Post by halos on Jul 21, 2012 23:35:23 GMT
Hi once again everyone I'm back with another round of 'Halos plays 6th edition, and enjoys it (?)'
I was working away from home all last week but I had a hankering for some warhams the whole time, especially seen as I'd just finished painting up a new Tervigon before I left so I popped into the store today to try and grab a game and found a willing participant (ie victim) with a Raven Guard army.
~Army Lists~
•Raven Guard
HQ
-Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike
-Lysander (presumedly representing some tough-as-nails Raven Guard fellow who I'm going to name Corvid McRavenbeak in the traditional space marine naming scheme.)
Troops
-5x Scouts (Missile Launcher, Camo Cloaks)
-10x Scouts (Missile Launcher, Sergeant Telion)
Elites
-8x Sternguard Veterans (Sergeant [Lightning Claw], 4x Combi-Meltas)
-Drop Pod (Stormbolter)
-10x Terminators (Sergeant [TH/SS], 3x Lightning Claws, 6x TH/SS)
-10x Terminators (Sergeant [TH/SS], 3x Lightning Claws, 6x TH/SS)
•Tyranids
HQ
-Hive Tyrant (2x TL Devourers, Armoured Shell, Old Adversary)
Troops
-15x Termagants (Devourers)
-15x Termagants (Devourers)
-Tervigon (Crushing Claws, Toxin Sacs, Catalyst, Onslaught)
-Tervigon (Crushing Claws, Toxin Sacs, Catalyst, Onslaught)
Elites
-5x Ym'garl Genestealers
-2x Zoanthropes
-2x Hive Guard
Heavy Support
-Trygon
-Trygon
~Set Up~
Managed to actually grab a 6x4 board for once, and it wasn't a snowy one (three of the board are snow themed, with the other two bright orange and bright purple.) We were playing on the eye-searing orange board, so that was a nice change I guess.
My opponent complained about the large amounts of terrain set out, but D3 pieces per 24" square is Da Rules so that's what we used. Also found some swamps and forests from somewhere so I'd get a chance to play with the new 'mysterious terrain' rules for the first time.
Rolling on the plethora of pre-game random tables gave us the mission Crusade, which is the same as the old Seize Ground mission with D3+2 objective (3 in this case) and the Vanguard Strike deployment type, sort of like the old Spearhead but with a little more space. Warlord traits belonged to Lysander with Master of Offense from the Personal table granting him Furious Charge when in the enemy deployment zone and the Hive Tyrant with the Strategic trait Master of Ambush granting any outflanking units the Acute Senses special rule.
Terrain is placed, with the Raven Guard placing two objectives and the Tyranids one and, after a short kerfuffle over which diagonal to play across (solved by randomising it) the Raven Guard won the roll off for first turn.
~Deployment
The Master of the Raven Guard company crouched on his haunches, running a handful of this worlds soil through his fingers, already he could feel a difference than from when he first arrived here, the foul creatures sucking every trace of life from even the rock itself. His comm-link buzzed with static, a communique from the high Captain Shrike himself; they were moving out, a large concentration of biomass had been detected moving towards one of the planets remaining evac-sites, the horde must be halted.
The Raven Guard deployed first, the large Scout squad in a multilayered ruin bolstered by Lysander in the upper left of the map along with an objective. Shrike joined the unit of green Terminators and Lysander the unit of Sternguard in their Drop Pod. The remaining scouts camped out on the remaining objective in a mysterious wood (wOoOoOo.) I think both Scout units infiltrated but seen as both ended up deployed in their deployment zone anyway it was kinda irrelevant.
Ym'garl genestealers were forced to deploy from reserves, and were secreted away in the brood nest thing on the map (counting as a Mysterious Forest.) Everything else lined up as far as possible along the Tyranid deployment zone, larger monsters shielded by gaunts and hugging area terrain best as possible. With a lack of any real long range dangerous shooting I ws free to bunch up a little. I also swapped everyone's psychic powers out for crazy fun times. The Hive Tyrant rolled Haemorrage (swapped for Smite) and Life Leech, one Zoanthrope got Iron Arm and Enfeeble and the other Life Leech and Endurance. Both Tervigons rolled up Endurance and as it was the only power they used I can't be bothered trying to remember the rest.
Tyranids failed to seize the initative and we revealed the mysterious objectives; the smaller Scout squad had found a Targeting Relay allowing them to re-roll 1s to hit in shooting. The larger squad discovered that the ruin they had control of was even better cover than they'd had thought, granting them +1 to their cover saves (Scatterfield.) Night Fighting was not in effect and so the game began.
Turn 1 Victory Points: Raven Guard 2 / Tyranids 0
Raven Guard
Crouching behind a small weald, surprisingly stealthy for all that bulky armour, Kayvaan and his men waited, they could often be found waiting. Where others might charge forth recklessly the Raven Guard oft found it best to move only at the most opportune time. Eyeing the uncoming rush of small chittering beasts, and the gargants which followed them, Shrike gauged the tides of battle and keyed in co-ordinates to the drop-pod shrieking towards the surface with his alpha strike. Then he set back to waiting.
Drop Pod Assault sees a bunch of Sternguard and Lysander show up uncomfortably close to the Tyranids, and being able to move 6" out of the pod allows them to sidle into terrain a tad as well. Said terrain turns out to be an Ironbark Forest, granting the marines within a 3+ cover save. The scouts to the left also find themselves in an Ironbark forest, the rusted remains of a tank hull providing ample hidey holes for seasoned scouts. The green digestion pool is revealed to be harmfully corrosive, forcing Dangerous Terrain tests upon those caught within it. Meanwhile the waters of the swamp below it are so full of Tyrannic phage-organisms that constantly re-knit and repair damaged chitin that any model within may re-roll failed armour saves (Iceblood.) The teal Terminators move forwards whilst the green squad remains at the back, ready to counter-assault the Tyranid push.
However, the Tyranid push has more things to worry about as the Sternguard open up on the nearby Termagants, their cover-denying bolter drill slaying seven of them. The larger scout squad finds itself out of range of anything worth firing at and the smaller squad aims at a Trygon but fails to wound.
Tyranids
Things waited in the undergrowth, in a world succumbing to Tyrannic infestation things always hide in wait, they felt the gentle fronds of the Hive Mind even now, tasted the anticipation of their fellows as they prepared to assault the foolish man-beasts, the urge to leap from hiding and join the feast was almost overwhelming, but, for now, they waited.
No reserves this turn so straight to the movement phase. First off psychic buffs are thrown out; Endurance on the (now) smaller gant brood and the Trygon about to move into the open. One of the Tervigons also attempts to Endurance the Hive Tyrant but rolls up boxcars and knocks a wound off itself. The Zoanthropes also throw Enfeeble on the Sternguard, who fail to deny it, and are bumped down to S3.
The gants and Tyrant round on the Sternguard along with one of the Tervigons for support. The two Trygons move forwards, with one of them jumping out into the open in an attempt to lure the other Terminators closer. Hive Guard move out of the Fireblood but lose a wound in the process.
Shooting sees a vicious salvo of brain-eating slugs and razor-barbed harpoons flung into the Sternguard, with Preferred Enemy no less. Unfortunately thanks to Lysanders 2+ save a lot of potential damage is mitigated, however he is knocked down to one wound for his troubles and ~4 veterans are killed.
No assaults as although it would be nice to lock Lysanders squad from shooting next turn the distance needed is too risky.
Turn 2 Victory Points: Raven Guard 1 / Tyranids 1
The alpha strike of the veterans has drawn the attention of the hive, but with it the ire of the beasts, Shrike realises too late that his men are horribly unsupported in the midst of the enemy and rapidly orders his first company Terminators to engage the foe and save their brethren.
The teal Terminators once again move forwards, on foot they are are far less scary threat, in theory anyway. I suppose as a Tyranid player I should know not all the scary things rely on transports.
Once again the Sternguard let fly at the gants, this time with their 2+ poison rounds as the gants are out of cover anyway. The FnP from Endurance comes in handy but only four gants are left living after the hail of gunfire ceases. Both Scout squads can now draw a bead on the Trygon, but even careful aim and powerful weaponry can do naught but anger the beast. The Terminators decide to run, possibly my opponent forgot that fleet doesn't let you run and charge anymore? Either way he's probably best off not trying to charge, and doesn't.
Tyranids
New threat, new threat, the pheromone signal races through the horde of aliens like signals down a neurone. The first lowly gant spots the approaching Terminators, releasing a potent signal, part psychic, part chemical which is detected by the nearby creatures, propogating itself as it does so. With nary a sound the attention of the living tide turns towards a new direction.
The Ym'garls turn up out of reserves, their mysterios terrain feature turning out to be Nothing. They then move towards the large Scout squad, intent on preventing it from shooting. A brood of 8 gants are spawned and then buffed by Endurance. The encroaching Terminatores are Enfeebled and both Trygons are granted Endurance. The few remaining teal Devilgants move into the forest to take advantage of that healthy 3+ cover save, as well as preventing wounds being allocated to Lysander, and the green ones move into range of the Terminators.
The Hive Guard attempt to satisfy the First Blood secondary objective by killing the Drop Pod but only manage to knock the gun (and a hull point) off instead. Some fire power is laid into the Sternguard, killing a few more marines but not Lysander. The full Devilgant squad and the Hive Tyrant open up on the Terminators, their reduced toughness of 3 making them far more succeptible to the effects of the lethal brain-worms and 5 are slain.
The Ym'garls charge the Scouts, charging with thick, bony armplates held afore to ward off attacks. However they perform typically poorly in combat and slay but a single Scout, losing one fo their number in return. The green gants charge the Terminators and finish them off. Meanwhile the freshly spawned gants take the brunt of the Sternguards overwatch and get stuck in, forced to go through terrain as they do so. Now, please do correct me if I'm wrong here but, as the rulebook says to perform each charge sequentially (ie. finish one charge before declaring the next) the Sternguard are now locked in combat with the Black gants, and so the teal gants are free to charge with no initative penalty? That is how we played it anyway. The gants kill another Sternguard but Lysander remains standing.
Turn 3 Victory Points: Raven Guard 1 Tyranids 4
Raven Guard
Shrike can only look on in disbelief as the Terminators, perfectly positioned to make a strike deep into the heart of the swarm, are cut down by naught but the lowliest insects. And his scouts find their perfect vantage point infested with clawed shadows. How can you employ guerilla tactics against such a force? It cannot be intimidated or tricked, it responds not to the slaughter of it's own forces or the strength of it's enemies. Still her has no choice but to press on, for are they not still Space Marines?
The remaining Terminators move forwards through the wood, unfortunately just unable to clear the difficult terrain.
The scouts fire into the Trygon once again, and once again cause no damage at all.
The Ym'garls perform marginally better, killing four scouts, but remain locked in combat. Lysander is finally slain, drawn down by the relentless waves of gants, several gants are killed in return, finishing off the devilgants and leaving just four gants remaining but they are Fearless still and so don't care. The Terminators attempt a long charge into a Trygon, and would have made it too with an 11 (thanks to fleet), until we noticed one of their number was still within the forest boundaries, forcing a charge through difficult terrain resulting in a much lower total charge distance and a failed charge.
Tyranids
The new threat signal expunged from the receptors of the Tyranids the creatures stop moving with such purpose, returning to their primary objectives of 'obtain biomass' and 'destroy any opposition.' The monstrous tide halts short of the Raven Guards position, waiting, daring them to make the next move.
One Tervigon spawns some more gaunts, releasing ten from gestation but running dry in the process. The freshly hatched whelps move to assist their brood-mates in combat with the Veterans. Endurance is thrown onto both Trygons and the new Gant brood. The large devilgant brood moves into the central ruin and reveals the objective their is Booby Trapped! (Oh Nooooo!) A cunning cluster of time delay grenades left by the Raven Guard could detonate at any moment. The Trygons move forwards but only to bait the Terminators closer.
The Hive Guard fire out at the Drop Pod (I brought them to kill vehicles dammit; that's what they're going to do!) resulting in three penetrating hits and an explosion, killing four of my own gaunts despite FnP. The devilgants and Hive Tyrant open up on the Terminators, killing several of their number, the Hive Tyrant using her precision shots to drop one of the more dangerous hammernators.
Combat sees the fresh, and still slightly sticky, gants charge the Sternguard for an assist, killing two but leaving the lightning claw sergeant standing. The Ym'garls finally manage to kill all but one Scout and Tellion but lose yet another of the brood, a combat knife desperately buried in it's skull.
Turn 4 Victory Points: Raven Guard 1 / Tyranids 4
Raven Guard
Flashing warning runes light up all across Shrikes tactical display, signalling him to battle field events and causalties. All too numerous and too dispersed to deal with, right now all that can be done is to trust the Emperor's good will and bring down his wrath upon his enemies, the time for tactics is good and fled, now it is time only for survival.
The Terminators move up, this time getting out of terrain and all but guaranteeing a charge on the Trygon.
The unengaged Scouts finally manage to score a wound on the Trygon, perhaps the decide to actually turn on their Targeting Array, as it allows the missile launcher to score a direct hit, blowing a scything arm clean off in a spray of viscera.
The Terminators charge into the Trygon, the beasts reactive electric dicharge sparking harmlessly from their armour as they plow through the smoke of the missile strike, fragments of stone and debris spinning out from under thunderous armoured feet. Shrike himself leaping through the air to strike the beast in it's grotesque face. Shrike causes two wounds thanks to his rerollable lightning claw attacks, the Trygon, now enraged and blinded, strikes out at the surrouning enemy, crushing three of them under it's collosal form. The Terminators swing their hammers in a well-doctrined strike, taking down a further two wounds. (God I love being able to take FnP against thunder hammers; suck it Terminators.) The Ym'garls continue to not be good at combat and fail to even kill a single scout whilst the Sternguard Sergeant continues to be a badass and not die.
Tyranids
NOW, a sudden psychic impulse cutting deep through the normal, instinctual Tyranid nature; now is the time to strike. A low keening sound can be heard, emitted from the spiracles of the alien monsters, quiet at first, but building in pitch and timbre as they began to pick up speed til it is almost akin to a scream, but a scream across an entire battlefield.
Kinda surprised the Trygon survived that assault, it certainly wouldn't have done in 5th ed. Either way the Terminators are now where I want them to be; out in the open and surrounded by spiky monsters. Both Trygons and the Hive Tyrant receive the blessing of Endurance, and the Terminators are smacked with the Enfeeble hammer. The gants leave the potentially explosive objective and round on the Scout squad, a Tervigon waddles towards the objective in their stead.
The gants fire on the Scouts, who go to ground leaving the missile launcher alive, but probably in need of a fresh pair of trousers.
The Tyrant and fresh Trygon charge into the Terminators, ready to get their monster mash on. The Tyrant bellows out a challenge (somehow) to prevent Shrike finishing off the wounded Trygon before it can strike. Shrike steps up to the Tyrant, possibly forgetting he was only T3 currently and is promptly insta-gibbed for his trouble, although I should add he failed only one of four invulnerable saves. The Trygons get to work on the Terminators leaving only the Sargeant alive.
~~//~~
Strictly speaking the game carried on for another turn, but you can probably see the outcome from here; the Ym'garls finish of the scouts (finally), the Sternguard Sargeant finally dies, the last Scout on the objective dies of getting shot.
The Terminator sargeant challenges the Hive Tyrant, who refuses and simply lets her two Trygon bodyguards rip the unfortunate space marine to pieces, which was pretty cool I guess.
Final score was Tyranids 4 (1x Primary Objectives, Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Linebreaker) and Raven Guard 0. It was a fun game, although I think my opponent might have been getting tired of the BS I was pulling by the end. Speaking of which I am really loving the new psychic powers; we have enough psychic powers on enough monsters to get useful stuff in multiples, and it can really change up your army and mess with your opponent; Tervigon with Iron Arm/Warp Speed become tough combat monsters, but with Enfeeble/Endurance become ludicrous buff machines.
Endurance is like Catalyst on crack, slightly worse on gants/'stealers but on MCs it is fantastic; FnP protects against missiles, lascannons, THs, whatever and It Will Not Die lets you soak up even more wounds. Enfeeble too is great, better I think than Paroxysm; making a target WS1 is nice but the worst they can hit on is 5s anyway, and that can be mitigated by preferred enemy or wolf necklaces or whatever, plus it is purely defensive. Enfeeble has a longer range and is both defensive with the S loss and offensive with the T loss allowing for easier insta-death/FnP denial, not to mention re-rolls from poison. Also making Thunder Hammers/Power Fists S6 is hilarious.
I'm testing this list out for a tournament in a few months, which I'm taking Tyranids too because I love losing I guess, but whatever we're not playing to win 'cos we know we won't. I have just discovered that the point limit is actually 1850 though so I have some more points to spend. So if anyone has any suggestions then feel free to voice them. I'm currently torn between rounding out the gant broods to 20. Adding more Ym'garls so they can actually kill more than one squad per game or adding a LashGuard for the Tyrant and some miscellaneous upgrade.
So, that's another battle report for you to peruse. As ever please do post your comments (for my ego) and criticisms (to be ignored on account of aforementioned ego.)
Keep on munching that biomass Hive.
I was working away from home all last week but I had a hankering for some warhams the whole time, especially seen as I'd just finished painting up a new Tervigon before I left so I popped into the store today to try and grab a game and found a willing participant (ie victim) with a Raven Guard army.
~Army Lists~
•Raven Guard
HQ
-Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike
-Lysander (presumedly representing some tough-as-nails Raven Guard fellow who I'm going to name Corvid McRavenbeak in the traditional space marine naming scheme.)
Troops
-5x Scouts (Missile Launcher, Camo Cloaks)
-10x Scouts (Missile Launcher, Sergeant Telion)
Elites
-8x Sternguard Veterans (Sergeant [Lightning Claw], 4x Combi-Meltas)
-Drop Pod (Stormbolter)
-10x Terminators (Sergeant [TH/SS], 3x Lightning Claws, 6x TH/SS)
-10x Terminators (Sergeant [TH/SS], 3x Lightning Claws, 6x TH/SS)
•Tyranids
HQ
-Hive Tyrant (2x TL Devourers, Armoured Shell, Old Adversary)
Troops
-15x Termagants (Devourers)
-15x Termagants (Devourers)
-Tervigon (Crushing Claws, Toxin Sacs, Catalyst, Onslaught)
-Tervigon (Crushing Claws, Toxin Sacs, Catalyst, Onslaught)
Elites
-5x Ym'garl Genestealers
-2x Zoanthropes
-2x Hive Guard
Heavy Support
-Trygon
-Trygon
~Set Up~
Managed to actually grab a 6x4 board for once, and it wasn't a snowy one (three of the board are snow themed, with the other two bright orange and bright purple.) We were playing on the eye-searing orange board, so that was a nice change I guess.
My opponent complained about the large amounts of terrain set out, but D3 pieces per 24" square is Da Rules so that's what we used. Also found some swamps and forests from somewhere so I'd get a chance to play with the new 'mysterious terrain' rules for the first time.
Rolling on the plethora of pre-game random tables gave us the mission Crusade, which is the same as the old Seize Ground mission with D3+2 objective (3 in this case) and the Vanguard Strike deployment type, sort of like the old Spearhead but with a little more space. Warlord traits belonged to Lysander with Master of Offense from the Personal table granting him Furious Charge when in the enemy deployment zone and the Hive Tyrant with the Strategic trait Master of Ambush granting any outflanking units the Acute Senses special rule.
Terrain is placed, with the Raven Guard placing two objectives and the Tyranids one and, after a short kerfuffle over which diagonal to play across (solved by randomising it) the Raven Guard won the roll off for first turn.
~Deployment
The Master of the Raven Guard company crouched on his haunches, running a handful of this worlds soil through his fingers, already he could feel a difference than from when he first arrived here, the foul creatures sucking every trace of life from even the rock itself. His comm-link buzzed with static, a communique from the high Captain Shrike himself; they were moving out, a large concentration of biomass had been detected moving towards one of the planets remaining evac-sites, the horde must be halted.
The Raven Guard deployed first, the large Scout squad in a multilayered ruin bolstered by Lysander in the upper left of the map along with an objective. Shrike joined the unit of green Terminators and Lysander the unit of Sternguard in their Drop Pod. The remaining scouts camped out on the remaining objective in a mysterious wood (wOoOoOo.) I think both Scout units infiltrated but seen as both ended up deployed in their deployment zone anyway it was kinda irrelevant.
Ym'garl genestealers were forced to deploy from reserves, and were secreted away in the brood nest thing on the map (counting as a Mysterious Forest.) Everything else lined up as far as possible along the Tyranid deployment zone, larger monsters shielded by gaunts and hugging area terrain best as possible. With a lack of any real long range dangerous shooting I ws free to bunch up a little. I also swapped everyone's psychic powers out for crazy fun times. The Hive Tyrant rolled Haemorrage (swapped for Smite) and Life Leech, one Zoanthrope got Iron Arm and Enfeeble and the other Life Leech and Endurance. Both Tervigons rolled up Endurance and as it was the only power they used I can't be bothered trying to remember the rest.
Tyranids failed to seize the initative and we revealed the mysterious objectives; the smaller Scout squad had found a Targeting Relay allowing them to re-roll 1s to hit in shooting. The larger squad discovered that the ruin they had control of was even better cover than they'd had thought, granting them +1 to their cover saves (Scatterfield.) Night Fighting was not in effect and so the game began.
Turn 1 Victory Points: Raven Guard 2 / Tyranids 0
Raven Guard
Crouching behind a small weald, surprisingly stealthy for all that bulky armour, Kayvaan and his men waited, they could often be found waiting. Where others might charge forth recklessly the Raven Guard oft found it best to move only at the most opportune time. Eyeing the uncoming rush of small chittering beasts, and the gargants which followed them, Shrike gauged the tides of battle and keyed in co-ordinates to the drop-pod shrieking towards the surface with his alpha strike. Then he set back to waiting.
Drop Pod Assault sees a bunch of Sternguard and Lysander show up uncomfortably close to the Tyranids, and being able to move 6" out of the pod allows them to sidle into terrain a tad as well. Said terrain turns out to be an Ironbark Forest, granting the marines within a 3+ cover save. The scouts to the left also find themselves in an Ironbark forest, the rusted remains of a tank hull providing ample hidey holes for seasoned scouts. The green digestion pool is revealed to be harmfully corrosive, forcing Dangerous Terrain tests upon those caught within it. Meanwhile the waters of the swamp below it are so full of Tyrannic phage-organisms that constantly re-knit and repair damaged chitin that any model within may re-roll failed armour saves (Iceblood.) The teal Terminators move forwards whilst the green squad remains at the back, ready to counter-assault the Tyranid push.
However, the Tyranid push has more things to worry about as the Sternguard open up on the nearby Termagants, their cover-denying bolter drill slaying seven of them. The larger scout squad finds itself out of range of anything worth firing at and the smaller squad aims at a Trygon but fails to wound.
Tyranids
Things waited in the undergrowth, in a world succumbing to Tyrannic infestation things always hide in wait, they felt the gentle fronds of the Hive Mind even now, tasted the anticipation of their fellows as they prepared to assault the foolish man-beasts, the urge to leap from hiding and join the feast was almost overwhelming, but, for now, they waited.
No reserves this turn so straight to the movement phase. First off psychic buffs are thrown out; Endurance on the (now) smaller gant brood and the Trygon about to move into the open. One of the Tervigons also attempts to Endurance the Hive Tyrant but rolls up boxcars and knocks a wound off itself. The Zoanthropes also throw Enfeeble on the Sternguard, who fail to deny it, and are bumped down to S3.
The gants and Tyrant round on the Sternguard along with one of the Tervigons for support. The two Trygons move forwards, with one of them jumping out into the open in an attempt to lure the other Terminators closer. Hive Guard move out of the Fireblood but lose a wound in the process.
Shooting sees a vicious salvo of brain-eating slugs and razor-barbed harpoons flung into the Sternguard, with Preferred Enemy no less. Unfortunately thanks to Lysanders 2+ save a lot of potential damage is mitigated, however he is knocked down to one wound for his troubles and ~4 veterans are killed.
No assaults as although it would be nice to lock Lysanders squad from shooting next turn the distance needed is too risky.
Turn 2 Victory Points: Raven Guard 1 / Tyranids 1
The alpha strike of the veterans has drawn the attention of the hive, but with it the ire of the beasts, Shrike realises too late that his men are horribly unsupported in the midst of the enemy and rapidly orders his first company Terminators to engage the foe and save their brethren.
The teal Terminators once again move forwards, on foot they are are far less scary threat, in theory anyway. I suppose as a Tyranid player I should know not all the scary things rely on transports.
Once again the Sternguard let fly at the gants, this time with their 2+ poison rounds as the gants are out of cover anyway. The FnP from Endurance comes in handy but only four gants are left living after the hail of gunfire ceases. Both Scout squads can now draw a bead on the Trygon, but even careful aim and powerful weaponry can do naught but anger the beast. The Terminators decide to run, possibly my opponent forgot that fleet doesn't let you run and charge anymore? Either way he's probably best off not trying to charge, and doesn't.
Tyranids
New threat, new threat, the pheromone signal races through the horde of aliens like signals down a neurone. The first lowly gant spots the approaching Terminators, releasing a potent signal, part psychic, part chemical which is detected by the nearby creatures, propogating itself as it does so. With nary a sound the attention of the living tide turns towards a new direction.
The Ym'garls turn up out of reserves, their mysterios terrain feature turning out to be Nothing. They then move towards the large Scout squad, intent on preventing it from shooting. A brood of 8 gants are spawned and then buffed by Endurance. The encroaching Terminatores are Enfeebled and both Trygons are granted Endurance. The few remaining teal Devilgants move into the forest to take advantage of that healthy 3+ cover save, as well as preventing wounds being allocated to Lysander, and the green ones move into range of the Terminators.
The Hive Guard attempt to satisfy the First Blood secondary objective by killing the Drop Pod but only manage to knock the gun (and a hull point) off instead. Some fire power is laid into the Sternguard, killing a few more marines but not Lysander. The full Devilgant squad and the Hive Tyrant open up on the Terminators, their reduced toughness of 3 making them far more succeptible to the effects of the lethal brain-worms and 5 are slain.
The Ym'garls charge the Scouts, charging with thick, bony armplates held afore to ward off attacks. However they perform typically poorly in combat and slay but a single Scout, losing one fo their number in return. The green gants charge the Terminators and finish them off. Meanwhile the freshly spawned gants take the brunt of the Sternguards overwatch and get stuck in, forced to go through terrain as they do so. Now, please do correct me if I'm wrong here but, as the rulebook says to perform each charge sequentially (ie. finish one charge before declaring the next) the Sternguard are now locked in combat with the Black gants, and so the teal gants are free to charge with no initative penalty? That is how we played it anyway. The gants kill another Sternguard but Lysander remains standing.
Turn 3 Victory Points: Raven Guard 1 Tyranids 4
Raven Guard
Shrike can only look on in disbelief as the Terminators, perfectly positioned to make a strike deep into the heart of the swarm, are cut down by naught but the lowliest insects. And his scouts find their perfect vantage point infested with clawed shadows. How can you employ guerilla tactics against such a force? It cannot be intimidated or tricked, it responds not to the slaughter of it's own forces or the strength of it's enemies. Still her has no choice but to press on, for are they not still Space Marines?
The remaining Terminators move forwards through the wood, unfortunately just unable to clear the difficult terrain.
The scouts fire into the Trygon once again, and once again cause no damage at all.
The Ym'garls perform marginally better, killing four scouts, but remain locked in combat. Lysander is finally slain, drawn down by the relentless waves of gants, several gants are killed in return, finishing off the devilgants and leaving just four gants remaining but they are Fearless still and so don't care. The Terminators attempt a long charge into a Trygon, and would have made it too with an 11 (thanks to fleet), until we noticed one of their number was still within the forest boundaries, forcing a charge through difficult terrain resulting in a much lower total charge distance and a failed charge.
Tyranids
The new threat signal expunged from the receptors of the Tyranids the creatures stop moving with such purpose, returning to their primary objectives of 'obtain biomass' and 'destroy any opposition.' The monstrous tide halts short of the Raven Guards position, waiting, daring them to make the next move.
One Tervigon spawns some more gaunts, releasing ten from gestation but running dry in the process. The freshly hatched whelps move to assist their brood-mates in combat with the Veterans. Endurance is thrown onto both Trygons and the new Gant brood. The large devilgant brood moves into the central ruin and reveals the objective their is Booby Trapped! (Oh Nooooo!) A cunning cluster of time delay grenades left by the Raven Guard could detonate at any moment. The Trygons move forwards but only to bait the Terminators closer.
The Hive Guard fire out at the Drop Pod (I brought them to kill vehicles dammit; that's what they're going to do!) resulting in three penetrating hits and an explosion, killing four of my own gaunts despite FnP. The devilgants and Hive Tyrant open up on the Terminators, killing several of their number, the Hive Tyrant using her precision shots to drop one of the more dangerous hammernators.
Combat sees the fresh, and still slightly sticky, gants charge the Sternguard for an assist, killing two but leaving the lightning claw sergeant standing. The Ym'garls finally manage to kill all but one Scout and Tellion but lose yet another of the brood, a combat knife desperately buried in it's skull.
Turn 4 Victory Points: Raven Guard 1 / Tyranids 4
Raven Guard
Flashing warning runes light up all across Shrikes tactical display, signalling him to battle field events and causalties. All too numerous and too dispersed to deal with, right now all that can be done is to trust the Emperor's good will and bring down his wrath upon his enemies, the time for tactics is good and fled, now it is time only for survival.
The Terminators move up, this time getting out of terrain and all but guaranteeing a charge on the Trygon.
The unengaged Scouts finally manage to score a wound on the Trygon, perhaps the decide to actually turn on their Targeting Array, as it allows the missile launcher to score a direct hit, blowing a scything arm clean off in a spray of viscera.
The Terminators charge into the Trygon, the beasts reactive electric dicharge sparking harmlessly from their armour as they plow through the smoke of the missile strike, fragments of stone and debris spinning out from under thunderous armoured feet. Shrike himself leaping through the air to strike the beast in it's grotesque face. Shrike causes two wounds thanks to his rerollable lightning claw attacks, the Trygon, now enraged and blinded, strikes out at the surrouning enemy, crushing three of them under it's collosal form. The Terminators swing their hammers in a well-doctrined strike, taking down a further two wounds. (God I love being able to take FnP against thunder hammers; suck it Terminators.) The Ym'garls continue to not be good at combat and fail to even kill a single scout whilst the Sternguard Sergeant continues to be a badass and not die.
Tyranids
NOW, a sudden psychic impulse cutting deep through the normal, instinctual Tyranid nature; now is the time to strike. A low keening sound can be heard, emitted from the spiracles of the alien monsters, quiet at first, but building in pitch and timbre as they began to pick up speed til it is almost akin to a scream, but a scream across an entire battlefield.
Kinda surprised the Trygon survived that assault, it certainly wouldn't have done in 5th ed. Either way the Terminators are now where I want them to be; out in the open and surrounded by spiky monsters. Both Trygons and the Hive Tyrant receive the blessing of Endurance, and the Terminators are smacked with the Enfeeble hammer. The gants leave the potentially explosive objective and round on the Scout squad, a Tervigon waddles towards the objective in their stead.
The gants fire on the Scouts, who go to ground leaving the missile launcher alive, but probably in need of a fresh pair of trousers.
The Tyrant and fresh Trygon charge into the Terminators, ready to get their monster mash on. The Tyrant bellows out a challenge (somehow) to prevent Shrike finishing off the wounded Trygon before it can strike. Shrike steps up to the Tyrant, possibly forgetting he was only T3 currently and is promptly insta-gibbed for his trouble, although I should add he failed only one of four invulnerable saves. The Trygons get to work on the Terminators leaving only the Sargeant alive.
~~//~~
Strictly speaking the game carried on for another turn, but you can probably see the outcome from here; the Ym'garls finish of the scouts (finally), the Sternguard Sargeant finally dies, the last Scout on the objective dies of getting shot.
The Terminator sargeant challenges the Hive Tyrant, who refuses and simply lets her two Trygon bodyguards rip the unfortunate space marine to pieces, which was pretty cool I guess.
Final score was Tyranids 4 (1x Primary Objectives, Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Linebreaker) and Raven Guard 0. It was a fun game, although I think my opponent might have been getting tired of the BS I was pulling by the end. Speaking of which I am really loving the new psychic powers; we have enough psychic powers on enough monsters to get useful stuff in multiples, and it can really change up your army and mess with your opponent; Tervigon with Iron Arm/Warp Speed become tough combat monsters, but with Enfeeble/Endurance become ludicrous buff machines.
Endurance is like Catalyst on crack, slightly worse on gants/'stealers but on MCs it is fantastic; FnP protects against missiles, lascannons, THs, whatever and It Will Not Die lets you soak up even more wounds. Enfeeble too is great, better I think than Paroxysm; making a target WS1 is nice but the worst they can hit on is 5s anyway, and that can be mitigated by preferred enemy or wolf necklaces or whatever, plus it is purely defensive. Enfeeble has a longer range and is both defensive with the S loss and offensive with the T loss allowing for easier insta-death/FnP denial, not to mention re-rolls from poison. Also making Thunder Hammers/Power Fists S6 is hilarious.
I'm testing this list out for a tournament in a few months, which I'm taking Tyranids too because I love losing I guess, but whatever we're not playing to win 'cos we know we won't. I have just discovered that the point limit is actually 1850 though so I have some more points to spend. So if anyone has any suggestions then feel free to voice them. I'm currently torn between rounding out the gant broods to 20. Adding more Ym'garls so they can actually kill more than one squad per game or adding a LashGuard for the Tyrant and some miscellaneous upgrade.
So, that's another battle report for you to peruse. As ever please do post your comments (for my ego) and criticisms (to be ignored on account of aforementioned ego.)
Keep on munching that biomass Hive.
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