40K SN Battle Report: Tyranids vs Khorne Daemonkin
SN Battle Reports is back with another AWESOME old-school photo battle report with Tyranids vs Daemonkin. Come see!
Mission – Purge the Alien
Deployment – Dawn of War
Points – 1750pts
The Bloodthirster Hak’Vasha sat upon his dark throne and casually toyed with his newest baubles. Three captive Trygons, which in the material realm had caused him difficulties. Here, in his rooms within the Brass Citadel, they were reduced to mere playthings. Insignificant but for the memories and emotions they stirred in him. However Hak’Vasha was tiring of them and his exile back to the warp. He was tired of their lack of response and emotion. They appeared to have some form of base animal instinct but such that it did little to quench his needs. They clearly had no souls and as so were of no value to the Lord of Blood, but they were still of some interest to Hak’Vasha. Just.
He clenched his fist around them and they squirmed; their talons causing nothing more than mere scratches to his palm. He was not used to this form of reaction. Creatures from the mortal realm dragged into the warp would usually self-destruct through abject terror but these things just continued to exist as if on some form of pre-programmed reaction cycle. Hak’Vasha was unsure of how long his exile had gone on for. It seemed like an eternity since he, together with the three other Lords of the Quadrifold Abominatum, had broken through the so-called Maelstrom Cradle and faced the Great Devourer’s forces on the disaster that had been Shadowbrink.
There had been little glory in that engagement. No blood was spilled for Khorne, just putrid alien ichor. There was no emotion to feed upon, or souls to be harvested. The Great Devourer had already fed upon the human population using their biomass for its own ends. So much so that not even the Abominatum and their millions of daemonic servants could withstand its power. Hak’Vasha had been the last to be defeated, and defeated he had been. The Trygons were his only trophies from that expedition. He still didn’t understand them and doubted he ever would. In his more lucid moments he was torn between having no interest in facing these creatures again, as they produced no blood or souls for Khorne, and a wish to crush them so
as to appease his rage and ensure they did not deny the Blood God the souls of others.
His attention waned and he paused, opening his myriad senses to the pleas and supplications from Khorne’s chosen dwelling, the mortal realms. Sometimes this helped pass the time away from battle. He ignored the most banal of the pleas, pleas more suited for the attentions of the lesser denizens of his realm and the thousands of unnamed warp entities, but one prayer caught his attention. A small warband, inexplicably in the company of Kharn, was about to face the Great Devourer’s forces on an isolated world. Isolated, but still, perhaps, containing enough living humans to support a small daemonic incursion and if not the sacrifice of the warband itself would produce blood, souls and skulls. Maybe even enough to pay the tithe for his own
appearance: Khorne willing.
Hak’Vasha clenched his fists. There was a satisfying crunch as all three Trygons’ exoskeletons disintegrated. With the smallest of gestures he indicated to his vile minions that they should prepare themselves to manifest in the mortal realm…
Hive Tyrant: twin-linked devourer with brainleech worms; twin-linked devourer with brainleech worms; wings
The Swarmlord
• 2 Tyrant Guard Brood
12 Hormagaunts
10 Termagants: 10× devourer
12 Hormagaunts
3 Tyranid Warriors: 2× deathspitter; venom cannon
5 Genestealers
3 Venomthropes
3 Zoanthropes: Neurothrope
1 Lictor
Mawloc
Carnifex Brood
• Carnifex: twin-linked devourer with brainleech worms; twin-linked devourer with brainleech worms
• Carnifex: twin-linked devourer with brainleech worms; twin-linked devourer with brainleech worms
Unbound
– Herald of Khorne
– Heldrake: baleflamer
– Chaos Land Raider
– Soul Grinder: baleful torrent; warpsword
(Slaughter Cult formation)
– Chaos Lord: The Blade of Endless Bloodshed; plasma pistol
– 9 Possessed: + 1 Possessed Champion
– 8 Bloodletters
– 9 Chaos Marines: 8× close combat weapon; flamer; meltagun; + 1 Aspiring Champion (plasma pistol; power fist)
• Chaos Rhino
– 9 Chaos Cultists: autogun; heavy stubber; + 1 Cultist Champion
– 9 Chaos Cultists: flamer; + 1 Cultist Champion
CHAOS SPACE MARINES
Unbound
– Khârn the Betrayer
So there we were, sitting on the couch, having a beer on Halloween, talking about what the bloodiest battle would be and then all of a sudden one thing led to another and BOOM we had a game! A perfect game for Halloween! What better armies than Tyranids vs Khorne Daemonkin, close combat bloody armies…….yes please! And guess what Nick has brought Kharn the Betrayer along! Everyone’s favourite trick or treating maniac! We quickly set up this great table. Rolled for Night Fighting and it was straight to the roll off between Dave and Nick to start. Dave wins the roll with ease but… with a cunning (evil?) grin on his face he elects for Nick to go first…
Nick unsure why Dave has let him go first starts to deploy his newly painted Demonkin units. He starts with the rhino on one side transporting the Chaos Space Marines and opting to to deploy one of the two Cultist squads just beside it.
On the far side Nick deploys his so-called “Boom Squad”! Why the name? Because it’s surely going to be scary when a possessed squad with Kharn the betrayer himself and another Khorne lord come storming out of that tank… yep I’d be scared if I saw that.
With Nick finished Dave starts to deploy his great Nid army onto the board. Great job on the scheme Dave!
What a sight! Dave’s beautiful army deploys right from one side of the table to the other in all their gribbly greatness….and look a Swarm Lord!
After both armies have been deployed it’s time for infiltrators. The first of the infiltarors the Licor Infiltrates behind the Ruin (love this model). Dave then deploys his Genestealers on the far left ruin away from line of sight.
Here you have both armies deployed and ready to fight! Time to advance towards each other in what no doubt be the bloodiest report SN has seen! Happy Halloween! Let’s see who can see our next army in progress… there is a clue in this photo. (honest)
Turn 1 (Daemonkin) With no steal the initiative roll made by Dave, Nick quickly gets to work and starts moving his forces forward. He moves his troops and leaves his big guns further behind to give the army some backup fire.
Turn 1 (Daemonkin) Fire!! The first bug dies as Nick fires his Soul Grinder’s torrent weapon towards the Hormagaunt brood killing one. BBQ bug anyone? Tastes like shrimp… possibly…
Turn 1 (Daemonkin) The Landraider fires its Lascannons at the Swarm Lord but some great cover saves from Dave see neither of the vehicles deadly shots wound the massive beast.
Turn 1 (Daemonkin) The cultists fire at the Zornthropes and are relatively successful as they remove one wound from one of them. The cultists cheer (and gibber) for Khan as the sight of the ichor works them into some sort of “frenzy”.
Turn 1 (Tyranids) With a relatively decent start by Nick it’s now time for Dave to kick back. He immediately moves his Genestealers forward closer to the Bloodletters and Cultists. Good to see some Genestealers on the table. Iconic but unfortunately underused.
Turn 1 (Tyranids) The Lictor climbs up to the first floor of the ruin and fires its Flesh hooks at the Cultists below slaying one.
Turn 1 (Tyranids) Great pic of how the Tyranids have moved up towards Nick’s Khorne army. Both armies about to clash… this is going to be a blood bath! Well an “alien ichor, demonic residue and some blood” bath. After moving Dave starts the powerful psychic phase…..
Turn 1 (Tyranids) He chooses Warp Blast with his Zoanthropes and passes the test with ease targetting the Soul Grinder in front and hitting it with 3 S10 ap2 lance shots!
Turn 1 (Tyranids) One great shot manages to penetrate the soul grinder’s tough armour as it looses a hull point and is shaken. Nick fails its Invulnerable save. Nick then rolls and denies the shaken on the roll of a 2+ following the Demonic Resilience rule.
Turn 1 (Tyranids) Dave continues his shooting phase with some great shots wounding with a total of 15 times with the devourer with brainleech worms from the two Carnifexes.
Turn 1 (Tyranids) The shots prove to strong and totally destroy a whole cultist squad after Nick fails his cover saves even after going to ground. The barrels gave him cover on the first 3 cultists so he started with a 4+ cover save followed by only a 6+ cover save after those three were removed.
Turn 1 (Tyranids) The hive fleet warlord charges into the Landraider hoping to Smash the front of the tank with a great Armourbane attack. Will the Swarm Lord be strong enough to crack open the Land Raiders high armour? The Smash attack hits but then, sadly, fails to glance or penetrate… Dave was not happy… Nick was very pleased! That would have been a lot of points to have lost turn 1.
Turn 2 (Daemonkin) Turn 2! The two armies are just inches away from each other. This turn is definitely going to be one to behold, I can feel it in my bones! Nick starts by rolling for reserves and his turkey… sorry pigeon… sorry chicken… sorry Helldrake comes in to become an instant threat to the Nids. There may or may not have been airplane noises and swooping of the model around the battlefield before it was placed…
Turn 2 (Daemonkin) The Helldrake flies in with his impressive wing span and targets from the sky his first unit…
Turn 2 (Daemonkin) The Khorne Space Marines disembark also giving an instant headache to Dave on the other side of the battlefield. (Or as the a formal imperial report would say “the combatants alighted from the motor vehicle and proceeded in a northerly direction towards the antisocial delinquents.”) Loving the bone colored helmets btw. “Destroy, for the sake of Destruction Kill, for the sake of Killing!”
Turn 2 (Daemonkin) Kharn and his boys also disembark! What a sight! Two of the best close combat warriors in the grimdark future are about to clash against each other! Bets please! I can’t look! But I also can’t look away!
Turn 2 (Daemonkin) What hurts Tyranid hordes the most? Flamers! Well here they come! The Helldrake’s torrent baleflamer manages to hit, wound and kill a total of 8 hormagaunts. Ouch!
Turn 2 (Daemonkin) Well it looks like Dave’s movement of the Genestealers wasn’t a great idea after all as they now get surrounded by the bloodletters and the Cultists who prepare blade and bullet to bring these foul bugs down.
Turn 2 (Daemonkin) The flamer template is pulled out again this time from the newly disembarked CSMs. He opens fire and manages to also slay another 4 Termagants.
Turn 2 (Daemonkin) The rest of the squad nearly finishes the job as wound after wound bring down the Nids. The Champion wants to join in and prove his worth to Khorne by levelling his plasma pistol and targetting the approaching Termagants whilst pumping his power fist into the air and screaming praise! But wait… those screams aren’t of praise they are of pain! Surely plasma pistols aren’t supposed to do that! Yes you guessed it the Plasma Pistol gets hot and explodes slaying the Champion! Nick wasn’t a happy bunny as his plasma pistol/ Power fist champion gets killed. Blood is blood…
Turn 2 (Daemonkin) Moving on… finally the third template is fired, the Soulgrinder fires at the Hormagaunts slaying another 5. BURN!!! BURN!!!
Turn 2 (Daemonkin) The calm before the storm…….
Turn 2 (Daemonkin) Kharn and his possessed squad (guess he left his berserkers behind at home this time, or killed them before the battle) charge the Swarm Lord! Epic! Kill! Maim! Burn! Kill! Maim! Burn! Kill! Maim! Burn! Kill! Maim!
Turn 2 (Daemonkin) The Khorne Lord detaches himself from Kharn’s squad on his way out of the landraider and charges into the Hormagaunt brood. Jelly of Kharn maybe, or just wants some blood substitute for himself? BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!
Turn 2 (Daemonkin) The Lord easily destroys the squad with his Blade of Endless Bloodshed and quickly looks to use his blade again as he targets the Venomthropes consolidating forward.
Turn 2 (Daemonkin) 3…2…1 here we go!!! Hold on to your seats boys and girls this is going to be way too cool! One of the most epic fights seen in SN if I may say so! (Enough hype? You get the picture.) Kharn moves up towards the Swarm lord and waves his axe in the air as he prepares himself for combat. The Swarmlord towering over him strikes first with a greater initiative (and remember all his attacks are ap2 and instant death…yes you heard it right all his attacks are instant death) The swarm lord slashes his bone sabres time and time again proving too fast and strong for Kharn and wounds him a total of 4 times! Poor Nick now needs 4 5+ invul saves or Kharn will be slain in battle before he even hits back… This was not in the script!
Turn 2 (Daemonkin) BUT!!! Nick manages to save all 4 rolls! 5,5,5,6 screams of joy and despair (depending on your side)everywhere! We even scared the trick or treat kids at the door! wink emoticon Kharn leaps on the Swarm Lord’s back and strikes his head with two powerful hits removing two wounds off him. The rest of his clan in a rage of fury follow him and jump over the towering creature first easily slaying his tyrant guard then finishing the beast off as Dave fails 4 more wounds!!!! THE SWARM LORD IS SLAIN!!!! ‘Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!’ …and what a skull that is going to be! Brutal!
Turn 2 (Tyranids) Dave now is out of synapse with his Termagants: but a great leadership roll sees them pass their test on a 6.
Turn 2 (Tyranids) Dave still shaken by the death of his swarm lord starts his movement phase he flies his Hive Tyrant forward towards the Possessed squad and Helldrake. Hmm who will he target?
Turn 2 (Tyranids) The perfect counterattack! A great Warp Blast lance shot from the Zoanthrope sees the tough armour and skin of the Soulgrinder prove pointless as the lance goes straight through blowing up the beast leaving only a crater of metal and debris. Boom!!!
Turn 2 (Tyranids) Dave prepares his 24 dice as the Carnifexes open fire at Kharn and his unit. For those of you who haven’t played Tyranids before these badass Carnifexes can be upgraded to carry two twin linked Devourers these add up to 12 shots each at strength 6! With the help of the twinlinkage all but 2 shots hit followed by an impressive 17 wounds. …but the dice gods smile on Nick as only 4 possessed are sent back to the warp! Are they sent back to the warp or are they killed? Confused… Probably both…
Turn 2 (Tyranids) The Lictor inside the building looks down on the Chaos Space Marines and again fires its flesh hooks but fails to wound any of the marines.
Turn 2 (Tyranids) The wounded winged Hive Tyrant (Btw hate these things, they are just too good) fires at the Helldrake(Btw hate these things, they are just too good) Nick decides not to Jink as Dave open fires with his 12 twin linked shots hitting with 10. All he needs now is some 6s to glance the mechanical dragon his prayers are answered as he gets a total of 2 6s… But wait Nicks lucky streak carries on as he saves both glancing hits with his 5+ invul save. Cheeky!
Turn 3 (Daemonkin) Yes i finally see this happen and not read about it. Nick reaches his target and has enough Blood tithe points to spawn a Blood Thirster!!! Epic!!! Looks like the dude from the fluff will have his day! Nick rolls and passes the cultists champion’s leadership and just like that the Blood Thirster appears as the Cultist Champion explodes in a pool of blood….or something like that…… Nick also gives his whole Slaughercult FnP.
Turn 3 (Daemonkin) Nick moves his Helldrake forward vector striking the Hive Tyrant in the process and removing a further wound from him leaving the beast with only one wound remaining as it screams for support. He also moves his Landraider forward as pictured in the photo.
Turn 3 (Daemonkin) Guess who also moves forward picking his next fight. This guy just wants more and more!
See the full Battle Report Here for the exciting conclusion and remember to subscribe!
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