War on Octarius!

Blaktoof, the self-proclaimed Overfiend of Octarius, takes advantage of an opportunity to reduce the Tyranid population on the war-blasted world of Octarius Prime. On hearing field reports from his Blood-Axe advisers of a high concentration of 'Big Bugs' right on his doorstep he could hardly hold back: Even the slowest of his boyz knew by now that taking down the big, brainy synapse creatures is the first step to victory against the Tyranids; and by happy co-incidence they tend to fight the best, so promise to give a bit of sport into the bargain!

It's been a bit of a rocky week for Hive Fleet Askepios. With the first of this year's X-Legion tournaments next weekend I've been trying to cram in as many practise games as possible. Tuesday versus Kenny's shooty Space Marines saw the Nids loose in Kill Points. Then at the gaming club on Wednesday they were defeated again, this time by Alan's Ork Horde in a battle for objectives. I'm still confident about the list (see the report from Rapid Fire! last year) but against both armies it was showing it's weakness to high strength, long range AP3 weaponry, and against superior numbers (especially when there are Power Klaws in the midst of them). Against the Orks I think that concentration of forces is the best way to go and so decided to set Hive Fleet Askepios perhaps it's greatest challenge yet: My own army, The Orks of Waaagh! Blaktoof:

Warboss (Blaktoof) with Mega Armour, Cybork Body & Attack Squig
Big Mek with Kustom Force Field
7 Cybork Nobz with Eavy Armour & Stikkbombs (1 with Power Klaw & Bosspole, 1 with Power Klaw, 1 Painboy, 1 Waaagh! Banner, 1 Big Choppa, 1 Kombi-skorcha) in a Red Trukk
12 Boyz including Nob with Power Klaw & Bosspole in a Red Trukk
12 Boyz including Nob with Power Klaw & Bosspole in a Red Trukk
2o Boyz (2 with Rokkits) including Nob with Power Klaw & Bosspole
2o Boyz (2 with Rokkits) including Nob with Power Klaw & Bosspole
16 Gretchin with Runtherd
3 Killa Kanz with Rokkits
3 Killa Kanz with Rokkits
3 Killa Kanz with Rokkits

Rolling for Mission & Deployment came up with Annihilation, Dawn of War. Eager to get stuck in the Orks went for first turn, spreading both the large boyz mobs across the middle of the table, forcing the Nids back. The Nids began the game with both Tervigons, deployed centrally, 18'' from the boyz. First Turn saw the majority of both armies arrive from their board edges, and the boyz scoring a lucky shot with a Rokkit to wound a Tervigon.

With battle lines drawn, the Ork boyz held their ground, waiting for their reinforcements to get in position before attempting a charge. The Doom arrived behind the Ork lines, behind the building to the right in the picture above. There were few tempting targets for him, though he caused a few wounds to the nearest boyz mob. On the other side of the board however the Tervigon launched some of its freshly-spawned progeny into the breach:

Bolstered by their Brood Progenitor with Furious Charge, Poisoned Attacks and Feel No Pain, the Gaunts killed 6 Orks, suffering 6 casualties themselves to draw combat.

Turn 3 saw the first Kill Point of the game being scored as the Killa Kanz nearest the Doom turned round and blasted the floating brain into mush. The combined fire from the other 2 units of Kanz and some Trukk-mounted Big Shootas took one Trygon down to 2 Wounds. The drawn combat from last turn was finished off by the Orks, who butchered the remaining Gaunts and took a few steps back to consolidate. Not allowing them any respite however, the Tervigon spawned a fresh batch of Gaunts in the Nid turn, and moved up to lend its monstrous might to the assault. However once again the Orks stood firm despite taking casualties, causing a few themselves in return! The Hive Guard damaged the unit of Killa Kans furthest from where the Doom had landed, which the wounded Trygon finished off in the ensuing assault. Nearer the 'Nid side of the board the other Trygon charged Blaktoof and his Nob bodyguard, their Trukk having been smashed by fire from the Hive Guard. The Overfiend was struck down, his retinue figthing back with gusto to fell the Trygon. Perhaps the Painboy was able to use his Dok's Tools as the Nobz consolidated past the mangled form of Blaktoof....

The remaining Trygon was taken down by the Rokkit-Kanz in Turn 4, while the Gretchin who had just entered play from reserve pointed their crude blastas at the Doom's Mycetic spore and took careful, nervous aim, wounding the strange and immobile creature. Near the Tyranid board edge, the Nobs and a unit of Trukk Boyz launch an assault each on a unit of Termegants, wiping one of them out. The protracted combat on the Ork side of the table wore on as the boyz again held out despite the odds. In the Tyranid turn the Hive Tyrant decided to take the Nobs, who were feeling pretty smug by this point, down a peg or two by using Paroxysm on them. Blaktoof's finest fell to their knees, twitching in agony as the nearby Gaunts opened fire on them too. Meanwhile the Hive Guard continued their shooting against the Killa Kans, whittling down the centre-most unit. On the Ork side of the table, the large embattled boyz mob had been reduced to just the Nob, who swung his power klaw defiantly, standing against the Tervigon and its spawn. Over on the Nids' side, the other Tervigon had spawned a healthy brood and a combined charge broke the Trukk boyz who fled to take cover in the wreckage of the Nobz' Trukk.

Turn 5 saw every Ork on the table give a great bellow of "Waaagh!!!" as they invoked the powers of their deities Mork & Gork. The fleeing Trukk boyz rallied and turned about to face the Gaunts, ready for more fightin! The large boyz mob near where the Doom landed charged forward towards the Hive Tyrant, confident they would have enough attacks to damage the brute, or at least hold him up and prevent him using Paroxysm again! Despite their best effforts however they failed to damage the Tryant or his Guard and took heavy losses themselves. Never ashamed to run from a fight if it means they live to fight another day they tried to escape but were caught and cut to ribbons by the Hive Commander, who turned his attention back to the Nobz... Things went a little better for the Orks over on their side of the table as the lone Nob not only survived another round of combat but earned his team a second Kill Point by wiping out the Gaunts! The Tervigon remained to crush him the following turn but I was nonetheless amazed that he'd held out that long - Ork of the match! In the Tryanid turn the Hive Guard failed to cause any more damage to the Killa Kans, but the Nobz mob and the remnants of the rallied Trukk boyz were taken care of by the Tyrant, backed up by a Tervigon and more Gaunts.

A roll of the dice decreed there was to be a Turn 6, which allowed the Gretchin to finish off the Mycetic Spore (go grotz!). The remaining unit of Trukk boyz raced forward to scrape a kill point by clobbering a unit of Hive Guard. However things did not continue in such a fortuitous way for those boyz, as the picture below shows, when in the Tyranid turn their Trukk was destroyed by the remaining Hive Guard before they themselves were swamped by Fleshborer fire.

The last Turn saw the Orks assaaulting a Tervigon with some Killa Kans, wounding but not killing the beast. Seeing the Synapse creature wounded, the Termegants nearby scuttled away, anticpating the psychic backlash from the Tervigon's impending demise! The Hive Guard claimed a Kill Point by finishing off the other unit of Killa Kans, while the Tyrant moved up to support the woudned Tervigon. Despite the Tyrant's might, one "shaken" Kan was left standing. The Gretchin pilot inside scrabbled frantically to flick switches and grasped desperately at levers and managed, with his only attack, to take the last wound off the Tervigon!

Result: Orks 10; Tyranids 10!

Afterword

A fun and eventful game, even if I was playing myself! I'm of the belief that you can't have too much practise and in the absence of an opponent this weekend I thought I'd kill a few birds with one stone by having this rather schizophrenic battle with myself. Hey - it gave me an excuse to take pictures and do another blog post! Seriously though I was glad of the experience and surprised at the result. To be honest I thought by about Turn 4 that the Orks had it in the bag. Loosing both Trygons quite early on greatly reduced the killing potential of the Nids, and I was reluctant to spawn too many Gaunts as they are such easy KP's. That said I didn't really stick to that doctrine as there was really quite a lot of spawning going on - with quite good luck on not rolling doubles and getting too many small broods. Neither did I really stick to my plan of concentrating my attack. The Nids started out in close formation but quickly spread out to pre-empt any charges. I'm still not sure if that was the right thing to do and i think the Orks do definitely pose a challenge to the Nid army I'm running just now. I'm hoping though that now having had a couple of goes against them that it's fresh in my mind what they can do and so I'll prioritise my targets better than I otherwise would... I suppose we'll see next weekend, roll on X-Legion!!