Rain on Your Parade: Tempestus Scions vs Tyranids

It hurts.

My body has been struck at, my limbs cleaved and my blood spilt. I remember how it was done. How you came to my home and attacked me, while all I did was eat and try to grow. 

You brought me here, you stole me and planted me in this unfamiliar womb. I was trapped in your steel prison, but I clawed my way free. I ate, and once more grew, and I remembered the wrongs you did me. I knew I must escape from this world. 

But you are relentless. You will not let me grow, you trample me where I nest and you savage me where I rest. When I try to escape from you to find my own place, you hunt me down and burn the ground where I live. 

And once more, you think you have destroyed me with fire. You march over the scars of that burning on your many tiny legs, and you feel victory. 

I will take revenge on you, you splintered, fractious thing that calls yourself Imperium, for the millions of tiny cuts you torture me with. 

I cannot be killed. I cannot be placated. I cannot let you win. 

I am the Hive Mind, and I am here to devour you.

It's the third part of the Zamaroon campaign, and it's time the bugs struck back!

Tyranids

My extensive experimentation into the bulletproof nature of Genestealers has led me to this simple conclusion: they aren't. So this list is an attempt to deliver them unscathed to where they need to be, and we're taking an all-new Kaiju to help, the Trygon Prime. 

Burrowing in, it can bring a pack of Stealers with it, then hopefully soak overwatch itself to guide the little ones to a turn two charge. 

Elsewhere, the Swarmlord, to hurtle forwards and murder anything in its path, or to throw lesser swarms ahead to maintain a clear path to victory. My original plan was to send him in with the Tyrannocyte, land it next to the Trygon's swarm and shoot them ahead, but it turns out that would be too much deep strike power. So the other pack of stealers (the big one, I think I'd struggle to get them out around the Trygon in useful order) goes in here instead. 

Venomthropes will protect my back line, which is a small group of Warriors, some Zooanthropes with the inevitable Neurothrope and the all-new Hive Guard. They can hopefully hide somewhere bunkerish and spew death flies down on all and sundry from safety!

Tremors - Battalion Detachment, Hive Fleet Kraken

• HQ - Specimen 46 Gamma, The Swarmlord, Catalyst and Onslaught powers
• HQ - The Underlord, a Neurothrope, Warlord with Tenacious Survivor, The Horror power
• Troops - 4 Tyranid Warriors, 3 x Deathspitter and Bone Swords, 1 x Venom Cannon and Rending Claws
• Troops - 12 Genestealers, Scything Talons and Rending Claws
• Troops - 20 Genestealers, Scything Talons and Rending Claws
• Elites - 3 x Hive Guard, Impaler Cannons
• Elites - 3 x Zooanthropes, Psychic Scream power
• Elites - 3 x Venomthropes
• Heavy Support - Trygon Prime with the Chameleonic Mutation relic, Adrenal Glands, Biostatic Rattle and Bioplasma Pulse with Containment Spines (best ridiculously named weapon ever)
• Dedicated Transport - Tyrannocyte, 5 x Barbed Strangler (but see below)

Points: 1500 | Battle-forged + Battalion: 8 CPs

Tempestus Scions

Is 15 characters a lot? It feels like a lot, so let's hope my dirty more-than-a-dozen can pull their weight, because I've got precious few troops otherwise.

The 9th Hagan Lampreys pick themselves - I'll take everything they've got and load them up with expensive weapons. Then come the three VIP characters of our narrative - Ministorum Priest, Officer of the Fleet and Astropath - who knows what they'll do, but they're the key part of the mission, so I gave them each an Ogryn Bodyguard to keep them safe.

I was still short on points, and reluctant to bring in any Space Marines (who are currently on another mission, ensuring the supply drop of biscuits arrives). So I filled the roster any way I could: three Assassins, a Tech-Priest, and the Ratling Twins from the Blackstone Fortress (that was the bottom of the barrel you can hear).

The Welcoming Committee - Battalion Detachment, Tempestous Scions

• Colonel Bunny 'Badger' Crossley-Blythe - Tempestor Prime (HQ)
  Chainsword, Tempestus Command Rod
  Warlord Trait: Faithful Servant of the Throne
  Additional Ability: Hard to Kill
  Relic: Kurov's Aquila
• Commissar Bleeth - Lord Commissar (HQ)
  Bolt pistol, Power sword
• Z.I.S.S. - 10 x Militarum Tempestus Scions (Troop)
  5 x Hot-Shot Lasguns, 4 x Hot-Shot Volley Guns, Vox-Caster, Sgt with Chainsword and Hot-Shot Laspistol
• Squad Rogers - 10 x Militarum Tempestus Scions (Troop)
  5 x Hot-Shot Lasguns, 2 x Flamer, 2 x Meltagun, Vox-Caster, Sgt with Chainsword and Hot-Shot Laspistol
• Squad Tyneberry - 8 x Militarum Tempestus Scions (Troop)
  4 x Hot-Shot Lasguns, 4 Plasma guns, Vox-Caster, Sgt with Chainsword and Hot-Shot Laspistol
• Command Squad Piggott - 4 x Militarum Tempestus Scions (Elite)
  Platoon Standard, Vox-Caster, Medic, Grenade Launcher
• Rein and Raus - Ratling Snipers (Elite)
  Sniper rifle, Stub Pistol, Demolition Charge
• Spanners - Tech-Priest Enginseer (Elite)
  Omnissian Axe, Servo-Arm
• Brunhilde - 1 x Taurox Prime (Transport)
  Taurox Battle Cannon, Two Autocannons, Heavy Stubber
• Sigurny - 1 x Taurox Prime (Transport)
  Taurox Gatling Cannon, Two Hot-shot Volley Guns, Heavy Stubber

The Top Brass - Vanguard Detachment, Astra Militarum 

• Commissar Colderine - Lord Commissar (HQ)
  Bolt pistol, Power fist
• Major Tom - Astropath
  Telepathica Stave
• Padre - Ministorum Priest 
  Laspistol, Power maul
• Rear-Admiral Bigglesworth - Officer of the Fleet
  Laspistol
• Ox - Ogryn Bodguard
  Bullgryn Plate, Grenadier Gauntlet, Huge Knife
• Cam - Ogryn Bodguard
  Bullgryn Plate, Brute Shield, Bullgryn Maul
• Hull - Ogryn Bodguard
  Bullgryn Plate, SlabShield, Bullgryn Maul
• Ingrid - 1 x Valkyrie (Transport)
  2 x Multiple Rocket Pods, Lascannon, 2 x Heavy Bolters

[classified] - Vanguard Detachment, Officio Assassanorum 

• [Classified] - Callidus Assassin
  Neural Shredder, Phase Sword, Poison Blades
• [Classified] - Culexus Assassin
  Animus Speculum, Psyk-out Grenades
• [Classified] - Vindicare Assassin
  Blind Grenades, Exitus Pistol, Exitus Rifle

Points: 1500 | Battle-forged + Battalion + Vanguard + Mission Bonus: 10 CPs

Terrain and Deployment

Victory on Zamaroon has been declared! But no sooner has the bunting been strung up for VZ Day, the celebrations are cut short by another incursion of the assumed-liquidated Clutch 7E.

While the honour parade of Scions scramble to prepare their weapons, the trio of top Imperial dignitaries must reach the transmit beacon and communicate vital intelligence to alert the orbiting fleet. If they fail, the Hive Mind will swarm over the main compound and all the Militarum's work will be undone.

We're playing Cut Off The Head mission (appropriately) from the Chapter Approved 2018 book. Each side had 3 'Intel Points' to distribute as evenly as possible between its characters (I gave one each to the Astropath, Officer of the Fleet and Ministorum Priest; Kraken gave one to his Neurothrope and two to the Hive Tyrant).

From the start of the second battle round, you score a point if an 'Intel Character' is claiming the single, central objective (no other unit can claim this). And from the end of the third battle round, you score points for however many Intel Characters remain on the board (embarked or otherwise).

I like the scenario - and it fits very well with our narrative - but, blimey, the scoring conditions are anything but intuitive.

Yeah, they really messed with my head. We kept having to read the rules out loud to ourselves, and even then, I remain confused. 

The way of dealing with the bugs is from the distance of a long-range cannon, so I did my best to avoid trouble. Loaded the Taurox Primes with Scions and parked them on the back line, accompanied by the Tempestor Prime, Lord-Commissar and Tech-Priest

The third Squad went on the roof of the nearby building, along with the Command Squad, Ratling Twins and another Lord Commissar.

The three VIPs, along with their Ogryn Bodyguards, all pile into the Valkyrie. It seems narratively appropriate to put them in there, and may also come in handy when I need to rush the central objective in later turns.

With the genestealers all comfortably housed in various embryonic wobblepods or scuttling underground behind the Trygon, my remaining command group settle in around the Venomthropes to rush the middle and score points. The Hive Guard find a lovely corner to lurk in, and the Warriors take a distant flank, hoping to run and take over the bunker in the woods. If I want, I could consider grabbing the tower too, and raining bonus mortars on the Guard, but that's not really the mission here. 

Hive Fleet Afanc - Turn 1

I run, breaking from cover. I can see the little humans cowering in their steel shells. I can hear their thoughts. I know they are afraid of me, that they thought they had defeated me and did not know I would return. 

As the Lord of the Swarm, I rush forward, but without haste. I cover my tracks in a cloud of spores that I breathe out of my Venomthrope lungs, and I cover my advance with implacable hails of impaler flies from my Hive Guard. I am their cannons, I am the bullets. I batter myself into the hulls of their trucks, seeking the weak parts and drilling through with claw and tooth. 

My advance is not straightforward. I rush alongside myself, flanking them through the jungle. I am in the air, I am below the ground. 

My jaws are closing on them, and they do not see the bite I will take. 

There was a dice I saw in the local FLoGS that matched my hive fleet colours, more or less, and I bought it on a whim. Hurrah! It stole me the first turn!

Not a very exciting first turn, the bulk of my army is waiting to arrive later. But as the command core heads for the scoring node in the middle, I'm already rolling poorly - very few psychic buffs beyond Catalyst on the Venomthropes, and a round of very whiffy shooting from the Hive Guard. Which I doubled down on with strategems, and did even worse with the second time. Bah!

9th Hagan Lampreys - Turn 1

++ I say, Badger, are those bugs creeping towards us? ++

++ Looks that way, don't it? I thought we'd swept this compound? ++

++ Perhaps the desk johnnies were a bit premature, what? ++

++ By Jove, Colderine. If they get their hands on the big nobs in the Valkyrie, it would be a rum do. ++

++ This is the Colonel to Taurox Sigurny: be a dear and brass up those floating chaps at the front. ++

++ Good shooting. Well done, that van! Spotters say there's only one left. ++

++ Let the Ratling take a pop at it. ++

++ Yes! That's the ticket - he got him with a head shot. ++

++ Stout fellow! ++

I get the initiative stolen from me! Well, that's entirely appropriate I suppose, and I do my best to scramble a response.

I jump out the squad from the Gatling Taurox, to push out the deepstrike bubble that is surely coming. The Gatling Taurox vrooms into range, and everything else stays put - mostly out of range, but I'm not get closer.

I also keep the Valkyrie hovering in place - not sure that was a good idea, considering what happened last time, but we'll see.

The Shooting Phase wasn't too bad - the Gatling Taurox rips into the Venomthropes, leaving only one left on a single wound. Rein the Ratling Sniper takes aim and pops him off!

With their shrouding aura gone, I open up on the exposed Swarmlord with everything else - and pretty much whiff. Ah well, you can't have them all. And I do score First Strike for Rein's marksmanship.

Hive Fleet Afanc - Turn 2

My mouthparts close. I taste my revenge.

Up through the soil I rip, my Trygon self breaching the ground and taking a great gulp of air after hours of digging in the darkness. And I burst from the ground behind, my genestealer legs pumping and talons stretching. 

I am inside their bunker. My Warrior claws force through their doors, and I too wear a steel shell. With a clench of muscle, I hurl spines of crystal poison into their ranks, throw razor-sharp hairs bristling with powerful static amongst their flesh, fling my just-born eggs into their eyes. They reel, they die. 

I am crashing out of the sky. My ventricles contort, my brood is birthed anew on the soil of Zamaroon. 

Flexing mind and will, I distort the immaterium and hurl half-real spikes of ether amongst their puny bodies. They die where I look at them, each one perpetually and eternally destroyed. They can kill me a million times and I still live. 

With a thought, I spur myself onwards. As a genestealer, I tear a man's head off, leap under the knife swing of another to bury my teeth in his gut. As a hive guard, I pour a torrent of foot-long, knife-mouthed flies into the air. 

But I also bide my time. I have immortality on my side. I do not need to squander my flesh to conquer a world as these little creatures do. 

A mixed round - now I'm in range, and the weight of biofirepower starts to cripple the enemy tanks, but still pretty slowly. Venom cannons from the Tyrannocyte and Warriors fail to finish off the damaged Missile Taurox, even after another twin round of shooting from the Hive Guard (who are whiffing to beat the band! Ruddy New Model Syndrome!). 

I get the small genestealer squad in after boosting it forward with the Swarmlord, but they don't do terribly well. Mostly because I can't actually get all that many into direct combat with the Command Squad they charge, but I do tie up the entire gun line to make up for it. 

Alas, both the Trygon and the big 'stealer squad miss their charges. If only I'd made it into the Valkyrie! But it's not to be - I roll so badly even a reroll isn't worth the points for a one in six chance. Well, I'll just have to get it later. 

9th Hagan Lampreys - Turn 2

++ Zounds! Those four-armed blighters are getting awfully cosy, Badger! ++

++ Not to worry, Colderine, the colours still stand. Drivers - get reversing those Taurox. Rogers - have your melta chaps take aim on the big blighter, and give those genestealers a little tickle with the flamers. ++

++ Badger, look to the comms-relay... ++

++ Just a tick, Colderine. Tyneberry, I want your lads to get back in the fight and treat those genestealers to a taste of the hot-shot. Send a couple of plasma shots over at the beastie while you're about it.

++ Badger - the comms-relay, I do believe those brain-bugs are operating it! ++

++ Clever blighters, what? Are you sure you should have sent the Valkyrie over there? ++

++ Don't fuss, old crocus. I'd set some precautions in case this happens, courtesy of my old chums in the Assassanorium. ++

++ I say, one of those floating bugs just went down with a shot through the mandibles! That sniper was no Ratling! ++

++ Indeed no. Looks like the other two have squished the big brain bug. That'll teach him a lesson. ++

++Jolly good show. ++

I dodged a potentially game-ending bullet with that failed charge on the Valkyrie. Time to strike back, and bring in the Assassins (while reminding myself what the rules are for the assassins).

That's the Index rules, we're not quite up to date with the newest ones. Thank the heavens. 

Everything falls out of combat with the Genestealers, but the Prime orders them to get back in the fight and the massed firepower wipes out the smaller unit. The meltas don't manage to take out the Trygon, so I suspect my newly-freed vehicles are about to get tied up again (though the Missile Taurox does get some repairs from the Tech-Priest).

When it comes time to drop the Assassins, the Vindicare takes up the traditional sniper spot in the Sentry Tower, and begins well by killing one of the Zoanthropes.

The Callidus and Culexus double-team the Neurothrope and kill him with remarkable ease. Wow, these guys are a lot more effective that I was expecting!

Hive Fleet Afanc - Turn 3

My sight is blurred. More pain! Why do you still fight against me, Imperium? Do you not understand the futility of it? 

I cannot feel my Neurothrope. My genestealers, I felt them perish. But only some of them. I have more, always. 

In a blink, I am amongst their ranks again. Coughing acid into the face of their stunted sniper creatures, pulling the legs off a vox operator, eviscerating a Commissar. I know their names. I have fought them a thousand times. I know the best and fastest ways to kill them. 

Seething through the hatches of their broken missile tank, I devour the driver and gunner as a host of carnivorous flies. My flashing talons scythe a great rent in the hull of the other tank, my Trygon strength peeling it apart like a melon. 

But their flying tank, the great white one, evades me. I sense its pregnant belly, feel the ill-will of the child-brutes within, but dimly. Something presses on my temples, clouds my thought. I cannot see or think clearly. One of their abominations is upon me, an un-creature that fogs my will and confuses my plans.

They think I am unnatural and alien, but harbour such cancers amongst their own flesh? They are evil. I will defeat them. I will eat away the filth they pollute the universe with, and leave every world clean of it. 

What! Who dares shut down my psychic phase? That's usually my trick, and I certainly don't like being on the receiving end. The Culexus is going to be much too much hard work to kill, sadly, so I'm just going to have to suck it up. 

More headway - I'm scoring already, I hold the objective with the Swarmlord. And the large 'stealer pack descends on the Volley Gun squad plus supporting cast with rather inevitable consequences, although my standard whiffalaunch means it costs me three more CPs to eat the lot of them. At least I can eat the brains of a Commissar to get a couple back, but I'm already very low! 

The Trygon on its last legs very nearly finishes the Gatling Taurox in one, and the Missile one goes down to various spurts of fire. But now there's a very nasty counterpunch developing in the middle, with those assassins closing on the Swarmlord as the Valkyrie prepares to discharge its load...

9th Hagan Lampreys - Turn 3

++ Colderine, old chap, we seem to have lost vox-contact with the squad on the roof. Do you have anything from your pal, Bleeth? ++

++ Seems they've been eaten, Badger, old goose. ++

++ Oh, what a rotten shame. Tyneberry - get those hot-shots onto the roof. First rank fire, second rank fire, that sort of thing. And let's get those meltas to polish off that damned big bug. ++

++ Badger! I do believe Padre is leading the charge to retake the comms-relay! ++

++ Really, at his age? Well, I hope the Ogryns are doing the heavy lifting. That bug with all the swords looks a bit of a devil. ++

++ I'm sure Padre knows what he's ... I say! Did you see that orbital strike? Squashed one of those bugs dead-centre on his carapace! ++

++ Bigglesworth has friends in high places, what? ++ 

Swarmlord or not, I need to make a play for the central objective before the victory points get away from me.

The Valkyrie unloads it passengers, then flies off to harass the Hive Guard. My Assassins, Ogryn Bodyguards and VIPs all move to take on the Swarmlord.

The Officer of the Fleet calls down an orbital strike - I have to use Command Point re-roll to make it work (it's a once-per-game ability), but it pays off when it squashes a whole Zoanthrope.

My last intact squad of Scions double-rapid-fires at the Genestealers, wiping out about half of them. The last two meltas fail once against on the Trygon Prime, but luckily I'd dedicated a couple of overcooked plasma guns to it, and that's enough to end it.

The Vindicare and Valkyrie combine to all-but wipe out the Hive Guard. The latter is aided by the Officer of the Fleet's targeting ability - for his points, he's a useful little character. So is the Priest, who's buffing the Ogryn charge. The only dead weight is the Astropath, who's basically useless.

I charge the Swarmlord with all three Ogryns, the Callidus and the Ministorum Priest. With all the bonuses, I'm able to kick out a bucket of high-strength attacks that take a chunk out of the big bug.

More impressively, with the Swarmlord splitting attacks between the Priest and the Callidus - and generally having a poor run of dice rolls - everything I have survives the counterattack!

'A Poor Run of Dice Rolls' is going to be my epitaph, I swear. Worse, I've managed to leave the Genestealers out of synapse. I'm not just unlucky, I'm also careless, and I lose another four to morale. 

Hive Fleet Afanc - Turn 4

They call me a swarm. They cannot help but think of my parts as separate beings, fractured things that they are. No, I am singular. One body, one mind. I am a fire, they are sparks. Where I am whole, it is they that are a swarm, a cloud, a host. 

It is hard to swat them all. 

Away from the abomination's pall, I burst their last tank with a flare of warp-thought. My genestealer limbs pull down their idiot commander and feast on his pitiful store of knowledge. Renewed, I swing at the foe with all the fury of the Swarmlord. I know what they will do. They mean to pull down their fleet here, land the god machines and trample my nest flat. 

I will be gone from here before they manage it. 

The Swarmlord is very bogged down, and I get my priorities a bit skewed in an attempt to focus on the mission. If I kill the Priest, I'll be holding the objective rather than tying for it, so I do my best to finish him. But really, if I killed off the Bodyguards, that would be easier - my thinking is split between 50% thinking that it's easier to wound the little vicar, 50% thinking that killing him debuffs the big boys and 150% pure vindictive rage that he isn't already dead. 

There's not much army left elsewhere, but it's still pretty satisfying to swoop across the back lines with the last genestealers and eat the Tempestor Prime. I've never seen one live through a battle yet, I don't think, and it's even more satisfying to pull Feeder Tendrils again and regenerate my Command Point stash.

Which I immediately blow on a second round of Swarmlord combat, which whiffs again! Nyaaargh!

9th Hagan Lampreys - Turn 4

++ Badger! I do believe we're getting the upper hand. Look at the way the Valkyrie's hosing down those last few bugs! ++

++ Afraid I can't quite get up to look, Colderine. It appears the old legs have been eaten off. ++

++ Oh what, a frightful bore. ++

++ Yes, it's a sticky wicket and no mistake. Still, be a poppet and kill the rest of those genestealers before they swarm me, would you? ++

++ Righty-ho! Oh, and it looks like Padre's gone for a Burton too. ++

++ Well, he was pushing his luck somewhat. Still those Ogryn chappies don't seem to be to pleased. They've smashed that big bug into pulp. ++

++ Good for them. I wonder if any beer survived from the party. I've got quite the thirst on me. ++

++ Me too. I could get completely legless, what? ++

The rest of my guns continue to clean up the remaining Tyranids. The Vindicare pops off the last Zoanthrope, the Valkyrie shoots up both Hive Guard and Tyranid Warriors (aided by the Callidus, who can duck out of combat shoot them, then dash back in).

In the combat, what's left of my Scion squad is able to beat up the last Genestealers, but my Ministorum Priest's rare run of luck comes to an end not even the Ogryns can soak his last wound. However, he is swiftly avenged by the Callidus and Ogryns, who drag down the Swarmlord - and with it, Kraken's last scoring unit.

Hive Fleet Afanc - Turn 5

My eyes close. My work here is done. The God Machines will come after all, I could not stop them. But I will be long gone. They do not realise their worlds are already dead. I am everywhere, I am unstoppable, I am unkillable. 

 Enjoy your last moments under your last remaining suns. I am your new god, Imperium. I am the Hive Mind. I'm coming for you. 

Result: Imperial Victory! Mission Accomplished!

Reclamation Pool

Well, that could have all gone very wrong. But a failed charge on the Valkyrie means that Imperial hubris gets to live on!

Maybe the one-in-six might have been worth a gamble after all! All the same, bringing down a Valkyrie in a single turn, even with twenty 'stealers, would have been a bit of a long shot. If I hadn't, it would still have flown away to the middle, and I really didn't have a good counter to it. 

I don't think I'll be taking three assassins again - they're clearly a lot more than point-stuffers and one is quite enough for a good fight.

Please don't read the new rules for them. And if you do, please don't bring three. And if you do, please don't fight me. 

The other little characters, though, were a lot of fun (except you Astropath, get back to the ship). The Officer of the Fleet, Tech-Priest and - most of all - Ministorum Priest all had some nice little bonuses to them.

I think Scions make a good a counter for Tyranids - they're cheaper than Marines, but more durable than Guardsmen, and can kick out enough firepower to delete units, especially with orders going on.

Yes! And although victory went to the Scions this time, I feel like my overall plan (and this army) went fairly well. The genestealers are much harder to wipe out at range when they suddenly appear in great droves on your doorstep. And the Taurox Firing Line was pretty much out of action throughout the game. 

It was an unusual scenario - and one that basically resulted in a huge scrum in the centre. I think if Kraken had chosen some non-targetable HQs to carry his intel points (and I hadn't flooded the field with assassins), it might have had a very different character.

Maybe? It was actually very close until the last two rounds, when I folded quite hard. Perhaps if I'd pulled the big Genestealer squad back to the middle instead of raiding the back line for Victory Points, that would have been sensible - I could have popped the strategem to let them leg it after eating up the hotshots, and I doubt even my whiffing could have let the Ogryns survive that onslaught. Great game, though, tense enough to keep me coming back!

Glory Points

Despite clearing the field, for the most part, there wasn't a host of experience points to be had for my units. For one thing, a lot of the killing was done by my characters (who don't qualify). For another, my squishy humans keep getting wiped out, and that costs them +D3 experience (and when I rolled, poor Squad Rogers and Z.I.S.S. squad went back to zero).

Squad Tyneberry, on the other hand, got to build on their lead from last game. They gunned down a whole pack of Genestealers, finished off more Genestealers in melee, and delivered the final wound to a Trygon Prime. And uniquely, they didn't die!

This also qualifies them for my MVP award, and when you tot that up, they're on 10pts and can leap to a Level 2 Battle Honour. I can only choose 'Lucky' for them.

• Squad Tyneberry +10
• Brunhilde +4
• Sigurny +2
• Ingrid +3

Have I earned anything yet? Glory or experience? No? Ah, well. My MVP was the Tyrannocyte, mostly by dint of me using the wrong gun on it. I was convinced it had Venom Cannons for the first two rounds of shooting, hence the mess it made of the Missile Taurox, but at least it got a kill and lived. 

Now, I'm way behind on glory here, having yet to score any. After three games, it stands at something like 5:0, and if we keep the campaign to our original five game plan, I'd be willing to bet I can't remotely get near a draw, let alone victory. So there might be a narrative twist coming up, and possibly even a return to an elderly and beloved game system...

Stand by for Part IV of the Zamaroon Campaign!