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Today I played a 1750pt game against Tyranids... It was a list I knew I would have trouble with, which was exactly why I wanted to challenge it.

My list consisted of:

doom/guide farseer
5 firedragons+DBF exarch
5 firedragons
2x 10 bladestorm dire avengers w/ shuriken cannon serpents
10 diresword/bladestorm dire avengers w/ brightlance serpent
falcon w/ bl
falcon w/eml + holo
fire prism

I don't know tyranids too well, but my opponent had the following:

Hive Tyrant w/3 Tyrant guard, lashwhips or whatever (they didn't do much fighting), warp blast
Broodlord
3x 8 Genestealers w/ rerolls/preferred enemy (2x outflanking)
16 spinegaunts
2x 4 tyranid warriors w/ 1 strangler, 1 rending claws, 2 of the small blast weapon (deathspitter?)
3x carnifexes w/ strangler

I think he was mistaken in attaching the Broodlord to the Tyrant guard's unit instead of with 'stealers... he admitted as much partway through the game.

Game was Spearhead/Annihilation, although I mistakenly thought it was a central objective game during the first turn... you'll see what I did.

I knew all of those templates were just going to wreck me the second I stepped out of my transports but I did it anyway. Opponent won roll and he gave me first turn. He had tyranid warriors on either flank in cover, so I took the gambit of crippling them with bladestorms and opening up the playing field for my potent but fragile troops.

It didn't work. I failed the psychic test to guide my Vypers (an essential ploy on the first turn!), but a serpent each dashed out to perfect range. By mathhammer... roughly 70% of 32 shots would hit (22), 11 of those shots would wound, and 5-6 wounds would be suffered after cover. I did pretty well, but only killed one warrior, spreading wounds out otherwise. I focused my S6 and s8/ap2 fire on the two closest carnifexes, killing one and taking the other down to a single wound. I don't know how those stranglers would have rolled out, but I'd probably have been far better off doing away with the warriors.

In return he failed to scatter most of his templates, devastating the t3 avengers - one squad was reduced to the exarch, the other was reduced to 3 basic avengers. Both passed Ld test. One of the carnifexes destroyed a vyper with his strangler, and the other scattered off harmlessly. Everything advanced, as was expected. My opponent mentions killpoints...

"Oh, this was annihilation... wasn't it?"
"Yup"
"Oops..."

My second turn, the survivors got back on board their serpents, and nipped back to fire with shuriken cannons. I got rid of the damaged carnifex and added a wound to the other, but achieved little else, the warriors making plenty of saves.

Opponent's second turn; one unit of genestealers scuttle onto my board edge, near to Fire Prism. The shooting phase from the warriors is quite fortunate, destroying a wave serpent and immobilising another.

With a perfect fleet roll, the stealers multicharge my Farseer's waveserpent 17" from the board edge in addition to the EML Falcon. The pulse laser is destroyed on the falcon, and the wave serpent is wrecked! Damnit rending! With the serpent sort of backed against a wall, the survivors are able to escape well away from the stealers and in the best cover available (4+ obviously).

I retreat further and unload my remaining avengers - they had the opportunity to shoot and I couldn't dependably kill the oncoming 16 genestealers without troop support. Lone exarch wounds four stealers but they all make cover. Fire Dragon squad w/ flamer completely kills the 8 stealers that came on outflanking, meaning I should have left the other three avengers in the serpent...
Farseer w/guided avengers secure cover and shoot at the spinegaunt wall (only thing in range), reducing it to 5 models. The tyrant's retinue (at this point we expose that the broodlord should have been with a stealer retinue, but let it play as is) is open to a few guns, so I fire my remaining tanks at the HQ, causing a wound or two.

Opponent guns away two of my three avengers, and the last flees off the table. The lone exarch recieves a charge from the deployed stealers, failing to achieve anything monumental. The stealers also multicharge the vypers but fail to achieve anything. The five remaining gaunts get a charge into my Farseer/ diresword avengers. I kill two, they kill a single aspect warrior, fail the Ld test outside of synapse and flee. The carnifex charges the immobilised, weaponless waveserpent, making it explode and killing three gaunts, plus wounding the carnifex! (Sorry about photo below, we had forgotten to remove the waveserpent model thereafter, but that's it at the bottom of the screen. The squad of stealers at the top of the board are still in reserves.)



You can see for yourself how absolutely boned I am, but I'm determined to take as many bugs as possible with me! This was taken during my movement phase. In the top left is the computer I'm typing on now.

The Fire Dragons dash up to toast the three remaining gaunts, who have made it back into synapse range. The EML falcon rolls for dangerous terrain, and lands atop the central wrecked waveserpent, simultaneously inspiring this photo, blocking LOS from one of the Tyranid Warrior squads, and earning the nickname 'Voltron'. To boot, that single Krak EML finishes off the carnifex in the shooting phase!
The other Falcon retreats (not pictured) and wounds the tyrant retinue once, and the two Vypers fail to wound it at all. Damn again.

Double damn it! The last stealer squad comes in on my side of the table. After all of my bad luck, I thought that I just might not have to deal with this scenario. Both squads of stealers fleet toward my Farseer squad, but only the newly arrived one charges (the other was is range but was overkill in his opinion. Thanks buddy). The remaining two Avengers and Seer flee and are cut down, taking only a single stealer with them. Everything else runs forward for the kill...

I'm not going to win, so I chuck my other squad of Fire Dragons at the Tyrant Retinue and let rip. Two wounds, one guard killed. The get charged in return and are killed as they flee, the other fire dragons suffering the same after inaccurate template fire and a genestealer charge.

He ends up with 11 of my 13 available killpoints. I get three carnifexes and a squad each of termagants and stealers (5).

Good game. :(\

Should have stayed in my transports, rolled better, used tactics etc.

Hordes backed up by awesome firepower are exactly what I wasn't equipped to deal with.

We played at my opponent's house, but the terrain was borrowed from our FLGS (who were closing early the day we'd arranged to play). Armageddon Games has an incredible array of high-quality scenery, including one table set that features three wrecked Ultramarine Land Raiders. There's also a firebase built into a demolished Baneblade that was finished recently. ATM they're working on a couple of the Imperial City boxes and all of the new Planetfall gear.

Nice battle report and that was some real bad luck going your way.

A few more pics would have helped but a great game none the less.

Cheers

let the other player know he needs a genestealer retinue for his brood lord.

Bugs were going to be really tough for your list, it only takes a couple bad die rolls to make it impossible.

You mention vypers in your report but dont have any vypers in your list?

Missing that psych roll is why you want to run with runes of witnessing. They arent expensive and make it far less likely that you will fail.

Sounds like you did pretty well considering all the problems that you had tho!


Sliggoth

wolfeman wrote:let the other player know he needs a genestealer retinue for his brood lord.

Yeah, we both know now. He also didn't know all tyranids had Move Through Cover until the last couple turns, because it is only mentioned the once in the book.

Sliggoth wrote:Bugs were going to be really tough for your list, it only takes a couple bad die rolls to make it impossible.

You mention vypers in your report but dont have any vypers in your list?

Missing that psych roll is why you want to run with runes of witnessing. They arent expensive and make it far less likely that you will fail.

Sounds like you did pretty well considering all the problems that you had tho!


Sliggoth

Sorry, there were also 3x Scatter/Cannon Vypers. 21 Guided S6 shots, when it works

yes but you cant just stick the broodlord whereever he has to have a retinue of 5-11 genestealers