Violent Night: Tyranids vs Custodes

 

Time for a quick Christmas bash!

Nampo looked around the Orion's troop compartment. It seemed almost too luxurious to him. Every available surface was engraved with aquilae or skulls. The sheer black metal of the ship reflected little light, making the crystal blue lamps set at ankle height seem even dimmer than they were. The overall effect was one of immeasurably deep shadow, haunted by half-lit eye sockets and blue-limned claws.

The giants he rode with were underlit by the cool glow. Like statues, they looked, vast and immovable. Relics of a bygone age, memorials to an ancient past that one knelt before and thought on how small and insignificant you truly were. 

Except that these titans lived and moved. 

None of the Custodians spoke to him. Only their Shield-Captain, Tervaedus, deemed to notice him at all, passing on instructions before an operation. 

Such as now. 

He was strapped into drop webbing, heading for the heart of some fight he knew nothing about. A sweep and clear operation was all he'd been told. Against xenos of some description, he assumed, as the woman strapped into the cradle next to him was an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos. Helviki Zoge, she'd introduced herself as. Why she was with them, he didn't know. 

What unthinkable menaces could be out there, that a Captain of the Adeptus Astartes could not be party to?

There's unfinished business in the long-running sort-of campaign I've strung together over the last couple of years. In the aftermath of the Drawbridge Campaign, Captain Nampo of the Mantis Warriors has had most of his chapter kidnapped by an Alpha Legion imposter. Attempting to get them back, he's fallen foul of Genestealer Cults, the Adeptus Custodes and even the Eldar. Now, he's got a debt to the Custodians to pay off before they'll help him get his chums back. 

Pootle is dropping by to help out with this - although he's got form with Nampo, he's taking the enemy position tonight. Speaking of which...

Serving Time

New models to try out here! 

Nampo's not the only one on community service. Inquisitor Helviki Zoge (cosplaying here as Kyria Draxus) is also being roped into a fight, alongside the Sisters of Silence and their brand new Rhino. 

We're on a tight points budget, so there isn't much else in the list. Four Custodians, three Vertus Praetors and a Dawneagle Shield-Captain. I can't even afford to get the Sisters up to five in a squad! 

At least Nampo gets his own detachment and rules, so he can advance and charge as well as having a souped-up hammer. Otherwise I'm going to have to rely on Custodes killing power to get through what looks like a tough Tyranid list. 

Shield Host Detachment

• HQ - Shield-Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike, Warlord with salvo launcher, Ceaseless Hunter upgrade
• Battleline - 2 Custodian Guard with spears, 1 with sword and board, a Vexilla with a shield
• Infantry - 4 Witchseekers
• Infantry - 4 Vigilators
• Elites - 3 Vertus Praetors (2 salvo launcher, 1 hurricane bolter)
• Dedicated Transport - Anathema Psykana Rhino with storm bolter and hunter-killer missile
• Imperial Allies - Inquisitor Lord Helviki Zoge (Kyria Draxus with standard kit)

Stormlance Task Force Detachment

• HQ - Captain on Bike, Relic Shield and Thunder Hammer, Fury of the Storm upgrade

Gant Rest You Merry

Pootle's also got new toys to play with, in the form of the Barbgaunts, Screamer-Killer and Winged Prime. Fond of my recent painting though I am, I'm a good deal less happy to see it on the other side of the table!

I've chosen a list based on a mix between testing out some models that I have myself and planning to take to the upcoming King in the North session in January, and some of the newer Nids that have recently rolled off Kraken's paint desk; top of that list is the awesome Screamer-Killer conversion - take a look here for more details.

Lots of bugs out there, I'm outnumbered more than 3-to-1. That's okay, that's what Custodes are good at, and if there's one thing I know Tyranids struggle a bit with, it's heavy armour. Pootle's adapting to get Sustained Hits against infantry to help cope, but even so, I'm confident it'll be an uphill climb. 

Invasion Fleet Detachment

• HQ - Broodlord with Alien Cunning upgrade
• HQ - Winged Hive Tyrant with monstrous Bonesword and lash whip, Warlord, Adaptive Biology upgrade
• HQ - Winged Tyranid Prime
• Battleline - 10 Gargoyles
• Battleline - 10 Termagants with Spinefists
• Battleline - 10 Termagants with Devourers
• Infantry - 5 Barbgaunts
• Infantry - 5 Genestealers
• Infantry - 3 Tyranid Warriors with Ranged Bio-weapons, 2 Deathspitters and a Barbed Strangler
• Monster - 1 Screamer-Killer

Mission and Deployment

We're playing a simple Multi-Ball game tonight. Five objectives worth 1 VP to you at the end of each of your own turns. One of these is worth d3 instead (changing each round, but on a roll of a six, they're all worth d3). 

Snowy Christmas table - the big swamps count as woods, the ruins count as ruins, it's fairly open but several line-of-sight blockers here and there. We've got the Sweeping Engagement deployment zones, so long edge diagonals. 

I don't have much to lay out. All the Sisters are in their Rhino, the Dawneagles are together on the right and the Custodians have the Inquisitor with them on the left. Nampo hides boldly behind a ruin near the middle. 

Pootle goes for breadth, as you'd expect. His Gargoyles, led by Winged Prime, are in the sky, then the bulk of his stuff (Gants, Stealers, both big monsters) goes towards the top right, facing the Dawneagle Jetbikes and backed by the Barbgaunts. The Tyranid Warriors are by themselves on the left, aiming for the objective there. 

I figured that the objective on my left flank is easy for the Warriors to take and a little farther for the Custodes to tramp towards; I too am very conscious of how hard it will be to crack the heavy armour so am planning to concentrate my efforts on one flank... and see how that goes.

Pootle gets first turn and off we go! 

I did pay 30 points for the Alien Cunning enhancement that allows me to redeploy 3 units but (a) I'm very happy with my deployment as it is; and (b) I completely forget I had the option until midway through the turn!

Turn 1: Nids

The Orion's ramp opened on a snowy wilderness. Nampo saw the remains of some ancient pleasure garden - colonnaded paths, buried in the drifts. Frozen ornamental ponds. A folly, held up by greying wooden frames. 

His bike had been prepared in the hold, and the engine roared comfortingly, drowning the cold whine of the wind gusting over the desolate area. He followed the Custodians off the dropship. The snow wasn't deep, but old and frozen over. An ominously dark Rhino followed him down the ramp, menace radiating from the hold as its tracks tore the icy crust. 

"Follow us. Stay back until my signal, then attack the given target," Tervaedus had told him. No hint as to what the target might be. 

And then something roared, louder than his bike's engine or the scream of the departing dropship. 

The priority objective this round is the Imperial home objective; I can't get anywhere near that so no need to worry about it.

The Broodlord and his accompanying Stealer bodyguard get to make a Scout move at the start of the turn. I decide to go all-in immediately and push them forwards, then move again towards the Praetors to get a first-turn charge in. 

The Hive Tyrant moves forwards and has a 10" charge in as well, which he fluffs even with his free-CP reroll.

Everyone else moves forwards onto the midfield objectives as the Stealer pack leaps onto the bikes.

The Broodlord goes first and I'm somewhat disappointed to only put a brace of wounds onto one of the bikes, but that disappointment is made even worse when the Stealers fail to cause a single wound...

In response, the Praetors (who are -1 to hit because of the Broodlord's ability and -1A each as they're just within range of the Hive Tyrant's ability) tear apart all of the Genestealers but leave the Broodlord untouched...for now.

Victory points: 4 for the Nids

Turn 1: Imperium

He knew that roar. 

He knew the green striped carapaces, the orange markings on the shoulder plates. The long bony scythes that tipped each arm. The scrabbling, rattling rush of their movement, swift but displeasingly erratic to the eye. 

I do not know this world, he thought. But I know this foe. 

Afanc. 

The Hive Fleet he'd fought on Drawbridge and Zamaroon. Was it everywhere now? Would he ever be free of it?

Red light blossomed inside his helmet, paired with a tolling bell. The signal - he must attack. He twisted the throttle and shot forwards.

Well, I've weathered that first turn pretty well - better counter-punch! 

After the Guard play the Sworn Guardians strat to make my home objective sticky I send everything else forward, leaving the Praetors in combat. 

The Rhino (and, using the open-topped ability, a couple of the flamer-wielding Witchseekers inside) open fire on the Gants in front of them, but only manage to kill three of the bugs, with Pootle making a good job of saving throws.

The Rhino follows up by charging the Gants, with Tank Shock helping to reduce the unit down to only two models.

On the right, the Vigilators (who disembarked from the Rhino earlier) grit their teeth and charge the Screamer-Killer. Captain Nampo drive for the Carnifex, shooting a few Gants on the way. 

I Heroically Intervene into Nampo with the Hive Tyrant...yum yum!

Meanwhile, the Praetors play Unwavering Sentinels so they get to fight first. They use this to kill the Broodlord and then consolidate into the nearby Gants. This muscles them off the righthand objective thanks to Nampo's sterling shooting earlier. 

The Vigilators take a round of nerfs from the Hive Tyrant, losing half their attacks. They only put a couple of wounds onto the big beast after Pootle pays another CP on Rapid Regeneration to give it a 5+ FNP. 

Nampo goes next but whiffs, only managing to stick another couple of wounds on. In return the Screamer Killer splits its attention between the Vigilators and Captain Nampo. Half the quiet ladies go down, and Nampo scrapes through on a solitary wound thanks to a CP reroll. That's not going to impress the parole board, Nampo.

Victory points: 2+D3 to the Imperium

Turn 2: Nids

The target was immediately clear. A Carnifex. 

It stamped across the snow, hooves sending up shock-clouds of white. Eye-splitting purple light simmered and pulsed around its neck vents, and it held its claws in a cross before its massive jawed face, presenting a jagged tangle of armoured plates as it ran towards him. 

He hammered it with bolter fire as he surged in to attack. The bolts thumped and burst against the chitin, near-useless, but he had its attention. 

As it had his. As he leaned into a long skid, taking it under its first taloned swipe so he could swing his hammer into the back of an ankle as thick as his bike was wide, something blocked out the cold sky's wan light. 

A hiss and a crack, and the traction of his bike was gone as something lifted the back tyre off the snow. He turned in the saddle - a huge bioform, black against the grey clouds. Tooth-tipped sinews had bitten deep into the back armour of the bike, and the huge beast was pulling it upwards with massive beats of its clawed wings. 

He threw himself off, rolling blindly in the snow as the Carnifex lashed out again.

The priority objective is one held by my Warriors this round, which is just fine for me.

There's no need for anyone to move, apart from the Gants in combat with the Praetors who fall back and spend a CP on Endless Swarm to bring them back up to full strength. This means that they can out-OC the Praetors and steal the objective back again.

The Warriors pour fire into the Custodian Guard but only manage to cause one wound, whilst the Screamer Killer screams at the Praetors, causing one wound. 

Desperate to knock the final wound off the Praetor, the Barbgaunts who can see them add their fire and do manage to drop one of the bikes. 

Combat is entertaining: Nampo whiffs his attacks against the Screamer Killer again (who spent another CP on Rapid Regeneration). The Screamer Killer puts all its attacks into the last two Vigilators and swats them aside, leaving Nampo to the Hive Tyrant, who'll make short work of him. Won't he? Four or five hits make it through to Nampo's invulnerable save, but Kraken's dice rolling is (uncharacteristically) spot on Nampo lives on for another turn!

Victory points: 2+D3 to the Nids

Turn 2: Imperium

Up, back on his feet. Turning under the sweeping claw strike, deflecting it on the powered edge of the shield, converting the momentum to a spinning hammer strike. Smashing the biting lash, breaking the teeth, freeing the bike. 

Sidestepping a thorny hoof stamp. Climbing, using the overlapping chitin plates for traction. Jumping back to the saddle. Accelerating, throwing up a tight circle of powdered snow. Jinking under the cloud, flicking his shield back as the tooth-whip snakes out again. 

No one foe. No plan. Motion and reaction, swift as thought. Battle-focus, always in the instant. 

Nampo bunches himself, jumping to a crouch on the bike's saddle before springing straight at that blazing maw, hammer swinging in a deadly arc. 

That was a close shave for Nampo; time for the cavalry to ride to the rescue. The Custodian Guard charge into the Screamer Killer and the Praetors hop over the Gants to charge into the big bug as well, after shooting half of them up.

Meanwhile, in the centre the Witchseekers disembark from the Rhino and move towards the Barbgaunts, who let rip with 5D6 Overwatch shots (with exploding 6s as well) but fail to cause any damage. That make it BBgauntQ time - the flamers take two off and the survivors get charged. No more damage, but they’re tied up.

The main event is the attack on the Screamer Killer. The Hive Tyrant causes the Guards to lose an attack each, so the Praetors swing first and bring down the beast (and then consolidate into the remaining Gants again). There’s a CP to allow it to fight on death on a 4+...but Pootle can’t convert the roll.

Next the Inquisitor and her Guard pile into the Hive Tyrant and start punching it, but cause only a couple of wounds.

My turn to fight back with the Tyrant now. With Nampo on only one wound the sensible thing to do is despatch him (especially as he's yet to fight) but I decide to put all the attacks into the Guard, however Kraken makes all the saves so no damage caused (which also means that Nampo would have survived had I allocated any attacks there in fact, so that's OK).

Nampo then swings at the Tyrant but once again botches his hit rolls and end up only causing another couple of wounds. Whiffs all round!

Victory points: 2 to the Imperium

Turn 3: Nids

The hammer head slammed into the brute's face. Nampo thumbed the trigger with perfect timing, the bunched energy in the generator throwing out a great blast of shattered flesh and bone. The beast's scream changed pitch, stuttering out as the Carnifex staggered back, huffing and snorting gouts of plasma over itself. 

Landing from his strike, Nampo saw it rear up over him, face on fire. No time to manoeuvre. The length of its limbs was too great. He was inside a cage of its claws with nowhere to run. 

The Dawneagles took it in the back, streaking out of the sky with lances burning. 

The dead weight of the beast was enough that slamming into it at speed should have thrown the riders. He'd never seen such skill. They never even released their lances, leaping out of saddles and using the planted spears as pivots to turn their jetbikes in the air. The spiralling power drilled the lances into the beast, forcing it down to its knees as the spinning lance blades cut smoking holes through its innards. It was a wonder to behold. Master of mounted combat though he was, Nampo had never seen the like. 

At the bottom of the spiral, they slammed their armoured boots against the falling Carnifex, jumping up to remount, and swooped away as the winged bioform tried to retaliate. But its lash snapped on empty air - they were too fast. 

As the winged creature screamed in fury, threshing round with its whip in search of a target, Nampo realised he wasn't. 

The priority objective is the Imperium home objective again. This time I can do something about that: I'd forgotten to drop the Gargoyles in last turn, but now they swoop down and occupy the objective. In fact they land in the open ground to get range on the Rhino and then move back into cover after shooting (and causing only one wound) using their signature ability.

The Tyranid Warriors move to get LoS on the Witchseekers and drop two of them after the Barbgaunts fall back (and lose another one and a half to Overwatch). The lone Termagant in the centre falls back from the Rhino as it's possible that a lone model could steal a useful objective later in the game.

On my left flank the five surviving Termagants once again fall back from the Praetors, taking care to hold the objective.

The ongoing combat with the Hive Tyrant is next, but it's the Imperium to strike first and Kraken decides to go with the Guard first as their weight of numbers might just work. However, because the Tyrant is already wounded, he now has a 4+ FNP and only takes a couple of wounds. My turn!

Logically I should polish off Nampo as he's yet to fight, but for narrative reasons I decide to put all my attacks into the Guard...and wipe the Inquisitor’s bodyguard out entirely (though failing to damage her).

Nampo then whiffs yet again and only manages to add a couple more wounds to the Tyrant, but it's down to only two left now.

Victory points: 3+D3

Turn 3: Imperium

At least he wasn't alone. 

The Inquisitor was suddenly there, flanked by a quartet of the hulking Custodians as they sprinted through the snow, firearms blazing. The winged bioform, a Tyrant he realised, bellowed as a crackling barrage of bolts detonated across its shoulders. The Inquisitor gestured and threw a violet halo of energy at it, boiling and shredding the membranes of its wings. 

It thudded to earth, screeching and lashing about with its whips. One caught the lead Custodian, upending him in the snow. Before he could right himself, it followed up with a huge cleaving strike of a bone protruberance on another limb. Red streaked the snow. 

The others threw themselves on it as the Inquisitor, spent after her psychic barrage, caught her breath. Nampo charged after them, wielding his hammer two-handed. The Tyrant swung again, sending Custodians flying in all directions, but there was no time to feel dismay, only hate and the purity of his battle focus. 

In my command phase I spend a CP on Vigil Unending to return the destroyed Praetor model to bring the unit back up to full strength, much to Pootle's dismay. 

The Witchseekers flame and charge the Barbgaunts, killing them and taking sole possession of Pootle's home objective.

The Inquisitor doesn't fancy her chances against the Hive Tyrant any longer so falls back. To prevent the Hive Tyrant fighting first, The Shield Captain orders Unwavering Sentinels so the Praetors fight first. 

Pootle fails a couple of saving throws, but with a successful CP reroll and then his FNP, the Tyrant is still alive on one wound. He then swings back and pulls down a couple of the bikes (and severely injures another).

Victory points: 2 to the Imperium

Turn 4: Nids

He lived in the moment again, ducking the sweeps of its blades. It caught his shield with its lash and pulled. He flung it at its face, rushed forward and smashed in the rib-like struts along its chest as it deflected his throw with the boney crest on its brow. 

Then it swept its wings round it, knocking him back in a great blizzard of snow, and roared again, its rage echoing from dozens of other mouths nearby. 

The swarm was closing in. He had to finish it fast. Already, he could see its alien physiology racing to mend the damage already done to it. The torn wing no longer bled. The broken rib plates popped and clicked as he watched, sealing up the hole he'd made. 

Baleful orange light glowed in its cruel eyes as it towered over him. There was a bottomless cruelty in it, a well where his soul would drown. Against its might, he felt small and brittle. His mind cowered in the shadow that it cast. 

Then the Dawneagles returned.

The priority objective this round is my home objective. That would be great, except that there are a pair of Witchseekers sitting on it now. The Tyranid Warriors move to get a clear shot at them and the solitary Termagant makes a heroic break to occupy the objective if the Warriors can shoot them off it. Kraken warns me that he'll Overwatch if I do that, but I have to try...

Unfortunately, but seasonally, his goose is well and truly cooked. I do get my revenge when the Warriors fill the flamer-wielding zealots full of holes so nobody owns the objective.

In the ongoing melee I spend a CP on the Hive Tyrant to have a 50% chance of fighting on death. With only a single wound to get through, the Praetors make short work of it despite all the 4+ FNP can do (and another forlorn CP reroll on the invulnerable save prior to that). 

This time at least I do make the roll to fight on death and the Tyrant does some sterling work, pulling down the injured rider and another to leave just one to accompany the Shield Captain.

Victory points: 3 

Turn 4: Imperium

Three of them darted out of the snow flurries, transfixing it on their lances in perfect unison and lifting it up. It twisted and screamed, nearly helpless against the sudden rush of force. Not entirely, though - the bone blade, more by chance than design, smashed into one of the jetbike's front mantle, crumpling and breaking it like rusted tin. The engine blossomed in red-black flames, and the bike flipped in the air, throwing the rider. 

It wasn't enough. The bikers had it trapped. Behind the other riders, Nampo saw their Shield-Captain adjusting the controls of his bike and leaping off it on to the creatures back as he drew his blazing Misericordia. The last Nampo saw of it was its tail, flicking furiously as the Praetors carried it up into the clouds for execution. 

There was no time to revel in its defeat. Everywhere he looked, Tyranids scuttled or flapped. He had no orders, no sense of what his priorities were, so he ran for his bike, righted it and jumped on. The xenos must be destroyed; he might as well begin with whatever was nearest.

Finally, I’ve broken the Tyrant! That frees up a lot of units, but they're not brilliantly positioned to help out.

Still, I do what I can. The Praetors head for the middle, taking out a few Gargoyles on the way. 

The Inquisitor moves for the objective and very nearly bites the bullet/beetle. The Gants overwatch her, roll well and score about ten wounds! Somehow I just weather this on armour, then her shooting wipes them out. One objective!

The Witchseeker stays put and stickies her objective (although I miss that she can’t actually do that until later).

Nampo accelerates and charges the Gargoyles, giving himself a reroll plus Lance with Shock Assault, then declaring an Epic Challenge to try and whack the Prime.

Once again, it’s a bust! And the Prime strikes back and knocks him off his bike. 

Victory points: 2 +D3

Turn 5: Nids

The targeters on his bolters clacked as they swept and locked. Each click a target, each flick of the trigger a death. The guns roared as he powered towards a great flock of Gargoyles, lesser bioforms but each still taller than a man and far more deadly. 

Something lurked in the heart of the flock, some smaller mirror of the Tyrant. Lifting his hammer, he roared a challenge and gunned his bike into the circling cloud of its lessers. 

On leathery wings, the flock descended, engulfing him.

The most important roll of this turn ended up being the roll for the priority objective, which was the one under the Warriors once again. They stood still and poured fire into the only thing they could see: the Rhino, which didn't suffer a scratch.

Victory points: 1 + D3

Turn 5: Imperium

The screams of the swarm grew less. 

The Gargoyle flock croaked, flapping away towards the sunset. They left a green-armoured bike on the snow behind them, lying on its side with its saddle empty, front faring crumpled and slashed. 

Purple ichor stained the snow. Black armour lay crumpled in heaps, the wind already throwing up drifts of powder against them. 

The sun was starting to set, throwing long blue shadows from the broken colonnades. 

Not much left to do except strike for the key objective. The Praetors whizz in, making a decent charge on the Warriors. Avenge the Fallen boosts their attacks, and with Rendax up they make short work of their enemies and seize the objective.

It’s been a vicious and close-fought game - time to tally those all-important multiballs! Pootle is definitely ahead on board control overall, but we've both racked up a fair number of bonuses. And when he rolls his, Pootle gets a fairly pitiful boost to his score. So I reach for my dice...

Victory points: 3 + D3

Result: 17-16 to the Tyranids

"Captain Nampo? Captain Nampo!" 

The Inquisitor Helviki Zoge stood over him, calling his name. He seemed insensate, but it was hard to tell with Astartes. There were rents in his armour that cut deep into the body beneath, deep enough to be lethal. The gurney they'd strapped him to was coated with thick, black, stone-hard clots of his superhuman blood. 

The Shield-Captain had tasked her with retrieving the Mantis Warrior. Small thanks for the miracles she'd performed on the battlefield this day, but she was glad to have caught his attention at all. After the debacle they'd rescued her from on Bromis VIII, her failed coup against the resurgent Accord of Shale there, she was lucky they tolerated her presence amongst them at all. 

They were failures themselves, that much she knew, this black-clad order of Custodians. Or so they saw themselves, at least, they were paragons of war as far as she could see. But they no longer fought alongside their peers, ranging out across the universe in search of whatever worthy cause they could find. Outcasts, although still an order of magnitude greater than any warriors she'd served with. 

What they were doing here, battling Tyranids on an abandoned pleasure moon, she had no idea. They'd paid a steep price for it, though. Several of the colossi hadn't returned on the dropship, and she wasn't sure about Nampo either. 

"He will live." 

Tervaedus loomed in the doorway, massive even without his armour. 

"You are certain?" she asked. 

"His service in battle proved valuable today. We shall heal and release him. His penance, like yours, is complete."

"I am released?"

"Yes." He regarded her cooly. "You may find worth in allying with him, I believe. You have a common cause."

"Don't you?" she found herself asking. 

The Shield-Captain looked at her for a long time, his dark eyes unreadable. She knew she could reach out to him psychically, but the idea of trying to read his thoughts was terrifying. 

"We champion only doomed causes," Tervaedus said eventually. She waited, afraid to ask any more, but nothing more was forthcoming. As silently as he'd come, the towering guardian left. 

Zoge shivered. She couldn't tell if he'd agreed with her or not, nor which of the two possibilities made her feel worse. 

 

Locker Room:

Good stuff! The Custodes don't disappoint, they really are extremely hard to shift, and the Jetbikes really are about as good as it gets. Tough, hard-hitting and mobile. If only there were more of them!

I had to work so hard to take down those Custodes. That CP to resurrect a Praetor really stung therefore. At least I had the numbers to sit on the objectives earlier in the game.

That's where I lost the game in the end, the Tyranids tied up most of my best and fastest long enough that I couldn't quite keep up with board control. 

Thanks to Pootle too - without some very gentlemanly narrative choices, Nampo wouldn't have had nearly as much of a game as he got here. Who knows, perhaps next year he'll manage to reunite with his own army!

There were some vague tactical justifications for putting the Tyrant's blows into the Custodes rather than finishing off Nampo, but I did want to prolong his story a little longer and he was whiffing something rotten to start with! It was a great game overall and felt much more like a draw. At least the VP tally was pretty even in the end, which is traditional: Kraken and I have a bit of a habit of nailbiting games around Christmas over the last few years.

Thanks again and see you next year!