The Reckoning: Tempestus Scions vs Tyranids

Rapid and I have fought twice before, Scions against Tyranids. With one victory to each side (Nids here, Scions here), we felt there was a certain tension that needed resolution, so it's once more into the breech!

Scion the One and Only

1500 points is pretty much the limits of my collection, so there aren't going to be any surprises for Rapid here in terms of what I field. It's all going to be down to what I do with it! 

Air cavalry in the form of a Vulture and a Valkyrie, both sporting plenty of anti-infantry guns. Then a command group with three teams of Scions to round out a Battalion, led by the standard Commissar Lord and Tempestus Prime. Both Taurox Primes to cart them about, one with missiles and one with the gatling gun. We're going in as the Iotan Dragons, giving all the rapid fire guns an extra six inches of range to really ramp up the firepower. 

My bonus elements are an Enginseer to patch up the tanks, then a full trio of Ogryn Bodyguards, led by Nork Deddog. Chunky and pretty good in combat, they can help out against the inevitable Tyranid charges. Also a Primaris Psyker, whose powers can help beef up the tanks a bit.

Finally, an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, boosted by a strat to have an extra trait and relic. Bio-corrosive poisons will let him eat Tyranid monsters in close combat (unless they eat him first), Esoteric Knowledge lets me generate CPs when Rapid uses his, plus a couple of smite powers for damage. 

Tempestus Scions Battalion, Iotan Dragons, 1499 points, 11 CPs

• HQ - Tempestus Prime, Warlord with command rod and power maul, Tactical Auto-reliquary of Tiberius, Old Grudges (Tyrannofex)
• HQ - Commissar Lord with Power Fist and Bolt Pistol
• HQ - Primaris Psyker with Night Shroud and Psychic Barrier
• Troops - 10 Scions with 2 Hotshot Volley Guns, 2 Plasma Guns, Vox and a chainsword for the leader
• Troops - 10 Scions with the same again
• Troops - 10 Scions with 2 Melta Guns, a Flamer and a Grenade Launcher, Vox and a Power Sword and Plasma Pistol for the leader
• Elites - Command Squad with Banner, Plasma Gun, Vox and Medic
• Elites - Techpriest Enginseer
• Elites - 2 Ogryn Bodyguards, both with Bullgryn plate and mauls, one with a Slabshield and one with a Brute Shield
• Elites - Nork Deddog
• Dedicated Transport - 2 Taurox Primes, both with storm bolters, one with Missile Launcher and Autocannons, one with Gatling Gun and Hotshot Volley Guns
• Flyer - Valkyrie with 2 Heavy Bolters, Missile Pods and Multi-Laser
• Flyer - Vulture Gunship with Vulture Gatling Cannons
• Bonus HQ - Ordo Xenos Inquisitor with Storm Bolter and Force Sword, Arbiter of the Emperor's Will (1 CP), Biocorrosive Poisons relic, Esoteric Knowledge trait, Castigation 

Tyra Nid Flanders

1500 points of nids, the success of Genestealers in past games means these have been kept in, one squad with adrenal webs for that tasty 2d6 consolidation. Ripper swarms to pop up and cause mischief wherever possible, ideally on objectives not held. 

 

My biggest change this time is the addition of the Zoanthropes, their smite seems too good to miss and will add some much needed firepower to my army. Tyrannofex with Symbiosis adaption, so that its got a 5++ to keep it that bit tougher. I've not had much luck with Tyrannofex in the past, but we will see!

 

Absolutely love the Warriors (just purchased 6 for my own army) and the ever present Hive guard for that absolutely annoying fire without line of sight destruction!!

 

Tyranid Battalion Detachment, Hive Fleet Kraken, 11 CPs, 1500 points

• HQ - Broodlord with Chameleonic Mutation, Catalyst power
• HQ - Neurothrope with Resonance Barb, The Horror
• HQ - Tyranid Prime, Warlord with Boneswords and Deathspitter
• Troops - 20 Genestealers with Adrenal Webs adaptation
• Troops - 20 Genestealers
• Troops - 3 Ripper Swarms
• Troops - 3 Ripper Swarms
• Troops - 3 Tyranid Warriors with Deathspitters and Boneswords
• Elites - 3 Hive Guard with Impaler Cannons
• Elites - 4 Zooanthropes, Psychic Scream
• Heavy Support - Tyrannofex with Rupture Cannon, Dermic Symbiosis adaptation (1 CP)

Mission and Terrain

Frozen city terrain tonight. We're playing Scorched Earth from the GT pack, although on a slightly smaller table than recommended. Smaller deployment zones, that means, and the objectives get shifted across the middle a bit due to not being allowed on the big castle on the right there. But I'd put the terrain out before I generated the mission, and couldn't be arsed moving it!

Here's the top-down view. Lots of ruins means lots of cover, but it's a small table too! Hiding in those ruins is going to leave you very open to being charged.

Tyranid Secondaries:

• Raze
• Assassinate
• Engage on All Fronts

Scion Secondaries:

• Raze - it's the mission, and even if it involves running straight into the middle of the Genestealers, goddammit its what command told me to do
• Assassinate - Just enough characters in there to make it worth it
• Thin Their Ranks - More than enough bugs in there to make it worth it. There always are...

Deployment

I win the rolloff and play defence, picking the southern edge and starting my set up first. Plenty in deep strike for me, the Command Squad and one of the ten-man volley gun teams, but even more in transports. Each Taurox has a ten-man squad of Scions, then the Valkyrie is carrying all three Ogryn bodyguards, the Tempestor Prime, the Commissar and the Inquisitor for a hefty amount of elite punch. 

I'm determined this time to avoid my usual mistake of spreading out too much, so my tanks and planes get ready to strike forward from the middle-right of my line. The remaining characters (psyker and enginseer) stay just behind them, ready to boost and heal as needed. 

Rapid, on the other hand, has tons to work with. The Genestealers mass with their Broodlord in the northwest, with a shooty base of Neurothropes, Warriors, Hive Guard and the Tyrannofex more or less centrally. He's not entirely happy with this setup, he says, and then I only go and win the bloody rolloff for first turn. Could be a tough start...

Scions Turn 1

One of the worst fears of any Tyranid player is having all your troops shot to little bits in the first turn. I can feel this fear palpably from Rapid, but I also have a counterplan to surprise him. This plan is pretty unexpected, because it involves not shooting up all the Genestealers. Am I crazy? Why yes, thank you, I will. 

The Vulture powers forward, screaming towards the mass of enemy troopers, and the Valkyrie tears straight across the field to the Tyranid deployment zone. The two Taurox pelt through the streets, the lead element getting buffed with Night Shroud as it goes, and the Enginseer trots along behind them while the Psyker holds back to look after my objectives. By himself. Let's see how well that goes. 

Shooting isn't bad - the Valkyrie just manages to take out a Hive Guard, and I put a few wounds on the Tyrannofex with the Missile Taurox. But the main event is splurging all that lovely Vulture gatling fire into the Neurothropes. I'm more scared of their big smites as reliable anti-air fire than I am of the Rupture Cannon, and although I only kill one of them, it's enough to nerf the unit to a more manageable size. 

Not all the firepower goes on them, though - I spray a bit of heavy bolter into the adrenal web Genestealers, which kills a mere one of them. Perfect! Now I can play the Hammer Blow strategem (2 CPs), which halves their advance and charge scores for the next round. I reckon this leaves them too far to reach anyone in the next round, so I can line them up for shooting at then! 

Tyranids Turn 1

Well, that smarted... The Zoanthropes are pretty well neutered. They do however cast smites along with the neurothrope into the Vulture and give it a few psychic tickles.  The Valkyrie has rushed forward to get my objective, my poor deployment left that wide open and my rebuttal far too distant to respond!

 

Racing forward, my Genestealers Warriors & Tyranid Prime look for retribution! Spying two lovely vehicles they lick their lips and the juicy goodness inside!

 

 

 

Taking aim, the Tyrannofex unloads its guns into the Vulture Gunship. It does very little damage, it should have really hurt it. Clearly he hasn't got that hang of leading a moving target yet!

Charging into the Taurox, my Warrior and Tyranid Prime try to crack open the juicy inside! They fail, next turn is going to hurt a lot!

Scions Turn 2

Well, the Genestealers are obviously closer than I want, but they haven't reached me yet. Better get to work. 

The Gatling Taurox breaks off and brings guns to bear as the Enginseer frantically repairs the beleaguered Missile one. The Valkyrie drops off all my elites, joined swiftly by the Command Squad from deep strike, and they shuffle about to take hold of the objective there. Indeed, the Commissar starts setting fire to it straight away. 

The Primaris Psyker holds back, failing to buff anyone this turn, but hopefully out of harm's way for now. Alas, the Valkyrie can't quite bank round in time, and screams off the field. Ah well, it'll be back later. The Missile Taurox stays locked in with the Prime and tries to fry it at close range, but nothing connects.

Between them, the Vulture and the Gatling Taurox butcher the front squad of Genestealers, leaving only one alive. Ogryns and plasma gunnery take out the rest of the Hive Guard with shooting and charging, and the field is looking acceptable for now, I'd say. 

I've still got a unit in reserve, hopefully to deal with whatever pops out of the ground in the near future, and I've established a nice base of operations in my enemy's deployment zone. Bring it, Nids!

Suddenly lonely, pal?

Tyranids Turn 2

That was some significant losses to my Genestealers! By they are not broken, they race forward to eat the taurox. The sole surviver to the first squad races towards the ogryn! Hoping for an easy kill!

He does not kill the Ogryn, in return the Ogryn fails to kill as well. They are locked in combat until the next turn!

The second squad of Genestealers tear it forward to break open the Taurox. Fighting again the same squad lays waste to the squidgy human contents, they finally consolidate into the other Taurox with a huge roll. They wrap the second Taurox, that was at least something good...

 

Last but but not least, my Ripper swarms skulk out of the ground to try and raze the objectives in Kraken's deployment next turn.

Scions Turn 3

Suddenly, it all looks rather precarious. I'm behind on objectives, and leaking points from all those characters I took as well as board control. Still, I'm by no means down! 

The deep strike squad drop in on the centre left field, behind the wave of Genestealers, where they can see the Broodlord and the Rippers who are trying to eat my liquor stash, or whatever that objective represents. The Valkyrie returns, just behind them (I like to think its dropping them off, although it isn't really). Between them (and because I split their fire), I put a couple of wounds on the Broodlord and take two out of three Rippers off the objective they are eating. Not what I was hoping for...

The command team go and hide behind the ruined tower, although the Inquisitor jogs forward towards the Tyrannofex, who I would rather like to shut down for a bit. As it is, the Shadow in the Warp stops him doing anything much in the psychic phase, and his storm bolter isn't quite up to hurting the Tyrannofex, but he settles for murdering the last Genestealer instead.

The Primaris Psyker can't even manage a smite, but he needs to kill those Rippers before they swarm my other backline objective, so he plinks one with his laspistol and reluctantly limbers up for some punching. Which he actually does quite well at, killing two bases for no returns!

Nork (what's left of him, at least) and his pal throw frag bombs at the Genestealers as the Missile Taurox fails to connect hard enough to floor the Warrior Prime. All a bit whiffy - a couple of Genestealers die, and a krak missile blows a medium hole in the Prime, but not enough to floor it. 

The unwounded Ogryn Bodyguard happily piles into the Genestealers, killing a few, but Nork is clearly now lacking the part of his head that makes brave decisions, and merely stands around gurning. The Techpriest charges in too, kills one 'stealer with his axe and then is utterly consumed. 

Now, I'm still worrying about all those backline Rippers. But the good news is that they're out of Synapse range and both need to make morale checks on terrible leadership! 

The bad news is that Rapid sure can roll ones. Neither flee, which is very bad news for my scoreline.

Tyranids Turn 3

It really is getting thin on the ground for me.  My Ripper swarm raises the southern objective to get some much needed points but the northern one has only just got into range and with one base left, its not looking great.

 

Looking to pay back those wounds taken in Krakens turn, the Broodlord tries to chomp down on an Ogryn and makes him dead. The big shield is a bit much, though, and the Ogryn lives then whacks the Broodlord right off the board!

Between them, my Genestealers and Tyranid Prime finally cut open the Taurox. With it well surrounded the Scions need to climb the building to reach safety, losing a few in the chaos, but still mostly alive.

He says a few, but when I dropped CPs on Emergency Disembarkation, I didn't expect six out of ten of them to get out of the front by mistake!

Feeling anger for the fallen Genestealer, the Tyrannofex takes aim at the Ogryn and blasts him off the board.

The last thing the Inquisitor sees... a charging Tyrannofex crushes him into pulp then eats the remains.

Scions Turn 4

The gut punch for me is that I'm not scoring any primaries this turn. The one that I held? My Commissar Lord blew it up to score Raze last turn. After quoting the Planet of the Apes loudly in my head for a while, I try and come up with a plan. 

As I'm behind right now, I'm going to have to ensure the Tyranids can't score any more. Easiest way to do that? Kill them all. So the flyers drop into hover so I can park my gunships where I need them, then all the remaining troopers close in on whatever is nearest. 

The Primaris Psyker fails his smite, thanks to the nearby Tyranid Prime. But he does kill his Rippers, using laspistol and stick, just like they taught him in fight school. The Genestealers take a pounding from all directions, with help from the Tempestor Prime's order stick and both flyers, and there's just one left by the time the bullets run dry, which leaves the Prime nice and open for some Ogryn charges. 

Nork takes this one, but somehow can't quite put the big brute down! Thick shell on that crawdaddy. Rapid promptly interrupts, and the Prime hacks my Prime, the warlord, down. Now, I could let Nork take this, but that would kill him too - he would then get a second round of attacks and probably kill the Tyranid, but I can't afford to hose the points here. So the big guy decides he's done enough bodyguarding today and lets the boss take the hit. The Command Squad can't close the deal either, and my Commissar is shouting helpful advice from a distance, having failed his charge. 

Can the four-man Scions squad kill a single Genestealer in melee? No, they can't. It can kill two of them, though. I may just be making my problems worse at this rate. 

On the other side, the Warlord managed to order the big Scions squad to Move! Move! Move! and grab the objective off the Zooanthropes. No shooting, but I'm not getting through their invuln saves quickly anyway. They do get a charge in their sides from the other Ogryn Bodyguard, who proves this point by bouncing off. 

Job's a good 'un - the 'Nids aren't scoring any Primary points next turn!

Tyranids Turn 4

Im pretty thin on the ground now, I feel like thats been repeated many times this game... Staying still, with 2 goes, my Tyrannofex takes off 2 wounds from the Vulture.... 2 Wounds! sad face.

Big Brains vs No Brains. Having no brains helps a lot. Turns out, it takes 2 Smites and a Psychic scream to kill you.. Lesson there people. No brains makes you tougher...

Sensing a tactical withdrawal will in fact be tactical.. My Prime and Genestealer fall back and charge into the Psyker. More points for Assasination and an attempt at razing the objective!

I'm not running away... Its about the tactics M'kay!

Scions Turn 5

Determined to take out as much as I can, I swoop the flyers into position to back the Scion squad, and dash last-minute support to my back line to help that heroic Psyker. Because somehow or other, although he couldn't beat them, they couldn't eat him!

My last command point goes on Point Blank Efficiency for the Scion fire team. Boosting their hotshots to S4 lets me unleash hell on those brain bugs. Especially as they can't screen their Neurothrope - it gets riddled with some welcome hot lead by the jets, and flops to the ground in a puddle of goo. I even take a Zooanthrope out too, but those saves aren't going anywhere. 

The Tyranid Prime and Genestealer? Not so lucky. Smites and Nork Deddog are more than up to the challenge, down they both go. And the last Ripper base gets mopped up by spare Heavy Bolter fire from the Valkyrie. 

The Commissar bounds across the table to tackle the Zooanthropes, but nobody else seems to fancy it. He punches a wounded one out, then steels himself for the inevitable psychic backlash.

The board is back in my control, but it's a bit late - I didn't get the max on Primaries this round thanks to those damn Rippers!

Tyranids Turn 5

Thin on the ground? WaFFFFer thin.

Feeling the need to prove himself, the Tyrranofex FINALLY gets his eye in and shoots the Vulture out of the sky.. Better late than never!  Its pretty clear that the Scions have the board presence now. If this was to go on for another round, I'd be tabled.

Sadly, it doesn't! 

Result: 

Tyranids:

• Primaries: 20
• Assassinate: 15
• Raze: 6
• Engage on All Fronts: 9

Scions: 

• Primaries: 25
• Assassinate:10
• Raze:6

It's close! I'm a bit behind, but I haven't counted up my No Prisoners points yet, and I have killed a lot of bugs. Nine points for a draw, ten for the win, so I get to counting. 

It's a tense couple of minutes as I rack them up. All those multi-wound models add up fast, and I'm swiftly into the seventies as we tot up the totals. A couple of Zooanthropes breaks eighty...

But that's it. Eight VPs on No Prisoners, so Rapid wins by a single point! 

50-49 to the Tyranids!

Locker Room

That was a blast! Plenty of action, some of it quite unusual. I've never seen a Tyrannofex achieve a win in melee, for example, or using the emergency disembarkation strat. Great fun, and we both kept our irons in the fire until the last minute!

My MVP was the Primaris Psyker, who somehow managed to actually hold the back line by himself long enough for the cavalry to arrive. They're usually nothing more than a cheap distraction, so that was great!

I think the clincher for me, in the end, was Rapid's score on Assassination. If I hadn't taken so many characters, I wouldn't have been bleeding those points out quite so fast. Equally, killing just one more Zooanthrope would have been a draw! 

What this means is I clearly need some more troopers and vehicles for the Scions. Right now, I can't quite get them up to 1500 without relying on allies, and I'd like to be able to do that. I have thoughts, obviously...

Rapid here. My deployment was poor. Mirroring it, by having Genestealers at the top and Hive guard at the bottom would have made my chargers far easier and my Hive Guard far more protected. Id have had a chance to close down some of Kraken's units far quicker.

Those fliers did the business today and were a constant thorn in my side, as well as the Ogryns. I love the Ogryns, they just seem to put in work no matter where they are.

It was a brilliant game and I'm glad we did the best of 3, especially as we came into this with one win each. Thanks again Kraken for hosting!!

Oh, I'll be back! Best of five?