Post by Long John Silver on Jan 29, 2014 7:00:20 GMT -5
.. or The Taking of the River Brent
[/URL]Background story:
The verdant and lush world of Brightonne 14 was dying. From the capital Hive City Rykkadh, Queen Alabastra Kranxis Degenerus McSquee XIII, the Imperial Planetary Governor, was ordering a planetwide evacuation of her most highly placed servants and advisors after it had become obvious that the planet was now under some kind of xenos attack from space. ‘Xenos’... it was a sobering thought. She had presumed that the ‘xenos’ had all been annihilated after the Dal’Yth Crusades against the expanding Tau empire, as she had been told by her mentor, Priest RastaMcPutin the Mad Monk. Maybe he had been wrong.
After the planet-wide rioting and eventual civil war, that had been raging for nearly five standard Terran years now, the news that xenos were attacking was the last thing Queen Alabastra needed.
In fact the situation had gone from ‘grave’ to ‘serious’. Lord High Brigadier Aethelread Herring Baptool XXII had reported, from the front line at Crayhdayn that most of his PDF units had defected to the xenos side and were eating their comrades. The vox operator had initially asked the brigadier to repeat that last statement as reports of humans tainted generationally by xenos had begun to filter in.
After the loss of Crayhdayn and the death of the entire PDF, the arrival of Imperial reinforcements was the only thing that could turn the tide. Captain Testless of the Salian guard regiments and infamous Catachan captain, Dwayne H. Howitzer, had arrived, telling of a great void war being waged in space above Brightonne 14 and that the high council and royal advisors, as well as any surviving PDF should begin evacuating the planet.
The Salian regiments drawn from the 235th, the 54th and the 89th were despatched to the remote crossing point of Two Bridges to stem the xenos tide that was swelling towards Rykkadh. It was unbelievable but it seemed the end was near. Flying pict cam servo skulls had recorded images of some of the xenos creatures and Queen Alabastra had almost fainted. She had to go to power her nose in the anti-grav en-suite bathroom to calm her nerves. The way that immense clawed beast had torn apart Lord High Brigadier Aethelread Baptool’s command squad had unnerved her. In fact she saw that Baptool was bravely running away even as his standard bearer, Sgt Major Jonas Tweedo, was eaten whole, as the gargantuan beast opened its huge maw. As danger reared its ugly head, Baptool was sprinting exceptionally hard. He might even make it back to the capital, thought Queen Alabastra as the pict zoomed in on the brigadier and two more of his command squad, firing their pistols on the move, in full retreat. Craydahn was only a three hour march from the Two Bridges crossing so the brigadier could even link up with the approaching Salian guardsmen. If only they could hold the bridge while the Catachans began to approach from further south in a reinforcement move then they might even survive long enough to evacuate some of her more important art pieces and treasures from the Palace vaults.
Then the Horror...
The Salian regiments began tearing each other apart at Two Bridges. They literally tore their comrades apart and consumed them before defecting to the other side. The fate of Captain Testless and his command squad was unknown.
Only the Catachan Guard now stood between the growing xenos horde and the important river crossing point. Imperial tacticae officer McCade had calmly estimated that the Catachans would only last two hours and thirty five minutes before being consumed by the Hive Mind.
Then suddenly vox officer Jade Leanest had shouted out that new reinforcements had arrived. Astartes. The Emperor’s ‘finest’.
‘From which Chapter?’ , asked Queen Alabastra
‘It’s the Soul Drinkers.’, the vox officer replied.
Maybe the Catachan captain would survive after all, thought the Queen, a sly smile beginning to form on her face..
Game - 2 players per team, 750 points per player, special river scenario.
Special house game rules :
River:
1) Units are swept D6 + 6" travel downstream
2) counts as dangerous terrain, effecting on roll of 1 or 2 (with save)
3) if unit is swept under a bridge during movement they may attempt to grab hold on a roll of 4+ but if they roll a 1 or 2 they take a further wound (no save!)
4) vehicles cause tank shock / ram if colliding whilst being swept downstream and must make a 2nd dangerous terrain test when attempting to leave the river,
5) vehicles may collide with the bridge and become immobilised on roll of 1,2 or 3 - though do form a dangerous bridge as a result.
6) A dangerous bridge is normal dangerous terrain test and also counts as difficult terrain
7) heavy and super heavy vehicles ignore the effects if they are large enough to span the river entirely without 'dipping in'
8) if a super / heavy 'dips in' (the vehicle does not fully cross the river in one turn and the model literally dips toward the river) it becomes immobilised on a roll of 1.
Map :
Deployment: Emptyhat deploys most of his forces in the north west, except one basilisk in the opposite north east corner of the map. Cosmic deployed his tyranids in the north centre, near the bridge. Empty had a valkyrie in reserve, Cosmic a Hive Crone.
Tread deployed all over the south of the map, mirroring Empty's basilisk positions with his own same units. Cheminhaler deployed the 2 tactical squads and hq choices in the south west, his devastator squad in the south east, in the forest, and the 2 typhoons (separate slots) in the south centre, at the back.
Lists:
Cosmic's Tyranid Hive Fleet (Cosmic)
HQ
Hive Tyrant
-regeneration
-old adversary
210
TROOPS
Hormagaunt Brood
-toxin sacs
80
Hormagaunt Brood
-toxin sacs
80
FAST ATTACK
Hive Crone
-regeneration
185
HEAVY SUPPORT
Carnifex Brood
-Crushing Claws
-regeneration
Salian Guard (Emptyhat)
aka - Sailguard / genestealer cultists:
Company Command Squad 50
Veterans Lasguns, 3 Meltaguns 100
Platoon Command Squad Autocannon 40
Infantry Squad 50
Chimera 55
Infantry Squad 50
Chimera 55
Valkyrie 100
Basilisk 125
Basilisk 125
Catachan Guard (Treadiculous)
PCS
PCS
Squad 1
Squad 2
Squad 3 and 4 combined in ruin
(all had autocannons)
basilisk x 2
chimera x 2
CCS with MoO and Regimental Banner
Soul Drinkers space marines -i.f. chapter tactics(Cheminhaler)
HQ (Captain Zappeion)
SM Captain - grav pistol, boltpistol, auspex
HQ (Codicier Ignomenes)
Librarian (level 1)
Troops (tactical squad Epiges)
10 tactical marines - vet sgt, grav gun, plasma cannon
Troops (tactical squad Pamestin)
5 tactical marines - vet sgt, meltagun
Hvy (devastator squad Tithes)
5 Devastator marines - vet sgt, 2 lascannon, 2 missile launchers
FA
Land Speeder Typhoon
FA
Land Speeder Typhoon
----
750
*Pre-game: Cosmic and empty win the die roll for picking the set up and opt to go first. We roll for warlord traits and Cosmic gets night vision for his army (from Tyranid Codex), empty gets Princeps of Deceit, Chemin gets Legendary Fighter and Tred gets Strategic Genius (but has no reserves which keeps up the theme of him never getting a useful warlord trait ever). empty uses PoD to move one of his Basilisks into cover away from Tread's autocannon teams and Chemin's devastators ("Oh" he says, it was 12" "deployment from the bridges and not the whole river").
We remember about rolling for night fighting (which should be done before deployment but since the nids will likely need a little boost if they can get it we roll for it anyway and night fighting is in effect for the first turn)
*Turn 1: empty's Chimera advance to provide cover for the Tyranids, they pop smoke. Due to night fighting enemy casualties are low, only one guardsman and an autocannon team. Tyranids advance.
Tread and Chemin focus their firepower on the poor Tyranids exacting a toll on the Hormagaunts and wounding the carnifex the rest of their ample fire base pumps into the Chimera who are saved by night fighting and smoke stacking up. (Not sure if they got hit by Tread's Basilisk here but I think if they did I took a save on them which I think was correct).
(At this point we remember that Cosmic needs to generate psychic powers for his Tyrant and Chemin, who actually knows about psykers helps walk him through the process)
*Turn 2: Both the Valkyrie and the Hive Crone turn up and decide to buddy up on an attack run on the right flank. Cosmic is dismayed that empty's guard decide to stay in their Chimera, which stand still and provide fire support. One of empty's Basilisk gets a direct hit on one of Tred's, blowing of its earthshaker. The other hits both Tred's Chimera roughing them up a bit. The Valkyrie fires both missiles at the other Basilisk and shakes it up. The Hive Crone does... something (it either drooled on some guard or fired some Tentaclids that missed).
Tread and Chemin rough up the nids some more (killing the carnifex) and wreck one of empty's Chimeras, blasting it from both sides. The guard inside bail out behind the Hormagaunts on the bridge. Tread pouts about his Basilisks being rendered useless. The Typhoons sneak about.
*Turn 3: The Hive Crone hangs around Tread's surviving Basilisk and smacks it up with its Tentaclids destroying it. The Valkyrie Diverts back to the center to have a go at Tread's Chimera and CCS. The surviving Tyranids (not many now) advance some more. The Tyrant uses a malediction (Paroxysm, which -D3 from both target squads BS and WS. Cosmic passed psychic test and rolled a 6, making the guardsmen WS 0; drolling vegetables) against the nearest guard gets unlucky with its charge roll. However the tyrant is killed by combined fire of soul drinkers captain Zappeion and squad Epiges, the grav gun and plasma cannon proving devastating, before dying to fire from Tread's autocannon teams in the south west. It's unclear if the hive tyrant's power remains in play, but we keep Tread's targeted guard squad at WS0 for the upcoming charge.
Chemin's Devastators ping the Valkyrie with a lucky shot and roll Crew Stunned. Typhoons continue to sneak around. Tyrant is blasted into bits and all but two hormagaunts die. empty's infantry squad on the bridge get exploded by Tread's MoO leaving two alive but one of these guys goes down to some lasguns, his comrade passes his leadership roll (probably because he is a danged Genestealer cultist).
*Turn 4: Cosmic only has 2 Hormagaunts and a Hive Crone now the Hormagaunts charge into the closest squad of guard and get mullered and the Hive Crone switches to glide and attacks Tred's infantry platoon in the ruins, they get lucky and hit it with an autocannon as it charges. empty's shooting generally fails to do anything but Chemin's Librarian takes a basilisk shell to the face and dies (at this point only two Soul Drinkers have fallen). The Valkyrie which was stunned switches to hover mode (some discussion about whether it can or not but since empty was told that Grav Chutes don't work in zooming mode and has had Valks switch to hover to escape being stunned when playing against other guard player goes for it anyway. The Melta vets inside disembark and kill a Chimera, the Valkyrie gets lucky and takes the last hull point from the other Chimera with a snap firing multi-laser. (At which point empty realises that the half dead Chimera were empty anyway)
Chemin's sneaky Typhoons start racking up the damage. One of them immobilises the Valk and the other pings one of the Basilisk. Now that the purple-guard firebase is pretty weak the Soul Drinkers advance mercilessly gunning down most of the veterans who turn and run.
Angered by the low casualties among the Space Marines Tread uses his MoO to destroy one of Chemin's Typhoons. There are also some shenanigans with the river that mostly involve drowning guardsmen.
*Turn 5: empty disembarks his infantry unit in the remaining Chimera and sends it to secure the other bridge (but apparently you can only claim the objective by being on the hostile side of the bridge?) the Chimera moves forwards to try and claim. The Hive Crone is locked in combat with the guard who are slowly getting eaten but are putting up a good fight.
The lone surviving guardsman in the river together with 5 space marines, up against the wreckage of the sunken basilisk and the bridge finally drowns. Veteran Sgt Pamestin had tried to hold onto him but crushed his bones, accidentally.. The 5 marines haul themselves out of the water, within sight of the objective; the bridge.
The remaining Typhoon destroys one of the Basilisk and combined fire brings empty's guard squad on the bridge bellow the 50 point requirement to claim an objective.
*Turn 6: All of empty's remaining units make for the bridge, except the last Basilisk which moves for a better shot but fails to do anything significant.
All of empty's remaining units are killed (the basilisk is ripped up by the remaining Typhoon), except a lone lasgunner, 'gone to ground for the 6+ invulnerable save, which he passed. Captain Zappeion then tried to target him with the auspex to deny the 6+ invulnerable but failed to hit as he was pressing the buttons on the auspex too hard, swearing. The Hive Crone is also killed by Tread's guard. The game ends.
Early/ mid game pictures :
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[/URL]Late game pictures :
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[/URL]Concluding story :
Captain Zappeion waded through the gore of purple-dressed guard corpses and catachan bodies around the bridge, awaiting the arrival of the Catachan officer from the south east. Casualties had been light amongst the marines and although many catachans died there were also still a fair few around. Zappeion listened to vox reports from the typhoon as it gunned down the surviving cultists in the ruins and surmised that with the destruction of the guard transports they would all have to footslog it back to the capital, likely followed by surviving tyranid organisms.
It would be a long march.. He could see a distant figure running towards the bridge with another wounded guardsman in tow. It looked like a PDF local planetary officer wearing a plumed helmet and sporting a bionic monocle and a gleaming golden carapace.
Guard PDF survivors it would seem.
