I had another attempt to test the current list iteration tonight against my buddy Gerry's BA test list. It was his first game with BA. His list:
Mephiston
Librarian + shield, lance
Sanguinary Priest + power wep.
10 Scouts + camo cloaks, sniper rifles
10 Assault Marines + power fist, 2x meltas
5 Assault Marines + power fist, melta, rhino
5 Assault Marines + power wep., melta, razorback
5 Assault Marines + power wep., melta, razorback
3x Baal Predators
3x Predators + twin linked lascannon
Sorry, no pics! I know it's mean but no pics...
We rolled annihilation and pitched battle. I'm dying for an objective game. I've played nothing but kp missions for 2 weeks straight now. Anyways, I wasn't too worried as he had 17 kp to my 12 to start. Gerry won the roll off and chose to go first. He deployed in an even spread across the whole 6' edge with the av13 preds up front and transports behind. The rhino with libby, priest, and fist squad in a rhino was in the center with meph right next to it.
I deployed in a denied flank formation on my left side with everything in cover except one tyrannofex. Genestealers infiltrated in cover right in front of my force in cover. He infiltrated his snipers in a ruin on my far right, scouted and smoked the two baals on the right side. I failed to seize.
He took first turn, killed 5 genestealers and put a couple wounds on the exposed tyrannofex. During my turn, I stunned a lascannon pred, took a turret off a baal, and began repositioning my force for better shots.
Gerry decided to change tactics turn 2. A combination of firepower, resilience, and cover was making it hard for him to out-shoot me since my MC's can't be stunned like his tanks. He began using his fast tanks to outrange my hive guard and try to snipe my tfex. Genestealers in cover with FnP weathered lots of fire. During my turn, the doom stayed in reserve and I killed 1 predator and stunned another.
He finally decided to throw mephiston in the mix, but my genestealer squad was so large and protecting my army from assault so it was the only option. He killed a bunch of stealers and I put 3 wounds on meph. My doom came down right in front of his 10 man assault squad, but he passed his leadership test and cataclysm only killed 1 marine. I think I wrecked another tank at this point.
Gerry killed the doom with melta shots, but the rest of my force was making armor/cover/FnP rolls so I wasn't losing much, just getting closer and closer. I spawned 15 gants and threw them into the mix with meph to tarpit him. Hive guard are finally in range and I'm getting stuns, weapon destroys, and wrecks on 3 vehicles per turn between them and the tyrannofexes now.
Gerry throws the 10 man assault squad into my original 10 gant unit (out of synapse bubble wrap) and kills them. Meph kills the stealers. I counter with templates galore from tervigons and tyrannos and assault with hive guard (to tie up the fist) and raveners, killing the unit. I explode the rhino, snipe the fist from that unit, and assault with the other raveners, killing the librarian, priest, and squad (4 kp with the transport).
We played most of 6 turns until my fiancee came home and the game was called due to drama hah. It was 7kp to 4kp in my favor. Both raveners had just assaulted but not rolled it out yet, and meph had 1 wound in combat against 16 toxic gants so it could have gone up to 9 or 10kp by the end of my turn.
Overall, I'm really thrilled with this current list. It has weaknesses, but it's very strong against heavy mech lists. There are a lot of naysayers about tyrannofexes in the online community, but I've been 100% satisfied since I've started running 2 of them. During this game, they gave me 1 explosion, 2 weapon destroys, 1 immobilize, and several dead marines. Yeah, they "didn't get their points back", but this is a terrible way to analyze a unit. The suppression increased the survival of the rest of my army. The hive guard are the real killers so the tfexes are just there to hit outside 24". Also, raveners are lightning fast and I play them very far back until late game. They wreak havok on immobilized vehicles and units that are spilled out of transports. 1 unit of 3 raveners reaped 3 killpoints and was in an unresolved combat when we called the game. The genestealers hit hard as hell too. This game they only did 4 wounds to mephiston, but they drew a lot of fire away from my other units and keeping meph away from my monsters was key. The doom wiffed, only killed 1 marine and giving up 2 kp, but he's my wild car anyways. Nothing else in the codex has a greater risk/reward potential. I don't depend on him, but if he hits home, he really causes hell. So, like I said, I'm super happy with the way the list is performing and I'm looking forward to testing it a lot more.
We're heading to St. Lucia to get married in 4 weeks, and one of the cars is in the shop so I don't think I'll get many games in before the wedding. That's ok though because I want to finish painting and converting the list. My fiancee said "I can play as much as I want when I get back" so the batreps will be back in full swing in March.
Nice. Out of curiosity, how much terrain do you normally play with? Asking as at last year's NOVA there really wasn't much cover, and I'm concerned about the stealers and ravs. Next question: would a Broodlord (and a couple fewer stealers) have changed the equation vs. Meph?
ReplyDeleteI almost always play on 25% terrain coverage. We actually played on the snow board set up that I used in the photographs for my "Terrain" page on the right panel of the blog.
ReplyDeleteNOVA definately didn't represent 25% terrain last year. My raveners are used defensively, behind my entire army to strike anything that crosses the halfway mark or auto-hit immobilized vehicles.
Genestealers need cover so I'll use whatever I can to give them 50% and plan my whole strategy around it. NOVA's coverage was light, but still better than Conflict GT so I should at least have options. Tyrannos are 2+ so they'll give cover to the rest of the army.
I've recently decided broodlords aren't worth it. For basically the same price, I can give the entire unit poison and double their rends vs MEQ/termies. Meph could have hooded the hypnotize ability, or beat my roll, or I could have failed the psy test. Too many uncertainties. I'd rather be wounding on 4+ with rerolls on t4.
T-fexes get a bad rap, but I'm not sure why. What's not to like about get S10 shots on a T6 W6 2+ save MC?
ReplyDeleteDoom is a silly gimmick, if you want to go for the "one and done" dropper, Deathleaper might serve you better. Killier, useful against armor, and he can mess up psykers.
Good luck getting hitched.
I just bought deathleaper. Haven't had a game to use him yet. I really wish all lictors and Deathleaper included could assault when the come onto the table. You know since they are the tyranid assassins.
ReplyDeletetell kristin im gonna heckle her mercilessly if she gets mad about us having late games then!
ReplyDeleteIt's all good man, she was chilled out shortly after you left.
ReplyDeleteIt was your first game since like september anyways right? And first time with a new army. And I was using units you haven't faced before. Plus we were bullshitting. In all rights, that game would have been over 2 hours earlier under normal circumstances.