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!

dark eldar journey part 4

THE BENS VS THE SWARM THINGS!
me( dark eldar) and chaos space marines fight skaven and Sam Crawshaw

In turn 1 the Incubi and a squad of Bezerkers advanced through the building on the right flank and then fleeted all the way through it. The raider (contain ing my kabalites) and the hellions (with baron sathonyx) flew through the air towards the clanrats, while the voidraven bomber flew behind them dropping a void mine on them. The daemon prince ran towards the giant rats and the reavers flew over the stormvermin killing a few of them. In the shooting phase the oblitarators opened fire with their lascannons on the hormagaunts, killing 1.
In the assualt phase the kabalites and hellions (along with baron sathonyx) assualted the clanrats and their grey seer. baron sathonyx killed loads of the clanrats and the hellions finished them off (nicely softened up by the horendous fire power of the kabalites) earning them 1 pain token. the reaver jet bikers were taken down by the storm vermin in the end.

Now it was the swarm's turn. One of their Hormagaunt squads charged Into the Incubi while the other charged the hellions. the broodlord's genestealer squad flanked, assualting the daemon prince while the other attacked the oblitarators hiding behind the bushes. the skaven doom wheel rammed straight into the raider wrecking it with impact hits.

In the shoot phase the hive tyrant opened fire on the void raven bomber, but it was protected by it's night shield. the zoanthrope launched a psychic power killing an incubi and a few bezerkers.
In the combat phase the hormagaunts easily swarmed over the hellions dragging them down for their meal! the other squad didn't fair as well, only managing to kill the klaivex while his unit killed four hormagaunts.
the daemon prince was dragged into the dirt but the oblitarators only took 1 wound.

In the next turn the bezerkers assualted the hormagaunts while the kabalites and sathonyx fleeted out of the danger zone. the soul grinder finally arrived and the bomber launched the rest of it's missiles of at the giant rats. the two necrotoxins missed but the implosions hit, scattered and killed 4 rats and a gene stealer!
Next came the final turn for the tyranids and skaven. nothing much happened. Baron sathonyx was wounded and his shadow field destroyed and the defilers weapon was immobilised.

The game ended with the us10vps ahead of the others!