Another glorious victory !

[Gumo9]

Just finished a game against my usual old enemy.... the Tyranids.

 

We've been going through the Battlemissions book and tonight's mission was "all round defence". I was nervous about this one because the deployment zones meant that if the 'nids got first go, they would be all over me like a rash. Fortunately all Tyranid HQ and Heavy support choices had to start in reserve so I was hoping to do a lot of damage to the troops on the table before the heavy hitters came in. Anyway, here is a bit of a summary of the action.

 

1250 points, played on a 4' x 4' board (all our GW had available at the time).

One objective - on top of a bastion right in the middle of the board

 

My BA successor chapter "Hydra's Teeth" consisted of:

Mephiston (naturally!)

Devastator squas with 2x lascannon, ML, PC

10 man assault squad with 2x flamer, sergeant with 2 power fists, sanguinary priest with plasma pistol and power sword

Death Company - 4 with bolters and chainswords, one with thunder hammer, chaplain

dreadnaught with assault cannon CCW and heavy flamer

death company dreadnaught (brother Deleo) with blood talons

 

At this point I must point out that I play for fun, not to be ultra competitive or anything, and I really wanted to try a few things in this game - the double power fists on my assualt sergeant for example (mmmm, 3 strength 8 hits, yummy!). I just love death company so I had to include these and I thought the thunder hammer would come in handy against the inevitable monstrous creatures.

 

I decided to deploy all my troops as I wanted to cause as much damage to my oponent before something nasty dropped in. Deployment had to be right around the bastion, really close in because that was the deplyment zone!

 

My opponent deployed 16 genestealers with a broodlord, three tyranid warriors, a venomthrope, and an absolute bucketload of termagants. in reserve was a tyranid prime, deathleaper and a hyve tyrant (I think).

 

First turn with me going first (what a relief). I moved my dreadnaught, assault marines and deathcompany towards the genestealers and my death company dreadnaught (brother Deleo) towards the termagants. Mephiston stayed pretty much where he was so I could react to the outcome of the ensuing assaults or deep strikes next turn.

 

My devastators easily killed two out of three Warriors - love these guys for objective holding. They were an absolutely perfect choice for this particular battlemission.

 

The only other shooting I did was with my standard dreadnaught against the genestealers - chalk up 4 dead genestealers. I didn't dare shoot any more with my other units incase my oponent removed too many dead from the front line thereby causing me to fail my assault.

 

I was well in range for a massed assault and charged in with my dreadnaught, deathcompany and assault squad. This was a very useful learn for me. previously I had always hated genestealers and invariably got pounded good and proper (unless I softened them up with a BBQ Baal first). Even with a good helping of furious charge, the genestealers attack first with their ridiculous initiative. Because their attacks were split across three seperate units I ended up taking very few casualties (two death company and one assault marine) which were due to rending claws. When it was my turn, those extra attacks from the charge and increased strength took the genestealers right down to three plus the broodlord. The promptly failed their morale check and turned tail. On the other side of the board, brother Deleo wiped out the entire brood of termagaunts (love those blood talons!).

 

To be honest, my opponent was psychologically broken right then. his massed troops were gone and his super-commandos were nearly off the board. He moved his venomthrope in to attack mephiston and his remaining warrior fired a blast weapon at my deathcompany. the blast scattered and landed right on the heads of his genestealers who had just decided to rally! Furtunately for them they took no further wounds and charged at my deathcompany. One more deathcompany went to meet Sanguinius and the remaining mopped up the genestealers and broodlord.

 

Mephiston's amazing initiative meant he attacked the venomthrope first and even with some dreadful rolling on my part he just managed to kill the foul creature - which was a massive relief as I didn't want to be on the receiving end of those really powerful poison attacks. My turn and the remaining Tyranid warrior was popped by my devastators.... enemy tabled.

 

My poor opponent didn't even get chance to bring the big boys in.

 

Although this ended up as just a quick game, it did give me a new strategy to play with against those hated genestealers. You guys have probably already done this a thousand times but for me it was a big learn. multiple assault against the genestealers meant they couldn't focus all of their numerous attacks on just one unit which in the past had all but wiped out anything I had thrown against them. This got me thinking - next time I am going to have a death company dread (with talons) working alongside my small death company troops. perhaps this is how the deathcompany is supposed to work. The points cost is prohibitive for a large unit size but a small unit is easily wiped out by high initiative genestealers. Solution - dreadnaught support to split the enemy's attacks. decent armour from the dreadnaught and feel no pain for the deathcompany should together help them to now survive long enough to decimate the enemy.

 

I'm going to try this in a few more games to see if it is reliable. Comments and suggestions from the community would be most welcome as always.

 

All in all, a great day for the sons of Sanguinius and I celebrated by buying a new drop pod (which I am going to convert for a dreadnaught).

 

G

[Barn]

Sounds like a fun game (for you :lol:).

 

One of my club locals just invested in a large 'nid force, i'll keep your advice in mind :devil:

[Brother Nathan]

Arnt genestealers with a broodlord fearless? And i think mephy should have attacked after the venoomthrope due to lashwhips...(why would he accack mephy? he cant get through his artificer armour...) Well done on the win but tell your opponent to read his rule book...

[Gumo9]

Arnt genestealers with a broodlord fearless? And i think mephy should have attacked after the venoomthrope due to lashwhips...(why would he accack mephy? he cant get through his artificer armour...) Well done on the win but tell your opponent to read his rule book...

 

Just looked in the Tyranid codex and it doesn't say genestealers (with or without broodlord) are fearless. They are not subject to the synapse creature rules as they have their own brood telepathy.

 

You are dead right about the lashwhips - poor old Mephy should have been reduced to initiative 1. Also, unfortunately for me, the venomthrope has poisoned attacks (2+), at least I still get my artificer armour save. Venomthrope just rolls a 2+ to wound rather than strength versus toughness.

 

We are going to re-run this mission with a full size playing area and lots more points because it was such an interesting scenario to play.

 

G

[Brother Nathan]

Brood telapahty just means they dont take instinctive behaveour tests, not that they dont benifit from fearless of the synapse rule...

[Leonaides]

I'm a bit surprised that you ended the game before he had a chance to roll for his reserves... Though some people seem to play that way, I prefer to go till either the turn limit, or his entire army , is dead. So if I wipe out everything on the table, I still have to think about what he's got in reserve, and how it could affect me if I'm too close to the edge.

[Gumo9]

I'm a bit surprised that you ended the game before he had a chance to roll for his reserves... Though some people seem to play that way, I prefer to go till either the turn limit, or his entire army , is dead. So if I wipe out everything on the table, I still have to think about what he's got in reserve, and how it could affect me if I'm too close to the edge.

 

The shop was closing so we had to pack up. Otherwise, yes I definately would have continued. Playing the game is fun so the longer it goes on, the better in my view.

 

G

[Gumo9]

Brood telapahty just means they dont take instinctive behaveour tests, not that they dont benifit from fearless of the synapse rule...

 

Hi Brother Nathan,

 

Could you let me know where it says this in the codex, I might have overlooked it.

 

My opponent and I have been playing it this way because for Brood telepathy the codex says "genestealers have a gestalt brood telepathy that enables them to act independently of the implacable will of the hive mind. genestealers are not subject to the Instinctive Behaviour rule."

 

I think the confusion probably lies with the "Synapse creature" information on C:T p. 33. This (and the fearless bit) only applies to units under the control of the hive mind. As stated above, genestealers are not under the control of the hive mind. "Fearless" is not listed as a special rule in the genestealer entry therefore RAW = not fearless.

 

That's our take on it anyway :wacko:

 

G