Weemen ‘Nids at Blog Wars 3

The6thdegree here with an update of how me and my ‘Nids did at Blog Wars 3.

For a start, I managed to scoop another painting award! This time for my Swarmlord character, who was up against some stiff competition (including Siph’s own Vulkan Heston). Swarmy was rewarded with a new monster case for him and the other big gribblies to live in.

It was great to see so many other Nid players there and overall I don’t think we did too bad for an old and arguably less-competitive codex (special shout out goes to Graham from Claws and Fists for placing 11^th with his Deep Striking ‘Nids list).

I came 16^th overall (behind Siph who took 7^th and ahead of Pornstar who almost managed to steal the wooden spoon at 25^th). How did my list work out (for those that don’t remember, I took a Nidzilla list including Swarmlord, 2 Trygons, a Tfex, a Tervigon, lots of Hive Guard and a few Gaunts)? ...I’m not sure to be honest... the list is designed to work in halves – Swarmlord is bubbled by Hormagaunts (for cover) and sticks with the Trygons. This is a pretty massive hammer that runs at you waving its arms/scything talons. The other half hangs back to claim objectives and pop mech. Almost everything barring the few Gaunts are T6 and its a pretty survivable list despite only having 2 Synapse points and a couple of Troops.

Game one was against Dextorous Wombat (Peter) and his Necrons from Buckaroo Mathhammer. This was the first time I had ever played against Necrons and Peter was a great opponent who explained what everything basically did (several times for me...). The game was KPs and I was a bit worried after he told me he managed to shoot an entire Ork foot army off the table recently with ease.

Necrons went first and set up bang in the middle of the table ready to take the assault. I deployed everything up on the right flank and planned to hit him as hard as I could on one edge and work my way through. Very little happened on Turn 1 – Peter shuffled his units round to get into firing positions and I think I might have shaken a Stalker with my Tfex.

Turn 2 and Peter opened up with his Stalkers and fired everything at range at the Gants but only killed one. The ‘Nids moved up and wrecked a Stalker and killed a few Warriors.

Turn 3 had Peter firing at the Hormagaunts and killing most of them whilst I advanced and killed a few more robot things (that then annoyingly got back up).

Turn 4 and the Necrons learnt the hard way that Tyrannofex’s have a 2+ save which blunted their attacks on my left flank. 

 The ’Nids finally got into range and I threw my Trygons at some annoying robots with swords and shields that were surprisingly good, the Necron special character and a Destroyer Lord (???). I learnt the hard way about Mindshackles as one Trygon repeatedly stabbed itself. Luckily the other Trygon did better and started hacking away at the tin cans.

Turn 5 and it was damage control for the Necrons as some of the units not tied up in combat tried to pick off various Hive Guards and the Swarmlord who had a wound or two missing. Unfortunately Mindshackle didn’t work this turn and my Trygons riped apart more robots and they ran off the board or were destroyed (but not the Special Character who decided to get back up). In my turn the Swarmlord was able to wipe out a unit of Destroyers (???) and the Trygons went on to do even more damage to nearby units.

The game ended at this point 6KPs – 2KPs (I believe) to the Nids! It was a great introduction to Necrons and their tricksy toys, but unfortunately they were unable to put enough hurt out onto the T6 creatures to gain many KPs (as I had hoped).

At this point I got nervous because me and Venerable Brother (who went on to win BW for a third time) had the same score and could have possibly faced each other. In hindsight I wish I had because the rest of the day would have probably been completely different...

Instead game two was against MC Tic Tac (John) from BloodClaw with his ENTIRE FOOT ARMY CATACHANS. The day went down hill for me at this point – John was a good opponent who had a well thought out and complementary army that I couldn’t possibly beat. I don't know the exact numbers but it seemed like two blobs of 50 Guard – one with lots of Heavy Weapons and one with lots of hidden Power Weapons. There were then some smaller Heavy Weapons and Penal Legions squads.

The Heavy Weapon blob set up in the opposite corner from me in a multistory building and everything else outflanked. My plan was to rush the middle, hold it for a while and then “expand” out in a later turn.

What actually happened was John brought in his Power Weapon blob behind me and proceeded to whittle me down for 7 turns. I think on paper there was no possible way for me to take out the Power Weapon blob – I was geared up for popping mech and taking out MSU’s, not killing squads of 30-50. Most of my MCs have 4-7 attacks on the charge and even if they all hit and killed, the blobs were still swinging back with something like 50 attacks and 20+ Power Weapons. Basically suicide for MC’s; even if I got a few into the same combat at the same time. So from turn 3 onwards it was a game of attrition with me backing up towards the centre and shooting 5 guards a turn, taking a wound or two in return from Lasgun fire and praying for the game to end early. If the it had ended on Turn 5 it would have been a draw, but as it ended on Turn 7, John took the victory 2-1.

I think he would agree it wasn’t the most fun game; he was rolling tons of dice but not getting many wounds with Lasguns against T6 and I couldn’t do enough damage to even try to fight back. Amusingly Swarmlord managed to get into combat with the Heavy Weapons blob around Turn 3 or 4 and was still there hacking through Guards at the end of Turn 7.

Disheartened, I hoped for a “normal” SM MSU type list in my last game. I got Daniel Lane’s (from Buckaroo Mathhammer) Ork foot mob. It turns out my lists weakness is horde armies and I got drawn against the only two horde armies in the tournament. Looking back, it wasn’t my luckiest day (more on that later...).

Before I set up I knew I wouldn’t stand a chance and this game played out more like a stupid “for laughs” friendly. Weirdly it was the most fun game of the day...

I don’t remember Daniels entire list, but it seemed to be half a dozen units of 30 Shootas or Boys, 8 bikers, an “aquired” Carnifex/Dread and some other shooting things that never really needed to enter the game...

The first two turns went ok...he hadn’t reached me by that point. Turns 3-7 was a blood bath of epic proportions. Units of 30 Orks kept on coming and throwing themselves against my central core or Swarmy and the two Trygons and they stayed on their feet taking down 5 Orks each a turn until nearly the end of the game (unlike the Tfex who had 20 2+ saves to make and failed 11 of them in one go).

The game really was more an excersise in “how many Orks can Swarmlord kill when locked in combat”. About 70 I think...

Daniel tabled me on the last turn and took home all the points. I don’t think I stopped laughing all game.

And that was BW3! A massive thanks to Alex from From theFang for organising a great tournament again. I think I need to get painting on my next army so its ready for BW4 in October!

BTW - the day was then topped off when someone drove into me on the way home and rolled a 5 on the damage table. Just my luck.