Grey Knights vs Tyranids

This week I managed to sneak in another 9th edition game. This is my first battle report in... exactly one month, which is too bad. Before the pandemic I was cranking out one of these every week. But we play when we can these days, and we make those games count.

My opponent this week was a friend from the gym. He only jumped back into 40k last year after a long hiatus, but he has since painted up 1850 points of Tyranids. I got to crush some bugs!

Seeing that this was my buddy's first game of 9th edition, I decided not to bring my usual take-all-comers list. I downgraded my Paladin Squad to only five dudes (from my usual ten), and I brought along a Land Raider Crusader. In the above picture you'll see my Grand Master Nemesis Dreadknight as well as my regular old Nemesis Dreadknight. I still contend that standard Dreadknights are good post Psychic Awakening, despite the longstanding hate for them.

We were playing No Man's Land from the core rulebook Eternal War mission pack. This mission encourages both armies to fight for the center of the battlefield, so it promised to be a bloodbath. For secondaries, I chose Linebreaker, Thin Their Ranks, and Bring it Down, whereas my opponent chose Assassinate, Linebreaker, and the bespoke secondary Secure No Man's Land. It was readily apparent that the goal here was going to be "push forward and kill as many bugs as possible."

I threw my 5-man Paladin Squad, an Apothecary, a Paladin Ancient, and my Brother-Captain into the LRC, placed 3 Terminator Squads in space, and deployed my Dreadknights up front. The Tyranids had one gun in their whole army that had more than 18" of range, so I wasn't worried about shooting (plus Tide of Shadows would keep me safe).

That Tyrannofex has acid spray rather than the typical rupture cannon.

The Tyranids deployed similarly. He wanted to take the center and hold the objectives, and since he didn't have much in the way of shooting he held nothing back.

We rolled, and he took first turn.

He had two units of Genestealers and performed the classic Swarmlord Slingshot maneuver to get them in my deployment zone on the first turn. This was why he chose Linebreaker as a secondary.

The Genestealers got into easy charging range of my Dreadknight. I spent the CP to overwatch, but only rolled one hit on my incinerator and no hits on the psilencer. Then the Genestealers soaked that one hit with the 5+++ FnP granted by Catalyst. My Dreadknight's 5++ invulnerable save couldn't protect him from the storm of rending claws that came his way, and he died during my next turn when I chose not to have him Fall Back. Dreadknights are good, I swear!

My opponent managed to secure every objective except for the one in my deployment zone, so I had some work to do.

On my first turn, I moved my GMNDK forward and yeeted my LRC into the center of the battlefield. I fully expected it to crack on my buddy's next turn -- Land Raiders just die, that's what they do. I was hopeful to get one turn of shooting with it, at least. The hurricane bolters and assault cannons made mincemeat of those Hormagaunts there and took a few wounds off of a Carnifex.

The Swarmlord is a beast in melee, and my Grand Master couldn't miss an opportunity to duel such a worthy opponent. I popped Heed the Prognosticars on him and moved him forward. He failed his charge, but I was confident that he would at least get to strike back after the Swarmlord charged him. Even if somehow he failed all his 3++ invulns, I could still use Only in Death Does Duty End.

Two models on the table for me at the end of round one!

In round two, my buddy charged my GMNDK with both the Swarmlord and his Broodlord. The Genestealers that killed my Dreaknight were close enough that he could have charged them into my GMNDK as well, but he chose to keep them in my deployment zone to try and get Linebreaker. This proved to be an error on his part, because I just blasted them off the table next turn with storm bolters.

The Swarmlord brought my GMNDK down to one wound, and then I used Counter-Offensive to interrupt and kill the Broodlord before it could fight. My buddy used Adrenaline Surge to fight again with the Swarmlord, rolling a 6 to wound and finishing off my GMNDK with a mortal wound, and then I used Only in Death Does Duty End to strike before death. It was a fuckfest, but the Swarmlord ultimately lost only two wounds. This creature was the superior duelist, without a doubt. Maybe if I had chosen to strike it with Counter-Offensive instead of the Broodlord, but then... ah, too many variables to regret choices. My GMNDK and the Broodlord were both dead, which felt like an acceptable trade.

Predictably, my LRC got tied up. Fortunately some bad rolls on the Tyranids' part and the LRC having T8 meant it only took one wound in the fight phase.

Turn two for me. Everyone in the Land Raider jumped out, and my Terminators came in from deep strike.

There's a Hive Tyrant waiting in my deployment zone back there, trying to get Linebreaker.

I used Dynamic Insertion to get some Terminators near enough to contest the center objective and prevent my opponent from scoring it for the primary and his secondary. With my Paladins and three squads of Terminators now on the field, I suddenly was able to unleash 80 storm bolter shots at whatever I wanted. I took out that linebreaking squad of Genestealers and some Termagants that were holding his backfield objective. My LRC which wasn't dead blasted away the Warriors that had engaged it. Big Guns Never Tire is a really cool rule, and makes tanks much more viable.

With the Warriors out of the way, my Paladins moved in and blendered the Carnifex, freeing my LRC once more.

I had dropped in a Terminator Squad between the Hive Tyrant and my characters to protect them, and on a whim decided to charge over a crater to see if I could contest the objective in my own deployment zone. The Terminators rolled boxcars and made it in, securing the objective and shaving 4 wounds off of the Hive Tyrant.

My buddy pulled the Flyrant back. He was playing Hive Fleet Kraken, so the Hive Tyrant could still charge. My buddy was really hoping to reclaim that objective, but he had already lost the points for holding it, and since he only had one unit in my zone he didn't get Linebreaker either.

The Swarmlord was not content with slaying only one of my characters. As mentioned, I had placed a Terminator Squad in front of my Brother-Captain to protect him, but in their zealotry they abandoned their post to attack the Flyrant in the background, and thus opened up a hole for the Swarmlord to continue headhunting.

At this point, my buddy knew that having so many storm bolters on the the table was a problem. My Terminators were tearing through his Troops like tissue paper. I had one rogue squad deep in his deployment zone that was threatening to take his home objective. My buddy made the choice to pull back one Genestealer squad and deal with them. My Terminators were butchered, but now those Genestealers were all the way back in the corner of the board and I was free from them for a couple turns.

My Brother-Captain managed to hold on against the Swarmlord with the aid of the Apothecary. But try as he might, he just couldn't get his sword to penetrate the monster's defenses.

My LRC, on the other hand, didn't give a shit about the Swarmlord's Blade Parry rule. The Swarmlord had to engage the Land Raider in order to attack my Brother-Captain, and the Land Raider punished it with a storm of bolter fire in Engagement Range, reducing the beast to one wound.

On my fourth turn my remaining characters smote the Swarmlord to death, and my Paladins and the LRC mowed down the remaining Tyranid Troops. All he had left was the untouched Tyrannofex. I maneuvered myself to grab a few more objectives, and the Grey Knights won 53 - 45.

This game was great. My opponent was super worried about forgetting rules and not knowing all of his units by heart, but honestly he handled the battle with a lot of tactical awareness and leveraged his bugs in very effective ways. I think taking Linebreaker was what cost him the game here. If he wasn't concerned with trying to keep two units in my deployment zone, then he would've been able to pressure my Paladins and characters with an extra mob of Genestealers and a Hive Tyrant. The Swarmlord did work, though, scything down one of my hardest-hitting units early in the game.

9th edition is so great. As I mentioned in a previous post, it no longer feels like a game of Who Can Obliterate Who First. On turns one and two when the Tyranids held four out of the five objectives, I was really concerned. I thought my opponent was just going to run away with the game. But I removed key units and utilized Gate of Infinity to reclaim objectives and ultimately was able to turn the tide.

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Beyond my matched play games, I'm currently involved in a slow grow Crusade campaign with a group of friends where I am playing Tau. It's been a blast so far. Historically I only share my Grey Knights battle reports on this blog, but if there is interest I might start documenting my Crusade games as well.