Post by swarmson on May 12, 2022 4:27:58 GMT
Hey Hive! Life's been busy and I haven't played much during 9th edition, but with the new Nid codex out, I've been reinvigorated and am getting back into the game. I've had 2 games with the new dex and figured I'd share. My first game was against a Space Wolves player who brought a weak list and his only strategy was to run down the table fast at me. That didn't go so well for him. He surrendered after 2 turns. But my next match was much more exciting.
I brought a Behemoth list. My army was:
Neurothrope (warlord) w/ Resonance Barb, Synaptic Tendril, Catalyst, Onslaught, The Horror
Hive Tyrant w/ adrenal glands, Shardgullet, bonesword/whip, Adaptive Physiology, Paroxysm, Neuroparasite
Tyranid Prime w/ adrenal glands, venom cannon, bonesword/whip, Maw Claws of Thyrax, Direct Guidance
10 termagants
10 hormagaunts
3 warriors w/ dual boneswords & deathspitters (1 venom cannon)
3 warriors w/ dual boneswords & deathspitters (1 venom cannon)
5 warriors w/ dual boneswords, deathspitters (1 venom cannon), adrenal glands, flesh hooks
3 Zoanthropes w/ Psychic Scream
3 Venomthropes
1 Lictor
1 Haruspex w/ dermic symbiosis
1 Tyrannofex w/ rupture cannon, voracious ammunition
3 Screamer-Killers w/ adrenal glands, 1 w/ hardened biology
1 Biovore
My game was against a longtime friend and rival who was also coming off a long break from the game. His army is Tau, and he has a wide selection of units to choose from. This game, he brought a ton of heavy hitters. Shadowsun, Longstrike, 2 hammerheads w/ rail guns, a flyer (tigershark I think?) that could fire 4 rail shots. A unit of broadsides w/ heavy rail rifles, 2 units of pathfinders with 3 rail rifles each, 3 firewarriors strike teams, and a unit of hazard battlesuits. Lots of anti monster guns.
He was running the Tau Sept, so lots of re-rolls. He killed things so fast. And he used Kauyon, so if I waited too long, he'd only hit harder. The only saving grace was lots of LOS blocking terrain. The mission we had rolled was Vital Intelligence, where primaries are hold 2, hold 3+, hold more than. And if you control an objective at the end of your command phase, you can leave it and still maintain control until an enemy can take it from you. 1 objective in each deployment zone, and 4 in the middle. So if he wants to score any primaries, he'll need to come forward at some point. My secondaries were Raise the Banners, Stranglehold, and Cranial Feasting. His were all Tau specific: Shadow Operations (doing actions on the middle of each table edge to get points), Decisive Action (points for holding 3+ objectives on turns 3-5), and A Clean Victory (points for killing stuff on turns 3-5). I managed to set up most my army out of LOS. He won the roll to go first. I kept the Behemoth re-roll charge adaptation.
First turn, I popped the Neurothrope's Psychic Augmentation. I wanted the 5+++ against mortal wounds, which paid off. He stayed back and kept his units out of any potential counterattack from my turn 1. He only advanced one strike squad up to claim 1 objective. His rail guns didn't have monsters in line of sight, so he decided to target warriors instead. The 3 extra mortals per shot would have killed an extra warrior per shot, but the extra saves against the mortals blunted it just enough. He wiped 1 3-man squad of warriors, and the other 3-man squad survived with just 1 wounded warrior left (the save vs the mortals was what saved him).
My first turn, I moved up to threaten the middle, while keeping the bulk of my army still hidden out of LOS. My Haruspex advanced up around 1 side of a big piece of terrain, hoping to put pressure on the right side of the board. My lictor went to claim 1 objective and raise a banner, my horms moved up to claim another and raise a banner. My venomthropes raised a banner on my home objective. And the lone warrior advanced to get just within Synaptic link range of his forward strike squad. My Tyrant chained neuroparasite through the warrior to kill 6 of the firewarriors, then my termagants finished them off. (No primary for him!) Shooting had me take his flyer down. Biovore spawned mines on the lictor's objective to discourage him from getting too close. End of turn 1, I had set 3 banners and scored stranglehold.
Turn 2 I enacted warp shielding (not that it would help much against the rail guns). He completed some secondaries to scan 2 different board edges (will be worth 6 points at the end if he doesn’t get any more), but didn't get any primaries. He moved all his hammerheads to the right to deal with the Haruspex and 2 Screamer killers. One of his firewarrior squads inched up to grab an objective near my termagants and lone warrior on the same side. He rolled well, one-shotting both screamer killers and taking the Haruspex down to 3 wounds with a single shot. Those things are just so stinking good against monsters. He managed to finish off the warrior and killed half the gants in cover. On the other side, he used the stratagem to let the flyer shoot at top tier and it unloaded on my Tyrannofex. Thankfully, he had no markerlight support and I was by the venomthropes and had catalyst on him, so only one shot went through, taking me down to mid tier. Shadowsun had jumped up to just within range to fire at my lictor, while staying out of LOS of everything else behind some crates and killed it. I no longer held the objective, but at least my banner there was still in place.
My turn, with the lictor dead, I only had 2 objectives, for 5 points, plus 3 for banners. I advanced my gants up to contest his objective with the firewarriors, to guarantee he wouldn't score primary again, my hormagaunts were 15" away from the lictor's objective, so I used the stratagem to advance them an extra 6" guaranteed to claim it. My 5 man warrior squad got all the command buffs and advanced up towards Shadowsun. I finished off the flyer with the Zoanthropes. And cast catalyst and onslaught on the warriors. They made the charge into Shadowsun using their flesh hooks to go over the crates. My goal was to kill her, then overrun them to out of line of sight. I did 19 wounds, but her shield drone saved 6 in a row. Then she passed 9 of her 11 5+ saves to survive! End of turn, I score for stranglehold.
End of round 2, I’m up 14-6 (counting his Shadow Operations)
Turn 3, he has no primaries since my gants advanced up to contest his 2nd one. They get blasted off this turn, but they denied him 5 points, so I’ll take it. He has Shadowsun fall back and his heavy hitters annihilated my warriors that were left exposed, and finished off the tyrannofex. But he's realized that by staying so far back, he has a lot to do to catch up in points. He starts moving everything forward onto objectives and deepstrikes his hazard suits onto one of areas he needs to scan for Shadow Operations. But since he focused so much on killing the warriors and tyrannofex, he only managed to pick up one objective. He would have picked up another, but I had been sneaky with my biovore my previous turn. I had spawned 3 and placed them on the edge of an objective I knew he was planning to grab. His hammerhead would have had just enough movement to barely touch the objective, but my spore mines were where he wanted to go. And even though they can’t block movement like they used to, you still can’t end your move on top of them. So he resigned himself to getting close and taking the mortals, but couldn’t claim it till next turn. I love when a simple move nets me 13 points (allowing me to get another 5 on primary for more objectives, keeping him from another 5 on primary, and 3 for Battle Supremacy). He scores 3 for No Mercy, No Respite.
My turn 3, I still have 3 objectives to his 2, so I score 15 on primary, plus 3 banners. I send all my command abilities into my last screamer killer, advance it out and use onslaught to charge into Shadowsun and finish her off. I roll a 5 on Cranial Feasting to get a CP back, and score 7 points total (1 for killing a character, 3 for the CP, 3 since she's the warlord). My Tyrant and zoanthropes focus on the hazard suits and kill them to deny him any extra points. Another turn ends with stranglehold.
End of turn 3, I’m up 42-9.
Turns 4 and 5, he proceeded to kill almost everything else I had and sprinting to try and catch up in points. I managed to kill Longstrike, his broadsides, and took another hammerhead to bottom tier.
Final score: Nids win 70-33
Final thoughts:
This was a really fun match. We both made a few errors, but had a blast experimenting with what our books can do. He realized, too late, that he’d fallen into the trap of just trying to wipe me out instead of focusing on objectives. Granted, he did do a very good job of killing my guys...
I think Tyranids are very strong right now, but then again, so are Tau. I’m glad that there’s a lot of guys in my local area that play strong lists, but not too overly competitive. Gives me an excuse to run things like my Haruspex, which I know isn’t the optimum choice, but he’s fun. I may even bust out my Toxicrene sometime soon. I'm joining a Crusade campaign that starts later this week, and can't wait to see what nonsensical shenanigans we discover.
I brought a Behemoth list. My army was:
Neurothrope (warlord) w/ Resonance Barb, Synaptic Tendril, Catalyst, Onslaught, The Horror
Hive Tyrant w/ adrenal glands, Shardgullet, bonesword/whip, Adaptive Physiology, Paroxysm, Neuroparasite
Tyranid Prime w/ adrenal glands, venom cannon, bonesword/whip, Maw Claws of Thyrax, Direct Guidance
10 termagants
10 hormagaunts
3 warriors w/ dual boneswords & deathspitters (1 venom cannon)
3 warriors w/ dual boneswords & deathspitters (1 venom cannon)
5 warriors w/ dual boneswords, deathspitters (1 venom cannon), adrenal glands, flesh hooks
3 Zoanthropes w/ Psychic Scream
3 Venomthropes
1 Lictor
1 Haruspex w/ dermic symbiosis
1 Tyrannofex w/ rupture cannon, voracious ammunition
3 Screamer-Killers w/ adrenal glands, 1 w/ hardened biology
1 Biovore
My game was against a longtime friend and rival who was also coming off a long break from the game. His army is Tau, and he has a wide selection of units to choose from. This game, he brought a ton of heavy hitters. Shadowsun, Longstrike, 2 hammerheads w/ rail guns, a flyer (tigershark I think?) that could fire 4 rail shots. A unit of broadsides w/ heavy rail rifles, 2 units of pathfinders with 3 rail rifles each, 3 firewarriors strike teams, and a unit of hazard battlesuits. Lots of anti monster guns.
He was running the Tau Sept, so lots of re-rolls. He killed things so fast. And he used Kauyon, so if I waited too long, he'd only hit harder. The only saving grace was lots of LOS blocking terrain. The mission we had rolled was Vital Intelligence, where primaries are hold 2, hold 3+, hold more than. And if you control an objective at the end of your command phase, you can leave it and still maintain control until an enemy can take it from you. 1 objective in each deployment zone, and 4 in the middle. So if he wants to score any primaries, he'll need to come forward at some point. My secondaries were Raise the Banners, Stranglehold, and Cranial Feasting. His were all Tau specific: Shadow Operations (doing actions on the middle of each table edge to get points), Decisive Action (points for holding 3+ objectives on turns 3-5), and A Clean Victory (points for killing stuff on turns 3-5). I managed to set up most my army out of LOS. He won the roll to go first. I kept the Behemoth re-roll charge adaptation.
First turn, I popped the Neurothrope's Psychic Augmentation. I wanted the 5+++ against mortal wounds, which paid off. He stayed back and kept his units out of any potential counterattack from my turn 1. He only advanced one strike squad up to claim 1 objective. His rail guns didn't have monsters in line of sight, so he decided to target warriors instead. The 3 extra mortals per shot would have killed an extra warrior per shot, but the extra saves against the mortals blunted it just enough. He wiped 1 3-man squad of warriors, and the other 3-man squad survived with just 1 wounded warrior left (the save vs the mortals was what saved him).
My first turn, I moved up to threaten the middle, while keeping the bulk of my army still hidden out of LOS. My Haruspex advanced up around 1 side of a big piece of terrain, hoping to put pressure on the right side of the board. My lictor went to claim 1 objective and raise a banner, my horms moved up to claim another and raise a banner. My venomthropes raised a banner on my home objective. And the lone warrior advanced to get just within Synaptic link range of his forward strike squad. My Tyrant chained neuroparasite through the warrior to kill 6 of the firewarriors, then my termagants finished them off. (No primary for him!) Shooting had me take his flyer down. Biovore spawned mines on the lictor's objective to discourage him from getting too close. End of turn 1, I had set 3 banners and scored stranglehold.
Turn 2 I enacted warp shielding (not that it would help much against the rail guns). He completed some secondaries to scan 2 different board edges (will be worth 6 points at the end if he doesn’t get any more), but didn't get any primaries. He moved all his hammerheads to the right to deal with the Haruspex and 2 Screamer killers. One of his firewarrior squads inched up to grab an objective near my termagants and lone warrior on the same side. He rolled well, one-shotting both screamer killers and taking the Haruspex down to 3 wounds with a single shot. Those things are just so stinking good against monsters. He managed to finish off the warrior and killed half the gants in cover. On the other side, he used the stratagem to let the flyer shoot at top tier and it unloaded on my Tyrannofex. Thankfully, he had no markerlight support and I was by the venomthropes and had catalyst on him, so only one shot went through, taking me down to mid tier. Shadowsun had jumped up to just within range to fire at my lictor, while staying out of LOS of everything else behind some crates and killed it. I no longer held the objective, but at least my banner there was still in place.
My turn, with the lictor dead, I only had 2 objectives, for 5 points, plus 3 for banners. I advanced my gants up to contest his objective with the firewarriors, to guarantee he wouldn't score primary again, my hormagaunts were 15" away from the lictor's objective, so I used the stratagem to advance them an extra 6" guaranteed to claim it. My 5 man warrior squad got all the command buffs and advanced up towards Shadowsun. I finished off the flyer with the Zoanthropes. And cast catalyst and onslaught on the warriors. They made the charge into Shadowsun using their flesh hooks to go over the crates. My goal was to kill her, then overrun them to out of line of sight. I did 19 wounds, but her shield drone saved 6 in a row. Then she passed 9 of her 11 5+ saves to survive! End of turn, I score for stranglehold.
End of round 2, I’m up 14-6 (counting his Shadow Operations)
Turn 3, he has no primaries since my gants advanced up to contest his 2nd one. They get blasted off this turn, but they denied him 5 points, so I’ll take it. He has Shadowsun fall back and his heavy hitters annihilated my warriors that were left exposed, and finished off the tyrannofex. But he's realized that by staying so far back, he has a lot to do to catch up in points. He starts moving everything forward onto objectives and deepstrikes his hazard suits onto one of areas he needs to scan for Shadow Operations. But since he focused so much on killing the warriors and tyrannofex, he only managed to pick up one objective. He would have picked up another, but I had been sneaky with my biovore my previous turn. I had spawned 3 and placed them on the edge of an objective I knew he was planning to grab. His hammerhead would have had just enough movement to barely touch the objective, but my spore mines were where he wanted to go. And even though they can’t block movement like they used to, you still can’t end your move on top of them. So he resigned himself to getting close and taking the mortals, but couldn’t claim it till next turn. I love when a simple move nets me 13 points (allowing me to get another 5 on primary for more objectives, keeping him from another 5 on primary, and 3 for Battle Supremacy). He scores 3 for No Mercy, No Respite.
My turn 3, I still have 3 objectives to his 2, so I score 15 on primary, plus 3 banners. I send all my command abilities into my last screamer killer, advance it out and use onslaught to charge into Shadowsun and finish her off. I roll a 5 on Cranial Feasting to get a CP back, and score 7 points total (1 for killing a character, 3 for the CP, 3 since she's the warlord). My Tyrant and zoanthropes focus on the hazard suits and kill them to deny him any extra points. Another turn ends with stranglehold.
End of turn 3, I’m up 42-9.
Turns 4 and 5, he proceeded to kill almost everything else I had and sprinting to try and catch up in points. I managed to kill Longstrike, his broadsides, and took another hammerhead to bottom tier.
Final score: Nids win 70-33
Final thoughts:
This was a really fun match. We both made a few errors, but had a blast experimenting with what our books can do. He realized, too late, that he’d fallen into the trap of just trying to wipe me out instead of focusing on objectives. Granted, he did do a very good job of killing my guys...
I think Tyranids are very strong right now, but then again, so are Tau. I’m glad that there’s a lot of guys in my local area that play strong lists, but not too overly competitive. Gives me an excuse to run things like my Haruspex, which I know isn’t the optimum choice, but he’s fun. I may even bust out my Toxicrene sometime soon. I'm joining a Crusade campaign that starts later this week, and can't wait to see what nonsensical shenanigans we discover.