This is the first of six battle reports from the June 13th Astronomi-con tournament in Toronto, Canada. 1500Pts
See
my Astronomicon Toronto thread in the Tournaments forum for an overview of the tables and some of the armies present.
Astro Toronto Battle Reports:
Game 1 vs Mech Imperial Guard
This Thread
Game 2 vs Leafblower Imperial Guard
Game 3 (coming soon)
Game 4 (coming soon)
Game 5 (coming soon)
Game 6 (coming soon)
For something new, I'm attempting to weave the six battles into some sort of narrative (see text in
italics).
Tyranids:
HQ: Hive Tyrant (Heavy Venom Cannon, Scything Talons, Paroxysm, Leech Essence, Adrenal Glands)
Elite: 3 Zoanthropes
Elite: 3 Hive Guard
Troops: 10 Genestealers (Toxin Sacs)
Troops: 3 Warriors (2x Deathspitters, 1x Venom Cannon; all with dual Boneswords)
Troops: 4 Warriors (Scything Talons, Rending Claws, Toxin Sacs)
FA: Harpy (Twinlinked Stranglethorn Cannon, Cluster Spines, Adrenal Glands)
FA: Meiotic Spore Sack
FA: Meiotic Spore Sack
HS: Trygon (Adrenal Glands)
Imperial Guard
HQ: Company Command Squad (2 Plasmaguns, Medic, Master of Ordnance) in a Chimera (Autocannon, HHB, extra armour)
Troops: Veterans (2 Melta, 1 Flamer) in a Chimera (Autocannon, HHB)
x4
Fast: Hellhound (HHF, Pintle Heavy Stubber)
Fast: Squadron of 2 Tauros Venators (
TwL Multilasers)
Heavy: Leman Russ Battle Tank (
HLC)
x2
Table/Mission:: Err Supply
Deployment: Table Quarters
Special Rules: Dawn (turn 1 Nightfight); Supply Pallets: 3 Supply Pallets drop at the top of turn 2, scattering from the board center. These are the game objectives.
Primary Objective:
Hold more uncontested Supply Pallets than opponent
Secondary Objectives: +1 each: Hold 2 more Supply Pallets than opponent does; Own General within 6” of a Supply Pallet; Opponent neither controls nor contests any Supply Pallets
Price of Failure (-1 each): Hold or contest NO Supply Pallets; No enemy units destroyed/fleeing; Enemy unit in your deployment zone.
Wreckage of Imperial and Tyranid ships littered the planet of Astrotoronto. The fleets had all but destroyed one another: only a few Blood Angel escorts remained in orbit, hunting the last few Tyranid drones. The Tyranid forces from the ships that had successfully made planetfall had converged on the Blood Angels` outpost, leaving the creatures from a single Cruiser as a rearguard force. Though the destruction of the outposts seemed assured, the Hive Mind had felt strange warp energies piercing its Shadow – energies called by the doomed Marines themselves in their desperation. The main Tyranid force had been obliterated by the dark energies.
As the warp energies faded, the rearguard Hive Tyrant tuned its psychic senses in to the radio frequencies used by the food to communicate, and called on the linguistic understanding that the Genestealers had absorbed from consuming their prey. Orders issued from the Blood Angels`outpost, instructing the planetary defense forces to sally forth from their citadels to retrieve unspecified `supplies` from the scorched battlefield where the Tyranid force had been, and to deliver them to the outpost.
The Hive Tyrant summoned its retinue as it raced through the night towards the indicated coordinates; determined to intercept the unknown supplies for the Great Devourer (and deny them to the food). Arriving just as twilight began to break, it brought itself up short – there was nothing at the indicated coordinates, but strange ripples in the warp could be sensed even as the sound of many engines echoed from ahead.
Deployment:
Tyranids won the roll for deployment choice, and I chose to deploy first and take the first turn. I selected the corner that left my opponent with the least cover in his own corner.
I placed my main force in a tight “brick” as far forward as possible: Zoanthropes out front as mobile cover, then Tyrant + Guard, then Hive Guard, with
CC Warriors on the left side of the brick. My Shooty Warriors and the Biovore deployed in the middle of the short edge of the board, with some tasty cover one turn away. I figured that even if he stole the initiative, the first turn nightfight would prevent my brick from being battle-cannoned.
Genestealers outflanking; Harpy, Trygon, Meiotic Spores deepstriking
The Imperial Guard deployed three Veteran Chimerae forward, with 2 Battle Tanks a little back and the Command Chimera covering the rear. He reserved his 4th mounted Veteran squad, the Hellhound, and the Venators.
The Imperial Guard fail to steal the initiative.
Tyranids Turn 1:
The Tyranids moved out quietly under cover of darkness, loosening up formation. Warriors ran towards cover, while the Tyrant's Heavy Venom Cannon sluiced over the lead Chimera, pitting and cracking its targeting sensors (The Tyrant was the only Tyranid to make a decent spotting roll, glancing and shaking the center-most transport)
Imperial Guard Turn 1:
The Chimerae parked while the 2 Tanks rumbled forwards. A blinding light cut through the twilight as the shaken Chimera's searchlight played over the fields, seeking the source of the venom which had scarred it. Catching an odd reflection from an upturned horn in the distance, the operating guardsman angled the light down to illuminate the bulk of a Hive Tyrant. Smaller shadows swarmed all around it (he made a really long spotting roll with his first searchlight).
“Target acquired: it's a big one!”, the radio crackled, “All guns, fire on my mark...”
Two turrets swiveled hastily, and a double roar echoed through the dawn. Two dirt-muffled explosions followed as the battle cannon rounds both sailed over the heads of the aliens, grounding out harmlessly behind them.
“...uh...mark...? (gulp)”
A steady chatter of rounds erupted from the more disciplined Chimera crews. The heavy bolter rounds failed to damage the huge creature, and the autocannon rounds bounced off of some invisible force field to the fore of the beast.
(Yep...all the combined shooting of the
IG failed to cause a single wound. Lots of 3's and 4's were rolled for Heavy Bolter wounds, and several cover saves made against the autocannons thanks to the Zoeys out front covering the Tyrant Guard)
TyranidsTurn 2:
Dawn finally broke and the ripples from the warp intensified suddenly, coalescing into three seemingly mundane piles of crates. Inhuman mewling sounds emanated from the vessels, plaintively crying out for release. The crates had materialized nearly under the feet of advancing Tyranids, and they licked their teeth in anticipation – then reared back as the silhouettes of Imperial tanks and armored transports were thrown into sharp relief by the rising sun.
(triangular marker indicates board center, from where the pallets scattered...minimally).
A Harpy descended from the sky behind the Tyranid vanguard, its stranglethorn cannons seeking soft human targets but sensing only metal shells. The winged beast shrieked in frustration.
The ground between the vehicles shook and a Trygon burst forth in a shower of earth and rock.
As the serpentine beast extracted its bulk from the ground, psychic energies crackled and sparked from its containment spines into the exposed engines and fuel tanks of a Leman Russ. Fuel lines melted and ignited, exploding the vehicle. Warp Lances from the Zoanthropes drilled through the front of the second tank, setting off its ammunition and causing another explosion!
The Hive Guards' impaler cannons launched their living spines towards a Chimera, but while two spines penetrated the crew compartment and terrified both driver and gunners, no third explosion was imminent (2 pens, 2 stuns). The Hive Tyrant's venom cannon scattered wide, but the Harpy's stranglethorn cannon landed a glancing hit that bent the autocannon of a second transport off of true.
Imperial Guard Turn 2:
Though the rumble of more engines could be heard in the distance, no Imperial reinforcements had yet arrived on the scene (failed all his reserves rolls). The Chimera transports repositioned quickly to surround the Trygon while maintaining some distance. Plasmagunners and Meltagunners braced their weapons on the edge of the rear hatches and poured fire into the huge beast that towered over them, as turret autocannons boomed over their heads. The combined fire of the entire Imperial force riddled the monster with gaping holes and plasma burns. With a final surprised hiss its body descended, coil after smoking coil, onto the battlefield.
TyranidsTurn 3:
The Command chimera plasmagunners were still high-fiving one another over the defeat of the Trygon when they looked down and behind them, to see a horde of Genestealers silently scuttling up to their transport. Ahead, a Meiotic Spore Sack plummeted to earth (summoned from a Prowler Drone passing overhead) narrowly missing the lead Chimera. The giant Spore floated ominously, its turgid venom sacs protruting grotesquely from under its protective carapace.
Impaler cannon spines hailed into one Chimera while Warp Lances shot into another. Both transports exploded, and only a few guardsman managed to crawl out of the wreckage of each. The Harpy's stranglethorn cannon landed as they stood to their feet, killing several more; the remaining men turned away in terror.
The Genestealers scrabbled at the armoured hull of the Command Chimera, but managed to do no more than force the crew to button down (only two rends from 30 attacks, for one Shaken and one Stunned, downgraded to Shaken by extra armour)
Imperial Guard Turn 3:
The few remaining soldiers from the exploded Chimerae staggered away dazedly from the approaching Tyranids.
The roar of engines grew louder and another Chimera came in on the Tyranid flank, supported by two Tauror Venators.
The Command Chimera drove away from the Genestealers at top speed. The Company Commander bellowed at the fleeing guardsmen over the Chimera's external loudspeakers, exhorting them to Get Back In The Fight!. Both units rallied.
Fire from the Venators and the reserve Chimera felled two of the four
CC Warriors which had moved to secure the northern objective. The rallied veterans shot at the Meiotic Spore Sack, but the meltagun missed and the lasguns were unable to do more than graze its thick blubber (T5, so needed 6's to wound). Autocannon fire from the central Chimera managed to put a wound on the Hive Tyrant, and its passengers' lasguns put a wound on a Zoanthrope.
TyranidsTurn 4:
A second Meiotic Spore Sack plummeted to earth, narrowly missing the exposed Guardsmen.
The
CC Warriors moved towards the flanking vehicles...then ran back towards the supply pallets at the behest of the Hive Mind (oops – I should have moved them back into cover instead of being aggressive, I forgot that I needed all my troop units for the supply pallets until the shooting phase). The shooty Warriors ran towards the central pallet as the other Tyranids moved forwards to shield them as best they could.
Side shots from Zoanthrope Warp Lances destroyed the central Chimera, and its passengers bailed out only to lose a few soldiers to a scattering stranglethorn cannon shot from the Harpy. The Hive Guard penetrated and, yes, exploded the reserve Chimera with their impaler cannons. The Hive Tyrant's Heavy Venom Cannon melted the multilaser off of one of the Venators.
Genestealers assaulted the Command Chimera again, and this time their claws pierced the fuel tanks and exploded it! The Command squad was largely unharmed, due to the medic. However, the Master of Ordnance died: he never even got to call in his shot with the Chimera moving every turn. Several Genestealers also died in the explosion.
Imperial Guard Turn 4:
The Command Squad and the remnants of the two rallied squads fired under First Rank/Second Rank orders into the Genestealers,
...killing 4 of them and causing a failed morale test (boo)! The Genestealers begin to flee across the board.
The
CC Warriors were caught in deadly crossfire between two Veteran squads and the Venator multilaser, and fell under the prismatic spray of lasgun fire.
As my opponent was about to pass the turn over to me, he realized he'd forgotten to roll for reserves. I let him, and his Hellhound arrived next to the Venators. Its inferno cannon belched napalm over my shooty Warriors and Harpy, resulting only in two wounds to the Warriors.
TyranidsTurn 5:
The shooty Warriors ran again, getting within 3” to claim the central pallet.
The two Veteran squads were perfectly lined up for a Harpy run: shrieking in satisfaction, the flying beast pulled a tight arc over the reserve Chimera's veteran squad, releasing two spore mines. The creature's stranglethorn cannon and cluster spines rained down on the central Chimera's squad. When the shrieks faded, all the veterans from both squads lay twitching and bleeding on the ground.
Zoanthropes were just out of range for their Warp Lances on the Hellhound, and while the Hive Guard managed to hit, none of their spines caused even a glance.
Imperial Guard Turn 5:
The Hellhound moved forward and spat a gob of napalm over the Hive Guard, immolating one of the shooty Warriors. The Venators raced across the ground, one bouncing just underneath the circling Harpy. The weaponless Venator crested over the barricades near the central supply pallet, causing the Warriors there to pause just before opening it. The mewling, which had grown fainter and more desperate over the course of the battle, fell silent with a whimper.
We were already well into the lunch hour, so we did not roll for another turn. Game over – Tyranids claimed one objective, but with that Venator contesting it, neither side had any uncontested objectives.
Result: Draw!
Battle Points: We each got 7
BP for the tie, and the only Secondary Objective satisfied was my Tyrant being within 6” of a supply pallet for +1. No Prices of Failure applied to either of us.
Tyranids: 8
BP; Imperial Guard: 7
BP
The mewling cries from within the crates had died down over the course of the battle, and finally fell silent. The Tyrant sensed that whatever had been living inside was now dead or gone back to the Warp, thwarted in their desire for release. Hearing the sound of Imperial Aircraft approaching, the Tyrant retreated from the field, calling its forces to follow it into a nearby area of ancient ziggurats and pyramids for cover.
The Imperial Command Squad breathed a sigh of relief. The Commander surveyed the carnage, and they began salvaging what they could...lashing the now-silent crates onto the Hellhound tank for transportation to the Blood Angels' outpost as ordered.
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