We decided to try out a NOVA mission and rolled up Mission 4, Points and Regions, which is about controlling board quarters. Aidan opted for turn by turn scoring, while I went for end of game; turn by turn control is determined by number of scoring units in a board quarter, while end of game is points in a board quarter. For secondaries, I took Kill Points (kill more units in any one game turn than your opponent), Linebreaker, and Marked for Death on the D-Thirster. Aidan opted for Marked for Death on a unit of Rippers, Strike the Rank and File (kill all troops), and Kill Points.
Deployment was Vanguard, and I won the roll for deployment, forcing Aidan to deploy first since NOVA does not allow deploy first, go second. Aidan deployed his block of cultists to the left of his line, with spawn in the center and hounds on his right. I meanwhile deployed my bastion in the far corner and put two units of spore mines around the comms, with a Tyrant guard in the bastion also manning it. Finally, I infiltrated a single Lictor in the top right corner in a ruin.
Turns 1 and top of 2 were pretty uneventful as there was little for Aidan to do besides move forward, though he did score 3 points turn 2 by controlling three board quarters.
On my turn 2, all three flyrants would arrive, and 4 of 5 remaining Lictors. I had 1 of three Mawlocs fail, and chose to re-roll the successes, keeping a second mawloc out. In hindsight I should have probably gone the other way. I also had all my mucolids and mines arrive, while the Rippers stayed out. I placed the Lictors fairly danger-close to Aidan's cultists and daemonettes, while a Lictor scattered off Abaddon, missing the squad entirely and popping up all alone. The three flyrants flew straight on the board in range of shooting the D-Thirster, but Aidan's dice got hot and he made 17 of 19 saves.
In Aidan's turn 3, he didn't score any points to start, and flew the Fire Raptor off (I had Paroxysmed it). The cultists and Daemonettes positioned to charge the two Lictors that had popped up behind them, while Abbaddon and the Spawn moved to charge the Mawloc. Finally the Blood Thirster jumped over by the bastion with the intent of charging the lone Spore Mine in hopes of getting a consolidation far enough to get out of sight of the Hive Tyrants. In combat, the cultists and Daemonettes dispatched the Lictors. Meanwhile, the Mawloc held on with 1 wound, and did a wound to Abaddon, but failed his Hit & Run roll so was stuck.
One of two Mawlocs arrived, along with both Rippers and the final Lictor. The Mawloc aimed for Cypher in the middle of the blob of cultists, but scattered to only clip 2 Daemonettes, which he failed to kill and then rolled a 1 on his Mishap. D'oh. Two of my flyrants moved to get shots on the Thirster while the third flew over to scream at cultists and shoot dogs. The mucolids closed the noose on the Hounds along with one of the Tyrant guard. Shooting managed to take down the blood thirster. In assault, 1 Mucolid and 3 spore mines made combat with the hounds, doing some significant damage, while the Tyrant guard made combat as well to force an instability check and cause a couple more wounds.
In turn 4, the last group of Daemonettes arrived and went to threaten the marked Rippers in a ruin while the Fire Raptor moved to get shots on both Ripper groups. The warpstorm then hit hard and killed a Lictor and wiped out one group of Rippers, and wounded another Lictor. Shooting took out a wounded Lictor and killed two of three remaining Ripper bases. In combat, the dogs and Herald took down the Tyrant guard.
In the bottom of turn, the final Mawloc arrived and killed 2 dogs. The flyrants spread out with one killing all but two Daemonettes over on my left, the other shaking the Fire Raptor with a Warp Lance and roasting some cultists. Finally the last two mucolids crashed into the hounds, taking the Herald down to a single wound and taking the squad down to just four hounds remaining. Finally, the Rippers decided to try to take on the remaining Daemonettes, but were taken down to 1 wounds in return for no damage.
At the top of 5, we decided we would call it. Aidan had secured a fourth primary point. He was more or less assured his remaining two secondaries with only needing to kill the 1 wound Ripper. Finally, he had kill points in turns 3-5 (again, assuming the death of the rippers). The focus then became denying me board quarters as he tried to hold onto his lead. Cypher and the cultists were in the back left, Abaddon and Spawn in the front left, Fire Raptor moved to the back Right to take it from the 2 Lictors holding it, and finally the Hounds and Herald planned on holding or contesting the front Right.
Shooting from the fire raptor (being snap shots) was ineffective. The daemonettes predictably killed the remaining Ripper, while the Hounds and Herald killed a Lictor.
At the start of my turn we determined I needed to hold two quarters (6 points) and kill three units to get my Kill Points secondary (2 points) to win the game (Aidan ended his turn with 13 points (4 Primary, 6 Secondary, 3 Tertiary). To that end, I kept 2 flyrants in the quarter with Abaddon while the third and the mawloc held down the quarter with my bastion and the hounds. To get the kills I needed I took down the remaining two daemonettes and then fired into the hounds and herald. After some pretty good shooting and some pretty poor saves, the hounds were gone and I rounded out a 14-13 victory.
In breaking down the game, we agreed I had been too aggressive with the Lictors dropping them close to the cultists, and would have been better served dropping them in corners, forcing Aidan to spread out. My initial strategies would be better against shooting armies, but being a combat-centric army it changes how the list reacts a bit. I'm not quite sure why Aidan flew off his flyer turn 3, and think even at -2 BS from Paroxysm, it could have had an impact.
I really enjoyed this game, and I'm looking forward to getting more comfortable with all the interactions of the army. Next week I'm looking to get a game in against new Eldar, so that should be interesting.
I'm also looking forward to the conversion opportunities I have with the Lictors and two more Mawlocs. I'll probably also steal Ron's Mucolid conversion for my own. Other planned conversions are a Mawloc flipping a Rhino, a Lictor eating a Space Marine's brains, and another Lictor pouncing off a wall.
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