Sunday 30 April 2017

Tyranid Cultist vs Imperials, 40k Big battle AAR

We had a big battle of Warhammer 40k.
2 vs 2 player game of 1850pts for each player.
My Death Korps of Krieg Assault brigade would be assisted with some 30k Space Wolves against a Tyranid Cultist force and a 30k Milita force


We follow up last weeks games and continued the story.
Last week we saw an Tyranid assault with Imperial Guard defenders. In an almost total Tyranid victory remnants of the Imperial forces lead by the Death Korps of Krieg had decided to make an counter attack.

As numbers of casualties started to be estimated by High Command forces of Astartes have been contacted and were deployed. These would assist in the Death Korps counter assault.

See last entry for more details about the previous games.
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.se/2017/04/patrol-mission-death-korps-vs-tyranid.html


In this game each ruin block would be worth one point each, two of the buildings would be worth a second point and six markers was deployed on the table with a hidden number marked 1-6 under, the right number (rolled before the game) would be worth two points.



Makeshift camouflage in the form of "Camo netting" on my Vanquisher.
 
Grenadiers in the ruins, Macharius battle tank in the centre with Death riders acting close support.
The Death riders were deployed as a counter assault unit against those pesky Tyranid Cultist special ambush unit.

Central building worth two points. The Space wolves took this as their mission to secure.

The "Camo netting" covered Basilisk "Irma" taking cover in the forest.

Cultist mining vehicle refitted for war.

Two Space Wolves Contemptor Dreadnoughts combined with some fire power from "Irma" meant that the Cultist flank was under heavy fire. Picture here from round two, one Leman Russ tank disabled and another one heavily damaged.

In the background we can see a special tank hunter vehicle (count as Vanquisher) and in the front a Cultist vehicle with a special nasty heavy flamer variant.

The Space Wolves advance over the open area between two ruined block.

A cultist ambush is met with a charge of the Space Wolves and the Death Korps of Kriegs Death riders.

The Space Wolves assaults the militias inside the building locking them in combat and hindering the enemy to shoot at them for the risk of hitting their own.

My Macharius had tried to inflict casualties on a huge unit of Genestealers and their HQ variant but I scattered to far with the main gun and my other weapons didnt fare better.
The Genestealers and some militias close in on the special Space Wolves Cataphract Terminators.

The unit of ambushing Tyranid cultist were cut down and our forces starts to redeploy.

Enemy Sentinel squadron were flanking our position and tried to take out "Irma". The added cover by the masterly added "Camo Netting" meant that she survived with one hull point left.

Out of nowhere a unit of Genestealers ambushes and assaults my light artillery.

The militias and the Genestealers assaults...
It didnt go to well for the Astartes.

In another ruin the combat is looking much better with Space Wolves bashing the militias.

After a really lousy start my Vanquisher had now started to redeem itself. Its latest victim a Leman Russ exploding widely, taking some Space Wolves down with it. In front of the Vanquisher a servitor can be seen, used as the found two point objective needed to be secured at the end of the game.

A combined charge of Death Riders, my two last Engineers and a platoon command team meant the end of the Genestealers.

In an attempt to block or atleast hinder the Genestealers large unit a Land Raider was deployed sideways.

Death Korps moves out after the victory with the Genestealers.

I got help from a Space Wolves Contemtor Dreadnought and with my small close support unit of soldiers meant that just a lone Sentinel were left. Not wanting to turn Irma around she continued to rain death upon the Cultists. Aided by my artillery spotting Vanquisher tank I was able to get a good view of the table even thou she was deployed on the hill in the forest.

The Macharius backs up and fires it double barrelled gun against the Cultist in the ruins.

The Land Raider had moved on and the Space Wolves infantry and their Preator HQ was assaulted.

My lone Engineer remounts the Centaur in an attempt to close in on the enemy.

Enemy tank hunter pushes forward to get a better view and better targets...


The enemy tank hunter had moved fast and tried to shoot out my Grenadiers securing the Servitor objective but they survived.






The Imperial forces had managed to secure the Servitor earning them two points, the Space Wolves had pushed far with one of their units and had secured many ruin blocks, combined with the other ruins in our hand the Imperial forces could count a victory of 8 against 3 for the Tyranid Cultists and militia forces.



A really nice game.
My Macharius was a big let down, costing rather much points and not really doing anything useful in the entire game. The table just had to much terrain to give it a good field of fire. It had trouble finding anything to shoot at, and when it did they always had a 4+ cover save.
But my Basilisk Irma did really good. Before battle I was hesitant to pay those extra 20pts for Camo Netting but it really saved her ass on more then one occasion and that is an upgrade I will consider to use more often in the future.
And after a really lousy start for the first two rounds my Artillery spotter Vanquisher tank started to make wonders, taking out something like a vehicle per turn after that. Combined with the added sight to Irma it did good in the end.
But for something like 250points it should be good...

The Death Korps supplemented the Space Wolves great in this game and I really felt our forces combined well, playing on our strengths and weaknesses. And some nice dice rolls in key moments sure helped out.

Sunday 23 April 2017

Patrol mission, Death Korps vs Tyranid AAR 40k

Today I had a game of 40k

Some of the players had a special day of Tyranid vs Imperial Guards games.
Each force is a 1000pts force and the plan was to have some different forces to borrow to people to try it out. It could be 1 vs 1 or 2 vs 2 and so on.
Each game is added together for an final result at the end of the day.

I brought some miniatures and wanted to be a part of it.
I had two really different forces prepared but in the end I talked to much with the guys and we went out for some food so I really just had time for one game.

Before the game I told my friend Håkan that I wanted to try out a rather different force and asked for forgiveness well in ahead... I would be playing the Armoured Battle Group from the Imperial Armour vol 1 book.

Håkan took a pre prepared Tyranid force at random. His force would contain a Genestealer heavy force with some Lictors and some other greater beast.
I took far to few pictures from this game Im afraid.


HQ:
Tank commander in a Vanquisher tank with Artificial hull and extra Beast hunter ammunition.

Elite:
Atlas recovery vehicle.

Troops:
Thunder Siege tank
Leman Russ Punisher
Leman Russ Exterminator

Heavy support:
Griffon heavy mortar carrier
Griffon heavy mortar carrier


We would be playing and old scenario from I think it is 3ed rule book, Patrol.
So apparently some one high up the command had decided to send my armoured company in an patrol mission in the forest.

Each player would have one troop choice on the table and the rest of force would arrive from reserve.
I choice a Thunder siege tank as my scouting troop and it got contact with a small group of genestealers.
We would be given points for how much points of enemy we had destroyed at the end of the game.

I choice to have the Thunder deployed as my reconnaissance element. The plan was to have it in firepositon as early as possible.

I won the roll for getting the first turn and started to blast away with the big gun of the siege tank.


When it was time to start to roll for reinforcement all but one tank arrive. This meant that well ahead of enemy movement I would have a solid firebase.



After my initial movement to enter the table it really wasnt any point of moving my tanks as the mission only gave points for destroying the enemy and I was facing a close combat force with my tanks.
All the movements from now on was just to get a better fire position.

My Atlas recovery vehicle makes a battlefield debut, way overcosted for a moving heavy bolter platform but in a force like this you really got to have one.
I guess that if my tanks decides to get bogged down moving in the forest it could come in handy dragging them out again but really I see no real point in including one then for the rule of cool.


Håkan had some bad luck with his reserves and the Tyranids were only arriving piecemeal much to my tank commanders liking...


And with the special Beasthunter ammunition available to my tank commander, granting my Vanquisher instant death special rule on its big gun the mighty beast was killed... Håkan did roll a one on his coversave so even with the creatures special rule of added cover save that was not enough..


We decided to call it here, Håkans reinforcements would not be enough to impact the game in any big way. My gunline had no motivation to close in on the enemy and as the enemy force didnt have any firepower to speak of all he could do was run towards my big tanks and get gunned down...

So their you have it, a small after action report of a rather special and unfortunately rather one sided game, it really wasnt much Håkan could have done with the special force that was available to him and his really really bad dice roll of cover save didnt help either..

So two rather special themed forces on a mission that really didnt help to balance it makes this a short game in the end.

I dont know the end result for the campaign but when I left the Tyranids where leading the result. Glad I could contribute to some Imperial honour at least.



Edit:
Here are some other pictures from the other games.









And the event ended with a near total victory for the Tyranids with a result of 5-1.