I won the roll-off
and deployed the Tyrant, the shooty gaunts and a brood of hormagaunts
along the centerline, leaving very little deployment zone to him.
My objective is in the centerline ruin, his is right behind the
centerline big rock.My first game with the new 5th edition Codex:Tyranids.
Usually fielding big shooty bugs, I brought a close-combat oriented
list, including my newly-painted Trygon.
HQ: Hive Tyrant, Hvy Venom Cannon, Twin Devourer, Paroxysm,
Leech Essence, Hive Commander, 1x Tyrant Guard
Elite: 2x Zoanthropes
Troops: 3x Warrior, Scything Talons, Rending Claws
Troops: 9x Genestealers, 1x Broodlord, Implant Attack
Troops: 20x Termagants, Devourers
Troops: 18x Hormagaunts, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs
Troops: 18x Hormagaunts, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs
Fast Attack: 3x Ravener, 2x Scything Talons, Devourer
Heavy Support: 1x Trygon
My opponent brought a very friendly Salamanders scout force (no
Vulkan!), with (from memory):
Terminator Chaplain
5x Assault Terminators (TH/SS)
1x Dreadnought, Drop Pod
1x Tactical Squads, Multimelta, Flaer, Power Weapon, Rhino
1x Tactical Squads, Multimelta, Flaer, Power Weapon, Drop Pod
5x Scouts, Shotguns, Power weapon, Land Speeder Storm
1x Vindicator
We rolled Capture and Control, Dawn of War.
I won the roll-off
and deployed the Tyrant, the shooty gaunts and a brood of hormagaunts
along the centerline, leaving very little deployment zone to him.
My objective is in the centerline ruin, his is right behind the
centerline big rock.
I leave genestealers and another hormagaunt brood to outflank (using
Hive Commander), Trygon and Raveners to deepstrike, and the Zoanthropes
and warriors to walk on in turn 1.
My opponent deploys a single squad in their rhino in the far right
backfield.
Turn 1 - I move into the ruin with the shooty
brood and the Tyrant, and walk the Zoanthropes and Warriors on.
He rolls a vindicator onto the table, and drops a pod with tacticals
right next to my objective (and in the middle of all my units - who
ordered take-out dinner?). Shooting kills a few gaunts.
Turn
2 - All my reserves arrive -
that +1 from Hive Commander sure helps. I open up on the marines
with gaunts, Raveners and Tyrant, after which only half of one
half-squad is left. It gets charged by hormagaunts and vanish in a
flurry of talons.
My
Trygon, the Genestealers and the other hormagaunt brood all
arrive from the far right - close to his vehicles.
His
turn 2 - The Dread pods in, and the scouts arrive from the right table
edge too. They try to pop a Zoanthrope with their multimeltas,
but one don't hit and the other don't wound. Throughout the game,
the Salamanders did exactly zero damage with their meltaweapons...
The
vehicles back away from the alien horde approaching from the
flank, and the Vindicator lands a round in the middle of the gaunts -
hitting 8 or 9, wounding 5 or so. That's 4 '1's to wound,
yes... It was enough to force a panic test, though, and the
hormagaunts promptly broke and headed for my backfield.
My
turn 3 - the Trygon lands no less than 7 penetrating hits on the
Vindicator, which obligingly explodes. Hormagaunts charging the
dismounted tacticals ends in a stalemate, with hevy losses on both
sides.
My warriors charge his Scout Speeder, but fail to hit - the
Zoanthropes target the Dreadnought and do rather better, detonating it.
His
turn 3 - the scouts dismount and charge the warriors, while the
Speeder tries in vain to hit a Zoanthrope. Still no sign of his
commander.
Turn
4 - Close combat continues, but the Raveners and Trygon are
closing in.
The
fleeing hormagaunts had rejoined the Synapse network last turn,
and are now fit for fight again - they charge in to help the last
beleaguered Warrior.
The Assault Termitors, with chaplain, finally arrives.
Turn
5 - the last tactical succumbs to the Raveners and a few remaining
hormagaunts, and the Trygon manage to shake and immobilize the
rhino. In his following shooting phase, it manages to repair
itself, but in the close combat phase, it is ripped to shreds by the
Trygon.
Everybody assault the terminators - Genestealers, Hormagaunt
stragglers, Raveners. Trygon closing in from behind. With
excellent Terminator saves, but lousy attack rolls, the combat is
nearly drawn (with a single Fearless
roll to each Tyranid unit).
The
Land speeder makes a desperate last rush for my objective, attempting
to tank shock the tyrant out of the way. The Tyrant takes a deep
breath, makes a Death or Glory stand, and destroys the speeder with a
well-aimed swipe.
The massed melee with the Terminators is still in progress, though
the Terminators keep winning combat, they are losing men faster than
the Tyranids are losing theirs - and the Trygon has still not joined
the fight.
The game ends after the 5th turn, 1
objective to none, Tyranid
victory.
Splinter Fleet Black Tide, played by Stephan