Pleased to Eat Ya
I went by the local GW store last night to get a game in. I met a Tyranid player named Steve (hi Steve!) who asked if I was looking for a game. He suggested 2000pts, because he was practicing for a tournament at that point level. Although I'd originally planned to have a smaller game, around the 1000pt level, I decided to go for it. If I put all my painted stuff down, I can bring 1945pts, which is close enough to 2000 for me. We got to the table and he asked which edition I wanted to play, 4th or 5th. (Even though the book isn't officially out yet, GW stores have made it available for people and some tournaments are already using the rules.) Well, I wanted him to be able to practice for his tournament, and I'm always interested in learning new things, so I said that as long as he didn't mind walking me through the rules, we could play 5th. He agreed and we were off. I won't actually talk much about the 5th edition rules except where they come up in the battle report for now. I do plan on writing about some of the new rules and sort of a first glance response to them, but that will wait until later. Right now, onto the business of killing each other in a friendly, respectful manner!

Tau Expeditionary Forces, Bork'an Sept

97 Shas'El PR, MP, TA, HWMT
97 Shas'El PR, MP, TA, HWMT

201 Shas'Ui Crisis Team: 3xPR, MP, MT. Team Leader has TA and HWMT
201 Shas'Ui Crisis Team: 3xPR, MP, MT. Team Leader has TA and HWMT
139 Shas'Ui Crisis Team: 2xPR, MP, MT. Team Leader has TA and HWMT

100 8xShas'La FireWarrior with Pulse Rifle. Team Leader also has Markerlight
100 8xShas'La FireWarrior with Pulse Rifle. Team Leader also has Markerlight
100 8xShas'La FireWarrior with Pulse Rifle. Team Leader also has Markerlight

70 Piranha with Fusion Blaster and Targeting Array
70 Piranha with Fusion Blaster and Targeting Array
70 Piranha with Fusion Blaster and Targeting Array

260 Shas'Ui Broadside Team: 3x TL Railgun and Smart Missiles with Advanced Stabilization. Team Leader has HWDC with 1 Shield Drone
260 Shas'Ui Broadside Team: 3x TL Railgun and Smart Missiles with Advanced Stabilization. Team Leader has HWDC with 1 Shield Drone
180 Shas'Ui Broadside Team: 2x TL Railgun and Smart Missiles with Advanced Stabilization. Team Leader has HWDC with 1 Shield Drone

1945pts. I have to note here that Steve pointed out I was short on points compared to his 2000, and he was going to take off the 2+ save from his Carnifi to make it more even. I pointed out that it was only 55pts difference and I wasn't too worried about it. It was only a small difference and I wanted him to be able to use his army as he originally intended. If I had ended up having to shoot at his Carnifi with my Crisis Battlesuits or my FireWarriors, it would have made a huge difference.

Terrain

The board was a lava board with fissures running around it. The board had a couple of buildings on it, but it was pretty sparse, so I suggested that we add a few more buildings to it. We still ended up with a pretty good killzone between the sides of the board, but considering the speed of Tyranids, it wasn't that big a deal.

We rolled randomly for mission and got the 2 Objectives one. (There's an objective in each player's deployment zone. Controlling the objectives wins the game.) He won the roll for first turn, and so he set up his army first. While at first glance, it looked like he was simply lining up across the board, I later realized that he had basically formed two wide prongs. Each side had a Sniper Megafex (Well, Carnifex w/T7 and 5W with a 2+ save and Venom Cannon/Barbed Strangler) and 2 broods of 8 Hormagaunts and a brood of 4 Reaping Warriors (Rending Claws, Scything Talons, 4+ Save and Leaping.) He then gave the prong across from my left side a Flying Hive Tyrant, a brood of 8 Gargoyles and a Zoanthrope. He had a Brood Lord with a large retinue of Genestealers and a Lictor in Reserve.

In turn, I setup in sort of a split deployment. I had a firebase on my left consisting of two teams of FireWarriors, a team of 3 Broadsides, a Crisis Team and 1 of my Commanders. On the far left, I had my third team of FireWarriors and both remaining teams of Broadsides, along with a Team of Crisis suits. The remaining team of Crisis Suits and my other commander setup in the center ready to support either side.

Under 5th edition rules, after all setup is complete, the player that was supposed to go second can roll a die. On a 6, they "Seize the Initiative" and go first instead. I made the roll and actually did get a 6. Since I was in range with most of my shooting, I didn't feel I needed to wait, so I took it.

Turn 1

Tau: Having run various Tyranid armies over the years, I knew how dangerous Flyrants are. I also knew how fast those Hormagaunts could be. Really, given the poor close combat abilities of the Tau, everything in the list was dangerous to me. I originally decided to focus on the Hormagaunts and the Flyrant, though I lost my focus a little bit at times. (looking back on it, the Hormagaunts were smart thing to focus on, both because of their speed and numbers and because they were the only Troops in his army, so they would be the only ones at the end of the game that would be able to claim the objectives.) I managed to get 5 Broadsides in view of the Flyrant, though it was in cover. I managed to cause 2 Wounds on the Tyrant. I also managed to kill a double handful of Hormagaunts from the various broods, and killed off a single Warrior from my left flank. While I might have been able to concentrate my fire a little better, and I would have liked to do a little bit more damage, I was pretty pleased with how the first turn went. I moved my Crisis Suits back behind cover and waited for the Tyranid response.

Tyranids: The Tyranids moved forward. The Flyrant moved up and the Gargoyles swarmed around it to give it cover. Most of Steve's broods rolled poorly on their Fleet of Foot or Difficult Terrain rolls. (1 unit of Hormagaunts actually managed to roll 3 1s for it's Difficult Terrain roll. Ouch.) I was a little surprised that he chose to take the prong on my right flank further to the outside. I think he was planning on using the terrain for more cover, but I'm used to Hormagaunts and other fast Tyranids moving forward as fast as possible. The Carnifi fired on my FireWarriors, killing 6 between the two teams.

Turn 2

Tau: My Broadsides move up to target the Flyrant. Even through the screen of Gargoyles (which now counts as cover) 6 Railguns make sure it goes down and stays down. My FireWarrior teams and various Crisis suits kill 6 of the 8 Gargoyles and another 7 Hormagaunts from the various broods. The Tyranid side was not looking nearly thin enough for me, but I'd taken down the Flyrant and seriously thinned the ranks of the various broods. (With the exception of the Warriors.) From experience on the Tyranid side of the table, I knew that thinning those broods gave me a better chance when they did close.

Tyranids: Broodlord and Genestealers arrive, surrounding my Broadsides and FireWarriors instantly. I knew those units were dead. The next thing was trying to keep everything else in that area from getting dead, too. The Horms and Warriors and Gargoyles on my left flank moved forward, while the other half of his army huddled closer to the building, getting as much out of the way of my shooting as possible. The Broodlord and Genestealers rolled poorly on their attacks, killing just 2 FW and a Shield Drone from the Broadsides. The Broadsides fought valiantly and actually managed to smash a Genestealer in return. The Tau resolved to hold the line and the fight continued.

Turn 3

Tau: Realizing that at any moment, the Genestealers would break out of the combat, I moved my left flank over and adjusted fire onto the Warriors and remaining Hormagaunts on that side. Between my left and center Crisis suits, I took down 2 of the Warriors and the rest of the Horms, while my left Piranha maneuvered forward to finish the last Warrior at close range with a pulse of fusion energy. The other Piranhas moved up to reinforce my left flank when the Genestealers broke through the lines. The far right FireWarriors also moved up a little to be able to lend their support when the time came. After taking down the Warriors and Hormagaunts, my central Crisis suits also moved into positions to reinforce the left flank. The FireWarriors and Broadsides were selling their lives dearly and I didn't want their sacrifice to be in vain. As expected, the Genestealers and Broodlord scythed through most of my FireWarriors and Broadsides. Also as expected, their courage wavered in the face of such odds, and they were cut down as they ran.

Tyranids: Lictor shows up on the roof of one of the buildings in the center, towering over my Shas'El. The Broodlord and Genestealers move forward, but they are just too far away and cringe at the sight of the guns being brought to bear on them. The Lictor jumps into combat with my Commander, but they fail to Wound each other. Just as this happened, the store closed. So we put the dice down, congratulated each other on a good game and started packing up.

So, who would've won? At dice down, I had 2 scoring units (These have to be Troops in 5th edition) left that might've been able to claim objectives, but were very slow and vulnerable to the shooting of his Carnifi. In turn, I think he had one scoring unit left of Horms, but they were even more vulnerable to any of my shooting. Neither of us directly controlled an objective, though a unit of my FireWarriors was fairly close to the one in my Deployment zone. If the game had continued on, I expect the Genestealers and Broodlord on my left would've fallen to the combined fire of my left and most of my center, while, if the Lictor killed my Shas'El, One Crisis team would have diverted to kill it. At that point if he didn't try to assault with the rest of his forces, I could've concentrated the Broadsides on killing the Carnifi (all 10 T7 Wounds of them!) and camped my FireWarriors on my objective. I wouldn't be able to get either of my remaining FireWarrior teams onto his objective (Even with Fleet, they just wouldn't have time to get there.) So, if I'm understanding it correctly, as long as I could keep his Hormagaunts off of his own objective, I'd win 1-0.

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