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I have been running a series of small tournaments at a local gaming store (Discordia Games in Bremerton, to be precise.) I've been using a ruleset like Combat Patrol from the 4th edition rulebook. (Essentially the same rules as the old 40k in 40minutes/Patrol Clash) Another player is taking over running these tournaments, so I will get to play more regularly. Since there is an RTT event coming up there at the end of October, he's raising the point values for the next couple of games to encourage people to paint up more of their army and come out and play the RTT. Combat Patrol is normally fought with 400pts and gives limitations on armor saves and Armor Values, as well as Wounds and the like. It's a nice, balanced set of rules and I'm quite fond of it. On the occasions that I've needed a ringer army, I've used my Tyranids. The standard list looks like this: 112 7xGenestealer For this coming Sunday, Matt has raised the point value to 750pts and is allowing a bit higher armor value (it will allow Dreadnaughts now) so I'm revamping my force in light of the higher point values and the new rules. First up, since there are limitations on Wounds per model, it rules out all my Monstrous Creatures and Lictors and Rippers. Zoanthropes are out of the question due to their armor save. Biovores would be legal, but I haven't been impressed with their performance (your mileage may vary) and I think they'll have an even harder time against such a small force (so much chance of missing or scattering in the wrong direction.) Warriors and Raveners are too fragile and WAY too expensive for a game like this, in my opinion. That leaves me Gargoyles, Gaunts and Genestealers. Gargoyles are nice and fairly effective, while being immensely fast, but I don't have any of the models. That leaves two choices. Gaunts and Genestealers. While I believe that Genestealers are, once again, the premiere close combat nasties of the game, they are awfully slow and expensive and are easily shredded by bolters. I've been using them to good effect working with the Spitters, but maybe I should just use Spitters instead? Well, for the same price, Spitters get into combat about 2 turns faster, meaning they have more time to work their mojo and they give less time for the enemy to throw lead downrange. In the previous edition, Spitters managed to do almost as much damage as Genestealers because their leaping ability meant that they could get attacks in with more than just the first row of attackers. Now that everyone gets full attacks if you are in base contact or within 2 inches of a friendly model in base contact with the enemy, the score has changed. A unit of 12 Genestealers will now be able to use all of it's attacks, which would give it 9 Dead Marines on the charge, compared to a similar sized unit of Spitters getting 8.28. While the Spitters are nothing to sneeze at, the Genestealers have a good edge here, plus they get to use their Initiative to pursue anyone that flees, which gives them another leg up on the Spitters. Still and all, I don't think that just running Genestealers is a good idea. Even if having 46 Genestealers would cause my opponents to hyperventilate, I've learned how useful it is to have something fast to distract from the Genestealers, or at least to roll into combat in a hurry to help block Line of Sight to them. I'll use about half of my points for Genestealers, and I'll use the others for some flavor of gaunts. I've been using Spitters for my Gaunts. They are as fast as any leaping gaunt, which means very. They have a lot of attacks at good Strength and high Initiative. In addition to their regular attacks, they also get a S5 attack at Initiative 10! Yes, that means they can strike simultaneously with enemies in cover. That's a lot of power in one fast punch. Unfortunately, that's also 16pts for a T3 creature that can be perforated with Bolters. On the other hand, my old standard Gaunts, the Slashers are also quite effective. (Note: these use the same biomorphs as the Deathgaunt in Codex: Tyranids, but I like the name Slasher better.) They are Spitters without the Bioplasma. While that cuts down on their firepower, it also cuts them down to 12 points each, which is a whole lot nicer on the budget. For the remaining half of my points, I could pick up 23 Spitters, which is a pretty impressive number, or I could go for Slashers and get 31 of the little gribblies. I started off by doing some quick math. Each Spitter gets 1 S5 attack and 3 S4 attacks on the charge. Leaping allows full attacks from up to FOUR inches away from base contact with the enemy, so there should be no problems getting everyone in on the first round of combat. Based on an opponent with WS4, T4 and a 3+ armor save, I come up with 0.36 Dead Space Marines per Spitter. So for 23 of them, that would be 8.28 DM. Sweet Emperor's Teeth, that's a good number! (Here's the actual math: 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/3= 1/12 x 3=1/4, plus the Bioplasma adding 1/2+2/3+1/3= 1/9) For the Slashers, I also ran the numbers. They get the same regular attacks, just not the Bioplasma. That gives me 0.25 DM per Slasher. With 31 of them, that's 7.75DM. Not too shabby, but the Spitters have a definite edge here. However, I would be very surprised if some one did not shoot my models on the way to lunch, I mean combat. With the same speed and the same Toughness and Armor Save, they will die equally well to whatever is pointed at them. So, if a squad of Marines kills 5 gaunts with their shooting, that would leave me with 18 Spitters compared to 26 Slashers. Hmm... I went ahead and ran the numbers to see how the two types compared as their unit strength was degraded. (Euphemism for a bunch of them keeling over mid-stride) Here are the numbers I came up with: Spitters-----DM While the Spitters show a real advantage at full strength, even 5 wounds basically puts them even with the Slashers, and the Slashers pull ahead quickly, keeping a viable unit even after losing 15 members. As Stalin or Kruschev said, "Quantity has a Quality all it's own." After looking at this, I decided I should really bring the Slashers. The extra 8 bodies are too useful not to take, and I've already got Genestealers to act as my cleanup crew. I typically set my bugs up in a bit of a line, though I try to get some cover and I try to take one flank, if possible. Since the Genestealers can Infiltrate, that gives my some additional options. The first is that they can simply set up closer to the enemy, which makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. This will allow them to get into combat even sooner, so they can eat more. However, sometimes an enemy will 'Castle' or 'Wedge' all of his force in one small area of the Deployment Zone, to concentrate firepower on my Tyranids. With my Genestealers, I can take advantage of that by infiltrating further onto the board. Even if I don't get any closer to the enemy models through the Infiltration Deployment, I have the opportunity to set up on the other side of the board almost in his Deployment Zone, thus starting by mostly surrounding my enemy. Not only does this cause the enemy general to make mistakes, but it keeps them from running away a bit as well. It also has the potential to help me claim objectives like table quarters and use better cover on my approach. Okay, now I know how many models my army will be (54) and I know what those models will be, so how do I divide them up? I tend to like smaller units because they give you more flexibility. (These Genestealers assault the Space Marines while these other Genestealers claim the objective.) On the other hand, with the new rules, large units can now get nearly all of their attacks, which is a huge change. Noting this change, I'm planning on splitting them up into as few units as possible to maximize the impact they make. 192 12xGenestealer I'll try to take notes on Sunday and bring you some short battle reports next week! If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |