We rolled mission 3 from the Centurion pack which is Pitched, Objectives, KP, Table Quarters in that order and Vince won the roll to go first (and he chose to go first). Vince deployed relatively in the middle which allowed me to also deploy centrally but gave him the option to scoot to one side of the board T1 unless I seized. From there he could use his superior mobility and range to try and whittle me down as he was going to have a hard time with 40+ T6 wounds. His Council deployed between all of his chassis ready to pressure my MCs and force me to stay back as I bubble-wrapped against him. (Note: the Eldar list wasn't hyper-competitive but we had to make do with what I had there; i.e. not 9 AV12 chassis).
I deployed relatively centrally as well with the Hive Guard in cover or hiding and able to move forward to hidden positions. Either way if Vince moves the battle to the other side of the field I'll have a hard time catching up to him with my 24" Impaler Cannons. I sent another termagant unit into reserve and outflank simply to pressure capture objectives since he had the mobility edge (I wasn't really worried about the damage he could cause me but more his ability to mitigate the damage I could cause on him). I cornered both of my T-Fexes to get good firing arcs and deployed everything else very centrally.
Deployment:
Eldar Turn 1:
I failed to seize and Vince began the Eldar's turn. His movement pretty much cost him the game as I had an excellent shooting phase in turn 1. He moved most of his things 6" and sat at the 24" mark to dakka at my Hive Guard. Unfortunately he only knocked off a wound from a Hive Guard and the Prime leaving all of my guns well in range.
What Vince should of done is moved everything 12-24" to his right (my left). This would of put pressure on my Hive Guard to keep up whilst keeping units within his 24" shooting bubble.
Tyranid Turn 1:
Not much for me really to do other than walk up and shoot. Oh right, and wrap my units correctly. Bubble-wrapping against melta and assault units is easy as cake. Bubble-wrapping against units which jump over you is less so; call it bubble-wrapping 102 (I'll do a full post on this later). With units which jump over you you need to block where they want to land or force them to go so fast they can't do anything (i.e. skimmer moves flat out, turbo-boosting, etc.). This means you need to be able to eyeball distances very well and park your bubble-wrap units in those areas whilst still extending the wrap towards your opponent to ensure they cannot squeeze in any multi-assaults. That's what the Termagants did which means the Seer Council has the option to munch on tasty 5 point morsels and then get whacked around by combat beasties in the Tyrant and Prime. I also spawned 9 (doubles) + 15 termagants (ya, 15 without doubles).
I then proceeded to shoot. Hive Guard on Avenger serpent. Explosion; 1 dead inside. T-Fex on Prism. Wreck. Hive Guard on Dragon Serpent. Wreck. Hive Guard on Dragon Serpent. Wreck. T-Fex on Prism. shaken aw :(. It was a ridiculus array of rolling 4+ to damage and then rolling 5s/6s on the damage chart. 5 shots at vehicles, 5 vehicles suppressed (4 of them permanently). The rest of my firepower fired at the council dropping a Warlock whilst Catalyst was cast on the two gant units (those 4+'s disappeared there!). Poor Vince had most of his army taken out form under him in one turn of shooting.
Eldar Turn 2:
Vince doesn't have much left. Luckily all his units didn't run but he's only got two fully operational tanks going currently and one shaken. The shaken prism zooms to the other side and out of range of most of my guns to start trying to drop pie plates on me whilst the Dragons move up into midfield and the Avengers hug cover and an objective. The Seer Council has two choices. Well three really. Assault the small gants in front of the Hive Tyrant + Tervigon or the large squad of gants in front of the Hive Guard/Prime/Tervigon. Either way they are likely going to be hit hard the following turn. They can also turbo-boost away (or over) but at this point, defensive is bad for him as he simply doesn't have the chassis to play that way (and which he should of done T1). They opt to go for the bigger squad as they are more likely to stay in combat (15 gants w/FNP is surprisingly hard to remove) and thus limit shooting at them. If they do win they can consolidate up onto the building and force the Tyranids to go through terrain to get to them.
In the shooting phase the Falcon is able to drop the wounded Hive Guard dead and a wound is taken off a Tervigon. The Seer Council sets up their assault and leaves two gants alive whilst taking none in return. Both good and bad for the Council as it's not getting shot but is in assault range of everything else.
Tyranid Turn 2:
I move forward....again. My reserved gants come in on the left hand side and wave at the back armor of the Prism (lols?). My Hive Guard in particular move forward now that most of the threat to them is gone to ensure they can access the remaining vehicles with their guns whilst the Prime, Termagants and Tervigon set up an assault on the Seer Council. I'm not committing more than one gant squad as fearless saves can wipe them out pretty fast. The pooping Tervi created 13 more Gants which moved forward to pressure his Fire Dragons whilst the Tyrant + Termagants in the centre occupied the ruins there and the left T-Fex moved towards midfield as well.
Shooting saw the Prism stunned (thanks Termagants...oh wait it was the Hive Tyrant who did it!) and the Hive Guard drop the final Serpent whilst the right T-Fex...well he exploded the Falcon. Ya, the falcon with holo-fields. Check it.
Oh snap. This takes his armor down to simply his stunned Prism. My combined shooting is also able to force one of the Dragon squads off the board and makes the Avenger squad hugging cover/objective go to ground. In the assault phase my army strikes and the Prime kills the Autarch whilst the Termagants are able to drop two wounds on the Farseer. Unfortunately the Council does nothing in return and flees safely. The Tyranids consolidate into the building.
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| Before... |
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| After with overview shot. |
Vince has got diddly lift with a couple Dire Avengers, Fire Dragons and stunned Prism. He moves his foot infantry up in an effort to try and take down and MC but they are out of range so drops a bunch of gants. The game quickly moves to the Tyranid turn. Oh, the Seer Council rallied turned out and shot at the front gants as well but without Fortune weren't going to fare well next turn.
Tyranid Turn 3:
The Tyranids push up and swarm the right flank with Gants and MCs. The gants harassing the Fire Prism failed their IB test so moved towards the cover whilst the Hive Guard and T-Fexes moved towards the remaining Prism. The combined fire of the Hive Guard was able to take out the Seer Council and the T-Fexes stunned the Prism again. During the assault phase the Termagants overwhelmed the Fire Dragons and Dire Avengers on the right flank leaving just the Prism and seven Dire Avengers left.
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| The swarm approaches... |
Eldar Turn 4:
Vince can't really do anything so he tries to kill the full 6 wound Tervigon with his Avengers with shooting and combat. Amazingly they drop two wounds off of the guy and stick around in combat!
Tyranid Turn 4:
T-Fexes drop the Prism and the Prime + Gants save the Tervigon from certain destruction lol. The game ends here since we didn't need me to move and claim things though I obviously would of been able to get the 5 objectives by turn 6.
Final Thoughts:
When you have hot dice, you have hot dice. Taking four tanks out of action + shaking another in my first salvo was impressive and the following salvo was just as deadly. Although Vince probably should of played a mobility game with me (particularly since it was objectives primary), he was always going to have a hard time killing my guys and needed to work on board control. This is hard when more than half your tanks die on T1.
I really need to versus some heavy hitting shooting armies like Razorwolves, IG or Tau but I'm feeling quite comfortable with the list now (unlike Lords of Terra) though I miss my Raveners... fester can I change my list =D?
GG Vincey; sorry it was so one-sided!
