2nd Battle Rep:
1850Big Guns Never Tire
Hammer and Anvil
4 Objectives
Tyranids as listed a few posts backVS
Space Wolves2 rune priests
Chaplain equivalent
Blood claws? (Close combat troops)
Tac squad with Melta
Tac squad with Melta and combo flamer
Devastator squad with 4 missiles
Rhino
5 Scouts 1 meltagun
Landraider with flame storm cannons, multimelta and assault cannons
Dreadnought with Assault cannon and storm bolted
A 5 strong unit of Wolf riders and his warlord included. All rending weapons with 1 Thunder hammer, 2 with SS.
This guy was getting ready to compete in a tournament coming up next week so his list was a bit stronger than the usual lists I play against, which was a nice test for the army lists I like to play with.
My Warlord trait was Mind Eater. Deathleaper only -1ld to a rune priest.
Deployment:That stupid anti infiltrator chosen of the slain (?) pretty much limited all but 1 lictor from infiltrating. So I deployed 2 in my deployment to run forward, while Deathleaper deployed forward as far as he could just out of synapse. I have first turn.
Turn 1:This turn I pretty much just run everything forward, while keeping my Tervigon and Zoans out of sight from any major shooting.
The counter attack from the Space wolves is pretty brutal in the first turn, almost wiping out all my screening units and leaving only my warlord in combat with the Blood claws. However I did strike down an independent character Chaplain in a challenge with the Prime, landing me 2 Victory points! The wolves charge and kill all the hormagaunts then consolidate back.
Turn 2:Only 2 broods of gargoyles and a unit of spores arrive from reserve.. probably the worst I have rolled in a long time! Termagaunts move in to support the Prime, as does the Deathleaper and another Lictor. Between Deathleaper, Lictor and the Prime the rest of the unit is destroyed before they get to attach back. The hormagaunts charge the tac squad dealing no damage and all being wiped out in return. The Lictor in the North flesh hooks a wolf taking a wound. The deep striking gargoyles behind the Devastators kill the Sgt, stopping their split fire ability. The Tervigon spawned 10 gants, and dries up.
The counter attack brings the Wolves out to destroy the Gargoyles in the front, while the scouts outflank finishing the Lictor in the north. The Landraider kills 15 gants while the spore mines attract most of the south firepower, luck rolls and some cover helped to save them from the first few units shooting them. They do die though.
Turn 3:Another Brood of Gargoyles arrive from reserve, Lictor deep strikes in behind the rune priest hiding in the rhino, and outflanking in the south the Ymgarl Lictor and Lictor. Another cluster of spores land exactly where the last ones died. The Prime and his new 15 strong body guard attempt to slow down the Wolves. The Wolves were blinded in the previous CC so this helped a little. Shooting from the Gargoyles and soon to charge gants only wound another wolf.
Deathleaper and the Lictor approach the Tac squad in front of the rhino, and even with 8 flesh hooks hitting the squad (The Prime and Lictor form outflank are in range to shoot), only the Meltagun is killed by a precision shot from Deathleaper. The gangs attempt to charge from cover, taking the overwatch hits, and the Deathleaper + Lictor charge in. In a massive blunder, Deathleaper fails to kill anyone and is unluckily taken out in a single round from 3 marines (banner rerolling 1's & counter charge). The other lictor is wounded but hold.
The battle between the wolves and gants continue, with a wolf dying, but the SS wolf saving way to many Inv Saves... including 3 Instant Death hits. At this stage the rune priests are at -4 LD from shadows and the Ill Discipline from all the lictors close by. The battle against the lone lictor goes in favour of the lictor, killing 3 marines and taking no hits in return. Using hit and run, the lictor moves a massive 17" right up behind the Dev Squad. The Dread shoots the Gargoyles and the scouts charge the remaining gargoyles.
Turn 4:With a perfectly placed lictor from the Hit and Run, the Mawloc is guided into the Full Tac squad in the rear, which had turned to focus on the Lictor behind the rhino. Killing all but 2 marines, the lictor which guided the mawloc then charged the Dev Squad. The Lictor behind the rhino then charged and killed the remaining 2 marines from the mawloc strike. The Prime and Lictor finished off the damaged tac squad from the previous turn, gaining Prefered Enemy with the Maw Claws. They consolidate into the cover. The other prime kills a wolf while the gants take the casualties. The Tervigon charged the Landraider but failed to hit completely.
The Landraider turns around to move to the Lictors in cover, and the objective, flaming the 2 lictors and prime, and after a torrent of fire from almost everywhere, all 3 models are all left with a single wound each left! The Zoan has been denied every turn, then the one time it does work, I fail to hit....
Turns 5, 6 and 7This was then a game of attrition, where the lictor and Prime hit the rhino, wrecking it then followed up the Rune Priest to challenge him, killing him with ease.
The last of my gants all were killed off in combat or by the dreadnought, leaving my warlord which killed the Space Wolf Lord, another IC killed gaining me +3 Vp (5 in total just from him!) however my warlord did eventually die. The lone Wolve just kept alive, the SS passing so many saves, even the Tervigon smashing every turn wasn't enough.
The Mawloc charged and destroyed the Landraider, to be shot up and left with a single wound on turn 5. I took the gamble and burrowed it turn 6 hoping for another turn, which payed off as it appeared again without scatter right under the remaining Dev Squad, killing them all and taking the objective from them.
End of the game:Tyranids:
1 Objective 3vp's
2 IC's slain by the warlord 4vps
Warlord Slain 1vp
Linebreaker 1vp9 Victory Points
Space Wolves:
Warlord Slain 1 Vp.
Thoughts:- Mawloc Bomb worked extremely well again. This works too many times for me now to be a gimmick or unreliable. With so many lictors around, it isn't hard to effectively guide these beast onto a target, and hit and run will provide even more opportunities.
- The Prime outflanking with a Lictor really shut down the enemy psychic abilities. Once the Prime moves in, the -4 LD is really something special. This is something I didn't realise before playing, and was a nice bonus.
- To maximise the effectiveness of the gargoyle bombs, the Lictors really need to be able to infiltrate forward as much as possible. That chosen of the Slain really did hamper that idea, but luckily it was somewhere negated by al the objectives close to the middle.
- Speaking of objectives, this play style needs to be aggressive, so place your objectives as far forward or close to the middle as possible, this will allow for a tight area in which the swarm tactics should pay off.
- I used the dethleaper in the first charge to get into base contact with the Powerfist. I didn't challenge, but they chose to, luckily I killed him. This was intentional as if he didn't challenge, I would have still probably killed the sgt first then the next few closest. It was really unlucky that the Deathleaper was killed in the way he was, but sometimes thats the way the dice go.
- Ymgarl Prime was not too bad, he did wreck the rhino and I didn't really get to see what else it could do, however his greater use was shutting down the psychic abilities.
- Lictors are still not able to take on squads by themselves, even having the Deathleaper and another Lictor hit 6 marines, the dances of receiving wounds back are pretty good, so try to engage them into existing combats where they can hit and kill the model in B2b, leaving nothing to strike back.
This was a really close game, and both sides were down to only a couple of models left. However, it was a really fun game, and I think that his list will do ok in the upcoming tournament. I doubt that he will face a tyranid list like mine there, I don't see to many other people running a swarm type army, especially one with so many lictors.