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Last weekend, I went to a mid-sized RTT at my Local gaming store. The event was 2250 points, FW allowed, and double FOC. There are a couple of pics, but its all from a video overview that the TO put together of the event, so they're pretty sporadic and there aren't many. Here's my list for the event:

Flyrant, Devourers,
Flyrant, Devourers, HC
Flyrant, Devourers
Tervigon, Tox/Adrenal, 3 powers (Warlord)
Tervigon, Tox/Adrenal, 3 powers
Tervigon, Tox/Adrenal, 3 powers
10 gants
10 gants
5 Ymgarls
5 Ymgarls
3 Zoeys in a Pod
Doom in a Pod
3 Biovores

Round 1 was random pairings, and I ended up against an alliance of Space Wolves and Dark Angels. Here's the list:

Libby (Warlord)
Command Squad on foot with Bolter-Banner
Tac squad, melta Missile
Tac squad, Melta Missile
Tac squad, Melta Missile -Drop Pod
6 Black Knights (2 Grenade Launchers)
5 Devestators, 4 Lascannons
5 Scouts, Sniper Rifles
Whirlwind
Whirlwind
Aegis Defense Line

Rune Priest (Jaws, Living Lightning)
Rune Priest (Jaws, Hurricane)
8 Grey Hunters, Meltagun -Drop Pod
5 Terminators (2x THSS, Fist/CML, Chainfist, Axe/Combi-Plas) - Drop Pod

The Mission: A unique mission, it works as following:

Primary: Two equally weighted missions: 6 points each
1. Have the most scoring units in the enemy DZ
2. Have the most Kill Points
Bonus points: Warlord, "Last Blood" (like First Blood, except its the last)

My Psychic Powers:

Flyrant 1: Enfeeble, Life Leech
Flyrant 2: Endurance, Iron Arm
Flyrant 3: Endurance, Enfeeble
Tervigon 1 (Warlord): Warp Speed, Endurance, Life Leech
Tervigon 2: Iron Arm, Earp Speed, Endurance
Tervigon 3: Smite, Warp Speed, Iron Arm
Zoanthrope 1: Psychic Shriek, Dominate
Zoanthrope 2: Psychic Shriek, Terrify
Zoanthrope 3: Psychic Shriek, Puppet Master
Doom: Psychic Shriek

The board: His Aegis is on my top right, theres Hills to the bottom left and right, a ruin in the center of the board. Some scattered walls to far top right.

Night fight is on, and he has turn 1.

Deployment marines: His Whirlwinds are in the far corners, two tac squads and command squad with Libby behind Aegis, and Devs with RP and scouts are to the left on a hill. One RP will DS in with the GH squads.

Deployment Nids: Warlord Tervigon on my left, Troop in floor two of a small ruin to my right (avoiding Jaws). Three Flyrants are in my center and left providing max SitW coverage to protect my Warlord, and 10 gants are on my left and right. My other troops Tervi will outflank due to the mission, and Biovores are to the right behind a hill.

First turn Marines: The Termis and GH pod in. Termis land right in front of my Warlord Tervigon, GH on my far right next to the troop Tervigon. Due to my positioning, he had to be within 12" of a SitW to be in Jaws range of the Tervigon. Lascannons miss due to Night Fight, but his advancing Ravenwing deal three wounds to one Flyrant! I love rolling triple 1s on saves... ugh. The Combi plasma from the Termis takes the last wound off of him. Jaws on the right fails to go off.

Turn 1 Nids: Both Tervigons spawn. Warlord on the left and 9 gants (he's done) assault the Terminators, killing two and taking a few wounds. On the right I take no wounds, and kill the Priest in a challenge. A few gants/Hunters go down. The two Flyrants get Airborne and kill 5 of the 6 black knights.



Turn 2 Marines: Fire is relatively ineffective. One tyrant takes a wound or two and a Biovore dies. In CC, I kill a Termie and take a wound, on the other side of the board a few GH and gants go down.

Turn 2 Nids: Most reserves come in, not the Doom and 5 Yealers. Interceptor Lascannon kills the spore Pod, as I lined the Zoeys up out of LoS behind it. I converge around his back lines, and gun down a couple Marines. He is lucky with denying the witch and my Zoeys do 0 wounds though. Tervigon is also on the right side. The Banner also survives every Precision shot I put on it. On the left, 5 Ymgarls and a Flyrant assault the 5 Devs/Rune Priest. I point out that they can't join, so I do it separately and end up wiping out both units.





Turn 3 Marines: He focuses fire on the Flyrant that grounded itself. Even with Iron Arm, he's down to one wound. Bolter fire from the banners kills two Zoanthropes. In CC, my Warlord Tervigon is killed, but as she dies kills both of the last two Terminators. His Drop Pod full of Tacs lands next to the Troop Tervigon locked in CC, but that Tervigon kills the last Hunter to break out (a few scattered gants are left as well). The Tac squad guns down a small gant squad nearby. Last biker assaulted into the poisoned gants and died, by the way.

Turn 3 Nids: The Doom lands by his bunker of Marines, the Lascannon fails to wound the pod though. A few Psychic Shrieks kill a few guys, including the Banner bearer. The other Ymgarls jump out nearby and assault, as does the Flyrant and Tervigon. His Librarian/command squad are killed, and the two Tac squads end up locked with a TErvigon and 5 Ymgarls, respectively. The gants that Tervi had spawned swarmed the Whirlwind and killed it. On the left, 5 Ymgarls kill the sniper scouts, while the Flyrant lands and kills the Whirlwind. My Troop Tervigon assaults the tac squad in my Deployment zone.

At this point, my opponent forfeits. He has exactly three Tac squads, all of which are locked in Close Combats that they can't win. I have two scoring units in his DZ, and he has one in mine. He can't get more, but I can spawn more easily if needed. No way he will win this game, my KP lead on him is also huge.

My opponent was trying out a new army, and my list is absolutely brutal if you're not a top tier army. This game went as expected, although I was sad to lose my Warlord. Fairly easy round here, but next round I get my first taste of the new Tau...

Nice batrep, easy to follow. Sounds like the marine player drew himself right into your plan, with the first turn drop pods being fed to you in such a way.

I have to say, I absolutely love the flyrant/tervigon combo that is the current tyranid tournament list. It's powerful, it's swarmy, it's got big mash-em-up monsters, it's great.

It's also DULL after using the same basic list, over and over, for the past year. One thing I love about 40K is fielding different army combinations -- just not possible right now with nids.

On that note, i'll be happy if the rumored new 6th edition codex drops this November. We will probably lose some things like how tervigons currently work (they will probably function more like tomb spyders in the next codex, only adding gants to existing units), we'll definitely lose how OP the doom is, and shadow in the warp will probably change to something involving deny the witch (a'la runes of warding, psychic hoods, etc). What will we gain? Hopefully variety in a codex where we don't all need to spam the same cookie cutter list to win tournaments.

 tetrisphreak wrote:
Nice batrep, easy to follow. Sounds like the marine player drew himself right into your plan, with the first turn drop pods being fed to you in such a way.

I have to say, I absolutely love the flyrant/tervigon combo that is the current tyranid tournament list. It's powerful, it's swarmy, it's got big mash-em-up monsters, it's great.

It's also DULL after using the same basic list, over and over, for the past year. One thing I love about 40K is fielding different army combinations -- just not possible right now with nids.

On that note, i'll be happy if the rumored new 6th edition codex drops this November. We will probably lose some things like how tervigons currently work (they will probably function more like tomb spyders in the next codex, only adding gants to existing units), we'll definitely lose how OP the doom is, and shadow in the warp will probably change to something involving deny the witch (a'la runes of warding, psychic hoods, etc). What will we gain? Hopefully variety in a codex where we don't all need to spam the same cookie cutter list to win tournaments.

I hear you brother! I have 40 Hormagaunts and 2 Carnifex just waiting for a sweet release right now! Don't even get me started on my Lictor and Shrikes though...

I do absolutely love the way my army plays right now, but yes its pretty repetitive. I personally expect Tervigons to remain mostly the same (mastery Levels updated), just a bit more expensive. Im hoping they just become one out of many good troops, instead of either an auto take or nerfed to Oblivion.

I'm sure Tervigons are going to get a big hit with the nerf bat. They are too good and way undercosted. I think Doom same thing... Way undercosted for what it can do. They also need to tone down SitW. Hopefully the Tyrant will return as true melee beast instead of an organic flyer.

I won't be surprised if tervigons switch to adding 2d6 termagants to an existing unit, or even as part of its own unit. Spamming free objective holders won't be the 6th Ed tervigons ability any longer.

They can't nerf Terv's too hard without giving large army wide buffs.

Great work in game 1! look forward to reading the rest of your victories!

You've got quite a brutal tyranid list. Barring extreme luck, I think you've got this RTT in the bag.

Looking forwards to the rest of the tournament.

But wait there's more! Here's game 2...



Last weekend, I went to a mid-sized RTT at my Local gaming store. The event was 2250 points, FW allowed, and double FOC. There are a couple of pics, but its all from a video overview that the TO put together of the event, so they're pretty sporadic and there aren't many. Here's my list for the event:

Flyrant, Devourers,
Flyrant, Devourers, HC
Flyrant, Devourers
Tervigon, Tox/Adrenal, 3 powers (Warlord)
Tervigon, Tox/Adrenal, 3 powers
Tervigon, Tox/Adrenal, 3 powers
10 gants
10 gants
5 Ymgarls
5 Ymgarls
3 Zoeys in a Pod
Doom in a Pod
3 Biovores

Round 1 I faced a SW/DA list and come away with a solid victory, not too many issues. Next though, I'm facing a TauDar army that just played through a very good Necron army, so I have some concerns.

Command suit: CnC node (ignores cover if he doesnt shoot?) Iridium armor, Puretide chip, two Fusions, interceptor (attached to Ion Riptide)
12 Fire Warriors
12 Fire Warriors
6 Fire Warriors
-Devilfish
5 Pathfinders
5 Pathfinders
3 Broadsides with HYMP and Interceptor, and 6 Missile Drones
LongStrike Hammerhead with submunitions
Riptide with Ion Accelerator, Fusion Gun, Interceptor
Riptide with Burst Cannon, Fusion Gun, Interceptor

Farseer (Guide, Prescience, Forewarning)
10 guardians
-Wave Serpent with extra Shuricannon
5 Wraithguard
-Wave Serpent with extra Shuricannon
Fire Prism (tank with Solid shot or Blast option?)

The Mission: A unique mission, it works as following:

Primary: Whoever has the most Battle Points wins
1. One objective each (Emperor's will). Yours is worth 2 points to you, your opponents is worth 10 to you.
2. One Battle point per Kill Point (Troops count as 2)
Bonus points: Linebreaker, "Last Blood" (like First Blood, except its the last)
Special Rules: Warp Storm: Turn 5, -1 to Psychic checks. Turn 6, -2, Turn 7, -3 (It had no impact on the game)

My Psychic Powers:

Flyrant 1: Enfeeble, Warp Speed
Flyrant 2: Enfeeble, Iron Arm
Flyrant 3: Warp Speed, Enfeeble
Tervigon 1 (Warlord): Iron Arm, Enffeble, Smite
Tervigon 2: Iron Am, Endurance, Life leech
Tervigon 3: Smite, Life, Leech Iron Arm
Zoanthrope 1: Psychic Shriek, Terrify
Zoanthrope 2: Psychic Shriek, Mental Fortitude
Zoanthrope 3: Psychic Shriek, Puppet Master
Doom: Psychic Shriek

Hammer and Anvil:

The board: (Assuming my DZ is to the left) Ruin to the bottom and center, and left and middle of my DZ. Area terrain way back of my DZ. In his, two large Area terrain pieces in the middle of his DZ (front and back). There's a large Soup-can building in the middle.

Night fight is on, and I have turn 1. This was risky as its objective based, but Im nervous and want to get off the ground, so I'm going after him!

Deployment Nids: All Flyrants go up front, trying to hide behind cover but spaced out for blasts. Warlord and troops are hiding WAY in the back on my objective, Biovores too. Troop Tervigons touching area terrain but a little bit forward.

Deployment Taudar: 12 Fire Warriors and Farseer are in the front area terrain, Pathfinders behind them, Wraithguard Serpent above them. Both Riptides and commander are bottom right. All his vehicles are towards the top, with Broadsides in the middle and 12 Fire warriors in back on the objective.

The below pics show our relative deployment, kinda. Again, these are swiped from a video, so are poor quality for actual Batreps, sorry.





Turn 1 Nids: No seizing, so I get right into it! All three Flyrants hurtle forward. I usually advise against this, but I'm trying something new here... we'll see how it works. My troops 'Gons run up as well, hugging cover. Flyrant shooting from all three manages to wipe out the two Pathfinder units and kill two Firewarriors with Biovores.

Turn 1 Taudar: His Ion Riptide shoots downfield and kills two Biovores. He then focuses fire and manages to kill one Flyrant, and wound the others. I had a nice stretch of grounding checks before failing my last two. Too late for him to kill more than one though!

Turn 2 Tyranids: HERE COMES THE PAIN TRAIN! CHOO CHOO! Sorry, but I've been waiting for this moment to test out all my reserves against a Tau list... Zoeys land directly in front of Broadsides. Interceptor is poor and wounds one Zoey. Doom lands by two Riptides. I position Spod to block LOS, commander can't shoot him. The Doom himself gets really close to the IonTide, so he can't place a Template. Interceptor from both Riptides fusion guns fails to kill him. One Ymgarl squad leaps up from where the pathfinders were, right next to the Farseers unit. Other jumps up by his far back objective and the 12 Firewarriors there. Both Flyrants land, and my Tervigons get a bit closer...

The Doom then sucks up 3 Riptide wounds and Psychic Shriek is denied. Zoeys try to Psychic Shriek the Broadsides, but I perils one, he denies one and passes the last. Ugh... Flyrant shooting kills a few Firewarriors and takes the BurstCannon Riptide down to one wound left. Biovore kills two Missile drones.

In assault, one Flyrant hits and kills the wounded Riptide. The other assaults the Firewarriors and is killed by Broadside overwatch! I rolled megabad for saves here. So, the Ymgarls by the firewarriors decide to hit the Broadsides instead! I sweep them for no casualties. The last Ymgarls kill the other 12 man squad on his objective and bunker down, no losses.

Tau turn 2: His 5 Wraithguard disembark but fail to wound my grounded Flyrant after failing guide and rolling poorly. His Riptide and firewarriors take him down to one wound, with Wave serpent help. All his tanks shoot, and Infantry all disembark, and he guns down 9/10 Ymgarls. Ouch!

Turn 3 Nids: Doom advances, as do Tervigons. I spawn one unit with the bottom troop and assault and kill that waveserpent. Biovore fire kills a bunch of guardians. Zoanthropes assault the 6 Firewarriors that disembarked. Tervigon shooting kills the last two firewarriors with the Farseer. (His only troops now are 2 Guardians cowering and firewarriors locked with the Zoeys). Flyrant shoots his Riptide I think and completely whiffs.



Turn 3 Taudar: Wraithguard instant kill the Doom, his tanks shoot and wound my closest Tervigon a few times and are pretty ineffective otherwise, I might lose a SPod and a few gants. His Guardians hop into their waveserpent.

Turn 4 Tyranids: My other troops Tervigon spawns and the gants overwhelm his Devilfish, then advance. The other Tervigon and its gants assault and kill 4/5 Wraithguard.

Turn 4 TauDar: His farseer joins the Commander/Riptide, and run away. Shooting kills the Flyrant and wounds my not in CC Tervigon. In CC, I finish him off and consolidate.

Turn 5 Tyranids: My bottom Tervigon and gants assault his Riptide/Commander/Seer. I kill the Seer with failed LoS and wound his Riptide, he does no wounds. He falls back, and my gants roll a 1 to sweeping advance! Argh! That would have ended it... On the other side, Tervigon advances and he spawns gants that join the Zoey combat and wipe out his Firewarriors.

Turn 5 Tau: His last Serpent, Prism and Hammerhead are backing into a corner, blazing away at the Tervigon incoming. A smattering of wounds but not much. His Riptide/Commander consolidate and sit on the objective contesting it, and brings that Tervigon down to 1 wound! Yikes!

Turn 6 Nids: Gant wave kills the Wave serpent, Tervigon keeps advancing there. His Guardians pile out. The other Tervigon assaults his Riptide... its risky, but if he shoots me again I will die. He wounds me once... and I pass Feel no Pain! I then win combat and sweep his Riptide and Commander.

Turn 6: He has 2 guardians and two tanks left. Guardians run for objective but dont make it, tanks do nothing.

Turn 7 Nids: Biovores kill the Guardians, on Tervigon assaults and kills the Fire Prism, gant wave eats the Hammerhead.

Final: Victory Tyranids! I tabled him, won on Kill points, and held both objectives... go me!

Recap: Sweet Hive Mind, I killed half his army in one turn and the other half still shot like beasts! I'm just lucky I finished off those damned Pathfinders... Yikes. Final result aside, that was a tough game and he did a ton of damage. On the other hand, that was a tough mission. Hammer and Anvil, Kill Points/Emperors Will vs Tau? Geez!



Comments are very welcome, as are questions and criticism! Feel free to check out the original Batrep, and MANY more, at my blog! http://knighthammer40k.blogspot.com/2013/08/rtt-0803-nids-2250-vs-taudar.html

Personally I can't imagine there being too much talk about Tyranids getting extensive nerfs when they are (from what I've read/seen) not one of the top tier tourney winners on any kind of consistent basis. The Doom and Tervigon units seem really strong and obviously they are (especially for how cheap the Doom is) but that still isn't translating to tourneys being overran with Tyranids. I like the functionality of the Tervigon.. it's just so fething TYRANID lol. I agree with what was said earlier though.. Tyranids seem a bit constrained in what they can/should do to try and win which I guess isn't in the spirit of the game. I wish warriors/lictors/carnifex were more competitive. I dunno.. will be interesting to see where it goes Nov/Dec with the new codex.

iNcontroL wrote:
Personally I can't imagine there being too much talk about Tyranids getting extensive nerfs when they are (from what I've read/seen) not one of the top tier tourney winners on any kind of consistent basis. The Doom and Tervigon units seem really strong and obviously they are (especially for how cheap the Doom is) but that still isn't translating to tourneys being overran with Tyranids. I like the functionality of the Tervigon.. it's just so fething TYRANID lol. I agree with what was said earlier though.. Tyranids seem a bit constrained in what they can/should do to try and win which I guess isn't in the spirit of the game. I wish warriors/lictors/carnifex were more competitive. I dunno.. will be interesting to see where it goes Nov/Dec with the new codex.

Tyranids may not be top tier but they are still very good, this battle report proves just how nasty they can be. If I had to rank armies into tiers I would put tyranids somewhere in tier two, below necrons, tau, eldar and demons but above just about everything else. If they get a nerf, I don't think it will be to the army as a whole but to specific units, while others get a buff. For example, a flyrant is pretty cheap when compared to a demon prince with wings. The flyrant is about 245pts while the cheapest lvl 2 flying demon prince is also 245pts with no rewards. I dare to say even with 50pts of rewards the flyrant is probably better. Doom is majorly undercosted for what it does. Tervigons could be additional HQ that don't take up a slot rather than an actual troop choice, then it could add only to its original unit. It would still be good but not as great as it is now. At the same time other units could get nice buffs making the codex as a whole much better.

LOL, demon princes eat Flyrants for lunch. They get amazing attacks, invuln saves, redonkulous rewards. No way a Tyrant should be as expensive.

There are other ways to play and win with bugs, this build is just a no brainer with the prevalence of flyers - bugs have nothing against flyers except flyrants. Pods make it easy to drop a ton of firepower onto the enemy, you have to be smart how you use it though. And helldrakes ... well, nothing can be done. I still win most games with no flyrants.

Doom often does nothing but create a minor disturbance. Other times it crushes a hole in the center of the army. Its effect is too random. Though not so much for 40K. It can earn 0 points, or several hundred. It is pretty easy to mitigate - don't cluster up, be in cover, stay in vehicles until it drops. I can see increasing its cost, or changing the power somewhat, but its role is essentially a suicide bomber. The best thing Doom adds is something that can affect armor 2 or 3 at range, which bugs desperately lack.

I fear the new codex, though. Nothing in the bug codex is as absurd as the new tau or chaos codexes, but the amount of complaining is disproportionate against the few worthwhile bug units. On the other hand, the new codexes have been very kind to everything not Dark Angel, so we will see...

Mysticdog wrote:
LOL, demon princes eat Flyrants for lunch. They get amazing attacks, invuln saves, redonkulous rewards. No way a Tyrant should be as expensive.

Flyrants strength is in their shooting, not assault. They're mediocre assault units that should only attack vehicles and crippled, vulnerable targets. In CC, a D.Prince will usually beat a Tyrant. In shooting though, two Flyrants will gun down a Daemon Prince on average, before you even include grounding checks. And really, you should have 2 Flyrants if you take any, 1 just isn't that good.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sorry for the Double-post, but here's the preview for my next and last game:

Last weekend, I went to a mid-sized RTT at my Local gaming store. The event was 2250 points, FW allowed, and double FOC. There are a couple of pics, but its all from a video overview that the TO put together of the event, so they're pretty sporadic and there aren't many. Here's my list for the event:

Flyrant, Devourers,
Flyrant, Devourers, HC
Flyrant, Devourers
Tervigon, Tox/Adrenal, 3 powers (Warlord)
Tervigon, Tox/Adrenal, 3 powers
Tervigon, Tox/Adrenal, 3 powers
10 gants
10 gants
5 Ymgarls
5 Ymgarls
3 Zoeys in a Pod
Doom in a Pod
3 Biovores

Round 1 I faced a SW/DA list and come away with a solid victory, not too many issues. After that, I got my first taste of TauDar and come away with a Tabling. I'm currently leading in Battle Points, but there's one last undefeated player to go through...

Command suit: Drone Controller, SMS, Fusion gun, Iridium armor
Ethereal
12 Fire Warriors
12 Fire Warriors
15 Sniper Kroot
15 Sniper Kroot
5 Pathfinders
3 Broadsides (2 Rail, 1 HYMP)
Riptide, Ion Accelerator, Interceptor, FNP
Riptide, Ion Accelerator, Interceptor, FNP
Riptide, Ion Accelerator, Interceptor, FNP
Riptide, Ion Accelerator, Burst Cannon, FNP
Hammerhead, Longstrike
10-12 (Max-sized) unit of Marker Drones
Aegis Line, Quad gun


The Mission: A unique mission, it works as following:

Primary: Whoever has the most Battle Points wins
1. The Relic (4 points)
2. One Battle point per Kill Point
Bonus points: Linebreaker, Warlord

My Psychic Powers:

Flyrant 1: Enfeeble, Smite
Flyrant 2: Iron Arm, Endurance
Flyrant 3: Iron Arm, Life Leech
Tervigon 1 (Warlord): ILife Leech, Endurance, Warp Speed
Tervigon 2: Endurance, Warp Speed, Smite
Tervigon 3: Enfeeble, Iron Arm, Life Leech
Zoanthrope 1: Psychic Shriek, Puppet Master
Zoanthrope 2: Psychic Shriek, Mental Fortitude
Zoanthrope 3: Psychic Shriek, Terrify
Doom: Psychic Shriek

Vanguard Strike:

The board: (Assuming my DZ is to bottom left) Large Chaos temple dead center. Small amounts of are terrain scattered to the bottom left and top center, very small ruin top right, hill to bottom right. This board was easily the lightest on terrain at the store.

Night fight is off, and my opponent has turn 1. This'll be a nasty turn 1!

Deployment Tau: His Aegis Line is in his far back corner... doesn't look like he's even going to go after the Relic. One Kroot squad is in the center of the board but flat against his edge, with Firewarriors next to them. Hammerhead is farther to the right of that. His other Kroot are below the Tank, then his Broadsides, then the other Fire Warriors with Ethereal on the quadgun. 4 Riptides loom behind that. The only forward unit is his Marker Drones with Commander.

Deployment Tyranids: One Tervigon is forward, this is basically a sacrifice. The other two are behind, but all are in area terrain. Three Flyrants conga lines in my zone so they'll all have cover, I'm hoping to be out of Marker range with them turn 1.

Pre-Game thoughts: Wow, this'll be tough. I sadly have no LoS blocking terrain on the table, at all... my Biovores will be lucky to get one shot off! But, I have to do the same as last game. Try to synchronize my reserves so that I the FLyrants hit same time, and with any luck get enough Kill Points to keep things close. He will win that, but I think I can hold onto the Relic, especially having the second turn. Easily my toughest game in a while though!


Turn 1 Tau: His marker lights advance within 36" of my front Tervigon. Lots of shooting later, I lose 5 wounds on a Tervigon, and one on a flyrant, and two Biovores.

Turn 1 Tyranids: Everything runs up, and 3 Flyrants kill every single marker drone, and wipe out the Pathfinders. Below two pics show my Moving, before shooting.





Turn 2 Tau: He starts off by shooting his quad gun at my Tyrant with three wounds left. He does three wounds, and I promptly roll 3 1s to save... ugh. He spends the rest of the turn focusing on my other Flyrant and finally grounds and kills him. He also kills my last Biovore.

Turn 2 Nids: 10 Ymgarls come in, and hit a Fire warrior and Kroot squad. I win combat and sweep both, one is killed. The Doom lands in his back, and is close enough to avoid Large blasts. ALL FOUR Riptides intercept him, and he somehow survives with one wound left! My opponent then makes 3 3d6 leadership tests... The zoanthropes land in front of his Broadsides, and after Psychic Shriek, he makes two more 3d6 checks. Damn!

On the other hand, I spawn 13 gants who grab the Relic and assault his commander. I wound him once, and we're locked. My last Flyrant flies straight towards the Board edge, stopping just short so I can blast his last Kroot squad. I kill 5, but he passes Morale sadly.

Turn 3 Tau: He moves a bit, and passes two more 3d6 Ld. checks for the Doom, before gunning him down with Fire Warriors. Other shooting kills 5 Ymgarls, and my last Tyrant. Two Zoeys are also killed.

Turn 3 Nids: Zoanthrope again fails to do anything useful after another made Leadership check. My 4 last Ymgarls assault his hammerhead, only to be killed by that Tau overwatch. Freaking Broadside Missiles... My Tervigons are advancing, and I stay in combat wounding his commander once again after a second squad charges in.

Turn 4 Tau: He advances his Burst Cannon Riptide, and finishes off the Zoeys and one squad of gants.CC rages on with little effect.




Turn 4 Nids: I do next to nothing here, just scattered potshots that accomplish nil.


Turn 5 Tau: His Burst Cannon Riptide (3 wounds left) advances to contest the Relic. He then shoots down my 1-wound Tervigon. This actually takes my Relic gants out of Synapse, and they fall back!!!! Pure, pure stupidity on my part...

Turn 5 Tyranids: I grab the Relic, and tell him the games over...

Final Result?

This got REALLY complicated calculating this... First, what we agreed on: He had 9 Kill Points, I had 4. However, I thought the Relic was worth 6 points, so I thought I'd won. Upon further review, the mission sheet said 4. No idea where I got that from... This basically would have changed everything if I'd read the rules just a bit better. I could have assaulted his 3 wound Riptide with 5 units: A T8, 5 wound Tervigon, 2 4 man gant squads, a 9 man gant squad (wit Relic) and a 6 man gant squad I had spawned that turn. It is pretty likely that I could have done 3 wounds to the Riptide due to Poison (his save was a 5++ at the moment). If not, I likely would have won combat and at least swept him/forced him to fall back.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! I had linebreaker with a Spore, so the final score was actually 9-9, but by the mission rules, secondaries are applied after determining the Primary winner. If we had tied on primary, I would have won the Tiebreaker that way however. Therefore, Tau escape with a 9-9 victory?

Narrow Tau Victory, 9-9

EDIT: Post-game:

I have really mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'm pissed off because the game was so easily in my reach! A simple reading error turned to out to be the deciding factor, and if I had thought to double check it, it could have affected a lot! On the other hand, I'm happy that I can challenge the new tau. I easily could have won this game with a little more my way, but Tau aren't dominant over Nids for sure. In the future, I certainly have a chance against even the toughest Tau lists, fortunately. Also, its worth noting that this was a bad board, mission, and Deployment for me. A bit of LoS blocking, or not having to run diagonal across the board at a castling foe, would have let me use more of my army. Plus, having Kill Points in all three missions this RTT was annoying. (It was randomly generated from a long list of missions to be fair). I think that my army is still absolutely killer with objectives, and if there is 3 or more, I am confident that I can beat Tau in this type of game. Only time will tell! Congratulations though to my opponent for going 3-0 on the day. I took 2nd place, due to having the most total Battle points on the day, but congrats to my opponent! He certainly has a nasty nasty list.

Way to go Jifel! Hope you did well in the third round.

...oh, and I thought you mentioned a "Quad-Tide" army. I only see 3 riptides in your oponent's list.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 jifel wrote:


I hear you brother! I have 40 Hormagaunts and 2 Carnifex just waiting for a sweet release right now! Don't even get me started on my Lictor and Shrikes though...

I do absolutely love the way my army plays right now, but yes its pretty repetitive. I personally expect Tervigons to remain mostly the same (mastery Levels updated), just a bit more expensive. Im hoping they just become one out of many good troops, instead of either an auto take or nerfed to Oblivion.

Hah...I have 6 carnifexes (3 are the old crab head ones), 3 walking Tyrants, 3 lictors, 60 hormies, 6 ravenors, over 20 warriors, and 60 genestealers in limbo. Other than harpies, I don't think there is too much that a new nid codex can throw at me that I won't be prepared for .

 wyomingfox wrote:
Way to go Jifel! Hope you did well in the third round.

...oh, and I thought you mentioned a "Quad-Tide" army. I only see 3 riptides in your oponent's list.

D'oh! There's a fourth... I'll go edit that. I guess he felt the need to out-cheese 3 Flyrants!

Game #2 looked like a tough one. I would imagine that is probably one of the nastier lists there.

Anyways, I think it's going to be smooth sailing for your bugs from hereon-out.

 jy2 wrote:
Anyways, I think it's going to be smooth sailing for your bugs from hereon-out.

Did you see my round 3 opponents list???
Tough game there!

By the way, I just posted that game in the above post. Read on!

 jifel wrote:

 jy2 wrote:
Anyways, I think it's going to be smooth sailing for your bugs from hereon-out.

Did you see my round 3 opponents list???
Tough game there!

By the way, I just posted that game in the above post. Read on!

Oh, no. He had a nasty list, but I felt that you had the tools to take on his army.

Oh, so close. I misread the rules once in a tournament and it almost cost me the game against Reece. But luck was on my side and the game went on to T7, thus giving me time to come back.

Congrats. 2nd is nice, especially having to get it through 2 tough Tau armies.

I'm glad that I have a few games against the new armies under my belt now, after all the doom and gloom the internet has given the Tau! These were both two different Tau armies, but both are beasts, and if my Nids can fight them to a standstill or better in these missions, I'm confident about a game with Dawn of War and 5+ objectives!

 jifel wrote:
I'm glad that I have a few games against the new armies under my belt now, after all the doom and gloom the internet has given the Tau! These were both two different Tau armies, but both are beasts, and if my Nids can fight them to a standstill or better in these missions, I'm confident about a game with Dawn of War and 5+ objectives!

We have several Tau players in the area and I am getting use to playing against trip-tides and missle sides. Personally, it feels like the missle sides are a bigger headache for me than the rip-tides. Just a lot of high stength TL firepower that can get nasty with buffing commanders and marker lights. I've only played at 1850 point lists, though, and normally keep a large portion of my army in reserves. I use my Zoes like most (Biomancy support). Hadn't thought about sticking them in a pod and using psychic shriek...but that would give me even more offensive against Tau & Deamons. I just don't like the fact that taking a spore pigeon holes you into keeping the zoes in reserve, have bio support can be real nice. Still, I think I will try your Zoe strategy out as an all comer's option.

The Tau player made a huge error in his deployment leaving room for the Doom to drop that close into range of the very heart of his army. I think you are just lucky the game ended that close.

 Dozer Blades wrote:
The Tau player made a huge error in his deployment leaving room for the Doom to drop that close into range of the very heart of his army. I think you are just lucky the game ended that close.

In order to block that off, he would've been so far back in his corner that I could have walked a Tervigon up, grabbed the Relic and walked away without taking more that potshots. He had to keep part of his army near enough to the center to deter me a bit.

And it may have been better for me if he did. I'd have less of him shooting at me, still would've gotten the Relic, and the Doom did 0 damage anyway.

54 models should be enough to bubble wrap the rest of his army.

 Dozer Blades wrote:
54 models should be enough to bubble wrap the rest of his army.

A 6" wide bubble wrap to keep the Doom out of range? He would've lost firepower, been unable to use Markerlights, or had the wrap shattered by Tyrants if it was too thin, and would've had to back up farther to manage it. Now he should have spread out his Riptides so I could never get more than one or two in range, but that mistake never cost my opponent.

He should have bubble wrapped the Riptides.

 Dozer Blades wrote:
He should have bubble wrapped the Riptides.

Why?

He didn't need to bubble wrap vs assault. He would have limited himself by completely bubble wrapping vs the Doom, even if he could have wrapped all 4 Riptides, the line would've been thin enough that I could have thinned it out with shooting and gotten the Doom in range of 2+ anyways. I think he should have moved his Riptides so they were more spread out, but that army in that scenario makes bubble wrapping extremely unrealistic.

Just admit it when you are wrong... no one is always right.

 Dozer Blades wrote:
Just admit it when you are wrong... no one is always right.

Psh, I'm not wrong! Of course, the Tau player may have been...

Yeah but he won. I'm just saying...

Seems like just bad luck. What is that, 6 passed 3d6 leadership tests?

I hate morale. It's not just my enemy, it's my traitorous dog that not only screws me every chance it gets, but smiles on my opponents, letting them consistently pass leadership 5 and 6 tests in things like fantasy or crucial assaults.

That being said, for some reason the 4 riptide list just doesn't seem all that scary. A few ordnance blasts? I've dealt with that facing old guard leafblowers. Of course I had rhinos back then, and rhinos weren't terrible.....

I just don't see how the game is fun for him like that. "I'm going to set up here.....and not move. Just gonna sit here, yep...let's roll some dice".

I hate sit back and shoot armies.

 Spellbound wrote:
Seems like just bad luck. What is that, 6 passed 3d6 leadership tests?

To be fair, there was a couple of Leadership checks that he failed, but then passed his Invulns/FnPs for. I know that I didn't do any significant wounds with the Doom though.