Sites of Power

by | Feb 18, 2024

 

Battle Royale. 

Once again Da Masta Cheef and I gathered for a 28mm heroic scaled tussle at the Outpost. 1250 points on each side. I continued to see what I could do with the Tyranids and this time he brought Orks. I decided to mix it up a bit. I swapped the Winged Hive Tyrant out for a Swarmlord. I swapped out some termagants for some Zoanthropes and barbgaunts. This seems like it could be a decent force to throw down with. 

The Tyranids gather. 

Da Masta Cheef brought Da Masta Cheef. A fella that hasn't appeared on this blog in years. Mostly because he sold the original model. But, as fate would have it, Rob/Murl gifted him recently with another of the same model and,  bonus,  it was already painted. 

Da Waaagh of Da Masta Cheef!

We tend to build our board out before we select our missions. It's just more fun to do, and then we might tweak it a bit afterwards. Today we decided to fight over a ruined forgeworld. 

Human ruins make the best xenos playgrounds. 

Da roolz for dis fight are: 

Hammer and Anvil Deployment, Scrambler Fields and Sites of Power. 


This deployment suited out armies well, and deployment went without a problem for either of us. 

Tyranid deployment (Right flank).

Tyranid deployment (left flank)

Ork deployment. 

The Orks went first.  It was noisy and loud but in the end the Tyranids lost only a few models, but one of those, quite painfully, was a Zoanthrope to the well aimed shot from the ork bubblechucka. The Tyranids surged forward and like-wise did little damage to the orks. The Zoanthropes eliminated one of the Nobs from Da Masta Cheef's retinue, an insult he would not soon forget. The Screamer Killer, laughably, missed all six of his shots! 

End of turn 1

Turn 2 and it was time to crank up the heat. The arrival of the ork dive bomba did just that as he dropped a bomb on the Swarmlord and inflicted him with 5 Mortal Wounds! 


Bombs away!

The Kommandos arrived in style in my back field and wiped out a brood of Termagants (the one's with the brains on their backs).  Leaving the Rippers sitting on the objective exposed to a potential charge. 

There was another squad of Termagants here.

Another fight broke out as the termagants that had a toe on an objective was charged by a Boyz squad led by a bad-ass nob. 


Tyranids Turn 2, and I opened up everything that could shoot at the ork Dive Bomba. It's ability to drop Mortal Wounds was too much of a threat to leave it unchecked, however the combined assault left it smoking but  still very much a threat. 

I had a brood of Genestealers assault the Kommandos, however Da Masta Cheef wisely played the Stratagems "orks are never beaten" and "unbridled carnage" to allow them to fight back after their elimination. And they took out half of the Genestealer brood! 

Kommandos and Genestealers bloodbath.

The other of brood of Genestealers on the opposite flank charged a Boyz squad wiping them but sparing the attached character. That guy was a banna waver . And that banna is a bad-ass weapon and it was used to beat the bioengineered snot out a handful of purestrains. Much to our mutual surprise! 

Yell loud and carry a really big stick.

The Swarmlord and Screamer Killer charge the orks hold and objective and totally overkilled that unit. But now they were exposed...

Turn 3, and all the ork guns were trained (or vaguely pointed at) the Tyranid monsters that were on the threshold of storming the ork lines. However the Bubblechucka, again , showed it's worth as Da Masta Cheef rolled a '6' on it's chart which resulted in a Dense Bubble. That was more than enough to destroy the Swarmlord! 

Imagine a dense bubble enveloping the Swarmlord.

The Deffdred (that's the baby squiggoth) and the nob mob along with Da Masta Cheef, charged into the Screamer Killer which is felled by the overwhelming onslaught. 

Dies screaming. 

After killing off the Banna Waver in the Orks turn, the Genestealers charged the Deff Dred/Squiggoth on their turn 3. They were actually successful in tearing it up, but it was still alive and kicking, locking the Genestealers in combat. 

Bring it down! 

On the other side of the board, the Genestealers who had previously tussled with the Kommandos now set their sights on a Boyz mob that was in their way of an objective, only to have that squad's nob survive their onslaught but also kill a few stealers back in return, thus halting the bug-eyez advance! 

"Oy, you can't go on!"

Cheef's turn 4 and the dive bomber returned to cause more havoc. It threw its bomb and bullets into the barbgaunts, eliminating them.

Buzz bomb is back! 

Da Masta Cheef wanted in on the tussle so he and the Boyz wet after the Genestealers that wuz locked in combat with the deff dred/Squiggoth. All of the purestrains were killed but the Broodlord remained. On my go in this Fight Phase I decided to throw everything into the Deff Dred/Squiggoth in the hopes that it would blow up. And although it was destroyed, it failed to blow up. In fact, nothing in this game had a Dead Demise, which is disappointing. 

Broodlord kabobs tonight! 

The Nob was joined by another mob of Boyz who managed to wipe out the Genestealers, that nob was killed however. But now the orks had the so-called Doom in their sights, as well as the last stand of Rippers. 

Dibs on da balloon! 


And we called it here. The nids were not going to survive the war of artiiton, clearly, but by this point the orks were not going to  be caught in the points games either. Final tallied points was 10 to the Tyranids, and 26 to the Orks! Waaargh to Da Masta Cheef, 'e's back!!!! Waaaaaaagh!

It was another fun game. That damn dive bomba really messed up my plans, and although I had some bad dice rolling it wasn't as bad as some of the games I've recently had. I think the MVP of the whole game has to be that Bubblechucka. I am now enthusiastic about building mine and playing orks in this edition. Their rules seem well suited for this edition, where I'm still very much struggling to get a grip on the nids. And this edition in general. I am still 0-4, where Da Masta Cheef remains undefeated...