Game 1- Secure and Control... in Hell!
So the first game saw Brian and his Ultramarines against Nick and his brand spanking new Tyranids. Ah. Ultramarines versus Nids in the Ultramar segmentum- just as nature intended LOL. Nick won the roll for deployment and selected the map Hammer and Anvil. At first I thought it was a weird choice for Tyranids (starting so far opposite would mean a long walk to get to grips with the Ultramarines), but Nick had a pretty good plan as it turned out.
With both sides deployed, Brian had more units than Nick so Nick got plus one and won the roll off. Nick set to work immediately by sending in two Trygons followed by 2 units of Genesetalers. Brian had castled up around the objective in the middle of the table and left plenty of room in his backfield for the Trygon to tunnel in and deep strike. Meanwhile, Nick's Hive Tyrand and Swarm Lord left their side, running straight on towards the front- veering to the left flank. Suddenly Nick's deployment made a lot more sense- Brian was swiftly under siege.
Brian immediately used a command point to allow him to shoot at a unit that just arrived via deep strike. His shooting managed to kill a couple of Genestealers on the right flank. Unfortunately, that's about as lucky as Nick got on that flank. On the charge, Brian's overwatch whittled down the Genestealers further. By the time they got to combat there were only three of them, too little to damage Brian's right flank. Nick's left flank attack did better- his Trygon destroyed a Dreadnought and the Genestealers destroyed a squad of bikers. The Tyranids then consolidated into other Ultramarine units.
In the Ultramarine turn, Brian used his Ultramarine tactic to withdraw and fire. This left the bulk of Nick's Tyranids open to an intense barrage of both heavy firepower and a ton of bolters. With some great rolling, Brian whittled down the Tyranids, wiping out the Genstealers and one Trygon. On the other end of the battlefield, Brian deployed his Inceptors near Nick's objective, shooting the babysitting Genestealer squad. They survived, angry with their Broodlord right behind them.
In turn 2, Nick was rapidly running out of options. His lone Trygon was still in the fight, but was weakening rapidly. His only hope was the Swarm Lord and his flying Hive Tyrant. Sadly, he rolled to charge with the Hive Tyrant and fell short. Meanwhile he suffered a few wounds from overwatch. With his Hive Tyrant hanging out there, he would prove to be easy pickings. On the other side of the field, the Genstealers killed two Inceptors, but the third hung on.
In Brian's second turn, he wheeled his castle toward the left flank. He shot the incoming beasts to death, while also dispatching the Trygon. While he made some great 5+ saves, it was just the hail of lead that killed the beasts. The bulk of Nick's army had been destroyed at this point. The Inceptor on the other side killed all but one Genestealer, which promptly killed the last Inceptor.
Although he was out of options, Nick still had the Broodlord and a lone Genstealer. Nick had hopped to babysit on the objective behind the volcano. Unfortunately Nick's advance rolls stunk, and he couldn't make it. Brian then turned all of his heavy firepower on them at distance, slaying them. It was over, but Nick played to the bitter end.
Brian, who never played against Tyranids before said "It was epic. A heroic struggle against the xenos, and such a cunning opponent". Nick said that it was a great game and "We need more biomass". Nick also said it was the "hail of bolter fire" that did him in. As an observer, it was a blast of a game, but it all hinged on die rolls, as both sides had great strategy.
Game 2- The Relic.. and a grand return!
So game two was between me and Joe. I had decided to play my Death Guard for the first time in the new 8th edition. I still don't have all the new models, but it was time to give them a go. And no, at 1500 I didn't use Mortarion. My list included: Lord of Contagion, Plaguecaster, 3 squads of Death Guard with a Meltagun (two squads had Rhinos, the third on foot). I also had 10 poxwalkers, two Drones (with Plaguespitters), and Plague Crawler, and a Preadator with Auotcannon and Heavy Bolters.
Joe took his usual Dark Angels (though this was his first with the new codex. His force included 5 squads of Terminators, a Contemptor Dreadnought, and Azrael and Belial. I must admit that I was intimidated, as I didn't know how I was going to destroy so many Terminators. Yikes.
The mission was The Relic. Joe won the roll off for the deployment, and he decided on Search and Destroy. After placing our models, I won the roll off with a six, so I got to go first. I immediately set to work shooting at the terminators. The Crawler, which I had serious doubts about, did a good job killing a couple of terminators. My Bloat Drones raced to meet them, but still out of range of their 9" weapon. Joe's turn, all his terminators moved toward the objective. He took a lot of shots at my Drones, and their Disgustingly Resilient did a great job allowing them to shrug off a lot (though not all) of their wounds.
It became a war of attrition around that objective. My drones now took shots at the terminators, as did everything else. It was a slow grind, just whittling them down one at a time. I tried to shake up his plans but dropping my Lord of Contagion near his flank, in an attempt to draw off some Terminators. Sadly, the tactic didn't work, and the Lord of Contagion got killed quick enough by the Terminators.
As the game went on, I lost my Bloat Drones. But he was losing Terminators. I still had 21 Plague Marines ready to go, plus my vehicles. By turn three, I had killed his Dreadnought, Azrael, and scores of Terminators. Joe couldn't make a 2+ roll to save his life, and terminators died to massed bolter fire.
At the end, it came down to Belial. He had made it to the relic, with some terminators BEHIND him. It was unavoidable, but Belial was now the closest enemy target. While he endured a shit ton of firepower (and killing off my Plaguecaster), in the end it was case of a wall of lead, and Belial died.
At the end he had only 3 terminators left. He was near the relic, but I had like 19 Plague Marines, the Crawler, the Predator, two Combi Plasma Rhinos, and a handful of Poxwalkers. Joe said that he had to concede, as there was no way 3 terminators could hold off that firepower.
It was a bitterly fought contest, in my opinion. He paid for every inch he advanced, and in the end he just kept rolling two or three 1s for saves, killing off his terminators slowly but inexorably. Joe said "It was a good first time out with a new codex. I still think the key concept is unit synergy and next time I will push that synergy to the max".
The back to back games were a lot of fun. We had a lot of laughs, some snacks, and lots of gaming carnage. Next time I promise to take better pictures- I hadn't intended to do battle reports but that's OK. Next time I will do a better job of it.
Until Next Time
