Continuing my lessons on 7th Edition gaming, I
teamed up with Sgt Waz to take on his brother’s Nid list. We had a force of
Salamanders that included a decked out Chapter Master transported in a
Landraider Redeemer, two Tactical Squads in Rhino transports, an Honour Guard
unit transported in a Stormraven with a Venerable Dreadnought, two Stormtalon
gunships and a Librarian.
The Tyranid force was a roll call of horror. Led by the
Swarmlord and his three Tyrant Guard, it included a flying Hive Tyrant with
Brainleech Devourers, a Malanthrope, Mawloc, Tyrannofex, Dimachaeron, Hive
Crone, Zoanthrope brood and three broods of Termagants.
We played the same mission: 6 objective markers on the board
and tactical objectives cards. This time I knew how they worked and went into
the game with a far more aggressive playing style.
The Nids set up first and we noticed early on that the
Swarmlord and Dimachaeron were both on the same flank. Considering their potent
close combat ability, we deployed so as to deny that flank. It would leave some
objective markers incontestable in the early turns of the game, but we planned
to have some things alive to contest in the end game (preferably when both of
those Nids were dead). Our flyers were all kept in reserve, because that’s
where they have to start the game. We failed to seize the initiative, so sat
back with a packet of bizarre Korean rice crackers (sooo tasty) and prepared to
whether the storm…
Turn 1
The Hive Crone and Flyrant combined to take down a Rhino and
win first blood. Thankfully the Tactical Squad inside were fairly unharmed and
prepared to return the favour next turn. The Dimacaeron, Zoanthrope and
Malanthrope with attending Termagant broods took four objective markers between
them. The Tyranid psychic phase was ridiculous.
During our turn we pushed the surviving Rhino and Redeemer
forward to engage the foe, focusing fire on the Flyrant, Crone and Swarmlord,
whittling down wounds.
Turn 2
The Hive Crone engaged the Tactical squad with its Drool
Cannon killing a handful, whilst the Tyrannofex took a hull point off the
Redeemer. The flying Tyrant destroyed another Rhino whilst the Dimachaeron and
Swarmlord began trudging there way over to where their presence was most needed:
the opposite flank! A brood of termagants secured the objective vacated by the
Dimachaeron, under the watchful synapse of the Zoanthrope Brood.
Redeemer moved into position to take the Flyrant down during
the shooting phase, unloading the Chapter Master to charge the Tyrannofex. The
first Tactical squad fired at Termagants protected by the Malanthrope, then
charged into finish them off. Unfortunately, the Malanthrope had other ideas,
gassing 5 marines during the Initiative 1 step with its toxic miasma. The other
Tactical squad held back its fire so that it could charge a unit of Termagants
and contest an objective. They succeeded the charge distance roll, wiping out
the Nids and stealing the objective. The Chapter Master knocked the Tyrannofex
down to 1 wound, leaving him safe from any shooting during the next Nid turn:
perfect.
Turn 3
The Swarmlord and Dimachaeron closed in on the Chapter
Master but couldn’t make the charge range. Meanwhile, the Zoanthrope brood
moved within Warp Blast range of the Redeemer and unleashed a focused lance
attack, which failed to do any damage. A Mawloc tunnelled right underneath one
of our newly scoring Tactical squads and wiped out 8 models; in all of my games
I have never seen a Mawloc attack so effectively! Thankfully, we still had two
there to contest the marker. In close combat the Malanthrope and Tactical
marines continued to slog it out, with the death of one marine to the poisoned
attacks. The Chapter Master thumped the Tyrannofex into oblivion with his Thunderhammer
and eyeballed the approaching Swarm Lord and Dimachaeron. Time for some epic
“lone-Space-Marine-holding-the-midfield-against-two-monstrous-creatures” action.
The Stormtalons roared in on either flank; on the left we
had one take down 5 termagants and rout them. Thanks to the previous aggressive
move by the Zoanthropes, these termagants were out of synapse and fled off the
objective marker. The other flyer took some shots at the Mawloc in the hope of
preserving our scoring unit there; we had only one turn to save them before
they would be assaulted. With that in mind the Redeemer opened up on it as
well, putting a total of 4 wounds on it: still not enough. The Chapter Master
engaged his relic armour’s 2+ invulnerable save, charged the Swarmlord and
issued a challenge. The Swarm Lord
refused the challenge and sat back whilst his Hive Guard were smashed, leaving
only one left standing on a single wound.
Turn 4
The Zoanthropes had another go at lancing the Redeemer but
didn’t even succeed in manifesting the power. The newly rallied termagants
charged the Chapter Master, to at least hold him in place for the Dimachaeron
should the Swarmlord fail in killing him. As predicted the Mawloc charged the
two remaining Tactical marines, whilst the Hive Crone did a vector strike on
the Stormtalon, destroying it, before flying off the board. The Swarm Lord and
the Chapter Master smashed into each other, with the Swarm Lord taking two
wounds and the death of the last Tyrant Guard. The Mawloc only managed to kill
one of the Tactical marines, forcing us off the objective due to a failed
morale test and the Mawlocs equal failure to capture us in sweeping advance.
The Dimachaeron tried to smash the Redeemer but failed to penetrate its armour.
During our turn the Stormraven finally arrived from reserve
with its precious cargo. The Librarian performed an aggressive drop on an
objective marker but scattered way off it. The Honour Gurard deployed in
position to save the lone surviving Tactical marine and finish off the Mawloc.
The Venerable Dreadnought also deployed in position to attack some Termagants holding
an objective. The Redeemer moved into position and blasted some more wounds off
the Mawloc. The Venerable Dreadnought and Stormraven unloaded on the
Termagants, killing all but two of the little blighters. The surviving
Stormtalon on the left flank stayed in possession of the objective marker and
pumped fire into the Zoanthrope brood, but failed to make an impression. In
close combat the Swarmlord took another two wounds, leaving it with one
remaining. The Dimachaeron succeeded in immobalising the Redeemer, and the
Mawloc survived a turn against the Honour Guard. The Malanthrope (who by this
stage I had maturely labelled “Senor Farty Pants”) killed a marine. The
Venerable Dreadnought finished off the Termagants with its close combat weapon.
We scored a heap of VP’s this turn, due to a Tactical Objective card that
rewarded us for holding twice as many objectives as the enemy.
Turn 5
By this point the game was really in the balance. Early
objective marker captures had netted the Nids a large number of victory points,
but they were now holding no objectives. We, on the other hand, had some sweet
Tactical Objective cards in our hand that we were now in a position to cash in,
if we could just survive the final onslaught.
The Nid turn started with the Hive Crone returning but having no real target. Hoping for another turn or two, it flew towards the surviving Stormtalon. The Zoanthropes failed to damage the Redeemer again and the Dimachaeron moved to engage the Librarian. In close combat the Swarmlord finally killed the Chapter Master, but was left exposed in front of the immobalised Redeemer… The Dimachaeron absolutely murdered the Librarian, capturing the nearby objective with its consolidation move. Senor Farty Pants killed another Marine, whilst the Mawloc was finally killed by the Company Champion’s Thunderhammer.
The Nid turn started with the Hive Crone returning but having no real target. Hoping for another turn or two, it flew towards the surviving Stormtalon. The Zoanthropes failed to damage the Redeemer again and the Dimachaeron moved to engage the Librarian. In close combat the Swarmlord finally killed the Chapter Master, but was left exposed in front of the immobalised Redeemer… The Dimachaeron absolutely murdered the Librarian, capturing the nearby objective with its consolidation move. Senor Farty Pants killed another Marine, whilst the Mawloc was finally killed by the Company Champion’s Thunderhammer.
In our turn, which turned out to be the last turn of the
game, we played to our Tactical Objectives above all other considerations. The
Redeemer shot the final wound off the Swarmlord, giving us a VP for killing the
warlord. The Stormraven (to the soundtrack of Rick Hunter’s Theme: Robotech) launched a
volley of missiles at the Hive Crone, chipping away at its wounds. The
Stormtalon finished it off with its twin-linked assault cannons and lascannons.
This gave us more VP’s due to another Tactical Objective card that focuses on
killing Flyers. The Honour Guard charged the Malanthrope and the Champion
issued a challenge, scoring us another VP (you guessed it) for the “issuing-a-challenge-tactical-objective-card”.
At the end of the game, when the Line Breaker points had been taken into consideration,
the Salamanders were victorious: 10 – 8 on VPs.
The Good:
Tactical objectives force you to be a more dynamic player,
encouraging you to do things on the spur of the moment that you usually would
not do (…challenge the Swarmlord with a Veteran Sergeant to earn one VP? Yes please).
Your list needs to be mobile and capable of covering a broad
spectrum of battlefield roles.
You must come up with tactical solutions to rapidly evolving
battlefield situations every turn. For this reason alone they have a valued place
in the game, because it gives us a new way to play.
The Bad:
It is very random and may favour one player unfairly during
the course of the match. Conceptually, a lot of the things that end up happening in the game simply do not make sense; it is a step away from narrative based play.
See you across the table,
M4cr0
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