Recap.

Tyranids vs. Space Marines: Annihilation.

It was the Space Marine Army that I mentioned earlier, versus the following:

Hive Tyrant + Retinue(big beetle looking bugs)
1 unit of Rippers
1 unit of Termigaunts
1 unit of Hormogaunts
2 zoanthrope
2 carnifax

I a immediately upset at his decision to carry as many elites and heavies as possible.

We started at opposite corners, me setting up somewhat of a defensive line with my assault troops protecting my shooters. My purpose with this was the idea that Tyranids were almost exclusively hand-to-hand, and I wanted to hold them off.

The problem is, he had several guys that could shoot...even though they moved like 12" (reference previous post)

Anyway, I lost two of my command squad right of the bat, significantly diminishing their abilities in hand-to-hand.

I deep striked my terminators in an attempt to hold the high ground, and missed slightly landing on the ramp out of range. I still managed to fire a cyclone shot.

I moved my tactical squad with the heavy plasma in position to not have to fire through cover, and moved my flamer+multi melta in a position just outside of a trench.

I took out a few termigaunts the first turn, winning the round in terms of combat.

Next turn pretty much confirmed my suspicions that the battle would be an exercise in futility. His reinforcements showed up from the side nearest to my terminators. Nearly all of his units were on top of me this turn. My Plasma tactical squad was engaged by the Carnifax. My Flamer/Melta squad was overrun by hormigaunts.

The Carnifax didn't do much, but he took my plasma cannon out of play. The hormigaunts picked apart my Flamer/Melta squad immediately. The zoanthropes nearly annihilated my remaining tactical squad. My Dreadnought was all but worthless with a missile launcher and a lascannon, as he had monsters and no vehicles. My assault terminators moved in to support my melta/flamer squad, a little too late. My tactical terminators made short work of the genestealers but it seemed like a futile effort.

The next round was prtty much the coup'de grat. The rest of his guys moved in to assault me, the only punch being held back his second carnifax and zoanthrope.

In the end, if I would've killed the remaining two termigaunts I would've tied. He won.

Lessons learned:

1. I forgot the move 6" followed by a 6" move to assault.
2. My squads were too bunched up. Gotta expand on the 2" rule.
3. Task and Maneuver needs adjustment. Need a solution for moving tactical squads(re: giving up heavy weapon firing)
4. Think about putting tactical squads in reserve.
5. Throw all terminators into the thick of the action, don't just send them vs. one unit.
6. Don't use Lascannon's against beasts.


All in all I got a better idea of using squads. Seeing the terminators in action gives me hope for the deathwing despite their small numbers. I am wondering about whether or not I'll continue with the cyclone missiles on the Assault termies. Gotta brainstorm that s'more.