Astra Militarum vs Tyranids, 2021.12.02

Introduction

Back to a more casual game style with terrain placement right out of the rulebook. Time to break out the nuns for this Reconnaissance Mission incursion game from CA2020.

I placed my vehicles on the right flank, ready to advance into enemy territory. The heavy weapons teams had very narrow shooting lanes available. Bullgryns front and center.

The Tyranids clumped out into their corner, with two squads of Hive Guard behind the wall. I quickly realized that I was massively outgunned (with the big ruin blocking off line of sight through the center of the table) and chose secondaries that had nothing to do with the enemy itself: Recon Sweep, Recover Octarius Data, Engage on all Fronts.

Battle round 1

The Tyranids took the initiative and fired everything into the Tank Commander. She survived against all odds at 2 wounds remaining. The Hive Tyrant charged the Chimaera and piled into the Leman Russ as well. 

However, a large part of their forces remained hidden, fearing reprisal.

On my turn, the clump of Heavy Weapons Teams and characters moved and ran into the other table quarter. I judged their firepower to not count enough, and had them do actions for points instead. The lascannons fired with stratagem help but only did 1 wound to the Exocrine.

The moves on the right flank were a lot more exciting. The Chimaera disgorged its contents, and the squad of Nuns gunned down, then charged and killed the Termagants. 

The Tank Commander fired into the Tyrant, doing way more damage than it had a right to; then the Ogryns charged in and took it out with help from Inquisitor Lord Kyria Draxus. This made up for the lackluster psychic phase, where literally nothing went off.

Battle round 2

Seeing their vanguard force deleted, the Warriors instead exited the ruins. The Tank Commander survived a couple more volleys due to the Strike and Shroud order from last turn, but finally died, along with most of the heavy weapons.

You'll have to excuse the lack of pictures from now on, as we had started late and time was short. 

On my turn 2, the Scions and their Tempestor landed in to keep the Tyranids penned in their corner. The combined firepower off all my leftover units was not enough to kill the Exocrine, however the Nun squad and their accompanying Astropath did all the secondary objective actions.

Battle round 3

The Tyranids now finished off the heavy weapons and the advance nun squad, as well as some supporting characters. However, this left the backline intact for more action goodness. 

The scions killed the warriors by falling back and shooting.

Battle round 4

We just math'ed out from here on, but quick dice rolling showed that the scions still lived at the end of it, enabling them to fall back and complete all the secondary actions.

Aftermath

The Tyranids, penned in as they were, scored a total of 38 points (+10 for being painted), with almost half of that coming from Assassination. Yes, my list is still giving that up very easily.

I scored about 77 give or take, having completed Retrieve Octarius Data and Recon Sweep in all 4 quarters, as well as scoring a steady 2 points each turn for Engage on all fronts and a healthy 40-45 points of primary objectives.

I'm happy that I did not take psychic secondaries, as they depend on dice and I rolled abysmally for the psychic tests all game. Not that the dice favored either player; we both had great and not-so-great moments.

Overall, the game showed that the 8th edition mentality of sitting back and shooting does not stand up to any sort of mobile army flooding the table and scoring points all over. I initially did not realize the extent of my points lead, reeling all game from the devastating losses and scrambling to maximize points instead of killing. But that's 9th edition for you!