Tyranids vs Necrons

This was a 1500 point Chapter Approved 2025 game of my Tyranids vs Necrons.

I decided to try out an Assimilation Swarm list to see how Tyranid regeneration would fair against Necron Reanimation Protocols (and also because I thought it would be funny).

The Forces

Tyranids (Assimilation Swarm): Neurotyrant + 3 Zoanthropes, Broodlord + 10 Genestealers, Parasite of Mortrex, 20 Hormagaunts, 10 Hormagaunts, 5 Barbgaunts, Psychophage, Biovore, Pyrovore, Haruspex, Norn Assimilator

Necrons (Starshatter Arsenal): Overlord + 10 Warriors, Overlord + Plasmancer + 10 Warriors, Technomancer + Wraiths, Skorpekh Lord + 3 Skorpekh Destroyers, 3 Skorpekh Destroyers, Nightbringer, Reanimator, Doomstalker, 2 x 3 Scarab Swarms

The Mission

Burden of Trust, Sweeping Engagement, UKTC 1.5 Round 1 Map.

The Battle

One of my Hormagaunt swarms kills the Skorpekhs, leaving just the Lord

Meanwhile, the smaller ‘gaunt blob ties up some warriors

Turn 2: The Haruspex heads towards the enemy home objective, but is killed by Plasmancer, Nightbringer and Tachyon Arrow shooting before it can get there.

Turn 4: I have wiped out most of the Necrons on the left flank, but the Nightbringer has swept around from the right and deleted everything it touched. We ended up with neither of us scoring any primary this turn.

We were running out of time halfway through Turn 4, but I was 30 points ahead on score without even having drawn any secondaries yet, so we agreed to call it there.

What went well

My initial push across the board was quite effective at establishing board control and keeping the Necrons penned up in their deployment zone.
The Hormagaunts proved surprisingly durable, tying up both Warriors and Wraiths for multiple turns.
The Genestealers were my main damage dealers and absolutely minced anything they came into contact with.
Assimilation Swarm gave a nice little durability boost to the Tyranids (although I did start to miss the offensive buffs of Invasion Fleet).
I managed to kill all of the Skorpekhs before they could do any damage. This is exactly what happened to my Skorpekhs last game, so I’m glad it’s not just me.

What went badly:

I made the rookie error of trying to kill Wraiths. There’s only three, I thought. I can probably get through that, I thought. Nope. Two full turns of my Norn Assimilator’s attacks bounced off their 4++. The hormagaunts did slightly better, but not enough to win the war of attrition.
My original plan for dealing with the Wraiths was to send in my Lictor to assassinate the Technomancer (which worked well previously). However the Skorpekhs were in the way, so instead I sent it after an Overlord, only to get splatted via a Counter Offensive before it could strike. Better initial positioning and sticking to the plan may have been the better idea.
I forgot all of the detachment stratagems. Broodguard Impulse, Tyrannoformed and Ablative Carapace in particular could’ve been useful in this game if I remembered they existed.
The Nightbringer was pretty terrifying once it got going. Maybe I need to give my own a second chance…
Assimilation Swarm seems like a very powerful detachment in terms of rules, enhancements and stratagems, but it relies on Harvester units which seem to be on the weaker side for their points. Most of my Harvester units didn’t really do much good by themselves and I might’ve been better off swapping some of them for their non-Harvester equivalents (e.g. Norn Emissary rather than Assimilator).

Victory Pointless