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Sorry for the brief report. Time is really tight, but I wanted to at least document this game.... Game Setup: (POST Chapter Approved 2017) Maelstrom, 2,000 pts, Deployment: Frontline Assault. AdMech: Brigade: Cawl Dominus Techpriest 5 Vanguard/Ranger sqds 5 Torsion/Claw Breachers (New Test post Chapter Approved) 5 Infiltrators 1 Datasmith 10 Jazz Hands 3 Dragoons 3 Phosphor Kastelans 2 Onagers Nutrons Nids: Lots. Tervigon + Gaunt Blob Fart cloud squad (I always forget the name of these things. Essentially three dudes that force you to fire at -1) Super Zoanthrope 20 Geneastealers Tentacle super bug (Sorry forget the name, it's a close combat massive bug) Trygon (deep strikes with mortal wounds) 5 (?) Hive Guard squads of spore mines Deathleaper Shooty Carniefex Shooty Flyrant Shooty Warrior Squad The Mission is a new one.. pretty cool one: Kill Confirmed (?) Basically you have 3 cards a turn, but cannot discard any 'kill unit' type cards, and if at any point during your turn you kill any unit, you get a bonus victory point. A fairly balanced idea. Here's what my army looked like (there is some minor proxying, mostly the Breachers) +Hold the line boys. Here's the plan: Nids are hungry for meat, but we're more like chewing through an old 50's TV set. Indigestion for the win? + - I lose the roll to go first, I cannot seize. Here's our deployment: The Nids are a bit off screen, but you get the idea. One side is charging forward, the other is filling their boots with used batteries. + - Early Game: - Nids get good rolls. I am defenseless against the psychic phase but at this range it is mostly a buff session. - He does get first blood....and I can't believe how deadly the Hive Guard are! They take down 1 and a half Breachers. He infiltratred his Deathleaper behind some crates as well. But keeps the rest of his reserves intact. He takes an early 3 point lead (gets a bonus "Kill Confirmed", accomplishes a kill card, and First Blood.) - His turn is strong with shooting between those Hive Guard, and all the shots from the Gaunts (special psychic ability? allows him to advance and shoot) and Flyrant + Carnifex. - I draw 2 cards I can't do, but one is a shooting kill type! This is big because of where he put the Deathleaper. - This is where things get ugly for me (yes this soon)... I realize the fart cloud -1 to hit pretty much extends to his entire army. The Gaunts are already getting close because his special rule is roll mutli advance dice, and pick the highest. I have no real damagable targets with my low end firepower. It takes a LOT to kill about 6 gaunts... then I remember, with the Tervigon he can regen 10 per turn! Ugh. What a fool... I blame Cawl... he's so cocky. - I realize that I can barely see the Tervigon with a few key Dunecrawler Nutron shots, but with the -1 to hit Cawl is helping a bit, but not enough. Also the Tervigon warlord trait is -1 to all Damage. That's actually huge. I do about 5 wounds to the Tervigon, but it maybe takes 3? - The Torsion cannons have re rolls but again everything is so hard to hit. It's darn good Cawl allows rerolls of ANY to hit or I truly would be screwed. The bad BS of Kastelans and Breachers is keenly felt here... I need 6's to hit the bloody Deathleaper, and the Kastelans moved (change protocols for next turn) and therefore need 6's to hit his army! This is killing me. - I kill one unit. The Deathleaper is hit twice ,but wounded twice, and the Torsion guns split him apart. This gets me 2 points. But the rest of the turn is abysmal. I can't hit anything, and wounding is bad. The 3 Arquebus' do nothing as they do every game for me. (I think I got one wound off the Flyrant). Mid Game: + A shiny, obscure, robot from the back yells, "The odds of us surviving first contact are 3,720 to 1." Cawl deactivates the robot, and fires up an escape pod. + - Yes it looks bad. This is T2. He draws another kill card, and an objective. He has a fairly mediocre psychic phase which is good for me. - His Mawloc comes in, spanks some mortal wounds all around him. Then the shooting starts.... - Flyrant finishes off a squad, gaunts split fire and hose a bunch of Vanguard/Rangers. I have canticles Shroudpsalm running and it makes a HUGE difference on a few Vanguard, soaking up tons of fire. But weight of fire catches up... the Hive Guard ignore cover, and pop my Kastelan, and remove another Breacher. - Here's something I may have done illegally but it did not have an overall efffect. When the Mawloc came in, I played the Strategem that lets the Jazz hands fire 'as if in shooting phase (but at -1 BS). And I used Cawl's aura. I couldn't figure out if this was right or not... I don't use Cawl often and realized his shooting aura is for shooting phase, but the strat said to treat it like a shooting phase so I hope this was correct??? - I also had Jazz hands use the Wrath of Mars. Still I could not kill the Mawloc when it came in. That was ugly. It took about 2 mortal wounds and 4-5 more wounds, but it had a fair amount left. - End of Nid Turn and I'm shot up far worse than he is, and about to be assaulted. +From the nid perspective: A Sicarnan Surprise attack. A total act of desperation. Indecision causes these guys to blue-screen at the worst possible moment. I think they've been hit with ransom ware and won't be functional until Cawl can come up with some bitcoins. + - This is truly desperate. My opponent convinces me to take on the Tervigon with my shooting, and I agree... it's a sound judgement. But with all the damage reduction, and -1 to hit, the Dunecrawlers still struggle. The Torsion cannons have maybe... 1-2 shots. They take it. But fail to do anything. The Tervigon is holding me from killing Gaunts. I don't have LoS from anything else so... I throw reason to the wind and really do something stupid.... - The Sicaran Infiltrators come in; I had a card where I needed to take an objective from my opponent for 2 points. I desperately need these two points to just stay in the game. - I had 3 wounds to get rid of on the Tervigon. My original plan was to shoot up the Hive Guard though... they were really shredding me, now that they hit on 3's (not moving) and go through shroudpslam. So against my better judgement I throw 25 Strength 3 shots into the Tervigon and use two strategems: one to reroll 1's to hit, and Wrath of Mars. I hit a lot... a fair amount, but I only get about 3 wounds, and 1-2 mortal wounds. The Tervigon stands with 3 wounds left. - Back at the ranch, the Dragoons have to finish the job that the Arquebus' fail to yet again, by charging the Mawloc. They take a wound or two, but the Mawloc still lives. Some remaining Vanguard shots ignore the Gaunts because while the Tervigon lives, this will be futile. They shoot at some Spore mines, but I get zero points for spore mines (special rule). - The Jazz hands fire up again, and they fire everything into the Genestealers, as usual the army is -1 to hit... I maybe kill 5-6 out of 20. - I can't kill the Flyrant, and I finally can see part of the squad of that is emitting the -1 to hit cloud... I kill 2 out of 3 of them, so the cloud still exists.... - The Sicarans are now entirely screwed. They killed nothing in shooting. I was going to assault the Hive Guard pictured above, but my opponent convinces me with Tazer Goads I can get those last three wounds. I'll tell you at T8 a Tervigon is bloody hard to take down, especially reducing damage, and -1 to hit. I feel it's a big miss match, but I do it... I successfully charge the Tervigon (instead of the Hive Guard). Of course this is a massive, massive mistake. So I don't go for the Maelstrom points on the Hiveguard, and they can shoot like crazy, so that's two bad moves combined, because I bounce right off the Tervigon causing zero wounds. At 3 wounds I hoped he wouldn't be able to move far enough away from my squad to become unengaged, but apparently he can! Great news everybody, I killed no units this turn and am entirely exposed! + Don't worry boys, they hate chewing on metal....+ - Turn 3 is a good draw for my opponent. He's had reserves that really didn't have a job until now, he draws some objectives and the reserves take them. - He advances, and smites me successfully in a few areas depleting squads. - Shooting is fully normal thanks to my stupid moves, and bouncing off the Tervigon. As a result: - Sicarians are shot dead - Jazz Hands are shot to death with Gauts/Carnie - Rangers/Vanguard are shot to death with Flyrant. - I lose some other stuff... so before assault and the ensuing tabling, I concede. Cawl crawls in an escape pod mumbling something about 'resurrecting a better Primarch' and takes off... Conclusion: - Totally wiped. Torsion Breachers did nothing- but it was a bad match up. Really bad. They would have been a good anti-assault, short range marine type killer but this was the wrong match up. - I was out shot. Out psykered, and out assaulted. That's rough. - -1 to hit seemed to be super penal to this army. My best shooting (aside from Onagers) comes from BS4 (BS5 if moved) and BS4 Breachers. Even with Cawl my inability to hit was poor. - I was out maneuvered (typical with Admech) but without having an answer to an unbreakable horde, I had no options for movement. I had no answer for the Tervigon, and therefore no answer for the lead horde, nor the secondary horde of Genestealers. The buffer this created gave his Hive Guard and psychic phase free reign. This was key, but I saw no way to change the outcome of this game..... while I have done an honest assessment of mistakes I made, I don't think I could have changed the results....back to the drawing board!!!