Unfortunately, it was as close to a mirror match-up as possible with Tyranids against Tyranids. My opponent, Pat, had pretty much the exact same list except his Hive Guard were in two bunches of three, one of his Tervigons was an HQ and he no Tyranid Prime in favor of another Tyrant Guard and 2x Biovores. He had a minor advantage with the Biovores but with Dawn of War, Capture and Control on the table...well, this would be interesting to say the least.
He won the roll-off and gave it to me. This is how the game was likely to unfold. The Tyrants needed to be drawn into combat and thus counter-assaulted. Termagant bubble-wrapping would be important and ensuring mutli-assaults didn't happen with said Termagants to force Fearless saves. Managing the approaching ranges to each other to determine who got the first Hive Guard shots was also important as being able to kill the enemy's Hive Guard first would allow S8 shots to be slammed into Tervigons and make them explode before Termagants overran the battlefield. Whichever player got more Termagants than the other would have a huge advantage and whoever took the fight to the opponent would be able to bottle up their army on the opponent's side of the board. Let's see what happened then...
Kirby's Turn 1
Everything moved onto the board Turn 1 and ran. I got some excellent run rolls on my left flank with lots of 5's and 6's moving them up quite quickly. My Hive Guard are spread throughout my army again to provide coverage across the board whilst the T-Fexes take the flanks to be able to shoot the Biovores if they try and hide behind the ruins. Note that my Hive Guard stay base touching to the units in front of them as much as possible to generate cover from other Hive Guard. I had decided not to outflank a Tervigon as it could come on the wrong side or late and leave me at a Catalyst disadvantage.
Pat's Turn 1
Everything of Pat's moved on as well with his T-Fexes holding one flank and his Hive Guard another. His Termagants, Tervigons, Tyrant and Biovores all came on around his objective with the Termagants moving up to protect the Hive Guard. Bivores launch some spore mines which kill a single Termagant on the left.
Kirby's Turn 2
Once again everything moves up with the Tyranid prime attaching to some Hive Guard and the Tervigons casting Catalyst on the other Hive Guard squads. Everything runs except the T-Fexes which drop one Biovore.
Pat's Turn 2
Little bit of shuffling with the Hive Guard moving forward, Termagants wrapping them a bit more and the T-Fexes shooting my Hive Guard with Prime attached - one wound is done to a Hive Guard. Pat's army for the most part stays on his side of the board. Biovore again does minimal damage.
No pictures - boring turn!
Kirby's Turn 3
Once again my army advances though I have to stay out of the 30" range of those Hive Guard now. I could Onslaught one unit into range but without FNP it would get blasted to bits so they ensured they have cover and look to stay around 30.5" away from the opponent. Everything else also moved up with my T-Fexes again looking to drop the Biovore but failing. Both Tervigons were well outside spawn and assault range so didn't spawn again. My Termagants in the back are playing happily in the trees.
Pat's Turn 3
Things shuffle, T-Fexes and Hive Guard shoot - my Hive Guard were in range...shit. He is able to drop two of them between the T-Fexes and Hive Guard across two units and put a wound on another one. Ensuring I got cover by touching the bases of units in front/terrain was a big help as it obviously minimised the damage the Hive Guard could do. Mistake on my part with eyeballing distances (was about an inch out). Biovores again do minimal damage.
Kirby's Turn 4
Turn 4 and I've just crossed the midway point...yay! Having taken the first blow reduced my firepower going at Pat but I was still pressuring his objective whilst mine was safe. Good spot to be in considering how long it has taken me to move across the board. I once again move all my guys up with the aim of shooting down Pat's Hive Guard without cover from my Hive Guard. My left Tervigon spawns (still just out of spawn and assault range) as I'll be within range of Pat's lines next turn. I spawn nine, poop out but get enough Termagants to cover the 2nd Gant line and the Tervigon which spawned them. The combined fire of Hive Guard + T-Fexes takes down... a single Hive Guard and wounds another. Yay >.<. The Cluster spines manage to drop a fair few Termagants on the right as well and Catalyst is cast on two Hive Guard units again.
Pat's Turn 4
His punch failed. My punch failed. Theme of the game. With his Hive Guard still largely operational and my units approaching his lines, Pat needed to move out and assault me. His left Tervigon spawns and obliges and assaults my front Termagant line and with a 6" roll on difficult terrain, just manages to get the right Tervigon in on the action too. Woopsadoodle again >.<. His shooting doesn't do much, sending one Hive Guard to ground and wounding the Prime but his assault is able to clear out the Termagant line and do a wound to the Tervigon. I kill several Termagants back with Pat's Hive Tyrant lurking for the counter-assault next turn.
Kirby's Turn 5
That's two silly mistakes and counting..., if only my left Tervigon hadn't spawned out I could create another Termagant wall and send in my Hive Tyrant to finish that Tervigon + group off. As it is, if I did that, the opposing Hive Tyrant could charge me and have the higher chance of killing my Tyrant. Not a place I want to be in. My right Tervigon then spawns eight Termagants but poops out. Damnit. This isn't enough from the position the Tervigon is to create an appropriate wall without a good run roll. I can either send them up to block the Tyrant or try and finish off the Tervigon + Termagants in combat. With two Tervigons + my Prime, we'd expect me to be able to do this so they go for this route. The rest of my forces focus on dropping more Hive Guard and kill one whilst some firepower into the Tyrant drops one of his bodyguards and wounds him as well.
My left Tervigon, spawned Termagants and Prime all charge in, manage to kill a whopping three Termagants and wound the Tervigon three times. Fearless saves drop a couple more Termagants and the Tervigon a wound but combat of course continues.
Pat’s Turn 5
Send in the next wave…basically. His backfield Tervigon spawns some 13 more Termagants which are thrown towards the combat in the middle whilst the two T-Fexes and Tyrant move up to engage in combat as well. Sustained shooting on the remaining Termagant squad on the left tries to open up a path to my Tyrant but ends up leaving the T-Fexes out of assault range. Remaining Hive Guard firepower drops one of my Hive Guard.
On the charge all of the engaged Termagants die in combat (the Tyrant charged the far left Termagant squad and the Tervigon), wounded both of my Tervigons (one drops down to 1 wound) and killed my Prime – all for the loss of several Termagants. Epic fail on my part as the combined combat continues.
Kirby’s Turn 6
My right flank T-Fex sets up a charge on the mass of Termagants in the combat whilst my Tyrant moves around the combat to engage the Tervigon from behind (nasty). Unfortunately I couldn’t move my Hive Tyrant to Pat’s objective as he had moved his T-Fex in the way. In hindsight I really should have assaulted it, attempting to kill it in one round (boneswords would help) and consolidate onto his objective. This would have left my Tervigons alone against his Hive Tyrant though and it was a safer move to protecting my objective though at this point it was unlikely Pat was going to get across the board. My right T-Fex could also have moved past the combat to engage the Hive Guard (or at least pressure up that flank) to force Pat to protect his objective more.
My Hive Guard and the remaining T-Fex look to bust open some more Hive Guard and are able to drop another one in cover.
In combat the Tyrant and right T-Fex charge in with the Tyrant exploding the Tervigon which kills many Termagants which are still able to bring down my right Tervigon. Curses. Pat’s Tyrant does a couple more wounds to my Tervigon which wounds his Tyrant Guard whilst the T-Fex munches on some Termagants which fail some more Fearless saves but combat goes on.
Pat’s Turn 6
Pat spawns some more Termagants and finally poops out which move up to bubble wrap his Hive Guard and the objective whilst his remaining squad moves forward to chuck more poisoned attacks into assault. His Hive Guard do some shooting on mine but fail to cause any damage, just like the Biovore on my backfield Termagants.
The two T-Fexes join the combat with the Termagants with one assaulting my left t-fex and the other joining in the massive melee in the centre. My left T-Fex suffers a wound and does one in return whilst all my remaining Termagants die as does my last Tervigon. My Tyrant takes a couple wounds but puts another on Pat’s Tyrant and kills some Termagants.
Kirby’s Turn 7
Not much for me to do. My one Hive Guard tries to kill Pat’s one Hive Guard but fails whilst the other two Hive Guard charge into assault granting me some more attacks against the Termagants. They kill a handy 5 of them with the T-Fex adding a couple more. The Hive Tyrant kills Pat’s Hive Tyrant but not before he kills my Tyrant and the Termagants take a bunch of fearless wounds leaving one alive…curses! If that one had died I could have consolidated towards his objective with my T-Fex as it would have been out of range from his T-Fex. As it is they all move towards each other with the T-Fex having also taken three fearless wounds (nice ones…).
The T-Fex on T-Fex combat on the left resulted in mine taking two wounds and Pat’s 0.
Pat’s Turn 7
He tries to kill my lone Hive Guard with his Hive Guard and fails. Biovores try to kill Termagants and fail. His lone Termagant dies in combat and nothing else takes any damage and game ends in a draw.
Conclusion
So…all in all not a pretty game from me and a pretty boring one overall. Pat ended up winning on VP by about 300 so he got an extra point for his team which is really the difference between playing aggressive and defensive. This was a common theme throughout the two draw missions for the whole tournament – whoever was the aggressor either won or had a ‘losing draw.’ I should have done a lot of things differently like managing my initial move ups better (i.e. Hive Guard) and not throwing everything into the same combat over and over. Once his Hive Tyrant had been engaged I should have moved around it and tried to clear his objective. Whilst Pat had blocked it off relatively well, if I wanted a win I had to do this. By this point though I felt resigned to a draw. Either way – naughty me!
Pat was a great opponent and we had a good laugh over the ludicrousness of the mirror match in the ever loved DoW + C&C. His T-Fexes made mine look like little pansies though =(. Good game and a 9 point draw for the team. Unfortunately we had quite a few losing draws and we ended up just losing to Queensland. We are now 1-0-1 going into Round 3.
