Battle in the Trucidonian Desert

40k Battle
Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Spearhead
Size: 750 points
Forces: Dark Angels vs. Tyranids

This week I played my monthly game in the ongoing Trucidos campaign against my buddy Oz and his scuttling 'Nids. We're wrapping up month number three of the campaign and so far it has yet to disappoint. The two of us had both won our January games, so we were tied in terms of campaign rewards, but I had accumulated more campaign points overall (mostly from making terrain) so that gave me the edge. This meant I got to choose the mission type, and I chose the 'annihilation' scenario. My thinking here was that I would have an easier time wiping out the Tyranids wholesale than trying to play a land-grab race to secure objectives from a foe that was sure to outnumber me at least 2:1.


By-Tor leads the Dark Angels


The Tyranids of Hive Klandathu


Scout Squad Felix takes cover in the woods

I won the roll off and opted to go second, I didn't know if I needed the bottom half of that last turn to scrape something together or not. This meant the Tyranids would go first, and their first turn was incredibly successful. A direct hit from one of the backfield Biovores wiped out half of one of my scout squads, their 4+ armor saves didn't protect them. That wasn't the half of it however, on the Hive Tyrant's first shooting phase, it killed Librarian By-Tor. The Tyrant's Venom Cannon screeched out a hail of shots, over an intervening tactical squad, and slammed into my army's commander. I took three wounds...and failed all of them, weighing in at 20% of my entire army's points, it was a harsh blow. All of this was before my turn!


Incoming!


Stand your ground!

In turn two it went from bad to worse. My remaining snipers, led by my fifty point Scout Captain Winter tried, to no avail, to stem the rushing tide of Genestealers. The clawed monsters clambered up the side of the building's walls and vanquished the marines in deadly melee.


To the bitter end

The scouts on the other side of the board would fare no better. As they emerged form the woods, shotguns blasting, they charged into a swarm of Termagants. Although outnumbered, they should have been evenly matched in strength. It was not to be, after a couple of rounds of melee, only Scout Sergeant Felix was left standing, and that didn't last for long.

I had started the game with a ten-man assault squad, Icarus, and I split them into combat squads before the battle began, with one element going in to reserves. I kept failing my reinforcements roll, and half of the squad seemed content to remain off of the table. With my present squad I charged into the Hive Tyrant, hoping to change the course of the battle. That was also not to be, my luck had gone horribly awry this game! The Hive Tyrant made quick work of the assault marines...I was quickly running out of troops.


By the third turn things weren't as dire, but they didn't seem that much better either. My assault marines in reserves were still refusing to come onto the board, and both squads of my scouts were all dead. My tactical squad was the one shining light, taking out a swarm of Termagants thanks to their rapid fire boltguns. They set upon a another swarm of Rippers, and decimated them as well. I was still two victory points behind, and the game was quickly ending.


The only immediate target my tactical marines could close with was the Hive Tyrant, who had now killed six Dark Angels. They eschewed their boltguns, and closed in melee with it. I don't know why I did this to be honest, I just didn't know what else to do with the thing.


At the bottom of the fourth turn I finally rolled for the rest of squad Icarus to enter the fray. I was two victory points behind at this point; they had a lot of work to do! They started off by exacting vengeance on the Genestealers, bolt pistol and flamer making short work of them. My victory point margin narrowed, but I was still behind.

At the top of turn five, a trio of Tyranid Warriors wheeled on the newly arrived assault squad and tore them apart at range. I thought Tyranids were supposed to be a close combat army! It would take a lot to pull this one out, actually, at best, all I could hope for would be a tie. I had a single man left of Squad Icarus, the veteran sergeant no less. Using his jump pack he bounded towards one of the two Biovores that had been harassing my army the whole game. He was able to strike it down, his power fist might have been a touch overkill, but it would do. There was a second Biovore though, and I wouldn't be able to claim the victory point unless the entire unit was destroyed. Meanwhile, my tactical marines were still engaged in close combat with the Hive Tyrant, their numbers dwindling, but it looked like this would be a melee stalemate. All of the luck the Tyranids had in the beginning seemed to turn against them in this combat, with roll after roll of misses.

None of it would matter if the game ended here and now, and with the roll of a die, we would find out; turn five is the last true turn of the game, with each one thereafter rolled for. As it turned out, we rolled for at least one more turn.


The Hive Tyrant continued to flail ineffectively against the tactical marines, who in all fairness, were equally ineffective against it. The rest of the Tyranid army however stalked the remaining Icarus trooper who was making his way towards the last Biovore. The living mortar was trying to lumber out of reach, but it couldn't outrun the marine's jump pack. The lone assault trooper was able to both avoid dying from the Tyranid Warrior Venom Cannons in the distance, and cut down the last Biovore, bringing the victory point total to a tie. A roll of the die at the end of the turn said that the game was indeed over.

Moment of the Game:
Probably the single most memorable of the game occurred on the first half of the first turn. I had taken along Librarian By-Tor specifically to deal with the Tyranid menace, picking his psychic powers to handle whatever might be thrown at me, be it swarms of light targets or a couple of Carnifexes. Weighing in at 150 points, he may have been a bit on the heavy side for such a small army, but I was excited to put him on the table as this would be his debut game, and he was named after a Rush song to boot! Well, three failed saves later, and all I just wrote about was put back into the foam tray, waiting for the long ride home, haha. Oh he'll be back!


Veteran Sergeant Obduro

Match MVP:
Well, I couldn't have possibly have hoped to tie it up at the very last second if it hadn't been for my deep striking assault squad, but more importantly, it was the veteran sergeant running around the back field that wiped out the Biovores. Thanks to that act, the final tying victory point to tie the game was earned.

An interesting footnote occurred after the game however. It turns out that Oz realized that the list he had been playing with was with a 1,000 point force, not 750 points as the game called for! An honest mistake, and sure, one hell of an oversight, but these things happen. At least that might explain why I had such an uphill battle the whole time, haha!


As usual, it was a good time, and even though "campaign points" were on the line, we all had a blast. What's more is that not only did we have a new player out, but we played two simultaneous games at Andy's house on a whopping double sized table, thanks to him for these pics. The other game, Space Marines versus Necrons can be found here, check it out!

All Hail the Nightbringer!

Marine Terminators bathe the Nightbringer in green chemical flame.

...also known as Aw Hell, the Nightbringer! We played another multi-player 40k battle, and the above pic, begins our report with the literal (and proverbial) end.


40k Battle #3
Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Size: 1,500 points
Forces: Allied Necron / Tyranid Contingent
vs. Allied Space Marines / Imperial Guard


Tomb worlds are called such for a reason, but rarely (if ever) do they contain the essence of an elder, ancient, and malevolent C'Tan. Above are Andy's Necrons of the Shattered Sphere.


Chris' Tyranid forces of Hive Klendathu. In a war-torn universe that doesn't make sense, the Necron / Tyranid alliance is about the only thing that seems logical. The Tyranids outright ignore the metal undead (there's no point in eating them), and the Necrons ignore the Tyranids because, well, they're not on the menu.


The anvil of the Emperor, the Imperial Guard. Ray's Cadian force is growing more and more every day. Added since last time are more heavy weapons, and a Sentinel walker.


If the Imperial Guard are the anvil, then the Space Marines are the hammer. Here are some of the Emperor's Finest, the Ultramarines. As a house rule, you can't field anything unpainted, so here I'm using my brother-in-law's expertly painted Marines. They're the older 2nd edition figs, and he's never played a single game of 40k, but he definitely has a preternatural skill at painting.


Biovores launch across the skies, landing amid the Cadians.

Turn 1:
Hammer and Anvil: The forces of good began the turn slowly at first, with Imperial Guard wounding the massive Carnifex only once with heavy weapons fire, and guardsmen eliminating only a single leaping Hormagaunt.

Claw and Steel: The Necrons stayed hunkered down in cover while the Tyranids surged forth; they launched Biovore spores which missed their mark, and a trio of Tyranid Warriros fired upon the Guard, killing two.


Not quite "Hamburger Hill", more like "Snack Cake Hill".


Heads swaying back and forth looking for food, the 'Gaunts are on the move.


Infiltrated Scouts try to dent the carapce of the Carnifex with Heavy Bolter fire.

Turn 2:
Hammer and Anvil: A completely uneventful turn for the allied forces as Marines failed to cause wounds on the Necrons. The assault cannon on the Dreadnought failed to wound anything as well. Around the Shrine of Gideon, the Marine Scouts saw a marginal victory as they engaged Ripper swarms in melee, killing one of the scuttling hordes.

Claw and Steel: Where the human and superhuman fell short, the unnatural and supernatural really poured it on. The Nightbringer, in its cold and otherworldly horror, phased into view, lashing out with a lightning arc and completely annihilating the venerable Ultramarine Dreadnought, Ferox. Speaking of large based terrors destroying vehicles, on the other side of the battlefield, the Carnifex rushed the Guard's Chimera, destroying its tank treads, immobilizing it, and ripped its multi-laser from the turret housing.


A target-rich environment, except for the high toughness and wound values.


Dinner!

Imagine what the Imperial Guard look like in the eyes of a ravening Tyranid. It would be something like a bunch of little chicken legs with green Imperial-issue helmet and lasguns. The Hive Tyrant saw this as it flew into the center of them, unaware that some of those chicken legs were senior and veteran command troops armed with power fists and power swords.


A quagmire of combat.


"They shall know no fear." Whatever!

Turn 3:
Hammer and Anvil: Guard claimed a moral victory as they wounded the Hive Tyrant and more guard escaped out the back hatch of the burning Chimera while they could. The tactical squad of Marines stepped forth to fire bolters at the incoming Nightbringer, to no avail.

Claw and Steel: The large based models stole the show while the 25mm based troops of the enemy were barely a factor (or even noticeable) in the fight. The Nightbringer swept forward, destroying 70% of the tactical Marines in a single turn, sending the rest running.


"I'm from Buenos Aires, and I say KILL THEM ALL!"

Turn 4:
Hammer and Anvil: Especially in a Pitched battle I will never deep strike my Terminators, ugh. Even though turn four is about when they should be expected to turn up, they could've been a lot more effective early on. Well they did show up, thanks to the teleport homer the fleeing Marine sergeant had, they lined up to square off with the Nightbringer. The Imperial Guard command squad shocked the Hive Tyrant by turning the tide on it and besting it in combat. The commander's power fist (and yes, he is from Buenos Aires) cracked and smashed its armored shell bringing the beast down.

Claw and Steel: Well, at this point it was pushes midnight, we got off to a very late start, and it was a work night for all of us. There would be no turn four for the enemy troops.

Conclusion: Tie.

Again, it looked like a foregone conclusion for the enemy at this point, but you can never tell the outcome of the battle until the last turn is played. I think this speaks positively of the new edition of the rules too, it keeps battle close and interesting. In the Annihilation scenario, your goal is to wipe out enemy units, at the end of turn four it was dead even. True, the Nightbringer more than likely would've destroyed the Temrinator squad, but, they are Terminators in the end, so maybe not. At the same time however, the Carnifex would very likely have fallen next turn, as would have the Ripper swarms, so by the end of turn five we might still have a tie game, or maybe a marginal lead by the forces of good. You never know until that last turn has played out.

40k Fight Night: Dos

All right, it must be a sign or something...this week we played a second game of 40k. That makes it the 'official' game right now, 'cause we haven't played two consecutive games of anything lately. We had the usual suspects; Andy and his Tyranids, Jeff and his Sons of Medusa Marines, and me and my still unnamed Tau force. Waiting in the wings are Chris' Tyranids, and Ray's Cadian Imperial Guard force. We played another three-way battle, this time the terrain looked a little bit better, but it was still a basic beat 'em up with the last man standing. Actually it was pretty much a two player game, with my slow self not engaging either enemy until about halfway through the game. I'd give the win to Andy, even though I think I was the last force on the table. It was a great time, once again. Hanging out, rolling some dice, moving around little toy soldiers that go 'pew-pew', good times, lol. Here's some pics, enjoy.

Well, it may be a marginal improvement, but here's the battlefield. We've got a downed freighter, at least that's the assumption, no one really knows what it is. Hence the Tau scout ship perched atop it, and the Space Marines coming in on the top of the screen. Either the Tyranids were hiding in wait the whole time, or they were the reason the ship crashed.

The best bird's eye view shot I could muster.

The Tau Crisis team approaches the wreck, sensor drones showing multiple blips just on the other side.

Tyranids spring from the shadows...

...and assault the Marine Scouts.

Here's what I was talking about; Jeff and Andy duked it out for what seemed like forever before I even got into firing position. Even then, I had excellent fields of fire on both opposing armies. Here my troops set up to fire on the swift 'nids and what Marines were left after endless assaults.

Eventually I did have to face the music, and that's not a proposition the Tau do well with in melee. Here's a scything claw attack by the bugs. I thought it was over at this point, even though I came in late to the fray, my prognosis was not good.


I did have some fresh troops nearby, who had been busy trading long range shots with a few surviving Marines. Seeing their Fire Warrior brethren getting mauled, the XV-8's closed in for the counter-charge.

Projects, projects, projects...

Okay, I don't have as deep a queue as some, but for me, it stills seems like a lot. Here's some stuff in the works right now, some of it in the forefront, some of it on the backburner, some of it even still in the deep hole, so to speak. Up top here's what we've got on the top row: Top left, in this bag we have ten 40mm Native Americans, next to them is a Reaper "Eldritch Daemon" also known as good ole' Cthulhu, hopefully mine will end up looking at least half as good as Andy's, next up are a couple of packs of Traveler Vagr, those cool dog / wolf sci-fi soldiers, finally is a bag full of Quar, which looked too good to pass up, very alien and classic military to boot. Finally, on the bottom row; to the left are a couple o' Privateer Press Merc items, a Rockram heavy 'jack, and the Warcaster Durgen Madhammer, I may try to whip these out quick in a desert scheme, on the right is the Tau XV15 leader I've already posted. Here's some more stuff:

I mentioned we were kickin' around some 40k battles? Well, this Tyranid horde belongs to my good buddy Oz. When he showed up with them they were tossed into a cardboard box with nary any protection. They've been mothballed for some time, and when they came out, well, some came out in pieces. This army is a good example of 'tabletop' quality, and in force, they look great, they could use a little tweaking though, and I volunteered to help Oz get them back in shape. Here's the horde in all it's glory. I have been able to get a hold of sixteen of his 'Gaunts so far. Basically I whitened whites, picked out their armor plates with a brighter red, and gave a few key washed here and there to add some distinctive color. Oh, and I cleaned up and painted their bases, I'll go back when I'm done and give them all a dirt coat too. I hope I didn't bite off more than I can chew, heh. In the end, I think this'll turn out fairly well.














It's kind of funny these guys are still a work in progress. I've got a couple squads here of 15mm Star Grunt II figs, from the excellent folks at Ground Zero Games. The troops on the left are basically done, they just need to be dipped and based. The power armor troops on the right just need a little more drybrushing, and a couple of spots picked out, then dip and basing.







Speaking of Star Grunt II, there's a glaring line of silver down the middle of my otherwise complete army. These guys paint up fairly quick, I have no excuses. The other two empty spots are from the above two squads of partially finished units.











As you know, we've been playing a lot of Warhammer Quest lately, so I thought I'd spruce up the player characters a bit. I had this idea a while back, but never got around to implementing it, well, no time like the present. Basically I'm trying to find the best looking figs out there to represent the pc's, they don't have to be GW, just whoever has the 'good stuff'. Mostly, I keep going back to Rackham, their stuff rocks, and when it comes to fantasy, their stuff will fit quite well. There's some great characters in WHQ, and so far I think I've got some good models for a few; the Dwarf, a Wizard (also a Dwarf), a Pit Fighter, the Barbarian, and a Trollslayer. There's another Dwarf in there too, I don't know what to do with him, but he's a killer fig.





Here's some of that deep hole stuff I mentioned. Beyond backburner, these are still items that need to be completed nonetheless, even if they're low priority. I'll get around to them 'someday', sure, but part of the reason for doing this blog in the first place was to hold myself more accountable for the geekery. First up are a few figs from the old Warzone game, which was a pretty good minis game in hindsight. It's a couple of Praetorian Stalkers and Mistress of the Void Whats-her-name, all three from the Dark Legion faction. Anyway, I thought they'd be cool as 'boss monsters' or something in a game of 5150 or the like. Next up is a Wood Elf Dragon from GW. He's seen better days, he's been like this since, umm, the last move...five years ago. He'll get put back together, next time with pins, eventually. Finally, if you open one of the drawers to the painting desk, you'll find a ton of bits and pieces, you'll also find two unfinished SuperSystem teams. One will be a 'woodsy' team with a mix of GW and Mage Knight figs, the other is a basic bad guy team, made up of 'official' Superfigs. Mixed in there with them are some giant mushrooms I was going to do as some type of alien terrain. Mind you, terrain in general is my Achilles heal, so it's gonna be a LONG time before those see the light of day, lol!

40k Fight Night

All right, the other night was the kickoff to our new 40k venture! It went well, we had three armies present altogether and no one had played a game in about five years, we were off to a good start, heh. We were able to fumble through the rules though and managed even to crank out some semblance of a game. Here's the pics from that night, enjoy! Above is a pre-game shot of the forces arrayed on the table. It was a three-way battle consisting of Andy, Jeff, and myself.

Jeff's Sons of Medusa Space Marine chapter.

Andy's Tyranid forces of Hive Fleet Ythogtha.


My humble patrol team of Tau forces (of which I've yet to name).


Fire Warriors spot Space Marine Scouts in the distance and advance behind derelict refinery equipment, Gun Drone in the foreground.


The Sons of Medusa Scouts advance confidently along the side of a shattered monolith.


Contemplating fields of fire, a Crisis Suit scans the target-rich Tyranid environment from atop a burned-out generator.


The Scouts close in melee with the Tau.


From behind the scuttling hordes of Gaunts, Tyranid Warriors stalk forward...


...as does a brood of Genestealers.


The Scouts make extremely short work of the weaker Tau.


An XV-8 leaps into the middle of the Scouts, hoping to avenge the fallen Fire Warriors.


The remaining Crisis Suits tend with the charge of the Termagaunts.


The Scouts will have to earn their stripes today; after dispatching the lone Crisis Suit, a pair of Tyranid Ravagers emerge from underground tunnels to assault the Scouts.


In the end, it was the Sons of Medusa who won the day. Though they took some losses, they were able to successfully cleanse the area of both alien foe, and malign horrors. Although I personally had a terrible showing, I still had a blast nonetheless.