So this Sat I got to be the fill in Neverness (which I proved by rolling like him quite convincingly at times) in a 2000 point game against WarFrog. It was Relic mission with normal long table edge deployment. He was playing Tyranids with an interesting wrinkle and I had my Lions of course.
Warfrog's List
Flying Hive Tyrant w/ devourers
2 Carnifexs with 2 sets of devourers
2 Carnifexs with 2 sets of devourers
30 Termaguants
30 Termaguants
Tervigon
2 Venomthropes
Venomthrope
2 Hive Guard
Living Artillery Node Formation
Sky Shield
Lions List
Captain w/ Relic Blade, Artificer Armor, and Storm Shield (in Stormraven)
Command Squad w/ Champion, Apothecary, and 3 Vets with Power Weapons
10 man Tactical Squad w/ Flamer, Combi-flamer, and Missile Launcher
10 man Tactical Squad w/ Flamer, Combi-flamer, and Missile Launcher
10 man Tactical Squad w/ Flamer and Missile Launcher
10 Sternguard in Drop Pod
Ironclad w/ Heavy Flamer and Meltagun in Drop Pod
Ironclad w/ Heavy Flamer and Meltagun (in Stormraven)
Stormraven w/ Multimelta and Lascannon
Thunderfire Cannon
Vindicator w/ Siege Shield
Landspeeder w/ Heavy Bolter
Landspeeder w/ Heavy Bolter
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| Lions Gathered |
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| Tyranids Deploying |
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| Lions Deployed |
Warfrog won the roll to go first and I didn't even come close to seizing the initiative. He only advanced his Tyrant in flying mode, the carnifexes, and the unit of 2 Venomthropes to give cover to the carnifexes. Living artillery fire killed off 5 of 10 marines in a tactical squad.
My turn was very unsuccessful. The Sternguard drop podded in front of his lines. Two tactical squads advanced toward the relic and then I opened fire on his lines. The vindicator hit two carnifexes but he made both cover saves. The Sternguard rapidfired poisoned ammo into the Carnifex but only caused 2 wounds thanks to saves.. The Thunderfire put it's shots into the Hiveguard and surrounding guants but only killed a guant.
His turn the Tyrant moved up and landed to take on the Vindicator and the Carnifexes advanced again. His heavy fire took out 4 of the 5 man tactical and took 4 out of the 10 man tactical. Then his Tyrant shooting glanced the Vindicator to death.
The Stormraven showed up but the Ironclad didn't. The Multimelta, Lascannon, and 2 missiles only managed to inflict one wound on the Tyrant. The dice weren't being kind to me as the lascannon rolled a 1 to wound and the missiles both rolled 1s to hit. Thunderfire got a couple more guants.
The Sternguard got decimated from the Tyranid shooting. He took a hull point off the Stormraven as well with a glancing hit. He also took a hull point off the drop pod as two carnifexes moved onto the relic. Tyrant regened a wound. Lone marine died and the 5 man squad was shot down to one flamer marine.
The Ironclad didn't show again. The Stormraven swung around into hover mode and unloaded it's cargo. The Ironclad in it heavy flamered 5 guants. The lone marine with a flamer moved up and failed to wound a carnifex. Thunderfire got the venomthrope on the Sky Shield and a couple guants. Stormraven put two wounds on the Tyrant. Drop pods killed a venomthrope. Captain and command squad charged the two carnifexes at the relic with the flamer marine. Lost one of command squad to overwatch. Ironclad charged three guants. 1 Carnifex was killed and the other wounded, lost 3 command squad to crush.
His tyrant leaped over the stormraven. The two carnifex glanced the stormraven to death. Biovore artillery tried to kill the Thunderfire but did nothing. Tyrant charged in and killed Ironclad. Captain used the relic blade to finish off the carnifex and the lone tactical marine with flamer moved onto relic. Tyrant regened a wound.
Other Ironclad finally showed up and into the meatgrinder he went. He heavy flamered 5 more guants and the command squad charged the guant horde and try and finish them off. Thunderfire tried to kill a little more on the Sky Shield ineffectively due to saves made.
Tyrant jumped into the middle and killed the Ironclad with shooting. Carnifexes moved over and killed the one lone marine with the relic with overwhelming firepower. Tervigon moved to the middle and spawned a 9 man guant unit but plugged itself up. After deploying them, they then ran onto the Relic. I killed some more guants in close combat with none lost. His Tyrant regened a wound.
I killed the last three of the guants in close combat and consolidated off. Only killed a couple of the relic guants with the drop pods. Last tactical squad in the bunker and the thunderfire combined to put 4 wounds on the Tervigon but couldn't finish it off. I went ahead and called it at that point. If there was a turn 6, he'd have easily killed my captain and the one vet with him from the 2 shooting carnifex, the shooting tyrant and the exocrine, biovores, warriors shooting, etc.
The exocrine with that Living Artillery Node formation on a sky shield bubble wrapped with guants and a venomthrope thrown in to improve the cover save up to a 2+ is just nasty to go up against. And 4 carnifex putting out 48 str 6 rerolling missed shots is hard to shift due to the sheer weight of fire power. I was constantly having to make 17, 18, 19 saves on my marines and it was melting them away fast. And with that many shots, they'll glance a flyer to death fast as well. I'll have to do some thinking on how to deal with it. I'm sure there is a counter, I'll just have to plan it a bit better.
I think the key to beating that list is just killing synapse. He had 3 total synapse. I think it was an extremely bad match up. The relic is just rough against nids.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the game last night, thanks. List correction, one unit of gaunts was only 14 strong. @ Edwin he tried to kill synapse, real games don't happen in a vacuum sometimes you roll 6 ones while trying to wound a HT, only to have it successfully regenerate 3 out of 4 turns in a row. Also the unit of warrior (synapse) were unshiftable from the sky shield landing pad. I stayed back from chasing down the relic and kept pouring fire into the units that advanced on it until the top of turn 5 when I spawned gaunts on it.
ReplyDeleteThe marine list was strong but in my opinion it suffered from having too few units on the board while relying on reserves. Using heavy reserves means even more focused fire on the units on the board during the first turn, when reserve rolls trickle units in (like in this game) it leads to a situation where your opponent can keep a numbers advantage and has a superior fire advantage to deal with the arriving unit(s).
Perhaps Edwin you need to arrive sooner & show Charlie how its done...
Delete(...snicker...)
Ouch.
DeleteSorry. My lactose intolerance wouldn't allow for that level of cheese.sometimes I wonder how I am considered the power gamer when someone brings something like that.
DeleteOdd you first point out how easy it should be to take out 3 synapse. Then later call it a cheese list. No rule exploits were used. No bs allies to fill normal army deficiencies. And suddenly its a cheese list. You poor boy have no idea on how a cheese list looks. But at the request of a few of your previous opponents I would be happy to school you in the matter.
DeleteWow. That was an epic fight! I am not looking forward to dealing with that Skyshield no matter what faction takes it.
ReplyDeleteIt was a fun battle to participate in, but advancing into that level of fire power wasn't fun. If that second Ironclad had showed up when the Stormraven did, I think I could have made it a bit closer of a battle.
ReplyDelete