40K Battle Report: Tyranid Swarm vs. Space Marines 1000 Points

First I wanted to let everyone know that we had a slight medical emergency in our family that has kept me away for a bit. But things are good now, everyone is healthy, and I am back to the blog!

Well, the final game of my local gaming store's mini-tournament was held tonight, which pitted myself and the swarm versus David and his Lysander lead Imperial Fists. We played a Seize Ground Mission with four objective and a Spearhead deployment. David did exactly what I thought he would do and bottled up his entire army into one corner, holding one objective, and was going to make me run across the board to get him. I had a rather different strategy in mind however. His army was Lysander with a 10 man TAC squad, Las-Plas-Fist, two other evidential ten man TAC squads, a Devastator squad with four missile launchers, and a landspeader. I ran my stock list. I deployed so that I was hold an objective at the beginning of the game and was within striking distance of the other two rather quickly. My strategy for this mission was to not play his game and run across the board to be murdered. I would sit and hold three objectives for as long as I could, spitting out gaunts to double up on the number of units holding them.

I stole the first turn and in retrospect I probably should have left him go first. It would have been better for me in the end to have had the last turn. The Tervigon pooped like a champ all game, never rolling doubles and running me fresh out of 120 gaunts. Turns 1 - 3 basically involved me ducking into and out of cover and charging forward slowly and carefully with a 15 man unit of gargoyles and the 30 man squad of hormagaunts. These were distractions to draw fire away from the mass of gaunts holding three objectives. David moved the landspeader around to try and keep it out of range of the Hive Guard but basically sat there for three turns taking pot shots with missiles and lascannons. doing little to no damage. As it came to his turn 4 it became blatantly obvious to him that I was not falling into his trap and he would have to move out to at least contest objective if he hope to not lose. So he moved the two TAC squads out to try to move towards the nearest objective as Lysander and his TAC squad were being eating alive by the hormagaunts.

Turn 5 should have been the end. I held three objectives and contested the fourth. His TAC marines were taking shots at my gaunts but not doing enough damage to matter. He also managed to take out my gargoyles, which means that they did their job and drew fire. A HUGE disappointment for me were the Hive Guard this game, as they pummeled the landspeeder turn after turn and the best I could do was keep it from shooting. I needed it dead because I knew what he planed to do with it. Lysander died turn 5 and there were four remaining marines in his squad. If the game ended on turn 5, I win holding three and contesting one. It does not.

Turn 6 is about the same story. His four marines on his objective do enough wounds to finally break and kill the homagaunts, and were now holding an objective for him. His marines moved forward some more, failed charges and were sitting out in the open for me to kill. He moves the landsppeder flat out to contest an objective. So, if the game ended on turn 6, I hold 2, he holds 1 with one contested. I still win. The game goes to turn 7. I hate when this happenes.

In the end I charged one of his two TAC squads with a 30 man gaunt squad, killing 8, but could not do what I wanted to do which was wipe the squad. His final ten man squad, now 6 due to some shooting on my part, charge my tervigon produced gaunt squad holding an objective and he contested now two objectives, held one, with me holding the last. A TIE, A DARN TIE!

I will take my hat off to David, he took a situation that I thought was hopeless and managed to pull out a draw. Good play on his part. His tie, however, took him out of contention for placing, as he finished 3-0-2. Mike won his game, finishing 4-0-1, and another player I was not aware, another Mike, also finished 4-0-1. So in the end there were three players at the end with a 4-0-1 record. It went to Battle points, needing a 500 point different to pull ahead. Mike finished third with something like 3500 VP. Mike and I were each over 4000 with less then 200 points in difference in VPs. The owner gave us the option for a playoff game next week, but Mike was going to be out of country the next few weeks. We decided to call it a tie and split 1st place.

So, in the end, a free $25 gift card for the 'ol EvilEd209 which I turned into some paint and a Broodlord for the 'Nids. It was lots of fun and I am very happy with my performance. I do wish I had rolled better to blow up that darn landspeeded as the game would have been mine and sole possession of 1st would have been nice. I am not sure what comes next, a full tournament I would think, but I'll keep you all posted.

Thanks guys!