6th edition challenge: BA trep

[Soups]

So, Mortis issued a challenge a while back, about playing the same army in this edition, to see what works, and what doesn't. So here is mine as follows.

 

Me

Libby w/ JP

RAS sword mg x2

RAS sword mg x2

RAS sword mg x2

Sanguinary priest x2 (sword, footie and JP)

Tac Termies Cyclone missile x2

Dev squad ML x3 Las

Dev squad ML x3 Las

 

Him

Flyrant

Tyranid prime

Tervigon

gant

Hormigant

Warrior brick

Warrior brick

Zoanthropes

Hiveguard

Ymgarl Genestalers

Raveners

 

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Deployment:

It was the scouring, where fast attack can score, and 6 objectives. The board was very terrain heavy, just the way I like it, no matter what army is playing. We had our deploy zone be on the short table edges. Dawn of War, I believe.

 

I set up my devestators in the belll-towers and ruins on my side. He was hunkered down behind all the factorums. I had the misfortune of rolling the warlord trait that lets you choose to have night fight turn one. I decided to roll with it, since I didn't fancy having night fight turn on later in the game.

 

Turn One:

I deployed very conservatively, keeping all terrain in arms reach, since I've been on the receiving end, and delivery of those foul xenos. I managed to plink off a single Zoanthrope. Yay night fight.

 

He ran forward.

 

Turn Two:

Alright, some fun stuff. I Hammered his flyrant out of the sky. I still hate how those rules work for Flying MCs. It's very beardy IMHO. It should at least have to wound the model, seeing how durable flyers are from my previous games playing my own Nids. I took the teeth out of his charge, and was able to set up a choice for him, charge my Termies, or fly around the board, doing nothing. I still basically had to sit there and wait for him to come to me, since firelanes were non-existent at that point.

 

He had the raveners come in, the Ymgarls bounced out of a building, and the Zoanthropes had to gate, because "why not?". Gants were poo'd. Shot were fired. Lost a termie and a guy. The flyrant failed to charge my Termies.

 

Turn Three:

Well, first things first, that Tyrant had to be deleted. So off it went, in a hail of rockets and bolter fire. I also took care of the Zoanthrope brood.Having only 3 firing platforms doesn't lend itself to very exciting turns on my part. First blood is delicious.

 

His turn had alot of shooting come my way by raveners, warriors, and the terivgon, who decided to leave cover of a smoke stack. Unfortunately for him, he caused one assault squad to fail a leadership check. So he denied himself a really good charge, and had to sit there, looking confused.His hormagants tied up one assault squad. and due to some movement and running shenanigans, was able to start out of synapse for rage, and moved back in so they would be fearless on the right side of the board. Very tricky. I'll have to remember that for myself.

 

 

Turn Four:

I wasn't able to finish off the raveners, but since he rolled poorly on his Ymgarl roll to charge, I was able to get the drop on him. 2 assault squads and a priest can very handily live through 9 Genestealers. This left me with a good consolidation roll, that left him hanging back by the city square building.

 

He moved his warrior brick closer. My dice left me and let 8 models die. very sad and tragic.

 

Turn 5:

Well, those warriors were camping on an objective, and I figured I could move them off of it. at least one. I decided to ignore the lone ravager, and move my termies into position to fend off the Tyranid Prime's unit. So I pushed 2 assault squad into them, and...fearless. I can recall people complaining about combat being a boring blob in 4th, while also complaining about fearless wounds in 5th. Well, I got stuck. Opps. Bad visions of the future.The libby escaped combat after the other priest and a dev squad came to his rescue.

 

 

Bad dice. And some hot dice on his part let him get a really neat charge on the troop pit on the otherside of the board. The Tyranid Prime went on a sergeant killing spree. He shot at me with psychic powers, and I Look Out, Sir'd it onto my priest. I had plans for the libby.

 

Turn 6:

Yeah, game continued. Well, I had to see what my terminators had to say about this giant troop tar pit mid field. They had plenty to say. Also, someone needs to look up a GW person, and ask how boneswords and FNP interact. We decided to roll with it and let FNP work before the boneswords leadership check. All the warriors died except the Prime. With my libby free, and fearing the game ending this turn, I flung him at the prime, hoping just once, I would get to use a psychic power, and force weapon that tervigon away. It didn't happen.

 

Tar pit. Yum. Just grinding each other down. I killed his prime.

 

Turn 7:

It was just clean up at this point. I murdered the gants in the building and made them flee. 5 VP to 2 on objectives.

 

`````

 

So, I have played 3 games thus far, 2 as Nids (no one here cares about) and 1 as BA. I think it is safe to assume that, you either make your characters very killy, or very cheap. I don't see much room for middle ground, as far as challenges go. Combat takes forever, with the amount of Look Out sirs that get made. An all footy list works almost the same as it did before, so Not much changes really, other than being able to slip out psychic powers on a game per game basis.

[Red Fury]

After all the hype of combat in 6th was supposed to be very 'decisive and bloody', looks like we ended up with long drawn out tarpit combat filled with challenges and LoSirs.

 

thanks for the report Soups. You have an unusual army for these days of total mechanization.

[Soups]

After all the hype of combat in 6th was supposed to be very 'decisive and bloody', looks like we ended up with long drawn out tarpit combat filled with challenges and LoSirs.

 

thanks for the report Soups. You have an unusual army for these days of total mechanization.

 

It's all about playing the metagame. That and and all foot list was fun in 5th. Nothing like seeing your opponent cry that he is wasting his anti-tank weaponry on infantry.

[Morticon]

Things that worked and things that didnt?

 

Thoughts for your overhaul?

 

-Morticon

[Soups]

Things that worked and things that didnt?

 

Thoughts for your overhaul?

 

-Morticon

 

Things that worked:

Terminators. No surprise there, really. But it was Nids. Every attack is either AP2 or AP-. Haven't played against marines yet.

FNP. As long as it didn't kill me outright, I had some Feel No Pain. It saved a sanguinary priest in 1 round of challenge. Next round, not so much.

ATSKNF. Personally, I think it's a bad move on GW's part to have ALL marines be immune to fear. Honestly, what is the only thing that can stand up to MCs in melee? Marines. Tau, IG, Eldar? They have never been known for resilience. Making marines better, while good for us...*sigh* I guess I'm more of a game balance player than narrative.

 

Things that didn't work:

Librarian. I blame my dice. I rolled really good powers on divination too. 4+ invuln on squad and prescience, or whatever that allows you to re-roll almost everything. But for once, Shadow in the Warp mattered. I really only take him for the psychic defense, and 5+ cover save against the other shooty armies, and being really cheap.

 

Overhaul:

I really want to keep the Lascannons (especially since I went to all the trouble of painting it for the dark angels challenge), but putting my characters on bikes would be really awesome, and make them a little bit more useful in a challenge. I'd rather not go herohammer. I want my army to win me the game, not characters. Not that that won't stop me from pulling out the Dante Wing, someday. I just want a list that can run around with the tournament guys, while also being fun.

 

And even though my heart wants it, devestator squads are really expensive for what they do. I do like thier durability, but the only thing I can think of replacing them with is 3 preds, and that's kinda spammy.

[Sir Blayse]

I ran a 6th edition battle vs. orks and combat didn't really seem to be that much of a tarpit. Of course I was able to eliminate the nob and a lot of the boys in the shooting phase. It's really nice to get to shoot and flame your opponent, then let him try and charge you. Shoot and flame again and still go first in hand-to-hand. Also, in one charge the opponent failed his charge, rolled 'snake-eyes', but since you get to Overwatch before the roll is made, he lost a large number of bodies.

 

Also, for those not running Sternguard... in the new rules, they are worth their weight in gold. Needing '6' to hit is bad, but wounding on '2' is good. This helps make up for the fewer shots and will even put a hurt on MC's. Now a good round of shooting, that just happens to leave a MC with one wound left standing is not the end of it for the SG. You now get a chance to Overwatch and live, units with volume of firepower make great charge stoppers.

 

I'm thinking the best is to run a squad of tacs in front of a JP RAS squad and advance towards opponent. The new shooting ranges means you can put the hurt on the opponent as you advance, shoot them to deny their charge and now counter attack with full powered RAS. If played right, combat should be really short.

 

Also, not sure if it's being done right, but you can't use LoS in a challenge. Only against reg and Precise shooting and close combat attacks. Also, the challenge should only slow you down if your facing a single model unit, ie. Big Bug/Meph etc. I actually like the challenge against orks, since a CC sqt on the charge with a PW should be able to kill the nob in a challenge ( keyword is 'should' though) that leaves the rest of the squad to rip through boys. Being fearless does help make combat longer, but I haven't seen it bog down too much... Of course I haven't really played a good marine on marine battle in the new rules.

 

Also, good Batrep.