Ok, so I ran a semi harridan spam list against an Rastamann's armoured Steel Legion list which we finished up last night:
Hive Fleet Harridan, 2990 POINTS Hive Fleet Onachus Tyranids ==================================================
NEXUS SWARM [390] 1 Dominatrix, Termagants, Hormagants
TYRANID SWARM (S) [250] 6 Termagants, Tyranid Warriors, Hive Tyrant
TYRANID SWARM (S) [250] 6 Termagants, Hive Tyrant, Tyranid Warriors
TYRANID SWARM (S) [250] 6 Termagants, Hive Tyrant, Tyranid Warriors
TYRANID SWARM (S) [250] Two Tyranid Warriors, 6 Termagants, Tyranid Warriors
TYRANID SWARM (S) [200] Two Tyranid Warriors, 6 Termagants
TYRANID SWARM (S) [200] Two Tyranid Warriors, 6 Termagants
HARRIDAN SWARM (S) [150] 1 Harridan
HARRIDAN SWARM (S) [150] 1 Harridan
HARRIDAN SWARM (S) [150] 1 Harridan
HARRIDAN SWARM (S) [150] 1 Harridan
BIOVORE SWARM (S) [200] 7 Biovore
BIOVORE SWARM (S) [200] 7 Biovore
BIOVORE SWARM (S) [200] 7 Biovore
3000 POINTS - Steel Legion ==================================================
SUPER-HEAVY TANK COMPANY [500] 2 Baneblade, 1 Shadowsword
SUPER-HEAVY TANK COMPANY [500] 2 Shadowsword, 1 Baneblade
FLAK BATTERY [150] 3 Hydra
ARTILLERY BATTERY [250] 3 Manticore
ARTILLERY BATTERY [250] 3 Manticore
SENTINEL SQUADRON [100] 4 Sentinels
REGIMENTAL HQ [550] Supreme Commander, 12 Infantry, 7 Chimera, Hydra
TANK COMPANY [700] 9 Leman Russ, Hydra, Vanquisher
In the end it was a convincing win for the Tyranids 3-0 T+H, TSNP and DFT with the Blitz and BTS coming next turn fairly easily.
As you can see from the list I sacrificed some of the spam by adding Tyranid Warriors to lots of the formations to ensure 2 spawned units in most turns and added Hive Tyrants to half of the swarns to enable combined assaults where possible. The activation advantage allowed me to keep the Dominatrix out of LOS of the shadowswords until they were no longer a threat. The Harridans were pretty strong, attracting the majority of fire in the first turn if nothing else. Second turn saw the nids take out the weaker of the two SHT companies (2 Baneblades and no commissar) and another swarm bounce of the Tank Company but was basically the set up to turn three which saw pretty much a decimation of the Guard forces.
Biovores broke one of the Manticores, then a combined assault on the Mech. Company broke that and the sentinels that were close by. This meant their first activation of the turn saw them with four broken formations. Then biovores placed a bunch of BMs on the remaining SHT company which was then engaged by a Harridan which broke them. This was slightly fortunate but no the other hand it's hard to resist putting 150 points up against 500 with only a -1 advantage. The remaining activation advantage then saw the Tank company break simply through weight of fire. Biovores, a Harridan and the Dominatrix only managed to kill one but that did put about 6 BMs on them which was enough.
End of turn three they also failed to rally so they probably would have been finished off if it went to turn 4.
I'd have to say that Harridans are quite strong but I haven't tried them enough to say they're game breaking yet. I lost two of them in turn one but that took quite a lot of firepower and I already had an activation advantage of 6, for that alone I would certainly take them again. Increasing spawning to an almost guaranteed 2 per turn is also very strong - I think I must have spawned maybe 12 gants at the end of turn 2 which must be disheartening to see. And also Biovores - I really like them, they're cheap and have the potential to dump BMs on lots of targets, knocking out one of the formations of manticores was really useful, as was making the engagement on the SHT company viable and they certainly caused the Tank company to break, not bad for 400 points. Although BMs could have been laid on the SHT company by anything that could fire, it was good to be able to do it with a formation that could *only* fire and basically make it a "free" move in terms of opportunity cost.
Needless to say we're going to run it again in a few weeks, Rastmann felt he focussed too much on the Harridans in the first turn and should have spent more energy on the swarms. You really need to take out the synapse units which either means sniper units, good angles of attack or shooting them until they're dead! If you don't they very often just get back up again and carry on as though nothing happened. Corner deployment would have changed things as well, I'm sure this will happen next time around...
[Edit] Just noticed that I didn't play the Dominatrix as an upgrade, I reckon that would have made the Nexus Swarms 35 points more expensive with the addition of 4 gants. Considering I had 10 points left over this would probably have cost me maybe 1 Biovore? You can make of that what you will...
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