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Standard RTT at the main US distribution center which is about an hour away from me.  1 day, 3 rounds, yada yada, etc etc.
Anyway took my Nidzilla list composed of 2 shooty Hive Tyrants with 2 guards each, venom cannons, and TL devourers with psychic scream, and enhanced senses, and toxin sacs.

3 Elite carnifex's with 2 TL devourers, and enhanced senses on each.

1 unit of 8 genestealers with scuttlers and ext carapace
3 units of 7 genestealers with scuttlers, and ext carapace

2 heavy carnifex's with 2 TL devourer, enhanced senses, reinforced chitin, and spine banks.
3 Zoanthropes with Psychic Scream, and Warp Blast each.

1997pts for a 2000pt tourney.

Anyway game 1 was close Nidzilla vs Nurgle.  It was a reserves mission which meant I only had my 4 units of stealers out turn 1.  Good thing I wasn't running a Tyranid horde because on a reserves mission Turn 1 with no synapse might as well go home.  I've seen it before and it's not pretty to watch 5 out of 6 troop choices run off the table from having no synapse.
Finally got my last 2 carnifex's in on turn 4 but they never got to do much as he was falling back behind cover trying to get away from my guns at that point.
He knew he just needed to preserve his points and he had the win in the bag.  Suddenly a Zoanthrope unleashed a focus blast that turned his Land Raider into a fireball. 
Which brought it to a tie game then a lone genestealer that had earlier ran from combat returned to assault the last asp champion from a plaguemarine squad.  3D6 and he managed to rend on his assault giving me full points for that squad.
In the end I had 257pts which gave me a Solid Victory by 7pts.  Yay for bugs and I prayed for no more reserves missions.

Game 2 Nidzilla vs Bad Moons.
This was all out punishments as 3 out of 4 units of genestealers got a turn 1 assault on the Orks.  5 dakkafex's worth of shooting, and -5LD checks saw the Orks heading for the hills.  A venom cannon managed to immobilise and blow 2 weapon off a looted Leman Russ.  1 units of genestealers in CC with 2 Ork dreadnaughts managed to rend, penetrate, and destroy both on 6's causing a massively hilarious explosion which caught a unit of Ork boyz, bikers, a big mek, and my genestealers in the blast.  The ext carapace allowed me to come out on top with the explosion bringing it down to just genestealers, and 4 bikers.
Long story short it was a Crushing Victory for Nidzilla.  Would have been better had a grot rigger not repaired the leman russ last turn, and he kept his 500pt HQ of mega armored nobs and warboss out of combat the entire game.  Which I thought was pretty silly since powerklaws will slaughter carnifex's.

Game 3 Nidzilla vs Ultramarines.
The Ultramarines definitely did not earn up to their fluff in this battle.  It was an all out max points massacre and I lost 2 units of genestealers in total from an engagement with a assault terminator squad with a librarian, and a command HQ with Tigurius.  The two special characters, and the few that remained were gunned down by TL devourers.  When you have to make 40 saves you roll a lot of 1's. lol.
Genestealers assaulted an immobilised LRC and ripped it to shreds.  24 hits, 5 rends, and a penetrating 4 left a nice piece of difficult terrain to hide behind.
The following turn the genestealers pounced on what was left as they tried to flee the table from the psychic choir.  In the end he had no units left alive and I held all 4 table quarters on a cleanse II mission.

I was quite pumped hoping for 1st place but I got dinged a lot on sportsmanship.  Wound up with 2nd place 6pts behind a Tau player.  3rd place went to Eldar who since it was a no holes barred tournament brought a titan killer eldar skimmer.  4th had 3 people tied up but the tie breaker went to Bad Moon Orks.

So top 4 were Tau, Tyranids, Eldar, and Orks.  Funny considering there was 1 Eldar player, 1 Tyranid player (me), 1 Tau player, and 1 Ork player there.  Everyone else was space marines or chaos and in total there were only 10 armies so a pretty small tournament over all.  This is my 3rd win with the Tyranids however and the list has been changed each time.
Previously I had 5 units of vanilla genestealers, and a Broodlord.
Before that I had 5 units of vanilla genestealers, and my heavy carnifex's had TL barbed stranglers.

I want more massacre's though as I need another 1st place trophy to even out my collection.  So for the next 2500pts I'll probably be taking my Dark Eldar.  Seems no matter what I play if I win I get hit with the sportsmanship bat.  So I might as well enjoy a good slaughter.  My Dark Eldar tend to massacre without bonus points for objectives.  Last 4 games with them I lost less than 1/4th of my army and wiped the board by turn 4.  Except for a mech tau player who just kept everything in his tanks, and skimmed around behind buildings all day.  Which resulted in a draw.

So regardless of what you play - you keep getting smacked with the sportmanship bat? Hmm. I guess your plan to just keep the massacres coming so you can even out you trophy case is right in line. Maybe they should add some spikes to that bat.

Did the ork player go first and move up, because that is the only way you could first turn charges and devourers. Also how do you lose that little with DE? Good job anyway.

Some missions allow an 18" deployment. That allows scuttling stealers to get in 1st turn.

The Ork player infiltrated Kommando's which allowed 3 out of 4 units of genestealers to get a 1st turn assault.

Even with a 24" deployment as well if they deploy on the line scuttling genestealers can assault if you get a fleet roll of 6". 6" scuttlers + 6" move + 6" fleet + 6" assault = 24"
It's not the first time I've gotten 1st turn assaults.

With DE the task is simple put everything thats going to stand and shoot in 4+ cover. Then simply don't let them shoot at anything else. In total I lost 3 units of 3 bikes each, 1 unit of warp beasts, and a unit of warriors who ran off the table. Everything else was alive or well over 50%.
Plus I shot down his 2 10 man units of CSM's, and his Berzerkers before he got to summon any of his demons. Basically they came forward in their Rhino's jumped out behind them. I manuever into position with my ravagers, talos, bikes, and warp beasts and shot/assaulted him to death at the top of turn 2.

Nicely done there, what no lash princes? O.o
But still, very nice job

Whoever wrote 4th edition needs to be shot behind a chemical shed.  Seriously tyranid army lists where there most effective builds are SHOOTY carnifexes and NO swarming?  Is this even the same game.  Played eldar with my orks, there falcons are unkilable.  Oh and harlequins have every special rule in the game.  Ignore terrain? yup. Rending? got that. Shooting that would make obliterators jealous? yes.  You can no longer play your dark eldar or orks the way they were meant to be played, namely ride up in vehicles and assault, because entangle rules single handedly F'd up those ideas.

Yes, I'm sure every Chaos player would be happy to give up their plascannons, lascannons, etc. for a bunch of bolt pistol shots, a shuricannon and a couple of melta shots at 6". Give me a break.

Orock wrote:Whoever wrote 4th edition needs to be shot behind a chemical shed.  Seriously tyranid army lists where there most effective builds are SHOOTY carnifexes and NO swarming?  Is this even the same game.  Played eldar with my orks, there falcons are unkilable.  Oh and harlequins have every special rule in the game.  Ignore terrain? yup. Rending? got that. Shooting that would make obliterators jealous? yes.  You can no longer play your dark eldar or orks the way they were meant to be played, namely ride up in vehicles and assault, because entangle rules single handedly F'd up those ideas.

Well the writer of the Tyranids Codex was Phil Kelly... his claim to fame prior to this? Being the most recognized Tyranids player/conversion modeller in the hobby.

I don't know what that means to everyone else but at the time the Codex was written, GW had the most respected Tynaid player do the deed.

Personally all that I think Tyranids need to get the 'Shooty Fex' situation back in line is to give them one more option... give the nids a drop pod equivalent for the Carnifex. That'd get them in a better position for conducting assualts. As it is now, they are too slow to really do the CC thing. It's not a perfect idea but if you can't get them close enough to assault the enemy but they can shoot... well it's just stubborn & assinine NOT to use them at shooting. Sorry if you don't like that idea for the Carnifex but that's how it is.

Nice post on the batrep...

What would you suggest to modify on this list to pare t down to 1850?

Re: First turn assault:

I had this discussion a while ago; in a standard setup you cannot charge turn 1. It's a very little understood rule, and the reason for it is the wording. To quote the BGB, page 82, Seek and Destroy and Recon:

No unit can be deployed within 24" of the enemy...

which means if you Scuttle+Move+Fleet6"+Assault you will move 24. Since you can't setup within 24", you cannot possibly be "in" for the assault..

Interestingly this rule doesn't apply to Cleanse (within 18"), or Secure and Control and Take and Hold (no more than 12" from your own table edge). In the latter two this means the width of the table becomes important; if it is 48" or less wide, then you can get your 1st turn charge in those missions.

EDIT: Of course, anyone who doesn't set up 1" further back than they can in those missions when they've seen your scuttling 'stealers deserves everything they get

Viperion

Viperion wrote:Re: First turn assault:

I had this discussion a while ago; in a standard setup you cannot charge turn 1. It's a very little understood rule, and the reason for it is the wording. To quote the BGB, page 82, Seek and Destroy and Recon:

No unit can be deployed within 24" of the enemy...

which means if you Scuttle+Move+Fleet6"+Assault you will move 24. Since you can't setup within 24", you cannot possibly be "in" for the assault..

Viperion

Setting up within 24" doesn't make a difference. If your unit's base and your opponent's unit's base are exactly 24" apart, then since all you need to do is touch bases to assault, a unit moving 24" will be able to have its base touch your base 24" away.

The first turn assault has been around for many years.

Knowing how to deploy to prevent it has been around...for many years.

The current incarnation of Tyranids is less powerful than the previous--have you forgotten the rending claws in every unit of gaunts? I know I haven't.

Sure gun-toting Carni's put paid to infantry, and so? Lots of things make infantry go away.

Hell my Last Chancers drop army has so many plasma guns it eats 8 monstrous creatures for breakfast, but in the end if you have a balanced army you can handle almost anything.

At least I think so.

Nice report, though I am still waiting to play the all powerfull 1850 zilla list . I did play a zilla list a few days ago but he oppted for more wounds instead of the two plus save. Needless to say that I was very happy in seeing that and started working a MC a turn from that point on.

Sometimes a simple mistake can really change the game play as the bad moons player found out from your report. To set up and allow assault wow....

Grats even though you got dinged.

I have a quick question, and maybe its better asked in the rules section, but as far as I recall if something that requires synapses to move and shoot (Gaunts etc) is out of synapses can you not choose to 'lurk' them instead of risk them running off the table? Why would you risk the roll when your synapse is going to make it on the board soon anyways. I dont think you'll be able to move and shoot that first turn with em even making the leadership roll...right?

You only need to take the test if you want to move.

You don't need to make the test when they arrive (not on board at start of turn).

You are correct, it's "bad" to do so. You can still fleet around.

So 'Nids take a small hanidcape on Escalation missions, but they arn't as gibbled as people claim. 3/4's of your army shouldn't be running off the table at all!