I've not been playing 40K that long. Indeed, I’ve been
playing it for about 18 months and started by buying a second hand cheap copy
of 4th edition from Wayland Games in Birmingham. So when 6th
edition comes out in two weeks, it’ll be the third edition I’ve bought in a
year and a half. It’s a little weird.
Anyhow, with the end of 5th edition on the
horizon, it’s a chance to have a farewell game, so Dave came around with his
Dark Angels. I made a totally new list, to make use of those models that I just
never used before. This would, after all, be their last chance to get a look
out in 5th edition (it’s a shame I couldn’t fit the Mawloc in!) Here’s
my list:
TYRANID 1500 POINTS
Hive Tyrant (Leech Essence, Paroxysm) and one Tyrant Guard
2 Hive Guard
2 Zoanthropes
Venomthrope
10 hormogaunts
3 units of 5 stealers
10 Devilgants
Tyrannofex with Shreddershard beetles and rupture cannon
Unit of 2 Carnifexes with strangelthorn cannons
My plan was to attack Dave’s two Land Raiders with the Hive
Guard, Zoanthropes and T-fex, and stun them to hell long enough for my MCs to
run up and smash them, and the Deathwing, to bits.
But Dave didn’t bring Land Raiders.
Frankly, changing your army list from week to week is a form
of cheating. That’s my line, and I’m sticking with it (obviously, this doesn’t
apply to me…)
DAVE’S DARK ANGELS
Belial
Deathwing Squad (Cyclone, banner bearer, apothecary)
Deathwing Squad (Cyclone)
Deathwing Squad (Cyclone)
Landspeeder Typhon
Landspeeder Typhon
Landspeeder Typhon
Autolas Predator
Autolas Predator
Vindicator
So that’d be a shed load more vehicles than I was expecting,
and not something I was particularly well suited for. Oh well. Best laid plans
of mice and men and all that. Well, best laid plans of ripper swarms and
Tyranid Warriors…
DEPLOYMENT
We set up with my nice new terrain, including the gorgeously
painted (if I do say so myself) Temple of Skulls, my Khorne mound, the
barricades and the Vernon (which is the hut in the corner, so named after the
pub our club frequents back in Liverpool – I’ve even painted the name onto it.)
We ended up with Spearhead and Capture and Control. Here’s
where the objectives went:
Dave won the toss, and deployed first. His Predators had a
perfect firing line onto my quarter, which was to be used effectively
throughout the game. One squad of Deathwing went into reserve ready to
deepstrike. The Land Speeders set up on the flank.
Me? I set my Nids up in a splodge.
And here;s how the table looks:
TURN ONE
I fail to steal the initiative. Frankly, me failing the
initiative is another form of cheating by Dave, I’m sure. It’s not that I think
the die is loaded, or Dave is fudging it, it’s just that I think the manual
should read ‘Dave must always have the initiative stolen from him.’ I’ll be
keeping my fingers crossed for when I read 6th ed.
The Land Speeders sweep around. That’s movement done. Around
now I look at my splodge, and then think ‘Doesn’t that Vindicator fire a mother
fucking huge template?’
Dave shoots me with a mother fucking huge template. It
scatters, but splats two termagants. The Cyclone missile launcher fires into
the Devilgants as well, hitting ten, of which only one saves. The second
cyclone blasts the stealers, hitting five of them. Now, I um and are. Five of
them is a lot. I could go to ground, claim the 3+ save, and then use that unit
as the unit that crawls onto my objective to protect it. I mull it over, but
decide not to hit the deck. Fortunately, they all save anyhow.
The Predator tank starts on the stealers as well, but they
save the one wound it inflicts. The second Predator does likewise, and manages
to pick one off.
Now over to the Land Speeders on my flank – they, too, open
fire on a stealers unit on the flank side. With a minor scatter, everyone saves
except for a single hormogaunt. The next speeder massively scatters, picking
off only one more hormie.
Right, so it's not looking too bad! Just look at my splodge! It's still fairly splodgey! Over to me. I move everything forward in normal Nid fashion. I need to close the distance as fast as possible, and take out that Vindicator! The Hormies leg it for 5” on the run roll, and tantalise me with whether they’re in range of Belial’s squad or not. I’m also not sure if the Hive Tyrant is in range or not, so the two remaining termagants fire on the closest squad so I can see how far away they are. The termies fail to do anything, but I see the Tyrant is well within range. Now, I’ve never really had a chance to use him. Having faced Eldar, he’s both been too slow to catch up with anything, and those runes of Warding have prevented him from effectively using his psychic powers. I probably should’ve ran him, I really should, so he could assault the next turn. But I settle on Leeching the terminators. The bastards save, though. Storm Shields are a form of cheating!
Whilst some things run around, getting closer, the T-fex
fires on that Vindicator. And misses. I remember how this goes… So it’s over to
the Hive Guard, who manage to hit it so it can’t move or shoot. That’ll have to
do for now.
The Carnifexes turn their beady eyes on the Speeders and
fire. They hit one speeder dead on, but the other scatters. However, it
scatters *perfectly* on the other unit! Bonus! I annihilate one, and the other
can’t fire. Can’t say fairer than that!
Over to assaults, as the stealers charging towards the
speeders got caught on terrain and had a bum run roll, they’re out of range. Here they are, failing to charge:
Similarly, the hormies are about half an inch away from Belial. I swear that 6
inches -being 6 inches rather than 6 and a half is a form of cheating… And here they are:
TURN TWO
The speeders blast away from the incoming stealer horde (I
instantly give up on getting them – I’ll be damned if I run around chasing fast
skimmers, being shot at and dragged away from the objective!) The Terminators
oblige me by advancing forwards, so probably not an issue that I didn’t run the
Hive Tyrant.
The Speeders open up and kill a stealer. Missiles from the
terminators pepper the Hive Tyrant, inflicting a saved wound, whilst the
scatter hits the Zoanthropes (they save) and the termagants (they save.) The
other missile blasts the stealers and kills three of them.
Over to the Predators. One fires on the Zoanthropes, to no
effect. The other manages to wound them once. Belial then charges into the Hormogaunts.
They manage to do dick all to the Deathwing, but Belial kills four of them
before his mates finish the little blighters off. They consolidate in front of
the other unit, making it harder for me to assault anyone other than Belial,
but for what I’ve got planned that’s not too bad.
Here they are, having just finished off the hormogaunts:
Over to the Hive Mind. The stealers on the flank naff off – I
will, indeed, leave the speeders to it. Instead, they turn their attention to
Belial. The Carnifexes think likewise. The Hive Tyrant shuffles to the right,
ready to assault the unit Belial just moved in front of. The little squad of
two devilgants weave in and out of the army, and I run them to ensure I get an
easy avenue towards the tasty space marines. The Hive Tyrant again leeches for
nothing (damn Storm Shield saves!) The Zoanthropes blast Belial’s squad, but
they save (damn Storm Shield saves!) The T-fex shoots that Vindicator. It hits
with one! Which then fails to penetrate. I mean, seriously, can that T-fex do anything?
The Stealers are first, and pile in on the squad (I decide to
ignore Belial as the squad have 15 attacks to deliver to me…) I manage to kill
only one, but that one is the standard bearer! The squad immediately lose their
extra attack! Good work fellas! Belial, lightning claws swinging, knocks off a
stealer. The Venomthrope then comes in, but his three wounds are all saved.
Then it’s down to the simultaneous resolution on I 1. The Deathwing split their
attacks, killing two stealers and instant killing the venomthrope, ensuring
they rack up the wound count for when it comes to the morale test. The Carnifex
manage to jump on the squad, and get a Storm Shield dude. I lose by two wounds,
so everyone has to take two hits. This takes out two more stealers (man,
multi-combat assaults are brutal if
you’re the loser.)
Here's a shot of the table. Notice the Hive Tyrant shaped absence on the right hand side where the hill is...
Not having an invulnerable save is, basically, the naffest
thing ever about that Hive Tyrant. This leaves me with just the Zoanthropes as
synapse. When I made the list, this did occur to me, but I thought ‘screw it’.
I wonder if Dave’s noticed…
TURN
THREE
The remaining terminator unit still doesn’t turn up. Clearly
their teleporter is on the blink. The Speeders move around again, getting a
bead on the army. The Vindicator fires on the Zoanthropes, but they both make
their invulnerable save. One Predator, however, manage to finish them off with
instant kills from the las cannons – one for each of them!
No.
More.
Synapse.
Right, well, this will be interesting. As I realise that my
army is about to switch to ‘automatic’ I have a sinking feeling.
The other predator manages to knock a wound off of the T-fex.
Whilst the Speeders shoot the Hive Guard. This kills one, and so generates a
moral test. So the damn bastard legs it!
Where’s!
My!
Synapse!
Here's a picture of that fleeing Hive Guard:
Over to assault, the one remaining genestealer leaps on the face
of the Apothecary and bites it off. Belial carries out revenge, concentrates
his attacks on the stealer, and kills it. The remaining Carnifexes make short
work of what remains, and instant kill Belial with some of that S9 action. But
the other unit of terminators finish off the Tyrant Guard, and consolidate onto
the hill.
Over to the Hive Mind. Wait, the Hive Mind is now far, far
away, and hoping that the Tyranids can dimly hear it… The T-fex fails its
instinctive behaviour test so, rather than shooting the dangerous Vindicator
with its AP 4 gun, shoots the terminators. Funnily enough, they save. The
termagants fail their test as well, so lurk in the middle of nowhere. They
shoot the terminators for, funnily enough, no effect.
The fleeing Hive Guard manages to rally, turns and blows a
Land Speeder to smithereens. He’s moved onto the objective, which provides
cover for the genestealer – one of my three remaining troop models – that scurries up behind and
hugs his leg. Scared little devil… Over to the assault phase, my Carnifexes
charge the terminators on the hill, killing one of them but taking two wounds
in the process.
TURN FOUR
The deep striking terminators finally come in. However, they
scatter and, disturbingly, come close to the table edge. Another two inches…
But this means they’re far, far away from the objective. It dawns on me that I
might, conceivably, win or draw because of this fact. As I plot it out in my
mind, the Land Speeders zoom along. The Vindicator moves up, and shoots the
Hive Guard / Stealer love in near the objective, but it misses on a scatter. The
Predators took bead on the T-fex and shoot it up for three wounds. Dumb
bastard! It’s just standing there being shot at! Lumbering, blind, can’t shoot
for shit lummox!
The newly deep struck terminators and Land Speeder manage a
wound a piece on the Hive Guard, killing him and leaving the stealer in the
middle of nowhere… Fortunately, there’s nothing else to shoot, and we’re over
to the assault phase where one Carnifex falls to power glove action, but takes
a terminator with him.
Here's a photo. note the terminator squad near the table edge on the far right, just above the Khorne banner.
And here's that heroic combat between the Carnifex and the remaining Storm Shield Terminator:
Over to my scant remaining troops. The stealer hops onto the
area terrain next to the objective. The T-fex AGAIN fails its instinctive behaviour
test but at least shoots the speeder I want it to shoot. It manages to blow it
to bits. FINALLY IT DOES SOMETHING USEFUL! Those two scared termagants again
fail their test, and so shoot the Vindicator. Although, this is not so bad as
if the Vindicator was out of range they’d have run away from objective and onto the Temple of Skulls which would’ve
made winning almost impossible (and, heck, at this point it was very difficult
indeed!)
Over to the assault, and the Carnifex kills the terminators,
consolidating a mere inch towards the Vindicator.
So, I’ve got one objective and very, very few troops left. I
think those last three models are going to have to try very hard to stay alive.
TURN FIVE
The Terminators move up, and the Vindicator fires on the unit
of two termagants. They go to ground, which kills one of them as the other
saves on a 6. I point out to Dave that they’ll likely fail their morale test,
and flee onto the objective. So he shoots them with the Predator. It does two
wounds, and I only save one of them. Damn plucky little termagant! But it’s
dead from lascannon fire. The other Predator shoots the Carnifex and does a
wound.
And the terminators? They shoot the lone genestealer, which
goes to ground for the 3+ cover save. But, alas, it’s not enough, and I’ve now
lost all my synapse AND all my troop units.
Over to me. Fortunately, the T-Fex makes the instinctive
behaviour test. The only way this can
go is a draw, and I fear that with only a small number of wounds on my poor
MCs, even that will be hard – Dave might not get any troops on the objective,
but he might annihilate every model on the table! So I run the T-fex behind the
Vernon. The Carnifex fails its test, so assaults the Vindicator. It manages two
penetrations. I need ANY roll other than a 1 or a 3, as then the vehicle won’t
be able to move, and I’ll get a cover save for the Carnifex from the Predator
tanks. I get two 3’s.
Damn.
We roll for game end – if it ends here, I score a cheeky
draw.
It’s a 4.
TURN SIX
The Vindicator trundles out of the way, leaving the Carnifex
open to Predator fire. One fires on the T-fex, managing to see a sliver of the
poor beast. It gets shot to death. The other Predator fires on the Carnifex,
but the lascannons fluff and it manages to save the autocannon fire! Go boy,
go!
The terminators move forward and run, but only get a single
inch! STILL NOT ENOUGH TO GET ON THE OBJECTIVE!
So I have one model, with one wound, but Dave still has no objectives. As it falls to my turn it fails its instinctive behaviour test, charges the Vindicator and manages to seriously smash it to bits.
So all I need now is the game to end.
We roll.
It’s a 5.
Damn.
TURN SEVEN
The terminators move onto the objective, line up the
remaining model, and fire, killing it and leading to Dave’s conclusive tabling of
my Nid horde.
Here are some thoughts on the game. Obviously, I should start with the list I knocked up: it isn't great. But it was a fun, knock about game so I won't dwell too much on it. Indeed, this shows me that fun, non-competitive lists (say, like those you find fighting in White Dwarf battle reps!) are well worth fielding because they are fun. And whilst the Carnifexes are over priced, they *are* fun to use. I've never really had a chance to use them properly because of my propensity to fight Eldar (where they're useless, as they can't shoot the tanks nor catch up with them to get into the damn things.) Similarly for the Hive Tyrant (although if 6th edition gives twin linked shooting for having preferred enemy, I'll be buying two of them!) It's clear to me that the big problem for the Nids is the lack of inv. saves for the MCs. Even a 5+ would give them *something*. Or a 6+! Or something! But the complete absence of inv. saves, except for the Zoanthropes, is notable.
ReplyDeleteDave's multi-vehicle list did pretty well. But he's still got a problem with the Deathwing list of (i) having few troops and (ii) having low mobility troops. Balancing off (ii) with deep striking is a big gamble which nearly went wrong in this game, with them coming in very late, and scattering off target. But having multiple vehicles was, I think, a more 'fun' list. having the Predators getting a clear line of fire was a bummer, though. All through the game they didn't have to move, and still got to shoot every single turn (obviously Dave's objective placement plays a role in this! I'll have to remember in future, when picking quarters, about things like this - not that it made a difference in this game, as Dave won the roll off.) Dave says he found 20 marines on the sprue, so - and this is only my opinion, mind you! - I reckon supplementing them might make things a lot harder for me in some respects.
Overall, I don't think there were any massive tactical failures on my part. Although these two armies fighting leads to the same sorts of tactics - we both want to just 'get on in there'. So it'd be hard for me to do that bit wrong. Although maybe I shouldn't have fired those Carnifexes that close to my own men. That was pretty bad! It was certainly a lot of fun - on Turn 4 I was hoping for a cheeky win, and then on 5 and 6 I was still hoping for the draw. Denied! Well, we'll have a rematch IN SIXTH EDITION!