Batrep 1750 Tyranids vs Blood Angels

Fresh off the boat from the Lunar New Year 2013, I was itching to get a game in. Since Marshall was still in Singapore till the end of this month, I contacted him to organise a game. Marshall and I had a game previously and he was really hankering for a grudge match too. 

Having tweaked his list, he came up with the following instead: 

Blood Angels 1750

HQ
Librarian - 125 pts
Psyker Level 1 (Divination)
Jump pack, Force axe, Bolt pistol

Librarian - 125 pts
Psyker Level 1 (Divination)
Jump pack, Force axe, Bolt pistol

Elites
2 Sanguinary Priests - 150 pts
Jump packs, Chain swords & Bolt pistols, Melta bombs

Chaplain - 100 pts
Power maul, Bolt pistol

Troops
4 x 10 Assault marines - 210 pts
Jump packs, 2 melta guns

10 D.C marines - 200 pts
Bolters

Heavy Support
Storm raven gunship - 200 pts
T.L multi melta, T.L assault cannon, 4 blood strike missiles

I brought my original list that I played against him previously. Key difference being my models! I painted a few more streaks on my Tervigon and built my White Flyrant. 

Tyranids 1750 

HQ

Tyrant with Wings, 2x Brain Leech Devourers, Old Adversary +2 Pyshic Powers (Warlord)

Tyrant with Wings, 2x Brain Leech Devourers, +2 Pyshic Powers

Elites

Doom of Malantai in Mycetic Spore

Hive Guard x3

Hive Guard x3

Troops

Termagant x11

Termagant x10

Tervigon, Catalyst

Tervigon, Catalyst

Fast Attack

Gargoyle x20

Heavy Support

Trygon

Pre-Game Setup

Deployment: Dawn of War

Mission: Big Guns Never Tire

Warlord Traits: 

Tyranids - Conqueror of Cities (All your units have move through cover and stealth when moving through ruins)

Blood Angels - Night Attacker (You can choose if Night Fight takes place Turn 1 or not)

Psychic Powers:

Tyranids:

Flyrant (Warlord) - Iron Arm, Enfeeble

Flyrant - Endurance, Life Leech

Doom of Malantai - Warp Speed

Blood Angels:

Librarian (Warlord) - Foreboding, Default

Librarian - Misfortune, Default

Tyranid Deployment

Spread both my Flyrants to the corners of my table half to attack him in the flanks and then had my Gargs do in the middle. In hindsight, this was a grievous error. There was just one objective on his half of the board. I should have focused all my firepower on my left flank.

I love GW terrain and it keeps getting better and better. So evocative. 

Held onto objective 1

The flight of the Albino Tyrant

The White Flyrant didn't have Iron Arm. In hindsight I should have clustered the Gargs around him to shield him as we moved up field.

Blood Angels with loads of men. Deployed across the hills

Each squad had an Apothecary (5+ FNP)

Feel No Pain on Marines is ridiculously good when you have this many Marines on the field. They are basically like Terminators with 3+, 5+ Invul. And man did Marshall make those FNP rolls.

Tyranid First Turn 

Surged everything forward. I needed to tie up his squads and then use my Flyrant to deal with the incoming counterattack. Sent both Flyrants up field to kill as many infantry as possible.

A view of the board further back up

Actually quite a scary sight seeing that many Marines on 3+, 5+

Secured two objectives with my 10 Gant squads - realised I put one less Gant down. 

As both Tervigons clambered the midfield to birth more Gants

The long line of Gargs. My plan was to use them as the first wave, suck as many hits as possible and then bog them down with Gants. 

Shooting in my first turn did not do much to his army mainly due to his Godly saves. Only 2 Marines succumbed to 24 rerollable hits which wounds on 2+. Both Flyrants were Zooming Turn 1.

Iron Arm with +1T and +1S. 

I managed to actually make my checks and did not suffer falling down from the sky. Phew!

Marine made the jump over the trenches to engage my Gargolyes

And they hit my lines

FNP this time working to my advantage, I didn't lose all of the Gargs

Turn 2 and Doom arrives with a loud thud. Marshall makes his LD roll and no one dies. 

Cavalry has arrived

Engage them! 

Or so I thought. The plan was to use the Gants to engage the Assault Marines on my right while the Flyrant tackles the Marines on the left.

Meanwhile the rest of the army moves up mid-field. Marshall's first unit still causing a choke point

Assaulted my other Gant unit into the melee with the Gargs. Death by numbers

So I rolled the assault and guess what, the Flyrant decides to stay put on a DOUBLE ONE

Post melee, I am left with 4 Gants

Stormraven arrives

Blood Angels now converge onto the Albino Flyrant

After wiping the Gants out, they consolidate to take the charge from the Flyrant

After a round of shooting Albino Flyrant is gone

Tyranid Turn 3-I moved my Flyrant closer to his Librarian to use shooting to destroy him before moving in for melee

I scored First Blood here as the Librarian was considered a "unit"

While the rest of the army converges on this unit of Assault Marines

With Iron Arm +3S and T, I went for the jugular

Meanwhile these Marines seem to hold up very well against the life leeching

I think I know who's going to die next

After wiping out the Marines to 2, Marshall pulls the men out with a voluntary fallback

While melee kept on going.

All the while Marshall was rolling really well for his FNP saves.

Why you run away!!

In drops the Death Co. 

And proceeded to wipe the Trygon out netting Marshall 1VP for Big Guns Never Tire

BA rearguard moves up (greys) and I moved my Flyrant to counter

After a round of efficient shooting the rearguard dies

Death Co moves up and engages the Gants in the ruins

I surrounded his Death Co with another unit of Albino Gants and was prepared to sacrifice the Hive Guard too

The plan was to keep the Tervigons both alive until the end as my Gants were holding onto the objective. Here is where I could have played differently. I had lost 5 wounds from my Tervigon at the back and was retreating her. Moving her back put her in Synapse (and also in popping range) of my Gants Losing the Tervigons meant I would lose my objective holding Gants. Keeping the Tervigons forward could have mitigated that problem.

Seeing no threat left at the back field, I move Doom up to suck some souls

Gants rush for the rear objective

Tyranids Turn 5

Marshall moved the Stormraven behind my units and started opening up.

Where did this model come from?? 

So he had one other Marine alive. I doubt he hid the model deliberately. I guess I should have asked if he had other Marines alive because that dead pile was bloody confusing. And true enough that single Marine was enough to capture the objective.

We were also both running out of time. It was 11PM now and we were both keen to finish the game.

Managed to destroy the first Tervigon which caused 2 units of Gants to pop

This opened a lane into my second Tervigon allowing his Death Co to move up and mop up

In Big Guns, Heavies can capture objectives. This Stormraven survives on 1 Hull Point.

While this lone Gant holds my objective

And these Gants reach out to say....noooooooo

This was one of the most nail biting games I have had in a long time. Marshall is a great and fair opponent. I am sure he did not hide the Marine deliberately and the problem of models still in play getting mixed in the Dead Pile happens quite a lot. Nonetheless, I was so confident until the last turn when his Death Co came in and I was sure again that he could not steal the game from me. Until of course that Stormraven took the last wound from my Tervigon giving his Death Co room to charge and pop the other objective holding units! Awesome game! I want revenge!!