It's a Helception.
Played a 1500 point game as Tyranids for the first time, versus a Chaos list that contains
twelve Helbrutes, six of them deep-striking. We used Roll20 as our battlefield of choice, and, as a fair warning, I feel that I should let you all know that we both played kind of lazily. Things such as... completely forgetting to roll for psychic powers until turn 4 happen in this game. So... fair warning
lol. Neither of us were taking the match
too seriously. That out of the way, here's the lists:
My gribbling bunch o' gribblies. Hive Tyrant (Wings, 2xTL Blood-leach Devourers)
25xTermagaunts
25xTermagaunts
25xTermagaunts
Venomthrope
Venomthrope
3xZoanthropes
4xTyranid Warriors (1xVenom Cannon)
3xBiovores
Exocrine
2xCarnifex (2xTL Blood-leach Devourers each)
Taking the Living Artillery formation.
"YO DAWG I HEARD YOU LIKE HELBRUTES" Chaos Sorcerer (Psychic Mastery level 1)
10xCultists
10xCultists
Helcult Formation (1 Helbrute /w a shitton of Cultists)
4xHelbrutes with Helbrute Captain (Murderpack formation)
3xHelbrutes (Mayhem Pack formation)
3xHelbrutes (Mayhem Pack formation)
He didn't give me an actual list, so this is from memory and observation. All of the Helbrutes were stock.
The mission was
The Relic, and we rolled for
Dawn of War deployment. I won the initiative roll and he failed to seize. We rolled for warlord traits- he got something something hatred on his warlord, I got Master of Deception. He rolled for his sorcerer's psychic power and got hemorrhage- I utterly forgot that I had psychic units and didn't roll for anything.
The insanity begins.
So, as you might be able to guess from the picture above, I was utterly terrified of his six deep-striking Helbrutes. Having never encountered any of the Chaos formations before, it more or less dominated my strategic competence. I infiltrated a Venomthrope, termagaunt squad and my Flyrant, setting up the 'gaunts in a big ass conga line. The plan was to move the 'gaunts up into the ruins, grab the relic, then run them the hell back into my deployment zone- the Venomthrope was there to keep them alive long enough to move the relic back. Why were they arranged in a huge conga line then? What was my Flyrant doing up there? No one knows the answers to these questions. I deliberately left a large pocket of empty space in the bottom-right corner to bait my opponent into dropping his 'brutes there, where he'd have the option to either waste his multi-melta shots on 'gaunts, or try to get through the poppin' fresh 3+ cover save my big bugs were rockin' from the Venomthrope and the gaunt wall- I'd then be in perfect position to unload on him with my Zoanthropes, venom-cannon Warrior, Exocrine and Carnifex brood.
With vehicles being unable to pick up the Relic, my opponent's plan was to move everything toward me and kill all things. Simple, elegant, worthy of Khorne.
Turn 1 We forget to roll for warp charges.
I move the 'gaunt conga-line forward, pushing up into the ruins and nabbing the relic. The Venomthrope immediately behind them shuffles around a little bit and the Hive Tyrant goes into gliding mode and flies down the center of the map, putting himself slightly behind the 'gaunt conga line and preparing to line itself up for some rear-armor shots on the deepstriking Helbrutes, completely making my infiltrating of him pointless. Everyone else stays where they are. In shooting, the 'gaunts shoot at the northern-most cultist squad, killing three and forcing them to take a morale check, which they pass. My Biovores target the Helcult and kill a bit more than half of the cultists- because the Helbrute makes them fearless though, the survivors give no feths.
My opponent moves everything up. His Helcult takes a pot-shot at the Venomthrope with its multi-melta, but whiffs. The Murderpack moves up and fires their multi-meltas at my Flyrant, which all whiff sans for one, taking off a wound. My Flyrant giggles and flips them the bird.
Turn 2 We forget to roll for warp charges.
I move the relic-holding 'gaunts and venomthrope back toward my deployment zone. The Hive Tyrant flies back into my deployment zone, putting himself a few inches into the bottom right corner (such was the paralyzing fear that consumed me regarding the deep-striking Helbrutes), and everything else stays where it is. My Biovores shoot at the cultist squad approaching the ruins, killing all but three of them- they fail the ensuing morale check and "game over, man!" three inches. The 'gaunts holding the relic run for their pathetic lives.
He rolls for reserves and neither of the Mayhem Pack 'brutes come in, forcing a cognitive dissonance between relief and butt-clenching consternation to shake me to my core. He moves his Murderpack up and assaults my 'gaunt wall, casually slaughtering them. Shrieking in existential horror to their little 'gaunt Gods for deliverance, they fail their morale check (the Tyrant and other Synapse creatures are too far away to make them fearless), are trapped up against the rest of my units and get destroyed to a man in a cacophony of violence and 70's porn music. The Relic falls to the ground with a clang, and a Helcultist eyes it from afar.
"It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt, over so small a thing..." he mutters.
"So little a thing." The Helbrute gives him a smack.
Turn 3 We forget to roll for warp charges.
"Judgement
tiiiiiiiime" my Flyrant says, gliding to a position behind the Murderpack, which is now toeing my deployment zone. The venomthrope that was behind the 'gaunts carrying the relic freaks out over the mass death he's just witnessed and frantically runs back into the deployment zone, nestling deep within the safety of the Exocrine's blubber. Everyone else stays where they are, still too paralyzed by the prospect of a Mayhem-Pack enema to do anything. In shooting, my Flyrant unloads into the Murderpack's delicious rear-armor, hitting twenty-two times and putting three pens and two glances on the Helbrute Captain. My opponent successfully
LOS's two of the pens (both crew shaken results) onto a nearby 'Brute, the rest kill the Captain. I try to do some
sneaky as feth gak with my Biovores, some
Alpha Legion sneaky gak, that I'm not even sure is legal actually. Twirling my moustache and cackling ominously, I have the Biovores shoot at a spot a few inches behind the Murderpack. I get two hits on the scatter dice and one miss, which scatters a few inches toward the board edge (I totally forgot that I was using the Living Artillery formation and could re-roll scatters). Rolling for my spore mines, the two hits each generate one mine each, and the miss generates two. Being an alpha-level badass, I then assault the Murderpack from behind "just as planned" and detonate the mines right next to that juicy rear-armor. Four strength 5 hits garner two glances, which kills the already wounded Helbrute and knocks a hullpoint off another. Shooting from my warrior's venom cannon knocks a hull-point off of the leading 'Brute, and my Exocrine knocks one more off.
Rolling for reserves, one of the Mayhem-packs comes in, landing right where I wanted them, in that little bottom-right pocket.
His murderpack, now officially pissed-off, roll on the Hulk chart and get the fleet/rage ability again. They move up, preparing to charge my second batch of termagaunts. The little guys clench their buttholes in response- they will not enjoy this. The bottom cultist unit and the Sorcerer continue their slow, leisurely march up the table. Shooting from the Mayhem pack puts one wound on a carnifex, and the Helcult takes a shot at the Biovores and whiffs. The murderpack charges the Termagaunt squad, humming the theme to
Sanford and Sons along the way. The Helbrutes gleefully murder a dozen 'gaunts, but the amazing powah of synapse compels the fodder to act like proper henchmen-
and hold the line god damn it. They hold.
Turn 4 We remember to roll for warp charges. I suddenly remember that I have three zoanthropes and a psychic Flyrant, with no powers rolled for any of them. I opt to not do so since it's my fault for forgetting- allowing only the Zoan's to know warp blast since they have it by default. I roll for warp charges, and we both get three.
My Flyrant flies behind the Mayhem pack, preparing to inflict untold horrors upon them. With the path to the Mayhem pack opened by the 'gaunts piling in to manfight the Murderpack, my two Carnifex move toward the deep-striking Helbrutes. They've waited for this moment their entire lives, and their bodies are ready. My upper-most Termagaunt squad moves forward and nabs the relic, hoping to bring it back to my deployment zone and score some points. In shooting, my Flyrant wrecks one of the Helbrutes, but because the Mayhem pack 'Brutes aren't a squadron, his excess glances and pens are wasted. My three zoans go dolo on the second Helbrute, glancing it to death, and my two Carnifex unload their sticky fun-bullets on the face arms and upper-chest of the remaining pleb- their combined 24 strength 6 shots make quick work of it. I repeat my earlier trick with the Biovores, taking advantage of the fact that the spore mines' explosions technically aren't shooting attacks, to assault the Murderpack's rear armor while they're busy playing mono-consensual dollhouse with the termagaunts. The resulting strength six explosion grievously wounds most of the Helbrutes, but doesn't kill any of them. My exocrine fires into the approaching Helcult but whiffs horribly, as does my venom-cannon warrior. The Murderpack slaughters moar termagaunts.
My opponent rolls for reserves and his second mayhem pack comes in (he rolled before I could point out that they'd come in automatically by this point). Feeling ballsy, he places them in that tiny ass space between the battlement my second venomthrope is inhabiting, and my table edge. The dice Gods reward his brashness by rolling a hit on the scatter die. His Helcult moves up some more, putting them dangerously close to my deployment zone. The bottom cultists and Sorcerer move up as well, seemingly content to watch the war-porn being committed by his Murderpack on the hapless termagaunts. Shooting, my opponent gives me the finger and fires all three of his second Mayhem pack's multi-melta shots at the battlement, rolling a 6 on the damage chart, which counts as a "7" due to AP1 and blows up the battlement, killing the venomthrope inside. It dies the way it lived, screaming profanities at passers-bys and gaking itself. With nothing to really shoot, his Sorcerer gets off his lazy ass and casts hemorrhage on my Flyrant, but misses. Having had enough of my Biovores' cheeky shenanigans, the Helcult charges them and kills one, losing most of his remaining cultists in the process. More Termagaunts are sent to Hell, and imagery of Brock Samson slaughtering terrified Butterfly henchmen in Venture Brothers fills my mind.
Turn 5 We roll a 5 for our warp charges.
Being cocky as hell, I squeeze the Flyrant up against my table edge, giving him line-of-sight to the Mayhem pack's side armor. I also move my Carnifex brood up to prepare for an assault. One of his 'Brutes is within charge range of the Termagaunts holding the relic, and with this being turn 5 I can't take the chance of them dropping it; the three Helbrutes need to die this turn. The Termagaunts perform a mass exodus north-bound, trying to put as much distance between them and the Helbrutes as possible in case gak goes south. In a crowning manifesto for Tyranid badassery, everything that can shoot points and clicks at the three Helbrutes, easily wiping them all off the board. The termagaunts engaged with the Murderpack still fight on, down to a mere handful of mind-controlled
BRAVE AND SELFLESS models. The Helbrute man-fighting the Biovores whiffs and does nothing. With his Mayhem pack Helbrutes neutralized, I eye his Sorcerer, preparing to get Slay-the-Warlord if the game continues another turn.
Without much else left to do, his Murderpack kills a few more Termagaunts, but
still not enough to finish them off, and the Helcult brings the Biovore brood down to one model. He ends his turn and we roll to see if the game continues. It does not.
Endgame. Dead units are deleted, sans the dead Helbrutes, which get grayed out to represent wrecks. There's only eleven of them in that image because the fallen Captain was accidentally deleted.
All in all, I held the relic and he had line-breaker and first blood, granting me a 3-2 victory.
Tactical Acuity Ultimately. there's not a whole lot of serious conclusions that can be drawn from this game. My opponent is still learning the ropes of how to play and was using a for-fun list, and I'd never played against the Helbrutes formations nor as Tyranids before- as well, this was my third game using 7E rules. That said, I had a good time and I have a new-found respect for Tyranid dakka. I was objectively terrified by the thought of 12 Helbrutes surrounding my forces, but when it came down to it I was able to quite easily mow down a lot of them within the span of a single turn- highly impressive. The biovores also did work, and even if it turns out that my tactics with them against the Helbrutes was illegal (I'm still not sure, anyone care to offer 2 cents on that?), I see tons of utility in these guys. if I were to play this match again, I would be much more aggressive with my forces, moving them all up to control the center of the board and wreak havoc on his units. With how unprotected his sorcerer was for most of the match, I could have very easily snatched slay-the-warlord had I not been turtling the Flyrant and most of my firepower in my deployment zone.
My opponent has apparently used this list before, and has yet to win a game with them. The conclusion he's drawn is that the Helbrutes are just too slow and, in the case of the deep-striking ones too unreliable to really take advantage of their numbers. I agree with that assessment, and would add to it that, the fun factor aside, Helbrutes just really aren't good enough of a unit to warrent spamming. They're AV12 at best, which really doesn't mean gak in modern
40K, and their shooting isn't all that good- at the end of the day, a Helbrute is just one BS4 guy armed with one gun. I can see the mind-game value of having a Mayhem-pack for disruption, but I wouldn't take more than a single unit. Beyond that, I might take a Helcult unit for objective sitting and I'd probably ignore the Murderpack altogether. Too many points for what it gives you.
Anyway, that's the report. This is actually the first report I've done, so any comments and critiques on my format would be welcome. I hadn't intended on making a report when I played the match, which is why I only have two pictures. If I do another one, I'll be sure to have more pics and less text.
Hope you enjoyed the batrep.
so no.
