Fred and I, after a week or two of delay, were finally able to play a decent-sized game of Warhammer 40,000. This would be my third game with the Tyranids for me and probably Fred’s third game with his Necrons.

His army:

• Necron Lord (Staff of Light, Resurrection Orb, Veil of Darkness)
• Necron Destroyer Lord (Staff of Light, Resurrection Orb, Destroyer body)
• Necron Warriors x16
• Necron Warriors x16
• Necron Warriors x15
• Necron Destroyers x3
• Scarab Swarms x5
• Scarab Swarms x5

My list:

• Hive Tyrant (Hive Commander, Paroxysm, Life Leech, Scything Talons, Stranglethorn Cannon)
• Tyrant Guard
• Termagants x20
• Hormagaunts x20
• Raveners x3
• Genestealers x8 (Broodlord)
• Tyranid Warriors x3 (Deathspitters, Venom Cannon)
• Tyranid Warriors x3 (Deathspitters, Barbed Strangler)
• Spore Mines x4
• Ripper Swarms x4
• Zoanthropes x2

The mission, which I don’t remember the name of, gave us 4 objectives to control and the deployment was table quarters.

After deployment, I then realized I made a mistake with my Spore Mines. I completely forgot to Deep Strike them. I decided I’d just deploy them into an unoccupied table quarter to be fair. Fred took the first turn of the game, which mostly consisted of him moving his army forward. He moved one of his Warrior units close to the center most objective placed in some ruins. I think he might have got off a few shots into the Termagants. My first turn consisted of trying to take out some things with the template weapons I have. I was able to knock over a couple of Destroyers, which was better than I expected. The Termagants were able to shoot at and assault a unit of Scarab Swarms, killing all but one of them.

Second turn, when rolling for his Destroyers, two of them were removed. Fred then solidified his position closer to the center objective and one other objective farthest away from my army. Some shots were fired, but not much died. He moved his unit of Scarab swarms close to the Carnifex and a Spore mine to try and blow it up on my own guys. I think he might have inflicted a wound this way. The same Scarabs assaulted the Carnifex, who killed 3 swarm bases due to Instant Death. I felt kinda bad since Fred did not realize how that rule worked. One of my Zoanthropes took a wound from shooting. The termagants freed themselves from the final Scarab Swarm. In my second turn, I rolled for reserves and outflanked with the Hormagaunts (thanks to the Hive Tyrant) and genestealers; the Raveners were still stuck out in limbo. When rolling for which table edge, they both came in on the same edge as my table quarter, farthest from the action. Again I tried displacing the Warriors from the center objective by firing “pie plates” into them. This knocked over a few, but failed to outright kill any of them. The Ripper Swarms assaulted the Destroyer Lord and failed to do much. The Carnifex finished off the Scarab Swarms left to him.

In Fred’s third turn, he managed to wipe out the Termagants and a couple of Tyranid Warriors through shooting. He assaulted the Zoanthropes with his Necron Lord on foot and destroyed them. Actually, now I’m losing track what happened when. I know that same Lord also later assaulted the lone Tyranid Warrior instead of the Hive tyrant, who I was hoping he’d assault. In either case, the Carnifex assaulted a unit of Warriors, destroying a few and the Tyranid Warriors moved close enough to the objective to contest it. Hormagaunts and Genestealers moved close enough to another objective to claim it outright. The Raveners arrived to stand around looking mean and the Tyrant assaulted the Necron Lord on foot only to whiff on all his attacks.

We had to call the game there since the store was closing. Fred, of course, won the game due to his ability to claim and hold objectives with the nigh unkillable Warriors. Man, those are tough cookies!!

Per the usual, an awesome game and one I’d like to have a rematch on!

Since I had no idea exactly how many models Fred had, I estimated he’d have 20 or so Warriors, 3 Destroyers, 3 or so Scarab Swarms and the Lord. Turns out he has 70+ Warriors and probably 10+ Scarab Swarms. It also turns out he has a Necron Destroyer Lord as well. In either case, I thought an 800 point game would work well for learning the game and for me to learn the new Tyranid codex, not to mention 800 points is just below what I have painted.

Here’s the list Fred ran:

• Necron Lord (War Scythe, Resurrection Orb, Veil of Darkness)
• Necron Warriors x11
• Necron Warriors x11
• Scarab Swarms x3
• Necron Destroyers x3

I ran:

• Hive Tyrant (Stranglethron Cannon, Bone Sword, Lash Whip, Armored Shell, Paroxysm, Leech Essence)
• Carnifex (Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, Bio-Plasma)
• Tyranid Warriors x3 (Deathspitters, Venom Cannon)
• Tyranid Warriors x3 (Deathspitters, Barbed Strangler)
• Genestealers x8 (Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs)
• Termagants x20

We played the Capture and Control scenario with Pitched Battle deployment. I won the roll and decided to deploy and go first.

In the first turn or two, my shooting did pretty much nothing. His Scarab Swarms ended up assaulting the Termagants and the Gaunts won combat a few times until the little buggers were finally gone. None of my shooting managed to do anything until the later turns and his “We’ll Be Back!” rule kept whatever I did wound on the table. His destroyers nearly wiped out a unit of Tyranid Warriors and the Carnifex didn’t get into combat until much later. The Genestealers, which I’d forgotten about until probably the third or fourth turn showed up on the table edge nearest his Necron Warriors squad who’d just been Veiled there by the Lord. The Genestealers ended up wiping the unit and the Lord with them. The following turn the Carnifex finally assaulted a Warrior unit, destroying it and then we called the game since all he had left were the three Destroyers and so would Phase Out anyway.

It was a really good game and even though Fred lost, he’s still interested in playing again and at a higher point value. I lent him my 40K book to read up on the rules and he gave me some models to take home and repair for him. I finished what I could of the Destroyers this morning and started working on some Scarab bases. Some bits will need to be ordered to get everything where it needs to be, but that shouldn’t take too much money or time.

On a side note, Fred was able to acquire some Necrons (for free!!), so we’ll probably be throwing own this Tuesday. It’ll give me a chance to remember the 40K rules, learn the new Tyranids and for him to learn the main rules and his army. The only sad thing about the Necrons is the amount of metal models that are pretty much essential, unless you want to buy more of the plastics and do some conversion work.