Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

My wife and I are working on a Last Stand game mode, where the Eldar have been overrun and must try to survive against a swarm of Tyranids. This is our first test, and it needs a lot of tweaking but here is the report.

Tyranids:
Swarmlord w/guard
Tyrannofex
4x10 Termagants with Devourers
3x10 Gargoyles with poison
3x2 Zoanthropes
Trygon Prime
8 Genestealers

Eldar:
Farseer
Avatar (Fastshot)
2x5 Wraithguard
2 Wraithlords (Scatter lasers)
Fireprism
2x10 Dire Avengers
5 Rangers
10 Warpspiders w/exarch
6 Swooping Hawks w/exarch
Crimson Hunter


The rules:
Eldar sets up first on the two middle, no closer than 12 inchs from the table edge, so she has a 24"x24" setup zone.
Tyranids can deploy on any edge.
Swarmlord and Fex must come in 2nd turn
Every turn the Swarmlord is alive Tyranids can roll 3d6 and respawn vanilla 'gants or gargoyles from whatever edge the SL came in on.
Eldar are fearless, there is no where to run.
Eldar must survive to turn 6

By turn three, the Nids are running low on bodies and only a few Zoanthrope blasts have weakened the Eldar defenses.

I've never seen Pink Wraith Guard before, very unique
Love the paint schemes for both armies and I'm enjoying the battle

I think, in order to make this mode more fair after seeing the shooting gallery effect of this battle, we have to do night fighting. Even with regenerating units, it just seems that the nids cant reduce the incoming number of shots fast enough.

I only brought in the Fex for fun, next time Ill probably use something thats actually useful.

Most of her heavy hitters are still alive, 16 Dire avengers and 3 rangers fell. But compared to the Nids staggering losses, I think she's the clear winner this time around.

Absolutely amazing paint job on the Tyranids! Neat idea for the game as well.

Enjoying this report. Can we a look at the lists at the end?

With the Swarmlord dead I had on the board:

2 Zoanthropes
18 Gargoyles
20 termagants


We ended up calling it at that point, she still had
Farseer
4 Avengers
3 Rangers
8 Warp Spiders
8 Wraithguard
Avatar
1 Wraithlord
Fireprism
Crimson Hunter

So she definitely crushed the Tyranid assault.

We plan on modding the rules a bit, and even reversing positions where the Eldar are striking at my last breeding pool.

Its brutal at my house fighting Eldar all the time, Ive won the last few games but in this fight she was able to lay into me with so much magic 6 AP2 shots. Because we made her guys fearless I didnt have too many advantages, even with respawning Gargoyles.

We'll figure it out though. Thanks for checking it out.

I liked this idea, and I certainly think it's a fun and fluffy mini-game for 40K.

Here's an idea - allow your swarmlord to spawn any troop, but make it a roll on a table:

1.) Ripper swarm (2d6 bases)
2.) termagant brood (3d6 models)
3.) hormagaunt brood (3d6 models)
4.) genestealer brood (2d6 models)
5.) Warrior Brood (D6+1 models)
6.) Tervigon! (D3+2 Wounds starting)

Then you have some real variety, the swarm-lord is bringing all kinds of beasties, just make their biomorphs wysiwyg and keep just the dominion power on any spawned tervigons. To add to the flavor, allow them to come on any edge instead of just the one swarmlord is near. It should add to the 'overwhelming' nature of nids, and still be balanced because the eldar simply need to survive, rather than eradicate, all the tyranid models.

Also your wife is pretty.

Maybe you cold try some of the scenario's from the Anphalion Project if you want to introduce a bit of variety to your games? It shouldn't be too difficult to modify the scenario's to fit the idea of Eldar investigating the base (or perhaps a maiden world that has gone silent).

The Anphalion project scenario's also generate the Tyranid forces randomly. It was tetrisphreaks suggestion that made me think of it.

Not that I'm suggesting you stop developing your own scenario's mind you. I always like to see new ideas.

The only issue is that Im limited to what I own atm, Ive no longer got any hormagants since I converted them to genestealers.

I honestly think nightfighting and/or a much higher terrain density can even it up. Or maybe the inclusion of a flyrant or some special rules...

Spore mine artillery comes to mind.

Did you guys play this over 2 days, or was your friend sweating so profusely that she had to change.

BTW, I could totally tell that you were the eldar player. Ha, ha....j.k. Great report. I like the premise for the game.

Oh, and nice paint jobs as well.

Just nice to see a female into the hobby and gaming aspect of 40k both. Hard to find. Good catch sir, good catch!

Haha I just have a lot of hatred for the new eldar codex, Im sure once I get the Nid box I'll stop whining so much...the random "anyone can get AP2!" gets to me sometimes :(

Our third house army is probably gonna be Tau, so maybe I can match her shooting.

And yea we do usually play over two days, we have an 11 month old running around and Im military, so often we can only play a turn or two at a time. Warhammer replaced video games for us.