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.
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