WTF Geek video of the week

This one ranks pretty high in the WTF department.
Yet I still declare it awesome.

Cool geek video of the week

This ranks a perfect 10 out of 10 in the awesome video scale.  I could watch this all day long.

Seriously guys... WTF happened to us?

Short post here but seriously guys.... WTF happened to us?

When did so many of us become such wimps?
How many of us wear more than 1 piece of jewelry?
Who among us likes to go clothes shopping?
Why do some of us get manicures?
How many of you don't know how to change your own damn oil?
How many of you can't drive a nail without bending it?

Stop it!!!!  All of you stop it.  Learn how to do these things and what you don't friggin do.
Become MEN!

Captain Obvious says "........

    The other day I blogged that the Tyrannofex isn't your best anti-mech option.  In fact, he sucks.  I won't go into detail on why now.  Click the link, read up and learn a bit of wisdom.  But I'd say that 90% of Tyranid players who use him do so in an anti-mech role that is lacking in the codex.  I also blogged last week on a quick and dirty review of your basic anti-mech options.  Today I'm going discuss the most obvious option.

    You actually have multiple good choices that are very effective at taking out mechanized units.  The first and most obvious is the Hive Guard Brood and the Zoanthrope Brood.  They may have some issues with limited range but Tyranids aren't mean to be played as a long range shooty force.  If you're running them in that way then you're doing it wrong.  So my first and best advice is to load up 2 Elite slots with Hive Guard and one Elite slot with Zoanthrope.  

    Done.  You now have effective short and medium range anti-mech that is potent, survivable, and relatively cheap.  When you play Tyranids this should be your default option for anti-mech shooting.  Allow me to explain why;

• The Hive Guard can lay out more anti-mech firepower on the move for less points than any infantry in the game.  This is quite a statement but how many other infantry units can put out 6 strength 8 shots a turn at BS 4 that can go around corners and deny vehicles a cover save for 150 points?  My only complaint about the model is that it's weighted too nose heavy.  The modeler to the right solved that problem by putting him on an angled base.  I suppose the new Finecast won't be as nose heavy but if you do get a metal model you'd be best making an angled base too.
• Warp Lance can rip the top off of almost any vehicle in the game easily.  Land Raiders don't like being reduced to AV12 by a weapon strength 10 AP 1 weapon.  Only a Multi-Melta comes close and those don't have the option of launching AP 3 blast templates for 55 points and have a 3+ Invulnerable save.  My only complaint is the fact that it's an ugly spud of a model.  I absolutely hate the legless and armless look of it.  I tend to use the shorter old 1st edition version on the right.  It has legs and arm like a proper nid should.  The conversion on the left is one I found on-line and appears to be a Nid Warrior with a Zoanthropes head.  It's a nice conversion even if the head looks far too large.

A Ymgarl themed list

    The first and my absolute favorite themed list based upon the "other elite units" is the Ymgarl Genestealer list. I've had great success with them as they are now the only unit that can strike unopposed and un-counterable from reserve.  To use them properly you do need to build a list around their unique special abilities.  I'll blog about my love affair with them later and why they're so awesome but for now accept the fact that they're good.
   To begin with I need to overcome the fact that if I want to run 3 full sized broods of Ymgarl Genestealers I'll need to get my anti-mech shooting from somewhere because it ain't coming from my Elite slots.  That will ensure that the Ymgarls will have something to assault when they pop from hiding.  Since I need to also fill 1 HQ and 2 troops I'll use those first.  For my HQ choice I'll use a Hive Tyrant with 1 Heavy Venom Cannon and 1 set of Twin-Linked Devourers with Brainleech Worms.  With 1 strength 9 shot and 6 strength 6 shots it's a shooter than can open both light and medium armor.  I need more shooting so I'll go to my best shooters in the troops section, Tyranid Warriors.  I need to maximize my target priority so I'll keep the broods small with 3 models each so I can have as many shooting units as possible.  Each will be armed with a single Venom Cannon and 2 Deathspitters.  Each brood will be packing 1 Strength 6 shot and 6 Strength 5 shots.  Between the Hive Tyrant and the Warriors my weakest shooting is able to damage a Rhino and with side shots can take out a Chimera.
    Is this enough?  I think so.  Remember the idea of this list is to spam the Ymgarl Genestealers.  They are the center piece of this army.  The rest of the list is devoted to making them work.  What I have right now is only 1160 points with 1 Hive Tyrant, 30 Ymgarl Genestealers and 6 Warriors.  I now need to improve the list to make it work.
    The Ymgarls need reliability to their reserve roll.  Experience has taught me that.  I need to use any trick I can find to bring them in as early as possible and in this case that means Hive Commander on the Hive Tyrant.  Now 1 of my warrior broods can outflank and everyone gets a +1 to their reserve rolls.  I also want more shooting to guarantee my Ymgarls have infantry targets when round 2 starts so I double the Warrior Broods.
    Now I'm at 1445 and each round I've got 1 strength 9 shots, 10 strength 6 shots and 24 strength 5 shots, 4 troop broods with 9 wounds each plus 30 Ymgarls to handle the close combat.  It's a lot but it's also missing something.
    No other unit in the codex compliments Genestealers of either kind better than the Swarmlord.  He's a ton of points but he give you a few synergy tricks to your list.  The first and most useful is the +1 to your reserve roll.  It's been FAQ'd to stack with Hive Commander so now the reserves will show up on a 2+.  He also has the special rule Swarm Leader.  That allows him to bestow upon 1 friendly unit within 18 inches Acute Senses, Preferred Enemy or Furious Charge.  If the game starts with Night Fight rules he should bestow the Hive Tyrant with Acute Senses so he can see farther, when the Ymgarls pop out of cover have him give one Furious Charge (especially good when combined with the Ymgarl's Alter Form, Slashing Claws.  That's 30 Strength 6 rending attacks on the charge.)  If the Ymgarl's get stuck in close combat give them Preferred Enemy.  If all else fails throw him into close combat, he's a beast.
    The Ymgarls also need a bit of protection.  They're good but they're still toughness 4 with a 4+ save.  Heavy Bolters will tear them up.  Have the Hive Tyrant and Swarmlord keep casting Paroxysm on every shooty unit they can target.  Lowering them to BS 1 will do you a lot of good.
    Is this enough?  Maybe.  I'm 5 wins 0 losses with this exact list in non-tournament play.  It would probably get ruined in tournaments but in local play it's a ton of fun.

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.