The Warmaster Abaddon stared silently into the viewing port of containment cell as dark techno savants dissected the remains of what had once been a genestealer broodlord.

His thoughts brought a snear to his face, twisting his already scared features. Years earlier, he had secured several broods of the advanced bio organism from a drifting space hulk within the warp and placed them into stasis fields for such an occasion as the Babad War was providing. He was quite aware of the psychic signature that drew their kin closer to prey worlds and was using this to his own dark purpose. While the imperium was drawn into yet another rebellion, he had carefully seeded these organisms amongst those worlds where the fighting was harshest in hopes of maximizing the damage upon the imperium. His strategy had been quite successful…too successful perhaps. In fact, not one but two large splinter fleets from separate systems had been drawn into the Eastern fringes of the Babad system and had swiftly grown as its bioships fed upon the carnages of war, cutting off much of the sector... and was even threatening to cut off his own means of escape…only a small corridor existed and the noose was rapidly tightening. He himself had already halted an advance on a nearby moon that threatened to close off this corridor and had only recently returned. Still, his present location on this lifeless asteroid should not come under scrutiny, giving him a few more days to tie off some loose ends.

His musings were eventually interrupted by one of his champions who entered the room with a sense of urgency, the sounds of alarms growing in the distant corridors. He was to learn that several spores had, against all odds, landed 3 miles from his present location under the protection of a meteor storm and, as impossible as it sounded, that a living carpet of Tyranid organisms was making a bee line right towards his fortifications! With a curse, he ventured down into the depths of the compound to alert his second-in-command, warlord Lucius, of the unexpected threat. Upon reaching the lowest landing and advancing into a large training cell, he was greeted by a scene that instantly filled his soul with rage. Lying upon the grounds, the bodies eviscerated, was the corpses of not one but three brood lords…and hovering above this carnage was Lucius, his face twisted in ecstasy. Within a heartbeat, the Warmaster crossed the room with but a few bounding leaps and smote the warlord, flinging Lucius’s now unconscious form nearly 10 feet. For long moments, Abaddon stood over Lucius’s form, struggling with the overwhelming desire for murder, before finally withdrawing from the room. Such desires were useless and in fact fatal when faced with the particular "gifts" of Lucius. No, he would leave the fool and his fellow “Children” to the fate they thier commander had earned. After ascertaining a private channel to his subordinants, he coldly stated, “Have the "Children" abbandon the outer defenses and secure the grounds around the main compound..." He trailed off as another thought quickly asserted itself, "There is a squad of Slaanesh’s Chosen aboard my cruiser; have them ready themselves and then teleport them into... an inconvenient position south of main command post. Once complete, jam all signals in the surrounding system and have the savants destroy the compound’s teleporter. Finally, have my transporter ready to launch within the next 10 minutes with the techno savants and my Chosen aboard, scuttle the remainder.” The Warmaster had decided that now was as good as any to leave.

Lucius awoke long after the Warmaster had fled the asteroid and listened in bitter silence as he was made aware of his present position by a subordinate. His Children had been stranded upon the asteroid, the facility's teleporter had been destroyed, the communications signals within the complex were being blocked by outside interference, and a swarm of Tyranids was rapidly advancing on their position. Their only option remaining was to secure one of the two Vox Caster towers that lay both North and West of the compound and hope that the stronger signal strength could be used to send a boosted distress call to one of his Raiders out patrolling the sector. Unfortunately, the posts had already been abandoned, thanks to the Warmaster’s last orders, and were already overrun by the Tyranids. Never-the-less, Lucius wasted no time in formulating a plan and within the half-an-hour, he had organized his remaining marines into three strike forces. A squad of “Children” aboard a rhino would advance to the North with his sole defiler as escort. The second squad consisting of a cell of Obliterators led by his Champion, A Demon Prince of Slaanesh, would storm the bunker to the west, which housed the second Vox Tower. Finally, he himself would lead a second squad of Children aboard his personal Landraider in order to disrupt the advance of the main Tyranid force and buy his units additional time.

He was initially met with some measure of success, as the strike force led by the Daemon Prince was able to clear the bunker to the East of a large brood of Genestealers that had advanced ahead of the main swarm. Though his Champion had died in the process, the Obliterators were able to barricade themselves within the compound and were making thier way towards the the signal room. However, that was to be the limit of his advance. To the North, the defiler and rhino quickly found themselves torn to pieces by massed impalor cannon shards shot from two broods of Hive Guard. The stranded occupants were quickly torn to shreds as they came under assault from several waves of guants being ushered onwards by the massive psychic bulk of a Tervigon Brood Mother. The Landraider barreled into the front lines of the Tyranid host to disgorge Lucius and his squad, the swarms hive tyrant their quarry. Their advance was quickly blocked by two broods of guants that reflexively threw themselves into Lucius path. But that was only a distraction; detaching themselves from their hidden alcoves within the ruins of nearby research facility, a lethal brood of Ymarls threw themselves upon the unexpecting “Children”. As his fellow marines died around him, their heads and armored limbs torn from their bodies, Lucius himself was fatally hit by a salvo of flesh borer beetles that were able to work their way into his armor and devourer him from the inside. Through the ecstasy of death, he was just fleetingly aware of his Landraider, barreling through the swarm, the Hive Tyrant and its brood of Tyrant Guard in surprisingly swift pursuit.

What seemed like ages later, Lucius found himself far to the north, gazing at the corpses of his most devout marines, their terminator armor rended and torn by what could only have been the claws of genestealers. Thinking back...he had lost count of the number of times he had died upon the desolate battle ground to the south only to take possession of the monstrosity that had last slain him. The hive mind had unfortunately and to his great frustration learned not to send its synapse beasts into the fray once he had taken possession of a Brood Mother, sending scores of guants into synaptic death. Instead, he had had to endure death after meaningless death at the hands of nothing more than slave minded guants. Eventually, the Hive Mind must have realized his immortal nature as it had sent the last cursed beast into the wilderness, away from the swarm. He counted himself fortunate, as even his unfathomable bloodlust was starting to reach its limit under the tedious, repetitive exercise in boredom and futility. Upon assuming form, he had at once made his way to the western most Vox Caster, only to find the premises ruined, the bunkers fortified door ripped from its hinges…though what had become of the squad of Obliterators was a mystery as he was unable to find any bodies. Having found the signal equipment destroyed, he then moved on to the North, where he found himself presently. Hardening his heart and swearing and oath of revenge against the Warmaster, he trudged on, the silhouette of the Northern Vox tower growing in the distance.
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Objectives: Nid’s victory 2-0

END OF LINE: Nid’s Success; Chaos Fail

Line of Retreat Bonus Campaign Points: Both Nids and Chaos scored +3 Campaign points for having a unit/units in the enemy deployment zone for the last 3 full game turns. Andy earned this one with pizazz as his Land Raider managed to hold off numerous impaller cannon shots and an angry hive tyrant that repeatedly assaulted him four times during his mad dash through my deployment zone, while suffering only 4 weapon destroyed results 8-) .

SECURE THE VOX AMPS: Draw. Chaos had its second remaining unit within 3” of a Vox Caster. Nids had units within 3” of each Vox Amp.

Secure the Vox Amps Bonus Campaign Points: Nids scored +1 CBP for having units within 3” of each Vox Amp.

BOOST THE SIGNAL: Nid’s Success; Chaos Fail. Nids had an HQ unit within 3” of a Vox Amp.

Total Score: Creepy +8 CP (Death or Glory added in); Chaos +3 CP

Once again, my opponent was waylaid by horrendous bad luck :( . But Andy laughed through it all. Very classy .

Depraved wrote:I really like the light grayish paint jobs on page one.

I loved your 'Gaunt gunners' on page 1, they remind me of a macro version of the Tyranid Warrior that sprouted out of the Epic Dominatrix spine!

Where are you getting those green plastic plants for your bases from?

I would like to see more battle reports - I wanna see all this Tyranid dakka in action if possible

wyomingfox wrote:

Currently, I am working on my comander which I built and magnitized on my own 3 or so years ago. Just the base colors. Personally, not happy with how the central band of electic blue is clashing with the darker blue. Think I might repaint it ivory.

wyomingfox wrote:Oh... I meant I was going to repaint the electric blue area (in the center) to ivory. The darker blue helps to visually offset the comander from the rest of the crisis suits.

Gitsplitta wrote:Take a trick from the marines and differentiate your commanders by removing their helmets!