AFTER ACTION REPORT

Wow, this was probably the closest and longest game I ever played!   Very, very enjoyable, this is the kind of game that makes you loves EA even more.  

OK, a few comments.

V9.1 modifications

- 20 cm move for Warriors > This is great. No longer do the Warriors slow down their swarm. Please, pretty please, implement this in the next version as it really helps those poor infantry swarms.

- Lictors with Sniper > never really used, they only engaged the Rough Riders and the Sniper ability didn't make any difference. But I think it's better than MW.

- Hormagaunts with 2xCC5+ > This is OK. I still think First Strike would help them and the infantry swarms a lot, but I can live without it. Would 2xCC5+, FS and +25pts for 4 Hormagaunts be too much?

- All units ignore difficult terrain > Love it. I quickly lost count of the number of difficult terrain tests I should have made without this rule.

- +2 to Engage > This felt right. Tyranids can finally do the only thing they are good at without fear of failing the activation (unless you retain and have BMs, but that's perfectly normal).

- +2 to rally rolls > This felt good, perhaps a little too good even. I think it's OK to see Tyranids rally easily, they should, but I may be biased.   +2 puts them just above Marines in terms of rallying. +1 is just like Marines.

And now the big one: those damned infantry swarms are, as Jeridian put it, a liability. My Titans (Harridans included) did most of the work while none of my Assault Swarms did anything but lose assaults. Whether I Engaged or not made no difference.

For both big engagements involving my Assault Swarms, I ran a few numbers comparing the different proposals:

Engagement #1 -  Storm Troopers (SHT's in support) vs. Assault Swarm 1

IG casualties > 2
'nids casualties > 9

Combat resolution
- Normal rules > +7 to IG [(9 + 1 (Inspiring)] - [2 + 1 (more units)]
- "Full Expandable" > +1 to 'nids [(1 (Inspiring)] - [2 + 1 (more units)]
- "1/2 Expendable" > +3 to IG [(4 + 1 (Inspiring)] - [2 + 1 (more units)]
- 6+ save in assault > +5-6 to IG, depending on the saves
- CC4+, First Strike to Hormagaunts > +7 to IG (no Hormagaunts in CC)

Engagement #2 -  Assault Swarm 2 (Harridan in support) vs. Infantry company & Sentinels

IG casualties > 5
'nids casualties > 9

Combat resolution
- Normal rules > +3 to IG [(9 + 1 (Inspiring)] - [5 + 1 (more units) + 1 (less BMs)]
- "Full Expandable" > +6 to 'nids [1 (Inspiring)] - [5 + 1 (more units) + 1 (less BMs)]
- "1/2 Expendable" > +2 to 'nids [(4 + 1 (Inspiring)] - [5 + 1 (more units) + 1 (less BMs)]
- 6+ save in assault > +1-2 to IG, depending on the saves
- CC4+, First Strike to Hormagaunts > Hard to tell, but 2-3 less hits from IG, so 1-2 less casualty on the 'nid side for something like +1-2 to IG.

>>> So the "Full Expendable" option is clearly too powerful, as both times it turns a defeat into a victory. "1/2 Expendable" looks like a good "equalizer" option: it gives 'nids a better chance of winning by a close margin or at least of not losing so badly. The other options don't seem to make much of a difference.

Nids do get to spawn before scoring, as checking victory conditions is the last thing you do in the End Phase.

Tyranids still on the table
1 Harridan (2 DC left), 2 Gargoyles and 1 Termagant

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

During Turn 4 and 5, isn't the IG SHT out of formation? The discussion on the Air Assault thread pointed out that while a War Machine has to remain within DCx5cm of a regular unit, this does not work in reverse, and the regular unit would still be required to be within 5cm of another unit in that formation?

Morgan Vening

- 20 cm move for Warriors > This is great. No longer do the Warriors slow down their swarm. Please, pretty please, implement this in the next version as it really helps those poor infantry swarms.

Gaunts used to be 15cm, the reason Gaunts were bumped up to 20cm was, essentially, to stop them from garrisoning after the horror of the "Termagant Terror" was shown.

Since you can take a tonne of Gaunts, a large swarm can be garrisoned right to the middle of the table no matter where the opponent places objectives.  Using the Termagant Terror, which was just Tyranid Warriors and Termagants, the Tyranids could completel fill their entire half of the table with their zones of control.  While this might be "fluffy", it didn't make for good or fun game play, so their movement was bumped up.

Basically this is auto-engage all the time. A bit overkill IMO. Every army should have to account for an element of risk.

Again, auto-rally for all but Broken formations- every army should have to account for risk.

The whole point of the Blast Marker system is that your opponent (and you) can affect the opponent's armies 'morale' and 'combat effectiveness' in a more realistic way than simply killing them. In war putting machine gun fire onto an enemy position will make them more likely to make mistakes, go to ground, etc even if no casualties are caused.
Suppression is often as important as actual casualties in reducing the enemy army's ability to react and move.

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

That's how we play it here, for the reasons Jeridian pointed out.

Isn't that how the new Hit Allocation rules work?

EDIT: Just re-read the corresponding section (3.3.2) and well, I was wrong once again.   So, you first choose to split your attacks between CC and FF, then you allocate CC hits only to units in base contact and FF hits only to units not in base contact within 15 cm. The new Hit Allocation rules have nothing to do with it.

Terrific report Hojyn!

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http://hordesofthings.blogspot.co.nz/

Thanks Chroma... but I'm afraid it's still unclear.  

Tyranids still on the table
1 Harridan (2 DC left), 2 Gargoyles and 1 Termagant

And do you like the idea or not, Hena?

Note than you can get a Winged Tyrant with 25cm move.

- +2 to Engage > This felt right. Tyranids can finally do the only thing they are good at without fear of failing the activation (unless you retain and have BMs, but that's perfectly normal).

Well, the rulebook says (6.1, last paragraph just above 6.2)

For the purpose of this rule, a formation’s ‘strength’ is equal to the number of units in the formation plus the (remaining) damage capacity of any war engines.