The Struggle for Lustraedkel IV Continues!

Led by the fearless Scourge of the Sons (that's my new name for the Prime who beat James's Thousand Sons) the struggle for Lurstradekl IV continues as the Eldar maliciously invade Tyranid controlled territory!

Hive Fleet Ossuary

HQ

'The Scourge of the Sons' Tyranid Prime w/ regeneration, deathspitter, lash whip and bonesword.

Troops

'The Punchline' Tervigon w/ Catalyst and Adrenal Glands

10 Termagants

18 Hormogaunts

5 Tunelling Ripper Swarms w/ Spinefists

9 Genestealers

6 Tyrand Warriors, w/Deathspitters and one with Venom Cannon

Elite

3 Hive Guard

2 Zoanthropes in a Mycetic Spore armed w/ twin-linked deathspitter

Fast Attack

6 Shrike, 5 w/ lash whips and bonesword and 1 w/ barbed strangler

TOTAL: 1499

Eldar Battle Force

HQ
Avatar of Khaine
Eldrad Uthran

Troops
10 Guardian defenders, w/ scatter laser
6 Jet bikes, w/ 2 shuriken Cannons
9 Dire Avengers, w/ Exarch, Xtra Catapult, Bladestorm
Dedicated Transport 'Dire Serpent': Wave Serpent w/ Twin Linked Eldar Missile Launcher and Spirit Stones

Elites
5 Howling Banshees w/ Exarch and Executioner
5 Fire Dragons
Dedicated Transport 'Dragon Serpent': Wave Serpent, w/ Twin linked Shuriken Cannon, Star Drive and Spirit Stones

Heavy Support
Falcon Grav-Tank w/ Scatter Laser and Holofields
3 Dark Reapers w/ Exarch, Eldar Missile Launcher and Fast Shot

POINTS 1500

 We set up the terrain as follows:

 We rolled Seize Ground, placing the objectives here:

We rolled Spearhead. I won the toss, and decided, perhaps incorrectly, to go first. Always a hard choice to make: get the benefit of choosing what I think is the best terrain versus the Eldar getting a sneaky win near the end. Here’s how set-up looked on the Tyranid side:

And here's how the Eldar set up (notice the dark reapers hiding out up top - don't worry, you won't have to notice them for long.)

And here's a full table shot:

TURN ONE

The Tervigon risks it for a biscuit and uses Catalyst on the Shrike. One wound later, she decided that wasn’t such a hot idea. Damn runes of warding! She nevertheless spawns thirteen termagants. My hormogaunts charged and the warriors, with their (all new and shiny) barbed strangler, fire at the dark reapers (remembering what they do to warriors from the last game...) They take out one. The Hive Guard get another. The Shrike with the venom cannon take out the last one. No more Dark Reapers! Result! (Mal commented on how shooty my army appears to have become since we last played.)

Over to the Eldar. It’s Guide on the Grav Tank, Jet Bikes and Fortune on the Dragon Serpent (that is, the Wave Serpent with the Dragons in them.) I got that sinking feeling – if he’s guiding his guys, he’s about to shoot up mine… The Falcon fires, and after a poor set of rolls do only two wounds on the Shrike. The Guardians fire their Scatter Laser on the Zoanthropes which bounces harmlessly off of their warp shield. The Jet Bikes then follow up likewise. Four wounds. THEY FAIL ALL THEIR SAVES WITH A 1,1,2 AND 2! Very unhappily, I remove the models as my anti tank maestros, who have only managed to step forward and not fire even a single shot, are taken off of the table.

The Eldar missile launcher from the tank whacks 6 hits into the shrike, getting two wounds and killing one. The Jet Bikes then do the Eldar Shuffle and fall back behind the ruins, out of range of my Hormogaunts. Dancing cowards, that’s what I call them.

Here's how the Nids looked at the end of the turn. Note the empty spot where the Zoanthropes should be... 

Here's Eldrad and the Cowering Crew:

TURN TWO

The Tervigon uses Catalyst on the Hive Guard, getting them. The Ripper Swarms deep strike in, scattering 7” but harmlessly appearing next to the jet bikes. The termagants also come up good, and I put them on at the far end to claim an objective. The Tervigon spits out 14 more termagants which charge back towards the objective deep in my deployment zone. My guys, honest, burly blokes just looking for a good meal, slowly advance forwards.

The Swarms shoot, but only kill one jet bike. The Hive Guard fire, but only get a single glance on the tank which then makes its fortuned save. The hormogaunts charge through the wire, losing only one man to the 17 Dangerous Terrain tests they had to make. They then hurtle through the ruins and into the guardians who are just in range of their charge. Attacking through cover means they’re on I1, and they lose two of their brothers in arms. But they claim 8 Guardians in return. Let's get a shot of them in action:

Over to the Smelldar. (See what I did there? It’s because they smell.) Eldrad guides the tank, and dooms the hormogaunts and shrike. The Dragon Serpent rolls forwards and drops the Fire Dragons who squirt melta all over my flying shrike, instant killing two models (one was saved by the barbed wire cover save!) The Falcon, though, follows up with shots and finishes them off. The Dire Avengers, meanwhile, get out the back of their tank and shoot up the swarms, taking out three bases. The Dire Serpent then misses with its attacks on the swarm.

The Hormogaunts are assaulted by Eldrad and the Banshees. Oh, and the Jet Bikes. Ah, yeah, I remember –that Avatar bloke too. Yup, almost the entire Eldar army charges in on my hungry little men. Here's what it looks like:

The Banshees drop them to I1, and they’re wiped out. So here's a picture of the slaughter a mere few seconds later.

TURN THREE

The Tervigon continues to Catalyst the Guard, as I figure that, without them, I’m sunk. She then craps out another 11 termagants. The Stealers manage to get in on time, outflanking on the correct table edge. The Mycetic Spore also deploys, just failing to get in behind one of the tanks.

Everything advances. The two termagants squads closest to my starting point make their synapse, and here's the furthest unit rounding the hill to get a bead on the Fire Dragons:

The ripper swarms unfortunately fail their synapse test, and just charge the Banshees. Aha, that’ll work boys (not...) They don’t even manage to have the sense to shoot their bloody guns... The Hive Mind needs to work on that.  Fortunately, they roll a 6 on the instinctive behaviour test and only take a single wound for being out of synapse.

The Warriors fire the Strangler,  which scatters onto the Jet Bikes. Whilst the screams of agony from the riders are loud and easily heard, there’s no actual effect. They're just crying for no reason. The Deathspitters rain down Niddy Death onto the Banshees, taking two of them.

The Hive Guard shoot the Dragon Serpent, immobilising it and stopping it from firing next turn. Which is just as well! The termagants also shoot, taking out a Fire Dragon. The Tervigon salvos to take out another, and then they fall back 7”, which is right back into the Fearless Aura of the Avatar. (I always think of him like a giant blue smurf having seen James Cameron's Avatar.) The Mycetic Spore does a poor show on blowing up the tank, and has no effect.

In the assault phase the stealers dual assault the Dire Serpent and the Dire Avengers. As they go through the crater, they’re on I1 and the Avengers manage to claim a Stealer life before they come back. They split their attacks. 16 go on the tank and 8 on the Avengers. The tank explodes (GO BOYS, GO!) and the stealers manage to take out a single Avenger, making the combat a draw. But the resulting tank blast does an extra stealer model of damage. Here they are with the extra crater where the Dire Serpent was:

The Swarms, driven by bloodlust, try to eat on the Banshees and Eldrad, who slaughter them easily. Probably like dusting spiders off of an old jacket.

Over to the Eldar. The Stealers get Doomed as do the Termagants on the farthest edge. The Banshees swivel, and attack the stealers whilst Eldrad heads off and gets back in his tank like a James Bond super villain demonstrating his cowardice of leaving his mooks to fend off the good guys whilst he makes good his escape. The rest of the army moves so they get a good bead on the termagants who come on the table edge. The Fire Dragons move to the barbed wire and fire into the Hive Guard. Smacking into them with 2 hits, I laugh loudly when they roll snake eyes for the wounding. The Guardian scatter laser opens up, killing one of the far termagants. The Bikes fire, taking out another 2 as the termagants heroically cling to the hillside and claim their 4+ cover save. The tank fires the scatter laser, taking out two more, but I manage to make up for this with a snake eyes of my own on the morale test. The Avatar, meanwhile, sprints across the board.

In the assault phase the stealers are down to I1 because of the banshees, but the same is true of them as they assault through the Dire Serpent’s smoking remains. The combined forces wipe out the stealers, but fortunately leaves more Dire Avengers than can fit in the tank with Eldrad. Here's the Eldar force:

And here's a full table shot of the end of the turn:

TURN FOUR

The Tervigon gets another nine termgants. The termagants shuffle around so they can get the best balance of cover, LOS on the Fire Dragons and being close to the objectives. The Warriors line up on the Avatar. The Spore shoots out, and wrongly I shoot the guardian when it should shoot the bikes (my bad). It kills one, as the cover saves from the bikes keep the other guy safe.

Time to play spot the difference between the next two photos:

That's right, the assembled mass of Termagants shoot the Fire Dragons, taking out three and killing them. The Hive Guard fire on the tank with Eldrad in it, but this only results in it being unable to fire. The Warriors fire on the Avatar, and it turns out that the giant Smurf has some tough armour as they bounce off entirely. The Tervigon runs through the barbed wire. (Mal claims this is the biggest mistake of the game. He's probably right - see below.)

Over to the Eldar. Eldrad’s mobile Coward Fortress, otherwise known as his tank, gets Fortuned, followed by Dooming the termagants and fortuning the Banshees. The Avatar moves to attack the Tervigon, slamming his spear on the way in for a wound. The Jet Bikes move to the remaining termagant unit, and fire. This kills four, leaving only one. The Dragon Serpent fires, but after the 3+ save gets only one.

The Eldar were running low on troops now, and that Lone Guardian runs up the hillside to claim the objective. Which, ironically, was when Guns And Roses’s ‘Run for the Hills’ came on the music player. Perfect timing. Here he is, dancing to that glorious tune:

The Banshees assault the warriors, whilst the Avatar gets jiggy with the Tervigon. The Banshees do all their attacks on the Prime, but his high toughness means they only do one wound. Cocking his head quizically, he swings his sword and cleaves their heads off, wiping them out. The consolidation allows the Nids to make their way through the ruins, lining up on the Dire Avengers. Smurf Boy, on the other hand, does two wounds on my Tervigon who ineffectually pats him on the head for his trouble.

TURN FIVE

Things are getting tense. The Prime fails his regeneration, whilst the Tervigon spits out another ten termagants. The Warriors shoot the Avengers. This leaves one. Intending to assault them and then move forward on the consolidate I’m less amused when my overzealous spore wipes out the Exarch because it involuntarily fires. Here they are, peering at the jet bikes in the distance and wondering where their chance to assault and consolidate an extra 9" has been pissed away:

The ten termagants from the Tervigon eye up the Lone Guardian and fleshborer him to death. The Eldar are down to one troop unit, and it doesn’t look good for them. The Hive Guard move to take out the jet bikes, but only get one. As we move to assaults, the Smurf finishes off the Tervigon which instantly denies half the table Synapse. Hmm…

The Eldar tank shocks one of the objectives, causing the now unsynapsed termagants to fall back from it. The Avatar charges the next objective, hurling a spear at the termagants he sees there. He hits but the spear of Khaine fails to wound. I can imagine my lads holding it high in pride at how it doesn't stop them fighting on.

The tank and the jet bikes go Ripley on the termagants and kill four of them, before the Avatar assaults the other termagants, getting five of them and causing them to flee.

I desperately need the game to continue, which it does!

TURN SIX

The unit that’s just been shocked by the Coward Mobile makes its test to regroup, and then turns back to return to the objective. Everything within range of the Jet Bikes fire, so that’d be the warriors, termagants and Hive Guard, but only one of the bikes dies. ONE! Not good. 

The Avatar gets surrounded by termagants who test whether a fleshborer can be a molten-skin-borer. The answer is 'No' and they continue the run of inflicting no wounds on the Elf Smurf God. Here they are:

Over to the Eldar. The termagants next to the bikes get doomed. Eldrad then gets out of his tank and the tank shocks the termagants on the next  objective along. They make the leadership test, but the tank is JUST within the 3” range to contest. It was actually out of range but the pivoting got it in. That tank then manages to scatter laser the doomed termagants on the other side of the table, taking out two of them. The Fire Serpent, downed but not forgotten, does another one and the jet bikes shuriken to death a couple more. This leaves just the one.

Eldaad then Eldritch Storms the incoming termagants, blasting six of them to pieces and causing them to fall back.

The Avatar hurls his spear at the termagants in his neighbourhood, killing one (they can’t, apparently, do the same trick twice in a row and survive.) His assault kills a few more and when they fail their leadership test he Smurf Chases them and gobbles them up.

So it leaves one termagant contesting the objective with the bikes. They move in for the assault and, unsurprisingly, kill him. Eyeing up the table, and seeing another sneaky last minute Eldar win perpertrated by tanks that I failed to blow up, and seeing how close I am to wiping out that one unit and claiming the only objective that the Eldar aren't contesting, we roll to see if there’ll be another turn.

As I sob, surrounded by tears and dead Tyranids, it comes up with a ‘1’. Another Eldar victory and my success is denied! Lanky bastards Ltd. strike again.

(Good game though.)

Here's the objective in my deployment quarter at the end of the game. You can see Eldrad stood next to the objective, and the Coward Mobile hovering over the other one next to a bunch of stalwart termagants.

And here's the Avatar stood next to the objective that he cleared the termagants off of:

And, just to show the final objective, and how close I was to taking it, here are the bikes next to the hill objective, with the Hive Guard just stood off and the Warriors charging to reclaim it. One more turn would have given me a damn fine change of getting on in there. Ah well, maybe next time.

Reflections

I played a damn good game, and the god of dice was very kind to me. But, once again, the last minute zipping-power of the Eldar managed to claim victory from me. I really need to finish off the tanks in every game in order to prevent this sort of madness. It was bad luck that the Zoanthropes died. But, mainly, I made some good choices and I'm happy with putting psychic users back in a list against Eldar and their runes of warding.

As Mal said, the worst problem might be when I moved the Tervigon past the barbed wire and towards the tank. This was part of my continuing aggressive strategy and, in this case, I might've been too aggressive. I should've held back and then the Smurf would've had to make his roll to assault, and I'd have had another turn of seeing off the tank. I needed at this stage to hold back, and use my Tervigon to ward off the bloody thing. Downside, that doesn't prevent the last minute Eldar tank shock moving me out of the way. So even this error might not have been that terrible. 

Definitely happy with the Spore, although I'm in two minds about those ripper swarms. Are they really worth the points? Or would an extra Zoanthrope or Hive Guard be better? I'll have to think about it. Just in time for 6th edition to come out and for me to have to change my list entirely...