Road to Apocalypse: 9. The Final Battle
13 February 2022
 |
| We's gonna stomp you!! |
So this was it, the final battle. It had all been leading up to this for the last few months - all the painting and practice battles. The Modelling Exhibition at Midhurst, the final showdown between the forces of the Imperium and the WAAAAAAGH! that had been steadily growing.
+++++ PRIORITY: ALPHA +++++
Deployment
We arrived at the Midhurst leisure centre nice and early (I think we were all there by 09.30), but there were a LOT of troops to muster! We had a great table laid out with some excellent scenery painted by Tris (the club's current Terrain Master). There was a table to the side for preparing the troops, but we couldn't fit all the Orks on it...
 |
| Ghazghkull surveys the mustering Orks |
 |
| The Deffskulls and Evil Sunz gather in their masses, just like witches at black masses |
 |
| Couldn't get all the Goffs on the mustering table! |
 |
| Looking out towards 3/4 of the Imperial High Command |
 |
| Ork Warbosses in serious contemplation |
Deployment was fairly standard - 24" No Man's Land in the middle, deploy all along the long board edges. We focused our Stompas and big walkers near the middle of the table, while Tris placed his Knight Castellan (the only Imperial Super-Heavy) far out on their left flank (away from the Stompas!).
It was an absolute treat to play on such a nice table, with both forces fully painted - we'd all put in a lot of effort over the last few weeks to get the final bits and pieces painted up to bring to the table, and it really paid off.
A swarm of Orks filled the horizon on Midhurstian Prime. The manufactorum complex had been decimated by the Greenskins - many of the existing ironworks had been scavenged and turned into clanking, smoke-belching war engines by the kunning know-wots of the Big Meks. Arrayed against this tide of muscle and metal was a strike force of Adeptus Astartes, the pride of the Imperium. Space Marines from four Chapters had agreed to operate under the command of Logan Grimnar, Great Wolf of the Space Wolves. The vestiges of the planet's defenders had joined the Space Marines - a huge Knight Castellan and two smaller Armigers; all that was left of the once noble Knight Houses on Midhurstian Prime. Would this surgical strike by the forces of the Imperium be sufficient to cut off the head of this Waaaagh! before it engulfed the rest of the sub-sector in warfare? Logan Grimnar looked at the disposition of the forces from the strategium of his Battle Barge, hanging in the void above the planet. He nodded with satisfaction and led his Wolf Guard terminators to the teleportarium to prepare for Deep Strike, while advising the Ship Commander to prepare to release the Drop Pod containing his Blood Claw pack. He knew where his forces needed to strike.
Turn 1
The Battle of Midhurstian Prime had begun. While the Imperium had been fighting bands of Orks on neighbouring planets, and doing their best to contain the Waaaagh! that was growing, this battle would be a crucial turning point. If the Orks could be stopped here, they would lose momentum and fall to infighting, returning to the background threat that they normally were. But, if the Orks could sweep away their Space Marine enemies, more would flock to their banner and many more worlds would be bathed in a roaring tide of green bodies.
It was the Black Templars who kicked off proceedings, shooting a single Grot from his feet. Not the most inspiring of starts for the Imperium, but everyone knows that Grots are exceedingly dangerous in large numbers!
The Black Templar fliers set their sights on a much larger target, strafing Ghazghkull's Stompa with fire. Most of the fusillade was blocked by Mek Boss Buzzgob's Kustom Force Field - he was standing behind the great green machine, tinkering with the feet to make them extra stompy as there was a good distance for the huge walker to cover before it could unload its deadly cargo and get to work choppin' some humies!
Along the Ork lines, the Deffskullz were less worried about the stompiness of their Stompa. They instead decided to rely on trickery (typical!) and the psychic power of the Waaaagh! to simply Jump their machine into the Imperial lines - which was more than a little surprising for the Noble pilot of the Knight Castellan, who now had a Stompa charging into his flank! The Space Marine attempts to block this psychic manoeuvre failed, so the huge blue pile of scrap popped into existence behind their lines and immediately started shooting at the Space Wolf infantry while it charged the Knight Castellan, swinging its huge chainblade and biting deep into the venerable walker.
Screaming jets flew above the Ork lines as the Dakkajets scrambled to intercept the Black Templar fliers. The flyboyz cackled maniacally as they fired their supa-shooters at hovering black aircraft, but they must have been enjoying the speed too much as all their shots went wide. Fortunately, the Grots that were crewing the Mek Gunz below had been scared by Deadeye Dregmek threatening to fire them through his Shokk Attakk Gun if they didn't shoot straight, so they poured fire up at the big Black Templars plane and scored a number of hits along the fuselage. They even managed to get an eye on the Space Marine infantry that were skulking behind some industrial ruins and eliminated some of them with crackling energy beams and solid shot. Those Grots were doing a good job so far, and had earned a reprieve from the Big Mek's earlier threat!
 |
| The Evil Sunz buggies and Deffskull Stompa attack the Imperial Knights on two fronts |
 |
| The Space Wolves charge in to help the beleaguered Knights |
On the other side of the battlefield, the Space Wolves had their own flying machine that was targeting the Mek Gun battery, but only achieving minimal damage. At the same time, more of the Space Marine forces targeted the Great Green Gitkilla, Ghazghkull's Stompa, but the Kustom Force Field continued to protect it from harm.
More Evil Sunz vehicles were roaring around the left hand side of the huge silo, firing their weapons at the Black Templar infantry as they tried to position themselves to assault the Blood Angels position next turn (and possibly steal the strategic location the Blood Angels were guarding, if they were lucky). The Goff walkers got stomping forwards on the other side of the silo, not moving as quickly as the Evil Sunz but clanking onwards to try and surprise the Space Marines with a combined attack.
Deffskullz advanced behind the Evil Sunz on the right flank, to provide some muscle to hold onto the objective on that side of the battlefield. And, finally, Ghazghkull's Stompa strode forwards, the ground shaking with every step. It looked like the Beakies were just a little too far for the Stompa to charge into combat, so the Kaptin kept the speed to a moderate level as he got the guns aimed. Or, at least pointed vaguely in the right direction. Most of the Stompa's shooting was largely ineffectual, apart from the Supa Gatler that fired a hail of shells straight at the Hellblasters that were brazenly standing on a rooftop. The Kaptin remembered some Beakies just like those ones causing all sorts of mischief before, so he kept firing until they, and the building they were standing on, were reduced to ruin.
At the end of the turn, the Orks had managed to advance onto the right-hand objective and keep control of it, with the Mek Gunz and Goff infantry on the left keeping an eye on that objective. The Space Marines had two huge formations of infantry standing on two objectives in their own deployment zone, so shifting them was unlikely. However, as the Orks were slightly under the PL limit, we were the Defenders and so we would win the points for Objectives on any turn when the number of objectives secured was a tie.
End of Turn 1
Imperium:
Two objectives secured, Attacker +0 VP
Two units destroyed, fewer kills +0 VP
Total: 0 VP
Orks:
Two objectives secured, Defender +2 VPThree units destroyed, more kills +2 VP
Total: 4 VP
Turn 2
This turn saw the arrival of Logan Grimnar and his Space Wolves from reserves. The Great Wolf teleported in behind the Ork Mek Gunz, accompanied by his Wolf Guard Terminators, while a grey Drop Pod fell from the heavens like a meteor and struck into the ground to his left, Blood Claws leaping from the doors before they had even fully opened. With expert timing, the hovering Stormwolf transport disgorged its own volatile cargo, and the Wulfen landed to support their Lord and his retinue. Grimnar planned to end the danger posed by the strange, yet surprisingly potent, Mek Gunz - and, at the same time, secure a valuable strategic location. He didn't imagine that the few Orks and pathetic Grots that have been left at the back of the lines would pose much difficulty to a warrior of his prowess.
 |
| The Great Wolf, Logan Grimnar, teleports in to the battle |
The Ork Weirdboy had other plans, however. Ghazghkull had told him to look after the Mek Gunz at all costs, and any order from Ghazghkull was accompanied with a threat much worse than anything a Beakie could do! He told the two mobs of Slugga Boyz to get over and charge the Space Wolves before they had a chance to get to the precious guns. Although there were only ten Orks in each mob, these were Goff Orks - da 'ardest of da 'ard! These Skarboyz had seen plenty of fighting, and they were getting bored babysitting the Big Gunz. They tore into the Space Wolves with unfettered fury, while Bozgit the Weirdboy used the psychic backlash caused by their enthusiastic fighting to empower them further with the power of the Warpath, enabling them to strike even faster. The flurry of blows was too much even for Logan Grimnar, who fell to the ground and was stomped on by the Orks. His Wolf Guard called an emergency teleportation for him, removing his prone form from the battlefield before the Orks could finish the job. He was going to be furious about that when he regained consciousness.
This left the Mek Gunz untroubled by the surprise attack of the Space Wolves, so they continued their bombardment of the Black Templars infantry and flying machines as the Ork Dakkajets zoomed overhead and added additional suppressive firepower towards the Black Templar position.
For their part, the attacking Space Wolves had mixed success. The Wulfen focused on kicking a few Grots to death (hardly worthy of their martial prowess), while the battered Blood Claws killed a few Slugga Boyz. The Wolf Guard Terminators must have either been shocked by the brutal kicking that Grimnar had taken, or else they forgot to turn their power weapons on, as they entirely failed to cause any damage to the Ork Boyz whatsoever!
The Evil Sunz brigade continued its advance around the large silo, lining up an assault on the large Blood Angels formation. On the other side of the silo, the Goff walkers continued clanking forwards at top speed, but only the Morkanaut had the speed to make contact with the enemy - the Deff Dredds were following close behind, but not quite quick enough.
Da Great Green Gitkilla had taken a lot of damage so far, with fires springing up throughout its frame, but if it weren't for the Kustom Force Field that Buzzgob and his Grots were lugging about, the Stompa would have been destroyed by now. Still, it was ready to charge. Just as it was gearing up to lumber forwards into the Space Marine gunline, the two Black Templar tanks unleashed a withering hail of firepower at the huge walker. Armour plates were falling off the body, various wires and pistons were hanging limply, but the ramshackle walker continued forward inexorably. It smashed into the tanks and brought its massive choppa down in a huge arc that sliced through the tank's turret and bit deep into the body. Somehow, the tank was still functioning, but only just.
Battle was now joined between the advancing Goffs and Space Marine gunline, an irresistible force meeting an immovable object. The Black Templar air wing went into full reverse to shoot at the Evil Sunz in an attempt to slow them down and prevent them from helping the Goff vehicles.
Ghazghkull and his Meganobz (along with Gulskrag, the instigator of the whole Waaaaagh! until Ghaz turned up and took over) all piled out of the scrapped Stompa and jumped straight into combat with the Black Templars tanks. Somehow, the tank that had been chopped up by the Stompa wasn't destroyed, so they got close to it and used it for a bit of cover while they planned their next move.
After some atrocious dice rolling, the normally lucky Deffskullz hadn't managed to finish off the Knight Castellan, though it was on its last legs. Killing off Logan Grimnar with the Goff Boyz was quite spectacular though, earning the Orks a VP for killing the enemy Warmaster.
Overall, the Imperials had destroyed more Ork units this turn (by some margin), but had not managed to wrest control of either of our objectives. They were catching up, but we kept the lead, for now.
End of Turn 2
Imperium:
Two objectives secured, Attacker +0 VP
More units destroyed +2 VP
3 Super Heavy vehicles destroyed +3 VPTotal: 5 VP
Orks:
Two objectives secured, Defender +2 VPFewer units destroyed +0 VP
Warmaster killed +1 VPTotal: 7 VP
Turn 3
It was getting late in the day, so in all likelihood this would be the last turn. We knew we had to keep our positions on the objectives to maintain our lead, and try to avoid the enemy blowing up too many of our Super Heavies or killing Ghazghkull. With the death of my Morkanaut and one of the Deff Dredds, I chose to wipe out the other Dredd and the Big Mek accompanying them so that I could roll for them to come back (the only detachment to return to the Meat Grinder during this battle). I brought them back behind my Mek Gunz to provide some protection against the Space Wolves rampaging towards the objective. The downside to this tactic was that we had one more Super Heavy on the table - if they managed to kill the Morkanaut again then that would be one additional VP for the Imperials! We had the Morkanaut, the Deffskullz Gorkanaut and Evil Sunz Battle Fortress - that was potentially 3 VP, plus one more for Ghazghkull if they could kill him. So, the name of the game for this turn was ensuring the Knight Castellan was finally put down, keeping hold of our two objectives, and weathering the storm of fire that would be directed at our high value targets!
The deep striking Space Wolves charged in, damaging the Morkanaut and the Weirdboy who had empowered the Boyz last turn. The Morkanaut retaliated, but the Weirdboy chose to scuttle off to safety so that he could use Telekine Dome to provide additional protection to the Morkanaut - it was fast becoming a bullet sponge for all the Imperial fliers! There were a huge number of saving throws to take for the walker at the end of the turn, but with Telekine Dome allowing them all to be taken on D12s, the vehicle managed to survive to the end of the battle, denying the Imperials an all important Victory Point!
Bozgit Da Amayzin' watched as the Blood Claws charged towards him, moving with surprising agility considering the bulky power armour they were wearing.
"Zog dat!" exclaimed the Weirdboy, and he ran off towards Buzzmek's Uvver Ruzzbot, which had just driven into view. Lucky dat git had built two Morkanauts really, thought Bozgit, as it would be the perfect place to hide away from these frothing Wolfie Beakies.
As he hitched up his robes and started to leg it, the Blood Claws wheeled to try and cut him off. Bozgit used his Weirdboy staff to fend them off as best as he could, but he got slashed a few times by their chainswords - a trip to the Painboy was going to be needed after Ghazghkull finished wiping these humies out.
He was getting closer to his boyz now (the ones that were still alive, anyway) and they were getting proper stuck in with the Wolfies. The psychic resonance of their joy to be in the thick of the fighting pounded louder in Bozgit's head the closer he got to them, and his eyes began to glow green with WAAAAGH! energy. He turned on the Space Wolves that were still chasing him and roared in anger, a brilliant green light emanating from his trembling body. The Blood Claws stopped to cover their eyes just long enough for the Weirdboy to continue his escape towards the Morkanaut - he was going to be safe!
But no... what was that? Bozgit shook his head and moaned as he looked towards the Morkanaut. It was surrounded by frothing Space Wolves who were vainly hacking at its thick armour, while it smashed it's wrecking ball down on the attackers and ran over the broken bodies with it's steel tracks. Bozgit wasn't worried about them. More of Buzzmek's dredds were clanking into position to help the larger mek vehicle anyway - those Beakies were done for. No, he was worried about the two big, bulky Beakie jets that were screaming in towards the Ruzzbot, starting their strafing runs. Even the whirring Kustom Force Field generator on top of the iron giant wasn't going to be enough to stop all those bullets getting through.
Knowing it might be his only hope to get out of this fight in one piece, the Weirdboy summoned all the WAAAGH! energy he could and focused it at the Kustom Force Field generator. Somehow, Bozgit managed to boost the power of the protective shield up to eleven. The shimmering haze of the force field crackled and expanded outwards, becoming more tangible and covered in arcing green lightning. Some of the hail of firepower made it through the protective dome, but most of it pattered harmlessly against the energy field.
The fliers sped off into the distance, and the Morkanaut was still standing. Bozgit dragged himself back to his feet, drained from the effort, but managed to use his staff to help him hobble over to the hatch in the rear of the Ruzzbot. He slid in and fell to the metal floor inside the beast, panting. Above him, he could hear the Ork driver cackling as he ran over another Beakie, the sickening crunch of the tracks cracking the ceramite armour sounding like music to the Weirdboy's ears. It had been a good day to be an Ork.
In the centre of the battlefield, the Blood Angels charged into the Evil Sunz, doing their best to eradicate a few units of light vehicles to thin the Orks' numbers. Hordes of Boyz leapt from their trukks and battlewagons to counter-charge the Blood Angels. Not wanting to let their Battle Brothers have all the fun, the remains of the Black Templar squads also charged in to attack the Evil Sunz, though they completely fluffed their rolls and didn't manage to do much of anything. This fight was going to be another slugfest, and there was no way it would be decided by the end of the day. Perhaps the Evil Sunz could have broken through to threaten the objective, but without the support of the Goff walkers it would have been an uphill struggle.
On the right flank, the Deffskull Meganobz once again failed to inflict any damage on the Knight Castellan. The walker decided discretion was the better part of valour and stomped off, trying to keep away from the Meganobz in case they ever did get their power klaws working! The Knight was limping, however, so didn't get too far away, and the damage to its systems rendered its shooting largely ineffective this turn. It didn't get far enough away from the Evil Sunz buggies, who chased it like a pack of wolves harrying a bison. Eventually, the weight of damage sustained was too great for the ancient machine to handle and it collapsed to the ground, finally destroyed.
The Deffskullz Boyz swarmed the objective on the right flank, ensuring that it couldn't be claimed by the Imperials. Combined with the Goff defence of the objective on the left flank, this ensured that the Orks would get the 2 VP for securing objectives this turn. One of the battlewagons charged into the Space Wolves for good measure, to keep them at arms length as much as anything. The Deffskullz Gorkanaut hosed the Space Wolves with a hail of bullets, but also used the kunnin' of Mork to try and shield itself from as much return fire as possible behind the large ruined building. The tactic worked, as the walker only took minimal damage and was able to shrug most of it off before the end of the battle.
It was in the centre of the Imperial lines that the biggest cat and mouse game was going on, though. The Crimson Fists finally decided to move off their objective slightly, advancing towards the Evil Sunz and Deffskullz. Ghazghkull and his Meganobz hadn't moved yet, but now was the time. The tanks in front of them switched into reverse and sped away from the huge Ork Warboss, suddenly revealing him as a viable target for the rest of the Space Marines. The last few Black Templars took some pot shots at him, managing to make him angry but not really achieving much else. Ghazghkull saw the retreating backs of the Crimson Fists and charged after them - the Meganobz smashed into the back of a squad of Marines while Ghaz himself went toe-to-toe with a Redemptor Dreadnought. This decision had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that the Space Wolf detachment was the only one that was yet to activate, and thus the only thing remaining that could damage Ghazghkull - honest, guv, nuffin' to do wiv it at all!!!! 😅Gulskrag decided to show Ghazghkull just how tough he really was, and charged into the Space Wolves by himself to see what damage he could do on this final turn.
And so the battle was over. The Evil Sunz Battlefortress had shrugged off a pounding from Imperial fliers, and was barely even damaged. With a timely psychic power, the replacement Morkanaut was saved, while the Gorkanaut weathered the storm. Ghazghkull had escaped unharmed, with another useful card removing the single blast marker that he suffered at the hands of the Black Templars. With no time to complete the Damage Phase anyway, it was clear that the Orks had won the day regardless of those 2 potential VP.
End of Turn 3
Imperium:
Two objectives secured, Attacker +0 VPNo Super Heavy vehicles destroyed +0 VPTotal: 5 VPOrks:
Two objectives secured, Defender +2 VPOne Super Heavy unit destroyed +1 VPTotal: 10 VP
Conclusions
Wow. What a long day!
We were running out of time at the end and needed to pack away the many (many) models on the table, so we didn't actually complete the third Damage Phase. We checked the Super Heavies and found that all of the big Ork vehicles remaining on the table had survived, while the Knight had FINALLY been destroyed - that meant the Imperium would have had to destroy all three of the Ork Super Heavies PLUS kill Ghazghkull to put themselves on 9 VP. Then, if they had destroyed more units, they would have stolen the win from the Orks. As it was, it didn't matter who killed the most units on the final turn as the end result would be the same, so we got on with packing up. Judging by the distribution of Blast Markers on the table, it would have probably been pretty close. I think that the Orks might have just managed to kill more units because so much of the Imperium's firepower had been dedicated to taking out the Super Heavies, which didn't work, so it may have ended up 12-5. But we'll never know for sure!
Things would have been closer if we hadn't adjusted the VPs for holding objectives. I think it was a good thing to do that, as it put more focus on trying to take and hold the objectives. But, if we had left it as 1 VP for holding the most, we would have ended up at 7-5, so the number of units killed would have been important as the Imperium could have squeezed out a draw. Again, we won't know, so the Orks win and Midhustian Prime is completely overrun with the WAAAAAAGH!, which is now threatening an entire Sub-Sector of space.... a good result for the green boyz!
No comments:
Post a Comment