Afanc You And Good Night: Tyranids vs Thousand Sons

Mind the Acid Bite!
It's All-Skype Fight Night!

SwoffBoot is less than a month away, so I, Stylus, had better get in some practice with my Thousand Sons. To war, my dusty minions!

And I, Kraken, should get some practice in with the Tempestus Militarum! But I'm taking the Tyranids instead, because I got me some termagants the other day, and I want to see how they do. So an old school swarm for me!

Forces

The mission is one from Chapter Approved - Kill Confirmed. In addition to any other tactical objectives, you gain a point for every unit destroyed and cannot discard objectives that involve destroying the enemy.

Hive Fleet Afanc Battalion Detachment - 6 CPs, Kraken Traits

• HQ 1 - Hive Tyrant with Wings, adrenal glands, toxin sacs, monstrous rending claws, Heavy Venom Cannon.
• Warlord Traits - Adaptive Biology, Relic - Miasma Cannon,
  Psychic powers - Smite and Onslaught
• HQ 2 - Neurothrope with psychic powers Smite and Psychic Scream
• Troops 1 - 20 Genestealers, 4 with acid maws
• Troops 2 - 30 Termagants, 18 with Fleshborers, 12 with Devourers
• Troops 3 - 4 Warriors, all with boneswords and adrenal glands, 3 deathspitters and 1 venom cannon
• Heavy - Tyrannofex with Acid Spray, stinger salvo, adrenal glands

Adaptive Biology in Action

Heading up what would prove to be an evening of dubious rules knowledge, I went into this having sent Stylus a version of my list that I misremembered. So although the psychic powers up there are technically accurate, I laboured under the misapprehension that the Tyrant took Catalyst and the Neurothrope took Onslaught. As luck would have it, I don't think I actually managed to cast Catalyst more than once, and then in a turn where it saved precisely nothing, so hopefully no harm done.

I don't think it proved vital, although I would say that one of the key buffing effects of putting Catalyst on a big unit is that you don't even want to bother shooting at them in the first place.

Otherwise, it's a list to put bodies on the table. A good mix of massed shooting from the Warriors and Termagants, heavy firepower from the Tyrannofex and Tyrant, speed and close combat power from the Genestealers and the Tyrant again, and reliable psychic smite chaff from the Neurothrope and the all-purpose Tyrant. 

Extra speed from the Kraken keyword, and my plan is to duck and dive with the mobility strategems as much as possible, backing with shooty ones when needed. Plenty of threat, so hopefully Stylus won't be able to take out all he needs to before something runs over him, and I should easily get board control with speed and numbers compared to a small elite force. 

So all in all, I feel cocky! Which inevitably means a tabling is coming...

The Impossible Dream - Thousand Sons warband

• HQ 1 - Daemon Prince with wings, 2 x Malefic talons, Warp bolter
  Warlord Trait: Flames of Spite
  Psychic powers: Diabolic Strength
• HQ 2 - Exalted Sorcerer
  Force stave, Inferno bolt pistol, Frag & Krak Grenades
  Relic: Eye of Tzeentch
  Psychic powers: Warptime, Weaver of Fates
• Elite 1 - 5 x Scarab Occult Terminators, Force Stave, 4 x Inferno Combi-Bolter, 4 x Power Sword, 1 x Soulreaper Cannon, 1 x Hellfyre Missile Rack
• Troops 1 - 6 x Rubric Marines, Force Stave, Inferno bolt pistol, 2 x Inferno boltguns, 3 x Warpflamers
• Troops 2 - 10 x Chaos Cultists
  Shotgun, Autoguns, Heavy Stubber
• Troops 3 - 10 x Chaos Cultists
  Brutal Assault Weapon, Autopistols, Heavy Stubber
• Flyer - Heldrake
  Baleflamer, Heldrake claws

Battleforged Battalion Detachment - 6CPs, Points: 998

I my defence ... I dressed for Tempestus Militarum. I thought a couple of tough monsters, a wee firebase and a few objective grabbers who could give elite human adversaries a bit of threat in shooting or close combat.

Instead I find myself facing armoured beasts who will deflect anything I can throw at them and numberless hordes of gribblies. Where's a Gatling Cannon when you need one? Or even a new codex?

This list also gave a chance to try out the flyers: namely my freshly-painted Daemon Prince (a post on him is pending) and my Heldrake, who is fighting for his place in the 1,000 SwoffBoot lists. To that end, most of what else I had got scaled down, to the point where I only get six of my precious Rubric Marines (albeit with warpflamers) and two whole units of expendable cultists.

Deployment and Terrain

This is the part where my lovely new battlemat is shown up by my paltry terrain. I'll see if I can do better next time, but for now, this arid river bed is home to five discrete hamets, most of them medieval.

I get to choose deployment and pick somewhere I can huddle behind. One unit of Cultists take a ruin next to an objective, hoping they'll be totally overlooked. The Terminators go into the teleportarium and everyone else hides in the big ruin in the corner.

I don't know how I'm going to weather the assaults, or what I have to hit back with. My best hope is to use the combat flyers to pick off the big beasts, and keep the squishy infantry out of reach.

Kraken painstakingly deploys his troops so there is no 9" gap behind his lines for me to deep-strike into - although this proves redundant and he won't be staying there long.

I lose the roll-off, and Stylus kindly offers me the first turn, on the grounds that he wants to watch me jog slowly towards his guns. Hee hee hee, is what I say to that. 

Turn 1 - Tyranids

Three objectives nets me No Mercy (kill someone), plus two 'hold multiple objective' cards, one to grab three at once and the other for all six. Six is pushing it, probably (although not totally impossible), but three is effortless. 

Straight out the gate, all units advance except the Warriors, who don't fancy the look of the big open space ahead. As they tuck into the nearby ruins, the Genestealers advance diagonally, sweeping out of cover and towards the middle ruins. The Tyrannofex grabs the middle of the board, backed by the Neurothrope, and the Termagants scuttle forwards, but leave a rearguard behind on the nearby objective. 

Then the Flyrant drops in on the forward end of the line, tempting fate perhaps but also in shooting and psyching range of the lone cult squad.

The psychics roar into action, buffing the Termagants with Onslaught and the Genestealers with Catalyst, before smiting a couple of cultists to oblivion. Alas, the Neurothrope gets a bit carried away and also smites three wounds off itself. Never mind, it'll hopefully grow back later. 

Stylus is still sounding confident at this point. This stops when combined Venom cannon fire kills his Daemon Prince, after which his right flank collapses in a long-range acid spray. For good measure, the Warriors take out a reasonable number of the Cultists ahead of them, too, as Deathspitter range is pretty good.

Now, this is all well and good, but we realised after the battle that it's also totally illegal. Daemon Princes still look like big boss monsters on the field, but we both forgot that as Characters, you can't actually pick them off like this. Any more, that is, after all the Chaos players had a mass cry in the early days of the rules because of this exact problem. 

Erk - awkward, as it shifts the game balance fairly heavily in my favour! I've scored 7 VPs in my first turn (Kill the Warlord, First Blood, No Mercy, Supremacy for 2 plus two bonus ones for killing units).

Well, that was a big clanger to drop. The poor Daemon Prince just looked so damn impressive, I forgot he couldn't be targeted. All things being equal, I don't think it was a game-changing error - the shots that hit him would have probably gone into the Heldrake, for much the same effect. So I'm down one of my combat flyers either way.

Turn 1 - Thousand Sons

Suck it up, and let's see if we can at least go a few rounds. My Heldrake swoops over into the thick of the enemy, ensuring the Neurothrope is closest to his fiery breath.

The few surviving Cultists step out to form the best skirmish screen they can manage, the Exalted Sorcerer creeps forward into Smite range and Rubrics peep over the top of the battlements.

In the only tactical surprise I have left to spring, the Scarab Occult Terminators drop down behind the recently-vacated backline to take aim on the Tyranid Warriors.

My Psychic Phase is a sad whiff, due to the Shadow In the Warp, which is hard to bear from a sorcerous army. I fail all my powers, except for Prescience on the Terminators, and even that costs me a command point (plus the  Chaos Familiar stratagem to give the power to the Aspiring Sorcerer).

However, that was the power I really wanted. I pop Veterans of the Long War on the Terminators which allows their rapid-firing stormbolters to shred the Tyranid Warriors to pieces and even pop half a dozen wounds off the Tyrannofex with my Hellfyre missiles.

The good news ends there. The Neurothrope save all the wounds from the Heldrake's baleflamer (one failed save would have been enough to kill it) and the subsequent charge into the Hive Tyrant ends in some ineffectual clawing (I was rolling a lot of 1s).

What remains of my small-arms fire does nothing, and I'm left to contemplate my fate.

I do score Overwhelming Firepower, No Prisoners and a point for the Warriors, so that closes the gap at least.

Turn 2 - Tyranids

Well, there's a gap in that rear line, so the Genestealers leg it forwards into space, angling round the cultist chaff and keeping their beady eyes on the tasty sorcerer at the back. 

The Hive Tyrant ducks out of combat, while the Termagants peg it towards the Helldrake. The Tyrannofex is keeping ominously still, although not quite as still as the Warriors. 

The Neurothrope, who is still limping a bit, perks himself up by sipping psychic vitality from a Terminator, and then boosts the Hive Tyrant with Onslaught. 

Shooting time! The Tyrannofex gladly spews corrosive bile twice over the Terminators. I don't roll particularly well, but it still does for three of them, which feels like a good start. The Tyrant uses his souped-up Miasma Cannon to score a few wounds off the Heldrake, and the Termagants follow suit, peppering away another handful with a vast wash of fire from their beetle guns. 

The Charge phase sees the Genestealers piling into the Cultists and the Sorcerer, and taking nothing from Overwatch as they get there. The Flyrant, under the effects of Onslaught, jumps back on to the Heldrake, but only after safely distracting it with about thirty Termagants. Several of them are toasted by the flamer overwatch, but who cares? They're Termagants! I'm not even sure I should be capitalising them! The Tyrannofex also considers joining the action, but fails the charge.

You can probably guess how the Genestealers do in combat. As they pick the Sorcerer and Cultists out of their teeth, the Feeder Tendrils strategem sucks out a couple of bonus CPs for me with them. 

Using one of these, I then bugger off, using Overrun to dash away from the nasty flamers in the building behind. 

Discretion is the better part of not being roasted alive.

The Tyrant is now safely shielded by his adaptive biology, but it's lucky that he is. He whiffs his attacks, and is actually outperformed by the termagants! The Heldrake wastes no time in tearing a few more wounds off him. Any more, and he's down a level, so I quickly slap another stratagem on him to give him a second chance, insatiable hunger, I think. Expensive at 3 CPs, but worth it for an extra turn of chomping, and so it proves here as I leave the Heldrake on a single wound.

Oh yeah - Objectives. I claim a point for Decapitate, a Tyranid-specific one for eating a character, and another for Crush, which rewards my monsters and swarms for eating things. So another four points for my collection, after the unit-wipe bonus. 

Turn 2 - Thousand Sons

Only the flamers can save me now. I limp the Heldrake out of combat and advance the Rubrics forward, who just manage to make it into flamer range.

In the Psychic Phase, I spend my penultimate command point to give my Aspiring Sorcerer the new Tzeentch's Firestorm ability - if I roll nine 6s on nine dice, then I will kill his Hive Tyrant (okay it's a long shot, but I was DUE some sixes).

Actually, rather than better the farm on a 1 out of 10077696 chance (gee, put it that way, and it seems remote), I wanted to cast Death Hex to take away the Genestealers' invulnerable saves.

It turns out to be a moot point, as I can't get anything past the damn Shadow of the Warp - did I mention I am supposed to be an army of Sorcerers?

Even my flamers under-perform - I spend my last Command Point on Veterans of the Long War but only manage to bring down half a dozen Genestealers, with a couple more from the Heldrake.

Turn 3 - Tyranids

It's a fast turn. The Flyrant jumps in behind the Rubrics, the Neurothrope wastes the Heldrake with Smite and Onslaughts the termagants. 

The Tyrannofex melts the Rubrics with a quick burst, then nearly finishes the Terminators. The last model standing is, alas, killed by a lucky Flesh Borer shot from the Termagants. They can have their capital T back, they earned it. 

That's a Tablin'.

Hoover Up The Remains

Ouch. That was a comprehensive schooling in just what Tyranids can do to the unwary. I reckon I had the wrong army, the wrong plan, an unfavourable scenario, an opponent who had a good grasp of how the traits and stratagems were really going to benefit his tactics. Oh, and my dice rolled like crap*.

(*that last part was something of a relief. My new Tzeentch dice have been rolling hot for the past few battles, so it's nice to know they're not warped).

With all that, no wonder my Daemon Prince left for an early bath.

Kraken's post-game advice was that I should have castled with everything, even the Terminators, and blazed away. I think that might have bought me some more turns of survival, but the Tyranid swarm had such board control that, one way or another, they were scoring points (they were worryingly close to getting a first-turn Domination, then it really would have been game over).

So it's a tough list to play against, but I won't lose heart (or whatever goes inside a Rubric's armour) and will have a rematch against Hive Fleet Afanc ... once my new codex has dropped, naturally.

That went... well? I mean, given that the Daemon Prince should actually have been mashing up my general and boosting his chums with psychic joy instead of wearing his insides as a hat thanks to illegal sniper fire, yeah, pretty well. Those crazy Tyranids, man, always messing with you!

Rules inability aside, though, I reckon it's a good army. Fast, reasonably shooty, lots of presence on the table - nothing I could really complain about. Weight of fire helps against armour, something the Tyranids can be a bit shaky with, but I reckon I'd probably have got this on victory points overall. 

Stylus' plan, he later revealed, was to kill off all the Synapse first, then mop up the survivors. A valiant aim! Although taking down the Tyrant in a single turn is possibly optimistic, even with combat monsters like the Heldrake and Daemon Prince. That 4+ invul save is a devil to get through. And it's even worse on the Neurothrope.

Then after that, you'd still have large units of shooty 'gants and eaty 'stealers to fend off. Plus the 'fex (it's not a real Tyranid unit unless you can apostrophise it) doesn't really care about synapse, because that hilariously deadly acid spray can't actually miss stuff. And Genestealers are semi-independent anyway, loss of synapse doesn't bother them. 

Even if the Tyrant had popped, along with the Warriors and the Neurothrope, you'd have been in a prime place for a countercharge. With CPs to spare, I could probably have skipped a crucial morale phase or two and had bugs in hand to win, but we'll never know for sure. Until next time!