Battle Report: the Littlest Termagant

I am going to tell you the story of The Little Termagant That Could.

No, wait, I mean I'm going to tell you story about a Vassal battle report.

Wait, actually, can it be both?

So TastyTaste and I had a battle here a little while back, and this time around I actually got pics taken of everything, so here you go.

1 Hive Tyrant (HC, OA, HVC, Parox, Leech)
2 Tyrant Guard
3x3 Hive Guard
2x10 Termagants
2x Tervigon (Cluster, Catalyst, Adrenal, Toxin, Talons)
2x Trygon (Adrenal)
1 Tyrannofex (Rupture, Cluster, Dessicator)

1 Ko'sorro Khan
1 Tigurius <-- what the fudgemuffins?
5 Honor Guard (1 TH/SS, 3 LC/SS, some flamers?)
10 Scouts (Sniper, Missile)
10 Scouts (Sniper, Missile)
5 Tacticals (Combi-Flamer, TLLas Razorback)
5 Tacticals (Combi-Flamer, TLLas Razorback)
5 Tacticals (Combi-Flamer, TLLas Razorback)
5 Tacticals (Combi-Flamer, TLLas Razorback)
5 Devastators (2 Missile, Rhino)
5 Devastators (2 Missile, Rhino)

I may be a little off in Tasty's list, going mostly off of memory and screencaps here. Both armies were 2000pts, since I'm still practicing for TSHFT, which folks have been kind enough to indulge me in.

We rolled up Dawn of War and Seize Ground, with Tasty winning the roll-off for first turn. Objectives ended up being biased towards the left side of the board, so I chose to come in on that side, as Tasty forced me to take first turn.

End of my turn 1, which was pretty uneventful.

Starting with one Tervigon in the center to threaten the distant objective and the Tyrant+Guard Reasonably deep in. Tasty outflanked with everything except the two Scout squads, which I was not particularly worried about- they might cause a wound here or there, but they weren't much of a threat all things considered. I walked in the whole of my force one squad of Termagants, keeping to the far side board edge.

Minor mistake: I should've kept more of my MCs in my backfield to deal with incoming squads from that edge. My general positioning was right- with the left edge being significantly more valuable (2 objectives to 1), if I successfully defended that side, I would win rather easily. With very little ability to advance into my force thanks to drastically superior melee ability, Tasty would have been in a very bad position if he didn't roll everything in on that side.

I spawned with both Tervigons, pooping out immediately, and threw a large blast onto the Scouts on his side of the board, killing a few of them. Things advanced forward and I passed the turn.

Tasty's first turn, after movement.

Tasty, also having a pretty limited first turn, pulled back with both Scout squads and didn't do much else. Yawn.

(Picture from my T2 is missing here, not sure where it went; possibly I just forgot.)

My turn 2 was likewise fairly uneventful- I continued to advance forward, preparing for the arrival of reserves. My Tyrannofex took up a shooting position, aiming for the opposite board edge, while the rest of my MCs took up places throughout my force.



On Tasty's turn 2 he got a pretty atrocious set of reserve rolls- especially considering he had the overpriced Tigurius for rerolls- and got only three units, one of his Dev squads and two Tacticals. All of them ended up coming in from "his" side of the board. He disembarked the Devastators, since they were in no real threat of being shot presumably, and did a little bit of shooting with the Scouts; thanks to pretty sorry rolls, he managed only two casualties on the Termagants.

Turn 3, after my movement phase.

Turn 3 my forces continued to creep forward, my Tyrant and Tervigon getting within potential charge range on the two Scout squads- I was expecting some shenanigans from them and empty transports later, so I wanted to preempt that if possible. My reserves also arrived, and I brought the Termagants in near the far edge to threaten a contest/capture. (Although his Razorbacks were close enough to capture it, they didn't have the firepower to hurt my 'Gants without disembarking- and disembarking is something that you don't want to do against Tyranids. During shooting, Hive Guard and Trygons, along with other units, continued to push forward. A smattering of fire from the Tyrant and Tervigon cut down a couple more Scouts while the TFex shook a Razorback. Around now our connection got a little fritzy, with both Tasty and I disconnecting at least once, which caused some odd issues when re-synching and cloned some units. We mostly solved the issue, but if you notice the number of models fluctuate, it's not due to intentional cheating.



Turn 3 Tasty's luck turned around and the entire rest of his force arrived and he actually got 5/6 on most all of them, allowing him to more or less pick where he wanted the body of his force. One Rhino (with Devastators) came in at the deep south of the east board edge and the other two Razorbacks and command squad Rhino (with both ICs) come in, tank shocking through my Gaunts. All the west side units popped smoke, along with the shaken Razor, and one Tactical squad hopped out. Both squads of Scouts backed off, with one Rhino shuffling over to get ready for a pickup as necessary.

Tasty's shooting continued to be mostly unimpressive, his Missiles and Lascannons missing, failing to wound, or bouncing off my cover/FNP. His disembarked Tacticals used their Combi-Flamer to wipe out most of a squad of Termagants- BUT NOT ALL OF THEM. This will be "important" later.



Turn 4 saw the eastern half of my army advance deeper and my front and back lines separate to deal with their respective threats. The Tervigon, majority of the Termagants, and one Trygon moved towards his transports that had come in... except that the Trygon rolled 2" on its DT test, then 1" on its Run, and then 3" on its assault move and failed to get anywhere at all this turn. Stupid Trygon! The Termagants and Tervigon, however made it in and prepared to wreck a Razorback. My Hive Guard shot split their fire, taking out the southwest Razorback and and failing to hurt the Rhino with the Command squad. Im a little fuzzy on some of the details of what happened to his Tacticals inside the Razorback- maybe it was them I killed in the assault after shooting it to death? In any case, the game as it stood on Tasty's turn:



Starting from the north, his Command Squad and ICs disembarked, setting themselves up to assault; the Tacticals that had flamed last turn quickly jumped into the transport and it zoomed off to do other jobs. His other Razorbacks inched towards the objective and dumped out a squad of Tacs. His Scouts jumped into an empty Rhino and drove off to the south, popping smoke, presumably going to try for the objective near my Tyrant.

Tasty's shooting continued to be lackluster, putting a wound on my TFex and killing a couple of the distant Termagants. His assaults, however, went rather well- he multiassaulted into combat with my Hive Guard, Trygon, and Termagants, wiping out the all but the MC and consolidating into it. With Furious Charge expended, however, he was relying on 6s on his to-wound rolls from both Tigurius and Khan, both of which had the possibility to inflict Instant Death on me. Not a high likelihood, but a dangerous one for me.



With no more ability to realistically reach other targets and the situation above worsening, my MCs in the south pulled back along with the Hive Guard. My Termagants there likewise consolidated behind cover- unfortunately for me, I had gotten mixed up somewhere along the line and thought we were on game turn 4 at this point, not 5, so I was giving myself one more turn to get onto objectives, which could have been a fatal mistake. Fortunately for me this didn't occur, but it was a rather tense moment for me at the end of Tasty's turn. My Tervigon moved into position for a charge and my eastward MCs continued their push, setting myself up to do some real damage next turn (finally.)

My shooting immobilized and shook the Rhino and also stunned the Razorback and with few other options I went into assault. The Command Squad, Tigurius, Khan, Tervigon, and Trygon began a rather bloody battle, with the Trygon split its attacks between the already-wounded Khan (having failed a save against one Hive Guard attack earlier) and the Command Squad. He managed to fell Khan and one squad member, but took a grievous number of wounds in return, settling in with one left. The Tervigon, meanwhile, managed to escape unscathed from Tigurius and dealt a wound to him. Losing the combat only by one, I passed my No Retreat saves and we went into Tasty's turn.


Beginning of movement- some disembarkations have happened.

His Tactical squad in the north abandoned their ruined vehicle, moving in closer to the objective to insure contesting; in the south, his Rhino sped out of the ruin and towards the objective, knowing it would be too late unless we went past turn 6. Lastly, his Razorback in the east shuffled up behind its twin, taking cover behind the less-valuable vehicle.

His shooting came back stronger this turn, putting three wounds on my far Trygon and killing a number of Termagants, but unfortunately it proved to be too little, too late over there. His other Tacticals managed to fully wipe out my Termagant squad, however, so I was down to relying on my Trygon to achieve victory on that side. Combat continued to be a forte of the Tyranids and finished off the Command Squad and took no wounds in return, putting him in a very bad position , and then brought down Tigurius as well. It was only this turn that he remembered that he could use Might of Ancients AND Force Weapon in the same turn, which could have turned the battle if it had come sooner. As it was, we tossed the die (after my moment of horror as I realized what turn it was) and the game continued.



This was the turn, my Termagants knew. It was NOW that they had to make their worth known to the world. Two of them snuck up behind the Razorback, preparing their hearts for what was to come as my other forces distracted the enemy. The free Tervigon and Termagants moved into position, covering the two objectives on my side of the board like they should've been doing last turn, and the Hive Guard and Tyrant moved in to wreck some face on the unit contesting it. My MCs on the far side came into Death Range and prepared their charge as... well, things looked bad for the Marines.

Shooting destroyed his Rhino, immobilized and took the gun off the Razorback int the northeast, and spooked his Tactical squad holding the objective with a ton of wounds from templates, blasts, and so on. My Tyrant and Trygon charged in at his Tacticals, unsurprisingly annihilating them, and my other Trygon did likewise to the Razorback on the other side. BUT! But but but! Most importantly of all was my sweet little Termagants in the north, who were just in range of a Tervigon's aura and charged right into the tailpipe of the Razorback and punched with their tiny little fists. And then, a miracle happened:



They killed it! Hurray for Termagants! This was, of course, entirely pointless, but it made me so happy to see my little babies all grown up and wrecking vehicles.


Game end pic.

Tasty moved in to contest one objective with the Scouts, but it was too late at this point- with my other Trygon in his face and two objectives well in my grasp, there was little he could do. He managed to hold it down to only a minor victory for me, but still not something he was going to pull a win out of.