Hey everyone, Chaplain Sam here with a tournament report. Last weekend I attended the Guardian Cup 8.25 40k tournament. Aaron puts on a handful of one day 3-round tournaments in between the big event he does annually. I missed GC "Ocho" so I was pretty happy to find out that he was running another event since it's so close to my home. Tournaments that you don't have to travel to attend are pretty dang fun, especially if you are pretty busy otherwise. I said I was sticking with Tyranids for the ITC season so I took my bugs. I've played with a few experimental lists recently but ultimately decided to just stick with the list I've used for my last few events rather than race around trying to get everything ready. Here's my list:
1850 Tyranids
Hive Fleet Detachment
Flyrant - E-grubs
Flyrant
Rippers - Deepstrike upgrade
Rippers - Deepstrike upgrade
Rippers - Deepstrike upgrade
Combined Arms Detachment
Flyrant - Fight Ace
Flyrant - E-grubs
Malanthrope
Rippers - Deepstrike upgrade
Rippers - Deepstrike upgrade
Barbed Hierodule
My list is a little behind the ITC meta now, but I'm familiar with it and it's still good enough to make some noise. It's interesting how many groans I get when I put 4 Flyrants down. It's a fairly beatable list! Especially when my Barbed Hierodule hemorrhages free Maelstrom points. Side note - I played a swarm list before going to the tournament. I've discovered I just do not have the patience to move that many models. I really enjoyed playing with a list composed of a few big nasty bugs.
Unfortunately, most of my opponents had their lists on their phones rather than bringing printed copies. I really like holding onto to those lists for these blog posts so it's a bit of a bummer. I'll describe the lists as best I can.
Opponent 1: Grey Knights
My opponents list was a pretty classic Grey Knights list. A couple of kitted out Dreadknights, a few units of Terminators, and some basic troops running around. Very little anti-air outside of Psy-cannons. My list has about as little AP2 as possible so we had a pretty odd match-up. The match would likely come down to the following things:
- 2+ saves - How long will it take for my opponent to fail some saves?
- Grounding checks - Will my Flyrants hit the ground before end-game objective grabbing?
- Mistakes - Will either (or both) make a critical mistake?
I was able to shoot through those saves with concentrated fire and had comfortable control of the board by turn 5 - All four Flyrants and the Barbed Hierodule were still alive. Unfortunately, I fell behind on the Maelstrom secondary pretty quickly with such little presence on the ground. After my turn 5 (I went first), we were headed for a tie game. My opponent choose to play aggressive and throw a hail mary hoping to win on turn 6 rather than secure a tie on turn 5. My opponent threw a ton of dice at a few key psychic powers and eventually periled, rolled a 1, and knocked herself off a key objective.
6 - 5 Tyranid Victory - An incredibly close, odd match-up that made for a fun change of pace.
Opponent 2: Dark Eldar
My opponent's list looked like it was 2250 points rather than 1850, but maybe that's just my unfamiliarity with Dark Eldar. She had the mandatory 4 Venoms, a handful of Raiders with racks, and fillers. Everyone knows to watch out for Venoms, but I completely underestimated the Raiders packed full of infantry with racks. After dropping a Flyrant with ease, I learned to keep out of rapid fire range and took them out ASAP. I lost two Flyrants and had a scare mid-game where it felt like things were getting away from me, but once I moved the Hierodule up to mid-field I started to take control of the game. Eventually, my opponent just didn't have enough fire power to continue to compete.
11 - 2 Tyranid Victory - A fun, light-hearted shoot out.
Opponent 3: Skitarri, Space Marines & Blood Angels
2-0 so far, alright! Much better than I expected going in. I knew I'd be up against a tough list and a solid player at this point though. I pulled Jeremy "The French Overlord" Veysseire and his Imperial force made up of Skitarri, Space Marines, and Blood Angels. You may remember I played Jeremy at the Just a Games Con Tournament. It was a bit one-sided back then and it was the exact same this time - except I was on the wrong end!
Jeremy's list was included two units of Centurions backed by Skitarri infantry, all in Blood Angel Rent-A-Pods.
Jeremy let me go first. No problem, this makes my deep striking rippers pretty ineffective but it lets me get my big bugs up in the air. Jeremy brought the big guns down turn 1 and used an omnispex and other tools to drop my Malanthrope's cover save and then easily downed it. That left my Hierodule extremely vulnerable and Jeremy took advantage. Then he flipped one of the mysterious objectives and it was a Skyfire Nexus which he used to kill a Flyrant with his remaining units.
Woah! I'm down 900 points before I've even had a chance to shoot at anything (he null deployed). That pretty much sealed my fate. I ended the game with a half dead unit of Rippers left, which snatched Line Breaker for me.
11 - 2 Tyranid Loss - A total beat down!
Well, 2-1 is better than I expected! I haven't seen the final results yet but I imagine I must have placed in the top 3rd given my win/loss record. Another fun event! I think I may be ready to finally mix up my list a bit. I'll break down my ideas in a post to come.
Chaplain Sam signing off.
2-0 so far, alright! Much better than I expected going in. I knew I'd be up against a tough list and a solid player at this point though. I pulled Jeremy "The French Overlord" Veysseire and his Imperial force made up of Skitarri, Space Marines, and Blood Angels. You may remember I played Jeremy at the Just a Games Con Tournament. It was a bit one-sided back then and it was the exact same this time - except I was on the wrong end!
Jeremy's list was included two units of Centurions backed by Skitarri infantry, all in Blood Angel Rent-A-Pods.
Jeremy let me go first. No problem, this makes my deep striking rippers pretty ineffective but it lets me get my big bugs up in the air. Jeremy brought the big guns down turn 1 and used an omnispex and other tools to drop my Malanthrope's cover save and then easily downed it. That left my Hierodule extremely vulnerable and Jeremy took advantage. Then he flipped one of the mysterious objectives and it was a Skyfire Nexus which he used to kill a Flyrant with his remaining units.
Woah! I'm down 900 points before I've even had a chance to shoot at anything (he null deployed). That pretty much sealed my fate. I ended the game with a half dead unit of Rippers left, which snatched Line Breaker for me.
11 - 2 Tyranid Loss - A total beat down!
Well, 2-1 is better than I expected! I haven't seen the final results yet but I imagine I must have placed in the top 3rd given my win/loss record. Another fun event! I think I may be ready to finally mix up my list a bit. I'll break down my ideas in a post to come.
Chaplain Sam signing off.