Da Boyz Team Tourney – Crispy’s Tyranids

     At the 2012 Da Boyz GT Team Tournament Hyv3mynd, Calypso2ts, our friend Terry, and I joined forces to form the Super-Team: The Grand Strategery!  With Grey Knights, Daemons, Chaos Space Marines, and Tyranids (respectively) we took the field.

     This post will focus on what I thought worked well with my Tyranids. I’ll go over the pros & cons of my list and highlight a few points from my 3 games

(I had a corrupted memory card and lost most of my pictures, so I won’t be doing full battle reports). In my next update, I’ll finish up with general thoughts concerning the event, and go over where I think my Nids are going.

First off, here’s my list:

Swarmlord

Tyrant Guard

Hive Guard (2)

Hive Guard (2)

Ymgarls (10)

Tervigon (Fully Loaded)

Termagaunts (20)

Genestealers w/BroodLord (5)

Genestealers w/BroodLord (5)

Shrikes w/ LW&BS and Toxin Sacs (5)

Biovores (3)

     Over the course of the day I faced off against Tau, Space Wolves, and Orks. The first two games were damn close ties, scoring within a few points of each other. My third game was a blowout, where I nearly got tabled. I should have known something bad was going to happen when all of my teammates gave me the “are you sure” eyebrow when I said I’d face off against the Ork opponent. In retrospect, I have no idea what I was thinking. 

Round 1 - Tau with a lot of shooting (as opposed to the HtH Tau you see everywhere else). I didn't have much choice other than walk forward.

     Starting from the top, I think that the Swarmlord has always been a pretty good choice, but now that he generates 4 Biomancy powers and can cast 2 a turn, he’s becoming more of a no brainer. Paired with a Tyrant Guard, you can get a T7-T9 monster that can get a cover save, Look out Sir, FnP, It Will not Die, Eternal Warrior, and can regenerate through Life Leech. In my first two games, he was a beast. Whatever he touched died.

     As always, he still has his drawbacks. (1) He’s slow. Against Tau, I only caught 1 or 2 units with him. (2) Casting 2 powers a turn means that Perils of the Warp comes up a lot more often now. That’s how he went down versus my second round opponent’s Space Wolves. He had 1 wound left, and was at T9 from Iron Arm. I tried to Life Leech to boost him up, and then came the box-cars.

     I’ve been running a normal Tyrant for a while now, but Swarmy is growing on me. Even though he has his drawbacks, I think I’ll be running him in the near future.

     Hive Guard are normally a solid choice, but in this event they underperformed. It mostly had to do with specific battlefield situations, so they themselves aren't to blame, but with the diminishing amount of armor we’re seeing these days, I may switch back to running just 1 unit. Against the Tau, I couldn't hide them and they got shot up. Against the Orks, the only thing they could shoot at was an AV 14 BattleWagon. Against Space Wolves, they did a good job killing a 3 or 4 drop pods in a kill point game.

Ymgarls - The MVPs of this game. This is after they chewed through a unit of Firewarriors and Pathfinders then made their way into his HQ suits.

    

     In 5^th Ed, Ymgarls were consistently my MVPs, and that hasn’t changed. Being able to assault the first turn they come on makes them a uniquely nasty threat. In each of my games, they played key roles in leveling the playing fields. Against the Tau, they ate through half my opponent’s army and destroyed all his troops along with any potential for grabbing objectives. Against the Wolves, they hit his backfield and brought down a few units. Against the Orks, well…. they killed a unit of lootas before they got swarmed. 

Game 3 - When I looked at his army deployed I thought, "Huh... that's a lot of Orks." I was then nearly tabled, leaving only my Tervigon. I'm pretty sure Wyatt could hear the lamentations of the women.

     Through no fault of the Tervigon, I only managed to spawn 1 unit in each of my games before rolling doubles (and low doubles at that). While that was dissapointing, I think he performed well in my games against the Tau and Orks. Against Tau, he soaked up fire for 2-3 turns before succumbing to the fire, and against the Orks he was my only unit alive at the end of the game.
     Against the Space Wolves, he died 1st turn a Drop Podding Rune Priest with Jaws. There's not too much you can do in that situation. If you can get first turn and get Warp Speed off, then he'll stick around all game. If not, well... you know Jaws.  
      I really like how much Endurance, Iron Arm, and Warp Speed add to the unit. Warp speed can really save the Tervigon against powers like Jaws, but also turns him into a can opener against vehicles. Endurance and Iron Arm help him survive, and if you're buying the 2 extra powers, there's a good chance you'll get at least one of these to help. Against the Tau and the Orks, he took a few wounds, but regenerated them via It Will Not Die.

     The Gaunts worked well as a screen.  They also managed to distract shooting from some of my other units as they move across the field. Not much else to say.

     I was trying something new with the Genestealers and I'm not sure if they worked well. I usually run them as larger units that outflank, but I wanted to try small commando units with a Broodlord. I may try them in this formation a few more times.
     Against the Tau, the Broodlords hung on for most of the game, trying to stay on objectives. By the end of the game, one was alive, but whiffed when trying to kill a unit of stealth suits, leading to a draw.
     Against the Space Wolves, they outflanked and stayed alive for the entire game. In retrospect, I should have been a little more agressive, and maybe they could have eaten some Longfangs.
     Against Orks, 5 man units just don't survive massed Ork shooting. 
     

Game 2 - Against Space Wolves, the Shrikes did exactly what they were meant to do. They took out 2 units with HQs in them before getting popped at long range.

     My Shrikes usually compete with the Ymgarls for the MVP position, usually shining against MEQ armies. If they hit a unit, their target disappears. Lowering initiative, ignoring armor saves, and re-rolling from poison deletes units. That said, they don’t do well against most Xenos. Against the Space Wolf player, they did what they are supposed to. Over the course of 3 turns, they dropped a Grey Hunter Squad w/ a Rune Priest and a MultiMelta Longfang squad w/ a Rune Priest.

     While they shine versus MEQs, they’re mostly tarpits for Tau & Orks (a super expensive tarpit @ 275). Depending on the meta, they may work well for you. I bring them to the table every time.

     The Biovores were my hidden weapons that no one suspected. Against the Tau, they killed a Firewarrior unit in 1 volley. AP4 barrage sucks for most xenos. Right after, they were targeted with extreme prejudice. Against the Orks, they thinned the herd a bit. Against the wolves, my opponent thought they would be an easy kill point and targeted them first. Good for me, as that allowed my Shrikes to move in for the kill.

     For as inexpensive as they are, the ability to snipe out targets with barrage, and their utility against xenos, they're great. 

   
     Normally I would consider my overall showing a bit disappointing, but thinking over the event you have to consider the pairing mechanic and how that influenced our match-ups. I'll save that topic for the next post. Thanks for reading.

-Crispy