After last week’s
razor-thin Asuryani victory, Owen is out for a rematch. Apparently Space Elves
v Space Bugs is our thing at the moment. Both of us have substantially altered
our lists since last week, trying out new tools alongside old classics to try
and innovate for the metagame. Will the raw firepower of the Swordwind be
enough to defeat the mighty Hive Fleet Behemoth?
Hive Fleet Behemoth
I've played enough with Tyranids to know that this list is looking to take my lunch money
Patrol
Winged Hive Tyrant
with Maw-Claws, lashwhip and bonesword
190
Neurothrope with
Synaptic Tendrils 100
3 Tyrant
Guard 120
3 Warriors with
deathspitters and dual
boneswords 75
3
Zoanthropes 150
Maleceptor 170
3 Pyrovores 90
Patrol
Winged Hive Tyrant
with Reaper of Obliterax and
lashwhip 190
10 Hormagaunts 80
3
Venomthropes 105
2 Harpies with
heavy venom
cannons 340
3 Carnifexes with
heavy venom cannon, scything talons and enhanced
senses 360
1 Pyrovore 30
Total: 2000
This list is super mean. It has all the hits, with a solid TtL plan, lots of big stompy monsters to become ObSec thanks to the Lurk Biomorphology, plenty of mortal wounds and firepower and some scary close combat too. The only substantial changes from previous iterations are that one Maleceptor has been stripped out to make room for more Carnifexes, there are 4 Pyrovores running around to melt stuff and be irritating to kill, and there’s a squad of Hormagaunts! I’ve heard good things about these little boys, and Owen is convinced they’ll be great against my fragile Elves. Or maybe they’ll just hold an objective and screen all game. That’d probably be fine too.
Craftworld Ulthwé
What about if big guns, but for the whole army?
Spearhead
Baharroth 140
Farseer with Guide, Convergence of Fate, Faolchu’s Wing 90
Warlock Skyrunner with Jinx, Sunstorm 60
10 Swooping Hawks with The Phoenix Plume, Winged Evasion 195
6 Swooping Hawks 108
6 Fire Dragons with Dragon’s Fury 138
6 Dire Avengers with double catapults 72
2 x Falcons with bright lances 320
3 x Fire Prisms, one with crystal targeting matrix 490
2 War Walkers with bright lances 170
Crimson Hunter Exarch with double bright lance, Swooping
Evasion 215
Total: 1998
My list, on the other hand, is totally different to what
most Asuryani players have been running. One Spearhead detachment, no Troops at
all, no close combat units and only three characters! It was inspired heavily
by a list featured in one of u/Stormcoil’s battle reports, although I made a
few tweaks to shore up what I saw as its weaknesses. In essence, the list is
based around the idea that high quality shots are critical against both
Tyranids and Marines, and that’s a lot of the metagame right now. Harlequins
will hate the threat of Linked Fire into their boats, other Asuryani will hate
all the hulls, and everyone will hate the massive amount of high accuracy, high
damage shooting. I’ve tested the list out once so far, against a Death Guard
list that was taking full advantage of the new Dataslate. Those Terminators
stuck around a lot longer than they used to, but it was still a pretty
comfortable tabling. Let’s see if I can do the same to a much more dangerous
opponent!
Mission and Secondaries
My Farseer can foresee a low Primary score in my future
Today we’re playing Data Scry-Salvage, which isn’t the worst mission for me but is far from the best. The Tertiary requires you to leave a unit at home to do actions, which is shockingly hard for my list, and it also rewards brawling over mid-field objectives. I don’t want to go into the mid-field, there are Tyranids there! They’re scary! Still, at least the spread-out objectives mean I can probably hammer one flank then sweep across the map.
For Secondaries, I straightaway decided that To the Last was
out. There are Harpies around, and that means I do not want to be relying on
one of my expensive vehicles to survive. More appealing was Engage, as it’s
pretty easy to score on this deployment, and RND for the same reason. Finally, I
can’t max Bring it Down, but it rewards me for just doing what I was going to
do anyway. If I’m not scoring 8-12 points on this then I’ve probably lost
anyway.
Owen had a few tricky choices to make for his Secondaries.
Warp Ritual is pretty great on this map, as the Neurothrope can cast it without
exposing himself too much. But Stranglehold will be much harder to max than
normal with the six objectives, especially if I’m able to clear one flank of
Tyranids. Still, it’ll reward him for dominating the board, which he has to do
to win anyway, so it’s probably the best choice. Finally, To the Last is in
because killing all three Carnifexes and the two Tyrants will likely only
happen in a tabling, and Owen fancies his chances at keeping things tighter
than that.
Deployment
Deployment is pretty scary for both of us. The issue is that
each of us have some expensive shooting pieces, with the mobility to threaten
the others’ pretty easily. How does Owen deploy to stop my Crimson Hunter,
Falcons and Linked-Fire Fire Prisms picking up his Harpies? How do I deploy to
protect my Fire Prisms and flyer from the Harpies? It’s a nightmare.
Aeldari deployment pre-Phantasm
In the end, I decide to deploy as if I was going first and
Phantasm backwards if I go second. So the Prisms go out to the flanks to draw
angles, and the Hunter is concealed but ready to strike. Owen, on the other
hand, decides to assume that all my big shots Turn 1 will be going into the
Harpies. So the rest of the monsters deploy basically out in the open, ready to
push forward and start applying pressure. Only the Zoanthropes, Warriors, Hormagaunts
and Tyrant Guard are especially hidden, with the latter allowing the Flyrants
to stand out in the open safely.
The Harpies are as hidden as possible, but I think I can still draw a bead if I go first
Unusually, both of us would love to go first this game. Getting to take out those Harpies before they can hit me would be a godsend, and vice versa for Owen. Time to hope I read those Runes correctly!
Tyranid Turn 1, 32:10
Damn. I Phantasm, shifting the Crimson Hunter back into
reserve and retreating my Fire Prisms. They’re still going to take hits from
the Harpies, but at least most of the Carnifexes won’t be getting in on the
action.
The Crimson Hunter disappears into Strategic Reserve
Owen’s horde absolutely surges up the field, looking like a
proper Behemoth charge. Both Harpies go diving in to target my Prisms, while
the footsloggers stomp forward to dominate three of the central objectives.
Some models are kept in cover, and the Tyrants are obviously safely near their
Guards, but by and large the theory seems to be overwhelming my guns. Knowing
that the Zoanthrope Imperative is up to make them all extra tanky, I’m feeling
pretty overwhelmed!
There's too many of them!
Owen is also able to employ the foul sorcery of
pre-measuring to screen his whole backfield and the entire left-hand side of
the board. Given that I have two Falcons about to arrive and melt stuff, that’s
probably a good call.
Nowhere to drop on the whole left side of the table. Boo!
Psychic goes excellently for Owen, with every important spell (including Warp Ritual) going off without a hitch. Shooting, however, is a disaster. The Harpies and one Carnifex open up, but cunning use of Lightning Fast Reactions, Fate Dice, and some appalling luck from Owen sees my Fire Prisms almost totally untouched! This is a huge swing, and puts me in a great position.
I really expected to lose at least one tank here
Undeterred, Owen Encircles one Harpy back into Strategic Reserve and
prepares to weather my shooting.
Asuryani Turn 1, 32:19
I start my turn by fretting anxiously over which unit will
complete the mission action on my home objective. This force really doesn’t
have units to just waste like that, with even my Swooping Hawks needing to
start chipping away this turn. Thankfully, I suddenly realise that my Fire
Prisms are planning to Link Fire. That means that there’s at least one of them
who’s not planning on shooting anyway, and is thus perfectly happy to waste a turn
scrying data. Salvaging data. Scry-salvaging data.
So I line up my crystal targeting matrix Fire Prism on the
Harpy, inch out the War Walkers to draw beads on both it and the Maleceptor,
and then drop both my Falcons in the far corner to target the Maleceptor too.
The Fire Dragons and Dire Avengers also disembark, ready to cause some havoc.
Finally, the Hawks all zip forward to start chipping away at Owen’s lighter
targets.
The Aeldari pivot away from the Tyranids as they line up their big guns
Psychic sees Guide go on the big Hawks squad (as it does
every turn) and Jinx on one Carnifex, as well as regenerating me a precious CP.
I promptly burn that CP on Linked-Fire, opening up on the Harpy with 6 S14
shots. I hit four times, but Owen’s choice to pop Transhuman sees only a single
wound go through, even after my reroll! Catalyst sees him only take 4 damage, and
I’m beginning to weep openly. Thankfully, the War Walkers then open up, scoring
4 hits and 4 wounds. Owen fails all his 4++ saves, and I manage to overkill him
by 2 wounds. Huh. That was weird.
War Walkers do what the Fire Prisms cannot
Things continue in that vein elsewhere, with one Falcon just tickling the Maleceptor before the Fire Dragons totally obliterate it.
S9 was a really big deal here
The
other Falcon chips a few wounds onto a Carnifex, before my Swooping Hawks
absolutely gun it down. The rolls are weird, but at the end of it I’ve taken
out three of Owen’s monsters!
Down goes the Carnifex!
I also RND with the Dire Avengers, before proceeding to make
two fairly dumb mistakes. I opt to leave the small squad of Hawks chilling in
my right corner to score me Engage, not even bothering to measure how far away
they are from the Hive Tyrants. Too close is the answer! I also choose to
charge the Venomthropes with Baharroth, hoping to clear that objective and
leave Owen without a right flank. I’ve played at least a dozen games with
Venomthropes since the new Codex dropped, so why am I surprised when they do a
mortal wound, force me to fight last and then strip two more off me? Thankfully
Baharroth burns my last Fate Dice and rolls hot, wiping the unit, but it’s a
massive blow to have him now be killable in a single phase. I didn’t even
manage to deny Owen any Primary, as I can’t safely stay on the objective
anymore! Sometimes, it just feels bad.
I am a fool
Still, this turn I really did some massive damage. If I can
survive the next wave, then I should be able to start pushing Owen back.
Tyranid Turn 2, 54:19
Big oof at this scoreline
On the downside, Owen does score a 12 on Primary. That’s not great. He decides that none of the Imperatives are really worth it this turn, while I cheerfully get another two sixes on my Fate Dice. That’s pretty important, because there’s another Harpy coming in hot. It drops down next to a Carnifex on Owen’s left flank, both drawing a bead onto my CTM Fire Prism. The other Carnifex advances to get closer to my castle, while the Pyrovores reroll a low advance roll to charge onto the centre-right objective.
The Pyrovores unleash a torrent of flame at my Fire Dragons, but the combination of T4 and a 3+ is shockingly useful and only three die.
Turns out Fire Dragons are tougher than Rangers!
Finally, the two Hive Tyrants both surge
forward to crump some Eldar.
That plan goes badly awry in the Psychic phase, as my
Farseer manages to deny the Onslaught cast on the Maw-Claws Flyrant with a
double six! That leaves it stranded in the middle of nowhere, unable to charge.
Awesome. The rest of the spells all go off, including Warp Ritual, but stopping a Fyrant from killing me for a turn is massive.
Farseer casually asserting Aeldari psychic dominance
The wins continue in the Shooting phase, as a hail of HVC shots from the Carnifex and Harpy are met with Lightning Fast Reflexes and 2 automatically passed saves. After the dust settles only a single hit has made it through to leave my tank on 8 wounds.
Not today, says the Fire Prism
These Harpies are clearly mad at Owen
for callously sacrificing them last game and are working to protect their true
master, me. As I shoot at them with bright lances. Yes.
Finally, in combat the Reaper Flyrant smashes into my small Swooping Hawks unit. Remembering his mistake from last game, Owen opts to use Trampling Charge to whittle down the unit and make sure he can finish it in one combat. Things look dicey as I save two of the mortal wounds and three of the wounding hits, but then I fail all my saves against the five additional mortal wounds from the Reaper and am easily wiped out. That thing’s pretty strong.
I threw away this whole squad for a 2 on Engage. Lovely
The
victorious Flyrant then Overruns back to the safety of the Tyrant Guard, while
its stranded brood brother uses Encircle to flit back into reserve. It’s a good
strat guys, you heard it here first.
Owen scored a lot of points this round, but my big guns are
all still operative and my flier is about to come in. Time to kill some bugs.
Asuryani Turn 2, 54:28
That process starts on my left flank, where the Fire Dragons, Dire Avengers and both Falcons begin their sweep across the board.
Time to kill some Pyrovores
On
the other flank, I line up one Fire Prism, the War Walkers and the Crimson
Hunter to take shots at the Harpy and Carnifex, while in the centre my big
Swooping Hawks unit and Baharroth come out to play.
Lots of big guns aimed at the big bugs
Shooting starts against the Pyrovores, with the Fire Dragons
teaching them the real meaning of fire by immolating one. A second is whittled
down by shuriken fire from various places, but the third proves irritatingly
hard to kill. It survives all the rest of my shuriken, a couple of stray Hawks,
and even the pulse lasers on the Crimson Hunter before I finally aim all of a
Falcon’s guns at it to secure the objective. Urgh, those things are so tough.
Elsewhere, the firepower of my other Falcon manages to injure the central Carnifex, before the big Hawks unit opens up and blows it away. Guide and Jinx work really well on 40 S4 shots!
I love my Swooping Hawks. Such a busted unit, but so fun to use
The Harpy is hammered by my Fire Prisms, which Link Fire and drop it to two wounds even through Catalyst.
Fire Prisms hit so hard when they connect
I don’t really want to shoot my War Walkers at it, but thankfully
Baharroth steps up and blows it clean from the sky. He’s apparently trying to
make up for my poor decisions.
Baharroth is B for Broken
Finally, the bright lances on the Crimson Hunter and War
Walkers slam into the final Carnifex, but some low rolls for damage sees it
sneak by on a single wound. Still, I’ve killed several more monsters and
basically crippled Owen’s ability to hit back at me. To add insult to injury,
Baharroth darts in, wounds the Flyrant, and then flies away. It’s like Encircle
the Prey, but free!
Annoyingly, I don’t RND this turn because I threw away my
small Hawk squad to get Encircle last time, I needed my big one to shoot, and
my other infantry are all in the same quarter. That could become a problem.
Tyranid Turn 3, 69:28
Well, at least Owen didn't score a 12 this turn
It’s now pretty clear how this game is going to go: Owen is
likely to be tabled or close to, but may be able to get far enough ahead on
points that I can’t catch up. The key to doing so will be to keep some assets
alive over the next couple of turns to slow down my scoring and stop me taking
all the objectives. To that end, Owen basically abandons the right side of the
board entirely, retreating everything except the Neurothrope and the Reaper
Tyrant to deep within the left flank. He does still make sure to keep proper
screening, with the Hormagaunts in particular really hampering my ability to
get Hawks or Baharroth into his half.
The Swarm retreats
In the centre, the Neurothrope tucks itself into a corner, successfully completes Warp Ritual and prepares to give itself for the good of the Swarm. The Maw-Claws Flyrant comes down near the Tyrant Guard, while the Reaper surges forward to charge my Warlock and CTM Fire Prism. The Fire Prism is cut to pieces, but yet more Fate Dice see the Warlock survive.
The Warlock lives!
The Flyrant
briefly contemplates sticking around and denying me my home objective for a
turn, before deciding that it isn’t worth sacrificing a TtL target. So it
Encircles, going back up into the sky. Isn’t it fun to see such excellent game
balance in both armies?
Owen doesn’t get Stranglehold this turn, significantly, but
he does get another couple on the Tertiary to set a massive 41-point gap for me
to close. It looks bigger than it is, because he’ll probably start losing TtL
points soon, but I’m pretty scared I won’t have enough time to get there.
State of the board at the start of my Turn 3
Asuryani Turn 3, 69:43
31 points to catch up, yikes
To that end, it’s go time for everything in my turn. I
expect that whatever Owen has left will hit me pretty hard on his turn, but I
don’t have time to go slowly here. So everything speeds up, with all my big
guns getting line of sight on the Hive Tyrant, Tyrant Guards, Carnifex or
Pyrovore. The two exceptions are my Dire Avengers, who hold down the left two
objectives, and the Swooping Hawks, who RND in my quarter in a weird line
formation. I need them to be outside 6” of the halfway line, but still capable
of jumping to the other side next turn to RND that quarter.
The Aeldari swoop in for the kill
In the Shooting phase, my War Walkers split their fire between the Pyrovore and the Carnifex on one wound. The flamer-beast is obliterated, but the Carnifex passes its 6+ save to survive the volley!
I suppose I've done the same thing to Owen often enough this game
The
Tyrant Guard aren’t so lucky, being obliterated by my Falcons with ease. This
leaves two Fire Prisms and my Crimson Hunter Exarch all staring down the lone
Hive Tyrant. Things look good, but a combination of the Transhuman strat, poor
hit rolls and Catalyst sees the monster survive on three wounds. Damn!
Transhuman makes a big deal when you're shooting S14 shots
Baharroth once again makes up for it though, by shooting a
Zoanthrope from across the field then leaping into combat with the Warriors. Using
a single Fate Dice he successfully lands seven hits and six wounds to
obliterate the leader-beasts and leave Owen’s home objective undefended. I
contemplate leaving him there to deny him Tertiary for next turn, but
decide he is too infuriating to lose. Owen is not happy to hear this.
Baharroth denies Owen some critical points
Finally, one of the Falcons sneakily charges into the
Neurothrope, using the pile-in and consolidate moves to swing itself across the
halfway line and into Owen’s quarter to score me a big Engage. We decide
neither of us are interested in rolling out the attacks of that particular
combat and end my turn there.
The Falcon 'tap and spin'
That scoring gap has narrowed a lot. All I need is two more big turns and I should have this. Maybe.
Tyranids Turn 4, 75:43
Owen initially gets given an 8 on Primary before we remember that Baharroth stole his backfield objective
At the start of his turn, Owen has the Flyrants, a tied-up Neurothrope, the Hormagaunts, Zoanthropes and a crippled Carnifex. So this turn is pretty brief, basically just consisting of the Maw-Claws Flyrant, Carnifex and Zoanthropes moving to hit my Crimson Hunter, while the Reaper Flyrant drops in to attempt a charge on one Falcon.
Tyranids try and do some final damage
There’s also some cheeky Smite action
from the Neurothrope, which combines with the last two Spore Mines (hiding from
Turn 1!) to chip 5 wounds onto a Falcon. Huh.
Surprise!
Elsewhere, the Carnifex hits and wounds with all of its HVC shots to badly damage my Hunter, and the rest of the Tyranids nearby easily bring down the plane.
More effective shooting than the Harpies managed all game!
The Maw-Claws Flyrant uses Encircle to disappear again
after finishing the job, but the Reaper Flyrant is unable to make its charge
into the Falcon. 9” charges are fickle! Owen contemplates rerolling it, but
decides the Encircle is a more important use of his last CP.
Sometimes it just be like that
Without Stranglehold this was a meagre haul of points for
Owen, but the gap is back out to 32 points. Let’s see what I can do about that.
Asuryani Turn 4, 67:67
This gap is feeling more achievable
The Swordwind sweeps in for the final push. The War Walkers just manage to get line of sight to the Carnifex's tail and blast it, inflicting a whopping 13 wounds to make up for all their failed attempts so far.
The great downside of the Tyranid codex is that everything has tails. It makes getting LoS so much easier!
The surviving Fire Dragons disembark and evaporate the Zoanthropes.
Fusion shots: still good against things with invulnerable saves
Incidental shuriken fire helps Baharroth to sweep Owen’s objective clear of Hormagaunts. Pulse lasers and bright lances blast the Reaper Flyrant, although it manages to cling to life thanks to Catalyst.
Aeldari sweeping in to exterminate the Tyranids
Then the Fire Prisms open up, and the Tyranid
leader-beast is obliterated.
Fire Prisms claim another victim
The Catalyst saves are good, but not enough
The sole survivor of the assault— aside from the Flyrant
waiting in Strategic Reserve— is the Neurothrope, which I charge
again to tie up. It withstood a surprising amount of firepower this turn
without failing a single save, but it’s also trapped in a futile combat away
from the objectives.
Asuryani dominate the field
The devastation I meted out this turn has taken the scores
to dead even, as mine rose and Owen’s fell. In reality, the game is now won,
and Owen just gets one last chance to try and deny me some points.
Tyranids Turn 5, 67:67
That single chance is to drop the Flyrant into my backfield,
charge the Farseer (and Baharroth, who’s jumped back to the objective to be a
pain), and thus stop me scoring Tertiary in my final turn. Owen goes for the 9”
charge, fails, rerolls it and fails again. It’s a heartbreaking end to a
valiant effort from the bugs.
The final moment
Asuryani Turn 5, 62:84
In my turn I obliterate the Flyrant, score a bunch of Primary and Tertiary and get a big Engage.
Last TtL target goes down
I attempt to RND with my Fire Dragons in the final quarter, but can’t roll under their squad number to max that Secondary.
This is my punishment for sacrificing those Hawks earlier
I also fail utterly to damage the Neurothrope, who at the end
of the game is still just hanging out in the centre, totally unharmed.
Every time I hurt it, it just healed itself back up again!
Still, at the end of the game it’s a fairly solid Asuryani
victory of 84:62!
I pulled it back at the end, but that felt far too close for comfort
Post-Game Analysis
That game felt like an absolute race against the clock. Over
the first few turns I was terrified that the Tyranids were just going to blast
me straight off the board. Then, even once I felt confident that I was winning
the attritional battle, I suddenly realised quite how big the scoreline gap
was. Had I been forced to hold back for one more turn before I committed, I
think I would have never caught Owen.
That game was really decided by the blunting of Owen’s
initial alpha strike, and then the speed at which I took his big monsters off
the board in the following two turns. From there I had a massive materiel edge,
and just needed time to convert it into a score lead. I had that time, but only
just. A few minor swings in Owen’s favour (the Harpies killing anything,
the Maw-Claws Flyrant getting Onslaught and making its charge, even just a few
models dying a bit slower) and I don’t think I would have had the momentum to
make that final push in time to win me the game.
Both lists honestly felt super strong, and I’m not sure what
either of us would really change about them. The Behemoth list is far
better-rounded, with all the durable ObSec in the world supporting plenty of
firepower, mobility, psychic shenanigans and combat. The Hormagaunts were
pretty critical for their added screening, and really seemed like a worthwhile
swap for a Warrior unit. The Pyrovores again proved their obnoxious durability;
I don’t think a list totally built around them is great, but a couple of units
to throw onto objectives is amazing. The lack of the second Maleceptor really
hurt, but the extra Carnifex and Pyrovores was probably worth it. Maybe. If
either of us was to take Tyranids to a tournament tomorrow, this is what we’d
run.
My list, on the other hand, felt super tailored to the
current metagame. That much high-quality shooting (10 lance shots, 6
super-melta shots and 6 Prism Cannon shots) felt incredible, and the mobility
and resilience was a lot better than I’d expected. Being able to drop down two
Falcons and totally overwhelm Owen’s right flank was what let me start scoring
points, and the list’s capacity to reach across the table and kill what it
wanted to was crazy. I like the tweaks I made to it (basically swapping an
Autarch and lots of upgrades for the psykers and more Hawks); I think the Hawks
really shore up the horde matchup a heap, while giving me a better TtL option in a lot of games. And against the rest of the current
high-durability meta, all that firepower really shines.
Being able to turtle up for several turns then break out like this in the lategame was awesome
I do think that if I ran it again though, I would water it
down a little. The big guns were great, but a few small units to grab
objectives would have really helped me score points in the mid-game. The
Crimson Hunter was fun, but he could easily turn into a Ranger squad to let me
take a Patrol for more slots, then a pair of Vypers and another War Walker to
give me more throwaway chaff. I’d be losing one pulse laser, but gaining so
much flexibility for it. Even just swapping it for the Rangers and another
Falcon would retain relatively similar firepower, while giving me some expendable
objective grabbers to RND or move block anywhere on the board.
Maybe if I had more chaff I wouldn't have had to use my big Swooping Hawks unit for RND twice
I hope you enjoyed seeing this more unconventional take on
the Aeldari, I really enjoyed trying it out. And all credit to u/Stormcoil’s
friend for the core list idea, it’s an incredibly unique build. When the meta
is full of nails, bring hammers and nothing else I guess! I also hope you
enjoyed seeing Tyranids lose, it’s something we both took some joy from. They’re
feeling pretty oppressive at the moment, and I think that’s showing in some of
the battle reports I’ve been writing recently. But hey, turns out they can have
bad matchups after all! The meta is saved!
They didn't just lose, they were basically tabled!
Let me know in the comments what you thought of the game,
and the lists in particular. What matchups would you be scared to face with an
Aeldari force like this one? Is Behemoth the best Hive Fleet, or is the
efficiency of Leviathan just too good? Are Tyranids so meta-warping that
anything less than full blown lance-spam is doomed? I’m always keen to hear
from you.
Until next time, may your opponent always fail their Onslaught casts!
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