2000pts battle report - Tyranids v Tyranids

It's been quite a while since I played Otty, but I figured it would do us both good to pit our nids against each other to help us get up to speed for GT3. More for him as he has limited 8th edition experience but with us both running gribblies there was far more learning to be had and sharing of ideas and concepts

The low down:

• Front-Line Warfare [Chapter Approved mission]
• Hammer and Anvil - Table Ends deployment
• I chose deployment zone, but I deployed last unit [giving Otty +1 to win first turn], 
• Otty won first turn, I failed to seize

Otty was running the Swarmlord in a pod, with Genestealers in a Trygon tunnel. Another unit of Genestealer backed up by a Broodlord, 3 Dakkafex, a Tyrannofex [with Rupture Cannon], 3 Hive Guard, a brood of Rippers and 3 Zoanthropes all as Hive Fleet Gorgon. Objectives were in the Spore Chimney, inbetween the two woods by the craters

Another objective was inbetween the two alien pods and the one in my deployment zone was just by my Skyshield on the right in this pic. All the trees were counted as cover but Line of Sight blocking behind - you could shoot into but not behind because Otty had limited terrain and it seemed like the best way to deal with it.

Otty surged forward.

Unfortunately the Stealer got a short advance of 1 or 2.

Swarmlord arrived in his pod, with Genestealers in a Trygon tunnel.

The Swarmlord 'flung' the Genestealers forward. Shooting took place and one of the Hive Guard went down. The Tervigon also took a number of wounds but I may have got some lucky dice rolls to survive a particularly devastating round of shots.

The Swarmlord wasn't going to reach the Hive Guard so he went for bigger prey and charged the Skyshield.

He took 7 wounds off the platform while the Genestealers clawed through the Hive Guard [First Blood], losing two of their own number to 3 overwatch hits! In response I moved the Tervigon and gaunts back, to give room for the Trygon and my own Stealers. The Tervigon regenerated two or three wounds to be back on 11.

My Broodlord headed for the Swarmlord on a suicide mission.

Trygon and Gaunts tunneled up in Otty's DZ while Flyrants arrived in front and behind his lines to squeeze it between them. Shootin had limited effect from the Gaunts, even shooting twice. I managed to put a few wounds on both Zoanthropes and Hive Guard but the combined shots of the Flyrants put only one Hive Guard down.

I made almost all of my charges [except for the Termagants]. Flyrant on the left got to the nearest Carnifex and killed it. Flyrant in the DZ got the Tfex and managed some wounds. Trygon failed charge on the Zoies, was just short on the Behemoth re-roll and a 4+ command re-roll of the low dice got me in.

I'd move the Termagants up to stall the stealers. Shooting took out some of them [I think 2 were left after this] and the Broodlord died against the Swarmlord but not before putting at least 3 wounds on him.

My 17 Stealers and Trygon both got into assault against Ottys 20. My Stealers killed 19 of them, with the Trygon squishing the last one. I consolidated towards a Dakkafex getting within 1" to force it to Fallback next turn, Otty didn't think he could have a free attack with the Carnifex that turn but I am convinced he could have.

Otty's turn and he went for my Tervigon to try and feedback on the Gaunts. He would then Smite it to take it back down to 9 wounds.

Zoanthropes fell back from the Trygon, everything else remeained locked in combat.

Tfex and Flyrant kept wailing on each other.

Swarmlord assaulted the Tervigon.

He sliced and diced but could only manage 8 wounds.

Leaving the lady on her last wound.

I may have paid 2CPs to interrupt and assault with the Stealers but they failed to deliver and were mullered for it.

Otty's trygon joined the fray but only to squish some Gaunts who failed to kill any Stealers.

My turn and the Flyrant fell back to shoot the Tfex or the Hive Guard hiding in the Spore Chimney. Gaunts repositioned.

Rippers arrived to contest the Objective.

Psychic Phase and my Tervigon Smite's the Swarmlord. I get 11 on my Psychic test and then 6 on my D6 Mortal Wounds, by this stage the Swarmlord had 5 or 6 remaining and is destroyed in a haze of Psychic fury. 

To add insult to injury the Tervigon re-spawns 10 Fleshborer gaunts who fell back from the Trygon to allow the Warriors to shoot it, for a wound or two.

Trygon eats through the Zoies [with help from the Devgaunts shooting], Flyrant kills the Hive Guard with Brainleech worms. The second Flyrant swoops across to the Dakkafex and support the Trygon but fails to kill any green nids.

Otty's Trygon eats though theWarriors...

...and moves down to take on the Tervigon with Rippers appearing in my DZ, just managing to fit in 9" away.

I'm thinking this is a bad dice role, perhaps the Tervigon got shot by the Trygon's Bio-Electric Pulse. It definitely died, then the Termagants got killed and with no Synapse to hold them they were wiped out giving Otty the objective in my DZ.

The Flyrant continued to struggle with the Carnifex and but finally killed the Broodlord.

Which meant he was left with the Dakkafex who just didn't have sufficient attacks, damage or AP to put wounds on him.

Made even worse by the arrival of the second Flyrant.

We decided to call it a draw at 2am. Subsequent turns I'd have probably won, and with hindsight the Trygon holding the objective in my DZ was actually contested with the Skyshield, but the Rippers would have been on it next turn to tip the scales in Otty's favour and no doubt the Trygon could have removed the 13 remaining wounds on the fortification.

Otherwise we both had our opponents objectives and a middle objective each. Otty had First Blood, I had Slay the Warlord and we both had Linebreaker. Overall it was a good game but then I think I had the upper had so I'm a little biased but we spent a good deal of time discussing options and approaches [hence the finish time]. Hopefully, Otty had some thoughts on adjusting his army, just the 6CPs is a worry for me. He rang me the next day to say he'd managed to add a Vanguard detachment for a 7th as despite my advice the lists he could make with two Battalions or a Brigade were so far removed from how he's used to playing he wouldn't know what to do with the list. I agree he needs to use what he's comfortable with so fingers crossed 7CPs will be enough [he's hoping to get some back with the Feeder Tendrill Stratagem off the Genestealers.

Next stop - Warhammer World and GT3.

#BattleReport - 1,000pts Eldar v Tyranids

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been playing TENTH! #New40k again, this is a while ago, so I'm not sure how much I remember but it was a chance for a few of us to get together. This was Scott's Aeldari versus Otty's Tyranids.

Scott and Liam had quite the array, with a Wraithknight, Avatar, Wave Serpent and some Wraithguard. 

Otty had some Carnifex, Tyrannofex, Zoanthropes, Hive Guard, Termagants and Genestealers/Broodlord

I think we got first turn and, as always, got as far up the board as possible. 

I'm pretty sure the Tfex got a really good shot on the Wave Serpent, but thanks to a stratagem was able to shrug off half its damage, keeping it alive. With hindsight I think this was a pivotal moment. If that Wave Serpent had have gone down it might have changed everything. We did however kill the Rangers in the Tyranid Capillary Towers... 

Which gave the Avatar the perfect launching point. Concentrated fire on the Tfex put it down, with the Wraithknight, Avatar and Wave Serpent taking out their biggest threat.

Scott and Liam had been able to make great progress, both in board control and damage to the Tyranids. We were already floundering. We were struggling to put any damage on those big 3.

And the Avatar stepped down from the Towers to wipe out the Zoanthropes.

I think we lost so much more after this and although I thought the game was a bit more 'fun' than previous attempts I know Otty was unimpressed. Our rolling was unspectacular, we were out-gunned and the constant rule checking didn't help the flow of the game. Not having the stats for the nids on cards I was constantly switching between the 2 Indexes giving the rules for both factions. It's not a great way to play. The actual game rules - if we played more and got the core rules down that might help but definitely having the faction rules to hand will be of benefit. I've a better report coming though with my Knights, so look out for that.

#BattleReport - 1,000pts Imperial Knights v Tyranids

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been playing TENTH! #New40k Despite having a backlog of #MESBG and #Turnip28 [not] battle reports to record I thought I'd do this while it was fresh in my mind. Leviathan is due today, with my rulebook, but Otty, Ben, Liam and I decided to give TENTH a crack. Naturally, nobody had printed the Core Rules, or Quickstart Guide and only one of us had their Index rules and datacards printed out. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusion as to who had prepared in some way...

Anyway, Ben had prepared a list of Otty to use his nids - Old One Eye, a Carnifex, 10 Hormagaunts, 10 Termagants, 2 broods of Warriors [1 ranged, 1 melee], Hive Guard, Zoanthropes, Trygon, 5 Genestealers. I had a knight Preceptor with Unyielding Paragon [reduces AP by 1] and Stormspear Rocket Pod, 2 Helverins and 2 Warglaives. If I'm honest I thought Otty was at a distinct disadvantage - lots of little bugs with weak weapons and talons - how could they possibly effect the towering Imperial Knights... Otty got first go, and straight out of the gate the Genestealers scouted forward 8".

Which meant they had an easy first turn charge into one of my Warglaives. Otty had chosen Hyper-Aggression as his Hyper-Adaptation which meant every creature had [LETHAL-HITS] on vehicles/monsters. That means even the littlest bug, a roll of a 6 and it auto-wounds! Oh dear...

I was very lucky though and did some amazing saves with limited wounds across my knights. My Warlgaive managed to kill  just two of the Genestealers, which was underwhelming.

Otty had pushed forward and the Ranged Warrior's were slightly exposed and the Hive Guard with Shock Cannons, although taking some cover were now within range of more guns.

Shots from the top Warglaive, Helverin and Preceptor managed to wipe out the Ranged Warriors and one Hive Guard went down. I think the other Warglaive managed to squish the Genestealers.

I'd made a better impact, but now I had Hormagaunts swamping the other Helverin and OOE+Carnifex needed a 11" charge to get the freed-up Warglaive - Otty rolled a 6 and 1, CP re-rolled the 1 and got a 6 and managed to wipe out the Warglaive. I got to attack back before dying with a stratagem and dished out soem wounds but not enough to make a difference. Meanwhile, my Helverin stomped on a few Hormagaunts. On the far side [out of shot] the other Warglaive took a wound from 5 shots in range of the Devgaunts. Then the Zoanthropes blasted it to pieces dealing the exact amount of damage it had left. That lucky Termagant had saved the day for Otty!

Naturally we were getting all sorts of rules wrong, we weren't both receiving CPs in the command phase, just the person who's turn it was. So I was running out of CPs every turn and we hadn't worked out that vehicles could shoot in and out of combat [for -1 to hit]. As it was I tried the best with my shooting and ended up needing a reroll on the Preceptor to do decent damage on the Carnifex. Then I charged and immediately remembered the plan was to Tank Shock them and roll 14 dice with the potential for six 6's. But I'd spent my CP

As it was the Reaper took out the Carnifex and did a few wounds on OOE, but he regenerated most of them. And then the Trygon burrowed up and charged the Knight from behind.

The Melee Warriors managed to link up with the Hormagaunts and inflict even more damage on the Helverin but I was very lucky with saves and Feel No Pain. Lastly I was swinging at Old One Eye and managed to get 3 hits on him, 3+ to wound...

Unbelievable! There wasn't much I could do after this. 

The Preceptor got smashed by the monsters. I think both Warriors got killed, by the remaining Helverin Autocannons but the Prime survived and the Armiger in combat could only stomp on 2 of the remaining Hormagaunts. We called it as I had little chance at this stage and it was late. 

So, what do I think? I liked the game, just enough rules and complexity, but I hated not having the physical book, or even the Quick Start. It was a nightmare trying to use the app for both Otty's army and the Core Rule .pdf, while also taking pictures. 1000pts feels like as good size while we find our feet. Hopefully, when we're all on board with the rules and familiar with them it'll feel easier but even with this streamlining there were still times where explaining the rules felt just really hard - in direct contrast to Turnip28 and Bolt Action. But we'll keep at it. We all had fun and both factions, that on paper looked great [my Knights and Ben's Astra Militarum] were beaten by the weaker Tyranids and the much smaller but elite heavy World Eaters. Surprising lessons learned for next time. Now to await Leviathan and build some bugs...

Yes, I was the one prepared[ish]