Tenth! - Space Marines vs Tyranids

 It's the new edition! Dare we enter?

Tenthanids

First big score for the new edition - very easy to make a list. Before the points came out, I'd already looked through and thought about what I wanted to try, based on the new rules. When the points came out, it took me five minutes on a bit of paper to work out the list. No fiddling about working out wargear or sticking in extra models to a unit, just quick and easy maths. 

It did leave me twenty points under, with no way of using them, and that's a burr under my OCD saddle. I can live with that. Just. Twitchily. 

So! All new synapse rules, all new army strats (but only six of them) and all new model rules. For each and every model, which is nice! But also a bit overwhelming. It's going to take a fair bit of practice and familiarity to get my head round these, I reckon. 

Here's the list - the broad idea is to ram the Tervigon and her brood up the middle, protected by the Venomthropes and maybe the Zooanthropes too. The spore generators hang back and make a nuisance of themselves, the Warriors act as spare synapse or swing to trouble spots, and the Tryannofex pukes acid over absolutely anything it possibly can. Blargh!

Tyranid Invasion Fleet

• Tervigon with Scything Talons and the Adaptive Biology enhancement
• 20 Termagants with Devourers
• 3 Tyranid Warriors with ranged bioweapons - 2 Deathspitters and a Venom Cannon
• 3 Tyranid Warriors, as above
• 3 Venomthropes
• 3 Zooanthropes
• 2 Biovores
• 1 Tyrannofex with Acid Spray
• 1 Sporocyst

Space Mantines

I'm pretty familiar with Kraken's menu of marines, but I head over to the blog's army page (take a look yourself here) and grab a pen. First on the teamsheet is the Vindicator. It always used to be a bit crap but it's gone right up to being a solid choice to deal with the big bugs I'm going to be facing: D6+3 shots at S14, AP2 and D6 damage. Yum yum! 

More shooting from a unit of Sniper Scouts (whose ability to not be shot outside of 12" makes them look like ideal home-objective campers in tenth) and a Typhoon Land Speeder (who can fire and fade...a bit: it can move D6" after shooting).

I choose the Biker Captain to lead the list and embed him in a unit of Bikers. I snarl a little at being forced to only have three bikes rather than the five that Kraken has painted (and don't get me started on Death Guard unit size here...).

I'm very keen to try out the new Rapid Ingress stratagem so pick the Relic Terminators to stick in the Teleportarium. Filling out the list are a couple of infantry squads, one Intercessors and one Assault Intercessors.

I don't have enough points left to add an enhancement on the Captain and don't feel like chopping the list around to include one (made harder by the convenience of not having to pay for all the optional extras).

Mantis Warrior Gladius Task Force

• Marine Captain on Bike
• 5 Assault Intercessors - Sarge has a power fist and hand flamer
• 5 Intercessors
• 3 Bikers with chainswords
• 5 Relic Terminators - Sarge has a Volkite Blaster and Chainfist, one has twin lightning claws, one with a Reaper Autocannon
• 5 Sniper Scouts including one with a Missile Launcher
• 1 Typhoon Land Speeder
• 1 Vindicator with hunter-killer missile and storm bolter

Terrain and Mission

We're playing the only mission in town at the moment, Only War from the core rules. A battle over four victory points, scoring a max of three each turn from turn two onwards. 

I like that the attacker and defender have their edges pre-chosen on the map - makes it feel like the scenery should support that narrative. So the attacker is breaching an industrial complex today, either to reclaim it from a 'Nid infestation or to infest it in the first place. 

Lots of slim lines of cover or barricades, plus several tall enough to hide behind or snipe from. Not much in the way of area terrain, though. In the last edition, this would have been slow to move through and very hard for tanks and such. Not any more! Crash through the barriers, baby!

Deployment

Our objectives end up with one in each deployment zone and two in the middle, both of which are slightly nearer to the attacker's edge. The attacker ends up being Pootle and the Mantis Warriors!

I go mostly along my forward line, keeping the Tervigon and her children protected by the Venomthropes and backed by Warriors so they can rush the right-hand objective. That leaves the Zooanthropes and Tyrannofex to go left, with another warrior group behind them. The Sporocyst is watching my back objective, but can't actually hold it by itself (OC is zero), and the Biovores are lurking in the middle behind a wall. 

I stick the Snipers on my home objective, with all the Bikes just in front (ready to go whichever direction I need to). I wait to see where the T-Fex is going to be before deploying the Vindicator - I'm planning to go all in on that big bug as my first target.

The infantry go on the extreme flanks, protected from view by ruins.

The Land Speeder also sits behind the ruins on my left flank.

I'm taking Swarming Instincts as my adaptation, as the Marines have slightly more infantry than anything else. Hit rolls of six against foot soldiers give me an extra hit - nice!

The crucial roll-off gives us a tie... and then I go first.

Tyranids Turn 1

Glad though I am that I've got a chance to go first, there's not much for me to do during it. I'm either too far away or too cautious. My left side creep forwards, with the T-fex and Zooanthropes lurking amidst the girders, the right advance a little more freely and park the edge of the Termagants on the objective. 

Not much shooting, although I do manage to fell a bike with some venom cannon sniping. The psychic phase is a relic of a forgotten epoch, no charges - it's too quiet out there. So I poop out a couple of batches of spore mines, a fatty on the left and two small ones on the right. That'll keep the Marines at arm's length for a turn. 

Mantis Warriors Turn 1 

Oath of Moment goes on the T-Fex and I choose to start in the Devastator doctrine, not so I can take advantage of advancing and shooting, but so I can play the Storm of Fire strat on the Vindicator to ignore the T-Fex's cover and add another pip of AP. That should help reduce the weapon beast to so much paste.

The Typhoon pops out to ensure its missiles can act as back-up, and the Snipers' Missile Launcher can also see it. I'm pretty confident, particularly when I roll seven shots for the Demolisher Cannon and six of them get through for Kraken to roll 6-up saves. 

Kraken pauses at this point and can't quite believe his eyes, which are showing him an awful lot of pips. Four sixes in fact! Well, it's about time he discovered a whole new face on his dice. Two D6 could still cause some pain, but the average seven I roll is then reduced to five due to the inbuilt "Disgustingly Resilient" damage-reduction ability and the 5+ FNP Kraken hands out with the Disgustingly Resilient, sorry, Rapid Regeneration strat (again, as a Death Guard player, I'm in no way feeling bitter about either of those abilities). I've still got a HK missile, the Land Speeder and the Snipers, but they only manage to add another two wounds between them. Oh. 

On my right, I know that the clever plan is to hold back and wait as there's very little point killing the Termagants unless I can REALLY hurt them as Kraken can (with the aid of a CP) recover 2D3+6 next turn, but holding back isn't as fun (and at this point I was sure that the T-Fex was going to be dead imminently) so the Bikes gun their engines (and their guns) along with the Intercessors. My poor luck continues though and I only kill half a dozen or so. The Bikes make an 8" charge (carefully avoiding a heroic intervention from Mama-Bug), but again I'm not as effective as I'd hoped. 

In part that's because the Overwatch the bikes take on the way in is surprisingly effective, killing another bike and just leaving the Captain and a Sarge.

I have killed around a dozen in total, but that's not as many as I'd hoped. 

Time to brace for the bug response...

Tyranids Turn 2 

I still can't quite believe the T-fex is alive and the Termagants didn't all burn down, but I'm certainly not going to be counting those tyrannochickens before they're hatched. 

So I hatch a lot more of them, straight away, spending my only command point on Endless Swarm. Between the this and the Tervigon, all the dead bugs are respawned, much to Pootle's horror. 

Suddenly, though, I've got Terminators in my back line! Rapid Ingress - they appear where they're mostly hidden, although the Biovores notice them and punt a round of spore mines into them, wounding one. They're going to be a problem, but the most I can do about them now is place another Mucolid Spore in a hopefully defensive place.

That doesn't leave the Bikers in a good place, and sure enough, as the Termagants retreat, they get shot up until only the Captain remains, and he promptly gets snacked on by the Tervigon and the Venomthropes. 

The other flank sees the Tyrannofex lurch forward to bring its own guns to bear in the artillery duel with the Vindicator. This very nearly concludes before it gets going, because Pootle uses Overwatch to shoot me again before I can open up, and I'm still his Oath of Moment! There's a hairy moment as the dice fall, but I scrape through with three wounds left. 

This element of Tenth is really, really good - the fact that I could do this felt amazing, even though it didn't actually generate the result I needed.

After a warm-up from the Zooanthropes and the Warriors at the back, those three wounds are just enough to see me melt the dozer-tank with a healthy shower of digestive juice. Smoothies are on me, boys. 

Not pictured - a big butch Astartes tank

Mantis Warriors Turn 2 

I choose the Assault Doctrine this turn, because that will enable the Terminators to get a lot more movement and extra AP on the charge if I remember to play a relevant strat. The T-Fex is Oath-of-Momented again (it just has to die this turn).

Kraken and I have a chat about exactly when he will Overwatch. The Land Speeder is apparently the biggest threat and he can trigger the strat as soon as I select it to move out of range of the acid spray, however Kraken chooses to delay, as the Assault Intercessors then sprint forwards and unpin Grenades to lob. I'd love to spend that CP to cause mortal wounds, but Kraken overwatches and melts the entire squad with one spray - I can only repeat my comment above - this one strat is going to be huge in tenth and changes the game tactically when there are big guns like this around.

The Speeder's Heavy Bolter drops the T-Fex to one wound but the Sniper Missile Launcher is saved. However one of the Snipers manages to put a round into an eye socket and the beast falls. And explodes! And kills two Nid Warriors as well as scattering mortals onto the Zooanthropes and the Attack Bike!

The Attack Bike and Intercessors shoot at the Zooanthropes but cause no damage, and neither can the bike do anything when it charges into combat.

I decide not to advance the Terminators in fact as I want them to shoot. They split fire between the surviving Venom Cannon-armed Warrior and the Biovores, predictably not dropping either target. They then charge the Sporocyst (after weathering some of its auto-firing guns) and this is when I realise quite how effective the new Toughness rules are.

A unit full of Power Fists and Chainfists would have pulverised this thing in ninth edition, but I bounce badly, only causing two wounds (I forgot to play the Honour the Chapter strat to give them +1 to wound)

Tyranids Turn 3

With the loss of the T-fex and the Zooanthropes tied up, my left side isn't looking all that healthy. The right is solid, though, and the Tervigon keeps trucking forward, shovelling up the Intercessors without much effort. 

I can't shoot the Terminators, but I can shift everything round to deal with them next turn. The Attack bike falls victim to an unlucky shower of spore mines - the Biovores are rolling hot!

Mantis Warriors Turn 3

Suddenly I've only got three units left. I pick Tactical Doctrine, which will enable the Terminators to fall back from the tarpit of the Sporocyst and engage the Zooanthropes (who I choose as my Oath of Moment target).

At this point, I remember the Shadow in the Warp ability, and trigger it. Both the Scouts and the Speeder fail their Battleshock! Which stops the Scouts scoring the home objective. That's another surprise bonus I didn't quite merit. Hurrah!

The Scouts move back slightly to make the Tervigon's charge harder and unload everything they've got at it. This is probably unwise given that if they do cause any wounds it will just trigger her 4+ FNP rather than the 5+ she has at the moment, but it's moot as nothing can wound it.

The Land Speeder contributes for the first time by killing the last Warrior.

Despite falling back, the Terminators can shoot the Zooanthropes (because of the Tactical Doctrine) and then charge in. Even though there's only three now, the Oath ability makes short work of the brain bugs.

Tyranids Turn 4

Those Space Marines are looking a little Levia-thin on the ground (see what I did there?), so I can keep consolidating and pressing forward. 

Those Terminators feel the brunt of everything I can throw at them - a round of spore mine fire and a pretty hefty dose of small arms from the Termagants. Two are left standing, but I've got three long-bomb charges to declare. 

The Termagants make it in, although only the front edge can fight. The Warriors don't reach, but the bad news is that a newly-spawned Mucolid Spore does! Another Terminator drops to its knees, studded with spikey shell bits. 

And then it's pretty much all over - the Terminator shrugs off the bug attacks and squishes three of them, but he's completely outnumbered and I've got a clear lead in points and board control. So reluctantly, the Scouts fade back into cover, the Terminator requests a beam-up and the Land Speeder bugs out. Game over!

Result: Tyranids Victory, 5-2

Locker Room

Is it the taste of victory in my mouth, or is this new edition pretty sweet?

I think it's the latter as despite being pounded I thoroughly enjoyed that.

The low drip of Command Points is my favourite. No crazy alpha strikes or stacked strats to boost a unit to the moon here, just anxious wrestling with when the best time to use your limited abilities. Being able to do more in your opponent's turn, especially with overwatch, also feels strong. Move blocking with Terminators? Hitting someone in the movement phase with unexpected fire? Golden.

Absolutely. CPs are spent very carefully, and with overwatch massively more powerful (with the right weapons) the tactical side of your own movement phase is like a different game.

All the sixes I didn't roll last edition turned up in my early game. Better late than never! The T-fex had no business surviving being Oathployee of the Monthment in the first turn, and those poor bikers ran into a mess of sixes too. My luck had averaged out by the end, but it was too late for the Marines by that point. 

I don't know if it would have been actually game changing in results terms, but killing the T-Fex in turn one would have definitely been hugely significant. Part of me is glad I didn't though as the sheer power of Oath of Moment on something like the Vindicator's gun feels a bit dirty. It's nice to see that Oath isn't necessarily an all-powerful unit-deleter (although if your opponent WILL roll sixes like that...)

Simpler (slightly) rules is a good thing. There's quite a bit to get your head around in terms of everybody having their own special rule, and relearning things that have changed from the last two editions. Overall, though, I'm pleased and impressed - the units feel closer to their fluff, and it's a little quicker to play. Even for Pootle!

True! I did forget a couple of things and hadn't clocked how useless Power Fists are against super-tough monsters now, but I think (hope) that most of the apparent complexity is due to the newness and once we "know" the strats and inbuilt unit abilities of our own armies they will be vastly easier to use than in ninth. I'm definitely very pleased with how things are looking.

An edition where Vindicators, Sporocysts and Scout Snipers suddenly become relevant and useful? Who'd have thought it!