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I actually didn't make it to the 'Ard Boyz semi-finals, but I played against the guy who did - Janthkin of Dakkadakka. He actually came in 1st with his Nids at our FLGS out of 24 players. Thus, this match was more of a practice match for him. For me, it was my 1st game with my new, Work-in-progress Blood Angels, whom I call the Beat-down Angels. I've actually played against Kevin once before in a 1250 tournament. He was my 1st round opponent and played mechdar back then (batrep found here).

Againt him, I'll be using something new. This is actually a list that my brother tried out once against my Tyranids (that batrep can be found here). I actually liked his list and have most of the models anyways - the terminators, devastators and most of the assault marines. I did borrow some of his models though to complete my army. To increase to 2500, I just added more assault marines and devastators.

Without further ado, the armies:




THE BEAT-DOWN ANGELS (My Work-in-Progress list)
Mephiston

10x Assault Terminators - 3 LC's, 7 TH/SS
10x Assault Terminators - 3 LC's, 7 TH/SS
3x Sanguinary Priests - 1x Jump Pack + Power Weapon, 2x Terminator Armors

10x Assault Marines - 2x Meltas, Power Fist
10x Assault Marines - 2x Meltas, Power Fist
10x Assault Marines - 2x Flamers, Power Fist

5x Devastators - 4x Missile Launchers
5x Devastators - 4x Missile Launchers
5x Devastators - 4x Missile Launchers

Total - 2465





TYRANIDS
The Swarmlord
1x Tyrant Guard - Lash Whips

3x Hive Guards
3x Zoanthropes w/Mycetic Spore
7x Ymgarl Genestealers

20x Genestealers w/Toxin Sacs
8x Genestealers w/Toxin Sacs
10x Termagants
10x Termagants
Tervigon w/Cluster Spines, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, and Catalyst
Tervigon w/Cluster Spines, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, and Catalyst

20x Gargolyes w/Adrenal Glands & Toxin Sacs

Tyrannofex w/Cluster Spines, Desiccator Larvae, and Rupture Cannon
Tyrannofex w/Cluster Spines, Desiccator Larvae, and Rupture Cannon


I believe that is his army, but I forgot to take his army list.


It'll take me a couple of days to prepare the photos and report. In the meantime, how do you think my new Blood Angels will do? Do you think I can beat the #1 player?

(Psst - it's only 18x Genestealers w/Toxin Sacs.)

I need popcorn.

I'm saying that the nids most likely won. Your BA army isn't fast enough, and Mephiston would suffer from the Shadow in the Warp.

Can't really guess, the devs will really mangle the units but Mesiphon will get his head blown off, by the warp or other ai just know it (and want it to happen)

Pre-game Analysis:

Blood Angels: I hit real hard in combat. I have 12 missile launchers for some ranged anti-TMC. If I play it right, all my assault units should be furiously charging and with Feel No Pain. Mephiston is in danger from his Swarmlord but should be able to handle any of his other TMC's.

I can combat squad for 6 scoring units in objectives games and have a low Kill Point count. With FNP, I'm not too concerned with what little shooting he has. What I am concerned about is that large unit of genestealers. Poisoned FNP genes with re-rolls to hit and wound can be quite dangerous, even to my terminators. I'm also lacking in experience with this army and despite my jump infantry, my mobility is mediocre, especially with my 2 deathstar units. Most likely, I won't be able to get the charge off with them.


Tyranids: His army is deceptively strong. At first glance, it doesn't look very coherent IMO. Besides the tervigons and tyrannofexes, there isn't much redundancy. He's got some hitting power with his genestealers and the Swarmlord. Even the gargolyes can cause some damage if they get the charge off. His shooting isn't very threatening to my entirely foot army, though his hive guards and tyrannofexes will negate my FNP.

However, he is a canny general and I do see a lot of synergy within his army. His TMC's won't be easy to take out as all of them should be getting cover with the exception of the tyrannofexes (but with their 2+ saves, they don't care). In order to get rid of them, I'm going to have to assault them and in order to do that, I'm going to have to get past his many screening units - gaunts, gargolyes and genestealers. I don't have the boltguns to rapidly deplete his hordes and close combat with them is a tricky thing.

He is strong in objectives games and has the advantage there with his tervigons spawning more scoring units. In annihilation, I would say I have the advantage. I have a lower KP-count and my units are more durable. Deployment doesn't really matter as we both have to close in on each other to really do any damage. We both also have units that can deepstrike or outflank if necessary.


Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Dawn of War
Initiative: Blood Angels


BA 1

I deploy nothing. Everything comes in on turn 1. Terminators run. I make sure all are within Sanguinary Priest range.

Tyranids 1

He doesn't deploy anything as well. Most of his army walks on. The termagants, spore, ymgarls and small genestealer squad stay in reserves. Ymgarls will be coming out of terrain and the small genestealer unit will be outflanking.

BA 2

My army advances and those who don't shoot run. I fire 2 squads of devastators at his zoanthropes and only kill 1.

Tyranids 2

Only the genestealers and 1 squad of termagants come in from reserves. The genestealers outflank from the right. He shifts his units to my right. His tervigon spawns 11 gaunts. He concentrates all his shooting on my right terminators and shoot down 3.


He then assaults with his gargolyes. I kill 9 gargolyes and another 2 dies to No Retreat (they had FNP from his tervigon)

BA: 0, Tyranids: 0


BA 3

My army advances and runs. In shooting, my devastators are only able to kill 1 zoan and put 1W on the other zoan. That's 12 missile launchers I fired at them!


In assault, I roll badly for my terminators and only kill 4-5 gargolyes. Are you kidding me!?! WTF! We remain locked in combat.

BA: 0, Tyranids: 0


Tyranids 3

His gaunts form a conga line. Here we have a rules dispute. His zoan fires its warp blast at my clustered marines from behind his gaunts. I argue that I get cover as the zoan is an infantry model and is firing through his own infantry. He argues that the zoan is firing over his infantry and that his LOS is not blocked at all. Anyways, I did not get cover but despite 6 assault marines getting hit, I only lose 2 thanks to FNP. I would later check online and it turns out he was correct after all. However, while firing its warp blast, the already wounded zoan croaks to Perils and dies.


Both genestealer squads go after my guys. The bigger squad goes after my assault termies. The smaller, outflanking one goes after my assault marines.


Assault. The Swarmlord put Prefered Enemy on the large genestealer squad and they hit my termies pretty hard. They kill all my TH/SS termies. In return I kill off the rest of his gargolyes and just a couple of genes. In the scruff with my assault marines, I lose both meltaguns and only kill 1 genestealer and 1 gaunt for a tied combat.

BA: 2, Tyranids: 0


To be continued...

Thanks for the report and pics. Looking forward to it's completion.

- Blackbone

FOR THE EMPEROR??

BA 4

Overview of the carnage so far. My left units are out of position as all the action is happening on the right flank.


I shift my forces to where the action is. My devastators put a couple of wounds on his tervigon. Also, last turn his spore came in and he dropped it in his deployment zone away from the action. I didn't forget about that and I pop it with one of my devastator squads.


Mephistons fails to cast Wings of Sanguinius to reach his tervigons/tyrannofexes, so I decide to assault him into the assault marine/genestealer/termagant fight.


Unfortunately, the genes kill off all but 2 assault marines and I only kill some gaunts. Mephiston does make his LD test, but the assault marines fail and fall back (they would be escorted off the table). Genes consolidate towards my flamer assault squad. In the scuffle with my termies, I only kill a couple of his genestealers and they wipe out all (including the Sanguinary Priest) but 1 assault terminator. He sticks around.

BA: 3, Tyranids: 2


Tyranids 4

The rest of his reserves come in - termagants and ymgarls. The ymgarls pop out from the right area terrain near my deployment zone. His tervigon spawns 8 gaunts and then dries out. His Swarmlord tries to cast Paroyxsm but Mephiston's hood blocks it (that was the only power my hood was able to block all game).


His 2 squads of termagants create a wall blocking off his left flank. The newly spawned gaunts enter into the Mephiston-termagant melee, his 7-genes charge my flamer assault marines and the ymgarls assault my right devastators.


Mephiston kill some gaunts, but his large squad of genes wipes out my lone terminator.


The small squad of genes beat my flamer marines (they were weakened from shooting by his hive guards and tyrannofexes), killing the sanguinary priest and causing the squad to fall back. They would also be escorted off the table. Finally, the ymgarls wipe out the devastators. Ouch, what a painful turn.

BA: 3, Tyranids: 6


BA 5
My left assault terminators and marines get ready to assault his genestealers and gaunt screens. My devastators open fire on his ymgarls and kill all but 2.


I multi-assault with my left assault squad and terminators into his genestealers and wall of 2 termagant squads. I wipe out all his gaunts and some genestealers. In return, he kills off half my terminators and my Sanguinary Priest as well. Mephiston wipes out 1 squad of gaunts and a couple more from the other squad dies to No Retreat.

BA: 6, Tyranids: 7


Tyranids 5

His T-monsters (tervigons and tyrannofexes) go after my assault marines. However, their shooting along with the hive guards kill enough to force me into a Morale test, which I proceed to fail. My marines fall back and he decides not to assault them.


His small squad of genes and the ymgarls assault my 2 devastator squads. Before.


And after.

And for the main event:

Mephiston vs the Swarmlord. Place your bets, gentlemen. Before.


And after.

His genes also kill 3 more assault termies.

BA: 6, Tyranids: 10


BA 6

He finally wipes out my terminators. My assault marines cannot recover as he keeps a unit within 6" of them and thus, I am tabled.

BA: 6, Tyranids: 12



Victory to the Tyranids!

As expected, the gaunts and bigger bugs tied up the termies for the Genestealers to come save the day

Good game, great pics.

WarEagle wrote:As expected, the gaunts and bigger bugs tied up the termies for the Genestealers to come save the day

*blink* None of my big bugs wanted anything to do with the Termies and their thunder hammers; I even declined to send the Swarmlord in there. Had some nice delay-action from the gargoyles, but after that, the Genestealers charged one squad, and accepted the charge from the other, and won in both cases.

I got some seriously heavy lifting out of that 18 man 'stealer squad. Poison is lovely, and the rounds where I could get Preferred Enemy on them were devastating. I had a bit of luck, in that the Ymgarl stayed out of the game on turn 2 - at that stage, there was a complete wall of assault termies between them and the juicy dev squads they wanted to hit.

It was a good game.

You never said what happened to Mephiston.

phantommaster wrote:You never said what happened to Mephiston.

He decided to go have tea & crumpets, rather than hang out with his BA homies.

The Lash whip-equipped Tyrant Guard dropped him to Init 1. At init 6, 5 attacks from the charging Swarmlord, 3 hits, 2 wounds, instant death.

If Mephiston would have passed his psychic test for Wings, I would've flew over to where his tyrannofexes and tervies were and assaulted them. Alas, he failed so rather than standing there like an idiot, he decided to assault the gaunts. Turned out to be a mistake as they tied him up until the Swarmlord came to finish him off.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@Janthkin:

Next time I'll give you more of a challenge with either my Space Wolves or my Nids even.

Good luck at the semi's.

jy2 wrote:Pre-game Analysis:
My army advances and runs. In shooting, my devastators are only able to kill 1 zoan and put 1W on the other zoan. That's 12 missile launchers I fired at them!

correct me if I'm wrong but I think you actually counted each missile shot as 1 wound but seeing as how the missiles are double the toughness of the zoanthropes and you wounded 3 times they should have all died.

hivefleetmonolith wrote:

jy2 wrote:Pre-game Analysis:
My army advances and runs. In shooting, my devastators are only able to kill 1 zoan and put 1W on the other zoan. That's 12 missile launchers I fired at them!

correct me if I'm wrong but I think you actually counted each missile shot as 1 wound but seeing as how the missiles are double the toughness of the zoanthropes and you wounded 3 times they should have all died.

Hmmm...you are right. I must have remembered incorrectly (I don't think the both of us would make that oversight regarding the instakill). When I fired my missile launchers at them, I was hoping to take them out by insta-death. My devastators probably only caused 1 wound to them, killing 1 (he made a lot of those saves). Then it must have been my assault squad who put the 1W on the other zoan with their bolt pistols.

Janthkin wrote:

WarEagle wrote:As expected, the gaunts and bigger bugs tied up the termies for the Genestealers to come save the day

*blink* None of my big bugs wanted anything to do with the Termies and their thunder hammers; I even declined to send the Swarmlord in there. Had some nice delay-action from the gargoyles, but after that, the Genestealers charged one squad, and accepted the charge from the other, and won in both cases.

I got some seriously heavy lifting out of that 18 man 'stealer squad. Poison is lovely, and the rounds where I could get Preferred Enemy on them were devastating. I had a bit of luck, in that the Ymgarl stayed out of the game on turn 2 - at that stage, there was a complete wall of assault termies between them and the juicy dev squads they wanted to hit.

It was a good game.

haha Well Yeah I know you didnt want anything to do with the termies, but the termies wanted something to do with you. My first comment was saying that your big bugs tied the termies up (unwillingly but effectively) and yeah my Toxin Stealers slay termi squads.

jy2 wrote:Hmmm...you are right. I must have remembered incorrectly (I don't think the both of us would make that oversight regarding the instakill). When I fired my missile launchers at them, I was hoping to take them out by insta-death. My devastators probably only caused 1 wound to them, killing 1 (he made a lot of those saves). Then it must have been my assault squad who put the 1W on the other zoan with their bolt pistols.

This. 2 melta wounds (saved), and 1 pistol wound (failed).

That was a great battle. Originally I was thinking the BA would curbstomp the Nids. That was very well played Janthkin.

Yay Tyranids got a healthy lunch!!!

The blood angel player made a huge movement error splitting up his army like that, and Janthkin did very well to capitalize on it. Very well played.

I was also curious why the BA player advanced at all. He had 12 missile launcher shots a turn to blast away with and most the Tyranid units would not benefit from armor saves while he was sitting on 3+ and FNP (the equivalent of Terminator armor) on his entire army.

Also, shooting the Zoathropes who would have to expose themselves to a charge seems a waste (especially when there are no juicy targets like a LR for their lances). With a hood the Zoa's fail their rest 1/4 of the time, have the successful test hooded around 1/3 of the time on a success (on aggregate a 50% chance for the shot to fail from the get go) then there is FNP, scatter on the blast or to his and the Zoa's really struggle to do much at all!

Regardless, I like to hang out near terrain now a days for those annoying Genestealers. No grenades negates a significant portion of their effectiveness.

calypso2ts wrote:I was also curious why the BA player advanced at all. He had 12 missile launcher shots a turn to blast away with and most the Tyranid units would not benefit from armor saves while he was sitting on 3+ and FNP (the equivalent of Terminator armor) on his entire army.

That part's easy. T-fexes have 2+ armor, and were giving cover to the Tervigons. FNP works fine on krak missiles. Meanwhile, Hive Guard & Rupture cannon shots don't allow FNP for anything on his side of the board. He wasn't going to win by shooting in a KP mission.

Also, shooting the Zoathropes who would have to expose themselves to a charge seems a waste (especially when there are no juicy targets like a LR for their lances). With a hood the Zoa's fail their rest 1/4 of the time, have the successful test hooded around 1/3 of the time on a success (on aggregate a 50% chance for the shot to fail from the get go) then there is FNP, scatter on the blast or to his and the Zoa's really struggle to do much at all!

I think it was a question of "best bang for the buck" - they were the easiest KP to obtain, and their Lances where a threat to Terminators and Mephiston. (And your math is off - a Ld 10 Zoanthrope fails a psychic test 1/12 of the time.)

Regardless, I like to hang out near terrain now a days for those annoying Genestealers. No grenades negates a significant portion of their effectiveness.

And that's why I run 18 of them, with FNP.

Very good batrep. Thanks for sharing.

G

yermom wrote:The blood angel player made a huge movement error splitting up his army like that, and Janthkin did very well to capitalize on it. Very well played.

2 main reasons really.

1) Outflanking/infiltrating genes.

2) Dormant ymgarls.

I was really trying to protect my flanks from them. But then he shifted his army to the right and it took me longer to react due to the distance between the 2 flanks. But as you can see from turn 2, I started shifting my left devastators to the right so that they can get a shot. Also, as Janthkin mentioned earlier, he got lucky that his ymgarls didn't come in earlier. Otherwise I would've ate them for lunch and then he wouldn't have been able to go after my devastators. It would've been a whole different ballgame.

But props to Janthkin for taking advantage of my deployment and concentrating his entire army on my right flank. He played it very well and I'd have done the exact same thing if the shoes were on the other foot.

calypso2ts wrote:I was also curious why the BA player advanced at all. He had 12 missile launcher shots a turn to blast away with and most the Tyranid units would not benefit from armor saves while he was sitting on 3+ and FNP (the equivalent of Terminator armor) on his entire army.

Also, shooting the Zoathropes who would have to expose themselves to a charge seems a waste (especially when there are no juicy targets like a LR for their lances). With a hood the Zoa's fail their rest 1/4 of the time, have the successful test hooded around 1/3 of the time on a success (on aggregate a 50% chance for the shot to fail from the get go) then there is FNP, scatter on the blast or to his and the Zoa's really struggle to do much at all!

Regardless, I like to hang out near terrain now a days for those annoying Genestealers. No grenades negates a significant portion of their effectiveness.

I suppose I could've hung back. I'd probably have the advantage too. Shoot at his zoans and his spore for 2 easy kill points and let him come to me. However, this is cc-nids versus assaulty BA you're talking about. Sitting back to shoot each other to death would be about as fun to play for me as shooty IG and Tau trying to assault each other rather than shooting each other to death.

All the targets were tough choices for my devastators. T-fexes have their 2+ and the tervies and Swarmlord have their 4+ cover and possibly FNP. The easiest target is actually the zoans. Sure they have 3+ saves, but they don't get FNP and they can be insta-killed from my missile launchers.

And Janthkin wouldn't be so foolish as to assault me in cover. He'd reroute and go for the easier kill points not in cover (unless it was my devastators in cover).

Very good report and nice pics, thanks for the read! Props to the nid guy for a well played battle, though I wouldn't call the list CC nids. More like balanced nids with a tip towards CC.

IG and Tau trying to assault each other rather than shooting each other to death.


This actually sounds like great fun!

Janthkin wrote: (And your math is off - a Ld 10 Zoanthrope fails a psychic test 1/12 of the time.)

oops, good catch on that, was doing it for ld. 9! The overall chance to have the psychic powers negated before shooting (however) are:

---
There are 36 'combinations' you can roll on 2d6 (6*6). Some of these are repeats.

6-6, 6-5, and 5-6 all are failed psychic tests which correponds to 3/16 or 1/12

The remaining 11/12 of the time they roll off at ld 10 on a hood. There are again 36 possible combinations, 18 of which are wins or ties 6 possible ties is 1/3 chance to winwiht a hood (or 4/12).

5/12 with the hood and failed test is 40% chance to fail with a test and hood.

Add in shooting - 1/3 misses, 1 in 6 failed wounds on the 2/3 hits.

40% - Pyschic Tests
20% - Misses on the remaining 60%
6% - Hits that fail to wound
66% of the time the Zoathropes fail to inflict a wound

Since they are firing through cover (behind their own Termagaunts give them a 4+ cover)
22% of lance hits wound. With a range of 18" (right?) I would sit back and let them think about getting close enough for me to crush them in assault.

Rerouting those stealers also means you get the chance for the charge with your superior mobility, you get the chance to fire bolt pistols, rockets, et cetera. I also probably would have reserved all the jump packs now I think of it as well. For a friendly game though, going forward is certainly more fun but you labeled this 'Ard Boyz practice!

calypso2ts wrote:Since they are firing through cover (behind their own Termagaunts give them a 4+ cover)
22% of lance hits wound. With a range of 18" (right?) I would sit back and let them think about getting close enough for me to crush them in assault.

There's a difference between firing THROUGH and firing OVER. No cover from Termagants standing directly in front of Zoanthropes.

21/36 of the possible results of a psychic hood test allow the power to go through. The total is about a 29.7% chance of inflicting a wound with Warp Lance against anything not T9 or higher (11/12 * 21/36 * 2/3 * 5/6). And they were still the easiest KP to obtain.

This just baffles me. Terminators go together, so if you deal with 10, you deal with 20. And they go in the center, so that they're always a threat. The jump packs go on the sides, not the terminators, as they can react to other threats better.

I don't really see any reason why the BAs should have lost this one.

Oh, and take some death company. Lots of them. Rather than a few crappy missle launchers, take a bunch of powerfists on death company. No fnp from that, and with Lemartes you can reroll it!

Lemartes is a beast himself after taking a wound. Like 7 S6 attacks, re-rolling everything? Pretty sick. And the Swarmlord can't single him out, so he pretty much takes that in the face.