Redtoof's Tyranid Battles

[Redtoof]

Edit: the internet ate all my pictures, and I used that as an excuse to make a blog. In future all my battle reports and other stuff will be here:

https://redtoof.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Hello. I'm doing some battle reports! You may have seen me do a report for my Orks, and another for my Adeptus Mechanicus. Well here it's like that, only with Tyranids (and later Genestealer Cults). My reports are a bit lazy and the photos are a bit low quality (taken on an iPad) but hopefully the results are interesting or at least the tolerable.

 

 

My regular opponent (who shall from this moment forth be known as John) and I decided to run a little narrative campaign, chaos vs tyranids, so most of my battles in the near future will be Nid related. With that in mind; backstory:

 

"In the wake of behemoth's defeat and removal from the worlds of ultramar, some lingering tyranids remain on the world of Talassar Tertius. A system of worlds that has had a turbulent past, a past that is catching up with it as the Emperors Children send a warband to retrieve an ancient artefact.

 

In the wake of the 3rd legion's arrival, a warp storm erupts to cut off the Talassar system from any and all contact from beyond its Mandeville point. Leaving a company of Wild Cards, an Ultramarine successor chapter stranded after being dispatched to cleanse the remaining tyranid taint."

 

This scenario is a modified patrol mission, where the Tyranids and the Emperor's Children are both attackers with 1000 point armies, while an additional 1000 point force of space marines is deployed on the board semi-randomly. The space marines act in their own turn, shooting what the can see (randomising between the two players). Points were awarded for killing enemy units. The space marine units were worth double victory points to encourage killing them first before we turn on each other.

 

My army was Old One Eye, a Broodlord, 5 warriors, 15 Genestealers, 24 Termagants, 4 ripper swarms and two carnifexes.

 

John had Lucius, a lord on a steed, 10 cultists, 2 units of fully loaded out noise marines and a newly FAQed Sonic dreadnought.

 

The Wildcards consisted of two dreadnoughts, 2 tactical squads, scout squad, land speed storm, rhino and a vanguard veteran squad.

 

 

Deployment. We both use command points to expand our forces. The Wildcards are placed by taking turns to deploy markers then randomising which unit corresponds to which marker.

 

 

I got to go first and tried to pick up an easy two points for killing the scouts. Shooting was disappointing.

 

 

John's shooting removes the veterans from the woods. In the following space marine turn the Wildcards remove some Termagants. It was about here we decided the Wildcards are renowned for their card based one liners. "Pick a card... any card" BLAM.

 

 

My reserves start to arrive. I used command points to get them in easier. Everything but the rippers turn up. Genestealers and Broodlord murder the tactical squad, while my shooting finishes off the scouts. Old One Eye and his younger, two eyed brother charge into the Wildcard vehicles in the centre. OOE whiffs badly with his crushing claws. New model syndrome.

 

 

The noise marines turn their attention onto the Genestealers, and rudely wipe them out. They did nothing to you John! Nothing! In the Space Marine turn the dreadnought bellows over its vox "All In!" as it smashes good old newly painted One Eye into bits.

 

 

The Broodlord has a taste for tactical marines now. Between smite, rending claws and morale, he finished off the unit, leaving himself somewhat exposed. As the sergeant falls, the Broodlord gurgles "Checkmate!", not really understanding human games.

 

 

Warriors blow up the storm and get a mortal wound for their troubles.

 

 

Noise marines split their fire between the exposed Broodlord and the damaged dreadnought in the centre. They get the points for the dread but Broodlord survives on 3 wounds.

 

 

The cultists and the lord arrive from reserve to attack the last dreadnought. I think it was actually brought down by a cultist after the lord dropped it to one wound. "I... fold..."

 

 

I do some fancy charge manoeuvres to make sure the Broodlord is not the closest target (this time). The Horror is cast on the dreadnought. I do literally need the Broodlord and both Carnifexes to finally kill the rhino. The forces of the Imperium have finally been scraped off the board.

 

 

Warriors catch the lord out and charge in. Boneswords do some damage but he is disappointingly left on 2 wounds.

 

 

In the following turn the cultists charge in after shooting up a Termagant (We joked they found him all alone, assumed he was some kind of specialist and were super pleased with themselves for killing him.) Lord and chums finish off the warriors before they can swing.

 

 

The noise marines have a terrible shooting phase, doing a total of two wounds to a carnifex from their entire army. (And a dead Termagant from the cultists.) I am foolishly persuaded by this to engage, shoving my remaining forces towards the noise marines.

 

 

Well almost all my remaining forces.

 

 

My monsters butcher a unit of noise marines, but take damage from overwatch and noise marines shooting upon their death and the remaining Emperor's children do not fail a second time to kill them off.

 

 

All that's left for me is a single carnifex and the rippers. The dex runs away from the noise marines, but is caught by the lord. Overwatch takes off one wound, and I roll 3 out of 4 saves against the lord's power fist, but it's not quite enough as the wounded fex is felled.

 

 

The lord surveys the battlefield. The final scores are added up. Thanks to killing many of the imperial units I scored 11 points, but John just squeaked past with a total of 12. Great game, not too serious but full of fun little narrative moments. We commented that the last edition was the edition of 'Forge the narrative', but it seems to be much easier to forge in the new streamlined rule set.

 

It was decided that via eating of brains, both the chaos forces and the hive mind know the location of a tech priest who has more information about the artefact the Emperor's Children seek. He will be found in a hive city currently being overrun by the Tyranids. In the next battle the Tyranids will be trying to reinforce from the local Genestealer cultists, while the Emperor's Children press their advantage and assault the hive. Using the cool mission matrix thing in the book, we determined the next mission would be No Mercy. Although we might put a little narrative spin on it.

[blokeyblokeman]

A great game with many hilarious moments, the imperial Dreadnought was actually licked to death by the lords' steed while the cultists didn't get to strike as they were too busy reveling after bravely gunning down the lone gaunt.

 

Definitely loving the 8th edition noise marines, so glad the dreadnoughts can now carry noise guns too. Just need noise terminators and then I'll be happy

[Xenith]

Good write up, thanks for posting - I'd be keen to see she close ups of your army, they look great!

[Redtoof]

Time for the second battle in the Talassar Tertius campaign. This time the Emperor's Children march upon the city of Vorar, where they know a tech adept is hidden away with clues to the location of the mysterious artefact they have come for. Slight problem for them though, the city is occupied by Tyranid forces after a Genestealer Cult uprising overthrew the Imperial rulers.

 

This battle was the No Mercy scenario with 1500 points each. The board was rather nicely set up to represent the outer parameter of the city, with the Tyranid deployment zone amongst the buildings and ruins. I took a list with a combination of hive fleet and cult units. Magus, Hive Tyrant with wings, 20+ Termagants, 15 Genestealers, 12 Acolytes, 15 Neophytes, 3 Biovores, 3 Ravenors, 2 Leman Russ and a Chimera. John (opponent) took Lucius, a Sorcerer, 2 units of 10 noise marines, 2 units of 10 cultists, 2 noise dreadnoughts and 2 helbrutes with lascannon/missile launcher. I think I must have written my list on a night shift because it didn't make a whole lot of sense (note: don't take biovores with no backfield synapse).

 

 

Deployment. There is also a chimera full of Acolytes on the right flank just off screen. Too far away to be useful sadly. Almost all of John's forced lumped up in some rocky terrain for cover. I was going last by finishing deployment second by one unit. I tried to steal with a command reroll but no luck.

 

 

The Emperor's Children move up to get some sonic blasters in range, while the blastmasters remain stationary.

 

 

Oh dear. A Leman Russ and a Hive Tyrant shaped hole in my line on turn 1. The other Leman Russ (with vanquisher cannon) was very badly damaged as well. The Termagants also took a pounding and died to morale.

 

 

These cheeky guy opened the firing by solo killing my battle cannon Russ with the first shots of the game. He actually managed 14 wounds, so joke's on you, that's two wounds wasted!

 

Not a great start for me.

 

 

Keen for a bit of revenge the Genestealers rush up to the cultists. I roll a 2 for my advance, but command re-roll it into a 6! The Ravenors also turn up to try and hurt some noise marines. The magus casts Mass Hypnosis on one of the cultists units to remove some of the overwatch. As my only synapse (thanks past me!) is now dead, my biovores must target the nearest enemy unit, so I deal two mortal wounds to some cultists.

 

 

On the other side of the board the Genestealer cultists advance to better positions. Between damage and movement none of their shooting hits anything.

 

In combat the Genestealers unsurprisingly massacre the cultists, while the Ravenors fail the charge, with a wasted command re-roll.

 

 

Noise marines and Dreads mop up. Ravenor's and Genestealers are finished off in melee, while their shooting kills the last Leman Russ and knocks out enough neophytes to force the last one to flee in terror. They forgot to shoot the spore mine though.

 

 

In a futile effort the Chimera full of hybrids advances up to maybe do something next turn. The Biovores target the noise marines, dropping a spore mine that dies to the firepower of the killed noise marines in their last actions.

 

 

The Chimera and Acolytes are surrounded by noise marines (who were Warptimed and Prescienced) and are deleted. One of the dreads was close enough to the Magus to finish him off as well. With only a unit of Biovores I called it on my turn 3. Ouch.

 

With the rag-tag band of defenders defeated, Lucius and his men head deeper into the city to find the adept with the data. John decided this meant his force was doing some reconnaissance, while I decided the remaining Genestealer Cult forces in the city would be trying to catch his men off guard with a flank attack. The matrix tells us the next mission will be the Scouring. We decided that since his objective is to find the tech adept with the information about the artefact, all the objectives would be Mechanicus models, and we would roll at the end of the game to see which one would be the 'real' objective.

 

This was probably the most one sided game I've played of 8th yet. Poor army design on my part combined with good luck for John meant I'd pretty much lost on turn one. That's 2-0 in the campaign so far...

[Redtoof]

Onto the third mission of the Talassar Tertius campaign. The Emperor's Children swept aside the defenders and made their way into the city of Vorar, looking for a tech adept with the location of the relic they seek. As they search however, Genestealer cultists ambush from the shadows!

 

We played another 1500 point game, a modified mission somewhere between contact lost and the scouring. It was maelstrom with 6 objectives, each represented by an ad mech figure. The sides could gather data (objective cards) from the Mechanicus, and at the end of the game we rolled randomly to determine which was the actual tech adept with the information about the relic - that objective was worth 5 points. Given that I had a squishy cult army relying on cult ambush to get in before being torn apart with sonic guns, I didn't think the objectives would end up mattering much. (Spoiler - they didn't.)

 

I ran Patriarch, Primus, Magus, 2 units of Neophytes, 2 small Acolyte units, 2 small Purestrain units, Aberrants, Chimera, 2 Leman Russ (1 vanquisher, 1 regular). John took Lucius, Prince, Sorcerer, 2 noise marine units, cultists, 3 Dreads (2 sonic, 1 las/missile). We both had 7 command points.

 

 

Deployed most of my combat units in ambush. Neophytes went over here, plus Acolytes and magus in Chimera. I hoped they would survive the early turns and then my ambushers would deal with the noise marines.

 

 

I tried to seize, including a command re-roll, but no luck. My tanks deployed to guard objectives and hopefully draw some, bit not too much fire. They managed to both survive the first turn this time!

 

 

Noise marines do the conga onto the objective in the trees.

 

 

My neophytes take a battering, but both units hang in there.

 

 

My first turn and I roll for all the Ambushers. Mostly focused on surrounding one of the noise marine squads. However a couple end up on the other flank. They deploy out of LoS but within charge range of a dreadnought hiding around the corner.

 

 

Newly painted and converted Aberrants arrive with the Primus with a bonus D6 movement, getting them super close.

 

 

Between overwatch and shooting from dead noise marines, my ambushing units are depleted. Purestrains fail the charge, while the single remaining Aberrant dies in melee. (Remember, newly painted/converted...) Not a great result for me. On the other flank, both units also fail their charges.

 

 

Emperor's Children start cleaning up. My battlecannon Russ goes boom. The Prince and a dread kill off my Acolytes and gut the stealers. On the right flank shooting finishes my other Purestrains off, leaving the Patriarch looking a bit lonely.

 

 

Patriarch and Acolytes from the chimera charge Noise Marines and finally I kill a unit. Lost most of the Acolytes and the Primus along the way, and these guys don't look very safe there. Note Magus in the woods holding an objective.

 

 

The Prince goes after the Vanquisher. Survives the overwatch but doesn't kill it. (My few remaining Purestrains got killed off by a dread.)

 

 

Patriarch gets blasted. One brave Acolyte somehow survives. Not for very long though. He and the Magus both die to overwatch while trying to kill off the Sorcerer for some character slaying points.

 

 

Noise Marines eventually swarm the chimera. Before being shot up, my neophytes had managed to put some wounds on the characters, so at this point they were very wary of getting too close to a potential explosion. Sadly it didn't go off.

 

 

My final unit, the Vanquisher, spends several turns being chased around by a Prince and a Dread before finally succumbing to the inevitable.

 

Even though I had been wiped out, we still rolled to see which objective was the one we wanted. Turns out he was being guarded by the cultists behind some rocks in John's deployment zone all along.

 

 

I'm finding Genestealer Cult units are very squishy and far too reliant on random deployment and lucky charge rolls. I think an attempt at a 'competitive' Cult list might just be a bunch of Purestrains in Chimeras. Next time we will return to the Tyranids proper, as the Hive Mind has has time to gathers its forces...

[Redtoof]

Note: I'm trying different sized pics for this one. If anyone wants to let me know if it's better or worse, let me know. Fourth mission of the Talassar Tertius campaign. So far the Emperor's Children have been successful, but now that they have found the location of their relic, they are deploying more forces to secure it. The Tyranids in the area are aggressive and ravenous, having just spawned onto the planet without any space marines to kill!

 

It turns out the relic is a blade of great power, similar to the Anethame that felled Horus. A powerful item indeed, the Hive Mind neither knows nor cares of it's history, only that the prey species want it, and therefore it must be taken from them at all costs.

 

We played a 2000 point game this time, using the Relic mission. We both had 7 command point lists. I went for Tervigon, Old One Eye, Broodlord, 20 Genestealers, 30 Termagants, 7 Warriors, Crone, Haruspex, 2 Carnifexes, Trygon. John took Daemon Prince, Lord on steed, Sorcerer with jump pack, 2x10 noise marines, 2x12ish cultists, 5 spawn, 2 las/missile dreads, Decimator with storm lasers, Leviathan with butcher arrays.

 

 

The relic, still imbedded in the body of an Ultramarine, no doubt as part of some dark ritual.

 

 

My deployment. Trygon digs and warriors follow in the tunnel.

 

 

The Emperor's Children form up. That's a lot of guns.

 

 

For once I got the first turn. Termagants jumped onto the objective. Most of the army advanced up. The Crone flaps forward to engage the front unit of cultists to help keep them from going onto the objective. The Trygon and Warriors popped up on the back line with big 'shoot me, I'm annoying' signs.

 

 

The plan kind of works as the Prince and Spawn are drawn back to my diggers.

 

 

Trygon eats a lot of lasers, missiles and shells, finally falling, leaving the warriors to their fate. They manage to survive the combat though.

 

 

The Tyranids advance once more, though the Termagants relish the unexpected role of being not disposable and reverse. The Crone has gone from all the firepower, and the Genestealers are severely depleted. Nevertheless the swarm continues.

 

 

The Emperor's Children stand their ground and keep firing. The Genestealers and Broodlord are blasted off the planet. The Tervigon ate some heavy weapons and died, taking 3 of the Termagants with it. In the corner the spawn finished off the warriors.

 

 

Hungry bugs round the corner, looking at the tasty humans.

 

 

The big beasts slam into the Noise Marines, while far away a brood of Termagants continues their merry way towards a far corner of the board. The beasts are hungry but they don't kill too much, leaving the marines to disengage and allowing the walkers to shoot them to bits. The Haruspex, as it died, lashed out in a rage, killing a spawn, 3 noise marines, hurting the prince and killing a nearby carnifex!

 

 

Should be safe here, right? Right?

 

 

John decided it was about time to advance with everything. Old One Eye still stood however, and he charged into the wounded Daemon Prince, slicing it in half with his talons, and plowing into the Decimator!

 

 

In spite of the barnacle covered bug's efforts, through liberal use of advance moves and Warp time, the lord and the Sorcerer finally caught up to the Termagants on turn 5. After shooting with limited line of sight from the rest of the Emperor's Children, the lord, able to advance and charge thanks to his steed, charged in to finish the job...

 

 

One lone Termagant survived, holding the relic. In what I think was a pretty smart move, I had saved myself some command points for this. Two points to autopass the morale test. Then the roll to see if the game ends. As I went first I got to roll, and I used my last command reroll to try and force the game to end. Sadly, it continued. For about 3 seconds until the Termagant was turned into coleslaw by the lord.

 

Overall this game was pretty epic. Even though I was wiped out, I came within a re-rollable dice roll of winning by holding the relic at the end. Definitely feel the Tyranid list has a lot more resilience than the Genestealer Cult, even though the Emperor's Children loaded up for heavy shooting seem to be a pretty good counter to both armies. Having to slog it up the board into all those guns is tough, but it very nearly paid off this time.

 

Those pesky Emperor's Children have got their hands on the relic, and it seems they must now try to complete a ritual, one that will undoubtedly doom the plant to a fate worse than... well, worse than being eaten by giant bugs? Stay tuned!

[Xenith]

Great report again, fun match!

 

I'd have brought the trygon on closer to your own lines, or close to weak units where the prince Hasbro spend a couple of turns trying to intercept. Having them isolated over there made them easy pickings.

 

Still keen to see closer pics of your models!

[QuarterPounder]

Love it! Great batreps, and fantastic paint jobs on both armies!

[Redtoof]

Right, last game of the campaign. This time the Emperor's Children must complete a ritual with their cursed blade which will condemn the planet to the Warp, and all the nastiness within. Tyranids must stop them in order to get a shot at eating the rest of the planet.

 

We played a Blitz mission, with me as the attacker. (This mission is where the attacker has to cross the board to score points by having units in the opponent's two deployment zones at the end. Attacker also gets to recycle units but defender gets points for killing the attacker). I hadn't known we would pick this one so I had some flying units in my list, however we decided to not allow 'deep strike' units to do so, since one army charging across the board into the guns of the other is kind of this mission's thing, not just popping up behind them.

 

2000 points, we both had 7 command points and a lord of war. My force was; Tervigon, Flying Hive Tyrant, Malanthrope, 30 Termagants, 20 Genestealers, 3 Warriors, 10 Gargoyles, Crone, Trygon, 3 Ravenors, 3 Zoanthropes, Scythed Hierodule. John took 2 Chaos Lords on Steeds, Sorcerer with jump pack, 10 Noise Marines, 2*10 Cultists, 2 las/missile Dreads, 2 las/fist Contemptor dreads, Typhon siege tank.

 

Deployment:

 

 

 

My preliminary bombardment was entirely ineffective, so, game on!

 

 

My turn one, advance with pretty much everything, bunching around the Malanthrope where possible. Catalyst on the Crone who failed a charge into some cultists. Rules question: does the -2 to charge range for forests and craters stack? Does it even apply to flyers?

 

 

 

Unnecessary closer shots of my army to hopefully keep Xenith happy.

 

 

John's first shooting phase was terrible, only doing a few wounds here and there. The Horror plus the Malanthrope really helped. I advanced again with most of my force. The Crone charges the noise marines to tie them up. John was really panicking at this point.

 

 

Gargoyles and remainin Ravenor charge the contemptors to attempt the same.

 

 

The Emperor's Children don't wiff second time around, even though the contemptors and the noise marines cannot fire this turn. The Scythed Hierodule is blasted apart, while the Hive Tyrant also falls. The Typhon's cannon did 15 wounds to the Hierodule this turn, even under the Malanthrope aura. That thing is pretty scary.

 

 

I was really hoping to throw the Termagants in as a shield this turn, but they have rolled 3 ones in a row for their advance so they are not close enough. Also advanced the Trygon up with the intention of casting Onslaught to get it into combat, but that failed. Boo!

 

 

The Genestealers got in though, using a command point to auto roll a 6 for advance (a special stratagem in this scenario), and made a mess of the noise marines, who are no longer pictured here. They put a lot of wounds on the lord but he rolled well on his saves to survive on 2.

 

 

So the Typhon isn't afraid of a little close combat. This turn the Trygon fell, as did the Tervigon to all the shooting (stupid slow gants) and the wounded Crone fell to smite from the Sorcerer.

 

 

My turn and every single unit that had died cam back. Sadly too late to really do anything, but it looks pretty scary...

 

 

I finally get the Termagants up to tie up all of the dreads. I'm running out of units though, and fast.

 

 

This is the scene at my turn 5. The wave of reinforcements approaches, but I've already given up 13 points, so there is no way I can get all my units into his deployment by the end of the game, and I call it here. Secretly happy the planet gets blown up. We didn't want to eat it anyway after Slaanesh licked it.

 

Well, that started well, but as often happens, the army ran out of steam before it could really do any damage. I've had a lot of fun over this campaign, and though most of my armies were driven more by story than efficiency (and in one case, sleep deprivation), it's clear the general strategy of 'charge a bunch of close combat stuff into a gun line' is not a great one. Clearly some powerful shooting or a lot of sneakiness is required. I don't really rate Cult ambush for this, so I think some guns are required. I can see why Exocrines are all the rage at the moment (and why the kit was sold out shortly after the indexes came out) and a few hive guard wouldn't go a miss. Sadly looks like I need more stuff to make a solid army in this edition, but with a new codex before Christmas I'll give my wallet a break for now...

[Redtoof]

New codex time!

 

Played another game against John and his Emperor's Children. Both somewhat experimental lists, though mine a lot more so, given new codex time. We played Cloak and Shadows - where your maelstrom objectives are hidden from your opponent and it's -1 to hit everything beyond 18 inches.

 

Since my Tyranids are a non-official scheme, for this game they were Jormungandr, using stratagems to get more units 'deep striking' in. My list was a double Battalion, Flyrant, Broodlord, Old One Eye, Malanthrope, 30 Termagants, 3 Warriors, 2x12 Genestealers, 2x3 Ripper Swarms, 2 carnifexes, 3 Zoanthropes, Trygon Prime, 3 Raveners and a Crone. There are a bunch of talons and deathsptters on monsters. Trygon has the Ymgarl factor, while the Hive Tyrant is the warlord with Instinctive killer on the Contemptors. Fully admit that it's not an optimised list, just trying out things in the new book.

 

John's list featured a Prince, a Sorcerer, 2x 10 cultists, 18 noise marines, 2 Contemptors with Fists and soulburners, 2 Decimators with double soulburners, Leviathan with Soul Burners. Almost all mortal wounds or ignoring cover meant I got literally no use out of my Hive Adaptation. Woo.

 

 

Deployment. I reserve the Trygon with Genestealers, the Raveners, one unit of rippers and the Hive Tyrant. The Broodlord and the other Genestealers used the stratagem The Enemy Below to also hide off the board. John bunched up most of his stuff on one flank, with the cultists providing a large tunnel blocking L across the board. John goes first.

 

 

Combination of the Mission special rules and my spores (I put cysts on the Fexes, seems like a no brainer option in most situations) meant all those mortal wound guns and noise marines killed one carnifex and wounded the other. First blood and he picked up a couple of points, but I looked in a pretty strong position.

 

 

End of my movement phase. Everything turns up. Rippers claim a couple of objectives while the rest of the army looks for a knock out blow. Smite and shooting strips wounds of the Contemptors in the front, before charges happen. Ravener get in to one Contemptors on 2 wounds, piling into a Decimator to try and hold it up, the Trygon gets into the Leviathan, while the Crone cannot fail to charge the other Contemptor. Tyrant and Genestealers fail charges, leaving me wishing for a moment I was Behemoth. The thought occurs to me that one or two charges succeeded or failed here could decide the game.

 

 

Things go a bit wrong! Raveners whiff and fail to kill the Contemptor, who in response kills them all. The other Contemptor, being one of the Emperor's Children, jumps the queue and kills the Crone before it can fight (all 12 wounds in one fight phase, ouch!). It piles into the Trygon, offering a tasty 'easy' target, that the Trygon promptly failed to hurt.

 

 

Shooting really really hurts. All the Genestealers are gone, thanks to the Noise Marines (prescience = 45 sonic shots hitting on 2s, rerolling 1s. John managed to miss with 15 before rerolls, thanks the the prince eventually 2 misses). Mortal wounds strip the Hive Tyrant down to 1 and finish off the other Carnifex.

 

In melee the Contemptor gets to go first and punches out the Trygon. Since he is a Prime I use the Death Frenzy stratagem to fight back, putting 6 wounds on the Contemptor. Then roll a 6 for Death throes, dealing 3 mortal wounds to the Contemptor, leaving it on 1, and also killing off some noise marines.

 

 

Old One Eye and the Broodlord charge one Contemptor, while the other goes down to Smite/shooting. Tyrant charges the noise marines after regaining some wounds from stratagem use. He took 3 wounds from overwatch/noise marines who died to shooting however, leaving him on 1, and, as you can see, dead shortly after. He did roll death throes and took a couple down with him.

 

 

Shooting clears out the Termagants. Thanks to character placement the Leviathan can't shoot anything, as the closest target by a fraction of an inch is the Broodlord in combat with a Decimator. It is largely academic as the Prince multicharges the lord and OOE, while the noise marines charge in as well. Between them they do enough wounds to finish off my combat beasts, and with little left of any real threat (and getting to dinner time) I concede.

 

Soundly beaten, but not disheartened. Mortal wounds and noise marines are nasty and I knew this would be a struggle without some good luck to get more charges off. I'm still lacking Fire support which I intend to rectify via heavy venom cannons and hive guard. After my movement phase on turn 1 John was about ready to concede, heavy 'deep strike' Tyranids are apparently that scary. Next time I think I will give behemoth a go if I play this kind of list.

[Xenith]

Ouch. Lots of fun to be had with Jorm. 30 devourer gaunts popping out of a ravener tunnel is fun.

 

Swarmlord in tyrannocyte to hive commander one unit and onslaught the other would help get things into combat.

[Redtoof]

Not had much chance for any 40k recently, but I did sneak in a game with my Nids the other day. Though this is less of a battle report and more of a cautionary tale.

 

I played my Nids as Behemoth this time, though it was definitely not optimised as half my army is sitting on a desk with it's arms torn off. My list was a double Battalion, flying Hive Tyrant, Tervigon, Malanthrope, Broodlord, 2*10 Termagants, 2*3 Ripper Swarms, 3 Warriors, 20 Genestealers, 3 Raveners, 3 Biovores, Trygon, Scythed Hierodule. In a surprise move John took an army with no dreadnoughts, instead he had a Prince, jump pack Lord and Sorcerer, 2*10 Cultists, Noise Marines, Dreadclaw with 2 units of plasma havocs, a Fire Raptor and a 10 man combi plas terminator squad. We played Kill Confirmed from Chapter Approved.

 

 

Deployment. We both have much of our forces off the board. John gets first turn.

 

 

A wall of pink descends in front of my lines. It is about here I wonder why I didn't put my Lord of War and friends behind a deep screen of Termagants.

 

 

Lesson learned. Terminators, being Slaanesh, are given prescience, Warp time and veterans of the long war, then allowed to shoot twice. They kill both the Hierodule and the Tervigon, and reduce the Malanthrope to 1 wound in combat. Other shooting kills all my Termagants and some other stuff.

 

 

Time for my reserves to come in and counter punch! 20 Genestealers line up against the Terminators, while the Flyrant drops in the assassinate a Sorcerer. Raveners come to tie up havocs, while rippers come on the far flank to annoy the cultists.

 

 

Apparently the dice decided to kick me in the balls. The Tyrant, Trygon and Genestealers all failed their charges (with rerolls for Behemoth.) The Raveners made it in, but two died from overwatch, and the other followed soon after. The Broodlord went in against the Terminators on his own and cut a few down.

 

 

John's turn two involved cutting down my reserves where they stood. Fire Raptor taking out the Hive Tyrant and many Genestealers, while the Plasmas did for the Trygon. Prince in combat dispatched more Genestealers leaving me having to use two of my many remaining command points to save them from death by morale. The Broodlord kept going against the Terminators.

 

My turn two didn't leave me with many options. The Broodlord killed some more Terminators, but finally fell. He managed to take out 5 of them in the end, which is approximately the number of models the rest of my army killed put together.

 

 

Turn three and John mops up. I forget how many points he scored in the end, but I'm pretty sure it was more than the 0 I managed.

 

So the lesson is - Termagant screens are your friend. The dice are not.

[Redtoof]

Hello all. Back again.

 

This time John and I played Scorched Earth from Chapter Approved - points for holding objectives at the end of your turn, and the ability to burn objectives in your opponent's deployment zone for extra points.

 

I went Jormungandr again this time, and had a slightly weird list. Again not optimised, though I did allow myself to include an incomplete Trygon amongst my forces. I had two battalions and a spearhead. I took a walking Hive Tyrant with the miasma cannon and rending claws, 2 Neurothropes, Malanthrope, Old One Eye, 3 Tyrant Guard, 2*3 Ripper Swarms, 20 Genestealers, 20 Termagants, 19 Termagants, 4 Warriors, 2 Trygons, 2 Carnifexes with talons and heavy venom cannons.

 

John took the Emperor's Children again, though this list was heavy on the stompy. Jump pack Lord, 2 lots of plasma havocs in a Dreadclaw, 3 Decimators with soul burners and storm lasers, 2 Forge world knights! The Lancer and the flamer one.

 

 

Deployment. I've bunched up a big load of stuff around the Malanthrope, behind a Termagant screen (learning). Trygons are off the board with Genestealers and more termagants (with some devourers). Rippers also off the board. The sword and Gatling knight represents the lancer.

 

 

Emperors Children go first. Thanks to Malanthrope and Jormungandr and lack of good landing spots for the Havocs (who wait out this turn) shooting is largely uneventful. In my turn I bring in reserves. Trygons and their buddies dig up near the flamer knight. (I really wanted to go near the lancer but not enough room.) One set of rippers dig up next to an objective, hiding behind some barrels.

 

 

The other rippers pop up in a cheeky spot in the enemy deployment zone, threatening to burn an objective if they are not taken care of (or more accurately, they will absorb a turn's fire from one of the Decimators.)

 

 

My shooting and psychic phases put good damage on burny knight, then it all falls apart. In the charge phase I learn the flamer on the knight deals a straight 3 damage. One Trygon dies charging it, the other is reduced to a few wounds. The Trygon and the Genestealers both fail the charge. Ouch.

 

 

Knights move in for the kill. Havocs arrive and get shooting. Cheeky rippers are killed. Shooting kills off a Carnifex and a few termagants.

 

 

Flamer knight burns the remaining Trygon then charges the Genestealers. Some die, but I'm left with more than 10, so there are plenty of return attacks. I use the Adrenaline Surge stratagem and attack again. Thanks to a load of sixes, the knight is reduced to 1 wound.

 

 

The Lancer charges into Old One Eye. I use the stratagem to interrupt and attack after the flamer knight went first. This was my reward. OOE gets skewered in response.

 

 

I take a bit of a chance and use the double move stratagem to disengage the Genestealers from the knight, then use one neurothope to Smite the last wound off the knight. Naturally it explodes and kills off a bunch of Genestealers. Elsewhere I kill off a Decimator with venom cannons then charge the Tyrant and Guard into the knight Lancer who is locking up my remaining Carnifex. The fex dies but I tear a few wounds off the big guy. Importantly I've got some Termagants on an objective in the middle of the board. Thanks to rippers, warriors and the units that turned up near the flamer knight I'm holding 4 objectives.

 

 

In John's turn the Knight walks off to let the havocs have their shot. Stratagems are used. The Tyrant Guard throw themselves in front of the the plasma shots to keep him alive. The Dreadclaw jumps over and charges the Tyrant, keeping him from using that miasma cannon on a damaged Decimator. The Knight charges a Neurothrope, but I pass my invulnerable saves and the Neuro lives.

 

 

I've not got much stuff left so we all back up to the objectives, apart from the Tyrant, who between psychic and combat kills off the Dreadclaw, removing much mobility from John's forces. I'm still holding 4 objectives to John's 2 at this stage.

 

 

Predictably the Tyrant is brought down. More firepower reduces the Termagant brood in the centre to 1 model, still holding the objective. In a crucial moment the Lancer fails the charge against the single Termagant, leaving John with 2 objectives again. I continue to reverse away from his forces towards the objective in the crater. Smites and warrior shooting plinks off a few wounds, reducing the knight to a degraded profile.

 

 

The knight finally kills that one Termagant, claiming a third objective for the Emperor's Children. The havocs sit back to hold the other two while the Decimators rush out to try and get some points. I continue the brave retreat, without much punch to really kill anything.

 

 

Knight and Decimators kill off the rest of the Termagants. My Neurothrope holds the objective.

 

 

In turn 7 the Knight finally makes it over to the objective and the Neurothrope is killed. Unable to claim it myself I just float the Malanthrope into John's deployment zone for linebreaker.

 

The game ends, points are counted up. It's a very tight, high scoring game thanks to the mission, but it's all about board control rather than killing things, so I get the win 24-22. That lone brace Termagant that the Lancer failed to charge effectively won me the game!

 

Finally get a win with 8th edition nids. It feels good. Nice to get some use out of our Stratagems, and tried out some units I'd not used yet. Neurothropes are excellent, both for cheap HQs and for being stubborn and annoying for the enemy. Tyrant guard did their job, but probably not worth it. I'd have been better off taking a flyrant and spending the rest of the points on more killy stuff. Also note, warriors at the back with the venom cannon were pretty handy. Tough enough to hold out against the odd bit of stray fire, cheap enough not to feel like a total waste. Plus the venom cannon put a few wounds on the knight. Overall pretty happy with the win, feel like I'm getting to grips with the new rules now.

[Redtoof]

I'm back for more! This time John and I played the mission Ascension from chapter approved, where there are three objectives and Characters can objective secure them, and score more points for holding them longer. This was good for me but bad for John who was trying to prove to a mutual friend that a 4 knight list is a bad idea.

 

I took Behemoth this time. 2 Battalions and a Spearhead. Flying Hive Tyrant, Walking Hive Tyrant with the miasma cannon, 2 Neurothropes and a Malanthrope, 3 warriors, 28 termagants, 2*3 ripper Swarms, 2*12 Genestealers, 2 heavy venom cannon/talon carnifexes, a mawloc, a Trygon and a Trygon prime.

 

John had 2 renegade knights, one with Gatling and thermal cannon, the other with thermal cannon and chainsword, a knight Acheron (the flamer ones) and a Castigator (Gatling and sword one)

 

As I had 8 units off the board and John only had 4 units total, we effectively set up in the old style of him setting up his whole army, then me. John got first turn.

 

 

Deployment. I've got a wedge of stuff under the Malanthrope's spores, John has 4 knights. That's it.

 

 

First turn, Knights move up and get shooting. My warriors are blasted off the board but thanks to the spores and invulnerable saves the Hive Tyrant lives on 5 wounds. Both Knights at the front charge the Termagants, but the renegade fails. They both suffer a wound from Termagant overwatch. Many Termagants are stomped on.

 

 

I throw everything onto the board. Rippers drop on the far objective. I plan to kill off the Acheron with the bulk of my force while Trygons/Genestealers pop up in the back and cause problems. I get some big smites off and the miasma cannon proves it's worth (which is technically nothing over a HVC but whatever) with auto hits. The Mawloc puts 2 wounds on the renegade and the full 3 on the Castigator, which was nice.

 

In the charge phase the Genestealers and Trygons charge he Gatling/thermal renegade, but thanks to a wood I needed 10s and 11s, and even with 4 units rerolling charges I fail to make it in. 6 Genestealers die to overwatch. Elsewhere I gingerly charge a Neurothrope into the Acheron with it's 3 damage flamer, and I only fail 1 save, meaning the two carnifexes can jump in unmolested. John uses his last command points to interrupt after the first fex but thanks to degradation and poor rolls the fex only takes a few wounds. I pop voracious appetite on the fex to try and finish the knight off but leave it on 3 wounds.

 

 

Turn 2 and the Knights react to the Tyranid excavation team. Castigator and Gatling renegade rush to the Trygons while the other renegade goes for the Mawloc. The Acheron disengages, only to shoot and charge back in since he's a knight. Thanks to The Horror on the Gatling knight his shooting is unimpressive and multiple knights are required to kill the regular Trygon.

 

 

The Knights at the back kill of the Prime (only just) but the middle one failed to kill the Mawloc, who does no damage in return, predictably. The Acheron, belching smoke, kills of a Neurothrope but fails to finish the Carnifex.

 

 

My turn and I manoeuvre around. I'm hoping to kill off two Knights this turn. The Acheron is an easy kill wit a couple of smites.

 

 

The flyrant, previously wounded, uses rapid regeneration to grow back a wound. He them smites and psychic screams the Gatling renegade. I get a double six on the Smite and the full six wounds, but take moral wounds from perils. The knight is destroyed and explodes, dropping the flyrant to a single wound and putting a lot of damage on the Castigator.

 

 

Swarming Genestealers and venom cannons put some damage on the remaining Knights, and I hold all three objectives.

 

 

The remaining Knights do stuff. Thanks to The Horror and the Malanthrope, the walking Hive Tyrant survives the shooting phase on 1 wound, though his wounded flying brother is not so lucky. Some poor rippers are smushed in melee.

 

 

In my turn I play the focus Fire game and surround the renegade sword knight. Smites, venom cannons, mortal wounds from Carnifex charges and finally fex talons finish it off. I craftily snuck the Malanthrope in so once it died I got to reroll ones against the last knight. I'm still holding all three objectives.

 

 

Last knight goes to claim an objective, but he rolls terribly and only kills off one ripper base. They pass morale and continue to claim the objective.

 

 

We play a couple more turns of me scoring for holding objectives, including with a character. The Hive Tyrant and the rippers die, but eventually the Carnifex HVCs finish it off for a tabling. Points at the end of turn 6 were 18-6 to me. Pretty convincing.

 

 

The wall of shame. At least John proved his point.

[Redtoof]

So looks like all my pictures have been eaten by the internet, which was quite disheartening. I decided to use this as an excuse to make a blog instead of posting all my reports here directly. Please go look and read. It's basically the same rubbish I post here. This time I've got a bat rep of my Tyranids taking on new codex toting Necrons.

 

https://redtoof.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/battle-report-tyranids-vs-necrons.html

[Redtoof]

Monsters vs Dreads, who will win?

 

https://redtoof.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/battle-report-tyranids-vs-chaos-space.html

[Redtoof]

Going to have some Tyranid battle reports popping up soon on the blog after attending a fun tournament with them. This is my post about the event, but not the games themselves: https://redtoof.blogspot.com/2018/06/double-trouble-3-thoughts-and-stuff.html

[Redtoof]

Game one is up. I’m teamed up with Space Marines against more Space Marines and World Eaters.

 

https://redtoof.blogspot.com/2018/06/double-trouble-game-1-tyranids-and.html

 

I’m planning to get the other two games up in the next couple of days.

[Redtoof]

Game two: https://redtoof.blogspot.com/2018/06/double-trouble-game-2-tyranids-and.html

[Redtoof]

And game 3

 

https://redtoof.blogspot.com/2018/06/double-trouble-game-3-tyranids-and-orks.html