Tyranid Tournament Wrap-up

     It's been a hell of a few weeks, including a small tournament that 4 of our authors made it out to, an all-nighter at work that obliterated my post for last week, and a smattering of modeling to expand the swarm.

This scene sums up my game against Calypso2ts. Well played sir, well played. 

     The tournament in Syracuse we went to had an interesting comp system.  I know a lot of people don't like comp, but I've never really had a problem with it. I figure that it's just another way to play the game. Because I travel to events a lot, I like to try and conform to what our hosts want to see. Going into this event, I was at -1 on the comp scale.


Comp Requirements:
-0.5: model over 10% total points
-0.5: unit over 25% total points'
-0.5: minimum troop selections (only 2 or minimum sized)
-0.5: overemphasis on one force org slot over another
-0.5: repeated units - three sets of the same two, or three of one
-0.5: repeated equipment (i.e all meltas on untis)-1.0: Overly abusive list

Here's the list I brought:
Prime w/ BS&LS, Toxin Sacs, Regen
6 Ymgarls
2 Hive Guard
14 Gaunts
1 Loaded Tervigon
6 Stealers w/Broodlord
4 Shrikes
2 DakkaFexes
3 Biovores

     The Dakkafex unit ate up a huge amount of points, but I've been wanting to take it for a spin for a while now. Aside from that, I didn't get any other comp dings. Let me hit the high points of my 3 games:

Game #1 vs. Eldar w/ Tau allies. My opponent had Eldrad, an Avatar, 2 units of pathfinders, 2 units of Dark Reapers, a unit of Warp Spiders, a Tau commander, Firewarriors and one of the Tau fliers.

     Going into the battle, I knew that most of my psychic offense was effectively shut down, so a few of my more effective synergies wouldn't be running. That said, my opponent only had around 2 dozen models, and I knew if I could make it to mid-game, I'd  stand a good chance of turning the tide.

     I got off to a bad start when my genestealers were obliterated by redeployed Warp Spiders. It didn't help that I ran them up in his face, forgetting that you can't assault 1st turn with infiltrators. Rookie mistake. For some reason, my opponent choose to ignore most of my monsters and concentrated on killing spawned gaunts. I tied up the Avatar with Gaunts, and took down Eldrad, the Tau commander, and a unit of reapers with a single volley from the Dakkafex's. From there, I mopped up the rest of his army, even using his own quad-gun to take down his flyer, for a big win.

Game #2 vs Calypso2t's Daemons. You can see what he brought and his thoughts on the event here. The mission was unique in that there was a CD sized objective in the middle of the board, and you got VPs by sacrificing single models to the Maw. You could only do 1 model/unit, but it did make for some interesting choices (ie, throw my unwounded Tervigon down the hole, or wait a couple of turns?). Check out Calypso2t's rundown for more details. The battle was tight, and came down to just a few sacrifices, but I have to say that I was outplayed and barely managed to get by with a minor loss.

Game #3 vs Trevor's Orcs. As usual, Trevor and I had a slapfight. Hammer and Anvil deployment, with Killpoint objectives, neither of us wanted to run across the empty no-man's land. Either I was going to be shot up by his lootas and shoota boyz, or he was going to be barraged by biovores and hive guard. From the start, I knew the best I could do was a draw.

     The first 4 turns went by in the span of 20 minutes. We barely moved as we traded units. His Dakkajet took out my Tervigon, which was taken down by my Dakkafexes. His Zagstruk lead Stormboyz annihilated my biovores with a heroic intervention, which were in turn wiped out by my Shrikes. Then the weirdness happened. I popped my Ymgarls near a truck that hadn't moved, expecting an easy kill. What happened? Total wiffs. Trevor responded with his Deff Dread, which unexpectedly penetrated by a random rend before it gets a chance to strike.

     By this time I decided to move up my Dakkafex unit with Prime. They're trying to be supported by an Endurance giving Broodlord, but out of the 7 endurance casts (once from the Tervigon and then every turn from the Broodlord) I only managed 1 success. At this point, we both figure we should make a game out of it, and he runs in 2 30-man Shoota boy units with his Warboss. I gotta tell you, T6 is a pain in the ass. After a few turns of combat, he eventually takes down the 2 Carnifexes, and I manage to whittle down a boyz squad to just 6 guys. In the last round of combat on the last turn, Trevor gets a few wounds on me, but I manage to keep my Prime alive with 1 wound. I do enough wounds to cause a panic check on the small boyz unit. The boys, joined by the Warboss, break. I manage to edge him out by a few killpoints for a minor win.

Overall, it was a great time. I had a few really close games. I liked how the Dakkafex unit worked, but I have to try it a few more times to really get the hang of it.

Let me know what you think.

-Crispy