Save our souls

Belamor, Sanguinary Priest of the 2nd Blood Angels battle company, didn't believe his eyes as he watched Khorne Daemons charge the Tyranids with his very own men. After suffering heavy losses from the Daemons, Belamor regrouped his men, improvised a field hospital for the wounded, had the most urgent repairs done on the Baal Predators, and had hoped that all this will be good enough before reinforcements arrive. Just then his farthest outpost radioed in a sudden contact with Tyranids seemingly coming out of nowhere and as his tired men mounted their defensive fire, the Daemons were back all of a sudden as well. However, this time they slid past the Marines and directly charged the alien creatures. What in the Emperor's name was happening on Teritarius Secundus?

Welcome to my battle report where 745pts of Khorne Daemons and 751pts of Blood Angels fight it out with 1500pts of Tyranids. Come the Apocalypse!

This is how we set up. BA and Daemons had to start minimally 12 inches apart from each other which was more of a restriction than I thought it's going to be.

This was the end of the allied turn 1. The Baal Predators immediately moved to the flanking MOs and the Greater Daemon ran up the middle eager for blood.

BA and Daemons scored 1 VP because we were lucky enough to sit on one MO where we had the corresponding Maelstrom card.

On the Tyranids turn 1, the Hormagants were closing on on the Greater Daemon. "No problem", thought the Greater Daemon, but just as he was done thinking, the three Carnifeces' Heavy Venom Canons sent him back into the Warp.

The rest of the Tyranids spread out.

After turn 1 the Tyranids lead 1:2 because of First Blood and a slain warlord.

On the Allieds' turn 2, one unit of Bloodletters deepstruck in the upper left corner followed by the running up Chaos Hounds...

...whereas the second unit deviated 10 inches and materialized right in front of the Tactical Squad's Bolters in the lower right. They also failed their "Come the Apocalypse" roll so they sat there for the rest of the turn doing nothing as they were sceptically eyeing the Blood Angels for any sign of treachery (ha ha ha!).

The tanks moved up to hold the center and create space for the Bloodletters, but the Rhino got immobilized in the difficult terrain.

The beauty in this picture is the two missing Zoanthropes. From my earlier games with Goldark I remembered their dangerous yet squichy nature, so I put all tank fire into them.

Because we had a maelstrom card saying "kill one entire unit" and a Zoantrope counts as a unit, we tied on VP.

The start of the Tyranids turn 2 had the Bloodletters shit their non-existing pants when the Tyranid Drop Pod with a Tyrannofex landed right in front of their noses.

After the shooting phase, of said Bloodletters only three had survived (lower left corner in the picture and one of the Baal Predators was gone. In the upper left of the picture you can see one half of the 3rd Tactical squad in their Rhino and the second half on the bridge between ruins, both still unharmed. This was partially true because the missing Zoanthropes left the Tyranids in the center without any synapse creatures, so the Hive Tyrant had to jump back and land into the center to keep its units focused.

At the end of the Tyranids 2nd turn, no changes in VP.

At the beginning of the Allieds' turn 3, the frist half of the 4th Tactical squad exited their Rhino to claim the center. After that, every unit sunk their fire into the Hive Tyrant, but soon only the Hormagants surrounding him were left. That the Hive Tyrant had to land there proved to be a huge game changer because now the Tyranids had no synapse creature left in their army!

This Bloodletter was an idiot, but still brave enough to charge that Tyrannofex.

Even the bigger idiots were these Bloodletters charging that Sporocyst which promptly exploded into their face.

Yet at the end of the Allieds' turn 3 things looked quite good for us because we had the better board control plus the Tyranids had no friggin' synapse creature (I don't get tired of saying that)! At this point, our opponent called the game pretty much over and didn't roll his dice anymore as cheerfully as during previous turns. However, I assured him that the game ain't over before the last turn has been played which is so true with Maelstrom Missions.

One thing I wasn't happy with was that we couldn't convert our board control into VP. We hardly ever pulled cards saying "hold MO #whatever" (of which we held plenty), but stupid stuff like "sacrifice your warlord" which simply wasn't feasible, so at the end of the Allieds' turn 3 we only got 1 point to lead over the Tyranids.

The start of the Tyranids turn 3 meant saying hi to this Mawloc unburrowing in the center right in front of one half of the 4th Tactical Squad.

The Drop Pod moved in to singlehandedly kill off the other half of the 4th Tactical Squad. I guess this isn't how Space Marines envision their deaths.

A similar unheroic death arrived for the first half of the 4th Tactical Squad: The Mawloc didn't even turn his head and instead they got run over by Hormagants.

Luckily we were able to score on the Tyranids turn because we held one MO where our opponent had the corresponding card so now it was 4:2.

The Allieds' turn 5 had us everything commit towards the center. While we still had assests, the 4th Tactical Squad still untouched in its Rhino and up on the gallery, one unit of Bloodletters plus most notably the Baal Predator, we didn't have much to deal with the Tyranids' Monstrous Creatures.

Consequently, the last Marine of the 5th Squad plus the Bloodletters advanced up to the Carnifeces, but didn't do any harm.

The 4th Tactical Squads' moved back under the bridge again to score on a MO...

...to give us a four points lead.

The Tyranids turn 5 saw the flattening of the remaining Bloodletters and the lonely Marine.

Thankfully the Baal predator got ignored...

...and the Tyranids only got one VP, so at this point we could have won the game. However, the dice gods said that we were about to play a turn 6.

Turn 6 saw the remaining Bloodletters die against the Carnifeces and the Baal predator get immobilized by again the same crater as it was unloading all its guns and Heavy Flamers into the Tyrannofex.

The score remained the same as once again we the Allies didn't have any meaningful Malestrom cards on our hands.

The Tyranids turn 6 had everyone close in on the Baal Predator, kill it, and because of the right Maelstrom cards rise from 4 to 7 VPs...

...plus 1 VP for scoring Line Breaker in the end with that stupid Drop Pod. 😄

This game was devastating for the Blood Angels/Khorne Daemons Allies as they had board control plus Tyranids running around with no synapse creatures, yet the Allies lost. Had this not be a friendly and casual game, the Allies should be totally ashamed of their performance. A key factor surely was the inefficient use of the Khorne Daemons; the Greater Daemon died too early and with him our only hope against the Tyranids' Monstrous Creatures. The Bloodletters proved to be extremely fragile against Overwatch fire, so they were sort of a disappointment, too.

Another interesting insight was to see how "Come the Apocalypse!" Allies perform on the field. The 12 inches of space required when setting up prior to the game makes it difficult to set up for a tactical advantage. Plus the Winds of the Warp didn't only work against the Tyranids, but also the Blood Angels - much hilarity ensued when Nurgle's Rot befell three Blood Angels units, but not Tyranids in one turn. In other words, it's easy to die from your own "allies".

PS: Sun Tsu added some corrections, please check the comments below. They are the result of me not knowing the Tyranids Codex well enough, not grasping every action during the game despite trying to pay attention, and writing the battle report several days after it has happened. 😄

Belamor and the 5th Tactical Squad watched in horror as both their battle brothers plus the Daemons dissolved in a sea of claws and bioacid. They fired their Bolters in support of their brothers in no avail. When the dust of battle had settled, the Tyranids were retreating as well - surely just to regroup and come back later leaving no hope for the remaining 5th Squad. However, there was one thing Belamor feared more than the return of the Tyranids: proving to an Inquisitor that he and his squad hadn't been touched by Chaos...

Battle Report: BA vs. new Tyranids (1’500 points)

Mission was capture & control with a dawn of war setup; the game ended in a draw.

Captain Parcival checked his Tac Com and knew things didn’t look good. The 2nd Company formed a first line of defense in the outskirts of Plethora Hive, the last position the Blood Angels still held on Tenebra IX. The incoming data showed that Class C organisms were moving three klicks NW inbound. Soon there were going to be Tyranids everywhere.

Parcival went through his geotactical situation. In his immediate area of control there was a Dortis Sugar refinery and his own locator beacon. The Tyranids were surely going to feast on the sugar, but if they had a chance to destroy his locator beacon and cut him off from supplies, they wouldn’t let it slip either. Parcival told his troops to hide among the buildings so that the Tyranids would run into a seemingly empty area. He figured they only had a chance if they attacked by surprise and did a mechanized countercharge into the back of the Tyranid wave.

All of a sudden, there they were. A Hive Tyrant was directly charging with Termagants towards the locator beacon. Parcival ordered his very own Razorback and the Rhino of Squad Calrissian to move against these incoming creatures.

On the right flank, the Rhino of Squad Derian and the two Baal Predators rolled onto the scene and went straight for the sugar refinery where Hormagants and a Carnifex were trying to dig themselves in. However, just when the Rhino reached the refinery, the Carnifex charged the vehicle and tore it apart killing the entire squad with the exception of Sergeant Derian himself. Derian ran into the refinery and up the stairs onto its roof so he could take shots at the lingering Tyrandis outside. The Carnifex followed him into the refinery, however, and Derian could hear the brutal noises as this creature was smashing its way through the machines. Derian just hoped that the creature was too heavy to make it to the upper floors.

In the meantime, the two Baal Predators were busy killing Zoantrophes which they successfully did as they were still fully operational. However, mopping up the Zoes took away precious time when the Blood Angels’ infantry was in bitter need for their support.

On the left flank, Parcival and his Honor Guard exited the Razorback and took shots at the Hive Tyrant. The creature produced infernal screams as it felt the cleansing fire of the Emperor, but stayed focused and destroyed the Rhino of Squad Calrissian first. The Termagants quickly fell over the proud Warriors and the Hive Tyrant started to collect a heavy blood toll, too. However, Parcival stood firm in his decision not to yield a single meter to these creatures and let his Powerfist hammer onto the Hive Tyrant until the creature was no more. Parcival felt the stinking scent of the alien when he gasped for a breath of fresh air and tried to refocus, but in this moment a couple Venators came in and a Trygon dug out of the earth. Parcival played his last ace and called in Assault Squad Vincenzo who shocked down on the surprised Tyranids. Parcival’s and Sergeant Vincenzo’s Powerfists continued to do their ugly work, but a huge blow by the Trygon’s tail finally knocked Parcival off his feet and left him with an intense pain in his chest. He felt the warm comfort of Sanguinius wing’s folding around him and in the corner of his eyes he saw how Vincenzo delivered a last and final blow to the Trygon. And as Parcival’s memory was about to fade away, he heard the familiar beeping sounds of a locator beacon delivering its coordinates to some battleship in orbit…

Bug hunting!

Last night we had another Apocalypse game over at the League of Gentlemen. It’s part of Goldark’s campaign about his hive fleet landing on Imperial planets. Once again, the Tyranids won by a sight margin having Goldark win every single game of the entire campaign!

So, here’s what happened during the Apocalpyse to Parcival’s Blood Angels (click for larger pictures):

The 3rd and 4th Tactical Squad dig in in an old industrial ruin to score on the mission objective hidden there. A deepstriking spore mine can be successfully shot before it does any harm and everything is tight for flanking Genestealers.

In the meantime, Parcival and his Honor Guard are fighting a desperate fight in the trenches along with his tanks and Dreadnoughts plus the support of the Inquisition.

The Death Company is doing what they’re best at – dying! (against a swarm of winged Tyranid Warriors. Me: “Gee, the Death Company is easily going to wipe those Gargoyles!  What’s that you say? Those AREN’T Gargoyles???”)

In the meantime, the Deathwing is holding the western flank.

On the northern flank, the Tyranids are closing in!

The Landspeeder is teaching a lesson to the Biovore with the remaining Heavy Bolter: it’s being shot into pieces and decides to flee.

With their retinues dead, Parcival and the Inquisitor still hold the trenches against the masses of bugs.

So does Belial at the western front.

The Tyranids finally charge into the factory and the Blood Angels greet them with waves of Bolter fire. Since this was the last turn of the game, both Tyranids and Blood Angels contested the mission objective.

The Imperium lost against the Tyranids 10:12.