1500 Pt. Battle Report (3rd Round of Tournament)

Round 1 - Chaos vs. Chaos
Round 2 - Chaos vs. Tau
Army Showcase

Alright, folks, here's the final battle report from last weekend's tournament.

Game 3 – Tyranids
Mission: Cleanse II (Whoever has more table quarters wins; NO VP’s)
Deployment: 18” Wedge Deployment
Battle Point Results: 12 – 9 (my favor)
Opponent’s Army:
Hive Tyrant – TL-Devourers, Venom Cannon, 2x Tyrant Guard
10x Hormagaunts
10x Hormagaunts
8x Genestealers – Extended Carapace
8x Genestealers – Extended Carapace
2x Dakkafexes
2x Sniperfexes – Extended Carapace

Note: All references to "Termagaunts" should be read as "Hormagaunts."

Alright! Double Lash vs. Nidzilla: The battle of the cheese. This was a great game, and I played yet another great opponent. Here’s our deployment.

He got first turn and moved up as indicated above. His shooting was either out of range or did no damages this turn.

My turn one, I moved up as indicated. My left DP lashed a sniperfex towards my chosen. Both squads opened fire and killed it. My left NM’s opened up on the Tyrant and Tyrant guard, hoping to cause one wound, and I got it! The NM’s on the right moved up at caused several wounds to the topmost termagaunts. My DP on the right planned to lash one of the dakkafexes to keep it out of range and LOS next turn, but rolled an 11 for his psychic test! Uh, oh. This failure cost me the Quarter 2. Also incidently I had caused more casualties to myself at this point than he had caused thanks to overheating plasmas. Can’t stand the heat, don’t fire a plasma gun.

His turn 2, he pulled back his remainig sniperfex, afraid of the power of the chosen. The Tyrant stayed put, and the lower squad of genestealers came across the Level 3 rocky area in the center. Both dakkafexes closed on my DP on the right and opened fire. You can’t really stand up to 16 S6 TL’ed shots, re-rolling to wound. The DP went down, and the NM’s nearby looked at me wondering how they were single-handedly supposed to hold that flank.

My turn 2, both the greater daemon and the lesser daemons came in. I brought the lesser daemons off the right chosen squad, and also summoned the greater daemon off of that squad’s aspiring champion. The left NM’s held position, and the right NM’s pulled back, trying to put the building in between them and the dakkafexes, but also to get LOS on the genestealers in the rocks. My chosen moved up towards the Tyrant. All of the NM’s opened fire into the genestealers and managed to kill four. The DP then lashed them back on the other side of the rocks, delaying them another turn. The chosen opened fire into the Tyrant and his guard, killing the guard and leaving 1 wound on the Tyrant. The daemons charged the Tyrant, made their invulnerable saves and then caused 4 wounds. He rolled his 2+ save, and there was a “1” among them. I consolidated the daemons to the right to try to be a buffer between the approaching genestealers and the chosen or NM’s.

His turn 3, the genestealers came back over the rocks and had enough movement to charge the weakened chosen squad (the one without the AC), bypassing the daemons. They wiped out the chosen and consolidated into the greater daemon. Elsewhere the other Nid shooting was ineffective, save the dakkafexes who were very deadly. Thankfully LOS issues made it so I would only lose 2 models that turn, even though I had failed many more saves. Also, the top genestealers decided to start heading across the rocks. A squad of termagaunts in Quarter 1 charged by daemons, who again made all their saves, and killed 5 of the termagaunts. They were locked in combat.

My turn 3, I continued moving the right NM’s away from the dakkafexes. All of the NM’s opened up into the generstealers in the rocks, causing 3 wounds. The chosen continued to move up, but had no real targets. With the end of the tournament round quickly approaching, I moved the remaining DP into a position to be able to contest Quarter 1. I also lashed the new squad of genestealers away, but it wouldn’t be enough. In combat the first squad of genestealers wounded by greater daemon once, but then she quickly wiped them out and moved up. The daemons killed all but one of the termagaunts who held, thanks to the Warriors’ synapse.

His turn 4, he moved the dakkafexes up. One held in the building to grab Quarter 2, the other moved up alongside the building into Quarter 4. They both opened fire and killed all but one of my right NM’s. The sniperfex moved back again, and had little effect with shooting. The remaining genestealers, the warriors, and the remnant from the topmost termagaunt squad all charged the daemons, and wiped them out. We received word that the round ended in the middle of this turn, and so my next turn would be the last turn of the game.

My turn four, I saw how to get the win. I had to bring the genestealers in Quarter 3 below half (I just needed to cause 1 wound). I also had to lash the dakkafex in Quarter 4 back into Quarter 2. I also needed to assault the couple of termagaunts with my chosen and slingshot off of them with a massacre roll. If I could pull all of this off, Quarter 1 would be contested, he would control Quarter 2, but I would control both Quarters 3 and 4. Everything worked perfectly. I even charged the greater daemon into the termagaunts just to make sure I would wipe them.

We then were informed that when a unit straddles 2 quarters you randomly determine which quarter its in. My NM’s who were predominantly in Quarter 4 were straddling the line. I was under the impression that you counted them in whichever quarter the majority of the unit was in. I let my opponent roll for it: 4+ they were in Quarter 4, 3- they were in Quarter 3. He rolled a “3”. So the end result was that Quarter 4 was uncontrolled, and we each had one quarter to the game was a tie. I managed to get all of the bonus points and still won the tournament.

I understand that the whole game requires a certain amount of luck. Still, I found it a little annoying that the draw came down to that one roll. I guess I’m nitpicking, I still won the tournament, and I had a really great close game. In fact I had 3 fun games against 3 great opponents and I won a battleforce. So I really shouldn’t complain (but for those of you who know me, would you expect any different?). Oh and an odd little fact, I never once had to use either of my two powerfists all tournament. Weird, huh?

Going into this tournament I had a feeling that at this points level, most armies wouldn’t be able to compensate for 2 lash princes. I got lucky and didn’t get paired against any elder or SM librarians. Even if my lash were shutdown, dealing with 3 MC’s at 1500 points is not something that most armies can handle. I’m really beginning to dislike lash, because it’s such a crutch, and I don’t even use it in any of the overly abusive ways. It’s just so cost effective. So too are the Daemon Princes and the Greater Daemon. I hate spending 410 points on 3 HQ’s, but the problem is that each one is such a good deal. One can be dealt with by an opponent, but 3 becomes a huge problem. I’ve tried running lists without them, but I get so much more bang for my buck with them. This army will probably be retiring for a while after the next Adeptus Arizona Tournament Tracker event.

Later tonight I’ll post some pics of the army, and maybe some Easterlings that I finished last night.