The Unending Swarm

Commander Peribon Krate leaned against the walls of the ruined building, and looked across the valley floor- behind him he could hear a litany of grumbles and curses as Number Three section worked their way through the ruins. The rest of the Grenadiers were strung out across the valley, advancing carefully across the remains of an ancient city. They weren't far from the gleaming dome of Outpost 219 now; it towered over the ruins, but Krate wasn't taking any chances- the last known communication from the Outpost had been abruptly cut short, and he didn't want to lead the Trevuntular Grenadiers into a trap. 

The comm-link in his ear crackled- "Arklay here, something moving out there. 1500 meters and closing, moving fast, over."

"Roger that, Sergeant. Grenadiers; hold your positions and take cover, contact imminent."  Krate turned to the Comms Operator, "Get on the line to Brigade, tell them we've found the scum!"

Been a while...Rick decided he wanted to play a game of 2nd ed 40k with his Tyranids. As we both had a day off work he came round and I set up a table, and dug out the Grenadiers. He insisted on playing the Tyranid Attack mission, which allows him to recycle all his figures, but requires him to wipe my forces out; a single Grenadier still standing at the end wins me the game! We played 1000 points aside.

The Trevuntular Grenadiers
Commander Peribon Krate, with laspistol, powersword and stasis grenade
HQ with banner and grenade launcher
3 infantry sections with an array of plasma guns, lascannons, heavy bolter and flamer.
Missile launcher squad split into 3 PIAT teams.
Wolverine MBT, with battlecannon, heavy bolter, and heavy stubber.
Wolfhound armoured car with autocannon and heavy stubber

Myself and the Grenadiers.

 The Swarm
Hive Tyrant with whip and venom cannon
Carnifex
3 termagant broods
2 hormagant broods
1 warrior brood
1 spore mine launcher thing with 4 mines.

Rick and the Gribbly Horde

The Grenadiers deploy for battle

The Grenadiers right flank

The Tyranid menace advances 

1st shot of the game comes from the Hive Tyrants Venom cannon,
which penetrates the Wolverine MBT and destroys it!

The steady volleys of the Grenadiers completely fail to slow the Tyranid advance.

The Wolfhound armoured car attracts the attention of the Hive Tyrant but is unharmed

The PIAT team are roughed up by the Hormagants, but
Peribon Krate is on hand to to turn the tide!

Number Three Section's flamer thins the horde slightly...

In the centre Number One Section takes the fight to the enemy,
their surprise assault destroying a Termagant Brood... 

...pity about the Carnifex really.

The Grenadiers around the ruins give it their best shot, mowing down
the smaller 'nids, but a few strays make it into melee.

The carnifex proves imperious to bayonets.

The Wolfhound charges around the enemy flank, only suffering minor inconvenience from a gribbly thing
that had snuck into the vehicle, and start giving the 'nid horde the benefit of their three sustained fire dice!

The next wave gets closer, and there's barely a Grenadier to stand against them now!

The defence of the ruins gives way as the 'gaunts close in.

The last few Grenadiers on the right go down fighting with their backs to the wall!

The wolfhound is opened up by the next wave of warriors. I didn't know
they could be recycled too!

So many 'nids, so few guns left to stop them!

The Tyranids move to finish off the last of the Grenadiers...

...but Peribon Krate, and two of his men, remain standing!

 Peribon Krate rammed his laspistol into the maw of the obscene creature and held down the trigger till its head was nothing but mist, he turned and brought his sword round in an arc that bit deep into the head of another alien abomonation , the Grenadier next to him exploded in a mass of writhing tentacles, and he snapped off a few shots at the 'nids swarming along the side of the building. At his feet the abandoned comms unit was chattering to itself; he grabbed the headset and pressed it to his ear "...age repeats, this is Nightreaper, mark your positions with orange smoke..." He dropped the headset and yelled the instructions into the grenadiers comm-net, diving for cover, his men at his heels. The orange smoke was already billowing above his head as his ears were filled with the roar of jet engines, and his nose was filled with the smell of napalm...

Great game, with some heroics and desperate fighting from the Grenadiers who proved themselves able to halt the unending swarm! 

You might have noticed an unusual vehicle in the pictures above- here it is again:

The Wolfhound Armoured Car- a repainted eaglemoss 1/43 model
of a French WW2 Panhard armoured car, with bigger guns and stowage added.

And it was only the start of a day of gaming- we had a go at Eight Minute Empire, a nice little game which Rick won. And then it was off to the gaming club to play Xwing for the evening, picking up a Y-Wing from the model shop on the way! Two games resulted in victories over Chris and his Imperial lackeys - that Y-Wing turned out to be a great buy with its Ion Turret forcing the TIE fighters and Interceptors to fly in very short straight lines whilst the X-wing and Headhunter lined up the killing shots! Also it proved impossible to kill- even with multiple enemies targeting it they still struggled to remove its shields!

Anyway, I've done a fair bit of painting this last few months. Ill try and get pics on here soon!

Thats all folks!