Finally a post and battle report.

So, moving and finals are finally over and I have free time again. I got to try out the list I put forward in my prior post, and while I'm pleased with some of the changes, there's still room for improvement. Without further ado, Hive Fleet Tzimisce vs. Eldar

My opponent's list:

Farseer w/ Runes of Warding, Doom, Fortune, accompanied by a trio of Warlocks, 2 w/ Destructors
Avatar
6 Banshees, Exarch w/ Executioner
6 Warp Spiders
6 Jetbikes
10 Guardians w/ Scatterlaser, x2 squads
3 Warwalkers w/ EML
Fire Prism

The board was set up as a valley, with hills running along most of the table edges, crowned with ruins. The central area was open, with some craters for cover but nothing blocking LoS.  My objective went into a ruin in the bottom right corner of my deployment zone, while the Eldar placed theirs near the midline of the table, within easy claiming distance of a unit walking on from the edge.

The setup was Dawn of War and Capture and Control; I won the roll off and chose to go second.

Turn 1: What if they threw a war and no one showed up? Both of us went full reserve.

Turn 2:
Both our reserve rolls were poor; only a unit of Guardians, the Banshees, and Fire Prism arrive. Banshees and Prism move up the center of the board, while the Guardians hunker down in some woods.

The Tyranid turn was a bit more eventful. 2 Zoanthropes and the Termagants dropped in, surrounded the Guardians, and killed them to a man with Warp blasts, Fleshborers, and Ripper tentacles. The last Zoanthrope came in behind the Prism; its Warp blast killed a Banshee, but the Spore's tentacles missed the rear armor of the tank. The Tervigon also arrived on the left flank about 17" from the Banshees and Guardians; it threw Catalyst on itself, but its Cluster Spines scattered away.

Turn 3:
Eldar reinforcements for this turn were the Avatar, the 2nd unit of Guardians, the Jetbikes, and the Warwalkers. In a burst of luck the Warwalkers and Jetbikes whiffed on their shooting, inflicting only a few wounds that were saved without even using Feel No Pain. The Fire Prism similarly missed the Termagants that had slaughtered the first Guardian unit, while their replacements tore some wounds off a Mycetic spore, which was finished off by the Avatar in assault. The Banshees multiassaulted the Zoanthrope and its spore, killing them easily.

Everything else on the Tyranid side came in, although not for long... The Trygon scattered 11" towards the table edge, putting its shooting out of range and leaving it unable to threaten the Avatar. The Tyrant came in dead on, close to the Jetbikes and Banshees. Both Genestealer broods outflanked onto  the right side; one took up position on my objective, while the other hid behind a ruin, completely out of LoS.  The Tervigon spawned a brood of 15, while the brood that had podded in shuffled into the woods the Guardians had been hiding in. The Mawloc scattered badly, took out a Jetbike with its template, then Mishapped back into reserve when its base couldn't be placed on the board edge. The Jetbikes were annihilated by shots from the Tyrant and Termagants, with the sole survivor falling to the gaunts in assault. Their mother charged the Warwalkers; both sides failed to do any damage. Shooting from the gaunts, Spores, and Zoanthropes at the Avatar fail to hurt it.

Turn 4:
The Farseer and his retinue finally arrive, and proceed to blast half the Termagants out of their cover. On the left flank the Warp Spiders also make their entrance, scattering just short of a mishap on the Banshees. Fire from the Guardians and Warp Spiders sees the Termagant brood of 15 reduced to 5, while the Fire Prism takes aim at the Genestealers near my objective... and misses again. The Avatar assaults a Zoanthrope, whose Warp Field protects it from injury. Somewhat making up for its failure last turn, the Tervigon crushes a Warwalker, but is unable to roll above a 2 on the damage table for the rest of the game. In a disastrous turn of events, the Banshees rush forward and gut the Hive Tyrant before she can raise a bonesword.

On the Tyranid turn the bad news continues. The Mawloc fails to return from reserve, while the surviving gaunts kill only a Warlock and a Banshee with their shooting. The Tervigon and surviving Zoanthrope both suffer Perils of the Warp thanks to the Runes of Warding. The Trygon and forward brood of Genestealers rush towards the Avatar, but only the Trygon has the movement to assault. Unfortunately he fails to dent the Avatar with any of his attacks and takes two wounds of his own, causing the Zoanthrope to fail a No Retreat save.

Turn 5:
This was a pretty chaotic turn. Fire from the Farseer, Guardians,and Warp Spiders sees all but 1 gaunt killed; the sole survivor dies to a Witchblade in assault; the Banshees shuffle back towards the Eldar objective, leaving it all but surrounded. The Fire Prism, in its first useful act, moves flat out to contest my objective. In assault the Trygon shows some signs of life and puts two wounds on the Avatar, taking only one in return.

On the Tyranid turn, the Zoanthrope retreats from the approaching Farseer. The Mawloc bursts onto the Eldar objective, killing a pair of Guardians but accomplishing nothing else. In assault, both units of Genestealers rush the Fire Prism... 48 rending attacks result in not a single damage roll. To make matters worse, the Avatar shrugs off the Trygon's attacks again, drops it to its last wound, and kills the Zoanthrope with No Retreat wounds.

We roll for turn six, and the game ends with both objectives contested - a draw!

Thoughts on the Game:


Very fun game overall; the Eldar were a nice change of pace away from power armor, and still have some tricks I haven't seen yet, plus my opponent, Steve, is always a pleasure to play against. I think my only outright mistake was the placement of the Hive Tyrant; there was no excuse for it to be within charge range of the Banshees, especially since I knew beforehand that their masks would override her lash  whips (stupid FAQ!). I didn't know when I placed her that the gaunts wouldn't need the help to kill those jetbikes, but I should have. Even if the gaunt spawn had been small, between them and the Mawloc the unit would have been crippled either way, and the Tyrant could have been preserved to harass that Fire Prism or charge the objective.


The small broods podding in worked fairly well, wiping out the Guardians even after they'd gone to ground in cover and then forcing the Eldar to waste shots targeting individually weak units. I'm starting to think something needs to be done about the Genestealers, as they did very little throughout the game. They're just too expensive and fragile to sit out of the action as long as they sometimes can; I may have to experiment with swapping one brood out for another Mycetic Spore + termagants.  I'm also still on the fence regarding the Mawloc.  It's ultimately a one trick pony, but it's reasonably cheap (for a Tyranid MC), durable, and can be amazingly disruptive. Nevertheless its tempting at this points level to swap it out for a Devilfex and spore to provide more reliable firepower.

Back to the spawning vats.