Campaign Game 1.5: Fallout on Glacier 217

Sanctus Reach: Fallout on Glacier 217

As the Imperial resistance on Sacred Mountain turned away the Ork forces, many spread out back down the cliffs and across the frozen plains in the mountain region, already planning to regroup with larger Ork forces down on the flatlands below. The Warp'ead Zageye, whose squad of boyz wisely fled from the Sacred Mountain battle in the face of four Imperial Hellhounds, slunk back down the mountainside to a long glacial plane (number 217 in Imperial designations, tho the Orks just refer to it as "da white cliff over dere"). A small group of Long Fangs which found themselves misplaced decided to try and stop the Ork escape, calling in reserves as the battle escalated.

 A single squad of Long Fangs' Stormwolf caught some Flakka Dakka fire and had to land, leaving them the sole line of defense against the fleeing Orks.

 As the Orks rushed forward, the Space Wolves redirected some remaining drop pod assets to help stem the green tide. 

 Two mobs of boyz spill out of Trukks crippled and destroyed by the burning plasma shots of the Long Fangs.

 While only a Rune Priest remained at one point holding off the Ork onslaught, it was the timely arrival of the Wolf Guard terminators that turned the tide.

The roar of storm bolters and assault cannon from the terminators are enough to finally scatter the Ork forces. Meanwhile, the Ork Warp'Ead Zageye--in attempts to harness the waning Waaagh energy, accidentally opens a portal of pure warp energy and is sucked through.

Battle Results: The Orks again proved that mobility is critical in early objective securing. While the Space Wolves had to wait until the later turns to start scoring points, they managed to accrue enough

Fiction: The following events take place right after Warp'ead Zageye is sucked through the portal, at the conclusion of the battle (and was written by Kevin for the event):

*Splort*

Warp'ead Zageye looked around to see scintillating colors and vague images from different points in his brutal life.  Past victories, past losses (some even reworked into victories), and images of what can only be described as an older more magnificent version of himself played out within the swirling colors.  "Wot's all dis den?" Was all he could utter.  The words floated out of his mouth and tiny pink humanoid figures seemed to emerge from them.  One burst into a blue explosion as the others giggled.  Zageye gripped his axe ready for a fight.  Then the unexpected happened.  He felt at peace.

"You truly are both cunning and brutal, a most apt avatar for my actions in the material world."  The largest ork that Zageye ever saw was looming above, and speaking some language Zageye had never heard.  Zageye gave a quizzical look.

"Wot?" He asked.  The large ork shook his head and sighed.\

"You've got to be...ahem.  Yoo is brutal 'n kunnin'.  Yoo be me when fightin' hoomanz.  I brung yoo 'ere to tell yoo to use my boyz to 'elp". The large ork gestured to waves upon waves of flamers, screamers, pink horrors, and even a grotesquely overweight lord of change vomiting rainbows.  "Dey is da best.  Yoo is da best.  Got it?"

"Wot?  'Oo is yoo?"

"I be Mork!"  With this exclamation the hosts of amorphous pink and blue creatures in the background snickered and laughed and cheered.  Zageye immediately prostrated himself before half of his entire pantheon, then immediately looked around for Gork. The being continued speaking: "Yoo gots ta smash da humiez.  Do dis fer Mork and yer waagh will be da best"

Zageye didn't need an excuse to smash humans.  He didn't need an excuse to smash much of anything.  When your god summons you before him and tells you to do something, it takes a lot to convice one to do otherwise.  "Hoo do I smash first?"

The being claiming to be Mork dismissed Zageye to the next battlefield to prepare the way for chaos.  As soon as the warp sensitive ork was gone he resumed his avian form, revealing himself to be an exalted lord of change.  His second in command, the grotesque lord of change seen earlier, approached him.

"Most exalted Thrunmindyax, what do we do now?"

"Now we wait for the greenskins to do what they do best.  And wait for the minions of the Brazen One to attempt to breach the barriers between the worlds for us."

Zageye looked around at the battlefield he was pulled from.  Dead orks lay amidst piles of the big blue humans, but not nearly enough of them.  "Zog!" He yelled out, and returned to riding his lucky bomb all the way back to the main ork encampment.

Campaign Game One: The Battle of Sacred Mountain

Sanctus Reach: The Battle of Sacred Mountain

Two planets in the Sanctus Reach system have fallen, and a number of Rust Ships have landed on Alaric Prime, leaving the planet swarmed with Greenskins. The most critical command and control element of the Imperial Guard on the planet is Lieutenant Colonel Harper of the Dernhelm 8th Regiment. Lt. Col. Harper has been working with a clandestine group from the Inquistition under the command of Inquisitor Tractus Garis Cesaro, a radical inquisitor of Ordo Xenos. Inquisitor Tractus was nominally assigned to the system help manage the threats of the Ork invasion, but also has his own agenda with the greenskins (pursuing rumors of a "weirdbox" warp item being utilized by an ork shaman. Unfortunately the pair are up against a considerably strong Ork push, and have been backed into a corner against a rocky mountain peak. As the Ork Warbands encroach and encircle them, guardsmen start to sell their lives dearly. Can intervention from the Wolf Guard Captain Fjolnir and a small detachment of the Space Wolves drop assault forces that are arriving on Alaric Prime save those stuck on Sacred Mountain? Or will the Orks triumph?

Gretchen discover a servo skull transmitting drop coordinates to the Space Wolves reinforcements. 

Deployment zones for the battle. Imperium deployed first, and went second. Six objectives were placed, three by each side: one in own deployment zone, one in no man's land, one in enemy deployment zone.

The Imperial deployment. A cordon of tanks and men, backed against the wall in the face of an overwhelming Ork invasion. 

The big gunz of the rampaging Orks take aim at the Imperial tanks. Also, Kevin making his best Warboss face. 

The Orks quickly closed on the right flank of the Imperials, their ramshackle vehicles' weapons tearing holes into the Imperial vehicles and lines.

Three massive hordes of Ork boyz formed the central battle line, urged forward by the watchful eye of the Warlord of the Orks: Grukk Facerippa. 

The Imperial Hellhounds severely maimed the Ork lines, causing Weirdboss Zag Eye to retreat from the field. In response, the Ork trukkmobz rushed to defeat the promethium-laden threat before they damaged the Ork lines further. 

As the Imperial lines were reached on the right flank, the soldiers of the Emperor faced two huge mobs of Nobz. The soldiers' heavy plasma load-outs proved to be more unstable than threatening to the Orks, and many soldiers died from their own weaponry even before the Orks hit their lines. 

The Imperial tanks found early advantage at range, their heavy guns punching huge holes in the Ork lines. But once the Orks got close, their power klaws started making short work of the Imperial tanks--only the strongest managed to survive the initial onslaught. 

Inquisitor Tractus (white beard) and his retinue of xenos warriors attack the Ork Warlord Grukk Facerippa. The two squared off in personal combat, and while the Inquisitor got close to defeating the Ork he forgot to engage his digital weaponry, leaving Grukk standing. The enraged warlord swung back with his power klaw, and it was only due to the timely intervention of Inquisitor Tractus' tech adept using an emergency teleport to save his leader that Tractus lived. 

The Space Wolves reinforcements arrive via teleporter and drop pod. The Great Company of Gunnar Red Moon includes a great number of heavy weapon-equipped Longfangs, whose powerful weaponry was brought to bear on the Ork forces. 

The Wolf Guard terminators face down a squad of burna boyz as well as three killa kanz. Surviving the killa kanz's charge with only one of their number dying from a skorcha shot, the Wolf Guard smashed them and turned in the burna boyz, decimating their numbers as well. However, their strikes were too few too late, as they were unable to secure the objective they were dispatched to take in the face of the wave of Orks. 

Battle Results: The Orks got out to an early start, gaining two victory points each of their first three turns and ending with six total. The Imperium lagged behind with only two, but managed to squeak out five in the bottom of the last turn of the game. They got really lucky with an objective to demolish enemy forces, and picking off some below-strength Ork units managed to net the Imperials a technical win. 

For purposes of the campaign, the first battle will be treated as a close draw. The Imperials managed to fight their way free, but the Orks were hardly blunted in their attacks. Things continue evenly pitched between the two sides. 

The next event, the "Protect the Steel Cyclops" mini-event will be the break point for the first phase. A disabled Shadowsword superheavy tank is the site of a close-up brawl between a few Space Wolves and Guardsmen and hordes of Orks. Whoever takes the tank will carry the day for the first phase of the campaign!

Campaign Battle One: Prelude

Okay, so I've now read all the Sanctus Reach campaign fluff, and I have a sense for the campaign and where things will fit. Most of the battles will be Orks versus the Imperium, but there will be a role for Chaos as well later in the campaign.

For the Phantom of the Attic campaign games, we'll be starting with the narrative when the Orks have made planetfall on Alaric Prime, the central planet within the Sanctus Reach system. To this point, the Ork attacks have proceeded largely unchecked, with Imperial Guard, the Knight Titan legions of the area, and the Space Marines fighting valiantly but suffering great losses on prior planets in the system. At the point we're starting our games, the Imperial Hive Planet of Ghul Jensen was destroyed by the Orks, as well as the planet of Obstiria--the home of the Obsidian Glaives chapter of Space Marines which has been annihilated in full.

Alaric Prime becomes the Imperium's last best chance to stop the Ork invasion. The Campaign will flow using the following chart--I kept things pretty simple. Four total games, with two special events (one early on, and one at the end depending on the results). Descriptions of the events follow the image. The names of the battles are the relevant sections from the Hour of the Wolf campaign book which details these events.

Battle One: Sacred Mountain: The Imperial Guard is beset on three sides by Orks, and the drop forces of the Space Marines and Space Wolves try to intervene and rescue them.

Event: Protect the Steel Cyclops: An Imperial Superheavy is disabled on a bridge. Can the guardsmen and a group of Space Marines get the machine to safety before a huge mob of Orks disable and cannibalize it for their own? The results of this will give special rules for one Super Heavy tank for either side (which will start to appear in Battle Two and onward).

Battle Two: The Bait is Taken/The Chain Reforged: Depending on the results of the prior battle, either the Orks are luring the Imperial Forces into a trap, or the Imperial Forces are doing a pincer action on the Orks to cut off Ork lines and make clear Imperial pathways for support.

Battle Three: The Battle of Scrap Peak: The culminating clash between the Orks and Imperium.

Battle Four: Murdertide: I don't want to spoil the events from the Battle of Scrap Peak, so I don't want to say too much here. Just know that this battle will include the forces of Chaos, and either/or Orks and Imperium depending on how prior events fared.

We'll see everyone on Sunday at 10am for deployment and Battle One: Sacred Mountain.