Tyranid Army Analysis • The Counter Punch

I played in a local tournament today. Due to an irritating quirk in Army Builder I ended up playing an 1805 point army instead of 1850 - it didn't affect my final results but damn it's really annoying. I was planning to play my Draigowing but someone showed up without an army so I let him borrow my Grey Knights and I played my Tyranids instead.


Here is my army list:

HQ
Alpha Warrior - bone sword & lash whip, scything talons, adrenal glands (attached to the Hormoguants)

Heavy Support
Tyrgon Prime

Elites
Doom - mycetic spore

10x Yrmgal genestealer

2x Zoanthrope - mycetic spore

Troops
3x Warrior - bone swords & lash whips, 2x deathspitter, barbed strangler, adrenal glands - mycetic spore

10x Hormogaunt - adrenal glands & toxin sacs

20x termagant - devourer - mycetic spore

18x genestealer + Broodlord - scything talons + toxin sacs


The addition of the lash whips are used as a counter versus the Grey Knights psychic power Sanctuary.


We were using the BeakyCon mission format - killpoints, Seize Ground (4 objective markers each round) and Capture & Control. All three objectives are equally weighted. If the game ends in a draw then the winner is decided by victory points. There were three rounds and each used one of the three deployments from the rulebook.

The first game was versus a Blood Angels DoA list. Deployment was Spearhead. I ended up winning with max points. My opponent was a bit sloppy selecting his landing points when deep striking and I overran his army be sheer weight of numbers.

The second game was versus Grey Knights (not my army; Pitched Battle for deployment). I got ahead of myself during the beginning of the game and forgot to use Null Deployment for placing objectives plus the Doom and Warriors both mishapped due to Warp Quake - I ended up losing... My first loss with Tyranids in a long time. It happens and served as a mental reinforcement how my army should be played. A couple of mistakes and|or some bad luck is very hard hard to overcome versus a top tier army... I would have loved to see how the game could have played out if either the Doom or Warriors had not both been lost to mishaps... Warp Quake is a true bitch. I also lost eight genestealers during one dangerous terrain test due to the Grey Knight psychic power Sanctuary - that hurt a lot and I just couldn't recover. My opponent pretty much played a perfect game. All of the objective markers were placed close together which is a really big no no versus Grey Knights... I played right into their hands. Oh well like I said it was a lesson and that's very important.

The third and and final match was versus a shooty Ork horde list... Shooty Orks can lay down a metric ton of firepower ! The Doom was a beast coming down the second turn and slaughtering the green tide right and left but I got behind on killpoints early and could never make up the deficit. Ork horde can soak up lots of damage and win melee solely by sheer of weight of numbers. It wasn't looking good at all but finally the last turn my genestealers came through like the champs they are and I ended up winning by a margin of 2 to 1 on objectives (Seize Ground plus Capture & Control). I got a great consolidation roll (6) after finishing off a remnant squad of Boyz taking both Seize Ground plus Capture & Control - if it had gone to victory points I would have lost. That said a big brood of genestealers lead by a Broodlord is one heck of an awesome melee unit !!

I ended up in fourth place overall only two points overall behind third place. The Grey Knight player I lost to took third place and the player who borrowed my Draigowing took second place. Mech eldar took first place beating out the Grey Knight player I lost to in the second round.

Something interesting I've noticed about my Tyranid army is they tend to win by coming back late in the game - the opponent takes heavy losses over the course of the game then what is left of my army is still strong enough to finish them off taking enough objectives for the win. It's usually either the genestealers or Alpha Warrior attached to the Hormogaunts who win it for me. It's funny how the wins seem to always play out - I take lots of losses over the course of the game, bleeding killpoints but in return my army slowly whittles down the opponent - finally what they are left with isn't enough to win.

I'm still working on my batrep from my game last weekend versus another Blood Angels army... Lots of pictures. It was a true nail biter so keep an eye out.