Shield of Baal - Campaign Week 2 Battle for Lysios (Iron Hands - Clan Raukaan 1850)

2nd game for the Shield of Baal week 2 campaign. I brought my Iron hands (Clan Raukaan) again. My opponent would be Titan Games store manager - Rico again as gaming buddy Jaeroler was coming back to 40K with his IG Astra Militarum and Ray was playing against him.

Pardon the unpainted Iron hands for the 2nd straight week, working on it... The amazing painted nids are painted by Rico (Golden Daemon winner).

Iron Hands - Clan Raukaan List

Captain with artificer, axe of medusa, gorgon chain

Tac sqd in rhino

Tac sqd in Razorback

Tac sqd in drop pod

Mortis pattern contemptor with kheres assault cannon

Dreadnought with TL autocannon

Storm talon with skyhammer

Storm talon with missile launcher

Rapier laser destroyer *2

Culexus assassin

Stalker Tank

Centurions

Tyranids - Hive Fleet Medusa list

Tyrant with TL devourers *2

Carnifex with TL devourers *2

Exocerin *2

Tyrannocyte *3

Malathrope

Zoanthrope *2

Hive guards *3

Spore mines *3 in unit of 5 or 6

big spore mines *3

Iron hands Deployment

Tyranids Deployment

Iron hands seize fail
Night fighting on turn 1

Tyranids Spore mines crash into Clan Raukaan lines

Centurions survived the big spore mine explosion

Rhino was wrecked by the tyrant shooting and spore mines. Razorback & Contemptor were stunned.

Substantial damage done to the Iron Hands vehicles by the spore mines

Inflitrating culexus assassin eye his preys 

Tyrannocyte drop the exocrine behind the centurions

Clan Raukaan drop pod came down to target the hive tyrant

The tyranid horde 

Centurions weather the death spitters and bio plasma from the bugs 

Culexus stalk closer to the zoanthropes. 

Culexus epic fluff  moment- rolling triple ones in wounding the zoanthropes with animus speculum. 

Unstoppable Carnifex target the tactical squad

Clan Raukaan captain with surviving marine charge the hive guards

Culexus assassin continue to whiff his wounding rolls...

Storm talon was shot off the skies by the tyrannocyte death spitters 

Culexus battle the last zoanthrope on table 

Surviving centurion battle the exocrine to the death

Culexus assassin consolidate closing to the Malanthrope. 

Exocrine smash the centurion to bits with its massive cannon

overview of Tyranid turn 5.

The culexus assassin charged the exocrine and was wounded once by the bio plasma, with only 1 wound remaining from his earlier battles, a 4++ roll was needed to make it into close combat. Yes... and his lightning reflexes were not quick enough to dodge the bio plasma burst.

Overview of Iron Hands turn 5. 

In Tyranids turn 5, Clan Raukaan only have the captain and a storm talon on the table. Storm talon was promptly shot off the skies. Iron hands Captain stayed strong and continue the close combat with the hive guard and malanthrope in challenge.

Clan Raukaan captain last stand! Slaying the Malathrope in the last turn - 5

 In Iron hands turn 5, only the captain was standing and he finally managed to best the malathrope in challenge cutting it down but stayed in combat against the single hive guard.

A 2 was rolled and the game ended at turn 5.

Victory points (kill points)
15: 3

Victory to the Tyranids!

Week 2 current score

Conclusion

The 2nd game in the campaign where I had only a model left. I think this game went down hill the moment the spore mines came in and stunned/shaken the Iron hands vehicles effectively negating the firepower of the Iron hands. My opponent dice rolls were also on fire as he made 5+, 6+ cover saves like there were 2+s and tyrannocyte deleting anything that came close. While I kept failing my to wound rolls for almost everything - culexus, melta gun, axe of medusa just to name a few lol and don't get me started on armour saves. I also think I need to focus fire on taking out 1 big bug at a time instead of splitting my fire here and there and allowing the nids to keep shooting with their bio weapons.   

Shield of Baal Campaign 7th edition game (Iron Hands - Clan Raukaan VS Tyranids) 1850

The gaming group is currently playing the Shield of Baal campaign with sponsor from Titan Games LGS. Ray the planner for the campaign came up with the idea to expand the campaign armies involved to all Imperium armies to incorporate more gamers as not all 40K gamers have Imperial guard Astra Militarum/Sisters of battle Adepta Sororitas/Blood Angels.

My first game of the campaign is against Titan Games LGS store manager Rico who restarted his Tyranids army after a hiatus. Had been awhile since I last wrote a slightly detailed battle report.  

Contributing to the Imperium war effort on planet Vitria, Clan Raukaan sent a small detachment together with attached Imperial knight house Ærthegn to eliminate the Tyranids menace infesting the same city ruins that saw the defeat of Astra Militarum vostroyans in an early battle.  

Iron hands - Clan Raukaan list

Captain with artificer, gorgon chain and axe of medusa

Tac sqd in Rhino

Tac sqd in razorback with las-plasma

Tac sqd in drop pod

Death storm drop pod x2

Mortis pattern contemptor with kheres assault cannon

Rapier laser destroyer x2

storm talon with sky hammer

storm talon with typhoon missile launcher

Castigator knight titan

Tyranids - Hive fleet Medusa list

Hive tyrant with devourers x 2

Carnifex with devourers x 3

Tyrannocyte x 3

zoanthrope x 2

Malathrope 

Hive guard x 3

harpy x 2

ripper swarms x 2

Deployment

Clan Raukaan deployed the following:

• Contemptor mortis dreadnought
• Rhino with tactical squads
• Razerback with tactical squads
• Rapier laser destroyers 

Tyranids deployed the following:

• Zoans
• Malathrope
• Hive guards
• Hive tyrants 

Crazyrat random musing:

If you are wondering why I did not deploy the castigator knight titan, I forgotten about it lol... as the game already started we decided to be fair to place the knight titan in reserve. 

Turn 1

No night fight

Tyranids seize fail

Clan Raukaan call down the death storm drop pods to commence area saturation fire

The death storm drop pods 12" whirlwind missiles either scatter off table or were unable to deal any significant wounds to the tyranids, Final damage dealing 1 wound to a hive tyrant.

The hive tyrant swoop high in the sky landing on a high ruin using all bio-morphs and psychic attacks on the drop site 

VP:

0:3 (Iron hands leading)

Turn 2

Clan Raukaan main force arrive to capture the objectives

Storm talon join the battle 

Clan Raukaan captain and tac squad arrived via drop pod to capture objective 1

Carnifex and tyrannocyte drop into Iron hands fire base

Both factions fighting over objective 1

Clan Raukaan warlord with tac sqd charged the carnifex

Razorback wreck by the carnifex shooting its weaker rear armour

Flying MC getting into firing positions

Tyrannocyte prepare to unload the payload its carrying

VP:

3:5 (Iron hands leading)

Turn 3

Flying MC surrounded the storm talon

Flying MC trying to claim objective 6

Mishap rippers 

Zoanthropes, Malathropes & hive guards taking potshots at the Iron hands

VP:

5:7 (Iron hands leading)

Turn 4

Harpy toxic bomb couldn't penetrate the knight titan

Both rhino and razorback wreck by tyranids shooting

Clan Raukaan warlord & tac sqd just inches away from a wounded hive tyrant (warlord)

Another view of the game changer mistake by Iron hands

The rapier unit survived the tyranids shooting 

VP:

9:10 (Iron hands leading)

Crazyrat random musing

I think this was the crucial turn where I made the mistake of firing my rapid fire bolters into the hive tyrant (warlord) and not able to charge it (sky shield picture above). If I just shot the pistols or not shooting at all, I could charge in with my warlord unit and kill it for slay the warlord as it only had a wound left and if I couldn't kill it, being stuck in combat I could prevent my warlord from getting shot at and subsequently killed by the carnifex devourers. The hive tyrant dying would also maybe prevent my tactical squad guarding objective 6 to survive longer and prevent tyranids to claim objective 6 for VP.

Turn 5

Castigator charged the rippers to prevent them from claiming objective 2

Hive tyrant and harpy unloaded on the Iron hands claiming objective 6 

Carnifex devourers feast on the rapier and crew

Tyrannocytes and carnifex made short work of the Iron hand warlord and tac sqd guarding objective 1

VP:

12:11 (nids leading)

Turn 6

House Ærthegn castigator charge the malanthrope killing it in a flurry of attacks

The carnifex unleashed all its bio weapons onto the damaged drop pod.

We decided to stop the game at turn 6 as the winner for the game is clear. Clan Raukaan only had the castigator knight titan left.

Final VP

Tyranids : Clan Raukaan

16           :        12

Winner Tyranids - Hive fleet Medusa!

The knight castigator turned around and saw the last of Clan Raukaan small detachment decimated under the tyranids onslaught... Without warning a series of explosion on the left of the knight rocked the cockpit with intense force, system alert alarms filled the cockpit and fault readings streamed into the pilot HUD. Auspex reading shows tyranids movement and fire coming from both the west and north in a pincer attack.  Multiple bright beams pierce through the air with a single beam hitting the knight castigator bolt cannon almost shredding it off. Sensing a wave of incoming fire coming from the north the pilot brought the ion shield back on-line in-time to intercept further bio-missiles from the north. With a thought, the house Ærthegn pilot sent a coded transmission and routed power to the legs of the knight titan accelerating from the tyranids in the immediate vicinity.

+++++++

Transmission start

Battle lost due to overwhelming tyranids presence 

Initiating Plan Delta  

retreating to rendezvous point K951.60 for extraction... 

Transmission end

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