Hive Fleet Xenomorph:
Necrons:
This battle was definitely my greatest triumph to date! For background - was playing against Nathan, who is a GW manager. His Necrons had already beaten six other armies that day and nobody had managed to defeat him, or even make much of a dent in his forces. The massive figure of Nightbringer had dominated every battle, tearing troops apart without ever taking more than a wound or two in return. And so, towards the end of the day's gaming, Hive Fleet Xenomorph decided to challenge the soulless ones to a fight just to see what would happen.
The board we used was a Cityfight one (don't ask me why) with a lot of terrain, which gave me a certain initial advantage as it offered my 'nids some protection from the withering fire of the dreaded Gauss flayers. In the centre, however, was a kind of open avenue down which Nightbringer, flanked by his units of warriors, glared at my Tyrant. I had set up with one unit of genestealers on my left flank with Old One Eye, and the second unit on the other side with the termagants, all as well supplied with cover as I could manage (mostly tank traps and barricades). The Tyrant and his guard were in the open, as was Old One Eye, but then again it takes an awful lot of cover to hide those beasts and as a rule I rely on their armour to protect them. Somewhere in a ruined building on the Necron left flank was my Lictor, still as old stone and camouflaged to match.
Nathan won the roll to go first and Nightbringer promptly stalked up the board toward me. Not a lot happened in his firing phase, my decision to sit all my smaller 'nids in cover turning out to be a good one as I lost only a couple of gaunts. It was obvious that he was planning to let Nightbringer do all the killing and use the warriors to provide supporting fire. That was fine by me. There was cover all the way around, so I could easily reach his units in comparative safety even if they stood and shot for the whole game. And it meant that Nightbringer was right out on his own where anyone who engaged him wouldn't have to worry about a stack of Warriors piling into their rear. Excellent!
Next, my turn. Mars and his bodyguard mirrored Nightbringer's advance, stepping out to meet him in duelling style. To either side the genestealers moved stealthily forward, while the termagants peeped out of cover and took a few potshots with their fleshborers. Old One Eye, of course, did his usual thing and plodded absent-mindedly toward the enemy, their guns scraping shreds off his massive carapace but leaving him more or less untouched. (I love that beast's idea of a charge, it's so much fun watching him strolling through an incoming firestorm and occasionally looking mildly surprised when something bounces off him harder than usual.)
In his next turn, Nathan decided to be annoying. Nightbringer veered off to his left, disappearing around the far side of a tank trap. Curses, now I'd need a difficult terrain test to charge him! Not to worry though, I was fairly sure that Mars and his guard could manage it given that they get the Tyranid 3D6 instead of the standard 2D6 for such tests. Nightbringer attempted to use his scythe and promptly failed to do any damage, therefore having to suffer the indignity of being jeered by a brood of termagants :)
CHAAAAAARGE! That was it, the bloody C'tan was in range. Difficult terrain test it was, and I got the six I needed to get Mars, Phobos and Deimos into combat. Leaping over the entangling barbs of the tank trap on their powerful legs, they surrounded him and piled in with a vengeance. One of Nightbringer's far too many attacks at once disappeared thanks to the tyrant guard lashwhips that were now wrapped round his gleaming metal form. Close at hand the termagants and a brood of genestealers crowded in, all anxious for a bite of this new species of prey. To my aggravation Nightbringer promptly sent the termagants flying with his Etheric Tempest power, which meant that they were now even nearer to my board edge than they had started and had neither line of fire nor assault range to any enemies. But still, at least battle had been joined.
As the onlookers held their breath for the combat resolution, we diverted for a moment to resolve Shapeshifter the lictor's sudden appearance from cover and charge on the nearest unit of Necrons. Sadly the valiant loner didn't manage to do much damage and only lasted a single round, but at least he tied up some Necrons for a while. Remember, every Gauss flayer that doesn't fire is potentially a life saved, kids :)
However, back to the fight everyone was really interested in. Most of the audience seemed to think that getting into hand to hand combat with a C'tan was asking to die. I stopped my ears to their doubts, and rolled.
And oh brother, was I ever justified. My mouth dropped open as Nightbringer started shedding wounds, and a little light came on above the Hive Mind's head as it realised what was happening. Nightbringer has toughness 8. More or less nothing in 40K can wound T8 on a roll of less than six, which is why so many people had been failing to do any harm to the monster. But my faithful tyrant guard had rending claws - and that meant that if they rolled a six to hit, the damage went straight through. No roll to wound, no nothing. Nightbringer got his invulnerable save, but that was it. And I was rolling quite a lot of sixes.
Nathan, at this point, made his biggest error of the game. He directed all Nightbringer's attacks at Mars and ignored the tyrant guard. Mars staggered, but survived - and that left all those rending claws still operating. And more, as the genestealers finally made it into combat. Nightbringer faltered, kept his feet for one more breathless round, managed to vengefully slaughter both Phobos and Deimos (martyrs to the cause!) and - went down. The blast of his disintegration took out the last of my genestealers, but it was too late for him. Mars, looking dazed but very proud, turned from the twisted wreckage and bore down on the nearest unit of warriors.
Meanwhile on the other side of the board, Old One Eye and the three survivors of the other genestealer brood (the Gauss flayers had done for the rest) engaged with the other warriors. The genestealer rending claws scythed through the Necrons, denying them their regeneration rolls, and when two out of the three made their saves against the Necron's return attacks it was clear that the Hive Mind was watching over them. And then of course there were Old One Eye's attacks to deal with, and he is never anything short of devastating in hand to hand fights. As Mars through a combination of luck and raw strength broke the Necrons on his side and forced them back, overrunning them and wiping them out, the other warriors were not only pushed down below phase-out numbers but ran away and were also overrun into the bargain. Splat. Battle over.
Everyone stared. Depending on whether the phase-out was held to happen before or after the overrun, I'd either driven off or else totally obliterated the dreaded Necron forces. I'd killed Nightbringer outright, there was no contesting that. And all with nothing but teeth and claws. Space Marines, Chaos and Dark Eldar stood there unable to decide whether to be glad to see that it was possible or shriek with fury at being outdone by a mob of Tyranids. And, on the field, Mars, Old One Eye, the two surviving genestealers and nine termagants who had somehow got overlooked in all the excitement looked at each other and waved their claws in whatever the 'nid equivalent of a victory salute is. I was the proudest Hive Mind in the kingdom. Finally my children had pulled off a victory worthy of legend! And in front of an audience into the bargain.
Under normal circumstances I wouldn't be so blatantly smug about a victory. But just this once, I think me and my swarm deserved it. We had after all beaten Games Workshop's newest and shiniest army, killed the creature that everyone had been describing as unstoppable, and avenged an entire day's worth of Necron victories. Admittedly the luck of the game was with me and the terrain was pretty much on my side, but it still wasn't bad going. Especially against a GW staff member who's been playing for years.
I'm pretty damn happy about it, anyway. Even though I'll probably never turn in such a performance again :)
This page © Kit Scorah, 2002.
Email me: kit_scorah@yahoo.com
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