Da Boyz GT: T - 9 Weeks - Practice Tournament-G3

It is the last round of the tournament and I had forgotten how tiring 3 straight games of 40k can be - I am going to need to train (or something?) for the upcoming GT.  I think the biggest problem is reaching across the table - shooting armies are definitely easier on your back.  

In the first game of the tournament I took down a GK player with a little help from the Warp Storm table and in the second game the GK looked to purge the Daemon threat - but were rebuffed again.  This puts me at 2 - 0 thus far along with 4 other players (SM, Eldar/DE, IG and Tyranids).  I drew the Tyranid matchup at the second table which would be my first tournament game at Millenium against non-GK since last November. 



The opposing army included:

HQ
Hive Tyrant w/ Old Adversary, Two Twin Linked Devourerers w/ Brainleech Worms, Armored Carapace
Hive Tyrant w/ Heavy Venom Cannon, Armored Carapace

Elites

The Doom of Malan'tai in a Spore Pod

Troops

10x Termagaunts

10x Termagaunts

1x Tervigon w/ Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacks, Regeneration

1x Tervigon w/ Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacks, Regeneration

Fast Attack
5x Spore Mines!

Heavy Support

1x Tyrranofex

1x Tyrranofex

2x Biovores

Mission Parameters

Mission: The Relic

Deployment: Dawn of War

Pregame Thoughts

This is a very unorthodox Tyranid list, but it has all the elements that the lists I tend to build struggle against.  he has 6x MC - four of which are T6 that I have to assault to kill.  He has some medium ranged templates/blasts that can take out my rending units - the ones I need to use to take down the MC and he can smash apart my Fiends/Hounds who are fairly useless against most of his threats.  Finally, the Biovores I have no real good way to deal with and I need to remove them to hold onto The Relic.  On top of it all, if he gets the first turn he can grab The Relic and then pass it off to a Tervinon if I do not wipe away the unit - which is actually pretty likely given the range of the Hounds and Fiends.

My advantage is I can disrupt his psychic powers, he needs to be wary of my Rending units and if I can get the relic or divert him his army moves pretty slowly.

Psychic Powers/Daemonic Gifts

Fateweaver: :Left Head (Prescience/Spontaneous Combustion) : Right Head (Enfeeble/Psychic Shriek)

Khorne Herald: Grimoire of True Names and bonus Axe of Khorne

Tervigons: Keep Catalyst

Hive Tyrant: (Endurance/Psychic Shriek) : (Iron Arm/Psychic Shriek)

The Doom:  Psychic Shriek

His warlord trait is Night Attacker, which he opts not to use for Turn 1 Night Fight.

Deployment

We both lineup in front of one another - I am way of being stolen on so I opt to leave the Seekers in Outflank reserve to reduce my footprint and I hide Fateweaver and the Skull Cannons behind the brick wall on my left flank.  The Fiends are on the wide flanks to push in Turn 2 and utilize the trees to block LOS and get cover.  I cannot scout the Flesh Hounds due to the Spore Mines sitting on The Relic.  The Horrors are also in reserve - potentially to shoot down the Biovores.

Turn 1 - Daemons

The Tyranids do not steal the initiative and we start.  I move the Daemonettes up and move the Fiends, but conservatively keep back the hounds for a countercharge.  I have a slight disagreement about my Grimoire roll - if I cannot put a dice on one that is rolled I normally reroll it - but my opponents want me to keep the initial roll.  I have to exercise Fateweaver reroll to put the Grimoire on the Daemonettes

I annihilate the Spore Mines with a Skull Cannon shot for First Blood!.  I also manage to wound Fateweaver with a nurgle Warp Storm result - one that is normally good against Tyranids since it is 4+ poison.  I roll 5 Wounds onto Fateweaver, but manage to save two of them and Fate is looking a bit vulnerable.  I had kept him back to avoid the Rupture Cannons from the Tyrannofexes - which was a lucky decision.

Turn 1 - Tyranids

I did not manage to inflict much damage last turn, so the Tyranids are free to cast all their psychic powers - which they will do every turn unless specified.

Both Tervigons spawn Gaunts and luckily for me they both run out on relatively low spawns.  Almost all the shooting goes into my Daemonettes who weather the storm with limited casualties.

Turn 2 - Daemons

The Seekers outflank on the right side - in retrospect I should have done so on the other flank further back to avoid the Termagants in reserve .  Unfortunately I had tunnel vision for the biovores.  I also mishap a unit of horrors on an 11" scatter so that I cannot waste the Biovores with shooting.

The Daemonettes move up to claim the Relic and the hounds move to annihilate the Gaunts so the Daemonettes can escape.

The Hounds and Fiends easily take down both units of Gaunts and spread across the front to create a barrier against Tervigon charges.

Turn 2 - Tyranids through Turn 3 - Tyranids

The conflict became a little intense at this point so I do not have a full set of pictures.  I am going to provide the general flow of the game.  One unit of Gaunts arrive from reserve, but nothing else makes it in.  The Hive Tyrant assaults the Seekers supports by charging gaunts to keep rending attacks off of it - I realize just now that those gaunts could not charge right out of reserve.  This is huge since a set of 12-14 Seekers has a very good chance to kill an Iron Arm Tyrant on 1 turn of combat (36 attacks, 18 hits, 3 Rends with a lot of upside).  In spite of this the combat goes on for a few turns until both Tyrants finish the Seekers.

The Hounds get charged by a Tyrranofex - he does not challenge in the first round which lets the Khorne Herald Instant Kill one Tevigon.  The Herald would later die in a challenge with the other Tervigon due to four 5+ Feel No Pain saves keeping it from being Instant Deathed

The Tyrannofex would be eaten by the Daemonettes while Fiends sneak around back to take down the Biovores.

The Horrors play backup to grab the Relic if it is dropped by the Daemonettes.

The Fiends are disrupting psychic powers and about the charge the Biovores here.

The Doom comes in and almost wipes out the Daemonettes and Horrors.  It gets most of the Horrors but a Skull Cannon hit Instant Kills it before it can do much more damage.

In spite of not doing much damage, the Doom took out all but one Horror while the Flesh Hounds stand strong though instability tests.

Turn 4 - Daemons

I just need to do the minimum to make sure I cannot lose this game by giving it away.I have First Blood, can grab Linebreaker with Fateweaver and I need to keep the Relic away/create a movement blockade.  At worst I will get a tie if he can ground Fateweaver.

The Daemonettes move backward and the Horror moves up to get in the way while the Skull Cannon moves forward as part of my blockade.

The hive Tyrant shown in this picture becomes Possessed by a Nurgle Herald - saving me from Devourer shots and providing another unit to tie up the Tervigon.  The Gaunts are killed by a Skull Cannon shot.  One single hound holds strong to tie up his two monsters for one more turn.

Turn 4 - Tyranids

My blockade of Fate and Skull Cannon remains in place.  The hounds finally give out, but his shooting cannot take down the Daemonettes since all he has at this point is the Large Blast from the Heavy Venom Cannon.  We call it here and total up the points:

Final Score is Daemons: 4 Tyranids: 0

Game Thoughts
I always struggle against Tyranids - especially when they have this many large monsters.  This list is really designed to take down large numbers of  enemies or to pile wounds onto T3/4 models until they start failing saves.  I made a few mistakes this game - compounded by the rules error in allowing the Gaunts to put a lot of pressure onto the Seekers.  Overall though, focus on the mission and sacrificing units one by one to keep the Tyranids tied up meant a win.  A little luck one way (or another) may have also led to a stronger win on my part - if the Tervigon had not passed his Catalyst on a -4 from the Fiends or failed a 5+ feel no pain against the Axe of Khorne.

Tournament Results
With a 3 - 0 record and 5 of 9 potential bonus points (taken from Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker and First Blood for each game) I took 2nd place - I will leave out to whom to not spoil the results.  I did not miss out on first place though for Battle Points - it was the unpainted Flesh Hounds and Seekers that brought down my score.  I am pretty happy though with the performance of this list and I had a chance to play 3 great opponents over the day.  Coming up soon, I will talk through the list and the aspects I liked/disliked and the weaknesses associated with the list.