catalyst2 | Battle #28

Last night was a spur-of-the-moment 1500-point battle against Sean's Tyranids. Every time I've played against his 'Nids, I have massacred him so I said to him that he could set up the table any way he wanted to AFTER we had chosen table edges. I came back ten minutes later and asked him if he was sure. He had set up a desert board with only four pieces of cover, all on my edge - wtf? I asked him again and he was still sure so I went ahead. We had Seize and Control mission with Pitched Battle deployment. He chose to go first. To my further confusion, he deployed way back in his zone - maybe 6" inches in, no more. I even prompted him that he could move further forward than that - he said he wanted to stay out of range. Given that I had a Whirlwind, Thunderfire and Predator Annihilator, I wasn't quite sure what he though he was staying out of range of.

Turn 1 - he moved forward ran, fleeted and everything else but nothing was in assault range. I fired - Predator took three wounds off the Carnifex, the snipers took two off the Hive Tyrant, the Thunderfire destroyed an entire gaunt squad with four minimal scatters, the Whirlwind took out another gaunt squad (but this was without-number so it would be back) and the HB/AC Land Speeders took out a squad of warriors. Because I had taken so much out of his army, it was also likely that nothing was in assault range next turn.

Turn 2 - he failed all of his reserve rolls (three squads of genestealers) and, as he did that, I realised that I completely forgot to deploy my Drop Pod Dread last turn. Sloppy work on my behalf! He desperately tries to assault and nothing makes it, one squad of gaunts and one squad of warriors falling short by one miserly inch! His without-number gaunt squad reappears - and he again clumps it together! In my turn, I remember the drop pod this time - and the Dread promptly reduces his Hive Tyrant to one wound. The Predator kills off his Carnifex, the snipers kill half of his warrior squad, the Land Speeders kill off his ripper swarm and a Whirlwind/Thunderfire combo kills off his recently arrived without-number gaunt squad again! Expecting his genestealers to turn up soon, I turn both HB Razorbacks to face each wing, pull out the combat squad inside and bring up the other combat squad from each tactical squad. I know this exposes both Razorbacks' side armour and the squads to a bit of fire but I figure it is worth it.

Turn 3 - two genestealer squads come on, one on each wing and move within assault range. His without-number gaunts come back on again. His shooting is unusually effective and he takes out both HB's on the two Razorbacks. These are my first casualties for the entire game! No other units apart from the genstealers can again assault and they do, on the right into the Razorback and, on the left, into the Speeders. Because they roll no rending wounds, they simply stun two speeders (which they ignore in a squadron) and they shake the Razorback. My turn - Hive Tyrant dies at the hands of the scouts, the Land Speeders unload into the genestealers and kill the lot, the Razorback moves out of the way and the tactical squad rapid fires into the second squad of genestealers, again killing them all. Another Thunderfire/ Whirlwind combo kills all but three of his gaunts - now his only figures on the board.

Turn 4 - his third genestealer squad - with a Brood Lord this time - comes on, again on the left, next to the speeders but his Lictor fails its roll yet again. This time their assault destroys one Land Speeder and destroys the AC on the other two. Yet another Whirlwind/Thunderfire combo kills the without-number gaunt squad off for the THIRD time this game. He laughs - "But they'll come on again". Unfortunately for him there's nothing else on the board except for his genestealers so my entire army pivots, fires and kills them off. Total annihilation - so no without-number gaunts and no Lictor!

Result - victory by annihilation of entire enemy force on the board.

What I learned tonight:
1) I just don't get some people's thinking - Tyranids assault so I would think that you would do everything in your power to get them as close to the enemy as early as possible. Apparently not always.
2) Sometimes, no matter how advantages you try to give to your opponent, they just don't take it. If I had been the Tyranid player, I would have loaded up the board with cover in my deployment zone, remembering that I gave him the chance to put terrain down AFTER we chose deployment zones, and I would have put some LOS blocking terrain in the enemy's, leaving about 12" absolutely stripped of cover so my final assault would ne clear and unimpeded. Again, apparently not!

My W-L-D record is now 21-7-0