Saturday, January 1, 2011

Battlereport: The Empire vs. Tyranids

You read that right. After breifly discussing it, Mike and I disided to try mixing the two more poplular GW systems, and running a 40k vs. Fantasy game. He used a 1750 point Tyrannid list, and I used my tourney list:
LORDS:
Arch Lector, AoMI, War Altar, Hammer of Judgment, Van Horstrum's Speculum: 305
Wizard Lord, Lvl4,Armor of Taurnus , Dispell Scroll: 270
HEROES:
Warrior Priest, Heavy Armor, Shield: 96
Warrior Priest, Heavy Armor, Greatweapon, 98
Captain, BSB, Full Plate, Enchanted Shield, Dragon Bow.113
CORE:
30 Swordsmen, Full Command, 205
30 Halberdiers, Full Command, 170
30 Halberdiers, Full Command, 170
30 Flaggalents, Prophet of Doom: 310
SPECIAL:
2x Cannons: 200
2xMortar:150
Rare:
Helblaster, 110
Steam Tank: 300
His list (approximatively)
Swarmlord
Tyranid Prime w/ 2x bone swords
~accompanied by 5 warriors

20 "Devil"gaunts{with devourers)
20 Termagants
20 Hormagaunts
2x Zoanthropes
1x Tervigon w/ Cluster spines, AG,TS
1x Biovore
1x Trygon
Setu/deployment:
We played on a 6by4 standard table, with a fence dividing it in two parts, and several buildings on my side. Mike deploys first, moving his bug horde as close as possible to my lines. I respond by deploying right on the table edge, with my cannons and mortars in buildings.

His deployment, with a trygon and a pack of genestealers in reserve.

Turn 1 (Tyranids)
The gaunt packs rush forward over the fences, along with the Swarmlord and Warriors. The Tervigon launches its cluster spines into my 30 man Swordsmen unit, killing. In one turn, though the Swordsmen hold. The devilgaunts turn their attention to my Middenheim Halberdiers (the blue ones) and kill 3 with shooting.

Turn 1 (Empire)
Having lost a massive chunk of troops, I begin by attempting to cast Pit of Shades on the Tervigon, and fail casting it by one. Having spent all my spell dice on attempting to cast PoS, I begin my shooting phase by unleashing a fusillade of cannon balls at the Tervigon, causing 3 wounds, and blast a pack of Guants with mortars, killing 6.
Here is how things are looking by the end of turn one:

Turn 2 (Tyranids)
The Tervigon spawns more 6 Gaunts, while another pack of the bugs move forward, near my Steam Tank and Swordsmen, while the genestealers outflank into the side of my lines. My middenhiem Halberdiers come under fire again,and all but the Standard Bearer, Champion and attached Warrior Priest and BSB survive. The genestealers charged into the rear of the Talebecland Halberdiers, scything through them, an causing them to flee, but they do not escape, and are consumed by the genestealers, who consolidate near my War Altar.

Turn 2 (Empire) Taking the initiative, I charge into a pack of gaunts with my * remaining Swordsmen, as well as my Steam Tank. Magic is uneventful, as Pit Of Shades scatters and kills all of one gaunt. I unleash a fusillade of fire from my artillery batteries, blasting apart several gaunts under continued fire from mortars,cannons and my hellblaster, but its not enough. My Steam Tank crushes several Gaunts under its immense bulk, and combined with my few swordsmen, I manage to win the combat with the gaunts, but they do not break, and the fighting continues.


Turn 3 (nids)
The Trygon deep strikes behind my Steam Tank, and the genestealers assault my War Altar, while the Swarmlord engages my Arch Lector in single combat. A pack of Gaunts charge the Middenheim Command group.

and kill the Standard Bearer and Unit Champion, leaving my BSB and Warrior Priest to stem the tide of bugs with their 2+ and 5+ saves, respectively.
The Swarmlord manages to land a hit on my War Altar, causing a wound, while my Arch Lector hits the Swarmlord, but his hammer blow bounces of the beast's carapace. The pack of gaunts attacking my Steam Tank/Swordsmen turn all their attention to the swordsmen, as the T10 +1 Save Tank proves to difficult to kill. The Swordsmen prove a match for the Gaunts and the combat is tied, though both sides take loses.

Turn 3 (Empire)
Magic fails me again, so I switch to shooting. I target the Tervigon with a cannon, and finally bring the huge beats down, while focusing the rest of my shooting on killing gaunts with Mortars. In Combat, my BSB fails a save, and is killed, leaving my Warrior Priest to hold my left flank single handedly.

My Swordsmen fail to hold off the gaunts for long, and almost the whole of them are slain, leaving the Unit Champion to flee the field, and the Steam Tank to endure more blows. I use Van Horstrum's Speculum to swap Stats with the Swamrlord, and my Arch Lector begins to lay down the hurt on the now weakened Swarmlord, while easily ignoring the hits from the swarm of genestealers attacking the War Altar.

Intermission: At this point, the food we ordered earleir arrives, and i deploy my secret weapon: Food. I attempt to lure the nid hordes to the large boxes of chicken lo mien and sesame chicken.

To no avail.


Turn 4 (Tyrnaids)
The tyranid warriors launch a barrage of living bullets into my flagellant horde, killing 18, following after with an assault, and wiping out the remaining flagellants. The Trygon attempts to kill my Stank, but it makes all its saves. My Arch Lector goes first in the Swarmlord/Stealer combat, and kills the Swarmlord, seen here:

And with that we called it, as only my Steam Tank and War Altar remained, along with a few War Machines. This was a pretty odd game. Originally I had though that the cross system balance was fairly good. i was wrong, the sheer fire power available from a 40k army is absurd. Its almost like as was playing against dwarfs.

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