Encounter at Voltistrum - Imperial Guard Vs Tyranids.

 

"We've not had any vox communication with the recon unit for hours now sir, I think we should assume them fallen" Sergeant-Major Hathewaye said, reporting on the lack of intelligence from their scouting patrols.

"Or fled" Commissar Von Bosque said quietly 

"My men are loyal to the Imperium and this regiment, you are not of this regiment, so I don't..." Hathewaye began to reply, anger rising in his voice when he was cut off by his commander raising his hand.

"Gentlemen, I will not have bickering in my command staff" Colonel Walshe began, soothing the raised hackles of his command staff as they glared at the Commissar.

"Sergeant-Major we must assume that the scouts have fallen, therefore..." a knock at the buildings door drew their attention, Sergeant-Major Hathewaye turned from the unblinking stare of the Commissar to see to the interruption.

Colonel Walshe and Commissar Von Bosque turned their attention to the local maps which were laid out over the small table and held down by mugs of caffeine.

"Through the door at the double, Officer on parade, sort your uniform out sharpish" Hathewaye ordered at a flustered Corporal who was busily patting himself down to clear the dust from his uniform and straightening his jacket.

He stood to attention and saluted.

"Corporal Ackerman Sir, third recon unit assigned to the North-East sector. I report a major Tyranid probe approaching from that direction sir, lots of smaller beasts, definitely a Screamer-Killer and some command creatures, but we didn't get close enough to identify".

"Good work Corporal Ackerman, where is the rest of your squad?"

"Dead sir, that's why I couldn't vox in my report. I also report that we encountered the infiltration beast's, I am not confident that I haven't been tracked here as the infantryman's primer tells us the Xenos often do".

"Alright, the Emperor thanks you for your efforts, as you were. Sergeant-Major prepare the men to dig in on our current position, this hamlet is our best position of defence" Colonel Walshe ordered in a calm commanding voice.

"At once Sir!" Hathewaye saluted and ducked out of the door, he immediately began barking orders and the men jumped to follow...

*****

Last week I managed a meet up with Cardboard Fortress at Element Games, Stockport for a gaming day and we clashed with our 40k armies.

He brought his veteran Imperial Guard which are almost 15 years old at this point, and are still as lovely as ever.

My own force consisted of the Tyranids I had been furiously painting over the last month whilst I've been off sick*, **.

As is usual for us, we played 5th edition 40k, in my opinion this edition hits that sweet spot of just enough crunch to keep interest, but not drowning in bloat and detail like later editions, or having so much off table rules and exceptions it feels like you are playing an RPG rather then a Wargame.

So the rulebook and codexes were dragged out, the drive over the Pennies was made and we met up early afternoon and grabbed a table.

Rolling for the game as we didn't have anything planned, we rolled up opposite table quarter deployment with nothing within 12" of the center, and we rolled up Killpoints for the victory condition.

My own deployment was as far forward as possible, apart from the Mawloc (Psychophage counting as) which was at the rear and ready to burrow away.

The Guard were deployed as far as possible in the corner, no doubt hoping for some good rounds of shooting before close combat ensued***:

This is one of my favourite photos of the day, taken by Fortress, I should have taken more but got sucked into the game later on:

After deployment a roll of a six seized the initiative for the Guard and there was some minor movement, mainly of the tanks, but surprisingly the infantry on the right flank pushed forwards a little for firing lines.

The Tyranids did the logical thing for an army which has very short ranged shooting and charged everything forwards as fast as possible.

A lot of the Hormagaunts were blasted to bloody scraps from the artillery and mortars and the vanquisher tore a hole in one of the Termagant units:

As the Tyranids closed in nearly all of the smaller creatures lay dead on the valley floor, the Carnifex and Hive Tyrant had moved forwards ready to charge, and the Shrikes had started to swing round to the left flank of the Guard.

In the rear area, the Lictors had ambushed a command squad and the mortar squad and started to shred Guardsmen with their rending claws.

The big action was the Mawloc who had burrowed under the battlefield and risen up beneath the company command squad and the Ogryn's, eating most of the command squad in one go leaving just the company commander and swallowing an Ogryn as well, before lashing out and hitting another Ogryn.

The bid brutes laid back in with Ripper Gun stocks and fists causing a wound and driving the beast off next turn:

As the battlelines drew together, the Hive Tyrant and Shrikes leapt upon the various infantry around, laying waste to squad after squad.

The Ogryn's in the very back charged the Lictors and avenged the Mortar squad, killing the aliens before their rending claws could destroy the Basilisk.

The big win for the Guard and loss for the Tyranids was the fact that the Carnifex had suffered a rapid loss of integrity after being shot in the face by the Vanquisher and pulped by the Exterminator:

Eventually the fighting started to die down as the field was VERY empty, after everything which had been deployed at the start:

*****

"This is Captain Caldwalle of the Vanquisher 'Indomitable', I assume command of the Emperor's forces here. The command given is to fall back, our position is overrun and the enemy too numerous"

A series of affirmatives sounded over the vox and Caldwalle nodded, satisfied to see that the discipline hadn't left the men.

"Exterminator 'Righteousness' provide covering fire as the infantry break off, regroup point is waypoint seven" the vox was choppy with interference and Caldwalle frowned.

"Aye Indomitable, we'll chew the Xenos up", the ferocious firepower of the Leman Russ Exterminator thumped over the field.

Alien roars answered the firepower as they were denied closing with the retreating infantry, they clambered aboard the vehicles wherever they could and the ragged convoy turned away from the ruins hamlet and the piles of corpses left in the battles wake.

*****

And the Casualties table at the end of the game:

At the end of the game the scores were as follows:

Tyranids - 10.

Imperial Guard - 5.

Highlights of the battle were definitely the Mawloc tunneling up and eating nearly the entire senior command squad, and the cocky Ogryn's who drove off said Mawloc, killed a Lictor squad and then got really over confident and charged the Hive Tyrant, only to die before they got to act!

The Killpoints victory condition really hurt the Imperial Guard at the end of the game (we thought he has it sewn up by the end of turn two).

I think I might suggest the Points cost victory condition from 4th edition if we play a random pick up game like this again.

That's where you earn victory points for the total points cost of the unit, so a unit costing 50 points scores you 50 victory points, etc.

That seems a little fairer then just scoring a point for a unit destroyed when he turned up with a LOT more units then I did.

The day was great, meeting up with old friends, rolling the bones and talking shite all day, a greasy take away for dinner and plans made to meet up again at Element Games, a win overall.

And a tick for the start of one of my to-do list objectives of being more sociable with the hobby ...

Purchases of hobby supplies...and maybe some new Tyranids...made from the store before we left and then face the drive back over the Pennines home to the correct side of the mountains.

Definitely doing this again, hopefully on a semi-regular basis and maybe write some of our own rules to field the newer models in the old 5th edition set.

Until next time, have nice day...

*This was one of the main driving forces for getting the army complete, the last time we gamed all the way back in May 2022. Considering how nice his army is, it was kind of embarrassing to be fielding unpainted mini's against his force.

But as we discussed, in spite of all the youtubers who state "no unpainted mini's on my table", when you have a real life (job, family, commitments) outside of the hobby, it has to take a back seat at times as we only have limited time during the day.

**Fortunately I have been cleared medically to return to work from this week!

***I won't post army lists because a:I can't remember what was fielded fully and b: I never asked Fortress for his.

We play for fun and I trust that he fielded 1,500 points of stuff.

Seriously though, if I thought he was going to cheat at Toy Soldiers, we wouldn't be friends...