I Coulda Been a Contender
I've been hearing a bunch of Tyranid players complaining about how the changes in 5th edition have made our army much less effective. Many of them are even saying Tyranids are no longer competitive and a few have gone so far as to hang up their talons until we get our new codex. I'm a big believer in being able to achieve almost anything with good planning and hard work. It also gets my hackles up when somebody tells me that I can't do something. (Or that my favorite army can't do something. For other proof of this, look up my Genestealer army from 3rd edition.) So I got out my bugs, hammered out a quick list and set off to prove them wrong.

So I went into the local GW. The first person I ran into was Steffan (Hi Steffan!) He commented on my bugs, and I asked if he was interested in playing the exterminator. He chuckled, said he had plenty of incinerators and agreed. He agreed to knock his standard list down to about 1500 and we got our game on.

Game: 1500pts Pitched Battle with Annihilation as the only objective.

Grey Knights
Grandmaster in Terminator armor with a retinue of 4 Terminators, 3 squads of 9 Power Armored Grey Knights with 1 Incinerator and 1 Psycannon per squad, 2 Dreads with Assault Cannon and SB/DCCW. Steffan's army had great paintjobs and great conversions.

Tyranids
184 Hive Tyrant BS4 S6 Sv2+ Psychic Scream VC/TL-Devs
184 Hive Tyrant BS4 S6 Sv2+ Psychic Scream VC/TL-Devs

113 Devilfex 1:Carnifex BS3 2xTL-Devourer
113 Devilfex 2:Carnifex BS3 2xTL-Devourer
113 Devilfex 3:Carnifex BS3 2xTL-Devourer

119 7x Genestealer Brood 1 Feeder Tendrils
119 7x Genestealer Brood 2 Feeder Tendrils
64 8x Spinegaunt Brood Without Number

195 3x Zoanthrope (Warp Blast/Psychic Scream)
148 Gunfex 1: Carnifex Bs3 VC/BS
148 Gunfex 2: Carnifex Bs3 VC/BS

1500pts

Deployment

Deployment
I give first turn to the Grey Knights and don't bother to try to seize the initiative. At this range, he can do little to me and I couldn't really do much to him, either. He deploys in a compact line roughly in his center. I deploy much more compactly all on one side, with the plan of dealing with the one squad directly across from me before the rest of his army can close on me, then turning and advancing down his line. Well, that was the plan anyway. Incidentally, my 5 Psychic Screams were pretty much useless, as his whole army was Fearless. Thinking about it now, however, I think they should have effected his Psychic Hood rolls, and maybe a few other things as well. I'll have to be more careful about that next time.

I put my Monstrous Creatures into a wall in front with the Zoanthropes directly behind them. The Genestealers were a little further back (to avoid casualties) and the Spinegaunts were hidden as far back in the corner as I could. (As the weakest brood, they were an easy kill point, so I wanted them to stay as far out of his sights as possible.

Turn 1
GK: He moves forward with my target squad, which is both a novel feeling for a Tyranid player and is very helpful so that I can fire to better effect on my turn. (This is part of what I hoped for with giving him first turn.) He also starts bringing the rest of his army over to them at a run.His shooting didn't do much. He was partially out of range and had some StormBolters and a Psycannon, so they only caused 1W to Devilfex 1.

T: I concentrated the entire firepower of my army on that one squad. I had hoped to have a few spare things left to shoot when I killed them off, but at the end of all those Devourer Grubs, I only managed 7 dead out of PAGK squad 1 (out of 9.)

commentary: he was seriously making Terminator-like saves at this point. He'd fail about 1 out of every six or seven 3+ saves. The shooting of all my Monstrous Creatures should cause at least 12 or so dead SM-equivalents. That doesn't even count my Zoanthropes. I don't like blaming the dice, but this was pretty uncanny.

End of Turn 1

Turn 2
GK: With the rest of his army arriving and closing in, he had much more effective firepower this turn. The army continued to advance, though they slowed to take advantage of the woods just off-center on my right. Devilfex 1 dies this turn, and I take 1W on Devilfex 2.

T: With the arrival of the rest of his army, I started turning into him and keeping my Genestealers and Gaunts (the squishies) behind my wall of Monstrous Creatures. I kill several members from his PAGK squad 2 and 1 of the last 2 in the first squad.

End of Turn 2

Turn 3
GK: He advances more cautiously now, careful to stay back a little and just get in good range for his weapons. Grey Knight shooting causes 3W on Gunfex 1 and kills off Devilfex 2.

T: This turn I concentrated my shooting on the damaged Power Armored GK squads. Under a massive pile of Devourer Grubs and Barbed Strangler seedpods, both of the remainder squads die.

End of Turn 3

Turn 4
GK: With 2 of the Power Armored GK squads dead, the Grand Master and Terminator retinue move up and the Dreadnaughts jockey for good shooting position. Gunfex 1 dies, Gunfex 2 takes 3W. (primarily due to Dreadnaught Shooting.)

T: Zoanthropes snipe 2 Terminators with their high-powered Warp Blasts. The entirety of my remaining shooting manages to take the Assault Cannon off of 1 Dreadnaught and keep the other one from shooting.

End of Turn 4

Turn 5
GK: The lead Dreadnaught moves closer in an effort to charge my Hive Tyrant, but got a poor Difficult terrain roll. The Grey Knight Terminators also close in. Gunfex 2 dies, as does a single Zoanthrope.

T: I concentrated my shooting at his Terminators, stripping the remaining 2 away from the Grand Master, then I immobilized his near Dreadnought. (Truth be told, I wouldn't have minded too much if his Dread had charged my Tyrant. With 3 attacks at WS5 and each averaging a Penetrating hit before the Dread could attack, the Tyrant would have a decent shot at wiping it out unscathed.)

End of Turn 5

Turn 6
GK: The GrandMaster charges my Tyrant (I forgot to have him roll for The Horror, he would have had to make a LD test at -4 due to the Psychic Screams. I need to remember that one.) At I5, we both go and both do absolutely nothing.

T: My remaining Devilfex shoots at the 2nd Dreadnaught, but fails to damage it. My 2nd Tyrant fires into the immobilized Dreadnaught, removing it's DCCW, then charges it, but fails to do any damage and the Hive Tyrant's armor ignores the wound the Dreadnaught manages to do in return. Genestealer Brood 1 charges in against the GrandMaster, causing him 2 Wounds. He again fails to Wound the Tyrant, who causes the last Wound and kills him.

Final Score: 5 Kill Points to 4, Tyranid Loss.

End of Turn 6

Hindsight is 20/20
I really should have won this game. The problem was that I suffered from a bizarre combination of spreading my fire and target fixation. I need to remember that Tyranids can do very, very little to vehicles in shooting. For the most part, we are stuck with keeping vehicles from shooting. That would have been enough, however. Those Assault Cannons managed to cause at least 6 Wounds to my Monstrous Creatures in the game. I should have simply assigned a Gunfex or a Tyrant to shoot at each one every turn. Any Glancing hit other than Immobilized would keep them from shooting, and those have a good chance of getting a Glancing hit every turn. Once I got that hit, however, I should have _not_ fired any of the rest of my army at that Dreadnaught. There is very little damage that I can do to them once they cannot shoot, and that firepower would be much more useful elsewhere. I got stuck in the mindset that Dreadnaughts are easy kills, and I needed to get an extra Kill Point or two. However, very few vehicles are easy _shooting_ kills for Tyranids now, so I need to acknowledge that and move on, instead of wasting shot after shot on Dreadnaughts.

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