Thursday, October 13, 2011

Battle Report: Ugh, Everythings so Green (Salamanders vs. HFI) 1500 pts

Fabio, the Grey Knight player and I played a Fight Club Challenge practice. This was the first time in months that I was trying my hand at nids. He wanted to try his hand at a drop Salamanders list. So here we go:

Hive Fleet Iax:
Flyrant with double Talons,  Toxic Miasma, and Hive commander 290

Deathleaper 140

Zoants (3) in a pod 220

Warriors (5) each with bonesword, lashwhip, and poison in a pod 290

Warriors (5) each with bonesword, lashwhip, and poison in a pod 290

Gaunts (19) each with a devourer in a pod 230


Fabios "Flaming" Salamanders

Unlike his Grey Knights who are modeled to be on fire his Salamander list is pretty gay.

Vulcan (yup tons of twin linking)

Ironclad Dreadnaught with 2 CC weps and 2 heavy flamers in a pod with a locator beacon
Ironclad Dreadnaught with 2 CC weps and 2 heavy flamers in a pod with a locator beacon
Ironclad Dreadnaught with 2 CC weps and 2 heavy flamers in a pod with a locator beacon
Tactical Squad, equiped with a multimelta, a melta and fitted in a pod with a locator beacon
Tactical Squad, equiped with a multimelta, a melta and fitted in a pod with a locator beacon
Tactical Squad, equiped with a multimelta, a melta and fitted in a pod with a locator beacon

Landspeeder with a multimelta and heavy flamer
Landspeeder with a multimelta and heavy flamer
Landspeeder with a multimelta and heavy flamer

Board: Really not important. It doesn't come into play very much.
Mission: Objectives (3). 1 in the middle. 1 at the top center north and one on the west side of the board.
Deployment: Spearhead.

Fabio wins the roll to go first. He combat squads and places all three tacticals in his quarter with Vulcan. Everything else is deepstriking.

I don't place anything of course

Fabio's Turn 1:
Reserves: 3 empty pods land in the center. 1 takes dangerous and looses a stormbolter.
Movement: Moves all infantry towards center
Shooting: Runs with everything.

Iax Turn 1: Nothing

Fabio's Turn 2:
Reserves: Everything comes in! His plan to keep his dread back to squish me failed! He makes a very large wall with all 6 pods in the center of the board.
Movement: more infantry standing on all the objectives.
Shooting: runs with everything

Iax Turn 2:
Reserves: Everything but 1 warrior squad comes in. Hurray for me! I land on the south side of the board and use his wall as an advantage.
Movement: None really.
Shooting: Take a wep from a pod with my zoants. 1 squad gets paroxized from the Tyrant. and the Gaunts kill off a 5 man tactical.

Fabio's Turn 3:
Movement: Moves his dreads around his wall. the speeders jump over it.
Shooting: He flames 7 gaunts. puts 2 wounds on the tyrant, kills 1 zoants and wounds another, and puts 2 wounds on the lictor. Plus he had some flamers hit some pods. Also he killed all but 1 warrior and the last 1 only had 1 wound left.
Assault: none

Iax Turn 3:
Reserves: Warriors come in next to the other warriors pod. Tyrant regens 1 wound
Movement: the one warrior moves into position to assault a squad Tyrant does the same. Lictor goes off the board with his ability and everything else shuffles around.
Shooting: Tyrant gets a wound back. Gaunts kill all but 1 guy from a tactical. Zoants suck.
Assault: Tyrant kills a squad. The warrior kills 3 guys, Vulcan is attached but couldn't reach the warrior. Fabio wiffs the attack. I win catch him, he fails his saves. Now it is just a 1 wound Vulcan and a 1 wound warrior.

Fabio's Turn 4:
Movement:Dread circle around the Tyrant, everything else shuffles some.
Shooting: Puts 3 wounds on the Tyrant (really wants to kill em). Kills 6 gaunts. Kills 1 Zoant. Kills 1 and 1/2 warriors
Assault: Sends 2 dreads into the Tyrant. Tyrant gets a pen on each and kills them before they attack. WOW!

Iax Turn 4:
Reserves: Tyrant Regens 1. Lictor comes back to try again at a speeder.
Movement: Warriors move towards another combat squad. Tyrant goes for the last dread. Everything else shuffles
Shooting: Lictor whiffs, but a pod immobilizes a speeder. Gaunts kill 1 guy and the unit of 1 breaks.
Assault: Tyrant kills the dread. Warriors kill the squad.

Fabio's Turn 5:
Movement: Speeders shuffle. the last combat squad stays. The 1 man unit regroups and moves up to an objective.
Shooting: Kills almost all the gaunts. Kills the zoant. Gaunts run off of the table. Kills all but 1 warrior. and kills the other 1 man warrior squad.
Assault: None

At this point he is winning by 1.

Iax Turn 5:
Reserves: Tyrant gets a wound back. He is at 3.
Movement: Warrior goes for an objective. Tyrant for the last 5 man tactical.
Shooting: Immobilize another speeder.
Assault: Lictor kills a pod. Tyrant kills the combat squad.

Tied, we get a turn 6!

Fabio's Turn 6:
Movement: Not much.
Shooting:Tyrant goes down to 1 wound. Warrior dies. Lictor lives.
Assault: None

Iax Turn 6:
Reserves: Tyrant regens 1.
Movement: Pull the lictor off. Tyrant moves for the last guy.
Shooting: Tyrant misses the last guy.
Assault: None

He is up by 1 and we get a turn 7! Intense!

Fabio's Turn 7:
Movement: None really
Shooting: All the pods and the speeder put 1 wound on the Tyrant. And a pod dies.
Assault: None

Iax Turn 7:
Reserves: Lictor stands up next to the single guy. Tyrant regens 1.
Movement: Tyrant stands next to the single guy.
Shooting: Lictor Blasts the guy Ending the game.

Normally a Salamanders list like this his would terrify me. Melta, warriors, and a Tyrant don't mix, but the Tyrant gained wounds back like nobodies business! And the Flamers mixed with the gaunts are never good. Zoants sucked for once. The Lictor did his job of objective denial. And overall some really lucky dice rolls for me. Just goes to show you that any unit with only 1 wound left can be devastating. The warriors killed 15 marines and Vulcan. The tyrant killed 10 marines and 3 dreads. If the game had ended at 6 fabio could have won with just 1 guy! I love the Feeling of a close battle especially with nids!

Has been awhile, but it's back! Summer Update.

School got a bit tough for awhile and I had to take a step back from the hobby. Over the summer I didn't get the chance to play in any of the BIG tournys I wanted to. No OFCC, No Ard Boyz, No SpoCon, nothing but twiddling my thumbs. I started working on my Daemon Hunters, but they for now can be shelved any time. I was held back from finishing my nids, not only from time, but from lack of parts. Damn GW and their back orders! However some parts cam in and I will start to work more on the Hive Fleet from Iax. Anyway, with the Club Challenge Tourney coming up I just might play with my nids once more!

I have two options:
Either my old 1500. 1 Flyrant, 10 Ymgarls, 20 Genestealers with a Broodlord and toxin sacs, and another 20 Genestealers kitted out the same and maybe some lictors or something (honestly after the stealers I don't care what the rest of the list is). The idea of this list is of course swarm. This is similar to the list I used to win tourneys with.

OR (big or)


My new list with the best amount of what I can get finished. It looks something like this:

1 Flyrant (+1 reserves)
3 Zoants in a Pod
1 Deathleaper Lictor
5 Ymgarls
9 Warriors in a pod (each warrior has bonesword, lashwhip, Stalons, and poison)
20 Gaunts in a pod (Each gaunt has a devourer)

The idea behind this list is to show up with as much as possible on turn 2. Really I only care about anything other than the lictor. He can get everything to auto come in turn 3 anyway. But this is a shut down list. Paroxism on the tyant is always awesome. Zoants pick a tank to kill. Gaunts pick an infantry unit and either kill it or cripple it. Ymgarls are just fun (really they're shock troops). And the Flyrant can be annoying. Warriors eat death stars as they should. I tie tons of games with this. Really it is ridiculous how many times I tie.


I guess I will use my old list as a back-up if I can't get my new list up and running in time. But I learned from last time that mix and matching is never a good idea. Well stay Tuned for the next update.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Update: Break Almost Over!

       School has been tough lately and it has been difficult to do anything 40k related. The 40k group here in Cheney doesn't meet every week (every other in fact). And I refuse to play half of them. The last real playing I was able to do was the Fight Club Challenge about a month ago, where i got my butt kicked and kinda had some fun thanks to a good friend and an earthquake.
     This post is to remind everyone, an myself, about the passion of the planet Iax. For me, the bugs alone are enough, but I feel that the story line has become bigger and more encompassing of ideals than I originally thought. Bruisemere and Oroton are two of my favorite characters. I will soon introduce my newest character an Ork! With the three-day weekend coming I will be sure to get this next section done. And in about 3 weeks I will have more time to commit to the Hive, but until then I will have to settle with just a post here and there.
    I played a game today. It was supposed to be a mock Ard' Boyz. I'm not against the concept, but I normally don't play in it. My opponent really wanted to know what it was like (he works weekends and doesn't really get to play tournies). I'm not going to have a full battle report because frankly I don't remember half the game, I am a bit tired, plus 2500 is hard to remember for his list and my thrown together list. But some Highlights:
Game was Table quarters and both of my Genestealers squads came on the wrong side, but that didn't matter.
      He had plenty of Heavy bolters, but alas my Warrior unit with lashwhips and boneswords made back their points tripple (bout 1300). And the 2 Hive Tyrants made back their 275 pt cost and more, they lived the whole game. In the end I had lost maybe 600 pts? And he had 3 troop transports and a 5 man squad when he quit. I hate winning like that, but he wanted Ard!
    So this is the problem I am having with my nids. I either table people, like I used to, or I get tabled. It feels like rock paper scissors. I have to get my army ready for august and OFCC, but how can I plan when there is way too much inconsistency? I will just have to figure this out.
     Anyway, thank you all who read this blog, I appreciate your support!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Survival of the fittest: Tournament Report

The fleet had met with a mix of little and great success this last weekend. Unlike my normal battle reports I am only go over some brief highlights and some interesting things that happened in each game. So here we go!

The Tournament: Located at Gamer's Haven in Postfalls, ID, the event was unique to say the least. Three rounds 2500 pts. You make a 2500 pt list and split it into 1500, 500, and 500. Whatever died in the previous game stayed dead.

Here's a rough outline of my list:
2 Flyrants both with STalons

2 lictors

3 Zoants in a pod

20 Genestealers with Broodlord and poison

20 Genestealers with Broodlord and poison

18 Genestealers with poison

20 Gaunts

6 Warriors with deathspitters

1 Dakka Fex in a Pod



My first game was against an ork player with almost 0 shooting. I almost tabled him with 1 unit. But a bad last close combat left me with 1 genestealer unit at full and 1 random stealer.

Second game was against an ork who had nothing but shooting. He however had lost only about 100 pts  in his first game, and I lost around 800. So I had to quit to keep my forces alive or go into third round with nothing. But something cool to note. If a unit held an objective in the first game then they got to shoot a str 10 AP 1 large blast. My single genestealer shot and killed a killacan and 12 boys, go BS 0!

Third was against the ork players brother who had nids. This was the coolest game. He had everything in nids that I don't take. He had the typical tervigon, venomthropes, hive guard, and CC warriors! It was close the whole game, I went from unit to unit killing everything in CC and he would get to shoot at me with 2 dakkafexes, that's 24 shots! In the end I won primary which was killpoints and we tied secondary which was table quarters.


Overall Had tons of fun. I learned tons of the potential for nids, but I don't think I will follow those tactics anytime soon. Also, a good tactic is to try and board wipe someone in the firs round, but only if you can handle being that cheesy. Anyway, I will be adding very soon a new supplement to my Iaxian Nids!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Revenge: The Pride of the Fallen Returns

      Iax with it's lush greenery and endless jungles also has another unique feature; two orbiting moons, Cryx and Jamx. Both of these moons are on opposite sides of the planet are about the same size and spin at the exact same speed. But another fact remains about the moons; one has Tyranids living on it. After the battle and war for the Ultramarines planet Maccrage it was believed that all of Hive Fleet Kraken was destroyed, but they didn't account for the cunningness of their insect foes. Several nearby systems had spores land and mutate into several Tyranid organisms namely on the system Iax.
      With biomass running scarce for the score of Tyranids still left in space they resorted to a new kind of adaptability. They took over ships. They could not repair or modify the ships due to a lack of materials, but the psychic masters Zoantropes were able to tap into the minds of a few crew members and made out how to operate the ships. They would take the scraps and create a safe haven on the moon Cryx. Several bases scattered the planet and underground biomass pools were created. When their was enough resources, they wound send up several small shuttles filled with new workers and droves of biomass up to their moon base. Using the radar on the ships they could monitor Iax' surface in detail and send troops when needed. But with the threat so focussed on the planet Imperial forces didn't think to look to the planet's moons.
      Inquisitor Maltrix had, in his last moments, done something right. He had set on the distress beacon of his ship and had ejected himself into an escape pod. Mortally wounded he had jettisoned himself into deep space. He died in the matter of hours, but had made a single video explaining what the circumstances had been on the planet. The transmission was picked up by several vessels all in several different systems in every direction, but the escape pod, somehow, was found by the Daemon Hunters Ship Extermino a week laterThey attempted to salvage what little video was left. In his weakened state Maltrix had warned of daemons on Iax and provided a blurry scrambled image with the claim that they were not out numbered, but out thought. Inquisitor Oroton, the commander of the Extermino, pledged to avenge his fallen brothers and swore to show a true testament of their power and cunning over daemons without the need to destroy the planet. They immediately set out for Iax. 
      Several weeks had passed since the Imperial Guard had sought out the prevailing insects that inhabited the great jungles of Iax. Colonel Bruismere had taken it upon himself to rid the planet of such a foe, but not at the cost of his massive training grounds. His fight would take decades at this rate, but he was determined to get the job done; believing now that it was not just showing up the inquisition, but in fact, the fighting was becoming personal. But little did he know that eyes that were on him. The dread red eye of the Inquisition would be watching his every move.                  
     Meanwhile, several space marine chapters heard the distress call and prepared for battle. The Gaurdsmen of the 38th, 117th, and 12th Iaxian Regiments would continue their fight. Instead of sending graduates to other commands Colonel Bruismere had created a permanent set of forces for the planet. He still gained the new recruits from all over the sector and trained them, but was not sending them out to their other promised duties. He had also neglected to notify the garrisoned Ultramarines and his superiors of his actions stating, "We are currently changing the difficulty of training. These men are becoming soft bellied! I need time to break them of these bad habits that peace has caused". When he was asked about the distress beacon, he stated, "This is a training exercise. And it will continue until they complete their training; which may take weeks". In fact, he was right, the beacon would stop after only 6 weeks, but not by Imperial forces.
.          .           .

     Inquisitor Oroton arrived only two days after the distress beacon had stopped. They believed the ship had managed to fall out of orbit and was destroyed. Within those weeks of travel Oroton learned of the purpose the planet held and of the inhabitants. Knowing of the limited record of Colonel Bruismere, he decided that the Colonel had limited capacity to lead a fight against or even be aware of such a menace. However, he would attempt to consult Bruismere for any information that he might have. As for the garrisoned Ultramarines, he would have servitors investigate all their records for unusual activity or instances of fighting.
    The meeting with Colonel Bruismere met with no success. Bruismere acted dumb to the situation and Oroton believed the stupidity to be true, but not about the situation. With both men's pride at stake and the face of their forces to uphold, they each parted in an angry huff. Moments later the forces of the Daemon Hunters would call to arms and set out to destroy their perceived daemons sending out forces that were all but too similar to Maltrix. Bruismere, now knowing the enemy, would call back his troops from areas that might have any Inquisitorial presence; not out of courtesy, but hope that they would be destroyed by their limited knowledge of their enemy.
     Foot by muddy foot the Grey Knights would ignite the jungles and clear away any brush. Several days past and there were no signs of any Chaos activity. A entire square mile had been cut and cleared. Inquisitor Oroton was getting impatient. He ordered his troops to abandon clearing the jungle to search for their foe; he believed in the resiliency of his terminators, power armored Grey Knights, his new Dread Knight, and his personal transport in which he was well comfortable in. He would create a wall of his terminators to lead the way, while he would be far behind. At this point, they only needed to search until nightfall.
     A dense fog sifted its way through the trees and brush. Every few moments each squads incinerator would ignite to provide limited sight. Every thirty seconds each Justicar would roll call his squad, then would report back to Oroton who was over a half mile behind.
     "shh...1st squad reporting...shh"
     "shh...2nd squad reporting...shh"
     "shh...3rd...shh...reporti...shh..."
     "Come in third squad, Sir, we seem to have some comm link issues. Should we stop the march until the problem is fixed?"
     Inquisitor Oroton, "Yawn. Have the men continue their march; the problem is probably just a bad piece of head gear. Relay back to the men to continue while we head to camp for rest. Yawn"
     "Yes, Sir!"
     An hour past after Oroton left his forces. The comm links were getting worse and so was the fog. Each squad reported in, except for the Dread Knight Insuln; who was watching the rear. The party came to a halt and there was no sign of the metal behemoth. They began to encircle and call roll again, but the squad of purifiers didn't answer, nor did the unit of power armored Grey Knights. There stand twenty terminators shoulder to shoulder waiting for a sign from the enemy or comrades. For a second the fog began to clear when large crashes all around were heard and figures started to appear. Storm bolters rang out in droves lighting up the jungle in flashes of bullets and discarding shells. Rawrs and deep moans filled the silence in between each volley of bolter shot.
     The terminator's downfall would not be the enemy in front, but the enemy already amongst. In the center of the circle that they created the ground collapsed and large tentacles grab several terminators tossing them like pebbles into the distance and the rest would begin to sink into the pit. Quick thinking by the Brother-Captain, he threw a melta bomb into the center of the pit. The explosion instantly killed the underground creature and the men would attempt to climb out, but were already being swarmed by large creatures each with a tentacle of their own and what seemed to be swords. Each of the ten remaining Terminators fought in hand-to-hand a one-on-one duel with a creature. Clinking and clanging and yells of fervor and valor filled the dark jungle. The fight lasted ten minutes when the last creature fell and the three remaining terminators stepped out of the pit. Their fight was far from over.
     A massive buzzing noise was moving closer and in front of them landed a massive creature five times bigger than any human with large wings and four gruesome looking sets of scythes. He let out screech and charged the remaining Grey Knight Terminators. Two fell instantly, a scythe to each ones head and the other two scythes going for the Brother-Captain. He ducked and swung cutting off a left arm of the monster. Three scythes came barreling into the Brother-Captain, the first missed, he blocked the second and the third managed to cut into his right arm. He desperately swung and managed to cut off a right arm to the creature. The two remaining scythes, like scissors, came down on the terminators legs, he missed the block and both legs were severed. The Brother-Captain fell, but was determined to do as much damage as he could before he died. When out of nowhere a chimera propelled from the jungle and a melta shot bore itself into the face of the monster incinerating the entire head and body. A single man stepped out smoking a cigar and holding a smoking melta gun. "Looks like we came in the nick of time. Well we better get you back to throw some of them metal gadgets on you."
     The Brother-Captain began to loose conscience, "Who are you?"
     "Me? I'm Lieutenant Peterson of the remaining 32nd Iaxian Regiment"

Battle Report: Grey Knights vs. Iax "Lest You Be Purged"

Alright, I got another game again against the new Daemon Hunters. And I tried for the first time my version of a "death star" unit. So here we go! 1500pts!

Hive Fleet Iax:

HQ
Hive Tyrant, Paroxysm, Leech essence
Regen, Hive Commander, Wings, 2x Scything Talons 275

Elites:
Zoants (3)
Meiotic Spore (220)

Zoants (3) 
Meiotic Spore (220)

Troops
Warriors (9) with Lash whips bone swords and poison
Meiotic Spore (280)

Gaunts (20) normal guysMeiotic Spore (280)

Gaunts (20) normal guys Meiotic Spore (280)


Fabio's "Flaming" Grey Knights

I say "flaming" because he is modeling them as if they were fiery ethereal, very very cool! I will have pictures of them on here (without his permission) when he gets them done. But his list was shooting for a "well balanced" approach, which I appreciate.

HQ:
Morkai with retinue of termies

Inquisitor with big retinue of CC goodness, some daemon hosts, deathcult etc. In a Chimera

Elites:
Group of 5 Purifiers

Troops:
5 Grey Knights, psycannon

A unit of Termies (kinda complex wound allocation)

Heavy:
Dread Knight w/ a flame ability 


Board: 1 building in the north-west corner (doesn't come into play) and a few scattered cliff plateaus. 

Deployment: Dawn o' War                          Mission: Kill! 

I give Fabio the first turn. He deploys nothing and declares Markai to deepstrike (comes in first turn, doesn't scatter ever! and the troops to deepstrike (they however need reserves and can scatter). 

Turn 1: Fabio's GK 

Movement: He has the North-side and smack in the middle-north is a cliff, he shoves everything on the west side of that and deepstrikes Morkai and his group on that side as well.
Shooting:none
Assault:none




Turn 1: Hive Fleet Iax

After looking at my list you should all know, RESERVES! yay!

Movement: none
Shooting: none
Assault: none


Turn 2: Fabio's GK

All his reserves come in both troops are center-east and the rest of his stuff moves a bit south on the west side.

Movement: Stated above. But to note: His dread knight was due center-west with the termies about 24" away from any long table edge.
Shooting: none.
Assault: none.


Turn 2: Hive Fleet Iax

Reserves: HT, 1 Zoant Squad, and the Warriors. The HT goes center-west to take on his Grey knight troops. The Warriors drop behind his command chimera in the center-North. And the zoants are just west of the warriors behind his purifiers.

Movement: none.
Shooting: HT peroxides the GK troops. One pod kills a purifier, the other does nothing. Warriors stand and look pretty, in other words, I forgot I could run them. Zoants shoot and get two hits, two wounds, they go to ground and...two die.
Assault: none.


Turn 3: Fabio's GK
Movement: His two troops center-east move in towards the HT. Everything else moves in on the warriors and zoants. He even got out his inquisitor and retinue to test their mettle!
Shooting: The two troops shoot and take off 3 wounds on the tyrant. A zoant takes a wound from his HQ termies and a warrior is killed between the dread knight, the chimera, and the HQ inquisitor.
Assault: Dread Knight goes into the warriors and the Inquisitor HQ and retinue have to combi-assault the warriors and the pod. I put three wounds on the dred knight and kill almost the entire unit, 1 warrior goes down and so does the pod. Dread knight fails his fearless saves and the HQ unit passes its stubborn. His grey Knights go to assault my HT, 2 die and do nothing to him.


Turn 3: Hive Fleet Iax

Reserves: Everything else comes in. I place both units of guants on each side of his troop termies. and the other zoants south-east from the center of the board.
Movement: Move the zoants back so they can't be assaulted.
Shooting: Both gaunts pour all 40 shots into the termies and alas...nothing, but some special character who can stand back up. The south zoants I think killed a termie and so does the other squad with the other termies.
Assault: Warriors kill rest of unit and nothing back to them. The HT hits with all and kills the remaining GK troop unit. 

Kill points: Iax 4, GK 1


Turn 4: Fabio's GK
Movement: Termies move towards my warriors and the purifiers stand up to take on the zoants. The chimera moves east and so does the troop termies.
Shooting: Chimera kills the HT, damn! A warrior dies to the other termies.
Assault: HQ termies rush in and everyone but the character dies before they swing. His character however kills 4 warriors, damn thunder hammers! The purifiers kill a zoant and the zoants kill 1, I make my fearless saves. His troop termies kill off almost all of a gaunt squad and they fail all their fearless saves, more damn!


Turn 4: Hive Fleet Iax
Movement: I move the east zoants forward, I didn't want him to combi-assault a pod. and the other gaunts move down a bit (kinda forced). 
Shooting: The east zoants blow up the chimera, the gaunts do nothing. 
Assault: Warriors kill his character. And the zoants kill the last purifier. Go head butting!

Kill points: Iax 7, GK 3


Turn 5: Fabio's GK

To note: he had the special character who has a chance to stand up every turn, and has failed twice!

Movement: Termie unit moves in for the zoants.
Shooting: none.
Assault: Tries to combi assault zoants and a pod and fails, but annihilates the zoants.


Turn 5: Hive Fleet Iax

zoants move in a bit to get a shot in as well.
Shooting: Gaunts do nothing (that's 80 by now and only the 1 wound character). Zoants knock down the unit to 3.
Assault: none.

We roll and get a turn 6.

Turn 6: Fabio's GK

The character stands back up!

Movement: The termie unit moves to assault both pods in the south-east.
Shooting: none.
Assault: The character charges the warriors and promptly dies. The termies kill the pod. I use the movement of the character to propel the warriors.


Turn 6: Hive Fleet Iax

At this point it's 7-5 and it looks like it might be a tie if I don't do something!
Movement: Warriors move in for the termies as does the gaunts. zoants start moving away.
Shooting: none.
Assault: Warriors Kill the unit.

And game ends. Hive Fleet Iax declared winner!

Thoughts: We agreed his list lacked cohesion and my list grew in power. Warriors were amazing, they themselves getting 6 out of the 9 Kill points. Gaunts did their job, fodder. And the zoants did what I want them to do every game, kill all the armor on the board (in this case just the chimera). Biggest thing I learned though is to run with my warriors next time!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

From Superstition to Reality

      Word spread about the death of Inquisitor Maltrix and his detachment of Daemon Hunters to Colonel Bruismere of the 32nd Iaxian Regiment. The Colonel was pleased to find an opportunity to show up the Inquisition, though he would never admit that out loud. Iax, though it had a large Imperial Guard population, was a training planet for harsh jungles and urban warfare. Other than the training grounds most of it was Ultramarine farming for the population of Space marines living on nearby Maccrage. There was limited to none natural human population living on the planet.
      Many of the new recruits came from other planets, and all but few of the command had never seen combat other than a drunken brawl here and there. Those who had seen combat saw very little. Even Colonel Bruismere, who was the most battle hearty of them, had only been in one war which comprised itself of four battles and was against rebels on a separate planet. Throughout his career Bruismere had hoped to see a full scale war. When he was deployed to Iax to train regiments of Guardsmen he thought his career to be over, forever to sit at a desk and wipe the noses of young men as they learned the true meaning of physical labor. He had known of the rumors that ran through the ranks of the creatures that lived deep in the jungle. He even thought it was just a trick to scare some of the younger soldiers; he dismissed any notion that the rumors could be true. Even deaths and disappearances were proclaimed "accident durring a training exercise" or "awall slackers". He believed that until three squads of ten guardsmen were sent to train in the jungle overnight and were found three weeks later in pieces. The images disturbed Bruismere, and he was convinced that something lurking was possible. However, when reports were found on a lone assassin deployed to observe the creatures in action Colonel Bruismere's reaction was exactly, "Just Tyranids! By the Emperor we have ourselves some real training! Boys, let's go get us some bugs!".
     A week after Iquisitor Maltrix forces were found, Colonel Bruismere deployed the newest graduates into the jungle to find the main infestation of the Tyranids. Equipment was limited, Chimeras were only allowed for the few officers and those that were the top of their class and the rest had to walk. Two vendettas were sent along just to get an aerial view. Slowly, they raked the jungle meter by muddy meter until they reached Training Ground A314-V, a small city that had been made for urban training.
      As the vendettas reached the fake city a large winged creature was seen in the city center devouring the remains of an animal, they quickly identified it as a Hive Tyrant and relayed the "easy kill" back to the rest of the detachment. As they were positioning themselves a large crash came, "What was that?! Their must be more, come in Vend 2, come in...Vend 2, come it....arrggg". Pods had crashed into each and the bugs that were in each emerged unscathed in front of the masses of new Guardsmen.
     Shots rang as several infantrymen fell. The command chimera called to the other chimeras, but there was no answer. Quickly thinking Lieutenant Peterson called to charge the beasts, a bold and rash decision. The guardsmen didn't think about personal safety they thought of the pleasure of combat. They rushed the Hive Tyrant, the pods, and the other beasts. Surprising they overwhelmed the bugs. Like a swarm of piranha they swung each attack like a small bite taking chunk by chunk out of the alien creatures. Even the beams of energy were not enough to blast holes in the moral of the guardsmen. The infested pods were quickly taken. They were winning and they had found large mounds like that of an ant hill inside the buildings as they fought. They were successful in their mission. But they would never get the chance to relay their findings to Colonel Bruismere.
      Out of the jungle edge hundreds of swarming smaller beasts came and took the infantry by surprise. Shooting thousands of green ooze, they quickly killed all of the Guardsmen on foot. Only the command Chimera harboring Lt. Peterson and a couple of others got away into the jungle and have yet to be heard from. Several days later Colonel Bruismere would call for all the forces the planet could muster claiming that a war that would rival Maccrage was soon to begin.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Imperial Guard Bravery "For the....O crap there's more!" Battle Report

Another Test game for my nids. Jason P. decided to step up and face my nid shooty list with his outflanking in masses Guard. I changed my list to make it legal, but found that I liked the changes. So here we go!


1500

Lists:
Hive fleet Iax

HQ
Hive Tyrant, Paroxysm, Leech essence
Regen, Hive Commander, Wings, 2x Scything Talons 275

Elites:
Zoants (3)
Meiotic Spore (220)

Zoants (3)
Meiotic Spore (220)

Troops
Warriors (6) with Death Spitters
Meiotic Spore (280)

Warriors (6) with Death Spitters
Meiotic Spore (280)

Warriors (5) with Death Spitters
Meiotic Spore (245)

Jason's Imperial Guard
I will admit I don't know guard so here's the best I could do with his list:

HQ:
Al Raheim with a squad inside a chimera

Elites:
Veteran Squad with Melta and Plasma Guns in a Chimera

Veteran Squad with Melta and Plasma Guns in a Chimera

Troops:
A large unit infantry with 5 guys with Power weps, and a commissar

Company Command with Straken

Fast:
2X Vendetta, the 3 las cans


The Board: Tons of buildings scattered everywhere, expect for the North and South center.

Mission: Messed up version of Capture and control. You place 3 objectives in the others deployment and the objectives you place are the only ones that matter. We each placed 1 in the center of both deployments and 1 on each side 12" away.
Deployment: Pitched battle

He won the roll to go first. I of course declared everything deep striking. He declared everything outflanking.

Turn 1 for both of us was nothing. The whole game went very quickly.


Turn 2 Jason's Guard

Because of his astropath and Al Raheim he was able to get everyone on the board and on the sides he wanted. The west side was the large infantry unit into a building, Company command, and 1 vendetta all going for his objectives in the south. The east side had the other vendetta going for protection of his objectives and the 2 veteran squads for denial of my objectives in the north. All his vehicles popped smoke.

Movement: See above
Shooting: None
Assault: None

Turn 2: Hive Fleet Iax

I got a great reserves roll! Both Zoant squads, and all 3 warrior squads, HT even came in
Movement: Each vendetta had a zoant squad within 6". 1 warrior squad was on the South center objective. And the other two warrior squads surrounded the northern most veteran squad.

Shooting: West side vendetta blew up, the other was shaken (by the pod not the zoants, they did nothing). South warriors Shot and killed only 3 guys in the large unit. The other warriors destroyed the veteran chimera and killed all but about 4 vets.
Assault: none

Turn 3: Jason's Guard

Movement: Large unit marched towards their objectives the last vendetta flew and hid, the vets in the living chimera started going for my east side zoants
Shooting: His command company chimeria shot at my south warriors, gave them a wound.
Assault: none

Turn 3: Hive Fleet Iax

Movement: Barely any, just enough to guarantee shots on everything I was already targeting. HT moved to assault the large unit.
Shooting: 1 zoants kill the vendetta, kill off the remaining 4 vets from the turn before. The other zoants just shake the company command chimera, and the south warriors take out a couple more infantry. The HT paroxized the large unit of guard
Assault: HT assaults the large unit, kills 3. Out of his 20 power wep attacks HT took 1. The rest of the guard forced 3 saves and I fail all of them! He moved the unit closer to the zoants.

Turn 4: Jason's Guard

Movement: Some more slow moving from the large unit. And the vet chimera kept going for the zoants but still way out of range.
Shooting: Not enough to really comment. besides 1 pod dieing. and 1 zoant
Assault: The big unit went for the squad of zoants and the squad of warriors in the center. Killed both units and I barely did anything to the big unit.

Turn 4: Hive Fleet Iax

Movement: The north-center warriors spread out to take 2 objectives and the North-east warriors moved to shoot the vet chimera.
Shooting: Pod and north-center killed a couple of guardsmen, Last zoants kill the east chimera. and the north-east warriors kill the guardsmen that were in it.
Assault: None

Turn 5: Jason's Guard

Movement: The large unit ignored the South center pod and moved in on the other zoant pod.
Shooting: None
Assault: The big unit assaulted my zoants pod. and tried catapulting itself to the last objective.

Turn 5: Hive Fleet Iax

Movement: Not really anything
Shooting: none, not in range
Assault: none

We rolled to go on to turn 6 and Jason rolled a 2. I had 3, we measured and Jason was about 4 inches out.

Victory: Hive Fleet Iax, barely

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

The Shadow meets the Shroud

     Iax with it's massive amounts of green fauna and infestation of a new generation of Tyranids was proving too difficult with the garrison of Ultramarines and the Imperial Guard in training. Though the Ultramarines had success in destroying most of the Hive Fleet Kraken many of the infestation had spread through many nearby systems. The Ultramarines began having difficulties destroying the infestation of these other systems. The Adeptus Astartes believed these new generation of Tyranids to be a unique enemy, continually adapting and becoming ever more viscous and destructive in nature, but the ranks of new recruits of the Imperial Guard created rumors of superstition believing that these beings were something supernatural. These rumors spread through their ranks and were even adopted by some of the younger higher ranking officers. These rumors were eventually received by the forces of the Inquisition.
     Inquisitor Maltrix, one of the newest of the higher ranking inquisitors jumped at the opportunity to prove his mettle to his superiors. On his personal ship the Dommina, Inquisitor Maltrix took a detachment of Grey Knights to destroy the possible Daemons hiding in the great jungles of Iax. Maltrix took information from the Imperial Guard for the sightings of these strange creatures. A group of heavy infantry was sent, the idea being not to overcome the jungle by stealth, but by resiliency. An assassin was sent to observe any actions and report on the identification of the creature, also believed that the comotion of the heavy infantry would detract attention from a single silent stalker. Maltrix also believed that he should try out the new technology a single Dred Knight was deployed with a techmarine to flush out large areas of dense jungle.
      The Grey Knights found a worthy location to set up a command hub, and would spread out destroying fauna bit by bit until the perceived daemons were found. On the third night and very little jungle destroyed, large amounts of rustling started on the newly created treeline. The squad of Grey Knights on duty called immediately for reinforcements. Two squads of terminators were deployed via teleport along side the new Dred Knight. The assassin was called in from a distance to witness the events that might unfold.
     A massive green creature with large wings and what seem to be massive talons appeared before the Grey Knights and disappeared into the foliage quickly reappearing in from of the Dred Knight, it's massive scythes ripping into the metal hulk. Screeching billowed out of the monster as talon after talon drove into the Dred Knight. Struggling with the weight of the beast the Drek Knight lifted up and with a swift left hook the metal fist drove itself deeply into the skull of its enemy. The assassin quickly identified the winged best as a variant Hive Tyrant and relayed the little information to the other forces. Silence followed the fall of the heavy being, then a whistling. The terminators and Dred Knight were too occupied with the Tyrant and the jungle to look to the skies. It seemed that the Ultramarines were being deployed to assist the Grey Knights, but they had not been called and Inquisitor Maltrix was unaware that the Ultramarines knew of this exact location. But they were all wrong.
     As the drop pods got closer the assassin noticed a difference to their strcture, but he was too late to relay the observation. They landed within meters of the Grey Knight hub and as they opened a fog flowed from inside the pods. Tentacles stretched out as thousands of shards streamed out crashing into the squad. Justicar Fathos was the only one to take cover in time to see the horrifying monsters that stepped out of the pods. Each creature was armed with talons similar to that of the Tyrant and each seemed to be holding some form of gun. Thrown into a rage Fathos charged the creatures and was quickly struck down before he could lay a single blow. The terminators with their hulking bodies lumbered as quickly as possible back to their hub. As they rushed more pods dropped all around them. This time the designated librarian sensed psychic beings. Floating creatures came forth and began emanating light into the terminators. The librarian struggled to keep the beams back while the thousands of shards began driving into the terminators.
    One by one the terminators began to fall they as they rushed to attack a group of the mysterious floating creatures. Easily the creatures fragile bodies folded under the weight of the terminators halberds. The assassin amazed at the power took his rifle and let out a single shot taking a chunk out of the floating creatures large head and it began to sink and fall. The other two turned and as if nothing had happened the squad of three turned and combined their fire at the now exposed assassin. And in that shot he vaporized.
     The terminators were gaining ground on the shard spitters, while the Dred Knight rushed at the floating creatures. Fathos began being attacked by tentacles emanating from the pod itself! The pod ripped out the right arm that had been hanging there from the earlier fight with the Tyrant while the mighty left fist of the Dred smashed down into the side wall killing the creature that infested the pod. The terminators were assaulted in a ambush of talons and shards. Outnumbered the Grey Knight Terminators one by one stuck blows into the head of each monster. Talons ripped into several members, but none fell as all of the creatures fell. In the distance a large white beam incinerated the Dred Knight, the librarian too preoccupied to shield the new machine. The terminators turned to take care of the floating creatures when brother Asmon pointed upward and yelled, "Get ready brothers, the night is far from over!". Hundreds of pods began to fall and hundreds of beasts came out. The librarian called the ship for a teleport out and their was no answer at first, then a blood curdling scream came over their intercoms, "Their in the ship! We thought it was our brother Ultramarines! We thought they were here to help...We thought....ugggghhh!".

Confused Grey Knights "I'm not a daemon! I'm a Tyranid!" Battle Report

So Hive Fleet Iax met and faced the full fury of the new version of Daemon Hunters. The Daemon Hunters also met with my full fury of my new nids! So I will go into detail about the game without any storyline and then the version of story that I will come with after. So here it goes:

1500

Lists:
Hive fleet Iax

HQ
Hive Tyrant, Paroxism, Leech essence
Regen, Hive Commander, Wings, 2x Scything Talons 275

Elites:
Zoants (3)
Meiotic Spore with cluster spines (220)

Zoants (3)
Meiotic Spore with cluster spines (220)

Troops
Warriors (6) with Death Spitters
Meiotic Spore with Cluster Spines (290)

Warriors (6) with Death Spitters
Meiotic Spore with Cluster Spines (290)

Warriors (6) with Death Spitters
Meiotic Spore with Cluster Spines (290)

Yeah did the math and found out I had been cheating. With a 1585 list, but their was plenty of issues on boths sides so I didn't mind.

Fabio's Grey Knights (as best as I could remember)
Tons of AP 4 weps and an entire army of instant death, makes me wish i was back in 4th ed.

HQ:
Grand master (some special character with 4 wounds, eternal warrior, 5 attacks, thunder hammer, and about as expensive as my HT)

Librarian

Elites:
Vindicare assasin


Troops:
Termies in a Big squad with some special character Justicar

Grey Knights with 2 psycannons

Termies in a smaller squad

Heavy:
Dred Knight with a super psycannon

Tech marine


The Table:
Our table was set up by Tweed who cam along to help us learn the codex. He set it up with a building in the deep part of each quarter and several large walls scattered throughout and a large "muddy" area in the south west quarter. Fabio and I declared the walls impassable and the mud area as just difficult, all the buildings were ruins.

The mission: Capture and Control with Dawn O' War

Placing the objectives: He placed his objective in the north-west building. And I placed mine in the south-west behind all the mud and walls.

The roll: I won the roll and allowed Fabio to go first. I really wanted to screw up how he would set up.

Deployment: He deployed the small squad of termies in the center-west section the board. He also deployed the grey knights squad on his objective inside the building.I kept fighting the idea of whether or not I should put the Tyrant on or not, mainly because he can usually eat termies pretty well. I got convinced that putting him on would kill him faster. So I declared everyone deep-striking.

Pre-game: His character gives special abilities to any of his units that arn't tanks, He rolls a D3 and that many units that that chosen ability. He gets a 3 and makes everything that wasn't scoring now scoring. Yup the dred knight and the vindicare.

Turn 1: Fabio's Grey Knights
He deepstrikes the big unit of termies (first turn and they don't scatter! holy crap).
Movement: Moves the tech marine on into coherency of the grey knights squad. And the small unit of termies go south.
Shooting: Did some runs.
Assaults: None

Turn 1: Hive Fleet Iax
Don't get reserves
Movement: None
Shooting: None
Assaults: None
I realized here that I might cut off a turn for my opponent for shooting and assaults, he gets to move into better position to recieve my attack.

Turn 2: Fabio's Grey knights
He rolls his resverves and everything else comes in. He places his Dred Knight in the South East section of the board because that's where his locator beacon is. and the vinicare outflanked on the furthest south-west corner moving towards my objective.
Movement: The termies spead out (I think he was tyring to mess up my deep-strikes while moving towards my objective) The vindicare, now a scoring unit, was planning on sitting on my objective.

Turn 2: Hive Fleet Iax
With Hive Commander I was able to get most of my units on the board. I got the HT, and all 3 warrior squads, the Zoants just have to wait. I figured I would try to take out the guys sitting on his objective and make it my own stronghold in 1 turn. I place the HT next to the squad in the North-west corner and he mishaps into some impassable terrain, I roll on the mishap chart and Fabio places the tyrant in the south-west corner next to his dred knight. Each of my 3 warrior pods come down in a circle next to his unit in the north-west corner.

Movement: None
Shooting: The pods do their super blasty fun and kill about 3 guys. I pump my 54 str 5 shots into the unit and reduce the grek knight squad down to just the justicar, I even killed the tech marine! My HT attempts to paroxism his dred Knight, but the hood on the board stopped me.
Assaults: None

Turn 3: Fabio's Grey Knights
Everything is on.

Movement: He starts moving all the termies back towards his objective, a very slow process, but he makes it about half way from his starting point. The dred Knight moves towards my HT. The justicar moves towards my warriors standing on the south side of the north-west building.
Shooting: Vindicare doesn't have line of sight. The termies run, and the single justicar shoots his storm bolter which does nothing. The dred knight is too close for his large blast.
Assaults: The justicar rushes into my warriors and epic fails his attacks, I kill him. The HT hits and wounds with all his attacks against the dred knight, the dred makes all but 1 of his invuln saves, ugh. The dred knight hits with 1 and wounds with it and go figure it's a force wep, the HT dies to a model that has 100 pts less.

Turn 3: Hive Fleet Iax
Though my tyrant is dead I get both zoant squads come in. I place them really close on both sides of marching termies. I was hoping that he would stop for an easy kill and save me an extra turn.

Movement: I moved all my warriors into the now free north-west building.
Shooting: My zoant spores shot the termies and didn't do anything. 2 of my warrior spores shot and killed 1 termie in the smaller squad. I poured all my warrirors into the smaller squad and killed almost all of them but 1. My zoants failed to do anything with the hood on the board, yup shut all but 1 shot down and that shot missed.
Assaults: None

Turn 4: Fabio's Grey Knights

Movement: All his termies march closer to my warriors. And the dred knight starts the long walk back to the west side of the board.
Shooing: The dred knight shoots his super psycannon and does 1 wound to 1 warrior. The vindie puts 1 wound on a zoant.
Assaults: The small squad of termies assaults my warriors to the north-east of the north west building.What's left of the small squad kills 1 guy and then proceeds to die. He tried to set up an assault with his big termie unit to get both zoants, but he couldn't get them to remain choherency so he settled for the north squad. They force wep, and thunder hammer the crap out of the zoants.

Turn 4: Hive Fleet Iax

Movement: I move the zoants towards my own objective, and try to reposition the warriors in a way to take his next assault.
Shooting: The zoants shoot and manage to kill the vinicare, my objective is now free and I own the other. Everything else pours itself into the big squad of termies and reduces it down to about 5 guys, 2 characters, 2 thunder hammers, and 1 regular guy.
Assaulting: Yup, none.

Turn 5: Fabio's Grey knights

Movement: The dred knight moves towards my remaining zoants and the termies move towards the southern most warriors.
Shooting: The dred knight is too close again to shoot. The termies shoot and don't do antyhing to the warriors.
Assaults: Not having enought room between the impassable and my pod the dred knight assaults my pod. He kills it but the pod causes a wound, go whips! The termies assault and kill the warrior squad, they did nothing back.

Turn 5: Hive Fleet Iax

Movment: I move the Zoants towards my objective, this confuses Fabio, but he sees later my plan. The warriors move as best around the objective as possible.
Shooting: The zoants shoot and kill the dred knight with their lance weps, they were now outside the hood range! The remaining warriors and 3 pods pour evything into the unit of termies. All I manage to do is to put some wounds on the characters and kill his banner bearer ( I found out that his banner gives 1 attack and makes all force weps automattically go off, for only 25 pts! cheap).
Assaults: Fabio told me how these termies were an HQ retinue and right now the worst I could do was tie. So I got greedy and assaulted the termies with both warrior squads not realizing what they had done to my other units. He passed some sort of psychic power that made me take difficult and dangerous. I didn't stop to think not to assault, but I did anyway. The dangerous killed 1 full warrior in 1 squad and I don't have frags so he went first with everything. He killed all but 1 in one squad and 2 in the other. I didn't do anything.

Fabio rolls and we get a turn 6

Turn 6: Fabio's Grey Knights

Movement: None
Shooting: None
Assaults: His character makes another termie (another ability I didn't know about, what a stupid character for only 270). He kills one squad and fails with the other that only has 1 guy left.

Turn 6: Hive Fleet Hive Iax

Movement: A attempt to get into range with my zoants.
Shooting: Zoants get shut down by the hood. And the pods fail to do anything
Assaults: None

We roll and there is no turn 7!

Game: Tie

Good things: Learn tons about the new grey knights codex. My shooting while it doesn't seem effective does a good amount of dmg and zoants in any game rock!

Bad things: Though my troops have 3 wounds a piece they are considerably fragile. An entire army of insta-killy is the absolute worst for me to go against. Also, I should consider having the tyrant on the board for two turns, but try to keep him safe. He is still a scary threat that people move their units differently for. And last but not least. If someone does a psychic power that affects my assault dramatically, I can choose not to assault in, guess that is a good and bad thing.

Stay tuned for my short fluff version of the battle!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Start of a Blog! The Start of a Hive!

Well, I liked the idea of a 40k blog so I made one! I plan on posting up my fluff, battle reports, pictures of my army and anything else dealing with my bugs. For anyone that reads any of my posts I want to thank you for taking your time and any comments are appreciated. Mostly this blog is dedicated to my new main army Tyranids. For those who didn't know Tyranids was my first army, but after years of playing and difficulties with my other armies I went back to nids with the intent of having them operate completely different than I have in the past, not to mention the fun that it will entail building, painting, and playing. The birth of a new fleet of destruction has begun!