Faces of the Great Devourer

[gigasnail]

True enough.

[N.I.B.]

Had a game against Chaos Daemons tonight. Flying whip Slaanesh prince warlord, flying Tzeentch prince, Tzeentch grimoire herald in Screamers, Horrors with herald, Flesh Hounds with Khorne herald on Jug, 2 Soulgrinders. Two Nurgle Spawns.

We tested scenarion ideas for a tournament. Maelstrom were you could draw 1-3 cards per turn if you wish, but you don't get any points at all if you don't fulfill all cards the same turn. Plus standard bonus objectives.

Hard fought game, were Shadow in the Warp delivered for the first time since we got the new codex. Mishap, '1' and failed Ld test sent his Tzeentch prince back into the warp, and a couple of '3' on the Warp Storm with following failed Ld tests killed the Tzeentch herald and his Slaanesh warlord.
Raveners charged turn 2 and killed his Horrors after a few rounds.

Failed charges with Shrikes (no move through cover sucks) and Skytyrant Swarm had me in trouble, as the Shrikes were Enfeebled and wiped out by a Soulgrinder and Screamers were free and killed a brood of Hormagaunts.



The Soulgrinder killed the Hive Guards.
Skyrant Swarm catched and eventually killed the Screamers.



Mawlocs, one were killed by the Flesh hound unit, the other killed Nurgle Spawns, helped out with Screamers and nothing else.
Raveners were killed by the Flesh hounds in the end.

I had zero maelstrom objectives, after a serious derp were I just forgot to manifest a single power, which would've got me several game points. Tyranids won a close 11-9 in the end, by secondary objectives.

So, what about the Skyrant Swarm? I tried it in this list because I already use the units (Gargoyles + Meleerant). My opponent didn't like it and refused corner them and basically ignored them. But it kept my Skyrant safe, and I preserved 3 kill points. It worked quite ok to punch from the backlines of the Gargoyles. The unit felt clumsy though, and I missed the utiliy of a small throwaway Gargoyle screen. The 18" synapse was useful. I'm definately giving it another chance.

[Yautja]

Yay for SitW!
Couple of Qs
Did your Shrikes have AG? Just curious if you were unlucky or really unlucky
How many Gargoyles in Skyrant formation?

[N.I.B.]

I shoe-horned in a min-sized unit (20 Gargoyles) but couldn't find the room for Adrenal Glands. That would've cost me a Ravener and ScyTals on the Broodlord.

[N.I.B.]

Devouring Rain

Dakka Flyrant, Egrubs
Dakka Flyrant, Egrubs

Venomthrope
Zoanthrope, Tyrannocyte
Zoanthrope, Tyrannocyte

3 Ripper Swarm, deepstrike
10 Devilgants, Tyrannocyte
10 Devilgants, Tyrannocyte
10 Devilgants, Tyrannocyte

Dakkafex, Tyrannocyte
Dakkafex, Tyrannocyte
Tyrannofex, Egrubs, Tyrannocyte

1995 pts

Had a game yesterday using this list, single CAD, no formation.

We’re trying out mission ideas for a tournament, faced a friend’s Chaos Daemons. Maelstrom (pick 4 cards each turn, opponent discards one of them), Warlord, Linebreaker.

He had a mix of Chaos gods, a couple of flying princes (Lash), lots of Flesh Hounds, Horrors, Screamers, Nurgle droppings, two Soulgrinders. Different Heralds in the units. Lots of warp charges.

My warlord trait – reroll reserves! Yes please.

Turn 1
He grabbed the first turn to get his princes airborn, not much happened. Warp Storm is ’3’ but he passes the Instability roll.

I deployed Flyrants and Venom. Left the table with my Flyrants.

Turn 2
Nurglings all come down. He leaves the table with his Princes. Summons Daemonettes. Warp Storm is the dreaded ’11’ but I have no psykers on the table, lol

I come down with everything but a Zoanthrope and a Dakkafex. First pod down the Zoan, I measure table edge distance for the Flyrants to estimate turn 3 synapse bubbles, and bring down the rest of the pods accordingly. I load the right flank, and put a unit of Devilgants on the left flank to grab an objective and pull him apart a bit.
Shooting whittles down Horrors to a few models in a ruin, and mess up some Nurglings, put wounds on Screamers, Daemonettes and Flesh Hounds. A bit ineffective due to ranges, LOS issues and good cover saves.


Turn 3
Princes enter. Casts Cursed Earth, rest is failed or denied.
Ineffective shooting from the Daemons, Flyrants shrug off lashwhips (both had FNP). Warp Storm is a ’3’ again, and his Warlord takes a couple of wounds. We forgot that it should’ve taken a Grounding check.
Flesh Hounds charge and kill a Dakkafex, Daemonettes lock in combat with Rippers, Soulgrinder doubles out a spore pod but takes a hull point in return from Smash (same I). Screamers charge and break Devilgants on the left flank.

I pod down the second Zoan to rally the fleeing Devilgants, and the second Dakkafex next to them. Devilgants rally onto the objective and snatch it thanks to ObSec. I lit up the Screamers and they all die.
One Tyrannocyte nicks a hull point by a rear shot on a Soulgrinder.
Zoanthrope actually gets off Warp Lance (and takes a wound from Perils), but I roll a ’1’ to hit his Soulgrinder.
Tfex plucks another hull point from the Soulgrinder.
Devilgants move onto an objective in ruins his deployment zone and kill the last Horrors.
Warlord shoots his right Prince and I manage to put a wound on it. Eggs shoot the same dude but he passes his armour saves. Stays in the air.
I whittle down Nurglings.
Daemonettes finish off Devilgants in the center.
My second Flyrant kill his Warlord prince (who had 5 wounds starting). Big turn for nids. His mobility is severly limited now, and can’t summon more units.


Turn 4
Prince land to claim an objective. Warp Storm is another ’3’, killing his Prince.
Flesh Hounds move to my left, charge and kills my Zoanthrope there.
Daemonettes charge the egg in the center, slap fest ensues.
Soulgrinders charge Devilgants in ruins and another egg, respectively. Zoanthrope keeps Gants fearless. Gants live, egg dies.
Nurglings charge Devilgants. One unit is killed by overwatch, the other locks in combat and another slap fest begins.

My warlord glides to provide synapse, prepare charges and mess up his Soulgrinder. An egg moves behind the Soulgrinder to shoot the rear. Zoanthrope shoots it with Warp Lance but rolls ’1’ to pen. The Grinder then dies from Egrub templates (Flyrant and Tfex).
Left flank, Dakkafex, Flyrant and three Tyrannocytes shoots and wipe out the Flesh Hounds with Herald.
Soulgrinder kills the Devilgants, and move back.


Turn 5
Daemons has most remaining units locked in combat.

Dakkafex charge and kills the last Daemonettes fighting an egg. Flyrant charge and free the Devilgants from Nurglings. T-fex puts a hull point on his last Soulgrinder and barges in, fails to do anything and gets a couple of wounds for the trouble.

We roll, and it ends. 18-2 Tyranid victory.
Wow, Tyrannocytes really deliver a continuous damage output, they move, they block enemy movement, they score objectives, they take pot shots on enemy flyers and they don’t die easily. I think I’m in love.

Need more test games of course, but the list feels pretty solid.

[sockhands]

NIB, how do you think you would have fared without the fortunate Warlord roll? Do you think a list like this should incorporate a Comms Relay or even the Swarmlord? As amazing as this list seems to me, it's hard for me to see it performing as well if you happen to roll like (please do not swear) for reserves, which is bound to happen eventually. Seems like a lot to ride on.

Also, what would you cut to bring this down to 1850?

[N.I.B.]

IIRC, I rolled pretty well for reserves. The reroll might've accounted for a single unit.

For sure, failing a lot of reserve rolls can lose you a game. You always want Comms Relay if it's allowed in your area. Swarmlord has no good role in a build like this, imo. He will only make it harder to reach a critical mass of shooting.

At 1850, I'd probably take out 10 Devilgants and a Tyrannocyte.

[N.I.B.]

Just brainstorming, single CAD + one Formation (Skyblight),

Dakka Flyrant, Egrubs
Dakka Flyrant, Egrubs
Dakka Flyrant, Egrubs

Venomthrope
Venomthrope

Mucolid
Mucolid
Mucolid

10 Gargoyles
10 Gargoyles
10 Gargoyles
Hive Crone
Harpy - TL Heavy Venomcannon
Harpy - TL Heavy Venomcannon

Dakkafex
Dakkafex

Tyrannocyte
Tyrannocyte
Tyrannocyte

1995 points

Doomarn, you wanted to test against Skyblight?

[rpricew]

Absolutely loving this thread NIB... Thanks for all of the Batreps and hard work that you've put into it! Love the Beer & Pretzels list!

Nov 30, 2014 0:40:07 GMT N.I.B. said:

Just brainstorming, single CAD + one Formation (Skyblight),

Dakka Flyrant, Egrubs
Dakka Flyrant, Egrubs
Dakka Flyrant, Egrubs

Venomthrope
Venomthrope

Mucolid
Mucolid
Mucolid

10 Gargoyles
10 Gargoyles
10 Gargoyles
Hive Crone
Harpy - TL Heavy Venomcannon
Harpy - TL Heavy Venomcannon

Dakkafex
Dakkafex

Tyrannocyte
Tyrannocyte
Tyrannocyte

1995 points

Doomarn, you wanted to test against Skyblight?

Would you put a Venomthrope in one of the Tyrannocytes?

[N.I.B.]

The Venomthrope is for the deployed Flyrant survivability, so I won't get tabled turn 1. Feels like a good investment.

I've had another game with the Turn Two Tsunami list, faced IG again yesterday. Was handed my first defeat, by the smallest possible margin, a single kill point. My opponent got first turn and had loads of ignore cover available and there were no LOS blocking terrain. A Venomthrope was the first to die from a shunting Dreadknight's PsyGatling. Brutal first turn decimated Raveners and Skyrant Gargoyles, and the remaining Gargoyles slowed down the Flyrant so I couldn't escape a Gating Draigo (Skyrant swarm failed a charge on a Dreadknight in a ruin). Meleerant was a boss though, whooped Draigos ass in two rounds after him failing his 3++ saves.

But the Skyrant swarm, I'm still undecided. So far, it has felt more like a prison than ablative wounds.

[N.I.B.]

This is the latest version of the turn two tsunami list, with Skyrant Swarm. I'm trying to come up with a fancy name for it.

Deathleaper

Venomthrope
Venomthrope
3 Hive Guards

7 Genestealers, Broodlord (Warlord) - ScyTals
10 Hormagaunts

9 Raveners - Rending Claws
8 Shrikes (5 ScyTals, Rending Claws. 3 ScyTals, Sword/Whip). All have Flesh Hooks, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs.

Mawloc
Mawloc

Formation - Skytyrant Swarm
Meleerant - Wings, Old Adversary, Rending Claws, Reaper of Obliterax, eGrubs
10 Gargoyles
10 Gargoyles

1995 points

[N.I.B.]

Had another game with 'null' deployment

Devouring Rain

Dakka Flyrant, Egrubs
Dakka Flyrant, Egrubs

Venomthrope
Zoanthrope, Tyrannocyte
Zoanthrope, Tyrannocyte

3 Ripper Swarm, deepstrike
10 Devilgants, Tyrannocyte
10 Devilgants, Tyrannocyte
10 Devilgants, Tyrannocyte

Dakkafex, Tyrannocyte
Dakkafex, Tyrannocyte
Tyrannofex, Egrubs, Tyrannocyte

1995 pts

Against Space Wolves with IK ally. Maelstrom. We called the game after 5 turns, 19-1 win. In spite of my army arriving piecemeal on the table, I was dominating objectives and the board at large, while whittling down his army. I feel that it's a brutal list that can win tournaments, especially with Comms Relay.

Edit - btw, got off Warp Lance three times against the IK. Rolled two '1' to hit and one '1' to pen...

[gigasnail]

Lol that just has to hurt your soul.

[N.I.B.]

Hah, yeah after all this time, the Zoan can still get my blood pressure up.

[N.I.B.]

Another null deployment game.


Dakka Flyrant, Egrubs
Dakka Flyrant, Egrubs

Venomthrope
Zoanthrope, Tyrannocyte
Zoanthrope, Tyrannocyte

3 Ripper Swarm, deepstrike
10 Devilgants, Tyrannocyte
10 Devilgants, Tyrannocyte
10 Devilgants, Tyrannocyte

Dakkafex, Tyrannocyte
Dakkafex, Tyrannocyte
Tyrannofex, Egrubs, Tyrannocyte

1995 pts

Against AM with GK allies.
Pask, with Punisher pal
2x10 Veterans
Priest
2 Wyverns
2 Vendettas
Draigo
Librarian with Terminator armour
5 Terminators
5 Strike Squad
Dreadknight


Mission was - maximum 8 Maelstrom points, 2 points for having killed the most kill points, First Strike (both players get a point for killing something in his first turn) and Warlord. Dawn of War.

Really fun game, that was very close because I only got in half my reserves turn 2, nothing turn 3 and the rest turn 4 (among that my 2 Zoanthropes). When it ended in the 6th turn he only had a Vendetta left, 13-7 win for Tyranids. Both had First Strike and Warlord, I picked up more kill points and one single Maelstrom point more.

I got off a Warp Lance with a Zoanthrope on Pask - rolled '1' to hit... Flyrant spammed him to death from behind instead.

Eggs were brutal, killed the Dreadknight and everything not a vehicle, grabbed objectives and blocked charge lanes.
Dakkafexes wrecked a Vendetta and killed infantry, T-fex was good, killed lots of infantry, finished off a Wyvern and charged Pasks unit, immobilized a Punisher and drew lots and lots of fire.

This is pretty much the worst dice I've had with this list, Warlord dying turn 3 and almost no synapse web until turn 4, still pulled it off and would've tabled him turn 7 and picked up more maelstrom points. Don't want to change anything with the list.