Return to Voltistrum - Imperial Guard Vs Tyranids.

 

This is a long overdue gaming day.

The first time we planned it my son brought plague into the house and so it was cancelled whilst we recovered from heavy chest infections.

The second time was work related stuff, so Cardboard Fortress couldn't make it.

We finally managed to arrange the gaming day the past Tuesday (14th May) and so we drove to the wrong side of the Pennines to Element Games in Stockport and prepared to roll the bones.

*****

Captain Caldwalle of the Vanquisher 'Indomitable' was back on the line defending against the Tyranid invasion or Voltistrum.

Alongside the Exterminator 'Righteousness', one of the few survivors of the previous battle, the Imperials had retreated and thrown together an ad-hoc force to buy time to defence the planetary space port for the evacuation.

Infantrymen lined up under the barked orders of their officers and armoured vehicles revved their engines, blue smoke erupting from their exhausts.

The Ordo Tacticus had determined that this was the most likely route that the swarm would take, so the force dug in around a long ruined, part buried settlement and ranged in their guns.

Soon the call went down the line from the scouts that the dust on the horizon was the approaching swarm, with new warrior beasts deployed and driving the aliens forward. In response orders were shouted down the line, encouraging litanies were chanted by units. 

Voices tailed off as the sky turned dark above them, and tentacled Spore Mines began to rain from above.

*****

As is customary, we first had ourselves a game of 40k 5th edition*, and again his Guard army** pitted itself against my Tyranid swarm.

The armies met in the ruins of a long lost city which was slowly being swallowed by the desert.

After the previous debacle, Captain Caldwalle was back in action facing the dreaded xenos, determined to halt the force here.

A platoon of infantry regulars joined his under-strength armoured company, along with a Hydra flak tank and another unit of Ogryns to find out how much they can bite off and get themselves into trouble.

The Hive Mind adapted its will and spawned some larger gun beasts as well A directing a huge swarm of sixty Termagants!

With the dice rolled for first turn/size the initiative, the Tyranids swarmed forward en masse, eager to rend the biomass infront of them.

Spore mines dropped from orbit and exploded on the center of the infantry line, and then the Biovores opened by and threw more spore mines at the thin Guard line.

At the rear of the table, the Imperial Guard Hydra Flak battery was obliterated with one shot by the Shrike with Venom Cannon, firing at full range, the command squad showered with debris and shrapnel but suffered no casualties.

With effective fire from the heavy weapons teams holed up in the ruins wiping out the Warriors squad, severing the link to the hive mind and forcing the mass of Termagants onto their instinctive behaviour.

They became priority targets, and the Lictors and Deathleaper emerged from the shadows.

The Leman Russ Exterminator chewed away at the Termagants, killing half of one squad entirely and the Hellhound burnt a swather the the other. Above the Lictors wiped out the Lascannon squad to a man, before being counterattacked by the Ogryn squad, who whilst wounding the beasts, died to a man.

With bodies rapidly falling to enemy fire and the looming threat of the Hive Tyrant the Guard had a last ditch effort of firing, but it was for naught, as nearly all their infantry was wiped out, the Hydra and Hellhound destroyed or immobile, and the only effective units left on the table were the Exterminator and Vanquisher Leman Russes.

*****

Whilst enjoyable and a good time rolling bones, this isn't my favourite game of 40k which I've had in truth.

From the moment we rolled for the first turn and then I "seized the initiative" by rolling a 6, my dice seemed to be "hot".

I don't think my Biovores missed a single shot due to scatter, and the Spore Mines deep sticking and not scattering was another lucky roll i think.

The Guard may have been too strung out in the line to concentrate fire, a bit like my last game with the World Eaters , but I genuinely think Cardboard was unlucky and I was really lucky with my rolling.

The Hydra could have made a real impact with it's quad Autocannon, but it got blown up on the first turn, likewise the Hellhound managed a good turn of immolating Termagants, but was then picked off in turn, and I do think a normal Leman Russ would have been a better choice than the Vanquisher.

I left my Hive Tyrant too far out on the flank to actually have anything to do which was a waste, a bit of overkill in that he charged and mulched a single officer/sergeant who was all that remained of his squad, and I still need more Synapse creatures in the army overall.

So we had a good day out with friends at Element, and I've got another battle report coming to post.

Until next time, have nice day...

*The reasons for playing 5th edition have been mentioned before in the other battle reports, so I'm not going to repeat them here!

**With a friendly reminder of the Basilisk shortcomings from last time we played. 

Why they made the minimum range 36" on the Earthshaker gun I'll never know.