Brothers Grim Warhammer 40k Tournament: Feb 09 Game 1

Ok, we went to another great tournament on Saturday at Brothers Grim in Selden, NY. They are great guys and run a fantastic tournament! Here is game 1.

I drew a Tyranid player named Danielle for round one. I have had very little experience with Nids and it is all bad, so I sighed deeply when I found out I was playing them round one, but I still felt secure, my list was ready... or was it...

This tournament would showcase 3 very different missions. This first game would be plagued by erratic weather patterns, with a random die roll at the start of each turn determining what would happen with the weather and how it would affect the game.

My opponent had a jacked to craziness Hive Tyrant, full squad of Gargoyles, 2 warrior squads, 2 endless shooty gaunt squads, 1 endless assaulty gaunt squad, 2 brain bugs, a carnifex and some lobby shooty things.

Deployment: Table Halves Dawn of War
Mission: Capture the Flag (bases)

I won the die roll and elected for her to go first. She chose side and deployed her Tyrant and two runty squads, I deployed Dante, a Tactical Squad and an assault squad in their rhino.

Turn One:
She goes first, and flies her tyrant up 12" then runs. He would be in assault next turn for sure. Being DoW, the rest of her stuff came in, and she moved it all up as far as she could, using cover well and fortifieing her objectives. I was more then a little intimidated at this point... But at the same time, something struck me as odd... she knew I had 3 Baal Preds and lots of Melta/Las shots, but advanced her Nasty Hive Tyrant right into the middle of all my guns... with no squad to protect it...

On my turn, Every thing came on. I advanced all of my Baals, Dante and my Furioso. I moved a Rhino up close to the Tyrant. The Rhino made the DoW sight range, and shot with its Storm Bolter, failing to wound, but revealing the target... Well, 2 Melta Guns, a Lascannon and Baal Predator later and the Tyrant was down. I suddenly began to feel very bad...

Turn Two:
Weather pattern turned the entire playing surface into Difficult Terrain. This was very bad for her since all of her warriors, and gargoyles had wings. She chose to walk them, and moved them as far as she could... leaving cover. She advanced a shooty Gaunt squad up, again out of cover, and another shooty squad up that stayed in cover. She shot a biovore at a rhino, failing to hurt it, and shot at Dante with a shooty gaunt squad, and Dante made his saves.

On my turn, I would advance my three Baal Preds, and mow down an entire Warrior Squad and the Gargoyle Squad with 36 shots from the preds, bolter/las fire from the tacs, a melta shot from my speeder, and storm bolter shots from the Rhinos. Dante advanced and assaulted shooty gaunts, while my Rhinos moved into position for a turn 3 or 4 thrust for her base. My furioso moved on an intercept course for her Carnifex. In the assault, Dante charged and cut down 6 gaunts. They would lose another 5 due to being fearless. By the end of turn two, the game was pretty much out of contention already. She was not going to reach my base, and I had 3 Rhinos converging on hers...

Turn Three:
On her turn, she did the best she could, but lacking any real fire power to stop my tanks, she knew she was in dire straights. Dante finished off the gaunts on his turn, and she moved her Carnifex up as far as she could.

I would go on to unload the Baals on the Carnifex, but was unable to kill it...(I still roll lots of 1s) But the Furioso was lined up for a turn 4 charge supported by Corbs... The Rhinos moved on her objective. I unloaded the DC rhino and moved it up on her objective as well, tank shocking on its way. Dante charged a warrior squad next, slicing into them and taking down three! By the end of the turn, there was no doubt.

Turn Four:
On her turn she made a valiant charge. Her Carnifex moved up again, but failed to kill my tank on the charge. She charged Dante with the squad of assaulty grubs, and wounded him! But Dante's retribution was furious.

On my turn, I would move a troop rhino up onto her objective and secure it. When she saw that, she simply threw in the towel. She did not want to see her pretty models getting owned any more! :) Sorry Danielle! We talked quite a lot about the game, tournament her army. As it turns out, she does not enter tournaments to be competitive... and understood that most people do, and enter armies designed to win. I apologised for mercilessly thrashing her, and explained that I would not have been so ruthless in a fun game, but I was looking to win the tournament, so had to go for the throat. I didnt want to ruin her game experience... I thought back to my first tournament, Gamesday 08... I got run off the table by a Nid player in 4 turns. It fouled my day. But she as cool. Not knowing jack about nids, I had no knowledge to share with her about her list, and I explained that my list was built to mow down lists like hers. Sooo, great game Danielle. It was fun and your models were pretty! (she had butterfly wings on her warriors) :) I will upload video once it publishes.



Next game: Tragedy...