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Firstly, sorry, no pics! I forgot to take some at the start of the game so I didn't bother for the rest. My mate brought his Nids around my house last night, I wanted to test mine too - here it goes!




Tyranids "Hive Fleet Kraken" - 1,600 points




HQ




Hive Tyrant - bonesword & lashwhip, acid blood, hive commander & wings




Elite




2 x Hive Guard




3 x Hive Guard




3 x Zoanthropes




Troops




1 x Tervigon - catalyst, onslaught & cluster mines




1 x Tervigon - catalyst, onslaught & cluster mines







10 x Termagants



10 x Termagants



Heavy Support



1 x Trygon - adrenal glands



1 x Trygon - adrenal glands









Tyranids "Hive Fleet Behemoth" - 1,600 points



HQ



Hive Tyrant - venom cannon & old adversary



2 x Tyrant Guard



Elite



3 x Zoanthropes w/ Myceptic Spore



3 x Zoanthropes w/ Myceptic Spore







Troops



20 x Termagants



10 x Genestealers - toxin sacs



10 x Genestealers - toxin sacs



10 x Genestealers - toxin sacs



Heavy Support



Mawloc





Game: pitched battle & anniliation



Deployment



I rolled to go first and deployed first on the basis I want my Tyranids to get into assault quickly as possible. I deployed both tervigons in terrain blocking line of sight, zoanthropes on foot in front of a unit of gants and kept another unit of gants by a tervigon. The two trygons formed a giant snake wall which the tyrant hid behind. Both units of hive guard started as far out as possible, one deployed in terrain with the centre shrine blocking straight ahead view, not that it mattered anyway.



My opponent kept everything in reserve and had one unit of genestealers outflanking.



* Tactical Notes



Going first can be a blessing and a curse, especially with pitched battle. Your opponent going second and deploy forces to counter your own easily and even deploy out of reach of your force if they wish. I wanted to go first to hopefully get a second turn assault, after all those genestealers will be starting 12" from the board edge to get into combat too.



Turn 1



I marched up the board and that's it as nothing to shoot at or nothing to shoot at me, a quick turn. I spawn 10 and 14 gants and burn both my tervigons out; useless!



Turn 2



Again I shoot at nothing so another turn wasted, for me.



Behemoth forces roll start rolling on by dropping in a unit of zoanthropes behind my trygon wall and a mawloc pops up but scatters away from my termagants. All stealers come on if I remember correctly, except the outflanking unit.



Fortunately for me, my opponent forgets to fire the zoanthropes - awesome!



* Tactical Notes



Turn 1 was annoying and so was turn 2 for me. I guess turn 2 was annoying for my opponent because he didn't fire the zoanthropes, a blessing for me. However they've done some damage to my hive tyrant but I could have cast leech essence and hopefully claimed some wounds back - zoanthropes don't really need paroxysm on them. My tyrant wouldn't have been killed by them anyway, and they'd be taking psychic tests on 3D6 thanks to my Tyrant being within 12" because it's a synapse creature



Turn 3



A tervigon moves towards the zoanthropes spore pod while the supporting gants form up in terrain. One trygon moves ahead supporting the 2 hive guard, the unit of 3 hive guard move into the centre shrine ruin. The tyrant and other trygon move over to the zoanthropes. The remaining gants, tervigon and zoanthropes move towards the mawloc.



Shooting the tyrant casts paroxysm on the enemy zoanthropes, the trygon fires along with the gants in terrain at them and one is killed. The hive guard gun down some genestealers in terrain while the unit of 3 hive guard hack down some more stealers, but they pass most there cover saves. The mawloc gets shot at by zoanthropes but only loses a wound and all units of termagants and the other tervigon nearby don't do anything.



In assault the tervigon charges the myceptic spore and scores a wound on it. The tyrant and trygon team wipe out the zoanthropes. The tervigon charges the mawloc and scores a wound in combat.



Kill point to me so far.



Behemoths turn and the outflanking stealers come in to support the spore being battered by the tervigon. The other unit of zoans pod in landing by my tyrant and trygon, and the hive tyrant with the guard makes it in as well.



Shooting the zoans fire at my tyrant and cause one wound.



In assault the stealers in terrain assaulted and killed the 2 hive guard unit. The outflanking stealers were luckily out of range of my tervigon. The mawloc gets another wound chipped off and does hit and run falling back to it's own table edge.



Drawing so far.



*Tactical Notes



I hate Genestealers - they're freaking annoying. Best way to deal with them is fire power, but this is something my army lacks and doesn't have range, except the Hive Guard. I planned to assault those Zoanthropes which worked, a easy kill point with the Hive Tyrant and Trygon combo. The plan to charge the Mawloc with the Tervigon worked ok, could have been better. But Tervigons are not mega in close combat. At least I wounded it and the only fire power that area of the board is the three Zoanthropes.



Turn 4



My termagants in terrain hold position in case the stealers assault them, at least the termagants will go first. Trygon which was supporting the 2 hive guard moves towards the large unit of enemy termagants. The tyrant and trygon move to assault the enemy zoanthropes. The last hive guard unit holds position and the remaining forces pursue the lone unsupported mawloc.



The tyrant fires leech essence at the zoanthropes and reclaims a wound, now back up to 4 wounds. The trygon fires at them and in total one is killed. The termagants in terrain fire at the outflanking genestealers but unfortunately only half were in range and only two killed. The hive guard pick off the genestealers which killed their kin, but the 'stealers still have several left. The other trygon fires at the enemy termagants and BBQs some with bio pulse. My zoanthropes fire at the mawloc hoping to claim it's last 3 wounds, but alas was not to be as the beast had 50% cover and it got a cover save passing all 2 cover saves I caused- god damn it!



In assault the trygon assaults the gants chopping them down but they remain in combat because they're fearless but they lose several more. The tyrant and trygon combo chop down the zoanthropes killing the last two remaining ones. The tervigon and spore duke it out leaving the spore with one wound and the tervigon with 5.



I'm now winning with 2:1 kill points.



In behemoths movement phase the mawloc burrows away. The outflanking stealers move up to assault the tervigon and backup the spore. Stealers in terrain move out towards the trygon in combat with the termagants.



In assault the outflanking genestealers kill my tervigon with the last wound taken by the spore. The trygon in combat with the termagants get charged and gets butchered by rending claws, another kill points for behemoth.



Behemoth is now winning with 3:2 kill points.



*Tactical Notes



I was surprised my opponent didn't assault the Termagants seems only half of them managed to be in range for shooting, would have been a easy kill point. Though the Tervigon was the higher threat I guess but the enemy Spore would have died either way, they're easy kill points especially against S8 weapons too. Again, enemy Zoanthropes become a easy kill point by slaughtering them in close combat - this is Zoanthropes weakness and best to capitalise on it, after all what they going to do head butt my Trygon?



I was gutted that the Zoanthropes failed to kill the Mawloc, it only had 3 wounds left but that cover helped it out. Would have been a easy kill if it had either no cover or failed the cover saves, it was unsupported on that side of the board and it's a good job it burrowed away next turn.



Something I should have thought about was assaulting those Termagants with the Trygon. Though there was nothing else I really could assault and I didn't fancy assaulting Genestealers in terrain though I guess if I had did this the 'Stealers wouldn't have got bonus attacks for charging and I wouldn't be locked in combat with a large 'Gant unit.



Turn 5



The tyrant and trygon tag team move towards the outflanking stealers which butchered my tervigon. Hive guard hold position while a unit of termagants and zoanthropes head over towards the spore which the last enemy zoanthropes arrived by. I leave put the last tervigon and unit of 14 termagants as nothing they can do.



Shooting the tyrant casts paroxysm on the outflanking stealers ok. The zoanthropes fire warp lance at the enemy spore and kill it along with support from a nearby gant unit. The hive guard open fire at a unit of genestealers not in terrain but don't cause enough wounds. The last spore gets killed by some shots from fleshborers from a unit of termagants flanking across the rear, glad they did that.



In assault the tyrant makes it into combat but the trygon doesn't, though the tyrant takes a wound it kills the outflanking genestealers.



Kill points are 5:3



In behemoths turn the mawloc deep strikes onto the termagant unit which killed the last spore, it kills half of them but they're in synapse so do not leg it. The tyrant and guard move through terrain while the unit of stealers not in terrain rolls a poor run move to get towards the last unit of my hive guard.



Tyrant fires the venom canno at the hive guard, it scatters and misses.



In assault the stealers are just short of assaulting the hive guard. Stealers out of terrain assault the termagants in terrain but suprisingly they draw in combat and remaing locked!



Game ends on the roll of a 1 I win with 5:3 kill points - Kraken for the win!



*Tactical Notes



I'm a bit gutted that the Trygon didn't make combat against those Genestealers but the Hive Tyrant did a good job, and acid blood came in useful killing another Genestealer forcing a leadership test of 6 - quality!



Oh in case you're wondering why I did fire at the Tyrant with the Hive Guard is because the Tyrant is too far away to assault and will still get armour saves. The Genestealers are a higher priority target as they could assault me and with them been out of cover they wouldn't get any form of save, easy kills!



Summary



Well I think that went well, for me at least Deployment was a bit of pain and losing shooting and assault on turn 1 and turn 2 was annoying but it definately could have ended a lot worse for me.



Unit wise I say the Hive Tyrant was beast of the match. It slaughtered two units of Zoanthropes and a unit of Genestealers, not bad. I found lash whip to be really annoying along with acid blood for extra wounds. Though Tyrants are fragile, wings are the way forward if you want combat - a walking Tyrant just ends up costing more. I did waste taking the hive commander ability as I didn't use it at all, old adversary may have benefited but only Trygons were within 6" and they can re-roll already.



Even though there was no armour in this game and I was firing at T4 infantry I found the Hive Guard useful and I can see why people take 3 of them, 2 just got wasted in assault easily.



I was gutted about the Tervigons. I got some extra Termagants but only 24 which isn't a lot. The Tervigons I found were wish-washy in combat too. I may try taking two large units of Termagants and two units of Genestealers and see how I get on. Tyranids appear to have medium shooting but it's short ranged and not enough of it, close combat is there bag so I should play to the armies strength. I didn't even get to use onslaught and catalyst didn't work because there was AP1 lance from Zoanthropes on my Tyrant and the Termagants by the other Tervigon I didn't bother because of that Mawloc.



I didn't find the Termagants that good in small units. They haven't got the fire power needing 4+ to hit. To make the most of the models I have I'll be taking large swarms, can at least claim objectives and add close range fire support if needed.



I tried walking Zoanthropes and it worked ok but there wasn't any ranged shooting to get me. For 20 points extra I can take 3 Zoanthropes over 2 which should survive longer if I treat them right. Also I can take a Termagant escort which can give them support if needed.



All in all I've learnt something about Tyranids today. They're more a close combat army with shooting support, but do not bank on it. I also think in my 2k list I only need one flying Hive Tyrant as it works ok and I can invest in more fire power and better troops.

Thats a long post!

Silly blogger messes with formatting :S