So I
managed to get a battle in last night and test out the revised list
against Tyranids, I have to admit I went in to this battle somewhat
nervous since my army is a close ranged force and I was not sure if I
would be able to do enough damage with the shooting to be able to
survive the inevitable combat with the big monsters.
The battle had a
standard set up in a mainly ruinous terrain with two objectives in the
middle of the battlefield in the open – my theory here was to draw the
Tyranids in to the open where I could blow them apart with shooting and
then charge them to mop up the survivors.
I won the choice
for table edge and for first turn and we also got night fighting on the
first turn so there was no chance there to use the rite of war special
rules sadly.
I did not have that
much to deploy with only the raptors, dreadnoughts and jet bikes
turning up at the start. I went for a pretty cautious deployment since I
really did not want to get up close and personal with the monstrous
creatures unless it was on my terms. My opponent deployed in a massive
blob in the centre of the battlefield with most of his big guys in a
ruin and under the effects of his venomthropes. He opted to not roll to
seize the initiative since he really wanted to jump on to the objectives
on the last turn, also because he is the dark eldar player who has been
wrecked consistently by being seized whenever he plays them which
generates something of a dislike of the rule.
Quick view of the Night Lord drop pods waiting to come on with their proxied passengers
Deployment of the Night Raptors, the dreadnought in this image is representing my assault cannon contemptor
Deployment of the lascannon contemptor and the jet bikes, sadly all proxied but one day they will be real
A portion of the gribbly Tyranid horde waiting to be deployed, the Tyrgons are actually Mawlocs in this battle
The Tyranid left flank (from my point of view) after deployment, the black monster is representing a dakkafex, the pink horrors are hormugaunts in disguise
Night lord turn one
– I am happy with my initial deployment but deathleaper has turned up
and I am worried about his effect on the Mawlocs so I assign a terror
squad in drop pod to go after him – this was a mistake since it simply
put a nice squad of expensive marines within 6 inches of him to guide a
mawloc on to. The deathstorm drop pod also came down and I put it quite
close the enemy lines which again was a mistake – not used to this drop
pod thing and it is showing I feel.
The praetor and his
unit move up to bring their heavy bolters to bear while the assault
cannon contemptor clambered over ruin walls to get in to range. The
raptors pulled back a little more to try and avoid anything nasty until
it was appropriate to charge in to the fray.
Shooting saw me go
after the tyrant, this guy had a 24” synapse range due to a combination
of biomorph and warlord trait and I figured with him out of the way I
would be well positioned to wreck the Nid force. Now I should have
started with the deathstorm trying to take out the venomtropes, as it
was it fire 4 missiles, caused three wounds and my opponent managed to
roll 1’s for all of his cover saves so against the venomthropes this
would have removed his shrouding bubble completely. Instead I opted to
take a wound off the tyrant and two off a dakka-fex which was useful but
by no means effective enough.
My terror squad who
had dropped in unloaded on deathleaper but the combination of only
being able to snap fire on him combined with him going to ground in
ruins with stealth meant I only got two wounds through. The rest of my
shooting put two more wounds on the hive tyrant leaving him extremely
close to death but failing to get me first blood which was more than a
little annoying.
Tyranid turn 1 –
the majority of the Nid lesser critters swarmed forward while the bigger
guys rolled consistent 6’s for their move through cover, it was a
general swarm towards the objectives while positioning to unleash what
heavy fire power they had. Catalyst was employed to protect the hive
tyrant who for the remainder of the game refused to come out of the
ruins where he enjoyed his 2+ save.
The Nid shooting
saw the deathstorm glanced to death by the dakka-fex giving the nids
first blood. The assault cannon contemptor had an arm blown off by the
heavy venom cannon held by the tyrant in some revenge for the wounds the
beast had suffered. And finally the exocrine managed to melt one of the
command squad with his bio-plasma attack, this also put a wound on the
praetor. A massive swarm of termagaunts dasahed forward to block the
charge on deathleaper, 30 critters is not going to be easy to shift.
The Tyranid right flank (from my point of view) at the end of their first turn
Night Lords turn 2 –
well already on the back foot but I am sure I can turn this around…
well I may have been able to if any of my reserves actually wanted to
come in to the battle this turn, sadly they did not so this was already
not looking great. My terror squad moved through cover the full 6 inches
to threaten a disordered charge against the termagaunts and
deathleaper. The Praetor and his men moved to a position to charge the
hormugants who were claiming one of the objectives.
My shooting saw me
decide to unloaded with the terror squad in what was a really stupid
move, but it did demonstrate how obscene they are against lightly
armoured infantry in the open. 20 shots with preferred enemy saw 16
hits, 15 wounds non of which could be saved, then deflagrate generated
another 15 strength 5 hits and suddenly I had done 30 wounds, butchered
the unit and left my terror squad completely unable to charge. Instead
they were stood nicely grouped up for a mawloc to come and saw hello and
even better they were in 6 inches of deathleaper so there was no chance
of a scatter – brilliantly bad play by me there although seeing someone
have to remove 30 guys like that was somewhat fun.
The rest of my
shooting went after the hive tyrant and despite causing about a dozen
wounds my opponent stubbornly refused to roll any ones on his cover
saves and thus denied me the chance to get back in to the game.
My praetor and his
lads charged the hormagaunts figuring it was better to be tied up in
combat than be constantly shot at by something with BS4, 6 shots,
strength 7 and AP2 – exocrines are nasty when you have no immediate
answer for them (it has a 2+ cover save and full allocation of wounds so
it was not going down any time soon). The hormies managed to get a
wound on my unit and I opted to take it on my praetor and promptly
failed my 2+ armour save. My lads mauled about 8 of the hormies in
return but they were fearless so not going to shift.
Tyranid turn 2 –
one of the mawlocs turns up and eats 8 of the terror squad sending the
survivors running for their lives. The nids generally consolidate their
position, maintain catalyst on the extremely nervous tyrant and enjoy
life since they are in control of the battle and both of the objectives
at the moment.
Their shooting
takes the second arm off the contemptor but does nothing else. Close
combat see another wound go on to my praetors unit, again I put it on
the standard bearer since my praetor is already on his last wound and I
promptly fail that 2+ armour save, joy! I do kill a few more hormies
dropping the number of incoming attacks but that does not seem to be
stopping my unit from slowly dying.
The terror squad members who are not eaten by the mawloc decide to stick true to the legion principals and get the hell out of there.
Night lords turn 3 –
the second drop pod arrives and delivers its terror squad next close to
the wounded dakkafex in the hopes of polishing it off with volkite
fire. The final outflanking terror squad seem to have forgotten to take a
map with them and remain in reserve.
The armless
contemptor decides to go and stand on some gargoyles and for some reason
I decide he needs the support of the raptors and throw them forward, no
idea what I was thinking there since they will clearly win and end up
standing in the open in front of the entire nid army and somewhat close
to deathleaper. The ravaged terror squad rally and contemplate a short
life as the mawloc looms over them.
My shooting is
minimal, I fail to do anything to the dakkafex or in fact to anything I
shoot at expect for the raptors killing one gargoyle. Assault phase sees
the raptors get 3 attacks for charging due to their onslaught rule
rather than the normal one and they then absolutely butcher every single
gargoyle within range leaving them nicely out in the open, and then
they only consolidate 1 inch meaning they cannot get out of mawloc
munching position. The dreadnought steps on one gargoyle and holds the
three remaining in combat with him. My preator and his lads suffer three
wounds from 14 attacks this turn despite the enemy needing 4’s to hit
and 6’s to wound but somehow I actually pass all of the saves and my
attacks reduce the hormies to 4 models.
Tyranid turn 3 –
the nids close the pincers, the last mawloc arrives and eats 5 of the
raptors although it does take a wound to interceptor fire from the
contemptor. My ravaged terror squad is charged by a mawloc while the
other terror squad is shot heavily down to 4 guys and then charged by a
dakkafex.
Close combat sees
the praetor’s unit emerge from combat without any further damage, the
carnifex steps on two marines but takes a wound back but my stubborn
lads hold in there. The dreadnought fails to hit with his attacks and
the gargoyles cannot damage him. Some hormies charge the raptors and
cause 9 wounds, I start rolling against the sarge’s artificer armour and
he dies from the first attack, then the last surviving marine dies from
the first hit on him – I am really not rolling well for armour saves in
this battle. The second undamaged dakkafex charges my armless
contemptor, causes three impact hits all of which penetrate and he does
not even have the decency to explode the dreadnought which might kill
some of the nids….
Night lords turn 4 –
the last terror squad arrives and decides to walk on the battlefield on
the flank furthest from the fight which is going to limit their
involvement. My praetor decides to go tyrant hunting since I want to get something from the battle.
Shooting sees the
heavy bolters from the bikes cause several wounds on the tyrant, one
gets through and he fails he feel no pain and finally I finish the job I
started on the first turn. It does not help really since his army is
still within synapse from the tervigon (which spawned 9 guys on the
second turn and rolled a double doing so) and the Zoanthrope.
In the assault phase the terror squad and the dakkafex they are fighting both fail to achieve anything to each other.
Tyranid turn 4 –
Both Mawlocs burrow with the hopes of finding new prey. The exocrine
melts one of the command squad and then the unengaged dakka fex puts 9
wounds on the unit, my opponent comments that to balance my armour save
luck I should pass all of them – I roll two 1 on the first two dice and
that takes the final wound from the standard bearer and the praetor.
Nothing else
happens except in the assault phase my terror squad headsman finally
remembers he has a chainglaive and uses it to decapitate the dakkafex
giving him a nice trophy to carry around but at that point I concede as
there is no way I am going to achieve anything in this fight.
Overall the fight
was really relaxed and good fun although by the end I will admit to
getting somewhat annoying with failing something like half the 2+ armour
saves I needed to take. Obviously I am too used to playing imperial
guard where armour is meaningless.
I learned a lot
about the army, the contemptor with lascannons I am sure has his place
but compared to the assault cannon build there seems to be no choice,
not in the least because the assault cannon build is actually cheaper –
rolling lots of dice is good since it means the luck should balance
out. I also realise I have to be a lot more on the ball with target
prioritisation than I was in this battle, more experience is needed to
remember what the big issues for the army are. I do not think it was
helped by the fact that I was getting this edition of the nids mixed up
with the previous edition and for some reason though venomthropes gave
5+ cover instead of shrouding, this is obviously a massive difference
and lead to some major mistakes in the first turn with the use of the
deathstorm and lascannon contemptor. If I had gotten rid of the
venomthropes I feel I would have been potentially able to gun down one
of the big monsters every turn, well at least the ones with 4 wounds any
way and that could have made a lot of difference. On top of that there
was absolutely no reason to go after deathleaper, he was doing nothing
to me until I put some troops near him to be eaten by a mawloc.
Terror squads I
have to say are insanely good at slaughtering infantry units, with
preferred enemy infantry and deflagrate weapons they are just
devastating and I am they are going to have fun whenever they get a
chance to go after eldar guardians, dark eldar of any type or even
imperial guardsman and I reckon tau fire warriors are going to be
somewhat nervous if they might be targeted by a terror squad.
