Battle Report 12 - Planetfall (or Food That Delivers Itself)

Tyranids vs. Space Marines (Iron Hands)

Battle #1 in Lars Ericson's Rescue of Warsaw II ladder campaign.

Composed by Michael J. Casavant (Hive Fleet Phage)

Summary

• Date - 04NOV2001
• Points - 1500
• Scenario - Cleanse
• Hive Fleet Phage, Tyranid Army List played by Michael J. Casavant]
• Red Talons Chapter - Iron Hands Space Marines [played by Lars Ericson]
• Result - Victory for Tyranids
  • Quarters game - Tyranid held 2 quarters, other 2 contested, so 2-0. Tyranids victory.
  • Losses - Phage: 1/2 Genestealer brood, Lysogaunt brood, both Spinegaunt broods, 1/2 Gargoyle brood, Ripper Swarm brood.
  • Losses - Red Talons: 3 Land Speeder Units, Razorback, Rhino, 1/2 Tac Marine squad x 2 and 1 full Tac marine squad, Predator Annihilator.
• Grand Tournament Scale (Victory Points Difference) - N/A.
  • 0-299 Victory Points = Draw - neither side holds the upper hand.
  • 300-599 Victory Points = Minor Victory - You have won the battle, but only just!
  • 600-1,199 Victory Points = Solid Victory - You have decisively defeated your foe!
  • 1,200+ Victory Points = Massacre - You have ruthlessly crushed your foes!

Report

Intro

This is the first battle of what is supposed to be a ladder campaign that Lars has set up.

Setup

Naming convention: The food that have faced Hive Fleet Phage have named the Hive Tyrants that continue to plague them. The one that trudges forward implacably with an escort of Tyrant Guard they call "Thunder." The swift winged beast that races across the battlefield and shatters bodies and vehicles alike has been dubbed "Lightning." They have also named the Carnifex engine of destruction, "Mjolnir."

I am numbering the quarters like a graph in math class. The top right is #1, #2 is top left, and so on, counterclockwise. Choice of quarter went to the Tyranids. None of the quarters was really ideal, so I simply chose a quarter with decent cover that deprived Lars of a rooftop perch for any of his guys.

We chose the buildings to work like woods normally do. [Using Cityfight rules instead may sound reasonable, but Cityfight rules were designed to make a game playable in, well, a city fight, and they don't translate well outside of that milieu.]

The Battle

The terrain layout was challenging. Virtually no useful cover in the middle, and the small amount of "forest" was pushed back far enough that I had to cover at least 24-30" in a straight run to engage the food; that meant three to four rounds of getting shot even for my fastest units, which I did not have enough of to survive. It was indeed going to be challenging. As for the marines, that low wall near the union of two quarters was a great position for some mechanized infantry to set up in, so I would have to keep an eye on that.

What was the plan? The wall was too obvious a salient for the marines, not to mention the fact that it was just inside a second quarter, so if I let it go unchallenged, it could lose the game for me. The plan was to hook around to have a huge melee ensue at the wall and secure quarter #1, using my Carnifex to charge in last minute and capture a third quarter, #3. I had no intention of trying to take the marine's home quarter (#2), but I might try to contest it. I was pretty confident that Thunder and his Tyrant Guard could keep my home quarter, #4, supported by Mjolnir if necessary.

Some wrinkles were present, aside from the fact that Lars is shrewd and has about a decade on me when it comes to playing this game. At the very least, Lars will make me pay for any mistakes I make. I was facing an army with 5 Troop choices, 7 non-Troop choices, and 2 transport upgrades (move 12"); three of these choices were single Speeder units (move 24") and two more were a Whirlwind and Annihilator (move 12"). I only had 9 units capable of capturing quarters and only two of them had faster than a 6" Move. I was uncomfortably outnumbered in quarter capturing capability and maneuverability, so I had to take down the vehicles as fast as possible to keep a lid on last minute quarter bids (wow, sounds like I actually know what I am talking about...nah can't be). On top of that were the seven Lascannons in Lars' army, one of them twin-linked and four of them backed up by a Signum (re-roll one miss), so I had to decide to keep behind cover or try and overwhelm the guns with too many targets. Because it was a quarter capturing mission, I decided to err on the side of keeping my monsters alive; this is hard for me to do, because it involves not running across the field and asaulting everything I can, which is what I want to do. The Hive Mind is smarter than that...

Wrap-up

Wow, that was a toughie. If that last Ripper had died one round earlier...if that Lascannon squad had one extra round of productive fire...all in all, a well fought game.

Lessons Learned (and relearned)

• Paying attention to Victory Conditions is very good. I will probably say this another half dozen times in future reports. From the very start, I was thinking in terms of victory conditions instead of just running up to kill Marines.
• Transports can be surprisingly useful for marines. For example, the first deployment of the game was Lars placing a Devastator squad deep in his quarter, under cover, and their transport upgrade, a Razorback, at the far front corner to push back my army. It allows one to place an expensive long range unit far away and simultaneously use a cheap, disposable vehicle to push me back, with a single unit deployment. Wow. Add to that the advantage of allowing a transport to capture or contest a quarter on its own. Yipes. I need to get used to it and learn to deal with it. It will be nice when I make my own mechanized units of marines. :)
• Army composition rules are good.

Tactics Developed

• Deny your enemy the shot they want - I decided to completely hide my monsters from Lascannon fire. All three of them are tough, deadly, and can capture quarters. So I carefully kept them out of LOS of the Lascannons while picking off everything else in the army. Lascannons are not quite so cool when they are forced to shoot Gaunts.
• Stay flexible - keep units positioned so that they have more than one quarter they are capable of capturing. Always keep in mind that simply surviving to capture a quarter can mean victory.
• Pay attention to reducing as many squads as possible to 50% or less rather than decimating only a few. It's a quarter capturing mission.

Rules Questions & Clarifications

• Lars wondered if his Skimmer should be able to pass over a friendly vehicle. I said yes for our battle, so it didn't matter, but it is a valid query, vehicles are treated differently in many regards.