I've been assembling

Well, since writing my last 2k list, which I think I'll be staying with, I've bought a lot of the models I need... This weekend I picked up a Tyranid battleforce (It was partially assembled, and irresistably cheap...) and a Tervigon. Since the 32 varied gaunts were already assembled, I had to break off all of their arms to be replaced with Fleshborers. Let me tell you, that's a chore. Every single model had stubs from the old arms lefts in the sockets, so when I attached the new arms sunday they looked pretty bad. This morning though, I spent my entire stock of Green Stuff smoothing over gaps and making the arms look unbroken. Yikes. I still have a few guys whos opposite arms wouldnt reach the gun, so I'll have to either attach somes caws so it doesnt look wierd, or connect them with wires... not sure yet. Otherwise, I assembled my third and final Tervigon, and I converted the three warriors from the force into a pair of Biovores and the Tyrant Guard. The Bios have warrior torsos, and converted Genestealer legs and lower bodys, I think it looks pretty good. I glued the barrels of Barbed stranglers on their backs and added pipes from various bioweapons, and some green stuff. Overall, they are size wise very close to a Biovore, just a little slimmer looking. Definately worth it, considering I got the whole Battleforce for less than one finecast Biovore!

I now have the full list assembled that I plan to use for BeakyCon 2012, however I plan on buying even more gnats, as I dont have too many gants left. After the 49 that will be used in my list (the GT is 1999, not 2k, so I dropped one) I only have 23 gants left to account for the spawning of 3 Tervigons. I'll have to buy at least two more 12 man boxes, maybe even three. Since BeakyCon is a fully painted tournament, I have a LOT of work to do!

Here's what I have painted:

Flyrant
Dakkarant
1x Tervigon
20 gants
6 Hive Guard
2 Zoanthropes

What I still need to paint:

2 Tervigons
2 Biovores
1 Tyrant Guard
52 gants

What I need to buy, assemble, AND paint:

~24 gants. maybe even more...

Yikes. The big day is October  6 (and 7th), I have a feeling I'm going to be painting gants right up until the last minute... I should get a Tervigon done this week, then I'll have to spray 32 gants and the Biovores, plus the last Tervigon. It's pretty daunting, but it'll be worth it to bring that many painted models to the table!

2000 point considerations

Given the 1850 list I played with at the most recent RTT this weekend, I have yet more thoughts on how to improve my army as a whole. Since 2000 is the main points level of my local meta, and of most large tournaments, here's my current theoretical 2000 point list...

Flyrant with Twin Devourers
Tyrant with shell, devourers and old Adversary, +1 guard with whips
2x3 Hive Guard
2x Venomthropes
2x20 Hormagaunts
2x10 gants
2xTervigons, with 3 powers, Toxin and (1xAdrenal)
2x Biovores

Ok, now let's look at the theoreticals, plus the results of my last RTT.

Both Tyrants performed very well overall. Hive Guard and Tervigons (plus termagants) are staple units, and are good enough that they're going no where. Now, let's look at Hormagaunts...

I love Hormagaunts. I played with them in 4th edition when I was learning the rules. My first 8 man brood was the first unit of 40k that I ever painted. Theyve since featured in every competetitive list I've written since then, and always in larger numbers. Compared to the humble termagant, they are vastly superior in CC especially when you add in Toxin and Adrenal. They are however, far more expensive, and now, after 4 and a half glorious years of wargaming, I must question their use. 40 of them, in 2 broods, costs a total of 400 points. With the total shift towards shooting, I think that Tyranids need to shift towards survivability through numbers. With all the upgrades they can get, any unit I have will wreck in close combat, the difference between Hormagaunts and termagants is no longer enough to warrant the cost increase. Let's look at what I could get, for 400 points:

One Tervigon, with Toxin and Adrenal, plus Adrenal on another Tervigon.

THIRTY termagants. I would redistribute them among my existing squads, adding ten to one of the ten man squads, and giving me one more 20 twenty man squad. This gives me 50 termagants in 20+20+10, as opposed to 20+20 Hormagaunts and 10+10 gants. Oh, and a Tervigon, plus 30 more points!

With 30 points, I'd probably drop whips on lone guard, and with the 35 points Id drop the two Venomthropes for two Zoanthropes. Obviously, Id have to swap out their powers. Currently, the Venoms help against massive shooting, and they make the hordes more survivable. As it is it's too easy to give MCs cover, theyre not needed for that anymore. If I'm facing a high volume of fire army, I'll swap out on Telekinesis in hopes of Telekine shield. If it doesnt work, I have FIVE more multiple-power Psychers who can each throw a roll in. Otherwise, I'll be rolling Biomancy. Endurance, Enfeeble, and Iron Arm will help out the army a lot, while Warp speed or haemorrhage I would swap out for Smite for some nice Ap. 2 shooting and Synapse. If against a vehicle heavy army, Im talking spam, I would go telepathy for the chances of Objuratio Mechanicum, and puppet Master. Both are great against vehicles!

What the Tervigon/gant replacement does to improve my army: I become far more survivable to shooting: Gants are as tough as termagants. My army loses 10 t3 6+ w1 models for one T6 W6 3+ model that has three psychic powers nad will be FAR better supporting the army. The gants also become weapons nearly as potent as Hormies, with guns, and with the potential for FAR more of them to pop up. With now three Tervigons on the table, I'd be far more comfortable spawning in the first and subsequent turns. First turn, I'll spawn with them one at a time, if I spawn out with one of the first two I'll probably hold off on the third. If it's a multiple objective mission I'll want to hold out a few of them for late game spawning, a favored tactic of mine. If it's relic, table quarters, two objectives etc. I may just flood the board completely, which is now an option.

What the Zoanthrope replacemant does to Improve my army: I now have far more tactical flexibility, by rolling on powers. Land Raiders? Hold them. My other options I covered above, but I now have more "adaptability" to the enemies army, as Tyranids should.

However, I have 25 points left. I think I'll throw Crushing Claws on one of the three, so that I have a little extra Ap. 2 Close Combat punch.

The final list:

DakkaTyrant with shell, OldAdversary and a guard
DakkaFlyrant
2x3 Hive Guard
2x Zoanthropes
10 gants
2x20 gants
3x Tervigons with Toxin/Adrenal
2x Biovores

There's only one problem...

This list looks amazing. It's also one of several you could find on the internet. This lists feels almost too spammy to me. Where as Tyranids, fluffwise, can justify spam, I still dont quite like it. Then again, looking at the top lists of GK henchmen, IG, and scythewing, I think this is something I can't have any qualms about. I'm building up for a 2000 point GT in October, and I'm aiming to score. In the Imperium mech spam meta that seems top, I want to show how good Tyranids can be. I think that I'm going to have to go for the dirtiest, cheesiest Tyranid list I can build. (With the Nids online reputation, not many people will ever, ever call them cheesy though) Still, I always enjoyed bringing units no one else brought, like my Hormas and Venoms. Overall, if I can do well in the tournament, I'll probably bring them out of "retirement", but for now my Venoms and Hormagaunts may be out of my competetive lists.

Please, comment! Think I should be more diverse in my army? Tell me! Think Hormagaunts trump termagants? Tell me! Any and all advice and critque is welcome! Feel free to tell me I'm stupid for being squeamish about considering spam in a tournament...

8/18 RTT Game Three: 1850 vs. Wolves

Game 3 rolls along, and I'm 1-1, a victory now will probably get me to 3rd or 2nd just due to the small amount of players. My opponent is a Space Wolf list, and boy oh boy does he look fun.

Rune Preist: Jaws otWW, LL
Rune Preist: Jaws otWW, Murderous Hurricane
Rune Preist: Jaws otWW, something else.
4x 7 man Grey Hunters with Wolf Standard, and attached Preist and Terminators, 2 in Drop Pods (the preists are on all but one of the Drop Pod squads, which wont come in turn 1)
4 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armor with power Axes
5 Grey Hunters with flamer in LasPlas back
3x Long Fangs with missiles
3 Rhinos on various things.
5 scouts

Mission: The Relic, pitched battle, straight from the rulebook. The Relic was a ball from Blood Bowl. Our mission sheets instructed us to fight over the Relicus of the Adeptus Athleticus. Despite it being preseason, there really is nothing like summer football!

Warlord traits: I re roll reserves, his is useless.

Psy Powers:
Flyrant: Life Leech, Endurance,
Tyrant: Enfeeble, Smite
Tevigon1: Endurance, Iron Arm, Life Leech.
Tervigon2: Endurance, Smite, Warp Speed.

*Note: I wont mention psychic powers. Throughout the game, he passes every single "Wolf Runes of Wolfiness Wolfing" 4+ roll, all game.

He wins and takes turn 1.

Deployment SW: The Razor and rhinos make a line right up front, only the razorback has a squad inside. Theres a central terrain peice with the Football, and two Jaws squads, one on each flank. The last Jaws squad will DP in first turn. 3 Long Fang squads sit on terrain peices in the far back. yay.

Deployment Tyranids: I spread out my Mcs, to spread the shadow, but I'll probably lose one. Hormagaunts on each flank, Hive Guard, Venoms and gants fill the center of my army. The Flyrant is in reserves, because of my Warlord trait.

Turn 1 Wolves: Everything advances or Pods in. He hits his scatter, and deploys 12.1" away from my Tervigon. His rhinos rush up towards the relic. Jaws goes off, missiles fly. Both tervigons fail tests and drop ( I fail every single Deny the witch roll this turn). Missiles spatter the Venomthropes after snake eyes on cover. Frag missiles kill 7 hormagaunts in cover on my left, Jaws takes down a Hive Guard, and the recently Deep Struck squad rapid fires 6 gants away.

Turn 1 Tyranids: Ow. Ow. Ow. That hurt. Hive Guard survivors blow up the razorback. Hormagaunts assault the recently disembarked Drop Podders. 17 Gaunts swing, I cause 19 wounds. He pops his Wolfy wolf standard, and takes 19 saves on the Wolf Guard. With re rollable ones, he passes all. (I mightve snuck a wound onto one Hunter and killed him) He swings back. 6 Grey Hunters, 18 attacks after counter attack, and he inflicts 15 wounds. Holy Shit. The 17 gaunts are scattered and completely whiped after the preist and wolf guard swing. My other Hive Guard shoot the disembarked 5 man squad, kill one and then assault. It's a lock, but Im contesting the relic. The DakkaTyrant guns down the front Wolf Guard in one of the Jaws Squads.

Lets take a moment of silence here: My casualties over the first game turn
2 Tervigons
24 Hormagaunts
6 gaunts
a Hive Guard
2 venomthropes

Lets total this shall we?
810 points. After one turn, Im down 810 points, and I'm really pissed off. I've killed two Grey Hunters, a Wolf Guard and one Razorback.

Space Wolves turn 2: Missiles fly, my Tyrant laughs them off, as well as Jaws. His Drop Pod comes in and kills a handful of gants. His squad that Podded last turn runs up to assault the Hive Guard, but the combat continues to be a push. His wolf priest had seperated, but jaws did nothing.  His two jaws squad are moving slowly towards the relic thanks to terrain.

Tyranid turn 2: My left flank collapses inwards. The Hive Tyrant dakkas the recently deepstruck squad, as do the gants. He loses the Terminator and is downed to 5 models. Hormaganuts come busting through terrain, and after fleet get a 6, 5, and a 5 for charge. They smash though and kill the 4 man Grey Hunter squad. Hive Guard not locked kill the seperated preist.

Space Wolves turn 3: His two rhinos both move but immobilise themselves, the third is on my far left and out of the game essentially. He still got one of the rhinos close to the 5 man squad first, they embark. Jaws squads close in, and missiles bounce of the Shellrant. His scouts outflank on the far right, and are way too far to have an effect. In assault his Wolf Guard goes down, as does the last Hive Guard. He's down to three models.

Tyranids turn 3: I wrap the immobilised rhino with gants and kill it, he is forced to emergency disembark, theyre out of the game for a while now. The Dakkafex didnt do much besides kill a few guys and wound the preist in a Jaws squad. In assault, the Hormagaunts finish off the Hunters and consolidate onto the Relic, I wrap it so he cant claim it next turn. My Flyrant finally comes on, and nails the Jaws squad the dakkafex shot, killing three including the Wolf banner. I hate those things! That squad is down to a wounded preist, terminators, and two guys strung out way back, they'll have to get back into coherency.

Space Wolves turn 4: This may be the last turn, and he realizes he can't het the relic. All three Long Fang squads shoot the Flyrant. Between 12 missiles, 6 hit somehow and tear the beast down. Damn! His mostly unhurt Jaws squad finally crosses the terrain and rapid fires into the Hormagaunts, killing a few and knocking them off the Relic. He runs his terminator towards the relic to try and block the survivors but only gets 3". His wounded preist charges the Hormagaunts, I murder him and consolidate.

Tyranids turn 4: I move one Hormagaunt up onto the relic and tell him the game is over. We have 6 minutes left, and he presses for another turn, so I tell him that if he wants another turn, then I'll have to finish out this one, by moving the rest of the unit, running, and shooting and assaulting him with a Hive Tyrant. He realises that there wont be time if I do that, and accepts that it's over.

Victory... Tyranids? 3-1 (Relic vs. First Blood)

Wow. I actually won. After the first turn, we both assumed the game was over. I think he let up a little bit, but I kept on playing balls-out until the end. Starting turn 2, I just swamped the Relic, trying to do anything to keep him from picking it up. I even assaulted with Hive Guard! In the end, killing the Wolf Banners is huge if you can shoot them out. Between Look out sir and rolling every wound one at a time for mixed saves, my opponent had very slow turns thanks to those Terminators, which actually might have helped me. If there was a turn 5, I think I would have still claimed the relic. The Hormagaunts would run away, Id shoot and assault, probably kill one of the Jaws squads and maybe the other, even if he killed the Hormagaunts I had two (albeit small) gant squads nearby to jump on it. This was a nailbiter, and probably the biggest comeback I've made in a 40k game!

Final Tournament: The other Nids player lost to GK, who took 1st. I took second place, and Tyranids took 3rd from the other player. That was utterly draining as an RTT, but I have a few ideas that I'll post soon about improving my army list.

8/18 RTT Game Two: 1850 vs. GK/IG

Round two of Saturday's RTT, and I'm drawn against the GK player, with a smattering of IG allies. This guy is one of the better players I've seen, and beat me in our first game two weeks ago in the last round of an RTT. Although a smaller game, we're both running similar lists to last time. Here's his:

Coteaz
10 Purifiers with 4 Psycannons (5 in a Psyback)
5 man Strike Squad (in reserves)
3 melta henchmen in a chimera
3 plasma henchmen in a chimera
2 Psyflenaughts
Dreadknight with Doomfists and Heavy Incinerator

Primaris Psyker
10 Plasmavets in a Chimera
Manticore
10 Plasmavets in a Vendetta (with Primaris)

The Mission: 5 Objectives, we each have one that is in the center of our Deployment Zone, but 12" up. Deployment is Dawn of War (the old Pitched Battle) The objectives end up being placed in a "C" shape. We each have two  that are along the front of our deployment zone (12" from the edge) opposite eachother, and then there is one that is in the middle of the board but to my left, and to the left of the other Objectives. Secondary are Linebreaker and First Blood.

The Board: In the middle of the C of objectives is a large ruin, other than that there is little terrain scattered around. There is NO LoS blocking terrain sadly, but I'll live.

Warlord Traits: His is useless, mine is Stealth for Ruins. There's only one, but it may be useful!

Psychic Powers: Coteaz has a heavy Flamer from Pyro and the Divination that re rolls to hit. He's attached to the 5 Purifiers with 4 Psycannons. Yay. His Primaris gets Psychic Shriek from Telepathy.

Tyrant: Endurance, Smite
Flyrant: Enfeeble, Warp Speed
Tervigon 1: Endurance, Iron Arm, Life Leech
Tervigon 2: Endurance, Smite, Warp Speed

Pre Game thoughts: Well Objectives is a LOT better for me than Kill Points was in our last game, so hopefully I can pull this out. He's still a really good player though, with a lot of shooting. My plan is to move my army up as a whole into the large ruin, while Hgaunts sweep up the sides, and I'll try to use the Stealth Ruins for a 3+ cover. Late Game I'll go spawn onto his objectives for contesting, while my gaunt squads hide in the back on my two. I have more shooting with two Dakka Tyrants than last time, hopefully with my Hive Guard I can cull his Vehicle horde enough to beat him in attrition.

Deployment GK: His psyflenaughts and Manticore are in the far back, while everything else is deploying upwards. His psyback is in the center, flanked by the GK chimeras on each side. The meltahenchmen stay out of their chimera, and are behind the psyback. The Psycannon purifiers are ready to get in the Chimera. On the far left are the plasma vets. Still everything is very central, as are the objectives.

Tyranid Deployment: I deploy to meet him. My 4 MCs are grouped around the Venomthropes, (blocking LoS) with Hive Guard next to them, in Venomthrope Range. I deploy them as far forward as I can. I know they'll get shot, but they have cover and if I leave them back they'll still get shot by his higher range weapons, and  I won't be able to retaliate. Hormagaunts are on each flank, (in venom range thanks to a small string) and my 2 gant squads are on the two objectives in my DZ.

GK turn 1: The Purifiers embark and move up 6". No other moving, as he fires away. The Manticore wounds a Tervi, the Tyrant Guard and kills a Venomthrope. Other shooting, after some spectacularly bad saves, whipes out both Hive Guard Broods! Yikes!

Tyranids turn 1: Nothing much to do, besides charge! Everything advances and runs, the Flyrant gets up and Immobilises the Plasmavet Chimera. Other shooting glances the psyback twice thanks to the Dakkatyrant.

GK turn 2: Again, he opens fire. Now he's concentrating on the Flyrant (who has FnP) and downs him first shot, but otherwise he manages to leave him alive and with one wound remaining! The Dreadknight flames some Hormagaunts, but will be in charge range. The Strike Squad comes in and does nothing.

Tyranid turn 2: The Flyrant glides up, shoots the Chimera and assaults the Plasmavets. However, moving through Terrain he strikes last, and a random veteran rolls a 6 to wound. I fail my save in a very anti-climatic fashion. The Hormagaunts on my left advance and hit the Dreadknight. He passes a lot of saves and kills 4 between overwatch and his swings. The DakkaTyrant advances right up through the ruins, as do the two Tervigons and the Venomthrope. Shooting there is ineffective. Hormagaunts on the right continue there charge at the Purifiers in the Chimera, but are out of range to do anything for a bit.

GK turn 3: His shooting whipes the Tyrant Guard off and after everything in his army shoots, he finally finishes off the walking Tyrant. Even his two 3 man henchmen squads step up to take their shots.  As I pull him off, he asks me what the Red counter is where my Tyrant was. It was my Feel no Pain marker! D'oh! At this point I roll my Fnp for the last wound he'd taken, as we hadn't moved onto anything else yet, and it comes up a 5. Although I'd taken more wounds than I should have, I survive to fight on!

Tyranids turn 3: I spawn 13 gants out of my left Tervigon, no doubles, and they shoot and assault the Plasmavets, whiping them out. The Tervigon itself uses her Stinger Salvo to down the three plasma henchmen, and the other Tervigon kills the 3 meltahenchmen. My DakkaTyrant shoots the Strike Squad, and kills 3. He prepares to assault, only for them to fall back!

At this point, the only scoring units my opponent has left on the board are 2 fleeing strike squad members, but there are 10 meltavets in reserve.

GK turn 4: His Vendetta comes in automatically, and blasts the DakkaTyrant. I pass all three cover saves! Sadly, he doesn't survive the attentions of 16 psycannon shots... His other shooting mulches the 13 termagants Id spawned, 5 survive and fall back, after he targets and murders my wounded Tervigon, who had failed her Endurance check and was awkwardly lacking in FnP.

Tyranid turn 4: The Hormagaunts and my last Tervigon assault and kill the Purifiers chimera. I was just short of blocking off the rear hatch, but he managed to place a model 1" away and touching the hatch, so they all got out. The tervigon gets up to a mighty Toughness 9! The other gants rally and move up, shooting his two strike marines. One dies, and the other falls off the table! His last scoring unit is now the vets in the Vendetta. His dreadknight finally kills the last Hormagaunts, and is unwounded despite the massive amount of Poisoned attacks I had thrown at him.

GK turn 5: His vendetta goes to hover and drops the vets on the top right objective of the "C", they rapid fire into the hormagaunts and kill a few, but not enough. Shooting at the T9 Tervigon is highly, highly ineffective considering how much fire I took, I believe I have 2 wounds left? Other shooting, one of my two gant squads on my objectives falls back, the other holds at two models.

Tyranid turn 5: This could be the last game turn, I currently have a Tervigon, Venomthrope, and some Hormagaunts, plus two depleted gaunt squads in the back. My gants fail to rally and drop off the board, my Hormagaunts kill the Veterans, his last scoring unit. The Tervigon spawns 13 gants, who move and run to claim an objective. I only get T7 for Iron Arm sadly. The Tervi assaults and kills the Psyback. The Venom assaults the dreadknight but dies in a failed attempt to hold it up.

As it stands, Im holding three objectives uncontested. Both of his, and one of mine. If it ends, I have the game.

It doesnt. With 10 minutes left he insists on one more turn, I agree.

GK turn 6: With no scoring units left, he has to table me to win. First, one dreadnaught blows up the two gants on my objective. Next, the dreadknight flames the gants on his objectives and kills 6. His other dread and a chimera kill the Tervigon, whos death kills a few more gants. His purifiers open up and kill the last gants. His other Purifiers kill all the Hormagaunts in LoS, but I have 7 left. At this point, he one unit left to try and kill my Hormagaunts. His Primaris Psyker casts Psychic Scream, which as it's worded, you roll 3d6 and subtract the targets leadership. We got into a bit of an arguement as I wanted to roll the 3d6, as I thought it was a Ld. check, thinking of the Doom of malant'tai. We check the wording and it turns out he gets to roll it. He passes his check, hits at Bs. 3 and rolls a 15 on three dice, causing 9 wounds with no cover saves allowed on the Ld. 6 Hormagaunts, completing a tabling.

Victory: Grey Knights! Final Score: 1-0. He had scored first blood, netting the only point earned in the game by either of us.

Thoughts on the game: Wow, that was close. Brutally, obscenely close. In his last turn, I was highly surpriesed that he carried out a tabling. I didnt think he had enough firepower left to kill 4 units. He got really lucky with killing the Hive Guard early, and rolling so well on the Primaris late, but I had some luck in the middle with saves on my Tyrant. The fact is, this game went down to every single dice roll on turn 6. It was actually really fun for a loss, and I thought I had him once I killed every scoring unit he had. I think I made a few mistakes, one was assaulting with the Venomthrope.If he had just run up, Id have had a unit left my turn 6 and then I could have gotten Linebreaker for a draw on my turn 6. Also, when The Tervigon assaulted the Psyback turn 5, I positioned him poorly and got him within 6" of the gants, who I had purposely moved out of that range. I could have easily assaulted the Psyback without needing to get that close to my own guys. Overall though, there's not really much different I would have done. I killed a crap load of models in his army, including all 5 troops choices, plus 4 of his transports I believe. The game never really seems to end when ou need it to!

Ironically, I still have the most points! Despit getting 0, I had a total of 12, while my GK opponent now had 11. While we were laughing, the TO walked by, and informed us that final placings would use W/L record first, points second. Bummer. Still, amusing!

8/18 RTT Game 1: 1850 vs. Necrons

Drove up through a nice healthy rain on saturday, only to discover that there'd be a relatively small crowd for the RTT. There turned out to be 6 players, probably due to the aforementioned weather. Aside from me, (and my obvious Tyranids) we had a second Tyranid Player, who was running a psyker spam (2 Tervis 4 Broodlords 8 Zoanthropes) and an Ork, Space Wolf, Necrons, and GK/IG player.

My list for the day is as follows:

Tyrant with 2x Devourers, Old Adversary, Armored Shell and one guard
Flyrant with two Devourers
2x3 Hive Guard
2x Venomthropes
2x (20 and 17 man) Super Hormagaunt broods
2x10 gants
2x Tervigons with 3 powers

I ended up drawing first round against the Necron player. He was a very friendly guy, who had had to cut down his 2500 list last-second due to a points confusion, and so wasn't playing very competitively on the day. To the best of my memory, his list was as follows:

Special Character (Zandrek I believe, the one who takes and gives special abilities)
3 orb lords, each in a warrior squad
3 10 man warrior squads
8 ish Immortals with Gauss (Nemesor here)
2 Doomsday Arks
2 tooled out C'tan shards

Warlord traits were both useless.

Mission was one point per table quarter controlled at the end of each turn, starting turn 2. Secondary was warlord and linebreaker. Deployment is Vanguard Strike (always fun to set up...) 6 turns, turn 7 on a 4+.

My psychic powers:

Tyrant: Life Leech and Warp Speed
Flyrant: Life Leech and Warp Speed
Tervigon 1: Endurance, Smite, and one other (I wrote them down on the score sheet, which got turned in)
Tervigon 2: Iron Arm, Smite and one other (see Tervigon 1)

The board: I go first, and make my opponent deploy in a half with a massive LoS blocking building. I figure that if he wants to shoot me, he'll have to stay at the very front of his Deployment zone to do so! I'm using the impassable terrain as an Anvil to hammer his army with.

My Deployment: I deploy my three MCs very centrally, with Hive Guard and the Venoms right behind, both Hormagaunt broods on a flank each. gants hide in the back and are in two table quarters to start the game. My Flyrant is on the board, and hiding behind a LoS blocking soda can-turned-terrain.

His deployment: Arcs are on my left, with one warrior squad and the immortals in front, and the C'tan shards nearby. Two warior squads are on the right, and completely isolated from the rest of his army by the building.

Tyranids 1: Everything runs forward. Hive Guard down a few Warriors and blow up an Arc. However, I realise in my brief army rundown (He had never played Tyranids) that I forgot to explain the rules of Hive Guard ignoring cover. To this end, I give him his save for intervening terrain and he passes 3 of 4 5+ saves! his arc was glanced once, and is now very angry. The Flyrant swoops up and blasts his warriors, downing several who stand back up.

Necrons turn 1: He advances his C'tan, nothing else moves. Shooting wounds a Tervigon once, kills a few gants and does no real damage.

Bugs turn 2: I through the right side of my Hormagaunts up into a C'tan shard. Only a few make it, but I wound him twice with wonderful poison, he kills two back for a push. On the left my Hormagaunts are out of range to charge due to some inconvenient terrain I was slogging through. Hive Guard fire does very little sadly. The walking Tyrant downs an Orblord in the warrior squad. The Flyrant glides, dakkas and assaults the warriors. He loses his lord and a few Warriors but holds. I hold my own quarter, while the warriors with the tyrant contest the bottom right. His unlocked C'tan contests the top left, and his (top right) quarter I contest with the few gants I assaulted his C'tan with.

Tyranids: 1 Necrons: 0

Necrons turn 2: Little moving, more shooting. My tervigon loses another wound despite T9, and I lose a Hive Guard on the left. In assault my Flyrant whiffs and the Hormagaunts finish the C'tan. His other C'tan charges my wounded t9 tervi and wounds once, I fail to hurt him though. Table quarter status is the same.

Tyranids: 2 Necrons: 0

Tyranids turn 3: Left side Hormagaunts assault and kill his C'tan hitting my Tervigon, it explodes and kills 10!!!!!!! My other Hormagaunts run right under his Doomsday Ark (hoping he wont shoot me for fear of scatter) My Tyrant assaults the Immortals and kill a few, but he holds and they stand back up. (nemesor declined my challenge) The Flyrant kills a few warriors, they hold and get back up. (He has really good Reanimation rolls this game, but not quite the same luck with shooting.)

Tyranids: 3 Necrons: 0

Necrons turn 3: He has very few units with Targets that aren't locked. His Arks and warriors kill all but three Hormagaunts in the left squad, and he gets a dead hit on the right and vapes all but a few. In assault both Tyrants, walking and flying, kill a few guys who hold and then get up... annoying.

Tyranids: 4 Necrons: 0

Tyranids turn 4: I kill an ark, and assault the warrirors with Tervigons, who fall back off the board. In assault I finally kill the Immortals, but the Flyrant continues to stay locked with a measly 6 warriors!

Tyranids: 5 Necrons: 0

At this point my opponent forfeits. He has one Ark and one warrior squad not locked or dead, and the warriors have no target since the Tyrant is locked. We roll for the Tyrant/Nemesor combat (kill the Warlord purposes) and I kill him, collecting that point plus linebreaker. We looked at what would happen over the next few turns, and decided by turn 6 I would have had 12 total points, assuming the Flyrant continued to be held up and that his lone warrior squad would hide to contest his table quarter.

Final result: Victory Tyranids!

Thoughts: A very good matchup and a good mission for me, my list hard-countered everything he had through luck. My 12 points were the most this round. The GK/IG player got 10, and the other Nid player somehow got 2 points yet beat the Space Wolves, who only had one! I was really confused, until I realised that they had somehow gotten two turns in to a two hour period... Wow! I knew my next round pairing just by asking scores, I'd be playing against Henchmen spam, the same player who beat me in the final round of my last tournament. Stay tuned for updates, tomorrow brings a new Batrep!

RTT complete!

Had a great time today, one of the most fun (and nailbiting) tournaments I have played in a long time! I won't spoil this with my results, but in games 1, 2, and 3, I played Necrons, Grey Knights, and Space Wolves! Starting tommorrow I'll have Batreps up, see how I fair against the top armies of 6th edition!

Also, game two is a rematch against my round three opponent of my last tournament, and his dreaded henchmen spam. Wait and see how it goes!

RTT Today!

Going up to my FLGS today for an 1850 RTT. I'll be modifying my 1850 list slightly, in order to test out some unit's loadouts for comparison.

Flyrant 2x Devourers
Shellrant 2x Devourers, Old Adversary
1x Tyrant Guard with Lash Whip
2x3 Hive Guard
2x Venomthropes
20 Super Hormagaunts
17 Super Hormagaunts
2x Tervigons, Catalyst and Onslaught
2x10 gants

Whats different then last time is that both Tyrant options now have super Dakka! Hopefully this will help me out against mech spam and the dreaded flyers...

Battle Reports will be coming in the next few days.