1250 Orks vs. Ad Mech: Vital IntelligenceOrthos IV: Act 2
Their forward base destroyed, fighting a war on two fronts, and with ammunition and spare parts running perilously low, mechanicus forces find themselves on their heels during the struggle for Orthos IV. They have, however, at great cost, managed to obtain one of the coveted relics in Ork hands, albeit a severely damaged one. It may prove a valuable lead in discovering a larger trove.
The current situation necessitates re establishing contact with high clergy to upload precious data on the artefact for processing, request a badly needed resupply drop, and to obtain further orders.
Scans of a nearby derelict mining facility indicate that its communication relays could be repaired and their signal amplified, enabling at least temporary contact with the orbiting cruiser Eye of Deimos.
Inconveniently, a sizeable Ork looting party happens to be also scouring the facility. Time is of the essence, so scout forces have been ordered to secure communication terminals with utmost haste. (Thanks to Uncle Tungsten for the introduction). This is the first part of the 2nd narrative arc for my Orks and Uncle Tungsten's Ad Mech of the Orthos Campaign found
here. The round information is not up yet, but basically the Ad Mech are trying to narrow down the location of ancient atrifacts and the Orks are trying to find the location of the Ad Mech vessel to use it to leave the planet.
EnemyMars Battalion: Cybernetica Cohort Specialist Detachment
HQ:
Tech-Priest Dominus
Tech-Priest Enginseer
Troops:
3 Kataphron Breachers
5 Skitarii Vanguards
5 Skitarii Vanguards
Elites:
Cybernetica Datasmith
5 Sicarian Infiltrators
Heavy Support:
2 Kastelan Robots
Stygies VIII Battalion:
HQ:
Tech-Priest Dominus
Tech-Priest Enginseer
Troops:
5 Skitarii Rangers
5 Skitarii Rangers
5 Skitarii Rangers
Dedicated Transport:
Skorpius Dunerider
Elucidian Starstriders Patrol:
HQ:
Elucia Vhane
Janus Draik
Troops:
Nitsch's Squad (5 Voidsmen & Aximillion)
Elites:
Knosso Prond
Larsen van der Grauss
Auxiliary Support:
Elite:
Eversor Assassin
Ork ForcesBad Moons Battalion
HQ:
Warboss on Warbike w/ Attack Squig, Shoota, Da Killa Klaw, Best Armor Teeth can Buy (trait)
Big Mek on w/ Slugga, Choppa, & Kustom Force Field
Troops:
10 Gretchin
10 Gretchin
10 Gretchin
Elites:
15 Tankbustas
Heavy Support:
2 Smasha Gunz
2 Smasha Gunz
Evil Sunz Battalion
HQ:
Bik Mek on Warbike w/ Headwhoppa's Kill Choppa & Kustom Force Field
Weirdboy (Warphead) w/ Warpath & Fists of Gork
Troops:
11 Shoota Boyz & Boss Nob w/ Big Choppa
11 Shoota Boyz & Boss Nob w/ Big Choppa
11 Shoota Boyz & Boss Nob w/ Big Choppa
Dedicated Transports:
3 Trukk w/ Big Shootas
Mission, Terrain & Deployment In the scenario, Vital Intelligence, there are 5 objectives laid out like an X on the map along diagonal lines across the board. one is at the center and the others at the mid-points of the lines running from the center of the board to the corners. Each round a d6 is rolled to determine which is active to score more victory points, or all of them if a 6 is rolled.
The terrain was set up as a ruined mining facility. There was a mix of ruined buildings, platforms, drilling towers, and pipelines throughout to offer some cover and break line of sight.
We rolled and got search and destroy for the deployment. I won the roll and picked the southwest corner. Uncle Tungsten got the Northeast Corner and set up his army back and in cover. I deployed my trukks as close to the edge of the deployment zone as possible while setting up the smasha guns along the edges of the zone for line of sight and range. The grots were deployed as screens and the Tankbustas in the rear to protect for jumping. Tungsten got to pick who went first and picked himself and I failed to seize the initiative.
Ad Mech Deployment
Ork DeploymentTop of Turn 1 At the start of the round Tungsten rolls to see which objective is active and rolls a 4, the North west objective near a bunch of small buildings. He cautiously moves forward and with limited targets weapons in range focuses his fire on one of my trukks and strips it of 7 wounds and that's the extent of his first turn.
The Ad Mech advance methodically
Bottom of Turn 1 I spread out my forces to engage multiple targets, but first one group of Gretchin advance to get in range of objective 4 to secure the active objective. The first trukk advances north to shoot at a group of rangers and wiping out 3 of them with heavy dakka. The wounded trukk limps toward objective four while the big mek follows to provide force field coverage and to repair it as well. The third trukk drives east toward objective 5 and rams the enginseer, each doing 2 wounds to the other. The smasha guns fire ineffectively. Finally the Tankbustas are jumped onto the central objective, 1, and more dakka the dunerider to a fiery death.
At the end of the round we count up objective, I hold 3, including the active one, to Tungsten's 1. I also get a point for First Blood.
Orks 5, Ad Mech 1
Spreading out to engage multiple targets
Here come the TankbustasRunning Down an EnginseerTop of Turn 2 Objective 4 remains the active objective for this round and the Ad Mech begin their counter-attack. The Starstriders arrive this turn, mostly behind cover but the voidsmen manage to shoot the gretchin holding objective 4. The grots that survive run away to grovel another day. Deemed a priority threat, the tankbustas come under heavy fire from the infiltrators that arrive on the scene, who manage to wipe out the squad. The breachers and the kastelan robots destroy the previously wounded trukk, killing 2 boys, who disembark onto objective 1. In the southeast oil field the enginseer withdraws from combat with the trukk and the rangers that survived the dunestrider explosion along with two groups of vanguard and Janus Draik fire on the trukk, destroying it and killing 2 of the orks inside. I get a lucky roll and the trukk explodes spectacularly, killing 5 vanguard, 2 rangers, the enginseer and deals 3 mortal wounds to Janus. Janus and the vanguard then assault the boyz, wiping out 6 more while the boyz kill the last two vanguard.
The smoking crater where a trukk used to be
Before the explosionInfiltrating their own deployment zoneFire on those cowardly grotsJanus is a good fighterBottom of Turn 2 The orks spirts raised by the spectacular explosion of the trukk in the oil fields press forward. The warboss drives through the wreckage of the trukk to gun down 2 vanguard and klaw to death 4 of the 5 rangers, remaining locked in combat until the next round. The boys finish off Janus and secure objective 5. The lone surviving trukk drops off it's group of boyz and races back to objective 4 to take control of it and hold off the starstriders. The boyz disembarking from the trukk, along with the boyz on objective 1 and the big mek kill off the infiltrators. The trukk boys proceed to charge the breachers and hack them to bits and pieces. The dominus intervienes and kills 4 boyz.
As the turn ends, I have orks in superior numbers at all objectives, scoring 6 points.
Orks 11, Ad Mech 1
WAAAGH!
Trukks can hold objectives tooDa Boss is Dead KillyAd Mech Command under AttackTop of Turn 3 At the top of the turn Objective 4 is once again active. The Ad Mech make a last ditch effort to find the information they need but it may be too late. The Dominus withdraws from combat to allow the kastelan robots to finish the boys threatening the Ad Mech Command. The starstriders and two lone rangers fire on the trukk holding objective 4 with little success and even less in combat. In retaliation the trukk runs over their dog. In the oils fields, an assassin shows up and along with the vanguard wipe out the last of the boys holding the objective there and engage the warboss in close combat. Da boss eviscerates the assassin and his attack squig devours a vangaurd.
At this point my opponent concedes as by the end of the turn we'll both score 3 points and he doubts he be able to catch up.
An Assassin appears
Engaging the WarbossNo more AssassinThis is the Party Trukk and Everybody is InvitedFinal Score:
Orks 14, Enemy 4
Post Mortem This was good game for my orks, coming off of a drubbing by the Deathwatch and a close loss to the Iron Hands (report to be posted "soon"). I was able to apply lessons learned in those battles to good effect here. I had multple threats my opponent had to account for and I moved agressivley while taking objectives. For example, my opponent had to bring his infiltrators into the game in his deployment area to kill the tankbustas instead of coming in on my flanks and starting to harass my smasha guns.
The coolest moment, and I think pivotal, was the trukk explosion in round 2. It prctically wiped out half of the Ad Mech forces in that area. It kept my boyz from coming under heavier fire and let my boss come in to wipe out the sruvivors.
As I've made mistakes in the deployment department before I don't think Tungstens cautious deployment helped him. He was only able to take 7 wounds off a trukk in his first round. My army was basically at full strength and able to "Alpha Strike" in the bottom of turn 1.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and as always, thanks to my opponent.