Warhammer Club

Battle hour this week was a more casual affair as a number of players had not brought in their models for…reasons. On the casual end, Joseph Stockley and Jasper Welton had given up their lunchtime to prepare an introductory game for one of the Year 7s who repaid them poorly by never showing up! In the end they had a friendly match with the models after school in order to test Joe’s slavering tyranids against the club’s Welly Marines – the beautiful boys in blue! 

Mr Brownbill and Luka Taylor were able to settle their league match in an exciting slugfest between the Imperial Guard’s lumbering mechanised units and the Tyranid’s crusher stampede! 

Welly Marines vs Tyranids 

Winning the first turn, Joe’s tyranids surged forwards across the open ground to close the distance with the space marines as quickly as possible. The returning bolter fire in Jasper’s turn was little more than an annoyance, and one of the plasma gunners lost his nerve, suffering a melted visor as he fumbled the trigger and released a wash of super-heated ions over the front of his combat armour. In desperation the space marine’s captain called in an orbital strike within a hair’s breadth from the skirmishing biker squad, prepared to sacrifice them in order to obliterate as many of the aliens as possible. 

In their second turn the aliens could sense danger and their headlong charge faltered, waiting for renewed instruction from their telepathic overlord. The orbital strike came down as predicted but totally missed the tyranids as they had chosen to hang back out of its range. Jasper capitalised on the tyranid hesitation and severely punished them with another round of dedicated bolter fire. 

The final turn saw Joe’s tyranids get into combat and finally exact some revenge on the marines with their slicing claws! The final score was Jasper’s 9 points to Joe’s 6 and both generals shook hands at the end – much honour for all! 

 

Imperial Guard vs Tyranids 

Winning the dice roll for first turn, Mr Brownbill elected to go first and immediately enacted plan “send the biggest one out first”, selecting his carnifex, the size of a two-story flat,  while the rest of his gribbly monsters manoeuvred around his half of the board onto the nearest victory points. Luka had brought almost a regimental battery of ordinance with him, including the feared relic “Gatekeeper” mounted on his commander’s Leman Russ main battle tank. The regimental Orders rang out down the Imperial battle lines and the cannons thundered, mostly ineffectual against the gigantic carnifex that was charging down the centre of the map… until the Gatekeeper let rip with a thunder like the ending of worlds, launching a battleship-calibre warhead straight into Mr Brownbill’s hive tyrant, half-killing it in a single shot! 

The next two turns saw the tyranids bear down on the plucky guardsmen, psychic attacks incapacitating the soldier’s frail minds and monstrous claws tearing through battle-hardened tank armour. As the terrifying carnifex bowled into the imperial lines, men flying in all directions, it seemed as though nothing could stop it… until one plucky guardsman, pluckier even than all the others, fixed his bayonet and charged against the foul behemoth. He rolled to hit… and hit. He rolled to wound… and wounded it with a 6! Mr Brownbill rolled his armour save, needed anything but a 1 to avoid the wound… and rolled a 1! The bayonet plunged into the carnifex’s eye and its foul screams of rage and pain could be heard for miles around. 

In the final minutes of the game Luka managed to get off his last shot with the great Gatekeeper battlecannon and finally splatted Mr Brownbill’s hive tyrant like a giant mosquito on the Imperial Guard’s windscreen. The final score gave victory to Mr Brownbill at 10 victory points to Luka’s 5, so Luka retains his 4 game losing streak (of which he is apparently very proud) and also retains his position as the only opponent to have destroyed two mighty hive tyrants during the tournament. A good game, if somewhat long and exhausting! 

With only two weeks left to play before the final student winners and prizes are announced before half term, there is still everything to play for!

Mr Ashfield