The group-wide Brookhammer Cup tournament has returned! Last week kicked off the second round of battles as Leo’s Tyranids looked to continue swarming over their enemies. Could Jason’s Chaos force be enough to stop the xeno threat? Read on to find out!

Game Setup

Points:
Each player has a maximum of 2,000pts.
They’ll use that list for the remainder of the tournament.

Matched Play Mission:
The Scouring (From the core rulebook – replacing First Blood with First Strike)

Deployment:
Search and Destroy was the layout on a 6×4 table. Leo won the roll off and picked his deployment corner.

Armies

Leo’s Tyranids
Kraken – Brigade Detachment
Broodlord, Neurothrope, The Swarmlord, (2) units of 15 Genestealers, a unit of 30 Hormagaunts, (2) units of 30 Termagants, a unit of three Tyranid Warriors, (2) Lictors, a unit of three Venomthropes, a unit of fifteen Gargoyles, (2) units of three Sky-slasher Swarms, (3) Biovores and a Carnifex

Jason’s Chaos
Thousand Sons Supreme Command Detachment
Ahriman on a Disc of Tzeentch, (2) Daemon Princes of Tzeentch, Sorcerer in Terminator Armour, a unit of five Scarab Occult Terminators

Alpha Legion Battalion Detachment
Chaos Lord, Dark Apostle w/ 2 Dark Disciples, (3) squads of 10 Chaos Cultists, Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought, a squad of Havocs with Missile Launchers, a squad of Havocs with Autocannons, Hellforged Scorpius

Chaos Fortification Network
Noctilith Crown

Reinforcement Points – 85pts (to summon Daemons)

Turn 01 Highlights

Jason’s Chaos force finished deploying first and had the chance to go first or second. He picked first but Leo rolled a hot 6 and seized the initiative. It was all downhill from there for the Forces of Chaos
Before the start of the game, Jason used the Forward Operatives stratagem to put a unit of Autocannon wielding Havocs slightly behind the Tyranid force, forcing their hand to deal with them for a turn. The Carnifex failed to wound them, a group of Warriors took out one, the Gargoyles killed a second and a squad of Termingaunts finished off the squad giving Leo a First Strike VP!
The Swarmlord’s Command ability + Opportunistic Advances gave the Genestealers a 20″ advance/charge range to easily work their way into the Chaos backfield, Ahriman was not ready for this! The Genestealers charged him, consolidating into the Scorpius tank. The Genestealers had 60 attacks and wounding Ahriman 22 times. He didn’t make the saves and the Tyranids were rewarded with the Slay the Warlord VP!
The Swarmlord turned its attention to a unit of Cultists but failed a 4″ charge. A CP re-roll made sure he made it into combat (and the cultists failed to do anything in overwatch). He only killed 2 cultists, thanks to some really hot dice from Jason.
The Broodlord hunted down a second unit of Cultists, who did nothing in their overwatch phase. The Broodlord also killed only 2 cultists in the fight phase.
A second unit of Genestealers swarmed around the Noctilith Crown and consolidated into the Missile Launcher wielding Havocs. In the fight phase, the ‘stealers did 3 wounds of damage to the massive Chaos structure. The Havocs fought back, doing only 1 wound in close combat but it was easily saved.
It was time for Chaos to fight back, but with the majority of their units stuck into combat. One of the Deamon Princes summoned in a Tzeentch Fluxmaster, hoping to get some extra Smites and buffs to the Princes.
The Contemptor Dreadnought locked it’s C-Beam onto the squad of Venomthropes, turning them to sticky goo and earning Chaos a First Strike VP!
Both Daemon Princes and the Fluxmaster joined the Cultists in combat with the Swarmlord, trying so hard to get a Slay the Warlord VP, but failed to do so by just 1 wound! Leo spent 3CP on Adrenaline Surge letting the Swarmlord fight again, killing off one of the Daemon Princes!
The 2nd squad of cultists, screaming in tongues, attacked the Broodlord, doing 1 wound of damage to it. Fighting back, the Broodlord slaughtered 3 more of the Cultists.
The Genestealers killed off three Missile Havocs and did three more wounds to the Crown.

Turn 02 Highlights

To start off the second turn, the Swarmlord fell back and used a Regeneration stratagem to heal itself back up 3 wounds.
The Biovores, having a clear lane to fire, did 2 mortal wounds to the remaining Daemon Prince. The Carnifex shot at it as well, taking 3 more wounds off the flying Tzeentch daemon. The Termingaunts fired all they had and took off the remaining wounds to take down the Prince.
Another squad of Termingaunts fired at the third unit of Cultists sneaking around the backfield, killing them all except the champion (who later passed Morale to fight alone!)
The Warriors and Carnifex charged a unit of 4 cultists and the Fluxmaster. The Carnifex failed to wound the Fluxmaster, who spent 2 CP to interrupt and fight next, wounding a Warrior by 2 wounds.
The Swarmlord charged the Noctilith Crown, trying to remove some of the benefits to the remaining Chaos force, doing 3 more wounds of damage to the structure.
The Genestealers, stuck in with the Missile Havocs, did 5 wounds of damage to the squad but with some really hot dice rolls by Jason, only killed 1!
It was now Chaos turn to try to mobilize and fight back. The Scarab Occult Terminators and the Sorcerer in Terminator Armor deep struck in to help provide some firepower, killing off a Warrior and taking 2 more wounds off the Carnifex.
The Contemptor Dreadnought once again fired up its C-Beam and aimed for a unit of Hermagaunts, killing off 9 of the them.
After all the shooting, the Fluxmaster attempted to get back into combat but rolled a 4 for his charge. A CP was spent to re-roll, but still failed to make it in.
The Havoc Champion’s chainsword found its way through one genestealer, while the Swarmlord was busy taking the final wounds off the Crown. It didn’t blow up but Jason spent a CP to try and make it explode in hopes of killing off some of the swarm, but no luck.
With the Crown now gone, the Genestealers made quick work of the remaining Havocs who lost their Invulnerable Save from the Crown.
The other pack of Genestealers killed off the Scorpious. Jason Rolled a 6 to have the tank explore, but Leo used his Painted Re-roll (house rule) and makes Jason re-roll it to get a 3. Jason, in a last-ditch effort used his Painted Re-roll but got a 1. No explosion.

Misc Highlights & More Photos

Jason’s deployment was in a very large open area, not giving his force enough space to spread out and hide. Also, some poor planning on his part deploying his cultists gave the Genestealers a big open lane to rush in.
The game was a late-night fight on a work day. When the second round was over, Jason knew there was no way to come back and they called the game there.
The Kraken forces made short work of the minimal distance between the two starting zones to get into CC very fast. This left Jason with no units to shoot making it rough right from the start.
Leo took home the Most Killed badge. His Tyranids feasted on plenty of biomass!
Jason had the hottest dice this game, making countless saves but in the end, not enough
Points Lost (fully dead units)
- Leo – 90 pts
- Jason – 1,159 pts

Final Score

After two rounds of crazy shooting and fierce combat, the scores were:
Leo: 13 VP, Slay the Warlord, First Strike and Linebreaker
Jason: First Strike

The Kraken swarm proved too much for the Thousand Sons and Alpha Legion, with them swarming over killing Ahriman fast and quick. The Tyranids look forward to feasting on some Imperium forces for their next game in the winners bracket, while the Thousand Sons will reanimate into their armor and look to ravage their enemies in the losers bracket to try and work their way back up in the competition.

Brookhammer Cup – Tyranids v. Chaos