Railhead Rumble has now wrapped and was an absolute blast! The results are posted here and the Best Generals were playing Salamanders, Eldar and NecTau. It was a really fun event I had not attended before, with an interesting element of bidding for what missions would be played and what deployment used, so you could try to get missions/deployment that played to your list's strengths. Check out the rules packet here. Now, behold the forces Hive Fleet Severus sent to tear man, space elf and fishmen apart!
Hive Fleet Severus 1850 Points
HQ
Hive Tyrant 2x Twin-Linked Devourers, Wings, Old Adversary
Hive Tyrant 2x Twin-Linked Devourers, Wings
Troops
Termagant Brood x30
Termagant Brood x30
Tervigon
Tervigon
Elite
Zoanthrope
Venomthrope
Fast Attack
Hive Crone
Hive Crone
Heavy
Exocrine
Exocrine
Game 1
My first game was against an Imperial Guard army played by Bruce Stephenson, the mission was Crusade and the deployment was Dawn of War. The image above is from deployment and you'll see a lack of Hive Crones (the other Flyrant is off-camera to the left). My display board wasn't big enough to fit the Crones so they were in a box which I had set under the table before grabbing a drink. I realized in turn 2 I had not deployed them and they came on the board in turn 3, but it cost me some serious threat saturation. Anyhow, I had placed 3 objective markers in the middle of the board, as I have learned well the lesson that this list is an all-in attack on my opponent in a wave of murder by gribbly teeth. As such, I knew by turn 3 at the latest I would have troops holding all three of those objectives and still able to engage my enemy behind his Aegis. I got lucky with my Psychic power rolls and got Catalyst on both Hive Tyrants and the Tervigon with the orange poker chip on its base. Railhead Rumble has bonus missions as well and this one was to accumulate wounds on a Toughness 7 objective in the center of the board. I had both Flyrants move up and caused 9 wounds in the first turn. Beyond that I couldn't do much as my opponent had deployed far out of range of anything that could hit him. Bruce's two tanks and the troops behind it advanced towards the objective I had placed near the center of the board and his Plasma Cannon shots didn't do too much damage to a Tervigon with the 3+ cover it had from intervening models and Shrouded from the Venomthrope as well as Feel No Pain from casting Catalyst. I knew that Plasma tank had to die fast, so I glided my Flyrants in, then shot and assaulted it netting me First Blood. I had Termagants move up towards the same objective in the center of the board and quickly piled them all around it. My opponent lit up my Warlord Hive Tyrant with his Leman Russ Punisher and not even Feel No Pain could save him. I quickly got retribution though as I gave Onslaught to one of the Exocrine from the Zoanthrope so he could Run and Shoot at BS 4. Between the 2 Exocrine's large blast Plasma I put enough wounds on the unit his Warlord was in and he failed a Look Out Sir and Cover Save netting me Slay the Warlord as well. The game ended with me controlling the 3 objectives in the middle of the board and my opponent controlling 2. That plus the bonus mission gave me a full score. Not a bad way to start the tournament!
Game 2
In the second game I played Ben Redleaf, who brought a White Scars force with Iron Hands allies, the mission was Crusade and the deployment was Hammer & Anvil. Somehow, someway I rolled Catalyst for Psychic Powers 3 times again on the same 3 units! Finally I've found something other than Leadership in which my low rolls don't lose me models. We only had 3 objectives to place and I followed with my strategy of placing two near the middle of the board while my opponent placed his 6" from a corner in his deployment. The bonus mission for this game was to knock the objective placed in the center of the table to the left of your deployment edge. Ben didn't think either one of us would score the bonus mission, but I gave it a hell of a try with both my Flyrants moving right next to it and unloading into it getting it about 10" from my victory edge (you can see the bonus objective to the left of the bottom group of Termagants in the picture above). I plodded the rest of my force towards my opponent but like last game didn't have much to shoot at in Turn 1. Ben had a Hunter and 2 Thunderfire Cannons deep in his deployment zone that didn't care much about range and after his Orbital Bombardment didn't do much he killed my Venomthrope with the Thunderfire Cannons getting him First Blood. His bikes came at me and as you can see from the image above it looked like 2 waves rushing towards each other. The bike unit with the Iron Hands Chapter Master knocked my Warlord Flyrant out of the sky and assaulted. I challenged and we were stuck in that combat for a couple of turns with my Warlord not doing much to the Chapter Master with his 3+ Invulnerable save and Feel No Pain saving my Warlord from wounds from the Iron Hand's Thunder Hammer. Eventually, my Warlord fell, but I got revenge by Vector Striking Korsarro Khan and finishing him off with my 2nd Flyrant's shooting getting me Slay the Warlord as well as my Termagants moved towards the objectives near the middle of the board and I got a few more inches of movement with the bonus objective. Ben had a squad of Bikes Outflank and try to take out one of my Tervigons but Feel No Pain blocked some of the wounds. I then charged those bikes with the Tervigon and some Termagants while the other unit of Gants which had been moving towards the center objective. Ben moved a squad of Bikes which had Hit and Run out of assault with my Termagants, towards the objective he had the most Bikes concentrated near and used his Thunderfire Cannons to blow large holes into the Gants that had been holding it. My 2nd Flyrant shot the Scouts holding the objective in my opponent's deployment zone into oblivion and there were no Bikes nearby which would be in range to reach it without moving Flat Out and not shooting my Flyrant which could deny its capture. I had one Exocrine try to finally shoot the bonus objective off the table but got it only 2" from the edge in the last turn. However, more importantly, I had my Tervigon in the middle of the board charge the 3 Bikes which had been in the assault on my Flyrant and what was left of the 30 man Gant squad as well as a unit which had been spawned earlier assault Bikes which were trying to block me from getting within 3" to deny it. It all came down to these rolls, my Tervigon smashed the 3 Bikes into mulched meat and somehow the Termagants won the combat on the other unit of Bikes and the Bikes BROKE from combat moving well out of range to hold the objective giving the 'Nids the win!
Game 3
I knew I was in trouble when the pairings were posted for Game 3 as I was placed against another Austin player and one who is a TO for Texas Games Con (formerly War Games Con), Chris Carlile. Chris brought the Eldar force with all the Distort weapons which make my Monstrous Creatures cry. The mission we were playing was Crusade, again, with Dawn of War Deployment. The reason Crusade was played so much was because many of my opponents bid on Purge the Alien and Kill Points isn't my list's strongest strategy, especially this space elf list I faced, so I bid to bump it to Crusade. The other challenge was that Chris also plays Tyranids and knows the new Codex very, very well. When I rolled for Psychic Powers I only got Catalyst once on a Tervigon and I got Onslaught on both Hive Tyrants. Chris went first and immediately sniped my Venomthrope getting him First Blood. I flew 2 Hive Crones to try and knock down a Wave Serpent but couldn't get through its cover saves. Similarly, my Hive Tyrants and Exocrines tried to knock down a Wraith Knight but its saves resulted in minimal damage. And thus the pace of the game was made, as I did minimal damage to him and he devastated my forces turn after turn. He was playing with the Iyanden Codex so I forged the narrative that his army were veterans from a past Tyranid invasion and knew exactly how to handle them. Chris killed my non-Warlord Flyrant with Distort weapons and did the same to a nearby Tervigon which caused many Termagant heads to explode. I attempted to assault my Warlord into one of the units of Wraith Guard and he rolled a single 6 in the Overwatch and I just knew he would roll another 6, which he promptly did. By the end of the game, Chris had killed all my Synapse creatures and cleared out the remaining Termagants. If ever there was a hard counter to my list, it was most certainly this. So much range, with so many Instant Death weapons and an opponent who knew how to get the most out of them. After the game, Chris was good enough to buy me dinner and a beer while we shared war stories with the other Austin players.
It was a very fun-filled first day and I really enjoyed the variety to the missions with the bidding system and bonus objectives. Stay tuned for day 2!
No comments:
Post a Comment