Death or Glory!

"I'm not making a final stand, you're making a final stand!"

With this past weekend being the last official weekend of the last season of 9th edition, Da Masta Cheef made arrangements to try to get in a game of Warhammer 40k. We agreed to make lists of 1250 points and meet at The Outpost in Johnson City. 

I brought Hivefleet Neverness, since they're my current hobby focus and I wanted to give their a Codex a first, and likely,  final shot before we transition over to 10th. Some of the models had their bases melt in the car while I was at work, and dealing with that was a distraction for sure. Oddly, they could mostly still stand. Kind of. I used the Hivefleet Hydra rules for them as I wanted them to be pretty quick. 

Cheef also had a fiasco of his own when he realized he was missing units. So a lot his army was proxied in, thus the overabundance of primed models in his force today. We decided that we really want to keep the game as simple as we could so we chose the Death or Glory Open War mission from the main rulebook. No Secondaries or Objectives, or even Victory Points to have to fool with; just straight up killing. it's classic Attacker vs. Defender fight, with the Defender getting a Fearless special rule to keep their final stand right here on the table. Death or glory indeed!

 His army had an Inquisitor joined with it. He is the stumpy fellow in the pic below.  

The majority of the Space Marine force was set up in the middle of his Deployment Zone. 

My sneaky Broodlords were both set up behind a building near the center. 

The Tyranids set up right on the DZ line with every intention of moving forward as fast as possible. 

My dice were exceptionally hot to start the game off, with me making somc crazy stat-busting rolls. here was a group of 5+ saves I had to make to keep my genestealers alive. 

That doesn't mean the nids were immune to the Marine's firepower. In this next pic, the termagants are looking at the place before them where an entire brood of Genestealers were blasted away. The Termagants were torn up a bit also, but I was able to bring some of them back in my Command Phase using the  Endless Swarm Stratagem card. 

On my turn the Hive Tyrant showed up to deal with the Inquisitor. Despite laying down some fire with his big gun and some psychic shenanigans, he failed to make his charge.  The two Broodlords jumped the squad nearest to them and shredded them apart, leaving a sole, and fearless, survivor. 

Turn Two, the Cheef didn't need to move his forces much, but he laid down the fire power. The Inquisitor almost Dominated the Hive Lord, but a well spent re-roll on my part prevented that calamity from occurring. 

The Hive Tyrant charged the Marines and the Genestealers charged the Inquisitor, killing both units. The Broodlord that charged the lone marine managed to take him out also. It should be noted that at this point in the game I used the Rapid Regeneration Stratagem card (each one on different turns) on the Broodlords, keeping both in the fight way longer than they deserved to be. -And much to the annoyance of the Cheef. 

Heroes? All we see is bio-mass.

The Genestealers were shot to ribbons during the Marine's turn. Thanks to a strategic Fallback maneuver by the Intercessors, which allowed for the Genestealers to become prime targets. 

The Termagants, despite their over ambitious intentions, were cut down by the Assault Intercessors. This was a unit I grossly underestimated, as you'll see by the end of this battle...

More heavy fire power on the Cheef's third turn reduced the enhanced Genestealers (they were the painted ones with melted bases, they had an armor upgrade) to shattered parts. This was a swing turn for the marines, as they pushed back hard on against the Tyranids, and for a good while there, I thought the whole thing was about to collapse me. 

But I moved in the for the kill and was able to get things a bit more equalized. Still, at this point, the game looked like it could go either way...

The Hive Tyrant charged the Primaris Ancient. This guy once went toe-to-toe, surviving multiple Fight Phases, with a Keeper of Secrets, so I know what a mofo he could be. Also, the buffs he was giving out to his battle brothers made him a prime target. The Hive Tyrant softened him up a bit with a Smite during the psychic phase. and finished him in the fight phase. 

The Chaplin was too dire of a threat, and again with my lucky rolling, the last Broodlord felled him with a super-smite. An inglorious demise, but to the hive-mind, it was a necessary removal of a threat. Likewise, the Firestrike Servo-turret turned on the Broodlord and blasted him apart!

The center fight appeared to mine, as the Screamer Killer and the Primaris Chaplin tore into each other and my Termagants swarmed the Assault Intercessors. The Chaplain and the Screamer Killer both survived their first round of melee,  but the Termagants, well, they found out that they were not the apex of tyranid bio-evolution after all.... and yes, that squad of Assault Intercessors took out both broods of Termagants during this battle! 

It's the Marines' Turn five, and the Nids needed to maximize the kills if they were to secure victory. i decided to split the Screamer killers attacks between the Assault Intercessors and the Chaplin. This always works right? Well, this time it did! The Chaplin's Rosarius failed to protect him from the massive xenos claws.

...and the Assault Intercessors were reduced down to a final guy. 

Tyranids Turn 5, and it was all or nothing time. Both sides have only two models left. The Hive Tyrant withstood the attack from the Firestrike Servo- turret, taking a Wound, but the Hive Tyrant crushed the gun like an aluminum can. 

The lone marine stood his ground, and managed to take off another Wound from the xenos monstrosity before him. But it wasn't enough. The Screamer Killer overwhelmed him, rending him apart, the last chance the Ultramarines had of defending this fragile world. 

An epic final stand. 

That was a crazy game! But a good one! The close games are always the best ones. and this is one that neither of us will forget soon. I am hoping the Cheef will paint that Chaplin model, despite his epic demise,  he kicked ass! So did his Assault Intercessors. I think I need to get mine assembled and painted sooner than later. 

I think the MVP of my game was the Rapid Regeneration Stratagem and Endless Swarm Stratagems. Without those cards this would've been a very different story.

So were talking about refighting this battle, perhaps even using the same scenario, in 10th edition, y'know, once we get it all figured out, just to see how different it will be. Summer just started a few days ago, I hope it will still be Summer when get together to do that.