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Ok, first off apologises that this is a regular thread and not an article in the battle reports format, but I'm not the best at internet stuff and I couldn't for the life of me work out how to do the uploading images 'things'. Kinda pathetic I know , but it is past midnight as I write this (the only free time I get with a 6 month old son who's teething) so I don't have too long to fiddle about. So instead I've opted to cheat and post it as a regular thread.

Recently I played a 6000 pt Apocalypse game with driverbob25 with a special scenario. I was using my Tyranids and driverbob25 was using Marines.

The story behind the game was that the Imperium had detected that a dying Tyranid hive ship, the last surviving bio-ship from a splinter fleet designated Hive Fleet Nocturne, had crashed on a world called Thetis. Whilst it was still a threat they could not ignore the Imperium felt that a single, dying vessel offered an unparrelled opportunity to study the Tyranids. With a false sense of security the Imperium decided that before they destroy the Tyranids they would try to study them in what they belived to be as controlable a situation you could have with such lifeforms. A force of Ultramarines and Salamanders lead by Tigurius, the only psyker to ever have touched the hive mind on a psyhic level and therefore the best person to lead a study on such matters, arrived at Thetis with a contingent from the Magos Biologis in order to undertake field studies. Whilst the allied Space Marine fleet retained orbit in the shadow of the planets moon to avoid detection the Magos Biologis staff travelled to the surface to begin their work.
The people of Thetis were kept in the dark that the Tyranids were even there, a deliberate deception by the Imperium who wanted to study the Tyranids in as natural a state as possible, which meant no reaction by the populace which would trigger the Tyranids into undue activity (such as chasing after fleeing prey). It is worth noting that Tigurius was against such matters, feeling that the best course of action was to evacuate as many as possible and then destroy every Tyranid organism on the planet.
Over the course of several days the research team on the planet did indeed gain valuable data and samples from which the Imperium would be able to generate new means of combating the Tyranids, however (in typical sci-fi / horror movie style) the scientists badly miscalculated how long the window of safe operation was. Too engrossed in their studies on particular areas of the Tyranid biology they failed to notice the larger picture.
With vast muscular contractions the hive ship spew forth thousands of tons of bio-matter into the atmosphere, a mix of spores, alien bacteria and mucas. On their scanners in the Magos Biologis research outpost it was as if a vast biological volcanoe had erupted. Unfortunately what goes up must come down and all too soon spore mines the size of Rhino APCs came crashing down over the planet for several hundred miles around the hive ship. It was at this point that communication to the planet was lost and Tigurius wasted no time in ordering the Space Marines into action. Upon arrival at the nearest landing site to the research post they found the area desolated by spore impacts, viscous fluids already begining to digest whatever life it came into contact with. It was only when finally on the ground that the Marines recieved short wave comm transmittion from a member of the research team. What was left of the team had taken refuge in the strongest building of the nearby town along with all the data they could salvage and a large group of civilians. But it was not just the bio-matter raining from the sky that had caused them to take hiding. In it's death throes the Hive ship birthed a vast horde of Tyranid creatures, from tiny rippers to massive carnifexes and larger, millions of organisms spewed forth and began to scour the planet in a vast wave of teeth and claws. It was imperative that the Imperium recover the data before it was lost in the advance of the Tyranids (as for the civilians, well... most 40K players are all too aware of the Imperium's take on collatoral damage). The Ultramarines and Salamanders began a rapid tranist to the survivors location, desperate to get there before the Tyranids.

Ok so that was the story. In game terms I wanted to represent a central objective, but also add an element of tension as to who would claim it (aside from the usual fighting over it). What I came up with was this: Provided you had any models on the main objective (the largest ruined building we had) you picked a random marker. This represented your side rescuing (or eating) survivors, but as battle is always hectic and panic and crossfire make things less than straightforward you would not know immediately if you had rescued the right person (ie: the person with the data). At the end of the game the players turn over their markers claimed in battle and the one with the 'marked' counter counts as claiming the objective. But depending on how the battle played out this may have meant no one claimed any markers, so there were two back up objectives on the table and we each had secret personal objectives. Driverbob25 had set himself the goal of killing all three of my Hive Tyrants, severing the synapse connection to my forces. I had chosen to kill Tigurius, although I didn't realise he had been scaled down (stat line-wise) since the last codex. I was hoping to have the pleasure of taking on Sicarius, but driverbob25 had not built him yet so I had to make do with Tigger .

Rather then write a complete turn for turn account I thought I'd just give a brief account and add some highlight pics. The battle was complete swings and roundabouts with each side gaining the upper hand in their own turn. The Marines took the stronger lead at the start having deployed scouts on the main objective (getting markers from the get go) and some heavy armour (as can be seen in the photos). However I deployed my first asset, blind barrage, which managed to save my forces from the worst of his shooting for a turn. Despite my best efforts I lost a barbed heirodule in turn 1 due to a lascannon devestator squad and the vindicator line breaker squadren. Things did not get much better for me when six dreadnaughts flank marched behind my lines on turn 2 (I believe some expletives were uttered at that stage). I managed to get my own back when my scythed heirodule flank marched the marines (yes we both took the same asset) and assaulted the baneblade tearing it apart it seconds. The rest of the game was less about trying to contest the main objective and rather about containing the enemy forces which were assaulting both of our rear lines (going for the two secondary objectives). I was able to try to limit the advance of the dreadnaughts by using the a new stratigem in Apocalypse Reload, which allowed me to bring the barbed heirodule back from the dead (the scythed one by the way died in the marine's third turn after the lascannon squad took revenge for the baneblade). The most notable moments of the remainder of the game included Tigurius going toe-to-toe with a broodlord, the scout squad holding their own in the central building despite frequant Tyranid assaults and coming under fire from their own side (note to driverbob25: demolisher cannons are not precision weapons ) and also a Hive Tyrant being run over by a landraider after foolishly deciding to 'death or glory' (hey it was a monstrous creature, I thought it'd easy stop the tank ).
By the time the game ended both secondary objectives were contested and we had both succeded in our secret objectives, it would all rest on who had picked the right marker. I had three and driverbob25 had five. Sadly for Hive Fleet Nocturne it was not to be as Bob turned over the 'marked' marker and stole victory 2-1. Still a great day was had by all and I'm looking forward to the next Apocalypse game (my Nids will have revenge!). FYI: for this game we decided to use the original Apocalypse rules, that everything was a scoring unit, unless specifically stated in the respective codex (eg: zoanthropes).
I hope you enjoy the pictures below and that they get across the feel of what a great game it was.

Great Report! Very easy to follow. Keep em coming!

Great Report! Very easy to follow. Keep em coming!

now thats a report
love it, well detailed, great pics and some great models.
everything seems to come together well in the report.
look forward to more in time


also, ive never thought about taking a heirodule in an army, seems like they are pretty good, how would you rate them?

Very nice battle report with some great humour and good pics, thanks!!

Damn, i was going for N/ids, oh well, more where that came from i guess.

Cheers

JD21290 wrote:
also, ive never thought about taking a heirodule in an army, seems like they are pretty good, how would you rate them?

Cheers for all the support everyone, was worried it might be a bit slap dash as by the time I'd finished posting it last night it was 1.30am! And on a school night too .
Driverbob25 has pics of other battles we had last week so I know he's going to post a battle report or two. I've got some pics of old battles so will have to get them up too.

In regards to your query JD, I think Heirodules can be hit or miss in terms of ability. They are super fast considering they move 12" basic, and depending on how much you use their shooting attacks they can either fleet 1 or 2D6", which equates to a tasty 30" move in one turn if they max the fleet rolls and assault. I'd recommend the barbed over the scythed though. It only has two less basic attacks but makes up for it with two bio-cannons, each getting 6 shots each!. The scythed has a nice bio-acid spray (hellstorm template), but I find the barbed still does more damage during a game.
In all honesty though they don't last long against most Apocalypse armies (especially when driverbob25 had over 23 lascannons in his army!!!!). They really rely on their high toughness and six wounds, but they only have an armour save of 3+. This is a personal bug-bear with me as they are huge and heavily armoured, so if a carnifex can get a 2+ save, why not them? Still they are great fun to use and always make the opponent panic, plus even if they die your foe will have used a lot of firepower which would otherwise have been aimed at other models.
I wouldn't say they are worth the £85-ish FW price tag (I only got them a couple of years ago with a redundancy payout from a previous job), but if you have cash to spare I would recommend them for a fun game and they are georgous models.

thanks alot for the quick reply
ive been using trygons recently and decided on trying out something new, and since my girl didnt want me spending a stupid amount, a bio titan is out of the question
ill pick up 2 and have a few test runs with them to see what i think, thanks again for that
just need to find someone who has used a harridan now and see what they think

thanks again and great report

JD21290 wrote:
since my girl didnt want me spending a stupid amount, a bio titan is out of the question

I know how you feel. Fortunately for me my wife has had enough putting up with my moaning and whinning, so I now have permission to buy a Heirophant bio-titan . However I have to save for it little by little each month, so wont be till just after Christmas that I'll get it. Still, it should be built and painted ready for my next annual trip to Doncaster to battle driverbob25 next year .

lol, sounds like fun
i may have to start up a small fund without the missus knowing, then say it was a gift or something.

i have the money sat in the bank now, but for some reason i cant spend it, its emergency use money apparently.
to be honest, she just doesent want me spending our money on a chunk of resin that will more than likely annoy me throughout building and painting lol

by the emperor what a fight this battle was?! In the end the game ended up with 2 big scraps being fought in opposite corners of the table? as we tried to turn the others flank and gain the upper hand. In the end my marines held on in both corners ( by the varnish on their mkVII armour ) and managed to contest both objectives. Special mention goes to the scouts in the main objective, staying there all game and earning me 5 valuble counters, but also ousting any nids that came near ( with help of the devvy lascannon tag team! ) and they also weathered a scattered turn of demolisher cannons from my linebreaker squadron when they were having a bad round with the dice! ( i believe the scout sargeant was heard to say, ' you silly vindicator gunners you' once or twice as bits of building vapourised around him? ) Pretty much every marine in my force that could walk upright carried a heavy weapon, but should have had sicarius in there, what a scrap that would have been? Special mention goes to the whirlwind suppression force, who over 5 turns of shooting managed to hit every time and do a good job of supporting their brother marines in the thick of the fighting? Promotion also goes to my powerfist armed veteran sergeant from 2nd company command grup to 1st company, for taking out my 3rd and final objective in the apocolypse game ( the Hive tyrant ) and in a later game, dropping a fex with it too? he is destined for great things!

all in all a great game and im already looking forward to the next encounter with hive fleet nocturne!..........

see below some added photo's of the game!

hahahaha great report loved the pic where you said with this number of hormogaunts 2 hands are not enough XD

wooo hoooo!! grest report loved the pictures you've taked. this battle was look so furiously hard fought. too bad the beneblade got clawed down at early part.

yeah it was too bad the banebalde got torn up on turn two, i got one good round of shooting with it though, blew a big hole in the centre of the nid wave coming at my marines, 'replacements' would have been a better choice stratagem rather than the orbital bombardment i think, as it would have allowed me to bring it back on again, still you live and learn? and your right sadetta131, it was a great game, plenty of tense moments, especially at the end when i got my personnal objective ( all 3 tyrants ) in the last round of combat on turn 5, and the landraider holding out to contest the other objective despite the attentions of a heirodule?

Excellent work gentlemen. Great pics, excellent commentary and a much easier to read and better report than the ones I read in White Dwarf. I look forward to your next report.

thanks for the comments folks! watch out for the next report getting posted over the weekend featuring the nids of hivefleet nocturne and the ultramarine/salamander streike force, this time at warhammer world fighting each others objective - a close and very tense battle was fought!.............

Nice pics of the battle! I feel like I can picture what happened in between

Great looking armies, too! And it looks like it was a good match

Brilliant report, the images of the Tyrant being squashed against the Landraider's windscreen were fantastic!

And I love the dice rolling technique - I finally know what pans were invented for!

Excretos wrote:Brilliant report, the images of the Tyrant being squashed against the Landraider's windscreen were fantastic!

And I love the dice rolling technique - I finally know what pans were invented for!

Thanks excretos! yeah it was turn 5 and i was in danger of losing that objective to the nids, and was racking my brains for something to do quickly, when i remembered that i could tank shock! so the landraider was put into top gear and charge! it was an all or nothing last dash to contest the objective and i hung on just! This scene and several others in the battle like it proved to be legendary moments, stuff me and wannabe will talk about for years i think?

and yes, the dice being rolled in the pan was very funny, and that was just the 'to wound' dice?

bob

That was one hell of a good report! Looked like a good game too

the next installment for our battle reports on the ultrmarines versus nids will be posted tomorrow ( monday afternoon gmt time) today has shot past me and its already bedtime ( up at 3am for work ) so ill get it onto the forum in a new thread for all you folk to look at, ive got the battle sorted roughly on paper and the photo's i want to use, i just need to type it up tomorrow! itl be in the same format as wannabe writer typed up the apocolypse game in, and itl also be a continuation of the story between the marines and hive fleet nocturne on the world of Thetis!

watch for the report tomorrow!....................

bob

I know it's been a while since anyone posted on this report, however in answer to the posts looking forward to more reports I can confirm that Hive Fleet Nocturne will be making the galactic voyage across the darkness of the void (Aberdeen to Doncaster ) to attack driverbob25's Ultramarines in November. So there will be a few battle reports posted then, at least one of which will be another Apocalypse report.
Thanks again for all the positive posts and I hope the next lot of reports entertains just as much.