Prot's Ultra-Rep: Ultramarines vs. Tyranids 1850 Some Pics

[Prot]

Hey guys,

I thought I'd do up another batrep based on the test list I was using was this tweaked one which was posted in the Ultramarines Armylist Section:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/299722-1850-ultra-different-competitive-maelstrom/?p=3872343

My opponent's list was really experimental so I can only remember the names of some of it. As well he played a very unorthodox list using the new stuff for Nids and Pods.

He had by memory:

- Dakka Flyrant

- An Aegis with Comm relays (represented by a rock outrcropping)

- 2 x 4 Warriors. One squad with Boneswords, the other squad with shooty stuff

-1 pod with a ton of shooty gaunts

- 1 pod with three hvy Flamer guys that bleed acid if you wound them in CC. Pyrovores

-1 pod with Dakka Carnifex

- 2 Mawlocs deepstriking of course.

- 3 Zoanthropes in a pod including the new (weaker) Doom of Malatai.

The Game and Setup:

- Maelstrom: Escalation I believe. It's the one where you each have 3 (hidden in this case) Objective Cards, and the deployment is lengthwise which suited me fine.

- He won first turn, and took deployment, and elected to go first as well. I instantly noted his reserves were quite high. Tigurius licked his lips at the notion of a possible early wipe. But it would be hard.

- Please keep in mind, I am still putting this force together and testing units so there are a fair number of proxies! I apologize and you'll also see some of my Dark Angels standing in where possible.

Early Turns:

- Deployment. He took his makeshift Aegis and plopped down 2 x 4 man squads of Warriors, one shooty, one stabby. They sat on the comm relay to help reserves.

- My deployment was very straightforward. The troops were awkward and I wouldn't take them like this again. Essentially I had a mixed up 10 man squad combat squaded into two 5 man groups, and a small group in the Las/Plas Razorback.

The Nids deployed too high imo. So I took a chance and deployed Tigurius and the 3 Grav-cents quite high, in part hoping to steal first turn. The Thunderfire took to the Radar tower, increasing it's cover save to a 3+ and the 5 man missile squad took to the high ground on the second floor there as well.

+++ Ultramarines Deployment (my half of the table. Dudes on left in blue shouldn't be there. The radar tower at right hosts the Thunderfire, and Missile team. Ahead of them Tigurius (DA Libby) and Centurions (Deathwing models!) push the lines forwarrd +++

First Turn:

- I failed to seize, the Nids seemed lost without their leadership, so they simply mulled around in their Aegis protection. and since he could not roll for reserves, he simply told me to go ahead...

- Bottom of turn one, Tigurius gives the order to unleash hell, dropping 2 pods that stick right next to the Aegis line. One squad of Tacticals with melta's comes spilling out. The next pod contains the Hvy flamer/combi flamer 5 man Sternguard and the Biomancy Termie Librarian came out, and casted Enfeeble on one of the Warrior squads.

+++The Ultra's take the early initiative surrounding the cowering Nid Warriors with Sternguard, and tacticals supported by the Terminator Librarian. +++

- Everything else that could, advanced. My Ojbective Cards were all terrible. Nothing in the Codex Astartes can account for my luck! However, plan B was too clean the table and get a quick win if at all possible.

- Tigurius passed his Prescience on his Grav-Sent squad, and tried to use perfect timing (no cover saves) on the closest warrior squad. I barely had a bead on them, so I started firing with the Sents.... Tigurius tapped into the warp passing the test on 2 dice. The Nids used all their dice to deny it and they did!

- Shooting was intense, lascanon Razorback, missile launcher, Sentinels, fired first. The Warriors being fearless could not go to ground, and the smell of burnt meat was everywhere. Even at 3 woulds a piece (?) the 8 warriors were tagged quite heavily.

Then the drop pods had their turns. The Tacticals only managed a couple of wounds, but the Sternguard and Libby took their turn. Taking the Bio Primaris shots, plus "Poison" rounds, the Sternguard melted a lot of mixed shots into the Aegis line. Finally I realized I had forgot to fire the Thunderfire! But it deviated too far. The Drop Pods fired, and finally the last Warrior fell.

Technically the game was over. Codex Astartes ftw! The risk was worth it, but this made for a one turn game that was the result of my opponent's refusal to read something as complex as the Codex Astartes! So I said, let's continue for fun, play out the cards, and have a few more turns.... He agreed...

Mid Game Turns:

- Nids came down in pods. Tactically, the Ultra had the upper hand. Tigurius had robbed them of their Comms relay. As a result the Flyrant failed to arrive, however multiple pods came smashing to the ground...

- Pyrovores rollled out of living pods, spewing heavy flamers and causing a very high wound count on the Tacticals. Four fell, but they would not run. 2 Mawloc's came thrusting up through the ground under the Tacticals, but the deviation was off, sparing their lives.... The other Mawloc however deviated under a pod, removing a hullpoint but then being denied arrival, it was put back in reserve!

- The Tacticals now at 60% faced a Mawloc. The Biomancy Libby called on the warp to enfeeble the beast... successfully. The first shot, a long Krak Missile hissed clear across the field smashing into the skull of the beast. The Tactials roared in approval. Bolters and meltas added to the pain, and finally a Stormtalon came roaring in unloading everything on the wounded Mawloc until it fell.

+++ The remaining Ultra's try to burn down the errant Mawloc +++

Now clear to move out, the Libby and Sternguard unleashed poison rounds on the Pyrovores untl only one remained... and broke for the hills.

- Everything the Nids brought fell... until the Zoanthropes came in. TIgurius felt the disturbance. A heinous power lashed out as his squad of Centurions. Only needed 4's to deflect, I picked up a handful of dice, but failed to deflect the power! I rolled leadership on 3D6... and rolled a 1-2-3. Ha! The Emperor protects in strange ways, but I'll take it! (I would have lost wounds, no saves, equal to the difference of 3D6 minus my leadership).

- Not to be taken lightly, the Centurions and Tigurius unloaded on the Zoanthopes, but only one and a half died. The second Stormtalon took aim, lighting up the brain bugs, but still one remained!

+++ Not to be denied. The Zoanthropes make a foolhardy stance before the Tigurius Centurion squad +++

- The Nid pods shooting was mostly an annoyance but at 6 wounds they were incredibly resilent...and mobile!! One was upgraded with mutli barbedwire stranglers firing in all directions....finally a shooty Carnifex came rolling out of one in my backlines. It pulverised a Tactical squad.... then a pod of Gaunts came down, and obliteratd another 5 man tactical squad.

My back lines were in danger, and then the Flyrant came dropping in, and blew up a Stormtalon. There was simply too much damage to jink... but his wing man saw the damage, and came over to take on the Flyrant... his effort was wasted as the Flyrant had no trouble dodging the second Stormtalon.

+++ At about turn 3 the Flyrant makes a flamboyant entrance into the game. +++

End Game:

- With the front completely cleared out, Tiguris felt it safe to rush his squad of Centurions into the last Zoanthrope. Although the Nids were handled wave, after wave, this last wave was taking its toll. The Hunter lined up two well placed shots on the Flyrant, wounding it once, however it would not falter, and stayed in flight. Both Stormtalons were now lost to this flying demon.... and it would go unchallenged.

- The deeplstriking Carnifex had to be dealt with, and the secondary Sternguard came in to meet the challenge, using poison rounds to great effect, and multiple melta/plasma shots setting the behemoth ablaze.

- The Thunderfire kicked up and came close to taking down half the guant squad which had appeared the turn before.

- No sooner had Tigurius taken the challenge of smiting the last Zoanthrope and suddenly the last Mawloc came up underneath the Centurion squad! But Tigurius had forseen this, and cast a protective 4++ on squad, passing every wound. The Mawloc, trapped beneath tried once again to smash his way through... again Tigurius' squad held true, this time taking just one wound but not letting the Mawloc through. It was denied entry into the battle again.

- The remaining Tacticals, Terminator Librarian and Sternguard reformed for a final push to wipe the Nids off the table when my opponent conceded....

Nids Remaining: Mawloc (pushed back in reserve), Flyrant (only one wound taken), and 4-5 gaunts plus the miscellaneous pods stuck on the ground.

Ultra's Remaining: Tigurius and Centurions, Razorback, 5 Tacticals with missile launcher, Thunderfire, Libby Termie + 2 Sternguard Squads. Pods, 4 other Tacticals, Hunter.

We didn't add points since he conceded but pointwise we were very close, and really I would have got quite a few points in turn 5 because I was making my way towards a juicy objective which I had multiple cards for.

Lessons Learned:

+++ The Tigurius/Centurion Combo remains my favorite blend of tactics and all around fun unit in the codex.

+++ The Hunter is horrible, but I had to try it. It just doesn't have the output to sell itself as even moderately usefull. Add 30 points, take a Thunderfire instead, or put it towards something else in your heavies.

+++ I still have no desire to do bikes/termies because I personally like the way Dark Angels do it better. But I like to think I don't -have- to in order to be somewhat competitive.

+++ My opponent realized he needed to start with the Flyrant on the table to pretty much eliminate the possibility of a table wipe loss.

+++ Sternguard. I love the models, they are hard to figure out. Many times it feels like I might be better off with larger tactical squad, but when you -need- them, the Sternguard can be potent. It's a very hard call.

+++ Airfare.... Stormtalons are a favorite of mine. I love the speed, and the glass cannon aspect, however they failed hard against a single Flyrant that game. Considering adding a Stormraven.

+++ Tactically speaking the list still feels a bit off. The constant struggle of adding boots to the table vs. specialized units is a tough call for any marine army I suppose.

Thanks for reading this... changes coming soon.

[markham82]

GLORIOUS!

 

This makes me happyx3.

 

You could drop the hunter for a Whirlwind and take the 5 spare points to upgrade the combiflamer to a heavy flamer.

 

Or you could put lascannons on the Talons and see how that does. you can then also upgrade the flamer sternies as above, that leaves you with 35points. How about changing the plasma tac squad to a dev squad with three missile launchers. 5 Points left, give the libby an auspex or give a sarge a meltabomb.

[Prot]

Thanks! Thanks for reading and responding. :)

 

I am heavily weighing the Lascannon Sentinels. But yea, the Hunter is gone. I'm glad I didn't buy that model but I've been surprised before so I didn't want to just write it off without trying it.

 

To me, it has too much going against it:

 

1. Provides no other function aside from hitting skimmers/flyers

2. Takes up a slot in the Heavy category which is hotly contested imo for stronger  units.

3. while it's point cost isn't massive, it's probably less useful than a Whirlwind and you're not far off from a Thunderfire!

 

That's 3 strikes! :)  It feels like this model, and its variant weren't thought out well at all.

 

Anyway, I took a few things away from this battle. As usual the Centurions see a TON of firepower. I have to be clever with the Razorbacks, or hide the squad entirely until the game gets rolling. The Centurions are such a honeypot I'd almost love to see a super heavy list that allows me to take a 4th heavy by putting them in a landraider as a transport with Tigurius.

 

I want to get Cato back in the game. The Libriarian was GOOD though, however, I have to figure out how to truly take advantage of Cato. I may start a thread on getting advice for him.

 

List wise, two squads of Sternguard actually worked against this opponent. Poison was huge.Just getting someone to roll lots of saves on toughness 6 monstrous creatures is a nice little benefit.

 

I do agree though that if you just want a few melta's, probably a command squad is a better idea.

 

Tacticals: How I love them, but it's easy to overboard. So I'm seriously considering going to a razorback list instead of a Drop Pod list, but that's in the future. I just feel with the pods I can get in trouble easily if I"m not careful. With my Dark Angels this wasn't a problem because the pods came in, then the Termies, then the Bikes all turbo'd up. Right now it's easy for me to get too dissected with disjointed units. I have to be careful.

 

It was a fun game though. Lots of bold moves paid off but it could have gone the other way as well with the early game risks I took. Luckily it didn't.

[Ming]

I found that pyromancy is awesome for a podded librarian going in after bugs...

[Captain Idaho]

A fun read.

 

I'd have to echo the sentiment regarding the anti air vehicles for Space Marines. It seems all other armies have anti air that fires at ground targets equally as well, except Hydras. But Hydras are in an army with Vendettas and cheap enough infantry to afford such extravagance. Pah I say.

 

It's hard to out do the damage output of the Centurions. Can't say much there.

 

Regarding the biomancy Librarian; sounds good you had luck with him. Would you say Enfeeble worked a treat?

[Prot]

Pyromancy definitely crossed my mind against Nids. What I was hoping to accomplish is take the Strength of the staff, and use Iron Arm to make it an instant death AP2 strength 10 weapon. Which would have been great IF I actually had the Libby go off against any big nasties, but he was mopping up hordes which would have been better off with Pyro.

 

- Idaho, thanks for reading.

 

For the sake of brevity I skip some of the stuff that happens in my batreps just to keep it moving, but I have say Enfeeble might have been the star of Biomancy this game. I hit toughness 6 creatures with it 2-3 times and it paid off bigtime with bolter fire + Chapter Tactics.

[True Blue Marine]

How can a Librarian have a strength 10 weapon with Iron Arm? Do you give him a thunder hammer?

[Prot]

Sorry I meant 9. Brain fart.

 

But yea 9 at AP2 is killing a lot of stuff outright. He was going to be my 'surprise' close combat guy. ;)

[markham82]

I still remember the look on the face of a ravenguard player who charged my tac squad and tiggy with a 5man vanguard squad, Captain and 5 man assault squad (he had a lot of powerweapons). Somehow I survived that turn and then popped endurance and ironarm on the squad. It still took me three rounds two sort them out and there were only one tac left with tiggy but it was awesome. 

[Prot]

Yea that was my intent! It just never happened as my army was in two segments and the close combat threat never really developed. (lucky for me!)

[Captain Idaho]

So did you find the Chapter Tactics working for you now?

[Prot]

Only moderately so. Re-reading them I know realize they have to be announced at the beginning of my turn so saying "I'm going to use the assault" tactic kind of sucks since my opponent knows my plans, but more importantly I found with the Dev tactic my opponent doesn't rush as much unless he's a 100 percent certain.

 

You know me, I have too many armies going. I find that the Ultra's "feel" like there's 3 essential units I must use or perish: Tigurius, Grav-Cents, and Thunderfire. :)