Here there be Monsters

In the previous article in this series, I talked about conventional wisdom and the potential benefits to be gained by going against it. The primary benefit, of course, is that of surprise. If the opponent doesn't know what to expect, they can't really prepare for it. In addition, if they aren't sure how to deal with the army, they will waste valuable turns trying to figure out what to do against it. Finally, they may overestimate or underestimate the value of various units, presenting you with golden opportunities.

I also discussed how to go about bucking conventional wisdom in your list. You can use units that are less-frequently used, leaving the opponent scrambling to remember what they can do. You can use unusual combinations of wargear or special rules, such that they don't understand their potential. Finally, you can simply use units in different ways than they are typically used. An opponent that sees 5 Imperial Guard Rough Riders might scoff at a small unit of Guardsmen on horses. They might remember that Hunting Lances have the potential to damage small units of Heavy Infantry. They are unlikely to remember that the unit can carry meltabombs and shred even heavy tanks quickly. Even if they know that fact, when they look across the table, they see a fast, light assault unit, not an antivehicle squad.

Similarly, when an opponent looks across the table and sees Tyranids, they see a sea of scything talons and expect an all-out assault, not lots and lots of shooting. They will tend to set up far away from you and give you a lot of cover so that they aren't constrained by it when you close with their lines. Once you start shooting, they'll be shocked at the volume and accuracy of your fire. They will probably waste a turn in shock. At that point, you are about a turn ahead of them and are in pretty good shape, but it gets better if you are prepared for it. Once they have figured you are a shooty army, they will probably send out some of their countercharge units to get to grips with you, forgetting the assault capabilities of Tyranids, since they've been so devastated by your shooting. Ouch. :)

However, that is not the only surprise that the Godzilla army holds for opponents. Harder to notice is the theme of point-denial. Not only does that volume of fire mean that there are fewer enemies to shoot back, but the Monstrous Creatures are hard to damage and can be relatively inexpensive, meaning that it takes a lot to bring one down, but the enemy still doesn't get very many points for it. The best example here is probably the Devourerfex or Devilfex as it is sometimes called. With a BS3 and two Twin-linked Devourers, it can throw a lot of fire downrange and averages nearly 2 Dead Space Marines every turn at up to 18" range (plus 6 for movement.) All that sounds great, but even better is the fact that it has 4W at T6 and a 3+ armor save. Okay, great firepower, super tough, but it still goes one better. It only costs 113 points. An enemy has to do a lot of work to get those points, and that's not very many.

Now, back when the Codex first came out and Godzilla armies were very rare, those were plenty surprises. Now that it has been out for some time and more people are familiar with them, they still have advantages, but the standard style is not very surprising to most.

There are still several surprises that you can potentially spring on an opponent. Most of the Godzilla armies out there use very expensive upgrades for their Monstrous Creatures, but the upgrades don't really do that much more for them. In my version of the Godzilla list, I stuck to only the upgrades that were completely necessary. In this way, my Monstrous Creatures cost significantly less than those of most Godzilla players. This translates into more army for my points, which is a nasty surprise for opponents expecting very little besides the Monstrous Creatures.

In a typical Godzilla army, the mandatory Troops choices are filled with minimal Spinegaunt units. These can be effective either as a counter-charge element (since they will quickly die, leaving the charging unit caught out in the open in front of the Tyranid line's guns) or as a distraction unit. A brood of 8 Spinegaunts, if ignored, will tie up a unit for a valuable turn or so, but any time spent firing on them wastes fire that could have damaged the Monstrous Creatures, and returns even fewer points for the effort.

For my Godzilla list, I looked at the limitations of Gaunts and the fact that a Godzilla list is low on assault capacity. Then I turned directly to the Genestealers. Genestealers provide a massive punch in the assault category, but they are fairly fragile. By keeping them protected (more on that in a minute) Until the enemy gets close, you can keep them almost intact until they are needed, then surprise an opponent with the full force of Genestealer Assault.

I discovered an additional surprise later that I hadn't planned. Apex Assault. With their extreme Initiative and Rending Claws, there is almost nothing that won't get completely overwhelmed by a brood or two of Genestealers. The surprise here was that after weathering the storm of fire that the Monstrous Creatures put out, any remaining chargers would be drowned in a wave of high initiative Rending attacks from the Genestealers. Typically when facing a high firepower army, charging them is a great way to stop it. Not so with this army, or at least not in the conventional sense.

Although the list had a good amount of firepower, it wasn't truly overwhelming (once the opponent got over being shot by Tyranids!) To fix this, I added one last surprise. Instead of a sixth Carnifex, which most Godzilla lists took, I selected a trio of Zoanthropes. Although their Warp Blasts were handy, their main purpose in the list was to provide Psychic Screams. Coupled with the two Hive Tyrants, this gave me 5 Psychic Screams. Spread out over the width of the board, they would have very little effect, which is how most opponents know of Psychic Screams, if they do know of them at all. Concentrated using my Wall formation, they provided an 18" bubble of -5 Leadership, which put the fear of all things Tyranid into pretty much any opponent. Even knowing that Psychic Screams cause penalties to Leadership tests, they wouldn't expect to have a -5. A Space Marine opponent would be a little surprised when a squad lost 2 members to a Devourerfex, but they'd be shocked when they missed a Leadership test on LD3-4 and fell back! The ability to turn 2 casualties into a failed morale test is a massive surprise.

Although my Godzilla list was a pretty tough army anyway, the surprises hidden in it made it far more effective since opponents had a hard time understanding how the list worked and how to handle it.

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