The Battle Reports are mounting up! I currently have 8 games I need to write reports for, but the ATC reports get a priority, so I'll have game 5 done by the end of the night! This was a very interesting game and round... a warning, this won't be a pic heavy report in the slightest.
Our opponents were Skull n Bonez gaming, a rival Florida club. I had never personally played any of their members, but several of my team mates knew their players. I confess I was disappointed to play against a team from the same state, but I suppose by round 5 you can't expect the TO to change the pairings because of it. This is the beginning of the second day of gaming, and so we've all had a night to sleep, and look at the standings that have been put up by the ATC! At the moment, I have 92 points, which is a healthy place to be, and I am currently in the lead for the best Tyranid play! :thumbsup: Enough of that though, in round 5 I am matched up against Eddie, a Tau player.
Eddie's Tau list:
Commander with the Works, 2 Marker drones
Ethereal
8 Fire Warriors
8 Fire Warriors
3 Broadsides (2 Railguns, 1 HYMP, 6 Marker Drones, Target Locks)
3 Broadsides (2 Railguns, 1 HYMP, 6 Marker Drones, Target Locks)
3 Broadsides (2 Railguns, 1 HYMP, 6 Marker Drones, Target Locks)
Riptide (Feel no Pain, Interceptor, Ion Accelerator)
Riptide (Feel no Pain, Interceptor, HBC)
Riptide (Feel no Pain, Interceptor, HBC)
My list:
Flying Hive Tyrant, Devourers, ElectroGrubs
Flying Hive Tyrant, Devourers, ElectroGrubs
Venomthrope
Zoanthrope
25 gants
3 Rippers, Deep Strike
3 Rippers, Deep Strike
3 Rippers, Deep Strike
3 Shrikes, Barbed Strangler, Rending Claws
Hive Crone
Hive Crone
3 Biovores
Imperial Bastion, 3 Barricades, Void Shield
Imperial Knight Errant
Psychic Powers:
Flyrant 1:The Horror, Onslauhgt
Flyrant 2: Catalyst, Warp Lance
Zoanthrope: Psychic Scream
Warlord trait: I got stealth Ruins, which will come in handy. Note that we treated the Necrons structures as ruins.
Pre-game:
I don't always like to go first, but this game I felt depended on me getting up in the air before my opponent started shooting. On the one hand, my opponent has a TON of firepower, but on the other hand I have a ton of experience playing against Tau. To be fair, most of the Tau I face though don't have 9 Broadsides...
Deployment Tyranids:
I win the roll off to my relief, and deploy as seen below. My Flyers are as far up as possible while staying close the Venomthrope. My knight has his side armor turned towards my opponent so that I could fit him in 12" away from my Crones.
Warlord trait: I got stealth Ruins, which will come in handy. Note that we treated the Necrons structures as ruins.
Pre-game:
I don't always like to go first, but this game I felt depended on me getting up in the air before my opponent started shooting. On the one hand, my opponent has a TON of firepower, but on the other hand I have a ton of experience playing against Tau. To be fair, most of the Tau I face though don't have 9 Broadsides...
Deployment Tyranids:
I win the roll off to my relief, and deploy as seen below. My Flyers are as far up as possible while staying close the Venomthrope. My knight has his side armor turned towards my opponent so that I could fit him in 12" away from my Crones.
Deployment Tau:
My opponent puts one Broadside team on my right and two on my left (with commander) and all 3 Riptides in the middle. He then puts one Fire Warrior team on each side, with the Ethereal with a squad on the left.
Tyranid turn 1: Uh oh, my opponent seizes the initiative with my flyers on the ground and my Knights side armor facing him... this is just about my worst nightmare!
Tau turn 1:
My opponent opens fire after some very minimal movement... And he makes a ton of mistakes. He takes two wounds off of my Warlord, and then starts shooting at my Crone... taking off two more wounds. He fires a random Railgun at my Knight and takes off 4 Hull points in one shot!!! Crap! At this point, my opponent suddenly leaves my FMCs alone and targets the Knight, but I save the few hull points he inflicted.
Tyranid turn 1:
I was extremely lucky that I didn't lose first blood there! My opponent spread out his firepower too much, he could have easily finished off a FMC if he'd focused his fire. But, now I have a chance! All of my FMCs go 24" forward, I need to pressure him NOW. My Warlord guns down several Fire Warriors and his Ethereal (two kill points), scoring me First Blood! Crone flamers kill a bunch of Markerlights on my right side, while my other Flyrant kills several more on my left. In total, all three units that took casualties fall back! Sadly none leave the board though...
Kill Point Counter: Tau: 0 Tyranids: 2
Tau turn 2:
All of his units rally. With my Flyers in the air, his shooting is far less effective. I had positioned my Flyrants nearest to his Buffmanders unit, and thankfully they didn't target the Crones! That would've been brutal. Instead I lose a few wounds but none of my Flyers actually go down! My Knight is also untouched with his AV 13 to the front. My opponent jets his Riptides back, but not far...
Tyranid turn 2:
One Crone Vector strikes and kills a Broadside on the right, Flamers kill more Fire Warriors and Markerlights, finishing off the Warriors on the right. Between the Crones and Knight I'm attempting to completely whipe his right flank to give my Rippers a foot hold. One brood comes in there, and I kill his Firewarriors, but leave a Broadside alive along with some Marker drones. Both Flyrants swoop over the two Broadside units there, and massed devourers kill the Firewarriors there, plus a few Markers and a single Broadside. Finally my Knight charges one of his Riptides and completely destroys it!
Kill Point Counter: Tau: 0 Tyranids: 5
Tau turn 3:
I'd been surviving so far mostly on Ruin cover and stealth from my warlord trait, but my opponent gets two markerlight hits on a Crone and guns him down. Then, the two left side Broadside units kill my Knight, and take my Warlord down to a single wound (go go Catalyst!) His Riptides again jet away.
Kill Point Counter: Tau: 2 Tyranids: 5
Tyranids turn 3:
I bring one Flyrant over to the right side with a Crone and finish off the last Broadside and Markers there. My Warlord peppers his full strength unit with Buffmander but does minimal wounds to no effect. Biovores pick out a Drone here and there. My Rippers land in a central ruin behind LoS blocking terrain and near an objective.
Kill Point Counter: Tau: 2 Tyranids: 6
Tau turn 4:
My opponent is able to take out my Warlord with his Riptides, but no more than that. He also puts some wounds on my Crone, but he lives with one left.
Kill point Counter: Tau: 3 Tyranids: 6
Tyranids turn 4:
I use Warp Lance on a Riptide (this guy had failed 3 Nova charges!) and take him down to one wound. I then shoot both devourers and take his final wound. My Crone tries to flame his Broadsides but has no real effect. My last Rippers DS in the middle of the board on an objective.
Kill Point Counter: Tau: 3 Tyranids: 7
Tau turn 5: My opponent moves his more depleted Broadside squad onto a Crusade objective and his other broadsides stay still, while his last Riptide grabs his Emperor's Will Objective. He shoots down my last Crone, but can't kill my last Flyrant.
Kill Point Counter: Tau: 4 Tyranids: 7
Tyranids turn 5:
Rippers on my top right and in the middle make sure they are claiming objectives, and I let my gants continue to sit on my Emperor's Will. My last Flyrant lands and contests my opponent's Emperor's Will Objective. Biovores target his forward Broadsides and kill two Drones, they fall back!
We roll, and the game ends here! We wouldn't have time for another turn anyways though.
I win Crusade 3-0 with my Rippers. I win Emperor's Will 1-0, and I win Purge the Alien 8-4 (his Broadsides are falling back). I drew First Blood and have Line breaker, while my opponent slew my Warlord.
Crushing Tyranid Victory 28-2!
Post-game: Despite the lopsided final score, I got very lucky in this game. My opponent was not used to playing Tyranids, and it showed in his target priority. Early on he spread a lot of wounds over different units, which does nothing to reduce their damage output. This allowed me to get all of my flyers airborn and take down his units one at a time by focusing them down. In the end he had 3 units left, one of which was falling back. His low mobility also hurt him a lot, as I was able to maintain my backfield with absolutely no losses while my 5 heavy hitters were able to dismantle most of his army and, most importantly, keep him pinned back while my Rippers dropped all around and in cover. Something that must be said is that I did have good luck after he seized, in that my opponent rolled poorly in both shooting and Nova rolls on the Riptides. If my opponent fails to seize, I believe I win by an even larger margin as my Knight would likely have survived and chopped through the entirety of his army if not for the one Railgun on side armor, and he would've at least earned me Slay the Warlord.
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