Action Report: Space Wolves vs. Blood Angels 3-27-08

Wolf Lord Hakr Varghoss peered through his oversized optics at the enemy formation on the far side of the enormous fabricum, his voice breaking the silence that had settled on the wooded hillside. "They have spotted our approach. The main group has turned to bear and is heading this way. Armor and infantry moving at full speed."

The black-robed inquisitor turned and glanced up briefly at the space marine looming next to him before squinting back into the distance. "It would appear Maika was unable to disable their sensors. Just as well. I already transmitted my complete judication, guilty of course. More than enough evidence of that, I should think. These subhuman blood drinkers must be purged of their despicable disease." Xocratos paused, choosing his next words carefully. "It would perhaps be advantageous," he paused again, "to now close the distance ourselves and disrupt their full attack."

The grey-haired giant continued to watch through his field glasses while he replied. "Your counsel is wise, Lord, but the moment must be chosen very carefully. This is an old game to us. We must meet their advance at the just at the precise moment that their inertium brings them falling right onto our swords. Their own madness will be their undoing."

I played a 2500 point cleanse game with Jay up at Battleforge on Thursday. He brought a big Blood Angel force composed of Lamartes, 3 venerable death company dreadnoughts in drop pods, a big death company, multiple 5-man assault squads, 2 squads of 2 land speeders with multimeltas/heavy bolters and assault cannons, and 3 baal predators. I took my latest 2000 wolves list but added an inquisitor lord (with my usual retinue), a callidus assassin, a vindicator, and upgraded the wolf guard battle leader to a lord with a belt of russ. I was trying to maximize pre-game trickery, though as it turned out none of it really had much of an effect besides being able to pick my own quarter. This was a really fun game though, as the space wolves moved up in rhinos to meet the brunt of a raging blood angels attack. I got first turn (without my dread's reroll) and zapped one of the baals right off the bat (ahem) with a landspeeder, and dropped a few assault marines as well with shooting. The blood angels responded by stunning both of my land speeders and one predator with mass assault cannons, then pounding on two of the rhinos with power fists, causing one of them to be evacuated. Very luckily for me, they weren't pinned on their way out. On my second turn, all my transported infantry were perfectly poised to counter-attack into the nearby enemy marines. Together with the inquisitor retinue and two of the tanks, the wolf lord's unit of grey hunters and the blood claws shot the blood company up good leaving only three survivors. The rune priest's squad wiped out one assault squad and segued into a second. The scouts arrived as well, and managed to knock off one a baal's assault cannon turret with their plasma pistols.

His next turn saw the arrival of all three of his venerable furioso dreadnoughts. One took on the wolf scouts, burning up three of them immediately, a second dropped behind my right predator and wrecked it with a flamer to the rear armor, and the third landed just behind my blood claws, next to my inquisitor and retinue. It was a devastating attack, but once again the space wolves were left in a good position to react. The scouts ran in shooting and managed to wreck the big lug in assault with the wolf guard's power fist. The blood claws also jumped in with the closest dreadnought but were unable to do more than stun him. When a second dreadnought jumped in and started pounding the blood claws with more attacks it was over. Lascannon shots from my surviving annihilator destroyed one of his last two baal predators, and my own venerable dreadnought arrived to put the kibosh on the other one with help from a land speeder. The grey hunters all moved back towards the middle and brought down the last blood angels land speeders with shooting and assault. After the dreadnoughts finished off the blood claws, they tore into my tanks, destroying both of them eventually. At the end of the game, I was contesting my own quarter while holding two or maybe three of the other quarters, depending on whether a last second furioso charge should have gone into a rhino rather than the wolf lord's grey hunter squad because of the thirst or whatever.

We didn't count up victory points, but it looked like I had won by a decent margin, still not a rout by any means. In any case, I was mainly interested in getting more experience with the core of the army. The game was more proof to me that my list now is the best it's ever been; whether or not it's actually all that competitive for tournament play is definitely up for debate. There's still a lot of army types I haven't played against with them and they're still coming from a very old codex.

Action Report: Tyranids vs. Space Marines (The Anger Sharks) 12-8-07

Last Saturday I got in a 2000 point game at Ninja Pirates against Russell and his DIY chapter (using the Blood Angels codex). He had 3 Baal predators (I'm pretty sure we covered every triple testicle joke imaginable), a couple of standard assault squads, a veteran assault squad, 2 melta/asscan land speeders, a death company and chaplain, and a sanguiniously winged librarian with might of heroes. I was running the 2 squads of 3 winged talon/rending warriors for the first time, mixed in with my usual bug army: 2 sniperfexes, 3 scream-blast zopes, 5 6-man genestealer squads, a lictor, a simple dakkafex, a broodlord with a 6-man genestealer squad, and a flying dakkarant. The mission was cleanse, and I believe Russell went first.

This was a great game. The predators and land speeders chewed up several genestealer squads early on, including the Broodlord's team, leaving the stragglers to try and rip up assorted vehicles and assault jump squads. The Hive Tyrant was supporting a stealer squad moving into an adjacent quarter until things started to go bad for me in the middle. The winged warriors had been sent packing, and only one stealer squad remained to fight a standard assault and veteran squad, while nearby the Death Company hacked apart one carnifex and headed towards another. The Tyrant flew over, and together with the dakkafex they put the kibosh on the Death Company in shooting and assault. Eventually the Tyrant was killed, in a manner that eludes me just now, as well as one of my zoanthropes. Near the end of the game, Russell was looking to occupy my home quarter, as well as one of the adjacent quarters, with his maimed but essentially intact landspeeders and predators. The lictor and genestealers had managed to finish off the veterans and assault marines after sustaining heavy losses. Then, in stunning succession, a small squad of genestealers and two of the carnifexes leapt from cover to destroy all 3 of his predators in one turn. It was not enough to keep him from holding my home quarter, however, and when the smoke cleared, he had earned enough victory points to secure a crushing victory. Scree! The bugs scattered into the woods.

I think my main mistake was giving up so many troops to the ridiculous Baal loadouts. I extended myself too far, and thanks to his overcharged engines he managed to fend off two or three units at a time, whittling them down all the while. The armored part of his force is definitely the sharp end against nids. After this game, I decided to ditch the Broodlord entirely and drop a few other upgrades to buy scuttlers for all the stealer squads. The hive tyrant can live without enhanced senses, considering the rerolls he gets for shooting, but he'll keep toxin sacs for the extra odds against marines and vehicles in assault. He's a little cheaper in any case. The warriors are also cheaper now, after I took away their toxin sacs and adrenal glands. They can be startlingly ephemeral in the face of any decent size group of enemies. From now on they'll be either providing mobile synapse and counterassault for the guns of the army, or sneaking up on the more static portions and tying them up for a turn or two. The fexes and zopes were shooting like shit this game, but that happens sometimes. And psychic scream: you're definitely on a fast track to excision. Shape up or ship out!

Action Report: Imperial Guard vs. Death Guard 12-6-07

I played a 2000 point cleanse mission against Bigred from BOLS last Thursday using my imperial guard army. He was trying out for the first time his updated 2k death guard list, featuring a nurgle bike lord, three squads of 10 plaguemarines, five squads of 6 lesser demons, and three vindicators. In other words, a tar pit and a half. I knew going in that the bike lord and all the demons he would be able to summon were going to be my main threat. And I was right. I was able to destroy the vindicators fairly easily in the first two turns, but just as I feared, the bike lord pulled up in right front of my gun line in the second turn and started pooping out demons, who in turn began assaulting my squads immediately, tying up their guns and clogging up valuable LOS lanes for everyone behind them. And in case you're wondering, yes, red's mix of nurglings and plaguebearer bases does indeed extend his potential summoning turn charge. I was eventually able to kill a bunch of them with tank shooting, but the wave of plaguemarines following them wiped out just about everything I had. In the end, we both held an adjacent quarter and each other's home quarter (I managed to land grab with some deep-striking vets and a sentinel), but he swamped me with victory points from all the inflicted casualties. A loss for the Tiefwalders, but nevertheless it was a fun game with a very agreeable opponent.

The game pretty well summed up the main issues I have with my guard army. It's great for putting out tons of fire, and has a few fun little tricks, but if a few infantry units get pulled into assault, it's pretty much over. Consolidation and massacre moves allow enemies to get deeper and deeper into my lines, until they're eventually close enough to melta my tanks. Any squads that try to move away from the frays lose their shooting and they can't ever move far enough away to escape assault themselves in subsequent turns. It's a good army in the first couple of turns but gets shitty late-game, especially against any assault-themed force with a decent amount of intervening terrain. Next game I'm going to try using an eversor (and the requisite cheap inquisitor) for counterassault. Maybe down the line I'll be able to make those piggy rough riders and be able to go back to a pure guard force again.

Action Report: Tyranids vs. Imperial Guard 1500

I got in a game on Saturday against Kingsley while he was in town for the holidays. I used the same 1500 tyranid list I used at the last Ninja Pirates tournament, with the bonded exoskeleton (+1 T) biomorph on the two fexes instead of spine banks and the zoanthropes' psychic scream. Kingsley had his guard army: HQ, anti-tank squad, infantry platoon with three squads, armored fist squad, two sentinels, two leman russes, and storm trooper and veteran squads. I was going to write up a full battle report, but it was really too one-sided to be very interesting. I was almost completely wiped out by the end of the third turn. None of my genestealers survived to assault and most of my big bugs were killed. In retrospect I think I spread my forces too thin across a long front; it might have been better to focus my forces on one side. I probably would have still taken heavy casualties, but then at least a few units might have made it into close combat. Kudos to K’s bug hunters!

We did talk a little about a possible 2000 point comp. Since I’m so eager to get cracking on my Saim Hann army, I don't really want to get any more models for the nids, so I wanted to work with what I currently have: a broodlord, a lictor, an old dakkafex, and five warriors. I also had a few old gargoyles lying around, so I took their wings and pinned them to the backs of the warriors.

They might not look as cool as the newest warrior minis, but the price is right and they'll definitely be more effective than they would be walking or leaping. Also, I want to bring back psychic scream and get rid of the bonded exoskeleton. Since people are normally shooting at the fexes with high strength, low AP guns anyway, the extra toughness doesn't seem to make them that much more survivable to be worth the 40 points. Plus they're usually far enough back to have to worry about mass lasgun fire anyway. And long live the screamer choir!

Here's the first 2000 point list I'll be playtesting:

HQ

Hive Tyrant - 2 twin-linked devourers, toxin sacs, enhanced senses, warp field, wings

Broodlord
6 Genestealers - extended carapace

ELITES

Lictor

Carnifex - 2 twin-linked devourers

TROOPS

6 Genestealers - extended carapace

6 Genestealers - extended carapace

6 Genestealers - extended carapace

6 Genestealers - extended carapace

6 Genestealers - extended carapace

FAST ATTACK

3 Tyranid Warriors - scything talons, rending claws, adrenal glands (+1 WS), toxin sacs, wings

3 Tyranid Warriors - scything talons, rending claws, adrenal glands (+1 WS), toxin sacs, wings

HEAVY SUPPORT

3 Zoanthropes - psychic scream, warp blast

Carnifex - venom cannon, barbed strangler, enhanced senses, extended carapace, reinforced chitin

Carnifex - venom cannon, barbed strangler, enhanced senses, extended carapace, reinforced chitin

Action Report: Tyranids vs. Chaos

My blasted allergies kept me out of the first week of the assault on Terra on Thursday, so I made up for it today by meeting with Rob for a little 1500 point game up at BFG. A host of Thousand Sons marines under the sway of a slaanesh sorcerer searching for lost magicks has stumbled upon the outrunners of a tyranid invasion, and a crappy, decrepit old gryphon statue will soon become the nexus for a battle royale!

I had a winged warp field dakka tyrant, six squads of six genestealers, three zoanthropes with warp blast and psychic scream, and two carnifexes with venom cannons, barbed stranglers, and extra toughness. He had a slaanesh lash sorcerer, three squads of nine Thousand Sons (with sorcerers), and two squads of nine havocs with four lascannons each. Our random mission was Take and Hold alpha.

The cover was a mix of forest area terrain and 4+ ruins and walls. I started most of my shooters on my right behind a big forest with the genestealers lined up along my middle ready to sprint forward. I drew first turn and advanced all the stealers toward his position. Two of the squads hid in cover on my right. Due to some shite distance and line of sight estimates on my part, I wasn't able to get any good shooting in on the first turn. A barbed strangler kill failed to pin one of the havoc squads. He pressed the advantage and creamed three of my stealer squads with his havocs and thousand sons, sending a few survivors fleeing for the hive tyrant on my far right. Another of the squads he lashed backwards, though they passed their pinning test. On my second turn, the lashed squad sprinted back towards the chaos lines, mostly to draw fire away from the big bugs; I realized at this point that all the stealers were going to be AP3'd toast in the end and it was up to the big guys to secure the objective. My zopes moved up and put scream and warp blast pressure on one squad of havocs, while the tyrant and one of the fexes shot up one of the thousand sons squads. In spite of the tyrant inflicting 11 wounds, only of them one fell. However, the zoanthropes and my other gunfex inflicted enough casualties on the havocs to send them fleeing back towards their table edge, unable to regroup. The Thousand Sons barely winced at the casualties and proceeded to double-tap the surviving genestealer squads to death, leaving only two or three stragglers left on the board. His other havoc squad moved out of their terrain piece and moved forward to a better firing position. The tyrant and one of the fexes moved up some more and let fly on the thousand sons again, this time dropping seven of the dusty automatons, leaving only the sorcerer.

On his next turn, he lashed the hive tyrant towards his own position and charged in with one full squad of sons and the leftover sorcerer. Though the Hive Tyrant finished off the straggler, he was killed in the end by the other sorcerer's force weapon (he just barely passed the psychic test due to the psychic scream interference). Scree! Down goes the hive tyrant. His second havoc squad inflicted two wounds on one of my gunfexes and another thousand sons squad finishes off a few remaining genestealers. Mourning the tyrant, the fexes and zoanthropes brought down a few more thousand sons through combined fire. His havocs finished off the wounded carnifex but couldn't inflict any casualties on the other fex or the zoanthropes with his inferno bolts.

On the final turn, my second carnifex charged into the squad of thousand sons that were holding the center. It killed one marine, and a failed "fearless" armor save brought down a second, taking them below scoring capacity. In a last ditch bid for the win, his HQ sorcerer and the last scoring squad of thousand sons charged into the fray with the big beast, but their force weapons were unable to wound it. Instead, it raised up a mighty hoof and squashed one last thousand son taking the last squad below scoring. Victory Tyranids!

This was an awesome game, really a lucky finish for the bugs. I might have deployed everyone more centrally and had a greater number of genestealers survive to assault, but those lascannons would have eaten up my big creatures pretty easily, and the 4+ save on thousand sons makes rending mostly moot anyway. The Tyrant is still my favorite unit in the entire army, and I was once again convinced of the zoanthropes' merits (though they did shoot worse than average in this game). I could switch them out for a third gunfex but I like the variety of tricks.

Action Report: Tyranids vs. Chaos 10-15-07

Me and the missus played an extremely fun 1500 point game the other night pitting bugs against new chaos. Incidentally, I think it will be fun to call it new chaos forever. The mission was cleanse. C2’s list included a bike lasher, 10 terminators, 10 berzerkers with a rhino, 10 thousand sons with a rhino, and 10 havocs with a lascannon, missile launcher, and 2 heavy bolters. I played bugs and used a psychic scream dakkarant, three squads of 12 genestealers, 3 squads of 12 gaunts with fleshborers, a sniperfex with a venom cannon and barbed strangler, and 3 zoanthropes with 2 psychic screamers and 1 synapse creature. I think the lists meshed well to create an interesting game but they probably both need a little tweaking (I’ll get to that).

The dakkarant is awesome, like a mobile heavy bolter squad re-rolling hits and wounds. At least three times I inflicted 10 armor saves on various chaos units with the big guy. The fex was hit or miss (hur hur) but when he landed those barbed strangler shots into massed troops it always did some pretty good damage. The infernal thousand sons can and did decimate genestealers at short range; I’ll have to remember to watch out for that. Probably the most interesting elements of the game were the bike lasher and the psychic scream choir. The sorcerer kept a large genestealer squad at bay for the entire game just by himself and it really weakened my whole approach on that particular side. On the last turn, after confirming that lash can indeed move monstrous creatures, she almost kept me out of one of the adjacent quarters by pushing the hive tyrant 8 inches back (a squad of genestealers was barely able to sneak in right at the end and keep it). The multiple approaching psychic screamers made powers and other important leadership tests (target priority, pinning) increasingly difficult, and that coupled with the fact that C2 was rolling pretty poorly for the entire game ensured the Tyranid win. I was able to wipe out the havocs and thousand sons entirely, plus half of the berzerkers, losing two gaunt and two genestealer squads in the process. If I remember correctly, I believe controlling the two adjacent quarters gave me a crushing victory rather than a solid or a draw.

While I was impressed with how new chaos held up to the bug advance, I don’t know how good of an all-comer list it really is. I might drop some squad sizes down a tad (havocs, berzerkers) and change the havocs gun loadout to try and fit in an obliterator or two just for more high strength, low AP weaponry. I’m changing up the tyranid list also, mainly to excise the pointless gaunts, but also take the 3 genestealer squads down to 10 (or maybe 5 squads of 6?), add a broodlord and retinue, and a second carnifex with talons, tusks, and carapace. Without the gaunts I really don’t see a reason to have a second synapse creature in the zoanthropes, since everyone’s Ld 10 and all but the genestealers will likely stay in range of his bubble, as he’ll be hiding behind carnifexes until he gets into shooting range anyway. Just one more scream to add to the choir!

Action Report: Imperial Guard vs. Chaos 9-03-07

Toggog's newly reorganized band of marauders conducted a surprise raid today, fighting the Tiefwalder Red Rifles for control of a power substation in the forested wilds of Tiefwald itself. The newest arrivals served their master well and their abilities complemented the force nicely. Toggog himself was downed early by heavy ordnance and ambushing veterans, but Sorcerer Aziz survived nearly the entire battle, seducing several units out of cover and wiping out two infantry squads by himself, normally by overrunning them after they broke and ran from close combat. The havocs killed some infantry but were unable to damage any vehicles; they were destroyed in the end. Two berzerkers survived an initial devastating earthshaker hit to help the obliterators teleport right next to the leman russ. Immediately they opened up with their multimeltas and destroyed it. The berzerkers were finally wiped out after that but the obliterators would survive to destroy a hellhound and contest their sector. On the other side of the battle, the Thousand Sons burst forward early and, for a short time, kept cover behind their rhino, opening up on one squad dragged into range by the dread Sorcerer Aziz. However, the emperor smiled on Tiefwald, and the biggest guns of the Big Green aimed straight and true, quickly reducing the Thousand Sons to ashes. Behind their smoldering remains, a huge Terminator squad hurried over to contest the adjacent sector. At the very climax of the battle, they fell under a mass of fire from infantry and armor and not enough survived fight off the nearby Imperial forces. The buildings and landscape were scorched and pockmarked by ordnance and small arms but the substation and the sector was back under control, at least for the time being. Imperial Guard wins, solid victory!

Overall I liked how the rumored Chaos played out, even if they didn't win their first game. I got first turn and was able to put a couple of early wounds on the demon prince, facilitating his early demise. He was on his way to surely wreak major havoc when I scored hits with both my deep-striking veteran squads, right next to him, mucho BS4 melta and plasma, adios. The big prince is cheaper now, true, but his old demon armor and feel no pain will be sorely missed under heavy fire like that. Gone before their time, the thousand sons were basically knocked out in one turn by the demolisher and basilisk's combined pieplates - I had some great luck with scattering this game. The Terminators were thick and it took my Guard-quantity guns to make a dent in them. They might have been better off deep-striking, maybe not, I can't really decide. It's a big risk to keep their expensive unit in limbo, but their early turns were mostly spent moving up - although to be fair, I did manage to pin them first turn on a freak leadership roll with the ratlings after only killing one! Cheesy. I'm seriously considering dropping their icon of tzeentch for a cheaper chaos glory version. I think the points will be better spent elsewhere, like getting two more havocs or a icon of khorne on the bikes (who honestly deserve it for their berzerker paint scheme and iconography). I really liked how the deep-striking obliterators turned out, coming in relatively late in the game and into a place where I couldn't put much fire into them. That accurate teleport is gold for them. And last but not least: lash! Well, what can I say? It worked just like it was supposed to, rolling 8's for the movement almost every time, really screwing up one end of my gun line by yanking fools out of cover and into shooting and assault range of the thousand sons and terminators. C2 kept him separate from the other assault units, and he definitely dealt his fair share of damage, but I think he might have been more effective working with them in concert. Still, it was the first game with the new configuration and next game I expect the list to be that much more deadly.

Action Report: Space Wolves vs. Eldar 8-19-07

When word reached the Fang that a small group of Eldar pirates were ravaging farmland on the nearby titheworld Nipir, Trefain the Elder and Tor the Giant of Lors the Grim’s Great Company were dispatched to repel the invaders. The aliens were led by an enormous Avatar of Khaine, fighting side by side with an ancient Wraithlord. The few small squads of accompanying infantry were further supported by a fire prism tank. Though our heroes were briefly given pause by the appearance of such powerful entities and armor leading what appeared to be a small reconnaissance force, they nevertheless relished the chance for battle and quickly boarded their transports. Trefain and Baldur the Marked led a pack of Blood Claws and attack bikes towards the enemy’s right flank. Emerging from their speeding rhino in the midst of a thick fog of dreamsmoke, they cut through an entire squad of Dire Avengers with impunity. Then the Avatar joined the fight, immediately launching a flurry of blows at the aged Rune Priest. Several times the creature’s awesome flaming blade was deflected by Trefain’s antiquated force shield, but eventually the demon’s speed was too much and the old wolf suffered a grievous wound and fell. The rest of the pack fought on to the death, nearly bringing down their gigantic foe, but in the end the mighty Avatar strode away alone. On the other side of the battle, Tor the Giant and Hurki’s Grey Hunters descended into the midst of the enemy’s left. Emerging from his drop pod, Tor purged nearly an entire squad of aspect warriors with shot and flame, when a delicate eldar grav craft appeared suddenly behind him and disabled him with a single powerful shot. Hurki and his pack lasted longer, their plasma and bolter fire completely wiping out a unit of harlequins prancing their way through a nearby forest. When the towering wraithlord jumped into their midst, the most experienced grey hunters struck back hard with their powerfists. The pack was close to victory when the indomitable spirit inside the wraith construct surged one last time and wiped them out. A bitter defeat for the Space Wolves!

Action Report: 54th Tiefwalder vs. Ultramarines 7-06-07

I played a game down at Battleforge last night against F., who I've played a couple of times before. We rolled the take and hold game type and I picked my side. The last match I played on this table I was on the other side against Thousand Sons, and it felt like too many lines of sight were blocked for me, not to mention it created a ton of ways for assault troops to approach unseen.

F. was rolling with some 82 marines, consisting of command squads, tac squads, assault squads, devastator squads, and scout squads. I switched out sharpshooters for a powerfisted, hardened fighter commissar in my command HQ squad. I would say the results of that decision were pretty even - many ones went by that I would have liked to re-roll, but the commissar finished off a lone assault squad survivor that was cutting into me, as well as inflicting the last wound on his flying lightning claw captain who was about to do the same.

I separated my main battle tanks and he was able to keep them running or shaken for most of the game. The regular leman russ in particular had some shite shooting. The hellhound got in one round of shooting before assault marines busted him up. The basilisk also went out fairly early. For some reason I decided to get cute and deep strike my sentinels, when I should have just started them on the board from the beginning. Only one of them got off a decent shot, finishing off the last member of one of his two devastator squads. The veterans, on the other hand, performed like fucking champs and burned four or five assault marines with plasma and melta fire. God love that BS4! Everyone else did about average, wiping out two whole assault squads, one each of his dev and tac squads, and a big squad of assault scouts. It was a victory for him, no doubt, but we didn't calculate the margin (it was fairly large, I'd say).