Thursday 3 October 2013

Apocalypse WOW! 12,500pts of Armageddon - Turn 1

Having previous Apocalypse battles that turned into a turkey shoot for the nids a number of concessions had been put in place. We would get to go first, I'm not sure if some of the others are Apocalypse rules but ALL Deep Strikes could come in first turn, we ruled Ymgarls and Lictors could roll as normal for arrival on 3+ from turn 2. Taking int account how sketchy my report will be given the scale and my lack of knowledge of what was going on in Otty's 2/3rd of the board there's little benefit to detailing by psychic powers, although I was stuffed, with no Iron Arm for my Hive Tyrants and an unhealthy dose of Witchfire rubbish!

Anyway here's most of my setup. 21 fully loaded Hormagaunts on the right, Otty's Swarmlord, Tyrnat Guard and my Tyranid Prime deathstar hiding in the woods with +2 to their cover save thanks to the spore chimney. Flyrant next to them, 2 Biovores and my CC Tervigon. Where possible they were all biomorphed up and Regeneration sprinkled liberally.



Here's where my fully loaded Genestealers Infiltrated. Once again going bold instead of safe to secure the Broodlord's psychic powers. Ymgarls are in the far crater but will not arrive this turn.


BOOM! everything arrives via deepstrike. Doom in a pod, twin Spore Pods and Devgaunts, Trygon Prime and Flyrant next to the Stormlord. Other Flyrant swooped up to the ruins, still just in range of the Spore Chimney. Almost all of my Deepstrikes were on target or even if they deviated ended up good for ne. While on the other side the cries of frustration and despair indicated Otty was have less joy and as his Spore Pod mis-happed Ben graciously allowed it not to die ignominiously but instead positioned it in my corner, miles from nowhere.


I was able to root out the missile squad in the top floor of the ruins, either by Spirit Leech from the Doom or other sources, I mean the Sky Slasher Swarm had spinefists! Plenty of options for the culprit. We need to sweep the ruins so we could secure the green pod objective, a tough task but the Doom could surely do it.


I also got to destroy both Manticores, my biggest fear, before they could do damage.


Everything else moved forwards except the Swarmlord and my CC Tervigon which spawned out on 15


While my Plain Tervigon spawned out on 5! My Hive Guard advance for the Trees and to hold the Shrine objective, safe in the Spore Chimney shroud. Otty advance but with the Power Field Generator shielding the Warhound and super-heavies his BioTitan's targets were limited.


I think he ended up aiming for the Land raiders but the rest of his force swept onto the Titan's feet objectives.


While the far left flank occupied the woods and our objective.


I still think the Titan should have been turned to face us!


The Emperor's turn and Storm Raven arrives


Liam CAN paint!


Otty's Devourer Flyrant, sorry didn't mean to do a selfie.


Can you work out the 'dive bombing pose'?


The green tide swarms the Titan's feet.


The Bio Titan is the linch pin of our assault with a Venomthrope nestled underneath to offer roaming cover and backed up by a Tervigon.


A drop pod full of Grav Gun wielding Sternguard arrives, just in range of the Bio Titan, what followed wasn't pretty.


Now that's how you mount a Storm Talon and it's twin.


The Imperial Navy arrives on my flank and suddenly I've lost air superiority as 7 fliers turn up against my 2 Flyrants. That's right it was me that was 'power gaming' I forgot ;)


2 squads of Terminators deep struck in to try and blunt my alpha strike, alongside Guard Veterans dropped off behind the Vendetta. Additionally the Legion of the Damned appeared through some ethereal portal amidst the smell of brimstone.


The Flyrant eventually gets hit but manages to avoid being wounded but may have eventually been grounded.


Superheavy squad just shoots stuff up.


With my Flyrant on the ground [possibly, even without it was some stupid amount of shots that couldn't fail to damage given the weight of fire] the Ogryns and Vulcan Mega Bolter on the Stormlord tear into him.


And these were his 5 saves!


Bye, bye Flyrant.


My Sky Slasher Swarm gets blasted to smithereens.


A good portion of green has been wiped from the board 


The Sternguard in the pod on the left have taken down the Tervigon holding the objective in the wood.


1000-1500pts of Space marine Captains arrive on the Skyshield and combined fire removes one of Otty's Trygons. It seems one of their strategic assets gave them perfect deep strikes, no mishaps. 


Apparently they also had some dude giving them 5 assets, orbital bombardment hadn't done too well against us, thankfully.


But well enough, although this may have been the combined super heavy barrage that culled 3 Carnifex and a Zoanthrope despite the Spore Chimney save.


Meanwhile those Grav Guns, amongst others, had really taken a toll on Nancy - 8 wounds in one turn!


Things were not going so well, we'd been gaming for 2.5- 3 hours and only finished turn 1 and although the usual suspect in Ben's Imperial Guard had taken a beating his reinforcements had begun to smash great big dents in my alpha strike. With only my Ymgarls as reinforcements can I sweep that right flank...? 



6 comments:

  1. Hi Dave, It's great to see the battle report even though I took part I still missed what was going on with you and Ben, One major event you forgot to mention which I think was detrimental to Otty's game plan and that was his two deep striking units suffered mishaps and we placed one in each corner, out the way. I think the first turn would of been a lot different if this hadn't of happened. sorry Otty

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    1. Yes, it was his Lictors wasn't it. It seemed he couldn't get anything anywhere he wanted, unlike yours truly, although I paid for those remarks later on... ;)

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  2. It was your army that was detrimental Liam, what a game , well done everybody for all the effort , everything painted house rule has truly been vindicated by this gaming feast. I think my snow boards look hot i meen frosty' . I think the jury is still open on the Apoc, rules but in reflection this was the best Apoc. game so far. The last two turns on my side felt like the turkey shoot again , my nid army failed to degrade Liam and Bens fire in the first turn '' you cannot repel firepower of that magnitude'' . If the game had been closer Ben/Liam would have still been able to contest with their flyers. Next time can with music flight of the valkeries for the flyers , or another one bites the dust for losing MCreatures.
    Cheers everbody Otty

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    1. I think I need to run a test on the chances of a MC getting through a Super Heavy. That may have been my mistake - to worry about manticores when there's a Stormlord on your doorstep. And indeed I hadn't quite realised it was 7 fliers on my side of the board I was up against. I think the more points that are thrown at a game the harder it is to balance as 500pts of Super Heavy is not the same as 500pts of Tyranid Warriors. Still we're getting there.

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  3. Yeah your right the last two turns were a bit one sided sorry bud, I think our next game we have should be Crimson Fists and Dark angels v's Necrons and Eldar the Imperium would get stuffed but what carnage :)

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    1. Although from the pics it looks like the last two turns Nancy holds her own and more!

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