Get off my lawn, you dirty heretics!!!

  I'm not actually sure if we've played a game of 40k since the new year began.  My son and I started to wrack our brains and... I think...  yeah!  No game yet this year!  That being said, I finished painting Roboute Guilliman just before the new year and Lord Calgar just after the new year.  But since then, we've been busy and otherwise just working on the painting part of the hobby.

  My wife is diligently trying to get her Sisters of Battle painted up and I even pulled out a bunch of bits and finished two old-school Immolators for the force. Unfortunately, there's still not a lot in her army and we decided to make a 1500 point list and include an Imperial Knight- just for fun, I promise!  Of course there's a Saint Celestine involved and she's working really hard on that one.  Beyond all that, it motivated me and my son to talk about a 'campaign'.

  If I were to play the Ultramarines that I'm known for, then why would I be fighting the Sisters of Battle?  We're on the same side and, in fact, Lord Calgar is kinda the head guy in the current fluff.  And my boy wants to use his new Dark Angels, which could be the source of some conflict between green and blue but just doesn't really make sense (Lord Calgar has decided to 'overlook' the Sons of the Lion's actions on Vigilus while in need of arms).  I have to paint the Ultramarines, and I'm more than happy to 'inspect' Azrael's holdings due to their reticence to take the Primaris gift, but I'm also a narrative guy and three Imperials beating on each other is not a good narrative.

  So I decided, in the interest of good storytelling, to pull out the Chaos marines.  Oh how I've missed these guys!  To boot, I'm including the Renegade Knight (Gallant, of course) and a bunch of fluffy choices like Possessed and Warp Talons!  I figure that the coming of Abaddon is heralded by more than a gaggle of Raptors, including other legions getting involved as quickly as they can.  Always up for a scrum against the boys-in-blue are the Word Bearers and they shall be involved in the attack on Vigilus!  So our little in-house campaign, based on Vigilus, will include Ultramarines, Death Guard, Dark Angels, Word Bearers, and Sisters of Battle.  Toss in some Orks, Eldar, and Astra Militarum and we've got ourselves a ton of actors for our little play!  Did I mention that I'm a narrative guy?

  All of that just to get to a battle report...

  My son and I each chose 1500 points (to match the wife's army later)- his Dark Angels and my Word Bearers.  For simplicity (and because my son is learning a whole new army), we decided that playing a simple "12-and-Kill" scenario was the way to go.  And to keep it even more simple, we went with a really basic battlefield.  This setup even gave me some nostalgia as I couldn't help but be reminded of how battlefields used to look when I first got into the hobby- green and empty!

The battlefield in the blaring morning sunlight

Here's the story:

  While the Dark Angels were doing their typical patrols, they received a coded alarm that one of their Chapter fortresses was being invaded.  They may not have used the base in centuries, but it can't fall into enemy hands, whoever that enemy is.  Grand Master Azrael gathered some forces and immediately made to secure the post.

  Upon arrival, he found that the enemy was a hated Legion from ages past- the Word Bearers.  Assuming their goal was to secure and utilize the bastion, Azrael's force focused on heavy weapons and speed.  He even included a Ravenwing squad to ferret out any hint of the Fallen.  Pulling plasma weapons from every broom closet on his barge, he armed his battle brothers to exterminate the heretics.  

  The Word Bearers had not yet gotten into the locked portals of the ancient battle-fortress, but they brought some vicious forces themselves.  Having allied with a Renegade Knight and some rebels from the planet's population, the Chaos forces felt confident that they'd defeat whatever they had to face.  

His forces- Azrael, Ezekiel, a Company Master with Relic Blade and Lion's Roar, an Ancient with a bolter, 2 Tactical Squads with a chainsword and plasma all around, a combat squad with a power fist and plasma where it could be sitting in a twin-lascannon Razorback, 2 Ravenwing bikers with a couple of plasma guns, a Devastator Squad with all plasma cannons and a Devastator Squad with a couple of missile launchers and a couple of heavy bolters.  Whew!  That's a lot of pew-pew of the plasma variety!

  My forces consisted a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh with wings, a hellforged sword, and that elixir that everyone loves, a Sorcerer, a squad of 17 autogun-wielding Cultists, 10 marines with a couple of plasma guns and a power fist, 10 more marines armed for close combat and rocking a couple flamers and a power sword under their Banner of Excess, a unit of Possessed with a Banner of Excess, 5 Warptalons, an Annihilator, and a Knight Gallant with a stormspear rocket pod.  More for the up-close-and-personal approach- the way Slaanesh likes it!

Deployment

  Deployment wasn't complicated- the Dark Angels piled all their big guns around Azrael in the woods, set their mobile unit to assault over the hill, and deployed the Ravenwing on the flank to immediately engage behind forces behind the walls.  The Word Bearers answered by setting up marines in the woods to snipe at the bikers, hid the Knight behind the fortress to avoid all those big guns, set up the Daemon Prince and Annihilator to threaten the center of the board, and mobbed up the Cultists and close combat troops in the ruins to rush the loyalists and pressure them.  The Warp Talons remained in the warp...

  The mission was even simpler- a Kill Point for every unit wiped out plus the current secondary objectives.  I had nine units in my army and he deployed 11.  Since he finished deploying first, he chose to go first.  Would the Chaos gods permit a seize?  Of course not.  The controllers of randomness are as fickle as they are tempting...

Battle Round 1
  The Dark Angels started their attack by rushing the Razorback over the hill to immediately engage the Annihilator.  With combined firepower from the Devastators in trees, enough damage was dealt to destroy the tank.  But the gods blessed the ancient hull it survived on one wound (and some Command Point spending).  Meanwhile, the rest of the firepower-from-the-forest was able to fell a couple of the Possessed in the ruins, mitigating that threat before they could get started.  Finally, the Ravenwing stormed forward and put tons of bolter rounds into the trees to kill a marine and some overcharged plasma into the Renegade Knight.  With some good rolling, the ion shields held and the massive war machine only lost two wounds.
  The response was shocking.  The Renegade Knight stomped toward the bikers while unleashing stormspear rockets into the Razorback to instantly destroy it.  One Dark Angel was killed in the blast and before they could recover, they were mobbed by Cultists and whizzing ammunition and lascannon blasts, felling almost everyone and leaving the Master rather exposed.  The heretic Sorcerer cast some powers on those Cultists, proud to invoke the blessings of the warp.  Three of the Ravenwing were stomped to death and the final marine from the Razorback was dragged down by the Cultists, leaving a mighty character locked up with the Chaos-worshiping rabble.  The Dark Angels were reeling...

Score Round 1: 0-3

Battle Round 2
  The Ravenwing immediately retreated from the Renegade Knight and hid behind the ruins to determine their next step.  The Company Master desperately fought for his life against the Cultists, killing many more with his Relic Blade.  But before his eyes, the survivors slunk away into the fog of the battlefield and disappeared...  Azrael saw his firebase being pressured by a mob of Possessed and chainsword-armed Chaos Marines, so he ordered all of the guns into the daemon-things and wiped out that enemy unit with prejudice.  The Tactical Squad in the middle of the battlefield took advantage of the Ravenwing's retreat and poured plasma into the ion shields until another few wounds broke through the Renegade Knight's shell.  Finally, a well-aimed shot finished off the crippled Annihilator that wouldn't die.  Frantically, the Dark Angels prepared for the response again.
  It started with a Daemon Prince screaming into the face of the Company Master and charging with furious abandon.  The Company Master used his artifact combi-plasma in overwatch and exploded, robbing the Lord of Chaos of a sweet victory.  Azrael watched in horror as the Cultists that had abandoned the now dead Master appeared behind his Devastator line, guns blazing!  When the smoke cleared and more Command Points spent, there were no casualties as the marines' armor proved superior to autoguns.  The Sorcerer tried to take advantage of the confusion and used Warptime to speed up the advancing close-combat marines and threaten Azrael's position from the other side.  As the marines advanced, they immolated a couple of the loyalist Tactical Marines frozen in defense.  The Renegade Knight, without a target now that the bikers had retreated, turned and immediately assaulted the Tactical Squad that had just shot him.  Wisely, he was even able to get into combat with Ezekiel, locking down the Dark Angel's most powerful psyker.  With might feet, he stomped half the squad, used his massive reaver chainsword to destroy the loyalist psyker, and conspicuously dominated the center of the battlefield...

Score Round 2: 2-5

 Battle Round 3
   Grand Master Azrael needed that moment to take stock of the battlefield.  A Renegade Knight was threatening his left flank and Cultists were behind him, while a mob of Chaos Marines backed up by a Daemon Prince and a Sorcerer threatened the position from head on and separated his forces from the fortress they'd come to secure.  Assessing the urgency of the threats and determining the tactics to handle them, he quipped orders through the vox and watched his army mobilize.  The Tactical Marines facing the Knight retreated and allowed the Ravenwing and elements of the firebase to pound the war machine, bringing it down in an anticlimactic crumble.  Other elements of the firebase turned their attention to the sneaky Cultists and shot most of them down, leaving only the Champion standing among the pile of corpses.  The Chaos Marines coming straight at the woods despite seeing their war machine taken down, unfortunately took the brunt of the defensive Tactical Marines before they were charged and nearly cut down by the Dark Angels, including the impatient Azrael himself!  Azrael's orders were turning the tides...
  The Word Bearers, uncaring to the state of the battle, continued the mindless goal of slaughter.  The enraged Daemon Prince finished off the Tactical Marines that had suffered stomps and killed two more of the Ravenwing with his daemon gun, laughing maniacally at the slaughter.  The Sorcerer decided to take matters into his own hands and leapt into combat with the Dark Angel Tactical Marines after smiting one with his powers.  Better yet, reality tore itself apart at that moment as the unit of Warp Talons showed and blinded loyalists all around so they couldn't defend themselves.  Unfortunately, the Daemon Prince's mirth was contagious and the daemon-spawn failed to charge as well.  The squad of Chaos Marines that were hiding in the trees finally mobilized to join the battle.  Still confident, the Word Bearers' efforts were beginning to stall.

Score Round 3: 4-6

Battle Round 4
   Azrael was now feeling very confident.  No longer having a Knight to worry about and seeing the Sorcerer tied up by his marines, he knew that his firebase could handle the last remaining threats.  There were Warp Talons looking to charge the trees and a Daemon Prince still aching for slaughter, so he ordered his guns on them.  The remaining Ravenwing sergeant focused on hurting the Daemon Prince while the Devastators focused on the Warp Talons.  After a torrent of firepower, one Warp Talon remained and the Daemon Prince still laughed...
  The Warp Talon leapt over to help free the Sorcerer just in time to watch the renegade warlord get cut down by the Dark Angel marines.  In revenge, he hacked with his daemon-claws until only one marine stood, ready to finish him off and get at the loyalist warlord to return the act.  The Daemon Prince stared down the Ravenwing sergeant before finally just eviscerating him from the air with his daemon-sword.  The chase was over and the bikers were finally finished.  Emboldened by this destruction, the Cultist Champion tried to charge into the woods and lock up the marines for his allies, only to be shot down just as he started the dash.  The daemon-things weren't concerned as they could only think about getting to Azrael.

Score Round 4: 7-7

 Battle Round 5
   There was not much for Azrael to do.  His forces were now dominating the battlefield and only the Daemon Prince and a Warp Talon remained as any threat.  With well-place firepower, the Warp Talon was exploded from a storm of plasma.  The rest of the Devastators opened up on the advancing Daemon Prince and wounded it so bad that it limped at them.  Azrael, fearing he would have to charge into hand-to-hand with this creature, turned his gun and fired the fatal the shot that ended the monster.
  Their warlord, the Sorcerer, slain and the Daemon Prince now banished from this realm, the remaining squad of Chaos Marines discreetly abandoned the battlefield and mission of taking the Imperial fortress.  It was a decisive victory for the Dark Angels.

Score Round 5: 9-7

  Here's the scoreboard at the end of the match, including Command Points.  A loss for the heretics, for sure.

  Well, that was fun!  It was also nice to have more painted models on the table than normal (no thanks to my own lack of motivation these years).  My son also appreciated the ability to play his army and learn it a little better.  It's funny that he kept forgetting about Azrael's buff in the game- I remember that Death Guard don't have a lot of that!

  As for this campaign that we're going to do- this was the first battle to try to place that first flag on a tile.  Unfortunately, it fails and this means that the tile will keep its Imperial flag.  No worries- there's plenty of other places on this planet to attack and the Chaos forces aren't known for turning away those opportunities.

  And I'm really excited to see my wife's Sisters of Battle hit the battlefield for this story.  She bought and built a new Sanctum terrain piece that I think her new force is going to have to defend from the Word Bearers.  And she has an Imperial Knight (Errant).  This ought to be interesting...

  Let me know about your games below.  As always- Happy Gaming!

Hey, there's a blog here!

  It has certainly been a while.  Sorry about the absence- work was a real butt-kicker and school suffered for it.  A shift in priorities (again) saw the blog put behind the back-burner.  But now that job is done and I'm back to being the perfect student, so I figured it might be time to do this blog thing again.  As always, I appreciate the patience.
  During all this time, I haven't failed to get my hobby on.  I just didn't have the time to put in on the site (or even take pictures).  My son and I played soooo much 40k and I even had a buddy come down and whoop us on my own table.  Five games and not one made it past the top of turn 2...


  GW also did a great job draining me of my cash.  It wasn't the gaming that got me buying more toys, it was just the genius that is that darned company!  Between my love for 40k already and the release of AoS stuff, they added cool mini-games (admittedly as an excuse to sell models) like Underworlds Nightvault, Speed Freaks, and Necromunda (of which I now own everything since finding the little ol' Warhammer Citadel...).






  Speaking of Speed Freaks- you see, I had started an Ork army many moons ago and was buying a few more things to beef that force up and then, well... let's just say that certain car repairs haven't been done.  This was where my buddy come down from Chicago and played his Orks against me and my son.  Between his experience and his army-building skills, my buddy taught us many valuable lessons.  That included maximizing movement in the Charge and Pile-In moves to get the most attacks and things like that.

  My buddy also bet and motivated me to finally finish painting my Primarch, who's been sitting unfinished for years now.  It took some effort and I have so many touch-ups to do, but at least he's done and can hit the tabletop.

Lord Commander Guilliman

  Then GW finished off the year strong for 40k and launched a campaign that promises the return of the Chaos Warmaster himself (a 14th Black Crusade?).  Vigilus Defiant, alongside the Chapter Approved for the year... My excitement could not be contained and I was at my local shop picking these things up as soon as I could.  As promised, the campaign book mirrors the Forgeworld style and introduces some rather key fixes that the game needed.  [On a side note, I see the excitement for the White Dwarf rules for Crimson Fists, but did anyone see the Special Detachments in this book for that Chapter?]  

  Now of course this meant that I would have to continue the flow of painting and get the Master Macragge himself done.  I even followed Duncan's video on Warhammer TV (with a couple of colors changed since I didn't have exactly the palette he used)-  I highly suggest his videos!  Not only is it how we are trained to paint in the company, but he's so good at explaining it as he goes, so anyone can do this.  I chose to even put the helmet, rather than the bare head, on to maybe represent a new Chapter Master rather than Lord Calgar himself (and Primaris to boot!).  Regardless, the rules for him are awesome and finally put him on par with Abaddon in his current form.  This makes me fear how much more powerful the Warmaster of Chaos will be in the next chapter...  For now, I plan to use Lord Calgar in every list- he's sooooo good!  Courage and Honour!

 And I admit we've been doing some other games as well.  We played some DnD and everyone leveled up.  My brother is even DMing for the first time and I have to note that he's pretty good at it (he's so patient, which is a really good trait to have in a DM, I'd say).  And my son was rewarded a Hammer of Thunderbolts for his birthday- his Dragonborn clan seems to take birthdays seriously!  

  Now I've made a plan with my buddy to finish my Ultramarines army this year.  Considering that I haven't painted anything for the force since...  a long time ago, this is going to take a bit.  The Vigilus campaign rules make for a great starting point, but this means that I have to paint up a lot of Intercessors.  Not hard, but I really feel like I've painted enough marines in my life.  Unfortunately for me, my son has painted his entire Death Guard army (and is working on Mortarion as I type this) and I've run out of excuses.  This shall be the year of power armor made with lapis lazuli, I declare!

Image from IndiaMART on Google Images

 So what do you plan to be working on this year?

Last battle of 1.0

  I rushed home from my day off work (yes, I'm one of those people who willingly goes into work on their day off) to play a game with the wife after she got off.  I spent my weeknights after work building the rest of the Stormcast and getting ready to play against her unbeatable undead army and we planned on getting this one in before the new edition of Age of Sigmar hit.  And it was a fun game!

  We played the mission "Knife to the Heart" from the GHB 2017, which meant we played diagonal deployment with one objective marker in each deployment zone.  We each took a 2,000 point army and set up the battlefield using some of her new terrain from the mausoleum set.

The battlefield.  She was very happy to place down her newly-built terrain because... undead.  

  Her force consisted of a Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon, a Vampire, a Mourngul (Forgeworld, thanks Redmon!), 2 Harbingers, 20 Skeletons, 2 units of 10 Skeletons, 2 units of 10 Grave Guard (which never even saw the battlefield), and 10 Hexwraiths.  Ouch!

Her army, including gravestone markers...

   Meanwhile, I took Vandus Hammerhand, a Celestant-Prime, a Knight-Venator, a Lord-Relictor, 2 units of Liberators, 2 units of Judicators, 2 units of Retributors, and a unit of Prosecutors.  My plan was to keep the Celestant-Prime in reserves to charge his hammer and bring him in later when he was needed most. 

My army, in all its gold and grey glory!

   Deployment was simple.  We each set up in our corners, with a unit of Judicators guarding my objective and a unit of 10 skeletons guarding hers.  Otherwise, we put our powerful stuff in the middle to face off against each other.  Since she finished deploying first, she got to choose who took first turn and she (wisely) turned that over to me.  Time to get our battle on!

Deployment

  My first turn started with Vandus Hammerhand moving up to take the heroic point atop the hill and the rest of the army fanning out to tray to pincer her force.  Some shooting and lightning breath saw me take down six skellies and wound the Vampire, only for her to raise five of the skeletons back in her turn.  Rather uneventful and unimpressive.  In the meantime, she rushed up and set to charge Vandus atop the hill, but failed.  Woohoo!  But her Harbingers were able to charge my Knight-Venator and kill him quickly.  What she didn't know was that it was a trap to lure them in for my Paladins to take them out...

End Turn 1

  I won the roll-off to take the second turn (thank Sigmar!), so charged a unit of Liberators and the Prosecutors into her Hexwraiths and Vandus plus some Liberators into the Mourngul.  In my turn, the forces of undeath waxed so many models that I even failed a ton of Battleshock tests and lost  the Prosecutors, most of the Liberators from two units and a whole unit against the Harbingers.  Ouch!  Her turn saw her charge the Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon into the stronger unit of Retributors, and bring the Skeletons and Vampire against Vandus and his Liberator support.  It took much more than I wanted, but the Harbingers were finally killed while the Mourngul healed up all his wounds and commenced to finishing off the rest of my basic warriors.  I was not liking this at all.

End Turn 2

  She won the die roll to get the first turn and I knew this was going to be bad.  Her Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon finished off the Retributors he was facing while the Vampire, Mourngul, and even some skeleton spearmen finished of Vandus.  And to add insult to injury, the Hexwraiths continued to destroy their way to holding the flank.  It was time to spring my trap- I brought in the Celestant-Prime behind the undead's guarding unit and tried to rush my surviving Retributors to support.  I also positioned the Judicators so that they would all be able to shoot at the Vampire Lord and give the powerful Starsoul-mace wielding Paladins the opportunity to banish the dragon-rider, which they did!  Now we were getting somewhere.  With the mighty swing of Ghal-Maraz, the Skeletons guarding her objective were instantly cleared and I was able to distract her from winning the game.  It may have taken some work, but now I wasn't feeling like the battle was going to be a loss. 

End Turn 3

  I won the roll-off for the fourth turn and I moved so that I could hopefully get everything into place.  Some more shooting and maneuvering was all I could do to try to pull this battle out.  My wife responded by completely abandoning any effort to take my objective so that she could defend hers and moved her Mourngul and Hexwraiths to come after my attack.  Luckily, everything was still out of charge range and all she could do was toss some Mystic Bolt magic at the Prime.  It hurt, but I was still alive. 

End Turn 4

   There was still hope and we had made it to the last turn of the game.  If everything went in my favor, I might be able to steal victory from the bone-jaws of defeat.  And it all started with the roll-off for first turn.  She won it.  Uh oh...  Her Mourngul and Hexwraiths charged the Celestant-Prime and fought a hard battle that saw the Mourngul get smashed to death by the mighty hammer of Sigmar.  But, of course, the Hexwraiths overwhelmed him and took him down.  While demoralizing, it was obvious that neither of us would win the game at this rate.  My turn saw me do little more than stand around looking golden and glorious. 

End Game

  I have to give my wife credit as she felt so bad for beating me that she stopped healing her units and chose not to bring in her extra Skeletons or any of the Grave Guard.  Even with all that, she still was able to destroy the vast majority of my army and keep me from stealing victory from her despite not having a plan other than winning.  It was sad.  But I thank my wife for being willing to almost lose just to make me feel better. 

  This now means that my wife's undead army didn't lose a single game in the first edition of Age of Sigmar.  I'm not sure what I can do as my son can't beat her with any of the Chaos armies we own and I can't beat her with the blessings of lightning-forged warriors of Sigmar himself.  And now she wants Nighthaunt?  Oh man...

  It's going to be very interesting to see how the second edition of the game treats each of our armies and what we might be able to do to even out the battles again.  But we really enjoy AoS and look forward to it next week.  Hopefully my 70-hour work-weeks won't keep me from enjoying this high fantasy!

  Let me know how your games of AoS have been treating you and what you think of the 2nd edition.  Otherwise, Happy Gaming!

Small battles against big bugs

  Summer just started for the kids (as we know, non-wealthy adults don't get that 'summer' thing) and it was time for another throw-down.  This time, I didn't want to waste an entire day playing, so we decided to stick to just a 1,000 point game.  That also allows me to set up a smaller table and not have to clutter the already shrinking hobby room.  I forgot how fun smaller games were for a bit there. 

  I should also note that I was going to use the Open War cards that I finally decided to pick up.  But the cards aren't made for smaller battles and battlefields, so we agreed to just do the standard "Kill and 12" mission.  After all, the only true goal is to push around our dolls and roll some dice, right?

  The battlefield was simple.  I added a couple of hills and tree bases because it makes sense that Imperial forces would try to catch the enemy before they get into the heart of the cities.  Otherwise, it was a densely-packed table with plenty of line-of-sight blockages all over the place. 

The battlefield

  I chose to play the Imperial Guard, er, I mean Astra Militarum for this one.  My Ultramarines haven't been performing great and they needed some rest, so I relieved them and brought in the big guns.  My force consisted of a Company Commander, Platoon Commander, Primaris Psyker, three Infantry Squads rocking flamers and riding in Chimeras (the heavy stubbers aren't modeled, but I took them), an autocannon Heavy Weapon Squad, a Hellhound, a stock Leman Russ, and a Basalisk.  It was meant to be a cross-section of the IG's arsenal while not being particularly spammy or cheezy. 

Sound Off!

  I was worried about the force that my son decided to take.  It didn't really seem all that powerful to me and simply lacked the numbers that could stand up to my many flamers.  He took Old One Eye, a Broodlord, two Thornback Carnifexes, 2 smaller units of Genestealers, a unit of Warriors, and a unit of Hive Guard.  There was some speed, some monstrous tough-guys, and some pretty decent shooting considering that I'm wearing nothing but flak armor. 

Chitin and Claws!

    I won the roll-off for deployment and focused my vehicles behind the buildings (especially hiding the Basalisk) and the Armored Fist units (the infantry riding in their Chimeras) on the nature side.  He deployed the Carnifexes in the city, hid his Hive Guard (I hate those things so much), and put his mobs of 'stealers on the nature side as well.  We did the roll-off for first turn and, of course, I got it by having the fewest drops. 

Deployment and Game On!

  The first turn saw the very little actually happening.  I ran the command Chimera towards the center of the line, planning on being the 'countercharge' unit and charged the Hellhound foward.  My shooting phase saw me plink down a couple of Genestealers and, using my tanks and artillery, putting some wounds onto Old One Eye.  After all, I didn't want him to get too close.  In return, the Genestealers and their Broodlord attacked the Hellhound and damaged it pretty hard, but didn't kill it.  Everything else, of the larger variety, just began their implacable advance towards me.  Using his Hive Guard and a well-timed strategem, he took out my Heavy Weapons squad and earned First Blood.  I really hate those guys. 

End Turn 1

  The second turn saw me move up with my Armored Fist section and disembark a unit or two to lay down some flame on the surviving Genestealers.  I chose not to retreat with my Hellhound, hoping he would kill it off and I would explode in his lines.  A bit more big guns focusined on Old One Eye saw me able to finish him off and earn the Slay the Warlord.  Battle Cannons are so good!  The Genestealers almost finished off the Hellhound, falling just one wound short of finishing it off. 

One more wound.  Really?

  Seeing my tactic and understanding the suicidal nature of the crew of the Hellhound, he retreated far enough way that it didn't matter.  The Tyranids continued their advance through the city and opened fire with their guns, finishing off the Hellhound and putting some damage into one of my Chimeras.    Sure enough, the Hellhound exploded and managed to take a couple of Genestealers down, but nothing near what we were hoping.  The Broodlord and remaining Warrior charged the other Chimera holding the flank and wounded it pretty well.  But by the time the smoke cleared, it looked as though the Imperial Guard had eliminated the little threats. 
 

End Turn 2 

  Turn 3 was bad for the Imperium of Man.  The remaining two Carnifexes were now in range to charge through the ruins into my tanks and the Broodlord was busy chomping his way through a transport.  The Chimera retreated so that the Infantry Squad could unleash lasgun fire into them, but this is where my son remembered his rules.  The Warrior was closer and behind a bunch of rocks and couldn't be seen, so my troops were too skittish to shoot at the monster in front of them.  The transport had retreated, so it couldn't shoot at all.  That meant that the flank was completely wasted.  Only the targeting of the Basalisk would help, only it failed to wound the Warrior.  The Psyker got out of his transport and started making his way toward the tank line to support and the two Chimeras chose to start up the middle and put some wounds on at least one of thes Carnifexes.  It didn't work.  The helpful gaze of the Emperor was definitely not on us.  Meanwhile, the Tyranids simply continued their implacable advance and peppered shooting- shooting my retreated Chimera to bits and finally charging both Carnifexes into my Leman Russ .  His Hive Guard even shot a whole squad off the table (did I mention I hate those things?).  Funny enough, my son's tactics again paid off as the first monster to charge was behind a building and unable to be seen, so I couldn't fire overwatch with my big tank.  The other simply sauntered in unworried.  It was a bad turn for me and a great one for my son's Tyranids.  

End Turn 3

  In desperation, my next turn started with the Infantry Squad moving up into a position to finish off the Warrior and Broodlord, a Chimera aiming to help, and the other Chimera dashing across the battlefield to try to stop those Hive Guard.  The Basalisk finished off the Warrior, splattering it all over his Broodlord and distracting him long enough take some fire from multiple directions.  Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to finish him off.  The Carnifexes were slowly beating the Leman Russ, but at least it was shielding the artillery from harm for the time being.  The Psyker climbed into the ruins and began the Smite-storm, at least hurting the injured monster a little more.  But the 'nids weren't done just yet.  The Broodlord charged and wiped out the squad that shot at him and the Hive Guard peppered the incoming Chimera even more, slowing it down as the tracks were shredded.  And the Carnifexes just continued to beat on the Leman Russ. 

End Turn 4

  Still the IG fought on.  The Company Commander set up to charge the Broodlord but watched as it was obliterated with multi-laser fire from the Chimera (whew!) and the Leman Russ continued to hold out.  The Tyranids were down to few models but they were all making a dent as he continued to beat on the heavy tank and spread Hive Guard ammo onto transports all over.  At this point, we had to roll to see if the game continued.  With some amount of suspense and the Guard's victory in had currently, the die stopped on a six and the game continued.  Nooooo!

End Turn 5

  The next unwanted turn was as bad as the 3rd.  The damaged Chimera couldn't get much closer, so the last Infantry squad hopped out and started beating feet to the remaining Hive Guard as the transport moved closer to support.  They were able to kill one of the last two and charged into combat with bayonets fixed, but couldn't quite finish him off.  Unfortunately, the Leman Russ finally succumbed to the massive talons of the Carnifexes and the Basalisk was now unprotected.  Even with the Psyker tossing Smite in their direction, it wasn't enough to kill one and the end was certainly near.  With the 'nids doing all the damage they could in their turn, it came to another roll.  The Imperium really needed this one as the game was tied.  But the die fell on another six and the game continued. 

End Turn 6

  The final turn saw the Guardsmen finally kill the last of the Hive Guard (moral victory!), but also saw the Carnifex killing the Basalisk.  While there was nothing left of the xenos but two Carnifexes, it was still a defeat for the Imperial Guard, er, Astra Militarum.  With the secondary objectives and kill points counted, it was a victory for the Tyranids, 9-7. 

End Game

  It was a great game.  Were it not for the random game length, the Imperium could have pulled this one out.  But the Tyranids were not to be denied their chance to cause havoc and they certainly did.  What I was most happy about was that my son is actually using tactics now.  He still missed some rules like the rerolling for the monstrous scything talons, but his use of line-of-sight blocking terrain and order of charges is really making my goal of dominating him difficult.  Stupid learning.  

  As I write this, my wife and son are playing Age of Sigmar and her Legion of Nagash is dominating Nurgle.  I don't remember the last time she lost a battle since that darn army book came out.  Maybe I need to dust off my Ironjaws and see how well she does against them...

  Until next time, Happy Gaming!