Ten players rostered over 16,000 points (including a total of five gargantuan creatures and two superheavy vehicles) in the HobbytownUSA Dallas portion of the worldwide Imperium vs Xenos Apocalypse 40K megabattle January 22, 2011. The Dallas portion of the battlefield took place amidst a wintry city ruin, with the two forces clashing across a dried-up and decaying canal bed. The Imperial forces were led by a Puritan Daemonhunter Inquisitor with retinue and a contingent of Grey Knights in the center, Soul Drinkers space marines to the right flank and Howling Griffons terminators led by Librarian Ulysses to the left, with the entire battle line buttressed by the guns of the Imperial Guard; facing them were tendrils of Tyranid hive fleets Tiamat and Cerberus, and a small contingent of Necrons awakened by the conflict. The battle was escalated by the unexpected arrival of Khornate Reaver Titan Angrones Irae...for Khorne cares not whence the blood flows.
The Xenos seized the initiative and threw their dominance in monstrous and gargantuan creatures across the crumbling spillway at the Imperial host, taking an early first turn advantage in held objectives 3-1 which humanity could never quite make up. At the top of the third turn, the Imperium adopted a Stalingradian approach to the battle, eventually using their firepower advantage to destroy *every* objective on the field save for the three they either had controlled, or felt they could contest; consensus was the strategy would have worked if initiated a single turn sooner, but at battle's end the Xenos held a 5-4 advantage in objectives held for at least one turn, and held one of the three remaining objectives with the other two in contest.
Apocalypse, however, is less about the outcome than the moments of high drama getting there, and this battle featured them aplenty. Without question the hero of the day was Howling Griffons Terminator Librarian Ulysses: aided by the most effective deployment of the archeotech Asset Vortex Grenade seen in some time, the space marine psyker dispatched a Tyranid Heirophant, most of the Necron infantry and combined with orbital strikes from his battle barge and the guns of his faction's Baneblade to see off the interloper Chaos Titan (inflicting damage with both his psychic powers and in hand-to-hand combat!).
Thanks to all the players who came out and made the day an outstanding hobby event, HobbytownUSA Dallas for sponsoring, hosting and moderating participation in the Worldwide Apocalypse megabattle, and to http://www.apocalypse40k.com for organizing the entire enormous undertaking!
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