Exploration of Mortalis: expedition 2

Hector was by now searching the hulk again. More men had been dispatched from the other ships surrounding the hulk, but the Tau and Kryptmann there was no sign of. Hector could not quite see how Kryptmann could have survived the structural collapse of the other half of the hulk, or the swarms of tyranids, but he must recover the body anyway.

It was time for a re-match. This time we chose our characters with more care (if we could), however the store's staff controlled tyranids got to control more and less was left to chance. Hopefully we could do better than we did last time a  second time round... however with people swapping fighting ability for psykers that was doubhtful (I am notorious for my hatred of these wanna be wizards).
I had swapped my incredibly bad (though technically he did win the game) Inquisitor for a Dark eldar archon (the notorious mr.chuckles http://warformiddleearth.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/battle-for-spongia-ix.html) with ghostplate armour, huskblade (power weapon instant death, nic for killing tervigons!), shadow field (2+ invunerable save) and combat drugs (re-roll to wound).
My tale of two gamers partner kept Hector with the same profile however (i must admit that the model is awesome).

The game only really got started by turn three with Mr chuckles and the chaos chaplain charging straight for the large hordes of Gaunts, followed close behind by the wolf lord and Hector with the Ork warboss and the two psykers lurking at the rear. By now the zoanthrope was already here and three waves of Tyranids were swarming up the corridor towards my incredibly squishy dark eldar and the much harder chaos lord in terminator armour.

We seemed to be making good ground as Mr.chuckles beat back waves and waves of the gaunts, making for the Tervigon. The Terminato lord was heading towards the Zoanthrope and Hector (no doubht trying to find Kryptmann) was pushing his way into the front lines. The blood angel librarian then started slinking off to the back (cowardly marine!)... heading the way he had come.

Archon Chuckles was doing amazingly well, he was just a pace away from the Tervigon, much much further forwards then we had got last time. By now the Chaos lord had fallen under a wave of tyranid shooting and swarming and Hector was pinned against a wall and surrounded by gaunts, the wolf lord and Ork warboss were now holidng the line.
Mr chuckles had by now taken a large wave of tyranid shots which managed to brake his shadow field, but the "hive mind" (game master/tyranid player) said he had killed soem many gaunts by now that he was allowed his "feel no pain" save from "power from pain" and so he unbelievably stayed standing.

This was a rather comic moment when the staff member (who was playing the tyranid hive mind) called out "Who wants to be shot" and Hector called out "me" (As you can probably tell he didn't really mean it). And with a cry of "Bang" every single one of the termagaunts opened up on the inquisitor. It goes without saying that this downed him and left Mr chuckles stranded a man's width away from plunging a Huskblade into the Tervigon! But he had to content his thirst for pain by hacking up a few Gaunts.
The zoan thrope then Psyked out the warboss and thw orks' head exploded. The wolf lord then lept into combat with the Psychic Nid, taking a wound and inflicting none.

With nothing left for them to shoot at the Tyranids turned all their shooting on Mr.Chuckles (whom they seemed to have been ignoring up untill now... that is to say until he was raising a huskblade above the tervigon's head). He took but one wound from the lot... but it was enough to kill him (don't worry we will recover one of his eyelashes and re-grow him).

The zoanthrope then took out the wolf lord and with that the two psykers were left on their own to perish....

A very good re-match and I have to say it was fun. My Archon did so much damage and almost managed to take down the Tervigon. He lasted amazingly long for such a weak character and struck out alone... it seemed to be a thing of these games that the weakest character (Archon and battlesuit) seemed to do the best and get the furthest

Hector looked out from his ship at the space hulk floating out at space. No doubht the blood angels would send a large battle force to wipe out the tyranid menace on board the ship as revenge for their men lost aboard it... but Hector's mission would still continue. Kryptmann had escaped with the tau and would be threatening Imperial systems again soon.

Exploration of Mortalis: expedition 1

Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Hector walked along the dark unlit corridors of the abandoned space hulk. He was on the trail of the wanted ordo Xenos inqusitor Kryptmann who had gone rogue after he had been stripped of his rank for the destruction of two imperial hive worlds. Kryptmann had claimed that these worlds were infested with Genestealer broods and that he had killed the few to save the many. But he was still a wanted man. For a long time now he had been gathering a force of like minded renegades (you must of course understand that they were not chaos cultists and dispised chaos as much as the emperor).

Now Hector together with the two space marines, a blood angel and a space wolf, dispatched to help him were creeping through the unexplored reaches of this space hulk for the heretic inquisitor.

Hector turned teh corner. He was immediatly confronted with Kryptmann and a Tau battlesuit. He let off a blast from his inferno pistol before whipping his force sword out and striking out againt Kryptmann, but both these attacks were blocked by the battlesuit and it let rip with its rifles, pinning the two space marines to the floor. A massive ork warboss, who had been hiding in the shadows then picked the two inquisitors up and rapped their hats down over their heads. "Now den! Dets get down to da real buisness!" growled the ork.

The story behind this game was that Tervigon had lodged it self in the control room of an abandoned space hulk. It was breeding like crazy and endangering the neraby space system.
A small force of commanders from the different races had got together and were planning  to storm and kill the Tervigon.
We played our game on the zone mortalis board from forgeworld, which one of the staff at my local games workshop store had purchased. We could each take a hero worth up to 150pts and eight heroes objective was to kill the Tervigon. Unforntunatly somewhere around the zone there was a Zoanthrope lurking to catch us as well. With the tervigon generating 2D6 termagaunts a turn and practically anything being possible it was set for a very fun and exciting game.

 Thegame opened up with the Battlesuit and Ork warboss spearheading the way to the Tervigon followed by the wolf lord. However the Blood angel wandered off towards one of the outside doors and almost set the cabin off to decompress, but instead he only released four termagaunts, which bogged him down for a good four rounds of combat. The two inquisitors on the other hand, hung back out of shooting sight from the gaunt swarms heading along the corridor.
But it turned out that our boys were quicker and in an inquisitor approved formation; the Xenos as the meat shield with the space marines to back them up and us two inquisitors (Hector was played by my tale of two gamers buddy) at the rear out of sight to come in at the end and force sword the Tervigon.
We just hoped that with all those gaunts kicking around we could kill enough to actually make some progress in advancing towards the tervigon!

Then teh hive mind dispatched a small band of four Termagaunts to deal with the inquisitors. But it only really distracted the inquisitors as with two rounds of combat the inquisitors had reduced the gaunts to chopped up limbs.
By now the Zoanthrope had arrived and us inqusitors were rather anxious not to get in its way (especially as hector was on one woudn from a round of gaunts shooting at him), though we did want to stick a force sword up it).
For a Tau the battle suit had been having remarkably good rounds of combat with that big shield of his, and had totted up quite a few tens of dead gaunts by now (with its shooting and combat ability it was killing around three or four gaunts a turn). However the xeons fighters were getting badly damaged as tehy took the brunt of the tyranid wave.

With an almighty crash the ork warboss was downed and the badly woudned wolf lord was forced to take his place in the front of the line along side the battle suit. With our inquisitors settling down to hide from the zoan thrope again a great supise greeted everyone. It was a late comer, more specifically a chaos lord in terminator armour! Just what we needed. However us two inquisitors seriously discussed putting a force sword or two in his back as not only was he a worshipper of chaos but he looked suspiciously like a chaplain...

It wasn't long before the wolf lord fell, and not long after him till it was the brave tau battlesuit's (whom had travelled here with Kryptmann) turn. This was a sad afair and the fall of the battle suit sealed our fate. The blood angel and chaos chaplain of khorne (?!*) then got charged and became the unwilling front line. The foolhardy Hector (on one wound) also surged forward to help hold the line, and Kryptmann (my iquisitor) took his chance to make a get away. My plan was to back onto the single tile width strip where I could fight the tyranids one at a time on my own terms!

The Blood angel and Hector quickly fell (with Hector teleporting himself back into his ship outside the abandoned hulk). Kryptmann had finally got onto the bridge and was waiting for the tyranids round the corner to reach him.

The chaos lord quickly fell under a swarm of gaunts and gaunt shooting... but then the tervigon went crashing through the wall onto the bridge where Kryptmann (the last of the company) stood.

Aparently all the tyranids had always strikes first (including the initative 1 tervigon ?!*) and so the tervigon quickly beat him up... however just to see what Kryptmann would have done if he hadn't died I was aloud to make his force weapon attacks against teh great beast... and he killed it!

Kryptmann stood on the bridge with his sword drawn, he was ready to fight to the last but all of a sudden just behind him the wall buckled and the huge Tervigon burst through. He threw himself at it but with one mighty lash of it's head he was thrown bck off the bridge and into deep space... but all of a sudden he disapeared just then the Tervigon started to feel awfully quire and it collapsed over... DEAD! Kryptmann had teleported himself to the Tau battle ship that had brought him here but his sword had been displaced as he travelled through the warp and had reapeared inside the tervigon's head! He was now watching as part of the space hulk collapsed under the pressure rushing in from the hole in the wall. He was standing on the command deck of the tau battleship and knew that he would easily be out of reach before that witch hunter even realised he'd gone!

Battle for Spongia IX

For many months now Lord Lilithus had been persuing the Grey knights. Ever since Lady Kerr's defeat at the hands of Kaldor Draigo's Paladin squad Lord lilithus had been on their trail until finally he caught up with them on the Dormant Necron tomb world Spongia IX. Lilithus was intent on revenge and h knew that though Spongia IX was an imperial planet it was known that it contained a mass of catacombs in which lurked a dormant Necron civilisation.
He walked into one of the Crypts where he saw a whole legion of necrons lying dormant. He picked up a stone and dropped it onto the floor. The whole legion sat bolt upright and Lilithus began to laugh

This game was fought at warhammer world between six players (most of whom have featured in other reports). It was 6000pts aside with Grey knights, eldar and eldar against Necrons, Dark eldar and Chaos space marines.

Alliance of Revenge

• Necron lord on Command Barge
• Necron destroyer lord
• Necron Lord
• Lord Lilithus, Archon
• Baron Sathonyx
• Terminator lord
• 7 man death watch kill team
• 5 Incubi
• 7 Harlequins
• 3 Hekatrix bloodbrides
• 5 Lychguard
• 5 immortals
• 5 chaos terminators
• 10 Necrons
• 10 necrons
• 20 necrons
• 5 hellions
• 5 kabalites
• 5 kabalites
• 6 khorne bezerkers
• 10 chaos space marines
• 10 chaos space marines
• 8 scarab swarms
• 3 reaver jetbikes
• 6 scourges
• 4 chaos bikers
• 6 necron destroyers
• 2 necron wraiths
• 1 necron monolith
• 1 chaos predator
• 1 chaos rhino
• 1 dark eldar raider
• 1 Defiler
• 1 drop pod

Forces of Order

• Avatar of Khaine
• Avatar of Khaine
• Seer council of Ulthwe
• Castellan crowe
• Brother captain stern
• Librarian (nick named adolf after a painting accident)
• 5 striking scorpians
• 6 Harlequins
• 10 Harlequins
• 5 howling banshees
• 5 fire dragons
• 10 dire avengers
• 10 dire avengers
• 10 dire avengers
• 14 guardians
• 1 warlock
• 5 rangers
• 5 rangers
• 7 grey knights
• 8 grey knights
• 5 terminators (with some crazy invincible creation of matt ward's which literall can never be removed from play. i don't know what it was called but we'll call it Matt)
• 5 warp spiders
• 5 dark reapers
• 2 fire prisms
• 1 night spinner
• 1 warp hunter
• 3 wave serpents
• 1 venerable dreadnought
• 1 dreadknight

The 12" by 4" board ready for action with fortress of redemption, two bastions and a landing pad

Our right flank defended by chaos space marines and dark eldar kabalites facing off against Eldar and rangers in the fortress of redemption
(one objective at each end of the fortress of redemption)

Our centre defended by my dark eldar and rogue space marines facing off against grey knights and rangers in the bastion
(one objective in the ruin between the dark eldar and grey knights)

Our left flank defended by necrons and the Defiler facing off against eldar
(the final objective was on top of the skyshield landing pad  and the other in the Ranger held bastion)

The Forces won priority but there first turn on the right flank was just an advancement, it got more exciting on our turn when the scourges took the lascannon turret objective and my kabalite squads ran for the fotress behind the cover provided by the chaos bikers and rhino (which set off a smoke screen)
Forces =1
Allies =0 (1)

In the centre flank the forces first turn was slightly more interesting with the dread knight letting rip with all its guns killing two hellions a necron and immobilising the raider before it could move. In the allies turn the dark eldar harlequins and hekatrix charge through the ruin objective, the harlequins assualting the terminators. Lord lilithus (whose transport was out of action) jumped out of his raider and lead the charge up the hill towards the bastions with his incubi bodygaurd. Baron Sathonyx and his hellions assualted straight into a squad of grey knights lead by Adolf but were all (save the baron) cut down with no casualties inflicted! The baron then turned and fled.
Forces =0
Allies =0 (1)

(Note: As i didn't have any men on the far left i have no idea what happened there throughout the entire game save that 4 lychguard, 2 wraiths and a lord turned up where there had been 20 dire avengers, 10 harlequins, 5 banshees, an avatar, the seer council, 6 destroyers, a destroyer lord, a command barge, a defiler, all the scarab swarms and a few tanks, and thats all i can really tell you. at the beggining they were there at the end they wern't also the game ended with no one holding the skypad so we'll discount that one for this report) on the left flank the necrons, together with lord lilithus and his guard, storm up the hill towards the defence line and bastions which were defended by two fire prisms and 5 rangers. The immortals were all blown to bits before they even moved.
Forces =1
Allies =0

When the 7 Harlequins engaged with the 4 terminators lead by Matt and the brother captain stern a suprising ammount of carnage insued with all but one terminator and the captain (including Matt) were cut down by the harlequins who took just two casualties (the troupe master and shadowseer). unfortunatly Matt pretended he wasn't dead and stood up again.

The unfortunatly nicknamed Adolf

Turn two on the right flank saw the warp spiders blast apart the scourgs and the fire dragons the bikers, though it wasn't all bad luck for the allies and the rhino somehow managed to wipe out the dire avengers.
Forces = 1(2)
Allies = 0

On turn two in the Centre Castellan crowe engaged the hekatrix bloodbrides killing one. The terminator, Matt, captain sterna dn the grey knights smashed up the rest of the harlequins only to have a drop pod land on their rear in the next turn and the deathwatch appear with guns blazing (their silly invulnarable saves protected  them however)
Forces = 1
Allies = 0

And finally on the left flank the venerable dreadnought charges into Lord lilithus and his bodyguard, however neither side does anything to the other as the dark eldar dodge out the way of it's fist missing with their haywire grenades. Then the monolith appeared inside the defence line on the hill and the monolith blows the bastion objective to pieces leaving a pile of rubble as the objective.
Forces = 1
Allies = 0

In turn three on the right flank the rhino is wrecked by eldar tank shooting leaving the Bezerkers to race out and assualt the warp spiders in the fortress. The kabalite squad that got as far as the lascannon turret objective also assualt the Warp spiders and together both squads slaughter the warp spiders to a man and the kabalites feed off the pain.
Forces = 1
Allies = 1

The Nemesis dreadknight appears to challenge the monolith!

The Avatar, Harlequins, Terminator and Grey knights assualt the killteam in their drop pod and massacre the lot!

Turn three in the centre saw the death watch wiped out by the terminator, avatar and harlequins but it also saw Matt blasted down by the chaos preadator (all guns blazing) and Castellan crowe chopped up by the remaining blood bride.
Forces = 0
Allies = 0 (1)

Turn three on the left flank was a bit more eventful, the venerable dreadnought and Incubi lead by lilithus did nought to each other but the two fire prisms are forced back and the necrons lead by their lord suceed in taking out one of the grey knight squads.
Forces = 1
Allies = 0

As you can see utter carnage on the far left where there had been an entire eldar army and the elite parts of a necron one there was now only 2 wraiths, a destroyer a destroyer lord a command barge and an immobilised defiler facing off against 4 banshees, an avatar, a shadow seer and a dire avenger.

On the right flank in turn four the last three kabalites assualt the rangers killing all five of them and gaining their 2nd pain token. But the fire dragons ran into the fortress of redemption followed by the dire avengers, cornering the kabalites. The chaos space marines assualt the warp spider.
Forces = 0 (1)
Allies = 1

In the centre in turn four the last terminator and grey knight take out the hekatrix bloodbride and one of the chaos space marines.
Forces = 1
Allies = 0

On the left flank it was uneventful as usual and no one was killed.
Forces = 1
Allies = 0

Luckily Grey knights are not famed for their brains. The last grey knight blasted off his incinerator cannon at point blank range into the useless drop pod and the vehicle blew up killing 2 harlequins and the grey knight himself decisivly taking out one of the force's last troop squads. This was the tipping point of the battle, the point that denied the forces victory

Turn five on the right flank saw the guardians wipe out the kabalites, the dire avengers capture the lascannon turret and the continuos battering of the warp hunter by the chaos space marines.

Forces = 2
Allies = 0

On the left flank however the Venerable dreadnought began to make progress taking out lilithus and three incubi.  the necrons lead by their lord engage brother captain stern and the Dread knight plunges his nemesis sword straight into the monlith blowing it to pieces
Forces = 1
Allies = 0

Adam urgently looks for a loop hole in the rules book

The 2 wraiths, 4 lychguard and necron lord appear behind the froces after carving their way through one entire eldar army. The rangers, dread knight and captain stern are surrounded.

 The entire right flank in all its glory. 7 immobilised tanks just over ten eldar, an avatar, 7 chaos space marines and 5 newly arrived terminators and a lord.
 The entire left flank in all its glory. a wrecked tank an immobilised vehicle and a wrecked command barge, a venerable dreadnought, dreadknight about 15 necrons a necron destroyer lord 2 dark eldar, 5 eldar, 2 wraiths, 4 lychguard and a necron lord
Forces = 1
Allies = 0

Having just moved into contact with the ruin objective Matt fails to realise that he is in direct line of sight  through two buildings of the desentegrator cannon of my immobilised raider (as i said grey knights arn't famed for brains). Matt was blasted to bits, this was the deciding moment of the battle.

The game ended 0:0 as all the objectives were now disputed from this last shot! a draw and turned from a loss by my immobilised raider and immobile drop pod (though the chaos terminators did engage all the eldar in the fortress of redemption but that was but minor!)

The two raiths the practicaly destroyed an entire eldar army and finished off the venerable dreadnought!

Lord lilithus looked on from the deck of his immobile raider. That Dreadnought had ripped one of his arms off and his leg was hanging by a thread, his ribs were all broken and some poked through his skin wich was dangling with his guts to the floor. But he didn't care, once he finally died of his fatal wounds the haemonculi would regrow him. He looked on at the scattered forces and the shells of tanks and buildings littered the field. The forces were to scattered to continue the fighting and Lilithus' fools had gathered up pieces from the dark eldar who had died and had fixed the raiders engines. the raider took off, Lilithus looked at spongia IX below him as he flew towards his galactic barge. Revenge was his, Castellan crowe had been sliced down and only the dread knight and captain stern were now left alive. "Me lord, your dying" said Lilithus' Reaver champion, "yes i am, throw my body with the rest of them send us to the haemonculi and  they'll regrow me... I think i'll adopt a new name, yes, how about Mr Chuckles!" then he droppeed down dead.

Warhammer world was great and was well worth a visit, there's the ciadel hall with miniatures painted by Gods, Bugman's bar (with the belly bursta and fat bloke burgers, i had a potatoe) and the shop that can order stuff from HQ within 2 hrs! Behind us a massive apocalypse game was going on with eldar and imperial guard against tyranids, necrons and tau. everything was on that table, eldar revanant titan standing on a chimera, a reaver titan, bio titan, harridan, barracuda, tons of imperial tanks, nearly over a 1000 tyranids and about hlaf that many necrons, two monoliths and loads of jetbikers. I think it was a tyranid victory as the revanant titan was cut down.
there was also a campaign tournament going on. one thousands son army in the campaign contanined a defiler converted with the top half of a necro sphinx.