Welcome back fellow warriors! My Tyranids once again displayed their predatory instincts at VTC 2024, a 5 man team event hosted by Risky Rollers! Check them out here: https://www.riskyrollers.com.au/
Team Composition:
40k teams events remain the best way to play the game in my opinion, and one of the most exciting aspects is always putting the team together. My team included some illustrious names of 40k and veteran players, which allowed for a nice crucible of different factions to be represented, and spicy tech and builds to be represented. Here is the overview of our lineup:
Ed Askey - Grey Knights - 4 dreadknights with Crowe’s purifier bomb, and Draigo with 10 terminators.
Lachlan Booth - Black Templars - The crusader spam list with some different tech options than Olivier Weiss’s pioneered version.
Alex Franz - Necrons - Hypercrypt with an appearance from the silent king himself.
Adam Camilleri - Astra Militarum - Double Dorn, Double Tank Commander and a healthy amount of scions.
Stuart Trainer (me!) - Tyranids - Invasion fleet good stuff.
I’ll deep dive my list more soon, but first I’ll talk about pairing strategy. Having two teleporting armies as attackers meant we could trap slow armies (Deathguard and votaan) or fragile armies (Aelderi or Drukhari). The Black Templar list could also be used to guide opposing defending lists into our other defending lists, as most lists just didn't want to face the sheer amount of marines . That left our Guard and Tyranids to be defending lists. The guard had an incredible amount of firepower, so having it as a put up where Adam could select the light table was a serious threat. The big firing lines would be dominated by the dorns, and the deep striking scions would smoke out anything hugging terrain too hard.
That left my tyranid list as our second defender;
Invasion Fleet:
Hive Tyrant with adaptive biology
Neurotyrant
6 Zoanthropes
Deathleaper
10 Gargoyles
10, 10, 10 Hormagaunts
10, 10 Genestealers
2x Maleceptor
2x Exocrine
2x Lictor
Biovore
My list was a bit of a wildcard in our lineup. Its toolkit still made it exceptionally strong into close combat armies, but it had enough flexibility to play into a wide range of matchups and force a tough, grindy game. I was looking to prey on accursed cultist lists, tau and melee marines. I was very wary of sisters, as I couldn't really stop the bringers of flames lists tabling me. I could get points, but at best the game would be a 10-10. I was also hesitant to go into Hypercrypt Necrons. Monolith’s could punish my monsters a little too well, and enmity destroyers would obliterate my infantry. It was too volatile for me to be safe in that matchup.
This list was adaptable enough to play on any terrain density, but its strength increased significantly when it chose its table. When I had the shooting advantage, I could take the light table and further control enemy movement by locking down firing lines. If the enemy had lots of vehicles or similar units without fly that couldn't breach through walls, I would take the heavy table and moveblock the enemy for several turns. Ensuring I was a defending list gave me this advantage, even if the opposing list was not my best matchup.
Round 1- Mission J: Lynchpin, Raise Banners, Search And Destroy.
(Lists can be found in the links)
Round 1 pairings had me match into Tristan Bones war horde. Tristan and I have known each other for years and been to many events together, so I was excited to get to play him. I won't go too in depth into this game, because we actually played this game on stream! You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMrxDIvRjsc&t=4886s
Between the time stamps 29:00 and 3:14:00.
Orks are a pretty good matchup for nids currently, as the bulk of their damage comes from their close combat units, and this means you can force bad trades by making them hit your chaff rather than important units. They also don't have good answers for the Malecptors, who get to use their -1 to hit aura to blunt their damage output, and make fight on death much less effective if you can bring their units down to below half strength in a single activation.
I was able to win the war for the center in this game, but unfortunately I drew absolute dead cards on turn 5, even with new orders, which stopped me capitalizing on my board control.
Result: 12-8 Tyranid Victory. Team result: 72-28 Win
Round 2 - Mission O: Terraform, Stalwarts, Crucible of Battle.
I matched Bismarck's Big Daemons list for round 2. I haven’t played into daemons much in 10th, so I was a little unsure on how this matchup would go, but I was quite confident in my ability to screen out my half of the table and protect my valuable assets. The mission favored me here too, as Bismark didn't have many units he wanted to spend the turn terraforming objectives with. I went first here, and proceeded to terraform the two flank objectives. One of the many strengths of tyranids is their ability to use spore mines, terrain and lone operatives to engineer situations where it is extremely difficult for your opponent to deny control of an objective. I was able to achieve this on one flank objective to ensure a successful terraform. The other flank I flooded with hormagaunts behind a wall, so he couldnt out OC the objective, or get an angle to kill them. With two terraforms out the way, I really felt the game tempo was in my favor. I just had to use my assets to prevent his primary and stop him from terraforming, and I would be walking away with a sizable win. I spent the next two turns just screening the table as much as I could until his reserves were in. table. Bismark forced my hand by planting the 4+ FNP Great unclean one (AKA Big Chungus) in the center. I foresaw this was his plan, so I had already begun pre damaging him to make him actually killable by the time he could make his OC matter. However, after committing a generous amount of shooting, as well as Hive Tyrant and hormagaunt combat with crit 5’s lethals, he was still standing with 1 wound! This gave Bismark an opportunity to start pushing back into me, but he was one turn too late. I had managed to slow and kill him down enough that he only broke my defensive line on turn 5, and wasn't able to capitalize on too much scoring outside of a healthy endgame primary score.
Result: 17-3 Tyranids Victory. Team result: 61-39 Win
Round 3 - Mission P: Scorched Earth, Inspired Leadership, Crucible of Battle.
Round 3 had our team paired against the favorites to take the event out, a team of 5 members from the 2024 Australian WTC team. There really wasn't any weakness to exploit on this team, but our team spent a good amount of time trying to find our best matchups. I paired into Joshua Brodie on the Gladius DA list, 15 death wing knights and all. This was one of my preferred matchups on this team, but I was sure my score was hard capped. If Brodie dug in with his DWK and played defensive, I didn't have much ability to kill them without shooting support. However, Mission and table pick became critical in enhancing my score for this round. I chose to play the DA on the light table. One of the weaknesses of the DA gladius list is outside of the fire discipline eradicator brick, which is short range, it doesn't have a shooting presence. I wanted to use my exocrines and zoanthropes aggressively take firing lines, as I knew they weren't going to be easily responded to by Brodie, and if he did expose the eradicators, my return fire would take them out.
I took first on this mission, which isn't ideal. Going second is generally preferred to burn an objective turn 5 and get a slight lead on primary. As I was going first, I decided to take full advantage and aggressively staged near the center and my flank objective, and moved exocrines toward the best firing angle on my half the table. I needed to apply pressure early or I wouldn't be able to stop Brodie scoring points late in the game. Brodie had a nothing first turn, just doing some light staging and attempting to kill a lictor with scouts, but unsuccessful. So far, we were just feeling each other out. Turn 2 I moved a maleceptor and lictor onto the middle objective, with the lictor beginning the burn action. My hormagaunts then charged and killed his scouts near the center, using ovverun to form a moveblock on his staging ruin near the edge of his deployment zone. This would stop him from using his inner circle companions from getting to my lictor burning the center, and stopping the eradicators moving too far forward to shoot something inside their melta range. Josh responded, using JPI’s to hop over the hormagaunt screen and attack the lictor, and the eradicators moved out to shoot my middle Maleceptor. 5 DWK moved onto my flank objective after charging a spore mine. Josh was a bit unfortunate, leaving the Maleceptor on 1 wound, and I heroically intervened with my stealers into the JPI’s who charged the lictor. The lictor fight first flubbed, killing one jump pack marine through aoc and promptly was slain, but the stealers savaged the remaining guys and were in a nice position for my turn 3. I used the full power of 20 stealers and deathleaper to head toward the DWK on my flank objective, the goal being to flood them with saves. Exocrines lined up to shoot a different DWK unit or the eradicators, while zoanthropes and 2 Maleceptors had eyes only for the eradicators. Hormagunts dashed to his flank to deny primary. This was a big turn for me, killing a total 7 DWK’s (5 on my flank, 2 from exocrine shooting) and 6 eradicators. Brodie was starting to feel the pressure now, as he was running out of valuable resources and hadn't taken much away from me yet. Activating assault doctrine, Josh commited the inner circle companions toward the stealers on my flank objective. I overwatched with an exo, killing one companion. The repulsor and wounded DWK’s moved toward the center to deny the objective and get some shots in, killing the wounded 1 wound maleceptor. The companions charged stealers, and deathleaper heroically intervened. With fights first, she clutched up and slew another 2 companions, leaving 3 with a Judiciar. The stealers fought on death, and survived the onslaught from the companions, with deathleaper being felled by the judiciar. The stealers finished off the remaining companions and character, and Brodie was in a dire position. My turn 4 saw me charge the maleceptor, remaining stealers and hive tyrant into the repulsor, which got it below half and failed battleshock in his preceding turn. The zoanthropes finished off the last squad of JPI’s, while I denied his flank objective with gargoyles, and the second squad of stealers began burning my side objective now that there was no way for him to stop it. Azrael attempted to steal back the center with the remaining DWK’s and intercessors, but an incredible zoanthrope overwatch killed the DWK’s (3 sixes with lethal and sustained lascannon shots, yikes) and the maleceptor was able to finish off the repulsor, freeing her to use overrun and be in range of Josh’s home objective. In turn 5, she continued her forward push to burn his home, while Azrael and the boys had a not so heroic last stand being obliterated by two exocrines. Brodie had an apothecary biologis and 5 DWK’s on his flank objective left, and I cruelly opened the casket on shadow in the warp, battleshocking his two remaining units and forcing Brodie to have a donut turn 5.
Josh made the best of a bad matchup and even worse dice rolls, and was a gentleman the entire game. I was honored to play against a WTC player who earned his spot through hard work and a history of very strong results.
Result: 18-2 Victory for Tyranids. Team Result: 36-64 loss
Round 4 - Mission H: Supply Drop, Smoke and Mirrors, Hammer and Anvil
After licking our wounds from the spanking the WTC lads laid on us, we had a night's rest and locked in for the final day. The podium was still more than achievable, we just needed to win both rounds day 2. After a brief chat with our team in the morning, I boldly proclaimed to the team that if I got the tau matchup, I promised a big win. So when the opportunity arose to take the tau, my teammates gave it to me, even though it meant some other sup optimal pairings for my teammates.
So Dante and his tau were on the table across from me, and I deployed very aggressively. Dante deployed quite the opposite, trying to keep his distance from me. I took first turn, again not ideal, but made good use of my lone operatives to throw them onto the no man's land objectives with some advance blocking from spore mines. This put dante in an awkward position, as the lone operatives could only be reached by his breacherfish, and had to deal with deathleaper and a lictor, with stealth in built and access to FNP thanks to Neutrotyrants neuroloids. Dante split his shooting between the two, and failed to kill both, setting me up for a big 15 primary turn 2. I capitalized on the early swing, pushing stealers into his coldstar suits which had moved to the central staging ruin, with maleceptor shooting support. The lictor and zoanthropes worked in tandem to wipe out his devilfish and most of his breachers. Dante had a strong turn of shooting to retaliate with, but I saved FNP for the stealers, his flamer starscythe unit only able to clear 2. I baited overwatch elsewhere so the stealers could carve up some more suits and a strike team with hive tyrant support, which allowed an overrun into his broadsides. Over the next few rounds of combat, the stealers also carved their way through the broadsides. Those stealers were a one man army this game. As all of this was going on, I used me resources to stand on the no mans lands objectives and getting shot, but surviving to score primary. Turn 4 I dogpiled the remaining objective with everything I could possibly fit on there, and popped shadow in his turn 5 to reduce his chance of taking it. This secured a max win for me, and I was able to reward the teams faith in me.
Result: 20-0 Tyranid Victory. Team Result: 76-24 Win
Round 5 - Mission B: Purge the Foe, Smoke and Mirrors, Tipping Point
“Good thing I secured a 20, because I’m losing my game next round.” I told my teammates during lunch. Purge the foe is such an awful mission for tyranids, especially my archetype with lots of fragile units. Your opponent can just sit on their home while they blast you and max primary. I have to force some interactivity here, and I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do it. I decided it was best for the team if they didn't give me any pairings priority this round, as even if I got a good matchup, the mission would mean I couldn't capitalize fully. This led me to matching into Merric’s Chaos Knights, not the worst matchup, but certainly not one I loved, especially on purge. My goal was to just keep it close, don’t over extend and rely on my teammates to get us the win for the round. Merric and I had played in the last teams event, when I was playing GK, so I was familiar with his beautifully painted army and its tricks. Rotigus is an interesting tech piece, and gives a rapid ingress threat that can catch you off guard if you're not careful. As you do in purge, we both deployed very cagey, and I scored second turn, huge on this mission. Merric ensured he gave no easy kills, and used his havoc launchers to attempt to knock down a hormagaunt squad. My Hive tyrant was not allowing that however, dishing out free FNP strat to keep them alive, and then regenerating for free in my turn for net 0 damage. Again, my lictors made up my vanguard to score extend battle lines and secure no man's land for turn 1. I exposed some juicy targets for Merric to kill, but he would at least have to come forward.
Missiling a a Karnivore at my lictor, and a second toward deathleaper and a Maleceptor, Merric pushed his indirect toward my staging genestealers, thinning them out by 3. This didnt stop them heroically intervening when the Karnivore charged Deathleaper and a Maleceptor. The two passed their invo saves and the attacking wardog was layed low for its attempt on their lives. I used a cheeky shadows play in my turn 2 to secure hold more, a vital extra 4 primary points which would end up being the deciding factor, as from this point on the game was a bloodbath as we fiercely competed for kill more in each battle round, with most battle rounds having the CK ahead on kills. It was a nailbiter, but the 4 points from shadow in the warp kept me just ahead, 81-85.
Fantastic game Merric, I had to really plan ahead to keep my score safe, and you were able to captilise on some mistakes to get kill more when I was being so careful to prevent it. Well done.
Result: 10-10 Tie Team Result: 58-42
Wrap-up
There were definitely skid marks in our final round, with the team just squeezing out a win. We were very happy to podium at second place, but we recognised there were several improvements we need to make before we can take out the WTC lads next time. I was able to end another event undefeated with the Tyranids, and I secured 5th place in the player rankings. It’s a bit skewed, however, as I never played into anything I really didn't want to play into. My team made an effort to always put me into matchups I was comfortable into, and I avoided sisters and hypercrypt necrons in several rounds. Often that’s what teams are about, but I want to practice those matchups so I can be of use when I do have to play them.
Post event, I realized that both my exocrines survived every game. In fact, I struggle to recall if they ever received a wound. These monsters are really starting to seperate themselves from the rest of the list as the work horses, they find their shooting spot and rain plasma at the enemy. As the rest of my army applies pressure to the enemy, the exocrines often get ignored, despite the consistent damage they produce. Perhaps some more long range shooting platforms could also be a great addition to the list?
I also noticed some shortcomings of my list. I probably didn't need two 10 man stealer units. While the second was useful in some games, most of the time I only really needed one, and the second just hung out and screened, or did actions. Not ideal for that unit. Finally, I’m noticing the Zoanthrope unit is becoming a bit of a one trick pony. It tends to pop out, shoot and kill one thing, and my opponent's knee jerk response is to kill them. This isnt always a bad thing, but does mean they often trade down. They also get significantly worse when half the unit is gone, so often killing 3 is enough to make the unit just not a threat anymore. I’m going to explore what the list looks like without them.
With a balance patch around the corner, however, we will have to wait and see what shakes out of it. Grey Knights or Genestealer cults could start looking real tasty, and I may want to experiment with them. There is still plenty of depth with tyranids though, and when I think about the potential builds I can make, it fills me with excitement.
Catch you on the next one.
