About Me

Hey there, as you can see this is blog is all about gaming. And that's what I've been doing for pretty much all of my life. Currently I'm completely enveloped in Warhammer 40,000 and I'm breaking into the new Warhammer Fantasy system with the release of the new 8th edition.

Follow me as I build new armies, find newer and better ways to destroy my enemy, learn more about the rules, and just complain about the things that don't go my way :)
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Friday, February 26, 2010

Doom of Malantai tactics

For the sake of this article, we are going to start the conversation out assuming that GW will rule against being able to affect embarked units.


That being said, this is still a very effective unit and when used properly can wreak serious havoc amongst your opponent.


The first thing we need to talk about with the doom are his weaknesses.


1. Synapse - Despite what you may think, this creature is not a synapse creature and can revert to instinctive behavior. His leadership is a 10 so the odds are very small that this will happen, but it is something to keep in mind. He uses the instinctive behavior feed and will basically assault the closest thing to him, foregoing his shooting attack if he fails a leadership test.


2. Toughness 4 - Power fists, Thunder Hammers, force weapons, melta guns, las cannons, and most artillery will instantly destroy a Doom no matter how many wounds he has. All it takes is one failed 3+ invun save.

3. Mobility - If an opposing army moves away from the doom before he has a chance to soak up any wounds, he is a walking shadow of the warp and not much else. If this happens, I will typically seek out some of my other squads and use him for support.


Ok, now that you know the weaknesses of the doom, let’s talk about how to use him effectively.

There are several types of deployments that an enemy will choose that will benefit the doom, so in my opinion the best way to use him, is put him in a spore pod and drop him "post" deployment. If you are dead set against using pods, you can always use the hive tyrant ability and outflank him.


What you are looking for is exposed units that are either in cover, or are marching forward. I typically drop the spore pod 1 inch away from anything dangerous and then hope for a low scatter roll.


Once he drops in, you want to position the unit as close to the enemy troops as possible, while getting as many units within your 6 inch bubble as you can. If you are lucky enough to get close to large infantry unit without a powerfist or other str 8 weapon, you are advised to immediately assault that unit. This will protect your doom from reprisal from lascannons and melta shots during the enemies shooting phase and still allows your doom to soak up wounds from the engaged infantry unit during both shooting phases.


Also don't forget that once you get 8 to 10 wounds to start punishing tanks during your shooting phase with that str 8 to 10 AP 1 cataclysm. The range is very good on this weapon.


Finally here is a breakdown by army of how I have best used the doom


Doom vs space marines - Devastator squads, sternguard in drop pods, scouts, assault squads and exposed tactical squads will die in droves to the doom. keep yourself in assault so you don't get rapid fired down.


Doom vs eldar and dark eldar - I personally will drop the doom right into a farseer council. Yes, I might die quickly, but I am almost certain to get my points back. Eldar do not have a ton of high str melee weapons so almost any infantry will fall to the doom. I have yet to play against dark eldar so I don't really have alot to say on that.


Doom vs IG - Ahh yes, command squads, heavy weapons teams, large veteran squads, almost anything IG will fall to the doom.


Doom vs chaos space marines - This guy is really good at taking out squads of obliterators, Khorne beserkers "might want to stay out of melee there" and especially plague marines.


Doom vs chaos demons - This one is a bit tricky as the deployment of demons is never a sure thing. Just look for soft spots, or use the doom to try and leech a few wounds off of a demon prince before he wipes you off the board.


Doom vs Orks - This guy is great if dropped right into a nest of nobz or even mass amounts of boyz. Now, he will probably get dropped though if he gets assaulted by by 30 boyz, but he might take 15 of them out with him. Try and drop him next to lootas and burners though and they will pay big time.


Doom vs nids - If you can find a large group of termagaunts, this guy is awseome. just assault them and they will feed you for multiple turns, forcing the nid player to always be looking over his shoulder. Also if you can find hive guard sitting by themselves, or biovores, he's great, because they only have a 7 leadership. Stay away from large groups of hormagaunts with poison glands though because you won’t get your points back.


Doom vs necron - I think that this is where the doom is at his peak since necron has no mechanized units to speak of. Just be careful not to park him next to a unit of guys only to have them get sucked into a monolith leaving you all by yourself.


Doom vs Tau - Crisis suits. OH MY GOD. I love to kill crisis suits with the doom. nothing pisses off a tau player by having a doom drop into the middle of his turtled position and he can't do 10 wounds back to you. I have tabled tau players in 3 turns with 1 doom dropping into this ranks.

I hope this helps you in your gaming. Have a good one.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

40k Rulebook FAQ Released today

So it looks like they snuck another FAQ in there today, and it's the main rule book. I've looked it over and didn't notice any changes to it, does anyone else?

It's posted here.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

New Ork Errata and FAQ

Well GW just released a new Ork FAQ on their site today. Take a look here.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

All about Wound Allocations

So I know that wound allocation is not the clearest thing in the world, so I'm going to try to help explain how things work, how some people do it wrong, and the proper way for it to work out. We'll start out with the basics and then going through the different scenarios that can occur.

***********



We'll start off with the basics. I only have one image for this one as it's pretty easy.

Here we have a 5 Man Squad of Marines all armed exactly the same way. Because they armed the same way there is no Wound Allocation. If they get shot at and suffer 6 wounds, they then roll a total of 6 saving throws, if they fail 3 saves then 3 die.

You DO NOT allocate the hits, meaning you do not put a single wound on 4 guys and 2 wounds on the last man and then roll separately. You roll them all together.

***********



Here we have a scout squad with 3 normal scouts, 1 heavy bolter and 1 sergeant. Here the scout squad takes 8 wounds before saves. You must then allocate those wounds, the best case is stacking 2 on each of the normal guys and then 1 each on the different models.

This gives you the best chance to have models survive the encounter.


The red X represents the models that took unsaved wounds. After rolling 6 saves for the normal scouts, they fail 3 and all three die. Even if they had failed all 6 of those saves, only those 3 wound die from the wounds because they were allocated to those models.

That leaves just the heavy bolter and sergeant to make there saves. You roll one die for each, and if saved they stay on the board.

***********




Here is a squad of 3 Ravenors, they are all the same and include 3 wounds. This works out very much the same way as the first instance with the space marines.

If they are shot at and take 4 unsaved wounds you must assign all of the wounds to one model until it is dead and then assign the remaining wounds to the next model.

In this instance we get 1 dead ravenor and 1 ravenor with a single wound.



No let's say that we have the same ravenor squad and it take 4 unsaved wounds, but 1 of those wounds causes Instant Death.

Very often an opponent will place the ID wound on a model and then place 2 more unsaved wounds on that model, and 1 wound on the other model.

What this does is negate those 2 extra wounds done and keeps the other ravenor alive. This however is not the Correct way to do it.



Now after playing yesterday, we ran into this problem where the ravenors would stack the wounds. I did not know any better until I looked over the rules today.

On Page 26 of the Main Rule Book, second paragraph from the bottom on the right side it described what you are supposed to do.

And that is to place the ID wound on a model, which kills it out right and then place all of the rest of the wounds on the next model. This now results in 2 dead models.

Now lets say that there is already a wounded multi-wound model in the unit, you still must place the wound on a model that has not received any wounds if possible.

***********



Ok, now we get to a much more complicated scenario. Let say that you are shooting at 5 Ork Nobz with 'Eavy Armor (just for fun) and you deal 11 wounds to them. Now because all of the Nobz are armed differently the controlling player gets to allocate all of those wounds between the 5 nobz as seen above.



Now after failing 3 wounds on the first guy and 1 wound on 3 of the other guys the entire squad only looses 1 man. As they all have 2 wounds each. Even though the squad took 6 unsaved wounds, this would normally cause 3 dead orks. But because of the way the wounds were allocated only 1 ork dies and three of the others are sitting pretty with only taking 1 wound each.

***********


Now what happens when you have different kinds of weapons shooting at the same target. Well here we have a Ork Squad taking 3 melta shots and 8 flamer shots. Now because of wound allocation the player gets to allocate the kinds of wounds from those shots how ever he wants.

This will normally end up with 3 meltas on 1 ork and then the flamer wounds spread out among the rest of the orks. Because they are all armed differently this is allowed.


So what happens when the orks receive the unsaved wounds? Well the ork with the unsaved melta wounds take 3 ID hits, which would normally be 6 wounds. Then the squad take an additional 4 wounds, but only 1 each to the nobs. So after taking what would be 10 wounds the nobs only loose 1 guy.

How do you work around this. Well it's a toss up actually. You can forget about firing the flamer, and then that means your opponent only has 3 Melta wounds to spread around, which would cause 1 melta for 3 models. Meaning 3 dead orks instead of 1. But of course you might luck out with the flamer and have him fail all of his saves and have all dead orks.

***********


Now here comes my little rant :D Now after reading the above you are probably thinking to yourself wow wound allocation in this instance does not make a lot of since. Well I have a simple solution that I think GW should consider using (but that won't happen anytime soon.)

The solution is to have a little sentence in there that say, "All Instant Death wounds must be allocated to a different model in the unit being shot, before those wounds can be stacked on the same model in a unit."

So if this were the case we would have the 3 meltas spread out in the unit, and then the flamer wounds would also be spread out in the unit.



With that in place we now have 3 instant dead unsaved wounds and 4 unsaved wounds. Resulting in a minimum of 3 dead orks, with a higher probability of the other orks dieing from there wounds.

I think this simple solution would greatly balance the problem with wound allocation but in the mean time remember how everything else works and you should be fine.

-CKR

Primer

Recently someone asked me my opinion on Primers. So I figured I’d go ahead and put my thoughts to paper and actually update the Blogs as well. So here are my thoughts on Primer.

I won’t say that any Primer is superior to any other; I can only tell you what I’ve experienced and what I’ve seen. I used to love GW’s Primer; I had a can of white that lasted eons.

Eventually I ran out, so thinking I would get the same results I went and bought more GW Primer. Granted I was a little sticker shocked at the price that the Primer had risen to, but I was willing to pay it for the quality I got.

So I took my purchase home, walked out into the garage and got ready to spray a Rhino. Boy was I in for a surprise. The spray came out hard and fast which is not a good thing as it tends to push light plastic all over the place. Another thing is it tended to be chalky and grainy. Some people say “Oh you got a bad can”, I thought so as well and returned it for another. Same thing happened with the new can. Sure it could have been a bad batch of cans, but for the price I was paying quality control should be better.

What I needed now was an alternative. I went and tried various sand able Primers from the automotive section in Wal-Mart and such. While the price was right, the primer was too thick and tended to diminish the detail on the minis. Also the fumes of that primer got really bad at times, I continued my search.

That’s when someone told me about Armory’s Primer. I knew about their Primer, it was one of the first one’s I got way back when. When I first used it I wasn’t impressed with it. I didn’t think it was a bad Primer, just not a great Primer. I saw the new can and thought to myself, “Hey cool, they got Kovalic to do their can wrappers.” (For those of you who don’t know Kovalic… shame on you…go here at once www.dorktower.com)

I can say their Primer is better than it used to be and in my opinion better then the new GW Primers. They also have Grey which works well for medium shades of color and to me a little bit easier to get a darker red to work. They also have the traditional White and Black Primers.

I used Armory Primer up to about a year ago. I stumbled across a Primer that I never would of thought would be very good. Rust-oleum’s Painter’s Touch Primer. So far I’ve used the White and Black, but they also have Red and Grey (although I haven’t seen these at the store yet). You can get them at any Lowe’s or Home Depot and it’s about a fifth of the cost from GW’s Primer.

It goes on even and dries quickly. It is a little thicker then GW and Armory Primer so you have to be a little more aware of how much you’re spraying, but not nearly as thick as the automotive Primers. It was a nice middle ground, and since it’s thicker than normal you use less of it overall per mini. So now that can of Primer will go a long way.

I’ve used it on plastic, on metal and even on Resin. It sticks to them all. Leaves a nice even coat when it dries and I haven’t had a grainy can or one that starts spraying like silly string. It’s very resilient as well, I haven’t had it rub off or chip with normal moving of the mini. I feel that it’s well worth the cost and time to learn how to use this primer.

If I had to point out a “bad” thing with it is that sometimes it tends to dry shiny. Not really a big deal since it doesn’t “shine” through the base coats, but if you wanted to base coat a large structure and leave it black it might be dull and shiny in places. So just a heads up.

So there you have it, my thoughts on different Primers that I’ve used. Of course this is all relative as I’m sure others have used the Painter’s Touch Primer and thought it was horrendous, or others that love Armory Primer. To each their own, and it’s why I say there is no absolute perfect primer. A lot of it hinges on personal choice and also personal style.

Monday, February 22, 2010

More Signs of Grey Knights on the Way

So I'm sure everyone has heard of reports that the codex for Daemon and Witch hunters has been pulled off the Games Workshop website. Well today I went to my local GW store to return a box of PAGKs because, well I've gotten opened ones off a couple of friends and don't need 50 Grey Knights :D I don't think I can even field that much in a 2.5k game.

So at the store I was going to pick up some stuff to do some conversions but it turns out that I could not return the box because they are no longer stocking it, that or any of the other GK or SoB boxes. Last time this happened was about 3 months ahead of Nids.

So could it be, the fabled return of GKs and Sisters is on it's way. Lets only hope so as I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with them. Still now word on if it will be one or two different codex's but either way I'll be happy as I'll actually sit down and start building them with a new book ;)

Keep watching and I'll feed more news as I get it.

-CKR

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Hero Quest



If you've never seen this game, it's ok... It game out in the late 80s and by the early 90s I had my first experience with it. Playing it with my cousin and having tons of fun. By the next Christmas I had it and had the chance to play it a little, but by then video games were becoming super popular and well... board games were out.



But since then it's been sitting on my shelf for many many long years, waiting to be used. So much to my surprise as I was pulling it off the shelf I saw the Games Workshop logo on the bottom of the box. Evidently they had done the plastics for the game, so now my first GW experience is much much older then I though it was.



But let me tell you, if you ever have the chance to play the game you should, it's a lot of fun, probably the first Board RPG... it's good for 2-5 players, 5 being the recommended lot having 1 DM and 4 people who then control the Wizard, Elf, Dwarf and Barbarian.

Check it out if you have the chance, you'll wonder why you missed it 2 decades ago :D

-CKR

Monday, February 15, 2010

Thunderkitty or Snowkitty



So by popular demand... or demand of someone ;) I went ahead and photoshopped Thunder Kitty.

Now I don't know about you, but Robie is way more intimidating then any Thunderwolf out there.

-CKR

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Njal Visits Dallas

So I'm going to be completely 40k Unrelated today because I can be :D

For those of you who don't know what's been going on in the 40k area lately we've had the largest snowfall in a day ever and I just got my internet up and running again a couple hours ago. It's one thing being on vacation for a week without internet but let me tell you it's something completely different sitting at your house phones not working, internet not working, cable tv not working...

I guess I was lucky I had power as there was a couple in front of me at church today who hadn't had heat in there house for 4 days now. Now that's roughing it.

So for those of you who aren't Space Wolves we sure did get some rather good weather to go around wearing pelts now didn't we. It just goes to show that sometimes we're not prepared for our environment around us. Just like in 40k things might change and you'll just have to rough it out the best you can. Luckily I wasn't restricted to a couple turns to turn things around but we did clean out the yard after breakfast that first day. Here a couple pictures of what happened in our neck of the woods.



So here's what Njal let us wake up to in the morning. I'm still thanking God that none of the branches snapped off onto our roof. And yes those tree branches are leaning on the house.



And here's the neighbors driveway, very very lucky they didn't park under that branch. Would've eaten into my 40k fund ;)



So here's the backyard's tree, took out our patio furniture. Once again very lucky it didn't damage the house.



And after by about 3 o'clock Friday me and the neighbors had cleared out our yards, and here's the pile from the tree in back and the branches from the front. It looks like we lost a couple of tree but it was only about 3/4s of one.



And last but not least, it's Robie, the Thundercat Grrrrr...... Lol... The wife keeps the cat inside, I wanted to see what happened when pampered kitty met blizzard. She just gives off a pissy look.

So there you go, I promise the next post will be much more 40kish but I wanted to share the white cold wet stuff we never get here in Dallas :D

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Rapid Cure - The Other Gamers Friend

Hi everyone, I'm sorry I've been slow getting to posts but as you probably know the world catches up with us :D

So this week I decided that I was going to try my luck at building some Storm Guardians, 36 to be exact, and let me first say wow guardians have more bits then you could ever want on an 8 pt model :P I think it's something like 9 pieces you have to glue together without the extras that you can do.

But that's not a huge deal, other then just a little time consuming. But it's when I got to the part of trying to put the Metal bits on with the plastic that I had an issue.

Now I had started with the heads, for a 12 man batch and I was sorely dissapointed in how long it was taking for the heads to dry vs all the plastic body parts I had been working with before hand. Now me being patient and watching TV I just stuck with it.

So after holding heads in place for nearly an hour it was time to get to the arms. Now these I couldn't simply let gravity have it's way, I had to actually hold it nice and still for 24 of these bad boys.

So that's what I started off doing, I grabbed on arm, and one guys and sat there with the glue for about 5 minutes, and that arm was not going to stick.

That's when I did the next best thing, I have a mini to my wife, with an arm and asked her to hold it there :D

So with each of us holding the arm in place and watching tv it wasn't to bad, until two commercials later and no luck on it sticky.

I gave up on the metal for the night and worked on the next set of 24 guys. The next day I went to the local gaming store and picked up this Rapid Cure stuff that I had heard some of my friends raving about in the past. I didn't really believe them but for 7 bucks I was willing to test it out.

Lets just say about 10 seconds after holding it in place I could've dropped the mini and the bits would've stayed on. It was like a dream come true. Glue sticking and drying faster then I could build them.

So here's the secret. All you need to do is a dab of glue on one piece, and then a dap of the liquid on the other. The rapid cure says you should spray it but honestly that's a total waste of product as I only need a drop of it to cover the piece that I'm glueing.

I found that most of the piece would become snug and dry in 10-20 seconds and then you could let go without any worries of it falling apart. So here's to Rapid Cure :D I'll be using it on my metal figures from now on.

-CKR

Saturday, February 6, 2010

40k Roster by GW

So GW just recently put up a roster pdf for 40k and Fantasy. Here's a link to check them out in case you don't use other things to display your army list.

Warhammer 40k Roster

Warhammer Fantasy Roster

Enjoy!

-CKR

Friday, February 5, 2010

MCs vs Vehicles who lives longer?

I'm going to try and write an Intelligent post here without being to prejudice to one party or the other. Today I just want to explore the toughness of the two different types of units in the 40k universe.

First we have vehicles, we're going to go ahead and give them an Average Armor Value of 12 with 1 Weapon. Now in order to destroy a vehicle you'll need weapons of str 6 or higher. That's just the plain fact, and you're better off with str 7 and up weapons.

So let's just see what it takes a couple different weapons to take out a vechile. And we'll see what it takes for those to kill a MC, and we'll just say everything is BS 4 for giggles.

Str 6 - Well we'll need to glance it to death, that means rolling 3 5s or 6s on the table. It will take an average of 54 Shots to glance to death.

Str 7 - Here it starts to get a bit easier. Because now we can actually penetrate it. So t's an average of 27 shots to simply destroy or explode the vehicle. 28 Shots to destroy the vehicle from damage states, or a total of 11 shots to do it on average.

Str 8 - It takes an average of 10 shots to destroy the vehicle.

Str 9 - 6.7 shots to destroy a vehicle.

Str 10 - 5.7 shots to destroy it. So the best average you can get to destroy a vehicle is about 6 shots.

Now let's talk MCs We'll say an average MC has toughness 6, 4 wounds, and a 3+ save. This should be intersting. Now I know that it can be hurt with guns lower then str 6 but just because my mind is going numb we'll go with str 6. ;)

Str 6 - You're going to needs 4s to wound it so let's see what happens. So to be able to kill it with Str 6 weapons you're going to need an average of 37 shots.

Str 7 - 28 shots to take out the MC

Str 8 - So here's where it gets interesting, it takes 22 shots to kill the MC at Str 8, now as it gets no easier to kill an MC then a 2+ then it also takes 22 shots to kill it at Str 9 and 10.


So with a Str 10 weapon it's actually 4 times easier to destroy a tank then it is to kill a MC. And that's how it feels everytime I try to kill MCs. You also have to think that with no shooting weapon (well other then super special ones, WraithCannons and the like) it takes a minimum of 4 shots to kill the MC. Where you can get lucky with a Shot and take out a Vehicle the first time.

So my vote goes for MCs as being the tougher of the two at least on average ;) Oh and the luck factor works in favor of MCs too being able to take out a vehicle with one shot.

-CKR

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Eldar & the 5th Edition Tyranid Menace By: Dverning

Eldar & the 5th Edition Tyranid Menace

The Tyranid Codex now in stores, many Hive Minds are chuckling evilly about all their new toys, Saim-Hann looks to be headed into the prongs of two separate Hive Fleets, and Iyanden is all but turned into biomass. What’s a proud but dying race to do in these tough times?

  1. Don’t rush to change your army. Tyranids have NOT drastically changed the face of the game. If your list was already balanced and capable of facing Mech Marines, Drop Marines, Horde Orks and Nidzilla, then you’re likely to be fine against the new Nids. They’re mostly doing the same things, just with different names. Get a few games in against them, see how things fare and THEN adapt. The only unit I’d consider really key to facing Tyranids is a Farseer with Runes of Witnessing: to shut down Zoanthrope Warp Blasts and other nasty Psykers. But then again, I already consider a Farseer nigh mandatory for any balanced list above 1000 points. After that your list might end up with a few more Guardian Jetbikes, opt to add for Warp Spiders, or finally re-shelf your Wraithguard… but generally a competitive list of a month ago is still a competitive list now.
  2. Know your enemy. Take the time to flip through the Codex and get a basic orientation to the Tyranid choices. You don’t need to be able to build a list from memory, but you do need to know how to identify their models, what unitss are T4 versus T6, which Monsters give Synapse (and what that means), if large parts of the force will be able to enter play via Outflank or Deep Strike, or even who will explode and damage nearby units when killed. This will lead to knowing how to…
  3. Maximize effect by using the right weapon. For example: Zoanthropes and Tyranid Warriors. Both are T4, yet the first has a 3+ Invulnerable Save and 2 Wounds while the other has 4+ Armour and 3 Wounds. A pair of Bright Lances at the Zoanthropes and Dire Avengers into Doomed Warriors might drop one each or so, but reversing the choice of weapon and spell will significantly increase the damage done. In the same sense, Banshees or Harlequins that charge Lash Whip Warriors or Tyrant Guard are in for a nasty surprise, but will greatly enjoy ripping up Genestealers and most Monsters.
  4. Divide. Your primary asset isn’t your guns, it is your speed. In general, Eldar armies will out range, out maneuver, and out gun Tyranids, but will be outnumbered and suffer when in close combat and/or pinned in place. Though most Tyranids do not have Frag Grenades, you’re usually better off just not being there in the first place. Taking static formation and play style will be to their strengths, allowing their superior numbers to push you into a corner and swarm over you. You need to be using Jump-Shoot-Jump, Turboboosting Jetbikes, Assault move Jetbikes, Flat Out Skimmer, Reserves Denial, Divination redeploy and all your other tricks to spread them out across the board and engage per your desires. This allows you to…
  5. Conquer. A big problem with Tyranids is learning how to engage them, but even harder is knowing what to do when you get there. Here are my general recommendations:
    1. Cripple their mobility. Outflanking Genestealers or Mycetic Spores aren’t really a massive threat; once they’ve hit the field the units are subject to normal movement rules and can be avoided. Standard Castle Deployment, Reserves Denial, and other Deep Strike neutralizing formations will seriously reduce their threat. What you need to worry about overall are the units that can keep up with you on the table. Choices like Gargoyles, Shrikes, FlyRants, Harpies and Mawlocs should be high on your priority list to neutralize early. Once you have secured the advantage of speed, turn your eyes toward…
    2. Destroy their Spawners. One of the nastiest threats of the new dex is certainly Tervigons and their ability to spawn new broods. Expect to see a number of these beasties on the tables soon. Unless the game is for Kill Points, you should expect them to be popping out babies as fast as they can. Yet in the sense of “know your enemy”, Tervigons also do BAD THINGS to nearby Termagaunts when they die. These Monsters need to die quickly, but for other targets of the same class…
    3. Don’t sweat the big guys. Tyrannofex, Carnifex, Trygons, and even Shooty Tyrants all look pretty scary on paper, especially when tooled up with Retinues, multiple model units, Regeneration and other toys. But take an honest look at the details. Most aren’t as big a threat as they seem, especially at range. They’re simple fire magnets that hope to draw fire off of weaker units while everything closes. Ignore them for higher priority targets, Avoid them until you can achieve localized superiority and only engage them when you can…
    4. Focus overwhelming fire. With Regeneration, multiple wounds all over, swarm production and many other rules, the worst thing to do to a Tyranid army is spread your fire out. Remember, there’s no Regenerating if the monster is out of Wounds and a single living ‘Gaunt can preserve a Kill Point. Strive to focus your fire for localized overkill and you’re much less likely to have a bad roll or two crumple your entire battle line.

      Still, Conquering will not always work. So…

  1. Don’t get attached to your units. As a doomed race, every life lost is irreplaceable. But if putting those Fire Dragons a little closer together can keep your Dire Avengers from being charged? That’s lives saved to go on shooting the next turn. Few Nid lists are going to be an “easy win” these days. You will need to accept losses, play to your “A Game” and think beyond the tactics of the current turn. Most especially, you will need to…
  2. Always, always, ALWAYS remember the objectives. This is probably THE single biggest reason I see people snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It doesn’t matter if a unit of Hormagaunts sits on an objective marker all game long, so long as it’s your Scoring Wave Serpent sitting there when the dice are set down. It’s great to strive for tabling your opponent, but that’s gimmick and not a game-winning strategy. The only way to consistently win is to always stay focused on the actual game.

And for some other good thoughts, I would suggest checking out:

http://bellumaeternum.blogspot.com/2010/01/some-musings-on-tyranids-and-freshly.html

http://www.yesthetruthhurts.com/2010/01/editorial-tyranids-vs-eldar.html

http://blackmoors40k.blogspot.com/2010/01/eldar-vs-tyranids.html

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2010/01/40k-tactics-defeating-hive-mind-eldar.html

I don’t agree with everything any of them have to say, but there’s still some great analysis in these. Cheers and hope you’ve enjoyed this little digression!



Thanks to Dverning over at Maunderings of a 40K Gamer for the great post.