Pete Asks... Is My Army Cheesy?

Pete was kind enough to follow up with a photo, an email and a list.

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Hi Purgatus,

Here's my list - happy to share it. I've enclosed a snap of my display board too, so you can see I haven't modelled it for in game advantage etc. Ironically, my third round game against speed freaks was against a player using tiny old edition trucks to get cover saves behind buggies and nob bikers, which failed as a strategy when he got into range of my hive guard.

The only mildly contentious thing is that I attach a tyranid prime to my Carnifex to get it a cover save behind screening gaunts - as I understand it that's acceptable going by the rule book and certainly no players challenged it with judges while I was using it. I use lots of bubble wrap from tervigon generated gaunts and my devilgaunts to mitigate shooting damage and castle up if the enemy is coming to me. The list is optimised for medium range 18"-24" shooting power to knock out light transports and heavy infantry before it hits my lines and have a nasty close combat punch or two to clean up anything left over.

As you can see, it's actually a "rainbow" list more than a true competive list with duplicated units for redundancy - I'm a big sculptor/converter and didn't want to paint up more than one of any kind of unit. The only exception is the hive guard, as I think any foot slogging tyranid player would fall flat without two units of those guys and I like to run 2x2.

I hope you don't spot anything too cheesy going on, I'll have egg on my face if you rank it 1/5...

Interesting. Well, you may not know a lot about my background, but there are very few things that I would refer to as "cheesy." 

 

Moving Valks or Vendettas onto the board and leaving their tails hanging over the edge of the table. 

 

That's cheesy (fucking Throne of Skulls debacle...). 

 

Taking two squads of Hive Guard? That's just smart (I always fill my Elites with fire support now).

I know some people will give you shit about the Prime/Carnifex unit, but it is legal, and people just need to learn to deal with it, IMO. It's about as far into the grey as I'm willing to go, but it's still clearly legal.

Here is his full list: 

Kub-WAAAGH Tyranids 1850pts List for Pete 

 

HQ
Tyranid Prime Bonesword and lashwhip, devourer 95
1 Hive tyrant Old adversary, 2x twin linked devourers, Paroxysm, Leech Essence 225
1 Tyrant guard 60

Elites
2 Hive guard 100
2 Hive guard 100
6 Ymgarl stealers 138

Troops
12 Termagants Devourers 120
1 Tervigon Dominion, Catalyst, Cluster spines, Toxin sacks, Scything talons 190
11 Genestealers w/ broodlord All have toxin sacks, Broodlord has implant attack and scything talons 250
3 Tyranid warriors Devourers and barbed strangler 100

Heavy Support
1 Tyrannofex Rupture cannon, dessicator beetles, cluster spines 265
1 Carnifex 2x twin linked devourers, frag spines, adrenal glands 205

1848

There is certainly nothing that I find cheesy in that list in any shape or form. Even if we use "cheesy" as a code word for "smart/good" I don't think this list is particularly scary. 

 

That's just my personal take on it, and I can't argue with you taking 2nd at the GT - that's more tourney experience with Nids than I have. 

 

My point is that, to my eye, this list is rather unoptimized (as you noted in your email, it's something of a rainbow list). Certainly not a net-decked power list (though there's nothing wrong with those). I'm sure you are upset about what happened. You might even be questioning yourself, wondering "am I REALLY an ass hole?" You're not. That's how that crowd gets you, by trying to guilt tripping you into conforming with their little social norms. Fight the power, man.

I think your Broodlord looks nice. I have been thinking about using my Space Hulk Broodlords to lead my Genestealers. Just for an extra layer of "fuck you Gray Knights. No, really, fuck YOU." Try getting off assault phase powers at Ld 7 on 3d6. How do you like THEM apples? Not sure if it's a good idea yet, just something I've been toying with.

Anyhoo. Your army's paint scheme is scarily similar to mine, for what it's worth. It's got some strong elements in it (for Nids). But cheesy? Surely not. If you wanted to get rid of even the slight vestige of cheese you could swap out the Fex/Prime for a second Dakka Tyrant/Guard. SinSynn will tell you it's terribad, but it's really not. ;D 

So thanks for sending in the email, the photo and the list. I'm not going to give you a comp score, because I think they are utter bullshit. I still believe in Sports scoring, but only provided that it exists within it's own 'Renaissance Man/Best Overall' track ALONGSIDE a pure generalship/Tourney Champion track. 

 

Comp can die a fiery death as far as I'm concerned.

Don't play in comp-land, and you won't have to deal with dick-heads as much. It's funny because all of my favorite games are with uber competitive players who read YTTH, agree with the principles of no-holds-barred, play by the rules, but go for the throat playing. We know going into a game what to expect, and those games are always the most fun. There is none of this awkward posturing where you try and convince your opponent that you're really not trying to win. "I'm just here for the beer and pretzels, mate."

 

We acknowledge that we are there to stomp our opponent's face in, we know we will do so fairly and within the rules, and we generally have a terrific time.

Play with like-minded players and you will have a better time. Vote with your feet and your wallet, and TELL the GT organizers you will not be coming back and why.

My .02.