Epic Fail

I am considering Jon and I's campaign a fail. Due to a lack of campaign gaming and the recent reawakening of my Tyranid hive fleet, I am dubbing out current campaign in finished and over for now. Maybe we will get a new one going here soon. With the school year quickly approaching, we will have more player for our campaigns soon.

4-round Tournament

Well after the tournament this last weekend, I have come to realize that I can't get away fro the love I have for my Tyranids. Jon and I entered into the 1500pt tournament with high hopes for success. Jon ended up finishing with a 2-2 streak. I nearly took first until I faced mech-Guard. My first battle was against a friend and his Grey Knights. He brought two Dreadknights, a Landraider, two squads of terminators, and a single squad of Stike squad, all led by Crowe. The game went downhill from the start for him. My Broodlord instant-killed his HQ, I pinned one of his terminator units, and started to consume the rest. He ended up conceding after all but his landraider died. That gained me 22 battlepoints including bonuses. The next battle was against Chaos Marines. One word to describe this battle, CARNAGE! So much died... especially my stuff. All I had at the end of the game was my Tervigon and a group of three Termigaunts. However I got a major victory due to my Genestealers forming a congo-line (quoting Jon) and getting my objective off the field, as per the scenario. That boosted me up to 30 points. The next battle was against vanilla Marines, which was a huge game of luck. My opponant fired 6 hunter-killer missiles into my tyrant, fired his dreadnaught's multi-melta into him, and lit him up with rockit spam... ALL ON FREAKIN' TURN ONE! Apparrently he really wanted him dead, but my Tyrant had other ideas. He took 3 damage points, and successfully saved all other cover saves. Made my day. The game was a massacre and it boosted me up to 45 points. The next battle I faced the infamous Mech-Guard and scored 3 kill point but was massacred in the process. Because of my battlepoints, I took 3rd (though if I had won that last Battle I would have been 1st), but I proved my 'Nids a terror. Till next time.... NOM!

Eressar's Thoughts

Shadows scattered, wind blowing through the copse of trees as Eressar wiped the last of the Wolves’ blood from his ancestral blade. They had slaughtered them to a man, or so it would seem. He looked down at the man whose throat he had cut. These men could stop the Threat, if they would only listen……but they wouldn’t. Altansar would not see the galaxy consumed by this evil while these young races played at war. So close, so incredibly close to finding the weapon created in at the height of their power. It could not be allowed to fall hands of the this young race. No, Altansar would see the Eldar ascendant once more and the Threat destroyed. Eressar glanced up, watching Mugan Ra survey the carnage. They may have annihilated this batch of Marines, but more would come, drawn to the slaughter as moths to a flame.

And the same fate would befall those who followed: Death, in its many splendored varieties.

Meanwhile

So I have been waiting for Jon to post his journal from our last game, which he should be doing as we speak. But, while I waited, I didn't see the harm in playing another game, but this time it was my Nids against his Eldar. Jon told me to make a 1500 "anti-Eldar" list so he could learn to overcome that which was designed to kill him. So this is what I brought:

Hive Tyrant w/lash whip, bonesword, stranglethorn cannon, paroxism, & leech essence
Tervigon as a troop w/adrenal glands, toxin sacs, & scything talons
Deathleaper (for those of you who don't know, Deathleaper lowers the leadership of one enemy independant character. Sucks for those pesky psychers..  hehe)
The Doom of Malan'Tai with Mycetic spore
Ymgarl Genestealers (to deal with those pathfinders)
Termagaunt brood (to make Tervigon a troop)
Large Hormagaunt brood w/adrenal glands & toxin sacs
Genestealers and Broodlor w/implant attack
Gargoyle brood
Carnifex w/TL brainleach worms, and stranglethorn cannon


Jon switched his tournament list up just a bit. These are his units (I don't know all upgrades that he has so forgive me for leaving them out):

Farseer w/doom & mindwar
Autarch w/ mandiblasters, fusion pistol, and chainsword
Firedragons and exarch w/ heavy flamer in a 2xTL scatterlazer wave serpent
Harlequins full upgrades
Shining Spears w/exarch
Storm Guardians w/warlock (enbolden), flamer and fusion pistol in a 2xTL scatterlazer wave serpent
Pathfinders
Wraithlord with EML


Now I forgot to take pictures at every turn so I will have to explain each pics location.
   We rolled a 3d3 plus 2 objective secenario and got 4 objectives. After placing objectives, we rolled pitched battle, Jon won the roll off, and decided to take the first turn. I was glad he did because I REALLY needed to know where to deploy my genestealers and gaunts. Because of my Ymgarls ability to just show up in any piece of terrain, Jon really didn't want to leave his snipers all alone. He instead to chose to place his harlies spaced throughout the building to deny the Ymgarls that building. Jon at this point does not know which terrain piece I wrote down for their Dormant ability. He proceded to deploy his units in a relatively defensive position, though he was really indecisive about where to focus his attention. I infiltrated my Genestealers, which I normally don't do. Usually I outflank, but for some strange reason, Jon has been highly reluctant to deploy near the edges of the tables (I really wonder why :P). Anyways, I chose his Farseer to be the victim of Deathleaper's horror tacticts, and rolled a -3 for his leadership :D I deployed semi-agressively to take the objectives.
   I failed to steal the initiative and Jon porceded with his first turn. He DDDOOOMMMED (yes I did just yell that) my Genestealers, killed a few, took 3 wounds of of my Carnifex, then repositiond his army to match my advance.... Eldar castle, here we come. NOM NOM!
   For my first turn, the Tervigon pooped out 10 dudes (no doubles), blew a brain nerve with psychic test (stupid runes of warding >:O   ) and all of my forces advanced... and thats it.
  Beginning of his 2nd, he droped the farseer and guardians before moving his tank to his left flank. The Guardian unit moved forward with the Wraithlord behind and then proceded to unleash hell on the stealers, even killed a few gaunts due to the flamer. He attempted Mind War with my Broodlord, but where as I would have been normally beaten by 2 points of leadership+die roll, because of the deathleapers Its After Me! rule, I beat him by one. With his Guardians and Farseer, he assaulted my 3 remaining stealers and the Broodlord (shudder at the mention of he that kills!), and his Shining Spears assaulted my hormagaunts. this is where things start to go really downhill for Jon... Quickly. He manages to kill the 3 regular stealers, but not the Broodlord, and lost the combat. THEN they failed leadership. THEN they lost this sweeping advance roll.... then they died. His Shining Spears didn't do much better. They managed to kill 3 gaunt before getting anihilated. The picture below is the aftermath of that assault phase.

My turn >:D Deathleaper didn't show up, but the Doom deepstruck behind his units and the Ymgarls showed up... but not in the building Jon thought they would (the one with no roof on the right instead of the really tall one). My Broodlord (do the shudder, DO IT!) ran toward the Wraithlord, Tervigon pooped out 11 more little dudes, all gaunts advance, and I use my Gargoyles as a screen for my Tyrant. No one died from the Doom's Spirit Leech abilility. In the assault, a unit of Termagaunts, the Homagaunts, and the Ymgarls (who chose +1 toughness from their Alter Form ability) all assaulted the harlies.... and the harlies died after only inflicting 1 wound on the Ymgarls.. not their day. My Broodlord (SHUDDER!) assaulted the Wraithlord..... and hypnotized it! Rolled 4 hits..... and a single six >:D Thanks to Implant Attack, thats all I needed and the Wraithlord suffered instant death.. (Wraithlord shoulda shuddered....)

   On Jon's 3rd Turn, he tried everything he could to get off some fusion gun shots at my Tyrant, but wanst able to due to my nifty use of Gargoyle screening. He turbo-boosted his tank to my flank and moved the other directly into the middle of everything and proceeded to try and kill my Tervigon, which took 2 wounds.

   The Deathleaper still didn't feel like showing up, but my gaunts kept passing Instictive Behavior tests! After the Tervingon pooped 9 more dudes, I moved up that tower with the gaunts (which made a meal of the snipers in one turn), and then moved all Termagaunts, the Ymgarls, and the Tervigon in to assault the empty waveserpent. They all managed to immobilized, took a gun off, and kept it from shooting next turn. I tried to be clever and surround the other wave serpent to prevent emergency disembark, but even with my Tyrant hitting it, I didn't do anything to it.

   Jon's 4th turn consisted of moving his Firedragons in the Waveserpent over to kill the Tervigon, which he did, and due to Brood Progenitor, killed most of the rest of the gaunts around.

  My 4th turn was the last with the remaining gaunts and the Gargoyles assaulted the Firedragons and Autarch, and successfully killed them all. The tank was blown up by my fex and Tyrant.

In case you can't tell, I am highly supportive of my nids in the friendly games, but I mean it all in good fun. Jon wanted an anti-Eldar list and I brought it with nasty efficiency. He targeted the right things at the right times, except for his spears which should have been going after bigger fish. I think he played too aggressively by giving me the opportunity to deploy second, and his Farseer probably should have stayed away from the Genestealers. I love how my Broodlord.... (shudder?) has killed the Wraithlord twice now with his implant attack. And my Tervigon once again never rolled doubles :D Happy days. My big mistake was allowing him to kill my Tervigon so easily, but oh well. I enjoyed the game, and I am stoked about using my Nids in the upcoming tournament. now that I think of it, I will post pictures and battle reports from that tournament for fun and maybe I can get Jon's battles in there too. Who knows, but stay tuned!