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Will you edit the turns into the OP?

BTW, just wanted to mention 2 things.

1. Mucolids, just like spore mines, do not count towards any victory conditions. They don't score/deny, are not worth VP's, do not give up First Blood and cannot claim Linebreaker.

2. The mawloc's special attack does not scatter twice. It just scatters the 1st time, you then roll to wound. Whatever still survives underneath the blast, you then roll again to wound.

Carry on....

@ jy2 - Okay good to know - thanks !!

Eldercaveman wrote:
Will you edit the turns into the OP?

Done !

Rule issues regarding mawlocs:

1). You can't look out sir the "Terror from the deep" because it is not a shooting attack. Same reason you can use it on an invisible unit.

Thanks for the batrep, nice work!

Why can't you LoS a malow attack ? You can LoS melee attacks .

Because it isn't a shooting attack. You just deepstrike onto a spot and instead of mishapping per normal rules, you place the large blast template.

I think if it assigns wounds you can LOS - can't remember where it is - book isn't here. It is why you can't LOS the 6 roll on a stomp - it just says removed from play.

But as long as it wounds you can LOS I am pretty sure. Dang it I knew I took it out of my work back pack. I think it is under assigning wounds etc.

Fact is people make mistakes most every game - nobody is perfect .


Mid Game Analysis
Okay so on to the fourth turn which is a crucial point in the game since it can end next turn. I need to maintain position to win. Obviously my opponent made a few mistakes but none of them are deal breakers. He still has four Flyrants left with some ground support. I feel his major weakness though is the ground support and he is forced to play from behind since I have First Blood plus I can pick up the Relic with BikeStar and make it even more tough for him. This is probably what he expects though. BikeStar is at full strength and I have both my flyers coming in. My supporting ground units are starting to run low though which is kind of a problem with the list since I opted to drop a third biker squad in exchange for the flyers. Let's see how it plays out this turn.


4th Turn - BikeStar
In come comes the Stormfang and Stormtalon for a late beta strike. I move the Stormfang (Black Death) into position so it can drop Hellfrost and the remaining ripper swarm and light up the wounded Flyrant with its twin linked multi-meltas and lascannon. The Stormtalon (Little Raven) splits off to target the Warlord Flyrant and draw some heat off the remnant biker squad off to the side of the table. The other biker squad makes a break to the back of my opponent's deployment zone - he will have to dedicate at least one Flyrant to deal with them... The play is to force him to fragment his army. The first biker squad tucks itself into a building with a ceiling - the Warlord Flyrant will have to go into glide mode to be in a position to shoot them. BikeStar moves around the Relic to box it off setting their sights on the Mawloc for the easy target.

In the psychic phase I first attempt to Shroud BikeStar again but it's finally denied... Most of the unit is situated in ruins though for the 2+ cover save (Stealth in Ruins). Next I Shriek the Malenthrope toasting it back into the local spawning pools. Oh well Xenos we knew yee well. The Rune Priest then successfully casts Prescience on BikeStar.

Little Bird fires into the Warlord Flyrant forcing it to jink and drops a wound. Black Death vaporizes the remaining ripper swarm with Hellfrost via PotMS and also punks out the wounded Flyrant. BikeStar then literally obliterates the Mawloc.

Another great turn for BikeStar. Tyranids are down to three Flyrants and the Mucolids plus I have Line Breaker twice over.

4th Turn - Tyranids
My opponent decides to go for the easy target moving his remaining Flyrants to target my Flyers. Warlord Flyrant will target Little Bird while the other two go after Black Death.

Psychic Phase - again I am able to deny Psychic Scream on the BikeStar... I can tell my opponext is getting frustrated. He then hits them with a couple Warp Blasts and my Chapter Master suffers another wound bringing him down to his last two wounds.

Warlord Flyrant manages to down Little Bird with some hot dice. The other two Flyrants combine to glance Black Death twice but can't manage to knock it out.

We both lost some this turn but I maintain my lead.

Turn 4 is up !


5th Turn - BikeStar
This could be the last turn so time to play it smart - BikeStar moves on top of the Relic and the Chapter Master picks it up. Hidden biker squad sits tight while the other biker squad remains in the enemy deployment zone while moving as far away as possible from the Flyrants. Black Death (Stormfang) flies off the table.

In the psychic phase the Librarian attempts to shroud BikeStar but is denied. I decide not to attempt any other spells.

In the shooting phase BikeStar targets the closest Flyrant and manages to drop one wound via bolter fire. It then passes its grounding check on a roll of 3.

5th Turn - Tyranids
My opponent wants to concede but I ask him to finish the game and he agrees. Two of the Flyrants go to glide mode maintaining a safe distance so I can't charge either if it goes to turn 6. The Warlord Flyrant remains aloft coming in close to BikeStar.

All three Flyrants then unload their devourers into BikeStar and score lots of wounds. I lose two grav gunners and the Rune Priest takes a wound along with my Chapter Master (now down to his last wound).

We roll to see if there is a sixth turn and its on !


6th Turn - BikeStar
I don't want to eat a lot more shots to the face again but I'm sitting on the Relic. What to do ?

Black Death comes back on and makes a beeline towards one of the gliding Flyrants. The Librian and Rune Priest split off from BikeStar heading over beside the other gliding Flyrant. The biker squad not hiding in the building doubles back to draw a bead on one of the gliding Flyrants.

Both Psykers cast Force and the Rune Priest is successful. I also am able to successfully cast Misfortune on one of the gliding Flyrants.

Black Death lights up the first of the two gliding Flyrants and drops two wounds. BikeStar targets it as well, finishing it off. The biker squad lights up the other gliding Flyrant that is Misfortuned and drop one wound. The psykers then tap it as well with bolter fire dropping another wound.

The psykers then assault and manage to get past Overwatch tanking the wounds on the Rune Priest. The Librarian eats it but the Rune Priest is able to just drop the Flyrant's last wound... Really close call - I was banking on the 2+ versus Overwatch and the Flyrant not being able to drop both psykers in close combat. Counting on two things to go your way is risky but it paid off this time.

With that my opponent concedes with only his Warlord and Mucolids left.

Post game analysis to follow.

It feels like Bikes got to many cover saves. I thought that if you have people in ruins or obscured enough you get a base save, not stealth. If you jink you get 4+, these do not stake on eachother rather must be picked, which jink is usually picked because it is the better save.

White Scars have Skilled Rider which stacks with stealth in ruins. Know your rules.

I do not play White Scares, nor do I play against them that much but thanks for the clarification. Thats an awesome rule, wish I had it on some ork war bikers.

 Dozer Blades wrote:
White Scars have Skilled Rider which stacks with stealth in ruins. Know your rules.

A minor (yet important) note: White Scars do not have Skilled Rider, their Chapter Tactics just happens to give them all the same benefits, without actually invoking the rule. It's like if I said you had +1S when charging, rather than saying you have Furious Charge.

The important part is that it allows them to stack their Chapter Tactics with actual Skilled Rider, which is what you see every now and then with Ravenwing allies for wacky 2+ Jink deathstar shenanigans.

The Forge World Warboss biker has skilled rider and makes Warbikes count as troops.

 Dozer Blades wrote:
The Forge World Warboss biker has skilled rider and makes Warbikes count as troops.

Yeah , Im trying to invest in some more bikes, only got three

Need more !!!




POST GAME ANALYSIS
I was happy with how the new additions to my list worked out - before this would have been a very tough match with no dedicated anti air support to handle the Flyrants. The two psykers pulled their weight and along with the Chapter Master were the star players. Seizing the initiative was huge as I saw how my opponent deployed and was able to react first. My opponent made a mistake with the Lictors which should have been held in reserve to deep strike. Even with the advantage going into the final turns he made the right moves to create an opportunity to win but my dice came through for me.

I think that the right armies can handle Flyrant spam and its a lot like playing against Ad Lance... If you can quickly eliminate a couple early on it greatly reduces their overall synergy and exposes the weakness of the Tyranid ground support. For me the key was to first eliminate the VSG then take it from there. I think three Flyrants is more than enough. Two to three dakkafexen would have really helped the Tyranid army strengthen its ground support plus I would take Deathleaper in lieu of one of the stock Lictors just for the reduction in leadership to the Librarian - BikeStar was shrouded most of the game which was a great defense - without it would have greatly restricted its movement.

Happy holidays everyone ! ! !

Deathleaper is pretty expensive for what you get...plus you don't have any extra HQ slots when you run 5 Flyrants otherwise people would run 6

Overall, this was an interesting game. As has been noted, I don't think the Tyranid player did the right thing in a couple of deployment choices that really could have made the game a lot tougher for you. jy2 is correct about denying you the relic with a FMC that you will have difficulty removing, plus the volume of fire from 5 Flyrants should reliably be deleting whatever unit has the relic if they deem it necessary. Doesn't always work with just 4 + onslaughting the fifth but your opponent definitely made it easier on you by leaving 40% of his offense off of the board.

I got FB so denying the Relic wasn't a big deal.

I wounder what would have happend had Flyrants had first turn. It seemed that it was that that was a huge factor for this match up. Starting turn one with no shrouding and all flyers on the field shooting at full bulistic skill maaan.

So what do you think was the Tyranid player's mistakes in this game and how do you think he should have played it? Do you think his army would have been better served with 5 flyrants on the table or do you think that keeping 2 flyrants in reserves was the right move?

997Turbo wrote:
Rule issues regarding mawlocs:

1). You can't look out sir the "Terror from the deep" because it is not a shooting attack. Same reason you can use it on an invisible unit.

Thanks for the batrep, nice work!

Yes you can. It doesn't need to be a shooting attack for you to be able to allocate wounds.

Good job on the win but getting stealth in ruins (while playing on a board with lots of ruins, it sounds like) and stealing the initiative doesn't really make for definitive proof bikestar can consistently beat 5 flyrants. If he went first, deployed all 5 flyrants, and you were taking 3+ saves instead of 2+ (or played on say, a forest themed board) it would of been a very different game. On a bell curve this would fall as an outlier with high variance.

@ jy2

I think the Tyranid player's main mistake was not holding the Lictors in reserve. He was planning to deep strike the two Flyrants held in reserve since he was initially going first before I seized and wanted to make sure he could get some shots off versus my flyers. He asked if he could swoop them in from reserve after I seized to wit I agreed. My flyers threw him off a bit as he was not expecting them.

He made a good comeback towards the end but my dice kept rolling hot.

Our second game was BAO style without the mod to Invisibility which I rolled along with Perfect Timing. I got the infiltrate WLT and took out a good chunk of his army again in the first two turns.

 Dozer Blades wrote:
@ jy2

I think the Tyranid player's main mistake was not holding the Lictors in reserve. He was planning to deep strike the two Flyrants held in reserve since he was initially going first before I seized and wanted to make sure he could get some shots off versus my flyers. He asked if he could swoop them in from reserve after I seized to wit I agreed. My flyers threw him off a bit as he was not expecting them.

He made a good comeback towards the end but my dice kept rolling hot.

Our second game was BAO style without the mod to Invisibility which I rolled along with Perfect Timing. I got the infiltrate WLT and took out a good chunk of his army again in the first two turns.

I think it was also a huge mistake to hold the Flyrant's in reserve. There was 0 reason to deepstrike them, I'm guessing he hasn't played either Nids or the game for too long. Will you be doing a full BatRep of the second game or just a summary?

I have to go back to Canada again this following week so probably my next BATREP will be in a couple weeks.

I'm one the fence in regards to deep striking the two Flyrants. I understand what he wanted to acheive but it didn't work out for him. He is a solid player but didn't have much if any experience versus SM bikers which was unfortunate for him.