Batrep: 1750 Tyranids vs Chaos Space Marines

Had an amazing evening yesterday with the ABO guys over at this store called Battle Bunker at Funan. Although it was marred by some people (regulars at the store) calling us "freeloaders", I want to be the bigger man and just ignore them since they were not aware that some of us do purchase things from the store albeit through orders directly through the store owner.

On to the game proper, 1750 aside. I played with the list quite similar to the one I played with Patrick's Necrons. Only change I really made was I dropped the psychic power on one of my Tervigons and dropped Old Adversary on my Flyrant. The rest remains the same. I really wanted to get used to playing this list. 

YC brought his Chaos Space Marines with a newly constructed Forgefiend. Looked very scary with it's two rotating cannons for arms. AP4, perfect for taking out my 9 Hive Guard. 

Rolled the following: 

Mission: The Emperor's Will (ironic that we both were not from the Imperium)

Deployment: Vanguard

Warlord Traits: 

Nids: I got the one that gave Furious Charge in the enemy's deployment zone

Chaos: He got something that gave his Warlord Instant Kill, perfect for taking out my Monstrous Creatures

Deployed our armies and from the pic above, you can see YC's deployment. He stuck his Forgefiend in the midfield supported by his fast elements on the right. Meanwhile the other infantry (comprising mainly cultists) were scattered all over the objective. Chaos objective is next to his Obliterators.

Knowing that Chaos will take the first turn, I deployed conservatively, keeping as many as possible hidden in area terrain. Apparently Singapore tournament players consider all bases 4+ cover save (i.e rubble) but we at ABO play it a little different. The bases counts as 5+ area terrain and 4+ is for minis directly behind hard surfaces such as the building. Made more sense to me and made the game a little more tactical in my mind.

How do you guys in the US or UK play it? Let us know.

Back to the game...

Turn 1 kicked off with Chaos moving his Khorne Berserkers up into the mid field and rejigging of the Cultists at the back to keep my Flyrant from contesting the Chaos Objective.

On Tyranids Turn 1 I sent my army surging forward. In typical fashion, my first Tervigon JAMS! Aww nuts. Thankfully the other one produced some good babies. Plan was to use my Twin Linked Brain Leech Devourers to whittle down his units as far as possible before I finish them off with an assault.

 The shooting starts. Cultists die in the droves.

Top of Turn 2, Chaos drops 5 Terminators + his Warlord into my lines. Uh-oh...I forgot about these guys! But behold, I still have a working Tervigon and a lot of Gaunts that I can throw at him. Let's bog him down. The Warrior and Tyranid organic element is proxying for the Chaos Lord and Terminator. LOL! In the Chaos turn he did quite a number of wounds here and there but nothing really to blunt my army. Scattered fire was not good for Chaos.

A unit of Plague Jump Pack troops came in too but scattered off board. Rolling on the mishap table, I got to place his unit. I dropped them into the building in front of my army. Mmmmm

In my turn 2, I surged my entire army forward except for the two Termagant units at the rear which I planning to throw into the Chaos Lord.

Generating another unit of Gants (white in colour so you've gotta look hard at the pic!), I channelled 3 Gant units back to deal with the Chaos Lord. More to tie him up.

I managed to bust his Rhino open and out popped his shooting Marines

 Shot with 3 unit of Gants into his Terminator squad and managed to take out one Chaos Terminator. Wow!

CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGE!!

Boss I think this is going to take a while...

Chomp chomp chomp

Slowly but surely my army was moving forward

So you killed how many again? Here's some more.

My Flyrant took 3 wounds in one turn of shooting. Those Obliterators sure earned their name. So I flew him back closer to my lines and dropped Endurance on him from the Dakka Walking Tyrant.

Boss, we just lost Clive and here they come!!

Slowly I was killing his Terminators. Wearing them down

I felt that Chaos should not have pulled his Berserkers back. By doing that I could dictate the pace of the game on my terms i.e. shoot till they die. Then again, I did have some formidable melee so hmmm.

 After another round of shooting, the Obliterators could not take it any longer and fled!

Pew pew

Chaos Lord took a wound from his Daemon sword. Youch

Those pesky flying Plague Warp Talons came in and took out a unit of Gants

The Chaos Lord did do some damage on my Gant unit but Fearless meant I would still be in melee

There used to be a unit of Chaos Marines in that space between the Tyrant and the Hive Guard. First Blood goes to Tyranids!

 Yet another brood joins the fight. Tail WHIP! Took out 2 Terminators. LOL! I swear it's the paint job

 Now I was advancing en-masse into the Chaos objective.

 In return Chaos threw his Khorne Berserkers into my Gants.

Finally done, the Gants move back up to support the rest of the army

At this point I have to admit, My Tervigon in the picture above has to be my Man of the Match. 4 broods of Gants managed to not only tie up the Chaos Lord but took his entire retinue out.

I was only 2 units away from tabling YC. Yikes.

Flyrant aims and fires. One Cultist remain standing

Feel No Pain is awesome. FNP with Fearless is GODLY.

My walking Tyrant moves up close, real close.

And in typical coup de grace, took out the last remaining members of the Berserker unit. Shooting destroyed the last Cultist.

And that was game.

Conclusion?

Tervigons when they work are amazing. You can use the Gants to tie units up, send them out to protect your MC or even provide cover to your Hive Guard units. Amazing unit.

As for the weapon of choice for 6th ed, it has to be the Twin Linked Brain Leech Devourers. It just works. Twin linked at 12 shots per MC is insane. I have 4 MC's that can do this, one with superb mobility. To be fair, I haven't come across a flier list yet, so I need to test this list out more. Gotta say, I am liking 6th ed Nids.

Let me know what you think about the Area of Terrain 4+ or 5+. Discuss!