On a table even longer ago...this time against Charlie

1500 point Tyranids (Will) Vs Chaos Deamons w/Chaos Marine allies (Charlie) Mission: The Emperor’s Will (home base objectives)

Set up: Hammer and Anvil

So Charlie came over a few weeks ago for a game of sixth to hone his list for the GW tournament would fare against my nids. I don’t have Charlie’s army list to hand but it was something like:

Lord of change

Deamon prince

3x6 squads of horrors

3x3 flamers

5 marines with rhino

Predator with TL las cannon

Flying demon dragon

Soul grinder

My list was:

Tyranid Prime

Tervigon

3 x30 gaunts

3 hive guard

Trygon

Trygon prime

Charlie set up his objective in the Mechanicus building and I place mine behing the Chaos alter. I won the roll to go first and set up in my standard ‘everything as far forward as possible’ tactical gambit. Charlie deployed his demon prince out in the open in a blatant show of what he thought about my armies shooting ability and the rhino and pred out of sight behind a building.

My tervigon pumped out 8 gaunts and iron armed himself to T8, there were other powers but beyond iron army I don’t care. My forces surged forward while my normal trygon surged under the ground towards Charlie's forces, hopefully to arrive next turn. My hive guard opened up on the demon prince and managed to sneak past two wounds.

Charlie had not got the half of his army he wanted and the soul grinder came down with some horrors and flamers and took down some gaunts. He went for it with the demon prince moving to charge the prime’s unit of gaunts and zoomed his rhino up to use the dirge casters to stop the gaunts shooting on the prince’s way in. The demon prince challenged the prime and I declined to dance, partly tactical partly as I hate the challenge rules. I lost the combat and 5 or so gaunts but being fearless is good now.

My second turn and the tervigon boosted itself to T9, pumped out 11 gaunts and got ready for some demon prince crushing. The trygon didn’t arrive and his prime buddy surged towards the rhino to block of the exits. The other gaunt units went to work on the newly emerged demons shooting them and then assaulting.  In Assault the prince wiffed his attacks and the tervigon mashed him into the ground. The trygon prime tore the rhino apart in a firey inferno that took down some gaunts but the marines inside were trapped and never got to see action on the board. The gaunts took down a number of demons in combats but the two horror units fought on.

Before

After

Charlie’s ability to fight back was hampered by neither the lord of change or the demon dragon arriving. Some more flamers and a unit of horrors arrive and clipped off some gaunts but not as fast as the tervigon was producing them.

My turn three was spent mopping up the demons on the board and moving forward to secure Charlie's objective. My trygon arrived behind the predator but failed to do anything with shooting.

Charlie's luck was still not in as his demon dragon didn’t turn up again and his lord of change misshaped and I got to place him in charge range of both of my trygons. The soul grinder continued to chip away at the gaunt numbers.

My turn four the hive guard took out the pred and I charged the trygons into the lord of change. There was a tense moment as one of them took a wound from the psychic weapon but to my relief I just needed to pass a leadership test. I passed the test and the trygons tore him apart I in a flurry of feathers.

From this part a large amount of my army milled around Charlie's objectivewhile the tervigon turned back with the hive guard and three small units of gaunts to face the soul grinder menacing my own objective from its bunker. The demon flyer eventually came on and managed to vector strike the T9 tervigon’s last two wounds. With the tervigon’s demise the sould grinder cut through the remainder of the guants in short order.

Final score of 6-1.

Final thoughts: Charlie was unlucky and my Tervigon was amazing pumping out over 40 gaunts and holding the army together. We discussed his list and I felt that it was tempting to take the demon dragon flyer but that the marines didn’t really do anything in his force. We agreed it would be best to go back to his all demon list with two lords of change. Really enjoyable game as ever with Charlie and I look forward to playing his new list.