Hi folks,
Last weekend I got together with a couple of mates to break the 40K gaming drought. Sydney has been a fairly hard COVID-19 lockdown for over 3 months, so our opportunities to toss down some dice have been limited. To brush off the cobwebs we decided to play a 2000 pt objectives battle using some of the new Octarius rules for Hive Fleet Leviathan. We soon found out that the cobwebs were a little thicker than anticipated and spent a lot of time reading rules to relearn 9th Edition. Our smaller games before the lockdown had barely scraped the surface of what 9th Edition can throw at you, so it ended up being a big learning experience.
Army Composition
I teamed up with Sgt Waz to control the Tyranid force, which included the following units:
- Swarm Lord with 3 Tyrant Guard
- Broodlord
- Malanthrope
- 3 big blobs of Termagants
- Exocrine
- Tyrannofex with Rupture Cannon
- Dimacaeron
- Deathleaper and another Lictor
- 2 units of spore mines (4 in each) and 2 units of Mucolid spores (5 in total)
- 2 Biovores
The Trooper and Dippa joined forces to create an unholy alliance of Blood Angels and Death Guard. The Angels were led by Mephiston and included:
- Sanguinary Guard
- Sanguinary Priest
- Intercessors
- Eradicators
- Redemptor Dreadnought
The Death Guard were led by a Daemon Prince and included:
- Plague Terminators
- Deathshroud Terminators
- Plagueburst Crawler
- Blight Drone
- Contemptor with twin Vulkite Culverins [eeeurgh]
Deployment
We deployed the Termagants to control two objectives and make a push for a third. The Broodlord provided synapse on the left flank, whilst the Malanthrope provided synapse and a defensive buff (-1 to-hit) to the centre, which included the Exocrine and Tyrannofex. The Biovores were deployed in cover on the right flank to provide harassing fire. The Swarm Lord, Tyrant Guard and Dimachaeron were deployed forward to make a charge up the centre to make it... uncomfortable, for Death Guard and Blood Angels to control the centre objective. The Lictors were held in reserve; I love the idea of Lictors but had no hope that they would actually achieve anything except a brief distraction. The spores were also held in reserve, ready to lay down all kinds of annoyances.
Turn 1
Going first, we repositioned the Termagants to start controlling a greater area of the board whilst maintaining control of the objectives we already had. You can't string them out like you used to, but we managed. This was to protect against the Sanguinary Guard and Death Shroud Terminators coming from reserve (probably in Turn 2). We moved the centre brood of Termagants towards the centre objective and moved both the Swarm Lord and his Guards to support them. The Dimachaeron headed straight for the enemy lines; that thing is fast. The Exocrine hammered the Eradicators with fire, killing all but one of them with the help of the Pathogenic Slime strategem. The Tyrannofex wounded the Blood Angels Redemptor Dreadnought, but didn't do nearly as much damage as I hoped it would. The Biovores fired on the Plague Terminators and missed, which allowed us to place some spore mines in a really annoying spot. The Dimachaeron made its charge roll against the Plague Terminators, but didn't make much of an impact with its claws (we had forgotten some of its rules...). The thorax maw did its job though, putting a whopping 6 mortal wounds on the unit.
During the first Blood Angels turn they advanced Intercessors towards the two flank objectives. Mephiston charged the Dimachaeron and the Redemptor Dreadnought fired a large brood of Termagants (but failed to make much a mark. The Death Guard Daemon Prince and Blight Drone also charged the Dimachaeron and the Blight Hauler fired at the Tyrannofex, causing some wounds with its entropy cannons. The Contemptor fired a bucket load of shots into the Termagants holding an objective near our deployment zone, taking out a few of them. Miraculously, the Dimachaeron survived and managed to kill Mephiston.
Victory Points:
Tyranids: 0
Blood Angels/Deathguard: 0
Turn 2
With an even number of objectives between us, we scored no points. We used a strategem to regenerate a couple of wounds on the Dimachaeron and then deployed some Lictors in position to harass the Intercessors on the left flank and the Contemptor Dreadnought with its Volkite murder-guns. I advanced some spore mines and termagants to capture another objective and hopefully put some wounds on the Blight Drone. The Exocrine fired on the Contemptor but was not able to take it down. In hindsight, I should have fired on the Intercessors holding the objective. The Tyrannofex put another two shots on the Blood Angels Dreadnought, causing some more wounds. The spore mines detonated, causing some mortal wounds on the Blight Drone, but not taking it down. Both Lictors failed their charges against the Intercessors and the Contemptor. The Swarm Lord sling-shotted the Tyrant Guard into the fray, causing some more wounds on the Drone, while the Dimachaeron continued to deal damage in close combat, this time to the Daemon Prince. It could not survive the huge number of attacks being levelled against it, however. The Hive Guard also fell in combat.
With more objectives in hand, the Blood Angels and Death Guard earned a victory point. During the Blood Angles turn the Sanguinary Guard deployed, gunning down the Lictor with contemptuous ease. The Redemptor Dread moved closer, to work at knocking out the Termagants contesting the centre objective.
The Death Shroud found it hard to deploy, due to Spore Mines, so teleported deep into their own deployment zone. In close combat the Daemon Prince was brought low by the Swarm Lord. The damage was done, however, and with more kills that turn the Blood Angels and Death Guard scored another victory point.
Victory Points:
Tyranids: 0
Blood Angels/Deathguard: 2
Turn 3
I could see that a lot of our tactics were not having the effect we wanted them too. The damage output, particularly of the Death Guard, was insane. My attempts to pick them off with fire from the Exocrine and Tyrannofex was not working, due to their high survivability. I had also fallen into the trap of not finishing the job by switching targets; in many cases the wounded enemy was dealing just as much damage as when it was as full strength (unlike our Tyranids, which mostly had multiple stat lines). To their credit, both Dippa and Wade were making the most of cover and tactical retreats to make focusing on any one unit difficult. I advanced the Broodlord and its unit of Termagants to challenge the Intercessors on the left flank, whilst unleashing Mucolids and Deathleaper on the Intercessors holding the right flank.
The Broodlord killed four Intercessors, leaving
one alive. Deathleaper managed to kill one Intercessor and was bludgeoned to death by rifle butts.
The Redemptor Dreadnought laid into the central brood of Termagants, with help from the remaining Terminators and Blight Drone. The Sanguinary Guard also charged the Broodlord and killed it. In its death throws, I played a stratagem allowing it to attack back, killing four of the Sanguinary Guard, but leaving one alive. [sigh]
Victory Points:
Tyranids: 0
Blood Angels/Deathguard: 3
At this point of the game, after at least 5 hours of playing, we called it quits. With a 3 point lead and Tyranids getting hosed off the objectives, it was clear that the Blood Angels and Deathguard were in an unassailable position. Much of the game had been spent with us pouring over multiple rulebooks, which is to be expected, as we haven't played in such a long time.
I had a feeling during the game that the Tyranids simply did not have the power to project force. This prevented them from taking and holding objectives. Any tendril we threw out there was getting cut off during the enemy turn, and we were not coordinating our own fire well enough to return the favour. This is something for me to ponder as I take a look at my Jormungandr list: how can it take objectives and hold them? Hell, how am I going to even deploy most of my Nids? Board control is fairly easy to achieve, as the Death Shroud Terminators found out, making it very difficult to deploy things like Trygons, Mawlocs and Ravenors. Hmmm...
See you across the table,
Marc
