SCARAB GT: Day 1, Game 1 - Tyranids vs. Taudar

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the SCARAB GT in Columbia, SC. I found out about the event through Neil and The 11th Company Podcast. It was a little bit of a drive, but nothing unfeasible. I made it to the hotel a little before midnight and did some finishing touches on the bases of my airbrushed Flyrant and Tervigon. First thing Saturday morning I headed down to the convention center and unpacked.

The GT used LVO missions, at 1,850 points. LVO missions use the BRB missions, but overlap two missions. One mission is the primary, and whoever wins that gets 4 VPs. Secondary is worth 1 VP, and the regular secondaries are 1 VP each.

Game 1 was Emperor's Will Primary with Crusade secondary on Dawn of War Deployment.  I was matched up against Josh's Taudar army which included:

Buffcommander
Riptide: Burst Cannon, EWO, Skyfire
Riptide: Ion, Skyfire, FnP
4x10 Kroot
3 Broadsides: 1 Rail, 2 HYMP, Target lock, 2 Velocity Trackers
Farseer
5 Dire Avengers in Wave Serpent
6 Jetbikes
Wraithknight

When rolling for Warlord Traits, in this GT, you roll one die and pick from the three BRB or choose from your Codex. My first mistake was taking a Warlord trait that gave Josh -1 to reserves. I hoped this would allow me to fight him piecemeal, but instead it allowed him to keep his troops safe.

I deployed first, and so stayed fairly central, using the large LOS blocking terrain to hopefully shield me from the worst of the incoming fire. Josh deployed as in the image above on his left center, though the Wave Serpent was moved over to his right flank.

In turn 1 I flew up with Flyrants and mostly hid them behind a control tower on the landing pad. The Tervigons spawned, with the Crushing Claw tervigon running out. I took a couple shots and did some wounds on one Riptide with the flyrants while the Hive Guard did a wound on the Wraithknight. In the bottom of the turn, Josh stayed fairly static, though he managed a couple wounds on my warlord flyrant.

My warlord went over after the wave serpent while the other flyrant landed next to the wounded Riptide. Doom dropped down, survived interceptor, and dealt a several wounds to the other Riptide. The Wave Serpent scattered off the Broadsides and ended up only pushing the Wraithknight away from where the Doom could get him in the same bubble. The Hive Guard wounded the Wraithknight again. The non-warlord flyrant charged the burst cannon riptide and took a wound from overwatch, then a wound from in combat, and wiffed entirely.

In the bottom of the turn, Josh Novacharged the riptide in combat and failed, taking it down to two wounds. The other riptide moved to charge the doom if it survived shooting, but a heavy rail rifle broadside took care of it, though not before the riptide was taken down to its final wound. The other broadsides wiped out a gant brood for first blood. Finally, the wraithknight got a Distort on the Mawloc, killing him instantly. In combat, the flyrant only managed a single wound, to one in return, leaving both combatants with 1 wound remaining.

To begin turn three, the Tyrant cast enfeeble on the Riptide he was fighting and got a double 1, killing himself. The Warlord flyrant landed, killed the wave serprent, and then failed a charge on the Dire Avengers and took a wound from overwatch. On the other side of the landing pad, the crushing claw Tervigon charged the wraithknight where both were taken down to 2 wounds. In the bottom of the turn, the Dire Avengers killed the warlord flyrant. The first couple Kroot squads walk on the board from either side and one runs onto an objective. The broadsides take aim at one Hive Guard brood and wipe them out. In combat, the Wraithknight splats the tervigon and consolidates away.

With finally a viable target, the biovores kill 7 Kroot in one squad and pin them off of the objective. Some termagants kill off a few Kroot from the other flank and make them run. They immediately rally, but are off in no mans land for the moment. The last Kroot squad and jetbikes arrive. The second brood of hive guard are killed in the shooting phase. The wraithknight and dire avengers both begin making their way for the tervigon camping on one objective.

In my fifth turn, the Tervigon fails to kill any Dire Avengers with shooting and then fails short charge after taking 2 wounds from overwatch. Biovores wipe out a newly arrived Kroot Squad, clearing the far Crusade objective. In the bottom of the turn, the Wraithknight and Dire Avengers kill the tervigon, who takes some gants with her. The Dire Avengers then run onto the objective.

Through some miracle, the running termagants rally, the others pass instictive behavior, as do the Biovores. The Biovores then move to contest the objective held by the Dire Avengers and blast more Kroot off the Primary. In Josh's turn the jetbikes leave a Crusade objective to reclaim the Emperor's will objective. On the other side of the board, the Wraithknight kills both biovores, leaving the DA to hold a single crusade objective.

In the end the Taudar win 6-0: We tied Primary (Emperor's Will), Josh won the secondary (Crusade - 3pts) and had First Blood, Line Breaker, and Warlord.