Ultimately we settled on Tyranids. I had hesitated since Michael was fielding them for the GT. But he came up with a pretty solid list that we both fielded:
Tyranid Combined Arms Detachment (925 points)
HQ - Hive Tyrant (Wings, 2x TL Devourers w/ Brainleech Worms) - 230 pointsHQ - Hive Tyrant (Wings, 2x TL Devourers w/ Brainleech Worms) - 230 points
Troop - 30x Termagants (TL Spinefists x30) - 120 points
Troop - Tervigon (Cluster Spines) - 200 points
Elite - Venomthrope - 45 points
Elite - Zoanthrope - 50 points
Elite - Zoanthrope - 50 points
If the list seems familiar it is because it is the basis of what I'm wanting to field to the tournament this weekend. So we had to take 310 points worth of Troops and were restricted to CAD's (though ForgeWorld units were fair game). Ultimately we had the ability to generate more ObSec units via the Tervigon, we knew that Grav would be limited, and we had 18 warp charges between the two of us (and plenty of Synapse).
Game 1 - White Scars/Sisters of Battle
Our first game we faced off against a combo of SoB and White Scars. We were able to choose our primary mission and opted for Kill Points as both of our armies had 18 a piece and we had the tougher units to deal with. The secondary objectives were a selection of Maelstrom objectives similar to ITC where we would choose two a turn.
Initially we pushed up hard and though that we could crush them by virtue of shot saturation. Unfortunately some bad rolls put us behind the eight ball in the first two rounds but as the game wore on our army actually increased in strength. We lost three of our four Flyrants by Turn 2 but despite that were able to put a hurt on their army. This was one of the first times I'd ever faced St. Celestine with the new rules. One of the most memorable moments was when she and her Gemena Superiora (sp?) charged a unit of Gaunts and ended up actually *LOSING* combat.
In the end we pulled out an 11-10 win. We would've been able to win the Maelstrom mission but we had one turn where we bet we could eliminate 3 units instead of just 2. A single scout was able to survive the attacks of 10 gaunts and a Tervigon and spoil our victory. Had we gotten the 3 points that round, we would've handily won that objective. Still, it was a great game and had a blast learning a bit more on how to better control my bugs.
None can withstand the Great Devourer!
Game 2 - Tyranid and Tyranid
So we knew after the tournament started that there was a mirror Tyranid list participating. We figured we would never have to face them...right?!?!
hah...well so much for that thought. Their list was almost identical to ours. The main difference is they sacrificed their Brain Bugs in favor of Biovores. In general that could prove to be troublesome as Biovores just eat up enemy infantry. We had the initial advantage in Warp Charges but that quickly dwindled as they had second turn and were able to push into our lines and start eliminating Flyrants and Zoanthropes alike. The main mission was table quarters and the secondary mission was still the same as before (modified Maelstrom).
By turn three there had been a mass amount of carnage but the main difference was that our team had both of our Warlords and their team had lost both. They had been hampered by the lack Synapse. Originally they thought that their teammates could provide Synapse to their ally but the rules clearly stated that no benefits (or penalties) would transfer between armies.
The game went back and forth but once our swarms had dug in, it was hard to eliminate everything. We played to Turn 5 and rolled a 2 for the game to end. When we summed up the points we had gotten to a perfect tie. 9 points to each side. We tied the primary. We tied the secondary. We had the same amount of tertiary points.
I learned more about Flyrant manipulation in this game and managed to clean up some rules regarding the Psyker phase and how Flying Monstrous Creatures work (i.e. evidently I don't have Skyfire when I'm Gliding, just when Swooping).
So at this point we were 1-0-1. We had played a close first game and an even closer second game. One definite difference maker is that both Michael's Tervigon and my own bottled up with doubles on Turn 1 (first time that ever happened to me). Unfortunately, our opponents didn't bottle up until Turn 5 so that definitely gave them the advantage in terms of number of units.
Preparing for the oncoming enemy swarm...all that tasty biomass!
My Tervigon was too slow at munching on my opponent's Gaunts
Game 3 - The Unholy Alliance...Iron Warriors and Iron Hands
One thing I had not anticipated was playing a list where both armies cherry picked the best out of an armies that would normally be "Come the Apocalypse" partners. Nothing stopped us from doing this and our opponents took full advantage!
The Iron Hands list was not unlike one I would've fielded only he opted to bring a shooty death star (Grav Guns plus Storm Shields) and found the points to field St. Celestine. The Iron Warriors list had two Sicaran tanks as well as multiple units of Oblits to field.
With this being our last game, both of us had to win objectives as our Primary mission. With no Psyker defense to speak of, we figured that our Flyrants would have a field day against them. That definitely could've been the case...if I didn't lose one of my Flyrants on Turn 2 to a Perils of the Warp. I cast a Warp Blast on one of the Sicarans and failed to hit. I rolled a 1 on the table and proceeded to roll an 11 on the Leadership test. Game over. Still, the Nids fought back hard to try and neutralize our opponents. Unfortunately losing the Flyrant really limited our offensive capability and the Iron Hands death star hit our back field and took out units one by one.
Again we gambled with a Maelstrom mission of needing to take out three units in one turn but we failed to take the last hull point off a Sicaran tank to succeed in that mission. At that point the game got out of hand and while I still had a multitude of Gaunts, there isn't a whole lot they can do against Marines and Obliterators.
Our lines were over run...but we wouldn't give up without a fight!
So we ended the day at 1-1-1. We finished in the top half of the tournament but were well out of contention for any awards. I did learn quite a bit about the Tyranid army and better ways of deploying in 7th edition. Perhaps it matters less given that 8th edition is around the corner.
But still it was good to field the army. Michael was a really outstanding general and often I found myself consulting with him for advice on what to do when presented multiple options.
I did like how his Nids were all red and bone color while mine were blue and bone color. His were painted far superior to mine...but I could happyily say that all of our units were fully painted!
I had originally thought that the doubles tournament was a really fluffy event meant for throwing some dice and drinking some beer. But it proved to be far more competitive than I had anticipated. The winning lists were fielding a combination of summoning Daemons and renegades. They received perfect scores in every round.
I'll be ready when Crucible 6.5 comes around!
Seems like a good day was had, learning and fun games are great.
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