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Ball and Chain is a hobby tournament run once a year. There are certain special limitations to each army which can be found at the top of the first battle report here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/400399.page#3380850

Here is the list I took:
Tyranid Prime – Deathspitter and Dual Boneswords
Tyranid Warriors (4) – 1 barbed Strangler, 3 deathspitters
Hormagaunts (18) – Poison and adrenal glands
Termagants (10)
Gargoyles (10)
Hive Guard (2)
Zoeys (2)

Battle 3 – Pitched Battle
Primary objective: Hold Ground
Secondary Objective: Annihilation

Opponent – Blood Angels (Rough unit guide from memory)
Librarian
10 man Tactical Squad - ML and I think Plasma Gun - Rhino
10 man Assault Squad - I think two plasma guns, maybe a power sword on the Sgt
5 man honour guard - various equipment (plasma and power weapons and jump packs)

I win the roll off and elect to go first.

The objectives are placed (poker chips) - one centrally on his side, one on the left on his side and one on the left on my side.

For the first time this event, the board allows me to use my ideal setup. I put 11 hormagaunts on the front line and wrap the last 7 behind my 10 gargoyles. This allows both units to hit roughly the same time.

The Zoeys and Hive Guard setup on my left so if he sets up over the two objectives they'll be right opposite him. The warriors and prime setup behind the hormagaunts, and the termagants setup in my back left to run onto my objective.



He sets up centrally, the rhino front middle to try and block/split up my troops, with his marines all floating around behind it.

Nids Turn 1

Eager for the feed, the nids swarm forwards.

As expected, the gargoyles fly over and quickly out pace the hormagaunts, but two misjudge the craters and clip rocks falling into the dirt. The hormagaunts are almost as quick swarming up behind them eager for a fight.

The Zoeys catapult forwards (6" run) quickly trying to close the gap between them and they're prey, whilst the Hive Guard advance more cautiously.

Meanwhile, the warriors and termagants move up behind the swarm, the gants taking up position on one objective.



BA Turn 1

The Blood Angels started by advancing their rhino towards the Zoeys and Hive Guard, presumably to block LOS to his marines. The rest of the army sat and waited, content to let the tactical squad fire on the gargoyles, bringing down another two.

Nids Turn 2

Hungry for a kill, the gargoyles and hormagaunts continued to swarm towards the tactical marines with the Librarian, whilst the rest of the force steadily advanced.

Fire from the Hive guard immobilised the rhino, whilst the Zoeys failed to blast apart any of the Honour Guard. Meanwhile, the gargoyles and warriors shot into the tacical marines, but FNP ensured only one went down.

The gargoyles then mad the fatal mistake of charging into the Tactical marines. Although their venom managed to bring another battle brother down, the return attack was vicious, the librarian using his psychic ability to unleash his wrath upon the hapless winged aliens. 5 of the six were crumpled to the ground, the last one fleeing back into synapse range, over the heads of the hormagaunts leaving them wildly exposed to a counter offensive.



With the gargoyle screen gone - will the Tyranids now fall victim to an aggressive BA counter offensive? or will the swarm overwhelm them despite being caught out of position?

The remainder of this report will be updated tomorrow - Feel free to C+C on how you think things are going, and what you think the outcome might be.

Ouch, rough lose of the gargoyles. If they get in with significant numbers, the hormies should deal some serious damage.

For some reason I love these battle reports. I think the small scale of the games makes each unit easier to care about and follow.

Honestly at first I thought things looked good for you, but then I remembered the built in Sanguinary Priest with the honor guard...mass numbers don't fair well against feel no pain marines. I can only see the warriors having a real good go at cutting them up. But I guess I'll find out tomorrow!

@ PraetorDave: Yes - The hormagaunts can cause a lot of damage if they connect - even on Space Marines

Report Update

BA Turn 2

With the Nids closing in, and the gargoyle screen gone, it was time to put his men into action. The Librarian raised his hand to signal the counter offensive.

Without hesitation, 15 marines took off, powered by their jump packs. The honour guard landed in front of the two Zoeys, whilst the Assault marines landed in front of the Hormagaunts.

The tactical squad then moved up beside the assault squad and took aim with their bolters.

The assault squad and tactical squad let rip with a torrent of bolter and plasma fire. after the dust settles, only 4 gaunts lay dead on the ground, the rest saved by cover.

As the assault squad had rapid fired their plasma guns, it was left to the honour guard to charge in and assault. They proved a bit too much for the Zoeys, bringing them down easily and consolidating towards the assault marines, blood chalice held high.

Nids Turn 3

With the hormagaunt brood still relatively intact, they swarmed greedily around the tactical marines whilst the warriors and hive guard advanced towards the assault marines.

Firing from the hive guard managed to bring down two marines, whilst the warriors killed another one with their deathspitters despite FNP.

The Hormagaunts and remaining gargoyle than assaulted into the tactical marines. The librarian once again unleashed his furious wrath, but it was not enough - all but one of the tactical squad died in a flurry of scything talons, leaving only the librarian and a marine who managaed to heroically kill 5 before unheroically fleeing whilst the hormagaunts were busy feeding on the marines.

Suddenly, the marines were starting to feel a little less invincible.

BA Turn 3

Desperate to silence the hormagaunt menace, the librarian rallied and ordered the honour guard to wipe them out, whilst the assault marines dealt with the warriors.

First, the librarian and marine calmly drew their weapons, and dispatched the last gargoyle.

The honour guard had significant success, charging into the remaining gaunts and killing them all.

The assault marines had less success. The Prime licked his fangs before easily dispatching 2 of the marines before they could land a hit. The remaining marines managed to bring down two of the creatures, and still had 5 marines left.

Nids Turn 4

With the majority of the Nid force either destroyed or engaged, there wasn't much to do.

Firing from the hive guard succeeded in taking down an honour guard, whilst the Prime and warriors killed another 3 assault marines leaving two for little return.

Blood Angels Turn 4

Realising there wasn't much time left, and sensing a win was possibly in his grasp, the librarian sent the honour guard over towards the termagants - almost within 3" to contest that objective. Meanwhile, the librtarian and Tactical marine moved onto their home objective, taking control of it.

The honour gaurd ran towards the termagants, ensuring they were within 3".

In assault, the last of the assault marines were easily dispatched by the Prime, who then consolidated 5" towards the Librarian and Tac marine.

Nids Turn 5

Sensing a win, the Nids worked towards finishing off the job. The Prime and two remaining warriors advanced towards the librarian, whilst the hive guard positioned themselves on the opposite side of the honour Guard to the termagants and the objective.

The Prime and warriors assaulted into the Librarian and Marine, despatching them both in a flurry of blows.

The hive guard assaulted the Honour Guard, drawing them away from the termagants objective and tying them up.



With two objectives in hand, and with only the ability to contest one of them (if they managed to get through the Hive Guard), The Blood Angels conceded.

Victory to the Hive!

(Apologies for missing photos, this was a really intense game, and I forgot to take them half way through - plus we were running short on time...)

C + C welcome as always - Hope you enjoyed the read.

Beautiful win. This is exactly what I wanted to happen.

slice'n'dice wrote:The Hormagaunts and remaining gargoyle than assaulted into the tactical marines. The librarian once again unleashed his furious wrath, but it was not enough - all but one of the tactical squad died in a flurry of scything talons, leaving only the librarian and a marine who managaed to heroically kill 5 before unheroically fleeing whilst the hormagaunts were busy feeding on the marines.

Blood Angels have "And they shall know no fear" right? Shouldn't they have taken fearless wounds and remained locked in combat? Good win regardless though!

Ah, I think you're right - It's possible that my recollection was slightly off there.

He must have held with his Librarian and Tac marine, had the Honour guard assault in and then consolidated back towards his objective.

Unfortunately, I didn't have photos during this period because it was quite an intense game and we were really driving it up to the time limit.

If you'd have held the gargoyles back from assault and used them as a block for the zoeys then they would not have been tied up in CC and able to release their psychic attacks. Also by getting that libby in SITW range would have cut off most/all of his power use.

Arakasi wrote:

slice'n'dice wrote:The Hormagaunts and remaining gargoyle than assaulted into the tactical marines. The librarian once again unleashed his furious wrath, but it was not enough - all but one of the tactical squad died in a flurry of scything talons, leaving only the librarian and a marine who managaed to heroically kill 5 before unheroically fleeing whilst the hormagaunts were busy feeding on the marines.

Blood Angels have "And they shall know no fear" right? Shouldn't they have taken fearless wounds and remained locked in combat? Good win regardless though!

Thats not what ATSKNF does. It means they automatically pass regroup tests, and move normally after doing so. They can also do so if under half strength. It also prevents them from being sweeping advanced, but it then puts them under "no retreat" rules (which is not fearless). So its possible slice'n'dice didn't attempt to sweeping advance. Or maybe the marine player rolled really well for it. Plus slice'n'dice said "whilst the hormaguants were busy feeding on the marines" which leads me to believe he failed the sweeping advance.

It was the inability to be sweeping advanced (and take "no retreat" wounds) that I was thinking of, but I can see how that wouldn't activate without viable pursuers (locked in combat) - or if they failed to catch them. I stand corrected. Apologies for any confusion caused!

@ ruminator: Absolutely correct. Probably the biggest mistake I made in this game was charging with the gargoyles. I should have instead used them to screen my gaunts and Zoeys.

@ PraetorDave & Arakasi: Ah yes, now I remember. This did in fact come up in the game itself. I originally thought he would take fearless wounds, until he pointed out that only occured if I swept him. I then proceeded to roll a 1 and failed to sweep

Apart from the glaring error of charging with my gargoyles, this essentially went to plan for me.

My guants just wrecked his Tac squad - 42 odd attacks, rerolling 1's, wounding on 4's and rerolling failed wounds really adds up to a lot of wounds. Never underestimate super gaunts, even if you're in power armour!

The Warriors were also great in this game. With the Prime and the barbed strangler, this unit really can take a lot of punishment at low points levels (where Str 8 spam isn't so prevalent). Not only this, but the Prime cuts through units like a hot knife through butter in assaults, and is adequately supported with the high number of attacks his bodygaurd can provide.

The Zoey's and Hive Guard were never going to add much with little mech to speak of, but the guard did do a great job bypassing FnP and tying up his honour guard at the critical moment

All in all - I went into the last game of the tournament 3-1 up, and feeling fairly confident.

My next game was against Demons. On the plus side, I thought my Nids would match up very well against a demon army. On the minus, I've never played Demons before, and have little idea what to expect. Both armies were at 3-1 win loss, so I knew he'd been doing at least as well as me...

Stay tuned for the final batt rep, some pretty pics of some of the other armies, and my final thoughts on my experiences.

C + C welcome as always on all aspects (painting, batt reps, tactics, army selection etc)

Probably would have been a better battle were there any terrain on the table.