Battle Report - 9K APOCALYPSE

Our recent APOCALYPSE game ended up running pretty smoothly. We got the full six turns in at a casual pace with plenty of time for dinner and such within about six hours. We could have gotten done faster most likely but in all I think it was a good bit of fun. Unless you were on the green team... then you got SPANKED! The apocalypse tips in my previous post were spot on when he said orks die en masse when the heavy hitters start swinging. The real surprise was how resilient tyranids can be. Jon ended up fielding somewhere along the lines of seven monstrous creatures and they completely held off three Ork armies for the majority of the game.

The teams consisted of Carl the Killer, Deffrolla Dan , and Warboss Jorkfist for the Orks.My Immortal Knights space marines, Scott's Ultramarines, and Jon's Tyranids made up our team. Since marines normally wouldn't side with Tyranids we used the the rule that we had to stay 12 inches apart. Story wise space marines were defending their territory from a massive Ork versus Tyranid battle that had been making its way across the continent.

We ended up having the twelve inch no mans land running from corner to corner and the space marine/ tyranid team bid two minutes for deployment. After hastily setting up our models we went upstairs while the Ork team set up. We came back expecting hordes of green skins to be massed all along the battle line but instead they were all as far away as possible!

Since we bid lowest we got the first turn and while it didn't look like we did much we dealt a huge blow to the orks in the form of dealing five wounds to the gargantuan squigoth with..... HEAVY BOLTERS! Since nothing was in range I figured I would just toss shots at it and hope for a lucky wound but when I scored three wounds and then realized the big squiggy only had a 4+ armor save my confidence level grew like a gaunt in a Tervigon sac. A few heavy weapons later the big guy was down to 3 of its original 8 wounds and things seemed to be looking up for the emperors finest.

On the Ork players turn they barreled into the Tyranid battle line but to no avail. The mass of monstrous creatures held, and while a few Ork transports passed by, the xenos clashed in what would be a game spanning conflict. The Squigoth got a small measure of payback when one shot of its Supa Lobba took out half a squad of terminators in the backfield before charging Jon's Swarmlord. No one thought the bug would survive the wrath of a gargantuan creature but that 4+ invulnerable save in close combat proved itself time and time again.




The tyranids counter attack was devastating on the next turn, as the Mawlok erupted form beneath a large mass of boys. Raveners managed to immobilize the squad of killa kans with some lucky rending hits and the tervigon continued to spawn large squads of gaunts. On the space marine side of the battlefield, things continued to be rather quiet. With so few things in range the marines were wondering if they would ever get anything else to attack but once the next round of Ork reserves came in there was suddenly plenty to shoot at. A trukk full of nobs and a squadron of deff koptas came barreling through the city aiming to crush the space marines offensive before it could truly begin. The terminator squad quickly moved to intervene but the nobs made quick work of them and then moved to slaughter the tactical squads inside the buildings.

On the next turn the crash of the mighty Squigoth could be felt across the whole battlefield. After fending off its mighty tusks time and time again the Swarm Lord called on the aid of a Trygon Prime to assist it in delivering the killing blow. After seeing their mighty war beast fall the leaders of the Ork forces were demoralized but not yet beaten. They claimed that they would yet have their revenge... 

Meanwhile in the midfield  warboss Jork fist's nefarious blue trukk came barreling down towards the Immortal Knights line of transports.  After pouring a hail of fire into the trukk, it finally exploded with a wondrous KA BOOM!!!, and went flying straight into the front the the Hellhammer super heavy tank. When a full squad of Nobz climbed form the wreckage the imperial team was quickly concerned that their flagship tank was about to go down to a slew of powerklaws. Fearing for their super heavy they did what any self respecting imperial would do. They fired the hellhammer cannon point blank and hoped for the best. As 40k players we all know, "Hope is the first step on the road to dissapointment." The blast scattered back onto the tank and while still covering the boyz also scored a penetrating hit. Luckily, the dice gods then showed the Imperium some  of their fickle favor and a 'gun crew shaken' result was rolled. After the rest of the super heavie's firepower was unleashed on the Nobs a lone green skin remained. Jorkfist vowed that the lone Nob would wreak a terrible toll on the Hellhammer, and how his green skinned brothers would be avenged by his mighty power klaw. Instead the lone nob failed his morale check and ran away...


With no more immediate threats coming form the front, the space marine forces began to move toward the ork hordes and prepare to make claim to the battlefield objectives. The Ultramarines seemed to have the troubles in the city contained and the tyranids continued to hold the majority of the green tide at bay. Then out of nowhere Boss snikrot and a group of kommandos appeared off the flank and immediately proceeded to assault Captain Sicarius and his tactical squad.

A group of space marine scouts accompanied by a tactical squad of battle forged heroes with the ability to outflank showed up behind ork lines and proceeded to take out their grot manned artillery stations. After completing their primary task the space marines were quickly assaulted by a battle wagon with it's deadly deff rolla and a deff dread assaulted the veterans of the second company. When the opportunity presented itself the scouts quickly made for the safely of the nearby manufactorium only to be later picked off by lootas that had been hiding within the bastion and waiting for a target. As the space marines fell they swore to teh green skins that their brothers would avenge their deaths, and that their blood would be repaid upon the ork horde ten fold!



As Captain Sicarius continued in his desperate battle against Snikrot and his commandos, and the Tyranids continued to hinder the Orks advance, the Immortal knights moved to capture the objectives at hand. Their plans were thrown off when their land raider crusader threw a tread on the lip of a crater and became immobile. The few marines that remained in the battered combat squad quickly disembarked and made their way to the smoking wreckage of the grot bomb objective, while their brother squad moved to secure the bridge. The Hellhammer decimated Jorkfist's remaining battle wagon with concentrated fire form its secondary weapons before laying waste to its contents with its primary weapon. As the last greenskin in the group died so did the battle for the mid field and the Imperial players sat happily upon their objectives.

Back in the city, the remaining Nobs and their Pain boy moved to dislodge the combat squads form their high vantage point within the tops of the ruins. The raging green skins wreaked a terrible toll upon the marines but a lone survivor managed to break away and take cover near the rear most objective. With the remaining green skins still in the cover of the building, all available marines turned and fired upon them leaving only the fleeing Painboy. Shot after shot was fired but the crazed ork medic would not go down. Finally after weathering 27 shots the over stimulated doc finally fell.

Back where the first melee began, the ork/ tyranid conflict was coming to a close. With the end coming soon it was a mad rush to claim objectives. Burna Boyz smoked  the termagants holding the ruins of the imperial shrine but were unable to dislodge them in the following melee. A single gaunt driven into a frenzy by the synaptic impulses of the hive mind slaughtered orks with abandon. Finally it met it match in the single remaining Burna Boy. The winner of their epic battle will never be known to man as they were last seen fighting atop the ruined battlements as the survivors left the battle.

With the battle coming to a close, the forces of man attempted to purge the green skins and with a mighty blast of the Hellhammer cannon all of the orks were slain on the top of the bastion save one. As Jorkfist sneered in contempt a single las cannon pivoted on the tanks side sponsoon and promptly separated the remaining loota's head from its shoulders. Meanwhile Land speeders advanced to contest the power generator inside the ruined manufactorium but the Swarm Lord instead made short work the the warboss cowering inside the wreckage. As the game drew to a close Captain Sicarius finally gained the upper hand against the malicious Snikrot and as the combat fell into his favor so the battle ended.

The battle was hard fought on both sides but at the end of the day the immortal Knights claimed three of the six objectives while the orks only contested the ruins with the lone burna boy locked in combat with the remaining gaunt. ++PRAISE THE IMMORTAL EMPEROR++

We started the battle around 3PM and finished around 10PM. After all those hours of playing with only a quick pizza run we were all exhauseted and looking foreward to passing out after a hard day of dice chucking. All of us except for Deff rolla Dan of course... He just had his lucky pain boy juice him up all good and propa and he was good as new!

With the success of this game I can finally see more Apocalypse games in our future. I have a lovely 10'x13' piece of bound carpet on my family room floor that I can clearly envision a horde of super heavies and titans clashing on during a weekend bash!