Invasion Update!
Last weekend I got in another game against the Eldar player I had played previously in this invasion. (For details on the invasion, go here) When we last met, he had been out of 40k for a while and it showed. I gave him some tips after the game in a friendly fashion, and some time passed. I ran into him again and he said he'd been looking for me to get in another game. Apparently he had taken my tips to heart and had been undefeated in his past 7 games! I was quite pleased to hear this and looked forward to going up against him again, with his new knowledge and experience.

Terrain
He suggested we play 1500pts so that he could use his whole army, and I agreed. I setup the terrain while he made up his list (I've already got a 1500pt list made up.) I put a large building in the center of the table, then some hills in one corner, and a large forest and a small forest in two of the others. I figured that there was a decent amount of terrain on the table, but not so much that there weren't large open areas.

Setup
He set up most of his forces in a supportive "castle" formation, with the Farseer and Wraithguard in front of the Dark Reapers, the Avatar and one Wraithlord in front of them and the Banshee Waveserpent nearby to reinforce them. The Rangers, the second Wraithlord and the Fire Dragon Wave Serpent were in a grouping toward the other side of the table, but within support range of most of their weaponry. For my setup, I refused my flank, overloading his castle side with my whole army and keeping the building between my forces and his support side. My 2 broods of Alpha Genestealers (Extended Carapace, Scuttlers) were poised at the edge of the deployment zone to take advantage of their better armor and Scuttling move and get across to the enemy quickly. The other 4 broods of Genestealers, without either Carapace or Scuttlers, piled in behind them. I made sure that my Carnifex was out of the way of the deployment, and put my Hive Tyrant behind the building to keep it safe in case I didn't get the first turn. The Raveners filled in anywhere they could fit. Before we rolled for first turn, I moved the Alpha Genestealers 6" straight forward.

Turn 1
I won the roll for first turn, and, shock of shocks, I moved forward! Since the Carnifex had no other targets, he put a couple of shots into the nearby Wraithlord, but it made it's saves. In turn, the Eldar fired into the Alpha Genestealer broods, reducing one of them to a single Genestealer, and cutting the other one nearly in half. The Wraithlord and Avatar moved forward, and the Avatar assaulted the lone Genestealer, killing it.

Turn 2
The leading Genestealer broods move past the Avatar, assaulting the Farseer and the Wraithguard. Another brood assaults the Wraithlord, while 2 of the following broods and a Ravener all jump on the Avatar. The Wraithlord and Avatar and the Ravener all die, as do a Genestealer and a Wraithguard or two. In turn, the Banshees leap out of their Wave Serpent and assault the nearer brood of Genestealers, killing them and consolidating back behind the small forest*. In turn, the Wraithguard are wiped out and the Farseer flees, but is brought down by the Alpha Genestealers.

*looking back on this, I'm not sure how we did it that way. Either my notes are a bit off, or we should have continued the combat with the Alpha Genestealers and the Banshees. It wouldn't have made much of a difference, though, as you'll see next turn.

Turn 3
The Carnifex takes aim at the exposed Waveserpent and sends it crashing to the ground. Two broods of Genestealers pincer around the forest and trap the Banshees between them. The fabled Banshee masks help little, killing but a single Genestealer before the entire squad is massacred. Meanwhile, the remaining Alpha Genestealers rush in against the Dark Reapers and rend them limb from limb instantly. The unengaged Genestealers follow the Tyrant and Ravener toward the far Wraithlord and Rangers. The Tyrant sends the Ravener ahead to damage the Wraithlord, which it does, causing 2 wounds before being beaten into the ground by giant fists. The Wraithlord assaults the Tyrant in turn, but is cut down before it can swing. The Fire Dragon Wave Serpent, deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, moves away from the Tyrant and approaching Genestealers.

Turn 4
The Tyrant assaults the Rangers, tearing through their carefully concealed position and killing 4 of them. The remainder flee, but are shredded as the Tyrant catches them. The Carnifex manages to stun the Fire Dragon Wave Serpent, at which point my opponent concedes the game, saying it will be easy for the Tyrant to catch and kill it in the next turn. I'm not so sure about that, but we only have 2 turns left in the game and I have a pretty big lead in points, so I don't quibble.

The final score was 368 to 1500, a pretty good margin for my Tyranids, though it was a much better showing for him than the last game. While he deployed and moved in a much more effective manner and made good use of his castle and his support, there were still a few things that I think my opponent could have done better. (Mind you, the Banshees biting me in the backside was highly effective and I managed to totally not see it coming! So that part was first rate.)

During the Deployment, I thought it was interesting that he set up the second Wraithlord and the Rangers and the Fire Dragons/Wave Serpent so far away. My first thought is that they would mostly be more effective if they were closer in. If the second Wraithlord and the Fire Dragons and their Serpent had deployed roughly centered (behind the building from me) they would have been out of immediate harm's way, but in a position to more directly support the main castle. On the other talon, he might have been trying to be cagey and use a split deployment, in which case, I take it back, sort of. With a split deployment, you basically plan on sacrificing one side to the enemy army and using it's sacrifice to keep the enemy from getting to your other side. The only problem is, he really didn't have enough shooting to do it. 4 Dark Reapers and 8 Rangers and a couple of Bright Lances and Star Cannons don't a shooty army make. (Fire Dragons don't count for this part because they are so short-ranged.) Assuming a split deployment with this army, at the very least the 2nd Wraithlord should have been further back, preventing me from getting there in a single turn. Overall, though, I'd still go with reinforcing the castle, as that Wraithlord and those Fire Dragons would have been much more effective there.

I also thought he was a bit barmy advancing the first Wraithlord and the Avatar toward me. Sure, the Avatar killed off the last of the first brood of Alpha Genestealers, but it guaranteed me a charge on turn two. In fact, since I was able to move my lead units around the Avatar, it let the bulk of my army get the charge on turn 2, when they shouldn't have been able to charge until turn 3. Yes, the Avatar is a big, bad nasty in close combat, but he's faced my Genestealers with his Avatar before and he should know what they can do, especially in numbers. Holding the Avatar and Wraithlord back, or even moving backward a little would have kept most, of my forces off of him for another turn, which would have given his shooting a bit more time to take effect. Given his first turn's shooting, that would have cost me at least one more brood of Genestealers, possibly a second.

The final thing that I thought was odd was the Fire Dragons turning tail and running when the Tyrant ate the Rangers. If they had jumped out of their Wave Serpent and unloaded on my Tyrant, I would be down one Tyrant and he would have gotten a quick 169 VPs. At that point, the Tyrant was pretty far ahead of the rest of the Genestealers, so he probably could have found a place to shoot from where they wouldn't be immediately eaten in return. They could then have embarked on the Wave Serpent and moved away to attack elsewhere.

Admittedly, this is all with the benefit of hindsight and analysis, but I think that he had the opportunity to get 300-500 more points in that game, if he made those adjustments. My hope is that by analyzing these decisions, I (and you and he) will have a better understanding of the game of 40k and perhaps even tactics in general. The better my opponents are, the better I will become. The rising tide carries all ships!

Initially I thought that this victory meant that I'd finally eaten Kimmeria in the Warpshadow Invasion, but when I checked later, I'm still 908pts shy of taking it down. Well, one more game should do it, and they won't get reinforcements until after the next game. Then I can unleash my scouting fleets on the rest of the system, and it should prove a much easier battle after this. Have I told you about my new scouting plan for the Invasion? Hmm, if I told you, I might just have to kill you... better check back next week!

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