Warhammer World GT3 – Game 0 Tyranids v Nurgle Space Marines

Game 0 of GT3 as we went early we arrived at Warhammer World at lunch time, ate and then had tables booked for two, half-two. I’d played Otty and Ben in the run up so it was only right I rocked up against Liam’s Nurgle Chaos Space Marines and Deamons

The low down:

• XXX [Chapter Approved mission]
• Dawn of War – Table ends pointy deployment
• I chose deployment zone, but I deployed last unit [giving Liam +1 to win first turn]

Bizarrely I had almost zero recollection of this battle by the end of the weekend. In fact I had such a bad memory I had to ask Liam if he could write some notes for the battle report after looking at the pictures. Of course I was so pleased he took up the offer I’m just going to share what he wrote in his words because I find it that much more entertaining 🙂 So this is the game from Liam’s perspective and as far as I’m concerned the best battle report I’ve never written:

TURN 1

I went first moved all the pox walkers up onto the objective (middle board) and the same for the Landraider and the Daemon prince (my right of the board), moved up Mortarian on the left.

Las-cannon took 6 wounds off the spawning beastie…..

4 OBJECTIVE MARKERS HELD (Total=4)

Deep striked Deathshroud terminators in your deployment area.

-1 to hit on Deathshroud terminators and warp speed did not work.

Warlord deep striked to shoot Mortarian caused 1 wound

You moved one of the flying things to assault the Deathshroud.

Shot one and killed another in CC.

I caused loads of wounds back 4 I think

Large wormy thing deep striked behind my lines and with the genestealers assaulted the Landraider.

The Landraider was left with 1 wound but in overwatch it caused 6 wounds.

In the assault phase caused another to the wormy thing.

Other large wormy thing deep striked in the centre of the board the termy things shot 1 million times and caused 12 wounds on the pox walkers.

Giant genestealer took objective on your left.

2 OBJECTIVE MARKERS HELD (Total = 2)

TURN 2

Morty assaulted your flying thing with the Deathshroud and insta killed him twice over.

CP caused the dead walk again and the 20 cultists shot and killed 6 termi things which ended up as pox walkers, then the pox walkers assaulted the termie things and caused 6 wounds and lost 4 in return so 2 up on the deal. First blood.

Landraider left combat and the Daemon prince assaulted your giant genestealer and was promptly despatched by him Booooo but until your turn.

3 OBJECTIVE MARKERS HELD (Total=7)

Other wormy thing and warlord assaulted Morty killed the Deathshrouds in the shooting phase and did a healthy amount of wounds down to 9 I think in CC, but he killed wormy thing in response.

Genestealers charged towards pox walkers caused loads of wounds but 16 I think but Typhus joined in and killed 10 with the help of the pox walkers extra pox walkers appeared.

Wormie thing assaulted Landraider again but died to overwatch I rolled another 6 to hit 6 to would and 6 to damage lucky lucky…

giant genestealer killed Daemon prince in CC

Termie and pox fight, loads died but all were replaced by both sides this was not going to end any time soon.

2 OBJECTIVE MARKERS HELD (Total = 4)

TURN 3 

Yours and mine it was very rushed and blurry

Deep striked Beast of Nurgle and assaulted the giant genestealer killed him and got the objective.

Landraider shot the spawnie beast down to 2 wounds.

Morty killed the warlord.

Typhus and the pox killed all the genestealers through “plague wind” and pistol shooting and assault. Finished off in your turn. The second unit of termie things attacked the pox walkers in the middle this was going to go on forever I was upto 25 pox by now.

4 OBJECTIVE MARKERS HELD (Total=11) + warlord, first blood and behind enemy lines

1 OBJECTIVE MARKERS HELD (total=5)

So there you go, I think Liam was particularly incensed by some particularly fortuitous dice rolling on my part. He also managed to ‘troll me’ good style when he insisted on using my dead Termagants as recently raised Poxwalkers and I was artfully riled as I was expecting to re-spawn them with my Tervigon and I’d only brought enough gaunts to cover my own needs, certainly not donate them for his use! I also got a bit shouty with him, to my shame, as I was trying to play as a ‘tournament simulation’ and be pacey and quick to better match the conditions we would face over the weekend. Often we ended up perussing our rule books for clarification, which resulted in our game lasting aorund four hours – so much for tournament simulation! Regardless, we had a laugh and as usual there were plenty of good and even epic moments, I just can’t understand why I can’t recall them!

Warhammer World GT3 – Game 5 Tyranids v Chaos Space Marines

Last game of GT3, game 5 and I’m facing Daniel Brennan and his Alpha Legion Chaos Space Marines. It’s been over a week since this game and I was pretty fatigued and out of it throughout, there were points were Daniel was actually reminding me of things I needed to do – practically playing my turn for me at one stage. I was extremely grateful though and we still had a laugh. Two days is a long tournament for me I just don’t have the stamina and it’s always the same at Warhammer World nerves and excitement really take their toll!

The low down:

• Scorched Earth [Chapter Approved mission]
• Vanguard Strike – Diagonal deployment
• I chose deployment zone, but I deployed last unit [giving Dan +1 to win first turn], 
• Dan went first

I deployed with intent to steal as many objectives as I could, once again with the Warlord Flyrant on the board [when will I learn?]

Daniel had a Spartan that I wasn’t looking forward to facing, along with the plethora of Noise Marines inside it!

The Tyranid Warrios manned the Skyshield. I actually dropped one of the Capillary Toweres before game 2, breaking off a chunk of DAS clay that will need to be repaired 😦

Cultitsts and a Daemon Princefilled out Daniel’s DZ.

And then moved to secure this objective.

Noise Marines disembarked from the Spartan, looking every which way to confuse me just as Alpha Legion are want to do.

Terminators arrived as a speed bump, backed up by two units of Obliterators in the trees and on top of the objective.

The Obliterators fired at my Tervigon.

Managing to take off 5 wounds even with a +1 cover save [you don’t see that too often – a monster in cover and obscured!]

The rest of the shooting took out the Flyrant, again! First Blood and Slay the Warlord, see what I mean about lessons learned. Daniel’s dice were on fire. He racked up 3VPs for objectives too.

My turn and the Trygon and Devgaunts arrived on the far edge of the board.

The other Trygon arrived with the Genestealers and together with the Broodlord they all made the charge into the Terminators.

Which could not stand against such overwhelming ferocity and I consolidated towards the objective, claiming it. The Tervigon and Termagants secured another, althogether I captured 4VPs worth of objectives this turn.

The Broodlord might have consolidated into the Cultists

And was subsequently killed, whether by the crazed individuals or the Daemon Prince I don’t recall.

The remaining Cultists and Noise Marines took aim at the Genestealers.

Wiping them out. The Trygon appeared unscathed but was now revealed in it’s entirety to the waiting Obliterators.

Who blasted it to smithereens!

The Daemon Prince secured another objective bringing Daniel another 4VPs this turn.

I moved the Trygon and Gaunts forward, heading for the centre objective.

The second Flyrant swooped on between the Obliterators and the Daemon Prince.

Shooting by the Flyrant brought the Prince down to just one wound, allowing me to send the Hive Guard forward to assault and secure the objective.

But it was not meant to be, the Hive Guard couldn’t get just one wound on the Prince and he killed them all without blinking an eye!

The Trygon made the charge

as did the Termagants

Surrounding the objective bringing me 3VPs and drawing on primaries.

Turn 3, the Flyrant was whittled down to 5 wounds…

…and then none.

The Noise Marines blasted the Devagaunts apart –

wiping them all out and putting two wounds on the Trygon. Daniel held another 3VPs worth of objectives this turn. The Trygon then freedom to then move off the objective and head toward the Daemon Prince, killing him and securing that objective, but what about the centre objective.

Y conga…! It took me a re-roll of the first Advance move and Metabolic Overdrive, killing 8 Termagants in the process and a second advance of 10″ or more and the Termagants managed to span three objectives so the Trygon could hunt the Daemon Prince.

He got into combat –

smashed him to pieces to secure the objective but Alpha Legion Warlord rules meant I didn’t get Slay the Warlord as another character in Daniels army was in fact suddenly revealed as the Warlord all along! I scored 4VPs this turn to be ahead by one on primaries but Deniel had two secondaries.

Obliterators and cultists moved around toward the objectives and to get target lock on the Trygon.

Noise Marine moved to challenge for the centre objective.

Which proved no challenge whatsoever for their Sonic Blasters – wiping the entire brood of Devgaunts out 

The Trygon was blown apart by the Obliterators, Daniel would score a further 3 VPs for turn four while I only scored 2 [even on primaries again].

Turn 5 and I was very much spent by this stage, my army was in tatters and Daniel had control of most of the board.

This would lead to 4VPs while I could only score the same 2VPs again but I did get the Rippers behind the wrecked Baneblade for Linebreaker, which Daniel kindly left alone.

Final score was 20 to 16 and I’d managed to kill 450pts worth of Alpha Legion

Absolutely great game and another genuinely nice player to close out the weekend. I may have only had one win out of five but all my games were really good ones. I was utterly exhausted though and nervous energy had completely drained me. I’ll definitely have to look at a more easy to run army next time. I quite fancy running my Knights actually. I’ll need another one, or perhaps the new Armigers might make the detachment up. Regardless just something less fussy to both play and move around, hopefully the new Armiger kit and rumours will throw up some new options for me to explore.

Anyway I think I might have a post tournament wrap up, although I might just have covered the crux of my experience in the previous paragraph. A great weekend nontheless!

Warhammer World GT3 – Game 4 Tyranids v Aeldari [Eldar]

Game 4 of GT3 and I am a hot mess. I’m regretting the beer, yesterday’s lunch of curry [fab as it was] and sheesh kebab [which was far spicier than I would have liked]. Steve Parker is facing me with a host of Wraith Guard [mainly hiding in the webway] and a Wraith Knight. In all honesty I was not with it for this game. I couldn’t remember where I’d put my digital camera after game 1. I’d been using my phone since and so I was totally preoccupied with where it could be. The events team came over to give me the bad news that it hadn’t been handed in while adding the good news the ‘nids had been nominated again for best army. So as Steve went first and started to remove my models with ease I couldn’t see them die quick enough, anyway the game…

The low down:

• Ascension [Chapter Approved mission]
• Hammer and Anvil – Table ends deployment
• I chose deployment zone, but I deployed last unit [giving Steve +1 to win first turn], 
• Steve went first

Thanks to the peculiarities of this mission all span the middle of the board, which effectively makes my Skyshield redundant in it’s role of objective camper. With a lot of both our armies off board I once again chose Tenacious Survivor for my Warlord Flyrant instead of Alien Cunning to remove him from the board.

With so many Ranger scouts littering the battlefield finding space to bring stuff on was also going to be a challenge, so it seemed like a good idea to start with the Flyrant on the board. Wraithguard took and objective. Two more units of Wraithguard would secure the other objective out of shot in front of the ruin the Rangers are in.

Crimson Hunters zoomed into my Deployment Zone and wiped out the Hive Guard who were hiding in the shadow of the ruins. First Blood, swiftly followed by the second blood of the Tyranid Warriors.

The Wraith Knight shot the Warlord Flyrant to smithereens [Slay the Warlord]. With hindsight it was probably a good thing I was preoccupied with lost camera as I’d have been pretty demotivated at this point if I’d been hoping to attempt some kind of challenge in the game.

Tervigon surged forward with the Termagants, weight of numbers and objective secured, snatching the objective out from under the Wraithguard. Half their Brood had been killed though.

Trygon and Stealers appeared in the Aeldari backfield, I don’t think I mad the charge, even with the Behemoth re-roll. The fates were against me it would seem.

Trygon and Devgaunts arrive on the other side, where the Broodlord had sprinted up. I secured the second objective while my second Flyrant managed to charge the Wraithguard but with an Autarch [or Farseer] holding the objective he was going to survive long enough to score 2VPs on that objective nect turn.

The Wraith Knight shot/assaulted the Trygon.

Tervigon was was killed and the Termagants suffered many casualties…

With just two left alive to secure that objective for the Aeldari.

The Wraith Knight charged the Genestealers, ultimately with just 2 left.

The last Flyrant was down to 4 wounds in combat

Wraith Guard scored the objective.

Autarch retained the centre objective for the second turn giving Steve another combined 3VPs.

Even at this stage I had some innate tactical awarness. I fell back with the Flyrant, movign to the other side of the objective to take out the Autarch with the Broodlord ensuring he died, unfortunately that must not have been in my turn as I’m only down as 1VP, which would have been the objective in the Ruins. Still, Slay the Warlord and as the Broodlord made the killing blow I used my last CP to use Feeder Tendrills and managed to regain 3CPs [although I later discovered some believe Broodlords cannot use Feeder Tendrils because it states Genestealer can do it, he has the Keyword GENESTEALER though so I’m unsure on the difference?]

Steve subsequently surrounded the Trygon and Devgaunts and brought the Wraith Knight to bear on the Flyrant and Broodlord. The Flyrant was shot.

The Gaunts were engaged.

The Wraith Knight assaulted the Broodlord and I had to make five 5+ invuls to evade his assault.

But that one 4 took the Broodlord out. This left the Farseers holding the objective with the Wraith Guard holding the other one.

Wraith Knight moved to the ruins. My Trygon extracted itself from the ruin and then moved to charge the Wraith Guard. I may well have discovered my lost camera at this point which caused blessed relief but the game was lost in all but name.

I mustn’t have done much damage. I socred another VP for this objective.

The Guard fell back and killed yet more of the Devgaunts.

Wraith Knight mopped up the Devgaunts the everything shot at the Trygon who must have lashed out in death throes.

As only 1 Wraith Guard remains. With some Rippers still on the board, trying to sneak Linebreaker Steve had plenty of time to score another 8VPs over turns four and five while he wiped out the Skyshield to ultimately table me.

Steve was an absolute top bloke throughout. Out of all my games this army completely outclassed me. Sure the Orks had done as good job but that was numbers and poor tactics on my parts and good tactics on there’s. This was an army that was just in a different league. In fact my kill points were just the Autarch on 77pts, which I felt truly embarrased byt after yesterdays ribbing on the 82, but thankfully Liam had a worse game in the 40s so he really sucks compared to me!

I really appreciated Steve’s patience and thanfully we finished with 20-30 minutes sparer for me to start shifting my stuff into the cabinet and then game five.

Warhammer World GT3 – Game 3 Tyranids v Slaanesh daemons

Game 3 of GT3 and I’m facing Dan Moody and his awesome ‘Pleasure of Slaanesh’ Chaos Deamons.

The low down:

• Not sure which mission [Chapter Approved mission]
• Spearhead Assault – Table ends pointy deployment
• Not sure who chose, think it was Dan, 
• I went first, again unsure on whehter I won it or stole it, sorry

He had so many Seekers, which I had heard were good and fast: 14″ move , plus D6+1″ advance, plus 2D6+1″ charge. They were going to be in my face and yet I still pushed forward in my first turn with my reserve deep strike. Objectives were scoring each turn and I had to hold as many as I could because I could see Dan had a much more difficult army to overcome.

Thanks to all the shooting I managed to wipe out one unit of Seekers for First Blood. Dan later confessed he thought the game was over at this point! Meanwhile my Trygon failed to reach one of the Chariots but the Genestealers made it and thanks to Metabolic Overdrive on the Broodlord were in range of his aura to rend the chariot unto mince meat. Somewhow I’d managed to secure four objectives that turn with the Stealers holding one in the ruin, the Flyrant holding another.

The other side of the board had my Termagants holding the third while one the second Flyrant faced the opposition.

My Tervigon supported the gaunts on their objective and the Skyshiled held the fourth.

Seekers swarmed my Devgaunts and it looks like they all got dead.

Chariots and Daemonettes surrounded the Genestealers,

ready to pounce.

With the Devgaunts dead, the Trygon on 11 wounds and the Flyrant on 8 the two Daemon Princes swooped over with the Keeper of Secrets. They had auras making it difficult to hot so the Broodlord failed to lay a claw on the Keeper.

While she slaughtered him with impunity, his invul save worth nought against her vicious attacks.

Genestealers were all but removed from the board, just one surviving but no doubt died in the morale phase.

Everything else consolidated in among the Tyrgon and Flyrant. Dan scored 3VPs in his first turn.

My turn 2 and I still had complete control on this objective.

My second Flyrant swooped into Dan’s backfield to secure this objective, but there were Daemonettes to kill to capture it. I may have needed Metabolic Overdrive to make the distance. Rippers snatched the objective in the wood.

My Warlord Flyrant ‘fell back’ to the ruins in the centre, hoping to challenge the Daemonettes holding the objective with the Trygon. He may well have destroyed one of the Chariots in the shooting phase though. Meanwhile the other Trygon failed to do very much because Slaanesh strike first!

All the Seekers, Daemon Princes and Keeperbrought it down but it might have lashed out and wounded some of them as it died.

Daemonettes swarmed the Trygon but I couldn’t kill enough.

The second Flyrant failed wipe out the Daemonettes but somehow I still scored 3 VPs in turn 2.

The Seekers now released, they swept across the board towards my Termagants and Tervigon.

I think that 6 is another Death Throes roll for the Trygon.

It was only on 2 wounds and the Keeper of Secrets goes from 5 wounds.

Down to 2. Not sure of that Chariot got wiped out in the process but my Flyrant did, sadly not setting another Death Throes off.

The centre was completely lost and Dan had slay the Warlord. The second Daemon Prince headed for my Flyrant.

I don’t think he survived the combat as I got Slay the Warlord and he may well have been it, but the Flyrant was down to 4 wounds and the Daemonettes secured the objective [plus the one in the ruin] for 2 VPs this turn.

When we went into turn 3 I still had the objective in the woods and the Tervigon held the other giving me 2 VPs. The second Prince swooped over and killed the Rippers.

Seekers wiped out everything on the far side of the board which gave Dan 5VPs this turn which put him into the lead with 9VPs to 10VPs [not including secondaries].

Our last turn and I was able secure just one objective with the Skyshield, remember that? The Flyrant still could not kill the last remaining Daemonettes but he did secure Linebreaker. Dan also followed suit but scored another 5VPs for objectives which brought game 3 and day 1 to a close.

I scored 10VPs for objectives, plus the 3 secondaries, for 13 VPs. Dan scored 15VPs for objectives and 2 secondaries, for 17VPs. I beleive we also had to add kill points, I scored 8, while Dan scored 11 giving a final score of 21 to 28 to Dan. I actually killed 1,193pts worth of figures this game!

This was such a good game, I was rightly afraid of the Seekers but Daemonettes with so many attacks at -4AP! The inability to strike first also meant I was losing models in combat before they should have done some damage at least. I may well have been beaten [again] but I had a brilliant game and Dan was such good fun. Bring on day 2!

Warhammer World GT3 – Game 2 Tyranids v Orks

Game 2 of GT3 and Morgan Cole and I have been asked to play live on Warhammer TV! I obviously had to concentrate a lot on the game so pictures were taken only sparingly and I’m a bit shaky on what happened but I’ll be going back over the Twitch feed to try and recollect but I’m only part way through so far. Either way if you have a Twitch subscription you can watch the game here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/229954502

The low down:

• Roving Patrol [Chapter Approved mission]
• Dawn of War
• Morgan chose deployment zone, 
• I either won first turn, or seized – I went first that’s for sure.

Aside from the honour of being on Warhammer TV and the achievement of my dream I was almost totally unprepared for the enormity of the game. I had tried to split my army into three on the drive down to Nottingham so I had a start but I just could make neither head nor tail of the mission. I was allowed to deploy the Skyshield regardless [no one could reconcile how Fortifications fit into the deployment so they just made a decision there and then] and luckily I rolled to start with my first third – which I think was

• Warriors
• Hive Guard
• Tervigon
• Termagants

I deployed the Hive Guard in the ruins to shoot at anything heading towards the centre objective. The Skyshield sat on the other objective. I was lucky that both Trygon’s arrived as reserves, with their tunnel buddies. On top of that my Warlord Flyrant.

Tervigon and Termagants swarmed to secure the centre objective and then in the midst of everything I totally messed up shooting the mob of boys with my Devgaunts. 

When I came to the Genestealers and their charge I suddenly realised Morgan had deftly removed all the nearest model and a 9″ charge was now 11″ at least! I failed charges by all on both flanks.

I was feeling totally out of my depth and then Morgan brought on his reserves, a second truck and mobs of boyz.

The Boyz swarmed the Genestealers and at least I had the sense to kick off with Caustic Blood, knowing just how many hits these guys have. 

And they stayed true to form and managed to butcher the lot of them and the Trygon too!

Morgan then unleashed a second stroke of tactical genius. Alongside his second mob of Boyz he brought on a Painboy [or Weirdboy, not sure] behind storage tank No.31. He was out of sight of the Devgaunts and so charged. In 8th you can charge without Line of Sight and ironically you cannot overwatch without it! Which I think is the opposite to 7th. So he made the 7″ charge on the Devgaunts – tying up all 25 Termagants and was safely able to bundle the remaining Mob of Boyz in without fear of overwatch! 

A genius move I couldn’t help but admire, even after all the Termagants were butchered. The Termagants in the centre also took a pummeling, losing 11 of their number but I replenished 10 of them in my turn thanks to the Tervigon.

I think the Warlord Flyrant was down to around four wounds so I retreated to use his Devourer shots on the big Mob. Meanwhile the Trygon charged one of the Trukks.

Which looks like it got smashed only to leave the Trygon surrounded by disembarked grumpy Orks, angry at the loss of their boat.

Moar Mek Guns arrived with the last of Morgan’s army and the mob on the right flank decided to solve the issue in the centre of the board.

Morgan then cast Da Jump – Perilling in the process as his Weirdboy dumped 20 Orks in my deployment zone.

Boyz start butchering Termagants, I think I employed Caustic Blood again, I’d brought my Rippers on too to throw in and add to the numbers holding the objective.

Da Jump Boyz manage to make a phenomenal charge against the Hive Guard. Unsurprisingly they are cleaved up like kebab skewers

In response I bring the last Flyrant in and the Broodlord to whittle down their numbers. My dice rolling is appaling at this stage though. I can’t get anything to do what I want, even Morgan begins to feel for my lack of success. It’s reasonable that there are specific Warhammer TV dice – it helps them show up on TV and it means we’re both using supplied dice, not our own [which is fair] but they are really big dice, something I was not prepared for and with relatively small hand not equipped for either, ha, ha! Ceri said the same thing afterwards.

The Flyrant gets killed by the Tank Bustas and then a series of shots at the Warriors on the Skyshield manages to completely bypass the invulnerrable save and all three die! The battle rages on in the middle of the board with the Termagants being crushed between the Boyz they were in combat with and the Orks that had killed the Hive Guard and cleverly removed sufficient models from the attack of the Broodlord and Flyrant to be out of combat.

With the Termagants gone there was nothing I could do and we called the game. It was afterwards I found out I’d only scored 82pts worth of damage, and we’d only completed two turns. However, I realised my dream and despite the result on paper it was an amazing game, Morgan’s tactics in particular raised the bar, hopefully something I will look into how I can apply also – charging from out of LoS for instance.

Anyway, a fab game and Nick and Ceri were super-appreciative of our efforts, so I can’t ask for more. On to game 3!

Warhammer World GT3 – Game 1 Tyranids v Orks

First game of GT3 and I’m facing the spectacularly bearded Ben Briscoe and his filthy looking Orks made up of excellent Battle Wagon – Taurox Conversions and some of the artillery guns kitbashed from spare [looted!] Tau weaponry. As mentioned my recollection of the battles are really sketchy so I will do my best

The low down:

• Re-supply Drop [Chapter Approved mission]
• Hammer and Anvil – Table Ends deployment
• I chose deployment zone, but I deployed last unit [giving Ben +1 to win first turn], 
• Ben won first turn, I failed to seize

Skyshield and most of my none reserve deplyment on the board. I did not use Alien Cunning to remove the Warlord Flyrant, instead opting for Tenacious Survivor as my Warlord Trait.

Orks tried to shoot me down but couldn’t manage to get First Blood.

Ork War Boss channeling the WAAARRGH! – handy LED lights powered by a battery in the base.

The other ‘raving’ Weird Boy with his glow sticks.

My turn and I used Metabolic Overdrive on the Tervigon to sprint up the board, followed by Termagants to hold the objective. Flyrant swooped on top of the foundry towers.

My Trygon arrived with the Devgaunts and my plan actually worked in that the Tervigon was now in range to buff them [re-roll 1’s to hit]. The other Trygon and Genestealers arrived at the back of the board and the second Flyrant was inbetween them.

My Trygon made the charge on one of the Trukks

 

The Trygon struck…

… and ended the Trukk for first blood. I don’t think the Tankbusters inside took any wounds and disembarked to the top of the towers.

I swooped the Flyrant down to take out the Battlewagon

The Flyrants ill-conceived charge on the Battle Wagon resulted in taking 5 wounds for not much damage inflicted.

Genestealers made the charge on the Grots with the Mek-guns [?]. I wiped out a unit of grots so one gun was decommissioned, sort of. Second Trygon made the charge on another Trukk. Smashed the trukk killing a couple of Tankbuster inside this time.

I don’t know the name of the Ork biker Warlord but he led the counter offensive on the Trygon with a mob of Boyz backing him up.

Weirdboy powers up the Orks with plus one attacks.

20 Orks get in doing 100 attacks! The Trygon could not stand against so many Choppas!

With only 5 wounds left the second Trygon also fell to the Biker Warlord.

One of the Mobs charged the Genestealers

And managed to chop 16 of the 17 Genestealers into little pieces. Probably would have been handy to choose the Caustic Blood stratagem in this instance…

My remaining Stealer killed two in return but would die from battle shock.

Boyz tried to chop up the Flyrant.

Which I think they must have succeeded as I don;t see him elsewhere.

As time was running out we had got to turn three and Ben rolled to remove the two redundant Alpha Objectives, choosing one nearest his grots, one behind the Aquila strongpoint and one by my Felshborer Termagants. The Fleshborer Gaunt objective was the Alpha supply drop. With the mob of Orks having a party after killing the Trygon, they were unaware of the Tervigon and Gaunts about to spoil the fun.

They bundled the lot of them.

And killed all but the War Boss.

Fleshborer Gaunts finished off most of the Boyz who’d killed my Warlord in the shooting phase.

Then killed the remainder, while holding the Alpha objective.

Weird Boy had headed for an objective but my Rippers had already cheekily been there before it was revealed it was not an Alpha. Battle Wagon headed for Line Breaker.

My Flyrant had secured the other Beta objective. But a squad of Kommandos came on in a last ditch attempt to steal it out from under the Hive. They would make the charge but Overwatch and my Monstrous Rending Claws would see them finished.

I’d somehow secured a victory holding both Alpha and Beta objectives. The fact I had been on all but one of them before the Alpha and Beta were revealed gave me the advantage in holding on to them. Ben was a great sport, patiently waiting while I confirmed the scoring nature of the Skyshield ahead of the tournament. I managed to to do only 609pts of damage though and lost a significant amount in return.

I think the Flyrant assaulting the Battle Wagon was a mistake but it stopped the momentum of the Orks at least. I’d imagine a completely different result if they’d driven unopposed around the board dropping the big mobs off on the objectives I was so tenuously holding. Hive Guard were shockingly poor though.

Anyway, on to game 2

2000pts battle report – Tyranids v Tyranids

It’s been quite a while since I played Otty, but I figured it would do us both good to pit our nids against each other to help us get up to speed for GT3. More for him as he has limited 8th edition experience but with us both running gribblies there was far more learning to be had and sharing of ideas and concepts

The low down:

• Front-Line Warfare [Chapter Approved mission]
• Hammer and Anvil – Table Ends deployment
• I chose deployment zone, but I deployed last unit [giving Otty +1 to win first turn], 
• Otty won first turn, I failed to seize

Otty was running the Swarmlord in a pod, with Genestealers in a Trygon tunnel. Another unit of Genestealer backed up by a Broodlord, 3 Dakkafex, a Tyrannofex [with Rupture Cannon], 3 Hive Guard, a brood of Rippers and 3 Zoanthropes all as Hive Fleet Gorgon. Objectives were in the Spore Chimney, inbetween the two woods by the craters

Another objective was inbetween the two alien pods and the one in my deployment zone was just by my Skyshield on the right in this pic. All the trees were counted as cover but Line of Sight blocking behind – you could shoot into but not behind because Otty had limited terrain and it seemed like the best way to deal with it.

Otty surged forward.

Unfortunately the Stealer got a short advance of 1 or 2.

Swarmlord arrived in his pod, with Genestealers in a Trygon tunnel.

The Swarmlord ‘flung’ the Genestealers forward. Shooting took place and one of the Hive Guard went down. The Tervigon also took a number of wounds but I may have got some lucky dice rolls to survive a particularly devastating round of shots.

The Swarmlord wasn’t going to reach the Hive Guard so he went for bigger prey and charged the Skyshield.

He took 7 wounds off the platform while the Genestealers clawed through the Hive Guard [First Blood], losing two of their own number to 3 overwatch hits! In response I moved the Tervigon and gaunts back, to give room for the Trygon and my own Stealers. The Tervigon regenerated two or three wounds to be back on 11.

My Broodlord headed for the Swarmlord on a suicide mission.

Trygon and Gaunts tunneled up in Otty’s DZ while Flyrants arrived in front and behind his lines to squeeze it between them. Shootin had limited effect from the Gaunts, even shooting twice. I managed to put a few wounds on both Zoanthropes and Hive Guard but the combined shots of the Flyrants put only one Hive Guard down.

I made almost all of my charges [except for the Termagants]. Flyrant on the left got to the nearest Carnifex and killed it. Flyrant in the DZ got the Tfex and managed some wounds. Trygon failed charge on the Zoies, was just short on the Behemoth re-roll and a 4+ command re-roll of the low dice got me in.

I’d move the Termagants up to stall the stealers. Shooting took out some of them [I think 2 were left after this] and the Broodlord died against the Swarmlord but not before putting at least 3 wounds on him.

My 17 Stealers and Trygon both got into assault against Ottys 20. My Stealers killed 19 of them, with the Trygon squishing the last one. I consolidated towards a Dakkafex getting within 1″ to force it to Fallback next turn, Otty didn’t think he could have a free attack with the Carnifex that turn but I am convinced he could have.

Otty’s turn and he went for my Tervigon to try and feedback on the Gaunts. He would then Smite it to take it back down to 9 wounds.

Zoanthropes fell back from the Trygon, everything else remeained locked in combat.

Tfex and Flyrant kept wailing on each other.

Swarmlord assaulted the Tervigon.

He sliced and diced but could only manage 8 wounds.

Leaving the lady on her last wound.

I may have paid 2CPs to interrupt and assault with the Stealers but they failed to deliver and were mullered for it.

Otty’s trygon joined the fray but only to squish some Gaunts who failed to kill any Stealers.

My turn and the Flyrant fell back to shoot the Tfex or the Hive Guard hiding in the Spore Chimney. Gaunts repositioned.

Rippers arrived to contest the Objective.

Psychic Phase and my Tervigon Smite’s the Swarmlord. I get 11 on my Psychic test and then 6 on my D6 Mortal Wounds, by this stage the Swarmlord had 5 or 6 remaining and is destroyed in a haze of Psychic fury. 

To add insult to injury the Tervigon re-spawns 10 Fleshborer gaunts who fell back from the Trygon to allow the Warriors to shoot it, for a wound or two.

Trygon eats through the Zoies [with help from the Devgaunts shooting], Flyrant kills the Hive Guard with Brainleech worms. The second Flyrant swoops across to the Dakkafex and support the Trygon but fails to kill any green nids.

Otty’s Trygon eats though theWarriors…

…and moves down to take on the Tervigon with Rippers appearing in my DZ, just managing to fit in 9″ away.

I’m thinking this is a bad dice role, perhaps the Tervigon got shot by the Trygon’s Bio-Electric Pulse. It definitely died, then the Termagants got killed and with no Synapse to hold them they were wiped out giving Otty the objective in my DZ.

The Flyrant continued to struggle with the Carnifex and but finally killed the Broodlord.

Which meant he was left with the Dakkafex who just didn’t have sufficient attacks, damage or AP to put wounds on him.

Made even worse by the arrival of the second Flyrant.

We decided to call it a draw at 2am. Subsequent turns I’d have probably won, and with hindsight the Trygon holding the objective in my DZ was actually contested with the Skyshield, but the Rippers would have been on it next turn to tip the scales in Otty’s favour and no doubt the Trygon could have removed the 13 remaining wounds on the fortification.

Otherwise we both had our opponents objectives and a middle objective each. Otty had First Blood, I had Slay the Warlord and we both had Linebreaker. Overall it was a good game but then I think I had the upper had so I’m a little biased but we spent a good deal of time discussing options and approaches [hence the finish time]. Hopefully, Otty had some thoughts on adjusting his army, just the 6CPs is a worry for me. He rang me the next day to say he’d managed to add a Vanguard detachment for a 7th as despite my advice the lists he could make with two Battalions or a Brigade were so far removed from how he’s used to playing he wouldn’t know what to do with the list. I agree he needs to use what he’s comfortable with so fingers crossed 7CPs will be enough [he’s hoping to get some back with the Feeder Tendrill Stratagem off the Genestealers.

Next stop – Warhammer World and GT3.

2000pts battle report – Tyranids v Astra Militarum

GT3 is fast approaching and although I now have a list I’m happy with, in principle, I’m yet to try it and see how Hive Fleet Adaptations and stratagems work with it.

The low down:

• Scorched Earth [Chapter Approved mission]
• Search and Destroy – Table Corner deployment
• I chose deployment zone, but Ben deployed last unit [giving me +1 to win first turn], 
• Ben won first turn, I failed to seize

I’d been advised to taken Kraken as my Hive Fleet for the 3D6, choose the highest for Advance and Fall Back and charge ability for all models. I was sceptical as with 8/14 ‘deep strikes’, six of which would benefit from a charge on arrival, Behemoth’s re-roll charges seemed more beneficial.

 

I committed to Kraken and took the Chameleonic Skin Relic on my Tervigon. Now, you may notice I said 8/14 had Tactical Reserve status and I must delpoy half on the battlefield. I did, my Hive Tyrant Warlord was on the Skyshield but took Alien Cunning as my Warlord Trait and re-deplyed him into reserves so as to deep Strike. Again I asked online about this, the majority consensus was it was a legit move, even when I suggested the FAQ about ‘changing locales’ in deployment might be pertinent, they suggested it was OK.

 After my last pasting at the hands of the Astra Militarum I was a little apprehensive and with more than half my army off the board I was filled with the dread of everything being wiped out but with more LoS blocking terrain this time there was really only two exposed targets…

 My Tervigon took the brunt of the shooting alongside the Termagants and was popped. The Chameleonic Skin at least meant she took a whole lot of direct firepower to put her down. Of course Ben also had a whole lot of indirect fire and the Wyverns and Basilisks managed to take out two of the Hive Guard and left me with just one Termagant who staunchly stayed where the Broodlord told it to.

Ben closed out turn one holding three objectives and First Blood for 3 VPs. My movement phase was pretty short – I moved the Broodlord towards the centre and the Termagant inside the ruin. The Tyranid Warriors shuffled along the Skyshield to get a bead on the Vendetta. 

Ben had tied up his backfield so I could bring in any of my units behind him and I wasn;t much better off deploying in the midfield. Trygon and gaunts were on the left to take on the Ratlings [whoopee-do]. Rippers secured the objective, Genestealers were in the centre. 

Hive Tyrants where alongside the ruin and on the far edge next to the trees, aiming for the Wyverns. Shooting wise I didn’t have very much to do. I couldn’t fire the Termagants at the Ratlings as I needed them to be in charge range and any casualties would leave me stranded. The Warlord Tyrant took the guard unit by the ruins down to two.

Trygon and Termagants made their charge on the Ratlings and we took them off as there was no chance for them to survive. I consolidated the Termagants next to the Leman Russ to force it to Fall Back next turn.

I’d managed to kill some of the guard on the Chaos altar but the Broodlord scythed through some of the rest and killed the Wyrdvane Psyker which allowed me to use Feeder Tendrills Stratagem to regain the 3CPs I’d already used so far. Unfortunately nothing else made their charges – Genestealers, Trygon or Fylrants – Behemoth’s re-roll charge move looking pretty handy at this point. I did come away with 4 VPs for being on objectives though, so we were all even.

Ben’s turn and he killed my Trygon, took my Warlord Flyrant down to 6 wounds, I think the other Flyrant was wounded but only slightly. The Basilisks then focused on the second Trygon and managed to kill that as well. Ben came away with just 2 VPs this turn.

Sadly I didn’t take any more pictures, but it was the last turn. I multi-charged the Leman Russ and the Guard Heavy Weapon Team with my Broodlord – typically getting overwatched on it’s last wound, luckily the inuvl save was re-rolled and it dodged the autocannon tying them both up. The Termagants charged the second Leman Russ which allowed the Genestealers to multicharge both  Leman Russes, without being overwatched. Combined assault managed to strip a fair few wounds off them and then I spent 3CPs to attack again but I just couldn’t do enough damage on the tanksand it was 12:30am at this stage and pretty pointless to carry on.

We called it and I had 5 VPs added to my score but another turn would have seen Ben wipe me off the board. It was a good learning experience and I’ve certainly got room for thought. The Skyshield did serve a purpose for board control and holding objectives so I’m far from disappointed in choosing it. Kracken is a definite disadvantage for the charge and I will be switching to Behemoth because I need to be assaulting and the 70% chance of the Trygons and Flyrants getting into combat is essential. The Genestealers and Termagants will make it on around 56% but they’re less of a concern.

The least effective thing in my list? The movement trays – they’re practically unusable. They help me get my unit onto the board and then they don’t fit around the terrain and I just ended up abandoning them. A sad waste of money, time and effort unfortunately. I’ll probably end up drilling a whole in one of the spaces so I can pin them to my shed wall as decoration 😦 Nevermind, a decent game but a much better learning experience, I think for both of us. Ben’s army is fierce and he has the stratagems I think we agree it;s understanding the tactical mechanics of the game and being ‘au fait’ with your army that’s the next challenge. We’ll get there though 🙂

If you’re interested in any more of my Battle Reports, point your cogitators here: www.40kaddict.uk/p/battle-reports.html

‘nids part 242 – Re-magnetising my Crushing Claw Tervigon

My Crushing Claw Tervigon has been a staple of my army since 2011 but when I was painting it as a sub-assembly I asked myself even then should I magnetise it? But I was still quite green with my hobby skills and I was much more wary about screwing up the basecoats and wash I’d achieved so far than today, where I can drill this mother and worry about fixing the altogether finished paint job afterwards.

Now I’ve loved the Crushing Claws since the days of Biomancy Warp Speed. The ability to do a potential 9 Smash attacks [and it did on numerous occasions]. Granted this lumbering beast, moving with insane speed and smashing apart things with brutal ease, doesn’t quite add up but that’s what prompted me gluing them in place and that’s what I was worrying about now that I had to remove the Claws from their sockets. I was imaging I’d have to drill some 0.5mm pilot holes, join them up and then slip a small screw driver into the gap and hopefully pop it off. But thankfully I didn’t need to.

The thing with poly glue is it comes as liquid poly and poly cement. Both work by softening the plastic and the two pieces melt and bond together. But from my experience poly cement, although great for gap filling doesn’t melt the two parts quite as much as liquid poly and often acts as a sandwich filling between them rather stick them together. And so all that was required was to jimmy the screwdriver in without the pilot holes and they did indeed pop off without any damage to the model!

On to the drilling. Once again 6mm holes to fit my Magnetix magnets.

I’ve still got a load in my garage that need to be separated from their plastic but I’ve a few knocking around from my last scavenge.

Glued in place, using my current magnetised Scything Talons from my other Tervigon to ensure polarity it consistent and therefore I can swap the weapons to either model [hopefully].

One reason for doing this is if I want to take a Rupture Cannon for a Tyrannofex. Currently the Mawloc head conversion on my ‘Great Maw’ Tervigon makes magnetising the Rupture Cannon a little difficult. I mean the gun is fine, it’s just the feeder arm. Obviously I had the same issue with the Acid Spray but fixed it by extending the feeder tubes. I can try the same here but it’s clear it’ll be easier to achieve on this Tervigon head than the Mawloc/Tfex conversion.

Claws magnetised and as usual versatility means I do end up sacrificing the pose a little. Unfortunately I put the magnets into the claws almost perpendicular to the arms so the only poses I can make are tight into the body raised.

And tight into the body lowered. I’ll never get the wide mid position I’d originally glued but I actually don’t mind these poses so much.

This pose looks actually quite cool because it comes across as a quadroped with forearms, not a hexaped [is that the correct term?]. 

And here it is with the Scything Talons in place. Interestingly this pic was taken the following night, no extra lighting just the fluorescent tubes in the man cave and yet the pictures still look great, in part due to the Veliva filter.

I thought I’d also try putting the Acid Spray on it but it appears the Great Maw Tervigon must have had it’s magnets standing proud of its torso, not recessed like this one. 

As such you can see there is a significant gap on one side.

Regardless these pictures remind me how much I love this model. Granted painting this one originally was a nightmare and it would have been nicer if it was easier to re-pose it but it it just so big and brutal looking. This model makes me like the Tyranid faction more than any other model in the Tyranid line, I just find it really impressive.

2000pts battle report – Tyranids v Astra Militarum

With GT3 only a couple of months away it was about time we get some games in so Ben and I faced off. Him with Astra Militarum, a more Leman Russ-centric Cadian force led by Pask. While I was running two Battalion of my Nids so I could access more Command Points and then hopefully make use of all the new Stratagems as well as re-rolls.

The low down:

• Big Guns Never Tire
• Dawn of War deployment
• Ben chose deployment zone, but deployed last unit [giving me first turn], Ben seized the Initiative!

With a Trygon, Flyrant, 2 Broods of Rippers and 17 Genestealers I forced Ben to keep deploying while I kept them off the battlefield.

Then with and idea of where everything was I could put what remained down.

I’m thinking with hindsight I should have made more use of this hill and woods as LoS blocking cover, but I had the Carnifex shrouded in the miasma from the Malanthrope, so I thought I’d be OK.

Having seized Ben moved the Vendetta, Hellhound and Guard unit up. He opened fire on the Broodlord and he was brought down to 2 wounds. Shooting continued with the Hive Guard being wiped out and two of the Tyranid Warriors. As my right flank started to disappear I started to re-evaluate my plans. 12 Termagants went on my left flank and suddenly I’m re-evaluating again. There’s just no way I can go forward in my turn, I’ll have to pull back and just try to hold me objectives with the Tervigon and Carnifexes and hope the soon-come reserves will distract/weather enough fire to keep me in the game.

But shooting wasn’t over and suddenly my Tervigon is popped, I have all but two Devgaunts left of my big brood and 22[ish] Fleshborer Gaunts left in the mother brood.

Worse still two out of my three Carnifex are smashed to pieces with all the heavy bombardments. At this stage I just have my head in my hands, Ben had wiped out roughly half my army in one turn, with only 300+pts left on the board. I wasn’t even sure what I could do, or if it was at all worthwhile carrying on. I had over 600pts left in reserve so it was worth a shot but it was more an exercise in what was salvageable at this stage.

Ultimately I had to play the objectives. Ben had one of them, Linebreaker, First Blood and 2VPs for the Carnifex. If I can hold three of them I might have a chance. So I bring the Stealers and Trygon in on my left flank with the Flyrant. I then huddle the Termagants in the trees for cover, so I can eventually move them back onto the objective in the frozen pond.

The Broodlord I move behind the hill so he can’t be seen and eventually move on the objective the other side of the trees.

I charge the Hellhound with the Trygon and make it, the Genestealers also pile in to the fight. The Flyrant is equally quick off the mark getting up close with the Vendetta, but having chosen just Devourers he cannot do anything against it, it’s shooting had been ineffective and I think I’d only caused one wound on it with Smite, or Psychic Scream 😦

The Trygon was slightly more effective taking most of the wounds off the Hellhound only for it to be torn apart by the Genestealers. I consolidated forward.

Ben’s turn 2 and the Vendetta zooms into my DZ. I no longer have the Malanthrope and Carnifex in shot so it looks like they bought the big one. I think the Flyrant took some wounds too [he may even have been killed] and the Trygon may also have been shot to hell and back [again by it’s lack of presence in the final picture].

My turn 2 and there’s not much I can do. I misjudge how many turns we may have left before the game has to finish [we were playing in the afternoon but I had to be home by 6:30 to take my wife to her Christmas works do]. So I don’t put anything on the objectives, including the Rippers. I threw all I could at the Vendetta, burning through CPs. I give the Termagants Scorch Bugs and Pathogenic Slime and shoot at the Vendetta, taking off 6 wounds, then I use Single-Minded Annihilation to shoot again, and my 22 shots are appalling. Another three failed saves, 6 wounds and adding the single Smite damage I caused in my first turn it’s still there on 1 wound 😦  To make matters worse Ben is back on 7 Command Points thanks to his Kurov’s Aquila Relic dice roll regaining CPs when I use a Stratagem.

My Genestealers multi-charge the two guard units. Only 8 Stealers survive the charge and I split the attacks evenly, using Scything Talons on one squad, killing 5 and then switch to Rending Claws for the other squad killing only 3 [purely out of interest in what would be more effective, although I think I already knew the outcome]. Neither of the squads fail their morale. I’d hoped to break them and them consolidate on the objective, I could potentially have secured all 4 if I’d planned and executed it properly.

We called it at this stage, there was no time left and I would be annihilated anyway next turn. A proper timed game I might have put everything I had on the three objectives but Ben had one, Line Breaker, First Blood, Slay the Warlord and 4 Big Guns VPs so he had 10VPs altogether. He also said he would have put a Leman Russ on the objective on the hill by the Broodlord if he’d known it was the last turn, but it’s all moot.

Ben came to the conclusion he should abdicate first turn in future, to give me [Liam and Otty] a fighting chance but I’m not convinced taking such a handicap does us any favours. I had thought the cover I had would be more useful but if I’m not in it everything can shoot through the trees with impunity. As Line of Sight Blocking terrain is in short supply I think a fairer approach may be to treat each tree base a LoS blocking.

At GT3 there will be LoS blocking so we need to practice accordingly, game wise it’s far less an artificial balancing act, even if the concept appears that way. I’m sure we’ll discuss at some point but it’s difficult for me to make a judgement on my list given the result…

If you’re interested in any more of my Battle Reports, point your cogitators here: www.40kaddict.uk/p/battle-reports.html