This was a really fun game, 2000 pts, Emperors Will
with my Tyranids vs Tim's Daemons.
This time I opted for the run of the mill flyrant with 2x TL-devourers with brainleech worms,
He performed so-so, mainly due to grounding himself with a perils of the warp on turn 2.
A last minute switch from a tervigon to the internet-loathed haruspex because I realized I only brought the 30 termagants that I was deploying and no extras for spawning. More on that later.
I got first turn and deployed my acid spray tyrannofexes on each side of the objective, supported by some warriors and a blob of termagants and a lone Zoanthrope in the ruin for extra synapse. Because of the previous battle where I used the long range rupture cannons I sort of placed the Tyrannofexes hanging back a bit, which was a bit dumb, but one of them went to town right away, moving up and spewing acid on a big blob of blood letters, killing four of them.
I also used two units of Genestealers (never used them before), one was Cryptus and his sons, the other was just 10 + a brood lord (with talons and toxin sacs for the Broody).
I infiltrated them and put one on my right flank as close as possible in a ruin, and the other I put in the central ruins, accidentaly super close to the bloodletter blob so it looked likely there was gonna be a turn 1 charge!
Hive tyrant tried to fix this predicament with casting paroxysm on the bloodletters, lowering their ws by 2, not enough this time to make them hit on 5´s though. (And it was literally the only good power I rolled).
The Daemons however had some really good spells going, 2x cursed earth for example as both the pink horrors and their herald managed to roll it. 3+ invuln bubble got off and things were looking quite dark for the central genestealers!
EDIT: apperantly we made a huge mistake and thought Cursed earth was a +2 to the invuln save!
lucky for me though the bloodletter failed their charge through the ruins, as Tim realized he hadn't brought their banner. Phew!
He did spawn some flamers of tzeentch on the pink horrors right flank and BBQ'd some hormagaunts, but not nearly as many as he could have, if he ever had managed to roll averagely!
his skull cannon on the right flank shot at cryptus and his unit, scattering over their heads, and only killing two and putting a wound on Cryptus himself (it could have done some serious damage, ignoring cover and being s7 ap5!)
the Seekers of Slaanesh charged into them as well, getting shred to ribbons by the insane close combat prowess of tooled up genestealers with an enormous broodlord! And ended up giving Cryptus a 5" consolidate move towards the skull cannon, he would easily get a charge in on my next turn now.
The Daemon prince advanced midfield, its eyes set on one of the Tyrannofexes, casting enfeeble on it. But after taking a wound from overwatch he also failed his charge! This is why you want fleet on your assault dudes! :0
Turn 2 saw the genestealers and hormagaunts charge into the meatgrinder!
the genestealers did quite a number on the bloodlettes but their new found 3+ invuln kept them alive, but their low number of attacks when not charging kept the bloodletters from simply wiping the floor with the genestealers and instead turned into a complete whiff as not a single stealer of jeans died!
the Hormagants didn't fare much better, striking last as well, and killing only one pink horror!
the right flank saw Cryptus pluck the rider of the skull cannon of his gun and steadily advance up the backfield of the Daemon deployment!
Meanwhile the Haruspex and Tyrannofex considered double teaming the Dameon prince, but the tyrannofex failed to both wound and charge the Prince.
The Haruspex however, lashing out with his tongue, taking a second wound of the prince, then charged in.the bigass Deamon did 3 wounds to the Haruspex no problem, getting bathed in it's acid blood in the process, but then the Haruspex struck wounded him twice, the dameons invuln save failing him, making the bug generate two more attacks, of which yet another found its mark, gravely wounding the Daemon prince and by the end of the combat the acid blood took its toll, killing the prince!
That's one hellova badass lunch you got there, Haruspex.
Hive tyrant cast paroxysm on the bloodletters before the close combat, this time lowering their ws by 3, making them hit on 5´s! this was pretty huge since they were still sitting on a 3+ invuln and the genestealers had no save whatsoever.
However the Hive tyrant periled and rolled a 1! luckily he made his leadership test, so he only took a wound, but it did instead cause him to fall to the ground, taking yet another wound! He's half dead and on the ground, with only himself to blame...
This round however saw the four armed bug people attack at initiative, of course the broodlord whiffed all of his attacks (and I forgot about his toxin sacs for rerolling to wound). His lessers didn't however and managed to take out a few bloodletters, losing only 2 genestalers in return.
Daemons turn 2 saw the flamers jumpin to the aid of the pink horrors, dwindling down the hormagaunts to a measly 7.
A group of plaguebearers materealized infront of Cryptus, intent on stopping him from reaching the Daemons objective.
Daemonettes appeard on the other side of the meatgrinder to stop the advance of the now grounded hive tyrant and it's buddies tyrannofex and carnifex.
a skördetröska.... I mean Seeker chariot of slaanehs landed behind them, most likely gunning for the gants and warriors near my objective.
Speaking of my objective
Kairos was fluttering around it and dropped some khorne dogs almost right on top of it.
then the warpstorm took the damn hive tyrant, the dice might not be with Tim, but the dark gods seemed to be.
Turn 3 saw Cryptus slicing and dicing all but the plague herald's last wound, the other genestealers pushing the bloodletters down to 4 guys, the decked out melee warriors finally reached combat and killed the flamers, but he rolled double 1's so they came back!
The Haruspex had joined the genestealers too, but that's 3+ invuln kept him from making a thai buffet out of them. with only 4 attacks on the charge and ws3 he's a bit of a gamble if he will get anything done or not.
the tyrannofex melted a couple of seekers and charged in, mostly to prevent them from going after the warriors who were my only central synapse by now xD
The carnifex doubled back, shot the chariot in the back and immobilized it but failed his charge.
in return the warpstorm took the carnifex out by doing exactly 4 wounds to it with ap3!
the seekers did 3 wounds to the tyrannofex, the plagueberaer herald got snacked on and more bloodletters materialized to protect the objective.
This is how it looked after bottom of turn 3, genestealers in the centre broke through and obsec'd the Daemon objective, the haruspex drooled longingly for that new unit of bloodletters that just came in, Cryptus primed to charge them too, or the screamers. Warriors in the backfield had taken care of the Khorne dogs with a little help from the Termagants, there was just no way for the Daemons to recover from this.
8-1 to the Tyranids on start of turn 4/bottom of 3.
This was a brutal match, with two key failed charges putting the daemons up against the wall on turn 2 and only thanks to us messing up Cursed earth were they able to tank a lot of wounds that would otherwise have seen the Tyranids hold both objectives a turn earlier!
Post battle thoughts:
I think on the right flank, the seekers almost helped Cryptus slingshot ahead, his unit started 18" away in the back end of the run, moved up, ran with fleet just out of the ruin, and then mopped up the charging seekers to consolidate another 5" towards the Skull cannon, who had moved away 6" to get some distance and shoot, so on my turn 2 I was in decent charge range even before I moved up. if I had rolled a 1 or 2 on my consolidate or the seekers would have held off I might have failed that charge.
In hindsight a better move would probably have been to either screen the cannon with the seekers, as it ignores cover anyway, or simply to have hanged back and charged the genestealers on turn 2.There was nothing really wrong with the deployment of the skull cannon, except it being on his far left flank so I could infiltrate and force him to shoot at Cryptus instead of my units protecting my objective (like the blob of 30 Termagants for example!).
The failed charge by the Bloodletters really cost him too, as they have such a low number of attacks and would greatly benefit from their furius charge, with twice the number of attacks and wounding on 3´s they could have really done a number on the genestealers, if they could weather the attacks first.
That was further not helped that the flamers of tzeentch killed only 8 hormagaunts when they hit like 16, wounding on 3's and ignoring all saves. and instead they gave them a 6+ fnp as well.
The Haruspex really surprised us, chewing the head of that Deamon prince in one round of combat and regenerating 2 of the 3 wounds it took, only to later regenerate that last wound too. Granted the Prince had taken two wounds prior to the combat but it would probably have been killed by the deamonic instability anyway.
The Haruspex only had 4 attacks on the charge, and was hitting on 5's because of its cruddy ws3, but its prowess comes from s7 base and s8 with adrenal glands and generating more attacks if it causes unsaved wounds, so it really did 6 attacks, plus hammer of wrath and single ap2 shooting attack and whatever acid blood can pull off as every unsaved wound it takes forces an initiative test on the opponent and if he fails he takes a s5 ap2 hit. It adds up but you need a fair bit of luck to get a good round of combat out of this thing.Also it's lame that it only generates more attacks that way on the turn it charges.
Edit: it apperantly only regenerates one wound no matter how many unsaved wounds it causes.
And it has crushing claws giving it +1 strength. so it's s7 base with 8 on the charge.
