Bastion vs. Aegis - A Fortification Dilemma

It seems like everyone brings an ADL these days.

With my Chaos Space Marine list utilizing Daemon allies, flyers, and fragile troops which I want to keep off the board I knew I needed a comms relay. The question quickly became to take a bastion or an aegis line to secure myself those sweet, sweet, rerollable reserves.

Aegis Defense Line

If you play 6^th edition Warhammer 40K then you are more than familiar with an aegis line. It is cheap, long, and gets the job (in this case reliable 4+ cover) done. Because my troops are T3 with a 6+ save, 4+ cover literally is a life saver (for whatever life zombies possess). The aegis also serves a key purpose in protecting the havocs in case the deployment zone does not have a ruin or area terrain on a hill. With the short sides of the aegis and the table edge you can ensure they are protected on all sides from flyers. There really is not much to say about the old dependable aegis line.

Blood Angels List - Assault Is Not Dead

Last Spring I took a short break from Tyranids and picked up Blood Angels for a change of pace. I typically had two Land Raider Redeemers and on Land Raider Godhammer in each list. The army was my first foray into power armor and was a refreshing change. They even appeared at two tournaments, finishing 2-1 at both. Blood Angels have not gotten much talk though since sixth came out. I have been playing around with this list since this summer, but with last week’s 11^th Company discussion of the army and Hulksmash’s similar yet independently developed list I think it is time for me to post my version of the BA Air Assault.

Librarian (Epistolary)

Chaplain

Sanguinary Priest

5 Terminators (5 TH/SS)

11 Death Company

Death Company Dreadnought (Blood Talons)

Death Company Dreadnought (Blood Talons)

10 Tactical Marines (Lascannon)

10 Tactical Marines (Lascannon)

Stormraven (TL Lascannon/TL Multi-Melta)

Stormraven (TL Lascannon/TL Multi-Melta)

Bastion (Comms Relay)

1850 Points

Chaos Space Marine Analysis and List Building: Part One

This series of posts has been composed a few paragraphs at a time over the last week as I have begun the journey of learning a new book, and play style, as I move away from tyranids this next tournament season. Rather than changing previous ideas or reworking this post I have left it as is. I feel that is shows the process I use while creating and testing lists as well as providing insight behind why I am and will continue to make the list building choices I have been. This is part one of four interconnected posts.

I wish I had the time to write all of my thoughts on the new CSM book and other wargaming topics in my head. Most notably of the topics I will not be covering right now is how hard the hobby bug is getting me. I have big dreams involving doing a fully converted CSM army. I also have only 18 days to paint 2200 points of Dark Elves for a fantasy GT, which is itself a crazy task. Enough of that though, this is about Chaos Space Marines.

I have played two games with the new book. I faced a 3 flyer and a 4 flyer Necron list each game. My first game I had the Biker Lord and Daemon Prince from my last CSM post, 3 untis of havocs with missiles and flakk, 4 small cultist units, 1 large cultist unit, 5 spawn, and two heldrakes. My opponents dice were cold, but I got to see how the Chaos units interacted. The second game I took out the Prince and added Typhus with six units of zombies, and switched the spawn out for some bikes. Here is my unit by unit analysis.

Pyrovores at a GT? My Midwest Massacre List

I clearly should not ever say what I will post when, as my life of being a college senior who is both triple majoring and working full time is not conducive to being able to set a firm writing schedule. But you don’t care about my lovely life; you want to know why anyone in their right mind would bring pyrovores to a GT.

The answer is simple. Pyrovores fill several holes in my current list.

Oh, that isn’t a good enough answer? Lets look at what 45 points gets you. S4 and T4 is a bit low for that cost, but 2W and a 4+ isn’t bad. The key here is that each pyrovore is a walking heavy flamer, plus its close combat attacks ignore armor (thought at I1 and 1A you don’t want to be fighting man to man. My concept is that my list is prepared to engage targets and finish them, against hordes my big expensive beasts get stuck in. Dropping 3 pyrovores in a mycetic spore will do a huge number to anything not in power armor. Using them in this way also gives me two units for line breaker and lets me put   accurate pressure deep behind enemy lines.

Video Battle Report - Tyranids vs. Daemons of Chaos (Flying Circus)

 

Last Thursday I played against one of the regulars in the Twin Cities, Frozen North Gaming club founder Jeff. In the past I had only faced Jeff’s Grey Knight Purifier lists, but over the summer he has been building up some Daemons of the flying circus variety;

Fateweaver

Lord of Change (Breath of Chaos/Chaos Icon)

5 Flamers

10 Pink Horrors

10 Pink Horrors

5 Screamers

Daemon Prince (Wings/Breath of Chaos/Bolt of Tzeentch/Mark of Tzeentch)

Daemon Prince (Wings/Breath of Chaos/Bolt of Tzeentch/Mark of Tzeentch)

I brought;

Hive Tyrant (Warlord/Wings/Twin-Linked Devourers x2)

Hive Tyrant (Wings/Twin-Linked Devourers x2)

Doom of Malan’tai (Spore Pod)

Tervigon (Onslaught/Catalyst/Cluster Spines/Toxin Sacs)

Tervigon (Catalyst/Cluster Spines)

11 Termagants

10 Termagants

2 Carnifex (Twin-Linked Devourers x2)

Trygon (Toxin Sacs)

Trygon (Toxin Sacs)

Aegis Defense Line (Communications Relay)

The mission is best 2/3 while playing the scouring (5 objectives at 3VP and fast attack is scoring and fast give 1KP/table quarters/kill points).

Check out the video after the jump!

Tyranids and Fortifications: Two Lists

As readers may know, earlier this month I moved back to MN from California. If moving into a new place isn’t enough, I have been training for my new contract at work 60 hours each of these last two weeks. All of this means I have not had much time for writing. I have been able to play in two tournaments, placing 4^th and 5^th out of a field of 15 and 16 respectively. I have tried some new things including zoanthropes and hormagaunts which I will be writing about in the future. Today I have two sample lists involving fortifications.

I have not yet used any fortifications yet in 6^th, but I have faced them, and I recognize two that could significantly benefit Tyranids. The first is the skyshield landing pad. While the unfurled benefit of not scattering is great for players who make extensive use of deep striking, the real benefit is when the landing pad is shielded. This rule gives all models on top of the landing pad (which if the picture to the right is any indication could be my full 2000 point list) a 4+ invulnerable save against shooting attacks. Note that that is not a cover save, but an invulnerable save. This is huge from the Tyranid perspective as getting a 50% chance to shrug a wound off a T6 monster who often wouldn’t be getting an obscured save is huge. The biggest issue I have had so far this edition has been weathering shooting when I am going second, so this is huge! The downside is that many events, including the rapidly approaching Midwest Massacre, are not allowing the skyshield. If I could bring he skyshield my list would look like;