The Tyrants Legion is growing steadily, I now have all the vehicles built and undercoated and I'm 19 Auxilia away from being ready to take my secessionist agenda to the bureaucratic Administratum.
This afternoon a small detachment of Astral Claws (750 pts) faced down a Tyranid assault from a splinter of Hive Fleet Nom Nom. Each side was attempting to defend a wounded guardsman from the other, the marines out of duty to the Emperor, the Tyranids as a method of drawing more biomass to them.... shiny silver biomass!
I was in command of the ravenous hordes and I left the Claws in the hands of a friend. Two tac squads, one in a Rhino and one in a Drop Pod, a squad of Thunderhammer Terminators and my Terminator Librarian faced down a Hive Tyrant, 26 Hormagaunts, 5 Warriors and 8 Genestealers with a Broodlord.
The Hormagaunts suffered as they crossed the table but met the Terminators in a forest at the center of the battlefield 17 strong. They hit hard inflicting 12 wounds but the Tactical Dreanought armour held and the marines made all their saves. Despite inflicting heavy casualties with each swing of their mighty hammers the nearby Hive Tyrant kept the Hormagaunts in the fight as the forest turned into a killing ground.
On a hill in the marines deployment zone a combat squad with a missile launcher did everything it could to down the Tyrant on the left flank while a second squad with a veteran sergeant and flamer moved towards the beast to fight it head on. The Tyrant made short work of the nearest squad in close combat as the Genestealers burst from the flank near the missile launcher squad and devoured them in seconds.
The Tyranid Warriors defended their wounded guardsman in a deep forest using their Barbed Strangler to keep a second flamer combat squad pinned for three turns on the right flank. Their position in cover saved them from Storm Bolter fire coming from both the Rhino and Drop Pod.
As they Terminators finished off the last of the Hormagaunts without taking a wound they were hit with the Hive Tyrant's Stranglethorn Cannon and assaulted by the beast. In a close combat lasting two rounds two of the terminators were killed but the Tyrant fell to the brutal hammer attacks.
As the Genestealers advanced towards the guardsman held by the Astral Claws they were shredded by the combined fire of several units. The Broodlord managed to survive the hail of bullets and at the top of turn 5 he assaulted the combat squad holding the objective and slew 4 contesting the objective and winning the game for the Tyranids.
A fun time was had by all in a close game with a lot of great moments. Hopefully for the next battle report I will be fielding my full 1750 Tyrant's legion list.
