Just A Games Con - Warhammer 40k Tournament Results

Flyrant - E-grubs

Flyrant

Rippers - Deepstrike upgrade

Rippers - Deepstrike upgrade

Rippers - Deepstrike upgrade

Flyrant - Fight Ace

Flyrant - E-grubs

Malanthrope

Barbed Hierodule

So I finally moved away from my PenTyrant list! I had three lists in mind before the event, (1) 3 Flyrants + Hierodule, (2) 4 Flyrants + Hierodule, and (3) 5 Flyrants. I knew that the first list would provide me with the most ground and scoring presence and the second option was leave me with the fewest spare points. With the primary and Maelstrom missions being worth the same number of points now in ITC events, having solid scoring units is more critical than ever. I thought to myself, "what the hell!" and went with #2 because it sounded fun and it was most similar to my previous list. I think it's important to play a list you're familiar with (words of wisdom from Captain A) and without any time for practice games it seemed like a good choice.

Overlord

2 Warrior blobs

1 Immortal unit

Destroyer Lord

3 Destroyer units

1 Heavy Destroyer unit

Cadre Fireblade

Fire Warriors

Fire Warriors

Melta Crisis Suits

Aegis Defence Line with Quad Gun

Again, I'm positive I'm forgetting units. My opponent was short one copy of his list so I generously let him hold onto the copy that I would usual keep at the expense of those who follow Battle Brothers...

Primary - Purge the Alien

Secondary - Modified Maelstrom

Tertiary - Ground Control, Quarters, Linebreaker

Battle Report - The game started fast and I jumped out to a huge lead in the primary by blasting his Tau units off the board with devourers and psychic scream. I was behind in the secondary after the first few turns, but not so much that I couldn't recover. Then I made critical mistake... I moved the Hierodule up and out of cover and left the Malanthrope and the comfort of 2+ cover behind. I wasn't clearing those ridiculously durable Necron units fast enough and I thought that some S10 in combat and some SD stomps would help. It did help, it helped too much in fact. I cleared the unit of Destroyers I charged, leaving me vulnerable instead of safely locked in combat during his turn. The next turn my Hierodule was gone and so was my hope of catching up in the secondary. I turned my focus instead to the Tertiary missions. My opponent wisely picked off my Ripper Swarms rather than focusing too much on the Flyrants. We were short on time so I knew turn 5 would be the last turn. We both had line breaker locked up. I landed one Flyrant as a distraction hoping to lure him out of the other board quarters to give me that that point, but he cleared some more Ripper Swarms didn't take my bait. Tyranids lose 5-6! It was a nail biter the whole time and a great game. I also left with a valuable lesson: don't leave the comfort of 2+ cover with the Hierodule unless you are very, very confident in your decision.

Opponent 2: Captain A's Invisible Draigo Centurion Star

Draigo

Librarian

Strike Squad

Strike Squad

Dreadknight

Dreadknight

Dreadknight

Sevrin Loth

Scout Squad

4 Centurions

Battle Report - Flyrants vs. Draigo-Cent-Star always makes for an odd matchup. He has no skyfire but enough AP2 twin-linked shots to make me jink and I have very little AP2. Aaron won the roll and opted to go first. He deployed the Draigo Star in the very back of his deployment zone planning to uses Gate to get wherever he wants. It's a pretty standard deployment for this list. He put the Dreadknights (DKs) right on the line. His first turn was pretty quiet, he moved the DKs up a bit and left the Draigo Star in the corner for the turn. I flew forward in my turn with big plans for Psychic Scream, my favorite psychic power. I landed with two Dreadknights in range of the power. I explained the spell and the impact Shadow in the Warp had on the Dreadknights and Aaron wisely threw all his dice at the power and denied it. In hindsight I wish I would have thrown more of my own dice at the power. It didn't matter too much though because I downed one Dreadknight and inflicted a few wounds on another in my shooting phase anyway. During Aaron's second turn he moved his Dreadknights up more. Onto the Psychic Phase! I usually sit on my pile of dice waiting for the power that seems the most vulnerable and only passes with a few 4+'s. He threw 6ish dice at Gates and only pulled two 4+'s. There's my chance! I chuck all my dice at it and deny the power, effectively taking the Draigo Star out of the game for another turn. I placed my Flyrants conservatively, trying to avoid him Gating behind me the next turn and forcing me to waste a turn turning everything around. I killed another Dreadknight, a Strike Squad and crippled the other Strike Squad. All he's left with at this point is 1 Strike Squad model, 1 Dreadknight, Scouts in reserve and the Draigo Star stuck in the corner. In his third turn the Scouts come in and he gets Gates off. He decides to be aggressive because he's behind in the secondary and he's short models to compete for the primary. He tries to Gate into the back of my deployment zone and scatters 5 inches taking him off the board and into ongoing reserves. I'm already up and will likely win at this point, but I decide to try and finish the game in turn 3. I commit 100% and sacrifice my Flyrants positioning. If I don't table him I will be stuck either flying off the board or turning around for several turns. I have three units to clear to table him: 1 Strike Squad model, 1 Dreadknight, and 5 Scouts. One Flyrant downs the Strike Squad and another uses Psychic Scream to clear the scouts. My other other two Flyrants down the Dreadknight and the Barbed Hierodule hangs out and just looks cool. Game over! 

Well it was a bit a fluke that the game ended during turn 3, but I was feeling pretty confident anyways. There was going to be too many objectives for him to contest and he was already behind on the secondary. 11-0 Tyranid Victory!

Opponent 3: Jeremy the French Overlord's Eldar and Harlequins, named "The Last Laugh"

Jeremy's printer broke or something so he didn't have a copy of his list for me, but you can read about it here: 

I can't say for sure if that's the exact list, but it was some variation of the concept. Basically the list takes of advantage of negative leadership modifiers and spells similar to Psychic Scream to seriously punish and in some cases automatically remove units.

Battle Report - Jeremy won the roll off and chose to go first, hoping to kill a Flyrant or two before they got into the air. I figured out the effective range of the powers (escape hatch out of building, movement, and psychic power range) and deployed out of range. He blasted a single Flyrant sitting in ruins with a 3+ cover save thanks to night fighting and managed to inflict two or three wounds with his entire army. He also failed a bunch of psychic powers, including invisibility (I may have blocked that one). It was a rough first turn and he failed to accomplish First Strike. In my turn I wrecked a Hornet, a Wave Serpent and cleared half of his Psychic Star. I scored the First Strike point and achieved both of my Maelstrom points. In his second turn his Flyer didn't come in, saving me from jinking, and he shot his entire army at the same Flyrant which flew into some more ruins. He failed to inflict a single wound. A swooping Flyrant in cover with Feel No Pain is pretty durable, but I still got pretty lucky that turn. Jeremy fell further behind on the secondary that turn and I rolled two "Destroy an Enemy Unit"'s which would be easy pickups. At that point Jeremy was going to be down big on the secondary and likely wouldn't have enough of an army left to compete for the relic against my nearly untouched army. He conceded. 11- 0 Tyranid victory. It's a bummer we didn't get to finish the game, but the result wasn't really in doubt. He bought me a drink and we chatted for a bit and enjoyed watching some other games.

I ended up with 2027 points (5 + 1011 + 1011) and placed third, well into the top 20%. My best finish yet! Chris finished 4th as well, making for the best combined showing of the Battle Brothers since the creation of the team. We both had a blast and I think we both liked our lists better than we expected. Well, that's all for now. Until next time, thanks for reading!

Chaplain Sam signing off.