Got in a few games of Combat Patrol over the weekend. Local CP league seems to have cooled off, but still had a few opponents. The manager managed to rope in a pair of spearhead players (they forgot which sunday was spearhead/CP) into doing games since I had 6 with me that day. They choose Octavius and the Assault Brood. I took on the Tyranid player with Vengeful Brethren. Forward position was the mission of the day. Now my opponent plays Tyranids as well, so they had decent knowledge of the game. Just hadn’t used that specific CP before.

Terrain was a simple X formation seen in the picts. He had a patrol of genestealers on either flank, the Tyrant guard in the center with the biovore on his home objective. Parasite was in reserve. I split the Intercessor unit, having one section hold the home objective, the other half ready to take the one of the no man’s land objectives. The rest of the force (Gravis captain, hellblasters, bladeguard)  all group together to move up a flank. This flank also contained the stronghold point I needed to hold for my secondary.  While I got the first turn he scouted a group a stealers forward into semi-cover behind the center terrain.

One group of Intercessors advanced to get LoS on them while the group of marines advanced to the stronghold objective, the bladeguard just barely reaching it. The intercessors fired on the stealers but only managed to wound one. The hellblasters charged up their weapons and fired on the hive guard, dropping two for the cost of one dying to overheat. The nids then moved to focus on the stronghold point. Hellblasters opened up an overcharged volley for OW, but only managed to drop one. This time no hazard deaths, that honor went to the biovore as a spore mine shot melted a hellblaster. The two stealer units charged the captain and bladeguard. In a flurry of claws, they managed two wounds on the captain and to take down one of the bladeguard, but the reprisal was swift and deadly. The captain wiped out all five of his attackers, the bladeguard dropped theirs to a single xenos left. 

In the next turn the captain moved to be in charge position of both the hive guard and the stealer. The hellblasters and the far flanking intercessor unit moved forward. The Intercessors took the other objective and fired at the hiveguard, wounding it. The hellblasters fired at the biovore but only managed to wound it once. With the bladeguard failing to drop the xenos with their pistols the captain swept in for the rescue and slayed the beast before it could attack. 

In a final attack the hiveguard moved forward and charged the captain. The biovore managed to kill another hellblaster. The parasite dropped in and managed to engage the flanking Intercessor unit. The hive guard slammed into the captain, but failed to do any damage, while the captain finished the beast off. The parasite managed to kill an intercessor, but took a wound in return. 

At that point my opponent called it. With only a wounded biovore and the parasite left, they didn’t have the fire power to finish off the remaining marines. 

I do need practice with the Assault Brood to figure out how to use it. Maybe one day it will win a game. Speaking of the Assault Brood. I remembered this time.  

Assault Brood - Hive Fleet Prodos

Now the second game of the day was against the Kreig patrol. My opponent rando into the Knights patrol, but after looking at the units I opted to swap for the Vanghast Swarm to be a little less mean. Boy was I wrong. 

So the Kreig was setup with the standard squad on the objective, the heavy weapon teams on a flank, the command squad in a side ruin and the death rider next to them on the far flank.

I did a focused flank. Barbguants in the upper floor of a ruin, termaguants under them, psychophage and prime next to them and the leapers ahead behind the center building. This blocked the heavy weapon team for the entire force.

I got first turn and rushed flank i was on. The leapers got within 7” of the riders which they used their move ability to back away from the the leapers. Leapers had a new target, the exposed command squad. The rest of the force just advance forward to be in a better position next turn. The barbguants moved forward of their perch so all five could get shots at the command unit. 27 shots, 13 hits and 9 wounds later only the lord commissar stood, wounded, but alive. Leapers had a long charge that failed, but that was fine. 

Next up the heavy weapon team was told to move, move, move into a rap[id fire position of the leapers. The riders returned to get almost point blank with the leapers. Then they all open fire on the leapers.   What followed was something out of a horror movie. After dozens of lasgun and high caliber rounds, they only managed to score two wounds. The death riders charged in and the leapers managed to kill four before they even knew what happened. The final horse managed to finish the wounded leaper. The damage done the real slaughter was about to begin.

The pychophage and prime moved up to take on the HW squad and infantry unit. The HW fired off an OW burst and managed to wound the beast once. Both guant units moved forward and fired on the commissar, finally felling him. The psychophage baised his upcoming meal in phlegm, killing one HW before charging in to feed. The Prime charged into the infantry unit, only managed to kill two, but took no damage in return as most of the squad was attacking the pychophage who consolidated into the unit after eating the HW squad. They did manage to wound it but wouldn’t survive much longer. 

The leapers finished off the last rider and game was called. 

Well that was a blood bath. Both players were new to their respective patrols, but yikes.

On the modeling front I realized I actually had the models for two more Combat patrols:
Grey Knights - Aurellios’ Banishers
Grey Knights - Crowe’s Sanctifers

Back in 5th(?) edition I had made some Space Wolves/Grey knights. These included a pair of strike teams, a purgation squad, terminator squad and grand master. With that in mind I figured i could use the strike teams and terminators for both CPs, just need a terminator Librarian, old dreadnought and a Castellan Crowe stand in. I have all these. I still have an old SW Ven Dread, an old Njal in terminator armour and more than enough parts to make a Crowe stand in. The design of my SW/GK marines was a simple chest, leg, head, and backpack swap. I know they might need so repair work as I haven’t touched those marines in over a decade, but they are there. I updated the OP entry list. 

I’ll also be adding the Leagues of Votann Combat patrol in the next two months as I’ll be getting the last of the units I need to make them in those batches.  

Thanks for reading.