Throne of Skulls March 2014 - Battle 3, Tyranids Vs Dark Eldar

So far this tournament I've faced Tyranids [which I've never actually beaten for all my 'prowess' with them], Liam's chaos Marines [who I've never beaten] and now Simon Halstead's Dark Eldar. I've managed to pull a couple of wins out of the bag on the evil space pixies but I've been beaten twice with them by Liam and it was the third game at my last Throne of Skulls where Phil Clee tore me a new one and tabled me, the first time ever, with his Dark Eldar. I had just the Aegis back then so hopefully the additional Fortifications will help out.

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant HQ Tervigon CC HQ Tervigon Plain Tr Zoanthope The Horror Catalyst Onslaught Dominion Psychic Scream Warp Blast

The low down:

• Crusade
• Dawn of War - 3 objectives which we randomly deviated 2d6" from each third of the board [which was a novel way to do it]
• Deployment - Simon deployed first, this I know.
• Warlord Trait - Reroll reserves
• Night fighting turn one, I think.

All three objectives ended up more in Simon's board half, one to the right of the Derelict Bastion, one in the woods and the last on the other side of the ruins on the far right. I set up to contest just the on on the left and the centre objective. I felt if I could focus on those two and hopefully get First Blood and Linebreaker then I could leave the third one alone.

Simon got first turn and moved up to secure the right objective. He also had a personal challenge that he wanted to 'capture' my biggest model with his Archon [or Haemonculus], some't about keeping it as a trophy in a pocket universe cage... whatever floats your boat evil space pixie.

Thankfully he hadn't any of those shadow fields that reduce my shooting range by 6" and aside from the splinter weapons and a fair few dark lances the only real concern was the Razorwing and some Scourges which might be able to contest an objective late on and deny me their VPs.

The Dark Lances managed to penetrate the Bastion and take it down, we replaced it with the trees [pretend they're billowing smoke clouds from the wreckage, OK, pretend harder then]. I obviously had to explain the rule about it but Simon was of the opinion anyway that he wanted to see blood for it to be 'First Blood' that's a true Dark Eldar player right there.

I on the other hand was not so particular, the Hive Tyrant swooped and targeted the nearest Venom and blew it up, getting me First Blood and leaving only two warriors left, but they would still need to go because of the objective close by and their scoring status. The Hive Guard went for the Eldar Raider and destroyed that.

The surviving Archon and his retinue leap clear of the wrecked Raider and tried to secure the objective.

The looked suitably at home in the dark, dark, woods where the dark, Dark Eldar play!

    

Some more pics of the cheeky monkey's securing the wooded objective. In turn two the Nephropid [CC Tervigon] spawns out on 13, I didn't spawn earlier due to the congestion in and around the Skyshield.

    

While the warriors hunkered down in the wood the two from the downed Venom entered the derelict Bastion and tried to pick a couple of wounds off the Trygon.

One Scourge unit arrived, but came on as reserve from Simon's board edge.

The second Scourge unit also walked on but the Razorwing was still en route to the battlefield and failed it's reserve roll.

The Flyrant Vector Struck the Scourges on the left hoping to rout then and pick off the other Scourges with Brainleeches. Unfortunately even though they were reduced to two and one model respectively they would not fall back. The Trygon got to grips with the Bastion and Detonated it, killing all inside. My Gaunts head for the objective

The Scourges are still a risk for contesting, the Great Maw spawns out on 11 or or 9 [can't read my writing]. But the Ravager targets the Trygon,

and gets a further two wounds on it.

The Ravagers on the other side of the board capitalise on it's weakened state.

and take it's last two wounds. It may not have done very much, killing two warriors [and a Bastion] but it's taken the heat of my Tervigons and my Flyrant.

I finally get my Tervigon off the Skyshield, it's starting to be a bit of a liability. I get my gaunts into the wood to contest and further consolidate some of the spawned gaunts onto the other objective. I manage to remove the lone Scourge and leave the unit of two with only one left. Simon still has the objective on the right so I'm winning on First Blood and Linebreaker at the moment.

The Hive Guard get a bead on one of the Ravagers which should take some more pressure off my dash for the objectives. Everything else pours fire into the warriors in the wood and they all die and I get the objective. My Flyrant has also crossed the board to Simon's only objective left, I don't think he quite gets into contesting range but in another turn he will.

The Razorwing finally arrives but is far from accurate with his rockets, deviating wildly and only clipping one or two Termagants that thanks to Catalyst save most if not all of the wounds! Then I think he fired again and from the looks of future pictures managed to kill the brood. Either that or they retreated behind the Aegis as I can see one of them in a later pic, but I was sure I was heading for Linebreaker with them but the only thing where they were going is a piece of orange foam so who knows what happened???

We're rapidly running out of time with 4 minutes to go, I say to Simon if we want another turn he has 2 minutes each. He says he'll be quick and tries everything to kill the 2 Termagants holding my objective, it looks like he does, wounding both but then I remember they have Catalyst and one saves his FnP, even if he hadn't there's another brood of Termagants there to take his place. Time runs out but I'm still allowed to finish my go.

The Great Maw gets the objective previously held by the spawned gaunts all the other gaunts hold the centre objective and my Flyrant gets to contest Simon's, this leave's the score 8:0 to pick up my first win of the tournament.

Pretty much everything went right in this game. OK, the bastion went first turn but it took some of the heavy shots away from my squishy things, as did the Trygon. He may not have done much but his sacrifice may well have won me the game. The really big learning experience is just how restrictive the Skyshield is when you have two Tervigons on board and a bunch of Termagants. It becomes grid-locked trying to get off and you really need high dice rolls to do so. I must thin about how it slows me down, essentially it adds another 6" to my forward push 3" to get up and 3" to get down and you need at least 5" to do both otherwise it can't fit underneath/balance on top. I'll probably be using this more than the Bastion in the future though so hopefully I'll get a system that works for me.

Also I think the Zoanthrope manning the Quad Gun is the way to go, or at least close by to take over. He's a higher BS than a Termagant is really only providing Synapse and occasional psychic buffs so giving him something to shoot makes up for Warp Blast being so darn restrictive as a ranged attack.

Anyway, I've won a game so I'm happy. As long as I manage one win at these tournaments it's enough. This time last ToS having been beaten by Dark Eldar I was very much disheartened, especially by how helpless I was against Phil's list. Simon's army was a lot more manageable, made worse by the delayed arrival of the Razorwing. In truth I chose not to Intercept with the Quad Gun when it did, it had taken so long to get here it deserved it's chance and I didn't want to interrupt the turn as I didn't think we'd get another one and Intercepting may well have prevented that turn finishing, silly really.

Anyway, I find out I've been nominated again for best army so bring on Day 2!

400,000

Who knows, maybe GW will take the idea above and run with it...

400,000 hits and once again I've managed to get the next 100,000 in record time. There's not much I can say except as 'keeping score goes' it's always nice to see people coming along and enjoying the blog. It obviously takes a lot of time and effort, I spend far too much time writing than I probably should but it's the addiction that's compelling me to do so. Slightly better for me than Class A drugs though, but they're probably a cheaper alternative to plastic toy soldiers!

The blog is going nowhere, I'm not sure what I've got to feature over the next few months, I definitely have plans but I'd love to have that list of half a months scheduled blogposts like I used to, maybe I should just finish up the 22 posts I have in draft format! We'll get there, but best of all we'll get there together!

Thanks again to everyone who visits, you make it all worthwhile, although I'm sure at Wargamers Anonymous you'd be labelled 'enablers' but I appreciate you regardless. 

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 HQ Tervigon CC HQ Tervigon Plain Tr Zoanthope Dominion Catalyst Paroxysm Onslaught 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...