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Monday 29 October 2012

Throne of Skulls Oct '12 - Battle 1, Tyranids Vs Grey Knights pt1

I'll split these into two parts as they're a bit long winded otherwise, although I'll post them on consecutive days so you don't have to wait too long for the conclusion :)

First game was Purge the Alien, Vanguard deployment [slightly amusing to see table after table split diagonally by everyone's tape measures]. My Warlord Trait was Inspiring Presence [meh]

Psychic Powers
Tervigon HQTervigon TroopBroodlord [Adrenal]Broodlord [Toxin]
HaemorrageLife LeechWarp SpeedHypnotise
EnduranceWarp SpeedNA WitchfireAura of Despair

Andrew Bruce brought a Grey Knight force to the table very similar to my mate PeteB's. I was quite confident despite the fact his deployment took less than about 2 minutes and the max VPs I could take were 5 plus Slay the Warlord, Line Breaker and First Blood [8 in total], whereas I was fielding 11 VP's without the bonuses!

He had twin Nemesis Dread Knights [NDKs] with Psycannons and Heavy Flamers, 2 Terminator Squads and a Storm Raven. I deployed second with the Aegis Defence Line mid way across the board - somewhere to take cover from [what? With those Flamers?]. The Adrenal Stealers infiltrated behind the Chaos Mound out of sight and hopefully out of range. No Tervigon was going to spawn as I didn't want to add to my uphill struggle on VP's. The MCs took cover behind the ruin and both Hive Guard were stationed on the second floor and out of sight.


Andrew advances all his figures and took some shots, not sure if he did any damage due to range but it doesn't look like it.


My turn and Hormagaunts and Warp Speed Adrenal Stealers charge for the NDK, backed up by the Trygon and Troop Tervigon.


Devgaunts advance to cover behind the ADL, HQ Tervigon and Warriors advance in support of the Toxin Stealers. HQ Tervigon Endures the Stealers.



Hive Guard failed to do any damage to the NDK. Going second allowed the Toxin Stealers to assault the NDK. They survive overwatch thanks to Endurance, the Broodlord Hypnotises the NDK and manages to put one wound on it.


Devgaunts wait for their first victim.


The NDK tries to win First Blood by killing the Hormagaunts but four survive, and I realise this will be significant in my turn.


The other NDK pounds on the Stealers and kills one.


The Spore Pod arrives with the Doom and despite usually being bang on target is dropped 11" away from where I wanted it and next to my ADL :( I realise that the max overwatch fire an NDK can do is D3, so if the Hormagaunts charge I can lose 3 and still not lose First Blood and get the Adrenal Stealers into combat unscathed. I also manage to reach with the Trygon for a full on Battle Royale. The Broodlord on Warp Speed puts 2 wounds on the NDK who in return smashes him into the ground.


The Stealers then rip him to pieces before the Trygon gets a chance. All of the nids consolidate to the left and head for Line breaker [wishful thinking at this stage] with the Trygon going over the Chaos Mound in seach of the second NDK.


Game 1 concludes tomorrow.

6 comments:

  1. In reflection over the weekend Dave if it wasn't for you being flipping terribly unlucky to play purge the alien against a grey knight army with only7 kill points I'm sure you would have won best nid player! Maybe next time ;) having looked at the necron bastion again with the raveners in front of it I don't know what Otty is complaining about its at least 50% obscured ;)

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    1. But then I may have played purge the alien against the Blood Angel mech which would have been equally painful. I think those other matches balance it out. Serves Otty right for using converted minis ;)

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  2. Any chance to see more pics of your bugs is good for me. My thoughts:

    1) Half a batrep in one post--are you getting thin on things to write about?
    2) How do you feel now about giving Biomancy powers to your Tervigons? Would you be better off buying Catalyst and having more (guaranteed) FNP's to throw around?
    3) I started getting lost halfway through the piece with acronyms. NDK & ADL are the ones that tripped me up. I had to give up halfway through and go back to look them up before I could finish the piece. Perhaps I'm dim-witted though...
    4) No Quad-gun?
    5) Would be nice to know in advance what the army compositions were like. It seems the only thing you're fighting against is the NDK. (err... wait, you did that... it looks like he only has NDK's on the table...)

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    1. Cheers Warhammer39999
      1) You got me, I'm a lazy fecker! Once ToS, that's Throne of Skulls is done I've no content left and the blog will fold. Seriously though I notice somethimes when I'm reading other blogs when I find a long post I haven't time to read it so stop halfway through then have to 'unread' so I can do so at a later point when I have enough time. I just thought this would be easier, if you don't like it I'll certainly look to battle 5 not being split as the others are all due to run consecutively so the ddelivery will be the same time.
      2) Biomancy is the bomb, I buy Catalyst anyway but pretty much all the powers [except haemorrage] can tip the balance of the game in your favour and Endurance, with It will not die is catalyst + regeneration which would normally cost more points. The random aspect is a bit annoying but the odds were I would get something decent. I'll probably be covering this in my ToS washup.
      3) Apologies, it was just getting really long winded typig Aegis Defence Line over and over again. Hopefully the acronyms will bed in but I will reduce them for report number five which has still to be completed.
      4) Afraid not, considering they ruled it wasn't usable by nids here: http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/nids-part-61-much-ado-about-quad-guns.html Points wise I could only really lose the Hormagaunts but however low key their role in my games I think they did what I needed them to do.
      5) I was only given army lists by two of my opponents, to be fair Andrew was wwon of them so I should have recreated for you. Some of the others will be better informed.

      Thanks for the comments I'll try and take on board what you say so the blog can be better.

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  3. Happy to find another great tyranid blog!

    As I see you have an awesome army with interesting color scheme, so I'll subscribe:)
    Also I invite you to read my blog if you like:
    hive-fleet-hyenna.blogspot.com

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    1. Thanks for stopping by and enjoying my efforts. I'll keep an eye on your blog too and respect for desiding to it in another language. I can't imagine trying to write mine in anything other than English - we're so lazy ;)

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