Hundred dolla challenge match!! JY2 calls Reecius out for the $100 dollar prize, his Nids vs. Reecius’ Taudar. Can he do it? As always, check out the Tactics Corner for more videos!
JY2’s list and thoughts:
1750 Hive Fleet Pandora
Flyrant – Wings, 2xTL-Brainleech Devourers
Flyrant – Wings, 2xTL-Brainleech Devourers
1x Venomthrope
1x Zoanthrope
Tervigon
30x Termagants
10x Termagants
23x Gargoyles
7x Raveners
2x Biovores
2x Dakkafexes
Bastion
About my list:
Originally, I was thinking about bringing a super-optimized Tyranid spam list. However, I finally decided to bring just a balanced and fast Tyranid list. This was mainly because of 2 main reasons:
1. I only wanted to play with the models that I had. I didn’t want to proxy models that I didn’t have. A super-optimized list would have required me to bring a lot of models that I didn’t own.
2. I really didn’t want this to be a battle between just the lists. Well, it is a battle between lists, but it is more a battle between the synergies of the list rather than the units themselves. More importantly, this is a battle between the generals. If I can win this battle, it’s going to mainly be from the synergies of the list and my skills as a tactician rather than just running a list “that plays itself”. Basically, it’s going to take a lot of skill to make this list work, especially against Tau, and I was going to enjoy the challenge.
So now why raveners and gargoyles? We’ve discussed in depth how much better carnifexes and biovores were and how good the Heavy Support slots were, so why didn’t I just fill up my Heavies with as many units there as possible? The answer is that I wanted a very fast army with some resiliency as well. That’s why I went more heavy with the Fast Attack units. Raveners and gargoyles – especially the raveners – are really fast. They both complement my flyrants very well IMO. They also form a hammer and anvil combination. Gargoyles are the anvil and will help lock up units. The raveners are the hammer unit. They are the unit that will come in and wreck sh*t. In addition, you’re talking about 44 wounds between the 2 units. With cover and if only I could have gotten Catalyst, they can actually be quite resilient.
They also help me with my strategy of Positional Dominance. Because of their speed, I use them (and the flyrants) to control my opponent’s movements. Basically, I use them to keep my opponent off of the objectives so that I can get onto them. This gives me an inherent advantage, even if slightly, in that I already have the objectives and my opponent will have to be the one to have to shift me off of them. Thus, I actually don’t have to play as aggressively as I normally do. Against an ultra-shooty army like Tau, I can actually sit back and dare him to come towards me. And if he does, I have the fast units that can make him pay, both with assault and with my shooting.
Pre-game Analysis:
This is going to be even more of an uphill battle than I had thought. Why?
1. No Catalyst. Against super-shooty armies like Tau or mechdar, you need Catalyst. It’s what will give you a chance against them, because you’re not going to be getting cover. With 2 flyrants and 2 other psykers, I actually had a very good chance to get at least 1 Catalyst. Well, I didn’t.
2. Hammer & Anvil. Against a shooty army, this is perhaps the the worst deployment type for me. Although I had a fast army, I had nothing that can get really deep into my opponent’s deployment zone. No trygons or mawlocs to deploy into his backfield to force him to deal with. No other flyers except for my flyrants. Thus, if I had advance, most likely my bugs are going to get shot down. Flyers don’t mean that much to my opponent’s army, not with all the twin-linking, skyfire and markerlights he had in his army.
3. My opponent was going 1st. That means he will get the alpha-strike.
4. Anti-air. His anti-air shooting was just too good. Both riptides have skyfire, he’s got a quad-guns and almost all his shooters will be twin-linked. Commander will twin-link 1 riptide. Farseer will guide/prescience the other riptide and wraithknight. Broadsides themselves are already twin-linked. Then he’s got the pathfinders which can help to increase the BS of his shapshots. Without Catalyst, my flyrants wouldn’t even last 1 turn out in the open. Heck, he actually have the firepower to take out both flyrants in just 1 turn of shooting.
5. My list is balanced, but it isn’t particularly optimized. Then again, I prefered to go with what I’ve got as opposed to what I really wanted.
However, it is not all doom & gloom. Despite a big mountain to climb, I have a few advantages:
1. Good terrain. Terrain was favorable to tyranids, though most of the terrain was quite far away from my opponent. The game would probably not even been this close if not for the central LOS-blocking terrain.
2. I’m going 2nd. I have the final say with regards to the objectives.
3. I’m hoping Reece will under-estimate my tyranids. I think I can surprise him with my gameplay. That sometimes happens when one person thinks that there is too big a rift between 2 armies. I know I’ve done it before also, under-estimating my opponent because I thought it would be an easy win and then losing because either he out-played me or because of a few bad rolls.
4. Synapse. It’s not as big a crutch as most would think, especially if you do it right. So far in all my games that I’ve played, I’ve had no problems with Synapse. That is also why the bastion is sooooo good. 1 zoanthrope either inside or behind the bastion is all you really need.
So my prediction is that it will be an extremely tough battle for my bugs. This may even be tougher than Tyranids vs Venom-spam of yesterday’s Tyranids, but it is still a winnable game for me. Now I won’t guarantee a win for my bugs, but I will guarantee you that I will give my opponent, no matter who he is or what army he is running, a competitive game.
Coming up later…..Analysis of the Game and my Strategy.
