Well, off to UK Games Expo this weekend for 4 games. I thought long and hard about my list (1,500 points) as I haven’t played competitively for some time – kids and all that …
Anyway, I decided to give a bit of thought to this based on the missions on offer:
R1) Pitched Battle – Seize Ground (5 objectives).
R2) Spearhead – Flanking Manoeuvres (place 1 objective in the centre of the 2 quarters, not being used for deployment these are the objectives for the mission)
R3) Dawn of War – Capture and Control (night fighting rules are in effect for the whole game)
R4) Spearhead -Take and Hold (most expensive scoring unit within 6″ of the centre of the table, wins)
R3 seemed to be the real killer – with night fighting in effect the whole game a shooty list would appear to be at a distinct disadvantage…I decided to go with my Nids.
I have been modelling up tervigons, but felt that a fast list was the order of the day so decided to go with a deep strike/tunnelling/outflanking list. After a few tweaks this was what I came up with:
HQ
The Parasite of Mortrex
Elites
3 zoanthropes in a mycetic spore
Troops
10 genestealers
10 genestealers
12 termagants with devourers in a mycetic spore
Fast Attack
10 gargoyles
4 shrikes with scything talons and rending claws
Heavy Support
trygon prime with adrenals
trygon with adrenals.
That’s exactly 1,500 points. Plan is to give my opponent first turn, start with nothing on the board and then use reserves/fleet to move where I needed to go late game. Plan for trygons is to kill tanks, while parasite in with the shrikes will be an elite anti-infantry squad. Gargoyles for late game contesting and stealers to take the objectives …
So, when looking at a reserve list, why no tyrant with hive commander? Well, a number of reasons. Firstly is cost. At 1,500 points a flyrant with hive commander and (probably devourers) comes in at more than my trygon prime. With 2 trygons I was tying up half my points in 3 models that could potentially be instakilled by force weapons etc (Grey Knights bound to be there). Secondly (and quite perversely) I wasn’t sure I wanted my reserves to come on too soon. Nothing on T2 and then all in T3/T4 may reduce the chance my opponent had to make any shooting and let me rush the objectives for a late win, but then they could just dribble in piecemeal. We will have to wait and see … Finally, my flyrant model is not yet finished and while I could have rushed it through I was comfortable with my fully painted list and so no late nights required!
Looking back at the missions, I was slightly concerned over only having 3 troop choices and tried to look at a 4th, but this broke up the army too much. I therefore need to try and keep my stealers alive and hammer their troops. R1 with 5 objectives I can look to take 2, contest 2 and that should be enough for the win. R4 could be interesting, as my troop choices all come in at less than 150 points, but if I drop some trygons on the objective will they risk sending their troop choices into charge range?
I need to watch out for eldar/dark eldar lists which will be trying the same late objective grabs as me, but otherwise no great fears. I don’t want to get tied up with terminators or ork hordes, but then again who does?
That’s the pre-tournament posting down in writing so no going back. I will post the results next week and see if my plan survived contact with the enemy …
40KUK: The Warhammer Podcast 
You went for the parasite? Interesting, i have very little actuall experience of him in game (with and against), id be interested how he got on.
I will save some of the feedback for my follow up – but I will say the parasite did instakill a dreadknight! Str 6, rending, implant attack is pretty sacary …
You have some very interesting ideas Mark, though I wonder whether the ruthless tourney lists will blow you off the table. Without Trevigons which I think are a must to create more targets and cast catalyst on the Genestealers then certain armies may just overwhelm you. I also like your idea to get aroud the Night Fight issue for that particular mission but I could still see power armies such as guard still turning up and you being unlucky enough to face them when it isn’t night fight. There are also the mid range armies such as Grey Knights to think about too even if it is Night Fight the entire game.
Let us know how you get on in the face of the these problems, it will be really interesting to know.
So wierd people talking about my event, i like your list and was in keeping with the day itself so hope you enjoyed it and with out spoiling it for the rest of your report if you wish to have a rematch with your 3rd round opponant i can try and arrange that for you as i know he feels bad about the way it ended up.
Im liking your thinking of how the missions would play out, only thing id have changed is drop either the gargolyles or shrikes and used the points to bolster up other units make them all a bit more durable as in a reseve list to many small units just seem to easy targets for me.
Cool article, nice to see someones thoughts into how they prepared for the missions and how it effected them before going into the event. Look forward to the follow up, also without spoiling it for people if you want organise a rematch with your 3rd round opponant Ben let me know as it would be good to see what could have happend.
Ah posted twice, well you get the idea of the post.
Mark is going to do a follow up article in the next couple of days!