Instead, I found myself facing Joe Johnson yet again. He was a team mate from the ATC and we've played each other a few times. Joe also took 2nd Renaissance Man at NOVA this year and his "skittles marines"/salamanders have won painting and appearance awards all over the country. He brought his ATC list minus a few marines so I was intimately familiar with it and how he plays it. This was probably a bad match for him, playing a drop pod army that needs to get close against a close combat army.
My List:
Hive Tyrant + armored shell, old adversary, hive commander, devourers x2, paroxysm, leech essence
Tyrant Guard x3 + lash whips
Tyranid Prime + boneswords, toxin sacs, regeneration
Hive Guard x2
Hive Guard x2
Hive Guard x2
Genestealers x20 + broodlord w/talons
Genestealers x8 + toxin sacs
Genestealers x8 + adrenal glands
Gaunts x16 + devourers
Tervigon + catalyst, adrenal glands, toxin sacs
Joe's List (approx):
Vulkan
Master of the Forge
Sternguard x10 + 9 combi-melta, 1 combi-flamer, drop pod
Sternguard x5 + 5 combi-melta, drop pod
Terminators x5 + hammer/shield x5
Tactical Squad x10 + multi-melta, melta, drop pod
Tactical Squad x10 + multi-melta, melta, drop pod
Tactical Squad x10 + multi-melta, melta, drop pod
Ironclad Dread + drop pod
I probably butchered that list but you get the idea. This mission ranked objectives (5 fixed, 1 center, 1 in each quarter 12" from each edge) as primary, kill points secondary, and table quarters tertiary. Joe won the roll and gave me first turn. I deploy the main bulk of my army centrally, infiltrate 20 genestealers to the half way mark in cover, and outflank the smaller squads.
I move everything forward and run during my first turn. Genestealers get FnP. Again, I'm sorry about the pics. I left the memory card out of my camera and my phone's camera isn't the best.
Joe chooses to drop the ironclad (top middle), a 10 man tac squad with the MoTF (center), and Vulkan with 10 sternguard (bottom). He tries to alpha-strike the tervigon, but only manages 4 wounds. The tac squad and dread kill a few genestealers, but FnP and cover mitigate most of the damage.
Both of my outflanking genestealer units arrive, one on my right and one my choice. I bring them both in right next to Vulkan's sternguard. The broodlord's unit heads for the tac squad. The tervigon spawns a smallish unit which spreads out in the backfield to try and stop another podded unit from finishing the tervigon. All 6 hive guard fire at the ironclad and wiff. My tyrant wrecks the ironclad's drop pod. I inflict heavy casualties on the tac squad and sternguard, but both combats continue.
Joe gets 2 more drop pods, 1 of which mishaps off the table and back into reserves. He tries to bring the ironclad over the wrecked drop pod to assault the broodlord's unit, but immobilizes it on the wreck!
With Joe's army arriving piecemeal now, it's pretty easy for me to hit the units with dakka and then assault them as they arrive. The ironclad could have thrown a wrench in my plans, but it would not be able to influence the game while immobilized. When Joe's terminators arrive, I'm able to spawn another unit of gaunts, drop 3 with shooting, and hit them with a wave of furious toxic gaunts.
When the teminators and Vulkan fall, Joe concedes. With one tac squad, 5 sternguard, an immobilized dread, and some empty pods left, there's no way to come back and draw any of the objectives. I earn 21/21 battle points bringing me to 42/42 and I'll probably be on the top table depending on how the others do. We finished early enough for me to watch Chris P's nids take down blood angels for a minor victory and Trevor's wolves nearly table the Dark Eldar player.
Looks like my next game would be against Space Wolves played by an 'Ardboyz finalist...
Well played.
ReplyDeleteGood reports, thanks! One thing I'm tinkering with myself - isn't it better to put the Broodlord with a small unit to give it some needed punch and survivability? Because a brood of 20 Genestealers has that in abundance anyway.
ReplyDelete@ NIB ~ Good point, here's my approach. My unit of 20 genestealers with the broodlord infiltrates every game. This gives mean opportunity for the best possible placement. The small units can be avoided by deploying centrally. One option puts me in control, one puts my opponent in control.
ReplyDeleteBy putting him in a unit of 20, my central push is stronger and more resilient with more wounds in the main unit. Backed by the tyrant deathstar, every one of my opponents chose to deploy units towards the flanks and risk the outflankers rather than the central units.
You have roughly a 66% chance for outflankers to arrive on the edge you need them on the most, so this combination increased the effectiveness of the smaller units.
During each of my 3 games in this event, the 20 stealer unit with the broodlord survived to get into assault and allowed at least one outflanking unit to assault the turn it arrived by pushing my opponents towards the edges.
What did the other Nid list look like?
ReplyDeleteChris P took best overall with this list:
ReplyDeleteTyrant - Lash Whip & Bone Sword + H-V Cannon + Hive Commander + Old Adversary + Parox + Scream
2X Guard
Prime - Lash Whip & Bone Sword + Talons + Toxin Sacs
2X Lictors
3X Hive Guard
9X Ymgarls
15 Genestealers - Broodlord w/ Talons
27 Hormugaunts w/ Toxin sacs
4 Warriors w/ Deathspitters
5 Shrikes w/ Bone sword & Lash Whips + Talons + Toxin Sacs
I had a few more battle points to earn best general, but he had many more points from painting and comp.
Yeah its understood that the big brood is infiltrating and the smaller broods are outflanked, that's how I always do.
ReplyDeleteI just think that small broods of 8 bodies are more in need of a Broodlord to be credible threats on the flanks. Usually my goal is to rather push my enemy into the middle, than towards the flanks.
Ahh, that's where the format comes into play. Since there's one objective dead center every game and table quarters are worth points every game, I felt it would be more beneficial to push my opponents out of the center. This would give me a better shot at the center objective and better position to jump into any table quarter.
ReplyDeleteI like that mission. The last tournament I been to and the next I'll attend, we have in one match the same primary mission (5 fixed objectives - dead center and the center of each quarter), but instead of secondary and tertiary objectives we have kill points which you need to dominate to get a 20-0.
ReplyDeleteWhen and were to dedicate a slow HQ like your deathstar would cause some headscratching for me, as once you've picked a quarter objective, you probably won't have time to shift to another quarter if needed later. His 18" dakka helps a bit I suppose.