I recently attend a one-day tournament in Winchester, taking my World Eaters for the three games. This event featured some custom terrain layouts, the first time I had tried them.
Game 1 was against Charles and his Tyranids, playing Scorched Earth on sweeping engagement, with the Supply Drop special rule.
My army consisted of:
Angron
Lord Invocatus
Master of Execution (Berserker Glaive)
10 Berzerkers
5 Berzerkers
Rhino
10 Jackals
10 Jackals
2 Spawn
3 Eightbound
3 Eightbound
6 Exalted Eightbound
3 Exalted Eightbound
Charles' army consisted of:
Hive Tyrant- Adaptive Biology
Neurotyrant
10 Gargoyles
10 Gargoyles
Biovore
Lictor
Lictor
Lictor
Neurolictor
Pyrovore
Ripper Swarm
Ripper Swarm
Ripper Swarm
Exocrine
Exocrine
Maleceptor
Harridan
Some similar elements in the army, but the Harridan threw me. It has some pretty potent firepower, as well as the ability to transport the Gargoyles. The army had some good firepower to take on my elite units with damage 3 weapons, as well as some forward deployers to shut down my Scout moves.
We deployed as shown below:
I set up my forces mostly focused on the right of the deployment zone, with the Jackals holding the back line, and the Spawn and Berzerkers ready to go after the top objective. I had the 3-man Exalted in reserve.
Charles put the Maleceptor at the front of his line, with the rest clustered back at his home objective. A Lictor went near the centre and my right objective to cut down the Scout moves. The Gargoyles were in the Harridan, while the Rippers and another Lictor went into reserve.
I won the roll off for first turn and scouted my army forward as much as I could.
TURN 1
In my first turn, I drew Area Denial and Overwhelming force. For my blessings, I took Advance and Charge and Sustained hits.
I advanced much of the army on the right. The Eightbound went after the Lictor, while the Exalted and Lord Invocatus went towards the Maleceptor. The rest went towards the centre objective and the Lictor there.
Charles fired overwatch with the Exocrine and managed to kill one of the Exalted. I didn't have the FNP up, so lost one of the squad. It could have been a lot worse, as Charles had originally overwatched with the Harridan, killing four of the squad. However, in a great display of sportsmanship, he remembered that titanic units couldn't fire overwatch and we took it back.
In the charge phase, I launched my assaults. The Eightbound went into the Lictor, while Angron went into the other one. The Exalted and Lord Invocatus went into the Maleceptor. The Lictor struck the Eightbound, killing one, who took it out in reply. Angron easily dispatched the other Lictor.
The Eightbound attacked the Maleceptor with their high strength profile and took it down to 4 wounds, after Charles used the free strat to give it a FNP. The Lord Invocatus struck, killing it.
I used the strat to make another blessings roll and took the Feel no pain to help me survive the return attacks. I made a slight mistake in attacking with the Exalted first. If the Lord Invocatus had struck, then the Exalted Eightbound had killed the Maleceptor, they could have consolidated into the Neurolictor and possibly avoided some of the firepower due to come their way. I was hoping I had enough threats to dampen the firepower coming into them.
At the end of my turn, I scored 10 points on the secondaries.
In his first turn, Charles drew Capture Enemy Outpost and Extend Battle Lines. The Hive Tryant moved up on the Exalted Eightbound, while the Harridan moved to the left, one unit of Gargoyles disembarking to move up on the centre objectives.
A spore mine was launched near the Harridan to block Angron from moving up to charge it easily. The Exocrine fired at the Eightbound on the right, killing one. The other fired at the Exalted, killing two of the squad. The Pyrovore managed to do a few wounds on one more.
The Harridan split fire at the Exalted and Eightbound in the centre, killing both squads with its potent firepower. The Harpies fired at the Rhino, doing no damage, but moving onto the two centre objectives.
In the charge phase, the Hive Tyrant assaulted the Lord Invocatus, but only managed a couple of wounds, taking a couple of wounds back in reply.
Charles scored Extend and ditched Capture Enemy Outpost.
VICTORY POINTS:
World Eaters- 20
Tyranids- 15
TURN 2
In my second turn, I drew Capture Enemy Outpost and No Prisoners. Charles activated the shadow of the warp, and I failed with the two units of Jackals, 5-man Berzerkers and Lord Invocatus, which would prevent him from falling back from the Hive Tyrant without risk.
The Berzerkers led by the Master of Execution advanced on the Neurotyrant, while the Rhino moved to grab the objective the spawn were on. The 5-man Berzerkers advanced towards the centre of the battlefield, while Angron moved up on the home objective. The Eightbound on the right moved back towards the objective and into cover.
The Rhino fired at the spore mine, killing it for easy No Prisoners points.
In the charge phase, Angron charged the Exocrine and Neurolictor. The Berzerkers charged the Neurotyrant, while the other Berzerkers and Jackals charged the Gargoyles.
The Neurotyrant was slain, as was the Gargoyles by the Berzerkers. The Jackals piled into the Pyrovore and took it down to 1 wound. Some poor rolling from Angron only took the Exocrine down to 1 wound after Charles activated the FNP stratagem.
The Hive Tyrant took Lord Invocatus down to 1 wound, while he did a couple of more wounds to the Hive Tyrant.
At the end of the turn, I scored 13 pts on my secondaries.
Charles drew Secure No Man's Land and Storm Hostile Objective. He scored no points on the primary.
The second unit of Gargoyles disembarked and advanced towards the centre objectives. The Harridan moved back towards Angron. A Lictor arrived from strategic reserve towards the bottom objective. The Ripper Swarm arrived towards the centre to block out some of my deep striking. I used Rapid Ingress to bring in the Exalted nearby the bottom objective.
The Gargoyles opened fire on the Jackals, killing three, then moving onto the central objectives to claim them.
The Exocrine fired at the 5-man Berzerkers, killing only two. The Hive Tyrant failed to do any more damage. The other Exocrine fired at the large Berzerker squad, killing five! The Harridon opened up on both Berzerker squads, managing to wipe them out.
The other firepower did little damage to the World Eaters.
The Harridan then charged Angron, while the Lictor failed the charge on the last of the Eightbound.
The Harridan struck at Angron, but only managed to do a couple of wounds. I then attacked back, putting 6 attacks into the Harridan and two into the Exocrine. Both hit the Exocrine, but failed to wound! Despite the FNP stratagem, Angron took down the Harridon, but only just. The Hive Tyrant killed the Master of Execution.
At the end of his turn, Charles scored Secure No Man's Land and Storm Hostile.
VICTORY POINTS:
World Eaters- 43
Tyranids- 25
TURN 3
In my third turn, I drew Assassinate and Bring it down. I scored 10 on the primary.
The Jackals moved towards the Gargoyles, losing a few to the overwatch of the Pyrovore. The Exalted Eightbound moved up to seize the bottom objective, while the last of the Eightbound moved to engage the Lictor. The other unit of Jackals started to move up towards the centre.
The Firepower from the Rhino killed a few gargoyles, the Spawn and Jackals charging in to kill all but one. The Eightbound was slain by the Lictor before he could strike, while Angron finished off the Exocrine finally.
I scored four on Bring it Down and ditched Assassinate.
Charles scored 0 on the primary once more, drawing Defend Stronghold and Overwhelming Force.
The Gargoyle failed his battleshock test, moving to the safety of the cover besides him. The Ripper swarms then came in to spread across the battlefield.
The Exocrine and Hive Tyrant fired at the Exalted, killing one of them. The Lictor then charged, cutting down one more Exalted before being slain by the survivor. The Hive Tyrant killed the Jackals on the middle objective to
score Overwhelming Force for 3 points.
score Overwhelming Force for 3 points.
VICTORY POINTS:
World Eaters- 58
Tyranids- 28
TURN 4
I drew Cleanse and Tempting target, which was the middle objective. I used a CP to auto-pass morale on the lone Exalted so that he could do the cleanse action. I was planning to burn an objective, but need to do the Cleanse. In hindsight, it would have been better to do Cleanse on one objective and burn the other for a few more points.
The Jackals advanced onto the middle objective, while Angron killed the Neurolictor on the Tyranid home objective. I scored both secondaries.
Charles drew Bring it Down and Engage, scoring 5 on the primary. The Exocrine and Hive Tyrant fired at the Exalted, killing him. The Hive Tyrant then charged and killed the Jackals.
VICTORY POINTS:
World Eaters- 78
Tyranids- 33
TURN 5
In my final turn, I got Behind Enemy Lines and Storm Hostile. There wasn't much left to do, I move the Rhino up to move block the Hive Tyrant from getting to my home objective.
Charles got Tempting Target (the one the Spawn were holding) and Teleport Homers. The Exocrine moved onto the objective, while a Ripper Swarm did the Homers.
VICTORY POINTS:
World Eaters- 85
Tyranids- 48
A victory for the World Eaters.
AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS
That was a tough one for the Tyranids. Charles and I spoke about the game afterwards and both agreed that the biggest error for the Tyranids was not starting a unit of Gargoyles on the board. They could have provided an effective screen to stop me from getting so close on turn 1. If the gargoyle screen had been in place, I probably wouldn't have gone so aggressive on turn 1, maybe only sending up the Jackals to clear the screen.
I would perhaps have kept the other unit of Gargoyles in reserve. They could have come on to threaten my home objective, with their shoot and move approach. This may have force me to keep a unit back to counter them, but I was free to move the jackals up and grab more objectives as the game went on.
I also think one of the Lictors could have been deployed on the other side of the battlefield. This would have kept him same from the Eightbound, with only the Spawn and 5-man Berzerkers to deal with.
My other thought was that the Harridan should not have gone after Angron. I think if Charles had pushed up the right flank to threaten the spawn and Rhino, he could have cleared me from that objective. This would either have forced Angron to go after it to try and kill it, keeping his homefield free, or let the potent firepower of the Harridan wreak havoc with the rest of my army. I probably would have taken the bait, as I couldn't afford to give it many more turns of the potent firepower.
Overall, a tough match up for the Tyranids. Having played them a few times before, I knew they would struggle to do much damage to the army, with only the Harridan being able to do the bulk of the damage. I was able to get on the objectives early and grab the primary and secondary points. I wasn't able to burn any, as I needed to keep them in play to score points. Overall, a good start for the World Eaters.
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