Mission: Eternal War - Front-line Warfare
Team "Echipa Racheta" (Team Rocket, because they wear lucky Pokemon hats)
Battalion detachment - Hive Fleet Jormungandr
- Hive Tyrant: wings, Adrenal Glands, two Devourers, Monstrous Rending Claws, Warlord: Insidious Threat, Catalyst, Psychic Scream
- Hive Tyrant: wings, Adrenal Glands, two Devourers, The Reaper of Obliterax
- 3 Ripper Swarms
- 30-man Termagants, Devourers
- 28-man Termagants, Devourers
- Mawloc
Patrol detachment - Hive Fleet Leviathan
- Hive Tyrant: wings, Adrenal Glands, two Devourers, Monstrous Rending Claws, Warlord: Perfectly Adapted, Catalyst, Psychic Scream
- 10-man Terma
Spearhead detachment - Hive Fleet Kronos
- Neurothrope
- 4x Biovore
- Exocrine
- 3x Carnifex, Spore Cysts, Enhanced Senses, 2x Devourers
The Tyrants in reserve. So is the Mawloc, bringing in the 2 Gaunt hordes. Carnifexes and Neurothrope backed in the corner, screened by Biovores, screened by 10 Gaunts.
We spread out as much as possible, with Hounds on all three fronts, and Cultists and Horrors all over the place to deny reserves.
We seized the initiative.
Chaos, turn 1
In what we thought of as a stroke of genius, I landed my Bloodletters. The 'Nids made a crucial mistake, by leaving 1 Biovore able to be charged beside the Gaunts. So our plan was to charge forward, kill the Gaunts, and surround but do not kill the Biovore. Thus the Bloodletters would be safe from shooting, they would deny a huge area of reserves, and be able to interrupt any combat and dish out a lot of hurt.
A good plan, and well executed. I even did a Command Point Re-roll so as not to kill the Biovore. There was a flaw, though...
Tyranids, turn 1
The flaw in the execution of our master plan was that we discounted the multilevel ruin that the Biovore resided in. It fell back to the second floor. So the Bloodletters were exposed, and all the artillery unloaded into them. I used Warp Surge for 4++, but rolled horribly, and by the end of the turn, only 2 Bloodletters lived. We did not give another 2 CPs for them not to run away.
One Hive Tyrant arrived in the top-right corner, shot the Flesh Hounds and charged some Horrors.
Chaos, turn 2
Demoralized by the loss of the Bloodletters, I was happy that there was something for me to do, as I headed towards the Tyrant with my Daemon Prince and the center group of Hounds.
In a maneuver of "go big or go home", Abaddon and his faithful Obliterators arrived in place of the Bloodletters to shoot up the 'Nids.
However, this time their D3-s rolled poorly, and they barely managed to kill 1 Carnifex and the Exocrine. They tried charging the Biovores to spread out and deny the entering of the last reserves, but only managed one charge, leaving the corner free.
Again, the Daemon Prince disappointed by doing only 2 wounds to the Tyrant - same as the Flesh Hounds. I got 5 wounds in return. A fair exchange, NOT.
Tyranids, turn 2
Everything arrived in force. Notice the complete lack of Obliterators after the psychic and shooting phases.
The Prince managed to kill the Tyrant, who killed him back with his death throes.
Chaos, turn 3
We were completely neutered - no hard hitters, one Warlord dead, Abaddon alive with 3 wounds in enemy territory. However, we had substantial table control. But there was no time limit for this last game. So we resolved to play out a couple more turns, see if we can hold out and win through objectives.
Tyranids, turn 3
Unfortunately, the bugs rolled well. By Smiting the hiding Abaddon to death, they had enough secondaries for a tie, and they still had at least 2 turns to spread out, kill our chaff, and take the objectives. We honorably conceded after 6 hours of grueling play.
Aftermath
As we won the first game through minutiae and careful measurement, so we lost this one. Not much to say - we tried and failed, got our strike force annihilated and then our army worn down. We theorized some scenarios about how we could have done a comeback, but the chances were slim in any case.
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