Welcome To My First Ever Battle Report!!!!

This is a small, 500 point Warhammer 40k, tabletop game. This game was a Phase Three game, at my local games workshop. It was my Tyranids versus my opponents Chaos Space Marines. And no, this is not a mega battle like the other 40k board game report.

Tyranids are an alien race, having come from another galaxy. They consume a planet, then move on, leaving the planet a barren wasteland. When they defeat a planet, they suck up everything on the planet and turn into biological gruel in their “pools”. Eventually they take the atmosphere, too. The Gruel is taken ,and with gene splicing and other gene stuff, New Tyranids are made, to take over another world. Each Tyranid is simply one cell in the Hive Mind. Tyranids are like Zergs, but Tyranids came out in 1992. Anyways, the Tyranids are driven on by their want to eat, nothing else.

“And as I looked into its black eyes, I saw the terrible sentience it had in place of a soul. Behind that was the steel will of its leader. Futher still I could feel its primogenitor coldly assessing me from the void. And looking back from the deepest recesses of the alien’s mind…I can only describe it as an immortal hunger. It is this we cannot kill.” (Codex, Tyranids)

Chaos Space Marines- Ten Thousand years ago, man had conquered and earned the right to rule the galaxy, when Horus, seduced by the Chaos God’s offers of power, turned traitor on the Imperium.The bloodiest civil war ever raged upon the Imperium of Man as Horus and fully half of the Space Marines turned traitor on the Imperium. In the end, with Space Marine reinforcements coming from theGreat Crusade, It looked like the Traitors would lose. Horus ditched a last ditch attempt to fight the Emperor. Father and Son fought each other, and the Emperor killed, Horus, however, he himself was mortally wounded. Even Now he sits inside a machine to keep him alive, The Golden Throne. Each day, thousands sacrifice themselves in His Name. Meanwhile, the traitor marines ran to The Eye of Terror, the largest area where the Immaterium meets real space. There, they launch raids out of the eye of terror, terrorizing the Imperium from time to time.

Tyranid Strengths- The Tyranids are the second best army at Close Combat. Their armies are made up of cheap meatsheilds, unbreakable, backed up by hard hitting Genestealers, and larger, massive, Carnifexes.

Tyranid Weaknesses- Tyranids have horrible, almost nonexistent armor, and if your broods get out of synapse range, watch out!

Chaos Space Marines strengths- Chaos Space Marines are versatile. They have all the powers of normal Space Marines, plus daemonic powers. Also, they have the best killers in the whole game. Also, like their Space Marine brethren, have great armour. Obliterators, which carry everything except a pintle mounted stormbolter, Have a 2+ Armor Save, and a 5+ invulnerable save can chew through anything.

Chaos Space Marine Weaknesses- The only thing they lack is courage. They will run, unlike their loyal Space Marine brothers. Also, the better they are, the more points heavy they are! You can only have so many.

My army consists of three Tyranid Warriors as an HQ choice, two squads of six genestealers each, one squad of Termagants (gaunts), one Carnife with Scything talons and a Barbed Strangler, and one Zoanthrope.

My Opponent’s army consisted of five havocs (Chaos Space Marines carrying BIG, BAD, weapons, like lascannons, two squads of twenty Chaos Space Marines each with bolters (standard weapon), each had an Aspiring Champion (Seargant) armed with a Powerfist each. Powerfists are huge, hydraulically assisted fists with Dark Energy coating them, doubling the user’s strength, and ignoring all Armor Saves.

            He also had a Chaos Lord with a heavy flamer. Last but not least, a Chaos Drednaught armed with a twin linked lascannon and a huge lightning claw. Ouch!

I deploy, setting up my Carnifex on my right, and everything else on my left, covered by a ruined building or a tower. My opponent deployed his Chaos Drednaught on his left (My right), the Havoc Team in the middle, slightly off to the left, the Chaos Lord in some ruins in front of the Havoc team, and the two units of Chaos Space Marines far up on his right (My left), just in line with my genestealers, who are perfect Space Marine/Chaos Space Marine killers.

TYRANID TURN 1-   The game begins with me winning the die roll to go first. I move up my Genestealers, My Warriors peek around the corner along with my Zoanthrope, a Phycic beast armed with some nasty AP3 Powers to toast some Chaos Space Marines. I first fired the Zoanthrope. It conjured the power of the Warp, and then fired forward a ball of purpleish energy, toasting 5 Chaos Space Marines. (I later remembered that I had forgotten to roll to hit with my Warp Blast, and then rolled the die to try and make up for it. It turned out I missed, so we replaced the falsely slaughtered Chaos Space Marines) I then fired the Venom Cannon one of my Warriors was toting. The Warrior got two shots, need to hit of a die roll of 4+, and made one shot.

Ballistic Skill: The roll of the D6 the model needs to hit. My Warriors have a Ballistic skill of 3. To find out what you need to hit with, subtract the Ballistic Skill of the model from seven, and that is what you need to hit on a die roll of D6. Actually my Warriors would usually need a 5+ to hit, but I decided that I would give them the Biomorph Enhanced Senses to give +1 to their Ballistic Skill.

That shot easily wounded, as my gun’s strength was much higher than the Chaos Space Marine’s were. He needed to make one armor save, as Chaos Space Marines have good armour, some of the best in the game. He surprising fails the armour save, rolling a two. One Chaos Space Marine (now referred to as CSM) died.

Armour Saves: When a model has been wounded, it must take an armour save. If it passes, no damage has been done. If it fails the model has died. Chaos Space Marines are beffited with power armour, giving them a 3+ save. This means that the CSM must roll a 3 or more on the die to save his warrior. These are very good odds compared to Tyranid Armour Saves. My Gaunts have an armour save of 6+, meaning that I have to roll a six on a six sided die to save my gaunt. Luckily, my Gaunts are used as nothing more than meatsheilds. I even threw them at some Tau Battlesuits just so that I wouldn’t have to weather a round of plasma fire. My Genestealers are a little better, and have a 5+ armour save.

My Carnifex moved up into open ground, and fired away with his Barbed Strangler at the Chaos Drednaught. Before I fired, my oppent asked me- “What is the Strength of that weapon?” I replied with an confient “eight”. He didn’t look so happy. I then told him that I would need a 5+ to hit. I wasn’t looking at him but I guessed he was happier. For all the high strength of my vicious gun, my Carnifex’s lousy BS 2 made him miss by a mile as I rolled a three. Meanwhile, My Termagants used their Fleet of Claw to move into a Ruined Building. My Genestealers inched a little further forward.

CHAOS SPACE MARINES TURN ONE- The Chaos Drednaught moved forward. My opponent then tested to see if the Drednaught would go Berzerk, but the Drednaught stayed temporarily sane. The Chaos Space Marines moved forward, hoping to get into rapid fire range.

Rapid Fire Range: Rapid Fire weapons fire once up to maximum range, and in the bolter’s case, 24’’. If a unit that has rapid firing weapons moves, they are allowed to fire twice up to twelve inches. The bolter may also fire twice, even if the unit stayed still.

In the shooting phase my opponent first fired his Drednaught’s  twin linked lascannon. It sunk into my Carnifex easily causing a wound. I then realized my mistake of staying in open terrain as his havocs emptied three lascannons into my Carnifex. I hoped that one of them would miss, sparing my Carnifex for another turn. It turned out that this was not to be, as three lascannons blew large holes into my Carnifex, spraying ichor everywhere. The translation is that I took my Carnifex model off the board after saying “Noooooooooooooooooooooo!”

The Chaos Space player had made a tactical error as he realized that he would only get four shots from his squads. Only one genstealer dropped, for all the effort he had made. The reason he had only gotten so many shots was because he could have stood still and fired at longer range, as the 6” movement plus the 12” shot equals 18”, while 24” inches would have give him enough length to fire with half of his total squads. His other option would have been to move back, so that I would have been out of charge range. As it fared, his turn ended, leaving me to savor his sweet and timely death.

TYRANIDS TURN TWO- My Genestealers and Gaunts moved forward, along with my Warriors and Zoanthrope. My Zoanthrope then fired a blast of Psycic energy, which detonated, killing three Chaos Space Marines. This was going to be FUN. My Gaunts and Genestealers Fleet of Clawed, alowing them to move D6 inches forward.

Assualt Phase: In my assualt phase I can nominate as many units as I like to attempt to charge the enemy, as long as those units have not fired any weapons that allow the unit to move, fire, and charge . The charge range (6 inches) can be hindered by difficult terrain and such, but if I reach my opponent it reaches close combat. The only difference is that all of my models get plus one attack. This is why it is always good to charge, unless the ranged weapons that would prevent you moving are incredibly stronger. For instance, the Tau Pulse Rifle is an immensly strong Strength 5 AP 5 weapon, while Tau Fire Warriors are weak and horrible in close combat. (The average Toughness is 3, and the average armor save is three, meaning 2’s will kill most enemies. Luckily the Tau fire warrior is only averagely accurate with his gun, which avoids death for a little)

Then, I charged. My right genestealer squad hit one Chaos Space Marine Squad, while my Left squad hit his right one. My Gaunts also charged, but I wasn’t counting on them to do anything. After all, Gaunts are plain old meatsheilds with no skills really, except nasty shooting, which usually isn’t utilized because of the need to use Fleet of Claw to get into Close Combat, as you cannot shoot and use Fleet of Claw. To make it short, my Genestealers shredded apart his Chaos Space Marines, bringing down a squad of 20 down to 4. The squad struck back, doing absolutely nothing except killing a Gaunt.

The other CSM Squad fared better, as it remained with 8 out of 20. This squad fared better and killed a genestealer in revenge. Neither squad broke, and the fighting turned even fiercer.

CHAOS SPACE MARINES TURN 2- Well, by now, the game was pretty much more or less my way, and my opponent did little to completely realized this, as he was totally unfamiliarized with Tyranids. Once Genestealers get stuck in Close Combat, nothing in the game can stop them, thanks to their rending attacks. Except a Dark Eldar Lord with equipment.

Rending Attacks: Genestealers are fatal to any army, especially to Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, and any high armor and toughness army. When rolling dice to hit the enemy, a 6 means that your genstealer has hit the enemy hard, and the enemy is automatically wounded without having to roll for it, and most importantly, no armour saves are allowed. This means that points heavy units, like the basic Space Marine Tactical Trooper, weighing in at 15 points, or Chaos Space Marines, weighing in at 14 points apiece, and armored with rock hard armor that more or less deflects everything, is torn to shreds in one hit. Genestealers are even more deadly because they get three attacks on the charge, and relativly high strength.

Anyways, the Chaos Space Marine Player sent his lord out of cover, ready to join the fight. The Chaos Drednaught was Shaken, keeping it from firing this turn, thanks to the Warrior with the Venom Cannon. The Havocs stayed still. The Lord Charged in. One Chaos Space Marine squad was destroyed, and the other weakened to 3 measly soldiers. One more genestealer was killed, this time thanks to a Powerfist. The gaunts proved their worth as they, instead of the Genestealers, lost three of their number to the chaos lord, crushed by his large powerfist.

TYRANIDS TURN 3

Now, my opponent had to leave. I quickly rolled to see what would happen in combat, and watched my good little Genestealers cut is Chaos Space Marines and his Chaos Lord into little pieces before either could do anything.

A VICTORIUS SLAUGHTER FOR THE TYRANIDS!

WE SHALL FEED WELL!

My opponent's tactical Mistake was not knowing my Genestealer's strengths well, and misusing his Chaos Space Marines. I think he could have also moved his Chaos Lord away so that he could have flamed me with his heavy flamer which would have crippled me terribly.

My mistake was misusing my Carnifex! Gosh, how stupid I was! I had looked at how much of a benefit it would be if I killed the Drednaught and not at the 4 Lascannons facing me! And yet I had no idea the Havocs were on the field, they were so near a dead pile that I thought they weren't in the game.

Thanks to my opponent for playing and losing his Traitors Marines.(Oh well, they’ll just get cloned by some Rogue Trader Guy, I guess)

And thanks to Games Workshop for the use of the table.

And thanks most of all to BattleReports.com for letting me post.

Thanks, see you again in my next Warhammer Tabletop Battle Report!

PS: I’ll have pictures next time, maybe.

-HIVE FLEET BEHEMOTH