Polar Ingress: Ultramarines vs Tyranids

General Hotspur returns - time for a Historical Battle!



We'd decided on something narrative for this outing. Hotspur was sporting some brand new Terminators for his Ultramarines, so what better than a refight of the 1st Company's last stand during the first Tyrannic War?

My Necromunda tunnels make for a decent underground bunker, if a little small for a thousand points. So we're playing 500 points a side, and using the Meat Grinder mission from the core rules. This means I've got 5-7 turns to wipe the Ultramarines out to a man, whilst all they have to do is not die.

Hive Fleet Behemoth isn't my usual pick, but free rerolls for all charges is nothing to sniff about! Knowing also that all my units can reappear from my table edge if killed means I can throw them into the guns with gay abandon. Some decent firepower from a Warrior squad to support the short range tidal wave that is a large Termagant pack, a medium Genestealer squad and a Neurothrope to lead them. Then a wild card - I've never used a Lictor in the new edition, but the fluff for the battle mentions them, so time to try!

Hive Fleet Behemoth Patrol

• HQ - Neurothrope with Smite and The Horror
• Troops - 4 x Tyrannid Warriors, three with Boneswords and Deathspitters, one with Rending Claws and Venom Cannon
• Troops - 10 x Genestealers
• Troops - 24 x Termagants, 10 with Devourers
• Elites - 1 x Lictor

The First Company of the Ultramarines are today represented by a squad of five Terminators sporting a Cyclone Missile Launcher. Hotspur had an original lead one back in the day, but it went missing at a tournament. He'd been pining after one, and of course the nice thing about being a grown-up is being able to buy all the toys you missed from your youth!

Backing them up are a Captain, a Chaplain and pair of Tyrannic War Veteran squads. Now, I know what you're thinking, you're thinking that Tyrannic War Veterans didn't exist until after the 1st Tyrannic War, they were in fact created to help replace the catastrophic loss of the entire 1st Company in the Battle for Macragge. But nuts to you! Because these are battle-hardened survivors of several weeks of tunnel fighting, so they know what they're about.

Ultramarines Vanguard Detachment

• HQ - Chaplain with combi-melta, Recitation of Focus, Litany of Hate
• HQ - Captain with plasma pistol and relic blade, Warlord with Sanctic Halo and Adept of the Codex
• Elites - 4 x Tyrannic War Veteran
• Elites - 4 x Tyrannic War Veteran
• Elites - 5 x Terminators with a Cyclone Missile Launcher and Teleport Homer

Terrain and Deployment

Our Polar Fortress has a big generator room at the back with three doors leading into it. These block line of sight but not movement, unless the Ultramarines spend a turn holding the data panel beside the generator itself (as they would an objective). Then they can lock the doors, turning them into T4 W3 4+ save roadblocks.

Otherwise there's a long clear corridor down the middle, but plenty of line of sight corridors down the sides.

Meat Grinder has the defenders setting up using secret blip tokens, and Hotspur duly deploys some so I don't know where he is. Neither of us bother with the special strategems to let us tweak this, we've only got three each and can't spare them. Nor is he allowed any deep strikers, so the poor old Termies have to stand guard.

Once I've committed my guys to the ground, we reveal to see that the Ultramarines are standing ready across the barricades, covering the most obvious lines of approach. Predicably, I'm skulking, but not terribly effectively - both Termagants and Warriors are visible. The Lictor (hiding) and the Genestealers (using a service tunnel down the side) are doing a much better job!

Before the game starts, I get an opening salvo. This is supposed to be a bombardment in the game, but we're using it to represent the fact that these few survivors have taken a drubbing recently. I roll a dice for each unit, and on a 6, it takes d6 mortal wounds! Nasty, although there is a strategem Hotspur can use to mitigate this somewhat, as well as opting to skip a first turn to halve the damage if he wants.

Who'd have thought it - the brand new Terminators are the only ones to get hit with this. Hotspur spends a command point to have them in Foxholes, so the five wounds I roll turns into a mere three. That's already more Terminators than he can spare, though, and a daunting prospect to start the game.

Hotspur then gets the first turn on a randomised roll, and we're off!

Turn 1

The Marines waste no time in consolidating into the middle. With Chaplain Bob chanting away in the middle, this makes for a fiercely effective shooting castle.

Sure enough, the Tyranids take a bit of a pounding, with half the Warriors copping it to whatever those Veterans are packing in their souped-up bolters, and the Terminators taking a healthy bite out of the Termagants with storm bolters and frag missiles.

Attempting to nonchalantly shrug this off, I send the Genestealers scuttling down the side corridor, safely out of sight, whilst the remaining troops try to distract the boys in blue.

Not much gets through their armour, though, and all I can manage is a single Terminator down. Every little helps!

Turn 2

Huddling ever closer together, the Marines carry on hosing down the incoming tide. Every last Termagant is picked off in a withering hail of frag and bolt, and the last of the Warriors don't last long either.

Good job there's more of them! I don't get the Termagants back, but a second wave of Warriors arrive and manage to pick off a Veteran at long range.

The Genestealers pause in their access tunnel, ready for next turn, and although the Lictor has dropped out of a ceiling duct, it can't quite make the charge to the Chaplain yet.

The Neurothrope shuffles forward into smiting range, but singularly fails to cast anything. Bah.

Turn 3

Hotspur is starting to feel the pinch a little. Knowing the Genestealers and Lictor are going to be on him momentarily, the Ultramarines shift their line toward the Neurothrope.

Their concentrated firepower, thanks to Vicar Bob, wipes out the new Warriors in short order. Then the Captain valiantly murders the Neurothrope after Bob dings it with a Melta shot (only two wounds rolled, reduced to one after a reroll! Typical!).

Is charging the Neurothrope playing into my claws? Not that he can risk a lucky smite going off, in fairness. But the Captain is left dangling in the breeze as a third squad of Warriors and a new Termagant pack pour into the complex, and he loses a couple of wounds to a hefty barrage.

Another Veteran also goes down, and then the Lictor pounces on the rearmost Veterans as the Genestealers pile on to the Terminators and Chaplain.

Hotspur brandishes a strategem - his last of the match, linking overwatch fire with a defensive gambit so that all the remaining squads can help against this charge. The Lictor takes a wound, two genestealers die, but it's not nearly enough.

The Terminators go down before they get a hit in, but Bob is feeling feisty and refuses to join them, although he's left on a single wound. Two of the 'stealers die to his return bashing. The Lictor, however, bites off a lot more than it can chew, and is torn to shreds by the Veterans after missing all of its attacks.

Turn 4

The Ultramarines very sensibly start pulling back, tucking themselves into the side tunnels so I won't be able to shoot them and then tearing up the remaining Genestealers. This takes up all their firepower, somehow, so they're going to have to rely on staying in cover now!

No CPs spent from me - until now. As a second squad of Genestealers turns up, I spend two to drop them in a flanking position.

There's nothing apparently stopping me from being right next to the Marines in this battle, but that feels a bit unsporting, so I stay a regulation 9" back. Genestealers like lurking, remember! Everything else lopes forward, and I'm rewarded with a new Lictor and Neurothrope.

The marines are well hidden, though, but not so well hidden that the Termagants can't pick off another Veteran. No charges (the length of the corridor means I can't get in round the corner even if I am 9" away). Against these odds, the second wave is looking overwhelming, and the Marines are now very much on the back foot.

Turn 5

Gritting their manly teeth, half the Veterans and the Captain go to take on the Genestealers. Bob and the boys head to the reactor room, taking cover from the incoming bugs.

Until now, the Veterans have been a very reliable source of death. Deprived of the Chaplain's hearty singing voice, however, they suddenly go a bit limp. Charging into the Genestealers doesn't go well for them - the narrow corridor means the Captain can't charge in to help them, and a whiffy round of combat leaves the Genies to easily munch through them in return.

In my turn, these same gribblies pile round the corner and batter the Captain. Not into submission, sadly, they leave him on a pair of wounds, although he's trapped against a wall by the remaining three.

Everything else goes hell for leather towards the generator room - I need to get in there fast! This could be the last turn, but luckily I'm given another round to finish off the marines.

Turn 6

Bob and his chums leg it for the control panel, but don't quite get the rolls they need to reach it, jumping into cover behind some barricades instead. The Captain slashes his way out of the Genestealers, shooting one with his plasma pistol for added heroic posing points.

Alas, this leaves him wide open to a Lictor charge. It somehow flesh hooks a wound off him, then finishes him off in combat. Spending my last CP allows it to eat his brains, and I manage to get all my three CPs back! Splendid!

If only this had happened before the shooting phase, though - there are plenty of Termagants to fire, but they're in a bit of a rush. The Veterans are left with a single man alive, whilst Bob bellows his prayers behind some boiler plate.

Is this the end for the Ultramarines? Maybe - it's still not the last turn!

Turn 7

Remembering an appointment with the Ordo Dentatus, Bob slips out of the side door and into a maze of tunnels again. If he can just remember the way to the surface, he'll be fine.

"Sergeant Cassius! Hold the fort, will you? I'm just popping out for milk."

His remaining pal goes and hunkers down behind the generator, closing his eyes and holding his breath.

It's my last turn, and there's everything to play for! I need some fast movement. The Lictor has a long charge on to the Chaplain, but taking a single wound off him is easily done if I get there. And either a good charge or a long advance for the Termagants should be enough to finish off that last Veteran. So it's down to the wire!

And what wire it proves to be. I decide on the charge for the Termagants, it seems more cinematic, so they seethe into position. The Lictor, who really moves like the clappers, also beetles onward.

Nobody's done the 'They're inside the room' gag from Aliens yet. Still time, though.

Turns out it needs a ten and rolls a seven, but it's the kind of seven (6-1 split) that a decent command point reroll could easily convert. Lucky I ate all those brains, really!

Or not - everyone knows when you reroll a one, you always get another one in moments of high tension. So it proves today, and when the Termagants fail their 5" charge, that's really the final nail. The last two marines doubtless won't survive long after this, but they've done enough. The 3rd Company is on its way!

Don't move! It can't see us if we don't move!

Major Victory to the Ultramarines!

Locker Room

That was a hoot - the rules and terrain really made for a characterful battle. The endless tide of Tyranids very nearly won out, and those last few turns got pretty tense!

Solid showing as ever for the Ultramarines, as you'd expect. Those overlapping command auras really are the business, even those few small squads could blow through two dozen termagants without breaking a sweat. Even in combat against elite murder monsters, they're no slouches!

The Neurothrope did nothing for me in this match, Catalyst would have been a much much better pick for a second power. The Lictor, on the other hand, that caught my eye a little! They aren't that hard hitting, but they're fairly cheap and a lot faster than I realised. Not a bad way of shutting down a backline squad for a turn, perhaps, if a bit weedier than I'd like in combat. If I can convert myself one (I don't really like the old finecast one), I could see it getting action.

Great game, anyway, and another one planned in a few weeks!