Hi Guys,
Over the weekend our epic group held a small tournament in Reading. Six armies were present, Nids, Tau, AMTL, Black Legion, Imperial Guard and Marines. Using my bugs for the first time I got to fight the Black Legion followed by IG then finally the Marines. All the armies were 2700 points and we could make no changes to our forces between battles. Full tourney rules applied.
I have only ever used Eldar before in both 40K and epic so this weekend so would be a huge departure in fighting style for me. I decided that my initial deployment would be the same for each battle, my force lines up as follows;
Hive Tyrant 1
5 Termagaunts
1 Harupsex (A)
1 Biovore
1 Zoanthrope
2 Exocrine (B)
Hive Tyrant 2
5 Termagaunts
2 Haruspex (A & B)
1 Zoanthrope
3 Carnifex (A)
Tyranid Warrior Group 1
13 Termagaunts
8 Hormogaunts
Tyranid Warrior Group 1
13 Termagaunts
8 Hormogaunts
1 Harridan
7 Gargoyles
1 Lesser Synapse Node
1 Greater Synapse Node
1 Hierophant
3 Lictors
2 Mycetic Spores
I chose this army to give me a good mix of bugs, plus this was pretty much all I had painted and I hate fielding unpainted troops (Eldar vanity I know!). I also don?t use proxies if I can help it, which is why there are no raveners.
I can?t give full batreps as we took no notes but I will give a brief summary of each. The other thing to mention is that we goofed (or rather I goofed) by forgetting that the swarms need to activate to spawn. We all agree that the outcomes of the battle could have been massively different if a few key spawns had been failed. As it was all the units spawned automatically and I basically brought everything back each turn. Fun for me, not so good for game balance! Anyway, with that in mind I thought I would still share my experiences of using bugs for the first time.
My first encounter saw me face off against my mate Dave?s Black Legion force. Last time I fought against this army I narrowly beat them using my Biel-Tan force. This time the Black Legion looked much meaner I have to say ? all painted up in black and bronze. Those Helltalons are pick of the bunch. We both speculated as to the impact of the aircraft ? would it be a huge advantage for him? The Black Legion army looked like this:
1 Death Wheel
1 Feral Titan
1 Helltalon Squadron
1xChosen Marines with Demon Prince
2x Chaos Marine Retinue
2x Chaos Marine Scout Retinues
plus a daemon pool (nurgle)
This battle promised much but was unfortunately was a one sided one. I marched everything on turn one to apply pressure to his smaller force. I basically rushed him and tried to corner him. The shock of the bugs appeared too much for my slightly hung-over opponent and he was soon back-pedalling.
The Black Legion fight back was led by the two mighty chaos war engines but my Hierophant proved too much even for them. His Feral titan was overwhelmed in close combat and ran away before the giant bug chased off his wheel of misfortune.
It was a huge help that Black Legion airways appeared to be on strike that day (failing 2 out of 3 activations). By the end of turn 3 he had dropped back to ensure I could not claim his baseline objective but he had nothing left in the tank and lost 3-0 (TSNP, DTF, BTS).
The second battle was against my best man, Adrian and his Imperial Guard army. He fielded the following force:
Regimental HQ inc Hydra (SC)
Steel Legion Infantry Company inc 2 Ogryn
Steel Legion Tank Company + Hydra
1 Shadowsword
1 Baneblade
Rough Rider Platoon
Sentinel Squadron
Steel Legion Artillery Battery (3 Basilisks)
Steel Legion Artillery Battery (3 Manticores)
This battle was far bloodier than the first with the bugs taking some serious casualties under some ferocious firepower. The highlight of the game was a suicidal charge from the rough riders smack into the heart of my front line! The frenzied assault halted my advance and actually threw me back (temporarily) ?a single mounted commissar survives to fight another day.
Other highlights were the breaking of the Russ company at the claws of my Hierophant! The big fella did however fall in this battle after taking a mighty hit from the Shadowsword followed by shots from the HQ. By the end of turn 3 I had managed to push the guard back towards their rear right hand corner and won 2-0 (TSKP and DTF). I was only one Russ away from BTS and would easily have secured Blitzkrieg if the battle had gone another turn.
My IG opponent, despite losing, commented that although terrifying to face, he had began to see how the bugs should be fought and how they could be beaten. We headed to the pub not long after this battle and the conversation frequently returned to the bugs.
The next morning saw me take to the field against the might of the my mate Ali?s Ice Warriors Space Marine Chapter. This regular marine army has never been beaten in our group but despite their immaculate record, their commander looked a little uncomfortable as I deployed my 80 plus stands.
With battle joined it soon became clear that this was going to be a very different battle for me. Guilty of sticking to ?bug plan A?, I marched across the field on turns 1 (and 2 for some swarms) but my bugs soon found 2 formations of speeders and a warhound behind them!
Ali used his small mobile formations to good effect to rapidly redeploy and for the first time I was having to ?react? rather than ?act?. Despite all this it still looked as though I was going to scrape a victory on turn 3 ?but wait!
With my final move I confidently marched one of my common swarms up to claim his baseline objective and came up just 2cm short with my closest synapse creature!!! This gave him a 2-1 win rather than me achieving a 3-2 win! Those damned Ice Warriors are still undefeated!
Key moments were one of his Warhounds bringing down my Harridan and his speeders scoring a critical on my Greater Synapse Node, which was contesting my baseline objective.
I know that I am very new to the army and that we made a mess of the spawning, I will list our thoughts in the hope that they are of some use:
1. The Nid BTS goal appears to be very, very hard to achieve and my opponents were of the opinion that for synapse war engines, their DC should probably count towards the goal rather than just the number of units. As the nid player I would not have had an issue if this was the case. Saying that, I wonder how easy a bug?s spirit would be to break!
2. Teleporting. Not having the possibility of receiving blast markers from teleporting caused some grumbles. Again this mainly arose from the marine encounter. A unit of terminators teleported into a vital position on turn 2, I then teleported my Lictors near them. He picked up a blast marker on the way in and I of course did not. He had to teleport first as he had the higher strategy, which caused no end of grumbling. The main issue here is that we felt that the player with the higher strategy should be able to choose whether to teleport first or second. We may well adopt this as a house rule.
Other thoughts and conclusions (finally!) of a bug noob?
The activation requirement for spawning needs to be spelt out for idiots like me who, after a beer or two need to be able to find a clear and simple statement, along the lines of;
?To undertake a spawning action in the end phase, a tyranid swarm must pass an initiative test. Make initiative tests as you would a rally test, i.e. alternate with opponents rally tests.?
The bug army is great fun and full of flavour, its got me thinking about the next battle, tactical changes, new troops, combinations etc. Can't wait to use them again.
Photos can be seen at
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums....%202006
Cheers
Lightbringer
