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How many licks does it take to get to the center of Tactical Dreadnaught armor? Ever since I took over this new Tyranid project, I've been trying to wrap my head around how to run this new army list. It's a different style than I've used before with different choices than I would normally make, and I've been having a hard time understanding it. I decided I'd want to do some playtesting to see how it works. Shortly after that, I realized that it's been quite a while since I playtested my Deathwing army list as well, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. My Deathwing army was created for the Vancouver GT, which is 1700pts, whereas the Tyranid army was created for the Seattle GT, which is 150pts more. To make things more equal, I added an extra 3 Terminators (141pts) to the list for now. That brings the model count to 38 Terminators vs 114 Tyranids. I really had no idea how the battle would turn out. The Terminators had the advantages of rock-hard armor and powerful shooting, but the Tyranids had the advantages of 3 to 1 outnumbering and speed. What follows is a streamlined battle report of the game I had. Set up: Recon, line up on opposite sides. Bonus point for being in the enemy Deployment Zone at the end of the game. Turn 1: Tyranids take first turn and skitter forward. Terminators move in anticipation of next turn charge and open fire, wiping out 37 Gaunts. Turn 2: Tyranids ignore the losses and continue their headlong rush. The Gaunt swarms are definitely leaving the Warriors behind now. 3 of the swarms pile headlong into the waiting Terminators, while the 4th is just outside of charge range. The Tyranids drag down 5 Terminators (one of whom gets back up, thanking the Apothecary profusely) and lose 18 in return. One swarm fails it's leadership test, but instinctively attacks. The unengaged Terminators move to help their brethren, with the command squad firing first on one of the Warrior squads, felling two of the hulking beasts with their Missile Launchers. The Terminators then pile in to help their battle brothers against the gaunts. Two Terminator Sergeants are felled for the loss of 20 Gaunts, leaving a single gaunt in combat against 2 squads of Terminators. Realizing it is surrounded, the Gaunt hisses and renews it's struggles. Turn 3: The Tyranids continue their rush into the Terminators. The lone Warrior does not reach combat, but the remaining Gaunt swarm and the other Warrior Brood do. The Warrior Brood bounds into combat against the two squads surrounding the lone Gaunt, tearing down 4 Terminators before they can strike back. The Terminators, caught off guard, are ineffective against the Warriors, but dispatch the final Gaunt with ease. On the far flank, the command squad and the remnants of the other Terminator squad bear the brunt of the final Gaunt swarm's charge. The Gaunts launch a ferocious attack, but it is turned by the ancient might of the Terminator armor, with the flurry of attacks only causing a single wound on the Chaplain. In return the stout Terminators kill 6 of the Gaunts. The unengaged Terminators blast the remaining open Warrior into small chunks, then charge in to help the flank squad and the Chaplain. The Gaunts, sensing their approach, tear into their victims with renewed vigor, dragging down the Chaplain and 2 other Terminators as well. Shocked by the frenzy, the Terminators only kill 9 Gaunts in return. The Terminators facing the Warriors lose two of their number to the horrible rending claws of their foes, then turn them into a reddish pulp with their powerfists. Their brethren on the far side reduce the remaining Gaunts to 5, losing 2 of their own in the process. The Gaunts fall back and are then blasted by the Terminators. Wow! By the end of turn 4, there were still nearly half of the Terminators walking around, and Tyranid corpses littered the battlefield. Now that the dust has settled, I'm still a little puzzled. This is a fairly large margin of victory, and I'm not entirely sure why. Is my Deathwing list too powerful? Is my Tyranid list too weak? The more I think about it, the more I think that it's a combination of factors. The Tyranids did not have enough of a punch to get through the Terminator armor and take advantage of their speed and numbers, while the Terminators did have a powerful punch, then could afford to let the Gaunts batter themselves against their armor. The Terminators had the advantage of being able to move and shoot and also to shoot one target and assault another. This lead to them being able to position themselves during the first turn for a charge by moving the powerfist-wielders to the front of the squad, while still shooting. This also lead to the last Warrior of the first brood being gunned down before the large Terminator squad jumped in to help their beleaguered Chaplain. On the other hand, their mobility can be their Achilles' Heel. If they need to move fast to claim an objective, they will be in trouble. The Tyranids had the advantage of speed, meaning there was only one free turn of shooting. (Sure, I lost 37 Gaunts that turn, but there wouldn't be any more turns like that.) In addition, the leaping legs enhancement meant that every Tyranid within 2" of an enemy was treated as if it were in base to base, giving me lots of extra attacks, both normal and with Rending Claws. On the other hand, they didn't have enough of a punch once they got to the target and thus could not capitalize on their speed and numeric superiority. So, I'm feeling pretty good about this Deathwing list. I think one thing that makes it so hot is that it has an awful lot of models for a Deathwing list. Sure, it's only 30 models, but they are all Terminators and all Stubborn. On the other hand, I think the Tyranid list needs some tweaking. Having played it and gotten a better feeling of how it plays, I have a few ideas. The Tyranids need more punch, and I know several army lists and several broods that can do that, but I want to follow the theme of the army and I want to challenge myself a bit. First off, I feel the theme of the army is Speed and Numbers, with a sub-theme of No Guns. While I could certainly argue that a flying Tyrant has Speed, everyone does it and I don't feel it fits with the theme. A Carnifex with a Venom Cannon would be highly useful for busting tanks, but it would completely ignore all the themes present in this force. Biovores or Zoanthropes don't have any guns per se, but they still violate the spirit of the subtheme, plus do nothing for the Speed or Numbers of the army. Raveners fit with the Speed Idea, but I think Warriors do the job at least as well, and a brood of Raveners would take away some of the Numbers. Gargoyles are inexpensive so I could get a bunch of them, and they are very fast. Gargoyles could fairly easily fit in this list, though I might have to either make the fleshborers be represented by a long range version of Bioplasma or simply not use them to hold to the No Guns sub-theme. In addition to these considerations, I'd like to keep as much of the current army as possible, with as little in the way of modeling changes as I can. With all that in mind, I have a plan forming. If I drop one of the species of Gaunt, I can have a higher proportion of Rending Claw mutants, which would give me more punch without sacrificing speed. (I could get more punch by bringing Genestealers, but they only move 6 and charge 6, with no special movement bonuses such as fleet of claw.) Of the Gaunt species in the list, I like the Death Gaunts and Plasma Gaunts (partly because I've played around with this configuration before, and partly because they are modeled very differently than the others.) So, the Vertigaunts have to go. If I pop one Adrenal Gland off and put a toxin sac on, it'll give me another big unit of Deathgaunts, which are the standard Gaunt I normally use anyway. With Warriors as HQ and Elites, Plasma Gaunts and Death Gaunts as Troops, and a Heavy Support choice known as Sir Not Appearing In This Film, that brings me to 4 species, giving me some more mutation options, but preserving the speed. Here's the newly revised list. I'll try to get some games in with this and see how it fares. 135 Leaping Warriors x3 (Leaping, Strength, Weapon Skill and Initiative Upgrades, Scything Talons, Rending Claws, Bioplasma, Flesh Hooks) If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |