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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Email: Team Tournament in Belarus!

From Erle:

My name is Erle, I'm a newbie 40k tyranid player from Belarus. I read
your blog with a great pleasure. I haven't participated in any sort of
tournaments yet, but, at last, my growing hive fleet Hyenna is going
to take part in a team
tournament. So I wonder if you can help me thinking on my list and
strategy:)


I'm going to participate in pair with a CSM player. The rules of the
tournament is: 2 players at each side, 1000 pts each player.
FOC organization:
1 HQ
0-2 Elite
2-4 Troops
0-2 Fast
0-2 Heavy
Cannot duplicate non troops units. No more than 2 MC's.

So, We had some discussion with my teammate and decided to make a
shooty CSM with Lash accompanied by strong close-combat Nids. After
some toying with numbers I wrote this variant:

== HQ ==
Hive Tyrant (1) - Twin-Linked Devourer - Brainleech Worms, Twin-Linked
Devourer - Brainleech Worms, Wings, Paroxysm, Leech Essence, Hive
Commander, Old Adversary

== Troops ==
Tervigon (1) - Scything Talons, Cluster Spines, AG, Toxin Sacs
Genestealer Brood (18)
Genestealer Brood (17)

== Total ==
1000 pts.


Our plan is to deploy CSM on board with a lot of shooting with Lash
DP. Tyranids start in reserve - stealers and Tervigon outflanking and
Tyrant deepstriking.
As an option, genestealers can infiltrate with chosens:)

As I have not much experience, I'd like to here anything about this concept.
Best regards, Erle.

And his partner's list:

Hi, finally I've got something like a list from my partner:
Chaos Space Marines Army
3 Obliterator Cult (Heavy Support)
1 Chaos Vindicator (Heavy Support) 
    Daemonic Possession
1 Chaos Dreadnought (Elites) 
    Twin Lascannon; Dreadnought CCW; Twin Boltgun
1 Daemon Prince (HQ)  
    Wings; Mark of Slaanesh; Lash of Submission
5 Chaos Space Marines (Troops)  
    1 Aspiring Champion  
         Power Fist; Bolt Pistol; Boltgun
    1 Chaos Rhino
         Pintle-mounted Combi-Melta
5 Chaos Space Marines (Troops) 
    1 Aspiring Champion 
         Power Fist; Bolt Pistol; Boltgun
    1 Chaos Rhino 
         Pintle-mounted Combi-Melta

Ok, here we go...  Just remember it's your first tournament, tyranids have a big learning curve, and team tournaments create unusual dynamics that are often hard to prepare for.  I'll give you my thoughts, but with only 1,000pts to play with, everyone you talk to is going to give you different advice.

Let's start with your partner's list as a solid foundation and assume he is not going to change anything.  All though, I would suggest putting the combi-meltas on the champions instead of the rhinos.  You can still fire from the hatch and you don't lose the melta when the rhino dies.  He's heavily kitted out for anti-armor shooting.  He's mostly close/mid range between the meltas, lash, and vindicator.  So, to work well with him, you want to create targetting issues and synergy with lash and templates.

Applying your list with his, I think we have several areas to improve on.  First don't forget you need at least 10 termagants to make the tervigon a troop.  I think the flyrant is a bit top heavy.  Genestealers are nice, but with a combined force of 2,000pts, I think you'll want one unit to have poison.  FWIW, I always start big units of genestealers on the table to force my opponents into a reactionary stance.

So here's my version:

Tyrant + wings (nothing else, just psychic powers)
Hive Guard x3
Genestealers x19 + poison, broodlord + scything talons (BL only)
Tervigon + poison, furious charge, FnP
Termagants x10

I tried to keep it close to your original list as I don't know what models you have.  The major difference is the hive guard so hopefully you have models.  If you don't consider it, they're probably the best investment in the codex right now.  I added them to compete for heavy fire with the oblits and thus creating a targeting issue.  The oblits ideally want to be templating lashed units anyways, so it's nice to take some weight off their shoulders in the anti-armor department.  I kept the tervigon because you want backfield objective holders.  The chaos marines are suicide squads with melta and fists, you don't want them sitting in the backfield.  The genestealers have poison now and a broodlord.  He actually adds a lot of survivability to the unit with a better armor save and extra wounds.  Give him two wounds before you start knocking over normal genestealers.  The tyrant is cheaper with just wings.  He's going to tag along with the prince so while one is getting shot down, the other has a better chance to make it into assault.

I'm also going to give you a run-down of how I imagine it working, which is the biggest difference to your original email.  I think leaving your partner alone on the field during deployment will lead to him getting shot down quickly, so we're going to start everything on.  Deploy normal forces centrally with your partner, don't spread out across the field.  You want the prince, tyrant, hive guard, and vindicator central to maximize threat arcs.  Deploy the dread on a far flank so if he goes crazy, he doesn't kill anything important.  Put the gaunts closest to him just in case.  If you're clever, you can use the rhinos to cover the flyrant/prince, or vice versa if you have first turn.  You want the two flying monsters to be buddies, keep them close to each other for cover, and psy defense.  Hide the hive guard and tervigon behind the rhinos for cover.  Then, infiltrate the genestealers on the opposite side of the board from the dread.  Make sure you get them 50% in cover and at least one model strung into synapse/catalyst range.  So you have the bulk of your force dead center, dread on one flank, and genestealers on the other. 

Play aggressively with this combination.  Send the rhinos and fliers up fast to get off your psychic powers and apply frontal pressure.  Get the genestealers into assault as soon as possible, but keep them away from your partner's vindicator templates.  When the hive guard get into range, shoot them first so if they open a transport, the oblits can drop plasma templates.  Hopefully the fliers, marines, hive guard, and genestealers are drawing most of the attention leaving the dread to get into optimal position and the tervigon fill up the area behind your line with scoring units.

Overall, it's a good combo given the format and will perform very well if you play it smart.  Good luck and let me know how it goes!

5 comments:

  1. I awaited the words “play aggressively and deploy everything” :) I see how it work and I like the list. Nevertheless I have to make some changes.
    You know… Belarus is a strange place, where you can’t just go to the nearest market and buy something you like:) It’s the real headache for all the local wargamers. And today morning a good news was your post on the blog, the bad one was that balrog wings for my Flyrant is still somewhere in Sweden (I ordered them 2 month ago and awaited to obtain them tomorrow evening) and will arrive somewhere after the tourney (middle of June). Also, I’ve bought the last hive guard in our local store (I mean that I’ve bought the last one in Belarus for now… whoops!). So… I have to use the minis that are already at my disposal (of course I can borrow some minis from my friends, but I don’t like this idea).
    So, what I have:

    Tyranids:
    2 x Primes (on magnets so any upgrades possible)
    Tervigon (TS, AG, Scytals, Cluster spines)
    3 x Zoa
    1 x HiveGuard
    16 x Devgants
    34 x Termagants (mostly for Tervigon purposes)
    14 x Stealers with nothing
    1 x Broodlord with scytals
    22 x Stealers (unassembled and unpainted – any upgrades possible)
    1 x Broodlord (unassembled and unpainted – any upgrades possible)
    3 x Ripper swarms

    What my friend has:

    CSM:
    3 simple termies
    DemonPrince with wings
    Chaos lord on bike
    Sorcerer
    4 oblits
    Dreadnaught with lascannon
    Vindicator
    3 x Rhino
    40+ marines with different gear (2 meltas, 4 plasmas, 2 lascannons, 2 fists etc.)

    So, I’m looking at the list like:
    == HQ ==
    Tyranid Prime (1) - Devourer, Pair Of Boneswords, Toxin Sacs, Regeneration = 110 pts.
    == Elites ==
    Zoanthrope Brood (3) = 180 pts.
    == Troops ==
    Tervigon (1) - Scything Talons, Cluster Spines, AG, Toxin Sacs, Cat = 200 pts.
    Broodlord Brood (388 pts.)
    Broodlord (1) - Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs = 65 pts.
    Genestealer (19) - Toxin Sacs = 323 pts.
    Termagant Brood (12) - Devourer = 120 pts.
    == Total ==
    998 pts.

    Deploy centrally, using Zoans+Prime instead of Hive guards… Maybe onslaught for Zoans unit for turn 1. Zoans are great firemagnet but still they need a lot of missiles to put them down (16.2 missiles in average to put down 3 Zoeys in comparison to 14.4 missiles to kill the flyrant in cover looks quite tough).

    P.S: As I run my blog in russian, I’m gonna translate batreps for you. Hope, It’ll be interesting practice:)

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  2. It's kinda funny- I love the NOVA format an' all, but the 4 way event from last week's posts and now a discussion regarding a Team Tourney kinda has me missing these sorta things...

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  3. Depending if your friend wants to really up the cheese factor, he could go with the Lash Prince & Lash Sorcerer. By dropping the dread, adding 2X2 Oblits w/ the Vindicator, he'd also up his vehicle popping ability. Tactic wise, pop the other teams transports, Lash the guys inside towards your close combat hitters, and you'll be entrenched in your opponent's deployment zone by turn 2.

    In terms of a small comment on his list, instead of putting a combi melta on the rhino or on the champ, give a regular dude in the squad the melta. You'll still be able to fire out of the top hatch, and it's not a one shot wonder. It also costs the same pointswise.

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  4. Ok, I'll talk with my partner about this.

    >>> 2X2 Oblits

    We can't take 2 similar non troop choises. So only 3 oblits in 1 squad.

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  5. Hello again!
    I can't remember if I posted the tourney results last year:) We tied for 4-5 places with 1 win and 2 draws. In fact we were playing very slow and no one of our 3 games came to an end. I'll make a short overview for you:

    I took a bit different list:
    1 Tervigon (HQ) @ 175 Pts - Cluster Spines; Catalyst
    3 Zoanthrope Brood (Elites) @ 180 Pts
    20 Genestealer Brood (Troops) @ 280 Pts
    8 Genestealer Brood (Troops) @ 189 Pts
    +1 Broodlord @ [77] Pts - Scything Talons; Implant attack
    6 Genestealer Brood (Troops) @ 146 Pts
    +1 Broodlord @ [62] Pts - Scything Talons
    3 Spore Mine Cluster (Fast Attack) @ 30 Pts

    My HiveGuards were not ready, so I took zoeys. Spore mines because we had 2 games with fixed DoW deployment.


    1. First game was against fluffy tyranids with 2 Flyrants, a few stealers, 6 zoeys, mawlock and lots of hormagaunts.
    On first turn we lashed hormies and killed them right out with stealers with no wounds back.
    On second turn we repeated that with flyrant.
    The game ended on turn 3 with a tie, because we ran out of time. If we had one more turn we could make a wipeout on turn 4:)

    2. Second game against orcs+orcs on wagons w/bikers. Dice were really bad. We won roll-off and deployed aggressively, but then orcs stealed the initiative. On our turn 1, 3 zoeys, oblits and havocs did nothing to the closest battlewagon, but lashed nobs on bikes were cut down by stealers. In two turns orcs almost wiped us out, but outflanking stealers killed lootas on the marker and we tied on mission. The result is a tie.

    3. Game 3 was against CSM on landraider + platoon IG. I managed a first turn charge and small genestealer brood wiped out a 30-man squad of IG in 2 phases. Zoeys stopped LandRaider while large genestealers brood engaged CSM troops in preparation to assault last IG platoon. Opponents gived up on turn 2.

    So, we received a bit of team-tourney experience and going to participate this year too, cause it was a lot of fun:)

    ReplyDelete