It’s Synapse Time – Tyranids Vs. Space Robots
Want to learn the tips and tricks that will win you your next game? Checkout the latest Inside the Mind of a Tournament Gamer battle report NOW!
Juice brought a Highlander style Tyranid Army, he’s won a game and tied a game and going into game three the stakes are about as high as they can be. If he can knock this game out of the park he certainly could walk away with the top 6 or top 8. Which, for the style of list, Highlander, that’s mission accomplished.
Game 3, Pre-Deployment Thoughts
Going into game 3 of this tournament the match up isn’t easy, it never is in a game 3, and my opponent brought nine drop pods full of Grav Cadillac’s and skittari with guns that feel like it’s pumping out a billion plasma shots. Ultimately however, I didn’t feel his specialty weapons were going to be the real threat. He had some hidden stuff that ignored cover which is what concerned me the most.
Pro-Tip: Skittari is a complicated codex, with lots of intricate moving parts, as a tournament player you might need to be questioning things a bit more than you ordinarily would if your opponent is even a bit hesitant in answering.
With this match up the first 20-30 minutes of this game and I wanted to be sure to be hyper alert because when you’re facing Drop Pods that’s critical point of the game.
In my mind, I have 15 years of playing drop pods, so I’m trying to apply all of that to this battle. This mission is dawn of war, table quarters, old school 4th and 5th edition ,which I love, Objective Secure units count as full even if they’re down. I’m going for warlord, marked for death, and line breaker.
Note: This tournament used a multi-mission format from Nova which fits in really well with “Bringing the Hobby Back” movement because it’s not all about win-loss.
Round 1
My opponent, John, he’s a local, so I’m used to playing him. He’s got some Skittari, Ad Mech, and Blood Angels.
Going into turn one I was not at all impressed with his shooting but then all the multi-wound shots changed my mind; those guns did a lot of work. I lost a demasheron and half of the optimus prime on turn 1 just from the little bit of shooting he had on the board.
He got a bit overzealous on how close we wanted to get to me, but the range of his firepower isn’t super long, so that’s kind of expected.
Pro-Tip: with a 24” range, don’t get close to assault army, don’t be over aggressive thinking you’re going to come in and blow away an army on turn one because if you don’t – you will pay the next turn.
You can see that John is coming in hot and dropping his Pods right next to the swarm.
I was happy that Paroxysm did get off because it lowers BS and WS. My Gaunts made an 8inch charge but my Raveners didn’t get their 6 inch charge. Sigh. Turn 1 didn’t go the way I needed it to. The Hive Tyrant didn’t do any work either.
Round 2
oh look, it’s a hive tyrant being woefully ineffective.
He got in another 2 Drop Pods, he brought the Culexus Assassin which had me worried. His Psykout Grenades hit, but then, oh wait, I rolled a 6 in the Psychic Mishap Table, so now I’m Super Saiyan. Awesome.
Pro-Tip: when playing quarters, drop in the middle so that you can be a bit more flexible towards the end of the game in order to get the bodies you need in the right quarters to take control of it.
On the downside his Skittari took out my optimus prime one the sky shield landing pad. I didn’t understand how even with the lower BS he was still doing work. They must have had Nidbane or something on them. Not letting make FNP is what murdered me. The gene stealers outflanked and they showed up right where I needed them too. Further, the Gaunts broke out of combat right when I needed them to and the Raveners got into Combat.
I combo charged the Culexus assassin with the Tyrant Guard, Swam Lord, and Lictors, however, the Tyrant Guard was in between so that my opponent would have to roll multiple sixes to reduce the impact of his instant death.
Overall, I’m winning combats but through attrition he’s dwindling me down.
Pro-Tip: If your drop pod army is designed to Alpha Strike Hard but you don’t break your opponent early on and you’re not in position to score objectives it’s going to be hard to win games because you’re just not in position.
Round 3
A big turning point in the game was the terrain working to my advantage. Because he was on top of the ice sculpture in the middle he had no Line of Sight to the targets that he wanted had to come down. Meanwhile, I was in cover and shrouded which meant I was okay for a few turns. He did manage to K.O. my Ravener but even with all the drop pods it just wasn’t enough.
Turning point, he had to come down off the ice to get the line of sight he wanted
Round 4
Marked for Death, this HQ squad had to die. Genestealers, you’re up to bat!
I thought about charging but in order to win the game I decided to keep my units together, to weather the storm and stay alive to win the game. The -1 cover and the auspex was doing work against my cover.
Round 5
The Maleontrhope went down in his phase, the swarm lord got crushed by his command unit. My Hive Tyrant and the Gene Steelers are now in position to put massive pressure onto his HQ unit. Luckily, for me, the Gene Steelers won the combat; it was super hero move by the genestealers for the first time ever.
Mission Accomplished.
At the end of the game I had two units of Lictors, 3 Gene Stealers, a 2 body Gaunt unit, and 1 Flying Hive Tyrant. The key was my Objective Secure units, which turned off all those drop pods, and won the table quarters that I needed.
There is certainly something to be said for having a lot of unit variance in your army because then you’re forcing your opponent to use his Target Priority because mistakes will be made.
