Final Fight II: Mantis Warriors vs Tyranids

 

Turns out I lied - there was time for another game before Tenth hits!

What are the odds? Just as the last days of an edition roll in, a wandering player stops by in town. General Oofkeeper is the brother of SoupyTwist, a local friend, and he was in town for a weekend away. SoupyTwist mentioned that there was a local 40K player (me), so Oofkeeper packed his Tyranid army alongside his socks and a throwable gauntlet. Mantis Warriors! Get in your Drop Pod!

Just Here For The Kraken

Oofkeeper is running a Kraken swarm, led by a Tyrant and his sumo-esque Tyrant Guard. I haven't faced them before, they look nasty! 

A pair of smallish Hormagaunt swarms, a big stack of Warriors and (yikes) an Exocrine round out the rest of his pack. Daddy bug is the Warlord, of course, packing the Synaptic Lynchpin trait, and the Exocrine has some kind of extra brain on it so it doesn't need babysitting. 

Kraken's adaptation lets them advance extra fast, plus gives them better AP on the charge. There's a lot of anti-marine stuff in here, I'm going to have to be careful.

Hive Fleet Kraken AoO Detachment (troops), 981 points

• HQ - Hive Tyrant with Bonesword, Lash Whip and Heavy Venom Cannon, Warlord with Synaptic Lynchpin, Neuroparasite and Onslaught powers, Adrenal Glands
• Troops - 11 Hormagaunts
• Troops - 11 More Hormagaunts
• Troops - 5 Tyranid Warriors with Adrenal Glands and a mixed selection of nasty weapons including  Devourer, a Deathspitter, a Venom Cannon, three with either dual Boneswords or Bonesword and Lashwhip and one packing two paired Boneswords for extra slashing
• Elites - 3 Tyrant Guard, two with crushing claws and one with Lash Whip and Bonesword
• Heavy Support - Exocrine with the Synaptic Enhancement Adaptation

AdaMantis

The boys in green are out tonight, rocking a relatively standard set of units. Bikers, the Biker Captain, some fast assault troops and the Relic Terminators. Tonight's wild card is the Vindicator, which I find does well in smaller games like this, and Judiciars always seem like a good pick against charging opponents.

No command points spent, I reckon I'll need them later! Both of us found our lists just short of 1000 for some reason - I couldn't find anything for 17 points or less that was useful, thanks to all the marine gear being free these days. That really is a ridiculously grumpy thing to complain about, but there it is.

Mantis Warriors AoO Detachment (troops), 983 points

• HQ - Biker Captain, Warlord with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield
• HQ - Primaris Librarian with Ride the Winds and Storm-Wreathed
• Troops - 5 Assault Intercessors, Sarge has a power fist
• Troops - 5 Assault Intercessors, Sarge has Power Sword and Plasma Pistol
• Troops - 6 Tactical Marines, Sarge has Power Fist and Plasma Pistol and someone brought a Multimelta
• Elites - Judiciar
• Elites - 5 Relic Terminators with my usual mix - heavy flamer, paired lightning claws and grenade harness, Sarge has Chainfist and Volkite Charger
• Bike Squad - Assault bike with Heavy Bolter, Sarge has a Combi-Plasma he forgets to use at any point, someone has a Combi-Melta and the rest have bolt pistols
• Heavy Support - a Vindicator with a Storm Bolter pintle

Terrain and Mission

We decide on a four-objective Multiball game, with each worth one point if you hold it at the end of your own turn and a random one worth double. Command points in both players' command phase, five turns, no mucking about. 

No terrain photo, I'm sorry! Because even though Oofkeeper was here in Gothenburg, this was an away match. There was no terrain where he was staying, so I brought a tub of jungle stuff and my beach mat, but then forgot to take photos when I laid them out. Same, alas, for the armies above, although those at least you'll see in the action snaps below. 

SoupyTwist's kitchen table was 4'x3', ideal for this size of game. She is very much not a Warhammer player, but she quite enjoyed kibbitzing, and tolerated our over-excited explanations of the fluff with increasing bemusement. 

Deployment

OofKeeper keeps his authentic Tyranid dice in a toothed chest that's a) awesome and b) scarier than the Exocrine

The Tyranids are emerging from the sea today, and form a seething pack along the shoreline. The Exocrine takes the back objective, the Hormagaunts cover the front, and the Tyrant and the Warriors take a flank each, the former protected by the thick shoulders of his bodyguard.

I stick the Termies in the Teleporter, of course, then park the Vindicator behind a forest, and partially screen it with Tac marines. The Bikers go on their left with the Captain, and a squad of Intercessors, each babysat by either the Judiciar or the Librarian, take the flanks. 

War time - he's up first. 

Game On!

The Tyranids waste no time in yomping up the board and chittering. They're fast, but not quite able to reach the middle objectives this quick; they make up for it by completely melting my left-hand squad of Intercessors with a single hot jet of Exocrine function. Thanks for playing lads, nice of you to turn up, and maybe remember to actually use Transhuman Physiology next time.

At least the Multiball this turn is right under the Vindicator! So I get a small early lead. 

"What do you mean, get out there? Didn't you see what happened to the other squad?"

My counter to this is pretty cautious. Obviously I want to get that middle, but if I get too close too quick, I'm going to take a slapping from the bigger monsters before I can consolidate. So I tiptoe forwards on the left side with bikers and characters, park the Vindicator in the central wood and hide my right flank behind a nice safe bunker. 

Shooting isn't too bad - the foremost of the Hormagaunt squads takes a mild beating from the bikers and the Vindicator drops a Tyrant Guard, but I was kind of hoping for a bit more out of my shots. There's still a lot of bugs left, and they're definitely about to seethe over the midfield. At least I score one objective. 

Sure enough, the Hormagaunt squads both leap forwards, now backed by the Tyrant and the Warriors from behind. Now I'm very glad I didn't go further forward! 

The Vindicator takes a few wounds from the Exocrine and the Venom Cannons, and the Tyrant starts gently cooking the brain of a tac marine with Neuroparasite, before Onslaughting the Hormagaunts at the back. The lead squad partially regenerates with the Swarming Masses strat, and then charges into the bikers. 

This doesn't go too well - they bounce off the tough bikers before getting mown down in return. Only one remains, surrounded by various characters. And in the middle, the larger pack of Hormies tries to bound through the woods to tag the Vindicator, but can't quite make it through the trees. Yes, it's interfering with my shooting, but no, I don't mind very much right now!

However, the Tyranids now hold three objectives, including the Multiball, which has rocked up under the Exocrine this time. So they shoot into the lead. 

In revenge, I mop up the remaining Hormagaunts with a combination of bolter and bike work. The Vindicator and the Tac marines melt the rest of the Tyrant Guard, and boosted by the Librarian, the Assault Intercessors run screaming into the Warriors on my right flank with Storm-Wreathed active. 

And I spring my Terminators out of the teleporter, pattering small arms fire uselessly off the Exocrine before charging in with Fierce Rivalries! And the Tactical Marines gang up on what's left of the central Hormagaunts, darting through the woods with Ride the Winds on them. Finally, all the Bikers, including the Captain, rush the Tyrant. It's time to cut off that head. 

Or not - the Terminators don't really manage to do more than attract the Exocrine's attention. The Captain bounces off the Tyrant's warp field before the Warriors interrupt and slaughter all but the Intercessor Sergeant with pitiless ease. Although he carves up one of them, he then thinks better of this whole fight and heads home in the morale phase for tea and sandwiches. 

Then the Tyrant picks up the assault bike, throws it into the next three and leaves just the melta biker alive. This was not the result I was looking for! It does at least put me on two objectives (my home one and the left flank), and there are no Hormagaunts left. 

Turn three - the Tyrant uses his own Imperative on himself so he can fall back and charge the Terminators bothering his back line. The Warriors feel they have the right flank covered, and sure enough, they put more fire into the Vindicator with enough left over to take down half the Tactical Marines. 

The Tyrant cuts down all but two of the Terminators, who keep on punching the Exocrine, undaunted. And against the odds, the Tactical Marines don't all die, but instead manage to hold against the Warriors. The Multiball is once more under the Exocrine now, but my Terminators are managing to keep it contested against the odds. 

In my turn, I send the Captain back to the middle to help the Tactical Marines, who fall back. The last biker zips towards the Tyrant as the Terminators fall back and charge in again, determined to take out the Exocrine with or without help. And I'm in the Assault Doctrine at last, so my extra weapon damage is kicking in. 

It's a good turn, all in all - the Warriors get shot and hammered to bits, and the Exocrine takes a good old whacking, but I somehow lose another Terminator to its hooves. And the Melta Biker fails to make his charge, so I can't pinch that vital objective off the big bug. This leaves us tied on 7 VPs each. Plenty to play for!

The last two turns, alas, are not kind to the Tyranids. First, I get the Multiball on my left flank, guarded by the Judiciar. The Tyrant rather casually smites away the last Terminator, the Melta Biker (already wounded from earlier) falls to a Neuroparasite. All guns are then turned on the Judiciar, as the Exocrine is now freed from combat. 

But fate is with me - his blade parry is on point, and he deflects all the venom spines and digestive plasma the big bugs can throw! That leaves them on a single objective, and the writing looks to be on the wall as I score all my three. 

No, wait - I only score two, because twit that I am, I move the Vindicator forwards so it can shoot out of the wood and lose my own home objective. It also fails to shoot the Exocrine to death despite not having trees in the way. Gah! Ah well, at least the Exocrine falls to the Multimelta, and I hang on to the middle. 

Muppet.

The Tyrant is not impressed with this, and as the final turn dawns with the Multiball now under my Tactical squad, it comes bellowing forward, Onslaughting itself right back into the midfield. It shoots away one of the Tac boys, cannons into the Vindicator and splits it down the middle, following up into the other Tac Marine.

It's not quite enough to stop me pulling away on points at the last minute, sadly, but the Tyrant makes up for it by completely shrugging off all the characters I can throw at him before biting the last Tac marine in half and partially wrecking the Captain's bike. 

Result: Mantis Warriors win, 11:8

Locker Room

Good game! Balanced throughout with some great back and forth, and if I took it in the end, it was only thanks to some lucky box cars on that Judiciar. Man of the Match for him! Multiball is fun too, I recommend it for a swift and uncomplicated battle. 

And lovely to get out and meet a new opponent. OofKeeper certainly knows his 'Nids well (he plays regularly in London), and they're certainly well painted to boot. A bit hairy for me in terms of carrying crates of terrain and models round on local transport, and of course the first person I met on the tram was a work colleague who asked lots of awkward questions ("What's in the box? Why would you do that with your Saturday Night? How old are you again?"), I was very pleased to have a face-to-face match for the first time in ages as well as actually leave the house for a change! 

Also, don't know if it was the win, the familiar army and the simpler game or the thrill of an in-person battle, but the nasty taste I was left with after my last game of 9th was quite washed away. Hurrah! But all the same, bring on 10th!