We had made an appointment for a 2v1 2000 points battle. My opponents were supposed to be Tyranids (from last game) and Necrons. I know our local Necron player usually brings Decurion, for which I have 0 sympathy, so I put together the best (worst?) list I could think of: CAD of Chaos Space Marines including Be'lakor and a flying Nurgle Prince with the Black Mace; CAD of Chaos Daemons including Kairos and two flying Princes with Grimoire and Portalglyph. Unfortunately, when arriving at the gaming store, I found out that the Necron player couldn't make it. So we decided to go for a 1500 point game with the Tyranid player. I would have brought a less powergame-y list for that; alas, I only had a limited selection of models at my disposal. I actually asked my opponent to choose between the Black Mace and Be'lakor - not that either choice would have been a lot better... So on to the match.
Mission: Contact Lost
Map: Dawn of War
Lists: 1500 points
Chaos Daemons: Combined Arms Detachment
- Kairos, warlord
- flying Nurgle Prince with armor, Grimoire, Balesword, lvl 3 Psyker
- flying Tzeentch Prince with armor, lvl 2 Psyker
- 10 Pink Horrors
- 3 Nurglings
Chaos Space Marines: Allied Detachment
- flying Nurgle Prince with armor, the Black Mace, lvl 3 Psyker, spell familiar
- 5-man Chaos Space Marine squad
Tyranids:
- Combined Arms Detachment
- flying Hive Tyrant, warlord
- Tervigon
- Hive Guard
- Warriors
- 2x 15 Termagaunts
- Zoanthrope and Neurothrope
- Sporefield
- 3 Mucolid Spores
- 3 Spore Mine Clusters
- Living Artillery Node
- 1 Exocrine
- 3 Biovores
- 1 Tyranid Warrior Brood
Deployment
I won the roll-off for deployment, so here goes (top to bottom): the Black Mace threatening the right flank; Nurglings infiltrated into a forest to hold an objective; Marines holding an objective in cover; everything else is behind the ruins. The painted model is the Tzeentch Prince; the unpainted model is the Nurgle Prince; Be'lakor proxies Kairos.
Tyranid deployment, bottom to top: Gaunts, Hive Guard (warrior + genestealer models), Exocrine (carnifex model), Biovores (brown genestealer models), Warriors, Tervigon (crowned Gaunt on huge base), Flyrant (my Bloodthirster model), Warriors, Zoanthropes and Gaunts. Lots of infiltrating Spore Mines and Mucolids (everything beyond the deployment zone).
Chaos Daemons, turn 1.
Kairos and the Tzeentch Prince swoop up to unleash some psychic shooting; the Nurgle Princes keep in gliding mode, prepared to do some charges next turn. Of course I failed most powers, or failed to do real damage. Kairos even got a wound from Perils. I annihilated most of the spore mines, but they 1) don't award victory points (so no first blood or Overwhelming Firepower) 2) all went back to ongoing reserves.
I threw away my objective - the only shooting I had was the Marines.
Tyranids, turn 1.
Everything moved up and unleashed a lot of shooting. The fliers weathered all the shooting, while 3 Marines and a couple of Horrors died. (Go to ground in ruins gives 3+ cover save, rerolling 1s because Tzeentch. Just as planned.)
The pulled objective was Demolitions, so that was thrown away.
Chaos Daemons, turn 2.
All of Kairos' psychic shooting killed 1 Biovore and wounded a Hive Guard. The swooping Tzeentch Prince had to turn back to deal with all the Spore Mines deep striking / landing from the Biovores near the vulnerable Nurglings.At least the two Nurgle Princes got of charges. I successfully slaughtered the Warriors (Instant Death from the Balesword did wonders), while the other Prince murdered a lot of Gaunts, pulling them from the objective.
I scored First Blood and 2 out of 3 objectives.
Tyranids, turn 2.
No objective cards for the Tyranids.Out of synapse, the Gaunts fled back towards the table edge.
The Flyrant turned around to provide them synapse; it also got to shoot at the Horrors with great effect, leaving 2 alive.
I rolled a 1 on the Black Mace, hitting myself, and not killing enough Gaunts. 1 remained alive.
Chaos Daemons, turn 3.
Having nowhere to turn and not wanting to get bogged down in combat by Gaunts, Kairos flew off the table.Tactical summoning by the Nurgle Prince to contest the objective held by the Zoanthropes.
The other Nurgle Prince murdered the other Warrior Brood. The Tzeentch Prince spent all its energy destroying Mucolids and Spore Mines.
I scored two more objective cards.
Tyranids, turn 3.
My solid objective denying paid off. 1 more objective card was pulled, Big Game Hunter. This was a final blow to morale - all my Monstrous Creatures seemed unkillable.
Still, the Tyranids tried everything possible, with all out shooting. Spirit Leech and Warp Blast was denied with a bucketload of dice. The Balesword Prince failed 3 2+ jink saves (statistics was bound to come back and bite me some time), but he only took 2 wounds thanks to Kairos. Still, that was it. As a final push, a Mucolid assaulted my Nurglings and installed 2 bases - but I still held the objective with the last one.
At this point, the shopkeeper kicked us out; it was well past 10 p.m. The score was 5-0, so my opponent agreed to call it.
Conclusions:
- Sporefield is the most annoying formation I have encountered so far. Not the best; not the most powerful; but certainly the most annoying. I have spent a ridiculous amount of energy to destroy those puny mines, before they insta-kill all my Nurgling Swarms and Marines.
- A powergame-y Flying Circus stomps a less competitive list. The end.
No comments:
Post a Comment