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After trialing my Nidz against Space Wolves and getting beaten (just), and then drawing against Tau, it's now back to the Space Wolves.

Armies remain unchanged form last game and are as follows:

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 (Again – as a Treeman on a large blast template due to leaving the mini at home)

Space Pups (From memory...)
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)
Rhazorback (TL Las)
Vindicator
4 x LF (inc WG, 3 ML)

Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Dawn of War

We roll off for first turn, and the Space Pups win and go first.

Setup
Space Pups – Rune priest is set as far forward as possible on the flank in the firebase, whilst a Rhino with Grey Hunters is setup as far forward as possible a bit more centrally.

(Pups first mistake here. The Rune Priest was forward and out on his own. This was going to make him an easy target if I could get may Gargoyles up onto the firebase quickly).

Nidz – A hormagaunt brood is deployed centrally in the woods, and the Warriors and Prime are deployed on the opposite flank to the Rune priest in some ruins. Trygon elects to deepstrike rather than come on in normal DoW deployment.

(I decided that given my Trygon was going to have a hard time getting into the thick of it with a DoW deployment, I would try out his Deep Striking capabilities).



Turn 1

Pups – The Rhino Rhazorback and Vindicator roll in from the middle of the table, whilst the Long Fangs occupy the ruins opposite my warriors.

Living lightning from the Rune Priest arcs into my Hormagaunts, who go to ground taking minimal casualties.

Nids – mass broods advance onto the table. One unit of gargoyles, the second unit of hormagaunts, the Hive Guard and a Zoey came on opposite the Rune Priest and the Firebase whilst the other Zoey and gargoyles came on in front of the warriors. I decided to leave my warriors in the ruins, as the vindicator had them in his sights and I didn’t want him to get his ID’s that easily.

Firing from the Hive Guard cracked open the first Rhino, and the marines took cover in the wreckage.

KP – SW 0, Nidz 1



Turn 2

Pups – Not much movement from the Pups who ready their guns to fire. Frag missiles from the Long Fangs and a shot from the vindicator ends up killing 7 gargoyles and ID a warrior. The Rune Priest casts Living Lightning into the Gargoyles and does nothing.

Nidz – The Trygon shows up bang on target, immediately behind the Vindicator. Gargoyles and hormagaunts on the left advance on the Rune Priest’s position (the gargoyles settling onto the Firebase and taking one casualty from DT), whilst the gargoyles and warriors advance on the right.

The Trygon fires into the rear of the Vindicator and manages to stun it (no more shooting for you!). The gargoyles on the firebase shoot up and kill the Rune Priest. Everything else is out of range.

KP – SW 0, Nidz 2



Turn 3

Pups – The Grey Hunters in the Rhazor Back and Rhino both deploy to fire into the Trygon. The Lone Wolf advances ready to assault the Trygon.

The Grey Hunters in the Wrecked Rhino rapid fire into the Gargoyles and take out about half. The rest of the army line up the Trygon and pummel it with firepower. 14 rapid firing bolters, 2 Meltas, 3 Krak missiles and the twin linked Lascannons bring the Trygon down to two wounds. The lone wolf then charges in and manages to do another wound before being eaten by the Trygon.



Nidz – The Gargoyles and both Hormagaunt broods on the left flank advance on the Grey Hunters in the Rhino wreck, whilst the gargoyles on the right advance towards the Longfangs. The Warriors advance towards the middle where the Trygon is surrounded.

Shooting from the Hive Guard wreck the Vindicator, whilst the Zoeys kill a couple of marines in the wrecked Rhino with the warp blasts. The Trygon Shoots at the smaller group of Grey Hunts but does nothing, whilst the warriors lend a hand and manage to down on grey hunter. Both Gargoyle units do nothing, and the hormagaunts go for a run.

The Gargoyles on the left flank assault into the Grey Hunters in the cover. I have nine gargoyles, but the Grey Hunters use their banner to reroll all ones and wipe out all my gargoyles before they get to attack. The Trygon assaults the smaller Grey Hunter pack of five, and eats four of them before getting whacked over the head with a powerfist by the last one. The gargoyles on the right flank do nothing against the long fangs, who manage to down one gargoyle and inflict a fearless wound.

(Tactical error – I really need to stop charging small numbers of little guys into Grey Hunters in cover, with two weapons, counter assault and striking first they just kill me before I get a go).

KP – SW 2, Nidz 3



Turn 4

The lone grey hunter advanced towards the Longfangs to help them out, whilst the full 10 man squad headed into the wreck of the Vindicator towards the warriors. The mobile Rhazor Back reversed a bit to try and get out of range of the Hive Guard.

The other Grey Hunter squad in the rhino wreck shot into the Hormagaunts, but only managed to kill one. The Lone Grey Hunter charged into the Gargoyles, but neither side managed to land a killing blow.



Nidz – Both Hormagaunt broods advanced on the Grey Hunters in the Rhino, whilst the warriors advanced on the Longfangs and lone Grey Hunter.

Shooting saw the Zoeys kill another two Grey Hunters in the Rhino Wreck with warp blasts, whilst the Hive Guard wrecked the Razorback that wasn’t quite out of range.

Both Hormagaunt units assaulted the 6 Grey hunters in the Rhino Wreck. The Grey Hunters brought down 5 Hormagaunts before having 3 of their own hacked to pieces. The Hormagaunts then took fearless wounds leaving me with 8 homagaunts (4 in each brood) vs 3 Grey Hunters.



The Warriors assaulted the Lone Grey Hunter and the Longfangs, where I killed the lone Grey Hunter and the longfangs brought down both the remaining gargoyles.

KP – SW 3, Nidz 5



Turn 5

Pups – The Full man Grey Hunter Squad advanced quickly towards the Grey Hunters fighting the Hormagaunts (He got a 6 for his ‘move through cover’ roll which put them just in assault range). The Rhino and Rhazor Back both reversed away from the battle to put them out of range of the Hive Guard.

The two Grey Hunter squads make short work of the remaining Hormagaunts, whilst the Long Fangs and Warriors don’t land any killing blows.

Nidz – The Hive Guard and Zoeys back away (in separate directions so he can only chase one) from the two Grey Hunter Squads.

I try to shoot up the last of the small Grey Hunter squad, but only kill 1 with a warp blast. One of my Zoeys can no longer see the small squad, so he blasts two marines from the other squad. The Hive Guard fail to do anything to the last Rhino.

The Warriors finally clean up the Long Fangs and consolidate towards the last Rhino.

We roll for another turn and the Game ends – Victory to the Nidz (Just!).

KP – SW 5, Nidz 6



Well, I now have my first win with my Nidz, but it wasn't pretty... I really need something that can crack marine armour a bit better (in addition to the Zoeys/Trygon), and I'm thinkg either some Ymgarls, Genestealers or swapping my warrior's deathspitters for BS LW combos could be the trick. The advantage of BS LW's on warriors would be that it would also overcome (somewhat) my problems in charging guys in cover, as at least we'd all strike at the same time...

Report Card

Prime - Managed to take down the wolf champ form the small GH squad, and helped cut the long fangs to pieces after they were tied up by the Gargoyles - C+
4 x Warriors - Helped the Prime Take care of the Long Fangs, even if they took their time doing it - C
10 x Hormies - joint assaulted and almost took out a GH squad in cover - C-
10 x Hormies - As above C-
1 x Zoey - Jointly accounted for about 6 marines... not the best effort - C
1 x Zoey - As Above - C
2 x Hive Guard - Took out a Rhino, a vindicator and a Rhazorback - A-
15 x Gargoyles - Took out the Rune priest early, before getting killed in assault - B
15 x Gargoyles - Tied up the Long Fangs so that they couldn't shoot me - B-
1 X Trygon Prime - Stopped the Vindicator from shooting for a turn, took a round of fire from almost the entire SW army, killed a lone wolf and then almost wiped out a GH squad - A-

I am currently in the progress of tweaking my list, and looking at what I might buy to bring me up to 1,500 points, so all suggestions, comments, ideas are all very welcome!

Hope you enjoyed the report.

Close call!

Yeah - We really were neck and neck throughout the game.

I was hoping my gargoyles would survive on the right flank, and that his second large GH squad wouldn't run fast enough to get into combat with my Hormagaunts. If that hadn't of happened, my gaunts may have finished off his marine squad that turn and then run away in my turn denying 3 KP's (2 hormagaunt squads and 1 Gargoyle squad) and giving me an additional KP.

Other then that, I'm slowly learning the Nidz, and hope to get some more battreps up in the near future (as well as upping the points count).

Any suggestions anyone has on the tactics/army selection (by either side), what you recommend we add to bring our armies up to 1,500 pnts or suggestions on improvements to the battreps to make them clearer/nicer to read - please comment/critique away.

Blast from the past 2nd Ed terrain, including a Firebase. Nice.

Pity it was all pushed to the sides to make for a virtually empty table.

If you are planning on increasing points another trygon would be a good way to go I think. So would more Hive Guards.

@ H.B.M.C.: Yeah, I joined in 2nd Ed and am just getting back into it. Still love the firebase, even if it is dated terrain...

I didn;t even notice the terrain was pushed to the sides in the game. We'll have to try and move it into the board a bit more next time.

@skycapt44: Yeah - I'm thinking another Trygon and more Hive Guard would be good. I'm also looking into Genestealers and how they might work. Tervies are also on my list of things to try, but I may just run 1 in my 1,500 point list (as a troop), as I don't want my list to be too cookie cutter...