In a nutshell I feel that 6th edition is a huge improvement to Warhammer 40K. Friday I will be posting up a battle report of sixth edition and the end of the week will be looking more in depth at 6th edition. Today though I will be running down the seven games I played over the weekend.
Here is a rundown of my games.
I played a newer player, which was fine as I had only had the rulebook for an hour at this point. We played at 1,000 with me having 2 tervigons, 1 trygon, genestealers with a broodlord, gants, and two hive guard. Elijah had a Captain, a full tactical squad, a combat squad, a predator, a dreadnought, a 5 man assault squad, and a scout squad in a storm. We played a three objective mission with long table edges. I won first turn but Elijah seized.
While he did a few wounds shooting, the fact that I had so much T6 really limited his ability to do damage and mitigated the effects of snap fire and such. The game ended on turn five with me holding two objectives and him holding one with scouts in cover. I had taken out most of his army in close combat.
There were two take-aways from this game. First, though I had bemoaned changes to fleet and charge ranges, this actually greatly increased the usefulness and reliability of combat MC’s. Mixing this with premeasuring meant good things for Tyranids. Second was related to the brood lord and psychic powers. I went with biomancy and was very disappointed when I ended up with shooting related powers (the broodlord is BS0). Between needing to roll on the table and not ever being a big fan of broodlords, I think I am going to shy away from them. I will watch to see how others use them, but I do not feel that it is my style.
Game 2 - 6th Edition – vs. Dark Eldar
This game I brought a prime and two carnifex (TL Devourers), a Trygon, a Tervigon, and one hive guard unit. Mars brought three blaster warrior squads in venoms, wyches in a raider, three ravagers (all with disintegrators), and a haemonculi. We were playing with three objectives and the diagonal deployment.
So Dark Eldar are still tough for nids. Mars was smart and put everything out of range of my shooting, and because his range is greater than mine I had to come out of cover to take mid table in order to guarantee range later in the game. The result was that I lost the trygon turn one. The next turn I took down venom and took wounds on a both carnifex. The fact that wounds in 6th come off the closest model really can increase survivability of things with the right placement. Turn three I bring down a raider and a ravager. Mars realizes that the carnifex unit needs to die; they will shred his vehicles. By turn five he has one mobile venom left and one objective while I have two. He goes flat out onto one of my objectives and immobilizes himself. Now under 5th the warriors would be dead, but it appears in 6th they just disembark like one would after a wreck. If anyone has feedback on this let me know, as I would love some insight on it. Because the game ended there the result is either; a victory for Tyranids if the warriors die from the flat out vehicle immobilizing itself, or if the dark eldar warriors live then the game was a tie.
One other thing is that the warlord abilities are not that big of a deal; as in I could see tournaments not using them. Maybe others will like them? What I do like are the secondary objectives. These add a lot of balance to the game and at least now while they are fresh and new add some good, though basic, thought to game play.
Game 3 - 5th Edition - vs. Space Wolves - Tournament Round One
I had been hanging out with Tim that morning already, so it was great we were able to play. Tim’s list was Logan, a rune priest, 3 five man wolf guard squads (each model was armed differently but they included two stormshields, a cyclone, and dual combi-plasma each), and two long fang squads with missiles. For all three tournament games my list was;
Tervigon (Onslaught)
2 Hive Guard
2 Hive Guard
2 Hive Guard
Tervigon (Catalyst)
10 Termagants
2 Carnifex (TL Devourers x2)
Trygon (Adrenal Glands)
Trygon (Adrenal Glands)
The game was three objectives with pitch battle. One objective was in cover in on each side just out of my deployment zone while the third was a few inches from terrain midfield. I got first turn and moved up while focusing my hive guard on Logan’s squad. I did not kill any. He returns fire and puts four wounds on a Trygon. On my second turn a spawn into cover midfield as well as for the second time into the cover on the right. My reserved gants move on the board and run out of line of sight and onto the left objective. On the right I charge my wounded Trygon into Logan’s squad killing two thanks to four passed Terminator saves. Logan kills the Trygon and consolidates. Logan’s squad and the long fangs kill my center HQ Tervigon but the spawned gants were too far away to die from the brood progenitor rule. On the left side he uses jaws killing a carnifex. I easily passed the test with the trygon and was lucky to roll the one result I needed to keep that Tervigon alive. The last wolf guard squad shot at my midfield termagants who went to ground and passed their leadership after taking some losses.
Turn three I charged the trygon and carnifex into the rune priest’s squad wiping them off the table. I focus fired my whole army into Logan’s squad. All that remained was one terminator and Logan with one wound. Tim moved Logan to the full terminator squad and moves them toward my firebase on the right. He sends the lone terminator toward my hive guard but is out of charge range. Logan’s squad can not charge the hive guard after only rolling two threes on his charge through terrain. He forces another leadership check on the gants who pass. Both the Carnifex and the Trygon were behind a building and were not shot.
In the last two turns I strung out a gant squad so that if the center ones failed a run I could sent another to hold the objective while in synapse from the last Tervigon who was hiding on the left out of long fang LOS. I killed the lone terminator. Tim charged my firebase first killing my hive guard. I returned fire killing Logan and all but one terminator (Hive Guard/Carnifex/20 Gants). The lone terminator ran off one gant squad in combat and took that objective. Both turns he forced the center gants to take Ld checks but I passed my Ld6 all four times they needed to winning the game 2-1.
Game 4 - 5th Edition - vs. Chaos Daemons - Tournament Round Two
My opponent Liz had a great looking ocean themed Chaos Demon army including two tzeentch daemon princes, two tzeentch heralds, 2 units of six fiends, 2 small units of plague bearers, and 4 minimal units of horrors (one included the changeling). She had beaten a Tau Army last round. I was quite scared of Liz’s army getting into combat with me. Luckily for me she was not excited to face Tyranids in combat. The mission was kill points and spearhead.
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| A New Meaning to Preferred 'Wave' |
I moved into midfield and she got her preferred wave of fiends, heralds, and princes, running things to get into better position. She had one fiend unit mishap and I placed it in the center of my army to guarantee full shots on it. The other fiends were out of combat range as they scattered too far away. In shooting I killed all but two of the fiends in my deployment zone after moving my units aways from them. The carnifex unit shot the closer daemon prince and killed it outright themselves. I got one Trygon in combat with a herald and another in combat with the remaining daemon prince. I won both combats and held. She got three units of horrors including the changeling. Shooting did a few founds to a Tervigon. She charged it with the lone two fiends to try and finish it but it killed them instead. The other fiends killed the Trygon in combat with the Daemon Prince. The herald in combat held while the other took shots at things from range.
I needed to take care of the Changeling asap. Because of my low leadership it is almost certain I could end up shooting my own units, and when you have a unit with 24 S6 twin-linked shots that is very bad. Luckily a single cluster spine shot from a Tervigon took out four of the five including the changeling. The carnifex unit shot at the fiends and either killed them all or brought them down to only one or two. Hive Guard killed off the remaining daemon prince and the Trygon finished the herald. Liz conceded in turn four as I was ahead on kill points by a considerable margin.
Game 5 - 5th Edition - vs. Dark Eldar - Tournament Round Three
This was a rematch against Mars. He brought a Haemonculi, a raider with bloodbrides, a raider with wyches, three venoms with warrior squads, two disintegrator ravagers, and a razorwing. He had beat a space marine bike army one game and Tau in the other. The mission was Dawn of War and Capture and Control. Both of these were a huge advantage to a dark eldar army. Out objectives were both in cover in opposite corners of the board. I won the roll to go first and placed the HQ tervigon in cover on my objective and the troop tervigon on the 24” line as close to his objective as I could get. Mars went in dawn of war reserve with everything but his three heavies which were deep striking as he had given them retrofire jets. On my turn one I spawn with both Tervigons bubble wrapping my objective and putting troops in cover near his. I walk everything else (except for my Trygons which are deep striking) on in the center so that I could take on his force on either side of the table.
He comes on with the venoms by his objective behind terrain and the raiders behind terrain in the center. In shooting he kills my troop tervigon and the nearby gants run after failing saves from the brood progenitor rule. My remaining tervigon poops out after spawning again on my objective. None of my reserves come in. I move up further in the center shaking the wych raider and taking off its dark lance. I also explode the bloodbride raider, they fail morale from casualties and run off the table with a roll of eleven.
Mars gets the razorwing from reserve and fires three shatterfield missiles and all the guns at my carnifexs. I save all but the dark lance wound. The venoms fire at the Carnifex squad and kill one.
On the top of three I get both Trygons from reserve and deep strike them both next to venoms without scattering. The gants continue to fall back. Hive Guard immobilize and weapon destroy the razorwing, the Carnifex unit explode a trueborn raider. Either they all died or they ran off the table. One Trygon gets no damage result while the other gets a shaken. Hive guard explode the undamaged venom. The last hive guard wreck the wych raider.
Mars gets both ravagers which deepstrike without issue. They kill a Carnifex. His wyches run toward their objective but do not make it into terrain. The remaining guns on the razorwing do a wound to the Carnifex. On my turn one Trygon assaults and kills the trueborn from the exploded venom and the other assaults the venom that was stunned, exploding it. I had hoped I could have had the carnifex shoot the wyches, but I failed my instinctive behavior and ran toward the ravager which was closer than them. Hive Guard wreck one ravager and stun the other. I am holding my objective with three troops and have two Trygons on his. All he has left is a stunned ravager, a wych squad, and five warriors. At this point Mars needs to leave to go to work, and we both agree that it is clear I will be able to clear his objective and we call me the winner.
The TO totals the scores and the top three is myself, Mars, and Liz. This is my first time ever getting first in an event and even though it was only a six player field I am pretty excited. With the store credit I get I pick up three paints, a new hobby knife, and the black templar upgrade box as I will be using bits from it on my blood angels death company.
Game 6 - 6th Edition - vs. Space Marines
Even though it wasn’t a full tournament, we were still matched up by a TO, and so I faced off with Elijah again. The mission was the 6th edition kill point game and we had the pitched battle deployment (which is called Dawn of War just to confuse everyone). Elijah had added a third dreadnought (Ironclad this time), another tactical squad, some shooty terminators, and some wargear to go from his 1,000 point list to his 1,500.
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| Nom Nom Nom |
Unfortunately for him I got first turn and the center of the table had a large piece of LOS blocking terrain. This meant not only could I shoot at his vehicles while hiding my hive guard but it meant that he couldn’t hurt my monsters. By turn two I had wrecked all three dreadnoughts and taken the turret off of the predator as well as getting the Prime in combat with a combat squad and the trygon in combat with the terminators. I ended up tabling him at the top of four. Elijah was a great sport about it and we talked strategy about how he could have built two fire bases to split my force and prevent me from getting cover while taking advantage of his longer range. I feel like Elijah will be a very good player one day. He asks questions, listens, and always remains positive. He is also a good painter too. To be honest though, everyone there was very nice. They have a good little community in Stockton.
Game 7 - 6th Edition - vs. Tau
This was my seventh game in a single day, but it also was by far the best and will be turned into a battle report that will be posted Friday. A preview though…the game was short table edges with five objectives and heavy support was scoring. This was going to be an uphill game.
More on that later this week!
About the venom that immobilizes at flat out speed:
ReplyDeleteYou probably already know, but the fast skimmer would wreck and the passengers have to disembark following the rules of "Effect of damage on passengers" p. 80 in the BRB.
They disembark (placed next to hull/flying base) and make a move within 3". If some models can't disembark, even by following the emergency disembark rules (normal disembark, move, pinning test, no volountary actions rest of turn) then they are destroyed.
Then take pinning test and vehicle is wreck.