Competitive 40k tactics and Battle Reports with the Tyranid Codex

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Crucible game 2: 2000 Nids vs Farsight Tau

My Army List: 

Flyrant, Devourers, Hive Commander 
Flyrant, Devourers 
Flyrant, Devourers 

30 gants 120 
10 gants 40 
10 gants 40 
Tervigon , Electroshock Grubs 205 

Venom thrope 45 
Zoanthrope 50 

3 Biovores 120 
Exocrine 170 
Tyrannofex 175 
Tyrannofex 175 

Bastion 
Bastion

Game 1: After a very disappointing Game 1, I was very angry. Fortunately, I play well when I'm angry! In order to get back into the tournament here, I really needed a solid victory. For better or worse, I drew up Tau as my next opponent... many people hate playing against Tau, but I have tailored my list specifically to deal with the most commonly seen Tau units. Hopefully I can prove that now...

His list was as follows:


Commander Farsight:
Commander Torchstar ? (ignore cover guy)
Commander Puretide ? (Puretide chip guy)

3 Crisis suits, max Marker drones, two Missile Pods each (Torchstar here)
3 Crisis suits, drones, 2 plasma each
3 Crisis suits, drones, 2 Fusions each

Riptide with Ion Accelerator
Riptide with HBC, skyfire (Puretide here)


The mission: 20 points total, the GT was purely battle points

Hammer and Anvil

Primary (8 points) : Each turn, an objective scattered 4d6 from the center of the board, worth points equal to the turn it arrived. Elites are scoring.
Secondary (5 points) : Kill Points, Elites and Troops only.
Tertiary (3 points) : Each Monstrous Creature and vehicle is worth 1 point, 2 if flying.
Plus four Bonuses (1 point) : First Blood, Warlord, Linebreaker, Last Blood

Psychic Powers: 

Flyrant 1: Warp Blast, Paroxysm (reroll reserves)
Flyrant 2: Psychic Scream, Paroxysm
Flyrant 3: The Horror, Psychic Scream
Tervigon: Dominion
Zoanthrope: Paroxysm

I win the roll off and give first turn to Tau:

Pre-Game Analysis: I really hate Tau, but he has no clean answer to my list. Shove Flyrants down his throat and running two Tyrannofex up the board may be enough to overwhelm him. Here's hoping! The Primary favors staying close to the middle, so once I remove his markerlights I should be just fine in my Venom bubble.

Tau deployment: Farsight/Meltas will deepstrike. Two RipTides on the left, the MarkerSuits up front, Broadsides kinda obscured by his hand, and the plasma suits are to the far right behind a wall. (Note that the suits in the back right corner are the Fusion guys in reserve).


Deployment Tyranids: I'm clustered up, taking cover where I have it, and thoroughly enjoying a 2++ cover save on almost every model. He'll be able to hit maybe one or two units before the hammer falls! 



Objective 1:

Scatters in between us, to my left. It's fairly neutral zone, I doubt he'll advance for a 1-pointer. 

Turn 1 Tau:

He advances many suits, making me very hopeful... Markerlights target my Exocrine and he loses 4 wounds. However, he is then out of ignores cover and can't penetrate my 2++ cover! Muahaha. However, realize I'm stupid when he targets the Zoanthrope on top of the Bastion and removes it for First Blood.



Not shown above, but he leaves his second Riptide in front of his Aegis... 

Turn 1 Nids:

My 3 Flyrants all advance the minimum 12", all in terrain with shrouding. My wounded Exocrine advances slightly as well. Beyond that, I spawn and spread out my bugs so that he can't melta my Bastion. 3 Flyrants and the Exocrine focus fire on his Ion Accelerator Riptide, and I kill it!  

Objective 2:

Stays in between the two Deployment zones, but to my right this turn. So far nothing has favored one side or the other. 

Turn 2 Tau:

His Farsight squad land off my front line and targets a Tyrannofex. I have cover and so survive the wave of Plasma. Shooting from all over kills none of my MCs but seriously wounds my up front TFex. Below you can see his Farsight squad as well as my bubbled up Bastion.



Then, he jumps back his Plasma and Melta squads. So many suits...

 

Turn 2 Tyranids:

All three Flyrants spring forward, and I open fire with my advancing MCs. All of his markerlights are killed, and I also take down several crisis suits. One Flyrant guns after his Riptide and does 2 wounds, but I stay airborn. 

Objective 3:

Stays in between the two Deployment zones, and to my left. Very close to the 1-pointer. 

Turn 3 Tau:

A lot of desperate shooting sees two out of my three Flyrants gunned down, but that's all. He also had no firepower to spare towards the hammer running downfield at him...

 

Turn 3 Tyranids:

Instead of assaulting, I vector strike Farsights squad with my Flyrant and end up in the far bottom right. I could either shoot or run off the board...



I advance both of my Tyrannofex, and two flamers plus the Exocrine kill his squad and take Farsight down to one wound. I shoot him with the last Flyrant, and claim Slay the Warlord. 

Objective 4: It is slightly towards my opponents DZ, but again to my left. It seems that's where I need to go... 

Turn 4 Tau:

His Missilesides and Plasma suits are his last units behind the Aegis. He successfully takes down the wounded Tyrannofex. His buffmander and Riptide advance towards my left to start trying to kill my gants. The missilesuits with commander are behind the Riptide, hiding to score.

 

Turn 4 Nids:

My last Tyrannofex advances, and flames some drones away.



My flyrant leaves the table, and vector strikes a plasma suit on the way. Random Exocrine shooting takes the Riptide down to 2 wounds. 

Objective 5:

This scatters towards my opponent, out of both of our reaches. 

Turn 5 Tau:

His Riptide and Missile suits make a rush for the objectives, and after his jump move he grabs the 4.



His shooting kills the nearest two gants units, but my Tervigon is happily pumping them out. 

Turn 5 Nids:

My Flyrant comes back on, and survives Interceptor to kill his Riptide. random shooting can't finish off the Missilesuits. However, Biovores kill some drones and his plasmasuits fall back!



Finally, my Tyrannofex assaulted and kills his Broadsides. Gant positioning means I will narrowly take the primary if the game ends... 

Tau turn 6:

The game must go on! His last Missile suits hold down the 4, and shooting takes some more gants down. His commander splits off and contests.

 

Tyranid turn 6:

The Tervigon assaults his Commander, who lives barely, but I hold the one pointer with her. The Exocrine and Flyrant kill two suits, the last is finished in assault. 

Tau turn 7:

My opponent calls the game. Two falling back crisis suits are far from the battle, and his last commander is in CC with an MC, and very unlikely to last. Other than that he has no models, and no capacity to score or contest.


Final result:

Primary (objectives) : Tyranids 3-0
Secondary (Kill Points) : Tyranids
Tertiary (Kill points MCs) Tau
Bonuses: Tau FBWL Tyranids: WL, LB, LB

Final: 16-5, solid Tyranid victory!


Post game:

As much as I hate Tau, that went very well. Despite a late push, he never had a chance to break my backfield with the Bastion anchoring it. Because the Venomthrope lived, his damage was blunted and he could really only target the things I sent after him, never my gants or Tervigon or Exocrine. The Tyrannfofex and Flyrants were ace, being very clutch and hard to kill. The Exocrine also easily pulled his weight, finishing off two Riptides! Very happy here, despite giving up first blood.

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