So I've finished my first game using the list against Necrons. I'm afraid due to playing online, it being my first 3000 point game, it being late and actually just having a lot of fun it's not really in a solid playtesting battle report format but I'm going to summarise by way of a narrative. It may not be 100%, activation accurate, but it certainly captures the flavour of how the game played out.
Tyranid list
NEXUS SWARM [390]
Dominatrix, 1 Termagant, 1 Hormagaunt
TYRANID SWARM [325]
Hive Tyrant, 5 Termagants, 1 Hormagaunt, 2 Exocrine, 1 Zoanthrope
TYRANID SWARM [325]
Hive Tyrant, 5 Termagants, 1 Hormagaunt, 2 Exocrine, 1 Zoanthrope
TYRANID SWARM [420]
Hive Tyrant, 1 Termagants, 6 Hormagaunts, 3 Carnifex, 2 Zoanthropes
TYRANID SWARM [250]
2 Tyranid Warriors, 1 Termagant, 5 Hormagaunts, 2 Zoanthropes
GENESTEALER SWARM [200]
6 Genestealers, Broodlord
GENESTEALER SWARM [150]
6 Genestealers
BOIVORE SWARM [225]
8 Biovores
TRYGON SWARM [365]
4 Raveners
HIERODULE [350]
Necron List
Strategy RAting 2; Initiative 1+; 3000 POINTS
Necrons (NetEA Tournament Pack 2013)
==================================================
AEONIC ORB [750]
INFANTRY PHALANX [375]
Necron Lord, 6 Warriors, 3 Wraiths
INFANTRY PHALANX [275]
Necron Lord, 6 Warriors, 1 Wraith
INFANTRY PHALANX [225]
Necron Lord, 6 Warriors
MONOLITH PHALANX [275]
3 Monoliths
MONOLITH PHALANX [275]
3 Monoliths
MONOLITH PHALANX [275]
3 Monoliths
EQUES MANIPLE [350]
6 Destroyers
VENATOR MANIPLE [200]
6 Flayed Ones
The Tyranids set up refusing the right flank, facing a lone Necron Aenoic Orb at the start of the battle.
2 formations of Necron monoliths teleported in on the right flank, one of which took two blast markers for it's trouble. For what it's worth this is the first time I can remember any of Rastamann's forces across several army lists ever taking BMs from teleporting, so I didn't feel too bad!!
The shaken formation marshalled and moved into position behind a hill on the right flank, threatening a formation of stealers with a broodlord.
The Aeonic Orb focussed it's Solar Flare on the Dominatrix and missed. This was the first and only time it would fire in this mode for the rest of the game. With so many gribblies bearing down, the reliabilty of massed barrage was to be the preferred choice in the following turns.
A formation of Biovores took up position in some ruins just outside of the Tyranid deployment zone whilst a small termagant based swarm containing exocrines moved into supporting fire position and pulling the stealers out of there. In retrospect it would have been better just to move the stealers as the swarm was immediately broken by a Necron Destroyer formation engaging through the first group of Monoliths.
In a second badly calculated move, a second Tyranid swarm engaged a Necron Phalanx that arrived on top of the hill on the right flank, only to be crushed by mass supporting fire from both Monoliths and Necron Destroyers. A second Necron Phalanx moved into position at the foot of the hill.
The remaining Necron forces opted to remain in reserve and see how the battle developed before commiting themselves leaving the Tyranids to re-deploy further towards the right hand side of the table. The Tyranid BTS and a second formation of Stealers marched towards and mid table objective and the Necron Blitz which were guarded by the Aeonic Orb.
All but one Tyranid formations rallied and swarming saw the BTS edge slightly further forward and into potential engagement range of the Aeonic orb, whilst other formations respawned most of the casualities sustained in turn one.
Turn two saw and thrid formation of Monoliths teleport in to the support the mid table. A Trygon swarm, expecting an offensive against the Tyranid blitz, surfaced in front of it towards mid table.
The Aeonic Orb put down some hurt on the Tyranid BTS, many casualties but only 3 BMs due to the expendability of the Tyranid forces.
Biovores laid down a withering amount of fire on the newly arrive Monoliths, breaking them whilst the Stealers doubled up to surround them defend against any arrivals from the portals. This effectively left the Necrons with one choice... The Destroyers redployed from their position on the right flank to engage the Genestealers who were wiped out. This was quickly followed by attack on the Tyranid BTS by a fresh Necron Phalanx, supported by the victorious Necron Destroyers. They broke and fled to the safety of some nearby woods.
Meanwhile, on the right flank a Necron Phalanx was seen off by a Hive Tyrant led combined engagement which saw the Hierodule moving in on a Necron Phalanx which subsequently withdrew to the relative safety of the Abyss by way of the nearby Monoliths. Sensing a point of weakness, the Broodlord led Genestealers engaged a second Phalanx hoping to wipe them out before supporting fire would arrive. They were wrong, the dice gods were against them and they died horribly to a rain of supporting fire from both Monolith formations. In what proved to be a decisive move the last Necron Phalanx redeployed to mid table.
Whilst the Dominatrix and the Trygon swarm marched up the table into engagement range of the overcrowded Necron forces a unit of Flayed Ones engaged the lone Tyranid Hierodule on the right flank, who were subsequently wiped out.
At the end of turn two the Tyranids were pushing hard for the mid table with four formations bearing down, the right flank was looking fairly weak but had seen off enough of the Necron forces to stand a chance of holding. A truly epic engagement was set for the top of turn three which would probably decide the direction of the rest of the game.
Turn three saw the Necrons win initiative and the Aeonic Orb once more lay down a withering barrage across three formations, breaking the BTS and hampering the inevitable engagement that was to follow. Unperturbed the Domintrix lead a combined engagement with the Trygon Swarm pulling in all four intermingled Necron formations, leaving only the Aeonic Orb at no risk. Infiltrating Raveners and Hormagaunts ensured some Tyranids reached base to base with some non-skimming necrons whilst the Trygons and Dominatrix moved in to lend some firefight support but more importantly to block some Necron attacks. After two rounds of combat the Necrons just managed to edge a victory but enough damage had been dealt to break or destroy all four Necron formations. It was an almost archetypal example of winning the battle but losing the war and a truly epic confrontation in all senses.
Before:
After:
This left the Tyranids with an activation advantage which would finally see them come out victorious. The last few activations of turn three saw one Tyranid swarm that had failed to rally for two turns be wiped out at the hands of a Monolith formation which suffered a casualty in return and the Hierodule broke in an engagement with the Monolith formation. The Tyranid Blitz was guarded by a reduced strength Tyranid swarm and the Biovores whilst an untouched Tyranid swarm, swelled by a couple of turns of unrestricted swarming held the left flank and threatened to claim two objectives.
Two Necron Phalanxes failed to rally whilst all Tyranid formations rallied thanks to the Supreme Commander re-roll.
Turn four and it was all or nothing for the Necrons. The previously broken Monoliths redeployed close to where they had left the battlefield to threaten the advance of the untouched Tyranid swarm on the left. Once again winning intiative the Necrons opened with a barrage from the Aeonic Orb, prepping the large swarm. This was followed by an engagment out of the Monoliths. It was close but massed Tyranid numbers, combined with shaken Necron Forces were enough to see the Tyranids come out on top, breaking another Necron Phalanx and the Monoliths who were yet to act.
The Hieroudle engaged the Monolith formation holding the Tyranid objective on the right, hoping to win and reclaim it. Despite winning, he was broken in the process.
The final Necron Phalanx engaged the Biovores, prepped by the supporting Monolith formation. After another two round combat the Necron's again emerged victorious but they were now out of activations leaving the Tyranids to manouvre into a winning position.
Tyranid victory 2-0 Blitz and They Shall Not Pass, or Take and Hold...
This was a really enjoyable game. Rastamann is becoming a regular opponent and our games are always fun. We nearly always end up with some kind of epic climax to our games which make them really enjoyable. There is just the right combination of skill, competition and blundering errors as far as I am concerned. I'm not sure either of us are in much of a position to offer highly competitive list balancing feedback or are actually particularly inclined to do so but my general feedback follows.
As an army I would say that the Tyranids have the potential to be a very scary list. At many points in the game I was painfully aware that I was against a skimmer heavy list and it really hurt not being able to use CC value in engagements. Despite this, sheer weight of numbers and picking my battles seemed to be enough. Rastamann would be the first to admit he is still getting to grips with the Necron list, and mistakes were definitely made on both sides. I certainly threw away at least one swarm and the broodlord enhanced stealers, but the second formation of stealers were almost pivotal in deciding the outcome. Forcing the destroyers to engage them in order for a second formation to engage the BTS behind them caused a bottleneck in the Necron deployment which ultimately led to the critical turn three engagement. Looking at the stats for the Pariahs, I am amazed that the Hierodule beat them down - perhaps we played something wrong, or perhaps the dice went with me, I honestly don't remember. [EDIT - because they were in fact Flayed Ones!! Perhaps a slightly chancey move by Rastamann there!!] I also think I would have found the Abbatoir more scary than the Aeonic Orb. Despite the fearsome barrage potential I almost felt I could ignore it for most of the game and just accept that I would be pounded each turn.
Exocrine support misfired this game and actually caused more problems than it was worth, slowing down the swarm due to the decreased movement value and doing little else. I would say this balances any benefit of taking them in a core swarm. Swarming is great, after taking heavy losses in turn one it was very good to see many of them come back, spread throughout the army. I'm not sure how the army would perform if your opponent seriously went after the synapse creatures, I suspect things would start to fall apart pretty quickly - as it should I guess... Anecdotally, in previous games using this list Rastmann has felt that it's almost possible to win without actually engaging much, perhaps due to the swarming mechanic. This is an approach I'm going to stress test in our next game next week.
Winners in this game were the Biovores, once in position they posed a serious threat that wasn't present from any other Tyranid formation. The Carnifex/Hive Tyrant combination is fearsome especially as a BTS and the Genestealers, just as a fast scouting formation, really turned the game. Raveners also deserve a mention, being two atatck infiltrators helped me make the most of the little close combat I could force in this game and the Trygons were invaluable as meat shields and late objective grabbers if nothing else.
Next time I plan to use one formation of eight Genestealers with a broodlord to try and ensure that they wipe out any opponent and thus avoid supporting fire. I'm also going to try to maximise the swarming potential of all swarms with additional Tyranid warriors in an attempt to guarantee at least two extra units a turn. I'm also going to try an independent swarm of exocrines, upgrading the core swarms with Haruspex to provide some assault prepping/overwatch options and more carnifex all round because they are ace!! I should really try out Lictors as well...
Wow, that was long! I hope it at least contributes something towards getting this list approved, I actually suspect it's pretty much there. It has it's idiosyncrasies yes, you could argue that Tyranids shouldn't particularly swarm for example, I don't think that has to be a massive deal and given that that decision has been made the list is definitely fun to play.