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 - - -

Quote:

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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.

Quote:

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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.

Quote:

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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?

Quote:

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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