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There was a 1000pt tournament this weekend, with the restriction of No Ordnance. I brought my new shooty Tyranids: 146 Hive Tyrant: BS4 S6 Sv2+ 2xTL Devourer, Psychic Scream
It was weird only putting down 32 models on the board. I kept going over everything to make sure that I hadn't left off a unit or something. I figured that the toughest game I'd have would be against Armored Company, which I was pretty sure that Nick would field. Sure enough, he was my first opponent, and he had 5 tanks (Leman Russ Exterminators, which are, strangely enough, very good against bugs!) Game 1: Nick with Armored Company (5xLeman Russ Exterminator, Hull Lascannon, Sponson Heavy Bolters, Evasive Driving) Mission was Cleanse, so we set up in opposite table quarters and he made use of his long range weaponry to sit back on the table edge. If I'm doing my math right, on a 4x6 table, this gave me about 36" of ground to cross to get to him. In addition, only my Venom Cannon and the two Warp Blasts were strong enough to damage his tanks at range, and the Warp Blasts could only do it within 18 inches! He took first turn and proceed to tear into my Venom Cannon Carnifex, killing it. I moved forward. Next he fired at my Hive Tyrant and wounded it, then switched to the Devilfex and wounded it as well. I kept marching forward, with my Genestealers and Zoanthropes mostly behind the two Monstrous Creatures. Over the next couple of turns, he killed off the Tyrant and Devilfex, plus both Warp Blast Zoanthropes. At that point, one brood of Genestealers surged forward and got into contact with a tank. 6 Genestealers moved up, but his Evasive Driving killed 4 of them. The remaining two managed to kill off the tank, though. With nothing else to target, he began shooting the Genestealers. Exterminators are very good at killing Genestealers, and the two in contact, plus 2 more broods went down in a hail of fire. The remaining brood lost some models but still had one Genestealer left to charge a tank, which promptly got churned it under it's treads with an Evasive Driving roll. That left him a turn to blast the final Zoanthrope back to the Hive Mind and claim 2 quarters. Final score: 160-1196. Ouch, but pretty close to what I expected. I had hoped to take out 2 tanks, however. Game 1 MVP: Genestealers. as they were the only things that did damage at all!
Game 2, I played against Scott's Tau, a very shooty army with lots of Crisis suits, plus some Firewarriors, 2 Broadsides and a squad of 5 Stealth Suits. (I believe his fluff is based on some Anime SWAT team which presumably features lots of power armored jump troops.) The mission was Bunker Assault, which put the defender in the center of the board within 12" of the objective. Given that he was playing Tau and we'd be starting fairly close together, regardless, it seemed unfair to make him be the defender, so when I won the die roll, I let him choose. He took attacker and I began setting up. I tried to make my deployment fairly even around the center, with the Monstrous Creatures and Zoanthropes in the center so they could quickly respond in any direction, while the 4 Broods of Genestealers were spaced out to the edge of my deployment, one in each quarter. He then infiltrated his Stealth suits to take up some firing positions. Attacker takes the first turn and moves on from the edge of the board. Rather sensibly, he moved on from the far side of a quarter and began to set up his firing line. My deployment and his movement left a couple of broods of Genestealers perilously close to his lines, so he opened fire on them. They were in good cover, however, which meant he wasted most of his fire wiping out one brood and only hurt another brood. In my first turn, I fleeted the remaining Genestealers forward and moved everything toward his lines. The Devilfex covered one of his 2-suit Crisis teams with Devourer maggots, killing one. The DevilTyrant did the same to the Lead Crisis suit's unit, killing one. The Venomfex fired on the Broadsides but did nothing. The Zoanthropes opened fire with the lower strength Warp Blasts on a squad of Fire Warriors, killing several as well. At this point, he rolled his Morale checks for losing 25% or more of the above units. All of them were within 18" of at least 2 creatures with Psychic Scream, with the leader's unit within range of all 4. Every one of them failed and ran off the board, with the exception of one Crisis suit. Then a brood of Genestealers charged into the Stealth suits and finished them off. Turn 2, he rallied his single Crisis suit and fired with what was left, but didn't have much effect, then he ran his single Crisis suit into the surviving Genestealer of a brood and finished it off in hand to hand. I continued moving forward and hammering his units, the ones that didn't run off the board got stomped with Genestealers. There might have been another turn here, but that was basically how it went. I wiped him off the board and kept the Bunker for an additional 100VPs. Final Score: 1096-208 Game 2 MVP: Zoanthropes, for consistantly lowering Tau Leadership with Psychic Screams and making them run off the board so fast.
Game 3: I was up against James, with a Khorne army. He had a Bloodthirster, a Lord, a Dreadnaught and a couple of squads of Berzerkers. His whole army was Fearless, so the only way my Psychic Screams would have any effect was for Instability tests for the Bloodthirster. The mission was Lesser Catachan Barking Toads, which is a straight line up and kill 'em game, except there are four Lesser Catachan Barking Toads spaced around the center of the board. If you move or shoot within 6" of one it scatters 2d6 inches. If an LCBT is ever within 1" of an enemy model for any reason, it explodes, producing a Large Blast template with S10 AP1. While I managed to scatter two toads with my movement and shooting, they both hopped mostly away from us and took no more part in the game. Turn 1 we both moved forward and he wounded a Zoanthrope and the small Carnifex with a Plasma Cannon shot from the Dreadnaught. My return fire of Devourer Worms killed a couple of Berzerkers, but didn't do much. The Gunfex shot the Dreadnaught, but did nothing effective. Turn 2, one unit of Berzerkers and a brood of Genestealers mixed it up, with the Genestealers getting the charge. They wiped out the Berzerkers to a man, which killed the Daemonhost and brought the Bloodthirster out onto the table. He killed a couple of Genestealers, but that was it. His Dreadnaught raged and managed to charge my Devilfex and kill it before it could strike back, then consolidated into my Wounded Zoanthrope. Turn 3, his other Berzerkers and the Lord charged in to kill off the Genestealers, which they did quite handily. They consolidated away from my lines and waited for the counterstroke. My Tyrant and Gunfex both charged in to wipe out the Dreadnaught, which they did, while my remaining Genestealers charged in, one brood at each target. The Lord and the Bloodthirster were Wounded but not killed, and the Berzerkers took heavy casualties. I think the combats all continued into the next turn, with the Lord and Berzerkers being wiped out and the Bloodthirster finishing off his Genestealers and consolidating into the next brood, which then finished him off in the last turn. (I think, my memory's a little hazy on the endgame here.) Final score: 997-369 Game 3 MVP: Genestealers, again. For such a shooty army, I'm surprised at how much these guys did for me! Initiative 6 and lots of Rending Attacks ensured that the Lord and the Bloodthirster went down and chopped through those Berzerkers like a buzzsaw. In fact, there were only Four or Five models that died to things other than the Genestealers. I got 2-3 with my Monstrous Creatures and Devourers, another 1 or two with Zoanthropes, and my Carnifex and Hive Tyrant killed the Dreadnaught in close combat. That was it, really. Army representation: 2xKhorne, 1xSpace Marines, 1xWord Bearers, 1xTau, 1xTyranids, 1xArmored Company and Necrons as the Ringer army. So, we gathered together and they announced the awards. I got Best Sportsman, which I was very pleased with. I also later learned that I'd gotten perfect scores from all my opponents, which was very nice to hear. Although I didn't get the Battle Point scores for everyone, I think I probably came out 2nd or 3rd in that, which was nice as well. (Nick was playing the other Khorne player for first place in the last game, and the two of us were on the next table, so I'm pretty sure we were 3rd and 4th. Coupled with wiping out his whole army, I'm pretty sure I was near the top for Battle.) The army did pretty well, and I've even got a new plan for when I next run up against Armored Company. I think the problem was that I hid the Genestealers behind the Monstrous Creatures for too long. While that kept them safe from shooting, it also kept them from Fleeting closer to the enemy. I think that next time I'll just let the Genestealers go from turn 1, so they should be getting to enemy lines much sooner. If he stops to kill the Genestealers, that's more Monstrous Creatures that will be closing on his lines, and if he doesn't, well, he'll get Genestealer all over his tanks! That's my theory, anyway :) It sounds like the Khorne player I faced will be bringing his Armored Company next time, so I should have at least one game to test out my theory. On the other talon, I might be running the tournament then, so we'll just keep our claws crossed. If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |
