I'll do a quick summary here, for a full batrep with activation by activation detail (in French but with plenty of pics), have a look HERE.

We were trying out a new house rule : hidden orders, à la NetEpic. Basically, we used NetEpic order counters with 2-3 EA orders assigned to each.

First Fire > Overwatch, Sustained Fire, Advance
Advance > Advance, Double
Charge > Engage, Double
Fall Back > March, Marshall

Before activating a formation, we revealed the order counter and chose one of the corresponding EA orders. All in all, it was rather fun and didn't have any negative impact on the game. Not sure I'd do it again, but I liked it well enough.

Anyways, on to the army lists.

TYRANIDS - v9.2.1

Synapse groups
- Attack 1 (Hive Tyrant)
- Attack 2 (Winged Tyrant)
- Attack 3 (Winged Tyrant)
- Assault 1 (3 Tyranid Warriors)
- Assault 2 (3 Tyranid Warriors)
- Assault 3 (3 Tyranid Warriors)

Common Brood groups
- 2x Raveners (8 Raveners)
- 7x Gaunts (16 Termagants, 12 Hormagaunts)

Uncommon Brood groups
- 2x Assault Spawn (4 Malefactors, 2 Haruspex)
- 1x Bio-artillery (4 Biovores)
- 1x Carnifex (3 Carnifex)

Independants swarms
- Genestealers (6 Genestealers)
- Genestealers (6 Genestealers)
- Lictors (3 Lictors)
- Lictors (3 Lictors)
- 1 Harridan

Army organisation :

Attack 1 - 1 Hive Tyrant, 4 Biovores, 3 Carnifex
Attack 2 - 1 Winged Tyrant, 1 Haruspex, 2 Malefactors
Attack 3 - 1 Winged Tyrant, 1 Haruspex, 2 Malefactors

Assault 1 - 3 Tyranid Warriors, 3 Raveners, 5 Termagants, 4 Hormagaunts
Assault 2 - 3 Tyranid Warriors, 3 Raveners, 5 Termagants, 4 Hormagaunts
Assault 3 - 3 Tyranid Warriors, 2 Raveners, 6 Termagants, 4 Hormagaunts

Genestealers 1
Genestealers 2
Lictors 1
Lictors 2
Harridan





BIEL-TAN

Avatar

Guardian Warhost (3 Heavy Weapon platforms, 3 Support platforms, 3 Wraithguards)
Guardian Warhost (4 Wave Serpents)
Aspect Warhost (8 Shining Spears with Exarch and Autarch)

3 Night Spinners
4 Falcons + 2 Firestorms
2 Storm Serpents
5 Rangers

Phantom Titan (2 Pulsars)



Funnily enough, I hadn't bothered taking any AA units (they've never done me any good in a 'nid list), but Flogus had no aircraft. Lucky me.

DEPLOYMENT



Following Jaldon's advice in his very useful strategy article, I grouped my objectifs on one flank and close to the Eldar blitz in order to prevent them from making full use of their mobility.

Both Stealer swarms and Attack 1 are garrisoned.



Eldar deployment...







... and nids.

TURN 1

No teleportation. Strategy > Eldars.

Eldars get first blood (Titan shoots on Attack 1, then the Falcons engage and wipe out a Stealer swarm)...





... while the 'nids March like crazy in order to get a close as possible before Turn 2.



END OF TURN

The nids are poised for an all-out assault...

TOUR 2

Lictors teleport behid the Phantom and in front of the Webway portal (screening three intermingled Tyranid swarms), while the Avatar is summoned on my left flank to support the Guardians.





Strategy > Eldar.

The Falcons, Guardians in WS and Shining Spears (out of portal) do the triple-activation-of-doom dance around me and destroy all but the Fearless Synapse units after a one-sided assault : 8 Spears + 17 FF4+ support dice is nasty.





The Lictors avenge me by crippling the Phantom (-4CD and broken after losing the assault).



Meanwhile, the other Stealer swarm is crushed by the Avatar...



... who is later destroy by my Assault 1 swarm (with a Critical Hit to boot!)



With my center line destroyed, the Eldar advance in a good position for Turn 3, destroying plenty of other bugs in the process.

END OF TURN

My left flank has broken through, but the rest of my army is in bad shape.



Yet there's still hope for me : the Phantom doesn't rally while most of my broken formations do and even better, I spawn no less than 16 points worth of units. Hopefully I can still make it!

TURN 3

My stroke of good luck goes on as I win the Strategy roll.

The Assault 1 swarm gets rid of the Rangers and gets hold one the Webway portal.



I'm in no position to confront the Eldar directly (not enough troops and too many skimmers), so I decide to protect my Blitz as best as I can.



The Storm Serpent try to breach my wall of bugs... but they're are swiftly pushed back.



The cunning Falcons move around my screening formation to launch an assault on the swarm directly guarding my Blitz...



... and it works ! They slip behind my lines and take control of my Blitz, just as I'm running low on activations.



Luckily the Attack 2 swarm is nearby and munches the Falcons. It's a bloodbath !



The rest of the turn sees both armies running around to capture/contest/deny objectives and/or victory points to the ennemy.

END OF TURN (I forgot to take a picture...)

ELDARS - 1 (Take & Hold)
TYRANIDS - 1 (Take & Hold)

Unfortunately, it's getting too late for both of us and we don't have time to play a fourth turn. From a tie-break perspective, Tyranids are slightly ahead (by 100-200 points), but the Phantom just rallied and the Eldar troops are overall in a better shape/position, so we call it even.

DEBRIEF

For once I didn't lose with my 'nids, so that's one thing I'm happy about.

The army performed well, but I think I could have done better if I had not deployed my Stealers so close to the eldar deployment zone... I should have used them as screens for my big formations. The same goes for my Biovores : I should have deployed them further back in order to threaten the advancing eldar formations.

All in all, 9.2.1 really does a good job at capturing the "tyranid feel". My only gripe is that the AA units are just not good enough for their points. Meiotic Spores are too easily ignored and the Gargoyles AA attack really feels like what it is : an afterthought to fill a hole in the list. My suggestion : no more AA on Gargoyles and longer range and/or Scout on Meiotic Spores.

Also, I'm with Markconz when he says that the 2-for-1 ratio on common-uncommon groups makes for one-dimensional lists. Most lists I see here on batreps look very similar. That's not necessarily bad as it reflects rather well the composition of a "true" Tyranid army, it just makes it less fun to elaborate a 'nid list.

Thanks for the report, Hojyn! I really wish you could've gotten another turn in! *laugh*

Whata did your opponent think about fighting the Bugs?

I like the hidden orders idea. Sometimes those can be really fun. Glad it worked for you.

Flogus has just moved to a new city (leaving me with no regular opponent ), so I'll answer for him until he settles in and find his way back to the forums.

We've played several games with the 9.2.1 list and so far he hasn't voice any complaints (he's been winning a lot, though ). What I think we agree upon - he'll correct me if I'm wrong :

- Overall, the list is balanced. There no longer seems to be any exploitable flaw and the units' stats/costs feel OK.

- Relentless special rule: I think Flogus is undecided about the +2 bonus to rally rolls. I think it's fine - the 'nids need it since they have few Leaders and usually take a pounding on turn 1 - but I can see how some people may find auto-rally a bit strong.

- Tie-break: This section could really use some clarification. An example would help a lot (i.e. what happens if I have 6 destroyed Gaunts at the end of the game > Do I count 1 full group + 1/2 group or just 1 full group and ignore the rest?).

- AA cover: I've tried Gargoyles, I've tried Spores, I've tried both... and Flogus has NEVER had any problem just ignoring them. Either he picked the swarms that were out of AA cover or his aircraft just danced around the 15cm range. That's really easy to do with fighters and even fighter-bombers, as they all have (the Hellblade being the exception) weapons with a 30+cm range :

Thunderbolt
Fighta-Bomba
Nightwing
Phoenix
Helltalon
Raven
Razorwing
Barracuda

Now I understand (and agree with) the fact that Tyranids are supposed to be rather bad at AA, but still... It's come to the point that I no longer bother taking any. And it's not just me apparently : I've searched the latest batreps here and I've only one occurence of somebody using Meiotic Spores... and that was Hena trying them with Scout. Gargoyles are used a lot though, but I'm not sure it's for their AA attack as much as for their speed and good stats.

I've suggested creating a special rule that would just lay tons of BMs on enemy aircraft to represent the disruption created by Spore Mines, but I realize there are plenty of special rules for this army. That said, how about a special rule for the Meiotic Spores only :



This is a rather simple solution that would allow the Tyranid player to a) cover lots of ground with its AA units and b) disrupt the enemy's plans over the course of the game. I would even suggest to add "1 BM per DC" for War Engines.

- 2-1 common-uncommon ratio: that's my (small) gripe rather than Flogus', actually. Again, I understand the need to limit the number of uncommon broods, but as a result most lists look alike. Here's an idea :

*** Make all Common Broods cost 100 points > 4 Gargoyles for 100, 6 Gaunts for 100, 3 Raveners for 100
*** Have a 1-1 ratio on common-uncommon broods

OR

*** Make all Common Broods cost 75 points > 3 Gargoyles for 75, 4 Gaunts for 75, 2 Raveners for 75
*** Keep the 2-1 ratio

Both solutions have the side effect of making Raveners a bit more expansive, but I guess that would be OK since you would also have an easier access to the bigger guys.

- Raveners and Gargoyles > Markconz pointed out in his latest batrep that it's a bit strange to be able to use these units either as Brood or as Independant units. It is potentially confusing, particularly for the Raveners who can be fielded on their own: perhaps putting the Trygons in the core units and Raveners only as support could help in this respect (i.e. 0-2 Trygons for 100 each + add 0-9 Raveners for +35 each)?