Tonight’s PAGE Center City Sunday Night Fights were well attended, with ten 40k players on five tables. Charles and I squared off in the continuing attempt to brainwash him into the hobby. Lovell provided him with an ample army of Tyranids, hell bent on punishing the trespass of a small force of Kingbreakers deployed to defend the excavation of a rediscovered cultist temple, once dedicated to the hive mind and fed with many an unwitting settler…

Awesome photos of Marines about to meet their demise are from Charles!

Rules

Pretty standard setup:

• 1750 points
• Capture and Control (5 objectives)
• Dawn of War
• All terrain and levels just difficult, bunker simply as difficult to stick to the basics.

Armies

Lovell is very much into Genestealer armies and he particularly wanted to keep this army simple for Charles, so it was very straightforward: Broodlord with Genestealer Retinue, 5 Genestealer squads, and Lictor squad. Each had a bunch of upgrades, including better carapaces, feeder tendrils, and so on.

The Kingbreakers brought their current fairly typical lineup for 1750–2000 points: Captain Angholan (Relic Blade, Digital Weapons, Hellfire Boltgun) & Sternguard (3x Multi-Melta) in Drop Pod (Deathwind Missile Launcher, Locator Beacon), Tac Squad (Power Fist, Plasmagun, Missile Launcher) in Pod, Tac Squad (Flamer, Missile Launcher) in Rhino, Tac Squad (Flamer, Missile Launcher) in Razorback, double Predators (Heavy Bolters, Autocannons), Devastators (2x Plasma Cannons, 2x Heavy Bolter, 3 squad mates), and double Landspeeder squad (2xMulti-Melta, Heavy Bolter, Heavy Flamer). Continuing with the latest experiment, the Kingbreakers also fielded a Thunderfire cannon from their Mechanicus contingent.

Battle

Apologies if any of this is a little inconsistent; it’s all from memory.

Deployment

I rolled to choose table halves first, and again to go first. Given the Dawn of War rules, I simply dropped down my Razorback and Rhino Tac squads, camping on my home objectives. A small Combat Squad also deployed well forward, on the centerline, to push deploying Tyranid back as far as possible from those objectives (units must deploy 18″ from all enemy units in Dawn of War). Charles and I talked briefly about his deployment, debating whether it would be worth it to gain some extra ground and hope the Nightfighting rules applied in Turn 1 of a Dawn of War game would cover his forces through my first round of shooting, or to hold them off the table entirely. In the end he went with the latter, which I thought was a good, interesting tactic not currently seen at PAGE CC much but that I would expect elsewhere.

Turn 1

Kingbreakers’ Drop Pod 1 with Scolirus’ Tac troops took a big risk and came down on one of the Tyranid home objectives, hoping the bugs would be just out of range for a first turn assault and that enough combined firepower could be brought to bear to hold the position. Notably, they deployed behind the Drop Pod, adding several inches and a further obstacle toward assaulting the troops. Unfortunately the Pod scattered just out of range to contest the objective, but Scolirus was well placed to sweep onto it in the coming turns. Landspeeders moved to support Tac 1 while the defensive block of Devastators, Predators, and Thunderfire came onto the board.

Genestealers rushed on and had a very successful first turn, capitalizing on Drop Pod 1’s risky forward Deep Strike to take it out along with its Locator Beacon and Deathwind Missile Launcher. The swarm also punished poor deployment among the Kingbreakers’ rearguard, Outflanking, assaulting, and severely damaging the Devastators and Tac 2.

Turn 2

Devastators fought bravely, but were no match for the hated xenos and slowly, inexorably gave way under a gnashing nightmare of claws and teeth. Looking to save their brethren at the last moment, Sternguard under Sergeant Harbinger made an intensely perilous pod drop into home territory to shore up the beseiged left flank. They just barely managing to correct a navigation fault at the last moment and arrive safely to the battle (another half inch and they would have flown off the table and suffered a mishap), but were too late to offer much assistance to the eviscerated members of the Devastator squadron.

Genestealer squads all took heavy losses, but rushed onward, driven forward by their raging Broodlord master. The forward Marines from Tactical 1 and 3 executed a brilliant fighting retreat, stalling the Tyranid onslaught, then pummeling them in combined fire with the defending units to their rear. Many battle brothers gave of themselves bravely in this calculating gambit of attrition, but all would be redeemed if the center could simply continue to hold.

Turn 3

The Broodlord’s retinue of chosen Genestealers was finally eliminated in an avalanche of Heavy Bolter shells and Thunderfire Airbursts. Tactical 3’s advance Combat Squad bravely leapt into the void, challenging the xenos leader and through it the hive mind itself in a contest of wills! Meanwhile, Predator and Razorback elements of the defensive block dropped back to support Harbinger’s Sternguard and turn the tide on the left flank.

Turn 4

Distracted by the upstart Tactical Marines snipping at its feet, the Broodlord dropped its guard for a moment and was shredded by fire from every direction as Landspeeders and Predators as well as the Kingbreakers’ Thunderfire Cannon and Razorback disgorged untold volumes of ammunition into the beast.

The Kingbreakers’ exultation quickly returned to sobriety though as, mere moments too late to save their master, a pair of Lictors burst from the earth after tunneling dozens of clicks at tremendous speed to join the battle. Caught in the talons underfoot, Tac 3’s advance Combat Squad was all but annihilated, only one beleaguered Marine enacting a safe withdraw from their clutches.

Turn 5

The battle now all but decided, Harbinger’s Sternguard sweep forward to purge the alien menace on the left flank and reclaim the home objective in the temple excavation site. The unscathed Landspeeder contingent quickly swings around to similarly obliterate a small group of Genestealers attempting to retreat and make contact with the hive mind and inform it of the Imperial presence around the temple. Meanwhile, all of the Kingbreakers’ most potent venom and rage is poured like lava into the newly appeared Lictors, their death clearing the battlefield of all the Emperor’s foes, the site safe for continued study.

Results

Victory for the Kingbreakers, by tabling and objectives.

Notes

General observations and comments:

• The central combat squad actually made it much longer than I thought, sealing the deal in the end game. Given that Charles decided not to deploy on the table it didn’t need to be there, but I think it was useful forcing him to not even think about deploying too near my home objectives.
• I deployed the Devastators terribly. First of all, they shouldn’t run into cover in Dawn of War, unless they can start shooting on Turn 2. Having them in cover is obviously great, and they usually make it most of the game that way, but if it takes them two turns to get there and they’re not shooting until Turn 3, it’s probably not worth it. Better to have them run into the open and just start wailing away. Even worse, they never should have been deployed so close to the sides, enabling the Genestealers to Outflank and come in with a Turn 1 assault on them. Ditto on the Rhino. I simply hadn’t really thought about their Scout ability and the consequent Outflanking while deploying.
• Thunderfire Cannon did a lot of damage. It definitely seems like a rock-paper-scissors unit—useless against a lot of stuff, awesome against other units. Against Chaos Marines last month it did almost nothing, as expected, but I threw it into the list again this week just in case I went up against a horde, and it turned out working out well.
• I am still not sold about Lovell’s Tyranid army construction. I think a couple Carnifexes screened by the ‘Stealers or some ‘Gaunts and either shooting or assaulting would have been much more scary. The Genestealers cost an awful lot in points. They’ve very strong and pretty killy once in close combat, but they’re not particularly survivable on the march to get there if they can’t outflank on top of something or find enough line of sight cover.
• Much like the Thunderfire Cannon, the Heavy Flamer on the Landspeeder and Flamers in Tac 2 and 3 paid off here. More often then not they’re not very useful, but every now and then they come through huge.
• Missile Launchers continue to not do much on the Tac groups. Too little opportunity to shoot, not enough killing when they do.
• Predators did awesome tearing up ‘Stealers and the Broodlord.
• Drop Pod 1 worked great as a piece of placeable terrain to help shield my guys in the center a little bit.
• Placement is huge, and you need a lot of Troops to hold objectives. I didn’t really lose many models this game, but I did lose just enough and get shifted out of place enough that I was very concerned at one point that newcomer Charles was going to pull off a big upset. Three Tactical Squads is just not a lot of guys to try and cover the majority of 5 objectives. Breaking into Combat Squads helps with the nominal coverage, but it’s just so easy for a five man group to get killed or at least punted off an objective. It might be worth creating space in my list for another Tactical Squad, even at 1750 points.
• 1750 pts is probably too many points for bringing in newcomers. Although Lovell made the Tyranid list very manageable and easy to pickup, 1750 left a lot of room for random doodads on my side, meaning Charles was just continually getting hit with all sorts of funky stuff and random tricks, probably making it tough to really pick up on patterns and rules.

All in all a pretty good game, with Charles doing pretty well in his second game of 40k and first time playing Tyranids.