The first battle of the Macharian Crusade for the Tallarn 21st was a 2000 point excursion to Hoight, where we fought the beasts of the Hoight Paladins (Tyranids). Knowing only that we would face beasts of some kind, Colonel Raz-Aziz decided to lead the expedition himself.
The Tallarn Force:
Colonel Raz-Aziz, command + mortar
Missile, Autocannon, and Mortar support squads
Autocannon Sentinel
Veterans, 3 plasmaguns, 1 plasma pistol
Platoon A
JO, 4 flamers in a Chimera
Plasmagun / Lascannon
Plasmagun / Missile
Platoon B (Light Infantry)
JO, 2 Meltaguns
Vet Sarge w/ Stormbolter, Meltagun
Vet Sarge w/ Stormbolter, Meltagun
3 Hellhounds
Leman Russ Battle Tank, Basilisk, Demolisher
All the officers and Vet Sergeants had bionics.
The enemy was a reasonably classic Tyranid Psychic Choir
Winged Dakka Tyrant
Tyrant BS/VC 3 Guard
2 Carnifex BS/ST
5 Warriors, 1 BS, 4 Deathspitters
2x 8 scuttling Genestealers
24 Spinegaunts
25 Spinegaunts
2 Carnifex BS/VC
3 Zoanthropes
All psychic creatures have Psychic Scream (-1 Leadership radius, cumulative). This would make my Leadership tests at -5 if they all got to my base. Psychic choirs are always tough, but especially so for an army that tends to take a lot more morale tests, like a Guard force.
We rolled up a Capture and Control mission, my opponent chose the Countdown environment (5 turn game, +1 on reserves rolls), and I decided that with 7 MCs and a psychic choir, we would be playing Dawn of War. Both objectives were deployed centrally.
My opponent won the roll for deployment, went first, and placed his walking tyrant and both spinegaunt units around the central terrain piece of an old bridge, and held both squads of genestealers in reserve to outflank. I started with nothing deployed, holding the 2 squads of Platoon B and the Sentinel in reserve as outflankers.
Turn 1 was relatively uneventful. The Tyranids came forward centrally at a run. I moved on the BT and Basilisk on my far left, the Mortars, Missiles, Autocannons, and CHQ to the left-center, and everything else in the center. None of the Hellhounds hit the gaunts, so only 10 or so of them were incinerated. The Demolisher failed to gain a sight line, and everything else was out of range.
Turn 2 saw every Tyranid big gun with range strike home, immobilizing the Chimera and a Hellhound, tearing the Inferno Cannon of another Hellhound and the Demolisher cannon off of the Demolisher. A squad of genestealers came in on the right flank and came up just short of assaulting the Chimera. In return, one Zoanthrope died, one spinegaunt squad was eliminated, and the outflanking Genestealers were incinerated by the 4 flamer command squad. My Sentinel and one squad flanked in, the Sentinel on the left, the squad on the right. The Squad ran into the cover of a building on my right flank.
Turn 3 saw even more accurate shooting from the Tyranids, immobilizing the Demolisher, shaking 3 other vehicles, and destroying the Basilisk. The warriors gunned an exposed infantry platoon into panicking off the board. The remaining gaunts ran back towards the objective in their deployment zone. The second Genestealers flanked on, again on the right, massacring the infantry squad huddled in the building. I poured fire into the last gaunts and put 2 wounds on the Dakkaflyrant. My last reserves came in on the right and shot 4 genestealers dead.
Turn 4 saw the Dakkaflyrant charge a Hellhound and miss, multiple Tyranid shots fly astray, and the warriors gun down the outflanking infantry platoon with another uncanny round of shooting (the warrior never missed with their blasts in 9 shots). The Genestealers rolled well and cover 16” in their move, run, and assault to kill the quad-flamer command squad losing one to the officer before he fell. I pressed towards the remaining gaunts with my last mobile Hellhound, burning them out of cover and forcing a leadership test, as they were now out of synapse. They failed and fell back towards the warriors. I also gunned down the Dakkaflyrant and put easily a dozen wounds on the Tyrant Guard, who made every 4+ cover save. One Genestealer died to the still 6 lasgun shots of Platoon B command, now occupying the Chimera’s immobilized hulk.
Turn 5 was the end. The gaunts reached synapse and reformed, the Chimera lived through the shooting and was destroyed by the Tyrant and last remaining Genestealer in assault. The resulting explosion only wounded one of the command squad, who saved, and killed the last Genestealer. The platoon command got out of the Chimera onto my objective and the remaining gaunts were not in range to control the Tyranid objective. Victory by the narrowest of margins.
We received word that our allied force of the Armageddon Steel Legion faced a similar force of beasts and managed to withstand their assault, but not defeat them, for a draw. Word was sent to General Lysander that there were strange beasts with bizarre psychic abilities present on Hoight, and the word was given to leave the surface and prepare for a major assault with support elements (next week we fight the Battle of Hoight).
Also in entry sector lay the Pollux system. With the survey ships finding evidence of traitor marines on a large moon, Lt. General Sayid set out to cleanse the system with a small (1500) force. Heavy use of vehicles was advisable due to the thin atmosphere.
Sayid’s Expedition:
Lt. General Sayid
Colonel Raz Aziz, command and 2 redshirts
Veterans, 3 plasmagun, 1 plasma pistol
Squad A
JO, 4 flamers
Lacannon / Plasmagun
Missile / Plasmagun
Armoured Fist – Meltagun
Squadron of 3 Lascannon Sentinels
Hellhound
2 Leman Russ Battle Tanks
1 Leman Russ Demolisher
The Chaos Space Marines Force was:
Terminator Lord
Greater Daemon
5 Terminators
5 Chosen, all armed differently
2 Squads of 10 Undivided CSM, 2x meltaguns, in Rhinos
5 Lesser Daemons
Land Raider
1 Obliterator
We rolled an Annihilation mission. My opponent elected not to alter the environment, I chose Dawn of War and elected to go second. Terrain was very sparse on the occupied moon, with a few rocks and a terraformed clump of bushes being about all the terrain features available. My opponent deployed one Rhino and CSM, and I deployed 2 squads to attempt to shoot it, if I managed to steal the initiative, which I did not.
Turn 1 saw my opponent move onto the board centrally. I did the same, forming a castle with infantry around my tanks and the Sentinels behind the tanks as well. I managed to shake a Rhino with my only shot.
Turn 2 saw both Daemons enter, much to my opponents displeasure. Chaos moved forward, hiding the Rhinos behind the Land Raider, which used its smoke launchers. Sayid was not fooled by the smoke and immobilized the Land Raider. A couple daemons got incinerated, and not much else happened. I pushed the Chimera, now holding the platoon command, around the right flank.
Turn 3, both the Chosen and the Obliterator arrived. The Chosen came in on my right, and the Obliterator landed on target in from of my Demolisher, also on the right. Both Rhinos popped smoke and raced around the Land Raider on each side. The Chosen managed to shake the Chimera and destroy its Multilaser. The Obliterator lived up to its name and destroyed the Demolisher. The Land Raider missed with its twinlinked Lascannon. The Terminators exited the Land Raider, advancing right into the teeth of my force. They gunned down 5 guardsmen, who bravely stood their ground. In the bottom of the turn, the Chimera raced over towards the Chosen and the quadflamer command jumped out on their flank, delivering 20 flamer hits to them, killing 4. The Hellhound still failed to kill the Daemons, wounding all three but seeing only one die. My rightmost squad advanced towards the Obliterator, delivering 4 lasgun wounds, which killed it, praise the Emperor. The Terminator Lord and his 4 companions became 1 companion and no Lord after facing massed Lascannon fire.
On Turn 4, things started to go badly. The left CSM squad leaped from its transport and advanced on the Hellhound, which exploded from their Meltagun fire. The right CSM Rhino drove right up to right on top of my right center, the CSM jumped out in cover and shot a Sentinel dead. The single remaining Terminator put its Chainfist through the Leman Russ, destroying but not exploding it. The Greater Daemon was now closing towards combat, and had taken only 1 wound. The remaining Chosen used its Meltagun to immobilized the Chimera, and charged into combat with the Chimera and command squad, killing 2. A Rhino gunned dropped my front squad down to 3. My turn 4 went very well, however. The Veterans managed to gun down almost all of the remaining CSM on the left (2 had died in the explosion of the Hellhound), who then were finished off by the Sentinels. The front squad plasmagunner killed the chainfist. The command squad killed the Chosen, losing one more member in the process.
On Turn 5, the Lesser Daemons charged the Armoured fist, killing 1 but breaking them anyway. My flight was diverted to avoid the Rhino which had tankshocked them early in the round. The remaining CSM charged the Sentinels, managing to inflict 1 glance and lose one member to Sayid’s stomping feet. The Greater Daemon closed to be in range of Sayid. On my turn, the broken squad only ran 3” further from the Daemons, and rapidfire gunned them down for their trouble. The Veterans destroyed the Rhino in the area, so now my broken troops would be able to try to recover. Colonel Raz Aziz advanced to join the Sentinels in combat against the CSM. Despite having an enormous number of attacks, I only managed to kill 2 CSM, and they held. The infantry on my right, huddled in the smoking ruins of the Demolisher, managed to inflict a second wound on the Greater Daemon. The front squad, now reduced to 2 members, blew up the other Rhino. The game continued to turn 6, because we forgot what turn it was.
On Turn 6, the Greater Daemon charged Sayid. The Land Raider shot at the Veterans, killing 1. Sayid’s Sentinel exploded in a ball of flame, but the veteran commander had hit the self-destruct / eject button upon seeing the lumbering monstrosity headed his way, and rocketed to safety. Between the Sentinels, the explosion, and the command squad, all of the CSM were killed, leaving 4 Guardsmen and 2 Sentinels in combat with a Greater Daemon. In the bottom of 6, the Armoured Fist recovered. The Veterans move cautiously towards the melee, and the Lascannon, now the only surviving member of the forward squad, blew the Lascannon off the side of the Land Raider, removing its ability to fire at my forces. In the melee, the Greater Daemon inflicted 4 hits on the Sentinels, for 2 destroyed and 2 shaken results. One shaken Sentinel remained. Colonel Raz Aziz and his command squad then calmly cut the Daemon’s head off. That’s right, 2 wounds to a greater Daemon in one round for a Guard command squad. Faith in the Emperor pays off. The game ended, and I had scored 10 kill points to my opponents 4. Every single guard infantry unit was alive and ready at the end of the game.
Week 1 was a blast, with two hard fought victories over two tough armies. Next week we fight bigred and the Paladins of Hoight.
