So today I went down to the local GW (only 50 minutes there and an hour and 30 minutes back! I love you Sydney traffic) to play...Vince. How boring. So a quickie before we go any further because I've got some more Stormraven pictures! It really looks a whole lot better in person (and in color) and whilst I wouldn't call it spectacular, I actually like it quite a bit. That post will be coming...
Army lists will be in comments btw and be prepared for a lot of pictures!
Anyway so the game. Our lists were handed in yesterday so it was time for one of us to test out the exact army they were taking to Centurion. Vince once again used my Marines because he was too lazy to bring his own armies even though he lives less than five minutes from the store. Bloody Russians. Apparently it was his birthday too so happy birthday again. Anyway we rolled mission 6 (pitched battle, KP, TQ, Objectives, VP) and I won the roll to deploy first (Vince looks to go 3/3 on seize rolls!).
I deployed pretty much dead centre in midfield with my Gants protecting my Hive Guard protecting my MCs. I wasn't too worried about giving cover to my Tervigons early on with only a couple Lascannons to worry about but later when all the Melta/LasPlas came into play getting them cover would be a priority. My main concern was protecting my Hive Guard which were Kill Points and the majority of my offensive firepower to crack open his tanks. With the centre bastion providing some LoS blocking I hoped they could take refuge there and control the centre of the board.
Vince deployed in two castles to deny me as much use of the LoS blocking basiton as much as possible. By essentially cornering his firepower he'd always be able to draw LoS to my Hive Guard. Whilst this helps against the Hive Guard it would also make focusing his firepower against my MCs harder unless he re-mobilised and since he was mech, this isn't too big of an issue. He was also able to gain cover for most of his vehicles against the Hive Guard by jamming them up against cover. How rude.
Tyranid Turn 1:
Vince failed to seize for once so I moved up as Tyranids do spawning 16 and 11 gants. One of my squads was also outflanking thanks to Hive Commander just for some little bit of disruption. Vince's speeders were in reserve so he could bring them on and flame things which had crossed midfield whilst denying me early shots against them. This meant I needed to limit the firepower coming in towards me....I was able to shake one LasPlas Razorback after some terrible rolls. Here we go...
Space Marine Turn 1:
Vince didn't move much (this will become a theme) but pushed his two rhinos forward and popped smoke. He then opened up with all his firepower on the Hive Guard and despite having Catalyst cast on two squads I had two squads left with 1 wound and one full squad. The Prime also suffered one wound. The joys of lots of dakka from the Marines were reaped but the Tyranids continued their advance.
Tyranid Turn 2:
With roughly 1/3 of my firepower gutted and another significant portion very vulnerable I was in a bit of a pickle. My initial salvo had done diddly squat in damaging Vince whilst he had taken out quite an important part of my army. Nothing to but it move forward some more! My termagants arrived and came in on my right flank. Unfortunately I hadn't popped anything yet so they scurried towards the ruins and prepared to be a nuisance if possible. My Tevigon which hadn't pooped out spawned 10 more gants but pooped out as well meaning my army is not set (at 1875 points lol). I moved two gant wings forward as bait with strings leading back towards my Tervigons whilst the Hive Guard tried as hard as possible to hide behind the bastion. The MCs lead their weight but weren't able to completely block LoS to the poor Hive Guard. The Prime joined one of the Termagant squads as a big "don't assault me" monster and catalyst was cast on the small HG squads again. My shooting was a little more effective exploding a Dreadnought, shaking the Rhino on the left and immobilising the Rhino in the middle (yay the T-Fexes did something!).
Space Marine Turn 2:
Still looking pretty solid for Vince who has the significant firepower advantage but still has 5 MCs on full wounds to deal with. One of his land speeder squads comes on from reserve and parks itself next to the centre rhino to template the Prime+Gant squad. The rest of his tanks stay still as his large Tactical squads jump out of their Rhinos and move into cover and a position to rapid fire some gants. (Here Vince really hurts himself. I'd suppressed his tactical squads nicely so he really should of left them be otherwise his squad on the left needed to jump out, assault the gants [not double tap] and have the Rhino block off a counter-attack with a tank shock. The centre Marines really didn't need to get out). A bunch of dakkadakka later and my small HG squads are dead along with ~15 gants from the Prime and left squads.
Tyranid Turn 3:
Well I have lost half of my ranged firepower and most of my reliable firepower too. Not looking good. Luckily vince has left his two tactical squads exposed which means easy meat for the Termagants. The Prime regenerates a wound (now back to 2) and joins the left Termagant squad so he can get slingshot into combat. The middle termagant squad (down to 2 strong) runs back and hops up onto the bastion where they can cower and claim the objective. My gants on the right move forward and pressure the Tactical squad in the ruins whilst all the MCs once again advance. My shooting drops one of the Speeders in front of the T-Fex on the left and Immoblise/shakes the Dreadnought hiding behind the Razorback on the left. My gants on the right are also able to drop a Marine from the squad in the ruins but since most of the Gants are out of range of the Tervigon and catalyst got blocked by the Hood, I elect to not assault them so run some of the other squads and reposition them. Catalyst goes off on the left Termgant/Prime squad and they assault the Tactical squad there. In the end only the Sarge is left alive after the Marines fail to flee and lose numbers to No Retreat wounds.
Space Marine Turn 3:
Things are still looking pretty good for Vince except there are 5 relatively un-harmed MCs on his doorstep and he's lost half of his strong ability to deal with the Termgants by losing a full tac squad. Now is the time for him to remobilise to one flank whilst my army is split around the bastion and he has the mobility advantage but unfortunately Vince stands and shoots. Since his firepower is essentially split he is unable to bring down any of the MCs though one Tervigon gets dropped to two wounds. His other Speeders also come in and hide behind the castle on the left to shoot. The shaken speeder zooms away to be able to access the Hive Guard and the right Tervigon is dropped to 4 wounds and the T-Fex is down to 5. The Dakka Preds on the right are also able to kill many Gants and force the outflanked squad to fall back since they are out of synapse range and in the combat phase the Tyranid Prime cuts down the remaining Tac squad and consolidates towards the static castle. If we recall last game between these two armies (I was the Marines) I took a huge gamble and charged the T-Fex with my Libby to try and instant death it. Somehow I did. Vince tried again the same here but the Libby wasn't so lucky and got smacked into the dirt.
Tyranid Turn 4:
This is where the pressure of the Tyranid build finally breaks the Space Marines. Because vince didn't move either of his castles, MCs start hitting stationary tanks. The suppressing fire the past turn wasn't that great (only a Dread and Speeder couldn't shoot) so the large amount of stationary targets is naughty. My Termagants on the left continue to flee whilst my right flank prepares to swarm bash the Tacs in the ruins whilst the Prime squad and T-Fex on the left look to capitalise on some stationary tanks. My shooting wrecks the LasPlas on the left and thanks to vince blocking all his exits but one, they are forced to get out right in front of the hungry T-Fex. A speeder is also shaken but my shooting is largely ineffective (though paroxysm was cast!). In the assault phase the Prime squad assaulted the Dread and would tie it up for the rest of the game (causing it to lose an army, taken many shaken hits and become immobilised whilst it took off one wound from the Prime). The T-Fex assaulted the newly disembarked 5 man squad killing one but they held whilst the Tervigon assaulted the immobilised rhino in the centre and wrecked it. The combined offense of two gant squads (half with preferred enemy; all with toxin/adrenal) caused a staggering 23 wounds on the Marines (from 16 5 point models; ya thanks) and wiped the Tactical squad and effectively cut the two castles off from each other.
Space Marine Turn 4:
Although things are looking bad for Vince he's still ahead 2-1 on KP. If he can drop a Tervigon or the remaining Hive Guard squad he's still in this game. He looks to do just that as he lines up all his Speeders on and his remaining Dreadnought on the 2 wound Tevigon whilst the LasPlas RBack on the right moves central to also get a bead on the big blighter. Everything opens up (that's 4x TL autocannons, 1 autocannon, 1 heavy bolter, 1 lascannon and 3MM) and not a single wound falls...my dice have repaid me for their terrible save son the Hive Guard! Tough luck for Vince but he's still ahead in KP and they are all tanks which I need to kill (his Rhino KP has also moved into my left table quarter away from the fight to preserve itself). In the combat phase the T-Fex forced the Marines to flee off the table and consolidated towards the Speeders.
Tyranid Turn 5:
It's 2-1 on KP currently and two of my KP are quite vulnerable with the Hive Guard on three wounds and a Tervigon on 2 so I really need to cause some (more) damage this turn. I move my Tyrant towards the Predator which moved and smoked last turn whilst the Tervigon which decked the Immoblised Rhino moved towards Vince's table-edge and near the ruins. From there he could give Furious charge to the two gant squads who would then be able to glance attack the Razorback (a KP) and hopefully stun it in place. The Hive Guard moved out of hiding to protect themselves from the Predators on the right flank whilst also moving closer to the hiding speeder and Rhino in the backfield. The left Tervigon moved up to munch on the remaining unengaged Dreadnought whilst the middle T-Fex sauntered over to take potshots at the 'fleeing' Rhino. With my shooting I was able to drop the lone Speeder (KP) and kill one of the speeders from the other squad. No damage was dealt to the Rhino or Predators and we entered the combat phase. The Tervigon failed to reach the Dread which meant he was still vulnerable to pewpew whilst the left T-fex assaulted the speeders, the gants the remaining Razorback and the Tyrant was just out from the Predator. The T-Fex failed to scratch the paint on the fast moving speeder but the combined force of the gants was able to stun the Razorback and take off it's plasma gun. Lunch meat for the Tervigon next turn!
Space Marine Turn 5:
Things are looking glum for Vince now. He really needs to drop two KP to have a chance of winning as the Tyranid army is dominating in board control if the KP ends up tied. With this in mind he puts as much fire as he can into the Hive Guard and is able to bring the squad down to 1 guy but since they have moved he cannot see them clearly with his Predators. They fire on the 2 wound Tervigon hoping to take it down but a couple of saves sees that Momma through. The lone speeder and Rhino KPs move away from the Tyranid army in an effort to preserve themselves and keep the game winnable.
Tyranid Turn 6:
No pictures for Marines there sorry. This is make or break stage as the stakes are tied and whilst the Tyranid army is dominating in board control, some good shooting by Vince can give him the KP win. The right flank of the double gant squads, Tyrant and Tervigon all move towards the stationary tanks and five man squad of Marines in the ruins to take out as much firepower as possible whilst also going for the KP of the Razorback. The fleeing termgants have come into Synapse range so have stopped fleeing (they only moved like 15" for three flee rolls) giving the Tyranids three of the four quarters. The MCs on the left moved up to smack some tanks whilst the far left T-Fex moved into position to shoot the far Rhino. The T-Fex was able to immobilise and stun the Rhino whilst the Hive Guard couldn't damage the lone Speeder after whiffing with both of his shots. In assault everything but the aforementioned units assaulted. The left Tervigon didn't kill the Dreadnought so combat continued, the middle T-Fex immobilised and stunned the Pred, the right Tervigon wrecked the LasPlas RBack (KP), the Gants immobilised/stunned a Pred and wiped out the combat squad of Marines whilst the Tyrant wrecked the remaining Predator. All in all a very dominating phase and looks like it's the end for Vince.
Space Marine Turn 6:
There's no way Vince can win now but his Speeder causes a wound on the Hive Guard (seen above). In combat the T-Fex wrecks the Pred and the Tervigon the Dreadnought (seen above) and the game ends on a roll of a 1 by an observer.
End result:
Primary win for T6'R'Us Tyranids over Mech Marines (mission 6):
3-2 KP to Tyranids
3-1 TQ to Tyranids
3-0 objectives to Tyranids
1557.5 - 437.5 VP to Tyranids
What looked like a disaster early game turned into a near tabling against the Marines. Whilst the lack of offensive shooting (stupid dice) was pretty drastic for the Tyranids, the weight of 58 Termgants + 5 MCs simply overwhelmed Vince's ability to deal with my offensive shooting and steady advance. There were some things Vince should of done however and that was mobilise himself or at least throw tanks at me so I could only kill one and had to roll to hit. Also he got both of his large Tac squads out when he shouldn't of and then didn't support them properly (the one which rapid fired and then got assaulted T2/T3 should of pistol whipped and assaulted the gants and had a tank to protect them from counters).
Luckily Vince isn't using a mech list for Centurion and hopefully he'll have his Night Lords models ready soon so we can game these lists against each other whilst also helping him practice against other styles.
Anyway Vincey gg and if anyone else wants some Centurion practice let us know!
