Playing With Myself: A 40K Solo Play and Solo Learn Experience

Lists

I’ve aimed for about 500 points, built out of the stuff I own only.  I’ve tried to get a mixed bag of troops so I can experience a little of everything.  My lists were as follows:

Space Wolves

HQ: Iron Priest

Troops: 1x Unit of Grey Hunters (GH) = 11 men?

7x Basic Grey Hunters

1x Grey Hunter Pack Leader

1x Grey Hunter with Meltagun

1x Grey Hunter with Plasma Gun

1x Wolf Guard Pack leader with Storm Shield and Thunder Hammer (Who I originally assumed replaced the GH Pack Leader, but now I think is in addition to.  Anyone care to comment?)

Heavy Support: 1x Predator Tank with all the Lascannons

Dedicated Transport: Rhino (Purely there to make up points, not to transport anything.  Surely his guns must do something?

Tyranids

HQ: Hive Tyrant with Heavy Venom Cannon, Lash Whip and Bonesword

Troops: 20x Termagaunts

.              3x Warriors (Devourer, Lash whip & Bonesword, Rending claws.  Deathspitter, las Whip & bonesword.  Devourer & Scything Talons)

Heavy Support: Carnifex with all the Scything Talons

The Space Wolves don’t have any psykers but will take the “Saga of the Hunter” Warlord Trait.

The Hive Tyrant gets Smite and 2 other Psychic powers.  I chose, “Catalyst” and, “The Horror”.  The Warlord Trait was, “Heightened Senses”, and the Hive Fleet Adaptation was “Leviathan: Synaptic Imperative”.

Have I forgotten anything?

Setup & Scenario

I am playing the introductory scenario, “Only War”.  I deployed 4 Objectives more than 10″ away from each other.  I rolled to see which side the Tyranids would deploy on, and who would deploy first, and deployed both armies.  I then rolled for the Primary Objective and got, “Ancient Relic”.  I randomly rolled which objective would remain (Objective B,  below) and removed the rest, which I felt instantly gave the Tyranids a game winning advantage as they were right on top of the remaining objective marker.   The Tyranids won the roll off to activate first.

Round 1 of 5: Tyranids

Everyone walked down the table, putting 3 Termagants within range of the Grey Hunters.  The Warriors and the Hive Tyrant moved in to shooting range of the Predator.  The Carnifex advanced (Rolled a 6) and snuck around the back of the building to lay ambush on a tank the following turn.  The Carnifex tried to buff his troops but failed all his Psychic rolls.

The Termagants shot the Grey hunters for 3 damage, which was all saved.  I’m pretty sure I was looking at the wrong stats for this giving them a save of 2+ by mistake.  The takeaway from this is that I need to make the Battlescribe printouts more easily identifiable.

The Warriors and the Hive Tyrant put all their shots in to the Predator doing an epic 1 damage to it in the end.

Round 1 of 5: Space Wolves

The Grey hunters held their ground.  The tanks advanced forward to open up their lines of fire and close ranges.  The Iron Priest moved up to heal the Predator with his free end-of-movement tank heal, returning it to full health.

The Rhino and the Predator shot at the warriors, only doing 2 points of damage.  The Grey Hunters shot and killed 6 Termagants.

Round 2 of 5: Tyranids

Everyone advanced forward.  The Hive tyrant tried to cast Catalyst on the Termagants and failed his roll, but was able to cast The Horror on the Grey Hunters.  I suspect I often forgot to take this in to account throughout this game though.

The Warriors and the Hive Tyrant put their shots in to the Predator for 1 damage, and the Termagants put 39 shots in to the Grey Hunters for 1 kill.  I’m not sure I wasn’t still running off the wrong save value.

The Carnifex charged the predator and got shot for 2 damage, but did 6 damage, taking none in return. The Warriors also charged the predator but took not overwatch damage.  They hit the tank for 2 and took no damage in return.  The Hive Tyrant joined in, taking no shots.  The Predator was close to death so it directed one of its attacks on the Rhino (1 damage) and the rest on the Predator, killing it without it exploding.

The Termagants charged the Grey Hunters and lost a grunt.  I didn’t write down what happened next, but there’s only 11 Termagants in the next pic and no more dead Marines.

Round 2 of 5: Space Wolves

The Iron Priest shot and then charged the Warriors, killing one and taking no damage.  The Rhino attacked the Tyrant doing and taking no damage.  The Grey Hunters killed 3 more Termagants without any casualties

Round 3: of 5: Tyranids

No one can really move as everyone is trapped in melee.  The Hive tyrant tried to buff the Termagants and debuff the Grey hunters, but both spells failed.  The Carnifelx charged the Rhino, doing 4 damage only.  The warriors attacked the Iron priest, doing no damage, but taking 6 in return, wiping out the unit!  The Termagants fought the Grey hunters, but lost 6 more grunts without hurting anyone.  The Rhino attacked the Hive Tyrant, doing no damage but also not taking any back.

Round 3 of 5: Space Wolves

The game is coming to a close and it looks like the Nids might have this if they can get a heavy over to the Grey hunters, so the Iron Priest decided to abandon combat and make a move towards the objective.  he walked his max and put his shots in to the Carnifex but didn’t hurt him.  he then threw his grenades at the only enemy in range, the Hive Tyrant, again for no damage.  The Rhino attacked the Carnifex, doing nothing.  The Termagants attacked the grey hunters but lost one more grunt.  The Hive Tyrant hit the Rhino for 3 more points of damage, leaving it on 3 health.

Round 4 of 5: Tyranids

The end is in sight, but no one can get to the Iron Priest, or get out of melee to shoot him this turn.  The only hope is to kill everything ASAP and try and get to him next turn.  The Hive Tyrant smites the Rhino as the nearest enemy and hopes for a max roll to kill it, but only does 1 damage.  Horror successfully lands on the Grey Hunters again.  The Termagants and the Grey Hunters fight once more and the last of them die without hurting any more marines.  The Rhino attacks the Carnifex without effect and then the Carnifex kills it.

Round 4 of 5: Space Wolves

The Iron Priest moves closer to the objective and fires his gun at the Hive Tyrant for no effect.  The Grey Hunters walk up and unload all their Bolt Guns and Pistols in to the Carnifex, doing 2 damage.  The Plasma Gun supercharges and blasts it for 4, killing it dead.  The Meltagun and all the grenades are put in to the Hive Tyrant causing 2 wounds.  They then all charge in to the Hive Tyrant, trapping the only remaining Nid in melee.  He overwatches for no effect, but they aren’t able to hurt him in melee.  The Tyrant lashes out and kills 2 more of them, ending the round.

Round 5 of 5: Tyranids

The game is already lost, but lets see how much damage I can do first.  The Tyrant Smites the Grey Hunters for 3 damage.  I have no idea if that’s 3 damage as one attack or if I can spread that out over 3 models.  Any ideas?  Given the rules say it targets a unit and not a model I’ve assumed for now it can take out 3 models.  They tyrant then lays in to the marines, but only kills one more of them.

Round 5 of 5: Space Wolves

The iron priest moves up to claim the objective (3″ from the centre) and shoots,  doing nothing.  The Grey Hunters lash out, doing nothing.  The Tyrant is able to kill 1 more of them and then the game times out.

Scoring

Reading the scenario, it appears the only way to score points is from the objectives, so the Wolves Score 6 and the Tyranids score 0.  Game to the Space Wolves.  Does it say elsewhere that points are scored for killing enemy models?