Competitive List Building and Bat Rep - Evan's Tyranids 1.3

Building off my last list-building post, this post is going to go over the changes I made from the last version of my Tyranid list to the one I used last week in a game against James and his Poxwalker bomb list, and review how that game went. This is also likely the final version of the list before the impending March Balance FAQ, which I'm nervous could impact the future of the list.

NOVA Bound: The Final Push

Amazing how time flies; NOVA is less than a week away at this point (more exact time in the side-bar counter), and I still have a good bit to do (to the surprise of no one). I've got a couple projects I need to finish up before I head out the door to NOVA, and some more I will probably be working on in the hotel room.

NRVCon Wrap Up

NRVCon 2016 is in the books, and while the 40k tournament was a bit smaller than we hoped, it was still a great time. Thanks to everyone who played. You can see the results on Torrent of Fire. Also, before I get into the event, a ton of thanks to the TO Elle for running the event.  I had three great games and ended up taking home Renaissance Man, being runner up, third in BPs, and second in Paint Score, but more on that toward the end.

NOVA in Review, Part 2: GT Bat Reps, Day 1

As promised in my Bat Rep against Alan Pajamapants, we're moving on to the GT. After losing to Alan in Round 1 in the Invitational, one thing I did with my free time was participating in two display board classes, where I met a few other GT players. After chatting and telling them my list, they jokingly said they hoped to not see me the next day. As luck would have it, Round 1 I saw myself up against Brian. Even worse for him, he was running Lictorshame, which I know very well and is honestly a terrific matchup for my list.

NOVA in Review, Part 1: Invitational Bat Rep, Arachnophobia vs. Pajamapants

I'll start my battle reports with the first game of the Invitational on Thursday against Alan "Pajamapants" Bajramovic. This was probably actually the best documented game of the weekend, and I managed to take a picture of almost each player turn.

NOVA Bound: Playtest Bat Reps

Earlier this week I managed to get a couple play test games in with my Arachnophobia list, against two fellow Invitational players. In both cases we played Crusade (Mission 1) on Vanguard deployment. We also ran out of time to complete both games, but got to turn 4 and were able to postulate on how it would have turned out.

FTGT Painting: 10 Pink Horrors - Commission

Hey guys. I recently did a sort of "soft-open" for my commission painting service and took on my first couple jobs from some local guys who were awesome enough to give me a shot and also patient enough to deal with me and my crazier than expected schedule. First up was a Daemon commission for Sha of 10 Pink Horrors and a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch.

Bat Rep: Tyranids vs. CSM/Daemons - Road to the NOVA Open Game 3*

I set up a weekly game night at my place for the Road to NOVA league games. For the first session last week, we were planning on playing our Week 2 match-ups and missions. However, Tom wasn't feeling well and Chandler was delayed, so Rick and I ended up playing our Week 3 matchup in advance. Week 3 is Mission 3, from the NOVA Mission Pack, which is a modified Relic Mission.

Gaming Weekend

Last weekend I hosted a gaming weekend at my place. We've expanded a bit since our early gaming weekends, and this time I had three tables set up, with the possibility of setting up a fourth, though we never had more than six people playing at a time. I was a terrible blogger and failed to take any pictures except for one of my Vaul's Wrath Battery proxies for the weekend:

Daemonkin Codex Special Rules Leaks

Today we have some of the initial rules leaks dropping from this weekend's upcoming Khorne Daemonkin Codex. Namely, we have a series of pictures from the Appendix including army wide rules like the Warlord Traits and Blood Tithe, as well as the Artifacts, one of which summons a Bloodthirster when the bearer dies! Check it out:

White Dwarf 60 First Look: Khorne Codex

This week's White Dwarf is out, announcing the long anticipated release of a Legion/Chaos God combined codex. Leading things off is Codex: Khorne Daemonkin, with expanded new rules for different Bloodthirsters using the new End Times kit.

FTN Seasonal Day 2 Bat Reps and Wrap Up

Hey guys. Back again for a post on Day 2 of the FTN Winter Seasonal. To recap from Day 1, I was coming into the second day 0-3 but with a mid pack battle point total of 39 points. The day started with me being matched up against Steve Bewley and his Chaos Daemons. For those who have been following for a while, you may realize this was a rematch from Game 5 at SCARAB 2014,

FTN Seasonal Day 1 Bat Reps

As I mentioned yesterday, despite going 1-4 at the FTN Seasonal, I had five of the best games I've ever had at an organized event. All my games were fun and close fought, with the winner only being determined in the last turn or so.

I took the list I came up with after my last playtest game, so I hadn't played with that exact iteration before. Fortunately, unlike at NOVA last year, I felt that I brought the best list I could.

Flying Monstrous Creatures - What do we do with them?

What's up everyone? After thinking about my first 4 games of 7th Edition, what the prevailing armies are, and after Evan's post on some early tournament data, I realized that the Flying Monstrous Creatures have become one of the stronger aspects of the armies. Yet, they aren't invincible, they can be harmed, but what are the options for doing this? How do we attack them, try to ground them, and what can we do to bring the pain?

Now most of the tactics for bringing down the FMCs will be relegated to the Nids, but I feel that the tactics can be applied to the Demons as well. Actual flyers though are still a different beast that can have similar tactics applied to but still need a bit of finesse.

Battle for Blacksburg Tournament Review

This past weekend was the Battle for Blacksburg, a small local 1,850 Tournament, and hopefully the first of many to come. The tournament was a one day, three round event, with 12 players showing up day of. The room was big enough for 16 players, so there was plenty of room.

Full results can be found on Torrent of Fire, but FTGT represented well. To start the day, I won best painted (voted by players' choice). After three rounds of battle, Ron came away with second place, with Sean Barkley taking home first prize.

SCARAB GT Day 2: Game 5 and Closing Thoughts

For my fifth and final game at the SCARAB GT, I was matched up against Steve and his Flying Circus Daemons. The mission was an inverse of Game 3, with Big Guns as the Primary and Relic as the secondary with Vanguard deployment. And interestingly, I was on the same table as for Game 3. Steve's list was roughly the following:

Fateweaver
~10 Plague Bearers
~10 Pink Horrors
~15 Flesh Hounds
Daemon Prince
Daemon Prince
Belakor (SM Ally)
~10 Cultists

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.

NOVA Wrap Up - Day 2

Day 2 of NOVA began with me driving to the hotel and then checking out the Vendors' tables while I waited for Todd and Sean to return from breakfast so I could grab my stuff. There was one more game before seeding, though we would have to wait on the pairings to be posted. (Post on day 1 is here)