Competitive List Building and Bat Rep - Evan's Tyranids 1.3

Building off my last list-building post, this post is going to go over the changes I made from the last version of my Tyranid list to the one I used last week in a game against James and his Poxwalker bomb list, and review how that game went. This is also likely the final version of the list before the impending March Balance FAQ, which I'm nervous could impact the future of the list.

Gaming Weekend

Last weekend I hosted a gaming weekend at my place. We've expanded a bit since our early gaming weekends, and this time I had three tables set up, with the possibility of setting up a fourth, though we never had more than six people playing at a time. I was a terrible blogger and failed to take any pictures except for one of my Vaul's Wrath Battery proxies for the weekend:

White Dwarf 60 First Look: Khorne Codex

This week's White Dwarf is out, announcing the long anticipated release of a Legion/Chaos God combined codex. Leading things off is Codex: Khorne Daemonkin, with expanded new rules for different Bloodthirsters using the new End Times kit.

NOVA Preparation, Fantasy Style

As the newest contributor to the blog, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. I am the resident fantasy player of the group, yet to make the leap to 40k. I grew up playing both fantasy and 40k with Evan. After a long hiatus I have decided to make the leap back into the hobby. While I do enjoy the painting and fluff of the hobby, my real passion is the gaming side, so the fact that NOVA is fast approaching motivated me to get back into the swing of things.

My army, just about ready for the tourney (now to create a display board!)

The First Heretic (Horus Heresy Book 14) Review

The first entry in the Horus Heresy from Aaron Dembski-Bowden is the story of the architects of the Horus Heresy: the Word Bearer Legion. Continuing the Horus Heresy Review Series, this novel gets back to some of the main action of the Heresy. As with the recent reviews, following the jump, there will be spoilers.

Fulgrim (Horus Heresy Book 5) Review

Unlike the previous books, when I finished Flight of the Eisenstein I wasn't in a big hurry to pick this book up. I knew it would go back and retread some of the same plot points I'd been over at least twice for one, and I also didn't want to leave the story of Nathaniel Garro. I wanted his story arc to continue. But I was drawn on if only to get other perspectives on the story we'd encountered so far.

Flight of the Eisenstein (Horus Heresy Book 4) Review

As has been my habit with these, after finishing Book 3, I quickly moved on to Book 4. While Galaxy in Flames tied up the Loken trilogy, it also hinted at the importance of the divergent story arc surrounding Nathaniel Garro. Just in case you want to read back, previous reviews for Book 1 and Book 2 are linked. As before, I will try to largely avoid spoilers, but we all know generally how things will go.

NOVA Wrap Up - Day 2

Day 2 of NOVA began with me driving to the hotel and then checking out the Vendors' tables while I waited for Todd and Sean to return from breakfast so I could grab my stuff. There was one more game before seeding, though we would have to wait on the pairings to be posted. (Post on day 1 is here)

Galaxy in Flames (Horus Heresy Book 3) Review

Like with Book 2, I bought Galaxy in Flames immediately after finishing False Gods (review here) and started reading just about straight-away. This novel more or less ties up the first trilogy that started with Horus Rising (review here). As with previous reviews, I'll try to avoid spoilers, but this one might make it tougher; at this point there's no way to avoid mentioning some events of Book 1 and 2, so if you haven't read them yet, maybe wait until you have.

Bat Rep: 1k Nids vs Chaos Space Marines

To continue from the previous bat rep (here) which was game 1 of a tournament, game 2 I was pitted against a small Chaos army. 

  vs.

Heldrake image from http://www.warpstormlights.co.uk/

His list (minus upgrades) was:

Chaos Lord w/Mark of Khorne

Daemon Prince

5 Plague Marines - 1 Plasma gun

5 Khorne Berserkers

5 Khorne Berserkers

Forgefiend (Represented on my maps by a defiler)

2 Obliterators

The mission was once again Emperor's Will (2 objectives), with board edge deployment (technically it was Hammer and Anvil, but we were on 4'x4' boards).