Eldar won the roll off and allowed the tyranids to deploy first, the elves wanted both the last movement to the objecties, and to see how the tyranid would set up.

Nids formed a line, the plan is to sweep directly across the board as quickly as possible and trap the speedy space elves in their corner as best I can. I figure the termagants will best be able to respond to the jet bikes when they come in, so they were deployed to the eldar side of the board, while the hormagaunts would be more capable of zipping around the outside of the bastion.


To counter this the eldar deployed as far back in their zone as possible. The wave serpent was out of range to any threats, and the warp spiders had really good cover, and should be able to jump forward and burn some gaunts or stealers right off the bat. Jet bikes were kept in reserve to zip around the horde and get to the objective.


Genestealers infiltrated into the ruins, hoping to lure the warp spiders close and hope they fail on their running away jump.

Tyranids turn one:
Nothing in range of the dooms psychic powers, so he and everyone else just moved, and then ran forwards. The hormagaunts seemed to gain ground quickly. Genestealers spread out a bit, but didn't do much else, they wanted to keep in their ruins. No shooting, and no assaults. (It is possible for hormagaunts to make assault turn one now.)


Eldar turn one:
The eldar backed off a bit, warp spiders rolled poorly on their warp jump, so they got farther away instead of closer. Those hormagaunts really move quickly. Wave serpent took some pot shots at the stealers. Cover effecting your to hit really cut down on the regular weaponry, but made the serpent shield that much better. Two stealers die.


Turn one wrap up:
Not much on the first turn. minor modifications to note: These two armies are still mostly in the high speed side of the movement range, so the difference in mobility and maneuvering is not as apparent as I was expecting to see. Star cannon profile is different, to give it more of a niche then compared to the other heavy weapons it is now a heavy 3 on the standard profile, and has added in a str 4 ap4 ignore cover small blast. There was never an occasion to use that.

Tyranid turn two:
Speed of the hormagaunts becomes more apparent on the second turn as they continue to sprint forwards, they have the additional movement available to cross the face of the warriors and genestealers, channeling right up the inside of the bastion terrain. The genestealers flank outside of it, hopping to trap the spiders as they make a move up the board.


Venom cannon is just useless. Str 6 is not enough to be an anti vehicle, and the barbed strangler would have done more damage to the infantry. Once again Doom and gants move forward trying to keep a wide flank on the eldar, and prepare for the bikers. The potential charge range of the hormagaunts being 15 inches, they attempted to assault the wave serpent. While they could not harm it, the force would have moved forwards closer. Two gants were killed by the defensive weapon of the serpent (underslung shurican catapults.) Sadly the assault roll they made was only five inches, even with fleet.

Eldar turn two:
Warp spiders get a decent jump, they position themselves to run and then shoot the hormagaunts. The wave serpent sidles up to the area terrain and lets out the dire avengers. The hope is to shoot up the doom and hopefully cause enough damage to kill him next turn. The jet bikers come in to support that, staying at extreme range, so they can duck behind the ruins in the corner afterwards.

Spiders unload a world of hurt on the hormagaunts, taking out all of them in range.

When all is said and done, I believe there were only a couple of gaunts left. Dire avengers and serpent put a couple of wounds on the doom.

Turn two wrap up:
Well, that's why I bumped up the cost of the spiders. They did manage to put out some 16 wounds in a single shooting phase. On the other hand, the gaunts were extremely fast and covered about thirty inches of space in only two turns. Taken in multiple swarms, that could have been a real head ache for the eldar.

Tyranid turn three:
A psychic phase! Doom of Malan'tai cast paroxysm on the dire avengers in the hopes that bringing down there bs and ws the remaining two hormogaunts could make it into combat and kill a couple. Power went off, time for movement phase. Doom continued on his way towards the dire avengers, planning on blasting them and recovering some wounds in the process. Termagants moved towards the ruins hiding the jet bikes, I hope their massed fire will kill one or two of them, and hopefully the fail a leadership test.

Warriors and genestealers continue their way around the bastion, while the two remaining gaunts move towards the dire avengers. Genestealers got a fantastic move through cover roll and got to around the corner, now I had to make the decision to go after the spiders, or try and hit the wave serpent.


Venom cannon from the warrior squad fired and hit two warp spiders, both made their saves. Doom failed his psychic test for warp blast. Line of sight blocked most of the termagants from shooting the jet bikers. Due to the jink cover save the gants were snap shooting. -2 to hit modifier. Some dozen shots hit a couple of times and managed a pair of wounds, but both armor saves were made.
The hormagaunts charged the dire avengers anyway, but this was a huge mistake as I had forgotten about the defend power on the exarch, allowing them to shoot at their normal ballistic skill. This had been reduced to 2, but still a handful of hits only needed two wounds to kill the pair of gaunts.

Running in the shooting phase, the genestealers ended up seven inches from the wave serpent, they charged and just made close combat. The three close combat specialists managed to get a pair of rending pens, one blew off the under slung shuriken catapults and immobilized it.

Eldar turn three.
Jetbikes moved back into range against the doom, as did the dire avengers. The wave serpent still had a good range at him as well. Warp spiders made a good jump roll and leapt towards the warriors. They ran forward even closer, hitting the three warriors nine times. Seven wounds caused a couple of rends, and four wounds got through. They then whiffed a bit on their assault jump, getting only six inches away. Bikers and the wave serpent killed the doom of malan'tai, he just couldn't make his saves.

The dire avengers fired at the genestealers, but were unable to hit, due to paroxysm, and the -3 to hit from cover and stealth.

In the assault phase, the genestealers auto hit and ripped the wave serpent apart, causing an explosion. Nobody from either side was hurt in the blast though.


Turn three wrap up:
Losing the doom was rough for the nids, but losing the wave serpent was equally rough for the eldar. The game is going back and forth depending upon who is doing the shooting. Those jetbikes are going to be pretty tough to bring down in the next turn or two, I have to rely on termagants to make their instinctive behavior test, or hope that they can cause damage while they are hiding. The eldar, just want to continue whittling away at the tyranid troops, if the warp spiders get one more turn of shooting at things, chances are they will win the day.

Tyranid turn four.
Right off the bat, the termagants fail their leadership and roll the dreaded one. Broken, the gants run away from the bikers and towards my far off table edge. They did have a chance to snap fire with some twenty shots at the bikers, but with snap shot, and then the -2 to hit, only one hit was caused and it didn't even wound. Genestealers moved swiftly across the board on the other side, towards the warp spiders, as did the tyranid warriors. Fire from the warriors killed another spider, and it was time to charge. Warriors went first, soaking up the over watch and losing the wounded warrior, they then rolled a 3 and failed their charge. Sidling just a touch closer to their intended target. The genestealers were much more successful. Rolling a ten and leaping into the spiders, multiple arms swinging, they quickly felled both remaining spiders, and put a wound on the autarch. No return damage was caused.


Eldar turn four:
Dire avengers had no particular targets this turn, so they moved towards the eldar home objective and extreme range in case the genestealers survived the autarch and made a b-line for the points. On the other end, the bikers shadowed the termagants, moving to the most exposed side of devourer wielding gants. Fire power from them killed four, and in assault move, they jumped closer to the tyranid objective. Assault phase came quick as both sides are running out of units. Genestealers swing and completely whiff, causing only a single wound, and that is saved on the Autarchs armor. Autarch also whiffs, and is unable to cause a wound.

Turn four wrap up:
Things are turning against the tyranids a little bit. The warrior who was planning on charging into the fight with the Autarch, now has to change direction and hope he can catch the termagants before they make it to the board edge. I can't assume that they will recover their morale on their own. That leaves the three genestealers to take on the eldar HQ themselves, and possibly have to go kill the dire avengers as well. Eldar, on the other hand are sitting quite well. Live or die, the Autarch should slow down the genestealers, and the need to split forces for they tyranids means they shouldn't have enough to cover the objectives. Jet bikes are too cheap. I think I will likely bump them all the way up to twenty points apiece. -2 cover with movement makes them hard to hit even for a space marine style army.

Tyranid turn five:
Termaganst sure enough, do not rally on their own, instead they book it another 8 inches or so. This forces the only remaining synapse to turn and book it for the gants, hoping that he can reach them before they get to the board edge. This is where the one inch difference in movement starts to effect him. He get's lucky and manages a 6" run, but will need another, similar roll to get there next turn. Gants snap shoot at the bikes once more, but the follow up roll of 5 is too much, and there are no hits. Genestealers and the Autarch go at it once more, both sides cause a pair of wounds, however the autarch just kills things, while his invul protects him from the rending wounds.


Eldar turn five:
Jet bikes once again move towards the objective, fire their guns and kill three more gants, two of them with devourers. Dire avengers have nothing to do, and it comes to the autarch swinging at the lone remaining genestealer. He puts the stealer down, as the tyranid melee creature whiffs and causes not a single wound. Free from the combat, the eldar Autarch consolidates towards the lone warrior chasing the gants.


Turn five wrap up:
This looks like it could be the final death knell for the tyranids. The best they can hope for is a draw. There is no way that the warrior will be able to make it to the gants, and then back to the objective on the eldar side of the table. In the process though, he will likely have to take out an eldar Autarch single handed. He doesn't even have a particularly good gun for that.

Tyranid turn six:
Termagants make it right to the board edge. half an inch from the first of them heading off into nothingness. (They failed their leadership again.) The warrior however, pulls out a minor miracle and gets himself just within 12 inches of the squad, so they recover. The now fearless gants fire at the one biker they can see, and manage to kill him, however the bikes make their leadership, and now it's the end times.

Eldar turn six:
Autarch takes a chance and warp jumps to catch up to the lone warrior. Death spinner causes a single wound to the tyranid leader creature, followed up by an assault that lands three power sword wounds on the poor creature. Without even a chance to swing back, the warrior dies an inglorious death.

Turn six/game wrap up:
That was that. The warrior dead, the game ends on six, the eldar control both objectives, and have nearly wiped the tyranids from the table. There were a couple moments there where the tyranids seem to be gaining the upper hand. Defend rule I believe turns the dire avengers exactly into what they should be, talented objective holders, who are very difficult to shift via shooting, or close combat. Bikes were a little too hard to hit, although most of the time, the fire power shooting at them was snap fire anyway. I might try them again at the current points cost, but I believe it likely they will be worth the price boost. Also would reflect how they should be rarer then rangers and avengers. I think the doom was well costed for the potential for damage he has. Teamed up with an escort of zoanthropes he would be very powerful. 4 lance or blast shots from the unit, plus one other power? A warrior prime, and possibly one other hq should I believe be an option for small point games for nids, perhaps a return of the parasite of mortrax as well. I think next I will try using some of my power armor bodies for testing out a different army codex, with a better movement difference, as well as a different style of play. Walkers also.