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Hello Dakka!

Well, my burgeoning swarm (which is being heavily documented in a project log right here on dakka, check the sig for a link!) took the field this morning against the might of the Orks this morning, for my first league game in our new 40k league at Game Empire in Pasadena, and it was a blast!

The lists were roughly as follows:

Bugs:
HQ
- Tyrant w/ 2x talons, armored shell, fighty upgrades, paroxysm and leech essence
- Alpha Warrior w/ deathspitter
- 2 Tyrant Guard
Elite
- 1 Venomthrope
- 3 Zoanthropes
Troops
- 12 Termagants w/ devourers
- 25 Termagants
- 1 Tervigon
- 24 Hormagaunts
- 6 Warriors w/ deathspitters, 1 w/ Strangler
Fast Attack
- 3 Raveners w/ devourers
- 6 Spore Mines
Heavy Support
- Carnifex w/ 2x devourer & stranglethorn cannon

Orks (mostly, I may have a bit here or there wrong)
HQ
- Ghazgkull
- Warboss + fighty kit (he went with a 'huge choppa instead of claw)
Troops
- big mob of 'ard boyz
- big mob of boyz w/ Trukk
- mob of ~10 Nobz with a painboy and 'uge choppas (went with little warboss), in a Trukk
- mob of ~6 Meganobz, combi-kit, couple rokkits (went with Ghazgkull), in a Battlewagon with Kannon
Elites
- mob of ~10 burna boyz

Mission: Capture and Control
Deployment: Pitched Battle

The table was pretty well covered, couple ruined buildings in the center, some hills on one side, a couple forests near the table edges, and some big pieces of industrial machinery terrain on one side.

Deployment:
Orks:
He took first turn, first deployment, and after my spore mine cluster hits the center of the table closer to his side (forcing his main deployment to the flanks instead of the center as he had planned... go spore mines!), he put the 'ard boyz and the trukk-mounted nobz on the west flank, the burna boyz, the boyz mob, and the trukk on the east flank, and the battlewagon in the center.

Bugs:
My battleline was more concentrated, regular termagants, hormagaunts, raveners, zoanthropes, and tervigon went on the center-west with the venomthrope providing cover, warriors, tyrant + guard, devourer gaunts, and the fex went on the center-east.

His objective was behind a ruined building, center-east by the table edge, mine was behind a hill, dead center.

I declined to seize.

Turn 1
Orks: Burnas hop in the empty Trukk, then the Trukks roll 12" up the flanks, battlewagon moves up 6" toward the centerline, boyz on foot slog it forward, then run, both got 5" further. The Kannon frags 3 Hormagaunts.

Bugs: 3 Spore mines float into one another and are destroyed, the other three drift off toward the 'ard boyz. Tervigon drops FNP on the hormagaunts, which make a run for the 'ard boyz. Nid backline jostles for position; Tyrant, warriors, devourer gaunts, and fex move up and take positions to light up the burna trukk and the boyz. Hit the trukk multiple times with the fex but managed nothing more impressive than 'shaken', put some heat on the boyz but cover saves (read: lots of them) keep the green men in the fight. hormagaunts get 5 on their run, make the charge on the 'ard boyz. I kill one (yes... only 1), he frags 5, we settle in.

Turn 2
Orks: nob trukk rolls up, nobz stay embarked, battlewagon remains uncommitted behind a building, boyz slog forward, burna trukk rolls up and the burnas jump out. Kannon scatters off the mark, netting no damage. Burnas forgo shooting to charge the devourer gaunts and (with appropriate British spelling for emphasis) vapourise them. Gaunts vs. 'ard boyz grinds further; averages kick on my side and I actually kill a few.

Bugs: Spore mines ftw! two mines drift into the 'ard boyz/hormagaunts combat, fragging something like 8 of the greenskins and four hormagaunts. The other mine drifts of into the middle of nowhere special. Termagaunts spread out to screen, tervigon takes a dump for 13 more termagants (no doubles), Warriors press forward with the Tyrant + guard and the fex. Shooting's more effective this turn, fragging a bunch of ork boyz on the east flank, and blowing up the nob trukk on the other side. naturally, it careens into my termagant screen, then blows up the ones near it for no damage to the nobz. Raveners shoot ineffectually. Time for the big boom, zoanthropes warp lance the battlewagon! roll one set of snake eyes, fail the invul save. hit 2x, punch both, he makes the cover save ! Termagaunts hang back intentionally (I wanted to test the venomthrope's spore cloud shenanigans), 'ard boyz finally pick up the hormagaunts, tyrant and fex wipe the burnas out.

Turn 3
Orks: Boyz start to bail backward, 'ard boyz and nobz push forward into my rapidly collapsing western flank, Ghazgkull and his krew hop out and trudge forwards a bit. The remaining trukk makes a valiant speedbump of itself between the boyz mob and the tyrant and fex. 'ard boyz and the nobz crash into my termagants. I totally forget until right now as I write this that the Tervigon gives them counter charge . Dangerous terrain tests eat a few orks from both mobz on the way in, otherwise the termagants do little and fold up.

Bugs: Tervigon dumps out another 11 termagants (on a 5-5-1, so he quit one turn too early, but about average, given the odds of doubles on 3d6), gives them FNP and sends them after the 'ard boyz, then falls back toward the objective with the Zoes and the other spawned unit. Tyrant gets in position to rubble the trukk, fex and warriors get in firing positions. The boyz mob gets lit up, goes to ground, then fails all of its saves anyway and gets reduced to ~6 models. They were now out of position to return to the Ork objective and pinned. The zoes go for warp blast on the nobz, get another snake-eyes and fail the invul save, score 11 hits from good scatter and net 3 wounds. Stupid cybork bodies. Shooting from the 11 fresh termagants does little to the 'ard boyz, but then they roll in under the effects of the Tervigon's glands and sacs and fight them down. Fortunately, they blow their consolidation and end up right in the path of the Ghazgkull steamroller Raveners, lurking (in a tactical sense) the whole game finally go for it and hit the nobz from behind to pull them away from the objective. They then proceed to fail miserably at doing anything, die horribly, and the nobz rolled a 6 to consolidate, putting them in better board position than they previously held! Tyrant wrecks the trukk, which careens into a big power-converter thing, and blows up harmlessly.

Turn 4
Orks: Nobz roll in and rick-roll the 13 spawned termagants, Kannon shots miss terribly, Ghazgkull and his krew crest the hill covering my objective and look menacingly toward the tervigon and zoanthropes. All of whom were chittering nervously, if they had any sense.

Bugs: Tyrant is basically useless at this point, so it rolls forward to make sure the last of the boyz don't have any hope for tomorrow. Fex takes up covering duty, and the warriors turn back to reinforce the squishy stuff left by my objective. Leech essence and shooting from the fex wipe the rest of the boyz mob, leaving only the nob to flee into the distance like daffy duck at the end of a looney tunes cartoon. Tervigon squats over the objective and the zoes fan out to mount a desperate defense. One more round of warp blasts on the nobz saw two sets of snake eyes for the psychic tests, and I fail an invul save, leaving each zoe wounded once. Good scatters get another ~12 hits on the nobz, cybork bodies keep them alive again (3 wounds make it through).

By this point, we had gotten mixed up on the turns and we rolled for random game length... We were both going on less than 5 hours sleep, so I'm not surprised. A roll of 1 or 2 would have meant that I would have pulled a win, thankfully he rolled a 6 and we kept going.

Turn 5:
Orks: Nobz continue the pain, smearing the zoes all over the place, then move to contest the Bug objective. Ghazgkull rolls 1" too few to assault the Tervigon, but is also contesting.

Bugs: Tervigon girds its loins, gives itself FNP, and rolls in on the nobz. Warriors follow up to cover the objective. The Tyrant was totally out of the fight at this point, so I sent him up the field to claim a table quarter (league scenario secondary objective). Warriors and fex shooting the meganobz = laughable . Tervigon smashes into the nobz, hits 3, only converts 1 wound. It's close and closer in my backfield and any more punishment would see the bugs fold up.

I roll a 2 for RGL; Nobody's anywhere near the Ork objective and the Bug objective is hotly contested and it's a draw, handshakes all around. In the end, despite our turn-sequence mix up, the result was the same. If I had been playing from turn 3 like I had 2-3 more turns I would have abandoned my objective and sent the warriors on an end-run for his, so we would have ended up in the same place.

It was a great game, regardless. I was forgetting (and simply not knowing) rules and abilities all over the place!

Man of the match:
Orks: The trukk nobz, for sure. Those guys pointed their blown-up trukk right at my gaunts, then jumped out and ran riot through my army.
Bugs: Toss up between the Tervigon and the Tyrant, I'm picking the Tyrant, since he actually killed the burnas and the trukk, then put the boyz out of the game, while the tervigon just kinda did what it was expected to.

Final Grades:
Orks:
Ghazgkull and krew: B, They killed a little and didn't die, but better movement rolling would have seen them eat me alive.
Battlewagon: C-, it got big G and the boyz to the fight and killed a couple gaunts, nothing more.
Trukk Burnas: C-, speedbump city, despite killing some devourer gaunts.
Trukk Nobz: A, did everything they were called upon to do, and more.
'Ard Boyz: B+, they got held up most of the game then died to frenzied termagants, but they kept me from focusing on the other, more dangerous stuff.
Boyz: C, they ran up, got shot, then ran away. Average across the board. But, I had to deal with them and they were enough of a threat that I couldn't commit the warriors to move on them, which precluded me from making a play for his objective.

Tyranids:
Tyrant: B, did the work I needed of him, but was too slow to respond to the threat that developed in the center.
Alpha Warrior: C+, he made my warriors with deathspitters better, and they helped kill the boyz, but was otherwise unimpressive.
Venomthrope: B-, dangerous terrain accounted for a few orks and blunted the attacks, though my gribblies still folded up, regardless.
Zoanthropes: F, other than getting a headache then getting killed, the brain bugs did nothing in this game, despite plenty of opportunities to do so.
Termagants: B+, not stellar, but they speedbumped nicely, blew up the trukk, and killed the 'ard boyz before getting stomped.
Hormagaunts: C, held up the 'ard boyz and killed a few. About what I would have hoped for.
Tervigon: B, netted me an additional 24 scoring models, held the objective, didn't die.
Warriors: B, helped kill off the boyz, then kept me from losing the game. It's unfair of me to expect them to kill meganobz.
Raveners: F, yet again, full of fail. Shot nothing, then died.
Spore mines: A, 60 points worth of totally throwing off his deployment and then killing ~80 points of orks.
Carnifex: C, helped kill burnas, took some potshots. He was a victim of mediocre dicing, but he was also not enough.

I was keeping track of my dice, and I was mostly rolling straight average. I'll take it though, since I'm usually far below the average!

My final thoughts:
- I'm keeping the Tyrant with guard, though I'll be putting him in a position to better respond next time.
- The Alpha Warrior and Warriors did fine, and I need the synapse and cover for my MCs, so they stay. Honestly, if his cover saves weren't on fire !, they would have acquitted themselves much better.
- Venomthrope is in, for now. I think he's probably better vs. more specialized assault troops like SW or Chaos.
- Zoanthropes are probably benched for a while. I know they can be amazing, but i can use the points somewhere else.
- Tervigon stays.
- Hormagaunts may become genestealers. They weren't bad, but they weren't amazing either. Stealers could have outflanked, and turned my game from playing to draw to playing to win.
- Termagants stay, the bodies are good, plus with big T behind them they go up in value. They're good for a firebase.
- Spore mines are in, if only for the fun factor.
- Raveners are out; though I admit I sent them on a suicide hail-mary against the nobz, if they had hit the boyz they would have killed a few more but still folded up.
- Carnifex may be out. I feel like I need a second one in the brood for them to be worth it, and then they start to cost so much that they have to work a lot harder to break even.

Trygon is going in, I'm planning to try a more reserve-heavy list next time, maybe try out some Ymgarl Genestealers. We'll see how it goes!

Thanks for reading!
-Dis.

I think the problem with zoans is that you are terrible with their psychic tests. I have found mine to be good cover for my MCs since their inv means they have no need for cover. And they attract an ungodly amount of firepower because of the power of their shooting, so they do a good job of protecting my tervigons

and I know how you feel, over the course of 3 games with my zoans i have periled 9 times already

Great battle report Travis. Personally I think a Tyrant with wings would have been better for you, it would have put him (her, it?) in better position and given it the much needed mobility it seemed to lack in this game. Your psychic tests with the Zoanthropes sucked as usual, unfortunately. Remember when you played Eldar against my CSMs? (although Abaddon rolled 3 1s in a row for his daemonic weapon and was justly punished) Can't wait to field my Salamanders against your nids!!

Great report! I love how you broke all the units into a letter grade based on performance, very informative. I'm going to start to use it myself now when I practice for tournaments with my orks!

/cheers

Good game, I've been saying that the Zoes are too easy to counter, but my cries have fallen on deaf ears. I think the ravaners would do better if they hit something already tied up in assault against your Tervagon or Carnifex. The Hormagaunts need one of the upgrades, running them naked and expecting them to fight Orks of all things was looking for a loss battle (No offense). Why not try a Spore pod for your fex.

Ymgarl Genestealers rock, just use them right. IDK about the trygon.

As for the Orks Jumping out to assault the gaunts instead of flaming them was an odd move.

Yeah, the Zoanthrope Issue is definitely a problem. I'm beginning to wonder if, with so many high strength MCs that have the mobility to get places on the board, if the points of a brood of Zs is worth it... I could have bought a fighty fex for the same points, which would probably have been more useful, especially after things got serious in the backfield.

I feel like the Raveners can be good, and I admit I've been sending them to their doom most times I've played them. I've been using them as a small points-cost band-aid unit, which so far has been unsuccessful. I'm sure they'd be off the charts if I invested the points in making them good and made a concerted effort to get them into advantageous situations. Plus I love how I painted them. But, for now, I think they're going to surf the bench for a few games. Maybe when I grab another box of them, make the unit six strong.

I was playing the Hormagaunts as a speedbump, and bump they did. Their job was to be cheap and fast, hold one of the mobz off until I could adjust my battleline, and be generally expendable. In that respect they performed exactly to expectations. In all fairness to them, they actually did far better than the results shown; I was rolling about average, but my opponent was simply unable to fail 4+ saves in that game. As I've been running them, adding either sacs or glands jumps their cost from a gribbly-level 144 to a eyebrow-raising 192, which puts them in direct competition for a slot that an MC could fill. Basically I'm not sure if I want to invest the points in T3, 6+ save models. In the example of 24 basic Hormagaunts vs. 30 Ork 'Ard Boyz, assuming a full engagement with the Nids charging:

Nids swing:
72 attacks (hit ~3+, counting talon re-rolls, which of course I forgot! )
42 hits (wound 5+)
14 wounds (4+ save)
~7 Orks dead

Orks return attacks:
69 swings (hit 3+)
46 hits (wound 4+
23 wounds (6+ save)
~20 gaunts dead

Gaunts lose by 13, No Retreat wounds kill ~11 more, unit wiped.

If I'm going to buy them an upgrade, It's going to be Toxin Sacs, since they already have Initiative and +1S nets the same result as toxin sacs without giving the benefit of being able to kill wraithlords and other MCs. So, same situation...

Nids swing:
72 attacks (hit ~3+)
42 hits (wound 4+)
21 wounds (4+ save)
~11 Orks dead

Orks return attacks:
57 swings (hit 3+)
38 hits (wound 4+
19 wounds (6+ save)
~17 gaunts dead

Gaunts lose by 6, ~5 more die, only 2 remain.

Allowing, of course, for my maths to be frighteningly wrong, I'm just not sure I like the numbers. If they got toxin sacs and adrenal glands, and they started re-rolling wounds, then the curve swings up, but they're also costing close to 250 points!

Now, if we substitute pretty much anything other than 'Ard Boyz, even a 10-man Marine squad, the Gaunts probably acquit themselves much better. I want to take Hormagaunts. I've just got to find where they fit, at what points, and use them appropriately for the investment. I'm looking at a second unit of fighty Warriors with rending claws and adrenal glands as well, to fill the assault role.

As for the Burnas not burning, I was a little surprised too. the Fex had shaken their trukk on the previous turn, so they couldn't flame from the (relative) safety of the transport... Maybe he figured they were going to die and decided to go down swinging. Maybe he was just really tired. We were both running on empty by the time we got to the table yesterday morning.

-Dis.

Hormagaunts need toxin.