Battle Report - Tyranids vs. Eldar

A little overdue, but we finally got to play this game yesterday.

Noah took;

Eldrad + 3 warlocks

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3 squads of Dire Avengers

1 squad Pathfinders

1 squad of Striking Scorpions

1 squad of Fire Dragons

1 squad Howling Banshees

3 Wraithlords

I used the Swarm of Personality list with 3 zoanthropes and a lictor

The mission was sieze ground with 4 objectives and a pitched battle deployment. Noah won the toss and deployed everything. The pathfinders later infiltrated to target my zoeys. My 3 Zoeys deployed behind a building since it was my only unit on board, everything else reserved/outflanked. I believe he expected this, as the Eldar were bunched up in the center of his deployment zone. But lo, I had expected him to expect that. There was a plan... If only it had been a bit faster.

I stole the initative, and the Zoanthropes moved up and started blasting Pathfinders, but thanks to Eldrad's Runes of GettingInYourWay, not all of them were able to fire all the time. The Eldar had no targets other than sniper fire in their first turn, and neither side had any casualties. 2nd turn saw the deployment of everything except the Lictor and the Doom of Malan'tai. Rats!! The Parasite and his goons landed midfield in cover. The Great White and Carnifex landed in the thick of things and shot up some fire dragons and scorpions respectively. Each took wounds in the following turn. The 'fex was assaulted by a wraithlord and the Tyrant by the scorpions, though they failed to wound him or flee when he started eating faces. Both stealer squads came in on my right flank deep in enemy territory. One squad took a lot of shuriken damage and wound up fleeing for a turn. The banshees moved in and killed the 'fex's mycetic spore and moved on.

Turn 3 the lictor shows up, and hides waaaay up in the rafters of a ruin right in the midst of the eldar forces. The Tyrant finished off the scorpions and moved up, the carnifex was charged and wounded once by the wraithlord, but gave 2 wounds back in trade. The Parasite flew in and assaulted the fire dragons, killing two and spawning TWELVE ripper bases. Not bad for a first use. The Bonesword wielding warriors finished them off quickly. The stealer squad assaulted the Avatar (that old broodlord had killed an avatar before, then followed that up with a wraithlord, he was feeling confident). They inflicted a wound, but didn't have the staying power. The pathfinders and zoeys continued exchanging fire until the banshees came around the corner and the zoeys, in a move of desparation, charged the banshees. There were two banshees and one zoey at the end of the game, largely due to an errant barbed strangler round. The Eldar had closed in all round my guys in his deployment zone, and I was having trouble NOT dancing as I was hoping for just that.

Things were looking bad at the start of turn 4. The hive tyrant had been sniped while running for a date with the avatar or Eldrad. The carnifex was beaten down by the wraithlord, and the rippers were tied up by the same. The parasite and his goon squad contracted a fatal case of bladestorm from two squads, The lictor had to go to ground to keep his head attatched, and I only had one 'stealer squad left. But then, the Doom arrived. I had never played with this character before and neither of us knew what to expect. The mycetic spore homed in on the Lictor's phermone trail and landed precise. The doom slithered out and before he could say hi, a wraithlord and a squad of dire avengers had some brain popping action, then the doom used the newly aquired wounds to give the bunched up avengers (2 squads) and a warlock from Eldrad's group a really bad day. 15 models were hit!!

Everyone ran!

Noah and I were both stunned by the sheer devastation that DoM caused. I now see why theres a lot of hype online about him. He foccused a lot of fire on the DoM, and wound up doing a couple of wounds, but in subsequent turns, he never dropped below 6. The second squad of stealers overcame the Avatar and a third wraithlord, DoM actually finished off the Avatar, and the stealers followed up into Eldrad later. Despite being charged by the remnants of a DA squad, the stealers recovered and were able to assault into the DA hiding in a buliding that DoM smashed in HtH.

End of game: each of us had an objective. The pathfinders had run across the board and took the one near my zone. I held the one in the (now ruined) building.

I'm very impressed by both the DoM and the Parasite. The Doom goes without saying I believe since so many others have praised and commented on his abilities. Noah saw later (as I did) that the 'cure' is to get him into close combat. I plan on keeping him surrounded with termigaunts or stealers when possible. The parasite (and shrikes) while vulnerable to shooting, are absolutley insane in close combat. My tyrant got close enough to give them Preferred Enemy and granted I got lucky with the ripper roll, but I do plan on using them again soon!!