Haha So I decided to do a battle report, I was going to make a video but my wife stole my flip for the day so pictures it is! I kinda got lazy after the 2nd turn because well, the game was over by the end of the 3rd.
So here's my team.
Hq1. Parasite of mortrex accompanied by a group of 5 shrikes with devourers
Troops. 3x8 genestealers with toxin sacs, 2x9 genestealers with toxin sacs, 17x hormagaunts
Elite Zoanthrope x3 in pod (represented by empty
MC base)
FA Harpy x2 with heavy venom cannons
Heavy Trygon w/regen.
and here's my opponents army
I'm not altogether sure exactly what list he was using and what they were force chartwise (first time I've played marines since 3rd edition
lol)
But here's the gist of it.
HQ Master of the forge w/servitorsx2
elite 2x dreadnought with assault cannon
troops 10x
tac squad in
LR, 6 man combat squad in razorback w/assault cannon, 6 man combat squad in razorback w/assault cannon, 2x 5 man squads with heavy weapons
FA 2 of those pesky landspeeders with assault cannons and some sort of missile pod, 1x 5 man sniper squad
Heavy Landraider w/heavy bolters on the side and assault cannon, 2xironclad dreadnought w dual heavy flamers in pods
So we ended up playing a pitched battle, I won deployment and the first turn I also won first infiltration. This is what the battle looked like with the 2 objectives circled in red and represented by small flags. (right in the picture is the LEFT side of the field for me)
Deployment: I put all of my units as close to the edge of my deployment as possible with the genestealers infiltrating. (I'll show my deployment after the end of my shooting phase)
And here is a picture of the marine's deployment.
Infilitration: The scouts deployed on the corner of the building by the razorback and speeders. My genestealers got as close as possible to the marine front line with the exception of one 8 man genestealer group that I deployed behind the large building 12" away from the speeder as they had no line of sight.
Nid Turn 1: So I slogged what I could up the field, most of my fleet rolls were terrible (1-3) though the genestealers closest to the left side of the table got a 5" (yay them). The genestealers on the opposite side of the building managed to fleet 3" putting that 8 man squad 3 inches away from his landspeeder on the very right. And this is where I lose all luck and it spirals down into a really really bad game for the nids. anywho so my harpies fired at the razorback behind the large building by the speeder, both of them hit without having to reroll scatter, however.... I actually rolled a 1 for the harpy with direct
los, but the other one who rolled a big 6 for a nice penetrating roll unfortunately was stomped by the rhinos 4+ cover save as it was partially obscurred by the building. (I would have loved to shoot at his dreadnoughts instead but had no
los with his landraider directly in front of them). Nothing else was in range. Here's a picture of the end of my shooting phase.
My one last hope for the turn is that my genestealers can assault his landspeeder, after all they only need a 3 right? Yea well I got a 2
lol.
Marine turn 1: Much to my surprise my friend tells me he has a drop pod assault, which apparently are deepstrikes that come in on the first turn. I was frankly shocked, because I've been playing
SM for a long time in 3rd edition and never heard of this. Anyway his drop pods land next my stealers and his ironclads manage to line up very nicely with my genestealer squads. He also moves his landraider up, his two regular dreadnoughts back, his speeders back on the left around the side of the building to be in range of the genestealers and the razorback on the right moves further right and unloads his marines in front of the genestealer 8 man squad. Here's a pic of what it looks like before his shooting.
So first to go is the 8 man genestealer squad on the right side of the table which is obliterated by the 6 man combat squad, and the assault cannons from one of the speeders and and the razorback itself.
The ironclads pour righteous fire on my genestealers wiping one squad of 8 and the middle squad of 9.
The snipers, other landspeeder and 1 of the dreadnoughts open up on the trygon totaling 4 wounds on the beast.
His landraider used the machine spirit power to fire his bolters at the leftmost genestealers and kills a good majority of them, they are finished off by one of the 5 man squads in the building.
His other razorback, the assault cannon on the landraider and the remaining 5 man squad in the building fire at the leftmost harpy, killing it.
So at this point I have a trygon with 2 wounds left, an unhurt harpy, the shrikes are fine and the hormagaunts are fine and one group of genestealers remains alive.
Nid turn 2: Well I roll reserves for my zoanthropes, roll a 3 :-(. The hormagaunts realizing the futility of their lives run toward the southern left objective and go to ground. Not knowing that the rules for rending vehicles have changed I fool heartedly get them in position to assault the right ironclad. The shrikes, not wanting to die in a blaze of fire move straight up the middle in front of the land raider. And the trygon, who failed all 4 of his regen rolls decided to go rage on the landraider.
For my shooting phase, the harpy takes a shot at the ironclad he's planning to assault in desperation, he manages to immobilize it. That was all my shooting at I decided to run with the parasite of mortrex and assault the marines (some of you will point out at this point that I can't do that as shrikes and the parasite do not have fleet and thus can't assault after running, you are correct but I didn't realize this til after the game, not that it helped me much).
So I manage do destroy a bolter sponson and immobilize the landraider with the trygon, the harpy attempts to assault the ironclad. Even having adrenal glands on him to make him strength 6, I still can't manage to roll a combined 7 on 3 rolls of 2
d6 to even glance the bastard. The desperate attack further fails as he hits me with a s10 melee weapon, killing the harpy outright and consolidating 5" toward my shrikes. The genestealers... well... i thought I could rend him, I used to kill landraiders for great glory back in 3rd and 4th edition on lucky rolls of 6, thought I'd only need a 3 to glance and a 4,5,6 to pen. Turns out I needed a 5/6 just to glance, which wouldn't have killed it anyway. I am starting to hate genestealers.
The shrike squad manages to kill all 10 marines and spawn 6 rippers.
Marine turn 2: Uh to make things quick I'm just gonna show you this picture.
Yea so not much happened other than marines being unloaded, lots of shooting, lots of dying, more failed glances on the ironclad. Don't cry little nid player, the pain will all be over soon.
My turn again, oh yea I forgot to mention I lost half of my hormagaunt squad on the objective. And I actually pass their leadership test of 5 to make them go to ground once more.
What's this? Zoanthropes coming from on high?? hell i was so pissed at the ironclad (which had flamed half my shrikes on his last turn) that I was determined to destroy it. I attempted to land near his drop pod, and what I thought was 12" in from the table edge. Not gaking you, I roll 2 6's and a scatter dice pointing EXACTLY toward the left table edge. Duncan (the space marine player) just starts laughing and I was seriously about to just throw my zoanthropes across the room because sure enough I rolled a friggin 1 on the mishap roll.
Uh needless to say on his turn he managed to wipe out the rest of my army except for the hormagaunts all of which but one survive, but having to take a moral check for losing 25% or more of his squad he falls back
3d6 right off the table edge. Space marines win on turn 3 due to annihilation.
Here's my unit by unit analysis.
1. Parasite of mortrex, he's a beast when he gets into combat, only he doesn't have fleet and he's useless against enemy armor. I would rather take a tervigon or tyrant from now on. 5/10
2. Genestealers, probably my biggest disappointment of the game, they are slow but deadly in close combat with a decent enough points cost. I would have been better had I A: got ymgarl genestealers instead with their better saves, surprise factor and not having to footslog. or B: outflanking, I still think that would have ended badly but atleast it wouldn't have been a turkey shoot, oh and the toxin sacs against this army were completely useless. AND I really hate the changes to rending, I used to be able to take out small vehicles no problem, now I would never assault anything over armor 10. 5/10
3. Zoanthropes. They are very worth the cost, would have been better if I had either walked them in the field on the first place, or had hive commander to bring them in faster. I just need to be more careful when dropping them. n/a
4. Trygon big and slow, absorbed a ton of fire Do not need regen though. It's lackluster even for a 6 wound model. 7/10
5. Shrikes. Only use was to accompany the parasite. Would have been better/cheaper to use them with a tyranid prime and more shooty. Perhaps outflank them with hive commander? 5/10
6. Harpies. The only huge mistake these guys made was assaulting the dreadnought. They actually did a decent amount of damage but my opponent deployed very well. And they are fairly cheap 7/10
7. hormagaunts. Cheap, fast, reliable infantry they do great against most armies, but not this one. But they held that objective til the bitter end 7/10.
Anyway hope you enjoyed! I learned a hell of a lot about fighting marines. Next time I'll drop the parasite/shrikes and throw in a tyrant with hive commander, a tyranid prime and regular warriors. I'll also drop some stealers to use ymgarl ones instead and NOT assault vehicles with them.
4000+
6000+ Order. Unity. Obedience.
Thousand Sons 4000+
and 
Rejoice in furious challenge, and avenging strife, whose works with woe embitter human life! 
