Today I have for you our Tyranids’ Battle Report from our win at the American Team Championships.
Casey Christopher was nice enough to step up and cover for Nick Rose who wasn’t able to make it at the last second. Casey is by far one of the best ‘nid players in the USA, and had won serveral major tournaments with them as well in 5th.
So without further aideu here’s the Battle Report- Enjoy MBG
An ATC battle report. By Casey Christopher
Well, I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to go to the ATC’s this year. We’ve been trying to assemble a team in our area since last year, without success. Fortunately, team Wrecking BoLS had a vacancy this year, and I was offered the chance to represent my club Stony Point Refugees and fill the very big shoes of Nick Rose. This team won it last year, and I knew I’d have my work cut out for me to perform. But on top of that, it was simply a great chance to get out and see people from the tourney scene again, and meet new folks. That’s the true appeal to me of grand tournament level gaming. Getting to rub shoulders with people who enjoy this game for the same reasons I do is the cake, the competition is just the icing.
For a breakdown of the results, tourney rules and such, please check out the link.
http://www.whatc.org/
These guys highly impressed me. I have been to many a grand tourney, both old school and new, and I was truly impressed with the quality of the organization, competition, and spirit of the games. Team tourneys have always been my favorite. They promote a more friendly atmosphere, I personally find.
So for our team, we had to each have a different army, and our general, Paul Murphy, would match us up each round to different opponents depending on how the rolls for army selection went. Before the games, we discussed each list we thought we could handle, and those that our lists would not be strong against, and Paul did his best to pair us up accordingly. As for myself, my army was designed to kill primarily space marines. The two armies I didn’t want to fight were mech dark eldar and jaws space wolves. Other than that, I felt my army was balanced enough to face down anyone.
Hive Fleet Nephalim
250 – hive tyrant – 2 sets of devourers, hive commander, old adversary
130 – 2 tyrant guard with lash whips
150 – 3 hive guard
150 – 3 hive guard
180 – 3 zoanthropes
210 – 15 genestealers
50 – 10 termagaunts
50 – 10 termagaunts
220 – tervigon – adrenal glands, toxin sacs, catalyst, crushing claws
210 – tervigon – adrenal glands, toxin sacs, catalyst, onslaught
200 – trygon
200 – trygon
2000 total
nomnomnomnom….
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Game 1 mech blood angels – andrew whittaker
mephiston
librarian – shield, fear the darkness
assault squad x10- melta x2, fist, jump packs
assault squad x10- melta x2, fist, jump packs
assault squad x5- melta, fist
assault squad x5- melta, power weapon, razorback, tl las
corbulo
sanguinary priest – jump pack, infernus pistol
baal pred – heavy bolter sponsons, hk missle
baal pred – heavy bolter sponsons, hk missle
vindicator – exra armor
devastator squad – 3 plama cannons, missle launcher
It was table quarters, and he went first. He deployed in the middle of his table quarter with the devestators in the backfield and the armor 13 wall up front. He held the 5 man squad and a 10 man squad in reserve.
I deployed as far forward as possible, holding only my tervigons back to camp on the backfield objectives and gain cover. I deepstruck both trygons, and infiltrated the genestealers 18″ away in a building to the top left. Then i readied myself for the first turn. Decided not to try to seize.
His first turn, he moved up the preds to unload on my zoeys, and get good shots on the genestealers. The vindicator killed around 5 genestealers, and the baals unloaded on the hive tyrant and managed 1 wound. everything else fired into my zoeys, who bounced everything but one wound… my turn…
Everything moved forward to get close to shoot or run. Bum rushing time… The hive guard destroyed the gun and immobilized the vindicator, and exploded a baal pred. The zoeys took care of the other pred, exploding it. Everything else ran forward as best they could, with varying run rolls.
His turn 2 he was already reeling. His heavy armor destroyed early dictated he had to commit now or never. He flew mephiston up to get a charge on some gaunts, and threw some more shooting into the zoeys, which lost one this turn, but otherwise soaked up another round of shooting. Their saves were rather hot, I’d admit it. His assault squad came in from reserve and deepstruck in my backfield, far enough away to not be charged by the tervigons, but ready to strike next turn. Mephiston dispatched my gaunts easily, and couldn’t consolidate far enough away from the rest of my army. He is now badly out of position, ready to be disposed of.
My turn 2, I send the genestealers down to take care of mephiston, making sure to keep him inside the shadow of the warp to mitigate the damage he’ll deal to me first in close combat. everything else continues the swarm moving forward deeper into his zone, except the two tervigons who hunker down by my objectives and await the assault squad… the trygons deepstrike right in front of his devestators, roaring and shooting, killing a couple. my shooting destroys another razorback, and running brings me where i should be able to seal the deal in a couple turns. the genstealers charge mephiston, taking 4 wounds, but killing him outright in one turn. the then slingshot forward to threaten the assault squad that just disembarked.
His turn 3 he realizes he’s done for, so he tries to play defensively to eek out any points he can. His shooting by now is insignificant, and he charges a tervigon in my backfield doing 4 wounds on it, but now he’s fallen into my trap.
My turn 3 I plow forward again, keeping the swarm tight. A trygon kills the devestators, while the genestealers reach an assault squad but only tie it up. Just have to wait for the tyrant to get there to finish them. The tervigons with the help of around 20 gaunts dispatch the assault squad on my backdoor.
Turn 4 is just mopping up. He concedes after his turn.
30 victory points – massacre
He was a super guy. I rolled well on my zoey’s saves, but I find they tend to suck up a lot of the firepower that should actually be poured into the bigger bugs with worse saves, if any… People get greedy wanting to instant death them, but a 3+ invul can be a tough nut to crack at times. People always ask me “where’s the pod for the zoeys”, but I find footslogging them is usually fine…
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Game 2 webway dark eldar – Sean Nayden
drahzar
haemonculus- webway portal, venom blade
haemonculus- webway portal, venom blade
7 incubi
9 trueborn – 4 blasters, 3 sp/ccw, agonizer, haywire, phantasm grenade launcher
15 witches – shardnets, agonizer, haywire, phantasm grenade launcher
15 witches – shardnets, agonizer, haywire, phantasm grenade launcher
7 wracks
3 wracks
9 reaver jetbikes – 3 heat lances, arena champ
5 beast masters – 8 kymerra, 6 razorwing flocks
talos – chain flails, haywire blaster
This is definitely not the kind of dark eldar I’m so deathly afraid of. In fact, its a rather good matchup for me. He wins the roll to go first, in dawn of war, and deploys his webway haemonculus with a unit of 7 wracks up at midfield. I decide to again infiltate the genestealers within about 15″ of this unit, hoping to sieze and get a first turn charge on them, and cripple his webway deployment.
I sieze! Wooot! Alas though, the genestealers roll triple 1’s to assault them through cover. lol… Everything else moves up and runs as a blob. Basically I want him to come out piecemeal out of the webway and I’ll deal with them as they come.
His turn 1 he throws out the webway and retreats.
My turn 2 I plod forward, with some poor run rolls, and shoot at the same squad a bit, but mostly run. The genstealers get the charge this time, winning combat handily, and destroying the unit. I was unable to cut off the portal though, and I expect some payback next turn.
His turn 3 sees the jetbikes, the beast pack, and a unit of witches come on. He had declared the jetbikes and beastpacks were specifically coming from the board edge, and the witches came on from the protal. The bikes did a flyover on the genestealers, killing a few, but put themselves in a bad position, to be charged by my whole army. It was an unnecessary sacrifice, as he had forgotten that the genestealers had feel no pain, thus saving most of his wounds. The witches killed off the genestealers, but were in a little too close.
My turn 4. I get to midfield finally, and charge and destroy the bikes as well as the witches. However, in my eagerness to get upfield, I make the mistake of putting some gaunts too far forward, and this will be hurtful later.
His turn 4 he gets another witch unit, the trueborn and that’s it. They come out of the portal looking to charge. Here he pulls off a nasty multicharge where I made the mistake of getting the gaunts too close. The resultant combat sees me lose combat by around 10, with my hive tyrant, a unit of hive guard, the zoeys and gaunts all poofing to fearless wounds. I’ll be glad to see that rule go with the dodo… around 700 pts die because 13 or so gaunts are killed, wtf…
All is not lost however, as my trygons and tervigons want to get some. My turn 5 I pretty much destroy everything he has on the board.
His turn 5 he brings on the rest of his army and is able to contest both sets of objectives and tie kill points… One more turn, and he’d have been tabled…
15 points, draw…
Another really nice guy. Super fun game, and I was kind of glad I didn’t get that first turn charge against him, as it would have probably been no fun for either of us. I won’t make the mistake of letting the combo charge off against my gaunts ever again to destroy half my army…
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game 3 – necrons – cron air – forgot the fellow’s name, isn’t on his list…
overlord – mss, warscythe, sempiternal weave, catacomb command barge, gauss cannon
overlord – mss, warscythe, sempiternal weave, catacomb command barge, gauss cannon
harbinger of destruction – eldritch lance, solar pulse
harbinger of destruction – eldritch lance, solar pulse
5 immortals – tesla carbines, night scythe, tesla destructor
5 immortals – tesla carbines, night scythe, tesla destructor
5 immortals – tesla carbines, night scythe, tesla destructor
5 immortals – tesla carbines, night scythe, tesla destructor
5 immortals – tesla carbines, night scythe, tesla destructor
doom scythe
doom scythe
doom scythe
No one on our team wanted to play this guy. With a cursory glance, I thought I was capable of taking this list. Boy was I wrong…
He went first and proceeded to destroy all of my ranged antitank in two turns. From there on it was a turkey shoot, with me trying to go to ground just to survive, but to no avail. This guy also rolled more 6’s than I’ve ever seen. With everything tesla, I had no chance. I surrendered on turn 4 with 4 genestealers left…
0 pts massacred
At this point I felt I had let the team down hard. I knew I’d have to really bring the pain the rest of the way to redeem myself. Kenny gave me a good pep talk though, letting me know that really none of us would have fared very well against that list he thought, and the rest of the team did well that round, so hope was not lost… Put that one behind me and move on. So I did.
Really nice guy though, and he had some super cool conversions and beautiful paint scheme. Best looking army I played against all weekend, So if I’m gonna get crushed, might as well be against a nice army and guy…
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game 4 – loganwing – Brandon Vale
logan
rune priest – living lightning, murderous hurricane
wolf guard pack 2 in power armor, 8 terminators with assorted weapons and cyclones
wolf guard pack 2 in power armor, 8 terminators with assorted weapons and cyclones
wolf guard pack 4 in power armor, 1 termi with cyclone, rhino
wolf guard pack 4 in power armor, 1 termi with cyclone, rhino
long fangs – 5 missles
long fangs – 5 missles
long fangs – 4 missles
Table quarters deployment with a decent line of sight blocking piece in the middle. I went first and deployed the swarm far forward, deepstriking my trygons and infiltrating the genestealers hard right in a big piece of area terrain, 18″ away…
He deploys far back with everything, looking to soften me up with missles before closing with me.
My first turn the swarm moves toward the middle of the board. I really didn’t want to go any further than this though, as beyond the big piece of terrain in the middle would be a kill zone for missle death. So I just moved up and waited, shooting through the walls of the terrain with the hive guard killing a couple guys.
His turn 1 he shot me and stayed back. He did a couple wounds to a tervigon and killed a zoey. The rhinos moved up to block my path, I guess he was thinking, although I really didn’t want to adavnce much further yet. I already had the sieze ground objectives, and I definitely didn’t want to expose myself to a multicharge with logan’s unit.
My turn 2 I kept shooting, this time with everything. The trygons didn’t come in, which was fine by me, as I really didn’t want to commit. I knew each turn, his army would get smaller as mine got bigger, with my tervigons pumping out some good numbers by now. I retreated the wounded tervigon behind cover on an objective, and held fast with the rest. My shooting killed a few more termies. I knew he’d have to come forward eventually if he wanted to have any chance.
His turn 2 he stayed back again, shooting me up with missles and driving rhinos around trying to bait me. Feel no pain held off half his wounds though on the big guys, but my zoeys did die to missles. They are just too tall to hide sometimes…
Again on turn 3, I held fast and returned fire, killing a rhino, and a few more termies. By now I knew he had to commit, as my trygons both arrived and deepstruck on both sides of his flanks, outside of charge range, but threatening enough to divert fire from the main swarm in the middle.
His turn 3 he moves forward in charge range of the middle, and shot me up a bit more, wounding the tyrant twice along with killing a guard. He’s in charge range now next turn, but I’m controlling the engagement.
The genestealers moved up on the right, using the dead rhino as cover hoping to run to charge the termie unit on the right without logan. They roll a 6 for fleet and get there handily. I focus my fire on the same unit, to bring it down to size before they charge, and kill maybe 1 more. then the genstealers charge in, making sure to stay in range of the tyrant’s old adversary power. I also paroxism the unit. When the smoke clears, 1 termie is left standing, and he dies to fearless wounds. Logan is in position to bring some pain next turn, and I know some stuff will die, but not sure what he will charge though, as he has multiple targets, but only about 6 guys plus logan left in that unit.
His turn 4 logan charges a unit of hive guard, two units of guants, and the hive tyrant. His shooting blasts some genestealers, who have slingshotted themselves within striking distance of his long fangs next turn, but only manages to kill a few. Around 9 still remain, ready to wreak havok in his backfield next turn. The combat is fierce, with logan eating the hive guard for breakfast, but the gaunts don’t suffer too bad of casualties, and the tyrant lives on to fight more later. He is down to 3 termies and logan, along with the long fangs and one other 5 man scoring unit still in reserve.
My turn, I bring the pain. Both tervigons commit to logan’s fight, along with a trygon. More gaunts appear behind him to help too. With prefered enemy everywhere, logan dies a horrible death. Too many attacks, both swarm and monstrous bring the termies down. The genestealers make it to within charge range of two long fang packs, but I decide to not get greedy and only charge one, as they are both in cover. The long fangs take a couple with them, but die in one round of combat, and I consolidate onto an objective.
The rest of the game is semantics, as I have secured both sets of objectives, but he has won kill points however…
20 points solid victory
Pretty nice guy. I thought he should have played more aggressively. He waited too long and lost too many terminators to win combat eventually. Logan can only do so much, and his force multiplier ability diminishes with each termie lost. Missles don’t scare me too much, if I can get feel no pain up, and have decent midfield cover… Gotta remember to not feed people gaunts if I can help it…
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game 5 razorspam blood angels – Norman Chan
Mephiston
librarian – shield, sword
sanguinary priest – claw, combi melta
sanguinary priest – claw, combi melta
10 assault marines – melta x2, fist
5 assault marines – melta
5 assault marines – melta
5 assault marines
5 assault marines
baal predator – assault cannon, dozier blades, searchlight
baal predator – assault cannon, dozier blades, searchlight
devestator squad – 4 missles
devestator squad – 4 missles
razorback – lascannon tl plasma
razorback – lascannon tl plasma
razorback – lascannon tl plasma
razorback – lascannon tl plasma
razorback – tl heavy flamer, dozier blade
razorback – tl heavy flamer, dozier blade
Dawn of war deployment, he makes me go first. I know what he’s thinking, just wait till endgame, and tankshock onto objectives. This is a very similar list to the one I played earlier, so I know what I’ve got to do. Kill the vehicles and I should be fine. I decide to reserve heavy this time, outflanking both the genestealers and the tervigon with claws, and deepstriking both trygons. I deploy a tervigon on two objectives in my zone, with some gaunts, and will keep them there the whole game. The rest comes off my edge turn one, running, no shooting, using terrain.
His turn 1 he brings everything on, trying to shoot a little but night fight denies it all. He puts mephiston in a razorback hard right, with another razorback, and pushes everything else hard left to assault the middle with cover fire from the devestators.
My turn 2 I again run forward, but the hive guard are in range to pop the razorback mephiston is in, as well as a baal pred that gets too close, thanks to onslaught. Otherwise its a bunch of moving and running.
His turn 2 he unloads on my zoeys, imagine that. He manages to kill 2. He also sends some fire at the tyrant, doing a couple wounds. He’s staying back, again trying to soften me up first. People really are afraid of zoeys…
My turn 3, continue to press forward, hive guard popping two more vehicles. He constantly complains about the hive guard ignoring the cover in the middle of the board, even though He could have easily stayed out of their range. The rest of the swarm advance slowly, using cover and careful to stay out of mephiston’s range. I try to bait him in with gaunts, but he doesn’t take the bait. My reserves don’t come in at all, which I’m thankful, as that alone should keep him on his heels for now. Its due to this he doesn’t commit next turn.
His turn 3, he keeps up the fire, advancing a little but really just positioning a little. No charges or deaths to report, but he does bring the tyrant down to near death, as well as kill a few gaunts, maybe 10 or so…
My turn 4, I keep advancing. Everything comes in now. I deepstrike both trygons into his lap on the left, one mishaps off the table and goes back into reserve, thankfully. The other is ready to eat some devastators if he doesn’t do something. Mephiston is still holding back on the far right flank, so I denny him any charge opportunities, by pulling back hard on the left and just hunkering down on the homefield objectives. The middle objectives and his homefield ones should get hot soon, so I bank hard left with everything. The hive guard stun and shake a couple more times. The tervigon comes on the left, and smashes a razorback, and the genestealers run far enough to reach one of the devestator squads, destroying it. His army has now been, broken in two pockets. mephiston and a tank on the far right, and the rest in the left center of the board, with my army tight in a mass ready to respond to the inevitable attak from his marines which should come soon.
His turn 4, he commits everything he can to kill my tyrant and my trygon. His shooting has been crippled, but his close combat can still sting. He charges and kills the tyrant and the trygon, force weaponing the trygon before he can even swing. His remaining tanks zip around a little trying to get into position to contest or claim objectives. Mephiston moves up on the right, ready to charge next turn.
My turn 5. The other trygon comes in, again in his lap, but this time its more in the middle. The rest of my army shoots and charges hard. I kill two more razorbacks, but there’s still two alive. I attempt to charge them with the hive guard, but roll double 1’s for charging, needing probably a 3… they were sitting pretty ready to be hit automatically from being stunned too. Alas, twas meant to be I guess. The genestealers advance toward the middle best the can, grabbing the far left objective. I surround my tervigon with gaunts, and feel no pain them, so if mephiston charges them, he’ll get bogged down the rest of the game.
His turn 5, he charges in mephiston, like I expected, but gets bogged down for the rest of the game with gaunts. He is on an objective though, contesting. Nothing I can do about that. I don’t want to send in the tervigon, for fear of another force weapon, so I’m content to let him chew on gaunts. He charges the rest of my army in the middle now in a multicharge, except for the tervigon, genestealers and the trygon, killing everything. He secures the middle objectives.
When the dust settles, I have the capture and control objectives, and kill points, but he gains the sieze ground ones because of his remaining squad in the razorback which I couldn’t kill.
Hard fought game, which unfortunately he seemed pissed about losing. He bitched about the hive guard all game long, but never shot them. If left alone, they will almost always make their points back…
20 pts – solid victory
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game 6 – eldar – Brian Crew
farseer – jetbike, stones, runes, fortune, guide, doom
autarch – mandiblasters, jetbike, laser lance
7 warlocks – 2 destructor, 2 enhance, embolden
3 jetbikes – cannon
3 jetbikes – cannon
3 jetbikes – cannon
5 dire avengers
5 fire dragons – exarch, crack shot, wave serpent, scatter laser, shuriken cannon, stones
5 fire dragons – exarch, crack shot, wave serpent, scatter laser, shuriken cannon, stones
8 harlequins – shadowseer, troupe master, all kisses
3 war walkers – scatter lasers
2 war walkers – scatter lasers
Pitched battle, I go first. I reserve nothing, and infiltrate the genestealers. Everything goes middle in a blob. Come at me bro! He reserves the jetbikes, and the avengers, and outflanks the war walkers. Everything else holds back, with the seer council up front. I infiltrate the genestealers within about 15 inches out of sight, hoping for a first turn charge.
My first turn, I move the swarm forward and with onslaught, drop the closest wave serpent. the genstealers fail to get in charge range, so I spread out, knowing they’ll get flamered hard.
His turn, he does move up and flamer the genestealers, killing all but 3 with basically his whole army. Nothing much more happens except some maneuvering.
My turn 2, I again advance the swarm, staying in the middle. I drop the other wave serpent, and kill a warlock with shooting. Trying to make him chage me…
His turn 2, he does a something a tad over the top. In the far left corner, there is a hill, with a right angle on the corner. its pushed an inch forward from the table edge. he takes his dire avengers and transportless fire dragons and puts them in the crack behind the hill. Basically there is a small ravine next to his capture and control objective that he thinks he can hide them in. I argue with him for 5 minutes about how the hill is obviously supposed to go snug in the corner, like we’ve all seen. After that I say screw it and figure I’ll just advance toward the hill and kill them the old fashioned way.
My turn 3, I shoot up the seer council again, killing 2. I also force the issue. He will have nowhere to go next turn. Charge or be charged and locked in combat.
His turn 3 the war walkers and some bikes come in, and shoot up the hive guard and zoeys. he commits the seer council, charging the other hive guard and the remaining zoey. the zoey dies, but the hive guard hold them in place with one alive. His harlies cannot make it to combat, as they are too far back.
Now the swarm descends, I hit the fortuned seer council with the remaining 3 stealers, tyrant, a tervigon, and a trygon. His attacks bounce, and only a warlock and the autarch are left standing.
His turn 4, after the smoke clears, all he has left is jetbikes and war walkers. My other trygon is standing on his hill with some gaunts and the other tervigon, pooping in his little ravine he thought so safe… The middle is a mass of writhing gaunts and monsters who are hardly scratched, and his harlies are running away from 12 devourer shots from the tyrant. He is able to flank to my capture and control objective in my zone with two jetbike squads I couldn’t ever deal with, but its a small thing.
25 points – major victory
In retrospect, I’d like to thank the organizers for a really good time, as well as my teammates. The style of play in that format is really something cool. The excitement of the pairing system, and the team captain system lent itself to a very smooth event. I never needed a judge, and the tables were really cool.
A special thanks to Rob Baer for making it possible, and to Paul for accomodating us in his house, being a superb captain, and letting me use his paints. Kenny, you are the man. Without you being our anchor in an angry sea, we woulda been swept away. Thanks to Thomas too for just being his goofy self! It kept me in good spirits just being around him.
About the Author: Rob Baer
Rob Baer
Job Title: Managing Editor
Founded Spikey Bits in 2009
Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X
About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures.
Rob also co-founded and currently hosts the Long War Podcast, which has over 350 episodes and focuses on tabletop miniatures gaming, specializing in Warhammer 40k. and spent six years writing for Bell of Lost Souls.
Every year, along with his co-hosts, he helps host the Long War 40k Doubles Tournament at Adepticon and the Long War 40k Doubles at Las Vegas Open, which attracts over 350 players from around the world.
Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including multiple first-place finishes in Warhammer 40k Grand Tournaments over the years and even winning 1st place at the Adepticon 40k Team Tournament.
With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. As a member of GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association), he advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.
While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1980s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.
