I got my first game in with the newly-formed Legion of Chance, versus my Tyranid-playing friend. Again, it's a 1500, Emperor's Will, Dawn of War (we rolled Vanguard Strike but chronically disagreed with it). His list was as ever:
1500 of Tyranids
Winged Hive Tyrant with two pairs of scything talons, Warlord, Use Lowest Leadership trait
(Took Biomancy and got Endurance and Enfeeble)
Tervigon with Regeneration and Catalyst
10 Termagants
25 Hormagaunts with toxin sacs
3 Warriors with 2x deathspitter and scything talons and 1x barbed strangler and scything talons
3 Raveners with rending claws and scything talons
Tyrannofex with rupture cannon and dessicator larvae
Tyrannofex with rupture cannon and dessicator larvae
My list and summary after the jump.
Master Bryss' Legion of Chance - 1499
Chaos Lord with Terminator Armour, Mark of Khorne, Gift of Mutation (failed), Axe of Blind Fury, Warlord, Soul Blaze In Melee trait
Sorceror with Mastery 3 (Took Biomancy and got Smite, Enfeeble and Quickening)
20 Chaos Marine with Mark of Nurgle, 2x plasma gun
10 Berzerkers with 1x chainaxe (Champion)
10 Berzerkers
5 Terminators with 2x power fist, 2x power axe, 1x power maul (Champion)
5 Raptors with 2x plasma gun
5 Raptors with 2x meltagun
Bryssnotes: Neglected Veterans in favour of more men. The Sorceror goes with the Nurgle Marines and tries his damndest to make them awesome. The Berzerkers are there as counter-assault. Yeah, this list is reliant on the 5--man units in Hammer & Anvil and has no anti-air. But I thought the solid core of Troops would work to my advantage.
Game went as follows:
- The Tyranids won every roll-off and went first. His Mysterious Objective gave better Cover, mine was Nothing of Note. In Turn 1, the Tervigon barely managed to produce 5 Termagants before blowing his sphincter. As ever, the Troops were deployed at one end, and the bigger stuff on the other, with the Flyrant in centre position.
- Pretty much everything advances in my general direction, which is to the left board corner where all my Troops are (having reserved anything capable of Deep Strike). Shooting downs a few Berzerkers, but nothing serious. The Flyrant is ludicrously close, as are the Raveners.
- I fail to Enfeeble the Hormagaunts, which would have negated the effects of the Catalyst cast on them earlier, due to the Tyranids passing their Deny the Witch, the first time I've seen that happen. Still, my shooting downs 5 of them. And yes, I also advanced a bit.
- In Tyranid Turn 2, I lose a few Chaos Marines. The Hormagaunts attempt to charge the leftmost Berzerkers, but fail by an inch or two, but the Flyrant and Raveners engage my rightmost Berzerkers and kill everyone bar the Champion. Thankfully, this is the unit without a chainaxe.
- I decide I should really take First Blood, so kill the 10-man Gaunts unit with the Chaos Marines. The Berzerkers I have left successfully charge the Hormagaunts, who are down to 17 now. I lose half my unit but Sweep the Hormies. And I lose the Champion to the Hive Tyrant.
- Meanwhile, on the other side of the board, all my units come in. The Termies and Lord successfully plonk down in front of the Tyrannofices, but my Plasma Raptors mishap and go back to Reserve. The Melta Raptors do no better, landing in terrain and landing too far away to shoot anything. I kill a single Warrior with twin-linked bolter fire.
- Tyranid Turn 3 is spent well, the Flyrant charging and Sweeping my big Chaos squad, and the Raveners depleting my remaining Berzerker unit with little damage taken in return. One Tyrannofex charges my Terminator unit, and then regrets it when the Lord takes off four of his Wounds. On the other hand, I have now lost 3 Terminators, including one with a Fist and the Champion. The other Tyrannofex charges my Raptors, and I lose all but two.
- My Turn 3 is pretty miserable. The Plasma Raptors attempt to Deep Strike near the Flyrant, but mishap again and die horribly. I lose my remaining Berzerkers to the Raveners. My Daemon Weapon rebels, and my Chaos Lord loses a wound. I also lose the last Power Axe Terminator, but manage to kill the Tyrannofex with a Power Fist. I lose one Raptor in the other combat, but stay in.
- Tyranid Turn 4 is spent getting close to the Chaos Lord, who is Enfeebled, and then charged by both the Tervigon and the Flyrant. The Tervigon Challenges my Chaos Lord, who is of course forced to accept. He then dies horribly while the Flyrant devours the last Terminator and the last Raptor is bumped off by the Tyrannofex. I am completely tabled.
So, what in holy hell can I draw from that? Other than the fact that in all honesty the Gimmicky Plasma Army would have done better.
Let's face it, I spent the first quarter of the game reacting. I waited for the Hormagaunts to come, I relied on Enfeeble and it backfired. If the Hormies got the initial charge, my Berzerkers would have been even more frakked. When I finally went on a proper offensive, the Deep Strike mechanic kicked in and lost me my special weapons base. The Lord was properly terrifying when he got wound up, but being himself Enfeebled didn't help. The way I struck in, there were too many priority targets and only one unit left to deal with them.
Did I really have anything that could have struck down the Flyrant? Let's face it, I wanted it to go and assault something and kill it, leaving it exposed for a turn. Unfortunately, my Champion didn't want to die, so bang goes that plan.
Did I really split my Troops correctly? What would happen if I fielded 20 Berzerkers and two squads of 10 Chaos Marines, both with two plasma guns, minus the Mark of Nurgle? The Berzerkers were unable to support my main core, but my main core couldn't really attack properly. 20-man CSMs don't get any more special weapons than 10-man ones, after all. And it's not like I'm banned from attaching witches to Khorne units...
Did the melta Raptors really add anything? Apart from being slightly cheaper than plasma ones? For the cost of that unit, maybe I could have something with a little more punch? How about:
Master Bryss' Legion of Chance Mk.2- 1499
Chaos Lord with Terminator Armour, Mark of Khorne, Axe of Blind Fury,
Sorceror with Mastery 3, meltabombs
15 Berzerkers
10 Chaos Marines with 2x plasma gun, Veterans of the Long War
10 Chaos Marines with 1x plasma gun, 1x autocannon, Veterans of the Long War
5 Terminators with 2x power fist, 2x power axe, 1x Reaper autocannon 1x power maul (Champion)
4 Terminators with 2x power fist, 1x Reaper autocannon, 1x power maul (Champion)
5 Raptors with 2x plasma gun
Bryssnotes: Not quite WSIWYG yet, I need to change one Terminator to hold a Power Axe.
Anyway, this list builds on the idea of the predecessor, except I've flipped both ratios. The last list was 2:1 Berzerkers: Marines and 2:1 Raptors: Terminators, this is the opposite. I've even found room to buff up my Leadership on the non-Fearless Chaos Marines. It's not really much better than the last list at anti-air, but I now have two twin-linked autocannons if that's any help.
Oh, and as for why I don't have two units with two plasma guns, it's that I only own three CSMs with that weapon. Plus, the Autocannon is slightly cheaper and doesn't Get Hot.
Tomorrow the Chaos review rages on. Signing off...