May Day Apocalypse 2008

Our Second Apocalypse: Space Marines (3000 + 4000) and Tyranids (3000) vs. Space Marines (3000), Chaos (3000), Eldar (3000) and Daemonhunters (1000). Plus, one Baneblade per side, because we had'em.

I'm not even going to try to make up fluff for that constellation...

I was playing Tyranids.

The battlefield had two cities, separated by a rocky ridge.  As luck would have it, the no-mans land cut right through the rocks, almost halving the width of the inital battlefront.

I deploy on the right, as close to the enemy as possible. I still don't have my endless swarm completed, but it's getting close - I brought 112 gaunts, three broods with the Without Number upgrade. Not much in the way of guns, this time - I usually play very shooty Tyranids, but thought this would be a good opportunity to change the pace a little. So, I brought the Hive Mind Brood formation, a Broodlord with a minimal retinue, 12 Warriors (8 shooty and 4 assaulty), 2x20 hormagaunts (upgraded to the gills, to kill Marines), 2x20 Termagants, 16 spinegaunts and 16 devourergaunts, 3 Raveners, a few clusters spore mines, a fully tooled CC Carnifex, and Old One Eye (using this model, though).

A total of 150 models, 56 of these recycling.  i would have plenty to do in the movement phases, at least.

My plan was to charge everything into CC, hopefully keeping fire lanes blocked to let my heavy assaulters move into position, and to hold my objectives using my Hive Mind Brood and a literally endless suply of Gaunts. With the Hold at All Costs gimmick, the swarms would be onboard and scoring constantly.

Hormagaunts front and center, Assault Carnifi up near the frontline too, Synapse liberally scattered throughout.  In a loose formation, those 150 models take up a lot of acreage.

After setup, we deploy objectives. Our three objectives are placed in the Tyranid sector, closely spaced and close to the edge where the recycling gaunts could contest them.

The opponents takes turn one, and we promptly deploy a Blind Barrage to keep the swarm safe.

The hormagaunts impact the Chaos marine lines.

Closeup shots of the advancing swarm.

The Assault carnifex got targeted and killed as soon as the Smokescreen cleared, and after that the Hive Mind Brood took the brunt of the enemy mid-range fire - it took two turns concentrated firepower to bring it down, though.

Old One Eye did tolerably well - killing a squad Obliterators before getting stuck in with a bunch of Tac marines who must have confused him badly - he hardly rolled a hit after that. He collapsed, in the end, only to stand up again in the last turn of the game.

The Eldar forces started almost exclusively in reserve, intending to jump our rear. However, thanks to a well-placed Disruptor Beacon in the middle of the board, the only safe deployment edges for him were the extreme far corners. The guardian squads in these shots were lucky and got in on the board edge anyway.

The remotely deployed Spirit host, Banshees (in Fire Prism) and Harlequins did wreak havoc on the Marines in the rear of our formation, but they were too far from any objective markers to make a difference in the final outcome - the Fire Prism tried, taking 5(!) crew shaken glancing hits before finally crashing to the ground.

My Raveners tried to Deep Strike next to the Harlequins - 18 Devourer shots ought to have done some damage to their sequined hides - only to scatter into an impassable crystal stucture. Drat!

The Eldar Scorpions arrived in the middle of the Tyranid objective-zone, killing gaunts by the fistful. Of course, they were no match for an infinite number of gaunts, and died before the end tally.

At the end of the game, four objectives were in our hands, one was enemy controlled, and the last was occupied by a non-scoring Eldar Reaper squad (it was scoring right until it ate a Baneblade shell in the last turn of the game). Victory!

Splinter Fleet Black Tide, played by Stephan