MAXX COLLECTIBLES ESCALATION LEAGUE GAME 2

WORLD EATERS VS ADEPTUS MECHANICUS

This is going to be one of the shortest battle reports I’ve ever written.  I’m facing off against Stephen, a newer player in the area but he must have done his homework cause he brought a hard as nails army.  He brought, Cawl, 6 big Robits with triple phosphor guns, 3 Destroyers with grav, 2x5 rangers, and an enginseer. I brought a Lord, an Exalted Champ, 5 Marines, 5 Possessed, 8 Berserkers, 2 Rhinos, a Maulerfiend, and 2x20 cultists.

We roll up kill points (oh shit) and he gets the first turn (double oh shit).  We deploy in a fairly typical fashion, me on the line, him on the back edge.  My Berserkers are in the Rhino on the left, and the Possessed and the marines are in the Rhino just to the right of the edge of the picture.

The first thing he does is use a CP to put the Robits in double shoot mode and then boosts their shootability so they hit on 3s.  Luckily for me I was able to position my Rhinos and Maulerfiend so he was limited in his firing lanes so he decided to kill ALL 40 CULTISTS.  First blood.
My first turn was about 30 seconds long and I pushed my 3 units forward and advanced it, then popping smoke on the Rhinos.

His turn was the same, using the stratagem that boosts the Kastellens and Destroyers, leaving him with 1CP left.  He is able to wreck the Rhino on the right and put 6 wounds on the Maulerfiend.
This is where things get exciting, and in typical fashion I forget to take some pics.  My turn 2 sees my Possessed and Marines make it into combat with the Rangers on the right hand side of the table, I got a good enough roll I was able to pile in and get the Destroyers, they wiped the Rangers handily and consolidated into the Kastellens.  On the left was a mixed bag, the Berserkers and characters got out, but only the Berserkers were able to make it into combat, loosing out on all the re-rolls afforded by the characters.  Even so, I did not want to charge the Kastellens, so I settled for just killing the Rangers and consolidating into the Kastellens like I did on the other side.

HOWEVER, this was mistake #1 on my part, and mistake #1 and #2 on my opponent's part.  Stephen should have moved the Rangers up on his turn so that I would not have been able to consolidate into the big shooty Robits behind them.  He also should have focused his fire on the Rhino with the Bezerkers in it.  Perhaps there was limited LOS, I can't exactly remember if there was a reason he didn't shoot that Rhino.  I should have seen that my Marines and Possessed would have easily wiped the Rangers and be able to consolidate into the rest of his army, essentially stopping him from being able to shoot.  I could have kept the Berserkers and Characters in the Rhino and moved it up getting them out next turn so everyone would have had an easier time charging.

End of turn 4

Turns 3, 4, and 5 are me killing the big Robits with them actually dying faster than my characters can catch up to them.  My Lord and Champ never actually see combat at all and do absolutely nothing all game.  Cawl manages to kill the Maulerfiend after surviving the attacks and getting some lucky dice.

This is where we get to look at mistake #2, #3, and #4 from me.  I should have gotten the Characters back into the Rhino, they would have been able to get into the fight and do SOMETHING.  Instead I completely ignore the Rhino and try to chase down the rampaging Berserkers, who are absolutely crazy amazing.  Then I completely forget about DttFE, which would have gotten me dozens of more attacks.  Lastly, POSSESSED HAVE 2 WOUNDS, NOT ONE.  FML.

Turn 6 Cawl manages to get out from having been pinned in place by the immovable Kastellens and the Destroyers who were stuck in combat.  He moves out behind the Destroyers and my Berserkers cant quite make it around to get to Cawl so I charge into them and wipe them out leaving Cawl the sole survivor and the game comes to an end.

After all the dice have been rolled and the score tallied up, its a tie.  I killed everything except Cawl and got linebreaker and Stephen killed the Marines, a Rhino, the Maulerfiend, both cultist units and got first blood.

Stephen was a great opponent, and with a little more experience and practise, he will be a pretty darn good player.  Apparently I might become a pretty good player too with a little more practise.

The League is over 40 players now and every month there has been a mega battle take place to earn some more league points.  Next 2 months are at 1500 points and I am thinking of adding in some Daemon allies for some summoning fun in the next round.

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.

TYRANIDS: NOM NOM NOM!

So I have yet to really find a format that feels right and moves through all the different elements of each codex well, which means this is going to look and feel like a cobbled together piece of shit, what else is new.  But if you look closely you'll find the droids you are looking for...

We are looking at Tyranids today!  One of my very first armies, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for these guys but they have never really been able to hold their own on the table top...until now.  I really have to say, GW is getting this balance thing in hand.  Lets have a look at the army wide special rules, there's only 3 of them.

Synapse, units that have this rule give a 12" fearless bubble, meaning any unit within 12" of a unit with Synapse automatically passes morale checks.  Pretty good, especially with your big units of little gribblies that you will undoubtedly take.  Next is a greatly reformed rule from previous editions, Instinctive Behaviour, which used to be pretty damn crippling.  Now it gives units with this rule a -1 hit penalty when shooting at an enemy unit that is not the closest, and a -2" penalty to the charge distance if it charges an enemy unit that is not the closest when they are not within 24" of a creature with Synapse.  Lastly, Shadows in the Warp bestow a -1 penalty to psychic tests made by enemy psykers if they are within 18" of a unit that has this rule.

Yay Google images!

I'm going to run through these real quick because they are really simple.  Don't let that fool you though, they can be extremely effective, and we will get into specifics later on.  Behemoth can re-roll failed charge rolls.  Kraken can roll 3 dice when advancing, and can Fall Back and still charge.  Leviathan units gain a 6+ FNP when they are within 6" of a unit with Synapse, but it loses this ability if it is currently affected by the Catalyst psychic power (more on that later).  Gorgon can re-roll wound rolls of 1 in the fight phase.  Jormungandr is not a Norwegian black metal band, well maybe it is, but they gain the benefit of cover even if they are not in cover but they lose this benefit if they have the fly rule, advance or charge (until the start of their next movement phase).  Hydra is an interesting one, if the Tyranid unit outnumbers the enemy unit, in the fight phase, it can re-roll hit rolls.  Finally, Kronos can re-roll hit rolls of 1 in the shooting phase if the unit did not move that turn. I really don't know which one is the best here.  Each have their uses and each can be used to build a really scary army.  I have seen Jormungandr and Kronos used the most, sometimes together, with a strong shooting themed list, but I have seen solid Kraken themed lists with a big unit of Genestealers and big punchy things.  Being able to step out of combat and smash back in is really strong allowing all your units to attack first over and over again.

KILL IT WITH FIRE!!

Lets get into the bugs starting off with, in my opinion, the scariest...the Broodlord.  You might be a bit surprised by my choice, but he has 6 attacks, hits on 2+ and does d3D at -3AP.  If you roll a 6 to wound it's -6AP and an auto 3D.  He has M8" and can advance (rolling 3d6 and taking the highest if your Kraken, then double it with the Opportunistic advance stratagem) and still charge.  PLUS he can cast one psychic power, which will probably be Catalyst to give the huge unit of Genestealers 5+FNP, on top of his standard ability of giving them +1 to hit.  Yes, you are right, he is only S5, but if you use the Voracious Appetite stratagem or give him the Maw-Claws of Thyrax relic, he can re-roll failed wound rolls.  He will kill 4-5 MEQs pretty reliably every fight phase.  For 165 points, he is comparable to a Chaos Lord and Sorcerer combined but faster.  If you really want to you can give him the Ymgarl Factor relic and he can have +1 S, A, or T in the fight phase.

The more obvious choice is, of course, the Hive Tyrant.  Thanks to the previous edition everyone and their grandmother has 5 of these guys, all with wings, and thanks to GW they are still quite good.  The first thing I will say about them is that they degrade as they take wounds, which is something I try to avoid if possible, especially when it's your warlord.  Losing a couple wounds and losing 4" of movement could be the end of that monster.  I am going to guess that most people will be changing up the weapons that have been on their Hive Tyrant for the last 5 years though as the double devourers are not as great as they used to be, especially if the enemy has some kind of cover ability that gives negative to hit.  There is a weird Venn Diagram where the Tyrant fits, it doesn't get enough attacks or have a high enough S to be a combat monster, and it's guns don't hit as well and have lower AP for him to be a gunboat.  So what does this guys really do?  It is kind of a jack of all trades, master of none.  I would suggest to build this guy for defence and to boost your army, as is intended.  For that, we can go Kraken to allow him to jump out of combat and hit something else (keeping that charge bonus up) while taking the Chameleonic Mutation relic and being -1 to hit from guns, add in the Warlord trait Adaptive Biology to reduce the damage of an attack by 1.  Then take Catalyst, The Horror, and/or Onslaught to really boost your army.  For weapons, I think a mix of assault and shooting is probably best.  You don't want him to get stuck in combat, so some ranged attacks would be good, but he can punch pretty hard against multi wound units.  I think the heavy venom cannon and scything talons is a good load out, although I know I will get some serious backlash on that as people are still hyped the the double devourers.  They dish out a lot of shots.
We are not done with this guys yet though, as you CAN take him without wings.  If that is the case, I highly recommend taking Tyrant guard and giving them the Jormungandr adaptation, this gives you a wall of 2+ armour walking up field with 21 damn wounds.  Your opponent would actually be better off targeting the Guard as they are lower toughness, but you can cover the whole unit with a single venomthrope, and if they target the tyrant you can shrug off the wounds onto the guard.  Don't forget to cast catalyst on the guard to help negate those mortal wounds.  A Tyrant and 3 Guard are only 300ish points.

The Tyranid Prime is a great second HQ for a Battalion.  He is a character, and with only 6 wounds he can be hidden from enemy fire.  He is worth taking if you also have a unit of Warriors, which I advise you take, and give them deathspitters.  If you wanted a less obvious warlord, perhaps to try and force your opponent to kill something dangerous or go after your warlord, you could make the Prime and Warriors Jormungundr and give them prime the specific trait.  This gives the unit +1sv if they don't advance and enemies don't get cover from unit within 6" of the warlord.  PLUS the prime gives the warriors +1 to hit.  Keep up the firepower on your way in then chop them up with boneswords.  A Prime and 5 Warriors with deathspitters and sword/lash is under 250 points.  Killing 4 MEQs each shooting phase and 5 each fight phase, 3+ save, 21 wounds, synapse, and shadows in the warp is a pretty good set of skills right there.

The Tervigon is another big ass monster buff HQ that spits out little bugs every turn.  Now you do have to build an army around this guy a little as he only really buffs units of Termagants letting them re-roll hit rolls of 1 in the shooting phase, and it's not so much of an army as it is a chunk of Termagants around a Tervigon.  He can also replace up to 10 Termagants in a unit lost earlier in the battle (no reinforcement points) or create a whole new unit of 10 Termagants (reinforcement points).  It's not a game changer all the time, but for 40 points, it might be worth it to save those points for an emergency unit to grab an objective or something.  There are a couple things to consider with this bad boy, namely which adaptation to take.  I would think that Hydra would be the most effective mainly because of the huge buff the termagants would get in combat.  I know you don't really want Termagants in combat, but I think that with the re-rolling all failed hit rolls there is no reason not to throw them in there.  The best power for the Tervigon would probably be Onslaught, allowing the Termagants to advance and still shoot and charge.  Now there are a couple cool stratagems we can toss into the mix starting with Scorch Bugs, which gives +1 to wound to units with fleshborers.  Second is Caustic Blood, for when you charge those bad boys into combat and lose a shit ton of them, you roll a D6 for each one that dies and on a 6 you cause a mortal wound to the unit that killed it.
Crunching then numbers, with all the buffs listed above, 21 Termagants can kill 3 MEQs in the shooting phase, 2 in the fight phase, and 1-2 more when they die from return attacks.  Then at the start of your next turn you add 10 back to the unit.

The Neurothrope is a Zoanthrope buffer.  If you're taking a bunch of Zoanthropes then this guy will be an asset, otherwise he is not.  When he kills something with smite he gives a wound back to a Zoanthrope unit, and Zoanthropes can re-roll 1's when taking psychic tests when within 6" of him.

On to the general worker bugs.  I already talked about the Warriors along with the Prime, so I'll bypass them and move onto the Genestealers.  Like the Broodlord, these guys are scary as fuck.  M8 and able to Advance and charge, it's pretty obvious that you take the Kraken Adaptation for these guys and you will want to take them in as big a units as you can muster because of the extra attack they get for units over 10 models, and when within 6" of the Broodlord they have +1 to hit rolls, meaning they hit on 2's.  To throw some math at you, with 4A and 2+WS each Genestealer will kill a MEQ in combat.  These guys are simple to use, but difficult to use well because of their delicate nature, they only have a 5+Sv.  It is an invul save, so against things that hit less but harder, they are great, but lots of shots/attacks will wipe them out.  If you don't get it done in the first round of attacks, use 3CP to use Adrenaline Surge and do it again.

I talked about Termagants a little bit with the Tervigon, but there is a little more to them than just getting shat out by the dozens.  You can also give them a devourer which triples their shots and only doubles their cost.  A very popular choice is to take a big unit with some fleshborers and some devourers so then when models die, you pull the fleshborers and the Tervigon replaces those ones, as it can only spit out Termagants with fleshborers.  For 4 points though, you can't really get a better screen/bubble wrap unit which is their prime directive.

Then there is the Hormagaunt, I don't know if it is good or not.  On one hand it moves 8", has 2A each and re-rolls 1's to hit and 1's to wound (if the unit is over 20 models), it will chew through light infantry.  On the other it's S3, T3, 6+sv, they can't shoot at all, and once they are dead you can't grow them back.  A unit of 21, getting the re-rolls of 1 to hit and wound, is only killing 3 MEQs, you can bump that up to 4 if you take them in a Hydra detachment.  You could use it as a bubble wrap unit as well, but it is a little more expensive than the cheaper Termagant, and arguably not as good.  They don't even really have a stratagem that benefits them as much as Scorch Bugs benefits Termagants with fleshborers.

Ripper swarms are awesome simply for the fact that they are cheap, small, and can deep strike.  Use them to grab objectives and hide, scoring points for a mere 33 points for 9 wounds of objective secured goodness.

Time for the ELITE

First in the book is the Tyrant Guard, which I talked about a little with the Hive Tyrant.  They can be given a variety of combat weapons but probably keeping them relatively cheap would be best as they are basically just there to die.

The Hive Guard are going to be a unit you see often.  The impaler cannon is 36", 2 shots, S8, AP-2, and d3D.  They don't need LOS and they ignore bonuses for being in cover.  6 of them, with the Kronos adaptation, cost 228 points and will deal 8 wounds to a T7 3+Sv target each time they shoot.  You will not likely find them in any other adaptation other than Kronos, as they will never need to move as they don't care about your cover, or even if they can see you.  You can put them in the middle of your deployment zone behind a wall and they should be able to hit just about everything.  Oh, then you can spend 2CP for Single Minded Annihilation and they can shoot again.  Just about an auto include for every list, unless you have a hugely different army idea, and don't like to win.

Lictors aren't good.  Still.  They have such a cool idea behind them, but only T4, W4, A3 and Sv5+, they just don't have enough to be worth 45 points.  Some of their rules are pretty cool, the -1 to hit and +2Sv while in cover is good, but it's not enough to keep them alive, and they aren't deadly enough to kill anything.  However they are not completely without their uses, they can take out lightly armoured, small, support units that are otherwise unsupported themselves.  It might take them a couple turns though because even against the weakest guardsman he is only killing 2 per phase.  4 ripper bases will do the same damage, have 12 wounds are easier to hide, can also deep strike, and cost the same points.
There is a stratagem called Pheromone Trail, and for the life of me I could not really figure out how it is supposed to be used.  It says that if there is a Lictor on the table, then a unit entering the game as reinforcements can be set up within 6" of the Lictor and more than 9" from an enemy unit.  The thing that I couldn't figure out is that anything that enters as reinforcements can probably already show up anywhere.  The only way I can see this being used is with a couple other stratagems, Sporefields, Call the Brood, and Endless Swarm, all of which will cost reinforcement points.

Zoanthropes = Smite.  Smite = Good.  Take a look at my post on the year in review.

The Maleceptor is 170 fucking points!  For a weak 6" mortal wound generator and 2 psychic powers.  Leave it at home.

Venomthropes feel like they should be in a Death Guard army.  Dishing out a mortal wound to nearby enemy units on a 5+ and shrouding non-monster units, giving enemies -1 to hit them.  If there are 3 Venomthropes you can shroud monsters, and if you have 6 Venomthropes the range is increased from 6" to 9".  You will see these guys in lists with lots of static shooting, they only have a move of 5", so you won't likely find them in fast assault armies.  They are not characters, so they can be picked off, and they are only T4 with 3W, but they do get the benefit of their own ability.  I know I don't normally talk about Forge World units, but the Malanthrope is a bigger version of the Venomthrope that can cover monsters on it's own.  It's super popular, but you didn't hear it here.

Pyrovores, still suck.  Moving on.

Last in the Elites section is the Haruspex.  Now, looking at this thing on paper, its pretty good.  It has a cool combo attack it does, getting d3 hit rolls for each attack when it uses it's ravenous maw (-1AP d3D), then for each model it kills it can immediately make another attack with it's shovelling claws(X2S, -3AP, d6D).  Also, at the end of a fight phase where it kills a model with it's maw, it regains a wound.  It also has a shooting attack that gets it a wound back when it kills something.  This all sounds great, except for the fact that he hits on 4+ so he is only killing 1-2 models with the maw attacks, and MAYBE 1 more with the shovel.  Oh, and it's 200 points.

Too fast for you?

Gargoyles are flying termagants for only 2 points more.  They are not going to get a lot of work done, but they are great as fast moving objective grabbers, area deniers, blockers, and shakers.

Raveners are basically warriors, they don't have synapse, but they have more attacks, can deep strike, and can move much faster.  They also don't have the synergy with the Prime that the warriors do, but they can use a stratagem to being another infantry unit along with them when they deep strike.  Set up the other unit in reserves and when the Raveners show up the other unit deploys within 3" of the Raveners and more than 9" form the enemy.  This is pretty scary if you look at a unit of devourer wielding termagants.  For 400 points, you get 6 Raveners and 30 "devilgants" that will kill 10 MEQ's the turn they pop up, assuming you can find a spot on the table big enough for all of them to fit.

Mucolid Spores and Spore Mines are cool, but not to pay points for.  They deal mortal wounds to things that get too close to them, and that's neat, but their real use is in smite denial and barrage style shooting.  Which I will get into in the Biovore entry.

Hell, lets do that now.  Biovores are these living artillery batteries that launch spore mines into the air and if they hit, deal mortal wounds, but if they miss they drop a spore mine within 6" of the target and more than 3" from an enemy model and it can't move or charge this turn.  I mentioned that it can be used to deal with smite, and you might already have an idea as to how.  You fire a shit load of these guys around the table, and the ones that miss now become a target because smite hits the closest enemy unit.  You can increase the chances they hit with the Kronos adaptation, and you can increase the chances they miss by moving them, or by moving them out of synapse.  If you are playing an army that really relies on smite, you can combo the spore mine smite blocker with a Kronos stratagem that causes the enemy psykers to only roll a single D6 when manifesting psychic powers, then double that up with the Kronos warlord trait that causes enemy psykers to suffer d3 mortal wounds when they fail a psychic test within 18" of the warlord.  This can be done multiple times essentially shutting down your enemies smite spam, not to mention that you will likely be able to deny a couple powers as well, cause you also have packers.
The Biovore can also shoot at target it cannot see, which it very good.  You might be asking why, other than for the smite blocker, I would take Biovores over hive guard.  Well, other than the slightly longer range, the spore mines cause mortal wounds, which ignore all saves.  So if you're enemy has that scary unit of 2+ save guys in cover, the Biovores don't give a rats ass while the hive guard may bounce off.

Truly the stuff of nightmares

On so the heavy dudes, technically the Biovore is a heavy support guy too, but I segued so hard I just let it flow.

I'm going to blend the Exocrine and Tyrannofex together in one because they seem to be the same thing, a big bug with T8 that shoots.  They have a couple slight differences like the stats that depreciate as they take wounds, and one of their "I can shoot better" abilities is slightly different, I won't get deep into their differences because you will not be moving these guys, because you will be taking them as part of a Kronos detachment and you will be able to re-roll 1's and they have a rule that lets them shoot twice if they stay still.  The Exocrine is the one with the big penis gun on it's back called a bio-plasma cannon, 36", heavy 6, S7, AP-3, 2D which kills 5 MEQ's or PEQ's(Primaris equivalents...I just made that up), and nearly killing a dreadnought, when it doesn't move and has all the buffs.  The Tyrannofex, while it has a list of different weapons available to it, only really has one option, the rupture cannon, 48", heavy 3, S10, AP-3, d6D, it's killing 2-3 MEQ's, but it's nearly killing a dreadnought during it's shooting phase also.
Having gone through the numbers, with all things being equal, both the Exocrine and Tyrannofex have better shooting than an equal points worth of Hive Guard, but since hive guard can ignore terrain they tend to edge out the other 2.

The Toxicrene is another weird one, lots of attacks, weapons it can shoot in combat, decent AP and D, yet it's still only killing 3 MEQ's a turn.  It has a couple more tricks up its sleeve though, it's acid blood and toxic cloud dealing mortal wounds.  Unfortunately you need to roll 6's like a boss.

I'm going to skip the Carnifex's in all their varieties and come back to them later, lets look at the Mawloc.  So this guy has a lot of flash and bang, 8 attacks re-rolling 1's to hit, a single attack can be this fancy -3AP d6D attack, but his claim to fame is his "Terror from the Deep".  You can put him in reserve and when he comes in from reserve he can placed anywhere on the table more than 1" from an enemy unit, yeah, only 1" away, and more than 6" from another Mawloc.  For every enemy unit within 2" of the Mawloc roll a D6, 1=nothing, 2-3=1 mortal wound, 4-5=D3 mortal wounds, 6=3 mortal wounds.  Now it can't charge the turn it does this, but if it happens to survive the whole next turn, and not be within 1" of an enemy model at the start of it's next movement phase it can burrow again and return as before, but not in the same movement phase.  The problem here is that the Mawloc is only T6 and W12 with, despite his 7 attacks, not much offence after the initial attack.  So it's not that scary to throw a unit of scouts into it and hold it down so it can't burrow again.

The Trygon is far more dangerous in that it's attacks are far more potent and that he can bring help along with him.  Subterranean Assault allows you to set up the Trygon and another troops unit into reserves to be brought onto the table with the usual restrictions, with the troops unit having to stay within 3" of the Trygon.  A decent use, much like I mentioned before with the Raveners, is to send 30 Termagants with devourers with him and pop him up somewhere, cause those 30 "devilgants" will kill 8 MEQs.  That seems like small potatoes when that little bomb costs over 400 points and probably killed off the unit the Trygon would have tried to assault.  You can take a Trygon Prime, which gives him synapse so the gants can shoot at something other than the closest unit, but that's getting closed to 450.  Another unit that's great to go with him is Genestealers, getting that ooey gooey 9" charge with a huge unit of Genestealers is something that makes a man giddy like a child.  The Trygon itself is no slouch, able to kill a Dreadnought in a single round of combat thanks to its massive scything talons.

Alright, there are 3 entries for Carnifex's in the book, and I think it's too much.  They really only needed one and then added the few abilities that make them different as options.  Regardless, they have got good, and not necessarily because they actually got better, but because they got seriously point efficient.  The differences between them is really pretty minor, and it's mainly a difference in what weapons they can take, so I'm just going to talk about them as a single unit and mention the minor differences where they come in place.  Lets start with this, at the bare minimum, for 75 points you get almost a Dreadnought.  They are T7 with W8 and a 3+Sv, but only a 4+ to WS and BS which can be boosted to 3+.  A couple things they all have in common is Living Battering Ram, which deals a mortal wound (or d3 for Thronbacks) on a 4+ to a unit within 1" of it after it charges, and it gets +1 to hit in the next fight phase.
So what do we equip them with?  Well, between the 3 you can literally have them do just about any damn thing you want, and they are actually pretty good at everything(given their cost).  Enhanced senses and 2 sets of devourers with brain leech worms will kill 3-4 MEQs for only 94 points each.  You can go all out assault and have 2 sets of monstrous scything talons and tusks, only killing 2 MEQs but at a straight 3 damage they are able to handle tougher units, and for a low low price of 83 points.  In most cases you can mix and match if you want them to be a little shooty and fighty.
There are a ton of upgrades you can give them to make them way better also, Chitin Thorns deal mortal wounds at the end of the fight phase on a 6, Spore Cysts give a -1 to hit penalty for units targeting the Carnifex, adrenal glands add 1" to advancing and charging, not to mention the adaptations.  Re-rolling charges for Behemoth or being in cover for Jormungundr are good, as is re-rolling 1's to wound from Gorgon, and I could see Kraken being useful giving them more chances to charge and use that Living Battering Ram rule to it's maximum effect, not to mention advancing further and getting to the fight faster.  Then cast Onslaught on him so he can charge after all that.
The only real drawback that I can see with the Carnifex is that it's only S6 which makes it fairly weak against taking out vehicles and other monsters.  This can be mitigated in a few ways, the stratagem Voracious Appetite allows monsters to re-roll wound rolls in the fight phase, and the Gorgon adaptation re-rolls wound rolls of 1 in the fight phase as well.  If you have a Carnifex with quad devourers you can use the Pathogenic Slime stratagem to increase his damage output, particularly useful against Primaris Marines.  Since a Carnifex isn't going to cost you more than 125 points you are likely able to get 2 'fexs for each other monster big enough to be scary.
All in all, the Carnifex, while not the biggest bug on the block that it used to be oh so long ago, is one of the most versatile units in the Tyranids codex.
One more thing to remember, you deploy a unit of them as a unit, but once the games starts they are treated as individual units, making kill points more difficult and casting powers on them will affect only a single model.

Ok, I'll admit it, I looked at pictures of harpies for WAY too long.  There is such a huge variation of artistic interpretation that many of them are nearly indistinguishable from another.  Some have bat wings, some have feathers.  Some look more like angels with a full human body, some have barely any humanity in their appearance at all.  Some have boobies, some have horrible shrivelled flaps of flesh that will now haunt my dreams for years to come.
I digress, because we need to move onto the "fliers" portion of the codex and I use that term loosely because, like the Heldrake, none of these fliers actually act like traditional fliers.  They don't have the movement restrictions, they don't have the hard to hit rule etc etc.
Starting with the Harpy, who has a pretty underwhelming set of stats for a monster.  For 180 points he comes with 2 stranglethorn cannons or heavy venom cannons, stinger salvos, and scything wings, but only hits on 4+.  It’s biggest contributing factor is the spore mines it can drop as it flies over an enemy unit.  Roll 3 dice and for each 4+ you can resolve a spore mine hit on the target unit, if it misses then set up a spore mine as stated.  His second ability is that when he charges, all enemy units within 1” of him cannot he chosen to fight until all other eligible units have fought.  This would take precedence over the counter attack stratagem that is always a worry when charging into something very deadly allowing you change up your priorities if need be, knowing that the enemies death ball is going last.

The Crone comes in at 160, and I guess it’s supposed to specialise in taking out other fliers.  It’s tentaclids are some kind of homing missile meaning you can re-roll to hit rolls for them.  After you hit they are only S5, but on a wound roll of 4+ they inflict a mortal wound, and on a 6+ they do D3 mortal wounds in addition to other damage if the target is a vehicle, otherwise it’s normal damage.  It also has the scything wings and a wicked spur for when it gets into combat, which are decent.  The Crone can also provide some crowd control with its Drool cannon, S6, AP-1, assault D6 auto hits.  All said and done, this thing is way too expensive for a couple wounds a turn on an enemy flier.

The last 2 units to talk about are the Tyranocyte and Sporocyst.  The Tyranocyte is basically a drop pod with 5 guns and can move.  The Sporocyst is a bastion that can't move and spits out spore mines and also has 5 guns.  They are both T6 with 12W and 4+Sv.  I've never seen a Sporocyst, but the Tyranocyte shows up quite often, usually with the Swarmlord in it.

I've talked about some of the stratagems and relics that are useful in the unit entries, so I don't think I'll go over them in much more detail, but I do have a couple very good combos that need some discussing.

So, the couple combos I have are mostly movement/assault based, and I am going to start with an obvious one.  Now I don't typically talk about special characters in my posts, but the Swarmlord has an ability that allows a nearby unit to move again in the shooting phase, following all the normal rules for moving.  So the idea is you take him and put him in the Tyranocyte, then take a big ass unit of something really deadly and have them tunnel up with a Trygon, then use Swarmy to move them so they are far more likely to make that charge.  Basic.

Now, lets say that big unit of deadly whatever is going into a couple of units, and it's likely that they won't kill them, and if they fall back it will leave you wide open for all the terrible shooting that is likely to happen.  Take a unit of Gargoyles, and using the Metabolic Overdrive stratagem you can move them again, including advancing (don't forget Kraken rolling 3d6 taking the highest for advancing) and you jump them in behind so that the enemy unit has no where to move to fall back.

Last we have a leapfrog move that your super killy assault unit can use right after it has wiped out a unit and isn't within 3" of another, instead of consolidating you can use the Overrun stratagem and move the unit (and advance, remember Kraken) following all the normal movement rules.  You can use this to penetrate deep into enemy territory and then use Adrenaline Surge to fight again.  Now, this works only if your unit charged that same turn because of who is allowed to fight.  In the fight phase, it says that any unit that had charged, or is within 1" of an enemy model can fight, which means that if you charged, then wiped out, then used Overrun to move instead of consolidate, you can use Adrenaline Surge to pile in.  You will not actually be able to fight, and they will be able to hit you, but you can tie up many units and they will not be able to overwatch you.  It might not be worth it for a total of 4CP, but it might be in the right circumstance.

If you are really good, you can use all 3 of the above combos to perform some kind of super duper ultimate combo...

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.

One of the upcoming events I want to promote is the Legions Maxximus gaming convention happening this March 16-18.  This is a hobby show  with table top games of all shapes and sizes, many of which I have never even heard of from every era that has ever had a war, both imagined and real.  There will demos of many of those games as well as more popular games like Infinity, Malifaux, Bolt Action, and Games Workshop Games.  I will be running a 40K narrative event so you know its gonna be good.

Tanks!

What a quite little town...

Civil War era.

Aside from the games, the Manitoba Model Soldier Society will also be holding their typical painting seminars where you show up with nothing, and you get given a model and supplies to use so you can learn to paint.  There are several very accomplished painters who are great teachers and spend the entire day looking after your kid and teaching him/her to paint so you can play games.  Just kidding, don't ditch your kid.

Finally, the MMSS will also be holding a painting competition, don't be shy, but you better bring your A-game.