Tournament Report

I finally got a chance to put my 6th edition Tyranid list to a competitive test this weekend at FLGS Four Horsemen Comics & Games. The tournament itself was designed and run by Steve over at Path of War, and made for a great day of dice rolling and hanging out with fellow 40k players. There's already talk of making this a recurring event, and I hope that it will be.

And now to the details. The tournament went 4 rounds with 14 players bringing their best 2000 point lists to the party. Not knowing the full run of scenarios or the spread of potential opponents, I brought an expanded version of my 1500 Tyranid list, optimized to get the most out of the Strategic set of Warlord traits:

HQ:

Hive Tyrant w/ Armored Shell, TL BL devourers x2, Hive Commander, 1 Tyrant Guard (Warlord)

Hive Tyrant w/ Armored Shell, TL BL devourers x2, Hive Commander, 1 Tyrant Guard

Elites:

2 Hive Guard

Troops:

20 Termagants 
20 Termagants
20 Termagants

Tervigon w/ Stinger Salvo, Dominion, Catalyst, Toxin Sacs
Tervigon w/ Stinger Salvo, Dominion, Catalyst, Toxin Sacs

5 Warriors w/ devourers, rending claws, 1 barbed strangler

Fast Attack:

6 Raveners w/ scything talons and rending claws

20 Gargoyles 

Heavy Support:

2 Biovores


Round 1:

My first opponent was a combined arms style Dark Angels list. The scenario was a modified objectives grab: each turn for the first 4 turns an objective would deep strike onto a random sector of the table. Each objective was worth 2 Victory Points. All normal secondary objectives applied. My opponent won the roll for first turn and took it.

Dark Angels beginning their advance. The first objective crashed down directly behind the central wall in his deployment zone. To top it off, I've made a mistake in my deployment, with the Tervigons twisting in the wind and the Tyrants hugging cover. I ought to have inverted it, as there are multiple Devastator squads with missile launchers perched in the back right ruins. My armored Tyrants can take those shots, the Tervigons, not so much. Note also the scouts hiding behind the right fuel bunker.

 The game began with the first objective landing in the most defensible position the Dark Angels could wish. My opponent began moving the center of his line up, trying to get into rapid fire and assault range. He brought alot of firepower, but the scenario has forced us to spread out across our deployment zones, and this made it impossible for him to concentrate on any one unit.

From the top of Tyranid Turn 2. The  The second objective landed close to the first, and a squad what I think were Inner Circle Knights is moving to block the Tyranids from getting it. The Gargoyle screen has been pretty well shredded., but they provided the cover saves they needed to everyone else. Note more scouts on the left fuel bunker.

In response I pushed to the center, trying to hold the swarm together and sweep away any units that got too close. The non-Warlord Tyrant managed to wreck a Rhino bringing up a combat squad, while the Raveners devoured some Scouts who got too close. By turn 2 the Dark Angel line was starting to bow in the center, but I controlled 0 objectives to his 1.

At some point in Nid Turn 3. The Dark Angel line deployment is really hurting them now. The Knights trying to keep me off the 2nd objective went down to massed devourer and fleshborer fire, while the Raveners got a lucky charge roll and managed to reach the Tactical squad holding the DA's central objective. Best of all, the third objective landed in the midst of a Tervigon/Termagant swarm.

Turn 3 saw the Dark Angels' situation get desperate. Their shooting inflicted multiple wounds to my MCs and thinned out the advancing broods, but couldn't concentrate on any one unit, resulting in no appreciable damage to the swarm as a whole. The right flank is on the verge of being overrun, with the Knights down and the objective-holding Tactical squad fighting for its life against Raveners, with Gaunts closing in. On the left, the Assault squad made a suicide run into the teeth of the swarm, trying to eliminate a scoring unit.

Positions at the bottom of Tyranid Turn 3. There are still plenty of Dark Angels on the field, but they're too far away from the action.

And that set the tone for the remainder of the game. With our 2 hour round limit more than up by the end of Turn 3, the Nids claimed a solid victory, with Linebreaker, First Blood, and 2 objectives to none.

A solid victory overall, but running out of time as early as we did was a bit disappointing. In terms of damage inflicted, I was comfortably ahead, but if the last objective had landed on the left flank and the dice had been a bit more generous to him, my opponent could have still fought me to a draw or pulled out a win.

Round 2:

Advancing to Round 2, I was paired off against Chaos Daemons. The mission victory conditions were table quarters, with each quarter free of denial units and with a friendly controlling unit in it worth 3 VP. Deployment was the old school Dawn of War, with the auto loss rule for having no units on the board negated for the first turn. Once again, all secondary victory conditions were in play. My opponent brought a Tzeentch heavy list, with multiple small units of Screamers and Flamers, 2 larger units of Horrors led by Heralds, Plaguebearers, a pair of flying Tzeentchian Daemon Princes, and Fateweaver.

We both decided to reserve fully. My opponent won the roll to go first, but sensibly went second.

Uh guys, didn't we just invade this planet? The vagaries of random table selection. The terrain setup here was standard across all tables, so playing on the same board didn't make much difference. Although it did make setup for a Tyranid swarm easier. Pictured above, the two armies closing in at the start of Turn 3. Thus far I've inflicted little real damage to the Daemons. Everything that could fire at Fateweaver did so, hoping to force him to the ground so the Raveners could tie him up in assault. Miraculously he was grounded, but the Raveners then whiffed on their assault distance. Still full of Tactical Marine, apparently.

At the start of Turn 3, both armies are finally on the field and getting in range of one another. Thanks to Hive Commander, I had everything in play, while my opponent was still waiting on a few units. The left flank of my swarm opened up on a group of 3 Flamers that had scattered close, trying to claim first blood. Unfortunately it failed, and only killed one. The right flank tried to get clever and ground Fateweaver, only to discover that thanks to the Grimoire of True Names, he had a 2++ rerollable save. In desperation, the Gargoyles made a long shot charge through difficult terrain at the Flamers. Despite overwatch and a friendly Beast of Nurgle coming out to play as well, the Gargoyles managed to finish off the Daemons, and locked in assault with the Beast.

 

Daemon Turn 4... I think. The right flank gave up shooting at Fateweaver and instead concentrated on finishing off anything that could contest or take that quarter. The left takes aim at the Daemon Prince that wiped out the Gargoyles, and kills him with weight of fire.

In response the Daemons moved forward and started to whittle away my Swarm. Fateweaver swooped directly into the center of my formation, while the Horrors, Screamers, and Flamers angle for shots on the Raveners, who are completely exposed. The Daemons hammer the Raveners with Warpflame attacks; most of the brood is destroyed, but two survive thanks to Fateweaver losing his psychic attacks to Shadow in the Warp. On the left flank the first Daemon Prince charged into the Gargoyles, killing a third of them outright, and then running the Synapseless brood down in a sweeping advance.

Final shot of the game - Tyranid Turn 5. I control one quarter, and am threatening the other 3. The Raveners in the background took full advantage of psychic shooting attacks being useless for overwatch purposes, and the whiffed their attacks, failing to kill a severely depleted Horror squad over several assault phases. On the Daemons' turn, Fateweaver flies out of Shadow in the Warp Range, and blasts some (but not enough) of the gaunts contesting the back left quarter. The second Daemon Prince, already down to 2 wounds from Tyranid shooting, died to the Tyrant's overwatch.

In response I begin clearing out small units of Screamers and Flamers with the broods on the edges of the Swarm, while the center units combine to take out the closest Daemon Prince. At this point the Daemons are running out of scoring units. I can't scratch Fateweaver as long as he keeps making the 3+ roll for the Grimore, but if I can drop everything else, it doesn't matter how unkillable he is. In the end that strategy worked, leaving Fateweaver and some assorted Horrors and Plaguebearers confined to the rear left quarter.

As first clashes with new codices go, this one could have gone a lot worse. Tyranids make a pretty bad matchup for Tzeentch heavy daemons. Shadow in the Warp plus the number of psykers in my army made his shooting attacks extremely unreliable, and I never could have ignored any other Greater Daemon the way I did Fateweaver.

Round 3

No pictures for this one, as the few I took were too blurry to be worth posting. This one was against an Abbadon led Chaos Marines force. My opponet brought 3 full Marine squads with the Mark of Nurgle, Noise Marines, 2 Cultist squads, a Land Raider and Terminators for Abbadon to play with, a Forgeworld Decimator, and a full squad of Raptors with the Mark of Khorne.

The victory conditions were Kill Points, with Hammer and Anvil deployment. This was potentially a terrible matchup for me, given the amount of distance to be cross before I got into range, but fortunately my opponent lacked the firepower to capitalize on it. He also hurt himself by clustering  behind a large ruin in his deployment zone, which made it almost impossible for my Biovores to miss. I claimed First Blood by wiping out a cultist squad with Biovores and outflanking Warrior shots, and then started cracking the Nurgle marked squads' Rhinos for Kill Points. This kept me a few KP ahead throughout most of the game, but the win was clinched when Abbadon, in a challenge with my Warlord Tyrant, rolled a 1 for Drach'nyen, and lost his last wound.

Round 4

The final round, for all the marbles! The scenario was standard Emperor's Will, with Dawn of War deployment. My opponent was Adam from State Resources, with his terrifying gauss factory of an army: a Warlord and Command Barge, 3 fully loaded Ghost Arks with Crypteks, 2 Annihilation Barges, 13 Warriors, a Lord, and Cryptek manning a Quad Gun and Aegis Line, and 2 squads of 6 Wraiths.

I won the roll for first turn, and decided to go second. I also rolled Night Attacker for my Warlord trait, and used it, hoping to stop some of the gauss fire coming my way. It didn't help. The Gargoyles only lived because they were too spread out to reach every member of the squad. The Termagant squad that was supposed to be blocking charge lanes was cut in half, while the Wraiths moved forward, angling for an assassination run on the Tyrants. In response, I shuffled around, trying to enhance cover, block charge lanes to the Tervigon on the objective, and get the Raveners an assault target. I decide to gamble, and move the nonWarlord Tyrant up ahead of the Warlord, hoping to deplete the closest Wraith squad and bait it into fighting an MC with Feel No Pain, Iron Arm, and an unwounded Guard. An entire swarm's worth of shooting brings down two Wraiths.

Midway through Necron Turn 2. Hey, at least I'm on the opposite side of the table this time! The Necrons have slaughtered my first line of meatshields, claiming First Blood in the process. The Tervigon is exposed and about to be charged by the Overlord, one of the Hive Guard is down, and a minute after taking this picure I'll realize that I've severely underestimated how far the Wraith squads can charge. ...

 My position gets worse during the 2nd Necron Turn. Their shooting shreds the Termagant and Gargoyle squads that are supposed to be protecting my position, and Arcs from the Tesla weaponry start causing wounds to my second wave before they've even gotten into position. It gets worse in the assault phase. The Overlord and his Barge assault the Tervigon on my objective and knock a few wounds off; she passes the Mindshackle Scarab test, and explodes the Barge, stranding the Overlord in assault with her. Adam goes for broke with his Wraiths; the depleted squad goes straight for my Warlord, while the untouched group that I assumed was out of range leaps across terrain and assaults the bait Tyrant. Neither side does much damage to the other in either assault, although the Wraiths come off slightly worse; Adam rolled plenty of rends, but both Tyrants had Catalyst on them, and my FnP rolls were on fire.

Tyranid Turn 3. In the central scrum, the Termagants rush in to save the Warlord, while the Raveners do the same for the other Tyrant. In the top right, once again, are my outflanking Warriors. They'll play tag with the Annihilation Barge a few inches from them for the rest of the game. They won't destroy it, but will at least survive to claim Linebreaker. The last Hive Guard got a lucky shot on the Ghost Ark that was floating across the central hill, exploding it and taking several Warriors with it. In my backfield the Biovores continue to whittle away the Warriors manning the Quad Gun and holding the objective.

On turn 3 the tide begins to turn back towards the Tyranids. The Tervigon, assisted by a spawned brood as well as the one sitting next to her, manage to drag down the Overlord. The last brood of Termagants rushes into combat to defend the Warlord, while the Raveners slither through terrain to assist the second Tyrant. The Warlord and the Tervigon-buffed Gaunts continue to whittle away at their Wraiths, while the Raveners hit the second group and all but destroy it via weight of attacks.

Tyranid Turn 3. Or the start of Necron 4. The situation from the last turn has reversed. The Necron push to my objective has stalled out, and his Warriors are fighting for their (un)lives against a largely untouched squad of Raveners.

Luck continues to favor the Tyranids in Turn 3. The Wraiths cannot get a rend to stick thanks to Feel No Pain on the Tyrants. The squad facing the Warlord is just barely hanging on, while the second squad is wiped out by combined attacks from a S8 Iron Armed Tyrant and a flurry of attacks from the Raveners. In my turn, the Warlord finishes off the last of the Wraiths, while the other Tyrant advances towards a Ghost Ark and its payload of Warriors. Disastrously for the Necrons, the Raveners rush across the board and assault the Warriors holding his objective. The Warriors lose the assault, but not by much, and pass their leadership test.

Final image, at the bottom of Necron Turn 5.

In Turn 4 the Necrons disengage and head back to their own tablequarter, anticipating the loss of their objective scoring unit. Every MC but the Tervigon on my objective pursues, trying to get an assault on a Ghost Ark, but none are able to. Necron shooting does no appreciable damage. In assault the Raveners wipe out the Warriors, and then go on to slaughter the last survivors from the Ark destroyed earlier.

We played through Necron Turn 5, which sees the Raveners finally destroyed, but called it afterwards. With only one turn left (all scenarios were fixed at 6 turns) and no hope of contesting my objectives, there was no way for the Necrons to win, even assuming they were able to retake and hold their own.

When the last dice came to a stop, I remained the only 4-0 player, and managed to clinch first place.
Second went to a Space Wolves force with allied Codex Marines. Third went to a Codex Marines force, and Adam's Necrons ended up in 4th. 

Overall I had a great (if exhausting) time playing. I was extermely glad I went with a balanced list as opposed to some of the more gimicky ideas I'd been kicking around; every brood in the swarm was pivotal in at least one game, and at no point did I find any of them useless. If I had to pick an MVP for the day, it would be the Raveners. In every game their speed and combat muscle allowed them to extend the threat range of what was otherwise a ponderous army. Against the Dark Angels they pulled a scoring unit off an objective. Against the Daemons they managed to finish off several small units that might have contested a quarter, and then locked another scoring unit in place for the rest of the game. Against the Chaos Marines they took out a Rhino, tore apart a squad of Raptors, and then finished off Abbadon's Terminator retinue. And against the Necrons they accounted for most of a Wraith squad before clearing the Necron objective.