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Hi,
well, we tried V7.0 last sunday (thanks for making it available on the web, Jaldon).
Here is the army I was fielding :
Synapse formations:
2 Harridans
1 Greater Synapse Node
1 hive Tyrant
3 Warriors
1 Tyrant+3 Warriors
(for a total of 1025 pts, so exceeding the synapse limit)
Independents (3 warms):
8 genestealers
5 Lictors
1 Hierophant
Uncommon Broods:
6 Biovores
4 Zoanthropes
8 Carnifexes
4 Spores
Common
7 Gargoyles
7 Horm.
some 25 Gaunts.
First, let me add I used all the common broods I own, so there was no way I could field more gargoyles or hormies. Same thing for the Carnifexes.
Likewise, no ravener since I have nothing to model them.
I was facing the IG:
1 mech comp with hydra, 1 inf company with hvy weapons and orgyns, 1 LR company, 1 shadowsword, 3 basilisc, 4 valkyries+stormtroopers, 1 assault formation of knights (the ones on horses I mean) a Warhound and 2 maraudeur bombers
We played GT, and it was an Ig victory on turn three (Break their spirit, and they where holding two objectives on my side, while I had nothing uncontested).
We tried v7.0 rules with just one change :
The greater synapse node was DC3, no teleport.
Here are the highlights of the battle:
I garrisonned with the GSL, and a swarm of carnifexes gaunts and biovores next to my blitz, to protect it. It was in a ruined city section, and I thought it was prettry safe. Then on turn two the shadowsword shot (just below 10 cm of ruins), stroke for 1 DC then critical... Crap. There goes my reserve and this left my blitz objective naked... Before that, the GSL managed to send forward its swarm, so in turn three it could participate to an assault. But well...
I like this beast. At 75 pts, DC3 and garrison, I will field it again. DC2 and teleport wont make it into our game group.
The genestealers were nearby, ready to engage the garrisonned IG located just across the street. On loosing the initative on first turn, the leman russ fired on the genestealers, and despite their cover, lost 5 of the 8 stands. For the rest of the battle, the stealers (further reduced to one stand) will just linger, holding then contesting my blitz objective.
Apparently, there is no way I can use the genestealers to serve as anything else than shooting practice for my opponents...
The hierophant managed to fail his activation roll on turn one and two. On turn one, I left it on the deploy zone, since he was protected by a hill from the shadowsword and the warhound. On turn two, desperate to get him do something, I marched it out of cover. It was that or accept he would do nothing for the entire battle. On turn three, I managed to double with it, and try for the first time the flame template on the valkyries, and assembled mech infantry killing 1 inf (out of some 20 rolls!). The hierophant later contested my opponed blitz, and lend some support to the one big assault.
I felt the beast was nice, but still unsure if it is due to the mini (wonderfull) or the stats (in CC, it will have 6 attacds and 2 TK atacks, right?) I will use it again, in the hopes of having better luck.
On the harridans :
First time I used them. They were surrounded by a swarm of gargoyles, and were supposed to cover my right flank (where laid my blitz and the two objectives I had placed) against the inf company and the leman russes (I was hoping all those MW would be helpfull).
Well, on turn one, the went double forward, landed on a ruin for cover (one of them lost a DC heck!), shot at the LR with the biocannons and placed one BM. Then the shadoword shot one of the harridan down (the one with only 1 DC left).
On the second turn, on gaining the initative, the surviving harridant and the 7 gargoyles took to the air, planning to move and flame the LR and inf company that where closely packed, then somehow the beast got his wings caught in some wire cable in the ruins and it came crashing down (moving out of dangerous terrain, roll 1, then 6 critical! crapcrapcrap).
I was really proud of not letting a single swear word espace my mouth then. But boy did I quench my teeth...
I will try them again next time. I felt it was a good thing to have them both in one swarm, but I would like to have your comments on that.
On the lictors :
Well, I have the same experience here than with the genestealers (they apprear, and they are shot to pieces)so I decided to field a large swarm of them. I kept them until turn three. At this moment, I had two choices: appear on the left flack, and reinforce a big big swarm for the mother of all the assault that was to come ( all the broods, all the survining synapses and the hierophat) to fight for my enemy's bitz and 2 and 3rd objective, OR deploy on my right, cover my blitz and 3 objective against the Leman Russ and infantry. I opted for the second, hoping that the assault was strong enough to win without their help, and I would then deny my ennemy the victory points on this side.
Well, the lictors deployed under cover, protecting the two objectives thanks to their scout ability and menacing the Leman russ. But on losing the initative, the LR destroy three of the lictors and with them the ability of the swarm to hurt anything.
At the end of turn 3, after the LR then the Marauders then the Warhound shot at them, the surviving lictor will still contest the objectives (thanks to the inv. save...). I still don't know If I used them well or not...
Then the swarm :
They advanced (deploy) for turn 1 and two. Crossing the field, tyring as much as possible to stay under cover. I had two smaller swarms (the one with one tyrand and the one with three warriors) that I was planning on using as bait, shielding the larger one (with three warriors and 1 tyrant). Not surprisingly, the shield were blown to bit by the end of turn two. So at the beginig of turn 3, I had 1 huge swarm at assault range of the ennemy. using the commander ability, I sent the two synapse swarms forward. All the hormagaunts made it to contact, all the gargoyles made it to assault range, some 10 gaunts did it also.
No carnifex got to CC, and only 4 of them made it into assault range (those things are sloooooow).
I had engaged 4 formations that were packed together (since I have no artillery) : the valkyries, the mech company, the basilisc and the shadowsword.
Needless to say, the assault was a bloody affair : 11 broods died on my side, 9 units on his side (I almost got the shadowsword).
The 4 commisars made the day of the IG, since when the dust settled, I lost the assault by two points. I went back, but was licking my feeding tendrils in anticipation of turn 4 : he was still close, i had the hierophant some 2 cm from his units, and the next assault would spell his doom... I felt despite the first two turns being blown to bits, losing my harridans on the most stupid possible way, losing the Greater Synapse Node to a sniper and the hierophant being so blantantly obtuse, I could still have the upper hand.
Till I realised I was no longer holding the two objectives he had placed on my table end. His valkyries just moved, and took control of them. This, together with the Break their spirit (3 tyrnaid warriors, and 2 DC2 harridans and one DC3 GSN), gave them 2 Victory points, and he was contesting all my objectives.. ...
My last comment, on the spawning:
Well, frankly, as it is in v7, it is way tooo much. Despite being blown to bits for two turns, at the begining of each turn, I was back at full brood strenght). I only used 2 of the 4 mycetic spores, and I had not spawned with all the sward that could do it. Next time, with same rules, I will not take mycetic spores.
Definitly must be reduced, as it is now, the enemy is better off not shooting broods, at least he knows where they are (they did that a couple of times: hold your fire, they will come again on this other swarm...). Granted I had not the big guys like hierodules or that.
And yet, I still miss the ability to spawn upon order.
Both should be available.
Some possible hints :
1 - Rally phase: you need a rally test to be able to spawn, just like all formations need a rally test to remove blast markers. If the ennemy is close, the rally test will be harder.
2 - Randomness: remove the fixed +2 or +4 to the synapse creatures (replace them by something like +1D3 or +1D6 if your really want it).
3 - Spawning the big ones: I understand that if you want to spawn the expesive stuff like hierodules, you need a lot of points.. But then that is what the mycetic spores are here to do. Reduce the baseline ability, and allow an increased use of mycetic spores would be my take...
4 - Marshalling: allow spawning with marshall order (maybe limited to 2D6 and keep the best, plus eventual mycetic spores?). This will also save the problem of the naked lesser synapse node on the whole turn it pops up...
Those where my comments.
i had trouble keeping a steady face for the first two turns, where they kept pounding the swarms and slowly destryong my synapse creatures...And a pity I could not play turn 4. I must improve (and bring some RT next time!)
Comments welcome
Ah, yes, lessons learned : keep the biovores packed together!
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Cobalt
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