Flogus and I played a new game of Epic yesterday.

Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery just at the start of the game, so almost no pictures this time.  



TYRANIDS - 3000 points

BTS > 6 Synapse creatures

Attack Group
1 Hive Tyrant (winged)
2 Haruspex
4 Malefactors

Assault Group 1
3 Tyranid Warriors
8 Termagants
4 Hormagaunts
2 Raveners
1 Gargoyle
1 Haruspex
1 Exocrine

Assault Group 2
3 Tyranid Warriors
8 Termagants
4 Hormagaunts
2 Raveners
1 Gargoyle
1 Malefactor
1 Exocrine

Assault Group 3
3 Tyranid Warriors
8 Termagants
4 Hormagaunts
2 Raveners
2 Gargoyles
1 Malefactor

Bio-Titan
1 Hierophant

Subterranean Swarm
6 Raveners

AMTL - 3000 points

I'm not too sure about the Reavers' weapons load, Flogus will correct if I'm wrong.
EDIT: corrected.

Reaver Titan 1
- Volcano Cannon
- Volcano Cannon
- Laser Burner

Reaver Titan 2
- Vulcan Megabolter
- Vulcan Megabolter
- Laser Burner
- Carapace Multilasers
- Legate

Reaver Titan 3 (BTS)
- Plasma Destructor
- Laser Blaster
- Laser Blaster
- Carapace Multilasers

Warhound Titan 1
- Inferno Gun
- Plasma Blastgun

Warhound Titan 2
- Inferno Gun
- Plasma Blastgun

Recon Platoon
- 4 Sentinels

Recon Platoon
- 4 Sentinels

Thunderbolt Squadron
- 2 Thunderbolts

Deployment as shown in the picture above.

TURN 1

Strategy

AMTL

Turn 1

The Attack Group and the Hierophant March along the left flank, directly through the woods (without the Mobility rule, I'd have had to roll 21 dice for the Attack Group and 18 dice for the Hierophant + the potential re-rolls).

I thought they were safe there, but Flogus moved Reaver 1 and a Warhound inside the woods and managed to kill the Hive Tyrant! He then moved his Sentinels in front of the Attack Group in order to prevent my other Synapse to reach it before the end of the turn.

Luckily for me, the Sentinels were just close enough for an assault... involving only 1 Sentinel and 1 Hormagaunt. Flogus killed the Hormagaunt but I still won by 1 thanks to the outnumbering bonus and the new Expendable rule. I later Marched another Assault swarm towards the Attack Group, putting them back in Synapse control.

The Reaver 3 doubled towards the Assault Swarm that had won the assault against the Sentinels and shot at it, targeting only the vehicles. Several hits later, the swarm was mostly intact... but the 3 Tyranid Warriors were dead! Again, I had to March my last Assault Swarm to put the brood creatures back in control.

End of turn

The Sentinels rallied.

I had started the turn with 5 activations, I now only had 3 left... but BIG ones.  

TURN 2

Strategy

AMTL

Turn 2

Reaver 2 (Supreme Commander) either launched an assault on the big swarm in the woods. It lost all 4 shields in the process but destroyed a great number of bugs, leaving only 3 TW and 4 Malefactors alive. Reaver 1 then turned it Volcano Cannons towards the Hierophant, leaving it with only 2 DC and 5 BMs.

Almost broken, the Hierophant launched a suicide assault on both Reaver 2 and the nearby Warhound... but only managed to make 2 damage before dying (I only noticed at that moment that its armour has now gone down to 5+RA... Chroma, you forgot to mention that in your summary   ).

The huge swarm in the middle of the table (roughly 1000 points of troops) had to assault the Sentinels screening Reaver 3.    The return fire from Reaver 3 killed several bugs, but no Synapse.

End of turn

The TW and Malefactors rally.

TURN 3

Teleportations

Six angry (and hungry?) Raveners emerge next to the AMTL base, behind the Titans.

Strategy

Tyranids!

Turn 3

Now that the Sentinels screen is gone, the big swarm is free to launch an assault on Reaver 3. The sight was so impressive I tried to take a quick picture, only to discover that my battery had somehow recharged a bit.



I rolled an incredible number of dice : 12 CC5+ First Strike, 4 CC3+, 4CC3+ MW and 17 FF5+ atacks!   Needless to say I easily won the assault, but the Reaver survived with only 1 DC left and a critical.

The Raveners tried their luck at assaulting a Reaver Titan as well but were not so lucky: Flogus saved something like 8 hits and the poor Raveners bit the dust.

Reaver 3 then finished off the TW and Malefactors and, with no activations left on my side, he only had to take position around my objectives to win the game.

End of turn

We roll for the critical, but the Reaver manages to repair it... so no BTS for me.



TYRANIDS - 0
AMTL - 3 (BTS, Blitz, T&H)

AFTER ACTION REPORT

Well, I took a fair beating but this game allowed me to evalutate the impact of the 9.2 changes. I think I lost mainly due to a combination of bad army list (I wanted to try out my new bio-tanks, which sucked up a lot of points and made me short on activations) and facing the AMTL (never good for the nids). If I had to repplay this game, I'd ditch one Assault Group in favor of more Independant Swarms (Lictors, Stealers or Harridan).

The Light Vehicle for TW is a far reaching change, it really impacts the list. Mixed swarms are now compulsory and the TW are much more vulnerable. Raveners become a must-have in any swarm containing TW.

All of this, I think, is a good thing. Making an army list is now a real challenge, as you have to find a balance between all the different unit types. I feel that each Synapse choice is now balanced with the other, as they all come with flaws and advantages.

As for the Common Broods, I withdraw my comment about 4 Gaunts for 75 pts being too cheap. Even with the boost to Hormagaunts, it's OK, mainly because they're no longer targets of choice. 2xCC5+ with FS feels great for the Hormagaunts, by the way. It's powerful but now that the TW have become more vulnerable I think the 'nids should be all the more nasty if they manage to reach CC.
Also, the thing I like the most is that all 4 common brood types now have a distinct role: Gargoyles provide AA shots, Termagants decent FF, Hormies are violent in CC and Raveners are finally useful as bodyguards for the TW.

All special rules changes are great. Swarm reorg at the end of the turn, Expendable Gaunts, Mobility, Tunnelers: it's all good IMO.

So yeah, I lost but I have really good feeling about this list and I can't wait to try out new things with it.

Any thoughts on the AMTL?

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

As usual, the list feels really balanced.

Flogus has played it more than I have so he may have other comments to formulate, but as a regular opponent of the War Gryphons I have absolutely no complaint with this list.

War Engines only roll a single die for entering/moving in dangerous terrain... not once per DC... it's a common misconception.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

Oh, and thanks for the report!  

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

And even when they fail their single terrain test, they still have their save:


3.1 WAR ENGINE MOVEMENT
War engines follow the same movement rules as any other
unit. War engines that fail a dangerous terrain test suffer a
hit (see the damage rules below).

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Visit www.epic-battles.de the ultimate german epic site&forum!

Oooh, indeed. I just checked and you're right: nothing in the rules says it's 1 per DC. Good to know.  

Sorry for the lack of pictures this time, I hope this makes the batrep usable for you from a playtesting point of view.

I'm always glad just to see the initial terrain/setup, so, not a problem!

Thanks again!  Any chance of getting a game against one of the "official" lists in the near future?

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

No Carapace Multilasers for the Reaver #1.

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

We'll try.