Arctic Apocolypse II

So now lets talk Forces and the Tactics that were talked about for team Vikitim before hand.

First off, the big stuff!

The first bit of info we knew, was that team Bug had at its desposal no less then 3 Heriophants.  If your not sure what that is let me clue you in, they're the really....really big bugs. On top of this we were told they had access to a myriad of the other smaller biotitan/forgeworld stuff.

so what did team vikitim have?  nuttin.....

From there we decided to borrow a Warhound titan, and i decided i would buy a super heavy tank for my guard.  Later, i decided i would buy three super heavy tanks for my guard =)  After all 3 is a lucky number right and lets face it when do you really have enough warhammer?

Of course now we had to discuss what our plan was to actually kill these things with their T9 W10 2+/6+ stat line with Regeneration.  Oh and now that we bought big expensive armored things, how were we going to keep those alive and not have them get eaten as well?

I settled on the Steel Fury Formation for my purchase, thats 3 Baneblade Super heavy battle tanks.  The thinking is that their very usable in any situation, and while against a Biotitan they are no match, in future games against armoured targets they would prove even more useful.  The combined fire rule for the formation was especially cool in my mind.  It allows a +1 on the damage chart (make sure you use the Apoc Reload book, not the older individual sheet available on GW's site, it has Cat. Damage chart which is far less useful) for each baneblade cannon shot that rolled on the table previous that turn.   So with 3 Baneblades i could get a +2 on the table for the third shot if all went well, this means on a 4+ i get a chain reaction result, which lets you roll again with the same modifiers as before O.o   This turns the Baneblade from a lackluster superheavy killer to a very threatening little group.  They still are far better against none superheavies, but the point is it increases their already ubiquitous role.

Against everything in the nid army except the Bio titans my Baneblades would reign supreme, slinging Pie plates of death and heavy bolter shells as they saw fit.

Steel fury offered 2 other bonuses that would actually be useful against Tyranids.  It offered the anti assault Ground shakes, that forces a LD check at -2 to anything assaulting my Blades, and the Command tank while mobile allows them all to ignore gun crew shaken.  Both attractive bonuses as Tyranids like to assault, and like to Glance amour.

I also choose them because of the rules for 212 Arethusa, a named Baneblade tank whose rules have been updated in the IA update to the new guard codex.  It's BS 4 which is almost worth the 100 points alone, can twin-link a single weapon a turn, has a pintle mounted Heavy Bolter, and turns Driver Stunned into gun crew shaken.  Alone i would call that last bit a disadvantage....Baneblades don't NEED to move, but they do need to shoot, however combined with the Steel Fury formation =)  we just knocked two possible results on the damage table into the trash bin.

212 Arethusa

His Word (Command Tank)

4Grt Justice

Now that i have these 3 beautiful super heavies, i need to make sure they don't get massacred by Bio-Titan shooting on turn 1.

Heirophants and Dules, have BS 3. Which means right off they should miss half the time, bringing the hits from one titan from 16 to 8.  At Strength 10 against a baneblades front armour of 14, 4 of those 8 should do something.  Of the 4 we'll say 1 glances and 3 pen....thats enough to easily cripple or even destroy a Baneblade in one round of shooting from one Phant.

The Shield Generator Asset, i decided this was my asset.  It provides a 4+ Inv. save to models within 12 inches, for vehicles they get to count as obscured which is the same 4+ save.  Because my Tanks need to stay together anyway this would be great.  If we add this in above it reduces the Phants shooting down to 2 hits that do something to a Baneblade instead of 4.  2 hits is a whole lot better....and turns my tanks into mean fire soaking machines.  On top of this Tyranids lack something important in Apoc size battles, the ability to fire stuff up and over.  They used to have biovores with bio-acid spores but not anymore, and in fact they don't even have the ability to chuck em up anymore.  So my Shield generator would be nice and safe nestled in behind the middle Baneblade.


Ok, so:
Big Pie Plates of Bio Death  (check)
Insurance Policy on said Pie Plate Slingers  (check)