Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:
No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.
If you are already a member then feel free to login now.
So today I played my last single CAD restricted Tyranid tourney, at least for the year, the rest will be more than one CAD which is a LOT less hurtful to the bugs. Everyone else was able to take allies of course.
Surprisingly it was book missions, which makes it a little sharkey. My list was a scaled down version of my 1850 list.
Flyrant w/Devourers and Electro
Flyrant w/Devourers and Electro
I wanted to mainly practice target priority (mainly, what NOT to shoot at) and focusing down the opponents troops, essentially things I read on jy2's batreps (thanks Jim!). So I tried to channel jy2's chi, and here we go.
For all of my games, I failed to go first and never seized.
Game 1
Spoiler:
6 Objectives
My opponent's a cool dude I know from the store, and he brought a White Scars and IG ally. I forgot to snap a photo of his list, so please make due with these approximations of his list:
Khan w/ bro's using grav weps
Melta bike squad
Melta bike squad
Thunderfire cannon
Massive conscript blob with sergeants
Small conscript blob in reserves
His deployment. Warlord trait is chosen for him, has to slay my warlord for bonuses.
My deployment. Warlord trait was pinning checks...twice, and I didn't get them off.
My psychic powers were mainly onslaught, paroxysm and psychic scream. It should be noted that with a total of 18 rolls for the three games,
not once did I get catalyst. I tell people I never get it, and I mean it!
His bikes advance.
I lose 1 wound from the thunderfires ignore cover barrage. Venom hangs tough.
On my turn, I fly left to try and double down shots on the left melta, killing off several and leaves two alive. Carnifex squad moves up to fire as well. They onslaught up a few inches into
solid range. Their massive volley of fire...kills 1 biker. : /
His bikes move up to put the hurt. The left melta squad goes down to the left corner. Khan's grav guns join in (Albeit suffering from -3BS via paroxysm)and their combined fire kills off 1 fex and wounds the other. His thunderfire cannon scatters off.
My tyrants fly up and kill off two bikers.
My ripper squad comes in and scatters off the board, and I roll a 1 on misshap, giving up 1st blood. : /
The wounded Carnifex pulls back, and the other Brood walks up to unload on Khan's unit, only to cause a few wounds.
His bikers move up...
And remove the Fex.
Massed las guns kill another.
His reserves walk on and run to hold the objective on his side.
On my turn 3, my tyrant shoots and kills the last 3 in the metla squad.
The Zoey holding my sides objective moves to assault the lone biker. They will be locked in combat for some time.
Not pictured, my Warlord tyrant flies up to kill the small conscript squad with his electroshock template.
My mawloc mishapped and is placed very near his conscripts, in an attempt to gun it down like the fex. I paroxysm the conscript blob
and they are reduced to hitting on 6's.
My ripper brood is placed on his side near another objective.
Which his thunderfire cannon manages to hit dead on with all shots, killing them.
Khan and friends move to multicharge. I actually inflict a few wounds with over watch, but ultimately lose the Carnifex.
Mawloc hangs tough with the shooting, and is assaulted by the blob.
She kills a few and suffers four wounds from their special weapons (sorry, Im not familiar enough with the army to recall)
and hit and runs out of the combat very far.
On my turn, my tyrant stops swooping and flies up. Its getting close and if I need to get them off the objective he needs to be on the ground.
My mawloc burrows, and my last brood of rippers secure his sides objective.
My warlord swoops up to dispose of the thunderfire cannon, and does.
Khan and friends kill off the Zoey and run towards my tyrants.
The other Zoey is still locked in combat with the lone biker.
Headed towards the action. It's turn 5 and I need to make my move.
Mawloc comes in right on target, hitting the biker and killing him to secure my sides objective.
My tyrant has two wounds left and, still on the ground, lands to drive off the conscripts from the objective.
He does, and I assault which now I realize was a mistake for the potential they could consolidate onto the objective when he died and theyd have it if the game ended on
5. They do, but I knew he'd die from gunfire the next turn, so my heart was in two places. My other Tyrant lands to control the upper objective. If the game ends now,
Ive got 3 to his 1...
and it doesnt. :(
On his turn 6, his bikers break off and melta the last two wounds from the Mawloc. Khan goes to grab the right side table objective.
My Zoanthrope hits the three bikers with Warp Blast, wounding all three but only killing 1 via jink. They secure my sides objective.
So with my 2 points, his 3 and 1st blood, and us both having linebreaker, theres neigh much to be done.
My warlord swoops down the field and murders Khan, but cant claim the objective. The game ends on 6.
One of those games where its a totally different picture from turn 5 to 6, it hurt to lose it that way.
Game 2
Spoiler:
My next game was against the new Space Wolves, allied with Blood Angels. A drop pod army with meltas galore, it was beautifully painted and won best painted (I didnt think Id be able to win best painted twice in a row, and they looked great, so more power to him!)
Only two objectives this time, both on the respective corners of the left side.
So this was my first time against a drop pod alpha strike army, and I had to channel jy2's recent BAO batrep he posted about a similar opponent, which kind of gave me some insight into what to espect...nothing fun.. My opponent only deployed his lone scout squad in the backfield.
I, however, had a large ruins in the middle, which fit my entire army. While not as far from the objective as I wanted, it would hopefully draw the pods away from the objectives.
His deployment. I think he has stealth in ruins, but Im not sure. None of his psychic powers mattered this game.
My deployment. The fexes are actually on the lowest level, this terrain piece was difficult with so many long pointy arms in there.
I have onslaught on most everyone, as well as The Horror on a Zoanthrope. As per the day, Tyrants get Psychic scream and warp blast as
well. Warlord trait lets me reroll reserves, which I kept because I didnt want MoA.
Turn 1, its easy to see my mistake: My warlord could have happily been back, but is instead front and center up top. One of those silly mistakes that I need to work on NOT doing.
However, for all of his shooting, it took his entire army to kill it off due to the 2+ cover, and that was at the very end to bolter fire that I kept rolling 1's on. Still, a hell of a way to just hand out firstblood and warlord.
My turn 1 though makes up for it. The Tyranids are enraged. My left Carnifex brood opens up and completely wipes out the closest squad of melta wolves...all 10 from shooting.
The other brood kills off many of the other squad, causing them to flee.
My Flyrant moved up and to the left into ruins, firing on the Blood Angels unit with his SW Warlord (Who for the life of me I cant remember the name...sorry guys. :( ) Also in that squad is a reclusiarch and sternguard (I think, the ones with many ammo types)
The moral of that story is that many wounds are inflicted.
On his turn 2, none of his drop pods arrive, which is perfect for me. Some shooting is non effectual to anything of mine.
My turn two, Mawloc scatters, failing to hit his warlords squad. My rippers come in to the left of my objective. I run my mawloc and she makes it 6 inches away.
Carnifexes lumber out, both broods get in range of his warlord.
48 Twin linked S6 shots later, they are removed from the board. Once again My fexes are up top for movement purposes as that terrain is a pain in the ass.
My Tyrant opens fire on the scouts securing his objective and kills two.
His other two pods arrive. My rippers have a predictable outcome. The middle squad on the table shoots and wounds Mawloc, but little else takes damage.
My Turn 3, Carnifexes all move forward to begin sweeping the Wolves from their objective. Onslaught is given to hurry up the back brood.
1 Brood removes the Marines on the roof, and the other brood glances the drop pod to death despite its cover.
My rippers arrived and they move to secure the objective on his side. My Mawloc assaults and kills the leftovers of the scout squad after the Flyrant whittled
them down.
His turn 4 has little movement, mainly his middle squad moving towards my Mawloc and his other marines trying to secure my board side objective.
His last drop pod arrive next to his sides objective, but its occupants are unable to kill off the Rippers.
Tyranid turn 4 has my last ripper brood arrive. My fexes move up through cover (onto the roof for movement purposes, but on the ground in reality). Other fexes follow suit.
They glance the Drop pod down to 1 hull point.
Here, I stop swooping and bring my Tyrant down to earth to ensure it can protect the nearly dead Mawloc and Ripper against the new arrivals. It couldnt do that with my swooping
angles. However, one of my Zoanthropes successfully pins that unit, but now that I consider it Im not sure that they can be pinned due to ATSKNF? Maybe I am wrong, either way
their fate is sealed. They die from Tyrant shooting, and the Mawloc goes on to Smash the drop pod and I get an explosion. My ripper babies live.
On his turn 5 my rippers survive mass shooting, thanks to cover saves.
Failing to kill the rippers, their impending doom seems sealed.
And it is. Shooting and assault from the fexes and venomthrope wipe out the unit. Tyranids take it.
I dont see this game having gone too much differently unless I didnt get to castle turn 1. Even if he had done more alpha strike damage, I think I had enough shooting to keep the peace.
Losing the 1 tyrant hurt but having so few important targets and 4 carnifexes ready to go in their faces, I felt pretty confident. Once again, I am LOVING rippers. The alternative 11 man gant
squad just cant provide the same level of flexibility.
Game 3
Spoiler:
My last game was against a Grey Knight/SM Grav star, and thanks to Dakka Dakka I was at least mentally equipped on how to deal with it. I hoped anyway. I actually did get the list:
Coteaz
Librarian
3 Inquisitorial Henchmen (Pyscher, 2x Warrior Acolyte) in Razorback, x 6
Stormraven
Tigerius
5 scouts
4 Devastator centurions w/gravamp and omniscope
With an impressive 20+ warp charge, I knew his star would be able to use its sciers gaze/gate/prescience with pretty much reckless abandon. I also knew from jy2's reports that focusing on his troops
would be what wins me the game (what can I say, jy2's reports are the only ones I really read on here) and that Id likely have to ignore the star.
He had a ton of powers on his henchmen, but most of them were psychic shriek. Mission is The Scouring.
His deployment. His warlord trait was to pin some of my units, but curiously he kept it and Im not sure why.
As you can see, I got boned on terrain with this table and lost the rolls, so my army is huddled behind its only viable cover. It is night fighting. My warlord trait, quite critically,
gives me stealth in ruins, which comes up later. This is his first turn movement, mainly just rhinos advancing. I save my psychic rolls as he charges up his GravStar, and
when he finally gets to GoI, I successfully deny it. This was huge, of course.
I begin dismantling his troops. Flyrant shooting kills a rhino. Warlord kills a rhino on the left side, and both fex broods move up to each kill a rhino.
His turn 2, I lose a fex to Psychic shriek, and am not able to stop the grav star's GoI. The rest of his army does nothing, but I do lost the fex to the star.
I wanted to ignore them, but there was no way for my Carnifexes to escape the stars range. With no other viable target, they advance and kill 1 centurion, and fail their charge.
Ripper brood appears near the 3pt objective held by his snipers.
My Warlord on the left edge swoops up and kills another rhino. Each time a rhino is killed its crew get out and scurry towards the closest objective, but you have to crack the nutshell first.
On his turn, they finish the brood off. His stormraven doesnt appear...
...Neither does my Mawloc. A ripper brood scatters into the middle of the board in front of his gravstar. My Warlord shoots and kills the troops trying to claim the 3 point objective. My rippers
assault the Scout squad holding the 3 pts. My Flyrant on the right shoots and fails to kill the last rhino by 1 hull point.
My venom and zoey move up towards 3 pts in no mans land. My other zoey stays behind on my 2pt to tempt the gravstar. My rippers run away from the star towards the 4 pts objective in the middle.
Rippers do great, tying combat and losing two wounds.
On his turn, he assaults my ripper brood after I deny psychic shriek on them. His centurions remove my Zoanthrope, and his Stormraven appears, gunning down my Zoanthrope and Venomthrope to clear away the
3pt objective. Rippers stay locked in combat and rip away. His last rhino moves up to claim the 1pt objective.
Turn 4, my last brood of rippers come in and my mawloc misses her mark, failing to hit the star. I hope that she is enough to distract them. I bring my Warlord in, ignoring the Stormraven behind him (To the right in this
picture, I oddly didnt photograph the Raven). He flames the 3 Henchmen with his haywire template, ignoring their 5+ armor. Other Tyrant finishes off the rhino with no other viable target in range. Rippers keep kicking
ass, whittling down the scout squad to 3.
Thankfully, his turn 5 has him kill off the Mawloc. My rippers kill the last of the henchmen, securing the 4pt objective with 1 base remaining. His Stormraven kills my new deepstriked brood.
My rippers keep ripping, killing another scout.
My Warlord swoops next to my sides 2pt objective, not to secure it, but to shoot the 3 henchman from the 1st rhino he destroyed who were almost in range to secure it. My other Tyrant goes to ground on the opposite side of the building he was on away from the Grav Star, securing
the 4 pt should my Ripper brood die. My rippers kill another scout, down to 1.
We roll and the game continues to 6
His GravStar scatters, but is able to shoot down my Tyrant. His Stormraven (Which Ive ignored completely) shoots to kill my ripper, but thanks to stealth in ruins they make their 3+s and live to secure 4pts.
My Tyrant lands and secures 2 pts, and my rippers kill the last scout, securing 3.
This victory felt good. I had a really felt like I had my hands behind my back with 1 CAD and a barren deployment zone, but I focused on the troops and it paid off. I avoided the grav star as best I could and did all the heavy lifting with 2 Flyrants and some rippers.
Post tourney thoughts
Spoiler:
This event worked out great for me, it was good practice with a 'handicap' list that I think will help me with my 2 CAD 1850 list at Mechanicon, essentially having half the Flyrants to get the job done. Not having anything to touch Deathstars with doesnt bother me
when I have many single model units and swarms. Often I get encouraged to use Termagants or Hormagants for a screen and I just dont think my list works that way. Its built on the time given by Carnifexes taking the shots instead of the Tyrants, and being
careful about their flight patterns. It was good to practice the things I need to focus on today, and even though I wound up in 4th I know that Game 1 could have easily been mine with just 1 dice roll, which is just how it goes some times.
This message was edited 6 times. Last update was at 2014/08/11 05:29:49
Fantastic report, good playing, nice army. I dig it. Thanks for putting the reports together, and for taking the pictures! Well played. What tools do you think you could have used to deal with the Gravstar, if you had your choice?
gigasnail wrote:really nice. i'm a ripper convert myself. they're just too good not to use.
They get the job done and can spread out safely. Today I never had to make a synapse check, but even if I had the results arent frightening. Gants just let you down.
SBG wrote:Fantastic report, good playing, nice army. I dig it. Thanks for putting the reports together, and for taking the pictures! Well played. What tools do you think you could have used to deal with the Gravstar, if you had your choice?
Thanks man! Honestly with Tyranids, I cant imagine too many scenarios where focusing on the GravStar would be a good idea, but if I had to it would simply be 4 Tyrants in the air instead of the Carnifexes on the ground. Also having my Mawloc hit it twice, it would
most certainly mishap but there are few AP2 options beyond an exocrine, which the Star would surely gun down first. But 2+ saves with feel no pain from endurance (And 20+ dice to buff it in this list) made it a lost cause to shoot at with what I had.
Great batreps. I'm really interested in them because I've never played a White Scars/I.G. Blob list or a Grav-star list, and you play a similar list with a similar style to me.
Two potential rules snafus: In the first game did you bring in one reserve unit on turn 1? Also, did you assault on the same turn a Flyrant landed?
Often I get encouraged to use Termagants or Hormagants for a screen and I just dont think my list works that way. Its built on the time given by Carnifexes taking the shots
My main thought is, wouldn't those fexes being able to take nearly twice as many shots before dying make them better? That is what Hormagaunts would bring you. Intervening models + Shrouded = 3+ cover even out in the open. The way you are playing without a screen, you are getting a 5+ shrouded cover.
Are you still sold on the Mawloc? It seems like he did very little in your games. Dropping him for 20 Gargoyles would give you a screen + a tarpit + a fast scoring unit, and you get to keep your rippers. You could also use that to split one of your carnifex broods. Which gives you a bit more flexibility. It would have helped you out in game 1. Even though a Thunderfire can hurt gargoyles.
You could even take the 20 points and turn one Carnifex into an Exocrine so that you aren't giving up your AP2 with the Mawloc. This would have also helped in game 1.
tag8833 wrote: Great batreps. I'm really interested in them because I've never played a White Scars/I.G. Blob list or a Grav-star list, and you play a similar list with a similar style to me.
Two potential rules snafus: In the first game did you bring in one reserve unit on turn 1? Also, did you assault on the same turn a Flyrant landed?
No, but good catch with the ripper brood, I just put it under the wrong photo, that happened turn 2. I did not assault when I landed, I had stopped swooping when he first flew up to the building, otherwise he would not have been in position to do anything against anyone or contest.
Are you still sold on the Mawloc? It seems like he did very little in your games. Dropping him for 20 Gargoyles would give you a screen + a tarpit + a fast scoring unit, and you get to keep your rippers. You could also use that to split one of your carnifex broods. Which gives you a bit more flexibility. It would have helped you out in game 1. Even though a Thunderfire can hurt gargoyles.
You could even take the 20 points and turn one Carnifex into an Exocrine so that you aren't giving up your AP2 with the Mawloc. This would have also helped in game 1.
Mawloc is either a star or falls flat, but she very often gives me flexibility that I cant get elsewhere. Ive had several games recently where she was a clencher, whether she hits or not she is still a T6S6 with 6 wounds. Mobility is key, and screening units are what they are. Theres definite benefits obviously, but you lose firepower in a very firepower centric Tyranid list. There was just no where to trim fat in this 1500pt list for me, if anything I would have liked another ripper brood at the expense of a Zoanthrope.
My argument against Exocrines is the weight of fire aspect. More often than not, Id rather have the 12 shots twin linked than the Exocrine hitting three bikers only to have 2 of them jink out of the way.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/08/11 05:43:07
Nice reports, and some very different games played.
I like the Mawloc as even if it doesn't actually do anything in the game, it is a still a big threat that your opponent has to think about a lot, and if it does hit properly it can change the whole game outlook pretty quickly.
Your rippers performed well, chomping away on the scouts was a highlight
Hive Fleet Ngaro 4800 points
Cult of the Red Saviour 1700 points
Zerg Infested Terrans 2300 points
Great job against the drop marines and the centurionstar. You also almost had it against biker marines. Marines are much improved in this edition, but fortunately for us bug players, we've actually got the tools to take them on.
This is the SM/AM player from game one I like the battle reports a lot good pics. And yeah the amount the game can swing in someone else's favor from turn 5 to 6 is crazy. That why I let you roll lol.
Mad.. wrote:Nice reports, and some very different games played.
I like the Mawloc as even if it doesn't actually do anything in the game, it is a still a big threat that your opponent has to think about a lot, and if it does hit properly it can change the whole game outlook pretty quickly.
Your rippers performed well, chomping away on the scouts was a highlight
Yea I dont see getting rid of her, when crones went out the window she took their place.
jy2 wrote:Great job against the drop marines and the centurionstar. You also almost had it against biker marines. Marines are much improved in this edition, but fortunately for us bug players, we've actually got the tools to take them on.
Hey thanks man. Best thing was finally getting to play against lists like that instead of just reading about them.
bigentasty wrote:This is the SM/AM player from game one I like the battle reports a lot good pics. And yeah the amount the game can swing in someone else's favor from turn 5 to 6 is crazy. That why I let you roll lol.
Dude post your list if you get a chance, I cant remember what your Dinobikers were running.
Chap Master- shield, hammer, bike,digitals
Khan
5 Man bike squad w grav guns and MM attack bike x2
5 Man bike squad w/ meltas and MM attack bike
ThunderFire
AM Allies
Lord Commissar w/ Power Axe and Melta bombs
Infantry Platoon
Command Squad
Infantry Squad w/ Melta bombs and Power Axe srgs x5
Great reports and well done on those results. Great to see people doing so well with Nids, they do seem to be under estimated. By myself included and it's tempting me to finish painting my FMC spam list and get them on the table.
djn wrote: Great reports and well done on those results. Great to see people doing so well with Nids, they do seem to be under estimated. By myself included and it's tempting me to finish painting my FMC spam list and get them on the table.
Hey thanks man, I felt my list was held back by no allies so it feels good to win against the spam lists.
This was huge, of course.
.....Bay Area Open GT 2013 - Best Tyranids 
.....LVO GT 2014 Team Tournament - Best Generals
wrote:This is the 
