[Nezalhualixtlan]

Played a good friend of mine tonight at the local Hobby Shop, probably one of the closest wins I've come away with, probably one of the most fun games I've ever played. I wish I had kept better track of the casualties turn to turn, I'm not going to be able to write a proper battle report, but let me give you some of the highlights...

Sniperfex gunned down by massed fire followed by the most epic Monstrous creature fight I've ever seen. 2 Hive Tyrants, one of them flying one walking with Guard, 2 Screamer Killer, vs an Avatar and 2 Wraithlords. The 2 Screamer Killers charged the Avatar and locked up into combat. One of the Wraithlords charged into the mix. The Walking Tyrant and Guard charged into the mix. When the dust settled after the slugfest was done the Avatar and Wraithlord left the monstrous 'Nids in piles of broken carapace plats and alien goo limping away with 1 wound each left. The Flyrant had his face punched through by the other Wraithlord elsewhere on the board. It was one of the most titanic melee's I think I've ever seen.

Epic amounts of Warp Blasts missing and failing to wound or crack the armor of targets leveled across the board while the Zoanthropes got clobbered by more than a few Perils of the Warp.

Genestealers outflanked from the sides and mowed down rangers, raveners cleaned up guardians & a Farseer & Warlock, but got mowed down themselves trying to slow the advance of the Avatar and Wraithlord running to the last stand of termagaunts strug out to sit on two objectives... No troops left on the Eldar side of the board, he flew a Waveserpent down and a group of Dire Avengers jumped out and tried to bladestorm the Gaunts off the objectives but they dove into cover and went to ground and avoided most of it. Genestealers plowed into the Dire Avengers taking out the last of the Eldar troops, but the Wave Serpent crushed a few of them. The Waveserpent tank shocked into the Gaunts, contesting one objective, and the gaunts moved out of the way under the command of a Zoanthrope.

After helping the genestealers mow down the Rangers, the Lictor charged a squad of 2 War Walkers, throwing his rending claws through both of their fuel tanks and making them explode in spectacular fasion, killing the Lictor in the resultant blasts.

The Avatar and Wraithlord were running towards the end... Tyranids died all over the board leaving nothing but a few Zoanthropes and those genestealers and gaunts left. The genestealers raked rending claws through the Waveserpent immobilizing it and ripping off a top turret leaving the Gaunts out of reach of its weapons and still in control of one of the objectives. The Zoanthropes still fail to warp blast the wounded Wraithlord and Avatar coming to contest, and charged into the Avatar sacrificing themselves to slow it down. The genestealer move to assault and slow down the Wraithlord, and manage to rend off its last wound killing it. The Avatar cleaves through the Zoanthropes, and the genestealers assaut him in a last desperate move to slow him down, one dies...

As Turn 7 ends: 8 Termagaunts out of a brood of 10 sitting on an objective with 1 Genestealer tied up in combat with the Avatar with the rest of the Eldar Army bearing down on their position with no Synapse left and the entire rest of the Tyranid army annihilated as the game runs out out time - a turn 8 would have had us tied with the last objective contested for certain.

I've yet to kill that blasted Avatar in any game yet.

Things I learned? Don't rush Tyrants into combat with Wraithlords - bad idea S6 on T8 makes for few wounds. I wound up probably doing the opposite of what I should have, directing the Carnifexes at the Avatar when they might have done better against the Wraithlords, and the Tyrants might have done better against the Avatar. I probably should have supported the assault with some Feeder Tendrils, I had so many misses I can't even begin to fathom how that happened. Zoanthropes were worthless outside of Synapse and providing the end game speed bump, but I guess that's karma kicking me in the ass for a lot of previous games were just about everything went right for me and my friend had a lot of bad rolls.

Still, the vision of that titanic slugfest of MCs slaughtering each other all right on top of each other in the middle of the board was awesome, I'm not used to my MCs massed like that not rolling over pretty much... anything. All in all I think this had to be one of my most fun games of all time.

Well...seems you handle a titanic battle in youre hands and I really enjoyed reading youre report ;D
You conclusions meet most of wat I´ve passed.
A good way to even perfect the wraith kiling is to make them forece battling genestealers and with a couple of luck 3 D6 6s will clean up youre way.
Against the Avatar I would Upgrade youre H.Tyrant(any one for the close combat) with iniciative 6, its not much but youre Hive instead of dying first he could died at the same time ;D
If you know youre oponent would send you monstrous creatures like the avatar,, get implant attack on youre tyrants
I´ve made a game vs a winged demon prince of nurgle, as he charges he died cause I hit him first and he failed to pass 2 invulnerable saves. If it was not for the I6 and implant attack, , the demon should use the psychic test to re-roll to hit and to wound and surely would killed my Hive tyrant.
But still I prefer useing against Big eldar fellows, genestealers..... Its much owrthier to see a huge thing falling apart by some small creatures ;D rather inspiring to you and a curse to youre oponent.

[sionnach19]

Woah, that sounds like a fun game :P MC duels are always awesome, I've had some great ones... Black Templar Ven Dread tearing up two Defilers in combat, a Carnifex having a showdown with a Grey Knight's Dread, even had that same BT Dread take down an Avatar in combat... with the barrel of his assault cannon.

But, as cool as MC battles are I wouldn't encourage them, at least not with Nids. Whilst our MC's are good, they don't have the survivability vs. enemy MC's to be too effective... sounds like an awesome game though, congrats on the close win!

[scoutfox]

Good to see that the match wasn't as one sided as it usually is. I'm writing the battrep right now for the game we had the other night, where I killed his avatar with boyz. Best thing was the first two wounds came off from slugga/shoota rounds. He's got to learn to keep those pathfinders away from outflankers. Sounds like it was a good game though. See you later today: Go Steelers.

[Sjoerd]

how did you win without synapse :O outside of synapse, gaunts aren't scoring, or am I wrong

As Turn 7 ends: 8 Termagaunts out of a brood of 10 sitting on an objective with 1 Genestealer tied up in combat with the Avatar with the rest of the Eldar Army bearing down on their position with no Synapse left and the entire rest of the Tyranid army annihilated as the game runs out out time - a turn 8 would have had us tied with the last objective contested for certain.

Draw?

[bebe]

how did you win without synapse :O outside of synapse, gaunts aren't scoring, or am I wrong

You are partially correct, lol.

Gaunts can elect to take a leadership test if they want to claim objectives and are out of Synapse. It is risky since they may just run off the table. Lurking gaunts cannot claim objectives.

[sionnach19]

Originally Posted by CanaBebe

You are partially correct, lol.

Gaunts can elect to take a leadership test if they want to claim objectives and are out of Synapse. It is risky since they may just run off the table. Lurking gaunts cannot claim objectives.

*sigh*...

http://forums.tauonline.org/index.php?topic=74871.90

The last couple pages have most of the info you guys are looking for about scoring and synapse. Don't restart the thread here, I just linked it so you could read through what has already been done.

[DELPHEUS]

Amazingly awesome!

I'm thinking of writing up some deathmatch rules now. :shifty:

[Nezalhualixtlan]

Originally Posted by CanaBebe

You are partially correct, lol.

Gaunts can elect to take a leadership test if they want to claim objectives and are out of Synapse. It is risky since they may just run off the table. Lurking gaunts cannot claim objectives.

Gaunts are scoring outside of Synapse as long as they are not lurking - there is a large thread on this, and the conclusion of GWs Customer Service department was that there is always the choice of doing nothing at all - not moving, not lurking, just standing still and still being able to capture.

That said, this isn't the place to reopen that argument - and we're still in insta-smite mode for flames and flame baiting, so please bear that in mind.

Anyway, the Gaunts started turn 6 inside Synapse of a Zoanthrope then they moved themselves entirely inside of the area terrain sitting on an objective while the Zoanthrope rushed forward to sacrifice itself to slow the advance of the Avatar. At the start of my turn 7, there was no need for the Gaunts to move, nor for them to try and do anything else but remain still to capture. And if that wasn't the ruling GW had made, I wouldn't have sacrificed both Zoanthropes to the Avatar, so it really wouldn't have mattered.

Originally Posted by Scoutfox

Good to see that the match wasn't as one sided as it usually is. I'm writing the battrep right now for the game we had the other night, where I killed his avatar with boyz. Best thing was the first two wounds came off from slugga/shoota rounds. He's got to learn to keep those pathfinders away from outflankers. Sounds like it was a good game though. See you later today: Go Steelers.

Yeah, it was a great close game, and those are always the most fun. The fact of the matter is, really he had a chance to bring the game to a tie, right down to the end. Had he thought to start flat-out moving his remaining Vyper towards my last objective a turn earlier, he'd have contested it. Had he moved slightly different in his tank shock with his Waveserpent before the Genestealers immobilized it, it was long enough to be contesting both objectives from front to back. We both messed up on some shooting targeting priority in the first turn of shooting, but had he not done that, it could have been enough to turn the game to a tie. And really, by any other measurement of the game, I think he had me beat - he would have crushed me in Kill Points if it had been Annhilation, and I think he had enough under the old 4th Victory Points rules to secure a win by the end too (I might not have been sacrificing units under those conditions at the end, but still).

[bebe]

My apologies - I really did not intend to open up an old debate but rather explain why you could indeed score.

I think your report was great and who does not enjoy a close game. Would it be to much to ask if I request your army list? Was it a pure Zilla list? Sounds like it was a bit of a hybrid with four MCs. Nice to see Lictors being used with some success.

I play the Avatar/Wraithlord combo in my Eldar list as well and although I hear people say that the Avatar can be taken down with swarms or volume of fire, mine has been a house in every game. I see you ran into difficulties dealing with it as well, lol.