Progress: Finished!
This is the second of four battle reports from the May 21st Cangames tournament in Ottawa, Canada. 1750 pt "Astronomi-con" style tournament. See
my Cangames thread in the Tournaments forum for an overview of the tables and some of the armies present.
Cangames Battle Reports:
Game 1 vs Space Marines in the Jungle
Game 2 vs Drop Pod Marines on the Valley table
This Thread
Game 3 vs Witchhunters on the Bastions table
coming soon
Game 4 vs Deathwing on the Refinery/Pipeline table
coming soon
Tyranids:
HQ: Hive Tyrant (Heavy Venom Cannon, Twinlinked Devourer with Brainleech Worms, Paroxysm, Leech Essence)
Elite: 3 Zoanthropes
Elite: 2 Lictors
Troops: 10 Genestealers (Toxin Sacs)
Troops: 12 Hormagaunts
Troops: 3 Warriors (2x Deathspitters, 1x Venom Cannon; all with dual Boneswords)
Troops: 6 Warriors (Scything Talons, Rending Claws, Toxin Sacs)
FA: 4 Raveners (Scything Talons, Rending Claws)
FA: Harpy (Twinlinked Stranglethorn Cannon, Cluster Spines)
HS: Trygon (Adrenal Glands)
John F.'s Drop Pod Space Marines
HQ: Vulcan
HQ or Elite (?): Some powerful squad in a Drop Pod
Elite: Rifleman Dreadnought (2x Twinlinked Autocannons)
Elite: Rifleman Dreadnought (2x Twinlinked Autocannons)
Troops: Tactical Squad; Drop Pod
Troops: Tactical Squad
HS: Ironclad Dreadnought (
DCCW with Melta,
DCCW with Heavy Flamer); Drop Pod
HS: Ironclad Dreadnought (
DCCW with Melta,
DCCW with Heavy Flamer); Drop Pod
HS: Ironclad Dreadnought (2x
DCCWs with Heavy Flamers); Drop Pod
Table: Valley (
GW board, with a couple of small copses of trees and gulleys but otherwise bare)
Deployment: Special: Winner of roll chooses attack or defend.
Attacker: splits army in half by unit. Roll: 1-2 first half deploys, 3-4 second half deploys, 5-6 attacker's chosen half deploys. The half that gets to deploy must deploy within a triangle (apex at board center, corners at long edge corners), the other half may either walk on first turn or go into Reserve.
Defender: may deploy up to 2 Troops and an
HQ in an equivalent triangle on his own side, + infiltrators. Everything else is in Reserve.
Any defending units may choose to outflank.
Special Rules: Attacker's units may exit the Defender's board edge (and gains
VPs for so doing)
Primary Objective:
Attacker: +1
VP for every own unit that makes it off the board;
Defender: +1VP for every enemy unit killed (ie
KP).
Whoever has more
VP wins. Win 10/5, Draw (7/7)
Secondary Objectives: (these add to the battle points from the primary objective, but not to
VPs)
Attacker: +1 each: General makes it off board; All troops make it off board; all of one other type (Elite or Fast or Heavy) make it off board. -1 each unit that does not make it into enemy's deployment zone (max -3).
Defender: +1 each: Kill opponent's General; prevent at least one enemy Troops choice from making it off the board; Opponent still has one or more units in his own table half at game end. -1 each enemy unit that makes it off the board (max -3).
Tyranids won the roll for deployment choice, and I decide to be the Defender and go second. Opponent and I discussed how Drop Pods would work in this mission. We decided that Drop Pods and their units would deploy as normal for Drop Pods, so he should split the rest of his army in two for the roll-off.
Space Marine Deployment: He rolls a 3 and deploys his second half: two Rifleman Dreads. Everything else in Reserve. One Tactical Squad will be walking on, everything else in Pods
Tyranid Deployment: Nothing. I decide to Reserve my whole army, and in my excitement at being able to outflank anything, I declare that I will outflank with almost everything (Hormagaunts, Warriors, Genestealers, Trygon and Harpy). Only the Zoanthropes, Hive Tyrant and Guard will walk on my edge, and the Lictors will be placed from Reserve as normal.
In retrospect this was rather silly; I was trying to avoid getting wiped by a Drop Pod alpha strike by Reserving my army, which wasn't a terrible idea; but I should have had everything come on my own edge instead of outflanking.
Space Marines Turn 1:
Wind whistles across the scrub. Rifleman Dreads search for targets. Nothing happens.
Tyranids Turn 1:
Nothing yet...
Space Marines Turn 2:
Slam! Slam! Slam!
Sploosh!
Three Drop Pods crunch into the dry ground of the valley. Doors pop open and an Ironclad Dreadnought steps out of each of them, heavy flamers with pilot lights lit. No targets...
All 5 Dreadnoughts look up into the sky...and all five swivel their heads in unison, chins dropping as another Drop Pod hurtles laterally through the air, overshooting the drop zone and scattering off the table, to the bottom of a lake somewhere distant. Whatever squad was inside would have been pretty impressive, one assumes from Vulcan's curses broadcasting over the comlink spectrum.
(Actually the off-table scatter happened first, as the Space Marine player aimed a little too close to my table edge. Mishap - destroyed. He was more conservative with the remainder of his drops, aiming them over 12" from my board edge. All three landed pretty much next to one another forming a nice wall of cover. The Ironclads deployed out towards the Tyranid board edge, leaving the pods between them and the Rifleman Dreads).
url=http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/225204-Breakthrough%2C%20Dreadnought%2C%20Drop%20Pod%2C%20Space%20Marines%2C%20Tyranids%2C%20Valley.html]
[/url]
As the echoes of the landings faded, the distant sound of marching power armour emerged. The transport-less Tactical Squad marched onto the board in the middle of their own table edge, keeping the Drop Pod wall between them and the Tyranid lines
Tyranids Turn 2:
Skittering, clattering and slithering noises gathered in intensity from both sides of the valley, while an ominous presence radiated from the southern gulley. Suddenly, a horde of Tyranid creatures emerged from the rocks in the west. Hormagaunts chittered and wove in front of a mass of Warriors and Raveners.
The presence in the south coalesced as three floating brain-creatures silently hovered into view, mockingly just out of charge range of the Ironclads.
Warp Lance lightning fizzled and grounded out near the Zoanthropes as they tried in vain to focus their considerable psychic strength (Yep, a failed Psychic Test and two misses - nice work lads, no rush!)
Trees swayed in the copse of trees in the north: two Lictors emerged, sending flesh hooks flying out in desperation towards the out-of-reach Tactical Squad.
Space Marines Turn 3:
Slam! The last Drop Pod lands just east of the other three, and a little south. Vulcan leapt out, with a full Tactical Squad following closely behind. Spotting the hordes of Tyranids approaching from the west, Vulcan issued clipped orders over the comlink to the five Dreadnoughts: “Hold them!”. Vulcan led his men out of the valley at a run (first unit successfully off the board!).
Three Ironclads stomped westward, the copious gouts of promethium from their heavy flamers cooking a Zoanthrope and singing a second despite their psychic forcefields. Hot shell casing spat from the Rifleman Dreads as they poured fire into the copse of trees in the north, but the Lictors instinctively went to ground. Traces of tyranid blood stained the foliage but no kills could be confirmed. Thanks to the covering fire, the Tactical Squad was able to march indouble-time southward towards the Drop Pods, out of reach of the Lictors.
Tyranids Turn 3:
Another wave of Tyranids appeared from the east: ten Genestealers ran amongst the three shooty Warriors, flanked by a massive Trygon.
The Harpy flew on from the west, its stranglethorn cannon dropping one Tactical Marine. As the Zoanthropes retreated behind a swarm of Hormagaunts, a Warp Lance cracked through the dry air and punched straight through the center of one of the Ironclads, disabling it. The Zoanthrope shrieked in pain as warp feedback coursed through it (Perils of the Warp).
Space Marines Turn 4
“We've found the nest – need some support here!” Vulcan's voice shouted over the comlink. The Rifleman Dreadnoughts abandoned their camouflaged quarry and began picking their way between the Drop Pods, pivoting to snap off volleys of cannon fire into the Zoanthropes. One of the floating brains sank to the ground in a puddle of blood and cerebral fluid.
One Ironclad lumbered off to the south to back up its commander. The remaining Ironclad prepared to hold off the entire Tyranid onslaught. A melta shot bounced harmlessly off of the Zoanthropes pyschic shield, while storm bolter fire from the Pods managed to drop a Warrior.
Tactical Marines sprinted towards the cover of the Drop Pods, eyeing the huge Trygon and chittering Genestealers bearing down on them.
Tyranids Turn 4:
Harpy fire tore the storm bolter from a Drop Pod and then destroyed it. Hormagaunts veered northwards towards the Tactical Marines, while the Raveners crossed behind them to charge into the remaining Ironclad. Warriors followed the Raveners, clambering over one another to try to get into contact with the machine. The heavy armour protected the Ironclad, and its seismic hammer squished 3 Warriors into paste.
The Hive Tyrant and its Guards finally entered from the south. The venom cannon scattered and devourer beetles pattered harmlessly against the ancient metal of the Rifleman Dreadnoughts, bu the massive creature charged forward and lunged with its jaws, immobilizng the construct. The Guards broke the storm bolter from Vulcan's Pod.
The second wave of Tyranids continued moving in from the east, closing the pincer.
Space Marines Turn 5:
Tacticals moved into the cover of the Drop Pods. Pod stormbolters ripped into the last Zoanthrope, killing it.
Raveners and Warriors succeeded in ripping both arms from the Ironclad, leaving it relatively impotent but no less difficult to destroy.
The second Rifleman Dreadnought charged into combat alongside the first – however, both were exploded by the jaws of the Hive Tyrant and the rending claws of the Guards. The Tyrant consolidated towards the last Ironclad.
Tyranids Turn 5:
The Trygon barreled into the Tactical Marines as Hormagaunts charged in from the other side. Marines killed 8 Hormagaunts before they could strike, but the Trygon accounted for 6 Marines. Another two Hormagaunts went down to No Retreat (the Tyrant was within 12” for synapse).
The Hive Tyrant and Guard managed to contact the armless Ironclad...
...and explode it!
At this point time was called.
Result: Victory to the Tyranids!
Tyranids scored 7
VPs (killed 2 Ironclads, 2 Rifleman Dreads, 2 Drop Pods and the squad which scattered off the table), while the Space Marines got only 3
VPs for marching units off the table (Vulcan, a Tactical Squad, and one Ironclad).
Battle Points: My opponent got 5
BP for the loss, +1 for getting his General off the table. I got 10
BP for the win, +1 for preventing one Troops choice from exiting the table, but -1 for letting the other Troops choice exit the table.
Tyranids: 10
BP; Space Marines: 6
BP
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