First off, sorry I haven't yet finished the previous 5000 point game report... it will get done!

Around here, I'm normally the one fielding the Tyranids while others beat on them; for my second game of EPIC this week, I asked our local "army breaker" to pick up the clawed gauntlet and see what he could do to make a mockery of the Bug list.

He put together what we're calling a "Rage of Raveners" list... and my poor Orks had to face it.

I'm just posting the army lists right now, so that people can tremble in fear.

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Rules Used

Epic Update 2008
NetEA Recommendations
Tyranids v9.2.2 (Experimental)

Changes

Assault Group – 3 Tyranid Warriors – 100 points

Raveners – CC4+. +1EA

BTS – More Synapse killed than remaining

Scenario

Tournament Scenario

Armies Used

Warboss Grogstak’s Rumblin’ Ramblaz - 3000 Points

Big Warband
Warlord
4 Nobz
12 Boyz
4 Grotz
2 Boyz
2 Grotz

Stompamob
3 Stompas
1 Supa-Stompa
3 Soopagunz

Stormboyz Warhorde
6 Stormboyz
5 Dethkoptas

Big Kult of Speed
4 Warbikes
6 Warbuggies
6 Skorchas

Big Mekboy Gunzmob
10 Big Gunz
2 Oddboyz
2 Soopagunz

Big Blitz Brigade 1
6 Gunwagonz
2 Flakwagonz
2 Oddboyz
2 Soopagunz

Big Blitz Brigade 2
6 Gunwagonz
2 Flakwagonz
2 Oddboyz
2 Supazapp Gunz

Fighta-Bommerz 1
4 F-Bs

Fighta-Bommerz 2
4 F-Bs

A Rage of Raveners – Warrior Edition - 3000 Points

(BTS Target – 16 Synapse creatures)

Assault Swarm 1
3 Tyranid Warriors
4 Raveners

Assault Swarm 2
3 Tyranid Warriors
4 Raveners

Assault Swarm 3
3 Tyranid Warriors
4 Raveners

Assault Swarm 4
3 Tyranid Warriors
4 Raveners

Assault Swarm 5
3 Tyranid Warriors
4 Raveners

Assault Swarm 6
3 Tyranid Warriors
4 Raveners

Assault Swarm 7
3 Tyranid Warriors
4 Raveners

Assault Swarm 8
3 Tyranid Warriors
4 Raveners

Assault Swarm 9
3 Tyranid Warriors
4 Raveners

Assault Swarm 10
3 Tyranid Warriors
4 Raveners

Lictor Swarm 1
3 Lictors

Lictor Swarm 2
3 Lictors

Genestealer Swarm 1
6 Genestealers

Genestealer Swarm 2
6 Genestealers

Genestealer Swarm 3
6 Genestealers

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Battlefield:

4x6

Orks chose long table edge.


Deployment:

Tyranids kept both Lictor swarms in reserve.

Orks garrison the Big Gunz and the Stormboyz, both on overwatch.

Tyranids garrisoned all three Genestealer swarms.

Remaining deployment as shown:

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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Turn 1

No teleports.

Strategy Roll: Orks  

The rough-n-tumble Stompamob doubles forward and blasts Genestealer Swarm 2.  Three Genestealers are pulped and the remaining three break and fall back.

Seeking some kind of revenge, Genestealer Swarm 3 leaps upon the Stompamob… and is completely wiped out as the armoured Orks laugh and laugh.



Fighta-Bommer Squadron 1 circles to battle field to hammer exposed Assault Swarm 5… for a single Blast marker.

Assault Swarm 5 marshals, moving into cover, and clearing their Blast marker.

Fighta-Bommer Squadron 2 also loops around, but targets Assault Swarm 7… for a single Blast marker… *sigh*

Assault Swarm 2 doubles forward, moving to cover, and fires on the Stompamob, placing a Blast marker.

The Stormboyz, led by the Deth Koptas, engage Genestealer Swarm 1… and wipe it out quite easily.



Assault Swarm 4 doubles forward and puts a Blast marker on the victorious Stormboyz.

Blitz Brigade 1 doubles to fire on Assault Swarm 7 and eliminates 3 Raveners.

Assault Swarm 9 also doubles, grabbing some cover.

The Big Gunz drop overwatch and double partially out of cover to hit Assault Swarm 2 and BBQ 2 Raveners.

Assault Swarm 7 doubles to put a Blast marker on Blitz Brigade 1.

The Kult of Speed doubles up to put a Blast marker on Assault Swarm 2.

Assault Swarm 3 tries to march, but fails, regrouping and spawning 2 Raveners.

Blitz Brigade 2 doubles, firing on Assault Swarm 2, zzapping a single Ravener.

Assault Swarm 1 doubles and but an addition Blast marker on the Stormboyz.

The Warband doubles towards the middle of the battlefield.

Assault Swarm 10 double and fires for little effect on Blitz Brigade 1

Assault Swarm 6 does the same thing.

Assault Swarm 5 marches towards the middle of the battlefield…


End of Turn

All Ork formations rally, while Genestealer Swarm 2 remains broken.

The few dead Raveners are quickly respawned.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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Turn 2

Both Lictor Swarms show up, bracketing the Orks.



Strategy Roll: Orks  

The Kult of Speed revs its engines and, with the help of Blitz Brigade 1, engages Assault Swarm 6… and Assault Swarm 2 and Genestealer Swarm 2 which all happen to be intermingled!



One Ravener and 1 Tyranid Warrior are dropped, while 2 Bikes and a Buggy are trashed… and another round of combat is initiated!



This time 2 Raveners and 1 Warrior go down, while the Orks only lose 1 Buggy and 1 Skorcha… winning the fight!  Assault Swarm 2 and Genestealers 2 are destroyed, Assault Swarm 6 breaks and Blast markers are spread to Swarms 8 and 10.

Still laughing, the Stompamob tries to advance away from the nearby Lictors to get an accurate shot on Swarm 10… but they can’t quite make out what the Warboss is yelling and only manage to move forward, not taking any shots.  *SIGH*

Lictor Swarm 1 then leaps out of the shadows to engage the Big Gunz and Blitz Brigade 2… the take out a Big Gun and one of the Soopagunz before being cut to shreds.



Assault Swarm 9 then engages the Stormboyz!  Three Raveners are chopped down, but only 3 Deth Koptas survive the Tyranid onslaught and fall back.



Not making the same mistake as the Stompas, Blitz Brigade 1 makes a small double to fire on Assault Swarm 10, just catching a single Ravener from Swarm 7 as well.  Swarm 10 loses 2 Raveners and Swarm 7 gets a Blast marker.

Lictor Swarm 2 chases after the Stompamob, doing 1DC damage to the Supa-Stompa before all three Bugs are ground into pesto.



Fighta-Bommerz 1 ground attacks Swarm 6, killing 2 Warriors.

Blitz Brigade 2 tries to double, fails and zzaps a Blast marker on to Swarm 10.

Assault Swarm 10 tries to marshal, but fails, regrouping to only remove 2 Blast markers and failing to spawn back any reinforcements.

The Warband doubles towards Swarm 10 and drops a Ravener.

Assault Swarm 8 then rushes forward to engage the intermingled Warband, Kult of Speed, and Blitz Brigade 1!  The Orks lose 3 Skorchas, 1 Buggy, and 1 Bike, while gunning down 5 Raveners and 1 Tyranid Warrior.  The Orks win, but the savaged Kult of Speed still breaks.



Fighta-Bommerz 2 the ground attack the broken Swarm 8… and kill a single Warrior.

Assault Swarm 5 gets into the thick of things by engaging the intermingled Warband and Blitz Brigade 1!  The Orks lose 2 Grotz, 1 Boy, 1 Flakwagon, and 3 Gunwagons, while the Bugs lose 3 Raveners and 2 Warriors… and still manage to win by “1â€Â

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Turn 3

No teleports.

Strategy Roll: Orks  

The Stompamob doubles to fire one Swarm 10, crisping 1 Ravener and 1 Tyranid Warrior, breaking them.

The Big Gunz doubles after fleeing Swarm 10, dropping 1 Ravener and catching Swarm 8 in the blast, breaking it as well.

Swarm 7 then roars and engages the intermingled Stompamob and the broken Blitz Brigade 1… they only lose 2 Raveners finding the Supa-Stompa’s weak spot, destroying it, eliminating both Ork formations.



Fighta-Bommerz 2 ground attacks Swarm 1, taking out a single Warrior.

Blitz Brigade 2, after careful deliberations with the Warboss, advances and fires on Swarm 4… dropping a single Warrior and contests the Ork Blitz.

Swarm 9 double towards the Ork Blitz and scares away a Deth Kopta with wild fire.

The Warband doubles onto the Tyranid side of the battlefield and puts a Blast marker on Swarm 3.

That certainly gets Swarm 3’s attention as they engage the Ork Warband.  A whopping *seven* Raveners are cut down… but only a single Ork Boy lives to tell the tale of how Warboss Grogstak met his rather messy end.



Fighta-bommerz 2 ground attack Swarm 1… and drop another Warrior.

Swarm 6 marshals, moving away from the enemy to spawn 2 Raveners.

Swarm 1 marshals, moving towards a Tyranid objective, and spawns 1 Ravener.

Swarm 5 marshals, also moving forward, and spawns one more Ravener…


End of Turn

The Orks don’t rally so well, while the Tyranids do…

Spawning is skipped as the game is over…


Score:

Orks 0 (None) vs Tyranids 3 (BTS, T-N-H, TSNP)) – Major Tyranid Victory!

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

Thanks for the report.

Alot of units and swarms to keep track of so you did well. I am sure it was harder to track than to read  

Good to see the Nids win a game.

Any tactical errors you see the orks making that cost the game or was it purely the lack of rallies that effected the force?

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Frogbear is responsible for...
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Well, *that* was a tense game... first time I've faced the Tyranids in quite a while... scary stuff!  *laugh*

Well, I eliminated 13 Tyranid Warriors... almost got BTS... if the Stompamob hadn't failed to activate in Turn 2, I think the Orks might've had a chance... at least of getting BTS!  And my Fighta-Bommerz were also a little disappointing.

The "Rage of Raveners" army is difficult to face, but does seem to have the weakness of a lot of small, for Tyranids, formations, so they are often out-numbered, especially if the enemy initiates assaults.  Not sure how it would do against an Eldar or Tau skimmer army, or against the massed guns of the Guard.  Fifteen activations is still pretty tough to deal with.

Hoping to get some more test *against* this army in the near future.

Let me know what you think!

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

We had numbered chits that we move along with the Swarms, so it was actually remarkably easy to keep track of them!

Just wish I could figure out some cool "arrows" graphics in Illustrator.  *laugh*

Good to see the Nids win a game.

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

Man, where's all the comments and criticisms?  *laugh*

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

Very few people reply to battle reports for these unofficial lists.

I am feeling it too dude.

Are you like me, in that it takes you about 2-3 hours to write one of the suckers up?

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Frogbear is responsible for...
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Interesting stuff (Gavin would no doubt be intreiged by the list).

Have you thought of doing the same thing, but with Hive tyrants, or do the warriors being 100 as well replace them in this tactic?

An alternative is to have every third swarm a garrisoning one with carnifex instead of raveners.

Also why not hide 2 or 3 synapse groups for the purposes of spawning and make bigger assault groups? Or go for the full 1000 allocation, either 5 harridans and 9 brood/ or 2 lictors, 4 stealers, 2 broodlords (they are great - inspiring and a sniper to kill enemy inspiring) and 8 brood.

So
175 Harridan
175 Harridan
175 Harridan
175 Harridan
175 Harridan
100 Hive tyrant
125 Carnifex
125 Carnifex
100 Hive tyrant
125 Carnifex
100 Warriors
125 Ravenors
125 Ravenors
100 Warriors
125 Ravenors
125 Ravenors
100 Warriors
125 Ravenors
125 Ravenors
100 Hive Tyrant
100 Warriors
100 Warriors
100 Warriors

Or the similar with
150 Lictors
150 Lictors
150 Genestealers
150 Genestealers
200 Genestealers + Broodlord
200 Genestealers + Broodlord
100 Hive tyrant
125 Carnifex
125 Carnifex
100 Warriors
125 Ravenors
125 Ravenors
100 Warriors
125 Ravenors
125 Ravenors
100 Warriors
125 Ravenors
125 Ravenors
100 Synapse
100 Synapse
100 Synapse
100 Synapse
100 Synapse

With variations if you what tougher synapse etc.

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I think a few Landers would have helped a great deal against this force.
I also believe forces like the Tyranid force above are fairly easy to crush.

Because the opponent tended to lead with the Raveners, using terrain to mask/give cover to the Warriors, clustering them to force barrage placement.  To move into a position to get a "clear" shot on Warriors would've meant pushing deep into Tyranid territory, with many other Tyranid activations ready to pounce.

Ork "shooty" units tend not to do so well in close combat, or even that "shooty", doubling to get that kind of positioning wouldn't have accomplished much.

Against Eldar, things might be different.  Guard might be able to put out the firepower as well.

Hoping to test this type of Tyranid army against others, if possible, but the high activation count is tough to handle.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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