Tyranids Hive Fleet Gorgon vs Iyanden, Epic Armageddon

Epic Tyranids Hive Fleet Gorgon vs Iyanden

Hi!
I played a battle of epic armageddon. Another of games workshops old oop specialist games.

I started a list-development effort of a tyranid list based more on the current iteration of the tyranids in 40k. Life got in the way though with two small kids so I haven't been able to push the list. The last year or more at least. The list can be found here.

Ran into a guy I know in the local miniatures store recently though and were able to book a game. It was joy to get the tyranids out again as they're my favorite army. Great fun to paint and model, but also play.

I used the following list:

Tyranid Swarm   425
   Domniatrix

Tyranid Swarm   260
   Tervigon (25), 1x Warriors (35)
Tyranid Swarm   260
   1x Warriors (35), 2x Hormagaunts (25)
Brute Swarm       350
   2x Carnifex (100)

Bio-Artillery       200
   1x Biovore (25)
Genestealers        200
   2x Genestealers (50)
Lictors                 150
Sky Swarms         225
   1x Harpy (50)

Hierophant           525
   +2DC (200), 2x Razorclaw (50)
Burrower Swarm 250
   2x Raveners (50)
Harridian              150

I see a mistake now. I forgot to pay points for the symbiote which I played with on the Dominatrix.

I'm afraid I don't have my opponents exact list, but I think it was the below one, might have forgotten one formation. He played Iyanden

3x wraithguard. two in vampire raiders. The third with some upgrades and the supreme commander came through the webway.
2x Wraithlords.
Night spinners
Scorpion
3x Rangers.


I took notes with the intention of making an activation by activation report. Sadly I lost the papers somewhere in my house for all but turn 2. So the first turn will be from memory and what I can gather from the pictures, but probably with a few faults.

Anyways onto the first picture and deployment.

  from left to right. Sky swarm, brute swarm,       Dominatrix swarm, tervigon swarm, biovores,   hierophant, extra hormagaunts swarm   harridian. burrower swarm and lictors stayed of board the former coming up in turn two.

The first picture also shows our first few moves. Eldar won initiative and started with the night spinners opening up on the genestealers. Luckily for me only one died for three blastmarkers.

I countered with an engage with the stealers. One died on the way in due to overwatch bringing me to 5 bm. Thankfully I hade upgraded the formation with two extra units so still had 6 units left. The assault was rather one sided with the rangers dying in the assault or fleeing after resolution. The surviving genestealers tried to hug cover in the ruins.

Eldar countered with the closest Wraithlord formation which advanced and shot the stealers. No stealers died but they broke none the less since they were on 5 BM's already.

I sent my sky swarm up to shoot the rangers, two of the ranger formations were kind of close and I thought I might hit both. The eldar player however wisely chose to use his overwatch. Not able to hurt me he was still able to lay a BM and suppress one the fliers making me loose one BP and with it the second barrage template.


I was only able to kill the one ranger due some rather poor rolling. I'm not sure but they might have broken due to disrupt however. That and the next few activations can be seen on the picture to the right. 2nd wraithlord formation doubled up shooting the sky Swarm for one hit which was saved taking the swarm to two BMs.

The hormagaunt swarm marched up the middle and the scorpion shot the hierophant for no damage I believe. The brute swarm doubled up and shot the rangers only laying a BM. The dice weren't with me and eldar saves were great.



After this the eldar could't stall any more and sent in the Vampires going after the BTS objective. I've played against eldar multiple times but hadn't actually played against Iyanden before and was shocked at the amount of firepower wraithguards put out. Eldar shooting was well above average. The first unit took with the help of a cirtical hit 4 DC of the hierophant. Eldar retained and sent the second vampire formation in finishing my poor hierophant. Gaining the BTS objective.

The next picture shows my response I shot the wraithguard with the harridian and retained for an engage action with the tervigon swarm.

All of my small brood creatures that were able to get into 15cm range were however killed when the eldar again rolled some really good hit rolls. This crucially for the eldar made for a stalled assault on my part. The vampire was therefore able to survive and the harridian never got to support. Two guard units were killed however so I got to at least break them.

After that it was back to the eldar that activated their last formation. The spiritseer formation (my BTS ojbective) moved out of the webway shooting at my brute swarm. The dice were a bit more in my favor this time though. The Eldar only got two or three hits of which I saved all.

At this point I decided to go for BTS figuring they were quite exposed and it was only turn 1. I had all of turn 2 as well before I had to think about the other objectives. I advanced with the dominatrix formation. Got 2 hits with the cannon and quite a few with the macro barrage.  Some great save rolls by the wraith constructs however saw only a single lord construct die.

Everything rallied in the end phase except for the broken wraith guard formation. Both vampires took a blast marker but no damage on their way out.

Turn 2

Initiative again went to the eldar. This turn I have better notes so can structure the activations better. My tunneler swarm went into the central ruin. The lictors were put as a screen in front of the brute swarm and my dominatrix swarm to shield of the Avatar assault. 

E.1 Night spinners sustained on my dominatrix formation for 5 dead units of gants and gaunts. Being expendable I only got the one BM (I believe we played that correctly bases on a discussion I seen on taccoms), because expendable trumps disrupt (when the unit dies).

E.2. The BTS wraithguard sustained on the lictors wiping them and clearing a path for the avatar...

E.3. ...which went straight into the Brute swarm. However luck was on my side. The Avatar and supporting units were only able to kill a single carnifex. It took no damage back though as I mostly had barbed carnifexes (all but one). The Avatar one by +1 but still lost leaving the Brute swarm unbroken and mostly intact.

T.1. I advanced again with the dominatrix and unloaded on the BTS swarm for a second round. Scored several hits but again good saves on the eldar part saw only one guard fall.

T.2. With the Dominatrix swarm in place to support I retained and assaulted with the burrower swarm. I felt quite confident going in rolling 13 attacks and 12 support dice, but the wraith constructs just wouldn't die saving every hit but one. In return I lost all raveners and the trygon prime took one damage due to hits and resolution.

E.4 The unbroken wraithguard stranded on my right flank sustained fire on my Harridian. Scoring 5 MW hits of which I saved none.



E.5. Eldar retained with the Wraithlord formation opposite my sky Swarm. Sustaining and killing two of the birds breaking the formation. (picture before removing casualties). I fled back behind terrain.










T.3. The first half of the turn had been rather poor for me. I wanted to take out something that had yet to activate for the eldar. The central wraithlord formation was the biggest threat I could identify. I started by sustaining with my biovores (that had moved up to the central forrest turn 1).

No kills, the reinforced armour being a pain to get through, placed a few BM due to disrupt however.


T.4. I retained with the hormagaunt swarm in the central ruin assaulting the wraithlords. I felt like I had to hold back my hormagaunts and stayed in FF range. I didn't want to give the lords their extra MW CC attack. Was again only able to kill the one construct, but at least I got them broken.

E.6. The scorpion doubled back towards the hill were night spinners were. Shooting the dominatrix for a BM.

T.5. I pushed to get the BTS. I activated my Brute swarm for an engage action. I didn't want to assault the Avatar for obvious reasons. I started by moving my Carnifexes directly away from the Avatar out of its zone of control. I used the remaining move of my units to run around it and engage the BTS wraith formation (declaring it intermingled with the nearest scout formation. I'm not quite sure thinking on this afterwards that it actually was a legal move. I believe it was, but please tell me and point to the rules if it wasn't so.

The combat was fierce and lasted two rounds seeing the entire brute swarm wiped out. Again the eldar made a ridiculous amount of RA saves in the first round. However by the second round they had taken to many hits and one lord and both guard units including the the spiritseer died.
They dished out quite a lot of damage, especially in round two when the wraithlords were able to get into b2b contact which saw them destroy the entire Brute swarm. The sole surviving wraithlord was of course broken though.

T.6. I retained to keep the pressure on the eldar. Knowing that the vampires were next up to come and pick up the surviving wraith guards on my right flank I decided to try and kill at least on of them. I sent the tervigon swarm in to assault them. The armour of the guard again proved decisive with no hits going through it (think I got four hits). Some rather bad placement on my part ment the tervigon took a hit. I failed my save and proceeded to die to a critical.

I still won the combat, the remaining synapse point helped.

E.7+ The last few activations saw the vampires coming in and scooping up the two stranded wraithguard formation.
I also marched my rallied genestealers closer to the action.

One of the vampires got a BM but no damage.



The end phase saw all tyranid formations rally including the broken trygon (in central ruin), lone lictor and the two surviving harpies. For the eldar the BTS wraithlord and the broken rangers failed to rally. The broken wraithlord formation in the middle rallied.

Turn 3 

(start of turn three)

The Eldar predictably won the initiative. They started with the scorpion which sustained or advanced shooting the newly rallied but damaged trygon killing it (hiding behind a wall of the central ruin in the picture).

After this I have a hard time remembering with the game being a week ago. Didn't take all that many pictures of the last turn. I think eldar retained and shot the dominatrix formation with another barrage 

My first move was assaulting the newly rallied wraithlords in the center. I first sent the genestealers in hoping that the their first strike would make the difference. Landing five or perhaps 6 hits. I was happy with the result, but again that 4+ reinforced armour proved to strong and not a single lord died. With none of them gone to first strike they could retaliate with full force killing all but two stealers after resolution.

I assaulted them again however with my nearby swarm. I lost a few lesser creatures but also got a few kills. I won a rather close result. I think this was the combat that the new synpase rule I was testing out had the biggest impact. This gained me control of one of the take and hold objectives.

After this I only have the end game picture to show. I don't know the chronological order of the later activations. I was able to kill the last wraithlord from the spiritseer formation, finaly giving me BTS. It might have been the dominatrix or from sustaining biovores. I moved my dominatrix up close to the nearby webway portal objective claiming it.
At some point I broke the nearby last unbroken ranger formation (sky swarm?). The eldar right flank wraithlord formation moved back slightly and shot something. My skyswarm perhaps? The Eldar went bold to try and win and sent one vampire with guards to take my blitz I was able to deny it with my lone now rallied lictor. This could have worked for the eldar anyway as all he had to do was put a BM on the lictor to break it, however the second airplane failed to show up so no so he was not able to do that or to claim one of the take and hold objectives.
This left the eldar only achieving BTS. I had BTS and take and hold and could therefore claim a 2:1 win.

I was happy with way the synapse rule worked. It didn't feel over the top with being limited and not like the epic-uk version. It made the lesser nids easier to send in and "sacrifice" compared to how they're sometimes a liability in the Onachus list. I didn't miss spawning.