[titankiller]

Okay, just got back from playing my friend. He fielded his Space Marine Chapter, the "Storm Crows" against my tyranids of Splinter Fleet Venom.

My army:

HQ:

Hive Tyrant - 182 pts
-ST x2, Winged, Warp Field, Toxin Sacs, Flesh Hooks

Elites:

Warrior Brood (5) - 150 pts
-RC, Dev, ES, EC

Troops:

Hypergaunts (10) - 120 pts
-AG (I), AG (WS)

Hypergaunts (10) - 120 pts
-AG (I), AG (WS)

Spinegaunts (12) - 60 pts

Termagants (12) - 72 pts

Termagants (12) - 72 pts

Genestealers (12) - 192 pts

Fast Attack:

Ravener (1) - 40 pts
-ST, RC

Ravener (1) - 40 pts
-ST, RC

Ravener (1) - 40 pts
-ST, RC

Heavy Support:

Devilfex - 133 pts
-TL-Dev x2, ES, Spinebanks, Reinforced Chitin

Gunfex - 149 pts
-VC, BS, ES, Flesh hooks

Zoanthropes (2) - 130 pts
-Warp Blast, Synapse Creature

Total: 1500/1500 pts

His army:

HQ:

Marsarius Kulan (his "Chapter Master", game terms hes a Grey Knight Grand Master w/ lots of anti-chaos stuff, fluff-wise hes been trained by the Grey Knights)
Master w/ Storm Bolter & Lightning Claw

Elites:

Dreadnought w/ AC, SBolter, EA, and smoke

Troops:

2 tac squads at 10 men, one of which was a vet. sarge w/ PW

1 tac squad at 8 men, w/ a flamer

7 scouts w/ sniper rifles

Fast Attack:

Assault Squad - 5 men, 1 has a flamer

Heavy Support:

Pred Annihilator w/ HBs, HK missile, SBolter, EA and Smoke

Dev Squad at 5 men, 2 plasma cannons, 1 lascannon and 1 HB

Total: 1500 (or right around there)

Board - 4'x4', lots of impassable walls and towers

Mission: Seek and Destroy

Set-up:
I've got everything pretty clustered together, sorta to reinforce the "swarm-mentality." Standard deployment of fodder gaunts up front, CC guys at the back, MCs kinda mixed in.

SMs set up with all 3 tac squad pretty much shoulder-to-shoulder in the center with the Master joining the middle squad. The devs deploy to the left of the tacs, and the assault squad deploys right behind them. Pred, dread and Kulan deploy to the right of the tacs, and scouts infiltrate a few inches ahead of them.

SM turn 1:
He manuvered his tac squads around a bit, along with his pred and dread, as well as having the jump squad fly over his devs towards my flank. The dev squad takes shots at my flyrant, with one plasma cannon out of LOS, the other whiffing, the HB simply bouncing off and the lascannon getting absorbed by the tyrant's 6+ invul. The pred fired its own TL las, which wounded, but its HK was blocked and the HBs didnt do anything (3 wounds left). His snipers fired and scored 6 hits on the devilfex, made 3 wounds and it failed 1 save (4 wounds left).

Nid turn 1:
The whole swarm advanced, with the spines, stealers and 1 brood of hypergaunts turning left to go after the vehicles and scouts. 2 raveners turned with them, plus the gunfex and one zoan. Flyrant flew straight forward and stopped next to a wall. 1 brood of termies went right to try flanking, the other zoan followed them, while the other hypers and ravener went around the wall, but same direction. The warriors just went straight forward.

For shooting, both fexs came into their own. The devilfex had range to the 8-man tac squad, but only the front 2, one of which was the flamer man. Taking 8 shots at them, it scored 6 hits, and then 6 wounds, which dropped both men. The gunfex barely had LOS to the pred, so we ruled tha the pred was hull-down. In an amazing display of gunnery skills, the fex missed with both venom shots, but landed the BS, which I rolled a 6 for on AP. However, he rolled a 5 for hull-down, downgrading it to glance. I rolled for damage and leaped for joy when it landed on a 6. My friend actually said, "oh, you've got to be #@$!ing joking!" as he turned over his pred and began ranting about how its cursed when he fields it against me (I've killed it almost everytime we've played ;D).

SM turn 2:
The two 10-man squads move right, putting them directly across the wall from my flyrant (I'm still not sure if he realized it was there). The dread moves up a bit to give the scouts clear LOS but retain its own. The Assault Squad continued to advance, but a little slower, sorta cautiously. The reduced tac squad advanced and opened up with bolters into a brood of termies, killing 3 of them. The devs fired at them too, also killing 3. His snipers took shots at the tyrant, but no wounds. The dread dropped 2 spines with its AC, then 2 more with its bolter.

Nid turn 2:
The spines, stealers and accompanying hypers advance into the chokepoint toward the dread and scouts. The gunfex uses its FHs to climb up the tower next to them, while their zoan and raveners bring up the rear. The tyrant flys over the wall in front of it and lands next to the 2 10-man squads. The warriors advanced again, following the devilfex, which moved off towards the devs. The other hypers and their ravener advanced towards the assault squad, while the flanking termies and zoan came around their wall.

For shooting, the gunfex managed to hit with both venom shots against the dread, shaking and immobilizing it. The devilfex fires again at the reduced tac squad, dropping 2 more. Everyone who can fleet does so, mostly getting 4s.

For assaulting, the tyrant charges down the sqaud containing the master and scythes down the four nearest marines, but they hold fast thanks to the master's leadership. The right flank hypers and ravener charge the assault squad, the ravener rending down 1, whilst the hypers stab two more to death. The last 2 strike back and kill two hypers with their chainswords, but still losing the combat. When they fail their check and try to run, my nids catch them with a sweeping advance. They stand firm with ATSKNF, taking 3 No Retreat! armor saves and failing 2...which means they all die. The ravener happily massacres 5" behind a wall, whilst the hypers stand sorta scatterbrained and move a measly 1", which they use to spread out, not wanting to be clumped all together for the twin plasma cannons in front of them.

SM turn 3:
The unengaged 10-man squad moves further right, in front of Kulan, and thats it for movement. Kulan and the squad fire their bolters at the nearby spinegaunts and kill every last one of them (22 bolter shots vs. 8 spinegaunts...). The scouts also fire their sniper rifles and drop 2 of the hypers, and the reduced squad (now only 4) fire at the termies in front of them and kill 2 more. The devs warm up their weapons and fire at the other brood of hypers, which is still dumbfounded after killing the jump sqaud so easily. The HB goes first, missing 2 shots and failing to wound with the last; 1 plasma cannon overheats, but the marine is fine; the las misses badly; the last plasma cannon hits, but can only catch 1 hyper no matter where he puts the biscut, and burns it down. Oh, and the sarge missed with his one bolter shot.

In the assault phase, the master and flyrant squared off, with the tyrant scoring a wound and nothing in return. However, the marines still don't break.

Nid turn 3:
I check for synapse and find that I have over-extended myself on the right flank: both the hypers and ravener are out of range of my zoan. Rolling their checks, I roll the dice twice, producing snake-eyes and boxcars...of course, it was the hypers who rolled low, whilst the tough-as-nails ravener gets scared and runs away... Meanwhile, the devilfex moves up with the remaining 4 termies next to it toward the reduced squad. The right flank zoan moves up, bringing the ravener and hypers back into synapse, while the hypers bound forward towards the devs. On the left flank, the other hypers turn the corner towards the untouched tac squad, and the stealers advance on the dread. Their raveners and zoans follow quickly behind, but get a little clogged in the chokepoint (which, of course, is the point :P) The warriors advance up behind the devilfex and his little cronies.

In the shooting phase, the devilfex shoots and kills the dev sarge and one plasma gunner. The warriors and termies fire into the reduced squad and drop one. The gunfex fires at the scouts, only wounding with one venom shot, which is promptly saved by their 5+ cover, and the nearby zoan blasts them as well, dropping one.

For assaulting, the hypers assault the remainders of the dev squad, and the 4 termies charge the reduced squad. On the left flank, the hypers charge the 10-man squad, while the stealers rush the dread. The tyrant finally manages to kill off the master, but the marines pass their check. The devs trade one marine for a hyper, and the reduced squad goes 1-to-1 with the termies as well. The left flank hypers slash down 2 marines, but lose 4 in return, and pass their one save for No Retreat! The stearlers scored 2 rends on the dread, resulting in a pen and a glance, which destroy and shake it, respectively. They then use the 3" from the massacre to make contact with the scouts.

SM turn 4:
Not too much moving or shooting, seeing as how almost everything is locked or dead. In fact, only Kulan moved, which was towards the tyrant, which he charged (didn't even bother with Horror, since he's fearless anyways).

In CC, the last of the devs finally fall and the hypers massacre 4" towards the rest of his army. The stealers rend 3 scouts to death, but lose one in return. The reduced squad (now only 2) both land wounds on the termies, who promptly fail their armor saves, but pass the No Retreat! save. The tyrant and Kulan strike simo, with the tyrant landing 4 hits, and 3 wounds, 2 of which get past the invul. Kulan , on the other hand, lands a grand total of 4 wounds on the tyrant, none of which I save. So the tyrant falls, but Kulan is heavily injured. Also, the left flank, the hypers fail to take down another marine, and all of them die to point-blank bolter bursts and combat knives.

Nid turn 4:
The hypers move past the (now) unengaged tac squad, while the warriors and devilfex move up to shoot them. The raveners all move up, the right one moving to assist the one still living termie, while the others on the left finally move around the corner and face the tac squad that just finished off the hypers. Meanwhile, the gunfex stays on top of his tower and simply roars defiantly.

For shooting, the zoan fires at the tac squad in front of the raveners, killing two with its warp blast, while the gunfex wounds but it is saved. Meanwhile, the devilfex and the warriors open up on the other tac squad and drop all but one of them, who promptly retreats a few inches.

In the assault phase, the raveners all charge, the right one at the two marines still fighting the termie, the left ones at the tac squad. The hypers all charge Kulan, who strikes simo with them and kills two. However, the hypers strike back and cause 3 wounds, with Kulan failing one save and only having one wound left on him. As such, the gaunts (somehow) let out a cry of "This is 'Nida!" and disembowel him (we just came from seeing 300 ;D). The last 4 of them massacre into the one remaining marine nearby. The right ravener rended both its marines down, winning the combat via massacre. On the left, the stealers rend one scout and hack down another, then kill the last one via No Retreat! saves. Also, the raveners rend down two tac marines and kill another, with no wounds in return, but the last three marines don't break.

SM turn 5:
It skips straight to assault, with the hypers failing to wound the marine and he kills one in return. They break and manage to escape, falling back to the warriors. The raveners rend a marine apart and kill a second, but the last one manages to put a wound on one ravener. However, he refuses to break, rolling snake-eyes for his check.

Nid turn 5:
At this point, there are 2 tac marines left facing almost 40 tyranids. My friend declares he was screwed when he deceided to play me, but that it was great fun, and tells me to finish them off. As such, my devilfex moves up and obliterates the one marine who sent the hypers running last round. Meanwhile, the stealers join into the combat with the two raveners, and rend the heroic (or crazy) lone remaining marine to pieces.

Victory Points:
Storm Crows: 478
Splinter Fleet Venom: 1956
Result: Victorious Slaughter for Splinter Fleet Venom (me)!

[sarnas]

Looks like your list is working out for you. Few questions.

Which page of the rulebook can i find rending against vehicles? I played against nuns-with-guns yesterday and couldn't hurt his exorcist when i assaulted from the front, and for the love of me couldn't find the rending rule!

Also, was 300 as good as the hype?

Cheers,
Sarnas

[Durza]

Originally Posted by Shas'el Sarnas

Which page of the rulebook can i find rending against vehicles? I played against nuns-with-guns yesterday and couldn't hurt his exorcist when i assaulted from the front, and for the love of me couldn't find the rending rule!

Page 46, second last rule.

[titankiller]

Originally Posted by Shas'el Sarnas

Also, was 300 as good as the hype?

Yes, it was incredible. I personally think it was worth every penny of the $6.50 I spent to go see it.

[sarnas]

Thanks for the page number Durza!

And titankiller, im seeing 300 tommorow. SWEET.

[Astartes X]

Yo,

I'm the aforementioned defeated player, lol. Decided to join the forums to talk 40K with others (titankiller's the only person I regularly talk with about it). But yep, I have yet to beat him, especially those 'Nids. They make the Black Templars (his other army) seem like angels. I've played other Marines, Tau, Witch Hunters, Chaos, Eldar, and just recently, Orks, and done between decent to great. Titankiller's an excellent player (probably the best I know), so playing him gives me the practice I need; average game against him means I can expect a real good performance against others. So, in my quest to defeat him, I'll just keep beating up other players. The 1500-point army of mine listed has done great against everyone else; he is the first to really smash it.

PS: The Ork battle was practice for the other guy, but it gave me an idea of how they work.

[sarnas]

Hey man welcome to the forums. Titankiller has a good list, which can make the difference. See ya around,
Sarnas