Me and TheL1st did a rematch of our game I detailed in my
last battle report, but it was such a thwomping massacre of the Tyranids that I decided not to post it. Instead, we did another game where I broke my old Crimson Fists out of storage for their first game in a while!
My list:
- Captain Delgado, with powerfist, artificer armor, auxiliary grenade launcher
- Command squad with apothecary, powerfist, and Champion Ook-Ook
- Librarian in Terminator armor with stormbolter, Vortex of Doom, Might of Ancients
- Tactical squad "Rico" with plasma gun, power fist, rocket launcher
- Tactical squad "Rodriguez" with power fist, plasma gun, rocket launcher
- Tactical squad with flamer, heavy bolter, power fist, in rhino
- Terminator squad with one extra dude, heavy flamer
- Thunderfire Cannon crewed by Techmarine Bob
- Dreadnought with assault cannon, fist
- Dreadnought with plasma cannon, fist
- Assault squad with 2x plasma pistol, fist
His list:
- Hive Tyrant with venom cannon, lash whip/bonesword, old adversary, bonded exoskeleton
- Tyranid Prime with lash whip/bonesword
- 5 Warriors with devourers, scything talons
- Trygon prime
- Brood of two Carnifexes with bioplasma, crushing claws, scything talons
- Brood of 16 Hormagaunts
- Zoanthrope
- Brood of 2 Hive Guard
- Deathleaper
- Brood of 12 Genestealers
We rolled up one of the Battle Missions - This one was First Contact. Basically, the defending player (me) has to place all their models on the table, with no reserves. You divide the map into 6 sectors and roll which sector each unit will arrive in. The Tyranid player then does the same, coming in from the table edges, but can hold things in reserve. An objective sits in the middle of each sector. I knew right from the start that this would be tough, since my army would be randomly strewn about. Fortunately, I rolled pretty well, and managed to pile almost everything into the middle of the map pretty comfortably. I combat squadded Tactical Squad Rodriguez into Combat Squad 1 (Santiago) and Combat Squad 2 (Rodriguez) - for those wondering, these are all the names of my sergeants!
Captain Delgado, reporting for duty. The local Imperial Guard regiment here on Bolo has lost contact, and it's up to my scouting party to find out what happened. Patrolling the area, we found ammo caches, teleport homers, and supplies from the regiment scattered around, but no trace of conflict. It's like the whole regiment vanished into thin air. Just then, squad Mendoza started reporting casualties. I heard our rhino explode and Tyranids were all around us! Ambush!
At deployment, the field looked like this:
The scenario has Tyranids get first turn with no chance for the defender to seize, so here we go!
TURN 1
Everything moves in towards my forces, and things get into the swing VERY quickly. The zoanthrope tries to lance one of my Terminators, and even after my psychic hood fails to stop him, it still misses. The Hive Tyrant shoots its venom cannon at sergeant Rico's boys, but misses. He casts paroxysm on them, but rolls snake eyes and takes a wound too. Just then, the Warriors drop three of Rico's squadmates. The Carnifexes spew bioplasma at my assault cannon dreadnought, but miss. The Hive Guard wreck my rhino, and Rico's morale fails, causing a fallback.
Bugs Mr. Rico! Zillions of em'!
Not one to take the boring way out, the Tyrant charges Rico's boys. The assault sees 5 more Marines go down, but Rico gets one good punch in for good measure before running away again. The Trygon charges my assault Marines, also killing five, also taking one wound, and also seeing my men fly away in fear. The Carnifexes wreck my assault cannon dreadnought. Finally, the gaunts assault my Terminators, but fail to crack their armor. I get 6 kills back, and 5 no retreat wounds afterward. The end of the phase looked something like this:
Well that was brutal. Turn 1 and three of my units are effectively out of the game, and my Thunderfire has no good targets. This doesn't look good. The turn starts with my assault squad being 6" from the Trygon and falling back off the table. Rico, however, is far enough away from the Tyrant that he and his plasma gunner regroup. I need to get my command squad and combat squad in assault with those Warriors; the command squad with captain Delgado has Feel no Pain, and the Warriors are pretty much the only things in the Tyranid army that won't ignore that. Powerfists will also pulp those Warriors like nobody's business. My formerly Rhino-borne
tac squad moves up into the temple and shoot the Tyrant, but his armor saves him. Santiago's rocket launcher/plasma gun combat squad shoots the fexes, causing only a single wound. Rico's plasma gunner exacts vengeance on the Tyrant, causing a wound. Command fires their bolt pistols at the Warriors, causing two wounds. I shoot Delgado's grenade launcher and miss. I roll for difficult terrain and roll a pair of twos, leaving my men stranded out in the open!
The ground is rough, no doubt some kind of Tyranid terraforming process. Parasites the size of a man's skull scuttle across the ground and I contemptuously crush one under my boot.
I jumped the gun and took this picture before we finished the assault phase, but it ends with the Terminators finishing off the gaunts and forming into a blocking formation to keep the Fexes away from my dread and command squad. The surviving dreadnought also attacks the zoanthrope, but its invulnerable saves it. End of phase looked like this:
TURN 2
He rolls regenerate rolls, and his fex, trygon, and Tyrant all regenerate a wound each! Fortunately, none of his reserves come in. The fexes pass instinctive behavior and move towards the terminators. Massed fire sees one of my command squad Marines shot down by the Warriors, and the Hive Guard kill one of my Marines in the temple. The Trygon follows up by shooting down two of my Terminators. The fexes shoot their bioplasma, killing one of my Terminators and scattering onto the Trygon, causing a wound on him too! My Terminators opt to fall back (sparing me the same of failing a third morale test this game!) and get out of range of the Trygon. The fexes charge them anyway, killing the librarian and all but one Terminator, who runs away anyway. The Zoanthrope passes his single save again, and the Tyrant cuts down four of my Marines in the temple. I make no wounds back, but pass my first morale test! Finally, the Warriors roll to assault Delgado and his command squad, but also come up short!
End of the turn looked like this:
The target of our charge prepared a counter charge, but stopped in their tracks I could see it in their alien eyes: fear! It's only right that xeno scum would fear the visage of a Space Marine captain! With me, Marines! To victory!
My turn starts with my Terminator running off the table, as he's near the zoanthrope. Three failed morale tests this game, and two of my units have fallen back off the table. And They Shall Know No Fear indeed. Combat squad Santiago's plasma gun overheats twice and fails armor twice. Welp. Their rocket launcher finishes off one of the Carnifexes. Combined shooting from combat squad Rodriguez, Rico, and my command squad kill a Warrior and cause two wounds to the squad. My grenade launcher misses again. Thunderfire whiifs at the Carnifexes or something. Finally, there is a glorious charge as squads Delgado and Rodriguez get stuck in! When the dust settles, Delgado's command squad is dead, but the combat squad and the good captain himself are intact. Powerfists end up wiping the Warriors, leaving only the Prime, who fails two saves on no retreat wounds. The melee continues! Elsewhere, the Tyrant kills three Marines, leaving only the sergeant, who causes a wound. He fails morale, but passes all three no retreat wounds as he's pursued!
Back to back, sergeant Rodriguez and I punched those Tyranids. We punched them good until there was nothing left but blood, bone, and the stench of death.
End of the phase looked like this:
TURN 3
Tyranid reserves arrive, with the Deathleaper showing up under the Thunderfire and the Genestealers coming in next to sergeant Rico. The Hive Guard kill Santiago's rocket launcher, and the Trygon drops Santiago and his two surviving Marines. The assault phase starts with the Carnifex bailing out the zoanthrope, who passes his save against my Dreadnought again. My dread gets wrecked. The Tyrant finishes off the badass sergeant, and the Genestealers make a puree out of Rico and his plasma gunner. The phase ends with Delgado killing the Prime, but only after he kills two tactical Marines. I got excited and forgot to take a picture.
As I pulled my crackling fist from the caved-in face of my alien foe, I looked around me. I heard the dying cry of the last Marine holding the temple, and saw our remaining dreadnought torn to pieces on the horizon. It was down to just myself, sergeant Rodriguez, and two of his initiates. "With me, brothers! We make our stand at the temple!"
My turn saw my four Marines move up to the temple, and my Thunderfire shot the Genestealers - I ended up getting 20 wounds, which was more than enough to wipe the Stealers off the face of the map! I kind of forgot I had the Thunderfire this game, since it had done nothing so far, but it just earned back its points! Finally, my captain charged up the hill at the Tyrant, ready to avenge the deaths of his men.
My men surrounded the beast, peppering it with close range bolter fire. A swing of its massive claws knocked me back; my visor readout letting me know that I was bleeding. Rodriguez hamstrung the monster, and, taking advantage of the situation, I pulped its horriffic skull with my power fist, Deathpunch.
I charged in, and my captain took one wound after passing two for three invuln saves. Swinging back with my powerfists crushing the Tyrant, and my men holding up on the temple. End of the turn looks like this:
TURN 4
The Zoanthrope tries to lance my dudes, but rolls perils, making its rerollable invulnerable save. The Hive Guard shoots my squad on the temple, downing one Marine and my sergeant; I didn't want to risk instant death on my captain. The Deathleaper assaults techmarine Bob, getting a rend and killing him. Finally, the Trygon charges:
The assault sees my captain taking one more wound, and him punching the Trygon twice for two wounds. End of phase looked like this:
Obviously my turn is pretty short. The Trygon takes out my captain, and my lone Marine fails his single no retreat wound, giving the Tyranids a wipe!
I swing Deathpunch at the monster in front of me over and over until it knocks me back with a swing of its tail. The guns of the Thunderfire cannon suddenly fall silent as I watch my last squadmate call in for emergency extraction before getting ripped in half by the monstrosity before me. I awoke days later in the medicae of my battle barge, backed by the few Marines who were able to escape the massacre on Bolo.
That game was positively brutal. I think my Guard would have done better in that mission since I could at least put chaff units in front of my good stuff, but with my Marines there's really not enough room for expendable units. I don't know what I would have really done differently from a tactical standpoint, since that mission has Tyranids in your face on turn 1. It's not like I could have bunched my units together much better, and even then I can't control exactly where they show up. Also, forcing my Terminators and Librarian onto the table doesn't help. My opponent had his bugs show up pretty much exactly where he wanted em. Really, neither of us were playing for objectives that game; it was pretty much me trying to either survive or pull off some cool moments like Delgado's charge at the temple while he tried to kill everything in sight. Personally I was happy to lose; it was cool being the on the receiving end for once, since in the two years since I've been playing with TheL1st this is only the third time he's beat me! Next week I think the Crimson Fists will want retirbution, and this time they'll bring Terminators.
Lots of Terminators...
And if you're drinkin' well, you know that you're my friend and I say "I think I'll have myself a beer" 
Your end has come. The sight of us will be your last. We are Wrath. We are Vengeance. We are the Rainbow Warrioirs."