Post by zimko on Mar 16, 2020 19:17:02 GMT
I went to a GT this weekend. It was supposed to have 48 people, but the convention hosting it cancelled on us (they were forced to by the state of Maryland), and the tournament was moved to a local store. Despite this, we managed to barely get 28 players to make it an official GT.
I ran my previous list but with Tyrant Guard to try and help with the tank ace matchup. (I removed the Tyrannocyte)
BEHEMOTH:
Super Flyrant: warlord (wings, hvc, mst, ts, ag)
Swarmlord
Broodlord: free relic: resonance barb
20 genestealers
16 genestealers
3 rippers
3 tyrant guard
KRONOS:
Dakka Tyrant (wings, 4 devs, toxin sacs cause what else do you do with 4 pts)
neurothrope
3 rippers, 3 rippers, 3 rippers
6 hive guard
exocrine
Unless otherwise noted, I gave Scythes or Tyran and Murderous Size to the Super Flyrant, pathogenesis to the Dakka Flyrant and Enhanced Resistance to the Hive Guard.
game 1 vs Space Marines: White Scars.
This was a pretty fluffy list. He had 3 impulsors with intercessors, a thunderfire, some characters, a drop pod grav bomb, and 10 jump pack dudes with stormshields.
I was attacker. Turn 1 I didn't do much. I managed a kill on some intercessors and moved my flyrant to a position where he could reach the thunderfire on turn 2. He tremored my genestealers but they weren't in danger of being killed. After that, exocrine and Hive Guard just demolished most of his army. Super Flyrant and genestealers killed a bunch of stuff. He was tabled by turn 5. My opponent was in good spirits and didn't expect to do well at the tournament. He was a good sport.
Score: 39 to 10 Tyranids win
game 2 vs Space Marines: Ultramarines successor with Chapter Selection Howling Gryphons, Long-range Marksmen and Scions of the Forge.
His list: 2 Repulsor Executioners, 1 Leviathan Dread, 2x3 Aggressors (inside the repulsors), 3x5 Intercessors, 3x5 Scouts, Chaplain, Chapter Master, LT, Lib, and Techmarine.
I lost the rolloff and my opponent chose to be attacker. I chose Vanguard deployment.
So this was an interesting one. He deployed centrally but he has a stratagem to redeploy 3 units before the game starts. So I decided to try and bait him. I placed the big unit of Genestealers in a place out of his small-arms range on my left, but close enough that if he redeployed a repulsor, he could unload all his small arms into those genestealers. I placed the hive guard pretty far back out of LOS, but close enough to be in range of whatever he redeployed to take my bait. I also put the dakka tyrant at the bait location. Everything else was too far back to be harmed by anything except the big weapons on the repulsors.
Turn 1... he took the bait. He redeployed a repulsor, the leviathon and his chapter master for rerolls to that left corner to be in range of the genestealers and dakka tyrant. He of course killed both, deploying his aggressors from the repulsor. I in turn boosted the exocrine's damage to 3, wiped out the aggressors with his first volley and did 9 damage to the repulsor with his second volley (Symbiostorm was used here as well). Then the Hive Guard finished that repulsor and did some damage to the leviathon. Then the Flyrant charged the leviathon (I used metabolic overddrive on the Tyrant Guard to get them close enough to eat some overwatch, but it wasn't necessary since it was not an Iron Hands leviathon) and killed him. I also snagged the bonus for objectives. He basically couldn't recover from that. My hive guard moved up, got onslaught, and double tapped the other repulsor on turn 2. Swarmlord and Flyrant took a bunch of shots to kill. Genestealers took objectives, and exocrine wiped out 2 units of infantry per turn.
Score: 38 to 16 Tyranids win
game 3 vs Imperiam: SM Ravenguard, AM Cadia, AdMech (a battalion of each)
SM RavenGuard Bat: Jump Captain w/ stormshield, Jump Chaplain, 10 Intercessors, 2x5 Scouts, 6 Aggressors, 6 Assault Cents
AM Cadia Bat: CCommander, Tank Commander (3 damage relic battle cannon), 3 Infantry squads, Manticore (3 damage as well)
AdMech: 2 techpriests, 3x5 Rangers, 3 Skorpius Disintegrators with the ignore los thing
This list is piloted by Daniel Poalini, and is honestly a huge reason I brought Tyrant Guard. He knows my list, and knows what a threat the Super Flyrant is. So naturally, I lost the rolloff and he went first. I picked Vanguard again, but despite pretty OK terrain, there's just no hiding from a Tank Commander that has a stratagem that allows it to double shoot it's cannon even if it moves it's full movement AND advances. (I think he also gets full 12 shots with it). So anyway, that thing killed all the Tyrant Guard and left my Flyrant with 3 wounds. Then the Manticore finished him off. So much for that. Also, I learned what Ravenguard are capable of. I did not screen well enough for his redeploy trickery with the aggressors and jump captain. My Hive Guard and Genestealers were all out of LOS in some ruins, but he had plenty of movement to allow him to charge the Hive Guard with aggressors. His 10 Intercessors and 6 centurions were also able to charge the 16 man genestealer unit that were in a different ruin. So I thought it was over at this point... except he made a mistake. Just as I made a mistake in not sacrificing 3 rippers to prevent his pre-deployment movement, he made a mistake in charging my dakka flyrant with the smash captain (thus negating overwatch with his relic) and landing in a spot that was in melee with my Hive Guard, my dakka Flyrant... and my unit of 20 genestealers. THAT was his mistake. So he chose to attack with the 10 intercessors to wipe out my 16 man genestealers first (he didn't want me interrupting and killing centurions). But then I interrupted with my 20 genestealers, piled into the aggressors, and killed all but 1 aggressor. The captain killed 3 hive guard in response, but this was a huge break for me. I could have lost a lot more here. Now my remaining 3 hive guard are not stuck in melee. I fought again and killed the captain and last aggressor, freeing up the Genestealers to move on my turn.
On my turn 1, I double tapped the exocrine into the centurions and used smites on the centurions to wipe them out. The Hive Guard softened up a Skorpius. The Swarmlord double moved the genestealers to charge a scout squad (killing them), a skorpius (killing it) and wrap a ranger unit afterwards. The swarmlord himself managed to charge the Chaplain (who was buffing the centurious and intercessors, killed him, then used overrun to get into the middle L ruins and out of LOS from the Tank Commander. So despite the near disaster, I managed to get kill more, while Daniel got hold the bonus.
In turn 2, Swarmlord died to the 10 Intercessors and Manticore in shooting. The Tank Commander killed my Dakka Flyrant. The Itercessors also charged my 20 genestealers, but couldn't get all his models close enough to attack. So I left that combat with about 8 genestealers left after killing the ranger I had wrapped, and I removed all the genestealers near the intercessors so I wasn't locked in melee with them. Still not looking great for me, but I have the exocrine still and he's in a spot that is difficult for the Tank Commander to see.
On my turn 2, my Broodlord went on the offensive. I saw an opportunity to charge a skorpius from out of LOS, and it was close enough to another skorpius to bad touch both. The Exocrine shot up the intercessors so there were only a couple left. The genestealers charged them from behind a wall and kill them, staying inside the L and on the objective. The Hive Guard softened up the skorpius for the Broodlord. The Broodlord charged that skorpius, killed it, and consolidated to a spot still inside the ruins but within 1" of the other skorpius.
Turns 3 and 4, the manticore tried it's best to kill my exocrine, but it had a 4+ save in cover and weathered it with 3 wounds left. I completed Recon with Rippers, I picked up 3 points for big game killing all 3 skorpius. And I completed gang buster on the first turn when I wiped out the aggressors and centurions. Daniel completed all his secondaries too. But I managed to get kill more almost every turn due to the number of units he had. My 8 lone genestealers were able to kill A LOT of stuff, using overrun to return to their L after killing whatever unit was in range. It was a very tight game.
Score: 31 to 26 Tyranids win
Day 2: This day didn't go so well, lol.
Game 4 vs Imperium, Imperial Knights and Ad Mech
Imperial Knight: Castellan, Crusader and Crusader
AdMech: TechPriest, TechPriest, 2x5 Ranger and 1x6 Ranger, 2 Dunecrawlers
My opponent won the roll-off again. So against Knights, picking your deployment map is huge. Alex was really smart in choosing to be defender. He rolled Vanguard, rerolled and got Spearhead Assault. So, I naturally deployed very aggressively. He deployed WAY back in a corner where the Ls were not favorable for hiding, and in such a way that the only chargable Knight turn 1 was his Crusader with the melee invulnerable save. Ugh... All my shooting was completely out of range. The Ls from this angle did not allow me to put Hive Guard very close without being visible next turn with the IK's movement. I basically just had to hail mary my Flyrant and hope rolls went my way... They didn't. My god my rolls were horrible. After fighting once, dying and fighting as I die (with rerolls AND +1 to wound), I only managed to deal 13 damage (he was Taranis so had 6+++ as well). I made a game of it. I used ripper and genestealers to snag the bonus for the first 3 turns. So for 3 turns I had 3 points for hold more and bonus, he had 3 points for kill more and hold 1. Then on the 4th round I ran out of bodies. I actually managed to max my secondaries (including Big Game Hunter) while only killing a single unit of rangers.
Score: 26 to 34 Imperium wins
Game 5 vs Iron Hands and Blood Angels
So this was against Ken Knox, who won the previous Major I went to with Adepticon missions. Our lists changed slightly since then but not much.
His list: 2x10 Intercessors with Auto Bolt Rifles, 1x10 with Stalkers, 1x7 with Stalkers and 2x5 with Stalkers. 5 Assault Centurions, Apothecary, Captain, LT, Feirros, Chaplain, Thunderfire
The Blood Angels portion was Mephiston, Smash Captain and Astorath.
He won the roll-off and gave me attacker. All those infantry have 5+ invuls and 5+ fnp. It's super annoying.
My turn 1 went pretty well. I used the Exocrine and dakka flyrant to clear 10 intercessors with stalkers that were screening his Centurions. The Hive Guard moved forward, onslaught failed, and proceeded to fail to kill the thunderfire with some really bad rolls. The Super Flyrant charged the centurions, ate 7 wounds in overwatch (despite catalyst), and killed 2 centurions after they used transhuman and I used rerolls to wound. Turns out doing flat 4 or 5 damage isn't quite enough when they have fnp. The centurions then smashed the Flyrant dead, who fought as he died and killed 2 more centurions. So in the end, he killed all but 1 centurion. That's still pretty decent and basically his job. So I considered it a win. I still managed a kill 1 for the turn on the intercessors and held a couple objectives.
His turn 1, the carpet moved forward. Thunderfires shot both genestealers to slow them down. He killed some rippers (I was using them to screen against smash captain). He finished the turn with kill more. So we're about even at this point.
My turn 2, I discovered that the Exocrine is NOT great at killing intercessor with flat 2 damage when those intercessors get FNP and an invul. I double tapped and killed most of a squad of 10 but they're still there. Hive Guard finished the Thunderfire and plinked at some intercessors. Genestealers failed to do anything with their slowed movement, but they were hidden so at least they weren't dying. Swarmlord and Tyrant Guard stayed hidden. Dakka Flyrant moved to a corner objective.
His turn 2, he sent his Astorath at my dakka flyrant but dakka flyrant managed to live and deal 3 damage back. The carpet again moved closer. A few intercessors with assault rifles managed to see a claw and killed about 7 genestealers from the 20 man.
My turn 2. He made a small mistake here. In order to keep the entire carpet in range of the auras, there was a small opening for the swarmlord to charge feirros. So I double moved the Swarmlord and did exactly that. The Hive Guard finished off the Centurion. Exocrine finished off the 10 man he was shooting last turn. Genestealers failed a 7" charge at the assault bolt rifle intercessors (I was trying to assault from out of LOS because IH have 5+ to hit in overwatch, and those intercessors have 30 shots). Swarmlord and Broodlord both charged Feirros, killed him and bad touched 4 units of intercessors. Broodlord took 5 wounds in melee (I only had 5 saves to make and failed all 5). Swarmlord took nothing. Dakka Flyrant finished off the astorath with smite. So that was a good turn. Got 2 head hunter kills and removed the 5++ aura. He still has 6++ and fnp though.
His turn 2. He completely surrounds the Swarmlord, falling back. He used 15 pistols to kill the broodlord. His shooting did nothing else since most of his stuff was in melee. All the characters charged teh Swarmlord, including Mephiston. I have no CP to interrupt. Swarmlord died because apparently it was just not my day for rolling saves.
My turn 3. Genestealers finally get to do something. I kill a couple of the smaller squads with them and the Exocrine and Hive Guard.
His turn 3. My screens are toast. Smash Captain arrives and kills the hive guard, then hides in ruins.
My turn 4. I smite the smash captain, but don't kill it. I max engineers. I hold 1. Genestealers are wiped out at this point. I don't get a kill.
His turn 4. He charged the exocrine. Miraculously, the exocrine survives with 3 wounds left.
My turn 5. My smite fails. BUT... Exocrine does 2 damage to the smash captain and KILL HIM! HAHAHA.
His Turn 5. Mephiston arrives and kills exocrine.
My turn 6. Neurothrope smites Mephiston. (he took some wounds earlier from genestealers, so only had 2 wounds left after my smite).
His turn 6. Mephiston rolls double 1s for his psychic test... dies... explodes and kills my nuerothrope (who also was wounded from a perils earlier). I am tabled in spectacular fashion... oh and I maxed head hunter things to mephiston blowing up his own head.
Score: 25 to 39 Imperium wins
So I finish 3 and 2 facing 5 Imperium lists, 4 of which had space marines. The Imperial Knight player placed 1st and the Iron Hands player placed 2nd. I finished in 7th and Daniel (who I defeated in round 3) placed 5th. All in all I felt like I was able to hang with the big lists here. I am really curious what the statistics are going to look like for the player that wins the roll-off for choosing attacker/defender. But luck aside, it was a great tournament.
Things I've learned:
1. Tyrant Guard still not worth it, even with a Super Flyrant to guard. The new Tank Aces and Tank Commander relic can chew right thru those tyrant guard.
2. When shooting Intercessors with Exocrine, if they have FNP, always use the stratagem for +1 damage. Save CP for this.
3. Dakka Flyrant has really been underperforming against Imperium. I think he'll be great against Tau and I know he's good against Eldar. But against imperium he's basically just a smite stick.
4. Exocrine on foot is perfectly fine, as long as you have the stratagem available to shoot after moving. On turn 1 the Super Flyrant and Swarmlord take priority for your opponent's shooting so he's usually pretty safe.
5. I've had my fill of imperium this weekend. Maybe I can play some Tau or Eldar next time? lol
I ran my previous list but with Tyrant Guard to try and help with the tank ace matchup. (I removed the Tyrannocyte)
BEHEMOTH:
Super Flyrant: warlord (wings, hvc, mst, ts, ag)
Swarmlord
Broodlord: free relic: resonance barb
20 genestealers
16 genestealers
3 rippers
3 tyrant guard
KRONOS:
Dakka Tyrant (wings, 4 devs, toxin sacs cause what else do you do with 4 pts)
neurothrope
3 rippers, 3 rippers, 3 rippers
6 hive guard
exocrine
Unless otherwise noted, I gave Scythes or Tyran and Murderous Size to the Super Flyrant, pathogenesis to the Dakka Flyrant and Enhanced Resistance to the Hive Guard.
game 1 vs Space Marines: White Scars.
This was a pretty fluffy list. He had 3 impulsors with intercessors, a thunderfire, some characters, a drop pod grav bomb, and 10 jump pack dudes with stormshields.
I was attacker. Turn 1 I didn't do much. I managed a kill on some intercessors and moved my flyrant to a position where he could reach the thunderfire on turn 2. He tremored my genestealers but they weren't in danger of being killed. After that, exocrine and Hive Guard just demolished most of his army. Super Flyrant and genestealers killed a bunch of stuff. He was tabled by turn 5. My opponent was in good spirits and didn't expect to do well at the tournament. He was a good sport.
Score: 39 to 10 Tyranids win
game 2 vs Space Marines: Ultramarines successor with Chapter Selection Howling Gryphons, Long-range Marksmen and Scions of the Forge.
His list: 2 Repulsor Executioners, 1 Leviathan Dread, 2x3 Aggressors (inside the repulsors), 3x5 Intercessors, 3x5 Scouts, Chaplain, Chapter Master, LT, Lib, and Techmarine.
I lost the rolloff and my opponent chose to be attacker. I chose Vanguard deployment.
So this was an interesting one. He deployed centrally but he has a stratagem to redeploy 3 units before the game starts. So I decided to try and bait him. I placed the big unit of Genestealers in a place out of his small-arms range on my left, but close enough that if he redeployed a repulsor, he could unload all his small arms into those genestealers. I placed the hive guard pretty far back out of LOS, but close enough to be in range of whatever he redeployed to take my bait. I also put the dakka tyrant at the bait location. Everything else was too far back to be harmed by anything except the big weapons on the repulsors.
Turn 1... he took the bait. He redeployed a repulsor, the leviathon and his chapter master for rerolls to that left corner to be in range of the genestealers and dakka tyrant. He of course killed both, deploying his aggressors from the repulsor. I in turn boosted the exocrine's damage to 3, wiped out the aggressors with his first volley and did 9 damage to the repulsor with his second volley (Symbiostorm was used here as well). Then the Hive Guard finished that repulsor and did some damage to the leviathon. Then the Flyrant charged the leviathon (I used metabolic overddrive on the Tyrant Guard to get them close enough to eat some overwatch, but it wasn't necessary since it was not an Iron Hands leviathon) and killed him. I also snagged the bonus for objectives. He basically couldn't recover from that. My hive guard moved up, got onslaught, and double tapped the other repulsor on turn 2. Swarmlord and Flyrant took a bunch of shots to kill. Genestealers took objectives, and exocrine wiped out 2 units of infantry per turn.
Score: 38 to 16 Tyranids win
game 3 vs Imperiam: SM Ravenguard, AM Cadia, AdMech (a battalion of each)
SM RavenGuard Bat: Jump Captain w/ stormshield, Jump Chaplain, 10 Intercessors, 2x5 Scouts, 6 Aggressors, 6 Assault Cents
AM Cadia Bat: CCommander, Tank Commander (3 damage relic battle cannon), 3 Infantry squads, Manticore (3 damage as well)
AdMech: 2 techpriests, 3x5 Rangers, 3 Skorpius Disintegrators with the ignore los thing
This list is piloted by Daniel Poalini, and is honestly a huge reason I brought Tyrant Guard. He knows my list, and knows what a threat the Super Flyrant is. So naturally, I lost the rolloff and he went first. I picked Vanguard again, but despite pretty OK terrain, there's just no hiding from a Tank Commander that has a stratagem that allows it to double shoot it's cannon even if it moves it's full movement AND advances. (I think he also gets full 12 shots with it). So anyway, that thing killed all the Tyrant Guard and left my Flyrant with 3 wounds. Then the Manticore finished him off. So much for that. Also, I learned what Ravenguard are capable of. I did not screen well enough for his redeploy trickery with the aggressors and jump captain. My Hive Guard and Genestealers were all out of LOS in some ruins, but he had plenty of movement to allow him to charge the Hive Guard with aggressors. His 10 Intercessors and 6 centurions were also able to charge the 16 man genestealer unit that were in a different ruin. So I thought it was over at this point... except he made a mistake. Just as I made a mistake in not sacrificing 3 rippers to prevent his pre-deployment movement, he made a mistake in charging my dakka flyrant with the smash captain (thus negating overwatch with his relic) and landing in a spot that was in melee with my Hive Guard, my dakka Flyrant... and my unit of 20 genestealers. THAT was his mistake. So he chose to attack with the 10 intercessors to wipe out my 16 man genestealers first (he didn't want me interrupting and killing centurions). But then I interrupted with my 20 genestealers, piled into the aggressors, and killed all but 1 aggressor. The captain killed 3 hive guard in response, but this was a huge break for me. I could have lost a lot more here. Now my remaining 3 hive guard are not stuck in melee. I fought again and killed the captain and last aggressor, freeing up the Genestealers to move on my turn.
On my turn 1, I double tapped the exocrine into the centurions and used smites on the centurions to wipe them out. The Hive Guard softened up a Skorpius. The Swarmlord double moved the genestealers to charge a scout squad (killing them), a skorpius (killing it) and wrap a ranger unit afterwards. The swarmlord himself managed to charge the Chaplain (who was buffing the centurious and intercessors, killed him, then used overrun to get into the middle L ruins and out of LOS from the Tank Commander. So despite the near disaster, I managed to get kill more, while Daniel got hold the bonus.
In turn 2, Swarmlord died to the 10 Intercessors and Manticore in shooting. The Tank Commander killed my Dakka Flyrant. The Itercessors also charged my 20 genestealers, but couldn't get all his models close enough to attack. So I left that combat with about 8 genestealers left after killing the ranger I had wrapped, and I removed all the genestealers near the intercessors so I wasn't locked in melee with them. Still not looking great for me, but I have the exocrine still and he's in a spot that is difficult for the Tank Commander to see.
On my turn 2, my Broodlord went on the offensive. I saw an opportunity to charge a skorpius from out of LOS, and it was close enough to another skorpius to bad touch both. The Exocrine shot up the intercessors so there were only a couple left. The genestealers charged them from behind a wall and kill them, staying inside the L and on the objective. The Hive Guard softened up the skorpius for the Broodlord. The Broodlord charged that skorpius, killed it, and consolidated to a spot still inside the ruins but within 1" of the other skorpius.
Turns 3 and 4, the manticore tried it's best to kill my exocrine, but it had a 4+ save in cover and weathered it with 3 wounds left. I completed Recon with Rippers, I picked up 3 points for big game killing all 3 skorpius. And I completed gang buster on the first turn when I wiped out the aggressors and centurions. Daniel completed all his secondaries too. But I managed to get kill more almost every turn due to the number of units he had. My 8 lone genestealers were able to kill A LOT of stuff, using overrun to return to their L after killing whatever unit was in range. It was a very tight game.
Score: 31 to 26 Tyranids win
Day 2: This day didn't go so well, lol.
Game 4 vs Imperium, Imperial Knights and Ad Mech
Imperial Knight: Castellan, Crusader and Crusader
AdMech: TechPriest, TechPriest, 2x5 Ranger and 1x6 Ranger, 2 Dunecrawlers
My opponent won the roll-off again. So against Knights, picking your deployment map is huge. Alex was really smart in choosing to be defender. He rolled Vanguard, rerolled and got Spearhead Assault. So, I naturally deployed very aggressively. He deployed WAY back in a corner where the Ls were not favorable for hiding, and in such a way that the only chargable Knight turn 1 was his Crusader with the melee invulnerable save. Ugh... All my shooting was completely out of range. The Ls from this angle did not allow me to put Hive Guard very close without being visible next turn with the IK's movement. I basically just had to hail mary my Flyrant and hope rolls went my way... They didn't. My god my rolls were horrible. After fighting once, dying and fighting as I die (with rerolls AND +1 to wound), I only managed to deal 13 damage (he was Taranis so had 6+++ as well). I made a game of it. I used ripper and genestealers to snag the bonus for the first 3 turns. So for 3 turns I had 3 points for hold more and bonus, he had 3 points for kill more and hold 1. Then on the 4th round I ran out of bodies. I actually managed to max my secondaries (including Big Game Hunter) while only killing a single unit of rangers.
Score: 26 to 34 Imperium wins
Game 5 vs Iron Hands and Blood Angels
So this was against Ken Knox, who won the previous Major I went to with Adepticon missions. Our lists changed slightly since then but not much.
His list: 2x10 Intercessors with Auto Bolt Rifles, 1x10 with Stalkers, 1x7 with Stalkers and 2x5 with Stalkers. 5 Assault Centurions, Apothecary, Captain, LT, Feirros, Chaplain, Thunderfire
The Blood Angels portion was Mephiston, Smash Captain and Astorath.
He won the roll-off and gave me attacker. All those infantry have 5+ invuls and 5+ fnp. It's super annoying.
My turn 1 went pretty well. I used the Exocrine and dakka flyrant to clear 10 intercessors with stalkers that were screening his Centurions. The Hive Guard moved forward, onslaught failed, and proceeded to fail to kill the thunderfire with some really bad rolls. The Super Flyrant charged the centurions, ate 7 wounds in overwatch (despite catalyst), and killed 2 centurions after they used transhuman and I used rerolls to wound. Turns out doing flat 4 or 5 damage isn't quite enough when they have fnp. The centurions then smashed the Flyrant dead, who fought as he died and killed 2 more centurions. So in the end, he killed all but 1 centurion. That's still pretty decent and basically his job. So I considered it a win. I still managed a kill 1 for the turn on the intercessors and held a couple objectives.
His turn 1, the carpet moved forward. Thunderfires shot both genestealers to slow them down. He killed some rippers (I was using them to screen against smash captain). He finished the turn with kill more. So we're about even at this point.
My turn 2, I discovered that the Exocrine is NOT great at killing intercessor with flat 2 damage when those intercessors get FNP and an invul. I double tapped and killed most of a squad of 10 but they're still there. Hive Guard finished the Thunderfire and plinked at some intercessors. Genestealers failed to do anything with their slowed movement, but they were hidden so at least they weren't dying. Swarmlord and Tyrant Guard stayed hidden. Dakka Flyrant moved to a corner objective.
His turn 2, he sent his Astorath at my dakka flyrant but dakka flyrant managed to live and deal 3 damage back. The carpet again moved closer. A few intercessors with assault rifles managed to see a claw and killed about 7 genestealers from the 20 man.
My turn 2. He made a small mistake here. In order to keep the entire carpet in range of the auras, there was a small opening for the swarmlord to charge feirros. So I double moved the Swarmlord and did exactly that. The Hive Guard finished off the Centurion. Exocrine finished off the 10 man he was shooting last turn. Genestealers failed a 7" charge at the assault bolt rifle intercessors (I was trying to assault from out of LOS because IH have 5+ to hit in overwatch, and those intercessors have 30 shots). Swarmlord and Broodlord both charged Feirros, killed him and bad touched 4 units of intercessors. Broodlord took 5 wounds in melee (I only had 5 saves to make and failed all 5). Swarmlord took nothing. Dakka Flyrant finished off the astorath with smite. So that was a good turn. Got 2 head hunter kills and removed the 5++ aura. He still has 6++ and fnp though.
His turn 2. He completely surrounds the Swarmlord, falling back. He used 15 pistols to kill the broodlord. His shooting did nothing else since most of his stuff was in melee. All the characters charged teh Swarmlord, including Mephiston. I have no CP to interrupt. Swarmlord died because apparently it was just not my day for rolling saves.
My turn 3. Genestealers finally get to do something. I kill a couple of the smaller squads with them and the Exocrine and Hive Guard.
His turn 3. My screens are toast. Smash Captain arrives and kills the hive guard, then hides in ruins.
My turn 4. I smite the smash captain, but don't kill it. I max engineers. I hold 1. Genestealers are wiped out at this point. I don't get a kill.
His turn 4. He charged the exocrine. Miraculously, the exocrine survives with 3 wounds left.
My turn 5. My smite fails. BUT... Exocrine does 2 damage to the smash captain and KILL HIM! HAHAHA.
His Turn 5. Mephiston arrives and kills exocrine.
My turn 6. Neurothrope smites Mephiston. (he took some wounds earlier from genestealers, so only had 2 wounds left after my smite).
His turn 6. Mephiston rolls double 1s for his psychic test... dies... explodes and kills my nuerothrope (who also was wounded from a perils earlier). I am tabled in spectacular fashion... oh and I maxed head hunter things to mephiston blowing up his own head.
Score: 25 to 39 Imperium wins
So I finish 3 and 2 facing 5 Imperium lists, 4 of which had space marines. The Imperial Knight player placed 1st and the Iron Hands player placed 2nd. I finished in 7th and Daniel (who I defeated in round 3) placed 5th. All in all I felt like I was able to hang with the big lists here. I am really curious what the statistics are going to look like for the player that wins the roll-off for choosing attacker/defender. But luck aside, it was a great tournament.
Things I've learned:
1. Tyrant Guard still not worth it, even with a Super Flyrant to guard. The new Tank Aces and Tank Commander relic can chew right thru those tyrant guard.
2. When shooting Intercessors with Exocrine, if they have FNP, always use the stratagem for +1 damage. Save CP for this.
3. Dakka Flyrant has really been underperforming against Imperium. I think he'll be great against Tau and I know he's good against Eldar. But against imperium he's basically just a smite stick.
4. Exocrine on foot is perfectly fine, as long as you have the stratagem available to shoot after moving. On turn 1 the Super Flyrant and Swarmlord take priority for your opponent's shooting so he's usually pretty safe.
5. I've had my fill of imperium this weekend. Maybe I can play some Tau or Eldar next time? lol
