Warhammer World GT3 - Game 2 Tyranids v Orks

Game 2 of GT3 and Morgan Cole and I have been asked to play live on Warhammer TV! I obviously had to concentrate a lot on the game so pictures were taken only sparingly and I'm a bit shaky on what happened but I'll be going back over the Twitch feed to try and recollect but I'm only part way through so far. Either way if you have a Twitch subscription you can watch the game here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/229954502

The low down:

• Roving Patrol [Chapter Approved mission]
• Dawn of War
• Morgan chose deployment zone, 
• I either won first turn, or seized - I went first that's for sure.

Aside from the honour of being on Warhammer TV and the achievement of my dream I was almost totally unprepared for the enormity of the game. I had tried to split my army into three on the drive down to Nottingham so I had a start but I just could make neither head nor tail of the mission. I was allowed to deploy the Skyshield regardless [no one could reconcile how Fortifications fit into the deployment so they just made a decision there and then] and luckily I rolled to start with my first third - which I think was

• Warriors
• Hive Guard
• Tervigon
• Termagants

I deployed the Hive Guard in the ruins to shoot at anything heading towards the centre objective. The Skyshield sat on the other objective. I was lucky that both Trygon's arrived as reserves, with their tunnel buddies. On top of that my Warlord Flyrant.

Tervigon and Termagants swarmed to secure the centre objective and then in the midst of everything I totally messed up shooting the mob of boys with my Devgaunts. 

When I came to the Genestealers and their charge I suddenly realised Morgan had deftly removed all the nearest model and a 9" charge was now 11" at least! I failed charges by all on both flanks.

I was feeling totally out of my depth and then Morgan brought on his reserves, a second truck and mobs of boyz.

The Boyz swarmed the Genestealers and at least I had the sense to kick off with Caustic Blood, knowing just how many hits these guys have. 

And they stayed true to form and managed to butcher the lot of them and the Trygon too!

Morgan then unleashed a second stroke of tactical genius. Alongside his second mob of Boyz he brought on a Painboy [or Weirdboy, not sure] behind storage tank No.31. He was out of sight of the Devgaunts and so charged. In 8th you can charge without Line of Sight and ironically you cannot overwatch without it! Which I think is the opposite to 7th. So he made the 7" charge on the Devgaunts - tying up all 25 Termagants and was safely able to bundle the remaining Mob of Boyz in without fear of overwatch! 

A genius move I couldn't help but admire, even after all the Termagants were butchered. The Termagants in the centre also took a pummeling, losing 11 of their number but I replenished 10 of them in my turn thanks to the Tervigon.

I think the Warlord Flyrant was down to around four wounds so I retreated to use his Devourer shots on the big Mob. Meanwhile the Trygon charged one of the Trukks.

Which looks like it got smashed only to leave the Trygon surrounded by disembarked grumpy Orks, angry at the loss of their boat.

Moar Mek Guns arrived with the last of Morgan's army and the mob on the right flank decided to solve the issue in the centre of the board.

Morgan then cast Da Jump - Perilling in the process as his Weirdboy dumped 20 Orks in my deployment zone.

Boyz start butchering Termagants, I think I employed Caustic Blood again, I'd brought my Rippers on too to throw in and add to the numbers holding the objective.

Da Jump Boyz manage to make a phenomenal charge against the Hive Guard. Unsurprisingly they are cleaved up like kebab skewers

In response I bring the last Flyrant in and the Broodlord to whittle down their numbers. My dice rolling is appaling at this stage though. I can't get anything to do what I want, even Morgan begins to feel for my lack of success. It's reasonable that there are specific Warhammer TV dice - it helps them show up on TV and it means we're both using supplied dice, not our own [which is fair] but they are really big dice, something I was not prepared for and with relatively small hand not equipped for either, ha, ha! Ceri said the same thing afterwards.

The Flyrant gets killed by the Tank Bustas and then a series of shots at the Warriors on the Skyshield manages to completely bypass the invulnerrable save and all three die! The battle rages on in the middle of the board with the Termagants being crushed between the Boyz they were in combat with and the Orks that had killed the Hive Guard and cleverly removed sufficient models from the attack of the Broodlord and Flyrant to be out of combat.

With the Termagants gone there was nothing I could do and we called the game. It was afterwards I found out I'd only scored 82pts worth of damage, and we'd only completed two turns. However, I realised my dream and despite the result on paper it was an amazing game, Morgan's tactics in particular raised the bar, hopefully something I will look into how I can apply also - charging from out of LoS for instance.

Anyway, a fab game and Nick and Ceri were super-appreciative of our efforts, so I can't ask for more. On to game 3!

Warhammer World GT3 - Game 1 Tyranids v Orks

First game of GT3 and I'm facing the spectacularly bearded Ben Briscoe and his filthy looking Orks made up of excellent Battle Wagon - Taurox Conversions and some of the artillery guns kitbashed from spare [looted!] Tau weaponry. As mentioned my recollection of the battles are really sketchy so I will do my best

The low down:

• Re-supply Drop [Chapter Approved mission]
• Hammer and Anvil - Table Ends deployment
• I chose deployment zone, but I deployed last unit [giving Ben +1 to win first turn], 
• Ben won first turn, I failed to seize

Skyshield and most of my none reserve deplyment on the board. I did not use Alien Cunning to remove the Warlord Flyrant, instead opting for Tenacious Survivor as my Warlord Trait.

Orks tried to shoot me down but couldn't manage to get First Blood.

Ork War Boss channeling the WAAARRGH! - handy LED lights powered by a battery in the base.

The other 'raving' Weird Boy with his glow sticks.

My turn and I used Metabolic Overdrive on the Tervigon to sprint up the board, followed by Termagants to hold the objective. Flyrant swooped on top of the foundry towers.

My Trygon arrived with the Devgaunts and my plan actually worked in that the Tervigon was now in range to buff them [re-roll 1's to hit]. The other Trygon and Genestealers arrived at the back of the board and the second Flyrant was inbetween them.

My Trygon made the charge on one of the Trukks

 

The Trygon struck...

... and ended the Trukk for first blood. I don't think the Tankbusters inside took any wounds and disembarked to the top of the towers.

I swooped the Flyrant down to take out the Battlewagon

The Flyrants ill-conceived charge on the Battle Wagon resulted in taking 5 wounds for not much damage inflicted.

Genestealers made the charge on the Grots with the Mek-guns [?]. I wiped out a unit of grots so one gun was decommissioned, sort of. Second Trygon made the charge on another Trukk. Smashed the trukk killing a couple of Tankbuster inside this time.

I don't know the name of the Ork biker Warlord but he led the counter offensive on the Trygon with a mob of Boyz backing him up.

Weirdboy powers up the Orks with plus one attacks.

20 Orks get in doing 100 attacks! The Trygon could not stand against so many Choppas!

With only 5 wounds left the second Trygon also fell to the Biker Warlord.

One of the Mobs charged the Genestealers

And managed to chop 16 of the 17 Genestealers into little pieces. Probably would have been handy to choose the Caustic Blood stratagem in this instance...

My remaining Stealer killed two in return but would die from battle shock.

Boyz tried to chop up the Flyrant.

Which I think they must have succeeded as I don;t see him elsewhere.

As time was running out we had got to turn three and Ben rolled to remove the two redundant Alpha Objectives, choosing one nearest his grots, one behind the Aquila strongpoint and one by my Felshborer Termagants. The Fleshborer Gaunt objective was the Alpha supply drop. With the mob of Orks having a party after killing the Trygon, they were unaware of the Tervigon and Gaunts about to spoil the fun.

They bundled the lot of them.

And killed all but the War Boss.

Fleshborer Gaunts finished off most of the Boyz who'd killed my Warlord in the shooting phase.

Then killed the remainder, while holding the Alpha objective.

Weird Boy had headed for an objective but my Rippers had already cheekily been there before it was revealed it was not an Alpha. Battle Wagon headed for Line Breaker.

My Flyrant had secured the other Beta objective. But a squad of Kommandos came on in a last ditch attempt to steal it out from under the Hive. They would make the charge but Overwatch and my Monstrous Rending Claws would see them finished.

I'd somehow secured a victory holding both Alpha and Beta objectives. The fact I had been on all but one of them before the Alpha and Beta were revealed gave me the advantage in holding on to them. Ben was a great sport, patiently waiting while I confirmed the scoring nature of the Skyshield ahead of the tournament. I managed to to do only 609pts of damage though and lost a significant amount in return.

I think the Flyrant assaulting the Battle Wagon was a mistake but it stopped the momentum of the Orks at least. I'd imagine a completely different result if they'd driven unopposed around the board dropping the big mobs off on the objectives I was so tenuously holding. Hive Guard were shockingly poor though.

Anyway, on to game 2

It's a Tyranid Skyshield Landing Pad...

Funnily enough I can never seem to find a complete 'To Done' showcase of my scratchbuilt Tyranid Skyshield Landing Pad. The best I have doesn't feature the walls/petals, they hadn't been completed at that stage. In all honesty these aren't great pics but I needed to take some for the monthly Warhammer 40,000 painting competition.

This month it's 'Terrain' and there's a quite frankly insane spaceship diorama but I thought I'd throw my hat in with the old Tyranid Trampoline.

Currently I have no urge to use it in my lists as 8th has made even my backfield defense of Tervigon and Termagants far more mobile, or at least I feel they need to be on the move as a support for the other elements moving forward.

It's not how I've played for years but probably far more in keeping with how Tyranids are supposed to behave. I could be wrong though, maybe these are ace in 8th but I doubt it, and here's the evidence:

 They took a price hike and only convey a 5+ invul save compared to 4+ in 7th. What's worse is it now has a wound and Toughness profile and at T7 can even be plinked by las-guns on 5s. 

Sad thing is they're not likely to get a 'Codex fix' either as they currently sit in the Imperium Index 2 and I doubt any of the Fortifications will see changes, at the least it won't be until ALL the Codex are released :( So it's going to be a very considered choice to take this to any sort of tournament.  

It's only justifiable purpose now would be in support of a painting competition entry - modesty aside, it's one hell of a centrepiece, but in most of the tournaments I've been to it's made an appearance so perhaps it's time to go into hiatus...

On the plus side it was a nightmare to use in game and always a pain to transport, pack and then re-pack. I can't say I'll miss that.

But it looked awesome in the battle reports and despite it's awkwardness was often handy to transport the Tervigon and 30 gaunts from table to table - it was it's very own tray ;)

Still, at least taking these pics gave me a chance to patch up some of the paint chips on it :)

And when I put the Tervigon on it for scale, made me realise this Tervigon is my favourite model, of possibly everything I've done.