. I bought a cheap Carnifex at the event and am thinking of running 3. I feel really low on backfield synapse by dropping the Warriors though. They did well in all my games and are much cheaper than a Tervigon. Was thinking of something like this at 1500:

2 x Hive Tyrant - Brainleech Devourers - Wings
1 x Malanthrope
1 x Zoanthrope
3 x Ripper Swarm - deepstrike
3 x Ripper Swarm - deepstrike
13 x Termagant - 5 Devourers - 8 Fleshborers
13 x Termagant - 5 Devourers - 8 Fleshborers
3 x Warriors - Stranglethorn cannon
20 x Gargoyle
3 x (3 separate broods) Carnifex - Brainleech Devourers

I want to keep one Zoey for the warp charges and extra synapse. Apart from that I probably need more experience against other codexes to improve target priority and maybe stop charging forward like an idiot.

Yes, I'm afraid I did make a 'Go Nids' banner but I didn't take it to the tournament

The Tau board was made from one of those toy 'finger' skateboard parks

I'm all painted out at the moment. I need to waste time playing more video games.

Thanks for all the advice guys.

[gigasnail]

i would also ditch the termagant squads entirely (for another ripper unit) and use the rest of the points for something else, or combine them to one larger squad.

[monkeychuka]

Aug 18, 2014 2:08:04 GMT gigasnail said:

i would also ditch the termagant squads entirely (for another ripper unit) and use the rest of the points for something else, or combine them to one larger squad.

but.. but.. I painted so many! I nearly went blind!

[gigasnail]

i have six fully (and very nicely) painted devilgaunts. annnnd that's it.

[monkeychuka]

Sigh. I have to admit my Rippers did very well. With Catalyst on them, they are a decent tarpit unit against a lot of things.

EDIT: If I replace all the Termagants with Rippers then I probably don't need the Warriors for backfield synapse, do I? Gargoyles are ok 50% of the time when failing IB and only go to ground the other 50% I basically don't need to babysit anything else?

[coredump]

Aug 18, 2014 2:28:42 GMT monkeychuka said:

EDIT: If I replace all the Termagants with Rippers then I probably don't need the Warriors for backfield synapse, do I? Gargoyles are ok 50% of the time when failing IB and only go to ground the other 50% I basically don't need to babysit anything else?

And.... we have a winner....

synapse still helps, but if you have a list that won't disintegrate, than you don't need 'redundent' synapse. Your new list has 5 killy models; everything else is support or objective holders. If you are effective with your support units, that may work. Personally I am a bit more violent in my listbuilding.

Also.... I am a big fan of the devilfex; but you may want to think of another option instead of a 3rd one. (Crone, Tfex, exo, biovores, etc.) Spamming good units works, but I also like to have a variety of tools to choose from.