Still testing out the Tyranids; last night I got in a short trial run at 1500 against Mech Eldar.
My list was as in the last post, with the Hive Guard replaced by 2 Lictors and less a few upgrades to round out the 30 points.
My opponent fielded: Eldrad, 2 units of 10ish Dire Avengers (1 with a Shimmershield, the other with a Diresword), both mounted in Scatter Laser armed Wave Serpents, a Falcon, Fire Prism Grav Tank, and an Autarch kitted out to move with a small group of Wapr Spiders.
We rolled up a Spearhead deployment with 4 Seize Ground objectives. They ended up placed in a rough diagonal line across the board. Unfortunately I lost the roll to pick sides and was given first turn. The Eldar then chose to reserve everything...
Turn 1:
"Crickets chirping"
Turn 2:
Tyranids:
The Tyranids roll very well for reserves; only the Ymgarl Genestealers and Hive Tyrant fail to arrive. The Warriors make an outflank onto the upper left side, running into range of an objective placed on the edge of a large ruin. A unit of Genestealers follows suit, running into some woodland terrain about 6" on and 12" below (from my perspective) the Warriors.
The Lictors also arrive on this flank, popping up in the ruins the Warriors are making for. On the other flank, the 2nd brood of Genestealers arrives in the lower right corner behind some ruins, intent on using it as cover to string out from and hold the objective about 6" above the cover.
In the center, both Trygons pop up on either side of the woods holding the central objective (and the dormant Ymgarls). To their left, the Termagants and spore land within caputure range of the last objective.
At this point I was pretty concerned. The last time I played this matchup, at 2000 pts, I deployed too aggressively and had both Trygons, my Hive Tyrant, and the bulk of my Warriors slagged in the first Eldar shooting phase. The Eldar are faster than I am, and while they have only 2 scoring units, I'm spread out trying to hold and multiple objectives.
Eldar:
The Eldar, with the Autarch's help, also roll well on their reserves, with only the Fire Prism staying in reserve. My opponent clusters all of his tanks in the upper left corner, while his Spiders and Autarch deepstrike near the Termagants.
Shooting goes poorly for him. The Spiders inflicted crippling wounds on the Termagants, but they were able to go to ground while using their spore for cover, and only lost 1.
After a flurry of pulse lasers, shuriken fire, a bright lance, and Eldrad's Mind War, 1 injured Warrior remains standing, while the Lictors and Genestealers are untouched.
Turn 3:
Tyranids:
The Hive Tyrant and Ymgarl Genestealers both arrive from reserve; the Tyrant lands within 6" of the Lictors, negating its scatter, while the Ymgarls pop up at the forest edge and race towards the Spiders.
In the shooting phase the Ymgarls roll a 6 for their run (on top of their 6" move out of cover). The Trygons shuffle towards the action, but roll poorly on their terrain and run moves. The Genestealers on the right flank saunter deeper into cover and closer to the objective, while those on the left also roll poorly to get out of their cover. The Tyrant manages to Stun the Falcon, while the Lictors do the same to Eldrad's Wave Serpent with their flesh hooks.
In assault the lone Warrior and Genestealers assault the lead Wave Serpent while the Lictors rush Eldrad's Serpent. Thanks to poor movement, only 4/9 Genestealers are in attack range, and the Nids fail to dent it. The Lictors have better luck, scoring three penetrating hits on their target and wrecking it. Dire Avengers pile out of the wreck, pass their pinning test, and start eying up targets. Back towards the center, the Ymgarls charge the Spiders, who lose combat by two, break, escape, and end up 7" away and above half...
Eldar:
Predictably the Fire Prism arrives from reserve, sidling up from the edge to my left but well out of assault range. Unpredictably, the Spiders fail their rally test and flee off the board.
Further to the left, the lead Serpent jets away from the Genestealers, then stops to let the Avengers pile out. Eldrad's unit shuffles forward, losing 1 to Dangerous Terrain as he moves over the wreck of his Serpent. Shooting sees Lictors incinerated by AT fire, while the last warrior is gunned down by Eldrad and the Avengers - who do not Bladestorm. The second unit of Avengers, outside of Eldrad's buff range, elect to Bladestorm the Genestealers, who go to ground; two survive.
Turn 4:
Tyranids:
The Ymgarls and Trygons continue to run towards the action, but are at least another turn from being able to do anything. The Hive Tyrant moves out of the terrain it landed in, then unloads its devourers into the Avengers that decimated the Genestealers. The Tyrant assaults the survivors, killing two, but the remaining Eldar pass their leadership test, locking them in assault.
Eldar:
With no other good options, Eldrad and his Avengers assuault the Tyrant, hoping they can kill it before more Tyranids arrive. Desultory fire from the remaining tanks kills 1 of the 2 remaining Genestealers, while the survivor is also assaulted by Eldrad's unit in the hopes of wracking up more kill points and taking out my last scoring model on that flank.
In assault the Tyrant kills 3 from the originally charged Dire Avenger squad, while the lone Genestealer whiffs. The Eldar then fail to kill the last Genestealer, and only get one wound on the Tyrant despite the rerolls from Doom. The depleted squad passes its Morale test, but in a burst of spectacularly bad luck, Eldrad's squad failed theirs and was run down by the Genestealer.
At this point we called it, as it was getting late and the Eldar were significantly behind on objectives and functional models.
Overall it was a better outing than I hoped for, although I'm not sure how conclusive it is. Victory really hinged on the two Avenger leadership tests in in Turn 4; if either of those had gone the other way, it would have been very different. It also helped that my opponent didn't unload the Wave Serpents immediately. Not doing so allowed the Tyrant to arrive and assault, and forced him to spend two shooting phases clearing me off one objective. Thoughts?
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