Batrep: Imperial Guard vs Tyranids

The hammer has landed

Army Lists

184th Cadian

This time I use the Army List v1.2

Tyranid Hive Fleet

Player: buddy

HQ

Hive Tyrant (2x twinlinked devourers with brainleech, regen, old adversary, paroxysm, leech essence, armored carapace)
tyrant guard
tyrant guard
tyrant guard

Elite

(2x) Hive Guard
(2x) venomthrope
The doom of Malan'tai (Micetic Spore)

Troops

(10x) Termagaunts
(16x) Termagaunts (devourers, Micetic Spore)
Tervigon (toxin sacs, catalyst, clusterspines)

Heavy

tyrannofex (rupture cannon, clusterspines, dessicator larve)

Mission and Deployment

Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Spearhead
Tyranid rolled and get first turn.
Even if Annihilation against an assault-based army is always tough, i can maximize the distance before the assaults, and i can layer my forces effectively. At least, that's my hope.
Again, Al Raheem would have been useful on board, but the asymmetry of the spearhead deployment will force the opponent to play not too far from the short table edge, and I can play my usual "L-shaped pincer maneuver".

The Battle

Deployment

The table represents a sector of an Imperial stronghold. The buildings blocks line of sights through them but give 4+ cover to anybody within them. The bunker at the head of the trenches is an AV13 building.
The trenches themselves are 4+ for who's standing inside them, while the wrecked vehicles are 5+ covers.

The Hive Mind deployed as close as possible to my deployment zone, obviously.
As obviously, I deployed as far as possible. This time I've learned that the Impaler Cannons from the Hive Guards can fire without LOS and ignoring intervening cover: every important and small unit must be within some form of area terrain. That means basically every unit except the blobs.

Mycetic spores are in reserves with their contents, and Al Raheem and his platoon are late to the party as always.

Guard rolled to seize and got a 6. Imperial Guard gained the initiative!

Introduction

"Colonel, I know that's not a simple mission. But we must open a beach head on the planet: it is too important to abandon it to the Tyranids."
"My Lord, the planet is already in ruins. We're gonna lose a lot of men and materiel for no..."
"I DON'T CARE! YOU'LL GO DOWN AND YOU'D BETTER RECOVER THAT STRONGHOLD IF YOU WANT TO LIVE! You have three options: 1. You'll stay here and be executed by the Commissariat for cowardice; 2. You'll make planetfall and allow the bugs to eat your face, and I don't recommend that; 3. You'll make planetfall and RECOVER THAT DAMNED FORTRESS before the bugs eat your face. Feel free to pick the one you prefer."
"Sir, yes sir"

* * * "Captain, prepare your men. Our action must be swift, because if we don't have the fortress in hour hands before 12 hours after planetfall, the Biomagi believes that the Hive Mind will be able to regain active control on the remaining Tyranids scattered across the planet and we won't have any hope left. You all were there on Theseus Minor and you know what it means to run out of time against that scum."

* * * The transport ships touched the planet surface, after the usual massive barrage leveled everything within 10 square kilometers. This may be an effective tactic against a more "conventional" enemy, but against a planet-sized anthill it has the opposite effect: swarms of bugs have been awaken and are ready to meet the Hammer of the Emperor.

The Hammer has landed

Turn 1 - Imperial Guard

"They control the planet. They won't be pleased of our arrival. They must be expecting us. I don't wanna die." - Anonymous guardsman of the 184th

The quietness of the planet is unnatural. Besides of the rhythmical march of thousands and thousands of boots, no sounds fills the air: no chirps, no wind, everything stands still and silent. Most of the life has been extirpated from the planet, and only rocks and dry mud is all around.

Here and there, the burned remnants of imperial structures lay in ruins. Fortunately, the objective is relatively unscathed.

"Here we are, men. This is our final destination. Here we must stand, to recover this precious assets for the glorious Emperor, where we will bring the death upon the xeno scum that is affecting this poor planet. We will clean the planet, and we will be covered in Glory tomorrow! Put your weapons at the ready, our time has come, yet again!"

* * * "HERE THEY ARE!"
The still air suddenly come to life, as soon as the Tyranids finally decided to storm the Imperial Guard lines. Swarms of bug-like aliens left the once Imperial trenches, heading on the double against the guardsmen.

Fear appeared on the faces of the survivors of Theseus Minor, until the training kicked in. The officers began directing fire, and the muzzles began flashing. Hails of energy beams zipped across the field, and the aliens began falling.

Since the last time i got swamped under spawned termagants, I decided that the Tervigon was the first bug to shot at. The luck wasn't at my side, because all the long range guns managed to chip off only 2 wounds from it.

Turn 1 - Tyranids

Roaring in danger and sensing the danger, the Tervigon activated its biological countermeasures. Another brood of Termagants spawned from its torax, increasing the aliens numbers.

The energy barrage kept raining against the running swarms of the Tyranid forces. The roars of the enemy beast echoed across the field, filled of anger and ancestral hatred for every other living being.

"They sure look angry now, right corporal?"

Well, the first turn is quite always dull between a shooting army and an assaulty one. The Tervigon spawned 10 Termagants, and the rest ran forward. The Tervigon also catalysted itself.

Turn 2 - Imperial Guard

As the Tyranids rushed closer to the Imperial lines, more and more weapons have now a target to unleash their fire at. The racket of automatic cannons pouring lead into the alien ranks added to the whines of the energy discharge from the Lascannon batteries.

"Sergeant, focus fire on the Venomthropes!"
"With all the respect, sir, WHAT THE HELL IS A VENOMTHEROPS?"
"VE-NOM-THRO-PES! It's that bug over there! - The captain realized that there were quite a lot of bugs over there, actually - These two with poisonous, yellow fog sprouting from them!"
"Got'em, sah!"

A massive hail of high caliber rounds scythed its path between the running alien, and penetrated the targets' chitin multiple times, leaving only a gooey mess where the aliens stood just a second ago.

The noise of the battle was appalling. There was no way to communicate reliably without an heavy usage of the vox network between units. Even the colonel failed to heard what the captain was saying, and he was only a couple meters ahead of him!

Al Raheem failed to show up with a roll of 2. Sadface.
You know the drill. Officers order the Lascannon blob to down the Tervigon, but only one wound managed to pass through the cover: 3 more to go; the Autocannon blob was ordered to focus fire against the venomthropes and thank to the awesome "Fire at my Target" order, 5 wounds are inflicted and all of them managed to overcome the cover saves. First blood!
The plasma CCS ordered the Lascannon CCS to bring the Tervigon down, but rolled double 6 (they don't have a vox so i can't reroll this). Of course, the veteran lascannon missed the target altogether: for fun, i rerolled to see if the twin linked would have been useful, but i failed to hit again, lol.
The platoon commanders fired against the tyrannofex, chipping the first wound off him.
A little post-turn consideration. I could have fired all my autocannons to the Tervigon, but the fact that it had FnP had forced me to find a better effect for my guns: statistically, 12 autocannon shots vs a Tervigon with feel no pain, 8 of them twinlinked, would have scored LESS than 1 wound on it. I decided to grab the easiest KP i saw out there, and my bet was successfull.

Turn 2 - Tyranids

As the battle went on, the Hive Mind began noticing the threat on the planet. It hadn't been completely consumed yet, and the fresh biomass provided by the humans was too interesting to be ignored.

Dark shadows filled the sky above the battlefield as soon as the Hive Mind dispatched new forces to consume the assaulters.
The micetic spores landed north of the guard positions, unleashing more Termagants.

Their devourer worms were hurled into the guardsman trenches, followed shortly after by screams of pain: the small parasites ate the flesh of the unfortunate guardsmen up to their brain, driving them mad in agony until they fell to the ground, dead.

"In the name of the Emperor... what was that? they didn't have it last time on Theseus Minor! Guardsmen! put them down! they must be destroyed at once!"

The Imperial lines are now in range of the enemy guns: several arrow-like spines and shards flew inside the windows of the occupied building, shredding to pieces the Platoon Command stationed there. This time, no screams were heard, because the guardsmen were killed on the spot.

The reserve rolls of my opponent brought in a single micetic spore, with the 20 strong Termagants with devourers. Man, i haven't ever saw that weapon before, and when my opponent rolled all those dice, i almost fainted. thankfully he fired at the lascannon blob which was hiding behind a thin line from the other platoon, and this allowed me to save 10. Sadly, 12 still fell. The Tervigon fired his blast against the PCS in the building, killing half of it: The Hive Guards allegedly finished the task, finishing them. The rest of the bugs just ran forward, slowed by the trenches. KP count: 1-1

Turn 3 - Imperial Guard

The Tyranids were now close enough for the trap to spring. From the southwest of the fortress sector, the third column of the regiment marched from behind the hills which were hiding them from the main battlefield.

"Here they are, finally. I was beginning to think that they wouldn't make it..."

* * * "We can't let them fire again those parasites at us, or we'll be slaughtered!"
When the guardsmen saw how their comrades died, eaten inside out by those parasites, there was no need for the sergeants to call for focused fire against the new foe: an unstoppable hail of lasgun shots showered the Termagants.

The air itself screamed when the energy beams zipped from the muzzles of the infantrymen lasguns to the alien chitin, at that point to be replaced by the beasts screams of pain.
When the dust settled, only a couple of aliens were still standing: every other was slain in a pool of burning, gooey slime.

While the light guns were decimating the lesser Tyranids, the heavy Laser cannons kept shooting the bigger monsters. Following the officiers directions, multiple laser beams crashed through the thick carapace of the Tervigon which, finally, crashed to the ground after a loud scream of anger and pain.

As soon as the big beast exaled its last breath, the Termagants it spawned earlier writhed as if they were being electrocuted: many of them fell nearby their progenitor, dead.

"That's what you can say, kill two xenos with one stone!"

Finally Al Raheem decided to show up (i rolled 2 again, thanks astropath) and i even got to reroll the flank once to get the place i wanted. I almost hadn't enough place to deploy all my guardsmen without entering terrain and losing precious inches :P
The autocannon blob used FRFSRF on the dropped termagants, killing all but 3! Nice job, men!
The lascannon blob instead kept firing on the Tervigon, removing its last wound. The subsequently shock of the nearby Termagants killed half of both squad. That's a nice bonus.
Al Raheem advanced until the hill's edge ("hey there impaler cannons!") while his platoon ran forward.
KP count: 2-1 for the Guard.
Overall a pretty satisfying turn for me, and i really feel i am gaining the upper hand in this match.

Turn 3 - Tyranids

The Hive Mind didn't appreciate the loss of its Tervigon. More and strongers countermeasures are needed on the field.

Another Micetic Spore wave appeared on the sky: one of them landed right in front of the command HQ on the hill. A single creature gushed from the alien pod, different than any else ever seen by any guardsman of the regiment.

A very frail body, a vast cranium cracking with psychic energy, hovered in front of the command squads. An ice cold sensation filled every man in sight, and a strong psychic force began scratching the back of their consciousness.

A strong pain was felt by the colonel and the captain: It was looking that the Hive Mind knew that it had to kill the officiers to destroy the threat.

A massive energy storm propagated by the alien's overgrown brain, to explode upon the nearby marching platoon: several guardsmen exploded when the psychic beams reached them.
As soon as the psychic storm ended, the Tyrannofex blasted the survivors, killing more of them. Only the fear of the commissar's execution forced the survivors to stand still.

Angered for the death of their progenitor, the surviving Termagants ran forward and leaped onto the guardsmen, compensating the low number with an increased rage.
The men didn't faltered, and teared down a good number of the assaulters.

The Doom of Malan'tai came from reserves and dropped exactly in front of my commands, in range of 4 units. Luckily only the commands itself failed the test, and most of the wounds are blocked by cover or put on the multiwound commander. (Fun fact, both of the unsaved wounds have been placed on the two commanders).
The doom itself blasted Al's platoon with an s9ap1 pieplate, downing 6 (they are still packed from the last turn).
After general movement, the Tyrannofex added its blast to the platoon, killing 4 more. All the rest of the enemy shooting is too far or uneffective.
One squad of 5 surviving Termagants charged the autocannon in its long tail behind the building. Both factions manage to kill 2, and the combat continues.

Turn 4 - Imperial Guard

"Colonel! We must withdraw from that monster! He's sucking our lives!" "Y..You're right corporal. But there's no room to withdraw! We must PUSH FORWARD! Captains, drive your men onwards and burn that monster and its bubonic pod with your plasma and melta weaponry.

Shaking, the two officiers obeyed the colonel and advanced to attack the monster which was still creeping in the back of their minds. Two guardsman couldn't stand it anymore, and fell to the ground, after a short moan.

The plasmagunner opened fire against the enemy living capsule, burning it several times: helped with several lasgun shots from a nearby guardsman they manage to destroy it. The other command squad opened fire with their termic guns: the monster deflected every shot, bending the air around it with incredible ease.

More long range fire leaved the Imperial Guard positions to crash into the other remaining spore: after a focused round of heavy laser beams, it exploded leaving a big pool of goo.

The command's lascannon added its whine to the noises of the battle: the energy discharge hit the huge Tyrannofex which was closing in every second more.

Bayonets still at the ready, the first ranks were engaged by the remaining of the enemy Termagant brood. With careful moves they managed to not lose a single guardsman, while keeping the aliens under threat.
"Keep fighting men! We must cleanse this planet, and we shall begin today, here!"

First of all i tried to move away as much units as possible from the doom's area of effect, but there's not much room for Al raheem. I manage to "save" only his blob. Said effect killed one meltagunner from Al's retinue and one veteran from the Colonel's team.
The colonel ordered the lascannon blob to bring down the spore which dropped the Termagants last turn. All 4 lascannons managed to wound it, and it died. After that, the CCS itself ordered to bring down the Tyrannofex. The plasma CCS (the captain) opened fire against the spore, and 5 managed to wound and 2 managed to burn themselves (luckily i made 1 armor save) even if the plasmagun were twinlinked... At this point the spore should have exploded but my opponent said it had 6 wounds and I didn't bothered to check it. Anyway, the remaining PCS destroyed it (fun fact, the autocannon missed but one lasgun managed to hit, wound and pass the armor save, chipping the "last" wound.
The assault phase what really underwhelming for both parts: no wound managed to reach the armor roll.
Consideration on this turn
I underestimated the doom's save and the fact that it's not a monstrous creature, which prevented me from using Bring it Down. This caused me the "waste" of the veteran lascannon shot, which removed one (useless) wound from the T-fex.
Anyway, I scored 2 kill points and i am leading 4-1, so overall it's good.

Turn 4 - Tyranids

The biomass lost in this fight was beginning to reach critical levels. There was only little hopes to overcome the odds, but for sure the Hive Mind does not know the will for surrender.

Heading his retinue, the Hive Tyrant roared and followed its minion in assault against the imperial positions. Several men were thrown high in the air, to fall many meters behind like broken dolls.

Its presence growing stronger, his anger growing meaner, his power increasing... The strength of the Doom of Malan'tai was feeding from the souls of men nearby. Many lives have already been consumed to feed its power, and more are being consumed in this very moment.

Expanding the Hive Mind's will on the battlefield, the Tyrant reached for the already weakened minds of the fighting humans, causing them fits of agony. Then, when many were writhing on the ground, screaming, it began to slaughter them ruthlessly

Ignoring its wound, the Tyrannofex unleashed his biological weapons on the marching guardsmen. Several were consumed by the acids spitted from the monster and many more were shredded by the enemy slivers blasted across the air.
The soulless monster then rammed the remaining guardsmen, ripping who was so unfortunate to be too near to its talons.

"Stand strong, my brave! These are only the futile attempts of a cornered opponent! The victory is in our hands!"

The Doom is for sure annoying. He keeps leeching my souls! Another meltagunner is dead. He tried to assault me, but thans to bad bad movement and assault rolls, he failed.
The hive guards tried to fire at Al Raheem but the cover stopped the impaler cannons. Tyrannofex attacked the blob downing around 10 of them and then charged Al's platoon. The Tyrant joined the remaining Termagants against the first blob, and 11 get killed, but the morale test is passed.
Some issue happened when he piled in, because he ignored the 1" distance from the brown blob. He even claimed that the browns are now in combat with him. Of course, i refused and went on.

Turn 5 - Imperial Guard

The monster floated nearby the colonel, pointing his eyeless head against the high officier, sensing his presence, hunting his soul. The cold feeling grew higher every second, the pain felt was never so high...

"Sir! SIR! What now? We need orders! The colonel is in danger!"
"Kill him! K..k..kill him!"
"Sir, what did you say, sir?"
The cold presence of the monster dried the throat of the captain, which didn't manage to direct the guard fire effectively
"Screw it, captain, GUARDSMEN, OPEN FIRE! THE COLONEL IS IN DANGER!"
Following the unnamed but authoritative voice, the Lascannon batteries beared on the floating monster.
The aiming was hindered by the scattered vegetation in the hilltop, but the sheer power of the high energy beams penetrated the thick foliage and the thick carapace of the monster alike.

A loud discharge of psychic energy arced high from the wounded body of the alien, propagating through the enemy ranks like sparks from a damaged cogitator. One by one, reached by the raw energy, the aliens fell to the ground, like if their life link had been suddendly cut.

Silence fell around the fort, and the heavy weight on the soul of the guardsmen disappeared.

"Guardsmen, today we have reclaimed this sacred fortification in the name of the Emperor! The enemy is still strong, but the Hammer of the Emperor is even mightier! We'll never rest, we'll never back down, because the Imperial Guard can only win, because so is the will of the Emperor. Rejoice for your fallen comrades, because they finally satisfied their duty against the golden throne of terra, and are now marching in His light. Now we must continue, to clean this planet, for Him and for the 184th!"

"HURRAH!"

The Hammer has Landed. The Hammer has won

My opponent surrendered

Victory to the 184th Cadian Regiment!

Post-battle analysis

Apart for the small problems we had regarding the rules, the game went really smooth. This list was for sure weaker than the one I faced last time against Hugz4Genestealers, but I learned the real threats of Tyranids: I can face the few big monsters through tarpitting, but i needed to slow down and kill the smaller critters, which I managed to do quite effectively (well, a whole army against the Tervigon might not appear so effective, but i really feel that this decision made me won the game).
The doom of malantai will never be underestimated. Ok, i rolled poorly 60% of the times (4 test scored higher than 14) but still, it's dangerous.
I am quite satisfied with the plasma-CSS setup. It gives me 2 more orders, and much more less pressure on the single CCS approach, and also some good, reliable, AP2 love.
Overall I am quite satisfied with this victory.

Batrep: Imperial Guard vs Grey Knights

Inquisitional playground

Army Lists

184th Cadian

Assault Infantry v1.1

Grey Knights

Player: Mr.Darkness

HQ

Coteaz

Troops

6x acolytes w/ 3x meltaguns/psyback
6x acolytes w/ 3x meltaguns/psyback
6x acolytes w/ 3x plasmaguns/psyback
5x acolytes w/ 3x plasmaguns/psyback

elites

5x purifiers w/ 2x psycannons/2x halberds/1xhammer
5x purifiers w/ 2x psycannons/2x halberds/1xhammer
5x purifiers w/ 2x psycannons/2x halberds/1xhammer

heavy support

3x Dreadnought w/ dual Twin linked Autocannon, psybolts (aka: psyflemen)

1500 points

Mission and Deployment

Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Dawn of War

Grey Knights rolled to go first.

Well, this could have definitely been worse. Dawn of war basically prevents me to fire during turn 1, barring a very aggressive deployment from my opponent.
Annihilation is a real bonus for my army: i have only 8 KP while my opponent has 18! I pratically need to not be tabled to achieve a victory!

If my opponent packs his vehicles nearby a table edge, Al Raheem will have a field day hopping from tank to tank.

The Battle

Click on images to see them at full size.

Deployment

The table has been set up by the GK player, and it's quite open. The two buildings at the side are impassable and BLOS, the centerpiece ruin has a 4+ cover save for both infantry and vehicles, like the swamps and forests. The hills aren't difficult terrain, but are tall enough to obscure ground vehicles hiding behind.

The opponent decided to not deploy anything and to wait turn 1 to bring everything on the field.

I deployed everything center-left, with the PCS peeking from the buildings. I didn't deployed centrally or split in the corners because i want to force my opponent to play close to the table edge, to allow as much targets as possible to Al Raheem's meltagunners. The Stormtroopers are deepstriking

It has been a week since the remainders of out regiment left the planet of Theseus Minor and we're still reorganizing our forces after many many casualties. It will take a while...
No rest for the weary, anyway. We just received a dispatch from an Inquisitor which informed us that he, following the will of the Emperor, is commandeering us onto a search and destroy mission. The target is another Inquisitor which is accused to be heretic and tainted by the Chaos powers. I just suspect that this is simply another politics game, but i wouldn't complain with anyone about this, or i'd simply be found dead on my bed one night...

I rolled to seize the initiative: 6!
Too bad he had Coteaz, which forces me to reroll the die.
Roll again: 6!
Who am I to discuss the Emperor's will?

Turn 1 - Imperial guard

The stormtroopers descended first on the planet, infiltrating to be able to spot our target before he's able to set up a defensive perimeter against our attack.
After a couple of hours, the enemy appeared on our long range scanners, and the ambush is set up.

"Listen here, Lieutenants. The armoured column must cross this pass: we'll wait them here and here, opening fire from multiple sides. We MUST destroy as much transports as possible before going in for the kill. Do you understand? Good. Now move your men"

The ambush was now set up. The only light available was the one from the few stars in the sky.

And then they came: several engines roaring through the darkness, marching towards their end.

Well, absolutely nothing happened.

Turn 1 - Grey Knights

The armoured transports kept moving quietly through the night, until when the first autocannon rounds began ricocheting off the armor plates.
Revving up, the first elements of the column speed up, launching smoke grenades to hide the rest of the convoy against the rising sun off the horizon.

"Who the hell ordered to fire so soon? We lost the surprise effect now! Guardsmen, pick a target and be ready to fire at my signal..."

The GK force come in, and it mostly followed my plan. All enemy transports are straight ahead of my main force, with only three walkers (which are basically useless) are on the opposing flank, hiding in the woods.
The Purifiers are in the frontal three rhinos, while the acolytes are in the rear 4

Turn 2 - Imperial Guard

"...NOW!"

Every gun available opened fire onto the advancing convoy. Several Laser beams penetrated the smoke cloud, followed by a black, thick column of smoke from where one of the rhinos now lay immobile, while its passengers staggered outside, under the Imperial Guard firepower.

A transport valkirye zoomed above the battlefield, dropping a team of Stormtroopers dangerously close to the walkers hiding in the forests: firing from the hip, a hail of plasma bolts hit the rear of the nearby Dreadnought.
The plasma's energy melt through the engine compartment, which exploded.
"Well, that's a showy entrance, for sure!"

"Keep firing, men! They weren't expecting us!"

I retreated the right side PCS, so it can fire across the board to the rhinos while not being shot from the dreads.
Stormtroopers came in, failed the first scatter attempt and barely managed to stay on board with the second one. Phew!
The gunline opened against the purifiers rhinos: one is wrecked while the middle one has its stormbolter removed and the left one is stunned. (if I inverted the targets, the central purifiers wouldn't have been able to disembark and they would be dead. Well, live to learn...)
The Stormtroopers rapidfired their plasmaguns against the rear armour of the dread (4 out of 5 hit, 4 out of 4 pens) which exploded!
Not bad for one turn of shooting.
KP count: 2-0 for Guard

Turn 2 - Grey Knights

Reacting to the Guards' fire, the remaining transports sped up to close the distance against the firing positions to deliver their contents.
"Guardsmen! Stop them NOW if you want to live!"

In the other flank, the remaining Dreadnoughts detected the explosion of their brother, and turned to face the Stormtroopers.
"Uh oh.... Sarge?"
A hail of lead showered the hapless soldiers, shredding all but one, quite surprised, trooper.
"Is that your best, tin can?" - the survivor stormtrooper taunted the Dreadnought.
Like if it was answering the challenge, the walker charged the soldier, stomping him in a pool of gore.

The transport opened fire on the move to cover their advance, targeting the officiers they can see: several streams of light rained upon the field HQ.
"Watch out, sir!" - a trooper yelled, throwing himself at the Captain, pulling him on the ground.
"Ugh, thank you, Ross... Ross?"
A puddle of blood was growing underneath the corporal. Nothing could be done for him anymore.

More shots rained on the line, targeting the hidden Platoon command.
"HIT THE DIRT!"
Bullets whined above the guardsmen heads, with rubble jumping from the walls and the ground when the incandescent lead hit them.
When the racket lulled a bit, only the Lieutenant managed to stand back up. Acknowledging the loss of his squad, he reported to the captain:
"Sir, the position is lost: I'm falling back to regroup with the main force"

The rhino wall keep advancing, joined by the now footslogging purifier squad.
A lot of fire went against the CCS, which went to ground and lost only a veteran, thankfully. I couldn't afford to lose the Astropath yet!
More stormbolters hit the PCS nearby, wiping it to the Lieutenant, which flee.
On the other flank, a dread turned back and slaughtered the stormtroopers, finishing them in assault.
KP count: 2-1

Turn 3 - Imperial Guard

The battle was going on, with the Inquisitional forces trying to break the ambush and the Imperial Guard trying to break the Inquisitional forces. The former has been directed where the Captain planned, and it was now time to close the trap and wipe the traitors, once and for all.

From the east, the rhythmical trump of marching boots filled the air, above the loud engines and the deafening racket of automatic guns: the plan was unfolding as predicted!
With their guns blazing, the Imperial Guardsmen thrown themselves deep into the armored formation.

The enemy tank drivers were completely caught by surprise when the first transports began exploding. Leading by example, the lieutenant directed the fire of his men, destroying two of the nearest enemy transports.
The flaming debris fell all around, pinging off the other transports but scything down several running guardsmen: the screams of pain went unheard, covered by the explosions and the cheers of victory from the surviving guardsmen

Keeping the momentum, the screaming guardsmen fell like a human tide against the staggering survivors outside the wrecked transports.
A sea of bayonets whirled and slashed and stabbed the enemy acolytes, leaving no survivors.
"FOR THE EMPEROR!"

Encouraged by the explosion in the rear of the enemy positions, the gun line opened fire to cover their comrades against the retaliation of the Inquisitional column, which was far from destroyed.
The captain was too busy coordinating the efforts with the new reinforcements to direct the fire of the gunline: the sergeants tried their best to slow down the enemy advance.

Loud as ever, Imperial weaponry kept shooting through the field against the enemy transports, damaging more and more of them, slowing the enemy advance to a grinding halt.

The battle was at the turning point.

Al Raheem showed up from the right flank, and positioned it ready to cause as much damage as possible.
The fleeing PCS reached the end of the line and gets removed. I later learned that i could have it keep running parallel to the long table edge.
Since the CCS was still on ground, Al Raheem began issuing orders: Bring it down to his blob and to himself, wrecking a rhino and exploding another. The explosion hit 12 guardsmen but killed only 4.
The gunline failed a bit, managing only to immobilize another rhino.
The remaining PCS fired across the board and downed one of the purifiers that are on foot.
I always love assault phases when i get the charge: the blob and Al charge the contents of the tin boxes they destroyed, wiping the 2 small acolytes squad in a single swing. Note that Al Raheem just appeared and scored 4 kill points this turn. Say what about "earning back his points"?
KP count: 6-2 for Imperial Guard

Turn 3 - Grey Knights

The Inquisitional forces were now surrounded in a pinch maneuver, and their situation is looking worse every minute passed.

The only hope left for the enemy was to break the encirclement and to find another route to escape the battlefield: a purifier patrol dismounted from its transport and ran to face the flank assault, while the others moved north to challenge the main gunline.

"Here they come, guardsmen! prepare your bayonets, here we'll decide our fate and the fate of this battle!"

In anger for their many losses, the Grey Knights opened fire against the guardsmen that dared challenging them.
Many, many automatic guns opened fire along the whole line: this was their last hope to turn the battle, and they poured all their courage in their guns.
"It's a shame we must kill all of them, they could have been a fine addition to our campaign, don't you think, corporal?"
The answer of the corporal wasn't audible under the noisy racket of guns and explosions and screams and orders everywhere on the battlefield.

"Don't be cowards like this man, guardsmen! We must stand strong and we will weather this storm, we won't disappoint the Emperor with our cowardice!"
Extract from the commissar's speech after the summary execution of a sergeant for cowardice

While charging the surrounding forces, the Purifier squad summoned a psychic wave from the warp. The blast caught the minds of many guardsmen, snapping their lifes: they fell to the ground without a single reaction.
"Don't you dare killing my men like that! You traitor!" - The commissar yelled at the Grey Knights in front of him.
Pulling out all the courage he had, the commissar lead the countercharge: standing in awe for the incredible skill of the commissar, the sergeants followed him to revenge the fallen guardsmen killed by a foe they cannot see.

Cutting like a hot knife in butter, the power weapons slaughtered the marines.
"The hammer of the Emperor will smash you all, traitors!"

The rhino wall kept advancing with what was left.
Both Purifiers disembarked from the remaining transports, one marched back toward Al's blob while the other marched ahead.
Everything opened fire against the AC blob, killing more than 25% of the unit. The morale test is passed at the second attempt, at the price of a sergeant.
The Purifiers charged Al's blob, wiping 12 with cleansing flame and 10 more through shooting and I6 attacks. The guard sergeants pulled out an incredible show, 15 attacks resulted in 8 PW wounds (where the expected average was less than 3!) wiping the squad completely!
KP count: 7-2

Turn 4 - Imperial Guard

The enemy forces are now completely surrounded, with their rear guard completely overran and an impenetrable wall of lasguns in front of them. The end was near!

"Men, this has gone on for too long. It's time to finis this now! OPEN FIRE!"
Following their commander's order, the sergeants coordinated the lasfire in timed waves, allowing the lasguns to recharge completely between every shot. The volleys reached the advancing purifiers which, with the help of Lascannons and Autocannons, fell to the ground to never get back up.
"Great job, men! Victory shall be ours!"

Jumping from wreck to wreck, the flanking platoon assaulted deep into the enemy formations. Melta beams reduced enemy transports and their occupants to smoking wrecks. There is no more room for escape!

Shortly after the final breakthrough, the Traitor Inquisitor is captured and summarily executed by the Commissars on the field, as per orders received. The other remaining survivors of his escort shall be captured and sent for interrogations.

Al Raheem and the remainders of his blob marched deep into the remaining rhinos formation, exposing rear armor to their meltaguns.
The whole line fired at the closer purifier squad, slaughtering them under the mass weight of lasrifles.
Al Raheem and friends exploded a couple more rhinos and assaulted their occupants: none survived.
KP count: 12-2

My opponent conceded

Victory to the 184th Cadian Regiment!

Post-battle analysis

1. Well, my opponent admitted that this list was assembled shortly before the match, so it wasn't at its full potential. Anyway, this demonstrated the inherently weakness of the MSU + transports approach when it comes to KP games.
2. Al Raheem won the game singlehandedly, scoring 7 KPs (at least). I suppose this evens the bad performance of the last match...
3. Plasma stormtroopers are officially out of the list. This time they earned back their points, but anyway they don't bring anything much effective to the list.

Batrep: Imperial Guard vs Tyranids

The evacuation of Theseus Minor

Army Lists

184th Cadian

I have upgraded my army list to Assault Infantry v1.1

Tyranids

Player: Hugz4Genestealers

HQ

Tyranid Prime
-Deathspitter

Elites

Hive Guard x2
Hive Guard x2
Ymgarl Genestealers x9

Troops

Tervigon
-Cluster, Catalyst, Toxin, Adrenal
Tervigon
-Cluster, Catalyst, Toxin, Adrenal
Termagants x20
Termagants x20

Heavy support

Trygon
-Adrenal
Trygon
-Adrenal

1500 points

Mission and Deployment

Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Pitched battle
Tyranids rolled to go first.

Ok so, this is always a tough match up for my army list. T6 are a nightmare to destroy, I'd swap them with AV14 any time if i have the chance.
Moreover, in annihilation, he'll basically throw me everything plus the kitchen sink, while i have limited maneuver option, which he can simply ignore.
This is the typical example where Al Raheem would have been more useful if he was on board from deployment. Three layers of stubborn guards are a tough nut to munch through. Two is barely enough to hold for a while, as we will see.

The battle

This time you can zoom in the images clicking on them :)

Deployment

The ruins in the table quarters provide 4+ cover and difficult terrain, the trees 5+ difficult, the hill blocks line of sight and is difficult. The centerpiece is impassable and blocks sights.

My opponent decided to deploy centrally and simmetrically across the board.
I decided to castle in a corner, to maximize the distance from at least half of his army. Also, I tried to infiltrate the plasma stormtroopers behind the BLOS piece, to wait for a MC to show behind the corner. I completely forgot that Hive guards don't need line of sight to shoot. :(
The Ymgarl Genestealers hid in the bottom right ruins.

Astropathic message from System command:
Priority Alpha
To 184th Cadian HQ of Theseus System
Begin evacuation procedure 12QX-72
Tyranid Hive Fleet detected within alert range
Origin unknown
Detach rear-guard duty platoons to cover the regiment retreat
Search and recover as much equipment as possible
Heavy casualties authorized from Subsector command
The emperor protects A blank stare appeared on the colonel's face. He has never fought directly a Tyranid force, but the stories he heard were scary enough to pray the emperor to never live them in person.
This time tho, his prayers went unheard.

Turn 1 - Tyranids

The evacuation order has been the last message received from the System command. With the few hours at disposal, the evacuation was far from complete when the first probes of the Tyranid invasion began poking the outer defences placed from the 184th around the main spaceport of Theseus Minor.
The soldiers traded time for land and blood, but the aliens have reached the spaceport's outskirts.
No more land to trade. Only blood from now on.

The rumble of unnumbered creatures on march filled the air in front of the remaining defence guards. Clouds of dust obscured the horizon: the planet was lost, but there is still hope for the remaining survivors to flee with the last valkiries still waiting on the spaceport platforms.
Suddendly, the awful bug-like aliens stopped marching, as if they were waiting a final order from the skies. They must have sensed the ambush laid in front of them: spikes erupted from the terrain, running straight against the wall where the stormtroopers were hidden behind. Human screams filled the silent air, followed shortly by beast-like roars from the enemy line.
The last stand is begun.

Well, the movement is pretty straightforward: everything except the Hive Guards moved and ran forward to my lines. My big deployment mistake appeared in all its glory: the stormtroopers get shredded to pieces, with no cover or armor saves allowed. Oh well, i'd better deepstrike them next time, as usual.
The front Trygon get a Catalyst buff from his Tervigon pal behind.

Turn 1 - Imperial Guard

The sight was so awful that it has a sort of beauty in it. The aliens were running towards the Imperial Guard fortifications, with almost no interest for personal security: the only thing that mattered was to kill, and feed, and grow.

Shivers ran through many, many guards' backs, and even the Commissars could little for that. Below the fear, the training kicked in. The captain began shouting orders to the line, directing the fire against the alien threats closing in:
"Every unit OPEN FIRE! All weapons against that Trygon! BRING IT DOWN or he will kill us all!"
The whole gun line opened fire against the leading monster, but he shrugged off most of the energy beams that struck home. Many of the heavier guns managed to break through the heavy chitin, leaving deep, bleeding wounds on the monster. Like nothing happened, it roared even stronger and kept rushing towards the firing line.

"KEEP FIRING! KEEP FIRING! Don't stop now!"
The Imperial weapons kept firing, urged on by the scattered officers. Again and again, energy beams hit the target but were reflected by the thick armour of the alien. Only few guns were able to wound the Trygon, which slowed down under the hail of lead and energy, but didn't stop.

No movement for me, except the remaining stormtrooper that kept falling back.
CCS ordered twice Bring it Down to both the lascannon blob and the autocannon blob. Several hits from the lasguns, all of which are stopped by armor and FNP. Luckily the Lascannons and Autocannons doesn't fail as much, and at the end I'm able to reduce him to 3W

Turn 2 - Tyranids

The wounded monster kept roaring even when it hits the first entrenchments. A couple of guardsmen were thrown away by the alien's mass, while another one has been smashed under the enemy legs.
Behind it, the rest of the swarm kept marching forward, reducing the distance with the firing positions.

Another spike appeared from the terrain, below the retreating stormtrooper: his head exploded when the alien weapon reached him.

"STOP IT! STOP IT! aim for the belly, where the carapace is thinner and we can put it down!"
Several guardsmen tried to stab a weak spot in the monster's chitin, but many bayonet broke and many other guardsmen get hit and teared apart from the slashing talons. Fear and panic ran through the men, which tried to disengage and fall back from the nightmare.
"If you fall back now, not only you'll be killed with a bolt in your head, but also your families will be condemned to slavery!" - the commissar shouted. The call had little effect, and was immediately followed by a loud crack and a dead sergeant. The platoon turned back and went again against the slashing monster.

No reserves yet for the Tyranids: the ymgarls are still sleeping
Everybody except two Hive Guards moved forward, and these guards managed to kill the last stormtrooper.
Tervigon casts Catalyst to the wounded Trygon, which charges the first line: 5 guards are killed by the monster, which gets only 1 PowerWeapon wound in return. The unit failed the morale test, but the guards stand still after a sergeant is executed for cowardice.

Turn 2 - Imperial Guard

The Trygon was still roaring, while slashing down powerless guardsmen, when suddendly cheers rose from the left flank: fresh reinforcement arrived!
Following their commanding officiers commands, the platoon opened fire in coordinated volleys against the small bugs protecting the Tervigon. The mass weight of repeated lasrifle shots downed every single Termagant, leaving only writhing corpses on the ground.

Cheered by the new reinforcement performance, the captain kept shouting to his men:"Aim for the other Trygon near those wrecks! OPEN FIRE! It must not hit us!"
He knew that his order was almost impossible to carry out, but he hoped to slow it down and to weaken it to a point that even simple guardsmen would have a chance to put it down. Lascannons and Lasguns opened against the monster, and several of them striked on target: The wounded creature let out a loud scream, even its hardened alien carapace wasn't enough to hinder the pain it was feeling at this moment!

Multiple threats are closing in the last imperial stand: more and more termagants swarmed the hillsides. The remaining autocannon platforms opened fire against the smaller aliens, exploding three.
As soon as the aliens fell, more and more took their place, in an unstoppable wave.

More guardsmen tried to slow down the hacking alien with their bayonets and courage, but none of them managed to overcome the thick (and now covered in human blood) alien carapace: more casualties fell under the shyting talons, but the unit was too scared by the earlier commissar's threat to even think to fall back another time.

Al Raheem comes in from reserves, missing the flank but the Astropath did his trick thankfully.
CCS ordered BiD to the LasCannon blob and to itself against the unwounded Trygon, which manages to get wounded by 2 LasCannons and 2 Lasguns (two FNP failed :D ), downing it to 2W in a single round of shooting. Al Raheem FRFSRF'd his blob against the Termagants nearby, which caused an incredible 75-dice rolling, which in turn caused the bugs to melt, and then ran into the ruins. This is the first error i made this turn.
PCSs opened fire against the remaining Termagants, downing 3 after bad cover saves. I now think i'd have fired against the wounded Trygon (second error): 3 termagants aren't much of a difference.
The assault went bad for the guard: 4 more men are killed by the alien, while the puny 3 normal wounds caused by bayonets are stopped by armor and FNP. The morale test is passed with a proud roll of 2. Like a boss!

Turn 3 - Tyranids

Behind the hill, hidden in the ruins, the sleeping Ymgarl Genestealer brood awoke and moved up cautiously to join the fray.
The assault plan of the Hive Mind kept unfolding, and the sudden appearance of Imperial reinforcements was only a minor annoyance (or even outright planned from the start!) More waves of screaming aliens leaped onto the Imperial fortification, led by the second Trygon. As soon as the first one fell against the Guards' power weapons, the second one entered the fray, setting the humans in panic and disarray. Only more threats from the commissar allowed the line to stop falling back.

The Hive guards, which remained nearby their Prime, protecting it from dangers, turned to face the reinforcements with their long range spike guns. All of them opened fire against the reinforcement's command squad: screaming in pain all the command staff died, leaving the Lieutenant alone in the ruins

Several distress signals reached the HQ vox network, but any further attempt to estabilish a connection with the endangered units failed: many other defence stronghold have been already wiped by the Tyranids. There is only little time left before the complete loss of the planet, and the evacuation is still going...

Ymgarls popped up from the ruins where they was hiding, but they're quite lazy in their difficult terrain and run rolls
General advancement for Tyranids units, except for the Tervigon which moves back from the outflankers and the Hive guards which move to shoot Al Raheem
The front Tervigon and the second Trygon get FNP
Al Raheem command squad is barely in range for the hive guards' guns, which take the opportunity and blast the PCS to hell and gone, saving only the captain.
The other Trygon assaulted the same, poor guard blob, which in turn manage to kill the first one, taking 11 casualties in return. They fail morale again, but stand after executing another sergeant.
KP count: 2-1 for Imperial Guard

Turn 3 - Imperial Guard

The battle was now a struggle for survival, to buy enough time for the other comrades to flee, hoping to be able to reach that last Valkirie, waiting for them to leave the planet. Tyranids were all over the place, surrounding the trenches and slaughtering any guardsman caught alone.

The aliens had surrounded the Imperial positions.
"Sergeant, move these men away from the right flank! We need more distance from that hill, or they'll swarm us and we cannot fire at them!"
"SIR YES SIR!"
Bellowing the captain's order, the sergeants drove the remaining guardsmen away from the threats closing in from behind the hill.

To cover their maneuver, the guardsmen opened fire with their lasguns against the Tervigon, but only the Commander's Laser Cannon managed to wound the monster.

Staggering back from the ruins, the Lieutenant managed to fall back from the terrible alien weapons that slaughtered his command team, and linked back with his men

Ammunitions were running low, as fast as the numbers of unwounded guardsmen remaining to slow down the Tyranid advance. Despite the Commissariat's effort, panic was deep inside the Guard's lines, and even the officiers' voices began to tremble with fear. The men were left waiting for orders which never came, distress call went unanswered, fear filled the eyes of the survivors.

Quite a lackluster turn. I didn't want to risk to be assaulted from the flank by Ymgarls, so i decided to move away from the flank at the price of 4 lascannon shots
Only the CCS managed to put a wound on the Tervigon, the rest of the lasguns failed to wound.
Moreover, one PCS rolled "communication breakdown" for orders, preventing me from using Al raheem orders (which should have been called before, to add insult to injury). Even if I am leading for KP count at this point, the situation isn't looking good.

Turn 4 - Tyranids

Hunger... Feed... Consume... Grow...

Strengthened by the Imperial casualties' biomass, the Hive Mind itself put pressure on the mind of the remaining survivors and urged its minions forward against them.
Screaming, the Tervigon joined the fighting Trygon followed shortly after by a wave of Termagants: the remainders of the first line fortifications were too few to stop such a blunt, and were easily dispatched and consumed by the smaller aliens

The scared lieutenant was still trying to catch his breath when another wall of spikes sprouted below him, tearing his limbs and killing him on the spot, leaving only a small pool of blood and gore.

Another Valkirye left the Spaceport, now shaking against the explosions all around. Echoes of screams and gunfire ran through its halls, scaring the remaining crewmen ready to leave the planet

If my last turn has been average at best, this one has been pretty good for my opponent. After the usual shenanigans of Catalyst (Tervi + Trygon), a Tervigon and 20 Termagants joined the already engaged Trygon against the blob: of course it couldn't withstand such a power, and it got slaughtered to the last man. Note that it managed to resist for 5 assault phases agains 2 Trygons, 1 Tervigon and 20 Termagants.
Hive guards kill Al Raheem, while the Ymgarls continue to roll poorly with another 2" movement in the turn
KP count: 2-3 For Tyranids

Turn 4 - Imperial Guard

There is not much time left. There is not much hope left.... Feed... Kill... Grow...

In a last attempt to rebuild the wrecked defense lines, the reinforcement tried to rejoin with the scattered survivors nearby the spaceport. Termagants were now at point blank range, but bigger monsters threatened the poor lives of the guardsmen...

The captain understood that his platoons won't survive. That HE wouldn't survive. His shaking hand reached for his breastpocket, pulling out a worn, old picture of a young woman, smiling at him.
"Only in death a guardsman ends his duty. Finally, I'll see you again, in the Emperor's light"

Calm descended on the captain when he realized his fate. With his mind now free from the Hive Mind's screams, he bellowed another order for his men, knowing that it would have been the last.

Cold as steel, his remaining men saluted their commanding officier opening fire in timed volleys which would have made proud any sergeant instructor. The energy beams struck on the targeted Trygon, exploding it.

Above the clattering of automatic guns and the whining of lasguns, a last vox-communication flooded the guardsmen headpieces:
"Only in death a guardsman ends his duty"

Very short turn: Al's blob moved back toward the lascannon blob, but it's too far to do anything.
CCS ordered to bring it down the last Trygon, while he chipped off a wound from the Tervigon. PCSs kept firing against the Termagants, killing 2 more. I'd have really better fired at the Tervigon instead.
KP count: 3-3

Turn 5 - Tyranids

The Imperial defenses were overrun. Termagants began flooding the spaceport's halls, slaughtering any Imperial citizen unfortunate enough to be left there.
A Valkirye tried to takeoff before being destroyed, but an alien cannonade hit it, transforming the flyer and its occupants in a fireball.

The Tervigons stopped to replenish the numbers of the few downed Termagants, which were sent to slaughter the last remaining guardsmen.
Doubled in number, the Termagants crashed against the last line of defense.

One by one, the gun emplacements fell silent, their mechanisms jammed by biological poisons and their crewmen slaughtered by claws and talons. After a short while, the screams outside the spaceport ended, only to be replaced by far more from within it. Several thousands of civilians met one of the worst fates of the galaxy.

Nothing much to say: finally the full force of the Tyranid army is able to charge what's left of my castle. I lose many but the unit does not break. Anyway, i have no chances to turn the tide of the battle at this point.

Turn 5 - Imperial guard

"Colonel, we have lost contact with the spaceport. They're lost. I'm sorry."
"How many did we save?"
"40% of Infantry companies, 80% of Armoured vehicles. It has been a success, Colonel!"
*grunt* "If you say so, Commissar..."

I conceded

Victory to Tyranid Hive Fleet!

Post-battle analysis

1. Despite the outcome, i am quite happy of the performance of my stubborn blobs. 2.5 turns against much more points of what they was worth it's quite a feat that not every unit is capable to.
2. This time Al Raheem was a penalty rather than a bonus.
3. I need to target priority better. Those AC shots could have chipped one or three wounds from the big critters. If only I managed to down the Tervigon before it spawned...
4. My opponent built a nice list, with a lot of threats. Tervigons were the real threats, but anyway i can't just ignore two charging Trygons, you know... but that's the point of his list :)