Tyranid Project - Part 9 - Game 3 vs. Imperial Guard

So time for the latest instalment of 'Ill screw up so you don't have to' ;-)

Had an opportunity to test my Tyranids out against Imperial Guard and Blood Angels (Again) today.

Must admit that I wasn't very hopeful about the outcome of either but they both went better than I was expecting.

In the 1st game I was playing against this list,

1750 Pts - 5th Edition Roster - Daves Imperial Guard - 1750

HQ: Company Command Squad (5#, 70 pts)

2 Company Command Squad @ 70 pts (Heavy Weapons Team)

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Lascannon)

1 Company Commander

Elite: Ratling Squad (5#, 50 pts)

5 Ratling Squad @ 50 pts

Troops: Infantry Platoon (55#, 340 pts)

1 Infantry Platoon @ 340 pts

4 Platoon Command Squad

1 Platoon Commander

7 Infantry Squad (Heavy Weapons Team)

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Autocannon)

1 Sergeant

7 Infantry Squad (Heavy Weapons Team)

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Autocannon)

1 Sergeant

7 Infantry Squad (Heavy Weapons Team)

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Autocannon)

1 Sergeant

7 Infantry Squad (Heavy Weapons Team)

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Missile Launcher)

1 Sergeant

7 Infantry Squad (Heavy Weapons Team)

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Missile Launcher)

1 Sergeant

Troops: Veteran Squad (10#, 90 pts)

9 Veteran Squad @ 90 pts (Meltagun x2)

1 Veteran Sergeant

Fast Attack: Valkyrie Assault Carrier Squadron (1#, 130 pts)

1 Valkyrie Assault Carrier Squadron @ 130 pts

1 Valkyrie (Multiple Rocket Pods x2)

Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (2#, 260 pts)

1 Vendetta Gunship Squadron @ 260 pts

1 Vendetta

1 Vendetta

Fast Attack: Hellhound Squadron (2#, 260 pts)

1 Hellhound Squadron @ 260 pts

1 Bane Wolf (Heavy Flamer)

1 Hellhound (Heavy Flamer)

Heavy Support: Hydra Flak Tank Battery (2#, 150 pts)

1 Hydra Flak Tank Battery @ 150 pts

1 Hydra Flak Tank

1 Hydra Flak Tank

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Squadron (1#, 200 pts)

1 Leman Russ Squadron @ 200 pts

1 Leman Russ Demolisher (Lascannon; Heavy Bolter Sponsons x2)

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Squadron (1#, 200 pts)

1 Leman Russ Squadron @ 200 pts

1 Leman Russ Demolisher (Lascannon; Heavy Bolter Sponsons x2)

Total Roster Cost: 1750

Dave's been using this list for quite a while so he's pretty much got the hang of it. For those long term followers you may remember it as the army that destroyed my Chaos Daemons.

I haven't bothered to take pictures of every stage as certain things are now obvious and can be learned from previous battle reports.

As usual - Pictures first, Commentary afterwards...

Spearhead Deployment, 5 objectives. I win the roll for first turn and deploy first.

Dave's Deployment.

My Deployment. The Dreadnought is still standing in for the 2nd Tyrannofex and the Swarmlord still has no arms (he does however have Tyrant Guard that look like Tyranids rather than the Chaos Spawn I had been using).

The objectives are in forests in the top right and bottom left. A 3rd is between the 2 middle forests with the 4th and 5th 12 and a bit inches away on either side.

Dave fails to seize the initiative for the first time in our last 3 games.

Dave's Valks and Vendettas had used their Scout moves to go far enough for cover saves.

The Tervigon sitting on my objective Spawned 14 Termagants to reinforce my home objective. Both Tervigons gave the advancing Termagants Feel no Pain though one of them rolled double 1 for her psychic test and gave herself a wound. Everything else advanced forward. My shooting kills a Vendetta and stuns a Hydra but fails dismally at everything else.

Daves return shooting has killed a few Termagants, A Hive Guard each from 2 of the units and wounds a few of the Monstrous Creatures.

I continue my steady advance forward after spawning another unit of Termagants to try and absorb some fire that's likely to finish off my 2, now 1 man Hive Guard units. My shooting stuns a Vendetta.

The Hellhound/Banewolf Squadron has moved forward to block my progress around the left flank. Long range Lasgun and Autocannon fire puts wounds on my big monsters and thins out the Termagants. My Swarmlord and Tyrant Guard make a stupid amount of cover saves meaning they should get stuck into assault in my turn. The Valkyrie unloads it's veteran cargo in order to finish off the Tyrannofex, however the combined fire of pretty much everything that's left on that side of the board can only reduce it to 1 wound.

Close up shot of the road block.

The Tyrannofex on his last wound...and some Pizza.

The one firey death machine dies, however the other is depressingly functional and I've charged into Flamer formation, lol.

The Hive Guard finally do something useful and kill the Valkyrie, The Tyrannofex thins out the Veterans with shooting and charges what's left. Meanwhile the Termagants move up to claim the objective after the Vets hopefully die (which they do).

The Swarmlord carves through the unit that it had assaulted. The Termagants however being out of range of their supporting Tervigon get slaughtered by the Guard Company Command Squad.

It then butchers another 2 units in it's next assault but is only on one wound. Having by now lost it's Tyrant Guard it has no way of getting a cover save so promptly dies in the next shooting phase.

This Vendetta manages to improbably survive another torrent of fire and readies itself to contest an objective.

The advancing Tervigon plonks itself on an objective.

At this point Dave throws the remaining surviving bits and pieces of units at my objectives in order to contest as many as possible. If the game ends on turn 5 it's a draw, if it goes another turn I should be able to easily clear 2 objectives for a hard fought victory.

We roll for the next turn and.....the game ends.....bollocks :-(

A pretty good game but I'm beginning to have doubts about the Swarmlord. He made a lot more cover saves than I could have reasonably hoped for and still only just managed to reach the enemy intact. In Dawn of War he'd have been lucky to get halfway across the board.

Editors Note : The Blood Angels game we played afterwards basically involved us running at one other, meeting in the middle and butchering one another. I won but nothing came up that was really informative enough to be worthy of a battle report.

I'll do a proper analysis tomorrow as I think I'm at the list tweaking stage now.

Comment are (as usual) welcome.