Monday 31 March 2014

Throne of Skulls March 2014 - Battle 2, Tyranids Vs Nurgle Chaos Space Marines

Karma is a B1TCH right? Be careful what you wish for, or in this case be careful what you don't wish for because who do I get for game number 2, only my old mate Liam, he of the Scratchbuilt Warhound and Warlord fame and Blue Warp Studios blogger extraordinaire. Just to remind you Liam had been categorically stating he did not want to face my Tyranid Brood Nest Fortifications, ever! And here we where, I mean he suggested we ask to swap partners, afterall the chances were that one of us would be losing this game and that wasn't going to do our group effort any favours. But in the spirit of the game I suggested that the Chaos Powers had decided Liam's protestations were unfounded and he needed to face this imagined impossible opponent and overcome.

Psychic Powers
Winged Tyrant HQTervigon CC HQTervigon Plain TrZoanthope
DominionCatalystParoxysmOnslaught
Catalyst

Warp Blast

The low down:
  • Purge the Alien
  • Hammer and Anvil
  • Liam won deployment
  • Warlord Trait - Nature's Bane - forest becomes 'carnivorous' within 12" of Warlord
  • Night fighting turn one, I think
So the big debate before we begin is that Liam has 9 kill points and I have 8 but he asks about the Bastion as a Kill Point to which I explain the vagaries of the rule surrounding that. In Stronghold Assault it is stated you do not get a Victory Point when destroying a Fortification unless both players agree beforehand and ordinarily I'm not going to do that but Liam pointed out he was already 1pt down and seemed to think he had nothing to damage it anyway, although I believe the Las-Cannons on that Land Raider would do a good job of reducing it to rubble, something I pointed out to him just before I capitulated and let it be 9pts each, we're mates afterall.

I split my Termagants again on the Skyshield, with the Hive Guard just off centre [underneath the Flyrant wings] in a position to hopefully get the Land Raider - my best chance. The Nephropid was at the back, probably too cautious with it really, the Zoanthrope [the 'Dorsal Nucleus of the Vagus Node'] hid behind one of the Skyshield supports and the Great maw was on my right flank, while my Trygon was set to Deep Strike.


While Liam just decided to occupy all the ruins. His Zombies filled the lower floor of his main building with his Maggot Chaos Spawn the first floor and the other ruin off to the lower left also filled with Zombies. When he'd played Otty the evening before they'd doen the same thing, filling out the entire building and when Otty's termagants got into assault they played it out on the back of the 40k rulebook as it was conveniently exactly the same size as the building - the assault went on for quite a while! Anyway, the only exposed units were the Obliterators on top of the ruins and the Land Raider carrying Typhus and his retinue.


So, first turn, the Land Raider shoots at the Bastion, penetrates it and it detonates! First Blood and one Kill Point to Liam - the swine! Thinking about it I probably should have got a cover save from the Aegis but it was still a blow.


I'm not sure what htis roll was for, there's 12 dice so probably my Flyrant's shooting attack, in which case hooray for twin-linked! 


The Brood moved up onto the Skyshield and the Hive Guard moved into range of the Land Raider.


I managed to put 3 wounds into the Oblits, killing the nearest thanks to my Flyrant. He's Catalysed and trying to get a cover save in the woods but I'm starting to see a bit of resistance to the idea they get a save because they're swooping, but they're swooping throught the trees!


The Hive Guard manage to ping the Land Raider but it's still got 3 Hull Points left.


The Hellflies buzz on, vector striking the Flyrant.


The Flyrant takes four wounds and I think only the Feel No Pain from Catalyst can save it and I get three 6's much to Liam's outcry of amazement! As far as I can tell I don't need to make a roll to see if it falls out of the sky, the rules only state shooting attacks but please if anyone knows different pass it on.


And the flies do a bit of shooting too


The Great maw heads for one of the woods. Foolishly I decide to make the other wood Carniverous with my Warlord trait, now I'm going to have to cross it...


Teh Brood also gets on the bug trampoline, just to try and survive the Hellfly attack that's imminent.


Hive Guard target the Land Raider again, moving to stay in range after it moved back.


My Spore Mines arrive and I find out the Zombies in the ruins have no ranged weaponry so no overwatch when I assault - they've a chance to do some real damage here.


The Flyrant glides to the roof, he assaults the Obliterators and kills them, ending the combat with only one wound left. The Chaos Spawn Maggots then crawl out of the ruins and surround the Tyrant.


They bundle in and it overwatches,


and following the roudn of combat one of the maggots is squished.


My Trygon arrives and takes a wound, either from the Carniverous forest or from deep striking into it. The Maggot Spawn bring down the Tyrant and consolidate out of the building. The Land Raider tries to tank shock the Spore Mines but they're Fearless so automatically get out of the way. They eventually assault the Zombies and I think kill only three, as they're also Fearless they stay in the building and do nothing.


The Hellflies continue to wreak havoc, and Liam starts to target the Trygon with them but he's taken another 4 wounds from shooting and as far as I can see the Spawn Maggots can do exactly the same to him as the they did the Flyrant so I suggest the do him over and the Hellflies target the brood on the Skyshield. I even find a way for the flamer to hit quite a few more targets than he originally intended. I'm about 5:1 down at this stage this just makes things more interesting before the inevitable happens.


Maggot Spawn take a wound and assault the Trygon.


The Flies Vector Strike as they exit the battlefield but do little damage.


I suddenly remember I can Paroxysm the Maggots to which Liam thinks he's been duped into assaulting the Trygon when he could have roasted it with the Hellflies. I'm still losing badly, even if the Trygon does what the Flyrant didn't it won't stand against the Terminators or the Land Raider and even with the -3 to WS the Maggots come close to killing the Trygon. Meanwhile Typhus finally ventures from his tin can on tracks and heads for the Great Maw.


The Trygon is just pathetic and only manages another wound on the Spawn but still manages to evade taking one itself thanks to the Spawns inability to hit, what with being wracked with pain from Paroxysm.


Typhus closes on the Great Maw.


The Hellflies prepare to leave the battlefield yet again, I think they vectored the Hive Guard in passing but also got the Zoanthrope and the Biovore for another 3 VPs.


The 'Bundle in the Jungle' carries on...


The Trygon kills one of the Spawn but takes two wounds and fails one of it's saving throws.


Teh Maggot spawn are all a bit wounded but they did bring the Trygon down in the end, like I said they would Liam!


Yep, dodgy 'ones' will get you every time.


I try to capitalise on their big AV10 abdomen's bobbing in the breeze. I shoot the Quad Gun and Liam somehow manages to jink out of the way of the shots.


I let rip with the Fleshborers and manage one glancing hit which may have stuck or been saved - Jink or Daemon not sure which. Stinger Salvo from the Nephropid does nothing, so much for taking advantage of the situation.


The Tervigon is down to only 1 wound left


and inevitably Typhus takes it leaving me with no comeback.


I think the final score is 10:1, with Liam getting First Blood, Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker with my only success being the destruction of the Oblits. I knew this wasn't going to be as tough as Liam thought it would be. I'm not sure if giving up the Basiton as a VP would have changed things. I'd have probably got First Blood on the Oblits  but then I could have played the defensive game that Liam did - hiding in the Skyshield and forcing him to come to me. As it was I needed to push to claw back the deficit. Perhaps I should have just focussed on the Hell Flies after the Oblits, keeping the Flyrant Swooping instead of making him vulnerable on the ground in assault. He may even have been better taking on the Zombies in the open ruins, even with only 4 attacks it could have been done in 3 or 4 combat phases.

It was a bit of a frustrating game but even with more targets available it wouldn't have changed anything and if the roles were reversed I'd probably have done the same thing myself. Overall it was a fun game though and great to be able to play against Liam, so much more banter than a normal ToS game and when we needed to speed things up it was also possible. So I'm two games without a win, fingers crossed for game 3...

5 comments:

  1. "Battle of the beauties" was pointed out by a passer by, I forget who it was.

    Great read Dave, It was a really fun game, like you said the Chaos gods forced my hand and I came up trumps, especially my first shot of the game blowing up your Bastion (Grandfather Nurgle looked down and smiled), although I still cant believe you rolled 3 x 6's for your jink save I was gob smacked, 7 vector strikes attacks and only caused one wound...... gutted.

    Sorry for playing the defensive game, my reasoning was to try and draw you out of your metropolis and then counter attack, blame Ben for that he told me to hunker down for a few turns and then cherry pick the weaker units. I don't know what I was thinking trying to tank shock your "floaty bomb things" that was pointless, all to prevent 15 points worth of Zombies dying.. Doh!

    We had a great game and loads of banter and I'm sure you'll get your revenge soon, I'll start painting Tau in a couple of weeks you can give them a good kicking :)

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    1. The three sixes were clearly a gift from another chaos G.O.D. ;) Someone had to be defensive, I'm glad I tried to take the fight to you, I think I played like that all weekend, despite my massive erections on the battlefield ;) Taking the fight to my opponent even when I could have hidden and let them come to me, maybe I need to practice that a bit more, perhaps a counter attack from my strong defensive position would be more effective but I'm not sure I have the mobility...

      Yeah that tank shock was amusing but it did look like the Spore mines were going to be more effective than they were. In the previous Codex they've won me a game in a similar position, although the victims weren't Fearless, which helps.

      I really think the Tau will be a more formidable opponent, or so the internets tell me!

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  2. I have one question to ask that for one time has nothing to do with your army xD
    Do you know how your opponent made the smoke effect on Thypus back?
    I think it could look really cool on the venonthropes :)

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    Replies
    1. Luckily Liam has the answers already on his blog, here's the painted close up: http://bluewarpstudios.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/my-throne-of-skulls-nurgle-army-wip.html

      And the WiP pictures so you can see what was used and how it was made: http://bluewarpstudios.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/my-throne-of-skulls-nurgle-army-wip.html

      Anything else just comment on his blog and he'll get back to you with an answer.

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