So I finally managed to get in a game on Vassal. Not ideal, but I'm in Iraq, so options are a bit limited.
I had just bought a large
DE lot off e-bay prior to deploying, so I've been itching to play around with a list using them. Went with this at 1000 points
Drachite with punisher, helm, plasma grenades
Drachite with punisher, helm, plasma grenades
5 wyches, 1 succubus with agonizer, plasma grenades in raider (got +1
WS)
5 wyches, 1 succubus with agonizer, plasma grenades in raider (always strike first)
10
DE with 2
DLs
10
DE with 2
DLs
6
DE with 1
DL, raider
Ravager, 3
DLs
Ravager, 3
DLs
His list:
1 Hive Tyrant @ 213 Pts
Adrenal Glands +1 In; Adrenal Glands +1
WS; Bio-plasma; Symbiote Rippers; Toxic Miasma; Toxin Sacs +1
St; Winged;
Scything Talons (x2); Synapse Creature; The Horror; Warp Field
3 Ripper Swarm @ 51 Pts
Leaping; Toxin Sacs +1
St
3 Ripper Swarm @ 51 Pts
Leaping; Toxin Sacs +1
St
1 Carnifex @ 113 Pts
Enhanced Senses +1
BS; Twin-linked Devourer (x2)
1 Carnifex @ 113 Pts
Enhanced Senses +1
BS; Twin-linked Devourer (x2)
3 Ravener @ 120 Pts
Rending Claws; Scything Talons (x1)
3 Ravener @ 120 Pts
Rending Claws; Scything Talons (x1)
1 The Red Terror @ 104 Pts
Scything Talons (x2)
Game came up as gamma cleanse.
I didn't get screen shots of the whole game, so I'll recreate as best I can from memory. As I recreated the turns, don't sweat exact unit placement or anything. Final shot is accurate, though.
No surprise, he stacks the front planning to waltz in and blast stuff. I didn't plan it out as well as I should have, but overall I planned to turbo a few units (ravagers) into the far corners and slowly pick apart his short ranged list. Use most of my army as bait to keep him in my quadrant (and cause some damage in the process).
He won first turn and moved forward. Nothing was in range, so pretty quiet. I ran most of my vehicles to the far corners, but kept the small warrior squad and its raider in my home quarter to provide a little extra fire support. In hindsight, this would have been a god unit to run out to claim a quarter and snipe at fexes. sigh. I moved my wyches back, hoping to catch ad advancing tyranid unit getting stuck in the ruins. Put a couple wounds on the top-most fex. Realized he had forgotten to put the red terror on the board, and I then notice it's not for 1000 point games. He puts in a couple regular raveners with his regular squads and we call it even.
2nd turn, he moves through the terrain quicker than I expect and get his tyrant to charge some wyches. A wound on the fex,, pile in. Shoots a couple of warriors in the ruins. I pile all my wyches into the tyrant and run the to
HQs into the runs to attack some rippers. Wyches lose combat, charging unit flees off board. Woot. Kill the top fex, wound the middle one with shooting from
DLs.
3rd turn, his raveners and rippers assault, killing 1
HQ and wounding the other. Assault my
DE in the ruins. Shoot down the raider in my deployment zone. Tyrant finishes off wych squad, has 1 wound left. Some raveners assault a raider, but fail to damage it. I move my
DE squads north to try and assault the rippers, fail to reach.
HQ falls to raveners. 1 wound on each ravener squad, I think. Skimers kill carnifex, unit of raveners,
4th turn, he finishes off the last of my resistance in my home corner and hides. My remaining skimmers slowly prowl and finish off a ripper and the last fex.
5th turn, he hides. I move towards center to allow ease of contesting corners. Right-most ravager moves so it can claim NE or SE quadrant while moving only 6", in order to kill any units he tries to run across to the SE quadrant.
6th turn, that's what he does. (only actual screenshot from game!) Raveners run towards SE quadrant, tyrant jumps in front to shield from fire. I have a raider move in and kill the tyrant, then the ravager moves into the NE quadrant and kills two raveners. Left-most ravager boosts south to contest my home quarter. Ends with me claiming NE quarter,
SW quarter contested.
Had 320 points left on the table with the 2 raiders and 2 ravagers. With the 500 bonus
VP for table quarter, I won by around 700
VP for a "crushing victory".
Thoughts: Opponent was a bit confused at the end of the game. Thought you scored bonus
VP for each unit in enemy home quadrant (I think?), equal to unit's value. Explained his bizarre behavior of hiding the last few turns.
Enemy list gave me a big edge, I think. Such short ranged weapons made running and gunning easy for me. Should have run even more. Considering focusing fire on the swarms and raveners first, as the fexes were easier to deal with with the skimmers? Unsure.
Wyches were disappointing again. They just don't pack the right
CC power. They need the
HQs to help out, but how you equip them makes a huge difference.
HQs with agonizers would have been great against the fex, but not as good against marines. Hmmm...that would be the case if I had taken drugs like normal, but I skimped this time....maybe should have taken agonizers after all....threw the list together when opponent recommended 1000 points, so I suppose some errors in judgment are to be expected
lol. Still, even if I had given them agonizers and charged them all into the tyrant (probably killing it), I think getting assaulted by the rippers and both raveners would have gone pretty badly for me.
Interestingly, ravagers have always been pretty disappointing for me in the past, but were easily the VIPs of this game. Would have been completely different if the nids had any kind of long-range firepower, but be that as it may, they worked out well this game.
