Team Tournament Game 3

With two losses, we came to our third and final game. Our opponents were playing Chaos Space Marines and Tyranids.

Tyranids
Hive Tyrant w/ wings, 2 twin-linked devourers

13 Genestealers w/ Broodlord

25 Hormagaunts w/ adrenal glands and toxin sacs

10 Termagants

Tervigon w/ cluster spines, adrenal glands, toxin sacs, Catalyst, Onslaught

Chaos Space Marines
Chaos Lord w/ sigil of corruption, power sword, plasma pistol

Sorceror w/ Mastery Level 3, sigil of corruption, spell familiar, Telepathy

6 Chaos Space Marines w/ plasma gun, close-combat weapons, bolt pistols, bolters

20 Cultists w/ autoguns, 2 heavy stubbers

20 Cultists w/ autoguns, 2 heavy stubbers

6 Chosen w/ lightning claw, 3 power weapons

Helbrute w/ multi-melta

Helbrute w/ multi-melta


The game was Big Guns Never Tire with 5 objectives in Dawn of War deployment. The Chaos player was just starting the army, so he'd basically built two Dark Vengeance boxes. Our opponents deployed first, with the Chaos forces mostly on our left (except for one squad of Cultists on the right). The Tyranids took the right, with the winged Tyrant taking cover behind a ruin.

We deployed to counter, with the Executioners on the left and the Tyranids on the right. I stupidly infiltrated the Scouts so they could get some 4+ cover, but it put them in the line of the Hormagaunt advance.


Turn 1
Our opponents had first turn, and generally advanced toward up. The Tyrant flew on top of the temple to our right. Thankfully, their firepower was pretty minimal.

The Tyrant wings his way toward our army.

While Chaos begins the slow slog to my force.

In our turn, our armies stayed pretty static to maximize our advantage in firepower. The Tyranids hurled most of their shooting at the Tyrant but failed to bring it down, while my Marines concentrated their fire on the advancing Hormagaunts. They killed enough to force a break test (the Gaunts were out of synapse range), but the Hormagaunts passed. Meanwhile, my Predators took 2 hullpoints off of the rightmost Hellbrute and the Tactical squad's multi-melta takes one of the other Hellbrute.

The Hormagaunts take a lot of fire but hold their ground.

Turn 2

The enemy advance continues. The Hive Tyrant swoops into our lines and immobilizes my rightmost Predator, while the Hormagaunts assault and wipe out my Scouts. To further hinder my shooting, the Sorcerer cast Hallucination on my Sternguard, preventing them from doing anything this turn.

The Tyrant swoops among our Tyranids.

My Sternguard stand dumbfounded, and really just get in the way.

The Hormagaunts assault the Scouts...

And consolidate after finishing their meal.

Our turn was mainly a reaction to their rapidly approaching advance. The Tyranids grounded the Hive Tyranid and assaulted it, burying it in Termagants. Due to some great armor saves, the Tyrant survived. In the meantime, the rest of the Tyranids advanced to engage the enemy Tervigon and its wave of Termagants. Sadly, our Tervigon rolled doubles when spawning Termagants, meanin we wouldn't be getting any more. My Predators finished off the rightmost Hellbrute with the Tactical squad took another hull point off the other and destroyed its multi-melta. The Thunderfire blasted the Hormagants again, killing off the front rank while the Sternguard continued to trip.

Our Tyranids climb toward the enemy Tervigon (which looks suspiciously like a Carnifex).

One Hellbrute down, one to go.

Turn 3
The enemy turn started with a large brood of Genestealers outflanking right in front of my Tactical squad while the Helbrute and Cultists advanced. The Hormagaunts assaulted the Termagants fighting the Hive Tyrant, trying to save their warlord, but the Tyrant was killed before the Hormagaunts wiped out our Termagants. A wave of enemy Termagants slammed into our Tyranid forces. An amazing round of shooting from the enemy Cultists killed the front 4 members of my Tactical squad, including the plasma gun and multi-melta. I thought that I had nothing to damage the charging Hellbrute, but then remembered my krak grenades. I overwatched with a single krak grenade, which hit and glanced the insane walker, destroying it and saving my Tactical marines (for the moment). My Sternguard are once again targeted by Hallucinations, but this time pass their Deny the Witch roll.

The Tactical squad are stunned by the unexpected arrival of so many Genestealers.

The remaining Tactical marines kill the Hellbrute with a desperate Krak grenade.

The Hive Tyrant continues to fight the swarming Termagants.

Our advancing Termagants are surrounded and wiped out by Termagants from our enemy's very fertile Tervigon.

Tired of playing defense, my Sternguard teleported into the center of the board and attempted to assassinate the Chaos Sorcerer. They wiped out all but one of his squad, but couldn't hurt the Sorcerer. The Tactical marines retreated from the Genestealers, and my Thunderfire blasted apart all of them that it could see. The Tacticals added their fire, reducing the squad to just the Broodlord and 2 Genestealers. My Predators continued to target the Chaos Sorcerer but only killed the last Chaos marine supporting him. On our right, our Tyranids counter-assaulted the enemy Termagants, resulting in quite the meatgrinder. The Hormagaunts near our lines were mercilessly gunned down by Tyranids with no better targets.

In what many would call a foolhardy move, the Sternguard take the fight to the enemy.

The remaining Tacticals and Thunderfire try to wipe out the Genestealers.

The enemy Termagants break through out front line.

Turn 4
The wave of Termagants continues to wear down our Tyranid forces, while the Genestealers assault my Tactical marines. The Tacticals killed a Genestealer for no losses, winning the combat. The Chaos Sorcerer cast Hallucination on the Sternguard again, pinning them, while fire from the Cultist units kill two. This was followed up by the Chosen declaring a long charge on the Sternguard, which they failed. However, my Sternguard with a plasma gun killed himself with his overwatch fire, so it still turned out in Chaos' favor.

The remaining Sternguard are surrounded.

Our turn was fairly uneventful due to our limited forces. The Genestealers killed a Tactical marine, and the pinned Sternguard took shots at the Chaos Sorcerer but couldn't hit him. The Thunderfire and Predators targeted the Chaos Chosen and killed a couple of them. On the right, the Tervigon and Trygon moved up to intercept the encroaching Termagants.

It's now a few big bugs against a ton of little bugs.

The isolated remainder of my army continues to maintain fire.

At this point, we called the game due to time. The enemy held three objectives while we only contested 2, so it was a clear win to them.

Lessons Learned:
I think our biggest failure was deployment. Our enemy lacked any real firepower, so we should have deployed with a refused flank and wiped out one of the enemy armies before moving onto the other. As it was, the game felt like two smaller games side-by-side rather than a team game. Whenever that happens, I know I'm not coordinating enough with my teammate. I can only say that it was our third game of the day and we were tired. I think our opponents were too since they did the same thing, but it worked in their favor.

That said, I had a pretty good match-up against the Chaos player and was shooting down his force well until the Genestealers showed up to help him. On the right, our Tyranids were swamped by our enemy's Termagants. Their Tervigon never lost the ability to spawn, and it really swung the battle in their favor.