Penrith Games Lounge The (Un)Official Web Log of the Penrith TSGL

Planetary Empires

For a little while now, Dingus, Angron, Suqnier, NeedleFingers, BaBoon, MagicWorks and myself have been playing through the Planetary Empires campaign system.

All-in-all, we've found it to be a good system, although a few mew rules had to be added to make things a little more interesting and fair for all. First of all, there is no system in place for attackers and defenders. Seeing as we had an odd number of players, and we wanted to avoid the possibility of one person playing multiple games and winning the campaign in one turn, we decided that you could only take a territory if you were 'attacking.' If the other player was attacking you, then you couldn't take a tile even if you won. We also agreed that although the rules said that any unit could be taken as an ally from any Codex, players could only select units from their own Codex with any extra points they had gained during the campaign.

Some highlights from me in the last four rounds.

Round 1: Loose Cannon 12 vs. Suqnier.
My Tyranids took on the Thousand Sons in the first round, and the result was a solid victory for the hordes of Chaos. Although I had extra points due to the vagaries of the campaign meta-system, Suqnier had the advantage of two extra Universal Special Rules, which he used to give his Daemon Princes Infiltrate and Furious Charge. The game started well for the Tyranids, with my Hive Tyrant killing one Obliterator outright in the first turn. Shortly after that, however, the Daemon Princes swung into action, ripping though the vanguard organisms the Hive Mind had sent out. With the objectives on the hill firmly in the hands of the Thousand Sons, the Tyranids were forced to retreat. Next time, they'd be back with Carnifexes.

Round 2: Loose Cannon 12 vs. Dingus.
In their first game against the Armoured Company, the Tyranids started well again, scoring some kills with outflanking Genestealers and a couple of angry Carnifexes. Unfortunately for Old One Eye, the Leman Russ Executioner lived up to its name, and one violent fusillade of plasma later, a pair of smoking hooves were all that remained of one of my beloved Carnifexes. the rest of the army started to falter at this point, as nothing could roll above a 1 or a 2 on the Vehicle Damage Chart, despite multiple penetrating hits. Having hit such a brick wall, and with the Armoured Company in firm control of both objectives, the Hive was once again forced back. Not a good start to the campaign, but not yet cripplingly bad.

Round 3: Loose Cannon 12 vs. MagicWorks.
Round three saw me facing off against the Space Marines, and once again I was up in points, but down in Universal Special Rules. Facing me across the ruined city were a squad of Sternguard Veterans with Relentless, and a squad of 10 Terminators with Feel No Pain. Trying to ignore the Terminators, I focused my attack on the rest of the army, cutting through a Land Speeder and a couple of tactical squads with relative ease. The rapid relocation of the Sternguard Veterans via Rhino across the table, however, put them out of assault range of my Carnifexes, and therefore generally safe from serious harm. A very close game, with both sides scoring high numbers of kill points. In the end, however, the Tyranids were undone when a Spore Mine exploded, giving an extra kill point to MagicWorks and winning him the game.

Round 4: Loose Cannon 12 vs. Angron.
Round 4 of our campaign began to see my luck begin to turn, and the Tyranids faced the White Scars in an objective-based game in which I was defending. As my Carnifexes and Hive Tyrant began to fan out to secure the objectives for my soon-to-arrive Genestealers, the White Scars rode out to meet them. One plucky Flamer-wielding Marine even managed to burn a would off Old One Eye. To add insult to injury, he wounded him in close combat as well! His victory was short-lived, however, as Old One Eye promptly ate him, the rest of his squad and chased down the sergeant for sport before turing his attention to the three Attack Bikes harassing him and the newly-arrived Genestealers. The Genestealers assaulted the Bikes, and were themselves counter-charged by Vanguard Veterans descending from their Thunderhawk. This charge was swiftly blunted by the intiative 6 close combat bio-weapons, which left only two Vanguards left to take advantage of their charge. Promptly losing combat, the remaining Attack Bike fell back, while the Vanguard Veterans were hacked to pieces in the Tyranid turn. On the other side of the board, one Lictor managed to hold a 10-man Space Marine Squad at bay long enough to stop them reaching their objective in time. A win for the Bugs!

Round 4: Loose Cannon 12 vs. Dingus.
This game saw the Tyranids on the offensive, pushing back against the Armoured Company which had so humiliated them in Round 2. With a kill-point game lined up and a Spearhead deployment type, the bugs were already in a strong position. Dingus' tanks were swiftly outflanked by Genestealers, and the Leman Russ Exexutioner which had so tortured me during the first game was swiftly dispatched by a Lictor in Turn 2. With this major threat (and my old nemesis, Command Tank 501) out of the picture, the Carnifexes and Hive Tyrant swiftly got in amongst them. With none of the poor rolls that kept them alive last game (and more than a few '6's for Old One Eye's number of attacks), the Leman Russes went up like fireworks, and a few well-placed shots from the Hive Tyant immobilised one of the Chimaeras that were trying to escape the carnage and hold out 'till the end of the game. Withso many destroyed vehicles strewn about the battlefield, the Tyranid advance was assured, even with the losses suffered by the smaller bio-organisms.

Signing off,
Loose Cannon 12.