Played a game with my mate Bear over the weekend, Tyranids vs Traitor Imp Guard at 1500 points.
Hes currently finishing off his Traitor Guard army which hes been collecting for a while and Im in the process of redoing my Nids, hence the slightly “weird” army list, I effectively picked what was painted and at hand for this game.
His Traitor list was counts as
IG, we didnt have time to learn off the Traitor lists from the
IA books.
Tyranids 1494
Traitor Guard 1446
Game rolled was pitched battle, annhilation.
We rolled off and I let Bear deploy first, I figured if I deployed first with a fairly standard setup he could just counter with a refused flank or mix and match with reserves etc. I didnt want half my army footslogging from the other side of the board, it was slow enough as it stood.
IG Deployment.
Bear chose his right hand corner to deploy in, running a classic
IG parking lot and picking the side with the least amount of cover for me to utilise. His Leman Russes went infront with the Devildog, who I assumed was going to go hunting some of my units. Chims with Vets setup behind them and his
CS/Psykers tucked in behind the Chims.
Tyranid Deployment.
I setup my attacking (moving) units as far forward as I could, which included the Termagants, both Carnis, Hive Tyrant and Zoanthropes. The Biovores setup on the hill in my bottom left corner with the Warriors close to provide early Synapse. I then infiltrated the Genestealers into the ruin on Bears left side.
My Lictors and Ymgarls were reserved (I picked the forward forest as the Ymgarls entry point).
Overall I figured it was the best I could do, there was a really lethal kill zone infront of his deployment hill with no scenery which had to be crossed and with little decent long range firepower, closing that gap was priority.
A naughty Kraken showed up to encourage the Nids early on.
IG turn 1.
Bear moved his Devildog forward 6” to flame the Genestealers in the ruins but fell short with range.
The big guns then opened up. Both Chimeras, Psyker squad and
MoO fired on the Termagants killing 5 from one squad and 6 from the other. His Leman Russes then split fire between the Carnifexs, hitting both a few times and causing 2 wounds on each, whilst catching some Termagants in the blast also. The Zoanthrope was also clipped but luckily passed his save.
All told at the end of shooting, one Term squad was down to 4 and another down to 6 with the Carnifexs wounded.
Tyranid turn 1.
I moved everything up 6” from the main attacking units, figuring getting off a few shots for some stuns/immobilisations was better than running this turn. I swapped the Hive Tyrant infront of the Carnifex this turn, reasoning he wasnt going to survive another barrage of shooting without getting a save and hoping the
HT could weather the firestorm too.
The Genestealers with a decent fleet roll charged the Devildog, 3 making it into contact with it.
Only one Zoanthrope was in range, he passed his test but failed to damage the lead Leman Russ.
The Carni on the left flank was just in range of one of the Chimeras and managed to shake it under a barrage of shots.
The 3 Biovores then fired on the Command squad and with some good rolls killed all except the Commander.
Combat saw the Genestealers roll very poorly and fail to damage the
DD at all.
Not a great turn but the score was still 0-0 and I had reduced his shooting somewhat, albeit with the Stealers now badly exposed.
IG turn 2.
Bear immediatly tucked his surviving Commander behind his Chims some more, keeping him safe.
The Devildog moved back a few inches, ready to flame the now exposed Genestealers.
His Psyker squad shuffled about a little to get better shots on the oncoming Nids.
Shooting saw Bear focus fire the Hive Tyrant but save after save (and some misses) saw him weather the storm quite well until the last
LR opened up with its Heavy Bolters felling him.
However it had taken 3 Leman Russes and the Psykers to kill him, meaning only a few more Termagants were picked off from the remaining units.
The Devildog then fired on the Genestealers killing 3 in the chem blast but they passed their moral check.
Tyranid turn 2.
Reserves were rolled and the Lictors came in (we made a mistake here, forgetting they were a brood and so only one was deployed). It chose to drop behind the Devildog to try and pen it with shooting, not being able to charge this turn.
The Genestealers moved and then fleeted, skirting in behind the
IG armor line and making it into contact with the Psyker squad.
Everything else moved up 6”, ready to fire again (in hindsight running probably would have been better here).
Shooting saw the Zoanthrope and Carni on the left flank target a Chimera but with some poor rolling only managed to blow off its turret and shake it. The Lictor penned the Devildog, destroying its Chem gun but leaving it otherwise intact.
Annoyingly the Biovores couldnt see a valid target and the Warriors were out of range.
Combat saw the Stealers multicharge the Psyker squad and Leman Russ, killing 4 and losing one in return, they got a bit lucky with the Overseer failing to hit a single one. They failed to damage the
LR however. The Psykers failed their break test and fled the board, allowing the Stealers consolidate slighlty behind the tanks.
Score was 1-1 at this point.
IG turn 3.
With no main gun the Devildog moved fast out of range of the Tyranid forces.
Bear then dismounted his shotgun Vet squad ready to engage the Genestealers. No other movemnt took place.
Under a torrest of fire from the Vets/Chims the Genestealers were wiped out earning Bear another
KP.
One
LR then shot at the Termagant squad near the forests wiping them out too. A second Leman Russ then instagibbed the Zoanthrope on the Nids left flank whilst the 3rd engaded the Carnifex there but failed to wound him.
A very good turn for Bear putting him 4-1 up at this point.
Tyranid turn 3.
The Ymgarls showed up this turn and setup in the forest closest to Bears lines.
However with a woeful
DT test (1,1,2) they chose to remain there this turn rather then risk the kill zone between them and the
IG tanks.
The remaining Termagant squad retreated to the forest for cover to try and survive and not give away another
KP.
Again the Biovores had nothing to shoot at this turn. The Warriors opned up on the Vet Chimera but only managed to stun it, whilst the Zoanthrope fired on the Executioner destroying its main gun.
Combat saw the Carnifex charge the Leman Russ on the left, hitting it five times, wiping out 3 weapons and immobilising it but failing to destroy it. The Lictor then charged the Executioner but failed to destroy it.
Not a good turn, no
Kps, the Ymgarls now stranded and everything else badly exposed to the
IG gunline.
IG turn 4.
Bear loaded the Vets back into the Chimera and tucked the Commander further into the parking lot.
Shooting saw him kill the Lictor infront of the Executioner and the Zoanthrope at the forest earning another 2
Kps meaning the score was now 6-1 to the Traitor Guard.
With it getting late and the beer flowing we decided to call it, it was going to be uphill if not impossible for the Nids to make a comeback at this point.
Post game thoughts.
A bit of a shooting gallery towards the end to be honest. The Nids just didnt have a relaible way of popping the Leman Russes who did some severe damage throughout.
With a relatively slow, footslogging army crossing an open area of terrain VS an
IG parking lot, it was always going to be tough.
In hindsight I should have outflanked the Stealers rather than infiltrating them and tried to multicharge his tanks (although them ending on the other flank could have been even worse).
Nid shooting overall was pretty poor and was out of range quite a bit of the time.
Bear played well however, I think it was his 2nd game with
IG ever but he had the basics down really well, good setup and deployment and good target priority.
I'll take it with a pinch of salt though, its not a Nid army I would usually run but was fun to try it out and a good challenge.
Any ideas on how I could have improved things in the game?