Feast of Blades Qualifier Results and Batrep.

Hey everyone, BeeCee here,

I wanted to take a minute to share the results of the Feast of Blades qualifier I played in at Universal Bits and Games in Sioux Falls,SD. Firstly, hats off to those folks for hosting the tourney and doing everything they can to get the hobby going in the area. There was a small turnout at the tourney (about 10 people or so) but the terrain and boards looked great, every army was completely painted, except mine which had one unpainted biovore (fail on my part I know!).

I can sew this patch on my jean jacket! Chicks dig jean jackets!

The tourney was three rounds Win/Loss with battle points and painting score as tie breakers. I am happy to say I was able to sweep the day and walk away with the win! I played against a Salamanders Space Marine player, Tau, and a Dark Angels player. I did not take enough pictures but I was able to salvage one battle report out of the whole deal.


In game two I faced my friend Mark and his brutal Tau army. Mark and I play on a regular basis and I can say that until this past weekend I had never beaten his Tau list. The fire power was tremendous!

First let's go on to the army lists:

My list:
2 Flyrants

The army ready to go the night before the event

Tervigon
30 Termagants
Zoanthrope
Zoanthrope
Venomthrope
Exocrine
3 Warriors with a Barbed Strangler
Exocrine
3 Biovores

Mark's list included three Riptides, a unit of Broadsides, some Kroot, a couple of Sniper Drone teams, and Commander with Markerlight Drones. As you can imagine I am a bit overwhelmed with the amount of firepower Mark can put on my stuff. Two of those riptides have heavy burst cannons and I know they have the potential to waste one of my monstrous creatures per turn. I need to play very smart.

Mark won the roll and decided to take first turn. Here was his deployment:

Mark deployed to prevent me from executing a strong flank maneuver on either side, pretty well spaced out with Broadsides anchoring the center of his zone.

I decide I need to take out his markerlights. Without that force multiplier I can use my venomthrope to provide me with a cover save at all times. With that in mind here is my deployment:

The game was Hammer and Anvil deployment with 5 objectives and secondary mission for kill points. My plan was to deny him any shooting on turn 1 as he was going first. I did make one mistake in deployment with one of the Exocrines who was too far forward and was in range of the BurstTide. The combined fire of the BurstTide and the IonTide dropped him down to 1 wound. Whew! First blood averted!

Now it was my turn to strike back! Remembering that I did not want to be exposed to markerlight fire, my flyrants flanked up the left side of the board and put sustained fire on a sniper drone unit and my biovores went to work on the commander and his 6 marker drones.

I was able to score first blood, wiping out a sniper drone team and I was also able to kill a few drones and most importantly keep the markerlights away from my support units. I also spawned a few gaunts to help protect my biovores and injured exocrine from deep striking crisis suits.

Tau turn 2:
He had some crisis units come in but because I had clogged the area with bodies they scattered out in the open outside of flamer range. My non warlord hive tyrant fell to the combined fire of snap shooting kroot and two bursttides. I knew it would be tough to keep them both alive and despite having feel no pain, he failed alot of saves.

Tyranid turn 2:
First thing I did was get my warlord tyrant off the board, he could not withstand the amount of fire that would be sent his way and it is incredibly important to keep my tyrants alive as long as possible. My tervigon made a push for the crisis suits that just landed in my face. The biovores, after being successful in driving the commander and his drones back, started working on the sniper team on my right. Their blasts in combination with the barbed strangler from the warriors sent the sniper drones running (well there was only 1 drone left after the bombardment). The exocrine on the left flank pushed forward to wipe out a kroot unit and provide itself as a large target to slow the tau advance.

Tau turn 3:
As predicted, the Tau were able to wipe out the exocrine on the left flank and a large blast from the iontide was able to kill two out of the three biovores, despite a 2+ cover save! The biovore threat was largely stifled but they had done their job. The markerlight threat was largely eliminated with the two sniper teams wiped out and the commander's unit too far out of range to close the gap. Yet another crisis team tried to stick a Dorothy Hamill landing to wipe out the venomthrope and one remaining biovore. A luck scatter placed them directly in front of the tervigon once again.

Due to a lack of targets, the broadsides are forced to move out of the ruins and away form the objective. This would prove costly.

Tyranid turn 3:
My warlord tyrant comes back on the board and flies up the left flank again. There is a riptide with only 2 wounds left thanks to some unlucky dice on the Tau's part. With an epic Onslaught roll, I might be able to get in to range and finish him off. The Tervigon makes its way towards the crisis suits to deliver a beat down and the sole remaining biovore actually puts a wound on a broadside! Unfortunately the Onslaught roll is not enough so the tyrant and the termagants put some wounds on the kroot but they pass their morale test.

Tau turn 4:
Because my venomthrope is still alive, my units are rocking a 2+ cover save from behind the ruins. The tau are not able to crack my fortress. A bevy of fire coming in is unable to put a chink in my armor.

Tyranid turn 4:
Time is running out and it is called that this is the last turn. We got a late start to our game due to some technical difficulties with the table. The Tau hold the center objective and one of the objectives in their deployment zone. The Tyranids hold the two objectives in their deployment zone. The center objective is worth 1 point while the others are worth 2 points. I win the objectives by a 4-3 margin.

The secondary objective is kill points. By the grace of the hive mind, I also hold the lead there too. I have a ton of units with 1 model or 1 wound remaining but I am able to eek out a 4-2 kill point advantage. That combined with first blood makes for a convincing Tyranid victory!

The Tyranids try to solidify their holdings.

It was a great game and had we not ended at the end of turn 4, the Tau might have been able to pull it out. My exocrine was putting fire on the riptide holding the center objective dealing a few wounds to it so it would have had to wipe out my Exocrine or fall back to be able to keep control of that objective.

I can't say enough for the biovores and a Living Artillery Node. Rerolling the scatter dice is amazing for biovores. Not only did I hit with every shot, the second and third blasts of the barrage were able to inflict massive damage with those rerolls. There was a time when I actually got 20 hits on a space marine squad hanging out in cover with it.

You may not be able to see it, but I made some epic Tyranid psychic power markers. Courtesy of Tripwire over at the Hammer of Wrath blog. They really add to your game and keep you from forgetting to roll your feel no pain saves (even if you never pass them).

All in all it was a great event, it was really nice to walk away undefeated and nab $100 in store credit!