I did go 3-0 but lets be honest, while that appears to be a feat considering the Tyranid Codex, all of the Day 1 Undefeated players were in the top 6 Spots while I was number 11, people with losses and draws scored more BP than me and there was a 12 point delta between me and the top 3 players which at TSHFT is almost an entire Win. With that aside, I took the following List:
2 Flyrants with 2x TL Devourers and Wings
30 Termagaunts with Fleshborers
1 Tervigon with Regen
20 Termagaunts with Fleshborers
2 Mawlocs
1 Tyrannofex with Acid Spray and Regen
Round 1 was against a GK players that brought 2 Stormravens kitted out with 3 Warriors and 1 Acolyte, 3 Dreadknight with Incinerators, 4 twelve men henchmen squad with Stormbolters and 2 Monkeys and finally Coteaz. It was Hammer and Anvil with 3 Objective Primary and KP Secondary (The Tertiary ended up being 1BP for 2 Scoring units left alive at the end of the game). I made him go first and he deployed 2 Dreadknights and his henchmen squad while keeping the Ravens in reserve and 1 Dreadknight in Deep Strike. I had 1 Piece of area Terrain and deployed my Tyrannofex and Tervigon in it while keeping the Thrope’s Brothers out of LOS behind them in terrain. The Mawlocs stayed in Deep Strike Reserve. The Flyrants and Harpies were deployed on the periphery touching area terrain while all the gaunts surrounded them. I got Master of Ruins Warlord Trait on a table with no Ruins. My Warlord Flyrant got Onslaught and Warpblast and the other Flyrant got Paroxysm and The Horror, the Tervigon got Dominion and the Zoey got Catalyst.
Going into the game, I was pretty sure I couldn’t fight the Dreadknights with anything I had except feeding them gaunts. On his first turn he stripped 1 wound off the Tervigon and that was that. On my turn the Flyrants flew mininum speed so I could bubble wrap them with gaunts while both maintained Range to 1 Dreadknight, their maledictions were all denied by the Dreadknight, The Horror could be good against Dreadknight if they were in Shadows (-5LD Pinning Test) but I refused to try flying within Shadows and having it fail and then grounded. The Harpies flew straight at his army edging a table side each and staying in Area Terrain. Their job was to deter him into firing at them and moving his Dreadknight back incase they grounded. During my shooting phase I knocked 2 wounds off 1 of the Dreadknight and the Harpies killed off some Henchman.
On his turn 2, he did exactly what I though, he shot the Harpies but 1 managed to say alive with 2 wounds and the other with 3 but 1 was grounded in cover. His dreadknight which walked backwards to charge it needed a 6″ charge to make it but failed giving the Harpy another turn. I should add that none of his reserve entered the game on turn 2 which was shocking. I had even made sure the Flyrants were in terrain with Venomthrope Shrouding for the Ravens. On my turn the Mawlocs both entered and now was the time to strike with the Harpies alive, the Flyrants in position and the Mawlocs entering let us see what would happen. 1 Mawloc managed to burst out on top of Coteaz with a whopping 5 Wounds his unit and he failed 1 of his LookOut Sir and the Mawloc ate him and clear his opening. The other Mawloc tried to knock off the last 2 wounds of the Dreadknight and managed to cause 1 wound but misshaped and went back into reserve. The Flyrants flew into area near his deployment next to the 1 wound Dreadknight (All Maledictions once again were Denied) and proceeded to Devourer off as many Monkeys as possible with their Precision Shots. The Harpies flew off the Table but Vectored and dropped Spore Mines. At the end of my turn he had lost 80% of his Scoring Models on the table and the rest of the backfield tide was slowing creeping up the middle. The Tyrannofex was bubbled wrapped but trying to entise his unwounded Dreadknight to come after him instead of the Mawloc that ate Coteaz.
On his turn 3, His Ravens entered and put two wounds on the Tervigon and killed the Zoanthrope with 2 Mindstrike Missiles and put 3 wounds on the Warlord Flyrant and 2 on the other Flyrant who was grounded but out of charge range of his Dreadknight. His Henchman unit were slowly backing up from towards his objective to clear space for his Dreadknight to charge the Mawloc. He needed a 5″ charge in the open and rolled a 4″. (Btw this happenned 5 times…. I felt so bad for him). On my turn, I Paroxysmed a Raven and wrecked the other with all the Devourers. The Mawloc reentered and finished off the Dreadknight, his twin went off to chase down left over henchman. At this point the game was pretty much dictated by the Tyranids. His deepstriking Dreadknight managed to scorch some gaunts and almost contested an objective but his collective failed charges from Dreadknights allowed all my MC to pick their fight. I even killed a Dreadknight in Combat with my Tyrannofex and a Harpy combo charging to drop his Ini by 5.
Round 2 was against a White Scars army that brought Khan in a Command Squad with 2 Grav Guns, 1 Max Size unit of Bikes with 2 Meltaguns and a MM Attack Bike, 1 Max Size unit of Bikes with 2 Plasmaguns and a HB Attack Bike, 1 6 Man Bike squad with 2 Grav guns, 1 LasPlas Razor with 5 Tact and 2 Typhoon Speeders. I dont like Grav Guns or bolters that are Twinlinked with all of my Flying grounding death traps but when I saw no Skyfire, and playing White Scars for the better part of a decade, I knew exactly that they could destroy my MC. He made me go second on a Dawn of War deployment with Emperor’s Will Primary and Relic Secondary (The Tertiary was having Heavy Support alive at end of game in opponent deployment. His Librarian rolled Invis and Psychic Scream and my Warlord Power was -1 to his reserve, Catalyst on Zoey and Tervigon; I dont remember the Hive Tyrants cause they both died on turn 2. I deployed his weakest flank much like the first game, and watched his Scout Move allow him to grab the relic turn 1 with an invis unit and bring it back towards his deployment.
Round 3 was against a Tau/Dar list with Buffmander w/ Onager Gauntlet, FNP, 4++, 2+, Farseer on Bike with Shard, Riptide with Ion, Riptide with HBC, 2 Serpents with 5 DA, 3 Units of FW, 3 Missile-Sides. The Riptides had Interceptor and Skyfire while the Broadsides had interceptor. This was finally the game to see if Tyranids could take on Tau/Dar shooting. The Mission was Vanguard Strike with Big Guns Never Tire 4 Objectives and The Scouring as secondary (Tertiary was Killing a Troop Choice with an Elite Unit Dedicated Transport Excluded). Due to both our confusion we thought that the Secondary mean FA slots were scoring for the Primary but also additional VP, we were supposed to deploy 6 more objectives apparently. It did allow my opponent to get the Secondary easily as he had no FA and I had 2 and no objective for me to claim. I rolled Night Fight as Warlord and my Hive Tyrants both got Warp Blast, 1 had Paroxysm and the other had the Horror while and both the Tervigon and Zoanthrope had Dominion. He made me deploy first and go first which already a big downside to my army as now I didnt have bottom of turn for an objective missions and also had 2 Flying VP Turkeys. I followed the same Deployment as my previous two games and hoped he wouldnt seize and he didn’t try. His deployment was basically pretty much getting in maximum range of my stuff. I forgot to add that his Farseer had Misfortune, Prescience and Precog.
On my Turn 1, I elected just to fly off the Table with all the FMC and castle my Tervigon, Tyrannofex, Gaunts and Thropes to weather the incoming storm of fire their way but I wanted to make sure all my threats would appear simultaneously to force his Interceptors to make tough calls and for his Ion Riptide to waste interceptor shots without his Buffmander powers. My tervigon pooped out on the first turn with a roll of 10 which felt like the odds were already moving away from me. On his turn he moved his serpent down the short table edge and his other down his long table to get 2 fire lanes onto the gaunts. The Fire warriors walked forward to get within 30″ and his HBC Riptide also to get Ripple Fire SMS onto them. His Ion Riptide failed NovaCharge and took a wound. His shooting saw killing 8 gaunts out of the 20 man unit and 13 out of the 30man unit.
Turn 2, 1 Mawloc entered and I decided to have it hit the Broadsides with no Characters to see if I could both Mishap and get them to at least take 25% casualties but he scattered and hit his Ion Riptide and managed to put 2 wounds on it and mishap. Rolled a 3 on chart and my opponent chose not to deploy it in front of his gunline since he also had 2 Harpies and 2 Hive Tyrants to deal with this turn and put it in the farthest corner guaranteeing me that it would burrow on my turn. He fired all his interceptor guns at my flying bricks and I was under the impression that Broadsides could only fire 2 guns during their shooting phase and not during Overwatch and Interceptor but I didnt want to slow down the game for an unambiguous rule understanding and allowed him to fire both guns. He knocked a Harpy down to 1 wound and killed the Hive Tyrant Warlord (To Grounding). The Harpies did manage to Vector and Drop mine Cysts on his Firewarriors and killed all of them combined. I was hoping 1 cyst would deviate and possibly get to the charge his Wave Serpent from the rear. The Flyrant shot at something but didnt do anything if I recall. The Tyrannofex put on his dancing shoes and started bolting down the middle of the table while using the ruin in the center to cover his approach. Now that all of his Suits had basically fire their weapons with Interceptor his Firewarriors and Wave Serpents tried to kill the FMCs. The managed to kill the Harpy with 1 Wound who was grounded and knock 3 wounds onto the Flyrant (with a failed grounding). The Ion riptide which did not intercept with this SMS tried to Nova agian but failed and took another wound and had 1 left, the HBC Riptide got scared that I would charge it with a Shard of Anaris Farseer and Nova Charged his Invul Save which I tried to explain to him would not help if I challenged. He did fail 2 Powers and took a wound on his Farseer thanks to Shadows.
Turn 3, Mawloc Reburrows, Other Mawloc enters table and kills his Ion Riptide. Nom Nom Nom, picture a Cobra eating an elephant. Harpy Glides and chases Wave Serpent. Hive Tyrant flies to get shots off other Wave Serpent because the Tyrannofex made it into the edge of his deployment zone and his torrent flamer was now in range of his Firewarriors. I elected to not try charging his Broadsides with my Hive Tyrant because I was now on the Hunt to Kill scoring models as this turn was basically a great position to destroy 2 scoring units. Tyrant knocked 1 Hullpoint off Wave Serpent (BTW Warp Blast is terrible on BS4, missed everyshot) Tyranofex flamed a FW unit off existence while retaining Ruin Cover. Harpy punched through the Wave Serpent and explosion killed only 1 DA but they were very far away from any objective. His turn 3 saw him trying to deal with a Tyrannofex unscathed in front of his Broadsides, a Mawloc behind them and a Harpy not far. His Wave Serpent ignored the Hive Tyrant and kept moving towards my objective and picking off gaunts. His Broadsides knocked with the Buffmander shot at the Harpy and killed it. The HBC Riptide got a wound on the Tyrannofex.
Turn 4, Mawloc re-enters and kills puts 3 wounds on Broadsides and managed to enter table. Other Mawloc chases down Firewarriors on his objective and eats them whole. Tyrannofex flames and charges his Broadsides and killed the last 2 while his Onager gaunt knocked a wound off but Regeneration returned it to me. The weakened 30 man Gaunt Squad broke off the castle and shot the DA and killed them while maneuvering towards another objective while maintaining 18″ distance to Tervigon. Hive Tyrant shot the Wave Serpent from the Rear and …. removed 1 Hullpoint and Shook it. At this point the Gaunts were adopting the Bubble Wrap objectives strategy. His Turn 4 Shooting saw him kill the Mawloc that ate his Firewarriors and his Wave Serpent killed the Hive Tyrant. Tyrannofex coud not kill Buffmander but Regenerated back to full HP.
When the first day ended, I was one of the 6 Undefeated player but unlike my peers, I wasn’t even in the top 10, I was number 11. I had a huge BP disparity and I didn’t think I could have played the games any better especially how Lucky I was game 1.
The Changes I would make is that Hive Tyrant should be at least 5 Wounds and possibly Initiative 6, Tervigons need to be about 30points cheaper in their current state, Harpy and Crone need to be able to reroll failed Grounding at the minimum or 3+ armor, Heavy Venom Cannon should be 2 shot and not a blast and allow them to ally with themselves.