Bringing Kraken to 9E

[iniquity]

So after listening to an AoW podcast i was inspired to play a kraken list that just revolves around throwing fast obsec trash units into your opponents face to steal objectives and move block them. 
After playing a few games ive been enjoying the playstyle much more, having the ability to play melee jank is something i have really missed from my previos "here is my big blob of warriors/zoanthropes" type lists that are quite common place at the moment. 

So, my starting point:

SPOILER: Click to show

Kraken Batallion

Swarmie
Neurothrope
10x Hormagaunts 
10x Hormagaunts
10x Hormagaunts 
10x Hormagaunts
10x Hormagaunts
10x Hormagaunts
5x Zoanthropes
5x Zoanthropes


Kronos Patrol

Neurothope 
10x Termagants
6x Hive Guard
Lictor
Exocrine (Dermic Symbiosis)
Exocrine (Dermic Symbiosis)

Having played a few games i really enjoy the list, its fast, scores secondaries well and touching a telemon turn 1 with a conga line of gaunts felt great. However i feel that the hive guard are a bit underwhelming and i dont think i need quite as many hormagaunts.  

I think im going to move to:

SPOILER: Click to show

Kraken Batallion

Swarmie

Neurothrope

10x Hormagaunts
10x Hormagaunts
10x Hormagaunts
10x Hormagaunts
10x Termagants
10x Termagants
5x Zoanthropes
5x Zoanthrope
10x Gargoyles
10x Gargoyles

Kronos Spearhead
Neurothrope
Lictor
3x Meiotic Spores 
Exocrine (Dermic Symbiosis)
Exocrine (Dermic Symbiosis)
Exocrine (Put in reserves) 

Losing Hive Guard is actually a really scary prospect for me at the moment as they have just "always been there" and im wondering if the ease of getting scramblers/Recon from the gargoyles on turn 1 with the addition of the kornos spores to project a bit of presence, enable the use of the deepest shadow and the extra exocrine is worth the relative consistency of the hive guard. 

[N.I.B.]

About Gargoyles, are they infantry (pre-requisite for Scramblers)?

[iniquity]

Sept 8, 2020 10:03:18 GMT N.I.B. said:

About Gargoyles, are they infantry (pre-requisite for Scramblers)?

They are 😎which makes them pretty solid a turn 1 mid field scramblers and engage in all fronts I think, will need to check all deployment maps.

[rpricew]

Raveners are 4 points cheaper for 12” move, they can Opportunistic Advance and are slightly more durable and easier to hide than Gargoyles.

Just a suggestion

[iniquity]

Sept 8, 2020 23:21:47 GMT rpricew said:

Raveners are 4 points cheaper for 12” move, they can Opportunistic Advance and are slightly more durable and easier to hide than Gargoyles.

Just a suggestion

The gargoyles aren’t there to hide, they are there to sit in your face and take up as much space as possible, raveners have a much smaller footprint and are worse in that regard.

I don’t really care if they are putting shots into the gaunts/gants/gargoyles because that’s shots not going into zoanthropes. The list is just supposed to be everywhere at once, I only really need to hold more for 3 turns and as long as I don’t completely fold on turns 4/5 it should be a close game if not a win.

[zimko]

Have you considered a custom fleet with 6+ invuls for the gaunts, gants and gargoyles and the reroll advance custom attribute?

[iniquity]

Sept 9, 2020 5:42:26 GMT zimko said:

Have you considered a custom fleet with 6+ invuls for the gaunts, gants and gargoyles and the reroll advance custom attribute?

No I hadn’t, it’s a good idea I guess but it’s more suited to a gaunt carpet. I’d miss the kraken strat and it would massively reduce my speed army wide.

I played another game vs custodes (there seems to be a lot of them out there at the moment) and won comfortably, even going second. The list zones so well, I managed to control where the terminators game in with relative ease.

[N.I.B.]

Sept 9, 2020 6:08:23 GMT iniquity said:

I played another game vs custodes (there seems to be a lot of them out there at the moment) and won comfortably, even going second. The list zones so well, I managed to control where the terminators game in with relative ease.

With the old list or new?

[iniquity]

Sept 9, 2020 11:26:59 GMT N.I.B. said:

Sept 9, 2020 6:08:23 GMT iniquity said:

I played another game vs custodes (there seems to be a lot of them out there at the moment) and won comfortably, even going second. The list zones so well, I managed to control where the terminators game in with relative ease.

With the old list or new?

Played it with the new list, having 3 exocrines against custodes is pretty disgusting tbh.

His terminators came down and smashed into my zoanthropes and then got picked up in a round of shooting from 2.5 exocrine volleys (1 with symbiostorm).

I really am leaning towards the latter version of the list, however part of me does wonder if I should just add more zoanthropes instead of the gargoyles/mines and maybe try to rejig the list to keep the 3 exocrines.

[brianb9999]

Glad to hear you’re having some success with gaunts in Kraken. I think there is definitely something to be said for speed and ob sec bodies in 9th. I want to try my own version that might even be less killy but puts 210+ bodies on the table. I’m curious as to how successful I can make a list that doesn’t really kill too much but holds 3+ turns worth of max primary plus scoring easy secondaries.

[iniquity]

Im still bouncing back and forth between hive guard and no hive guard. It’s like 300 points for a unit that sometimes gets to sit there and sometimes wins you the game.

Gargoyles were cool but they just need obsec.