RECAP & GALLERY: Tyranids VS Tau 1,000pts

Drive me closer! I want to poke him in the eye!

Last weekend, Dieter and I had the chance to play a quick 1,000pt game... and it devolved into a knock-down, drag-out slugfest between the Tyranids and the Tau. Details and pics after the jump!

Dieter and I don't get to play often. Between work, women and responsibilities, when given free time, we usually choose to hobby instead of game. But last weekend, I prepped the forgeworld table in my game room, and we set up for a quick afternoon battle.

At least, that was the plan...

1,000pts
Big Guns Never Tire
5 Objectives
Vanguard Strike deployment

Tyranids:
Flying Hive Tyrant with twin-linked devourers
Venomthrope
Tervigon
10 Termigants with devourers
5 Warriors with deathpitters
20 Hormagants

Tau:
Ethereal
Jump Suit commander
Bodyguard
12 Fire warriors
12 Kroot
1 Hammerhead Gunship with Longstrike
1 Skyray Gunship

Unending Maw amasses for the attack.

I often get tricked into a toe-to-toe fight, and don't play the objectives, so this time I brought biomass in the form of 4 troops choices, and meant to play the capture points. I left nothing in reserve and created a wall of claws and teeth to surge forward to claim ground. And for a while, it worked.

Infested.

The devilgants and hormagants advanced under the choking fog of the venomthrope, giving them a 5+ cover save in the open, and the tervigon birthed a staggering 15 gants to claim the western-most objective in turn 1, moving on herself, toward the next objective.

The vengeful eyes of the Tau army, perched in a prime vantage point.

But Dieter's Tau snapped into action, and with his pathfinders in a high tower, began to markerlight anything unlucky enough to get within range, preparing them for obliteration.

"Target those Zenos and FIRE!"

When Longstrike rumbled around the corner of the Librarium Imperialis, I knew I was in trouble. He immediately began pounding the advancing Warrior squad with submunitions rounds, inflicting heavy wounds. Immediately after the barrage, the Skyray fired seeker missiles at my hive tyrant, using the markerlights - denying it line of sight, cover and armor saves. Ouch.

Undaunted, I moved all of my troops toward the objectives. The Hive Tyrant went right for the throat, and swooped on Longstrike, stripping 2 of his 3 hull points in a single volley.

Faced with certain death, Longstrike weighed the odds of making a shot on a swooping target, and instead opted to fire on the thundering Tervigon downrange, insuring a weakened foe for his surviving comrades. In the next turn, the Tyrant destroyed him with a vector strike as it moved on to other prey, not giving the veteran a second thought.

A horrifying demise.

This netted me a huge boon of 3 victory points: 1 for first blood, 1 for a heavy unit, & 1 for Longstrike. I was riding high on a decisive kill.

And then Dieter blasted me out of the sky.

While Longstrike had trouble tracking airborne targets, the crew of the Skyray had no such problems, and nailed the Tyrant squarely in the chest, causing it to lose control and come crashing to the ground, inflicting a final, fatal wound.

A Kroot warrior deftly parries a talon strike and shoulder checks a Hormagant.

My Hormagants advanced toward his Kroot, who held an objective high atop the Shrine of the Aquila. Shrouded in the noxious fog from the venomthrope, they survived withering fire, scaled the walls like demonic ants, and locked in combat with the Kroot. Unbelievably, outnumbered and outmatched, the Kroot held their ground and routed the Hormagants in a display of animal brutality.

It's just like Contra

While I left nothing in reserve, Dieter delayed his Jump Suit Commander and Bodyguard. Waiting for my forces to advance, he dropped in behind my devilgants and warriors and unleashed hell. Standing back to back, and able to split targets, the duo, accompanied by pincer fire from the Fire Warriors opposite them, decimated my Warriors, leaving only one-- and completely wiped out the devilgants holding the central objective.

You had ONE job, Bodyguard. One Job.

The victory was short-lived, however, as the Tervigon quickly turned her attention to them, and charged along side the remaining warrior. The Commander, a monster hunter, gravely wounded her as she approached, but it wasn't enough to stop her advance. Enraged, she crushed the Commander in a single smash attack, killing him instantly. His bodyguard, failing to shove the Commander out of the way, was killed in the next flurry of scything talons.

With Jump pack bits stuck to her talons, she lumbered to the center objective and parked there, weathering a constant hail of pulse rifle and sniper fire for the next two rounds, as she traded shots with the Fireteam camped on the objective in the Librarium - each trying to force the other off the objectives they held.

The game lasted a total of SEVEN, grueling turns as we hammered each other's forces, each thinking they wouldn't recover from the crippling loss they received the turn before. In the end, however, Dieter was victorious, having captured 3 objectives and killed my HQ for a total of 10 points, while I captured 2 objectives and destroyed Longstrike in a first blood attack for a total of 9.

Exhausted and ecstatic, we celebrated with great japanese food and plenty of beer and sake.

- trip