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This is a narrative battle report of a modified Meat Grinder mission. 4k points on each side forced us to remove tactical restraint. This meant we both got back unlimited numbers of command points. This was far better for the cults at the end of the day as I got refunded or stole close to 40"ish" command points. We also had to change the one model means victory rule. So the Defender (Ultramarines) set up the battle field and 3 objectives. The supply depot, The Main Gate, and the power Plant. We also had slay the warlord as a bonus objective.

**PLACE HOLDER FOR ARMY LISTS**

TURN 0
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The last two patriarchs of Tarran III survey the Ultramarines last stand. Transport ships full of refugees and wounded Ultramarines buzz away behind their lines at the last castle. Gulliman stands with a gaggle of advisers on the center of the strong hold. Captains and lieutenants litter the ranks of marines. Tyrannic War Veterans called upon to fight the tyranid cult hold the power plant. A pittance of Marine bikers form up in front preparing to counter-strike. A land raider and several squads of space marines hold the depot.

There Will be Blood.
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Guilliman stands with his retinue of heroes on the gates to the evacuation zone. Too many marine casualties have already been recorded for this rock. "The bombing runs were successful, no signs of the Cult remain in this sector of the planet" the Governor beams a smile then a sniper round cuts him in half.

The empty wasteland in front of them is a lie.

"I see them" The vindicare assassin readies his rifle as his optics pick up movement in the building across no mans land.

Then the sky rained fire. Battery after battery of stolen artillery hammer into the marines lines. Some marines die but most of their armor holds.

The smoke clears from the scouts tower. The Vindicare took a massive direct hit. Clearly bloodied an wounded the vindicare dusts him self off and picks his rifle back up and aims down the sight. Two shrieking rounds from Sanctus Silencer Sniper Rifles hit the Vindicare and bounce off his armor. He turns to the scouts and says "See, the emperor protec-" as a third round goes right through his head and he slumps to the floor.

"Contact 5 units!" a Marine holding an auspex scanner shouts over the vox net.

"Contact 12 units!" another bellows.

"Contact 30 units!" shouts another.

"It must be the guardsmen retreating from the front"

"Contact 43 units!"

Guilliman looks across the wastes and sees dozens of bikers revving their engines and traitorous guardsmen forming ranks. Mining vehicles trucking to the front. An Abdominant lumbering forward with a dozen other Cult heroes scattered in the ranks . Two Patriarchs of different creeds command the army before him. His mind feels a silent buzz whenever he stares at them. Three magi lead scores of mind controlled guardsmen to the slaughter. The Auspex scanners are now covered in blips. Many blips even appearing to be behind the defensive lines.

"Open Fire upon this infestation, Ultramarines."

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TURN 1 COMING SOON

Unfortunately all but one of the photos I took of turn 1 were corrupted for some reason. The photo is post charge phase turn1 for the cult.

Turn 1 Ultramarines:

In summation for Ultramarines... they didnt move, they cast a single spell and then moved into the shooting phase.

The Ultramarines unloaded an INSANE amount of bolter fire into the horde of cult bikers and guardsmen mind-slaves. Metric tonnes of lead and steel were thrown at the Tyranid Cultists. Most of the Bikers in the center squad were destroyed despite -1 to hit and 3+ armor saves(thanks to prepared positions and the rusted claw creed). It turns out centurions and 4 thousand points of re rolling everything ultra marines are really good at shooting stuff.

In the charge Phase, they reloaded.

The Genestealer Cult remained fearless to the casualties knowing their patriarchs were beside them in battle.


Turn 1 GSC

Pre-turn. Destroyed units either went into cult ambush or appeared on my edge in the building. I rolled so many 1s to get reinforcements this turn.

Movement: The Cult Advanced. Every member of infantry ran up the board. The Rusted Claw Abdominant jumped on to the back of the untouched Rockgrinder and then rode it to the Space Marine front lines.
The surviving bikers charged up the field and began to ready their demolition charges.
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The ultra marines watch as the smoke from their expert bolter fire wisps away. The engines of the bikers before them never stop. The undeterred horde charges across the battlefield.

"Sir, the Auspex scanners." The Captain looked down and saw several blips behind the defensive lines.

"Open FIRE at anything!!!"

A score of Aberrants wielding power picks and mighty power hammers erupt from the ground. Out of the Tunnel the Bearer of the Heralds of Oblivion Iconoward, a Clamavus, a Primus a pair of biophagi and Two Abdominants Take to the field. One abdominant leads the anointed throng with the Mark of the Clawed Omnisiah he is designation Broodhammer.

The Marines open fire and kill about half of the aberrants with auspex scan fire.
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Game note here, because tactical restraint was lifted we could use the same stratagem on different units. In this case he spent 14 command points to auspex scan seven units to shoot the abberants. He got 3 command points back, and because I had a nexos a clamavus and a primus on the field I was able to get 11 of his 14 points. The resource swing was unreal.

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The magi in the middle of the horde activated their spells and weaved mass hypnosis effects on the land raider and the front line, then might from beyond was thrown on to aberrants and they coursed with the rage of the hivemind.

In the shooting phase sniper shots rang out killing flag bearing characters. Meanwhile, the bikers tossed out an ungodly amount of demolitions charges into the front lines. the equivalent of 7 and a half Leman Russ battle tanks worth of explosions ripped most of the defensive line from the depot apart. Flamers from the trucks made quick work of some of the remaining marines.

With a bestial roar and the pride of the annointed throng Broodhammer and his aberrant army crashed into the front line. The rock grinder slammed into the remnants of a squad and the Captain and lieutenant heroically intervened in an attempt to hold the flank. After the haze created by smoke from the demolitions charges finally lifted the cult owned the Depot flank. With only a few marines left and some creative piling in, the cult locked down the land raider and the entire depot flank from shooting at max volume.

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The marines spent a lot of command points this turn. I stole almost all of them and he got very few of them back.

After all was said and done the Depot flank was in pretty rough shape, but on of the kellermorphs who snuck into the castle was killed by Guilliman in an auspex scan and the other was able to kill the Flag barer.

The ultra marines still had a hold on the power station and the main gate.

TURN 2 COMING SOON!

Paint it all up and that wil look the absolute nuts

TURN 2

The marines disengaged from melee with the ravenous cult members. On the Depot flank the ultramarines used their codex training to fire after disengaging. With their courageous primarch commanding them the marines fought back hard.

The biker captain and his riders rode to meet the rusted claw command structure heading toward the power plant. Guilliman turned to the Kellermorph and unleashed hell from his bolter glove. The Kellermorph laughed as he died, "take my love...take my....lan...."
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Turn 2 shooting destroyed the remaining Rock grinders and scores of mind controlled guardsmen.

The Marine bikers fired on the remaining jackals but failed to kill them all.

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TURN 2 GSC

I rolled crazy well on my reinforcment rolls. This lead to me throwing my 2 dead kellermoprhs, both rock grinders i got back and a squad of guardsmen to take the Power station flank. I was able to do this because of the generous amount of command points I stole from the Marine player. I got back 8 of the 12 command points i spent sending in flankers.

I also deep stuck a unit of rock saws i got back near the bikers.
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The cult charged forward again, the brood brothers advancing into the bolter fire fearlessly.

Kellermorphs and Hybrid monsters arrived in the power plant to deliver swift vengeance to the tyrannic war veterans. two more mining vehicles erupted from the ground and charged the veterans on the ground. Confused guardsmen ended up on the wrong side of barbed wire and were forced to look up how barbed wire worked.

Once again the cult snipers picked off Marine heroes daring enough to wear officer helmets and regalia.

The Cult unleashed their psychic might and smote biker after biker softening up the resistance for a charge. The magus drew upon her familiar to hypnotize the centurions. while a lone surviving wolf quad rode up the ramp to deliver his message "The monsters are coming for you Guilliman!" then he charged into the Centurions and was torn to pieces.

On the depot flank the rusted claw Abdominant and his hybrids crawled from the wreckage of their Rockgrinder. "you blew up my ride pedro.... im taking this land raider for parts!" then he charged into everything with a pulse or a machine spirit and with his amulet of the voidwyrm dashed their hopes of firing at the on coming horde of aberrant and their mighty commander Broodhammer.

Broodhammer charged into combat to assist his Adbominant brother.

After power hammers and rock saws ripped the landraider and the flag baring lieutenant to shreds Broodhammer tore apart a few marines with his claws. His hammer is only meant for Captains and primarchs.

In the middle of the field the Rusted Claw primarch, locus, magus and troops charged into the bikers. Only the biker captain remained after the Horrific onslaught of monstrous rending claws and rock saws eviscerated the bikers.
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The marines fought hard but their Depot Flank was almost completely collapsed and the power station was now in peril. Will the marines survive another turn? A noose tightens around the Ultramarines.

TURN 3

MARINES TURN 3

At Guillimans direction the Ultramarines fall out of combat and fire upon the depleting forces of the Cult. The Centurions are suffering from the vision of madness the mass hypnosis has wrought upon their minds. They focus down the the guardsmen and a few hybrid monsters wielding rocksaws.

Pedro Kantor continues to be a truck destroyer and blows up the two trucks flanking from the power station edge.

The power station is a gore fest. Too cramped to escape close combat the Marines resort to pistol fire. Shooting a few monsters down finally clearing them in close combat.

But just as the Marines retake the power station foothold bright green eyes glow in the darkness.

The Captain holding the the Depot took a Abdominant hammer to the chest slamming into a container as his armor concaved and the light from is rosarious faded.

"Heh, the emperor protects.." the two faced horror chuckled to itself as it turned to aid Broodhammer in tearing the marines limb from limb.

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I rolled sustained assault rolls and literally got every part of my army back. I used the flanking stratagem with a bunch and got about half my command points back. This meant Guilliman had about 4 command points left and i had 9.
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Guilliman looked at the flashing auspex scanner in a dead brothers hand. 20 more flashes, 30 more, all directions.

The Roar of another horde of bikers from the Depot side followed by the charging of mind-slave guardsmen and more rock grinders from across the field. The Patriarchs moved through their forces and prepared to pounce on the castle.

The bikers threw demolition charges and full flamers into the squad holding the gas station and wiped them all out.

The kellermorph known only as "Snake" took out a few more primaris marines under the bridge. removing the last wall in front of the centurions.

The Kellermorphs at the power station took out more of the scouts and marines up top while a fresh squad of hammer aberrants charged from the darkness into the tyrannic war vets and scouts. They were joined by a squad of acolytes with flamers and rocksaws.

Near the Depot. Broodhammer the other abdominant and every surviving cultist and mind-slaved guardsman charged into the marines on the ground. locking them in combat once again. Broodhammer stood on some crate swinging his hammer wildly and zeroing in on his target, Guilliman.