Competitive 40k tactics and Battle Reports with the Tyranid Codex

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

6/22 2250 Tyranids vs Chaos Allies and BBF


Hello everyone! Got a Battle Report today. But I just posted one earlier today? Thats two in one day folks! The occasion is, one year of Knighthammer40k! Seriously, when the frak did that happen? Either way, I've racked up some good times doing this blog, a huge thank you to everyone who reads these things. I'd love to think there are Tyranid players out there who can take any kind of insight from reading these. Anyways... on to the report! 

This game is 2250 points... pretty large huh? I know! However, this is a practice game for BeakyCon3! I'm always a competitive player at heart, and so I'm always looking forwards to the next GT I can go to, in the hopes I can net a trophy for the Hive Mind and prove their place in the meta. Naturally when practicing for a GT, I decided to challenge the TO himself! Here's my game against the Black Blow Fly, a fellow gamer, blogger, and a writer on BOLS. I'd highly recommend both his blog, Terminus Est, and BeakyCon. 

My list: 

Flyrant: Devourers, HC (Warlord trait: -1 to reserves)
Flyrant: Devourers, OA
10 gants
10 gants
17 gants
Tervigon, 3 powers, Toxin/Adrenal
Tervigon, 3 powers, Toxin/Adrenal
Tervigon, 3 powers, Toxin/Adrenal
3 Hive Guard
5 Ymgarls
5 Ymgarls
Doom in a SPod
3 Zoeys in a SPod
3 Biovores


My opponents list: 

Nurgle Biker lord with Black Mace
Nurgle Sorcerer on Palanquin 
6 Death Guard, dual Melta, Combi melta, power axe
-Rhino
6 Death Guard, flamer Melta, Combi melta, power axe
-Rhino
6 Death Guard, Flamer/Melta, power axe
-Rhino

GUO (Large Red Daemon Prince)
6 Plague Drones (proxied by Crushers)
Daemon Prince of Nurgle with 3+ (Red DPrince)
16 Plaguebearers
16 Plaguebearers

Psychic Powers (and rewards)

Sorcerer - Plague Wind, Iron Arm, Endurance
Great Unclean One - 3+ armor, +1 W, Iron Arm, Endurance, Life Leech
Daemon Prince - Bale Sword, Armorbane & Fleshbane, Iron Arm, Endurance, Life Leech

Flyrant 1: Iron Arm, Endurance
Flyrant 2: Enfeeble, Smite
Tervigon 1: Iron Arm, Warp Speed, Life leech
Tervigon 2: Iron Arm, Smite, Enfeeble
Tervigon 3: Warp Speed, Iron Arm, Enfeeble
Doom: Psychic Shriek
Zoanthrope 1: Puppet Master, Psychic Shriek
Zoanthrope 2: Psychic Shriek, Dominate
Zoanthrope 3: Psychic Shriek, Terrify

The mission: We used Beaky Con sample mission 4. Basically, it was Hammer and Anvil, with two primary missions: Table quarters, and three objectives. The objectives were pre placed equidistant down the middle of the board. One in center, and one each 18" away down the long way. Turn 6 is automatic, and Night Fight is active turn 1. No first blood.

Below you can see the board. On the left is my opponents DZ, and you can see his objective as the red dot. The other two are in the center ruin, and between two ruins in my DZ. 



My opponent has turn 1, and deploys thusly: The crushers on the left are the Plague Drones, and the red winged prince is the Nurgle Prince. You can see his 3 rhinos around the objective, and the biker lord hiding behind. Note that we put the Palanquin Sorcerer in a Rhino a few times... this is illegal, but neither of us noticed this. I don't think it is really a big deal though for game impact. 




Deployment Nids: Wow, overexposed picture... but, you can kinda see my Tervigons in the center holding down the fort. Flyrants chilling behind, some gants and Hive Guard up front. 

But wait theres more! Biovores hiding in a ruin, cause why not? 


Turn 1 Chaos: He flies his prince up into the ruin, and holds still. Thats it folks.

Turn 1 Nids: I move one Flyrant up, the other just moves 12 to stay close. The one flyrant shoots the Daemon Prince and wounds him twice. 

Turn 2 Chaos: Big papa nurgle comes in on my right flank... and mishaps. My decision where he goes! I could throw him in one of my opponents corners, but he'd be able to get back to his objective by turn 6 and could mess with whatever i had contesting it there. Much better to put him closer to him where I can keep an eye on him!


The plaguebearers that come in also mishap, but back into reserves (my opponent had terrible luck for this turn). Finally, he throws his wounded prince straight into my blob of gants. He kills quite a few and I fail to wound him. 

  

Tyranid turn 2: Zerg rush! a spawned gant squad plus backfield holders (10 and 13) right into big papa! i wound a few times, I lose a few. 


I somehow failed to get a picture, or at least a good one, but I zerg rushed the prince too with 21 more gants. On the downside, the bastard survived! He made 8 of 9 3+ armor saves! Well he had to bounce back from those scatters I guess. One Tervigon spawns out this turn.


Meanwhile, other side of the board... Flyrants swoop and wreck one rhino, then shoot occupents. (who havent yet been placed in the below pic. The Zoeys the Psychic Shriek the squad. Then the Doom zaps them and the Drones. Somehow, 3 live! So, 5 Ymgarls assault. I lose one and kill two, he is fearless.


Turn 3 Chaos: Plague drones run and assault the Doom and Ymgarls, I challenge champ we dont kill eachother. The Ymgarls whipe out the plague marines but are killed by the drones.  6 Plagues jump out of one rhino and try to ground a Tyrant but fail. Two surviving rhinos back track. Nurgle Lord assaults the Zoeys and does a single wound. 


One plaguebearer squad DS in to the left of his army (you can see them in right of pic above, or below)


Tyranid turn 3: The Doom goes absolute Apeshit and kills FOUR plaguedrones with his leech! The squad had taken a few random wounds, then 7 from Doom after failing the check by 10! In CC the doom kills the champion with his new strength 10. One Flyrant flys up and unloads on a rhino, somehow failing to kill it. The other drops down, and with 5 new Ymgarls, assaults the Plaguemarines and whipe them out. Biovores scatter wildly off the new Plaguebearers.


Chaos turn 4: His last Plague unit DS in by the ruins, here you can them below. He unloads his last plague marine squad to shoot three meltas at the Doom and inta-gibs him. Sorceror hides in the middle of a blob of Zombies. Bike lord kills a Zoey. 

Tyranid turn 4: One Flyrant drops and shoots/assaults the last plaguemarine squad, wiping them. The other flyrant kills a rhino, Hive Guard are finally in range and kill the other. Ymgarls assault the Nurgle lord, who I had enfeebled. Still, apparently this was quite a mistake. 15 strength 5 attacks led to only 6 hits, and 0 wounds on a 4+! The mace then rolled a 6 and he killed all the ymgarls.


 Oh, and you know how I haven't really mentioned those two MCs Ive had locked up? They have both been going beast mode, killing gants and not failing 3+ saves. What a pain! But this turn I got sick of it and send a fresh unit into each combat, killing both. (he doesnt survive the below pic)

Flyrants consolidation move after the slaughter. 




Chaos turn 5: Plaguebearer squad moves to get in objective range. Other squad moves up, assaults the Zoeys and finishes them except for a lone wounded model. Damn it! I wanted to shoot them... 

Tyranids turn 5: I hold tight on my objective, my flyrant goes and contests his, and I advance the last spawnable Tervigon and gants in case I need to contest the center. 




Turn 6 Chaos: His three units left mobile attack a gant shield Id thrown up, and rip them down. Uh oh!

Turn 6 Nids: I advance to contest, then shoot all I can at the two lords (they had joined up and had Endurance) I thought I whiped them, as he failed three saves, with three left between the two, only to see three 5s on FnP! damn! Still, hive guard and Biovores nad dakka flyrants later I killed the Sorceror, but his warlord lived with one wound... 


Game ends! Tyranids hold one objective, Chaos hold 0. Tyranids hold 2 Table quarters, Chaos 1! Tyranids have linebreaker, Chaos no bonus points. Final result? VICTORY TO THE HIVE!

Post game: There were ups and downs, but my basic game plan worked. I held down his army and crippled it enough for my Tervigons to control one objective, and I easily contested the rest. I really love my chances in ground and pound games like this, as I can out last and out-attrition anyone. 


6/15 RTT game 3 1850 Nids vs Necrons

Right, this is later than I was hoping, but here comes game three of the RTT I played this past Saturday. It was an 1850 event, so I brought my list from Crucible, because I'm pretty comfortable with it. We had a turnout of about 9 players I think. Orks, Nids, Taudar, DEldar, 2 Crons, 2 Space Wolves and Ravenwing if I recall correctly. Also, the pics were taken by the TO so some are more dramatic than helpful. Anyways, on to the Report! Here's my list:

Flyrant: Wings, Devs, OA
Flyrant: Wings, Devs, HC (Warlord Trait, reroll outflanks)
10 gants
10 gants
20 gants
Tervigon, Toxin, Adrenal, 3 powers
Tervigon, Toxin, Adrenal, 3 powers
Tervigon, Toxin, Adrenal, 3 powers
5 Ymgarls
5 Ymgarls
The DOOOOOOOM (and a SPod)
2 Biovores

Opponents list: He actually wasn't planning on playing, so this was a bit thrown together according to him;

Imhotek the douchebag
Destroyer Lord
6 Wraiths with coils
5 warriors
-Ghost Arc
5 Warriors
-Ghost Arc
5 Warriors
-Night Scythe
Doom Scythe
10 Immortals
Monolith
2 Tomb Spyders
4 Scarab swarms

Warlord traits ineffective

Psychic Powers: Here's mine

Flyrant 1: Iron Arm, Endurance
Flyrant 2 (WL): Enfeeble, Endurance
Tervigon 1: Endurance, Enfeeble, Warp Speed
Tervigon 2: Endurance, Life Leech, Warp Speed
Tervigon 3: Endurance, Warp Speed, Life Leech
Doom of Malan'tai: Psychic Shriek

Mission: 3 objectives

Deployment: Hammer and Anvil

My opponent will have the first turn.

The Board: Same as round 1. (there were 4 boards, and my opponent and I had each played on two the other hadn't, so one of us had to play twice). Below is from round one but shows the board clearly enough. The short edge by the camera is my zone.

Note in the pic below that the red marks are objectives. I got to place 2, so I naturally placed both in terrain as far away as I could from my opponent! No point in playing this stupid, lists alone give me the upper hand.



Cron Deployment: You can see that theres a VERY large LoS blocker in the center of the table. My opponent has his Monolith and Wraiths/DLord behind that, and Imhotek in the Scythe in reserves. Two Ghost Arks go on my right of the big terrain piece. Immortals in the monolith. Spyders/Scarabs behind the Monolith

Deployment Nids: In the center, two tervigons. On the left, two Flyrants. On the right, one Tervigon and Biovores, plus gants all mixed around. 
My game plan: Hold two objectives, win the game.Win the game, win the RTT. Basically, my three Tervigons are squatting on home base while Flyrants try to take out his flyers. If my reserves and Flyers can just tie him up I should have this easily enough. 

Turn one Crons: He advances, Imhotek doesnt do much. Monolith blasts gants apart... his wraiths shift to the far right. 

Turn 1 Nids: Flyrants soar 24" and potshot a wraith down or something. Tervigons advance slightly. Biovores kill some Scarabs. 
Turn 2 Crons: Again wraiths shift away from my Flyrants. Very clever, he's staying out of Enfeeble range rather well. He advances slightly up my right flank. I remind my opponent cockily that he didnt use Imhotek. I even bragged that Imhotek had never really done anything to me. Yeah, yeah that was pretty stupid. Biovores get nailed, first Blood to him. One Tervigon loses two wounds. Another loses one wound. Tyrant loses a wound. 10 gants lose 4 models. Ugh! 

Turn 2 Tyranids: Flyrants swoop around. Doom lands and kills a Tomb spider and a few bases. One Flyrant finishes off the scarabs. The other opens up a Ghost Arc from behind. Only one Ymgarl brood comes in, and they assault the 5 warriors from that. I murder them in CC. 


Turn 3 Necrons: Both flyers are in. A variety of local shooting downs the Ymgarls. DLord and one Spider assault the DOOM, nothing happens there. Wraiths advance. Shhoting from his Planes wounds a Tervi or two. 

Turn 3 Nids: Tervigons shuffle, but these objectives are thoroughly mine! Flyrants go the far right, one blasts the Doom Scythe away, the other whiffs horribly and does one HP to a Ghost Arc. 5 Ymgarls that just came in have nothing to assault. Dooms power zaps the DLord and he then kills the Spider. Below see my grip on the objectives, and one Night Scythe in the top riding out to do battle!


Below, see that my Ymgarls suddenly had nothing worth charging and so ran back into cover.


Necrons turn 4: Wraiths about-face and attack the Doom. Of course, they'll be stuck there all game, as I do a few wounds and lose a few. Night Scythe goes far and blasts a few gants as everything else is out of angle of fire. Ymgarls are gunned down. 

Tyranids round 4: One flyrant goes off, the other shoots at the Ghost Arc and again whiffs. Tervigons hold still, Doom and Wraiths slap eachother with their 3+ invulns.

Necrons round 5: Immortals jump out and grab his objective. He wounds the Tyrant with shooting. 5 Warriors are then dropped in my DZ for linebreaker.

Tyranid round 5: Flyrant comes on, with Tervigon shooting support he whipes the Warriors out. Other Flyrant kills some Immortals, but they hold.

Final: Linebreaker and 2 objectives vs First Blood and one objective. Victory to the Hive!  


My opponent was a great guy but we both knew this would happen. To win, I had to sit on objectives, and he didnt have enough damage to come get me off them. I ended up winning the tournament as the only 3-0 player, while my opponent here got enough points to take second place. 

Honestly a bunch of good match ups for me this RTT. I was really hoping to play either the TauDar or the DEldar armies, but both lost a game before I could (to Ravenwing and the Necrons respectively). I do however have a very fun game coming up soon, so watch out for that! 



Sunday, June 23, 2013

RTT 6/15 1850 Nids vs. Ravenwing



Ok, this is late (again) but here we are with game 2 of the RTT last weekend! This player had been on a table next to me, where I occasionally turned around in time to see him absolutely destroying a TauDar player. But, my army is quite different from TauDar, so it was my turn to welcome the new Dark Angels codex!

Here's my list:

Flyrant: Wings, Devs, OA
Flyrant: Wings, Devs, HC (Warlord Trait, reroll outflanks)
10 gants
10 gants
20 gants
Tervigon, Toxin, Adrenal, 3 powers
Tervigon, Toxin, Adrenal, 3 powers
Tervigon, Toxin, Adrenal, 3 powers
5 Ymgarls
5 Ymgarls
The DOOOOOOOM (and a SPod)
2 Biovores

Opponents list:

Sammeal on a Jetbike
Librarian with Force Axe on Bike
6 Bikes with 2 meltas
6 Bikes with 2 meltas
6 bikes with 2 flamers
Attack bike, Bolter
Attack bike, Melta
Attack bike, Melta
Landspeeder Darkshroud (?)- the one that gives cover all around it.
6 Black Knights with 4 plasma, 2 'Nade Launchers
3 man Command squad with Banner of Bolters, and one Grenade Launcher

Psychic Powers:

Librarian: Ignore cover, prsecience

Flyrant 1: Enfeeble, Endurance
Flyrant 2 (WL): Enfeeble, Endurance
Tervigon 1: Endurance, Warp Speed, Enfeeble
Tervigon 2: Endurance, Warp Speed, Enfeeble
Tervigon 3: Endurance, Smite, Life Leech
Doom of Malan'tai: Psychic Shriek

Mission: 3 objectives

Deployment: Vanguard strike

He has turn 1, it is Night fight turn 1.

The Board: Theres a large rocky hill in my bottom left, and theres another large piece of area terrain to my top right with two large rocks. Theres a lot of very small pieces scattered around, but theres two large area terrain pieces one in the middle of the board, slightly left and one far right in between my opponents edge and mine. All three objectives are far right. One in my DZ, one in his, and one roughly in between.

Deployment RW: Darkshroud and Command squad in the middle, Knights in front. On the left in one squad with Sammy, and on the right are two more bike squads. Behind the dark shroud are three attack bikes.

Deployment Nids: 20 gants conga lined in the front. Three tervigons all chilling in area terrain around an objective. Two 10 man gant broods are just sitting way in the back. Both Flyrants are WAY in the back corner, so he can't scout and shoot them.

Pre Game thoughts: Pretty basic here. Step one: Kill the banner. Doom and Biovores and precision shots until it is dead! After that, Flyrants play Havoc while gants blob up and advance in front of the tervigons. Anything that gets near takes a poisonous counter charge to the chin.

I successfully sieze the initiative!!!!!!!
One problem with that. My opponent told me to roll and forgot his scout move... If he had scouted first, he freely admitted he would have come straight at me, but if I make him do that, I will just murder him. We talk it back and forth (very friendly guy, it must be said. No one raised their voice or got mad) and we decided he would just forego his scout move, as if he scouted now it would favor one of us ridiculously.

Turn 1 Nids: A very conservative set up means I'm well out of range of anything. Seizing actually hasnt helped me at all. Both Flyrants advance 12" and are now flying, every MC has FnP.

Turn 1 DAngels: His bolter bikers advance and kill 19 gants. (I had one hidden out of LoS... no First Blood here!) A few potshots fail to wound or ground the Flyrants.

Turn 2 Nids: Hammertime! I do love my reserves sometimes. Doom drops in his back field, I have 6 (SIX!) units in range. Ymgarls also pop up one on each side of his advance. One Tervigon spews out a 13-model meatshield, no doubles. I forego Endurance and cast enfeeble a crap ton of times on the front Black Knight squad. Even with a 4+ deny from the Libby, two get through. Mua-haha! First, the Doom gets to work. He starts by zapping up ALL THREE of the attack bikes. First Blood! Then, he zaps 5 wounds of the command squad, but they have a 3+ cover save... after FnP one dies. Did I mention that the Doom hit right next to the Banner? Goodbye bolters! Doom nukes one more guy out of Sammeals squad, then Psychic Shriek kills the Apothecary of the Command squad. Flyrants both unload into the Black Knights and kill all 6, this leaves just the Libby. Ymgarls on the left hit Sammeals squad, kill three and lose two (they then Hit and Run out). On the right, Ymgarls hit a 5 man squad (Doom got one I think) and wipe them out! I got super lucky here.

Turn 2 Dark Angels: My opponent is suddenly reeling from the pain I just dumped on his army. One bike squad wheels around and shoots the Doom for a few wounds, Sammeals squad lines up the Ymgarls that had attacked them, and shoots them to paste. Command squad survivors and the Librarian both go after the other Ymgarl squad. A few die to shooting, and assault in. I finish the command squads last guy but a few get killed by the Libbys axe.

Turn 3 Nids: Time to finish this. Both Flyrants swoop and enfeeble a 6 man bike squad, I successfully gun them down. Doom gets in range of Sammeals squad and wounds Sammy once. Last Ymgarl whiffs as does the Libby. Doom assaults and explodes the Dark Shroud

Turn 3 DAngels: Sammeal lines up 7" from the Doom, shoots a few wounds off and charges. I do no wounds, he does one and Hit and Runs 17" away!

 Below shows the end of Turn 3. He is down to the Libby, two bikers and Sammeal... the Tervigons are easily holding down the base while the Flyrants are catching ravens.


Tyranids turn 4: Both Flyrants shoot the Librarian and assault, he only takes one wound. In assault he makes all saves! (Displacer field) Doom uneffectively runs after the Bikes. 

Dark Angels turn 4: Sammeal and Biker charge the Doom after shooting, I kill one. His Libby again passes every single save! I can't kill this guy... Below you can basically see every model he has on the table. 



Tyranid turn 5: He wounds the Doom, and Hit and Runs away, but not before Spirit Leech takes Sammeal down to one wound. The Tyrants finally kill the Librarian, I shuffle gants around so I'm holding all three objectives. 

Dark Angels 5: He decides to go for the Warlord kill, Sammeal and biker charge my Warlord Flyrant, who had been wounded once by the Librarian. Instead, overwatch causes two wounds, and he fails both saves! Sammeal and the last biker are both killed, which results in a tabling! 

Victory Tyranids! 12-0 Final score. 

Post game: Well that went well. Dice favored me heavily on turn 2, when I killed half his army, and really took the wind out of his sails. At this point I think my opponent realized he couldn't just charge in and scattered, but this allowed me to pick him off one unit at a time. Altogether, I'm not too impressed by the new Dark Angels, they're too dependent on the banner. 


Friday, June 21, 2013

RTT 6/15 1850 Nids vs Foot Wolves

Right, this is later than I was hoping, but here comes game one of the RTT I played this past Saturday. It was an 1850 event, so I brought my list from Crucible, because I'm pretty comfortable with it. We had a turnout of about 9 players I think. Orks, Nids, Taudar, DEldar, 2 Crons, 2 Space Wolves and Ravenwing if I recall correctly. Also, the pics were taken by the TO so some are more dramatic than helpful. Anyways, on to the Report! Here's my list:

Flyrant: Wings, Devs, OA
Flyrant: Wings, Devs, HC (Warlord Trait, reroll outflanks)
10 gants
10 gants
20 gants
Tervigon, Toxin, Adrenal, 3 powers
Tervigon, Toxin, Adrenal, 3 powers
Tervigon, Toxin, Adrenal, 3 powers
5 Ymgarls
5 Ymgarls
The DOOOOOOOM (and a SPod)
2 Biovores

Opponents list: He actually wasn't planning on playing, so this was a bit thrown together according to him;

Wolf Lord on Wolf with Wolf claws (or something like that...) He had a 2+/4++ and Eternal Warrior
Rune Priest with a 2+ and Jaws/Living Lightning (Warlord: I use the lowest Leadership in my squad. Haha.)
Rune Priest with a 2+ and Murderous Hurricane/Living Lightning
Wolf Priest with a 2+
5 Grey Hunters, wolf standard
5 Grey Hunters, wolf standard
5 Grey Hunters, wolf Standard
-Heavy Bolter Razback
6 Grey Hunters, Wolfen, wolf standard
-Heavy Bolter RazBack
6 Long Fangs, 5 Missiles
6 Long Fangs, 5 Missiles
6 Long Fangs, 5 Missiles
3 Thunderwolves with Stormshields, 2 had Hammers
Aegis Line

Psychic Powers: He kept his book powers, I rolled mine:

Flyrant 1: Endurance, Warp Speed
Flyrant 2 (WL): Iron Arm, Enfeeble
Tervigon 1: Life Leech, Enfeeble, Warp Speed
Tervigon 2: Iron Arm, Warp Speed, Smite
Tervigon 3: Enfeeble, Iron Arm, Warp Speed
Doom of Malan'tai: Psychic Shriek

Mission: Kill Points

Deployment: Dawn of War

I have turn 1, it is Night Fight turn 1.

The Board: Not a great pic, but you get the idea. I'm on the left.


Deployment Nids: I overload the right, as thats where his Aegis Line is. Its hard to see from the pics below, but basically everything is at the center of the board or to the right of it. I'm also behind Ruins from basically any angle. Hard to see, but behind the two towers in the far left, I am hiding both Flyrants and the Biovores. I also have 10 gants outflanking. 


Deployment Wolves: He has a fairly spread out deployment. On my far right (closest in this pic) He has a Long Fang squad on the quad gun with a Wolf and a Rune Priest attached, and 5 Grey Hunters in front. You can see farther down the line that his TWolves are holding the center, and behind them are 5 Grey Hunters, and then 6 Long Fangs. On the way far left he has 5 Hunters and 5 Long Fangs again. 6 Hunters and both Razbacks are in reserve. 


Turn 1 Nids: Not very dramatic, I do Psychics then jump forward full speed. I also throw a T9 Flyrant right in my opponents face, just to mess with his target Priority. Both Flyrants unload on his far right Long Fang squad. Sadly, I forgot his Priests had a 2+, but I still killed 3 Missiles, the Pack leader and wounded the Wolf Priest. 

Turn 1 Wolves: His TWolves advance on my t9 flyrant, but are still far off. His shooting is highly uneffective, thanks to good cover, Night fight and my Psychic powers. I take a wound on a single Tervigon, and successfully Deny the Witch on Living Lightning. 

Turn 2 Nids: This is going to hurt, a lot... A tervigon and a Flyrant forego Iron Arm to enfeeble the Thunderwolves twice. He fails one DtW and one Rune Priest deny roll. That squads T3 now. Both Ymgarls come in the area terrain with two blocks. Doom lands on the right side of his gunline. (The below is during my Movement phase).
 Some spawned gants after the pic above down a Thunderwolf with shooting, then one Flyrant blows the other two away, leaving the Wolf Lord. The Wolves give up First Blood. Doom sneaks a wound or two in, but doesnt do much. Other Flyrant hits the depleted Long Fang squad kills them all, leaving a Rune Priest and Wolf Priest with one wound left each. Biovores scatter 12" and actually kill a Ymgarl for my first model lost of the game. Then, both Ymgarl Broods assault. One hits the Wolf Lord, who at Strength 3 vs Toughness 5 does nothing, and he is promptly killed in return. Ymgarls consolidate into terrain.. The other charges through the Aegis at some gone-to-ground Hunters and kills a few, no losses. 


Here you can see the aftermath of my turn two, I basically punched his gunline right in the face and suddenly has a lot of targets directly in his face. This is my army operating at its finest!


Turn 2 Wolves: One Razback, with 6 guys comes in (see above, bottom right). Then, his unengaged units fire away. Long Fangs kill the Doom, the others wound my Flyrant once. Bolter fire bounces off the Tyrants. His Wolf Priest grabs the quad gun but does nothing, his Rune Priest back up out of Shadows range, but Living Lightning gets denied anyways. Note that before dying, the Doom kills a Grey Hunter locked with the Ymgarls, and the Ymgarls promptly finish them off. 

Turn 3 Nids: Tervigons remain stationary, because they don't need to move at all. Both Flyrants land. One gets behind the Long Fangs in the center, the other goes after the Rune Priest. Both shoot to soften, then assault and kill their targets. Ymgarls assault the Wolf Priest, who passes all saves and kills one. The other Ymgarls run up and assault the Grey Hunter squad in mid field, we each kill a few. My gants outflank on the far right, behind some soda cans. 

Turn 3 Wolves: His Raxback on the right moves up, squad disembarks and rapid fires the 10 gants down to one guy, who falls back. Long Fangs shoot and kill the Spore Pod, and wound one Flyrant. His empty razorback comes in on the far left. Ymgarls finish the Wolf Priest off. 

Turn 4 Nids: One Flyrant goes far right and kills the razorback. The other goes far left and kills a few Grey Hunters. One gant falls off table. 

Turn 4 Wolves; He runs the far right Grey Hunters up and gets Linebreaker.

We agree to call the game here. I've taken practically no significant casualties, while holding a massive KP lead, and I've torn the heart out of his army. 

Final Score; 11-4, Tyranid Victory! 

Recap: Pretty easy game there. Basically, my Flyrants and Ymgarls ran around killing a unit a turn, while everything he had bounced off. It should be noted that the dice were quite favorable to me this game. Surprisingly, my Tervigons had very little impact. I held back while he had Jaws, and after that had no reason to advance. They just chipped in a few random pot shots and Psychic powers. 






Monday, June 17, 2013

6/13 1850 Tyranids vs Space Wolves

Last Thursday I got in a game with my Tyranids, using my 1850 list from Crucible 2013. It was also my first game in over three months, but I'm back in the swing now thankfully. This game also served as a practice for my 1850 RTT on Saturday the 15th, but more on that later...



My list:

Flyrant, Devourers, OA
Flyrant, Devourers, Hive Commander (WL: -1 to his reserves)
5 Ymgarls
5 Ymgarls
Doom in a SPod
10 gants
10 gants
20 gants
Tervigon, Toxin/Adrenal, 3 powers
Tervigon, Toxin/Adrenal, 3 powers
Tervigon, Toxin/Adrenal, 3 powers
2 Biovores

My opponents list:
Rune Priest (Prescience, Perfect Timing) (Warlord Trait: Useless)
Wolf Priest (Preferred Enemy: Monstrous Creatures)
Wolf Priest (Preferred Enemy: Monstrous Creatures)
5 Grey Hunters
10 Grey Hunters, 2 Meltas, Axe, Drop Pod
10 Grey Hunters, 2 Melta, Axe, Drop Pod
10 Grey Hunters, 2 Flamer, Axe, Drop Pod
9 Wolf Guard, Axe, 8 Combi Plasma, Drop Pod
9 Wolf Guard, Axe, 8 Combi Plasma, Drop Pod
6 Long Fangs, 5 Missiles
6 Long Fangs, 5 Missiles
Aegis line, Lascannon

My Psychic Powers: I don't fully remember, but something like this:
Flyrant: Iron Arm, ...
Flyrant: Iron Arm, ...
Tervigon: Iron Arm, ... ...
Tervigon: Endurance, ... ...
Tervigon: Endurance, Warp Speed, ...
Doom: Psychic Shriek

The Mission: Scouring: At least there are 6 objectives!

Deployment: Dawn of War

The Table: My half has a large-ish ruin to the right and bottom, theres a big central ruin, and a ruin in the top left and right (Top being his edge, bottom being mine) There are a few more scattered Hills and ruins

The objectives: There's a 2 pointer in the bottom right, and center of my DZ, and a 4 pointer to the left. On his side the 1, 3, and 3 are roughly equidistant from left to right 6" from his board edge.

To my complete dismay, he successfully gets First turn. I'm really bad at getting first turn when it counts, it seems.

Deployment Wolves: His Aegis Line is spread in the back, with both LF squads hiding, Rune Priest on the gun. 5 man GH squad is top right in a small ruin on the 3 pointer.

Deployment Nids: Biovores on the far far left, gants and Tervigon on the right. In the large ruin I hid two 'Gons, with the Third behind it. Then, I spread 10 gants to fill the space to the right inbetween the edge and the ruin, and the 10 and 20 man squads took up as much space to the left as I could.

Pregame thoughts: If I had First turn I could murder this army with cover and Iron Arm, but that doesn't matter. I'm going to have to bunker down turn 1, then use the guys left to spawn and hopefully hold off the Podding hunters long enough to get Flyrants in and wreck face.

Turn 1 Wolves: On the far right, 10 GH with Flamers come in, and kill the 10 gants there, First Blood. One plasma-squad hits a tricky DS right at the edge of the board and can actually see one of my Tervigons with no ruin. He has cover from the gants... who were just flamed away. All 8 Plasmas = Dead Tervigon. As I pick it up I realize I made a huge mistake and misplaced which Tervigon I put where... that was the one with Iron Arm! 10 Melta GH land on my left and clip away a few gants who are in Synapse. He's out of LoS with most LFs, so kills a few gants despite Night Fight.

Turn 1 Nids: My left Tervigon of two spawns 8, no doubles, but rolls Boxcars for his Endurance. Frak. He runs up towards the 10 man melta squad but keeps his base just in cover for the 5+. The 10, 8 and depleted 20 man squad all go after the GH squad. They assault, but only two make it. He's ridiculously hot on his saves, only failing 2 out of both shooting and assault and I lose combat badly. On the right, I spawn 9 but doubles out. The 9 assault the Wolf Guard, losing two to overwatch and again only kill one after freakish saves, he kills 8 of the 9 gants. The Tervigon there then assaults the Flamer squad and kills a few, no wounds back. His GH there fail LD and fall back.

Turn 2 Wolves: His reserves fail, he has nothing to shoot but two Tervigons. Thanks to LoS blocking ruin in the center, only 5 Fangs can see my Tervigon. Naturally, he hits with 5, then wounds with 5. I then fail 5 cover saves. Remember that this guy had Periled his Endurance last turn, so he's at 5 wounds left with no FnP, so promptly keels over.  SONNOVABITCH! In CC those gants now have no Synapse or support on that side. He wins, and one squad survives to fall back. I do kill two more though, his saves restored to average rolling. His flamer Hunters had rallied, but elected to run away anyway.

Turn 2 Nids: Reserves all come in, aww yeah! DOOM smites the Battlefield and kills a few Hunters out of the 5 man Hunters, and the falling back Flamer-Hunters. Ymgarls jump out of the center ruin and hit the 6 man Melta squad. The other squad comes out of the top left ruin and hits a Long Fang squad. In both combats I kill two Marines and lose a Ymgarl or two, but stay locked. The Two Flyrants then come streaking in. (Remember, no Psychic Powers when you come in from Reserves :(. ) They target the two Grey Hunter squads in the back. Again, he's hot on saves... sigh. Still, he is down to one and two men in each. The last Tervigon then assaults the Wolf Guard and kills the Wolf Priest, but takes a wound. 9 gants that had fallen back last turn in the center rally and shoot a Grey Hunter before the Ymgarl assault, by the way.

Turn 3 Wolves: His reserves arrive. 10 GH come down on the far right to shoot at the Warlord Flyrant, they do nothing. The one and two man unit run from Doom and try to ground non-warlord but fail. Plasma squad drops next to Non warlord. A drop pod grounds and wounds the non warlord, who is then killed by one Long Fang squad. The Plasma now have no good targets but decide to try to kill the warlord. 0 wounds result, thank god. Ymgarls kill another Grey Hunter (down to 4) in the center combat but shockingly he cuts them all down!

Turn 3 Nids: Doom advances, zapping the one and two man squads. He's at full 10 wounds, woot! He and the Warlord multi assault the 10 man GH that just dropped in, and kill 8. They fail morale but are caught, and so held up. Tervigon takes two wounds in assault but kills a few more Wolf Guard.  On the top left I kill a Fang, no losses. The 9 gants are cut off from support so I decide to shoot and assault the GH before they get gunned down. I kill one and shockingly only lose one, so we're locked.

Turn 4 Wolves: His Wolf Guard assault into the Gant/GH combat, I get murdered after killing one more Hunter. Long Fangs have nothing to do so they kill the Biovores. In CC I'm downed to two wounds on the Tervigon but he only has a few Wolf Guard left. Ymgarls and Fangs in the top left are now both at 2 models left, but I lose one in combat, then fall back!!!! Flyrant and Doom decidedly murder the Grey Hunters.

Turn 4 Nids: My Warlord swoops 24" across the Battlefield and guns down the last 2 Grey Hunters. A few scattered gants hide out of LoS on a 2 point objective in the right ruin. The Tervigon there finishes off the Wolf Guard and consolidates towards the other squad. Doom runs out of LoS on the far top right for Linebreaker. Last Ymgarl rallies and runs up towards the ruin on the top left.

Turn 5 Wolves: His shooting fails to do anything at all, until he shoots the Wolf Guard at the flying Warlord, who had suffered a few wounds, and shockingly they kill him... Crap...

Turn 5 Nids: Last Ymgarl runs into the terrain and hides out of LoS. Doom pops out, Psychic Shriek kills a single Long Fang. Gants hide in terror, and the Tervigon assaults the Grey Hunters and kills three.

Turn 6 Wolves: He finishes the Tervigon and Missiles kill the Doom.

Turn 6 Nids: My 4 remaining models cower in ruins.

Game ends! 3-3 I have a 2-pointer, and Line breaker. He has Line breaker, first Blood, and warlord.

DRAW!

Game review: Well that could have gone better. He made a stupid amount of saves early, and so I had to dedicate a lot of time into killing his troops, which left me way over exposed, and so he cut down most of my army. Still, I played the mission and eked out a draw. Stupid First Blood... I hadn't really played a Drop List before, that was nasty! Still, practice is good, and I learned from my stupid mistakes in positioning. Despite bad dice early I pulled back, and to be fair he had a few moments of bad dice as well.




Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Summer loving



Ah, Summertime. Other than the obligatory seasonal partying, Summer is my main time of 40k. I know it has been a while since I've posted, and when I have posted its been mostly unrelated stuff to my actual gaming. As a matter of fact, it has been over three months since my last game, but hey, life happens. I've been plenty busy these last months, but I'm finally hitting the relax zone. I should hopefully have some Batreps soon though! I should get at least a game, if not two, in on Thursday and then three more on the Fifteenth when I take my Bugs to an 1850 RTT. I'm still contemplating whether or not I should change my Crucible list for the RTT, but I honestly think it is a great list that suffers from matching up with Space Wolves and Eld... Ah ha! Take that Runes! Eldar look like a better army overall, but now a better match up for us. I'm hoping to get plenty of action vs Eldar and Tau soon though to test my math hammer. I've also recently signed up for a little  get-together called BeakyCon3. After last year, I still have a bad taste from where poor dice rolling knocked me off the top spot on day 2 against the Defending champion, so naturally I've been plotting revenge... I have a few lists drafted up that all look to be fun for me!

Well, that is it for my ramblings. I'll post again Friday with a new BatRep, perhaps with pictures too! Then come Sunday and Monday I'll have at least three new games to show off, but expect a LOT of new stuff over the next two months!