Battle Report : Space Marines Vs. Tyranids


Space Marines Vs Tyranids 1500 points Pitched Battle/ Annihilation from paul mehaffey on Vimeo.


Last weekend a few more of our Planetary Empires players straggled in from the snowy wastes of South Jersey. We were slammed with about 20 inches of snow and are scheduled to get more tonight. I'm sure glad I'm on my week off work!

This battle report features my brother Jonathan's in the middle of being stripped and repainted Tyranids. He had just finished building his Mawlock and gargoyles and was eager to get them on the tabletop. He ended up stealing a few of my models this game since most of his army is in tubs of Simple Green at home, but his list looked something like this.

Hive Tyrant - scything talons, strangle thorn cannon, paroxysm, leech essence, hive commander
Zoanthrope x3
Termagants x16
Outflanking Genestealers x6 - scything talons
Outflanking Genestealers x6 - scything talons
Outflanking Genestealers x6 - scything talons
Gargoyles x10 - adrenal glands
Gargoyles x10 - adrenal glands
Mawlock - started in reserve
Carnifex x2 - twin-linked devourers x2

I was running a pretty typical Space Marine list with a lot of anti swarm firepower.
Librarian - Avenger, Gate of infinity
Tactical squad - Power Fist, Plasma Gun, Missile launcher, Rhino
Tactical squad - Power Fist, Plasma Gun, Missile launcher, Rhino
Tactical Squad - Power Sword, Flamer, Missile launcher, Razorback
Landspeeder - Assault Cannon, Heavy Bolter
Dreadnought - Assault Cannon, Missile Launcher
Vindicator
Whirlwind
Land Raider Crusader - Multi Melta

The game was pretty one sided. He set up first along the majority of his deployment zone like he usually does. I find most of the inexperienced players in our group do the same thing, and it usually leads to their downfall. Being his first game with bugs in some time, he also ended up having synapse issues that could have been mitigated with a little more planning upfront. After the game, we talked about some changes that he could make to his list such as using a Parasite of Mortrex with one big blob of gargoyles and a Trygon prime or a few warriors in some Mycetic Spores to get a synapse bubble across the table quickly. He has a lot of tyranid models sitting around, and I think at the moment he is overwhelmed with the amount of choices he has with the new codex. If anyone has any tips or list suggestions, let him know in the comments. He really wants to win a game one of these days.

6 comments:

  1. Grrr...I wanna play you now...not fair
    lol...if you or any of your friends ever come through the Amarillo, TX area tell me a while before hand and I would love to play :)

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  2. I go on a work trip to College Station around the end of September for industrial fire fighter training. I cant get too far from there because we have about 15 guys and three vehicles between us, but there is a small game store within walking distance.

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  3. lol I would love to...that is a long drive though...I'll see about it depending on how classes are here :) college and all that stuff, as well as our local tournaments. you guys are welcome for 'Ard Boyz as well our game store is supposed to be in the White Dwarf this year. you guys are welcome any weekend :) it's always fun to play new people

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  4. Why did the Nid player bring his Mawloc on the side to pop the razorback? He should have dropped it on your bunched up Marine + Rhinos in the middle. Would have tied up some of your rapid fire in assault as well.

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  5. Excellent observation! It was his first time using it, so the only think I can think of is that he was overly intimidated by my right flank. Among our group there are a lot of newer players who make mistakes like this often. We try to help them improve their game when we can. TQ (from www.tqstudios.com) has been using a head cam to web cast our game days and has played games where he told his opponent how to beat him and they still don't listen... Almost every game I play against new guys I find my self reminding them to play the mission not just the game.

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  6. Some ramblings from me as I too have been going through the new Nid pitfalls as well over at the PBL.

    Great suggestion on the Mawloc. The fact that you could ignore him, was a bad move on Jonathan's part. Killing the tanks is cool but putting figures out of position is one of the advantages of that figure.

    What kind of Synapse problems was he having? From looking at the video he looked ok except for the weakened squad of Gargs on your right side. Otherwise he looked ok, but if there is something specific could help to know that.

    I like that he went heavy outflank with the Genestealers, but I feel like if you are going to spend the points on Hive Commander for the Tyrant, then he should get a Lictor as well to get 3+ on the Lictor, and then 2+ on everything else due to the pheromne trail ability. Having all or next to all of the genestealers out on Turn 2 would have made this a different game as you would have been surrounded.

    As a take away for you Paul, next time I would snipe that Hive Tyrant early. Without him, the reserve roll would be harder, and his Gaunts would have been stuck until he got the Zoanthropes in position. Without Tyrant Guard, you can get the Hive Tyrant down very quickly with concentrated heavy weapons fire, and since he's so big it's almost impossible for him to be more than half covered for a cover save.

    That's all I can think of right now, but looking forward to more battle reports!

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