Time for a Sci-Fi game - Tyranids vs. Space Marines

It's been a while since I've had some sci-fi miniatures on the tabletop. I think the last time was when my daughter visited and we played a Necromunda-style game using the One-Hour Skirmish Wargames rules.

Anyway, the purpose of this game was to test an activation approach using cards to order activations for a larger skirmish game where figures are grouped together into units. I chose scenario 8 (Melee) from the One-Hour Wargames book. This is a scenario that I enjoy, in which a small detachment tries to defend a hill against a couple of waves of attackers while waiting for their reserves to arrive.

The game is played the game on a 4x4 foot table, the two key features positioned in the centre of the tabletop are the hilltop and the nearby petrified woods. 

The tabletop setup with hill and petrified woods.

If you are wondering what the woods are made from, they are made from dried seaweed I found washed up on the shore after a storm. 

A unit of Space Marines and Dreadnought are assigned the task of defending the hill.

Order of Battle

The Space Marine force consists of:

• 1 x space marine squad (10 figures)
• 1 x Dreadnought
• 1 x Assault squad (10 figures)
• 1 x Landspeeder
• 1 x Rhino
• 1 x Command squad (3 models)

Space marine reserves arriving on turn 3 and 6.

Tyranid force arriving in two waves on turn 1 and 3.

The attacking Tyranid Behemoth force consists of:

• 1 x Gaunt Brood (20 figures)
• 1 x Hormagaunt Brood (20 figures)
• 1 x Gargoyle Brood (20 figures)
• 1 x Warrior Brood (5 figures)
• 1 x Carnefex
• 1 x Hive Tyrant with 2 Guards

For the game I was using some home-brew rules based upon OHW rules which allows for different sized units. Units with little armour can be larger using their number rather than armour to survive.

The Game

I managed to take a good number of photographs of the game as it progresses.

The first wave of Tyranids arrive headed by a Carnefex and led by a Warrior brood seen in the rear.  

The first set of Space Marine reserves arrives just in time as the Tyranids start their assault of the hill.

The second wave of Tyranids has arrived. Since units cannot pass through other units unless they are fliers, this is causing a lot of congestion as the larger front units are getting activated after the rear ones. The Assault Marines can be seen charging into the Carnifex, their chain swords whirring.

The Tyranids seem to have sorted out their traffic jam with the bulk of their forces moving towards the hilltop. 

The Carnifex was brought down and eliminated by the Assault Squad's chainsaws, but not before it had slain half the squad. The Hive Tyrant looms large in the foreground, preparing to enter the fray.

Hormagaunts swarmed over the Dreadnought, their scything talons scraping its armor, searching for any weakness. In the background, the Command Squad can be seen preparing to charge into the woods and engage the Gaunt brood in close combat.

The Hive Tyrant and the Rhino clash. The Rhino fired its twin-linked lascannon, but the Hive Tyrant's chitinous carapace shrugged off some of the shots. The Hive Tyrant retaliated with its Venom cannon spitting acid and venom across the Rhino’s armour. Meanwhile, in the center of the battlefield, the Space Marines were locked in close combat with the Tyranid warriors. The Space Marines were outnumbered, but they are fighting with determination and are slowly gaining the upper hand, hacking and slashing their way through the Tyranids.

It seems like the Tyranid force has gained the advantage in this battle. The Rhino eventually met its demise, dissolved into a seething pool of acid, but not without inflicting significant damage to the Hive Tyrant, leaving it considerably weakened.

The surviving Tyranid forces are readying themselves for an assault on the defenders stationed atop the hill, while the Space Marine Command squad remains occupied, clearing up the remaining Hormagaunts.

In the climax of the battle, the Space Marine Command squad makes a decisive charge against the remaining Tyranid forces, successfully eliminating the Hive Tyrant to win the game.

The Activation Approach

The activation approach draws a card from a shuffled deck and assigns a single card to each unit. Units are then activated based on the cards they hold, following the hierarchy from kings to aces, with the suit hierarchy being Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs. As a solo gamer, I've find this approach to be effective, introducing an element of unpredictability and infusing the game with a controlled chaos that seems to suit a large-scale skirmish game. 

The card deck gets shuffled with the used cards when the cards run low.

The start of a turn with all cards assigned to each unit on the tabletop and any units expected to arrive from reserves.

Time to get another game in this weekend and test out the rules.

A close up of the action to finish up on.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

This past week I have been flitting between periods on the tabletop and painting table. On the tabletop, earlier in the week, I had my older Warhammer 40K Ultra Marine and Tyranid armies out using some simple rules with an activation approach. 

Messing around with W40K armies.

These sci-fi game was later replaced with a WW2 game using Tank on Tank board game rules using free movement instead of hexes.

WW2 Game

On the painting table are orcs riders and samurai. I was short one orc rider and found enough spare bits to create another rider with the addition of some green stuff to create the missing boar leg and some ears.

Enough pieces were found and with a little green stuff the missing front foot and ears were made.

The finished model with 3 previously painted orc riders

I purchased a few more MiniFig S Range Samurai from Caliver Books which arrived this week. The S Range are an old range and the horse models are unavailable due to missing moulds. As an alternative I have used the horse from a set of 1/72 plastic samurai cavalry. It is possibly a fraction smaller but is not noticeable. My aim is to add a few additional units to my current armies.

Recently completed samurai cavalry. Very simple block painting and gloss finish.

1/72 plastic horses are used

A combination of samurai cavalry, arquebuses, and spearmen to be added to the samurai armies.

Arquebuses and cavalry unit

ECW gaming and 3 influential armies

I am playing a few more English Civil War games testing out the use of activation cards to determine the sequence of play (see previous post). I want to say a thankyou to all those that commented and provided additional ideas and thoughts. I am still processing them and I am sure they will improve the end result.

A test game about to begin on a 4x4 foot table and 8 units per side plus artillery piece.

A last month I posted about three wargaming books which were influential on my wargaming (here) which was an idea from Nundanket's blog. This got me thinking about what are the three most influential armies in my collection and why? Well, here they are in no set order:

English Civil War (Mostly Hinchliffe)

English Civil War - Hinchliffe

The first that came to mind were my ECW armies, possibly because they were my first metal figures. I collected a few Hinchliffe miniatures at a time with pocket money and savings over the years, slowly building up Royalist and Parliamentary armies from the ages of 12 to15 years old.

I made two failed attempts at painting these armies. Eventually they were boxed up for decades travelling with me from the UK to Australia, then New Zealand, and back again to Australia. I finally cleaned them up and painted them in my late 50's. Getting these armies on the tabletop for a game always gives me a great deal of pleasure.

Warhammer 40K Tyranid Army (Games Workshop)

A selection from my Tyranid army

After doing no wargaming for some 15 plus years, I started again with a Warhammer 40K entry level box with my Son. I got the Tyranids and he got the Space Marines to paint. Not that I did much gaming, the rules were not for me. However, I did enjoy making, converting and painting the units and overtime have build up quite a few units and collection of armies. While rarely playing a game there was always the fascination of building units with their various armour and weapon combinations.

Of all the 40K armies, I must say those Tyranids remain a favourite and largest army, and are partially the reason for me getting me back into wargaming.

War of the Spanish Succession (Paper Soldiers)

When asked "what is your favourite army?" A perfectly acceptable response could well be "my last one." As is the case with me with my WSS armies, but not because they are the most recent addition. It is the opportunity these paper armies from Peter Dennis offer to go off and explore other periods you may well have never considered doing because of the cost.

I have 3 paper armies: WSS, Jacobite, and 1066. Periods I would not have normally explored were it not for these paper figures. I increase the size of the figures from 28mm to 40mm when making them.

So there you have it my top three influential armies, though not necessarily favourite armies as one of them could be replaced by one of my armies by Peter Laing Miniatures.

Mini Sci-Fi Campaign - Battle 4 Part Two

The battle was fought using scenario 6 from One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas. The layout was modified for a 6' x 4' table with a 12" grid for use with my Sci-Fi Grid-Based rules, a variant on rules from One Hour Wargames.

The Tyranid battle plan was quite simple. Leave a couple of Hormagaunt units to defend the Habitat and the rest to be used in an all out assault on the road crossing of the lava flow. The combined Space Marine and Planetary Defence Force (PDF) of the Imperium had plans to hold the crossing and counterattack on the flanks, using gaps in the flow that only they knew about and could use in the game by Imperial forces.

Battle Report

The Tyranids threw themselves against the barricaded crossing, which was treated as broken ground from a rules perspective. They lack of distance shooting capability meant the quicker they engaged the better.

The Tyranid in full swing and supported by sep-striking gargoyles

Deep-striking Raveners quickly eliminated the Basilisk within a turn of its arrival. A good start for the Tyranid hordes.

A surprised Basilisk assaulted by Raveners

A second wave of Imperial support arrived on the flank using a gap in the lava flow. Far away at the road crossing the beleaguered Imperial forces were standing firm and starting to take a toll on the attacking Tyranid units.

Imperial Support arrives on the flank (the Sergeant on top of a vehicle indicates the Tactical Squad are passengers) 

The counterattacking forces arrive with the fast Motorcycle unit attacking with all support guns blazing, thinning out the Tyranid attackers.

Space Marine units head for the Tyranid flank and Habitat objective

As the Tyranid assault was faltering under a hail of fire, the Assault Marines swooped in using their deep-strike ability to engage and eventually dispatch a Carnifex. The threat of the assault was gone.

Assault Marines put the final nail in the Tyranid's coffin

The Space Marines attempt to achieve the game's second objective of the ruined habitat. While the Warrior Prime was left trying to extract itself from the assault on the road crossing. Only to be run to ground and eliminated by Terminators and Assault Marines.

A Tactical Squad attempt to take the Habitat

Space Maine units hunt down the Warrior Prime

The Habitat was eventually taken as additional weapons were bought up to support the assault. The game ended with both objectives, the road crossing and habitat, occupied by the Imperial forces.

The final moments before taking the Habitat

Unit of the Game

The Space marine Motorcycle squad was for me the unit of the game, arriving just in time and with effective flanking fire to end any opportunity of a Tyranid victory. I almost went "Brroooom! Brroooom!" as I moved them across the table ;-)

Brooom! Brroooom!

Summary

While not the most exciting game once it became apparent the Tyranid assault was going to fail. There was interest as to whether the Tyranid Prime could extract itself and escape. However, this game prompted me to look at the attack rules and the pinning of units. As a result I updated the rules (see link on top left) to:

• use half the number of dice for cover rather than having to roll a higher dice score; 
• modified the to hit scores for full and heavily armoured troops; and
• the removal of unit pinning so a double 6 on hits now stops a unit immediately counterattacking as a reaction to the attack.

This changes worked ok in the next battle which I now need to write up. It takes longer to write up the battle report than it does to play a game.

Solo game of Tyrannies and Space Marines

During the week I found time to set up a quick solo war-game between tyranids and space marines. Out of it can a couple of clarifications to the grid based rules (grid based SciFi Rules).

To start the game the forces were selected for both sides. Eight units each of varying sizes and transports being counted as part of the unit. Then all units except for the warlord, or commander's unit, were dealt a card two units with the highest card values were removed. The idea came from the very clever and simple KISS Rommel rule set.

Both sides took up their positions on the board. The rocky outcrops represented impassible terrain between zones and causing forces to be split.

The space marine flyer was quickly bought into play to harass any tyranid units in the open.

The space marines were able to focus their fire on one tyrannic unit at a time due to poor dice rolls. Early use of interventions to change this bad luck could have made life more difficult for the space marines.

The tyranid flyer proved to be of little value and the marines soon used their fire power to clean up.

All up the game took 30 minutes to play.