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Sisters vs. Tyranids by Clinton Wolf Since folks are wondering about how Sisters fare against the new codex Tyranids, I'll pipe up. The weekend before last my friends and I had a pick up game, Orks and Tyranids on one side, Sisters(me) and IG on the other. Not as good as pure one-on-one results, but the armies lined up in their own sections of the board and mostly ended up staying there, so I bore the brunt of the Tyranid assault. Scenario was rescue mission, we spaced out the six markers and began. Interestingly enough, our side outnumbered theirs :-P The aliens win the dice roll and elect to go first (surprise surprise). Everyone charges, scuttles, or war buggies forwards towards a marker. His Hive Tyrant shoots off a venom cannon but misses twice on my HB Retrib's Rhino and bounced off with the third shot. No other firing from him as he's left the Biovores at home and the two Carnifexes are lumbering over towards the left central marker. His fire measurement makes me realize that the HB's are well within range of a sweet fire corridor that separates the 'Nids from the other marker between us, so on my turn I drop them off and send the Rhino forwards to block the Tyrant from firing on them. The Rhino holding the MM Retribs wheels about to roar towards my nearest marker but it turns out to be a dud. In addition, I clip difficult terrain with the Rhino as it came to a stop and manage to roll a 1-- the MM's thus are de-wheeled and hunker down in sight of the left central marker, preparing to burn the Fex's wittle paws when they grab for it. The Seraphim squad jumps up to just inside 12" of that same marker, preparing to rapid fire and hopefully get some more 6's in to finish the MM's job. The Command Rhino meanwhile screeches into position and unloads the Canoness and her bodyguard in a well defended position behind a low wall, in plain view of the far left marker my HB's are covering. Heavy flamers, meltas, and bolters reach out and give a big hello kiss to the Hormagaunt brood encroaching up the middle, leaving him with four of the original 12. My two foot squads fill in behind, heading towards the firing lane gap with 'Nid flaming on their minds. My IG buddy has wisely invested in 3 Griffons as well as a mortar squadron, and proceeds to lay some serious smack down upon the close- packed enemy lines. The orks suffer the worst of this (much cursing from the ork player as a couple of particularly well-guessed shots take out almost an entire mob). Some nearby termagants also go down. Alien turn, his Tyrant goes 0 for 6 against the Rhino. Carnifexes fire off their barbed stranglers, one hitting but only a single Seraphim falling to the blast (yay power armour!). At this point it's becoming clear that my 'Nid playing buddy really wanted to be matched up with the IG, but the Orker insisted on taking that spot, I guess fearing my flamers. He should have feared the Griffons more ;-) The first Carnifex is now scant inches from the left central marker, while the second has unnervingly wheeled towards my Multimelta position. My 'nid buddy elects to have his Hormagaunts bypass the marker (and the deathtrap awaiting there at the hands of the Canoness' squad) and instead use fleet of claw plus their 12" charge range to engage one of the foot squads moving up the backfield. Yikes. Sixteen attacks, and he manages to strike down two Sisters out of it-- but the Emperor is on my side in the counterattack and the remaining ladies strike down three of the vile aliens. What's more, they find themselves well out of synapse range, so the sole remaining gaunt breaks and retreats! I ignore the temptation to sweeping advance as that could put me uncomfortably close to Genestealers, but consolidate forwards another 3". A 3-strong tyranid warrior brood has moved up in intention to take the marker, but has unwittingly also stepped out right in clear line of sight of my Heavy Bolters. My turn. Boom, the Griffons split fire this time and take out a few Genestealers, as well as decimating a squad of Killer Kans (more Orkish curses). Then it's time for Tyranid cursing to join it as the Heavy Bolters open up with 8 hits and 6 wounds, reducing the Warriors to spattered ichor. Trusting in the Emperor, the three Sisters hit by the Hormagaunts now move up six inches and lay into the Hive Tyrant to their left with the meltagun putting a wound on it, The Canonness' squad opens fire on the Genestealers, causing a decent amount to perish. Over on the other side, I have an unfortunate decision to make as I realize he has forced me to either fire upon the 'Fex about to pick up what could be the winning marker, or the one that will be in charge range of the MM's this coming turn. I shrug and concentrate all shooting at the marker seeker, both the MM's and rapid fire from my Seraphim... taking it down to 1 wound. Yes, the new 'Fex armour save is nasty, especially when the 'Nid player uses an Extended Carapace upgrade to reduce even further to a 2+. As my pal did. Yuk. I decide to go ahead and uncover the marker on the far side, so I have my squad of 3 assault and butcher the lone Hormagaunt, consolidating into the marker and... dud. My Sisters wave cheerily at the 6 Genestealers and Hive Tyrant, all in charge range. The method to this madness is that to charge them will almost surely result in their immediate deaths, which will leave whatever does it out in the open in rapid fire and flamer range of my Canoness' squad... at worst a sweeping advance, in which case see above. Did I mention my sacred rites rolls all sucked? His turn, and after much mutual groaning at all the trouble that's happened over a dud marker it's business time. His 'Fexes move in and find that the final marker on our side is *also* a dud. More groaning. The final barrel is all the way on the other side of the battlefield, so he shrugs and gets on with the killin'. Still fresh Carnifex storms into the MM's and with 6's needed to wound it, plus a 2+ save, plus 4 wounds... well -- now it's my turn to bend over. Genestealers and Tyrant assault the 3 sister squad and rip it to shreds, sweeping advance onto my wall position. On my turn I more than adequately wipe his Genestealers from the map before they can get into close combat (he ended up in a nice spearhead right in front of my HF trooper, for instance)... alas that this means the Tyrant goes unscathed and makes it. I wonder if I might have been better off the other way around, but 6 Genestealers might have made very short work of me depending on his rending claws rolls. My Seraphim fired again on the unengaged Carnifex and despite a flamer template, 10 twin-linked bolt pistol shots, and two plasma pistol shots STILL couldn't take off that last vital wound. You'd think the plasma pistol at least would have done it, but nooooo. It's in charge range next turn. Ugh. Anyhow, all the subsequent fighting is hand to hand, and the Hive Tyrant turns out to be more of a terror than the Carnifex. At least with the Carnifex you can go before it, using a Flail of Chastisement as someone suggested. Not so with the Hive Tyrant, who has uber- Init, uber-WS, and just enough strength to auto-kill your Canoness in one hit, not to mention anything else he chooses to allocate as a threat due to the Tyranid Monstrous Creature rules. To her credit she actually lasted one turn by me managing to roll the 4+ invulnerable save on the hits she took, but the next time around, *squitch*. The entire rest of the squad plus five more I threw into the fray banged away on the damn thing for four turns with all of one wound to show for it, while he merrily swatted Sisters into pulp. Same deal with all the other combats... it was especially frustrating not being able to deal out that one last wound on the nearly dead 'Fex. The last laugh, however... my IG ally retrieved the marker successfully from the decimated Orks, while my stubborn sisters refused to break and thus kept the 'Nids tied up for several turns, long enough they were unable to do anything about it before time expired. Glorious sacrifice in the name of the Emperor, and a hell of a fun game with massive carnage dealt and received. I had two Rhinos and the untouched HB Retrib squad left at the end, while the 'Nids had two ripper swarms, the Tyrant and the Carnifexes (all but one of these would have counted for half points had it been a kills mission). The Orks were down to a weaponless, immobilized Kan and about five Boyz... the Guard actually came out with the most intact troops, including all three Griffons surviving. Thoughts: - Venom cannons aren't nearly as butch as they're made out to be, especially because they only ever glance on vehicles. Chambers must have had some truly lucky dice in that WD battle report. Barbed stranglers on the other hand have the potential of serious anti- vehicular nastiness in the hands of a 'Fex (Str 8 and a 5" blast template), and *can* penetrate. - Dust off the MM Retributors if you haven't been using them. Nothing excels at killing Warrior broods like HB's, but HB's can fire all day at these upgraded 2+ Carnifexes (and what Nid player wouldn't spend the 10 points to upgrade?) and on average they won't so much as chip the carapace. To ensure a slugfest victory you have GOT to take out the 'Fexes and especially the Tyrant before they reach HtH, and massed MM fire is (I think) the best chance. Break out the meltaguns and plasma pistols as supplements. The avoidance strategy could also apply, but with all the fast little bugs around you can get tied up in an instant. - Speaking of the small bugs, Sisters can and will squish them in Close Combat unless terribly outnumbered... but as usual it's better to keep some distance, flaming as necessary. You don't want to be stuck fighting 32 of them as the big bugs get closer... - Can't give any insight on the new Genestealers' effectiveness. They didn't make it ;-) Personally I think they're a lot less scary to us now than they were before... although still scary. - It might be best to change things around and keep our squads minimal. 5 woman squads with melta gun, HF, and a VSS w/ plasma pistol (and powerglove? Probably a waste...). The HF is like a big cain of Raid for the little to Medium guys, while the MG and PP can ding the big guys. This puts you in assault range of said big buys of course, but that's why the small squads, so you don't lose as much... plus any close combats that break out are much less likely to block LOS for your Retributors in back. Plus more possibilities of sweeping advance fire. It's a thought anyhow. But I honestly think the key is dealing with the Monstrous bugs early and often. As for dealing with a Biovore? Ugh. I dunno... take a Callidus along I suppose. Those str 3 ap 3 template spores look like really nasty Sister killers to me. |
