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Monday, June 8, 2015

Bat Rep: Tyranids vs. CSM/Daemons - Road to the NOVA Open Game 3*

I set up a weekly game night at my place for the Road to NOVA league games. For the first session last week, we were planning on playing our Week 2 match-ups and missions. However, Tom wasn't feeling well and Chandler was delayed, so Rick and I ended up playing our Week 3 matchup in advance. Week 3 is Mission 3, from the NOVA Mission Pack, which is a modified Relic Mission.


I ran the same list as last game, and Rick was running a Chaos Space Marine Primary with a Daemon Allied Detachment:
  • CSM CAD:
    • Daemon Prince: Level 3 Psyker, Black Mace, Mark of Nurgle, Power Armour, Wings, Warlord
    • Chaos Lord: Bike, Mark of Nurgle, Power Axe, Sigil of Corruption
    • 7 Plague Marines: Champion, 2 Plasma Guns, Rhino
    • 10 Cultists
    • 10 Cultists
    • Heldrake: Baleflamer
    • Heldrake: Baleflamer
    • 5 Chaos Bikers: Mark of Nurgle, Champion, 2 Meltaguns
    • Maulerfiend: Lasher Tendrils
  • Daemons Allied Detachment
    • Herald of Nurgle: Level 2, Locus of Fecundity, Exalted Reward
    • Herald of Nurgle: Level 2
    • 15 Plaguebearers
For my missions, I opted for End of Game scoring for the Primary, and Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker, and Marked for Death on the Daemon Prince/Warlord as my Secondaries. Rick chose turn by turn scoring for Primary and First Blood, Last Laugh, and Linebreaker for his secondaries.

For the second game in a row, I got the +1 to seize and re-roll reserves for my Warlord Trait. My psychic powers were the Horror and Psychic Scream on two flyrants, and Paroxysm and Warp Blast on the third. 

I won the roll for the deployment and went first, deploying the 3 flyrants and bastion. Everything else was infiltrating or deep striking. Rick deployed along his front with his bikers and Daemons on my right, and Rhino with Plague Marines and Maulerfiend on my left. He opted to reserve the Daemon Prince to try to deny me my secondaries. I then infiltrated one Lictor into the bastion and another in the LOS blocker closer to my zone as close as he could to the Relic. Finally, Sporefield mines deployed all around, bracketing the two objectives outside of the deployment zones and a couple in range to threaten the Relic as well.


In my turn I flew forward with the flyrants. The psychic phase started strong with my Warp Lance going off and blowing up the Maulerfiend in one shot. Remaining shooting killed 7 cultists from one group and a couple plaguebearers. In the bottom of the turn, Rick moved everything but the cultists forward. The Plague Marines got out of their ride and killed a mucolid with Plasma, while the Bikers killed some spore mines. He also summoned some more plaguebearers to eventually go for one of his home objectives, though they started about 5-6" out of range.

In my second turn everything but one group of Rippers arrived from reserves. One mawloc dropped in base contact with the Relic to pick it up while the other bullseyed the Plague Marines, killing two. Two Lictors dropped in Rick's backfield while the other deployed to claim my second "Home" objective. Anticipating Heldrakes, all three flyrants flew off, two vector striking and killing the remaining plague marines, and one putting a wound on the Chaos Lord on bike. The end of the movement phase saw the Mawloc pass the Relic to a Lictor, who dropped it behind the wall next to some Rippers. The turn ended with Spore Mines and a Mucolid assaulting the Rhino and dealing 2 hull points and Shaking it on one side, while a Mucolid and Spore mines did the same to the summoned plaguebearers, killing all but one.


In Rick's turn, neither Heldrake arrived, though his Daemon Prince did and landed on my right flank. The Bikers and Plaguebearer blob moved up and assaulted my Mawloc and Tyrannocyte respectively, killing both.

In my turn 3, the last Rippers arrived and landed next to the Cultists and Two Lictors. The three flyrants returned and made a B-line for the Daemon Prince, promptly killing him in shooting  with the first two volleys, despite his 2+ Jink save. The third flyrant took down the remaining plaguebearer who had made his way onto the objective. The Dimachaeron assaulted the bikers and killed all but the Chaos Lord, taking a couple wounds in return. Meanwhile I started building a wall of mines between the plaguebearers and the relic and my Rippers holding it. Finally, in Rick's back corner, the two lictors destroyed the Rhino and killed most of the remaining large cultist squad, though they stayed locked in combat on a heroic snake eyes roll.

In the bottom of 3, the Heldrakes arrived and both vector struck my Warlord, dealing three wounds but failing to knock him down. Meanwhile the Plaguebearer blob moved to assault the Dimachaeron. A Baleflamer toasted the Lictor hiding in the bastion. The plaguebearers absorbed the Dimachaeron's punishment and then killed the beast with the help of the Chaos Lord.

In turn 4, the Rippers with the Relic failed their Instinctive Behavior so didn't move away with the Relic like I wanted. To make up for it I fanned out 3 spore mines and 3 mucolids to deny movement toward the rippers. The three flyrants moved to still have shots on the rear of the heldrakes and promptly took them down easily. The third flyrant shot into the plaguebearers for little damage.

In the bottom of 4, Rick was able to maneuver his Chaos Lord to have a mid range charge on the Rippers, which he made and promptly killed them off, leaving him near the relic.

In the top of 5 I landed all three flyrants, one contesting the Relic. Fire from two flyrants was enough to take down the Chaos Lord and fire from the remaining flyrant took out all but one plaguebearer. The last plaguebearer was taken out by a couple Mucolids to seal the win.

The final score was a 19-3 win for my Tyranids. My early luck in taking out the Maulerfiend in one shot and then having the Heldrakes stay out on turn 2 really came up big. I had been planning on the Heldrakes coming in turn 2, but having them come in later ended up working out better, even if I nearly lost a flyrant to their Vector Strikes.

The alternate primary that Rick chose seemed pretty difficult and it was fairly straightforward for me to deny him those points every turn while focusing most of my attention on removing threats. The deployment also doesn't help that secondary, as without speed, it's nearly impossible to jump on your second "Home" objective in your first turn and score it in your second. In the alternate deployment, Hammer and Anvil, this is less of a problem as both should be in your deployment zone.

My choice of secondaries was fairly good (I did score all of them) but I think I would have been better off marking something else than the Prince as he honestly wasn't a huge priority for me. The MSU nature of the list largely mitigates the amount of damage he can do in a single round of combat. That said, marking something that wants to be aggressive like the maulerfiend, or ObSec like the Plague Marines and Rhino, could have worked as well.

I'm probably not getting any games in this week, but looking to close out all three remaining games next week. Phil sent out an update to the league this weekend that the winner of each bracket will go to the Championship RTT in July. That's definitely a goal for me, and I currently have a pretty good shot, though my two games against Tom will be telling.

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