BATTLE REPORT THREAD: Tyranids Codex week 11/7/2017 Alaitoc vs Nids

Army Lists
Hive Fleet Cobra Kai

Detachment: Hive Fleet Kraken
HQ – Tervigon 245 – Relic: Chameleonic Mutation
HQ – Neurothrope 70
Elite – Venomthrope (3) – 90
Troop – Genestealers (15) – 180
Troop – Genestealers (15) – 180
Troop – Termigants (20, 10 Devourers) – 120
Troop – Termigants (20, 10 Devourers) – 120
Troop – Termigants (12) – 48

Detachment: Hive Fleet Behemoth
HQ – Flyrant – 198 (4 Devourers) – Warlord: Adaptive Biology
HQ – Flyrant – 199 (2 Devourers, Scything Talons)
HQ – Flyrant – 199 (2 Devourers, Scything Talons)
Troop – Ripper Swarm (3) – 33
Troop – Ripper Swarm (3) – 33
Troop – Ripper Swarm (3) – 33

9/9 CP
1748 Points

Craftworld Eldar – Alaitoc
Maugen Ra 140 (warlord)

Farseer Skyrunner singing spear – 140

4xGuardian Skyrunners – scatter lasers

Hemlock – 200

Hemlock – 200

10x Rangers – 120

10x Rangers – 120

10x Rangers – 120

10x Dark Reapers – 270

Fire Prism – CTM, Shuriken Cannon – 170

Fire Prism – CTM, Shuriken Cannon – 170

6/6 CP
1750 PL

Eldar Cheat Counter: 3 (by my count)

That nid list was a lot nastier than Monday's imo.

Matt losing the reapers off the bat was bad news, and really, as soon as those stealers got across the board, it was game, since they were able to leapfrog and rip the guts out of the middle of Matt's army.

Three flyrants... I think the fire prism's had the potential to take them all out, but that would have required a bit of luck and maneuvering. Also: tyro-smite. To hell with that :p I would have maybe tried to use the Hemlocks to shoot flyrants from Turn 2? Or I wouldn't have taken them, since their superpowers aren't all that useful against nids in synapse range. They're a big points sink to just get blown up.

Edit: Just thinking about the troop choices Matt had, I think if it was me, I would have mixed in Dire Avengers with Rangers in this case, mostly so they could re-position if needed and also have a bit of a chance at thinning down the inevitable stealer charge with their 5+ OW.

I knew going in that it was going to be against eldar - so yes, the list was going to be meaner. Plus I'm literally trying to showcase as much new funky stuff as possible this week. I figured "Hey, two-for-one Fleet day!" was a good idea.

As far as the hemlocks go - I think they had the potential to be pretty deadly. I was thinking they would just strafe back and forth all game and rain D-Scythe death on all my big guys...that's what I would have used them for. I was really worried about Hemlocks auto-hitting my Tervigon, but Matt never tried it. Not sure if the -2 to hit was scaring him off, but they auto-hit. /shrug. Also, he could of totally lit-up the venomthropes, too. /doubleshrug. But I wasn't going to help him out with Eldar, at least not today. Plus, he's heading to a Tournament in December! ...And he doesn't really play eldar anyways /tripleshrug.

I can't wait for him to get an ork codex...

As far as what I was thinking, it was pretty simple:
1) What's the win condition
2) What's the biggest threat
3) How do I stop him from scoring the win condition
4) How do I stop my stuff from dying

After the Dark Reaper's opening volley, (but really before the game started) I knew they had to die, and quick. MOOgan-Rah (he got beef) was going to cause problems but I let my warlord deal with that. The new +4 Invulnerable save on Tyrants is CLUTCH now. Had I not had that, I think the Fire Prisms would have lit me up even more. Link-firing the biggest blast you can do on a Tyrant...Those were the biggest threat in my army and should have been gunned down with haste.

I kind of like Flyrants with Scything Talons now and Devourers. I got used to them only having 12 shots. So for me, it's the same 12 shots but now they can actually fight in CC and are kinda scary with their AP-3, 3 Damage swings. They are pretty good with tossing out Smites - that was a nice bonus!

But overall, I knew armor would be a problem. T7-8 is an issue when your biggest guns are s6. Sure, I could get lucky with mass fire but that's a LOT of shooting. Luckily, when the rangers came down on the other side of the board I knew I had pretty much free reign on the flank and only had the Hemlocks, the scat-bikes and the Fire Prisms to deal with. I wasn't sure if the Genestealers were going to make an impact to be honest, but they got in there eventually and are troops - so hooray objective grabbing.

In summary: Hemlocks are scary and need to die. Dark Reapers are scary and also need to die. Roll 6's and you'll be fine. #Planroll6s

Yeah I totally admit I did not play at my best.

I think I have been needing to do a better job of asking myself those 4 questions as well. I've been sitting back too much and letting the game play out around me. There have certainly been times when I was driven in what I wanted to accomplish and goals for each turn and goals for the next turn and all that. Today I did not do those things. Maybe I was tired, I dunno. Either way, I need to get better at that again. Even more so if I'm going to be playing in that tournament.

I did not have loads of bullets to unload on the nids, so I should have been way more careful in where I put the ones I have. However, I just put my units in places they could go and took whatever shots I had available. Towards the end, I started to focus fire on the flyrants and took them out pretty well. Also, unloading on the genestealers first turn worked out for me too.

All in all, I think my big takeaway is lack of focus. Gotta work on that.

- - - Updated - - -

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Originally Posted by AdamHarry

MOOgan-Rah (he got beef)

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Also....
https://i.imgur.com/C1hUhun.jpg

Thanks for replying, both of you.

I agree Hemlocks have the potential to be nasty as hell, but, like everything, you've got to have a plan for them. It's easy for me to sit here and say things, but assuming I had left them in the list, I'd have flown them around together and used them as a team to do whatever. Hard to argue against pumping a double smite and 4 Heavy D-Scythes into something per turn.

Flyrants, Swarmy, Genestealers, broodlords and mawlocs. If I was making a nid list, I reckon I'd always be looking to include most of that, if I could. Those units are all just really good.

Matt, I often think you're going into games at a bit of a disadvantage (which is why I'm usually cheering for you!) for a few of reasons, a) you have your lists sort of sprung on you at the last minute b) you rarely get a chance to play "your" guys, and c) you're playing opponents who have great experience and familiarity with wargaming. I don't know if you ever get a chance to watch the games you play back over again, but I wish I had all my games available like that so I could back-seat-general myself :p Again, it's real easy for me to sit here and critique without the pressure of having to play on-camera, but Adam's list there is what I do as well when I play. What I always do, is remind myself every turn what the objectives/victory conditions are and how I plan to go about achieving them with whatever mooks I have left.

If nothing else, you're getting a bit of a look at what a wide range of armies can dish out and take in return.

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Originally Posted by SALLstice

https://i.imgur.com/C1hUhun.jpg

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF7OnW4XDck

Yeah, I big part of why I like this post-game analysis idea is that it'll really help me realize where things went wrong. I used to do that more often and I think that's when I started getting better. But I've since kinda fallen off that routine.

I am CONTINUALLY amazed by Matt and his ability to absorb so much information in this system. I'm brand new to 40k with 8th edition, learning my first armies (Craftworld Aeldari and Ynnari) and am still slow with the learning. He just plows through every single army and makes it look really easy. It's so fun to watch.

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Originally Posted by Mayhems_Muse

I am CONTINUALLY amazed by Matt and his ability to absorb so much information in this system. I'm brand new to 40k with 8th edition, learning my first armies (Craftworld Aeldari and Ynnari) and am still slow with the learning. He just plows through every single army and makes it look really easy. It's so fun to watch.

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https://media3.giphy.com/media/8xgqLTTgWqHWU/giphy.gif

Speaking of Matt and his ability to be a rule spewing golem of some type. When is the next Popular Mechanics article?

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Originally Posted by Navaren

When is the next Popular Mechanics article?

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My full length board game articles are on mondays. So the general plan is to be on a cycle of Mechanic Discussion, Game Implementation, and Game Design. Then take a 'week off' and do some article about whatever. Like last monday's week off article was on aristeia. So this monday is probably gonna be mechanic discussion on the next mechanic. The idea for taking the week off is to do research and all that, but I totally forgot to do that this week. So there's a nonzero change I might have another week off lol.

But if nothing else, I'm glad you're inquiring. Always nice to hear someone cares <3

Oh no, its a great series. If you are taking another week off and have time for more research I'd love to see a rotation on balancing worker placement mechanics. In your last set I was surprised you didn't delve into Shadows over Camelot since that has what I would consider the most "pure" betrayal mechanic that I have played. Given that on occasion every knight has to do things that negatively effect Camelot you can really stealth kill any endeavour as the traitor.

Thanks, I really appreciate that!

I have a list of mechanics to do at some point and worker placement is definitely on there. I'm considering tackling randomness next, which is why I want a little more time because that's a doozy.

And yeah, I've played Shadows over Camelot a couple of times and really enjoyed it. It is definitely a fun game. I don't know all the intricacies of it super well and felt more comfortable discussing Battlestar Galactica in more detail.
However, in the few games I've played I remember running into the same problem twice, which could just be coincidence. As a team, we had everything super well handled except for the catapults which were a little out of hand but not terrible. Then one player chose to add another catapult and EVERYONE flipped out on him. At that point, we all knew he was the traitor because that made no sense for an ally to do. But as the traitor, it was the best path he had towards victory.

Because Shadows doesn't have a super a lot of hidden information sometimes the betrayer can get stuck in a corner like that and either help all the heroes towards victory or just do a super lame obviously traitory move. Which, granted, can definitely happen in a lot of betrayer games. But again, fun game. Really liked it. And I fully admit I don't know it well enough to give it a fair shake.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SALLstice

Thanks, I really appreciate that!

I have a list of mechanics to do at some point and worker placement is definitely on there. I'm considering tackling randomness next, which is why I want a little more time because that's a doozy.

And yeah, I've played Shadows over Camelot a couple of times and really enjoyed it. It is definitely a fun game. I don't know all the intricacies of it super well and felt more comfortable discussing Battlestar Galactica in more detail.
However, in the few games I've played I remember running into the same problem twice, which could just be coincidence. As a team, we had everything super well handled except for the catapults which were a little out of hand but not terrible. Then one player chose to add another catapult and EVERYONE flipped out on him. At that point, we all knew he was the traitor because that made no sense for an ally to do. But as the traitor, it was the best path he had towards victory.

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Interestingly that's my issue with BSG, if you become a Midgame traitor and the other traitor has already gone rogue (which happened in most of my games) you don't get to play the manipulation game because its almost pointless to not actively support traitor prime.

The one game we had where the second loyalty draw happened prior to a colon reveal the president and the admiral ended up being the Cylons and the game basically ended.

I'd love to see the BOLS crew play SoC or BSG though. Just so chat can try and deduce the traitor from the plays.

Our schedule is pretty full up for the next few weeks but I actually really like the idea of doing a betrayer game and having chat vote on who they think it was.

But yeah, I guess that's just the nature of betrayer games sometimes. Which is kinda what I was trying to go for in the third piece of the betrayer series. Find a happy medium of getting to affect the game without needing to really make it so obvious. Personally, my ideal betrayer game, you'd go the whole game without having any clue who the betrayer was. I guess now that I'm saying it out loud, I realize I don't like the deduction component so much as I like the hidden roles component.

So Lords of Waterdeep is right in your wheelhouse. Worker placement with open and hidden objectives/rolls for each player.

Yeah I definitely like Lords of Waterdeep. There are a lot of games I wanna play on stream but our game collection is sadly limited.

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Originally Posted by SALLstice

...but our game collection is sadly limited.

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Have you seen how many games you guys have? Come to my house - I'll show you a limited game collection! :D

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Originally Posted by Icendar

Have you seen how many games you guys have? Come to my house - I'll show you a limited game collection! :D

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lol I suppose I'm getting a little pampered over here. There's been a bunch of times we've discussed wanting to play a game we just don't have. A lot of our collection we have on set are just my games I brought in and Mary's brought in a bunch too.

No wonder we never get any answers in chat. Look how hard I derailed this thread.

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Originally Posted by Navaren

No wonder we never get any answers in chat. Look how hard I derailed this thread.

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LOL, true... but both Matt and Adam said their piece about the game in the first few posts and Moogan Ra is now a thing (afaik, you say the 'au' like in 'trauma', but whatevs). So what if everyone gets a little sidetracked after all that? :D