PBL Season 2 – Hive Fleet Cerebus vs da Bad Moonz
Mon ,22/03/2010
The first weekend of March was a very interesting time for me. After the snow storms that had ravaged the state of New Jersey, but before the rain and flooding that sought to wash it all away, we mighty few Champions of North Jersey once again descended on the southern part of the state to take part in more Warhammer 40k for Paul’s Basement League. This was officially the third weekend of games for PBL Season 2, and the competition is quickly starting to heat up.
I came into the weekend sporting a record of 2 wins, 0 losses and 1 tie. Solid start, but this week was going to really make or break my chances to win the league. Was lucky enough to fit in two games this week, and I am proud to say that I came away with two victories. My first game was against one of my best friends, tQ and his Imperial Guard. We played Pitched deployment with Seize Ground Objectives, and the end result was 4-0 in favor of me. It sounds like a lot but the game was very close, and also had a little bit of a friendly controversy. For a specific rundown of the game, Read the Battle Report at tQ Studios.
We both forgot some special rules and weapon upgrades that we had, and so the game might have turned out differently. tQ and I though are good sports and thankfully no bad feelings were exchanged and we really look forward to the next game! Even with all of that though, I learned some nice pointers from the match.
- 1750 points is where my army starts to really sing. Gives me 2 more Zoanthropes for more consistant tank busting, and all my Monstorous Creatures gain regeneration. Just makes my balanced list more durable.
- Tried out the Harpy and I really like it. It gives me yet another Flying Monstrous Creature with a twin-linked Venom Cannon / Regeneration for less points than a Carnifex. Fits in with my reliance on flying bugs. Also, Hive Guard did well, but I will need to not run squads of one each, run one squad of 2 for redundancy.
- Outflanking Genestealers continue to impress. Giving a squad of Hormagaunts outflank via the Hive Tyrants special rule is also great. Might have to give that ability to a squad of Tyranid Warriors in the future.
After my match with the Imperial Guard, I played my good friend Corey and his Bad Moon clan Orks at 1500pts level. I pretty much played the same list as I did against Pedro. You can read the full army list here. Only difference from that list, is that I dropped the Venom Cannon Carnifex, replacing it with a Harpy and giving the Tervigon the psychic power to grant Feel No Pain.
The game for this game was once again a Pitched deployment which gave me the full field, and objective was simple Kill Points. I had the first turn on this go around, and I used it to my full advantage. I quickly rushed my full army up, keeping my Genestealers in reserve and deep striking the Trygon. The first two turns were not pretty for Corey and da Ork Boyz, as I was able to destroy two trukks and one battlewagon and left many of his Orks having to footslog along the board. Second turn got worse for Corey, as I was able to bring in my Trygon Prime and my Genestealers. The Genestealers were able to quickly destroy his entire Loota squad, and the Trygon put some serious hurt on one of the Slugga Boy squads with his 12 shots.
Within the first two turns, I had tallied up about 6-7 kill points and had not given any up. The rest of the game was much closer to that, and Corey quickly began to use his Power Klaws and his great number of close combat attacks to his advantage. Second turn saw Corey get his Kommandos outflank in, but it took them two full turns to kill 3 Tyranid Warriors, and lost most of their squad in the process. Even after they were able to kill the Warriors, they died in a hail of Termagaunt fire.
The Orks were also able to start inflicting some damage as Corey uses Ghazghull very effectively, taking out the Trygon, and Zonathrope in quick succession. Even with the accompaniment of a Pain Boy and Nobz though, Ghazghull and that squad was just far too exposed in the middle of the table and was taken down in size due to small arms fire and then finally killed my the Genestealer Brood. Making matters worse, was at the end game, Corey’s Stormboyz were just about to deep strike in, but landed on my Hive Tyrant. This causes a mishap and I put the entire squad way in the corner and out of position. Even though that squad eventually was able to kill the Tyrant, it had taken far too long to get to him and by that point the game was over.
Like any other battle, I learned a few things from this as well.
- I already knew that Orks were durable in close combat, but this game really proved that. While my Tyranids are amazing in close combat, they simply don’t have enough attacks to wipe out an entire Ork squad, no matter what it is. When the Orks eventually fight back, it’s just too many armor saves to make, and I will slowly lose.
- Having squads of 1 Hive Guard each, really hurt me in Kill Points. Once the enemy gets them in close combat, despite their Toughness 6, I am essentially giving away Kill Points for free. I will resolve this by keeping them closer to my Tervigon and his brood of Termaguants.
- The Trygon deep striking in is still working, but in a game like this, I simply lost him too quickly due to being too close to Power Klaws. For a game against Orks, where their BS and weapons are really terrible, I should elect to keep him on the table and use his Fleet ability to get into position, and then open fire. This will make sure he has smaller creatures to protect him, and open up close combat opportunities for him.
So at the end of the weekend I have been able to come away with 4 wins, 0 losses and 1 tie, gain some painting points, and am now up to 7 Hexes. I need 10 Hexes to win, along with playing 8 different opponents. Thus far I have played 5 different people so I’m close to being able to win soon, but the level of competition in PBL is far too great. I expect a lot of close games coming up and I most certainly have a target on my back now so it’s going to be exceedingly difficult to win. That being said, I’m just happy to get some good games in, and glad that my Army List and tactics are proving to be up to snuff.
I’m not pleased with the new Tyranid Codex. There I said it! Now let me clarify …