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Welcome to game 8 in our Tyranid vs. Imperium campaign. The previous games (and other campaigns) can be found here:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Gordy2000%27s_Battle_Reports

Huge thanks to Thor 665 for creating the above article of all our previous batreps and campaigns.


In the last battle, the forces of the Hive Mind launched an all-out assault on the main research base. Whilst the defenders prevented the Xenos from totally overrunning the facility, the Tyranids established a foothold and compromised the base defences.

Meanwhile, Inquisitor Iniquitous is making his way to the main landing field in an attempt to get off-world. The Hive Mind however, is far from finished with its attacks....

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Inquisitor knelt down behind the oxygen generator and looked out over the landing fields. His acolyte crouched down beside him and handed over a pair of magnoculars. Behind them, his retinue assumed an all-round defence. Iniquitous scanned the field and settled his gaze on a shuttle parked less than 50 meters away.

"That one" he said, indicating with his hand "big enough for our party and capable of breaking orbit. Now, here's how we are going to commandeer it. We can't be sure Captain Gordus hasn't put some sort of watch out for us and I'll be damned if I'm going to get caught at this stage of the game. First, I want you to..."

The inquisitors instructions were interrupted by a tremendous blast as the shuttle in front of them exploded into flames. Iniquitous flinched back as the over-pressure rolled over him.

"What in the seven hells of Terra was that!?" He exclaimed. Squinting through the roiling smoke he saw the edge of the jungle on the far side of the field burst apart as thousands of Tyranid creatures swarmed into view

"Warp take me! Xenos!"

The arrival of the swarm had not gone unnoticed by the defending guard units. Sergeants and officers ran wildly, shouting orders as the first defensive fire began to lance out.

The sheer number of Tyranids froze the blood in the inquisitors veins. Massive beasts strode amongst teeming hordes of lesser creatures. Could even the massed guns of two guard companies hold this attack?

"Hold here" Iniquitous hissed "we'll take cover and pray to the Emperor the guard have enough ammunition for a swarm of that size"

The Inquisitor and his retinue hunkered down behind the generator as out on the field, the screeches of the advancing swarm began to drown out the massed gunfire of the defenders....

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The landing fields come under heavy assault from the swarm


Guard officers issue orders to the surprised defenders


Some units find themselves almost on top of the advancing swarm


The left and centre prepare to repel the invaders


The right flank stands ready


A mighty Swarmlord leads the horde


Tervigons and swarms of scuttling creatures surge forwards towards the defenders


"Wait until you see the reds of their eyes men!"


More monsters burst from the jungle


Cadians and Rangers fire into the Xenos


The swarm presses in...


Imperial fire blasts gaping holes in the Xenos tide


"Monstrous creature 50 meters half left - bring it down!"


Heavy and special weapons add their fury to the torrent of fire


As do countless lasguns


"Xenos to the left of me, Xenos to the right. We are surrounded - they can't get away now!"


But despite the losses, for every alien that falls, another two take its place


All across the landing fields, it seems the Xenos tide is about to break over the defenders






Fix bayonets!


Tervigons vomit forth huge numbers of gaunts




Officers keep wavering troops in line as bio-ammunition crashes amongst the guard


"Sir, the enemy has engaged our forward positions"


Hand to hand fighting breaks out across the line






Heavy weapons concentrate on the biggest creatures


"Eat this!"


Note the Tervigon-sized gap....


"Keep it up men, we have them on the ropes!"


The lesser Tyranid creatures are dying in droves, even as they close with the defenders






The Xenos attack begins to fragment as the casualties mount


A Demolisher shell obliterates the last Tervigon


But the Hive Mind is not so easily denied.....the Swarmlord send out a psychic signal...


Suddenly, Ygmarl Genestealers burst from hiding places behind the lines




Trygon Primes erupt from the ground as Mycetic Spores crash into the defences in a synchronised orgy of destruction




Ravenors emerge from tunnels and flank the defenders


The guard commanders are stunned. They have gone from near victory to catastrophe in a matter of moments


Tyranids assault surprised guard units across the field






Even the most conspicuous bravery is no match for 4 boneswords...


A Tyranid organism of prodigious psychic power emerges from a spore and leeches the life from multiple guard units. It bloats with power from their stolen life force


Assailed on all sides, the right flank begins to collapse


With nowhere else to go, the Rangers in the centre elect to die with their boots on and assault the monsters to their front


A winged Hive Tyrant drops into the guard rear area


The Swarmlord gets amongst the defenders


The mighty Demolisher is reduced to a smoking crater by the claws of the Hive Tyrant


There is still some fight in the guard however - eat overwatch bugs!


All your base are belong to us


Rangers beat a lone 'stealer to death with their rifles


The Swarmlord destroys the Hellhound and any last hope of a cohesive defence goes up in smoke. The defences buckle and finally break


To the victor, the spoils. Standing atop the broken defences, the Swarmlord howls its triumph....


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Iniquitous watched with horror as the huge Xenos crawled atop the broken hab unit and let out a screech that rattled the data sockets in his skull.

Handfuls of guardsmen ran past them, some attempting to fall back in good order, but most simply fleeing for their lives.

"Back! Get back! We must get to the main base - there is nothing but death here" Iniquitous cried to his terrified retinue.

No matter what was waiting at the main research site, it couldn't be worse than this. The inquisitor had just watched two full companies of guardsmen destroyed by the swarm. Every flight-worthy shuttle on the landing fields was gone. Now, there was only survival, now there was only running......

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Woof! In case any of you were wondering what happens when you pitch an infantry heavy guard army against a tooled up 'nid army with multiple characters and deep striking units, now you know!

Fun game though - the table looked great (cheers Sandy) and the battle really swung to and fro (until every deep striking unit turned up on time and on target, anyway). Plus, always good to have a game and witness some truly awesome dice rolls. Derek's Cadians were rolling saves like terminators for most of the game.

Anyway, the Imperial side has its work cut out now, but they still have a trick or two left. Only two games left in the campaign.

Next up, last stand of Inquisitor Iniquitous.....

Awesome guys, just awesome. I'm looking forward to the next one.
By the way, do you have any of the really big tyranid beasties?

Amazing report, really thematic and interesting; great action, narrative, models and photography; all round a great report. Loved seeing the classic Guard/Tyranid match-up, with it's twists and heroics (and painful deaths).

My only preference would be army list/point size information in the OP; just for a bit more general information, to help understand what's going on.

Again, great report.

Also, please tell me that's an intact Storm Eagle with smoke coming out of it and placed on a crater, rather than someone being able to afford a Storm Eagle as scenery!

Phenomenal battle report as usual, Gordy!

Great photos, great scenario, great story, great looking armies!

Tough break for the Guard, though. So close to victory, then BOOM, Monstrous-Creature-ROFLSTOMP.

Awesome report, even more awesome models on both sides. Did you guys raid GWs home store for so many awesomely painted armies? Plus, I loved the random FW stormeagle just sitting there burning.

Awesome as always. Looking forward to the last two games in this campaign. Top notch as always.

That was epic ! Really enjoyed this report ? or story

Can't wait for the next one

Beautiful board and solid writing. I enjoyed reading this thank you. Do you have the lists posted somewhere?

Awesome models, awesome board, awesome paint.. what more is there to say

Awesome models, scenery, and presentation of the report. Engaging and informative, without getting bogged down in its own prose. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the comments guys

Also, please tell me that's an intact Storm Eagle with smoke coming out of it and placed on a crater, rather than someone being able to afford a Storm Eagle as scenery!

Yep, fully operational, we just haven't used it in anger yet

Beautiful board and solid writing. I enjoyed reading this thank you. Do you have the lists posted somewhere?

Sorry, we actually played this a few weeks back and I don't have the lists. The game was 2500 points, with guard restricted to mostly infantry. The bugs were a standard list with one or two characters (Doom etc)

By the way, do you have any of the really big tyranid beasties?

Oh yes, Sandy has been assembling a few nasty surprises for the last two games.....

Thanks Gord for the countless hours writing up these bat reps, the rest of us just turn up , roll badly & enjoy our beers.

As umpire for the campaign I tried to keep faithfull to the Anphelion Project scenarios with a bit of adjusting to bring it up to the 5th , now 6th edition rules.

We generally don't post lists because thats not we are about, it's more getting the good looking models on the table & having fun. If we don't quite have a legal list nobody loses sleep over it, just don't try and put an unpainted figure on the table.....

That said, for those interested the Nid list was;

Swarmy + 1 TG
Winged hive tyrant with hive commander (thats how we got the nasty Alpha strike on turn 2)
Doom in a pod
2 * 8 Ymgarls
2 * Tervigons - 3 powers
2 * 12 Gaunts
1 * 12 Gaunts in pod
3 Warriors
2 * 10 Gargoyles
4 * Ravenors
3 * Biovores
2 * Trygons
Costed to 2750 points, Guard has 2250 from memory as it was an annihilation match, 1 Guardsman surviving was an Imperial victory.

All our games are a huge amount of fun, winning being a very distant second.

Really enjoyed looking through this. I enjoyed the narrative nature of the report too. Its encouraged me to finish painting up my army, get a decent board together and then get some photos for my own battle reports!

That was a great report to read.

2 very well painted armies duking it out over a well laid out and presented board is always a joy to see.

Can't wait to see more (maybe some eldar next time?)!

More jaw dropping insanity.
As usual, thanks for a stunning rep.

Can't wait to see how you gentlemen close out this campaign.

Once again the pinnacle of batreps. The detail in the painting (the map in the IG officer's hand!) is top drawer. Always a joy to see your stuff. We aspire to your excellence. That bug army is scary! Is there hope for the Imperium?

Great report! Not a fan of narrative usually, but this was a perfect mix of narrative and pics. keep it up!

In future, I think we'd appreciate the scenario info at the top. Reading the batrep, I sat there thinking that this was an unbelievably unfair matchup. But, reading the scenario info, now I understand why.

Great work all around!

you guys should be doing the GW white dwarf reports - this is the best report I've seen for a long time!


the paint schemes are amazing too. you are the only person I know (except for me) who paints some of their guard black. good on ya!


GA

Beautiful battle report! Best I've seen to date!

Fantastic batrep and pics, always awesome to see fully painted armies

Beautiful! Always love seeing your batreps. Thanks for sharing.

This is just so off the hook to me. All the work, all the detail. The backstory, the tactics, the models! This is enthralling, it's like a Dawn of War 2 game except much better.

I'm going to have to take some time to take this all in, going straight to your battle report page and beginning with the very first battle and progressing through to the last.

Thank for posting....all of this.

I'm not usually much for narrative reports, but the pics are so good; they dovetail nicely together for a change. I'm impressed! (Why am I on a boat?)

Amazing table! The paint job and pics were stunning too.