Battle Report #26: Lahkers & Chaos Marines vs Hive Fleet Basilisk

TYRAHNID INCAHSHUN!

After discovering how truly crap I am at 40k, I needed a plain old fun game.  I got together with Ike and Nathaniel once again, and we had a 2v1 of me and Ike's Necrons and CSM versus Nathaniel's Tyranids.  They are the splinter fleet Basilisk, based off Hive Fleet Basilisk, with the Endless Swarm formation.

Lahkers:

Overlord (Phaeron Shahk) w/Warscythe, Phase Shifter, Phylactery, Resorb

5x Lychguard w/sword and shield

Triarch Stalker w/heat ray

10x Immortals

3 10x Warriors

Ike's CSM:

Chaos Lord w/ MoS, Chainaxe, Burning Brand of Skalathrax

20x Noise Marines w/ Icon of excess, 19 sonic blasters, champion w/ chainaxe, doom siren

Rhino w/ Havok launcher, dozer blade

10x Chaos Cultists w/ flamer

Sonic Dreadnought w/ Blastmaster, warp amp

Vindicator "Vindictive George" w/ Demonic Possession

Hive Fleet Basilisk:
Endless Swarm

2 17x Hormagaunts
2 18x Hormagaunts (Both with Toxin Sacs)
2 13x Termagants 3w/ Devourer
14x Termagants 4w/ Devourer
3 Warriors
(Devourer, Scything Talons, Toxin sac)
(Deathspitter, Lashwhip & Boneswords, Toxin sacs)
(Deathspitter, Scything talons, Toxin sac)

Hive Fleet Detachment
Hive Tyrant (Boneswords, Heavy Venom Cannon, Prehensile Pincer Tail, Regeneration, Shreddershard beetles, The Norn Crown, Toxin Sacs)
5 Genestealers
5 Ripper swarms W/spine fists
3 Warriors (Dethspitter, Rending claws, Toxin sacs) (Boneswords, Deathspitter, Toxin sacs) (Boneswords, Rending Claws, Toxin sacs)
10x Gargoyles
3x Raveners W/devourer
Carnifex W/Bone Mace, Crushing Claws, Regeneration, Toxin Sacs
Trygon Prime W/Acid Blood, Prehensile Pincer, Regeneration, Toxin Sacs)

We played with the custom Crash Site mission I'd played with a few weeks earlier, from the gaming club.  There were the 4 objectives in the table corners, worth 1VP, and the center objective worth 2VP in the 24" bubble of permanent Night Fighting.

Me and Ike parked our forces on the bottom left of the board, around the ruins.  We had discussed earlier that Ike's list would be the high-Str/Ignores Cover shooting, and I would be the meat shields and general anti-infantry shooting.  We had a vehicle on each flank (two on our right) and my Lychguard in the center to block hostile 'gaunts.  Phaeron Shahk was present for his second battle ever, eager to break some skulls and show off his fancy new coat of paint.

Nathaniel threw down a field of critters.  Termagants were in the center, with Hormagaunts flanking them, with Warriors and the Hive Tyrant spread out to provide synapse.

Nathaniel stole the initiative!

Turn 1.  Nathaniel's living carpet of models advanced across the board, and the first thing the Rippers did was walk out of synapse.  He got Dominion off on his Tyrant and got them back in synapse range, however.  A smattering of shooting killed 4 of my Necron Warriors and a Lychguard.

On our turn, I advanced the Lychguard out to tie up the nearest Hormagaunts, and our combined shooting killed a Hormagaunt blob for First Blood and then wiped out the Genestealers on on our left flank.  The Noise Marine blob and Vindicator did the majority of the killing.  Ike forgot to have his Cultists hop into the adjacent building and sealed their fate as 'nid snacks.

Turn 2.  All Nathaniel's reserves came in.  The Trygon Prime erupted in the middle of our defenses, and the Gargoyles and Raveners deep-struck on the right and left flanks.  Sheer weight of fire killed off the rest of the Lychguard, leaving Shahk to stand alone.  A few Marines died as well, and the Rippers ate the Cultists for lunch.  Shahk got charged by both units of Termagants, and got into an extended combat with them.

During our turn, we hosed the Hormagaunts in the ruins on the left, and also blew the Raveners off the board.  I inched my troops back and killed off Gargoyles, the Night Fighting bubble saved a few of the flying bugs.  The Stalker took a wound from the Trygon Prime, and I think Ike had his Marine blob charge it in the assault phase.  We also realized Shahk's fight with the Termagants was the most ludicrous tarpit ever; at S3 they could only wound him 1-2 times a phase, he could easily save those wounds, but he couldn't kill them fast enough to get out of combat.  That was in my and Ike's favor, though, since that was 2 whole blobs of Termagants not shooting and charging our other more important units.  (Sorry, Shahk, you weren't the spotlight of that game.)

Turn 3.  The Rippers had drifted out of synapse range again, but Nathaniel turned it around again when he made their Ld5 instinctive behavior check!  Good for the little buggies.  The Warriors and Carnifex got closer to our lines, and the last few Hormagaunts on our left managed to lock my Immortals in combat.  The Shahk-Termagant combat went nowhere, as predicted.  (Not that Shahk wasn't having a great time, chopping up 'gants left and right.)

Ike advanced his Sonic Dread towards the Shahk-Termagant mess, my Warriors on the left headed down to the left bottom objective, and the Stalker climbed into the ruins to help out with the Trygon-Marine combat.

Turn 4.  The Tyranid swarm was really getting into our faces at this point.  Nathaniel finally got an Endless Swarm roll off, and brought a unit of Termagants in by the Trygon.  Putting the Trygon in our backline, and having it pull our fire away from the regular bugs had definitely worked out for him.  The Hive Tyrant hoofed it into combat with Shahk and challenged, and they duked it out.  Shahk got 2 wounds in on the Tyrant and took 1 wound in return.  The Trygon Prime turned around and punched my Stalker into next week.  It exploded and killed most of the 'gants that had just come in.  Welp.

Me and Ike moved our units to cap the left-board objectives, the Rhino at the top left, my Warriors at the bottom left, strung around the ruins to give some fire support to the rest of our forces.  The Tyrant slew Shahk, and it and one unit of 'gants consolidated towards my Immortals, leaving the Sonic Dread to deal with the other unit of 'gants.

Turn 5. The 'nids had all but eaten my warriors on the bottom edge of the board.  The Tyrant and a couple Hormagaunts that had survived (or come back from Endless Swarm?  I forget) charged and wiped out my Immortals.  The Noise Marines killed the Trygon Prime at last, but it had done its job already.

Our turn, the Vindicator and Rhino were still alive and plinking away at the Warriors and Carnifex.  Not a lot happened, we pulled our units towards the objectives and killed off 'gaunts of both types.  The Sonic Dread won its assault and consolidated onto the center objective.

We rolled for game end.  It went to Turn 6.  Nathaniel seized this chance for all it was worth, sending his Hormagaunts into my Warriors, his Carnifex into the Sonic Dreadnought, and the Hive Tyrant into Ike's Chaos Lord.  My notes do not record what happened to the Warriors, however the Hive Tyrant slew the Chaos Lord, and the Carnifex blew up the Sonic Dread.  We were about to roll for game end when Ike, being a good sport, reminded Nathaniel still could make his assault consolidation move for his Carnifex.  Nathaniel did so, and consolidated just barely into range of the center objective.

With both our warlords dead (we counted them as separate warlords, both giving Slay the Warlord for 2VP together), and the Carnifex's clutch consolidation, the Tyranids took the game.  Nathaniel had 5VP–2VP for Slay the Warlord twice, Line Breaker, and the center objective worth 2VP.  Me and Ike had 3VP–First Blood and two objectives.

I didn't care that I lost.  Shahk got to show off his new paint job (done the night before), I got to see Nathaniel's newly-painted Tyranids, we had a fun afternoon.  It's easier to lose to friends.  It's okay to be the underdog.