As promised, batreps for Zilla nids at the Chicago GT. Apologies to any involved if I get your lists wrong, I'll be happy to fix any errors for the record. And sorry for no pics, I'm determined to have a camera next time, there was so much cool stuff worth capturing.
First up, my list:
1 x Winged Hive tyrant, +BS, +St, 2 x Devourer, Warp field (2+/6i)
1 x Walking Hive Tyrant, +BS, +St, 2+ Sv, Devourer, Venom Cannon, Psychic Scream
3 x 1 Elite Carnifex, +BS, 2 x Devourer
2 x 6 Genestealers, 4+ Sv
2 x 8 Spinegaunt
1 x 4 Ravenor, Rending
2 x 2 Ravenor, Rending
2 x 1 Carnifex, +BS, Venom Cannon, Barbed Strangler
3 x Zoanthrope, Warp Blast, Psychic Scream
There's been a lot of talk around the zilla list, most of it dismissive, and I would say that 4 of 5 of my opponents thought this was going to be easy until turn 2-3 came around. So I believe that I have Dakka to thank when I'd roll escalation vs. a marine opponent and their brain would just shut off. Zilla is extremely powerful, even in escalation, and even against armies tooled to face it. Are there a few matchups that it loses to more than wins to? Sure. But I believe it can win any game with standard missions gamma or omega against any army, except maybe Omega Seek and Destroy vs. Assault cannons galore with 10% terrain or less.
Game 1 vs Marc Parker Slaanesh Demonbomb
1 x Keeper of Secrets
4 x 6 Noise marines, w/blastmaster, infiltrate
1 x 6 Noise marines (maybe chosen?), blastmaster and kai-gun, infiltrate
2 x 12 daemonettes
2 x 9 mounted daemonettes
Game roll is Take and Hold Omega
- The board is a chaos altar looking deal, with approximately 15% of the board covered in spikey plates that count as forest.
- Deployment has me placing the spinegaunts in cover on the middle and left sides, with zoeys and a squad of stealers behind them. The 2nd squad of stealers deploys on the far right flank, where I anticipate he'll either ignore them (good for me) or deploy to counter them which would put the game in a better position for my escalating units.
- In his deployment he doesn't go for the stealer trap, and everything parks about 24" away along the middle and left side.
Turn 1:
- I take first turn and the zoeys drift left to drop some plates on a squad that is tighter than the others (they all miss), stealers on the right advance with a good bit of cover now between themselves and the opponents force.
- Marc moves the squad closest to the flanking stealers away from them, 2 squads advance for a better summon next turn, everything stands and fires. Single zoey takes a wound, some spinegaunts make a bunch of 4+ lurking cover saves.
Turn 2:
- Walking HT, Heavyfex, 2 raveners enter. HT takes point and the rest of the army kind of shuffles behind him, I'm hoping for a good 'The horror' check when the mounted daemonettes hit the table. Shooting is unremarkable, a few scattered marines wounded.
- Marc gets every last reserve roll, including the demonic posession. With so much coming on at once, he really has to spread them out, most templates hit, one mounted squad drifts backwards a little. Shooting has a kai-gun wound a zoey, fail it's posession check, and dies to a peril of the warp. Score one more for the hivemind! Mounted chicks charge the tyrant and roll a 3 for the horror (they needed a 5+ to fail, nutter!) walking tyrant is chewed up by rending and the girls get a 6 on the consolidate putting them in contact with: spinegaunts, heavyfex, 1 squad of raveners, 1 zoey, 6 stealers.
Turn 3:
- All but 1 babyfex are in, here comes the swing! Flying tyrant hotness jumps over the closecombat for shots on the exposed mounted daemonettes, babyfexes walk on in clear range of 2 walking girl squads. 2 Ravs and the 2nd heavyfex line up charges on the mounted girls in my lines, 4 x ravs head right to meet with the flanking stealers on the greater demon and his buddies. Flying tyrant wipes the mounted girls, babyfexes pop 1 squad of walking girls, zoeys hit the 2nd walking squad and cause a morale check which they fail by 4 losing 4 more models. Stealers and ravs completely wipe the girls in my lines, 4 ravs and 6 stealers hit the greater demon and pop him. The demons are gone, my entire force is free to rampage, and there's only 4 squads of noise marines left to stop me.
- We play it out, but beyond this point there just a lot of pink marines hitting the rending fan.
- Marc was hurt really badly by escalation and his crazy reserve rolls on turn 2. It's also exceedingly difficult to win a punch-fest with bugs, unless you are Wych cult maybe (Glares at Kevin).
- Just chatting with Marc afterwards, I learn that he's last years winner with that crazy Feral ork list of doom. I ask him why he didn't bring it "Oh I stop playing an army once it wins a GT." I wonder if this happens often? According to DaBoyz in it apparently does, Marc has won a ton of these things and is somewhat of a nemesis to their crew. This is all good stuff to learn, AFTER you get a massacre on someone. 
20/0 Massacre
Game 2 vs Kevin Fuhrman Salamanders
Something like this:
Librarian, Vortex(??), Fury
Inquisitor, scourging, mystics
1 x 10 veterans, 2 x flamers
4 x 10 Las/plas Tac, Pfist sarge
1 x 10 scout, pfist sarge
2 x Predator, Lascannon, lascannon sponsons
- So we got a 6 for mission, he wins the strategy roll and picks... Secure and Control. In placing tokens I keep them as tight together as possible near the middle, and he seems to follow suit. We end with 4 counters in a box, claimable by a single mob of nids, and a 5th counter on a far flank. And it's Omega, yaaay!
- We're on another chaos spikey forest table, with a lot less of it this time around. Things would be looking pretty bad for me at this point, were it not for the mission.
- His deployment was pretty good, very large firelanes, and standing about 9" from his board edge for a run-n-rally fest.
- Long story short, I hide as much as possible for 3 turns, then begin my march forward. Winged tyrant gets owned by scout bolters (whee). A rather pivotal point in the game hit when 2 squads broke on a bit of a fluke during my shooting, both could be escorted from the board if a nearby ravener could survive the assault vs. 2 remaining marines, 1 with a pfist. Ravener jumps in, pops them both (amazingly) and walks the fleeing squads off the table.
- Game ended with a ton of casualties on both sides, but my pile holding 4 of the objectives and contesting the 5th (damn you scout squad!!!).
20/0 Massacre
Game 3 vs. Dennis Wendt Black Templars
Chaplain Grimaldus, 3 x servitors
Emps Champ
10 x Sword Brethren
5 x terminators
2 x 10 Crusader, 10 x Neophytes
2 x 5 crusader, lasplas
1 x 5 crusader, plascannon, plas
3 x 1 Tornado
Pfists all over the place, 2 swing Pfists anyways.
- For those not familiar with Grimaldus (read: Everyone) black templars typically get a chance to run forward whenever injured. You do a wound, they pass a Ld check and move up to D6. Grimaldus gives them +3 to this roll, and gives anyone within 6" the ability to autopass Ld checks. So adding that up, you hit one of these 20 man squads and kill a guy, they barrel at you D6+3. He also gets up after killed the first time, good to know *after* you've killed him once.
- So this might be a tough one, weird that it's against Templars.
- Game is rolled gamma recon, nevermind about the tough game part. GG marine dude.
- We're on a lava flow table that makes you take diff-terrain checks to go just about anywhere. There are a bunch of rock templates that the description says count as lvl 2, but the opponent wants them lvl 3 (wants to hide speeders I guess?), very well sir lvl 3 it is.
- He gets table edge choice, and zoeys push him to his table edge. I deploy largely on the left flank (good flying tyrant / rav approach on the right I'm feinting for). He masses his 50 choppy guys in the middle, with gun squads and terms on the left to match my big mess.
Turn 1:
- I take first turn and down 2 of 3 speeders, full advance all around.
- Mob of 50 doesn't budge, terms advance, 3rd speeder tries to hide on the flying tyrants approach vector. Assault cannons and las place a few wounds on bigbugs, his shooting goes pretty poorly though.
Turn 2:
- Stealers slide out from behind the wall for a gamble charge on the terms. I begin to form the 15" semicircle around his 50 man mob while ignoring them and focusing on the 5 man squads. Flying tyrant eats the hiding speeder. Stealers flub their fleet roll, can't even hide again.
- Terms back up while firing at the stealers, his shooting goes terribly this time and only 2 are killed. One or two more bigbug wounds.
Turn 3:
- Stealers will get the terms this round, spinegaunts advance into 'oh no please don't charge us' range of the 50 man mob. I light up the closest 20 man squad to draw them from their 30 buddies behind. Stealers get into the terms, takes them below half and a few rounds to win, but they eventually take it.
- Closest 20 man plows into the spinegaunts (ohnoes), gets a 6" consolidate into a babyfex and some zoey. The rest of his choppy mob moves to help but wont be in range until next turn.
Turn 4:
- My army piles onto the combat, I'm really hoping to end it and consolidate most of my units backwards to avoid getting clogged in the incoming 30 guys. Well the combat doesn't go so hot, I finish all the fists, but a few stragglers hang on and make their ATSKNF armor saves. So here we go, dogpile on his side of the table time.
- His veterans make it in, but the 20 man squad trips into some lava and wont make it this turn. The fight is messy, with some fexes getting chewed and a lot of raveners going up in smoke. Consolidations put stealers on his special character.
Turn 5:
- Flying tyrant harasses the 20 man squad who didn't make it. All 5 man gun squads are finally toasted by the 2 untouched babyfex. Everything else piles onto the big mess of a closecombat. Character dies, gets back up, marines dying everywhere but bigbugs dropping to fists just as fast. My consolidate puts stealers and ravs on fists wherever possible, gotta lock them out from hitting the bigbugs. Walking tyrant consolidates into his DZ to keep fighting.
- Combat continues, 2nd 20 man squad gets involved but can only get about 8 guys engaged (this fight is really a big mess at this point). Emperors champ can't get engaged. Marines are on the losing side this time around, fists have much less juicy stuff to swing on.
Turn 6:
- Flying tyrant joins the fray from within the DZ. Below half babyfex jumps into the combat, and scoring babyfex walks into the DZ. Remaining 2 stealers from term fight join the melee. Character is toasted, emperors champ is toasted by rending, the fight is really turning in my favor but it's hard to outnumber 25ish guys by any significant number. Flying tyrant eats his killzone and is forced to consolidate out of the DZ, doh!
- Combat rages, there's about 15 marines left at the end of it. I have 2 below scoring stealer squads, 2 raveners, 1 heavy fex, 2 babyfex, and both tyrants alive and fighting still. Unfortunately I flubbed the recon and only got the walking tyrant and a babyfex into the DZ.
Game ends a Crushing victory (about 1200 VP swing) for bugs.
17/3
Game 4 vs. Necrons
Lord, Resorb
6 immortals
8 immortals
2 x 10 warriors
3 x 5 destroyers
3 x 1 heavy destroyers
Game is gamma seek and destroy
Lava table again, little cover and lots of diff terrain offering no cover.
- We're both pretty haggard this morning. My opponent apparently forgot just about everything but his mini's, fortunately it appears he left them on the table after his 3rd game the night before and the staff has them on hand. Though he goes back for each missing item one at a time (rule, army list, dice block)
- I'm far too hungover and sleep deprived to care, yay for 8am 40k!
- Deployment has the typical MC wall with all the little guys tucked safely behind. I match his warrior phalanx in the center, zoeys are up front to get the choir on ASAP.
- His deployment puts the res-orb block in the center, but oddly enough the jetbikes all take the left flank. (2 fex wall and 6 stealers / 6 raveners on this flank)
turn 1:
- He gets turn 1, everything advances (?), all 3 heavy destroyers miss, 15 destroyers fire on a babyfex and cause 1 wound, immortals put a wound on a zoey.
- My turn, stealers and ravs are going to hit the destroyers, zoeys move up and catch immortals in the choir, devourers drop a heavy destroyer, a bunch of immortals from both squads. 1st destroyer squad locked in assault with stealers, ravs flub their charge. Immortals run, but rally before exiting the table.
turn 2:
- 1 squad of destroyers backs up 12, heavy destroyers back off a little, 2nd squad of destroyers advances on the flubbed raveners. Immortals rally, have no range. Warriors fire madly at forward spinegaunts, heavy destroyers put a wound on the flying tyrant. Destroyers drop the raveners to 2 models (yay for me and cover saves), they charge the raveners (?) 2 dying on the charge, the remaining engaged destroyer fails to wound. Stealers finish the first assaulted squad and consolidate towards new targets.
- Ravs get into the first warrior line, both immortal squads are shot up and retreat from the table, 3rd destroyer squad gets genestealered. Babyfex moves to assist the raveners in combat.
Turn 3:
- Lord piles in on raveners on the warrior block, heavy destroyers kill a babyfex. Remaining destroyers wiped in closecombat. Raveners knock the assaulting lord over, hold in combat vs. the remaining warriors.
- Unengaged warriors are shot up and flee the table, both tyrants join the raveners against the warriors. Phase out is achieved.
- This was a pretty lethal combination of overestimating the effectiveness of S6 AP4 weaponry against Carnifexes, and a gross underestimation of the speed of tyranid assault forces. His really poor rolling didn't help with some of those destroyer shots, but getting jetbikes with 36" range guns assaulted really sealed it.
Game 5 vs. Gagan Thable Bloodangels
Chaplain, Death company, Jump packs
Sanguinary High Priest on a bike, 2d6 sweeping advance roll item
Inquisitor with small retinue, emperor's tarot
1 x 5 scout, missile launcher, veteran, pfist
3 x 5 scout, veteran, pfist
1 x 6 tac marines, las/plas, veteran, pfist
1 x 10 assault marines, jump pack, veteran, pfist
1 x 5 scout bikes, veteran, pfist
2 x 6 devastators, 2 missile
-This army is all about the death company, with every unit choice clearly adding as much as possible to the black armored maniac stew. I ask what's the most he's gotten in his DC this tournament, 12 was the best he got previously.
-So the rolls start, and when the dust settles... 19 (!) crazed maniacs led by a chaplain have donned their free jump-packs and are ready to crack some bug skulls (3 pfist). He doesn't have quite enough models ready, so we (yes I help him build his death company) slap a few together that were just waiting for jetpacks, and he borrows a few from a nearby table.
-Game is Gamma Take and Hold (score!). Terrain has a big chunk in the center, the right flank is pretty well covered, and the left flank is a big open field with minor cover at either table edge.
-Deployment has his shootiest elements setting up on the left open flank, I load up the center and resign myself to the long march of the left flank knowing that his assault will attempt to cross the cover of the center and right side. Sure enough the DC, jump squad, and bikes setup on the center to right flank, in response I place the winged tyrant and all 8 raveners in the dead center to meet this flank.
Turn 1:
-He wins first turn without the tarot's help, scout bike turboboosts down the far right flank, DC advances to just behind the large center piece. The bike-priest and jump packs stick together and advance on the right. Shooting puts 2 wounds on a babyfex on the left.
-Time to bait the death company: babyfex and a string of spinegaunts advance at the center, he will definitely reach the babyfex and some of the gaunts, if he gets greedy on a multicharge. Raveners and spinegaunts all advance on the jump packers and bike priest, only 1 squad of 2 and the gaunts make a big enough fleet roll to get the charge. Winged tyrant advances to provide synapse cover on the right and add a little shooting. Left flank does a full march into the field (marching at these guns was a mistake, I should've trusted my assaults and just massed the right flank).
-Most shooting is directed at the death company, even managing to kill a few including a powerfist that was placed dangerously at the closest edge of the formation.
-Assault: Raveners hit hard and remove the fist from the jump squad, spinegaunts divert a lot of the return swings and the combat holds.
Turn 2:
-DC takes the bait and moves to easy multicharge on the babyfex and spinegaunt line. Right flank converges on the 2 raveners and spinegaunt company.
-Left flank brings down a babyfex with shooting.
-The lone scout bike veteran with pfist gets in on the raveners and dies before swinging, the spinegaunts and raveners are then unceremoniously torn to bits. Sweeping advances reach far but not quite enough to get another fight started, 2 scout squads and the inquisitor retinue screen for the priest.
-In the center, the DC takes the multicharge touching a single spinegaunt and wrapping around the babyfex. The babyfex is slaughtered, 2 spinegaunts are killed and another 2 drop to fearless & outnumbered. The remaining 4 gaunts draw the entire DC into charge range of well... the rest of my army.
-12 stealers, 2 carnifexes, and 2 zoanthropes are dispatched to deal with the DC. The raveners and flying tyrant descend on the right flank. Remainder of the left flank walks into the wall of guns for no good reason at all.
-Shooting brings down the remaining jump packs on the right, and opens a hole for the raveners to assault through in the fanned out scout formations.
-DC is battered down to about 8, chaplain is unbased, remaining 2 fists wound the fexes a bit. On the right, raveners plow into the scout formation and sweep their combat into the high priest. Last babyfex hits the outerwall of scouts that it shot into, accomplishing little, but holding them down.
Turn 3:
-Scouts in the center move to assist the death company.
-Shooting puts a little more wounds on the left flank, but is running out of decent targets for the missiles (2+ tyrant is still rolling this way).
-High priest dies to raveners, chaplain dies to stealers, DC is brought down to 4 or so members but is still stinging pretty hard with the 2 remaining fists and the new scout charges aren't helping my situation.
-Winged tyrant moves to assist the tied up babyfex, raveners head for the center pile. Stubborn left flank advances. Shooting brings his las/plas tac squad down to just the lascannon. Assault ends the death company, and breaks the newly added scouts.
Turn 4:
-Left flank fails a lot of target priorities to shoot at wounded 3+ save MCs and instead bounces missiles of the 2+ tyrant.
-Wounded units consolidate behind the center cover, winged tyrant and walking tyrant advance on the missile chuckers on the left flank. Shooting brings some below half but doesn't reduce the volume of fire by much. A lot of running and ATSKNFing going on.
Turn 5:
-1 squad passes their priority check at last (psychic choir was holding them down) and punks out another heavy-fex in the middle. In scoring units I'm down to both tyrants, 1 fex, and 1 squad of stealers. There's a lot of stuff alive, but below half.
-Tyrants call it quits and return to the objective. The scout missile launcher is chased off the board with shooting.
Turn 6:
-No casualties on either side of note, I plop down on the objective and he holds his below half tac squad and both dev squads at half in the left corner.
-Points added up have the tyranids hovering around a 1450ish lead for a Crushing Vic. The left flank debacle of my big-guys being afraid of the DC and instead marching into the few heavy weapons he did field definitely made the difference between that and a massacre. I'll know better in the future that while a death company can be really scary, a bunch of genestealers and MC's dogpiling it on the charge can make a mockery of it.
Thus ended my first GT experience, placing second (might be third actually, there was a flub with Greg Sparks scores) with 94/100 generalship. I had a great time and got to play against a lot of A-team players with really good attitudes about the game. I definitely underestimated the endurance aspect of the whole affair, as it really became difficult in games 4 and 5 to really care about the littlest things that can add up over-time to a significant swing. Maybe less drinking next time will help, but I wont' promise anything!
