Battle Report by Clay Smith

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I can not take credit for the name. This site was named by Aaron Cains.

Battle Report by Clay Smith:

We had a huge Tyranid Vs Imperials battle at the HobbyTown USA in Plano, TX
on Saturday.

It started off like this. During the WAB game Thursday night, Steve Miller
said to me, "Why don't you bring all of your painted 'Nids to the shop
Saturday?"

That could only mean one thing - we're going to empty the boxes.

The game: 11,000ish points of Tyranids Vs 8000 points of Imperial Guard and
Sisters of Battle in a "Meat Grinder" mission. 3,000 points of Space
Marines would be landing during the game.

Special rules: The Imperials setup first, about one foot into the 4'x16'
table. They had lots of ruins to defend. Using normal Reserve and Deep
Strike rules, the Marines would "Drop Pod" into the battle. They were
restricted to Marines in Power Armor, Terminator Armor, Dreadnoughts and
Landspeeders. For each Marine unit that landed, the Tyranids got to recycle
one non-Troop selection back into the battle.

Forces. We had a ton of IG and a few squads of Sisters, including 29 tanks.
I don't know how much infantry there was, but it was a bunch. The Tyranids
used their Armorcast vehicles - seven of them! Including four of the troop
carriers.

I do remember this about the Tyranids. There were 8 Hive Tyrants, 9
Carnifexes, 8 or more Biovores, 200+ Genestealers, 200+ Hormagants, 100+
Termagants, and similarly large numbers of the other bug types (that I can't
remember).

The battle: We diced for the first turn, even though I was going to give it
to the bugs if they lost the die roll! (They need to go first...). They
killed a few Guardsmen and busted a Hellhound on turn one, but the return
fire was unbelievable. You could measure the gaps in the 'Nid army in FEET.
The 'Nids passed their personal morale check, and stayed with the game.

Turn two actually saw some HTH, as some Hormagants made it into Assault
range. They stuck into the Catachans, who wouldn't move.

It's interesting to note that we divided the IG defense into groups of the
same regiments. For example, the defenders were (from left to right),
Tallarns, Catachans, Cadians, old "Army", Sisters of Battle, Valhallans,
Mordians, and Praetorians. The Storm troopers, Ratlings, and Ogryns were
scattered throughout the line.

Also, the Biovores finally found their range. They would kill a bunch of IG
during the battle. During the beginning of the Imperial second turn, I
dropped two Dreadnoughts next to the biovores and killed four of them. The
bugs were forced to battle the dreads with some heavy support, instead of
pushing those units forward. The dreads died...but it was worth it!

What else? The Bugs didn't have a chance in the center, because the
reinforcements couldn't get all the way across the table in time. However,
since they could bring on their troops on the sides of the table, both IG
flanks were crushed in about four feet from both directions.

There was an unbelievably bloody battle in the very center of the
battlefield. It started with the Genestealers pouring out of their
Malefactors and into the "Army" troops defending the ruins. There was much
mashing and tearing, but the Guard held (stupid Guardsmen!). An Evessor
assassin rushed in to blunt the assault, and it took another 'Nid turn to
kill him. The Seraphim jumped in, cleared out some 'Nid reinforcements, and
died in the Assault phase. Then a Blood Angel Assault squad charged in -
they died. That was followed by the Death Company, who actually managed to
wound the Hive Tyrant. They almost all died (there were a couple left at
the end...), finally, the Canoness roared forward in her Rhino and charged
with her bodyguard. She and many Sisters died. It was great! During the
entire fight, the "Army" squad with three Lascannons stood on top of the
ruins, sometimes just an inch away from the Genestealers, and poured fire
into the oncoming bugs. Also of note were the three Ratlings and LEGION OF
THE DAMNED (who showed up) and Rapid fired into the Sweeping advances of the
bugs - killing them all. Finally, the Immolator and its squad roared forth,
it's Inferno cannon driving back one assault before being crushed by a
Carnifex. This all happened within the space of about two feet in the very
center of the table.

Whew! I know this is taking a while to read - please bear with me.

Lessons learned: For the BFG, the 'Nids are going to get plastered without
some special rules to help out. For one, the 'Drop Pod' Space marine attack
worked well as it prevented the Space marines from shooting in Turn one.

Also, I agree that we need to severely limit the number of tanks. The IG
still should have a few. Note: We only had eight tanks survive the battle
(out of 29).

The 'Nids should be allowed to recycle everything that dies. They should
also be allowed to use the Armorcast vehicles, as it helps deliver the
reinforcements to the front line quicker.

Maybe "Night Fighting" rules should be used. That would make a huge
difference.

My brain hurts.

Clay