DZTV Open Day - Thousand Sons vs Tyranids

The DZTV Open Day continues - after lunch and a social, a second battle!

I also took part in one of the Big Debates with Liam.
Which I won. I mean, look at that power stance.

This time would be no tutorial, as The Court of Miracles were coming out of the box to face that legend of the Moarhammer channel, Mikey P himself!

I've wanted to fight Hive Fleet Shai Hulud ever since the technicolor terrors burst onto YouTube, but there was far more at stake here.

I use an illuminated ring binder to keep track of all my army's data, whereas Mikey P maintains that a utilitarian clipboard is the only true weapon for a gentleman. Only one way to decide this...

Shai Hulud - Hive Fleet Jormungandr

Hive Fleet motto: "I Got Worms"

I missed the army shot, but this is a list with big damn worms and a lot of little bugs. The second turn should be interesting, since half the army will be lurking beneath the surface.

• Neurothrope (HQ) (Warlord)
  Claws and teeth.
  Catalyst, The Horror
• Broodlord (HQ)
  Monstrous Rending Claws
  Psychic Scream
• 20 x Genestealers (Troop)
  Scything Talons and Rending Claws
• 30 x Termagants (Troop)
  30 x Fleshborers
• 20 x Termagants (Troop)
  10 x Fleshborers, 10 x Devourers
• 3 x Ripper Swams (Fast)
  Claws and teeth.
• Trygon Prime (Heavy)
  Adrenal Glands, Biostatic Rattle and Bio-Electric Pulse with Containment Spines 
• Mawloc (Heavy)
  Distensible jaws, a prehensile pincer tail and three pairs of scything talons.

Points: 1000 | Battle-forged + Battalion: 8 CPs

The Court of Miracles - Thousand Sons

I took my 'standard' Thousand Sons list, so I wouldn't have to think too much when playing it. A small unit of Rubrics for fire support and objective grabbing, and a whole of of crazy stuff to run up and fight. Getting into close quarters with Tyranids isn't always the best plan, but I'd have to trust in fate.

• Daemon Prince with wings (HQ) (Warlord)
  2 x Malefic talons,
  Bolt of Change, Warptime
  Warlord Trait: Otherworldly Prescience
  Relic: Dark Matter Crystal
• Exalted Sorcerer on Disc of Tzeentch (HQ)
  Force Stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol, Frag & Krak Grenades,
  Gift of Choas, Prescience
• 6 x Rubric Marines (Troop)Force Stave, Warpflamer Pistol, 5 x Inferno Bolters
  Glamour of Tzeentch
• 12 x Tzaangor (Troop)
  Icon of Flame, Brayhorn, Tzaangor blades
• 12 x Tzaangor (Troop)
  Icon of Flame, Brayhorn, Tzaangor blades
• Tzaangor Shaman (Elite)
  Force Stave, Weaver of Fates
• 5 x Tzaangor Enlightened (Fast)
  Fatecaster Greatbow
• 2 x Chaos Spawn (Fast)
  Hideous mutations
• Mutalith Vortex Beast (Heavy)
  Enormous Claws, Betentacled Maw
• + 25 reinforcement points

Points: 1000 | Battle-forged + Battalion: 8 CPs

Deployment

Cleanse and Capture mission once again, with Dawn of War deployment - although I confess I had already secured an early advantage by grabbing a table with a snow battle mat, to match my bases.

I deployed centrally, with Tzaangor Enlightened hiding behind a building on the left flank; Rubrics sitting on an objective in the ruins on the right; and the Mutalith Vortex Beast, Spawn, Exalted Sorcerer and Daemon Prince in the middle. I paid 3CPs to put two units of Tzaangor into Webway Strike.

Shai Hulud responded with Genestealers in the centre, surrounding the Broodlord. On their right flank was one unit of Termagants and a well-hidden Neurothrope.

Everything else was underground - the Mawloc, the Trygon Prime with the Devourer Termagants and the Ripper Swarms.

Battle

I took the first turn and my cards were Ritual Slaughter (kill nine things), Blood & Guts and Kingslayer. Well, I could do one of those things.

I moved my line forward (just enough to get into shooting and Smite range, but not too far forward) - with the exception of the Mutalith and Spawn, who advanced at the Genestealers.

In my Psychic phase, I used Cabalistic Focus to boost my chances of casting Death Hex. I still needed a reroll to make it happen, but the Genestealers lost their invulnerable save.

The good run of psychic continued: I put Weaver of Fates (+5 invulnerable) and Glamour of Tzeentch (-1 to hit) on the Spawn, which I then Warptimed up directly into the Genesealers' grill. They couldn't charge, but were now forming quite the speed bump.

After a few last Smites on the Genestealers, I opened up with the ranged firepower I had - by the time the inferno bolt rounds and magic arrows had ceased, only four Genesealers were left alive.

So I ditched Kingslayer (Neurothropes are always a bugger to shift), but did claim Ritual Slaughter (those poor Genestealers - but if they want to survive past the first round, they shouldn't be so scary in combat!)

The Tyranids cards were less kind in their first turn - they included Behind Enemy Lines (easy, but not in this turn) and Mission Critical Objective - which turned out to be Objective 4 - the only one I was sitting on (so a potential D3 points for taking it from me - but that was far from a given).

What bugs remained on the table came forward into the centre, the Termagants' fleshborers tickled the Spawn and then the Broodlord led what was left of his Genestealers into them. The Spawn did fantastically well, aided by their new invulnerable saves, and one was left standing (or crawling) at the end of the combat.

The Mordian Lieutenant on the right clearly remembers his close-order drill.

In the second turn, my two new cards were No Prisoners and Advance. I was already out of my deployment zone, so that was secure. I camped out the Rubrics on Objective 4 (partly to tempt the Tyrands to try and take it from me) and moved everything else forward. I dropped in one pack of Tzaangor to join the central assault, keeping the other in reserve, and the surviving Spawn happily scampered out of combat to skip around behind enemy lines.

My idea was to Smite away the few remaining Genestealers, which would open up the Broodlord to shooting, but fate had different plans and my psychic phase was a total bust. Part of this was because I had now moved into Shadow of the Warp range, and part of it was because ... well, sometimes that's how it goes in Thousand Sons.

But I had enough to do some serious damage - three of the Genestealers were shot by the Rubrics and Sorcerer. I actually had to hold fire from my Enlightened because I needed the last one to be killed in combat (I had my eyes on the D3 points for three units wiped).

And the Assault phase went well - Daemon Prince and Exalted Sorcerer into the Broodlord and lone Genestealer, Tzaangor, Enlightened and Mutalith Vortex Beast into the Termagants. Mildred the Tzaangor Shaman wisely held back, but was still able to buff all the beastmen units.

The Broodlord had already been damaged by mortal wounds, so the Daemon Prince tore off his head with causal efficiency. And then the inevitable Death Frenzy stratagem led to the Exalted Sorcerer getting ripped apart, just for showing up. This actually left the Genestealer alive, because there was no-one to attack him.

I was a victim of my own success against the Termagants too. The Tzaangor tore through a dozen of them, but Mikey P wisely took casualties from the front line, which left my Mutalith and Enlightened nothing to pile in to.

So only one VP for No Prisoners and Blood & Guts, but it also got me First Blood. I was sitting on a 5-0 lead, waiting for the counterstrike.

In the Tyranids' second turn, the Genestealer stuck around in combat, but the Termagants fell back. Then came the big move - a Mawloc exploded right in the centre of my command group. Three wounds off my Deamon Prince, three off Mildred and one off the Enlightened. That's one dramatic entrance!

Ta-dah!

Back in my own deployment zone, a swarm of Rippers emerged (far away from anything that could hurt them) and the Trygon Prime emerged close to the Rubrics on Objective 4, bringing 20 more Termagants with him.

The Psychic phase put a Smite on the Tzaangor and Catalyst on the Trygon (making him even more robust).

In shooting, the Termagants tried to thin down the Rubrics, as did the Trygon Prime's Bio-Electric Pulse with Containment Spines - despite a 2+ save, the weight of firepower felled three of the Rubric Marines (although it did make the charge longer, so I wasn't complaining too much).

In Assault, the Termagants failed their charge, but the Trygon's adrenal glands saw him slither into the remaining Rubrics. Unfortunately, he must have run out of adrenaline, because he failed to do anything in combat.

Graboids!

In the only other combat, the Genestealer scratched a wound off the Deamon Prince, then got stomped for his efforts.

While scoring Behind Enemy Lines, the Trygon Prime's charge had taken him out of my deployment zone, which mean only two units were left there (it really should have stayed put, for all it achieved). So only a single VP, but it got Mikey P off the starting blocks.

In my third turn, I got a fresh draw: Domination (always useless), Defend Objective 6 (my Tzaangors are on it) and Secure Objective 1 (my Spawn can get on it - he's actually useful!)

I needed to deepstrike my last unit of Tzaangors. My idea choice was to put them against the Trygon, but there were no good places outside of the 9" bubble, so I opted to put them against the rest of the backline Termagants, so at least I could make a clean sweep of them.

I also ceded the centre ground to the Mawloc (hope Area Denial doesn't come up) and flew back my Daemon Prince, Enlightened and Tzaangor Shaman to deal with the Trygon Prime. My Rubrics also fell out of combat.

Psychic wasn't too bad - mostly trying to soften up the Trygon. And then it was into combat. My second unit of Tzaangor made it into combat - aided by the Mutalith's Temporal Flux power - and I was not messing about this time. The whole lot of Termagants were torn apart, leaving just the Neurothrope at the back.

Against the Trygon, I did my best to take chunks from him, but the Catalyst saves kept him stubbornly on his middle bracket - although still unable to return much damage.

In the Tyranids' Turn 3, they drew Domination (equally unlikely) and Master the Warp (which the Neurothrope could do).

The Mawloc came to reinforce the backline melee, although the Trygon decided he'd had enough and fell back. The Neurothrope floated up to the top of a tower and put Catalyst on himself, which secured a VP and increased his chances of survival.

The Termagants opened fire on the Rurbic Marines - I had to use my last CP to keep the Aspiring Sorcerer alive, but it once again denied all those VPs for the objective. The little bugs then tried to swarm my Daemon Prince, and took it down to two wounds. Meanwhile the Mawloc gobbled up a Tzaangor Enlightened.

So just a single point for mastering the Warp, but Objective 4 is tantalisingly in reach!

On my turn four, I got Arcane Rite (D3 points for holding at least one Objective if your opponent has none - I usually hate this one, but I was already scoring it!) and Secure Objective 4 (oh, that's just mean).

In movement, the Tzaangors and Mutalith swarm around the tower to hunt the Neurothrope. The Aspiring Sorcerer walks back on Objective 4 (sorry!) and everything else pulls back to form a new firing line in the centre of the board.

I only had one aim this Psychic phase - Bolt of Change can turn an enemy character into Spawn if it kills them, and the Trygon Prime is a character. I had wisely stashed away 25pt for reinforcements for this to happen, and I began with the Aspiring Sorcerer's mini-Smite to take it down to a single wound, so not even the fickle D3 could deny me.

It was all down to the Daemon Prince. I was already planning the Trygon Spawn conversion - using the Forge World Giant Chaos Spawn datasheet. Because of Shadow in the Warp, I would need a 10 to cast it.

I rolled a 9.

To cheer myself up, I cast a Smite and killed it anyway, but my dreams of a giant chaos spawn were in ashes.

Elsewhere, the Enlightened shot up the Mawloc; the Mutalith took a mortal wound off the Neurothrope, then a pack of Tzaangors scaled the tower and ripped it to pieces, so I could add Slay the Warlord to my other VPs that turn. I was starting to run away with this.

The Tyrands fought on, knowing no defeat. The Termangants swarmed over the Aspiring Sorcerer, dragging him down and finally scoring those points for Objective 4. The Mawloc continued to chase Mildred and her remaining Enlightened - but its attacks failed against the Tzaangor Shaman and it got a smack on the nose for its temerity in trying to eat chicken tonight.

On my fifth turn, I got Assassinate (I can't - they're already dead), Behind Enemy lines (that would be the Spawn again) and Secure Objective 2 (in the centre).

I pulled together my disparate forces into the centre, where they took down the Mawloc and a handful of Termagants with psychic bolts and arrows. All that remained were the little bugs.

What was left of the Termagants shot at the Tzaangor and tried to charge Mildred, but failed. The writing was on the wall for the Hive Fleet and when we rolled to end the game on Turn 5, it was all over.

Except for these guys. They had a great time.

Result: 15 : 7 - Victory to the Thousand Sons!

Well, that was brutal. I think the cards did a lot to influence this game. I was regularly scoring two or three in my hand, whereas Mikey P got stuck with ones he couldn't get, or forced him into risky moves.

As with most Thousand Sons battles, it swung on the Psychic Phase - I had a very good one to start off (and although I then had a very bad one, the momentum was already building). The failure to shift my Rubrics quick enough was another problem - it stalled the Tyranid counter-attack for a turn and let me put together a response.

But a really fun game, great opponent and beautiful army.

The day closed up at 6pm, so it was down to an evening social and trying not to spend too much in the Element Games shop (I only made two return trips). The DZTV Open Day was a fantastic hobby event, and I'll be signing up for next year as soon as the tickets are announced.

As the Tatooine theme plays in the background.

And I nearly forgot: I threw together a special Spawn for the occasion. One that combines the two glorious founders and a packet of chocolate-chip hobnobs.

I painted him in the colours of the Acquiritur Scopum - DZTV's unofficial Primaris Chapter - and here he is, making himself at home with his comrades:

Photo credit: event images by Quipster