Throne of Skulls March 2016 - Battle 4, Tyranids Vs Space Wolves

Chris was my opponent for game 4. Space Wolves and Wulfen so I was going to try the new furballs in the Grimdark

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant Tervigon Zoanthrope Broodkin Magus Dominion Dominion Dominion Psychic Shriek Psychic Scream Warp Blast Warp Blast Invisibility Catalyst Catalyst Dominate Broodlord Dominion The Horror

The low down:

• Into The Maelstrom - Deadlock
• Warlord Trait - 3 enemy units must make pinning tests
• Night fighting first turn, won deployment, elected to go first.
• CARNAGE! effect:
• Rage - 2A on charge
• Counter Attack
• Furious Charge

Now that's a compact army... [although some Termiantors are missing]

I deployed in a similar formation as last time, using the trees as cover for the Carnifex.

Chris only had three units on the battlefield at the start.

All I had in reserve were the Rippers in the pod

These were my 6 cards that would whittle down as the game went on, I hoped to achieve [I photographed them again so they would be clear] That 6VP Lord of the Dead for putting a wound on every unit in Line of Sight, seemed possible

So I swooped the Flyrant towards the Thunderwolves and advanced everything else.

I think I managed two out of the three, with the Hive Guard managing to get two wounds on the Land Raider with impressive twin 6s to hit, followed by twin 6s to glance! But it was to no avail

As suddenly I had Murderfang at my Back door and Terminators at the front.

Broodkin and Stealer took casualties.

But it was the Carnifex that would take the brunt

Chris managed to score 3 mission VPs and First Blood in his first turn, I think the lead Carnifex fell to the Terminators despite Catalyst.

In return I was able to wipe them out, thanks to all the Devourer shots and Flesheborer shots from the 11 spawned gaunts from turn 1 and 12 from turn 2. Only the Wolf Lord was left.

My Tyrranocyte managed put wounds on the Dreadnought.

While the Termagants managed to swamp the Wolf Lord, who saved out of his skin this turn.

Genestealers and Broodkin charged Murderfang

Rage and Furious Charge were just too much for it, I mean the Broodkin were doing 5 S4 Rending attacks each! The Purestrains managed to put a Hull Point on the Drop Pod.

Stealers and Broodkin scatter with my consolidation.

The Wolf Lord continued to hold off the diminishing gaunts

I manage to pull of these 5 VPs in the one turn, I'm back in the game!

The Stormwolf arrives from reserve, I'd fogrgotten about that.

I manage to save the Tervigon from the Las Cannon attack but when it comes to the Helfrost Cannon typically there's my toughness test, anything other than a 6! It suffers the one wound and is frozen solid.

I think I was lucky with Synaptic Feedack as there doesn't seem to be too many gaunts dead.

The Land Raider turned round and roasted the Rippers, giving Chris an easy VP

And I'm pretty sure this was good news

But infortuantely this was not as I think the Tyrannocyte got squashed by the Thunderwolves. Chris managed to go one better than me and secure 6 VPs this turn, taking him to 9 and leaving me on 5.

These were my four new missions, all achievable.

I manage to kill the Thunder Wolves, I think with the Carnifex.

The other Carnifex manages to destroy the Land Raider. Now I read that I'd get a VP for that with the 'Self Destruct Protocols' card but when I re-read it I only read the 'suffers an "Explodes"' result, not 'causes, or suffers an "Explodes"'. So I may well have got a VP that I didn't count for this. I ddi however get 3 VPs for killing it just with attacks and 2 VPs for destroying it in my assault phase. Unfortunately I couldn't kill the drop pod to make it 4.

Meanwhile the Wolf Lord STILL won't die!

But I did get objective 3, bringing my VP total this turn to 6 [although it was actually 7 with the Land Raider]. Current score - 11-9

The Storm Wolf deposits the Wulfen, again I'd forgotten about those.

And they Prove devastating, slaughtering the Carnifex like it wasn't there.

The Wolf Lord STILL won;t die and manages to kill the Broodlord too!

Turn 4 and these are my missions. Objectove 2 is a done deal, there are 5 Wulfen on the board and all those Genestealers MUST be able to kill the Wolf Lord.

Just in case I send in the Purestrains, who'd finished wrecking the Drop Pod to clear my DZ of Line Breakers. The Hive Guard manage to make a 10" charge on the Stormwolf but can't wreck it. As the dust settled I managed to do all three of my cards but the weight of numbers still wouldn't give up the 4 VPs, the Wolf Lord lived yet again! I was on 14 VPs [actually 15].

Chris was pretty much out of options and all that was left was to see if the Wolf Lord survived and finally he was rent asunder giving me Slay the Warlord.

Final score was 15(16)-11 but once again I'd lost on Carnage points, giving up 88 and scoring only 43. This had been a great game, with the wealth of cards it really opens up more options compared with the other Maelstrom missions where you're stuck with one or two cards that are difficult and your opponent is racking up easier objectives. The Wulfen were pretty brutal but so were the Broodkin, of course the Rage and Furious Charge helped raise their profile.

I was desparateky unlucky with the Tervigon but credit where it's due that Wolf Lord was insane, surviving almost 6 rounds of combat, more in part beacause I just didn't roll any rends but he saved out of his skin for every other wound. I sugegsted to Chris he be interred in the remains of the wrecked Dreadnought, hopefully to fight another day. Now onto the last game.

Throne of Skulls March 2016 - Battle 3, Tyranids Vs Space Marine Scouts and Imperial Knights

Scott was my last game of Saturday and I had to ask him to repeat his army list when he said 80 scouts! Yep, 80 Scouts, with sniper rifles, some with Flakk, a Terminator Librarian and Knight Warden with Icarus Autocannons.

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant Tervigon Zoanthrope Broodkin Magus Dominion Dominion Dominion Psychic Shriek The Horror Psychic Scream Warp Blast Invisibility Catalyst Psychic Scream Mental fortitude Broodlord Dominion The Horror

The low down:

• Into The Maelstrom - Cleanse and Control
• Warlord Trait - Move through Cover/Stealth Ruins
• Night fighting first turn, won deployment, elected to go first!
• CARNAGE! effect:
• Rage - 2A on charge
• Counter Attack

I set up first, although with 80 scouts infiltrating it didn't take long for Scott to put down his Knight and Librarian. I then won the deployment to Infiltrate and positioned the Genestealers in such a way to make his Scout deployment a bit of a nightmare. Ultimately this would prove more a hindrance for me nut we'll get to that later.

I wanted to see off the Knight as a priority, so grouped the Carnifex together to make use of the central ruins, backed up by the Zoanthrope for synapse, supported by the Hive Guard and the Broodkin. I'd had a situation with Synapse last time so I didn't want the same issue.

At first glance I was OK withthese cards, I had the Horror on both the Flyrant and the Broodlord, shooting a unit was inevitable, only objective six seemed out of reach, being deep in Scott's DZ, surrounded by Scouts.

I swooped the Flyrant forward first turn, got Catalyst off and the Horror but the Scouts made their Leadership. The Broodlord's attempt was equally fruitless. I did manage to put a couple of wounds on the Knight though.

The Broodlord occupied the top of the far ruins with the Carnifex and Hive Guard advancing through the central one. I foolishly forgot to run the Broodkin to keep up.

The Knight advanced on the 9 Termagants spawned in my turn.

The weight of sniper fire managed to bring one of the Carnifex down, he may also have been hit by Psychic Shriek from the Librarian. This gave Scott First Blood, he also scored another 2 VPs, probably from killing a unit. He also destroyed the Purestrains, who's infiltrated in Scott's far corner, just to annoy. I must stop doing that it never ends well and is ultimately pointless.

The Zoanthrope perils while trying to get Warp Blast off, he dies again for his efforts

and again shoots the moon before hitting the intended target!

The Horror fails to cause a pinning test, this time failing to manifest enough successful Warp Charge to cast the power. In frustration the Genestealers assault the Knight [which may have taken some more damage of the Flyrant]

The Rage attacks manage to destroy the Knight, but still no VPs as I'm scoring only in the shooting phase. It was about now that we both realised that unlike the last game you can actually discard objectives in this mission, although to be fair my cards were still achievable.

The Knight scattered into the crater.

It exploded, wiped out a lot of the newly spawned 16 gaunts

and took out some of the Genestealers too, leaving the Broodlord with just two bodyguards.

The Stealers consolidated back into the Ruins.

Meanwhile, on the next table Otty was facing down Tau

With a pretty epic swarm heading to the gunline. 

Scott managed to score Objective 3 in his Turn 2 for his 4th VP, I hadn't even got off the starting blocks with these damn cards. The Tyrannocyte arrives from reserve, hoping to score objective 6, but deviates back onto some Scouts. Luckily it goes into ongoing reserve. 

Genestealers and the Flyrant try to get the Scouts pinned, but fail yet again. The Stealers assault Scouts

But they prove beyond them when an Imperial Knight was not.

Scott manages to kill the second Carnifex for another VP and sent Scouts to support the last man standing against the Genestealers,

The last Carnifex falls to Sniper Fire and most of the Broodkin fall foul too.

The Scouts prove an effective tarpit on the Stealers and I still can kill enough of them to break free [bring on hit and run!].

My Turn 4, the Tyrannocyte arrives from reserve, the Rippers manage to get to Objective 6. The Flyrant Vector Struck the Librarian, taking his last wound off him, so much for Terminator armour and securing Slay the Warlord. The Psychic Phase and I need a rules check - the Horror is a Malediction that causes a Pinning check. You can cast those in Assault and on those in Assault. It causes the victim to go to ground, but there doesn't seem to be any information if that is possible or not when in combat. The end ruling was I managed to cast the Power and the unit was pinned, but can't go to ground. That got me a VP, if the Stealers can kill the Scouts then I get 2. Unfortunately they do neither and they then pass a morale check and Scott points out that there were two units of Scouts there anyway

The game comes to an end at the close of turn 4, the events team said we could play on but Scott was happy to end it there. I'd scored 4 VPs to his 5. Carnage points I'd picked up 46 and lost 71. I have to admit I'd been frustrated in this game, the cards had proved elusive, they were all easily achieved but I just couldn't seem to get them. Additionally because I'd forced his Infiltration to be spread out I ended up in a situation where I couldn't actually target things I needed to do to get VPs.

I'd also failed to use my Broodkin, forgetting to move them up quicker and I'd thrown away my Purestrains for nothing. I'm sure with another couple of turns I could have tipped the balance, even managed to get more Carnage points but it wasn't to be. I also killed another Knight, which was pretty cool, although I didn't get any points for it :( Anyway, two loses and a draw, what can I do on day 2?