The 6th Ed Battle Reports thread

[OhJohnNo]

Right, so today me and my friends decided to do a test of the new rules the only way we really could - FIGHT!

There were 4 of us, split into 2 teams. 1000 points per player, so 2000 overall. Allies were done per individual army - the teams people were on had no relation to the chart. The following lists (save mine) are approximate, as I do not have the other people's lists on hand and don't want to go too detailed anyway.

Team SPESS MEHREENS

My Blood Angels/Tau alliance:
1 Reclusiarch (Warlord, with trait that allowed him and friendlies within 12" to run using 2 dice and picking the highest)
5 Death Company (2 power weapons, 1 hand flamer, 1 thunder hammer)
1 Land Raider Redeemer (multimelta)
Full Tactical Squad (missile launcher/flamer) split into 2 combat squads - 1 with sgt and flamer, 1 with missile
Shas'o battlesuit commander with airbust gun, missile pod, shield generator, targeting array
12 Tau Fire Warriors, with shas'ui with markerlight

Ally's Space Wolves
Wolf Lord with terminator armour, special axe weapon, saga/upgrade that allows Terminators as troops (Warlord, with trait that made him scoring) (Note: I now know this to be Logan Grimnar)
Njal the Stormcaller (often referred to as "Nigel" in the game)
5 Assault Terminators (roughly equal spread of lightning claws and stormhammers)
5 Terminators, 1 assault cannon

Team ALIENS

Tyranids:
Tyranid Prime (Warlord, with trait that gave everyone Move Through Cover for ruins, uselessly - and Stealth (ruins), less uselessly)
2x Carnifex (with Scything Talons, I believe)
3x 20 Hormogaunts

Necrons:
Nemesor Zahndrekh (Warlord, can't remember the trait - was never used)
10 Immortals
15 Warriors with Cryptek
Doomsday Ark
Annihilation Barge
2 Heavy Destroyers

The Scouring was the mission we ended up rolling, which meant we had to place 6 Mysterious Objectives at various points around the board (6" from table edge, 12" from another objective). Also, first turn had Night Fighting. As for deployment type, we rolled Hammer and Anvil, where everyone set up on the short table edges and there was 24" between each army. Then, we set up the terrain after rolling to see what "terrain density" there was - we rolled high enough on a D3 that we could basically use all our terrain.

Following is the requisite map:



- The numbers are the objectives and how many Victory Points they are worth (detailed in mission rules).
- The boxes are buildings.

From top-left, the aliens:
- The Crons in the upper left are Nemesor and his Immortals (and the Annihilation Barge some way in front, which I sadly forgot to add to the map).
- The Crons in the back-centre are the Warriors - the Nid behind them is the Prime.
- The Nids in the topmost building are Hormogaunts and a Fex
- The Nids shortly below that are Hormogaunts.
- The Nids shortly below THAT are Hormogaunts and another Fex.
- The Necrons behind THOSE are a pair of Heavy Destroyers.
- The Necron on the bottom-left hill is the Doomsday Ark.

From top-right, the Marines:
- The topmost Marines are the sergeant's combat squad.
- The Space Wolves in front of the building are Njal's Terminators (spread out just within the deployment zone).
- The Tau behind them are Fire Warriors.
- The Space Marine in between the two buildings is the Land Raider, containing the Reclusiarch and DCs.
- The Wolves in front of the triangle building are the Warlord's Terminators.
- The Marines on the building are the combat squad with the missile launcher.
- The Tau behind them is the Shas'o.

Right! We got the first turn, so here we go:

Turn 1
The turn started favourably - my Tau Fire Warriors discovered that their Mysterious Objective was, in fact, a Targeting Relay, which would allow them to re-roll failed To Hit rolls of 1 when shooting. The perfect thing for them! Anyway, we commenced moving - my Land Raider moved behind the triangle building, making sure to stay out of sight of the Doomsday Ark and its intimidatingly huge cannon. My Shas'o hopped over the triangle building and into range of the frontmost Hormogaunts, determined to claim first blood and show those nasty Space Marines who's boss. The Space Wolves didn't much care and moved forward themselves - Njal and his termies moved towards the two-part building in the centre, and the Warlord's squad moved annoyingly out in front of my Shas'o. Sadly, I forgot to move the Sergeant's combat squad - though this would later prove fortuitous.

We then commenced the shooting phase, during which Night Fighting proved what a bitch it could truly be. My Shas'o scored 2 direct hits and wounds on the Hormogaunts - only for them to both pass the 5+ cover saves granted by being so far away in night time. It was a similar story for my Missile Launcher against the Carnifex they could see, and the Tau shooting at the Hormos in the building (who actually had a 2+ save due to the combination of multiple cumulative cover save bonuses). The Space Wolves, not concerned with something so unmanly as shooting, ran - Njal's squad ran into the centre building and got within 3" of the objective, revealing it to be a Scatterfield, giving them +1 to their cover save while they controlled it. The Warlord's men moved into the building below that one. This was our turn over already - I was worried, as we had managed to avoid inflicting even a single casualty. (If any Space Wolf players are wondering what Njal's stormcaller thing did this turn, I can't remember - it can't have been significant.) Oh, and the Sergeant's squad moved forward by running, to make up for forgetting to properly move.

So, on to the filthy Alien turn! The bastards proceeded to reveal their dastardly plan with the Hormogaunts - now that Rage was a good thing (granting +2 attacks on the charge instead of the usual +1, and without any of the bad effects from the last ed) the Tyranid Prime, the only Synapse creature in the army, had cunningly kept back out of Synapse range. If the Hormos failed their leadership test, they'd all get Rage and be transformed into raging deathlunatics - as they only had a leadership of 5, what could go wrong?

Well, "what" did indeed go wrong, and every one of the Hormogaunts hilariously managed to pass their leadership tests and avoid hulking out. This must have felt very enlightening for them, but it was irritating for the Tyranid player as they were now not very good. Still, no matter - the Nid army surged forward towards the waiting Space Wolves, who doubtless began to wish they hadn't been quite so eager to advance forwards (except the topmost Fex, which moved into the nearby objective building and revealed it to be sabotaged, meaning anything on the same level as it would take a strength 4 hit - understandably, the Fex avoided it, sitting on the level below). The Necrons bided their time, fine to simply let the Tyranids make fools of themselves while they plotted and schemed - except the Annihilation Barge, which moved forward and took out 2 of the Sergeant's 5 men with its super-powerful lightning dispenser.

Make fools of themselves they did - of the 3 Hormogaunt squads, only 2 of them managed to make the charge distance (since, as I'm sure you know, the new rules mean charging is rolling 2D6 and adding up the result). One of them charged Nja'ls squad, and one charged the Wolf Lord's - and both had their asses thoroughly whooped, proving that Assault Terminators are just as badass as they've always been. It didn't go all their way, though - Njal lost a wound to a stray talon, and two of the Wolf Lord's squad died while he lost a wound. When all was said and done, 2 surviving hormogaunts were running away from the Lord, and 6 from Njal - a solid victory!

Turn 2
Rather enraged by the loss of some men, the Wolf Lord's termies (helped by their consolidation) moved toward the Carnifex that had been just behind the Hormogaunts, but unable to get into close combat. Njal and his termies stayed right where they were, on the objective they were busily claiming for the Emperor (or possibly Great Wolf - not that well-versed on Space Wolf mythology). The Shas'o moved forwards - there was a hole in the centre building, through which he could see most of the Hormogaunt brood that didn't get into close combat. Oh, and this time, I finally got round to moving my Sergeant's combat squad. The Land Raider indecisively went back the way it had came for a bit, before following the Shas'o through the corridor between buildings.

The shooting, this turn, was much more decisive - Night Fighting was ovah, meaning I finally got to actually do something. First of all, the Fire Warriors set their sights on the Hormogaunts and let rip, killing 5 despite horrendously unlucky Wound rolls (about 6 1s were rolled). The Shas'o then proceeded to murderize 6 more - 5 with his awesome large-blast Airbust gun, and another one with his Missile Pod. The Land Raider managed to hit with a snap-fire Melta and, less impressively, the normal Machine Spirit-ed Assault Cannon against the Hormogaunts that had failed against Njal - reducing them to just 3 models. Njal himself used some magic AoF storm spell thingy to kill off the 2 hormogaunts left from the Lord's combat - first blood (and thus, a Victory Point) to us! Less excitingly, the Sergeant's combat squad ran, getting closer to the nearby objective-building.

Then, charging happened. The Wolf Lord's Terminators charged into the Carnifex and laid into it with much fury, killing it in short order - but not before another Termie died, and the Wolf Lord sustained another wound (bringing him down to 3, because he's ridiculously hard to kill).

The aliens were rather on the back foot now, but still had a few tricks up their sleeves. The Necron Warriors and Tyranid Prime moved towards the bottom of the board, remaining in their deployment zone and anticipating what the Wolf Lord would do next turn. The Annihilation Barge moved forward a bit more, and perhaps most worryingly, the Carnifex jumped lightly down from its perch and made for the Land Raider. Uh oh. Also, the Hormogaunts my Shas'o had shot at made for the Shas'o, coming alarmingly close.

The shooting marked a bit of a fight-back on the part of the aliens - the Doomsday Ark made its presence felt by killing 3 of my Missile Combat Squad, including the Missile Launcher as models now must be removed from the front. The Annihilation Barge killed 2 of my poor Fire Warriors with its lightning dispenser, the Destroyers killed another of the Wolf Lord's termies and that was it.

Come the dreaded Assault Phase, the Carnifex charged into the Land Raider and promptly made three Smash Attacks. The upshot of this was the removal of 2 Hull Points and the Raider being Shaken and Stunned - a lucky result, and yet still half-killing the Land Raider. This was thankfully all, as Njal's stormcaller had resulted in a hurricane that made the board within 24" difficult terrain for all enemy units, which foiled the Hormogaunts threatening my Shas'o - and the Fex was left in a vulnerable position for the following turn.

Turn 3
Time to reassert our dominance! The Wolf Lord advanced onwards into (hopeful) charge range of the vulnerable Doomsday Ark, and 5 enraged Death Company fell out of the Land Raider's hatch (and a Reclusiarch), ready to give the annoying Fex what for. The spooked Shas'o moved far away from the encroaching Hormogaunts and brought his guns to bear, while the Sergeant's combat squad moved towards the currently exploding objective.

Shooting followed - the Tau Fire Warriors and Death Company fired everything into the Carnifex, only for it all to bounce off the monster's thick hide. The Land Raider fared better, using its Machine Spirit to fire the Melta - removing a wound. The two Space Marines left in the now Missile-less combat squad also managed to luckily wound the thing, bringing it down to 3. Meanwhile, the Shas'o killed 8 more Hormogaunts with his combined weapons, bringing them down to about 3 and causing them to run the fuck away from the scary machine thing. Njal used another magic storm spell thingy to pulverise the Annihilation Barge into little bits, and the Sergeant's squad crucially used the Reclusiarch's warlord trait to run fast into the objective building (staying a level below the explosive objective itself) and then the Assault Phase began.

The Wolf Lord and his one remaining friend charged into the Doomsday Ark and made it asplode (which harmed nobody). The Death Company then tore the Carnifex several new ones with their power swords - AP3 may be a nerf, but it still got past the Fex's chitin pretty convincingly. The Shas'o used his Jetpack move to follow the retreating Hormogaunts - an ill-advised move, as it would turn out.

The Aliens were decreasing in number by the minute, but they weren't even close to done yet. The Necron Warriors moved into Rapid Fire range of the triumphant Lord and his Terminator friend (the Destroyers nearby moved into the bottommost objective, which turned out to be a Skyfire Nexus - no effect on our flyer-less battle). The Tyranid Prime moved into synapse range of the final four Hormogaunts, insta-rallying them and sending them off towards the Shas'o (who undoubtedly began to shit himself as he realised his folly - he was in easy charge range of them now). Nemesor and his Immortals moved back onto the Hill objective, which was revealed to be another Scatterfield. Then they started to shoot.

They weren't actually so bad - they killed one of the Sergeant's marines with their mini-lightning-dispensers. It was at the other end of the board where things got ugly - the Necron Warriors all managed to kill the Wolf Lord's final friend and bring him down to 2 wounds, whereupon the Heavy Destroyers finished him off with cool professionalism. This gave the Alien players a Victory Point for slaying a Warlord (easily the hardest one on the board, as well) - combined with their high-value objectives, and they were doing pretty damn well, despite their huge losses.

The Assault phase even managed to be worrying - the four Hormogaunts charged into the Shas'o and brought him down to 1 wound (from a ridiculous 4). However, he then proceeded to give me my personal golden moment of the game by instantly bludgeoning each of them to death - the Tau aren't meant to be that good at close combat, damn it! It also took him up to a total of 18 killed Hormogaunts, almost 1/3rd of all the Hormogaunts on the table and 180 points, all by his lonesome. What a fucking badass.

Turn 4
Oh, yeah, we kinda had problems now, what with half of the Space Wolf army now being dead and most of my units operating at much reduced capacity. With Njal, our most powerful unit, sitting on the valuable objective, it appeared our only hope was the Death Company - who relied on a near-dead Land Raider for transportation. Still, they got back in it (it could now operate) and it moved forward fast, in the direction of the 'Crons. The Shas'o jumped out of the way, onto the nearby building (surviving the Dangerous Terrain test with ease) and the pair of them fired at the last remaining Tyranid model, the Prime. They killed it quite succinctly, both contributing, giving us our own Slay The Warlord VP - and completely wiping away the Tyranids at last, leaving only a Necron army at nearly full strength to contend with.

For once, our own assault phase was non-existent, with nothing nearby. With that, it was directly onto the Necrons, who had just finished cackling at their hapless Tyranid pawns and were now actually doing stuff of their own. Unfortunately for them, they didn't manage much - the Destroyers fired at the Shas'o, only to be foiled by his Shield Generator (I KNEW it would be a good investment!). The Necron Warriors fired at the Land Raider, but rolled no 6s - thank the Emperor. Nemesor didn't even bother to do anything (apparently forgetting about the Sergeant on the valuable asploding objective - or else firing at them but failing to do anything, I can't actually remember). So the 'Crons left us mercifully untouched this turn.

Turn 5
The paranoid Land Raider moved quickly through the corridor and behind the building once occupied by Hormogaunts. Meanwhile, the Shas'o moved out to fill the gap, prepared to fire at the Necron Warriors. That was the only movement. Shooting proved uneventful - the Shas'o either missed or failed to wound, while the only two crons the Land Raider killed got back up at the end of the phase. The only important thing to happen was Njal's squad killing the marauding Destroyers with some well-aimed Assault Cannon/psychic lightning shots.

The 'Cron turn made up for this, however - the Warriors managed to glance the 2 remaining Hull Points from the Land Raider, wrecking it and forcing the Death Company into an emergency disembarkation. They went as close as they could manage to the Warriors - all was luck now.

Turn 6
The Death Company swiftly moved towards the Warriors on the final objective, but they still weren't as close as I should have liked - all fell on the unfamiliar charge roll. The didn't fire, not wanting to jeopardize their chances of getting into combat.

All eyes fell upon the charge dice, and they rolled up just enough to get into combat - but wait! Overwatch! The two Death Company without Power Weapons (whom I had finally learned to place at the front, them being less valuable) suddenly and unexpectedly found themselves dissolving into an ethereal green mist. Fortunately, they were still in combat, and the honourable Reclusiarch proceeded to challenge the fell Cryptek to a duel. After some deliberation, he accepted, and they began to fight - indecisively, as it turned out, which was disappointing. The rest of the Death Company were much less disappointing, and killed all but 2 of the Warriors, causing them to run and be caught. We couldn't figure out what to do with the ongoing duel, but as the Cryptek by himself wasn't a troops choice, it didn't matter - the Death Company had lived up to their weighty expectations and managed to heroically deprive the Necrons of a valuable 3-VP objective, giving us a decisive victory over the metal bastards. Nemesor let loose a mechanical imitation of a sigh and slunk off the battlefield to plot anew, the Hive Mind raged on Warp-internet forums and the Space Marines (and Tau, presumably) proceeded to have a lovely battle celebration that most certainly did not involve heavy drinking and/or weed smoking (well, it might have for the Space Wolves, I guess).

Belated edit with victory point totals:
My team: 3 for minor objectives (First Blood, Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker), 6 for major objectives (the Tau in my deployment zone, Njal in the central building, the Sergeant's combat squad in the topmost building). Total: 9.
Other team: 1 for minor objectives (Slay the Warlord), 4 for major objectives (Nemesor on the top-left hill). Total: 5.

Conclusion
The new rules are great fun. They don't seem imbalanced, and while there are some nerfs (vehicles fighting Necrons may as well be made out of paper) these can be overcome with a few adjustments to strategy/tactics. We didn't use the psychic rules much, as Njal had his own set of powers - perhaps we'll tackle that next game. The charge range rules take a bit of getting used to, as do the new rules for removing models being shot at - but I'm sure I'll adapt.

The morals of the story?

-You can't always rely on Hormogaunts to be stupid
-You also can't always rely on Wolf Lords to be indestructible
-Shas'o commanders are fucking badass mofos.

EDIT: Yeah, this now appears to be the official unofficial battle report thread for 6th ed, so post your batreps in here.

[Faek]

Very nice Battle Report. Also a very different result from my 3 games. The first of which is extensively described below (1000 Points).

Lists

Eldar & Space Wolves Team
Eldar Army

• Farseer
• Runes of Warding, Witnessing & Spirit Stones
• Guide, Fortune
• Fire Prism - Shuri Cannon
• War Walker - Starcannon, BrightLance
• Wraithlord - Missile Launcher, BrightLance, Two Flamers
• Dire Avengers x8
• Exarch - Diresword, Shuri Pistol, Bladestorm
• Wave Serpent - Shuri Cannon, Twin Linked BrightLance
• Guardians x10 -Missile Launcher Plat
• Warp Spiders x5

Space Wolves Army

• Rune Priest
• Grey Hunters x6 - Meltagun, Rhino
• Grey Hunters x9 - Meltagun, Rhino
• Wolf Guard x3 - Powerfists?
• Long Fangs x 6 - 4x Missile Launchers, Plasma Cannon
• Vindicator
• Long Fangs x6 - 4x Missile Launchers, Plasma Cannon

Imperial Guard & Grey Knights Team
Imperial Guard Army

• Command Squad
• Yeah i can't read the rest of the photo
• Lots of little people anyway, basilisk, Leman Russ
• Aegis defence line.

Grey Knights Army

• This is extremely abbreviated and i dont know what everything means
• BHC + PbA
• GKSS + S +PB + 2PC + 3H
• GKSS + S +PB +2PC + 3H
• GKI +S +2PC + PB +DH +3H
• RB +PB +HK

Onto the game!

Starting pictures
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ndisp3yex6...%2021%2016.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zzfrx5t2ga...%2011%2017.jpg

End of Game Pictures
https://www.dropbox.com/s/s4kem4k7km...%2019%2042.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/w7k6rgjdd5...%2019%2052.jpg

The way the game went may be obvious from these pictures... (which were taking with an iPad which accounts for the shocking quality)


We rolled a Scouring mission so the 6 mysterious objectives (which really did nothing) and first turn was Night Fighting. The GK and IG got first turn. I've only really got summaries of what died.

Turn 1
IG and GK
War Walker killed, 1 pen hit, 1 glancing (a waste of 8% of my points)
3 Warp Spiders die, the rest out of coherency but they pass.
Take 1 hull point off a rhino.
Explode the vindicator (Which has not yet in any games killed anything).
Shoot at the Bastion with a long fang squad inside. Kill 4 Long fangs (2 missiles, 1 Plasma Cannon).

ELdar and SW
Shoot everything.
Kill 1 guardsman with the fire prism.

Turn 2
IG and GK
Glance to death the rhino (2 glancing hits). - Kill 2 normal grey hunters from inside
1 missile long fang killed
1 hull point on the fire prism lost
1 hull point lost another rhino
Rhino wrecked, 8 grey hunters killed
4 Long fangs, 1 plasma cannon left, killed after running off table.
Overwatch shooting, GK lose normal Grey Knights, Needed 6s and 4s and then 4 wounds, fail 1 save.

Eldar & SW
Warp Spiders, Guardians kill 2 GK interceptors.
Fire Prism kills 3 normal GK
Overwatch shooting at warp Spiders, fail to make into combat

Turn 3
Guard and Grey Knights
1 Wolf Guard killed, Squad Death
Kills Rune priest
Immobilise than explode fire prism - kills 1 guardian
4 Guardians killed
1 wound taken from wraithlord
2 grey hunters, 1 wolf guard die (overwatch shooting from guardians?)
Assualt kills all guardians
kill 3 grey hunters, kill 1 GK in return (assualting)

Eldar & SW
Wraithlord flamers kill 1 GK
Warp Spiders kill 1 interceptor
Overwatch kills 1 GK, assault kills Warp Spiders

Turn 4
Guard, GK
kill a wound on Wraithlord, 1 wound left.
Grenade Launcher kills Wraithlord

Eldar, SW
Kill 1 guardsman by dire avengers bladestorm

Turn 5
Guard & GK
Kill 6 dire avengers
Wrecks wave serpent through glancing hits.
Exarch dies, 1 wound left on farseer

Eldar & SW
No shooting,
Farseer, dire avenger killed by overwatch
2 long Fangs died.

Eldar and Space Wolves completely tabled.

So yeah. The Space Wolves Player and I got completely killed at 1000 points. At time of 'tabling' objectives stood at 17-0 in favour of Guard & GK team.

We then played 2 more larger 2000 points game in which allies were brought. The lessons learned from these two games are that gunline armies will still kill anything, that bringing two Runes of Warding (i'd like to see you take a psychic test on 4D6) is still overpowered and that assaulting is harder.

Personal lessons learned for me are:
Jink is quite awesome if you also fortune (reroll failed saves) the tank.
A squad of Rangers is a must buy for me (when they realise non-metal versions) as these were the only units to make up their price in both games.
Psychic powers are harder to use as you can't cast them on units outside the tank if you're in a tank. This coupled with no-assaulting from transports makes me less likely to field the seer council (although i love it).


General Lessons:
Gunline armies are hard to beat if you're an assault army. This is for a variety of reasons apparently :

• Can't assault off outflank
• Can't assualt out of transports
• Can't Assault after deepstriking?

Transport rush is less effective and the general conclusion was that shooting is more powerful and assaulting is less/harder to do.
Warlord traits are very very situational. I dont think any of ours were used in any of the 3 games.
Night Fighting is more common (1st turn anyway), yet not super annoying.

This conclusions seems to be slightly different from the one OJN produced.

[OhJohnNo]

I generally managed to get around those problems - the Land Raider allowing units to charge out of it has always made it one of the most useful units in the game. It rarely makes back its points cost, but I rarely care as for me it's just a delivery system for the devastating Death Company. Generally you have to work hard and use much terrain for pure assault armies to beat pure shooting armies - the way my Tyranid-playing friend frequently does it is by taking a squad of 3 carnifexes, then keeping a Tervigon some way behind them as they advance. That way, they get Feel No Pain and a cover save from the Gaunts spawned endlessly in front of the fexes - they nearly always managed to get into combat.

Just need to find a strat that works for your army - though in your report, it actually looked like you were both shooty armies.

[ph03nIXx]

Great summaries here - proposal: Anyone who is up to it tries to put his early on BatReps in here? I'll be trying to get a game or two in next week, so I'll definitly have something to share

[OhJohnNo]

That'll be great! Looking forward to seeing it.

[another penguin]

Right, since OhJohnNo has been bitching at me the last few days, (with good reason) I’m finally going to do a write-up of my first battle using 6th edition rules. Hurray! ? This was a 3-way battle, 1000 points each, the mission was Big Guns Never Tire, which essentially means most vehicles are scoring units and bonus victory points for blowing up heavy support units. Anyway, on to the army lists, if I can remember them:
Tyranids (Me)
Tyranid prime w/ deathspitter
20 hormas
23 termas
Tervigon w/ catalyst
4 Warriors w/ 3deathspitters, 1 venom cannon
Zoanthrope
Venomthrope
2 biovores
Trygon
Warlord Trait: Something useless

Orks
Trukk carrying 10 Nobs + Warboss with mega armour and power claw
Trukk carrying 10 Boys + Warboss with mega armour and power claw
2 squads of 20 boys
3 deffcoptas w/ twin-linked rokkit launchers
5 warbikes w/ bits and bobs. (Not sure what, I think 2 huge axes and maybe some other stuff)
Warlord Trait: Warlord can capture objectives

Blood Angels
2 ten man tactical squads, one of them split into combat squads
5 terminators and Reclusiarch w/ terminator armour in Land Raider Crusader
Warlord Trait: Warlord can capture objectives

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nh5zqhw3dc...16.39.50.jpg?m

From the terrible pictures you can almost make out the objectives, of which there are 3. One next to the small ruins on the left, one in the centre (it’s not in this pic for some reason) and one on the right between the two low walls. Also, due to my epic photography skills, you can’t actually see most of the orks, which are all further to the left. And yes that is a polywhirl in a hat you can see.

Tyranids Turn 1
The tervigon started the game off by spawning 9 termagants and casting catalyst on the pre-existing group, giving them feel no pain. The hormagaunts hopped onto the hill in front of them and the termagaunts started moving round it, while the rest of the tyranid move was characterized by them all getting in each other way and going nowhere of note. In the shooting phase the biovores shot at a group of 20 boys and scattered wildly, only killing one. Everything else ran very poorly and then it was on to the Blood Angels turn.

BA Turn 1
The marines, in contrast to the tyranids, made a swift advance up the board, the combat squads on the left claiming the objective in the ruins and centre squad and land raider moving to fire on the gaunts moving towards them. In the shooting phase the land raider killed 6 termagants, who fluffed all their fnp saves and the tactical squad killed 5 hormagaunts. On the other side of the board the combat squads managed to kill 4 ork boys.

Orks Turn 1
The orks also moved aggressively, spreading out across a large area of the board. The deffcoptas flew into the centre and the bikes roared down towards the tyranids while a trukk moved up and disgorged 10 nobs and warboss w/ mega-armour straight onto the combat squad-held objective. There was little shooting to be done by the orks, the deffcoptas missed all their shots at the land raider while the bikers killed one biovore and wounded the other, with me being forced to look up their armour save for the first time as they had never been shot before. Then it was straight into the assault phase, where the orks would be in their element. The nobs and warboss charged one of the combat squads, who managed to first wound a nob with Overwatch and then deal another 5 wounds out. In return, the orks failed to demonstrate their proficiency in close combat by only killing 4 of the 5 marines with nearly 60 attacks! The remained marine fled and the orks consolidated towards the other combat squad, rather embarrassed by their somewhat lacklustre performance.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i44q4b67wp...17.27.32.jpg?m
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ijocdc0wt3...17.27.43.jpg?m

Tyranids Turn 2
The tyranid turn began with the Trygon attempting to deep strike behind the land raider but instead scattered off the board and was delayed. The tervigon spawned 12 more termagants but rolled a double and thus couldn’t spawn any more. It also cast catalyst on the same group of termagants and the rest of the tyranid movement phase was characterised by decisive erratic movement, with most of them running back and forth across their deployment zone in an attempt to block off the encroaching ork bikers. The surviving biovore then shot at the bikers, causing 3 wounds, while the zoanthrope flunked it and epic manoeuvring meant none of the termagants or warriors could shoot, so the tyranid turn came to a close.

BA Turn 2
The single marine who fled last turn rallied and headed back into the fight, the land raider rotated to face the nobs, and then it was straight into the shooting phase, where the land raider opened fire with all its weapons and tore the nobs to shreds, wounding all of them and killing 4. The remaining combat squad finished off the nobs in a sterling round of shooting, leaving just the warboss with 2 wounds left. It was at this point that we belatedly remembered that we were playing mysterious objectives and at the same time we realised that my termagants had actually captured the objective on the right. We thus rolled for them and they both turned out to be sabotaged, huzzah! Luckily neither blew up in our faces, and then we promptly forgot about their effects for the rest of the game (the centre objective was sabotaged as well, but we forgot about that too). Thus, after remembering half the rules to the game, the assault phase commenced and the surviving combat squad decided it was a good idea to charge the warboss for some reason. No doubt it seemed like a good plan at the time. Nevertheless, the boldly charge forward and actually managed to wound the warboss again with the warboss killing 2 marines I return, although the marines didn’t flee.

Orks Turn 2
The ork trukk still carrying boys moved up to the land raider and the nobs and warboss disembarked next to it so they could assault it. The ork bikes also abandoned their attack on the tyranids to also charge into the middle, rendering the tyranids’ entire last turn of movement completely useless. Elsewhere on the board the ork boys on foot continued to move up slowly but surely in an effort to claim the leftmost objective. The shooting phase saw little improvement from the orks, killing 1 marine in the full squad with the trukk and 1 with the deffcoptas. The boys and warboss then multiassaulted the land raider and marines, with 2 dying to overwatch. The bikes also charged the marines and they killed 3 between them, causing the rest to flee. The warboss decided to make up for this decidedly average performance by penetrating and blowing up the land raider all by himself, killing 3 more orks in the blast and dropping the terminators inside in a disgruntled but unharmed heap on the ground.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/89egwyx3ds...18.31.54.jpg?m

Tyranids Turn 3
It was at this point I realised that my tyranids had done nothing the entire game except run back and forth across my deployment zone like headless chickens, so I resolved to act decisively and actually achieve something. I started this off by deep striking the trygon on the left hand side behind a squad of boys and everything else charged out into the battlefield, actually making it out of my own spawn! My trygon then carried on this streak of action by shooting at the ork boys, killing 4, and the warriors killed a biker with their venom cannon. However, it then proceeded to go all pear shaped. Of the 5 units that tried to run this turn, only the venomthrope ran more than 2 inches, the rest obviously having overexerted themselves in the movement phase. This was followed by the zoanthrope trying to cast warp blast on the bikes, but rolling a double 6 and taking a wound himself instead due to perils of the warp. My assault having thus been stunted, it was once again on to the BA turn.

BA Turn 3
Reeling from their beating in the previous turns and quite pissed off, the marines decided to strike back with great vengeance and furious anger. The marine squad that fled the previous turn rallied and fired, killing all the surviving bikers, while the terminators shot and killed the 7 remaining ork boys. However, the terminators then rolled a double 1 and thus failed to charge the warboss who was 3 inches away! This was the first of the bad luck the terminators were to have.

Orks Turn 3
The ork turn, in contrast to their previous turns, was pretty quiet. The warboss, being the ork warlord and not wanted to die and grant the marines a victory point, jumped in his trukk and fled in a very unorky manner, prompting much taunting about the bravery of this particular warboss. The deffecoptas opened fire on the terminators, killing one, and the ork boys charged the trygon, and soundly got their arses handed to them. 6 died, while the trygon saved all 5 of his wounds. The orks then managed to flee from the trygon.

Tyranid Turn 4
More movement. The hormagaunts capture the centre objective while the tervigon-spawned termagants head west to try and claim the last objective. The trygon dithers for a moment between heading for the objective and chasing the orks, then decides to chase the orks down so they can’t come back. In the shooting phase the zoanthrope flails around some more and achieves nothing at all while the warriors fire at the deffcoptas and kill 2. Then the biovores shoot at the terminators and the BA player promptly rolls a 1 to save the only wound and keels over, presumably from embarrassment. In the assault phase the trygon charges the orks, having forgotten he could’ve shot at them first. No matter though because he slaughters 7 orks and they run off the board.

BA Turn 4
The terminators kill the last deffcopta. That’s it.

Orks Turn 4
The trukk in the centre tank shocks the hormagaunts claiming the objective to contest and despite some goading, I don’t go for a death or glory with them, funny that. Meanwhile at the western objective the warboss leaps from the trukk which then moves to block off the trygon, a cunning move as if the trygon couldn’t get to the warboss next turn he’d have claimed the objective due to the warboss’ warlord ability. With no shooting to do it was then on to what the ork player hoped would be the last turn.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3hgczb141x...19.12.44.jpg?m

Tyranid Turn 5
There was one thing the ork player didn’t account for however when he moved his trukk to intercept the trygon, it could slimly go round the trukk and, with move through cover, could simply power over the rubble surrounding the objective and into the warboss. Shooting wise, the zoanthrope woke up and decided to actually do something. No wait, he rolled a double 1 and committed suicide, but not before blowing up the trukk on the centre objective. Let me get this clear. In the 10 or more games I’ve used this zoanthrope in, this is the first time he’s ever done anything. And he killed himself doing it. How fabulous. Anyway, the terminators lost another of their number to a sinlge biovore wound in another display of supremely poor rolling. The trygon then charged the warboss and fudged his rolls, losing 2 wounds from the warboss in return.

BA Turn 5
At this point the BA player remembered that his nearly full strength tactical squad was useless where it was, and moved towards the centre objective, then shot, killing 5 of the gaunts guarding it. Elsewhere, the terminators shot and wounded the venomthrope.

Ork Turn 5
With just a trukk and the warboss still alive, after the trukk moved closer to the centre, it was straight into the combat, where the warboss died instantly under the trygon’s flurry of blows. We rolled, and it went into turn 6.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/28cy44c8f6...19.22.53.jpg?m

Tyranids Turn 6
The termagants keep moving west in a futile bid to reach the objective. I forget that the trygon can claim the objective due to the mission type and go east in search of more enemies to consume. Not that it matters, at this point the tyranids have strong control over the other 2 objectives, guaranteeing a victory. The tervigon moves up to fight the trukk and in the shooting phase the trygon kills 2 tactical marines while the trukk loses 2 hull points. In the assault phase the trygon chases the marines and wipes them out, the tervigon charges the trukk and does nothing, and the venomthrope charges the reclusiarch and 1 surviving terminator for fun. The reclusiarch then misses 3 of his 4 attacks with ones, then rolls a 1 to wound. The venomthrope retaliates and wounds the terminator. The BA player picks up a die and says that if he doesn’t roll this 2+ save, he’s retiring from warhammer forever. With this said, he then proceeds to roll a 1 and the last terminator dies. Swearing ensued, and then he went outside and threw some fence posts over his garden wall in despair/anger. Then he threw one in a tree. Then we went and had pizza and he came out of retirement. And with that, this (excessively long) battle report concludes.

[OhJohnNo]

The BA player picks up a die and says that if he doesn’t roll this 2+ save, he’s retiring from warhammer forever. With this said, he then proceeds to roll a 1 and the last terminator dies. Swearing ensued, and then he went outside and threw some fence posts over his garden wall in despair/anger. Then he threw one in a tree.

Ah, the things 40k can make people do.

Also, you're telling me you rolled a 1 for finding out what each objective was? Seems like those termies weren't the only things with bad luck that game.

Good report, fun to read. I'll show it to my Nid-playing friend and maybe he'll learn something from it

[Dooks Dizzo]

Small bit sized reports:
Game 1
GK's Vs. Tyranids: Nids win by 1 VP

Game 2:
Tyranids vs. Ravenguard: Draw (bikes are dead hard now)

Game 3:
Tyranids vs. 7 Valkyrie IG: Nids win by SEVEN!

Game 4:
Tyranids vs. Eldar Rangers: Nids crushed by turn 3

All in all I've had a ton of fun and success with Tyranids in the new edition. There are some definite high and low points that I will go over in a bit further detail later. All in all though I am finding that massed shooting is the key to victory so far.

[Fixer]

Since this appears to be the thread for it.

My Lion Guard (Blood Angels) Vs. Lord Cook's Imperial Guard battle report.
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showth...9-ooh-pictures!

[OhJohnNo]

Excellent read Fixer, thanks for sharing.

@Dooks: I'd certainly like to see some of those elaborated on - it looks interesting.

I'm having another game tomorrow. Whether or not I report on it will probably depend on whether or not I win

[Faek]

Ok managed to get one game in today.

At 2000 points it was a SM/IG with Eldar versus SW/IG and GK.

The end result was a win to the SW/IG and GK with about 12 VP to 3 VP. We called it halfway through 5th turn as we needed to go.

I only have the list for the Eldar player (me).

Farseer

• Runes of Warding, Runes of Witnessing, Spirit Stones, Jetbike, Guide, Fortune
• Warlocks x 4
• 1 x Embolden, 1 x Enhance, 2 x Destructor, Jetbikes, 2 x Spear

Dire Avengers x10

• Exarch, Bladestorm, Diresword
• Wave Serpent
• • Twin Linked Brightlance
  • Shuriken Cannon

Rangers x7

• Pathfinders

Fire Prism

• Shuriken Cannon

Warp Spiders x5

• Exarch, Double Death Spinners

Guardians x 10

• Bright Lance

War Walker

• Starcannon, Eldar Missile Launcher

Wraithlord

• Brightlance, Eldar Missle Launcher, Two Flamers

Guardians x 10

• Eldar Missle Launcher

Avatar
Harlequins x 10

• Troupe Master - Power Weapon, Death Jester, Shadowseer
• 2 Fusion Pistols, Harlequins Kiss x 5

Total 2000ish

Anyway we rolled Big Guns Never Tire for our mission. This meant that our Heavy Support Options were Scoring Units. This turned out to be rather useless but still. We rolled Hammer and Anvil for Deployment Type. This meant that we split our 8 foot by 4 foot table in half across the middle of the long edge. This would have been a real boon if Tau were taken as that would have forced a long long march towards them. Luckily for the SW/IG and GK the Tau were left at home for this one.

For warlord traits someone rolled the Night Attacker trait meaning that first turn was Night Fighting. Incidentally i haven't played a game of 6th ed yet where it hasn't been Night fighting first turn.

As i said early my team got absolutely decimated VP wise. Both Teams deployed a lot of units along the middle of the table. Due to Night Fighting the majority of these survived into turn 2 where my team got shot to pieces by the masses of medium ranged firepower that the SW/IG and GK were able to bring to bear.

Deep striking units are henceforth great at killing that one irritating IG tank (we had a basilisk and they had a Leman Russ) with pathetic rear armour. I wrecked the Leman Russ using some Warp Spiders before moving for an objective with them. This forced 4 or 5 units/squads to turn around and head towards this objective so that they could shoot the Warp Spiders. Needless to say the Warp Spiders died but they drew a large amount of fire first.

As you may have noticed from the army list above i ran a squad of Harlequins. I found that they ultimately failed to do anything much. The 4+ cover save granted from Stealth + Shrouded was simply not enough out in the open without being able to reroll.

The War Walker almost lasted till the end of first turn. I Fortuned (reroll failed saves) it and the cover save due to Night Fighting almost let it live. Without Fortune though it would have died at the first sneeze directed at it. (War Walkers are AV 10 and 2 HP which is kinda easy to kill.)

The Jetbike Seer Council (Henceforth Jetseers) yet again proved the worth of the seer council. They made excellent bullet sponges (primarily due to Fortune and their 4+ Invulns) however did not get the opportunity to kill much. This is because i was unable to risk them in a charge and manoeuvrability on the table was limited due to our deployment pattern. Fortune is a must on these as i do not believe i passed more than 10% of the Invuln saves on the first roll.

The Avatar was pretty useless and didn't do anything. I would have been better of taking another Farseer for greater Psychic Denial Potential. As it was a number of Enemy Psychic powers went of despite having to roll 3D6.

Even though i find the Wraithlord to have greater survivability this edition it still manages to kill next to nothing with its main guns and does best using its Two Flamers. Even this didn't stop it from dieing to a GK Interceptor Squad in close combat. (admittedly it only had 1 wound going into the combat).

Rangers were slightly disappointing because they failed a leadership test first turn and took 2 turns to regroup.

That about sums up my thoughts on my latest battle.

[ph03nIXx]

@Dooks

Would like to hear more about those too, especially the raven guard one - i have been thinking about adding bikes to my blood angels for ages, so waiting for your impressions.

In general: Damn, I need to ge my first games in finally, I am getting really itchy with 40k deprivation... next weekend we got club meeting, there should be the chance to get a few games in...

[0rph3u5]

Yesterday I finally had the chance to test the new ruleset...

1. 1000 Points CSM vs BA

lists

HQ Sorcer with Force Sword, Jump Pack and Telepaphy (0 - Psycic Scream)	HQ Commander Dante
Troops 10 CSM in Rhino, Champion with Power Sword and Plasma Pistol, 2 Meltaguns 10 CSM in Rhino, Champion with Power Sword and Plasma Pistol, 2 Flamer	Troops 10 Assault Squad with Jump Packs, Sergant with Power Axe, 2 Power Swords 10 Death Company in Drop Pod, Chaplain
Fast Attack 8 Raptors, Champion with Pair of Lighting Claws, 2 Meltaguns	Fast Attack -/-
Heavy Support Chaos Vindicator, Additional Armour, twinlinked Bolter	Heavy Support Preadator, twinlinked Lascannon, 2 Lascannons

We played Hammer and Anvil and "Kill the Xeno"

detailed report

Table layout:
Standard 72x48 table with some terrain zones of 3x3-6x6 forming lines, diving the table in 3 corridors paralell to the long table edges.

Deployment:
I deployed one the Melta-Squad Rhino in the corridor closest to my long table edge right at the line of my deployment zone. Flamer-Rhino was deployed the same in the middle corridor. Vindicator was deployed 6" from the deployment zone edge. Raptor and Sorcerer remained in reserves.
He deployed his Preator opposite of my Vindicator. Dante and Assault Squad remained in reserves. Drop Pod had to.

Turn 1:
I had initative and started by pushing my Rhinos across the table (12" move + 6" Flat out) right. Vindicator moved up but didn't reach his Pread with the demolisher cannon.
Drop pod arrived 6" from the Flamer Rhino, Death Company exits. He fired all the Preadtors guns at the Flamer Rhino and managed to immoblize it (lost only 2 of 3 hull points), Death Company tired to kill off the Rhino with shooting but fails.

Turn 2:
Melta Rhino moves up 6" towards the Predator, Squad exits. Vindicator fires at Death Company, kills 5 and destroys the Drop Pod. Melta Squad fires at Pread (2 Krak grenades, 2 Melta guns at >6" and Plasma pistol) and scores two penetrating hits (crew shaken and weapon destroyed - laser turret). Flamer Squad and Flamer Rhino fire at Death Company and kill 2.
Pread moves away from Melta Squad. Death Company repositions to better fire at the Flamer Rhino. Death Company kills Flamer Rhino with a single glancing hit, and as a result Death Company charges Flamer Squad which had just exited. Overwatch fire kills all remaining Death Company models.

Turn 3:
Raptors arrive, deepstriking in the rear of the Pread. Melta squad embarks on its Rhino. Raptors fire on the Pread and destroy it. No enemy models left on table!
Dante + Assault Squad arrive, deepstriking in the rear of my Vindicator. Dante meltapistols my Vindicator, one penetrating hit and it explodes.

Turn 4:
Everyone moves towards Dante. Flamer Squad rapid-fires but scores only one kill (all other wounds are tanked by Dante who is reduced to a single wound as the result).
Dante & Co move towards Flamer Squad, return fire and charge. Flamer Squad overwatches but no kills are made (DANTE!!). Challange against Dante is a bust, as Champ's Power Sword fails to pierce Dante's save. Flamer Squad is wiped in the CC.

Turn 5:
Raptor get in range of Dante & Co. Psycic Scream kill 3 Assault marines, Raptor fire kills two more Assault Marines. Melta Squad kills one more. Raptors charge Dante & Co. No losses through overwatch, Sorcerer challanges Dante. Assault Squad is wiped. Challange is a draw.
Challange continues and due to the result of the challange I loose the CC by one, morale check is failed and Dante wipes out the entire squad solo in a sweeping advance.

Turn 6:
Melta Squad fires at Dante, Dante takes a Melta Shot in knee and is dead. Enemy wiped, match one.

I won by Anihilation but since we didn't record who scored "First Blood" back then and there (which I can now see I scored) Victory points-wise the game would have been a draw (6-6).


As for the "new rules impact":
1. Throwing Krak-grenades at tanks is nice - nice for some additional glances when your meltaguns miss
2. Overwatch is just awesome - finally I don't have to take every incoming charge and my CSM can now dominate even that
3. new effective 18" movement range and the new wrecked played right into my hands - Rhino charge is going to stay my #1 tactic I guess
4. Full strengh against vehicles for large blasts - yes, please!
5. FnP nerf makes the rule much more bearable now for the opponent
6. A 2+ armour save is dead 'ard now

2. 1500 Points CSM vs Tyranids

lists

HQ Chaos Sorcer with Jump Pack, Force Sword and Pyromancy (0 -Flame Breath) Troops 10 CSM in Rhino, Champion with Power Sword and Plasma Pistol, 2 Meltaguns 10 CSM in Rhino, Champion with Power Sword and Plasma Pistol, 2 Flamer 10 CSM, Champion with Power Fist, 2 Plasma Guns Fast Attack 8 Raptors, Champion with Pair of Lighting Claws, 2 Flamers Heavy Support Chaos Vindicator, Additional Armour, twinlinked Bolter Defiler with twinlinked Heavy Bolter and twinlinked Heavy Flamer Defiler with Reaper Autocannon and addition close combat arm

Doom of Malan'tai in Drop Spore Alpha Warrior 2x Tervigon 8 Tyrandin Warriors with Toxin Sacks, Lash Wips, Bonewords and Scything Talons 2x Biovores 3 Zoantropes in Drop Spore 3 Hive Guard 10 Termagaunts (20+ created Termagaunts)

Again Hammer and Anvil but this time "Big Guns never tire"

detailed report

Table layout:
Standard 72x48 table with some terrain zones of 3x3-6x6 forming lines, diving the table in 3 corridors paralell to the long table edges.

Deployment:
I placed my Heavy Support units in a line with both Defilers sitting on mission objectives in my deployment zone. Plasma Squad was placed in front of the Vindicator. Flamer squad in the far, Melta Squad in the near corridor. Raptors remained in Reserves.
Tyranids deployed Warrior Brood in the far corridor, Tervigons with the Hive Guard between them in the middle corridor. Biovores were placed in terrain in his deployment zone. already present Guants from meat shield for the Warrior Brood.

Turn 1:
Night Fighting applies.
Except for the defilers everything moves forwards at maximum speed. Defilers lay down some fire but kill off only 4 Termagaunts.
Tervigons create each a squad of 7 models. All towards as well, except Hive Guard and Biovores. Hive Guard damages Flamer Rhino (2 Hull points lost and imbolized). Biovores fire on Plasma Squad and kill 1. Warrior Brood charges Rhino and destroys it, Flamer Squad exits but is pinned.

Turn 2: (no right here I lost the overview at which Termaguants I was firing at)
Raptors arrive, deep strike scatters them away from the Hive Guard. Plasma Squad and Melta Squad move toward. Vindicator tires to fire at forming Termagaunt blob but blast template scatters away. Melta Squad fires at termagaunts (snap shots) but no effect. Plasma Squad fires at termaguants and kills a Squad. Defilers again attmept to kill Hive Guard but with no success.
Tervigons create one squad of 12 and one 6 (both now depleted). Doom arrives via Spore right between Flamer Squad and Plasma Squad, both Squads drained by 4 members each. Doom fires at Plama Squad, kills 4. Biovores open fire on Raptors, loose 4. Tervigons and one squad of termas charge my Raptors (one Tervigon fails at charge range). Challange between Sorcerer and one Tervigon, Sorcerer dead and Tervigon looses two wounds. Warriors charge Flamer Squad, Falmer squad is wiped (poisond 2+ and ignores armour saves, seriously??).

Turn 3: (here we ran out of time so everything got a bit hectic)
Melta Squad tank shocks Termaguants, damn fearless things move out of the way (I though I had them out of their synapse range by then). Vindicator kills off Doom. Defilers attempt Warrior Brood but blasts scatter off target.
Zoantropes arrive behind my defilers and kill one Defiler. Hive Guard kills Melta Rhino. Biovores fire at Melta Squad + Termagaunts fire and charge Melta Squad, now down to 2 models. Raptors wiped in CC.

Turn 4:
Remains of Plasma Squad join Melta Squad. Defiler attempts Zoantropes, all three pass their save. Vindicator attempts Hive Guard, misses.
Warrior Brood claims one objective. Hive Guard attempts Vindicator, 2 hull points lost and crew shaken. Termagaunts kill Plasma and Melta Squad, after combat move takes them on one objective.

We didn't get to turn 5 as time ran out and we had to leave.

Victory points wise 9 to 3 for the Tyranids

As for the "new rules impact":
1. Krak grenades for the win! (again) - when my Raptors were locked in close combat with his Tervigons it paid off to switch all normal attacks to single krak grenades
2. Overwatch proved invaluable (although this time I didn't roll half as good as before)
3. Look out, Sir with multi wound models is just painful for the opponent
4. The settlement on how Ordanance weapons on walkers helped a great deal to avoid unnessecary discussions like with 5th Ed rules


A few questions came up as well:
1. From which direction do you allocate wound done my blast weapons? (we settled on centre of the blast which made placing the blast template much more important)
2. If one of my units is charged by multiple opponents do I get to choose which unit get fired upon by Overwatch? Or do I have the chance to Overwatch only against the first unit that charges my squad?

[OhJohnNo]

1. From which direction do you allocate wound done my blast weapons? (we settled on centre of the blast which made placing the blast template much more important)

From the unit firing, I believe - but I could be wrong. I think you get to choose with Overwatch.

[Faek]

1. From which direction do you allocate wound done my blast weapons? (we settled on centre of the blast which made placing the blast template much more important)

From the unit firing, I believe - but I could be wrong. I think you get to choose with Overwatch.

My friends did as you did 0rph3u5 . From the centre of the blast. As for Overwatch i'd imagine it would be from the front but on the occasion a potentially blast weapon has had the opportunity to Overwatch i chose to just Krak it for a single shot instead.

[ph03nIXx]

1. From which direction do you allocate wound done my blast weapons? (we settled on centre of the blast which made placing the blast template much more important)

pg. 33, Special Rules, Blast: "Once the number of hits inflicted on the unit has been worked out, roll To wound and save as normal. Any unsaved wounds are then allocated on the unit as for a normal shooting attack."

=> which means: beginning with the modell closest to the firing unit.

Allocating from the center of the template only for Barrage Weapons - since it's coming from above. See page 34.

As for Overwatch i'd imagine it would be from the front but on the occasion a potentially blast weapon has had the opportunity to Overwatch i chose to just Krak it for a single shot instead.

pg. 21, Assault Phase, Overwatch: Overwatching is firing snap shots.

pg. 13, Shooting Phase, Snap Shots: Blast weapons cannot be fired as snap shots. Actually, you can't fire any template weapons at all as snap shots.

Hence you can't fire blast weapons in Overwatch - MLs may ONLY be fired as krak. Flamers while also being template weapons are an exeption to the Snap Shot rule here as they automatically make D3 hits in overwatch.

Time and again, I am astonished how many people just take the only exeption there is in the rules blast templates - barrage weapons - and generalise it to all blast weapons... both in fifth for how cover saves were worked out - from the direction of the firing unit, only for barrage from the middle of the blast template, and in sixth for how wound allocation is done - from the direction of the firing unit, only for barrage from the middle of the blast template! No offense to anyone in particular, but I have seen that with so many people...

[ph03nIXx]

Okay, finally managed to get my first 6th Edition games in:

1.) Grey Knights vs Space Wolves, 1000pts.
2.) Blood Angels vs Orks, 1650 vs 1500pts (club campaign game with points modifiers)


Not much to say about the first game...

Lists GK vs SW

GK 1000

Ordo Xenos Inquisitor - Rad, Psychotroke, Psychic Mastery, Power Armor

10 Purifiers - 4 Psycannons, 1 NDH, 5 NH, Psybolt Ammo
Vindicare Assassin

2x5 PAGK - Psycannon

Nemesis Dreadknight - NGS, Heavy Incinerator, Heavy Psycannon

SW 1000

Runepriest

3 Wolfguard + DropPod

2x8 Grey Hunters + Rhino

2x AC-Las-Predators

Second game with GKs and I still haven't figured out how to use them properly ;-) I am way to much in the modells to really care how to play them properly... so having an 48" square board, putting my stuff down at pretty much my baseline and then walking over to him while my opponent then wittled away my Marines with his Predators after he killed my Vindicare on turn 1 with his Wolf Guard from the pod with a lucky melta shot followed by an unlucky cover save, pretty much wasn't the best idea. The end of it: 1-0 on objectives, First Blood to the Space Wolves.

What did I learn? Be careful with positioning... that's pretty much all.


Second game went better...

Lists BA vs Orks

BA 1650

Sanguinor
Reclusiarch + Powerfist

Sanguinary Priest + JumpPack

2x 10 Assault Marines + 2 Meltaguns, Double Lightning Claws and Meltabombs for the Sarge
6 Death Company Marines + 2 Power Fists, 2 Power Weapons
Death Company Dreadnought + Blood Talons, Heavy Flamer

2x Trikes + MM

Stormraven Gunship + Hurricanes

1500 Orks

Waaaghboss + Big Choppa and then some stuff

10 Nobz - Dok, 2 Klaws, 3 Choppas, 3 Kombiweapons, Cyborg Bodies and then some...
10 Lootas
10 Tankbustaz + 2 Tankhammas, 2 Bombsquigs

30 Sluggaboys + Klaw Nob, Bazooka, 2 Big Shootas
30 Shootaboys + Klaw Nob, 3 Big Shootas

I'll go into more details when I got some sleep - it's 3 am now - but the game ended with 8:1 points for the Blood Angels - pretty much everything still standing in decent shape with the orks having 2 nobz left (Big Guns never tire on Hammer and Anvil Deployment, 4 objectives, Orks contest 1 Objective and claim first blood, Blood Angels claim 2 objectives and contest 1, scoring on Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker). Lessons learned from this one:

- Change to FnP feels like my dice luck changed with it - from making 90% of my FnP saves to NOT making 90% of my FnP saves.

- My dice luck is still insane at times, though - the ork guy pretty much poured his complete 3rd turn of shooting into the Sanguinor - making him take 17 Armor Saves with 2 wounds left in one go from the shootaboys... and he made them all in one go. The following wounds 18 through 23 came in twos and threes, so those weren't any issue ;-)

But for the more important lessons:

- Feel no Pain vs everything is pretty nifty... now I only need to remember that it's not against double strength.

- Allowing Armor saves vs Dangerous Terrain Tests makes them much less of an issue for my jumpy army...

- Flyers are great - though there are some things I needed to rereadt about 4 times to get my head around it (Velocity Locked), especially since we couldn't get to a clear agreement on whether the stormraven as an hover mode flyer is allowed to still switch between hover and zooming with locked velocity... we agreed on letting him switch as we didn't find anything in the rules that didn't allow it - since hover is flight mode, not flight speed -, deciding that in skimmer mode, it would count as immobilized until it started zooming again in which it would count as locked velocity.

- While I thought premeasurement would result in way less gambling and taking chances, the whole thing about jump packs EITHER in movement OR in assault made me think way more tactically and gamble a lot more than I did back in 5th... felt good ;-)

- With FnP vs everything, Mister Clawy-McClaw the Ork Shredder - also known as my trusted Death Company Dreadnought - really lost his place as primary nob shredding mashine... 5+ invul save AND 5+ FnP make getting those extra attacks way harder than before. Seems he will be dealing more with boys mobs in the future, especially if my dear friends on the ork side go with their announcement to get rid of all their klaw nobs...

- ... after loosing all squad nobz due to either not being able to do a thing because they denied The Sanguinors challenge or being slain by the Sanguinor's Chosen Champion Assault Sergeant Valerion of 2nd Companies 8th Squad. Which means: I love the challenge mechanic, especially since I get to use all those additional modells with other weapon options I build for my sergeants ages ago because I found them to be cool, even though I never used them.
Seeing Valerion butchering his way through the opposing Ork Nobz, I am beginning to believe all the "All 5th Edition codexes since Tyranids have been designed with 6th Edition in mind" crap that was out there... Stuff like The Sanguinor's Blessing - WS/I/A/W +1 for a random squad sarge at the beginning of the game - make way more sense with the higher profile those guys have with the challenge mechanic.

I'll try to get a detailed report up tomorrow... but for now: gn8.

[0rph3u5]

Ran the following list yesterday:

Spoiler

Ahriman
- 2x Telekinesis & 1x Telephapy

5 Chaosterminators
- 5 x Terminator Champion
- Icon of Tzeentch
- 1 x Chainfist
- 4 x Pair of Lighting Claws
- 1 x Heavy Flamer

5 Chaosterminators
- Icon of Tzeentch
- 3 x Power Fist
- 2 x Chain Fist
- 3 x Combi-Melta
- 1 x Combi-Flamer
- 1 x Reaper Autocannon


9 Thousand Sons
- Sorc with Telephapy

10 Chaos Space Marines
- 2 x Plasmagun
- Champ with Power Sword and PP

10 Chaos Space Marines
- 2 x Plasmagun
- Champ with Power Sword and PP


Defiler
- Reaper Autocannon
- Add CC arm

Defiler
- TL Heavy Flamer
- TL Heavy Bolter

The list made me suffer the problem that I couldn't bring the numbers I needed to stand my own against a BA list with much more warm bodies (and Dante) and DE list with way too much Disintegrators...

Ahriman with Gate of Infinity was cool though (although he does attract way more attention that way - and you suddenly realize that how overpriced he seems compared to other SC out there)... moving you TS squad straight from your line of deployment to his is a great boon...
TS are more abyssmal as they were before though ... switch to 5+ cover saves made it eaiser to actually kill something while shooting but the lack of overwatch against assault units really gets you there; they are a great unit for LOS! if you roll right as they can easily take what is thrown at you to kill your HQ with their 4++

[OhJohnNo]

Armies

Tau/Blood Angels
Shas'o battlesuit commander with airburst gun, fusion blaster, shield generator, multi-tracker, 2 shield drones, blacksun filter. Warlord (trait: allowed me to re-roll failed reserves rolls)
Shas'el battlesuit commander with xv84 (forgeworld - gives markerlight) flamer, fusion blaster, multi-tracker, targeting array, blacksun filter
Shas'ui battlesuit with burst cannon, fusion blaster, multi-tracker, targeting array, blacksun filter
3 stealthsuits with blacksun filters
2x 12-man Fire Warrior squads with shas'uis - 1 has 1 marker drone, other has 2
Sniper Drone Team
2 broadsides, 1 team leader with advanced stabilisation systems & 2 marker drones
Turret with twin-linked plasma rifles
Allies:
Reclusiarch with hand flamer
Sanguinary Priest
Tactical Squad with flamer and missile launcher

Tyranids
Tervigon with smite, catalyst, Crushing Claws. Warlord (trait: reduced enemy reserves rolls by 1)
3x 20 Hormogaunts with Toxin Sacs
20 Genestealers with Broodlord with Smite
3 Carnifexes (brood) with Frag Spines

Imperial Guard
Command Squad. Warlord (trait: reduced enemy reserves rolls by 1)
2x Imperial Guard Veterans squads
Sentinel with Plasma Cannon
Banewolf with multi-melta
2x Leman Russ Battle Tanks (squadron) with heavy bolters
Leman Russ Eradicator with 3 heavy flamers & Leman Russ Punisher with 3 heavy bolters (squadron)
Leman Russ Executioner with 2 plasma cannons and heavy flamer
(note: all tanks have Dozer Blades)

Deployment:



This being a 3-way battle, we decided to invent our own random deployment type: each of us would get opposite corners, with the exception of the Imp guy who would get opposite middles of long table edges. This was supposed to force us to split up our forces and think - but as you can see, the Imperial Guard player decided to ignore his southern deployment area and somehow crammed every single vehicle he had into his northern 12" semicircular deployment zone (leaving his infantry in reserve). The Nids put all 3 hormogaunt squads down in their southern corner, apparently not bothered at their lack of nearby synapse creatures - meanwhile, the Tervigon and his 3 bro Carnifexes deployed as close as they could to the Guard tanks in their corner oop north. This left the Tau/BAs to deploy last - the Sniper Drones, 2 non-Warlord Battlesuits and the Broadsides stupidly went up in their northern corner whilst everything else that wasn't a Stealthsuit stayed in the sensible southern locale (Fire Warriors 1 on the hill, Fire Warriors 2 above, Warlord in front of both). The central red dot is the Relic, the only objective of this gametype.

Infiltrators then deployed - see that fucking hugemassive building in front of all the southern Tau? That's a scratchbuilt chapel, and the Genestealers sneaked just outside of the western-facing wall of that. The Stealthsuits were left with few places to choose from - in the end, they went above that other frickin' huge building just above the mass of Hormogaunts, staying just out of sight of both the Nids and intimidatingly huge mass of tanks.

The Imperial Guard were set to go first, but both the Tau and Nids managed to seize the initiative - a rolloff determined that the Nids would take the first turn, the Tau the second, and the poor, cheated Imperial Guard the last. Oh, and it was night fighting on the first turn.

Game

Tyranid Turn 1
The 60 Hormogaunts in the south looked east, looked north, looked east again, snorted some coke and decided that charging into the huge anti-infantry gunline of Tau and Space Marine troops was a more attractive prospect than charging at the largely anti-tank focused bundle of weapons up north. Accordingly, they sprinted out of LoS of the northern firebase and towards the eagerly waiting Blood Angels Tactical Squad. Much closer at hand were the Genestealers, who moved real sneaky-like into the chapel and crept towards the unsuspecting Tau commander - or so they thought, at least. Meanwhile, near the mountain of armed metal, the four monstrous creatures were given Feel No Pain by the Tervigon's psychic power and proceeded to headbutt their way through a few walls and lumber westwards - clearly, they had a craving for some canned food.

Shooting was just the Hormogaunts running further towards the waiting allied gunline. The Fexes didn't want to run, as they wanted to charge.

This proved a forlorn hope, however - come the assault phase, the Carnifexes tripped over some masonry and failed to quite reach the closest tank (the Eradicator). At this point, it became clear that they were really going to need the Feel No Pain given to them by the Tervigon, though they'd at least also get a cover save from the building they'd humiliatingly failed to get out of.

Tau Turn 1
The Tau shared a good laugh at the failure of the Tyranids to do anything at all before getting to business. The battlesuit commander wasn't nearly as stupid as the genestealers seemed to think, and moved to put them in his experienced sights - meanwhile, the Blood Angels advanced forward in an attempt to bring the Wall of Death closer to its soon-to-be victims. The Stealthsuits ambled round the large building they'd been hiding behind to get into range and LoS of a surprised Hormo squad, whilst further northwards, the Broadsides made the wholly stupid decision to move out of cover so they could shoot the Executioner plasma-tank.

Come the shooting phase, they resoundingly failed to do anything at all to the bemused metal behemoth, aside from maybe scratching the paintwork (rolling 1s is always fun!). Nothing else in the northern deployment zone could see anything, so it was down to the southern firebase - the Tactical Squad proceeded to kill 4 of the encroaching little Hormo beasties despite the night fighting, though the Fire Warriors were still sadly out of range. Instead, these chose to fire at some of the Genestealers they could see on the chapel's higher level - they only killed 2 models, but one of these was the Broodlord, which was an excellent result. Meanwhile, the Shas'o commander fired a cluster of submunitions into the chapel - these cover-ignoring wonders spectacularly killed 6 genestealers before a seventh was melted by the suit's Fusion Blaster. The other Fire Warriors tried to help, but were substantially less successful than their compatriots and only brought down one of the nasty buggers. Finally, the Stealthsuits killed three more Hormogaunts from the brood closest to them.

Assault consisted entirely of the various battlesuits moving - the northern Shas'ui pragmatically figured that the various large guns would have other things to shoot at and so jetted out into the open, aiming for the large building the Stealthsuits had just finished hiding behind. The Shas'el stayed resolutely put, mindful of the plasma tank the Broadsides had just pissed off. The Stealthsuits themselves jetted backwards again (not realising what this'd do in the next turn) and the Shas'o jumped southwards, far clear of the Genestealers.

Imperial Guard Turn 1
"Moving?" said the Imperial Guard Commander, from off the battlefield. "I shall have to look up that term in the Blessed Emperor's Dictionary at some later date. In the meantime, I order all tanks to stand and shoot at the foul Xenos beasts!"

The crew of the Banewolf shook their heads in exasperation and gunned their fast vehicle towards the unsuspecting Stealthsuits that were now exposed between the central Fortress of Redemption and the other building (Marneus Calgar's Clubhouse, making its second appearance in my battle reports). The Executioner crew also decided to ignore their stupid commander and went forwards a tad towards the Broadsides - accompanied by their little brother, the plasma-armed Sentinel. Everything else only turned to face the nervous Fexes.

Shooting was about as brutal as you might expect from the Imperial Guard. First of all, the Stealthsuits had their faces horrifyingly melted to death by the Banewolf's acid cannon, whilst the Broadsides were turned into their constituent atoms by the Executioner's vast array of plasma weaponry. All the other tanks, and the Sentinel, just fired everything they had at the Carnifexes - when the dust settled, the frontmost fex was in molten pieces and the second was on 2 wounds, bleeding profusely. The Tervigon had also managed to lose one of its 6 wounds to a scatter from a Battle Cannon. The brood was battered, but alive - and that was what would count.

Tyranid Turn 2
The Fexes & Tervigon wasted no time in scrambling towards the Punisher & Eradicator that had caused so much damage, motivated either by vengeance or hunger (or possibly both). The Tervi also didn't forget to renew his Feel No Pain on the Fexes, even though it had done little last turn. At the other end of the board, the Hormogaunts ran forward some more, one brood significantly taking up residence in the courtyard below the Relic whilst the remaining Genestealers piled to the eastern edge of the titanic chapel - many of them hiding behind an old, broken Ork Trukk (see that little box on the bottom corner in the map? Yeah, that).

Shooting was once again essentially nonexistant, aside from the Hormogaunts running again - two broods headed down below the chapel for the Space Marines, but the other went northwards, remaining in the courtyard. Then it was on to assault.

The Carnifexes finally managed to charge the frontmost tank squadron and promptly tore it to pieces - both the Eradicator and Punisher were punished with summary eradication for the death of one of the Fexes, the crew undoubtedly meeting a horrible, toothy fate. Then the gribblies looked up and noticed the various other tanks pointing their guns at them - and braced themselves for another round.

Tau Turn 2
They weren't the only Tyranids with an overwhelming firepower problem, however - down south, their little cousins were rushing towards some problems of their own. First of all, though, the forces reshuffled - the Blood Angels quickly conferred with the Tau commander and decided that right now, the Marines with their pair of template weapons would be most useful against the tightly packed Genestealers in the chapel, whilst the Commander should help the Fire Warriors in killing off the more numerous Hormogants. Accordingly, the Marines moved over to let the Fire Warriors on the hill come forward and take their place, whilst the other FWs moved to their old hill position. The commander, meanwhile, moved forward a tad - just enough to ensure that he was in range. Northwards, the Sniper Drones moved down a bit so they could see the Hormos in the courtyard, whilst the Shas'el moved into Marneus Calgar's Clubhouse and the Shas'ui stomped behind the eastern wall of the eastmost large building. Oh, and finally, the Turret came in from reserve and deep striked on the hill next to the huge Imperial Guard/Tyranid fight.

The Reclusiarch and Flamer-armed Tactical Marine exchanged grins (somehow, despite their helmets) and fired off their respective flamer weapons into the tight mass of 'Stealers behind the mashed Trukk. Only four were immolated, but that was enough to bring them right down to 6 men things - not really enough to damage anything except maybe a Fire Warrior squad. Speaking of which, the two Fire Warrior Squads then made their presence felt at last, bringing one Hormogaunt squad down to 3 nids and, with the help of the Commander, another down to perhaps 12 with their pulses of glowy blue light. Elsewhere, the Shas'el missed the Banewolf with his Fusion Blaster and the Turret did nothing to whatever it had shot at (yeah, I can't quite recall).

Unsurprisingly, the nearly-dead Hormogaunt squad fled, but their friends (not quite so badly ravaged) pulled themselves together and remembered the important things in life: eating blue people. It looked like they'd be sticking round for at least one more turn. The assault phase was just more Battlesuit assault moves - the shas'el and shas'ui just sort of shuffled about indecisively, but the Shas'o only managed to go 4" away from the chapel that was still full of Genies. Ruh-roh.

Imperial Guard Turn 2
The Banewolf and Executioner looked back from the remains of the Tau they'd just murdered and did a double take - they didn't know how the giant monstrous gribblies had gotten here, but they certainly knew how they were leaving, and so they turned their buckets round and ran right back to where they'd come from. The Command Squad and a Veteran squad also arrived from the same Imp deployment zone as where everything else was, the former apparently deciding the battle needed his personal direction at this point.

Accordingly, he then proceeded to direct the fuck out of the battle, issuing the "Bring it Down" order on the Fex brood and making all shooting at it twin-linked. This helped extensively - six Plasma shots impacted into the frontmost Fex and brought it from 4 wounds to 1, at which point it was then gleefully finished off by the Banewolf's facemelting cannon of doom. The two basic Leman Russes then took the graceful liberty of killing the last one, which was already on 2 wounds, with their trusty Battle Cannons. This left only the Tervigon, who was still on an almost-full 5 wounds - and really very close to the remaining Leman Russes. Hrm.

Tyranid Turn 3
The Nids had taken a huge beating from arguably the two most shooty armies it's possible to collect in 40k, but they were far from out of it - and it was this turn that their dastardly plan was revealed, as the Hormogaunts in the Courtyard stretched out a chain of themselves to grab the Relic. This made the Nids the only army with any troops choices anywhere near the game's only objective - which they'd be able to carry around with them next turn (they'd already moved pretty much as far as they could this turn). The Tyranid player had managed to effectively force both opposing armies into defensive positions and keep them away from the objective - a masterful plan, I must admit.

They continued to attempt this in turn 3 - the 'Stealers leaped out in front of the Shas'o and shouted "ABLOOGY-WOOGY-WOO", while behind them the 12 Hormogaunts ran forwards some more (presumably repeating the mantra "eat blue people" to themselves while they did so). The Tervigon leapt towards a Leman Russ in search of more tinned goods, and also proceeded to vomit forth 8 basic Gaunts as a smokescreen (rolling a double as it did so, preventing it from spawning any more).

Shooting was actually eventful this turn - the Tervigon cunningly fired its large blast weapon at the Leman Russ, and it did exactly as planned when it scattered off and landed on the Guard veterans, killing 2. The new Gaunts also fired their peashooters into the same squad, but unsurprisingly did nowt. Elsewhere, the Hormogaunts continued to run - they were now tantalisingly close to the Tau gunline.

Assault went pretty much as expected - the newly spawned Gaunts charged into the Veterans and got their asses kicked, leaving just 2 of them resolute against 8 knifey Guardsmen. The Tervigon was much more successful in smashing up one of the metal bawkses that had been causing its mates so much harm - a Leman Russ went up in smoke. There now weren't many Guard tanks left - and there had been so many at first!

Downstairs from there, the Genestealers gibbered and roared and charged into the Tau Commander in the hopes of nabbing a Slay the Warlord point. They quickly tore his two Shield Drones out of the sky, but inflicted no wounds on the man himself - who then proceeded to prove his badassery once again by smashing in the skulls of 2 Genies, resulting in Drawn Combat. Still, he wouldn't be able to hold out much longer unless he got help...

Tau Turn 3
Thankfully, the Reclusiarch with his Blood Angels was right nearby, on hand to provide help to the commander he now probably felt at least some level of respect for (after all, beating up Genestealers is no small feat). They turned round and moved right next to the combat, preparing to charge in the assault phase. Other movement was sparse - the Shas'el and Shas'ui moved towards the Courtyard as fast as they could, because while they couldn't claim the objective, they could sure as hell stop the Nids from taking it.

The shooting this turn was more limited than previously - yet also more important, as the Sniper Drones that had moved into position last turn were now able to fire. They only brought down two Hormogaunts from the Relic-holding squad... but their weapons were Pinning, and the Hormogaunts had a paltry leadership value of 6. The little gribblies screamed like pussies and went to ground, taking cover wherever they could - now they were going to stay put and the other units could hopefully finish them off. The Shas'ui then proceeded to take a couple down with his Burst Cannon, though so far the Shas'el was still out of range. Southwards, the only significant shooting was all 24 of the Fire Warriors firing at the last 12 Hormogaunts - 2 of the 3 Marker Drones finally hit, and one of the squads was entirely within rapid fire range, meaning 36 shots that were hitting on 2s, wounding on 2s and ignoring all armour saves smashed the gaunts into itty bitty pieces of ichor and chiten before they could say "Omnomnom!"

The assault phase was tense - the Blood Angels charged in to help the Shas'o, but with no drones to protect him, nobody knew if he'd survive. The Genestealers sliced and diced and ripped holes in the battlesuit's armour, reducing the poor fellow to 1 wound... but he survived long enough for the Reclusiarch to storm in and bash in the skulls of every 'Stealer there personally with his extremely useful Crozius Arcanum. The warlord was safe and the Nids in the Tau deployment zone had all been wiped out - a close shave, but they'd pulled it off.

Imperial Guard Turn 3
Meanwhile, in getting-eaten-by-monsters land, the Imperial Guard had decided they finally had enough of the Tervigon's bullshit and were targeting it personally. The other Veteran squad arrived and "First Rank Fire! Second Rank Fire!" was done on them, along with "Bring it Down!" on the Tervigon - the combined weight of the Veterans, the Sentinel, the Banewolf, the Executioner and the Leman Russ should have finished the thing off in short order, but it somehow managed to only sustain 3 wounds due to a combination of lucky cover saves and lucky Feel No Pain rolls. The gaunts it had spawned weren't so lucky - they were finally stabbed to death by the experienced bayonets of the Veteran guardsmen in the assault phase, which might serve as some small consolation for what was to come.

Tyranid Turn 4
The Tervigon bounced happily back to the final basic Leman Russ - I like to imagine that at this point, the crew just got out and surreptitiously ran, because they must have known what was coming. Meanwhile, the only other Nid unit left - the Hormogaunts - did nothing, because they were pinned. Obviously, there was no shooting, so it went right into assault, in which the Tervigon once again did the thoroughly inevitable and broke the Leman Russ into several pieces in search of its annoyingly fighty food.

Tau Turn 4
The Tau now had one priority - get those fucking Nids off our Relic, Good-dammit! Accordingly, all three Battlesuits and the Blood Angels enclosed on the brood's position and opened fire.

Well, the Nids' going-to-ground skills were apparently better than the Tau'd given them credit for, because each of those units mentioned above managed to kill 1 Nid apiece. That was something along the lines of 600 points, managing to kill about 40 - a truly shamefrur display, doubtless met with countless facepalms from the watching Fire Warriors, who themselves were just enough in range to manage to kill 2 more of the damn things. The hormos stayed put (they didn't have a choice, being pinned), but one of the killed ones had been in possession of the objective - so at least there was that. Elsewhere, the Turret finally deigned to do something and vapourised one of the veteran Guardsmen with its plasma rifles - the only Guard model the Tau had managed to kill the whole game.

Imperial Guard Turn 4
We learned here that this was to be the last turn of our game - we'd just run out of time (3-way games kinda do take time, particularly with our strange deployment type). With both their troops choices still being stuck in their northward deployment zone, and everything relating to the Relic being out of their line of sight, they had one target - the Tervigon, who had been busily consolidating away from the Leman Russ it had just wrecked. Naturally, this didn't save it, as it was finally plasma'd to death by the Executioner and Sentinel. As it happened, there was one final target - the Banewolf set its guns on the Turret and turned it to sizzling slag with a combination of its melta and chem cannon. With no assault to speak of, this was the end of the game!

End tally

Tyranids: 0
Tau/Blood Angels: 0
Imperial Guard: 2 (First Blood, Slay the Warlord)

The Imperial Guard scrape a victory by sitting in one of their deployment zones and trying really hard to not die. Yeah. Congratulations!

Man of the match
I'm tempted to go with the Shas'o again, for once again proving how insanely awesome he is against Tyranids (even genestealers!), but in this case I think the honour must go to the Tervigon. The damn thing just would not die, but it could certainly kill. The Banewolf performed rather excellently too, steadily taking wounds from the various monstrous beasts and killing a couple of Tau units - easily making back its points cost, in the end (I'm guessing). 'Course, the real winners of the match were the Nids for using sneaky tiktaks to nearly win the game, not to mention nearly wiping out the whole Imperial Guard army with half of their own.

What did we learn?
-Never give a Battlesuit a frickin' flamer. It will NEVER BE USEFUL EVER.
-In future, don't assume that the board being terrain-heavy means that you don't need to bother with many anti-tank weapons.
-Sniper Drones are rather excellent at turning few kills into a large impact.
-Imperial Guard Tanks are cool 'n' all, but you probably shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket. Or maybe you should, since they won.
-Gunline armies really are very powerful indeed - at least, against assault-horde armies.
-This was a pretty great deployment type, actually. Made for an interesting game.