40K League 1750 vs Tyranids

Turned out to be a disappointing night for the emperor's holy warriors
I matched up vs. Tyranids being played by the no. 7 ranked 40K player in the country...and it really showed in how he played.
Can't really remember all the units that he had but he had a lot!
1 Trygon
1 Zoanthroape
5 Ymgarl
2 HQ's (warriors w/ boneswords and lashes)
4 or 5 Warriors
huge decked out genestealer squad
hormagaunts
termagaunts
ripper swarms

He did such a good job w/ their deployment and movement that my options were severly limited. No matter where I decide to engage, my unit will be counter attacked by his other units. The fact that I had to get to the objectives didn't help either. Last but most of all, law of averages from my last week's impressive dice rolls caught up with me and my 1's and 2's came back to haunt me throughout the game
Highlights:
-I was able to make good use of my initial charge out of the GK LRR and attacked at I10 into cover. However, when you're facing an HQ and 5 warriors with a total wound count of 18-20? (can't remember how many wounds the HQ had but the warriors had 3 wounds each), and you roll a lot of 1's and 2's on your to hit rolls and wound rolls, the results are not going to be impressive at all
-The GK LRR gave a good account for itself and incinerated A LOT of 'nids. Personally, I really think the range is too limiting. If I had to choose b/w the GK LRR and the GK LRC, I might still go with the LRC since I have more shooting up to 24" away (w/ our current hurricane bolter rules).
-The GK dread drop podded in right on one of the objectives (too early for my liking) and of course, that particular objective was the one randomly selected to go away in the 3rd turn --essentially nullifying the cool rule that dreads are scoring units.

Final score: 'Nids - 20 pts, GK - 5 pts Solid victory for the 'Nids

It was a great game. The outcome wouldn't have been that different even if my dice rolls were average. Probably the first opponent I played that executed his game flawlessly. The only other way I could have played it was keep my knights in the tanks, stay back and shoot all game, and then rush out to contest objectives for the draw. Maybe I should have done that...I think I need to learn more patience

Apologize for lack of pics but I forgot to bring my camera to the game.

looks like a tough opponent
Aubec

Sounds like a tough opponent- but clearly the dice gods were angered in some way.
The Nid's can be a tough opponent...if they get their deployment right and make their moves correctly they can have it so if you charge one squad- two more assault you in return.

One thing I've done in the past- is use the Raiders as big shields to block off their support groups. If you can get two raiders (assaulting a bigger group)- tank shock your troops in- then take down the one squad- embark back into the raiders- and rinse and repeat (whilst shooting at the big baddies that can ruin a raider's day of course. Remember that no enemy unit can go within one inch of a tank while it's still up and running (unless they assault it of course) so making Raider walls is sometimes very useful.

Also..uh...what was the list that you used lol?

-Cease

The HQ is probably the Tyranid Prime, if you are curious. It has 3 Wounds and 4 attacks, and makes the warriors in the squad it is attached to WS 6 and BS 4. It sounds like a really tough list.

It could have been a Hive Tyrant, but it sounds like a Prime.
The way I have dealt with Tyranid Warriors is attempting to kite them and focus Psycannons on them. They might have 3 wounds and toughness 4, but they only have a 4+ save. Plus, they are fairly expensive. Anyways, Psycannons and Lascannons really do some damage to them. I do remember you mentioning some special rule about Monstrous Creatures having invulnerable saves, but Warriors are infantry. He was probably hugging cover, so the psycannons ignoring armor was probably irrelevant.

Anyways, against most 'Nid lists it seems the overall consensus is to hold back and try to weaken them with shooting before they engage. There are some "shooty" lists they can make, but they are usually still formidable in close combat so it seems best to try to get lucky with the Shrouding. Either way, it seemed like a tough list and you gave it the best you could. Incinerators and the like really help against swarms like Genestealers, Hormagaunts and Termagants, but it is tough to get close to them without being in the assault.

How did he use the Trygon? Did he use it to bring in units from reserve (Trygons can create tunnel-like systems that units can "deep strike" out of)? How did you think it performed for him? I'm just curious as I've never played against one nor seen it be used against Knights. While a Force Weapon would make quick work of it, toughness 6 and 6 wounds would take a while to whittle down.

Sorry for the long post full of questions and the such. The guy obviously had to know what he was doing to best you in combat, but it seems like he really locked you down from turn 1 just by looking at his units.

Yes, now that I think about it, it was a Prime. They were in cover the whole time. His warriors also had shooting weapons that spit out 3 shots so he definitely had shooting too. What made it difficult for me was I had to close the gap because I had to get to the objectives.
As for his Trygon, he didn't use them to do a "tunnel". Come to think of it, it didn't do too much since he kept it far from my GM

The mission itself really favored his army because of sheer numbers. Its just one of those scenarios where it might have been more prudent for me to have gone for the draw. But old habits are hard to break since I always try to go for the win...kinda like death or glory

It's tough going against any army in the hands of a player who knows what he's doing. Especially for us. As always, it's good you've taken a lesson out of this. Draws aren't so bad if they seem to be the more realistic approach.

In some cases its good to just kill as many as you can
Unless you totally tailor against hordes, GK are a hard army to use against them.

a draw would have been the solution, yes, but i'm with you with that Brother Rivan i can't think of nothing more than victory or death myself ... it's a flaw i know, but hey without perils no glory !!
Aubec

Just curious if he claimed any invul saves for the warriors becasue the only 3 units with invul saves in the tyranid codex are the swarmlord in hand to hand Zoanthropes and the doom of malanti. I play nids as my second army behind grey knights and if he claimed any invuls for the warriors I say shenanigans