Bat Rep: 1,000 Pts Dark Angels vs. Tyranids

After games 1 and 2 I had a pretty commanding lead in points, and a 2-0 record. There were 12 players in the tournament so going into the final round there were three undefeated players. I was in the championship game against Will, but there was a chance that the third undefeated player could outscore us and take the top spot.

I forgot to take pictures in game, but Will was kind enough to provide some pics of his beautiful models in action.

For game 3, the mission was Purge the Alien with Vanguard deployment and no night fighting. Will's list, below, only had 6 total units, so I would have to be careful in order to pull out a win with enough points to be comfortable.

Belial
5 Deathwing Knights - Relic
5 Deathwing Terminators - Assault Cannon, Chainfist
10 Tactical Marines - Multi-melta, Combi-plasma
Razorback - TL Lascannon
Land Speeder - Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missile Launcher

Again, my list was:

Hive Tyrant - Wings, 2xTL Devourers, Warp Blast, Dominion
Zoanthrope - Dominion
Tervigon - Catalyst
30 Termagants - 20 Devourers
Hive Crone
Exocrine

Will won the roll for deployment and chose to go first. The Terminators and Belial stayed in reserve for a Deathwing assault, while the tactical squad, razorback, and Land Speeder all deployed to the left. I responded by deploying my termagants as spread out as I could make them, and bubble wrapping some of my big bugs. The Exocrine went  to my left middle, while the two FMCs got the middle and the Tervigon and Zoanthrope were on the right. I tried to seize but failed.

In the top of the turn, Belial and the Knights deepstruck in my back corner. Fortunately only Belial had a ranged weapon. The rest of the army shuffled a little but stayed put for the most part. In the shooting phase, the razorback and land speeder did a wound or two to the exocrine, but less than expected.

In the bottom of the turn, the two flyers swooped forward, with the Crone just able to vector strike the razorback. The rest of the army moved forward slightly, except the Exocrine, who stayed put. The Tervigon finished the phase by spawning a screen behind her to block off the knights. Yes, it was a kill point game, but I preferred to let the knights murderface some gants than my MCs. The vector strike managed to take out the lascannon, but did no other damage to the Razorback. The crone then used its drool cannon on the razorback and some marines, barbecuing a couple. The zoanthrope was out of range to use Warp Lance, so used the blast which managed to catch a marine as well, again failing to hurt the tank. The Exocrine had clear sight to one Knight and Belial, and so chose to focus fire on them, and then promptly missed most of his shots, failing to take down the knight. Shooting from the termagant blob did kill one knight. Finally, needing to score first blood, the flyrant overkilled the land speeder.

At the top of two, the Deathwing squad stayed in reserve. The Razorback shuffled forward, as did the tactical squad. The tactical squad fired on the flyrant, but failed to cause any damage or ground him. The knights then charged the spawned termagants, killing about half.

In the bottom of the turn the Crone vector struck the Tactical squad and flew off the board. The flyrant landed next to tactical squad. The termagant blob moved back toward the knights and closed to charge and completely tie them up. In a brain fart, I chose to spawn another gant squad, forgetting they would not be able to charge the knights. In shooting, the exocrine and zoanthrope blew up the Razorback while the flyrant took down the remaining marines. In the assault phase the termagant blob charged into the knights and several died, but continued to pile in.

In turn three, the deathwing squad dropped in and fired on the gant squad, hoping to get an easy kill point, but a single termagant survived. In combat, Belial and friends continued to slog through some termagants, having wiped out one squad, they still had over twenty from the other squad surrounding them.

In my turn, the Exocrine stayed put and lined up a shot at the deathwing terminators. The crone flew back on the board and vector-struck them. The flyrant looped back to close with the terminators as well. In shooting, combined shots from just about everything killed off the terminators. In combat, the knights continued to mash termagants, and Belial killed off the ones holding them in synapse, breaking the unit and having them run off the board.

At this point we had to tally points for the tournament. I was winning with four kill points and first blood to two kill points and linebreaker (5-3). My small margin of victory, with help from my large wins in games 1 and 2, meant I was the tournament champion for the first time.

We decided to play out the game and get through a few more turns which, with Will only having a single unit, were pretty quick. In remaining turns, Belial and Knights would manage to kill off the Tervigon and sole termagant, but after denying a Warp Lance, were eventually struck down by a combined charge from the Flyrant and Crone.

I had a great time at the tournament, which featured some fun spammy lists, none of which went undefeated. In the end, the three armies in contention at the end were my Tyranids, Will's Dark Angels, and a Black Templar army. It was particularly nice being in a setting with many of the regular locals and getting to know them better.