The List (affectionately referred to as FTGT Nids here on the blog):
Main Force
- Hive Tyrant: Wings, 2 TL Devourers
- Hive Tyrant: Wings, 2 TL Devourers
- Venomthrope
- Tervigon
- 30 Termagants
- Hive Crone
- Hive Crone
- Hive Crone
- Exocrine
- 3 Warriors: 1 Barbed Strangler, 1 with deathspitter
- Exocrine
- 3 Biovores
Game 1 (Win 25-5) vs Flying Daemon Circus
Game one I was matched up with an amazing flying circus daemon/CSM ally player named Justin. His list (as best as I can recall from memory) consisted of 3 flying daemon princes (one from the CSM allies with black mace, one nurgle with the balesword, and another), Fateweaver (warlord), a Helldrake with flamer, 2 squads of slaanesh daemonettes, screamers, some cultist allied troops, and a bastion.
This game was an absolute blast, and one of my all time favorite games of 40k (both tourney and casual games included). Turn 1 was uneventful - I moved the swarm, Justin moved his Flying circus in to the building on his left with a Daemon prince left out to flank me. I pounced on that daemon prince with my flyers top of turn 2, doing just enough wounds with my flyrants to take him down. Justin was quite unlucky with his 3++ (rerolling ones), rolling several 2s for each tyrant. In the bottom of 2, justin moved his troops on to the board via deepstrike and snagged a free squad of pink horrors from the warpstorm table. Turns 3-6 were largely back and forth in an extremely tactical game with both of us swooping our FMCs on and off the board, with neither of us conceding an inch. The big highlights for the flying daemon circus turns 3-4 were the removal of an entire 30 man gaunt squad from 2 turns of the black mace and the balesword prince instagibbing an exocrine. The spawned pink horrors took out my biovore and took a ton of damage, but eventually were wiped out with some vectors/flames from crones. Fateweaver tossed grimoir back and forth to whichever FMC needed it, causing me to ignore said FMC for that turn. The nurgle daemon with the balesword was taken to one wound by mass fire after killing the exocrine, but swooped off the board to fight another day. He would finally be taken out in turn 7 by an exocrine (after rolling yet another 2 in his save rolls).
My flyrants did work all game, killing the black mace daemon prince in turn 3, and vector striking and wiping out the daemonettes turns 4 and 5. These guys were the star of the show. We had a large rock structure in the middle of the board that I was able to hide behind with my ground forces, and tucking all the objectives I got to place behind that rock structure really helped secure them (minus fateweaver contesting emperor's will with his 2++ rerollable shenanigans).
We would have been close to a draw at the end of turn 6, but the game continued and in turn 7 the wheels came off for my opponent and I was able to take him down to the helldrake, fateweaver, and a lone screamer. Fast attack units were scoring, and I was able to swoop + run a crone on to a crusade objective, and hold a second with warriors to take that category. The single lone screamer sat on a contested emperor's will objective (along with another one of my crones), and fateweaver contested the second emperor's will objective formerly being held by gaunts to tie this category. I ended up with crusaider, killpoints, line breaker, first blood, and we split emperor's will and warlord (since both of ours survived to the end).
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| After a Tyranid Turn 1 |
This was an interesting matchup against a really nice guy named Jonathan. His list consisted of 2 deepstriking assault marine squads with priests for fnp, an outflanking squad of scouts, a rhino filled with tac marines, 5 bikes with side cars, 5 devastators with missiles and an attached librarian, and a centurion star with tigerius and coteaz.
Jonathan took first turn and with the exception of the centurions and devastators in the back corner of a hammer and anvil deployment, he took the fight to me, driving his rhino up to the center with the bike escort. I moved in to position behind the large rock in the center during my turn, popping the rhino and killing a few occupants. Turn 2 Jonathan deep struck his two assault marine squads and outflanked the scouts on to the back of my board. He wiped out a biovore and the entire warrior squad with melta guns to remove the Living Artillery Node buff (see pic below). In the bottom of 2, I charged my two flyrants in to the assault marine squads, tar pitting them for the remainder of the match (they would eventually all die by the end of turn 5). The scouts joined the melee with the flyrant on the right, but were unable to do any damage to the flyrant. I moved the exocrines up, taking out the remaining rhino occupants and putting pressure on the bikes to keep them from crossing midfield to contest objectives. I stayed out of Centurion star range to keep my gaunts at full strength for a turn 5 push to the opposing objectives, since mine were shored up. I really couldn't shift the centurion star/devastators sitting one each on a crusade and emperor's will objective. I capped my own emperor's will, and sat on a crusade objective on my side of the center rock, while snaking my gaunts around turn 5 to cap one on Jonathan's side. I took killpoints, crusade, first blood, and split emperor's will and warlord for a 23-7 victory.
This was the mirror match of mirror matches. Evan and I strategize with Nids daily and had come to the same conclusion on a competitive list (along with Bryan). With only about 150pts of difference between us, the results were not surprising. Still, he put me on the ropes in the top of turn 1, and I had to claw back for a narrow tie at the bottom of turn 5. Evan is an amazing Tyranid player (best I've ever played), and the game was a blast. He did a great write up of this battle already, so I'm going to be lazy and link you to it (turn 3 Ron vs Evan).
I ended the day as one of 2 undefeated players, nabbing second place. I had a great time, and it was a great tournament. Kudos to Aidan and Evan for pulling off a very successful event! I look forward to the next Battle for Blacksburg! We would love to see you guys there.
-Ron
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