Delaying Action at Point Judith

An Epic 40k After Action Review by Carlos Lourenco. This battle fought in March, 1998

This was a battle fought while I was writing my SF story called Go-To-Hell-IV, which you can read here.
 Or download the entire story in Word format (160k) by shift clicking here.

Background:
Having secured a foothold on Gowda IV, Task Force Black under the command of Commissar Al Jahr, recaptured the Imperial Base at Haven from the Genestealer Cult. In a race against time against the Hive fleet, Imperial reinforcements began to trickle in through the disturbed local warp. One Space Marine company from the Emperor’s Hand arrived first. Commissar Al Jahr, of Task Force Black immediately dispatched it to the communications array at point Judith, where an I.G. scout platoon had reported numerous civilians had gathered in flight from Genestealer Cult forces. These civilians were comprised mainly of technicians and their families, who would be vital in rebuilding the severely damaged mining facilities on the planet after the Cult forces were finally destroyed. Thus a decision was reached to evacuate those civilians at all cost.

The Space Marines arrived at Point Judith to find the town destroyed by fire and nearly a thousand survivors, most in need a medical attention, gathered at the Communications site. Despite severely over tasked flyer assets, Al Jahr diverted two Thunderhawks, two assault skimmers, and two Chinooks to evacuate the civilians before the arrival of the Hive fleet. This was not to be accomplished without incident, as Tyranid forces, avoiding the main defenses at Haven landed in the vicinity of Point Judith. Thus began a race against time. Would The Marines hold back the Tyranids long enough to evacuate the civilians?

Special Rules:

The game was played using Epic 40k. We were not going to go by regular victory points, only final results. The Marine player had to evacuate all the civilians from Point Judith. The Tyranids had to kill everything in sight. We used a number of pennies to represent civilian evacuation points. Each penny was worth 30 civilians. Chinooks (we used GZG GEVtransports) can evacuate one point per turn and T-Hawks can evacuate 2. (They really squeeze them in there.)  The transport assets were allowed to shuttle in one Chinook and one T-hawk d per turn into the PZ (Pick-Up Zone). Also starting on turn one a  roll of 1d6 would get the Imperial player one Marauder detachment w/ fighter escort for 2 straight turns). If it didn't come in, then the next turn it was 1d6 roll of 5. Next turn 1d6 roll of 4 and so on until the air support came in. (Note that in this story the skimmers are VTOL hover craft used by the Scotian military. Don't worry it's all in my story <g>)

Forces:

2d Company Emperor’s Hand Space Marine Chapter (approx. 1100 pts)
Read their history
Det 1. Tactical detachment Marius (2 tac sqds, 1 dev sqd, 1 Land raider, rhinos, Captain w/ cmd Land Raider)
Det 2 Tactical detachment Crassus (2 tac sqds, 1 dev sqd, 1 Land raider, rhinos, Librarian)
Det 3. Assault Detachment Graccus (2 Assault sqds, 2 terminator sqds, 1 scout sqd, 1 dreadnought, one Librarian)
Det 4. Support detachment Belarius (3 whirlwinds, 1 tactical sqd, 1 dreadnought)
Det 5. Bike/recon detachment Harley(2 bike sqds, 2 land speeders)
Det 6. Flyer Detachment Foss (2 marauders)
Det 7. Civilians (1000+ civilians in groups of 30)

Tyranid Hive (3000 pts)
Det 1. Assault Swarm (tons of hormagants, termagants Tyranid warrior cmd, lictors)
Det 2. Assault Swarm (termagants, genestealers, lictors, carnifexes, tyranid warriors, hive tyrant)
Det 3. Support Swarm (8 biovores, termagants, genestealers, tyranid warriors, hive tyrant)
Det 4. Flyer Swarm (2 harridans, mucho gargoyles)
Det 5. Assault Swarm (Termagants, genestealers, Hive Tyrant, Zoanthrope, 2 Carnifex, 2 Lictors,T-warriors)
Det 6. Reserve Swarm (tyranid warriors, genestealers, hormagants, termagants)
Det 7. Bio-titans (1x heirophant, 1 x heirodule)
Det 8. Hive mind synapse (1 Dominatrix)

On to the initial set up:

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