Friday 2 November 2012

Throne of Skulls Oct '12 - Battle 3, Tyranids Vs Blood Angels pt1.

Third game was The Scouring [5 objectives], Dawn of War deployment on table 45. My Warlord Trait was Co-ordinated Assault, +1" to charge range again.

Psychic Powers
Tervigon HQTervigon TroopBroodlord [Adrenal]Broodlord [Toxin]
EnfeebleEnfeebleIron ArmEnfeeble
Warp SpeedLife LeechNA WitchfireWarp Speed

At this stage I was getting a bit frustrated I could never sort these psychic powers out before the 2hr30min game time had begun. Quite often it was 15 minutes before the first turn even started. Saying that in all the games I played it never went to the time limit so despite taking 5 hours for most games at home these were flowing really fast. Anyway by now I knew what sort of Biomancy mix I was after and that lack of Endurance and abundance of Enfeeble wasn't going to help me much with the list I was facing...

Phil Ellitott from the bright orange T-shirt wearing www.4tk.co.uk team that was pretty much everywhere at Warhammer Warlord brought:
  • Librarian
  • 5 assault marines, meltagun, heavy bolter razorback
  • 5 assault marines, meltagun, heavy bolter razorback
  • 5 assault marines, meltagun, heavy bolter razorback
  • 5 assault marines, meltagun, land raider
  • Baal Predator with twin-linked assault cannon
  • Baal Predator with twin-linked assault cannon
  • Baal Predator with twin-linked assault cannon
  • Predator, Autocannon, sponson heavy bolters
  • Predator, Autocannon, sponson lascannons
  • Whirlwind
which I know courtesy of Admetus over on Bolter and Chainsword who also fought Phil, and Jim Klapkowski's Ravenguard and Liam's Eldar so go check out his battle reports too. Did you notice that's 10 tanks! Yep 10 tanks and I hate tanks! I may have a sensible but currently unproven fear of flyers but mech has always been a horror for me and if you remember the last time I faced Blood Angels that didn't end well.
We randomly placed the six numbered objectives [I'll be putting those online soon] and I narrowly gained and advantage by 1VP. Phil got the 4, 2 and 1VP objectives and I got two 3's and a 2VP. I positioned the ADL as you see against the ruin for extra defence and with hindsight should have gone onto the crest of the hill for extra cove instead of below it but nevermind. My three objectives were lined up behind and Phil positioned his diagonally opposite with the four in the far right corner.

My only real plan was to do what I was forced to do last time I fought Blood Angels, essentially the original Dawn of War rules. Reserve half may army, that way they could potentially survive longer and allow me have them in place in turn 5 to secure the objective. Of course that totally failed last time the fact I would only have half my army on the board meaning less target priority for the Blood Angels and more opportunity to concentrate fire seemed to escape me. Still the monsters took cover behind the ruins and the Devgaunts well out of Synapse on the right were hidden behind the ADL and crest of the hill.


The Blood Angel centre 'castled' up I believe it's called.


Meanwhile two Baal Predator's prepared to flank me...


...with a scouting move!!! So I was already being outplayed, lets hope I could survive.


The centre advanced and I was really in it and about to be swamped by tanks. They targeted the Troop Tervigon and managed to put 3 wounds on her.


My turn and I moved the Trygon and Hive Guard up, the Tervigon retreated to gain more cover. I think I made another mistake here forgetting to spawn. The Hive Guard tried to secure First Blood and fired at the Razorback behind the ruined arch in his DZ. 2 hits, one of which penned and immobilized the transport but no FB.


His tanks fire on the Devgaunts for FB, I lost five and then thought too late to go to ground. The next lot of firing and they dropped only losing two. I roll for morale thanks to lack of synapse and they get snake eyes - these gaunts know their task. The tanks then turn their attentions on the Troop Tervigon and manage to kill it without a single spawn and gain First Blood.


My turn and the Hormagaunts, Warriors and Doom come on. Warriors target the nearest Predator and do some damage, shaking or stunning it but thanks to being behind the ADL uses my cover against me and manages to shrug off being wrecked otherwise.


The Doom can't suck life out of anything while they're in the tanks but the already damaged razorback is wrecked thanks to the Hive Guard or Spore Pod. I think better of firing Cataclysm given the failure in previous games and how close the marines are. It'd be just my luck if it deviated on top of me. The Trygon takes a wound, probably from the Predator.


Having unloaded some troops in his DZ to secure objectives he moves his rearguard tanks forwards and finally crosses the ADL. 2 Warriors are killed


Being an ex-nid player himself he knows full well the dangers of the Doom and moves his nearest unit out of the 6" leeching range.


Combined fire of the assault squad and Baal Predator kill the Doom.


In return the enraged Trygon, now at 2 wounds left, charges into the Baal and destroys it and claims linebreaker at the same time.


Part two tomorrow...

8 comments:

  1. that's a shed load of tanks and half of them are free I expect...dam those Blood Angels, I can't believe I had 5 games and fought 2 Blood Angel armies and all their free transports, go on Dave kick ass :)

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  2. That's rough luck on your powers. Sucks not to get any endurances, but that's why I stick with purchased Catalyst on my Tervigons. Actually, what I wind up doing is rolling for models in order, starting with the non-tervigons and working towards the Tervs. If, for some strange reason I get a ton of Endurances, I can let the Terv's roll, otherwise, they key their natural powers, because FNP just seems to required to make the Tyranids competitive...

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    1. I never thought to do it that way I may consider it in future. Yeah the powers probably would have been useful if I wasn't just facing tanks. Enfeebling units is really cool and can make even the lowliest gaunt a killing machine, but if you can't get at the troops because they're in metal boxes it's not much good. Still I persevered regardless.

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  3. Well I'm not so sure of your reserve tactics Dave I'm a firm believer that everything should be on. Like you already said it divides your force and then the opposition only has to fight half your force with all of his, divide and conquer! Although I have a strange feeling you might nick this battle ;) I'm just glad I never had to fight so many tanks although my scarabs would have loved it ;) Ben

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    1. Indeed it's ludicrous to believe it could succeed but I think one of the reasons I thought it could was the proximity of the objectives to my table edge. All the nids had to do was walk on and hold them, the only problem being that any psychic powers needed to buff them couldn't be generated on their first turn of arrival.

      Maybe I could have got away with them all on the board and then move forwards behind the Defence Line and take advantage of the cover save. For some reason I just decided it was a waiting game and tanks are only a problem if you're in the game of killing them. I wasn't that bothered, I just wanted the objectives ;)

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  4. Catalyst can be cast after arriving from reserve, as far as I know, cause it's not a blessing and is cast in Tervigon's movement phase. One more point to keep Catalyst instead of rulebook powers in some games.

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    1. Good point, although I just find it more exciting to see what Biomancy power I'll receive. The other interesting point is allowing your opponent Deny the Witch for any of the Codex powers, like the Zoanthrope and Doom's Cataclysm, though obviously not his leech power as it's not psychic.

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