Golden Boys v Crusher Stampede 2.0, bring it on!
The Tyranids Codex is so hot off the press that it hasn’t even been released yet, but we’re taking these leaked rules and running with them. To that end, I decided to test the faction out against the constant menace of the metagame, Emperor’s Chosen Custodes. Of note, we were playing on the assumption that Crusher Stampede and the Leviathan supplement are still legal, because there’s nothing that we’ve seen that says otherwise and it would align with past precedent. It’s entirely possible that this isn’t going to be the case though, so take all of this with a grain of salt. Thankfully, if there’s one thing that the online 40k community is never short of, it’s salt.
Tyranid Crusher Stampede (Hive Fleet
Leviathan)
Patrol
Hive Tyrant with Gestalt Commander, heavy venom cannon and
Shardgullet 190
Neurothrope with Synaptic Tendrils 100
3 Warriors with deathspitters and dual boneswords 75
3 Zoanthropes 150
2 Maleceptors 340
3 Raveners with rending talons and deathspitters 90
Patrol
Hive Tyrant with two heavy venom cannons, Strategic Adaption
190
2*3 Warriors with deathspitters and dual boneswords 150
Exocrine 170
3 Venomthropes 105
2 Harpies with heavy venom cannons, one with Synaptic Enhancement
and the other with Voracious Ammunition 365
1925 points
I like big bugs and I cannot lie...
The first thing you’ll probably notice about this list is that it’s only 1925 points. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, I'm so confident in my superior generalship that I decided to play with a points handicap. Alternatively, I meant to bring an extra Warrior squad and totally forgot to deploy them. One of those two possibilities.
In
hindsight, using those Warriors would actually have meant I had too many 'small' bugs and not
enough monsters to run Crusher Stampede, so I’d probably have just had to upgrade one Warrior squad to
some Tyrant Guard and add a Ravener instead. Oh well, it’s not like these
listbuilding mistakes are being written down for several thousand people to
read or anything.
More seriously, I think this list looks awesome. It’s got a
crazy psychic contingent, with so many psykers I didn’t even bother to write
their powers down on the list. Alongside the
massive amount of mind bullets are an Exocrine and a heap of heavy venom cannons,
taking advantage of their outrageously pushed profile to hopefully outshoot
whatever I’m facing and make them come to me. If not, the Harpies will swoop in
and start killing stuff and dropping bombs, theoretically giving me a bit more
reach and capacity to kill hidden stuff. Once the enemy do commit they’re going
to run straight into a wall of -1D, -1 to hit, -1S and army-wide invulnerable
saves, letting me hopefully just counterattack them right off the board.
Finally, the Warriors and Raveners are there to hold objectives and fight
around the edges of the board, letting my big stompy bois go straight up the
middle. Is it good? Honestly, who knows, I mostly wrote this part of the
article before the game, maybe the Custodes are going to dunk on it like
they’re dunking on most everything else at the moment.
Emperor’s Chosen list
Battalion
Trajann 160
Shield-Captain on jetbike with Tip of the Spear, Auric
Exemplar, Superior Creation and Auric Aquilas
180
3*3 Custodian Guard, with each squad having two shields and
one spear 435
Contemptor-Achillus with flamers 180
Contemptor-Gallatus with Eternal Penitent 170
Vexilus Praetor in Allarus Armour with Vexilla Magnifica 115
3*3 Vertus with salvo launchers 765
2015 points
In hindsight, again, we realised that the Custodes list is
fifteen points over because Matt had meant to give one squad of Vertus
hurricane bolters then forgot about it. So I was actually playing with a 90-point
disadvantage! In reality, he’d have just dropped the flamers off the Achillus,
which would have made exactly zero difference to how the game played out.
Again, so glad no one else will ever read about our multitude of minor
mistakes.
Otherwise, not much to say about the list, it’s obviously pretty
standard fare. The Gallatus has been a little out of fashion in favour of a
second Achillus recently, and the Vexilus and heavier complement of Guard is
kind of interesting I guess. It’s just a lot of really tough models with good
profiles, and that’s why we like to use this as a first test for any new army.
Scenario and Secondaries
Retrieve the Relics is an interesting scenario. On the one hand, I probably have a ranged advantage, which means the Hammer and Anvil deployment is to my advantage. On the other, my psychic onslaught is going to be totally blunted for the first turn, and I don’t really like the setup for objectives here. It kind of encourages two separate forces going up each flank, whereas I’d prefer one big blob in the middle. At least it might mitigate the impact of the Vexilla a little.
I could have sworn this map said it was for Retrieve the Relics, but it honestly doesn't feel set up for Hammer and Anvil Deployment. Maybe we misread the mod or something
For Secondaries, Matt went for Bring it Down and Abhor the Witch, both of which he can max against my list (maybe something I’ll be tweaking for next time), and then Banners because it’s excellent against a fairly slow list on this map. I opted for Stranglehold, reckoning I could keep him off my three through sheer mass while shooting him off his exposed right objective, Warp Ritual because I’d probably be out of range for Psychic Interrogation Turn 1 anyway, and Synaptic Insight. That final choice is pretty unconventional and niche, but almost all my big hitters are Synapse creatures and they only need to kill 4 Custodes or 2 and a Dreadnought/character per turn in order to max it. The alternative was Banners, which honestly might have been a better idea, but I wanted to try out the cool new thing.
Banners, Abhor and Bring it Down v Ritual, Synaptic Insight and Stranglehold
Deployment
The board we were using had a lot of terrain and was
theoretically created for Hammer and Anvil deployments, but both Matt and I
still found it a little hard to hide our bulkier units. As such, both
Dreadnoughts were in positions that I could potentially draw LoS to them, while
most of my monsters were left relying on range control to at least force the
bikes to advance if they wanted to melta me in the face.
Custodes hope to weather the storm
Winning first turn, I used my Leviathan redeploy to fling
the Exocrine and a Maleceptor a little closer, hopefully getting me in range
for a good load of plasma death on Turn 1.
Tyranid Turn 1, 14:10
I opened proceedings by using the Zoanthrope Synaptic Imperative and barrelling all the big stuff forward, hoping to get off some big hits with my shooty bugs early. The Harpies both spawned Spore Mines, which floated ominously forward to try and bomb some Custodes.
Spore Mines on the move
We actually weren’t sure
whether the Mines could move/advance after being set up, but we didn’t see any
reason that they couldn’t: they aren’t Reinforcements and the Movement Phase
is still going when they’re set up. If people know how that rule used to work for Biovores/if the wording is still the same, I'd love to hear from you in the comments.
A Hive Tyrant reduces the Gallatus to a single wound
Either way, the Tyranids opened up, hoping to kill both Dreadnoughts using Synapse creatures to score an early three on Synaptic Insight. Alas, it was not to be, with the Shardgullet Hive Tyrant nuking the Achillus but the Gallatus surviving on a single wound. That 4++ was coming in clutch already!I scored one on the Tertiary and three on Stranglehold, but
now Matt would get to hit back with everything.
Pretty slow start to scoring for the 'NidsCustodes Turn 1, 14:10
Matt moved up somewhat cautiously this round, aiming to range control to be just within 24” of my lead bugs. Banners went up across his three objectives and a handful of Spore Mines died brave deaths before the salvo launchers opened up.
But between -1 to hit, -1S and my 4++ (plus a CP reroll), only a couple of hits actually made it through on the lead Maleceptor, and the combination of -1D and Catalyst saw it live with 10 wounds remaining. My investment in defensive buffs had definitely paid off!
My casualty pile after turn 1. I didn't even pay any points for this guy!
Custodes have three Banners up, but I'm hopeful of scoring a lot this turnTyranids Turn 2, 35:10
I’d gotten off extremely lightly that round, but with the
Zoanthrope imperative spent I knew I needed to hit Matt back hard this turn. So
the Stampede moved up, Warriors and Raveners holding the side objectives while
the psychic and shooting bugs prepared to unleash hell against the Custodes.
Say what you will about Crusher Stampede, but this kinda thing looks absolutely sick. I'm loving this Zerg LARPing
Same shot from the opposite angle, because I thought those big monsters looming through the dust cloud looked too good not to include
The mind bullets were honestly a little disappointing, with a massive
amount of mortal wounds being outputted by my six psykers but only a handful of
Custodes falling. That 4+++ against mortals was already making a massive
difference. I did manage to get all my key buffs off though, and the central
Malaceptor successfully completed my first Warp Ritual.
Custodes casualties after my psychic phase. This is missing a bit more chip damage, but it's still nothing too crazy
Shooting started exceptionally well, with my Hive Tyrant with the relic heavy venom cannon killing two Vertus and reducing a third to 1 wound. That guy hits hard!
That relic may not be optimal in all matchups, but it is crazily good against Custodes bikes
A hail of plasma and heavy venom cannons from the Harpies, other Hive Tyrant and Exocrine added to the tally, downing two more bikes and the whole squad of Guard on Matt’s exposed left objective.
Lots of dead Custodes
Custodes Turn 2, 35:27
Scoreline at the end of the Custodes Command Phase
Matt knew that this turn had to be fairly decisive, he couldn’t afford to trade blows with me for much longer.
All the bikes about to dive into melee
So in went the bikes and characters, almost everything launching assaults straight into my centre. The bombardment of salvo launchers again disappointed, stripping wounds from a Harpy and taking my lead Maleceptor down to 4 but otherwise whiffing.
At the end of Matt’s second shooting phase, my casualty pile was still just filled with Spore Mines!
He keeps murdering my poor explosive babies :(
Combat went somewhat better, with Trajann decapitating the
Maleceptor, but it managed to roll a 6 for Death Throes and wound him three
times! The two Vertus that had charged my Venomthropes were forced to fight
last, and the thrashing tendrils of the spore-beasts managed to drag one from
his saddle before he could fight. Finally, two Vertus attacked the wounded
Harpy and stripped a couple of wounds, although its fightback managed to wound
one of them in return.
At least the last Vertus from that squad did kill a Venomthrope and nearly a second. That's some small mercy
First real casualties
Matt had scored a few points this turn, but was definitely on the defensive and was haemorrhaging units fast. Time to see if I could tighten the screws and throw back his counterattack.
Tyranids Turn 3, 59:27
This turn would be a big test to see how well the Tyranids
can clear out their lines from a powerful assault. It started well, with Harpy
Spore Mines plinking wounds off across the Custodes lines, including wounding
Trajann twice. We’d realised by this point that if Spore Mines can move after
being deployed then they can actually detonate in the turn they’re dropped,
making them a more efficient method of harassing lone Custodes than actually
bombing them conventionally. Not sure if that’s the way the rule is intended to
work, but it felt pretty strong here.
Harpies move forward, shooty bugs move back, and psychic bugs continue evaporating Custodes bikes
Those mortal wounds were then joined by a torrent from the psykers, evaporating two Vertus even through some excellent 4+++ saves and a CP reroll. I also managed to tick off another round of Warp Ritual, meaning I only had one more turn I’d need to cast that for.
Trajann fails 4 saves against a heavy venom cannon. Maybe the 5+++ will save him?
Nah
The shooting phase started similarly well, with Trajann being absolutely detonated by one of the Hive Tyrants and a Harpy gunning down the last two Vertus. The Shield-Captain, however, proved much more resilient, shrugging off the firepower of a Hive Tyrant and Exocrine with several wounds still remaining. He finally fell in the charge phase, as the Hive Tyrant procced both Breaking Through and Trampling Charge to bury him under a massive amount of mortal wounds.
Finally, on my left flank the Raveners tore apart the Guard squad with ease, taking down another banner and reducing Matt to just two units remaining.
Custodes Guard are wiped by the Raveners
We basically talked it out from there, as the game was clearly over.
After rolling some dice, the Harpies and Raveners would be able to clear his back objective and claim it for me, so he’d only get a single turn more of Primary or Banners. I did manage to kill the Vexillus and two Guards with my Synapse creatures, so I got one more turn of Insight, and obviously Stranglehold and Warp Ritual maxed themselves pretty easily.
The brave Custodes are tabled on my Turn 4
In the end, that gave a pretty devastating final scoreline
of 91:33 in favour of the Tyranids!
Post-Match Analysis
I copped a bit of flak last battle report for describing it
as a close game, which I think was true in the sense that a slightly better
T’au Turn 3 could have seen them run away with it, even if the final scorelines
weren’t themselves close. Thankfully there’s no risk of that here: the Custodes
got absolutely crushed (Get it? Get it? Come on, I waited 2000 words to make
that pun), only really getting points for holding their back objectives and
Banners. Their almost total inability to bring down the Tyranid monsters meant
I just got to walk my way over them, barely slowing down as I stomped my way up
the board.
I made a few minor errors, mostly in order of casting and things like that. I think my strategy was broadly a good one, but ultimately it doesn’t matter much what your strategy is when your opponent can’t kill your stuff. Similarly, a few of Matt’s decisions clearly didn’t pay off, but it’s hard to think of a winning strategy if your army’s shooting and combat can’t kill the giant bugs stomping towards you.
There're still an awful lot of bugs left on that board
As far as lists go, I like mine a lot. The Raveners were
shockingly good, I really liked their ability to just zoom from cover to cover
then shank a squad on a backfield objective. The other medium-sized bugs were
also pretty solid, holding objectives and whittling down Custodes. The Harpies
were absolute all-stars, being moderately tough, scary at range and really hard
to hide from. Their ability to just carpet the field with Spore Mines also felt
extremely strong, Matt kept having to throw chip shooting at them or move in
particular ways to avoid their 3” radius of mortal wounds. The fact that they
explode in the Movement Phase is also great, as your opponent can’t shoot them
out before they get a chance to blow. At this point I think I’m starting all my
lists with 2 Harpies, at least in Crusher Stampede.
The Harpies hunt down the final Custodes
The mortal wound spam didn’t really get a chance to shine in
this game (army wide 4+++ against mortals will have that effect), but it did kill around 200 points a turn once Matt got closer.
That’s pretty decent value from a ~600-point investment, particularly given it
would have doubled against Shadowkeepers or probably tripled against
Harlequins. They also scored me a Secondary and flung out heaps of utility
spells too, which is something I’d have needed to do anyway. Probably the only
disappointment was the Exocrine: some people seem to love it, and it should have
shined in this matchup, but I just found myself wishing I could take another
Harpy or Hive Tyrant instead. Mathematically, they both outperform it against
most targets, and they also bring a lot more utility than Mr Stompy Gun can
really muster. Of course, I can’t actually take another Hive Tyrant without
spending CP, and Harpies are entirely off the table, so maybe he’ll get another
chance to prove his worth. Alternatively I'll ditch him for a Carnifex and some more Warriors, who knows.
Heavy venom cannon Hive Tyrants are sneakily the most efficient anti-armour unit in the codex
Matt’s list really struggled in this matchup, and it’s hard
to see how to fix it. Two more Achillus are probably back in the army, and a less exposed deployment might have made life easier, but overall it’s just hard to
see where to go. He theoretically outfights me in combat, but he’s struggling to actually
kill stuff when he gets to me and my mortal wounds can punch him back pretty
hard. We weren’t really sure what the answer is there, hopefully more
experienced Custodes players see some better solutions than we did.
Finally, the looming question: is my list still good without
the Leviathan supplement or Crusher Stampede? Honestly, I don’t think either
had that big of an effect on the matchup here. Leviathan almost literally
didn’t come up; none of the strats were ever relevant, the redeploy warlord trait just got my
Exocrine in range to whiff Turn 1, and Gestalt Commander was just Adaptive
Biology every round. I really rate having the potential to switch on ObSec when needed, but
otherwise I think you could remove Leviathan’s supplement without really
neutering this list at all.
It wasn't Crusher Stampede that saved me here, it was an army-wide 4++.
Who needs damage reduction when you can just not take damage?
Crusher Stampede was definitely a lot more impactful than
that. At least in theory, -1 damage is excellent in this matchup, as is the
free 5++. In practice, every time Matt targeted a monster it already had an
invulnerable save through the Zoanthrope Imperative or the Leviathan psychic
power, and the only time he targeted my littler bugs I forgot to roll any saves
for them at all. The damage reduction definitely did matter a bit though:
without it there I would have lost the first Maleceptor in his second Shooting
Phase, leaving him free to charge something else and do a bit more damage to
it. Ultimately though, that probably means my Gestalt Commander Hive Tyrant
takes a few damage and the Harpy gets bracketed, then I still wipe him off the
field.
Add a free Leviathan reroll to everything and this Dreadnought probably goes down Turn 1
It's also worth looking at what I gave up in order to run as Crusher Stampede. The free reroll to hit or wound from Leviathan is honestly really strong, and combos excellently with all the big guns on my monsters. With that extra clip of reliability, Matt would probably have been losing at least a few more models each turn, which might have made more difference than the -1 damage. The Transhuman for Synapse creatures wouldn’t have come up often in this matchup, but would have helped my Harpy tank the Vertus Praetors a little more easily. It's not as good as damage reduction, and it's not on everything, but it's still a pretty great consolation prize. Finally, the listbuilding constraints for Crusher were definitely somewhat annoying, and being able to slot in some Genestealers, Gargoyles or lone Pyrovores would have been great in this and most other matchups.
So overall, the codex definitely doesn’t feel like it’s leaning on
Crusher or the Leviathan supplement to be successful. If it turns out neither
are allowed, I think this list becomes a tiny bit worse, but is fundamentally
unchanged. You can layer so many defensive buffs up on these monsters already
that I think one more is not the biggest deal, and the added offence from
getting the Leviathan trait (or something better via Biomorphologies!) is maybe actually more useful. On
the other hand, maybe this was just a good matchup and without Crusher you
absolutely fold to new Eldar, who knows?
I hope you enjoyed my first battle report with the hyper-new
Tyranid book. I’m loving listwriting for the big stompy bugs, whether they’re
blasting stuff with venom cannons or the psychic power of the Hive Mind. Let me
know what you thought of the report, how you reckon the new ‘Nids will perform,
and what impact you think Crusher Stampede being in or out will have on the
Codex. As ever, I love a good chat, and will try and respond to your comments
as rapidly as you can make them!
Until next time, may your Spore Mines always put at least two wounds onto Trajann!
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