2k Mini Battle Report

Saturday I played a 2k game against my regular Dark Angels opponent. I barely have 2k points of Tyranids (not including Forgeworld) so I really stretched out what I take normally and took some things I probably shouldn't have. I'll discuss those choices later. First off a simple version of my list:

Hive Tyrant w/ TL devourers
2x Tyrant Guard
Broodlord w/ 11 Stealers retinue
6 Tyranid Warriors with Deathspitters, one with a Barbed Strangler
1 Lictor
1 Elite Fex, Talons and Strangler
17 Termagaunts
17 Spinegaunts
11 Genestealers
17 Hormagaunts
4 Ripper Swarms
1 Ravener
3x Bioacid mines
1 Biovore w/ Bioacid
1 Zoanthrope with Synapse and Warp Blast
1 Sniperfex with VC and BS, Spore Cysts (just for fun), Reinforced Chitin

Basically, my list is two Battleforces with a few extras thrown in, as that's all the models I have. If I had them, I'd take at least another Carnifex (I don't want to do Nidzilla) and more gaunts. I normally have great success with this style of list, but I made several modifications just for fun and as an experiment. I put the biovore in for fun as Spore Mines are a blast to play with. I love that even if you miss, you still get something for your trouble. I put spore cysts on the carnifex because I had 5 points to spend and in the past it worked for me, so I thought I'd try that again. It ended up being the biggest mistake of the game.

My opponent took a fully mechanized Dark Angels list, including 2 Landraiders, Belial to make termies scoring, combat squads each in razorbacks, with 4 Landspeeders.

Before the game began we ate some truly epic sandwiches.



This game was Capture and Control, Dawn of War deployment. My wife set up the terrain as usual and decided to leave a lot of open spaces to make the game more challenging. I placed my objective back close to my line, while the Dark Angels placed their objective right on top of the hill, 24" away. An unusual choice, but in order for me to take or contest it I would have to cross a lot of open terrain. Anyone who has played Tyranids will realize that open spaces are far worse for Nids than their opponents. Dark Angels won the roll and elected to receive. I deployed my stealers in cover, and decided to infiltrate the Broodlord in cover in the middle, as the objective was on the right flank, and a leftward outflank would have made him useless.



With no cover I had to screen my units with the spinegaunts, while the termigaunts sat back and guarded my objective. For the first two turns, all shooting was pretty ineffectual. As the armies got closer and closer, I was forced into leaving cover if I wanted a chance to contest his objective. In the end, I made bad choices and played poorly, and my opponent played very well. Only about 1/4 if even that of my army was still alive at the end of turn 5, while at least half of the Dark Angels were still on the field. Yet it still ended in a draw, though had the game gone any longer I might have lost. Capture and Control kind of sucks that way.

(On a side note last game I played as Nids was against Chaos Daemons, and it was also capture and control. He only had 3 models alive by the end of turn 5, but it was still a draw.)

The worst thing I did was give the Carnifex spore cysts. Like I said before, it's a fun choice but in this case a terrible one. My idea was to leave a trail of spore mines to guard the path to the objective (it worked once before) to slow the advance. In reality, they inflicted two wounds on my fex, and one of the other mines got shot and exploded, killing two hormigaunts. The Biovore's mines actually penetrated a Landraider, but rolled a 1 for damage. The fast attack choice mines drifted into the rear of the Vindicator, imobilizing it. Bioacid is really not that great unless it's in big numbers. Perhaps a triple squad of Biovores would have done better. The Ravener didn't do much better, he popped up and then got shot to pieces after trying to crack the rear armor of a Razorback. The Lictor, while fun, failed to do anything to the Vindicator (by the way, if you stun a vehicle so it can't move, you can still attack it in your opponent's Assault phase, had I know that I may have destroyed it).


The way the armies were advancing looks more like a Fantasy game. A lack of terrain will do that to you.


I finally got into grips with him, but I had to suffer some shooting. Tyrant Guard are worth the points, they absorbed a lot of fire.


Here was the final turn of the game. I surrounded my objective with all my gaunts so he couldn't get near enough to contest it. He didn't like that trick, but it's what got me the draw. He killed 18 of them with some shooting, but it wasn't enough.

While the Tyranid codex is good, it is starting to show its age. With the rending nerf, stealers are ridiculously expensive now. Though it wasn't a problem in this game, hormagaunts can't climb ruins, making upper story troops impossible to reach. All gaunts are still too expensive, especially compared with the new Boyz and Guardsmen. Lictors and Raveners are overpriced as well. Zoanthropes need a ridiculous amount of rolls to fire off their offensive psychic power. The only thing that really got buffed were deathspitter-armed warriors.

So now I have to revise my list a bit. I think I'll pick up one of those Tyranid Assault Broods so I can get another couple carnifexes, and so I can take my Tyranids into an Apocalypse size force. I'm not sure what else to get after that, but an Assault Brood is a big start.