Of Tyranids and Men

Guest Battle Report
Commander RudyPicardo is a fairly new 40k player, and he has been avidly improving his game since he started. He is very respectful and courteous and it has been a pleasure helping him improve. His thirst for continual improvement is a great example. One of the things that he has been doing is making exceptional battle reports. He includes all the important details and is very thorough. Battle reports like these make it much easier to look back and understand the battle itself and the tactics involved. I think these reports are a big part of his improvement and general success, and he has graciously allowed me to post one of them on Warpstorm. If this is something that you enjoy, please let me know. I may be able to get him to post more, or even get some other people to do guest battle reports. Without further ado, here is his report...

Chaos Vs. Tyranids 1000pts
I noticed that most of my battle reports have been reports based on successes. However, I thought it was important to show that I'm still learning how to play with Tyranids against other units. So I thought I'd share with you this 1000 pt game versus Chaos Undivided.

Mission: Seek and Destroy

TABLE SET-UP

I believe that the table was a 4' x 5' table. As with my recent battle reports, I know it should have been a larger table, but they were already playing a game on the other half of the table, so we couldn't play the full 4' x 6'. As per to the usual protocol, the deployment zones were established so that the distance between each of us at the start of the first turn was exactly 24"

ARMY LISTS

Chaos Undivided Units (shown in order of Deployment)

Chaos Predator (proxied)
Chaos Predator

1 unit of Chaos Space Marines (CSM)
A second unit of CSM (deployed next to the proxied predator)
A third unit of CSM (deployed next to the predator)
A fourth unit of CSM

An obliterator
A second obliterator

Demon prince, deployed at the front of the deployment zone.

Tyranid Units(Listed in order of deployment)

1 Zoanthrope – Warp Blast – Synapse
Carnifex A – Venom Cannon – Barbed Strangler – Enhanced Senses
Carnifex D – 2 Twin-linked Devourers – Enhanced Senses – Flesh Hooks – Reinforced Chitin (+1 W)

15 Hormagaunts
6 Genestealers – Extended Carapace

Hive Tyrant – Venom Cannon – Twin-linked Devourer – Enhanced Senses – Toxin Sacs - 1 Tyrant Guard
Hive Tyrant - Bone Sword/Lash Whip – Scything Talons – Winged – Toxin Sacs – Adrenal Gland (+1 WS)

1 Ravener – Rending Claws – Scything Talons

DEPLOYMENT Diagram

I noticed 2 distinct things in the deployment phase

a) Even though I had trees blocking line of sight in the middle of the board (east and west side), the center piece did NOT block line of sight. Which meant that if he deployed correctly would always have a LOS to a target.

b) The amount of units that we had were about the same, so by the time he deployed his daemon prince, he could practically pick a spot to attack. His deployment was excellent, while mine wasn't great. And unfortunately...

Chaos won initiative.

TURN 1
Chaos
His CSM units on the NE sector tried to shoot past the hormagaunts to hit the Zoanthrope, but failed. However he was able to kill 2 hormagaunts. His oblitorators were more efficient and was able to kill my Zoanthrope, my Tyrant Guard, and put 1 wound on the Hive Tyrant.

Tyranids
I was able to stun the predator on the NW side, and destroyed his lascannon. I moved my hormagaunts and Devilfex to the NW area, in hopes I would attack in a proper wave format. I hesitantly moved my Winged Hive Tyrant behind cover to avoid fire from the NW units, but I noticed that my right flank would be open if he shot from his units in the NE. I got into combat with the Demon Prince with my Ravener, but I failed to make any rending hits. Of course, it got crushed with the Demon Prince's counter attack. In its massacre roll, it moved closer to the Hive Tyrant.

Diagram at end of Turn 1

TURN 2

Chaos
Seeing that a fight between the demon prince and Winged Hive Tyrant was imminent, several units focused their fire to shoot at my Winged Hive Tyrant. He was able to score 1 wound, softening him up for the Demon Prince. Being out in the open, he was also able to kill 5 hormagaunts and put 2 wounds on the Devilfex. In close combat, my weakened Winged Hive Tyrant got jacked-up by the Deamon Prince, while he made 2 great invulnerable saves. His massacre roll put him in base contact with my genestealers. And since this was not part of the assault phase, I wasn't able to perform a pile in maneuver nor move to get all of my genestealers in close-combat in my next turn...

Tyranids
Desperately trying to slow down their fire, I was able to stun the proxied predator on the NE side using my Carnifex, and destroy the lascannon. However, I wasn't able to stun the other predato with my shooting Hive Tyrant. I killed 3 chaos space marines on the NW side with my Devilfex, in my efforts to soften it up for my hormagaunts to attack.

In close combat, I was able to kill a single CSM, while he killed 2 Hormagaunts. There were only 2-3 Genestealers that could participate in combat with the Daemon prince, which massacred into me. As such, I only got a single rending hit, which he saved. In turn he was able to kill 2 genestealers. Although I was within synapse range, he outnumbered me, but I was able to make my 3 "no retreat" saves.

Diagram at end of Turn 2

TURN 3

Chaos
He continued to lay fire on my units, adding another 2 wounds on my Devilfex. I felt that even the additonal wound on my it wouldn't make a difference. In close-combat, he killed 3 more genestealers, while I only inflicted one rending hit. He failed his invulnerable save. Again, I miraculously made my 3 no-retreat saves. The CSM fighting the hormagaunts on the NW side were able to kill off 1 hormagaunt, while I failed to kill any units. I wasn't outnumbered, so that ended that part of the turn.

Tyranids
I shot at the obliterator with my Devilfex, knowing that it wouldn't be that effective. I was able to score a single wound. With my Carnifex, I was able to stun only 1 of the predators, again failing to stun the other with my shooting Tyrant. My hormagaunts were able to tie combat, each killing a few units each. However, my last genestealer was killed, not getting any rending hits. The daemon prince advanced towards my shooting tyrant.

Diagram at end of Turn 3

TURN 4

Chaos
He used a few of his CSM units to kill off my Devilfex. In addition his obiliterators and free predator, scored 2 wounds on the shooting Tyrant (which I felt it should have been able to kill outright in the shooting phase). Using the Daemon Prince to finish the job, he killed my shooting Tyrant and consolidated into my Carnifex.

Tyranids
At this point, I knew this game was a lost cause, but I wanted to keep on plugging away to learn what I could. I was able to kill 2 CSM, winning combat, but he passed his leadership test, being fearless, and passed his "no retreat" saves.

Diagram at end of Turn 4

TURN 5

Chaos
Having all of my units tied in combat, his Daemon prince scored 3 wounds on my Carnifex, while I was only able to score 1. He made his invulnerable save.

Tyranids
Again I had no shooting to worry about so combat ensued. My Carnifex got diced by the Daemon Prince, while I killed 1 CSM in the Hormagaunt/CSM battle in the NW. With no synapse, it was a waste of time to even bother going continuing. I respectfully conceded.

RESULT - Crushing loss for the Tyranids/Crushing victory for the Chaos side.

Reflections
The past few games has always involved the mission, Seek and destroy. So he's had the luxury of just sitting back and shoot, while his daemon prince moves around at will. I'm curious to know if his tactics would change if the mission was objective based or required move movement. I was also disappointed that I only had only 2 rending hits in the entire game, which I think really hurt me. To his credit he was great in using his consolidation rolls. When his Deamon Prince did his massacre roll (after defeating the Hive Tyrant) he consolidated right into my genestealer squad. Since there's no opportunity for a pile-in maneuver, I wasn't able to get my full complement of attacks in the first round of combat.

I'm also unsure about my deployment. I think I did as well as I could have. The center terrain piece made it difficult to deploy wisely and by the time his obliterators arrived, I already committed to attacking the West side (which at the time was looking vulnerable).

Regardless, I think his list was great. His deployment was strong and his tactics were sound. Conversely, I don't think I did anything right in the game, which will happen a lot with this opponent now. He earned this victory and has defeated me twice in a row (both games Seek and Destroy). Most importantly, as its a new list, its done well for him so he's excited that he's being competitive in games playing other opponents.

Losing can be as effective a teacher as winning, if not better. So I look forward to hearing your comments. I'm hoping next time we'll get a different mission and better cover to see what happens.

_________________
Rudy Wilfred Picardo

Commander RudyPicardo posted his report on Warpshadow and asked for opinions there. I was honored that he specifically asked for my opinion. He had worked out an idea of shifting his forces in an easterly direction, sweeping across his deployment zone and up into the opposite corner. It was an interesting idea, but I didn't think it was the best answer, given the makeup of his force and his opponent's. Below is my reponse and suggestions.

The Armchair General's Response
While your easterly shift seems like a good idea, I think you would have run into the twin problems of too much time in front of their guns and the Daemon Prince hitting you from behind. (Not saying it couldn't work, but I think you actually had the right idea with hitting the flank you did even with the DP there.)

Given the terrain and the timing of your placements, I think you actually deployed pretty well. For picky bits, I would have put the Genestealers further forward in the ruins. I think I might've had the Flyrant a little further back, but maybe not. (It might be hindsight coloring my judgement there, but I usually deploy my Flyrant pretty conservatively.)

First turn (going second, though) I think a better bet would be to move the Genestealers up in the ruins and put the Flyrant behind them. That way if he charges the Genestealers or the Sniperfex, the Flyrant and Ravs can counter him. I think he got a little lucky on the saves, and you got a little unlucky on the attacks, but that happens.

Even with everything exactly the same, if you had countercharged the DP once he got in, things would probably have worked a little differently....

After he massacred into the Genestealers was your chance. You could divert the Horms into him to hold him in place, or simply hit with the Sniperfex and shooty Tyrant. The idea is to bring an extra 7 MC attacks into him while he's trying to pick off the Genestealers. Sure, neither the Tyrant nor the 'fex is going to be all that good in CC, but the weight of the two of them hitting should make it much more difficult for the DP, and it'll probably ensure that the Genestealers survive the first round of combat and can consolidate. At that point, you'll have a lot more attack power focused on him and he won't be able to squeak enough saves to get by. You should end up with your Sniperfex still in good shape.

In the meantime, the horms and Carnifex D go after the NW grouping. If you can get the Carnifex behind the terrain (between his NW group and your group) it should be okay for a turn or two, and if it can get a side shot at the Predator, that'll be it. If not, it should be able to charge the predator from the terrain, which'll kill the vehicle and keep you from getting shot by the other predator, I think. It still won't give you a crushing victory, but you'll have a decent shot at that point.

If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know

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