Friday, June 7, 2013

40k Battle Report: Daemons vs Tyranids

Sometimes...it's just not your day. Yesterday was one of those days. Starting off I was placed on the same exact table I played last week, with almost the same exact terrain setup, playing Tyranids...again. However, this time I was lucky enough to play a great player who goes by Grenn Dal, and has his own blog over at Xeno For the Win. He has been playing for much longer than I have and is a far more seasoned veteran than most of the guys in the league. I know his list, I read about it all time, and I know what his style is and goals are, so going into the game I have a good feeling about it. The Dice didn't agree.

DiceCon is coming up in a few weeks, and one of the rules is that all models must be completely painted, and since the Helldrake isn't even base coated yet and neither are the cultists, I figured I would try to make something out of the models that I do already have painted.

Game: Crusade
Deployment: Vanguard Strike

Well apparently we can't read or follow direction, and somehow we ended up playing Emperor's Will instead...no idea how this happened, but we're good friends so it really didn't matter in the long run.

No night fight.
He placed an objective on his side in a forest, and I placed one on my side in a forest. He won the roll to deploy and chose to go first, I did not steal the initiative.

My List: 
Fateweaver: (Flame Breath, Prescience, Psy Shriek, Hemorrhage)
Great Unclean One: ML3(Iron Arm, Enfeeble, Endurance), Daemonic Resilience, Dark Blessing
Herald of Khorne: Juggernaut, Locus of Wrath, Touch of Uncreation
10 Plaguebearers - Icon
10 Plaguebearers
10 Pink Horrors
10 Daemonettes
15 Flesh Hounds
Daemon Prince - Tzeentch, Wings, Armor, ML3(Dominate, Hallucination, Psy Shriek) Portaglyph
Daemon Prince - Tzeentch, Wings, Armor, ML3(Puppet Master, Invisibility, Terrify) Grimore, Staff of Change

Psychic powers were pretty ok, Fateweaver's were horrible but manageable, the Great Unclean One turned into an Unkillable God. Glyph Prince would be used mainly as a debuff machine, while the Grimore prince would provide the support. All in all, not too bad...or so I thought...

His List:
Swarmlord

Tyrant Guard Brood
Doom of Malan'tai: Mycetic Spore
Venomthrope Brood
11 Genestealers with a Broodlord
12 Termagants in a Mycetic Spore
11 Termagants in a Mycetic Spore
Tervigon
Tervigon
15 Gargoyles
5 Ravener Brood
5 Ravener Brood


He basically deployed everything he had on the line, coming straight at me. Gargoyle wall in the front, with Raveners and Genestealers behind them. I put the hounds and the herald right up on my line as well, with Fateweaver and the princes out of range behind the forests.

He had the 2 spore pods in reserve.
I had the Great Unclean One, 10 Plaguebearers with the Icon, and 10 daemonettes in reserve.

I knew he would move up to me to assault, so I elected to use my scout move to better position my hounds, so that I could charge him on the bottom of turn 1. My plan was to let him move up into the middle of the board, then Deep strike in behind him, start taking out his stuff with vector strikes and then making his stuff all fall back due to the low LD once the Tervigons were gone. But a few things didn't agree with my strategy, more on that later...

Tyranid Turn 1
He starts off the game by moving everything up closer to me, except for the back Tervigon which move onto his objective.
I think one Tervigon made 7 gants and the other one made 11...
He fires off a few shots, killing 2 hounds in the process since they have not been grimore'd yet. (Bad part about going 2nd.) but other than that no real losses.
Few other units run, he casts some powers, that't about it.



Daemons Turn 1
Invisibility is successful on the Grimore Prince.
Hounds move up with a few inches of the gargoyles. Grimore Prince swoops over and the Grimore is successful on the hounds. Glyph prince drops the glyph a few inches from the objective, doesn't scatter, and immediately spawns 6 bloodletters who move toward the hounds to support them, should they get tar pitted in close combat. The prince then flies up toward the top of the board within range of the Raveners for some psychic goodness.
Horrors move up behind the "wall"
Fateweaver jumps out a bit to support, but just trying to keep him out of range as there is no LoS blocking terrain at all in my area.

Warp Storm is calm.
Then the fun begins...
Fateweaver tries to cast prescience on the horrors, and fails on an 11.
Horrors cast and take out a few gargoyles, but they pass the Toughness test and get FnP on 6+.
Glyph prince at the top on the left tries to cast Dominate on the Raveners, and perils on 6's
He cast Hallucination on them with is successful and manages to cause 2 wounds...on one model.
Grimore prince tries to cast Terrify on the Raveners and perils on 6's.
Then tries to cast puppet master on the Raveners, and he denies it.

Hounds Assault in, and wipe the gargoyles off the table for first blood!
They can't get out of range of another assault so I move them back, hoping he fails the charge roll. (Which would prove to be fruitless, as I have never seen someone roll so many 6's before when he needed them)


Tyranids Turn 2
1 Spore full of gants comes in.
All of his powers were successful if I remember.

One Tervigon makes 8, the other makes 3, however the one on the left rolls doubles.
The one on the left moves over towards the Glyph prince,creating a very large bubble for "Shadows from the Warp" and he fills the empty space with gants, basically making it impossible for me to vector strike or fly anywhere near him on my turn with my princes. (Well played sir)
Swarmlord and tyrant guard move up with 5 Raveners.
Other raveners move up toward my glyph prince.
Genestealers and Brood move to middle of the field.

Raveners shoot at the prince and do nothing, he passes the grounding test.
Pod shoots at the prince and does nothing, he passes the grounding test.
Gants shoot at the prince and do nothing....but I fail a grounding test on a one.

Raveners assault in, and decimate the prince, I think he managed to take out one in the process.

Swarmlord and his "unit" assault in and take out the Herald and a few hounds, but the Herald manages to put 2 wounds on the Swarmlord as well.


Daemons Turn 2
Everything makes the reserve rolls and comes in.
Plaguebearers come in with the icon and scatter a few inches into some woods, losing 1 model in the process.
The Great Unclean One Comes in directly in front of them near the Tervigon.
The Daemonettes come in just behind the Tervigon near his table edge.

Grimore is successful again.
Invisibility is successful as well.

Horrors move back a big out of range of the gants, to line up some shots. (this was a bad idea)
Grimore Prince moves back out of range of the Shadows from the Warp on the swarmlord.
Fateweaver backs up a little bit.

Warp Storm roll is a 5, but I let him roll for his units, and he rolls seven 1's in a row...
Pink Horrors shoot at the gants and take out an extremely large chunk of them, forcing them to test which they fail and will fall back.
Fateweaver tries to cast Shriek on the Raveners and fails again on 11.
Grimore prince manages to cast Terrify on the Raveners on doubles 1's, so he takes a wound, but they still have to test, and they fail the morale test and fall back within 1" of the table edge...
Bloodletters move out a bit farter.
It is at this point I realize that I don't have anymore models for the portaglyph with me...

Hounds manage to take out the Tyrant Guard in assault, and lose another model.

Tyranids Turn 3
Both his other pods come in directly in my face, basically blocking me in.
His remaining Tervigon that can makes another 12 gants.
The termagants on the left side, fail their test and go off the table.
The Raveners are within range of the Tervigon by an inch or two and regroup.

The left Tervigon moves toward the Great Unclean One, and the genestealers move backward toward the daemonettes.
Termagants in the right, shuffle around and position for their assault on the Great Unclean One as well.

The termagants from the spore shoot the Plaguebearers on the objective and manage to take out 3.
The Pods shoot them as well and manage to take out 1.
The Doom of Malan'ti goes off and takes out 2 more Plaguebearers, as well as putting a wound on Fateweaver putting him at 7 wounds...

The genestealers decimate the daemonettes before they even get to attack back, then consolidate towards the plaguebearers.
The termagants move up and assault the Great Unclean One who manages to take a wound...some how...(think about that for a second...then cry a little like I did)
Hounds combat remains the same, I put another wound on the swarmlord, and more wounds on the ravners, but make all my saves.

Daemons Turn 3
Portaglyph spawns 6 more Plaguebearers.
Great Unclean One fails all of his powers, except for Enfeeble, which he casts on the Tervigon.
Grimore Prince tries to cast Invisibility and perils...again
Fateweaver tries to cast Prescience on the horrors and fails...again.
Horrors move back away from the Doom of Malan'ti towards the raveners.
Fateweaver and the Grimore Prince fly over towards the hounds and vector strike the termagants, killing half the models.
Grimore is successful on the hounds.

Warp Table is a 7.
Pink horrors shoot at the Doom, causing 1-2 wounds, I don't remember.
Fatewaver casted Bolt of change against the unit of Raveners in CC with the hounds but rolled a 1 for the S, and was only able to really hurt 2 of them, which of course made their saves.

The hounds assault is a stalemate.
Great Unclean one kills 5 more termagants and somehow takes another wound...

At this point in the night, I had to call the game unfortunately.
I really wanted to keep playing as I feel that I could have pulled out the win.
The current score was 5-4 in favor of the daemons.

I would have assaulted the Doom with the plaguebearers and the bloodletters, no doubt killing it to get my objective back, I would have then moved the plaguebearers up to make a shield bubbling him from getting to my objective.
He would have killed my plaguebearers on his side of the board, but I think it would have taken awhile for him to take down the Great Unclean One....there's no way dice rolls can be that bad for that long....right?
I had no way to get him off his objective however.
I would have just moved Fateweaver to the back and kept him alive, there by giving me the win by 1 victory point.
It would have all come down to the hound assault in the end. I would have assaulted in the Grimore Prince to the combat, put the Grimore on himself, sacrificed the hounds, and challenged the Swarmlord. With the Staff of Change and a 3++, He should be able to finish him off giving me Warlord and First blood, linebreaker, and my objective. He would have had 1 objective, and line breaker making it 6-4.

I gave Grenn the victory, because as it stood he did have the upper hand and it was my fault for having to leave so soon, but other wise it was a fun game.

So in the end it was a loss for daemons, but like I've said time and time again, it's not about the win for me, its about learning things to make my list better.



What I Learned:
1. As much as people think its about the list, or luck of the dice, I still say its about the player. Grenn made a lot of great moves, and played very well strategically. He knew what to assault and when to do it. (Granted he did have 60 termagants on the table at point point but who's counting right?)
2. Shadows in the Warp is bad, but now that I now more about it, I think it can be managed, just have to have careful placement.
3. Doom of Malan'ti is amazing for the points. I want a Slaanesh one.
4. Hounds are impressing me more and more every week. The amount of punishment they can take with some good rolls in amazing. Really starting to think about running 2 units.
5. Speaking of hounds, I think the Locus isn't worth it. It only works on the charge, and they are going to kill whatever they assault anyways.
6. Same thing with the Herald. The amount of attacks that unit brings to the table is just overwhelming, and not many units can stand up to it, which leaves them out in the open to be assaulted next turn...which is what we don't want.
7. The Great Unclean One...I just don't know...He sucks up a ton of punishment, and comes right back with it, but I don't think he's worth the points in my list. He great to contest objectives, but odds are he'll be tied up in combat long before that happens.
8. Daemonettes are amazing...if used right. I have to get better at placing them to get the assault on things. Being burned on this too much lately.
9. You can cast beam powers against a unit that is locked in CC if you place it right, since the power targets the ground, not the unit.
10. a Unit is unable to assault a vehicle or walker that it cannot damage.
11. Some nights the dice just hate you for some reason. It happens to everyone. I probably QQ'd a little too much last night, but it happens. Luckily enough I was able to play against someone like Grenn, who didn't make it seems so bad, and he didn't gloat either with his amazing rolls all night like other people, always a pleasure to play against.
12. I need a way to deal with Horde armies. Without something like a Helldrake or a Soul Grinder, its going to be really difficult, and make the game alot harder, and this list I used last night needs work.
13. I still say I could have won this if I had time, but it was just a friendly league game and I hope to get revenge sometime in the future!!

Final League Results 2-2.

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