Ok, so here we go! Game 3 for me was against a Dark Eldar player with Eldar allies. Our team was matched up against "Make it Rain", and I threw down my list hoping that our opponent's would counter with Dark Eldar. Not a lot of people realize it, but DEldar and Tyranids is now a terrible matchup... for the elves! That was the theory at least, and I couldn't wait to test it out on the tabletop. My opponent was Steve, who I believe was last year's Best Dark Eldar player. Here we go!
The mission was Hammer and Anvil, Fast Attack were two kill points each.
Steve's Dark Eldar/Eldar list:
The Baron
3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters in Venom
3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters in Venom
5 Warriors , 1 Blaster, in Venom
5 Warriors , 1 Blaster, in Venom
5 Warriors , 1 Blaster, in Venom
5 Warriors , 1 Blaster, in Venom
5 Warriors , 1 Blaster, in Venom
5 Wyches, Haywire Grenades, in Venom
Beastpack (3 Masters, 5 kymera, 4 Razorwings)
Ravager
Ravager
Farseer on jetbike
3 Jetbikes
3 Jetbikes
Jifel's TyranKnights
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, Paroxysm
Flyrant 2: Catalyst, Warp Lance
Zoanthrope: The Horror
Warlord Trait: I got Master of Ambush!
Deployment and turn 1 coming tonight!
Pre-game thoughts:
I was relatively confident coming into this. My thoughts were that my Knight could handle his Beast Star, I just needed to disable his Haywire units ASAP. Beyond that, Flyrants are amazing and killing Venoms, and I had enough flamer weapons to roast his infantry inside! I also am outflanking both of my Crones thanks to the Warlord trait. In Hammer and Anvil, there will be nowhere he can hide that a Crone couldn't flame a vehicle from the side! If I can get my Knight out front quickly, I'll hopefully be able to stall him and prevent him from overwhelming my lines, and then my FMCs should be able to take out his Venoms.
Deployment Tyranids:
I deploy first, and do my usual Bastion in the center with a cluster around it. My Knight is all the way on my left. Both Crones are outflanking due to my Warlord.
Deployment Dark Eldar:
He puts one Trueborn and the Wych venom opposite my Knight. The rest is mostly central, but slightly towards my right. His Beast star has both ICs attached and is right in the middle.
Turn 1 DEldar:
I think my opponent was surprised, but I gave him turn 1. He isn't in position to do much damage with shooting. All his Venoms advance, but due to Line of Sight he can't use most of his Venoms. He does a single wound to a Flyrant I believe.
Turn 1 Tyranids:
His Wyches got too close! Both Flyrants get in range and flame it. 2d6 hits kills the squad inside, while Haywrie and devourers finish off the Venom. Even better, my Knight makes charge and explodes his Trueborn Venom, killing one. They then fall back! I score First Blood.
Kill Point Counter: DEldar: 0 Tyranids: 3
DEldar turn 2:
My opponent is disappointed as both Jetbike squads come in. He then shifts his entire army away from my Knight! Below is the end of his movement phase.
His shooting lowers the armor value of my Bastion with his Dark Lances. So, he assaults it with his Beasts and destroys it! Yeah, he just killed a Building with birds... The Venomthrope inside dies as always. Other than that, he kills a Shrike with Venom fire and mostly bounces off my Flyers, then turbo boosts his Jetbikes.
Kill Point Counter: DEldar: 1 Tyranids: 3
Tyranids turn 2:
One Crone comes in on each side. I Vector Strike a Venom and take off a Hull point, flaming the squad inside as well. A Flyrant comes in and uses it's Flamer to finish off both the Venom and the squad. The Second Flyrant kills a second Venom. On the left, my Crone kills a Jetbike with its vector strike. The squad then fails morale and falls off the table! Finally, my Knight assaults the Beast star. I take no wounds, but kill several models. He then hit and runs away.
Kill Point Counter: DEldar: 1 Tyranids: 7
Turn 3 DEldar:
His Beast star assaults both my Zoanthrope and Biovores, Venoms kill a second Shrike and blast away at my flyers to little affect. In assault, he fails to kill either of my units, and I win assault by one! Wow! That really hurts him as I have plenty of Synapse left now. He doesn't hit and run away.
Turn 3 Tyranids:
My 25 gants and Knight charge into the Beast star again. This time, there are no survivors! My Crones each go after a Ravager and take some Hull Points. Hive Tyrants keep smashing Venoms, and two more venoms die, as well as one squad. (My Rippers have been deepstriking around on various objectives)
Kill Point Counter: DEldar 1: Tyranids: 13
Turn 4 DEldar:
His whole army has stopped advancing, now he is trying just to down some of my Flyers. Again, he isn't able to do much. The squads that have lost their rides run for cover and objectives.
Turn 4 Tyranids:
I blow up his two Venoms, one is left. My two surviving Biovores kill a Warrior squad. The Knight is too close to my gants and can't move! My gants however open fire and kill two Trueborn, one is left on my Emperor's Will. Both Crones land, but use Missiles to ensure his Ravagers keep jinking. One Flyrant goes after his last jetbike squad and kills them all.
Kill Point Counter: DEldar: 1 Tyranids: 17
Turn 5 DEldar:
He finally kills my Warlord Flyrant, and just tries to put Units on as many objectives as he can.
Kill Pont Counter: DEldar: 2 Tyranids: 17
Turn 5 Tyranids:
I kill his last Venom with my Knight, as well as his trueborn on my objective. Rippers assault and kill his last trueborn on the other side of the board that had fallen back turn 1. One Crone assaults and kills a Ravager, my Flyrant kills the second one. Finally, Rippers assault and kill two warriors on a Crusade Objective.
Kill Point Counter: DELdar: 2 Tyranids: 22
At this point, my opponent has three Warriors left on the table. There is just no way he can accomplish anything, and so we call the game here.
Final Result: Tyranids win Crusade 3-0, Emperor's Will 1-0, and Kill Points 22-2. I claim Linebreaker, First Blood, and Warlord, while my opponent slew my Warlord.
Major Tyranid victory 30-2!
Post-game: Ouch! That was just brutal. I think this match up was heavily in my favor, but I didn't expect it to go THAT poorly for him. The dice did favor me several times, throughout the game, and overall my opponent rolled below average. Tactically, there's not much to say. Everything I wanted to do, happened perfectly. I just don't think my opponent quite realized how drastically the match up had changed! DEldar vs Tyranids is no easy thing now... My opponent finished the tourney with 136 points, enough for 26th place! A very strong finish overall by opponent. Sadly though, his team won by a score of 82-64.
Coming up next, Tyranids vs the Astra Militarum!
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