12 August, 2022

Eager to collect as much loot as possible, greenskins have launched an all-out attack on the Cruentes' position in the industrial outskirts of Hive Prime. Our sources tell us that these greenskins call themselves the Death Skulls. This pleases Khorne.

 

Leading the initial defence is Thrax Gorechosen, the Exalted Champion. He is accompanied by the Berzerker squads led by Validon and Dreior, as well as the Helbrute Xarian the Bloody Idiot and Bardûl the Wretched Fool. Lord Kratus is on standby on his flagship, The Eternal Warrior, ready to reinforce if needed.

 

For Agendas, I chose Eye of the Gods to kill enemy characters, and Cull the Hordes because why not.

 

 

Wary of the enemy's brutish firepower, the Cruentes deploy defensively, hoping to bait the greenskins into a foolhardy charge.

 

 

With a reverberating Waaaagh!, the Orks fling themselves forwards, led by their Warboss. We are told that this huge brute is not, in fact, the leader of the group, despite their size and aggressiveness. This confuses Khorne.

 

 

 

 

The greenskins with a penchant for pyrotechnics open up on poor Bardûl, who suffers terrible burns and flees the battlefield in mindless panic. Great, it'll take days to find him again...

A couple of the greenskins open up on Xarian as well, who - on Kratus's order from orbit - launches a barrage of obscuring smoke. Regardless, one lucky shot does get through and succeeds in causing some significant damage.

 

Grinning with glee, the actual enemy boss - an apparent field mechanic with a very fancy array of weapons - orders a hail of rockets from his large vehicle at Rhino II, knowing that the Cruentes have wasted their chance to screen it with smoke. Many of the shots go wide, but enough punch through the Rhino to disable it. Two Berzerkers are killed in the barrage.

 

 

Gunning the engine of their truck, the burners hurtle towards Xarian, staggering him with their heavy ram. Despite this, Xarian catches his balance and stops the flimsy vehicle in its tracks, bringing his huge hammer down to wreck the truck's engine. The greenskins pile out, three getting tangled in the wreckage.

 

 

Here is where Thrax's arrogance began my downfall. Not wanting to commit all his Berzerkers to a single charge, he order them to remain embarked while he and Xarian charged the greenskins in front of them. The Rhino accelerated in first, distracting the pyromaniacs for long enough for the pair to charge unimpeded.

 

 

Meanwhile, Dreior's Berzerkers threw themselves at the greenskins in the midfield. In a spray of gore, the brutes were dismembered one by one by the frenzied Berzerkers...

 

 

...who then piled into the dimunitive greenskin slaves, only for one of the lucky gits to somehow club one of the (unwounded!) Berzerkers to death!

 

 

Despite the success against the enemies in the midfield (ignoring that one ignoble casualty), Thrax's and Xarian's charge didn't go so well. The Warboss, Grog, dispatches the Helbrute with apparent ease and claims several useful mechanical components for himself. Thrax sweeps aside three greenskins with Gorefather (only a single 6 to wound - with rerolls - and my opponent passed a lot of Waaagh invulnerable saves).

 

 

Things go from bad to worse: the flamer Orks pass their Morale check with insane bravery and fall back, the rocket-armed Orks blast apart the second Rhino with ease, killing three (!!) more Berzerkers, and Warboss Grog dispatches Thrax without breaking a sweat.

 

The Berzerkers manage to inflict a bunch of wounds on the Warboss (that Fury of Khorne stratagem is gold), but a -1 to wound and a 1+ save makes him very, very difficult to hurt.

Over the next turn, Grog would proceed to butcher the rest of the Berzerkers.

 

 

Meanwhile, Kevdak the mechanic commander blitzes most of the Berzerkers in the middle. The rest were subsequently minced by their monstrous truck.

 

 

Sensing that things weren't really going well, Kratus decides that now is a great time to finally teleport in. Failing his charge (even with a reroll), he's left facing the guns of every remaining greenskin.

 

It's at this point that my opponent throws me a bone: Kevdak (or "Big Kev") howls a challenge to the Chaos Lord. No Ork is to raise their weapon to impede the challenge.

(To be clear: it wasn't just for my benefit. My opponent wanted to force a leadership challenge between Grog and Kevdak.)

 

 

In a familiar display of luck, Kratus's armour holds against the flurry of blows from the greenskin warlord, but barely.

 

Finally, in my own turn, and with one wound remaining, Kratus cuts apart his opponent's armour to expose the greenskin inside. However, seeing his demise written on the wall, Big Kev unleashes all remaining firepower from his massive armour, with just one shot finding a chink in Kratus's armour. With that, the last World Eater falls.

 

 

Result: 8-62 Loss

 

Ultimately, this game was lost in my first turn, when I overestimated how much work my Helbrute and Exalted Champion would do. I think I had the right plan to hold one unit of Berzerkers back, but instead of spreading my charge out, I should've thrown the disembarked Berzerkers at the enemies in my backfield. I think they should've had a good chance to kill the Burnas and Warboss on the charge, when accompanied by the Helbrute and Champion. Ah well, lesson learnt.

 

Xarian suffered an Angered Machine Spirit, so cannot benefit from stratagems.

 

On the plus side, Kratus earned two Personal Glory points for killing the enemy warlord, and increased in rank. Khorne saw him fit to bless him with a Scorpion Tail for +1 Attack.

 

Kratus's Personal Glory: 3 -> 4
Khorne's Dark God Glory: 6 -> 5
Cruentes' Warfleet Glory: 7 -> 7