1000 point Orks Vs Imperial Fists: The RelicThe bunker shook with the impact of another greenskin shell, knocking the dust from the plascrete support beams and making the glowbulb shake. Captain Jorran Marro, of the 12th Hemoclan PDF, shouted into the the master vox. "No! Air support, dammit! I need some birds! Damned greenskins are all over us!" The reply was garbled static. The orks were hitting all over the line, their bombers reducing the human fortifications to rubble--it was total mayhem. Marro hadn't tallied his casualties--he didn't want to--but when he'd given the order to retreat, he hadn't seen more than a third of his platoon up and moving.
He was about to yell into the vox again when he felt a tap on his shoulder. "What?"
Private Haldric stood there, white as a sheet. He was a stern man--this wasn't like him. "Haldric, what the devil's got into you?"
"A...a person here to see you, sir."
Marro scowled. "Person?"
"Loosely speaking, sir." Haldric moved aside and pointed down the corridor. There, ducking through the door, was a giant in golden yellow power armor. He seemed to fill the whole bunker with his breadth--he had to twist sideways to make it through the doorway. When he did, Marro got a good look at his pauldron--a black fist in a white circle. An astartes of the Imperial Fists.
Marro only managed to say one word: "Throne..."
The giant warrior removed his helmet, revealing a craggy face that was as much scar tissue as it was anything else. "Captain Jorran Marro, Theta Company, 12th Hemoclan PDF?"
Marro paused--was he supposed to salute? Or was he supposed to be saluted? How exactly did the rank structure work, here? He realized he was staring, so he snapped to attention and gave what he hoped was a curt nod. "Yes?"
The astartes nodded. "You're relieved. We'll take it from here." Marro heard the heavy tramp of armored boots and glimpsed a few other astartes scaling the bunker to take up positions on the roof.
"Sir, I must inform you that there is ork artillery in the forest one klick north of here. The roof isn't safe."
"If this zone were safe, Captain, we wouldn't be here." The astartes said. "Is Enginseer Barith's equipment accounted for?"
"What?" Marro blinked, "No...well...I don't...how the hell should I know? We've been shelled and bombed for hours. We've taken heavy casualties. There's no way for me to--"
The astartes turned away from him. "All right--we'll find it."
"I beg your pardon, Captain, but what in blazes--"
The astartes put on his helmet. "I'm a sergeant, sir. And this zone is no longer your problem--as I said, you're relieved."
Marro stiffened. A sergeant? A *sergeant?!* "Well, sergeant, this is my post and I'll leave it when I determine that's the wisest course. And I'm telling you right now that there's a damned division of enemy artillery pounding this position and about two hundred orks bearing down on this location, so if you know what's good for you, you and your friends will take my advice and retreat right bloody now!"
The sergeant stared at him through his helmet. His voice boomed through amplifiers. "You don't know us very well, do you?"
With that, the massive warrior stomped back outside and joined his men on the roof. The shells kept raining down, the bombers kept up their runs, but, for some reason, Marro found himself feeling better.As my ork opponent has grown tired of the sheer madness of facing a Tzeentch Daemons list, he requested a matchup against my Imperial Fists. I gladly dusted the fellows off and readied a list to face off against the intractable greenskins:
Imperial Fists Battle Demi-CompanyBattle Demi-Company, Imperial Fists Chapter TacticsCaptain Troilus w/ Relic Blade, Artificer Armor, Bolter, Auspex, Meltabombs (Warlord: Angel of Death)
Tactical Squad Macedon (9 marines w/ 1x Flamer, Sarge w/Combiflamer, Meltabombs)
--in Drop Pod (Deathwind Launcher)
Tactical Squad Attica (6 Marines w/ 1x Heavy Bolter)
Tactical Squad Delphos (6 Marines w/ 1x Heavy Bolter)
Devastator Squad Scylla (8 Marines, 4x Lascannons)
The Centurions of Rhodes (3 Assault Centurions w/Hurricane Bolters, 1 x Meltagun, 2 x Flamers)
Brother Hektor (Dreadnought w/Multimelta, Hvy Flamer)
The Trukk Boyz of Boss BashaOrk Combined Arms DetachmentWarboss w/ 'Eavy Armor, Power Klaw, Cybork Body, Ded Shiny Shoota (Warlord Trait: Like a Thunderbolt)
11 Shoota Boyz w/1x Big Shoota
--in Trukk
12 Shoota Boyz w/ 1x Big Shoota, Nob w/Big Choppa
--in Trukk
12 Shoota Boyz w/ 1x Big Shoota, Nob w/ Big Choppa
--in Trukk
10 Lootas
5 Kannons
"Francis" the Deff Dred (3 x Klaws, 1x Big shoota, Grot Riggers)
2 Koptas w/ Rokkits
So, yeah, lots of dakka in that list of his. Mine's no slouch either, though.
Mission, Terrain, and DeploymentThe mission we rolled was "The Relic" and we wound up with a Vanguard Strike deployment. The board had a variety of terrain, but most notably a series of trenches and bunkers on the east side of the board and a forest and river in the northwest corner. The southeast corner had a bunch of ruins, one of which was multistory. My opponent won the roll-off and selected the corner with the forest and river as his deployment zone, I assuming planning on using the forest for plentiful cover against my guns.
When deploying, he crammed his Lootas into the woods and lined the three trukks and the dreadnought along the river's edge. The kannons deployed partially in the forest and partially by the waterfall (one of the biggest challenges to the kannons, I'm finding, is their sheer size. Five of those suckers takes up a LOT of real estate!). Finally the koptas deployed along the northern edge of the board and then scouted to the east, getting closer to my own lines. The Blitza Bomba was in reserve, of course.
For my part, the Devastators deployed atop the big bunker, giving their lascannons and commanding view. The Centurions deployed towards the south, with the plan that they would slowly claim the middle board and take the relic. The two smaller tac squads deployed between the big bunker and the trenches to act as a defensive line against the ork attack. Finally, Hektor, not wanting to be shot off the board by Lootas on turn one, hid behind the large bunker in position to secure a flank and/or act as a counter-assault unit to any orks that got to my lines. The Captain deployed with Tac Squad Macedon in their drop pod and prepared to ruin some greenskins' days on a first turn drop.
Deployment:
Behold the Ork line!I'm just *slightly* outnumbered.Turn 1I try to seize the initiative, but fail. Instead, the orks go first. They begin by rolling their trukks forward across the river, which two manage without any problems, but the third one gets hung up in the water and is immobilized. The orks in that one elect to disembark, heading towards my lines. Lots of shoota shots rain on my forward tac squads, and I lose two marines in one of the squads (Attica, I think) and they fall back. This doesn't really bother me, since I would have had them fall back anyway.
The Lootas pounded on the Devastators, killing two, and the Kannons fired on the Centurions and got lucky when I failed 2 out of 3 saves of a 2+ (!) and I lost my forward centurion. Finally, the Koptas zoomed off to my northern flank and fired at Hektor, but failed to do any damage to the old dreadnought.
Top of Turn 1
The Ork AdvanceSneaky Koptas!No, really, I *meant* to withdraw!In my first turn, I'm smarting from the fluke loss of a Centurion (he would have come in handy!), but I press on. Two objectives this turn: kill the lootas and stop the trukks from assaulting next turn. To begin with, I solve the easier problem first: I drop my drop pod right smack dab in the middle of the ork lines, pop out my tac squad plus captain, and flamer/bolter the Lootas into oblivion. I kill 8 and the remaining 2 run off the board. The Drop Pod's deathwind launcher, meanwhile, drops a pie-plate on the disembarked orks, killing 4-5 or so.
As for the Trukks, Devastator Squad Scylla completely obliterates the Warboss's trukk with one volley that scores 4 penetrating hits. The Trukk explodes, killing 5 orks or so, and they hunker down in the crater only to raked by Centurion hurricane bolters, knocking off another few guys and forcing them to run for it. The second trukk is shot up by the two smaller tac squads. Delphos scores a glancing hit with its heavy bolter while Attica's heavy bolter manages a penetrating hit that, for a lark, blows that trukk up, too (those Imperial Fists are deadeye shots, man). The orks inside lose about half their number and they wind up pinned. It should be noted that both I am my opponent totally forgot about the Mob Rule table, so they might have actually avoided the pin, except only after they lost a few more guys--not clear if that would have been better.
Finally, Hektor comes around the corner of the building and takes a mulitmelta shot at one of the koptas, but he misses.
Bottom of Turn 1
amphetamine parrot's exploding, dude.Surprise! Turn 2With his assault effectively blunted, my opponent looks to clean up his backfield. He shoots the drop tacs with the kannons (lots of frag shells), the Warboss's squad, and Francis the Dredd's guns. Then Francis charges them. The tac's krak grenades and meltabombs serve them well, however, by knocking off two hull points and one Klaw (though Francis got back one of those with his grot riggers). Altogether, they lose about 6 marines through the turn.
The Warboss and his boys fail to rally and keep running away. The intermittent shoota and big shoota fire from the pinned squad fails to do much against the rest of my army, and the disembarked boyz claim the relic. The Koptas keep harrassing my dreadnought to little effect.
Top of Turn 2
Francis eats marinesAt the bottom of turn 2, the centurions stomp forward and gun down/flame the disembarked boyz holding the relic, wiping them out easily. The Devastators, bereft of decent targets, fires at the Koptas along with Hektor. The Dev's score a wound on one and Hektor is foiled by jinking by the other. He then manages to charge is kopta and smash it to flinders.
Attica and Delphos continue to use scarily accurate bolter fire to run off the pinned orks, securing my board position nicely. The Deathwind launcher fires at the Warboss's unit and, even though the map doesn't show it, I think it kills everybody but the warboss. Finally, in combat, Francis kills two marines but falls to meltabombs with a big explosion that doesn't kill anybody but himself.
Bottom of Turn 2
Lots of craters hereabouts! To Be Continued...