Infantaggedon! 1850 Horde versus Tyranids

I've wanted to field an army like this for some time and I finally have the man (model?) power to make it happen. My brother-in-law was up my way to see a dentist and he came by afterwards for a riveting game of beat each other up. He brought his 'nids and I fielded a bunch of men. Good times.

How I feel about getting to use this army for once!

My Army:

Sexy, amiright?

Two CADs
HQ:
Yarrick
CCS - MoO
Ministorum Priest x2

Troops:
PCS x2 - Autocannons
PCS x2 - Grenade Launchers x4
Infantry x4 - Grenade Launchers and Autocannons
Infantry x4 - Flamers and Lascannons
Conscripts x30...x2?
HWS - Heavy Bolters
HWS - Lascannons

Heavy:
Earthshaker Carriages x3
Quad Mortar

Fort:
Aegis Defense Line x2 - Quadguns

His Army:

Two flyrants - Dakka and more dakka

Flyrant + Gargoyle formation with roughly 20 gargoyles (some guants may in fact be sneaky gargoyles in the pictures...)

Two Harpies (which may also be disguised as Hive Crones)

Three Warriors

2 Venomthropes

1 Venomthrope

20 or so choppy guants (termiguants?)

Exocrine

Mawloc

Deployment:

Full Table

Tyranid Side

Guard Side

Pre-game Thoughts:

We played maelstrom (the one where you get more cards as the game progresses) but I probably won't talk too much about that, mostly because I cannot find the notes. My wife has cleaned the house since this game and they're gone, as though they never were. Either way, I was worried about maelstrom because my army isn't exactly mobile and even if I tried it would be a big ol pain to move that many models (deploying them took forever.) This gives him something of an advantage. At the same time, I have a lot of guns and can maybe go for a tabling with a bit of luck.

He rolled and went first...then it happened...again (see previous report.)

He was soooo not happy here

IG Turn 1:

Well, I certainly wasn't going to close, I liked my cover!

In the shooting phase (psykers are for chumps) I managed to give Ignore Cover to my big guns and they proceeded to kill the venomthrope protecting his gargoyle tyrant and kill about half his gargoyles thanks to a good scatter. The Quad Mortar tried to take out the other venomthropes but between scatters and saves he didn't take any punishment.

Tyranids Turn 1:

His flyers advanced and opened up on my men, killing a few IG here and there but nothing much.

By far the biggest disappointment was BOTH of my Quadguns being killed by his flyrants. I couldn't make +3 save to...save?...their lives.

Biggest disappointment was going to ground with a lascannon blob and then rolling three ones on five dice. 

Nothing much on the psychic phase, he'd constantly try to pin my guns with The Horror but Yarrick was nearby to bolster their leadership and I'd keep making the pinning check. Otherwise he hands out a bunch of FnP. Assume this happens every turn, please.

Lost a few guys in the middle

General buggy advance

Now you don't see venomthropes. God I love big guns...

IG Turn 2:

Let me tell you, lasguns do work. The conscripts opened up on his Harpies (they needed to die and now) and really went to town. They didn't kill any this turn but they managed to inflict something like five wounds over the course of the phase on both monsters, without FRFSRF (couldn't make that Ld7 all game.) The artillery shined again and eliminated both of the remaining Venomthropes and the Warriors, plus a gaunt or two.

Tyranid Turn 2:

Mawloc came in an ate a large portion of Yarricks squads before being sent back into reserves.

Flyers got closer and started to chip away further at my squads, killing a few lascannons and men.

Medium bug eliminated

Something magical needed to happen here or I'd be in trouble next turn

Something was in that hole previously

IG and Tryanid Turn 3:

Overall, a very meh set of turns. He captures some objectives and kill some guys. My big guns scatter a lot though the Quad Mortar kills a bunch of Gaunts that are almost at my lines. The big news is that his Mawloc scattered away from really hurting me AND LASGUNS KILLED ONE OF THE HARPIES (again, without FRFSRF too!)

IG Turn 4:

Getting close to make or break time, I'm behind on objectives and not bringing the hurt like I need too. The Artillery will fail me again, just killing a few gargoyles and gaunts but failing to damage the flyrant with the gargoyles which was hanging back to get objectives. My crew service weapons have been largely unmentioned so far (and will continue to do so) because they were terrible the whole game. You'd think with that many they'd kill a FMC or two but I couldn't roll to hit and the number of 1s and 2s to wound was just plain sad. Even my opponent started to wince when another 1 came up.

On the plus side, I got to ground a Tyrant and Yarrick would charge it! Sadly, Yarrick would eat it for his audacity.

I also got to charge the Mawloc with a Conscript blob. Terrain kept all of them from attacking (not that I didn't try to squeeze as much out as the rules would let me, I think I pissed my brother-in-law off here.) Still, with a bit of luck I still inflicted five wounds on it before it Hit-and-Run-Like-A-Coward away.

Tyranid Turn 4: More chomping away at me. Several PCSs die and only some good rolling saves the Heavy Bolters. The flyrant that kills Yarrick finishes off his squad.

Rear objective gathering. The Exocrine would hug cover and blast away to little effect all game.

Note: Towering bug running from frail mortals.

The gaunts want to play too!

Alas, Poor Yarrick

IG/Tyranid Turn 5 and 6:
Lacking good notes and time passage has kinda blurred all of this together so forgive me if it isn't clear at times.
Yarrick (who got back up because he is the Old Man of Armageddon and a stud) joins another squad and charges his previously dropped warlord flyrant. The Conscripts that wounded the other Mawloc join him and only poor rolling on my part keeps his warlord in the game. Conscripts with a priest are the sexiest things since...women, which are still better. Still a close second. Good for them.

The other Conscripts finish the Mawloc in melee and then, next turn, charge the gaunts and snag me some last minuet futile objective points.

The Tryanids basically empty my far flank but I succeed in keeping them off my guns which actually do something and put a few wounds on his back field Tyrand...too bad he'd regenerate them.

In the end, Yarrick would die again on the last turn and thus not get a chance to get back up. This meant he also got Slay the Warlord and even managed Linebreaker. His last Harpy, which went off the table in order to drop a bomb that did nothing, didn't make it back to much action. The Exocrine twiddled its thumbs and my opponent would curse his poor planning that keeps putting gaunts in the way of him moving gargoyles forward.

In the end, my firepower just wasn't enough and he'd pull off a win. FMCs are the best thing in 40k right now so there wasn't too much I could do about it sadly. Plus, all of his firepower (dakka flyrants, jeez) meant I really did not want to leave my aegis lines. I had hoped to inflict a bit more harm but melee (aside from the first Mawloc charge) failed utterly and all the crew service guns just failed me (doing two wounds the whole game, firing every turn.)

My side at the end

Conscripts trying for a last ditch couple of points

Thoughts at the end:

• Boy my table needs a fresh coat of chalkboard paint!

DONE!!

• The number of crew service weapons was not enough, despite my calculations. The Heavy Bolters just need replaced with more autcannons though. That would help with to-wound rolls and range, especially since they're the same points.
• I have a big job stripping and re-priming all of those men ahead of me.
• Lasgun do work in quantity.
• Rolling ninety dice rocks!
• Ignore Cover on three earthshakers makes me realize why people play Tau. It is really, really fun.
• I need to assemble my last two Quad Mortar and Rapiers, mixing them into the list somehow.

Thoughts?