2k Thicc Stampede and Kronos Trigger

[forthehive]

Dec 25, 2021 18:56:05 GMT kazetanade said:

While this is actually true, I still consider Swarm Leader on HG as a general waste - other than in an AoR, since the AoR has no better targets to use it on. But instead of the Maleceptor, wouldn't it be better to bring a Harpy, or an Exocrene, or something that adds to the damage output more than the rr to damage would? I don't value Encaphalic very highly because we're already cp starved, and trying to pull tricks on both sides just burns too much cp imo. Esp if you run HG shoot twice + explodes, every turn.

I think the Malceptor has a lot of value for keeping our T7 and T8 monsters alive. 2 cp isn't cheap but neither is losing one of our few monsters which we need to hold objectives. I am going run a CS list that is completely defensive orientated.

[zimko]

Dec 26, 2021 3:53:35 GMT forthehive said:

Dec 25, 2021 18:56:05 GMT kazetanade said:

While this is actually true, I still consider Swarm Leader on HG as a general waste - other than in an AoR, since the AoR has no better targets to use it on. But instead of the Maleceptor, wouldn't it be better to bring a Harpy, or an Exocrene, or something that adds to the damage output more than the rr to damage would? I don't value Encaphalic very highly because we're already cp starved, and trying to pull tricks on both sides just burns too much cp imo. Esp if you run HG shoot twice + explodes, every turn.

I think the Malceptor has a lot of value for keeping our T7 and T8 monsters alive. 2 cp isn't cheap but neither is losing one of our few monsters which we need to hold objectives. I am going run a CS list that is completely defensive orientated.

CS monsters need to spread out to play the mission. I have yet to use that stratagem.

[windwalkerranger]

Dec 26, 2021 4:40:27 GMT zimko said:

Dec 26, 2021 3:53:35 GMT forthehive said:

I think the Malceptor has a lot of value for keeping our T7 and T8 monsters alive. 2 cp isn't cheap but neither is losing one of our few monsters which we need to hold objectives. I am going run a CS list that is completely defensive orientated.

CS monsters need to spread out to play the mission. I have yet to use that stratagem.

I suffered exactly the same problem last night against my friend who was playing Grey Knights (for the first time). We used a standard terrain placement (the new one with four square terrains on each quadrant and two small pieces in the middle). Basically it was impossible to move 2 scythed hierodules and the maleceptor in a formation through that terrain. And since crusher stampede is low on unit count, it's very difficult (correction: impossible) to screen against deepstrike and teleportation effectively, and it appears our monsters will have to run wherever they are needed. On the same note, I feel swarmlord is a MUST. Without his double-move shennanigants it would be very difficult to effectively direct offense wherever its needed. (This is despite me running a harpy).

The duty eternal rule saved so many wounds in the game. AND there was one round where the shadow in the warp effectively cancelled ALL the psychic phase of the Grey Knights. Despite having a nice alpha strike, and then opponents psychic phase going bad, I foiled badly in wound rolls and the game that was apparently on the bag suddenly became dangerously close (turn 2 deepstriking librarian, terminators and ph.. pha... they guys with some heavy weapons I forgot). Thankfully I had a lot primaries and some secondaries way ahead of him (psychic ritual always got denied, bad pick against GK - was banking on neurothoph with the new relic supported by zoanthroph synaptic link, but had to move it elsewhere and swarmy kept getting denied).

So I'm thinking of getting rid of Maleceptor. It's only function in the game was to cast extra d3 attacks on things.

[zimko]

Latest report.
imgur.com/gallery/5Rr6slR

I fought against a Thicc City list (Drukhari with -1 damage Talos) and won 100 to 74. I really like the change of swapping out the Malaceptor for a naked Flyrant. I think it works great for the turn 1 objective steal and character snipe. 2 Barbed Hierodules and Hive Guard are really good for To The Last.

[niiai]

Zimko I just have to say 'Kronos Trigger' is just hilarious. Or I guess it is not very funny, it is mildy funny, but it strikes a very special chord in my heart I deeply appreciate. It is much appreciated.

And so is this battle report. Omg the work and the details. I love it! 6

[goomba1701]

Noob here….what’s the final list look like with the mods you made, zimko?

[zimko]

Jan 13, 2022 21:04:57 GMT goomba1701 said:

Noob here….what’s the final list look like with the mods you made, zimko?

Army of Renown: Crusher Stampede
Leviathan Battalion
HQ
Hive Tyrant: Wings, 2x M. Rending Claws, Catalyst, Onslaught - 185
Neurothrope: Warlord, Catalyst, Adaptive Neural Lobe, Swarm Leader, Strategic Adaptation - 95
The Swarmlord: Aggressive Surge, Synaptic Barrier - 240
Troops
3x Warriors: Bioweapon Bond - 66
3x Warriors: Bioweapon Bond - 66
3x Warriors: Bioweapon Bond - 66
Elites
6x Hive Guard - 270
Fast Attack
Dimachaeron - 255
Heavy Support
Barbed Hierodule - 275
Barbed Hierodule - 275
Trygon Prime: Murderous Size, Biomorphic Carapace, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, Feed - 205

This list is unchanged from my last 6 games except for the artifact on the Neurothrope. I swapped out Void Crown for Adaptive Neural Lobe because the CP is just that important. 
Won an RTT and made a brief report here: imgur.com/gallery/6MO8viJ

[miurath]

That list looks so lovely, i might steal some of it Ill let you know how it goes when i get to play again eventually.

I might think about cutting one of the catalyst spells for paroxysm tho if the enemy goes realy heavy on the meele. Tho that might not be needed due to the Tervigon fallback and charge/shoot. If that guy dies i could alwayw go back to the levi -> make something kraken and fallback and charge for 2 cp.

Stampede nids have 5 diffrent books for stratagems its a mess

[zimko]

I don't think you can benefit from the levi strat to change hive fleet traits, since the Army of Renown does not allow any models to benefit from hive fleet traits.

Right now I run with redundant Catalyst because without Void Crown, the Neurothrope or Flyrant may be tied up with psychic actions and Catalyst is a very important spell.

[zimko]

Won another RTT, this time 24 people. I didn't change my list from the last RTT so this is what I'm going with for LVO.

Army of Renown: Crusher Stampede
Leviathan Battalion
HQ
Hive Tyrant: Wings, 2x M. Rending Claws, Catalyst, Onslaught - 185
Neurothrope: Warlord, Catalyst, Adaptive Neural Lobe, Swarm Leader, Strategic Adaptation - 95
The Swarmlord: Aggressive Surge, Synaptic Barrier - 240
Troops
3x Warriors: Bioweapon Bond - 66
3x Warriors: Bioweapon Bond - 66
3x Warriors: Bioweapon Bond - 66
Elites
6x Hive Guard - 270
Fast Attack
Dimachaeron - 255
Heavy Support
Barbed Hierodule - 275
Barbed Hierodule - 275
Trygon Prime: Murderous Size, Biomorphic Carapace, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, Feed - 205

Sorry I didn't take any pictures this time. I'll give a brief recap of my games.

Game 1: Chaos Knights with 13 Armigers of varying types (mostly melta, a few 3 damage autocannons), and enough reinforcement points to summon 3 units of 5 furies. All the Armigers were Objective Secured, and they counted as 5 models for objectives. The mission was 11 from the 2021 CA. I decided NOT to take Stranglehold against an army full of Objective Secured robots. Instead I took Banners, Bring It Down and To The Last. He took Banners, Stranglehold, and Bring It Down.
I got first turn. Killed 3 Armigers with shooting and 1 in melee with the Dima. The Dima received Objective Secured to force him to deal with it or forfeit Stranglehold. The Dima recieved both Catalyst and Synaptic Barrier. On his turn he fired everything into it and got it to 2 wounds remaining. He then charged it with an Armiger, didn't kill it, and I did 10 damage back. After that it was a snowball. I was killing 4+ armigers a turn, stealing banners (he summoned furies to do the banners) and won 100 to 35.

Game 2: Black Templar with Grimaldus, Helbrecht, Chaplain Bike (with a relic to reduce all damage to 1), 13man Crusader Squad, 10man Crusader Squad, 10 man Crusader Squad, Judiciar, 3x Redemptor Dreadnoughts with Plasma and Gatling, 4 Servitors, 5 Vanguard, 2x Land Speeder Storms.
His army had 5++ for the infantry, 1 unit got 5+++ each turn, and once per game the infantry all got 4++. So his stuff was pretty resilient and that had me worried. For secondaries I took Stranglehold (mission 12, 6 objectives again), To The Last and Assassinate. He took Stranglehold, Oath and Banners.
He won first turn. It was Dawn of War deployment so I couldn't completely outrange his dreadnoughts. They all shot at the Dima but only did 6 wounds. On my turn 1, the Dima just charged into an Infantry squad but it had 4++ and 5+++ so I didn't kill many. I also didn't kill a dreadnought, tho I got one down to 2 wounds. So the lack of damage I did really had me worried. It was a back and forth game with both of us maxing Stranglehold which in itself is impressive. I eventually started to win on primary thought, as well as stopping all but one of his banners. So the final score was 100 to 77. It was a closer game than the score suggests but that's how it be sometimes.

Game 3: Imperial Knights: 1 Questoris Knight Magaera with a relic for 2+ armor save, 1 Knight Crusader with the relic gatling, 3 Knight Moirax with 2x Lightning Lock (basically a tesla weapon), 4 Armiger Warglaives with meltas.
His house was a mix I think? He had rerolls to hit in melee and 'roll 2 dice, pick highest for number of shots'. So whatever houses those are.
This mission was number 13. I took Stranglehold, Bring It Down and Warp Ritual. He took Stranglehold, Bring It Down and I can't remember.
I won the roll off to first. I decided the Magaera had to die no matter what. So I spend 5 CP... +1 damage on a Hierodule, exploding 6s on Hive Guard, and shoot twice with Hive Guard. After all of that, I killed the Magaera. My Dima got a 4++ save from a power and I charged 2 Armigers. Meanwhile I sacrificed a Warrior unit and the Flyrant to secure 2 middle objectives for Stranglehold. The Dima killed an Armigers and severely wounded the other (this was with 6 mortals on the charge and rerolls to wound, so another 2 CP). On his turn, 2 Armigers killed the 3 Warriors and the Flyrant. The rest of the army focused on the Dima, but he didn't die until the Knight killed it in melee. At which point I spent 2 CP to fight with the Dima and did 10 damage to the Crusader.
So on my turn the Hierodules reached middle objectives. I shot 1 of the Armigers to death in the middle, then charged the other with a Hierodule (who actually killed it). The Trygon recieved a Swarmlord boost to charge the Crusader with 7+d3 attacks. Overkilled it by a lot.
At that point he had 4 Armigers left. They tried but failed to kill the Trygon thanks to -1 to wound. I then tabled him. Final score 97 to 30.

I had not tested Crusher Stampede against Knights yet so I was happy to get 2 games in against them. Going first helps a lot. Black Templar are surprising resilient but if you can reach their characters then they start to crumble. I don't have another tournament next weekend before LVO, so my next game will be at LVO.

[zimko]

I took this to LVO and finished 4 and 2 placing 149. Losing to Admech and John Lennon's Custodes. I finished the ITC season in 2nd for Tyranids. I'm happy with that.

There's too many games to do full reports and those reports don't matter anymore with the new missions and point changes so I don't feel like it's worth the time. But I will say that I still love Barbed Hierodules. I plan to keep playing Crusher until we get our Codex, and I may try a GSC/Nid mix as well. I'll start a new thread for my new list.

[kazetanade]

I'm really interested in the custodes matchup, that's all. Can you share your impressions from there?

[zimko]

Feb 4, 2022 5:20:20 GMT kazetanade said:

I'm really interested in the custodes matchup, that's all. Can you share your impressions from there?

Sure. I faced 2 different Custode players. The general consensus I got from them is that their bikes are very deadly to our monsters. Each bike has a 3+d3 damage ranged weapon. The first Custode list I played had only one of these units and I managed to widdle it down with Hive Gaurd. Lennon's list had 2 of these units. I killed one with a +1 damage Hierodule and got lucky. The second unit though I couldn't get to and it ultimately killed one of my Hierodules.

The other thing to watch for is Tanglefoot. Any of their infantry can still do this to reduce your charge distance by d6. Lennon used this to effectively stop my Trygon from making a charge. So don't over commit to a mid-range charge. Make sure you can get as close as possible before going for a charge.

Next thing to note is all their models count as 2 or more models for objectives. And all the infantry is ObSec.

So for the game against Lennon. The terrain was a lot of large ruins with lots of windows so no where to hide my big monsters. The mission was the Scouring I think it's called, (whatever 23 is). So all 5 objectives are in the middle outside our narrow deployment zones.
I took TTL, Warp Ritual and Stranglehold.
He deployed everything outside of range of Hive Guard. He put his tank into strategic reserves with a redeploy so I couldn't shoot it. I managed to get an angle with a Barbed Hierodule on one of his bike squads and got lucky and wiped the unit. The other barbed hierodule managed to kill the sister unit to stop his ability to counter my psychics. The Dima took a Swarmlord boost and charged a Dreadnaught but failed to kill it. Flyrant did Warp Ritual.

His turn 1 he uses all his infantry to kill the Dima. 2nd bike squad moves up behind obscuring terrain but on an objective and starts damaging a Hierodule.

Hierodules have nothing to shoot so they spread out to screen against reserves arriving behind the Hive Guard. I make a mistake here and try to send the Trygon Prime in to kill his bike captain but his tanglefoot rolled a 6 which meant I needed an 11 to charge. I should have kept the trygon back and waited. The neurothrope does Warp ritual while the flyrant steals an objective to stop him from getting any primary points.

His turn 2 he kills both the Trygon and Flyrant. The tank arrives behind obscuring. The tank and bikes shoot a Barbed Hierodule down to 2 wounds.

I now only have the Swarmlord left to charge in. So he does and ties up infantry for a couple rounds. The Neurothrope finishes Warp Ritual before being slaughtered. The Barbed Hierodules and Hive Guard try to deal some damage but can't deal enough. I get overrun and tabled on the last turn. Final score 74 to 51.