Weekend at Burnie's 4 - Day 2 - Creations of Bile vs Tyranids and Imperial Fists

Day 2 of Weekend at Burnie's 4 - can the Creations of Bile continue their winning streak?

In Bristol, no-one can hear you scream...

My army list, in case you missed it yesterday:

• Mirgluf - Daemon Prince with Wings (HQ) (Warlord)
  Hellforged sword, Malefic talons, Mark of Slaanesh
  Trait: Prime Test Subject
  Relic: Living Carapace
  Psychic: Prescience, Delightful Agonies, Smite
• Servilius - Master of Possession (HQ)
  Bolt pistol, Force stave, Frag & Krak grenades, 
  Psychic powers: Pact of Flesh, Warp Marked, Smite
• Krempe - Exalted Champion (HQ)
  Combi-melta, Exalted power axe, Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak grenades 
• 5 x Legionnaires (Troop)
  Power Maul, Boltguns, Bolt Pistols, Heavy chainaxe, Missile launcher
  Chaos Icon: Mark of Tzeentch
• Hortensius - Master of Executions (Elite)
  Axe of Dismemberment, Bolt Pistol, Frag & Krak Grenades
  Gifts of Chaos: Gorget of Eternal Hate
  Aspiring Lord: Twisted Regeneration
• 5 x Chosen (Elite)
  Accursed weapon, Power fist, Bolt pistol, Boltgun, Frag & Krak grenades
  Trophies of the Long War: Black Rune of Damnation
  Chaos Icon: Mark of Slaanesh
• 7 x Possessed (Elite)
  Hideous mutations, Chaos Icon
• 5 x Warp Talons (Fast)
  Warp claws
• Venomcrawler (Fast)
  2 x Excruciator cannons, Soulflayer tendrils and claws 
• 2 x Obliterators (Heavy)
  Fleshmetal Guns, Crushing fists
• Forgefiend (Heavy)
  3 x Ectoplasma cannons

Points: 1499 | Level: 92 | Battle-forged + Arks of Omen - Aspiring Lord – Gifts of Chaos Trophies of the Long War: 3 CPs

Game 3 - Tyranids

I'd better make this game an entertaining one - my opponent had crossed an ocean to play! WrathofConstantine is an absolute gent from Pennsylvania, and brought a beautiful metallic colourshift Tyranids army.

Wrath is all about narrative play, but that didn't stop his Tyranids from terrifying me. A murderous/indestructable Winged Hive Tyrant, Tervigon, Tyrannofex, Trygon Prime, Carnifex, plenty of little bugs and a cheeky Lictor.

Unlike my first two games, I was looking to get outmatched in melee, shooting, psychic and sheer numbers (what did I spent my points on?). The scenario was everyone's favourite - multiball! (every round, a randomised objective is worth double points).

We faced our armies Dawn of War style, and I got the first turn. Sticking with my usual tactic, I stuck my Legionnaires on my home objective and then weighted everything else on the right flank.

There wasn't much damage inflicted in the first turn, always I was able to crowd over two more objectives, and then race my Chosen, Exalted Champion and Master of Executions onto the central objective. I was really sticking my next out there, but the central objective was that turn's multiball, so I wanted to be sure that something would be alive to claim it.

Sure enough, in the Tyranids' first turn, the Chosen took the brunt of the fire. I completely forgot about my Black Rune of Damnation (there is a lot of S5 weapons in the bugs these days), but it probably wouldn't have made a difference. Crucially, my Chosen champion survived the death of his squad to nab the double points.

The Hive Tyrant went straight into my Daemon Prince, and I feared the worst. But it turns out, both warlords were nasty combat monsters with an invulnerable save and the ability to shrug wounds. 

They battled it out for two epic rounds. I reckon I would have had it in the third round, but the Hive Tyrant had clearly had enough by then and blasted him away with a Smite. It continued to rampage across my flank, eating both Forgefiend and Venomcrawler.

The only unit from that flank to be spared were the Possessed, and that's because they had sprinted far away from the Hive Tyrant to clobber the Carnifex and begin their own rampage across the Tyranid back line.

The final model in my 'strong' flank was the Master of Possession, who has a habit of being left behind when his creations run on ahead. He was jumped by a deepstriking Lictor, and taken out in a single round. But Creations of Bile don't go down easily - I rolled for him to fight back, did uncommonly well with his force stave, and killed the Lichor with his dying blow. Incredible!

My central push had been whittled down to the Master of Possession, who had been screened out of all the juicy targets and had to settle on killing Termagants. With a 2+ save, thanks to his Gorget of Eternal Hate, I was confident he could tie up the swarm for a couple of turns. However the critters slipped through and pulled him down in a couple of rounds.

Elsewhere, a sweeping motion around the left flank ended badly when my Warp Talons failed to scratch the Tyrannofex, and got acid sprayed to death. My Exalted Champion didn't even reach melee before he was surprised by the arrival of the Trygon Prime from underground and swarmed by Hormagaunts.

If this all sounds like it was going badly for me, it was. But as a consolation, my gung-ho tactics had bottled up most of the Tyranids in their own deployment zone, which meant that my forces (reduced as they were) had been scoring freely on the objectives, and taking advantage of the multiball bonuses.

The Possessed, who never disappoint, had ploughed into the near-full strength unit of Termagants (with Catalyst) and butchered 27 of them in a single round - unit wiped! They proceeded to trade punches with the Tervigon for the rest of the game, which kept them both out of trouble.

My Obliterators had planted themselves on another objective and had spent their shooting either whittling down little bugs or failing to kill big ones (their shooting for the whole weekend really did not impress). 

But they were scoring points and, since it was looking very likely I was going to get tabled, the goal was to rack up enough on the scoreboard so that, when the Tyranids had control of the field, it would be too late score.

The final fight of the battle was a duel for the ages: if a lone Hormagaunt (the last of his unit) could kill the last Obliterator (one a single wound), he would take a key objective and tip the balance of the game.

In the end, the daemonkin won the fistfight and the Creations of Bile won the game by the narrowest of margins.

Creations of Bile 50 : 45 Tyranids

Game 4 - Imperial Fists

My final battle of the weekend was against Space Marines, and a true feast for the eyes to face Vertica's award-winning Imperial Fists.

I've sort-of played Vertica before (as one quarter of a four-way game of absolute mayhem at the 2022 DZTV Open Day), but this would be my first proper game. He'd gone for an all-Primaris theme of overwhelming firepower, and had brought many teams of Suppressors, Eliminators, Eradicators, Inceptors and Heavy Intercessors to dish it out.

He also had the crown jewel of the Imperium: a Hammerfall Bunker. These have a less than stellar reputation, but it had done some business that weekend (it also looks awesome - just look at it!).

With a points drop and the ability to shoot at everything, anywhere, all of the time, it could be the bane of an elite army that has no option but to run towards it (like mine!)

The twist for this game was that, once the warlord was dead, you could generate no further command points. This could a problem for both of us, since the Imperial Fists were being led by a Lieutenant, and my Daemon Prince has a habit of getting himself into trouble.

We rolled deployment and came up with Hammer and Anvil. So my footslogging force would have to cross the length of the table, under fire from all the guns, before getting stuck in. Eat you heart out, Light Brigade.

At least I won the first turn, and ran forward with everything I had. The Possessed escorted my characters into the central ruin, which at least afforded some protection, and I was able to grab four of the five objectives on the table. The only shots were my Forgefield against the Hammerfall Bunker, which did nothing but attract its attention.

And then the Imperial Fists guns opened up. By the time the smoke cleared, I had lost my Forgefiend, Venomcrawler, Warp Talons, half the Chosen and half the Possessed. An early bath was on the cards for me here.

The Bladeguard and Lieutenant then charged into the central ruin to administer the coup de grace to the Possessed, but the Daemon Prince heroically intervened and we had another warlord duel (the fourth this weekend!).

It didn't go so well for the Lieutenant, and the remaining Possessed managed to weather the flurry of power swords, which gave me hope for a fightback.

Flushed with victory, the Daemon Prince tore through the unit of Eradicators, before consolidating into the Hammerfall Bunker. The Exalted Champion led the Possessed into the Hammerfall Bunker, were counter-charged by the Heavy Intercessors, and proceeded to tear then down with accursed weapons and power fist strikes, leaving only the sergeant alive (who then failed his morale test).

With all the defending infantry cleared away, the Chaos units piled into the Hammerfall Bunker, which couldn't withstand that amount of power and was finally neutralised.

Meanwhile, the Possessed had fallen out of combat with the Bladeguard (a rarity, as they never usually back down), to allow the Master of Possession to heal up their numbers, and let the newly-arrived Obliterators open up on the Bladeguard, softening them up sufficiently for the Master of Executions to slaughter the rest.

This was a very fast moving game - Round 2 wasn't even over yet and we both had very big stacks in the dead pile! My advantage, as before, was that my fast-moving army had been able to grab lots of objectives and, although I'd taken a battering (the Chosen, for example was down to a single model), it was enough to hold the majority of the points.

But the Imperial Fists had more forces in reserve: the big unit of Inceptors deepstruck mid-table, and gunned down all the Legionnaires on my home objectives. A unit of Suppressors took out one Obliterators, while a second ploughed shots into the Daemon Prince (who knows how to ride an invulnerable save by now).

In the third-turn fightback, the Obliterators (the slain one had been resurrected by the Pact of Flesh psychic power - it's as obnoxious as the Space Marines' Selfless Healer) gunned down the Suppressors who had targeted them. This left the Master of Executions short on targets, so he joined the Exalted Champion in butchering the Eliminators.

The Possessed jumped onto the Inceptors and slew every one, while the Daemon Prince killed the second unit of Suppressors and rolled right into the Heavy Intercessors. The Wanton Slaughter phase was working out for me!

The Imperial Fists had been reduced to two squads, bottled up in their own deployment zone. By my fourth turn (and it was very sporting of Vertica to let me play until the end), everything I had converged on the loyalists, and dragged them back to the laboratories of Bile.

Creations of Bile 66 : 10 Imperial Fists

Back in the Locker Room

What a fantastic weekend of gaming! It wasn't the 4-0 undefeated run (although that's never happened before, so let me bask in that for a moment), but four brilliant opponents to roll dice against, and a really great atmosphere in the venue. The non-competitive nature was borne out by the sheer variety of armies on display (and the fact that the TOs didn't even collect scores!). I've been to all four Weekend at Burnie's, and I think I'd rate this the best.

For my own army, I was pleased with my selection. Despite the wins, I had some very close games, and took some absolute batterings, so I hope my opponents had fun too. 

The daemon engines didn't really achieve anything of note, but they draw fire and did their job. The Warp Talons had a bit of a whiff (the writing was on the wall when they began by struggling to kill off a squad of T'au), although what I wanted was a fast unit to compete around the board, and if I'd had Raptors painted, I would have taken them instead.

The Obliterators disappointed me too. As with the Warp Talons, the absence of the core keyword means they can't benefit from the various buffs available, and that counts for a lot. (I could do with that nonsense getting junked in 10th Ed).

The stars of the show were the Possessed - even when half their number had been cut down, what remained could wreak carnage among the enemy (not to mention getting resurrected by the Master of Possession, another key model).

The Chosen also seemed pretty good (and were core units), although they were more fragile and I guess they would work better in strategic reserve or a transport.

And finally, I love the work done by the killy characters: the Daemon Prince and Master of Executions did some fantastic work at getting stuck in. I didn't mind the slight nerf to the Creations of Bile army trait - it's more fun to strike back on a 50/50 roll, rather than have it automatic.

All in all, a great way to play Warhammer. And I've got some more painting to do.