I thought I might finally do these battle reports... despite me being sick during the weekend there are some excellent learning opportunities in the game I wish to take a look at. There is no Game 1 so don't look for it! I got a full point bye meaning I played Draigowing (with nothing but 15x Paladins, Draigo and a Librarian). At this stage I don't remember army lists exactly so they'll be rough guesses. My Tyranid list will be included at the bottom in the comments.
So Mission 2 was pitched battle and based on VP with extra VP scored for any Troops unit fully in the opponents deployment zone. Now this sounds like a great mission for Tyranids - all their MCs are pretty tough so getting half or full VP from them can be difficult. I can spawn lots of Termagants and have expensive Troop MCs and get a lot of extra VP from being in my opponent's deployment zone. Problem? I'm facing Draigowing. This is a three-fold problem.
Firstly, the best tactic against this list, I cannot do. If I had an army with 10+ tanks, it would have been as close a thing possible as an auto-win. I would have never shot, I would have simply tank shocked the Paladins until they failed (and with say 10 tank shocks a turn, they would have statistically failed one by Turn 2) and then escorted them off the board as they could not kill that many tanks in time. Secondly, the Tyranid list itself is going to have a hard time killing the Paladins. Most of my firepower is shorted ranged and my best way to deal with the (Tyrant-star) gets clobbed in turn by auto-casting Force Weapons. Finally, the mission itself is good for Draigowing. The Libby and Draigo are unlikely to die with so many 2+ wounds to protect them. Nearly the whole army is scoring so getting them into my deployment zone is going to grant a massive VP bonus. Yucky on all counts!
So with that how do I win? I need to kill the 5-man Paladin squad as that was going to get me around 400+ VP. I need to get as many Termagants + Tervigons into my opponents DZ as possible. And finally I need to delay or pull the Paladins coming towards my DZ as much as possible. With this in mind (he won roll-off and gave me first turn) I did a split deployment. This would allow one Tervigon + Termagant bunch to run towards the opposing DZ whilst still ensuring most of my firepower was capable of reaching the Paladins by Turn 2. He would most likely refuse flank which would then make it easier for me to block (table edge is my friend now) but reduce my firepower T1. He did this as predicted and we started.
Deployment:
Turn 1:
Turn 1 is uneventful as my whole army advances and for the most part runs. The Tervigon on the right spawns some extra Termagants and casts Catalyst whilst the Tervigon on the left casts Onslaught to try and get the Hive Guard in range. The Hive Guard and T-Fex which can see all shoot the 5-man Paladin squad and kill one.
The Paladins then move up through difficult terrain which slows them down signficiantly. They really shouldn't have been deployed in terrain as there is nothing in my army which is AP3 or better - this drastically slows the army down when it needed to get across the board ASAP. They shoot the one of the Hive Guard squads and kill one (wounded the other).
Tyranid Turn 2:
The same thing basically happens again though one flank stays relatively still. The far flank away from the Paladins moves full steam ahead with all the little Termagants + Tervigon pushing for the enemy DZ (Tervigon spawned more Termagants). The Hive Guard, T-Fex and Hive Tyrant moved towards the central building where they could engage the Paladins as necessary.
The left flank saw less movement with the Tervigon spawning a new layer of Termagants to stop the Paladins from entering my DZ. Unfortunately I moved the Tervigon too far forward... this would prove costly. Catalyst was cast on the Tervigon and everything opened up on the small Paladin squad and did...no damage. Yay!
Grey Knight Turn 2:
Paladins advance and are once again slowed by terrain. The large Paladin squad is just in range of the Tervigon with their Psycannons and open up. Some terrible saving and crap FNP rolls sees the Tervigon explode and injure the Termagants around it. This is bad as the Tervigon was still capable of spawning Termagants which would have significantly delayed the Paladins. The smaller squad also shot at one of the weakened Termagant squads and effectively removed it from the game with only a few models remaining.
Tyranid Turn 3:
That was annoying. Poor rolling is poor rolling but the Tervigon should have been deployed further back so the Psycannons wouldn't have been in range that turn. An extra turn of Termagants as all I really needed. Mistakes cost games ^^. Anyway, same drill as last time with the far flank shoving the Tervigon + spawned Termagants towards the opposing DZ and the right flank staying relatively stable where the Paladins are forced to engage them outside of my DZ. The Hive Guard + T-Fexes shoot, kill a Paladin from the small squad and they flee! WHERE ARE MY TANKS *angry face*
Grey Knight Turn 3:
The small squad rallies with two guys left and moves back up towards my army. The big squad trundles along through no-man's land and avoid the terrain. They shoot at the T-Fex and bring it down to two wounds and gain half its VP.
Tyranids Turn 4:
Same. As. Before. Far flank produces more Termagants and everyone runs to the enemy DZ. Right flank sets up for the inevitable Paladin assault in the coming turns. I leave a gap in the bottom right for two reasons. Either the Paladins run for it this turn to try and make it fully in my DZ by the end of Turn 5 (correct move) but if I had left Termagants there they would have been more than likely to assault into them on Turn 5 assuming they got a decent run roll this turn which would have put them fully in my DZ. By leaving this gap then he must run both turns which limits his shooting to ensure he gets his whole squad in my DZ. This means less of my stuff dies and I have more capacity to pull him out of my DZ with assaults.
Shooting accounts for one of the two remaining Paladins of the small squad but he stays where he is.
Grey Knight Turn 4:
All the Paladins move up and run with the large squad only getting a one! THERE IS HOPE!
Tyranid Turn 5:
Same same! Far flank makes little baby Termagants and runs towards enemy DZ. The Tyrant moves over the terrain to prepare for counter-assault if necessary whilst the Termagants widen the space for the Paladins to enter and setup their drag-you-out-of-my-DZ-assault if the game goes on. Everything shoots the lone Paladin who takes a wound but is destroyed by the assaulting Tyrant who gets some nice free movement out of that.
Grey Knight Turn 5:
The Paladins run into my DZ and are just out from being fully in. If the game ended now I would have scrapped together a tiny win as my Termagants + Tervigon in his DZ + his destroyed Paladin squad put me ahead of what he had destroyed so far.
Tyranids Turn 6:
Everything on the far flank shoves themselves into the opponent's DZ to make sure they are getting me full points. Tervigon finally poops out on a paltry roll of 2,2,1. Oh well, you did good babe! The Termagants on the right flank end up assaulting the successfully Parxoysm'd Paladins and draws them further out of my DZ - particularly since they survived.
The Tyrant-star was just out of range as well unfortunately and with the Termagants sucking up many of the hits + Parxoysm cast...that could have been a big boon in my favor.
Grey Knights Turn 6:
The Paladins kill the Termagants and consolidate back into my DZ with a 6" move. Game ends and the Grey Knights win with a healthy VP advantage over me. Thanks to the lack of damage done and my units in his DZ however, I only lose 12-8 in terms of Battle Points.
Conclusion:
All things considered I was happy how things went. The list is a terrible army to face with Tyranids as dealing with all those 2+/FNP wounds is hard. Again, if there had been tanks on the table, I would have been confident in a very easy win though this doesn't always happen of course. My only real mistake was putting the right flank Terivgon too far forward and perhaps not moving up with my Tyrant a bit earlier. It was unlikely the Tyrant was ever going to do anything with Daemon Hammers and Bro-Banners around but with Paroxysm cast and another unit engaged with the Paladins, I could have done some hefty damage which could have swung it my way.
Oh well. Good game and great opponent despite the limited tactics employed on the Grey Knights side (advance, shoot, run). Rocks sure are boring ^^.
