Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Vassal Batrep: Nids vs Razorwolf

Ok, more Tyranid stuff.  Still working on my Pod list so MagicJuggler and I decided to give it a real test.  He brought the nastiest Razorspam Space Wolf army to see if my Podders could hold their own against the best.

Here's the list

110: Rune Priest in Power Armour w/Chooser of the Slain; Tempest's Wrath; Storm Caller.

121: 2 Wolf Guard in Power Armour w/ Combi-Meltagun x2, Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasmagun
121: 2 Wolf Guard in Power Armour w/ Combi-Meltagun x2, Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasmagun
121: 2 Wolf Guard in Power Armour w/ Combi-Meltagun x2, Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasmagun

160: 5 Grey Hunters w/ Flamer & Wolf Standard, Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasmagun
160: 5 Grey Hunters w/ Flamer & Wolf Standard, Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasmagun
160: 5 Grey Hunters w/ Flamer & Wolf Standard, Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasmagun
160: 5 Grey Hunters w/ Flamer & Wolf Standard, Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasmagun
160: 5 Grey Hunters w/ Flamer & Wolf Standard, Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasmagun
160: 5 Grey Hunters w/ Flamer & Wolf Standard, Razorback w/ Lascannon, TL Plasmagun

90: 1 Land Speeder (Heavy Bolter; Typhoon Missile Launcher)
90: 1 Land Speeder (Heavy Bolter; Typhoon Missile Launcher)

128: 1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour, 2 Long Fangs w/Missile Launchers, Squad Leader in Rhino w/ HKM.
128: 1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour, 2 Long Fangs w/Missile Launchers, Squad Leader in Rhino w/ HKM.
128: 1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour, 2 Long Fangs w/Missile Launchers, Squad Leader in Rhino w/ HKM.

Total points: 1997

For reference, here's mine.

So, just looking at things on paper, I'm in for quite the adventure.  Each unit scares my MCs, each unit scares my gants, and each unit is capable of insta-popping my poor Zoanthropes and Spores.  With that in mind, I'll have to use the magical powers of stunlock and Hive Commander to shut down as much of hit shooting as possible while deploying as many targets as possible so he can't destroy all of them, respectively.

Map
So, there's a good spread of LoS blocking and obscuring terrain, so my normal MCs may be safe just walking.  I'm going to have to use that terrain to my advantage to protect my units from all the AP2 flying around.

Deployment
We got Pitched Battle and Annihilation.  With all my free KPs in the Pods I wasn't a big fan, but considering the Razorspam had a lot more than me it shouldn't be too bad.  Juggs won the roll off and set up a castle.  I decided to reserve everything since he had first turn and I didn't have much terrain protecting me from an alpha strike.  I did outflank the Tervigons as a calculated risk, 2/3 of the time they'd be in good position while 1/3 they would be utterly useless.  In retrospect, it was a poor move. 

Turn 1
Castling up, waiting for the Tyranids to show up.  Notice the use of smokes and positioning to protect every vehicle from my alpha strike.  Also, to follow up on why outflanking is fail, check out how the marines are positioned on the board edge to keep me from coming anywhere but right in his face, where all the guns are.

Turn 2

Unfortunately, my Vassal folder got corrupted and all my pretty pictures went kaput.  What was to follow was a one-sided beat down.  I didn't have enough firepower to shut down the Razorbacks and made some glaring errors in placement and deployment (outflanking Tervigons, dropping DL too close) that got capitalized on.

I'm going to be prepping my Loganwing for upcoming events, but when I get the chance I'll go back to the Bugblower and see if I can make it work.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I doubt you will ever get Nids to work. They are simply a sub par army these days.

Anonymous said...

I'd say stick to the shooty bugs Chumby.... they're far more scary than the podding ones. Maybe the unlucky rolls you get with your zoans doesn't help... but i fear t'fexes and hive guard more than most things.

The loganwing was not nice... but I'd like to have another shot at it.

Chumbalaya said...

I disagree in a big way anon. Nids don't play like they used to, but the potential is there for some very unique and viable builds.

Brolo, I will stick by my shooty bugs for now, but I like trying new stuff out. Playing only BTs and Razorspam isn't exactly the most comprehensive sample size to study :P

Loganwing are in full gear for the tourney season, I'd be happy to feed them to you again.

Anonymous said...

So we're doing power calculations now are we??? And not as in the... who is teh most awesomest kind!

I agree, but I'm not a great player, and other than my terminators,BT aren't generally a great list. Pods are much easier to combat I think. The T'fexs are really nasty and the hiveguard will tear through light mech.

Unknown said...

Dude how many Razors did that have?

Did you take Hive Guard mucka?

Chumbalaya said...

9 Razors and 3 Rhinos. Very nasty stuff.

Hive Guard can't take Pods, so I took Zoanthropes and Fexes instead. I missed Hive Guard so much T_T

MorbidlyObeseMonkey said...

The only way to get Nids to be competitive is to play Nidzilla and spam Hive Guard. Even that build isn't extremely good but it's the only way for the codex to deal with mech.

Chumbalaya said...

I disagree MOM. The Hive Guard Nidzilla shooty awesome build is definitely the easiest to get the hang of, but the Tyranid book has a lot of variety. People are too quick to think that difficult to master = bad.

MorbidlyObeseMonkey said...

Long ranged anti-tank is a necessity for competitive lists. Without it, the army will fail. Tyranids only have it on their MC's, so they are forced to take MC's in order to be competitive. Hive Guard are the only points-efficient anti-tank unit in the whole codex. Harpies and Tyrannofexes are way over costed and I feel sorry for the diehard Tyranids players.

It's not about how easy the army is to play when it is completely lacking in one aspect of the game. If you are playing against foot armies 100% of the time then non-MC spamming Tyranids can be great. Otherwise they fail.

If you have a non-Nidzilla list that can deal with vehicles I'd love to see it. Oh and I consider Hive Guard MC's because of their T6.

Anonymous said...

I realised I didn't really disagree with you on reading your post MOM... just backed it up :p My bad!

Yeah... they do need MCs to pop tanks (I don't count hive guard as MCs, I consider their T6 a bonus to their infantry status), but what do you expect? If all of the little bugs were able to pop tanks reliably it wouldn't exactly be fair or realistic. How many cockroaches does it take to open a tin can?

There are several that are capable of doing it (genestealers, raveners, shrikes, deathleaper/lictors, zoans,primes/warriors....) they just do it with varying amounts of reliability... but like I said, what do you expect, little bugs opening tanks? In my opinion it's just not realistic. A swarm should have big, little and medium-sized bugs... it's what they do.

Chumbalaya said...

MOM, that's worthy of its own post. I'll get to it hopefully by tonight. During the meanwhilst, if anybody has anything to share on the subject, go nuts.

Anonymous said...

hey... why was I censored? I was just making afool out of myself for not reading MOM's post over?

I kinda agree and disagree with his post. Yes, there is no reliable anti-tank outside of T6, but that is part and parcel of a bug list!

Chumbalaya said...

No censoring, I just didn't get around to approving your post cuz I was at work :P I only do it so I get the sweet satisfaction of knowing when people comment :D

Anonymous said...

But you missed a post. The first made me look like a fool for not reading MOMs post properly... oh well!

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