Saturday 25 September 2010

Battle Report - Tyranids vs Space Marines

This grey autumn saturday saw a well-rested Hive Fleet Askepios take on the Space Marines of the Screaming Eagles Chapter on their home turf! A fun day spent at the operational HQ of Da Klub's Big Boss (aka Steve), this also served as a much needed practice game for the upcoming Rapid Fire! Tourney in Stirling. Since we both had the day free we decided on 2000 points a side, and a straightforward Annihilation Mission. The only random aspect was the deployment, which we rolled up as 'Dawn of War'. Steve drew his forces from his almost complete ENTIRE COMPANY of proper, no-nonense Codex marines, pictured below:
Yup, I was impressed too! Steve's actual army list went a little something like this:
Company Captain with Relic Blade
Command Squad with 4 Meltaguns & Company Standard
Dreadnought with Assault Cannon
Dreadnought with Multi-melta
5 x Full Tactical Squads with an assortment of Assault and Heavy Weapons (a couple with Power fisted Sergeants)
2 x Landspeeders
2 x 5 Man Devastator Squads, 1 with 4 Missile Launchers & 1 with 4 Heavy Bolters
Predator Tank with Autocannon and Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Whirlwind Tank

With over 60 marines on the table, the Tyranids were going to have to earn their meal-tickets today! The list I'd chosen was my best effort to recreate the sort of army I'll be taking to Rapid-Fire, scaled up to 2000 points (and without the Doom of Malantai - who just doesn't belong in friendly games!).
Hive Tyrant with with Old Adversary and Hive Commander, Paroxysm & Leach Essence, Heavy Venom Cannon & Toxin Sacs
3 Tyrant Guard
3 Zoanthropes in a Mycetic Spore
2 x 3 Hive Guard
2 x Tervigons (Toxin Sacs, Adrenaline, Catalyst and Cluster Spines)
2 x 10 Gaunts
2 x Trygons (Adrenaline)
3 Biovores

I won the roll-off and chose to go first, setting up the Tervigons provocatively on the half-way line. With plenty of cover for my inevitable march across the table, I reasoned that it was best to take the opportunity to push Steve's initial deployment forces back out of the city ruins to cling to his board edge, out of LOS of my army which would be largely coming on from my own edge on Turn 1. The Trygons and Spore went into Deep Strike, whilst the 2 Gaunt Broods were held in reserve. Steve deployed 2 Tactical Squads centrally, one atop a large terrain piece to my left, the other behind that terrain piece, covering the corridor between it and the adjacent building. He didn't manage to seize the initiative, so it was game on!

Turn 1 was rather uneventful. My forces moved and ran as far forward as they could; whilst Steve's were left either withouth targets due to intervening terrain, or unable to fire due to having to move to enter play from his board edge. Turn 2 kicked off to an earthshaking start as the Trygons burst through the concrete into play. As they wouldn't be assaulting anyone this turn I maneouvered them both behind a large building, whilst the Tervigons did what they do best! Each spawning a respectable-sized brood of gaunts as back up, they hurled themselves forward to meet the Space Marines. The Tervigon to the left and her Gaunts got the charge on a Tactical squad, as did the freshly spawned Gaunts to the right of the table. Regrettably neither assault was very decisive for me, resulting in no kill points. In Steve's turn he managed to take out the Tervigon to the right, the whose psychic death-throws reaked havoc with the nearby embattled gaunts! A similair fate awaited the Tervigon to the left, resulting in a very unusual scene:

Gaunts - not fighting, not dead, but running away! With my first wave in tatters, it was up to the Trygons to start bringing home the bacon until the Hive Tyrant got close enough to do some damage. Turn 3 saw the arrival of the Zoanthropes, who landed bang on target in front of the Predator. 180 points worth of anti-tank nastiness focussed their psychic energies in preparation to blow the battle tank into smithereens... well not quite. One failed his Psychic Test, the other 2 missed. Zoanthropes eh? Needless to say they suffered a few casulaties in Steve's ensuing shooting phase. Meanwhile the restless Trygons slithered forth from the ruined building and pounced, one on a Tactical Squad, the other on the Command Squad and the Captain. The Tactical Squad suffered a few casualties, whereas the Command Squad and Captain were destroyed. Wary of 2 Dreadnoughts with itchy trigger fingers, I consolidated the freed Trygon into what I thought was a safe position. In fact I'd condemned him to death by placing in the fire corridor of the Missile Launcher-armed Devastators! He went down in Steve's shooting phase - a very careless mistake on my part! By the end of Turn 4 the Hive Tyrant still hadn't hit home, which was beginning to concern me! With a superhuman effort he and his Guard lugged their massive bulk onto the bulding roof to their left, and bellowed before the remnants of 3 Space Marine Squads positioned there. The remaining Zoanthrope redeemed himself by exploding the Predator before being reduced to a gooey mess. The Hive Guard had by this point only taken out a Land Speeder each, and were now left distinctly short of tempting targets, and struggling to stay in synapse range. There was little I could do with them without risking a kill point or two, so they adopted a defensive lurking stance in the central ruined building. The remaining Trygon, having been met by and defeated one of the Dreadnoughts, had developed a taste for armour and charged the remaining Dreadnought to earn a last kill point before giving up his last wounds to massed Heavy Bolter and plasma fire.

My only real player now was the Hive Tyrant and his Guard, who managed to get the charge and chewed through the unit he hit first. He weathered a storm of shooting and managed to get a two-for-one charge, hitting the remnants of a Tactical Squad and the hated Missile-Launcher-armed Devastators. The game went right on Turn 7, which meant the loss of the Tyrant Guard to massed shooting, but also the loss of Steve's Whirlwind to the enraged Tyrant's Bonesword (the old tyrant ended the game on 1 wound!).

Meanwhile, feeling brave, the Hive Guard passed their leadership tests and egded forward to try and claim another kill point for the Hive Mind - But it wasn't to be. Final result: Tyranids 11, Space Marines 7; Tyranid Victory!

I always struggle with Kill points missions. A big part of my army is the Tervigons, who rely on spawning gaunts for their effectiveness. Whilst this is only ever a good thing in objective missions, with Kill points though spawning is seldom a good idea as it offers your opponent some very easy kill points, leaving me with 2 very expensive but rather mediocre Monstrous Creatures in my army! The only thing I might have done differently with the Tervigons might have been to pair them and use their combined clout to attack a single squad, rather than setting them up to take on a squad each. Another option would have been to hold them back until they could benefit from the Hive Tyrant's 'preferred enemy' buff, but they'd have been waiting a while for that! I didn't make great use of the Hive Guard in this game - they each took a kill point but were then left without much of a plan - usually these guys are amongst my star players but I'd starved them of targets. I think the lack of transport tanks in Steve's army worked in his favour in that respect. Star-player award though has to go to the Hive Tyrant with his Guard. They may cost over 400 points but they're hard as nails and can take out just about whatever you throw them at. In many ways he's what every Tyranid needs to be: A close combat monstrosity with the resilience to actually make it there!

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