I played two games today with 8.4 'nids, versus Jstr19's Tau army (With some funky variant rules), and a L&TD army.
My list for both matches looked like this:
Synapse:
Hive Tyrant
Hive Tyrant
Hive Tyrant
3 Warriors
3 Warriors
Harridan
Harridan
Common Broods (10):
4 Gargoyles
4 Gargoles
4 Hormagaunts
4 Hormagaunts
4 Hormagaunts
4 Hormagaunts
4 Termagants
4 Termagants
4 Termagants
4 Termagants
Uncommon Broods (5):
2 Scythed Hierodules
3 Carnifexes
3 Carnifexes
3 Zoanthropes
2 Exocrines
Independent:
4 Genestealers
6 Meiotic Spore Mines
3 Lictors
3 Lictors
TOTAL: 3000pts
GAME 1: TAU
Rules used:
- Markconz Handbook rules.
- Tyranids 8.4
- Tau latest version, with the following modifications:
? ? - Fire Warriors lose one of their AP5+ shots
? ? - Fire Warriors go to FF4+
? ? - Jetpack-equipped units use the Eldar's move-shoot-move rules instead of getting a 10cm jump-back before Engagements.
This was an interesting game, to say the least.
Jstr19, never having used Eldar, attempting to use Eldar move-shoot-move on his Jetpack units was pretty funny, especially for my lucky Tyranids who were quick to expoit the minor blunders made by the Tau before them (Who, not familiar with their new technology, failed to make full use of it).
The game ended in a 2-0 victory for me on turn 3.
Highlights:
- 5 Instinctive Carnifexes and a Hive Tyrant Engaging a Crisis suit formation (On a 4+), and wiping them out to a man for zero losses.
- A Hive Tyrant with two Hierodule escorts that failed 3 initiative rolls in a row.
- Jstr flying a Tigershark behind my lines, and needing to pass near two Gargoyle stands in order to avoid the AA ubrella of some Spore Mines.
"They won't hurt me", he says.
Two 6's.
Two failed armour saves.
"Oh"
Just for fun I rolled a critical hit D6...
'6'
I don't think Eldar style movement work for the Tau, though I'm glad we playtested it once at least.
I thought FF4+ on Fire Warriors in exchange for one of their ranged shots was fine, even mounted as they were in an Orca.
GAME TWO: Lost and the Damned.
Rules used:
- Handbook
- 8.4 Nids
- Official L&TD
I lost this game hard.
I couldn't do a thing right; I failed the majority of my Initiative rolls, I made poor tactical choices, and I largely lacked the long range weapons (Read Dactilii) to deal with his Basilisk troop.
Highlights:
- A Lord of Battles and a Coven with Daemons combined-engaging a swarm of 6 carnifexes, 3 Zoanthropes and a Tyrant... scoring ~20 hits, and somehow two Carnifexes still survived to fall back.
- A Hive Tyrant and a Daemon Prince killing each other.
- A Bloodthirster rolling his attacks (5 attacks? 6?) and missing with every single one, meaning my wounded Harridan was able to break away from combat and fly away to spawn behind a nearby hill.
- My 'nids losing Engagement after Engagement until I was a beaten little Termagant crying for his Dominatrix to come and make things better.
*ahem*
I conceeded this game half way through turn three, as although I still had a chance (I think I could have easily forced a turn three at the least), it was getting late and we wanted to get a game of Warhammer Quest in...
Thoughts about 8.4:
- Instinctive is awesome. Once the game is in play it is elegant and intuitive.
- I liked the spawning system.
- Zoanthropes still seem to underperform, even if they have awesome new models.
I think that was more down to my bad luck though (Not a single FF hit from three Engagements they joined).- My Carnifexes also underperformed, as they always do.
- The BM handling system worked well (I was worried about the auto-removal of all BM's in the end phase, but it seemed to work fine).
- Harridans still get shot down first.
- The new army list selection system is brilliant, especially the restrictions on needing two Common Swarms for each Uncommon Swarm.
Did I mention how much I enjoyed 8.4?
(Imagine that a blue instead of green)