Mission: Deadlock
Lists: 2000 points
Daemons:
- Battalion Detachment +3 CP
- Daemon Prince of Nurgle, wings, sword, warp bolter, warlord
- Great Unclean One
- Herald of Nurgle
- 3-man Nurglings
- 30-man Plaguebearers, icon, instrument
- 10-man Plaguebearers
- Beast of Nurgle
- Soul Grinder, warpsword
- Patrol Detachment
- Epidemius
- 3-man Nurglings
- Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment
- Scabeiathrax the Bloated
Tyranids:
- Patrol Detachment
- Broodlord
- 15-man Genestealers, Scything talons, Rending claws
- 16-man Genestealers, Scything talons, Rending claws
- Spearhead Detachment +1 CP
- Broodlord
- 2x Exocrine
- Trygon Prime
- Vanguard Detachment +1 CP
- Swarmlord
- 3-man Tyrant Guard
- 3-man Venomthropes
- 3-man Zoanthropes
Deployment
The Tyranid player won the roll-off and determined standard Dawn of War deployment. With less units to deploy (a unit of Genestealers underground with the Trygon), the Tyranids also went first.
Initially, we both deployed as little as possible to force the other player to commit first. Then the Swarmlord landed on the left flank, so I put Scabeiathrax down in front of it, and the game was on.
For the Tyranids: Broodlord, Venomthropes and a large unit of Genestealers on the bottom (some Hormagants proxying Genestealers); then the Zoanthropes; then an Exocrine in a crater; the Swarmlord with Tyrant Guard; and finally another Broodlord and Exocrine in the far ruins.
I threw down the screen of 30 Plaguebearers as usual, with all the important stuff behind them. Scabeiathrax, the Daemon Prince and the Soul Grinder landed on the right flank. The Herald and Epidemius (both proxied by Plague Marines, differing base sizes), the Great Unclean One and the Beast of Nurgle landed on the left flank. Seeing that the right flank was as secure as it gets, I put the second unit of Plaguebearers on the left, then Nurglings on both sides to deny the Trygon Prime the chance to pop up behind my lines.
Tyranids, turn 1
The right flank surged forward.
The Trygon popped out of the ground on the right, and sent in the Genestealers. They ravaged the Plaguebearer unit, and I opted to auto-pass morale for 2 CP.
The Exocrine shot the Grinder, bringing it down to 9 wounds.
Daemons, turn 1
As I took away the Plaguebearers from the left so as to preserve my screen in front of my characters on the right, the left flank suddenly found itself sparse. The best defense is a good offense, so I surged forward, leaving Epidemius to score an objective and the Herald going right to give his strength aura to the surviving Plaguebearers. The Great Unclean One let loose with psychics, killing 2 Zoanthropes.
On the right, the Prince and Scabeiathrax came forward, getting into charging positions.
I managed to heal the Grinder for 3 wounds using Psychics.
I had to tie up the left Genestealer squad and also had the objective they held, so I sent in the 10-man Plaguebearers.
On the right, I had Scabeiathrax roll his charge first, thinking to go into the Trygon or the Genestealers, depending on how it went. I managed to go into the Trygon, along with the Prince.
The Grinder shot (and did no damage to) the Exocrine, then charged the Genestealers with one leg.
Fight phase!
... let's just say that Scabeiathrax is now a thing, one-shotting Trygons left and right. The Prince then elected to "fight" next and piled in and consolidated towards the Genestealers, getting away from the Swarmlord.
The left Plaguebearers died horribly, but I auto-passed morale for 2 CP to keep the Genestealers tied up for a turn.
On the right, the Nurglings also joined the fray (doing nothing), but I did managed to kill a couple of Genestealers. Reality blinked for the Plaguebearers, bringing back 3.
Tyranids, turn 2
The Genestealers surrounded my two remaining Plaguebearers. The Venomthropes advanced on the other side, evading the Great Unclean One. The surviving Zoanthrope also retreated.
The Exocrines, seeing the futility of shooting the healed Grinder, instead targeted Scabby, chipping off 3 wounds.
The Swarmlord and Tyrant Guard close in, intent on killing the Daemon Prince.
And they charged in! But Scabby also got stuck in, thanks to Heroic Intervention. Fortunately, the Prince did not die, standing at 2 wounds remaining.
I removed my models after pile-ins. No point in rolling 50 attacks for two Plaguebearers.
Scabby did his thing, one-shotting the Swarmlord. The Prince did worse, only inflicting 2 wounds on the Tyrant Guard.
Daemons, turn 2
The Daemon Prince heroically retreated from combat.
Scabby did his thing and killed all the Tyrant Guard in one go. By this point, the combined weight of the Plaguebearers, Nurglings and the Grinder managed to pull the Genestealers down.
With the Great Unclean One heading towards the Zoanthrope and Exocrine on the left flank, I sent in the remaining troops to bubble wrap the Genestealers without charging.
Tyranids, turn 3
The Broodlord came out of hiding, intent on the Daemon Prince.
The Genestealers and Venomthropes took the bait and charged in. I am proud to say that 1 Nurgling actually survived the combat! But then it ran away. Anyway, they did their job, holding up the Genestealers for a turn.
The Broodlord charged the Daemon Prince, narrowly evading Heroic Intervention by Scabby, and killed his target.
Daemons, turn 3
Scabby did his thing and killed the Broodlord. In fact, if I remember correctly, he killed it in the shooting phase with his Horrific Vomit.
The Great Unclean One advanced on the Exocrine...
And scored Big Game Hunter.
The right flank advanced towards the Exocrine, intent on mopping up. Again, the Grinder shot (as it did every turn) and did 0 damage (as it did every turn).
Tyranids, turn 4
The Exocrine shot the Grinder, doing some damage. But the action was concentrated on the other flank. The Venomthropes march towards one of my backfield objectives and Linebreaker, while the Genestealers and Broodlord take on the Great Unclean One.
The fight phase was awfully tense... but the Great Unclean One survived! Disgustingly resilient indeed. The +1 Toughness from Epidemius' tally also helped, with the Genestealers wounding on 6's instead of 5+. I then put all my attacks into the Broodlord, killing it.
Daemons, turn 4
The Grinder charged in... and it actually did something! In fact, it killed the Exocrine during the next Fight phase.
Scabby advanced towards the Great Unclean One battling the Genestealers.
Turn 5
With nowhere to go, the Genestealer kept the Great Unclean One in combat, taking off some wounds but also dying in the process. The Venomthropes landed in my backfield, and started defending the objective.
On my turn, I closed in with Scabby, and the two Greater Daemons destroyed the Genestealers with Psychics.
I shot at the Venomthropes, taking them down to 1 model remaining - the last surviving Tyranid on the board.
The game ended there, at the end of turn 5, with a pretty close score of 13-9 (14-10? somewhere around that) in my favor.
Aftermath
- Scabeiathrax is now a thing. I can't believe Scabeiathrax is now a thing! The poor guy sat through 7th edition all in a box, useless against all the D-weapons, probably not a match for a 400-point Knight in close combat, and weighing a hefty 777 points. Now, at 610, he's worth every point, buffing Nurgle units and being deadly in close combat and close range shooting. Clearly the MVP.
- Mono-god armies are now a thing. Previously useless units are now a thing. Synergies actually work. Now mind this is so far tested only for Nurgle, but I am thrilled with the results. Have Epidemius give +1T to your Great Unclean One and it shall become unkillable!
- As in the previous game, the infantry was very resilient, but barely doing any damage.
- Psykers, even though not as powerful as in the previous edition, are still doing well. Psychic focus hinders casting a lot, but prevents spamming (I can't have all my monsters healing themselves for D3). Smite allows for decent workarounds, as long as I planned carefully how to spread the other powers around. I suspect diminishing returns for more than 4 psykers (as I had in this game), but I'll have to test more to see how it fares.
- The Soul Grinder was very disappointing, and I didn't figure out how to use it yet. Heavy weapons suggest it should stand still, but it has way too few shots hitting on 4+ to be useful. It isn't very good in combat either, with only 3 attacks at full health (although those can hit at S16 and do D6 damage). I suspect it is meant to take on larger things. It just wasn't very good in this game.
- Tyranids are now also a thing, with Genestealers dishing out a horrific number of attacks. Unfortunately, we couldn't see the Swarmlord shine, as he was demolished by Scabeiathrax.
No comments:
Post a Comment