Battle Report: Tyranids vs. Space Wolves/Imperial Guard - Golden Throne Round 3

With 6^th edition out for just over a month, I headed to San Jose, California for the world’s first ever sixth edition GT. The tournament would be six rounds over two days with a win/loss format using the book missions. My review of the event can be found here. I brought a 1500 point Nidzilla list;

Hive Tyrant (Warlord/Wings/Twin-Linked Devourers x2/Hive Commander)

Tervigon (Onslaught/Catalyst/Cluster Spines)

Tervigon (Catalyst/Cluster Spines)

10 Termagants

2 Carnifex (Twin-Linked Devourers x2)

Trygon (Toxin Sacs)

Trygon (Toxin Sacs)

My round two opponent was David, a member of Team Zero Comp. He is also ranked 13^th on Rankings HQ. He brought a Grey Hunter based Space Wolves list with Imperial Guard allies;

Rune Priest (Melta Bombs)

10 Grey Hunters (2 Plasma Guns)

10 Grey Hunters (2 Plasma Guns)

10 Grey Hunters (2 Plasma Guns)

10 Grey Hunters (2 Melta Gun/Wolf Banner)

10 Grey Hunters (2 Melta Gun/Wolf Banner)

5 Long Fangs (4 Missile Launchers)

5 Long Fangs (3 Missile Launchers/1 Plasma Cannon)

Primaris Psyker

10 Veterans (3 Plasma Guns)

Manticore

The mission is Big Guns Never Tire with the Vanguard deployment. David wins the roll to go first.

He has a lot of marines, and even worse, a lot of rapid fire AP2. I am fortunate though that the rune priest does not have Jaws, both of his psykers have book powers. One can take away my cover saves and at least one if not both has prescience. I think the key to victory is going to be getting my trygons into combat with his troops, as I should be able to clear a squad each turn. The focus of the carnifex unit will be killing the devastators. This calculation is purely about getting rid of AP3 firepower, as I completely forget about both heavy support units being able to score and that heavy support units are worth victory points. If you are thinking that this is not a good sign going into a game against a much more skilled opponent, you are right. It is not until we are tallying scores that I find out about my blunder. Will I be able to overcome this calculation? Find out after the jump!

David puts his troops spread evenly across his deployment zone, with the two melta squads on the ends. The long fangs are red, with the plasma cannon squad on the right. His guard is behind some barricades with the primaris attached. The manticore is in the rear ruins. The ruin priest is in the squad which is second from the left.

One objective is under the manticore, the second is the red spot just out of his deployment zone, and the last is in my deployment zone in a building to the left.  I deploy center trying to use cover as much as possible. I choose to reserve my Tyrant as he easily could give up first blood, as well as my gants. My warlord trait is that I have FNP when within 3” of an objective. His Rune Priest had something inconsequential. I roll to seize the initiative and succeed!

Tyranids 1

Both of my tervigons spawn 14 gants with no doubles on either. I move my army up into the ruin. I FNP the right trygon and use onslaught on my carnifex unit. They are able to shoot his left devastator unit through a window and kill four of the five. The black spawned gants move to multiple levels of the ruins to reduce the damage a manticore shell can do.

Space Wolves 1

I quickly find out that David is a man of immense precision. He positions every single model in his army to be between 18” and 24” from my front lines. This means he can shoot me with everything but melta, but I can not conceivably charge him (I do not read the rules so as onslaught allows fleet units to both assault and run). I quickly find out how much plasma hurts. He fires much of his army at the right trygon, killing it as well as doing a wound to one carnifex.

Tyranids 2

The tyrant does not come in, but the gants do. For ease of model movement we marked the building in the center with dice and pulled it off the table. I moved my monsters as far forward as I could while hugging terrain, . I gave feel no pain to the trygon and the carnifex unit. My HQ tervigon spawns 14 gants again. The carnifex unit is able to kill the plasma guns from the veteran squad.

Space Wolves 2

David does five wounds to the remaining trygon. He once again moves to the 18” to 24” sweet spot. A few models who are against his board edge are 16”.

Tyranids 3

My tyrant arrives, darting up the far right flank with a swoop. He shoots the right devastators, but only kills two. It is time to make a move with my one wound trygon, and I roll a six on my move through cover. The carnifex unit shoots at the rune priest’s unit, killing a few. The trygon needs 10” on his assault move, but I roll a 6 and 2. I decide to fleet, but reroll both dice instead of just one. While he said nothing at the time (which is fine considering it was a tournament), David reminded me after the game that with fleet I can choose to only reroll one of the dice. I have not made that mistake since.

Space Wolves 3

David quickly finished off the trygon and then did two wounds to the front carnifex (who has FNP and cover). He does a wound to the tyrant with a missile, and I fail my grounding check taking another wound (I did not have useful biomancy powers this game).

Tyranids 4

I swoop the tyrant again, moving into the back of his deployment. The tyrant shoots the middle grey hunters and kills the plasma gunners sitting in the back rank. I move the gants out of the center ruin to begin bubble wrapping the objective. I have some back placement here with my tervigons. They are within 6” of the gants which is dangerous (killing the tervigon would cause 3D6 hits on each unit in range) on top of the fact that the rear black squad is out of synapse.

Space Wolves 4

David divides his army with half going after my tyrant and half moving to take the board center (a third party, his heavy supports, hide so as to not lose victory points which I have forgotten to try and get). He is able to rid himself of my carnifex unit, and a manticore shell kills plenty of my front rank of gants with its last shell. I believe he charged the gants but did not roll the needed distance, but I am not positive here. His veterans are able to down my tyrant, who became grounded, but a ‘1’ was rolled to wound on the S9 hit. He shoots with the grey hunters, but only hits with one melta gun, which also rolls a ‘1’ to wound.

Tyranids 5

I spawn with my troop tervigon wanting to get one last big gant squad up front…but I roll ‘1’, ‘1’, and ‘1’. Sweet. I move all the gants forward, and in the end there are three squads on the objective, with one being fully bubble wrapped.  I swoop my tyrant up to be contesting the manticore’s objective. I shoot at the rune priest’s unit (of which he is the closest model) and am able to kill him after a few failed look out sir rolls.

Space Wolves 5

David fires the veterans at my tyrant. I take a wound from their lasguns, but stay in the air. I have one wound left on my warlord. He shoots at least three more squads at my tyrant and I roll HOT. I literally passed at least six FNP rolls (from being within 3” of the objective) and all of the grounding checks. After firing the parts of his army he had sent to the rear, he then has to fire the units he sent forward toward the center back at the tyrant, who kept holding on. The dust settled and the commander of Hive Fleet Titan remained. Because he did not get to assault, the grey hunters in the center were just outside of contesting range as the game ends.

 

David begins calculating scores and I make a comment about him never having placed a troop on his objective. He mentions his manticore and I quickly realize my huge mistake and begin calculating myself to see if it cost me. In the end, despite being outplayed my lucky rolling on the tyrant allowed me to win 7-4. David, I want to thank you for the game and even more so for keeping cool when the dice swung in my favor by a huge degree.

Coming Up: Nob Bikers, Lootas, and Green Tide Oh My!