First game was against the vaunted Captain-A! We were even given top table by random assignment. I can say that endless swarm was at the top table! Yeah!
On to his list:
White scars CAD_______________________________________________________905
HQ______________________________________________________________145
Librarian:
lvl 2 terminator armor, HUNTERS EYE ________________145
Troops___________________________________________________________110
scouts (5)_______________________________________________55
scouts (5)_______________________________________________55
Fast attack_________________________________________________________90
drop pod: locator beacon___________________________________45
drop pod: locator beacon___________________________________45
Heavy support_____________________________________________________560
Centurion devestator squad grav cannon/
amp,
ML, omniscope_____280
Centurion devestator squad grav cannon/
amp,
ML, omniscope_____280
Red scorpions CAD_____________________________________________________230
HQ______________________________________________________________175
Severin Loth____________________________________________175
Troops____________________________________________________________55
scouts (5)_______________________________________________55
Grey knights knemesis strike force__________________________________________715
HQ______________________________________________________________165
Librarian: Liber daemonica, daemon hammer, psyker
lvl 3, warlord__165
Troops___________________________________________________________110
Strike squad all swords____________________________________110
Heavy____________________________________________________________195
Nemesis dreadknight: heavy psycannon, teleporter_______________195
LoW_____________________________________________________________245
Draigo: Extra warp dust____________________________________245
Here are the great warriors of the white pod bomb.
Pregame thoughts:
Well, I didn't actually realize I was playing Captain A actually, I just got his name. Hunters eye is something I expect to be a theme here whenever I face some centurions. White scars really didn't need any help, but they got to ignore cover for very little. Enough complaining now from the tyranids codex. My hope is that when the centurions deep strike next to me I'll be able to overwhelm them with hormagaunts, and even if they hop out with hit and run, I can remove a couple each time, it's a greater loss for him then for my hordes. Then at the end of the game I'll swarm as many objectives as possible.
Mission: ITC 1/Emperors will, dawn of war deployment
Deployment:
Dawn of war deployment and the way the objectives were placed. The left side of the table and the center is where most of the action will occur.
My eternal war objective is next to the bunker, close enough that a model inside will claim it.
Grey knight deployment.
My opponent deployed a couple of scouts behind ruins on my left flank of his deployment zone. One centurion squad set up in those same ruins with the librarian and loth.
The other squad of centurions with Draigo attending deployed on the ruins to the right flank.
Tyranid deployment.
I set up across almost the entire board, malanthropes set up to give everyone shrouded. Twenty gaunts in the box, which was placed in the center of my deployment zone, with the escape hatch set up right next to the center objective.
My right flank had both of the flyrants in it, a malanthrope and a couple squads of gaunts and gants.
The left flank was anchored by the zoanthrope and my warrior squad. More gaunts and two squads of gants.
The spores I infiltrated into the center ruin of the board. I wanted to play area denial here and just intimidate him from making an attempt on the central objective. If I am lucky, I will roll this repeatedly on the maelstrom objectives. Additional bonus if one of his deep strikers scatters into the area.
Turn one objectives:
Knights: 3/4 (have a unit partially in opponents deployment zone/kill something)
Tyranids: 1.6 (Hold maelstrom objective 1/Kill something)
First turn Greyish/white knights:
Movement phase was pretty quick, the squad of Loth and his white scar centurions came out from behind the ruins. The dread knight teleported in first turn, along with an empty drop pod who landed next to the mission objective on the left flank.
In the psychic phase the first centurion star powered up and gated all the way across the table. Now hold on I said, I thought gate only had a 24" range. Well I am misinformed, it turns out my memory of gate was from quite a while ago. So instead of my warlord being quite safe an entire board away.
My opponent dropped his grav squad comfortably in range with the happy ability to completely ignore cover.
The Draigo led squad of centurions gated to the left flank of the board using the drop pods teleport homer to avoid scattering entirely. He lined up shots on the zoanthrope on that flank.
The following shooting phase as you would expect resulted in the absence of my warlord. He decided to catch an early flight home I suppose.
Shooting a zoanthrope with no armor save it turns out is not a good policy for grav weapons. This little mistake resulted in a unit that caused no wounds what so ever.
Turn one Tyranids:
Well that was a surprise move there. I really thought that my flyrants were safe. Threw me so far off my game I only took one picture during my turn. Well, the side effect of this is that I can now happily chase him down in combat. The Gaunts in the bunker, the gaunts outside the bunker, and the squad of termagants with devourers will all happily take aim at the Loth star. Flyrant who survived flies onto the building near the Loth star, providing more synapse and hopefully some smack down. Malanthrope came along, hoping to make a charge the second turn to get a win combat, try and get preferred enemy that way. On the other side of things gaunts, warriors and zoanthrope move towards the Draigo star. Psychic phase is understandably underwhelming. Catalyst for flyrant and malanthrope goes off, but warp lance from zoanthrope attempting to destroy the drop pod fails. Shooting manages to put one wound on the Loth centurions, and assault kills him off, the centurion, not Loth. The white scars fail their get out of dodge (hit and run) and are trapped in combat. I learned later that hit and run doesn't work when you are surrounded. As there is no room for your models base to pass another models base. Ah well, the more you know.
Knights: 1
Tyranids: 0
Wrap up.
So the game starts with a huge mistake by myself. I remembered gate in an old version or something, I thought the deep strike was limited to 24 inches away from where you started. With his hunters eye dude entirely across the board, I thought for sure my warlord was safe. Wanh, Wanh. Aside from that, I was unable to kill off anything. Assault on the left flank just was too far away to do much, and the right side while I surrounded him only netted me a single kill.
Turn two: Grey knights
Knights maelstrom: 3/4 (Have a unit within 12" of my board edge/kill something)
Tyranids maelstrom: 1/6 (Control objective 1st/have 3 of my units and none of my opponents in my deployment zone)
Out flanking scouts come in on the left flank as that's where the maelstrom objective is.
Scouts and a drop pod come in at my deployment zone. This also completed his objective of having a unit in my deployment zone if they survived.
Grey knight troops use the drop pods locator beacon to avoid scattering.
The knight moved closer to maelstrom objective 1, but still decided to take pot shots at the numerous mucolids in cover. Grav weapons from draigo star managed to kill a single warrior. They were still in ruins and had a 2+ cover due to the nearby malanthrope.
Loth attempts to gate out of combat, perils, and promptly rolls a one. Shadow in the warp causes his head to explode, and another wound put on a grav centurion.
Evening out the luck, the hormagaunts fail to cause any additional wounds to the now librarian led centurion star, they make their hit and run, and a whole lot of gaunts are left waiting for someone to hit. He chose to hit and run towards his own deployment zone, and with a good 6 on my consolidation I was able to follow him quite well with one squad of gaunts. The other went half the distance, but has a good chance of making it.
Tyranids turn two:
Once more, super excited about my turn I forgot to take pictures until the assault phase. All my reserves came in for me. The trygon I decided to deep strike near the librarian led centurions. The two mucolids came in on the other side of the table bracketing the scouts and draigo if they attempted to retreat. My carnifex realizing it was headed away from any and all action, turned tail and tried to haul it back towards the left flank. Two squads of termagants had made their way into the center ruins. The psychic phase worked as I have come to expect the flyrant managed catalyst to himself and the trygon, but the zoanthrope was unable to manifest anything. The warriors shot at the scouts in my deployment zone then charged them along with the zoanthrope. The final scout held his ground, tieing my models up. A mucolid charged the grey knight strike squad and wiped it out in the ensuing blast.
Gaunts assault Draigo and manage to kill a single centurion.
Draigo and company then hit and run out of the combat, setting themselves in my deployment zone and doubly preventing me from earning that maelstrom.
One squad of hormagaunts on the left flank made it into the librarian led centurions and managed to drag down one more body, however hit and run struck again and they were left hanging.
Knights: 2
Tyranids: 0
Wrap up:
Well, that hit and run is just frustrating. I continue to hit him, but I can't wrap him up. The drop pod on the left flank is managing to hold that objective away from me, and while I would like to say the zoanthrope should have shot the drop pod in my deployment zone, draigo hit and ran over there anyway. I'm slowly whittling away at his forces, one grav star is nearly useless even though the one centurion still ignores cover. I have secured the useless right flank through sheer numbers, and I'm well on the way to doing the same in the center. If I can take out the remaining scouts, I'll be in good shape. I really want to get the carnifex into combat with one of these grav units. He could eat all of them for breakfast.
Turn 3
maelstroms
Knights: 1/5 (hold objective 1/kill something)
Tyranids: 2/4(hold objective 2/kill something)
Grey knights turn 3:
Because why would I take pictures?
So the dread knight stepped closer to his emperors will objective. He already had a squad of scouts hiding directly behind the line of sight blocking ruins directly above it. Both grav squads teleported next to maelstrom objective 1, using the drop pods teleport homer again. Scouts backed up a little and prepared to fire at the remaining mucolid. Mucolid is taken out by scout fire. Fire from grav weaponry is targeted largely on hormagaunts and termagants, so much more ineffectual then usual.
In my turn, the remaining flyrant zipped over to where the scouts were cowering behind the ruins, landing above them. Trygon and hormagaunts from the right flank turn the corner and start booking it as fast as they can. Mental mistake here, I did not move any of the three nearby scoring units I had onto objective number 2. Doh.
Thinking towards the end of the game I use a damaged squad of termagants to take up position around my emperors will marker. Placing them so that keeping 1" away an opponent will be out of range of contesting.
Carnifex continued his slow loping run across the table. Left flank termagants and hormagaunts lined up to charge the two grav stars again, and hopefully take them out. Warriors push up the left board edge preparing to charge into the librarian led grav star. A full squad of termagants came from the central group to charge the grav star as well.
Hormagaunts rushed past the same squad to get a charge on the retreating scouts.
On the right flank the trygon and the hormagaunts continued to book it towards the real battle.
Some of those hormagaunts surround the central objective to give it to me and in case I need it again next turn.
Termagants and warriors charge into the librarian led grav centurions.
Hormagaunts make it into the scouts and quickly wipe them out.
The hormagaunts consolidate towards the emperors will objective in case the game ends next turn. Librarian led grav is stuck in combat without taking much damage.
Carnifex finally makes it in! AP2 hammer of wrath insta-kills two of the grav centurions. Draigo manages to cause only two wounds, before managing to save three punches from the instant death machine that is the stone wrecker.
Draigo and his one white scar friend hit and run out of the combat.
Knights: 3
Tyranids: 2
Wrap up:
Closing in with maelstroms, I need to get lucky to manage it though. I've proactively prevented him from claiming my objective unless he wipes out my squad, I should have that. If I can prevent him from killing both my flyrant and the hormagaunts, and the nearby termagants, I can at least block his objective. That would leave me with victory on the primary. Having him hit and run out of the combat with my carnifex actually becomes an advantage as I can now charge the objective secured drop pod that has been sitting there all game if I need that objective.
Tyranid turn 4:
Maelstrom objectives:
Knights: 3/4 (kill two units)
Tyranids: 6/2 (Have three of my and no enemy units in my deployment zone/control maelstrom obj 2)
Pictures were rare as the conclusion came about.
Knight turn 4:
All my warp dice were spent to keep the librarian grav squad trapped in combat with a couple of termagants and the remaining warrior. The draigo star, already out of combat was free to gate over to four inches away from my objective. Grav weaponry is sadly ineffective without ignores cover against models with a 6 up save. Only one termangant dies. (They had shrouded from a nearby malanthrope.)
My turn was quick. Carnifex charged and destroyed the drop pod on principle. He and the zoanthrope were contesting an un-needed objective.
Hormagaunts charged the dread knight and pulled him slightly away from the objective, though not far enough. A termagant crawled in close enough to assist in denying his possession.
At my emperors will, the termagants toughened up to continue the block, and some hormagaunts charged in to pull the marines farther away from the objective he needed.
Knights: 3
Tyranids: 3
Wrap up: Draigo squad prevented me from winning the maelstrom secondary, but I had the primary in hand. I've forgotten things in the time since I played this game. There was a 5th turn, because in the fourth I killed his scouts near his objective with my flyrant, landing to do so. Which pulled the dreadknight into shooting him and prevented that beast from engaging anyone else. I was proud the endless swarm had made it through a full 5 turns in the tournament. I was playing an opponent that had an elite army with a great knowledge of both his own and my army, so not too much time wasted. I made some mental mistakes with the power of gate, and with not knowing how hit and run works in ITC. I think it would have been a more lopsided game had he been unable to remove his grav centurions at the beginning of the game, and later when draigo was surrounded as well. Would not have prevented gate, but I had consistent success in blocking at least one gate per turn. I made a mistake with placing the trygon way out of the way, he didn't do much. I think the wraith knight may have shot at him one turn. I was worried about my spores being useless in the center, and they kind of were. I never moved them aggressively enough to cause either distraction or threat. Carnifex really never should have left the area by the left most objective, that was the mid point that would be crucial, and I wasted two or three turns running in circles.
