Tyranids:

HQ:
Hive Tyrant w 2x TL Devourers w Brainleech worms and Wings

Elite:
8x Ymarl Genestealers
Doom of Malantai in a Mycetic Spore
3x Hive Guard

Troops:
3x10 Termagants
3x10 Tervigons with all Psyker abilities (TV1: Endurance, Iron Arm, Life Leech. TV2: Screech, Iron Arm, Smite. TV3: Telekine Dome, Enfeeble, Life Leech.) , Toxin Sacs, and Adrenal glands

Fast:
15 Gargoyles with toxin sacs and adrenal glands.

Heavy:
Trygon Prime

Eldar:

HQ: Spiritseer w/ Wraithforge Stone, Spear of Teuthalas. (Enhance and Protect off of Runes of Battle)

Troops:

5x Wraithguard in Wave Serpent w/ TL Scatter Lasers and Shuriken Cannon
5x Wraithguard in Wave Serpent w/ TL Scatter Lasers and Shuriken Cannon
5x Wraithguard w/ D-Scythes in Wave Serpent w/ TL Scatter Lasers and Shuriken Cannon

Fast Attack:

Hemlock Wraithfighter

Heavy Support:

Wraithlord w/ Scatter Lasers, Starcannon and Ghostgliave
Wraithlord w/ Scatter Lasers, Starcannon and Ghostgliave
Wraithknight w/ Scatter Laser and Suncannon

The Farseers had seen Iyanden's greatest threat returning, a quivering tendril slicing through the skein as it sought to, once again, devour the heart of the near-fallen Craftworld. The chittering madness of the void sought out the Eldar Craftworld like a ravenous swarm of locusts, it's all consuming hunger drawing it perilously close to the vulnerable Eldar enclave.

The Seer Council and Shadow Councils wasted no time in coming to the inevitable conclusion - the Tyranid splinter must be stopped before it could once again find the golden, towering spires of the grandest Craftworld. Spiritseer Arienel, as he had oft done before, woke the March of the Dead and entered the Webway with the dread determination of one with half their soul seeped in the realm of the dead.

Arienel would spearhead the conflict against the Hive Fleet, arriving from the Wraithbone construct that tied the abandoned Imperial world to the ancient labyrinth between realspace and the Empyrean. Once there, the Webway must be secured as well as the nearby beacon, long hidden under a dilapidated Imperial Manufactorum, so that the Eldar fleet could arrive from above behind the Tyranid blockade that rained spores down upon the wintry ice world.

Eldar

I know I'll be facing a horde of gants with this list, so I have to be careful about when I disembark my Wraithguard. They can instantly kill a lot of his tougher creatures with ease, but if the gants run up they'll be a problem. Even if they don't kill my Wraith-units, they can lock them up and take a lot of points out of the battle for minimal commitment. I'm going to be depending on the Knight and Wave Serpents to take out the horde while I deploy my Wraithguard when I know they can do a lot of damage. I have first turn, but don't want to leave myself out in the open as that has burned me before.


Nids

Having fought this Eldar list before I knew that the strengths of my MCs would be minimized since the Wraithy things had a fair amount of high S or ID shots that they could put on me, and I knew my opponent wouldn't waste shots on gants when a juicy Tervigon was in the open, so I decided I needed to hide my MCs as long as I could and force my opponent to close on me to minimize the amount of shots he could put down on my MCs. The Knight and Lords are a huge issue due to their high toughness, so I resolved to swamp them in gants if possible or consume them with my Doom.

Mission: Emperor's Will
Deployment: Dawn of War
Eldar pick deployment zone and win initiative.

Eldar Deployment:

I deploy my Wave Serpent with the D-Scythes in the bottom left ruin to move forward and help deal with his horde when the opportunity presents itself. The Wave Serpent with the Spiritseer hides behind the center hills and bunker while the two Wraithlords begin battle in the forest. The Wraithknight and last Wave Serpent start with my objective in the far right ruin.

Tyranid Deployment:

The three squads of termagants start in reserve, along with the Doom of Malan'tai and Trygon prime. The three Tervigons hide in the windowless first floor of the ruin, where his objective is, along with the 3 Hive Guard. The Flyrant starts out in front of the ruins with the gargoyles to his side, along the ruin, to provide support when he moves out. The Ymarl Genestealers do their crazy infiltrate thing, targeting an as yet unknown building.

The Eldar had arrived just as the first spores and tendrils of the invading fleet broke into the frigid permafrost of the world's surface. The Webway was secure, as he knew it would be, but an unlikely thread of fate had led a clacking mass of Tyranid's to the Manufactorum above the beacon. They would have to be pushed away from that position if the Eldar forces hoped to win this war.

The mighty Wraithbone bodies of the Wraithlords had already secured a forest to the west, a Waveserpent full of undead warriors in a ruin to their left. They mightiest of their weapons, the grand Wraithknight, towered over a Wave Serpent at the heart of the Webway Portal. Across the field massive creatures, swarming with their lesser cousins, prowled the Manufactorum, likely drawn by the massive psychic potential of the beacon. Winged horrors shrieked and hissed about the rusted smoke stacks of the building, membranous wings beating fervently as they swarmed about a massive chitinous beast, it's fleshy wings wider than a Wave Serpent.

Without hesitation, Arienel ordered the March of Doom forward and watched the synchronous, elegant shifting of all three Wave Serpents silently whispering above the frozen earth, gentle dusting of snow lifted by their passing. The Wraithlords, unperturbed by the density of the forest they had secured, pushed aside massive ice-coated evergreens, the frozen barks splintering under the molecule sharp blade of their ghostglaives. A silent mind-whisper to the Wraithknight sent it forward from it's objective to support it's Wave Serpent compatriot, a barely perceptible murmur along the skein warning the Spiritseer that doom awaited all who stood near the Webway portal.

With a silent command, the army all fired its weapons as one. Monomolecular discs and bright red lasers alike shattered and splintered the carapace of the great insectoid beast at the front, viscous green ichor seeping from its shell. The creature howled in rage, it's great wings flapping away the pain. The unfortunate beast had not, however, anticipated the super charged plasma blasts of the Wraithknight penetrating his side. White hot energy dissipated itself through its exoskeleton, melting the great leviathan even as it one of the Wraithlords sent lasers tearing into its fragile gargoyle entourage.



No night fighting. Tyranid's fail to steal the initiative.

I elect not to cast my spells. My two Wave Serpents on the left move forward 12 inches to allow them to fire two weapons at full BS. The Wraithlords roll a 6 and 5 and move forward. My far right Wave Serpent moves and Wraithknight move their maximum distance forward, as I fear the Ymarl's will be infiltrating along my objective.

The two left Wave Serpents fire all their weapons into the Flyrant, taking a few wounds off. The Wraithknight fires and manages to hit the Hive Tyrant with everything, bringing the beast down - First Blood and Slay the Warlord. The Wraithlords fire into the Gargoyles killing about 7.

Nothing during the assault phase.

Spiritseer Arienel felt a quiver of fear as hordes upon hordes of dog-like bugs poured from behind the Manufactorum, like a harsh wave of bodies that heaved itself forward, coating practically every surface of the building in Tyranid horrors. Again the Spiritseer reached out with his mind, but to a lone brave soul that had been sent ahead to provide support should the March of Doom need it.

Tervigons poop out 'gants: 9, 11, 12 (NT, NT2, NT3). No doubles. Two squads of gants start on the ruin floor, another starts off on the second floor. The gargoyles shuffle around and the Hive Guard fire at my Wave Serpent, but doesn't do anything.

Drawn by the call of her Spiritseer brother, Iyanna pushed her Hemlock Wraithfighter as fast as possible. Frosted wind howled pass the curved wings of her vessel, even the articulately crafted Wraithbone skeleton of the ship struggling to maintain its integrity through the buffeting atmosphere. She wasted no time in lowering through the glaring, dense upper atmosphere, the internal heating system failing to keep her viewscreen clear as she switched to infrared.

She saw the heat signatures of the Wave Serpents and Wraithconstructs moving unerringly forward, the Wraithknight making a great leap northward to bring himself in line to deliver death to the massive creatures surrounded by the least of Tyranid scum. She delayed not at all to ask for guidance, her thoughts intermingling with the goals of Arienel. Seeing the carpet of blinding lasers and shuriken discs devouring the plasteel of the second floor of the ruins, Iyanna pulled her fighter up out of its dive. The two cannons on the front thrummed with energy and called death to the insects. The creatures on the top floor, those not shredded by the fury of the grav-tanks, fell silently to their death, dripping from the top floor like thick mucus.

Plasma blasts from the Wraithknight's cannon blasted through the windows on the building's east, turning a swarm of the termagants, as she knew them to be called, to vapor, the super heated chemical splashing onto it's Tervigon masters. One of the Wraithlords, guarding the flank of Arienel, fired at the retreating gargoyles on the west.

The Hemlock Wraithfighter comes on and boosts up to in front of the barricades along with the two Wave Serpents. The lords continue to move forward. The knight shifts sideways to get a view through the window on the gants and Tervigons and the Wave Serpent moves up a little more to try and provide fire support.

The Wave Serpents fire on the top floor of gants but only kill one or two. The Hemlock comes in and finishes them off with two direct hits. One Wraithlord fires on the gargoyles, killing a couple while the other runs forward. Wraithknight fires through the window, killing nine gants and due to scatter manages to wound a Hive Guard and two Tervigons, despite their cover save.

Just as Arienel thought that Iyanden might win this victory with little effort, scores of termagants tore out of the earth, the ground already being devoured by the roots of the great Tyranid hive. Scores upon scores approached the Wraithknight's position, even more appearing off of the Tervigons' hides. The swarm of creatures poured forward from the Manufactorum, their gargoyle compatriots fluttering in their wake. Two of the massive creatures that had carried the lesser hounds of war marched out on either side of the old industrial complex, gargantuan feet cracking the ice beneath them. Ice that was, Arienel hoped, considerably thinner than the Wraithbone armor protecting his forces.

It was then he felt a horror of the past, the great all-consuming nightmare who had doomed an entire floating island of his people, plummeting to the earth in a twisted Mycetic Spore. Snow and ice flakes flickered into the air as the spore slammed into the tundra, the great bulbous head of the destroyer glaring out menacingly from it's inner confines as it approached Arienel's Wave Serpent. Even protected by the hull of his transport, the Spiritseer felt the agony of its presence. A Wraithlord, who, even after his glorious death at the head of Iyanden's people centuries ago still fought for his House, reeled in agony as his spirit was nearly snuffed out by the unholy beast.

It was little satisfaction when he received a report from the Wraithknight that a group of genestealers had appeared as if from shadows, surrounding the Webway portal. He may have saved the individuals stationed there by moving them forward, but now their retreat was cut off.

Tervigons poop out babies again: 7, 9, 12 (squads NT4, NT5 and NT6). Tervigon 1 and 3 roll doubles and move out while the fertile Tervigon stays in his safe zone with the Hive Guard. The Mycetic Spore drops near my Lords, bringing in the Doom of Malan'tai. The genestealers pop out near my objective, like I expected. The new gants all move forward. and the gargoyles follow them.The three gants in reserve move on in a scattered line to try and avoid some of my blast templates.

The Hive Guard fire at my Serpent but fail to do anything again. The gants all run forward as they are too far away to reliable charge. The Doom's wail cuts two wounds off of Wraithlord 1, though it was only because of the Mindshock Pod that he failed the leadership test :(

Arienel ordered his Guardian pilot back and prepared his Wraithguard for departure. As the rear hatched pinged open onto the rusted barricade of a shattered Imperial trench, the frigid wind rushed into the warm confines of the troop compartment. Even through his battle focus and elaborate cloaked armor, the Spiritseer could barely suppress a shiver. As they marched into the field, Arienel delved through the skein, guiding his troops to avoid the barrage of blasts rocketing across the field. Given the new threat, he rapidly redeployed the other Wave Serpents to the rear position, the one bearing D-Scythes retreating south and the other coming around to protect the Webway Portal.

Above the battle, Iyanna focused her will on the Doom, trying to break it's alien psyche. The sheer malevolence of the creature sent a psychic shockwave into her mind, rocking the entire ship and nearly causing her to lose consciousness. The spirits dwelling in the bejeweled hull of the vessel took control as she struggled for consciousness. Staring in confusion through the cockpit she saw Arienel behind a childishly designed barricade, warp-tears shimmering around the Doom. It seemed impervious though, shrugging them off even as it met the rushing blade of a Wraithlord without quailing. She could feel fear screaming in her ears, and it took her a moment to realize it was the turmoil of Arienel's mind. Suddenly, as if he donned the armor of resolution, it turned into confidence and rage as hot as the dying star pouring radiation on them.

I buff the armor on the Wraithguard with my Spiritseer and move the Wave Serpent back, dropping the Guard off directly into the barricades. They scatter out along the wall. I couldn't figure out how to add a 25mm base to the squad, but the Spiritseer is between the triangle of Wraithguard. Between the knight and Spiritseer, Doom and his spore are marked. Wave Serpent 3 backs up, electing not to drop off the D-Scythes. I think they'd help me wipe out all these gants, but in the off chance something goes wrong they'd be too vulnerable and get locked into combat. The Hemlock turns right and flies off, trying to cast terrify at the beginning of the turn. I roll double 6s and take a Hull Point off. Wave Serpent 1 spins around and moves south, trying to get a bead on the genestealers but can only see one. The Wraithknight moves south to avoid being locked into combat with the approaching horde of gants.

The Spiritseer and Wraithguard with him unleash their weapons at the Doom, but fail to do a single wound with 5 hits that would have instant deathed him. The nearby Wraithlord then charges the Doom, but despite getting 4 hits STILL fails to get through that 3+ invuln.

Arienel replaced his fear with rage, a firestorm so hot he had to struggle to keep his mind closed to the perils of the warp. And the perils were strong here, the bleak void caused by the Tyranid monstrosities dulling even the sharpest seer's mind. Even more termagants seemed to appear from the Manufactorum, as if the old factory had turned into an assembly line for tentacled grotesques. A shriek arose from the Doom, more felt than heard, and the spirit in the Wraithlord assaulting him snapped and was consumed. One of the Wraithguard near the living Eldar twisted in turmoil, it's spirit stone splintering as the creature did to him what it did to the entire populace of Malan'tai.

Arienel's rage grew even as reports from the two nearest Wave Serpents reached him of superficial damage along their engine compartments. Though he forced himself to maintain his composure, he could barely respond in time as red, eldritch energies poured from the Doom, ordering his Wraithguard to jump out of its path. The blast moved on, washing impotently over the amber hull of their previous transport. Even through the chaos, his mind sharpened beyond that means of most species of the universe, the Spiritseer saw an ancient horror erupting from the earth, an earthquake of red and gold chitin. He used the foresight to maneuver his troops back just as the Trygon, horrible and elegant, slithered free from its frozen confines and rained spines upon them.

Arienel casually stepped aside as one of the meter-long barbs tore through his cloak and he knocked the other away with a shimmering witch-spear. He glared at the creature, and though it may not know fear, it would soon know death.

The Trygon Prime arrives! He deep strikes between my Wave Serpents and Lords. The second and third termagaunt squads both fail instinctive behavior and the first squad moves forward. The fertile Tervigon poops out 10 more gants (NT7), and all the gants and impotent Tervigons move foward, the gargoyles following behind them.

The Doom of Malan'tai does its psychic shriek thing, killing Wraithlord 2 and one of the Wraithguard. The Trygon Prime fires at the Wraithguard near his side, but they all manage to save. The Doom fires at them as well, but their armor continues to hold strong. The Mycetic Spore pings my Wave Serpent in the butt, which I forgot it could do, and actually does one glance. The Hive Guard fire at Wave Serpent 3 with the D-Scythes and scores a glance.

The surviving Wraithlord had retreated back from the Doom, the spirit's connection with its Wraithbone construct wavering. Focusing on a golden sphere dangling from his chest, one of the blessed gifts of Asuryan, Arienel reached out and strengthened the Wraithlord's vessel. Even as he watched, the splintering shell of armor began to mend itself. It was not an act of beauty and art as the bonesingers were wont to do, but it was enough to keep it functional for this battle.

Stretching his mind to the limit, Arienel told the D-Scythe bearing Wraithguard to dismount and engage the enemy. They had a new goal, now. Though their task was ever to survive the living and diminishing race of the Eldar, the Doom had consumed their brothers and sisters, souls twisted into it's bulbous skull or ripped free and consumed by She Who Thirsts. Though he would not forget his duty here, he would avenge the fallen brethren of Malan'tai and do them the justice they deserved.

The warp screamed to his left as the D-Scythes did as he was told, obliterating an entire horde of the termagants encroaching on their position. What pieces of the creatures that were not torn into the Warp only served as a slight obstacle to the limitless horde behind them, but the Wraithguard continued on tirelessly, each wave of their weapons hewing the lives of the pitiful creatures before him. Arienel did not indulge in the distraction however, calling forth a spiritual presence to twist around the Doom, making it virtually glow to the eyes of the dead that marched with him. The pilot of the Wraithknight construct, forlorn brother of the ghost that now protected him, did likewise to the Trygon. As one they fired, shrieking lasers and howling shuriken cannons from the nearby Wave Serpent and the once-Autarch 'Lord aiding them. The Doom shrieked, but this time it was a shriek of agony as its spirit was ripped away. Arienel felt with some chagrin the creature's consciousness return to it's Hive, but for now at least it had been punished.

Such was his joy that he barely noticed the titanic Trygon collapsing to the earth, the Wraithknight's curving foot upon it's chest as the suncannon melted it's skull away.

Spiritseer Iyanna felt the living's joy at the Doom's departure, but she had no time to revel in the act. The lost souls embedded in her ship, focused along the Mindshock Pod near the prowl, shrieked banshee cries into the primitive minds of the horde of termagants beneath her. She fired the cannons again and again, watching as a half dozen of the creatures simply collapsed, their brood siblings marching over their corpses as if they meant nothing. For a moment she wondered how even the might of Iyanden could continue to turn such a foe, a foe that gave no merit at all to it's own life for it had an abundance to spare.

She looked up over the towering Wraithconstructs near her, watching as a Wave Serpent decimated tentacled genestealers near the Webway Portal. They would endure, she knew, by calling forth the dead to deliver death. Such as they had before.

I elect not to cast any Psychic spells this turn, as the Doom and Trygon are too close for me to do so reliably. I use the Wraithforge Stone, and for the first time in 8 attempts, actually heal something! The Wraithlord gains back one wound. The Wave Serpent drops off it's D-Scythes and abcks up a bit. Wave Serpent 2 shuffles in place to get jink while Wave Serpent 3 spins around the side of the building to get direct LOS to the genestealers. The Wraithknight scuttles down further to stay away from those pesky gants and to help deal with the Trygon.

The Wraithguard D-Scythe group annihilates the nearby termagants. The Wraithguard near the barricade/bunker things finally put the doom down. Combined fire from the Wraith Knight, Wave Serpent 3 and the Wraithlord take out the Trygon Prime. Wave Serpent 1 unleashes a fusillade into the genestealers, killing 5! Wave Serpent 2, which is still sitting there to protect the Wraithguard, kills most of the units in NT7. The Hemlock Wraithfighter kills six gants spread across T2 and T1. T1 breaks and falls back.

Even as she watched the battles around her, the endless swarm of bugs tearing through the Manufactorum, she felt the cries of her vessel breaking the will of the shattered 'gants beneath her. Like the early morning tide the horde approached Arienel's position, but it seemed as if he was holding his position. Far to the west, more known than seen, several of the Wraithguard constructs bearing D-Scythes collapsed under the weight of the Tyranid swarm. They held strong though, and as a legion of the flying roaches approached them, she watched them bath in the nearly necromantic energies of the Wraith weapons. The 'guard hesitated not to swing around their heavy weapons, cracking gargoyle skulls as the creatures fraily slashed at their armor.

A sense of victory was in the air now. The swarm had thrown its greatest assets at this beachhead and had been broken. This battle would soon be won, she knew. But only then would the war begin.

Gant squad T1 passes their leadership, but has to test again due to Mindshock Pod and fails! Tervigon makes 11 more gants (NT8) which join the forward push. Termagant squad 2 continues to fall to its instinctive behavior, qhile squad 3 recovers and moves towards my objective. The right Tervigon casts Telekine Dome on itself, and the left Tervigon casts Endurance on the Gargoyles. All Termagants and the two Tervigons continue to move forward in the top left, with the gargoyles hoping over a building to approach my D-Scythes. The 3 remaining Ymarl Genestealers march towards my Wave Serpent at my objective.

The squads of panicking and retreating gants on the right flank fire at my Hemlock Wraithfighter and manage one glancing but I decide to jink and make my save. One of the Tervigons fires cluster spines at the Wraithguard and Spiritseer, but it scatters onto the Wave Serpent and does nothing. Tervigon 1 fires at the D-Scythe Wraithguard and manages to get one wound, but again I save. The gargoyles, circlign around my D-Scythes, manage to cause two wounds, but I only save one.

The gargoyles assault the D-Scythes, surprisingly only taking 4 wounds do to some crappy to-wound rolls, especially after managing to get 9 hits. Two are instant death, but he gets FnP against the other two due to Endurance. One more dies. His Genestealers tried to charge 4 inches into my Wave Serpent, but only get a 2!

In the combat between the Guard and the gargoyles, one gargoyle is killed and the 'guards take no wounds.

At this point, the Tyranid player cedes.

Before this game, I was on the fence about keeping my Hemlock Wraithfighter. I've used it two other times, and once it performed very well, the other time it was virtually useless. It didn't do too amazing here, but it got quite a few kills and managed to keep a lot of troops running away. It may be more useful for it's utility than it's damage, but that's good enough.

I'm pretty happy with how my army did overall. I made the mistake before of disembarking my Wraithguard too quickly, and this time made sure not to do so until there was a good opening. I'm pretty happy with the results, all told. I love the Iyanden items and the ability to give my Wraithknight Warlord, which helped a bit in this match.

I think my opponent would have been doing a lot better if he kept his Hive Tyrant hidden first turn. I made that mistake before with valuable units, and it never ends well. If I hadn't gotten first blood and warlord off of that, I would have been hardpressed to win. As it was, I'm not sure if I could have pushed him off of his objective. Having given me those two secondaries though, I was pretty much guaranteed to win as all I had to do was move the troops out of my Wave Serpent onto my objective. I would be surprsied if the combined might of my Wraithknight, Wave Serpent and 5 Wraithguard couldn't kill those last 3 to secure that position. He decided to cede since he came to the same conclusion, especially with his only scoring units a decent distance away, and they'd have to face a ton of fire as well as the Wraithfighter's terrify next turn.

All in all a good game. I really enjoyed it!

Nids

First off, I have no clue why I put my Flyrant out in the open. That was a terrible move. I also should have been more conservative with the Psyker ability generation and only rolled on Biomancy for my Tervigons as opposed to spreading them out. As expected, the Tervigons were amazing, releasing tidal waves of Gants that kept the opponent away from my objective, if not in assault. The Doom was absolutely worth it, absorbing a round of fire from 5 Wraithguard and a Wraithlord, then consuming the Lord the next turn. My Hive Guard habitually underperform and I'm rather unimpressed by them. Statistically they should have removed 2 hull points per turn from the tanks, but the only thing they damaged was a single Wraithguard. This makes me want to get rid of them, but I'll hold out for a game or two in hopes of getting better odds with them.

My opponents list was rather brutal to fight and had me on the defensive from the start. I pumped out enough gants that he couldn't get to my objective, but I couldn't push his line back at all, and the best I could do was force a single Wave Serpent to fall back to defend his objective from some sneaky genestealers. I'm excited to see how this match up will go next time, with different objectives and deployments.