Tyranid Invasion: Part 1

In the hills and valleys of the planer Maracha, a small imperial outpost has been targeted by a massize Tyranid swarm. In response, segmentum command has deployed an entire army group. Two Space Marine chapters, the Fifth Founding and the Stalkers, along with the XII Vatarian Legion with elements of the VII Legion were all marching into battle side by side. A small force of Necrons had also awoken due to do the activity of the swarm, and were reanimating to do battle against this alien threat.

Not long after Necron reanimating, a warband of renegade space marines made planetfall soon after to do battle with the worthy Tyranid foe. This would be a battle of epic proportions.

This was a massive 3500 v 3500 point game. The foe would be a swarm that had an 'old one-eye' as an HQ unit. On the allied side, I had my Knight-Commander Zaros, The VII Vatarian had Knight-Commander Antoch, the Fifth Founding had a librarian, and the Stalkers had a Captain. The Chaos with Necron allies had a chaos lord as their HQ. Allied deployment looked something like this: 

Enemy deployment: 

Turn One -Enemy

Our opponent began his turn by burrowing the thing that can burrow. (little note here: I'm horrible with Tyranid units so I'm very sorry if I offend any Tyranid players with my lack of knowledge) he ran all of his units forward and took flight with a gargoyle (I think). This turn he focused on nothing but closing the distance between our forces.

The flying thing:

The burrowing thing:

Turn one -Allies

Our deployment plan was simple: Move up behind the armour and use it as mobile cover/fire support. My tanks and chimeras were to roll up in front of the main line with the Space Marine infantry and VII guard not far behind. The right flank was to be dominated by first and second platoon supported by bikes and land speeders from the Fifth Founding. A sniper team from the Stalkers chapter was holding the imperial bunker on our side of the field, and would use its superior line of sight to spot and eliminate targets in the valley below. The Necrons and Chaos marines were to move up on the centre and provide support to which ever flank needed it. 

Shooting Phase: Allies

To begin, the sniper team from the Stalkers fired a single Krak missle at the flying thing that was flying over the centre building. As if the emperor himself had willed it, the great beast fell and took another point of damage. With only one point remaining, I fired my demolisher's Lascannon along with the order Bring it Down at it and killed it with the second shot. The humour in it was that because it was flying, the rocket that took it down should've missed. The Tyranid player had intended to use it as a bullet sponge, and now he was forced to change his strategy. I fired my other tank's (at the time it was unnamed) Lascannon at Old one-eye and managed to score a wound. So far, the hammer of the emperor was doing its fair bit.

The flying thing being removed from play:

Allied forces advancing: 

From his position in the rocks, Zaros caught glimpse of a monstrous beast flailing toward the ground. On the Vox, he heard that a Marine scout team had scored an incredibly lucky hit against the monster, and that it was crippled on the ground. "Knight-Commander to Armour, do you have a firing solution on that grounded beast?" There was a short delay followed by an incredibly hoarse voice. "Commander this is Sergeant Zale of the Tora. We only have a solution with the hull mounted Lascannon. Orders to fire?" Zaros assessed the situation quickly. "Affirmative Zale, Bring. It. Down." A bright light filled the air followed quickly by another one. Zaros couldn't see the shooter or what it was shooting at, but he could tell by the great screeching roar that it had scored a hit. His Vox rang with an incoming message. "Zale here sir, the beast is dead."

Turn Two -Enemy

Our enemy was not very happy with the turn of events, he ran most of his units again, trying to get closer and closer. The unpleasantness started when he tried to deep strike gene stealers. However, they went off the board in a deep strike mishap. He then deep struck a doom of m-something. For people who do not know, it has a 3+ save, along with the ability to gain wounds by how many enemies it kills. So when it killed ten men from first platoon, it gained ten wounds. To make matters much much worse, he unleashed the borrowing thing right under the front of my armoured column. One of the tanks was damaged along with one of the chimeras. A third chimera was outright destroyed. The veterans inside of it escaped with only five of their ten man squad plus a priest. He tried firing a biovare thingy (the biological artillery for the bugs) at my tanks, but managed to hit his own burrowing thingy. That was very convenient for me. Although, truth be told I felt incredibly singled out because he was only firing on my men. (In hindsight, I did bring the most to the field...) 

The doom of m-thing beside the speeder:

The burrowing thing attacking me: 

Sergeant Zale was moving the Demolisher at cruising speed when everything began to shake violently. The Tora was thrown forward several feet and came to a grinding halt. "By the throne what was that?" From the rear view hatch, Zale could only see a plume of smoke and dust. The Vox crackled to life not long after. "We've taken rear damage, but otherwise okay." "Does anyone see the other chimera?" Zale peered hard through the huge cloud of debris and could only see one thing. A massive Tyranid borrower had come up right on top of the rear chimera. 

Turn Two -Allied

This point in the game things were hectic. The allied SM chapters were rushing to try and move up to the forward battle, and the chaos/Necron forces were a too far ahead to properly cover the Tyranids that had attacked from the rear. Fontaine and his men disembarked their chimera and were preparing to melta the burrowing beast. First platoon regrouped and got closer to the doom of m-thing. 

Shooting phase -Allied

I used FRFSRF on the first platoon. Fourty two Lasguns, three las pistols, two bolt pistols, a Krak missle, and two auto cannons were unleashed on the doom of M-thing. Only two hits managed to hit because of its blasted 3+ save. Fontaine and his vets fired their Lasguns and meltas at the borrower. Managed to score two hits as well. It was not going well. My allies fired their weapons in an attempt to stop the Tyranid monstrous creatures, but to no avail. My Demolisher tank fired at old one eye and managed to score a hit. My battle tank (earns the name 'stomper' after this battle) fires its main gun and kills thirteen bugs out of fourteen.

Fontaine and his squad preparing to fire:

First platoon firing on the doom of M-ting:

The unfortunate part

It was about midnight at this point, and we had to leave our local gaming store. (We got kicks out)

We rolled die to see who would win. The opponent rolled a six, we rolled a four. Even though we had more kill points, he won.

We are hopefully going to have a rematch this Thursday so be looking for a continuation of what was going on. I'm sad because it was such a short game, but with so many units each turn took a while. My lesson learned this time around was this: Work closely with your allies.