It’s Only War!

Da Masta Cheef and I agreed to meet up for a 1,000 point game of Warhammer 40,000 10th edition. It was our first game of this shiny new edition, and we were eager to give it a go. We decided to play the Only War mission from the basic rulebook as it's a simple and straight forward game.  The objective was that we had to "table' the opponent (i.e. eliminate fully all elements of the opposing force)  and if by the end of Turn 5 that hasn't happened the winner will be determined by who has collected the most VPs. VPs are earned by claiming or holding Objectives. 

980 points of Tyranids.

My army only came up to 980 points due to the wonky way in which armies are built now, it was jusr not possible to find an extra 20 points anywhere with what I was bringing. My force consisted of a winged Hive Tyrant wth Venom Cannon, Two Brood Lords, one with Adaptive Biology and the other with Alien Cunning. Three stands of Rippers, two five-alien broods of Genestealers, two broods of ten termagants and a Screamer Killer. Only I left my Screamer Killer miniature at home so I borrowed Joah's Old One Eye model as a stand-in (and since the colors are basically the base colors for my army I agreed to paint the model for him).

Not really Old One Eye.

The Space Marines were ...a whole lot of marines! They actually out-numbered the nids! This is Cheef's newest army, the Black Dragons. So forgive him if they appear in some pics to be the Primed Dragons or Bare Plastic Dragons as they are very much a work in progress. Led by a Chaplain and a Primaris Lieutenant, the mustered force was comprised of Assault Intercessors (5 troops) two squads of Intercessors, one with 5 troops the other with 10, a Hellblaster squad, an Infernus Squad, a unit of 5 Reivers, a Balistus Dreadnought and an Imperial Agents unit of Voidsmen-at-arms. 

995 points of Primaris Space Marines.

We chose the Only War mission from the main rulebook, as it seemed straightforward and simplified (but not simple). Naturally I would be playing  the Attacker.  Other than placing down the first unit the role of Attacker seemed to be little more than a title for this scenario. 

The battlelines we made seemed to be straightforward also, something a Napolionics player might admire. 

Astartes deployment.

I had my Genestealers, along with their accompanying Broodlords, take advantage of their Scout moves and scuttle 8" forward. 

Tyranid deployment (after Scout moves)

Cheef's Reivers moved up in the board edge, with the quip of "I'm not sure I need to get closer to the Tyranids." 

Turn One, Cheef won the roll-off to go first, and apart from moving units onto the closest objectives, not much really occurred. Oh, other than the Black Dragons wiped one of the Genestealer brood off of the table relying on Oath of Moment and the tools of the Primaris Lieutenant (Target Priority, Tactical Precision and Bolter Discipline) to effectively reduce the Genestealers to a spray of ichor and shattered chitin. Yikes! The Hive Tyrant arrived to take an objective in one of the round ruins. His Venom Cannon was ineffective against the Ballistus Dreadnought. In fact the Tyranids shooting was easily rebuffed by the Astartes. This was already feeling like an up hill climb for the Tyranids. 

End of Turn 1.

Turn two, and finally we could start claiming Objectives. The Black Dragons scored 2 vps.  The Tyranids would only claim 1 vp when their turn came around. The Black Dragons pushed hard on the Termagants, who were not wiped out, but pulled back to the ruins close enough to hold an objective.  Wounds were taken on the other Genestealers, Screamer Killer and the Hive Tyrant. Boldly the Black Dragons charged the Genestealers, and they were wiped out, except for the Broodlord who held on fighting. His counter attack wiped out the Assault Intercessors until it was just the Broodlord and the Chaplain facing off. By the Tyranids Turn 2, they were only able to score the single VP. 

Pappa Claws about to let it rip.

On Turn Three both sides were able to claim 3 VPs each, with the Black Dragons still in the lead and ahead on the attrition rate. I had hoped to change that with the Hive Tyrant, whose impotent shooting was starting to annoy me, so I moved him off of the objective allowing the Ripper Swarm to hold it instead. He flew up, shooting his Venom Cannon again only to have the Balistus Dreadnought shrug it off again. So the Hive Tyrant declared a charge, he was only 5" away,  and after he survived the overwatch shots and... I rolled double 1's! Naturally I had to cash in a CP to get a re-roll, only to defy all odds and roll ...another pair of ones! Snakes-eyes twice in a row?! Nuts! We all had a good laugh over it, and Kushail was even there to witness this spectacular fumble. 

Come on, it's only 5"!

It wasn't all laughs though, as the Screamer Killer closed on a unit of Primaris fiends and reduced them to admantite coated beef jerky chunks. 

Turn 4 was upon us, and the Black Dragons pointed every available gun and special shenanigan available at the Hive Tyrant, until finally a gernade toppled the mighty beast. The tussle between the Chaplain and the Broodlord continued until the Chaplain overcame his foe with his mighty beat-stick (TM).

"Once you were bigger, now I am the giant!"

Yikes! On my Turn 4, I was left with a shattered army, with no synapse available for any additional support,  While the Black Dragons held on to their cleansing advance. 

The Black Dragons press on.

Ar the bottom of Turn 4 I had moved the Screamer Killer to an Objective on the hill, while my lurking Termagants claimed another objective and the Rippers held on to theirs. The score was now 8 vps for the Space Marines, and 7 vps for the Tyranids.  But now ot was tome foe some vengeance. I had the Screamer Killer charge in an eviscerated the 10-man Primaria unit along with the accompanying Primaris Lieutenant. He consolidated back toward the objective since there were no other target units within range. 

The Reivers, despite losing three of their unit, were unwavering in their resolve and eliminated the last of the termagants by the ruins where the Rippers controlled the objective. They consolidated into the Rippers, whose counter attack was little more than  a nuisance to the Reivers. 

Turn 5, the last round, and it was looking like the nids were needing a miracle. The Black Dragons were now methodically cleaning up the remaining xenos infestation. The Infernus Squad immolated the last squad of Termagants, and served the objective. 

Objecrive secured -with fire!

The Balistus Dreadnought turned it's sights onto the Screamer Killer, who was still above half strength, and lanced it like a boil. 

Long distance lancing.

Finally the Reivers proved their worth by tearing up the last of the Rippers. "What's the point of these again?" The Reiver Sgt asked fasciously after spitting out a ripper tail. 

The Ripper's last stand.

And here we are at the bottom of Turn 5, and Tyranids have no assets left. The VPs proved to not matter in the end as the xenos threat has been utterly eliminated the Black Dragons win the day! 

So, that was our first 10th edition game. Other than agreeing that Battleshock is a great name for a ruleset that didn't seem to matter, the game played just fine. But it was the little things that tripped us (mostly me) up. Like my completely forgetting about the Termagant's Skulking Horrors ability (a way over sold name, all-things considering). That could have kept them alive a bit longer. But there was not a strategy to undo rolling snake-eyes for a 5" charge and rolling them again with a reroll. The Tyranids MVP was the Screamer Killer, the model of which I was borrowing. MVP on the Marine side... I think I will say it was the Chaplain, only for his heroic stand against the Broodlord. 

Fun game as always, we had a lot of laughs, and I learned a lot about these bugz as well as the new edition. Hopefully the new knowledge will make for a more successful fight in their (and my) next game.