LoT Battle Report: Round 5: Space Wolves v Tyranids

Ya check that board out. Cover you say? Sure if you can swim! Luckily my opponent, Eddie Duncan (top bloke) and I decided to be really generous with our cover saves...i.e. anything within the river gets a 4+. We prob should of made it shooting down the river doesn't give you a 4+ but oh well. What's really annoying is 2 semi-decent boards behind us and to the side of us...weren't used =/. Anyway, Eddie's army was bloody nice looking and I got some tips on how to use the GW snow flock :P. His army consisted of 2x LR (one Redeemer, one Godhammer), 5 combat WG in TDA, 10x BC, 2x 10x GH, RP w/Lightning & Hurricane, 2x Vindie & a Dreadie w/PC. Issues for me instantly arise with 2x LR but I should be able to out-shoot him and if we ever hit combat and my Tervigons keep on pooping I can swarm him.



Mission is a 'classic' 5 objective seize ground with spearhead deployment and kill points as a secondary mission. I won roll-off and took the bottom right as my deployment zone so I could fit all of my MCs in there and spread my Gants out to cover three objectives. My Hive Guard all crowded in too except for one squad and the Raveners who hide behind some fences to force flank shots. Eddie deployed his Vindies in tandem in the middle of the River with his Godhammer w/GH next to them (basically sitting on the objective), his other GH hiding behind the Vindies to control the back objective and his Dread/LRR/BCs pushing my right flank. His RP hung out alone to use LL as much as possible as far away as possible.

Turn 1 saw me start to move my HG and Raveners on the left across but still behind cover whilst the rest of my army sort of shuffled forward. Army was slowed by poor terrain rolls on front gant squads which would be a recurring theme. I stretched out my gant squads so cover all of the objectives solidly whilst ensuring only one squad could be assaulted at a time. On my right the MCs started to edge towards where the inevitable LRR assault would land. My shooting saw a couple of BCs downed and both Vindies shaken but little else. Eddie didn't move much either and just repositioned his Dread, one vindie and BCs. The LRR w/Wolf Guard moved up his table edge to threaten my right flank.

Turn One:

Turn 2 saw more of the same for me as my army slowly advanced and more Gants were spawned (I think I only had 3 models left at this point so needed him to kill some) and pushed more gants up the right flank but held my MCs back in case of a tank shock. On the left flank the Raveners fleeted into the river in the corner and the Hive Guard were able to get a couple side shots on the Vindie. Shooting was a bit poor again though I took off a Redeemer cannon from the LRR but only immob/shook one of the Vindies. Eddie again advanced with his Redeemer and dropped his WG to the side of the Redeemer to assault some gantlets. His shooting was a bit more effective dropping a Ravener and a Hive Guard from the left flank and a wound off a Tervigon (oh btw I had 4 Perils in this game lol). The gants did no damage and with No Retreat saves there were a couple of Gants remaining so I couldn't shoot the WG!

Turn Two:

Turn 3 is where the fun starts...kinda. My HG and Raveners fail their IB tests so the HG is forced to shoot at the Vindie's side whilst the Raveners move towards the RP. My army is still slowly advancing up the river whilst still scoring but I've now got 3 MCs moving towards his LRR on the right to assault his WG next turn. I've also surrounded the squad with another Termagant squad so he is forced to assault them next turn. My shooting wrecks the Vindie on the right and drops another couple of BC who pass their Ld. Eddie pretty much stays pat during his movement but hops his WG out to assault the...Termagants! Same reasoning as Ben with his LRR, he didn't want to face that Tyrant in combat (lash whips own :)). The Temagants were wiped out in combat though he wasn't able to move around my Gant wrap. During his turn he took that squad down to 2 gants left but had wrapped around them and was closer to my MCs. My right Tervigon is down to 2 wounds btw, the lone Hive Guard is on 1 wound and the Raveners had 4 wounds remaining between them. [Oh and hey, check out the pretty pics of my HG/Tervigon/T-Fex in this pic...it's like shaded, highlighted and stuff =p.]

Turn Three:

Turn 4 saw some more ineffectual shooting and the Raveners would end up failing to get into combat with the Priest. My army moved up around the river again but has been slowed by DT the whole game. The Tyrant & T-Fexes on the right move up to assault the wolf guard and the remaining vindie is shaken again. The Tyrant & 1 t-fex charges into combat and drop all the Wolf Guard before they can strike and consol towards the LRR. The 2 remaining Gants hide behind the rest of my army to save a kill point. Eddie's turn is pretty static as he maneuvers the Redeemer to shoot the Tyrant. His shooting is able to drop the Tyrant Guard and the Tyrant down to 2 wounds but can't bring down anything else.

Turn Four:

Turn 5 saw some good terrain roles for gants finally! So they surged forward in an effort to swamp his lines but with that remaining Godhammer...going to be hard. My T-Fexes & Tyrant moved towards the Redeemer to stop it contesting if they could kill it whilst the Raveners move towards the Priest again. My shooting didn't do much again but the Raveners squished the Priest in combat and the Tyrant was able to wreck the Redeemer. Phew! I also charged some gants in towards the Godhammer to gain some more ground. Eddie's turn saw him tank shock his Godhammer forward to contest one of my objectives but otherwise protect his two objectives and hope for another turn so he could send his Raider elsewhere. The Hunters had hopped out as well and tried to down the Hive Guard with 1 wound but he was fine. Game ended and we were tied on objectives 2-2 with me ahead on KP 4-2.

Turn Five:

This was another exciting game. Giving pretty much everything a blanket 4+ cover prob made the game a bit more boring in table-top terms than it should of been but Eddie and I had a great time chatting and wincing at terrible dice rolls for him o.O! With poor terrain movement rolls I wasn't able to pressure his line as much as I'd of liked, especially since I had spawned so many gants but with 2 AV14 tanks it was going to be hard to take them both down and if the game went on, it would of been interesting to see if I could of stopped his Godhammer from tank shocking and contesting a lot of my objectives. Anyway, great game Eddie! And it's annoying that wargamerAU is souring the whole event atm because they mistook my comments as attacks @ them. Meh.

Anyway, here's Eddie's army on his display board. Very pretty!