Lord Torath
Vassal
WarpStrike: Panthers vs Chaos
Sister Sergent Sarah looked over the latest intelligence report from the Aetheric Warfare Center. It looked like a Chaos warband was headed toward the same section of the ruined spire she’d been assigned for the purposes of collecting the warp-infused fragments of the asteroid that destroyed said spire. Signs of large Tyranid organisms had also been discovered in the area.
(Yes, I’ve had female space marines in my chapter since I first conceived of the Panthers way back in early 1994, maybe a month after I learned of the existence of Warhammer 40k. Before raising a stink, tell yourself that we’re grown adults discussing a game of toy soldiers, and we should probably just relax.
)
She was pleased to note that her requests for a jump pack and storm sword were approved for Bro. Arlis, as well as an ammo feed for Bro. Comnor’s bolter and a psychic mantle for herself. She would also need to return Bro. Techmarine Mocum’s Bike, along with her assessment of its usefulness at the conclusion of this foray into the ruins.
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I set up the board on half a ping-pong table in my basement before my buddy (henceforth referred to as Mogar) arrived with his Chaos warband. After he arrived, I won the roll-off to see who would choose their deployment zone and set up first, and also who would go first, which was a surprise – he almost always wins both. I placed Sis. Sarah, the apothecary (w/ plasma gun), and a pair of new tactical marines just right of center, with the jump pack-equipped assault marines and librarian to her left. On the far left was a devastator and a tactical marine with a heavy plasma gun. To Sarah’s right was another heavy plasma and tactical marine pair. On the far right was the techmarine on his bike with a melta gun.
After deploying our forces, we each tossed a d4 and ended up with five Tyranid blips: one right in the middle of Mogar’s deployment zone, two close to the center just on my side of the board, and two more on the far right and middle left, just on my side of the board.
On my first turn, one blip was found to be within Scanner range of my boss, and was thus immediately flipped and revealed to be a trio of hormagaunts that raced toward Sis. Sarah and her fire team. Lucky for me, they came up two inches short of reaching her.
To the left, the Assault team jumped forward, with one of the assault marines failing to land on the platform, landing on the ground next to it instead. This flipped another blip, which was three more hormagaunts, which charged the Librarian and assault marine still up on the platform.
On the far left, the devastator and tactical marine advanced, while the pair on the right started climbing the nearby tower for a better field of fire.
On the far right, Mocum advanced on his motorbike, revealing the nearby blip, which was revealed to be an Emperor-cursed Hive Tyrant, equipped with two boneswords, a barbed strangler, an Adrenalin Sac, an Aura of Torment, and a Warp Field (we roll randomly to determine equipment and biomorphs)! It fired at Mocum, failed to wound, and charged in.
The hormagaunts were fairly easily dispatched by shooting and melee, and Mocum was easily dispatched by the tyrant. His out-of-control bike went straight forward, and the hive tyrant failed to dodge out of its way. The bike penetrated the warp field, but failed to hit hard enough to actually hurt the tyrant.
My side:
(I couldn't find my counters for a few turns - forgot my wife had given me some small storage tins until about turn 3. The 'six' is Prescience on the apothecary, the 'two' is a jam, and the '3' is three flesh wounds on the downed hormagaunt.)
Mogar’s turn started by flipping the blip to reveal a genestealer which promptly charged one of his Khorne bezerkers.
Mogar’s side:
Table:
He maneuvered his troops around to allow several bolter shots at said genestealer, and had his heavy pivot and go into overwatch with his autocannon pointed at the combat. On his left, his other havoc and a plague marine climbed stairs onto a platform.
After a lot of shooting, he managed to hit own his berserker once (no damage) and failed to get two psychic powers off. In melee, the genestealer did what genestealers do, taking the berserker out of action. The Havoc fired a single shot from his autocannon, putting the genestealer in the dirt.
Then it was the Tyranid’s turn, and the Hive Tyrant moved back toward my forces. Another couple blips were revealed on my side of the board: three more hormagaunts and four termagants with flesh borers. The ‘gants fired but failed to wound my assault force, while the ‘gaunts charged in, again failing to harm my troops.
On my turn, I ‘cleverly’ edged my apothecary to just within 12” of the tyrant to try using Carmine Assassin on it (my apothecary rolled Emerging Psyker earlier in the campaign), but failed. Sis. Sarah (also an emerging psyker) tried the Salamander, but again failed to damage the beast. My librarian and an assault marine charged the 'gants, while the one on the ground dealt with two ‘gaunts and the devastator teams continued climbing and pushing forward.
My assault marines and librarian finished off the ‘gants and ‘gaunts with two staying high on the platform and one staying down on the ground.
During my opponent’s turn, he advanced his biker up the middle, popping another blip, which was another genestealer that promptly charged his biker. His troops re-positioned to shoot at this new threat, with his autocannon again going into overwatch. His missile launcher sent a super-krak at my on-the-ground assault marine, but the missile exploded harmlessly on a building. Shooting at the genestealer was again ineffective, the genestealer took out his marine, and his autocannon havok put it down with another overwatch shot.
The hive tyrant charged my apothecary, prompting a bunch of terror checks, which most of my marines passed, even with the Aura of Torment. The tyrant took out my apothecary (no surprise there) and followed up into a tactical marine. The other tactical marine broke and ran, but my boss held firm.
On my turn, my librarian and assault marine jumped onto the large building near my opponent, while the other assault marine jump-charged one of his troopers on my far right. My librarian tried and failed to get a Salamander fired off at the autocannon havok, but Mogar knew I would try again my next turn. Back on the hive tyrant end of the board, my tactical marine fired a shield breaker round at the hive tyrant, disabling its warp field and inflicting a wound. Further shooting and salamanders from my boss inflicted the remaining 4 wound required to down the hive tyrant. In melee, my assault marine easily dispatched the inexperience plague marine on my right. Finally, the broken marine rallied.
On Mogar’s turn, being down 3 of 10 marines and with my librarian and assault marine in position to jump-charge him on my next turn, he voluntarily failed his rout check, conceding the game.
His battlefield medic (an Iron Warriors techmarine who had previously acquired the Medic skill) managed to get two of his fallen warriors back on their feet, and the last one rolled a full recovery back at base. On my side, my apothecary rolled a full recovery and my techmarine came away with a burning hatred of tyranids.
I think there was at least another turn in there somewhere (I also took out a ripper swarm, and Mogar bagged a couple of hormagaunts), but this covers the high points. And somewhere along the line I forgot to keep taking pictures.
I must say, Mogar rolled abysmally this battle. I had my fair share of bad rolls, but the number of 1s and 2s he rolled to hit just astounded me. If he’d hit with that super krak missile, I’d likely have bailed before he did. Trying to get his psychic powers off is always a challenge, since I have three psykers with psychic hoods, but even then, he still didn’t roll higher than a 5 on 2d6 over at least 6 attempts.
For my side, I was never able to bring my big guns to bear on the hive tyrant, and had to make do with a plasma gun, bolters, and special ammunition to take it down.
Next battle (in November) we lose the bikes (we each got one for play-testing) unless we want to search for and pay for them. Each side gets a certain number of 'rare item searches' after each battle, and trying to get a bike would take one of those.
So there's my first battle report. Questions? Comments? Smart remarks?
Sister Sergent Sarah looked over the latest intelligence report from the Aetheric Warfare Center. It looked like a Chaos warband was headed toward the same section of the ruined spire she’d been assigned for the purposes of collecting the warp-infused fragments of the asteroid that destroyed said spire. Signs of large Tyranid organisms had also been discovered in the area.
(Yes, I’ve had female space marines in my chapter since I first conceived of the Panthers way back in early 1994, maybe a month after I learned of the existence of Warhammer 40k. Before raising a stink, tell yourself that we’re grown adults discussing a game of toy soldiers, and we should probably just relax.
)She was pleased to note that her requests for a jump pack and storm sword were approved for Bro. Arlis, as well as an ammo feed for Bro. Comnor’s bolter and a psychic mantle for herself. She would also need to return Bro. Techmarine Mocum’s Bike, along with her assessment of its usefulness at the conclusion of this foray into the ruins.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I set up the board on half a ping-pong table in my basement before my buddy (henceforth referred to as Mogar) arrived with his Chaos warband. After he arrived, I won the roll-off to see who would choose their deployment zone and set up first, and also who would go first, which was a surprise – he almost always wins both. I placed Sis. Sarah, the apothecary (w/ plasma gun), and a pair of new tactical marines just right of center, with the jump pack-equipped assault marines and librarian to her left. On the far left was a devastator and a tactical marine with a heavy plasma gun. To Sarah’s right was another heavy plasma and tactical marine pair. On the far right was the techmarine on his bike with a melta gun.
After deploying our forces, we each tossed a d4 and ended up with five Tyranid blips: one right in the middle of Mogar’s deployment zone, two close to the center just on my side of the board, and two more on the far right and middle left, just on my side of the board.
On my first turn, one blip was found to be within Scanner range of my boss, and was thus immediately flipped and revealed to be a trio of hormagaunts that raced toward Sis. Sarah and her fire team. Lucky for me, they came up two inches short of reaching her.
To the left, the Assault team jumped forward, with one of the assault marines failing to land on the platform, landing on the ground next to it instead. This flipped another blip, which was three more hormagaunts, which charged the Librarian and assault marine still up on the platform.
On the far left, the devastator and tactical marine advanced, while the pair on the right started climbing the nearby tower for a better field of fire.
On the far right, Mocum advanced on his motorbike, revealing the nearby blip, which was revealed to be an Emperor-cursed Hive Tyrant, equipped with two boneswords, a barbed strangler, an Adrenalin Sac, an Aura of Torment, and a Warp Field (we roll randomly to determine equipment and biomorphs)! It fired at Mocum, failed to wound, and charged in.
The hormagaunts were fairly easily dispatched by shooting and melee, and Mocum was easily dispatched by the tyrant. His out-of-control bike went straight forward, and the hive tyrant failed to dodge out of its way. The bike penetrated the warp field, but failed to hit hard enough to actually hurt the tyrant.
My side:
(I couldn't find my counters for a few turns - forgot my wife had given me some small storage tins until about turn 3. The 'six' is Prescience on the apothecary, the 'two' is a jam, and the '3' is three flesh wounds on the downed hormagaunt.)
Mogar’s turn started by flipping the blip to reveal a genestealer which promptly charged one of his Khorne bezerkers.
Mogar’s side:
Table:
He maneuvered his troops around to allow several bolter shots at said genestealer, and had his heavy pivot and go into overwatch with his autocannon pointed at the combat. On his left, his other havoc and a plague marine climbed stairs onto a platform.
After a lot of shooting, he managed to hit own his berserker once (no damage) and failed to get two psychic powers off. In melee, the genestealer did what genestealers do, taking the berserker out of action. The Havoc fired a single shot from his autocannon, putting the genestealer in the dirt.
Then it was the Tyranid’s turn, and the Hive Tyrant moved back toward my forces. Another couple blips were revealed on my side of the board: three more hormagaunts and four termagants with flesh borers. The ‘gants fired but failed to wound my assault force, while the ‘gaunts charged in, again failing to harm my troops.
On my turn, I ‘cleverly’ edged my apothecary to just within 12” of the tyrant to try using Carmine Assassin on it (my apothecary rolled Emerging Psyker earlier in the campaign), but failed. Sis. Sarah (also an emerging psyker) tried the Salamander, but again failed to damage the beast. My librarian and an assault marine charged the 'gants, while the one on the ground dealt with two ‘gaunts and the devastator teams continued climbing and pushing forward.
My assault marines and librarian finished off the ‘gants and ‘gaunts with two staying high on the platform and one staying down on the ground.
During my opponent’s turn, he advanced his biker up the middle, popping another blip, which was another genestealer that promptly charged his biker. His troops re-positioned to shoot at this new threat, with his autocannon again going into overwatch. His missile launcher sent a super-krak at my on-the-ground assault marine, but the missile exploded harmlessly on a building. Shooting at the genestealer was again ineffective, the genestealer took out his marine, and his autocannon havok put it down with another overwatch shot.
The hive tyrant charged my apothecary, prompting a bunch of terror checks, which most of my marines passed, even with the Aura of Torment. The tyrant took out my apothecary (no surprise there) and followed up into a tactical marine. The other tactical marine broke and ran, but my boss held firm.
On my turn, my librarian and assault marine jumped onto the large building near my opponent, while the other assault marine jump-charged one of his troopers on my far right. My librarian tried and failed to get a Salamander fired off at the autocannon havok, but Mogar knew I would try again my next turn. Back on the hive tyrant end of the board, my tactical marine fired a shield breaker round at the hive tyrant, disabling its warp field and inflicting a wound. Further shooting and salamanders from my boss inflicted the remaining 4 wound required to down the hive tyrant. In melee, my assault marine easily dispatched the inexperience plague marine on my right. Finally, the broken marine rallied.
On Mogar’s turn, being down 3 of 10 marines and with my librarian and assault marine in position to jump-charge him on my next turn, he voluntarily failed his rout check, conceding the game.
His battlefield medic (an Iron Warriors techmarine who had previously acquired the Medic skill) managed to get two of his fallen warriors back on their feet, and the last one rolled a full recovery back at base. On my side, my apothecary rolled a full recovery and my techmarine came away with a burning hatred of tyranids.
I think there was at least another turn in there somewhere (I also took out a ripper swarm, and Mogar bagged a couple of hormagaunts), but this covers the high points. And somewhere along the line I forgot to keep taking pictures.
I must say, Mogar rolled abysmally this battle. I had my fair share of bad rolls, but the number of 1s and 2s he rolled to hit just astounded me. If he’d hit with that super krak missile, I’d likely have bailed before he did. Trying to get his psychic powers off is always a challenge, since I have three psykers with psychic hoods, but even then, he still didn’t roll higher than a 5 on 2d6 over at least 6 attempts.
For my side, I was never able to bring my big guns to bear on the hive tyrant, and had to make do with a plasma gun, bolters, and special ammunition to take it down.
Next battle (in November) we lose the bikes (we each got one for play-testing) unless we want to search for and pay for them. Each side gets a certain number of 'rare item searches' after each battle, and trying to get a bike would take one of those.
So there's my first battle report. Questions? Comments? Smart remarks?
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