Battle Report 21 - Reaping What You Sow
Tyranids vs. Storm Angels Deathwing Space Marines
Composed by Michael J. Casavant (Hive Fleet Phage)
Summary
- Date - 23AUG2002
- Points - 1500
- Scenario - Rescue (rolled from Advanced Mission Selection,
Chapter Approved)
- Hive Fleet Phage, Tyranid Army List played
by Michael J. Casavant]
- Storm Angels, Deathwing [played by Karl
Roeder]
- Result - Victory for Tyranids
- VPs*, Hive Fleet Phage - 672
- VPs*, Storm Angels - 683
- Campaign points
- Hive Fleet Phage 7, +3 win + 1 kills +1 survive +1
prim. battleground + 1 subplot
- Storm Angels 4, +1 loss +1 kills +1 survive +1 prim.
battleground
* - not normally counted for Rescue, but the league requires
them
Report
Intro
This was my fourth game in the Midnight Comics & Games GW
League. In this battle, I will face Karl's Deathwing again. Tough
and shooty. We'll see what happens.
Pre-battle fluff:
Srinivas looked up at the savagely beautiful beast. Massive
bladed arms rent his body in two. The glorious avatar of Phage
was bringing him to a blessed Nirvana. The wrecked sanguine mass
of his body fell to rocky ground. As soon as it had appeared,
the avatar was gone, as were the rest of the servants of Phage.
Soon, soon he would be dead and bliss would be his.
"We got a man down over here! Move! Move!" Called
an IG medic that raced towards Srinivas.
The shattered man's body was loathe to answer his please,
but he managed to find the strength to slowly pull himself away
from the medic with the single working limb he possessed. His
legs had been severed at the hip and his other arm was missing
from the elbow down. Nonetheless his bloody stumps kicked and
pushed in a feeble attempt to escape the medic. Srinivas was like
a massive slug, leaving a trail of blood.
"Captain! Sit still! You're gonna be all right!"
"No! I must go on to Nirvana! It is my darma! Phage has
come for me! Let me pass on!"
The medic smiled grimly as he applied tourniquet cuffs to
the stumps of limbs and plugged two units of artificial blood
into Srinivas's medport. Srinivas tried to knock it away, but
the medic gently deflected his attempts an obviously practiced
skill.
"Take it easy there sir, we'll have you fixed up in no
time. Once you get a little more blood up to your noggin' you'll
be right as rain and stop all of this nonsense."
Srinivas screamed in soulful agony. It was an unsettling,
unintelligible noise. The medic stepped back pace, and pulled
an autoinjector from his pack. He stepped in pinned Srinivas's
one good arm and jabbed the autoinjector into the medport. Srinivas
slumped to the ground.
***
Srinivas woke up again. His mind twisted. He had lost count
of how many times this had occurred. The Inquisitor had been here
for days. The foul agent of the Corpse-Emperor had already extracted
the information about Glorious Phage from his broken body. Why
they kept him alive now was uncertain, but he was suspicious it
was simple malice. His will was weak. They knew of the Nirvana
that he would go to if he was allowed to die and they were just
jealous, yes , that's it jealous worms crawling from their Corpse-Emperor.
"Wretched creature." Spoke the Inquisitor in his
deep rumbling voice. He had come from Rynn's World and given Srinivas
the sad news that the devout of Phage on that planet had been
hunted down and murdered.
Srinivas spit on the floor. His voice cracked and was ragged
as he spoke, "Wretched? Me? You are the one that murders
and tortures the righteous on behalf of your Corpse-Emperor."
"Yes, fool, babble on. Every word you speak gives me
the gift of the truth and girds me for battle. The vile alien
beasts that you worship will fall before our holy might. Perhaps
not here, perhaps not now, but ultimately we will prevail, even
if this whole sector becomes a writhing mass of the foul fiends."
"You don't deserve death at the hands of Phage. I pray
for justice. I pray that you get your wish and are entombed in
the coffins you call Dreadnoughts. There to live out eternity
mindlessly slaughtering for your dead god."
The Inquisitor showed no emotion. He stepped closer to Srinivas,
pulled out a bolt pistol, and placed the large, heavy barrel to
Srinivas's head.
"You should know by now that death does not intimidate
me, maggot."
"It's not supposed to, this is your ticket to Nirvana."
The crisp action of the weapon sounded once, shattering Srinivas's
skull and bisecting the lobes of his brain. A young man with a
freshly shaved head stepped up quickly, placed the brain in a
nutrient solution, and connected electrodes to it. Images flashed
onto a screen.
"Now for the final answers." Said the Inquisitor
in a quieter, more thoughtful voice, speaking to no one in particular.
He adjusted his robes and sat down at a console. "Let's see
what secrets were left. There has to be something else that you
know. Perhaps some residual from your psychic link with the beast."
The young man spoke up, "Psychic link? Did he have the
gift?"
"Yes, he did, but it was neither strong nor developed.
All it served to do in his case was make him more susceptible
to corruption."
The images flashed by for minutes. Finally the Inquisitor
jumped up and pointed his gloved finger at a screen. "There!
Pull that location up on the screen!"
A techpriest hurriedly stroked the panel in the ritual motions
and spoke the words of power. The screen hummed to life with a
battle ravaged area. It was near the Zeta Tau firebase on Rynn's
World that they had obliterated earlier to cleanse the plague
of a Genestealer Cult.
The Inquisitor moved fluidly toward the screen and pressed
his finger to a spot. "That heat signature. It's their Magus,
the thrice-blighted leader of the cult. His biosignature seems
to indicate wounds..."
One of the marines in the room spoke up, "Let's just
fire some more missiles!"
The Inquisitor growled, "No fool, that didn't work the
first time. That command bunker he hid in is built to survive
such attacks. Besides, it could be useful to interrogate such
a being and help us to repel the swarm."
The Inquisitor fell into a moment of silent contemplation
then snapped out of it suddenly with a burst of speech, "Quickly,
mobilize the Storm Angels. Their armor can withstand the radioactive
residue of the area and if they can get ahold of this foul creature,
they should be able to hold onto him long enough for us to provide
extraction of their unit."
Setup
Naming convention: The food that have faced Hive Fleet Phage
have named the Hive Tyrants that continue to plague them. The
one that trudges forward implacably with an escort of Tyrant Guard
they call "Thunder." The swift winged beast that races
across the battlefield and shatters bodies and vehicles alike
has been dubbed "Lightning." They have also named the
Carnifex engine of destruction, "Mjolnir".
I contacted the league coordinator and set in motion a sub plot
to create a Hiveworld on one of the planets, Rynn's World. I chose
it because it's the most hostile and full of things to eat. The
special rules for Rynn's World are twofold:
- Army may only take 0-1 vehicle choices
- Any difficult terrain movement rolls that result in a '1'
cause D6 hits at D6 Strength, as native predators attack. (Note:
this means if you roll 2d6 for DT and get 1 and 1, not just
rolling a single '1' on either die)
So I need to fight battles against Imperial foes (Marines, Sisters
of Battle, Imperial Guard) to secure the planet. If they get a
certain number of points, they can secure the planet against infestation.
We played Rescue. Only Troops start on the board. No problem
for the Deathwing, whose Troops are Terminators. Big problem for
my swarm, since it means no Synapse. Cool, a challenge. I went
ahead and threw all of my Troops down and took my chances. Instinctive
Behavior can be very entertaining at times. :)
The Storm Angels advanced on the position. Their deliberate
advance mimicking their mental resolve. As they cleared a thick
tangle of woods, they spotted motion along a wooded ridgeline,
then in the opposite clearing, and off to the right as well. The
swarm was advancing and they had precious little time to spare.
Thankfully, no monsters had arrived yet.
The Battle
Turn 1
The Deathwing slowly advanced, unleashing a rain of death
on the Tyranid horde. Gaunts bodies writhed and shattered with
the might of their weapons fire. Implacably, both the Deathwing
and the bugs advanced. Three of the possible tiny emergency bunkers
turned up empty. One of the trees came to life in the form of
a Lictor, who alighted onto the roof of another bunker and poised
to rush in and investigate.
Turn 2
Reserves: Deathwing get everything. Tyranids get Carnifex and
Biovores, but both Hive Tyrants still off the board.
The armored hulks of the Deathwing were joined by a massive
Land Raider, kicking up a huge column of dust as it sped to the
battlefield. Two Dreadnoughts crashed through the wood to reinforce
the left flank. The Lictor flipped down and into the bunker and
emerged with his prize, the Magus. A wave of assault Gaunts went
into a frenzy, raced across the clearing, and leapt into combat
with one of the units, heedless of the danger it was in.
Turn 3
Reserves: The Hive Tyrants arrive!
The Terminators tore the assault Gaunts to pieces, but the
creatures mindlessly kept fighting. The Lictor pulled back from
the woods it was in and handed the Magus to one of the Hive Tyrants,
the one with the wings. More Gaunts locked arms with other Terminators
and began falling quickly to their mighty weapons of power. A
bio-acid mine ran into one of the Dreadnoughts and when the vapor
and liquid cleared, the mighty sarcophagus was still. The fearsome
Genestealers melted back behind a wooded hill.
Turn 4
The winged Hive Tyrant raced for cover near the Carnifex,
but did not quite reach it in time. The Lascannon of the mighty
Land Raider sliced into it's abdomen and vital fluids gushed out.
The creature showed no response to the attack. Another spore mine
burned through the other Dreadnought's armored skin and it exploded
as it's power cells ruptured. The Librarian, heedless of the ravaged
area, tried to channel his psychic powers, but it backfired and
he stumbled as his mind was ravaged. Blood streamed from his nose
and ears, but he fought on. Again, he tried to use his mind to
scatter the Gaunts, but again it backfired, but the mighty Librarian
shrugged off the damage as he became attuned to the twisted warp
fluctuations caused by the carnage and the residual taint of the
former cult. The Lictor charged back into combat and felled another
Terminator before his body was shredded in a glowing storm of
lightning claws.
Turn 5
The rest of the Gaunts were finally dead and the Terminators
reformed ranks in the woods. The winged Hive Tyrant finally reached
the Carnifex and handed off the Magus to him. The winged beast
unleashed a wave of mental energy that downed two Terminators.
Spore Mines rained down on the marines to no avail.
Turn 6
Spore Mines rained down harmlessly about the Terminators
missing their mark. Their Cruxes glimmered with an unnatural radiance.
The bugs attacked more aggressively as the numbers of the Deathwing
dwindled. Another wave of swarm was approaching and the bugs began
to melt back towards their fellow creatures. The Storm Angels
regrouped and prepared for dust off. Many aliens had been purged
this day, but the foul Magus was in the alien's grasp. The Inquisitor
would not be happy.
Wrap-up
Karl played a great game. He was a lot of fun to play against.
Thanks Karl!
It was tough because I did not just try to massacre the other
guy. I thought that fit in with the spirit of the mission better.
The fact that Terminators are Troops for Deathwing had some impact
as well.
Lessons Learned (and relearned)
- I probably should have just charged in with the monsters and
killed everything I could. It would have allowed me to hold
onto the objective anyway.
- The lack of Synapse until Turn 3 was rough, but there's nothing
I can do about that. Tyranids cannot field Synapse without a
HQ (Hive Tyrant or Warriors), Elite (Warriors), or Heavy Support
(Zoanthropes) choice. I suppose I could field all Genestealers
and/or Rippers...yeah right. :)
Tactics Developed
Rules Questions & Clarifications
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