Batrep: Altansar Eldar vs Hive Fleet Behemoth: Skyblight

Played a 1850 game vs Marshall yesterday. He brought a good Tyranid Skyblight List. Enjoy!

Deployment: Hammer & Anvil

Mission: The Emperor's Will

Eldar rolled up the following:
Warlord: Guide, Prescience, Precognition
Command Trait: Re-roll all Difficult Terrain
2nd Farseer: Misfortune, Forewarning and Doom

Tyranids rolled up the following:

WL (D) Dominion, (1) Catalyst

Warlord trait: Stealth in ruins        
HT red (1) Catalyst, (4) Paroxysm
HT white (D) Dominion, (4) Paroxysm
Tervigon (D) Dominion 

We used the same lists we have been using thus far. You can find the Eldar list here and the Tyranid list here. Do check the batreps on there too and let me know if you enjoy them! 

On to the batrep proper! 

Turn 1

I actually won the roll-off to determine First Turn but gave it to Marshall as it Night Fight was in play and going 2nd would allow me to take some shots at his flying circus.

Tyranids deploy really aggressively to decrease the time it takes to get to the Eldar lines.  

I hugged the terrain but in hindsight realized that it didn't matter. Night Fight was on

Tyranid deployment to the line

The Gants proxying for the Gargoyles

I made the mistake of deploying the Farseer to far in front and took 2 wounds to pay

The Tyrant wasted no time shooting at the Farseer

While the other combined shots took another wound off my Warlord

Eldar Turn 1 started with a bang and that was just the sound of the Avenger Serpent getting immobilized. I disembarked my Avengers and pulled the two Farseers back to join them. This mistake would cost me dearly

Sidenote: I was not aware that I could not BattleFocus with my Farseers on Jetbikes. I was under the impression that I could still run and that the Jetbikes would just use TurboBoost in their shooting phase to keep up with the Avengers. We agreed that they couldn't so I had to leave the unit of Avengers together with the Farseers in the back.

Early game immobilized. 

I advanced the Wraithknight thinking that I could at least bring this Flying Tyrant crashing to the ground then assaulting it. I mean I had 3 Wave Serpents shooting, I was sure I would be able to ground it. Marshall passed all his Grounding Tests. 

Managed to ground one of the centre Flyrants but didn't have enough firepower to kill it off. 

Turn 2

It was full swing, this was Marshall's turn to do massive damage

My lines were swamped (the red die at the back of the 2 Walkers is the position of the 3rd Walker in that squadron.)

Marshall managed to penetrate the Serpent Shield AND Holofield. I rolled 3 when I needed a 4+ and rolled a 1 when I needed 2+. Thankfully no explosion. Guardians popped out

Meanwhile the concentrated efforts of the FMC here took out the 2 Farseers and unit of Dire Avengers

In my Turn 2 I dropped one unit of Spiders into his backlines

And another next to his FMC's

Shuffled some stuff around and moved my Knight up to potentially charge either of his 3 FMC's

This time I will be able to charge either or

Moved right in for the kill

Managed to do 3 wounds on the Tervigon

Killed off the White Tyrant with my D Cannon while the Warp Spiders didn't manage to do anything to the FMC's. Marshall passed pretty much all his grounding checks. 

Turn 3

All Crones and Harpies Vector Struck my Wave Serpent and destroyed it

While the other Gargoyles advanced on my Guardians 

Epic last stand - would have been cool if Marshall had completed the actual Gargoyles

And charged my Wraithknight with his 2nd brood of Gargoyles

After a round of shooting my Guardians fled

In my Turn 3, I advanced my Spiders and jetbikes up to take some shots

Disembarked my Guardians to try to ground his Tyrant and contest the objective

The other jetbike squad moved up

Managed to ground the Warlord but he remains on 1 WOUND! Marshall then flew the Warlord into mid table to get him out of range of most of my weapons

Turn 4

The Crones and Harpies come back in

Gargoyles charge the Warp Spiders but lost combat. They broke but I failed to catch them. WTF...

While the other unit of Gargs fight on. The Wraithknight had Paroxysm on so had WS1

Marshall wiped the unit of Guardians in the ruins out

My turn saw the final unit of Jetbikes turn up. 

With his Warlord gone I turned all attention to this other Flyrant but failed to kill it. It lives on ONE WOUND! 

Gargs finallyd deal 1 wound to my Knight

Turn 5

Marshall attacked the last Warp Spider forcing him to of course run

While the Crones and Harpies Swooped to breathe acid on my Jetbikes wiping them out

In my turn I advanced as far up as possible, hoping to do something! 

Turn 6

And in Turn 6 on a 4+, Marshall gets another unit of Gargs. They Deep Strike in, rolling a HIT so no scatter. 

While the other Tyrant flew off table in the last table only to return to hold the objective at the back

Marshall sent his Harpy to assault my Serpent destroying it

In my turn 6 I moved my Wraithknight up and in a show of good luck grounded the Warlord to kill it. Too little too late.

End Game

Tyranids captured for 3 points

Tyranids captured for 3 points

Marshall:
Objectives: 6 points
First Blood: 1 point
Slay the Warlord: 1 point
Line Breaker: 1 point
Total: 9 points

Ray:
Objectives: Nil
Slay the Warlord: 1 point
Line Breaker: 1 point
Total: 2 points

Basically a walkover. Marshall played well and played to his strengths. His was an aggressive list and he played it that way. I had made 2 major mistakes, first to deploy the 2nd Farseer too far forward and then putting both Farseers into the unit of Avengers really capped it off. However, I had never had such bad rolling before. Most of my 2+'s failed me and when I needed to stay, they fled. When I needed to cast powers, they failed. Marshall's superior dice rolling and tactics eventually won out!

Good game! Today we have a rematch!

Score: 3-1: M-R