Tor Garadon had been to countless worlds executing countless campaigns, but never had he returned to a world and executed what seemed to be the same campaign. 970.M41 was the last time he had set foot on Drashin. In truth, it was the last time he’d thought about this place. The Tyranid menace had lain waste to it last time. Exterminatus seemed like the most expedient option, but the mysterious Mechanicus had something near the northern pole they wished untainted. Many imperial soldiers died securing Drashin and whatever that secret was. “That secret ‘is’”, he thought, for they were back again. His brother s levelled their bolt rifles at the oncoming horde. Their report, a sound so familiar, still filled him with awe. Their effect, a line of Xenos filth reduce to a bloody pulp, brought a smile to his mouth.

Luke and I played a fun narrative mission on Friday night. My Tyranids were tasked with killing characters – the logic being that Nids retain their learnings through the hive mind and humans lose their learnings when they die. Luke’s Imperial fists were aiming to make that as costly as possible! My units arrived in two waves and then, when a unit was inevitably destroyed, they were available to deploy again on a 3+ (4+ for my character units). This meant an unending horde was swarming towards the Imperial Fists.

I used the Hive Predator Hyper-adaptation each turn to give my ranged units critical Precision. It meant 6s to hit could pick out characters. This didn’t yield much until turn 3, but that turn I took out a Standard Bearer and a Lieutenant. This came at a steep cost, with unit after unit of Tyranids being wiped by the accurate fire of the Imperials. My only other significant success was taking out his Redemptor Dreadnought.

We counted my monsters/characters as worth five ‘kills’ each; every other model was just one. In the end, after four fun turns, the Imperial Fists had 117 kills and I had taken out the two characters. Not a bad result for the hive mind. Lysander and Tor Garadon survived however. Their knowledge and experience will endure… until the Tyranids eventually get them.

This was an excellent narrative game against a fun opponent. Thanks Luke!

Until next time,

Owen