Infiltrating Broodlord
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NARRATIVE:
The Chaplain surveyed his magnificent troops in their immaculately shined power armor. Three full Tactical Squads, two Landspeeder wings, a Dreadnought and three Whirlwind mobile artillery platforms This should be a good training exercise for his men; the sensors showed only a few Tyranid creatures making their way towards the Marine outpost, though the techmarines claimed that an unusual amount of seismic activity in the region was interfering with their readings.
Only few Bioships had managed to temporarily evade the orbital blockade and drop some Spores to the planet's surface, but the Battle Barges reported that the last had been obliterated. The Chaplain had sent his scouts skirting around the edge of the battlefield to make sure that none of the creatures escaped.
"There they are - Fire at Will!" he screamed as a 20' tall Hive Tyrant broke from the treeline. A skittering line of Termagants boiled over the scree in front of it, while clawed Warrior-beasts and an trio of unrecognized creatures raised their long bio-guns. The roar of Whirlwind missiles and table-saw-like grind of assault cannon barrels filled the air. Gobbets of flesh were all that was left of the smaller Tyranids, while the larger ones scattered to hide behind ruined skeletons of blasted buildings. The Chaplain stifled a yawn as he gestured the Landspeeders forward to corral the beasts while the tactical squads powered up their lascannons. The scout unit came in at a run, but not from behind the Tyranids - they glanced fearfully over their shoulders and gestured frantically at their commander, but he was too focused on the the prospect of glorious carnage to glance their way.
Twelve Hormagaunts chased the scouts onto the battlefield, easily catching them and tossing several into the air with their talons. Six Genestealers burst from the trees to tear into one of the tactical squads from behind, without warning - madly, they also scrabbled at two of the Whirlwind tanks, sending the crews diving inside to bolt the hatches. A Lictor stood up from its perfect camouflage and sent barbed hooks flying into the third artillery tank, wrenching out the cables that controlled the missiles.
In perfect synchronization, the Hive Tyrant rounded a large sensor array dish and spewed a bolus of acidic venom that burned the antigrav unit out of one of the Landspeeders. Long lance-like projectiles arced from behind the ruined building, tiny organisms at their bases flapping and expelling jets of gas to guide them towards the other Landspeeder unit. One of the lances landed in the spinning barrels of the lead Speeder's assault cannon, causing the weapon to tear itself apart in a shriek of tortured bearings.
The ground rumbled as three Raveners burst up in front of another tactical squad, then slithered away around behind another building. Seconds later, a large spore pod fell from orbit. Firing a cluster of razor sharp needles and flailing with meter-long tentatacles at the tactical squad it had nearly landed on, it disgorged a trio of floating brains out the other side of it. Psychic energy crackled and lanced from them, slicing the legs clean off of the Dreadnought.
The legless Dreadnought propped itself up with one arm, leveling its assault cannon at the Zoanthropes which had disabled it. Heavy bolters and marine bolters added to the hail of fire, but the psychic energies surrounding the creatures deflected most of the explosive ammunition harmlessly away, and only one of the three fell to the ground.
The Chaplain, seeing his back line under assault, let forth a scream of rage and ran towards the Lictor, discharging his Plasma Pistol hastily. The finicky weapon overheated, though the Chaplain's armored glove saved him from a disintegrated arm. The Lictor turned, dropped to four of its six limbs and ran straight at the Chaplain. Its claws landed several blows but only one tore through the Marine's power armor, and his own Crozius disabled one of the scything talons on the beast.
They slowly circled one another. Both were nearly thrown from their feet as the earth burst asunder behind the Lictor. A huge 50-foot tall Trygon sprung forth from its burrow, towering over the battlefield. Psychic energy sprayed out from its containment spines, frying several tactical marines in their armor.
The last thing the Chaplain saw was the Warriors advancing on the immobilized Dreadnought. The dying screams of his men echoed in his ears as the claws of the Lictor descended...
TYRANIDS 1500:
HQ: Hive Tyrant: Heavy Venom Cannon, Hive Commander (Paroxysm, Leech
Essence) 220
Elite: 3 Zoanthropes in a Spore Pod (with Cluster Spines) 230
Elite: 3 Hive Guard 150
Elite: 1 Lictor 65
Fast: 3 Raveners: Rending Claws 105
Troop: 3 Warriors: Scything Talons, Rending Claws, Toxin Sacs 105
Troop: 12 Spinegants 72
Troop: 12 Hormagaunts 72
Troop: 6 Genestealers, Toxin Sacs 102
Troop: 6 Genestealers, Toxin Sacs 102
Heavy: Trygon Prime, Adrenal Glands, Regeneration: 275
SPACE MARINES 1500:
HQ: Chaplain w Plaspistol
Elite: Dreadnought AC/HF
Fast: 2 speeders (1 AC/HB)
Fast: 2 speeders (1 MM/HF)
Troop: 10-man Tac squad, Lascannon, Flamer
Troop: 10-man Tac squad, Lascannon, Plasmagun, Sgt w PFist
Troop: 10-man Tac squad, Heavy Bolter, Flamer
Troop: 9 man scout squad, Sniper Rifle x6, Heavy Bolter x1, Sgt BP+CCW
Heavy: Whirlwind
Heavy: Whirlwind
Heavy: Whirlwind
Mission: Annihilation; Deployment: Spearhead. Tyranids won first turn.
TURN BY TURN BATTLE REPORT:
I deployed in the southwest corner: the spinegaunts in a line 12" from table center, with 3 Warriors a few inches behind the center of the line. The 3 Hive Guard were behind the east end of the line, while the Hive Tyrant was behind the west end (and also behind a tall sensor array dish for cover). Everything else went into reserves: both Genestealer units and the Hormagaunts outflanking; Trygon, Spod+Zoeys, Raveners, Lictor deepstriking.
Marines deployed their Whirlwinds behind a small copse of trees in the northeast corner, for cover. The HB/Flamer tac squad went in front of the trees, with the LC/Plas/PF squad to the southeast of them and the LC/Flamer squad to the west of them, next to a small building on the western edge of the quarter. The Dreadnought was placed 12" from table center, in front of the HB/Flamer squad. The speeder squadron with the Multimelta went at the west edge of his corner zone, on the north side; while the AC speeder squadron went on the south edge of his zone. The scouts outflanked.
Turn 1a: The Marines stole the initiative! Glad I deployed like I had, with the gaunts for cover. It took all three Whirlwind templates as well as the speeder HBs to wipe out 11 of the 12 Spinegaunts. The Dreadnought's assault cannon accounted for one Hive Guard, while a Tac Lascannon put a wound on another one.
Turn 1b: With reinforcements still at least one turn away, the Hive Guard dove behind a piece of hard cover in the center of the south side of the board, with the Warriors running after them. The Tyrant sidled around the west side of his sensor dish, poking his Venom Cannon out towards the northwestern Speeder squadron. The Venom Cannon scattered 8" to nowhere, and the Hive Guard managed only to stun one Speeder (who ignored it due to squadron rules). The lone remaining Spinegaunt ran forward into a crater for cover.
Turn 2a:The northwestern Speeder multimelta put a wound on the Tyrant, and one Warrior took a wound from a Whirlwind. The Heavy Bolter squad shot down the Spinegaunt despite his cover save. Otherwise everything shot at the Hive Guard, but managed to only inflict one unsaved wound (the Speeder heavy bolters couldn't roll more than a 4 to wound, and the Hive Guard made their cover saves against the assault cannon and lascannon hits). The Scouts came in, but sadly for the Marines they came in from the east. He brought them on near the south end of the eastern edge and ran them a whole 1".
Turn 2b: Thanks to Hive Commander, all the Tyranid reserves came in except for the Trygon! The Raveners tried to deepstrike behind the building to the west of the Lascannon/flamer squad, but managed to pop up right in front of that squad instead (oops). Luckily they were able to get a good 5" run to put 2 of the three behind the building for cover. The spod got a direct hit, landing 1" directly south of the LC/flamer squad. The Zoeys got out on the south side (with the spod between them and the tac squad); they had a clear shot at the Dreadnought east of them and the southeast speeder squadron, and were reasonably close to the Whirlwinds in the northeast. Two of the zoanthropes made their psychic tests and managed to immobilize the Dreadnought. The Lictor was placed in amongst the Whirlwinds, stunning one with a rear armor Flesh Hooks hit.
One unit of stealers outflanked from the west (they ended up hiding in a ruined building all game, with no chance to get to anything). But thankfully the other stealers and the hormagaunts came in on the east. The eastern stealers came in from the northern part of the east side, multicharging the Lascannon/plasma/PF tac squad as well as two Whirlwinds. They ate 5 marines and immobilized a Whirlwind, losing 2 of their own numbers. The Hormagaunts came in from the southern end of the eastern edge, surrounding and assaulting the Scouts: they ate 4 of them but lost 4 of their own.
The Tyrant actually managed to punk the multimelta speeder with his heavy venom cannon, immobilizing it (which killed it due to squadron rules). The Hive Guard shot the assault cannon off one of the southeastern Speeders and stunned the other one. The Warriors spread out and left cover, to move up while keeping the Hive Guard in synapse. The Spore Pod scored a direct hit with the Cluster Spine large blast over the entire Las/Flamer squad, and with the additional wounds from the Ripper Tentacles managed to take out 3 marines (including the flamer!).
Turn 3a: Marine shooting was pretty crippled as two squads were locked up and most vehicles were stunned/shaken. The Whirlwind that had lost its Missile Launcher tank-shocked the Lictor out into the open (I declined to Death or Glory: S6 rending vs AV11 was too risky). The two tac squads that could shoot opened up on the Zoanthropes and managed to drop one. The Chaplain left the LC/flamer squad to take a plasma pistol shot at the Lictor, but overheated (though not to the point of wounding himself). The Dreadnought shot at the Zoanthropes, but only put a single wound on one. The northwestern speeder came over to shoot at the Raveners, putting 2 wounds on one of them.
The two close combats on the edge of the board saw several more marines and scouts fall, as well as one genestealer to the powerfist.
Turn 3b: The Trygon came in automatically (+1 from Lictor and +1 from Hive Commander, on a 3+ roll). It bursted up 6" to the west of the Lictor with a non-scattering deepstrike, and fried 4 marines from the Heavy Bolter/Flamer squad using his Assault 12 Bioelectric zapper. The Lictor then had to run around the back of the Trygon to line up a charge on the Chaplain - they each managed to cause a single wound on the other.
The Hive Tyrant ignored the nearby speeder to take a shot at the Dreadnought, but scattered wide and managed to wound the Spore Pod (oops - this should have instakilled but we screwed up). The Raveners rounded the north end of the building they had hidden behind, with a half-decent run of 3", and charged the remaining marines in the LC/Flamer squad from behind. The rerolls from scything talons and several rends caused them to wipe out the squad. They consolidated in the general direction of the Whirlwinds and the HB/Flamer squad. The Warriors made their way slowly towards the Dreadnought, leaving cover now that most of the shooty Marine squads were engaged.
One of the Zoanthropes failed its Psychic test, and the other took a Perils wound and then managed to miss the Dreadnought!
Another Genestealer fell to the powerfist, but only 2 marines remained from the Las/Plas/PF squad. The hormagaunts finally lost combat, broke and ran 4" towards their board edge.
Turn 4a: The two remaining scouts charged the 7 fleeing Hormagaunts, hoping to disperse them. The Hormagaunts remarkably rallied, turning to surround and tear apart the hapless scouts, then consolidating towards the Warriors to try to get into Synapse. The Dreadnought's Assault Cannon killed 2 of the 3 Raveners beside it. The one Whirlwind able to shoot aimed at the Hive Guard but scattered wide. The HB/Flamer squad rapidfired into the Trygon, managing to inflict 2 wounds - and the Trygon didn't save either.
The Genestealers managed to finish off the Las/Plas/PF squad, with only 2 stealers left, and consolidated behind the Whirlwinds.
Turn 4b: The Zoanthropes shot at the Dreadnought, destroying its Assault Cannon (oops, should have taken off the CC arm). The Hive Tyrant and the Hive Guards finally brought down the last two Speeders with shooting.
The Warriors charged the Dreadnought, but only rended once, taking off the CC arm this time but losing a Warrior. The Trygon and the one remaining Ravener both charged the HB/Flamer squad, wiping it out. The Lictor charged the nearest Whirlwind, causing an epic 5" explosion that killed off both the Lictor and the last Ravener (Trygon was unharmed). The Genestealers charged one of the Whirlwinds, rending its Missile Launcher off.
Turn 5a: The Dreadnought put a wound on a Warrior, and the Warriors failed to rend. Neither of the remaining Whirlwinds had any weapons left and the rest of the Marines had been wiped out.
Turn 5b: The Zoanthopes destroyed one Whirlwind with Shooting, the Trygon and Genestealers accounted for a Whirlwind each in assault, and the Dreadnought finally went down to a rend from the Warriors.
Result: Tyranids killed 11 KP (all marine units), Marines killed 2KP (Spinegaunts, Raveners) though they should have got a 3rd from the Spore Pod.
RULES ERRORS:
1) The scattering Venom Cannon should have dealt Instant Death to the Spore Pod (S9 vs T4). Didn't matter much in the end, as the LC/Flamer Marines were already engaged by the Raveners at that point, but one or two might have survived.
2) The Lictor should have rolled an LD test for Instinctive Behaviour on turn 3, as he was out of Synapse until the Trygon arrived. On an 11 or 12 he would have had to have not moved and shot at the Whirlwind again.
COMMENTS ON THE NEW NIDS:
Outflanking was brutally effective. Even if Jim had deployed farther in from the edge, the Genestealers and Hormagaunts would still have likely caught his squads (unless he was >18" from the edge, which is pretty far forward). Sure, one squad of Stealers came in the wrong side and did nothing all game, but it was worth it for the ones that came in the correct flank. I may need to consider fielding the Swarmlord special character (a Hive Tyrant that, among other things, allows rerolling of which flank his own outflankers show up from). The +1 to reserves from the Hive Commander power was fantastic.
Deep Striking was great. The Spore Pod doesn't mishap (drops like a Drop Pod), the Lictors are placed, and I was even able to use the Lictor's Pheremone Trail to place the Trygon. Only the Raveners scattered, and it wasn't even that bad since they were able to run into cover.
Keeping most of my army off of the board and using outflank/deepstrike with +1 to reserves meant my CC troops did not get shot up while crossing the board. Also it allowed more tactical choices once the game had begun (ie I got to decide where to try to deepstrike each unit, in response to events in turn 1), which I find more exciting than just firing a gunline or slowly moving around.
The Hive Guard (new unit) were meh. They stunned two speeders most of the game, destroyed one's Assault Cannon and eventually took one down, but that's not much for a 150 pt unit. T6 is great but 4+ save is pants: they had to hide from the Assault Cannons and Heavy Bolters or they'd have been toast. And with only 24" range, that limited their targets severely. They might work better in a more traditionally-deployed Nid army rather than this largely DeepStrike/Outflank force, where they're almost the only things on the board to be shot at for the first turn or two.
The Trygon rocked on toast, though it helped that most units were engaged or stunned by the time he popped up. T6 W6 3+ is brilliant, and the re-roll all attacks combined with 7 attacks on the charge makes for a devastating close combat unit, not to mention the Assault 12 gun. I'd consider running it without the prime upgrade - it doesn't really need Synapse as it is unlikely to lose combat, and if it succumbs to Instinctive Behaviour: Feed, then it does what you probably would have wanted it to do anyways. Regenerate was also unnecessary in the end. I'd happily trade out the Prime upgrade, Regenerate and the 3 Hiveguard to get a second Trygon into the army.
The W3 Warriors and Raveners were remarkably survivable in the absence of S8 large blasts. The new 3++ save on the Zoeys was incredible, they took a *lot* of fire. I like the Lictor, he killed the Chaplain and tore open Whirlwind, accounting for over double his points, not to mention guiding in the Trygon. Being able to place him wherever I wanted was awesome.
The Hive Tyrant himself didn't really accomplish much other than giving the reserves bonus. I had to hide him from the Lascannons and Assault Cannons or he would have been punked turn 1, but that meant he was in poor position to try to get into combat where he would shine. The heavy VC was pretty unimpressive even against low AV targets. In the future I'll run him with Tyrant Guard and/or work up some bonesabers to run him as the Swarmlord.
COMMENTS ON THE GAME
My opponent would have been better off infiltrating his Scouts normally (with a line on the Hive Tyrant or Warriors) rather than outflanking them - their heavy weapons meant they didn't get to fire the turn they walked on anyways.
Myself, I should not have deployed in the open - I should have just hunkered my entire deployed force in cover and waited for everything else to come in. If my opponent had had a few lucky scatters with the Whirlwinds, I would have lost my Warriors and the Hive Guard on turn 1.
Also, I almost screwed myself up by deepstriking the Trygon in front of the Lictor, blocking off my own charge lane (duh). Luckily I got a good run roll.
Otherwise, the surprising effectiveness of outflanking and deepstriking really swung the fight in the Nids' favour. The Spearhead deployment zones really helped the outflanking decide the battle - if the marines had all deployed >18" from the side edge they would have been too close to the Hive Tyrant, Hive Guard and Warriors.
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