Werewolves and Vampires VS. Bugs!

[Prot]

A big battle broke out that I thought was very appropriate for Halloween.

Basically we had a 4 player game. Each person had 1850pts, and we decided to combine for a big battle (not quite Apoc style.)

Me (Space Wolves) and a friend (Blood Angels) teamed up to represent the Forces of Goodness and two other friends teamed up to be the evil guys - Tyranids.

This isn't a blow by blow account of the game... that would probably be a tad too long. So here's the light version with some pics:

First off we rolled for Annihilation, and a long edge deployment (I think it was a foot off the edge, can't remember the name right now, having a brain fart this morning.)

So the forces of Goodness won the roll off for first turn and deployment. Basically the table was still only 4 feet across by 8 feet long so we knew they would have a short trip towards us.

I set up most of my static forces in a large ruin to my lower right. And my Blood Angel partner took up the left side of that ruin. I was definitely playing a defensive role with a plasma/autocannon Dread, 2 x Longfangs squads, razorbacks and 2 Rune Priests set to slow things down (Tempest Storm/Hurricane and JAWS/Hurricane). My offensive output would come from my main man Arjac who was in a drop pod with a rocket launcher and a few other nasty Wolf Guard.

My partner was doing a very shooty dread list, librarian and assault squad in a Landraider. Typical set up of lots of Assault Troops and priest.

Turn one is really boring because our 'ferocious' Nid opponents elected not to deploy.... which in hindsight I believe was a mistake. They wanted to avoid getting too shot up and avoid the drop pods. However regardless of their deployment I KNEW my pod was going to act as a speed bump so this changed nothing for myself. I deployed Arjac and friends about halfway up the board. My Blood Angel friend did the same with one squad. We effectively had a nice tarpit functioning halfway down the field. (oddly enough one of our opponents noted there was a time where not many marines would dare deploy that high.... But I had Arjac and I have been doing really well with him lately.... so I thought, what the heck.)

Ok, some pics....

Like I said first turns were stand offs, as the Nids were cowering!!! But there's only so long you can delay the inevitable.....

^Above. This is well into things. On my left side, my Blood Angel partner and I discussed the best way of handling a huge threat. 3 Mawloc's pop up in midfield. I try contributing by means of firepower, lascannons, razorbacks, Dreadnought firepower. A few wounds are spread out.

^Above. You can see on my middle/right flank the Nids are coming in fast. I knew my Long Fangs were a honey pot and the bugs came for it on the extreme right flank. You can't make out all of them, but a good number of the buggers came in at the same time on the right side.

Ahead Arjac and squad tried to deal with 2 pods (although they are RED those are proxied Nid pods which contained 2 pairs of Zoanthropes.) Unfortunately my Rune Priest did very little in the way of canceling ANY powers this game. I lost a pod, and Arjac advanced.

The Nids saw this as an opportunity to start moving up Carnifexes, and those Elite dudes who shoot 2 foot, indirect missile launchers. Things were getting nasty in the middle, but I used both Rune priests in early game to Hurricane squads of Gaunts on the right flank. This worked VERY well.

On the left hand side, my Blood Angel partner was taking on the remaining wounds worth of Mawloc's in hand to hand. To be quite honest, it looked to be a nasty task as the job had to be done fairly quickly because the Nids had Raveners, and a gigantic creature with a buttload of wounds that was VERY shooty (Not pictured. Sorry, can't remember what it is called. The player used a Forgeworld piece to represent it... very nice.)

^Above. Things were getting nasty on the Nid table edge, but I wanted to push them back - hard - to keep my firing lanes open. I decided to turn the Rune Priest's attention towards this threat..... I had a very good/lucky shot of JAWS, zapping a Zoanthrope, a Nid Pod, and a couple of lesser bugs... netting us a few victory points. Arjac also raced out, did some hammer-time work to a couple of more Zoanthropes, and multiassaulted a pod.

You can barely make out my scouts above. The 2 foot shooty Nids were causing issues, and I knew the Nids had more in reserve. I didn't know what I was in for exactly but I sent the scouts Behind Enemy Lines, and while the Shooty guys were easy kills, the Carnies were NOT.

^Above. Three Mawlocs threaten. They hold the front lines which are flooding with bugs/Zoanthrope/Ravenors, etc.

^Above. Once loaded with guants, genestealers, and warriors, my right flanking nids fold after the fire of 2 x Longfang squads. We lose Blood Angel bikes, but Hurricane is holding off the Genestealers nicely. The Grey Hunters finish up most of the stragglers, and start chasing down the remaining (running) Genestealers.

^Above. Where are all those Mawlocs? Being BBQ'd by the Long Fangs back at the camp. The Blood Angels did an amazing job of taking down the big threat before reinforcements could really have an effect.

^Above. More Carnies roll in, and finally my scouts are wiped! BUT Arjac, one hammer Terminator, and a Wolf Guard with a shield REFUSED to fail an invulnerable save. Three turns in a row they all passed and continued to destroy several elites, pods, and even carni's started going down to the skull cracking, hammer swings of Arjac.

We rolled for a final turn and it ended there. We did have our losses but as a combined force we gave the Nids more than they could handle this day. We started adding up the final killpoints but it really wasn't that close. Even though the results seemed lopsided, there were 2-3 key moments where the Nids were stopped before engaging key locations.

[Natanael]

Nice writeup and great with pics. Glad you won, also. Seemed like the LFs did a great job, as well as the BA-player and his boys.

 

Arjac is always a blast to play with. Hammer-time =D

 

- Natanael

[Voltaire]

Two of the most developed anti-tyranid armies in 40k versus bugs.

 

 

I love fighting tyranids as a rule. I'm a bit envious of your halloween game, I just freezed in the cold with some friends.

[Prot]

Nice writeup and great with pics. Glad you won, also. Seemed like the LFs did a great job, as well as the BA-player and his boys.

 

Arjac is always a blast to play with. Hammer-time =D

 

- Natanael

 

I like Arjac as a background character as well as his presence on the battlefield. He actually lives up to his reputation without being stupidly godlike. The LF's, quite honestly, probably had the best game they've ever had. For all the bravado I read about them on the forum, I have had many games where rocket launchers fire throughout a battle only to miss their mark over and over. ^_^ This was different. Those Longfangs are eating BBQ's Gaunt legs tonight.

 

 

Two of the most developed anti-tyranid armies in 40k versus bugs.

 

 

I love fighting tyranids as a rule. I'm a bit envious of your halloween game, I just freezed in the cold with some friends.

 

Anit Nid armies? Really? Personally I've always struggled with Nids. I haven't lost against them in a while, but I find my Chaos is a bit shootier, and some other armies (non Power Armour) did even better.

 

My Blood Angel partner was amazing in close combat though. Once again I watched him do things in close combat I really couldn't get away with. But then again the Wolves DID get more kill points than both Nid armies combined (or so I was told today.) ;)