EEC 2017 preparations - Tyranids

I'm testing the Codex Astartes list I put together for the upcoming EEC 2017 in Copenhagen. This is what I'm planing to bring:

Codex Astartes (NetEA Tournament Pack 2015)
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TACTICAL [450] - 6 Tacticals, Supreme Commander, Hunter, Rhinos
TACTICAL [275] - 6 Tacticals, Rhinos
PREDATOR [325] - 4 Annihilator, Hunter
SCOUT [175] - 4 Scouts, Razorback, Rhinos
SCOUT [150] - 4 Scouts, Rhinos
ASSAULT [225] - 4 Assault Units, Captain
ASSAULT [225] - 4 Assault Units, Chaplain
THUNDERHAWK [200]
WARHOUND [275] - 1 Warhound Class Titan
WARHOUND [275] - 1 Warhound Class Titan
THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [175] - 2 Thunderbolt Fighters
MARAUDER SQUADRON [250] - 2 Maurader bombers

This time I was facing EpicUK Tyranids. For some reason I always have trouble handling Tyranids...

Tyranids (100815)
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NORMAL ASSAULT SWARM [365] - 2 Tyranid Warrior, 4 Termagant, 4 Hormaguant, 3 Malefactor, Zoantrope
NORMAL ASSAULT SWARM [300] - 2 Tyranid Warrior, 8 Termagant, 3 Biovore
NORMAL ASSAULT SWARM [290] - 2 Tyranid Warrior, 6 Termagant, 4 Hormaguant, Zoanthrope
NORMAL ASSAULT SWARM [225] - 2 Tyranid Warrior, 4 Termagant, 4 Hormaguant
BRUTE SWARM [245] - 1 Hive Tyrant, 3 Carnifex
BRUTE SWARM [200] - 1 Hive Tyrant, 3 Exocrines
DOMINATRIX SWARM [500] - 1 Dominatrix
GENESTEALER SWARM [150] - 6 Genestealer
SPORE MINE SWARM [150] - 6 Spore Mine Clusters
SUBTERRANEAN SWARM [250] - 1 Trygon and 2 Raveners
LICTOR SWARM [250] - 5 Lictor

Setup

This is the table setup, I choose lower right corner as I didn't want the Tyranids hiding inside the 4+ cover houses...

Objectives were placed around the center forest with one Marine objective barely visible to the left and one Tyranid T&H to the right. The second Tyranid T&H was placed in the city and the Marine T&H in the upper right corner. Marine blitz was paced in the corner (not vissible) as far away from the Tyranids as possible while the Tyranid blitz was placed behind the upper forest.

I forgot the fact that the Tyranids have some nasty teleporters when I garrisoned my Scouts, one in the left forest and one in the buildings. I should have saved one of them as a screen...

I tried to compensate by placing both Tacticals and Warhounds closely together so that they could support each other in case the Tyranids decided to teleport turn one. The Predators are deployed behind the tall building on the right.

Tyranids garrisoned Genestealers in the center (within CC range of my Scouts) and Spoar Mines chained from the upper right T&H. In the deployment zone from the lower left are the Biovore swarm, a plain Assault swarm, Exocrine swarm and Carnifex swarm behind them, Malefactor Assault swarm, Dominatrix and the boosted Assault swarm.

Turn 1

Space Marines wins initiative and decides to go for the Genestealers before they have the Marine Scouts for breakfast...

SM1: A Warhound advances and miss all but one shot, which is saved by the Genestealers!
SM2: I retain to save my Scouts and try to engage the Genestealers, but the Scouts fail even with help from the Supreme Commander! Not a good start for the Marines...

T1: The Exocrines double forward and removes both shields from the Warhound

SM3: Marauders breaks the Biovore swarm, killing all Biovores and some brood.

They move towards the Marines

T2: The Genestealers engage the Scouts, but roll terribly and only manage to kill the two Rhinos. The Scouts kills a few Genestealers in return and the Genestealers loose the combat and are wiped out in resolution.

SM4: Tacticals double ahead and kills two brood from the rightmost swarm.

T3: The Dominatrix double, with a Supreme Commander re-roll, and shoots at the Tacticals. Only one Marine dies.

SM5: Predators advance and kills 3 Spoar Mines, breaking the formation.

T4: The rightmost swarm doubles and puts another BM on the Tacticals.

SM6: Thunderbolts hit the Malefactor swarm, loosing one plane to the Zoantrope. The Zoantrope is killed by the remaining fighter.

T5: The Malefactor swarm marshals, removes all blast markers and moves up behind the Dominatrix.

SM7: The second Warhound advances and kills four brood from the rightmost swarm.

T6: The plain Assault Swarm marches, closing in on the Marines from the left.

SM8: The Supreme Commander doubles towards this new threat and places a BM.

T7: Last activation from the Tyranids. The Carnifex Swarm fails and moves forward.

SM9: The Assault Marines wipes out the assault swarm in an air assault. The Chaplain looses one marine and the Captain two.

SM10: Finally the remaining Scout formation marches to screen the Tacticals from at least one upcoming assault.

End of Turn: All aircraft disengage without incidents, both broken Tyranid formations (Spoar Mines and whats left of the Biovore swarm) fail to rally. Overview after turn one: Marines are holding the center forest but the Tyranids are closing in.

 

Turn 2

Lictors and the Trygon teleport in behind the Marines into the city. No blast markers for any of the formations. Marines are in a bad position at this point, with macro close combat monsters on all sides!

SM1: The Warhound tries a desperate engage on the Lictors, also setting up a crossfire on the Trygon for the Predators. Only problem is that the Warhound looses the combat and breaks.

SM2: The Predators retain anyway, and advance on the Trygon. They roll really bad and the Trygon saves very well and the end result is a single BM.

T1: The Malefactor swarm engages the Scouts. Two Scouts survive the massive amount of fire, at least long enough for the Tacticals to give them some support. The Scouts are wiped out by support fire from the Dominatrix, but with the support from the Tacticals they in return manage to kill half of the brood and two Malefactors.

T2: Retaining the Dominatrix engages the Tacticals. They are wiped out for a single DC on the Dominatrix.

SM3: The Supreme Commander decides it's time to take care of the Lictors, he doubles over and places a BM.
SM4: Retaining, the second Warhound engages. The Lictors are wiped out.

T3: The rightmost swarm engages the remaining Scout formation. The lone Razorback escapes the carnage.

T4: Retaining, the Exocrines sustains fire on the Assault Chaplain. Two marines die and the lone survivor moves forward into a forest.

SM5: With the Trygon threat remaining the marines orders the Thunderhawk to do a ground attack, hopefully killing the Raveners and breaking the formation. The Thunderhawk fails it's 2+ activation, even with a Supreme Commander re-roll!

T5: The Trygon engages the Predators, and wipe out the formation.

SM6: The Marauders retaliate, killing one Ravener and breaking the Trygon.

T6: The Carnifex swarm marches into the center forest

SM7: The remaining Thunderbolt stand down.
SM8: The Assault Captain formation doubles over to the city, positioning themselves for the next turn and making it harder to rally for the Trygon.

End of Turn: For marines the Assault Chaplain and Warhound fails to rally. Tyranids rally everything but the Trygon. The Warhound moves towards the upper right T&H and the Trygon towards the marine Blitz. The remaining marines have been forced to retreat towards the city...

Turn 3

T1: Tyranids win initiative and the Dominatrix doubles towards the Supreme Commander, killing one marine and one Rhino.

T2: Retaining the rightmost swarm engages the Warhound. The combat goes to two rounds and in the end the Warhound is killed by supportive fire from the Dominatrix.

SM1: The Supreme Commander decides it's time to get out of Dodge, and marches across the board towards the top right T&H. He is a few centimeters away from getting to the objective.

T3: The Spoar Mines marshals, fails and removes blast markers.

M2: The Razorback doubles to put a BM on the Malefactor swarm.

T4: Whats left of the Biovore swarm engages and kills the Assault Chaplain securing an objective.

SM3: The Thunderbolt hit the Malefactor swarm but fails to kill anything important.

T5: The Carnifex swarm fails and moves to secure a T&H

M4: The Assault Captain marches to grab the Tyranid blitz.
T6: The Exocrines double back to contest, killing one marine breaking the formation.

SM5: The Marauders finally manages to break the Malefator formation. Only one Warrior and a Hormagaunt survives.

SM6: The Thunderhawk wipes out the Spoar Mines with it's Heavy Bolters.

End of Turn: Neither side has secured any victory conditions, but the Marines are at this point only focused on trying not to loose... All broken formations rally.

Turn 4

SM1: The Razorback doubles and puts a BM on the Trygon.

T1: The Trygon marshals and grabs blitz.

SM2: The surviving Assault Marine marshals and secures the T&H, but at this point i must have been tired and did not measure his move correctly and he ends up short of the objective...

T2: The Biovore swarm defends a T&H

SM3: The Supreme Commander finally secures the T&H, hiding form the Tyranids.

T3: The Exocrines doubles and puts a BM on the Warhound.

SM4: Marauders stand down.

T4: The dominatrix doubles to secure a T&H, failing to kill the Razorback.

SM5: The remaining Thunderbolt is killed by a Zoantrope.

T5: A swarm marches back so secure the Tyranid Blitz.

SM6: The Thunderhawk breaks the blitz guard.

T6: Carnifexes rushes home to secure the Blitz

SM7: With the final activation of turn 4 the surviving Warhound moves to contest the T&H held by the Dominatrix. He also manages to kill the swarm holding the other Tyranid T&H objective, saving the marines form a 2-0 loss.

End of Game

The game ended in a draw. We were pretty close on points as all broken swarms failed to rally. I did some mistakes in turn four, and maybe there would have been a slim chance for me to grab the Tyranid blitz if I would have played better but in the end I was lucky to get away with a draw.