Tyranid Project - Part 7 - Game 2 vs. Blood Angels

My 2nd Test game was also vs. Blood Angels but it was a very different army and therefore offered up some interesting new challenges.

This was Toms list,

1750 Pts - Tom's Blood Angels

HQ: Astorath the Grim (1#, 220 pts)

1 Astorath the Grim @ 220 pts (Fearless; Honour of the Chapter)

Elite: Chaplain (1#, 100 pts)

1 Chaplain @ 100 pts (...in Power Armour)

1 ...in Power Armour

Elite: Sanguinary Priest (1#, 50 pts)

1 Sanguinary Priest @ 50 pts (Sanguinary Priest in Power Armour)

1 Sanguinary Priest in Power Armour

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 250 pts)

9 Tactical Squad @ 250 pts (Flamer; Missile Launcher; Rhino)

1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Power Weapon x1)

1 Rhino (Extra Armor)

Troops: Death Company (10#, 520 pts)

1 Death Company @ 520 pts (Equip with Jump Packs; Lemartes, Guardian of the Lost; Death Company; Death Company; Death Company; Death Company)

1 Lemartes, Guardian of the Lost

1 Death Company (Jump Pack; Power Weapon)

1 Death Company (Jump Pack; Infernus Pistol)

1 Death Company (Jump Pack; Power Fist)

6 Death Company (Jump Pack)

Troops: Death Company (10#, 300 pts)

1 Death Company @ 300 pts (Death Company; Death Company; Death Company; Death Company; Rhino)

1 Death Company (Infernus Pistol)

1 Death Company (Power Weapon)

6 Death Company

1 Death Company (Power Fist)

1 Rhino (Extra Armor)

Troops: Assault Squad (6#, 200 pts)

4 Assault Squad @ 200 pts (Remove Jump Packs; Infernus Pistol; Razorback)

1 Sergeant (Remove Jump Packs; Bolt Pistol; Power Weapon x1)

1 Razorback (Extra Armor; Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

Troops: Death Company Dreadnought (1#, 125 pts)

1 Death Company Dreadnought @ 125 pts (Blood Talons)

Total Roster Cost: 1765

No matter how I add up his list in Army Builder it always ends up 35 points short so I've a sneaking suspicion that he forgot to deduct the 35 point price break on the Assault Squads Razorback for removing Jump Packs when he added it up.

Editors note : Found the problem but now it's 15 points over, lol.

I used this list.

I proxied a 'Rifleman' Dreadnought as my 2nd Tyrannofex, 2 Chaos Spawn as Lash Whip Tyrant Guard with my armless Trygon as my Swarmlord.

I also had a big pile of Guardsmen to proxy in the event that I spawned a lot of Termagants.

We rolled the 2 Objective mission with 'Spearhead' deployment. I won the roll off and went first. We both placed our objectives in the middle of the small forest in our deployment zones.

As usual I will be posting the picture first and the commentary afterwards.

I also forgot to take pictures of the first turn so I'll explain what happened first.

I deployed in a rough semi-circle at the front of my deployment zone, I sat a Tervigon just in front of my Objective. I put a Tyrannofex on each end of my lines and 2 units of Hive Guard behind a wall of Termagants to give them a cover save as they would have to deploy out of cover to be in range of Toms vehicles for my first turn of shooting. I kept the 3rd unit of Hive Guard in cover to give my Tervigon some fire support. The Swarmlord by necessity deployed right at the front of my lines as he's fairly fucking slow and needs as much of a head start as possible.

Tom failed to seize the initiative.

I didn't bother to Spawn any Termagants first turn as I didn't want to risk running out early on until I knew where and when they were going to be needed most. Everything except the objective defending units moved as far forward as possible.

I used Catalyst to give Feel no Pain to the Termagant units

My shooting destroyed the Dreadnought and de-meched the Rhino mounted Death Company. The Swarmlord was too far away from the Jump Pack Death Company to use Paroxysm on them so his unit ran forward instead, as did the Termagants who were out of shooting range anyway.

Toms Razorback moved forward 12" so it could still fire one weapon, the foot Death Company moved as far forward as there difficult terrain rolls would let them (it was enough to get them out of the terrain though). The Jump Pack Death Company headed straight for the Swarmlord and his bodyguard.

Toms Razorback Plasmagun took a couple of wounds off the Tyrannofex and his other shooting killed some Termagants.

The Jump Pack Death Company as expected multi-charged both the Swarmlord unit and the nearby Termagants (This unit also contained both Lemartes and Astorath). Tom focused enough of his attacks into the Termagants to kill them and the rest took out a Tyrant Guard. My attacks only killed 3 Death Company forcing me to take 7 Fearless saves, fortunately I only took a couple more wounds.

This game took place directly after the first game so I hadn't reread any of the rules which means I made this stupid mistake for the 2nd time without realising...

'I'm a fucking idiot' break No. 1 (or No. 3 if your counting the 2 from the first game)

If I'd have bothered to read the Bone Sabre entry I would have realised that they cause instant death. Which means rather than try and chip away at the unit I should have just split my attacks between the characters and got the biggest threats out of the way first and then butchered the squad.

Some reinforcements seemed like a good idea so I started spawning Termagants, I got a unit of 10 and another of 14 which cheered me up immensely, lol. I moved the 1 Tervigon forward so it would give them the benefit of It's Toxin Sacs and Adrenal Glands I also gave them both Feel no Pain.

I ran both of the new units forward in the shooting phase as I wanted them ready to assault in my next turn. I focused all my shooting on the walking Death Company, I knew they'd get armour saves from it all but at least the S8 and S10 shots would bypass their Feel no Pain.

Lemartes, Astorath and pals killed the last Tyrant Guard and wounded the Swarmlord, several Death Company got sliced and diced first though.

I forgot to take pictures for a turn or 2 so quite a lot happened between those 2 pictures. I'll try to fill in the gaps for you as best as I can...

Tom shot one of the original Termagant units to death so that the Death Company wouldn't get distracted by them later as they were the closest unit to them. The Razorback with the Assault Squad in it headed towards my objective and shot another wound off the Tyrannofex on it's way. Astorath and Lemartes wounded the Swarmlord again but lost the rest of their Death Company pals while doing it. Lemartes took a wound which actually made him harder (If I'd have known that the Bone Sabres caused instant death it would have got rid of him completely, but that was my mistake not Toms).

50 Attacks from Poisoned, Furious charging Termagants didn't do as well as I would have liked but still managed to finish off that annoying bastard Lemartes, leaving Astorath in a bit of trouble as the Tyrannofex had decided to help out as well.

Some shooting immobilised the Razorback.

The Tervigons meanwhile had produced another 25 Termagants between them.

Astorath steadfastly refused to die...

The Tervigon edged around the Astorath battle with his latest brood of Termagants and headed for Tom's objective. Termagants assaulted the Razorback both preventing the Assault Marines from getting out and knocking a weapon off (I took the Twin-linked Plasmagun, obviously). The Tyrannofex shot up the Death Company a bit and then charged the 5 that were left.

A shot of Astorath the Unhappy's heroic last stand.

The Tyrannofex's charge has nicely blocked off the small gap in my Termagants that the Assault Marines could have used to get out of the Razorback.

Hive Guard shooting takes out some of the Tactical squad.

Astorath kills the Swarmlord, everything else kills Astorath.

The objective holding Tervigon produces another 10 Termagants, the other Tervigon ran out last turn. The 2 units with the dice in the middle have been given Feel no Pain as the Death Company have killed the Tyrannofex and are still a bit upset for some reason.

Massed firepower kills the last few Death Company and puts a serious dent in the last Tactical squad. Termagants have been advancing towards Toms objective.

The Tactical Squad remnants head towards their own objective to try for a draw, their Rhino already redeployed to contest their own objective so they have to walk.

Rather than risk failing my charge and in case the game ends on turn 5 I run a unit of Termagants towards the enemy objective rather than attempting to assault.

The 2 remaining Marines charge me based on the fact that I'm going to charge them. The Assault Squad continues to kill a Termagant a turn with their Lascannon, a loss I can happily live with.

The remnants of Toms army.

Result 2 objectives to me and none to Tom.

This game went much better with me actually remembering to use most of my abilities. I could kick myself that I somehow missed the 'Instant Death' reference in the Bone Sabre description but I assure you I won't be making that fuck-up ever again.

I was quite lucky to get that many Termagants but to be honest they didn't make that much difference to the outcome (The last 2 units I spawned just stayed where I initially put them as there was nothing for them to do anyway).

Not as many pictures in this report but It had been quite a long day.

Thoughts, comments, analysis and bits of strategic brillance are as usual welcomed.