HOME DBM EPIC 40 000

BUGHUNTING

Segmentum Pacificus; Agriworld Zealandia; Christos Island; 18/11/42001; 2305 Hours; Thought for the Day: Patience is a virtue

This game was 2500 points, tyranids versus orks in a meeting engagement. Mike Stewart commanded the Orks while I controlled the Tyranids. Rules were E40k with FP1 amendments and a few houserules as usual. Also trialled were some rules for Andy Skinners The Titan Project. These were weapon modifications for the gargants and bioplasma shields for the bio-titans. The Gargant and both Great Gargants belly guns were now classified as 'gut-bustas' meaning they could choose to fire a 45cm range 'Deathray' shot, or the normal mega-cannon shot. In addition the Warlords Great Gargant had a Deth-Kannon on its right arm - a 60cm range Death Ray. The Gargant had a gutbusta on its right arm as well as its belly. The two Hierodules had 3 bio-plasma shields each, while the Dominatrix had 2 bio-plasma shields. Bio-plasma shields use the same rules as void shields.

TURN 1

Both sides advance on march orders, most of the tyranids advancing down the central road. One ork take and hold objective is in the central ruins, with two more on either side.

TURN 2

The ork flyboyz swoop in to bomb the clumped tyranid bio-artillery. The tyranid flight swarm intercepts - two of the eight ork fighta-bombaz are destroyed, so are 3 gargoyle broods. The Harridan and another 3 broods of gargoyles are driven off. Bombs rain down on the tyranids, killing 3 tyranid warrior, 3 biovore, and 3 termagant broods. The biovore detachment mills about in confusion for the rest of the turn with its synapse creatures destroyed.

The rest of the tyranids swing the attack to the ork left to avoid the ork big-gunz and battlewagonz, which are now waiting on overwatch. The Warlords Great Gargant kills a trygon with its Deth Kannon, the Tyranid Dactylis bio-artillery destroys 6 ork battlewagonz.

TURN 3

The Bio-titans and Trygon swarm continue advancing toward the ork left. The ork battlewagonz and big gunz start to redeploy, retreating our of range of the Tyranid bio-artillery and moving to support the Gargants.

Some fire is exchanged, a few more trygons are hit, and the Dominatrix is battered but still relatively unscathed. The gargants lose a few power fields.

TURN 4

The bio-titans and trygons charge toward the ork line. The ork Big-Gunz and Battlewagonz move up to support the gargants, but are arriving hurriedly so will not be as effective as they might be. The unopposed Fighta-Bombaz attack again but only kill one genestealer brood this time.

The shooting phase is brutal as expected, the trygons are wiped out, and one of the hierodules is mortally injured. The remaining hierodule charges the gargant while the dominatrix charges the closest great-gargant. The close combat goes badly for the tyranids - though the huge war engines are damaging each other in a clumsy fashion, no killing blows are struck. Feeling that the tyranid bio-titans will not survive another round of shooting, and having inflicted only very light casualties on the orks I decide to concede.

CONCLUSION

Well I knew the tyranids would be in trouble when we randomly generated the terrain. All but one of the six sectors had the minimum amount, forcing the Tyranids to make costly attacks over an open desert.

Mike suggested I would have been better to hold back using the superior range on my bio-artillery to force the orks to close. This would have been a better idea than than attacking as I did, but the first devastating attack of the Fighta-Bombaz made me impatient to get to grips with the main ork force... Also I worried unduely about the orks grabbing the 5 central take and hold objectives. As Mike said, if in doubt destroy the enemy army first - then worry about objectives.

The new rules for Titans change things significantly. Bio-plasma shields mean that bio-titans are safer from long range sniping with Death Ray class weaponry, and are also just generally harder to kill - it requires some concentrated firepower to stop them as they hurtle towards their targets. It's like swatting an angry wasp, you've got to swat it a lot! The new gargant weapons are very powerful, as they mean the gargant always has the right weapons for the occasion. Death-Ray shots were always chosen in preference to mega-cannon shots in this game, as the best targets were always armour 6 bio-titans and trygons.