Sunday, July 11, 2010

Battle Report - Tyranids v. Eldar





I blew the dust off my Tyranids today since my Eldar are currently locked in a challenge in our challenge league.


It gave me an excuse to try out the Mycetic spores I cooked up not too long ago. I only have the two finished so far, but have 4 more coming. I'm still not sold on spores as a 'must have' either.


Opponent's list; Eldrad and seer council, Howling Banshees in Wave Serpent, 10x Dire Avengers in Wave Serpent (x2), 5 Rangers, 5 Fire Dragons (x2), 3 Falcons.


My list: Hive tyrant with Stranglethorn, Brainleeches, 2+ save, Regen, Hive Commander, Leech, Scream,3 Tyrant guard.
The Great White Hive Tyrant with Wings, Brainleeches, Regen, Acid Blood, Adrenal Glands, Miasma, Old Adversary, Leech, Paroxysm
3 Zoanthropes, all individual
19x Stealers, 1 Broodlord
19x Stealers, 1 Broodlord, Scything Talons, Mycetic spore
Carnifex, Claws, Talons, Regen, Adrenal, Bio Plasma, Mycetic Spore
Biovore


2000 points, C&C mission, Spearhead deployment. I won the roll for deployment and chose to go first, which was my first mistake. Having all the stealers in reserve as well as the GWHT and 'fex, I should have allowed him to go first or maybe left more off board. What was I thinking? lol


Initiative was stolen, and the Eldar went first. Wave serpents swooped in for attack, trying to give the Zoanthropes a wide berth, Falcons hung back to take pot-shots. The falcons only scored one hit on a Tyrant guard, missed the Zoeys. Rangers hit but failed to wound. Tyranids return fire, killing a couple of Rangers, one Zoey that the opponent failed to notice behind a building zoomed out and tried to attack a Wave Serpent but only managed to get a headache, taking a wound. Curse you Eldrad!! Tyrant failed to hurt the falcon Biovore misses with a spore, which is a good thing.


Turn 2; Eldar move in a bit closer, wound the Tyrant and kill one of his guard due to a hail of fire. Manage to wound a Zoey, but he saves. Thanks to Hive commander, all but the outflanking stealers show up. The spore mine wanders up behind the tank it missed and the GWHT lands spot on for a rear shot at said tank, but he fails to knock the troops out of the tank. The stealer spore lands in an okay position, and the carnifex spore wanders nearly to the far end of the board. Another mistake - I dump him out on the open side in order to get a shot in with the plasma, which fails to hurt the falcon. Manage to get 'can't shoot' on two of the serpents. One zoey manages to kill himself thanks to Perils.


Turn 3; Dire avengers pour out of their transports and bladestorm the Doomed Stealers huddled around their Mycetic spore. One serpent tank shocks a spore mine and pops it. Cover grants them saves, but not enough, serpents lends support and only a angry wounded broodlord survives. Falcons hammer at the Doomed GWHT and leave him with one wound, but alive and very hungry. Fire dragons hop out of one of the falcons and vaporize the carnifex with 4 very lucky hair dryer shots. The other Stealer squad appears at this point and on the correct flank thankfully! They head right for the DA squad sitting on the objective. The GWHT regends one wound and then drops onto the bridge where the other DA squad is and the Lone Broodlord moves into the woods where the FD are hiding. Biovore misses and another spore mine is hanging out. Eldrad is making life tough for the remaining 'thropes and the other Tyrant fails to get enough movement to get close to the serpent full of Banshees so moves away, faling to hurt it with his shooting. The GWHT risks Eldrad's runes and successfully uses his Leech Essence gaining another wound back!! The stealers' Mycetic spore manages to kill two unlucky fire dragons, then close combat happens. The Lone Broodlord charges through the woods and takes a bonk on the head from a lucky fire dragon, but saves and eats two faces in return. The full squad of stealers hit the DA and overflow into two of the falcons, they tear off a pulse laser on one, but the other is unhurt. only 2 DA left to strike back. The GWHT kills a few of his DAs and is unhurt for the return strikes. All the eldar fail morale and are caught by sweeping advance. everyone heads for cover after combat.


At this point we have to call the game due to time constraints. Eldar have one scoring unit in a building a LONG way from the objectives, Hive tryants between each of them. One of the 'nid scoring units is a wounded broodlord the other is at full strength but about to get hit by Doom and 4 destructor warlocks. Not a lovely prospect. My opponent concedes, but I'm not so sure it's a given win for me. that seer council would kill a LOT, if not all, of bugs with no saves. They'd be eaten by the GWHT, sure, but that would result in a draw, since that lone broodlord wouldn't survive the sprint to either of the objectives, especially with that limp. All of the Eldar tanks were operational. Still no way to determine how it would have gone.


I call re-match!! :)

In examining the list, I think that two tyrants may have been overkill in a 2000 point game, and everyone is a bit too stacked out. I do however like how everything functions and can't really think of how I would change it. I'm short on troops, but 2 20-strong broods work pretty well. I could drop 2 Zoeys, Tyrant guard and the biovore for a third lightweight stealer brood, but I lose some serious firepower on the Zoanthropes. Just don't know, have to try the rematch and see.

1 comment:

  1. Excellent memory! What a fun game that was :D

    My biggest concern for you going into that match was your anti-tank capabilities, but your deep strike ability left my rear armor ready for the taking. The zoanthropes would have performed on a much higher level against an army that didn't include RoW, or something like it... I'm just glad I had Eldrad around to shut them down, because that was some nasty fire power. :)

    If I had been a bit more experienced, I would have given myself more room from that table edge, giving me enough time to run away from those outflanking stealers when they piled on. Another huge mistake was to not bring my other firedragon falcon into play against your GWHT. The falcon just kind of putzed around trying to knock out that other Zoanthrope, which, to no surprise knowing my Falcon's propensity for missing shots, did next to nothing.

    All in all, it was an extremely satisfying game. It seems like it's a rarity to see that many casualties in one game these days (unless it's just me getting pummeled). That said, I absolutely accept your offer for a rematch, and I'll look forward to it!

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