Fresh Tyranid Horror
Overlord Minladian led the 792nd Heavy Assault Regiment against elements of Hive fleet Tobias detected infiltrating the Saglaxican System. He held the western of four objectives on the Plains of Barash on Ephezus IV with a squad of warriors. He was supported by two more squads aboard the Ghost Arks NNV Full Effect which also had a cryptek aboard, and the NNV Unrivalled.
The Tyranid horde had two huge mother creatures that were screened by termagants and they continued to spawn more throughout the battle though one stopped half way through. Two venomthropes with mysterious psychic powers added to the efficacy of the deadly swarm. On the right the enemy warlord nestled amongst dozens of chittering bodyguards. There was also a flying Hive tyrant in the centre and a lumbering piece of mobile heavy artillery..
We engaged at long range but little damage was done and the enemy surged forward across a wide front. The hive tyrant came forward through the centre as the enemy swarmed towards the four objectives. Minladian called up his reserves, the Doom Scythes NNV Blood Fury and NNV Slaughter Master and the Night Scythes NNV Faithful and NNV Revelation.
The Faithful dropped her deathmarks on the right and they fired on the advancing enemy HQ wounding the enemy warlord badly and cutting down a huge swathe of its escort. The other three fliers in the centre shot down the enemy hive tyrant though the Unrivalled actually fired the fatal shot, but the enemy had already seized the two central objectives.
The counter attack on the right wiped out the deathmarks under a torrent of fire from dozens of termagants. Their cryptek leader did regenerate, only to be overwhelmed in assault. Our warriors on the left were taking losses but the repair barge Full Effect managed to restore all losses.
Still going for the enemy warlord the Revelation dropped her deathmarks on the right but the enemy warlord simply by passed them and left more termagant swarms to overrun them which they eventually did.
Our fliers were taking damage especially because of the early appearance of an enemy flier which inflicted damage in its vector strikes, but also from enemy units including their artillery beast benefiting from the skyfire facility in the central objective on the right.
We inflicted wounds on several of the large creatures but these had a nasty habit of regenerating. The Full Effect grounded in difficult terrain and would remain perched there for the rest of the action until a mother creature assaulted and wrecked it.
Termagants swarming through the centre took heavy losses from our gauss flayers and the left hand venomthrope was finally slain by tesla destructor fire. Both our doom scythes lost their death rays and the Blood Fury was then shot down. The Slaughter Master and Revelation both exited the field briefly but wheeled back on making fresh attack runs.
The Unrivalled exploded under heavy weaponry fire killing half her passengers, who would survive the battle taking curiously little further part. Meanwhile both our left hand squads got involved in hand to hand fighting with termagants. Both squads were eventually victorious, the overlord’s unit being particularly successful aided by his mind scarabs, but the survivors of the Full Effect were cut down by the many replenished termagant swarms despite attempted air support.
The badly damaged Slaughter Master still trying to bring down the dragon like enemy flyer was now itself destroyed, exploding on the left like the Unrivalled before it.
The enemy had seized the objectives on both flanks and when the action broke off, clearly held three and possibly all four objectives. We had achieved first blood, but this was our only score, and with heavy support counting as victory points and the Tyranids holding linebreaker the score was at least 12 – 1, possibly 15 -1.
Rallied forces amounted to 534, including the Overlord himself and 13 of 28 warriors, a casualty rate of nearly 70% of the original 1759 strong regiment. We had lost seven complete units of the twelve deployed including both crypteks.
The enemy had lost five or six units in all with a fair number of casualties amongst their troops, but had probably made up most of their many troop losses by ongoing birthings. At the end, the battlefield was therefore still teeming with the monstrosities.
25.1.14
Home 
