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I had been messing around with a more hybrid IG list recently and had a chance to play tyranids. Hadn’t actually played against them yet, despite there being many players around, so it seemed like a good opportunity. I had my army geared to 2000 points, while my opponent was set for 1750, so I had to cut and rearrange a bit, so I may have a few odd selections.

CCS with regimental banner, lascannon
Chimera

DH Inq Lord with hood, tarot, incinerator
2 mystics, 1 vet with flamer

PCS with 4 meltas
Chimera with hull heavy flamer
2 squads with lascannon/plasma gun

PCS with 4 meltas
Chimera with hull heavy flamer
2 squads with lascannon/plasma gun

Vendetta
Vendetta
Vendetta

Leman Russ with hull lascannon
Leman Russ with hull lascannon
Manticore

His list:

Tyrant with heavy venom cannon, TL deathspitter, hive command
Tervigon with toxin sacks, catalyst

Venomthrope
2 lictors (together)

19 genestealers and broodlord
20 spinegaunts
20 spinegaunts
Tervigon with toxin sacks, catalyst
5 tyranid warriors with deathspitters
5 tyranid warriors with deathspitters


We started the game kind of late at the FLGS, so most of the terrain was taken. We ended up taking 5 large ruins and setting them up roughly like the pips on a die’s “5”. The mission was capture and control, with spearhead deployment. As usual, I got the +1 bonus for the emperor’s tarot and the lost the choice for first turn anyway. He chose to go first. My pictures didn't come out well, so I've transcribed things onto Vassal for ease of understanding.

Setup:
He puts his objective forward as much as possible, hidden behind the large central ruin. Other than that, pretty standard with the horde of troops splitting to go around the large central ruins. I’m not sure what the plan was for the warriors. He holds his genestealers back to infiltrate. (!?)

As for me, my major concern had been a horde of 20 outflanking genestealers…with spearhead deployment, there isn’t a lot of room to deploy away from the table edge. I suppose I could have sacrificed a line squad or two to conga line along the edge, but I’ll take infiltrating instead.

Nothing too fancy, with the squads combining to form two 20-man squads. Both are in the 4 story ruins, one squad on the upper two floors with the objective, the other two in the bottom two floors to buy time if assaulted. Vendettas go to the edges of my army to push back infiltrators then scout move away afterwards. Inq and crew go in one vendetta, and the PCS go in the other two, leaving their chimeras empty. I figure they’ll be moving around a lot flaming things, and the mobility of the vendettas will come in handy for capturing/contesting his objective. Normally the Russes provide cover to block LOS to the manticore, but with the limited ranged AT in the enemy army and the large ruins, that wasn’t really necessary. Put one on each flank…the left Russ to inch up and eventually put fire on his objective and the right to engage either horde as needed as they entered the open.



And after scout moves:



I fail to steal the initiative.

Tyranid turn 1:

Lots of movement. Right tervigon craps out 12 guants but also rolls doubles. Top tervigon doesn’t attempt. Tyrant fires at vendetta, nothing.

IG Turn 1:
There are a lot of large units closing in fairly quickly. I decide the genestealers are the biggest threat, but they’re still a turn away from charge range, so I’ll soften them now and finish them next turn…hopefully with them in the open between the two ruins. The manticore and a russ pummel the genestealers, killing 9. I throw several shots at the functioning tervigon but only manage 2 wounds. I try to catch the warriors in the open to instakill them, but poor rolling only drops 3.



Tyranid turn 2:
Surprise…the tyranids advance! Lictors appear and pop up in front of the mantocore. Their firing is ineffective. Hive tyrant pens a vendetta but only shakes it. The genestealers move 6, run 6 and charge 6, barely reaching my squad in the lower level of the ruins. Not good. I strike first and kill 5 of them…really not good, as I want to run away and die. The remaining 5 and broodlord, however, cause 11 unsaved wounds, so they get cut down horribly. The wounded tervigon craps out 17 gaunts but also rolls doubles. The other gaunts assault my vendetta but do nothing (except set themselves up for my turn).



IG Turn 2:
That’s a lot of tyranids rapidly approaching, and I know I can’t stop them all. First priority is to kill the genestealers, so the Inq and friends get out and flame them. Broodlord takes a wound and the rest die. The troop squad and CCS use “fire on my target” but only put two wounds on the lictors. I now remember the venomthrope is only T4, and its cover save has proven rather annoying, so a vendetta instakills it, opening the way for my large blasts to really work on the gaunts. The other vendetta puts a couple wounds on the tyrant to pave the way to clearing it next turn. The shots are dangerous and eventually I have to get to the objective. I figure the manticore will serve as bait to bring the lictors out, so it sits still and fires one more salvo of 3 shots, obliterating the gaunts squad in the open. The PCS that hopped out of the vendetta completely whiffs against the lictors. Chimeras both flame the guants, killing many. The broodlord fails his leadership check and runs. I couldn’t believe he wasn’t fearless, looked in the codex…wow, how the mighty have fallen.



Tyranid turn 3:
Broodlord continues to flee. Lictors trash the manticore (but are now in the open). The hive tyrant immobilizes a chimera, so the tervigon charges in and wrecks it.



IG Turn 3: Right PCS hops out of the vendetta….and miss all melta shots at the warriors in front of them. Infantry squad and CCS kill the lictors. I put several shots into the close tervigon, but don’t do enough to kill it. The Inq and friends flames/assault the gaunts, then try to consolidate to screen the vendetta. It's a bit too far.



Tyranid turn 4: Tervigon charges and wrecks my empty vendetta. Warriors take the bait and charge my dismounted PCS, killing them. Broodlord is in synapse, so he starts moving…not sure where to, as he just wanders around the ruins for the rest of the game.



IG Turn 4: One Russ whiffs against the warriors in the ruins, while the other kills several gaunts. Again, the infantry squad fails to impress against the tervigon, only inflicting one wound. The vendettas assist, along with the CCS, but it still ends up with one wound. The central chimera gets through the ruins and roasts some guants. In an act of desperation, the Inq Lord charges the tervigon, hoping to tie it up for a bit (as he’s fearless). Instead, one of his mystics manages to stab the thing in the eye and kill it! They consolidate 6” towards the other tervigon…perhaps I can tie it up or kill it, too!



Tyranid turn 5:
At this point, all he can do is rush troops to his objective and hope for a draw. The tervigon uses catalyst to give the remaining 2 gaunts FNP…forgot to use my hood against it! (not that it would have mattered). The warriors near the objective get a “1” on their run roll, so they’re stuck out in the open, strung out.



IG Turn 5: The chimera plows through the ruins to contest the objective. Both vendettas take out the warriors in the open. The left Russ kills one of the two gaunts on the objective. The Inq lord advances to try his luck against the remaining tervigon if the game continues.



Thoughts: Overall, I was fairly pleased with how my army worked. I have a decent number of tools to handle whatever type of opponent I face, and the mobility to get those tools in place, which really showed in this game. Blasts and templates cleared out little stuff, lascannons took out big stuff, vehicles moved scoring troops around as needed.

Orders were not as reliable as I had hoped. Leadership 8 fails too often…I may need to break down and spend the 15 points to get a radio for my CCS and two large infantry squads. When the orders work, they can be fairly handy, but with only a straight 8 you don’t want to rely on it too much. Also, the troop squads are best for taking out the last few guys in a unit (or shooting tanks/MCs). As orders are given at the beginning of the shooting phase, this makes it tough to deal with approaching troops. Shooting with the squads whittles them down, which reduces the effectiveness of the blast weapons. Not a huge deal, but mildly annoying. Need to be more careful on placement, too, as my lascannons were placed in such a way (front left corner or the ruins’ upper floor) that they couldn’t engage targets to the rear or the near right flank. If they had been on the top floor in the upper right corner, they could have fired all game. The plasma guns helped, though, rapid firing with “bring it down” to avoid getting burned and do decent damage on close MCs.

While my initial thought was that the enemy genestealers should have outflanked, they could have ended up on the wrong end of the table. Worse, I could have countered (as mentioned earlier) with one squad spread out along my left flank. He could have come in above them and eaten them, but then he’d be stuck out in the open and clumped together…probably in LOS to my manticore and one Russ.

Both PCS hopped out and fired one volley, and every shot missed. I know statistically that should happen rarely, and 4 guys firing at BS3 should be about the same as 3 guys (melta vets) firing at BS4, but the fact that it can happen really reduces the amount of faith you can put in them, as it’s usually a do-or-die situation they get dropped into.

The ebb and flow of the battle fit well, as initially a large swarm reached (and was approaching) the human fortifications, but with enough large guns blowing chunks of the horde, they managed to repel them.

At 2000, the list has another (identical) platoon and drops the incinerator and flamer guardsman from the DH Inq lord. The two flame weapons were invaluable in this game, and the limited number of melta/plasma in my backfield hindered my ability to engage MCs and lictors that appeared close to my gunline. Maybe drop the platoon, add two melta SWS in chimeras and keep the Inq with incinerators and flamer vet?

Wow, this looks like a really good battle, and it also seems like it hardly took any time at all.

Unlucky that you biffed all of you melta shots... I think I would have accidentally left those models at the shop

I would advise against making too many conclusions from that battle.

A fairly unbalanced match up , the nids list is poorly designed and friendly.

What symulator is this ? Where can I get it ?

He didn't have any Hive Guard, or Zoanthropes, so your tanks were fairly safe.

I agree with everyone else, that he was playing a friendly list.

I hadn't played him before, so I'm not sure where I'd put him on the competitive-friendly-fluffy scale. The store has a pretty wide range of players types, so he could be anything. He had a decent number of models and was trying different builds, so maybe he was still in the experimental phases of seeing how things work with the new codex.

He asked quite a bit about whether I'd write-up a battle report somewhere. so I mentioned I'd stick it up here. Kind of hoping he'd take a look, give his thoughts and get some advice. I'm not an expert on tyranids, so I couldn't help him much, although I felt his AT was certainly lacking.

I came away fairly impressed with tervigons and tyranid MCs in general. They can take a lot of fire to bring down, and hordes of fearless gaunts can cause tactical problems. I'm thinking venomthropes might be handy, too, but you'd need to hide them behind something big (tyrant, tervigon) because they're too easy to instakill. The 5+ save is nice, though.