The Scrapyard Cometh (40k)

[emptyhat]

Got a chance to play against the new Ork codex. The game was played using 6th.


The sun began to set over the broken no-man's-land of the Argavorian scrap-wastes. The patrol force of the Salian 78th advanced cautiously towards the ruined hermitage. Many battles had been fought in this area until the once isolated and scenic retreat had been reduced to a flat mud field strewn with wrecks, craters. Whenever the Orks advanced they began to gather the scrap into piles of gubbins and waste, slowly turning the area into a Mek's oily dream. Whenever the Imperials pushed back the main force of the clans ambitious meks would attempt to raid the area and dig through the salvage for the next generation of their tech-heresy war machines. High command made sure to make routine sweeps of the area in the hopes of keeping the growing hordes starved of the resources that lay strewn across the many battlefields like this one but as often as not the forces sent in simply ended up joining the haul of loot.


Suddenly light glinted off of one of the piles of junk as it shifted revealing the tell tail signs of bright. newly painted yellow, it wasn't just another section of rubbish but a huge Ork walker. Moments later two more smaller walkers burst from another heap of scrap and the revving of engines sounded across the battlefield as the Orks became aware of the Imperial presence. Captain Testless drew his mechanised forces to a halt, establishing a battle line behind the ruined hermitage and ordered the artillery to begin shelling the area. It was going to be a bloody evening.



The Orks gained the first turn and deployed in a long battle line with the bikes and dreds on their right and the trukk boyz on the left. The nobz in their battlewagon and the Morkanaut made up the central pin. The Gretchin quietly deployed into the ruins to seize one of the mysterious objectives which was revealed to be worth three points.







The first turn saw the Orks making good time across the battlefield except for the yellow dread which seemed to have something stuck in its gears. The other dread, with the flamers made much better time and was leading the way until it became the focus of most of the Imperial firepower. Much to my sister's annoyance it was destroyed in one turn of shooting (before it could roll for repairs from its grot riggers). However it managed to absorb a lot of the fairly ineffectual Guard firepower and was the only casualty that turn. The guard foot platoon, unable to find any decent targets with their heavy bolters began to edge up the side of the board (on the Imperial right), attempting to sneak past the Ork advance and secure some of the objectives they'd be bypassing.



(part two to follow after I eat some ice-cream)

[emptyhat]

Although it had failed to do any damage to the trukk it had targeted in the previous turn, the Taurox became a target for the Ork firepower due to its lighter armour and it was ripped apart by a lucky rokkit strike from the same trukk that it's autocannons had failed against. The platoon command squad inside bailed out and took up a position in the newly made crater.



Both Dakka Jets arrived bolstering the Ork firepower but were unable to do much against the Av12 of the imperial APCs (bet you wish you didn't already blow up the Taurox huh!)



The nobz were now close enough to disembark and attempt a charge on the heavy weapon squads in the ruins but failed to role high enough. (I think we forgot about the 'ere we go reroll here, whoops)



Nevertheless the Orks were now pressing the Imperial lines with their presence.

Air support arrived for the Imperials in the form of a Vendetta and it began by targeting and damaging one of the Dakka Jets which received locked velocity.







A combination of firepower from the Chimera, the lascannon teams, one of the Hellhounds, the Punisher and the Basilisks gave the biker boyz a very bad day, wiping them out.



However the Warboss escaped unscathed.



One of the Dakka Jets was able to slow and turn enough that it could fire on the Vendetta but the AV12 of the Imperial flyer vexed the Ork's puny supa-shootas. However the Morkanaut, which had had no luck with its weapons up till now blasted a Basilisk apart with its kustom mega kannon. The Shoota Boyz in the Trukk also jumped out to assault Black Platoon, despite a combination of firepower and a brutal close assault the platoon held, Commissar Wilson keeping the last five men in line with his steel gaze.







(Ugh, photobucket only uploaded half the photos. Part 3 will follow once they upload)

[emptyhat]

Meanwhile the Nobz in the ruins prepared their own charge. They had failed last time and been flamed by an platoon command squad that had moved up to support the heavy weapon squads but now they were within spitting distance.



Much like the Dakka Jet, which would probably have liked to have rammed the Vendetta if the rules had allowed it.



The other Dakka Jet had managed to stay on the table despite its locked velocity and had swung around to fire on the lascannon teams and support the Warboss. However due to snap firing it failed utterly leaving all the killing to for da boss, if he could handle it.

Bellowing with laughter the Boss smashed the Punisher into pieces chuckling at the idea of mounting its gun onto his bike after the battle.



Despite heavy overwatch (four flamers, three missile launchers, three autocannons) opening up on the Nobz they made it into combat with minimal losses and began to chop up the units in there. The Guard lost combat by four and all three units failed moral causing them to be overrun. The Nobz consolidated in the ruins.





Things were looking bad for the Imperium. Black Platoon had been all but destroyed and the centre of their lines had been crunched. The left was holding but the Warboss was on top of them and on the right the Morkanaut was about to get into combat.

Or maybe not. The Vendetta opened up on it with its lascannons and scored a single penetrating hit, which blasted the Morkanaut to pieces despite its force field.



The Mek's inside bailed out ready to try and cause havoc.



Both Dakka Jets managed to stay on the table. The one with locked velocity turned its sights on the remaining Basilisk, however the supa shootas pinged off of the gun shield harmlessly.

Meanwhile the Imperial force, desperate to stop the Ork incursion into their lines had disembarked Red Platoon so that the infantry and APCs could hit the Nobz with their full firepower. It was just enough, the Nobz, with a Painboy ad a Big Mek with a Kustom force field were wiped out but absorbed almost every shot the Imperial Guard had to offer. It came down to the last few lasguns to settle things but the ruins were cleansed. One thing that didn't fire on the Nobz was the basilisk (the Nobz were way to close to the Imperial lines to risk it.) Instead it sighted up the Trukker Boyz and blasted half of them to bits. However the Orks held.



On the other side of the battlefield the Warboss gunned his engines and leapt over the wrecked Aquila.




The second Dakka Jet swung round to support him, chewing up the soft bodies of the lascannon teams with hot lead. The remaining lascannon team held firm ready to meet the Warboss in combat. (They died horribly).


Victory seemed to be within the grasp of the Imperials. There were now only a few Ork units left, the two Dakka Jets, the painfully slow Yellow Dread (which was still stuck halfway across the battlefield) a couple of Trukker Boyz and the Warboss. The Orks also still had the rokkit encrusted Rattle Wagon and Trukk and the Gretchin were still cowering in the chapel ruins on the other side of the board. The Imperials still had an undamaged Vendetta, a Hellhound, 2 Chimera, a Basilisk, Red Platoon and Captain Testless' Command Squad.

Imperial forces began to advance back towards the ruins. Action was quieter in tis turn. All but one of the remaining Trukker Boyz was gunned down (the little git passed his leadership) and the Basilisk took a shot at the Gretchin in the ruins. The grots on the top floor were blasted into little bits of tasty fungus but they also passed their leadership test. The remaining grots took shelter under broken rooftops were the artillery couldn't strike them.



The Orks were holding 3 points worth of objectives with their grots and had line breaker. The Imperials had 0 objectives but the ruins that the Nobz had been blasted out of had a four point objective waiting to be claimed and the Imperials had scored first blood back in the first turn when they had blasted the Flamer Dread. Both players started to look at the other's warlord like a bonus point buffet.



It was Testless who claimed the head of the Warboss, his fire team gunning down the wounded beast, tipping the score to 4:2 in favour of the Orks.

Now that the Gretchin were safe from the Basilisk the Vendetta swooped in to target them blasting away with lascannons. Unfortunately the grots were quick to scurry undercover and survived unscathed.



The Orks had little they could do in their turn. The Dakka Jets were forced to fly off the table and leaving the Battle Wagon and Trukk as their only effective units in the engagement. The Battle Wagon did taste some success, pummelling a Chimera with rokkits. The Deff Dread continued to run and was now finally at the ruins. In response the Imperials opened up on it with everything they had left. The Basilisk shell scattered away harmlessly and the multi-laser of the Chimera was as ineffective as the inferno cannon of the Hellhound. Now it was the Orks turn to laugh at the durability of AV12. Up until the Vendetta (which had switched to hover mode and swung around) fired on the rear armour of the Dread.


Da Yellow Dread proved to be made of sterner stuff than the Morkanaut though and managed to escape the three-twin linked lascannons to its rear armour, losing only a single hull point. Now Orky laughter could be heard bellowing across the table as the roar of engines sounded, the Dakka Jets had returned.



The rear armour of the hovering Vendetta made it an easy target for the two Ork jets and the Imperial flyer was sent spinning out of the air.




The Yellow Dread charged the remaining Hellhound.



It easily wrecked it and then climbed up to look for its next victims.



In what would potentially be the last turn of the game the Imperial forces had a problem. All they needed to win was to claim the 4 point objective but the Yellow Dread was easily in range to walk over and deny them the points (and chop up the squads in the process). Since the last Chimera failed again at damaging the Dred they were left with almost no hope. However there was one man among the Imperial forces who would never give up hope, a man to defy the odds, a man with Melta Bombs.



Captain Testless!

Taking the fight to the Orks Testless dodged the deadly arms of the Deff Dred as is attempted to saw him into pieces. He moved in to plant his charges but a shower of sparks erupted from the Hellhound wreck as one of the dread arms struck the hull, he was forced to duck back. Meanwhile the men of Red Platoon faithful to the last scurried into the ruins, falling just shy of the objective.



If Testless could destroy the Ork walker or delay it just one more turn then the Imperial forces would be victorious. However the die was cast and rolled a one, ending the game on amid the epic duel.

But for a handful of Grots and a lazy walker the Imperials had failed.

Not that there were actually many Orks left.

[Long John Silver]

Great battle report and pictures.

Instead of kamikaze style ramming your fliers into each other there are rules for advanced dogfights which featured in the crusade of fire book and the aerial combat whatever book. Basically instead of shooting you roll on a chart once per round with one flier per player engaged in the dogfight. There are separate charts for each round of the dogfight up to three and each player is either defender or attacker, depending whose round it is. Then you compare your roll VS your opponents on a chart.
We can try it out next time.

[flamingkillamajig]

I liked the battle report. It's infinitely easier to digest than the wall of text I usually write. It sounded like a really close game when I actually got around to reading the whole thing.

[emptyhat]

It was sooo close but Orks deserved the win for being so kunning (yet fighty). Gretchin are such game winners. Pick up an objective with them and let people waste firepower on them, or they risk not having enough objectives or firepower to deal with them at the end.