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.
