10ed warmup game vs Astra Militarum

[trashcan01]

Swarmlord 250
Hive Tyrant 220 + Alien Cunning 30
Tyrant Guard 95 
Old One Eye 140 
Carnifex x2 250 - Barbed Strangler, Crush Claws and extra bling.
Tyrannofex 200 
Tyrannofex 200 
Warriors Ranged 70 
Venomthropes 70 
Zoanthropes x3 90 
Zoanthropes x3 90 
Mawloc 145 
Mawloc 145 
Haruspex 125 
Deathleaper 80 
Ripper Swarms x3 35 
TOTAL 1985

My opponent played:
Cadian Castellan,Cadian Command Squad, 2x Comissars and Primaris Psyker,
2x20 infantry + 3x10 Cadian Shock Troops in 3x Chimeras,
Tank Commander and 2 Tanks (Gatling and Demolisher),
3x Armored Sentinels, One Wyvern and a Ratling Squad.

We played Crucible of Battle; Purge the Foe (scoring extra VP for destroying one (4VP) or more enemy units than the opponent (+4VP); and holding one (4VP) or more objectives than the opponent (+4VP)); Mission Rule was Hidden Supplies (one extra objective marker in the middle).

I took Bring it down and Assasination. Opponent took Bring it down and Engage in all Fronts.
I chose Anti-vehicle lethal hits as my Adaptation.

Alien Cunning enabled me to bluff deploy my Haruspex and Deathleaper and reactively reserve them. I won the roll off and went first. Both Tyrannofexes and both Zoanthrop units shot at the Demolisher Russ who popped SMOKE, but I managed to destroy it, dealing with the biggest antitank threat on the board. I moved up the board a bit. Shot on the blobs a bit and killed the Ratlings.
My opponent responded with shooting down both of my Carnifexes with combined shooting from most of his army - he used Strats and a lot of Hunter Killer missiles. Old One Eye managed to survive. My Warriors got wiped by some indirect fire and Cadian Shock Troops.

Turn 2 I put my 2x Mawlocs and Haruspex on the board and killed his Tank Commander and Gatling Leman Russ. OOE slammed into his center. Some of his infantry died and some Chimeras. At this point it became obvious that he has no means of removing my Monsters but he kept on fighting. He killed one unit of Zoanthropes and wounded the other one. He tried to control / contest some objectives but double Heroic Intervention countered the threats.

Turn 3 I continued to kill of his Vehicles and Deathleaper finally pounced and killed his Primaris Psyker. My opponent tried to do some damage but everything was minor as he had only 500 points left on the board. He had 1 Armored Sentinel, a Wywern, ressed 20x infanty; Castellan, Comissar with a few members from his Command squad.

At the start of my Turn 4 my opponent surrendered. My total losses were 4x Zoanthrop models, 3x Warrior models and 2x Carnifexes.



Conclusions:
- CP generation and management is super important and impactful. Having Tyrant and Swarmlord, despite high cost kept me in an extremely comfortable position. I was able to pressure my opponent into using his CP defensively and still have extra CP to defend or break through his defences
- Carnifexes and OOE have a big target on them. It is tough to Blister Assault them in front and keep them in Synapse to benefit from 5+ FNP strat. Still, it is very satisfying to see that they draw so many attention as this keeps Tyrannofexes safe. Turn 2 even more Monsters flood the board and I don't know how it is possible to deal with them all at once. The pressure is immense.
- Zoanthropes are great but slow. They benefit greatly from Advancing alongside Hive Tyrant to be able to use their Battleshock Mortal Wound ability. 4++ is so friggin swingy.
- Tyrannofexes are great, able to one-shot a Leman Russ in a single shooting phase, I can only imagine the hurt they dish out when paired with Exocrine

All in all, playing this game was fun. 10th is fun. Monster mash is fun. My list was very crude, as was my playstyle. I just rolled over my opponent, despite large number of bodies thrown against me. Blasts are so great against blobs, I am totally scared of running a Horde army. 
Both of us agreed that my opponent didn't play to his lists potential. His selection of secondaries was also not good and me successfully Alpha Striking him sealed the deal. I just snowballed.

We will have more games in the next few days and I'll try out some other things and let you know how did it play out.

[nidsallday]

thanks for the bat rep, super interessting to read!
and gives me hope that we really might be somewhat middeling of the pack

[trashcan01]

Based on this battle alone, I think it's too early so celebrate despite the easy win.
Guard can be played much much better. He had only one Indirect fire unit. Engage all Fronts is not a good choice for guard because they need to stay stationary to get the Lethal Hits.
20 Krieg guard with a Primaris Psyker are almost impossible to get rid of (opponent played Cadia to respect WYSIWYG)
4+ invun and 5+++ FNP and he brings D3 of them back each Command phase.
Do the math how many attacks would you need to move that wall of flesh.

[nidsallday]

Jun 22, 2023 17:45:02 GMT trashcan01 said:

Based on this battle alone, I think it's too early so celebrate despite the easy win.
Guard can be played much much better. He had only one Indirect fire unit. Engage all Fronts is not a good choice for guard because they need to stay stationary to get the Lethal Hits.
20 Krieg guard with a Primaris Psyker are almost impossible to get rid of (opponent played Cadia to respect WYSIWYG)
4+ invun and 5+++ FNP and he brings D3 of them back each Command phase.
Do the math how many attacks would you need to move that wall of flesh.

while you are right that one game with an opponent not playing to full potential isnt really a lot to go by, but just a short while back aow published a video of their live nids list-building stream. and, while i'm by far not as opptimistic as them, theire attitude and views gave me a bit of a better feeling.
but yeah, as always, gotta wait for a whole load more games to see how 10th turns out to be. and heres still hoping gw reduces devastating wounds / mortal wounds output and the copious amount of re-rolls.

[N.I.B.]

Can both Swarmlord and Walkrant join the same Tyrant Guards?
Did you have 2 Rupturecannons?

Turn 2 I put my 2x Mawlocs and Haruspex on the board and killed his Tank Commander and Gatling Leman Russ.

You killed them with 2 Terror from the Deep and a charge from the Haruspex?

[No One]

trashcan01 said:

- Carnifexes and OOE have a big target on them. It is tough to Blister Assault them in front and keep them in Synapse to benefit from 5+ FNP strat. Still, it is very satisfying to see that they draw so many attention as this keeps Tyrannofexes safe. Turn 2 even more Monsters flood the board and I don't know how it is possible to deal with them all at once. The pressure is immense.

Note that only the unit needs to end as close as possible, not every model: the ones that can't end closest can do whatever they like within normal movement rules. So at least while you've got all of them alive, chaining back into Synapse should be doable. Alternatively, don't care and just use the 5+++ while they're within Synapse and then they move out but meh, if they live to worry about it that's a good problem to have. Also neurotyrant should be good for that.

[nidsallday]

Jun 23, 2023 0:00:57 GMT N.I.B. said:

Can both Swarmlord and Walkrant join the same Tyrant Guards?
Did you have 2 Rupturecannons?

Turn 2 I put my 2x Mawlocs and Haruspex on the board and killed his Tank Commander and Gatling Leman Russ.

You killed them with 2 Terror from the Deep and a charge from the Haruspex?

no, iirc only one character per attached unit. there is only an exception for lieutenant to join if there is already a captain. but else, 1 character per attached unit.

[trashcan01]

Jun 23, 2023 0:00:57 GMT N.I.B. said:

Can both Swarmlord and Walkrant join the same Tyrant Guards?
Did you have 2 Rupturecannons?

Turn 2 I put my 2x Mawlocs and Haruspex on the board and killed his Tank Commander and Gatling Leman Russ.

You killed them with 2 Terror from the Deep and a charge from the Haruspex?

Only Hive Tyrant had the Guard. Swarmlord was hidden out of LoS for the first two turns.
Yes, both Tyrranofexes had Rupture cannons.
Mawlocs and Haruspex didn't contribute to the kills of the Tank Cmdr and the Russ. That was all Tyrannofexes and Zoans. I was rushing to write the report, I can see why would it seem that they did. Bad wording from my side. Sorry about the confusion.

[trashcan01]

Jun 23, 2023 4:18:47 GMT No One said:

Note that only the unit needs to end as close as possible, not every model: the ones that can't end closest can do whatever they like within normal movement rules. So at least while you've got all of them alive, chaining back into Synapse should be doable. Alternatively, don't care and just use the 5+++ while they're within Synapse and then they move out but meh, if they live to worry about it that's a good problem to have. Also neurotyrant should be good for that.

Yeah, but despite small sizes for the Fexes it was tough navigating them through the terrain an staying within 6". OOE was always the closest to the enemy units, the other two were chained back to the Synapse. Damage allocation had to be done to the last Fex in the line, because if the middle one died first, unit coherency check would cost me the 2nd Fex.

I didn't play NeuroTyrant since I didn't have the model.