First- I know I haven't posted in two weeks. The only excuse I have is that my family went on vacation and I took the opportunity to spend more time at work. The business is growing very quickly and that has led to some late nights for me (and the big wigs for sure!). Well, the family is back and I'm reduced to normal activities, so I suddenly have time again!
Okay, with that out of the way, let's talk about our favorite game. The new Tyranid codex was released and has spent the last few weeks at the top of nearly every tournament in the nation. The army is really powerful, undercosted, and terribly confusing from the layers and layers of special rules and conditions. While a veteran player may understand it all, it takes a Matrix-minded person to really conquer the ins-and-outs of this force. My son is neither a veteran or tournie-bro, so he has fallen prey to this confusion.
This battle took place weeks ago, but I got too busy. In this case, I'll just include some pics and wax memories at the end...
Our armies set up and with the secondary objectives. I've noted that the secondary for Tyranids are pretty bad. I played with my Eldar and that army is a close 2nd as far as power level compared to the xenos, but with better objectives and less layers of rules to remember.
Warp Spiders are rude with their blast weapons that demolish any horde of infantry in front of them.
For the first time in half-a-dozen games, I actually remembered to use my Banshees. They definitely did a number to the Genestealers. Unfortunately, the Broodlord was having none of it and invited all his buddies in to finish off the Exarch. Her dodginess definitely helped, but it wasn't enough with so many claws coming from so many directions.
By the end of the second round, the Eldar had successfully cleared half the battlefield and watched in amusement as the surviving monsters stomped forward to do some damage.
The concerted assaults all ended and, when the dust cleared, the 'nids had very little left and the Eldar had lost about half their forces. But it wouldn't be enough as the pointy-ears controlled almost the whole field and stared down a Maleceptor and a couple gribblies.
With a resounding victory in three rounds, it was obvious that my son didn't have a strong grasp of his army and all the special rules. Here's where things get fun.
This last weekend, I actually read the book and used his army against his Dark Angel space marines. This gave me the chance to show him some of the rules he wasn't using. The first and most important was the Psychic Imperative effect. Regardless of going first or second, the Tyranids get to choose a special effect and apply it to anyone within 6" of a synapse creature. The Zoanthrope imperative is the best as it gives all bugs a 5+ invulnerable save (4+ if you're a synapse that doesn't already have it built in). This would make the army very survivable, even against the world-ending firepower of the Eldar technologies.
The other special rule that he wasn't sure of was the Synaptic Link range thing. The ability to 'chain' psychic powers and leader effects is huge and can really impact the battle, as long as you remember to keep all your synapse creatures within 12" of each other and 6" of all the little units. Suddenly, (unlike space marine aura bubbles), you can buff units all the way across the table and really pick-and-choose where your tactical focus is. This is a huge and abusive rule that sets the Tyranids apart from everyone else.
The last rule that he wasn't sure of was how to use the Maleceptor. The blogosphere has deemed this the most broken model in the whole army and even leaked a 50-pt. increase in cost to try to balance him out. Why? Because the monster has the ability to wipe an entire marine unit from the boards with just mortal wounds! Its psychic powers (and the imperative that allows him to cast and action at the same time) can be very oppresive and the model is not squishy, meaning that it will be around for some time to oppress the enemy with his brain(s).
Now we have to play a game where he uses the Tyranids with this new understanding of how to use them. That scares me as my victories have been based on facing a half-power army. I'm excited to see the results.
Thanks for keeping up even when I don't. Happy Gaming!
