As I finally got my Tyranids for the first round of tale of eight gamers put together and have pretty much got no hope of getting them finished in time for the due date. I took the opportunity to play a couple of games of combat patrol against one of my mates. This worked out quite nicely as he wanted to try out some of my other armies as well.
My army for the first 500 points consists of the following:
3 x Zoanthropes
10 x Termagants
13 x Hormagaunts (with toxin and adrenal glands)
10 x Genestealers
We played on a 4ft x (just short of) 4ft table as it seemed reasonable for a 500 point per side game.
Game 1:
Vs My Tau, annihilation, Spearhead deployment. Tyranids going first.
Tau army, 3x fireknifes (with 2 drones and bonding knife), 3 x Firestorms (with 2 drones and bonding knife), 6x Firewarriors.
The game started off with my tyranids running across the open ground in the centre, the termagants heading into the comfort of a building and the Hormagants sticking behind zoanthropes for a cover save. The Tau fire removed a few hormagaunts from the back of the pack but not causing any significant damage. Then the genestealers came on directly behind his battlesuits, this pretty much put the game in the tyranids hands. Once the battle suits were engaged with the genestealers and then the hormagaunts piled in, the Tau were swept from the board.
Tyranids win!
Tactical Notes: This proved to be quite a good game for the Tyranids, the outflanking genestealers proving my opponents undoing, tying up the large majority of his firebase from turn 2 onwards. If I was playing my Tau I would have deployed slightly differently to minimize the effect of the genestealers outflanking at least get myself a turn of shooting before they would be in combat.
This was also a good opportunity to show my opponent just how bad Tau were for an apparent elite shooting army. Doesn't matter how good your guns are if you can't hit the broadside of a barn.
Game 2:
Vs my space wolf army from winds of war 2011, Night fight, multiple objectives (4)
5x long fangs 4 missiles, 5 x grey hunter MoTW meltagun, razoback TLHB, 5 x grey hunter MoTW meltagun, razoback L+TLPG, 3x wolf guard, MoTW 2 x storm bolter.
I deployed my Hormagaunts and infiltrated my genestealers after winning first turn. Paul, deployed a razorback, with an embarked squad in it exactly 18" away from my hormagunts. By some miracle I was able to roll a 6 for the difficult terrain test for my gaunts and a 6 for their fleet move enabling the gaunts to reach the razorback. Which they miraculously destroyed :-P. The genestealers just edged forward in the building to get nearer the enemies deployment zone. My termagants and zoanthropes came on centre back of the board and ran forwards to try and get the hormagaunts into synapse range quickly. My opponents army came on, the wolf guard and second razorback squad engaging the genestealers, the long fangs running into position and, squad from the destroyed razorback engaging my hormagaunts.
I managed to warp blast the long fangs back off the table, and the genestealers killed the wolf guard but were in turn killed by the second squad of grey hunters. Game ended up with a single grey hunter in combat with a zoanthrope over an objective. Zoanthrope had passed 7 invulnerable saves on his last wound. Ending the game in a draw.
Tactical Notes: Hormagaunts outside of synapse will normally run away after taking a couple of casualties. Also Termagants in combat with wolves will lose, made far worse by being fearless. I was losing models at twice the rate he was killing them and doing precious bugger all back. Not much else I could really have accomplished here. I could have held the genestealers in reserve to try outflanking again, then gone to ground with my army on the two objectives in my deployment zone. Trying to use the Genestealers to tie up on of his objectives. Not very Tyranid like though.
Game 3:
Vs Chaos Space marines. Capture and Control, pitched battle.
5 x Nurgle Marines (2 x flamers, champion with combi flamer), 5 x Plague Marines (2 x Plasma gun champion), 5 x Havocs (3x heavy bolters, 1 x missile, mark of Nurgle)
After taking a round of shooting while in cover, I ran forward managing to tie up his closest squad (plasma) with my hormagaunts, the genestealers outflanked again coming in on the right side to engage the havocs. He charged his flamer squad into combat with the genestealers. At the end of these combats he had 2 blokes left from the plasma squad, facing down four genestealers, 10 termagants, and Zoanthropes. He gave up at this point.
Tactical Notes: Think I did pretty well here, holding back from his flamer range till I was i a position to get the charge off despite going through cover. While the genestealers mopped up most of his firebase. Hopefully a greater learning curve for my opponent here though. keeping away from the edge if your opponent is outflanking and not moving too far forward with your troops against Tyranids. He knew his marines could beat my Hormaguants in combat, that wasn't my intention though. I just wanted to stop them shooting for a few turns. Complete success.
(Picture By Adrian Smith, taken from GW website, used without permission)
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