1850 ATC practice Tyranids vs Astra Militarum

Ok, day 3 of my week of Battle Reports! Here we have my first game against the new and Latin-ish Imperial Guard, the Astra Militarum! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, but I will attempt to give as much detail as possible. Note that this is my opponent's first game of 7th edition, and although he is a very good, experienced player, his list is more experimental and not fully tournament worthy perhaps.

The Mission:

The ATC missions are pretty simple. 6 missions possible, two each of the various deployment types. Then, 3 Primary objectives, each worth 8 points or 4 for a draw. Kill Points, Emperors Will, and Capture and Control. Each secondary objective is 2 points, for a maximum of 30 available. 

We roll on the chart, and the game will be played as Vanguard Strike, with no Night Fighting. 

My Army List:

Flyrant, Devourers, Electroshock Grubs

Flyrant, Devourers, Electroshock Grubs

30 gants

Tervigon, Electroshock Grubs

3 Rippers 

Venomthrope

Crone, Cluster Spines

Crone, Cluster Spines

3 Biovores

Bastion, Void Shield, 3 Defense Lines

Allied Detachment: Come the Apocalypse: 

Imperial Knight Errant

Astra Militarum Army List: 

Company Command Squad, Lascannon

Pask, Command Squad (All BattleCannon/3x Heavy Bolters)

Platoon Command Squad in Chimera

Platoon Infantry Squad

Platoon Infantry Squad with Autocannon 

Platoon Infantry Squad with Autocannon (blobs with above PIS)

Special Weapon Squad (in Vendetta)

Heavy Weapons Team (3x Lascannon)

Heavy Weapons Team (3x Lascannon)

Veteran Squad (in Chimera) 

3 Wyverns

Vendetta

Void Shield Generator, 3 Shields

Void Shield Generator, 3 Shields

Promethium Pipeline

Warlord trait: Hive Tyrant: Reroll reserves Pask: Preferred Enemy Tyranids

Psychic Powers: 

Flyrant 1: The Horror, Psychic Shriek

Flyrant 2: The Horror, Paroxysm 

Tervigon: Onslaught

Perspective: My Opponents Corner will be the top left, I am the bottom right. Top is simply the farthest table edge, bottom is closest. 

Deployment Astra Militarum: My Opponent wins the roll off and deploys first. He is castled far in the back, surrounded by the Pipe Line, with his entire army inside the Void Shields. Blah... 

Deployment Tyranids: Tervigon and Gants are just hanging out while all my Flyers start far up in Ruins. Knight is to my Top Right to stay 12" away, which I later realize is a bad position for him. He has a long walk ahead! 

Turn 1Tyranids: My opponent wisely elects to go second. My turn is uneventful, as I fly everything as far up as I can, and move the knight 12" straight towards my opponent. Psychic Powers mean both Lascannon HWTs will be snapshotting (in case they shoot my Knight) due to Paroxysm and The Horror. With shooting I disable all six Void shields and glance a Chimera, without spending any Missiles. 

Turn 1 AM: He opens fire after little movement! First off, 3x Wyverns are incredibly, insanely annoying. So slow to shoot... a bunch of gants died, but firing at my FMCs was very ineffective. I take a wound on a Crone, but all of my Flyers have 4+ ruins cover and so I get off lightly. He regenerates 3 Void shields on his Generators. 

Turn 2 Tyranids: My 4 Flyers get up close. I take out two Void shields, but one Flyrant ducks inside them and opens fire, killing a full HWT for First Blood. Other firepower kills one Wyvern and stuns another. Rippers Deep Strike in the far top right corner where they hide in a ruin. I am in range to charge a Chimera with my Knight, but decline to as it would bring me within 6" of a Flyrant. 

Kill Point Counter: Tyranids: 1 AM: 0

Turn 2 AM: No Vendetta yet. His Tank command Squad plinks another wound off a Crone, and again due to Psychic powers is very ineffective. One Wyvern kills a Ripper swarm. He also wounds my Warlord Flyrant once. 

Turn 3 Tyranids: I fly both Crones off the table, using Vector Strikes to glance a Chimera twice. My Flyrants both land on the ground in ruins. I again strip all of his Void Shields, and a large amount of Blasts kills the second Heavy Weapons squad and some scattered guys, and one Wyvern.

Kill Point Counter: Tyranids: 2 AM: 0

Turn 3 AM: Again, no Vendetta. He pulls back, and blasts a lot at my two grounded Flyrants. Due to pinning and Paroxysm he is unable to finish both as he planned, but he was able to slay my Warlord. The other is unhurt. 

Kill Point Counter: Tyranids:2 AM: 1

Turn 4 Tyranids: Both Crones come in on my bottom left, right behind the russes. I kill one with Haywire missiles/templates, and also use my large bases to block them from moving farther away from my Knight. My Knight assaults his 20 man squad, killing most and using his Stomp attacks to finish off the last Wyvern. I break and sweep the squad, then consolidate in front of his Leman Russ. Finally, my Tyrant lands and assaults a squad in his backfield. I smash and kill none, so we tie combat.

Kill Point Counter: Tyranids: 4 AM: 1

Turn 4 AM: The Vendetta comes in. Everything he has focuses on my Knight and does three hull points. In Close Combat, I kill his Infantry Squad and consolidate off. 

Kill Point Counter: Tyranids: 5 AM: 1

Turn 5 Tyranids: I use 4 missiles from the Crones to take two HPs of his Vendetta. My Hive Tyrant assaults and kills all of his CCS except for the Officer. Imperial Knight charges and kills Pasks Command Squad. 

Kill Point Counter: Tyranids: 6 AM: 1

Turn 5 AM: He runs both Chimeras away as much as he can. He grabs an Emperors Will and a C&C objective, and drops off his Special Weapons team to capture a second C&C. He has very little firepower but manages to finish off a Crone, while I kill his commander. 

Kill Point Counter: Tyranids: 7 AM: 2

Turn 6 Tyranids: Despite my domination, we are tied on C&C and Emperor's Will. Fortunately, the game goes on... I kill one Chimera with my Flyrant, and assault and kill the squad inside. My gants and Biovore shoot down his Special Weapon Squad. My Crone kills his Vendeta with its last Missile, and my Knight assaults and kills his last Chimera. Veterans pile out and are not pinned. 

Kill Point Counter: Tyranids: 12 AM: 2

Turn 6 AM: He has a single Veteran squad sitting on a C&C objective. My opponent concedes at this point. 

Final result: I win Emperor's Will 1-0, C&C 2-1 and Purge the Alien 12-2. I also score First Blood, Linebreaker and Slay the Warlord. My opponent also slays my Warlord. 

Tyranid Crushing Victory 30-2! 

Post Game: After losing my first two games, I am much happier due to this game. My army finally performed a little bit closer to my expectations! Of course, I was also playing against a hard counter list in my Tau opponent, but still, victory is nice. However, I feel the match up favored me a lot. To this end, I will be playing my opponent again in my next Battle Report. I informed him in advance that I would use an identical list, and let him know that he was free to tailor lists. We'll see what happens tomorrow when I post up my 4th Battle Report!