revenge of the nids. 1500 pts, sisters vs tyranids

[rintinglen]

Once again the Daughters of the Emperor took the field against the the horror of the hive mind.
Daughters of the emperor,
Canoness, jump pack, plasma pistol, eviscerator, litanies of faith, Cloak of St.
Aspira, rosarius. 175 points
9 Seraphim, 2 x handflamers, frags, Krak grenades, jump packs, 7 x Bolt Pistols, 226 pts
Veteran Sister Supperior, Jump Pack, Plasma Pistol, Power Sword, frags, krak grenades57 pts
Squad Alpha, 7 x Bolters, heavy flamer, storm bolter, Veteran Sister Superior with Combi-flamer and power sword, 161 pts
Squad Beta, as above, 161 pts
Squad Cile, 7 x bolters, storm bolter, meltagun, veteran sister Superior with bolter and power sword. 150 pts.
2 Exorcist Battle tanks, 135 ea 270 pts
retributor squad with 4 x heavy bolters, veteran sister, 184 points
celstian squad, bolters x 4, storm bolter, multi melta, veteran sister superior
108
total 1492

Hive Vandal
Tyrant, Venom Cannons, warp shield, extended carapace,
Carnifex, Crushing claws, scything tail, regenerate, extended carapace,
three warriors, one with venom cannon, two with scything claws.
12 Hormagaunts,
12 hormagaunts,
zoanthorpe, synapse, warp blast.
8 Genestealers, scything talons
8 genestealers, scything talons
10 termagaunts,
10 termagaunts,
10 termagaunts, without number
lictor,
10 x ripper swarms

There were about a dozen roughly 6" by 8" patches of forest, with a big rock pile in the very center of the board that covered about 10 x 12 inches. All were difficult terrain and were level three, (or higher).
He got the rolls to pick side, and to go first.
He infiltrated his genestealers into cover in one of the woods on the left flank,and beside the rock pile, out of my line of sight, and deployed in a broad lineacross the middle of the table. There was little cover on my side, but I placed my retributors in a patch of woods where they could see the length of the board and where they had about 18 inches between them and the next grove. the rest of my units were deployed in support of the retributors.
He went first and made good use of the cover on the table as he bounded forward. I had only one shot with my exorcist at ripper swarms in cover. I fired 3 missiles got two hits, but he made both cover saves. Then he swept forward again staying to cover as best as he could. His Tyrant shot at one of my exorcists and stunned it, his warriors shot at my celestian squad and killed two of them, they failed their morale test and fell back 8 inches, perilously close to the table edge.
I rallied the celstians by using a faith point, moved my seraphim over to the left flank, and opened fire. I killed a number of gaunts 8 or 10, and two ripper swarms. I then proceeded to lose the game, when he made 3 18 inch moves, rolling sixes to fleet and to move through cover for one squad of hormagaunts and two of the termagaunts. Three squads found them selves assaulted, including my seraphim, whom I had planned to assault with myself that turn. The Hormagaunts killed 4 sisters but lost four of their own, for a tie. The seraphim killed 6 gaunts for only one loss. and the neither the other squad of gaunts nor my squad of sisterscould do anything. Because my canoness was attached to my Seraphim, they could not hit and run, so had to stay locked in combat. Meanwhile, his genestealers had come up, and the lictor popped out in the woods with my retributors, he charged, killed three, and then tied them up. My exorcist came unstunned, and both of them shot at the hive tyrant. 8 missiles launched, 4 hit, but I then rolled three 1's to wound--brilliant. I wiped out the other squad of hormagaunts and killed 4 genestealers, but then the ripperswarms charged my other squad of sisters, the genestealers pilled into the combat with the seraphim on the left and the ripper swarm on the right. The genestealers and ripperswarms killed all but the veteran sister, who killed one genestealer in return, and was then killed when she broke after losing combat. The lictor killed three more retributors before they finally managed to kill him. My cannoness used her litanies to make the squad"s armor saves invulnerable, which allowed them to win combat, though two more Seraphim died. they killed off the last of the Gaunts, and two of the Genestealers.
Turn 4 saw his tyrant blow up one of my exorcists, the warriors charge my seraphim in support of his genestealers, and the other squad of HOrmagaunts charged my retributors. They killed two more, took no casulties in exhange.
On my turn, I shot at the Tyrant again with my surviving Exorcist, getting 2 missiles, 1 hit onewound. My celstians charged into the combat to the left of the retributor and the surviving sisters combined with them to destroy the without number gaunts. The ripper swarms charged into the meleewith the termagaunts and my sister squad, the gaunts, reinforced by the swarms won combat, and sent the girls scampering back 7 inches. The Genestealers left on the right charged the last of the retributors and between them and the hormagaunts, they saw off the last of the retributors, then consolidated into the squad that had retreated. The seraphim finally killed off the last of their tormentors, but not before 2 more were dead.
The tyrant blew up my other exorcist. the Carnifex finally caught up, the Zoanthorpe shot at the seraphim, who thought very little of that idea. They jumped forward, shot him, inflicting one wound, and then charged him to finish him.
The genestealers killed the squad they were engaged with, then consolidated into my celstian Squad. The other squad had been charged by the ripper swarms and could do nothing but stand there killing little bugs while the carnifex got ready to charge.
Turn six saw the carnifex charge and kill 4 sisters despite them having 3+ invul saves. My celestians lost two of their number while killing one genestealer, and that was that.
I had only one scoring unit left on the table and he had four. Had he been just a little luckier, I wouldn't even have had one. I had 14 models left out of 58. Those bugs were faster than I expected them to be and the layout of the cover and the surprise visit of his lictor kept me from shooting his army to pieces as they popped out of the woods. His tyrant was the main man of the game IMO, he knocked out two tanks with glancing hits. 6 strength 8 shots per turn are murderous, even if all they can do is glance.
Those flamers were a waste. I wish I had taken another Celestian squad with a Heavy bolter in place of the third siste squad.