Warhammer 40k game: Warhammer 40k 4th edition game: Tyranids vs Orks 1500pts

Report&Story: Jakub Polkowski

Story

Sergeant Anderson was lying on the cold stone floor, bleeding from several cut wounds. His once-olive uniform had changed into maroon and brown colours many days before. The sun, at its zenith, shimmered crimson. His own blood mingled with the gore of the invaders. Each subsequent breath came out of his lungs with more difficulty and pain. He was dying - and he knew it. The only unknown was how he would pass away - whether with his faithful lasgun in hand or simply collapse from exhaustion.
He cursed, rolled to his side, and then knelt. The wound on his thigh opened up again, flooding his body with a wave of pain and shivers. He slowly got up from the ground. His head was spinning, but there was no time to tend to his wounds.It wouldn't make much of a difference anyway.

The bastion of the guardsmen was surrounded by an ocean, hordes of greenskin beasts. With almost clockwork precision, they attacked exactly every 2 hours, only to then suddenly retreat. Not enough to heal or sleep. But enough to go mad. The sergeant wasn't sure if it was an orkish form of torture or just fun. In truth, he wasn't sure if those beasts could differentiate those two things.
His subordinates looked as pathetic as he was. They were hurt, exhausted, dehydrated and without almost any hope for survival. It would be hard to find a single fully functional soldier in the whole unit. Each successive attack reduced the number of them. Anderson took a broken data slate from his pocket to check the condition of the ammo reserves. It was worse than bad. They had enough mortar rounds left to repel two assaults- the mortars being the only effective weapon so far, keeping the orks at bay and buying the defenders of the bastion time for reinforcements to arrive from the northern front.

— North is coming lads! Anderson shouted to his subordinates.

It was a lie of course. He had received a ciphered message from the high command the morning before. The battalions defending the north were encircled, overrun and broken. No relief was going to happen. Anderson and his men would defend themselves to the last man, and then they would die. Abandoned and forgotten. In the name of the God-Emperor.

The sergeant accepted his fate. But he wasn't going to pass on the message to his subordinates.

— Get on your feet you cowardly whores! The greenskins are about to attack! To the barricades! Move it! In all my life I've never seen a bunch of more pathetic creatures! Emperor!!! Why did you condemn me to such an assignment? You are the scourge of the Imperium! You're lucky the commissar was gutted yesterday, or he wouldn't have shown you any mercy today. GET UP OR I WILL TEACH YOU WHAT THE PAIN MEANS!!!

Anderson had served in this unit too long for anyone to take his threats seriously. Not at that point. They were good, experienced soldiers. The best, in truth, he had the opportunity to serve within his years wandering around the battlefields of the Imperium. It was simply their bad luck that they were assigned this damn outpost to defend. An outpost far beyond the reach of the supply lines. Such is the lot of a guardsman. The sergeant kissed his gold double-headed eagle medallion, prayed for the God-Emperor's favour, and took up his position on the second floor of the bastion. He checked the magazine and waited.

Not even five minutes had passed before ork drums thundered and black smoke billowed into the sky. The frantic howl of thousands of throats filled the air.

— Have you heard anything? Anderson shouted. It was their tradition before each fight.

— YES SERGEANT! The soldiers answered.

— ME TOO! IT'S A WHINE OF THOSE WE HAVEN'T KILLED YET! FIRE AT WILL!!!

The soldiers laughed and opened fire. This time the greenskins changed tactics. A variety of walking machines were leading the attack - from small Killa-kans piloted by grots to huge Deffdreads. The Gargants, which looked like mountains of junk, were close behind them. Anderson swallowed. It was their last stand. They had absolutely nothing in their arsenal that could do more than scorch the paint off the armour of these machines. The first shellfire and missiles rained down on the bastion. The screams of the wounded and dying soldiers drowned out by the war-horns of the machines that had already begun to announce their triumph.

— JOKES END HERE BOYS!!! I GUESS THEY’VE GROWN BORED OF US!!! MAKE THEM PAY DEARLY FOR OUR SOULS!!! FOR THE EMPEROR!!! Anderson knew it was over, but with the stubbornness of a man with nothing to lose, he continued to fire. No one could save them now.

Suddenly, there was confusion in the ranks of the orcs. It seemed that an unstoppable wave would engulf them in sheer inertia. Yet the greenskin march stopped halfway to the bastion. The orks howled and stared at the sky, which darkened and then glowed. Thousands of objects flew into the upper atmosphere like a rain of fire, leaving tails of smoke behind them.

The orcs immediately abandoned their advance and began to regroup in the chaos.

Mr Sergeant!!! It's a relief!!! We are saved!!! Private Mitnic shouted happily, running to his superior.

He found him upstairs, leaning against the wall. Anderson knelt and stared at the sky and the retreating orks. He turned his head towards Mitnic and the other soldiers. Tears flowed from his eyes.

— Fools. It's not a relief. Tyranids incoming!

Armies

Tyranids

Those of us in primary school who didn't watch such a masterpiece of SF cinema in the late 90s titled "Starship Troopers"? Please stand up and raise your hand;)

After this movie, I was delighted with the vision of space locusts plundering the galaxy. Based on these memories, the choice of which army to select as my next project for the WH40k universe could not be other than the Tyranids.
From the beginning, my idea for this army was pretty straightforward. A wave of bugs flooding the opponent with bodies and trying to reach into close combat melee as soon as possible.

The more difficult choice turned out to be which of the colour scheme of the fleet should I choose. I spent a lot of time going through some niche projects of various minor Tyranid swarms to make them look unique. However, in the end, I opted for a classic colour scheme of the Leviathan hive fleet, which burnt in my memory the most when I was looking through old GW catalogues. In addition, my 6-year-old daughter's favourite colour is purple, so it was a deal-maker ;)

I will be facing the green horde of orks so, I prepared a list based on a large amount of very fast infantry in the following composition:

HQ:
Hive Tyrant - adapted to melee combat and very mobile thanks to the wings. He is a synaptic beast, so its main job is to spread around the bubble of the hive mind giving fearless to lesser forms.

Troops:
Hormagaunts - two large squads of 20 models in each, deployed to engage enemy units in melee combat as quickly as possible. To make them more suitable for fighting the orks whose base toughness is 4, they got the Toxin Sacs for +1 St.

Genestealers - another unit excelling in close combat, but unlike the previous one, based on its quality, not quantity ;). I slightly increased this unit's survivability to the orky shooting by purchasing Extended Carapace for a +1 Save.

Heavy Support:
Biovore - two living spore mine launchers, one of my two firing units. I decided that the best choice would be Toxin Spore Mines, which meant that they will always wound on a 4+.

Zoanthrope - my second ranged unit, designed to eliminate heavy enemy vehicles by using focused Warp Blast psychic power.

Carnifex - a big, enraged bug. What more could you want from a unit that is supposed to act as a battering ram? This is one of the most upgraded models in my list. Of course, everything is designed for a melee.

Elite:
Carnifex - a cheaper version of the earlier variant. I made it as an elite slot. I wanted to see if such a smaller bug would be able to achieve anything meaningful on the battlefield.

The plan for the battle against Kuba is as follows: spread the ranged units on both sides of the battlefield. By this, I would not be concentrating them in one place. The idea behind this is that thanks I will force the orks to regroup their quick reaction units to the extreme parts of the battlefield.
I, on the other hand, would concentrate my strike forces on one half and move them forward at maximum pace to quickly eliminate the ork units that will be placed in the middle of the boards and capture the objectives.

I am aware that I will have to sacrifice some of my units to slow down one flank, but as a hive mind, I am ready for this sacrifice ;)

Orks

My Waaagh fought many battles using the 4th edition ruleset since the last battle report and I tend to move towards the concept of the Speedwaaagh. The army list I will be using was created for our last event - 40K2K23. Unfortunately - I was not able to play on it because we had an odd number of players… And I spend soooo much time on converting the warbosses on the bikes that I simply had to use this opportunity to try the list.

So what do we have in it?

Let’s start with clone warbosses on bikes with power klaw, cybork bodies and an attack squig for the HQ section. Those guys are amazing in close combat if they survive till it is their turn to punch. All because of that nasty Initiative drawback due to usage of the klaw… Also having two of them makes it harder for the opponent to deny me to use the power of the Waaagh.

In the Troops section I have two eleven-ork strong units of choppa-slugga trukk boyz with klaw-nob, and one ten orks strong shoota boyz unit in a trukk. On top of that, I will deploy four nobz on bikes with a power klaw and a big choppa.

From the Fast Attack, I took a unit of 5 and 3 rokkits-equipped deffkoptas with a single buzzsaw in each. I also opted for 6 warbikerz with a klaw-nob.

In total, it is exactly 1500pts.

I have played against the bugs twice in this edition - both games ended with orks used as biomass… To be fair - during the last game I was using a semi-speedwaaagh list and I was really close to actually winning the game. Hopefully this time it will be better. So notes from the lessons learnt - I have to shoot down the Flyrant as soon as possible. To do so I have to WISELY use my deffkoptas - not to charge them into the middle of the enemy army on turn 1. The second thing is to use deffguns mounted on the bikes to kill as many of the smaller bugs as possible. Last but not least - concentration on the mission’s objective is essential - there are 750 points to gain here, and I hope that bikes and deffkoptas will put enough pressure on my opponent that my boyz will be able to control those objectives with ease.

Will this tactic work? Let’s find out!

Pre battle

Mission: RETRIEVE ORKARRIS DATA

Several servo-skulls containing vital data have been lost within this region. Locate and retrieve these at all costs.

OBJECTIVE: CONTROL

The items to be secured are represented by a total of 3 Servo-skulls counters. Each player alternates placing a Servo-skull counter until they are all on the table. Toss a coin to see who places a counter first. A counter may not be placed in impassable terrain, nor may one be placed within 12" of a table edge or anywhere counter. The counter cannot be placed within the deployment zone and not within 4" from each deployment zone. If a player controls a Servo-skull counter at the beginning of his turns 2-6 he gains additional 50 victory points for each turn.

Deployment:

The Orks won the roll for the selection of the table edge and the first objective placement.
The Tyranids were deploying their units first.
After deployment the Deffkoptas made their scout move.
The Tyranids won the roll for the first turn.

Battle

Tyranids 1

On the left flank, the armoured version of the Carnifex moved slightly forward and was accompanied by the Genestealers.
The Termagants in the centre of the battleline did not move their full distance as well.
The Flyrant swooped into the air and landed just behind one of the scrap buildings.
One of the Zoanthropes glided toward the greenskinz.

The shooting phase started with the Biovores unleashing their deadly projectiles but this time they missed their target completely. On the other hand, the lone Zoanthrope cast the focused version of the Warp Blast and fried one of the Deffkoptas in mid-air. The rest of the pilots were so terrified by the view of their comrade being consumed by the Warp, that they decided that they will watch the battle from a safe distance and fled. Luckily - they were still on the board.

Orks turn 1

The Trukk on the left flank carrying the Choppa boyz moved slightly forward - out of the building cover.
The Bikerz with the Warboss in the centre moved closer to the floating Zoanthrope and the Hormagaunts in front of them.
The second Trukk with Shoota boyz moved to be able to shoot at the second unit of the Hormagaunts.
The big unit of the Deffkoptas swooped under the big building to be able to shoot at the Carnifex.
The Nobz moved closer to be able to shoot either the Zoanthrope or the Hormagaunts.
The remaining Deffkoptas rallied.

The shooting phase started with the Big Shoota from the Trukk shooting at the Genestealers. One of the creatures was killed.

Next were the Bikerz put a real DAKKA into the Hormagaunts killing 11 of them.

The Shoota boyz aimed at the second unit of gaunts and managed to kill 8 of them.

The Deffkoptas failed totally - not hitting the Carnifex even once! The Nobz managed to knock off only a single wound from the Zoanthrope.

There were no charges.

Tyranids turn 2

The Hive fleet leapt forward.
The Genestealers used their Fleet rule but managed only to get one additional inch to their movement.

The Hormagaunts were much more eager to get into close combat - as they moved additional 5 and 6 inches! They were accompanied by the Zoanthrope and the Carnifex.

The lighter armoured version of the Carnifex stayed on the objective and the wounded Zoanthrope glided closer to the table centre.

The Flyrant landed between the Trukk with the Shoota boyz and the Bikerz.

In the shooting phase, 1 spore-mine landed in front of the Trukk on the left flank. The other mine landed just behind the second Trukk. The Zoanthrope in the middle immobilised the Trukk with the Shoota boyz. The second one tried to kill Nobz but failed to hit.

Charges!
Two units of the Hormagaunts assaulted the Warbikerz with the Warboss. The Flyrant went for a big kill and charged the Warboss.

The Flyrant only managed to wound the Warboss twice. The Hormagaunts that were in base-to-base contact with a single Warbiker next to the Warboss managed to kill him.

It was time to roll 80 dice for the attacks from the second Hormagaunts units.

Miraculously, none of the Bikerz was killed and in return, they managed to kill 7 of the bugs!

It was Warboss time. With 6 attacks he managed to cause 3 wounds on Flyrant!

Orks won the fight but all Tyranids involved were fearless so they stayed locked in combat.

Orks turn 2

Boyz from all Trukks disembarked. On the left flank, they moved to join the fray with the Hormagaunts and be as far from the Genestealers as they could.
The second mob prepared to assault the Hormagaunts that killed a single Warbiker. The Shoota boyz moved closer to the Zoanthrope but they were still holding the objective.

Nobz moved as close to the Zoanthrope as they could. Deffkoptas aligned themselves to be able to shoot ani unit and the small unit of Deffkoptas manuvered to be in range to the Carnifex.

The Shoota boyz tried to finish off the wounded Zoanthrope but failed to pierce through the psychic shield of the creature. Next, both units of the Deffkoptas opened fire and managed to wound the beast three times.

Nobz opened fire at shimmering Zoanthrope. The amount of dakka was too much even for this monster. With a wet splash, it hit the ground with fist-size holes in its body.

The Choppa boyz unloaded their sluggas into Hormagaunts killing two of them.

Both Trukks opened fire, which caused the mines to explode. This resulted in both crews being shaken.

Choppa boyz charged the Hormagaunt.

The second unit joined the fight as well.

The Flyrant took no risk and allocated all of his attacks to the Warboss and managed to kill him.

The Hormagaunts motivated by their overlord's presence killed 6 of the Boyz before they had a chance to strike back.
In return, Boyz smashed 6 of them. The Bikerz killed 3 more bugs from the second unit, which left only one of the Hormagaunts herd alive!

Tyranids turn 3

The Genestealers and the Carnifex moved closer to join the party.

The reality-fluid form of the Zoanthrope approached the Boyz.

The wounded Carnifex moved as far from the objective as he could - but still controlling it.

Once again, the spore mines missed their targets.

The Genestealers, Carnifex and Zoanthrope charged.

Orks were butchered. The Boyz were wiped out. Only the Biker nob was alive and in his last stand, he cut the Zoanthrope in two with his power klaw. Then he was overwhelmed by the Tyranids.

To make it even worse, the Genestealers were able to consolidate into the last unit of Choppa boyz.

Orks 3

The left flank collapsed. Luckily, the right one was still strong and in a good position for a counter-attack.
The smaller unit of the Deffkoptas landed next to the Biovore. The Shoota boyz moved around the objective to try to put some smaller bugs down.
The Nobz and the Deffkoptas surrounded the wounded Carnifex.

Finally, one of the rokkits from the Deffkoptas found a weakness in the carapace of the Carnifex and killed it.

The second unit of Deffkoptas blew the Biovore. What was the most important - the big shoota from one of the trukks managed to kill a remaining one Hormagaunts, gaining VP for the whole unit.

In close combat, the Genestealers killed 3 Boyz. The remaining Boyz managed to pass a morale check, so this uneven fight will continue in the next turn.

Tyranids turn 4

The Flyrant spread his wings and glided toward the Trukk, which killed the Hormagaunts in the previous turn.

The Carnifex defended the objective.

The last Biovore decided that being in the open was not the best idea and decided to hide in the building.

The Genestealers finished off the Boyz.

The Flyrant destroyed the Trukk in one go.

Orks turn 4

Not many things to do. The orks pushed forward as fast as they could, but still being able to shoot.

The Nobz managed to finish off the last four Hormagaunts, gaining full VP for that unit and the Deffkoptas blew into meat-pieces the second Biovore.

Tyranids turn 5

It was all or nothing for the Tyranids. The Genestealers moved into the open to support lone Carnifex. The Flyrant stayed behind.

Orks turn 5

Now or never. Nobz moved to the Genestealers and the Deffkoptas to the Carnifex. Shoota boyz moved to deliver some dakka as well.

Both Nobz and the Shoota boyz fired everything at the Genestealers. Both rolls were terrible and only 2 of them were killed. The Deffkoptas did even worse - not being able to knock off even a single wound from the Carnifex. Suddenly the situation on the battlefield changed.

The Nobz charged the Genestealers and the Deffkoptas charged the Carnifex.

The Deffkoptas managed to inflict 3 wounds on Carnifex and lost only 1.

The Genestealers caused 1 wound on a Nob and 1 on the Warboss himself. In return the Orks rolled once again terrible bad and managed to kill only 4 Tyranids elite warriors.

Tyranids turn 6

This was the last chance for the Tyranids to change the course of events in their favour. The Flyrant jumped close to the Warboss and the Nobz.

There was no shooting and the only thing that happened was a charge of the Flyrant into the Warboss.

The Flyrant managed to cause a single wound on a Warboss but then the Genestealers struck. They finished off the Warboss and killed the wounded Nob as well. In return, Nobz managed to kill one more Genestealer.

The Deffkoptas failed to inflict the last wound on the Carnifex and the huge monster destroyed two of the machines. They failed morale check and were caught by the monstrosity.

Orks turn 6

Orks could play safe and win by points or try to kill the Flyrant. Was it a real choice? :)
Both the Shoota boyz and Deffkoptas closed to the almost-dead flying bug.
They shoot with everything they got but the Flyrant was still standing.

The Deffkoptas failed the fear check and did not charge the Flyrant but the Shoota boyz made it.
It turned out that was a really bad idea. The Flyrant killed four of them. Saved all 5 wounds caused. Won the combat. The Boyz failed their morale check and got caught while attempting to run away.

The Genestealers killed one more Nob. The Nobz in return failed ALL 4+ to hit rolls. Luckily, thanks to the Bosspole they stayed in combat. And that was it!

Epilogue

Sergeant Anderson climbed the steps of the bastion one last time to look at the surroundings. The sun had almost set, but it was still almost as bright as during the daytime. The thick piles of corpses of both xenos races covered the plains in the eyesight distance. The casualties on both sides were unimaginable - millions of creatures died in just the first few hours of the conflict as the two armies clashed with each other like two tidal waves. The wreckage of ork walkers burned among the corpses. The chemical mist vaporating from their interiors vexed both the eyes and the throat. Anderson coughed and spat on the stone floor. Amazingly, neither side of the conflict was interested in attacking the bastion - orks and tyranids for sure left them for a dessert.

The sergeant checked the placement of explosives and detonators one last time. Since they would no longer use the bastion it was his duty to make sure that neither of the enemies would. Everything was set in place. The only thing left to do is to abandon the outpost and hope that they will be able to connect with the other surviving guard units. The man inspected his subordinates. Wounded, skinny and dirty. Only 20 of them were fit to travel. To those unable to walk, he gave the emperor's mercy himself.

— Let's go ladies! it's gotten boring here. The Emperor is looking for us for a new mission!! DEPARTURE!!!!

Trooper traversed with caution and in total silence hills. They had been moving away from the bastion for a few hours when suddenly the sky lit up and after a few seconds, a sonic blast of the explosion reached them.

— Damm, Mitnik!! This is what I call a real blast!!! Good thing your hands didn't shake while we were inside. And now move your sorry arses! Now they know that we were not there and the Emperor protects, they might hunt for us! If you want to live one more day - MOVE!!!

FINAL SCORE

Tyranids 10 : 10 Orks

Post game

Tyranids

The first thought that came to my mind when I saw the list of orks that was Speedwaaagh themed was that speed was supposed to be my area of dominance!!!! Grrrrr… With bikerz, deffkoptas and trukks filled with infantry, I lost my army's mobility advantage. Luckily for me, the ork units that I feared the most were deployed on the side of the table which I decided to sacrifice just to buy me as much time as possible.
I managed to win the initiative roll-off and that allowed me to set up conveniently and prepare for the charges in the following turns. Concerning how our armies were built, those were inevitable. The rushing tyranid swarm charged foremost ork units on turn 2, much to my delight because ork shooting was effective and painful for my core units. The dice were a bit of an annoyance with the amount of 1 I was throwing each time, which made me stuck at the greenskin units where I thought it would be an easy kill on the first round of close combat. Fortunately, when the fighting troops were joined by the larger bugs, they managed to finish them off. Until the very end of the battle, there were epic melee duels happening between our troops, which I like the most.

I must admit that after playing with resilient and heavily armoured Chaos Space Marines it was tough for me to switch to an army that so easily losses models from its ranks. I enjoyed playing with such a horde, where I don't have to worry so much about losing a single miniature and I'm already planning to use it in the upcoming battles.

Of course, some things still need to be polished, because not everything played as I wanted. This Carnifex with a 3+ AS turned out to be a total mistake. Every ork rokkit hit was very painful for such a defenceless bug. In addition, I need one more HQ for the roster to expand the fearless bubble and have a little more freedom in manoeuvring core units.

To sum up - it was another exciting battle performed by our armies and I must admit that I will remember it for a long time.

Till the next time ;)

Bugs of the game:
After the battle, I can honestly say that the most feared and effective unit of the Tyranid fleet is the Genestealers. This unit is practical without any flaws that I could point out. It is very mobile and can massacre anyone who enters melee combat with it. What a tempting option for the future will be to add one more such 😉

Orks

Oh, what a close game it was!!! We both played to the bitter end for the full house not caring too much about the points. It ended up with an almost perfect tie. And to be honest - I am glad that it ended like this. This was a bloody bath without elegant manoeuvres or fancy tactics. At the end of turn 4, it seemed that I have everything under control - the Flyrant was on the last would, the single Carnifex seemed to be not so scary and the Genestealers were in the open waiting to be shredded into pieces by my Nob bikerz and Shoota boys. All changed when on turn 5 I failed my rolls for shooting and close combat. And there was no way back from there. During turn 6 it got even worse when I was not able to hit any of the buzzsaw, power klaw and big choppa attacks and failed all the close combats. Well - even the best plan will collapse like a house of cards when the dice gods will abandon you.

My opponent played very well - a direct assault with both units of small bugs was very wise. To be fair here - I had incredible luck with this charge - my Warbikerz should be simply wiped out. The big monsters with 2+ save are very tough opponents for the orks - the only thing that I can use against them are power klaws, but they hit last… Maybe it is high time to test the Burnas, who can negate armour save? All in all, I am quite happy with how the ork army worked - there are nice synergies between units and it is a really fast and flexible force, which I enjoy playing with.

So - next time I will have my victory!!!

Ork of the game:
The best unit award goes to regular Warbikers, who managed to thin down the number of tyranids quite effectively and what is even more important - managed to survive long enough for the support to come. I wish I had one more turn of shooting but the tyranids were simply too fast. If I rolled with the nobz better then for sure it would be them - but sadly no such thing had happened.