Battle Report: Hive Fleet Heimdallr Versus the Thousand Sons

Okay, turns out I brought a serrated machette to a derringer fight. LOTS OF TANKS. So our man James has bought himself a full-on Thousand Sons army. Where I thought James had just foraged around for some figures from years bygone, he had in fact purhcased a helluva load of figures from eBay.

And those figures included tanks.

Lots of tanks

I.

Hate.

Tanks.

So, I was playing the list given in the previous post (proxy: Carnifex for my Tervigon, as I haven't yet built my Tervigon; zoanthrope for my venomthrope as I, somehow, failed to pack my venomthrope. So apologies for that on the pictures. NEXT battle, it'll be non-proxies all the way.)

James fielded a 1500 pt army of:

1 Daemon Prince with wings, Doombolt and Warptime
2 x 9 Thousand Sons (w/ sorceror) and a rhino (w/ havoc launcher)
1 predator
1 vindicator, with combi flamer
2 x 9 lesser daemons
2 Obliterators

BACKGROUND

Hurtling through the stratosphere, it turns out that the Bio Vessel was packing a smaller crew than previously imagined. Fortunately, the Thousand Sons were only a small force. Who would land on this wayward planet in the Eye of Terror? Who would dominant it long enough to summon reinforcements? This landing force would decide whether the Tyranids ruled, or the Traitor Marines.

GAME TYPE

Annhilation with Pitched Battle. Chaos Space Marines get the initiative and set up first.

DEPLOYMENT

The Marines set up in a line on the north edge. Near the eastern side, James placed the first rhino and the predator, then another rhino next to the Obliterators and then the Vindicator. Perched at the far end was the Daemon Prince.

I plonked my Tervigon, three hive guard, 20 hormogaunts, and my Shrike - protected by my venomthrope (proxied by the Zoanthrope) - in the dead centre.



 On the eastern edge I situated my warriors, plus Prime, three more Give Guard, all taking refuge behind a line of 10 Termies. Swarms and stealers were in reserve.



So we end up with this



I lost the initiative. This is because his marines take coke and are always on edge. Unlike my straight edge, fight fair, upright, virtuous tyranids.

TURN ONE

The mid centre rhino advances a few inches, before despositing the 1,000 Sons unit. the Vindicator advances forwards, alongside the Prince. The predator stays still, drawing a bead on the eastern most termagents and firing. That's three hits, for three wounds. I carefully situated them so five were in the forest, so I got saves, saving two. The one that survived cheerfully raised his smiling beak. And got his head sheered off by the predator's autocannon. Foolish lad.

The mid centered Vindicator let loose with the demolisher, blasting into the gaunts. A perfect hit - the first of many that would run through this game - it took out EIGHT hormogaunts, but fortunately bounced off of the Tervigon. The Obliterators lit up the Tervigon in revenge, with lascannons, scoring a single hit. But the Venomthrope's gas gave it the save.

The mid centre rhino opened up with it's havoc launcher (which I was shocked to learn only cost 15 points. FIFTEEN. Scandalous.) It blasts the hive guard, the venomthrope and the Tervigon. Whilst it scartches the Hive Guard for a wound, the Tervigon saved.

On the eastern edge (that's the edge closest to the camera) the alternate rhino mashed its launcher into the warriors, scoring another perfect hit for minor damage on the Tyranids.

Over to me. I send everything forward in the monotonous Tyranid charge. The Shrike perch on the centre ruin (nice piccy there) and the Hive Guard open up on the Vindicator. To no effect. The first of many 'no effects' that the Hive Guard would score.



The other Hive Guard shoot the Eastern most rhino, immobilising it and stunning it. The Termagants, however, fail to get a decent run roll, obstructing the advance of the Warrior unit. All they manage to do is shoot the venom cannon on the Obliterators. Frankly, for the effect it had, I may as well have squirted Head and Shoulders Shampoo at them for not a single wound was inflicted.


TURN 2

The Pink Horrors (okay, lesser demons - but let's call them pink horrors no matter what their stat line is) turn up - both units. They materialise mid centre near the icons: one behind the Vindicator and one in front of the Obliterators. The Prince uses his Warptime and, whilst he's in the Shadows of the Warp, gets it off. The Sons that got out of the Rhino SLOWLY advance forwards. The Obliterators, on the other hand, get two sixes for movement. TWO SIXES. WHERE THE HELL WAS THAT FOR THE PRINCE'S PSYCHIC TEST, EH? Anyhow, James decides that the Obliterators won't move after all. WHAT A WASTE OF TWO SIXES. Man, life is unfair. Presumably they used all that speed and celerity to play a quick game of gin rummy. Maybe their termanitor armour comes with an app for that?

The Prince flies up to the west side of the ruins, flanking the Hive Guard. James then reveals to me that his Prince comes armed with a flamer psychic power. Fortunately, the Prince fails to get the flamer off (because of the Shadows of the Warp. OK, I should quit complaining about the first roll he made.) In any case, the Prince assaults, wiping out the Hive Guard.

The Vindicator edges forwards ever so slightly, and fires that damn Demolisher cannon back into the centre pack. It wipes out 6 termigants, but by some amazing dice rolls my hormogaunts are fine and, again, my Tervigon gets away scot free. Good for her. However, the Thousand Sons rapid fire into the throng, taking out four gants.

The Obliterators keep with lascannons and find out what a Hive Guard's skull looks like when superheated to a few hundred degrees Celsius. Apparently, it looks quite nasty and they take a wound (in retrospect, I realise the die marking this wound was later picked up by accident. Sorry James, I was sure they took a wound point. In any case, it made little difference.) The eastern Havoc Launcher fires and I foolishly remove the termagants that are providing my termagants the cover save they need. So that predator lit them up nice and good, doing one wound on the Prime and another on the Warrior.

My turn. Meet. My. Shrike. They hawk down around the Prince, taking a wound for leaving difficult terrain. Ah man, at this point I was kinda creaming myself. How would they fare when they assault the poor bastard? I didn't know at this point, but the answer is: pretty frickin' well.

The Ripper Swarm deepstrikes in. Whilst they scatter I manage to pinhole strike them in front of the centre mass, just in front of Pink Horrors that turned up. With their comically over-sized spine fists they fire, doing four wounds. The hormogaunts trail in and jump on what's left. 33 attacks later they kill another four. The test for losing combat kills the last one. Which really honks me off.

The Tervigon spawns 11 Termagants. They advance, and blast one of the Thousand Sons, before assaulting.They claim one of the Sons before taking some pain in return. The Tervigon charges the Vindicator - I was somewhat surprised to find it within charge range in turn two. But both blows glance. Are you KIDDING me?



Okay, the Shrike. Ah man, I LOVE Shrike. They assault, reduce the Prince to initiative one, and wipe him out before the counterattack. So it turns out that, once again, the Shrike dominate close combat. Here they are, with the empty space where the Daemon Prince's body once occupied.



By the way: WHERE THE HELL ARE THE GENESTEALERS? Having a fag? I could've done with them this turn.

Over on the eastern flank the warriors scurry for cover away from the predator's autocannon.



TURN THREE

The lesser demons move around, ready to assault. The Vindicator reverses, but primes that cannon to fire. The 1,000 Sons on the eastern edge disembark from their knackered tank and slowly advance forwards to meet my Tyranid horde, slightly towards the middle of the battlefield.

That Demolisher cannon fires, once again, into the dead centre of my horde. It gets the Tervigon for a wound, which then saves. It blows its one use flamer as well. Also to no effect. Bummer.

The Obliterators use their twin linked flamer into the hormogaunts and the ripper swarm. That 'vulnerable to template' rule hurts, and takes four bases of swarms, plus four of the hormogaunts. The 1,000 Sons that just disembarked are in range of the remaining hormogaunts. They mow them down, even as they go to ground. The Havoc Launcher then opens up on the Ripper Swarms, taking out another base. And that predator decides to get in on the bargain and takes out the venomthrope, denying me of the amazingly useful cover save that had kept me going.

Move to the assault phase and the Termagants fail to hurt a single Thousand Son. The return attack, however, kills five.

The Hive Mind then gears into action. First, the stealers make their reserve roll and my fortune holds (okay, I admit it, at this point I'm doing well for good rolls) and they come in on the eastern edge. The stealers do a piss poor charge on the marines. With 24 attacks they kill a mere two, and lose of their number in return. What am I paying them for? The eastern edge Warriors charge forwards as the termagants retreat back into the forest, out of the way, to deprive James of a kill point. The Warriors fire on the disembarked 1,000 Sons on the eastern edge, claiming two lives. The Hive Guard rack up their Impaler Cannons and BLOW UP that predator. Oh. Yeah.



The Tervigon spawns out another 8 termagants, which open up on the Thousand Sons units that, seconds ago, killed their recently newborn brothers. They claim a single life. The Shrike fly over to the pink horrors. The Shrike attack the pink horrors and, whilst they take a wound from one little fuck who wasn't lash whipped, they continue close combat dominance by wiping them out. The Tervigon chages the Vindicator. Now it manages to take out the weapons and immobilise the damn thing.

The termagants assault now, taking the middle Thousand Sons they just fired at (you can just about make their little tails out in the photo.) They manage to get two more of the hollow armoured dust walkers, but the Thousand Sons come back and take another four. Ow. But, still, pretty lucky!

The remaining two termagants from one unit hide behind a ruin (actually, I think they did that the turn before) whilst the ripper swarm, with a single wound remaining, joins then. They cower. Because you should cower if there's only three wounds between you and you're facing a fully mechanized chaos space marine army.



TURN 4

The Havoc Launcher moves to take out the termagants and the swarm that are cowering. Heroically, and against the odds, they survive! Only a single termagant takes the pain. However the Obliterators spray liquid flame in their direction, utterly destroying them. Two more kill points for James.

There's not much else James can do this turn, so he moves to the assault phase. His 1,000 Sons assault back, slaying the Termagants. Whereas the Eastern Side 1,000 Sons get bent over by the Stealers who make up for last turn's performance by wiping out four more and leaving just the Aspiring Sorceror. No damage is inflicted in return.

My go. The Tervigon gets constipated as it bursts out another 12 Termies. The Hive Guard fail to destroy the rhino on the eastern side, laying in another battery of 'weapon destroyed' results and other useless crap I don't need to see. The Warriors and Shrike, however, take a quick look at those Obliterators and decide to test them. The Warriors hold back on the venom cannon, but fire into the daemon termanitors. 15 hits, all saved.

Gits.

But they shouldn't be happy for too long. On the assault phase, the Shrike and Warriors come on in. I roll for the Shrike, and that's the end of the matter. The Warriors are kinda pissed - they've not done anything this game. Where's their prey?



The Termagants the Tervigon just sprayed out run around the back of the 1,000 sons unit in the middle, and open fire. They kill one before charging for 22 attacks. And kill no one. The counterattack from the Sons takes out two. Meanwhile, the Tervigon looks at the back of the Rhino and Salvoes it. And misses! So she assaults. This manages to destroy the havoc launcher. Just to be clear, for three rounds she's been banging on the outside of those vehicles and only managed to take off a few weapons and stop one moving - the kill points are still denied to me.



The stealers munch on the sorceror. And that's the end of the 1,000 Sons on the eastern side.



TURN 5

The rhino bolter shoots the Shrike, but fails to hit. The 1,000 Sons assault the termagants they're locked in with, killing three of them.

My turn. The Tyranid shoot the venom cannon on the rhino, but miss after a bad scatter. The eastern hive guard fire, but to no effect on the immobilised eastern rhino. The stealers pile in on it as well, but to no effect (At this point Harry said I was being desperate sending my stealers in, but I reckon they have a good chance of tin opening a rhino.)

The Tervigon manages, finally, after four rounds of attacking, to destroy a vehicle and demolishes the Vindicator.

The Shrike move in and, along with the remaining termagants, wipe out the remaining 1,000 Sons. In a last, dying, 'simultaneous with my initiative' attack (as they weren't lash whipped - the damn termagants were in the way) they attack back. Two hits, but they flub their Power Weapon roll because of Shadows of the Warp.

We roll for turn end, but it doesn't come. Looking for a Wipe Out Win, I press on with turn 6.

TURN 6

The bolter on the rhino shoots a termagant, killing it. Poor bastard. It's like killing a German at 10.59am on 11.11.1918.

The Hive Guard, however, finally manage to take out the rhino on their side. 6 turns on. SIX TURNS ON. The resulting explosion kills three stealers - I was slightly worried it'd wipe them all out from the dice roll, but they managed to save. Seriously, whilst I'd still have won, that'd be embarrasing.

With just the immobilised Vindicator left on the table, with no weapons, I still want to finish it off. So we roll for game end. Which it does - and I'm denied my complete victory.

Unfortuantely we were in a rush, and forgot to take an end of game photo. Oh well.

FINAL SCORE: 9 kill points for the Tyranids; 7 kill points for the Thousand Sons.

THOUGHTS

One thing is that, as I suggested James check, even chaos Rhinos can 'repair' themselves in the middle of battle. I don't think this would've made much difference as the rhinos were unable to shoot because of Shaken results most of the time, so wouldn't have been able to repair themselves anyhow. Worth noting though, for future games!

For chaos space marines, I'm thinking there's a few ways it could've gone better. James asked me, after the match, whether to keep the daemons, which count as troop choices, or swap them for termanitors. I said keep the daemons. I clearly wasn't thinking straight. For a generic list, that might be right, but obviously against Tyranids it's a bad idea. They only fight close combat, and that's kinda what I do. So I'd take either some termies, or maybe some Obliterators. Using Obliterators to fire las cannons into the Shrike would've been an arse as that'd have instant killed them, one by one. (So a unit of 4 Obliterators would probably wipe out the Shrike in no time.) Although, because of positioning, there wasn't much chance for that. Not sure the sacrifice of the Prince was a good deal - although killing all three Hive Guard did make life harder for me. I'd also have driven those rhinos around more. If one of those rhinos had come up my backside with the centre based 1,000 Sons I'd have had three problems: one they'd be in the tank, rather than out of it, so couldn't have swamped them with termagants; they could've got out and rapid fired my Tervigon (which would get no save against 18 shots - the Tervigon was one of the few things the magic AP 3 Tzeentch bullets mattered against); and I'd have had to have split my force into pieces, with some people heading back to try and get the 1,000 Sons - (although, even then, if they were positioned 24" away, while they'd only get 9 shots off, I'd have a hard time catching up with them before they drove off again.) Indeed, I think I'd have spent more time spreading out and running away - if that Vindicator had retreated at 12" a turn it might not have been able to fire, but my Tervigon would had to have followed it, both meaning that when it was done with the tank it wasn't stood right next to the other tanks and the termagants it was spitting out wouldn't be a major threat to the bulk of the force. I'd also have moved the Predator early on to go right next to Hive Guard on the east side to blow them away (a lot of the time the Guard were stood behind a building stopping the marines shooting them but not vice versa) as tanks can get as close to my guys as they like and face little more danger than being far away.

On my side, I think I did okay. I think zoanthropes would have been a good choice. I also forgot to equip my Tervigon with Catalyst. I'm also getting used to the 18" kill range it gives the Tervigon - spit them out 6", let them move 6" and let them assault 6". I imagine the three Tervigon tyranid list is a distinct possibility for me to buy. My warriors were less effective than I had hoped - they were meant to be the main part of my force, although I've pulled Deathspitters off them so they're less effective. In any case, they once again got caught behind some slow moving termagants and couldn't move around fast enough. I also should've charged them a turn sooner, rather than hiding behind the ruins, away from the predator. If I'd just charged in a turn sooner, I could've avoided the Predator fire my assaulting the Obliterators. But as it was, I think my boys did good - not only did I win, I had a lot of units left versus the one, remaining, smoking Vindicator. I look forward to a rematch, where I'm certain James' list will be set up slightly better, and he won't under-estimate those Shrike this time. They DEFINITELY get the unit of the match award - those guys just tore through EVERYTHING, as they were designed to do. 24 S4 armour penetrating attacks, rerolling 1's to hit, is just nasty as hell when you're on initiative 1 and can't hit back. Man, you gotta love those Shrike.

Anyhow, my next match will be either another ass-kicking from Malcolm, a mate of mine in Birmingham has said he'll fight me with Deathwing (looking forward to that!) and my army is nearly ready to be taken to GW to see whether I can tolerate playing there.