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Today, I had a rematch against my friend David's mechanized Imperial Guards for the very 3rd time. He is a very good player with a very tough list. The first time, he beat my Ravenguards when his Psyker Battle Squad broke Shrike + 10 assault terminators and made them run off the board (my fault for inflitrating them so close there in the 1st place). The second time was a very close game against my Space Wolves at the 'Ard Boyz (battle report here). I came out with a minor loss when, once again, his Psyker Battle Squad broke Ragnar and his unit and then his forces escorted them off the board once again.

This time, it'll be a whole different ballgame. After the 'Ard Boyz, I've decided to concentrate on my Nids. I'm finding them to be a very strong army with all my Toughness 6 guys, and this time, his PBS won't be able to easily push around my fearless army.

This is only going to be David's 2nd game against the new Nids, and I don't think he's faced a list quite like mine. He's going to be in for quite a learning experience. Just hopefully, I can survive his alpha strike.




I used a couple of proxies. The crushing claw carnifexes are tervigons, the 2 biovores are hive guards and my cc-tyrant is actually a dakkarant with dual twin-linked devourers.


HIVE FLEET PANDORA (My shooty nids)
Hive Tyrant - 2x TL-Devourers, Hive Commander
1x Tyrant Guard
Hive Tyrant - 2x TL-Devourers, Hive Commander
1x Tyrant Guard

3x Hive Guards
3x Hive Guards
2x Hive Guards

Tervigon - Catalyst, Cluster Spines
Tervigon - Catalyst, Cluster Spines
11x Termagants
11x Termagants

Mawloc
Trygon
Trygon

Total - 2000





IMPERIAL GUARDS
This is going from memory so things may be a little off. His heavy weapons were all autocannons and his special weapons were mainly meltas with some flamers. His list also hasn't been optimized yet as he has no advisors and he isn't sure if he wants to keep his banewolf. I also told him to consider an Inquisitor ally with Mystics and the Emperor's Tarot.

David is a fellow dakkalite, though I don't know his handle. David, feel free to correct the list.


Company Command Squad - 3x Meltas, Standard, Chimera w/Multi-laser + Hvy Flamer
Company Command Squad - 4x Meltas, Chimera w/Multi-laser + Hvy Flamer

Marbo
8x Psyker Battle Squad - Chimera w/Multi-laser + Hvy Bolter

Platoon Command Squad - 4x Flamers, Chimera w/Multi-laser + Hvy Flamer
Infantry Squad - Autocannon, Meltagun
Infantry Squad - Autocannon, Meltagun
Veteran Squad - 3x Flamers
Veteran Squad - 3x Meltas, Chimera w/Multi-laser + Hvy Flamer
Veteran Squad - 3x Meltas, Chimera w/Multi-laser + Hvy Flamer

Banewolf - Hvy Flamer
Vendetta - Hvy Bolter sponsoons
Vendetta - Hvy Bolter sponsoons

2x Griffons
Manticore
Manticore

Total - 2000


Notes:
There are several rules that are somewhat controversial, but this is how we played them:

1) Multiple hive commanders stacks. Even though IG advisors don't stack, eldar autarchs do. As nids have not been FAQ'd yet, we played it as stacking. Thus, I am at +2 on my rolls to see if my reserves come in.

2) The mawloc can come out via Terror from the Deep on top of enemy models.

3) Vendettas will get the cover from moving flat-out on its Scout move.


Pre-game Analysis:

Tyranids: In order to get to his lines as quickly as possible, I will need to put part of my army in reserves. I will be deepstriking my 2 trygons and outflanking with my 2 tervigons.

Pitched battle will be the best deployment method for me. That is the quickest route to his army. I dislike Spearhead and absolutely loathe Dawn of War. With regards to Mission type, it doesn't really matter to me. I'm strong in all three, especially Capture and Control.

I have a lot of T6 units but he has a lot of S6-10 guns. He also has tons of temp weapons but I'm not too worried about that as I'm not real swarmy. I am, however, concerned with all the meltas and the 6 TL-lascannons on his vendettas. It'll be interesting to see how he deals with my hive guards, because if he doesn't find a way to deal with them, they will play absolute havoc on his vehicles.

I think what it boils down to here is whoever gets 1st turn will have the advantage.


Imperial Guards: This army is more built to handle MEQ's and mech. It can also handle hordes, but what I'm not so sure it can handle is a monstrous-creature-heavy list. Otherwise it's a very strong and balanced list. It's got meltas, temps, large pie plates, lots of vehicles and 7 scoring units. I also play guards and I play a similar list to this. I must say that a balanced guard list run by a competent general is IMO one of the best tournament armies today.

He's going to make good use of orders today, especially the order that twin-links his shots against monstrous creatures. Though manticores and griffons aren't as good against my TMC's (Tyranid monstrous creatures), they'll take out my hive guards easily enough. He then has 6 TL-lascannons, a bunch of meltas, S6 multi-lasers and S7 autocannons and the banewolf to deal with my TMC's. It won't be an easy battle for him though.

He wants as much distance as possible away from my guys so that he can maximize on his shooting. Thus, DoW and spearhead would be his prefered deployment type. He can easily handle annihilation and seize ground, but good luck trying to get to my objective in capture and control.

All in all, this will be a good battle and one that I've been looking forward to.

Mission: Seize Ground - 4 Objectives
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Initiative: Tyranids


Deployment:


This is how the terrain looks like.


Nid deployment. Basically, I deployed in such a way that my hive guards and tyrant+guards are getting cover from the gaunts.


The mawloc is hiding behind terrain getting ready to burrow on my turn. The trygons will be deepstriking and the tervigons outflanking.



Guard deployment. Both vendettas scout move for the flat-out cover save. He leaves nothing in reserves.

Guards fail to seize as the game begins.


Tyranids 1
The mawloc burrows underground. Everything runs forward except the hive guards. They fire at the vendettas.


Before the hive guards shoot.


After hive guards are done shooting. Both vendettas exploded despite their cover. 5 guardsmen die in the explosion of the far left vendetta (the other vendetta was empty). They also explode one of the CCS's chimera, killing a few guardsmen in that explosion as well.


Imperial Guards 1
He moves some of his tanks no more than 6" except his banewolf, which moves 12" towards my left tyrant. Then he lets me have it with everything he's got.

His griffons take out the 3 hive guards on the right with 2 direct hits, and since they were indirect fire, I didn't get cover. His manticores, banewolf, multi-lasers, autocannons and Psyker Battle Squad (PBS) combine to put 1 wound on my left hive guards, kill a bunch of the left gaunts, kill the left tyrant guard and reduce my left hive tyrant down to 1 wound. Those manticores and griffons are nasty. They have got to go.


Tyranids 2


Both trygons and 1 tervigon comes in. The tervigon outflanks on the right side. I also deepstrike both trygons onto his right flank as well to overload it. On top of all that, my mawloc comes out on top of his CCS and chimera on the right side, shaking his chimera in the process. The tervigon wounds itself due to Perils while giving one of the trygons Feel No Pain.


All my other units move forwards. Some of my units run forwards, including the healthy dakkarant.

This time my hive guards aim for his manticores. Their shots are golden and wreck both manticores. The trygons shake one of his griffons with their shooting and the tervigon runs.


My lone, wounded tyrant shoots at the side of the banewolf and manages to destroy its weapon as well as shake it. He then assaults it and despite needing 6's to hit, explodes it. Unfortunately, the explosion kills some more gaunts as well as 1 wounded hive guard.


Imperial Guards 2


His guys disembark and the CCS gives the order to take down the mawloc with meltas (i.e. they're twin-linked). Then they gang up and neutralize the mawloc.


The rest of is shooting - including 1 griffon, some autocannons, a bunch of multi-lasers and a newly arrived Marbo with his demo pack - is enough to take out the wounded tyrant and another hive guard.


Tyranids 3
My other tervigon comes in on the left flank. The right tervigon produces 9 gaunts but rolls doubles. The gaunts then run towards the objective, 1 trygon goes after his CCS and the other trygon and tervigon go after his griffons. My 2 squads of gaunts are already at objectives so look for some type of cover. The hive tyrant and hive guards move forwards, ignoring Marbo.

In shooting, my hive guards are only able to wreck 1 chimera and my dakkarant kills some guardsmen. The newly-arrived tervigon drops a big pie plate (cluster spines) onto the infantry squad, killing about 5. He is just out of assault range though.


But not my trygons. 1 trygon assaults his CCS, taking 1W from difficult terrain, and wipes them out. The other trygon and tervigon charge the griffons. The trygon wrecks both griffons before the tervigon even has a chance to strike.


Imperial Guards 3
The beginning of the end. He is almost overrun and is getting desperate. He starts moving towards the objectives. Marbo moves towards the lone hive guard. His other CCS issues the command to Take It Down on the trygon and his whole army concentrates on my wounded trygon. The bring it down to just 1 wound left. As he is getting pretty discouraged, I remind him that his PSB, even though they're within Shadows range of my tervigon, can still fire their laspistols. He then proceeds to defy my trygon's wrath with 5 laspistols from his PSB out of their chimera. He wounds it twice, I fail both saves and the trygon is out of here.

He also kills off my 2-gaunts on an objecive. Finally, Marbo charges the lone hive guard, also wounds it twice and I again fail both saves and my hive guard dies.


Tyranids 4


The left tervigon spawns 9 gaunts but craps out afterwards. It then FNP's them, once again suffering perils and blasts the infantry squad with another large blast, killing some more guardsmen. This time they fail morale and run off the board before my tervigon even gets a chance to assault. Meanwhile the gaunts shoot at the 5-guardsmen (who were survivors from the vendetta) and kill a few. My last remaining unit of hive guards then finishes them off.

To show my disdain for Marbo, I let my 5-gaunts finish him off with their fleshborers (he had the nerve to actually kill 2 hive guards!).


By this time, my tyrant has reached his lines. I then pile in for the kill, exploding the PBS's chimera, killing a few psykers in the explosion, and then killing a bunch of guardsmen in assault.

At this point, I've got 3-4 objectives, he has none and no way to contest and would probably not survive next turn so he calls it.


Victory to Hive Fleet Pandora!!!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Post-game Analysis:

Tyranids: In hindsight, I think I actually made a mistake going for his vendettas on turn 1. With my tyrants in cover due to the tyrant guards and gaunts, I could've weathered probably a turn of firing from them. I should've tried to take out the manticores and griffons instead, as they actually did the most damage. This way, I wouldn't have lost my hive guards so early. Other than that, I think the balance of a foot army supported by deepstriking support worked out rather well this time. I also felt that a hellhound might have done more damage than the banewolf. That hellstorm cannon would've really put the hurt on my hive guards.

But what really won me the game was winning the initiative.


Imperial Guards: I felt his inexperience against the nids really showed here. Just by deploying differently would've made a difference - if he could deploy in such a way to minimize the shooting of my 30" range of my hive guards (24" + move 6"). Also, if he had probably castled up, he might have been able to better support his units when my trygons arrived. Then again, I believe his Manticores and griffons did have a minimum range and he was concerned about my mawloc burrowing on a tightly clustered formation.

After the game, I suggested an Inq Lord w/Psychic Hood, Emperor's Tarot, 2x mystics and 3x plasma warriors in his future builds. He has used the above configuration before (but without the plasma warriors) and it has proven annoying to my wolves at 'Ard Boyz. But when you scale it down to 1850-2000pts, it becomes much harder to justify the 150pt+ unit. But the warriors are a cheap way to get plasmas into the army to help combat terminators and monstrous creatures.

Overall, I caught him unawares this time around. Next time I face him, I'm sure he'll be much more prepared to take on an army like mine.


MVP's:

Tyranids:
Hive Guards - without a doubt, the best units this game. They took out 2 vendettas, 2 manticores 2-3 chimeras and some infantry and made it easier for my big guys to snack on lunch.

Imperial Guards:
Company Command Squads + Veterans - There wasn't any particular unit that dominated, but the combination of his meltavets and company command squad toting meltas and issuing orders manage to bring down 1 mawloc and 1 trygon.

why oh why did he start so much of his army on the board.

jy2 wrote:Post-game Analysis:
Tyranids: In hindsight, I think I actually made a mistake going for his vendettas on turn 1. With my tyrants in cover due to the tyrant guards and gaunts, I could've weathered probably a turn of firing from them. I should've tried to take out the manticores and griffons instead, as they actually did the most damage. This way, I wouldn't have lost my hive guards so early. Other than that, I think the balance of a foot army supported by deepstriking support worked out rather well this time. I also felt that a hellhound might have done more damage than the banewolf. That hellstorm cannon would've really put the hurt on my hive guards.

I agree with what you are saying, but looking at the pictures all the big tanks seem to be out of range for the Hive Guard on first turn? Do you think the Mawloc was worth it since he went splatt so quickly?

sexiest_hero wrote:why oh why did he start so much of his army on the board.

I would say it was probably unfamiliarity (under-estimation) with Nid firepower combined with the lack of an Astropath.

Lyracian wrote:

jy2 wrote:Post-game Analysis:
Tyranids: In hindsight, I think I actually made a mistake going for his vendettas on turn 1. With my tyrants in cover due to the tyrant guards and gaunts, I could've weathered probably a turn of firing from them. I should've tried to take out the manticores and griffons instead, as they actually did the most damage. This way, I wouldn't have lost my hive guards so early. Other than that, I think the balance of a foot army supported by deepstriking support worked out rather well this time. I also felt that a hellhound might have done more damage than the banewolf. That hellstorm cannon would've really put the hurt on my hive guards.

I agree with what you are saying, but looking at the pictures all the big tanks seem to be out of range for the Hive Guard on first turn? Do you think the Mawloc was worth it since he went splatt so quickly?

I should have been in range, but you're right that it probably would've been a gamble. He deploys at the 6" due to the size of his vehicles. I deploy at 36" and move to the 30". I'm exactly 24" away now. Then again, I wasn't exactly directly across from them. The mawloc usually doesn't make his points back. I used him because 1) I needed the extra 30pts, 2) my mawloc model is really nice and 3) people are psychologically so afraid of it that they almost always pump it full of lead to kill it, hence, giving my real damage dealers - the trygons - a little more longevity. Otherwise, 4 out of 5 games I'd usually go for 3 trygons instead.

You destroyed both vendettas T1! That gentled him down!

I agree, he fielded too many of his force at the start. He should have put some in reserves since it would minimize damage made by as shooty nids list.

Kudos on the great looking mawloc btw

That mawloc is pimp. Truly. Great BR, i'm always glad to see 'Nids win against Mech Guard.

jy2 wrote:I should have been in range, but you're right that it probably would've been a gamble. He deploys at the 6" due to the size of his vehicles. I deploy at 36" and move to the 30". I'm exactly 24" away now. Then again, I wasn't exactly directly across from them. The mawloc usually doesn't make his points back. I used him because 1) I needed the extra 30pts, 2) my mawloc model is really nice and 3) people are psychologically so afraid of it that they almost always pump it full of lead to kill it, hence, giving my real damage dealers - the trygons - a little more longevity. Otherwise, 4 out of 5 games I'd usually go for 3 trygons instead.

pythagorean theorem says if you are even an inch to the side of the tank you would be shooting along the hypotenuse and therefore out of range(24.02"). Depending on how good your tape measure is I think you would have lost that gamble.

tetrisphreak wrote:That mawloc is pimp. Truly. Great BR, i'm always glad to see 'Nids win against Mech Guard.

Thanks. The mawloc, btw, was painted by golden daemon winner Shawn Warcot.

Lyracian wrote:

jy2 wrote:I should have been in range, but you're right that it probably would've been a gamble. He deploys at the 6" due to the size of his vehicles. I deploy at 36" and move to the 30". I'm exactly 24" away now. Then again, I wasn't exactly directly across from them. The mawloc usually doesn't make his points back. I used him because 1) I needed the extra 30pts, 2) my mawloc model is really nice and 3) people are psychologically so afraid of it that they almost always pump it full of lead to kill it, hence, giving my real damage dealers - the trygons - a little more longevity. Otherwise, 4 out of 5 games I'd usually go for 3 trygons instead.

pythagorean theorem says if you are even an inch to the side of the tank you would be shooting along the hypotenuse and therefore out of range(24.02"). Depending on how good your tape measure is I think you would have lost that gamble.

Actually, I could have shot at the griffons instead of his CCS's chimera. They were deployed one in front of the other so they were 12" in. And because they were squadrons, I might've destroyed both. Doh!

Brutal game! Loved the pics!!!