Rune Preist: Jaws otWW, LL
Rune Preist: Jaws otWW, Murderous Hurricane
Rune Preist: Jaws otWW, something else.
4x 7 man Grey Hunters with Wolf Standard, and attached Preist and Terminators, 2 in Drop Pods (the preists are on all but one of the Drop Pod squads, which wont come in turn 1)
4 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armor with power Axes
5 Grey Hunters with flamer in LasPlas back
3x Long Fangs with missiles
3 Rhinos on various things.
5 scouts
Mission: The Relic, pitched battle, straight from the rulebook. The Relic was a ball from Blood Bowl. Our mission sheets instructed us to fight over the Relicus of the Adeptus Athleticus. Despite it being preseason, there really is nothing like summer football!
Warlord traits: I re roll reserves, his is useless.
Psy Powers:
Flyrant: Life Leech, Endurance,
Tyrant: Enfeeble, Smite
Tevigon1: Endurance, Iron Arm, Life Leech.
Tervigon2: Endurance, Smite, Warp Speed.
*Note: I wont mention psychic powers. Throughout the game, he passes every single "Wolf Runes of Wolfiness Wolfing" 4+ roll, all game.
He wins and takes turn 1.
Deployment SW: The Razor and rhinos make a line right up front, only the razorback has a squad inside. Theres a central terrain peice with the Football, and two Jaws squads, one on each flank. The last Jaws squad will DP in first turn. 3 Long Fang squads sit on terrain peices in the far back. yay.
Deployment Tyranids: I spread out my Mcs, to spread the shadow, but I'll probably lose one. Hormagaunts on each flank, Hive Guard, Venoms and gants fill the center of my army. The Flyrant is in reserves, because of my Warlord trait.
Turn 1 Wolves: Everything advances or Pods in. He hits his scatter, and deploys 12.1" away from my Tervigon. His rhinos rush up towards the relic. Jaws goes off, missiles fly. Both tervigons fail tests and drop ( I fail every single Deny the witch roll this turn). Missiles spatter the Venomthropes after snake eyes on cover. Frag missiles kill 7 hormagaunts in cover on my left, Jaws takes down a Hive Guard, and the recently Deep Struck squad rapid fires 6 gants away.
Turn 1 Tyranids: Ow. Ow. Ow. That hurt. Hive Guard survivors blow up the razorback. Hormagaunts assault the recently disembarked Drop Podders. 17 Gaunts swing, I cause 19 wounds. He pops his Wolfy wolf standard, and takes 19 saves on the Wolf Guard. With re rollable ones, he passes all. (I mightve snuck a wound onto one Hunter and killed him) He swings back. 6 Grey Hunters, 18 attacks after counter attack, and he inflicts 15 wounds. Holy Shit. The 17 gaunts are scattered and completely whiped after the preist and wolf guard swing. My other Hive Guard shoot the disembarked 5 man squad, kill one and then assault. It's a lock, but Im contesting the relic. The DakkaTyrant guns down the front Wolf Guard in one of the Jaws Squads.
Lets take a moment of silence here: My casualties over the first game turn
2 Tervigons
24 Hormagaunts
6 gaunts
a Hive Guard
2 venomthropes
Lets total this shall we?
810 points. After one turn, Im down 810 points, and I'm really pissed off. I've killed two Grey Hunters, a Wolf Guard and one Razorback.
Space Wolves turn 2: Missiles fly, my Tyrant laughs them off, as well as Jaws. His Drop Pod comes in and kills a handful of gants. His squad that Podded last turn runs up to assault the Hive Guard, but the combat continues to be a push. His wolf priest had seperated, but jaws did nothing. His two jaws squad are moving slowly towards the relic thanks to terrain.
Tyranid turn 2: My left flank collapses inwards. The Hive Tyrant dakkas the recently deepstruck squad, as do the gants. He loses the Terminator and is downed to 5 models. Hormaganuts come busting through terrain, and after fleet get a 6, 5, and a 5 for charge. They smash though and kill the 4 man Grey Hunter squad. Hive Guard not locked kill the seperated preist.
Space Wolves turn 3: His two rhinos both move but immobilise themselves, the third is on my far left and out of the game essentially. He still got one of the rhinos close to the 5 man squad first, they embark. Jaws squads close in, and missiles bounce of the Shellrant. His scouts outflank on the far right, and are way too far to have an effect. In assault his Wolf Guard goes down, as does the last Hive Guard. He's down to three models.
Tyranids turn 3: I wrap the immobilised rhino with gants and kill it, he is forced to emergency disembark, theyre out of the game for a while now. The Dakkafex didnt do much besides kill a few guys and wound the preist in a Jaws squad. In assault, the Hormagaunts finish off the Hunters and consolidate onto the Relic, I wrap it so he cant claim it next turn. My Flyrant finally comes on, and nails the Jaws squad the dakkafex shot, killing three including the Wolf banner. I hate those things! That squad is down to a wounded preist, terminators, and two guys strung out way back, they'll have to get back into coherency.
Space Wolves turn 4: This may be the last turn, and he realizes he can't het the relic. All three Long Fang squads shoot the Flyrant. Between 12 missiles, 6 hit somehow and tear the beast down. Damn! His mostly unhurt Jaws squad finally crosses the terrain and rapid fires into the Hormagaunts, killing a few and knocking them off the Relic. He runs his terminator towards the relic to try and block the survivors but only gets 3". His wounded preist charges the Hormagaunts, I murder him and consolidate.
Tyranids turn 4: I move one Hormagaunt up onto the relic and tell him the game is over. We have 6 minutes left, and he presses for another turn, so I tell him that if he wants another turn, then I'll have to finish out this one, by moving the rest of the unit, running, and shooting and assaulting him with a Hive Tyrant. He realises that there wont be time if I do that, and accepts that it's over.
Victory... Tyranids? 3-1 (Relic vs. First Blood)
Wow. I actually won. After the first turn, we both assumed the game was over. I think he let up a little bit, but I kept on playing balls-out until the end. Starting turn 2, I just swamped the Relic, trying to do anything to keep him from picking it up. I even assaulted with Hive Guard! In the end, killing the Wolf Banners is huge if you can shoot them out. Between Look out sir and rolling every wound one at a time for mixed saves, my opponent had very slow turns thanks to those Terminators, which actually might have helped me. If there was a turn 5, I think I would have still claimed the relic. The Hormagaunts would run away, Id shoot and assault, probably kill one of the Jaws squads and maybe the other, even if he killed the Hormagaunts I had two (albeit small) gant squads nearby to jump on it. This was a nailbiter, and probably the biggest comeback I've made in a 40k game!
Final Tournament: The other Nids player lost to GK, who took 1st. I took second place, and Tyranids took 3rd from the other player. That was utterly draining as an RTT, but I have a few ideas that I'll post soon about improving my army list.
Way to go and keep your eyes on the prize - well played sir, well played.
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