Parkhammer Bat Rep: 1500 Point 40K Nids vs Space Marines

     I have a few Bat-Reps built up from the past few weeks of gaming. This past weekend a few of the guys made it out to Play the Game, Read the Story in Syracuse for their annual GT. Overall, the 4 of us that made it out all placed in the top 10. I’ll be covering those games in the next few weeks. This week, I’ll cover the game I played at Parkhammer against my Co-author Crimthann.

The last time I went up against Crimthann, he took out my Nids like they were kid's toys. 

     First off is my game against Crimthann and his Space Marines. The last time I played Crim was at the 2010 Da Boyz GT in the 4^th Round. I was flying pretty high, right up until he smacked me down. As it turned out, this was probably the best thing that could have happen as he got a hard final game, while I got a big win in my final. Combined with a good Comp score, I received 2^nd overall that year.

More below the fold,

     For this game, I think both of us were trying a few new list ideas. Crim was running paired down army with 2 Bike squads, 2 Tac Squads and 10 man Thunderhammer/Stormshield & Lightning Claw armed Terminator Squad. Along with a Captain, it was only 6KPs. Bad news for an annihilation game.

      I was running a modified tournament list, with ravenors and hormugaunt instead of Shrikes and Stealers. Along with them, I had 2 Fexes, a Prime, 2 Hive Guard, 3 Biovores, a Tervigon, 10 Gaunts and 5 Ymgarls.  When we rolled up the KP mission, I knew it was going to be an uphill battle.

     My initial plan was to isolate and eliminate 1 or 2 of his units, then trade a few more back and forth. I was at a killpoint disadvantage, but by hiding the biovores and gaunts in the backfield, I was hoping to equalize that factor. 

     The first 2 turns went by quickly, with both of us advancing forward. I was hoping that the large building the middle would force Crim to choose a side for his terminator squad to move forward. Whatever side he went for, I would pull back. What I didn't expect was how aggressive he would be on the right flank. 

     Crim dove headfirst into my right flank with one of his bike units. He nearly removed my small gaunt unit, but didn't expect that I would've spawned for a counterattack. Unbeknownst to me, this was one of the turning points in the battle. Crim's aggressive dive into my lines lead me to assault his bike unit and I wiped it out. With the annihilation of that unit, Crim didn't have a fast unit on the right side to keep the pressure on my flank, so he could commit the rest of his army to the left.  

     This picture was taken on Crim's turn. On the left flank, I'd charged my Ymgarls into a Tac Squad, and shot up his other bike unit. In the best use of Combat Tactics I've ever seen, Crim opted to retreat with both units. He was able to withdraw his bike unit into his back field, which helped kill off the Ymgarls who failed to catch the 3 man Tac squad. From here Crim was able to mitigate the damage he took. I'd charge in, do a handful of wounds, and cripple most of his squads. Cripple, but never kill.

      This combat signaled Crim's coup de grace. Crim's larger tac squad, and Terminators charged into my Fex star and took it down. Sneaking by, the bike squad with Captain would go on to take out several isolated targets (Hive Guard & Biovores), raking up the KPs. Crim withdrew both his remaining Tac Squads (both had only a few models left), but pressed on with the bikes and termies.

     With my 1 KP against Crim's 5, I was ready when the game ended on turn 5.