The bugs are running lose again? It's like I always say: never send a marine, to do a Primaris marine's job...
Battle time once again! I, Stylus, will be supersizing my portion of Astartes, and taking the Primaris Marines out for a field-test. Kindly (and unwittingly) loaned to me by Kasfunatu - but don't worry, we'll wipe down the fingerprints and re-fill the bolter rounds, and he'll be none the wiser.
Challenged by this rare display of alpha humanity strutting about, I, Kraken, shall unleash a tide of unstoppable monstrosities to poison the very sky with horror. Or my usual selection of Tyranids, at any rate, undeterred by all the whining that the internet is doing about the post-FAQ changes.
My record with space marines is played two / lost two, but now I have these extra extra-augmented warriors at my disposal, how can I go wrong?
Force structure is limited to what is available, but my strategy is very much along the lines of 'kid in a candy store'. I take a whole swathe of characters, enough Intercessor squads to fill out a Battalion Detachment, and then some glorious heavies in the form of a Redemptor Dreadnought and a massive Hellblaster squad.
The only shortfall is that I would have liked more Inceptors, but I guess you have to draw the line somewhere. I did have enough to divide my command into a Vanguard Detachment, so with the new FAQ command points allowance, plus the warlord trait refunding them, I should be swimming in command points!
... so it's a bit of a rude awakening to discover that, due to the unit-specific nature of the Space Marine stratagems, there's only six I can use (and only about half that I'd want to). Ah well, guess re-rolling dice isn't going to be a concern.
So midway through picking out my list, the big 40K FAQ struck after the recent Adepticon tournament. With it came the unwelcome news that my Flyrant was now going to cost me more points, as well as changes to the rules to stop me flooding my opponent's drop zone with deep strikes in the first turn.
All good changes, though! I think, anyway, all the new stuff seems determined to curb the worst instincts of tournament players and make the game (slightly) more balanced and fun. I decided to stick to my original plans, at any rate, and see if I could adapt on the fly(rant).
This is a Hive Fleet Gorgon list, that being the Afanc alternative of the day. A very adaptive Tyrant, who ought to be a bugger to shift if he can survive a first hit, and a selection of spore mines and transports to help him drop down in turn two. Otherwise, the army hits even harder in close combat, rerolling all ones to wound in the fight phase to represent their lethal poisons.
The army is carefully following the rules of how much has to be on the table at the start. The rank and file is a big pack of bubblewrap in the form of Termagants, some average Joe Warriors and a huge alpha strike of Genestealers, tooled up with full toxin sacs. Two Neurothropes to provide synapse and psychic support, and that's the troops dealt with.
Marines have good armour, which Tyranids aren't great against, so I've got a few venom cannons here and there to help. Mostly on the Tyrannocyte, actually, which is a poor shooter, but makes up for it with volume of fire at least.
Finally, the big gun - a Tyrannofex with acid spray. He'll be dropping down in the Tyrannocyte, where his nasty gun ought to make a mess of anything in range.
Overall, the plan is to have the troops on table to start, romp them forward into the enemy guns and hope enough survive that when the drop troops arrive on turn two, they can soak enough firepower for the remnants of the troopers to clean up. Claws crossed!
Icy swamps! Who'd have guessed? Plus a bit of jungly research station in the middle, just for fun. This 6x3 battlefield is short on account of my kitchen not quite having space for a 6x4 table, so our deployment zones will be shrunk back by 6" towards the edges to balance it out.
The buildings are staggered down the field to give line of sight blocking, and there's plenty of ruins and woods/swamps at the edges. Staying mobile and using the cover is going to pay off, as we've both got enough firepower to put the hurt on each other.
Randomly rolling a mission gives us the Cloak and Shadows from Maelstrom of War. Darkness shrouds the field. That's nice - there's a penalty to hit over 18", but most of my guns are closer ranged than that and I'll want to be running forward anyway, so this is mostly a pain for Stylus. Our objective cards are also kept secret, so it's a bit harder to block your opponent over specific objectives when you don't know what they're after.
I win the roll-off for picking deployment and go with Vanguard Strike, so we're facing off diagonally. My plan is to feint left with the packs of troops, then send the Genestealers off round the other way (behind the big rock to hide) and then meet in the middle of the enemy lines around turn three. The Flyrant, Tyrannocyte plus Tyrannofex and spore mines of all sizes take to the air, and won't be about until turn two at the earliest, so I'm going to have to pray everything can survive long enough.
I'm somewhat torn in my deployment: I really want my Hellblasters to have a commanding view, but the likeliest spot for this is the low bunker, which is a bit too close to the edge of my deployment zone for comfort. I decide to chance it, planting the Hellblaster squad on the roof, accompanied by a General Committee Meeting of Captain, Lieutenant, Librarian, Ancient and Apothecary.
The Dreadnaught anchors one end of the bunker (to also benefit from the re-roll bubble) and the Intercessor squads string out along the line - I'm thinking I'll need to push them forward to keep the xenos tide away from my castle.
The Inceptors go into orbit, and the poor lone Lieutenant gets the thankless task of sitting on the backfield and ensuring nothing can get into deepstrike range.
That gives us a final deployment looking more or less like this:
Objective Draw - Take and Hold 6, Defend 3, Scour the Skies
I've got the first turn, so I get straight to work rushing everything into cover as quickly as I can. Alas, my big units are not very easy to fit into cover. The Termagants just don't all fit in the handy nearby wood, and are even poking out of the sides of the building I attempt to hug, but hopefully there's enough going on elsewhere that they won't be a priority.
The Genestealers go to ground behind the castle, as planned, and the Tyranid Warriors... well, they end up in the middle of the field, waving a cheery hello to the assorted plasma guns of the Ultramarines. Eep. This means they get Catalyst to keep them going, and I'd better hope the dice gods are kind.
Otherwise, it's a quiet turn. Everyone's advanced, and I don't have much in range, so the limiting shooting I do manages to scratch a single wound off the Dreadnought.
Finally, I realise to my annoyance that I've forgotten about my objectives! Number 6 is in my deployment zone and would have been easy money, but I've run off and left it behind. Knowing I'm not going back for it, I discard it at the end of my turn. No points so far!
And then it's shooting time! All the big stuff is off the table, so it's the Tyranid Warriors who get the short straw. I use a scenario-specific stratagem to light them up with Flares (and then refund the command point immediately), then open up with my Redemptor Dreadnought...
... who has the most desperately disappointing round of shooting. Despite unloading everything on the Warriors, and being in re-roll range of the characters, he fails to remove even one Tyranid (about half my dice rolls were 2s, it was uncanny). I throw the small arms of one Intercessor Squad and the characters to plink off one pesky remaining wound, so that when my Hellblasters unleash with supercharged guns, not a wound will be wasted...
To be fair, the Hellblasters did a bit better (almost average in fact), and land eight wounds that Catalyst fails to save, so that's another two Warriors gone (I also lose one of my squad to Overcharge, but the Apothecary is reading his syringe to revive him next turn).
The rest of the small arms fire guns down a handful of Termagants, and that's the end of a very lacklustre turn. My entire gunline couldn't even remove a unit of Tyranid Warriors, and that's before the big beasts have even landed. I discard Blood and Guts in the hope of something more useful.
Objective Draw - Kingslayer
Drop time.
The small but gentle advance of the enemy gunline has left a tiny hole inside his deployment zone. It's big enough for a single drop, and it's a tough choice. Maybe a pack of distracting spore mines? The Tyrannocyte could fit in, but not the Tyrannofex at the same time, so he plops down in the middle of the field. The Tyrant grits its teeth and swoops into the backline gap, although I'm reluctant, as he's a bit on his own out there and there's a lot of guns in the vicinity.
Sure enough, some of them swing round to cover his appearance...
Haha! I interrupt events with the Auspex Scan stratagem! (for which I once again refund the command points - I've yet to spend one yet). My entire squad of Helllblasters open up on the Hive Tyrant with Overcharged Plasma Incinerators (losing two in the process) and causing a horrendous amounts of wounds on him. Tragically, I fall one short of a Warlord kill (even after a CP re-roll), so the big beastie is left in my back lines, charred but still alive.
... yow. That was lucky, in fact, it could easily have finished me off. As it is, I pop the Rapid Regeneration stratagem off and grow a couple of wounds back, but just four left leaves me with a steep hill to climb if I'm to earn his points back.
The rest of the troops rush forwards. Shooting suddenly ramps up in damage - the Tyrannofex and 'Cyte between them hammer the Dreadnought down to a couple of wounds, and the forerunners of my Termagant swarm start plinking off Intercessors. After psychic power damage (Catalyst on the Warriors, Horror on the Intercessors next to them) the lone Lieutenant at the back gets flattened by the Tyrant's Miasma Cannon, but there's still a hell of a lot of Marines up on that roof.
Nothing for it but a long bomb charge, and giant chicken that I am, I pick the weakest option available and charge the Apothecary. It's a long shot, needing an 11, so I may as well try against the least powerful shooter I can reach. Overwatch obviously proves ineffectual, so it's down to the roll.
And it's a good 'un! I need to reroll with command points, but that turns a crucial 1 to a 6, and I'm in. But I'm not out of the woods yet. Because elsewhere, the Tyranid Warriors charge the Intercessor squad in front of them, and as there's just two of them left, I resolve their fight first. It goes well, hacking down a pair of marines, but Stylus spends some of his regenerating CPs to counterpunch the Tyrant before it gets going.
Unexpectedly, it's the Hellblasters! They're close enough for almost the whole squad to pile in, and I'm suddenly a bit worried. It won't take much plinking for my battered to go down.
In the event, though, it's a fizzle. The poor gunboys don't have the strength they need against the adaptively tougher monster, who survives without a scratch and then pulls the head off the Apothecary. Although I lose another Tyranid Warrior to determined gun butts, there I am, scoring First Blood and nice and safe in combat!
Objectives Scored - First Blood (1)
Objective Draw - Area Denial
Okay... so I've got a Flyrant in my castle and my Dreadnought is near-finished. And now the objective cards start taking the Micky by telling me to clear the centre of Tyranids. I immediately spend two Command Points (reclaiming one of them) to ditch that objective and draw a fresh one.
New Objective Draw - Psychological Warfare
Get the unbreakable Tyranids to fail a Morale test. Much better.
Off to work then, and salvage what I can from this. I pull back the Hellblasters from combat, shuffle my characters so that the Captain has a clear charge route to the Hive Tyrant (he's feeling optimistic), hold my Inceptors in the skies for one more turn (I still have Objective 2, twice over, and maybe the landing zone will have sufficiently cleared by then).
Everyone else just edges back, maximising the distance, but still keeping in rapid-fire range (this is real Starship Troopers stuff). Including the Intercessors backing away from the final Tyranid Warrior.
The Psychic Phase is a bust, thanks to Shadow in the Warp. Neither Might of Heroes, nor Smite got off, so there's no help there against the Tyrant. It all comes down to shooting, and fortunately for Ultramarines, they can break combat and still shoot.
I start off with the Dreadnought's last huzzah, unloading everything but the Icarus Pod (reserved for the Tyrant, to no effect) at the Tyrannofex. Despite being down to his last bracket, it's actually more effective that his previous huzzah, and chops down a goodly number of wounds from the creature.
I then decide to finish it with the Hellblasters - rather than choosing to rapid-fire into the looming Hive Tyrant. I overcharge once again - risky, as falling back gives me a hit penalty, and thereby doubles my risk of overcharging - but I need to overcome his Toughness of 8. The Plasma Incinerators do their work once more, knocking the Tyrannofex down to almost his last wound, but not quite, which seems to be the story of my battle.
All the characters' small arms fire patter off the Hive Tyrant (wish I'd had the presence of mind to use Krak Grenades) and the Intercesssors once again target the Termagants. It is quite refreshing to do so, as they're pretty easy for my Bolt Rifles to kill, but there are a lot more critters on the table, and I don't feel I'm making much progress.
Maybe redemption will come in the Assault Phase - my Captain takes on a lone charge into the Hive Tyrant. I hadn't quite realised how deadly his auto-hit Heavy Venom Cannon is, and have to spend a Command Point for my Santic Halo invulnerable save to keep him alive.
It's only in the combat phase that I realise how ineffectual the Captain actually is (in my defence, I forgot that I failed to cast Might of Heroes on him). Even with the re-rolls to hit and wound, his feeble Power Sword only gets one wound on the Hive Tyrant - once again knocking him down to his lowest bracket. In return, the Captain takes three wounds from a single hit, and has to use another Command Point re-roll (ominously I'm no longer reclaiming them with as much success) to get his Santic Halo to save him.
It's possible I've bitten off more than I could chew here.
Objective Draw - nothing new
Funny - although I've still got vast clutches of troops still on the field, I feel like I'm clinging on for dear life. I was extremely lucky to survive all that shooting with the big monsters still intact, so it's bonus points to them. My expectation was to be relying on the Genestealers and Termagants by now. Well, keep on hitting!
The Tyrant drops back, deciding to shoot and psyche his way past the Captain rather than risk being punched down. As before, the rest of the army skitters forwards, getting ever closer, apart from the Tyrannofex who hangs back to maximise fire.
The Neurothrope on the south side is in range for smiting, and starts picking holes in the nearby Intercessor units, then slaps Catalyst on the Hive Tyrant, who I also repeat the Regeneration strategy with. Again, he's got four left, just enough to last another turn, I hope. Smiting chomps two wounds off the Captain too, and I'm also throwing The Horror around for good measure.
Shooting sees the Dreadnought brought low by the Tyrannocyte's venom cannons. The Tyrannofex, who was planning on finishing that particular slinging match, has more than enough acid to obliterate the nearby Intercessor squad handily, which means the last Warrior can go and sit on objective three. If he's still there at the end of next turn, that's some points for me.
My Devourer pack is closing the range nicely, and manages to finish off their nearest opposites in a hail of exploding larvae.
I also manage to finish off the Captain with my Miasma Cannon. But he's close enough that Stylus fires him up with a stratagem to let him fight a full round of bonus combat before dying! Thank goodness the dice are definitely on my side tonight - not a one of his full five hits connects, and I'm still breathing.
Apparently Duty does end with Death. That's two Command Points I won't be seeing again.
The Tyrant weighs up his options, then I decide I'm feeling cocky and charge the Hellblasters. A storm of overcharged plasma meets me and fails to connect, but here's an annoyance - even though two of the gunners blow themselves up, the nearby Ancient waves his flag around to make them shoot a second time as they die! And at full BS, too! Amazingly, I still manage to shrug off all bar a single wound, and then I'm running around inside the squad, eating Marines and gurgling happily.
Five overcharged Plasma incinerator hits got through and he shrugged them all off. I'm not getting a good feeling about this.
Until all three nearby heroes pile in, anyway, then I'm feeling a bit less sunny. Again, though, these guys just don't have the weapons to deal with an armoured monster, and I breeze through the counterattack.
Objectives Scored - Slay the Warlord (1), Kingslayer (1)
Objectives Scored - Defend Objective 3 (Tyranids, 2)
Objective Draw - Blood and Guts, Big Game Hunter
Well, we're just mopping up survivors at this point. Not to denigrate the fine members of the Ultramarine Elite HQ Squad as they run desperately for their lives, but now that the Inceptors have shot their bolts, the Marines are looking like a spent force.
The Tyrant flops through the sky to keep up with the enemy heroes, smiting and shooting wounds off the Librarian on the way. The Genestealers and Tyrannofex are out of the game, really, they're too far off to make much difference now, but the Tyrannocyte spews Venom Cannon fire at the Ancient and brings him down to a last wound.
The Spore Mines have been slowly floating into range over the last few turns, and they're now finally in range. As I hoped, they've been overlooked in favour of other, juicier targets. Now, the Myotic spore detonates on the Inceptors, claiming one of them in a shower of bile. And the Spore Mines manage a medium charge into the trio of heroes, avoiding a hail of frag grenades entirely to come home to roost on the faces of their foes. The Ancient goes down in the blast, the Librarian loses another pair of wounds and the Lieutenant takes a mild scratch too.
Then the Tyrant decends on the trio, monstrous claws flashing, and we'll draw a veil over their demise.
Objectives Scored - Blood and Guts (1)
With bare bones left, I'm just playing for pride now - or at least to finish off than damn Hive Tyrant so I can get at least a couple of points on the board before I'm tabled.
Shots are fired, charges are made. The Hive Tyrant stands defiant at the end of it, casually picking bits of Primaris out of his teeth. It's a drubbing.
Objectives Scored - Scour the Skies (Tyranids, 1), Linebreaker (Tyranids, 1)
It was a fun game (a whole army vs the Hive Tyrant), and I certainly learned more about what not to do. Still with just one more wounding hit on my Auspex Scan, and I would at least have made a fight of it. I don't like to bemoan my luck, but when you're throwing a dozen dice, statistically, half of them should not be 2s!
More than this, the bad luck with Objectives drawn was a clincher. I didn't really score all that highly, and with a couple of VPs here and there, it would have been much closer.
My only real complaint about this scenario is that you have to keep your Tactical Objectives secret - where's the fun if you can't loudly complain how rubbish they are?
I realised a mistake, too, the morning after - in turn three, the Tyrant shouldn't have been able to assault the Hellblasters, as he'd Fallen Back that turn. That kind of cheating is reserved for Hive Fleet Kraken, not Gorgon.
Given that he killed the Captain in the Psychic Phase (Smite and Psychic Scream), he would have been free to charge if he'd stayed in combat, so it's all good (unless you're the Captain).
Not the worst mistake ever, I think I'd still have wiped them out with the Tyrannofex (not to mention the full unit of bored Genestealers twiddling their talons nearby), but really and truly I'm not convinced the Tyrant should have made it through the game.
And who says Tyrants have been nerfed? Honestly, anyone who needs to field more than one of these beauties at once is compensating for something. Gorgon goes on my list of decent Hive Fleets (I'm not convinced by Leviathan or Kronos yet) for the Warlord trait alone, although the extra wound rolls are also tasty.
For the army as a whole, I think Hive Fleet Kraken is scarier. However, Gorgon's warlord trait makes a hell of a difference.
I was also pleased to see the Warriors earning their keep. Again, in a better, fairer world (i.e. not the Grimdark Future), they'd have been doing their usual disappearing trick in turn one to heavy fire, but they managed to soak shots and still punch back for a change. Good old Catalyst, never lets you down!
For my part, I reckon I hamstrung myself with the all-Primaris force. The Intercessors are nice and durable, and the character buffs are welcome - although it did force me to clump them altogether in one group to maximise their benefits, which felt static for my taste. I'm also not sure a Redemptor Dreadnought is better than two regular ones.
I really missed having any kind of close-combat presence (I don't think Reivers or Aggressors really fill the gap), or weapon options (why have they all got bleedin' power swords?), and I really missed having access to a range or stratagems or psychic powers to mix things up.
What I did like were the Hellblasters - admittedly, most of my battle revolved around them, but they (almost) didn't disappoint. Although, should I ever deign to field the warriors of the False Emperor again, I'll be more circumspect about when to overcharge.
Battle time once again! I, Stylus, will be supersizing my portion of Astartes, and taking the Primaris Marines out for a field-test. Kindly (and unwittingly) loaned to me by Kasfunatu - but don't worry, we'll wipe down the fingerprints and re-fill the bolter rounds, and he'll be none the wiser.
Challenged by this rare display of alpha humanity strutting about, I, Kraken, shall unleash a tide of unstoppable monstrosities to poison the very sky with horror. Or my usual selection of Tyranids, at any rate, undeterred by all the whining that the internet is doing about the post-FAQ changes.
Bird? Plane? Or Kite?
No! It's All-Skype Fight Night!
Boltgun Vincit Omnia - Primaris Ultramarines
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| The Primaris Crypt Angels are well under way, and I managed to get the whole of Stylus' picks three-colour ready in time for the fight. Now to freehand all those shoulder pads... |
My record with space marines is played two / lost two, but now I have these extra extra-augmented warriors at my disposal, how can I go wrong?
Force structure is limited to what is available, but my strategy is very much along the lines of 'kid in a candy store'. I take a whole swathe of characters, enough Intercessor squads to fill out a Battalion Detachment, and then some glorious heavies in the form of a Redemptor Dreadnought and a massive Hellblaster squad.
The only shortfall is that I would have liked more Inceptors, but I guess you have to draw the line somewhere. I did have enough to divide my command into a Vanguard Detachment, so with the new FAQ command points allowance, plus the warlord trait refunding them, I should be swimming in command points!
... so it's a bit of a rude awakening to discover that, due to the unit-specific nature of the Space Marine stratagems, there's only six I can use (and only about half that I'd want to). Ah well, guess re-rolling dice isn't going to be a concern.
- Primaris Captain (HQ)
Master-crafted stalker bolt rifle, Power sword
Warlord Trait: Adept of the Codex
Relic: The Santic Halo - Primaris Librarian (HQ)
Force sword
Psychic powers: Might of Heroes, Null Zone - Primaris Lieutenants (HQ)
- Primaris Lieutenant: Master-crafted stalker bolt rifle
- Primaris Lieutenant: Power sword
- 5 x Intercessor Squad (Troops)
Auxiliary Grenade Launcher, Bolt rifle, Intercessor Sergeant - 5 x Intercessor Squad (Troops)
Bolt rifle, Intercessor Sergeant - 5 x Intercessor Squad (Troops)
Bolt rifle, Intercessor Sergeant - Primaris Ancient (Elite)
- Primaris Apothecary (Elite)
- Redemptor Dreadnought (Elite)
2 x Storm Bolters, Macro Plasma Incinerator, Onslaught Gatling Cannon, Icarus Rocket Pod, Redemptor fist. - 4 x Inceptor Squad (Fast)
Assault bolter, Inceptor Sergeant - 9 x Hellblaster Squad (Heavy)
Plasma incinerator, Hellblaster Sergeant: Bolt pistol
Hive Fleet Gorgon Afanc
- Hive Tyrant (HQ)
Adrenal Glands, Heavy Venom Cannon, Hyper-adaptive Biology, Monstrous Rending Claws, Wings
Warlord Trait: Adaptive Biology
Psychic powers: Onslaught, Psychic Scream - Neurothrope (HQ)
Psychic power: The Horror - Neurothrope (HQ)
Psychic power: Catalyst - 20 x Genestealers (Troops)
Rending Claws, Toxin Sacs - 30 x Termagants (Troops)
12 x Devourers, 18 x Fleshborers - 5 x Tyranid Warriors (Troops)
3 x Boneswords, Deathspitters & Flesh Hooks; 1 x Scything Talons, Deathspitters & Flesh Hooks; 1 x Scything Talons, Venom Cannon - 1 x Mucolid Spores (Fast)
- 6 x Spore Mines (Fast)
- Tyrannofex (Heavy)
Acid Spray, Adrenal Glands, Stinger Salvo - Tyrannocyte (Transport)
5 x Venom Cannon
So midway through picking out my list, the big 40K FAQ struck after the recent Adepticon tournament. With it came the unwelcome news that my Flyrant was now going to cost me more points, as well as changes to the rules to stop me flooding my opponent's drop zone with deep strikes in the first turn.
All good changes, though! I think, anyway, all the new stuff seems determined to curb the worst instincts of tournament players and make the game (slightly) more balanced and fun. I decided to stick to my original plans, at any rate, and see if I could adapt on the fly(rant).
This is a Hive Fleet Gorgon list, that being the Afanc alternative of the day. A very adaptive Tyrant, who ought to be a bugger to shift if he can survive a first hit, and a selection of spore mines and transports to help him drop down in turn two. Otherwise, the army hits even harder in close combat, rerolling all ones to wound in the fight phase to represent their lethal poisons.
The army is carefully following the rules of how much has to be on the table at the start. The rank and file is a big pack of bubblewrap in the form of Termagants, some average Joe Warriors and a huge alpha strike of Genestealers, tooled up with full toxin sacs. Two Neurothropes to provide synapse and psychic support, and that's the troops dealt with.
Marines have good armour, which Tyranids aren't great against, so I've got a few venom cannons here and there to help. Mostly on the Tyrannocyte, actually, which is a poor shooter, but makes up for it with volume of fire at least.
Finally, the big gun - a Tyrannofex with acid spray. He'll be dropping down in the Tyrannocyte, where his nasty gun ought to make a mess of anything in range.
Overall, the plan is to have the troops on table to start, romp them forward into the enemy guns and hope enough survive that when the drop troops arrive on turn two, they can soak enough firepower for the remnants of the troopers to clean up. Claws crossed!
Battlefield and Deployment
Icy swamps! Who'd have guessed? Plus a bit of jungly research station in the middle, just for fun. This 6x3 battlefield is short on account of my kitchen not quite having space for a 6x4 table, so our deployment zones will be shrunk back by 6" towards the edges to balance it out.
The buildings are staggered down the field to give line of sight blocking, and there's plenty of ruins and woods/swamps at the edges. Staying mobile and using the cover is going to pay off, as we've both got enough firepower to put the hurt on each other.
Randomly rolling a mission gives us the Cloak and Shadows from Maelstrom of War. Darkness shrouds the field. That's nice - there's a penalty to hit over 18", but most of my guns are closer ranged than that and I'll want to be running forward anyway, so this is mostly a pain for Stylus. Our objective cards are also kept secret, so it's a bit harder to block your opponent over specific objectives when you don't know what they're after.
I win the roll-off for picking deployment and go with Vanguard Strike, so we're facing off diagonally. My plan is to feint left with the packs of troops, then send the Genestealers off round the other way (behind the big rock to hide) and then meet in the middle of the enemy lines around turn three. The Flyrant, Tyrannocyte plus Tyrannofex and spore mines of all sizes take to the air, and won't be about until turn two at the earliest, so I'm going to have to pray everything can survive long enough.
I'm somewhat torn in my deployment: I really want my Hellblasters to have a commanding view, but the likeliest spot for this is the low bunker, which is a bit too close to the edge of my deployment zone for comfort. I decide to chance it, planting the Hellblaster squad on the roof, accompanied by a General Committee Meeting of Captain, Lieutenant, Librarian, Ancient and Apothecary.
The Dreadnaught anchors one end of the bunker (to also benefit from the re-roll bubble) and the Intercessor squads string out along the line - I'm thinking I'll need to push them forward to keep the xenos tide away from my castle.
The Inceptors go into orbit, and the poor lone Lieutenant gets the thankless task of sitting on the backfield and ensuring nothing can get into deepstrike range.
That gives us a final deployment looking more or less like this:
Turn 1 - Hive Fleet Afanc
Objective Draw - Take and Hold 6, Defend 3, Scour the Skies
I've got the first turn, so I get straight to work rushing everything into cover as quickly as I can. Alas, my big units are not very easy to fit into cover. The Termagants just don't all fit in the handy nearby wood, and are even poking out of the sides of the building I attempt to hug, but hopefully there's enough going on elsewhere that they won't be a priority.
The Genestealers go to ground behind the castle, as planned, and the Tyranid Warriors... well, they end up in the middle of the field, waving a cheery hello to the assorted plasma guns of the Ultramarines. Eep. This means they get Catalyst to keep them going, and I'd better hope the dice gods are kind.
Otherwise, it's a quiet turn. Everyone's advanced, and I don't have much in range, so the limiting shooting I do manages to scratch a single wound off the Dreadnought.
Finally, I realise to my annoyance that I've forgotten about my objectives! Number 6 is in my deployment zone and would have been easy money, but I've run off and left it behind. Knowing I'm not going back for it, I discard it at the end of my turn. No points so far!
Turn 1 - Ultramarines
Objective Draw - Secure Objective 2, Mission Critical Objective (2), Blood and Guts
Not a great draw for me: Objective 2 is placed in the centre, at the junction of the hill and the wall - right in the path of the Tyranid advance. I might have tried a cheeky drop with the Inceptors on it, but that sort of behaviour isn't allowed post-FAQ.
Blood and Guts seems an equally preposterous notion, but I push forward with my flanking squads anyway, just in case they can pick on a badly-wounded Tyranid once the shooting stops.
And then it's shooting time! All the big stuff is off the table, so it's the Tyranid Warriors who get the short straw. I use a scenario-specific stratagem to light them up with Flares (and then refund the command point immediately), then open up with my Redemptor Dreadnought...
... who has the most desperately disappointing round of shooting. Despite unloading everything on the Warriors, and being in re-roll range of the characters, he fails to remove even one Tyranid (about half my dice rolls were 2s, it was uncanny). I throw the small arms of one Intercessor Squad and the characters to plink off one pesky remaining wound, so that when my Hellblasters unleash with supercharged guns, not a wound will be wasted...
To be fair, the Hellblasters did a bit better (almost average in fact), and land eight wounds that Catalyst fails to save, so that's another two Warriors gone (I also lose one of my squad to Overcharge, but the Apothecary is reading his syringe to revive him next turn).
The rest of the small arms fire guns down a handful of Termagants, and that's the end of a very lacklustre turn. My entire gunline couldn't even remove a unit of Tyranid Warriors, and that's before the big beasts have even landed. I discard Blood and Guts in the hope of something more useful.
Turn 2 - Hive Fleet Afanc
Objective Draw - Kingslayer
Drop time.
The small but gentle advance of the enemy gunline has left a tiny hole inside his deployment zone. It's big enough for a single drop, and it's a tough choice. Maybe a pack of distracting spore mines? The Tyrannocyte could fit in, but not the Tyrannofex at the same time, so he plops down in the middle of the field. The Tyrant grits its teeth and swoops into the backline gap, although I'm reluctant, as he's a bit on his own out there and there's a lot of guns in the vicinity.
Sure enough, some of them swing round to cover his appearance...
Haha! I interrupt events with the Auspex Scan stratagem! (for which I once again refund the command points - I've yet to spend one yet). My entire squad of Helllblasters open up on the Hive Tyrant with Overcharged Plasma Incinerators (losing two in the process) and causing a horrendous amounts of wounds on him. Tragically, I fall one short of a Warlord kill (even after a CP re-roll), so the big beastie is left in my back lines, charred but still alive.
... yow. That was lucky, in fact, it could easily have finished me off. As it is, I pop the Rapid Regeneration stratagem off and grow a couple of wounds back, but just four left leaves me with a steep hill to climb if I'm to earn his points back.
The rest of the troops rush forwards. Shooting suddenly ramps up in damage - the Tyrannofex and 'Cyte between them hammer the Dreadnought down to a couple of wounds, and the forerunners of my Termagant swarm start plinking off Intercessors. After psychic power damage (Catalyst on the Warriors, Horror on the Intercessors next to them) the lone Lieutenant at the back gets flattened by the Tyrant's Miasma Cannon, but there's still a hell of a lot of Marines up on that roof.
Nothing for it but a long bomb charge, and giant chicken that I am, I pick the weakest option available and charge the Apothecary. It's a long shot, needing an 11, so I may as well try against the least powerful shooter I can reach. Overwatch obviously proves ineffectual, so it's down to the roll.
And it's a good 'un! I need to reroll with command points, but that turns a crucial 1 to a 6, and I'm in. But I'm not out of the woods yet. Because elsewhere, the Tyranid Warriors charge the Intercessor squad in front of them, and as there's just two of them left, I resolve their fight first. It goes well, hacking down a pair of marines, but Stylus spends some of his regenerating CPs to counterpunch the Tyrant before it gets going.
Unexpectedly, it's the Hellblasters! They're close enough for almost the whole squad to pile in, and I'm suddenly a bit worried. It won't take much plinking for my battered to go down.
In the event, though, it's a fizzle. The poor gunboys don't have the strength they need against the adaptively tougher monster, who survives without a scratch and then pulls the head off the Apothecary. Although I lose another Tyranid Warrior to determined gun butts, there I am, scoring First Blood and nice and safe in combat!
Objectives Scored - First Blood (1)
Turn 2 - Ultramarines
Objective Draw - Area Denial
Okay... so I've got a Flyrant in my castle and my Dreadnought is near-finished. And now the objective cards start taking the Micky by telling me to clear the centre of Tyranids. I immediately spend two Command Points (reclaiming one of them) to ditch that objective and draw a fresh one.
New Objective Draw - Psychological Warfare
Get the unbreakable Tyranids to fail a Morale test. Much better.
Off to work then, and salvage what I can from this. I pull back the Hellblasters from combat, shuffle my characters so that the Captain has a clear charge route to the Hive Tyrant (he's feeling optimistic), hold my Inceptors in the skies for one more turn (I still have Objective 2, twice over, and maybe the landing zone will have sufficiently cleared by then).
Everyone else just edges back, maximising the distance, but still keeping in rapid-fire range (this is real Starship Troopers stuff). Including the Intercessors backing away from the final Tyranid Warrior.
The Psychic Phase is a bust, thanks to Shadow in the Warp. Neither Might of Heroes, nor Smite got off, so there's no help there against the Tyrant. It all comes down to shooting, and fortunately for Ultramarines, they can break combat and still shoot.
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| What do you mean, I'm not nice and safe in combat any more? |
I start off with the Dreadnought's last huzzah, unloading everything but the Icarus Pod (reserved for the Tyrant, to no effect) at the Tyrannofex. Despite being down to his last bracket, it's actually more effective that his previous huzzah, and chops down a goodly number of wounds from the creature.
I then decide to finish it with the Hellblasters - rather than choosing to rapid-fire into the looming Hive Tyrant. I overcharge once again - risky, as falling back gives me a hit penalty, and thereby doubles my risk of overcharging - but I need to overcome his Toughness of 8. The Plasma Incinerators do their work once more, knocking the Tyrannofex down to almost his last wound, but not quite, which seems to be the story of my battle.
All the characters' small arms fire patter off the Hive Tyrant (wish I'd had the presence of mind to use Krak Grenades) and the Intercesssors once again target the Termagants. It is quite refreshing to do so, as they're pretty easy for my Bolt Rifles to kill, but there are a lot more critters on the table, and I don't feel I'm making much progress.
Maybe redemption will come in the Assault Phase - my Captain takes on a lone charge into the Hive Tyrant. I hadn't quite realised how deadly his auto-hit Heavy Venom Cannon is, and have to spend a Command Point for my Santic Halo invulnerable save to keep him alive.
It's only in the combat phase that I realise how ineffectual the Captain actually is (in my defence, I forgot that I failed to cast Might of Heroes on him). Even with the re-rolls to hit and wound, his feeble Power Sword only gets one wound on the Hive Tyrant - once again knocking him down to his lowest bracket. In return, the Captain takes three wounds from a single hit, and has to use another Command Point re-roll (ominously I'm no longer reclaiming them with as much success) to get his Santic Halo to save him.
It's possible I've bitten off more than I could chew here.
Turn 3 - Hive Fleet Afanc
Objective Draw - nothing new
Funny - although I've still got vast clutches of troops still on the field, I feel like I'm clinging on for dear life. I was extremely lucky to survive all that shooting with the big monsters still intact, so it's bonus points to them. My expectation was to be relying on the Genestealers and Termagants by now. Well, keep on hitting!
The Tyrant drops back, deciding to shoot and psyche his way past the Captain rather than risk being punched down. As before, the rest of the army skitters forwards, getting ever closer, apart from the Tyrannofex who hangs back to maximise fire.
The Neurothrope on the south side is in range for smiting, and starts picking holes in the nearby Intercessor units, then slaps Catalyst on the Hive Tyrant, who I also repeat the Regeneration strategy with. Again, he's got four left, just enough to last another turn, I hope. Smiting chomps two wounds off the Captain too, and I'm also throwing The Horror around for good measure.
Shooting sees the Dreadnought brought low by the Tyrannocyte's venom cannons. The Tyrannofex, who was planning on finishing that particular slinging match, has more than enough acid to obliterate the nearby Intercessor squad handily, which means the last Warrior can go and sit on objective three. If he's still there at the end of next turn, that's some points for me.
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| BOOM! And where's your torso? |
My Devourer pack is closing the range nicely, and manages to finish off their nearest opposites in a hail of exploding larvae.
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| Not Pictured: The recently deceased Intercessors |
I also manage to finish off the Captain with my Miasma Cannon. But he's close enough that Stylus fires him up with a stratagem to let him fight a full round of bonus combat before dying! Thank goodness the dice are definitely on my side tonight - not a one of his full five hits connects, and I'm still breathing.
Apparently Duty does end with Death. That's two Command Points I won't be seeing again.
The Tyrant weighs up his options, then I decide I'm feeling cocky and charge the Hellblasters. A storm of overcharged plasma meets me and fails to connect, but here's an annoyance - even though two of the gunners blow themselves up, the nearby Ancient waves his flag around to make them shoot a second time as they die! And at full BS, too! Amazingly, I still manage to shrug off all bar a single wound, and then I'm running around inside the squad, eating Marines and gurgling happily.
Five overcharged Plasma incinerator hits got through and he shrugged them all off. I'm not getting a good feeling about this.
Until all three nearby heroes pile in, anyway, then I'm feeling a bit less sunny. Again, though, these guys just don't have the weapons to deal with an armoured monster, and I breeze through the counterattack.
Objectives Scored - Slay the Warlord (1), Kingslayer (1)
Turn 3 - Ultramarines
Objective Draw - Witch Hunter
Naturally, I ditched Psychological Warfare last turn, and at least my next Tactical Objective has something I can do: kill the Hive Tyrant and it's worth an objective point and a Slay the Warlord point. The slight drawback is the Hive Tyrant has proved to be near-impossible to kill for the last few turns, but we have faith.
My remaining troops all fall back - the surviving characters get away from the Hive Tyrant and the Hellblasters take up their last stand in the backfield woods.
It's time to bring in the Inceptors, while there's still anything left to defend. They drop in between to fill the gap between my Troops and HQs - all hope of getting into the Tyranid lines is now gone.
NB The Inceptors are here played by Aggressors. Not because Kraken hadn't painted them in time, but because they weren't attached to their stands. Come to think of it, some Aggressors might have been useful.
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| Actually, there should only be four, I got a bit generous putting them out |
Last change to damage the Hive Tyrant in the Psychic Phase - I actually manage to cast Smite with the Librarian. Rolling a mere 1 mortal wound, I agonise over spending my last Command Point (I was saving it for Scions of Guilliman for the Inceptors), but in the end, I reckon mortal wounds are my best shot at hurting the damn thing. I re-roll for two mortal wounds ... and Catalyst saves them both.
It's all shots into the Hive Tyrant now. A volley of Krak Grenades from the characters do nothing, the Inceptors' assault bolters end up rolling a lot of 1s (gee, I wish I'd used Scions of Guilliman), and the Intercessor shots plink away. In the end, I've maybe taken the Hive Tyrant back down to his bottom bracket (which he can spend a stratagem to recover next turn) and left the rest of the army untouched.
In desperation, I try a long charge on the Hive Tyrant with the Inceptors (they can cause mortal wounds on the charge), but fail miserably, and lose one of their number to Overwatch.
Things may not be going my way.
Objectives Scored - Defend Objective 3 (Tyranids, 2)
Turn 4 - Hive Fleet Afanc
Objective Draw - Blood and Guts, Big Game Hunter
Well, we're just mopping up survivors at this point. Not to denigrate the fine members of the Ultramarine Elite HQ Squad as they run desperately for their lives, but now that the Inceptors have shot their bolts, the Marines are looking like a spent force.
The Tyrant flops through the sky to keep up with the enemy heroes, smiting and shooting wounds off the Librarian on the way. The Genestealers and Tyrannofex are out of the game, really, they're too far off to make much difference now, but the Tyrannocyte spews Venom Cannon fire at the Ancient and brings him down to a last wound.
The Spore Mines have been slowly floating into range over the last few turns, and they're now finally in range. As I hoped, they've been overlooked in favour of other, juicier targets. Now, the Myotic spore detonates on the Inceptors, claiming one of them in a shower of bile. And the Spore Mines manage a medium charge into the trio of heroes, avoiding a hail of frag grenades entirely to come home to roost on the faces of their foes. The Ancient goes down in the blast, the Librarian loses another pair of wounds and the Lieutenant takes a mild scratch too.
Then the Tyrant decends on the trio, monstrous claws flashing, and we'll draw a veil over their demise.
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| I hereby rename my Flyrant the Nerfbat. |
Objectives Scored - Blood and Guts (1)
Turn 4 - Ultramarines
With bare bones left, I'm just playing for pride now - or at least to finish off than damn Hive Tyrant so I can get at least a couple of points on the board before I'm tabled.
Shots are fired, charges are made. The Hive Tyrant stands defiant at the end of it, casually picking bits of Primaris out of his teeth. It's a drubbing.
Objectives Scored - Scour the Skies (Tyranids, 1), Linebreaker (Tyranids, 1)
Result: Hive Fleet Afanc 7, Ultramarines 0
Locker Spore/Cyst/Sac
Pleased as I am to break what has been rather a long losing streak, I can really only put it down to Stylus's bad luck and the fact he's playing an army for the first time. With only very slightly better rolling, the horrible horrible firepower of the Hellblasters would have been wiping my monsters off the board as fast as I could put them on.It was a fun game (a whole army vs the Hive Tyrant), and I certainly learned more about what not to do. Still with just one more wounding hit on my Auspex Scan, and I would at least have made a fight of it. I don't like to bemoan my luck, but when you're throwing a dozen dice, statistically, half of them should not be 2s!
More than this, the bad luck with Objectives drawn was a clincher. I didn't really score all that highly, and with a couple of VPs here and there, it would have been much closer.
My only real complaint about this scenario is that you have to keep your Tactical Objectives secret - where's the fun if you can't loudly complain how rubbish they are?
I realised a mistake, too, the morning after - in turn three, the Tyrant shouldn't have been able to assault the Hellblasters, as he'd Fallen Back that turn. That kind of cheating is reserved for Hive Fleet Kraken, not Gorgon.
Given that he killed the Captain in the Psychic Phase (Smite and Psychic Scream), he would have been free to charge if he'd stayed in combat, so it's all good (unless you're the Captain).
Not the worst mistake ever, I think I'd still have wiped them out with the Tyrannofex (not to mention the full unit of bored Genestealers twiddling their talons nearby), but really and truly I'm not convinced the Tyrant should have made it through the game.
And who says Tyrants have been nerfed? Honestly, anyone who needs to field more than one of these beauties at once is compensating for something. Gorgon goes on my list of decent Hive Fleets (I'm not convinced by Leviathan or Kronos yet) for the Warlord trait alone, although the extra wound rolls are also tasty.
For the army as a whole, I think Hive Fleet Kraken is scarier. However, Gorgon's warlord trait makes a hell of a difference.
I was also pleased to see the Warriors earning their keep. Again, in a better, fairer world (i.e. not the Grimdark Future), they'd have been doing their usual disappearing trick in turn one to heavy fire, but they managed to soak shots and still punch back for a change. Good old Catalyst, never lets you down!
For my part, I reckon I hamstrung myself with the all-Primaris force. The Intercessors are nice and durable, and the character buffs are welcome - although it did force me to clump them altogether in one group to maximise their benefits, which felt static for my taste. I'm also not sure a Redemptor Dreadnought is better than two regular ones.
I really missed having any kind of close-combat presence (I don't think Reivers or Aggressors really fill the gap), or weapon options (why have they all got bleedin' power swords?), and I really missed having access to a range or stratagems or psychic powers to mix things up.
What I did like were the Hellblasters - admittedly, most of my battle revolved around them, but they (almost) didn't disappoint. Although, should I ever deign to field the warriors of the False Emperor again, I'll be more circumspect about when to overcharge.
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