Crucible Of Battle

 

 Opportunity struck and Da Masta Cheef and I were able to organize a game. Unlike our previous games we actually decided to play a Leviathan Game using cards that were included in the Leviathan box set. Of course we drew a wonky deployment zone layout called The Crucible of Battle. Catchy name, and I thought it made for a classy name for this report. Vox Static was our rule which ment we'll have to pay 2 CP for command rerolls. After that we selected our Primary Mission which turned out to be Priority Targets. 

Da roolz.

The Da Masta Cheef brought his Space Marine horde (the current low points costs on Marines astounds me  but it is what is until a future data slate changes it). This time his flavor of choice was Ultramarines. 

The Space Marine horde. 

And I brought my Tyranids. This time we upped out points to 1250 from the usual 1000. 

The Tyranid horde. 

I ended up being The Defender and Marines were the Defender in our scenario. 

Xenos infestation. 

I set up my force in the abandoned admech buildings and in a defensive posture and Cheef set his line up for a  strong surge amongst the rocks of this arid world. 

Tyranid deployment.

Ultramarines deployment.

"Who goes first" was determined by a roll off and I was forced to go first. I needed those objectives so I had no choice but to send the hordes up and over the top and dash them into no man's land. The Tyranids shooting was extremely limited with the winged Hive Tyrant being the only one with range to shoot. Of course Cheef made the one dave he was forced to make.

Tyranids 1st turn move. 

The Genestealers surge forward.

Cheef's is turn was a lot more favorable, with my xenos skittering at him full speed the target options were indeed bountiful. 

"We'll hold here, let the junior officers play a little."

Assault Intercessors move into No Man's Land.

The closest Termagant until (the unfortunate ones who rolled highest on their advance roll) were the first to perish from the combined fire power of the Marines. And some other units took a few casualties but these were minimal losses. 

End of Turn one. 

Turn two, and my unit of 5 Genestealers took an objective. And the Tyranids managed to pick off a few more Marines here and there but nothing like what was about to be unleashed back on the nids in return.  The Ultramarines deleted the rest of the termagants from battle by shooting or assault, wiped out the unit of 5 Genestealers (and overtook the objective) and really just dominated the field in this turn. However during the Fight Phase the Genestealers and Broodlord defeated the Assault Intercessors leaving just the attached Chaplain left to swing away at them. 

By the end of Turn 2 both sides were tied at 5 VPs each.

Genestealers pig-pile on the Chaplain.

Turn 3. The nids continue to move up. The Winged Hive Tyrant blew up some Marines with his Venom Cannon before declaring a charge against the same unit. The Eradicators Interstellar Jarhead Prime Gravity* with Portable Microwaves up on the hill had reduced the rampaging Screamer Killer down to just 3 wounds in the previous turn and now it was time for revenge. The Screamer Killer charged in Eradicators and was almost dropped by Overwatch, however a well spent CP re-roll saved him from being fried on the way in. Also the Genestealers (the fully painted ones) charged the Hellblasters. 

Lots of charging nids.

The Screamer Killer killed two of the microwave dudes while not taking any more damage himself. The Genestealers didn't do as well as I had hoped but they did remove quite a few of the Hellblasters while taking only a few casualties themselves. 

Fight! 

Meanwhile the Winged Hive Tyrant folded up his wings and got down to some kill'n. Thankfully for the marines, the attached Librarian's psychic  power bestowed upon them a sweet invulnerable save which kept most of the Sternguard alive.

Locked in combat. 

The blue Genestealers and Broodlord wiped out the Chaplain and moved closer to the objective holding Marines. 

"They're getting closer Sarge!"

Things didn't really go well for nids during the fight phase. The Screamer failed to wipe out the Eradicators, leaving one alive. And the Genestealers didn't wipe out the Hellblasters, and one of the guys they did eliminate was restored by the Apothecary attached to the unit. 

End if Tyranids Turn 3

Cheef got agressive. After the troops holding the objective wiped out the blue Genestealers with overwhelming firepower, the Hellblasters also pulled out their pistols and took down a Genestealer. The Intercessors moved in to assist the Hellblasters as with the Sergeant capping a stealer with a perfectly aimed head shot. 

The Eradicator fell back, which allowed  the big gun to knock two more wounds off of the Screamer Killer. 

Boom boom. 

The Genestealers were wiped down to just the Broodlord remaining. With that Turn 3 ended with the score sitting at 19 vps for the Tyranids and 24 for the Ultramarines.  Time was against us and looking at the remaining assets and the current score we agreed to wrap it up here. Victory goes to the Ultramarines! 

"You just stay the hell away from me!" 

If turn 4 had happened I would have changed Screamer Killer into the Hellblasters in an attempt to kill the Apothecary. Having the Assassinate secondary objective would have made that a more valuable target than trying to crush that Eradicator. But I doubt the nids would have survived thru to the end of the 5th turn. 

All in all, it was a fun game. The new dice were a lot more fair to me than my usual set and we both enjoyed the match up. I think this game would've been a bit different had the marines had gotten the first turn, but that's speculative at best. 

*Yeah, really.