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First time playing vs Tyranids and I get to give their new codex a run for the money. My opponent has been playing bugs for a long while but this was his first game with the new 'dex too.
He'd never played vs DE before, so he was a little unprepared for the matchup. What's worse, his dice decided to mutiny (he lost one of 'em ages ago, figures this was them getting back at him). We did explain our lists & stats to each other before the match.

As for the match itself, we're involved in a home-brew Planetary Empires campaign. Setup was done in secret with each player placing his tiles connected to the rest of the board, so nobody knew who was next to whom. The two of us are tucked away in a corner; he placed his tiles connected only to my territory, while I connect to him and two others. Both the Imperial Fists and Eldar players on my other side have to contend with enemies over that way and thus aren't a threat, so I can focus vs Tyranids (as he can ONLY attack me).
You get an "income" in points every turn based on tiles & buildings owned and can deploy it more or less as you wish. This is turn 2 of the campaign, and our first actual battle. Since I made the attacking move, he got to add his 500pt defence force to his list (Flyrant, 2x 10 gants, hive crone).
This is the closest I've come to playing a venom spam list.

The letter in brackets after a unit denotes the letter used to indicate it in my high-tech recon images that follow.
Yeah, I know, I didn't use real pictures. Or that batrep program that isn't compatible with my computer's software. What I did do is write it up so you can get a proper overview of the entire playing field each turn.

Fleet Shadowmaker
1543pts
HQ - Haemonculus, VB (H)
Troop - 9 Wracks, Raider w/Sails, FF, NS, Dark Lance (W) (w)
5 Wyches, HWG, Venom + SC, NS (Y) (W)
5 Wyches, HWG, Venom + SC, NS
10 Kabalite Warriors, SC, Raider w/Racks, FF, NS (R)
10 Kabalite Warriors, SC, Raider w/Racks, FF, NS
Elite - 3 Kabalite Trueborn, 2 Splinter Cannons, Venom w/SC, NS (T) (V)
3 Kabalite Trueborn, 2 Splinter Cannons, Venom w/SC, NS
3 Kabalite Trueborn, 2 Splinter Cannons, Venom w/SC, NS
Heavy Support - Razorwing Jetfighter, FF (J)
Talos Pain Engine, TL-LG (E)

6E Tyranids; For the Swarm!
2030pts
HQ - Hive Tyrant w/Lash Whip & Bonesword, Wings, TL devourer (brainleech worms), Electroshock Grubs, Dessicator Larvae - Catalyst, Paroxysm (F)
Hive Tyrant w/Lash Whip & Bonesword, Wings, TL devourer (brainleech worms), Electroshock Grubs, Dessicator Larvae - Horror, Paroxysm
Troop - 10 Termagant (t)
10 Termagant
30 Termagant
Tervigon w/Electroshock Grubs, Dessicator Larvae - Paroxysm (T)
Elite - 3 Hive Guard (H)
3 Zoanthropes - Warp Blast, Horror (Z)
Fast Attack - 20 Gargoyles w/Toxin Sacs (G)
Hive Crone w/Stinger Salvo (C)
Heavy Support - Tyrannofex w/Rupture Cannon, Electroshock Grubs, Dessicator Larvae (R)
Trygon Prime w/Toxinspike (P)

Music: Yngwie J. Malmsteen, The Arkells - Michigan Left
Mission: Relic
Deployment: Hammer & Anvil
Night Fight: No
Warlord Trait: DE - Target Priority (Warlord & friendlies within 12" re-roll To Hit rolls of 1 @ enemies within 3" of objective)
Tyranid - Mind Eater (2VP per IC killed by warlord in a challenge)
Combat Drugs: Hypex
First Turn: DE

Deployment:
4x6' table, terrain as per book. Star is the Relic, brown rectangles are Ruins (v-shape is 3 level), grey squares are Impassable/BLoS, green shapes are Area terrain. With first turn in mind, I set up with the idea of exposing whatever he put on his starting line to my pile of 36" poison dakka. But I also stayed back from the edge of my deployment zone knowing he'd have to come to me to do damage. My Haemonculus deployed with the trueborn inside the left-most venom, in a 3-level ruin. Razorwing in reserve.
He hid his hive guard behind a BLoS wall within range of the Relic (sad panda!), hid his termagants out of range of my guns but within 12" of his tervigon, the Tyrannofex 47.5" from my venoms, but he put his heavy-hitters right up front to put on some pressure. Trygon Prime in reserve.


DE Turn 1 -
Why bother moving when the enemy presents such a juicy target? All I did was check angles on my vehicles, then opened fire. He learned what mass poison 4+ guns do to T6 monsters with a 3+ save. Since FMCs start the game in glide mode I didn't need to worry about snap-firing. Talos opens up; 2 wounds on the Warlord Flyrant! The haemy venom then the trueborn inside also fire, killing the Flyrant for Slay the Warlord, First Blood, and a pain token. On the right side of the board the warrior raider's Lance IDs a zoanthrope. The wych venom, trueborn & their venom in the ruin finish the zoanthropes for my 2nd pain token (trueborn). Remaining trueborn & venom kill 9 gargoyles as they're the only thing within LoS & range. An auspicious first turn. Everything that didn't shoot turbo-boosted 1".


Tyranid Turn 1 -
The 2nd Flyrant and his Hive Crone demand satisfaction, and fly 24" up the board into my face. Flyrant using the ruins to hide, Crone out in the open. He wants to drop my Venom & Haemy for Warlord. He moves some gants backwards, slides the gargoyles closer to cover & his Tervigon keeping them out of my range. Tyrannofex opens fire on my trueborn venom... only to realize he'd forgotten all about Night Shields and was out of range! Flyrant levels his devourers & electroshock grubs at the venom on the other side and lands 2 pens and two glances! Using the ruins cover I save one pen and the glances, taking a hull point and an immobilize result. The Hive Crone, however, also forgot about Night Shields and is 2" too far to use her stinger salvo. She instead fires only 1 tentaclid (he said he wanted to save the rest for the razorwing?) and whiffs the to hit roll.


DE Turn 2 -
Razorwing comes on, talk about perfect timing! Big threats on my doorstep, though thankfully only 2 of 'em. I move everything to get angle & LoS on the scaries and keep an extra 1" out of range of the rupture cannon. 2 of the venoms on the far side can only reach the crone, same with the Raider (which I moved at cruising speed, since it's snapshots anyway). Wrack raider backs up, warrior raider just gets line on the Flyrant. Razorwing puts 2 wounds on the Crone, who passes her grounding check. Warriors fire their cannon, one hit no wound, a passed grounding check. Venoms fire, land a couple hits, deal two wounds, she passes her grounding check. All three raiders fire their lances at her, one hit, no wound... one passed grounding check. Finally the trueborn manage to ground her, the crone crashing into the ground and losing her remaining wound for a pain token! The flyrant drops as soon as the Talos even LOOKS at it, taking a wound, Talos ready to charge if need be. A venom fires from across the way with the trueborn in the nearby ruins, flyrant passes a whole pile of saves. Then the nearby raider opens up; Rapid-fire and twin-link finish the flyrant with damage to spare. Pain token earned. Took all my shooting, but they're dead.


Tyranid Turn 2 - Less than happy with the game thus far. Reserves don't come in. Realizes he forgot to spawn last turn; rolls 11 gants, but the Tervigon ruptures. Tyrannofex moves up 6", fires at the immobilized venom with my Warlord inside. Hits both for two auto-pens, but I roll two 6s on my flicker field saves!


DE Turn 3 - I hide all my boats (except the immobilized venom) out of LoS or reach of the Tyrannofex. Ruins on the far right have a wall that hides the venoms nicely. I figure his Trygon has to show up eventually, and want to deal with it alone. The Razorwing moves up and blasts 11 termagants out of the big blob with his missiles. Misses both lance shots, of course. Talos couldn't hide, so moves up and fires a couple pot shots at the Tyrannofex. Lands 3 wounds, 'Nid player fails 1 save. Talos kickin' even more butt.


Tyranid Turn 3 -
Trygot Prime bursts out of the dirt, ready to cause some damage. He tries to Deep Strike in the empty space behind the Razorwing, but scatters 8" to within an inch of the Talos. After reading the rules for subterranean assault, we confirm some suspicions.

Count Adhemar wrote:Editor is a purely ceremonial role at Games Workshop.

It reads that if it scatters on top of enemy models or impassable when Deep Striking it moves to 1" away, but it doesn't say it gets special treatment if it scatters to within 1" of enemy models. We agreed it could move to 1", but RAW it suffers mishap (rolled a "misplaced"). A couple gant squads do the shuffle, readying to move on the objective. Prime opens up on the Talos, landing 5 wounds, but I pass all my saves. Talos is on fire. Hive Guard try drop Razorwing, no damage. The Tyrannofex manages to land a pen that I don't save, and wrecks the venom. Occupants drop to the next level of the ruin and fail LD by 1, so they're pinned.


DE Turn 4 -
Razorwing moves max, then turbo-boosts into ongoing reserves to set up on the Relic in case the bugs get close. Everything else acquires firing solutions on the Trygon Prime, and fire! Raider gets warriors into rapid fire range; Trueborn in the ruins fire snap-shots. Wracks squeeze a LG template in for a failed to wound roll. Raiders' Dark Lances deal 3 wounds, trueborn and double-tapping warriors do the rest. Talos fires his SC at the exposed termagants, kills 2. Everything else turbo-boosts to prepare for turn 5!


Tyranid Turn 4 -
Lots of movement, lots of running. He rolls pretty well for the runs, too. Tyrannofex fires on the trueborn/haemy unit in the ruins, but I pass all my 4+ cover saves. I had asked earlier if the spawned termagants were scoring, while trying to decide whether to fire on them, and he said no they weren't. Now that they have a chance to grab the relic, he tells me that they are in fact scoring. Oh well. His gant units are all within 12" of his Tervigon since it's his last source of Synapse. Hive Guard stay put.


DE Turn 5 -
No Night Fighting. I bust all my transports up and at 'em. Wracks disembark, grab the relic with half an inch to spare. Wyches from the right side venom disembark to get a couple extra poisoned pistol shots on the tervigon, and to grab the relic in case the wracks drop it T6. Talos moves up. Razorwing moves into firing range of the mama bug.
Wrack LG kills 5 gargoyles. I pour shooting from venoms, wyches, blasts & lances from the razorwing into the Tervigon. Razorwing scatters but manages to pop a couple gargoyles and gants from the spawned squad. Talos claims the kill, for his first pain token! Mama bug doesn't go down quietly though. She takes a total of 22 termagants with her, 5 or 6 from each squad. Ouch. Warriors finish off the gargoyles. Other wyches drop a couple gants with pistols. Leadership tests failed across the board, all his surviving troops run away. He again rolls well on run distance.


Tyranid Turn 5 -
He fails all his regroup tests, two of the three surviving 'gant units run off the board. The single survivor is most of the way there. Hive Guard and Tyrannofex test for instinctive behaviour; both fail leadership. I'm not really sure what he rolled, I thought I saw at least one 4 meaning Prowl. But he said due to fearless and other things they both got Destroy (can't run, must target nearest, has preferred enemy)? So the 'Fex moved up, fired his rupture cannon and desiccator larvae on the wyches. Rolled a hilarious amount of 1s even with rerolls, total of 1 wound via fleshbane which I saved with a 6+ armour save. Hive Guard also got preferred enemy, rolled 3 1s they got to reroll, and managed to kill 3 wyches. Passed their Leadership and held. Tyrannofex charges the wyches, but rolls 3" charge distance when he needed ~6.

Tyranids concede bottom of 5.

Dark Eldar - Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Relic for 5pts
Tyranids - 0pts

Victory for the Dark Eldar!
My 12th match, putting me @ 7:5:0 with my DE army.
I feel like I greatly improved my tactics from my last match vs (TAU, but then I had the hard counter to the army I was playing.
I worked hard to ensure I was firing in the proper order to gain pain tokens, and think I earned somewhere in the neighbourhood of 6 during the game. Better than before. I also got to test "slicing the pie", and experienced first hand how effective it can be.

MVP unit... not sure. I really got to test out Splinter Cannon Trueborn in Venoms, and wow are they fun. But I feel that the Talos did a darn good job, both dealing hurt and soaking it as well as adding in some fear-factor. Of course, Kabbie boats in Raiders with Splinter Racks proved their worth this match as well. Still happy keeping a Splinter Cannon in that unit, for the ability to reach out and touch someone as well as dealing wounds to a whole unit just on the edge of 24" range.

All that said, I think my opponent danced to my tune too perfectly for his own good. He fed me units I wanted to kill (at least I wasn't the one doing that this time!), in numbers I could deal with. His deployment hurt him badly as well. With all my zero experience playing tyranid I likely would have placed everything on the starting line and rushed the Dark Eldar hard, covering for one unit of termagants to grab the relic and hide. No way could DE have killed everything quick enough to stop him. Plus, he'd have been in range to use the whole pile of maledictions he rolled for his psykers.
His bugs are big, scary, and can put out a lot of hurt if given the chance. I passed a lot of lucky saves.
And as previously mentioned, his dice weren't too kind either. This was his first time with the new 'dex, though he ran a list similar to what he used to so there shouldn't have been too many changes there. I was worried about a venomthrope after reading up on other batreps, thankfully none to be seen. Oh yeah, and he forgot to spawn termagants turn 1. So potentially 18 more bodies to deal with there.

Not really sure what to make of all this. I enjoyed the match, and felt like I did a number of things right.
But am I being blinded by success? What did I do wrong? Where could I have improved?

Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think!

Your opponent deployed terribly, and then ...hid... until the end of the game... while allowing your gunline to pick off whatever it pleased.

I'd say that your opponent needs a few more games to get the whole Tyranid philosophy down; screening for cover saves, presenting a unified threat (not piecemeal), and most importantly playing for the objective. I would drown the relic in bodies, and follow up by ramming everything into the enemy Warlord's area, killing him and getting linebreaker. Seems like a few more games will be good for him!

Thanks for the batrep

That's the weird part; he's been playing 'Nids for over a year, longer than I've been playing Warhammer at all. So he should know all that.
I'm not sure what his thinking was.

Thx for the thoughts!

Maybe he was trying a different strategy, combined with a lack of knowledge about the DE army? I've deployed before knowing what the other guy's list could do, and it usually ended badly.

In this match he was screwed almost no matter what lol.

As mentioned in the batrep, we did go over each others' lists & model capabilities before terrain and deployment. He got the rundown on my range and poison 4+ in addition to everything else. So I really don't know what his plan was.
SBG I've done the same, and yeah it tends to hurt. My first match as CSM vs Tau... ouch. At least once you learn the hard way the lesson tends to stick lol.
Red Corsair I won't argue, DE really is a rough match-up for 'Nids.

EDIT: Actually, I will argue a little. Yeah DE is a bug-killing army but that can't have been a preordained finish.
He started with 500pts over me. He gave himself an Impassable BLoS on my side of the Relic to hide his troops behind. There were a few things going for him.