Battle Sector Imperium Borealis
+++The Rains of Tanisaan+++
The Tyranids now make their presence known as alien spores and winged beasts darken the skies. Children’s ghost stories mixed with after action reports as the Tyranid menace began haranguing PDF outposts, and the creature known as the Tanisaan Deathleaper is credited with officer casualties across the planet, sometimes on multiple continents at once. Men considered AWOL were soon described in colorful imagery as having been devoured by the Deatheleaper.
Having escaped the Tyranid ambush, Commander Levin Bolkonsky and Commissar Yuri report back to Astra Militarum
HQ at Capua. In light of his recent success, Yuri’s execution is delayed pending further review. The Prostokvashino 14th is sent to protect the nearby Astronomican relay, where Tyranids recently having breached the outer defenses are believed to be headed. At high noon, the Tyranids blot out the sun. Today will come to be known as the shortest day.
A Tale of Two Priests
M41.372 Ferrusmanuary 18th
“Out of the way, fool! You stand in the way of my holy beast.” Techpriest Lars Volta spoke through his vox grille, and attempted to shoo a woman and her flowing robes out of the path of his Leman Russ. True it was undergoing refuel now, but as far as she knew she could be crushed at any second.
“I kneel before this tank to provide a benediction against the perfidious implements of the foul xeno.” The woman looked up, not at Lars but to the heavens, and did not move.
“I would accuse you of wasting your time, priestess, if there existed any practical use for your profession. Tulip here needs only a restock of ammunition before she is ready for battle.”
A long line of guardsmen on foot and horseback began marching down the rode behind the pair. The techpriest paid them no heed. Still the priestess knelt muttering before the tank. The enginseer would have to try a different tactic.
“Perhaps you can assist me, daughter of the Emperor. I seem to have misplaced my metric torsion wrench. Could you find a replacement in the regimental depot? It is not far.”
“I am not mindless like one of your poor servitors,” the priestess chided, rising to her feet at last. Lars had to suppress a sharp laugh as a cough. “Your kind only uses tools in the Gothic Imperial system.”
Emperor’s golden bidet, someone must have already pulled that one on her, Lars thought.
“Get ready to move out in ten minutes, priest.” A voice demanded from behind. Lars turned to see a well-dressed man on horseback looking down at him. Perhaps too well dressed. Behind him waited an impressive number of lackeys, one wearing the sash of the commissariat. Still, nobody talked to a member of the Mechanicus and got away with it.
“You fool, I am attached to the Prostokvashino 14th motor pool. I do not move for any mere Militarum officer!”
“Lieutenant Levin Bolkonsky, at your service. I command the 14th now. We believe the Tyranids are converging on our astronomicon relay in order to eliminate our communications with nearby fleets to prevent the arrival of timely reinforcements. We ride to defend the tower.”
“Impossible!” The techpriest engineer cried.
“Which part?”
“All of it.”
“Comrade Dorogov was killed in the bombardment of Capua this morning. I am the senior-most officer of the regiment in the city. The Tyranids appear to be aware of our ability to communicate to other planets using the astronomicon, and seek to destroy the control tower. Already our most gifted psykers can feel the shadow looming in the warp. And now you have nine minutes.”
“But–”
“Hello, Natalya. Good to see you again.” The count nodded to the priestess, who had risen to greet him.
“It is an honor to be serving alongside you again, Count Bolkonsky,” she said.
“Please, call me Levin.”
“I’d rather not.” The priestess grinned and flipped up her white hood, as though the noonday sun was not already eclipsed by the xenos. The techpriest smiled beneath his plasteel faceplate as the lieutenant frowned. He made a show of checking his chronometer before turning back to the Leman Russ battle tank. The column marched on, and Lars picked up on a bit of chatter between the reticent commissar and the commander.
“If you stopped harassing everyone in your regiment along the way, we would probably be at the tower by now,” the man in red said.
“It’s called establishing rapport,” Bolkonsky replied.
“Not the way you’re doing it,” the commissar replied.
“May I remind you that your fate is in my hands?”
“I am the only reason you live to command today, lieutenant, and I am still a functioning member of the commissariat.” Levin’s gaze dropped to Yuri’s bolt pistol, proudly polished and displayed at the waist of his red coat.
“It seems we have need of each other then, Yuri. Come, we have fortifications to oversee.”
“All men and women of the Imperium have need of each other this day,” Commissar Yuri said. “It is upon the shoulders of our brothers and on the hearts of our sisters upon which victory lies.”
“This is going to be a long day.” Levin sighed.
Mission 2: The Shortest Day
It’s going to be another tough mission primary-wise for the Tyranids, but if they can punch a hole through the line with a big enough swarm or beastie, that Astronomicon control tower is going the way of Babel. With that down, the prospects of Imperial reinforcement at Tanisaan will be slim, leaving the Nids to devour Capua and move on with their nefarious plot.
Each side gets 1000 points. The Guard is tasked with defending one tower and two minor supplies depots. The Tyranids want to eat them. Or pee on them. I don’t know I’m just supposed to stop them. The guard have a balanced list with a Demolisher Russ, two 20-man blobs of Kriegers, a lascannon and two mortar teams, rough riders, and the characters: command squad, commissar, priest(ess), and techpriest.
The Tyranids coming bringing the big beasts: 10 hormagaunts and 6 Zoanthropes are accompanied by a Maleceptor, Exocrine, Haruspex, and Neurotyrant. The Tanisaan Deathleaper leads the charge, and a Pyrovore secures the east flank (to the right in the images). He has the cloak of shadows ability which confers the stealth bonus in melee. Commissar Yuri has gained the ability to issue any Voice of Command order, rather than simply Fix Bayonets and Doody and Honor. Sorry, I meant Duty and Honor.
Primary Objectives
Guard: defend the Astronomicon relay.
Tyranids: destroy the Astronomicon relay by starting a turn with more OC within 2” of the tower. Turn 5 is tallied up at the end if Nids go seconds.
Secondary Objectives
Guard: defend the supply depots.
Tyranids: destroy the supply depots.
OC to determine whether Tyranids can destroy buildings is determined by adding up OC within 2” of the building outline.
The Prostokvashino Life Guard win the roll-off and elect to go first. There are not many targets but it beats getting shot at first.
Turn 1 Guard:
The rough riders gallop out to secure a forward position, and the orders to Take Cover ripple across the line. The demolisher “Tulip” roles out a bit to try to get a shot at something. Other units jockey around to get shots. The tank, heavy weapon teams, infantry all unload and do about 3 wounds to hormagaunts and take a wound off the BBQ bug. Oof.
Turn 1 Nids:
Nids surge forward across all fronts. Firepower is concentrated on Levin and Yuri’s Kriegstroyan blob, and they lose nearly 20 men. Deathleaper charges into the squad, and the hormagaunts try and fail. Deathleaper mortally wounds Yuri, and a Krieg medic drags him kicking and screaming off the battlefield.
Turn 2 Guard:
The Guard decide to hold the line here and actually push into the midboard to minimize Tyranid movement and assault gains. Levin’s squad falls back, leaving the Deathleaper high and dry. Tulip inches forward, and the rough riders sally forth to go into the Neurotyrant. Scions arrive, dropping onto the central relay tower, and along with Natalya and Lars’ infantry blob, get the Tanisaan Deathleaper in their sights. The Guard firepower continues to be in the dumps, as the Leman Russ and lascannon team does absolutely nothing. The Deathleaper is reduced to 2 wounds by infantry and scions. The horse’s melta lances bounce off the neurotyrant.
Turn 2 Nids:
The Exocine and Zoanthropes fire into the untouched Krieg squad and kill nearly half. More Zoanthropes fire into the Russ and do a couple of wounds. The Neurotyrant floats back, and the Haruspex slams into Tulip. The hormagaunts and Deathleaper leap into Levin’s dwindling squad. The Malecepter moves up and charges into the sentinel. Guardsmen are chewed up but the squad and Levin endure. The vehicles lose a few more wounds but remain standing. The Neurolictor appears and charges into the mortar team on the right flank. The rough riders are wiped out, but Reinforments are on the way at a cost of 2
CP! Look to the east on the dawning of the third day for their arrival!
Turn 3 Guard:
Things are bleak but the Guard just need to do a little damage and delay long enough. Techpriest Lars and Priestess Natalya are down to just them and a single Krieger. They move up to finish off Deathleaper. The Leman Russ fires point blank and misses most of it shots again, though it does manage to kill a Zoanthrope and do a few wounds to the Haruspex. The rough riders arrive again to save the right flank from the Neurolictor. The priests take a single wound off Deathleaper. Only one remains! We’ll have to get stuck in. In melee, Levin finishes off the hormagaunts but the good news ends there. Deathleaper kills Natalya and Lars before they could strike, despite them getting 4++ and 5+ saves. The scout sentinels dies to the Maleceptor, and the rough riders bounce off the single Neurolictor, failing to hit and wound with any of their five attacks (hitting on 2s, wounding on 3s). Alright this is getting a little ridiculous. But the Guard are still holding barely.
Turn 3 Nids:
The Maleceptor moves toward the tower after enjoying a snack of the sentinel pilot’s brain. The lascannon team overwatches and rolls max damage for a lascannon! We’ve got him down to half. The Haruspex is taken down to 2 wounds but manages to destroy the Leman Russ. The Nids move up and wipe out the scions and the rest of the Vostroykrieg. Deathleaper gets a bite out of Levin and claims his fourth
CP from killing Guard characters. The Guard are down to a few mortars, four horses with some idiots on the back of them, and twenty infantry coming in as more reinforcements.
Turn 4 Guard:
We’re down to just a few meager units, but the Tyranid frontline is down to just a few wounds. Let’s go get ‘em. The Vokriegans arrive on the back edge and fire into Deathleaper and the Malecepter. Deathleaper goes down and Maleceptor is down to… a single wound. The rough riders continue to hit Neurolictor with their nerf bats.
Turn 4 Nids:
The maleceptor moves up to devour the Kriegers and destroy the tower. Overwatch does nothing despite two flamers, two plasma, two meltaguns, and a regiment of lasguns fires into the gribbly. The zoans, exo, and mal wipe over half the infantry squad. In melee, the Maleceptor finishes them off. The rough riders actually manage to lance the lictor (licked her, feth-near melta’d her!)
Turn 5 Guard:
Tyranid firepower is sufficient to continue to kill any size unit every turn, and we’re out of
CP and men. The hail mary is to shoot the Maleceptors with rough rider lasguns, charge a unit of zoanthropes, and pray to the Emperor that the pyrovore and Haruspex fail to advance enough to get into control range of the tower, which can be destroyed end of turn 5 since Tyranids went second. Lasguns fail to wound and the charge is failed. Rough riders continue their legacy of doing absolutely nothing. At this point we call it because the Maleceptor destroys the tower at the end of Turn 5 without even having to move. Presumably, the rough riders are turned mad and then devoured. The single mortar retreats to warn the rest of the city, which is now already being devoured by Hivefleet Monstar. The Astronomicon relay crumbles to the ground as Tyranids swarm into Capua proper, and the city is devoured over the next three days. Nobody is coming to help Tanisaan now, or at least not until it won’t do any good.
If the Astra Militarum are to put up a more spirited defense, we’ll need to marshal some more high-quality anti-tank/monster shots. The lascannons and even the Russ are not dependent enough for multiple big monsters between 4+ ballistic skill and 4+ invul on the brain bugs. Melta has proven to be very unreliable. The Demolisher might have just had a bad day, but even so it’ll need a Take Aim order from a Tank commander to bring it up to par.
It's a dark day for the Imperium, but hey it’s seen a lot worse... and Brian and I both had a lot of fun. We'll catch you next time, where the isolated Tanisaan entity will reach out to the Hive Mind with an intriguing proposition.
Exocrines out 
down with exocrines!
