Huzzah Hobbies December RTT Review

On Sunday, I made my way to Huzzah Hobbies for their monthly RTT. I had to be in DC again for work, and having seen the recurring tournament on Torrent of Fire, I thought I would head up a little early to get some gaming in. The regular tournaments were at 1,999+1, so I had to work some things around from my planned SCARAB list to make up the points and also make up the pieces I didn't have; namely, two of three spores.



IG with Space Wolf allies, Inquistorial detachment, and Tau Firebase

Walking around the hall as people were setting up, it was quickly clear that there was more to differentiate that from my LGS's monthly tournaments than just the points. I was actually feeling left out having not brought a display/transport board, which is someting I didn't expect.

My list was a bit of a hodgepodge of things I wanted to try out:

Tyranid Prime: Warlord, Bonesword and Lashwhip, Deathspitter
Hive Tyrant: Wings, 2 TL Devourers, Hive Commander
3 Zoanthropes: Mycetic Spore
2 Hive Guard
2 Hive Guard
Tervigon: Crushing Claws, Catalyst, Toxin Sacs
19 Termagants: Devourers
10 Termagants
20 Hormagaunts: Toxin Sacs
3 Warriors
5 Raveners
3 Biovores
Trygon

As for the rest of the field, here's a breakdown by army:

• 2 Necrons (1 w/Tau Allies)
• 2 CSM/Daemons combos (1 Primary for each)
• 4 Eldar (IG, and 2 Tau Allies)
• 2 Tau (Eldar allies, and O'Vesa Star)
• 1 Dark Eldar
• 1 IG (with Space Wolves, Inquisition, and Tau Firebase Cadre)
• 1 Space Wolves
• 1 Black Templar
• 3 Tyranids

Game 1 I was matched up against Leigh's Necrons. His list featured, from memory:

Destroyer Lord
Special Character (Zandrekh?)
5 Crypteks
5 Deathmarks: Night Scythe
5x5 Warriors: Night Scythes
6 Wraiths: 2 Whip Coils
5 Wraiths: 2 Whip Coils
3 Annhiliation Barges: Tesla

The mission use Vanguard Strike Deployment with 4 corner objectives, as well as the Relic. Leigh Deployed first, keeping the three Annhilation Barges and one squad of Wraiths on the board, with the two HQs. Everything else stayed in reserve. I held my devilgants back to Outflank, but otherwise deployed on the board. The summary of the game that I was too tentative with some of my moves, namely the Hive Tyrant and Tervigon. I also spread myself out, which allowed Leigh to take my army apart piecemeal, despite Leigh rolling poorly for his reserves (not a single Night Scythe arrived Turn 2.

Game two saw me matched up against Phil's Serpent Spam Eldar, which included, from memory:

Farseer: Jetbike
7 Warlocks: Jetbike
5x10 Guardians: Starcannons, Wave Serpents
2x3 War Walkers: Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannons

The game would be NOVA's Emperor's Will (which is what I've played against Chandler and Ron) on Hammer and Anvil Deployment. Phil won the roll and chose to deploy first, and hung most of his Wave Serpents toward his right flank, with the Seers on his left. I chose to deploy more or less across from the Wave Serpents, to minimize the distance I'd have to cover to get to grips with the Eldar.

Throughout the game, the main story was Phil's horrendous rolls for his Seer Council's powers. The Biovores earned me Slay the Warlord when three blasts landed on the Farseer's head and he failed 3 saves on 2s (his warlord trait was to reroll 1s). The most effective power the Zoanthropes had ended up being puppet master and taking control of a Wave Serpent for three turns. In the end, it came down to my devilgants, who didn't arrive until turn 4 and then failed their Instinctive turn 5 to walk 2" onto an objective and tip the balance in my favor. In this game, I kept the Warriors and Termagants in reserve, along with the Devilgants and Zoans, and it worked well for me to some degree, with those squads really being all I had left at the end.

Finally, in game three, I was matched up against Joe's Chaos Space Marines with Daemons, lead by Be'lakor. In this game, my opponent made me deploy first. With Dawn of War deployment, I had to spread out a little to cover the board, and with no real cover in the middle, I ended up a little split to either side. Predictably, Joe deployed with a refused flank to my right. His Flesh Hounds scouted forward to be right in my face. I couldn't turn down the temptation and assaulted them. In hindsight, I threw in my Hormagaunts alongside the Tervigon, but should have just let the Tervigon go alone. She ended up holding up the Hounds and the Bikers for several turns. The Flyrant shot down Be'Lakor pretty decicively. Otherwise, Joe was alble take out my forces on my left before rolling my units holding objectives on the right.

At the end of the day, I'd been beaten down pretty soundly. While I will admit my list was not set up to be competitive on its own, but rather a sounding board for how a few units and tactics could do in a competitive environment, it was still disheartening. I caught myself several times wondering if I should scrap my idea to run Tyranids at SCARAB and go with my Eldar and Tau instead.

For my stranglehold on last place, I was awarded a $30 giftcard to the store. I battled between picking up a second Wave Serpent or a second Tervigon. In the end, I went with the Wave Serpent.

The day after, Ron and BeeCee helped talk me off the edge a little. With how I had seen different units perform, I felt that I wanted to try some other combinations. That said, experimenting with a codex on its last legs felt a little futile. As a result, I'm considering ditching my contrarian ways and going with a fairly standard "net list."

Flyrant: 2 TL Devourers, Old Adversary
Flyrant: 2 TL Devourers
3 Hive Guard
2 Zoanthropes: Mycetic Spore
Doom of Malan'tai: Mycetic Spore
Tervigon: Crushing Claws, 3 Powers, Toxin Sacs
Tervigon: Scything Talons, 3 Powers, Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands
20 Termagants: Devourers, Mycetic Spore
10 Termagants
3 Biovores

This will require a little more work than originally planned to get everything painted up and ready to go. I will likely wait on the Mycetic Spores for the end, and opt to do something quick and dirty if they end up being removed as models from the book, as is rumored.

1. Finish 4 Hive Guard (75% Complete)
2. Assemble and Paint second flyrant
3. Assemble and paint second tervigon
4. Make and paint 2 mycetic spores
5. Assemble and paint more termagants (because, more termagants)

Compared to my list for NOVA, that's pretty small, but with the holidays, my time is pretty restricted and tough to come by. We shall see how this goes.