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I wasn’t planning on batrepping this so I apologize for its brevity. Ill share what I can recall and talk learning points from the Bugs perspective.


1850 Capture and Control, I played against an Eldar army that had:
(this is from memory, I know he had these units though I may be off on the numbers for each unit)

Eldrad plus 5 Warlocks
Avatar
5 Rangers
5 Rangers
10 Dire Avengers, bladestorm
10 Dire Avengers
10 eldar warriors with Warlock and Missile launcher
Eldar Wraithlord no range weapon
Eldar Wraithlord no ranged weapon
Fire Prism with Halo Field
5 Dark Reapers with leader
10 Fire Dragons with Firepike leader

I fielded this:

Tryranid Prime, Deathspitter
3 Hive Guard
3 Hive Guard
Tervigon, catalyst, toxin, adrenal
Tervigon, catalyst, toxin, adrenal
10 Termagaunts
10 Termagaunts
10 Genestealers, Adrenal Glands and Broodlord with Talons
10 Genestealers, Adrenal Glands and Broodlord with Talons
Tyrannofex, Rupture Cannon
Tyrannofex, Rupture Cannon

We deployed our one OBJ each – he went first. I deployed everything in cover as much as possible or used bugs to create cover and outflanked both Stealer units – I planned to use them to contest his objective while I controlled mine. We both deploy centrally across from each while he has some extension on his right as his OBJ is closer to that board edge.

First turn shooting, he puts a wound on a Tryrannofex with the Prism and moves forward, he kills some gaunts, I make cover saves on the big bugs. I took advantage of cover obsessively, forcing HALF of his effective shooting to miss is key. I move up so the Impaler Cannons are in range and hang out in cover. They soften up some of the Dire Avengers and put 2 wounds on one of the These cannons are great.

The Tyrannofexi target the prism and miss – I missed the prism completely 4 times though next turn I dropped it with 2 rupture cannon shots rolling double 5’s on the damage table – it had halo fields. These guys are going to stay in the list.

We danced back and forth for the first two turns denying each other the ability to move, shoot, and assault the other. My Stealers both come in on turn 3 - one unit on each side of the board. The unit coming in on his left is too far from the OBJ to be of use – this is not good, I really find this kind of inefficiency distracting. To use outflanking, I need more units of them or more reliable outflanking. This requires a change to my list.

The arrival of the Stealers changed things and my opponent moved forward to get his Avatar, Seer Council with Eldrad and a Wraithlord into the scrum. These were supported by 2 units of Dire Avengers with Bladestorm and a unit of Warriors. I was able to soften these targets prior to the move forward with 2 turns of Impaler cannon and fleshborer fire – destroying one wraithlord and putting 3 wounds on the Avatar, killing 2 warlocks and about 6 Dire Avengers. To counter this assault move, I produced additional Guants – I didn’t produce any turns one or two. These new tormaguants created assault lanes not previously seen and they created cover saves/interference not previously seen. Having adrenal glands and Toxin sacs was a good call.

Meanwhile, the stealers threatening his OBJ take a blistering turn of fire from his Dark Reapers, Fire Dragons and Rangers. Having a Broodlord helped and deploying them in cover was KEY – I survived with 4 bodies – the Broodlord had one wound left.

My next turn of shooting kills the Avatar and some more Dire Avengers. My surviving genstealers assault the Fire Dragons, killing them and then move towards his OBJ.

We had to end at bottom of turn four. It was a tie – I missed consolidating onto his objective by 3 inches – I needed a 5, I rolled a 2.

Things I learned last night:

Tyrannofex shooting is ok – 6 T6 wounds with a 2+ save are awesome, be more aggressive with these – do not just sit back and shoot with them. Get them in cover or make your own with bugs. Thumbs up on these guys just need to be more aggressive with them.

The Hive Guard are real champs, they killed lots of Avengers, the Avatar, a dreadnaught and put some wounds on the Seer council. Cover saves are key – tyranids EXCELL at generating cover against armies that don’t have lots of templates. I wish they came in broods of 2-5.

Mind War is dangerous to Nids!!! I got extremely lucky – he used it 5 times against one of my Tervigons – I lost one wound to all of that - ONE. That’s not normal rolling. It’s the Eldar version of JAWWS. Im considering getting a Deathleaper in the list.

Stealers are deadly even just 2 or 3 of them. I don’t like outflanking them without having a reliable way to get them to the side I want. For that reason I want to re-tool the list to include a Swarmlord.

Bugs need some way of getting down range. Dropping or outflanking or flying..... I need to make my outflanking option more reliable and more durable. The list requires some way of getting down field to get to the opponent’s OBJ’s.

Tervigons are solid troops choices. I spawned 4 times generating over 40 Termagaunts (at end of game, one tervigon was still viable, the other couldn’t reproduce anymore). These are the perfect OBJ holder. Tervigons ability to produce babies that can deploy 6 inches from her, move, shoot and assault is awesome.

My new 1850 list will look like this:

Swarmlord
1 Tyrant Guard
3 Hive Guard
3 Hive Guard
Tervigon, catalyst, toxin, adrenal, Crushing Claws – this one outflanks
Tervigon, catalyst, toxin
10 Termagaunts
10 Termagaunts
12 Genestealers – these outflank
Tyrannofex, Rupture Cannon
Tyrannofex, Rupture Cannon

I think think this improves my outflanking significantly. I didnt do tooo much with the Tyranid Prime other than save lots of HQ points. To make room for the Swarmlord - I dropped a units of stealers. The stealers I have left will be supported by FNP from the tervigon. Both coming in on the same turn and side (more reliably anyways).

Nice batrep, but what's nicer are the things you learned from the game such as trying to assure what side your outflankers come in on and including a Swarmlord in your re-worked list.

I agree, that Tervigons are easily the best objective holding force in the Dex. I take one just for this purpose.

Keep up the testing and you'll settle on something you'll eventually be completely happy with.

Thanks Fiend - Ive been watching Shep's experience closely and realize Zoanthropes are key. But I also saw the effectiveness of the Hive Guard. Keep them out of LOS was key to their success.

To get at least one unit Zoa's into the list - Id drop the single Tyrant guard and exchange a unit of Hive Guard with 3 Zoa's in a pod.

Id walk the Lord and 2 Fexi towards whatever target I think they could handle. The Lord taking cover from the Fexi. Id support them with the Zoa's if needed as well with half the Tarmies.

The non flanking Tervigon, Hive Guard and the rest of the Tarmies guard my OBJ.

The Flanking Tervigon and Stealers take it to him supported by the Zoa's (if needed).

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing! I've got a couple thoughts as well:

kaiservonhugal wrote:Mind War is dangerous to Nids!!! I got extremely lucky – he used it 5 times against one of my Tervigons – I lost one wound to all of that - ONE. That’s not normal rolling. It’s the Eldar version of JAWWS. Im considering getting a Deathleaper in the list.

Eldrad can't use Mind War more than 1x a turn; he is allowed to use duplicate powers, but nothing gives him permission to use 2 psychic shooting attacks a turn.

Mind War would have been far scarier used on your Tyrannofexes, with their leadership 8.

Stealers are deadly even just 2 or 3 of them. I don’t like outflanking them without having a reliable way to get them to the side I want. For that reason I want to re-tool the list to include a Swarmlord.

I'm be wary of false economy here. Your new list lets you reroll outflanking (changing 2/3 into 8/9), but it does it at the cost of halving your effective out-flanking force. I think you're better off with numbers over rerolls. You don't always want to outflank stealers - infiltrate is a very attractive option, especially when you're going first.

If you wanted to save the points spent on the Prime, consider moving one of the two Tervigons to HQ. Sure, it's no longer scoring, but with two in the list, lack of scoring units shouldn't be the main issue (unless something very bad is going on otherwise).

If you dropped the Prime and the Broodlords, you'd have enough points to run 3 units of 10 stealers, which gives you pretty good odds on outflanking.

Tervigon can't outflank UNLESS you take a Hive Tyrant with Hive commander and have the Tervigon be a Troops choice. Your list can't outflank a Tervigon with the Swarmlord as he doesn't allow any troops choice to outflank like a regular tyrant's Hive commander..

hmmm i thought it was the Swarmlord that allowed a troops choice to outflank - codex is in the car - ill check it tomorrow.

The Mind War mistake - I should have caught that - clearly it was 2 shooting tests.

Shep - I like the Tervigon move to the HQ slot:

Tervigon, catalyst
3 Hive Guard
3 Zoanthropes in Pod

Tervigon
11 Termagaunts
10 Genestealers
10 Genestealers
10 Genestealers
10 Genestealers
Tyrannofex, Rupture Cannon
Tyrannofex, Rupture Cannon

I went with downgrading the Tervigons in order to get the Zoanthropes into the list.

I think Zoanthropes are better not deep striking as they are better suited to moving round with your force tank hunting. Makes your opponent think about what they are going to shoot at. The genestealers or the zoanthropes