TEAM BATTLE!!!

This weekend a few of us from the club went over to Steve's gaming barn for a team battle: Steve and Paul using 4000 points of Steve's Screaming Eagles vs Alan and I using 2000 points each of our Ork armies. We'd decided to allow ourselves a little leniance with the Force Organisation chart so this was more like an Apocalypse game than a normal game of 40K! It also meant Alan and I could bring all of our Deff Dreds & Killa Kans for a combined total of 17 Ork Walkers!!! With over 100 boyz and a sizeable 'Speed Freak' wing of trukks headed up by Alan's battlewagon, it was a satisfying experience to deploy such a force!

Having been mostly focussed on honing competitive lists, speed-painting beardy armies and getting in as many practice games as possible recently, it was a breath of fresh air to do some gaming purely for fun. Not that I don't enjoy the competitive side of things - quite the contrary! - but it's fun to try something different now and then. I haven't played many team games but they've always proved entertaining, and playing on a saturday makes things so much more relaxed time-wise.

Rather than rolling for a mission, we unanimously agreed that an objective-based mission with Pitched Battle Deployment would be the most fun. 5 objectives went down, and Alan and I won the roll-off to choose first or second turn. Though I tend to prefer going second in objective missions, Alan seemed keen to go first, and when I thought about I didn't reckon 'da boyz' would want to wait for second turn either! We set up our Boyz behind the sizeable Kan wall, with our fast wing under cover of one of our trusty Kustom Force Field to our left flank. Steve and Paul kept most of their force in reserve, deciding to see where the fighting was going to be thickest before committing the entire army to the fight. With battle-lines drawn, Steve thought he might as well have a go at Seizing the Initiative...

...And rolled a 6! The Marines had bagged first turn! A land raider filled with Thunderstorm Terminators and a Terminator Librarian led the advance on our right flank, while the fire support units on the left opened up on our Trukks. Thanks to the Kustom Force Field, the Marines' Turn 1 ended with all the Trukks on the left flank intact, and only one kan lost! Da Boyz were now raring to go, bellowing and whooping as they surged forward to get stuck in!!

WAAAGH!!! It was Turn 2 before we hit the Marine lines, with a decisive assault from Alan's Kommandoes who used their Outflank move to get in amongst one of the Predators on the left flank, and some not-quite-so-decisive assaults from my Trukk-boyz. One hit a Devastator squad, who survived and stood firm for another turn; while another managed a nifty double-assault on another Predator tank and a Dreadnought. We managed to pop the Predator, but the combat with the Dread would rage on for the rest of the game, much to everyone's amusement as the combatants swung ineffectually at each other round after round!! Alan's Battlewagon with its deff-rolla was proved a rather more effective weapon, pulling off a multiple Ram and Tank shock move that chewed through Tactical Marines, tanks and a Dreadnought!

On the left flank we knew things were going to get messy once the Terminators got out of their Land Raider - and they didn't dissappoint. By this time a full squad of Assault Marines with their Chaplain had also arrived to support their brethren. Confident we had enough boyz to repel such an attack we flung unit after unit into what became a meat grinder in the middle of the table! As the turns went on the Orks ground down the elite assault units, and were left free to move onto the objectives. But there always seemed to be more coming in from reserve, and they saved the best for last!

In a final twist, 15 Terminators teleported in behind the Ork lines and opened fire with their Assault cannons and storm bolters on Turn 4. Steve and Paul had a good chuckle as they watched Alan and I do an 'about face' with pretty much every model on the table to meet this new threat - Get 'em boyz!! Intimidating as the Terminators were, they weren't quite enough to turn the green tide and victory went to the Orks - good job ladz! What better way to spend a saturday than having a proper scrap with the Imperium's finest?!

So a good game was had by all. What's great about big games is that there are always memorable moments, like the dramatic arrival of the Terminators towards the end, or the seemingly unstoppable Deff Rolla Battlewagon attack! Most of all though it's always a great experience to play a good game in good company, without scrutinising every move as much as I normally might, or referring to the rulebook every 5 minutes! I find the Orks a particularly good army for playing 'fun' games with - it's easy to get into their character and the Codex is written in such a way that a straight out full frontal assault is seldom a bad tactic! Anyway that's all for now, hopefully we'll be able to set up another team battle some time soon.

Battle Report - Tyranids vs Space Marines

This grey autumn saturday saw a well-rested Hive Fleet Askepios take on the Space Marines of the Screaming Eagles Chapter on their home turf! A fun day spent at the operational HQ of Da Klub's Big Boss (aka Steve), this also served as a much needed practice game for the upcoming Rapid Fire! Tourney in Stirling. Since we both had the day free we decided on 2000 points a side, and a straightforward Annihilation Mission. The only random aspect was the deployment, which we rolled up as 'Dawn of War'. Steve drew his forces from his almost complete ENTIRE COMPANY of proper, no-nonense Codex marines, pictured below:

Yup, I was impressed too! Steve's actual army list went a little something like this:

Company Captain with Relic Blade

Command Squad with 4 Meltaguns & Company Standard

Dreadnought with Assault Cannon

Dreadnought with Multi-melta

5 x Full Tactical Squads with an assortment of Assault and Heavy Weapons (a couple with Power fisted Sergeants)

2 x Landspeeders

2 x 5 Man Devastator Squads, 1 with 4 Missile Launchers & 1 with 4 Heavy Bolters

Predator Tank with Autocannon and Heavy Bolter Sponsons

Whirlwind Tank

With over 60 marines on the table, the Tyranids were going to have to earn their meal-tickets today! The list I'd chosen was my best effort to recreate the sort of army I'll be taking to Rapid-Fire, scaled up to 2000 points (and without the Doom of Malantai - who just doesn't belong in friendly games!).

Hive Tyrant with with Old Adversary and Hive Commander, Paroxysm & Leach Essence, Heavy Venom Cannon & Toxin Sacs

3 Tyrant Guard

3 Zoanthropes in a Mycetic Spore

2 x 3 Hive Guard

2 x Tervigons (Toxin Sacs, Adrenaline, Catalyst and Cluster Spines)

2 x 10 Gaunts

2 x Trygons (Adrenaline)

3 Biovores

I won the roll-off and chose to go first, setting up the Tervigons provocatively on the half-way line. With plenty of cover for my inevitable march across the table, I reasoned that it was best to take the opportunity to push Steve's initial deployment forces back out of the city ruins to cling to his board edge, out of LOS of my army which would be largely coming on from my own edge on Turn 1. The Trygons and Spore went into Deep Strike, whilst the 2 Gaunt Broods were held in reserve. Steve deployed 2 Tactical Squads centrally, one atop a large terrain piece to my left, the other behind that terrain piece, covering the corridor between it and the adjacent building. He didn't manage to seize the initiative, so it was game on!

Turn 1 was rather uneventful. My forces moved and ran as far forward as they could; whilst Steve's were left either withouth targets due to intervening terrain, or unable to fire due to having to move to enter play from his board edge. Turn 2 kicked off to an earthshaking start as the Trygons burst through the concrete into play. As they wouldn't be assaulting anyone this turn I maneouvered them both behind a large building, whilst the Tervigons did what they do best! Each spawning a respectable-sized brood of gaunts as back up, they hurled themselves forward to meet the Space Marines. The Tervigon to the left and her Gaunts got the charge on a Tactical squad, as did the freshly spawned Gaunts to the right of the table. Regrettably neither assault was very decisive for me, resulting in no kill points. In Steve's turn he managed to take out the Tervigon to the right, the whose psychic death-throws reaked havoc with the nearby embattled gaunts! A similair fate awaited the Tervigon to the left, resulting in a very unusual scene:

Gaunts - not fighting, not dead, but running away! With my first wave in tatters, it was up to the Trygons to start bringing home the bacon until the Hive Tyrant got close enough to do some damage. Turn 3 saw the arrival of the Zoanthropes, who landed bang on target in front of the Predator. 180 points worth of anti-tank nastiness focussed their psychic energies in preparation to blow the battle tank into smithereens... well not quite. One failed his Psychic Test, the other 2 missed. Zoanthropes eh? Needless to say they suffered a few casulaties in Steve's ensuing shooting phase. Meanwhile the restless Trygons slithered forth from the ruined building and pounced, one on a Tactical Squad, the other on the Command Squad and the Captain. The Tactical Squad suffered a few casualties, whereas the Command Squad and Captain were destroyed. Wary of 2 Dreadnoughts with itchy trigger fingers, I consolidated the freed Trygon into what I thought was a safe position. In fact I'd condemned him to death by placing in the fire corridor of the Missile Launcher-armed Devastators! He went down in Steve's shooting phase - a very careless mistake on my part! By the end of Turn 4 the Hive Tyrant still hadn't hit home, which was beginning to concern me! With a superhuman effort he and his Guard lugged their massive bulk onto the bulding roof to their left, and bellowed before the remnants of 3 Space Marine Squads positioned there. The remaining Zoanthrope redeemed himself by exploding the Predator before being reduced to a gooey mess. The Hive Guard had by this point only taken out a Land Speeder each, and were now left distinctly short of tempting targets, and struggling to stay in synapse range. There was little I could do with them without risking a kill point or two, so they adopted a defensive lurking stance in the central ruined building. The remaining Trygon, having been met by and defeated one of the Dreadnoughts, had developed a taste for armour and charged the remaining Dreadnought to earn a last kill point before giving up his last wounds to massed Heavy Bolter and plasma fire.

My only real player now was the Hive Tyrant and his Guard, who managed to get the charge and chewed through the unit he hit first. He weathered a storm of shooting and managed to get a two-for-one charge, hitting the remnants of a Tactical Squad and the hated Missile-Launcher-armed Devastators. The game went right on Turn 7, which meant the loss of the Tyrant Guard to massed shooting, but also the loss of Steve's Whirlwind to the enraged Tyrant's Bonesword (the old tyrant ended the game on 1 wound!).

Meanwhile, feeling brave, the Hive Guard passed their leadership tests and egded forward to try and claim another kill point for the Hive Mind - But it wasn't to be. Final result: Tyranids 11, Space Marines 7; Tyranid Victory!

I always struggle with Kill points missions. A big part of my army is the Tervigons, who rely on spawning gaunts for their effectiveness. Whilst this is only ever a good thing in objective missions, with Kill points though spawning is seldom a good idea as it offers your opponent some very easy kill points, leaving me with 2 very expensive but rather mediocre Monstrous Creatures in my army! The only thing I might have done differently with the Tervigons might have been to pair them and use their combined clout to attack a single squad, rather than setting them up to take on a squad each. Another option would have been to hold them back until they could benefit from the Hive Tyrant's 'preferred enemy' buff, but they'd have been waiting a while for that! I didn't make great use of the Hive Guard in this game - they each took a kill point but were then left without much of a plan - usually these guys are amongst my star players but I'd starved them of targets. I think the lack of transport tanks in Steve's army worked in his favour in that respect. Star-player award though has to go to the Hive Tyrant with his Guard. They may cost over 400 points but they're hard as nails and can take out just about whatever you throw them at. In many ways he's what every Tyranid needs to be: A close combat monstrosity with the resilience to actually make it there!