Tyrannofail

  What's big, costs a ton of points and is full of fail?

  The Tyrannofex.  

   There is simply no other way to put it, this nid sucks.  I'm not saying this after playing some weak metagame theory test I'm saying this after at least a dozen games that ranged from small 500 point battles to Apocalypse sized battles.  Normally I'd field just 1 or 2 in a 1750 battle to deal with vehicles but the most I've ever fielded was 3 in a 6,000 point Apoc battle.  Not once in all of these battles could I finish the game and say he was worth his point investment.  

  In all that time the Tyrannofex reaped a total of 4 vehicles kills and he went down 6 times.  All of those death occurred early on when he was still a new unit.  After my local metagame got used to him he tended to be ignored as "not a threat".  

  While even his biggest cheerleading fans have to admit that he is point expensive they will counter back that in theory he should at least be a creature with potential.  It has the longest range gun in the codex and with a strength of 10 one of the most potent.  With a second shot it's also likely to hit at least once per round and occasionally (25%) twice.  Toughness 6, 6 wounds and a 2+ armor save should also leave it relatively safe from enemies.  With it's various gun options it also has some flexibility to take on multiple roles on the battlefield; anti-mech, anti-infantry and anti-horde.  I'll also hear that he's meant not to destroy vehicles but to shake and stun them.

  So where does the Tryrannofex become the Tyrannofail?

1. Points-  Even at it's cheapest it's still more expensive than an upgraded Trygon Prime which excels at it's role.  It's also more expensive than an upgraded Tervigon and small Brood of Termagants.
2. Ballistic Skill 3-  Missing sucks.  At ballistic skill 3 it's missing half it's shots.  Even with 2 shots a round and range enough to hit 95% of the targets you want to hit you're only going to score an average of 6 hits a game with the Rupture Cannon.  If he goes into reserve, the game ends early and the opponent puts his vehicles in cover it may only score 1 or 2 hits a game.  This situation happens more than you think and it happened to me in a tournament.  
3. It's too easy to kill-  Toughness 6, 6 wounds and a 2+ save is still wounded on a 2+ with no save vrs Powerfists, Thunderhammers, Lascannons, Meltaguns, Dark Eldar and Eldar Lances........
4. Mech units are relatively safe from shooting-  If you're only getting an average of 6 hits a game and your opponent is able to claim a cover save then you're down to an average of 3 hits a game.  Even if all 3 hits penetrate (and they won't) statistically only 1 will destroy a vehicle.  Congratulations, you just spend 265 points to destroy A 35 point Rhino.
5. Shaking and Stunning a vehicle isn't enough-  These days mech is so cheap that shaking and stunning isn't an option anymore.  Cheap means redundant so shaking and stunning one means there are more out there that aren't shaken or stunned.  Nor does it mean that the vehicle isn't doing anything; extra armor, power of the machine spirit, squadron rules and psyker powers all keep that vehicle effective on the battlefield.  No, these days dealing with mech means turning them into a smoking wreck on the battlefield.

  If the Tyrannofex is the Tyrannofail you still have a need to deal with mech units.  As I've wrote before, mech units are the Tyranids weakness.  It goes like this; Tyranids = Rock   Infantry = Scissors   Mech = Paper.

  If you had 265 points to spend on something to deal with mech how would you spend it best?  I'll blog on that later.

Beep Beep, here comes the Raveners

They're fast little bastards and in 40K speed kills.  Anything you do to move this brood even faster is worth doing.  Of course there's a bit more to it than simply winding them up and watching them go.  Don't expect to win games simply because you collected, painted and deployed a big brood of Raveners.  You still have to use them correctly.
The first key to getting the most of these little speed daemons is to know their limitations.  They're relatively cheap per wound, roll a ton of dice on a charge that re-roll misses, are fast as hell and can tear up most squads before they can an attack.  Unfortunately toughness 4 with a 5+ save means you're bolter bait.  Therefore you need to expect losses.  That doesn't mean you throw these broods at your opponent and hope for the best while ignoring the worst.  Making the best use of cover will help save them from needless losses but that tends to slow them down, Feel No Pain from a nearby Tervigon casting Catalyst will help out but your speed will probably outrun him when you need him around the most.  They also lack some of the best upgrades like Boneswords and Fleshhooks.

So what does a Ravener have going for it?  The first and most obvious is it's speed.  Move through cover, a 12 inch charge and fleet means you can cover a ton of ground fast and with decent predictability.  That speed has an unspoken secondary effect.  If a Ravener player times his charge just right he won't ever be targeted with rapid fire.  The Ravener has a minimum threat range of 19 inches.  Beasts allows it to Fleet and charge 12 inches in addition to it's standard move.  A Marine squad's threat range when rapid firing is 18 inches.  As long as no cover slows you down you should only suffer 1 round of shooting from long range.
How would I use this type of brood in a Tyranid army?  My biggest worry in early rounds is the Ravener's poor leadership.  If it's not in Synapse I'm going to loose control if this unit to Instinctive Behavior or it will suffer a few bolter shots and run off the board.  It's speed also needs to be addressed for synapse.  Although a Tervigon can provide Synapse it can't provide it fast enough.  The Ravener's charge range is enough to get it out of synapse.  You will need a synapse creature fast enough to keep up or with a long enough synapse range to keep these guys under control.  Tyranid Shrikes can do a decent job.  They can keep up fast by flying 12 inches a round.  They're also just as fragile as the Raveners so you might want something tougher.
A flying Hive Tyrant is another good option but at 230 points it's an expensive beast.  My personal favorite is the Swarmlord.  Pardon my hypocrisy for complaining about the winged Hive Tyrants price when this model is a full 50 points more expensive and isn't any faster.  The Swarmlord can some abilities that no other model in the codex can match.  It has an 18 inch synapse range which is long enough to keep up with the Raveners.  It also has the Swarm Leader rules.  This rule allows the Swarmlord to bestow Acute Senses, Preferred Enemy, or Furious Charge to a unit within 18 inches in the shooting phase.  Obviously I'd pick Furious Charge to boost their strength up to 5.  Since this happens before the charge the Raveners won't be out of range.  Preferred Enemy is nice but the Ravener's have 2 sets of scything talons.  They get to re-roll misses anyway.
How does this work out on the battlefield?  Vrs Marines the Ravener gets to attack first at Initiative 6, rolls 5 attack dice, hits on 3+ with a re-roll, and wounds on 3+.  A medium sized brood of 5 should be able to kill 5 Marines on the Charge.  A combat squad will be wiped out completely and a full sized squad should be weakened enough to be ineffective.  Swap one set of scything talons for rending claws and you should kill an additional 2-3 Marines and pose a serious threat to most vehicles.  In either case a squad of Guardsmen will be wiped out completely.
Is this a guaranteed win?  No.  Will it make an easy win?  No again.  Will it make a win easier if you can learn to use it's speed and mass of attacks to your advantage?  Yes.

Tyranids and cover

If you're new to playing (or fighting against) Tyranids the first thing you absolutely have to learn is that Nids live and die because of terrain.  Terrain rules are the single biggest contributor to a Tyranid win or a Tyranid loss.  The faster a player can learn to use terrain the better they will play nids (or play against nids).
The first and most beneficial aspect of terrain for Tyranids is cover.  Before you roll your eyes and say, "Gee thanks Captain obvious" here are a few facts.

• Only 2 models in the codex have an invulnerable save vrs shooting and they're both toughness 4.    
• Over 40% of the units in the codex won't get a save vrs a bolter.
• Over 70% won't get a save vrs a heavy bolter.
• Only 3 models in the codex will get a save vrs a Missile Launcher.

In a typical battle the Tyranid player will have about 3 rounds of movement before he can get into assault against a typical opponent.  In those 3 rounds you'll probably have to suffer 2 rounds of long range bolter shots and 1 round of rapid fire.  A good tournament player might delay the assault to round 4 if he's good but let's look at 3 rounds for argument's sake.  If one squad of Marines with 7 bolters, 1 bolt pistol, 1 plasmagun and 1 missile launcher focus fires on one brood of nids this is the damage they will do in those 3 rounds of shooting.

• Vrs Termagants and Hormagaunts the Marines will kill an average of 19 models.  If you're running broods of 20 the last Gaunt isn't going to do much in close combat.
• Vrs Genestealers the Marines will kill an average of 15 Genestealers.  If you're running broods of 12 then .... um.... you're dead.
• A toughness 6 monstrous creature will suffer an average of 5 wounds.  The 4 wound Carnifex never stood a chance.

Give them a cover save and the situation changes.

• The Gaunts now only loose between 9 and 10 models.  A brood that started with 20 can now do some good when they get there.
• The Genestealers now stand a chance to do something.  Their losses of 7 models still leave enough to have an effect.  
• The Fex now has 1 wound left.  It's not much but if it were a 6 wound Trygon it would still have a lot of fight left in it.

Now comes the bad effects of terrain on nids and it comes in 2 flavors.  The first and easiest to overcome is the slowing effect of cover.  It's difficult terrain and only models with wings, the Move Through Cover rule, or a Monstrous Creature will have a way around this effect.  Fortunately most of the models worth taking have one of these rules.  In fact of the models worth taking, only the Tyranid Warrior doesn't have a way around the slowing effects of cover.  Just keep that in mind if you have to charge through cover, you may not make it.  I've lost 1st place at tournaments because my nids came up 1 inch short on a charge attempt.  Trust me, it sucks.

The second way cover can work against a Tyranid player is our lack of assault grenade effects.  In my opinion this is the single biggest handicap in the codex.  Most Tyranids have a fairly good initiative statline.  Genestealers have a fantastic Initiative statline.  Without any assault grenade like effects that great initiative is reduced to a miserable 1.  

Guardsmen will swing before us, Orks will swing before us, everyone except friggin powerfists will swing before us.  Those 10 Gaunts and 5 Genestealers who survived all that shooting now have to survive close combat before finally getting their attacks and it ain't looking good for the hive.  Fleshhooks and Frag Spines do exist and they will provide the needed assault grenade like effect but none of those are troops or even worth taking.  

Tyranids are stuck pulling tricks to maintain our speed and initiative.  They can be tough to pull off and be point expensive but they're all we've got to work with.  I shall blog about them next week.

Putting the fluff into scale

Here is a link to a site I've mentioned multiple times on the show that appeals to the SciFi fluff nut in me.

Jeff Russell's STARSHIP DIMENSIONS

It, better than any other site I've ever seen, demonstrates visually exactly how large warships in 40K fiction truly are.  What inspired me to write this post was the book cover from A Thousand Sons by Graham McNeil and Cain's Last Stand by Sandy Mitchell (Alex Stewart).

See all those little dots up in the sky over the pyramids of Tizca?

See that thing in the upper right hand corner over Cain's shoulder?

Those are battleships and cruisers in orbit.  They're big, really friggin big.  Big enough to make out individual details of the ships from the planet's surface.  But is that an accurate portrayal or just another example of artistic exaggeration?  After all isn't orbit really far away?  The largest man made object currently in orbit is the International Space Station and every time I've seen it overhead it was nothing more than a bright fast moving dot.  See for yourself on a clear night.

So I began to try to figure out just how big do 40K starships appear during an assault/bombardment when they enter low orbit?  To answer this out I needed to find out how high assault/orbital bombardment orbit was.  My answer was found in chapter 19 of Cain's Last Stand when he describes a Chaos cruiser needing "....about an hour.  More or less." to line up an orbital bombardment shot.  That duration of orbit around what's described as an Earth sized planet would put an assault/bombardment orbit at just under 150 miles high.  If a Retribution class battleship is 7.5 KM long then it's distance during an assault/bombardment would be about 20 times it's length from the viewer.

Do you want to see with your own eyes just how big these ships are?  Open this image in another window and leave it full sized, walk back about 14 feet and turn around.  This is how big it would appear to the sorry sap on the receiving end when it's firing shells and assault craft are being launched,

Does that put the size of these things into proper perspective?  Black Library book covers may be a bit on the dramatic side but they're accurate with the background imagery.

Rest in peace James Ayles aka "xxxjammerxxx"

This post is in honor of a friend and long time listener of our show dating back to our Dice Like Thunder days.  James Ayles aka "xxxjammerxxx" passed away recently from a sudden massive heart attack at age 45.  The entire crew of the Eternal Warriors would like to offer his wife, young children and his extended family our most sincere condolences.  We never personally met James, he was always an internet friend who we'd meet on-line on our forums or on facebook.  Despite never meeting in person we got to know him quite well and feel his loss.

To honor a request from his wife to us I'm going to post a letter on Gamer Health written to us from "Ben", another long time listener.

• Gamer Health
  This topic may seem a bit funny or awkward, but it is a very important issue that is facing many of us, especially gamers. It is the issue of health. The hobbies we love demand alot of our time. Whether its painting for hours on end, traveling hundreds of miles for a tournament, or standing still at said tournament or one-off game all day, too many gamers simply do not get enough excercise. We take great pride in our armies. We use the best paints. We transport them in cases to protect them. We spend a great deal of time on them. Yet, so many of us take better care of our armies than we do our bodies.
  This is not a direct attack on gamers by using the cliche' that they are fat and smell funny. But, look around the next time you go to your local game store or tournament. In fact, look around you anywhere you go. Look at yourself. What do you see? Do you see a healthy group of people? Do you care about you and your friends? This isn't a joke and it really is a matter of life and death.
  I, personally, have lost three friends in the past few years because of health issues. All of them were under the age of 30, and they did not take care of themselves. One of them committed suicide, one of them had severe diabetes that lead to cancer, and the other died of a massive heart attack in his sleep. All of them were overweight and unhappy. At tournaments and during friendly games, they would eat exactly what you see most other gamers eat and drink. It was either the stuff from the vending machine, pizza the tourny organizers would order, or fast food from the closest place to the bunker. These are not just opponants to roll dice against. These are real people and they are your friends.
  There has got to be a coorilation as to why so many gamers do not take care of themselves. Game nights are full of junk food, beer, coffee, sugar, carbs, cigarettes, energy drinks. Combine all of these things with non-movement over hours at a time and you end up putting on weight and adding depression.
  We play these games to escape from reality, and these are some really awesome games. Whether its playing an MMO, table top rpg, video games, poker, or 40k...they are all great games. However, our bodies are still in reality when we go to our favorite escape.
  These hobbies do take time, and they do require us to stay still and steady. But we do not need to spend hours at a time staying completely still in order to finish one task. If you have a unit or army to paint, allow yourself an hour of painting, and then walk outside. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Walk one way. Beep. The timer goes off. Then, turn back around and come back the other way. Get a glass of water, and sit down and continue to paint. You might notice something different this time. Your mind will be clearer. You will have better focus. You will even enjoy painting alot more. Before a tournament, go for some excercise and eat a good breakfast. You will also notice that your mind can think easier, rather than the Mountain Dew thinking for you. Your moral will be higher, and you will have alot more energy to stay alert throughout those long days of gaming. Also, pack a few "small" lunches when you go gaming. If you are hosting a game at your house, make it a healthy potluck. Everyone loves veggie trays. Nobody will even notice fat-free turkey over ham. Take a walk around the neighborhood with you and your friends before you start.
  If you know a friend who might be suffering from obesity, you don't even need to say anything at all. The best thing you can do is to lead by a healthy example.

Looking back on 9/11

I have only had 2 moments in my life where time seemed to stop.  The first is when the space shuttle Challenger blew up.  I was a kid in high school and word got to us between classes.  Everyone spent the rest of the day riveted to TV news watching anything we could find.  This was long before cable news so there wasn't much other than watching the same video of the explosion over and over and over.  It's an often used cliche but time did seem to stop.  

9/11/2001 was a different day.  I was running late for work and heard it live on the radio on the Mancow show.  Before the second plane hit all I could imagine was a small plane and an incompetent pilot.  The reality of what was going on never occurred to me until I got in front of a TV and saw the video of the second plane hitting.  

There were a few other things I remembered from that day.  It was the first time I ever saw the internet truly crash from everyone trying to get on cnn.com all at one.  I also remembered the sick feeling I had watching the towers fall live on TV.  I could not shake the thought that I had just witnessed a thousand people die.  I remembered the news casters talking about jumpers.  

I remember the wild theory and speculation about who and why.  I don't believe the wild theories that the US government did it.  No I don't believe the towers were blew up with explosives or that anyone in the government knew it was going to happen in advance.  In my personal opinion the government at the time was simply incompetent and arrogant.  I believe that the tragic moment was taken advantage of by a political opportunist to do promote other agendas that existed before.  

So now it's 10 years, 2 1/2 wars and thousands of lives later.  

This country has changed, the world has changed and I have changed.  The moment the planes hit was a moment I can't forget.  It's burned into my memory just as much as the moment the shuttle Challenger blew up.  

Onslaught; One way to speed up your swarm

Us poor nid players are a sorry lot.  It's nearly 2 years since the codex has been released and we're still waiting for the second wave of models.  There is still no official model for the Tyranid Prime, Harpy, Tervigon, Tyrannofex, Mycetic Spore, Swarmlord, Doom of Malan'tai, Parasite of Mortrex, or the Ymgarl Genestealers.  It's not big loss on some of these models as their rules suck anyway (I'm talking about you Tyrannofex).  Others like the Tyranid Prime, Swarmlord, and Ymgarl Genestealers can be fielded with current models with very minor conversion.
On the other hand the Tervigon is a model which absolutely needs a model of his own.  Although a Carnifex can be used as an effective proxy (I use one myself) it's really a poor looking substitute compared to the picture in the codex. I'm 100% sure that if GW would come out with a decent looking model the sales on it would be fantastic.  It's rules are just that good.  Since GW won't do it then another company has;

That's the conversion kit Chapter House Studios has put out to convert a Carnifex to a decent looking version of the Tervigon.  It's $22.50 and includes the oval base to put the larger beast on.  It's a damn good buy not because it looks great (and it does) but because it's one of the few gems in the codex.
Everyone knows about the Spawn Termagants rule.  That's the one that allows it to "poop" out 3d6 Termagants.  It's a great rule that's very flavorfull to the spirit of the codex and effective on the battlefield.  The Brood Progenitor rule is another one that may not be as famous as the one that allows it to poop out models but is twice as awesome.  It gives Termagants within 6 inches the rule counter-attack and if the Tervigon has Toxin Sacks and Adrenal Gland bestows poison attacks and furious charge on them too.  I wrote a post on some tactics with that rule earlier.
In addition this beast also comes with the Psychic power Dominion.  It's nice but I've never used it once.  My Termagants usually aren't very far so I rarely need to extend Synapse out to 18 inches.  The Psychic power I use a lot is Catalyst.  I'm also willing to be that it's probably the most often used Psychic power in the entire codex.  Why not, who doesn't love the rule Feel No Pain.
There is one other Psychic power that's rarely used.  I just started using it myself and have never seen anyone else use it.  Onslaught.  It allows a unit to run, then shoot, and then assault if it has fleet.  It's a shame that most people (including myself) have long thought of only using it on Termagants.  Only recently did I even consider using it on other broods.  Here are a few who can benefit the most from it;

• Hive Guard and Zoanthropes- The 24 inch range of their guns has long been lamented as short especially in Dawn of War deployments where they start off the board.  The Zoe's Warp Lance is especially limited with only an 18 inch range.  Hit them with Onsluaght and the Hive Guard can now move, run and then shoot at a target up to 31 to 36 inches from were they started from.  The Warp Lance enjoys a big bonus compared to it's original range and can now threaten from 25 to 30 inches from where it started.  
• Harpy- A relatively weak monstrous creature it has to pick and choose who it engages and stay away from those that it does not.  Unfortunately to drop it's spore mine cargo it has to move over a unit in the movement phase.  That usually leaves it very close to danger.  While it's a decent attack it won't wipe out any squad in one blow.  That's why a smart player would either forgo the Harpy's shooting and run it into cover or pray to the dice gods that his ballistic skill 3 is good enough (and it usually isn't).  With Onslaught the Harpy gets to move into cover and continue to shoot the target he hit before.  The D3 spore mines, Stinger Salvo and Twin-Linked Strangelthorn Cannon is a lot of firepower and should break up a unit pretty hard and should not be wasted because of a need to find protective cover.
• Dakkafex- The added d6 range boost is good for a beast with limited range but that's not the only reason you want to hit this guy with Onslaught.  It will allow you to keep him shooting and killing things as you move a strength 9 monstrous creature into close combat range.  Shooting will slow him down because he won't be able to run leaving you unable to get into assault range.  With Onslaught he can do both and maintain his speed while killing your opponents infantry every step of the way.
• Trygon Prime- Not only is the Trygon one of the best models GW has ever produced it's also a fantastic beast on the battlefield.  He kills anything he touches.  Usually I tell everyone to save the points and only take the Trygon.  The only real benefit of the Trygon Prime is the Strength 5 Assault 12 Containment Spines.  It's a brutal load of dice and will rack up the kills.  Too bad he almost never shoots with it.  If he shoots he can no longer fleet and usually that means he's out of range to assault.  He's much better assaulting than he is shooting so most people don't shoot.  Hit him with Onslaught and he can do both.  That gives you the added benefit of softening up your target before the assault.  With luck you'll take out a few of the ablative wounds so when your real blows hit he'll be targeting the all important powerfist.