Dark Eldar vs Footslogging Eldar

Battle Report #8 2000 points: Eldar vs. DE

 

We both wanted to try some new units for this one. He was using wraithguard for the first time and I wanted to try out my beasts. I really expected him to have some armor, but he came out with an almost entirely foot slogging army.

 

The armies:

 

DE

 

HQ

Duke Sliscus

Haemonculus: LG, Hexrifle

Haemonculus: LG, venom blade, Hexrifle

 

Troops

8 Wyches: RF with Hekatrix, in a Raider with DC, NS, Haemonculus starts here

8 Wyches: RF with Hekatrix, in a Raider with DC, NS Haemonculus starts here

10 Warriors: SC dedicated raider but do not start in it.

5 Wracks, LG in a Venom with SC X 2

 

Elites

4 Incubi, SC X 2, NS

 

 

Fast

4 Reavers with HL

4 Reavers with HL

3 Beast Masters with 5 Khyemera and 4 Razorwing Flocks

 

 

Heavy

Ravager NS

Ravager NS

Razorwing, 2 DC, FF, NS

 

Eldar

 

HQ

The Avatar

Maugan RA

 

Troops

14 Guardians, Warlock (conceal), Weapons Platform with Scatter Laser

14 Guardians, Warlock (conceal), Weapons Platform with Scatter Laser

 

Elite

10 Wraithguard with a warlock (conceal)

5 Harlequins, Death Jester and Shadow Seer

 

Fast

Vyper Jetbike, scatter laser

Vyper Jetbike, scatter laser

 

Heavy

3 War Walkers, dual scatterlasers

4 Dark Reapers (one autarch with rapid fire-the one that gives the extra shot)

4 Dark Reapers (one autarch with rapid fire-the one that gives the extra shot)

 

Mission: Big Guns Never Tire

Deployment: Hammer and Anvil

Special Issues: None

Warlord Traits: He got city, I got night fighting

Terrain: See diagram

Ability rolls: I rolled for combat drugs and got +1 to Weapon Skill.

Night Fighting: Yes

 

 

Deployment: He won the roll off and placed all his forces near the center. I hid mine as much as possible behind terrain and way back. The beasts up near the top left corner with the khymerea in front, to try and come around the back side and my reavers on either side of my formation.

 

I realized after I finished this that I forgot to put in the objectives. We rolled for four objectives. Three of them were in the no man’s land of the hammer and anvil deployment. One in the dead center with the other two about halfway to the ends of the 24 inch corridor between the two armies. The fourth was in his deployment zone behind the ruins in the middle back of the field.

 

 

I then stole the initiative.

 

 

 

Turn 1 Bloody Claw:

I moved almost everything back to stay out of the 36 inch range. The beasts moved over onto the hill. Reavers moved just a bit.

 

In the shooting phase one group of reavers turbo boosted over the Dark Reapers, who made their saves (didn’t realize they were 3+). The other turbo boosted into cover to prepare for harassing the war walkers. The one warrior with a splinter cannon was just within 36 inches and killed the lead guardian.

 

 

Turn 1 Eldar:

In the movement phase he moved everything but his dark reapers forward. He sent one vyper back to deal with the jetbikes.

 

In the shooting phase the the vyper jetbike killed one reaver. Then the dark reapers killed two more and Maugan Ra (attached to the dark reapers) killed the last one. First blood to the Eldar. He fired his scatter laser at the eldar in the building but they made their 2 saves. The other scatter laser from a weapons platform shot at the beasts who made all their one save. Everything else was beyond range and the reavers behind the ruined walls were out of sight of the war walkers.

 

 

 

 

Turn 2 Bloody Claw:

 

The Razorwing came in 18 inches from the back corner. The wracks did not. The beasts moved towards the guardians to prep an assault. Everything else moved over, keeping as much cover as possible but with some line of sight to his war walkers. The reavers moved out to get a shot off at the war walkers.

 

In the shooting phase the razorwing dropped two missles and the DLs on his wraithguard killing the warlock, five wraithguard and four guardians. The venom then took a wound off the avatar with its 18 splinter shots. The reavers took a hull point off the first war walker, then a raider finished it off. The ravager on the right then took out the next war walker. The warriors in the building got off the splinter cannon killing one guardian. Another random DL shot killed a dark reaper in the building.

 

In the assault phase the beasts came in killing 10 guardians and losing one. The guardians were fearless due to being just at 12 inches from the avatar, which was great for me or they would have been sitting ducks for shooting next turn. The reavers jumped back into cover and out of sight of the war walkers.

 

 

 

Turn 2: Eldar

 

In the movement phase he came forward to get all my vehicles in range. His vipers jumped around.

 

In the shooting phase he managed to take two hull points and a weapon off a ravager and a hull point and a weapon from a venom. He killed one reaver that was not covered well enough. He rolled incredibly poorly, but he needed 5s or 6s to glance with most of his shots and just kept rolling twos and threes and was concentrating on my ravagers, but couldn’t get through and all the night shields cut his 36 inches to 30 putting things just out of range.

 

In assault the beasts finished up the guardians and consolidated 4 inches towards his mass of troops.

 

 

Turn 3 Bloody Claw:

The venoms came in behind the avatar. The Jetfighter moved forward 18 inches. Everything else adjusted to get into firing line of sight. The reavers jumped out to take another shot at the war walker.

 

Shooting: The reavers took a hull point off the last war walker, then a raider took the second, wrecking it. The monoscythe dropped more on the wraithguards again, killing five guardians and their warlock, and one wraithguard. The venom with the wracks put two wounds on the avatar and then the other venoms lone cannon took his last killing him. A stray DL shot killed a dark reaper. A raider missed a vyper. A ravager took a shot at the wraithguard and missed.

 

In the assault the beast pack multi-assaulted the wraithguard and the harlequins, loosing nothing to overwatch by making one 4+ invulnerable save. The harlequins killed two khyemera but the khymerea and two razorwing flocks killed three harlequin. The rest of the squad managed to kill one more wraithguard. The wraithguard managed two wounds on a razorwing flock, ending in tie combat.

 

 

 

Turn 3 Eldar

 

Maugan Ra split off from his dark reapers and moved toward the combat. His vypers moved toward vehicles to try and destroy them. The guardians moved to get in rapid fire range of my ravager.

 

Shooting: The guardians fired at the ravager with one hull point left but failed to destroy it. The vyper on the left exploded the raider, killing three wyches, but the passed the pinning test. His other vyper fired at the venom with its scatter laser but failed  to even glance it. Both squads of dark reapers fired at the venom as well, but missed and scattered enough that the few hits did not glance, so it survived.

 

Assault: In the assault phase, Maugan Ra rolled a five ending up two inches short of getting into combat. Two more harlequins died, but there was no other damage. They passed their leadership.

 

 

At this point he conceded, seeing that even if he could kill my beasts, I would take out all his scoring units next turn.

 

Game was a blast and even though it became lopsided pretty fast and he rolled very poorly, we both were laughing at the entire thing. He realized that he should have used reserves and that he probably should have tried to come around the sides and not right up the middle, but had too much faith in the 3+ saves on the wraithguard and under estimated the amount of firepower the DE can put on the field, especially with the flier. Also, losing the first play really hurt his plan.

 

If he had gone first, it may have been a little different. He still would not have been able to do much to me first round, but he would have had two turns before my flier came in. He did not realize how much damage the missiles could do, and he was using his guardians as a meat shield for his harlequins and wraithguard, but it didn’t help with the missiles and only left him bunched up, as did the terrain which channeled him into the middle where the objectives were.

 

The beasts were monsters in combat, but not sure how they would do against more powerful units.

How to Magnetize a Warhammer 40K Dark Eldar Talos Pain Engine and a Chronos Parasite Engine

 

In this tutorial, in the first part I will magnetize the Talos Pain Engine’s weapons. I will then go on to magnetize the rest of the model so that it can be converted from a Talos to the Chronos.

1)      If you only want to keep your options for the Talos open so you can play WYSIWYG then you can stop after the first part.

2)      If you want to be able to convert over to a Chronos and back again, continue on to part two once part one is completed.

3)      IF YOU HAVE NOT DECIDED if you want to do both, no worries. I hadn’t when I put this together. NOTHING in part one will keep you from changing your mind until I say “Now you have to decide.”

4)      IF you only want a magnetized Chronos, go to Part Three.

5)      I recommend saving all the bits and bobs for the very end, which is a little out of order from the instructions, but it will keep them out of the way.

 

Materials:

            Talos/Chronos Kit

            Glue

            1/8^th and 1/16^th drill bits

            1/16 by 1/32 magnets

            1/8 by 1/16 magnets

            1/8 by 1/32 magnets

 

PART ONE: Magnetize the Talos Pain Engine

 

Step One: Build the body and hips as per the instructions BUT DO NOT attach the carapace. It is not the end of the world if you do; it just makes things easier if it isn’t in the way. Do not glue in the upper arms or the faces at this point.

 

The next three steps are all interchangeable

 

Step Two: I did the tail weapons first. Put the body on the stand and slide the tail into the slot. DO NOT glue it in. Do this so that you can judge how to cut and place the weapons.

 

Assemble the four twin linked weapons. Next cut the tip of the tail so that it is flat and facing forward. Glue on a 1/8^th by 1/16^th magnet here. Don’t worry that it looks bad; it will be completely covered when you attach the weapon.


This is from later (obviously) but demonstrates the magnet on the tail.

Now the glue on the weapons should be dry. Next you glue a 1/8^th by 1/32^nd magnet into the weapon piece at the point where the “ball” of the tail would have attached. You do not need to drill here, but can if you wish. The magnet will not lay completely flush with the bottom, so the trick here is to make sure the magnet is laying flat. It is not hard, you just have to pay attention or the weapon will point at an angle.



The magnet laying in the twin linked weapon

Last is the small carapace that sits on the weapons. You can magnetize this by clipping the tabs and placing a 1/16 X 1/32nd magnet on the second tab (the one towards the back). The place a magnet in the slot of the wepon at the back of the slot.

The tab from the carapace fits into the tab and in my model stays without a magnet but I ended up magnetizing it just to keep it secure.





Once it dries, this is what it will look like.

 

Step Three: Next is the right arm. This is the close combat weapon arm, and you will have to make a choice which close combat weapon you want of the three or four provided. The other option is to find or purchase the bits to make more of the forearms, but I elected to only go with what came in the box. I went with the cleaver. You can then also make the chain flails, which is the other right arm weapon choice. Don’t attach the vambraces yet. You can if you want, but they are pointing and will hurt your fingers while you drill.

These are the right arm parts assembled, minus the Vambrace

            While these are drying take the right arm piece and clip off the peg. Drill a 1/8^th inch hole, just deep enough for the 1/32 depth magnets (if using 1/16^th depth magnets, some will have to be exposed. Glue in the magnet. Next take the dry forearms and drill a hole for another 1/32^nd depth 1/8^th inch magnet and glue those in place.  Now you can glue on the appropriate vambrace.

 

The finished right arm peices

Closer view of the magent in the forearm

Step Four: Now the left arm. You have to make a choice here. You can build another close combat weapon OR the venom injector. This is again because of only having one forearm set like on the right. Again, you can go find additional pieces or just choose. I chose the venom injector and here is the reasoning. The venom injector looks like a big claw or set of talons, which looks a lot like one of the CCWs on the other side. I can use that as either the CCW or as the venom injector by changing out the appropriate vambrace. So, I magnetize the vambrace and change that out depending on which way I am using it. The liquefier gun also uses the toxin vambrace so it can be switched back and forth so I don’t have to make a permanent choice. The way I look at it, without the toxic vambrace, the venom injector is just a big claw, right? So build the venom injector and the twin linked liquefier gun. While these are drying, repeat the process for the left upper arm, like you did with the right.

Twin linked liquifier gun and left arm

            Once the forearms are dry, repeat the magnetizing process like with the right-sided arm pieces. Then I put a 1/16^th by 1/32^nd magnet in each of the forearm slots where the vambrace pegs would sit. It is just smaller than 1/16^th wide, so you may want to drill a small hole. It will be almost unnoticeable, but makes it easier. I think cut off the peg on the underside of the toxin and close combat vambraces and drilled a very shallow hole to place the small magnet in. It is not necessary, but makes it sit a little more flush. They will then sit on either arm.



Magnet in toxin vambrace

A later view, but you can see the magnet in the slot for the vambrace

 

            The last part of using these two weapons is the attachment to the first “vestigial arm hole accepts the attachment of the tubes running from the weapons. So, clip the ball on the end of the tubes at about 1/3^rd of the way in, creating a flat spot to glue a 1/16^th by 1/32^nd magnet. The drill a hole in the vestigial arm hole to accept the mating magnet. The hole is required so that the meeting will be flush. IF you elected to go with a CCW instead of the venom injector, you will also need to magnetize one of the vestigial arms, vanes or poison vials so that it can be put there when using the CCW.





Here you can see the vestigial arm hole magnet behind the main arm hole magnet



Here is the arm I decided to use when I want a left hand CCW. It sticks onto the vestigial arm hole magnet-and there you go.

 

You will notice that at this point you have not drilled or magnetized the upper arm connection to the body. Be patient, it is coming....

 

Now you have all the available options on your Talos Pain Engine. The decision time has arrived. If you only want a Talos, then glue everything in place (including the upper arms to the main body) and finish it up as per the instructions. If you want to also have a Chronos, then go on to Part Two. If you want interchangeable faces, go to the end of part two.

 

PART TWO

 

So, you have decided you want to make a Chronos too. So we will start with the arms.

 

Step five: There are two ways of doing this. Either magnetize the upper arms of the two sets or cut the “tentacally” part of the chromos arms off and magnetize them just like attaching the forearms in the Talos portion. I went with doing the upper arms, which gives me flexibility later should I ever decide to make something permanent.

 Method 1: Drill a hole into each arm socket on the main body of the model to accept the 1/8 inch magnets. I just drilled all the way through. Place the 1/8 by 1/16^th magnets in so that they are flush with the surface. If you used a 1/8^th in bit it should be a very tight fit and you won’t need green stuff. If you over drilled, then you may need some on the back to get them to hold. Now, you can glue on the carapace.

Here is the talos with the arm magnet in place-obviously I did this before the vestigial arm hole magnet. The order doesn't really matter.

view of the arm connection to the body

 

            Next, clip the tips of the two Talos upper arms and the two chromos arms to create a flat spot. Drill a pilot hole with your 1/6^th in drill bit, and then drill the 1/8^th inch hole. Place a magnet into the arm socket making sure it is flat to the surface. I used the 1/32^nd depth magnets and they hold fine.

 

 

Method 2: Clip the tentacle portion of the chromos arms off. Drill a small hole in them to accept a 1/8^th inch magnet and use to attach the same as the Talos forearms. Once that is done, you can glue the upper arms with the magnets into the arm sockets.

 

Step 6: Assemble the tentacle pod and the “tail pod” (parts 43 and 44 in the current instructions-the ones that you glue on the chains, vortex or antenna). Assemble the spirit vortex.

            Next drill a 1/16^th inch hole in the tail pod deep enough for two 1/16^th by 1/32^nd  inch magnets. Then glue ONE in the hole. Next glue the mating magnets to the base of the vortex and antenna (for the chromos) and the chains (for the talos). This way the magnets on the attachments will sit in the hole and the attachments will be flush.

Remeber to inset this on so that the adjoining magnet will not show.

 

 

Here is the spirit vortex. The other tail pod accessories can be done exactly the same.

            Currently, I did not magnetize the two back holes. The hole and peg configurations are very tight and hole fine. You could if you chose add magnets here, but I did not see the point. Should they ever become loose then I will add them then.

 

            With this done, you should be able to place it in the two configurations-the tail pod underneath when the weapon tail is in place for the Talos configuration; and the tail pod up top with the tentacle pod underneath for the Chronos configuration. You then only need to swap out the appropriate tail pod attachment for whatever option you choose.

 

Step 7: The facemask. This is completely optional, but I wanted three different facemasks. One for the Talos and two for the Chronos (the plain and the spirit siphon). First assemble the two pieces that make up the mask with the spirit siphon. Then drill a 1/16^th inch hole at the flat of the face, just before the curve. Glue in a 1/16^th by 1/32^nd magnet. Next drill a SHALLOW 1/16^th inch hole inside the corresponding mask position. This is only to hold the magnet in place and keep it a little bit flush, but be careful as, obviously, you could drill right through. If you are hesitant, then just skip the drilling or just glue on your favorite face.

I drilled a VERY shallow hole, just to make sure the magnet sat where I wanted it and did not slide around

 

"Hi, I'm a cyclops." Again, I drilled a shallow hole so that I could set the magnet in the right spot.

Step 8: Now add the two hip pods and all the accessories you want. If you are a purest, you can use a bunch of  1/16^th by 1/32^nd magnets and magnetize all the accessories (back spines and vestigial arm holes), but I just glued in the ones I wanted, as I was going to use the same back spines regardless of which model and I liked a combination of the vestigial arms and poison vials, so that is what I was going to do regardless.

 

PART THREE;

            If you only want a variable Chronos, then all you do is magnetize the tail pod and the face masks and any accessories you want. There are no other options. So, yes this part is really just a tease J

 

So, there you have it and Chronos and a Talos, all in one model.

Battle Report #6 1850 points: Tyranids vs. DE

 

We decided to use the hills again, but in a different configuration since I would not be able to get to painting them this week anyway. We initially put in a lava river, but decided to just make it a mysterious river instead. We didn’t bother switching out the river pieces though.

 

The Board:

 

 

The armies:

 

DE

 

HQ

Archon: Huskblade, soultrap, venom blade, PGL, combat drugs, shadow field

Haemonculus: LG, venom blade, Hexrifle

Haemonculus: LG, venom blade, Hexrifle

 

Troops

9 Wyches: RF, in a Raider with DC, Haemonculus starts here

9 Wyches: RF, in a Raider with DC, Haemonculus starts here

16 Warriors: SC

5 Wracks, LG in a Venom with SC X 2

 

Elites

4 Incubi, the Archon starts here, SC X 2, NS

 

Fast

6 Reavers with HL X 2, cluster caltrops X 2

6 Reavers with HL X 2, cluster caltrops X 2

 

 

Heavy

Ravager DC X 3

Ravager DC X 3

Razorwing, 2 DC, FF

 

Tyranids

 

HQ

Swarmlord

Tervigan

 

Troops

30 Hormagaunts

30 Hormagaunts

30 Termagaunts

 

Elite

20 Genestealers

Doom of Malenti

 

 

Heavy

Old One Eye

Malwoc

 

Mission: Purge the Alien

Deployment: Dawn of War

Special Issues: Mysterious river

Warlord Traits: We both rolled and got Dust of a Thousand Worlds. Good for me but he already had move through cover for all his units.

Terrain: See diagram

Ability rolls: I rolled for combat drugs and got +1 Weapon Skill.

Night Fighting: No

 

Deployment: I won the roll off and elected to go first. I put the warriors on the hill in the middle back of my board. I then concentrated everything else in the left back corner, except my jetbikes and razorwing that I left in reserve. He then deployed across his side of the field. I have never seen so many models at one time. Only the Malwoc was in reserve

 

 

We then discussed it and I removed my razorwing as he had no skyfire capability and no real way to even attack it, so I quickly replaced it with 5 trueborne with two SC in a venom with dual splinter cannons and added NS to one of my other venoms.

 

He stole the initiative (and that will be how my first turn goes!)

 

Turn 1 Tyranid Swarm:

He rolled for spawning and got 13 more termagaunts, but rolled doubles. He gave old one-eye FNP.

He then decided to run with everything and for sake of time he combined run and movement phase. His doom rolled a 6 and the hormagaunts with it rolled a 5 so they hugged up behind the hill on the left side of the board. His other group of hormagaunts rolled a six and old one-eye got a 5 and they hugged up behind the hill on the right side. The Genestealers rolled a 6 and got behind the middle hill, split between the table and the first level of the hill. The swarmlord ran four inches and tripped the river which was iceblood-he passed the dangerous terrain test (and then we remembered that “move through cover” auto passes dangerous terrain tests now). The termagaunts each rolled ones and stayed behind the hill and river as much as possible. Overall, he made my angles very hard.

 

Turn 1 Kabal of the Bloody Claw:

In the movement phase everything moved up and tried to get angles on the swarmlord and the doom. One ravager could not get an angle on either and could only get in LOS on the genestealers.

 

In the shooting phase Ravager 1 got 8 hits on the swarmlord but I rolled no wounds. Venom 2 fired its 12 splinter shots causing 5 wounds and he failed only one save, and then failed the iceblood reroll. Ravager 2 then fired at the genestealers causing 5 wounds. He got cover from the rock cliff for his closest genestealer with the next 3 out in the open. He rolled 4 strait 5s and 6s and only failed to save the last one! The two raiders then unloaded 6 DC shots onto the doom getting 6 wounds. The Doom saved all of them. Venoms 1 and 3 fired 24 splinter shots into the swarmlord causing only three wounds, but he failed to save two-getting one back on the iceblood reroll (now down 2 wounds total). I then fired everything from the trueborn into the swarmlord as snapshots since the venom moved more than 6 inches and got 5 hits and then two wounds, but he saved both. The lone splinter cannon in the warrior squad had range and caused 4 wounds on the swarmlord but he again saved all of them. All in all, not a great round of shooting. 24 DC shots and 60 splinter rounds caused all of three wounds. It could be a long game and I completely spaced on the new rules for charging and was thinking the old 6 inches, so I put two of my venoms and a ravager possibly in charge range next turn. Oops.

 

 

So, at the end of turn 1 the board looked like this:

 

 

Turn 2 Tyranid Swarm:

The Malwoc used deep strike into the middle of the Kabalite Warriors, killing 4. He then tried to run his army at me, but this turn was the opposite of last turn. Both swarms of termagaunts rolled a 1 for the run roll, old one-eye rolled a 1 and his hormagaunts on the right side of the board also rolled a 1. Only the genestealers rolled a six and he tried to sneak them around the corner of the hill to try to stay in cover a little bit longer but get in striking distance next turn. If he had come at my venoms, he would have needed an 11 on the charge, so probably a good idea he didn’t-the power of pre-measuring in action. He moved his termagaunts on the left up by the swarmlord into the river to get the rerolls. On the right he consolidated more. His tervigon moved forward. He is clearly trying to mass in cover to come at me next turn.

 

 

Turn 2 Kabal of the Bloody Claw:

The reavers both came on and I put them in position to cross over the gene stealers. Everything moved a bit to keep the jink save. I tried to put the vehicles where they would have the most options to split up shooting between the vehicle and the passengers.

 

In the shooting phase the reavers on the right turbo boosted and caused 17 wounds and killed 12 genestealers. Next ravager 1 fired at the swarmlord causing four wound which he made his cover saves. Next venom 2 fired into the swarmlord causing several wounds which he saved. Ravager two then fired into the hormagaunts over with the Doom causing 9 wounds but he saved 5 of them with a cover save. One raider fired into the hormagaunts by the Doom killing 2.  Then venom1 on the hill fired into the termagaunts in the river, wounding four but he made two sixes on the reroll for being in the ice blood so only two died. Then the wyches in the two raiders fired at the Malwoc causing a ton of wounds, but he saved all but one. Neither Haemonculus managed a hit. Next the Kabalite Warriors fired their 22 shots at the Malwoc causing 10 wounds and he saved 8 taking his wound total to three. Raider two took a shot at the Hormagaunts with the Doom using focus fire and killing two. The last venom fired at the swarmlord and his rerollable saves worked again and no wounds went unsaved. Then the trueborn fired their 22 shots at the swarmlord causing two unsaved wounds (down to one wound left). Last I decided not to turbo boost the reavers and fired into the Malwoc causing two wounds leaving him with only one left.

 

During this turn I was really torn. I started out with the plan to double turbo boost the genestealers and hope to make some of his units turn around and then fire until I took out the swarmlord. But after two units failing to do much I though I would try to thin the ranks. I probably should have focused on one unit, but the terrain is making that very hard and he is really crammed in tight in the cover areas, forcing me to spread the poison pain. And he has done very well keeping to the curves of the hills creating cover saves. Then with the Malwoc right there and the genestealers down to 7 models I figured it might be my last shot at the Malwoc before he either burrowed or got him into CC so elected to use the venoms shooting. I failed to move them in the assault phase to get them out of charge range of the Malwoc.

 

At the end of turn 2 the board looked like this:

 

 

 

Turn 3 Tyranid Swarm:

Movement Phase: His Tervigon gave the genestealers FNP and he boosed his synaptic range. It then moved forward towards my venoms. The genestealers also moved towards my venoms. The Termagaunts on the left turned back to go after the reavers, but old one-eye and the hormagaunts moved forward. The swarmlord moved up on the hill and the termagaunts followed. The Doom and his hormagaunts moved towards the channel between the hills. The Malwoc burrowed.

 

Shooting: Old one-eye and his hormagaunts ran. His termagaunts fired at the reavers, killing two despite their jink save. The termagaunts on the hill fired at the Archon’s venom (1) but failed to glance.

 

Assault: The swarmlord tried to assault the archon’s venom, but failed for distance. On the hill the tervigon followed by the genestealers assaulted the trueborne’s venom(3). Overwatch did nothing despite four hits on the tervigon.  The genestealers attacked first and got a lot of hits, but failed to even glance. The tervigon then wrecked (but did not explode) the venom-giving him first blood. Trueborne exited without issue. Deep in the Tyranid side of the board, the termagaunts assaulted the four reavers. Again overwatch did nothing. Then the four reavers failed to even hit and the termagaunts managed to kill one, winning combat. The reavers then failed leadership and ran away.

 

Turn 3 Kabal of the Bloody Claw

Movement: I shifted focus away from the doom to head to the other side of the board. My reavers failed to regroup and ran some more. The other reavers positioned for a turbo-boost over the genestealers. The incubi and archon got out and prepped to assault the swarmlord.

 

Shooting: I turbo boosted over the genestealers with the hopes to finish off the squad but rolled miserably getting only 6 wounds and killing only three. My running reavers failed to hit with their snapshots. My two raiders fired their 6 DC shots at old one-eye getting 1 wound. Then the wyches in both raiders managed one more wound between them and both heamonculi failed to hit. The archon’s venom (1) fired at the tervigon and did nothing. Then the two Ravagers combined for 5 wounds on the tervigon. The warriors on the hill put another wound on old one eye. The trueborne finished off the genestealers (really wish I had not had to use them for that). The venom with the wracks (2) fired at the hormagaunts and failed to wound any, he didn’t even need to roll a save.

 

Assault: I assaulted the swarmlord and challenged with my archon. My archon got six attacks with his huskblade and completely wiffed, not a single hit. The swarmlord then attacked getting one hit which the archon saved, but with the forced rerolls I rolled a one and the archon died.

 

I may have just hit a turning point in the game because I got cocky and didn’t know the opponent. In my mind I was going to take out the swarmlord, double my strength and then take out the tervigon the next turn to double it again. Little did I know that the swarmlord had a WS of 9, instant death weapons and forced rerolls to saved wounds. Even with that, I should have survived holding him in CC, but THEN I roll a one. I should have stayed back and kept shooting. On the up side the swarmlord, tervigon, malwac and old one-eye have only one wound each left.

 

At this point it is Tyranids 3, DE 1:

 

Turn 4 Tyranid Swarm:

Movement Phase: Old One-eye regenerated both wounds and the tervigon got one back.

Old one eye rolled a three for difficult terrain so elected to move within the river to keep the reroll saves but getting closer to the warriors. Hormagaunts rolled a six and piled more into the river towards the warriors. Termagaunts in the river rolled a five and moved towards the incubi. The tervigon moved in the middle between the trueborne and the running reavers. The hormagaunts and the Doom moved towards the incubi as well. The malwoc came up under ravager 1 getting a direct hit but causing only a crew stunned after rolling a 1 +1 for AP2 and +1 for open topped.

 

Shooting: The termegaunts in the back shot at the reavers killing two, but they passed leadership.

 

Assault:

Charge subphase: Termagaunts assaulted the Incubi getting 9 into combat. The Doom and the hormagaunts with him failed to make it to the incubi. Old one-eye charged the warriors but failed to make it and took a wound from overwatch. The hormagaunts did not make it either. The tervigon assaulted the three running reavers. Overwatch failed to do anything. Last, the termagaunts near the back of the board assault the 4 remaining reavers there, again overwatch did nothing.

Fight subphase:

1)      Reavers vs Termagaunts: Reavers kill 4 termagaunts. The 9 remaining termagaunts attack 18 times failing to cause any unsaved wounds. They loose combat, fail leadership and are then over run.

2)      Reavers vs Tervigan: Reavers cause one wound (drat that regeneration at the beginning of the turn). The Tervigon then killed 2. The remaining reaver passed initiative and then passed his toughness test for toxic miasma. This is one I was hoping to loose, now I can’t shoot at it next round-drat again).

3)      Incubi vs the world: Fear test passed by incubi. Next the Swarmlord gets two hits but doesn’t kill anyone. The incubi swing at the swarmlord getting 4 hits but causing no wounds. The termagaunts then kill one Incubi. Leadership passed. Now, I could have killed a bunch of termagaunts, but my though was with one wound left, I want to kill the swarmlord before he can get back to a shooting phase and start sucking wound back off my guys with his psychic attacks.

 

 

Turn 4 Bloody Claw:

Movement: I move my venom with the wracks 6 inches and then pull out my wracks to try and assault the hormagaunts or doom (depending on how shooting goes). One raider moves towards the hormagaunts near old one-eye and the wyches unload in prep to assault them, the haemonculus stays on board. The other raider does the same near the malwoc. Ravager two repositions to get shots at the doom and venom number 1 positions to shoot either the hormagaunts in the river or old one-eye. Reavers in enemy territory position for their turbo-boost.

 

Shooting:  The wracks passed their leadership on 3D6 from the doom’s psychic attack to start the phase.

I then jumped around the board a bit here, but the order was on purpose, trying to leave those with most options for last. First, the reavers turbo-boost over old one-eye causing 22 hits and 5 wounds, but all are saved due to the iceblood river rerolls again. I could have gone over the hormagaunts, but figured I had enough dedicated to them that I could take a shot at old one-eye. The haemonculus uses his liquefier gun, hitting 9 hormagaunts with the AP5 template, killing 6. The wytches fire into the mob and kill two more.

Over by the Malwoc the wyches fire into the Malwoc causing one wound that he saved. (remember he has only one wound left). The Raider’s only two legitimate shots were at the Malwoc or the Doom, so shot the Malwoc, killing it. Ravager 1 (stunned) fired its snapshots at the doom but failed to hit. Ravager 2 fired at the doom causing one unsaved wound.

Back over on the right side of the field, venom one hit old one-eye six times causing one unsaved wound (darn re-rollable 3+ saves). The trueborne then fired at old one-eye causing one unsaved wound. The Warriors fired a ton of shots causing 5 wounds on old one-eye, but again he saved them all.

Back to the left side of the field, venom 3 fired into the doom causing 5 wounds which were all saved. Last the wracks liquefier gun was fired at the gaunts hitting 8 and just happening to hit the doom as well. But only killed three gaunts.

 

Assault:

Charge subphase: The wyches on the right charged the hormagaunts on the right. The wracks charged the hormagaunts on the left.

Fight subphase:

1)      Incubi vs the world: Passed fear. Swarmlord hit once but again failed to kill anyone. Again, Incubi targeted the swarmlord but did nothing. The termagaunts piled in more getting 11 into combat. They killed one more Incubi, then the incubi failed leadership and lost to the sweeping advance.

2)      Tervigon vs reaver: Reaver wiffs, tervion attacks 6 times, reaver dies. Tervigon moves towards the wyches in the river.

3)      Wyches vs hormagaunts: Wyches cause 8 wounds and he manages to save 4 of them. Hormagaunts manage to cause 6 wounds, but only 1 wych dies. Hormagaunts fail leadership despite being next to old one-eye, but do not get swept and run 12 inches. The wyches consolidate down the river some.

4)      Wracks vs Hormagaunts: Wracks roll, killing 6-thank goodness for the poison reroll or it would have only been two! They then attacked causing 9 wounds but managed to save all but one between the 6+ save and FNP. The hormagaunts then failed leadership and were swept. Wracks consolidated 6 inches away from the Doom towards his board edge hoping to force the Doom away from the other units and if not to get line breaker so the remaining reavers are not forced to turbo-boost next turn and take that point.

 

 

Score at this point: Tyranids 6 (warlord, first blood, 4 kill points-archon, Incubi, venom, reavers) DE (4 kill points-genestealers, Termagaunt, hormagaunt, Malwac). But may get another if the running hormagaunts can’t regroup. Close game, but I have a lot more kill points on the table left and he has a couple of easy ones near his tervigon.

The board now looks like this:

 

 

Turn 5 Tyranid Swarm: We rolled and were in night fighting but it didn’t matter since we were so close anyway.

Old one-eye regenerated one wound. Tervigon failed to regenerate any.

In the movement phase he rolled for difficult terrain for old one-eye getting a 4 and he moved towards my warriors. The swarmlord moved towards the wyches. The termies rolled for difficult terrain since some were still in the river and only rolled a two and got all of them onto the hill but still 7 inches from my wyches. The tervigon moved toward the venom. The doom moved to within 6 inches of my wracks.

 

Shooting phase: The Doom’s psychic leach killed all four wracks and took him to 6 wounds. His tervigon shot stinger salvo into my venom getting one hit and pen but thanks to the jink save no lost HP.  The termagaunts fired at the wyches with the 9 that were in range and failed to wound any. The Swarmlord fired his leach essence and rolling his D3 he ended up with one shot and that one failed to wound.

 

Assault phase:

1)      The swarmlord charged the wyches and overwatch caused 2 wounds and he failed his last save, killing him. The teramagaunts failed to reach the wyches by rolling a 6.

2)      Old one-eye charged the squishy warriors, who’s overwatch caused 4 wounds and he failed three of four (rolled all at once) losing his last two wound and he dies.

3)      The Tervigon with 5 attacks (3 base, one for charge and one for hammer of wrath) only managed one glancing hit on venom 1.

 

Turn 5 Bloody Claw:

In the movement phase I moved everything on the left of the board to get shots at the doom. Everything on the right to get the tervigon and the middle aimed at the termagaunts. At this point my opponent said he was conceding, but wanted to play out the turn to see if I could clear the board or not and specifically to see if I could finally kill the doom of malanti.

Shooting: I turbo-boosted over the termagaunts to the far edge of the board, killing 8. The wyches then fired into them killing 4 more. They failed leadership and began to run. (yes, should have waited until the end of the turn but I declared all shooting at this point and were saving the doom for last) My venom fired at the tervigon failing to wound. The wyches by the venom then fired taking the tervigon’s last wound. That left the doom. First the venom fired causing one wound but he made his save. Next ravager 1 fired causing 6 wound and he failed 2 (down to four wounds). Next Ravager 1 took another wound (down to three). The raider put three wounds on him and he saved two (down to two wounds). Next the Trueborne that could see it fired at the Doom taking one more wound. Down to the Haemonculus and his hexrifle. He rolled a three hitting him, then a four wounding him and on the save he rolled a two and the Doom dies. Much laughter and high-fiving ensued.

 

 

Final Score Tyranids 7 DE 11 (tabled)

 

Dark Eldar: Warlord, 10 killpoints (including the two running at the end of the game). Realized at this point that the jetbikes don’t give linebreaker.

Tyranids: First Blood, Warlord, 5 killpoints.

 

I made some big mistakes and it really came down to the last turn. Had the charges gone differently he could have had 3 more killpoints and I likely would have had one or two less, making it anyones game. Not sure I would have had the firepower to table him in that case.

 

In his place I would not have charged the warriors, but would have gone for the reavers since there were fewer and an easier kill point to get, and it would have prevented them from turbo boosting. I also would have charged my termagaunts at the wyches first, knowing they may lose 5 or six even but would not have risked the swarmlords last wound. I think he may have just lost track of how many he had. In deployment, I would have kept the doom more central to get it into the action sooner and I would have used my gaunts as a meat shield and charged in sooner. He did not use his Malwoc to much effect, but it was the first time he had used it and only his second game over 1k points. While the cover saved him a lot of wounds, he ended up just taking too long and allowing me to pick him off a little at a time. Overall, he did pretty well until his target choices in the last turn.

 

The terrain was a huge factor in this game and a lot of our decisions were based around how to use it to our best advantage, especially with the two choke points that could easily canalize you.

 

I was very careless in some of my movement phases and was lucky he rolled poorly in the last turn. I was very high risk to drop my wracks like I did, but the hormagaunt brood and pulling the doom away from everything else was worth it in the end I think. My reavers were a great distraction and putting them in a bigger group and adding the caltrops made a huge difference. Last, I will not charge my archon against a swarmlord again.