| Brood Brother |
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Joined: Sun Jun 11, 2006 11:45 pm
Posts: 85
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Well, I have two games under my belt in our map campaign so far, one against Space Marines (3700 points), one against Eldar (3900 points).
Sorry, no pretty pictures, no activation-by-activation account. While thats nice, I find it to be TMI, and I will stick to general events, major decisions and mistakes, and overall conclusions.
My list vs the Marines:
--Hive Tyrant, 6 Carnifex, 3 Haruspex
--3 Warriors, 4 Gargoyles, 8 Hormagaunts, 8 Termagaunts (2 identical Swarms)
--Synapse Node, 2 Dactylis (2 identical Swarms)
--Vituperator, 2 Trygons
--8 Genestealers (2 identical Swarms)
--5 Lictors (2 identical Swarms)
--Hive Nest
The Marines:
--Tac squad with 6 Razorbacks (3 of each type), Supreme Commander, Dreadnought
--Devestator Squad with 2 Dreads (2 identical Formations)
--4 Predator Destructors
--4 Predator Annihilators
--4 Vindicators
--4 Whirlwinds
--4 Whirlwinds
--Thunderhawk
--Thunderhawk
--Marauders
--Thunderbolts
--Thunderbolts
So, the Marines had me out-Activated, supremely outgunned from the Sky, and won every Strategy roll without it even being close. The game went 4 turns, and a couple mistakes were made rules-wise.
#1...Not all Tyranid WE's regenerate anymore. I pulled a couple of damage markers off my Synapse Nodes, and shouldn't have. No real effect on the game (one would have ended the game with one DC left, the other died to a Crit).
#2...My opponent was coming in with THawks, Assaulting (with Formations piling out), the Consolidating back into the WE and flying off. Rinse and repeat every turn. He should have been sitting put for a turn. Cest la'vie. Live and learn. Thats what I get for NEVER blowing the dust off my Vampire Raiders. 
Setup: A fair bit of terrain...some Woods, Hills, and clusters of Buildings and Ruins/Craters intermixed. Pretty even from either side. Plenty of places to get Cover.
I Garrisoned both Synapse Nodes and Dactylis Swarms near the two objectives on my half of the table, one of which was my Hive Nest, and set them on Overwatch. Stupidly, I forgot to Garrison the Genestealers...they were sitting all nice and set up with the rest of my minis, and I forgot about them until well into normal deployment. My opponent didn't Garrison anything.
Turn 1 was fairly uneventful...my opponent rolled like crap with the shooting he did have, and my casualties were minimal. I inflicted basically nothing in return, as I was Marching with most Swarms. The big events of the turn consisted of 2 rather horrible Assaults from THawks filled with Devestators and Dreadnoughts on my Synapse Nodes, but to little actual effect...both ended up Instictive, but had already activated that turn. Both lost a Dactylis, one suffered a point of Damage. Both got to re-spawn their Dactylis because the Thawks flew off, giving them both the 1d3 bonus for no enemy within 30cm. A mistake my opponent would not make again. Additionally, I lost an entire Genestealer formation, even though they were in cover...Whirlwinds and Predator Destructors get a lot of shots.
Turn 2 saw me getting well into my opponent's territory, and a Lictor Swarm Teleporting in near the Vindicators and some Whirlwinds, and most other Swarms advancing. In an odd stroke of luck, the Warrior swarm on my left failed to activate and hung back near the Synapse Node on that side. The Vituperator and Trygons moved into Breath Weapon range and started killing Predators, preparing for a next-turn assault. This formation weathered a withering salvo of fire this turn, taking 1 DC damage on a Trygon and 1 on the Vitup, who later regenerated it. My opponent also opened up on the Lictors with the Vindicators, killing 4 of the 5...but not finishing the job, a decision he would later regret. They were bait anyway, and I Assaulted the Vindicators and Whirlwinds next to them (Intermingled) with the other Warrior swarm on the right, breaking them easily, and consolidating back onto one of his Objectives. The THawks made another attack run, attacking the Synapse Nodes again. This time, on the left (where the Warrior Swarm had failed to activate), an odd thing happened...I hit 3 times on 6's with the Node. 2 went on Dreads, but both saved. The last went on the THawk itself, which failed its save, and I got a Crit! Boom! That left the Devs and Dreads stranded there. Unfortunately, the Marines did the exact same thing to the Node...1 DC damage, and a Crit. Bloop. Dead Node. Both Dactylis were killed as well (MW hits from the Dreads). But, now those poor Marines were staring at a 23-strong formation of 'Nids with hunger in their eyes. The other Node suffered another DC, but no Dactylis died, and the Marines flew off again. The Node Spawned one of the other Node's dead Dactylis, so now I had 3 there. And, for a second time, I lost all but one of a Swarm...the second Stealer Swarm got the beat-down early in the turn from Whirlwinds and such (before the Assault). All but one. An important phrase this game.
Turn 3 saw some desperation in the Marine's eyes. The Vindicators had Rallied, but the Whirlwinds had failed. I brought the other Lictors in, again near the Vindicators, using them again as bait (the Vituperator and Trygons were fairly near, and I didn't want them eating all the MW shots). Again, he shot the Lictors. Again, he killed 4, leaving one to run around Instinctive. The Predators again laid into the Vitup and his bodyguards, and, again, did very little (I was saving like a madman). In return, the Tyrant and his buddies managed to finally catch up to them, and obliterated all 4 tanks in one fell swoop. The Warriors assaulted the stranded Dev Squad and Dreads, and hammered them out of existence as well, consolidating around the objective on my side. The Vituperator swooped over and laid down some fire on the Tac Squad, killing a couple Razorbacks and some Tac marines. My lone Lictor from the last turn moved over to hang out at the same objective that the Warrior Squad on his side of the board were holding. And, the last Genestealer went back and held my Blitz objective. Plucky little chap.
My opponent only had the last THawk left. He again assaulted the last Synapse Node, and again drove it Instinctive, but this time he stayed put after consolidating back into the THawk, to contest the objective and have a unit on my half of the table. Thus, the ened of turn 3 was a 0-0 tie (without the THawk, the game would have been over...I would have had Defend the Flag and None Shall Pass, he would have had nothing).
Note: Up until this point, the other Air Power was ineffectual...doing little more than dropping a few BM's, killing a Gaunt here, a Carnifex there. My opponent was failing to concentrate his Firepower, and it was costing him when I Spawned back the minimal casualties. It was odd...he had no problem obilterating 17 stands of Stealers but combining firepower from more than 1 formation, but he wasn't doing it vs the other Swarms.
Turn 4: My opponent brings the Vindicators to bear on the Tyrant and his Carnis/Harus, but rolls miserably this turn (his total record...0 hits, 4 hits, 4 hits, 0 hits...talk about Hot and Cold).
At this point there is a long pause...he studies the board. I currently have 3 Formations in Assault position, on 3 of his Formations. He has a single Activation left. He can stop one of those Assaults, or at least initiate it himself. He realizes he will lose the other two utterly. That will leave him with virtually nothing but Aircraft left, and some Vindicators (already activated) and Whirlwinds. We discuss it for a bit, trying to find a way for him to stop me from winning. Neither of us can figure out a way for him to do so. He concedes and buys me lunch.  We both had a blast. Epic rocks.
Conclusions:
My opponent never got within 15cm of the midway point of the table. Only the THawks were ever on my side of the board. He hamstrung himself by essentially not moving the first two turns, then it was too late and I had him backed up and ready for Assaults.
There was also a general failure to concentrate firepower (except on the Hapless Genestealers). He spent most of the game firing at Swarms with a single formation. He would cause a few casualties, which would then be reSpawned. I think the sheer number of bugs had him a tiny bit panicked. He also failed to finish off crippled Swarms. He had 2 TBolt formations able to swing by and wipe out the last Stealer (or Lictors), and chose to place BM's on the Tyrant/Carnis instead.
He bought too MUCH air power. 950 points or so of Aircraft left him with not enough on the board to contest and claim objectives, or mount a push forward. The THawks were great (especially because we were doing the rules wrong), but they just weren't enough to assault my backfield alone.
BUT...bear in mind, people in my group have minimal experience against the 'Nids. These mistakes will be corrected, rest assured, in the re-match.
Next up, the Eldar.
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