RECAP: Clinton Jones' Tau VS Tyranids!

Writer/Director Clinton Jones makes his debut at the House of Hammer, and his Tau stand strong against the Tyranid onslaught. Pics and links after the break.

I had the chance to meet Clint at a party last year for the release of the surprisingly fun, Hong Kong based, GTA clone, Sleeping Dogs. He had written and directed a great short film to promote the game, which can be found HERE.

If the name sounds familiar, it's because one of his earliest videos, Cardboard Warfare, went viral, and is currently hovering around 7.5 million (!) views.

When I learned that he played 40K, I knew we needed to get him over for a game on the completed forgeworld table. And despite the fact that he's relatively new to the hobby, he still managed to hold his ground against Hive Fleet: Unending Maw.

1,000pts
Purge the Alien
Hammer and Anvil deployment

Tyranids:
Swarmlord
Tervigon
20 Termigants with devourers
20 Hormagants
4 Warriors with deathpitters


Tau:
Commander Farsight
6 stealth warriors
12 Fire warriors with pulse carbines
12 Fire warriors with pulse rifles
10 pathfinders (including heavy weapons)
1 Piranha with fusion blaster
1 Broadside with twin linked Railgun

The table was a solid mix of cover and open sight lines, so despite winning the roll off, Clinton elected to deploy second, so he could counter deploy his Tau forces. And While I placed Unending Maw into a wall of claws and teeth, leaving nothing in reserve, he smartly kept the Stealth warriors in reserve, and infiltrated his Pathfinders to the top of the Librarium. (sound familiar? - why I built a 6 story tall building that all my friends use to markerlight me, is beyond my reckoning.)

I marched my Tervigon forward, and encountered the first fireteam at the base of the Shrine. Despite birthing over 25 gaunts over two rounds, Clinton was able to keep my swarm at bay using combined fire from the fireteam, the pathfinders perched above, a roving piranha (piloted by an ace who was able to start and end moves within terrain without a single scratch!) and an XV88 nearby.

However, all the concentrated firepower left my warriors, hormagaunts, swarmlord and devilgaunts to advance through the rubble mostly unhindered. I peppered his second fire team with scattered devourer fire, causing a few casualties, but just as I closed in to assault--

The stealth warriors (on loan from yours truly - why do I keep doing this to myself?) de-cloaked and ripped into the devilgaunts with a withering volley of shots that stripped the squad from twenty models to just eight!

Near the shrine, the combined firepower of more than half his forces destroyed the Tervigon and her brood, netting Clinton two victory points and an additional point for First Blood. It cost him, however, and the fireteam, greatly reduced, fell back into the shattered ruins.

Along the other flank, having withstood a pot-shot from Farsight, my Swarmlord moved within range to use his psychic powers. Although Farsight shrugged off a psychic shriek, he couldn't withstand the debilitating powers of the monster's paroxysm. Enfeebled by the Swarmlord's mastery of the warp, the commander was an easy target...

And I closed the vise with the my hormagaunts, which had moved up the center of the board generally unhindered. Bounding over each other to reach their prey, they closed the gap and swarmed over the renegade commander. Reduced to WS 1, he was no match, and the cluster of xenos easily stripped him of all but one of his wounds. An amazing series of saving rolls by Clinton was the only thing that kept him from being completely torn apart.

And with that, we called it a night. - Clinton, a relative newcomer to the hobby, had withstood the great devourer by shrewd, strategic thinking, and had won the day three points to none. It was painfully evident to me that he'd already mastered the concepts of counter deploying and using combined arms to destroy priority targets.

Well played, Clinton!

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- trip