So, I was finally able to play my Tyranids again (last time was probably 2 years ago) and to test the 9.1 list. I'll write a full battle report in English this time as I'll have lots of questions/comments relating to it.  

TYRANIDS - 3000 points Army list v9.1, Lictors with Sniper



Synapse Creatures
Assault Group - 3 Tyranid Warriors - 150
Assault Group - 3 Tyranid Warriors - 150
Infestation Group - 1 Synapse Node - 125
Attack Group - 1 Hive Tyrant - 100

Independant Creatures
Lictor Swarm - 3 Lictors - 150
Lictor Swarm - 3 Lictors - 150
Hierophant - 275

Common Broods
2 Ravener Clusters - 250
3 Gargoyle Flocks - 300
4 Hormagaunt Clusters - 200
6 Termagant Clusters - 450

Uncommon Broods
Bio-artillery Cluster - 2 Dactylis - 150
Bio-artillery Cluster - 2 Dactylis - 150
Assault Spawn Cluster - 3 Malefactors - 175
Carnifex Cluster - 3 Carnifex - 125
Zoanthrope Cluster - 3 Zoanthropes - 100

The army was organized as follows:

ASSAULT GROUP 1 - 3 Tyranid Warriors, 11 Termagants, 9 Hormagaunts, 3 Raveners, 3 Gargoyles


ASSAULT GROUP 2 - 3 Tyranid Warriors, 9 Termagants, 7 Hormagaunts, 3 Raveners, 3 Gargoyles, 1 Zoanthrope


ATTACK GROUP - 1 Hive Tyrant, 3 Malefactors, 2 Carnifex, 2 Zoanthropes, 4 Termagants, 3 Raveners, 3 Gargoyles


INFESTATION GROUP - 1 Synapse Node, 4 Dactylis, 1 Carnifex, 3 Gargoyles


INDEPENDANT CREATURES - 1 Hierophant, 3 Lictors, 3 Lictors

SPACE MARINES - 3000 points Handbook 2008



Terminators (Supreme Commander) - 450
Terminators (Chaplain) - 400



Devastators (2 Dreadnoughts) - 300



Scouts (1 Rhino, 2 Razorbacks AT, 1 Razorback AP) - 225



Land Speeders (5 Tornados) - 200



Vindicators - 275



Whirlwinds - 300



Strike Cruiser - 200
Tactical detachment (Drop Pods) - 300



Thunderhawk - 200
Thunderbolts - 150

DEPLOYMENT

The "empty table", 200x120 cm


Deployment


I feared the orbital bombardment even more so than last time with my Eldars, but this time my army was so big there wasn't anything I could do to avoid it...

Looking forward to this fight!

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

TURN 1

Strategy

Space Marines

Turn 1

- The Strike Cruiser appears high in the sky before the Tyranid army has a chance to move.



The orbital bombardment strikes right in the middle of ASSAULT GROUP 1: 12 hits and... 12 casualties (inc. 1 Tyranid Warrior)!!!  



The only "bright" note is that, despite all these losses, ATTACK 1 only gets 2 BM thanks to the Expendable rule.

Meanwhile, the Tactical Marines in drop pods land next to the ruined temple and "SM OBJ 2".



* The Dactylis from INFESTATION reply with a salvo of acidic bile aimed at the Devastators: 1 loss, 5 BM.



- The Thunderhawk then makes a ground attack on ASSAULT 1 but only manages to kill 1 stand of Hormagaunts.



* On the left flank, ATTACK GROUP Marches and takes cover in the woods.



- The Thunderbolts attack INFESTATION and destroy 2 Dactylis and 1 Gargoyle.





* Probably fed up with being shot at, ASSAULT 1 rushes towards the centre of the table and the Devastators.

(Turn 1, continued)

- Somewhat nervous at the sight of so many monsters running towards them, the Devastators take a Marshall action and remove all of their BM.

* On the right flank, ASSAULT 2 Doubles and shoots at the Tactical Marines. unsurprisingly, their measly 4 shots at 6+ and 7+ do no damage.





- Seeing this, the Tactical Marines call for support and the Whirlwinds fire their missiles at ASSAULT 2. The result is very satisfying: 9 dead bugs, inclunding 1 Tyranid Warrior.




* The Hierophant also Doubles and shoots at the Tactical Marines, killing 2 of them.



- The Tyranids have no activations left. The Vindicators Double and fire at ASSAULT 1... to no avail.



- The Land Speeders, then the Scouts, do the same thing and cause 1 casualty each.

End of turn 1

The Gargoyles damage the disengaging Thunderhawk (-1 DC).

Tyranid losses at the end of this turn are impressive, all the more so because the Marines have only lost 1 Devastator 2 Tactical Marines...


Spawning


ATTACK > 1 Dactylis, 1 Gargoyle
INFESTATION > 1 Dactylis, 1 Gargoyle
ASSAULT 1 > 1 Hormagaunt
ASSAULT 2 > 1 Hormagaunt, 1 Termagant, 1 Gargoyle

Hey Hoyjn, did you just use the little template there as a reference or did you not know that the "extra templates" from an Orbital Barrage are "big" as well?

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

The small template was just for the picture (showing the MW rain) as we only have 1 big template.
But of course, Tyranids have tasted the twin big templates

_________________
My gaming and painting blog : http://figsdeflogus.blogspot.fr

TURN 2

Teleportations

One group of Lictors appears behind the Whirlwinds (0 BM).



Both Terminator detachments teleport around the Hierophant (1 BM in total).



Strategy

Space Marines

Tour 2

- The Terminators immediatly launch a ferocious assault on the poor Hierophant.



The poor beast (13 hits inc. 8 MW hits, somebody call the RSPCA!) is destroyed even before combat resolution. 2 stands of Terminators bite the dust.



- The Scouts then try to get rid of the Lictors, but miss their 2+ activation in spite of the SC re-roll. They still shoot at the beasties and put 1 BM on the small formation.



* The Lictors decide to mimic more than the surrounding terrain as they imitate the Scouts and miss their activation too! The +1 to Engage isn't enough to counter the -1 for BMs. Stil, they move so as to put the Whirlwinds inside their ZoC.



- Meanwhile, in the centre of the table, the Devastators shoot at ASSAULT 1 and kill 4 more Tyranids.

- The Vindicators follow suit and Sustain Fire at ASSAULT 1 (3 more casualties). Even with Expendable troops, ASSAULT 1 is now on the verge of breaking.



* Seeing this, the Hive Mind orders the Dactylis to shoot at the Land Speeder... but only 1 Speeder is destroyed by the corrosive rain of bile.



- The Tactical Marines ready themselves for the oncoming assault and fire at ASSAULT 2. No losses, but 1 more BM.

* ATTACK GROUP decides it's time to get closer to the fight and Doubles inside the city to shoot at the Vindicators... no damage, though.

- Unsurprisingly, the Land Speeders move and shoot at ASSAULT 1, killing 2 more bugs and breaking the formation.



* On the right flank, ASSAULT 2... misses its activation. Once again, the +1 to Engage isn't enough to counter the negative effects of BMs.



- The Thunderbolts get rid the Lictors...



- ... allowing the Whirlwinds to shoot at the broken ASSAULT 1. But this time the whole formation is protected by a building and suffers no loss.



- Finally, the Thunderhawk (on its way to pick up a Terminator detachment) misses its activation.

Fin du tour

Neither ASSAULT 1, nor the Lictors manage to rally.

And the Tyranid casualties pile on...


Spawning


ATTACK > 2 Raveners
INFESTATION > 1 Gargoyle
ASSAULT 1 > 1 Termagant
ASSAULT 2 > 1 Hormagaunt

TURN 3

Teleportation

The second group of Lictors appears in the woods close to the SM base (0 BM).




Strategy

Tyranids!!! It's a bit late, unfortunately...

Turn 3

* Turn 3 begins and I can finally launch my first assault of the game. ATTACK Engages the Vindicators and destroys them utterly! Ha, at last!  





* Unfortunately for me, this was the swan song of my army as ASSAULT 2 then fails its activation...

- The Land Speeders move and shoot at INFESTATION (2 dead Gargoyles)...



* ... and the Tyranid bio-artillery tries to reply but fails its activations too.

- The Scouts Double towards the Lictors, kill 1 of them and thus break the last unactivated Tyranid formation.

- The Thunderbolts fail their activation.

- The Whirlwinds shoot at ATTACK GROUP: 5 casualties.

- And finally, the Terminators deal the deathblow: the Chaplain detachment moves and shoots at ASSAULT 2, then the SC detachment makes a combined assault with the Tacticals on the Tyranids.




Once again, and even though most CC specialists have managed to counter-charge in base contact, the Tyranids are slaughtered: 9 dead bugs and only 2 dead Marines.



It gets even worse after combat resolution...



- The Devastators move and take control of the "SM OBJ 1" objective.



End of turn 3

SPACE MARINES 1
TYRANIDS 0

We didn't have time for a 4th turn, but obviously the Marines would have won easily on turn 4.

Tyranid casualties at the end of the game (common broods only)


And a parting shot...

Oooh! Not good! Kind of makes me reluctant to try my nids out!
Dare say that lack of activations may not have helped the nid cause...

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AFTER ACTION REPORT

Well, another brilliant victory for Flogus... and another humiliating defeat for me.  

Even though it was my first game with the V9 Tyranids, I was quite surprised, not to say disappointed, by a few things.

- Tyranids are fragile

Actually, I don't mind Tyranids being vaporized by enemy shots/barrages like they were in this game. What troubles me more is that, because of their inexistant armour, Tyranid common broods invariably suffer tremendous losses in assault and have to face insurmoutable differentials in combat resolution (5 or 6 points). With almost no Leaders to remove BMs and no Inspiringunit besides the Broodlord, Tyranids must inflict lots and lots of damage just to have a chance a winning the assault by a small margin.

- Tyranids are slow

Which is paradoxical are most basic troop have a 20 cm move or more. But synapse creatures, and Tyranid Warriors in particular, are too slow. Why does the TW only have a 15 cm move? Why not 20cm? I fail to see how this would be broken or unbalanced...
Very few Tyranid formations can't Garrison and have to cross the whole table in order to contact the enemy, so why add insult to injury by making them so slow? If Flogus had played IG or Siegemasters instead of Marines, I think he could have easily stayed out of reach and shot at me for 3 turns.

- Tyranids can't assault, Tyranids can't rally

+1 for Engage and Rally rolls is nice... but insufficient IMO. +2 would really be appreciated, as right now a single BM makes it really hard to assault. Keep in mind that, after a failed activation, Tyranids can't do anything besides removing their BMs. They certainly can't shoot as most of their units have no ranged weapons... and those who do only have a 15 or 30 cm range.

There are plenty of good things, though!    

- The "horde of teeth and claws" is there, no question about that! The army really feels like a wave of small monsters accompanied by a few bigger ones.

- The Expendable rule is great to simulate the fact that Tyranids don't care for their losses. You really have to destroy 80% of a formation of common broods before it breaks.

- The force organization feels perhaps a bit complicated at first, but it's really nice and flexible once you get used to it.

- I really liked the Spawning rule and the fact that you can redistribute your losses where they are needed. I think it could do with a small boost, though. A simple 2D3+1 instead of just 2D3 would be good IMO.

- The stats and costs globally feel right.

SUGGESTIONS

- Relentless = +2 to Engage and rally rolls.

- Expendable = "Expendable creatures killed in assault do not count towards assault resolution". If this is deemed too strong, perhaps something like "Only half the Expendable creatures killed in assault count towards assault resolution."

- Give Leader and 20 cm move to Tyranid Warriors.


Also, I tried to make the report as exhaustive as possible. Perhaps I made blatant mistakes and it's the reason why I lost, so please tell me what I did wrong!