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This was a friendly game between a friend using tyranid and my eldar. Deciding that I was still in the experimental phase of the new codex we agreed on 1000 points of units so I could see how the new Eldar play. Please excuse the terrain and models most aren't finished yet but we couldn't wait to try them out!
ELDAR ARMY LIST Farseer with stone Guide, Fortune, Eldritch Storm
Autarch with shard and banshee mask
10 Dire avengers
10 storm guardians with 2 flamers
6 Jetbikes with 2 shuricannons
6 Scorpions with an exarch with claw, monster hunter and crushing blow
6 Swooping hawks
2 War walkers with bl/eml
995 Points
Tyranid Army List
Swarmlord Iron arm, Haemorrhage, Endurance, Enfeeble
Deathleaper
3 Hive guard
Tervigon with cluster spines and regen, Haemorrhage
12 Termagants
30 Gargolyes
1000 Points
Game was Crusade with hammer and anvil deployment
Initiative: Tyranid
Warlord Traits
Eldar Warlord Autarch: Fates messenger
Tyranid Warlord Swarmlord: Divide and conquer
Deployment
Spoiler:
Tyranid win the roll, 4 objectives are placed on the map
One near a ruins
One in a bombed out patch of trees
Another near some ruins and what is left of a space marine
One out in the open
Location of the objectives
The tyranid player then deployed his units
12 strong Termagants on the left, followed by the Swarmlord, 3 hive guard, 30 gargoyles and a tervigon in the ruins behind them. Deathleaper is in reserves.
Eldar deployed in turn
Farseer with the 10 man Dire avengers in the forest, war walkers behind them, jetbikes up front to take the brunt of any shooting with T4 3+, storm guardians behind ready to flame some gants and finally swooping hawks in the back waiting to skyleap.
Finally the autarch and scorpion entourage infiltrate behind the ruins near to the tyranid horde.
Overview of map going into tyranid turn 1
Also worth mentioning that night fighting did not occur on turn 1 and that deathleapers ability knocked my farseer down to leadership 9!
Tyranid Turn 1
Spoiler:
Swarmy casts iron arm for +1 and gives endurance to the gargoyles
He then moves up to objective at the ruins on the other side of the scorpions and autarch which turns out to be sabotaged! (The objective next to the tervigon in the ruins turned out to be a skyfire nexus)
Rest of army moves up with the tervigon spawning 15 but burning out in the process!
With nothing better to do the gargolyes run trying to draw the eldar fire, they make it a whole 2 inches
Termagants run to get closer to the autarch warlord, 6 inches!
Swarmy lumbers forward 1 inch
Having been given preferred enemy the hive guard shoot at the autarch and scorpions 4 hit with 2 1s which on reroll bring it to 5 hits, 5 wounds with 2 scorpions falling to the high strength accurate fire! Forgot their guns didn't need line of sight!
Rest of the army runs to get into killing range
Gants then decide to run and leave the shooting to the hive guard.
Thanks to the shard the autarch and co. are fearless so don't take a ld test.
Overview of turn 1 for tyranids
Eldar Turn 1
Spoiler:
Objective in forest is a scatterfield
Farseer uses stone to fortune bikes but fails due to -1 ld (He's too busy worrying about deathleaper! He then guides the war walkers.
Hawks skyleap
Risky as it is the autarch tries to divide the tyranid advance by pushing forward
Storm guardians move to help the autarch while bikes move to gun down the advancing gargoyles
The objective out in the open is also a scatterfield
Warwalkers move to get a beam on the swarmlord
Dire avengers move to get into range of gargoyles
Warlord and scorpions open fire on the 12 strong gants, bringing down the front row of 3.
Guardians run 5 inches
Staying put on the objective the farseer decides to help the jetbikes, summoning his power he blasts with eldritch storm while the 8 avengers in range also open fire, due to a veering scatter dice and endurance from the swarmlord only 2 fall!
Bikes open up killing 7, the str 6 shurikencannon proving too much pain for the gargoyles to fight through.
A grievious mistake, the war walkers are 41 inches away from swarmy even with fleet they only close to 39 inches, still manage to put 1 wound on him as he is only T7 with no FNP
Bikes move back to screen the guardians
The scorpions charge the slightly weakened gants with overwatch killing a scorpion! The make it into combat, autarch kills 2, exarch 1 and the other 2 scorps kill 5 leaving 1 left who is out of range to attack, the gant then consolidates thanks to fearless. (With aspect warriors it seems the exarch is always the lazy one....)
Overview of Eldar turn 1
Tyranid Turn 2
Spoiler:
Deathleaper shows up! He appears in cover behind my farseer and avenger squad!
The Swarmlord casts Iron arm +1 again, endurance on the gargoyles, then moves towards the autarch....
Gargoyles move toward the bikes, 15 man termagants decide to try to hold 2 objectives in tyranid half.
Hive guard move to deny los to war walkers.
Tervigon moves up trying to get to the objective in the open.
Flesh hooks from deathleaper fail to pen the war walkers.
Preferred enemy hive guard fire on the guardians but only kill 3!
Gants run to hold bothy objectives!
Of the 12 gargoyles in range none manage to wound the jetbikes.
Guardians fail ld on an 11 run back 3 inches!
Gargoyles assault bikes losing only 2 to overwatch thanks to fnp and 6+ from scattershield, however it's enough to keep them in charge range needing a 7 and getting it!
Swarmy gets into other combat, this may get ugly for t3 models....
In combat guardians fail to kill anything while the gargoyles kill 1 causing guardians to fail ld on an 8 and get run down! Gargoyless then consolidate 4 inches towards to fleeing storm guardians!
First blood to the tyranids!
Swarmy issues a challenge to which the exarch accepts...
Exarch fails to wound despite S7 and monster hunter while swarmy proceeds to turn him into paste!
Autarch finishes the last gant, they then consolidate.
Overview after Tyranid turn 2
Eldar Turn 2
Spoiler:
Hawks deepstrike to help the beleagured guardians dropping a large blast on the advancing gargoyles killing 4.
Seeing reinforcements the guardians decide to regroup.
Using his stone the farseer guides his own dire avengers, as well as giving them fortune.
War walkers move closer for some long range fire support.
Dire avengers move up to the gargoyles.
Guardians run to set up flamers and open up killing only 3 gargoyles! Hawks kill 2 more then focus 6 inches forward to get away from deathleaper.
The dire avengers guided shots down only 7 gargoyles due to some poor rolling then battle focus forward 3 inches to get away from deathleaper.
War walkers run and shoot the hive guard killing one while another saves the last wound due to cover.
In assault the autarch challenges the swarmy and thanks to anaris puts a wound on him but due to eternal warrior from iron arm he is not instant killed! (Now that really is a shame, still I'm just happy that the Autarch survived...)
Swarmlord failed to wound rolling 2 1 on his to wounds! Phew didn't even need to use my inv save!
Overview at end of Eldar turn 2
Tyranid Turn 3
Spoiler:
Swarmlord uses iron arm +1, realising the pointy ear has a nasty sting he also uses endurance on himself.
Tervigon moves forward, gargoyles position to shoot guardians, deathleaper moves towards his prey, hive guard hug cover realising they can't win a long range battle with the war walkers.
The 3 gargoyles left shoot at the guardians killing one of the flamer wielders, hive guard also shoot killing 3 more including the second flamer carrying guardian. Tervigon runs 4 inches towards open objective (He really wants it)!
Deathleaper charges at the farseer and his retinue taking a wound in the process and makes it into the avengers.
Counter attack goes off on the avengers. The challenge is not accepted, avengers put him down to 1 wound he then proceeds to kill 2 and eldar again fail ld and are run down!! (I forgot I had fortune up so my bad I might have never needed to take that ld test)
He then moves 1 inch towards the remaining guardians looking to remove my last troops choice...
Gargoyles charge and each kill 1 of my guardians.
The Swarmlord and autarch fail to wound each other (At this point I was happy with my decision to push with my Autarch as he was holding Swarmy up nicely)
Overview of turn 3 for the tyranid, it's not looking to great for the Eldar. 2 unlucky over-runs cut a nice chunk of my army out of the game and they were my scoring troops at that! Sometimes I wish I had ATSKNF
Eldar Turn 3
Spoiler:
Realizing that the battle was on the brink of disaster the eldar begin to try and preserve the most precious resource, the last 2 storm guardians currently fending off a couple of gargoyles.
Walkers move into cover to avenge the fallen farseer, deathleaper will be nothing more than ash soon.
Hawks move to save the guardians knowing that they were the key to staging any kind of pyyrhic victory.
The war walkers vaporise deathleaper, but too little too late for their farseer...
In combat the hawks help finish the last of the gargoyles then consolidate backwards away from the hive guards nasty ap4 guns.
Somehow the swarmy and autarch fail to wound each other again, my autarchs warlord trait saved him from a grisly fate this turn.
Overview of Eldar turn 3
Except for 1 more thing, the sabotaged objective near the dead space marine finally blows up killing the nearest 2 gants. Looks like that marine had booby-trapped the place before dying after all....
Tyranid Turn 4
Spoiler:
Tervigon moves up again towards open objective.
The swarmlord casts both endurance and iron arm +3 on himself.
Hive guard move up to get in range of the last 2 guardians. Only 1 is in range and he is killed.... the last guardian passes ld! Autarch finally dies to swarmy leaving the 2 scorpions who flee in terror but get cut down as they run.
Swarmy then moves up 4 inches.
Slay the Warlord to the Tyranid!
Overview after Tyranid turn 4
Eldar Turn 4
Spoiler:
Swooping hawks sky leap, they're getting the feth off the battlefield!
The last of the guardian runs for the safety of war walkers. War walkers re-position to maximize their assistance to the guardian.
Guardian runs another 6 inches into the scattershield cover for a 4+
Walkers kill another hive guard but 1 still stands and he's looking right at that guardian! They then fleet 1 inch.
Eldar overview turn 4
Tyranid turn 5
Spoiler:
No night fighting
Iron arm fails, endurance up
Tervigon finally moves onto the objective
Swarmy moves up as does the last hive guard.
Termagants move to keep both objectives after the explosion.
Cluster spines from the tervigon get a glance on one of the war walkers which is saved thanks to the new 5++.
Hive guard runs as he is out of range of the last guardian! Swarmy follows suit and runs trying to reach the ruins in my deployment for linebreaker.
Tyranid end of turn 5 overview
Eldar Turn 5
Spoiler:
Swooping hawks drop back in with grenade packs killing 4 of the termagants.
Guardian moves to keep as far away from guard while still holding forest objective.
War walkers decide they have to avenge their warlord, while the beast that is the Swarmlord is weak..... They fire bringing him down to 1 wound, so close! Swooping hawks run to get into range of termagants. Shooting from hawks kills another 6 termagants
Eldar turn 5 overview
The game continues on a 4
Tyranid turn 6
Spoiler:
No night fight again!
Iron arm +3, endurance both on swarmy. He the moves to the ruins for linebreaker, both guard and tervi move towards lone guardian eager to finish him off.
Hive guard is out of range so runs 5 inches! Cluster spines from tervigon scatter ogf and miss! Swarmy then runs 4 inches into ruins proper.
Termagants shuffle starting to feel nervous now that they are low in number.
Tyranid turn 6 overview
Again the game continues
Eldar Turn 6
Spoiler:
Swooping hawks move 12 inches towards the last 3 gants. War Walkers shuffle to better line up a shot on swarmy.
Guardian prays to Isha that he makes it back to the craftworld in one piece. Swooping hawks wipe out the gants! Then focus into a crater.
War Walkers target the hive guard deciding that the guardian needs to live but they only do 1 wound!
The tervigon finds himself out of position due to getting in close to shoot at my last few remaining units!
If the game ends now I will win 4 points (1 objective and linebreaker) to 3 (first blood, slay the warlord and linebreaker).
BUT we roll a 4 and the game continues!
Eldar turn 6 overview
Tyranid turn 7 and Eldar turn 7
Spoiler:
Night fighting is in effect.
Swarmy gets both powers off with a +2 iron arm. He moves into ruins proper safe with his shrouded.
Tervigon jumps back onto the objective... 6 wounds at T6 will be hard to shift...
Hive guard moves forward and shoots but fails to kill the guardian! This lone guardian will be going home safe!
Cluster spines veer off only hitting one War Walker which does not pen
Eldar turn 7 hawks move up, 1 dies to dangerous terrain coming out of a crater
War walkers move up to tervigon ready to release some high strength ammo. Guardian moves into pistol range of guard careful to stay near the objective. Shooting from the hawks scores 10 hits and 3 wounds with the guard failing 1 which is enough to put him down. That was some mighty fine s3 shooting boys! Shooting from War Walkers puts 2 wounds on the tervigon. They then assault but fail to get the 5 they needed even with fleet! If even 1 walker had survived I could have contested the objective to win 4 to 3!
The game ends 6 to 4, with the tyranid having first blood, linebreaker, slay the warlord and 1 objective. The Eldar occupied 1 objective thanks to the last brave guardian and also had line breaker.
VICTORY TO THE TYRANIDS
This message was edited 22 times. Last update was at 2013/06/21 09:09:41
The stars themselves once lived and died at our command, yet you still dare to oppose our will. 3k Eldar project, slowly painting up a Biel-Tan army 1.5k Custom Tyranid Hive Fleet Myrmecoleon
kinratha wrote: The nidz list isn't legal, he only has 1 troop. But you said it was a friendly game so guess that is don't matter.
My bad forgot to put the tervigon in there! As you'll see it played a crucial part in the game...
The stars themselves once lived and died at our command, yet you still dare to oppose our will. 3k Eldar project, slowly painting up a Biel-Tan army 1.5k Custom Tyranid Hive Fleet Myrmecoleon
KingInYellow wrote: Nah, he has two, the tervigon is a troop choice as long as you bring a unit of termagants for each. He has 12 gants, making the list legal.
Yeah my bad I forgot to add it into the list, overall it was a fun game with some nice twists along the way. My opponent found it pretty funny that one of the least used units in the codex played such a pivotal role in the game. I was.... less amused
My opponent had been joking since the game started that deathleaper was going to get my farseer. I think he was more shocked than me when it actually happened!
The stars themselves once lived and died at our command, yet you still dare to oppose our will. 3k Eldar project, slowly painting up a Biel-Tan army 1.5k Custom Tyranid Hive Fleet Myrmecoleon
Good report, very clear what happened! And, yeah, those sweeping advances can be deadly.
Two small rule notes:
- The Autarch isn't able to Infiltrate with the Striking Scorpions, as an Independent Character without the Infiltrate special rule cannot join a unit of infiltrators during deployment (see the last paragraph of the Infiltrate special rule on p38)
- The Termagants cannot capture two objectives at the same time (see the 2nd paragraph of Controlling Objective on p123)
Compel wrote:
Because in a universe where the basic weapon is a rocket propelled grenade machine gun, with gigantic battletanks, 5 kilometer long spaceships, huge robots and power armoured supersoldiers, the most powerful guy you want to field on a battlefield is a bloke in a pointy hat carrying a stick.
I was surprised you ignored Death Leaper. I probably would of about-faced my DA and shurikened him to bits.
Also, in your last round of shooting, maybe you should of taken a chance at downing the Swarmlord with only 1 wound remaining?
Have you decided on any changes to your list after this game?
Yeah I didn't think he would be such a pain, I thought guided overwatch plus my counterattack would deal with him but alas I was too presumptive.....
I was thinking of shooting him but only the emls were in range and thanks to nightfighting he had a 2+ cover save, I was tempted though I wanted revenge!
My thought process was that if I could somehow assault into the tervi (I only needed a 5) and get within 3 inches of the objective I could win the game 4 to 3, didn't happen though. As far as changes I think I'll be using a full scorpion squad and dropping the autarch. He's fun but not really helping my list in anyway besides as a melee character. I'll probably switch out the eml/bl for scatter laser and eml too.
Redemption wrote: Good report, very clear what happened! And, yeah, those sweeping advances can be deadly.
Two small rule notes:
- The Autarch isn't able to Infiltrate with the Striking Scorpions, as an Independent Character without the Infiltrate special rule cannot join a unit of infiltrators during deployment (see the last paragraph of the Infiltrate special rule on p38)
- The Termagants cannot capture two objectives at the same time (see the 2nd paragraph of Controlling Objective on p123)
Yeah you're right on the infiltrate rule, I'll have to be mindful of that in future!
Also I think my opponent was just trying to keep near both objectives in case I attacked from either side leaving him a good chance to get near either objective. I'll double check with him though.
The stars themselves once lived and died at our command, yet you still dare to oppose our will. 3k Eldar project, slowly painting up a Biel-Tan army 1.5k Custom Tyranid Hive Fleet Myrmecoleon
Great battle, very exciting. Thanks for sharing! I agree you may should have tried to kill the Swarmlord. Sure, wouldn't have won you the game - but screw that buggy man. Great playing on both sides, really enjoyed reading this.
Be interesting for these two armies to clash using the new Iyanden scenario, though I suppose the lack of Wraith-things might make it a bit less proper.
Close game, but well played by both. I'd advise against taking the Swarmlord at such a low point game, and I feel if you'd have focused more fire on him, you'd have brought him down early.
Still, gg, wp.
Glory to the Hive Mind!
I do wonder if your opponent could have kept the large gant squad mostly in cover to minimise the damage it was taking and would have made the victory more emphatic.
Autarch Fiallathandirel wrote: My opponent found it pretty funny that one of the least used units in the codex played such a pivotal role in the game. I was.... less amused
I hate that death leaper...he makes my ethereal's leadership bubble so much less tasty. Good thing my smart missiles can "remove the problem" immediately upon arrival.
All in all a very interesting report. I thought the Eldar had it for most of the battle. Very fun to read.
I'm kinda curious as to why the Hawks constantly found themselves out of position, either running to get away from Deathleaper when they could have just dropped further away in the first place, or having to battle focus into range directly after dropping in and bombing termagants... They don't scatter so there's really very little reason that you should be having those problems...
Seems to me the turning point was when the Gargoyles swept the jetbikes. After that, the Eldar were at a serious firepower disadvantage, and the Death Leaper made it worse.
The lessons I take away from this are that mobile armies really need to use their mobility now, and Deep Strikes are hard to counter.
You mention in the Eldars Turn 2 that the Swarmlord wasnt instakilled due to having EW from Iron Arm. But Iron Arm doesnt confer EW, Endurance does. But he cast Endurance on the Gargoyles not himself.
And was your opponent rolling for IWND at the end of his turns when the Swarmlord had Endurance on? He might have clawed back a wound!
Nice to see Deathleaper in a BatRep! Not sure him or Swarmy are the best choices at 1000pts though! Theyre both expensive for what they bring. A Hive Tyrant would have been my choice.
I represent the Surrey Spartans gaming group. Check us out and feel free to come along for a game! https://www.facebook.com/groups/425689674233804/ Tzeentch Daemons 2000pts Kabal of the Sundering Strike 2500pts Eldar Corsairs 750pts 400pts Corregidor/Nomads 300pts Yu Jing 200pts+ each of Imperial and Rebel fleets for X-Wing
A Terran Alliance and Dindrenzi Fleet for Firestorm Armada
A Necromunda Goliath gang and Spyrer gang
HerbaciousT wrote: You mention in the Eldars Turn 2 that the Swarmlord wasnt instakilled due to having EW from Iron Arm. But Iron Arm doesnt confer EW, Endurance does.
No, Endurance grants Relentless, Feel No Pain and It Will Not Die. Iron Arm has Eternal Warrior and the +D3 S+T.
HerbaciousT wrote: You mention in the Eldars Turn 2 that the Swarmlord wasnt instakilled due to having EW from Iron Arm. But Iron Arm doesnt confer EW, Endurance does.
No, Endurance grants Relentless, Feel No Pain and It Will Not Die. Iron Arm has Eternal Warrior and the +D3 S+T.
You're quite right. My bad!
I represent the Surrey Spartans gaming group. Check us out and feel free to come along for a game! https://www.facebook.com/groups/425689674233804/ Tzeentch Daemons 2000pts Kabal of the Sundering Strike 2500pts Eldar Corsairs 750pts 400pts Corregidor/Nomads 300pts Yu Jing 200pts+ each of Imperial and Rebel fleets for X-Wing
A Terran Alliance and Dindrenzi Fleet for Firestorm Armada
A Necromunda Goliath gang and Spyrer gang
The stars themselves once lived and died at our command, yet you still dare to oppose our will. 
And, yeah, those sweeping advances can be deadly.
2000 pts
1850
2000
3000
2000 
Tzeentch Daemons 2000pts 
Eldar Corsairs 750pts 
400pts Corregidor/Nomads 
300pts Yu Jing 