Road to Apocalypse: 4. Junkyard Brawl
15 January 2022
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| Big Meks love their Kustom Force Fields! |
Buzzmek turned the wrench one more time then stepped back to admire his handiwork. Dat wizzy fing was just what his Ruzzbot needed. Of course, Buzzmek had no idea what it was going to do when the driver pressed the new, shiny red button, but he had a feeling in his gut that it was gonna be good!
Warboss Gulskrag had left the Mekaniak behind to fix up his walkers while he and da boyz went looking for a scrap. The scramble back to the Roks and Landas to escape the dying planet had taken it out of the clanking machines, and the Boss wanted them running in tip-top condition in case those Beakies caught up with them again. Buzzmek and his crew of Grots had been hard at work on tuning up the Dread Mob before his natural inclination for tinkering had distracted him, and he had left half the Dreads and Kans immobilised on the landing field while he began dismantling bits of spaceship to make some new worky gubbinz. Given enough time, the Mek would have completely disassembled all the grounded spacecraft, expanded his junkyard as far as he could see, and constructed a horde of walking death machines to stomp across this planet in an orgy of destruction. Gulskrag would probably be back before then, and he might not look so favourably on his space fleet being dismantled... he'd probably rather let those thieving Deffskullz loot whatever they could from the planet's inhabitants and use THAT to build more war machines. Buzzmek didn't have that sort of foresight, that was why Gulskrag was Da Boss!
He might have had plans for the Deffskullz, but Gulskrag still didn't like being around the gitz; it was tiring to always be on the lookout for their grasping hands trying to nick anything that wasn't nailed down. The Evil Sunz had managed to rejoin the WAAAAAGH! during the escape off-world too, but he didn't like them much better... days of them riding their bikes round and round the cargo holds on the journey here had made Gulskrag dizzy. He'd sent the lot of them off in the opposite direction when he'd jumped into his battlewagon and trundled off to find trouble, leading his Goff boyz tramping across the plains of this new world. He'd told them it was a Grand Plan to spread out and find more enemies to kill - the sort of genius plan that Ghazghkull himself would be proud of! But, really, they were doing his head in and he wanted some peace and quiet. With the promise of some proper violence for him and his ladz, of course.
We had two Apocalypse games going on this morning, more practice ahead of Midhurst but all fitting nicely into this evolving narrative! I was playing a 100 PL fight against Tris (Blood Angels and a Cadian Hellhammer Tank), while on another table they had a 2 v 2 game, each player bringing 100 PL. Dave's Deffkullz with Tom's Evil Sunz against the Black Templars (Sam) and Mark's Crimson Fists. Everyone had taken part in the first battle on New Year's Day (ApORKalypse), apart from Tom who unfortunately couldn't make it. So there were perhaps some scores to be settled, and people were getting more familiar with how Apocalypse worked so hopefully it was going to go smoothly with the smaller PL limits (we did only have the morning for this, as it was a normal Saturday session at the club).
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| Buzzmek's Mekyard Clankers |
I really like the look of this little 100 PL list (I detailed it in the previous post). It feels right for Apocalypse - if I can get it fully painted over the next four weeks, add a few of the other bits I had in the previous game, it should be a pretty good spectacle on the table!
The thunder overhead and tell-tale lines of smoke in the sky distracted Buzzmek from his tinkering and told him that the Space Marines had arrived. That was good news - Beakies to kill - but it looked like they were heading in the direction that Gulskrag had sent the Deffskullz and Evil Sunz... the Boss wouldn't be happy to miss out on that fight. Oh well. At least he would have his Dread Mob back in action to give them a kicking after the other gitz had softened them up!
It was then that one of Buzzmek's Grot scouts came running up, squeaking excitedly. Once he'd cuffed the little bugger round the ear hard enough for him to calm down (and after the Grot had regained consciousness), he understood what it was saying - there was movement coming this way. It seemed some of the Beakies had landed closer to the Ork landing field and, more importantly, his junkyard, and they had got some humie mates from a local fortress to come and help. The humies were apparently struggling to keep up with the fast Beakies (they were painted red after all), but there was an enormous tank roaring alongside them. Now, THAT was exciting, thought Buzzmek. He'd have to get as many walkers up and moving as he could, because he wanted that tank. He needed it. Although he didn't realise it, that tank was going to save Gulskrag's space fleet.
Deployment
We decided on the first Apocalypse mission, to keep things simple. Tris' force of Blood Angels and massive tank came to a few points under 100PL, while my Mekyard Clankers were bang on 100, so I was the Attacker and he was the Defender. This has little effect in the game, other than to give him the advantage if we held the same number of objectives at the end of any given turn.
We set up with some of the nice industrial terrain Tris has painted recently, but with only two detachments each and 24" separating the two forces, it was always going to end up as a massive bundle in the middle of the table... not that Orks were complaining about that, of course!
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| The opposing forces face off |
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| The Stompa towers over the nearby buildings |
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| The Imperial gunline prepares to receive a piston-driven charge |
Turn 1
The Stompa Kaptain wanted to show just who was best, so he ordered the Grot riggers to put power to the legs and warm up the weapons. He fired all his rokkits at the huge red tank - apparently the orders from Buzzmek to bring it back in one piece weren't high on the Kaptain's agenda! Rokkits and the huge-calibre Deffkannon shot smacked into the tank with a resounding clang and subsidiary explosions before the tank retaliated, firing everything out from the smoke back towards the Stompa. The Kaptain had walked forwards quickly, out of the protective bubble projected by Buzzmek's Kustom Force Field, so it was just the thick armour plates of the walker that protected it from the Hellhammer's retaliation. Both super heavy vehicles were damaged in the fusillade, though it was going to take more than that to take either of them down.
Almost as an afterthought, the Stompa turned its Big Shootas and Supa-Gatler on the Aggressors and Hellblasters, blowing chunks out of the stoic marines.
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| The Space Marines don't flinch despite seeing the huge form of the Stompa lumbering towards them |
Buzzmek and the rest of the Clankers advanced. They couldn't quite keep up with the long strides of the Stompa, but the Mek was at least able to get to a position (from within the relative safety of the Gorkanaut, Stompzilla) to extend his Kustom Force Field back over the larger walker to provide it some protection from the disciplined fire of the Space Marines.
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| Both forces advance through a storm of bullets |
The Kans fired rokkits at the big tank, adding to the small fires that were springing up over its hull. The Hellblasters and Aggressors took more damage, though the Redemptor Dreadnought was totally unscathed. On the far right flank, Buzzmek's Ruzzbot supercharged its Big Zappa to fire it at the Hellhammer - a risky move, but the Ruzzbot driver was keen to be the one to take the tank out of action for the Big Mek before the Stompa had another chance! Coruscating energy beams danced over the hull of the tank, scorching the armour panels black and adding to the damage already inflicted. The Hellhammer was on its last legs, with one wound remaining, but the disciplined crew managed to put out the fires and keep the vehicle in the fight a little longer.
Meanwhile, on the Stompa, the Grot Riggers were less useful and a couple of the smaller fires got out of control, spreading through the interior of the walker and causing an extra point of damage during the Morale Phase - just pushing the Stompa to over half damage, meaning it was Critically Damaged and would be slightly less effective.
The iron discipline of the Space Marines meant the Blood Angels stood their ground despite the casualties being inflicted on them, holding on to their territory in the face of the Ork advance.
End of Turn 1
Space Marines: 1 VP (three objectives secured, Defender)
Orks: 0 VP (three objective secured)
Turn 2
This turn, the Space Marines stood their ground and levelled all their guns at the tide of Ork war machines with an Aimed Fire order. The Primaris Lieutenant called in an Orbital Bombardment centred on the Stompa, Deff Dread (Orktimus Prime) and Gorkanaut, but despite the size of the targets only the Gorkanaut took any damage. The shooting from the infantry was far more accurate, but the small arms fire struggled to penetrate the Kustom Force Field or thick armour plates of the Stompa. Buzzmek's Gorkanaut did take a significant amount of damage from the Hellhammer, the walker limping forwards to engage.
Buzzmek's forces should really have charged in to combat, but the smaller walkers took their lead from the limping Gorkanaut and stomped forwards just a short way before pointing their guns at the Space Marine gun line. There was perhaps method to this madness as Buzzmek got the Gorkanaut pilot to wave a yellow flag out of the top hatch - a signal to the Grot gunners back in the Junkyard to shoot a Pulsa Rokkit at the enemy. With the Marines all bunched up to focus their fire, they were a prime target for the lobbed projectile, which landed amongst them and started pulsing with energy. The energy from the Pulsa Rokkit flared outwards, causing many Marines throughout the gunline to fall to their knees before it winked out of existence - it had been far more effective than the Orbital Bombardment.
Suddenly, a loud blaring of its warhorns heralded the Stompa charging forwards. The Kaptain had yelled to put all power to the legs, and the grinding of massive gears propelled the huge vehicle at surprising speed towards the Hellhammer. Buzzmek was quite annoyed at the Stompa Kaptain for running ahead, but he was too busy trying to repair the damage to his Gorkanaut to do much about it.
(in reality, I misread one of the Command Asset cards and confused an 'Assault' order for an 'Advance' order. I had intended for the Stompa to Advance, chop up some Marines and shoot the tank - but with the card actually giving it the Assault order that would mean it couldn't shoot, but with the double move it COULD reach the tank for a bit of close combat. I think Tris would have kindly let me rescind the order, but once I thought about it, it seemed too perfect not to do it. I felt like the excited Stompa Kaptain, eager to chop up the enemy tank with a huge chainblade, so I had to let him get on with it!)
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| The Stompa charges at the Hellhammer |
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| The massive, whirring teeth of the enormous chainblade bite through the armour plates of the super heavy tank |
Who can imagine the terror on the faces of the Hellhammer crew as the enormous bulk of the Stompa bearing down on them shook them out of their seats, and the sound of screeching metal deafened them as the whirring chainblade bit deep into the armour plating of their adamantium behemoth? Even the stoic bravery of the nearby Space Marines must have been tested by the sight. The already damaged tank was shredded by the Stompa, but to Buzzmek's relief it didn't blow up - there was some patching to be done, but there was a useful bit of scrap right there!
The Big Mek had to take his eyes away from the scope though as he heard some explosions behind him - the Gorkanaut he was riding in was, itself, collapsing under the weight of fire it had received. Fortunately, he was able to jump clear of the wreckage without suffering any injury, but he did feel more than a little exposed in the middle of the battlefield...
Other than the Hellhammer, both units of Hellblasters and the Primaris Lieutenant had been taken out of the fight. The rest of the Space Marines were resolutely holding on to one of their objectives, but the Ork machines were circling, and without the Hellhammer and Hellblasters, the Blood Angels were missing much of their anti-armour firepower.
End of Turn 2
Space Marines: 1 VP (one objective secured)
Orks: 1 VP (four objectives secured)
Turn 3
The Stompa waded through the wreckage of the Hellhammer to charge into the Redemptor Dreadnought, swinging it's huge choppa as it surged forwards. The smaller walker didn't stand a chance, being ground into scrap before it could react. While he merrily stomped on the Redemptor's carcass, the Stompa Kaptain turned his guns onto the Vindicator tank. As the Grot Riggers had been completely unable to repair the damage caused earlier in the battle, the worky bitz for the gun arm were a bit wonky so the Kaptain's normally mediocre shooting was even worse than normal, but he wasn't too bothered as he was having fun. He ran down a ladder to the skorcha in the chest, pushing the Grot gunner out the way to fire a gout of burning promethium at the Beakie with the funny coloured armour - he looked like he was some sort of Weirdboy, though not as crazed as those Warpheads as it looked like he was probably in charge. Nobody would trust old Bozgit Da Amayzin' to be in charge of crowd control at Da Drops, let alone a troop of Goff Boyz!
In the centre of the battlefield, Buzzmek was getting peppered with small arms fire from the Space Marines. His reinforced Mega Armour rebounded all the shots, but he decided maybe it was best if he ducked behind a pile of scrap for a bit... he wasn't running away, honest, he was just going to look for some nice gubbinz to fix the Gorkanaut. Gulskrag wouldn't be happy if that wasn't running, and besides, the massive tank was scrapped and there was just a few Beakies left to finish off... he could trust his Dreads and the Ruzzbot to sort them out... definitely not running away, no, but he had a feeling that the big pile of scrap BACK OVER THAT WAY probably had the best loot in it, so he headed back towards the landing zone and left the Clankers to clean up. In a brave, Orky-Goff way, of course.
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| The Stompa destroys the Redemptor, while Buzzmek's 'Taktikal Wivdrawal' leaves Orktimus Prime in charge of Da Clankers |
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| Buzzmek's Ruzzbot charges into the squad of Intercessors who piled out of their wrecked Impulsor |
The Primaris Ancient with his precious banner looked around at the carnage. He knew that things were looking bleak for the Emperor's Chosen, but the Sons of Sanguinius would sell their lives dearly. If they could. Even the bravest amongst them held no illusions that they could stop that Stompa, short of the Angel Himself suddenly returning to life and coming to their aid. Maybe, if they stood their ground long enough, they could buy time for their brothers from the Crimson Fists, Black Templars and Space Wolves to complete their ambush of the smaller force of Greenskins that had split from these war machines and the large number of footslogging Orks that had trudged off in the other direction. Perhaps the natural hubris of the Sons of Baal had driven them into this battle thinking that they could destroy these ramshackle Ork walkers, but it remained tactically sound to try and eliminate the disparate elements of this WAAAAAAGH! before it got out of hand and bathed this world in blood. The combined Space Marine insertion force had failed to stop the Traitor Marines from achieving their objectives and escaping, and now it had become apparent that the filthy Greenskins had even escaped the destruction of the planet. They must be stopped, even if it cost the Blood Angels dearly.
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| The situation looks bleak for the Blood Angels |
End of Turn 3
Space Marines: 1 VP (no objectives secured)
Orks: 2 VP (four objectives secured)
Turn 4
The Ork Clankers moved in for the kill. The killa kans ran past the looming Stompa, looking like tiny children compared to the monstrous machine. They charged into the Aggressors, klaws snapping and drills spinning as they attacked. Meanwhile, Orktimus Prime charged the Vindicator tank just as the dust was settling from a devastating barrage of fire from the Stompa. Behind, the other Deff Dread, Grimgob Irontoof, charged into the Primaris Ancient.
With a loud boom, the Vindicator blew up, while the Aggressors and Primaris Ancient were also cut down. The Intecessor squad were the only Space Marines remaining alive on the battlefield, but standing in front of the imposing Ruzzbot, it was only a matter of time for them.
The day belonged to the Orks, and Buzzmek had some good new scrap to play with - keeping him occupied instead of dismantling Gulskrag's spacecraft.
End of Turn 4
Space Marines: 1 VP (no objectives secured)
Orks: 3 VP (four objectives secured)
Conclusions
I really enjoyed having a force full of war machines! It felt very 'Apocalypse-y'. It was difficult for Tris to do much about them with his small arms fire, but on the other hand, it doesn't take much to get one or two blast markers on something, then suddenly it's in trouble... The Gorkanaut was a good example, in the end it failed Morale to lose its final wound. The Stompa also lost a wound to Morale in the first turn, taking it to under half strength which certainly reduced its effectiveness going forwards.
The Apocalypse rules are making more sense after a couple of practices, though I still find the terms 'Advance' and 'Assault' get a bit confused for some reason. I certainly want to get some of these mechs painted up so I can use them at Midhurst, it's a good incentive as they've been languishing unpainted for far too long! This game would also be the perfect springboard to convert up a looted Baneblade (something I've wanted to do for a long time), but I think that will be a bit too much of a stretch in four weeks!
Return to Da Camp
Buzzmek was excitedly crawling over the still-smoking wreckage of the Hellhammer when the roar of bike engines made him look up. He saw some of the Evil Sunz Speed Freeks speeding back towards his Junkyard, along with the battered remains of the Deffskullz. What he didn't see was any of their jets zooming overhead.
The bosses of the two forces tried to explain to Buzzmek about how dey'd been ambushed by Beakies, but had been so Kunnin' by charging forwards really quickly that they controlled the whole area straight away. They tried to gloss over the fact that all three of their jets had then been gunned down.... Buzzmek was obviously going to have to go and retrieve the wreckage seeing as these gitz hadn't even dragged it back for him!
They made some excuses about Orbital Bombardments and Lazer traps, but he knew what had happened - the Beakies had got close to the Evil Sunz and the ladz hadn't been able to take it. Typical Speed Freeks, no good when the fighting got up close and personal. Not like Goffs at all!
So the Beakies had fought back, some of the Speed Freeks had died, and they all turned tail and ran back here to get some help. It sounded like the Beakies weren't following them, so maybe they hadn't liked getting a bloody nose either.
It was probably going to be a while till Gulskrag got back, but Buzzmek was pretty sure there was going to be some words to be had when he did arrive. Maybe the Deffskullz would spin it that they left plenty of Beakies for Gulskrag to kill... that might cheer him up. At least Buzzmek knew Da Boss would be happy with him when he saw what he was building out of that massive tank...
Dave and Tom's force of Deffskullz and Evil Sunz took on Mark's Crimson Fists/Space Wolves combo and Sam's Black Templars. They each had 100 PL, so the total game was double the size of mine and Tris' - so they only get two turns in. It sounds like a game of two halves, where the speed of the Ork force (they were both filled with bikers, buggies and battlewagons) meant that they took all the objectives. The Space Marine counterattack in Turn 2 decimated the Ork force, and by the end of the turn they were contesting the same number of objectives - but the Marines, as the Defenders, got the VP for that turn. So 1 VP each, a draw in the end. The Orks did have a much bigger dead pile, however, so it would have been interesting to see what happened on a third turn - but luckily they limped back to the Goff Klan and I'm sure there'll be a new plan for what the Waaaagh! will do next.
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