The New Tyranids...

I'll have what she's having, bartender...

Well, I was planning on starting a unit by unit review of the new Tyranid codex, but after getting my hands on it and having a chance to read through the actual unit entries... no. Not gonna bother. In terms of execution, this codex is cartoonishly bad. It fixes nothing, introduces no new mechanics, takes away multiple units and capabilities, and to top it all off, includes some really lackluster sculpts for its new releases. Literally the only thing the Tyranids do well now is volume - of numbers, attacks, and shots, and that just isn't enough. 

For argument's sake, here's the best list I've been able to come up with so far:

Competitive Tyranids - 1750

HQ:

Hive Tyrant w/ Wings, Hive Commander, TL BL devouvers - 250

Hive Tyrant w/ Wings, Hive Commander, TL BL devourers - 250

Troops:

30 Termagants - 120
30 Termagants - 120

Tervigon w/ Adrenal Glands, Electroshock Grubs - 220
Tervigon w/ Adrenal Glands, Electroshock Grubs - 220


3 Warriors w/ devourers and rending claws - 105

Fast Attack:

Hive Crone - 155
Hive Crone - 155

Heavy Support:

2 Biovores - 90


Fortification: Aegis Defense Line w/ Comms Relay


Tyrants and Crones hit the center and try to take out key units - hopefully the Tervigons arrive on the flanks, start spawning, and take out squishy units trying to avoid the FMCs. Warriors stay back either behind the Aegis Line or out of LoS manning the Comms Relay and keeping the Biovores on target, while the Termagants move in behind the MCs or defend the Warriors, as needed.

It'll win some games, possibly quite a few against players who aren't prepared for it... but I can't see it winning against a prepared tournament level army. In terms of threat to my opponent, this feels equivalent to the durability/board control lists I was fielding with the previous codex, and won't be nearly as much fun to play. And that's the crux of the matter - I'm not going to rebuild my army just to get back to what was already a tenuous position in the 40k pecking order. 

Games Workshop couldn't meet my already lowered expectations for this release, and I see no reason to reward the company for that. I'll probably post up the odd Tyranid battle report in the coming months, but don't expect too much. If I'm feeling really energetic, there may be some articles/reports with my Chaos Daemons... who just got an even bigger incentive to use 3rd party models.
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Chaos Daemons Tournament Report - Bringing Fatecrusher Back

This weekend my FLGS held a 1500 point 40k tournament as a capstone to its summer escalation league. While I didn't have time to participate in the league, the tourney itself was open to everyone, so I decided to throw together a list and get in a few games. Initially I was going to field my stock 1500 Tyranid list, but I've played some iteration of that one for over a year now, and thought it might be time to test out some of the Chaos Daemon theories I've been kicking around since the new codex released.

Here's what I ended up taking:

Chaos Daemons - 1500

Fateweaver

Great Unclean One w/ Exalted Reward, Greater Reward, ML 3

6 Bloodcrushers w/ Bloodhunter, Lesser Reward

15 Daemonettes

15 Daemonettes

10 Plaguebearers

10 Seekers of Slaanesh w/Heartseeker

Soul Grinder w/ Mark of Tzeentch 

The rough idea was to use Fateweaver, the Crushers, and the Great Unclean One as a self-buffing hammer while the rest of the army hung back, picked targets of opportunity, or cleaned up the mess once those units got into my opponent's face. The GUO picked the Grimoire of True Names in every game, and used it to make target priority a nightmare for my opponents throughout the course of the day. 

Game 1: Vanguard Strike Deployment, Purge the Alien

My opponent, Jason, fielded Iyanden Eldar, including a Wraithknight (Warlord), Farseer, Vibrocannon battery, a moderate sized group of Jetbikes, three Guardian squads on foot with Brightlances, a group of 10 Warpspiders, 5 Pathfidners,  a small squad of Swooping Hawks, and a landing pad. My opponent won first turn and took it, castling up in multistory ruin with most of his Guardians, Spiders, and Jetbikes, while the Farseer, Vibrocannons, and Wraithknight hung out in the landing pad fortification he deployed right next to said ruin.

Initial deployment, just before the Pathfidners infiltrated into the woods on the top left.

I deployed in a rough line, with Fateweaver and the GUO hugging cover, my fast units ready to move forward, and the Daemonettes further back in case Jason, my opponent, got too aggressive with any of his models. The first round Eldar shooting went relatively well, with the Vibrocannons whiffing against the Grinder, the Scatterlaser/Suncannon armed Wraithknight killing only a few Daemonettes and an unlucky Seeker. Most significantly, the Warp Spiders teleported into midfield, then battle focused a few inches too far forward. Thanks to range limitations they inflicted minimal damage, and then rolled poorly on their attempt to jump back.

The beginning of Eldar turn 2, as his army reacts to the arrival of the Bloodcrushers. Obscured by the building and just behind the surviving Pathfinders, the Swooping Hawks have just landed and blinded Fateweaver.

On my turn, parts of my army started to pull away. Fateweaver had a golden opportunity to claim First Blood by using Flamebreath on the Pathfinders and then finishing off the survivors with flickering fire, but rolled poorly to wound and then was Denied on the followup power.  The Soul Grinder moved to back him up, while the Plaguebearers shuffled forward, hoping to get into Linebreaker position later in the game. The Seekers moved up, but not as far as they could have, hoping to either bait the Knight into a charge or make an assassination run against him next turn buffed by the Grimoire. The Daemonettes spread out in an attempt to stay alive and out of range of the Guardians. Finally the Bloodcrushers advanced as far forward as they could, and in the assault phase just barely made it into contact with the Warp Spiders hiding out in the crater before them. The Spiders were ripped to pieces, giving me a KP and First Blood. 

Midway through Eldar 3.

The Eldar counterattack was relatively muted. The Pathfinders fired ineffectually into Fateweaver, as did the freshly arrived Swooping Hawks, whose bomb backs hurt the rightmost group of Daemonettes. The rest of the Eldar focused on the Bloodcrushers, who were annihilated despite a 3++ save from a successful Grimoire use the previous turn.

Relatively little happened on Daemon turn 2. Realizing that he wasn't going to take the bait and charge into Daemonette range, I parked both squads in cover and continued to advance with the Grinder and Plaguebearers. Fateweaver flew off the table edge, Vector Striking the Pathfinders to death on the way out. Unfortunately the Seekers failed their Grimoire role despite a reroll, so instead were buffed with Endurance and sent out in a longshot charge at the Hawks. Here they succeeded, winning combat handily and locking the two surviors.

We ended up playing through the end of Eldar four, but the Eldar were unable to make a comeback. Lance fire could not finish off the Soul Grinder, the Jetbikes had no good targets that didn't involve them getting assaulted in the next turn, and the Hawks died after two rounds of combat, leaving the Daemons with a respectable 4-1 win.

Round 2: Hammer and Anvil Deployment, Emperor's Will 

My opponent, Ed, having just purchased the new Marine codex, used the Matt Ward version one last time for this tournament. His army consisted of two Tactical Terminator squads (one foot mounted, the other paired with a Chaplain and a Land Raider, two five man Tactical squads on foot, a Missile/Lascannon Devastator squad, a Whirlwind, and a Storm Raven Ferrying an Ironclad Dreadnought.

Our objectives ended up directly across from one another, mine in a ruin, his in some trees. 

Deployment, shortly before SM turn 1. His objective is in the woods on the upper left, while everything else is in the opposite corner. Mine is in the ruins straddling my deployment line.

I lost first turn, but took minimal damage from the Space Marines in turn one thanks to Nightfighting. The only real movement was his Land Raider, which drove over the Chaos Ruins to get into visual range, and then fired its lascannons  at the Soul Grinder in concert with the Devastators. Together they managed to destroy its Iron Claw, but left the Harvester cannon intact. 

The beginning of Marine turn 2. The Storm Raven has just arrived from reserves, and is lining up an attack run on Fateweaver.

Relatively little happened in Daemon turn 1. Fateweaver, the Seekers, the Bloodcrushers, and a unit of Daemonettes converged on my opponent's objectives, while the Soul Grinder shuffled forward trying to bait more fire into its hull. The other unit of Daemonettes, having been made Invisible by Fateweaver, began the long run towards midfield and my opponent's objective. Most significantly, Forewarning, Endurance, and the Grimoire all were successfully applied to the Bloodcrushers, giving them a 2++ and Feel No Pain. Eat your dual hearts out, Grey Knight Paladins!

Space Marine Turn 2 began disastrously with the Land Raider immobilizing itself on terrain. The Terminators immediately disembarked to begin the long slog towards the objectives, but had no good targets for their shooting. Lascannon and Missile fire reduced the Grinder to a single hull point, but its Harvester remained untouched. The Storm Raven advanced to midfield, dropping off the Ironclad on the way, although the dreadnought remained out of weapons range. In the shooting phase the Raven bracketed Fateweaver and put 5 wounds on him between his missiles, assault cannon, and multimelta, but miraculously all were saved.

The end of Daemon 2. The Crushers butchered the Tactical squad, while the Plaguebearers form up on my own objective.

On Daemon turn 2 the noose began to tighten around the Marines.The Grinder and attendant Daemonettes continued to shift away from the Terminators. The Harvester cannon finally came into play, stripping a hull point from the Raven. Fateweaver, not wanting to push his luck, threw out Forewarning and Invisibility, then made a 90 degree turn right off the table edge. The Bloodcrushers, once again sporting a 2++ and Feel No Pain, charged into woods holding the Marine objective, and annihilated the Tactical squad holding it.

The Marine reaction was swift, furious, and relatively ineffective. Virtually every gun that could draw line of sight to the Crushers did so, including the Storm Raven, which went into hover mode and pivoted on the spot to bring all its weapons to bear. Some wounds got through, but none that would have inflicted Instant Death; all 6 Bloodcrushers remained. Both the Terminators and the Ironclad then charged into the Bloodcrushers. Combat ends with two dead terminators and 3 wounds between two now dead crushers, but I pass the Instability test and lock.  Slight better for the Marines, the Land Raider, splitting fire thanks to PotMS, strips the last hull point from the Soul Grinder.

Assault phase of Daemon turn 3.

In my turn I continued to move away from the footslogging Terminators and towards the Marine objectives with everything able to do so. With the Grinder destroyed and Fateweaver back in my deployment zone, I had no shooting to speak of. Fortunately the assault phase was eventful. The Seekers and Daemonettes both managed to reach the hovering Storm Raven and rended it to pieces, while the Ironclad and Terminators whiffed their attack rolls (which was huge as I had charged the Crushers out of buff range, and they had reverted to their normal 5++ save. More Terminators fell, but the Marines stayed locked in combat. 

At this point it became a mop-up operation.  Over the next few rounds the Terminators were killed by the Bloodcrushers, who were destroyed by the Ironclad in the same round of combat. This freed him up to be shot in the back and destroyed in turn by Fateweaver, and meant that the Marine objective was free and clear to be claimed by the Daemonettes who had destroyed the Storm Raven.

The game ended with much of the Marine force still intact, but too far away from either objective to alter the course of the game, and with the Daemons up 8-0.

Game 3: Dawn of War Deployment, 5 Objective Crusade

My opponent for the last game was Dave, who once again brought his Mechanized Eldar, consisting of 2 Crimon Hunters, 3 Wave Serpents with full upgrades and 5 strong Dire Avenger squads, a 4th Serpent carrying five striking Scorpions and his Autarch, and a pair of Fire Prisms with holo-fields. This was exactly the situation I did not want to confront with my Daemons. Massed Wave Serpents  put out an absolutely withering amount of fire that can cripple or destroy just about any unit they focus on. In my first crack at this style of Eldar, also against Dave, things did not go well . Furthermore, the mission type is not one I shine in. With only 3 scoring units, all of them relatively fragile, I have to balance holding my objectives with getting my scorers killed in an attempt to get them onto enemy objectives.

To make matters worse, I lose the rolls to go first and place objectives. I place both of mine outside my deployment zone, one behind a LoS blocking ruin, the other near the table edge in an ice forest as close as I can get to the first. Dave mirrors my placement, with two shielded by a LoS blocking ruin near his DZ, and then places the third in midfield, out in the open. 

Dave clusters his Waves Serpents on the two objectives in his deployment zone, placing one Fire Prism near the center of his board edge, and the other near a hill, giving him cover and a potential angle of fire onto both of my objectives. His Scorpion Wave Serpent stayed in reserve to outflank.

I responded by splitting my army.  A unit of Daemonettes and the Plaguebearers went onto the left corner of the board (from my angle), mostly shielded by the ruins and poised to grab the objectives I had placed. The Soul Grinder went between them to provide a deterrent if the Scorpions and their transport arrived on this side of the board edge. On the opposite side of the table, the Great Unclean One, Bloodcrushers, and Seekers line up as far forward as they can and prepare for a suicide run against the clustered Serpents. Fateweaver was held in reserve, partly to prevent him from being killed while on the ground by focused Wave Serpent shooting, and partly to allow him to intercept the Crimson Hunters when they arrive.

The Eldar movement phase in Turn 1.

As the game began I was not enthusiastic about my chances, but then a Slaaneshi miracle occured: I finally got a six on my Seize the Initiative roll. That one roll gave me the opening I needed. On the flank with my objectives, the Plaguebearers, Daemonettes, and Grinder shuffled closer to their assigned places. On the other side, the Bloodcrushers were successfully buffed by the Grimore, and ran forward along with the Seekers and Great Unclean One. No real damage was inflicted, but the chance to boost the Bloodcrushers' save before they were shot was huge. 

The Eldar response was not lacking, however. The Wave Serpents shuffled around around to prevent auto-hits, and one of the Dire Avenger squads hopped out to add some extra firepower. Shooting saw the Seekers go down to Wave Serpent Fire, giving up First Blood in the process, but subsequent fire was insufficient to kill even one of the Bloodcrushers. Their enhanced save combined with different firing angles ensured that while many were wounded, none went down.

Wave Serpent parking lot, just after the Bloodcrushers' charge.

As my second turn began, Fateweaver decided to stay off the field, while the second group of Daemonettes deepstruck near the central objective, then promptly ran 6" to avoid being splattered by blast templates. The objective holding Daemonettes and Plaguebearers continued to adjust their positioning, while the Soul Grinder put his back to the table edge to deny melta shots to his rear armor (the Autarch was carrying a fusion pistol). The GUO moved up further and successfully Grimored the Bloodcrushers again. Once again I had no shooting to speak of, and we went directly to the assault phase. The Crushers multiassaulted the disembared Dire Avengers and the nearest Wave Serpent, killing the Avengers, but failing to scratch the tank... 

End of the Eldar shooting phase, turn 2.

The Autarch's Serpent and one of the Crimson Hunters arrived at the start of the Eldar turn. Four of the Crushers went down to shooting, but the last two stayed up with 1 and 2 wounds each. Once again, taking fire from multiple angles resulted in spreading the wounds over the squad. The Crimson hunter lit up the GUO, but failed to inflict a wound, while the Autarch's Wave Serpent opened fire on the Plaguebearers, killing half of them.

Daemon turn 3, shooting phase.

 One way or another my Turn 3 was going to be a decisive turn. It got off to a poor start, with Fateweaver having to use his reroll just to negate another 1 for his reserve roll. It got worse when I risked using the Grimoire on him and rolled a two, knocking him down to a 5++. Fortunately things got better rapidly.  Fateweaver only managed to Velocity Lock one of the Hunters, but the the surviving Bloodcrushers and the GUO both managed to charge and destroy a Wave Serpent, exposing Dave's last two scoring units and significantly reducing the firepower he could bring to bear. On the other flank, the Soul Grinder moved closer to the Serpent, hoping for a lucky charge next turn or to force it to back off.

At this point the Eldar still had significant firepower remaining, but were exposed and had multiple targets that needed to be destroyed if they were to make a comeback.  The Velocity locked Crimson Hunter flew off the table, but was replaced by another. This one promptly put three wounds on Fateweaver, who luckily passed his grounding test. Combined shooting from the Dire Avengers killed one of the Crushers and put the other on his last wound, but couldn't finish him off. Both Fire Prisms drew beads on the Daemonettes on the central objective, but poor scatter and good placement minimized the damage. The Autarch's Wave Serpent also fared poorly, only managing to kill three of the five Plaguebearers camping the last objective.

Midway through Eldar turn 4.

At the start of Daemon turn 4 I moved in for the kill. Fateweaver and the GUO moved up to the surviving Dire Avengers (after successfully Grimoiring Fateweaver) and proceeded to incinerate one squad in shooting and destroy the other in assault. The Bloodcrusher charged the surviving, empty Wave Serpent, but only tore off its Scatterlaser. On the opposite flank, the Soul Grinder made a lucky charge through terrain and destroyed the Autarch's Wave Serpent, killing a Scorpion in the explosion. 

At this point we were running out of time again, and were told to finish the turn and stop. The last Wave Serpent moved as far away as it could get from the Bloodcrusher, then gunned it down, while the undamaged Hunter ineffectually strafed Fateweaver. The action then moved to the other flank. Both Fire Prisms and the reappearing, Velocity Locked Crimson Hunter bracketed the Daemonettes in the center, devastating the unit but leaving several alive and at least one within scoring range. The Autarch scored a penetrating hit on the Grinder only to see it pass its invulnerable save. In desperation the Autarch and Scorpions launched a multiassault against the Grinder and the last two Plaguebearers (which come to think of it, they shouldn't have been able to do, having been torn out of their transport in my last turn). The Scorpions managed to kill the Plaguebearers, sweeping me off an objective, but lost the combat when the Autarch was cut in half by Soul Grinder.

Final positions at the end of the game. The Scorpions denied an objective, but couldn't claim it, while my Daemonettes are still on two.

With the last turn over the Daemons had a solid victory, 8-1 (Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord, 2 Objectives, Gave up First Blood)!

Top 3 for the day consisted of 1.Chaos Daemons (3-0) 2. Space Wolves (2-0-1) 3. Mech Eldar (2-1)

Overall I was surprised at how well the list handled. While the first game didn't offer any particular challenge list wise and the second gave me an advantage in terms of composition, the third was about as close to a nightmare scenario as I can dream up. While the Bloodcrushers seldom survived a game, they never died alone, and did so after absorbing an unholy amount of shooting. Grimoire buffed they were able to absorb about as much firepower as they could in previous editions, and they were about as close to unkillable as its possible to be in this game with Forewarning added to the mix. The only real disappointment was the Seekers. While they really need larger numbers to be effective, they were useful only in the first game, drew little fire, and died the first time my opponent decided they needed to go away.  In future games I think I'll swap them out for Screamers, which seem to offer similar combat ability and speed coupled with better durability.

Battle Report and a New Test List.

If the rumors are true, then the current Tyranid codex only has a few months left to live. Obviously then, it's time try out some new additions and tricks! After some fresh reading online, particularly from Hive Fleet Hyenna , here's what I got to test out yesterday.

Clocking in at 2000 even -

HQ:

Hive Tyrant w/ TL BL devourers x2, Wings - 260

Hive Tyrant w/ TL BL devourers x2, Wings -260

Hive Tyrant w/ TL BL devourers x2, Armored Shell, Tyrant Guard -300

Hive Tyrant w/ TL BL devourers x2, Armored Shell, Tyrant Guard -300

Troops:

20 Termagants
20 Termagants
20 Termagants

Tervigon w/ Stinger Salvo, Dominion, Catalyst, Toxin Sacs
Tervigon w/ Stinger Salvo, Dominion, Catalyst, Toxin Sacs

Fast Attack:

6 Raveners w/ scything talons and rending claws.

I was hoping that the 2 winged Tyrants would provide some additional firepower and some much needed range. Previous iterations of the swarm have been durable, but just don't have the speed or hitting power to cross the board in the face of a determined opponent with significant shooting. I also wanted to test out using the Raveners as bait - moving them up, having them go to ground outside of Synapse, then moving a Syanpse creature back in range to pop them up and get them moving again.

My opponent brought a small and unoptimized but potentially very dangerous Space Wolf list. Logan Grimnar escorted by 8 Plasma pistol gunfighting Wolf Guard, Arjac joined with a group of Grey Hunters, a 2nd group of Grey Hunters with a Rune Priest (all three units with Drop Pods), a 3rd Grey Hunter pack, also with a Rune Priest (this one mounted in a Rhino, 2 Long Fang packs with a mix of missiles and lascannons, a Whirlwind, and a small pack of Thunderwolves.

We rolled up Big Guns Never Tire (5 objectives) and Hammer and Anvil deployment.

Initially I planned to reserve all my MCs but one Tervigon, which would almost surely be killed by the Space Wolf Drop Pods, and then wipe them out with massed devourer fire. That plan became untenable when my opponent rolled up -1 to enemy reserves for his Warlord Trait. Unwilling to risk giving him the chance of wiping out my heavy hitters piecemeal and having won the roll to take the first turn, I decided go first, buff up with psychic powers, and try to tank the initial Pod landing.

After both sides have deployed. The red poker chips mark the objectives. One is hidden behind the wall in the upper right, one is with the Long Fangs in the tower, one is with the second set of Long Fangs in the trees, one is in the open center left, and the last one is covered by the Raveners.

I set up defensively in case my opponent seized the initiative. My Warlord is the Tyrant with his face pressed against the columns, with the second one trying to provide him a cover save from the other angle. My entire deployment zone, save a few inches on each corner, is covered by Shadows in the Warp, the Termagants are on the edge to minimize Jaws of the World Wolf angles, and the Tervigons are placed such that a single 24" line can't get them both. This might seem excessive, but you only have to lose two MCs to Jaws and a third to plasma fire once to become acutely conscious of how badly my opponent's initial drop can hurt.

In this case, paranoia paid off, because the Space Wolves rolled a six and took the first turn after all.

At the end of Space Wolf 1. The rightmost Tyrant is dead, but was swapped out for my proxied 2nd Tyrant, a Harpy conversion that hasn't seen much table time in the last two years. Sorry, Harpy.

 Preparation and more than a little luck paid off. The Rune Priest and his pack set up to try for a Jaws shot at some Termagants and my Warlord, but were blocked by Shadows in the Warp. Logan and his Wolf Guard fared better, and took the opportunity to incinerate one of the winged Tyrants before she got a chance to Swoop. Fire from the Long Fangs put a wound on my Warlord's Guard, while the Whirlwind stripped off a wound from a Ravener. Meanwhile the 2nd Rune Priest and Thunderwolves closed in.

The end of Tyranid turn 1. Suffice it to say things have not gone well for the Space Wolves.

Despite losing a Tyrant and giving up First Blood, the Space Wolves failed to deliver the crippling blow they had hoped to. The leftmost Tervigon and Termagants moved up towards the objective, while everything else pivots to deal with the two Podded packs. Logan and company are bracketed by all three surviving Tyrants and then finished off in assault by the Raveners, while the Rune Priest and his Grey Hunters are Enfeebled, torrented by Fleshborers, and then assaulted by a freshly spawned brood of Termagants and the survivors of the brood they shot the previous turn. At the end of combat only the Priest remains, with a single wound.

Midway through the movement phase of Tyranid turn 2.

 Bad luck continued to plague the Space Wolves in their second turn. My opponent tried to get Arjac into range of the Warlord in the hopes of dropping him to Initiative 1 with his hammer and getting both the Tyrant and Tervigon in one Jaws shot. Instead the Pod scattered too far back, and the squad had to fire at the Tervigon, stripping off two wounds. Even worse, the Rune Priest mounted in the Rhino, now in Jaws range, was denied by the Termagants he attempted to fire through. The Thunderwolves attempted to finish the job Arjac had started, but despite a successful charge, their Thunderhammer was too far back to swing in the first round of combat. The Tervigon lost one wound to a rend, and another to a failed armor save, then Smashed, hit with both attacks, and killed both Thunderolves. The survivor passed his leadership test, and the two models locked in combat.

The Tyranid turn amounted to a repeat of its turn one. Both walking Tyrants turned on Arjac's squad, killing him and half the squad between their devourers. The Raveners finished off the survivors in the assault. The brood of Termagants that had narrowed the charge range of the Thunderwolves in the first place rushed in to save the Tervigon, and assisted by her Toxin sacs, managed to kill the last of the cavalry before they could strike. Meanwhile the winged Tyrant swooped over to the Rhino, hoping to destroy it expose the Grey Hunters inside. Despite firing all its devourers, it stripped a single hull point.

The end of Space Wolf turn 3.

Despite near crippling losses, the Wolves fought on. The Rhino moved slightly to make itself more difficult to hit, and tried once again to line up a Jaws shot on the Tervigon and Warlord. This one finally got through Shadows and Deny the Witch, and succeeded in dragging the Tervigon into the bowels of the earth, but the Warlord passed his Initiative test. Fire from the Long Fangs and Whirlwind did no appreciable damage.

Midway through the Tyranid shooting phase on turn 3. At this point we called it.

At this point it became a mopping up operation. With the flying Tyrant in position to kill his Long Fangs, the Rhino destroyed and the last Grey Hunters exposed to a Ravener assault, my the Space Wolves conceded.

In retrospect that was more instructive in how to defend against Jaws than a test of the list. I had hoped the Raveners would attract some Long Fang fire in the ruins directly across from their starting point, but they spent most of the game thorax deep in Space Wolf instead. I definitely enjoyed having the extra speed and firepower of the winged Tyrant, but since most of the big guns came to me, I'm still not sure how well this list would stand up to a sustained castle. Nevertheless, it was a fun game, and had a few dice rolls gone differently could have been as one-sided in my opponent's favor as mine.

More testing is needed before I'm comfortable with this.

Tournament Overview

So, it's been a busy summer with far less 40k news than I'd like. In my off moments I've been trying to perfect the Tyranids and experiment with various factions of Chaos - more on that later. The plan to do a unit by unit breakdown of the 'Nids seems pretty pointless now, as we're about two months from a new codex. 

Anyway, on to actual content.  My FLGS ran a 2000 point tournament at the end of July. Busy as I was, the last one was immensely fun, and I wanted to see if I could repeat my previous success. With two Force Org charts allowed, I decided to let all three of my Tyrants come out to play. Apologies for any inconsistencies - I'm going on memory and saved pictures at this point.

The List

HQ:

Hive Tyrant w/ Armored Shell, TL BL devourers x2, Tyrant Guard  - 300

Hive Tyrant w/ Armored Shell, TL BL devourers x2, Tyrant Guard - 300 

Hive Tyrant w/ Wings, Scything talons, TL BL devourers, Toxin Sacs - 255

Elites:

2 Hive Guard - 100

Troops:

20 Termagants - 100
20 Termagants - 100
20 Termagants - 100 

Tervigon  w/ Stinger Salvo, Dominion, Catalyst, Toxin Sacs - 185
Tervigon w/ Stinger Salvo, Dominion, Catalyst, Toxin Sacs - 185 

Fast Attack:

20 Gargoyles - 120

6 Raveners w/ Scything talons and Rending claws - 210

Heavy Support:

1 Biovore - 45

Pretty similar to the last list, but swapping out a Biovore and my Warriors for a winged Tyrant. I haven't been impressed with the Warriors in many of my games - while they've been useful, the core list has plenty of troops, and they don't add much in the way of speed or offensive capability. I was hoping the Tyrant would do both.

Game 1

Here I am facing off again against a familiar army - Thomas and his Black (Red) Templar.The scenario used Vanguard strike deployment, with 5 objectives placed in an X pattern across the board.

The start of Tyranid Turn one. The venerable dreadnought came out, let loose with its heavy flamer, then realized it was about to get dogpiled. Not pictured are a 5 man Tactical squad hiding in the top right building  and two full sized squads in Rhinos sweeping out of the Marine deployment zone and aiming for the (off-camera) lower right objective. 

The basic plan was to sweep forward, engulf whatever units tried to take the center, and hold the objective on the hill, the one by the dilapidated Bastion, and the one in the upper left guarded (but not held by) the Terminators and Landspeeder. I hoped that I would be able to ignore the flanking squads going for my rightmost objective and that my opponent wouldn't risk getting pulled off the objective by an assault.

The start of Templar turn 2. Between Vector Strikes, devourer shots, and Impaler shots, I assumed I'd have an easy First Blood on the Dreadnought. He took maybe a Hull Point, and I was forced to send in the Raveners to keep him from locking a Termagant brood and potentially taking away an objective.

Above my opponent is in the process of trying to thin out my Gargoyle assault screen. This was probable a mistake on his part. The squad inside could have tipped the balance in the center, but spent several turns waiting for a clear lane that never came. It also ensured that some of his heaviest weapons were plinking away at 6 point models. 

Tyranid turn 2, at some point in the shooting phase. Here the Templar deployment and timidity comes back to haunt them. The Flyrant is set to finish off the 5 man squad on his home objective, his flanking squads have run headlong into a Tyrant, and his hammer unit (LRC and squad) still have no good target in the center.

Skipping ahead a few turns. The Templar have been ground down unit by unit.  The LRC squad finally got out, but was unable to do anything but kill Termagants and Gargoyles (although it did destroy the squad I'd hoped to place on the Terminators' objective. The two flanking squads were ultimately caught between Hive Tyrants, while their target objective was taken by Gaunts.

Game 2

Round 2 was an altogether different beast. My opponent, Dave, fielded 6 Wave Serpents, (with a mix minimum sized Dire Avenger and Guardian squads plus one group of Wraithguard), 2 Fire Prisms, and a Farseer escorted by Jetbikes. The scenario was old fashioned Dawn of War and and kill points. 

Deployment, shortly before Eldar turn 1. I knew the Hive Guard would be essential to stripping hull points from the Serpents (and high value targets), but there was no LOS blocking terrain for them to hide behind.

My plan was relatively simple; bunch up in the center, wait to see which flank he tries to deny, and then push forward and trap as many of his skimmers as I can between the board edge and my MCs. It only partly worked.The Hive Guard were the first unit to die, torn apart by two Serpents firing their Shuriken cannons, Shields, and Scatterlasers. The rest of the Eldar force then concentrated on taking out the Termagants and on the left and the Gargoyles.

Tyranid turn 3, after the shooting. There seem to be a few Tyranids missing...

I hit back as hard as I could, but it wasn't enough. The entire swarm advanced, with the Tyrants trying to form cordon in the center. Between the 3 of them, they managed to bring down a pair of Wave Serpents on my opening turn. I gambled that the Flyrant would be able to tank a significant amount of his firepower. It didn't pay off. Instead of absorbing firepower, the Dire Avenger squad that had had its ride shot out from under it grounded her and the similarly disembarked Wraithguard finished her off. The Eldar vehicles began their shift to my left while methodically scything down units for kill points. 

The beginning of Eldar turn 4. The Eldar are behaving as I predicted... but there aren't nearly as many Tyranids alive as I was hoping. 

At this point things were looking grim. I was pretty far behind on kill points and surrounded, but I was hoping if I could kill off the units in the upper right and keep my Tyrants alive, there was still some hope. I also lucked out in that that Raveners failed to wipe out the Wraithguard in my assault phase, and would likely finish the job in the Eldar turn. This gave me the chance to bag another kill point and potentially catch any vehicles that tried to sneak around the flank.

Eldar turn 5... we're completely surrounded. There's no way they can all escape!

The above picture pretty neatly sums up how the rest of the game went. The remaining Tyrands rushed the right flank and tore it to pieces, but it wasn't enough. The remaining Eldar units ground me down, with  my last unit  (the Warlord Tyrant) finally going down in turn 6. The game ended in a 17 -6 route for the Tyranids.


Game 3

This one ended up being a Tyranid mirror match, on both my table and the one adjoining.  This scenario was Hammer and Anvil, with 2 player - placed objectives. My opponent, Andrew, fielded a walking Tyrant with TL devourers, a winged Tyrant with the same, a Harpy, a Tervigon, Trygon, two units of three Zoanthropes(one walking, one in a spore) 3 Hive Guard, and a large group of devourer-armed Termagants.

Deployment. Not pictured are a Trygon and a mycetic spore filled with Zoanthropes. Andrew, my opponent, was nervous about his synapse line, so placed his pretty far forward, where whatever was holding it could still support the units pushing into my deployment zone. Mine is hiding with some biovores behind the ruin in the top left.

Once again there was a simple plan: hold my objective, stop the other swarm with superior numbers in no man's land, and make a play for my opponent's objective if the opportunity presents itself. 

The end of my turn 1. I've made a hole in his devourer Gaunts on the left with my Biovores, but neither of us is close enough to really hurt the other. The Tyrant on the left managed to kill the Prime guarding the Zoanthropes across from him, but that was about it. Note the two units of Hive Guard on the right, both trying to stay 31" away from one another in the hopes that the other guy moves into range first.

My turn 3, I think. Unfortunately, my Hive Guard lost the game of chicken and got nuked by his.

Andrew's Zoanthropes and Trygon both came in on his turn. His Flyrant Vector struck mine on the way to killing my Biovores (which it miraculously failed to do). Even more miraculously, it was grounded by Termagant fire, and promptly tarpitted for the rest of the game. In the center his walking Tyrant, Tervigon, and Hive Guard advanced towards the Chaos shrine in the center while the Trygon made his appearance directly behind my line. Realizing the other Tyrant had Toxin sacs and he didn't, my Warlord bravely hid behind a spawned group of Termagants and joined his clone in covering the Trygon in devourer fire. Meanwhile my Flyrant continued forward, shooting up the foot slogging Zoanthropes and hoping that the opposing Harpy was feeling lucky.

Final shot of the match, sometime in turn 4. The Trygon, despite losing half its wounds to the Tyrants' shooting, was on the verge of breaking free of the Termagants, and was only killed when the Tervigon joined the combat. Both the Raveners and Flyrant were eventually killed by the opposing Hive Guard and Tyrant, while my Tyrants and surviving Termagants held the line.

The rest of the game consisted of me locking his units in assault or outright killing them. One Tervigon and the remnants of the Gargoyles stopped the surviving Zoanthropes cold, his Flyrant stayed locked in assault with Gaunts, his Harpy shared the same fate after being grounded by a lucky Stinger Salvo, and his Tervigon was eventually bracketed by both Tyrants and torrented down. Ultimately my objective was surrounded by Termagants, while his was unclaimed (although still vehemently Denied by the walking).

Overall I was pretty happy going 2-1 and placing around 6th place. Adam, my final round opponent from the last tournament, placed 4th after battling back from a draw in the first round.  For the life of me I cannot remember who won third place. Second place went to the Eldar player from my round 2 game, who barely eked out a win against Tau in round 3. First place went to a Sisters of Battle force with Grey Knight allies, who faced off against Space Wolves. 

As far as the list goes, I was pretty disappointed with the Flying Tyrant. While speedy, it was extremely fragile compared to its walking counterparts. In the first game it was able to pull its weight, but it was relatively useless in the 2nd game, and more an annoyance in the 3rd. Part of its lack of impact in the 2nd game was user error, but only part. The first time it failed a grounding test it was as good as dead against that much high strength shooting.

I'm still not sure what I might have done differently in Game 2. In retrospect it might have been better to send the Raveners and Flying Tyrant into the left flank to try and corral the Eldar more effectively. Unfortunately I didn't think of it at the time, and I'm still not sure if it would have made a difference. I still don't have satisfactory answer to the amount of firepower that many Wave Serpents can put out. More Hive Guard are part of the answer, but they won't be enough on their own...

A Guide to Tyranids in 6th Edition: Part II

And now after much delay, the second installment of my guide to Tyranids in 6th edition. Before moving on to discussing the actual units and their usage, this section will cover ways to wring advantages out of the choices you make before the game begins: Fortifications, Warlord Traits, Psychic Powers, and terrain setup.

Fortifications:

Tyranid Fortification choices are severely constrained by their inability to use any of the guns that come with them. The Tyranid FAQ specifically prevents them from manually firing any of the emplacements, leaving the Aegis line  without any offensive capability, and the Imperial Bastion and Fortress of Redemption able to only autofire at the nearest enemy unit at reduced BS.

This takes the Fortress right out of contention, as so much of its substantial point cost is built into its weapons. The Bastion is a different case. Significantly cheaper, it provides a good place to hide infantry units, and prevents them from taking Instinctive Behavior tests. It provides an AV 14 wall to hide behind, something that the Tyranids otherwise have no access to and that some armies may not have the tools to effectively counter. The downside is that Tyranid units have very few long range weapons that can be fired from within the Bastion, effectively taking whatever is placed inside out of the game. Even worse, if your opponent does have the means to breach the Bastion's armor, the damage results will devastate the unit inside. The possibility of a template getting near one of the Bastion's portals is also frightening given the poor saves in the Tyranid list, but isn't much worse than them being outside.

The Aegis Defense Line offers something different. The cheapest of the Fortifications, it allows a decent cover save for a large swathe of the battlefield. This offers great protection for most Tyranid infantry. Placing one of these near an objective can make the unit holding it extremely difficult to remove at range. There are two downsides to the Aegis line; the Tyranids cannot use either of the gun upgrades for the Aegis line, and have difficulty gaining the cover bonus for going to ground (since going to ground is impossible while in Synapse range).  Of all of the Fortifications this one is the most useful to the Tyranids, although not essential. Its advantages are basically those of a piece of Ruins terrain; the main bonus is placement.

The Skyshield Landing Pad offers something that the Tyranids sorely lack: a decent invulnerable save at range. While it's ability to negate scatter isn't something that most Tyranid units need, the invulnerable save  is something that the army can't get otherwise. The only downside is that most of the units that would benefit from the Skyshield will want to move off it, sooner rather than later. If your army contains a significant firebase it might be worth it; otherwise, probably not. Nevertheless, it offers something that you otherwise won't have access to.

Finally, the Comms Relay upgrade that  can be bought with several of the above Fortifications is something to consider. Allowing you to reroll reserves, it helps ensure that your units arrive exactly when you need them. While it doesn't come cheap, if you plan to use reserves regularly and are already taking a Fortification, the Relay will be be useful.

Terrain

This phase can be fairly complicated or relatively simple. If your area doesn't use the rulebook setup, then this won't help much. If they are, then here are a few strategies I've found to be helpful. Large midfield terrain is your friend. While it will grant cover to both sides, most of your shooting won't be ignoring your target's saves anyway, while the same won't be true for your opponent's fire. Monstrous creatures and large broods are much harder to bring down when they have cover saves. Large midfield terrain also means that units that love to sit back and shoot will either have to move forward or have their effectiveness reduced.
Especially if you're playing for objectives, try to set up the terrain in a manner that will force your opponent to advance to get the full benefit of his offensive power. If that's not possible, try to ensure that there is terrain your units can leapfrog too as they move forward. Larger pieces are optimal, but the tactic will work with anything that grants a cover save.

 Be aware the above strategy can also hurt you in assault. Tyranids have almost no assault grenades, and thus are adversely effected when charging into any kind of terrain. There's not much that can be done to mitigate this. Pinning a unit or forcing it to go to ground can help, but the former is unreliable at best, and the latter unlikely given the relative saves of most targets.

On offense and defense, the idea is to limit incoming fire while  ensuring that you have a clear path to assault once the distance has been closed. This applies particularly in relation to setting up objectives, as these are the easiest means of determining where your opponent will go.

Psychic Powers 

Psychic abilities are one of the strengths of the Tyranid army. In addition to their basic powers, they have access to Biomancy, Telepathy, and Telekinesis. All of these options can have a powerful influence on the course of the game. While Tyranid psykers are limited to Master Level 1, with the exception of the Swarmlord, they make up for it in volume. One caveat: while you can pick from multiple book disciplines, you cannot mix and match them with your codex powers. All three disciplines can significantly benefit a Tyranid swarm. I personally prefer Biomancy over the others, but each power can change a unit's battlefield role; let that guide your choices rather than what is "objectively" the best power.

Biomancy 
This is the strongest discipline for Tyranids, particularly for our monstrous creatures. It has two powers that greatly reduce Tyranid vulnerability to heavy weapons: Iron Arm and Endurance. Iron Arm alone can make an MC almost impossible to kill at range, while Endurance does much the same, with the possibility of protecting more numerous units as well. Enfeeble can also make normally resilient units vulnerable to massed Tyranid attacks or shots, or make the already average truly fragile. Lifeleech can be handy for emergency healing or stripping the odd hull point from vehicles. Warp Speed can give much needed extra attacks in assault while ensuring that a model strikes at least on par with its opponents.  Haemorrhage is probably the weakest power, but it at least holds out the possibility of sniping a troublesome weapon. The Primaris Power, while not particularly impressive, also offers massed AP 2 shooting, which may be desirable against some foes. Taking it is situational, but it provides and option the army otherwise doesn't have.

Telekinesis
This discipline is less useful, but still handy. On an MC, it should probably be chosen only after rolling Endurance or Iron Arm on the Biomancy table, although Zoanthropes can use it freely. Vortex of Doom will almost never be used, as it is essentially a more dangerous Warp Lance, and the only model that can use it has better things to cast. Crush, Assail, and Shockwave are all fairly lackluster. While each has potential uses, none of them offer anything that normal Tyranid shooting couldn't accomplish. The beam and Strikedown abilities of Assail make it situationally useful, but in most cases you'd be better off firing whatever weapons the psyker had. The same applies to Crush. Gate of Infinity, Telekine Dome, and Objuration Mechanicum all have potential uses. Gate can allow an otherwise slow unit to move across the board rapidly. Dome can give an extra layer of protection to a unit when cover is unavailable. Objuration can blunt incoming fire, and potentially damage vehicles at range.

Telepathy
This discipline is about on par with Telekinesis, with a greater emphasis on disruption. It's also slightly more predictable than the others due to the inclusion of 2 Warp Charge 2 powers that are useless on all but the Swarmlord. Mental Fortitude won't see much use, although it can function as emergency Synapse in a pinch. Dominate can potentially take a key unit out of the game for a turn. Terrify is unique in that it can strip away Fearless, rendering otherwise immovable units vulnerable to morale and leadership tests. Puppet Master is handy is particularly useful  for turning an opponent's own firepower against them. The Primaris Power, Psychic Shriek, is handy in that it can ignore armor and cover saves, but whether you'll want it or not will depend on the role of the psyker. It is potentially devastating, but won't be consistent.

Hive Tyrant Codex Powers: The only one of these really worth discussing is Paroxysm. Although limited by range, this power can cripple a unit offensively and defensively by reducing its WS and BS to 1. While powerful, the possibility of getting other powers is generally going to be more useful throughout the game. Paroxysm is useful once you've closed in, but not so much in the early stages.

Tervigon Codex Powers: These present more of a choice. While a Tervigon can get up to three rolls in a given discipline, all three of its normal powers have great utility. Catalyst can provide Feel No Pain to threatened units, Dominion can boost Synapse range at critical junctures, and Onslaught can provide an extra few inches of range to a brood's shooting. Swapping any of these powers it is situational. While some of the discipline powers are outright better than the codex powers, others are either inferior or can change a Tervigon's battlefield role. Generally I prefer to play it safe and keep a Tervigon's codex powers, but some decent rolls on any of the charts can make them extremely dangerous for your opponent.

Zoanthrope Codex Powers:  Zoanthrope psychic power selection comes down to the role you foresee for them in a given game. While their default powers make them ideal for hunting vehicles and heavy infantry, they can become very effective buffers/debuffers or distraction units with the right powers. The main downfall in the latter strategy is not knowing which abilities will ultimately be rolled.

Broodlord Codex Powers: The Broodlord is probably the only Tyranid psyker who benefits more from keeping his own powers than swapping them out. This is mainly due to his BS of 0, which prevents him from using any of the witchfire powers he might roll up - this includes powers that don't require a roll to hit at all, or that would otherwise hit automatically. It helps that his Hypnotic Gaze power got even better with the addition of challenges; in addition to preventing a character from striking, he now has a good chance to single them out and kill them without taking any damage. Some of the available psychic powers provide greater advantages, but none of them change what the Broodlord and his unit will be used for, and trying for them carries a good chance of getting powers that are absolutely useless.

Warlord Traits

Since Tyranids don't have unique traits, you'll be choosing from the 3 rulebook categories: Command, Personal, and Strategic. Of these, I recommend Strategic. While its utility will vary greatly with your list setup, it has the least number of options that will be useless. Conqueror of Cities can significantly reduce incoming shooting damage, while Master of Ambush, Strategic Genius, and Divide to Conquer will benefit swarms that make use. of reserves. Even Princeps of Deceit allows you to react to your opponent's deployment. Finally, Night Attacker can make Tyranids much more resistant to first turn shooting. Personal Traits give some potential durability and utility to your Warlord, but may or may not be useful; Legendary Fighter, Tenacity, and Immovable Object can potentially allow a Warlord to play a much greater role on the battlefield. Command Traits are probably the weakest of the three choices. Coordinated assault will be useful if your WArlord happens to be a combat brute, but the others provide minimal benefit; Intimidating Presence may be useful against lower leadership armies, but only if you can get close enough.

Tournament Report

I finally got a chance to put my 6th edition Tyranid list to a competitive test this weekend at FLGS Four Horsemen Comics & Games. The tournament itself was designed and run by Steve over at Path of War, and made for a great day of dice rolling and hanging out with fellow 40k players. There's already talk of making this a recurring event, and I hope that it will be.

And now to the details. The tournament went 4 rounds with 14 players bringing their best 2000 point lists to the party. Not knowing the full run of scenarios or the spread of potential opponents, I brought an expanded version of my 1500 Tyranid list, optimized to get the most out of the Strategic set of Warlord traits:

HQ:

Hive Tyrant w/ Armored Shell, TL BL devourers x2, Hive Commander, 1 Tyrant Guard (Warlord)

Hive Tyrant w/ Armored Shell, TL BL devourers x2, Hive Commander, 1 Tyrant Guard

Elites:

2 Hive Guard

Troops:

20 Termagants 
20 Termagants
20 Termagants

Tervigon w/ Stinger Salvo, Dominion, Catalyst, Toxin Sacs
Tervigon w/ Stinger Salvo, Dominion, Catalyst, Toxin Sacs

5 Warriors w/ devourers, rending claws, 1 barbed strangler

Fast Attack:

6 Raveners w/ scything talons and rending claws

20 Gargoyles 

Heavy Support:

2 Biovores


Round 1:

My first opponent was a combined arms style Dark Angels list. The scenario was a modified objectives grab: each turn for the first 4 turns an objective would deep strike onto a random sector of the table. Each objective was worth 2 Victory Points. All normal secondary objectives applied. My opponent won the roll for first turn and took it.

Dark Angels beginning their advance. The first objective crashed down directly behind the central wall in his deployment zone. To top it off, I've made a mistake in my deployment, with the Tervigons twisting in the wind and the Tyrants hugging cover. I ought to have inverted it, as there are multiple Devastator squads with missile launchers perched in the back right ruins. My armored Tyrants can take those shots, the Tervigons, not so much. Note also the scouts hiding behind the right fuel bunker.

 The game began with the first objective landing in the most defensible position the Dark Angels could wish. My opponent began moving the center of his line up, trying to get into rapid fire and assault range. He brought alot of firepower, but the scenario has forced us to spread out across our deployment zones, and this made it impossible for him to concentrate on any one unit.

From the top of Tyranid Turn 2. The  The second objective landed close to the first, and a squad what I think were Inner Circle Knights is moving to block the Tyranids from getting it. The Gargoyle screen has been pretty well shredded., but they provided the cover saves they needed to everyone else. Note more scouts on the left fuel bunker.

In response I pushed to the center, trying to hold the swarm together and sweep away any units that got too close. The non-Warlord Tyrant managed to wreck a Rhino bringing up a combat squad, while the Raveners devoured some Scouts who got too close. By turn 2 the Dark Angel line was starting to bow in the center, but I controlled 0 objectives to his 1.

At some point in Nid Turn 3. The Dark Angel line deployment is really hurting them now. The Knights trying to keep me off the 2nd objective went down to massed devourer and fleshborer fire, while the Raveners got a lucky charge roll and managed to reach the Tactical squad holding the DA's central objective. Best of all, the third objective landed in the midst of a Tervigon/Termagant swarm.

Turn 3 saw the Dark Angels' situation get desperate. Their shooting inflicted multiple wounds to my MCs and thinned out the advancing broods, but couldn't concentrate on any one unit, resulting in no appreciable damage to the swarm as a whole. The right flank is on the verge of being overrun, with the Knights down and the objective-holding Tactical squad fighting for its life against Raveners, with Gaunts closing in. On the left, the Assault squad made a suicide run into the teeth of the swarm, trying to eliminate a scoring unit.

Positions at the bottom of Tyranid Turn 3. There are still plenty of Dark Angels on the field, but they're too far away from the action.

And that set the tone for the remainder of the game. With our 2 hour round limit more than up by the end of Turn 3, the Nids claimed a solid victory, with Linebreaker, First Blood, and 2 objectives to none.

A solid victory overall, but running out of time as early as we did was a bit disappointing. In terms of damage inflicted, I was comfortably ahead, but if the last objective had landed on the left flank and the dice had been a bit more generous to him, my opponent could have still fought me to a draw or pulled out a win.

Round 2:

Advancing to Round 2, I was paired off against Chaos Daemons. The mission victory conditions were table quarters, with each quarter free of denial units and with a friendly controlling unit in it worth 3 VP. Deployment was the old school Dawn of War, with the auto loss rule for having no units on the board negated for the first turn. Once again, all secondary victory conditions were in play. My opponent brought a Tzeentch heavy list, with multiple small units of Screamers and Flamers, 2 larger units of Horrors led by Heralds, Plaguebearers, a pair of flying Tzeentchian Daemon Princes, and Fateweaver.

We both decided to reserve fully. My opponent won the roll to go first, but sensibly went second.

Uh guys, didn't we just invade this planet? The vagaries of random table selection. The terrain setup here was standard across all tables, so playing on the same board didn't make much difference. Although it did make setup for a Tyranid swarm easier. Pictured above, the two armies closing in at the start of Turn 3. Thus far I've inflicted little real damage to the Daemons. Everything that could fire at Fateweaver did so, hoping to force him to the ground so the Raveners could tie him up in assault. Miraculously he was grounded, but the Raveners then whiffed on their assault distance. Still full of Tactical Marine, apparently.

At the start of Turn 3, both armies are finally on the field and getting in range of one another. Thanks to Hive Commander, I had everything in play, while my opponent was still waiting on a few units. The left flank of my swarm opened up on a group of 3 Flamers that had scattered close, trying to claim first blood. Unfortunately it failed, and only killed one. The right flank tried to get clever and ground Fateweaver, only to discover that thanks to the Grimoire of True Names, he had a 2++ rerollable save. In desperation, the Gargoyles made a long shot charge through difficult terrain at the Flamers. Despite overwatch and a friendly Beast of Nurgle coming out to play as well, the Gargoyles managed to finish off the Daemons, and locked in assault with the Beast.

 

Daemon Turn 4... I think. The right flank gave up shooting at Fateweaver and instead concentrated on finishing off anything that could contest or take that quarter. The left takes aim at the Daemon Prince that wiped out the Gargoyles, and kills him with weight of fire.

In response the Daemons moved forward and started to whittle away my Swarm. Fateweaver swooped directly into the center of my formation, while the Horrors, Screamers, and Flamers angle for shots on the Raveners, who are completely exposed. The Daemons hammer the Raveners with Warpflame attacks; most of the brood is destroyed, but two survive thanks to Fateweaver losing his psychic attacks to Shadow in the Warp. On the left flank the first Daemon Prince charged into the Gargoyles, killing a third of them outright, and then running the Synapseless brood down in a sweeping advance.

Final shot of the game - Tyranid Turn 5. I control one quarter, and am threatening the other 3. The Raveners in the background took full advantage of psychic shooting attacks being useless for overwatch purposes, and the whiffed their attacks, failing to kill a severely depleted Horror squad over several assault phases. On the Daemons' turn, Fateweaver flies out of Shadow in the Warp Range, and blasts some (but not enough) of the gaunts contesting the back left quarter. The second Daemon Prince, already down to 2 wounds from Tyranid shooting, died to the Tyrant's overwatch.

In response I begin clearing out small units of Screamers and Flamers with the broods on the edges of the Swarm, while the center units combine to take out the closest Daemon Prince. At this point the Daemons are running out of scoring units. I can't scratch Fateweaver as long as he keeps making the 3+ roll for the Grimore, but if I can drop everything else, it doesn't matter how unkillable he is. In the end that strategy worked, leaving Fateweaver and some assorted Horrors and Plaguebearers confined to the rear left quarter.

As first clashes with new codices go, this one could have gone a lot worse. Tyranids make a pretty bad matchup for Tzeentch heavy daemons. Shadow in the Warp plus the number of psykers in my army made his shooting attacks extremely unreliable, and I never could have ignored any other Greater Daemon the way I did Fateweaver.

Round 3

No pictures for this one, as the few I took were too blurry to be worth posting. This one was against an Abbadon led Chaos Marines force. My opponet brought 3 full Marine squads with the Mark of Nurgle, Noise Marines, 2 Cultist squads, a Land Raider and Terminators for Abbadon to play with, a Forgeworld Decimator, and a full squad of Raptors with the Mark of Khorne.

The victory conditions were Kill Points, with Hammer and Anvil deployment. This was potentially a terrible matchup for me, given the amount of distance to be cross before I got into range, but fortunately my opponent lacked the firepower to capitalize on it. He also hurt himself by clustering  behind a large ruin in his deployment zone, which made it almost impossible for my Biovores to miss. I claimed First Blood by wiping out a cultist squad with Biovores and outflanking Warrior shots, and then started cracking the Nurgle marked squads' Rhinos for Kill Points. This kept me a few KP ahead throughout most of the game, but the win was clinched when Abbadon, in a challenge with my Warlord Tyrant, rolled a 1 for Drach'nyen, and lost his last wound.

Round 4

The final round, for all the marbles! The scenario was standard Emperor's Will, with Dawn of War deployment. My opponent was Adam from State Resources, with his terrifying gauss factory of an army: a Warlord and Command Barge, 3 fully loaded Ghost Arks with Crypteks, 2 Annihilation Barges, 13 Warriors, a Lord, and Cryptek manning a Quad Gun and Aegis Line, and 2 squads of 6 Wraiths.

I won the roll for first turn, and decided to go second. I also rolled Night Attacker for my Warlord trait, and used it, hoping to stop some of the gauss fire coming my way. It didn't help. The Gargoyles only lived because they were too spread out to reach every member of the squad. The Termagant squad that was supposed to be blocking charge lanes was cut in half, while the Wraiths moved forward, angling for an assassination run on the Tyrants. In response, I shuffled around, trying to enhance cover, block charge lanes to the Tervigon on the objective, and get the Raveners an assault target. I decide to gamble, and move the nonWarlord Tyrant up ahead of the Warlord, hoping to deplete the closest Wraith squad and bait it into fighting an MC with Feel No Pain, Iron Arm, and an unwounded Guard. An entire swarm's worth of shooting brings down two Wraiths.

Midway through Necron Turn 2. Hey, at least I'm on the opposite side of the table this time! The Necrons have slaughtered my first line of meatshields, claiming First Blood in the process. The Tervigon is exposed and about to be charged by the Overlord, one of the Hive Guard is down, and a minute after taking this picure I'll realize that I've severely underestimated how far the Wraith squads can charge. ...

 My position gets worse during the 2nd Necron Turn. Their shooting shreds the Termagant and Gargoyle squads that are supposed to be protecting my position, and Arcs from the Tesla weaponry start causing wounds to my second wave before they've even gotten into position. It gets worse in the assault phase. The Overlord and his Barge assault the Tervigon on my objective and knock a few wounds off; she passes the Mindshackle Scarab test, and explodes the Barge, stranding the Overlord in assault with her. Adam goes for broke with his Wraiths; the depleted squad goes straight for my Warlord, while the untouched group that I assumed was out of range leaps across terrain and assaults the bait Tyrant. Neither side does much damage to the other in either assault, although the Wraiths come off slightly worse; Adam rolled plenty of rends, but both Tyrants had Catalyst on them, and my FnP rolls were on fire.

Tyranid Turn 3. In the central scrum, the Termagants rush in to save the Warlord, while the Raveners do the same for the other Tyrant. In the top right, once again, are my outflanking Warriors. They'll play tag with the Annihilation Barge a few inches from them for the rest of the game. They won't destroy it, but will at least survive to claim Linebreaker. The last Hive Guard got a lucky shot on the Ghost Ark that was floating across the central hill, exploding it and taking several Warriors with it. In my backfield the Biovores continue to whittle away the Warriors manning the Quad Gun and holding the objective.

On turn 3 the tide begins to turn back towards the Tyranids. The Tervigon, assisted by a spawned brood as well as the one sitting next to her, manage to drag down the Overlord. The last brood of Termagants rushes into combat to defend the Warlord, while the Raveners slither through terrain to assist the second Tyrant. The Warlord and the Tervigon-buffed Gaunts continue to whittle away at their Wraiths, while the Raveners hit the second group and all but destroy it via weight of attacks.

Tyranid Turn 3. Or the start of Necron 4. The situation from the last turn has reversed. The Necron push to my objective has stalled out, and his Warriors are fighting for their (un)lives against a largely untouched squad of Raveners.

Luck continues to favor the Tyranids in Turn 3. The Wraiths cannot get a rend to stick thanks to Feel No Pain on the Tyrants. The squad facing the Warlord is just barely hanging on, while the second squad is wiped out by combined attacks from a S8 Iron Armed Tyrant and a flurry of attacks from the Raveners. In my turn, the Warlord finishes off the last of the Wraiths, while the other Tyrant advances towards a Ghost Ark and its payload of Warriors. Disastrously for the Necrons, the Raveners rush across the board and assault the Warriors holding his objective. The Warriors lose the assault, but not by much, and pass their leadership test.

Final image, at the bottom of Necron Turn 5.

In Turn 4 the Necrons disengage and head back to their own tablequarter, anticipating the loss of their objective scoring unit. Every MC but the Tervigon on my objective pursues, trying to get an assault on a Ghost Ark, but none are able to. Necron shooting does no appreciable damage. In assault the Raveners wipe out the Warriors, and then go on to slaughter the last survivors from the Ark destroyed earlier.

We played through Necron Turn 5, which sees the Raveners finally destroyed, but called it afterwards. With only one turn left (all scenarios were fixed at 6 turns) and no hope of contesting my objectives, there was no way for the Necrons to win, even assuming they were able to retake and hold their own.

When the last dice came to a stop, I remained the only 4-0 player, and managed to clinch first place.
Second went to a Space Wolves force with allied Codex Marines. Third went to a Codex Marines force, and Adam's Necrons ended up in 4th. 

Overall I had a great (if exhausting) time playing. I was extermely glad I went with a balanced list as opposed to some of the more gimicky ideas I'd been kicking around; every brood in the swarm was pivotal in at least one game, and at no point did I find any of them useless. If I had to pick an MVP for the day, it would be the Raveners. In every game their speed and combat muscle allowed them to extend the threat range of what was otherwise a ponderous army. Against the Dark Angels they pulled a scoring unit off an objective. Against the Daemons they managed to finish off several small units that might have contested a quarter, and then locked another scoring unit in place for the rest of the game. Against the Chaos Marines they took out a Rhino, tore apart a squad of Raptors, and then finished off Abbadon's Terminator retinue. And against the Necrons they accounted for most of a Wraith squad before clearing the Necron objective.