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Got my first game of 7th ed in finally! Pickup game at the FLGS ended up being a mirror match vs another Tyranid player (for whom this was only his 2nd game of 7th ed). Neither of us had any Formations, just straight Combined Arms forces at 1500 points. Since I was practising for Astronomicon, my opponent generously allowed for the Astro rule of choosing a Warlord Trait (instead of rolling). I went with Master of Ambush; I honestly don't recall what he chose (it never became relevant).

My list:

HQ: 
Hive Tyrant with 2x Twinlinked Brainleech Devourers, Old Adversary, Regeneration, Thorax Electrogrubs, Adrenal Glands (Warlord: Master of Ambush) 
Tyrant Guard x3, Adrenal Glands 

Elite: 
Hive Guard w Impaler Cannon x3 
Zoanthrope 
Zoanthrope 

Troops: 
10 Spinegaunts
10 Hormagaunts
5 Warriors: w Scything Talons/Rending Claws, Flesh Hooks, Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands 

Fast Attack: 
4 Raveners with Scything Talons/Rending Claws 
Harpy with Twin-Stranglethorn Cannon, Cluster Spines 

Heavy Support: 
Trygon with Adrenal Glands 

His list:
HQ:
Flyrant wwith 2x Brainleech Devourers
Tervigon with Cluster Spines

Elite:
2 Zoanthropes
2 Hive Guard with Shock Cannons
Venomthrope

Troops:
3 Warriors
13 Hormagaunts
8? Genestealers with Broodlord

Heavy Support:
Exocrine
2 Dakkafexes

Terrain: Rock formations: many low walls, small (2" high by 2" wide) rocks, some wider difficult terrain rocky hills, one 8" tall LOS-blocker dead center (about 6 inches diameter), a few other 2" high x 6" wide LOS-blockers near corners. No ruins, no buildings, no forests, no area terrain. Everything gives 5+ save per rulebook.



Mission: Maelstrom of War #6: Deadlock (start with 6 Tactical Objectives; hand size reduces by 1 each turn).

Deployment: Vanguard Assault (diagonals) as per mission.

Edit: Psychic Powers rolled: My Zoanthropes BOTH got Psychic Scream (not that they want to be within 6" of anything). My Tyrant got The Horror (useless vs Synapse) and Psychic Scream (meh). His Zoanthrope unit got The Horror, his Tervigon got Catalyst (I think) and his Flyrant got both Onslaught and Catalyst. Broodlord was forced to take The Horror of course. Dominion all around as Primaris.

My opponent won the roll off and elected to deploy first.

He deployed in the northeast section: the Tervigon in the northeast corner with Zoanthropes and Hive Guard in front of it. Exocrine on the line in front of them. To their right (west), in about the center of his line, he placed the Warriors and then the Dakkafexes behind a low wall. Then Hormagaunts on the far west of his zone, where it thinned out to his board edge. The Venomthrope hid behind the Dakkafexes, covering them, the Warriors and the Hormagaunts. He held back his Flyrant in reserve, his Stealers to infiltrate.

His objective #1 was in no man's land in the center of the east edge of the board (in front of his Hive Guard). #3 was in the northeast corner under the Tervigon. #5 was just west of his Hormagaunts.

I deployed in the southwest section: my Raveners behind a low wall in the center-east on my line (hidden from the Dakkafexes by the large central LOS-blocker). My Spinegaunts in my southwest corner behind some rocks, the Hormagaunts on and behind a low hill as far up as tey could get along the west board edge . Zoanthropes on the line in the west side (about 6" apart) both between the Gaunts and Hormagaunts, with the eastern one just covering the Raveners for Synapse. Reserved the Trygon and Harpy (Deepstriking both). Infiltrated the Tyrant, Tyrant Guard, Hive Guard and Warriors.

My objective #2 was just behind the large central LOS-blocker, in front of the Raveners. Objective #4 was in my southwest back corner under the Spinegaunts, and objective #6 was in no mans land center-west in front of my Hormagaunts.

I won the roll-off for Infiltration, and elected to infiltrate first (to make sure I didn't get pushed back even further). There was literally nowhere that was out of LOS of his entire army, so everything had to set up at 18". The Hive Guard infiltrated a few inches short of the large LOS-blocker (hidden from his Dakkafexes and Exocrine, and almost in Impaler-range of his Warriors..heh). My Tyrant and Tyrant Guard infiltrated behind an LOS-blocker in my far right corner - opposite his Exocrine/Zoey/HiveGuard firebase. My Warrior unit infiltrated in no-man's land on my left, on top of objective #6 and opposite his Hormagaunts.

He infiltrated his Genestealers just to the right of his Hormagaunts, on top of his Objective #5 and between my Warriors and his Hormagaunts.



My forces are indicated in "outline" font style, my opponent's in normal font style.

We rolled for and got Nightfight, and I failed to steal the initiative.

But ...But then what happened?!

Heh, I have a 9-5 job and a 1-year old daughter...give me time!

I just put together some maps in OpenOffice to portray the scene, I'll try to edit them into the above post.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Note: we made a huge mistake throughout the whole game on Perils of the Warp - we thought we Periled on any doubles, instead of just double sixes. Didn't realize our mistake till after the game was done.

Turn 1A:

Tactical Objectives: Destroy a building, hold objective #5, take objective #4...umm...and 3 others, one definitely another useless one.

Movement: He moved his Exocrine up to see around the central obstacle to my Hive Guard, and moved his Warriors forwards as well. His own Hive Guard moved up to try to get range on my Tyrant, and his Zoeys moved up behind. His Dakkafexes got stuck on the wall with a poor difficult terrain roll. The Genestealer unit moved forwards. Venom edged up behind the Fexes.

Psychic: Tervigon cast Catalyst on the Dakkafexes, but took a wound and burned her brain, losing Catalyst! Zoanthropes cast Dominion, which I failed to Deny.

Shooting: Exocrine unloaded shots into my Hive Guard, but due to their relatively high toughness he only took out one of them. His Hive Guard managed to land a wound on my Tyrant. I didn't bother LOSing it to the Tyrant Guard, as I figured I would take advantage of my 30 point Regeneration upgrade.

Assault: Nope

Notes: Neither of us realized that he'd forgotten to spawn gaunts from his Tervigon, oops.

VPs: He scored one VP for securing Objective #5, and discarded one of his useless objectives.

Score: 0 : 1



Turn 1B:
Tactical Objectives: I rolled up the useless Demolitions (destroy a building), but otherwise I got Secure Objective #1, Take Objective #1 (nice double there), Secure Objective #2 (easy), Kingslayer (d3 extra VP for a dead enemy Warlord) and Hold the Line (have 3 units (and none of opponents) within 12" of my board edge).

Movement: The Hive Guard moved up to get comfortable range on all 3 Warriors, as well as secure Objective #2. The Raveners slithered effortlessly over the low wall and move 12" towards the Exocrine. The Tyrant and his Guard moved up towards Objective #1. Zoeys moved up to get range on the Genestealer unit, while the Hormagaunts and Gaunts moved up slightly to stay in synapse. Warriors moved slightly towards the Genestealers (their only target) but hugged cover.

Psychic: The Zoeys both succeeded on their Warp Blasts, but the right one managed to Wound himself on Perils. Also, he was denied. The left Zoey scattered his S5AP3 blast off of the genestealers, managing to take out a single Hormagaunt. The Tyrant managed to get Dominion off.

Shooting: The Tyrant shredded a Hive Guard with his Devourers, while the Hive Guard managed 3 instant-death wounds on the Warriors, clearing the unit and giving me a VP for First Blood!

Assault: The Raveners just made their 9" charge on the Exocrine (rerolling one die via Fleet), though one ate a plasma shot from overwatch on the way in. They scored a measly two Rends from their 20 attacks, but only took one more wound in return from the ponderous gunbeast.

VPs: The Hive Guard scored 2 VPs: one for First Blood on the Warriors, one for Secure Objective #2. I discarded Demolitions.
(I could have gotten Hold the Line if I'd kept the Zoeys back, but I had had high hopes they'd kill some Stealers...alas.)

Score: 2 : 1

(Added the Psychic Powers we rolled to the first post).

Turn 2A:

Tactical Objectives: Destroy a building, take objective 4, 2 others, and he drew Behind Enemy Lines (1 VP for one unit within 12" of opponent's table edge; d3 VPs if 3+ units there)

Movement: Flyrant failed to come in from Reserves. Genestealers and Hormagaunts moved and ran, making for Objective # 4 (and my table edge) but were hampered by poor run rolls. Genestealers seemed unwilling to charge the Warriors in cover. The Dakkafexes finally made it off of the wall, heading around to the west of the center obstacle. Venomthrope moved west to cover them (and hide behind them). Zoanthropes moved to keep the Fexes and Venomthrope covered with Synapse. Tervigon moved slightly and birthed 13 gaunts in front of it, burning out its womb in the process.

Psychic: Tervigon tried to cast Dominion, succeeded but took a Perils...rolled another 2 so she took another wound and lost Dominion, leaving her powerless and barren! Zoanthropes cast Dominion again, succeeded, took a Perils but made their LD test. Broodlord successfully cast Dominion to keep the Hormagaunts in Synapse.

Shooting: His remaining Hive Guard shot at my Tyrant, scattering slightly but still landing two hits, resulting in one wound that was saved. One Dakkafex could see my eastern Zoanthrope, which was decisively obliterated by Devourer overkill (made 5 saves, failed 3).

Assault: Exocrine took 2 more wounds from the Raveners, then crushed the wounded Ravener and dealt a wound to another of them.

VPs: None this turn. He discarded Demolitions.

Score: 2 : 1



Turn 2B:

Tactical Objectives: Secure Objective #1, Take and Hold Objective #1, Blood & Guts: Purge, Hold the Line, and I drew Kingslayer (d3 VPs whenever enemy Warlord is dead).

Movement: Trygon came in from Reserves, deepstriking in the northwest near the newly-birthed gaunts but scattering 11" (almost off the board). Harpy did not come in. Warriors moved out from behind their cover into charge position against the Genestealers (not a great target, but I had no other and wanted to avoid getting Dakkafexed). My remaining Zoanthrope moved back towards my table edge, as did both the Gaunts and Hormagaunts (to claim Hold the Line). The Tyrant and Guard moved up into charge position on his Hive Guard. The Tyrant again failed his Regeneration roll.

Psychic: Zoanthrope cast Warp Blast, Perilsed, and became infused with the power of the Warp! So he gained a 3++ (already had that) as well as armourbane and fleshbane. However, his shot scattered 8" well past the Genestealers. My Tyrant cast Dominion, succeeding but taking a wound from Perils.

Shooting: Hive Guard instakilled one of his Zoanthropes. Trygon was out of range to everything, so he ran a bit. The Tyrant elected to hold his fire, wanting to assault the Hive Guard.

Assault: Exocrine finally succumbed to the Raveners. Hive Tyrant and Guard charged the Hive Guard, steamrollering him dead and standing on Objective #1. The Warriors charged the Genestealers, taking 5 wounds before they were able to strike. Sadly, they only managed to take 3 stealers down (!).

VPs: 4 this turn: 1 from killing a unit in assault, 2 from Objective #1 and 1 from Hold the Line. I elected to hold onto Kingslayer instead of discarding.

Score: 6 : 1

Massive respect and kudos for the amount of effort going into this but taking photos + small summaries are much more enjoyable. after all 40k is a visual game

Awesome job on the effort dude!

 Wilson wrote:
Massive respect and kudos for the amount of effort going into this but taking photos + small summaries are much more enjoyable. after all 40k is a visual game

Awesome job on the effort dude!

Fair comment. I snapped a few photos in turn 2 but my opponent seemed more interested in playing the game than pausing for photos. It took us almost 4 hrs to complete the game as it turned out, due to our inexperience with 7th ed and the extra rolls and vp calculations involved in the Maelstrom mission. Also he had a lot of unpainted stuff, though his painted stuff looked very good!

I find that I learn more from the phase-by-phase structure rather than short summaries for battle reports, especially when learning a new edition. Once I'm comfortable in the new rules, the summaries are certainly shorter and easier to read, I'll give you. But I'll be finishing this one off with more diagrams (since I have no photos from turn 3+) and phase-by-phase descriptions, I'm afraid.

Anyways, here are the only photos I took. Enjoy!

Hive Tyrant and Guard moving up on Objective #1 while enemy Hive Guard moves towards it. Raveners assaulting (primed) Exocrine with Zoanthropes behind, and you can see the Dakkafexes and (primed) Venomthrope on the left side of the photo. Tervigon in the distance.


Close-up of Ravener-Exocrine close combat. Opponent's Hive Guard off to the right, Zoanthropes behind, and Tervigon in the distance


Warriors assault Genestealers + Broodlord, with opponent's (unpainted) Hormagaunts off to the side