Blood Angels on pest control

Mission and Deployement

  This mission gives us points for controlling objective markers in no-mans-land and the enemy deployment zone.  Our deployments were the short edges across from each other.  The Blood Angels left a unit of Sanguinary Guard in reserves and placed the other one in a flanking position on the right, while their Captain and Intercessor squad mobbed up in the middle to react in either direction.  The Tyranids placed their big gun bugs to their right and further back to take advantage of the range and cover the advance of the Psychophage.  The Termagants and Winged Prime stuffed themselves into the rest of the deployment zone, and the Von Ryan's Leapers infiltrated behind the ruins to get the jump on the golden-armoured boys.  

The pieces are set

Blood Angels' zone

Tyranids zone

Round 1

  The Tyranids won the roll-off for first turn and immediately leapt foward.  The Psychophage trundled up to threaten the middle of the field while the skittering hordes around it moved up and opened fire.  The Barbguants fired long-range and killed one of the Intercessors, being the only effective shooting against the power armour.  The Winged Prime, also known as the Terror of Vardenghast, flew up to claim one of the objectives and ordered the Leapers to assault the marines.  Following their hive-mind imperative, they dashed up and started slicing the golden Sanguinary Guard, killing one and leaving a second one with only a wound left.  The survivors struck back and killed one of the infiltrating beasts in return.  

  The Blood Angels responded in their turn by choosing the Leapers as their Oath of the Moment and ordered their own assault.  The Intercessors strode forward and shot at the big monster in the middle, causing a couple wounds with the overcharged plasma pistol.  They then charged into the Leapers to support their Sanguinary Guard brothers, only for the xenos to fight first and kill off the rest of them.  But the red-armoured marines killed off the Leapers and re-established control of their side of the battlefield.  

Round 2

  The Tyranids received five points for the Terror holding an objective in no-man's land, to start the turn.  The monstrous Psychophage led the Barbguants forward to press the Imperial deployment zone and claim the other objective in the neutral area, and then unleashed their ammo into the Intercessors, bringing down a few.  The Terror charged in, leaving his objective for the Termagants to hold, and only brought down one more marine.  But this was enough to add more victory points.  Everyone attacked back and hacked down the xenos leader.

  The Blood Angels, sensing the momentum of the Tyranids beginning to wane, moved up to engage the horde of Termagaunts and killed 16 between bullets and chainswords.  While they were busy, the other unit of Sanguinary Guard dropped from the sky in the backfield, stealing the home objective from the aliens.  They had only scored four points, falling behind in the score so far.

Round 3

  Unfortunately, the Termagants failed their battleshock test after the brutal assault and couldn't score more points for the their objective.  Worse, the Terror of Vardenghast was gone, and so the xenos army couldn't score secondary objectives either.  They still racked up five more points for the Barbgaunts' efforts, and those gun-bugs turned their attention to the freshly-arrived Sanguinary Guard but only caused a couple of wounds.  The Intercessors and original unit of golden boys easily dispatched the Termagants but watched as the Psychophage advanced to take their home objective!

  The Blood Angels were now earning points like crazy- 15 points for holding an objective in no-man's land and another in the Tyranid deployment zone!  The Sanguinary Guard that just arrived stood their ground and took shots at the Barbguants, but failed to cause any real damage.  It didn't matter, they were scoring victory points (4 more for the secondary)!  Raldeo ordered the charge of his forces into the Psychophage, which chose to overwatch his acidic breath into the rushing horde, felling another of the golden-armoured attackers.  The Captain claimed his 'finest hour' rule, but failed to cause enough damage to the monster.  Now bleeding, the beast returned the favour and chomped down one of the Intercessors.  It would have been more without the Refuse to Bend strategem.  

Round 4

  The Tyranids were able to score 15 victory points for holding the objective in no-man's land and the Blood Angels home objective.  While this gave them the lead, their hunger was not yet sated.  The Barbgaunts used their Voracious Assault to unleash their living firepower on the rear Sanguinary Guard, causing 14 wounds!  After all the armour save, one golden boy fell.  On the other side of the battlefield, the beastly Psychophage continued to fight with the mob of marines, suffering a few more wounds as it took down two more Intercessors.  

  The Blood Angels were now in a perfect position, scoring 15 more points and retaking the lead by a wide margin.  The rear Sanguinary Guard continued to hold the Tyranid home objective and duel with the Barbguants.  The fight with the Psychophage resulted in the loss of more of the Intercessors and a little damage back.  But the outcome was becoming obvious.  

Round 5

  The Tyranids only gained 5 more victory points, now being outnumbered on the Blood Angel's home objective and losing control.  The Barbguants continued their barrage on the rear Sanguinary Guard, killing another and leaving only one remaining.  But it wasn't enough, as Captain Raldeo and a single Guard finished the massive beast on their own objective.  

Conclusion

  The Blood Angels only had Captain Raldeo and two Sanguinary Guard models left on the table, while the Tyranids still had an entire unit of Barbgaunts remaining!  But the final score was Tyranids 34, Blood Angels 61- Imperial Victory!

Happy Gaming!