Alternatively, ‘that darn Cat’.
Although Tuesday Space Hulk has now become a thing at work, I'm still occasionally working through the missions solo.
Up next, mission three - 'Rescue'. Two terminator squads entering at either end of the board - one must carry the Cybernetically Altered Task Unit to the other end and exit the board.
As the marines were successful in the last game, they started out with the reward that they could use a CP once in the game to prevent the genestealers being reinforced (I'll assume they are able to counterattack somewhere or block off a bulkhead).
nice choke point right in the middle...
"Move out!" (the C.A.T. is centre of the left hand column)
CAT in their possession. Squad Adorn moved off as rapidly as possible, well aware that they had limited time, pushing up two parallel corridors.
Meanwhile, squad Giovan headed in to link up, peeling off their heavy flamer and a storm bolter armed terminator to hold the exit point.
Squad Adorn's Sergeant was the first to engage the 'stealers, taking out a group on the squad's left flank in a brutal close melee, before backing off and letting his own squad's flamer take up the role of defending their rear. the two marines on the right risked a rush ahead to take the centre ground - a risk that paid off when the nearest contact proved to be nothing but an error on the Auspex.
"Contact!"
"Nothing there, just a false alarm..."
The heavy flamers did the heavy lifting, keeping the exit route clear by roasting any alien that dared enter at that spawn point, while squad Adorn's flamer gradually retreated behind a solid wall of flame that protected the squad's rear.
"Burn, xenos scum!"
Can you smell burning?
While aliens burned at either end of the board, the rest of squad Giovan fought through the encroaching genestealers in that awkward chokepoint to link up the two squads and provide safe passage for the C.A.T.
"Push through brothers!"
This was the hairiest moment for the marines, and this was the moment they decided to call in to command to intervene. The techmarines succeeded in closing off some nearby bulkheads to slow the flow of genestealers, buying a moment for the two squads to regroup and for the CAT carrying terminator to finally link up with squad Giovan.
With the two squads finally linked up, but the flamers starting to run low on prometheum, (and a fortunate high CP roll), the marine carrying the cat was able to pass through Squad Giovan's perimeter and off the board without a single terminator lost.
I just had to be curious didn’t I... With the CAT safe, but the genestealers pushing in hard on the flanks, I decided to play on to see how many marines would make it safely off the board (adding no more genestealer reinforcements from this point. Typically, squad Adorno’s Sergeant was lost in a heroic rearguard action where he gunned down four of the genestealers facing him before his gun jammed and he fell under a mass of teeth and claws. A terminator from squad Giovan then fell in similar circumstances near the exit point, but was swiftly avenged as the squad’s heavy flamer roasted the offending creatures to cinders. And with that, there were no more aliens and it was all over.
"Avenge me, brothers!"
Sergeant Adorn holds off the encroaching genestealers as long as he can
A further marine victory. The flamers were an absolute star this mission (a trick I have learnt from playing against Tony on Tuesday lunchtimes).
In terms of the benefit for the next turn, I'm going to say that the knowledge from the CAT about the Hulk's layout will allow the marines to arrive early to the next mission and have a turn before the genestealer reinforcements turn up.
