The forces:
Tyranids
HQ: Deathleaper?
T: 30 termagaunts with about half with devourers and half with flesh borers?
T:30 hormaguant
T: Tervigon
E: 2 hive guard with nice str 8 ap4 ignores cover guns that don't need Los.
HS: Trygon Prime
Eldar (faster themed with a wraithknight for heavy hitting to compliment the defensive horde that could be the Tyranids)
HQ: Farseer with singing spear on a jetbike with runes of warding and witnessing (He rolled the warlord trait: Seer of the Shifting Vector...again...completely useless for me in this game as I have no deep striking units. This allows you to ds without scatter within 6" of the warlord.) Psychic powers were Guide, Mind War, and Death's Mission.
T: Ranger Squad (x7)
T: six jet bikes with two shuriken cannons
T: three jet bikes with one shuriken cannon
FA: Vyper squad with three vypers, each with scatter lasers, shuriken cannons, spirit stones and holofields.
HS: Wraighknight w/ sun cannon, scatter shield, and scatter laser.
Imperial Guard
HQ: Company command squad with four plasma guns
T: Infantry platoon with 30 models total, a few plasma guns, etc. one commissar (I wasn't paying attention but Ashwin would have had to take a platoon command squad for proper force composition, but we could say they replaced the commissar points wise as they just camped on an objective for the whole game and didn't really take part in much unfortunately)
T: Infantry platoon with 30 models total, a few plasma guns, etc. one commissar (I wasn't paying attention but Ashwin would have had to take a platoon command squad for proper force composition, but we could say they replaced the commissar points wise as they just camped on an objective for the whole game and didn't really take part in much unfortunately)
HS: Leman Russ squad with two demolishes with heavy bolters and one executioner with heavy bolters. All also had pintle mounted storm bolters. One proxy for the battle tank used as a demolisher.
Dark Angels
(I think the list is roughly as below)
HQ: Sammael
HQ: ravenwing command squad with apothecary, standard bearer with standard of devastation and champion.
T: Ravenwing bike squad with six, plus attack bike with multimelta, plus a Land speeder with two heavy bolters
T: Ravenwing bike squad with three, plus attack bike with multimelta, plus a Land speeder with two heavy bolters
T: Ravenwing bike squad with six, plus attack bike with multimelta, plus a Land speeder with two heavy bolters
T: Ravenwing bike squad with three, plus attack bike with multimelta, plus a Land speeder with two heavy bolters
(These all combat squad into three total squads of three bikes, and separate attack bike squads and separate land speeder squads before the game)
FA: ravenwing black knights each with twin linked plasma guns and Corvus hammers.
Deployment:
Just got the new Frontline Gaming urban scheme battlemat which, as a side note, worked very well during the game. The deployment type was dawn of war and as the streets actually are set up for 12" increments, this was pretty easy to use. We had some evenly spread urban terrain and the objectives were placed in the center of each quarter and the relic was placed in the center on top of the skyshield.
The Xenos win the roll and elect to go first and deploy on the right side. The termagaunts surrounding the near objective and the hormaguants line up on the front center line hoping to make an early run for the relic. Vypers align near side behind the Shrine of the Aquila. Jet bikes spread out behind the gaunts in some cover. The Tervigon holes up in our center ruins along with the hive guard. Deathleaper and the Trygon are left in reserve as both can deep strike. The squad of rangers and the small jetbike squad take the far side objective. The wraithknight also holes up the middle behind the Tervigon.
The Imperials deploy on the left, ravenwing pretty much taking up the far side to counter a theoretically weaker side of the E-T front. The land speeders deploy behind the center left ruins. The IG squads start camping the two left objectives, the far one combining two of the ten man squads into one twenty man squad. The russes on the near side start a nice av 14 wall to head towards the troop hordes. IG command squad holes up in the upper floors of the center ruins on the left, gaining a nice high sightline and vantage point over their side. The two DA attack bikes are left in reserve.
Then...the Imperials seize the initiative..not cool
Then the Ravenwing all take scout moves up the far side and then they begin turn one.
Turn 1: Imperials
The Ravenwing advance up the far side and devastate the rangers and jet bikes with salvo bolter fire. Sammael ends up charging the jet bikes to finish them off but gets two random wounds due to over watch fire. The rangers end up falling back off the board and I think the remaining jet bikes did as well. The other half of the ravenwing finish off the hormagaunts in the middle. The initial fire on the hormagaunts came from the Leman Russ squad blasting. They moved up and targetted the tervigon which allowed any scattering to start to pepper the hormagaunts. So much for a first turn relic attempt... They are completely destroyed as well.
The land speeders advance and heavy bolter a vyper to a wreck. The tervigon remained relatively ok after all of the fire however.
Deathleaper has a cool rule that can reduce an opposing characters LD by d3 as he's basically scared that 'it's out there'. This was applied to the guard commander so his orders would be much less effective. This worked well for the first few turns.
Turn 1: Xenos
The wraithknight jumps forward to get some cover behind the skyshield and takes some shots at the ravenwing bikers. The farseer and bikes advance behind the Tervigon to head towards the weakened far side. The vypers advance up and shoot the guardsmen sitting on the near enemy objective, but don't manage many casualties. The Tervigon casted a psychic power on the leman Russ squad to reduce their bs to 1 for the next turn and then sprouts out a squad of about eight termagaunts. Could have been worse, but not quite replacing the massively destroyed hormaguant squad. The termagaunts around the near friendly objective advance up and spread out slightly. Lastly the hive guard remain in cover in front of the Tervigon and shoot their cool weapons at the land speeders but only manage to destroy one heavy Bolter off of one land speeder plus removing a hull point.
Imperial turn 2:
An attack bike comes in from reserve and outflanks on the side with the vypers but does not manage to completely take one down. The leman russes advance but with their low bs do not manage much damage to our side. The land speeders come towards the near side for more support on the vypers but again don't think much happened overall on this side of the board. It looks like another vyper went down but it's hidden behind the shrine. The ravenwing close towards the center and shoot lots of jetbikes, the gaunts that were just spawned last turn, and the wraithknight. The wraithknight takes a wound or two and one or two jetbikes go down. The gaunt squad is almost or completely destroyed again. The guardsman took enough casualties to run off the board at the beginning of the turn I believe that were previously on the near enemy objective.
Xenos turn 2:
The termagaunts advance up towards the Aquila but are still large enough to hold the near objective. The Tervigon jumps out from behind the ruins to shoot some ravenwing bikers. I think the hive guard explode a land speeder, or perhaps the vyper managed to finish one off. The wraithknight also advances to the far side and engages some bikes. Shooting then assaulting I think. I think Sammael goes down in this shooting phase or near after. The jetbikes also shift over to help in this effort. The far side is weak for the moment and the ravenwing must be stopped from being able to enclose and sweep from that side. Most of our efforts this turn were spent on that effort and we ended up with much success. The Tervigon also manages to cast the spell that lowers the bs of the leman Russ squad by a few which keeps our larger troop squads alive for a while longer... A few gaunts generated from the Tervigon help our far side effort but just end up advancing towards the center relic objective as well.
(Picture shows the beginning of imperial turn three as well with the other attack bike coming in from reserve on the near side)
Imperials turn 3:
The other attack bike comes in from reserve and manages to multi melta the other vyper out of the game. The leman Russ squad advances and fans out to try to level the rest of the termagaunts on our near objective. Still with a reduced bs they can't manage to finish them off. The rest of the ravenwing manage a bit better and are able to finish off another small gaunt squad and the tervigon in the center. They also out another wound or two on the wraith knight. With the reduced number however the farseer and remaining jet bikes stay out of harms way after using their assault move last turn to retreat back into cover. The remaining land speeder shifts to the middle to assist the ravenwing. The guard squads basically sit tight and hold as they are still mostly out of range. The company commander is still afraid if the lictor that's out there and is relatively uneffective in issuing his 'bring it down' orders to try to help with the wraith knight.
Xenos turn 3:
Both deathleaper and the Trygon burrow out of deep strike onto the board. The lictor coming right out in front of the IG command central at the center ruins but hugs the cover tight to stay out of Los. The Trygon comes in in the backfield right in front of the remaining ravenwing on the opposite of our center ruins. I think we manage to kill all but one black knight with the shooting from the jet bikes Trygon and wraith knight and a few gaunts. The wraithknight ends up center field ready to head towards the Russes next turn. One gaunt jumps up on the sky shield to try to make a last ditch effort for the relic. The gaunts at the near side pass their leadership for synapse check and try to sneak up towards the attack bikes. I think their shooting causes a random wound but they fail their assault distance and are unable to close. I think the hive guard are able to take out the final land speeder as well.
Imperials turn 4:
So I dont have a picture of this turn but basically the russes shot up more termagaunts on our near objective. For some reason they elected (or forgot) to not move around which would prove very problematic in the following turn. With the gaunts out of synapse range they are no longer fearless and are able to go to ground during the shooting and are able to save a bunch of wounds and stay on their objective. The attack bikes drove over to shoot and kill deathleaper and with him out the commander would be better able to issue his orders. He either whiffed though on the leadership check or was out of range and again did not do much to the wraithknight even though his plasma guns were in range. I think even one guardsman's gun was too hot to handle so he but the dust. The highlight for me this turn was the last biker ramping up on top of the sky shield to shoot or assault to death our lonely gaunt. He passed his dangerous test as they all had move through cover, or maybe he just passed it. Something like that.
Xenos turn 4:
This turn brought the final black knight down from some random shooting so no relic for anyone I'm afraid this game. I think we might get another wound on one of the attack bikes but the wraithknight them proceeds, in a jump and display of glory, assaults and proceeds to explode or wreck the entire leman Russ squad!?! I'm still needing to check these rules as he was only able to base two. But it seems that vehicle squads succumb to assault hit distribution like other squads and as they didn't move last turn. These tanks took automatic strength 10 hits. One hammer of wrath attack plus five charging attacks. Pretty hax if you ask me but fun when on the hitting side.
Imperials turn 5:
Again a quick last few turns, but here the remaining attack bikes move toward their near objective and also our near objective after splitting up. They are unable to take down the wraithknight as a whole. The attack bike is able to clear the gaunts off of our near objective and put himself in contesting position for line breaker and controlling one of our objectives. The other attack bike ends the turn controlling his near objective as well. Again the far guardsman just sit tight.
Xenos turn 5:
Here the Eldar get lucky a bit. We are able to kill both attack bikes and secure our control of the near enemy objective by moving the jet bikes flat out 36" across the board. Thus also granting line breaker assuming the game ends. The attack bike being removed from our near objective allowed us to move into tying position.
Game end
So we rolled the dice and the game ended after five. With us each controlling a single objective and each killing one of the enemies warlords we were tied at two. The imperials got one for first blood but we got one for line breaker. Final score was three to three. A good game with a very large amount of casualties. Eldar speed helps a lot for the last turn rush but if it had gone on, those plasma shots from the command squad would not have been fun on the jet bikes.
I think the wraithknight was more resilient than I had originally thought and did some crazy things this game. The psychic power that dropped the russes bs was very helpful as well. The ravenwing were very effective and very scary en mass. We had to focus a ton if fire for the majority of the game to take them out. This drastically slowed our advance and prevented us from any relic rushes or action around that far side enemy objective.
I later found out that controlling enemy objectives is worth two points each so more pressure in the actual tournament will be very necessary assuming I can get two other team members :)
Another good game mission and format to play. These doubles games are pretty fun and the adjusted allied format allows more army options probably than I had originally thought. Now for that singles tournament list prep...
Until next time
ZS
