Screaming Mimis: Creations of Bile vs Tyranids

Crusher Stampede vs Daemon Engines - it's a battle for the heavyweights!

Chaos Space Marines vs Tyranids!

I, Stylus, hosted this game against Rapid. He was bringing his Crusher Stampede Tyranids (if you haven't seen his fantastic Screamer-killer conversion, do check it out), and I had a Maulerfiend to test-drive. At a modest 1000pt game, this was going to get very destructive very quickly.

Chaos Space Marines - Creations of Bile

• Fabius Bile (warlord)
  Chirurgeon, Rod of Torment, Xyclos Needler, Surgeon Acolyte
• Warpsmith
  Exalted weapon, Flamer, Melta & Plasma tendrils, Mark of Slaanesh
  Enhancement: Intoxicating Exlicir
• 10 x Cultist Mob
  Autopistol & Brutal Assault weapon, 7 x Cultist firearm , Cultist grenade launcher, Heavy stubber, Mark of Chaos Undivided
  
• 5 x Legionaires
  Heavy melee weapon & plasma pistol, 2 x Astartes chainsword & bolt pistol, Heavy melee weapon, Meltagun, Icon of Chaos, Mark of Slaanesh
• 5 x Chosen
  3 x Accursed weapon, 4 x Bolt pistols, 4 x Boltguns, 1 x Plasma pistol, 1 x Power fist, 1 x Paired accursed weapons, Icon of Chaos, Mark of Chaos Undivided
• Forgefiend
  3 x Ectoplasma cannons, 1 x Armoured limbs, Mark of Nurgle
• Maulerfiend
  1 x Lasher tendrils, 1 x Maulerfiend fists, Mark of Slaanesh
• Venomcrawler
  2 x Excruciator cannons, 1 x Soulflayer tendrils and claws, Mark of Nurgle
• Venomcrawler
  2 x Excruciator cannons, 1 x Soulflayer tendrils and claws, Mark of Nurgle

Tyranids - Crusher Stampede

• Neurotyrant (warlord)
  Neurotyrant claws and lashes, Psychic scream
• 3 x Ripper Swarms
  Xenos claws and teeth
• 3 x Von Ryan's Leapers
  Leaper's talons
• 3 x Zoanthropes
  Warp blast, Xenos claws and teeth
• 2 x Carnifexes
  Carnifex scything talons, Carnifex extra scything talons, Xenos claws and teeth
• Exocrine
  Bio-plasmic cannon, Powerful limbs
• Haruspex
  Ravenous maw, Shovelling claws
• Screamer-killer
  Bio-plasmic scream, Screamer-kill talons

Mission and deployment

We're playing that staple of casual knockout games - Multiball! Five objectives, each worth 1 VP if secured at the end of a player turn. If you secure the active objective - determined by a D6 roll at the start of each round - you get D3 VP. And if a 6 is rolled - every objective becomes active!

We deployed along the long edge of the table, Dawn of War style. On the chaos side, Fabius Bile led the Chosen along the extreme left flank, then the Cultist Mob (who really were out of their depth) in the ruins next to them.

In the centre was the Warpsmith shepherding the Maulerfiend, Forgefiend and Venomcrawler. One the right flank was the other Venomcrawler and the Legionaires.

On the Tyranids, the Zoanthropes took the right flank (opposite Fabius Bile), with the Haruspex, Carnifexs and Screamer Killer in the centre. The Exocrine was also central, along the back line, to provide fire support. The Neurotyrant was floating close to the big monsters, with the Ripper Swarms looking after the objective on the far left left.

Von Ryan's Leapers scouted ahead and deployed right on the central objective (brave bugs).

Creations of Bile won the roll-off for first turn and we were away!

Turn 1

The game starts with every objective being the Multiball! So grabbing objectives is already critical.

The Creations of Bile begin with some aggressive moves: Bile and his Chosen raced down the flank, while the Maulerfiend pushed through the central ruins. The Cultists took the back left objective (and promptly sat down for the rest of the battle), while the Legionaires took the back right one (and had no intention of staying there).

There follows some pretty devastating volleys: the Forgefiend blasts the Exocrine down to its last two wounds (which is not always a bad thing in a Crusher Stampede). 

The two Venomcrawlers found smaller targets: one of them blasted the Ripper Swarms to atoms, and the other shot down the Von Ryan's Leapers, while stealing their central objective for good measure.

The Tyranids' return fire was less impactful: clipping a few wounds off each of the four daemon engines, while the Neurotyrant floated over to shore up the left flank.

The Carnifex and Haruspex muscled forward, looking for some charges (the Maulerfiend had been placed out of range), but the Screamer-killer had an easy mark and sped forward towards the central objective, tearing apart the Venomcrawler guarding it.

By the end of the first turn, I'd scored 3 objectives to Rapid's 2 objectives. But because we had to roll D3 for each of them, we ended up on 6 VP each - that's Multiball!

Turn 2

The Tyranids' back right objective is the active one this turn, and Creations of Bile are making straight for it: the Maulerfiend squares up to the Haruspex, while Bile and the Chosen aim for the Zoanthropes on the objectives.

The Legionaries leave their objective and start running towards the Tyranids' deployment line. The Forgefiend and last surviving Venomcrawler converge on the Screamer-killer in the centre, hoping to take it out in a crossfire.

Compared to the last round, the shooting is a bust: the Screamer-killer is barely dented, leaving the deamon engines with the unenviable task of charging it. Elsewhere, the Maulerfiend crashes in, while Fabius Bile makes a long charge to hit both Zoanthropes, Haruspex and the active objective. A solid round of melee could go very well for me.

Unfortunately, the fight phase makes the shooting phase look effective: the Maulerfiend whiffs his attacks against the Haruspex; the Screamer-kill interrupts to squash the Venomcrawler and then shrug off the attacks from the Warpsmith and Forgefiend.

The Haruspex similar fails to damage the Maulerfiend, but gobbles up three of the Chosen. Fabius Bile and his remaining bodyguard only manage to drag down a single Zoanthrope.

A singularly unimpressive performance all round - and that was on my turn!

The Hive Mind throws their reserves: the Neurotyrant secures the right objective and sends psychic blasts against the Legionnaires running at it, felling two of them. The wounded Exocrine blasts away another of the Chosen as the two surviving Zoanthropes float out of range.

The two Carnifexes charge into the Maulerfiend, but find its hide is too tough to penetrate. Given a second chance, the Maulerfiend grabs the Haruspex by the tongue and slams it into the ground. In return the Screamer-killer tears down both Warpsmith and Forgefiend.

The Tyranids pull ahead in the VPs, but both sides are already taking heavy losses.

Turn 3

The active objective remains on the Tyranids' back right, so there's plenty to fight over in that quarter.

The Legionnaires continue to move against the Neurotyrant, with a lucky melta shot taking it down to three wounds left. They charge in, but my luck in the melee phase continues to be poor, and they leave the brain bug on a single wound (and with only three Legionnaires remaining, the objective is contested).

The Cultists remain hanging back (they have the sticky objective ability, but aren't keen to move any further into the fray), and the heavy stubber operator tries a glory shot to bring down the wounded Exocrine. It does score a couple of wounds, but fails against the armour (and then guns down three of her own side as the Dark Pact fails).

All the remains are my forces in the active objective. Bile and his Chosen continue to struggle against the Zoanthropes: failing to gun them down, and then having to abandon the objective to engage them in combat - where they still fail to kill them, leaving the last one on a single wound.

In the ongoing monster mash, the Carnifexes once again fail to scratch the Maulerfiend, who does little better with his return and leaves one of the beasts on one wound.

In Rapid's turn, the Neurotyrant floats away from the Legionnaires, which allows the Exocrine to destroy them from afar.

The last Zoanthrope tries to shoot back at Fabius Bile, but the shot is absorbed by the Surgeon Acolyte (who has a one-per-turn ability to make a weapon damage 0 - useful that).

The Screamer-killer fails to charge the Maulerfiend, which means he gets to strike first in combat. He finally gets in a good round, tearing down the wounded Carnifex with lasher tendrils and beating up the second Carnifex with his fists.

Now it's the Tyranids' turn to look short on units - they hold two objectives pretty convincingly, but what remains of the Creations of Bile are holed up on the key one.

Turn 4

The turns are getting faster now: Fabius Bile finally shoots down the last Zoanthrope and grabs the objective. It's no longer the active one, which has switched to the opposite end of the field, under the tentacles of the Neurotyrant.

The Maulerfiend charges into the Screamer-killer and we finally have the title fight we've been looking for. Once again, the fists are getting tired, and only a single punch makes it through. The Screamer-killer drops to a single wound, but is left very much alive and it butchers the Maulerfiend in return.

Creations of Bile are left with just two squads. But with three monsters left, and a sum total of four wounds, the Tyrands are equally flagging. 

The Neurotyrant and Screamer-killer secure their objectives, while the Exocrine aims at Fabius Bile's squad, killing everyone but the good doctor.

The turn ends with Chaos Space Marines ahead by a single VP, so the next active objective could be game-changing.

Turn 5

The objective rolls proves interesting: it's the one on the right of the Chaos deployment - the one the Legionnaires abandoned in Turn 2. 

No-one's reaching that, and with only small-arms to fire at the monster bugs, my army isn't killing anything (though I do try). Fabius Bile and the Cultists each secure an objective and sit on 13 VP as their final score.

Despite having superior forces, the Tyranids are a bit stuck: the Neurotyrant has to stay put to score, the Screamer-killer is too far away to charge Fabius Bile, and needs to stay on the central objective to score.

The only bug available, and close enough to Fabius Bile's objective is the Exocrine. It also has a greater OC than Fabius Bile, which means it doesn't even have to kill him to score it, just get close enough.

The tricky part is that the Exocrine is on two wounds remaining, and will need to survive Bile's counterattack. In for a penny, the big beast lumbers in against the Clonelord, fails to damage him, and gets a claw on the objective - if he survives, the game is a draw.

Fabius Bile then swings the Rod of Torment, and smashed through the carapace.

By the narrowest of margins, Creations of Bile win the day 13:12!

Locker Room

Fun game! Each of us bringing a monster mash to a 1000pt was a great way to spend the evening. My feeling about 10th Ed is that this kind of nonsense is the best way to enjoy it - the kind of tactical nuance that characterised 9th Ed doesn't really seem worth pursuing.

This is my second time against a Crusher Stampede, and it is formidable. The ability for the big bugs to improve as they get injured can be a tough challenge (and, in fairness, Rapid didn't have access to any of their stratagems that could have made them even better).

I enjoyed playing with that many deamon engines, although their performance was mixed. The dice were veering wildly throughout the game, and the Maulerfiend made very heavy weather about defeating its opponents (not a bad debut, mind). The Chosen also struggled against a handful of Zoanthropes, although Bile's presence as their leader was a welcome one.

In gameplay terms, I was pretty reckless - feeding my Warpsmith and Forgefiend to the Screamer-killer, running my Legionnaires off an objective they could have been scorning all game - but that was part of the fun. The Dark Pacts also remain a staple of the Chaos armies, as does losing a bundle of wounds to them.

It's inspired me to add some more Creations of Bile models - I'm keen to see what Possessed are like next time.