My first round was against Mike, who I really had a great time with and I hung out with him the rest of the tourny. All of my opponents made great friends, good personalities at this GT.


Here's his list:


So this is my first time playing against an Imperial Knight, lucky me I get to do it against 3! Mission was standard 5 objectives. I won the roll off and warlord trait let me reroll reserves.

My psychic powers:


I believe his librarian had prescience and something else. For the most part Id deny them each turn.


My deployment


His. The scouts were moved behind the aegis, not in the open.

I knew I had to kill off everything scoring on the ground with my Fliers, while my ground troops would have to distract the Knights long enough to let me focus down on them. I needed at least one Knight dead to win on objectives. I'd try to keep my Rippers off the board as long as possible with my Warlord trait.


My turn 1, I advance and keep my Warlord in the upper left behind cover. There isnt much my alpha can do, but without enough LOS cover to protect me I needed to first.

I take a hull point off a Knight and kill some marines, but otherwise I run everything.


His Knights advance...the broken one on the left was damaged in his flight overseas and he hadnt had the chance to reglue it. It also had a lowered BS from rolling a 1 on the knight table. His shooting kills some gargoyles, and I think it forced a jink on my closest Tyrant who is wounded.



My turn two has my Mawloc come in right on top of his SM blob (with fear of a 4d6 scatter), killing most of them and mishapping, with it being placed in front of the Knight in easy charge range. My Tyrants move up and set about destroying his tanks, using their electroshock and devourers to take off hullpoints from all of them. I get first blood. My gargoyles move to save the mawloc, and then assault, In hopes of a tarpit. Some rippers had to come in and scatter slightly. My right carnifex moves with onslaught to get some shots at the scouts manning the aegis, killing a few but with Knights looming theres not a bright future for him. I dump many rounds into his Terminators, killing most of them. I fly my injured Tyrant off the board, with his vector strike doing no damage.

Disaster for the mawloc occurs when his stomp hits gargoyles and him, and he rolls a 6 on the Mawloc, removing her from play.



Knights advance. My Carnifex are just too out of position to do anything but get hit in the face. My tyrants take more wounds from the skyfiring tank and aegis, but they stay in the air.


My Carnifex slap fights and loses.


Drooly face Tyrant comes back on the board and swoops to remove the marines. Rippers come in to take their objective. My two Tyrants go to ground behind his tanks to finish them off. The other joins the other three, staying in the air. Malanthrope runs in vain.

My Tyrants decimate the space marines and tanks...with one living. The last gargoyles die.


On his turn, his now free Knight moves to shoot my grounded Tyrant in the back. His other two pick on my rippers and Malanthrope. They die. :(
He consolidates both knights onto the objectives, and runs his now lone Librarian towards the back objective that my rippers are holding.


My three tyrants move up to begin firing on the rear of his Knight, reducing it to two hull points. Thats a lot of fire power for not a lot of damage. : /
I make a quite boneheaded mistake and land my warlord to the rippers in synapse and kill the last stubborn marine.


However, the Knight covers a ton of ground and assaults. I take him down to one hull point with my haywire overwatch and his makes his 7 inch charge on the dot, and when I smash I roll a 2 to hit. : / Missing my chance, the Knight finishes off the Tyrant.
Rippers and Lybrarian engage in an assault, killing off bases with ID.


With time running out, I advance on the Librarian who is still locked in combat. My two tyrants, out of position to kill off the Knights, hold on the objectives.


He stays put, owning the three objectives. The Librarian finishes combat.

The game ends with me killing his Librarian and losing my last Tyrant. A crushing defeat to the Tyranids! Very well played by Mike, I got outgunned and outclassed.

My second opponent was Bruce, a laid back dude who was also there on his first GT. By this time I had already started on my 90 minute IPA's, and he poured me a
jack and coke which further contributed to my inebriation. I normally dont do mixed drinks, but I also normally dont travel to play with plastic toy soldiers, so it was a
welcome gift!

When I saw his list I knew I was in fine shape. There was simply nothing on it to fear.

Here I felt a pang as I brought as optimized a Tyranid list as I could and he clearly brought an army of units he liked. Abbadon and the terminators
are massive point sinks, and my tyrants can easily handle two Landraiders and a Helldrake. My plan is to simply remove all threats on the board and let my rippers
control the scoring.

I dont remember my Warlord trait nor my psychic shenanigans, I didnt get a photo. I did get quite a bit of Warp Blast.

Mission is two objectives in each deployment zone and one dead center. I win first turn and take it, looking to kill a land raider early as he is deployed quite close.


My deployment and his.


I advance and electroshock his Landraider to death.


Abbadon and friends get out and will fail their charge against the Gargoyles.


My Gargoyles move up, Carnifexes move south. My rippers come in, I now control all 4 corners with ripper broods. I warp blast a rhino and explode it, most everyone inside survives. Gargoyles receive Catalyst. I fail to remove the last hull point from his Land raider.


His other Land Raider moves up and terminators deploy. His Helldrake come on and burns up some Rippers. My Gargoyles are multi assaulted, where Abbadon predictably
does his thing.


Mawloc scatters off of her intended target. Two flyrants moves to handle the Hell Drake problem, the others go after Terminators. The helldrake demon saves
a Warp blast, but will die to Devourer fire. Carnifexes back away and unload, rolling poorly but causing losses.


His remaining Terminators assault and kill a Fex.

Gargoyles finally dead, Abbadon and crew assault the Mawloc and the rest go after my rippers.


My two tyrants land and destroy the last Chaos presence on the right side. The ones on the left swoop down and kill off the Terminators, allowed
my Carnifex to assault and destroy the Rhino.

Their return fire does nothing to hurt the Tyranids.

One tyrant swoops and holds the unclaimed corner, objective. The rest go after Abbadon's unit. All of them fall except Abbadon, who is left alone in the center
holding the middle objective. The game ends on 5 before I am able to shoot him down.

A crushing Tyranid victory. This was a poor matchup, but Bruce had a great attitude the entire time and we were laughing and joking the entire game, so Im happy
he took it in stride.

My next opponent was Dan Boyd, a very funny dude that I had a great time playing against. He had a highly mechanized Astra Militarum list. This is my second time playing against them in the new codex.


Back side was
Vendetta
Vendetta
Armored Sentinel Squadron (3x w/Plasma)
Leman Russ Battle tank
Leman Russ Battle tank
Leman Russ Demolisher


My psychers. Lots of Warp Blast, good to have!

I'll be honest, this mission sucked. It was vanilla Maelstrom, with only one card allowed each turn. That makes scoring high in the overall tourney, let alone game, highly luck dependent.
I go first with night fighting.


My first turn movement. That front armor 12 is just calling to my Tyrants.
I gift catalyst and destroy two tanks. My objective was Kingslayer, and his HQ isnt even on the battlefield, he's in a Vendetta, so I discard this at the end of my turn.

He does some damage to my Gargoyles, but its pretty minimal. He adjusts his tank position, but that leaves a gap for my Tyrants...


My Carnifex does some tremendous damage to his walkers. The rest of my Tyrants move to get behind the tank line and begin haywiring. They are close enough that many of the templates can overlap. My second Carnifex adds
to the firepower on the right side.

I currently need 3 units on my side of the board to score a point, which I dont have.

His Vendetta's come on. Some tyrants have to jink to avoid fire. One of his Psychers perils, and rolls a Shadow in the Warp helps his brain explode and practically wipe out his own unit. I lose a Tyrant to small arms fire.

My mawloc comes in to get me my third southern unit. Her services arent needed in the north. One tyrant goes off the board, the other two go to ground behind tanks to finish them off. My tyrant on the right is down to one wound.
My left tyrant perils, and I roll and super charge it. The gargoyles and fex proceed to envelope the IG blob and will shoot and assault it to death.

His next round of shooting has some wildly effective tyranid luck...the one wound Tyrant survives massed firepower. He needs to kill a unit to score, which he is unable to do.


My left Carnifex fires into the rear of the vendetta and brings it down in one volley. Only his HQ survives with his Invul save. I score by holding one of the objectives on my side.

His next turn is again fruitless, he simply doesnt have the firepower left on the table.


Tyrants warp blast and devourer fire the second Vendetta. Carnifex finishes off the sentinel. Only the one tank in the corner remains, and the game ends before I can destroy it.

For the second time, the Tyranids have wiped them down to the very last man. It was frustrating to have complete board control the entire game, yet not be able to score big in the end in points simply because of the luck of the draw on maelstrom.
Dan took a severe beating but was laughing at his own misfortune the entire time. He's in my area and I look forward to playing with him again in the future.

My next opponent was Mike, running a true Ork horde with a super heavy tank to boot. His sheer numbers meant my Tyrants would have to focus on large groups together to cause enough wounds to get the kill point. As this mission was kill
points and kill points alone, I had my work cut out for me.

His list:

Ork Warboss w/Lucky stick, power klaw, boss pole, warbike
Painboy
Sluggaboyz mob x30 Nob w/boss pole and power klaw
Shootaboyz mob x20 Nob w/boss pole and Big choppa 2x Big shootas
11 gretchin w/runt herder
15 gretchin wrunt herder
25 Storm boyz w/Nob w/power klaw, Boss pole
5 burna boyz &meks
10 Tankbusta mob Nob w/boss pole and power klaw
10 Ork Lootas

Lord of War: Killbursta Super Heavy tank w/Bursta Kannon and skorcha

All but one of my tyrants rolled for Catalyst, and my warlord trait was finally MoA. I won the roll to go first, and decided to risk getting seized on to set myself up for a massive alpha strike, focusing on just one half of the board.
I also felt it'd be more profitable to ignore the tank's 1VP for every 3 hull points. Less orks on the board meant less shooting at my Tyrants, and while the tanks d cannon had a massive 7" plate, I can afford to lose my ground forces if I can keep
those 12 twin linked devourer shots coming.


My aggressive and dangerous deployment.

I said to myself, "You know he's going to seize on you. It's going to happen."

And he rolls...


One D cannon hit on target later, and two rolls of 6 remove both my Carnifex and Malanthrope (and some Gargoyles). Most of the rest of his troops move up.


Enraged bugs sweep up. I place my Tyrants in position to shoot at his Big Shootas and protect the gargoyle blob from a head on charge. Gargoyles receive Catalyst. I wipe out the Shootas.


His buggy's come on.


A blurry shot of his Orks declaring their Wagh on turn 2 and moving to assault the Gargoyles.


Most of the wounds are taken on the right from the Warboss' unit, while the massive blob on the left is largely mitigated by the Tyrants placement. Gargoyles successfully blind the ork horde, ensuring this tarpit can last while my Tyrants get to work.


My Tyrants get to work. Rippers come in on the far right side, I am placing them out of harms way and to stop an advancing line of gretchin from achieving linebreaker. All of my rippers come in on that side.
The hapless unit of orks between my tyrants gets electroshocked off the board, while the rest of the tyrants pour fire into the other mobs. I leave the line of gretchin to my Carnifex, who is doing his best to avoid the assault for as long as possible.


These are what my rolls look like this game. I roll 7 1's out of 10 attacks to hit.


My now synapseless Gargoyles break and the Carnifex dies to the charge. His forces advance on the right side while his tank struggles to find a target.


My tyrants go clockwise on the table to my right, all but wiping out the ork presence on the right hand side besides the gretchin, who my Rippers assault and actually wipe out in one round of combat.
Also, my retreating gargoyle brood rolls and regroups! My Mawloc finally comes in on turn 4, misses the Warboss but kills many orks, she still mishaps and is placed in the open.

She is then removed as a casualty with the gargoyles, when he rolls another on her result. Thats twice she's been ID'ed this tournament. : /

I deal some damage to the buggies but most of my shots go to the large mob. So far my tyrants are relatively unscathed, and I'm on track to remove the green tide from the field.

On his 5th turn, there is very little he can do against the Tyrants in the air. He does his best to ground them but they stay aloft.


I then move on his Warboss' mob, hitting them with flamer templates and shooting the rest. First his mob, then the Pain boy, until the boss stands alone

His buggies attempt in vain to deal wounds to my tyrants. I dont jink.

My tyrants circle, and take out the warboss. They arent in position to focus on the tank, but I dont have time to destroy it. My southern Tyrant destroys the last
buggy, and the game ends.

That first turn seize really hurt, immediately putting me three points behind. However I knew that if I could get my Gargoyles to tie up a mob or two even for a little while, I could take advantage of those awful Ork saves to take the win. Once again my
opponent is left with one (Very large) unit left. A very fun game that was actually very close in points at turn 5. I was 1 point away from getting a crushing victory, and that would have been enough to at least bump me up a few in the rankings.

My last game is against Colin, running triple Land raiders w/void shields and Belakor. By now Im worn out and happy that this is the last game. Mission is the Scouring.




He goes first.

My blurry deployment. My corner objective is 2, upper left 3, middle 3 dark black ruin has a 1, right corner 2, and he has the 4 on his side. He doesnt have much of an alpha, and Im happy to take some shots especially if Belakor comes out of hiding.
Against most armies he would have a pretty tough nut to crack, but as my Tyrants' goal is to get as close as possible and electroshock his landraiders, I dont mind his void shields. To me they (along with Typhus) as basically a point sink disadvantage for him in this matchup.

His first turn sees barely any carnage against my Gargoyles. Everyone has tremendous cover saves. Belakor stays put and casts shrouding.


My Tyrants advance and cast catalyst. They then take pot shots at the plague zombies to damage the shields, disabling them both and wounding some zombies.


Belakor advances and his demons get out. I deny invisibility and I believe he takes a wound from perils. My closest tyrant takes wounds from lascannon fire, and fails his grounding check. He is then assaulted by the Bloodletters and I challenge the Bloodreaper in the unit. My Tyrant kills
him off. His plague zombies also came on the far left corner, moving towards the three point objective.


My Gargoyles envelop the assault and prepare to charge in themselves. They receive Catalyst. Much more importantly, I vector strike Belakor with two Tyrants, each getting 3 strikes, and kill him quickly and efficiently. I'm very happy to have him out of the game.
I then deal out some wounds to the landraiders with egrubs. Gargoyles then assault. My Tyrant survives with 1 wound left and consolidates behind cover while my Gargoyles move out 4" in a protective bubble.


More Bloodletters come out to assault my Gargoyles. This combat will continue for some time. Typhus and friends exit.


His last Landraider moves south towards the 2 point objective my rippers have deep struck on. My Malanthrope holds the 1 point, my rippers in the upper left 3 point die to plague zombies, and my rippers in the bottom left continue to hold my 3, even passing their IB tests so they dont
bite themselves. One bloodletter survives the Gargoyle fight and moves to control the 4.


I pop his top land raider and my Carnifexes move to charge the green landraider, which they take down in combat. My Mawloc is placed not too far from the left corner objective. I dont want her to engage the zombies, I will let my Tyrants shoot them off and she can hold the objective.


His landraider picks on my Rippers, but they stay alive. Typhus moves up, beyond that he has very little left alive.


A carnifex attempts to shoot and charge typhus, but he survives with two wounds and I failed to deny Force, so he dies. The other fex moves to assault the Landraider and fails his charge. My three Tyrants get in range to start shooting, and even get Warp Blast on target against the tightly packed plague zombies, wounding many.


My Carnifex and ripper survive the Landraider's shooting. My Tyrant lands to shoot the Bloodletter off the objective and make it contestable. Carnifex charges and destroys the Landraider, my rippers will scurry onto the objective next turn.
My tyrants remove the plague zombies and Mawloc holds the objective.

Left with only Typhus and his void shields, I contest the 4pt objective. I own all objectives besides that with most of my army left alive, sadly no points are given for survivors!

1. I would deploy all 4 flyrants in the front and swoop them all forwards, forming a wall in front of the knights if possible. This would be to stop them from advancing. Better yet, hope that they break off from formation to go around the flyrants, thus losing their Adlance buffs.

2. Focus down on 1 marine unit at a time. Ignore the IK's initially (unless they separate).

3. Multi-charge 2 knights with the gargoyles. You might last just as long with charging 2 as you would charging 1. Why? Because your gargoyles wouldn't be as bunched up as they were to those stomp attacks.

4. Go 2nd in an Objectives game. 2+ jink cover by flyrants is more than enough to survive the marine's 1st turn of shooting, which isn't very much. Only against heavy alpha-strike armies (Tau, Eldar, drop pod marines) would I want to go first. Otherwise, it is usually better to go 2nd in objectives-based scenarios.