Fluger and I scheduled a casual game today. I borrowed some models from a patron so I only had to proxy 80% of the models instead of a game of proxy hammer. Good thing I only have 43 models in my army. I named my Tyranid swarm Cicada because their paint scheme is based off a real Cicada. (Fluger’s comments are in red)
Cicada Swarm
HQ Tyranid Prime x 1
TP Tyranid Warriors x 4 (rending claws, scything talons, toxin sac)
TP Genestealers x 6 w/ BL (rending claws, scything talons, toxin sac)
TP Termingunts x 12
TP Tervigon x 1 (Catalyst)
EL Ymgarl Stealers x 5
EL Venomthrope x 1
EL Zoanthrope x 2 w/ Pod
FA Spore Mines x 3
FA Raveners x 3 (Rending claws, scything talons)
HS Carnifex x 2
HS Trygon x 1
HS Biovore x 2
Fluger brought his normal assault heavy but shoot even heavier Ork list.
HQ Big Mek w/ KFF x 1
TP Trukka Boyz x 12 (trukk, PK)
TP Trukka Boyz x 12 (trukk, PK)
TP Shoota Boyz x 30 (rokkit x 3, PK)
TP Shoota Boyz x 30 (rokkit x 3, PK)
TP Gretchen x 12
EL Lootas x 15
FA Rokkit Buggies x 2
FA Storm Boys x 15 (PK)
HS Battle Wagon x 1
HS Lobbas x 3
HS Killa Kan x 3 (Rokkits x3)
I joked with Fluger before the game starts since we had an online discussion prior regarding the effectiveness of Hormagunts. Since my list only has 43 models, it will be very difficult for me to deal with large swarm of guys. I knew Orks would be a hard fight for me list especially since most of my models will get pummeled by ID from his rokkits.
Terrain:
Ruins: C2, D3, D4, E4
Forest: A2, B1, D1
Pillars: E2
Swamp: C3~D2
Deployment:
Dawn of War
Mission: Shoot the big one! (TSHFT M.KP mission. Each MC beyond the first yield 2 KP. Any vehicle with AR more than 50 and V. Squadron over 100 are worth 2. Swarms is worth 1 less.)
Fluger won the dice roll and opt to go first. Normally I would be happy going second on Dawn of War deployment. but the funny part was that I was actually looking forward to go first and deploy every thing for a change. We found something interesting as I scattered my spore mines into the middle of the board. By the letters of the rules, Fluger must now set up his units 18″ from mine, which is huge for Dawn of War. I literally split his 2 large Shoota squad away from where his battle wagon (and the Big Mek and Gretch inside) would have arrived, unfortunately for me I did not capitalize this advantage and went full reserve instead for safety.
F: The fact that these things split up my army was pretty annoying. I’m not a huge fan of them in most cases, but in screwing up an opponent’s dawn of war deployment, there’s very little that could be better!
Turn 1
Orks
Fluger moved all of his forces up towards the middle of the board and destroyed my poor spores. He parked his Lootas at C1′s and his Lobbas near D1.
F: My goal at this point was to set up a fire base and force Zen to come at me, with the idea of counter-assaulting with stormboy and trukk boyz. I was hoping to play my usual game of VP exchange (kill point exchange?) by forcing Zen to use multiple units to take down my big mobz. I tried to cover all the terrain in my area; but for some reason completely blanked on the terrain that the Ymgarl were in.
Tyranids
I had no units on board and nothing arrived. On hindsight, I perhaps should have the Venomthrope and Biovore moving on to the board first turn.
Turn 2
Orks
I joked with Fluger that I had Ymgarl Stealers hiding near his forest and forced him to go backwards on this movement. His forces are now bunched near the middle of the board. Still, if my Stealers show up next turn, they should be able to assault one of the squad and pull him off their positions. However, he left the ruin near C2 unguarded… hmm.
F: I was still basically getting into position and covering terrain. Really not sure what I was thinking with that ruin!
Tyranids
Unfortunately, none of my fast stuff showed up, instead all my MC’s showed up (great… more KP for the Orks) along with the Warriors brood and the Zoanthropes. I really didn’t know how survivable my MC’s are against Flugey’s shooting, so I put my Carnifex near F4, Tervigon at E4, and the Trigon and the Warrior near D4. I tried to drop pod backwards, but the thing scattered12′ towards Fluger’s unit instead. I tried to roll up some psychic test, but one brain bug fried its brain and Fluger made the other penetrating result with KFF.
F: Yeah, this was the beginning of Zen’s poor reserve rolls (another reason I hate reserve gambit) which exposed his most valuable units (and also the ones worth the most KP). The Kustom Force Field is just sooo strong in my opinion, nothing should be able to survive those Deep Striking Zoanthropes. At this point I knew I was in a good position to get 2 KPs very easily.
Ork: 0 KP Tyr: 0 KP
Turn 3
Orks
Fluger popped the Myceptic Spore with one shot. To mine surprise that thing was S6 T4 rather than the S4 T6 as I thought it was – hmm another model that can be easily ID in my army. The Zoanies didn’t last much longer as well as they got shot up by the 30 men Shootas lurking near the Pillars at E2. Fluger mobbed up his second Shoota boys and surrounded them near the forests in B1. The Tervigon took some wounds but otherwise nothing much happened.
F: New books mean learning new things and Zen was certainly shocked when I told him that the mycetic spore was dead from one rokkit shot. Zoanthropes are pretty cool and all, but I think deepstriking them is a mistake, I think they’d be better served being less exposed. The shoota boyz just blasted the crap outta them and that was that.
Tyranids
The Ymgarl arrived! They were hidden in the ruins at C2 all along. Funny that Fluger managed to surrounded every spot except the obvious spot that can hit all of his units. I tried to move to the Lobbas, but the distance between the Kans and the Lootas are less than 3″ and blocked my advance. The Ymgarl ended up assaulting the Lootas and wiped them out. The Biovore showed up but scatted way off from their targets, and hit the Kans instead. Down by KP, I decided to take a chance and spawn some more Termagunts, Unfortunately I only spawn 8 and rolled double “2″ with it as well. Dang. Without thinking through, I cast Catalyst on the Tervigon, only realized later that I should’ve cast on the Gunts as I ended up assaulting the Orks with them. The Gunts died in the CC before they have a chance to hit back due to the fact that they had no grenade. Meanwhile, the Warriors and the newly showed up Ravener brood made short order out of the Buggies.
F: The fact that I didn’t deny that ruin to the Ymgarl was a huge mistake on my part; not sure how I had the brain fart on that one. Zen was saying earlier that he thinks 5 is too few for Ymgarl, but I’ll have to disagree after I watched them take out my lootas in one round of combat. Bigger squads are going to be harder to hide, and all the points spent on them could go to something else. The 5 strong assassination squad is pretty cool. Definitely liked their style, though I suffered because of them.
Ork: 2 KP Tyr: 2 KP
Turn 4
Orks
The Orks started their major counter offensive and wiped out my Trygon camping at E3 with a single Shoota Squad. This was very costly for me since the Spore Pod was a MC and the Trygon just gave Fluger 2 more KP. Fluger unloaded a unit of Trukka Boyz as well, but they ended up blasted by his own battle cannon from the Battle Wagon and lost 5 in process. They ended up fleeing from the scene (very important bit for later) towards D2. The Ravener Brood was molested by the other Shoota Squad and the Kans, left with a single model left with a single wound. The Storm boyzs charged the Ymgarl; amazingly, the Ymgarl only did one wound… then died.
F: I was kind of forced to attack something once the termagants assaulted me. At that point it was charge or be charged, and I had to choose between charging the Trygon, Tervigon, or Carnifexes. While the Tervigon was the easiest kill of the group (fewer attacks, lower WS, lower I), it wasn’t as much of a threat as the other two. The carnifexes were tougher to kill as they had 8 wounds instead of the 6 of the trygon. As well, by attacking the Trygon, I was able to force the Tervigon and carnifexes to attack my mob. Losing models to my own shooting is really annoying and I hadn’t counted on it. I had expected to charge the survivors of the ravener squad, but instead, I fled back and had to hold my breath for the ravener’s assault.
Tyranids
The Venomthrope finally showed up (I still regretting not setting up him first). I then made possibility the greatest error in the game. I assaulted the Shoota Squad with the Carnifex and the Tervigon (tying up the PK with the Tervigon) but then absent mindedly multi assaulted the Shoota Squad and the Truk Boyzs that is falling back. Fluger made his rally check and Pummeled 3 of the warriors to the ground with ID. I am now in a bind. I was going to push for an offensive with my warriors crushing into the Kans (WS5 Rending attack should work out in my favor) the following turn, but now I only have a single Warrior left and my Prime only has Bone Sword and will likely do nothing against any vehicles with AV of 11. I made the hard choice and moved back with my Warriors squad and the Tervigon, shielding them with the twin Fexes. Meanwhile, the Ravener assaulted the Battle Wagon that moved at combat speed and did nothing to earn the KP back. The game started to looking grim for the bugs.
F: Zen bringing back my slugga boyz to get a few more kills on the warriors was a great bonus. Had he not done that he would’ve been threatening to overrun my entire center, though I did have the stormboyz tasked to go after the warriors if need be. Obviously, also rolling 3/3 hits and 3/3 wounds was a big deal as well! This combat also re-confirmed for me that the 160 point carnifex is an awesome buy, and a unit of two is just super good. 10 attacks on the charge is just crazy stupid! Especially with the rerolls to hit! 7-8 hits and probably 6-7 dead enemies is STRONG. Carnis get no love on the interwebs, but I just think people aren’t reading between the lines and realizing how much more damage they do now…
Ork: 5 KP Tyr: 4 KP
Turn 5
Orks
Fluger blocked the advances of my Carnifex with a fast moving truck and dropped the Ravener into a pile of mist with his Storm Boyzs. The Shoota Boys and the Lobbas tried hard to destroy my Warriors, but failed to do so.
F: I LOVE blocking units with cheap units, even if it means giving up a KP. I use this strategy more often against Land Raiders and such, but it worked all right against the Carnis. Kept them from running amok in my shoota boyz. Zen made a ton of saves on his warriors, which was annoying, but oh well.
Tyranids
The Stealer squad with the BL finally showed up. By this time I finally managed dropping the Storm Boyz to 9 models and forced a pinning check. But the Orks pressed on. The Carnifexes assaulted the Truck, but only managed to immobilize it. I desperately trying to get the Venomthrope and the Warrior from the windows of the ruins, but rolled a pair of “1″s for them… To add salt to injury, I failed my one psychic check with the Tervigon as well.
F: Not killing the truck was funny, and the Tervigon failing its test here was funny too
Ork: 6 KP Tyr: 4 KP
Turn 6
Orks
Fluger tank shocked his last Truck Boyz into the ruins between D4 and E4 and let out the Boyz. Unfortunately the Venomthrope that was babysitting the Termagunts and the Biovores got ID by a Rokkit (after I put the Prime in with him to help wounds distribution and went to ground). So the Boys evaded their fate of dangerous terrain check and wiped out the Gunts squad. The lone Biovore thrived, making 5 out of 6 of fearless check after its partner got ID by a PK.
F: Zen forgot to mention that counter attack from the Tervigon made those termies a bit tougher than I was hoping for… Had that unit been bigger, it would’ve been waaay scarier. Killing the Venomthrope was nice as well. I whiffed on my Power Klaw attacks on the Biovores which should’ve netted me both units and allowed me to consolidate into a better position; but it was ok as I knew I’d get him next turn and give up one KP for 2. My lootas also proved their value yet again by killing 7 of 7 genestealers, while they would still get assaulted by the stealers, at least I’d made them less of a threat. Also, his prime had gone to ground to save the Venomthroap (and failed), so one less threat…
Tyranids
The lone Broodlord (his squad got obliterated by the Lobbas) finally got in CC and exact his revenges on the Lobbas. The lone warriors and the Tervigon went in and destroyed the truck Boyz (but not before the Nob swung at the poor Biovore). The Carnifexes inched towards the Kans after some poor fleet and alas, my suffering has came to a end.
F: Zen just didn’t have enough units on the board able to do anything at this point and did the best he could’ve. Had the prime been free to move, Zen could’ve gone after the second trukk.
Ork: 9 KP Tyr: 7 KP
After thought
Well, consider the fact that one of the KP is from Modified KP and another one is self generated and then fed to Fluger, I only lost the battle by 1 KP were it a normal one. Still, much of my fears came true, like the vulnerability to ID and the inability to wound vehicles moving at cruising speed. I’ll go deeper in the analysis of this game in the aftermath section, as Fluger (a recruited writer for this blog) and I will have a detailed analysis of the game and Tyranid.
Anyhow.. Fluger just handed my first loss of the year in the game of 40K.
Your reports about the battle between tyranid cicada and orks are very interesting.Knowing that Orks are being describe as tall, muscular humanoids, with green skin and a penchant for violence.Still tyranids can have a strong fight due to their extragalactic alien race, whose sole purpose is the consumption of all forms of genetic and biological material in order to evolve and reproduce.