Night of the Blood Axe.
or
How to kill Marines before breakfast
by Pete Delafield
Editor's note: Kevin is Pete's prosaically named Rebel Ork Warboss who at the time of
this report was stomping around the galaxy in the Club's Galaxy
of Damnation 40K campaign, ravaging other player's planets and generally making a
nuisance of himself. This battle report is from Kevin's early stage in the campaign,
before his spoils of war became so great that he had to establish a secret rebel base to
stash his booty, with all the hazards that that entails...In this battle Kevin has
stumbled across a valuable Hive World currently under the protection of Brian Orr's Dark
Angels. Brian is trying to defend his world from the ravaging Orks.
Background.
Kevin stared at the chart. It didn’t really matter which way he went he was going
to attack the next world he came to, no matter what it was.
"Ere! Boss! A mean, Sir." Called a mega-armour clad ork as he clanged up the
rusty stairwell toward the command platform of the Orky hulk. Big Doug had only just
remembered that Kev had found out that the hummies called their leaders ‘sir’
and as a good blood axe had insisted his boyz followed suit.
"Yar, Doug me boy, what is it?" grunted Kev, annoyed at the interruption.
"We’ve got to da planet, but ders some tinned hummies ere already! Deyz
landed down near one of dem big city fings." Reported Doug.
"I’ve a cunning plan, Doug" smiled Kev; "we’ll attack at
night, all stealthy like. Get da trukks warmed up Doug, we’ve hummies to stomp."
Pre-game
I was delighted that the random mission generator had given a night fight. After going
with Brian to the 40k Players Society Club Challenge, I knew his army excelled at sitting
at the
 back and shooting. The night denied him this, and coupled with the
fact most of my boyz were mounted in one vehicle or another this meant he was up against
it from the start. He did have the advantage of setting up first and used it to place his
predator in the centre of the table to force my deployment right back. He then deployed
his Marines out of the fire corridor of my Leman Russ looted tank. The rest of my boyz
readied to charge to the left, with the Trukk mob to the right and the Slugga boyz and
Battle Tank in the centre.
From Brian’s deployment I could see a strong centre with his command squad in
their rhino held back to counter assault my inevitable charge. The Whirlwind at the back
was certainly going to be a problem. With deployment done we rolled for first turn, and
fortune favoured the Orks.
Ork Turn 1
Since Brian had tried to deploy out of the way of the Leman Russ, the first thing I did
was to move it 12", more to annoy him than gain a massive tactical advantage. The
Trukk boyz in their red trukk engaged their rocket boosters and managed 29". The
BattleWagon scuttled forward 12" and the boyz onboard readied their rockets, but to
no avail as they all bounced off the predator. (Well the two of the seven that hit did!)
Marines Turn 1
Brian moved his Chaplain’s squad toward the Trukk boyz and readied their
Melta-gun. The Predator moved forward and readied a las-cannon, obviously conscious that
he had to roll to see how far he could see. The Marines' shooting was not very successful,
the highlight was when the Melta-gun shot bounced off the Trukks armoured plates. (Hooray
for rolling a 6!)
Orks Turn 2
 Now the fun began. I moved the Trukk boyz Trukk
behind the advancing Chaplain, hoping to catch him in crossfire. Only after I moved did
Brian gleefully remind me that his Marines were stubborn and wouldn’t break. Doh!
The zapp gun on the ‘wagon targets a tank and gets S5 and a roll of 6 for
penetration...‘bounce!’ But the Tankbustas succeeded where the Zapp gun failed
and down went the predator. The Skarboyz managed to hit with all three of their rockets,
and then two of them failed to wound!
The Trukk boyz dropped 3 of the Marines in a mighty Waaaagh! The Marines butchering 2
of the boyz.
The remaining 2 Marines held and Brian’s second turn began.
Marines Turn 2
Brian brought his Terminators down behind the Slugga boyz, attempting the same strategy
I had used with my Trukk boyz. He gunned down three of the orks but luckily the boyz held.
Brian’s whirlwind missed and the rest of his shooting bounced off my vehicles. To
make matters worse my Trukk boyz finished off the Chaplain and his Marine bodyguard, but
with the loss of a further 3 orks. The remaining orks consolidated to within 2" of
the Trukk and re-mounted.
Ork Turn 3
The Grots in the Leman Russ decided now was the time to find out what that pedal on the
right
 did and the tank lurched 6" forward.
The Skarboyz dismounted from the Battlewagon and prepared for assault.
The Zapp gun fires at the Rhino, causing a glancing hit. Then to Brian’s dismay
destroys it with a six. To make matters worse 4 of the Marines inside die too! No more
threat of a counter assault! Assaults erupt across the board: the slugga boyz go for the
terminators; the skarboyz have a go at the tactical squad and the Trukk boyz, having raced
across in their trukk, assault the whirlwind.
The Marines loose 7 of the tactical squad, 3 terminators and the whirlwind. I loose the
slugga boyz, one of the trukk boyz, caught in the blast of the exploding whirlwind, and 4
of the skarboyz.
Marines Turn 3
With less and less troops on the board, Brian had shorter and shorter turns. He still
had one tactical squad and his
 command squad free. The former up on a walkway, the latter back on
his board edge, where they had been waiting in the rhino. He also had a Veteran Sergeant
in combat with the whole mob of Skarboyz and 2 remaining terminators, who promptly
assaulted and immobilised the Leman Russ. The command squad finished off the trukk boyz.
Brian’s luck seemed to turn when his Veteran Sergeant managed to fight off the mob of
skarboyz who failed both leadership and mobsize and fled!
But he couldn’t catch my very cowardly orks!
Ork Turn 4
Big Doug rallied his boyz and turned to face the Veteran Sergeant. The Leman Russ’
lurch had put it in a position where it could see far enough up to the tactical squad. The
Warbikes and Cyborks who were held back to counter assault any gaps in my line dashed into
action. The bikes made mincemeat of the Veteran Sergeant. The Battlewagon and Tankbustas
opened fire and killed three more of Brian’s command squad.
Marines Turn 4
 With what he had left Brian went flying into action.
His command squad assaulted and destroyed the Battlewagon and the Terminators destroyed
the Leman Russ.
Orks Turn 5
The Skarboyz charged past the wreckage of the Leman Russ and butchered the remaining
terminators.
The Tankbustas and Warbikes blasted the remnants of the command squad apart, with Kevin
looking on ready to assault but there was nothing left!
The Cyborks scaled the building, ready to assault the tactical squad in the next turn.
With 6 Marines remaining, who were going to have to go toe to toe with 9 Cyborks, Brian
conceded the game.
It was a really enjoyable game, and Brian had been unlucky to fight against a fast
close assault army at night. Perhaps his only big mistake was to move his Predator to shoot at
the Leman Russ instead of firing all his weapons at the Battlewagon. I hope you enjoyed
reading this report and thanks go to Brian for being a good sport, Kelly for taking the
notes and Gary for advising on and taking the photos. Oh, and sorry Brian for the report
being a little one sided; feel free to add anything I forgot!
P.S. Brian went on to play Adam and declared that Adam’s army was much beardier
than mine was! So much for having the most beardy army in the club!
By Pete. Thanks for reading, comments on the Forum welcome.
Postscript
Kev went on to create further mayhem and eventually excelled even himself by blowing up
his own planet and losing all his stash. If you'd like to know what happened you can find
out here.
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