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Yeah, I much prefer an archon over a succubus, but maybe he did it for fluff reasons (at a tournament?!?).

There's one more round coming later today.

Succubus is cheap and very effective.

sexiest_hero wrote:Succubus is cheap and very effective.

Agreed. For her reasonable cost, the Succubus has one more point of WS and I than an Archon, and already comes with the 4+ dodge save and combat drugs. True, she doesnt have access to nearly as many nice toys as the Archon or Haemonculous, but for her points she isn't a bad deal at all.

I'm going to echo previous posts, jy2, that you dodged a major bullet there (although I can imagine that losing a game based on two failed DT rolls can suck immensely). Great games so far, and well done in drawing against that Mech Guard list. I look forward to the Nid vs Nid brawl thats next on your list of games.

Love me some nid tournament battle reports. Look forward to the nid on nid coverage.

I'm also intrigued by the adepticon scenarios in action. I played a game using mission 1 and found it to be pretty solid and fun. The alt KP one does stick out as a bit matchup dependednt, maybe even more so then regular KP. Seems nice as an idea but maybe impractical in application. 1500 also breeds different style of lists, might even out a bit at 1850.

I really like this scoring system though and may try it out in a tournament myself.

Sounds like a great Tourney with lots of fun. Now if only they'd host Tourneys in my area of the woods!

Tortoiseer wrote:Wow. Just wow. Did you catch a break on that last one or what?
Tremendous luck aside, you did play very well, and delivered a great bat rep. Personally I don't understand the appeal of a succubus over an archon but your opponent's list seemed not atypical of many DE builds out there.
That was the last round I take it?

Mike is one of the top ranked players from Ireland and is flying back to go to their master's event. His list is unconventional but he is a very good player.

Lord of Nonsensical Crap wrote:
I'm going to echo previous posts, jy2, that you dodged a major bullet there (although I can imagine that losing a game based on two failed DT rolls can suck immensely). Great games so far, and well done in drawing against that Mech Guard list. I look forward to the Nid vs Nid brawl thats next on your list of games.

Yeah, I kind of felt bad for him for his aweful luck. His rolls just weren't going his way as he was getting pinned, failing assaults and failing morale at the most critical times. Other than that, he played real well and caught me by surprise. I should've brushed up on DE tactics before the tournament. Then again, his list is rather unconventional and I doubt few would've been prepared for it in actual application.

winterman wrote:
I'm also intrigued by the adepticon scenarios in action. I played a game using mission 1 and found it to be pretty solid and fun. The alt KP one does stick out as a bit matchup dependednt, maybe even more so then regular KP. Seems nice as an idea but maybe impractical in application. 1500 also breeds different style of lists, might even out a bit at 1850.

I really like this scoring system though and may try it out in a tournament myself.

Overall, I liked the the scoring system as well. You really have to have a balanced list in order to do well in this type of tournament, and this type of scoring rewards those type of armies. My only quib is about Mission #4, which I will get into later.

Reecius wrote:
Mike is one of the top ranked players from Ireland and is flying back to go to their master's event. His list is unconventional but he is a very good player.

Wow. I had no idea. But now that you mentioned it, I went to check RankingsHQ.com and he's ranked #6 (out of 313 players) in Ireland. No wonder he gave me quite a scare.

I was able to stop by and watch a few of the games. looked like everyone was having a ton of fun. Hopefully I will be able to get into a tournament at GK soon, but first I still need to learn to play and finally play some games.

@jy2: Your army looked great! I especially liked the spots and swirls on the carapaces. As soon as I saw that, I knew I wanted to use that style on some select Tyranid models, if you don't mind...

As usual nice battle reports Jy and when i first saw the dark eldar list i thought he had 3 HQs then I realized You can take 2 Hamonculus

@StrikerHllraser:

Thanks. My army is a Work-In-Progress, but the tournament helps motivate me to paint them. Feel free to use my paint-style/patterns on your nids.


@Billythekid256:

Thanks also. When I first saw the DE list, it also threw me off. Not the HQ thing, but the list itself. It didn't look coherent to me, with wyches/wracks on foot, only 1 raider and no venoms, incubi or trueborn blasters. But it actually has some chemistry and worked surprisingly well (barring the dice rolls). Think of footdar but faster and with a little mech. It's kind of a sleeper army IMO.

Disclaimer: I apologize in advance for the battle report "summaries" but as I didn't take notes (or rather, didn't have time to take notes), I can only rely on what few pictures I took during and my fading memories to tell the story. Also, I forgot to take a lot of pictures as I was too engrossed in some of the battles, so these reports won't be as detailed as some of my other ones. Lastly, for all you dakkalites who went to the tournament, if I get any of the details of my battles wrong, please feel free to let me know and I will correct it.

Using the Adepticon Primer missions, each scenario had 3 win conditions (or mission objectives). Basically if you achieve more mission objectives than your opponent, you win. In the case of a tie, the winner is then the player with 185+ Victory Points more than his opponent.


---------------------------------------------------


After round 3, 4 people ended up with the exact same record - 2-0-1 (W-L-D) - Jim (me), Reece (Tyranids), Christian (IG) and I believe Frankie (White925, Wolfstar space wolves). Reece and Frankie both won their first 2 games. Reece then faced Frankie on round 3 and narrowly squeaked by with a Draw on Turn 7. Christian tabled his Dark Eldar opponent on round 3. Basically he stole the initiative and by Turn 2, it was all but over. So for the finals, it would either be me vs Reece or Frankie as I had already faced Christian. So Janthkin, who also plays nids and has some type of bug fetish, pits my nids against Reece's nids. No, just kidding....about the fetish, that is. Anyways, I get randomly assigned to face Reece for the finale.


---------------------------------------------------


MISSION 4
Deployment: Dawn of War
Initiative: Hive Fleet Pandora (mine)
Mission Objectives:

1. Victory Points. Destroy more than half of the opponent's army.

Mistake #1. I thought it was just straight whoever had more victory points.

2. Defend. You have to control all 3 objectives on your deployment zone.

3. Take and Hold. You have to capture 2 of the 3 objectives on your opponent's deployment zone.

Mistake #2. I thought you had to capture all 3 of the enemy objectives as well.


Now I felt it was almost impossible to do #2 and #3 (as we spread the objectives far apart) that I just gave up on them and tried to focus on getting the Victory Points. Because of my stupidity, what should have been an easy game for me turned into a nail-biter of a game


Mistake #3. Obviously, Reece was going to outflank his genes and what do I do? In wanting to spread the objectives as far apart as possible, I put the objectives right near the short table edges (objectives could be 6" from the edges). It's as if I'm a complete noob and have never faced an outflanking army before! Man, I totally deserve to lose this one.


---------------------------------------------------


Opponent: Reece's Tyranids

Prime - Bonesword + Lash Whips, Death Spitter
Zoeanthrope
3x Hive Guards
7x Ymgarls
16x Genestealers
16x Genestealers
24x Termagants
Trygon Prime - Adrenal Glands
Trygon - Adrenal Glands


---------------------------------------------------



My Turn 1. I deploy 2 squads of termagants and the Swarmlord. Then everything comes in in a castle formation. My tervigon takes a wound from perils.



His Turn 1. Trygons come in from the left corner and hive guards + tyranid prime from the right corner.


My Turn 2. I shift slightly. Tervigon takes another 1W again from perils. The tyrannofex puts 1W on his trygon prime.



His Turn 2. Only 1 squad of genestealers come in from reserves. They advance slowly and cautiously.


My Turn 3. I fire my biovores at his genes but they go-to-ground for the 3+ cover (more than half were in terrain). He makes a lot of cover and I only kill 1-2 genes.


His Turn 3. His zoanthrope and termagants come in. They hug the board edge and advance.


His ymgarls also come in. They multi-charge my termagants and 2 hive guard units. They kill a lot of gants and force me to take 6 No Retreat saves on each unit. However, I make something like 9 out of 12 4+ saves for my hive guards to lock them in combat!


My Turn 4. Swarmlord goes and finishes off his ymgarls. Biovores bombard his termagants and kill off half the squad (12). I believe my hive guards may have put another 1-2 wounds on his trygons.


His Turn 4. His last squad of genestealers still do not come in. His genestealers back off away from my Swarmlord. His hive guards and termagants advance towards my right objective. It is here where I realize my mistake. Instead of heading towards area terrain for cover from my biovores, his gants were heading towards my objective right in the open. Uh oh. I'm way out of position to contest (at least 2 turns of movement with good run rolls) and with his gants spread out and hugging the edges, I'm not sure my biovore blasts can wipe them out.

In his shooting phase, his hive guards are barely in range and insta-kills 2 of my biovores.



My Turn 5. This is bad. Real bad. I'm way out of position. My Swarmlord and t-fex runs towards my left objective but are a good turn away from contesting. I reposition my hive guards and biovores to get cover from his hive guards. Tervigon spawns 14 gants who sprint towards his objective. Hive guards are out of range of his termagants so fire at his trygons. Biovores can't do enough damage to his termagants due to maximum coherency on their part and scatter.


His Turn 5. His last genestealers come in. He wanted them to come in on the right table edge (where his termagants were) to help secure that objective, but luckily for me, they come in on the left. His termagants make it to the right objective. His hive guards and tyranid prime then makes it into assault with my newly spawned termagants to prevent them from contesting his objective should there be a Turn 6. Luckily, he whiffs his attacks and doesn't wipe out my gants, even after No Retreat saves.


At this point, he's got 2 objectives and have satisfied mission objective #3. At the time, I thought I had mission objective #1 as I was leading in the VP department, but actually, I haven't killed half of his army yet.

If the game ends now, I lose. We roll the dice and.....



To be concluded.....

you gonna finish this?

Give him time. Takes a while to write up battle reports, especially with lots of pictures. Plus he may have other stuff to do.

Painnen wrote:you gonna finish this?

Yup. You betcha. I just had to step out (and then to bed).

Anyways, the battle rages.....


---------------------------------------------------


....the game continues! (Woooh! Close-call.)



My Turn 6. Actually, this picture is from Turn 6 (and not Turn 5). My Swarmlord and T-fex are still short of the objective, even after running.


My tervigon spawns another 11 gants without crapping out. They run towards the right objective but are still short. My biovores decide to fire upon his newly arrived genestealers all clumped up to try to get the VP's. Due to scatter, I only kill a few but not enough to get the unit down to half. Then my tervigon assaults, taking 1W but keeping his tyranid prime and hive guards locked in combat.


His Turn 6. His genes back away from my Swarmlord. He does not want any piece of Swarmy. His trygons and genes advance, and his genes find cover. In assault, he fails to harm my tervigon and in return, my tervigon wipes out his prime. Now's he's lost synapse on that side of the table (the zoan was far, far away).


I need desperately for the game to continue as I am still short of either objectives as well as VP's. The Dice Gods are with me today, and it goes to a Turn 7.


My Turn 7. The beginning of the end. Tervie craps out another 10+ termagants while in assault (and without rolling doubles!). 2 squads of gants go after his gants and he concedes that battle. Then my last squad of gants charge his hive guards locked in cc with my tervigon and I take them down. My hive guards put some more wounds on his trygon prime to bring it below half strength (for half VP's).

Swarmlord easily makes it to the left objective and casts Paroxysm on his genestealers, reducing them to WS1. Unfortunately, being the noob that I am, my hive guards and biovores fire at the wrong genestealer unit (his 2 stealer units were next to each other so I thought some of the genestealers belonged to the other squad). He then removes the models closest to my Swarmlord and robs me of my much-anticipated Swarmie-stealer showdown! Doh! If I had been able to wipe them out with Swarmie, I would've secured enough Victory Points to take mission objective#1.



His Turn 7. Now he makes his mad scramble to close the VP-gap. He's poised to try to wipe out all 3 units of hive guards and maybe even my biovores if his 2 units of genestealers and trygon can reach. He rolls an almight '1' for his trygon's fleet roll...assault? Not going to happen. Then both his genes come up just short of reaching my hive guards due to difficult terrain. It was a nice try.


So the game ends. Neither of us are able to take mission objectives #2 and #3. As for the VP's, I am barely short with just 748VP's (needed another 3VP's!!!).

So we go to the tie-breaker and I am well more than 185VP's than my opponent.



Victory to Hive Fleet Pandora!!!


---------------------------------------------------


Post-game Assessment: Man, did I dodge another bullet or what! If the game had ended after Turns 5 or 6, I would have lost. But the Dice Gods were kind to me today. Reece had a brilliant gameplan....well, brilliant to a dunce like me...and almost stole one from me. If there's anything I've learned today, it's this....RTFM!!! (Read the Fethin Missions!!!) Carelessness should have cost me some of these games, but lady luck was on my side today.

In the other finale, Christian tables Frankie so both Christian and I are tied for 1st place with 3-0-1 (W-L-D) each. So we go to a tiebreaker. It turns out that the tiebreaker was whoever had the most Favorite Player votes (between the 2 of us). Since Christian was such a cool guy to play against and his army gave me such a challenging game, I had voted for him as one of my FP's. Well, it turned out that this was probably enough to give him 1st place and me 2nd, but it was well-deserved. His army dominated, tabling 2 of his opponents, whereas my army had a rough time, just barely squeaking by.

Congratulations, Christian, on a tournament well-played! Post-game wrap-up and Unit Analysis (including MVP) to come.

Well played Jy2, well played.

I knew I could not out-shoot you and that I could not out-assault you and that my only hope was to win on objectives.

I almost pulled it off, too! Ah, if the damn stealers had come in on the side I wanted or if the game had ended on turn 5 or 6 I would have won.

Oh well, that is the way it goes in a dice game.

That is funny that your vote to Christian gave him the win! Oh well, you essentially tied for first with bugs, which is a job well done. Christian is a really nice guy to game with so I am not surprised you voted for him.

Until next time!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh yeah, and my Trygons and Stelaers all flubbing their difficult and fleet rolls turn 7 was just lame! Haha, I could have at least gotten to kill some stuff after playing such a cautious game but lady luck just decided to give the me the finger!

Reecius wrote:
Oh yeah, and my Trygons and Stelaers all flubbing their difficult and fleet rolls turn 7 was just lame! Haha, I could have at least gotten to kill some stuff after playing such a cautious game but lady luck just decided to give the me the finger!

Yeah, cuz she's my b*tch this game.

Reecius wrote:Yeah, your list was definitely better than mine in a head to head contest, but I thought I was going to sneak one by you with my tricky tactics!

Excellent game, whenever I curse like a sailor after the dice rolls, you know I am 100% engaged in the game! It was a good one.

This post makes Reece sound like my West Coast alter ego.

Reecius wrote:Well played Jy2, well played.

I knew I could not out-shoot you and that I could not out-assault you and that my only hope was to win on objectives.

I almost pulled it off, too! Ah, if the damn stealers had come in on the side I wanted or if the game had ended on turn 5 or 6 I would have won.

Now that the game is over, and the results posted, I want to talk about this matchup.

Reece, I think you played it wrong. I don't think the match was anything like as bad as you thought it was. Aside from the Swarmlord (and granted, he's pretty nasty), your list has a major assault edge on Jim's - 32 genestealers, 7 Ymgarls, and a pair of Trygons, and you're worried about assaulting?!? Moreover, while Jim has a respectable amount of shooting, there was certainly enough terrain on that table to give you the needed cover.

How I would have played it:
0) Place both of your objectives as close together as possible on Jim's half of the table;
1) Infiltrate both units of stealers, 18" out and in cover;
2) Deep Strike the Trygons, and if they show up together, separate them to force the Swarmlord to commit to one side or the other; and
3) Plan on turn 2 being a decisive point in the game.

The Swarmlord can't be everywhere, and to try opens him up to death-by-combat resolution; Jim can't expose him to the charge, if there are any 'gants around. The Tervigon should be the highest-priority target, as it's the only thing that make 'gants somewhat scary to your 'stealers, and is also a great target for death-by-resolution (probably a good target for your Ymgarls, whom I would have put in the middle building - Jim's list requires control of the middle of the board).

I suspect that the length of the day may have been a factor in this game - you both seemed a little slower to see things than at the start of the day, and fatigue was pretty widespread. Maybe I should bump up the entry fees enough to cover energy drinks between rounds?

@jy2
Haha, yes, you did seem to be lucking out that day, but hey, good for you. Enjoy those days because lady luck, she is fickle!

@Mannahnin
I am glad I am not the only foul-mouthed gamer! Haha, I am normally very reserved but in a close game, every throw of the dice feels like the world hinges on the outcome! Haha, I get really into the game when its close and tend to spew profanities when the dice don't go my way.

@Janthkin
I definitely appreciate your point of view as you are a far more experienced player with bugs than I am.

However, here is my counter point defending my strategy choice.

1.) The swarmlord will wreck the trygons in one shot. My only hope of killing him was with massed Steelers. However, Jim had them screnned by gant units and I didn't have the firepower to blow a hole through the screen and then assault. Plus with his Tervie he could continue to throw waves of gants out.

2.) The terrain made no difference with his shooting as it was all no LoS needed. Biovores wreck steelers and the hive guard didn't need to see what they shot. I wasn't worried about the t.fex.

3.) I agree, I should have deepstruck the trygons. They did nothing where they were other than make the steelers fearless to hold my flank.

4.) My Ymgarls did come from a middle building and did multi charge gants and 2 units of hive guard, I killed all the gants but Jim made nearly every fearless save! Haha, I should have wiped out all 3 units but the Ymgarls just bounced off due to some really lucky armor saves.

Perhaps just going in for the jugular would have been the better play. Target saturation would have kept some units alive, but I think the combo of his screening gants, biovore fire to thin the herd and the swarmlord easily killing my heavy hitters meant I had to play cautiously.

Next time I will try to just smash everything in assault and see if that works.

Reecius wrote:1.) The swarmlord will wreck the trygons in one shot. My only hope of killing him was with massed Steelers. However, Jim had them screnned by gant units and I didn't have the firepower to blow a hole through the screen and then assault. Plus with his Tervie he could continue to throw waves of gants out.

Yes, the Swarmlord is bad news. But he's a 6" moving model - so long as you drop your Trygons 24" or so apart, he's not going to get them both, and if you land more than 12" from him in the first place, he's going to walk for a while before he even gets that chance. Frankly, in the absence of poison on your 'stealers, I wouldn't even try to kill him.

The Tervigon should have been target #1.

2.) The terrain made no difference with his shooting as it was all no LoS needed. Biovores wreck steelers and the hive guard didn't need to see what they shot. I wasn't worried about the t.fex.

Not LoS, but saves - as you noticed, genestealers in ruins survive better against Biovore attention (and everything else he had, except for the T-fex's thorax template) with a 4+ cover save. Also, Fleshborers are AP 5 - non-trivial difference for 'stealer survival. Cover keeps you alive on the way up, but 'stealers are an offensive unit - they should be advancing & charging.

3.) I agree, I should have deepstruck the trygons. They did nothing where they were other than make the steelers fearless to hold my flank.

It's a hunch, but I think the failed Instinctive Behavior test from the previous game affected your decision-making with the Trygons, as you didn't trust the non-Prime out of synapse.

4.) My Ymgarls did come from a middle building and did multi charge gants and 2 units of hive guard, I killed all the gants but Jim made nearly every fearless save! Haha, I should have wiped out all 3 units but the Ymgarls just bounced off due to some really lucky armor saves.

Granted, I'm nit-picking at this point, but I liked the heavy resin building where Swarmy was hanging out as a better place for Ymgarl - as a larger terrain piece, it directly increases their threat radius, and Jim's deployment rather tipped his hand, as far as where he was likely to castle up. But given that you only just realized that you choose Ymgarl sleeping places after deployment, I can cut you a little slack here.

Perhaps just going in for the jugular would have been the better play. Target saturation would have kept some units alive, but I think the combo of his screening gants, biovore fire to thin the herd and the swarmlord easily killing my heavy hitters meant I had to play cautiously.

That ain't a cautious list you're packing there, bud. And it was strange to see you so quickly jump to the "play for a tie" mindset, given how you'd played against Eldar & Space Wolves earlier in the day.

(None of this should be taken as suggesting that Jim didn't play a tight game in his own right - aside from the errors he already discussed in keeping track of the mission objectives, it looked like he made the most of what he had, and did so effectively all day long.)

Ah, but that was part of my ploy! I wanted him to THINK I was playing for a tie when i was actually being sneaky and gong for the win on his objectives.

Upon seeing his deployment I knew he would not want to break up his castle and expose his weak elements by going after the two far objectives.

It was a bit of misdirection on my part to say that, and I think it worked at least a little as Jim didn't see what my real plan was until turn 4 when it was almost too late!

I think you are right on several counts, I could have played more aggressively with my list as I normally do, but looking at his list vs. mine I felt that if I charged in I would be playing into his plan and simply tossing my army to the lions.

To be honest, Reece's play-style baffled me at first. I thought he was going for VP-denial with his reserves, hugging the sides and the spreading of his stealers. Had I paid attention to the mission-objectives, I probably would have guessed right away what he was up to (or at the very least, when his termagants came in on the opposite side). He took a gamble with his strategy of cautious play and it nearly paid off big time.

He could've played very aggressively as well, overloading me with threats and forcing me into difficult decisions. But then he would have to weather at least 1 turn of fire from biovores, hive guards and gants on turn 1 and also risk his trygons and ymgarls not coming in til later. If he had flanked me, I would've committed to one side with my Swarmlord and then inundate the other flank with the tervigon and sprouting termagants. It would have made for a more confrontational matchup and may perhaps have worked, but I'm betting my shooting, T6 resiliency and counter-assault would have given me the slight advantage against his non-poisoned genes. It would've been a tough call.

And Reece had been trying to mislead me all along into thinking he was afraid of my shooting when, in actuality, he was using it as a smokescreen to hide his true intentions. Ah, Reece, you are one sneaky gant for sure!

Hahaha, hey, sometimes you have to use a little psychological warfare!

Great report, all the way around. The tactical notes and insights are part of what elevates it above many run-of-the-mill reports.

Thanks!

i think this batrep needs to be stickie'd in the 5th Edition Tyranid Archives.

imho, this is pretty much what 'nids have to have going for them to do well in tournament play. your luck was amazingly one-sided. your tactics were much more sound when it was earlier on in the tournament (which is normal with fatigue).

'nids aren't bad. the odds have them somewhere in the "unforgiving" catagory but they certainly aren't bad. i enjoy my 'nids in casual play but they just frustrate the hell out of me when it's crucial that die rolls are at least average-to-good.

nice job!

ps. i'd save those dice for tournament play. ya know...keep them beside your oven, on top of your microwave, get them out when you blow dry your hair...pretty much anything to keep them hot.

Where is this terrain piece from?

Wow, tied for 1st place!

Your shooty Nids has proven itself against Terminator heavy, Mech-Guard, new Dark Eldar, and a really strong Aassault-Nid list.

You got a lucky break in the game against Reecius, having the game continue to 7 and not rolling doubles for your Tervigon.

Excellent job and congratulations!

That's one kind of tyranid list I've never seen before. Beforehand I was sceptical but you really proved its power and durability, even against opponents that hide in metal boxes. Congrats from me!

Now I have to mention that it bewildered me for a moment when I read that _Starmie_ tried to attack the genestealers.

An excellent finish, and congrats on quasi first place. Luck was certainly with you this tournament.
I feel like I've always skipped over biovores when looking through the nid dex; you've certainly proved they can lay down the pain

@Mannahnin:

Thanks. I strive to make informative and hopefully entertaining reports. It means a lot to hear that, and hopefully these reports can help some people become better players.


@Painnen:

I think nids can compete against the so-called "upper-tier" armies even at the tournament level. They may have a slightly uphill battle against certain builds, but then again, they present their own unique set of problems to opponents as well. They won't dominate like some armies do (i.e. they won't table opponent like some of the other army builds can) but they can hang with some of the best armies around. While I did have some luck going for me, I felt that I also played sub-par and made a lot of mistakes (even though I kind of played tight). Then again, I play about 5-6 armies and keep jumping back and forth between them so nids are not my primary army.

And it just sucks whenever your dice fails, no matter the army. I'm sure my DE opponent can attest to that.


@Brushfire:

I'm not sure where it came from, but I believe it is a resin model, meaning it probably isn't cheap. I'll ask next time I'm there at GK.


@SabrX:

Thanks! Wished you could've gone. I think you would've had a great time. Your sisters are always a pleasure and a challenge to play against.

I couldn't believe it myself that I did so well. I was almost sure I'd get paired with a SW player with jaws and a bazillion missiles. Guess the wolves just didn't want to come out and play (there were only 2 wolf players I believe....compared to 6 at the last tournament I saw).

I got lucky breaks in all the games except the 1st one. In game 2, his manticores were whiffing. In game 3, his wychestar lost 2 turns of assault due to a failed assault and then getting pinned. And against Reecius, well, the game just didn't end early. Yep, the luck helped to mitigate all the mistakes I made.


@Zaephyr:

Thanks! Yeah, my nid list is unconventional. I think that gave me an advantage psychologically. People really weren't prepared to play against it as you don't normally see biovores in tournament play. But I have a feeling that you'll see more of them in competitive play. They are quite under-rated and a very cheap anti-infantry option. Moreover, they free up points for you to get more swarms or other units.

His genestealers were afraid of my Swarmlord because 1) Swarmy would kill them, 2) I have a 4++Inv against his rending, 3) FNP by the tervigon, 4) paroyxsm to lower their WS to 1 and 5) they were strung out 2" apart due to my biovores so if I had assaulted, probably half of his genes wouldn't be able to fight even after piling in.


@Tortoiseer:

Thanks! The way I figure it is this...there will always be infantry to shoot down. Even in an MSU-mech list, there's plenty of infantry and once they disembark, usually they'll be clumped up together and just ripe for a large pie plate or 3. You just need to make sure you have enough AT with you. Hence, the 3 units of hive guards and 1 tyrannofex for the AV14 tank or those long-ranged vehicles that just sit back. Swarmlord is there as a counter-assault deterent to protect the army from more assaulty armies.