Campaign Gameday Two: Imperial Breakthroughs and Ork Traps

Sanctus Reach: Imperial Breakthroughs and Ork Traps

Because the prior games were split, with the Imperial forces winning the large initial battle for Sacred Mountain, but the Orks taking the Steel Cyclops, this next phase of the campaign saw both portions of the narrative played out. The Bait is Taken scenario is one where the Bad Moonz trick an Imperial commander into getting over confident, and thus having his forces overwhelmed. The Chain Reforged scenario is one where Imperial units move to re-establish their battle lines, breaking through pockets of Ork resistance. The results of these various battles in the campaign are below.

The Bait is Taken

This match pitted the Imperial Inquisition versus Orks, with victory conditions centered around units destroyed as well as whether the Imperials could take out the Ork warboss. 

The Bad Moonz were kunnin' but brutal, setting up some Death Skulls to be the "bait" in the trap.

The center of the Ork battle line were three Killa Kanz, their deadly gunz and melee weapons primed to destroy the 'umies. 

The Inquisition included bands of mindless servitors, as well as a non-Mars approved pattern Razorback tank to carry a squad of Savlar Chem-Dog veterans the Inquisitor had recruited.

Tractus Garis Cesaro (center, white beard), a radical Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, led his extremely diverse squad of Xenos acolytes into battle against the Orks--convinced that if he could break the back of the Death Skulls Ork Warboss himself, the Orks would crumble. 

Only half the Bad Moonz plan actually worked. While they defeated the Inquisitorial forces, the surly Death Skulls Warboss was just too cunning and hardy to perish. The Bad Moonz had to plot a better way to remove him.

The battle ended with an Ork victory. While Inquisitor Tractus escaped yet again, his faith in the Emperor was shaken more than ever. He realized that he had the power at his fingertips to gain victory over the cruel Orks, but his faith kept him from using that power. It was time to look into darker sources, and materials recovered from strange dim pathways of the Universe, in order to stop his foes. Faith alone would not suffice to save mankind. 

The Chain Reforged

While the Orks devoted their resources to a gambit to ensnare Imperial command, the Imperial Guard was seeking to get their units back into defensible and supported positions. With roaming small warbands of Orks everywhere on the plains of Alaric Prime, the tank legion led by Knight Commander Pask sought to reconnect their supply lines with other Imperial Guard units to discourage Ork raids through show of united force. That meant breaking through existing Ork battle lines at times, including one particularly nasty wargroup of Orks. 

The 'Eavy Armored Orks charge across the plains as their Battlewagons rumble in the distance. 

A column of Imperial tanks meet them across the field, seeking to break through the Ork lines and reunite their scattered forces on the plains of Alaric Prime. 

The rapid advance of the Ork Trukkmobz is met by horrendous firepower from Tank Commander Pask, commanding his Leman Russ Punisher. 

The Ork Deff Dread, sporting four huge claws, reached the Commander's tank and inflicted some damage, but was wiped out by Imperial fire before it could finish the job. 

The battle ended with an Imperial victory. The left flank of the Imperial Guard forces managed to usher all of their tanks off the board edge, with the right flank nearing that spot as the last Ork defenders fell. With battle lines re-united, the Imperials will have a solid front in the next battle (rather than find their lines broken by intervening Orks.

The Chain Reforged

The Space Wolves, having used drop assault for Sacred Mountain, were now faced with gathering and uniting their forces to present a unified front against the Orks. Rune Priest Engil Thundersky took command of some Wolf Guard terminators, leading them on a trudge across the low plains mopping up pockets of Ork resistance. Coming upon a small group of Orks, he thought it was business as usual--called for a single Blood Claws assault pack to join them via drop pod, and rushed into battle. 

It seemed like a small group of boyz and a single ramshackle trukk. 

Rune Priest Thundersky, in the back, unleashes his furious warriors at the Ork menace.

The second squad of Wolf Guard Terminators close the jaws of the trap. 

Suddenly, the Trukk disgorged a huge group of deadly nobz, led by a warboss who had been bolted into a scavenged Space Marines dreadnought. 

The Blood Claws arrive by drop pod, and engage the horde of boyz--though the heavy armor of the boyz makes it far less simple to eliminate them. 

The remaining Wolf Guard from squad two stares down a horde of Nobz. While he managed to cripple the enemy warboss with a chainfist swing, the noble born son of Fenris didn't stand a chance against the furious assault of the Nobz. 

Rune Priest Thundersky, injured from a mistake in using a Tempestus psychic power, had to fight the flanking Deff Koptas himself. While he finally routed them, the fire of the Ork boyz as he advanced found a weak spot in his armor and he fell slain, the blood pouring from his neck. 

All told, the battle was a slim victory for the Space Wolves--due simply to the resilience of Wolf Guard squad one. While they lost two members, the remaining three held out over successive waves of Nobz as well as Boyz, saving against 'uge choppas, power claws, and the dwindling attacks of the greenskins.

A Chaotic Interlude

Meanwhile, the narrative of Warp'ead Zageye continued. Having made his way back from the warp tear, rambling about a meeting with Mork himself, he rounded up yet another band of Orks. This time, he felt the calling to push northward. Taking the troops with him, he followed his senses of the path.

Then, suddenly, more 'umies emerged from a ruined suburban landscape. The Orks charged in oblivious of the markings on their armor and soldiers, thinking it simply more foes of the Imperium.

Wait. Those aren't the markings of the Emperor! That's the eight-pointed star of Khorne!

The Big Gunz of the grots fire away anyhow, pulverizing the forces of any foe that Zageye might tell them too (as well as any Ork units that recently bullied them in camp).

The small force that had landed in secret on the northern side of the continent came from an Idolator Raider vessel that swung hidden into low orbit. Somehow the will of Khorne opposed the designs of Tzeentch and led the raiders to the planet, destined to try and stop Tzeentch's plans to recruit Warp'ead Zageye as a pawn in his grand game. Yet the small group was unable to stem the tide of greenskins, and at least for now Tzeentch's plans continued un-interrupted.

Campaign Special Event: Protect the Steel Cyclops

Sanctus Reach: Protect the Steel Cyclops

The following battle was a special event inspired by the Sanctus Reach rules and story. We changed a little to match our narrative, but here it is:

Two Superheavy Imperial Guard tanks were involved in the fighting at Sacred Mountain. The Baneblade had been torn asunder by a wave of buzz-saw armed Orks, leaving the Shadowsword Steel Cyclops woefully exposed in the face of the closing Orks. Having no choice but to retreat, the tank tried to reverse over a too-small bridge. Unfortunately, the bridge's construction proved to be much sturdier than the commander expected, and the guardrails on the right side tore into the underside and engine of the Shadowsword. The resulting damage caused a critical core leak, flooding the interior chambers of the tank with lethal gasses. Only the commander of the tank donned his gas mask in time to survive, the rest of the tank's crew succumbing in seconds, and leaving the vehicle both virtually unmanned as well as totally without power for its weapons. Popping the top hatch to escape the acidic vapors, the commander looked out at the sea of Ork boyz charging his way--the longest of their shootas starting to range in on the tank's front armor. Soon they would be on him, he thought, and they'd take and repair the tank... it would soon be an Ork Skullhamma battle fortress, the mighty turbolaser turned back upon the very Imperial forces it was supposed to protect. Just then, the commander of the tank felt a lurch. The tank improbably started dragging backwards. Looking to the rear of the tank, he saw a small squad of Space Wolves Longfangs, their weapons discarded near the Razorback that no doubt carried them to the fight. Instead, they had grabbed the tank and were using their superhuman strength to slowly drag it backward over the bridge, where a choke-point of Imperial forces could protect it until its drive was repaired (or the bridge could be blown). Yet just as it started to move backward, he felt another lurch. A squad of Ork bike nobz had blazed up, and hopped off of their motley bikes. Rolling up their sleeves and with shouts of "Oi, ooo wants a tug'o'war?" they were pulling the tank the other direction. Both sides had covering fire protecting them, but soon the enemy's shots would reach them. Who would survive to get the tank safely off the bridge? The Space Marines with their Imperial Guard infantry protection, or the Nobz with the horde of onrushing shoota boyz?

We used blind set-up, so this is Craig, Charles, and Kevin deploying their Imperial Guard and Orks respectively. My Space Marines were there to do the pulling, and Dave's Ork Nobz were doing the same for the Ork side. 

 The initial deployment with the Shadowsword Steel Cyclops and bridge in place. The river represents an open chasm, which neither side currently had troops able to cross. 

Gradually the numbers won out over quality, as the Imperial Guard shooting--even with their devastating heavy weapons and guided by Imperial Psykers using Divination powers--couldn't keep pace with the raw firepower of the Orks. 

The Orks swarmed to the left side of the tank, finishing off the last of the Imperial Forces--then turning their fire on the Space Wolves squad tugging the tank. Finally, with the Imperials wiped out to a man, the strong arms of the Nobz heaved the tank off the bridge. 

A great big Mekboss battered his way through the crowd to the tank, surveying its massive beauty. "Ooo, dat kannon be a fine big shoota," he said, producing a tool kit and lighting his burna's cutting torch alight. "Dis tank gonna be da best Skullhamma dat ever hammered da skullz."

The Orks now gain the following rules:

If they field a Skullhamma, it must be the re-built Steel Cyclops. The rebuilt Steel Cyclops has the following rules:

Shadowsword Cannon: The main gun of the Skullhamma must be paid for as normal, but is immediately replaced with the following weapon:

Cyclops Gun: Range 120" Str D, AP 2, Ordinance 1, 5" Blast, Destroyer.

Victory at the Gorge: This particular Skullhamma was a recent win for the Orks. Any Ork unit that has at least one model within 12" of the Shadowsword counts as containing a character with a bosspole and counts as being in combat for purposes of Ork morale and leadership checks.

Reclaiming What's Ours: If the Skullhamma is destroyed by the Imperial side in hand-to-hand, it does not have to make any catastrophic damage rolls. It simply becomes a wreck. It also immediately becomes an additional source of victory points in the battle. Scored like an objective, it awards an additional 1 VP to the side that holds it at the end of the battle. If the Orks score the point, they can continue using these rules for future battles. If the Imperials score the point, they will get to refurbishing the vehicle (complete with Steel Cyclops Restored special rules). If it is destroyed in shooting, neither Orks nor Imperials get special rules any longer.

A final aside: the other task from Sunday was the construction of some joint terrain for "Ork Shantytown". These are the pieces prior to painting! Note the windmill!