Death Comes to Agronnax XII

Introduction

Agronnax XII, a quiet Death World near the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy. The very edge of the Imperium. Centuries ago, there had been a colony of the Imperium of Man here, but something unexplained had happened, and the dangerous indigenous lifeforms had overrun the planet wiping out its human population. Too far away and of little consequence to the Administratum, no-one had ever bothered to investigate.

Fast forward 300 years, Hive Fleet Medusa is rising through the galactic plane and scout forces of the 13th Black Crusade are investigating Agronnax XII in case the cause of its destruction can be used to sow chaos and confusion across the periphery of the Segmentum Tempestus.

Terrain

The board was half ruins and half death world. Most terrain was area terrain with a bit of a killing zone in the centre.

Deployment

Deployment - Chaos Space Marines



The CSM were fairly straightforward in their deployment. On their far right flank was a Forgefiend daemon engine. From their centre to their left flank were Marines in Rhino, Daemon Prince, Cultists behind a Defense Line with a Quad Gun Emplacement and more Marines in a Rhino. In Reserve were a squad of Terminators and a Heldrake.

Deployment - Tyranids

Fairly conventional from the Tyranids as well. A Screamer Killer carnifex out on the flank to soak up the Forgefiend, Tervigon with a small brood of Genestealers in front. A brood of two Biovores behind the building in the centre of the Tyranid deployment zone. Finally the key to the attack, Hormagaunts, Warriors and a Hive Tyrant, all ready to rush up the right flank and roll up the Chaos positions. All the Tyranids had in reserve was a couple of Lictors and a brood of Raveners.

Turn 1 - CSM

Everything on the table (apart from the cultists who believed they were safe inside their defense line) pushed forward. Some desultory bolter fire and Havoc missiles from the Rhinos inflicted minor casualties on the Genestealer and Hormagaunt broods. The Forgefiend's plasma cannon missed the Carnifex and its autocannons bounced harmlessly from it's tough hide and chitinous armour plating.
End of CSM turn 1.

Turn 1 - Tyranids

Go, go, go... everything moved straight towards the nearest Chaos object it could see, except the Biovores who sat building up enough spew to disgorge a spore mine cluster across the table. The Carnifex hugged cover a bit and moved through the terrain (forgetting it was a monstrous creature and could move through cover for the extra dice). Mama Tervigon gave forth of her tyranidous bounty and expelled fourteen (6, 5, 3) newborn termagants from her birth sacs.
The Tyranid shooting phase was almost non-existent. Everything that wasn't spitting spore mines in a ballistic trajectory ran towards the enemy. The spore mines hit inside the defence line, though not exactly where intended but still managed to kill 2 or 3 cultists.
End of Tyranid turn 1.

Turn 2 - CSM

Reserve rolls went 50/50. Terminators - No. Heldrake - Yes. Taking advantage of sneaky flying rules the Heldrake came zooming onto the table, while the Daemon Prince (whose mighty pinions had propelled him  into the air last turn) swooped over the Genestealers and Termagants towards the Tervigon, vector striking a couple of Genestealers as he passed. The Rhino borne marines noticed how close the Tyranid broods were and reversed back to their deployment positions (at no point in either turn had any marines got out of their transports).
In the shooting phase the Heldrake did tremendous work squirting Soul Blaze, Chaos napalm substitute all over the Hormagaunts, instantly frying 6 or 7. The gun emplacement and Rhinos again fired on broods, with casulaties amongst the Genestealers (1) and the Warriors (1 warrior, but 3 wounds). The Forgefiend again scattered his plasma blast and rolled even worse for his autocannons and again the Carnifex stood unscathed.
With no assaults, this ended CSM turn 2.

Turn 2 - Tyranids

Here we go, here we go, here we go...
Tyranid reserves were a bit beardie as I'd bought the Hive Commander upgrade. So two Lictors and a Ravener brood appeared behind the Chaos lines.

You know that feeling you get when you think someone's looking over your shoulder...

Tyranids surged forward to try to get within assault range. The Daemon prince in the midst of my line disconcerted me a bit, so when Mama Tervigon disgorged another fourteen termagants (6, 6, 2 so no more spawning) we concentrated on shooting down the Chaos beastie.
Twenty eight termagants in two broods shot the Prince. The first brood did two (!) wounds but failed to ground him, the second brood did another wound and this time did ground the beast (which was lucky as the spine cluster thing on the Tervigon did nothing). When we checked, the Heavy Venom Cannon the Hive Tyrant was carrying was a blast weapon and so couldn't have shot at a swooping Daemon Prince, but a grounded Daemon Prince was a different matter. There were a lot of Tyranids in the potential blast area but in the end the thing scattered wildly missing everything! Spore mines splattered on the red rhino and caught the edge of the defence line, doing a point of damage and killing one more cultist.
In the assault phase the Hormagaunts poured past the Rhino (realising that there was little damage they could do), the Genestealers piled onto the Black Legion Rhino, The Carnifex barrelled towards the Forgefiend and the Hive Tyrant did the honours against the critically wounded Daemon Prince.
The Hormagaunts made it to the defence line and slaughtered all except one of the cultists for very little damage (if any) in return. The cultist held his nerve though and the Hormagaunts consolidated inside the perimeter.
The remaining four Genestealers rending claws ripped through the rhino, destroying it utterly forcing the marines inside to make an emergency exit.
To add insult to injury the Hammer of Wrath charge from the Hive Tyrant killed the Daemon Prince before an assault could be fought (most people around the table were waiting for a termagant to kill it in hand to hand). First blood to the Tyranids!
The final assault of the turn saw the Carnifex win the fight but fail to destroy the Forgefiend.

Turn 3 - CSM

Things were looking bad for the followers of Khorne, but not to worry, the Terminators would be appearing through the Warp any second. Whoops, another 1, so no Terminators this turn either.
Chaos movement was pretty much limited to Marines getting out of Rhinos and the Heldrake descending on the cluster of Termagants near the middle of the board.
In the shooting phase the marines had some success, wiping out the Genstealers and killing three Warriors with fire from everyone who could see them (Quad gun, Khorne berzerkers, Rhinos...). The Heldrake again spewed out its hellish napalm killing 7 or 8 Termagants from one of the spawned broods.
The assault phase was reduced to only those squads already in melee as the Rhino that the Berzerkers were in wasn't an assault vehicle (whatever one of those is... Tyranids just walk). The remaining Cultist died a lonely and horrific death, while the Forgefiend faired rather badly against the Carnifex. Two penetrating hits ripped of an autocannon arm then blew the thing to smithereens, with the resulting explosion bouncing harmlessly off the Carnifex.

This is what happens when you bring an autocannon to a knife fight





Turn 3 - Tyranids

Time was up for the Chaos interlopers. Movement was all about positioning for the assault. Lictors and Raveners congregated around the Black Legion, while the Hormagaunts and Warriors lined up on the Berzerkers. Having despatched the Daemon Prince back to the Warp, the Hive Tyrant turned back towards the fight hoping to lend some weight to the subsequent shooting.
The Lictors and Raveners fired flesh hooks and borer grubs into the Black Legion marines, but with little effect, killing only two of the defenders. The Warriors let rip with their Deathspitters killing two Berzerkers (one of whom was the Aspiring Champion) and the Hive Tyrants Venom Cannon killed only one more Berzerker, but did damage the Rhino.
In the assault phase, the Black Legion Marines were doomed as both Lictors and the whole brood of Raveners got in with no overwatch injuries. The slaughter was almost complete with only two marines running off toward the Tyranid lines because all other routes of escape were blocked.

Usually its the insidious forces of Chaos doing the surrounding...

The Berzerkers fared slightly better. Hormagaunts did little damage and because of the distance only two Warriors could assault and neither of them could reach Kharn. Kharn and his squad accounted for 4 Hormagaunts, but the Warrior's boneswords did the job killing 3 or 4 Berzerkers in return. The Betrayer and his remaining squad held though, even in the face of massively superior odds.

Turn 4 - CSM

It was all over. If the Terminators did make it in it would be into carnage and certain death and so the Chaos Space Marines called it a day.

Aftermath

A good game, which was loads of fun. My first 6th Edition game as well.
I got distracted by the Prince and so pulled my Hive Tyrant and some Termagants out of the line. In retrospect, the Chaos side was a bit wary of close combat and if he was going to let him Swoop all game, occasionally vector striking a monstrous creature or a couple of broods I should have just let him get on with it. No Skyfire, and a preponderance of blast weapons at long range left me with no real defence against the Heldrake. I might need to check the FAQ/Errata to see if there is anything I can do about that.
The Chaos player made the fatal mistake of leaving the boys in the back of the van in turn 1, reversing like a coward in turn 2 (and still not getting out of the van), then finally getting out of the van when the Tyranids caught up. A turn or two of shooting would have broken up my broods and the Tyranid Warriors took a punishing when fire was finally concentrated on them, but basically it was all over when  the Tyranids were within assault range having lost only 7 Hormagaunts, 4 Genestealers and 2 Tyranid Warriors.
Tyranid Man of the Match - Screamer Killer! Not a single wound! Plasma blasts missed, autocannons pitter-pattered off the tough exterior and close combat was amazing.
Chaos Man of the Match - Heldrake. Little I could do against it and its Balefire flamethrower thingy did most of the damage the Tyranids took in that game.
The interested can check out the photobucket story of the game here (http://s249.beta.photobucket.com/user/romizzi/story/13749).