Chaos bugs Attack!

*Below is the chronicle of an 8000 point tyranid/Chaos army Played by Randy(HiveMindRuik) vs an 8000 Pt Imperial Guad/Space marine/Grey Knight allied force played by Jim(Jemal) and Adam(Caros). We went with 2 strategic assets per side(not per player), and a pre-determined setup (One board being a ruined city defended by imperial forces, the other forested terrain from which the chaos bugs launched their attack. No mans land was a foot-long section on either side of the place the table joined.
(Also, I believe Adam has some photos which will be uploaded when we get a chance.)


On Wednesday September 23rd, a horde of chaos-controlled Tyranids assaulted an imperial city. They had amongst them inumerable swarms of gaunts(A 120 gaunt formation granting Without Number), massed hordes of Carnifexes and Hive Tyrants, and a lethal Hydrodule, backed up by Chaos tanks and troops and even a freshly desecrated Baneblade. (8000 points of Tyranids and Chaos)

The imperial guard manning the defense were sorely outnumbered, with commander Creed himself and an Inquisitor Lord locked in secret planning sessions even as the enemy forces approached. Imperial tanks raised their turrets, but little sign of the enemy could be seen through the debris (Spore Chimneys provided night fighting benefits for the 'bad guys', preventing most of the imperial guard from firing). It looked like a dark day as they slowly closed in.
(4000 pts of Guard on table)

A squad of teleporting chaos terminators arrived near to the command bunker, forcing the guards to gasp in fear as they were being assaulted from all sides, these could only be the first wave of a vicious assault. Sure enough, and unknown to the lowly guardsmen, three seperate hordes of tyranids had tunneled behind the ranks and were set to burst forth amongst the middle of the helpless defenders, but when their drooling fangs broke through the surface, they found themselves far from the fight - thanks to a powerful psychic disruptor provided by the Inquisition for just such an occassion.
(Disruptor Beacon Asset > Flank March Asset. ALL of the tyranids flank-marching ended up failing the roll and being marched on at the furthest end of the board where they could do nothing)

Before the remainder of the enemy could come too close, a massive thundering was heard as Lord Creed looked to the sky with grim satisfaction. "About time" He muttered as Space Marine and Grey Knight Drop pods thundered directly into the middle of the tyranid swarms, their landing blasting apart several of the bugs, and the Terminators and Dreadnoughts of the Inquisitorial fleet unleashing their weapons on everything nearby. (4000 points of Drop-pod marines/Grey Knights in a Death-Knell Orbital Strike Formation).
Bolstered by this influx of reinforcements, the guard continued pouring firepower into their opponents. A lone Guardsman had been waiting, virtually invisible, for the right time to reveal his presence, perched mere meters from the formidable Chaos Baneblade, and chose that opportunity to strike. With a shout for The Emperor, a powerful ancient relic was flung through the air to land with perfect aim upon the center of the gigantic tank. The explosion tore plating and treads off the great machine, severely damaging it before the swirling maelstrom dissapeared, leaving the tank barely funcional, but still capable of wreaking havoc.
(Vortex Grenade Asset took out 2 structure points on the Baneblade then scattered off board)
Seeing an oppening, Creed ordred the left flank of the imperial army to open fire, but none of them could see well enough to finish off the death machine... None but the Vindicare Assassin. Loading a special armour-piercing, High-explosive round saved for just such an occassion, the Assassin took his shot and moments later the massive war machine lumbered to a halt, no longer functional.

On the right side of the army, a pair of Lichtors had manged to worm their way unseen into the city, assaulting the guards on that side with deadly efficiency while more gaunts rejoined the tyranid horde, which turned its attention to the marines and Grey Knights in their midst. Brutal battle ensued, with the worried guard facing down the still-advancing chaos. Repeated Lascannon salvoes diminished but did not destroy the Chaos Terminators behind their lines, and overwhelming numbers of veterans managed to bring down the Lichtors while the imperial's own Baneblade rumbled forwards, its searchlights scanning through the spore looking for something to blow up.

**At this point, we called the game for several reasons (Not the least of which was time).
I think next time I'm in such a massive apocalypse game, we'll have to have a lot more time, we only got through 3 turns.
*NOTE: Randy/Adam, If I've missed any interesting parts of the game or if I've mistold something, feel free to post about it and correct me, I do have a bad memory after all.

Also, critical comment for discussion if I may: Some of the Apocalypse Assets actually made the game less fun than I thought it could have been. Specifically, Flank march and Disruptor Beacon. Without the Disruptor Beacon, the flank marching tyranids would have been able to eat the guards with very little resistance, but with it they were sent so far away they couldn't participate in the rest of the game. These two assets (Among others) seem to make Apocalypse a giant rock-paper-scissors match. Spore Chimneys likewise cause me personally a headache as I was playing a long range guard army that did as much damage in melee (killing two lichtors) as with my ranged firepower (Which killed a few gaunts with ordnance barrages and, thanks to a massive 15" 'master of ordnance shooting into night fighting' scatter roll, killed a few members of my ally's command squad.) Had it not been for the deepstriking terminators providing my army something to shoot at, they would've kept innefectually bombarding the tyranids.

Apocalypse is supposed to be about fun, not picking the best things to win all the time.

A lot of groups I have heard about on the internet have banned the use of those two assets (Flank March and Disruptor Beacon) specifically for the points you raise.

I think before any apocalypse game can be played, you really need to talk with the other players about stratagems. i once played a huge apoc. game against Nids, and my buddy took that smoke/spore mine wall thing'r, so for his first turn, I couldnt even shoot at his massive horde, which resulted in mass slaughter. On the flip side, another game against Nids, Me and a buddy took lots of chapter masters and the barrage stratagem. lets just say 11 large blasts and and apocalypse barrage wipes out Nids fast, and wasn't really fun for anyone.

Apocalypse lets you do whatever you want, little to no restrictions. This means, if someone wants to be a Debbie-downer and ruin it for everyone, they can. A small chat before hand can solve all problems.

P.S. At the same time, flank marching massive swarm Nids on a IG position? Not exactly "fair" either.

actually what he was flank marching was all his monstrous/gargantuan creatures

Actually, not any better though right?

No, not really(Was just clarifying), but ya can't blame him - facing a buncha firepower with a buncha 'targets' makes it hard to NOT want to flank march them rather than running them across the 2+ feet of killing grounds. I definitely understand WHY an army would take flank march - in a lot of cases it just makes sense.

I like the idea of going over things before to make the game more fun, but I find it difficult to bring up the subject of 'hey could you not use this' in a way that doesn't sound like I'm just trying to gain an advantage for myself (Or am I just being paranoid?).

Jemal wrote:No, not really(Was just clarifying), but ya can't blame him - facing a buncha firepower with a buncha 'targets' makes it hard to NOT want to flank march them rather than running them across the 2+ feet of killing grounds. I definitely understand WHY an army would take flank march - in a lot of cases it just makes sense.

Yeah I can see what you mean, with a lack of firepower, Nids can have a lot of trouble going up the field. i guess what I ment was that, if flank march is a huge part of your strategy, then getting smacked with a disruptor can end the game for ya, and make it less fun. As it takes a lot to play apocalypse games, and we often play so few, I guess its a learning experience.

Having only played 4 proper apoc games I have to say I agree with robyn, I don't think any of the strategems are broken and have never had one break a game for me to the point of not having fun, all they do is change my perception of how the game plays out and force me to adjust. However given that I've only played Apoc with Orks, Tau and Chaos, and only played against Demons, Chaos, Nids, Space Marines + Grey Knights and Space marines solo, it certainly makes a difference what you're up against but all of them have been enjoyable. I aslo closely stick to 5-6000pts if that makes a difference, I find that apocalypse has severe balancing and speed of play issues beyond 7000pts and under 4000pts, not that there aren't ways to unbalance it inside that range (12 demon princes less than 1500pts? Crazy?) but I find that size of game seems to promote a more fair army list.

This is just my experience with apocalypse and some suggestions, personally I'm a big fan of apocalypse and am happy with the current rules.

All the games I've played we've agreed ahead of time to use 5th rules for scoring units, and modified some stratagems to match, like hold at all costs allows any infantry unit (not just troops choices) to hold points.