It’s nice to have a table to play on at mine at last

Bor’kan Expeditionary Force (chosen mostly on the classic newbie basis of trying 1 of each of most things)
Fire Warriors
Mech Fire Warriors + Skyray
Crisis Suits
Broadside Suits
Stealth Suits
Ion Cannon Hammerheads
Railgun Hammerheads
2 x Recon Formations
Kroot
Gun Drones
AX-10s (BTS)
Barracudas

I ran out of time tidying and preparing things beforehand however and wasn’t ready when Ryan (Man of Kent) arrived which meant:

a). I used the latest version of E&C’s list which I already had a list written out for, rather than Honda’s one which he’d posted up late the night before which I said I might use.

b). I hadn’t looked over the rules and stats like I’d meant and so spent most of the battle having very little clue what my troops did or how to use them and having to regularly stop and flick through a jumbled mass of print outs of 5.1 and E&Cs list.

On that basis don’t expect any great tactical playtesting insights from me here, but I’ll work on things more in future...

Dawn rising over our nameless imperial city on an eastern fringe world.


The imperials had evidently affected a defence but taken a pounding, leaving much of the city in ruins.


The Tau forces. It wasn't that I'd forgotten to get the Stealth suits out of the cabinet before doing this shot, their stealth armour was blending in especially well, honest.


The gribbly horde of Man of Kent’s Tyranids.


Part way through deployment.

Tau deployment.


A tide of spikey death things aproacheth...


My Ax-10s attempting a staffing run on a biotitan, causing 2 points of damage. I foolishly approached from the right meaning when he flak-rushed his troops forward and I ended up flying through all MoK’s flak in the endphase, loosing a plane in the process.


Early on the Hive Mind directed the Dactylis behind the buildings with the Synapse Node to indirect fire their bile pods at the Recon formation, the Dominatrix focussed her psionic command at them when it became clear they weren’t paying attention but they didn’t listen to her either and just sat there vacantly staring into space, pondering the meaning of their existence.

Some very infested buildings.


I broke the biotitan I’d attacked with the planes, but it later rallied in the end phase. The genestealers march into the building, out of sight (balanced posed on the flat roof for the photos but in actuality more than 10cm from my side).

I shot at them a little with what I could, breaking them, but not doing that much damage and they rallied in the then end phase.


MoK doubled his tryanids on the left of the table towards my drones and I doubled my recon patrol behind them on the left angling for perhaps a potential crossfire or marking opportunities or something next turn.


Turn 2

Early in the following turn my Crisis Suits went onto overwatch and my Drone formation retained and - when they realised their guns wouldn’t be able to hurt the oncoming vehicular tyranid unit in any way - bravely ran away from them. In retrospect I should have left them there to slow them down a little as later in the turn the Tyranid vehicles doubled, shot and killed them anyway.

The recon patrol got jumped and slaughtered by the nearby Tyranid infantry unit. The Skyray and others got killed when the Dactylis eventually snapped out of it and indirect fired this turn.

I should never have let genestealers get into combat... my poor Kroot! That said it did somehow go on to a second round and the last of the genestealers was finished off after much slaughtering of Kroot.



Long range firing from my right flank could now manoeuvre to a position to draw a bead on the biotitan on the left flank now that it had emerged past the buildings and they managed to blow it’s head clean off.

Over on the right side the other Biotitan scampered forward, mounting the land pad and casually swatting aside the Lightning fighter to the ground.

Overview of the state of play. My Stealth Suits teleported into battle behind the fire warriors unit by the blitz (unwisely intermingling).



The Dominatrix bounded forward towards my lines...


...and promptly vomited nasty acidic slime all over my valiant defenders.


Not many were left afterwards and those that were were rather scared.


The biotitan on the right was shot at and broken, with it fleeing away into some ruins towards the centre.

Tyranid infantry get their revenge, breaking the broadsides.


When combining cake and epic, do be careful, lest you inadvertently munch on a blast template stuck to the under-side of your carelessly placed cake.


I was feeling despondent for my poor Taulings being killed and I shot up the nasty biotitan, ineffectively, rather than thinking about thing like claiming objectives. The brood of Tyranids on the right hand side of the board assaulted the nearby Mech Tau though this was risky as only one of their number was in range.


I didn’t take many photos towards the end and I’ve kind of lost track of some of what happened. I believe it wasn’t quite possible for the Tyranids to win at the end of this turn 3, the Dominatrix being just too far away from my Blitz and such, but turn 4 was over very quickly and resulted in a solid victory for the tyranids.


Result: Tyranid win! Tauland will not be expanding today and the victorious hive mind gets to enjoy a tasty Tau meal

After-thoughts: it was fun to use all my terrain and play in a densish city but with Tau vs Tyranids it hurt my Tau’s shooting more than standard tournament scenery would have. I also concentrated most of my AT firepower on my right flank with the broadsides, and rail hammerheads, which left my left and centre unable to deal with the oncoming AV/WEs. More AT power generally might have helped but I didn’t know I’d be facing such an AV/WE heavy list. Don’t feel I got familiar enough with the list or units to really be able to comment on them but I’ll come back and try them again more in future.

Done. Comments on the game or the reporting anyone?

Was the Tyranid force made from the 9.2.1 rules?

Any chance on the list itself that MoK took?

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Frogbear is responsible for...
Previous World Eaters
Previous Emperor's Children
Previous Death Guard
Previous Imperial Fists
Previous Chaos Squats

It was indeed 9.2.1, a big bio-creature heavy list.

I don't have a copy of his list or I'd have put it up. I emailed him a few days back asking if he could send the two lists he'd used to me but he hasn't replied as yet. I expect he may well see this thread and add it in.

Nice report, keep the battle reports coming please.

I thought non-transport fliers couldn't be BTS?

From the FAQ


Morgan Vening

Thanks for the report!

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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

Mmm...epic cake. Great report.

Thats a lot of city terrain you've got there

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

Cool Cityfight.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

Wow, with all those Lightnings and Marauder Destroyers, you should try Elysians some time.  

Anyway, good on you for just jumping in and trying things without worrying about the results.

Looking forward to seeing more of your reports.

Oh, and the Epic cake line was... Epic!    

Cheers,

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Honda

"Remember Taros? We do"

- 23rd Elysian Drop Regiment

Aye, interesting read.

The Tyranid list does indeed pack a fair few War Engines and AV, these are also usually the lynchpins of the army too- so more Titan Killer, AT, MW helps.