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This area denial ability is why I'm convinced that a corner deployment against Nids is bordering suicide if the Nid player is canny. A corner deployment allows the Nids to group objectives more tightly than cross-board and it allows them to shut off half the board very quickly.
Objectives: The Nid player placed 3 objectives, his Blitz and 2 T&H. In a corner deployment, the Blitz goes all the way up to the middle of the board on the long side. At that point, it's less than 50cm from the opponent's board half. The 2 T&H go barely across the line into the opponent's board half. The objectives are in an isosceles triangle with dimensions 30cm-50cm-50cm and the Blitz at the tip.
The opponent, otoh, faces a huge dilemma. The Nids can quickly move to fence off a large portion of the board (more on that below). The opponent has to choose whether to place the objectives deep in the Nid side, giving them more flexibility and time for building the defense, or placing closer to the center where the Nids can more easily contest them directly and possibly garrison.
Deployment: If the Nids have a garrison, they can garrison off their Blitz, right up to the midline, right on top of the T&H objectives. Other big swarms can be deployed right at the tip of the deployment next to the Blitz.
Intermingling is not an issue. The only way being intermingled is a detriment is if there are so many hackdowns from the assault resolution that it completely wipes out a swarm. If you have them intimately intermingled, you are guaranteed to get support from the non-target swarm and the target swarm will get to countercharge to maximize their own return fire. Completely interlaced swarms is a beneficial defensive position for the Nids.
If there is another garrison for the Nids, they have the choice of placing off one of the opponent's objectives or simply deployment them near the Blitz with the others.
Turn 1: First Nid formation moves to fence off the objective cluster. Second Nid force moves straight out from the long board edge with double move and links up with the objective cluster swarm on the flank. With the 40cm move for most broods and the 15cm deployment zone, this puts them more or less in the dead center of the board. Third, a fast moving formation or a Marching formation moves farther across the board to close off most of the rest.
At that point, the enemy has only a narrow corridor down the opposite board edge through which they can try to get to their own objectives. Opening up a hole in a big swarm of ~30 models is nearly impossible. They don't have to cover that much width in this position and anything short of a couple +10 assault resolutions isn't going to cause enough damage. With outnumbering, BMs, and lots of Termagaunts 5+FF, that ain't happening.
Developing this "living fence" position can easily be adjusted based on available garrison positions and cover. Lictors can be used as temporary placeholders while the real swarms move in or just harass the enemy, slowing them down long enough to get the Nids set up.
At that point the Nids just continue to bring up other swarms, fill in the line, and squeeze the enemy down. A decent fast swarm in the back field and/or a few Lictors can harass or stop anything fast enough to squeeze through gaps. Synapse Nodes teleport in behind to take the backfield objectives so none of the swarms have to divert.
Nids' T&H is theirs to lose before the end of Turn 1. The living fence has marked off 3/4 of the They Shall Not Pass territory in Turn 1. Nodes make it possible to snag Defend The Flag unless the enemy can slide past them. Nodes force the enemy to keep some forces in reserve to deal with a Blitz grab, necessitating splitting their forces if they wish to take any objective on the Nid side of the board.
Worst case scenario, the Nids give up the T&H on their side for a single enemy goal. No way will the enemy get the Blitz when half the Nid army could react to crush any deepstrikers. Similarly, they could give up a T&H if need be in order to make a Blitz rush (1 T&H plus Blitz is 2 goals) but the chances of that being necessary are probably pretty slim.
I used this exact tactic last night on a normal board deployment, which requires more movement by the Nids and fencing the enemy along a much larger frontage. Terrain control won the day 4-0 despite massive Nid casualties.
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Neal
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