Hold the line

Captain Draymus had received his orders the Adeptus Mechanicus Biologis had discovered something of interesting in one of the ruins & he & his men where to buy them time to investigate it.

The tyranids had been advancing over the planet consuming all in their path as is their way, but as Draymus looked a round him at the men of the ultramarines 6th company he felt confident that would be able to buy the time needed as each member was a veteran of the Tyranid wars,but as usual the price of success would be high.

Taking up a defensive position just sightly back from the edge of the ruined city so as to set up god fire lines for the nids to advance into, while at the same time it should help slow the tyranids charge.To the Ultramarines these tactics where second nature & Draymus knew he could depend on his man to hold their fire until the optimal moment.

As the marines started to open up with their bolters & heavy weapons the landraider with a squad of assault terminators started to move up on their left flank, while on the right flank the landspeeders squadren leaped forward poring out death from their heavy bolters & assualt cannons.

While in the centre Draymus move forward on his bike supported by a dreadnought & two combat squads in rhino's, to the sound of missile's streaking by overhead from the whirlwind that had taken up a position just behind the marines line.

First into the slaughter where the terminators rushing from the landraider to smash into a massive brood of     

hormagaunts, as the landraider open up on a tervigon that was driving the smaller nids forward to the hart of the battle.
At the same time the marines back line was coming under fire with spore mines falling on them that where been flung high over over the battlefield by a brood of biovore who had ducked out of sight into a ruin.

The marines back line on the right flank was pick by the hive mind as an ideal place to open up a new point of attack, with a mycetic spore crashing down onto the ground floor to deliver  a brood of warriors who open fire upon the tactical squad already housed there.  
All across the breath of the battlefield the Ultramarines where taking lose, the terminators where swamped in a sea of bodies on the left flank, on the right flank the  speeder squadron had come under attack from a tyrannofex who their bullets seem to just bounce harmless off.

                                          
 Wrecking one with a volley from his rupture cannon the hulking brute thunder into the squadron sending one spinning through the air with a swipe from one of its massive limbs & while the marines where making the tyranids pay dearly for every inch or land they gained, more pored over the dead.

 In the centre a tyrant backed up by a brood of hive guard pumped shot after shot into the dreadnought bring him to a halt, seen brother dreadnought Icurus fall filled  Draymus with righteous fury speeding he rammed his bike into the tyrant raining down blow upon blow from his power axe  on the beast.

  On the left flank the landraider finely brought the tervigon to its knees only to find it was the only remaining unit in that part of the battlefield, after over running the terminators the hormagaunt brood burst out of a ruin  to find themselves on the end of a flamer & rapid firing bolters.
With the last of the speeders out of the way the tyrainnofex was now closing in on the right side of the back line to try to create a pincher attack together with the warriors & devilgants that now had control of the left flank.

   
Before the tyrent had even hit the ground realising the danger Draymus  was already spinning his bike around to launch an attack at the tyrannfax before the lose could be closed trapping what was left of his men inside.
This brave act was to save the lives of countless marines when word came trough that the biologis exploritas team had completed its research & that the Ultramarines could know disengage from the enemy.

   
The Ultramarines had indeed paid a high price but had completed their objective to delay the tyranids, which to captain Draymus seemed to be all you could every do with the nids.
With the tyranids consuming all in their path Draymus knew from many other such battles it wouldn't be long before this planet was just another lifeless rock.

TLC v DGG Brawl

On Saturday gong we had what was I hope will prove to be the first of many a campaign day.

Now tbh I've been a member of the DGG for a good few years now & this is the first time we've done an interclub  gaming day, the funny part is the man who first broached on the idea is not even a 40k player so a big well done to Nigel. 

I'll freely admit I do enjoy organising story based games & have run many such apoc games in the DGG, but this was all together something new as it would all so involve the lads from the TLC.
Anyway I put myself forward & the two clubs agreed to put it in my hands, so the first thing to do & probably the hardest was to set a day.

I then set about coming up with an out line story for what I was to call the Doom of Valamur III  http://w-ired.org/blog/forum/  & the two clubs picked a captain each, Mike DGG Johno TLC & they organised their teams.

As always the case with these kind of things players will drop out & other players will step in, so to start we had 9 players a team which lead to the planet having 9 moons fof the 40k games.
The basic idea was for a nid invasion & I'd work the other races in some how, so as the day was getting nearer (with players still hopping in & out) I had a chat with Paul who kindly offered to set up the tables of the nine moons for the games on the Friday night & who was to fall foil of my stress sorry Paul.

Any way happily enough all went well 15 players turned up on the day so to make it an even number I played myself  although it had not been my intention to but was happy to just the same.
I won't be doing a report here as it has already been well done over on the DGG blog  http://dublingamesguild.blogspot.ie/2012/10/the-battle-for-valamur.html    by Mike.

I'll finish up by thanking all the players for playing in the spirit  it was meant to be played in & I look forward to the next interclub game between us, also a very big thanks to Ian for the use of the shop for the day it's called the hobby shack & if your ever in Wicklow town drop in & say hi.

Some more pictures from the day below.

things don't look so bad from up here

THE RESCUE.
The mood was sombre onboard the strike cruiser Heroes of the Fang. The loss of the Company's Jarl, Thorgren Ironfist, weighed heavily on the Wolves' minds, and particularly on the mind of Thorsten, Thorgren's twin brother. The Jarl would be bitterly missed but he had died honourable in combat, falling eventually under a horde of chitinous hormagaunts and would be remembered in a fitting saga. His memory would be celebrated in a night of beer and song in keeping with tradition and then would begin the process of finding his replacement.

Not a being of finesse like his brother with his lightning claw, Thorsten instead took a more simplistic and brutal approach to battle, crushing skulls and hulls alike with his thunderhammer. He vowed to exact vengeance on the Hive Fleet responsible for his brothers death. The hope of battle lightened his mood. Nothing mattered more to a Space Wolf than killing the enemies of the Emperor, though beer came a close second.......

His reverie was interrupted by a member of his brother's Wolf Guard entering the chamber. He had a message that left Thorsten reeling. Thorgren's transponder had been reactivated. His brother was still alive.

Wasting no time, Thorsten redeployed squads Olsan and Jannak to the location to the transponder. They had been present at the Jarl's fall and would be closest. Thorsten also set about organising a bigger reserve force. New reports of more Tyranid activity in the area hastened his actions. He didn't want to lose his brother again.

Thorgren scanned the distance, his eyesight still blurry after regaining consciousness. He didn't question why he was still alive, he just accepted that he was and planned to stay that way...............

Hearing the growl of engines behind him, he turned to see two rhinos stop behind him. A short reunion with squads Jannak and Olsan finished with the current scenario. Survive until rescued.

over the hill

Surveying the distance, Thorgren spotted units of Nids running towards him. It seems like brood of  hormagaunts and a warrior prime were coming from the West. With too small a force to risk direct contact, Thorgren and the two Hunter squads in Rhinos headed East, hoping to keep distance from the advancing horde until his brother's force arrived.

The Nid forces advanced quickly, reinforced with mycetic spores hurtling from the skies, discharging a hulking carniflex in a ruin to Thorgren's right while another discharged devilgants  behind him.

we just dropped in

Fearing getting trapped between two prongs, Thorgren and the Hunters headed to nearby ruins. A blast from a heavy venom cannon wrecked Olsan's rhino and the squad disembarked in it's shadow. Jannak's rhino was stunned and stopped in it's tracks. 

maybe the pod will hide me

Olsan's squad blew the spore up with a melta blast while Thorgren charged the carnifex. His lightning claw would be hard pushed to pierce the creature's hide but he had no choice.

The approaching termagaunts killed two of Olsan's squad before a brood of ravener's charged through the rhino's wreckage to assault the squad. The cover gave the hunter squad the advantage, staving off the full force of the Warriors attacks and their barrage of shooting wounded one of the Tyranids. Their fierce rending claws still bit deeply into the Hunters power armour, felling 5 marines. Three marines fought on......

claws r us

 Deathleaper and trygon entered the ruin from the North while more shots were poured into the remaining rhino, it's hull staying intact, for now.

A brood of ravener's appeared in a ruin, far to the North, having burrowed up in the wrong place.

Thorsten sat in his Thunderhawk, drumming the shaft of this thunderhammer impatiently. Ice-storms were playing havoc with navigation, slowing progress. It was as if a malicious entity was trying to delay their arrival. Flying low on approach, Thorsten viewed the skirmish with a dense of dread. He saw Deathleaper attack a rhino causing the marines to spill out, while the ravener's killed the remnants of another Hunter squad. He sighted his brother in the chaos, wounded but battling a carnifex by himself.

brave or foolish ?

Long Fangs deployed in three areas to the West, East and South but their hurried shots caused no damage. Thorsten headed to the East with a unit of Fenrisian Wolves and two Lone Wolves to relieve his brother but was too late. He saw the carnifex impale his brother through the chest...........

Howling a battle cry, he ran straight for the ruins where Jannak's Hunters were opening fire on the Deathleaper. The creature was well camouflaged however, and the shooting had little effect.

hold fire until you can see the white of their eye's 

On the left flank, ravener's headed towards another Long Fangs squad while warriors erupted from a mycetic spore, their deathspitters & venom cannons pinging off the marines' power armour. In the North, a deep rumbling preceded the roar of a Mawrloc erupting from the earth , narrowly missing the Long Fangs on that flank. While in the South, a brood of termagaunts turned towards another unit of Long Fangs, their flurry of devourer worm-like parasites  felling three marines. 

quick get that banner up

Jannak's squad were now surrounded and grimly raised their Wolf Standard as Deathleaper, trygon and ravener's piled in from all sides for the attack. The Hunters were slaughtered...........The Wolf Standard falling at the last.

In the West, the Long Fangs felt the wrath of the ravener' as their talons dug deep in the bodies of the marines, before rushing onwards.

he's behind you

The Long fangs to the North fired at the Mawrloc with krak missiles and a lascannon, wounding the beast.

Thorsten howled again as he crashed through the undergrowth with his Fenrisian Wolves to engage Deathleaper. The Lone Wolves spread out to attack the carniflex and trygon

a fight till the death

The last of the reserve force entered the fray, a razorback pummelling the termagaunt squad while the Long Fangs tore into the same squad with Frag missiles.

The last grey Hunter squad arrived in the North, hoping to catch the Warriors from behind.

The battle raged on, the Deathleaper and Carnifex fell while the other Lone Wolf fought bravely against the trygon.

i always thought lone wolf's where looking to die

Thorsten wheeled round to face the racing hormagaunt squad, accompanied by a hulking warrior prime. He sought out the brute in combat and killed him while the hormagaunts barrelled into the Fenrisian Wolves, slashing with their talons. The Wolves died soundlessly.

why does this remind me of something

Thorsten wheeled around to face the hormagaunts who were about to strike when suddenly all of the Tyranids started to withdraw from the battle such is the way of the Hive mind, leaving the last of the brave wolf's to regroup.

even I get lucky now & then

My thanks to Ger for writing up this story.

How to capillary tower

I'm going to do a walk through of how to make a capillary tower forge world use to make models of these but sadly no longer do, the rules for them can be found in IA4.

You'll need the fallowing insulation from, paper, (apage from a copy wi'll do) some light cardboard a couple of nids parts, pva glue, painters mate & something to base it on.
Start by cutting a piece of form 100mmx50mmx50mm then shape it into a cone like shape.

Next paint the cone with pva glue & then rap the sheet of paper of paper around it & leave it to dry.

Then cut a piece or cardboard 90mmx40mm then make a line length ways down the centre then put a mark
5mm each side of the line at the top & 10mm each side of the line at the bottom.
next measure up 15mm 17mm  draw two lines across the piece of card, then measure up 13mm & 15mm from the 17mm line & draw to more lines across the card.
Keep doing this reducing by 2mm each time until you get to nine then reduce by 1mm.

 Starting from the top number the pieces & then cut across lower line of each piece.
When the paper is dry on the form cone you'll need to cut a couple of mm off the top & cut the bottom at a slight angle leaving it longer on what will be the backside.

 Now draw straight line down the centre of the backside, measure up about 70mm & glue the first piece of card on using the 70mm mark as the top point & keeping the centre line on the card in line with the line down the backof the cone.

Now give it a light covering of pva gule & stick it to it's base & leave it to dry, when dry cut the two hooked parts off the nid piece below & cut a few horn pieces of spape arms & glue them to the lower plates on the back of the tower & glue a few of the horn pieces to the front.

 Paint & base it your colours & there you have it a capillary tower, now you can infest a few worlds.