Competitive 40k tactics and Battle Reports with the Tyranid Codex

Monday, July 23, 2012

7/21 RTT 1850 Game 1 vs. SM

Well I made it to my FLGS approximately 2 minutes before the RTT started on saturday, and had barely unpacked before first round pairings went up.

My list for the game (and the next two as well!)

Swarmlord!
1xTyrant Guard (the idea here is to use the SLs majority toughness if I get Iron arm, which sadly happened only once for the RTT)
Flying Tyrant, 2x Scytals
2x3 Hive Guard
2x Venomthrope
20 Hormagaunts (Toxin and Adrenal)
19 Hormagaunts (Toxin and Adrenal) *I'm really OCD about unbalanced squads, 19 feels wrong...*
2x10 Termagaunts
2x Tervigon (Catalyst and Onslaught)

My Opponents list:

SM:
Vulkan (warlord)
10 Combimelta Sternguard (with the big V) in Pod
2x Flamer/MulitMelta Tac squads, with Meltabomb sarges in Pods
Ironclad with Melta and heavy flamer in Pod
Land Speeder with MM and HFlamer

BA:
Captain with chainfist/LC in Termi armor
5x Assault marines in Pod (with captain above)
Libby Dread in Pod
Fast Vindicator

Psychic Powers:
Swarmy:  Iron Arm, Life Leech, Endurance, Hemorrhage
Flyrant: Iron Arm, Life Leech
Tervigon 1: Iron Arm, and crush and shockwave from Telekinesis (after getting IA, I rolled to see if I could get Telekine shield, which is freaking amazing for Nids.)
Tervigon 2: Endurance, Life Leech, Iron Arm

Warlord Traits: Two equally useless things (Both objective based)

Mission: Dawn of War deployment, with Kill points (Purge the alien maybe?)

Thoughts: I hate kill points with a passion, but at least Drop Pods should make it easy. Every Mission should be objectives... My opponent has a very "Balls to the Walls" approach and favors DSing armies, his list isnt a surprise. He also has a huge fear of gaunts, as in our last game he deep struck 10 TH termies in front of my army and took over 150 poisoned attacks in the face.

I get first turn (I chose to, so I could get Iron Arm off before he hit the ground, you can see I rolled well and got it on all 4 Beasties!  I can maybe even kill the two units he would probably start on the board for an early win.)

Deployment: I blob up in the center of my zone, he puts the Vindicator and LS out of LOS (lol... Hive Guard surprise!)

Turn 1 Nids: I blob up in the middle, with gants in reserve, and run into the center of the board with my Hormies spreed out on my flanks so he cant DS in too close, and so flamers will hurt less. Iron Arm everything, and then my two squads of HG each are on flanks as well, but fail spectacularly to kill either the LS or Vindi. My Flyrant has flown and run into a ruin and run, so is very close to the Vindi and has a 4++ cover save.

Nids: 0 SM: 0

Turn 1 Marines: I smile inside as he Deep Strikes his Libby and Ironclad dread close to me. His 10 Stenguard go right next to the Flyrant in melta range and deploy in Combat Squads. His Vindi moves up 12 gets a hit on the Swarmlord, and Im out of Venomthrope range (stupid me...) The Tyrant Guard is killed as a result. He gets first blood due to that. He then unloads Meltas into my T8 Flyrant, and despite needing 6s to hit, he gets three hits and wounds, and I fail 2 saves. I then fall on my ass and take another. His other combat squad fires all 5 meltas and toasts his last wound.

SM: 3 Nids: 0

Nids turn 2: Wow, that hurt more than I thought, but I think I can recover. One Hormagaunt Squad gets up close to the Sternguard combat squad without Vulkan, the Swarmlord runs at the Libby Dread, and I send a Tervi after the Vindicator. My other Tervigon in my back lines and runs at the Iron clad but is too far this turn to charge. I do Iron Arm all over, and I think I fail one with a perils on the back Tervi. Hive Guard Smash the Vindicator and the Land Speeder. My entire Left Flank collapses in, getting far from the Ironclad while the Tervigon gets in range to intercept it next turn. I then make a HUGE rules error and use Warp Speed on my Swarmlord (he doesnt have it!) and then charge the Libby. However, I dont believe this altered the game. I already struck first, and didnt need the fleet reroll. For the extra attacks, I got 1, and shook it twice. Lets say the one attack I shouldnt have had was a damaging one, so it has two hull point left instead of one (shaking does nothing in CC) This has no actual effect on the game, as you'll see next turn. Anyways, the Libby does a wound back. The Tervigon mulches the Pod the libby dread was in, and my Hormagaunts rape the sternguard but only consolidate one inch... crap. The other squad and vulkan look mad.

Nids: 4 SM:  3

Marines turn 2: An epic fail in Drop pods, none show up. He has few units on the board, the Ironclad tries to get at the Hormagaunts but is out of range to charge after flaming two. A few drop pods stormbolter a gaunt or something. Vulkan detaches and flame some of the Hormagaunts, then the sternguard shoot some ignore cover round and kill a bunch. Vulkan decides to assault even though he's 11" away, and to my fury he makes it. I wound him once and lose 3 Hgaunts. The Swarmlord then explodes the Dreadnaught 3 times in Close combat, ( instantly killing it regardless of any hull points from the last round of CC, which is why I dont think the Warp Speed cheat on my part mattered. It was still a bad mistake to make, however.)

SM: 3 Nids: 5

Tyranids turn 3: both of my Termagaunt units are in, and kinda huddling up in my back field, but spread out so any drop pods will have to be far to my right or left. My left Tervigon who was going after the Ironclad drops back to shepard the gants, as my one that just killed the Drop Pods is in easy range to do the job. The Swarmlord runs towards Vulkan, as does my other Hormagaunt brood. Iron Arm all over, but the stupid one in the back Perils and fails AGAIN. Sigh. Hive Guard pop the Iron Clad and damage the Sternguards Drop Pod I think. The Tervigon then charges and kills the Ironclads drop pod. The swarmlord charges Vulkan but is out of range, the Hormagaunts make it and I manage to wound him 14 times. Amazing rolls on his part leave him alive, and he cuts the brood he had been stuck with down to one model.

Nids: 7 SM: 3

Turn 3 SM: He gets his two tac squads in, one deepstrikes by my back gaunts, flaming and doubletapping to kill one brood, the other is at 9 models. The other deepstrikes right by the vulkan combat, next to a Hive Guard brood in ruins. He flames and double taps, which wipes them after the Sternguard combat squad shoots some 2+ poison shots or something. Vulkan kills the lone gant and then dies horribly. (+1 for kill the Warlord)

Nids 9: SM: 6

Turn 4 Nids: The Swarmlord and my front Tervi go up towards the 10 man squad and Sternguard, as do my freed up Hormagaunts. Overwatch kills a few Gaunts and I roll poorly to only kill a few marines, but lose a few in return. The Swarmy perils but passes Iron Arm, the back Tervi finally doesnt peril and charges the freshly Deep struck Tac squad that killed the gants. She kills 2 and takes a wound from Krak grenades.  My surviving Hive Guard brood take the Storm bolter off of a pod.

Nids: 9 SM: 6

Turn 4 Marines: His last pod comes out behind my Tervi in combat. He jumps out his captain next to her for an assault next turn, and the assault squad jumps out to pistol a few gaunts out of the 9 man brood. His sternguard charge the Hormagaunts and kills them all, although I whittle down the tac squad first. They are at 4, while the Sternguard has 5 models. My tervi challenges the melta sarge and makes him step out, then kills a grunt and loses another wound (she's at 2)

SM: 7 Nids 9

Turn 5 Nids: I charge a Tervigon into the depleted tac squad, and maybe kill one but take wounds. The other Tervi fails Iron arm and kills a marine or two. My gants shoot the assault marines and kill one maybe. The swarmlord was out of range to charge anything, and Hive Guard do nothing sadly.

SM: 7 Nids: 9

Turn 5 SM: His captain charges the Tervi and in a challenge kills her, only to die at the same time to a Smash for Str. 10 attacks. His marines pistol and kill the last Termagaunts, and his Tac squad consolidates closer. The Tervi is taken down to two wounds by Krak grenades after the Sternguard also charge her.

SM: 9 Nids 10

GAME SO FAR: Oh boy, I have 6 models on the board... I have 2 Venomthropes and 2 Hive Guard huddling near the Tervigon combat, which the Swarmlord will soon join, and he has an assault squad and most of a Tac squad about to charge up through my lines vulnerable units. If the game ends, he has line breaker and a tie.

Turn 6 Nids: Swarmlord charges the Sternguard and kills a few. The Tervi kills a Tac marine, theyre at 3 models left. Swarmie is down to one wound at this point, from grenades and random perils and maybe a storm bolter or something... not sure how that happened. My Hive Guard again dont kill a drop Pod. My locked Tervigon spawns a ton of gaunts who high tail it towards his deployment zone, giving me linebreaker.

SM: 9 Nids: 10

Turn 6 Marines: Between pistols, stormbolters and the tac squad going full auto, he kills the Venomthropes. In combat I kill a few more marines, I'll be done with them next turn no question.

SM: 10 Nids: 10

The game is a dead tie again if it ends... yikes...

It doesnt!

Nids turn 7: I kill everything in the combat and consolidate away, the Swarmy gets T8 thank god, F U bolters! Hive Guard shoot and charge the assault marines in front of me, tieing them up with T6 wounds.

Nids: 12 SM:  10

SM turn 7: He needs to kill the swarmlord, if he does its a dead tie. Im out of range though to charge, and he cant touch me with bolters. He throws a krak grenade but cant do it. The Drop Pods shoot my Tervi but cant wound her enough to punch through the 3+. Hive Guard and assault marines are locked.

FINAL: Tyranid Victory! 13-11 (+1 to each for linebreaker)

Wow... one game into the tournament and I'm exhausted. Drop Pods just got sick with flamers and 6" deployment. Losing the Flyrant early hurt a lot, he is a boss flying around eating things usually. MCs are awesome when you use their powers fully ( I forgot a few times here...) and I now hate krak grenades. But at least you can challenge the meltabomb sergeants out of the way. That was a bloody battle, I thought Id have an edge with him deploying so close, but he did a great job of culling the horde.

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