4 Generals 2nd game at 1.000 points

Last Saturday I grabed my swarm and warped to the mighty halls of conquest and glory in order to face my opponent. But suprise, Kevin, the copyright-violator used my own tactics against me. He fielded an Eldar army following the mean strategies I´ve posted on my blog when I used to play Saim-Hann. And this was his tribute:

Farseer, Soulstones, Doom, re-roll hits "spell"
8 Banshees, Exarch, S5 blade in Serpent with 2 ShurCas (Farseer within)
5 Firedragons in Serpent with 2 ShurCas
2x3 Jetbikes
3 Warwalkers with 2 ShurCas each
1 Fire Prism, Holo

First thing I thought was "damned" and the second one was "hmmm, just 2 scoring units at a mission objective mission? Yeah baby, yeah!"

Before a game starts I like to think about what I want to do. In this game I´ve seen that I´ll be troubled by all the skimmers, contesting and claiming mission objectives. So the primary targets were:
1. Kill all jetbikes (so the worst case could be a draw)
2. Destroy or imobilise the skimmers

1st turn:
As I kept my whole army in reserve (army list see previous blog entry) the first turn was rather quick. Suprisingly Kevin deployed his jetbikes instead of keeping them in reserve ... ok, works fine for me. He maneuvred his skimmers so, that the firedragons had a difficult terrain in their back and the other two tanks were exactly at the tableborder. That would make it impossible for the banshees to jump out of their serpent and charge.

2nd turn:
I began the second turn with rolling my hive tyrant, a zoantrophe and two genestealer untis into the game. As the Eldar massed his units at the centre of the board I deepstriked the tyrant in my table quarter in order to charge next turn. The Zoa immobilised the firedragons serpent and the mycethic spore desintergrated one jetbike unit with a little help of my hive tyrant. The genestealers attempted to charge the warwalkers, which were about 15" from the table edge (both genestealer units got to choose from which edge to outflank). One unit made it into cc and destroyed a warwalker (thanx randing there are no chances to a glancing hit and I need a 4, 5 or 6 to destroy a warwalker).
I lost one and he continued the slaughter by "firedragoning" my mycethic spore and the zoa lost a wound as the farseer (!!) shot at the creature. Despite of doom and all the re-rolls, my hive tyrant didn´t even lose a wound. On the other side I lost a genestealer but destroyed a warwalker too.

3rd turn:
The rest of my army came in and I deep striked my termagaunts infront of the bikes but shot at the firedragons which lost 3 men. The trygon prime also came in front of the bikes and with some help of the mycethic spore, his second and last scoring unit was dead. Now I´ve got to get rid of the fast skimmers. One was immobilised, so I charged the other one with the hive tyrant. Maybe he will die in the subsequent turn, but I´m playing toward a possible win, so I have to eliminate all fast moving threats. I managed to immobilise the serpent which wasn´t what I hoped (damaging the banshees insede) but for the purpose of eliminating his fast units, it worked well. The hormagaunts deep striked behind my trygon and run towards the assimilation party and to a mission objectives. The genestealers killed the last warwalker and ran to the next terrain to get cover.
Realising he couldn´t win this game, Kevin tried to do as much damage as possible. He pired his prism at my genestealers and killed 3, so one genestealer remained. The serpents shot at the termagaunts and killed 4 of them. With a ear-popping shreek, the banshees charged my tyrant and the zoa and ripped them to pieces ... oh, feht!! The Firedragons fired on the one-genestealer-unit but he made his cover save.

Time for a second glace at the options:
1. He can´t win any more (no bikes left)
2. One fast skimmer left and the rest of his army shouldn´t be near enough to contest a mission objective.
3. At the beginning of the game I deployed a mission objective near one of his. I outflanked the genestealers there and deep striked the hormagaunts (termagaunts would have bin better, but I needed them for the firedragons). Now this strategy began to work as I would concentrate my scoring units in that area (the objectives were 7" away from eachother.
4. I could charge the banshees with my termagaunts in hope to cause some causualties. But I want to keep the banshees out of contesting range. If I charge they would get nearer through the massacre movement. So I´ll let them get slaughtered!

4th turn:
I double charged the immobilised firedragon serpent and the fireprism with my trygon. I destroyed the serpent, but as it had moved previous turn, I had to roll a 4+ to hit (re-roll missed hits thanx talons) the fire prism with 5 attacks. All missed (incl. re-rolls). I was not amused! I shot 3 banshees with termagaunts and the mycethic spore and devoured the firedragons with my hormas. But the point was, I´ve let the damned skimmer alive ...
... which laughed at my luck and flew to my hormas (holding objective 1) to contest and shot at my 5 genestealers which lost 2 (face down in the dirt behind a tree gives a 3+ cover save). The bansees shot with the last sperpent at the termagaunts and killed 5, then the chicks charged and killed them all.

5th turn:
I drew back in the woods with my hormas and followed with the trygon in order to keep them in synapse range as they moved out by retreating. The one-man-genestealer-unit moved to the 2nd objective to help holding it. The trygon shot at the banshees (with a little help of the mycethic spore) and killed all but 1 banshee (incl. farseer ... har har har, autokill spores are nice). I widened my horma line and claimed both objectives with this one unit
The banshee moved, ran (6") and charged in difficult terrain (6") into the hormas just to be slaughtered by the fearsome foe. But Kevin achieved what he wanted and pulled my hormas away from the second mission objective as I rolled to low for the massacre movement. Grabing his last chance (and contesting my second mision objective) the prism shot at the genestealers and killed three of the three genestealers unit and killed one horma. My one genestealer unit made its cover save and as it came to no further turns, I won the game with 1 mission objective to 0.

Things I learned:
1. Keep an eye on the mission objectives
2. Make a priority list (which enemy units can harm you, claim mission objectives, ruin your plan to win the game,...)
3. Follow your priority list (I shouldn´t have split my attacks between the two skimmers, but I should have throw everything a trygon can deliver on the still intact fire prism)
4. Always take enough troop choices.
5. Sometimes sacrificing a unit can be the right thing. In my case I sacrificed the termagaunts in order to slow down the banshees.

4 Generals

Last month a brand new 4 generals project started. A perfect chance to build my tyranid army. The following armies have been foolish enough to step into the path of a hungry swarm:

- Black Templars
- Space Wolfes
- Imperial Army
- Eldar
- Daemons

The first game was based on 500 points and this was my army list:

HQ:
1 Winged Tyrant (230)
El:
1 Zoantrophe in Spore (100)
TR:
2x5 Genestealers with Toxin Sacs (170)

We can play as many games as we want but only one counts regarding the score list for the 4 generals project. Of course we have to announce the game as counting before we start the carnage. My first prey was the Black Templars chapter consinsting of the following:

1 Commander
1 Cybot
5 Marines
5 Marines + 2 Scouts
1 Predator

Originally I wanted to deep strike/outflank my whole army, but I rather decided to begin the game with my Tyrant on the table. As a punishment for this foolish thought, he died in the first turn. First he lost 2W in the Templar´s shooting phase and then lost further two by flying through a jungle and attempting to use a psychik skill - pathetic. But as soon as the reinforcements came in, the sun shined again. 5 Genesetealers managed to kill the 5 guys unit within 2 cc turns and the Zoa exploded the Predator. After suffering minimal losses the Cybot exploded too. As it was a KP mission I´ve won by 3-2.

This weekend is the next game (based on mission objectives) and I will use the fresh DNA to create the following 1.000 points army list:

HQ:
1 Winged Tyrant with Hive Commander (255)
El:
1 Zoantrophe in Spore (100)
TR:
2x5 Genestealers with Toxin Sacs (170)
14 Termagaunts in Spore (110)
10 Hormagaunts in Spore (100)
HS:
Trygon Prime with Regeneration (265)

I don´t expect this list to win, but I need some scoring units. And with the goal of building up a planetfall style army in my mind, I want all my miniatures to deep strike/outflank/infiltrate. Style is better then an army lists which will crush your opponent and your friendships.

Some paintwork

Giving the stuff I have to deal with every day, its a little wonder that I can spare some time for my blog. This time it will be some pics of my own miniatures and a paint job for Poke.

First of all my Mortheim Skaven Warband "Creeping Threat":


The Heroes Raging Claw (Black Skaven), Silent Paw (Assassin) and Lightning Claw (Black Skaven).


The sorcerer Warpsnout.


My Heroes Brave Heart and Iron Musk (Nightrunners).


2 of my henchmen from various henchmen groups like "Sewer Divers", "Tactical Retreaters", "Silent Berserks", and so on.


The Ratogre Neck-Smack.


On the following the paintjob (Night Lords Rhino) for Poke:


Right side and a little bit from the back (yes, the guy glued the backdoor himself).


Left side and the chaos boy´s back.


Front and left side again.


The thunderbolts a little bit nearer.

Back to Blog

Being cut off of the world wide synapse, I´ve been unable to write any articles on my blog. But now, creeping out of the unspeakable dephts and perils of an internet-less life, I´m back. This is just a brief warning of things I´ve missed to report about and which will befall upon those, foolish enough to enter this uncrypted blog-vaults:

- Warhammer 40k Batrep at 1850

- The rest of my Xenology Tyranid Articles

- Experience reports regarding Tyranid units in Battle

- My painting and converting progress

- Interesting Tyranid Army Lists and Ideas

- Selfmade free downloadable Tyranid Reference Sheet

- And many many more crazyness

Xenology Tyranids 21 FA Spore Mine Cluster

Starting Abilities:
One ... everything just a 1! Well, what do you expect of a living bomb? When it explodes, you get a Large Blast with S4. The only thing is, that you have to deploy the models after selecting deployment zones but before any units are deployed. They also com via Deep Strike, so you are even more limited as they will probably scatter.

Conclusion:
Imo the worst Fast Attack choice, if not the worst in the whole Codex. We will see, how more clever Hive Minds then me can benefit from this unit.

Xenology Tyranids 20 FA Harpy

Starting Abilities:
Now this is a fat and ugly chicken! S5, T5, 4W, I5, 2A and a 4+Sv makes the Harpy the toughest Fast Attack Choice. As a Monstrous Creature it ignores Sv and re-rolls 1s to hit. Its firepower is not to be underestimated as the Harpy starts with a multishot middle range weapon, a long range Large Blast & Pinning gun and can suprise the enemy with its droppings. Yes, droppings! Once per game the Harpy may drop D3 Large Blast suprises with S4 on some unlucky opponents, the Harpy flew over ... ieeeeeeh!! Oh, and it has Wings in order to get to the party in time. Btw., birdy is Fearless and screeches so loud that it counts as equipped with Assault Grenades and any attacked unit halves its I for the reminder of the assault phase in which this "Screeching Chicken of Unglorious Death by Droppings" (SCUDD) assaults.

Options:
You can exchange the Large Blast weapon for a S9 Blast weapon or the middle range Stinger Salvo for Cluster Spines which gives you a Large Blast weapon wqith S5. Make the Harpy tougher with Regeneration or equip it with Poisoned A(4+) or Furious Charge.

Conclusion:
Wow, a nice choice. Its tough and can cloud the enemy in 2 Large Blasts per turn and additional d3 Large Blasts once per game. You can also keep a middle range weapon if you want to save some points. The Harpy can defend itself in cc and even win some combat against small units. Imo we will see more of them in tournaments, especially when GW makes it to produce a kit for this creature.

Xenology Tyranids 19 FA Gargoyle Brood

Starting Abilities:
Average stats as a Termagant but with Wings and very important: Blinding Venom. It means that every 6 on the to hit roll automatically causes a wound.

Options:
Upgrade your brood with Furious Charge or Poisoned A(4+)

Conclusion:
A quick moving unit with chances to get creatures down which are blessed with a high T. At this point value a nice choice, but unprotected they will perish like a Nurgle Deamon raiding a penicilin factory.

Xenology Tyranids 18 FA Sky-Slasher Swarm Brood

Starting Abilities:
Same as in my previous Ripper Swarm article, just with Wings.

Options:
Same as in my previous Ripper Swarm article, despite the Tunnel Swarm option.

Conclusion:
All Tactica and Thoughts mentioned in my previous Ropper Swarm article apply to this unit. But I would like to mention the following: If your Troops Choices are already full and you want to field some Swarms, this is your chance. With Wings you can also Deep Strike as you would have upgradet the Troops Swarms with the Tunnel Swarm option. But it costs you 3 points more than in the Troops Section. On the other hand the 3 points are well spent because you also get the unit type Jump Infantry which makes maneuvring easier. So you can get to the desired place of the table very quick.

Xenology Tyranids 17 FA Ravener Brood

Starting Abilities:
With WS5, S4, I5, 4A and two sets Scything Talons this guys are made for cc VS light units. Despite of their 5+Sv they should survive long enough with T4 and 3W to make some troubles. They have Acute Senses and can Deep Strike. As Beasts and with Move Through Cover they should be also quick enough to get to the party.

Options:
VS heavy infantry Raveners can be equipped with Rending Claws. With some luck you could get some 6es. Further options are Devourers, Deathspitters (both middle range weapons) and a nice Spinefist (giving them 4 shots at 12" per model)

Conclusion:
If you Deep Strike them, take care of parking them behind LOS blocking terrain pieces and if possible able to charge the enemy in the next turn. Maybe you want to Deep Strike infront the enemy end reward him with some Spinefist kisses. But if you deploy them at the start of the game, you should get every cover you can get as the opponent will learn how quick this unit can come into cc.

Xenology Tyranids 16 FA Tyranid Shrike Brood

Starting Abilities:
Almost as they brothers in the Troops Section, this creatures are nice too. Just check my previous Tyranid Warriors article. But this ones start with Wings, which makes them more effective regarding their movement and a 5+Sv.

Options:
Completely the same as the guys in the Troops Section, just a little bit more complicated in the description. But after studying this choice, you´ll understand that everything that is possible with the Troops Warriors is also possible with a Tyranid Shrike Brood.

Conclusion:
There is only one difference between the two choices. The Tyranid Shrike Brood costs 5 points more and gets Wings for that. Thats it. They´re quicker which makes them a more interesting choice when you decide to run a cc army.