Hobby Town Tourney Recap

Hobbytown had their 40K tourney Saturday and the Tyranids emerged victorious. There was much carnage and excitement, so I thought I would recap the highlights. The tourney consisted of three games so I thought I would break it into three posts.

Big Al’s Tyranid Force:

Flying Tyrant kitted for close combat – Usually first to the fight, and first to die
Walking Tyrant with 2 sets of TL devourers and psychic scream – always a crowd favorite
3 Warriors with rending - fill gaps where some cc support/synapse might be needed
2 Dakka fex’s with 2 TL devourers - shower enemies with brain eating maggots or flip tanks – your choice
3 units of 9 Genestealers with feeder tendrils (preferred enemy) – the work horse of my army and very dangerous in close combat
8 Genestealers with feeders and scouting – the surprise element which usually pays off
8 Termagaunts without number – “Shoot us, not the genestealers! We come back, they don’t.”
3 Zoanthropes all with psychic scream and warp blast – my ranged anti-armor with mixed results
2 Carnifex’s kitted for close combat (2+ Sv and toughness 7) – If they catch it, they kill it.

The strategy was simple:
Run the wall of monstrous creatures toward the enemy lines with the genestealers and zoanthropes close behind. The combined effect of psychic screams (-4 Ld) will make it difficult to stand firm against the tide as it smashes into enemy lines. If the enemy does survive the charge, the genestealers enter the fray the following turn and use their preferred enemy (passing it to everyone within 2”) and really ruin someone’s day. The Zoanthropes mission was to attack armor with their warp blasts. Pinning checks at -4 Ld are good too. It may not be the most elaborate strategy but having 6 monstrous creatures running (and flying) at you is a little intimidating (if not cinematic).

Game 1: Nids vs. Vulcan and co. (3 drop pods and land raider crusader with assault termies)
Land Raider with assault termies and Vulkan was priority one and the zoanthropes managed to immobilize it turn 1, which kept him from driving into my lines. Drop pod (and dreadnought inside) on my flank were dealt with by flyrant and dakkafex (preventing locator beacon from bringing more trouble to my flank). Majority of the action was centered around Vulkan&termies and the teleporting grey knights next to him. Vulkan’s unit of hammer-swingers was not one to throw units at willy-nilly, so I primed them with two turns of heavy devourer fire and sent in one unit of genestealers to keep them busy in between devourer blasts. The stealers died but in the end, Vulkan was the last one standing and retreated before being gunned down by more devourer fire. During this action, the grey knights charged both heavy carnifexes simultaneously and would have killed them both if it weren’t for the genestealer squad coming to the rescue the following turn.
Mission was objectives (Nids got 3, marines got 1).

Game two was coming up.