For this game I threw together a list on a coffee break at work, having installed battlescribe on my phone in the previous coffee break.
I went in with a couple of intentions;
Lastly to field the recently finished Malenthrope again to see how well it'll do.
After this it was a matter of throwing in units I already have usable from the hobby challenge (warriors in particular) and ones from my collection I like and have painted so lets look at the final list.
Double CAD
HQ
Hive Tyrant - Lash Whip/Bonesword, one pair of twin Linked Devourers with Brainleach worms, Venom Sacs
3 Tyrant Guard - 2 with Lashwip/Bonesword, 1 with crushing claws.
Tervigon - Scything Talons, Stinger Salvo
Elites
Lictor
Malanthrope
Zoanthrope Brood
2 Zoanthropes
Troops
Tyranid Warrior Brood
3 Warriors with Twin Boneswords and Devourers
Genestealer Brood
8 Genestealers
Broodlord
Hormagaunt Brood
12 Hormagaunts
Termagant Brood
6 Fleshborers
6 Devourers
Fast Attack
Ravener Brood
3 Raveners with 2 scything talons
Heavy Support
Exocrine
Trygon Prime
Tyrannofex
Rupture Cannon
With the list built and models packed it was time to head over to Wayland games to play.
Picking the city fight table as last time we played in a savage ork village we rolled for mission getting maelstrom of war mission 5 'Cloak and Shadows' with Vanguard strike.
Deployment saw me having a solid Centre with the three big guys along with warriors and malenthrope, then the Hive tyrant and both units of gaunts made up my left flank. Finally the the Stealers, Zones and Lictor took the right flank with raveners in reserve to come in via deep strike off the Lictor.
With Lester's armour across from my right flank I hoped to out body and run through their shooting so that rending claws could go to town on the two predators (one Annihilator and one Destructor) backed up by warp blast I expected that to be enough.
The big monsters would then claim the centre with spawned gaunts sent to claim objectives and cause trouble, with the majority of grey hunters across from this blob the Exocrine's plasma and boneswords of the warriors would prove useful.
Lastly the Hive tyrants would use the gaunts as cover and try to hit the wolves flank rolling up into the mess in the middle.
As with all plans this one fell apart not long after encountering the enemy, my right flank crumbled badly an needed shoring up. Firstly Brother Wulfgar the Dreadnought landed in his drop pod and flamed the Stealers, and the Blood Claws stopped the lictor and Raveners before they had chance to move forward.
Without the support of the big bugs my central push took another blow when the Thunderwolf Cavalry outflanked on my left, using the first spawned unit (Lester let me recycled dead as I'd left all spare Gaunts at home) to block the road way I managed to force them around the left of the building in the back of the picture above. Then I had to use the warriors as rear guard taking the charge and holding up the thunderwolves while spawned gaunts piled in to drag them down with weight of numbers (though they took the warriors with them).
Despite losing out on two big monsters, the warriors and the first unit of spawned Gaunts the central attack pushed on and thanks to a short cut through an intact building with doors on both ends it did get support from the original unit of Devilgant/Termagants before getting stuck in to the first 10 man grey hunter unit.
On my right hand flank the Hive Tyrant, Tyrant Guard and Hormagaunts pushed forward towards a second unit of grey hunters with plasma guns, using the shelter of a building and sacrificing many Gaunts to the space wolf guns the leader beast and his guard rolled into the grey hunters with barely a scratch and a single Hormagaunt to help out.
Thanks to Lashwhips nearly all the wolves where slaughtered before they had a chance with just the lone gaunt cut down out of spite (and maybe for points I think Lester got a point for wiping out a unit).
With battle fully engaged the adoptions to my plans did very well, the surviving Genestealers and brood lord backed up by the big guns wrecked Brother Wulfgar and even though the Broodlord and sole Stealer failed to take out the drop pod or even scratch the Stormwolf (as it dropped off the Blood claws) the big beasts and Zones managed to contain and kill the Blood claws and deal (eventual) with the Predator Annihilator.
The Central thrust Pounded the first unit of Grey hunters they came across and rolled forward towards the smaller unit, with the Malenthrope giving preferred enemy army wide and then absorbing a ton of fire into it's 2+ cover save.
By the end of the game and having lost wounds throughout the Tervigon eventually succumbed and took a whole host of it's spawn with it, by which point the Malenthrope hid in a building in the space wolf deployment zone scoring an objective.
Meanwhile Harald arrived with his big oll pack of wolves intending to take down the hive tyrant. In response the Trygon prime burst up from below alongside the Swarms leader beast and the two of them opened up with grubs and bio electric pulses killing only about 4 wolves.
However thanks to some freshly spawned gaunts running into the adjacent building I scored 3VPs for three units within 12 of the enemy board edge.
The following turn saw Harald and his wolves charge the Tyrant and it's body guard, Overwatch and Lashwip enhanced Initiative saw most of the wolves cut down and despite pile in moves Harald was to far from the fight, a wound or two was spread across the Hive guard and the turn was over.
The following turn saw Harald issue a challenge and take a wound for his troubles while the Hive guard gutted the remaining wolves at best taking the last hive guard down to one wound in return.
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| Photo Taken and Donated for use by Lester |
Meanwhile the Storm Wolf had come round the corner to tackle the Trygon Prime and a game of cat and mouse ensued as the Flyer used hover to grab a late game objective and both the Hive tyrant and Prime failed to gun it down.
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| Photo Taken and Donated for use by Lester |
The centre of the board had all but collapsed for both of us, all my big beast had multiple wounds bar the hive tyrant even the Malenthrope sported a few injuries and nearly all the little beasts had been wiped out by the tervigons death. The Wolves had the barley scratched Stormwolf a couple of rhinos, Lascannon Razorback, Predator Destructor and a gunless drop pod.
So
The good
Defiantly the hive tyrant and its guard falls here, it did extremely well killing everything in their path and showing me just how amazing lashwhips are.
The Tervigon had spawned 3 times when it ran out and managed to take the middle of the field dealing with two units of grey hunters and grabbing some points with the assistance of it's brood and the Malenthrope.
The Malenthrop did great, preferred enemy once the first unit had been taken down, was a big boost though I forgot it quite a few times. It also soaked up a lot of fire-power and managed a cheeky objective grab late game.
The exocrine did quite well, I think I got the strength wrong later in the game thanks to rolling for the Tyrant and Prime weapons a lot and confusing big multi shot guns as strength 6. Still he culled the blood claws down nicely, helping to contain them in the corner, damaged the Predator Annihilator, and Dreadnought.
The Bad
Zoanthropes, simply put; the need to successfully cast followed by to hit then to wound/armour pen just give to many opportunities to fail. they barely did anything all game bar float about a bit, maybe a full unit will do better and they did score a point for sitting on an objective and later helped score Supremacy, though any much cheaper unit could have managed the same.
Tyranofex
Too many points for not enough effect, I'll be leaving the rupture cannon at home in the future if I bother to take a Tyranofex at all. Definatly leaving it out of my next list as I have plans for the Hypertoxic node.
both of these units had a chance to shine but ultimately failed constantly to scratch much even though they had plenty of targets.
The Ugly
Genestealers
The Stealers had a bit of a rough start with a heavy flamer to the face ruining their day a little, then went on to a mixed performance. Wreaking the dreadnought was good but fluffing it against the drop pod was a bit lacklustre for a charging brood lord and two stealers. In the following round of combat only taking a the gun off, losing a stealer to the storm bolter in the process ment the pod survived the game.
Then failing to scratch the Storm Wolf on the charge after it dropped the blood claws off was disappointing but they did go on to narrowly avoid getting charged by the blood claws and finish the immobilised predator annihilator which war blast and rupture cannon had consistently failed to do.
Trygon Prime
I don't think the Trygon had a chance to shine this game it did hep me get 3 points from behind enemy lines but then on the only real target it had where a few wolves in cover followed by trying to shoot the Storm Wolf with little success, to expensive to take in my Toxic list it may be a while before I play with the prime again.
In conclusion
I realy enjoyed this game, it realy felt like I was being surrounded by a pack and I'm by and large happy with how I managed to contain and manage each threat as it came at me. People often say that some how fantasy is more tactical than 40k and are ultimately wrong games like this realy back up my confidence when I point out that both games have very different tactical elements.
I've already written up a new list with the hyper toxic node and my hobby challenge is coming on ok, would have like it to be quicker but a number of things take my time away for it, units are getting finished though which is great to see.
This means I should have some quick to share content coming, so hopeful not another 3/4 week gap.
Until then TTFN
Sounds like a great game dude. And im loving the look of the nids.
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