Battle Report vs New Tyranids

Mission – Crusade (4 objectives)
Deployment – Dawn of War
Night Fight? – No

My list was:

Haemonculus Ancient with Hexrifle
Warlord Trait: Strategic Genius (reroll reserves)

Kabalite Trueborn
3 Trueborn, 2 Dark Lances, Venom, Additional Splinter Cannon

3 x Kabalite Warriors
10 Warriors, Splinter Cannon, Raider, Night Shields & Flickerfield

3 x Wracks
5 Wracks, Liquifier Gun, Venom, Additional Splinter Cannon

2 x Ravager
Flickerfield

Imperial Bunker
Ammo Store, Quadgun

The Tyranid list was (roughly):

Hive Tyrant with Wings, 2 x Twin-linked Devourers with Brainleech Worms, Psychic Scream, Warp Blast
Warlord Trait: Adaptive Biology (gains FNP the turn after taking a wound)

3 Zoanthropes, Warp Blast, Catalyst

Tervigon, Dominion

Tyrannofex with Fleshborer Hive

10 Termagants

10 Termagants

10 Genestealers with Broodlord

3 Carnifexes with 2 x Twin-linked Devourers with Brainleech Worms

Hive Crone

Deployment
Objectives were placed on a hill in the middle of the Nid deployment zone, in a ruin in my deployment zone and 2 in no-mans land in the middle of the table.

The Tyranids won the roll for first turn and opted to go first. They set up with the Flyrant and Crone out of LOS behind a large ruin on my left, along with one unit of Gants. The Carnifexes, Tyrannofex and Tervigon were set up centrally, as far forward as possible. The Zoanthropes and other unit of Gants were hidden behind another large ruin on my right. The Genestealers were infiltrating.

I placed my bunker centrally and deployed the Haemonculus Ancient with the Blasterborn inside and a unit of Wracks on the battlements with the Quadgun. The Ravagers went either side of the bunker. One Venom was to the left of the bunker. The others were all placed on the right, behind a large ruin. One unit of Warriors deployed in the ruin. A unit of Wracks deployed in another ruin to the right of my bunker, claiming an objective. The other Warriors stayed in their Raiders and deployed between the two ruins. The last unit of Wracks stayed inside their Venom (on the left).

The Genestealers infiltrated into area terrain on my left flank.

I failed to Seize the Initiative.

Turn One
Everything advanced pretty much as fast as it could. Nid shooting was ineffective, managing only to kill one Wrack from the battlements and 5 warriors from the ruins, who passed their break test. They also cast Paroxysm on a Raider, reducing it to BS1. The Tervigon spawned a unit of 8 Gants who ran towards one of the central objectives.
I shot pretty much everything against the Tervigon and Tyrrannofex but only managed to inflict 2 wounds due to good armour saves and FNP rolls. I also killed one Carnifex and 4 Genestealers and disembarked my Wracks into area terrain to slow up the remaining Genestealers a bit.

Turn Two
The Tervigon spawned a unit of 10 Gants who ran towards one of the central objectives.The Flyrant performed a Vector Strike on a Ravager but did no damage. The Crone did the same against the other Ravager but only managed a single glance. The Zoanthropes shot a Venom but my Flickerfield saves were going really well and it did no damage. The Fex and Tervigon both attempted to charge my Warriors but failed to do so, the Tervigon taking a couple of wounds from overwatch in the process. The Genestealers charged the Wracks and made short work of them, but did lose 2 to Overwatch. The Carnifexes charged the bunker and obliterated it, killing everything in/on it. That gave away First Blood and Slay the Warlord.
I moved my vehicles away from the wreckage of the bunker but knew I could not outdistance the Carnifexes without going flat out so opted to stay and hope to shoot them down. I moved the Wracks inside the ruin so that their Liquifier would be able to target the Genestealers that were now dangerously close. Everything else repositioned to get good firing angles on the approaching wall of Nids. Shooting was a bit more effective this turn, killing a Zoanthrope, the Tervigon and one Carnifex and leaving the other Carnifex on 1 wound. I also took 2 wounds off the Crone and killed all but one Genestealer. This left the units of Termagants in the backfield mostly out of Synapse range so I fired 2 Venoms at 2 units and broke both of them, causing them to flee from the objectives they were camped on.  

Turn Three
With no Synapse at the rear of his army, the Gants all made their LD checks or got ineffective results on their IB tests before the Hive Mind reasserted control as the Flyrant flew back over there. He did however vector strike a venom en route, causing a glancing hit. The remaining Carnifex moved towards a Ravager and the lone Genestealer made his way towards the Wracks in the ruins. The Crone vector struck a Raider, doing nothing, and then fired a missile at it, which also did nothing. The T’Fex moved between the ruins to get up close and personal with a Raider. It opened fire with its Fleshborer Hive but did nothing to the Raider due to low S and poor BS. The Carnifex charged and ate the Ravager in front of it. The Genestealer assaulted the Wracks but were melted into goo by the Liquifier Gun firing on overwatch. The T’Fex assaulted the Raider but in a stunning display of ineptitude managed to inflict a single glance which was saved by the Flickerfield.
Having had a pretty lucky escape, I moved my Raiders and surviving Ravager to concentrate as many dark lances on the T’Fex as possible whilst two Venoms moved into position to take out the Zoanthropes and the other two took aim at the Hive Tyrant. The combined firepower brought down the T’Fex and reduced the Zoanthropes to a single model with one wound left. Sadly the Flyrant managed to escape unharmed but was pretty much stuck in place if he wanted to remain in Synapse range of his Gants that were holding the objectives.

Turn Four
The Zoanthrope moved back towards the Gants in order to get more Synapse cover. The Flyrant moved around as much as he could to get within range of a Raider but Night Shields reduced him to 12” range and he was unable to shoot anything. The Crone switched to Glide so as to be able to assault. It destroyed a Raider and killed 3 Kabalite Warriors in the explosion and then assaulted the remainder of the unit, killing them all but taking 2 more wounds on overwatch, leaving it with just one wound.
The remaining Ravager and Raiders moved to get LOS on the Flyrant. Two Venoms and all the Kabalite Warriors opened fire on the crone, killing it. Everything else shot the hive tyrant but it was the luckiest creature in the universe and lost only a single wound, making every grounding check.

Turn Five
Very short Tyranid turn. No Gants were in range to do anything so they just huddled around their objectives (they had 3). The Zoanthrope moved further towards the Gants to reinforce the Synaptic link with the Flyrant. The Flyrant himself attempted to blow up a Venom but was very unlucky with the penetration rolls and failed to do anything.
I decided to fire everything at the Flyrant until it was dead and then try to kill Gants and break them. My first shot was a dark lance from a Raider, which hit but failed to wound. Crucially though, the Flyrant failed his grounding test and took a wound leaving him on the deck and vulnerable. The Ravager wasted no time finishing it off leaving only one unit of Gants in synapse range of the Zoanthrope. I therefore concentrated all my remaining firepower on the other units, wiping one out and breaking another. This left 2 objectives still under Nid control and I only had one. The Nids had First Blood and Slay the Warlord and I only had Slay the Warlord. We rolled to see if the game continued and it did!

Turn Six
Three units of Gants remained but two were out of Synapse, one of which was also broken. The broken unit failed to rally, leaving one objective completely unclaimed. The other unit tested for IB but passed their LD check. The Zoanthrope attempted to blast a Venom but missed.
I realized that contesting the central objective would not be enough. I actually needed to claim it. Fortunately I still had a unit of Warriors in a Raider which moved 6” and disembarked a further 6”, leaving them 4” from the objective which was surrounded by Termagants, who were in area terrain. Everything in my army opened up on the Gants, hoping to wipe them out and allow me to run onto the objective. One Termagant survived! I couldn’t shoot with the warriors as that would still leave me an inch away from controlling the objective so I had to assault. I needed to move 7” through difficult terrain. Overwatch did nothing and I rolled my assault distance. 7” exactly! I made it into combat with a full squad of Kabalite Warriors who made short work of the lone Termagant and left me in control of the objective. We rolled for the game to end and it did. Victory by 7 points to 5!

Conclusion
A very tight game that I would have lost if it had ended on turn 5. The new Tyranids are not as weak as people first thought and this was a very balanced game. I actually got quite lucky with a few crucial flickerfield saves, although to be fair, the amount of firepower that I threw at the T’Fex, Tervigon and Carnifexes should have done a LOT more damage than it did. Overall, the Nid player was happy with the codex and I was happy with my tactics of killing the synapse. Not sure why he didn’t leave the Tervigon at the back as that would have left his Gants all under Synapse but I guess that might have blunted his attack a bit.

Nice bat rep and grats on your win. Few comments. I am feeling that the bunker, or maybe most things that have DE stationary, is bad due to when it explodes so do we. Better to have stayed mobile. I have to disagree with you on the 'Nids part. You showed their biggest weakness, lack of synapse range, which is crippling to them. If you would have taken out all their synapse the game would have ended earlier. Also shows that their fliers are meh to okay because the vector strikes did little to nada.

A lot of bat reps have shown 'Nids cannot get past turn five. Smartly played they can win on points in objective games but if the game continues they fall flat. All my opinion but if I ever face a 'Nid I know what I am going for. Nice thing is gene stealers may be one of their better troop choices due to not worrying about synapse.

Again thanks for the BR and grats on the win.

The bunker was for AA as I find DE always struggle against flyers. It was just unfortunate that his T'Fex and Tervigon survived so much, leaving his Carnifexes able to assault the bunker. If I'd targeted them first maybe it would have been different but that leaves the T'Fex rampaging through my troops and the Tervigon spawning new units.

Nice report Count! Great to hear some positive feedback about the book, I guess its still going to be a while until the truth of the situation becomes clear on its balance. Regardless it sounds like the nid player had some bad luck (in combination with some decent flickerfield / jink saves on your part). It did seem a little odd that the Tervigon sprang forward like that, I'd personally have had it near the Termagaunts for the synaptic reasons as you say.

Any chance of some photos in the next game? Sounds like you guys have a nice terrain collection

dangerous beans wrote:

Nice report Count! Great to hear some positive feedback about the book, I guess its still going to be a while until the truth of the situation becomes clear on its balance. Regardless it sounds like the nid player had some bad luck (in combination with some decent flickerfield / jink saves on your part). It did seem a little odd that the Tervigon sprang forward like that, I'd personally have had it near the Termagaunts for the synaptic reasons as you say.

Any chance of some photos in the next game? Sounds like you guys have a nice terrain collection

I'll see what I can do with some pics.

As for the Tervigon, I would definitely not have thrown it forward but if he had kept it back to babysit the Gants I'd have concentrated everything on the onrushing Carnifexes and then picked it off with Ravagers later in the game, probably causing the death of a fair few Termagants when it died.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think his list may have been illegal. I'm sure I heard that in order to take a Tervigon, you have to take at least a 30 gant brood. I don't have the 'Nids dex, so I can't check :-/

Still, awesome report Count :-)

'Tis true, Grokfog, Tervigons are only troop choices if a unit of 30 'gants is included. But there's space for the Tervigon to be the 2nd HQ choice so it could be legit.

Count, d'you know how he got FNP on his Tervigon/Tyrannofex first turn?

And I feel you on the Tyrannofex. Shooting that thing is like trying to destroy a Bastion with splinter rifles.

Did you feel overall that the 'Nids tend to have trouble late-game, as by that point they've usually lost a couple pieces of their all-important synapse chain?

Laughingcarp wrote:

Count, d'you know how he got FNP on his Tervigon/Tyrannofex first turn?

If memory serves only one had FNP, which was from having Catalyst cast on it.

Quote :

Did you feel overall that the 'Nids tend to have trouble late-game, as by that point they've usually lost a couple pieces of their all-important synapse chain?

Definitely! My opponent ran out of Synapse creatures towards the end which cost him the game.

I actually played another game against him last night with my small Tau force as allies to an Ultramarine army. We won that game and again he ran out of synapse creatures.