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Hey Dakka!

It was requested for us to play skyblight vs AM, and we did this week using a mission catalog mission, hearts and homes. Rob played Astra Militarium with a knight ally, with Justin Cook playing Skyblight. Check it out let us know any comments or concerns, and what you would like to see for future battle reports!


As always like, subscribe, follow, with the links below in my signature!

Want to say thanks to you guys for making this such an enjoyable task for our team! Without further ado!

I really enjoyed watching that

A blob squad should have no problem dropping a FMC a turn(especially with prescience and monster hunter from yarrik)

Also was he using his stops to hit units outside of the combat? I would think that would be a great way to wittle down the other units that are near by, while staying locked when you want to

He did stomp out of combat which is why one unit was down to one garg that died to dangerous terrain. The blob should have no problem but the precision shots were used to pick out the auto cannons, which quickly slowed his ability to do so

I fought an endless swarm twice. The first time, 60 poison sac Hormagaunts returned to the board out of a Trygon hole. The second time, I killed all the synapse and won handily. I still wonder about the fairness of getting hundreds of points added to your army. Just something to keep an eye on.

I still can't believe I am seeing guard blob lists like this without an ADL. That alone plus the quad gun would have made such a big difference. You figure the 4 TL auto canon shots with interceptor and skyfire and the better save is worth half a platoon blob anyway.

He's snap firing at fliers anyway and he has more then enough twin links shots that he can afford to be going to ground every turn and get back in the fighting his blobs.

Would have saved him from the focus fire on his auto canons as well.

I love yarrick but I gotta say, you need to sacrifice one infantry squad and and get him 30 conscripts to hide in. Then when you need to go to ground every turn in games like this he can still issue orders (you don't go to ground with him and conscripts). two blobs going to ground behind an ADL and getting up each turn would have screwed the nids offensive power. This is also why I think priests are rubbish in blobs, fearless hurts in half your matchups.

TLDR;
So basically, one PIS with autocanon for 30 conscripts. Then the 3 priests and the heavy flamers for the ADL w/ QG and I think this game is WAY closer. Great report though, I love the play by play and format.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

slaede wrote:
I fought an endless swarm twice. The first time, 60 poison sac Hormagaunts returned to the board out of a Trygon hole. The second time, I killed all the synapse and won handily. I still wonder about the fairness of getting hundreds of points added to your army. Just something to keep an eye on.

I agree, I fear in a desperate move to make nids viable we may be opening Pandora's box here. Free models that can't be contested on units with deep strike just seems like an easy way to break things further.

 Red Corsair wrote:


Automatically Appended Next Post:

slaede wrote:
I fought an endless swarm twice. The first time, 60 poison sac Hormagaunts returned to the board out of a Trygon hole. The second time, I killed all the synapse and won handily. I still wonder about the fairness of getting hundreds of points added to your army. Just something to keep an eye on.

I agree, I fear in a desperate move to make nids viable we may be opening Pandora's box here. Free models that can't be contested on units with deep strike just seems like an easy way to break things further.

I've seen a few comments about the free unit issue with tyranids and felt I should chime in. Tyranids have had access to 'free' unit generation since 4th edition. Back then, you could pay a small pts cost increase on guants to give them without number, which let them return to play in the following turn if their unit was destroyed. In 5th edition tervigons replaced this mechanic with free unit generation every turn, but you have to pay for the tervigon (which is also scoring in most circumstances.) In 6th edition we still have a (nerfed) tervigon and now with formations gaining acceptance in the tournament scene we have skyblight. You have to pay a fairly hefty tax to get those 'free' gargoyles-4 fmcs in fact. This is likely every bit as good as tervigons were in 5th and without number in 4th, but I don't think its really any worse. I think the other things that skyblight do are much, much worse; getting 6 extra fast attack slots, an extra flyrant (THE damage dealing unit in the book) and the 'uncontestable' rule for the gargoyles is pretty broken mechanically.

TLDR I'd worry about the other skyblight rules before worrying about the free unit generation which tyranids have already had access to in some form or another for the last 7 years.

Also I agree with Red Corsairs list changes for the IG-priests were really cool until I realized that they made blobs not able to go to ground, and I think a skyshield or aegis line would be a nice addition to artificially generate cover.

The free unit generation is an issue though. It is very difficult to cost for, and here it is on jump pack units rather then slow, 12' range gaunts.

When I've faced the tervigon spam in the past, it was vulnerable to focus fire on the big beasties, and the overall list was slow and out run by more nimble units. You could pod into the back and shoot the big ones, or get that wolf lord in amongst the gaunts to rack up the attacks.

The skyblight list combines very good respawning psudo troops with a good set of flying MCs. That is difficult to counter, given that flying MCs are the best units in the game currently.

I'm curious however if the IG player could fill in his deployment with conscripts in order to prevent MCs from flying over his units, and thus preventing vector strikes for a turn or two.

@Durandal-I agree its hard to appropriately measure cost, my assessment was just that the other aspects of this formation (allowing 3 dakkaflyrants and 9 total fast attack choices) is probably worse than the gargoyles that 'may' regenerate. I'd also argue that harpies and crones are some of the worse units in 40k...they're insanely fragile. I couldn't even deploy them this game because I wasn't going first and I could have potentially lost two of them turn 1 to autocannon fire. Couple that with the absurd dimensions of the models and they really look terribad compared to other units, let alone other flying MCs like deamon princes and greater deamons. The reason 4 of them was working so good is that I had 6 other credible threats in the army in the flyrants and gargoyle units. I would also say that the same tactic you mention for dealing with tervigon spam works well with this list: pod into the backfield to kill the warriors that are scoring/synapse and then get a wolflord into cc with gargoyles to rack up the kill tally for I assume saga of the warrior born?

I also didn't ever vector his blobs. Most of the flyrants shooting is more valuable than the d3+1 dead randomly allocated guardsmen. I heavily utilized both precision and focus fire with those flyrants, and it was mulching through guardsmen at a pretty substantial pace. I also don't know if an aegis line would bail out this guard army in rethinking it because i have 5 flame templates on fmcs (3 on flyrants, 2 on crones).

Thanks for the battle report! Very informative, and I think that the Skyblight will be our best answer for these new guard! However, I think a Wyvern or two would've helped with that Gargoyle problem...

Thanatos,

I admit my experience with the new Nids is minimal at best. I was just assuming since you can vector strike and shoot, you would attempt to do so when feasible. They didn't go into specifics in the video, but S8 vector strikes were mentioned.

I also agree it is much easier to hide, and buff, a demon prince compared to the bids. I do like the Nid models better though.


EDIT: for cursed spell check changing Nid to mid.

Durandal wrote:
Thanatos,

I admit my experience with the new Nids is minimal at best. I was just assuming since you can vector strike and shoot, you would attempt to do so when feasible. They didn't go into specifics in the video, but S8 vector strikes were mentioned.

Well I did try to vector down his vendettas with hive crones, but 3d3+3 s8 vectors combined over the course of the game netted me a massive 2 hullpoints Made up for by of course all the free gargoyles I got.

True, and Rob did a great job of getting his knight into combat and keeping it hidden from vector strikes

Yea this game would have been different with a better guard list, as stated priest really make it easier to remove droves of guardsmen due to the lack of going to ground. I played 90 guardsmen this past weekend with a sub optimal venom spam list and after focus firing turn one was able to kill well over a third of those guardsmen, had he purchased an aegis and been able to go to ground I wouldn't have killed a quarter what I did.

What happens when a model gains fearless that has gone to ground? They pop back up right?

What you could do is keep all your priests concentrated, have people go to ground and then have a priest join in the moving phase. pop up and then shoot normally in the shooting phase. Especially against FMC there is no reason to not go to ground. Really good idea, I didnt think of that.

Especially if you combine it with Yarrik so they dont run.

If you're fearless there is no go to ground. They have no fear, so hiding isn't something they do.

Nice to see skyblight in action... My current list is close to this one but I need some more testing to see if the skyshield and biovores are worth the points.

 Roci wrote:
If you're fearless there is no go to ground. They have no fear, so hiding isn't something they do.

Nice to see skyblight in action... My current list is close to this one but I need some more testing to see if the skyshield and biovores are worth the points.

You can however be not fearless, go to ground, and become fearless. At which point, per FAQ, you stand up and act normal. For example, joining a priest to a blob.

 jifel wrote:

 Roci wrote:
If you're fearless there is no go to ground. They have no fear, so hiding isn't something they do.

Nice to see skyblight in action... My current list is close to this one but I need some more testing to see if the skyshield and biovores are worth the points.

You can however be not fearless, go to ground, and become fearless. At which point, per FAQ, you stand up and act normal. For example, joining a priest to a blob.

Yup. I use that tactic often with my tyranids. Lictors G2G for a 2+ cover save in ruins, then a flying hive tyrant or other fast/nearby synapse unit gets close enough to make them fearless so they can stand up and assault. I never thought about the idea with guard but it's not a bad idea at all in this case.

Just remember that you dont join until the end of the movement phase, so the unit has to be in a position where you can shoot your target.

I've seen you guys use those plastic measuring tools (duh, not tape measures). Where did you get them? 9-)

 Moridan wrote:
I've seen you guys use those plastic measuring tools (duh, not tape measures). Where did you get them? 9-)

Aka, TAC tools or measuring templates.

You can get them in a few ways. gale force 9 made them for a bit but I don't see them on their site any loner. A lot of the touneys give them out in swag bags.. or you can go to sites like the one below and buy your own.



http://www.gdesignsinc.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=category&virtuemart_category_id=23&Itemid=137

yeah,
Loved it.


Panic...