Thursday, May 6, 2010

BATTLE REPORT: 1500 vs Tyranids

A little while ago I had a battle against the other DH on this site and his vile gribblies. This is my first report using Vassal, so I hope you enjoy!

My list:
CCS, 2 plasmaguns, 1 meltagun, plasma pistol, medic, astropath, Chimera with HF/ML
Veteran Squad, Sgt. Harker, 3 Grenade Launchers, Autocannon
PCS, Al'Rahem, 4 meltaguns, Chimera with HF/ML
Infantry Squad, flamer, power sword, Commissar with power sword
Infantry Squad, flamer, power sword, meltabomb
Infantry Squad, flamer, power sword, meltabomb
Special Weapon Squad, 3 flamers
Special Weapon Squad, 1 flamer, 2 demo charges
Vendetta
Vendetta
Hellhound, Multimelta
Leman Russ Battle Tank, Heavy Bolter

His list:
Tyranid Prime, Bone swords, Death spitter
3 Warriors, 2 death spitters, 1 barbed strangler
3 Warriors, 2 death spitters, 1 barbed strangler
8 Genestealers
8 Genestealers, broodlord
2 Zoanthropes, mycetic spore
2 Hive Guard
2 Hive Guard
Dakkafex, mycetic spore
Tyrannofex

Our mission was from the Dice Like Thunder standard missions. Basically there were three objectives, but only one of them was the "real" objective. When a scoring unit got within 3" of one of them, roll a die at the end of the movement phase. On a 5+ it is the "real" objective and the unit picks it up. Whoever controls the objective at the end of the game wins.

Deployment was also weird- basically we each got half the battlefield but split along the diagonal line. He got first turn, and we set up thusly:


I just became aware of INAT FAQs existence a few weeks ago, and although I find its ruling on the astropath needing to be on the board to improve reserves completely bull I decided to play along this game. I deployed the command chimera, Harker's squad and the Russ. He deployed everything except for the outflankers and deep strikers.



Turn 1a:
Warriors open up on Harker's squad, pinning the poor boys. His T-Fex fails to do anything... a hallmark of its time on the board. The bottom group of Warriors discover the real objective and huddle near it.


Turn 1b:
My commander yells at Harker's boys to Get Back In The Fight! Fire on the Warrior squad downs one and wounds a Hive Guard.


Turn 2a: Warriors fall back towards their fellows, the T-Fex moves into a better firing position, and the DS'ers DS near my boys. The Dakkafex guns down some more of Harker's boys, who go to ground. The Thropes shoot my chimera but one of them Perils and the other only manages to get a glance and shake it. His Broodlord led Stealers make an entrance stage left as well.


Turn 2b: The platoon, the Hellhound and one of my Vendettas come in. I flame the Stealers down to the broodlord while my CCS fries a Zoanthrope. I kill off one group of Hive Guard and continue to whittle down the Warrior squad's numbers.

Now, the astute among you might notice something here that is a bit... unusual. Here's an actual pic of the game for reference:


I have a platoon outflank and completely cover the board edge. The gribblies have some Genestealers that are outflanking. If he rolls for them to outflank on that board edge, can he? There is no room for him to place his models without being within 1" of the board edge. One of the store employees ruled that they would have to come on from the other side if they couldn't come on that side, as the only other option would be to have them destroyed. This is kind of a dick move on my part, but my opponent insisted that I do it because "it was awesome." Not sure what the answer is, so what do you think?


Anyway, turn 3a: The warriors continue to huddle/run while the Hive Guard tries to shoot the Vendetta (they fail). T-Fex tries to open Al'Rahem's Chimera, but is stymied by poor shooting and smoke. Fire from one of the Warrior squads manages to pin my platoon in place due to a single soldier's death. The broodlord took advantage of this distraction to try to hit Al'Rahem's Chimera, but it was driving too fast for him to do anything. The Thropes blow the Battle Cannon off of my Russ while the Dakkafex fails his Instinctive Behavior test and charges Harker's squad... but fails to kill anything, resulting in tied combat. His second group of 'Stealers is forced to come on from the right edge due to my outflanking picket line, and proceed to vent their frustration by slaughtering my command squad to a man.


Turn 3b: My second Vendetta makes its entrance, and fire from both of them and Al'Rahem pour into the Hive Guard and Warriors. The little gribblies stuck to what cover they could and, combined with the Guard's legendary ability to miss, managed to make it out relatively unscathed. My chimera on the right flank tried to flame the 'Stealers to death in retribution for my commander's demise, but somehow failed to wound 9 times. Maybe these gribblies were flame retardant?


Turn 4a: Fearful of my onslaught and determined not to let their prize fall into my clutches, the Nids charged forwards. The Broodlord, Warrior squad and the T-Fex all shot at and charged Al'Rahem's chimera, but only managed to immobilize it and rip off the heavy flamer while shaking it all around. The one remaining Warrior with the Tyranid Prime charged my platoon, who managed to down the Warrior but failed to touch the Prime, despite the fact that they each only had 1 wound left. The Zoanthrope finally managed to down my Leman Russ, while the Dakkafex moved to have some impact on the left flank.


Turn 4b: Al'Rahem and her squad disembarked and, with the Vendettas, managed to kill a pair of Warriors. The platoon managed to down the Prime due to sheer weight of power weapon attacks and consolidated towards the objective holding Warrior.


Turn 5a: The Nids strike back with vengeance! My Hellhound is immobilized (or, at least I think it was this turn...) and one of my Vendettas is shaken by... Tyrannofex fire? Maybe? Sure. The Broodlord charges Al'Rahem and takes down 3 meltagunners. Al'Rahem swings her sword... and misses. But the lone remaining meltagunner heaves his weapon at the foul beast... and kills it! I guess it had been wounded by the flamers, as it only had one wound left.


Turn 5b: I charge forwards and slaughter the remaining Warrior and Hive Guard. But I fail to get within 3" of the objective in my movement phase, but fortunately the game continues!


Turn 6a: The T-Fex moves onto the objective in a desperate bid to keep me from taking it. He kills Al'Rahem for good measure.


Turn 6b: I shoot at the T-Fex with everything I have, but fail to kill it. I forget to not use my lasguns and assault the beast... and the game ends. Tie game.

This game was a lot of fun to play, and it was a lot of fun playing around with Vassal's special effects. The scale was a bit off throughout the game which was annoying, but oh well. Hope you enjoyed, and as always hope to hear your comments and criticisms.

5 comments:

Ben said...

I believe the 'stealers would just die - they cannot move on, because there's no space, but they are not allowed to remain in reserve, so they get lost in limbo forever. I'd go with them showing up as soon as there's space - it feels weird for them to go over to the other side. That or you could let them assault from off the board, because theoretically they're right there.

There *is* a story, though, about a guy playing a White Scars bike army who reserved everything, to which his opponent promptly infiltrated a long line of Kroot along his entire board edge. Can't enter the board ever...

http://warhammer.org.uk/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=71420

Anonymous said...

Classic stuff. Great report. Brilliant use of the "thin red line."

Max said...

@ Ben: I just feel like a jerk doing that, so I'm going to give players leeway. Though the White Scars case is HILARIOUS.

@Bsmoove: Thanks sir! A bit long now that I'm looking over it, but that's the price to pay for writing.

Jezlad said...

Epic report :)

I love seeing the vassal program used for batreps, it makes things so clear and concise.

Good job!

Max said...

@Jezlad: Thanks! Vassal is a pretty darn cool program- I just wish it was still being updated. Stupid GW... oh well. I look forward to getting better with it and maybe doing an online game with it against my friends who like the game but don't have models.