Tyranids have sat in a funny spot for me for awhile - I've collected them since mid 7th edition and enjoyed playing them in casual games through 7th and start of 8th but as the edition wore on there playstyle also rather bugged me (pun intended.) The heavy artillery shooting of weapons like the Hive Guard never appealed to me as a playstyle, and whilst some of the monster mash Crusher Stampede lists sounded fun, it was mostly the big monster that I didn't own that were ideal in it which combined with the mix of rules in there old codex, Psychic awakening, Leviathan supplement and Crusher Stampede White Dwarf always provided a barrier to entry that prevented me from taking them to any event - especially given my love of Chaos.
Yet as you may have noticed, the new Tyranid book is great, and much much better at playing a close combat - mid board style of list which was much more my type of playstyle. I started with Levithan big monsters as a base but quickly ended up moving direction to Kraken - the 8 inch auto advance was a huge part of this, but with armour of contempt the extra ap on the charge was hard to turn down and also bizarrely the weaker adaptive trait made Kraken more appealing to me than its Levithan counterpart as having the option to swap out the D3+3 advance for Heroic Intervention/+1 to charge/ignore modifiers on charge/no overwatch all sounded great. In the end I defaulted to Heroic Intervention in every game - using it as a kinda 'counts as' obsec for my monsters to help counteract a somewhat lack of obsec otherwise in my list.
The list started out simple enough - Two Winged Hive Tyrants with nasty combat weapons was a must, and as it happened I had both a Scything Talon and Lashwhip/Bonesword Winged Hive Tyrant ready to go - credit to my 7th edition self for making the coolest looking Hive Tyrant rather than giving it any stupid looking but much more effective guns. Both took an warlord trait and relic - unsurprisingly taking Reaper of Obliterax on one with Adaptive Biology to give it a 5+ feel no pain, and the other taking the Scythes of Tyran for the extra damage and Alien Cunning to give me another source of obsec. The utility picks were easy enough - a minimum Gargoyle and Warrior unit for troops, a Nuerotophe as my Warlord with Catalyst/Onslaught to hide at the back and send buffs down the Synaptic Link change (with Synaptic Tendrils Warlord Trait to buff casting of typically itself + either the Maleceptor for output or whichever Hive Tyrant was likely to cast a Physic Action) with some Venomthropes for defence, Zoanthropes mostly for the 4+ invul imperative and a single Maleceptor - mostly for access to the -1 strength bubble v shooting action, but certainly not ignoring its mortal wound output. 9 Ravenors in a squad of 6/3 acted as my first wave - their synergy with Kraken strat and generally all around fighting power was ideal and they added a key source of infantry to a list that could have some trouble with easily getting move blocked otherwise. Speaking of, to round out the list and probably the most noticeable point of difference from the other Tyranid lists at the event- 5 Carnfixes, all with enhanced senses, Heavy venom cannon and 4 with Crushing Claws upgrade. The Carnifexes were grouped up in such a way that 1 squad of 3 could be a TTL choice along with the 2 Hive Tyrants, whilst it was a nice option to have I never ended up picking them as I really hate taking TTL unless I really have no other choice.
The event was using the new Tyranid FAQ which did put a hamper on the list, but not in a particularly noticeable way. The overrun change was certainly a nerf - I had to be more careful about potential denies when advancing/casting onslaught to avoid being caught out in the open without a safety net of just putting the Hive Tyrant back into reserve and the Maleceptor 'nerf' with potential output wasn't a big deal - it was still great and I mostly wanted it to help make the Carnifex a real pain to shoot.
My list in full made up of 2 Patrols:
Game 1 - Abandoned Sanctuaries
Opponents List:
My Secondaries: Physic Interrogation, Stranglehold, No Prisoners
Opponents Secondaries : RND, Stranglehold, Abhor the Witch.
Pregame thoughts - Tau are always scary (see my last blog on this site for further proof if needed) and I haven't had much experience playing them at all this edition, never mind with Nids. Aim was to try and play cagey at the start, look for a chance to tie up the Broadsides when possible with Gargoyles/Raveners making a long advance and then moving up the rest of the bugs and try and overwhelm the Crisis suits on that turn. Deployment was mostly hiding anything that wasn't a Carnifex/Maleceptor behind walls and ruins and trying to make line of sight tough for the Crisis units hiding in the far left corner to see anything as they jumped in and out of the building.
I won the roll off for the first turn, somewhat of a mixed blessing as whilst I couldn't shoot anything it did give me a chance to close the gap and get an easy Stranglehold/start on Physical Interrogation. On my far right flank I turbo advanced/charged my 6 Ravenors across the board and charged one of the small crisis suits crippling it but otherwise the turn was mostly uneventful.
I hadn't got much exposed as Tau moved up cautiously in advance - moving up some Kroot onto the middle objectives and using the large crisis suits to delete my Gargoyles on the centre objective. The Broadsides and a Commander lined up to take out my large Ravenor unit - but a combination of horrible rolls to wound them and some lucky FNP saves meant they only ended up killing a single Ravenor to leave Tau with an early problem.
With an opportunity to tag the broadsides now clear the Ravenors moved up towards the Tau home objectives whilst my Carnifex's advance up - still without any target of note. My combined casting/shooting took out the Kroot on the objectives without much difficulty and my Ravenors in the Tau backline took out the Kroot Hounds with their shooting, killed the Stealth Suits screening the broadsides and piled into combat with them to protect my advancing large bugs.
Whilst the score was even, Tau were under pressure and needed a response. In from deep strike came another Crisis unit which took out my smaller squad of Ravenors, some Vespid came down in my right flank for RND and some pressure closest to my home objective and the Hammerhead came in from outflank - thankfully however despite a re-roll it failed to wound the Hive Tyrant it shot at. The large Crisis unit managed to take out a Carnifex, but the Ravenors continued to make a pain for themself, surviving the in-combat shooting from the Broadsides and the charge from the Ongar gauntlet commander long enough to deal a few wounds back to him
Going into my turn 3 I got a max score in primary and a great position to strike. My Obsec Hive Tyrant flew over to the Tau home objective, stealing the point and with a combination of strats and psychic powers killed the Tau commander before crippling the broadsides with a charge. The Carnifex's in the middle split up - 2 moved forward and softened up the Hammerhead, whilst 2 went back to protect my home objective whilst the Venomthropes which had been hanging back there moved up and managed a longish charge into Vespid leaving just a solitary Vespid left. My other Hive Tyrant moved up and killed the other Tau commander to leave Tau in a very awkward position.
Tau were not in a great position to put it mildly, they scored nothing on primary, were falling behind on secondary and had threats galore for them. The turn started pooly when the Hammerhead again failed to inflict a telling blow and whilst they managed to clear out some Warriors on the left objective the large Crisis unit failed to make an impact of note into the Hive Tyrant close by.
Going into turn 4 it was mostly a case of wrapping up any mild chance the Tau had of coming back. I elected to the Ethereal to ensure I could keep casting Psychic interrogation and focus on finishing off almost all the rest of the Tau. A combination of Mortal wounds from the Maleceptor and Zoanthrope started to soften the Crisis unit on the left objective whilst the Carnifex in the middle finished off the Hammerhead. The large crisis unit started to get softened up by the Scythed Hive Tyrant but the fight only resulted in a few dead drones.
Tau simply had no way left to influence the game at this point and the last couple of turns ended up as a scrap between the Crisis Suits trying to shoot their way out of combat with the Hive Tyrant. In the end Tyranids ended up convincing winners 99-32 with only a single point of no prisoners denying me from 100!
Postgame thoughts: Everything went to plan, and better. The 6 strong Ravenor squad set the tone early on, and when Tau failed to deal with them they were always fighting fires in their backfield rather than putting any real pressure on me - perhaps best enscapatled with the fact that they only managed one stranglehold over the game. The mission and deployment certainly were helpful - Tau had to choose between hiding in the building and being in charge range of either Ravenors or Hive Tyrants or behind the building and potentially getting shot by Carnifexs, not sure there was a lot they could do to mitigate against both threats.
Game 2: Data Scry Salvage
Opponents list:
My Secondaries: Stranglehold, Bring it Down, Banners
Opponents Secondaries: Engage, Banners, To the Last (Hive Tyrants/Tyrant Guard.)
Pregame thoughts: Tyranid Mirror, with this feeling much like the meme of 'the list she tells you not to worry about.' Triple Maleceptor and Double Harpy meant they likely had the edge in both Physics and ranged, especially with the added defence/reliability in shooting from Leviathan and the Damage 5 Shard Gullet Hive Tyrant shooting from the back. On my side however - I did have a speed advantage and the Carnifex's did provide me better objective play in comparison to the Harpy's and a more potent combat threat at taking out any big monster that came too close - hence why we ended up going with Engage v Stranglehold in secondaries. Still this was a very match up especially with no experience of the Tyranid mirror.
I did want to go first to get some venom cannons into the Harpies but this might have been a mistake and I lost the roll off regardless. Leviathan Nids pushed up onto the middle, with both Harpies pushing up very aggressively to try and get line of sight on my large Ravenor squad. Levithan's shooting slightly low rolled - Shard Gullet only managed to get one successful wound through on a Carnifex and one Ravenor managed to cling to life against the Harpies Venom Cannons to leave me in a better than expected position.
In response I pushed up a Hive Tyrant towards each Harpy whilst my Gargoyles and Ravenors went to retake objectives. My Carnifex's started to unleash their Venom Cannons into a Maleceptor, but despite starting really well, the average sadly balanced out and they just barely managed to bracket it. In addition to retaking the objective, the Gargoyles also made sure there was enough of a gap that even if the Ravenors and themselves got smited to death by Levithan Maleceptors, they wouldn't be able to get close enough to the Carnifex's to damage any of them hiding behind them. My psychic phase softened up the Harpies and both Hive Tyrants were able to take out their respective Harpy to give me a solid start in both attrition and on bring it down.
Turn two, Levithan took aim at my Obsec Hive Tyrant, pushed the Maleceptors forward to retake the middle and Ravenors pushed into my lines. My Gargoyles and Ravenors were taken apart in a storm of mind bullets my Sychted Hive Tyrant took a batter as well, and in combination from Shard Gullet and the Maleceptors charge was taken out - but I spent my remaining CP to fight on death and managed to take the Maleceptor out in return. The Levithan Ravenors charged my Venomthropes, who sadly failed their 3+ fight last and a chance to dent the incoming damage and were torn apart.
On my turn two I had a chance to deal a real blow but made a big error. I advance up a Carnifex so charge the opposing Maleceptor on the centre right flank (the far right objective both ended up ignoring for almost the entire game) and tie up the objective whilst the rest started to line up shots. The Maleceptor and Hive Tyrant started to line up a charge into the Leviathan Ravenors deep in my lines but I blanked and completely forgot to charge them in order to leave the unit free to cause havoc. I had deliberately pulled the Hive Tyrant back from the frontlines - low on CP I didn't want to give an easy charge from its evil-Levithan counterpart without the threat of a fight on death/chance to heroic intervene with a Carnifex. The Heavy Vencom Cannons didn't manage much of note and despite making the charge into the Maleceptor the combination of transhuman and 4+ Invul caused it to bounce completely although at least it didn't manage any serious damage back either. In a huge potential swing my lone Ravenor managed to kill the obsec-Parasite on the far left objective after it elected not to interrupt (tough chance to kill the Ravenor but far from impossible) as we both were running out of easy ways to hold objectives in the middle.
Taking full advantage of my mistake the Levithan Ravenors charged into my Warriors holding my home objective and tore them to pieces and the Maleceptors moved in to take on my Carnifex's. Low on units the Levithan Winged Hive Tyrant moved over to the far right object and the Shardgullet Hive Tyrant came out to challenge the middle left objective along with some Venomthropes. Both Maleceptors failed to do much against the Carnifex's after a poor psychic phase and my Carnfiex on the centre right objective managed to take out the Maleceptor it was in combat. The Leviathan Venomthropes managed to charge the Zoanthropes and kill one to retake the objective though to keep the game low scoring.
Going into my 3 turn, neither of us had a single primary point from holding objectives yet I was marginally ahead on secondary (excluding TTL) but I was unable to perform the mission primary action this turn thanks to the Ravenors. However with two TTL Hive Tyrants Visible I had the chance for a big swing there. 3 of my Carnifex's lined up to shoot the Winged Tyrant on the objective - hoping to just soften him up but a combination of strong hit/wounds rolls and poor saves killed it outright despite its Levithan transhuman and touching dense terrain.On the other hand my Hive Tyrant horrifically whiffed on its wound rolls despite having full reroll wounds available and took a beating from the foot Hive Tyrant back. However to round out the turn my 3 Carnifex's in tandem just managed to finish off the last Leviathan Maleceptor and a combination of Mortal wounds from my Nuerothrope and Maleceptor took out the Ravenors on my objective.
The scoreboard was still close - Levithan picked up the first primary points for holding objectives on the game, but the army was losing steam. They focused down on killing my last Winged Hive Tyrant, sadly killed exactly before the fight phase started and a second chance to take out the foot hive Tyrant.
On my turn four I responded with my first primary points for holding objectives, and with the last turn scoring in sight I had a chance to end the contest. My Carnifex's softened up the last Hive Tyrant with their cannons before one managed to charge in and take it out and the last Venomthropes fell to the combined might of a Carnfix and my remaining Physic power.
The last turn was very straightforward, Levithan made a last push up with some warriors to try and make the last turn more difficult but I started the turn on 4 objectives regardless of a big swing on primary. Combined with 2 TTL targets slain and engage having become very difficult after the Harpies death it resulted in a Kraken win 71-39
Postgame thoughts:
Brutal game throughout, a very low scoring primary game - going second ended up a huge advantage with the scoring there as well as forcing Levithan to show itself first and overextend a few too many models. Getting the Harpies early was crucial - they had to get close to shoot anything apart from Carnifex's and the my Hive Tyrants took full advantage of them over extending - even excluding the damage they could have dealt it probably cost them 8-10 points in Enage on all Fronts alone and the lack of scoring pressure meant I could just focus on the midboard as I never really got close to threatening the Levithan home objective. Forgetting to charge the Ravenors was a huge misplay on my part that thankfully didn't end up costing too much - it denied me 4-7 primary and a chance to push my Maleceptor upfield earlier. Still was thrilled with the win over a more meta version of my list.
Game 3 - Conversion
Opponents List:
Secondaries - Stranglehold, No Prisoners, Warp Ritual
Opponents Secondaries - Stranglehold, TTL (Swarmlord, Hive Tyrant,Carnifex's)
Pregame thoughts: Ok, so this one is even more of a mirror match than the last game, but the differences here are very much in my favour. Both of us can charge silly distances however having played (and lost) to a friend at the club using Sisters my big take away was that when both sides can be this quick and deadly in combat - use the Carnifex's to screen. Outside of my opponents winged Hive Tyrant nothing else is fast enough or killy enough to threaten to get through a Carnifex especially with Heroic Interventions close by to potentially double up on any charger (or at least stop the Winged Hive Tyrant from flying back after combat.) Otherwise it's very much a who-can-charge who first situation, any unit from either side can take out its equivalent on the other if it charges without much issue. Whilst it's possible for opponents to do the same with their Carnifex/Swarmlord it's less appealing, especially with TTL on Swarmlord. As a final note on secondaries - I went for Warp Ritual > Physic interrogation here as I wanted to dominate the mid-board with Carnifex's anyway and compared to Physic ritual I only had to cast it 3 times, so even if it got denied twice I would score max of 12, compared to 9 with Interrogation - choosing to take a lower ceiling for more reliability and potential upside of freeing up a caster later.
I won the roll off for the first turn, I had a line on a Maleceptor so had been keen to go first and get some damage in. I moved up why Carnifexs around the middle and Kraken advanced the 3 man Ravener unit towards the Deathleaper to try and remove its disruption potential. Sadly things didn't roll well - every Venom cannon shot failed to either wound or was saved and the Ravenors only managed a couple of wounds against the Deathleaper who killed one back.
Going second had made it tough for my opponents army to contest the left flank objective - Deathleaper disappeared into reserves to avoid the my Ravenors who were charged and destroyed by a Tyranid Warrior unit. In the middle there Maleceptor and Gargoyles jumped forwards to take some objectives and the opponents two Carnifex's managed to outperform all of mine - not killing anything but leaving 2 badly hurt clinging to life.
Turn two I was in a strong position to take control and wanted to take out anything fast I could. I Kraken-advanced my Scythed Hive Tyrant close to the Ravenors with the Venomthropes moving up to take out the Gargoyles, and almost as importantly they wanted to end the turn close to the Hive Tyrant to dissuade its counterpart with a potential fights last. My 2 Carnifex's on the left flank managed to blow up the warriors that had killed my Venoms and the remaining three in combination with my psychic powers and charging managed to take out the Maleceptor in the middle. When the Venomthropes and Hive Tyrant both managed to take out their respective targets I overran the Hive Tyrant back to the lower right objective close to the Venomthropes.
The opposition's Nids were now mostly penned into the corner and had to try to breakout. The Deathleaper reappeared on my far left flank as the remaining Warriors and Ravenors moved up in the middle-right to try and retake some objectives whilst the Hive Tyrant went dead centre to try and get rid of some of my Carnfixes. The opposing Carnfixes found a cheeky angle to spot mine, but failed to do any damage of note. The Ravenors and Warriors set up for a creative play to try and nab both the centre and right objective - but the Venomthropes (with help from fights last to soften the blow and removing models correctly on my part) held on long enough to stop any pile in /consolidation shenanigans from occurring. The Hive Tyrant managed to just kill both of my Carnifex's and flew back after combat to keep itself safe but it meant an early swing on primary points to me.
Going into my turn I was up on primary and secondary (excluding TTL points) and it was very hard for the opponent even with Kraken to contest the objectives without me Heroic Intervention and smashing what got placed. My turn was therefore spent prioritising anything that could change that. The pile of warriors and Ravenors in the centre my opponent had massacred - both Hive Tyrants and a Carnifex charged in after they got softened up with casts and a Venom cannon.
My opponent was in a very rough spot - a lone Gargoyle had managed to survive a Carnfix charge and popped into the centre but there wasn't a way to get to either objective easily. He ended up going for my left objective with his Hive Tyrant and some Obsec Ravenors and managed to reclaim it during his turn, but I was able to swing it back on mine, regenerating some Gargoyles back to ensure my points kept flowing in.
Now miles ahead on primary it was simply a case of stopping any miracles happening and trying to max some secondaries. My scythed Hive Tyrant ran up and took out some Warriors on the far objective, piling into the Tyrant Guard to stop them advancing onto the middle.
The last few turns shot by quickly - the Swarmlord terminated my Winged Hive Tyrant in style and we traded blows on the left flank which I held onto, but lost a Carnfiex for my troubles. I suicided my other Hive Tyrant to take out some more Hive Guard for some more no prisoner points to take home a comfortable win 92-71
Postgame thoughts: Outside of a disappointing turn one, it went pretty much to plan. Whilst I occasionally lost the middle to a cheeky obsec unit I dominated the area throughout and whilst my opponent maxed out TTL it came at the cost of not being able to use his premier units to fight for the middle without fear of reprisal whilst I had no such quandaries. As an interesting point of comparison - both of us ended up scoring the same on our psychic secondaries - 12, but I was able to have 2 turns of bonus smiting so I was happy with the decision to try for ritual.
Game 4 - Tear down their icons.
Opponents List:
Secondaries: Stranglehold, Warp Ritual, Banners
Opponents Secondaries - Stranglehold, Bring it Down, Scry Futures (Eldar Psychic Secondary)
Pregame thoughts: Up against Ben Jones from Vanguard tactics - we'd had a cracking game at LGT (write up also on site) with my Lord of Skulls tanking what felt like a million damage from Dhrazar and his Incubi. Completely different lists from both of this time and seeing Hail of Doom in the flesh was very scary given that it could completely negate my toughness. This was the one match that I was tempted to either keep my adaptive trait for more speed overall or swap it for +1 to charge but did end up keeping heroic intervention to try and keep any annoying solo models contesting my monsters.
The main concern I had was over the 9 Bikers, given I couldn't interact with them and I was more worried about them than the Hawks, due to their potential just to delete a Hive Tyrant if they failed a charge. I decided just to ignore both the Hawks and Barroth and just accept they would do damage and I couldn't do anything about it baring a misplay. Otherwise I was torn between trying to overload Craftworld with targets and trying to hide and trying to approach it like Tau - hide turn 1/2 and pop the 4+ invul when needed to get close and bully the middle. Wasn't confident about this going in.
I deployed pretty close to the line - I essentially purposely didn't play pretty much anything given Phantasm was a option and just went for a general whats best and assume anything of his can get anything with the notable exception of the 1 - Hive Tyrants hiding in the back - if Eldar did have a way to get LOS/Range on them then like the Harpies in round 2 I wanted them to have to overextend to get it, and 2 - ensuring the 6 man Ravenor squad couldn't be easily got at by the Striking Scorpions
Eldar went pretty much pedal to the metal turn 2 - starting off with Phantasm to ensure they could Eldritch Storm 6 units from out of deny range as well as Hawks and Rangers jumping upfield. The storm was painful - doing in the region of 25ish mortal wounds spread across the units - or as Eldar called it "A little bit of chip damage." However the Scorpions bounced hard against the Ravenors leaving one alive on two wounds when I expected to lose the squad. Going into my turn I still had every unit alive bar some Gargoyles that had got ripped to pieces by a 3 man Jetbike squad
Whilst there had been a nice bonus to having most units, I was very concerned about the damage to my big monsters and decided I had to be aggressive to try and ensure I didn't fall behind on damage too much. After measuring out my threat range I realised there were still 2 Farseers about 25 inches away from my large Ravenor squad and moved my Carnfiex's upfield, split onto each opposite objective whilst my Venomthropes took the middle supported by a Carnifex with a Hive Tyrant close by to cast Warp Ritual. A combination of Physic/shooting was enough to clear out the meagre Eldar units on objectives and the Raveners thankfully made their charge into both Farseers - focusing most of their attacks on the one with guide and managed to kill it outright - a huge early moment in the game. I'm not sure on the exact maths - but I believe it over halved the efficiency of the Jetbike squad I was so scared of without a guide being able to fish for 6's when needed.
Still despite a key synergy piece being removed, I was behind on attrition and Eldar decided to go all in on having a big turn. The Banshees disembarked from there Wave Serpent on to the centre and a deep striking Dire Avengers came in to start shooting into my north left flank whilst Warp Spiders did the same on the opposite side of the table. One Carnifex fell on the north side and the Ravenors were utterly destroyed by the Jetbikes shooting but a huge swing happened with an ambitious multi-charge from the Banshees who charged both Venomthropes and a Carnifex through the wall. The Venomthropes and Banshees both made each other fight last and the Carnifex managed to kill 3 of the Banshees including the Exarch (who had tanked the mortal wound from the Venomthropes.) The Banshees them failed to deal a telling blow to the Venomthropes who finished them off, resulting in a early swing on primary for me and huge moment swing in the middle with assets.
With the Venomthropes free and a Hive Tyrant in position to strike I had some decisions to make - I had the option of a 9 inch charge on the bikers if I used my auto advance strat and would probably have to cast advance + charge from the Tyrant (using the know all spells strat) without modifiers in deny range. As much as I was really, really tempted to do so suspecting I would probably win there if I did I didn't like the odds and had to settle for taking back the lower right objective instead (stupid mission playing rather than YOLO charges.) With the centre surprisingly free already I left a Carnifex on the objective and sent two other Carnifex's along with the Maleceptor in as support for my push on the right - taking out the Warp Spiders with mind bullets and a combination of Venom cannons and Scything Talons ripped open the Wave Serpent.
My left/upper flank was in danger of falling so my Reaper Tyrant went up to help stabilise it along with my Zoanthropes, a Carnifex and lone remaining Ravenor who with combination of shooting, assault and morale managed to take out 9 of the Dire Avengers by itself whilst the rest of the bugs finished off the jetbikes on the objective.
Craftworld still had a lot of damage, but it was trapped in a building on the far side of the table now, and they had to unleash everything into killing my Hive Tyrant to retake the right objective and leave Baharroth exposed on the objective to keep it secure. On the left side the obsec Farseer nabbed my objective to keep points coming in for Eldar and limit my primary.
The game was going by very quickly now - we were very close on scoreline (4ish points up to Nids) but when the Maleceptor and Carnifex combined forces to kill Baharroth Eldar were pretty much out of options especially when my Hive Tyrant sat in the middle daring anyone to come into Heroic range
The Hawks made one last play to get behind, but especially with the second turn there wasn't much of note Eldar could do to keep up and they fell 20 points behind on primary over turns 4/5 as Nids took a 78-51 win home.
Postgame thoughts - Phew another really tough game. The Ravenors killing the guide Farseer at the start really kept Eldar's damage in check and meant they couldn't simply obliterate with Hive Tyrants at will and the Venomthropes/Carnifex double charge was a huge mistake which was the other key turning point at the start. Up until turn 3 it was neck in neck with Nids only pulling away in the last 2 thanks to the durability of the remaining monsters.
Game 5 - Tide of Conviction
Opponents list:
My secondaries: Stranglehold, No Prisoners, Banners
Opponents Secondaries: Banners, Wrath of Magnus, Physic Interrogation.
Pregame thoughts: I was very confident about this match. For a starters - I'm very familiar with Thousand Sons, probably more than any other game which helped a lot (was actually invited on the excellent Sandman podcast to talk about them - link here) secondly - this was almost identical to a list I'd considered and the noticeably large boots of Magnus apart, not dissimilar to what I had been running at the last event. That said, Magnus was the large red elephant in the room that threatened to turn things. Plan was simple though - try and shoot Magnus down given he was going to struggle to hide, otherwise focus on hurting the terminator squads - I was happy to trade down into them if needed as my support units were so much better than TS.
I won the roll off for the first turn - I could only see Magnus with 3 Carnifex's but started chipping away. I advanced aggressively on my right flank to send my Sytched Hive Tyrant into the terminators there - I ended up killing 5, less than I'd hoped for after some saves were spiked but it was still a worthwhile endeavour especially as they did negligible damage back.
TS either teleported or flew most of their stuff into the mid-backfield of there board, only some Cultists/Spawn coming out on the objective in mid-table and everything got unleashed into my Hive Tyrant feeling it, however outside of some chip damage to a Carnifex it was the only damage they could muster back and the second set of terminators was in view of my other Hive Tyrant
My turn two I pushed forward aggressively - my second Hive Tyrant moved up and charged the full terminator squad, leaving 3 left after its charge was done before overrunning back to hide from Magnus. My Ravenors charged into the spawn - leaving only one left on a wound and when Gargoyles capping another TS objective there was immediate scoreboard pressure on them.
TS needed to make some players, and they found a good one - I had to move a Nuerothrope backwards to stay out of Magnus's deny range and it meant they were no longer protected - a teleport across from the 5 man squad and some expert firepower took it out. Magnus moved over to dispatch the Ravenors - I had hoped the -1 to hit and 4 wounds v 3 damage might help them survive but they proved no match for the Lord of the Thousand Sons.
Going into Nids turn 3 there was a realisation that I might, just might be able to sneak into the top four with a big score here so I went in for the kill on everything but Magnus. My Hive Tyrant went to pick out Ahirman and destroyed him in combat whilst two Carnifexs did the same to the Rubric squad on the objective. Another Carnfiex managed to get into the 5 man terminator squad but the fight ended in a standstill. The Heavy Venom cannons had been mostly popping off Magnus 4+ invul the past few turns which still left him a major threat.
TS needed a big swing back here, and they so nearly managed it. The remaining terminators on the TS home objective combined with Magnus fearsome psychic dominance utterly obliterated the two Carnifex between him and the Hive Tyrant who had its invulnerable save turned off. Magnus made the charge, but just when it looked like he might single handedly turn the tide of battle, he low-rolled on his wounds - only getting 4 for 12 through which the Tyrant made 4 FNP saves to ensure its survival. In return the Hive Tyrant ended Magnus
The rest of the battle was little more than a slaughter as a result with nothing left to stop the Hive Tyrant and the terminators unable to bring down the Carnifex's. Final result - 96, 29 to Nids
A brutal end to the game and scoreline doesn't really encapsulate how worried I got when Magnus managed his charge onto the Hive Tyrant. Without it I would have had to rely on a Venom Cannon or two really producing something special. It's possible I was far enough ahead on scoreline that TS wouldn't have been able to come back - but the momentum would have changed to barely holding on from Nids from that point on.
From there it was an anxious wait for around an hour seeing if I had made top 4:
Sadly it turned out to be 5th - not the end of the world and would have certainly taken it as the start, given I was knackered and really did need to get my train (I'm not sure what I'd have done if I ended up staying) and ended up a fair distance from 4th on Battle points of 4th so at least the margin wasn't too close to be teasing and I was absolutely delighted to go 5-0 given both the calibre of player and list I ended up playing given 3/4 players I played I was there only loss (the other went 3-2)
The upside of finishing 5th was that I did end up with best Xenos (1-4 were all Xenos as well, but there is a max 1 award per person and they all were going to end up with something higher ranking anyway) which was a delight to win.
As for the list itself - well I was thrilled with it, it's hard to suggest many changes with it given how well it turned out. The Superstars were certainly the Ravenors - if I wanted more of something it would be them, simply incredible reach and damage and awkward to kill especially in combat. The two Hive Tyrants weren't far behind - the extra mobility and threat range of two in Kraken just meant I always had so many options. The silent star of the list was the Nuerothrope - 3d6 casting with + normally out of deny range and up the synpase change for advance + charge and/or 5FNP on a unit was so key to running everything. It didn't get enough mentions in the write up above, but everytime I Kraken advanced something this was so key to it all going smoothly. The Carnifex's were great, they performed a second wave, did some unreliable but really nasty shots and noone really had a good answer for all of them. Not sure they are better than other Nids units (Harpy for example) but they are way cooler/more Iconic and certainly great on there own right.
If I had to pick a most disappointing unit it would probably be the Zoanthropes - they weren't bad at all - most people in the psychic phase normally had a WTF when they weren't aware of there Smite rules - the 'problem' being that's all they did, whereas everything else contributed in multiple phases. To be fair they did contribute an important synapse web link (which could be replaced) and whilst the 4+ invul imperative is really great, it only really affected the Carnifex's for a turn and I didn't always have synapse around for them to benefit. Otherwise without completely changing the list to Levithan the only minor change would be potentially dropping the Crushing claws on the Carnifex for another Ravenor on the 3 squad, just to add slightly more skirming power. One thing I was worried about was the lack of Tyrant Guard to keep the Tyrants themself self and potentially wanting to drop a Carnfiex for them but I didn't end up needing it and seeing how others used seemed to limit the Hive Tyrant to the back rather than letting it rome wild and free like mine did (although I often had to hide right at the back rather than deploy aggressively with them.) Given its amount the most caster heavy metagame at the moment trying a Kronos variant has a lot of interest, especially as they can get Lurk for Obsec Carnifex's but the 'useful' part of the trait with the extra ap is the one that gets swapped, whereas for Kraken its feels like the weaker half does. Something to try for the future at least.