In the Blue Corner: Ultramarines vs Tyranids

What? An actual interloper within the physical surrounds of Kraken Towers? Summon the Hive Guard! Let none live!

Skype's taken a hike!
It's... It's... I don't know what this is!

Well, no, obviously I do. Kraken here, and after a mere six years of living abroad, I stumbled across a local who plays 40K in the same language as me. Arrangements were made, and I suddenly found myself able to shake hands across the table instead of using emojis. (Not that I even do that over Skype, actually, I'm pretty rude.)

This challenger goes by the name of General Hotspur, and is fielding Ultramarines. A relative newcomer to 8th Ed, he's a 40K veteran from the old days, and brought a very nicely painted force for a friendly 1000 point match. 

Or, well, as friendly as these things get. A Land Raider what now? And who's driving it?

Avengers of the Fallen First

Having no idea what to expect, my first glimpse of this list left me pretty alarmed. A bare minimum of troops backed up by lots of armour with an absolute armoury of bolter fire. Would he be keeping the boys in blue safe inside, bombing it up the field and shooting me off the objectives? Or would they lurk on the back line, throwing full weight of fire? Well, I'd just have to wait and see. 

Redemptors I have fought before, and they're nasty. But that Land Raider with the all-star tank captain, that really had me worried. With very little dedicated anti-armour, I'd be relying on smites and teeth to gnaw it to bits. And if I did, then Chronus would get out and start taking names. Worrisome.

• Space Marine Captain - Plasma pistol, power sword, Sanctic Halo, Warlord - Adept of the Codex
• Sergeant Chronus - driving a Land Raider Crusader with Multi-melta, two sets of Hurricane Bolters, twin-linked Assault Cannons and Auto-frag Launchers
• 5 Scouts - three bolters, bolter sergeant and a heavy bolter
• 5 Primaris Marines - autobolt rifles and aux. grenade launcher
• 5 Tactical Marines - three bolters, bolter sergeant and missile launcher
• Redemptor Dreadnought - Heavy and Regular Onslaught Gatling Cannons, Icarus Rocket Pod, Twin Storm Bolters

Behemothman

For my part, I was packing an experimental and fairly low-key swarm, planning on using the Behemoth trait to see how it handles whilst leaving some of my usual hard-hitters behind. Free charge rerolls for all couldn't be bad, right? And their special strategem that can cause mortal wounds on the charge seemed pretty decent. 

Thing is, a thousand points doesn't get you a lot. Once the usual command selections were taken (Flyrant and Neurothrope), a full pack of Genestealers, a medium throng of Termies and all the Warriors I have left only space for the new Zooanthrope squad. It seemed a bit meagre, at least until I put it on the table and saw Hotspur's expression. 

• Hive Tyrant - Warlord with Alien Cunning Trait, Miasma Cannon, Monstrous Rending Claws, Catalyst, Smite and Onslaught powers
• Neurothrope - The Horror and Smite powers
• 20 Genestealers - 5 with acidic maws
• 24 Termagants - 12 Fleshborer, 12 Devourer
• 6 Tyranid Warriors - 4 with Bone Swords and Deathspitters, 1 with Venom Cannon and Scything Talons, 1 with Barbed Strangler and Lash Whip
• 3 Zooanthropes - Psychic Scream and Smite powers

Mission and Deployment

Rolling randomly, we get Contact Lost from the rulebook's Maelstrom missions. So you have one objective card at the start of the game and you draw more for each objective you hold on the field at the start of each of your turns. 

Although I've now got a bunch of jungle scenery in the works, very little of it is ready for the table. So frosty ruins! A 6'x3' kitchen table's worth. 

Once the objectives are out, Hotspur picks deployment and sides. The classic Dawn of War, and he opts for a relatively straightforward firing line across the board, with the big tank in the corner. Everybody is out of their transports, which is good news and bad for me. Good because he'll be slower to claim territory, but bad because there's going to be more gun operational from turn one!

Having lured him into this line by stick the Tyrant out early, I then use the Alien Cunning trait to go for a strong corner instead. That Land Raider needs to be dealt with, and fast! 

Turn one goes to me, and Hotspur grits his teeth, ready for the rush. And to aid him in that, he spends three CPs to upgrade his Captain to a full-blown Chapter Master! Rerolls on all misses, and I fear that's going to come in very handy in the near future...

Tyranids Turn 1

Kingslayer turns out to be my first objective. Nice! I reckon the Tyrant can have him, Chapter Master or not, although I'll have to reach him first.

Well, no point hanging about. The swarm gibbers forward, led by the Tyrant, who is heading straight for the Land Raider, and he's backed by both Warriors and the various 'Thropes. The Termagants advance rather slowly up the centre, but the Genestealers make up for it with a full 14' advance round the side of the central castle.

Psychically, I definitely have the upper hand. The lone Sanctic Halo deny that Hotspur has is already within the Shadow in the Warp, so I get free reign. Three wounds are duly smitten off the Land Raider along with inflicting The Horror on it, I Catalyse the Tyrant and fail to get Onslaught off on the Warriors.

Shooting is a bit of a bust, though. The Termagants are out of range, and the Land Raider is plenty tough. All the same, a healthy round of Deathspitters and Venom Cannon fire scrapes another three wounds off it. I know nothing of your backstory, Chronus, but I don't like your tank and it must die!

So I charge into the full force of its Overwatch. They aren't kidding when they call them Hurricane Bolters, are they? Three wounds later, I then fail to make the charge. Even with my free reroll, so I'm left dangling in the breeze somewhat, which of course consists entirely of bolter rounds right now. Uh-oh.

Ultramarines Turn 1

"Screen!" commands Hotspur, and the Scouts dart forward to protect their sacred tank. The Primaris have been tasked with securing Objective 1, which is a trek through the ruins ahead, so they scoot forward on to number 6 en route. Everyone else stays put and cocks their rifles. 

Then its Bullet Time! 

Mostly, this falls on the Tyrant, and dear god, there's a lot of it. Luckily there's some relatively duff rolls, although the Land Raider (even with the Horror on) barely misses thanks to rerolls and Chronus's excellent BS. Catalyst was well worth it as well, saving me from four or five extra wounds, but after Hellfire Shells from the scouts and all the barrels of the Dreadnought, I'm down to five wounds left. Ow. 

The Termagants and 'Stealers aren't spared - the former get hosed by the Tac Marines and their Razorback ride, but it's just Fleshborer scrubs I'm losing. And two Genestealers is an affordable board crossing tax, I reckon! 

Objective 1 is looking a bit distant (and also Genestealerish), so Hotspur ditches it, hoping for better later. 

Tyranids Turn 2

Now, if I can't make a charge this turn, something's really not right. I get a second Objective, which is sadly to kill a Flyer (we aren't doing redraws, I forgot about that in the heat of battle), so I ditch it later on.

The Tyrant hops forward on to the nearby building and looms over the Chapter Master, the Warriors head for the Scouts, the Termagants rattle onwards over Objective 2 and the Genestealers perform another full advance, suddenly springing out round the castle to the alarm of the Tactical Marines. After all that, I Rapidly Regenerate a pair of wounds for the Tyrant, because he's going to need them.

Psychic Phase - Catalyst, of course, the Tyrant is certainly drawing firepower! And Smites on the Scouts to try and clear them out of the way. Which works to an extent - two hits, and both for single wounds. Even the Tyrant only plinks a single wound off the Captain. And no Horror or Onslaught, either. Maybe the Hive Mind has a hangover.

Shooting is a total bust. The Termagants are only just in range, so they pepper the Dreadnought with bugs and nip a single wound off. The Warriors batter the Land Raider to no avail at all, so I give it up as a bad job and look to combat to save me.

Which it does! The Genestealers pile into the Tac Marines and the Razorback with glee, killing three of them before the combat even starts thanks to the Behemoth Strategem, Brute Force. We draw a discreet veil over that combat, as it really is a foregone conclusion, remove the Marines and consolidate into the Razorback.

The Scouts do at least as well in combat as their Tactical pals, and the Warriors grind forward, but I can't quite reach the Land Raider. Bah!

Sensing his days may be numbered, the Chapter Master goes for overcharged Overwatch. Lucky he can reroll his own ones! He still misses, and then the Tyrant eats him in relatively short order, Sanctic Halo or no. Picking its teeth with a power sword, it then realises it can either stay put or consolidate into the Redemptor. That's not a fight I fancy starting early, somehow. Wish I'd charged on to the other side of the captain, then I could have shut down the Land Raider! Dammit!

Not pictured - Ultramarines Chapter Master. Burp.

Still, that's First Blood, Slay the Warlord and Kingslayer for 4 VPs. Not a bad start!

Ultramarines Turn 2

There is a somewhat grim look on Hotspur's face at this point. His position is overrun, his screening troops are partly digested and I've got board control. Can he pull it back?

Well, he can certainly get the Razorback out of dodge. It accelerates away from the Genestealers, guns blazing at the Termagants. The Redemptor Dreadnought concentrates on something its father taught it, paying for Wisdom of the Ancients, and then unleashes absolute hell on the Genestealers, wiping out twelve of them in a single salvo. Then it about faces and charges the Tyrant, who melts three wounds off it with Overwatch.

The Land Raider is now unhindered by Horror, and murders four of the Warriors without too much effort. And then it charges the remaining ones! I didn't see that coming. My overwatch is impressive, scoring four out of a possible four hits with the Barbed Strangler, but it doesn't amount to more than a pair of wounds. Chronus has been busy buffing out the dents on the Raider, and every time I get it down below half damage, he pops it back up again.

On impact, Autofrag launchers kill another Warrior, so I'm down to one. He's got a Venom Cannon, but I've also given him scything talons, which aren't really tank busting.

Similarly (and also, in hindsight, not really legally! it withdrew, so shouldn't charge, but we're a couple of cans of Guiness into the evening by this point, and it seemed fun at the time), the Razorback puts pedal to metal and ploughs into the Termagant pack. It's a scoring draw, with each side putting pretty paltry damage out on the other.

The Redemptor proves its worth by pulling the Tyrant's head clean off. No amount of Catalyst is going to buff that out. Worse, it means the Genestealers are out of Synapse, and they flee in the morale phase.

Slay the Warlord means Hotspur is off the mark with VPs, and he doubles down on that - the Primaris Marines manage to draw Secure Objective 6 as their new orders. Clearly they decide that the objective they're already sitting on is far more important than that one over there. Tea and sandwiches are consumed in celebration.

Tyranids Turn 3

Hmm - I'm a bit thin on the ground now, and mostly tied up. To further mock me, the Hive Mind demands that I first of all capture Objective 6 from the Primaris Marines. I redraw that with CPs, and the greedy bastard instead demands that I kill a unit using either a Monster (nope, none left) or a unit of more than ten models. Termagants, I'm looking at you. My other mission is to hold all the Objectives on the board. Ha.

The best chance I've got is to smite the Rhino as much as possible, but the Zooanthropes don't manage to advance far enough to get it in range, and have to poke the Land Raider instead. Two wounds off it again, which is are slow but steady gains. The Neurothrope slaps the Horror on it again, then fails to smite the Rhino. This bodes ill, so I splurge on Power of the Hive Mind to let the Zooanthropes fire off Psychic Scream as well. They fail. Whatever was in that Chapter Master is clearly disagreeing with my digestion.

The Warrior stays in on the Land Raider, not expecting much other than holding it up. He knocks a wound off it, which is a nice surprise! But then I'm done, and I discard Domination as a bad deal.

Ultramarines Turn 3

Having spotted that the Primaris Marines are slacking off, High Command insists that they go and fetch their original objective, number 1. Worryingly for me, that's within their reach now, so they trot over and grab it.

You blokes took yer time.

Chronus and his Land Raider back away and hoses the Warrior with a Multi-Melta, before performing some pretty impressive scouring on the Zooanthropes as well.

The Razorback pulls out from the Tarmapit swarm and keeps shooting. Although it misses, it's really just the warmup act for the Redemptor, which promptly sweeps Objective 2 neatly clean of 'Nids. Yipes! It's got so much firepower, there's enough spare to finish off the Zooanthropes with Icarus pod fire and start hammering the Neurothrope as well.

Hmm. I'm a lone model army now, which is hardly ideal. But at least I'm still in the lead!

Tyranids Turn 4

Well, it's a quickie. I use up my last command points to draw a last ditch attempt for a scoring Objective. Defend Objective 4, says the Hive Mind. Thanks for that.

The Neurothrope, which legs it. Hiding behind ruins back in my deployment zone, I await the end, and fail all my psychic powers in a strong display of utter cowardice.

Ultramarines Turn 4

Another quick round - the Marines now draw Hold the Line as their new objective, and all the tanks dart backwards into neat order to claim just that. Now we're level on points, but it becomes moot - the Razorback can draw a bead on the Neurothrope, and with some very decent rolls, the Heavy Bolters rinse my last unit.

Tabled!

Result: Victory to the Ultramarines

Back in the Sacs

Retrospectively, we messed a couple of things up that might have made it rather closer at the end. It turns out that the Ultramarines trait doesn't actually cover tanks (we both thought it did) so there would have been rather less firepower churning out across the game than I weathered.

All the same - it was a good game! And closer than it maybe looked. If the Neurothrope had survived another round, or picked up a decent objective, I'd have been ahead on points and still capable of winning to the bitter end. We were tied on VPs in turn four, after all.

And if I'd concentrated on tying the Land Raider up a bit sooner, maybe hitting it with the Tyrant instead of picking off the Chapter Master, I'd have had an easier time of it. The lure of Kingslayer was just too much!

Nyom.

Same for leaving the Primaris Marines alone. The Genestealers are probably fast enough to have killed them all and been back in time for seconds on the Tac Marines later. Ignoring them gave away VPs that I couldn't really afford to donate.

Well, I learned a few things for next time (tie up the tanks! don't stop tying up the tanks!). And I like Behemoth, it's a hard hitting and reliable trait matched with a great swarmy strategem. I'll use them again happily. Perhaps, in fact, for the inevitable return match, where the kid gloves will definitely be off!