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The low down:
- Crusade.
- Vanguard Strike
- I won deployment but elected to deploy second
- Warlord Trait - Move through cover for ruins.
Penal troops arrived on my flank...
with a Vendetta closing in on the Hive Guard and
Penal troops shot up the Biovore for First Blood.
Demolisher shot came down on my Broodlord, insta-killing him and all but one of Stealers.
Ymgarls wake from hibernation and luckily a prehensile tongue allowed the furthest to cling to the skullface so they would launch a retaliatory attack on the Leman Russ.
The Tyrant swooped out of the sky, out of range of any anti air and deviated to only get side armour shots on the Vendetta but thankfully an inch short of the board edge.
The Spore Pod missed being in front of the Aegis and deviated onto the Guard but moved to the nearest point it could, behind them. The Doom didn’t manage to Spirit Leech anything from the surprisingly brave Guard, no doubt boosted by Commissar Yarrick’s presence. Interceptor fire from the Quad Gun tooks some wounds on the Doom. The Mawloc also missed the Leman Russ and ended up roughly where the Spore Pod was aiming for.
I think this may be my wound roll for the Hydra Flak Tank from the Mycetic Spore. Can you imagine after getting four 5s/6s I then just get just one glancing hit for my troubles!
The Tyrant blasted the Vendetta out of the sky with his Devourers, 3 HPs and once again we forgot about Jink until it was dead, this time Ben took it on the chin and vowed to remember next time.
The Penal Troops were reduced to 5 after being shot by Fleshborers, Impaler Cannons and Stinger Salvoes.
Ymgarls lined up to charge the Leman Russ but after a 3” move from cover they could make the 10” charge even with a Fleet re-roll.
The Guard repositioned some moving to surround the Mawloc, others moved out of range of the Doom and the remainder, spurred on by the Hero of Armageddon faced down both the Doom and its living transport beast. A torrent of las-fire left it with 2 wounds remaining.
The Leman Russ repositioned to get a better shot at the Ymgarls. 3 of them were killed and the remaining two broke and fled.
The remaining Penal troops in my DZ headed for the entrenched Termagants
The Ymgarls entered the Synapse Range
Guard charged my Mawloc, he got in one hit before being battered by Krak grenades [thankfully no Melta Bombs this time] and suffering a wound – stalemate.
The Doom managed to kill a Guardsman bringing it up to 3 wounds. The Spore Pod’s lash Whips made Yarrick and 2 Guard Initiative 1 but some of the remaining Guard, not in base contact, were able to Krak Grenade it into a pulp before it got chance to attack [once again missing it’s opportunity to record a kill].
Finally Yarrick got to bring his Power Claw to bear and took another wound off the Doom, leaving it with 2.
The Mawloc managed to break from combat with the Guard and headed out into the open.
Winged Tyrant kept out of range of the anti-air and added support for my home objectives and cover the imminent arrival of the remaining Vendetta. Unsurprisngly the Penal troops did not live beyond the end of this turn!
Conga lining the Devgaunts I was able to get in range of the Guard holding an objective. With a bit of luck from 9 shots could I rout them leaving the objective unmanned?
The Mawloc slammed into the Leman Russ managing to blow it up but without any wounds to itself or the nearby Guard.
The Doom managed to Leech the life out of all but one Guard and Yarrick.
The Second Vendetta arrived, dropped the second Penal troop in it’s shadow and then put another two wounds on the Mawloc. Aggressive fire from the nearby Guard and Veterans managed to strip it’s remaining 3 wounds.
The Ymgarls were finally despatched by Manticore fire with the lone Stealer securing the objective alongside the Devgaunts.
The Devgaunts had lost their front rank, retreating to the shelter of the Chaos Shrine, while the Tyrant finally set his sights on the enemy line.
Termagants head for middle objective along with CC Tervigon which succeeded in casting +1 Iron Arm but with Perils. The vanilla Tervigon had also Perilled, either this turn or the previous and so did the Tyrant this turn or the previous. So I’d caused more wounds on my own Monstrous Creatures through psychic power than the Guard had inflicted in anger. So the Guard upped their game, putting a wound on the Tyrant who then fell out of the sky taking him to 3 wounds.
The Doom managed to kill off the last Guard and put a wound on Yarrick.
Vendetta repositioned and the disgorged troops headed for the Tyrant but got gunned down by the Devgaunts. Gotta love those trees!
The Tyrant managed to survive he’d eventually head to the Aegis and the exposed vets were wiped out. Ben called it at turn 5. Yarrick couldn’t kill the Doom before he’d have the life sucked from him and he didn’t have enough to capture/deny the two objectives I’d claimed.
The game was pretty much the Doom’s, everything else tried to weather the storm and hold the objectives but the Mawloc gets a special mention for failing in his primary task but at least taking advantage of his Hit and Run this time and then destroying the most deadly element of the Guard force – the Leman Russ. He essentially played as a Trygon, without the shooting and -30pts, so a good choice. The other pivotal element was all my reserves turning up in turn two. This does make me think a comms relay or the Swarmlord would be useful. Having everything turn up in turn 2 gave Ben too many targets to deal with and with the lone Vendetta and backfield Penal troops unsupported I could deal with that threat safely with the Tyrant while the forward push of the Ymgarls, Doom and Mawloc meant no one element suffered enough concentrated fire to destroy it completely.