It's Troupes v Tyranids: who will come out on top?
Welcome back to the third round of my Harlequin v Tyranid series! This time around, everything is different: I’m now playing the ‘Nids while Owen is playing the ‘Quins, there’s been a massive Balance Dataslate, and the clowns have pivoted to a horde of Players with nary a Voidweaver in sight! Can the Troupes do what the boats could not? Read on and find out…
Harlequins
That's a lotta clowns
Light Saedath
Battalion
Troupe Master
(Foot in the Future/Player of the Light/Cegorach’s Rose, with fusion pistol) 90
Shadowseer (Webway Dance/Mirror of Minds, The Shadow
Stone, neuro disruptor ) 100
Death Jester
(Harvester of Torment) 70
Death Jester
(Lord of Crystal Bones) 75
Solitaire 110
6*10 Players,
each squad with 2 fusion pistols, a kiss and an embrace 900
Light Saedath
Patrol
Shadowseer (Veil
of Tears/Twilight Pathways, Laughing God’s Eye) 100
2*10 Players,
each squad with 2 fusion pistols, a kiss and an embrace 300
5 Players with 2
fusion pistol 75
Starweaver 95
Webway Gate 80
Total: 2000
This Harlequin list went through several iterations before we made it to the field. It had started out Dark, with very few fusion pistols and a lot more close combat. But when we started talking about the matchup, we realised that it was going to be a brutal slaughter. Dark Troupes are pretty deadly, but how on earth are they going to kill a Maleceptor, let alone a whole Monster Mash army? At that point we decided Owen should pivot to Light and bring back the fusion, going back to something much more similar to what I ran this battle report. It worked well then, and it has a lot going for it, with massive numbers of ObSec combat units, bonkers mobility and more durability than you’d expect. But will its 19 fusion pistols be enough against the might of Hive Fleet Behemoth?
Tyranids
Yeah, all those monsters are ObSec. No biggy
Behemoth Patrol
Winged Hive Tyrant
with lashwhip and bonesword and Maw-Claws 190
Neurothrope with
Synaptic
Tendrils 100
5 Tyrant Guard 200
3 Warriors with
deathspitters and dual
boneswords 75
3
Zoanthropes 150
Maleceptor 170
Behemoth Patrol
Winged Hive Tyrant
with Reaper of Obliterax and
lashwhip 190
3 Warriors with
deathspitters and dual
boneswords 75
3
Venomthropes 105
2 Harpies with
heavy venom
cannons 340
3 x 1 Carnifex with
heavy venom cannon, scything talons and enhanced
senses 360
Maleceptor 170
Total: 2000
This list is my take on the Behemoth list that Owen pipped me with last time around. It’s got access to Lurk to make all those monsters ObSec/super ObSec, it’s got some terrifying shooting to force the enemy to come to me and it’s got the massive psychic energy of the brain bugs to blast them once they get closer. Of note, I’ve finally pivoted to the double Flyrant build. The Walkrant is awesome, but I think he relies on the double HVC build to be competitive, and who knows if that will stick around? With two Flyrants, the Tyrant Guard are more important to keep them safe, so I’m running a big blob as my third TtL target. It may not be quite as tough as three Carnifexes (now run individually), but it gives me a potential two extra points and lets me throw the ‘Fexes forward more recklessly.
Mission and Secondaries
The whole board is underwater! Fun!
Today we’re playing
The Scouring, which is probably a difficult mission for me. The longer board
edge may make it harder for Owen to reach me early, but it also makes it much
easier for him to pin me into my own side of the board and continually flip my
objectives. That will make it difficult for me to do the Tertiary actions,
which could come back to haunt me in a tight game.
Stranglehold/Bring it Down/Deadly Performance v Stranglehold/Warp Ritual/Assassination
For Secondaries, I
had a surprising amount of good choices. Assassinate looks great here, with
four characters which want to be operating relatively close to me and two more I
can maybe reach out and kill. The Scouring is a great Stranglehold mission
(plus I have 7 ObSec monsters), and Warp Ritual seems surprisingly achievable
here. Yes, Owen has psykers to deny me, but Neurothropes love flexing on enemy
psykers, and there will be a lot of other important spells Owen will want to
deny. Like massive Smites. Lots of them. I could have picked To the Last, but this
is the kind of matchup where I might actually lose a Tyrant, so I played it
safe with Ritual instead.
Owen’s first two choices were similarly easy, with Bring it Down being pretty ubiquitous against Tyranids and Stranglehold playing well with his 85 fast ObSec models. Finally, he opted for A Deadly Performance, reasoning that TtL was super risky, I can potentially screen him out to prevent RND, and Warpcraft Secondaries were just asking for trouble against my list. Hopefully he’ll be in my deployment zone by Turn 2, giving him a relatively easy 12 in any close game.
Deployment
This board has waterfalls on it! Awesome!
Owen starts by plonking the Webway Gate down near the centre of the board, ready to dominate the central objective and threaten my left flank. Lovely. He sticks a pair of Troupes in it, while otherwise just hiding behind his ruins to deny me any nice targets Turn 1.
Sneaky clowns hiding behind cover
I decline to do the same, realising that Owen lacks the long
range shooting to really threaten me. So all the big monsters get to hang out
in the open, ready to make a big push for the centre. The Neurothrope is ready
to advance and Warp Ritual, while one Carnifex and the Maleceptors act like
oversized bodyguards. A motley crew of medium ‘Nids (including my actual Bodyguards)
hang out behind cover, while the Flyrants and Harpies are carefully placed
behind my lines. With that, I picked my Adaptive Trait (ObSec on the monsters,
because, well, my whole list is built around it) and we were ready to rumble. Fingers
crossed that I go second and get to fry some ‘Quins Turn 1!
Tyranid Turn 1, 16:10
Sneaky Spore Mines screen for the big boys
Ah well, could be worse. I storm forward with my monsters,
trying to place them so everyone except the front Carnifex is just a little too
far away to be reliably engaged. The Harpies dart forward a little, drop their
Spore Mines then dart back again. Then, because Spore Mines don’t exist at the
start of the battle and thus aren’t deployed as Reinforcements (at least
by our interpretation) the Mines float ominously forward to try and screen off my
models from Harlequin charges. I love these little bombs! Otherwise, Warp
Ritual easily goes off and the front Carnifex gets Catalyst and the benefit of
the Maleceptor and Venomthrope defensive auras. It’ll still probably die, but
at least now it’ll take some work.
Harlequin Turn 1, 16:13
Owen doesn’t want to commit too soon into my gauntlet of mortal wounds and melee bugs, so it’s a pretty quiet turn from him. One Troupe goes darting forward to flip the central objective, although their fusion pistols dissipate off the Carnifex’s tough hide. Meanwhile, a Shadowseer decides to show off that they aren’t bad casters, they just really hate me. It successfully gets off Webway Dance through my deny attempt, before inflicting a massive 5 wounds on my Carnifex with Mirror of Minds! That’s more than my Shadowseer has inflicted in all his games put together!
What? Why don't they work like this for me?
On the plus side, the attacking Troupe fails their charge roll thanks to the difficult terrain, before failing it again on a reroll. The Carnifex lives! The beauty of this is that Owen could have moved closer to make the charge easier, but didn't want to risk the Spore Mines decimating his unit before he could shoot them.
Spore Mines all dead, but they did their job
Owen also exposed both the Death Jesters to take some potshots and hopefully lure a Harpy or Flyrant into an exposed position, but their shooting comes to naught.
I’ll quickly note here that both of us spend the first two turns Scanning our backfield objectives, and neither successfully interrupts the other. 6 Primary is 6 Primary.
Tyranid Turn 2, 37:13
Game starting alright for the 'Nids
At the beginning of my turn I’m umming and ahing about which
Flyrant to send forward, hoping to use Onslaught to make the charge on the
Death Jesters then Encircle the Prey to escape. It’s at this point that we
almost simultaneously remember that the Harpy can also use Encircle the Prey.
So it flies forward, wounds one Jester with Spore Mines (dropped, moved and
exploded) before gunning him down with the stinger salvo, while forcing the
other Jester to burn several Luck rerolls to survive an HVC volley. Then it disappears
into the sky. Owen is not happy.
Harpies are in no way overtuned
At least Harlequin saves are still fire
Nor does his mood improve when the other Harpy flits forward, unloads its Spore Mines then darts backwards. The Spores float into the
exposed Troupe and promptly kill 7 of them with some spiked rolling. It doesn’t
really matter, because that Troupe dies this turn no matter what, but it’s
certainly fun.
Spore Mines goooooooo!
Thanks to the Maleceptor Imperative being active, the remaining three Players die in the Psychic Phase to the Neurothrope’s Smite, even as it powers through my second Warp Ritual over the top of the Shadowseer’s deny.
Good to give my Neurothrope a chance to get in on the Smiting.
The other excitement in my Psychic Phase is that the rightmost Maleceptor can actually get within 12” of Owen’s ruin to blast the Troupe inside through the wall. Neuroparasite is denied by the Shadowseer, but Psychic Scream, Encephalic Diffusion and the Behemoth psychic power all go off to throw a bunch of mortals onto Owen’s concealed Troupe. Thankfully the Eye of the Laughing God comes through clutch, saving the lives of many Players.
Psychic Overload go Brrrrrr
Otherwise, I mostly just screen up to try and ensure Owen’s
attack next turn isn’t too damaging.
Harlequins Turn 2, 37:31
Harlequins prepare to strike
My Maleceptor might not have killed that many of Owen’s
models last turn, but what it did do is change the dynamic of the battle. Owen
now knows that if he doesn’t commit this turn, I could feasibly pick up a whole
Troupe almost for free without exposing myself any further.
That means it has to be go time, with a huge number of Harlequins surging
forward to bring down some big bugs. In total, Owen commits 35 Players,
including 10 from reserve, alongside both Shadowseers, the Troupe Master, the Starweaver
and the Solitaire. This is the big play, and a lot will ride on how much damage
it does.
That's a lot of clowns charging in
Things start well, with the wounded Carnifex being downed by
a combination of Smites and fusion guns. Owen then unleashes a brutal hail of
fusion and shuriken fire into my visible Maleceptor, hoping to cripple it or
maybe even take it down. But a combination of -1 to hit, -1S, its 4++ and
Catalyst see it through the bombardment almost untouched!
Maleceptors absolutely laugh at fusion pistols
Undeterred, Owen presses into combat. One Troupe flits
through the building to charge the Pyrovores and flip my backfield objective, although
they lose several models to the Corrosive Viscera of the slain Pyrovore and two
exploding Spore Mines en route. They then consolidate into the Warriors in
order to be in my deployment zone for A Deadly Performance.
Swings back from the Warriors down a couple of Players, but nothing too serious
Elsewhere, the leftmost Troupe go in with the Solitaire and Shadowseer. Between them they pop all the unique weapon strats and do massive damage, reducing that Maleceptor to a mere 1 wound.
Big boy not quite dead
Sadly, their friends in the
centre aren’t as successful, failing to do more than chip damage to the other
Maleceptor as it wounds the Shadowseer with its claws.
They also rolled snakeyes to charge and barely made it in
Finally, the Troupe Master nearly kills the Neurothrope,
before I CP reroll and clutch the 3+ save I need to survive. Unperturbed, the clown
backflips into the nearby Starweaver with The Curtain Falls.
Troupe Master disappears back into the transport, hopefully safe for now
That turn really needed to go a little better for Owen. The
crippled Maleceptor won’t do me too much good next turn, but the other one
being basically untouched is a huge blow. Encephalic Diffusion is strong, who
knew?
Tyranid Turn 3, 51:31
Much now rides on how hard I can counterattack here. To that
end I activate the Neurothrope Imperative, hoping to do some big damage in my
Psychic Phase. Movement starts alright, with the Harpy on the field bombing a
10-Elf Troupe but only killing 3, while the other returns to the board in
my backfield. Almost everything else surges forward, ready to rend and tear at
these irritating Aeldari.
My Psychic Phase is properly devastating. The healthy Maleceptor starts by rolling up an 11 on a super Smite, obliterating all 7 remaining Players in the Troupe it’s facing. It then kills three more Players from a hidden unit with Neuroparasite, as well as obliterating the wounded Shadowseer with the Psychic Overload! Finally, a Psychic Scream chips a few wounds onto the Starweaver, although Owen’s 5+++ saves run hot to save most of them.
This Troupe is about to pay for its sins
The other Maleceptor chips a few models off the Troupe tagging it, before the Zoanthropes obliterate the Starweaver with a devastating blast.
Brain bugs are rolling hot today!
More Smites from my other psykers kill
most of the disembarked Troupe as well, including another super Smite
from my Neurothrope. That’s nearly 20 Players, a Starweaver and a Shadowseer
dead from psychic alone!
Shooting is less exciting, as the remaining Players from the Starweaver are obliterated but the Troupe Master uses Luck rerolls to remain untouched through 12 HVC shots.
What an absolute madman
I press my advantage in combat though, with the Reaper Flyrant obliterating the clown with ease before using Overrun to return to a nice safe location behind my lines.
Turns out dealing 5 mortal wounds is a good solution to most problems
Combat from my other Flyrant, the Warriors and the Pyrovore manage to clear the ‘Quins off my left objective, although the Troupe survives just long enough to deny my Flyrant the kill, and thus the extra attack.
Flyrants counterattack to clean up this wave of clowns
The Solitaire manages to dodge and weave to survive a
Trampling Charge Carnifex, taking a couple of mortal wounds but avoiding all
the D3 talon attacks. He strikes back to wound the ‘Fex three times, while the Shadowseer
finally brings down the injured Maleceptor in combat.
Solitaire passes his saves with ease
Still, at the end of the turn it’s been an absolutely devastating
Tyranid counterattack. As some final salt in the wound, the Troupe next to the
Solitaire fail their morale test and lose 3 out of their four remaining Players.
There’s one final Harlequin push to come, but things are looking pretty bad for
the Aeldari.
That's certainly a casualty pile
Harlequins Turn 3, 49:54
That final push comes in hot. The surviving Shadowseer falls
back to hold one of Owen’s objectives while the Death Jester holds the other. Released
from objective-holding duty, the 4 surviving Troupes storm forward to try and
break the Tyranids. One Troupe, led by the Solitaire, dive into my backfield to
assault the Warrior squad, Neurothrope and Tyrant Guard. Another two launch a
frontal assault, aiming to slaughter my Venomthropes and finally bring down the
Maleceptor. The last one attempts to sweep around and kill the last Pyrovore to
zero me on Primary.
Still so many clowns on the field
This latter attempt runs into some immediate difficulties.
Because of the placement of the Harpy, Owen can’t get enough Players onto the
objective to flip it without entering the Heroic Intervention range of my
Flyrant. He decides to take the risk and try to just kill the Flyrant, but
while he does do 5 wounds the counterattacks reduce him down to just one Player
remaining. This leaves the objective securely in my hands, and Owen down a
critical asset.
Flyrant in the bottom right is about to clear up most of a squad
Nor does the rest of the attack go smoothly. Fusion fire successfully kills another Carnifex, and the ‘mortals when charging’ strat half kills the Neurothrope (it had healed fully after the Troupe Master’s attempt last turn).
Another big boy falls
But I interrupt with my Tyrant Guard, boost them up with my Hive Tyrant and slaughter nine of the Troupe that had foolishly tagged them.
Before combat...
The two surviving Players on that flank manage to finish off the Warriors to flip my right objective, but they have paid for it heavily. The last survivor of the mauled Troupe flees at the end of the turn.
After combat
Elsewhere, the Venomthropes force their
Troupe to fight last and kill several, before losing one of their number to the
Harlequin attack. Finally, the Troupe fighting the Maleceptor manage to deal
five wounds, but are unable to bracket it. That Psychic Overload is going
to hurt….
Well, that basically couldn't have gone any worse
This turn went catastrophically for Owen. He got
Stranglehold and my Primary continues to be perilously bad, but he paid for it
far too heavily. This was probably game over.
Tyranids Turn 4, 71:49
We're both still missing that Stranglehold, but at this point it probably doesn't matter
The Tyranids surge forward, ready to deal the final blow to the Aeldari. Both Harpies speed into Owen’s backfield, dropping off Spore Mines which kill both the Solitaire and Death Jester!
Drop Spore Mines, they advance and explode, kill character, repeat
Their firepower also manages to
gun down the final Shadowseer, as well as the lone Player on my right
objective.
Shadowseer disappears beneath a torrent of HVC fire
Psychic is as brutal as ever, wiping out the last Player on my left objective and the whole 10-Elf Troupe engaged with the Maleceptor.
More Players die like their fellows, beneath torrents of Tyranid psychic power
That
leaves just one Troupe remaining, who are swarmed by both Flyrants, the Tyrant
Guard and most of the rest of my army. The Reaper Tyrant alone is enough to wipe
out the clowns, tabling Owen for a decisive Tyranid victory!
Post-Game Analysis
Oof. After the last two finely-balanced games, this one did not feel good. Those ‘Quins just bounced, and then watching my Maleceptors shred hundreds of points every turn was just brutal. The Harlequin list is built around asking the question ‘Can you kill ~90 Harlequins?’ The Tyranids answered ‘Yes.’
Harlequin casualty pile speaks for itself
As far as in-game mistakes, both of us agreed there were some things we would have done differently. Owen tagging the Tyrant Guard was unnecessary, and he paid for it with a whole Troupe.
Turns out those guys kinda slap
Similarly, that Troupe on the right that got Heroic’ed by
my Flyrant should never have committed there in the first place. Owen should have
just added them to the attack against the Maleceptor, where they would have
done more damage to it and not been cheaply massacred by the Flyrant. On my
part, there were a number of positioning errors (not getting everyone important
in range of both Maleceptors in case one fails to perform its action, that kind
of thing), and my Flyrants could have been more aggressive with their Heroic
Intervention bubble. If I’d moved my Tyrant Guard up further I could have really
constrained Owen with the Flyrants while remaining pretty safe, an opportunity
I missed. I honestly played most of this game thinking I had taken To the Last, only to remember near the end that I don't actually care if my Tyrant Guard die. Not smart play from me.
In saying all that, I
think this matchup is a tough one for the ‘Quins. They’re eventually
going to have to commit, and once they do so it’s really hard to get damage
through. Encephalic Diffusion and the Spore Clouds really neuter the fusion
shooting, and in combat they're almost all wounding on sixes. The
stratagems really helped, but once the CP ran dry Owen struggled to kill
my monsters. On the counterattack, my extra mortal wound output really paid off this game, it
made the Maleceptors feel unstoppable.
The brain bugs posing atop a horrendous pile of Harlequin corpses
Speaking of the
Maleceptors, they were likely my MVPs of the battle. Both soaked up a heinous
amount of punishment, especially the left one which casually laughed off
Troupes every turn. And their output was breathtaking in a way it hasn’t been
in most previous games. Even the right one— which did much less before its untimely
demise— still did the initial damage through
a wall to force Owen to commit a turn earlier than he would have liked.
The other contenders for MVP were
clearly the Harpies. We’re going to keep playing their Spore rule as written,
because I think it’s pretty unambiguously worded, but man it did not feel
balanced this game. Against an army without the long-ranged firepower to snipe
them out these flyers are some of the most powerful models in the game, hands
down.
Speaking of long range firepower, the Harlequins need some. It really showed at deployment, where I was able to casually plonk all my most valuable tools down in the open to march onto the objective immediately.
'Cover is for people without T8 or stacking defensive buffs'
Admittedly, I might have done that even if Owen had
more guns (these ‘Nids are absurdly tanky) but I should at least have to be
worried about it. When we next run a
horde Harlequin list, it definitely needs at least one squadron of
Voidweavers. If I’m being honest, the better route is probably 6 Voidweavers,
backed by 50 or so Players, rather than the ‘whoops all Troupes’ plan we tried
out today. Tyranids just aren’t the kind of faction you can rely on fusion
pistols to deal with, so back in go the Voidweavers. Alas.
As for the rest of
the Tyranid list, it’s feeling pretty great. Running as Behemoth for Lurk (and
thus ObSec) is awesome, the Carnifexes are good semi-expendable tanks, the
support elements all do their job well and the Flyrant/Maleceptor/Harpy core is
pretty oppressive. I loved the big blob of Tyrant Guard, they felt pretty invincible
and gave the Flyrants a lot of protection, even with the nerf to Bodyguard. The
Venomthropes were as excellent as ever, the Pyrovores and Warriors did fine,
and even the Zoanthropes had a great game. I haven’t been as excited about them
as I expected to be, but they were really consistent performers in this
matchup. No Voidweavers to kill them I guess!
Next week, a fairly similar ‘Nid list will be taking on one of the big winners from the Dataslate: Grey
Knights. Will the Armour of Contempt be able to withstand the big bugs, or will
the Tyranids be proven the superior psykers? Let me know who you think will
come out ahead there, and what you thought of this report. Was it just a bad
matchup, or is this Harlequin build too crazy to work? What Hive Fleet are you
liking for your Tyranids? Are you playing your Harpies RAW on the Spore Mines,
or expecting/hoping/praying that GW realise their mistake and neaten up their
rules?
Until next time, may your Maleceptors always have expensive, one-wound infantry to blast!
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