Had a friend over to play some Epic, and I told him I'd be fielding an army I'd never used before... and he was shocked there was such a thing!

Then I sprung a 4000 point French-style Tyranid army on him!  Was a lot of fun.

More to come, gotta prepare for a dinner party.

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Rules Used

Epic Update 2008
NetEA Recommendations
F-ERC Tyranids, updated Jan 15, 2009

Armies Used

Canadian Armoured Regiment – 4000 points

Mechanized HQ Company
1 Supreme Commander
1 Commissar
12 Imperial Guardsmen
7 Chimeras
1 Hydra

Tank Company 1 - BTS Goal
1 Leman Russ Vanquisher
1 Commissar
9 Leman Russ
3 Hellhounds
1 Hydra

Tank Company 2
1 Leman Russ Vanquisher
1 Commissar
9 Leman Russ
1 Hydra

Superheavy Tank Company
1 Shadowsword
1 Commissar
2 Baneblades

Storm Trooper Platoon
8 Storm Troopers
4 Valkyries

Marauder Bombers
2 Marauders

Thunderbolt Squadron
2 Thunderbolt Fighters

Reaver Titan


Hive Fleet  Effrayant Monstre – 4000 points

Mieotic Spore Chimney

Bio-Titans

1 Hierophant

1 Harridan

Swarms

Proliferation Gaunt Swarm 1
4 Tyranid Warriors
8 Termagants
8 Hormagaunts
3 Biovores
2 Zoanthropes

Proliferation Gaunt Swarm 2 - BTS Goal
3 Tyranid Warriors
1 Apha Hive Tyrant
8 Termagants
8 Hormagaunts
4 Zoanthropes

Proliferation Carnifex Swarm
6 Carnifex
2 Hive Tyrants

Proliferation Bio-Arty Swarm
4 Dacylis
2 Exocrine
1 Tyranid Warriors
1 Hive Tyrant

Proliferation Lictor Swarm 1
6 Lictors

Proliferation Lictor Swarm 2
6 Lictors

Proliferation Burrowing Swarm 1
1 Trygon
3 Ravners

Proliferation Burrowing Swarm 2
6 Raveners

Proliferation Gargoyle Swarm
12 Gargoyles

Proliferation Bio-Tank Swarm
2 Tyranid Warriors
3 Haruspex
3 Malefactor

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Battlefield:

4x6; Steel Legion chose edge deployment

Deployment:

Tyranids kept both Lictor Swarms in reserve for teleports and both Burrowing Swarms in reserve… for burrowing!

Steel Legion placed no garrisons.

Tyranids garrisoned both Gaunt Swarms on overwatch and in cover and also garrisoned the Carnifex Swarm.

Remaining deployment as shown, the the Tyranid Warriors of the Bio-Tank Swarm starting inside their transports:

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Turn 1

Note – at the beginning of the turn I realized the Harridan was actually a “flyerâ€Â

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Turn 2

No teleports.

Strategy Roll: Tyranids… on a tie!

The Carnifex Swarm rumbles forward to engage, and hopefully clear out, the Storm Troopers.  My opponent makes a lot of 5+ saves and only loses 3 Storm Troopers and manages to take out 2 Carnifex *AND* win the fight!



Burrowing Swarm 2 then bursts out of the ground to engage the intermingled Storm Troopers and Tank Company 1.  Despite suffering *eighteen* attacks, more saves are made for the Imperials as only 1 Valkyrie, 1 Storm Trooper, and 1 Hydra are taken out while all the Raveners are eliminated!  Tank Company 1 has taken enough punishment and withdraws despite the low level of casualties they’ve taken.



Tank Company 2 double down the road to fire on Gaunt Swarm 2 killing 3 Termagants, 1 Zoanthrope and 1 Tyranid Warrior, breaking the swarm as well.

The Super-heavy Company continues its slow advance to fire on the Hierophant… doing a single DC of damage with the Volcano Cannon.

The Bio-Artillery Swarm tosses Bile Pods quite high, just able to catch the broken Tank Company 1, causing a shocking *eight* Leman Russ to be abandoned.

The Bio-Tank Swarm then engages Tank Company 2, scoring nine regular hits and four Macro-Weapon hits!  The Bugs lose 3 Haruspex, but only a single Leman Russ survives to back away from the vile xenos.  The Tyranid Warriors get back into their cosy rides.



The Reaver advances on the Hierophant, does 2DC damage and a critical hit that removes synapse and regeneration from the Bio-Titan.

The Marauders return to the field of battle to ground attack Gaunt Swarm 2.  The Spore Chimney takes out 1 Marauder, but the Imperial Aircraft get their revenge as they take out 1 Termgant, 2 Hormagaunts, *AND* the Alpha Hive Tyrant!

Shaken by the sudden loss of the Hive Mind, the Hierophant breaks instead of regrouping, and moves to cover.

The surviving Storm Troopers double to attack Gaunt Swarm 2, killing 1 of each type of Gaunt.

The Gargoyles then surge forward to engage the Storm Troopers who counter-charge into Gaunt Swarm 2!  Two Gargoyles are knocked from the sky and 1 Termagant is gunned down before the surviving Commissar is forced to fall back.



The Mech HQ doubles up to fire on Gaunt Swarm 2, eliminating it, and achieving the Break Their Spirit goal.

The Harridan finally makes an appearance, coming down to attack the survivors of Tank Company 1.  The Thunderbolts intercept, doing 1DC damage to the flapping beast before it wipes out the Imperial armour, securing Break Their Spirit for the Tyranids as well.

Burrowing Swarm 1 then shows itself, engaging the Reaver Titan with the support of the Bio-Tanks.  The ravening Bugs strip 3 Void shields, do 2DC damage, and score a critical hit… before they are all wiped out…



End of Turn:

Tank Company 2 and the Storm Troopers fail to rally, while the Reaver successfully repairs its reactor.

The Carnifex Swarm and the Hierophant fail to rally for the Tyranids.

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Turn 3

Both Lictor Swarms show up… and *both* suffer a Blast marker on arrival!



Strategy Roll: Steel Legion, by “1â€Â

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Cool report! So... where are you detailed thoughts on the French list??  

Had another 5k 9.1 game myself today, about to input report.

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I hope to post my thoughts about it today.

And thanks for your other report!

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I must say, I was pleasantly surprised with the "French version" Tyranids!  I'm gonna list some pros and cons about it and hope my opponent chimes in as well.

Pros:

- First off, it *felt* like Tyranids... I was worried that they'd just be "Orks Redux", but they didn't feel Orky at all... it was a swarm sweeping (almost) unstoppably forward, not a horde of Boyz on the rampage.

- It's much faster to use: in putting together an army list, deploying it, and using it in play.  A *lot* less dice rolling (not having to constantly roll walker tests was a relief!), no need to check Synapse ranges and such, and "fixed" swarms makes for easy setup without having to pick and choose which Brood goes into which Swarm.

- Not taking Blast markers for coming under fire is *fantastic*!  No more "token" Blast markers slowing the swarms down as Tyranids don't care if you just take potshots at them, you've actually got to do damage to them to get them to notice your efforts.  This may be one of my favourite changes and I didn't miss "Expendable" at all.

- I didn't miss spawning... not one bit.  Spawning has become such a small boost that, in the thick of things, it has little effect.  The Swarms were large enough to begin with not to need it.  And, it's less rolling.  *laugh*

- I *love* Zoanthropes as Synapse creatures with leader, gives them a purpose, maintaining the cohesion of the Swarm, with some shootiness thrown in as well.

Cons:

- Having LV Synapse creatures makes them *really* easy to "snipe" out of Swarms... I really don't think Tyranid Warriors should be LVs... but, if they are, why aren't Lictors and Raveners LVs as they're the same sized "chassis"?

- Raveners with *three* attacks each are insane... which leads to...

- The "French" Tunneling rule is far too easy to abuse: you can drop your Burrowing Swarms almost where ever you like... the Turn 2 limitation has little effect as the enemy will, most likely, be near the centre-line anyway.  I *highly* recommend using the Tunneling special rule in the E:A Rulebook so that the Tyranid player actually has to plan where things are coming up.

- Without a "Deathwind" attack, I don't see a lot of point in using Mycetic Spores at all: you need to activate your space ship first, and that's not guaranteed to even show up (Spaceships don't have Synapse, nor are they classed as  Independent, so that's activating on a 3+... I believe this is probably an oversight), dropping fairly small swarms that you're only going to be able to activate one of before the enemy counter-attacks.  I guess I'd just rather have those Swarms on the board.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable and thought-provoking experience.

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Great battle !!

Not the best for the tyranids, tanks like armies with all those AC shoots are the nemesis of the tyranid list.
Thanks again for your interest ! We have the same for your fantastic work (just sometimes a different point of view, but the same motivation : a pleasant gameplay)

Very good report anyway. Thank you for chroma test this list and especially for returns facts. We made a party Sunday and we are reaching the same conclusions as you.
The licor VL is indeed, the ship is indeed independent too. Tunnelier must be replaced by the rule book Rule (testing and approval).
We also find other error to be corrected before February.

Thank you
zed

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Oh, fine. I guess I'll chime in as requested!  

The list really felt like I was being swarmed by Tyranid, without varying a great deal from the basic rules. I'm not as up on all the Epic rules as I could be, but the regular Tyranid list always strikes me as having a lot of special rules to learn. The "French List" seems to use a few minor special rules to get the right feel.. for the most part.

My only concerns with the list were much the same as Chroma's - Raveners seemed to have too many attacks. That combined with the new, crazy Tunneling rules was a little too much for my tastes.