Blog Wars Game Two: Relictors vs. 'Nids

The game – Annihilation/Dawn of War

By both of us getting tabled disastrously in our first game (on purpose…honest), the ‘Nids and Relictors got faced up against each for game two! This is great because we’ve never actually played against each other.

Siph: Seen Here

t6d: Seen Here

Anhilation – that’s good, my general tactic is to munch on my opponent. Dawn of War – awesome! Less chance of getting shot first turn! My tactics were simple; avoid the assault Terminator filled Land Raider, snipe with the Hive Guard and rush with everything else.

Siph gets first turn, so I decide to just play the Tervigon from the start and bring everything else in 2^nd turn (barring the outflanking Genestealers and Deep Striking Doom). The Tervigon hides behind a building.

Siph 1^st turn:

I decide to stay at arms length and get a few shots in to whittle the gaunts screen and brace myself for the 'Nid rush. Drop Pod assault into my own baseline so I can add the Sternguard firepower to the rest of the army.

t6d turn 1:

For the first game in eight, the Tervigon births about 8 gaunts and doesn’t poop out on the first turn (Just my luck-Siph). She then casts Catalyst (FNP) on itself and resumes hiding.

Siph 2^nd turn:

Ineffective shooting but move Redeemer up, need to close on his big bugs to swipe them. Take a few pot shots at Trygon and wound it with Attack Bike MM.

t6d 2^nd turn:

I forget to roll reserves.

The cavalry turn up en-force. Octomum spawns another 8-10 gaunts successfully and casts Catalyst on the Venomthrope & Tyranid Prime unit.

The Trygon Prime and Hormagaunts take the left flank ready to race forward. The unit of Hive Guards are completely hidden in cover near the middle of the board.

The gaunts form a large screen in front of the bulk of my army and everything pushes forward.

The Hive Guard take some pot shots at the Rhino on my left flank and wreck it straight away and somehow flips onto its side! The surviving passengers huddle into cover behind it. Everything else has run so there’s not much left for me to do.

The Hive Guard take some pot shots at the Rhino on my left flank and wreck it straight away and somehow flips onto its side! The surviving passengers huddle into cover behind it. Everything else has run so there’s not much left for me to do.

Siph 3^rd turn:

Can't really remember. My right flank troops in rhino have a pot shot at Trygon as does Missile Launcher troop in ruins and Attack Bike and Rifleman Dread. Wounding it again - I will get it. Assault Troops in flank attack his Horms and inflict good casualties.

t6d 3^rd turn:

I forget to roll for reserves again…

Hexadecamum spawns another 8-10 gaunts without pooping out! Catalyst goes onto the Venom/Prime brood again.

The Horms combat the Rhino survivors and start killing and the Trygon Prime tries to reach the nearby squad at convenient head height..but fails and is left in no mans land.

The large brood of gaunts advance up towards the marines in the middle of the board whilst the smaller broods of gaunts craftily stay closer to the advancing Land Raider. Everything else marches behind.

Shooting from the Hive Guards kill a few marines on one flank and shots from the main advance maybe kill one or two marines in the in the middle.

Siph 4^th turn:

Raider tank shocks the gaunts and they move – the Terminators shoot one of the smaller gaunt broods and then assault. Dangerous terrain from the Venomthropes, Counter Attack and Poison from the Tervigon mean the gaunts kill most of the Terminators…but not the chaplain I think. I think this is where Tigerius charged the Carnifex’s not realising how tough they are and died. I was silly to do this, might of the ancients or not.

I shot up the Trygon and kill it. The Horms lost in combat against Assault Troops and Tactical Marines and because the were out of synapse ran off. I overran them killing all of them. Freeing up the flank - until the Genestealers may arrive...

t6d 4^th turn:

I weep for he fallen Trygon and Horms but rejoice the super gaunts! I finally remember reserves and the Stealers enter the game by the wrecked Rhino to finish off after the Horms. Doom arrives in centre of Siph's lines but his 'Orbi' misses and inflicts a wound on his own Pod.

Triacontamum gives birth to another 8 gaunts and finally poops out…good going! Catalyst goes on the Venom/Prime brood again. She then tries to charge the empty Land Raider but comes up short.

On the left flank the Hive Gaurds kill the last of the marines out of combat and the Stealers almost finish off the marines (two slippery ones get away).

In the centre the Carnifex brood wipe out the Chaplain in a horrendous barrage of fire. Termi armour or not is not going to stand against 24 shots!

The last of the Terminators are taken out by the super gaunts in combat.

We are running out of time now – and I know I don’t have the time to table Siph and he has some armour still in the game. What worries me is the fact that I had more Kill Points to give up in the first place…this could be close.

Siph 5^th turn:

Redeemer flames a bit and shots a bit, Rifleman adds his weight but fail to take down the Tervigon. Troops next to Doom think, hell, kill it and charge, losing 2 through Leech.

t6d 5^th turn:

Doom kills off the Troops in CC with Leech. Catalyst goes back on the Venom/Prime brood.

The left flank is largely mine now, in the middle the Tervigon finally gets the charge on the Land Raider and wrecks it (getting hurt in the process).

The Carnifex twins shoot up some more marines from afar and the Doom almost wipes out a marine squad with Spirit Leech and Cataclysm.

We call the game at this point.

End score: ‘Nids 10KP’s and Relictors 8KP’s (VP’s were about 1100 to 700).

Siph summary:

Tried to keep them at arms length and shot them up bad. I had some poor shooting when I needed it most against big bugs but that said the big bubble of screening Gaunts was a pain. I used up lots of dakka on little bugs but failed to kill the big nasties with the KPs, except the Trygon - I loved shooting that up, and freeing that side of the board until infiltrating stealers chewed me up. I've never played 'Nids and loved every minute of it, Tigurius is a poor choice of IC for this battle but that is what I had. I need more dakka, the non-competetive build showed on this battle, I was seriously lacking long range fire. I don't mind closing on most foes with bolters and power armour however I don't like closing on 'Nids!

t6d summary:

A great game! And in hindsight it was deceptively close:

• If the Dread had shot up the Venom/Prime brood on the last turn, with that amount of firepower it would have killed them and yielded 2 KPs for the draw.

• Tigerius was unlucky not to activate his force weapons when charging the Carnifex’s – if he had, they would probably have both died.

Ulimately, the Tervigon was my star; birthing 38 gaunts and then boosting them enough to take on assault Terminators! I cant wait to play against Siph again soon...but get the feeling he might be gunning for me a bit more next time.