40K: BAs vs the Nidstar – Part II – Practical Applications

This past weekend I had the opportunity to play in the Genghis Con 40k GT in Denver, Colorado. There were 70 players present. I brought my 1850 point DoA list and this would be my first experience with them in a large competitive environment.

I played a 2000 point DoA army at BoLScon last year that had several of the same units, but there are some fundamental differences between the two. For example, the 1850 point list is pure jump infantry – i.e., no Stormravens this time. If you follow my articles here then you will know that the first part of this article drew a lot of heated debate… proper bubble wrap, what exactly is a Tyranid Deathstar (aka NidStar), can you even beat it? All of these topics were hotly argued. So, by some oddly fickle twist of the Wyrm I had the opportunity to put my money where my mouth is because I fought two NidStar armies – one during the first round, and one in the fifth and final round on table two.

As I said before, Tyranids can be a tough match up versus Descent of Angels (DoA) armies when you’re facing a NidStar bubble wrapped in a sea of many teeming gaunts. This article shows you how I fared at a major tournament versus two of these brutal armies.

My opponents ran the following NidStars:

Swarmlord

3x Tyrant Guard: Lash whips

Tyranid Prime: dual bone swords, Regeneration

Both opponents had ample numbers of Tervigons constantly spewing termagants throughout both games. The first army also had the Doom which presented some very interesting challenges. So the question was could I tear through the bubble wraps and take down the NidStars in close combat?

The first game had Annihilation as the primary objective, so I had a big advantage from the start since those gants were all easy kill points. Deployment was Spearhead. There was a huge building just off the center of the table. My opponent deployed his NiDStar on the side facing the middle of the table and the bulk of his army on the other side facing a short table edge. I landed one squad of assault Marines on turn 2 close to the center of the table as a diversion, and my opponent went for it drawing his two biggest threats away from the bulk of his army. I dropped in the rest of army on the side of the building facing the rest of his army, and had at it. The NidStar and Doom could not cover the distance in time to save the day no matter how fast they scuttled.

The fifth and final game was versus the second NidStar army. I was playing another player with a 4W-0L record such as myself on the second table. The primary objective: one objective placed in the middle of the table – whoever had the most killpoints within 6″ at the end of the game won. Deployment was Pitched Battle. Obviously this was a good player going 4 – 0 with Tyranids at a large tournament. He bubble wrapped his NidStar with the rest of his army and proceeded the march towards center of the table FTW… but wait… I had a plan.

There were several large buildings with flat contiguous roofs, so I landed my uber assault units on top of them. They could come in close enough to assault the Nids the next turn without being assaulted first on the drop. This allowed me to move close enough to multi charge many units on one turn hitting them with one fell five fingered death punch… it was a wet dream come true. I held back my two assault squads to take the objective.

The plan went very well – the third turn my Blood Saints multi charged and obliterated over half the Tyranid army with the NidStar stuck in combat – too far away with not enough time to reach the table center. Unfortunately for me there was not enough time for a fifth turn so the game ended in a tie as we neither had a single unit within 6″ of the table center. Using the rooftops to land my army was awesome… just another 5 minutes and it would have been mine… oh well. It’s all cool and I was just happy to have the experience.

The first game I was able to ignore the NidStar, and in the second game I had no choice but to engage it. Both of my opponents won four out of five games so neither was a slouch. It can all come down to the mission objectives and the terrain. If you can use your speed to avoid the NidStar and win you are depriving your opponent the use of their most powerful unit. Sometimes, though, that is just not possible so by use of cunning you can still multi charge the NidStar – it requires some creative thinking, that’s all.

G