Space Wolves vs Tyranids 1-25-2015 (my first test drive of the Tyranids)

Hive Fleet Kraken touches down on a world protected by heavy Space Wolves armor- will it be consumed?

Hey everyone! By request, here is an older batrep with my first time fielding my Tyranids army. Chris brought his beautifully-painted Space Wolves and Vin of http://atticwars40k.blogspot.com/ offered up the space for a truly epic 1850 point fight.

The armies: troops and strategy

Tyranid Hive Fleet Kraken
As always, numbers are everything with Tyranids, and I brought plenty:

• 1 Flying Hive Tyrant with  Heavy Venom Cannon + twin linked devourers with brainleech worms + regenerate (Warlord and psyker. Rolled Onslaught and Paroxysm for powers and Digestive Denial (-1 to a terrain's cover save) as a trait
• Endless Swarm formation: 
• 30 Hormagaunts in 3 units
• 30 Termagaunts in 3 units
• 3 Warriors (synapse creatures)
• 1 Tervigon to spawn more Termagaunts and provide synapse
• 1 Venomthrope to give cover saves (Tyranids do not have good armor saves)
• 2 Carnifexes with 4 twin linked devourers with brainleech worms
• 2 Zoenthropes for synapse and psykik powers
• Broodlord's Hunting Pack formation
• 1 Broodlord
• 15 Genestealers in 3 units
• 1 Mawloc (high strength, armor piercing deep strike attack)
• 1 Hive Crone (flying unit which wrecks vehicles- thanks to Vin for the loan!)

Tactics: Numbers, numbers, and numbers. With a Tervigon to keep spawning cheap units and an Endless Swarm formation (means any dead units walk back on from off the board if you roll a 4+), I've got plenty of units to bog the enemy down in melee and take objectives for victory points.

Since my soldiers are pretty slow and starting from a long way off, I'll need to keep them protected with cover (that's what the the Venomthrope is for- he gives everyone +2 to cover) and overlapped with synapse. I fully expect Chris to teleport soldiers behind me, but with that many troops I should be able to hold them off indefinitely.

The armor will be an issue as very few of my troops can crack through the tanks' hide. The Carnifexes can dish out 24 Strength 6 shots per turn, and some of them will crack through. However, the cannon on my Flying Hive Tyrant and the Hive Crone's Haywire shots will crack tanks with ease. Besides that, my 3 units of genestealers will be able to infiltrate pretty close to the enemy and hopefully take an objective or bog down some of his units in bodies to mitigate all the shooting that'll come my way. Also, there's the Mawloc.

Space Wolves
Chris went heavy on armor for this fight in a Combined Arms Detachment

• Harald Deathwolf (HQ with Outflank)
• 1 Land Raider (very heavy tank transport)
• 1 Dreadnought (heavy walker)
• 1 Predator (heavy tank transport)
• 1 Stormfang Gunship (heavily armed Flyer)
• 10 Fenrisian Wolves
• 5 Wolfguard Terminators (2+ armor save and Deep Strike)
• 20 Grey Hunters (2 plasma guns) in 2 units
• 5 Long Fangs (1 is an Ancient, have missile launchers and 1 plasma pistol)

His strategy will most likely be to blast my synapse creatures to make the troops lose control (which is why I brought a lot of them) and to give me a wall of armor I can't break through. This will limit his mobility, though that's balanced by troops like his HQ and the Terminators (though I hope they do come in behind me- there's no way he can hack through that many bodies).

The Battle- Turn 1

Though Chris deployed his troops first, I managed to steal initiative and can deploy second and go first:

Deployment:

I've got my troops in a long line with double synapse coverage, but also used the Genestealers' special ability to deploy them on top of an objective and in cover where I need to roll a 3 or lower to take a hit! He will undoubtably fire on them, but I'm confident they'll survive. Going first helps me get there quicker, and after spawning 8 new Termagaunts, I immediately moved, then ran everyone forward

My Psykik phase was used to extend everyone's synapse, though the Broodlord's was denied (not needed as Genestealers don't need synapse)

As the Space Wolves moved all their units to target my genestealers, I prepared for the worst.

Though the Broodlord denied their psykik Murderous Hurricane and his Living Lightning failed to manifest, the armor destroyed 8 Genestealers and gained a point for first blood. At the end of turn 1, the score is tied 1:1.

The Battle- Turn 2

Again, I spawned another brood of 11 Termagaunts and moved/ran the Swarm as fast as possible toward my embattled Genestealers. Things look grim for the Space Wolves, as my Hive Crone flew in from reserves this turn and targeted Chris' largest tank- the Land Raider. Between a glancing hit from the Flying Tyrant's bio-cannon and 2 Haywire tentaclid bio-missiles from the Crone, the Land Raider collapsed and burned.

As the troops inside disembarked from the ruined hulk, the surviving Genestealers moved up to hold the objective against the upcoming storm of bolter fire from the Space Marines.

Turn 2 for Space Wolves began with a bang, as both the heavily armored Terminator squad arrived via Deep Strike and Harald Deathwolf and his swift wolves outflanked my troops

The surprise attack from the Terminators would target my Carnifexes, while Harald aimed to blast some Termagaunts out of the way and then charge my Tervigon.

On the other side of the board, Chris moved to quickly destroy my Genestealers and claim the objective. However, the Murderous Hurricane psykik onslaught against my Genestealers was denied, and Living Lightning only claimed 2 'Stealers. The dreadnought's fire would scatter and only 3 additional 'Stealers would die (their bodies shielding the Broodlord), and they kept the objective.

Meanwhile, the Carnifexes armor proved to be too much for the Terminators' firepower, while the Warlord missed in his shooting phase. The Swarm, awakened to the interlopers, prepared their response.

The Battle- Turn 3

As most of the swarm continued up, the Tervigon and her broods of gaunts (including a newly-spawned brood of 9) turned to face the new food source in their midst, casting Paroxysm and reducing their Weapons and Ballistics skills by 3 (can't hit or shoot anything well). Registering a new foe, the Carnifexes turned their mighty Devourer weapons on the Terminators, overwhelming their armor with 24 shots (I forgot the twin linked rule) and killing one. Likewise, a nearby brood of 15 Termagaunts turns back and claims a second Terminator with massed firepower.

As Harald moved to charge the gaunts, they turned and unleashed a withering salvo of firepower before charging. Though they would lose 1 unit of newly-spawned gaunts, the sheer amount of ammunition would claim all but 2 of the Fenrisian Wolves and tie down the Warlord in melee combat.

Finally, on the other side of the battlefield, disaster struck

as the Mawloc burst in from beneath the squad of Space Wolf Marines pinned from the destruction of their transport. His brutal attack was right on target and devoured all but one of the Marines

This dramatic event caused me to forget to shoot my flyers, but the damage was done. The game was called due to time constraints, and as Hive Fleet Kraken began to scour the planet of life, the final score was: Space Wolves 2 (First Blood and Linebreaker) and Tyranids 3 (3 objectives).

Final Thoughts

Thanks to Chris for an excellent game (and for being a such a good sport with my lucky dice Mawloc roll) and to Vin for the use of his facilities! Hive Crones are truly impressive, and I will be using the Mawloc again.  Also, I was impressed at the resilience of the Genestealers and believe that the score would have been different if Chris had gone for an objective with his Warlord and used the Terminators (or Marines in the transport) to charge the 'Stealers.