Email in: 1000 IG vs Nid Battlerep

"Hi Kirbs,

thought I might share with you guys a game I had recently with a friend of mine. We randomly rolled up a "Battle Missions" mission, and got prepared assault. For those of you out there unfamiliar with the senario; it is an objective mission with table halves. There are three objectives, one placed dead centre, a second placed in the midway point of the IG deployment zone (12 inches from the table edge), the final objective is placed by the IG player anywhere within normal resctrictions in th nid deploymeny zone. As with most battle missions the mission's team goes first unless you roll a 1 to steal the initiative, which I failed to do. Deployment is the xenos on the tagble then the IG get to respond (and get first turn).

This bat rep is from Roger, so thanks Roger! Kirby comments in blue. Have read through this bat rep but haven't made comments yet (thesis work). So let's see what others think before my little blue comments (or I'll just write a comment at the end) pop up. Oh and pics are good to go with bat-reps :p.

THE 1000pts ARMIES

nids
Tyrant (LW BS, HVC, reg, old adv) + guard
1 hive guard
1 zoanthrope
11 termagaunts (naked)
20 hormogaunts (naked)
1 tervigon (tox, catyl, free cluster)
10 gargoyles
1 Mawloc

IG
company command with MOO
3 ratlings
Alrahiem + platoon command
20man squad grenade Lnchers + commissar & priest
10 man vet with SRGT harker
10 penal legion + priest
10 penal legion
5 rough riders
1 leman russ battle tank (lascannon front)

OK initial analysis, neither of us were runing "hard" armies, no chimeras, very few anti tank for nids. Some more colourful units taken on each side, so it should pan out to be an interesting game. The commissar and penal legions are stubborn which had proven to be inportant in holding the line in previous engagements. The snipers are great against nid MCs, the 3 actually killed a prime outright second last game after it had detatched from its unit to charge two nearby units that were not within coherency of the original group of warriors (the prime's attack was successful, but he was left standing in the middle of nowhere and proceeded to get thriple rended that shooting phase!). The penal legion have scout so are flankable and tactical, and even had knife fighting last game to take down a carni after IG lasguns had removed the terma bubble wrap. Also Alrahiem was outflanking with his 20 man stubborn squad, fun days.

DEPLOYMENT

My Nids deployed as far forward as possible, with my gaunts hormos screening the front, and gargoyles covering the tervigon. The mawloc started on the field to the far left as a ruse since i was going pop him under first turn. (this was in a hope to either have him clump up on the left away from my MC, as the right flank was fairly bare, or try to deploy something to counter it in which case I would dig under and ignore).

The IG placed the final objective on the left flank in the nid deployment zone as required along with harker and his infiltrating vets, the snipers were deep RHS nid zone, the rest was mainly clumped in the LHS of the nids.

Turn 1

IG didn't lose the initiative, they dropped both stray rounds (free battle cannon shots from the mission), hitting the gargoyles protecting the tervi and the tervi but whiffing. shooting was ineffectual but did thin the gaunt screen. The leman rolled 1's to would the tervi twice :(

Nids move up centre, except the tervi and garg who peel off left to deal with harker and try to hold the left obj in the nid zone. The mawloc went under. The Tervi pooped 11 guys. Nid shooting did a little to the penal legion but couldn't line up the leman who was on the left flank and only really visible to the tervi, but out of range. The gargoyles shot and charged harker who had moved slightly closer for better shots (woops, he needed to stay 18 inches out to be safe), but harker and his squad held.

turn 2

IG successfully rolled for Alrahiem's reserve and even got the flank he wanted ( a power weapon wielding instant death platoon commander, ok he needs a six tou wound an MC, but it will die instantly!). The IG penals pushed around the left flank under the cover of a bitg LOS blocking wall. The leman russ was only a bit luckier shooting the tervi causing one wound. Alrahiem's 20 man squad proceeded to charge into and smack down the gargoyles. The rough riders moved into a position to support Alrahiem. The snipers failed to hit anyhting (then were actualy forgotten about for a turn).

Nids in a game turning event the Mawloc came up, targeting the centre of Alrahiem's squad, he HIT, and my preceeding 5 to wound rolls were all successful, so Alrahiem was instakilled by the str 6 hit (this really changed the game as now only the tank had anythign I feared on that flank!). The tervi pooped 9 more guys (still not rolling doubles). These extra gaunts really secured the flank and objective on the LHS in the nid zone. The hormos moved up the centre with a good high run roll along with the tyrant and zoey, the Hguard peeled left to deal with the leman (side armour shot without LOS this turn). Nid shooting was good, HVCs are great vs light infantry huddling. The spawned gaunts moved to prevent the roughriders charging and shot... and did significant damage makeing the riders run with one guy left. The Hormos charged a penal squad. the Tervi charged the 20 man squad with the commissar&priest to hold them up (you still poop guys in HTH). The hormos were awesome, and the tervi won his combat barely.

Turn 3

IG were in serious trouble, the middle was folding under hormos and the flank attack was totally held up by good tervi spawns. The rough ridder counter chargers have been dealt with (they had plans to finish the tervigon off in a charge after some shooting). The leman russ repositioned, and put a wound on the mawloc, and Harker standing on the left nid zone objective fired at the mawloc too. The company command squad moved into cover and fired at the hormos along with the other penal squad. The overall effect was minimal, but it certainly improved his positioning.

Nids moved towards combat, with mawloc going for Harker and the hormos going for the company command, the Hguard moved into range for the leman russ and the tervi again pooped a large number of guys (I can't remember how many that turn, but overall he/she/it made 56 gaunts without doubling!). The spawned gaunts and two other squads got ready to charge in and support the tervigon. Nid shooting was fantastic, I blew up the Leman russ with the Hguard from the side, (I had gambled by not sending the Mawloc to engage the tank, knowing I would only hit it on 4+, and I wanted to remove Harker to absolutely secure the objective). The gaunt charge supporting the tervi was great, but the commissar held his squad due to stubborn. All the company command died to the hormos except the commander.

Turn 4

IG were praying for a quick death at this point, we continued for fun, but knew a result had been reached. The 20man IG squad that flanked lost combat but didn't all die, holding after the execution of a serg. The penal legion positioned to help the commander and the ratlings who were now out of range (since everything had run towards the IG line decided to run towards the fight.

The nids just kept on rolling at this point, the tervi continued to poop more guys, the 20man IG squad with the commissar was finished off, and the penal legion and commander bit the dust.

At the end of this turn there was only the ratlings on the table for the IG, all TMCs were still standing and well we just rolled again for ther tervi's spawn and called it a game.

ANALYSIS

IG must have decent firepower to win against nids, yeah we all know it, but my friend knows it well now. The use of one or two speed bump squads is good, but he spent too many points on them which detracted from the rest of his army. The battle mission set the nids quite close the the IG lines, leaving very little room to move. So in the end it was easy to overrun the IG without much incoming fire. The use of commissars in large combined squads is very cool, but a 40 man sqaud with stronger specials and heavy weapon teams would have been better, my suggestion is Plasma and Missiles, meaning you can stay put at 24" and have very good firepower, the missiles being able to diversify vs infantry if there is no armour (Meltas are a waste at 12", they are better put to good use on vet or command squads). His lack of transports hurt him, but he deliberately went non-mech. I know this makes the game not ultra competative, but it is fun to explore other options in your codex. As we all know what is best/works anyhow. He took both a manticore and sentinel with his leman russ last game, and they were quite nice. The Leman russ didn't have sponsons so it could move 6" and shoot every turn, I think sponsons are some nice extra firepower for a few points, but he will need to deploy well to make the most of it.

Nids, well the mawloc is such a hit and miss unit. But it rocked that night, and tactically it can be powerful to have a t6 w6 MC that can teliport across the board in 2 turns. This movement is an interesting aspect and although it bites in combat compared to a trygon, the ability to contest and objective last turn is very powerful (just ask and typical Eldar player these days with there scooty falcons and serpents). The hormos shone that night, not in their combat ability, but in their ability to pressure the enemy from line. They creat cover for the tyrant guard (hence the tyrant too), the other mid range guys or even gaunts/garg. It is not an obvious benefit, but is a syngergy which plays very well. The followup attack from raveners/garg/GS is something I am looking forward to implementing in the future. The Hguard who are marching up the field also get the cover and have the vital rol of demeching for the ensueing charges.

I must praise the new Nid codex, the ability to move around the board and better balance have made a great and fun codex. I hate the SITW rules, and the carnifex costs are a bit out of line with the other biggies. The new psychic abilities are sweet although they played no real role in that nights battle.

Overall enjoyed the cat and mouse of the game where infiltrators put pressure on unexpected parts of the army, and outflankers tactically manouvered to hold an objective in bugland. It is just a shame there wasn't more big guns to force more difficult choices on my part, also the IG target priority was a bit iffy, but what can he do when you roll 3 1's to would a tervigon with battlecannons/lascannons? "