Winged Hive Tyrant
To think when I first started taking a Flyrant it was something I felt compelled to do, that he was a liability. For some reason in the new codex he's become indispensable. That reason is probably his Character status and the Tervigon's lack and therefore inability to be your Warlord. He's still fragile and didn't always survive the game but his mobility is awesome. I must learn to utilise him better though. I keep giving up his advantage - the wings and shooting and engaging in protracted assault he cannot win, so I'll think on that.
Tervigon
Tervigons are still good and being forced to take one as a HQ means you know which one you can afford to sacrifice when it come to securing an objective. My spawning was bad, I even elected not to spawn so the Termagants could appear in a prime location later in the game. I'm not sure whether that was best thign to do and made a mockery of the extra Termagants painted but they're split decisions and quite a lot of the time my area was congested anyway so putting more gaunt sinto the mix would have gummed everything up!
Termagants
Little beauties, that 30 strong brood just goes on, I can't believe they took out the Wraiths and being able to spread so far across the board and still stay within synapse - the most under-rated but useful choice in the army.
Hive Guard
So they're now BS3 which gives them a 50:50 chance to hit and I'm thinking they're now a 50:50 unit. Sometimes they'll do exactly what I want and others nothing. They can really have an effect on a game and certainly warrant your opponents attention which means they get tied up in combat but they tend to hold their own. They'll nearly always be part of my list but I mustn't rely on them as much now.
Zoanthrope
He's really useful, his BS3 is handy on the Quad Gun. he can get up and down the Skyshield with ease, though not fit underneath :( and it was often his back field Synapse that kept everyone in check a solid performance I think the 'Dorsal Nucleus of the Vagus node' only died once!
Trygon
Once again the bridesmaid perhaps. The Trygon did a few things, mainly soaked up firepower, I probably need to try a Mawloc again to see if I can get the same distraction effect as the Trygon for less points
Biovore
I don't think he was effective as usual. He had his moments but he's done better. One isn't much outlay really so I'll probably still keep him in a list and they're always useful as a scoring unit in Big Guns Never Tire - I must remember he's now 3 wounds though!
Spore Mines
They were took for a bit of fun really although most people didn't get the joke. I'm glad I took them though as I found out ways to use them, they're useful against things that don't have any ranged weapons to overwatch but as evidenced when they got at the Zombies how many can they actually kill? It's only a large blast, actually I should look at the whole Assault process a bit more, the pile in moves etc. Maybe there would have been more in contact...? Something to look into though , for instance should the models on the first floor been hit? Barrage rules suggest not but the Assault rules state anything in assault can hit models on the floor above... Spore Mines offer up more questions than answers.
Bastion
Survive 3 out of 5 games, lost me First Blood. I still want to take it for the LoS blocking in turn one [and it's easier to transport/set up] but I think the Skyshield can fulfil some of that roll and the Aegis can get me the Quad Gun too. The Heavy Bolters were surprisingly useful though, even on auto fire the Hive consciousness was strong in this bio-construct.
Quad Gun
Well I finally got to fire it, quite a few times too and it was ideally placed to survive almost any return fire. With the Zoanthrope at the controls it was a really good choice but I should have used Interceptor a bit more.
Aegis Defence Line
Help or hindrance, who knows, but it's a mandatory requirement of Strongpoint. I really think it makes a statement. Probably the least imposing part of the formation but it's the line in the sand that demarcates what is yours and you need to cross it to take what is mine [obviously the picture below illustrates how easy that can be but we all make mistakes].
Skyshield Landing Pad
The highlight of my army perhaps? This thing keeps me alive, so much so I can't seem to wait to get off the damn thing. It's a total bottleneck though, funnelling those Tervigons into one of it's sides/corners where they struggle to get the 6" move to get off the damn thing. Once again I need to find a better way to use it, more practice no doubt.
When I'm wrong I'll admit it so I can honestly say having played 6 games in 3 days the Codex still sucks! Ha, ha! I did only win two games but I'll admit the sky is not falling, there are ways to play but I think the only real options for the models I have is to play around with Fortifications and they're not really part of the Codex. But I can live with that, I have some of the Leviathan data slates so I actually fancy running the various Genestealer broods just to mix things up. They look like First Blood served on a silver plate but it could be fun. Overall though there's stuff I can work with so I won't be giving up just yet. However, there are still some glaring omissions - the Spore Mine rules need huge amounts of clarification but there are still elements that are broken and the Codex failed to fix things the players had been calling for. That's the last of my moaning though, time to deal with what we've got.
I think we were quite concerned about what Throne of Skulls would be like with Lord of Wars involved. I didn't face any so it's difficult to judge but I don't think we're going to abandon the event because of theis 'brave new world'. It's still good value and still a great event. I'm disappointed at the loss of the best Fortification prize but obviously winning the best army prize makes up for that in spades.
I also saw recent proposals to change the main hall, adding more shops and exhibition halls. There were considerably less players competing this time, maybe that's in preparation for a reduced hall size. I'm not overly keen on the idea but when you're playing you don't really notice much beyond your own 6'x4' anyway!
So I look forward to going again, can't say for certain when that will be but me and my buddies will return.
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