ElectricPaladin
02-01-2014, 12:25 AM
His List
• Tyranid Prime w/Various Stabby and Lashy Things (Warlord)
• Tyrannofex
• Horrible Flying Thing
• Mawloc
• 3 Hive Guard w/Terrible Acid Guns
• 3 Venomthropes
• 3 Horrible Psychic Bugs
• A Big Squad of Several Billion Tiny Shooty Bugs
• 5 Genestealers and Broodlord
• 3 Tyranid Warriors w/Various Sabby and Lashy Things
• 3 Tyranid Warriors w/Various Stabby and Lashy Things
• 3 Bases of Super Tiny 'Nid Swarms
As you can see, I am not a Tyranid player and I basically had no idea what I was up against.
My List
• Captain w/Smash Fist and Lightning Claw (Warlord)
• 5 Hammernators
• Furioso Dreadnought w/Blood Claws, Heavy Flamer Upgrade, Magna-Grapple
• 2 Sanguinary Priests (one foot, one jump, both with assault gear)
• 10 Assault Marines (Jump), 2 Flamers, Sergeant w/Power Lance and Hand Flamer
• 10 Death Company (Jump), 1 Power Fist, 2 Hand Flamers
• Stormraven w/Lascannons & Typhoon Launcher, Extra Armor
I'm very impressed that this list actually worked, given that it started with "f^ck the special scenario rules... I'm gonna field a flyer because they're awesome" and ended with "let's use as much of my painted stuff as I can..."
That reminds me - the special scenario rules. We used the following:
• Basic Cities of Death Rules.
• Table quarter deployment.
• One objective in the a central building in the middle of the table; one objective placed outside of our deployment zones in any building adjascent to the center building.
• All flyers must make a dangerous terrain check every turn (pieces of the dome falling down).
• At the start of every turn, roll a die; on a 6, bad things happen (the bad things theoretically included units taking hits, vehicles taking hits, and units being wiped out when a piece of the dome smushed them... it never happened in our game, so I won't reproduce it here).
We both picked two stratagems. I picked preliminary bombardment (all misses) and wrecker, for my dreadnought (never got the chance to use it). My opponent picked preliminary bombardment (also missed) and sewer rats (extremely influential - see below).
Early Game
We both deployed in our corners. I was careful to keep at least one model within 1'' of every sewer marker in my deployment zone (having a model within 1'' of the token stops my opponent from using it). My opponent deployed everything except for his tyrannofex, tyranid prime and the gaunt squad he had joined, and squads of tyranid warriors and ripper bases. I kept my stormraven in reserve, and inside it, my captain, terminators, sanguinary priest on foot, and dreadnought.
My opponent was off to a strong start in turn one. He advanced on me, using some long-range acid-throwing nonsense to pick off a few marines who were too close, though Feel No Pain kept more of them alive than he'd hoped. My first turn was entirely ineffective, as all my long-range shooting was still off the board and I really wanted to avoid both over-extending myself while I waited for the rest of my army to come on and letting my opponent use the sewer marker in my deployment zone to dump a ton of gribbly monsters into my backfield.
Things really turned against my on my opponent's second turn. His HFT (Horrible Flying Thing) zoomed across the board and slammed into my death company squad, inflicting heavy casualties. Although the death company gave as good as they got, I definitely got a bit tilted watching my expensive investment gradually whittled away. The mawloc also showed up, gutting one of the assault demi-squads - and killing their priest, as my bad luck would have it - with his emergence-explosion-thing.
Things didn't improve any on my second turn. My stormraven came on, it's true, but not only did its shooting fail to accomplish anything, but I managed to fail a dangerous terrain check, which velocity locked my stormraven. No more speeding up to 36'' to get across the battlefield. No more switching to hover mode to safely deliver my captain, hammernators, and dreadnought.
Urgh.
Midgame
Fortunately, the midgame started to turn in my direction.
On the one hand, a handful of death company emerged victorious from their battle with the HFT, smashing its heinous face into the dirt. Of course, they were charged by the mawloc on the next turn... but I was beginning to feel like if my death company spent the entire game face-tanking my opponent's nastiest and most enormous bugs while the rest of my army Got Sh*t Done, it wouldn't be so bad. The mawloc went on to finish off the death company - with the assistance of the ripper swarms, who charged them from behind - but by then it only had a single wound left... a single wound that it lost to a dangerous terrain check as it regrouped after the battle.
My opponent and I decided that a half-dead death company marine croaked out "Horus!" and pulled the pin on a krak grenade, bringing the whole building down on top of the both of them.
On turn three, my opponent brought on the last of his reserves: his warlord, joined to the gaunt squad, and the tyrannofex. The tyrannofex was out of range to do anything more than take completely ineffective pot shots at the death company in between combats, but the gaunt squad and warlord was enough of a danger that I had to advance. To my enormous surprise, between flame templates, Hammer of Wrath hits, and actual melee attacks... I not only killed off the entire enormous gaunt blob, I also killed the Tyranid prime. That's the danger of putting your high-Toughness warlord with a squad of mooks, I guess. He lost combat, failed his Leadership test, ran, and was run down by the victorious assault marines.
You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen. Assault marines. A demi-squad of assault marines.
At the same time, my dreadnought and captain and company all jumped out the back of the stormraven. You see... now I had a plan. I had two victory points in the bank: First Blood (gaunt squad) and Slay the Warlord (Tyranid prime). All I needed to do was keep my opponent from claiming any objectives and I could win. To do that, I needed to kill off my opponent's remaining Troops choices. Once I did that, there was nothing he could do to stop me from winning.
With one down, there were three more to go: the two squads of Tyranid warriors and a bunch of ripper swarms.
First to go were the ripper swarms - I moved some assault marines into position (thanks, jump packs!) and flamed them. Thanks to their swarm vulnerability to templates, I was able to reduce the pack down to only a single base with two wounds on it, which my marines were able to mop up in melee.
Next on the chopping block was the nearer of the two Tyranid warrior broods and the genestealers. My terminators and dreadnought - who had jumped out the back of the velocity-locked stormraven - leapt into action, charging the warrior brood and the genestealers, respectively. The Tyranid warriors were wiped out in the initial charge; the genestealers took several nail-biting rounds of combat to mop up, but in the end I was able to eliminate both at the cost of a single hull point shaved off my dreadnought. My opponent tried to slow me down by charging the terminators with his tyrannofex, but it was truly hammer time, and the tyrannofex went down hard, taking a single terminator with him.
That brings us to...
The Endgame
Coincidentally, also the name of the store we were playing at.
This game's endgame began at the start of turn five, the turn that ended up being the penultimate turn of the game.
At this point, the table looked like this:
I had two victory points, but my opponent was sitting on a third with his last remaining Troops choice. All his giant monsters were dead, but his remaining gribblies still included a trio of venomthropes, a trio of Horrible Psychic Bugs (HPBs).
I had only two remaining assault marines (the sergeant and one trooper from the other demi-squad), which could not score because of special campaign rules (our CO is fond of the old school rules where Troops units lose the ability to hold objectives when reduced below a certain number... I don't much care for those rules, but I play an aggressive army that tends to hemorrhage Troops units like nobody's business, so what do I know?). I also had a nearly full squad of hammernators, a captain who had showed the Tyranids the meaning of "blend" (seriously... the guy was probably coated in steaming 'Nid juice at this point), and the squad's attendant priest. And, finally, there was Decarabia the Relentless, my furioso dreadnought, at this point still engaged with the surviving broodlord (but that thing would be dead by the end of the round).
I also had a stormraven, but between being velocity locked and having been kitted out for tank hunting (the typhoon launcher made it a little more flexible than if I had brought a multi-melta, but not a lot) I knew it wasn't going to contribute much.
My terminators were near the middle line, slightly to my right. My dreadnought was right smack-dab in the middle. The Tyranid warriors were just on my opponent's side of the line and a little to the left of center. The venomthropes and HPBs were between me and the Tyranid warriors.
What does a Son of Sanguinius do when there is only one shot at victory, and it's a long one at that?
CHAAAARGE!
(At this point, it's worth mentioning that as this is a campaign game, our warlords can earn upgrades by killing enemy models in melee. My opponent's Tyranid prime had Stealth, which would have made his unit a pain in the *** to kill with shooting, had I not had the foresight to bring flamers. Captain Calin Vassago had earned the Move Through Cover USR, which explains the epic feat of cross-country killing that you are about to read).
With a mighty howl, Decarabia plowed into the broodlord, ripping him into wet pieces. Captain Vassago led his bodyguard through the ruined hivescape, clamoring over and through a blasted building with just enough movement to pull the HPBs into hand to hand combat, killing several. The venomthropes joined the fray, but it wasn't enough - Captain Vassago and his followers killed the lot of them and regrouped even closer to the Tyranid warriors, who rearranged themselves for combat (while staying on their objective). In the meantime, the remaining assault marines used their jump packs to smash through the central building, heedless of obstacles. One of them got killed for his trouble, but the other was able to charge into the surviving hive guard (I don't recall how the other ones died...) and lock him down in combat, keeping him out of trouble.
Decarabia the Relentless was the first to charge, breaking through the ruined masonry like a gore-covered Cool Aid Man and smashing into the Tyranid warriors. Captain Vassago was next. There was a whirlwind of gore, a short and brutal fight... and it was over. With his last Troop's choice destroyed - and, in fact, only a single hive guard left on the table - and no way of claiming objectives, my opponent could not hope to overcome the 2-0 lead I had built up.
It was about time to pack it in and hear the results from the other campaign games going on around us, so we packed it in.
Captain Vassago rolled a 15 (boxcars plus one for each thing he killed this game), which gave me the option to add +1 to his Strength, Toughness, or Attacks. I opted to improve his Toughness, as T5 (vs T4) can make all the difference in challenges. I was tempted by an extra Attack (that would bring him to six attacks on the charge) or an extra Strength (Strength 6 claw attacks on the charge or Strength 10 power fist attacks always). As sexy as a Strength 10 power fist is, I think that I'll enjoy the increased survivability on his 3+/4++ 5+ FNP frame.
Postgame
Here is what I learned from the experience:
• Hammernators. Emperor protect us... these guys are incredible. Backed up with a sanguinary priest, they are incredibly durable. 2+/3++ and a 5+ FNP? 9/2 Concussive attacks on the charge?
•*I was initially afraid of bringing a flyer to a scenario that had specific rules punishing flyers, but... it was worth it. The fact that I was able to deliver those hammernators dynamically - even if the poor *******s had to jump out the back - was incredibly effective. I think they'd also do a good job in a land raider, but I am very impressed with the performance in a land raider. I liked having the lascannons, just in case I'd ended up with an opponent who brought a tank that needed popping, but I sort of wish I'd brought assault cannons. The only other participant in the campaign with the guts to bring a land raider is on my side (Grey Knights), so maybe I can do as well with an assault cannon, while bringing more anti-infantry firepower. I kind of wish that, short of going over to Chaos, there was some way to bring heavy flamers or flamestorm cannons on my stormraven... that would have been fun.
• People talk smack about Space Marine captains - more so Blood Angels captains, who can't bring artificer armor - but I've got to say that Captain Vassago has not yet failed to impress me.
• The big bugs are scary, but if I can bring something that scares my opponent badly enough - something fast and durable and mobile and killy, like death company - I can bate those big bugs out and ignore them for the rest of the game.
All in all, it was a great experience. You know, for a long time I've been concerned that the Blood Angels and their successors can't win games with distinctively "Blood Angels-y" lists when they face opponents with strong melee offense. I've beaten other Space Marines in melee, I've beaten Eldar in melee (just barely), and I've done terrible things to Tau and Guardsmen in melee, but... I was really pleasantly surprised. I thought that the 'Nids, with their strong monsters, superior shooting at greater range, and eat-you-in-melee reputation, would eat me alive. But they didn't.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this long and rambling battle report. It's taken me about three days to finish writing it, which has probably contributed to the situation. Please feel free to comment below - I'd love to answer questions and engage in discussion about any of the points I raised above.
• Tyranid Prime w/Various Stabby and Lashy Things (Warlord)
• Tyrannofex
• Horrible Flying Thing
• Mawloc
• 3 Hive Guard w/Terrible Acid Guns
• 3 Venomthropes
• 3 Horrible Psychic Bugs
• A Big Squad of Several Billion Tiny Shooty Bugs
• 5 Genestealers and Broodlord
• 3 Tyranid Warriors w/Various Sabby and Lashy Things
• 3 Tyranid Warriors w/Various Stabby and Lashy Things
• 3 Bases of Super Tiny 'Nid Swarms
As you can see, I am not a Tyranid player and I basically had no idea what I was up against.
My List
• Captain w/Smash Fist and Lightning Claw (Warlord)
• 5 Hammernators
• Furioso Dreadnought w/Blood Claws, Heavy Flamer Upgrade, Magna-Grapple
• 2 Sanguinary Priests (one foot, one jump, both with assault gear)
• 10 Assault Marines (Jump), 2 Flamers, Sergeant w/Power Lance and Hand Flamer
• 10 Death Company (Jump), 1 Power Fist, 2 Hand Flamers
• Stormraven w/Lascannons & Typhoon Launcher, Extra Armor
I'm very impressed that this list actually worked, given that it started with "f^ck the special scenario rules... I'm gonna field a flyer because they're awesome" and ended with "let's use as much of my painted stuff as I can..."
That reminds me - the special scenario rules. We used the following:
• Basic Cities of Death Rules.
• Table quarter deployment.
• One objective in the a central building in the middle of the table; one objective placed outside of our deployment zones in any building adjascent to the center building.
• All flyers must make a dangerous terrain check every turn (pieces of the dome falling down).
• At the start of every turn, roll a die; on a 6, bad things happen (the bad things theoretically included units taking hits, vehicles taking hits, and units being wiped out when a piece of the dome smushed them... it never happened in our game, so I won't reproduce it here).
We both picked two stratagems. I picked preliminary bombardment (all misses) and wrecker, for my dreadnought (never got the chance to use it). My opponent picked preliminary bombardment (also missed) and sewer rats (extremely influential - see below).
Early Game
We both deployed in our corners. I was careful to keep at least one model within 1'' of every sewer marker in my deployment zone (having a model within 1'' of the token stops my opponent from using it). My opponent deployed everything except for his tyrannofex, tyranid prime and the gaunt squad he had joined, and squads of tyranid warriors and ripper bases. I kept my stormraven in reserve, and inside it, my captain, terminators, sanguinary priest on foot, and dreadnought.
My opponent was off to a strong start in turn one. He advanced on me, using some long-range acid-throwing nonsense to pick off a few marines who were too close, though Feel No Pain kept more of them alive than he'd hoped. My first turn was entirely ineffective, as all my long-range shooting was still off the board and I really wanted to avoid both over-extending myself while I waited for the rest of my army to come on and letting my opponent use the sewer marker in my deployment zone to dump a ton of gribbly monsters into my backfield.
Things really turned against my on my opponent's second turn. His HFT (Horrible Flying Thing) zoomed across the board and slammed into my death company squad, inflicting heavy casualties. Although the death company gave as good as they got, I definitely got a bit tilted watching my expensive investment gradually whittled away. The mawloc also showed up, gutting one of the assault demi-squads - and killing their priest, as my bad luck would have it - with his emergence-explosion-thing.
Things didn't improve any on my second turn. My stormraven came on, it's true, but not only did its shooting fail to accomplish anything, but I managed to fail a dangerous terrain check, which velocity locked my stormraven. No more speeding up to 36'' to get across the battlefield. No more switching to hover mode to safely deliver my captain, hammernators, and dreadnought.
Urgh.
Midgame
Fortunately, the midgame started to turn in my direction.
On the one hand, a handful of death company emerged victorious from their battle with the HFT, smashing its heinous face into the dirt. Of course, they were charged by the mawloc on the next turn... but I was beginning to feel like if my death company spent the entire game face-tanking my opponent's nastiest and most enormous bugs while the rest of my army Got Sh*t Done, it wouldn't be so bad. The mawloc went on to finish off the death company - with the assistance of the ripper swarms, who charged them from behind - but by then it only had a single wound left... a single wound that it lost to a dangerous terrain check as it regrouped after the battle.
My opponent and I decided that a half-dead death company marine croaked out "Horus!" and pulled the pin on a krak grenade, bringing the whole building down on top of the both of them.
On turn three, my opponent brought on the last of his reserves: his warlord, joined to the gaunt squad, and the tyrannofex. The tyrannofex was out of range to do anything more than take completely ineffective pot shots at the death company in between combats, but the gaunt squad and warlord was enough of a danger that I had to advance. To my enormous surprise, between flame templates, Hammer of Wrath hits, and actual melee attacks... I not only killed off the entire enormous gaunt blob, I also killed the Tyranid prime. That's the danger of putting your high-Toughness warlord with a squad of mooks, I guess. He lost combat, failed his Leadership test, ran, and was run down by the victorious assault marines.
You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen. Assault marines. A demi-squad of assault marines.
At the same time, my dreadnought and captain and company all jumped out the back of the stormraven. You see... now I had a plan. I had two victory points in the bank: First Blood (gaunt squad) and Slay the Warlord (Tyranid prime). All I needed to do was keep my opponent from claiming any objectives and I could win. To do that, I needed to kill off my opponent's remaining Troops choices. Once I did that, there was nothing he could do to stop me from winning.
With one down, there were three more to go: the two squads of Tyranid warriors and a bunch of ripper swarms.
First to go were the ripper swarms - I moved some assault marines into position (thanks, jump packs!) and flamed them. Thanks to their swarm vulnerability to templates, I was able to reduce the pack down to only a single base with two wounds on it, which my marines were able to mop up in melee.
Next on the chopping block was the nearer of the two Tyranid warrior broods and the genestealers. My terminators and dreadnought - who had jumped out the back of the velocity-locked stormraven - leapt into action, charging the warrior brood and the genestealers, respectively. The Tyranid warriors were wiped out in the initial charge; the genestealers took several nail-biting rounds of combat to mop up, but in the end I was able to eliminate both at the cost of a single hull point shaved off my dreadnought. My opponent tried to slow me down by charging the terminators with his tyrannofex, but it was truly hammer time, and the tyrannofex went down hard, taking a single terminator with him.
That brings us to...
The Endgame
Coincidentally, also the name of the store we were playing at.
This game's endgame began at the start of turn five, the turn that ended up being the penultimate turn of the game.
At this point, the table looked like this:
I had two victory points, but my opponent was sitting on a third with his last remaining Troops choice. All his giant monsters were dead, but his remaining gribblies still included a trio of venomthropes, a trio of Horrible Psychic Bugs (HPBs).
I had only two remaining assault marines (the sergeant and one trooper from the other demi-squad), which could not score because of special campaign rules (our CO is fond of the old school rules where Troops units lose the ability to hold objectives when reduced below a certain number... I don't much care for those rules, but I play an aggressive army that tends to hemorrhage Troops units like nobody's business, so what do I know?). I also had a nearly full squad of hammernators, a captain who had showed the Tyranids the meaning of "blend" (seriously... the guy was probably coated in steaming 'Nid juice at this point), and the squad's attendant priest. And, finally, there was Decarabia the Relentless, my furioso dreadnought, at this point still engaged with the surviving broodlord (but that thing would be dead by the end of the round).
I also had a stormraven, but between being velocity locked and having been kitted out for tank hunting (the typhoon launcher made it a little more flexible than if I had brought a multi-melta, but not a lot) I knew it wasn't going to contribute much.
My terminators were near the middle line, slightly to my right. My dreadnought was right smack-dab in the middle. The Tyranid warriors were just on my opponent's side of the line and a little to the left of center. The venomthropes and HPBs were between me and the Tyranid warriors.
What does a Son of Sanguinius do when there is only one shot at victory, and it's a long one at that?
CHAAAARGE!
(At this point, it's worth mentioning that as this is a campaign game, our warlords can earn upgrades by killing enemy models in melee. My opponent's Tyranid prime had Stealth, which would have made his unit a pain in the *** to kill with shooting, had I not had the foresight to bring flamers. Captain Calin Vassago had earned the Move Through Cover USR, which explains the epic feat of cross-country killing that you are about to read).
With a mighty howl, Decarabia plowed into the broodlord, ripping him into wet pieces. Captain Vassago led his bodyguard through the ruined hivescape, clamoring over and through a blasted building with just enough movement to pull the HPBs into hand to hand combat, killing several. The venomthropes joined the fray, but it wasn't enough - Captain Vassago and his followers killed the lot of them and regrouped even closer to the Tyranid warriors, who rearranged themselves for combat (while staying on their objective). In the meantime, the remaining assault marines used their jump packs to smash through the central building, heedless of obstacles. One of them got killed for his trouble, but the other was able to charge into the surviving hive guard (I don't recall how the other ones died...) and lock him down in combat, keeping him out of trouble.
Decarabia the Relentless was the first to charge, breaking through the ruined masonry like a gore-covered Cool Aid Man and smashing into the Tyranid warriors. Captain Vassago was next. There was a whirlwind of gore, a short and brutal fight... and it was over. With his last Troop's choice destroyed - and, in fact, only a single hive guard left on the table - and no way of claiming objectives, my opponent could not hope to overcome the 2-0 lead I had built up.
It was about time to pack it in and hear the results from the other campaign games going on around us, so we packed it in.
Captain Vassago rolled a 15 (boxcars plus one for each thing he killed this game), which gave me the option to add +1 to his Strength, Toughness, or Attacks. I opted to improve his Toughness, as T5 (vs T4) can make all the difference in challenges. I was tempted by an extra Attack (that would bring him to six attacks on the charge) or an extra Strength (Strength 6 claw attacks on the charge or Strength 10 power fist attacks always). As sexy as a Strength 10 power fist is, I think that I'll enjoy the increased survivability on his 3+/4++ 5+ FNP frame.
Postgame
Here is what I learned from the experience:
• Hammernators. Emperor protect us... these guys are incredible. Backed up with a sanguinary priest, they are incredibly durable. 2+/3++ and a 5+ FNP? 9/2 Concussive attacks on the charge?
•*I was initially afraid of bringing a flyer to a scenario that had specific rules punishing flyers, but... it was worth it. The fact that I was able to deliver those hammernators dynamically - even if the poor *******s had to jump out the back - was incredibly effective. I think they'd also do a good job in a land raider, but I am very impressed with the performance in a land raider. I liked having the lascannons, just in case I'd ended up with an opponent who brought a tank that needed popping, but I sort of wish I'd brought assault cannons. The only other participant in the campaign with the guts to bring a land raider is on my side (Grey Knights), so maybe I can do as well with an assault cannon, while bringing more anti-infantry firepower. I kind of wish that, short of going over to Chaos, there was some way to bring heavy flamers or flamestorm cannons on my stormraven... that would have been fun.
• People talk smack about Space Marine captains - more so Blood Angels captains, who can't bring artificer armor - but I've got to say that Captain Vassago has not yet failed to impress me.
• The big bugs are scary, but if I can bring something that scares my opponent badly enough - something fast and durable and mobile and killy, like death company - I can bate those big bugs out and ignore them for the rest of the game.
All in all, it was a great experience. You know, for a long time I've been concerned that the Blood Angels and their successors can't win games with distinctively "Blood Angels-y" lists when they face opponents with strong melee offense. I've beaten other Space Marines in melee, I've beaten Eldar in melee (just barely), and I've done terrible things to Tau and Guardsmen in melee, but... I was really pleasantly surprised. I thought that the 'Nids, with their strong monsters, superior shooting at greater range, and eat-you-in-melee reputation, would eat me alive. But they didn't.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this long and rambling battle report. It's taken me about three days to finish writing it, which has probably contributed to the situation. Please feel free to comment below - I'd love to answer questions and engage in discussion about any of the points I raised above.