BR20: The Black Buzzards VS Tyranids - 1500pts

A battle against Shadows Revenge's Terrifying Tyranids! This was my first game against Tyranids since 4th edition. Report Number 20!

The Armies:

Black Buzzards (DE)

HQ
Archon, blaster, venom blade, shadow field

TROOPS
7 Warriors, blaster
Raider
10 Warriors, blaster, splinter cannon
Raider
10 Warriors, blaster, splinter cannon
Raider
10 Warriors, blaster, splinter cannon
Raider

FAST ATTACK
9 Reavers, 3 blasters, arena champion, venom blade
9 Reavers, 3 blasters, arena champion, venom blade

HEAVY SUPPORT
Ravager
Ravager

Tyranids (TY)

HQ
Flyrant, 2 twin-linked brain leach devourers, Regeneration (Biomancy: Iron Arm, Warp Speed)

ELITE
2 Hive Guard
2 Hive Guard
2 Hive Guard

TROOPS
13 Termigants
13 Termigants
Tervigon (Telepathy: Psy Shriek)
Tervigon (Telepathy: Psy Shriek)

HEAVY
Trygon, regeneration, toxin sacs
Trygon, regeneration, toxin sacs

Mission: Crusade (5 objectives)
Deployment: Dawn of War
Night Fight on first turn: No
First Turn: DE
Warlord Trait DE: Coordinated Assault (+1 charge distance if within 12" of warlord)
Warlord Trait TY: Strategic Genius (re-roll reserve rolls)
Combat Drugs: Painbringer (re-roll to wound)

Objectives
The Tyranids won the roll off for picking table sides so the got to place the first objective, this meant they got to place three out of the five objectives. I placed two of mine in the corner where I wanted to deploy. The Tyranids placed their objectives in the opposite corner.

Deployment:

The Tyranids won the roll off for deployment and decided to go second. I was going first for a change. I deployed my force in the bottom left corner so that it would threaten anything the Tyranids deployed in the top left corner, forcing my opponent to choose between closing the distance quickly and facing all of my fire power or taking the safer option of keeping their distance but facing less of my force (at least that was the idea). The reavers stayed in reserve. The Tryranids deployed the bulk of their forces in the centre of their deployment zone with a tervigon and some gants lurking around the right most objective. The Tyranids tried to seize but were unsuccessful.

Turn 1 (DE):

The three raiders stayed stationary as nothing could threaten them next turn and it would net the splinter cannons an extra two shots each and they were in range of the hive guard (big mistake by Shadow, he forgot about the cannons)! They poured their fire into the hive guard killing a squad of two. I made a mistake here I finished the squad off with the raiders dark lance rather than the splinter fire from the squad inside (something worth remembering for next time). The Archon's raider moved forward and fired it's lance into the hive guard inflicting a wound. Both Ravagers shuffled backwards, one of them moving into the ruins, and both fired into the hive guard inflicting two wounds leaving one Hive Guard standing with a single wound.

Turn 1 (TY):

The tervigon on the right spawned 12 termigants, no doubles. The tervigon on the left spawned 16 termigants but rolled a double five so couldn't spawn any more for the rest of the game. The tyranid army surge forward (almost everything ran) using the central building to block line of sight to the hive guard.

Turn 2 (DE):

The three raiders move forward, two of the warrior squads disembark into cover and one disembarks into the open. The warriors in the open manage to trace line of sight to the hive guard on a single wound and finished him off with their splinter cannon earning them a pain token. The other warriors quads fired into the trygon inflicting two wounds. The archon's raider moved forward. All the ravagers and the raiders fired into the trygon leaving it on two wounds (It passed three of it's 5+ cover saves). Both reaver squads arrived from reserve and managed to get within 18" of the two remaining hive guard killing them both, and earning the reaver squad on the left a pain token.

The reavers then jumped back using their Eldar Jetbike Move, one of them rolling a 7 and the other a 10. They used this move to make sure they were more than 42" away from the board edge so that they could not be hit by the hive tyrant on the turn he came in (24" swoop 18" devourer range). The squad that rolled a 10 used the extra movement to get the valuable blaster to the back of the unit. The idea was that the tyrant would only be able to go for the warriors/raiders/ravagers who were all bunched up and able to support each other.

Turn 2 (TY):

The Trygon regenerated a wound. The tervigon spawned 10 termigants but rolled a double three so couldn't spawn any more for the rest of the game. All the Tyranids moved forward. The Hive Tyrant came in from reserve and swooped up to the raiders, he cast iron arm (in hindsight I'm not sure if you can cast blessings on the turn you come in from reserve) and got +2S/T. The tyrant decided to shoot the empty raider in the middle in the hope that the explosion would hit the warriors near by (a 3" explosion would have hit 10 warriors!). The devourers scored two glancing and two penetrating hits, the raider managed to jink on of the glancing hits and one of the penetrating hits. The penetrating hit that got through rolled a 1 and only shook the raider.

Turn 3 (DE):

The warriors all embarked into their raiders (all managing to get the 4" needed on their difficult terrain test, they needed 4" to get within 2" of the raiders hull). The raiders then shuffled back. The warriors who embarked into the shaken raiders fired at the tyrant first as they could only snap shot anyway (because of the shaken result). Despite the combined firepower of all four raiders and their warriors the hive tyrant only took two wounds and managed to pass all five of it's grounding tests! Both ravagers couldn't fire into the hive tyrant as they were facing the other way. One ravager fired into the trygon on three wounds scoring three wound's, it failed it's cover saves and died. The other ravager fired into the tervigon also inflicting three wounds. Best ravagers ever! One squad of reavers moved into rapid fire range of the gants out of synapse on the far right and killed three, which was not enough to force a leadership test (damn 5+ cover!). This meant that the other reavers who had originally planed to shoot the gants in the centre ruins had to bladevane the gants on the far left. Killing six and forcing the leadership test, despite only being leadership 6 the gants passed! I had to be careful with my positioning as I did not want my reavers in range of Psy Shriek.

Turn 3 (TY):

The hive tyrant rolled a double 6 on his psychic test and took a wound. The tyrant decided to stay in swoop mode as the archon was two close, and would cause him trouble in assault with his venom blade, 2+ invulnerable and moral support re-roll. The hive tyrant used vector strike on a raider stunning it and fired a single devourer into the raider with only one hull point point left scoring a penetrating hit that was ignored thanks to jink. The tervigon on the left fired into the reavers but didn't manage to kill any, as did the lurking gants, again to no effect (go 3+ cover and FNP). The squad in the ruin moved to the edge and fired at the reavers, but to no avail. They then decided to charge the reavers in the hope of tying them down as the gants would be fearless thanks to synapse. Overwatch from the reavers killed one, the gants made the charge. The reavers struk first thanks to being initiative 6 and used their 3" move to get as many models into combat. Only one reaver was unable to fight. The reavers killed ten gants before they could strike (painbringer!). The surviving two gants moved in to attack but failed to hurt the reavers. The surviving gants were now out of synapse and were promptly cut down by the reavers, earning them a second pain token.


Turn 4 (DE):

Both ravagers fired into the tervigon with three wounds but only managed to inflict one wound, leaving it standing. What made things worse is my other lances were facing the wrong way as the raiders had turned to be able to fire at the hive tyrant! The stunned raider and it's warriors snap fired into the hive tyrant amazingly managing to inflict two wounds, the tyrant tried to evade but to not avail. With the tyrant dead my other warriors were able to fire into the tervigon (warriors being able to shoot from any point of the hull is awesome). They killed it, it's death screams caused seven of the gants near by to explode. The reavers on bottom right bladevaned the surviving gants killing the remaining eight, and earning their first pain token. The other reavers bladevaned the gants in the open killing eleven, and forcing them to fall back. At this point the game was called, DE Victory!

DE Casualties: 0 TY Casualties: 1 Tervigon/ 1 Trygon / 1 Tyrant / 6 Hive Guard/ 47 Termigants

Overview

That was a brutal game, the tyranids lost their ranged fire power early on and were unable to pose any substantial threat from that point onwards. That being said it was always going to be a tough match up for tyranids.

I'm really enjoying how the reserve reavers play as they add a lot of flexibility to my army. This game did teach me the importance of arcs of fire and not to assume my ravagers will kill something. It also taught me to be a bit more careful when it comes to planning pain tokens (vehicles killed two units, that could have been pain tokens for my infantry!).

Again a massive thanks to Shadow's Revenge for the game as always.

Hope you enjoyed the report!

Yay for BR number 20!

As always, great report. I was not expecting any other outcome to be honest. Shadow surely is an amazing general, but Tyranids won't see the light against a ranged Dark Eldar army. Imagine you had Nightshields on your vehicles! All of his army would effectively have been out of range all game (as it was anyway, but I love Night Shields).

Great game nonetheless. An army swap would have been interesting. You with Nids and Shadow with DE. Just to see if different army and play styles could shift the favour to the Tyranids.

A good battle report.

I must say I am not so supriced at the result. Tyranids facing DE are one of the worst matchups in the game. I'd put it at slightly behind demons facing grey knights. When I saw the nid's list I knew he was doomed. It is not a tailored list so that is a good thing. But the only chanche to go against DE would be a with their T3 cheap models and the only one who has any movement worth anything would be gargoyles. But then I never leave home withouth them if I am playing 'nids.

New this was a easy. But so brutal result... You make playing with Reavers look easy

Thanks again for the batrep.

Great report. Tyranids are always going to struggle against a ranged DE list but they can still have some nasty tricks up their bio-engineered sleeves so it pays not to underestimate them.

Ouch!

Poor poor nids

As a nid player myself (I have 12,000 pts of them including a hierophant!) I fully understand the pain of poisoned weapons. Dark Eldar can easily out shoot and outmanuever tyranids as almost the entire tyranid army has six inch movement. DE can just sit back and blast away and if the gribbles get close then they can just zoom off with that 30 inch flat out move.

A note on deployment. I realise that shadow deployed the hive guard out front. That is good if you need to get an early range, however perhaps if the trygons were out closer then you could use their size and bulk to keep the guard out of sight. Tervigons are good LoS blockers too.

I have to say luck was not on your side there Shadow, especially when the flyrant failed to pull apart that raider with 12 TL strength six shots.

Perhaps Ymgarls could be good here as they can assault when they arrive...

Congrats on the win Mush!

Nids sad

Is there a tool for doing batrep maps?

Thanks for all the nice comments everyone!

Count Adhemar wrote:

it pays not to underestimate them.

It sure does! I was paranoid about all their abilities and constantly pre-measuring. One mistake and you have a trygon snacking on your kabal, or reavers running off the board because of brain leach devourers.

DominicJ wrote:

Is there a tool for doing batrep maps?

There is a guide stickied in this section: Battle Chronicler Tutorial.

Hope that helps.

Awesome

Whoa! You killed them all without losing any units? Thats impressive...
I just have to wonder why did the warriors disembark at turn two? Not sure did I see any good reason for that, since they went back in anyway.
Good report, though. Perhaps im putting my reavers on reserve too

Shrike423 wrote:

A note on deployment. I realise that shadow deployed the hive guard out front. That is good if you need to get an early range, however perhaps if the trygons were out closer then you could use their size and bulk to keep the guard out of sight. Tervigons are good LoS blockers too.

TBH that was my biggest mistake. I forgot to calculate the splinter cannons in the raider squads for wounds. Without them he only had10 lances, so they on average do alittle more than 3 wounds to hive guard, and 6 of those lances are on 2 platforms, meaning they might waste all of their shots. my plan was to let them get into range T1 after soaking some fire down, and I knew they were going to be his first target, so he couldnt resist shooting at them. Sadly it was a huge miscalculation, but in reality even hiding them behind a trygon they would only of lasted 1 extra turn. Since the trygon would of most likely dropped T1 instead of them.

As for genestealers, I dont see where they could of helped imho. All they could of done is charge armor, which isnt really helpful for them. add in they would of been rapidfired to death afterwards... it really wouldnt of pull much off the main force.

As for gargoyles. The original list had some, the problem being is they just provide a 5+ coversave, the same as terrain now. Not really that good. In a larger point game I would of included some, but at 1.5k you have to be picky with what you use.

sorry bout that

Meant to quote something and my computer glitched.

Well what I was going to suggest was that Shadow could have shifted the hive guard in the forest over towards the ones in the center as they could have been blocked by the building. Then they could have advance and fired from behind the building thanks to their gun special rule.

Hope that was a helpful suggestion for next time

Apologies for the glitched post

Zero casualties after 4 turns? That's harsh! A tough match up for tyranids for sure, but you still need to know what you're doing. You played it very well.

'Nids have always suffered more than most when it comes to unbalanced match-ups. I recall once watching a game between them and the old aliatoc ranger army (with the ultra-dirty disruption table) - a very similar outcome to this game!
On the other hand, at the UK GT they used to have a table covered in jungle terrain & the 'nids did well on that, as a friend of mine once recalled:

"Turn one, I could see one genestealer...turn two, I could see two genestealers...turn three, I was assaulted by a tyranid army."

They've got far more large monsters than they used to, but ironically don't seem to have any bite!

They'll be back I'm sure!

Mngwa wrote:

I just have to wonder why did the warriors disembark at turn two? Not sure did I see any good reason for that, since they went back in anyway.

Actually there were a lot of reasons for it.

-It was the only way I could get line of sight on the last hive guard.
-It let me get extra poison shots against the Trygon as I got some splinter rifles in range.
-It got my fragile warriors out of their raiders and into cover for the turn that the hive tyrant would come in on. Two twin-linked Devourers on average will kill 5 warriors (in the open), a S4 vehicle explosion on average kills 4.44 warriors. Why let your opponent take out one of your transports and hurt your troops with one shot, (not to mention having to take two leadership tests, one for pinning and one for casualties)?
-It was to encourage the hive tyrant to shoot the warriors in the open or the archon's raider, both would leave him in rapid fire range of the warriors next turn, and effectively made the warriors in cover null targets as they would be able to go to ground for 3+ cover and still snapfire the hive tyrant next turn (as they would be snapfiring anyway).
-It was an attempt to encourage the tyranids to close on my army.

Shadows Revenge wrote:

but at 1.5k you have to be picky with what you use.

Now I feel bad for making you play at 1.5k all the time.

Squierboy wrote:

with the ultra-dirty disruption table

Let me get this straight, all my devastators are in reserve, both my assault squads are pinned and your snipers have reduced my command squad to a man? And this is before the game has even started? - It was so deliciously dirty.

Aha, psychology! That sure is useful on games against humans

Quote :

I'd put it at slightly behind demons facing grey knights.

On a side note, its actually not that one-sided match up, i have seen many times how Daemons brutalised GK players. Even had a favorite story from ETC 2012 how our Daemon player answered German team champion GK challenge and won 18-2.

Not that many GK players actually takes any anti-daemon wargear and Nemesis weapons arent actually helping if most of the unit wielding it had been killed by Seekers or Herold of Slaanesh. Or whatever it is this days, Screamers and Flamers?

Thanx for another great batrep.

This reminds me of the bat Rep where you played against shadow's venom spam list but with the exact opposite results. Lol just goes to show the strengths of DE lists when guided by a skilled player. Well done to both of you.

Azdrubael wrote:

Quote :

I'd put it at slightly behind demons facing grey knights.

On a side note, its actually not that one-sided match up, i have seen many times how Daemons brutalised GK players.

I have to agree, as a daemon player I always felt a lot of the Grey Knights anti daemon abilities never really came into play.

Bibitybopitybacon wrote:

This reminds me of the bat Rep where you played against shadow's venom spam list but with the exact opposite results.

Don't remind him, I'm not kean on facing that dark venom list again.

This match up in the game is sutch a huge mistace by GW's side.

Most of tyranids weapons has a range of 18. Zoanthrope, the assault 3 guns etc. Some of the few things that does have a longer range are the venom cannon that is very very very bad (although perhaps better vs d.eldar than others but you can not take them in an all commers list.)

The most long ranged cosistent guns they have are the 24" impaler cannon that is awsome and the ordenance big blast s4. Of course most of these models only have a movement of 6. Gargoyles, ravaners, shrikes, flyrant, harpies can break this but it is not so mutch. And the king, the flyrant cost 260 points and die very easaly.

Dark Eldars movement means that you can always outdance your oponent's range. Also Dark Eldars has longer range then tyranids. With this sett up there is no need to take any casualaties in the match because it is mutch more like laying out a soiltear deck of cards for the dark eldar. The opponent can not interact.

On top of that add the fact that all the T6 that tyranids pay premium points for die very easaly to poison. That of course leaves the T4 multiwound units and the 3 gaunt variants. The T4 multi wound units are generally shunned because they get instant killed by S8 weapons. All dark eldar lists have sooooo mutch poison and S8 lances that the only usable unit is the gaunts. Add in the mobilaty/range that you need to kill dark eldars and the only usefull unit is the gargoyle.

However, since the dark eldars can turbo boots it really mutch means your gargoyles will be "kitet" the whole game.

The only way to break this would be to add allies, no wait that cannot happen. Or it is mystical drop spores that means you stick one of your units into full piecemeal rapid range fire.

Dark Eldar vs tyranids is just stupid. The only other matchup in the game that is more stupid are grey knights vs daemons.

I think double flyrant lists with lots of gargoyles might have a chance against us. The flyrant can cause us a lot of trouble.

Niiai wrote:

The only other matchup in the game that is more stupid are grey knights vs daemons.

Because the daemons always win?

Nemesis force weapons don't come into play as the MCs are flying most of the time and therefore can't be assaulted. Dark Excommunication needs to taken in the army list so will not be seen in all-comers lists outside of dread knights, which will have a hard time seeing combat (flamers, screamers and FMCs are all very mobile). The grenades that make daemons strike at I1 are irrelevant as screamers and flamers are already striking after you. Warp Quake only has a 1/6 chance of killing your models this edition, not to mention flamers, screamers and FMCs are all very mobile, meaning they don't have to deep-strike in warp quake's area of effect. The daemon lists this edition are loaded to the brim with AP2 templates, and AP2 melee attacks, these are the absolute bane of GKs with their low model count. At least that's my experience as a Chaos Daemon player. Daemons don't really worry about Grey Knights, it's a straight forward matchup.

Fear enough. I take back my words.

Nids vs Dark eldars are the worst matchup for any army in this edition.

Nice battle rep!

I must add that blessings are cast at the beginning of your turn, before movement, so you can't cast them in reserves. For the same stupid reason skimmers don't count as moving during your first turn so they wont get jink saves.

I think this to be a loophole in the rules as one can think that you can bless yourself before going into combat or that skymers fly in a evasive way before battle, not?

Anyways, love your tactics and maybe I could be picking up my Dark Eldar again...

Thanks El_Jairo!

I thought that might be the case with blessings, but it only occurred to me after the game when I was writing up my report. It has always bothered me that a raiding army like Dark Eldar would for some reason be stationary at the start of a battle for no apparent reason, but that's just the way the rules are. To be honest in reality a Dark Eldar army would never fight an opposing force of equal size. They would isolate and overwhelm parts of a larger force piece by piece.

If you already have Dark Eldar models it's well worth giving them a whirl this edition as they are a load of fun and really exciting to play in 6th.

Hey another good run through on tactics, thanks mush