Rethinking the Mawloc

I've been thinking about this guy ever since I finished up my magnetic Trygon/Mawloc. A lot of people on the intertubes are bashing this guy, and when you think about it the Mawloc doesn't seem that powerful. Sure, its initial strike can do some damage but in a 5 turn game you're only getting to use his abilities twice. However, I think there's more to it than that.

The Mawloc is the Tyranid version of the tank shock. It's one of the few abilities in the game that can move the opponent's models. You can use it to push models off an objective. If the opponent is turtling up, you can make him rue that decision with a Mawloc not only in the damage, but if you push the model into something else and there's nowhere else for it to go, it is destroyed. I may be wrong on this rule, but I think you can also push models off the table with it. This strategy can wreck an IG parking lot.

Furthermore, what other model can disappear from one side of the board and appear on the other the next turn? The eldar can zip around and cross the battlefield long ways in two turns but the Mawloc can even beat that speed (Eldar: 48" in two turns unless you took Star Engines, Mawloc: unlimited). This can come in use in the Capture and Control mission.

That said, I think that if you're going to take a Mawloc, you need to take more than one. A single Mawloc won't do much, especially if it misses. Redundancy is crucial in this regard.

These tactics and ideas are untested and unproven. Here's some questions for comments.

Have you used the Mawloc? What did you think?
Have you used more than one, and how did that turn out?
Aside from its killing power, are there any other uses?

First Game With New Tyranids

I got in my first game last night, and I'm not really counting it as such because it was a team game (DA and IG vs. IG, Daemons and Nids, we had an odd number of players). Still, here's what I found out:

Tervigons rock. I had mine in reserve, so they didn't start pumping out gaunts until turn 3, but by turn 5, I had summoned 47 Termagants. One of them even shut down on the first turn I used it. That's over two hundred free points of Termagants, and had we continued the number would have been even higher.

Regeneration is great on your 6-wound creatures. My Trygon got in a fight with Azrael, and while they fought for 3 turns with neither the victor (the game ended before we could see the end of the duel) the Trygon probably would have died without it. The Guard player told me he didn't want to shoot my Tervigons because they would have simply regenerated.

Biovores are decent, but I think they need to be taken in full squads to be most effective. Don't forget to put that spore mine down if you miss by enough! I forgot twice and while it wasn't a game breaker I was missing half the fun of biovores.

Zoanthropes are great, but psychic defenses suck, especially the old psychic hoods. My opponents had one psychic hood but he didn't show up until late game, so I got to attack uncontested for a bit. While I rolled poorly on the vehicle damage charts, I still did enough with only two Zoanthropes to draw lots of fire. That 3++ comes in handy now, until they start bringing out psycannons. Which they did.

Mycetic spores are great. Being able to deep strike with impunity is a power trip. I put a barbed strangler on mine and managed to kill a few guardsmen. The funny thing is that they never bothered to shoot it, even though it was an easy kill point. There were so many other high priority targets that the thing just kept shooting and shooting. I may not take the gun in future games, but I had some points to spare.

Next game I hope to try out a few more new units, then I'll probably settle on a list and focus on that.

Ymgarl Stealers

After reading through the codex, I'm intrigued by these guys. They seem like an interesting unit to use, but with a major flaw if the enemy hides in the same terrain. Then I had another idea- what if during deployment you used Spore Mines to saturate the terrain, to keep the enemy out? This may not even work, and it may not be a game winning strategy, but I'd like to give it a try.

I was also thinking about their morphing and when you'd want to use it. What I was thinking is on the charge, use the +1 T morph so you win combat, but not by a landslide. This way the enemy won't run and you won't be stuck out in the open. In the opponent's phase, use a more offensive morph to hopefully wipe out or break them. Once again, I need to test this so it may not even be a viable strategy.

They seem pretty easy to model, the feeder tendril heads from the Genestealer kit are all you need. Anyone had a chance to try these guys out yet?

Eldar Defense in Planetstrike, Part Two

In Part 1, I didn't really go in depth on the various choices to be made for defense. I simply talked about what I did and how I set up the board. Here I'm going to go over the various choices for Heavy Support and Troops, as those are what you'll be taking.

Support Platform: If you put a D-Cannon in a bastion, I guarantee you will get a 24" clearance around them. Every time I've taken them in regular games, my foes always give them a wide berth. Of course, they try to kill them as fast as possible, and they always do, but inside a Bastion they should be safer. If you take a Vibro-Cannon, you'll have to place them carefully. Don't take the other option. I don't even remember what it's called.

War Walker: In my opinion, not the best for defense. These guys are great for flank harassment and supporting fire, but if you take them for Planetstrike, they're probably best held in reserve to harry the flanks later.

Wraithlord: A great choice. Plop one of these guys in a Bastion and he's not going anywhere. It won't need to test for Wraithsight as long as the Bastion is intact, but once it plops make sure you've got a seer nearby. I give these guys Bright Lances and Wraithswords in case they get assaulted.

Dark Reapers: If you're playing against Marines, there is really no better choice. An Exarch with a Tempest Launcher and Crack Shot will do most of the killing for you all game. Place them in a protected, center bastion with a good line of sight.

Falcon: Great for bringing reinforcements onto the field, but it's not a very killy unit. A couple of them might be good for a hammer/anvil type defense.

Fire Prism: Same as the Falcon, but a little more killy and no transport option.

Wraithguard: A full unit of 10 makes for a great defense troops choice. They're tough and their guns can put fear into elite armies. Their short range and low rate of fire will cause horde armies to laugh at them, however.

Dire Avengers: A solid choice as usual. Hunkered down in a bastion they can provide great close-range defense with a well-timed Bladestorm. Keep a Farseer nearby so they can benefit from Doom.

Rangers/Pathfinders: These guys are better left out of a Bastion, finding cover on the board somewhere. Behind a defense line they should get a 2+ cover save. They aren't the most killy, but can take out a few things here and there. They'll mostly act as a speedbump.

Guardians: Ummm....put them in a Bastion? A full unit with psychic support could be a good close-range defense, and the support weapon can help bring some firepower to the table.

Jetbikes: I don't really see a point to these guys in Planetstrike. In the case of contesting, Attacker always wins so there's no turn 5 Turboboosting to claim objectives. They're not killy enough to be a good defender unit. I can see them being used as flank/rear armor distractions, but that's about it.

I'm going to play the Attacker on Tuesday, so I'll have a report on that later.

Winning With Warp Spiders

I had an experience in a recent game that I thought would help out my fellow Eldar players. I have loved Warp Spiders ever since their heavy flamer template/roll against Initiative instead of Toughness days. I still try to use them as often as I can as their abilities are the signature style of the Eldar.

Anyway, the mission was Capture and Control, a difficult mission to win and an easy mission to tie. In this case, it was turn 5 and we each were holding our objectives. My opponent had been running his Marines to his objective, and as such were strung out. I simply assaulted the far end of his line and watched them all respond to the charge, pulling them 6" off the objective. The game ended and I won.

Warp Spiders are a fantastic harassment unit. They aren't as fast or tough as jetbikes, but they pack a much stronger punch (their guns can punch through most vehicle rear armor, and they're maneuverable enough to get back there). Since they are Aspect Warriors, they also fare slightly better than guardians at close combat, even though they aren't built for it. Furthermore, they can Hit and Run to get out of sticky situations.

Now that they get Deep Strike for free, that saves a lot of points. Don't think you have to deep strike every time- remember that they can just walk on from the table edge if you wish. If they're needed close to your table edge, just walk them! I know this sounds like common sense, but it's easily forgotten when you want to use their abilities (similar to how people will sacrifice movement to get a few shots off).

Charging with your Warp Spiders is another good trick. To keep them safe from shooting for a turn, you can launch them into an assault, their high armor hopefully keeping them alive. If you upgraded your Exarch you may even take a few down. I have found that against all but dedicated assault units, Warp Spiders can hold their own, finally using Hit and Run to get to safety.

As for the Exarch, I always give him the double spinner, powerblades, and Hit and Run. Any extra shots I can give are worth it, and seeing as I often use their melee abilities to harass and lock down units, they might as well take some down with them. For unit size, I try to go with the max. A small unit can be effective, but having full size makes their advantages even stronger. With a large unit, you can take casualties and still be able to make a difference on the battlefield, being effective through the whole game.

I have never experimented with putting an Autarch in a unit. It would be interesting to give him a fusion gun and power weapon, so the unit would have greater vehicle popping abilities, and an intense close combat presence. This is a unit that can pop transports easily and take out the squishies inside.

I'd like to hear how everyone else uses Warp Spiders (or if you don't use them at all, why).

Tyranids in Capture and Control

Last night I played a 1k game against Space marines, the game was Capture and Control with Dawn of War deployment. The objectives were on opposite ends of the table. I took an experimental no-Genestealer list. My goal was to field as many bodies as I could, as many monstrous creatures as I could and to capitalize on the new and improved Deathspitters. Here's what I took:

Dakka Tyrant with Psychic Scream
Tyrant Guard
5 Warriors with talons and Deathspitters
17 Termagaunts
17 Termagaunts
16 Hormagaunts
1 Sniperfex
1 Talon/Barbed Strangler fex

My foe took (as far as I remember):

1 Chaplain leading an assault squad
2x Tactical squads with flamers and plasma cannons
2x scout squads
1 Dreadnaught in a drop pod

He dropped the Dreadnaught on my objective in the first turn and marched his assault squad on, wiping out my Hormagaunts who only inflicted 2 casualties in return. The next turn I shot up the 'naught with my Warriors and Sniperfex. Took me two turns of shooting to drop it. My gaunts were held in reserve and marched on around turn 3, and went into a mad dash to reach their objective as I realized my fatal mistake. The game ended on turn 6 and if I had one more turn I would have reached his objective. He only had 3 scouts left on the table and they held the objective for a draw.

This is a common situation in Capture and Control; I played a game against Daemons where he only had 3 Daemonettes guarding his objective with everything else dead but I just couldn't reach his objective. I have also lost 90% of my force but prevented my opponent from contesting my objective by surrounding it with a mass of gaunts. Can't kill 'em all!

While thinking about this I came to the mistakes in my plan. Since Tyranids have no transports we have to rely on footsloggers. In a game where the objectives are at opposite ends, you have to make your decisions in the deployment phase instead of pulling a Fritz (last turn turboboosting jetbikes to contest objectives). For Tyranids, we have choices that can handle this, here's what I think the best options are.

Flyrant: Big and expensive, also very fragile. He can deep strike or fly around and contest. I don't think he's the best option because of his expense and fragility.

Leaping Warriors: Since they don't have fleet it is probably not the best option to use them in this capacity. Sure they can charge 12" but in my opinion they are best delegated to shooting.

Outflanking Broodlord/Genestealers: Probably the best option. However, the chubby Broodlord can't fleet so make sure he is used with caution. Regular Genestealers outflanking are fantastic- the only caveat is to make sure you take multiple broods. Outflanking relies on luck and if you roll poorly you'll be a long ways from home. Stealers are still our best option as they are fast, T4, and can utterly destroy a unit guarding an objective. Make sure they have a follow-up brood in case things don't go your way.

Hormagaunts: Very fast, but fragile. If you use them they need to be supported (especially because most of the time a 12" charge will take them out of synapse range). Lictors make great support because of Feeder Tendrils, but more on them later.

Regular Gaunts: If you can get them there without them dying on the way. They're best for holding home objectives and just getting in the way. If you plan on using them to take the objective they need to start on the table, not in reserve (which was my mistake).

Lictors: A chancy choice. If they appear too early they won't do much good as they'll be killed before turn 5, but if they appear late they will probably work very well, depending on what's guarding the objective. I have had low success using one, I think in future lists I will try and run a pair to see if that improves their chances, along with trying to get some other broods in CC with them as well to benefit from Feeder Tendrils.

Raveners: Fast charge but very fragile. If they deep strike they are vulnerable for a turn. If you go with them, multiples are the way to go.

Gargoyles: Probably an excellent choice, but they are so expensive! I don't actually own any for that reason. Plus I hear they are very top-heavy. Rumor has it they'll be made in plastic but I'm not holding my breath. For now I will deal without them.

These are the units I feel stand somewhat of a chance at seizing the objective in Capture and Control. But first and foremost, it comes down to your deployment. Had I put my Termagaunts on the table at the beginning they could have reached the objective. I had my Carnifexes acting as fire magnets, but I just didn't have enough time to reach his flag. Keep the objectives in mind, not just killing everything that moves.