catalyst2 | Battle #34

Tonight was 2910 points against a joint Tyranid (Sean - 2000 points)/IG (Jason - 910 points) army. Because of the peculiar nature of this game, FOC's went out the window despite it being a regular 40K game. The Tyranids had 3 large squads of genestealers in reserve so my deployment was conventional, just 19" in from the edges because it was pitched battle deployment in an annihilation mission. The Tyranids massed on my left with an enormous squad of gaunts, a ripper swarm and some warriors, with the centre dominated by three smaller squads of gaunts, the hive Tyrant, a carnifex and some more warriors whilst the right had a platoon of guard, a lascannon heavy weapon squad and an Executioner with plasma cannon sponsons, giving 5 S7AP2 small blasts.

Turn 1 - he deployed first as above whilst I deployed in the centre, a little cramped but we had taken a 4' by 8' table so it wasn't too bad. The table had lots of cover so shooting lanes were going to be vital for me. He moved forward, fired and took out two marines but that was all. My shooting was highly effective - a combination of Predator Annihilator, lascannon Razorback and tactical squad lascannon took his Hive Tyrant down to one wound, whilst my speeders took his carnifex down to two wounds. My Dread duly DP'ed in and heavy flamed the big gaunt squad on the right, killing a whole swathe of them along with one warrior. The Whirlwind took out a second warrior along with most of the gaunts. This was a without-number swarm so it was nice that only a few remained already. The assault squad took off toward the IG, hoping to get into close combat with them next turn on the charge. Distances certainly looked about right.

Turn 2 - his lascannons destroyed my Thunderfire before it got off any significant rounds, much to my disappointment. His Tyranid firing was ineffective again, a couple of marines getting killed but nothing else of significance. His reserve rolls were very effective: two squads of genestealers came on on the left flank plus his ravener and his lictor. The ravener died on the way in hitting a building and then rolling a 1 on the mishap table. The lictor landed right in front of my Predator, charged it and blew off the turret. The first squad of genestealers tried to get to my speeders but, being parked 19" in meant that they couldn't get the charge. A combination of my shotgun scouts who came on behind them, plus a tactical squad and the speeders killed the entire squad. The second unit of genestealers (plus Broodlord) got to my Dread, but did no damage while I killed three. My deathwind ML killed off all but the last gaunt of the squad but the lone warrior survived. In the centre, the lictor died to mass bolter fire whilst the hive tyrant died from massed lascannon fire and the sniper scouts took the carnifex down to one wound. The assault squad moved and tried to charge but ended up 6.1" away and so couldn't charge the IG. This left them in a very precarious position. Ironically, at this point, the Tyranids were being slaughtered whilst the IG were virtually unscathed.

Turn 3 - his third genestealer squad came on on the right this time, well within charge range of the assault marines, which they duly charged. The IG decided to direct the Executioner's fire elsewhere out of fear of hitting the the genestealers which probably allowed the assault squad to survive. As it was, only three of the squad survived so they ran but didn't get caught. My shooting utterly decimated the Tyranids on the left, with everything bar the genestealers locked in combat with the Dread, the single w-o-n gaunt and it's attendant warrior along with the genestealers on the right and the almost-untouched IG. In the centre was a warrior squad and a ripper swarm well back on the board.

Turn 4 - there was good and bad for me this turn. The IG did now fire their five S7AP2 blasts at the three remaining assault marines - missing them with all but one shot (which killed one marine) but three of the remaining four scattered onto the genestealers, killing the lot! Sweet! The bad was that the sponsons on the Predator were blown off as were the lascannons on the razorback. However, I hammered the now-weaponless Predator forward 12" and got to cover. I got my terminators onto the table but they scattered a full 12" away, fortunately safely, but well out of charge range next turn. I started moving my left wing gunline around to try to get to the IG, trusting my speeders and couple of tactical squads to kill anything else off.

Turn 5 - nothing much happened because the main thing I had in range was out of LOS (the assault marines and the terminators) so he fired his lascannons again and destroyed a Dread that had been holding back on the right. I raced my Predator another 12" forward, carefully keeping out of LOS -I did have a plan in mind for it. At this point, I think that KP's were in my favour. We rolled for turn six and got it.

Turn 6 - some sloppiness on my behalf meant that a ripper swarm got to one of my tactical squads, made it run by losing combat and then caught it when it ran. Damn, one more KP to him. Worse still, the little squad of warriors in the centre had slowly and quietly moved across and launched a devastating round of fire on the speeders, destroying one and immobilising the other two which meant they died as well, given that they were in a squadron. Another KP to him! Worse still - the genestealer/broodlord combination finally destroyed the Dread so that was another KP to him! When we did the calculation, he was now one KP ahead. We rolled for seventh turn and got it!

Turn 7 - with one KP down, I needed to pull something out of the bag. His lascannons took the assault squad down to one (the powerfist sergeant) and the Executioner took out two terminators but the rest of his fire was ineffective. The nice thing was that the lone assault marine was now in range so he charged those damaging lascannons, dealt three powerfist wounds and destroyed the squad. KP's equal. My devious little plan with the Predator now came to fruition - but with even more effect than I was expecting! I rammed the side of the Executioner, rolled a six for a penetrating hit, rolled a six for result (KA-BOOM) and then rolled a third consecutive six for the circumference of the blast. Not only did that give me one more KP (and the win) for the tank but the blast devastated the command squad and two infantry squads on the other side of the tank. Both squads broke and ran off the table after losing more than 50% casualties to the blast and two members for the command squad died. In fact, of the 12 armour saves he had to make, only the Lord Commissar in the command squad passed his. Two more KP's for the win! WOOHOO!

Result: Win to me by 11-8 KP's (I think - the margin was 3 at any rate).

What I learned tonight:
1. I am so glad that Tyranids and Guard can't usually work together - the combination of the long range firepower of the Guard plus the combat power of the Tyranids is a tough combo to deal with.
2. I must not neglect ripper swarms - that's the second time I have paid the price for ignoring them.

My W-L-D record:
40K: 23-7-0
Apocalypse: 2-0-1
Planetstrike: 0-1-0