This was a great example of that, as I got paired with someone I've played many times now and consider a friend, James Mahood and his very solid Tyranid list!
My now standard disclaimor: I've waited far too long to type this stuff up, so please forgive errors or omissions and the abbreviated nature of this report. I suck. :)
James was using two flying Hive Tyrants with lots of Devourer cannons; 2 Mawlocs...something not often seen, but I think they have a lot going for them in Nova format; 3 units of 3 Hive Guard; the ubiquitous small Gant units to unlock Troop Tervigons, and then some Devilgants in a Pod.
I honestly went in to this one a little too cocky. I felt my FMC trumped his, as I'd have the chance to shoot before he could, and I had good saves while he would have none to my shooting. After the Flyrants were gone, I felt the Screamers could handle the rest.
But never underestimate the power of bad dice!
This mission was Quarters, Obj, KP. I believe it was the triangely deployment....but I'm not affected by such petty things as deployment type so I don't pay much attention.
I believe I won the roll and had James go first. He deployed in a standard "central" style, with gants camping an objective and everything else ready to push forward.
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| The Bug deployment |
So on his first turn, he pushed forward! A lucky break for me, both Tervigons crapped out after making reasonable sized units.
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| Bug first turn... |
So then the bad dice begin...I wanted the FMC and Screamers to come in...I thought my combined Bolts and Gazes with Skyfire would drop a Tyrant, and I wanted the Screamers to set up for a mass assault on Tervigons.
Of course I got the wrong wave. There wasn't a lot of space where my Horrors wouldn't get mobbed by Gants, so I set up far to the left. I tried to drop Flamers in to take down a Tervigon, but all scattered leaving no Template shots, except one unit that managed to drop a few Hive Guard. Warpfire took down some gants, at least.
Not the first turn I wanted! :)
He took full advantage of this opportunity and wiped out all my Flamers. Mawlocs came up and punished Horrors a bit.
My turn 2, and the hits kept coming. I only got LOC and a Prince, both scattered behind hills where they could not shoot at anything, let alone Tyrants! I also got 2 Screamers in that I boosted to be able to threaten Tyrants or Mawlocs. Horrors shot at Tyrants, I think one was Grounded for a wound.
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| I'm backed in to a corner! |
Hit turn 3, he did some charging with Mawlocs in to Horrors, and a Tyrant in to Screamers. Horrors held their own, thank you 4++!. Screamers did no damage (stupid Iron Arm!) but didn't die.
My turn 3, and I got Fateweaver and the last Prince. Fateweaver scattered a full 12" from where I wanted him, but the Prince landed right next to him as I hoped.
A Lord of Change went in to a Mawloc to try to save Horrors, and a Prince went in to the Tyrant and challenged to save Screamers. This worked well, as the Mawloc was forced to Hit and Run away, while the Tyrant and Prince struggled to hurt each other...stupid Iron Arm! Yeah Invuln Save! :)
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| The Devilgants come to my rescue! |
On his turn 4, he starts shuffling around to get some Quarters. He puts lots of shots on Screamers, killing many.Then the most amusing part of the whole tournament...his Devilgants finally came in...he landed right where he wanted, ready to gun down The Big Chicken himself! Enfeeble went on Fateweaver, and the Gants went to shoot...
...and The Changeling stepped up, and used Glamour! A mild rules issue, as James wanted to then run his Tervigon to get the Gants in his Ldr range, but I pointed out the sequence of events after his shooting attack had been declared in regards to Glamour. He decided to gamble, and lost! I had the gants shoot at the nearby Tervigon, and with help from the nearby Tyrant's Preferred Enemy took 2 wounds off! He then tried to charge a unit of Horrors with a Mawloc, and failed!
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| Lord of Change chasing down Mawlocs! |
My turn 4 and the Lord of Change went after one Mawloc, Screamers went after another, and my last Screamers go in to the wounded Tervigon. The Mawloc was killed by Soul Devourer, and the Tervigon died, killing almost two full units of gants!
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| Screamers ready to assault the Tervigon...which kills all those gants... |
He killed off all but one unit of Screamers and tried to shuffle for quarters, but I was able to tie up the last Tyrant with a Prince, kill off a Hive Guard unit with Screamers that were then able to move in to an unoccupied Quarter.
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| Left side of the table end-game... |
The game ended with me holding 3 quarters and him only 1! One of those quarters was held by one Screamer with 1 wound left!
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| Right side of the table end-game... |
The quick turn around at the end of the game was key. Screamers were able to take down Tervigons while my Princes were able to hold on versus Tyrants long enough to let me move where I needed to hold quarters. I also oddly ended the game with 3 Horror units alive, after having dropped in first turn. That doesn't happen often!
James' army was very solid, but his shooting couldn't bring down the things it needed to and I was able to outmaneuver the relatively slow bugs!
4-1, going in to the final round...and I'm told I'm actually in the running for Renaissance man! Ug, now the pressure's back! :)
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