Post by halos on Oct 1, 2012 13:24:34 GMT
Hiya everyone,
Those of you who've read some of my battle reports may recall that all those battles were in preparation for competition in a tournament. Well that tournament, at the Maelstrom Games store in Mansfield, UK has now taken place and I'm going to write up what transpired.
These won't be full Battle Reports because a) that would take forever with 5 rounds played and b) I got maybe 5 hours total sleep over the weekend so exact details are a little fuzzy. But I'll give overviews and point out any exicting bits so hopefully it should make reasonably entertaining reading.
Format was 17 teams of 4 battling it out across 6 rounds (with one team taking a by every round due to the uneven numbers.
Armies were 1850 points each, Allies were allowed as were 40K approved Forge World units. Restrictions were set up so that each team of 4 my have only 1 named Special Character amongst them and may not duplicate codexes in either their Primary or Allied detachments.
The first round draws were chosen at random and then after that teams were paired based on their current scores.
Scores were alloted based on W/L/D (obviously) but in addition 4th ed style Victory Points were in play to be used to determine the winner in case of a tie. Points were also granted for Painting and Sportsmanship.
My team (bearing the name 'The FAQ said what?!') consisted of:
-Space Marines
(A relatively balanced force relying on 2 Thunderfire Cannons and scouts perched behind an Aegis Defence line for long range support and Drop Pod Sternguard/Terminators for close range punch.)
-Dark Eldar/Eldar
(The same list I played in a previous battle report; Harlequin deathstar supported by the Dark Eldars formidable ranged firepower.)
-Grey Knight/Necrons
(After the FAQ nerfed the Paladins hilariously out Grey Knight spent a week and a half scrambling for a new list, eventually deciding 'screw it' and running Paladins anyway, although drafting in some Necron Doom Scythes for support.)
-Tyranids
(My own list which you've seen in all the battle reports I've drawn up in the last few months; Devilgants, Tervifex etc etc.)
-Round 1-
First round was The Scouring played over the Hammer and Anvil deployment. We were drawn against a team consisting of Daemons/Chaos Space Marines, Space Wolves, Blood Angels and Space Marines.
I was drawn up against the Daemons who's list consisted of:
-Bloodthirster of Khorne
-Great Unclean One of Nurgle
-Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer (Lash of Submission)
-15x Plaguebearers of Nurgle
-9x Horrors of Tzeentch
-7x Plague Marines (2 Plasma Guns)
-7x Plague Marines (2 Plasma Guns)
-9x Flamers of Tzeentch
-Chaos Decimator (Mark of Nurgle)
As no one managed to fired a single shot until turn 3 this turned into a very close game with units scrambling for objectives in the final turns.
-The Horrors were shown who the real masters of assault 3 weaponry is when they were wiped out to a man by a single salvo of Devourer fire.
-Flamers are incredibly scary, and not something you can deal with in combat with D3 4+ wound armour ignoring overwatch hits per model, fortunately that problem dealt with itself as the Flamers were forced to charge some gants in order to contest an objective allowing a T8 Tervigon to wade in unscathed and clean up shop.
-Both Greater Daemons discovered underestimating gants will eventually prove disastrous as the Bloodthirster was stuck in combat for 4 turns before dying and the Great Unclean One was similarly trapped until the Hive Tyrant stepped in to put it out of its torment.
-Hive Guard managed to immobilise the Decimator in some woods, although not before it had slain a Trygon, and there it stated, Heavy Flamers too short ranged to have any impact on the battle.
-Lash of Submission proved as irritating as usual, allowing the Great Unclean One into combat before I would have like and pulling a gant brood of the 4VP objective in the final turn.
The game ended with a close Tyranid victory thanks to secondary objectives, with Linebreaker, First Blood and Warlord all safely in the Tyranids clutches.
I can't really narrate all of our teams games, because obviously I was paying more attention to my own, but we all managed to win.
-Round 2-
Round two saw is move up the ranks versus 'The Mighty Morphin' Power Armoured Rangers and Necrons (Robots in Disguise)' a team name which has resulted in a word limit for next year. This team featured Necrons, Grey Knights, Space Wolves and Imperial Guard and consisted of four experienced players well used to tournament play.
I was drawn against the Grey Knights, whose commander, or so I'm told, is one of the best in the country. Although you don't really need to be all that good when it comes to Grey Knights versus Tyranids. Although as a kudos to him his list didn't contain any of the Forge World spam nonsense so prevelant elsewhere and would probably be pretty fun to fight against if you weren't playing Tyranids, also he was a pretty cool guy so there's that.
The mission was Big Guns Never Tire on the Vanguard Strike deployment type.
His list was:
-Librarian (Divination)
-8x Terminators (2 Hammers, 6 Halberds, 2 Psycannons)
-10x Strike squad (2 Psycannons, Swords)
-10x Strike Squad (2 Psycannons, Swords)
-10x Interceptor Squad (2 Incinerators, Halberds)
-Dreadnaught (2x TL Autocannons, Psybolt Ammo)
-Dreadnaught (2x TL Autocannons, Psybolt Ammo)
-Dreadknight (Heavy Incinerator, Teleporter)
A very large piece of impassable terrain in the board centre made this quite interesting, although the outcome was inevitable.
-Iron Arm on both Tervigons and the Hive Tyrant proved invaluable and ensured they lasted slightly longer than usual, although the Hive Tyrant did decide to kill herself via perils rather than suffer another Psycannon barrage.
-Devilgants once again show their mettle by slaying half the Terminator squad in one round of shooting.
-The Ymgarls actually manage to do something and wreck a Dreadnaught, scoring First Blood in the process before getting set on fire and killed.
-Last minute Teleport shunts by the Dreadknight and Interceptors steal objectives, although the game carries on getting the Interceptors wiped out.
The Grey Knights win the game by a large margin (shockingly enough.) Although I'd like to think I have the moral victory for playing a cool army. In fact our entire team is smashed handily, especially the Dark Eldar who are forced up against ranks of Hyperios Missile Platforms (which I'll talk about later.) The winning team went on to claim 3rd place overall so I can't say I'm that upset about losing to them.
-Round 3-
The next round saw is set out against 'The Purple Nasties' with their Space Wolves, Guard, Necrons and Tyranids. These guys I have no sympathy for, except the Nid player who had a pretty fun looking list with dual Flyrants and things. I got pulled out against the Space Wolves who had basically provided a hard counter to my list so this was bound to be a lot fun.
The mission was The Emporer's Will using the Dawn of War deployment.
Space Wolf list was as follows:
-Logan Grimnar
-Rune Priest (Jaws, Living Lightning)
-Rune Priest (Jaws, Murderous Hurricane)
-10x Grey Hunters (2 Meltas)
-10x Grey Hunters (2 Plasma guns)
-10x Grey Hunters (2 Flamers)
-4x Hyperios Rocket Platforms
-4x Hyperios Rocket Platforms
-3x Hyperios Rocket Platforms
-5x Long Fangs (4x Missile Launchers)
-5x Long Fangs (2x Plasma Guns, 2x Heavy Bolters)
-Aegis Defense Line (Quad Gun)
As you can probably see this list is kind of incredibly dumb. Hyperios launchers are artillery pieces with no crew (meaning they cannot be locked in combat) with essentially a twin-linked BS3 Krak Missile launcher, they are T6, 2W, 3+ save which can chose to Skyfire for something like 35pts each. So in essence this guys got three extra Long Fang squads with Skyfire and bonus toughness which cannot be trapped in combat. Not to mention as a double insult his 'Hyperios Launchers' were nothing like the actual Forgeworld model but instead some sort of unpainted, mass-bought generic 'missile pod' from somewhere literally glued to the top of cut down segments of the butresses/lamp posts from the Citadel Ruins kits. But I guess that matches the rest of his army which was similarly poor with proxied Rune Priests and slapped on paint. I mean, if your happy playing like that then so be it, but don't expect me to give you any sort of decent match.
-The wolves stole the Iniative and killed a Tervigon in their first turn.
-Essentially I just walked into his guns for 5 turns until the game ended, it was a lot of fun.
-The Ymgarls turned up, discovered belatedly that they couldn't remain locked in combat with a rocket battery and got murdered.
-The second Tervigon died to Jaws, another wonderful piece of game design.
-A Devilgant brood and a Trygon did manage to sneak up a flank and make a mess of a couple of Grey Hunter squads.
-Logan Grimnar jumped between squads in order to provide Preferred Enemy where it was needed most.
The game ended with one spawned gant brood camping my objective and, obviously, most of the Space Wolves on theirs. So my opponent won via secondary objectives.
That was the last of the first days games so I went to go find an actually fun game elsewhere. Ended up playing Chaos in the Old World til 2 in the morning.
-Round 4-[/u]
A new day, a new set of games. Also a pleasant surprise for me, over the previous days lunch break we had been asked to leave our armies on display so that photos could be taken and today I was informed that mine had been one of 4 selected for the award of 'Best Painted Army (individual)' and that I should leave it displayed over todays lunch so people could vote between the 4 nominees, a great honor indeed!
The other three contenders for Best Painted, not that you can tell from these photos, my camera is not very good. All these armies were, however painted wonderfully, in my opinion to a far higher standard than my own, but I guess the judges thought otherwise.
Our first opponent were a team who's name I cannot recall but who's armies included Daemons, Imperial Guard/Space Wolves, Necrons and Eldar.
Apparently spending the morning fighting Daemons is what my Nids preferred so once again I was up against the good old followers of Chaos.
The mission was The Relic and the battlefield Dawn of War.
My opponent had an entirely Khornate Daemon army which, although unfinished, looked awesome on the table. He was relatively new to the game however and had never played Tyranids before . His list included:
-Bloodthirster of Khorne
-Bloodthirster of Khorne
-10x Bloodletters of Khorne
-10x Bloodletters of Khorne
-10x Bloodletters of Khorne
-4x Bloodcrushers of Khorne
-Greater Daemon
-Soulgrinder
-Soulgrinder
I'd never played the Relic before, and have little experience with Daemons, and he'd never played Tyranids before so we spent a lot of time going over things, really this was a lot less serious game and my opponent was great, plus his army looked very nice. Unfortunately he suffered from the worst luck I have ever seen, by turn 2 he'd started keeping a tally of his rolls and by the end of the game he'd passed ~17 of ~80 3+ rolls, which is absurd.
-With limited shooting in the list the Khornate Daemons are extremely vulnerable as they appear, something the Devilgants are quick to capitalise on, wiping out enfeeble Bloodletter squads with ease.
-A single lucky pen from the Hive Guard versus a Soulgrinder removes that threat in the first turn, and a Trygon curses the other grinder in the second.
-The Juggernaughts could have tipped the tide of battle towards the Daemons, however they suffer a single wound from their target gants Overwatch which inevitably proves just enough to knock them out of charge range.
-I would imagine flying MCs to be quite irritating if you have a knack for passing Grounded checks, however even with three flying around my opponent did not.
-Bloodthirsters can still only kill 5 gants a turn, not enough to escape that combat fella.
The game ends with a massacre, the Daemons simply unable to pass enough saves. And, being unable to get a charge in the combat Daemons are stuck.
The 'relic' we were playing for; a triumphant grot!
Our teams Grey Knights also managed a win against the Eldar, even passing a Psychic test through Runes of Warding, an event which heralded much celebration. The Dark Eldar got slammed by Necron Wraith/Scythe-wing and the Space Marines (somehow) managed to pull a draw versus Guard.
-Round 5-
Round five saw our team sat aside due to the uneven team count, which at the very least was more enjoyable than some of the games we'd had so far.
-Round 6-
For the 6th and final round we were jumped back into the action against 'the Cellar Dwellers' who's line-up included Necrons, Grey Knights/Space Wolves, Guard/Orks and Eldar/Dark Eldar. We all knew that whoever got the Guard was going to get absolutely killed, and my Tyranids were likely equally out of luck versus the Wolves/GKs or DE/Eldar.
The mission was Crusade using the Hammer and Anvil deployment.
I ended up getting the Guard who's list was like so:
-Lord Commisar
-8x Command Squad (2x Plasma guns)
-Warboss (Power Klaw, Mega Armour)
-50x Guardsmen (5x Flamers, 2x Sergeants (Power Axes))
-3x Sabre Platforms (Lascannons)
-3x Sabre Platforms (Lascannons)
-3x Sabre Platforms (Autocannons)
-3x Sabre Platforms (Heavy Stubbers)
-3x Sabre Platforms (Heavy Stubbers)
-6x Guardsmen
-6x Guardsmen
-6x Guardsmen
-6x Guardsmen
-6x Guardsmen
-25x Boyz (2x Big Shootas)
-25x Boyz
-Artillery Platform (Earthshaker Cannon)
-Artillery Platform (Earthshaker Cannon)
-Aegis Defense Line
So yeah, this is a list which basicaly raises a finger at everything else in the game and says 'what're you gonna do about it?' Sabre Platforms are essentially heavy weapons teams on crack; T6, 3+, 1 crew per gun (so majority T6), Skyfire and Interceptor. The Orks all delpy just behind the Aegis line, a wall of T4 A3 to any potential assaulters. The small guard squads surround the Sabre platforms, providing cover saves and preventing charges. The 50 man blob sits on a flank where Ld10 stubborn keeps it going as it heads towards objectives or unloads las-fire into targets. The artillery sits right at the back.
This list is dumb, incredibly dumb, and at this stage I'd played a bunch of great games against fun lists (although most of those were unranked) and frankly that's what I'd rather be doing so I played this match like an idiot, just marching straight up the board. The guy obviously wants to play the game as if it's a shooting gallery, even when I asked if we were playing Mysterious Terrain he was all 'No, I don't really like all the random stuff.' Dude didn't even want to play Mysterious Objectives, which was a case of 'no, if you bring a list like that you'd better believe we're using the random stuff, 'cos that's the only bit of fun I'm gonna even get out of this.'
This of course resulted in a bunch of Orks and a Trygon punching themselves to death because of Trees, which is hilarious.
-The Ymgarls appeared, discovered that every single Sabre turret has Inteceptor and 5 of 6 were killed before they could even move.
-The Hive Tyrant managed to get a Warp Speed charge into the Aegis Line and lay waste to a Boy mob before getting shot to pieces after they were slain.
-The Warboss and his Boyz hopped over the wall to bring the fight to the enemy (after almost everything bar the Hive Guard had been slain of course.) Charging into the fight, whiffing every attack and getting the entire mob swept down by the blind monsters.
-Bouyed on the newfound combat ability the Hive Guard head off to challenge the Blob squad, taking out 10 guardsmen before they are finally slain.
-I went to find a more interesting opponent.
So, that was all the rounds played, just the scores to go.
The winning team by a wide margin was Team GB, although that's probably not surprising.
2nd place went to the Purple Nasties
3rd to the MM' Power Armoured Rangers w/ Necrons (RiD).
Our team ultimately finished 3rd from the bottom, which is two places higher than I expected so I think that counts as a win.
In a frankly shocking, but pleasing, turn of events my Tyranids recieved the most votes in the painting contest and I came home with the trophy for Best Painted Army.
Two of the 4 armies nominated for best painted were from the same team so of course they won the award for Best Painted Team.
The spoils ofwar art! Taking a photo of a transparent trophy is harder than it sounds...
So all in all I had a good time, there was a lot of bull**** with regards to lists, I'm not a tournament regular so that's kind of what I expected but I am told Maelstrom is normally quite good for not having these kinds of lists and it was the introduction of Forge World units which scuppered the balance, when ~50% of armies are using maxed slots of Hyperios Launchers (almost all of which are dreadful 'conversions') you know somethings gone wrong.
The TO intends to re-jig things for next year and limit each army to a single Forge World unit, taking a unit for Anti-air? Sure that's fine, a whole army of them, that's lame.
Still I like to think our team can claim some succour in not stooping to boring spam armies such as the ones we faced against, not least because I can't imagine even being the commander of such a force is any fun, it's a case of point and shoot. I mean, I guess if you wanna win that badly? But it's not like there's particularly any prizes worth that sort of tedium, in my mind at least.
So, short version; played a tournament had a pretty good time, although much of that was in none-scoring games, some people write dumb lists and some people write cool lists, I guess that's jsut the way it goes!
With that, I'm probably done with this army for a while and shall probably jump back to Dark Eldar for a few months. I will endeavour to write a few more Battle Reports over the coming weeks.
I guess if anyone wants to see me play and particular Tyranid list I can try that? I have a reasonable selection of Tyranid models to play with so if there's some unit or tactic you'd like to see in a Battle Report shout up and I can try and make that happen.
Thanks for reading, hope you folks have better success in any tournaments you're planning on!
Those of you who've read some of my battle reports may recall that all those battles were in preparation for competition in a tournament. Well that tournament, at the Maelstrom Games store in Mansfield, UK has now taken place and I'm going to write up what transpired.
These won't be full Battle Reports because a) that would take forever with 5 rounds played and b) I got maybe 5 hours total sleep over the weekend so exact details are a little fuzzy. But I'll give overviews and point out any exicting bits so hopefully it should make reasonably entertaining reading.
Format was 17 teams of 4 battling it out across 6 rounds (with one team taking a by every round due to the uneven numbers.
Armies were 1850 points each, Allies were allowed as were 40K approved Forge World units. Restrictions were set up so that each team of 4 my have only 1 named Special Character amongst them and may not duplicate codexes in either their Primary or Allied detachments.
The first round draws were chosen at random and then after that teams were paired based on their current scores.
Scores were alloted based on W/L/D (obviously) but in addition 4th ed style Victory Points were in play to be used to determine the winner in case of a tie. Points were also granted for Painting and Sportsmanship.
My team (bearing the name 'The FAQ said what?!') consisted of:
-Space Marines
(A relatively balanced force relying on 2 Thunderfire Cannons and scouts perched behind an Aegis Defence line for long range support and Drop Pod Sternguard/Terminators for close range punch.)
-Dark Eldar/Eldar
(The same list I played in a previous battle report; Harlequin deathstar supported by the Dark Eldars formidable ranged firepower.)
-Grey Knight/Necrons
(After the FAQ nerfed the Paladins hilariously out Grey Knight spent a week and a half scrambling for a new list, eventually deciding 'screw it' and running Paladins anyway, although drafting in some Necron Doom Scythes for support.)
-Tyranids
(My own list which you've seen in all the battle reports I've drawn up in the last few months; Devilgants, Tervifex etc etc.)
-Round 1-
First round was The Scouring played over the Hammer and Anvil deployment. We were drawn against a team consisting of Daemons/Chaos Space Marines, Space Wolves, Blood Angels and Space Marines.
I was drawn up against the Daemons who's list consisted of:
-Bloodthirster of Khorne
-Great Unclean One of Nurgle
-Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer (Lash of Submission)
-15x Plaguebearers of Nurgle
-9x Horrors of Tzeentch
-7x Plague Marines (2 Plasma Guns)
-7x Plague Marines (2 Plasma Guns)
-9x Flamers of Tzeentch
-Chaos Decimator (Mark of Nurgle)
As no one managed to fired a single shot until turn 3 this turned into a very close game with units scrambling for objectives in the final turns.
-The Horrors were shown who the real masters of assault 3 weaponry is when they were wiped out to a man by a single salvo of Devourer fire.
-Flamers are incredibly scary, and not something you can deal with in combat with D3 4+ wound armour ignoring overwatch hits per model, fortunately that problem dealt with itself as the Flamers were forced to charge some gants in order to contest an objective allowing a T8 Tervigon to wade in unscathed and clean up shop.
-Both Greater Daemons discovered underestimating gants will eventually prove disastrous as the Bloodthirster was stuck in combat for 4 turns before dying and the Great Unclean One was similarly trapped until the Hive Tyrant stepped in to put it out of its torment.
-Hive Guard managed to immobilise the Decimator in some woods, although not before it had slain a Trygon, and there it stated, Heavy Flamers too short ranged to have any impact on the battle.
-Lash of Submission proved as irritating as usual, allowing the Great Unclean One into combat before I would have like and pulling a gant brood of the 4VP objective in the final turn.
The game ended with a close Tyranid victory thanks to secondary objectives, with Linebreaker, First Blood and Warlord all safely in the Tyranids clutches.
I can't really narrate all of our teams games, because obviously I was paying more attention to my own, but we all managed to win.
-Round 2-
Round two saw is move up the ranks versus 'The Mighty Morphin' Power Armoured Rangers and Necrons (Robots in Disguise)' a team name which has resulted in a word limit for next year. This team featured Necrons, Grey Knights, Space Wolves and Imperial Guard and consisted of four experienced players well used to tournament play.
I was drawn against the Grey Knights, whose commander, or so I'm told, is one of the best in the country. Although you don't really need to be all that good when it comes to Grey Knights versus Tyranids. Although as a kudos to him his list didn't contain any of the Forge World spam nonsense so prevelant elsewhere and would probably be pretty fun to fight against if you weren't playing Tyranids, also he was a pretty cool guy so there's that.
The mission was Big Guns Never Tire on the Vanguard Strike deployment type.
His list was:
-Librarian (Divination)
-8x Terminators (2 Hammers, 6 Halberds, 2 Psycannons)
-10x Strike squad (2 Psycannons, Swords)
-10x Strike Squad (2 Psycannons, Swords)
-10x Interceptor Squad (2 Incinerators, Halberds)
-Dreadnaught (2x TL Autocannons, Psybolt Ammo)
-Dreadnaught (2x TL Autocannons, Psybolt Ammo)
-Dreadknight (Heavy Incinerator, Teleporter)
A very large piece of impassable terrain in the board centre made this quite interesting, although the outcome was inevitable.
-Iron Arm on both Tervigons and the Hive Tyrant proved invaluable and ensured they lasted slightly longer than usual, although the Hive Tyrant did decide to kill herself via perils rather than suffer another Psycannon barrage.
-Devilgants once again show their mettle by slaying half the Terminator squad in one round of shooting.
-The Ymgarls actually manage to do something and wreck a Dreadnaught, scoring First Blood in the process before getting set on fire and killed.
-Last minute Teleport shunts by the Dreadknight and Interceptors steal objectives, although the game carries on getting the Interceptors wiped out.
The Grey Knights win the game by a large margin (shockingly enough.) Although I'd like to think I have the moral victory for playing a cool army. In fact our entire team is smashed handily, especially the Dark Eldar who are forced up against ranks of Hyperios Missile Platforms (which I'll talk about later.) The winning team went on to claim 3rd place overall so I can't say I'm that upset about losing to them.
-Round 3-
The next round saw is set out against 'The Purple Nasties' with their Space Wolves, Guard, Necrons and Tyranids. These guys I have no sympathy for, except the Nid player who had a pretty fun looking list with dual Flyrants and things. I got pulled out against the Space Wolves who had basically provided a hard counter to my list so this was bound to be a lot fun.
The mission was The Emporer's Will using the Dawn of War deployment.
Space Wolf list was as follows:
-Logan Grimnar
-Rune Priest (Jaws, Living Lightning)
-Rune Priest (Jaws, Murderous Hurricane)
-10x Grey Hunters (2 Meltas)
-10x Grey Hunters (2 Plasma guns)
-10x Grey Hunters (2 Flamers)
-4x Hyperios Rocket Platforms
-4x Hyperios Rocket Platforms
-3x Hyperios Rocket Platforms
-5x Long Fangs (4x Missile Launchers)
-5x Long Fangs (2x Plasma Guns, 2x Heavy Bolters)
-Aegis Defense Line (Quad Gun)
As you can probably see this list is kind of incredibly dumb. Hyperios launchers are artillery pieces with no crew (meaning they cannot be locked in combat) with essentially a twin-linked BS3 Krak Missile launcher, they are T6, 2W, 3+ save which can chose to Skyfire for something like 35pts each. So in essence this guys got three extra Long Fang squads with Skyfire and bonus toughness which cannot be trapped in combat. Not to mention as a double insult his 'Hyperios Launchers' were nothing like the actual Forgeworld model but instead some sort of unpainted, mass-bought generic 'missile pod' from somewhere literally glued to the top of cut down segments of the butresses/lamp posts from the Citadel Ruins kits. But I guess that matches the rest of his army which was similarly poor with proxied Rune Priests and slapped on paint. I mean, if your happy playing like that then so be it, but don't expect me to give you any sort of decent match.
-The wolves stole the Iniative and killed a Tervigon in their first turn.
-Essentially I just walked into his guns for 5 turns until the game ended, it was a lot of fun.
-The Ymgarls turned up, discovered belatedly that they couldn't remain locked in combat with a rocket battery and got murdered.
-The second Tervigon died to Jaws, another wonderful piece of game design.
-A Devilgant brood and a Trygon did manage to sneak up a flank and make a mess of a couple of Grey Hunter squads.
-Logan Grimnar jumped between squads in order to provide Preferred Enemy where it was needed most.
The game ended with one spawned gant brood camping my objective and, obviously, most of the Space Wolves on theirs. So my opponent won via secondary objectives.
That was the last of the first days games so I went to go find an actually fun game elsewhere. Ended up playing Chaos in the Old World til 2 in the morning.
-Round 4-[/u]
A new day, a new set of games. Also a pleasant surprise for me, over the previous days lunch break we had been asked to leave our armies on display so that photos could be taken and today I was informed that mine had been one of 4 selected for the award of 'Best Painted Army (individual)' and that I should leave it displayed over todays lunch so people could vote between the 4 nominees, a great honor indeed!
The other three contenders for Best Painted, not that you can tell from these photos, my camera is not very good. All these armies were, however painted wonderfully, in my opinion to a far higher standard than my own, but I guess the judges thought otherwise.
Our first opponent were a team who's name I cannot recall but who's armies included Daemons, Imperial Guard/Space Wolves, Necrons and Eldar.
Apparently spending the morning fighting Daemons is what my Nids preferred so once again I was up against the good old followers of Chaos.
The mission was The Relic and the battlefield Dawn of War.
My opponent had an entirely Khornate Daemon army which, although unfinished, looked awesome on the table. He was relatively new to the game however and had never played Tyranids before . His list included:
-Bloodthirster of Khorne
-Bloodthirster of Khorne
-10x Bloodletters of Khorne
-10x Bloodletters of Khorne
-10x Bloodletters of Khorne
-4x Bloodcrushers of Khorne
-Greater Daemon
-Soulgrinder
-Soulgrinder
I'd never played the Relic before, and have little experience with Daemons, and he'd never played Tyranids before so we spent a lot of time going over things, really this was a lot less serious game and my opponent was great, plus his army looked very nice. Unfortunately he suffered from the worst luck I have ever seen, by turn 2 he'd started keeping a tally of his rolls and by the end of the game he'd passed ~17 of ~80 3+ rolls, which is absurd.
-With limited shooting in the list the Khornate Daemons are extremely vulnerable as they appear, something the Devilgants are quick to capitalise on, wiping out enfeeble Bloodletter squads with ease.
-A single lucky pen from the Hive Guard versus a Soulgrinder removes that threat in the first turn, and a Trygon curses the other grinder in the second.
-The Juggernaughts could have tipped the tide of battle towards the Daemons, however they suffer a single wound from their target gants Overwatch which inevitably proves just enough to knock them out of charge range.
-I would imagine flying MCs to be quite irritating if you have a knack for passing Grounded checks, however even with three flying around my opponent did not.
-Bloodthirsters can still only kill 5 gants a turn, not enough to escape that combat fella.
The game ends with a massacre, the Daemons simply unable to pass enough saves. And, being unable to get a charge in the combat Daemons are stuck.
The 'relic' we were playing for; a triumphant grot!
Our teams Grey Knights also managed a win against the Eldar, even passing a Psychic test through Runes of Warding, an event which heralded much celebration. The Dark Eldar got slammed by Necron Wraith/Scythe-wing and the Space Marines (somehow) managed to pull a draw versus Guard.
-Round 5-
Round five saw our team sat aside due to the uneven team count, which at the very least was more enjoyable than some of the games we'd had so far.
-Round 6-
For the 6th and final round we were jumped back into the action against 'the Cellar Dwellers' who's line-up included Necrons, Grey Knights/Space Wolves, Guard/Orks and Eldar/Dark Eldar. We all knew that whoever got the Guard was going to get absolutely killed, and my Tyranids were likely equally out of luck versus the Wolves/GKs or DE/Eldar.
The mission was Crusade using the Hammer and Anvil deployment.
I ended up getting the Guard who's list was like so:
-Lord Commisar
-8x Command Squad (2x Plasma guns)
-Warboss (Power Klaw, Mega Armour)
-50x Guardsmen (5x Flamers, 2x Sergeants (Power Axes))
-3x Sabre Platforms (Lascannons)
-3x Sabre Platforms (Lascannons)
-3x Sabre Platforms (Autocannons)
-3x Sabre Platforms (Heavy Stubbers)
-3x Sabre Platforms (Heavy Stubbers)
-6x Guardsmen
-6x Guardsmen
-6x Guardsmen
-6x Guardsmen
-6x Guardsmen
-25x Boyz (2x Big Shootas)
-25x Boyz
-Artillery Platform (Earthshaker Cannon)
-Artillery Platform (Earthshaker Cannon)
-Aegis Defense Line
So yeah, this is a list which basicaly raises a finger at everything else in the game and says 'what're you gonna do about it?' Sabre Platforms are essentially heavy weapons teams on crack; T6, 3+, 1 crew per gun (so majority T6), Skyfire and Interceptor. The Orks all delpy just behind the Aegis line, a wall of T4 A3 to any potential assaulters. The small guard squads surround the Sabre platforms, providing cover saves and preventing charges. The 50 man blob sits on a flank where Ld10 stubborn keeps it going as it heads towards objectives or unloads las-fire into targets. The artillery sits right at the back.
This list is dumb, incredibly dumb, and at this stage I'd played a bunch of great games against fun lists (although most of those were unranked) and frankly that's what I'd rather be doing so I played this match like an idiot, just marching straight up the board. The guy obviously wants to play the game as if it's a shooting gallery, even when I asked if we were playing Mysterious Terrain he was all 'No, I don't really like all the random stuff.' Dude didn't even want to play Mysterious Objectives, which was a case of 'no, if you bring a list like that you'd better believe we're using the random stuff, 'cos that's the only bit of fun I'm gonna even get out of this.'
This of course resulted in a bunch of Orks and a Trygon punching themselves to death because of Trees, which is hilarious.
-The Ymgarls appeared, discovered that every single Sabre turret has Inteceptor and 5 of 6 were killed before they could even move.
-The Hive Tyrant managed to get a Warp Speed charge into the Aegis Line and lay waste to a Boy mob before getting shot to pieces after they were slain.
-The Warboss and his Boyz hopped over the wall to bring the fight to the enemy (after almost everything bar the Hive Guard had been slain of course.) Charging into the fight, whiffing every attack and getting the entire mob swept down by the blind monsters.
-Bouyed on the newfound combat ability the Hive Guard head off to challenge the Blob squad, taking out 10 guardsmen before they are finally slain.
-I went to find a more interesting opponent.
So, that was all the rounds played, just the scores to go.
The winning team by a wide margin was Team GB, although that's probably not surprising.
2nd place went to the Purple Nasties
3rd to the MM' Power Armoured Rangers w/ Necrons (RiD).
Our team ultimately finished 3rd from the bottom, which is two places higher than I expected so I think that counts as a win.
In a frankly shocking, but pleasing, turn of events my Tyranids recieved the most votes in the painting contest and I came home with the trophy for Best Painted Army.
Two of the 4 armies nominated for best painted were from the same team so of course they won the award for Best Painted Team.
The spoils of
So all in all I had a good time, there was a lot of bull**** with regards to lists, I'm not a tournament regular so that's kind of what I expected but I am told Maelstrom is normally quite good for not having these kinds of lists and it was the introduction of Forge World units which scuppered the balance, when ~50% of armies are using maxed slots of Hyperios Launchers (almost all of which are dreadful 'conversions') you know somethings gone wrong.
The TO intends to re-jig things for next year and limit each army to a single Forge World unit, taking a unit for Anti-air? Sure that's fine, a whole army of them, that's lame.
Still I like to think our team can claim some succour in not stooping to boring spam armies such as the ones we faced against, not least because I can't imagine even being the commander of such a force is any fun, it's a case of point and shoot. I mean, I guess if you wanna win that badly? But it's not like there's particularly any prizes worth that sort of tedium, in my mind at least.
So, short version; played a tournament had a pretty good time, although much of that was in none-scoring games, some people write dumb lists and some people write cool lists, I guess that's jsut the way it goes!
With that, I'm probably done with this army for a while and shall probably jump back to Dark Eldar for a few months. I will endeavour to write a few more Battle Reports over the coming weeks.
I guess if anyone wants to see me play and particular Tyranid list I can try that? I have a reasonable selection of Tyranid models to play with so if there's some unit or tactic you'd like to see in a Battle Report shout up and I can try and make that happen.
Thanks for reading, hope you folks have better success in any tournaments you're planning on!
