#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]

Apocalypse WOW! 12,500pts of Armageddon - prelude to war

THAT friends is a Warlord Titan and THIS is some setup shots of my good buddies Liam, Ben and Otty's Apocalypse battle 2013

Liam brought his Crimson Fists and Imperial Guard to go up against my 4,003 and Otty's 8,500pts of Tyranids.

We used Otty's two beautiful snow boards, I swear to G.O.D. that there were times I could literally see the frost glittering in it. I was holding the right flank [with nothing 'Apocalyptic' at all, except for the Doom ;) ] against Ben who was using the Imperial Guard but with some Super Heavy Tank that's got a Vulcan Mega Bolter and was transporting a tonne of Orgyns and Commissar Yarrick.

Meanwhile on the left flank and most of the middle there was a green tide of nids including a Scythed Heirodule.

'Nancy', Otty's Bio Titan was set up in the middle and believe it or not the Warlord Titan was not taking part in the game, all it was there for was terrain! And to have both it's feet as objectives. The guys had decided that to run it in the game would have been pointless as it would have been nigh indestructible. And because of this ultimate flaw in it's use may be why Liam is looking to auction it on ebay. I'll certainly keep you all informed if this Titanic auction takes place!

Here's some more nids and Shrikes in the trees on the far left flank.

The Hormagaunts were raring to go.

And they had only a Fortress of Redemption and a wall of Land Raiders to overcome, seems doable.

Here, where you can see how we flocked the board to transition between Liam and Ben's tundra Battle Boards to Otty's winter world. We were so anal about this. There's all sorts of props and shims underneath this table to ensure there were as few disruptions to the playing field as possible. Not one single miniature was unpainted, they wouldn't even let me use my new unpainted Pyrovore as a Biovore proxy, instead I borrowed Otty's.

Here's a couple of pictures of the back of the Warlord.

And it's legs too. It's amazing how Liam was able to use sprue quite sparingly to break up the surfaces that belies how flat they are.

Screamer Killers ready to roll.

And from the front. The Mieotic Spore was one of three 'Spore Chimney' Strategic assets I chose that gave me Shrouded within 12" and pretty much was the only thinking keep me in the game, but Spoilers!

Here's the other Titan on show, Liam's scratchbuilt Warhound, which is beautiful and a Baneblade and a Shadowsword. They also took a Power Field generator as a strategic asset which meant we were unable to target them first turn :( 

A thing of rare beauty.

Liam's 'X-Wing' Storm Raven conversion. 

His Imperial Navy, erm, Scratchbuilt!!!

Yeah, this was my problem, do you think two Winged Tyrants, the Doom a Trygon Prime and 2 Spore Pods with 10 Devgaunts in each is going to end this?

Oh, I did have a Harpy!

Now that's a Storm Talon, this conversion is sweet, I think there's better pictures to come of it's twin though.

Anyway, that's just a taster of the forces on display. It took us 2.5hrs to set up on Saturday night, we started in anger at 9:30am and played on through to the Apocalyptic end at 9:10pm. Goodness knows how I will record what went on, and it may take a couple of posts. I have an idea of what my side was doing and a number of pics of Otty's side but I think the end result is irrelevant this is just pure hobby heaven so if the report makes no sense you'll enjoy the glorious flaming spectacle.

1500pts battle report - Dark Angels v Tyranids!

I got a chance to pop round to Otty's for a game and unusually I got to face his Tyranids, but using my Dark Angels. We were Playing a Maelstrom game and struggling to come to terms with a lot of the new FAQs in a bid to getting ready for when they're official. Personally given the extent of the FAQs I actually feel we'd be better off with a new rulebook, loathe as I am to suggest 8th Edition but a lot of these things go beyond a simple clarification.

Anyway we set up opposite [as you do when you play 40k!]

I love this modular table that Otty made, it's always packed full of realistic touches and surprisingly is quite forgiving for wobbly model syndrome [I know it doesn't look it but honestly it really]

Army list wise I took the Cerastus, two Deathwing squads, Bastion and Devs, Dark Talon and 9 Tacticals with my Scouts and my Techmarine leading. Otty had two maxed out broods of Stealers, a maxed Hormagaunt brood, a couple of Venomthropes for cover, a Broodlord, a Tyranid Prime, Harpy, Tyrannofex, one Hive Guard and Mr Tickle - the Toxicrene.

Otty got first turn, and surged forwards. He only managed to kill one Devastator with Missile Launcher but I needed all my firepower to halt the surging horde. He tried to use most of his Warp Charge to cast Dominion on the Broodlord making everything under Synapse but I easily denied. Now with level 1 psykers only allowed to cast one power the rest of his warp charge was wasted [much like the vaunted Psychic phase!]

"These are Genestealers, you may be unfamiliar with them, they're the 'premier' close combat unit in 40k"

My response was to meet him head on with the Lancer leading the way. My Devastators fragged the Hormagaunts, which broke and ran for the board. The Lancer fried some also. In Otty's turn two the Harpy arrived, I managed to wound it two or three times with my Quad Gun, but he put two wounds on the Lancer. I was saving my Ion Shield for the Tfex and Hive Guard. The Hormagaunts rallied and by the end of the turn were 2 inches in front of where they'd been at the end of turn 1. The Stealers failed to negotiate the woods, clearly stalking their prey more effectively. The Tfex whiffed and the Hive Guard targeted the Devastators again!

The Stealers charged first, but it was through the difficult terrain of the trenches so would assault last. Mr Tickle and the Tfex also got in on the action.

Mr Tickle struck first, ordinarily his S5 would have meant nothing but with the Harpy having torn chunks from the lancer the Sentient Spore Cloud surrounding the beast found vulnerable spots in his armour resulting with seven Armourbane attacks!

Somehow the Lancer survived with one wound left. The Tfex failed to hit with his Smash and the Stealer couldn't do enough damage.

In return the Lancer stomped on just a few Stealers. He was then torn apart by Mr Tickle in my turn blowing up and killing all but one Genestealer and the Prime. Mr Tickle and the Tfex just stood and watched, untouched by the catastrophic explosion! Meanwhile the Harpy swooped past the bastion but was unable to fire it's Spore Cysts due to jinking in a previous turn. My Techmarine could only look on with horror as he arrived too late to try and repair the Knight

My dark Talon arrived but did very little, the Scouts could see their position was about to be over-run but perhaps it was already too late.

As my forces were being swept asunder I suddenly became captivated with this element of Otty's Tyranid Bastion, the colours and effect was really quite outstanding.

Back to the carnage and the Genestealer managed to reach the Scouts, it was a bad day to be wearing red camo cloaks on a green battlefield!

Who couldn't possible survive against such overwhelming odds [Lost Patrol anyone?]

Mr Tickle dispatched the now exposed Techmarine with ease, but in return I was able to take the Harpy down with my Dark Talon.

The Tyranid Prime and the lone Stealer assaulted the Tactical Squad defending their ammo reserves.

They lost the combat by two, failed their morale, broke and were over-run leaving the Objective in filthy Xenos hands. OK, I realised afterwards this did not happen, that 'And they shall know no fear' prevents Sweeping Advances but I'm still getting the hang of the rules, it was 1am and do you know what? They bloomin' deserved to die given their pathetic performance.

End result was an 8:4 loss but an interesting game and it certainly allowed Otty to reconfigure his list - putting the Prime with the Hormagaunts would have prevented them breaking. And Mr Tickle was awesome, I could see him scything through unit of Terminators, or even a Vehicle Squadron if they'd taken a bit of damage. As it was he did the Knight in with ease, thanks to the Harpy damage. 

Meanwhile we also traded some bits, Otty had needed a metal Broodlord  to make some Purestrain Genestealers. He's making an 'organic' genecult, making hybrids and Aberrants out of all sorts of donor models and the Broodlord is what he's using for the Prince's. He then discovered I was trading 'Broodlord in a body warmer'. I think that didn't quite sit right with him and so swamped me with bits and even gave me a metal Azrael and Watcher in the Dark, so I've got some really interesting stuff to play around with once I can get my other jobs done.

That said the next day I did a bad thing...