Hello everyone!

A brief overview of events so far - for those who are just now joining us.

This game lasted 4 tension filled weeks!  Descriptions of events and pics are here in this post bringing you up to speed.

The situation:

Tyranids are invading a shrineworld. Imperial forces on scene are fighting desperately to repel the Tyranids while reinforcements rush to the planet. An Imperial Guard detachment was ordered to hold this bunker complex (for six turns) because it leads to the power generators for one of the few remaining planetary defense lasers. Also connected to these facilities are several shrineworld archives where (it is rumored) several artifacts once held by the Blood Angels Primarch Sanguinius are now kept in sacred sanctuaries.
 

Events so far:

So far 3k worth of Imperial Guard (including Scott's scratch built Baneblade) have replused over seven thousand points of tyranids who are appearing via mycetic spores (drop pods), and we used a modified "without number" rule (ANY nid unit which is destroyed shows up again the next turn). 

By turn 4 the Imperial Guard have been overrun.

pic of initial Guard deployment

notice Scott's scratch built Baneblade (he's still adding the last level of details to it - rivits, latches, gear, etc), notice our stunties and ogryns there in the front line (ab humans - ack) mortar and heavy weapon squads in the bunker, and six sentinals. Quite a difference between this image, and this one three turns later...

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Turn 3

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When the Adeptus Astartes were notified of the situation they reacted with seldom seen swiftness and force - a hundred Blood Angels were dispatched via jumppack, teleporters and Thunderhawk to retake the bunker and protect not only the planetary defense laser, and also retrieve the atrifacts which are sacred to their chapter - despite the endless Tyranids raining down from the sky. Among the one hundred and three Blood Angels is the legendary Chapter hero Blood Angel Brother Corbulo, and Moriar the Chosen (the famous Blood Angels Death Company Dreadnaught).

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Turn 4

Tyranid turn 4.
More Tyranid reinforcements arrived, surviving Tyranids continued their assaults on the beleagered Imperial defenders.

Imperial turn 4

The Space Marines landed. 

the whole battlefield

closeup of the Baneblade and Thunderhawk
 
 

closeup of Moriar
 
 

closeup of the Terminators and jumppack troops (a Death Company and Corbulo are among
them)
 
 

closeup of Thunderhawk squad deployment
 
 

The Blood Angels landed and contributed what shooting they could, the remaining Imperial Guard troops continued to fight for their lives during the assault phase.

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Turn 5

Tyranid turn 5

 New Tyranids rained down upon the field, landing and sensing the new threat they turned and fired upon the Space Marines - however power armor is more resilient than Imperial Guard uniforms, and the firing had almost no effect. The carefully planned Space Marines deployment pattern also greatly limited the assaults which the Tyranids could conduct. Promising as the arrival of the Space Marines was though, they had not arrived in time to save the BaneBlade - having been assaulted by two carnifexes for several turns the powerful warmachine finally succombed to the relentless rain of blows by the Carnifexes and detonated in a massive explosion. 

By the end of the Tyranids' turn however the Space Marines had been affected very little, their landing formations had served their purposes, and they were now quite ready to express their wrath.

Imperial turn 5

The fury of the Blood Angels was unimaginable - their fire wiped out entire units, and their assaults ended melees which had been going for several turns. In several instances Imperial units which were on the verge of collapse from Tyranid assault were saved at the last moment when Blood Angel assault squads stormed in and ended the melee once and for all. In a short time a great many of the Tyranids lay dead or dying, and the Blood Angels were able to conduct sweeping advances up onto the bunker proper - just as they had planned.

 But the quiet would not last long...

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Turn 6

    With so many Tyranids destroyed by the Imperial forces the previous turn that only gave them that many more units to field again this turn - Tyranid units again fell from the sky, landing in precisely chosen locations determined by the masterplan of the HiveMind. Suddenly the gains made so swiftly by the Adeptus Astartes dimmed as the field filled anew with screeching monstrosities.

      The Tyranids deploy again via mycetic spores.

+++ with the Nids deployed, the game pauses until next time +++

   So there you have it, the Blood Angels were able to land and fight their way to the bunker - however Tyranids continue to rain down from the sky. The question now is can these Blood Angels (with no reinforcements) survive and repel the Tyranids until the end of the turn 6? Or will this defensive complex be breached and destroyed by the Hivemind thus dooming the planet?

What do you think?

If the bunker falls then the planet will be helpless before the HiveShip, the Imperials will then have to hold off waves of Tyranids as they try to buy time for Imperial Transports to get off planet. We'll game out endless waves of nids assaulting from one table edge and rushing an in depth set of heavily defended trenches with LOTS of heavy support.

If the bunker holds the planetary defenses should hold and the main Hive Ship should be destroyed and it should be a happy ending for the Imperials.... but wouldn't it be awful if a large section of the Hive Ship was low enough in the atmosphere to survive the ship's destruction and the descent? An intact Norn queen with elite guards and amazing reporductiva capability inside a wrecked Tyranid ship would be quite a threat - and a very dangerous foe to have to overcome.... bwahahahaha 

The standard rules of 40K exist as a beginning, where we take it from there is up to us! 

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the dramatic conclusion.....

The Space Marine shooting on turn 5 was the turning point - it decimated scored of Tyranids, then the Blood Angels assaults ripped through the remaining tyranids and allowed the Blood Angels to sweep up onto the bunker complex - by the end of turn 5 the Blood Angels all but owned the bunker. With the beginning of the sixth turn the tyranids would be returning in force - but newly arriving units cannot assault - thus their only hope to claim the bunker would be through shooting and again most of the tyranids heavy weapons could not shoot because they'd just arrived. So in the end there are a lot of tyranids on the field, but they had not dislodged the Imperial Forces in 6 turns. The planetary defense lasers fired - destroying the approaching hive ship. Leaving Imperial forces the comparatively easy task of cleaning up tyranids already on the planet.

Here are two shots of the bunker & battlefield at the end of turn 6, lots of bugs yet to be killed, but at least the planet as a whole is safe. (click image for a MUCH larger 170K image).

and yes - there were more units on the far side of the bunker! 

Well that's the end of this battle, I hope you've enjoyed it (we sure did!)
until next time ~ Brother Edward