First match with new successors - A Battle Report

[Berzul]

Hey guys.

 

Well, after managing to get my new successor chapter up to a Battalion, my good old Tyranid friend obliged me in a fight to break them in for an inaugural match. So, we met last night, on the site of an imperial outpost's supply containers. My tactical squads manning an Imperial Bastion erected by some ruins near the edge of the outpost, to set up a defense against an oncoming swarm of genestealers and assorted gaunts.

 

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The scenario was the first of the Maelstorm of War CA2018, Disruptive Signals. Which worked well into a small narrative for the match, as the WoD tried to interfere the synaptic signals of the horde to disrupt their advance, as the beasts spread out all over there power lines that fed into the outpost.

 

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The Astartes set up a squad inside the bastion, then two more. One supporting in by the ruined edge of the outpost itself, and one as a flanking squad, making its way through the blasted woods and alien foliage on the opposite side.

 

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Given that the Imperium placed it's defenses first, before the swarm actually appeared on the horizon, humanity had first turn at blasting the Tyranids away. With initiative not seized, we went straight into turn one.

 

TURN ONE

 

I pulled out, as objectives, Priority Orders for No Step Back, which I decided to attempt at my third turn ofr 3+D3 points. Saddly, I also drew Secure Objective Two, which was right in front of the Bastion. I had to leave the fortification to go get it, which I knew would leave me exposed to a turn 1 charge by the Genestealers. And, I would not be able to fall back in any way once they got to me, should anyone in the squad survive.

 

Still, I pressed on. Holding the line over my other two objectives, and moving forward with my third squad to capture the required objective, while my Bastion's automated weapons provided me with some firing support against the Genestealers. This, combined with the three plasma cannons across the army, managed to get one of the two 20-beast strong squads, to 15 models.

 

A weak start, to a grueling battle.

 

My opponent then drew simple objectives. Master the Warp, Blood and Guts, and one to take my forward objective from me. I used Disruptive Signals to prevent him to get it. I figured, he would wipe me out of the objective easily enough. I could not prevent him from capturing the objective, but I could prevent him from getting the extra points from taking it from my hands that turn.

 

His Genestealers moved forward, and one squad did manage a charge, boosted with their FnP psychic power. Meanwhile, the gaunts started to spread out over the far side of the board, quickly making it abundantly clear that I would not be getting any objectives over there, no matter how hard I tried. I would have to bet on making points through more defensive tactical objectives.

 

As you can already guess, the charge ended with my entire third tactical squad out of the board. My only solace was that my plasma gunners, all three of them, died due to overheating weapons, depriving the Tyranids from getting the kill they wanted.

 

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TURN TWO

 

As the second turn began, I was lucky enough to draw some defensive objectives. Defend the objective over which my flanking squad was already standing, but also Hold the Line, which was a boon. I just needed to push the Genestealers back. A tall order, but not impossible.

 

So, I repositioned my squads behind the bastion, into line of sight, closing in around Chapter Master Zerephiel and Lieutenant Osric, to benefit of their three combined auras as best I could, and prepared for the second wave. Now, with the Brood Lord and swarm master boosting the charge.

 

My enemy started his turn, and again the Astartes fired up their scramblers and distrupted the synaptic nodes of the swarm. Although the Tyranids had drawn Supremacy, and had it in the bag, they could not claim it no matter how many gaunts were spread over the field of battle.

 

Without other options, the swarm advanced, and encircled me, but as luck would have it, his Warlord would die to an amazing volley of defensive fire, leaving the Genestealers out of Synaps and granting me Warlord Kill. The head of the swarm was down, and now the beasts were fighting in an unruly fashion, breaking against the grim discipline of the marines. Through a heroic intervention and a good use of Honor the Chapter, Master Zerephiel managed to cut down a squad of Genestealers, and reduce the other to a point where moral consumed the entire swarm. Meanwhile, his trusty warhound kept everyone safe from the Tyranids AP-6 melee attacks.

 

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TURN THREE

 

The Genestealers had been repelled. My first tactical squad went into the Bastion to man the firing points, while the second squad started to come around the fortification to push the offensive against the second brood lord.

 

Firing brought it down to a single wound, and when the third turn for the Tyranids came (with their gaunts again being left confused due to my scrambler signal preventing their supreme control of the board grant them victory points), and the brood lord charged, the warhound managed to keep everyone but a single marine safe.

The retaliation by the tactical squad was brutal, and the Brood Lord fell to the squad sergeant, in a single powerful hit of his chainsword.

 

With this, and having not taken a single step back, my priority orders where completed and 6 extra victory points were awarded to my side. The score now was quite one-sided, but still, we pressed on.

 

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TURNS FOUR AND FIVE

 

With the swarm deprived of its attack force, and its main synapse creatures, and with the scrambler still going steady in denying the gaunts to hold their objectives, all that Master Zerephiel's forces needed to do was hold the line until the beasts would begin to scatter, to be picked out by an assault force as they rampaged aimlessly and leaderless, later.

 

The fight ended at the bottom of turn five, with a 16  to 6 victory for the Wings of Dawn, in their first battle.

 

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A good battle, and a satisfying victory for the chapter... Amazing what a new paint scheme and lore can do to an army.