Ratcon 2024

The Paladin Trials -  Ratcon 2024

Hey 40k nerds! I just won Ratcon 2024, a 76 player GT in Australia, with Tyranids. Here’s how I did it:

Preparation for Ratcon:

Ratcon is one of the premier events hosted in Ballarat by TO’s Michael Hamilton and Lachlan Morrison. Missions have a more narrative twist, but are still based off the Pariah Nexus mission pack. Soft scores (painting and sports) affect your overall placing in addition to battle, but that doesnt stop the top end of this event having real competition. 

My read of the meta showed a bias toward close combat armies with blood angels, drukhari and world eaters boasting high win rates. Australia also seems to always have a strong showing from Chaos factions, so this was another factor I considered. Of my three factions, Tyranids seemed especially well suited to navigating a melee meta, with tools such as fights first lone operatives that feel designed to kill power armor (looking at you Blood angels), Maleceptors providing negative modifiers for enemy units that come too close, and gargoyles still being the king of moveblocking. Shadows in the warp is always a bit of a wildcard too that your opponent can have difficulty playing around, so I liked having it as a mental edge over my opponents. It can be daunting waiting for a tyranid player to rip the cord that battleshocks the majority of your army on a key turn. 

Next I had to decide on the flavor. Vanguard Onslaught had become a clear forerunner since the dataslate, receiving meaningful buffs which increased its number of options. I had an unsuccessful experimentation with Vanguard preslate, and I wasn't convinced it had overcome the hurdle of being stat checked by tough armies like Chaos Knights, or highly mobile armies in Grey Knights Dreadknight Spam or bringers of flame sisters. I decided to go back to basics and expand from there, so I wrote an Invasion fleet list and started organizing a few practice games. 

After those games, I had to appreciate the strength of the invasion fleet detachment. It’s well rounded and has meaningful tools into almost all matchups. Here are the highlights:

• The detachment rule to adapt your army for either sustained hits against infantry or lethal hits against monster/vehicle targets tailors you to your matchup, and helps overcome one of tyranids main issues in their damage output. 

• The stratagem suite is incredible; Reactive feel no pain, critical hits on 5’s and fight on death are relevant in 100% of games, and make your hive tyrants incredibly valuable with their reduce stratagem cost ability.

• Overrun might possibly still be the best stratagem in the tyranid codex, allowing a Tyranid unit to move after fighting, and gives invasion fleet lists an X-factor that can greatly expand the options available to a tyranids player.

I built an invasion fleet list which emphasized the strength of the detachment and could quickly generate positive board states and out-tempo the top dogs of the meta.

Ratcon Invasion Fleet list:

Invasion Fleet

Hive Tyrant with Adaptive Biology Enhancement

Deathleaper

Neurotyrant

20 Hormagaunts

10 Hormagaunts

10 Hormagaunts

10 Gargoyles

10 Gargoyles

10 Genestealers

2 Lictors

2 Maleceptors

2 Exocrines

6 Zoanthropes 

Biovore

How it plays:

Fellow Tyranid players might look at this list and call it unremarkable, and they wouldn't be wrong. It’s basically just invasion good stuff. None of it is particularly strong individually but when these units start to operate together they become increasingly difficult to deal with.

My general game plan was to use the scouting genestealers and infiltrating lictors to create a forward position the rest of my army could expand into, while simultaneously creating a “no go” zone where hormagaunts and gargoyles could safely stage before being sent out as missiles to score points or deny enemy primary, attack skirmish units or moveblock larger threats. The Zoanthrope and Neurotyrant bomb provides a significant overwatch threat to enemy missile units, and in combination with generated spore mines from the biovore, gives me several ways to influence how my opponents could move around the table. Maleceptors were my defensive anchors, and often the first units I would expose to force some kind of commitment from my opponents. With reactive feel no pain and their innate 4+ invulnerable save, if I could position them where they couldn't apply all of their armies' damage into them, the Maleceptor often survived and exposed resources I could retaliate on. These tools are what I planned on using to establish control of the game in the early turns, with the ace in the hole being shadow in the warp during the later half of the game to disrupt my opponents ability to reestablish their own momentum and climb out of the score deficit. I would often put one exocrine in strategic reserve to threaten a different firing angle, as well as one gargoyle squad as an ingress threat to reactively set up a moveblock or primary denial play.

Ratcon games:

Ratcon missions can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yy2wqS1eVG1G3Y4jtdMstBh1ONT_drlg/view?usp=sharing

Game 1: vs Mark’s Imperial Knights https://pastebin.com/924zmLD7

Mission: Blessings of the Horned Rat

The opening game had me paired into a triple big knight list, a lot of high toughness wounds and powerful shooting options. I was celebrating I had taken invasion fleet, as the access to lethal hits was going to make this game much more palatable. I chose blessings of claws on this mission for the extra attacks on my little bugs, and Mark chose blessings of the warp to up his shooting output. Imperial knights took the first turn, and as I had deployed conservatively there wasn't much damage he could apply, but he got cleanse for 4 points and 2 points for getting one of my lictors on no prisoners. 

I made a pretty big error on turn 1 of this game which made it much harder for me in the later turns of the game. I pulled storm hostile objective and recover assets on turn 1, completely forgetting you can't score storm hostile on turn 1. I figured I would score storm and burn recover assets for a command point, and didn't realize till the end of the turn I was going to score a fat donut on secondaries for turn 1. Luckily, the rest of my turn went well, as I advanced a gargoyle brood to move block the big knights (a common theme for this tournament) and deny the center objective, while genestealers charged canis rex with critical 5’s bringing him to 5 wounds remaining and keeping him in combat, where he would fail his battleshock test in Mark’s command phase. My shooting frustratingly left an armiger on the center objective on 1 wound. 

My low scoring turn 1 really put me on the back foot, and the following turns I had to play much more aggressively to not only build up my own score, but stop Mark scoring points. After Mark cleared through the first gargoyle screen and promptly laid low one of my maleceptors in the second battle round, my rapid ingressed second gargoyle brood created another moveblock to delay his big knights. The 20 man hormagaunt swarm and one of the 10 mans pushed up to finish off canis and the 1 wound armiger, which promptly both exploded and cleared out almost half of the hormagaunts, a frustrating negative swing which allowed him to clear out the big 20 man with a single armiger shooting activation before it could regenerated and deny his home objective. Deathleaper was able to stand on the middle objective between two ruins, and due to the gargoyles wearing high vis vests and holding road work signs in front of the big knights, was completely safe for next turn, locking in extra primary points. Mark responded with an excellent turn of shooting, killing the second maleceptor and my zoanthropes, leaving behind the neurotyrant, and the gargoyles were no more. 

I was running out of pieces to delay the big knights, and definitely didnt have the damage to take them out anymore. I used my exocrines to clear out one last armiger, and deathleaper and what was left of the hormagaunts went for the armiger on Mark’s home to deny guarding for burden of trust in addition to defend stronghold. My shadow turn allowed me to deny some extra primary, and both big boys left also failed battleshock, which limited his scoring for that battle round. At this stage, the 2 remaining big knights were just outside of my deployment zone, and going to take my home objective.Despite this, In round 5, I was able to scrape the remnants of my mostly tabled army to score endgame primary and some lucky secondary cards, pushing the Tyanids ahead. Mark and I had a great game, and he came very close to ending my run before it began.

Result: Tyranid Victory, 72-60

Game 2: vs Shane’s Drukhari https://pastebin.com/UgLBYKss

Mission: Sneak, Sneak, Yes, Yes

Shane and I had the pleasure to play a few weeks prior to this event at an RTT with very similar lists, so we had a bit of experience in the matchup. Shane had more respect for my Genestealers this time, which had in the previous game fought on death and cleared out most of the incubi and beast pack which had charged them. 

My game plan was to form a blockade with the maleceptors which would force most of his damage dealers outside of the transports, which would be killed from my counter attack and allow me to push deep into his lines. This promptly happened on turn 2, with the incubi going into a maleceptor and tanked through thanks to rapid regeneration. Shane was able to get one up on me though, using his venoms to dart behind the ruin the stealers were staged in, and shower them in splinter cannon shots before they were finished up with a second smaller unit of incubi.  This didn't stop my clearing out the rest of his incubi and court of the Archon, and Shane was left with a few venoms and skirmish units like mandrakes and scourges to face down 75% of my army. Even still, Shane and I were both able to score the secret mission we were forced to take from this missions special rules, ending in a respectable score for both players. Always a pleasure to play you Shane.

Result: Tyranid Victory, 76-63.

Game 3: vs Ned’s Imperial Knights https://pastebin.com/WyKL0BRZ

Mission: Corrupted Lands

Another 3 big imperial knights list, this time with a lancer and a gallant to apply maximum pressure. Ned promptly deployed heavily on the front line. This time, I took the first turn, and proceeded to lock the gallant in gargoyle jail while deathleaper terraformed the objective on the gallants side, and a solitary lictor took the other flank, protected by a well poisited spore mine to prevent the terraform action being stopped on the opposite. After seeing I was going to successfully terraform 2 objectives turn 1, Ned sent the other two bigs and a warglaive barreling into the center of the battlefield, giving me the ultimatum. I ever killed them and we finished our round quick smart, or I failed too and I lose control of the game as two big knights carve their way into my deployment zone. I hate ultimatums, so instead I looked for another solution, and I spent another turn moveblocking while I chipped down the knights, killing the warglaive with shooting bringing the lancer down to below half with a combination of shooting and a genestealer charge, which also kept it locked in combat. The 2 big knights cleared the trash in the center, but were unable to push into the damage units behind them, and the following battle round felled the lancer and left the atropos on minimal wounds, surrounded by hormagaunts. By the time the Gallant entered the fray, freed from many turns of gargoyle jail, it was too little too late, even with bottom of turn primary scoring. 

Result: Tyranid Victory, 69-61

Game 4: vs Mitchell’s Tau https://pastebin.com/7SzVgD3W

Mission: The Ratling gun

Mitchell is one of my close 40k buddies, and relatively new to the competitive scene. He too was undefeated going into day 2, showing his promise as an up and comer in the Australian scene. We had played several games in testing before this event, so we were more than familiar with each other's armies. I knew I had an advantage from a list perspective, as shadow in the warp can be crippling for the tau’s go turn, being able to shut down their ability to guide for each other. Spore mines are also extremely annoying for montka builds, as you effectively stop one of the strongest abilities of the detachment to advance and shoot. Purge the foe is traditionally not great for tyranids with their many fragile units, and less emphasis on being able to deny primary by continually denying on objective. Fortunately, I went second in this game, a huge advantage on this mission. After a conservative deployment, Mitchell was unable to shoot on his first turn, but threatened hold more so I had to send out a resource. My hormagaunts were more than happy to missile out and clear the kroot, but were also able to use overrun to lock up the breacher squad and devilfish behind, which meant the gargoyles poking onto the center objective could only be shot by riptides in the following turn. As riptides won't kill a gargoyles squad in one activation, I was able to kill off the visible ones and use endless swarm to regenerate models onto the center objective to get hold more. I was not only able to do this on turn 2, but turn 3 as well. Mitchell, realizing he was on the back foot, went all in on me during turn 3, his final turn of montka, to try to force a change in the game's trajectory.I responded with killing his sunforge suits with stealers, dropping a riptide with shooting, and damaging a second while clearing the devilfish in the center with my 20 man hormagaunt unit The regenerating gargoyle squad was able to charge broadsides in his backfield.. My turn 4 shadow left him with only the pathfinders who could spot, and he couldn't get enough damage to bear to deal a killing blow to the Tyranids. Turn 4 and 5, the tyranids were able to overwhelm the tau forces. Well done on an undefeated run on day 1 Mitchell, you’ll get me next time.

Result: Tyranid Victory, 100-83

Game 5: vs Adams Adeptus Sororitas https://pastebin.com/4js13iFF

Mission: The Warpstone Shuffle

The final game of the event had me matched up with one of the strongest players from South Australia and a competitive 40k veteran, Adam Napier. Adam’s Bringers of flame list was a little different, focusing on a more grindy playstyle leveraging the durability combo of a big sacresants unit with a hospitaller, in addition to some of the usual stars like Morvahn Vahl with her suits and the seraphim squad with fire and fury cannoness. The seraphim are terrifying for tyranids, and Morvahn Vahls warsuit unit is really hard to take down. This was a game I was sure I wouldn't win if I played defensive. I had to score big early and deny the scoring of the sisters while I had units on the table.My assumption was I would be tabled one way or another, but I would rather have a big advantage on points while being tabled rather than a small difference the sisters could make up. Adam placed Vahl and suits in strategic reserve, which was a mistake I capitalized on by full sending when I went first, immediately squaring up on the center objective with a maleceptor and deathleaper, while genestealers scouted up and hunted the infiltrating callidus, before piling into a penitent engine and a rhino to slow the sisters down. The zoanthropes covered one of the firing angles the seraphim could travel down, and a well positioned spore mine prevented them advancing into the center. Unable to push me off the centre on turn 1, I was able to secure a 15 primary going into turn 2, at the cost of losing a maleceptor on the flank. I sent hormagaunts out to deny the flank objective and push back vahls ingress, and on the opposite side the 20 man hormagaunt squad used a mortifer as a slingshot for overrun, and was able to deny his home objective. Adam chose not to rapid ingress, so Vahl and the girls arrived in his deployment zone, while the seraphim burned my 20 hormagunts to a crisp. Adam was still unable to stop the primary scoring triangle I had created, so another 15 for me on round 3. I pushed the maleceptor forward from the center to charge the seraphim, hoping to lock them in combat for next turn to allow gargoyles to bypass overwatch, while the other squad of gargoyles on the other flank denied the objective again. Shooting from my exocrines and a single Maleceptor was able to take a massive chunk out the celestian sacresants, and a lictor was able to precision out the hospitaller to stop the resurrection shenanigans, effectively neutralsing his defensive crutch. Adam’s primary score was looking pretty dire, and so at the end of his turn 3 he selected a secret mission. This changed my game plan. I just needed to score 91 points, and I’ve secured the win. I threw the rest of my resources at scoring secondaries, as by this stage I had 45 primary points with no possible way from Adam to stop me scoring another 5 from my home. At the end of my turn 4, I was exactly 91 points, which was lucky as I dead drew secondaries turn 5. Adam was thoroughly rough housing the remnants of my army at this stage, and Vahl walked onto my home to achieve the secret mission, coming so close to catching the Nids. Adam was a top tier player during the entire course of the game, even keeping his cool at an almost 40 point deficit in round 3, huge props to him to dig deep and make it a close game.

Result: Tyranid Victory, 91-90. 

Review:

After going undefeated with Tyranids, I was able to take best overall and take the title of Rat King 2024. Special shout out to Ben Coubrough, who also went undefeated with chaos cult and had more battle points than I did, but soft scores got me over the line on this one to take the title.

I learnt a lot from my experience at the event, but here are my main takeaways:

• I was surprised at how flexible my tyranid list was. While I initially thought it had to build a lead early and hold it till the end of the game, I found it was able to play either aggressively or defensively, and react to my opponents style of list and game plan.

• The list can be improved; the 20 hormagaunt unit was included to potentially deny cull the horde, but this only came up once in my 5 games, and in most games I ended up committing a 20 man when 10 gaunts could have achieved the same effect. 

• My unit positioning could have better in the later stages of the game; I was happy with my deployment and staging in every game, but I often found in turn 4, some of my units where in bad positions. My zoanthropes bomb should always be aiming to end up in the center of the table, where their overwatch and shooting threat would be maximized. In some games, they were in a position where they couldn’t target anything meaningful. 

A big thank you again to the TO’s Michael and Lachlan, and to you for joining me for the start of a long Journey. The next episode will likely cover VTC, a teams event hosted by Risky Rollers in Victoria. I hope to catch you then. 

Signing off, 

Stuart Trainer