Narrow victory against Ralfs Space Marines

Short summary:
- 1500 points on 48x48"
- Mission was "Capture and Control" with pitched battel deployment
- Much area terrain but only two little LOS blocker
- Space Marines won the roll off and chose to start
- 3 Assault Cannons and some Lascannons wrecked the Trygon in the first round
- Hormagaunts were tied up by a Dreadnought without arms the whole game (miscalculated the distance :-(
- Land Raider remained unscathed (just one damaged Lascannon) because the Zoantrophe died early
- Ravener reached and destroyed the other Dreadnought, were assaulted by the Chaplain and the Assault Squad, could not use their higher initiative (just one wound) and were annihilated
- But the next round the Genestealers came in from the flank, assaulted and destroyed them. Chaplain remained with one wound - very good so they were safe from shooting.
- Genestealers the assaulted the unit that hold their objective and got shot to pieces the following turn by two units with Flamers. Broodlord remained.
- After five turns game ended with the termagants holding their objective and the Broodlord holding the enemy objective.
- The empty Landraider couldn't reach the Tyranid objective in time. One or two rounds more and the game would have ended in a victory for the Space Marines ...


Hive Fleet Open Valley (1499 points)
1 Tyranid Prime @ 120 pts (Alpha Warrior; Boneswords (x2); Scything Talons; Toxin Sacs, Adenal Glands)
2 Hive Guards @ 100 pts
2 Hive Guards @ 100 pts
1 Zoantrophe @ 60 points
3 Tyranid Warriors @ 175 pts (Lash Whip & Bonesword; Deathspitter (x2); Toxin Sacs; Venom Cannon)
5 Tyranid Warriors @ 210 pts (Scything Talons; Deathspitter (x4); Toxin Sacs; Venom Cannon)
8 Genestealers @ 229 pts (Toxin Sacs) + 1 Broodlord
16 Hormagaunts (Toxin Sacs)
16 Termagant Brood @ 96 pts (Toxin Sacs)
1 Trygon Prime @ 275 pts (Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs)

Space Marines
1 Chaplain with Jump Pack
10 Space Marines w/ Lascannon, Flamer, Power Fist + Razorback (TLLC)

10 Space Marines w/ Lascannon, Flamer, Power Fist
1 Dreadnought w/ TLLC + ML
1 Dreadnought w/ Assault cannon
2 Landspeeder w/ HB + Assault cannon
8 Assault Marines w/ Jump packs, Power Fist + Plasma Pistol
1 Land Raider

Massacred by Eldar

Do I have to say more?
Trygon tankschocked to death the rest shot to pieces before they got their claws into that old man ...

First brood of Hormagaunts finished

First victory

In the second game my brand new Tyranids scored theier first victory against Renés Chaos Space Marines.
Mission was "Capture and Control" and pitched battle deployment. Table had some LOS blocking hills (sorry sand dunes) and ruines, a modular hill on one of the long table edges and a wood.
The two objectives were placed in diagonally opposite directions in a ruin. Classic setup for a draw ...

Hive Fleet Open Valley (1499 points)
1 Tyranid Prime @ 110 pts (Alpha Warrior; Boneswords (x2); Scything Talons; Regeneration; Toxin Sacs)
2 Hive Guards @ 100 pts
2 Hive Guards @ 100 pts
3 Tyranid Warriors @ 175 pts (Lash Whip & Bonesword; Deathspitter (x2); Toxin Sacs; Venom Cannon)
5 Tyranid Warriors @ 210 pts (Scything Talons; Deathspitter (x4); Toxin Sacs; Venom Cannon)
8 Genestealers @ 229 pts (Toxin Sacs) + 1 Broodlord
16 Hormagaunts (Toxin Sacs)
16 Termagant Brood @ 96 pts (Toxin Sacs)
4 Ripper Swarm Brood @ 76 pts (Spinefists; Toxin Sacs)
1 Trygon Prime @ 275 pts (Regeneration; Toxin Sacs)


Chaos Space Marines (tried to remember correctly)
1 Daemon Prince
3x 8 Plague Marines w/ Rhino
3 Oblitorators
3 Terminators
1 Predator w/ Heavy Bolter sponsons

Chaos Space Marines started, one Rhino stayed on the objective and the rest rushed forward. The terminators stayed in reserve, so did the Trygon, the outflanking Genestealers and the Warriors with the boneswords and lash whips together with the Alpha Warrior.

In short:
The Hormagaunts wore down one squad of plague marines.
The trygon and the Genestealers took down the squad guarding their objective and captured it.
The whole rest kept the enemy away from the Tyranid objective where a brood of termagants camped together with two Hive Guards.
Very helpful were the Warriors with the Prime which counter-attacked the shocking terminators and some more marines.
The oblitoraters were surprised at how many wounds some ripper swarms with toxin sacs can deal and unluckily failed so many saves that two died in the initial attack.

At the end after five rounds the Chaos Space Marines were nearly wiped out and the tyranids captured both objectives.

Taking toxin sacs on all units payed in the end. The regeneration did no good - I could invest the 35 points in something more helpful like more ripper swarms ;-)

1st game: draw vs Chaos Space Marines

Just a quick update

• Played the mission "Schwarzer Kreuzzug" from "Kampfeinsätze"
• It's like a killpoints mission with a few special rules - most important: destroyed non vehicle units are put in reserve
• End result was 10:10
• Highlight were the Hormagaunts, which killed the demon prince twice. The second time they inflicted 17 wounds. Outch!

Painting the Tyranids BoW style

Thanks to Beasts of War for their great tutorial and paint scheme for tyranids. Liked it so much that I decided to paint the whole army like that. Here are the first pictures of some warriors ...

Assembly Status

Openvalley has given birth to:
- 1 Alpha Warrior (Tyranid Prime is the correct specification)
- 4 Hive Guards
- 16 Termagants
- 16 Hormagaunts
- 8 Warriors
- 8 Genestealers (plus the ones from Space Hulk ;-)
- 1 Trygon Prime

Roughly 1200 points without upgrades like toxin sacs etc.