CanCon Battle Report
Tyranids vs Astra Militarum
Hi guys, Origin here with a CANCON practice battle report. If your unfamiliar with the CANCON format it is a 8 game tournament at 1850 points using the Community Comp system. You can find a more detailed description of the event format here(link). So straight into eh...
Pre-game Sequence
So Barit and I go through the motions
Mission: Maelstrom of War - cleasne and control
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil, the Guard picks sides.
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil, the Guard picks sides.
Warlord Traits (and various xenon powers that don't exist according to the Primer):
Tyranids roll up re-roll reserves and number of unholy psychic powers, warp lances, screams, onslaughts etc. And as a true guardsmen I pay no attention what so ever lest the Ordos Xenos execute half my army for possession of heretical knowledge. The Guard roll up -1 to enemy reserves rolls, which pairs well the Officer of the Fleet to delay a stack of Barit's horde of Lictors and other gribblys
No night fight.
Nids deploy first for 1st turn. 2 units of thropes, one behind the small LoS blocking piece and the other hugging the back corner ruins. The trio of hive tyrants start front and center ready to fly up and get amongst it. The Sporocysts outflank, the Tyrannocyte and Termaguants deep strike along with the Mucolids and Deathleaper and his cohort of Lictors.
The Nids deploy ready to murder some poor humans
The Guard square of against the 'Nids with the Steel Host holding the middle ground, the Combined Infantry Squads, Artillery and Command Squad hole up in the ruins. The Conscripts fill the gaps between the tanks trying really hard to find all the Lictors. The Veterans in the Taurox hold the flank by hiding in the woods. The Vendetta and Platoon Command are in reserve, the Scions Deep Strike in while the Scout Sentinels Outflank.
Turn 1
There was a small note in the Sergeant Billy's 2nd hand Primer, scribbled in blood, "Don't let the big flying monsters get off the ground...!" Something about those words, scrawled in viscera leads the Guard to seize the initiative from the 'nids. Game on.The infantry and tanks shuffle around to open up fire lanes and maximize LoS from the sponson weaponry while keeping all the AV14/13 in front of the Tyrants and their Strength 6 shots can't find purchase.. The Guard ignore the psychic phase like all good Imperial citizens should and move right along to the bucket'o'dice phase, aka shooting. The combined firepower of the Steal Host Formation and the infantry remove a Hive Tyrant and place two wounds on the Warlord. With three objective cards in hand the Guard score two from backfield objectives to gain 3 VPs in the first turn. (2obj cards + First Blood)
The Hive Tyrants take to the skies and move forward. The thropes move up to an objective. The Nid psychic phase prepossess with onslaught cast on a Tyrant to get a some template action on the Command Squad. Warp Lance is cast into a Russ but fails to penetrate. One Hive Tyrant throws some shoots into the Hydra stripping 2 hull points of the AA tank. The Warlord Tyrant drops a template, killing some Guard from the Combined Infantry Squad and two models from the Command Squad with the following devourers claiming another as the Command Squad goes to ground in the ruins. And despite the casualties the Command Squad holds their ground. The nTyranids claim 2 VPs in total, one for within 12 of their board edge and 1 from the thropeson objective 3.
On a side note the LD penalty from Deathleaper was forgotten at this stage of the game. And it will be a bit of a theme from the Tyranids in this game, just a number of small things that slip by in the swirling melee of battle. All the more reason to practice before the CanCon.
Turn 2
The Officer of the Fleet fails his leadership test to reduce the Tyranids reserves. Guard reinforcements arrive. The Vendetta flies on with the enemy Warlord in it's sights. The Sentinels arrive in the Tyranid back field looking for line breaker, quick objective grabs and general annoyance. The tanks reposition to limit the Hive Tyrant's mobility in case they survive the shooting phase and to hopefully prevent rear armour shoots from the Lictors. The psychic phase is ignored as it should be and the Shooting begins. The Sentinels send some multilaser shoots into the thropes to no effect. The remainder of the army fires into the tyrants killing the enemy warlord. 2 Vps are scored from objective cards along with warlord for a 6 VP total by turn two.
Tyranid reserves are hampered by the clever machinations of the Guard Warlord and without the Hive Tyrant's re-roll only a single Lictor, a Mucolid, a Sporocyst and the Tyrannocyte arrive. The Tyrannocyte goes hard for the back corner, mishaps and dies along with it's swarming cargo of Guants. Ouch. The Sporocyst attempts to Outflank but is reminded that it cannot move onto the board and promptly dies, ouch (It should be noted that there was the opportunity for the Sporocyst to come on in the spirit of a fair game but Barit likes hard lessons, hard lessons leave marks). The single Lictor goes deep in the 'nid deployment zone to deal with the scout sentinels and the Mucolid drops on top of objective 5. The psychic phase sees a warp lance or two remove a Sentinel. Old mate tyrant flies over to deal with the Command Squad, unleashes a psychic scream which kills the Artillery but leaves the other Infantry unscathed. The Tyrant howls in frustration at these resolute meat sacks and readies it's bioweapons. The bug splatter clears from the devourers with the Officer of the Fleet dead but the Commander and Regimental Standard still standing. The following shooting blows the multilaser off the remaining Sentinel. Not the greatest turn for the Xenos. 1 Vp is cored for midfield objective by the Zoanthropes for 3 VPs so far.
Turn 3
The Officer of the Fleet lies dead and the Scions fail to arrive. The vendetta moves up to board centre. The tanks and infantry reposition to apply the coup de grace to the remaining hive Tyrant. The Vendetta opens up it's guns on the Zoanthropes hoping for a kill but fires to no effect. The remaining army opens up into the last Tyrant and blasts it from the sky. The remaining Sentinel charges a Lictor for blood and glory and dies. As expected. The Guard score one more VP from objective cards for a total of 7 VPs.
Some more of the Tyranid organisms arrive from reserve, Deathleaper, 3 Lictors and 2 Mucolids. 2 Lictors peel themselves off the walls of the Guard occupied ruin. Got to love deep strike, no scatter. The other emerges from the woods on objective 5. A Mucolid each lands in the ruins and the woods respectively with some impressive deep strike skills. Deathleaper appears right next to the commissar, almost like he was trying to kill him. The Commissar is unconcerned. Zoanthropes feel the ire of the Hive Mind and manifest Warp Lance and bring down the Vendetta with a single hit! All but one 'lucky' guardsman survives the explosion, which is surprising considering he had about 35 liters of promethium strapped to his back. The Lictors fail to do a single wound to the Command Squad with their shooting and Deathleaper targets a Commissar and fails to hit... The Commissar is still unconcerned...
Turn 4
Scions arrive and deep strike on to objective 3. The army repositions to deal with the new bugs in it's lines after the smoke clears two Lictors are dead, there is a single wound Deathleaper and a Mucolid dies before its exothermic biochemistry can take effect. No VPs are scored and a Destroy a Flying Monstrous Creature card is discarded. It came a turn too late.
Nids have Mucolid come in and last remaining Lictor which deploys board center to claim objective 2. The psychic phase is renamed to the kill the Scions phase as 4 are removed from play by warp blast wielding thropes. The newly arrived Lictor kills the promethium toting crash survivor. The surviving Lictor assaults the Command Squad, roars a challenge which is accepted by the brave but over confident Guard Commander. The Commander dies in the challenge but only just and the remaining Standard Bearer remarkably draws blood on the Lictor causing two wounds. Deathleaper charges into the Conscripts kills the suddenly concerned Commissar and then runs down the rest of the spineless child soldiers... Scoring 1 VP from an objective card for 4 VPs total
Turn 5
The Tank Commander begins to show a small bead of sweet now that his infantry packaging has been dealt with and lines his Tank Company up to exterminate all remaining bio-forms. In which they are largely successful, killing a Lictor, a Mucolid and old mate Deathleaper. No VPs claimed and another useless card is discarded.Two Lictors move to charge the Demolisher and Eradicator. The thropes push forward to midfield looking to bring some shoots into range and claim some VPs. Psychic and shooting is ineffective. The assault phase sees a single HP taken from the Demolisher and 2 HP stripped from the Eradicator. The last Mucolid dies to Wall of Death Overwatch. 3 VPs are scored from killing the warlord, for 7 VPs in total
Turn 6
The Russes push forward to get the thropes into range of the Heavy Bolters but the distance is too great and the tanks too slow. Both Lictors bear the full brunt of the shooting and promptly die in a spectacular fashion. Again no VPs scored, another useless card discarded...Zonathropes move forward drop warp lance only to fail to hit...
Turn 7
The Steel Host open up onto mid board thropes kill them off objective 2, Kill the last of the seemingly endless supply of Lictors with long range fire. Claim the Witch Hunter card and 3 VPs for claiming at least 2 objective and having more than double your opponent, for a total of 11 VPs in total.
Guard wins with a 4 VP differential.
Post Game...
There were so many things that went wrong during this game for Barit. A couple of choice mistakes that compound to make it a real up hill push to win. The first is the Sporocysts and outflanking. Being immobile it is not possible for them to move onto the board from reserves. Although they have infiltrate it must be used in deployment the outflank is impossible. They are a good choice for a Nid player. Excellent number of shots, good board control and bonus synapse range, camp one or two on an important mid field objective and force your opponent to deal with them. If only they were objective secured units, that would be ace. The Tyranocyte mishap was unfortunate but it does happen from time to time. It may be worth infiltrating a few lictors rather than all of them deep striking just for the pheromone trail to prevent scatter. Worth it if the lictors can hide out of LoS and not give up easy first blood.
But the really critical mistake was the deployment of the Hive Tyrants. Although the Nids had first turn if the Guard or anyone for that matter were to seize those Tyrants were going to be in trouble and they were. It is really important in my mind that if you have first turn you still must deploy in such a way that getting seized on will not ruin your day. I feel that the tyrants would have been better deployed deeper in the deployment zone, out of range for the majority of my guns and coordinated their forward push with the reserves arriving. The piecemeal arrival really hurt. Further to this most guard players I know are really trigger happy and the idea of not killing something on the first turn is abhorrent. So by deploying deeper with the Tyrants a less patient guard player may have pushed forward to get shots off. This would have opened holes in the lines for Lictors, floating bombs and Tyrants to exploit and gain rear armour shots.
I'm happy with my list but I do feel I have a bit of a weakness with Maelstrom missions mostly due to lack of movement and the need to protect my rear armour. With a massive 10 VP differential needed to get max battle points Maelstrom is going to be a fickle goddess.
Thanks for reading, I'll hope fully get another report up before CANCON.
Origin
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