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.