Tyranids turn 3 Ymgarls have not yet realized that their beloved Hive fleet has arrived and stay dormant. Tervigon and Genestealers arrive on whichever side I choose and obviously go for a solid push on the left flank. Tervigon gives catalyst to the large stealer squad, then runs and the Broodlord runs hoping to get close enough to the Dread. With a 2 for a run he will have to be content with the exposed Hunters. Gargoyles only just get within assault distance of the Rune priest’s unit but the priest is at the front (for Jaws) and so they are not worried about shooting first.
HQ Tervigon gives Catalyst to the Tyrant (remember it is just out of 24” range
) and spawns 13 Gaunts without stuffing up. Everything moves up.
Shooting faze:
The
HQ Tervigon kills one marine from the Hunters on the far right. Gargoyles kill 2 marines and I think the Zoanspod killed one marine as well. The Hive Guard shake the Dreadnought so nothing great here except: The Tyrant smacks off Paroxysm on the Rune priest and co and he fails to hood it! Booya! Devourer picks of 1 marine. They pass their
LD test and pop their banner as does the unit on the far left so it off to assaults.
The Wolf lord kills the final Zoanthrope for an easy kill point.
Broodlord Hypnotizes the power fist and the rest of the Genestealers absolutely destroy the Hunters at initiative 6.
Gargoyles fail to wound the Priest but kill all but 3 of the Grey Hunters. In response they lose 2-3 Gargoyles and everything piles in. Tyranids try and get as many Gargoyles into b2b with the Rune priest to put an end to the psychic defense.
Here’s what it looks like after consolidate moves:
Space Wolves 3 Tyranids 2 Space Wolves turn 4 
So the Tyranids are upon them but Wolves are up a kill point and are ready to collect a few more. Speeder zooms off to safety. Rhinos try to move out of Hive Guard range. The Dread on the left moves up to assault the Broodlord and the 3 remaining stealers in his retinue. The Wolf Lord spends a second considering his options and decides against assaulting 12 poisoned Genestealers with Catalyst active
. He moves into the Gargoyles. As does the unit of Grey hunters on the right. Razorback on the right can’t see the Tyrant so shoots at the Zoanspod which dies. Dreadnought on the right tries to harm the Tyrant but only get a wound in which is saved on armor. The two units of Lonfangs give it their best shot but a combination of poor rolling, cover saves AND Catalyst see the Tyrant through unharmed.
On to Assaults then:
The Broodlord and team get excited and bang two penetrating hits on the Dreadnought which explodes taking one of the Genestealers with it. In the big assault in the center the Gargoyles are forced to react into the new squads and only 4 can have a swing at the Rune priest. 4 with poison, preferred enemy and blinding venom is apparently enough against a paroxysmed Priest who bites the dust as the only marine casualty in this combat (maybe a dog or 2 died as well). Gargoyles are wiped.
When consolidating the Wolf Lord gets a 4 which means he is only partly on terrain and the Grey hunters on the right get a 2 which means they are along way out of cover.
Space Wolves 5 Tyranids 4 Tyranids turn 4 The Ymgarl arrive and it’s their time to turn this around.
In this turn I make several mistakes mostly with target priority which leave the Nids exposed next turn.
Tervigon on the left gives
FNP to the large Genestealer Squad, Spawns 17 Gaunts while clogging up and then moves and runs toward the frey.
Broodlord lines up an assault on the Wolf Lord without having to move through cover. At this point the Nids realize that the Lord has Saga of the Cheese Unnamed so about 6 extra attacks from Gargoyles killed the previous turn. The large Genestealer squad approaches the dogs and the Termagants will fire on them.
Ymgarls move and have a variety of targets to choose from. The Dread in cover looks a bit too tough as do the Rhinos that have moved flat out. The Tervigon and Termagants should be able to handle the Grey Hunters below them so they decide to go for Long fangs. They roll badly for fleet but still only need a 4 on
3d6 so they should make it.
The Hive Guard are in range of the closest Rhino so they blow it up.
The Hive Tyrant after receiving Catalyst from the
HQ Tervigon gives the small unit of Grey Hunters the gift of Paroxysm and prepares to assault them. In retrospect he should have stayed behind and assaulted the dogs (while avoiding the Wolf Lord) or hit the Longfangs with Paroxysm. He would then need a 6 to assault them but at least they would not be able to tag him next turn. The two Termagants shooting doesn’t do much to either the dogs (1-2 die) or the Hunter Squad( 1 dies) so it’s time for Assaulty
Hive Tyrant slaughters the three Grey Hunters before they know what hit them.
Broodlord tries to Hypnotize the Wolf Lord but he is having none of it. He takes a wound and kills the Broodlord and his unit for their insolence. The other Genestealer unit kill his dogs and pile into him.
Ymgarls try to reach the Long Fangs but none of the 3 dice are a 4! We check to see if 3 is enough but it’s not. They are now out in the open ready to be flamed to death by the Dread. To make things worse I have miscalculated and am fielding 1 Ymgarl less.
In the combat below he saves like demon (probably assisted by the Banner ugh!) and 1 dies to the Termagant onslaught. He kills 7 or more and then the Tervigon kills another two marines. Tyranids lose combat by 4, several termagants die and the Tervigon takes a wound. It’s 4 Hunters vs 4 Gaunts plus their Mommy.
The Tyrant rolls a 1 for consolidate! Now he is left in the open with his only choice being going slightly forward so that he gets cover from one of the Longfangs units.
Space Wolves 6 Tyranids 7 Space Wolves turn 5 Not a lot of movement for the Space wolves this turn. The Dread gets into optimal position to flame the Ymgarls. The speeder moves up to fire it’s melta and the Razorback and Rhino try to get out of Hive Guard range but only 6” so they can fire their weapons.
The flamer and assault cannon kill 4 Ymgarls. Thankfully the Dread botched maybe they were spreadout and the Flamer didn’t destroy them by itself.
Razorback on the left flicks a wound off the Tyrant. 2 left…
Speeder meltas the Tyrant but misses. The unit of Longfangs which has a clear shot at the Tyrant manage to knock another wound off him. The Razorback on the right wiffs! Things just got interesting! The last unit of Longfangs tries to bring the beast down but cover and
FNP prevent them! Even the Rhino has a shot at the Tyrant but doesn’t manage anything. Space Wolves just emptied their entire shooting on the Tyrant but could not kill him. This is extremely unlucky for him as now the Old Adversary bubble will really make things tough for the Marines.
Genestealers with poison and
OA finish off the Wolf Lords 2 wounds but only just.
The Grey hunters at the center kill 2 Gaunts and the fist wounds the Tervigon. Two of them die trying so Tyranids lose combat by 1. It’s now Mommy +1Gaunt vs 2 Marines but Tyranids can expect reinforcements in the form of more Termagaunts next turn.
Ymgarls are also in Old Adversary bubble and choose extra attacks. They have been very slow this game so they try to make up for it by breaking the Dreads close combat weapon. That’s game right there.
Space Wolves realize this and we shake hands.
Space Wolves 6 Tyranids 8 I made some big mistakes in turn 4 when it came to assaults resulting in the Ymgarls and Tyrant being left out in the open. Also without the Tyrants support the Genestealers had trouble beating the Wolf Lord as did the Tervigon+Termagaunts against the marines.
In the 5th turn Tyranids got lucky with the Tyrant surviving all the shooting and with the results on the Dreadnoughts.
MVP of the game has to go to the Tyrant who killed the speeders, shut down the Rune Priest and squad, killed the Hunters and through
OA won combat for the Genestealers, the Ymgarls and the Gargoyles. If the game had gone on he would have put a squad of Longfangs or the Dread to sleep as well.
