Despite my win/loss ration yesterday (1-2), I'm pretty happy with the Tyranids' performance. The Vanguard Swarm did exactly what it was designed to do; drop on top of my opponent, light them up, and then finish them off in claw to hand combat. Vehicles were not a problem - a single Chimera was the only vehicle fielded against me that survived. The problem was me. In my second game, I botched my initial strike and set the swarm up to be defeated in detail, while in the third I failed to even come up with a decent plan, with predictable results. Overall I think the Vanguard Nids concept is still valid, but it was definitely a day for learning from my mistakes.
Game 1: The Cadian 35th.
This scenario was a Spearhead deployment with 5 objectives: 1 dead center, and 1 centered in each of the four table quarters. My opponent went with a combined arms approach, fielding 3 Chimera mounted infantry squads, some Stormtroopers, a Company Command Squad kitted for Morale boosting with its own Chimera, the obligatory melta Vets hitching a ride in a Vendetta, a squadron of lascannon toting Scout Sentinels, a squadron of 2 Leman Russes, another Squadron of Griffon heavy mortars, and a Manticore.
The game was a textbook Tyranid massacre, aided by some good luck. The Griffons and Manticore were destroyed by outflanking Genestealers and a Tervigon, his Chimeras were halted and wrecked by Zoanthropes and the Carnifex, while his Russes found themselves pinned between terrain and a Trygon. Most of his transports weathered my arrival on turn two, but were hamstrung by lack of supporting fire, a few stunned/shaken, and immobilized results, and terrain. The Carnifex had a field day with side armor Devourer shots and assaults. There was a brief moment when it looked like his Melta Vets and their Vendetta would be able to fight blast apart the Trygon Prime sent to devour them and hold out long enough for his reserves to show up, but they were 1 wound shy of killing it, and neither they nor their gunship survived the next turn. The Guard player conceded at the bottom of Turn 5, with only an immobilized Chimera and a single infantry platoon remaining. I lost maybe seven models.
Overall this was my least favorite game of the day. My opponent seemed genuinely affronted when I gave him first turn and then reserved everything, and his attitude went downhill from there. It made tabletop conversation ... monotonous.
Game 2: Space Wolves
And here comes the pain! For my second match, I got my first crack at Thunderwolf Cavalry. My opponent fielded a fairly straightforward list: 2 squads of Longfangs, 3 smallish squads of Grey Hunters mounted in Rhinos, and two groups of 5 Thunderwolves, each kitted for allocation and with an attendant Wolf Lord.
The scenario was a bit odd. Their were several secondary sets of objectives, but the big one was control of an 18" circle at the board's center. Deployment was standard Pitched Battle.Victory on the primary objective went to the player who could get any of his units into that circle and prevent his opponent from doing the same; failing that, it went to victory points from units destroyed either within or by units within the circle. Confused yet? So were we. The Thunderdome jokes didn't really help.
My opponent won the roll, and elected to go first. He picked the side with the most terrain, and turn two saw his Long Fangs and Thunderwolves holding position, while his Grey Hunters had all driven up into the circle and popped smoke. My reserve rolls were quite good; everything but the Hive Guard and Trygon Prime came in. Unfortunately I was too smart for my own good. In stead of trying to deliver a hammer blow to one of those Thunderwolf squads, I split up; the Zoanthropes futilely tried to crack the Rhinos so the Trygon could start mulching Grey Hunters next turn, and failed to do more than stun them. The Hive Tyrant rolled boxcars trying to hit the Thunderwolves with Paroxysm, and the follow up shooting from her devourers and the Carnifex didn't hurt them enough. I managed to do alot of damage without really impeding his ability to hurt me. The next turn saw a good third of my swarm annihilated in assault, and the situation went downhill from there. On the final turn he only had one unit of Grey Hunters left within the victory circle, but my surviving devourer gaunts were too far away to get more than a few shots off, and there were too few Genestealers left to win the assault and take it for themselves. Ultimately I took a decent chunk out of his list, but was almost tabled in return - Turn 6 ended with only a few gaunts and Hive Guard left on the table.
This was my favorite game of the day: a new army style, a great opponent, and an instructive beating. In retrospect I should have concentrated on the secondary objectives, which were a pair of Capture and Control type markers that ended up on the left side of the board. I could have simply refused to enter the circle, contested it on the final turn, and held the two secondary objectives. If I had concentrated on one flank instead of splitting up, it might have gone differently. As it was, I tried to pull off a plan I should have known was too complex to work.
Game 3: Tyranids
I'll be honest; I hate Tyranid vs. Tyranid matchups. Setup was Kill Points and Dawn of War. He brought a conventional swarm basis - Prime HQ, Hive Guard, Doom of Malan'tai, 2 Tervigons with gaunts, and a Trygon, but added in a brood of 2 Screamer Killers, an outflanking brood of Genestealers with Broodlord, and a unit of lashwhip/bonesword warriors. I spent too much time trying to position for the arrival of the Doom of Malan'tai and making sure those Warriors stayed out of assault. My initial plan was to castle in the table quarter furthest from his Warriors, take a few early kill points, then play defensively for the rest of the game. Thing was, I couldn't get the castle set up. Only four units made it in that turn (after the Tyrant mishapped back into reserve - for the first, but not the last, time), and they weren't up to performing the assassination run on the Tervigon in that quarter that I'd been planning. As a result he had time to spawn and bring in reserves, and my castle turned into a no man's land awash in Genestealer ichor and Termagant pulp.
At this point I realized I had no fallback plan at all, and started sniping Kill Points where I could get them. There were quite a few to be had, but I couldn't collect them without offering up more of my own, and I ended up nearly tabled again, with the final tally being about 16 Kill Points to 12.
Overall it was a good day. I got to play some excellent opponents, see some great looking armies, and test my grasp of the game. I was a little surprised at how few Marine armies were fielded; most of the major variants were about, but there was a refreshingly large number of Xenos players.
More thoughts on listbuilding to (hopefully) follow.
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