This game was actually round #2 at our annual invitational tournament that finishes out tournament season. No, you didn't miss round #1, it was just pointless to write up really. I was paired against a guard army with 3 chimera hulls, 3 russes, a flyer, and 2 unique characters. Keep in mind this event was a "comp" event. The mission was Purge the Alien, deployment was Hammer/Anvil, there was no night fight, and I had to go second. Needless to say I was down 6-2 by turn 3 when I conceded with no killpower left. This game was much closer and actually worth writing up.
My second opponent was Ron and his awesome deathwing. Keep in mind this game was in December before the new codex.
Ron's list:
Belial
Librarian + tda
Venerable Dreadnought + missiles, lascannons
Dreadnought + Lascannons
5 Deathwing Squads - 1 CML, 4 assault cannons, 4 bolter units, 1 hammer unit
My list:
Tyranid Prime (warlord) + boneswords, toxins, regen
Hive Tyrant + wings, devourers x2, old adversary
Hive Guard x3
Zoanthropes x3
Genestealers x20 + broodlord w/ scytals
Termagants x29
Tervigon + toxins, adrenals, 2 powers, claws
Tyranid Warriors x5 + barbed strangler, deathspitters x4, mycetic spore
Raveners x6 + rending claws
The mission was Emperor's Will, and deployment was Vanguard Strike. I don't recall if warlord traits mattered. Ron got first turn and deployed everything. Coincidentally, we got paired on the terrain that I built for the shop. It's a template I can recreate/mass produce by commission so contact me at hyv3mynd@gmail.com for more details. His psychic powers are prescience and perfect timing. My tyrant gets warp speed, broodlord gets endurance, tervigon gets iron arm, and zoans get all kinds of telepathy goodness including 1 terrify.
*Sorry for the patchwork appearance of the Nids, the purple/white ones were a test batch for a new scheme to give me a break from the metallic green*
His objective is on the left. All terminators are on the table with dreads behind crystals for cover.
I put my prime/warlord with the 29 gaunts to protect him and score my backfield objective. Tyrant is on the right table edge and safely out of range of all missiles and lascannons for the first turn. Zoans, hive guard, raveners, and tervigon form up on my left to act as my offensive push.
I infiltrate my genestealers on the left flank to push up that flank.
The game begins with the terminator wall advancing. He focuses everything on the zoans and kills 2, including the one with terrify.
My offensive blob on the left advances and tyrant swoops up the right.
Genestealers get endurance and advance but with very poor terrain and run rolls. Everything opens up and I think I kill 3 terminators.
The terminator wall pushed up the middle keeping terrain between me and them. He pulls the hammer unit back and puts them between my tyrant and the dreads. He focuses on raveners and kills 4 of them. I believe the dreads tag the last zoan for first blood.
Tervigon spawns 8 gaunts with doubles who screen the hive guard. I decide to send the 2 last raveners hunting the damaged unit of 2 terminators. The tyrant swoops over the hammer unit. My scoring blob moves up.
My spore comes down on the left in front of the genestealers and warriors pile out. Ron's objective is just on the other side of the rock behind my spore. Genestealers get endurance again and advance with more sub par rolls. My shooting only drops 1-2 terminators, but the 2 raveners murder the 2 terminators from the damaged unit.
The terminator pack advances again. Their combined efforts finish off the raveners and take out a few gaunts. The dreads take some shots at the tyrant but miss.
I send the tyrant over the dreads for rear armor shots. He wrecks one.
Tervigon, gaunts, and genestealers line up an assault.
Genestealers fail their distance roll. Gaunts get wiped out in assault and the tervigon smushes the libby.
Ron focuses on the warriors and takes out 3 of them. My tervigon goes down in assault.
Hive guard wreck the second dread. My tyrant comes around (gliding) and takes out 1 hammernator with shooting. He assaults, Ron makes his 3++'s, and I take a hammer wound knocking me down to init1. Genestealers make their assault and do a wound to Belial and take out one terminator.
Ron has 3 unengaged terminators left and he heads towards his objective. My tyrant finishes the last hammernator. Belial's unit loses another terminator. We roll for the end (turn 5) and the game goes on.
He moves 2 terminators to block off the tyrant and one survivor to take on the warriors. I lose my tyrant and 1 warrior. Genestealers take out the apothecary leaving Belial alone.
During my turn, my lone warrior beats the single terminator, but only gets 1" to consolidate leaving me out of denial range. Genestealers defeat Belial but fail to consolidate into denial range. That terminator is his last model on the table. And the game ends with the roll of a dice on the end of 6!
We tally up points. Each of us is scoring our own objective. Ron got first blood, I killed his warlord, and neither of us has a linebreaker. It's a 4-4 draw!
This game was a lot of fun, but definitely ruled by the dice. My genestealers (10+ broodlord) failed to land rends 3 assault phases in a row. I was basically landing 1-2 wounds per phase and that tarpit kept me off his objective and out of his deployment zone. The warrior needed to roll a 2+ to deny and also failed. Besides that, stuff went pretty well. I did devour his entire army except 1 model, but such is the fickle state of 6th ed scenarios. I probably played by gaunt/warlord blob too conservatively. Had I pushed them up more, I could have contributed several dozen fleshborer shots and I only needed to cause 1 more wound over the course of the game to table him. One more turn would have done the job too. Either way, Ron played really well and did exactly what he needed to win ending up with 1 fearless, scoring model on 1 objective. A perfect example of "play the mission" and a sign of a solid player.
This battle is baby approved.
Awesome batrep hiv3mind! Love these Nid pieces.
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