Can the forces of Chaos overcome a Tyranid Assault? Lets find out in the 2nd Edition Battle Report!
Both armies and the majority of the terrain was provided by PygmyHippo who played the Tyranids, while he loaned the Chaos Marines to my buddy Aaron. PygmyHippo’s Tyranid army was painted 30 years ago and was sorely in need of some fresh biomass! The Tyranids drew Witch Hunt while the Chaos Marines drew Guerilla War. This was a tough pull for the Chaos Marines as they would have to kill the Tyranids in close combat. To paraphrase Sam as he and Frodo were going to Mount Doom “Tyranids. The one place on Uluru we don’t want to see any closer, and the one place we have to go.”
TYRANID LIST
– Gargoyle Brood 10
– Genestealer Brood 7
– Termagant Brood 14
– Tyranid Warrior Brood 3 (Deathspitters and Hardened Carapace)
– Hive Tyrant (Bonesword, Lash Whip, Venom Cannon, Hardened Carapace, Toughened Exoskeleton, Voltage Field, Catalyst)
– Biovore
– Spore Mines 3
CHAOS MARINE LIST
– Chaos Marines 3 (lascannon, missile launcher with plasma)
– Noise Marines 5 (sonic blasters)
– Plague Marines 6 (meltagun)
– Veteran Chaos Marines 3 (heavy bolter, power axe, chainsword)
– Chaos Lord (displacer field)
– Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer (level 3, force rod, disc of tzeentch)
The Tyranid swarm prepares to move forward.
The Chaos Space Marines took a wider deployment in case the Tyranids tried anything sneaky!
Not being able to help himself from using a rule his troops had Aaron used the cover of the Butorg Silo to scout his Veteran Marines. With most things being out of range the Chaos Marines were only able to kill two Termagants.
In the Tyranid turn the Gargoyles flew high while the rest of the army scuttered forward. PygmyHippo took a page out of Aarons book and since he drew the Psychic Duel he used it! With his Hive Tyrant having a lower Mastery level he lost to Aaron’s Sorcerer and the Hive Tyrant was unable to use the warp as he lost his one spell!
In the Chaos Marines turn two the Noise Marines moved up as they were well out of position out on the far flank.
The heavy weapons of the Chaos Marines opened fire on the Tyranid Warriors with the lascannon killing one, and a krak missile killing another.
The rest of the Chaos Marines opened fire on the Termagants with their bolters combining for a total of five dead.
The Tyranid Warrior shot the Veteran Marines with a Deathspitter killing one of them while the Termagants charged the one trooper who couldn’t get away. Luckily the Termagaunts could only get one of the aliens into contact, so the Veteran of the Long War wasn’t going to be overwhelmed by numbers this combat. They failed to kill each other and remained locked in combat! The Genestealers failed their charge, which was too far, and so remained stationary.
With the game halfway over both sides were still relatively unscathed. While the Tyranids had lost two of their Tyranid Warriors, they were in combat, which is exactly where they want to be!
The Chaos Space Marines had a very lackluster turn of shooting. In fact it was worse than lackluster as they tried knocking out some of the spore mines with no luck. In an attempt to free the Veteran engaged in combat with the Termagant the squad opened fire on the combat. While they probably thought their brothers armor would save him their bolts ripped right through him killing him and the Termagant he was fighting. I’m sure that was totally on accident, Chaos Marines would never betray each other, would they?
The Hive Tyrant started to show the Chaos Marines what shooting looked like and unleashed its Venom Cannon on the Death Guard. The only way the result on the Thudd Gun template could have been better is if PygmyHippo twisted it himself, but the dice did the work for him! While it hit three Plague Marines and the Sorcerer only 1 of the Plague Marines died thanks to a roll of a 1 for a wound on a Plague Marine, a 6 to save on a Plague Marine and a 5 to save on the Sorcerer!
The Gargoyles had descended from the skies and unleashed their bioweapons on the collected might of the Chaos Marines killing off three Noise Marines, and two of the marines from the regular squad, including the squad lascannon! Both squads panicked and ran further into the Butorg fields! I’m pretty sure those that survived the battle would agree they were just relocating to a more advantageous position!
In the Chaos Marines final turn they were able to finish off the Termagant squad with a combination of shooting and hand to hand. The marines who survived the onslaught from the Gargoyles turned about face and opened fire on the Gargoyles killing four and causing the rest to panic and flee for the table edge!
In the final turn of the game the Tyranids relied on shooting. As nothing else was close enough to charge, the Hive Tyrant opened fire with his Venom Cannon on the Chaos Sorcerer. The Chaos Sorcerer was hit, wounded, and he failed his armor save. With only two wounds the foul bio-weapon destroyed the Chaos Sorcerer from within, ending the game!
With that the game was over and while both players thought the other had it until the last shot of the game the VP swing was too much for the Chaos Marines and game went to the Tyranids 8-3! It would have actually ended as a tie if it wasn’t for that shot! Aaron is new to our very old game only having played once before. Unlike a lot of more modern versions of the game having a unit as out of position as the Noise Marines were is a real disadvantage. While templates would have been a greater risk if the Noise Marines were in a position to shoot things that really mattered earlier on the Hive Tyrant who killed the Sorcerer would probably have been dead and the game could have gone to the Chaos Marine. Still, that’s why we play the game and hopefully take our lessons with us to the next one!
-Wachtmeister
