Tyranids in Combat Patrol Tournament

[Alcyon]

Fellow biomass, hello. I've been toying with the idea of playing Tyranids for an upcoming Crusade in 2021 and so I've been itching to get some gaming in with them. Tortoise Tactics ran a 500pt tournament over the past few weeks and I signed up with the bugs to test out different starting points. Things did get warped a bit because the meta was kind of inbred but I thought it was a fun event and wanted to do a little writeup for posterity.

 

You had to pick your faction and subfaction from the outset so I went with Leviathan (though I just now realized I actually registered with Kraken... I did play all my games with Leviathan though IIRC.) You also were able to look at the maps before the games and change your list between matches so it was a great testing ground. 

 

Game 1 was Incisive Attack, with a big obscuring ruin in the middle and one in each DZ plus some Dense Cover along the long board edges. Accordingly I went with:

• 3x Hive Guard
• 5x Warriors (Venom Cannon, Deathspitters, Lash Whips & Boneswords) with Adrenal Glands and Enhanced Resistance
• Neurothrope w/ Resonance Barb (Warlord) 
• 10x Hormagaunts
• 3x Rippers

My plan was to run Psychic Ritual with my warlord behind the obscuring terrain and then use the Warriors to hold one of the midboard objectives. I got some practice games in against Sisters and stuff like that which was solid but in the end I was paired against a Raven Guard player running something like:

• Primaris Chaplain w/ Master of Ambush
• Captain on a Bike
• 5x Scouts
• 3x Bladeguard
• 3x Eradicators

He won the roll for first turn and deployed his Bladeguard right up against my DZ using his warlord trait; the scouts were behind terrain and on one midboard objective with the Chaplain, and the Captain and Eradicators set up on the other mid-board objective. His Bladeguard charged my Hive Guard and killed one I think, I managed to wipe them eventually with smites and str 5 melee but he did kill off all my Hive Guard. My Hormagaunts locked up his Eradicators so they never shot all game, but my Warriors just didn't have enough output to dent his army and he won handily on VP after tabling me.

 

Game 2 was Outriders with little cover in the middle, so Psychic Ritual was out, and there wasn't enough cover in the DZs for Hive Guard to be comfortable - plus, without re-roll 1s and Symbiostorm I just wasn't impressed with their shooting output. I tested a bit against Guard and Orks and Zoanthropes seemed strong, so I swapped over to this:

• Neurothrope w/ Resonance Barb (Warlord), Psychic Scream, Smite
• 5x Zoanthropes, Psychic Scream, Smite
• 5x Warriors w/ Boneswords, Scything Talons, Enhanced Resistance
• Rippers

As you've probably noticed I foolishly doubled up on Psychic Scream and so couldn't cast it twice per turn as I'd hoped - was my first time ever running two psykers! My plan was to take Survey and Domination and use my two strong units to hold the two midboard objectives while my Rippers held my backline. I was paired against another local guy with Thousand Sons who had something like:

• Sorcerer in Terminator Armour
• 10x Rubric Marines
• 5x Scarab Occult Terminators
• Chaos Spawn

This game went a lot better, though it was pretty weird. My Warriors and Rippers and his Chaos Spawn ended up camping objectives for the entire game doing nothing else, while my Zoanthropes and Neuro mind bulleted their way through all the Rubric Marines and all the Terminators while surviving waves of close combat attacks. I was never able to score Survey or Domination because one of the two midboard objectives was always contested, and the score came down to 65-51. I felt pretty dumb building a list that only had three units besides my HQ, because I had a third of my points locked up in these Warriors that did basically jack.

 

Game 3 I fiddled around with movement distances on the board and found that between Genestealer Advance & Charge and Metabolic Overdrive I should be able to get on top of 3 objectives pretty easily if I got turn 1, and to charge units off them if I got turn 2. I went with Tyrant Guard of all things over Warriors because I figured three models with T5 and a 3+ was more resilient, even if they don't have access to Unyielding Chitin. My list was:

• Broodlord w/ Resonance Barb (Warlord), Psychic Scream, Smite
• 5x Genestealers
• 3x Tyrant Guard w/ Boneswords & Lash Whips
• 3x Zoanthropes, Onslaught, Smite
• Rippers

My opponent turned out to be on Mechanicus running Rad-Saturated Forge World with Radiant Disciples and Luminary Suffusion:

• Tech-Priest Enginseer w/ Raiment of the Technomartyr, Divinations of the Magos
• 10x Vanguard w/ 2 Plasma Calivers
• 10x Vanguard w/ 2 Plasma Calivers
• 10x Vanguard w/ 1 Plasma Caliver
• Onager Dunecrawler w/ Neutron Laser

My plan was Mental Interrogation with Engage On All Fronts and Thin Their Ranks, as he had like 30 wounds of infantry and the tournament was awarding 1 VP for every 2 wounds inflicted. My opp took I think Slay the Warlord, Attrition and Domination? I won first turn, advancing my stealers and Broodlord behind some obscuring cover on an objective in the midboard, the Zoanthropes onto the nearest objective out in the open, and sending the Tyrant Guard to an objective right in front of his DZ using Metabolic Overdrive.

 

In retrospect I would've been better off camping the Tyrant Guard in cover after turn 1 on the other side of that objective, as his tight DZ would've meant he would probably been out of LoS with the Dunecrawer and one Vanguard squad, and had to split his fire between the Tyrant Guard and Zoans with his other two Vanguard units. But anyway my Zoanthropes killed a single Vanguard and took some wounds off the Dunecrawler, and my Broodlord took down a couple Vanguards with Psychic Scream from behind cover. I scored 3 VP for EOAF - it was worth more thanks to adjusted secondaries in this event.

 

His turn 1 he had declared Benediction of the Omnissiah and was re-rolling all his 1s to hit, and his Warlord had Overloaded Safeguards for additional hits on 6s to hit. It was pretty punishing; his Dunecrawler and one Vanguard squad wiped out the Tyrant Guard immediately and killed off a Zoan. He moved up slightly and put a few Vanguards on the other objective near his DZ, on the other side of the board from where my Tyrant Guard had been. I was no longer feeling positive about the game and was sad my Tyrant Guard hadn't gotten a chance to fight!

 

My turn 2 I scored hold 1, hold 2, hold more for 15 primary VP. My Genestealers and Broodlord burst out of cover and advanced off the objective into range of the Vanguards on the other one, and my Rippers advanced up from dense cover in my DZ to hold the point the stealers had just abandoned. My Zoans stayed still and hoped to weather another turn of shooting. They took another few wounds off the Dunecrawler but I actually just realized it was illegal for me to target as it wasn't the closest model... For some reason I was tracking that for the Broodlord but not the Zoans? I have no idea why. The Broodlord smited and screamed down some of the Vanguard holding the point near him , and then he and his boys charged. The Broodlord ended up wiping out the Vanguards before the stealers even got to strike (the -1 Str didn't hurt his Str. 5 vs their T3), I scored another 3 VP for EOAF.

 

His turn 2 he swapped to Invocation of Machine Might for +1 Str. and moved his Vanguards and Onager nearer to the far objective, holding it and splitting the squad into one half behind an obscuring wall and the other in sight of my Zoans and Broodlord/stealers. His shooting killed another Zoan and wiped out the stealers but everything bounced off the Broodlord's T5, 4+ and 5++ now that he was more than 3" away from the Vanguards. He charged the Broodlord to contest the objective but failed to wound; I killed half the squad in revenge and then used Adrenaline Surge to wipe the other half.

 

My turn 3 I scored another 15 primary VP now that my Broodlord held that objective, but I didn't think he'd survive another round of shooting so I moved him almost into base to base with his Enginseer and the remaining Vanguard squad. The Zoan killed another few Vanguards and my Broodlord melted the Enginseer's brains with his mind. Then he charged the Onager and Vanguards, dodging all the Overwatch and killing another few. The Onager fought back and dealt two wounds with a double six to hit! The Vanguards failed morale and lost another two guys leaving only two left. I still had units in 3 table quarters so scored another 3 VP for EOAF.

 

 

His turn 3 his Onager couldn't fire it's Neutron Laser as it had blast, and its Stubber did nothing. In combat the Vanguards failed to wound again and the Broodlord ended up tearing the Onager to scrap, rolling multiple sixes with his Monstrous Rending Claws. On my turn I scored another 15 VP, tabled him, scored another 3 for EOAF, and collected 15 VP for Thin Their Ranks for wiping out all 30 of his Vanguards. Turn 5 was a formality, I scored another 15 and 3 for a total match score of 85-20.

 

I'm currently ranked 10th out of like, 80 but a lot of people haven't played their third match yet. It was a super fun event and I hope Trevy runs it back! I've been obsessed with u/Stormcoil's batreps on reddit but I think a lot of the tactics he uses (Mawlocs, Lictors etc.) are only really playable at larger point games. It was really interesting to see how the codex performed at 500pts and it's given me a lot of ideas for the crusade if I end up going this way. I think if I was doing a fourth game I might try running more Zoans instead of the Tyrant Guard and adding a couple stealers, but if I'd been able to get a turn 1 charge off with the Tyrant Guard and Onslaught, or positioned them better after using Metabolic Overdrive it could've gone differently.

 

How do you like to build lists for 500pts?

Edited October 22, 2020 by Alcyon

[XeonDragon]

Great reports dude, very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

[WarriorFish]

Great stuff, thanks for writing it up in such detail. I think 500pts are a magnifying glass on an army's strengths and weaknesses so they can be quite different games for it, all the more so for nids who can do more than others with lists. You can make use of the game being lopsided too, for example going gribbly heavy would have most opponents struggling to handle them. Or taking lots of Warriors, Zoanthropes and their 3++ is a bigger deal in 500pts too.

[Alcyon]

Thanks, Fish - glad you guys like it.

 

I did try running mostly zoans and warriors in the second game but I actually think that the Warriors are just too weak to put so many eggs in that basket. Granted they did nothing that game but I did try the set up in a couple other practice games and not only is their output kind of anaemic but toughness 4 and a 4+ save it’s just not enough even ignoring AP 1 and two. People have designed their lists to deal with Marines and I think warriors face a lot of collateral damage from that. Zoans on the other hand are basically tougher than Bladeguard.

 

I also worked on a few lists with tons of gribblies but at the end of the day I don’t think the map sizes for combat patrol are large enough to maximize that kind of list. It’s much easier to wall off your deployment zone and prevent scoring things like linebreaker, so it’s harder to use the gaunts to win on objectives and their damage output is just zero. It’s especially difficult when there are only four objectives on the map and so you need to hold three in order to get hold more. The enemy can usually wipe a couple units and they just focus on one objective and collect thin their ranks.

 

It was funny landing on genestealers but I think they have pretty solid combination of toughness four and a five up invuln while still being cheaper than Marines. They do have a fair bit of offensive output for their cost but their real strength is the ability to advance in charge, which on the very small board sides means you can often move out of obscuring cover and get a charge off on turn two. In the third game they were basically just a screen for the Broodlord but he did a ton of damage and so I think it was worth it regardless. I’ll be looking forward to running stealers in my crusade in January for sure.

[Xenith]

It was funny landing on genestealers but I think they have pretty solid combination of toughness four and a five up invuln while still being cheaper than Marines. They do have a fair bit of offensive output for their cost but their real strength is the ability to advance in charge, which on the very small board sides means you can often move out of obscuring cover and get a charge off on turn two. In the third game they were basically just a screen for the Broodlord but he did a ton of damage and so I think it was worth it regardless. I’ll be looking forward to running stealers in my crusade in January for sure.

 

It's one of the downfalls of the nid codex, that since it droppe,d stealers are pretty much the most effective unit. I was on the tyranidHive forum, and someone raised a good point, where you ask yourself: "should I add this unit, or would the points be better spent on more genestealers" Like 140pt monster, or 8 - 10 more genestealers - same wounds, more attacks, etc. 

 

I love that Genestealers are scary again, the same way they were in 3rd ed when they first got rending, but I dont want the codex to be a one trick pony. 

Edited October 26, 2020 by Xenith

[Alcyon]

Really? Man I feel like I've heard people just slamming on them constantly since 9th dropped. They are not especially resilient with T4 5++ at 15ppm where marines get T4 3+ 2w for 20 - they feel a bit overcosted with an 8-model unit costing 120pts.

 

To me their strength is the ability to advance and charge; with Metabolic Overdrive especially you can get them behind obscuring terrain in the midboard really quick, and then they can threaten a charge from behind cover very easily especially if you run Kraken. They can help screen and deliver a Broodlord who is fairly comparable to a Space Marine Captain on output - six Str. 5 attacks at AP3 D3 with a rend effect, and together they will easily wipe a 5-man Primaris unit.

 

If you can tie up the rest of the army with Zoanthropes and whatever else and get your little strike force into their backline, or an objective further away from the main body of the army, they should clean up any objective holders pretty easily without exposing themselves to too much fire. Then hopefully you can deep-strike some Rippers onto that point next turn and keep the Stealers moving into another unit. Running Adaptive Physiology for Adrenal Webs isn't a bad idea in that case, an average 7" move into cover towards the nearest enemy ain't bad.