Another match up against Ben and his embryonic Imperial Guard, this time I decided to give the Doom of Malan'tai a miss and wanted to give the nearly finished Tyranid Bastion a run out in the sun. So, instead of a drop-podding Doom it was drop-podding squad of 19 Devgaunts - 57 Devourer shots! I also decided to forego a comms relay and upgrade the Winged Tyrant with Hive Commander - for 5 extra points I get the same +1 to reserve roll but also get to outflank a troop - my Tervigon, which I thought would be entertaining to bring it on right in his back field, see how he likes them apples?
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The low down:
- The Relic :(
- Vanguard Strike
- I won deployment, Ben won first turn
- Warlord Trait - Counter Attack in deployment Zone.
Anyway those Storm Eagle missiles were going to be dropping so the Hive Tyrant sat in the meteor crater for cover but the Genestealer had nowhere to go so were out in the open.
Ben uses the Wall of Martyrs for his defence line which is quite handy as he can pick it up with the models still in place to move them to another table. Anyway, I failed to steal the Initiative but Night Fighting was in effect.
But the saving throws weren't enough to save the Broodlord who was sniped out of existence from the Ordnance with one of the other Stealers. So much for putting him in the open, that'll learn yeh!
Ork mob rushed towards the Relic.
And those foolish enough to venture forth were cut down by the Tyrant, Tervigon and Hive Guard allowing the 8 spawned out Gaunts to get within half an inch of the Relic on their run move.
Ben's turn and the Dakka Jet and Vendetta scream through the skies the latter disgorging their veterans. The Dakka Jet shoots the Hive Tyrant out of the sky quite dramatically. BANG! First Blood to Ben and there goes my +1 to reserve roles, that comms relay is looking better now...
Two of the Hive Guard had decided to occupy the Bastion, allowing it to auto fire [it may have killed an Ork in my turn] but this allowed Ben to target the Bastion which suffered a couple of penetrating hits and glances - killing a Hive Guard outright and reducing the AV to 11. Additional fire removes the remaining Hive Guard and drops another AV point down to 10. At one point the smaller turret shear off and destroys the gun pointing into my deployment zone.
Two overwatch hits fail to wound from the Termagants and I fail my Leadership to get Counter Attack off the nearby Tervigon. One Ork goes down to the gaunts. And in reply 54 attacks wipe out the 7 remaining gribblies, Ben didn't even need to resolve more than the first 40 dice! Orks consolidate around the Relic.
Much like chess, he takes my Termagant Troops, and my Myectic Spore safely deviates backwards 9" into the ruins, 19 Devgaunts jump out. The Quad Gun tracks the falling spore pod and I fail to save a wound on it despite the cover. Hindsight - later it was a good job it did land in cover.
The Tervigon arrives thankfully on the left hand side in the woods but the Ymgarls fail to wake up [if the Tyrant had been alive they'd have been disturbed by the Tervigon's blundering].
Veterans lose a man or two to the Biovores.
So much for 54 attacks from the Orks, I got 57 Devourer shots on the Orks and the 3 remaining break and run, the Tervigon chases them down and kills them when they fail to regroup. So I've 19 Devgaunts within 6" of the relic and only a small guard unit in the ruins to my left and the 6 or 7 vets over behind the Vendettas.
Ben's turn and the Tervigon is targetted by three different units. Despite the cover save the first two manage to score a pair of wounds a piece and then third adds another pair leaving me with this dice role!
No more Tervigon - poor show.
Stormeagle missiles kill 13 of my Devgaunts - so much for their 4+ cover save! And I'm down to 1 Hive Guard.
Ymgarls wake up but the Quad Gun swivels round and blasts two of them to a pulp, so I check for morale and they bolt for home, except home is all the way round the defence line so they head east instead of south.
Tervigon HQ moves for cover and to try and get Linebreaker, Devgaunts move to glance the Dakka Jet and score 1 :( I'd tried to get them to the Relic but their Move Thru Cover Role was 4". I can only reach it on 6s and don't want to be out in the open to all that Defence Line fire and missile rain.
Biovores pass their Instinctive Behavior test and head for the Bastion, they reduce the vets down to 2 who are pinned but pass their morale and are surrounded by two more unexploded spore mines.
Vendetta moves to kill off the Ymgarls, and succeeds.
Spore Pod eventually gives up the ghost losing Linebreaker.
The Tervigon finally take a couple of wounds, out of six turns it had five +3 Iron Arms and one +2
Biovores make it into the Bastion but not much happens with shooting, a guardsman here or there. Eventually the Bastion takes a hit and the occupants are reduced to snap fire shots only which the Biovores can't make. The Hive Guard manages to impale the now recovered Vet who were heading for Linebreaker. Devgaunts get another 4" move so I have to go for it -
And then they're whittled down to one for their audacity!
The Tervigons bashes the Manticore to pieces. I have Linebreaker, it's 1 apiece. We roll to see if it continues into turn 5.
It does, my last Termagant is killed, I can't secure the Relic, and my Tervigon is shot to pieces with hovering Vendetta fire. My Linebreaker is gone and Ben gets Slay the Warlord winning the game 2:0
Well I'm not a believer in luck 'per se' but I think I was unlucky there. The Hive Tyrant wasn't necessarily unlucky, it fell to the Dakka Jet because that was it's purpose but the Ymgarls and CC Tervigon didn't do anything worthwhile. The Bastion performed better than I thought it would given Ben's use of Ordnance, he was less than successful with his penetrating dice rolls though. Devgaunts were brutal although I was unfortunate not get chance to Enfeeble the unit of Orks which would have seen them thinned quick smart. Biomancy was a bit rubbish this game, although I was better than average with Iron Arm rolls.
Genestealers did nothing, so in hindsight I think I chose the wrong side. I chose the board edge due to lines of fire when instead I should have chosen the other side because it was filled with 4+ area terrain! Anyway, it was a good game and it was nice to run things different. I'm sure this would be a bit more brutal with the Doom in tow in a second spore pod - I guess I need to address that issue of getting that done, it's on my 'to do list' afterall!
