Can Eldrad's powers of foresight defeat Hive Fleet Kraken?
Outside of the Tyranids, the other big ‘winners by omission’ of the Balance Dataslate were the Asuryani. They were the only faction in the existing Top Four that didn’t see substantive nerfs, and the decline of indirect fire is probably a net positive for their fragile Aspect Warriors. So I decided to test them out, while Owen took over as Hive-Tyrant-in-chief. Can the Aeldari do what their Harlequin siblings never could?
Hive Fleet Kraken
Less Carnifexes than last time, but a lot more Pyrovores
Patrol
Winged Hive Tyrant with Maw-Claws, lashwhip and bonesword 190
Neurothrope with Synaptic Tendrils 100
3 Warriors with deathspitters and dual boneswords 75
3 Zoanthropes 150
Maleceptor 170
2 x Carnifex with heavy venom cannon, scything talons and
enhanced senses 240
Vanguard
Winged Hive Tyrant with One Step Ahead, Reaper of Obliterax
and lashwhip 190
3 Venomthropes 105
3 Pyrovores 90
3 Pyrovores 90
2 Pyrovore 60
2 x Harpy with heavy venom cannons 340
Total: 2000
Craftworld Ulthwé
Lots of tricks, lots of firepower, and so much mobility. All the Aeldari classics
Patrol
Eldrad (Warlord) with Guide, Doom and Will of Asuryan 145
Baharroth 140
2 Warlocks on foot with Quicken/Restrain 40
2 x 5 Rangers 130
2 x Fire Prism with vectored engines 340
2 x 5 Warp Spiders 200
5 Howling Banshees, Exarch with mirrorswords and Piercing
Strikes 105
5 Striking Scorpions, Exarch with biting blade and Crushing
Blow 105
Outrider
Farseer with Weeping Stones, Executioner and Convergence of
Fate 90
Warlock Skyrunner with Jinx/Protect 60
3 Shining Spears, Exarch with paragon sabre, Khaine’s Lance
and Heartstrike 125
10 Swooping Hawks, Exarch with Phoenix Plume 180
6 Windrider Jetbikes with scatter lasers 150
2 x Vyper with scatter laser 80
2 x D-Cannon 130
This list is basically a classic Asuryani force adapted to a
world with neutered indirect and dominant Tyranids. It has a strong psychic
contingent, lots of nigh-untargetable shooting in the Warp Spiders, Swooping
Hawks and Windrunners, and a solid combat punch. The only especially
controversial picks in this list are the 2 D-Cannons and Fire Prisms. The
former seem like they’ve been hit by the indirect nerf, but I think 2 lone
Platforms should still be scary enough to justify the investment. The Fire
Prisms have been largely rejected by the community, but the ability to hide one
while edging the other just into LoS, absolutely nuke a big target with Linked
Fire, then Vectored Engines to safety seems super worthwhile in this meta. My
fingers are crossed that my four big guns will be enough to deal with Owen’s
wall of monsters.
Mission and Secondaries
Tabletop Simulator has a lot of awesome boards on it!
Fittingly enough, I’m facing Pyrovore spam in a burning
library. This couldn’t be more thematic if we tried! We’re playing Tide of
Conviction, which is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, Owen is much more keen
than I am to be taking objectives in my half, so adding extra Primary points
for doing that is unfortunate. On the other hand, being able to scoop up a
potential 8 extra points in the final turn seems excellent for my plan of ‘hang
back and survive the early game’.
Engage/Bring it Down/RND v Stranglehold/Warp Ritual/Grind
For Secondaries, I’m as spoiled for choice as ever with Aeldari. Engage
seems like a much safer bet than Stranglehold on a map where Owen can hold
three objectives from out of LoS, and Bring it Down is likely to be worth 9-12
points if I don’t get tabled. I contemplated a Warpcraft Secondary, but decided
that the Shadow in the Warp was too risky and I’d be better off with RND. I’m
not scoring 45 off my Secondaries, but 30-40 seems pretty plausible here.
As with mine, Owen’s first two choices were pretty easy.
Stranglehold is awesome for Tyranids, and Warp Ritual is pretty reliable too.
The big choice was between To the Last, Grind Them Down and Assassinate. Without
a big blob of Tyrant Guard, TtL just felt too risky, especially in light of my
D-Cannons. Assassinate was very tempting, but Owen ended up deciding against it
because it couldn’t be maxed and Baharroth is a nightmare. Even if he crushes
me, it’s still pretty plausible that Assassinate caps at ten here. So Grind was
the choice, with Owen hoping his durability and lower unit count would pay off
against my MSU Asuryani.
Deployment
Aeldari pretty well-hidden
My deployment is pretty unexciting. Both the Ranger squads
go into Strategic Reserve, while one Warp Spider squad is sitting in the
Webway. There’s a Fire Prism and Vyper on either flank to give me options,
while my characters and jetbikes are hanging out in the middle. Everything is
in cover, and safe from everything by the flyers.
The wings on those Harpies make them a bit challenging to hide
Speaking of the flyers, Owen’s main difficulty is that there’s no way to deploy both of his Harpies entirely out of LoS. If I didn’t have the Fire Prisms then that wouldn’t matter, but as is he risks me picking up a key model pretty cheaply. He contemplates chucking it into reserve, but decides he needs to take the risk and hope he goes first. Otherwise, the Pyrovores are spread across the front, with the Carnifexes anchoring the left flank and all the medium stuff preparing to stage behind the central LoS-blocker.
Tyranid Turn 1, 16:10
Owen has three main goals that he wants to accomplish this turn. First, he moves his central castle up, ready to threaten me from the middle of the table and score Warp Ritual.
Lots of scary 'Nids in the middle of the board
Owen’s initial roll to cast the action is a triple-one, requiring a CP reroll that does force it through on an eleven. Wild times.
Is that, like, super-Perils?
Next, the Maw-Claws Flyrant speeds across the table with
Onslaught and the Kraken Adaptive Trait to smash into my Striking Scorpions.
Finally, the exposed Harpy speeds up the table to bomb my left Fire Prism then
try and gun it down.
Surprise!
That part of the plan goes excellently, with my skimmer taking 23 damage and basically disappearing off the table. The Hive Tyrant is much less successful, however. I successfully pass two key invulnerable saves to keep my Exarch alive, allowing him to swing back and wound the Flyrant with all of his attacks! Of course, Owen managed to pass 6/7 4++ saves, but it was worth it for the look on his face.
The heroic Exarch lives!
Even better, because he’d failed to kill everything in engagement range, the Flyrant was unable to use Overrun to return to the safety of the central LoS blocker. Encircle the Prey still let him escape the consequences, but now the Harpy was stranded in my backfield. We’ve been playing under the assumption that Encircle can only be used once per turn, which probably isn’t actually true, but has been ruled that way by some tournaments. This is the first time that that’s been a properly big deal, and boy was I glad to see it.
As some salt in the wound, the Exarch passed his morale
check to leave Owen at one kill for Grind.
Asuryani Turn 1, 14:16
My turn is largely just a matter of ticking off Engage, doing some chip damage and bringing down that Harpy. The first task is achieved by a Vyper on my left flank, which darts up to the line, shoots the Harpy then Battle Focusses to the other side.
Aeldari maneouvre to counterattack
With Doom and Jinx on the Harpy, it falls pretty quickly to the Windrunners, Warp Spiders and remaining Fire Prism.
Asuryani are very good at killing single targets
Otherwise, the Swooping Hawks dart forward to pick off a Pyrovore, before Skyleaping back to safety in my right building.
Swooping Hawks up to their usual mischief
Baharroth does a similar job, killing three Spore Mines before preparing to charge the Flyrant. Before he can do that the D-Cannons open up, causing a massive ten wounds even through Catalyst! I’d been stuck with a bunch of auto-hits on Strands of Fate, and it turns out that D-Cannons make great use of those. Baharroth now has a good chance to finish off this Tyrant in combat, but unfortunately can only get a single wound through. This could still be enough, but Owen CP rerolls to save his centrepiece model. Boooooo! Unperturbed, Baharroth teleports back to my lines, content that he’d made Owen waste a CP basically for free.
Baharroth is unable to seal the deal
Not the most dramatic of turns, but I’d denied Owen Grind
and done serious damage to two of his biggest assets.
Tyranid Turn 2, 14:33
Scores starting strong for the bugs
Unfortunately, one thing I’d forgotten to do was Battle
Focus my Warp Spiders. That meant that the characters they were meant to be
screening—
most critically, Eldrad— were now exposed to a Harpy strafing run. The big bat
managed to wound Eldrad with its Spores (dropped, advanced and exploded as
normal), before unleashing a torrent of fire at him. The ancient Aeldari took
two wounds from the stinger salvo, but was able to take advantage of the three
6’s I’d rolled for my Strands dice to laugh off the HVC shots. Eldrad survives!
Not my best bit of positioning
Elsewhere, Owen decides he needs to be aggressive this turn. Going first as he is, he knows that a cautious game is likely to favour me, as I can stop him getting Grind and score high on Primary at the end. So out come the Maleceptor (zooming up the field with the Kraken strat), both Carnifexes and all the Pyrovores. The crippled Flyrant is healed a wound, before Owen decides that it’s a dead bug walking and might as well be traded.
Tyranids surge forwards
Psychic is a thoroughly mixed bag. Warp Ritual goes off easily, but the Neurothrope’s attempt to cast Onslaught (necessary to get the wounded Flyrant into combat) is pitifully poor.
Almost Perils again!
This forces Owen to choose
between spending his last CP to reroll it, or Encircling the Prey to save the
exposed Harpy. At last he decides that he needs this charge more than he needs
the Harpy to survive, and it will at least soak up shots that could be going at
the Maleceptor. So Onslaught goes off, as well as Catalyst on the Maleceptor.
The big psychic bug proceeds to make up for the otherwise disappointing phase
by evaporating the Striking Scorpion Exarch and a massive 6 of the Swooping
Hawks! A failed morale check sees another two flee, leaving me suddenly down a
critical unit.
Being able to do this much damage through a wall is a huge deal against Asuryani
Thankfully for Owen, the Flyrant makes its charge and slaughters my Farseer, although it fails to put any wounds on my D-Cannon.
At least the D-Cannon is still alive for round two!
Alongside my sacrificial Vyper (gunned down by a
Carnifex), that means Owen has successfully killed two units this turn. Looks
like I can deny him Grind again…
Asuryani Turn 2, 31:33
In my turn, I’m again trying to whittle down the big Tyranid monsters surging into my deployment zone.
Asuryani aim to counterattack hard
That starts with one D-Cannon, the Fire Prism, both squads of Warp Spiders and the Windrunners successfully taking out the Harpy in a barrage of firepower.
Harpy and Hive Tyrant both taken out
Next up is the Hive Tyrant, which
falls to a simple Smite from my Warlock Conclave. Then the Maleceptor, which
suffers 5 wounds from the other D-Cannon before being hacked down in combat by
Baharroth, the Shining Spears and the Howling Banshees, who also tag the
Zoanthropes just to tie them up a bit.
The Maleceptor falls
These three kills are pretty massive, removing some of
Owen’s biggest threats and really swinging the game in my favour. There are
still a lot of Pyrovores running around, but at least now most of the big bugs
are dead.
In smaller news, one Ranger squad shows up on in Owen’s left
corner, ticking it off for both RND and Engage. They’ll die next turn, but
that’s fine.
Tyranid Turn 3, 31:46
After that turn, Owen decides he has no choice but to keep his foot on the pedal and hope he can do enough damage to keep me on the defensive. To that end, the returned Maw-Claws Flyrant speeds forward to attack my Fire Prism, while the central Pyrovores advance forward 6” (thanks to the Kraken Adaptive Trait, which has quietly been coming in clutch all across the board). They manage to nudge into my central LoS blocker, ready to incinerate some bikes.
Tyranids launching another massed assault
The left Pyrovores also move to wipe out my Rangers, in a move absolutely no one finds surprising.
PoV: You're about to be hit with 4D6 flamer shots
Finally, the right Carnifex and the
Venomthropes are both flung forward to try and take out my melee units in the
centre.
Psychic goes well for Owen, with the Flyrant receiving Catalyst and the Pyrovores Onslaught, while one Shining Spear is blasted apart by the Zoanthropes.
They're mad that their Maleceptor friend was taken out
Shooting sees three Windrunners and my Rangers die to the
Pyrovores, then it’s onto combat. The Shining Spears are forced to fight last
by the Venomthropes, who succeed in wiping out four of the Banshees before they
can swing. The charging Carnifex is unable to put down the Exarch, however, and
her attacks alongside those of the Shining Spears manage to wipe out the whole
Venomthrope squad! I love that the Asuryani can play Hero-Hammer with their
basic squad leaders.
Moments before my Exarchs wipe a whole squad between them
Elsewhere, the central Pyrovores get onto my objective but are unable to kill the D-Cannon to contest it, while the Flyrant effortlessly destroys the Fire Prism but fails to even hurt the two surviving Swooping Hawks! Aspect Warriors are so much tougher this edition.
Flyrants hit so hard!
On the downside, those
two Hawks are only enough to contest that objective, so I’m still going to be
getting a 0 on Primary next turn. Ouch.
Asuryani Turn 3, 39:49
The key goals this turn are to start disrupting Owen’s backfield, take out that Hive Tyrant and clear off my home objective.
The Tyranids are thinning out, but I'm still pretty trapped in my backfield
That third task turns out to be pretty easy, with the Warp Spiders alone being plenty sufficient to wipe the two Pyrovores. The D-Cannons both target the Hive Tyrant, and I can’t believe my luck as I get two wounding hits through. One CP reroll and I’ve done 12 damage straight up! Sadly, Catalyst brings me back down to reality by saving 5 of those wounds.
The D-Cannons strike again!
This theoretically should have left the
Tyrant on 3 wounds, but we forgot that he’d taken two from the Exarch earlier.
Alas. It wouldn’t have mattered in the end though, as Owen heals it at the
start of his next turn. That’s a mild spoiler for the fact that, despite Doom,
the rest of my shooting does exactly nothing to the Flyrant, and nor does
Baharroth’s shooting and combat. The Phoenix Lord does dart off to Owen’s
backfield though, ready to be an absolute menace next turn.
Speaking of the backfield, the surviving Shining Spears charge onto Owen’s central objective, slaughtering the Neurothrope and scoring me an extra 2 on Primary.
The Exarch alone does 5 mortal wounds this combat!
Sadly, I make some really impactful
mistakes in the centre. I opt not to charge the Zoanthropes with my Warp
Spiders, losing the opportunity to tie them down for no good reason, and I also
forget to fall back with my Banshee Exarch from her multi-fight. The enraged
Carnifex promptly rips her apart, losing me an excellent combat piece for zero
gain. Lovely.
Pictured: several dumb moves
Still, I’ve denied Grind once again, my final Ranger squad
arrived to score me Engage and RND, and things are generally looking a little
hairy for Owen. He’s ahead on points, but if I can stay within reach I can
hopefully pull it back at the end.
Tyranids Turn 4, 39:58
I'm behind on points, but not by as much as I'd expected
By this point, the game is becoming a bunch of separate
skirmishes, as each of our forces begin to spread out and be whittled down. Owen
needs to take advantage of this turn to cripple my mobility and clear me off as
much of the board as he can.
To that end, the Zoanthropes I’d foolishly left unengaged leap merrily over the wall, charging my Warp Spiders while blasting them with a brutal super Smite. Thankfully my Ulthwé saves are on fire though, with only the Exarch succumbing to the eldritch onslaught.
This is what I get for not charging them in my turn
The Rangers in Owen’s
back-right corner and the two Swooping Hawks in mine are less lucky, however,
with both squads being immolated by angry Pyrovores.
Oh well, at least they RND'ed
Elsewhere, the Carnifex and Flyrant (freshly regenerated by three wounds) both dive into my backfield. The Carnifex shoots at my D-Cannon, only for its 6++ to come in clutch and save the Platform. The Tyranid monster is then rebuffed in melee, as Eldrad uses three Strands dice on saves. More amusingly, the Elf even manages to hit and wound with all of his attacks, reducing the Carnifex to 5 wounds!
Local Elf too prescient to die
The Jetlock fighting the Hive Tyrant is less lucky and is consumed, although one Windrunner and the other D-Cannon do manage to survive the combat.
My backfield is looking increasingly contested
Finally, in
Owen’s backfield my Shining Spears are wiped out by the Warriors and the other Carnifex,
bringing a sad end to their rampage.
The heroic Exarch falls
Eldrad’s heroism aside, I lost a lot of models that round.
Hopefully I can hit back hard on my turn.
Aeldari Turn 4, 52:58
Considering that I'm going second, that scoreline is actually pretty close
Things are looking pretty grim after the carnage of Owen’s
turn, but I still have enough on the board to do some damage. To that end, my
backfield reorganises itself. Both Support Platforms fall back from their
combats, while Eldrad stays engaged with the Carnifex in order to cast his
crucial spells. That starts with Smite to further whittle down the Carnifex, followed
by Will of Asuryan to let my undamaged Warp Spiders finish RND while chipping
some wounds off the Hive Tyrant. Alas, Doom is successfully denied, and without
it my shooting doesn’t manage to bring the beast down.
This Hive Tyrant just refuses to go down!
My other squad of Spiders fall back from the Zoanthropes, zipping onto Owen’s centre objective and inflicting 5 wounds onto the Warriors with their shooting.
Bloody skirmishes happening all across the field
This is followed up by Baharroth, who manages to wipe the rest of the squad with his shooting and combat to leave me in control of both of these objectives.
Baharroth goes in for the kill once again
Also on this flank, the Vyper and last Windrunner both zip
onto my left objective to tie it up, with the Vyper charging the Pyrovores to
prevent them shooting next turn. Owen has been out of CP most of this game, and
he really felt it in this moment!
Finally, in my backfield, the Carnifex fighting Eldrad had
been reduced to a single wound by my Smites. Determined to save my leader, the
lone Warlock charges in, swings twice and manages to score the final wound! It
probably won’t impact the game that much, but it’s a truly heroic moment.
Tyranids Turn 5, 52:65
Can I close the gap in the final turn?
Owen's backfield
My backfield
For Owen, this final turn is all about taking away the assets
that I can use to score at the end. He starts this process in his backfield,
shooting at Baharroth with the Carnifex before it thunders into combat. I elect
to burn my last CP on rerolling Baharroth’s failed save, only for it to fail a
second time! That opens the way for the beast to scythe me apart in combat, as
I fail one more save and lose my Phoenix Lord.
He had a good run
That tale of woe also continues in my backfield, where the heroic Warlock is evaporated by the Zoanthropes as they string themselves between my objectives.
The monster-slayer Warlock falls at last
The psyker lives just long enough to see Eldrad, with no 6’s on
my Fate Dice to protect him, be torn apart by the angry Hive Tyrant. Astonishingly,
however, the Support Platform in the same combat again survives the
attacks allocated to it, passing another crucial 6++ to fight on. This D-Cannon
has spent 3 turns in combat with Hive Tyrants and it’s still unwounded!
Eldrad is finally slain
That brings Owen’s final turn to a close. He’s set me a
Grind tally I can’t possibly match, but if I can snatch enough objectives back
I could still win this.
Aeldari Turn 5, 72:68
That process begins in my backfield, where both Support Platforms fall back yet again from combats. Then the nearby squad of Warp Spiders, still miraculously unhurt, use an auto-6 on their advance roll to string themselves out between my two central objectives. While their shooting is ineffectual, they successfully reclaim both with careful placement.
Warp Spiders and Support Platforms secure my home objectives
On my rightmost objective, the Vyper falls back from its ineffectual combat with the two Pyrovores to let the last Windrunner shoot at them. But while one Pyrovore is reduced to a single wound, the objective is still a draw at the end of the game.
Finally, in Owen’s backfield my final four Warp Spiders are able to string themselves out just enough to hold both of his central objectives. While they are unable to do any damage to the Carnifex with their guns, by flipping both objectives they earn me a massive 6 additional VPs!
Heroic Warp Spiders claim all the points for me
Coupled
with one of my Support Platforms managing to secure me Engage, I’m able to pull
out an incredibly tight 72:68 win!
Post-Game Analysis
Wow. That was one heck of a game. I finally managed to beat
the Tyranids!
Obviously in any game that close there are always going to
be a thousand ‘what if?’ moments. All it takes is one more Warp Spider dying
earlier in the battle and I can’t flip those critical 4 objectives at the end.
On the flipside, if that Hive Tyrant had just died when he ought then I’d have
had so much more backfield to fight back with at the end. What a game!
If Owen's Catalyst saves hadn't been quite so good, this could have been the game
Strategy-wise, I thought both of our plans were pretty
solid. Going second on this mission, I needed to keep my army intact to pull it
back at the end, while Owen needed to deliver a knockout blow or get so far
ahead on points it didn’t matter. He very nearly did that, with my final army
being composed of 9 Warp Spiders, two Support Platforms, a lone Windrunner and
a Vyper. That’s less than 300 points worth of models! Still, it was just enough
to get me the 12 on Primary I needed and deny Owen any Tertiary on the final
turn.
In saying that, I think this game is super different if I go
first. I probably do a bit better on the attritional race, as Owen likely loses
one Harpy to the Fire Prisms before it can even move, but losing that capacity
to flip 4 objectives on the final turn would have been a huge impediment. Grind
would also have been much harder for me to deny, and I imagine Owen would have gotten it for
certain on at least one of those turns. Going second was definitely a big swing
in my favour.
As far as lists go, I was super happy with mine. I felt like
I had the right amount of psykers, my combat units proved their importance, and
my mobility was absolutely clutch at the end. Most interestingly, the
controversial shooting units I added in proved to be absolute stars. One Fire
Prism obviously died Turn 1, which was rough, but the other did really solid
damage for the next two turns. And the Support Platforms were incredible! They
stripped around half the wounds off the Maleceptor, almost one-shot one Tyrant,
then might have killed the second if Owen hadn’t spiked his Catalyst saves. Their
new -1 to hit when firing indirectly made some difference, but ultimately I think
I’ll be fitting some more of these into my list. 6 D-Cannons anyone?
Owen’s list didn’t feel quite as good. Well, it was new Tyranids, so it was super strong, but it felt like it had some problems. To start with, the
lack of Tyrant Guard made a huge difference this game. Not being untargetable
was a huge deal, forcing him to really commit a turn earlier than he perhaps
would have liked. Similarly, lacking the second Maleceptor was significant,
letting my fragile troops just survive in a way that wouldn’t have been
possible otherwise. On top of all that, while Kraken was actually pretty awesome
and came in clutch all game long, the lack of ObSec on the monsters made a massive difference. I
was constantly darting in to flip objectives held by a big stompy monster,
which couldn’t really do much but stare at me angrily. The Pyrovores were
really awesome, and they did so much work for Owen, but at the end of the day I
think I’d rather the Behemoth list I ran last time around. It wasn’t quite as
tough, but at least it was locking in the objectives it was holding.
I couldn't have pulled off these moves against a Behemoth list
I had an absolute blast this game, and I hope you enjoyed
reading it. Let me know in the comments what you thought of the game, and the
lists involved. Am I wrong about the Fire Prisms? Are the Pyrovores good enough
to make up for what they’re costing the list? Is Lurk access too obligatory to
give up? I’m always keen to hear from you.
Until then, may your Fate Dice always give you triple saves!
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