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The armies:

Nids
Prime (LW/BS, DS)
4 x Warriors (DS)
10 x Hormies
10 x Hormies
1 x Zoey
1 x Zoey
2 x Hive Guard
15 x Gargoyles
15 x Gargoyles
1 X Trygon Prime

Space Pups
Rune Priest (LL, Jaws)
Lone Wolf (Termy armour, Claws)
10 x GH (Standard, melta, WG w/PF, Rhino)
10 x GH (Standard, melta, WG w/PF, Rhino)
6 x GH (melta)
Razorback (TL Las)
Vindicator
4 x LF (inc WG, 3 ML)

Glydien surveyed the land before him from his vantage point overlooking the Imperial airbase. What used to be an imperial outpost now lay mostly in ruins, with the airbase the only building left mostly intact. The rest had been devastated by a small Tyranid swarm that had landed somewhere on the planet.

Because of the distortion caused in the warp by these creatures, the Ulthwe farseers had been unable to predict what flow on effects this swarm might have to their fragile craftworld nearby. For this reason, they had sent Glydien as a scout to survey the swarms activities, and find out if the imperium had decided to stamp out the creatures before they took root on the planet.

Glydien nodded with satisfaction as he saw transport ships land on and around the airbase, dropping off the emporers finest – Space marines. He noted by their pelts and markings that these marines were form the Space Wolf chapter. Well, at least they are taking the threat seriously, he thought.

Shortly after the marines landed, Glydien heard loud screeching sounds coming from the east. The aliens had also noted the marines arrival, and swarms of gargoyles and hormagaunts had arrived to welcome them. Glydien also noted that amongst their number was a huge worm shaped beast with massive talons, a Trygon. The Eldar ranger held his breath, this was going to be interesting…

Mission - Annihilation.
Deploy - Spearhead.

Space Wolves choose to go first and deploy.
Nids Deploy and then seize the innitiative.

Deployment

Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the deployment. I was surprised to see the Space wolves deploy forward. This was probably because he chose the quarter with the firebase, and only realised after he started deploying that to line all his tanks up in a row he would have to deploy in front of the firebase. His Vindicator deployed off to the far left behind a house, and his two rhinos deployed in the middle in front of the firebase with the Razorback on the far right. His LF's deployed on the firebase, with the rune priest in front.

Scared of the Vindicator, I deployed my Trygon on my left to face it off. My gargoyles deployed in two waves to my right, and my hormagaunts took the centre. My warriors, prime, hive guard and 1 zoey tokk up position in the centre behind the hormagaunts, and the other hormagaunt squad deployed next to the Trygon on the left.

Turn 1
Nids advance




Everything moves and runs forward, with the exception of the Hive Guard who move forward and shoot the vindicator causing an immobilised and a stunned result - phew!

The Space Wolves respond by unloading a ten man and 6 man Grey Hunter squad, and proceed to shoot up the Gargoyle units killing most of the front unit and a few of the second unit. The Lone Wolf charges the front unit of Gargoyles and reduces the unit to 1 model after taking a wound from a lucky gargoyle attack.

KP – Nids 0, SW 0

Turn 2




The Zoey on the right flank lances and destroys the Razorback (nullify fails), and the other Zoey lances and gets another stunned result on the Vindicator. The second gargoyle unit shoots up the 6 man Grey Hunter squad, killing one, and then charges in killing another for small loss.

The Trygon charges into the Vindicator and easily flips it over destroying it.

Meanwhile, the warriors use their deathspitters on the 10 man Grey Hunter squad, and kill two marines. The Hormagaunt unit then charges in with 30 attacks and does... nothing... The Grey Hunters proceed to wipe out the Hormagaunts and follow up towards the Warriors ... oh dear...

In the SW turn, the gargoyles and Grey hunters dont do much, the second unit of Grey Hunters deploys and both squads put the pain on the Warriors killing on and reducing the Prime and another to 1 wound each. The front squad then charges in and kills the prime and another warrior. The Prime manages to bring 2 marines down before he dies. The lone wolf charges and kills the right flank zoey.

LF and priest manage to put a wound on the Trygon.

KP – Nids 2, SW 4

Turn 3


Hive Guard shoot and kill the Lone Wolf, whilst the left flank Zoey moves towards the centre and blasts two marines (again nullify fails). The Trygon advances and shoots the LFs, killing their Wolf Guard champ. Gargoyles finish off the Grey Hunters, leaving them in the open. Hormies charge into the 6 Grey Hunters engaged with the warriors. Warriors and Hormies put 10 wounds on the marines, but all save - curse their high armour. The marines return by killing some hormies and getting some fearless kills as well.

In the Space Wolf turn, the 6 GHs finish off the Hormies and Warriors for no loss, whilst the LFs and priest continue to take wounds off the Trygon. The 8 man GH unit fires and wipes out the second gargoyle brood.

KP – Nids 2, SW 7

Turn 4


The Hive Guard shoot the 6 remaining GHs for no effect, and then charge in and get killed...
The Trygon charges the other 8 man GH squad and kills 5, the other 3 run away and Trygon doesn’t catch them.
The Zoey tries to Lance a rhino, but is nullified.

In the Space wolf turn, everything fires on the Trygon bringing it down to 1 wound. The priest then charges the Trygon, but fails to do anything and is ripped apart.

KP – Nids 4, SW 8

Turn 5


The last Zoey attempts to lance last rhino, and destroys it.
Trygon charges LFs, and wipes them out.

In reply, the GHs bolter fire kills the last Zoey, leaving only the Trygon with 1 wound on the board.

KP – Nids 6, SW 9

Turn 6
(No pic)
Trygon moves down and blasts remaing GH’s from 2nd squad.

Last Grey hunters shoot Trygon, no effect.

KP – Nids 7, SW 9

Turn 7


Trygon charges GH’s in the cover of the rhino wreck, and is killed by a lucky swing.

KP – Nids 7, SW 10 (Nids wiped out)

Glydien smiled. The farseers were likely to be pleased with this result. The Tyranid swarm had been annhialated, and the Space Wolves had few survivors left. Neither force was likely to be an immediate threat, and the Farseers might decide to take this planet for their own.

The ranger started to turn around, and then froze. Something wasn’t right, it was too still and too quiet. Inch by inch, he slowly edged his hand down towards his pistol. A loud rasping hiss was all he heard before he slid to the ground, his dying thoughts, there’s more.

I don't think this was too bad for my first Nids game. The Hormies and warriors didn't contribute much, but I expect they'll be more dangerous against other lists like Eldar, Imperial Guard and Orks. My biggest mistake was probably sending the Trygon on the flank to go tank hunting. My Zoeys and Hive guard seemed to be doing a fine job by themselves, and I could have really used the Trygon's muscle and toughness to get through the 20 marines that the rest of my army just completely failed to do.

Score card
Prime - brought down a couple of marines, but that was about it. C
Warriors - Brought down a couple of marines in shooting, but again didn't really do much. C
Hive Guard - Immobilised/stunned the Vindicator first turn, killed the lone wolf and then died. B-
Zoeys - Stunned 1 Vindicator, lanced two rhinos and a Razorback, and blasted 2 marines. B+
Hormies - died quickly and easily for no result. D
Gargoyles - Drew a lot of fire. Killed a GH squad. B-
Trygon Prime - Drew all the missile/priest attacks and still survived to the last turn of the game. Killed a Vindicator, 8 GHs, a LF unit and a Priest. A

Overall, very happy with the Trygon, Zoeys and Gargoyles. Need to improve my tactics with the Hormies and warriors. Possibly against marines, I should leave the tanks to the Hive guard and warriors and use my Trygon and Zoey blasts for the marines...

C&C is welcome on the army lists, tactics used and the battle report in general. I hope to improve my battle report writing (this is a first attempt, and I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked...but live and learn).

Hope you enjoyed.

Nice battle report and handy photos.

If you're playing v long wolves then you need to get some infiltrating/outflanking units in place to cause them problems - ymgarls, normal stealers, zoeys in a pod etc.

Gargoyles worked well as a screen, which is their main role.

I feared that warrior squad would be too small at the start of the batrep and this was found to be the case. 4 warriors is absolute minimum. Hormies, I admit that I am not a fan. I always take stealers instead as they have scout and rending.

To be honest, the way you played would more suit a tervigon list.

Nice battle report & a fun read. My youngest son is just starting with his Nids and I don't have much experience fighting against them (and none with them) so reports like this are very helpful.

That table looks familiar....

Great first effort! (on multiple accounts) I'm sure you will teach those Space Pups a lesson next time!

@ Ruminator: Thanks. Yeah, I wasn't too sure about the reliability of spods/outflanking in an army without any reserve bonuses (and a Tyrant at this level is just too expensive). Infiltrating stealers could work, but I'de prob need to use a small squad out of sight or a large one in cover, otherwise they'll just get shot to pieces if my opponent goes first.

I'm not too sure about the warriors and hormies atm. might give them another go to see if it was just how I used them...

A Tervigon probably would suit my style better. I just don't like termigants that much... may have to be something I just get over though. Wouldn't mind doing a Tervy conversion though, the new O&G big spider looks like it would be a good base for a Tervy conversion

@ Gitsplitta: Thanks. Hope you and your son find it useful, and learn from my mistakes. The nids are an interesting army. They kinda feel like a swarm version of Eldar IMHO, as althoughj they're a lot cheaper then Eldar each brood still generally has a specific role that it's great at, and not much else. I'd be happy to bounce ideas off if you are looking at new units/tactics etc, as I'll be needing the help too

@ Arakasi: Yes, same table as our last few games. I think I could probably get a better result with the same list next game, so I might try that again before I go editing my army list. Unfortunately, This Space Wolf army seems particularly well suited to my Nids army. I think I need 500 more points to put in a Tervy or a Fex brood or something, and bulk out my Hormies and Warriors. May have another game this weekend, so we'll see how we go.

As always - C & C welcome on Army list, strategy and battle rep writing - don't be shy.

Thanks!