Last Battle Report For 4ed Tyranids

Last battle report for the fourth edition tyranid codex. Hive Tyrant slaughtering a Tactical squad.

This will be my last battle report for the fourth edition tyranid codex. I've held my tongue on anything concerning the new codex, but as soon as I get my hands on a copy I'm letting the opinions fly. But I digress, Back to the battle report, lets make it a good one.

My list

HQ
Tyrant- Wings, Talons x2, Toxin sacs, Adrenal +ws, Toxic Miasma, Bio-plasma

Broodlord-Toxin sacs, flesh hooks, feeder tendrils.
Retinue x8 - extended carapace, flesh hooks.

Elite

Warriors x5 - Talons, deathspitters, toxin sacs.

Devil fex - Twin linked Devourers x2

Boom fex - Barbed strangler, Talons.

Troops

Spinegaunts x8 - With out number

Genestealers x8 - Feeder tendrils, extended carapace.

Genestealers x8 - Feeder tendrils, extended carapace.

Heavy

Heavy Boom Fex - Barbed strangler, Talons, Reinforced Chitin (+1W), Extended carapace.

Zoanthrope x3 - Warpblast x3, one with synapse, the other two with psychic scream.

Demi-God Fex - Talons x2, Adrenal +ws, Adrenal +I, Flesh hooks, Toxic Miasma, Tusked, Reinforced Chitin, Extended carapace.

On this occasion I faced against "The Kid". I had not faced against this lad since fourth edition rules, and it seemed he had not played much since then. It was still a fun game, but there were a few fifth edition changes I had to remind him of.

His list (roughly)

HQ
??
Never saw action so I do not remember to well, but I want to say a Captain with a command squad.

Elite

Techmarine with servo harness and four servitors.

Five man terminator squad- one assault cannon, one flamer, srg with power sword.

Dreadnaught in drop pod, assault cannon, arm with flamer.

Troops

Tactical marines x10 - (? flamer and missle launcher?) powersword

Tactical marines x10 - (flamer and missle launcher ?)powerfist

Scout squad x5 Snipers, one missle launcher.

Scout squad x10 knifes and bolters, one with heavy bolter.

Fast attack

Assault squad x5 - flamer, plasma pistol, powerfist.

We were at 1750, I had picked out my usual units, and added upgrades to my heavy Fexen, and happened to come to 1749.

We rolled for mission, and got three objectives. He placed two, I placed one. He placed one in the middle, I placed one on what was my right, closer to the edge, and he placed the last one middle distance on what was my left. Then we rolled for deployment, and got dawn of war. I had not played Dawn of War in a long time, I started Fifth edition with this codex playing dawn of war, and now I had the chance to finish this codex with dawn of war.

He chose to go first, and set up a Tactical squad on the middle objecive behind a wall. Then he placed his snipers in the building to my left, Shown in the picture. He decided to keep his HQ back, and was finished with initial deployment.



I proceeded to place my hive tyrant behind the tower, and exactly 18" away from the middle tactical squad. I then placed a Genestealer squad to the right in terrain, to hassle what ever he brought on in the next turn. The second genestealer squad I placed south of the far left objective. My plan was to keep them there for the first three turns, then run them up to take the objective. On my subsequent turns I brought my broodlord and retinue up past them and towards the objective (and his hq). The broodlord was intercepted by the assault marines, but handled them with minimal casualties.



On The Kid's first turn he brought most of his stuff on, techmarine and servitors with heavy bolters to my right. His second tactical squad come on behind his first, his second scouts came on behind the sniper scouts, and the Hq unit came on to the far left to protect the objective. He held the assault marines, terminators, and dreadnought in reserve. (I realize now looking back, that drop pod assault should have let him put his dread down first turn instead of second.) After seeing all three of my units had cover, in addition to night fight rules, he simply ran a few units and passed turn.

I then brought the rest of my army onto the board; broodlord to the far left to assault the left objective, devil fex and heavy fex running toward the snipers, Demi-god fex running down the middle in the wake of my Tyrant, elite boom fex supporting the right side, while gaunts and warriors take up cover on the right objective. With broodlord and warriors providing side synapse, my two screaming zoanthropes took up a position each on the flanks. The synapse zoanthrope trailed the Demi-god fex to take up the synapse position when my Tyrant dies.

Anyone who has played me may recognize this as my standard array, equal threat and support for the center and flanks.

I moved/ran my right hand genestealers to the edge of the terrain getting ready to assault the next turn. I moved my tyrant straight towards the tactical squad, since he hadn't moved them I was able to get a turn 1 assault (and why I enjoy Dawn of war). My hive tyrant preformed the best he possibly could. Bio-plasma hit and wounded, and he failed his save, followed by 4 more wounds in normal attacks. He was unable to wound on my toughness, and tried to run, but the tyrant catches them, and lost another marine to No retreat. Placing him in a prime position to stay locked in combat, but with only four marines left, a good chance of killing them on his turn. Pictured at top.



His turn started with dreadnought coming in to the right of my tyrant, and terminators scattering away from my tyrant and in front of my Demi-god Fex. He opened fire on my front genestealers, and I knew the servitor heavy bolters were going to cause me trouble. I had two stealers left by the end of the turn, 11" away from my tyrant and so didn't run. My plan was to ignore the dreadnought for a few turns until my elite boom fex could get to him, nothing really he could hassle. My Tyrant finished off the marines and consolidated towards the second squad.

On my turn I shot the snipers with the devil fex and heavy boom fex. I killed all but the rocket launcher and sergeant, which was fine by that point. I ran and fleeted the right hand genestealers up at the techmarine. The Tyrant and Demi-god Fex got into positions to assault and everything else just moved up towards their goals. The tyrant assaulted the second tactical squad and essentially the same thing as the first squad happened. The Demigod Fex assaulted the terminators, and the Genestealers assaulted the techmarine and servitors. With the terminators, the powersword didnt have the strength to hurt the Fex, then the initiative 2 Fex made all of his attacks back, and managed to kill two powerfist terminators. Of the two remaining only one attack did a wound.

I sacrificed the genestealers in order to kill the techmarine, with a rending hit. Though they then died to the servitors, the mind-lock was in effect for the game and made a good difference. The hidden powerfist managed to hurt my tyrant in the second tactical squad, and was the only model left after No retreat.

Third turn saw assault marines going after my broodlord, the scouts running for their lives, the dreadnought getting assaulted by my Tyrant and loosing weapons. By that point the game was going down hill for him, and he had to leave as it was getting late. The game ended after turn three, with Tyranids on one objective and the two middle ones unclaimed.

In Review, unless the list is heavy mech, The fourth edition codex is still a good book, and I will be sad to see it go. That being said, I am still looking forward to taking care of the tourny/cheese lists with full mech. This game also reminded me that Dawn of War is favored by my playing style when used correctly. With my Tyrant playing extremly well, and my Initiative 2 Fex which is designed to take down terminators killing four of five before the game ended, and only taking one wound, I felt that the list did very well, and I'm glad they got this last Hurrah!