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Trying out a new list against my regular Tau opponent.

The Nids:

Flyrant
LW/BS, TL Devs, Paroxysm/Leach, Hive Commander
Doom in Spod
6 Ymgarls
3 x 3 Warriors with deathspitters in Spods
1 x 3 warriors with deathspitters
2 x Trygons with AG

My Tau Opponent:

Commander in suit with plas rifle and missile pod
2 x 3 Suits with plas and missile pods
6 pathfinders with fish
2 x 6 firewarriors, 1 with fish
10 x Kroot with 4 Hounds (total 14 models)
2 x hammerheads
3 x Broadsides

Ok - so I know warriors get a lot of net hate, but I feel they might actually work in this list. essentially, the only unit in my list that isn't going to draw str 8+ fire is the small stealer unit. So yes you can ID my warriors, but that leaves my Trygons and Flyrant to run riot... that's the theory anyway...

Anyway, we played two games to test the armies out - let me know how you think it will go, batt reps will go up in approx 10 hrs time



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ok, Battle 1 - Annihilation, Dawn of War

My Nids win the roll off, and elect to go second.

The Tau setup fire warriors in a devilfish and their commander in the centre of the board, whilst I elect to deepstrike everything except the foot warriors who outflank (using Hive Commander) and the YmGarls who are dormant.

Tau T1 - 2

The Tau army rolls onto the board, with the Devilfish and commander meeting them on his side of the table. Although the Kroot had elected to be reserved, they come in on the Tau T2, so the most of the Tau army is lined up ready to shoot whatever I bring on. One unit of Crisis suits is still in reserve to deepstrike later.

End of Tau T2:


Nids T2
In my turn, I get everything on except one brood of spodding warriors. I try to use Spods and large cover to give my Big guys cover saves, and send the Doom into the middle of his army as a deadly distraction:


In the shooting phase, we start off with the Doom's spirit Leach. He's in range of a unit of crisis suits, path finders and the broadsides, Both the pathfinders and crisis suits manage to pass their Ld, but the Broadsides suffer 5 wounds! They get cover from the pathfinders though, and he makes all his saves

Firing from the Nids is relatively ineffectual, The Doom casts cataclysm on the Crisis Suits dealing 3 wounds (and taking 2), whilst the Kroot are shot up and flee.

The Ymgarls charge into a Devil Fish, but having moved over 6" can't pen its armour.

The Nids brace themselves for the Tau's counter attack.

End of Nids T2:


Tau T3

The Tau Start by putting a bit of distance between themselves and the Nids. Fire warriors jump out of Devil Fishes, Crisis suits move out of range of the Doom. The other unit of crisis suits fail to come on.

The Dooms spirit leach goes off, taking down 2 pathfinders and putting three wounds on the broadsides (putting me up to 10 wounds!)

Firing sees both the fire warrior squads open up on my Ymgarls, reducing the unit to two. The Devil fishes take out the Dooms pod.

Crisis suits try to take down some warriors, but only manage a single wound.

The remaining pathfinders fail to get a hit on the Doom, So the Broadsides and Both hammerheads light him up. The Doom's warp field goes into overdrive, saving all the ID shots and only letting 2 normal wounds go through.

To top things off, the pathfinders flee the battle.

End of Tau T3:


At this point, the Tau concede defeat. They haven't caused nearly enough damage, and are likely to take heavy losses in the Nids third turn. Preferring to rethink his strategy and have another crack, the game ends with a concession to the Nids so that a second game can be played.

Hopefully I will be able to post the second one tonight (8hrs), or tomorrow.

Comments and criticism welcome. Note - the only reason we didn't continue this game was because it looked like a foregone conclusion and we thought it would be better to squeeze in a second game.

Ok, Second report:

Mission - Seize Ground, Deployment - Spearhead

The Tau win the roll off and elect to go first.

Here is a shot of the battlefield - you can see four green objectives(1 in the top left ruin, two in the open in the middle, one in the far ruin on the right):


Tau win the roll off and elect to go first.

Tau T1 and 2

Learning from the first battle, this time the Tau castle up giving me no shooting lines to rear armour, and having the Kroot as the only infantry able to be targeted by my Doom. One of his Crisis suit units again decides to deep strike.

End of Tau T2:


Nids T2

I had elected my Flyrant to come in from normal reserves this time, just in case my opponent spread out and made it hard to land. The Ymgarls are dormant in the centre ruins on his side of the board.

I roll for what I get from reserve and get my Flyrant, both Trygons, my Ymgarls, a spod of warriors and my outflanking warriors. The outflankers arrive on his side of the board (short edge).


My Ymgarls can spot a crack behind his hammerhead on the right, and charge off the hunt crisis suits.

The Trygons and warriors appear around his Kroot.

The only thing to happen in shooting is combined warrior fire takes down two pathfinders and sends them fleeing for their lives.

In assault my stealers charge into his crisis suits, but only manage a wound.

I'm a bit worried at this point, he has a lot of firepower and I haven't really made a dent... The pathfinders fleeing was a big win though.

Tau T3

In his turn, his crisis suits come down and the shooting gallery is on.

Broadsides and hammerheads bring ID goodness down on my two warrior units and spod. Crisis suits light up a Trygon, but only manage 2 wounds.

Meanwhile, the commander and suits start bringing the pain on my Ymgarls in assault... wait, what!?

End of Tau T3


Nids T3

Start of my turn, and I get my last to warrior spods and my Doom.

The Tau vehicles have moved forward a bit to stop me insta-hitting them, but this has now allowed me to drop my spods behind them and hit rear armour.

New arrivals:


Everything just went like clockwork from their...

Doom leeched some Kroot and firewarriors that got out of their ride - now at 6 wounds.

Shooting saw the Flyrant and warriors combine fire to take down two of the newly arrived crisis suits, and have the last one paroxysmed.

Combined shooting from the spods saw the centre devil Fish destroyed, killing 4 firewarriors and having them flee off the table.

The other warrior squad shot into the back of one of the hammerheads, wrecking it.

Finally, the Doom cast cataclysm into the Kroot, killing a few more. Meanwhile the fire warriors it leeched broke and ran off the table.

In the assault, my Ymgarls finally won the combat, running down his commander and suits, whilst one trygon charged and wrecked the second hammerhead and the other charged and killed all the kroot.


With only an empty devil fish, 3 broadsides and a paroxysmed crisis suit left, The Tau decided to concede.


Well, The Nids went two up today against the Tau. My opponent really wasn't sure how to deal with the list, and I was pretty lucky in my Turn 3 in the second game to bring what was looking like a close game to a resounding win. We agreed at this point the best thing for him to do was rethink how his list could cope against a deepstriking list, and then have another couple of games. I won't give too much away, but be assured the next two games are full games and a lot less one sided.

Anyways - thanks for reading, Hope you enjoyed - and I'll post the next two reps shortly.

Please leave comments on your thoughts of lists, strategy, or anything else

Called it! Na good report. I really enjoyed reading it. Any chance on a closeup of te models?

I really liked this battle report. Thanks for sharing!

This nid list is refreshing !

Good reports !

Very well done. There was lots of open space on the table but you put the pedal to the metal. I'm impressed.

Hi guys, thanks for reading!

@ Ledabot: Thanks - You can see close-ups of my Nids in the link to my blog below, I'll have to take some close-ups of my opponents Tau next time

@ BluCat: Thanks - There will be 2 more battreps up later this week

@ Grenat: Yep - I was hoping to do something a little different from the Hive Guard/Tervy/Stealer lists that you commonly see - I don't think my list is as competitive, but I think it makes up for this by being a bit more unexpected...

@ -666-: Thanks - pedal to the metal is the only thing Nids do On a different note, I probably should have mentioned that we play the area inside the walls on the board as area terrain, so if you imagine each of those wall corners forming a square and the area within counting as area terrain, there isn't quite as much space on the board...

I have now played this Nid list twice more against the Tau, with the Tau list changing slightly (one hammerhead swapped out for a Sky Rail, Crisis suits swapped for bodyguards, other crisis suits swapped for 4 piranna's) - should be fun