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Got together with an old friend for a Play and Play session, his name is Ryan, also known throughout our local gaming community as "throat banger". He plays Chaos, knows his rules, and already is considered one of the best gamers of the new Codex.

I play Nids, and usually go in with the expectation of taking a pounding in the game and then taking a pounding after the game, it is truly our little get away from everyday life and I can't deny it, I look forward to it every moment of the month as we usually "play" only once per month.

To the game.

He fielded Huron along with 3 sets of chaos marines, 2 sets of cultists, 2 obliterators, a rhino, and the new chaos walker unit with twin hades auto cannons and plasma.

I fielded.

1x Swarmlord
1x Tyranid Prime
3x Hive Guard
1x Doom in a Spore
4x Warriors with Deathspitters and Dual Boneswords
1 Broodlord with 7x Genestealers
1x Trygon Prime
1x Carnifex with Brainleach worms in a pod.


From the start I could since "Throat banger" had be outgunned, he would have far more on the field from start to finish, and I wouldn't be able to do enough with my limited troop choices to actually hold objectives. It was going to come down the the mission, and I needed some good rolling even with a good mission for my army.

We set up sides and then rolled to see who went first. The mission is the Kill Points mission, no objective and the normal extra's (Line breaker, First Blood and Warlord)


He wins the roll off and I fail to steal the initiative. I've decided to infiltrate my Stealers to try and help out against Huron who rolls a lucky 3 for his infiltrates.

He plays very aggressive and places units within 18" behind my units telling me to get use to him being behind me pumping hot shots into me.
From a rules perspective I wasn't sure if this was legal, my units were facing a different direction, but I could not find anything in the BRB that’s says how much LOS a unit has.
Was he actually able to infiltrate behind my units 16" away in the open because my units were not "facing" him?

Anyways I let it slide; I knew it would be worth it later to be on his good side. (As if he had a bad one)

Turn 1.

His now right on top of me infiltrates move forward into double tap range. Huron casts Enfeeble on my warriors and they commence as an army to obliterate my warriors. When all the shooting is done, thanks to cover and where his other units started off, only 2 warriors meet there demise due to instant death. Prime and 2 warriors survive 3 units worth of firepower while being enfeebled which made me smile.
My unit of Genestealers in the middle of the map takes fire from both sides; a hail of gunfire brings down the brooldord and all but 1 stealer :(.

By the start of my turn 1, because I have 3 deep striking units, all I have left on the board is Swarmlord, 3 Hive Guard and Prime with 2 warriors. Most of his army is far enough away, but I do have some concerns that if Huron and his unit of Marines get lucky they could table me turn 2. Granted that would mean "Throat banger" would be closer to arriving where I truly wanted him.

My turn 1 I decide to try and cast "Hallucination" on Huron and his marine escort, with a sweet roll of 11 I fail.

Swarmlord isn't close enough to actually do anything else, and I don't want to move out of cover.

SIDE NOTE ----- What cover would you guys say a "Mountain" gives?

Hive guard pump 6 shots into his Rhino which had moved aggressively forward and detonate it. The explosion causes 1 marine inside to die. My Prime and his 2 warriors charge Huron and his group of marines. Over watch causes 0 wounds and the warriors with the Prime get into base to base. Thinking this is my chance I challenge Huron with the Prime and for the first times feel maybe the momentum wills wing towards me. Wrong, there is also a Chaos Lord in the unit and he steps in to take Huron’s place.
What happens next will echo throughout eternity. My Prime hits multiple times, and then rolls 1-1-1-3. The Chaos Lord shrugs off the instant death attack and then on top of everything else, MAKES his FNP. (Since the instant death didn't go off we ruled he could still make his FNP against the wound, which may have been wrong)

In a blinding moment of fate the Chaos Lord counters, hate blistering through his attack, the enfeebled Prime FALLS in the challenge. As if a scene from a movie the victory resonates throughout the basement which we were all gathered. Players from the other games also playing chaos shout out support, I can do nothing but drop my head into my hands.

As if there was any question Huron dispatches the other 2 warriors: bleep:
The Chaos Lord steps forward and awaits his "Boon" for killing my Prime in a challenge; in a moment of levity he rolls 4-4 and gets the exact same thing he started the game with, thus, nothing: D

The lone genestealer charges a squad of cultists, and actually makes it into combat!!! Where he dies without killing any

Ending turn 1 I knew there was little chance I would make it to turn 2. On the table I had Swarmlord and 3 Hive Guard, however, they were all behind cover. If Swarlord could survive shooting from Huron then I could make it.

Turn 2 for Chaos he shoots everything that can see Swarmlord, he is able to dish out 2 wounds and kill 1 Hive Guard, however that’s not so bad, as I have some heavy hitters coming in. The battle looked very sad, Chaos advanced from all sides and his obliterators had the high ground like O-B-1 did to Anakin.

My turn 2. Roll for the Trygon Prime. Carnifex in pod and Doom are both coming in.

The way the map was laid out, I was able to use both spore pods to block the advance of 50% of his army, leaving Huron his marines, with, 1 more squad of marines and a full cultist squad along with 3 nurgle bikers separated from the main army. On a KP mission I suddenly had some life.
Doom started off, he pulsed and was hitting 2 squads, the bikes and the cultists. I prepared for a great amount of death, when he told me he was going to deny the witch. We're not sure if this was correct, but he did anyways. And.
:six ....................... Yep. Both.
The carnifex shot into the bikes killing 1 and swarmlords cast Iron Arm and Warp Speed on himself preparing to make a 5 inch charge to get to the cultists. In a moment I can only describe as "being distracted by the large bulge forming in the front of "throat bangers" pants" I shot my Hive guard into the cultists. 4 died, and sadly my Swarmlord now needed an 8 inch charge Overwatch lands and he causes 1 more wound to Swarmy. He then rolls, 7, yep 7 and doesn't make it into combat.

Turn 3 see's the army deal with the 2 pods blocking their path, but not before Doom pulses and Ripper's from 1 pod cause the bikes to flee and the cultists to take 2 more deaths.

Huron and his marines unload into Doom and and then charge him after the shooting doesn't finish the job. The cultists charge my Swarmlord

Is Doom a Character? I just thought that because of Chaos rules he would have had to challenge him and Doom would have survived a lot longer.

When the combats are done, Doom is gone, and Swarmlord destroyed the rest of the cultists.

My turn 3, the game in my mind is changing. Swarmlord casts Iron Arm and WarpSpeed and gets +3 and +3 all the way. He then lowers his head and charges straight into Huron and his marines.
The Champion challenges again, this time his luck runs dry though and he dies quickly to the SWARMLORD.
Carnifex who is now exposed to the rest of "Throat bangers" army turns and unloads on the front of the "Walker" in a moral victory the carnifex then makes it the 8 inches needed and charges into the new chaos walker unit. After combat settles, the damn walker makes 2 INV saves to stay alive with 1 HP The Hive Guard unloads 4 shots and kill the remaining biker that was trying to escape.

Turn 4 begins and I have a Trygon Prime, 2 Hive Guard, Swarmlord and a Carnifex left on the table. Ryan is sweating, and I can't help but let my mind drift to the after game game we'll all be playing, I know I need to keep focused and hunker down so I keep those thoughts at bay.

Skipping to the chase, in turn 4 Swarmlord gets challenged by Huron and absolutely demolishes him. The marines that were coming up from the rhino destroyed turn 1 come around the mountain corner and change into the hive guard. The Hive guard pulls solid and ties the marines up in combat without taking or giving any wounds. Another set of marine’s charges into the fray with the carnifex and the walker. Sadly the carnifex falls before being able to fight back, however this has placed his army not in LOS and not nearly close enough to be any help to the 2 remaining marine squads.

The Trygon Prime charges into combat to assist the swarmlord and provide some needed cover eventually. Swarmlord and Trygon Prime easily kill the 5 or so marines left. They both consolidate to try and take out the squad in combat with the hive guard and win the game.

TURN 5

This gives dead sexy throat banger one turn of long range shooting to try and kill off swarmlord. He eats 2 Lascannons, but Throat banger rolls to wound!!! The walker moved forward enough to get in range and see the Swarmlord and unloads his auto cannons along with his plasma cannon, the plasma GETS HOT The other shots only cause 1 wound (Which would kill him if I fail) NOPE Swarmlord LIVES ON!!! The ongoing combat with marines vs. Hive guard once again does nothing!!!

Bottom of 5 and I've got 7 marines to deal with.

Swarmlord makes the charge and instantly destroys enough of the squad to make them fall back and get sweeping advanced to death.

That leaves it

7-5

Tyranids win!

Or do they?

We remember after the game that the Chaos Champion would of had to challenge the swarmlord and although he would have died those would have been the only wounds done.
We decide to call it a draw.

3 Hours after that I was sore in the derriere and driving home, I realized the marines still would have been sweeping advanced and I still would have won!
Either way very close game, or a great time!

Thanks

Units have 360 degree LoS. You got jipped by his deployment, but by only 2". Still reading.

Edit: Cover is typically a 5+, Defensive Lines as 4+ and Fortifications as a 3+. However, I have given a 4+ to opponents when something is REALLY behind cover, and I can see an arm and head only or something. I find that it is only fair in a friendly game.

Edit Edit: I think you guys were alright for the FnP, since the Instant Death did not happen.

Edit Edit Edit: Does the Doom require a psychic roll to leech life? If so, Deny the Witch was valid there.

Edit Edit Edit Edit: I was unable to find anything in the BRB about the Doom being a Character. Maybe in your FaQ? Not very familiar with Tyranids.

Cool report. Sounds like it was a fun battle with some big swings.

Also, I think the Doom is a character and you cannot Deny the Witch for his regular pulse. It is a regular ability and not a psychic ability. It doesn't use warp charges or some other sort of psychic test to go off. It is a regular ability like any other. He could Deny the Witch on the Doom's blast spell.

doom doesnt require a psychic roll for leeching. So no deny there. Just deaaathhhh.

Nice report! Love to see the Tyranids snatch some wins!

text removed.
Reds8n

 Farseer Mael Dannan wrote:


Edit Edit Edit Edit: I was unable to find anything in the BRB about the Doom being a Character. Maybe in your FaQ? Not very familiar with Tyranids.

I believe all named unique units are Characters by default.

You were suffering terrible luck, but it turned out alright.

I still have yet to see a battle report where Chaos wins. Quite interesting, you definitely had some poor luck but hey, you still won. Congrats!

As scatterbrained as your report was, I really like the style. I think along the same lines as you do when I game.

You had some bad luck but you definately did well. Good job!

Grats on the win, I think you'd get them more often if you took more biomancer tervigons and didn't let people T1 infiltrate assault you.

As an aside, does your LGS double as an after hours sex club or something?

Almarine wrote:
Grats on the win, I think you'd get them more often if you took more biomancer tervigons and didn't let people T1 infiltrate assault you.

As an aside, does your LGS double as an after hours sex club or something?

Yes,

Also, he didn't assult me on his turn, but he did start 16" infiltrating away claiming that if a model was not "facing" backwards then it couldn't see that way. TBH he may have been correct, noone can seem to find any rules saying they have 360 LOS for purposes of infiltraters.

Thanks for all the other replies, I'm still not 100% sure what cover save a Mountain would give. We've house ruled it 4+./ 5+ based on a roll to start the game.

The FAQ does show Doom is a char, which gives me a good way to keep him alive even longer in combat.

Going into a tourney this weekend, I'll let you know how it goes.

Ahem... Forgive me if I'm being insensitive but what is play and play? Is the name 'throat banger' a clue? Also for a good player he didn't seem that brilliant with lots of luck riding for him.