So we're back with Tyranids, against Flogus' trusty Imperial Guard this time. This game was a good occasion to test some of the changes suggested on this forum... and some changes that I felt were needed.

RULES
Handbook 2008 (with Errata 2008)
IG list - Handbook 2008
Tyranid list - v9.1 with the following changes:
- +2 to Engage and rally rolls
- All tyranids ignore dangerous terrain
- Lictors with Sniper
- Hormagaunts CC5+, +1EA
- Tyranid Warriors with 20 cm move


TYRANIDS - 3000 pts

* Assault Swarm 1: 3 Tyranid Warriors, 8 Hormagaunts, 14 Termagants, 2 Gargoyles
* Assault Swarm 2: 3 Tyranid Warriors, 8 Hormagaunts, 14 Termagants, 1 Gargoyle
* Attack Swarm: 1 Hive Tyrant, 4 Dactylis, 3 Carnifex, 1 Gargoyle
* Harrassment Swarm 1: 1 Harridan + 4 Gargoyles
* Harrassment Swarm 2: 1 Harridan + 4 Gargoyles
* 4 Lictors
* Hierophant
* Hierophant

BTS objective : 8 Synapse "points"



Imperial Guard

- Super-Heavy Tank Company (2 Shadowswords + 1 Baneblade*) + 3 Leman Russ
- Infantry Company* + Fire Support Platoon
- Infantry Company* + Fire Support Platoon
- Storm Troopers* + Valkyries
- Storm Troopers* + Valkyries
- Rough Riders* (using Bikes as proxies)
- Sentinels
- Basilisks
- Basilisks
- Lunar Cruiser
* : Commissars

Looks like this is gonna be *GOOD*!  

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

DEPLOYMENT

Flogus could Garrison most of his army, so I decided to place my objectives wide apart and close to the edges so as to avoid dealing with 5-6 garrisoning formations in cover right in front of my army.

First, I garrisoned my Attack Swarm in the ruins on my left flank (thanks Jeridian, I stole the idea of this swarm from you!   )... and Flogus replied by garrisoning an Infantry company and Storm Troopers just in front of them.



He then garrisoned (on Overwatch) his other Infantry company around his base.



The rest of the troops were deployed normally, as shown below.



Once again I had to take into account an orbital bombardment on the first turn, by a Lunar Cruiser this time. I thought Flogus would direct the bombardment on my right flank, as there were both good cover AND objectives to grab there, so I deployed my troops on the left side of the table.

Also, you can see that Hierophant 2's deployment is somewhat... bizarre. I wanted it to benefit from the +5cm move on the road, but Flogus deployed his SHTs last and saw my mistake immediately. Both Shadowswords were ready to fire on the Hierophant at the first opportunity...

TURN 1

Strategy

Tyranids!!! It's nice to not be playing against Space Marines for a change.  

Turn 1

* Hierophant 1 Advances and shoots at the Storm Troopers, destroying 1 Valkyrie and 1 Storm Trooper.


* I retain the initiative and Hierophant 2 Marches along the road, hiding from the Shadowswords.


- The Lunar Cruiser appears and... once again, Flogus aimed well! 6 bugs from Assault Swarm 2 die instantly under the barrage (including 1 Tyranid Warrior), but the pin-point attacks misses Harridan 1.


- The first Basilisk battery fails to activate and Regroups.


* Back on the left flank, Harridan 1 Advances and fires at the Storm Troopers... but to no avail.


Meanwhile, the smaller creatures are biding their time...  


- The SHT company Doubles in order to get a clear view of the Attack Swarm. 1 Dactylis, 1 Carnifex and 1 Gargoyle are killed.


* Undaunted, the Hive Tyrant orders a Sustained Fire on the nearby Infantry company: 2 casualties, 4 BMs.


- The second Basilisk fires at Assault Swarm 1 and kills 4 'nids.


* Assault Swarm 2 fails its activation and moves in cover of the nearby building.


- The Sentinels are put on Overwatch to deter Lictors from teleporting too close to the Basilisks.

Turn 1 (continued)

* Assault Swarm 1 Marches but can't reach the ruins in the center of the table. The garrisoned Infantry company (on Overwatch) fires at the bugs and kills 3 of them.




- The garrisoned Storm Troopers (ST1) fail their activation and remove all of their BMs.


* Harridan 2 Doubles towards the other Storm Troopers platoon (ST2) and shoots at them... but misses.


- ST2 then Advances and the Storm Troopers disembark to shoot at the Harridan, causing 2 damage and 4 BMs, which is enough to break the gigantic creature. Well, not exactly as it was carrying 4 Gargoyles... but I forgot about them and I thought that 4 BMs were sufficient to break the Harridan. I only realized my mistake in the next turn. Silly me.  




- Finallly, the Rough Riders Double to take position close the the SHT company.


End of turn


The broken Harridan rallies. Most Tyranid swarms automatically remove some BMs thanks to the +2 bonus to rally rolls.

Spawning is quite good: 1 Carnifex (Attack Swarm), 1 Dactylis and 2 Termagants (Assault 2), 3 Hormagaunts (Assault 1) and 1 Gargoyle for Harridan 1. Harridan 2 rolls a 1 and I choose to spawn nothing.

End of the report tomorrow...

Always interesting to watch Nids in action.

Seems Harridans are popular, can't figure out why.

Nice to see my garrison idea has gained some approval (I could mention the blind leading the blind on this one, owing to my inexperience,   ).

With him deploying the Infantry Company so close to the garrison I'm not sure I could have resisted engaging- it looked like the only time a Carnifex will ever get into CC during a game (where otherwise they provide ideal bullet magnets).
You made the smart move, assaulting would have incurred Overwatch, Storm Trooper support and various negative Combat Res modifiers on your side, along with casualties on your side. I couldn't be as level headed though "Carnies actually in 15cm...charge!"

Who know's, maybe doubling the Heirophant into the buildings within Supporting fire of the Infantry Company whilst still shooting the Storm Troopers to suppress them, may have tipped the Carnie engagement in your favour.

Anywho, looking forward to the conclusion.

BTW, this is very mean!

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

That's just me, I love being mean.  

The truth is, we still haven't finished the game. We had to stop at the end of turn 3 Monday evening and we'll only finish it this afternoon.

I'll post turns 2 and 3 in the course of the morning (well, morning for me in France ), and I'll try to post turn 4 in the late afternoon.

Man! I'd hate to face those stormroopers; they look mean!  

Strangely enough though it works, a good idea for a forgeworld army or something...

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TURN 2

Teleportations

Lictors teleport just behind the SHT company (1 BM), putting them in their ZoC.


Strategy

Strategy goes to IG this time.

Turn 2

- The SHTs move away from the Lictors and Advance in order to fire at the Attack Swarm. 2 Carnifex die, but the Tyrant survives (thanks to their 3+ save, the Carnifex survived the "normal" shots and were able to absorb the 2 TK shots from the Volcanos... if one of them had died before that, my Tyrant would have been toast).


- Flogus retains the initiative and ST1 Advances and unleashed 6 BP (Disrupt) at Harridan 1 and the nearby Hierophant 1, with devastating effect: 4BMs for the Hierophant, 3 BMs and 5 dead Gargoyles for the Harridan.


* My turn now, and I think for some time. I want Assault Swarm 1 to engage the SHT's, but a quick calculation shows that, even if I manage to get each and every tanks in base contact, the odds will be strongly against me : IG will have +3 (BMS and Inspiring bonus) and I'll have +1 (more units). That's +2 for IG and they have 4+RA armour to my inexistant one... So I decide to turn the odds in my favor by moving Hierophant 2 closer and making it shoot at the SHT company.


* I then retain but, despite the +2 bonus to Engage rolls, I fail miserably because of the BM penalty. That's a really hard blow.  


- Back on the left flank, the Infantry company takes position to shoot at Harridan 1, causing 2 damage and breaking the gargantuous beast.


* The Hive Tyrant and its Dactylis reply by Sustaining at the Infantry company (only 1 casualty but 6 BMs thanks to the Disrupt special ability).

Turn 2 (continued)

* Thanks to the Attack Swarm shots, Hierophant 2 can launch a combined assault on both ST1 and the Infatry company, who now have more BMs than it.


The Hierophant shows how dangerous it is in CC (1 IG, 4 Troopers and 1 Valkyrie killed) but suffers 4 damage in return (8 hits and only 4 saved) and the assault is a tie!


The next round is almost as deadly: the Hierophant kills 2 Troopers and 1 Valkyrie but dies in the process. The left flank is now "cleaner".


The line of battle is clearly defined...


- On the opposite flank, the Sentinels Double and... do something (I'm not too sure about this one, they were activated at some point).

* The Lictors remember they are Infiltrators and Engage the Rough Riders, who threaten to use their own Infiltrator ability to launch a suicide assault on Assault Swarm 1 in order to kill the Tyranid Warriors.


They kill all 6 Rough Riders before resolution but lose 2 of their own and make a swift retreat.


* Harridan 2 then Advances and shoots at the Infantry company in cover... to no avail.


- The Basilisks shoot at Harridan 2, with no effet.

They were indeed in intermingled position, but I wanted to avoid giving the IG side the "more units" bonus. Thinking back, I shouldn't have worried as 3 SHT + 3 Leman Russ + 6 RR = 18 units to my 24 units.

Turn 2 (continued)

* Assault Swarm 2 moves in cover, ready to defend any of the 3 objectives on their side of the table.


- The Infantry company Doubles up the right flank and shoots at Assault 2, killing 2 bugs not in cover.


- Last activation of the turn: in a daring move, Storm Troopers 2 Engage Assault Swarm 1! I use the counter-charge move to put as many units as possible in cover (with a 4+ save).


The result is... not what I expected. With the support of the SHTs, 9 bugs are killed while the ST suffer only 2 casualties. Resolution goes like this:

Nids still have more units > +1 to nids
IG has Inspiring > 0
No BMs on either side > 0
9 kills vs. 2 > +7 to IG

We roll the dice and the Assault Swarm suffers 9 more casualties! 18 kills in one assault! (See more details and comments in the After Action Report section)


End of turn



The Lictors rally, but neither Assault Swarm 1 nor Harridan 1 do.

Moderate spawning this time.

Tyranid losses


IG losses

TURN 3

Strategy

Tyranids again.

Turn 3

* Harridan 2 Doubles and lands next to the SHTs. It then shoots at them: no damage, but 1 BM.


* Hierophant 2 than Engages the SHTs, barging into the Leman Russes. Once again it shows how powerful it is in CC and only 1 Baneblade and 1 Leman Russ survive after combat resolution.


- The Sentinels Double and shoot at Assault Swarm 2 (only 1 BM).


* Once again, the Attack Swarm Sustains at the Infantry company. Once again, they only kill 1 stand (4+ cover save) but manage to make enough hits to break the company.


- The Basilisks shoot at Harridan 2 (1 BM).

* The Lictors fail their activation and break.