SCARAB GT: Day 1, Game 3 - Tyranids vs. Farsight with Tau

After winning Game 2, I was faced up against Adam and his Farsight Enclaves with Tau Allies to finish the day. The mission was The Relic Primary (4pts), Big Guns Never Tire secondary (3pts), with Vanguard deployment.

Adam's list featured:

Cadre Fireblade
Riptide
Riptide
2x3 Crisis Teams
3x1 Crisis Teams
3 Broadsides with drones
Longstrike
Buffmander
10 Fire Warriors
Aegis with Quad Gun

My list, since I realize I haven't posted it in these bat reps yet, was:
Flyrant: Old Adversary, 2 TL Devourers
Flyrant: 2 TL Devourers
Doom of Malan'tai in Mycetic Spore
2 Hive Guard
2 Hive Guard
Tervigon: Crushing Claws, 3 powers, AG, Toxin
Tervigon: Scything Talons, 3 powers, Toxin
18 Devilgants
10 Termagants
3 Biovores
Mawloc

Adam won the roll to deploy first and chose to do so, putting his firewarriors and broadsides behind the aegis, along with Longstrike. The Riptides anchored the right sside of his line, along with one of the Crisis teams with the buff commander. One of the one man crisis teams was hiding behind a wall on his objective, and I didn't realize he was there for a few turns, very sneaky.

With night fight in effect, I deployed to keep most of my units outside 30" of static units (firewarriors) and while not turtling completely.

Actually part way through my turn 1

During the first turn, Adam jumped his Riptides forward and back, but shooting had little effect because of some poor rolling. In return, I killed a couple fire warriors with Biovores and did a wound or two with other fire. The flyrants both flew up, one stuck behind the hill, while the warlord hid in the central ruin with some termagants who picked up the relic.

In the second turn, his shooting was a little more effective, but not much. His Crisis teams arrived from reserves and their scatters did not put them too far out of position. All three squads dropped in behind my line, but thanks to some poor rolling, they only managed to kill off the Biovores and one Hive Guard from the brood on my right with the help of Fire Warriors and Longstrike. The Riptides mostly unsuccessful in doing much damage to the flyrants.

In the bottom of the turn, the Mawloc pops up between the Broadsides and one riptide, killing one of the broadsides and pushing the survivors outside the 6" overwatch bubble of the riptide. The doom drops right behind the aegis line and hops out in range of the Broadsides and Firewarriors (and the hidden crisis suit). Finally, the devilgants come on in my back corner and line up on the 3-man crisis team in my backfield. The non-warlord flyrant casts Enfeeble on the Riptide near him and drops down, ready to assault. The warlord flyrant hops the wall and preps to assault the other riptide. Finally, both hive guard broods about face and go for the Crisis suits behind  me, along with some termagants. Shooting sees the devilgants kill off the 3 man crisis suit thanks to some poor saves, while the lone Hive Guard instant killed the solo crisis suit. The doom manages to soul suck a few fire warriors and drones from the broadsides. In combat, the non-warlord flyrant smashes his enfeebled opponent, instant killing him (how it should have gone game 1). The warlord flyrant does a couple wounds and remains locked with the Riptide.

In Turn 3, Adam directs most of his fire at doom, who saves most of it, and dodges the rest (Longstrike missed). Doom also soul sucked the remaining broadsides. Remaining shooting is largely ineffective and in combat, the Riptide taken down to 1 wound. In the bottom of the turn, the small termagant squad walks on behind Longstrike and promptly blow him up. The Hive Guard charge the lone crisis suit in my deployment zone, while the hiding crisis suit is killed by doom, who also kills most of the surviving firewarriors. The Mawloc charged the Riptide, not that the flyrant needed the help, and then consolidates to screen the flyrant from fire in the following turn.

In the top of Turn 4, reduced to only a few guns, Adam manages to take the doom down to 2 wounds while the buff commander's crisis team continues exchanging ineffective volleys of fire with the flyrant while performing a tactical retreat, the flyrant and one tervigon on their heels. In the bottom of the turn, the Doom fails to kill off the fire warriors and so elects to charge and is promptly cut down by overwatch, much to Adam's cheer.

At this point, half the board stops being considered and it comes down to the two warlords. The flyrant killed off the surviving fire warriors with a charge, but the fireblade had broken off and so, takes one last set of shots before charging in. Death or glory!

In the end, the final tally was a 9-1 Tyranid victory, with the Tau contingent managing to take first blood while the buff commander and loyal crisis suits return to their enclave to tell of the brave sacrifice of the Cadre Fireblade.

I had a lot of fun this game, and Adam was a terrific opponent, taking his terrible dice rolls in stride and still making sure to have a good time. I closed the first day of the tournament hanging out with Adam and his friends for a while, having a great time. I wandered the convention area a little afterward and got a demo game or Warmachine in before calling it a night and getting ready for day 2.