Batrep: DoA vs Nids, 1750pts

My first outing with my Jumping Angel Army!


 
My list:
Librarian with jump pack.
Honour guard with jump packs, 2 Lightning Claws, 1 Thunder Hammer, 1 Storm Shield and 4 meltaguns.

2 Sanguinary Priests with jump packs.
 Sanguinary Guard with 2 plasma pistols, 2 infernus pistols and a powerfist.

2 x 10-man squads of Assault Marines, each squad with 2 meltaguns and powerfist. (hereinafter referred to as Squads Wallace and Gromit, to make them easier to tell apart)
 5-man squad of Scouts with sniper rifles, camo cloaks and 1 missile launcher.

5-man Vanguard Veterans with 2 power weapons, 1 Storm Shield, 1 powerfist and a Glaive Encarmine for the sarge.

5-man Devastator squad with 4 missile launchers.


Edwin's Nids:
Hive Tyrant with lashwhip, bonesword, heavy venom cannon and 3 Tyrant Guard
1 Tyranid Warrior Prime with Devourer and I-forget-what

10 Ymgarl Genestealers
3 Zoanthropes in a Mycetic Spore
3 Hive Guard

2 squads of 10 Genestealers.
~15 Termagants with fleshborers
~15 Termagants with devourers

Terrain: Designating the table edge closest to me as South, the board was most open, with patches of difficult area terrain in the centre, and ruins around the edges.
Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Spearhead. Edwin won the roll-off and had me go first. I deployed my Devastators near the centre-South. The rest of my army was gonna put Descent of Angels to good use. He deployed in the Northeast quadrant, with the Termagants in 2 rows, screening the Tyrantstar (comprising the Tryant, 3 Guard and the Warrior Prime). Ymgarls hid in some terrain piece 18" to the West of my Devastators. 1 group of Genestealers were outflanking. My scouts deployed in another ruin to the Northwest. Rolling for Red Thirst, the Scouts and Squad Wallace succumb.

Initial thoughts: 
I knew I was in for a hell of a fight here. Genestealers could easily go toe to toe with and quite likely shred any of my units in assault. On top of that, I'm not sure if there's anything in the Blood Angel Codex which can take on the sheer close combat awesome of a fully kitted out Tyrantstar. Maybe with my Mechanized list I could whittle away at it before trying to charge but with a DoA army geared for Furious Charging goodness? I decided to play to my strengths. Use my mobility to focus massed assaults on isolated targets, and just stay the hell away from the Tyrantstar.

Turn 1:
BA: Scouts fire on the Stealers, killing 2. Devastators fire a salvo of frag missiles into the Termagants, killing a handful from each squad.
Nids: Stealers scrabble closer, keeping to the area terrain. I can see that next turn, they'll be ready to make a dash and charge my Devastators.

KP tally: BA-0, Nids-0

Turn 2:
BA: All squads arrived from Reserve. I placed the 2 Assault Squads Southeast (Squad Wallace) and Northeast (Squad Gromit) of the Stealers to gun down some of them before I use the Vanguard Vets to Heroic Intervention them. The thing was the Vets scattered Southeast out of charge range! So much for that, then... The Librarian with Honour Guard and the Sanguinary Guard landed to the North, between the Scouts and Squad Wallace.

Squads Wallace and Gromit and the Vanguard Vets mauled the Stealers with bolt pistol and melta fire, leaving only one. Devastators let off a salvo at the Tyrantstar, killing one Tyrant Guard.

Nids: Ymgarl Stealers and the ouflanking Stealers arrive from reserve. Ymgarls appear to the East of squad Wallace, and the outflanking Stealers to the West of the Librarian and the Honour Guard. The rest of the swarms edged closer, advancing Southwest towards my Devastators.

During shooting the Tyrant took a potshot at Squad Gromit, scoring a direct hit and killing 2 marines.

Assault was vicious, with all 3 Stealer squads charging into Squad Wallace and the Honour Guard. The Librarian managed to cast Unleash Rage, but that was all he managed to do before getting cut down. However, at the end of the carnage, I had lost the Librarian, 1 Honour Guard with a Storm Shield, 1 Sanguinary Priest and 3 Assault Marines. Since my squads were Fearless, the combat raged on into the next turn.

KP tally: BA-0, Nids-2 (Librarian, Sanguinary Priest)

Turn 3:
BA: I moved up Squad Gromit, the Vanguard Vets and the Sanguinary guard to charge into the melee raging in the Western part of the battlefield. The Devastators and Scouts fired more potshots into the Termagants, whittling away at their numbers.

Assault was once again a bloody affair, the Stealers tearing away at the Honour Guard and Squad Wallace before feeling the wrath of the Blood Angel counterattack. The Honour Guard were reduced to just the Sanguinary Novitiate, and Squad Wallace had only the Sergeant and one marine remaining. At the end of it, 5 of the squad of Stealers that had outflanked earlier loped away to flee the battlefield, ending their fall back more next to the Scouts. The Blood Angels consolidated, and wondered how to tackle the Tyrantstar...

Nids: The Mycetic Sport bearing the 3 Zoanthropes arrived, landing just South of the fleeing Stealers, which put them in Synapse range of the Zoanthropes. Feeling the imperative of the Hive Mind, the Stealers stopped their flight and turned to eye the Scouts hungrily...

Shooting saw salvos of Warp Lances and the Hive Guards' Impaler Cannons pummel the Sanguinary Guard, but their artificer bore the brunt of the abuse, and they only lost 1 of their number, leaving a precious 3 (one was lost in the assault on the Genestealers). The Termagants with devourers focused their fire on the lone Sanguinary Novitiate, killing him.

The Stealers then tore into the Scouts, who went down without taking any Stealers with them.

KP tally: BA-2 (Stealers, Ymgarl Stealers), Nids-4 (Scouts, Honour Guard)

Turn 4:
BA:- Between the Stealers, the Mycetic Spore and the Zoanthropes, I saw 3 fairly easy Kill Points, so I allocated the Vanguard Vets to attack the 5 Stealers, the Sanguinary Guard to attack the Zoanthropes, and Squad Gromit to attack the Spore. Squad Wallace split off from the main group to attack the Termagants with Devourers.

Squad Gromit made short work of the Spore with their meltaguns. The Sanguinary Guard nipped a wound off a Zoanthrope while another was blasted apart by a krak missile from the Devastators.

The Vanguard Vets assaulted the Stealers, wiping them out with no casualties. That Storm Shield was totally worth it! The Zoanthropes were charged by the Sanguinary Guard, but one remained, defiantly clutching onto its last wound (and a Kill Point!). Meanwhile, Squad Wallace thundered into the Termagants, easily wiping them out.

Nids: The Tyrantstar plodded ever closer to the West, intent on tearing apart some marines. The Tyrant fired its Venom Cannon and cast Paroxysm on Squad Gromit. The Hive Guard and the tattered remains of the other Termagants with fleshborers fired everything they had into Squad Wallace. Under that deluge, the Sergeant and the Marine couldn't stand, and they went down, their duty done.

Since nothing was in range to charge or even aid the lone Zoanthrope, we went straight to that combat, during which that wretched beast's shield held against the 3 increasingly frustrated Sanguinary Guard.

KP tally: BA-5 (Mycetic Spore, Stealers, Termagants), Nids-5 (Squad Wallace)

Turn 5:
BA: Squad Gromit, suffering the effects of Paroxysm, had no further business in this fight, and jumped away to the Western board edge. The Vanguard Veterans took cover behind a building, and the Devastators fired a salvo of krak missiles into the Hive Guard, killing one and wounding another.

The Assault phase saw the Sanguinary Guard finally get through the Zoanthrope's shield, with a powerfist, no less. They consolidated, eyeing the remaining Tyranid forces from just out of charge range.

Nids: The Tyrantstar surveyed the battlefield. To the Northwest and West, highly mobile marines with jump packs stood ready to flit away from the Tyranids' much-diminished firepower. But to the South, the Devastators. Edwin made the rational choice, and his forces all headed South towards the Devastators.

The Devastator Sergeant and a marine went down to fire from the Hive Guard and the few remaining Termagants, whilst the survivors were wracked by the effects of Paroxysm.Turn 6 would bring the Devastators certain death... but it wasn't to be. The roll for Turn 6 came up a 1. Tallying up the points we have...

BA-6 (Zoanthrope), Nids-5

Blood Angel Victory!!

Post mortem:
I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive about taking on Tyranids with DoA. Why? DoA is good at 4 things: durability, deep strike, mobility and assault. These 4 things complement each other, with the excellent mobility afforded by jump packs and Descent of Angels allowing a savvy player to dictate the time and place of assault better, and the Feel No Pain bubbles letting the Blood Angels enduring absurd amounts of punishment to ensure they get into the fray to break some heads. This is all well and good, and can tear into most armies (Grey Knights will be trouble, of course) But compared to the Tyrantstar?

Hell, no. So I figured, I'd just stay out of its way, and divert my efforts towards softer targets. And it worked :-) So, note to self, this is the single most crippling weakness of the Tyrantstar - woeful lack of mobility. One day, when I get round to building a Nid army, I'll have to remember that.

That went a lot better than expected, I think, especially given that my list was far from optimal. Why do I say that? Well, far too few bodies, I think. I just get the feeling that something should be taken out so I can fit another 10-man squad of Assault Marines in there. For the moment, however, I like this list. Maybe I'll alter the loadout of the Honour Guard or put together another Assault Squad, but for the moment, this is the way it is. Stay tuned for the next time the Angels go to war!