the battle report, uncut, unedited, ungrammar checked

nids vs marines battle report . (0 Replies). raphaelus[]. 5/21/2002 22:39 (5/21/2002 22:39)

Blood Angel force Raphaelus 1000pts

HQ

Marine Librarian

Terminator Armour, Stormbolter, ForceWeapon

Marine Commander

Plasma pistol, Powersword, Artificer armour, Terminator Honours

Elites

Dreadnought Avelus

Multi melta, Power fist

Fast Attack

Attack bike with multi melta

Troops

10 Tactical Marines (Squad Adorno)

Vet Sarge with powersword

Missle launcher, Flamer

6 Tactical Marines (Squad Inverus)

Vet sarge with power sword

Heavy bolter

5 Tactical Marines (squad Malvus)

Flamer

9 Scouts

3Sniper rifles

Autocannon

The horde (observation)

Hive Tyrant

Venom cannon

2 large squads of Genestealers

1 large squad of termanagents

1 large squad of hormagaunts

3 tyranid warriors

biovore

Lictor

Carnifex

Zoanthrope

Small game and small heavily built up urbanised table. Battle was fought using standard 40k rules. Battle was fought as a standard meeting engagement lengthways down the table. The hivemind took the end of the table with more firing ground and defensive positions (not that there were many lines of fire anywhere) and i won the roll for first turn. I purposely did not take a chaplain or sanguinary priest thinking that for the cost of maybe 1 or two tactical marines i would get a free rhino to use - however no deathcompany were forthcoming - i would have to put faith in the mighty tactical marine. i had opted to place the scouts in a tall building towards the centre of the table on my left flank. there they would hold out until my bike and heavy bolter carrying tactical squad would arrive and set up position. there was difficult ground in between the building and the large groups of nids and i intended to make them pay for every inch. on my right flank i had my large tactical squad, my librarian, the dreadnought and the five man flamer team to which i attached the commander. these would advance through the heavily built up left side of the table to what i thought would be a very defendable bottle neck for flamers and missile launchers. the Commander would get into postion and counter charge, the libraraians quickening power providing that extra bite that comes with 3attacks +1 for charging +1 for 2 close combat weapons +1 for terminator honours. Wait shoot and charge the remanants that was the plan...

in addition to standard victory points the marine objective was to kill the hive tyrant (200pts), thereby knocking out a hive mind node for this sector of the battlefield. the tyranid objective was to eat everything, not a task that looked too daunting after deployment as i had no lines of fire and the tyranid player was running out of room for his mini's

the battlefield consisted of a street running down the table lengthways with heavily built up buildings on my right hand side. a building on the right and pillars on my left hand side in my deployemnt zone, a ruined apartment complex on the right in the centre and a ruined admin building on the left, with an ornamental lake between it and the tyranid deployment zone. the tyranid zone had a ruined building with a command bunker in it on my left and a set of wall ruins on the right.

Turn1

with a laugh i advised the nid player that i would be using normal marines today (no death company, no honour guard no assault marines) and then promptly failed my black rage rolls for every tactical squad, the bike, and the dreadnought. After advancing my right flank into the ruins as planned with the exception of the dreadnought, who i sent into the street which bisected the board longways to follow the attackbike, the scouts on the left in the building opened fire - after a quick search of the surroundings failed to spot the lictor. 2 of the three sniper rifles wounded the hive tyrant and the autocannon tore another chunk from the screeching monster causing a total of two wounds after saves. squad Inverus fired upon the genstealers surrounding the tyrant as they ran into position felling a few and readying the heavy bolter as the slavering beasts ran forward.

The tyranid force surged forward chittering and squealing. the hive tyrant killed two scouts with its venom cannon and the zoanthrope attempted to crush the attack bike with a blast unsuccessfully. the gaunt horde advanced in preparation for the assault. the nid player obviously realising i would advance no further on the right pushed the bulk of his army into the ruins

turn2

The hivetyrant was wounded and my heavy weapons were now in place. In fact everything on the table was precisely where i wanted it to be and i decided to firm up my firing line and await the onslaught. Then the scouts, squad Malvus and the librarian failed their black rage rolls and continued to advance, the scouts losing the ability to use their sniper rifles and heavy weapon as they left the building to engage the alien filth at close quarters. Squad Malvus continued to advance through an alley on the extreme right out of sight of the tyranid heavy weapons. the librarian moved to a gap in a wall of the ruins of which the hormagaunts were gathering on the other side. i opened fire with the dreadnought, causing another wound on the hive tyrant. the attack bike missed the all important roll leaving squad inverus to attack the hive tyrant, the heavy bolter wounding several times but being saved. then from a boltgun the tyrant took a wound, the dice to save bouncing from scenery piece to piece ..... landing on a 1. The tyrant was dead, felled by a boltgun round..

the scout squad fired with boltpistols at the genestealer squad with an amazing set of rolls, leaving the alien brood mauled standing out in the open. Squad Adorno sighted the missile launcher through the gap in the wall firing past the hulking terminator librarian. the frag missile detonated amonst the chittering gaunts blasting two to pieces and the supporting bolter fire hammered several more. it was not enough to stop the beasts from charging through the gap their leaping gait taking me by surprise as they assaulted my troops, running past the startled librarian. the carnifex and genstealer brood on my right flank moved into the ruins following the path laid by the hormagaunts. the biovore fired again, its acid spray washing walls ineffectively. the lictor exposed itself on the right as the tyranid front lined washed over its postion its surprise attack to be wasted as the close combat would be occuring near my battle line. on the left the small group of genestealers adavanced as a massed horde of termanagents tore across the street to support them. with a flash and crackle of warp energy the dreadnought was stunned and the attack bike destroyed. the hormagaunts broke against the marine line snapping and tearing. a completely ineffectual series of dice rolls resulted in not a single casualty. the marines struck back killing a few of the beasts and the struggle was locked tight.

turn 3

i advanced squad malvus further down the extreme right to get into postion to attack the tyranid warriors. the librarian adavanced through the gap into the range of the lictor, right into the face of the approaching genestealers and carnifex. the scouts braced themselves for the genestealer atatck to come and readied their weapons. my commander sighted the lictor through the ruins and let fly with his plasma pistol, wounding himself as the artifact overheated. the terminator fired upon the lictor also proving useless. the only real damage done by squad invernus on the left flank reducing the genestealer brood to a solitary alien. i opted to stand and shoot with the scouts missing and saving the genstealer twisted through the oncoming fire, its black beaded eyes intent on its prey. the librarian charged into battle with the lictor, trading blows. a wound was caused on the lictor and a psychic test passed with the force ax, destroying the foul beast. the librarian consolidated back behind the wall. the battle between the hormagaunts intensified a wound being caused on either side. the nids failed the high morale ground roll, and were too far away from the hive mind to remain in combat. they broke - and fled right into the waiting stormbolter of the librarian, crossfired. With a determined look the hivemind player gritted his teeth and began his third turn. the zoanthrope destroyed dreadnought avelus in the street as the lone genestealer on the left flank charged the scouts, termanagents hot on his heels firing at squad invernus in the rubble. genestealers on the right charged into combat with squad malvus and with a screaming bellow the carnifex charged into combat with the librarian.the remaining genestealer failed to kill a scout and shouting cries to the emperor they hacked the vile thing to pieces with their combat weapons. the battle between squad malvus and the genestealers on the right flank made no headway, the claws of the stealers scrabbling uselessly against the power armoured troops through a hole in the alleyway wall. because of the narrow alley only two stealers could get into combat, negating the advantage of their superior numbers. the librarian struggled against the carnifex, and with a mighty blow and crackle of psychic energy he sliced his axe through the bulk of the beast, sidestepping the monstrosities falling corpse.

turn 4

on the far right the commander and squad malvus were locked in combat - however i felt they were above the task of destroying the genestealers and decided to advance squad adorno and the librarian towards the tyranid warriors. on the left flank the scouts and squad invernus readied themselves, opening fire on the termanagents. the librarian and tactical squad adorno charged the tyranid warriors. the librarian dispatched two warriors and the remaining was wounded by the tactical squad. the combat on the right was again ineffective, the marines suffering two wounds and the commander unable to use his powersword effectively in the close confines of the alley. the marines fell back to try and find a more suitable area.

on the right the termanagents charged into the scouts, killing several and causing the marines to fall back in disorder. the termanagents pursued, running past squad invernus, but could not reach the marines, who turned and readied weapons. the genestealers on the right slammed into squad malvus once more losing some of their number but inflicting more casualties on the marines who held their ground shakenly.

turn5

there was no movement as a cold wind blew through the ruins blowing smoke across the battlefield. squad invernus and the scouts opened fire on the termanagents, tearing great holes in the horde of screeching aliens before charging into combat. the termanagents fled and both squads chased after in hot pursuit. the remaining tyranid warrior was dispatched and squad adorno consolidated towards the conflict between squad malvus and the genestealers. the librarian consolidated towards the zoanthrope...

the genstealers and commander with one surving member of squad invernus held their ground against the slavering clawed aliens - help was on its way

turn 6

tactical squad invernus advanced around a ruined strongpoint in the tyranid deployment area while the scout squad and librarian fired upon the zoanthrope, the storm bolter of the librarian stitching a line of holes across its bloated head as it toppled over sideways. the tactical squad charged into combat with the genestealers tearing through the aliens to save their commander. and with that last combat the game was over.....

it was a pretty good game. it turned out to be a standard blood angels game with close combat being the order of the day, a complete opposite to what i had expected and planned around. it is very disconcerting to come up with a plan centred around shooting up the enemy and then have your men run off towards the bad guys, especially when the bad guys are 15 feet tall and have lots of talons and spikes and so on. battle honours go to the librarian, who i took only as a bolster for my commander - basically i assumed the commander and squad malvusw ould be my assault squad and the plan was to use the quickening to turn him into a madman - however i constantly forgot to use any psychic powers (i dont usually use psykers) and the librarian made up for his lack of concentration in other ways. total tally 1 lictor 1 carnifex 8 hormagaunts 2 tyranids and a zoanthrope. i dont usually take librarians - i havent since the blood angel codex was released but this is going to change from now on let me tell you. there was a lot of standing and shooting regardless of the black rage - the image of squad adorno blasting into the gap in the wall in front of them, missiles and bolt guns blazing was great, as was the picture of scouts sighting along their sniper rifles at the hive tyrant at the start of the game, wounding it and then getting blasted by the venom cannon. in all fairness my opponent rolled terribly. the biovore did nothing and several charges into combat that should ahve munched me did nothing - such as the hormagaunts charging into combat with squad adorno - the gaunts made 18 hits and no one died. several times the game could have gone either way but due to bad rolls at crucial moments any plans to regroup came to nothing.

basically the blood angels stuck to my adapted plan had more than their fair share of luck and at the end of the day that resulted in another sector being cleared of the great devourer

'you want me to teleport where??'

the sanguinus comedy hour ~ Raphaelus