I've been assembling

Well, since writing my last 2k list, which I think I'll be staying with, I've bought a lot of the models I need... This weekend I picked up a Tyranid battleforce (It was partially assembled, and irresistably cheap...) and a Tervigon. Since the 32 varied gaunts were already assembled, I had to break off all of their arms to be replaced with Fleshborers. Let me tell you, that's a chore. Every single model had stubs from the old arms lefts in the sockets, so when I attached the new arms sunday they looked pretty bad. This morning though, I spent my entire stock of Green Stuff smoothing over gaps and making the arms look unbroken. Yikes. I still have a few guys whos opposite arms wouldnt reach the gun, so I'll have to either attach somes caws so it doesnt look wierd, or connect them with wires... not sure yet. Otherwise, I assembled my third and final Tervigon, and I converted the three warriors from the force into a pair of Biovores and the Tyrant Guard. The Bios have warrior torsos, and converted Genestealer legs and lower bodys, I think it looks pretty good. I glued the barrels of Barbed stranglers on their backs and added pipes from various bioweapons, and some green stuff. Overall, they are size wise very close to a Biovore, just a little slimmer looking. Definately worth it, considering I got the whole Battleforce for less than one finecast Biovore!

I now have the full list assembled that I plan to use for BeakyCon 2012, however I plan on buying even more gnats, as I dont have too many gants left. After the 49 that will be used in my list (the GT is 1999, not 2k, so I dropped one) I only have 23 gants left to account for the spawning of 3 Tervigons. I'll have to buy at least two more 12 man boxes, maybe even three. Since BeakyCon is a fully painted tournament, I have a LOT of work to do!

Here's what I have painted:

Flyrant
Dakkarant
1x Tervigon
20 gants
6 Hive Guard
2 Zoanthropes

What I still need to paint:

2 Tervigons
2 Biovores
1 Tyrant Guard
52 gants

What I need to buy, assemble, AND paint:

~24 gants. maybe even more...

Yikes. The big day is October  6 (and 7th), I have a feeling I'm going to be painting gants right up until the last minute... I should get a Tervigon done this week, then I'll have to spray 32 gants and the Biovores, plus the last Tervigon. It's pretty daunting, but it'll be worth it to bring that many painted models to the table!

2000 point considerations

Given the 1850 list I played with at the most recent RTT this weekend, I have yet more thoughts on how to improve my army as a whole. Since 2000 is the main points level of my local meta, and of most large tournaments, here's my current theoretical 2000 point list...

Flyrant with Twin Devourers
Tyrant with shell, devourers and old Adversary, +1 guard with whips
2x3 Hive Guard
2x Venomthropes
2x20 Hormagaunts
2x10 gants
2xTervigons, with 3 powers, Toxin and (1xAdrenal)
2x Biovores

Ok, now let's look at the theoreticals, plus the results of my last RTT.

Both Tyrants performed very well overall. Hive Guard and Tervigons (plus termagants) are staple units, and are good enough that they're going no where. Now, let's look at Hormagaunts...

I love Hormagaunts. I played with them in 4th edition when I was learning the rules. My first 8 man brood was the first unit of 40k that I ever painted. Theyve since featured in every competetitive list I've written since then, and always in larger numbers. Compared to the humble termagant, they are vastly superior in CC especially when you add in Toxin and Adrenal. They are however, far more expensive, and now, after 4 and a half glorious years of wargaming, I must question their use. 40 of them, in 2 broods, costs a total of 400 points. With the total shift towards shooting, I think that Tyranids need to shift towards survivability through numbers. With all the upgrades they can get, any unit I have will wreck in close combat, the difference between Hormagaunts and termagants is no longer enough to warrant the cost increase. Let's look at what I could get, for 400 points:

One Tervigon, with Toxin and Adrenal, plus Adrenal on another Tervigon.

THIRTY termagants. I would redistribute them among my existing squads, adding ten to one of the ten man squads, and giving me one more 20 twenty man squad. This gives me 50 termagants in 20+20+10, as opposed to 20+20 Hormagaunts and 10+10 gants. Oh, and a Tervigon, plus 30 more points!

With 30 points, I'd probably drop whips on lone guard, and with the 35 points Id drop the two Venomthropes for two Zoanthropes. Obviously, Id have to swap out their powers. Currently, the Venoms help against massive shooting, and they make the hordes more survivable. As it is it's too easy to give MCs cover, theyre not needed for that anymore. If I'm facing a high volume of fire army, I'll swap out on Telekinesis in hopes of Telekine shield. If it doesnt work, I have FIVE more multiple-power Psychers who can each throw a roll in. Otherwise, I'll be rolling Biomancy. Endurance, Enfeeble, and Iron Arm will help out the army a lot, while Warp speed or haemorrhage I would swap out for Smite for some nice Ap. 2 shooting and Synapse. If against a vehicle heavy army, Im talking spam, I would go telepathy for the chances of Objuratio Mechanicum, and puppet Master. Both are great against vehicles!

What the Tervigon/gant replacement does to improve my army: I become far more survivable to shooting: Gants are as tough as termagants. My army loses 10 t3 6+ w1 models for one T6 W6 3+ model that has three psychic powers nad will be FAR better supporting the army. The gants also become weapons nearly as potent as Hormies, with guns, and with the potential for FAR more of them to pop up. With now three Tervigons on the table, I'd be far more comfortable spawning in the first and subsequent turns. First turn, I'll spawn with them one at a time, if I spawn out with one of the first two I'll probably hold off on the third. If it's a multiple objective mission I'll want to hold out a few of them for late game spawning, a favored tactic of mine. If it's relic, table quarters, two objectives etc. I may just flood the board completely, which is now an option.

What the Zoanthrope replacemant does to Improve my army: I now have far more tactical flexibility, by rolling on powers. Land Raiders? Hold them. My other options I covered above, but I now have more "adaptability" to the enemies army, as Tyranids should.

However, I have 25 points left. I think I'll throw Crushing Claws on one of the three, so that I have a little extra Ap. 2 Close Combat punch.

The final list:

DakkaTyrant with shell, OldAdversary and a guard
DakkaFlyrant
2x3 Hive Guard
2x Zoanthropes
10 gants
2x20 gants
3x Tervigons with Toxin/Adrenal
2x Biovores

There's only one problem...

This list looks amazing. It's also one of several you could find on the internet. This lists feels almost too spammy to me. Where as Tyranids, fluffwise, can justify spam, I still dont quite like it. Then again, looking at the top lists of GK henchmen, IG, and scythewing, I think this is something I can't have any qualms about. I'm building up for a 2000 point GT in October, and I'm aiming to score. In the Imperium mech spam meta that seems top, I want to show how good Tyranids can be. I think that I'm going to have to go for the dirtiest, cheesiest Tyranid list I can build. (With the Nids online reputation, not many people will ever, ever call them cheesy though) Still, I always enjoyed bringing units no one else brought, like my Hormas and Venoms. Overall, if I can do well in the tournament, I'll probably bring them out of "retirement", but for now my Venoms and Hormagaunts may be out of my competetive lists.

Please, comment! Think I should be more diverse in my army? Tell me! Think Hormagaunts trump termagants? Tell me! Any and all advice and critque is welcome! Feel free to tell me I'm stupid for being squeamish about considering spam in a tournament...

8/18 RTT Game Three: 1850 vs. Wolves

Game 3 rolls along, and I'm 1-1, a victory now will probably get me to 3rd or 2nd just due to the small amount of players. My opponent is a Space Wolf list, and boy oh boy does he look fun.

Rune Preist: Jaws otWW, LL
Rune Preist: Jaws otWW, Murderous Hurricane
Rune Preist: Jaws otWW, something else.
4x 7 man Grey Hunters with Wolf Standard, and attached Preist and Terminators, 2 in Drop Pods (the preists are on all but one of the Drop Pod squads, which wont come in turn 1)
4 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armor with power Axes
5 Grey Hunters with flamer in LasPlas back
3x Long Fangs with missiles
3 Rhinos on various things.
5 scouts

Mission: The Relic, pitched battle, straight from the rulebook. The Relic was a ball from Blood Bowl. Our mission sheets instructed us to fight over the Relicus of the Adeptus Athleticus. Despite it being preseason, there really is nothing like summer football!

Warlord traits: I re roll reserves, his is useless.

Psy Powers:
Flyrant: Life Leech, Endurance,
Tyrant: Enfeeble, Smite
Tevigon1: Endurance, Iron Arm, Life Leech.
Tervigon2: Endurance, Smite, Warp Speed.

*Note: I wont mention psychic powers. Throughout the game, he passes every single "Wolf Runes of Wolfiness Wolfing" 4+ roll, all game.

He wins and takes turn 1.

Deployment SW: The Razor and rhinos make a line right up front, only the razorback has a squad inside. Theres a central terrain peice with the Football, and two Jaws squads, one on each flank. The last Jaws squad will DP in first turn. 3 Long Fang squads sit on terrain peices in the far back. yay.

Deployment Tyranids: I spread out my Mcs, to spread the shadow, but I'll probably lose one. Hormagaunts on each flank, Hive Guard, Venoms and gants fill the center of my army. The Flyrant is in reserves, because of my Warlord trait.

Turn 1 Wolves: Everything advances or Pods in. He hits his scatter, and deploys 12.1" away from my Tervigon. His rhinos rush up towards the relic. Jaws goes off, missiles fly. Both tervigons fail tests and drop ( I fail every single Deny the witch roll this turn). Missiles spatter the Venomthropes after snake eyes on cover. Frag missiles kill 7 hormagaunts in cover on my left, Jaws takes down a Hive Guard, and the recently Deep Struck squad rapid fires 6 gants away.

Turn 1 Tyranids: Ow. Ow. Ow. That hurt. Hive Guard survivors blow up the razorback. Hormagaunts assault the recently disembarked Drop Podders. 17 Gaunts swing, I cause 19 wounds. He pops his Wolfy wolf standard, and takes 19 saves on the Wolf Guard. With re rollable ones, he passes all. (I mightve snuck a wound onto one Hunter and killed him) He swings back. 6 Grey Hunters, 18 attacks after counter attack, and he inflicts 15 wounds. Holy Shit. The 17 gaunts are scattered and completely whiped after the preist and wolf guard swing. My other Hive Guard shoot the disembarked 5 man squad, kill one and then assault. It's a lock, but Im contesting the relic. The DakkaTyrant guns down the front Wolf Guard in one of the Jaws Squads.

Lets take a moment of silence here: My casualties over the first game turn
2 Tervigons
24 Hormagaunts
6 gaunts
a Hive Guard
2 venomthropes

Lets total this shall we?
810 points. After one turn, Im down 810 points, and I'm really pissed off. I've killed two Grey Hunters, a Wolf Guard and one Razorback.

Space Wolves turn 2: Missiles fly, my Tyrant laughs them off, as well as Jaws. His Drop Pod comes in and kills a handful of gants. His squad that Podded last turn runs up to assault the Hive Guard, but the combat continues to be a push. His wolf priest had seperated, but jaws did nothing.  His two jaws squad are moving slowly towards the relic thanks to terrain.

Tyranid turn 2: My left flank collapses inwards. The Hive Tyrant dakkas the recently deepstruck squad, as do the gants. He loses the Terminator and is downed to 5 models. Hormaganuts come busting through terrain, and after fleet get a 6, 5, and a 5 for charge. They smash though and kill the 4 man Grey Hunter squad. Hive Guard not locked kill the seperated preist.

Space Wolves turn 3: His two rhinos both move but immobilise themselves, the third is on my far left and out of the game essentially. He still got one of the rhinos close to the 5 man squad first, they embark. Jaws squads close in, and missiles bounce of the Shellrant. His scouts outflank on the far right, and are way too far to have an effect. In assault his Wolf Guard goes down, as does the last Hive Guard. He's down to three models.

Tyranids turn 3: I wrap the immobilised rhino with gants and kill it, he is forced to emergency disembark, theyre out of the game for a while now. The Dakkafex didnt do much besides kill a few guys and wound the preist in a Jaws squad. In assault, the Hormagaunts finish off the Hunters and consolidate onto the Relic, I wrap it so he cant claim it next turn. My Flyrant finally comes on, and nails the Jaws squad the dakkafex shot, killing three including the Wolf banner. I hate those things! That squad is down to a wounded preist, terminators, and two guys strung out way back, they'll have to get back into coherency.

Space Wolves turn 4: This may be the last turn, and he realizes he can't het the relic. All three Long Fang squads shoot the Flyrant. Between 12 missiles, 6 hit somehow and tear the beast down. Damn! His mostly unhurt Jaws squad finally crosses the terrain and rapid fires into the Hormagaunts, killing a few and knocking them off the Relic. He runs his terminator towards the relic to try and block the survivors but only gets 3". His wounded preist charges the Hormagaunts, I murder him and consolidate.

Tyranids turn 4: I move one Hormagaunt up onto the relic and tell him the game is over. We have 6 minutes left, and he presses for another turn, so I tell him that if he wants another turn, then I'll have to finish out this one, by moving the rest of the unit, running, and shooting and assaulting him with a Hive Tyrant. He realises that there wont be time if I do that, and accepts that it's over.

Victory... Tyranids? 3-1 (Relic vs. First Blood)

Wow. I actually won. After the first turn, we both assumed the game was over. I think he let up a little bit, but I kept on playing balls-out until the end. Starting turn 2, I just swamped the Relic, trying to do anything to keep him from picking it up. I even assaulted with Hive Guard! In the end, killing the Wolf Banners is huge if you can shoot them out. Between Look out sir and rolling every wound one at a time for mixed saves, my opponent had very slow turns thanks to those Terminators, which actually might have helped me. If there was a turn 5, I think I would have still claimed the relic. The Hormagaunts would run away, Id shoot and assault, probably kill one of the Jaws squads and maybe the other, even if he killed the Hormagaunts I had two (albeit small) gant squads nearby to jump on it. This was a nailbiter, and probably the biggest comeback I've made in a 40k game!

Final Tournament: The other Nids player lost to GK, who took 1st. I took second place, and Tyranids took 3rd from the other player. That was utterly draining as an RTT, but I have a few ideas that I'll post soon about improving my army list.

8/18 RTT Game Two: 1850 vs. GK/IG

Round two of Saturday's RTT, and I'm drawn against the GK player, with a smattering of IG allies. This guy is one of the better players I've seen, and beat me in our first game two weeks ago in the last round of an RTT. Although a smaller game, we're both running similar lists to last time. Here's his:

Coteaz
10 Purifiers with 4 Psycannons (5 in a Psyback)
5 man Strike Squad (in reserves)
3 melta henchmen in a chimera
3 plasma henchmen in a chimera
2 Psyflenaughts
Dreadknight with Doomfists and Heavy Incinerator

Primaris Psyker
10 Plasmavets in a Chimera
Manticore
10 Plasmavets in a Vendetta (with Primaris)

The Mission: 5 Objectives, we each have one that is in the center of our Deployment Zone, but 12" up. Deployment is Dawn of War (the old Pitched Battle) The objectives end up being placed in a "C" shape. We each have two  that are along the front of our deployment zone (12" from the edge) opposite eachother, and then there is one that is in the middle of the board but to my left, and to the left of the other Objectives. Secondary are Linebreaker and First Blood.

The Board: In the middle of the C of objectives is a large ruin, other than that there is little terrain scattered around. There is NO LoS blocking terrain sadly, but I'll live.

Warlord Traits: His is useless, mine is Stealth for Ruins. There's only one, but it may be useful!

Psychic Powers: Coteaz has a heavy Flamer from Pyro and the Divination that re rolls to hit. He's attached to the 5 Purifiers with 4 Psycannons. Yay. His Primaris gets Psychic Shriek from Telepathy.

Tyrant: Endurance, Smite
Flyrant: Enfeeble, Warp Speed
Tervigon 1: Endurance, Iron Arm, Life Leech
Tervigon 2: Endurance, Smite, Warp Speed

Pre Game thoughts: Well Objectives is a LOT better for me than Kill Points was in our last game, so hopefully I can pull this out. He's still a really good player though, with a lot of shooting. My plan is to move my army up as a whole into the large ruin, while Hgaunts sweep up the sides, and I'll try to use the Stealth Ruins for a 3+ cover. Late Game I'll go spawn onto his objectives for contesting, while my gaunt squads hide in the back on my two. I have more shooting with two Dakka Tyrants than last time, hopefully with my Hive Guard I can cull his Vehicle horde enough to beat him in attrition.

Deployment GK: His psyflenaughts and Manticore are in the far back, while everything else is deploying upwards. His psyback is in the center, flanked by the GK chimeras on each side. The meltahenchmen stay out of their chimera, and are behind the psyback. The Psycannon purifiers are ready to get in the Chimera. On the far left are the plasma vets. Still everything is very central, as are the objectives.

Tyranid Deployment: I deploy to meet him. My 4 MCs are grouped around the Venomthropes, (blocking LoS) with Hive Guard next to them, in Venomthrope Range. I deploy them as far forward as I can. I know they'll get shot, but they have cover and if I leave them back they'll still get shot by his higher range weapons, and  I won't be able to retaliate. Hormagaunts are on each flank, (in venom range thanks to a small string) and my 2 gant squads are on the two objectives in my DZ.

GK turn 1: The Purifiers embark and move up 6". No other moving, as he fires away. The Manticore wounds a Tervi, the Tyrant Guard and kills a Venomthrope. Other shooting, after some spectacularly bad saves, whipes out both Hive Guard Broods! Yikes!

Tyranids turn 1: Nothing much to do, besides charge! Everything advances and runs, the Flyrant gets up and Immobilises the Plasmavet Chimera. Other shooting glances the psyback twice thanks to the Dakkatyrant.

GK turn 2: Again, he opens fire. Now he's concentrating on the Flyrant (who has FnP) and downs him first shot, but otherwise he manages to leave him alive and with one wound remaining! The Dreadknight flames some Hormagaunts, but will be in charge range. The Strike Squad comes in and does nothing.

Tyranid turn 2: The Flyrant glides up, shoots the Chimera and assaults the Plasmavets. However, moving through Terrain he strikes last, and a random veteran rolls a 6 to wound. I fail my save in a very anti-climatic fashion. The Hormagaunts on my left advance and hit the Dreadknight. He passes a lot of saves and kills 4 between overwatch and his swings. The DakkaTyrant advances right up through the ruins, as do the two Tervigons and the Venomthrope. Shooting there is ineffective. Hormagaunts on the right continue there charge at the Purifiers in the Chimera, but are out of range to do anything for a bit.

GK turn 3: His shooting whipes the Tyrant Guard off and after everything in his army shoots, he finally finishes off the walking Tyrant. Even his two 3 man henchmen squads step up to take their shots.  As I pull him off, he asks me what the Red counter is where my Tyrant was. It was my Feel no Pain marker! D'oh! At this point I roll my Fnp for the last wound he'd taken, as we hadn't moved onto anything else yet, and it comes up a 5. Although I'd taken more wounds than I should have, I survive to fight on!

Tyranids turn 3: I spawn 13 gants out of my left Tervigon, no doubles, and they shoot and assault the Plasmavets, whiping them out. The Tervigon itself uses her Stinger Salvo to down the three plasma henchmen, and the other Tervigon kills the 3 meltahenchmen. My DakkaTyrant shoots the Strike Squad, and kills 3. He prepares to assault, only for them to fall back!

At this point, the only scoring units my opponent has left on the board are 2 fleeing strike squad members, but there are 10 meltavets in reserve.

GK turn 4: His Vendetta comes in automatically, and blasts the DakkaTyrant. I pass all three cover saves! Sadly, he doesn't survive the attentions of 16 psycannon shots... His other shooting mulches the 13 termagants Id spawned, 5 survive and fall back, after he targets and murders my wounded Tervigon, who had failed her Endurance check and was awkwardly lacking in FnP.

Tyranid turn 4: The Hormagaunts and my last Tervigon assault and kill the Purifiers chimera. I was just short of blocking off the rear hatch, but he managed to place a model 1" away and touching the hatch, so they all got out. The tervigon gets up to a mighty Toughness 9! The other gants rally and move up, shooting his two strike marines. One dies, and the other falls off the table! His last scoring unit is now the vets in the Vendetta. His dreadknight finally kills the last Hormagaunts, and is unwounded despite the massive amount of Poisoned attacks I had thrown at him.

GK turn 5: His vendetta goes to hover and drops the vets on the top right objective of the "C", they rapid fire into the hormagaunts and kill a few, but not enough. Shooting at the T9 Tervigon is highly, highly ineffective considering how much fire I took, I believe I have 2 wounds left? Other shooting, one of my two gant squads on my objectives falls back, the other holds at two models.

Tyranid turn 5: This could be the last game turn, I currently have a Tervigon, Venomthrope, and some Hormagaunts, plus two depleted gaunt squads in the back. My gants fail to rally and drop off the board, my Hormagaunts kill the Veterans, his last scoring unit. The Tervigon spawns 13 gants, who move and run to claim an objective. I only get T7 for Iron Arm sadly. The Tervi assaults and kills the Psyback. The Venom assaults the dreadknight but dies in a failed attempt to hold it up.

As it stands, Im holding three objectives uncontested. Both of his, and one of mine. If it ends, I have the game.

It doesnt. With 10 minutes left he insists on one more turn, I agree.

GK turn 6: With no scoring units left, he has to table me to win. First, one dreadnaught blows up the two gants on my objective. Next, the dreadknight flames the gants on his objectives and kills 6. His other dread and a chimera kill the Tervigon, whos death kills a few more gants. His purifiers open up and kill the last gants. His other Purifiers kill all the Hormagaunts in LoS, but I have 7 left. At this point, he one unit left to try and kill my Hormagaunts. His Primaris Psyker casts Psychic Scream, which as it's worded, you roll 3d6 and subtract the targets leadership. We got into a bit of an arguement as I wanted to roll the 3d6, as I thought it was a Ld. check, thinking of the Doom of malant'tai. We check the wording and it turns out he gets to roll it. He passes his check, hits at Bs. 3 and rolls a 15 on three dice, causing 9 wounds with no cover saves allowed on the Ld. 6 Hormagaunts, completing a tabling.

Victory: Grey Knights! Final Score: 1-0. He had scored first blood, netting the only point earned in the game by either of us.

Thoughts on the game: Wow, that was close. Brutally, obscenely close. In his last turn, I was highly surpriesed that he carried out a tabling. I didnt think he had enough firepower left to kill 4 units. He got really lucky with killing the Hive Guard early, and rolling so well on the Primaris late, but I had some luck in the middle with saves on my Tyrant. The fact is, this game went down to every single dice roll on turn 6. It was actually really fun for a loss, and I thought I had him once I killed every scoring unit he had. I think I made a few mistakes, one was assaulting with the Venomthrope.If he had just run up, Id have had a unit left my turn 6 and then I could have gotten Linebreaker for a draw on my turn 6. Also, when The Tervigon assaulted the Psyback turn 5, I positioned him poorly and got him within 6" of the gants, who I had purposely moved out of that range. I could have easily assaulted the Psyback without needing to get that close to my own guys. Overall though, there's not really much different I would have done. I killed a crap load of models in his army, including all 5 troops choices, plus 4 of his transports I believe. The game never really seems to end when ou need it to!

Ironically, I still have the most points! Despit getting 0, I had a total of 12, while my GK opponent now had 11. While we were laughing, the TO walked by, and informed us that final placings would use W/L record first, points second. Bummer. Still, amusing!

8/18 RTT Game 1: 1850 vs. Necrons

Drove up through a nice healthy rain on saturday, only to discover that there'd be a relatively small crowd for the RTT. There turned out to be 6 players, probably due to the aforementioned weather. Aside from me, (and my obvious Tyranids) we had a second Tyranid Player, who was running a psyker spam (2 Tervis 4 Broodlords 8 Zoanthropes) and an Ork, Space Wolf, Necrons, and GK/IG player.

My list for the day is as follows:

Tyrant with 2x Devourers, Old Adversary, Armored Shell and one guard
Flyrant with two Devourers
2x3 Hive Guard
2x Venomthropes
2x (20 and 17 man) Super Hormagaunt broods
2x10 gants
2x Tervigons with 3 powers

I ended up drawing first round against the Necron player. He was a very friendly guy, who had had to cut down his 2500 list last-second due to a points confusion, and so wasn't playing very competitively on the day. To the best of my memory, his list was as follows:

Special Character (Zandrek I believe, the one who takes and gives special abilities)
3 orb lords, each in a warrior squad
3 10 man warrior squads
8 ish Immortals with Gauss (Nemesor here)
2 Doomsday Arks
2 tooled out C'tan shards

Warlord traits were both useless.

Mission was one point per table quarter controlled at the end of each turn, starting turn 2. Secondary was warlord and linebreaker. Deployment is Vanguard Strike (always fun to set up...) 6 turns, turn 7 on a 4+.

My psychic powers:

Tyrant: Life Leech and Warp Speed
Flyrant: Life Leech and Warp Speed
Tervigon 1: Endurance, Smite, and one other (I wrote them down on the score sheet, which got turned in)
Tervigon 2: Iron Arm, Smite and one other (see Tervigon 1)

The board: I go first, and make my opponent deploy in a half with a massive LoS blocking building. I figure that if he wants to shoot me, he'll have to stay at the very front of his Deployment zone to do so! I'm using the impassable terrain as an Anvil to hammer his army with.

My Deployment: I deploy my three MCs very centrally, with Hive Guard and the Venoms right behind, both Hormagaunt broods on a flank each. gants hide in the back and are in two table quarters to start the game. My Flyrant is on the board, and hiding behind a LoS blocking soda can-turned-terrain.

His deployment: Arcs are on my left, with one warrior squad and the immortals in front, and the C'tan shards nearby. Two warior squads are on the right, and completely isolated from the rest of his army by the building.

Tyranids 1: Everything runs forward. Hive Guard down a few Warriors and blow up an Arc. However, I realise in my brief army rundown (He had never played Tyranids) that I forgot to explain the rules of Hive Guard ignoring cover. To this end, I give him his save for intervening terrain and he passes 3 of 4 5+ saves! his arc was glanced once, and is now very angry. The Flyrant swoops up and blasts his warriors, downing several who stand back up.

Necrons turn 1: He advances his C'tan, nothing else moves. Shooting wounds a Tervigon once, kills a few gants and does no real damage.

Bugs turn 2: I through the right side of my Hormagaunts up into a C'tan shard. Only a few make it, but I wound him twice with wonderful poison, he kills two back for a push. On the left my Hormagaunts are out of range to charge due to some inconvenient terrain I was slogging through. Hive Guard fire does very little sadly. The walking Tyrant downs an Orblord in the warrior squad. The Flyrant glides, dakkas and assaults the warriors. He loses his lord and a few Warriors but holds. I hold my own quarter, while the warriors with the tyrant contest the bottom right. His unlocked C'tan contests the top left, and his (top right) quarter I contest with the few gants I assaulted his C'tan with.

Tyranids: 1 Necrons: 0

Necrons turn 2: Little moving, more shooting. My tervigon loses another wound despite T9, and I lose a Hive Guard on the left. In assault my Flyrant whiffs and the Hormagaunts finish the C'tan. His other C'tan charges my wounded t9 tervi and wounds once, I fail to hurt him though. Table quarter status is the same.

Tyranids: 2 Necrons: 0

Tyranids turn 3: Left side Hormagaunts assault and kill his C'tan hitting my Tervigon, it explodes and kills 10!!!!!!! My other Hormagaunts run right under his Doomsday Ark (hoping he wont shoot me for fear of scatter) My Tyrant assaults the Immortals and kill a few, but he holds and they stand back up. (nemesor declined my challenge) The Flyrant kills a few warriors, they hold and get back up. (He has really good Reanimation rolls this game, but not quite the same luck with shooting.)

Tyranids: 3 Necrons: 0

Necrons turn 3: He has very few units with Targets that aren't locked. His Arks and warriors kill all but three Hormagaunts in the left squad, and he gets a dead hit on the right and vapes all but a few. In assault both Tyrants, walking and flying, kill a few guys who hold and then get up... annoying.

Tyranids: 4 Necrons: 0

Tyranids turn 4: I kill an ark, and assault the warrirors with Tervigons, who fall back off the board. In assault I finally kill the Immortals, but the Flyrant continues to stay locked with a measly 6 warriors!

Tyranids: 5 Necrons: 0

At this point my opponent forfeits. He has one Ark and one warrior squad not locked or dead, and the warriors have no target since the Tyrant is locked. We roll for the Tyrant/Nemesor combat (kill the Warlord purposes) and I kill him, collecting that point plus linebreaker. We looked at what would happen over the next few turns, and decided by turn 6 I would have had 12 total points, assuming the Flyrant continued to be held up and that his lone warrior squad would hide to contest his table quarter.

Final result: Victory Tyranids!

Thoughts: A very good matchup and a good mission for me, my list hard-countered everything he had through luck. My 12 points were the most this round. The GK/IG player got 10, and the other Nid player somehow got 2 points yet beat the Space Wolves, who only had one! I was really confused, until I realised that they had somehow gotten two turns in to a two hour period... Wow! I knew my next round pairing just by asking scores, I'd be playing against Henchmen spam, the same player who beat me in the final round of my last tournament. Stay tuned for updates, tomorrow brings a new Batrep!

RTT complete!

Had a great time today, one of the most fun (and nailbiting) tournaments I have played in a long time! I won't spoil this with my results, but in games 1, 2, and 3, I played Necrons, Grey Knights, and Space Wolves! Starting tommorrow I'll have Batreps up, see how I fair against the top armies of 6th edition!

Also, game two is a rematch against my round three opponent of my last tournament, and his dreaded henchmen spam. Wait and see how it goes!

RTT Today!

Going up to my FLGS today for an 1850 RTT. I'll be modifying my 1850 list slightly, in order to test out some unit's loadouts for comparison.

Flyrant 2x Devourers
Shellrant 2x Devourers, Old Adversary
1x Tyrant Guard with Lash Whip
2x3 Hive Guard
2x Venomthropes
20 Super Hormagaunts
17 Super Hormagaunts
2x Tervigons, Catalyst and Onslaught
2x10 gants

Whats different then last time is that both Tyrant options now have super Dakka! Hopefully this will help me out against mech spam and the dreaded flyers...

Battle Reports will be coming in the next few days.

Judgement Day: Changes to my 2k list

Ok, here's my over all thoughts (and changes to) the 2000 point list I brought to my last RTT. If you're reading this and haven't read the Batreps, I basically beat a Tau and Khornate CSM army, only to lose in a horribly embarrassing fashion to a GK/IG MSU spam army in a kill point game with first place on the line. Anyway, here's the list I brought:

Swarmlord +1 Guard
Flyrant with 2x Devourers
2x3 Hive Guard
2x20 Hormagaunts
2x10 gants
2x Tervigons with (1x AG) , TS, 3 psychic powers and Crushing Claws
6 Ymgarls

Ok, I tried out a few "new" units that I either haven't used before, or were new to 6th Edition for me. Here comes judgement day!


Start from the top!

The Swarmlord: Geez, I'm still not sure about him. He'll probably get his own "vs." article when I try out the Armored Tyrant a bit more, but for now I like the look of a DakkaTyrant, with Armored shell and Old Adversary. The increased range and less vulnerable to small arms fire/missile launchers will help. The Swarmlord actually has only survived twice in 6 games so far, and not at all last saturday. He's a bit too slow I think for a CC only monster, who's buffs are great but not quite worth what you pay. Plus, he's a huge fire magnet, and frankly too expensive considering that's 340 points for 7 wounds at T6 3+, and my Tervis cost around 200 for 6 wounds at T6 3+. So, for the purpose of refitting my list, lets just say that he is off the Island!

DakkaFlyrant: I have run a Scything Talon Flyrant since before 5th Edition came out, and boy do I love him. However, I ended up ripping off two of his arms and replacing them with the Fleshborer hives left over from the Tervigons. As much as it grieves me, the Dakka is staying on for a long time. He was a monster, drawing fire and shredding every target I pointed him at. For the 30 points extra, he is definately worth the cost. I even tossed in Preferred Enemy a few times for rerolling ones. Nasty stuff. So, he gets an A and will stay as he is!

Tervigons: Ok, they're not new, but the build I used was. Instead of the basic "psychic beast" (sub 200 points for 3 psychic powers) I was running all the bells and whistles. Adding crushing claws, Toxin and Adrenal ends up costing you the full cost of a Biovore in upgrades! I think for now that I'll be dropping Crushing Claws off of the Tervigons. The other upgrades are iffy. I'll hold on to them, but if I need points that's where I will go to drop them. Frankly, the Tervigon is too slow to warrant Crushing Claws, and I think will only see CC as a "mop up" unit, for when youve got a few gants and a few Grey hunters locked in combat, and you need that extra push. I have much faster and more deadly assault units when the time comes for hitting things!

Ymgarls: Yikes... I'm torn here. Honestly? They're not worth it. Tyranids are ALL about Synergy, and the Ymgarls played as a wild card. They did what they did well. Every game they came in and killed something, but that was just a unit trade off. I have plenty of killy things in my army! For an Elites slot, the price just isn't right. So what is? Venomthropes. These guys are great. I had a lot of people question their use in 5th, but I stuck to them, and they've served me well so far when I have used them. the cover boost is massive in keping everything else alive, which overall increases the killiness of my army by far more than a random Ymgarl assault could ever do.

Overall, I'm dropping a few things. Here's the tally:
Swarmlord-280
6 Ymgarls- 138
Crushing Claws (two) 50

Over all, this frees up a goodly number of points. From a 199 original total, this gives me ~470 points to play around with. Ok, here we go!

Tyrant: Old Adversary, 2x Devourers, Armored Shell
2x Venomthropes

This leaves exactly 95 points left to use in a 2000 point list. However, with the loss of the Ymgarls I dont have many "Backfield hitters". So, lets add... Biovores! Yes, no matter how badly they sucked in 4th edition, I see a lot of potential for these little guys. Quite simply, just drop them well out of LoS, or at the very least have them advance right behind some MCs. They can hit Long Fangs and heavy weapons teams, and all the other nasty shooters that Bugs hate, plus they're ready and waiting for the second your Hive Guard explode a transport and leave the poor guys clumped up and ready for templates. Even better, if they scatter too close to your guys, just remove the Spore Mine without an explosion! How awesome is that? Adding two of these is enough to throw Lash Whips on to the lone Tyrant Guard, which can certainly be usefull to assault into a unit and touch a character then challenge him, he's still Initiative 1!

Well, that's my daily knowledge bomb for you all. I'll be trying this list, and others like it, out a LOT in preparation for BeakyCon coming up in October. Yikes, that's soon!

RTT game 3 2k vs. Grey Knights with allies

MONKEYS!


Anyways, I find myself in round 3 of an RTT this saturday, on the top table taking my Tyranids against my Nemesis, the Grey Knight Henchmen spam.

I don't have a copy of his list, but it is roughly as follows:

Coteaz (warlord)
10 Strike GK in a rhino
3 henchmen with plas in a Psyback
3 melta henchmen in a psyback
5 man henchmen squad, (3 Jokaero) plus Coteaz in a Chimera
3 Psyfleman dreads
Vindicare

Primaris Psyker and 10 plasmavets in a chimera
10 melta vets in a Vendetta
Manticore

Mission: Dawn of War, Kill points (Crap!) and theres something special where the ENTIRE GAME is Night Fight! Holy bleep!

Psychic Powers:

Swarmy: Hallucination, Dominate, Haemorrhage, Warp Speed
Flyrant: Enfeeble, Endurance
Tervigon 1: Iron Arm, Warp Speed, Shockwave
Tervigon 2: Enfeeble, Life Leech, Iron Arm

I have and take first turn.

A note on the game:  My opponent informed me that "the Aegis" on his dreadnoughts reduces the Ld. by 4 when I target a unit within 12", including my own units. I check later and this is not true. However, this may have just been a mistake by my opponent, not cheating. Either way, mid to late game I start failing Psychic checks a lot. That's why.

Pre Game thoughts: Well, I'm not really sure how this will go down.  On the one hand, I'm playing against a cheesy army optimized purely for shooting. Normally I can deal with this, but it's Kill Points, the bane of my army. Normally I can deal with Kill Points, against a balanced list... this is a bad, bad combination for me. Night Fight could be my saving grace though. However, I then discover he has Searchlights on EVERYTHING. Woopsie. Through out the whole game, he basically targets a unit for no damage with a transport and then lights it up for the rest of his army. So Night Fight wont help me too much. I'm basically going to have to go right at him across open ground and hope I can get enough points to scrape a win...

Deployment Nids: Everything is in a broad deployment as far up as possible. The three MCs anchor the middle, and the Flyrant is on the far right out of most LoS. The gants are too easy kill points, I drop them in reserve, as well as the Ymgarls, who will come in a fortress looking thing in the top left. Most of my army is on cover from Ruins, plus Night Fight (note that I hadnt realized he had searchlights yet. It was on his list, I just kinda missed it.)

Deployment GK: His vehicles make a wall of pain. With ruins to the side of the Wall, I'll have to Zerg rush him sadly. Two dreads are on the fortress and one is behind the vehicle wall. The Manticore is behind the fortress, and the Vendetta is reserved. (Note that Coteaz is on the left of the Chimera/rhino wall. The vehicles are in a slight curve, (left to Right) first the two chimeras, then the Psybacks, then the Strike Rhino.

Tyranids turn one: Everything charges forward, with Psychic powers and running all over. Hive Guard blast away, I score two hull point off the not-coteaz chimera and I believe wreck the far left Psyback. First Blood, and I'm up a point.

Nids: 1 GK: 0

GK turn 1: Little movement: His shooting is surprisingly ineffective. His  Strikes move up and disembark by the Hormies, and blast away. First though, he shoots a Storm Bolter off the rhino at them and I'm suddenly looking at no cover. I lose over half the brood, but am still fearless. I lose a Hive Guard brood somewhere in there, and wounds on some MCs.

Nids: 1 GK: 1

Nids turn 2: Again, I advance while hugging cover. This puts me aiming slightly at the left side of his wall. Hormagaunts charge the Strike Knights, and we both lose several models. The Ymgarls fail to come in. Gants come in my back left corner, away from the fighting. They have no more effect on this game. Hive Guard whiff and I only get two Hull points off the strike squads rhino. The swarmlord Hallucinates the Strike squad, but it doesnt matter as theryre only pinned. The Flyrant roars up the side and finishes the job of wrecking the damaged chimera. I position one Tervigon to take the brunt of shooting and shield the others. She fails her psychic check for Iron Arm. Shit.

Nids: 2 GK: 1

GK turn 2: He opens up on my lines. Wounds all over, and I lose my other brood of Hive Guard to mass Psyfleman fire. The Tervigon I offered out as bait takes a lot of wounds but is a lot. His manticore drops the bomb on the swarmlord and a Tervi and I somehow roll two ones for my pair of  2+ cover saves. yay. In assault the Hormys and Strikes grind on, but I'm losing combat. Other shooting and the Flyrant drops on his first tes, at this point he eats plasma and dies.

Nids: 2 GK: 3

Nids turn 3: I advance more. The Tervigon whos wounded charges at the Strikes rhino but is short of the charge. (fails Warp Speed) The other Tervigon and Swarmy will be in charge range next turn but are now in cover. I hallucinate the Strikes, only for it be pinned again. (No effect on CC.) Ymgarls come in and trash the Manticore, but I lose the Hormagaunts in CC. The other Hormagaunts are advancing up the left to hit the side of the chimera wall.

Nids 3: GK: 4

GK turn 3: The coteaz chimera rumbles forward and the jokaeros switch to their Heavy flamer fingers. The Hormagaunts are cut down to 3 models in a firey hell. The plasma henchmen disembark and slay the Tervigon on the right, while the Strike squad does nothing. More fire pours in, and a psyflenaught kills a few Ymgarls, I go to ground there. At this point the Swarmy and Tervigon have 3 wounds each, and I have a few scattered Hormagaunts and two broods well in my backfield.

Nids: 3 GK: 5

Nids turn 4: Again, I advance. The Swarmlord charges the plasma vet squad and murders them (I think there's a Primaris here?), but he's in the open a bit too much, even though he's in cover. The three Hormagaunts run intio his deployment zone and way, way sideways. I get Iron Arm on the Tervigon and spawn 16 models, but Im out. The gants kill a guy off one of the 3 man henchmen squads (I only had LoS to one) and then they fall back. They roll enough to reach the board, but there are models directly in the way, and the movement around leaves them a centimeter short of death. Crap. The Tervigon fails her charge on the Chimera.

Nids: 5 GK: 5

GK turn 4: The Vendetta drops in, and shoots a wound off the Tervi. More fire drops the Swarmlord and his guard, and the Psyflemen drop the Ymgarls. Finally, those damn Jokaero flame the gants I spawned and murder them.

Nids: 5 GK: 9

Nids turn 5: I've lost and I know it, but I charge run at Coteaz' chimera anyway. My rogue Tervigon is the only thing alive and capable of doing anything at this point. Her cluster spines somehow explode Coteaz's Chimera and I charge. I issue a challenge to the Inquisitor, and kill him of course, but due to a failed Iron Arm (cough Dreadnaughts cough) he wounds the Tervigon once with a four and somehow passes his Psychic check, blowing her up.

Nids: 7 GK: 10

Gay Knights turn 5: He moves his Strike squad and runs enough to get them into my deployment zone for Line Breaker.

End Game: GREY KNIGHT VICTORY!

Ow... ow... That was bad. The final score looked close, but frankly he kicked the shit out of me. Ah well, it had to happen. As my first loss of 6th, that was brutal, and easily the most competetive list Ive played against. Although the Secondary objectives didn't determine who won, even if they had he would have won. This was a bad match up, but he really handed me my stuff. Even without that "Aegis" mistake on the dreads, it may have been a little closer, but Id have lost. If it was closer he could have targetted the gants and killed them for extra points.

I got all three secondary for the third time today, and got 6 points as a reward. (They were pointed differently as per the mission) I ended up with 6 points from the bonuses, for a total of 34 on the day.

Final look at the RTT: I came in 3rd, in a close finish. The winner was the GK player, who had 36 points, (2 wins one draw) and in second, at 35 points, was Necrons (also 2 wins one draw) My 34 points actually made me very close to doing better than my record, as 2 wins and one loss, which surprised me. I put my earnings into immediate purchases, and I picked up a Rhino and a can of Spray paint. I put these to good use and on Monday and I painted the rhino and one of my Tervigons, finally!

8/4 RTT game two 2k vs. Chaos

For my second game I ended up against the only other winner in round one, a very friendly guy with an (almost) exclusively Khorne army. For the record, I pronounce it Corn. Yep. Bloodthirsty breakfast cereal for the win!

Ok, here's his list:

Ahriman (warlord)
Chaos Lord with Mark of Khorne on a jugger and a Bloodfeeder. (Daemon Weapon, gives +2d6 attacks. Yikes!)
10 Zerkers
10 CSM with Mark of Khorne and Fist
7 CSM with Mark of Khorne and Power Sword
full Lascannon Pred.
Defiler
6 Summoned lesser Daemons
5 Terminators with a bunch of combi weapons, a Reaper, and Axes/Fists.
5 Havocs, straight metal models with one each of: Lascannon, Missile, Autocannon, Heavy Bolter
3 Bikers

My psychic powers:
Swarmy: (Invisibility, Haemorrhage, Iron Arm, Warp Speed)
Flyrant: (Endurance, Enfeeble)
Tervigon 1: (Iron Arm, Warp Speed, Shockwave)
Tervigon 2: (Enfeeble, Life Leech, Iron Arm)

Mission: 6 preplaced Objectives, one in the center of each 2x2 foot square for the RoB board. These are random points values(1 2 2 3 3 4) , which will not be revealed until the end of the game! Deployment is Hammer and Anvil. Fast attack are scoring, and one VP each if killed.

NOTE: I'll be telling this from the perspective of my opponents short table edge, as it's Hammer and Anvil, and my short edge is touching a wall.

My pre game thoughts: I think I can out-assault his army, and if I did the math right, I need 4 of the 6 objectives for a guarenteed majority of the points. He'll have to hold some of his units back to score, and if he does so he'll be too heavily outnumbered to win I think.

Deployment Chaos: His Berzerkers are to the right of his deployment zone, with the Jugger lord behind them and a 7 man squad on the right objective. He has the Defiler to the right and the pred to the left of a central ruin (remember thuis ruin), with  the Havocs and bikes on the far left, the havocs are in a building and the bikes are next to it. His Terminators and Daemons are in reserve.

Deployment Tyranids: I drop the two ten man gant squads in the back, by two objectives, and the rest of my army is in the massive chaos temple terrain piece from GW, right at the front of my Deployment zone. Both hormagaunt squads are on a flank each, both the Hive Guard are on the left side, and the Flyrant is all on his own ready to creep up the far right side and hit the zerkers at some point. Ymgarls are in a central ruin from which I can hit one of his objectives or the Predator.

Turn 1 Chaos: He uses Gate of Infinity on Ahriman to move a squad up to the right side central objective, but scatters a bit and I believe will be in charge range. A general advance is enacted by everything not either shooting, or the 7 guys on the back objective. We roll for the objective on a special table that the TO made for this mission, and it's a freaking Psychuein hive! Crap! The Flyrant, a Tervigon and Ahriman all suffer a wound. At this point we're all laughing (including that pesky TO) about the visual of a Tyrant getting nailed by a flying space penguin. Shooting wounds the Swarmlord once, and maybe a Hive Guard once.

Turn 1 Nids: Iron Arm goes off all over, and the Flyrant goes 24", enfeebling Ahrimans squad and then dakka-ing 4 Berzerkers to death. A general advance and Hive Guard shooting glances the Defiler once. The right side Hormagaunts run down at the Marines and assault. Unfortunately, overwatch kills two, and the remainiong 8 in range whiff horribly! 24 attacks only yields 5 hits, there were literally 18 2s and 3s. Still, I killed two Marines, although the return attacks killed a fair amount of gaunts.

Turn 2 Spikey Marines: His Daemons come in off of Ahriman's personal Icon (or the squads icon, not sure). They are in front of the Swarmlord, a Tervigon, and 3 Hive Guard, not to mention the Hormagaunts. He advances everything again, his berzerkers run at the Flyrant and wound him, but can't bring him down. The Defiler hits the Swarmy for no damage (Go Iron Arm!) and his bikers activate the mysterious objective to the center left of the table, it's another psychuein hive! Thankfully most of the MCs are above T7, and none are hurt. The Hive tyrant passes his grounding check for being hit by a Penguin. In assault the Daemons hit the Hive Guard and we each lose a wound. The Hormagaunts and Ahrimans squad whittle eachother down a little more, but Im low on gaunts. His bikers charge the Hormagaunts, and I kill one in exchange for losing two.

Turn 2 Nids: The Ymgarls come in, and nail the squad on the objective. I kill 3 of the 7, and lose none in return (+1 Toughness) The Swarmlord charges the lesser Daemons, and the Tervigon charges Ahrimans squad. Hive Guard shooting kills the Defiler (I thought he had 4 hull points, but both my opponent and another guy said they had 3.) This gives me First Blood. The Hormagaunt combat goes on, but he's down to only a few models and Ahriman, while he nearly kills all the gaunts. The Tervigon is T8 and seemingly invulnerable. The Swarmlord whipes the Daemons, and the bikers lose another man but kill two gaunts. Lastly, The flyrant swoops around and blasts the Chaos Lord, he's down to one wound.

Turn 3 Chaos: No Terminators yet again, luckily. His Berzerkers down and charge the Flyrant, as does the Lord. The lord and tyrant are simultaneous at Initiative 5, and whipe eachother out. Havoc and Predator shooting kill a Hive Guard and might wound a Tervigon. His last biker somehow holds on. In assault, his marines lose a few more, but it's taking the TErvigon a while to kill them all...

Turn 3 Nids: I advance everything, shoot the predator to no effect, and the Ymgarls and Hormagaunts both finish off their respective enemies. A fairly short turn for me. His marines are cut down to Ahriman and the Powerfist champ.

Turn 4 Chaos: He really has nothing to do. His berzerkers are far from any objectives after chasing the Tyrant, but at least his Terminators come in. They land off Ahriman and between Combi Meltas and the Lascannon Pred, kill the Swarmlord. (I also fail a few Reaper Autocannon saves) In assault the tervigon kills Ahriman and the Champion, finally!

Turn 4 Tyranids: The Tervigon grabs an obective, as do the Hormagaunts. I spawn a crap ton of gaunts, and shoot the Terminators down to two models after the Hive Guard chip in. An assault by a Tervigon and about 15 gaunts finishes them off.

At this point we call the game. He has one scoring unit, and I have 4 objectives, while contesting another. If his berzerkers (now at 5 models) go after either of the closest objective, they'll be murdered. His only surviving models are 5 zerkers, 5 havocs and a Predator. I could probably kill two of these if we went to turn 5, and I'd get a table by turn 6 if I moved the hormagaunts off the objective to chase the Havocs.

VICTORY TO THE SWARM! We totalled up the points, and I had one each of the 1,2,3,and 4 point objectives, and I contested the other 3.

I killed his Warlord (which was worth two bonus points), got first blood, and linebreaker, plus I killed a fast attack unit. This, combined with the 10 points for winning Primary, put me at 28 points so far on the day.

Post game: This was a good matchup for me. Hordes of CC troops almost always beat other CC troops (except Purifiers), and he had nothing to stop my MCs as a whole, it took a lot of focus fire to kill the Swarmlord, and putting the Tervigons in the center with him overwhelmed his front lines. Over all, a solid victory for the Nids!

Next up is a GK Henchmen spam list with IG allies.

8/4 RTT game 1 2k vs. Tau/Daemons

I made the drive up for my second Tournament of 6th with my Tyranids, ready to try out a few new things. Here's my list:

Dakka Flyrant
Swarmlord + 1 guard
2x3 Hive Guard
6x Ymgarls
2x20 Hormagaunts with Toxin and Adrenal Glands
2x10 Termagants
2x Tervigons (3 psychic powers, Crushing Claws and Poison. One also had Adrenal Glands.)

I drew up my first game against a familiar opponent of mine, who normally plays Space Wolves, but today brought out an Unholy alliance of Daemons and Tau.

His list was (roughly) as follows:

Tau:
Commander with two body guards (3 missile pods, 2 plasma, 1 fusion. Commander had Iridium armor? A 2+ save, whatever gave it.)
2 groups of Firewarriors. I think 12 each plus two drones.
20 kroot
3 Broadsides with 2 drones
Hammerhead with Railgun
3 Stealth suits with a fusion gun and 2 burst cannons

5x Bloodletters
Bloodthirster with upgrades
Tzeentch Prince with bolt/breath/boon (The killer Bs)

Mission: Vanguard (the diagonal) and the Relic

Warlord Traits: He is -1 to my reserve, I re roll my outflanks, which the Swarmlord does anyways, AND I dont have any outflankers. Yay.

My psychic powers:

Swarmlord: Shockwave, Gate of Infinity, Objuration Mechanicum, and Warp Speed
Flying Tyrant: Warp Speed, Haemorrhage
Tervigon 1: Crush, shockwave, Enfeeble
Tervigon 2: Objuration Mechanicum, Enfeeble, Endurance

He had first turn, and deployed so that his Broadsides were in a tall ruin, and so that there was a sizable ruin between me and the Relic. Everything else formed a firing line with the warriors in front.

I basically deployed both tervigons within 12" of the Relic, and Hormagants on the flanks. Swarmlord on the middle, along the Hive Guard, who were out of LoS from the ruins. Apparently Flyrants can't start on the board in swoop mode. Bummer. He and the Ymgarls are in reserve. Ymgarls were in a crater that both Firewarriors were nearby, and where the Hammerhead was near.

Pre Game thoughts: I can jump on the relic and haul it back to my lines, while the ruin will slow me down it blocks LoS so I just need a few gants holding on to it behind there. Other than that, castle up and kill anything that gets close.

He infiltrates his stealth suits on the side, and his kroot 6" from the objective!

Tau alliance 1: His kroot move 6" up, grabbing the relic. His bloodletters, the wrong wave, scatter 11" and mishap back into reserves. Shooting clips two wounds off of a Tervigon, and then kills a few gants here and there. His stealth suits kill a few gants. Kroot fire only kills a handful of Hormagants.

Tyranids turn 1: Crap! I didn't expect him to grab the Relic so early. I should have seen that coming. Either way, I spawn out a 11 gants, but double out, from my right side Tervigon. Moving and deploying sees them touch the relic, outside of 1" of his kroot. I then open fire, fleshborers killing the nearest few, thereby he drops the Relic as he's no longer touching it. It can only be picked up at the end of ones movement phase though, so I dont have it. My hormagaunts are both out of range to charge, but are wary of a Daemon deep strike and are ready to kill any FMCs that come near. Objuration Mechanicum manages to stun the Hammerhead. Hive Guard do nothing to the Hammerhead, and kill 4 Fire Warriors in the front squad. I decide to do "shockwave" on the Swarmlord and kill a few Kroot. They're down to 13 models but pass morale.

Tau turn 2: The Kroot grab the objective again, and rapid fire into the gants in front of them, blowing a handful away. Fire Warrior shots blow more Hormagaunts away in my right side squad. Broadsides knock two more wounds off the Tervigon. The crisis suits fail to wound the same Tervigon. The Tzeentch Prince and Bloodletters land near the Right Side Hormagaunts, bolt and breath kill a few. (Note that I pass every Boon of Chaos test this game. Woo!) Even more fire warrior shots wound the Swarmy once, and kill some of my left Hormagaunts.

Tyranid turn 2: I somehow fail all my reserve rolls despit the Swarmlords +1 to the roll. Crap. Hormagaunts on the right destroy the bloodletters for no losses. A Tervigon enfeebles the Prince and fleshborers focus on him, knocking him down to two wounds from the two gant squads there, but he stays up, and out of a Hormagaunt charge. 3 Gants on my left assault the stealth suits and kill one, and Hormagaunts on my left assault the kroot. I kill a few and loose combat after charging through cover, but I hold, and cut them down to 9 models ish. Hive Guard kill the Hammerhead.

Tau turn 3: An angry Bloodthirster plops down far to my right. He kills a Hormagaunt with some one shot gun thing. More shooting kills a few more of them. The Swarmlord gets shot but is mostly intact. Broadsides finish off the Tervigon on my right, and the Tzeentch prince kills a few more gaunts. In assault, he kills the rest of my Hormagaunts but loses four more kroot, so now he has 5 models holding the relic with my entire army in front of him. He breaks the gants with the Stealh suits and conolidates towards my deploymkent zone. I leave them be the rest of the game, as he's going for Linebreaker, and the Secondary points don't help to determine who wins over all, it's purely based on who gets the Relic.

Tyranids turn 3: The Flyrant comes in off my board edge and blasts the prince down to one wound. Two small gant squads and a few shots from Hive Guard leave him ungrounded after 4 passed tests. Ymgarls come in the crater, and multi charge both Fire Warrior squads. The Swarmlord Objuration Mechanicums one squad, which denies the witch, and the Tervi gets the other, who fails to deny. No overwatch wounds succeed as the Swarmy assaults with the Ymgarls and completely toasts the two squads. I had set up the Tervigon to charge the kroot but completely forgot until I started rolling for the Ymgarls... dang. The other Hormagaunts again have no charges after all FMCs stay up...

Tau turn 4: The Tzeentch prince flies 24" and crosses my whole army, flaming and bolting and Booning the Swarmlord. Between that, the Broadsides, and the Crisis team, the Swarmlords guard dies and he is downed to a single wound... He really has no troops other than the 5 kroot left. He also forgets to move them before shooting, which balances out my mistake last turn. The Thirster flies towards my last Tervigon and stays up.

Tyranids turn 4: The Swarmlord charges the Crisis team and Commander and kills them all. Both fliers are finally downed, and the tzeentch prince is drowned by the gants I spawn from the Tervigon. The Tervigon and Ymgarls charge and slaughter the kroot. The Bloodthirster is charged by Hive Guard and Hormagaunts, he loses two wounds.

Tau turn 5: His Broadsides kill the Swarmlord, and his Bloodthirster kills a few gaunts and is reduced to one wound. Stealth suits get Linebreaker.

Tyranids turn 5: The gaunts grab linebreaker, anjd the combination of Ymgarls, more Hive Guard, and the Flyrant charge the Bloodthirster. He challenges, and my tyrant accepts, and promptly smacks the 'Thirster down.

At this point, we're out of time and he has absolutely nothing he can do in the next turn to win. His surviving units are three Broadsides and two stealth suits hiding in my DZ. I have a Tervigon, 6 Hive Guard, 5 Hormagaunts and 6 Ymgarls, as well as a Flyrant, all clustered around the Relic, with 10ish gants in his deployment zone.

END GAME! TYRANID VICTORY!

I get full points for Linebreaker, killing the warlord, and First Blood, plus 10 for the Primary, so 13 points so far on the day. He has Kill the Warlord. Through a combination of several draws, only three people won round 1, one of whom was the tourny ringer, so I know who my opponent will be.

Coming next...

8/4 RTT 2k

Well, I just finished an RTT, so expect some incoming Battle Reports! Im overall happy with how I did, but as always there's room for improvement. I've been considering the Swarmlord, and I think now I'm going to be running a DakkaTyrant for a few games so I can find the best one.
My three opponets were Tau/Daemons, CSM, and GK/IG.

First one will be up tomorrow!

RTT tomorrow!

Tomorrow I'll be rocking my Nids at an RTT at my other FLGS. Although I dont expect to have quite the same success as last time, we'll see what I can do. The rtt will be 2000 points (or 1999 to be exact) Personally, I'd rather have it be 2000 with no doubles chart, as I almost always try to "max out" my points by buying everything in multiples of 5, but sadly I'll have to break away from that. The below has a total of 1998 points:

Swarmlord +1 guard
Flyrant 2x Devourers
2x3 Hive Guard
6x Ymgarls
2x20 Hormagaunts with Toxin/Adrenal
2x10 Gants
Tervigon (3 psy powers, Toxin/Adrenal, Crushing Claws)
Tervigon (3 psy powers, Toxin, Crushing Claws)
This is an "untested" list, and I may or may not switch out the Swarmlord for an Armored Shell Tyrant at the last minute, but we'll see how it works! I'm trying out the swarmlord a lot now, to see if he's worth the 15 extra points over a Dakka/armoredshell/OldAdversary walking Tyrant.

Tyranids Incoming?

A few rumors are of incoming new Tyranid Models! The rumor is below:

Flyer waves incoming: there are two full waves pending release: a Tyranid wave (Harpy, Harrier, Tyranid Warriors, Mycetic Spore and reinvented rules for Pyrovore as anti-air unit) and a Dark Eldar wave ... (continued in the post)

Note that this is not my rumor, I have no hidden sources sadly. Seized from a blog.

Ok, discussion time! This is ALL speculation.

Harrier? Not really sure what that is, but I want one! Hopefully it'll be nice and big. Im guessing its a 6 wound FMC personally. After all, we already have a 1 and two 3 wound flying beasts, and (kinda) two 4 wound FMCs. So, Im guessing its a giant flying trygon. Or, possibly a Harpy variant geared for CC (so hopefully high Strength for Vector Strikes.) Maybe even a psycher!

Mycetic Spore/Harpy/Warriors: About time! Im sure that the Warriors will have Wings available, Im curious to see if BS/LW will be an option with the finecast pack. I don't really think that Harpys are worth it, but I could see myself grabbing a spore or two.

Pyrovore... Oh boy! Not sure what it ll be. However, based on the Daemons update in WD, this could be a serious buff. I think theyd have to change the rules drastically though. With any luck they'll become a Heavy or Fast Attack choice. With the Elites slot as it is, it would have to be cheesier than a Paladins uncle to be worth it. If they just made it Hive Guard with Skyfire, I dont think itd be worth it, as we ll see a drop in Flyers with the next few releases Im sure. We dont need to pick "specialized" units if there will only be one or two flyers on the board. Still, we'll see how this works out, Id love for GW to give the bugs some love!