Feast of Blades

So, here's a quick breakdown of the Feast of Blades event my FLGS ran last weekend. Turnout was pretty limited, with only 6 people attending, but the back - to - back games at 2000 points provided a nice shakedown for my 6th edition Tyranids.

Representing the Hive Fleets:

HQ:

Tyrant w/ Wings, Hive Commander, Talons, Biomancy x2, TL BL devourers - 270

Elites:

8 Ymgarl Genestealers - 184
8 Ymgarl Genestealers - 184

2 Hive Guard - 100

Troops:

20 Termagants - 100
20 Termagants - 100
20 Termagants - 100

Tervigon w/ Biomancy x3, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs - 210

5 Warriors w/ rending claws, toxin sacs, devourers + 1 barbed strangler, in Mycetic Spore w/ Tl deathspitters - 260

Fast Attack:

15 Gargoyles - 90

Heavy Support:

Trygon - 200

Trygon - 200

Game 1:

In what's becoming a tournament trend for me, the first game was the closest and hardest fought. I drew Imperial Guard headed by Creed and backed by multiple heavy weapons teams, three Leman Russes, a few footslogging platoons, and 4 plasmagunning veteran squads in Chimeras. To make matters worse, the primary objective was kill points.

End of Tyranid turn 2, and it's gone pear shaped. The Trygon in the center scattered out of assault rangedof the armor below the ridge, and while one unit of Ymgarls is in amongst the heavy weapons, the other is offscreen, hopelessly out of position.

This game illustrated the weaknesses of a Tyranid list handily. While I was able to close rapidly and start claiming kill points by turn 2, I was never able to pin my opponent down. The Termagants were little more than targets for most of the game, and my opponent was able to use his mobility and firepower to prevent me from overwhelming him. By the end of the 2nd Guard turn, the Hive Tyrant and closest Trygon were dead, and it was apparent that it would be several turns before my footslogging swarm hit his lines - if it lived through the storm of shells and plasma.

Ultimately the game was decided by the melee combat on the ridge. The Guard were on course to table me, but would have probably needed 6 turns to do it, and it was apparent we were only going to get 4. On turn 3,with us tied on kill points, the Ymgarls locked in combat with the survivors of a few heavy weapons teams, and my Warriors lurking behind the ridge, Creed gave himself and two other squads Furious Charge and assaulted both the Genestealers and the Warriors. The resulting combat saw all the Guard squads eliminated, with Creed falling to the second Trygon as it finally got into assault range. The Guard's return fire subsequently scoured the ridge of Tyranids, but it was too little, too late. Time was called at the bottom of Turn 4 with the Nids up 7-9.


Game 2:

After a narrow win in round 1, I was paired off with a Chaos Marine player in a table quarter (actually quintet) scenario. My opponent field 3 Plasmagun toting Plague Marine squads, 2 squads of 3 Obliterators, a Slaaneshi Lord and Terminator retinue riding in a Land Raider, a Vindicator, and a pair of Dreadnoughts.

Once again, Tyranid turn 2. The Vindicator is down, as are 2 of the 3 Rhinos ferrying the Plague Marines.

This game was fairly straightforward. My opponent set his troops in a loose line across the center, and split his ranged firepower between the two corners of the board. Extreme range and Nightfighting protected everything but the Gargoyle screen, and I concentrated on pushing forward. Although my Ymgarls could have easily assaulted each squad of Obliterators, that would have been suicidal - Powerfists + 3d3 heavy flamer hits from Overwatch would have likely crippled them. Instead one squad took out the Vindicator, while the other tore open a Rhino.

Chaos return fire saw both Genestealer squads incinerated and the Hive Tyrant dead to plasma fire, but by then it was too late. The Warriors overwhelmed the central Plague Marine squad, then spent the rest of the game supporting the Hive Guard in a firefight with the Dreads, Obliterators, and stranded Marine squad.  They took the worst of it, but kept all of those units penned in one table section. The other squad was surrounded by Termagants and finished off by a Trygon, while the other rampaged through a Land Raider and the Terminators inside. The game ended on turn 5 with the Nids up 3 sections to 1.

Game 3:

The final game was against a Black (Red) Templar force in a 5 objective mission. My opponent went assault heavy, with a 6 man Missile/Plasma squad, two Crusader squads in Land Raiders (one a Godhammer with the Emperor's Champion, the other a Crusader with Marshall Helbrecht). Backing them up were a Dakka Predator, a Landspeeder, and a large squad of Tactical Terminators backed by a Chaplain.

Black Templar Turn 2, as Helbrecht and co. disembark. It doesn't look like it, but there are a lot of dead Gaunts already. And they're going to have company soon.

 This game got ugly quickly. Templar fire tore a hole in my Gargoyle screen and killed about a quarter of the Termagants before I even got a chance to move. TheTyranids were not to be outdone, however. On my Turn 1, the Termagants advanced towards the objectives, while the Hive Tyrant Vector Struck the Landspeeder into the dirt, then wrecked the Predator via Devourer hits to the side armor.

Turn 2 saw the game turn decisively against the Templar. Their return fire killed only a few more Termagants and wounded the Tyrant. Helbrecht's squad killed a few Termagants via shooting, then catastrophically failed their charge roll, getting only 5" and losing the only model in range to Overwatch shots. On the Tyranid half of the turn, all of my reserves arrived; the Trygons bracketed the Godhammer, the Warriors touched down next to the Terminators, and the Ymgarls burst from cover in front of the squad on the hill. By the end of the turn, Helbrecht was locked in a challenge with a S8/T9 Tervigon, half the Terminators were dead, and the fire support squad was annihilated.

Full credit to my opponent at this point. With his army crumbling, he kept the objectives in mind and proceeded to mercilessly scythe down my scoring units. The surviving Terminators rushed the Warriors, while the Emperor's Champion and company blitzed both of the unengaged Termagant squads, wiping them out. Only luck allowed the Warriors to hold out long enough for the Trygon and Genestealers to rescue them, and they were the only surviving troop choice - fortunately they'd been fighting on an objective the entire time. While I was able to destroy both Land Raiders, their combined firepower was enough to wipe out the depleted Termagant squads once they had finished off Helbrecht, and I foolishly held the Tervigon back to help the Tyrant wreck the Crusader.

Ultimately I tabled my opponent, winning a narrow victory on the primary objective, but gaining most of the secondary objectives via maneuvering on Turn 6.

Those 3 wins were enough to take 1st place with the Tyranids, something I never managed to do in 5th edition. Not a bad way to start.

Overall I think I'm pretty happy with the Tyranids' performance. I made some glaring placement/movement errors, particularly in the first game, but was able to recover. The basic concept of a large footslogging wave backed up by reserved disruption units worked well, although I've got to get better at coordinating the moment of impact.