Holding the (Green) Tide - Battle Report

[Berzul]

Brother Zerephiel, Master of the Second Company of the Angels of Deliverance, looked down upon the ruins of the planet and allowed himself to get lost in thought. His calm demeanor and compossure was reassuring to the demoralized soliders of the Astra Millitarum that had been pushed back into space by the armies of the enemy.

 

The world was considered to be overrun and ravaged to the core; beyond hope of any fate other than extermination. But this idea wasn't enough to break the old warrior's resolve. It still wasn't enough to make him despair. He would keep calm, and face the storm. Brave the tide of the greenskins, and though it would smash against his armor, it would break as the seas break against the cliffs. Roaring and foaming at the jaw, but never conquering the stone.

 

His thoughs took him deep into himself, to where only the voices of those we trusted most could reach him. And so they did. The words of Brother Bromiel, his lieutenant, reached his ear, and pulled him from the contemplations of war that took place in his minds eye. A voice that through words gave urge to action.

 

The time had come.

 

War had come this world.

 

Now, the Astartes would end it.

 

 

***

 

So, this is a battle report for a battle that just happened, and took place in the context of a narrative campaign that I am running for a gaming group of mine. I will probably post about the campaign itself at some point, but for now, I will report to you the battle I just went through.

 

This was a 1365 points battle, between my Dark Angels Successor Chapter, the Angels of Deliverance, and a large Ork army, from a clan currently unidentified in the context of the campaign. Due to rules of the campaign, the battle consisted on the Astartes trying to reclaim a world taken over by the Orks.

 

We played one of the Chapter Approved new Maelstorm missions. Can't remember the name, but its the one where you have to draw 3 objectives each turn but you have to discard all your objectives each turn as well, meaning you get one turn to make the points, before you generate new objectives.

 

The board was set up to represent the edge of an Ork infested urban complex, in a storage world used to hold food reserves for the system. So, the board had some food silos in the middle, some buildings on each edge, a factory, behind it a whole lot of blasted landscape, and on the oposite corner from that a cavernous pass into a barricated line of defense.

 

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The objectives where placed as follows:

 

(1) Was in the cavernous passage, by the barricades;

(2) Was at the food storage silos;

(3) Was at one of the buildings on the far corner;

(4) Was in the middle of the basted terrain;

(5) Was near the other supply units;

(6) Was near the main hub of buildings.

 

My army consisted of a Spearhead of 3 Devastator Squads of 6 marines, one with 2 heavy bolters, two with a Missile Launcher and Lascannon, led by a Lieutenant (proxied by a DA Sgt); and an Outrider of 6 Ravenwing Bikers with flamers, a Landspeeder with HB and AC, a Landspeeder with TML and HB, a Darkshourd, and a Dark Talon.

 

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My opponents army consisted of a Batallion led my an Warboss with a force field, 2 weird boyz, and a pain boy. They led three groups of 30 boyz each, with sluggas and choppas, as well as a unit of Flash Gitz in an Ork Trukk (the big one). He had the spells to give the Orks extra attacks as well as make them teleport across the board.

 

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The scenario also had some custom rules.

 

Toxic Atmosphere: At the beginning of the battle, before the first battle round, we would roll D6 for each infantry, bike or cavalry unit on the board that was NOT inside a transport. On a 1, they would loose 1 Toughness for the whole fight.

 

Heavy Gravity: Infantry, bikers and cavalry had their movement and advances reduced by one inch. Vehicles by two inches. Flyers, when advancing, would suffer no fixed penalty,  but rather, would advance half their distance, rounded up. Also, all ballistic based weapons had their max range reduced by 3 inches.

 

For deployment, I placed we drew the one where you deploy in an entire boxed corner no closer than 9 inches from the center. I deployed second, and so, due to the +1 to the roll, got to go second in the battle rounds.

 

I deployed my entire army split into two. The bikes, Heavy Bolets and AC Speeder up near the edge of my zone to move quickly up a hill, with the rest tied in a chain across the characters to fire from top of objective 1. A defensive formation, expecting the orks to charge forward and try and overrun the Astartes position.

 

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My opponent deployed inside the craters. His Orks, sensing the enemy nearby, sprung up from their holes in the ground. They emerged from the blasted surface of the planet, in mass. Concentric circles of boys around the warboss and his weird boys, with the Flash Gitz moving forward in the Trukk.

 

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TURN ONE

 

The Trukk moved forward, trying to get into line of sight of my vanguard force. Then the weird boyz took one unit of boyz, gave them an extra attack, and then teleported them into a circle around my bikes, behind the silos, and from edge to edge of the board. A giant green smile over the battlefield.

 

And he still had 60 more boyz back in his hole.

 

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Shooting went as you would expect. No wounds at all.

Then came the charges, but luckly for me, he failed both rolls with his giant Ork Boy squad.

 

This gave me a chance. I moved forward my bikes to go after Objective 3.

 

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Then moved forward with my Dark Talon, bombing the boyz as I went. Hurricane Bolters went to them as well, while the Rift Cannon took some wounds off of the Trukk. Then went my devastators, heavy bolters taking more wounds off the orks, and lascannons/missile launchers getting more wounds into the Trukk. The Darkshroud, the Speeders, all joined in, and after a large round of shooting, the Trukk was down to 6 wounds and the entire Ork Boyz squad was dead.

 

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Things were looking good. I managed first blood and an objective, so I was 2-0 up.

 

TURN TWO

 

His Trukk stood still, but his second volley of Boyz got sent over to where my bikes were heading, hoping to cut them off before they got to their destination. This time, I had no way to hold them back. After the Flash Gitz managed to take 7 wounds off of the Dark Talon, the Boys got into fight, and 135 hits later, I was gone.

 

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In my turn, I retallaited, shooting down as many boyz as I could. I repositioned my speeders for maximum effect, getting an objective and line of sight from the boyz. I also took my Dark Talon right into the Orkz den, in a suicide run that I was hoping would help me take out the Trukk and then crash and burn over his flash gitz.

 

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Shooting went well, I managed to kill many of the Orkz, and take out the Trukk, but no Gitz died when it was destroyed, saddly. With them now on the board, my Dark Talon had little chance of surviving.

 

The good thing was, my opponent had managed to get one objective so far, and I drew very will, with twice for objective 2, and priority with my warlord for objective 1. Apparently, high command wanted Brother Zerephiel to hold the Silos and the defensive line, at all costs. Not to worry, his brothers were chosen specifically for such a task.

 

TURN THREE

 

The Orks teleported the third volley of boyz, this time right on my doorstep. His Flash Gitz then did quick work of my Dark Talon, while his surviving Orks marched forward over the hill to charge my landspeeder that had held objective two the turn before.

 

He managed that charge, but failed to reach me with his 30 boyz squad. My gunline had one last round to go before the position was locked in combat.

 

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So, with nothing else to do, he gave me the turn.

 

I fell back with my speeder and got in the way of this last volley of orkz and my devastators. USed the heavy bolter devastators to thin down the orkz that had charged me (letting morale do the actual killing while I focused on bigger threats). Then, my lascannons, missiles, bolters, storm bolters, heavy bolters, assault cannons... Everything I had, went into those 30 boyz.

 

After the dust cleared, all that was left was the Nob, alone, and wounded. Alone before the rest of the warriors of the Imperium, he had no other choice but to run away.

 

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After that, I had managed to get 10 victory points over the 2 of my opponent, and so, without more boyz, only his slow moving and short ranged Flash Gitz able to do anything, and with the hour being late, my opponent decided to call the battle. His Orkz retreated.

 

Brother Zerephiel, Master of the Angels of Deliverance, Second Company, had faced the Green Tide of the Orkz. He had seen it roar, and foam at the jaw, but in the end, he had seen it break at the stone wall formed by his brothers in arms. The tide had been been made to turn. The world had began to be reclaimed by the servants of the Imperium.

 

At 10-2 in the final score, this was a crushing defeat for the Orkz, and a great victory for the Successors of the Dark Angels.

 

 

Edited December 15, 2017 by Berzul

[Kasper_Hawser]

Once again, strange strategy for your opponent. If he had done "Da Jump" on two of his Ork Boyz turn 1, you would have been easily overwhelmed. Instead, he teleported them one by one, giving you enough time to whittle them down at the cost of only one bike squad. as it is, I think a better idea for him would have been teleport them to objectives but not go into combat yet, hide behind something and force your Ravenwing to move closer and shoot. Then by Turn 2, when he teleports second squad, you would have 2 squads in the face.

 

For the Flash Gitz, you said big Wartruk, is that the Battlewagon? Also I'm still surprised they manage to down the Dark Talon considering they would be shooting on 5+ at it.

 

Good game, you funnelled the Ork boyz one at a time to ensure maximum shooting, which is quite hard to do, especially if your Ork opponent is adept at giving you multiple targets right away.

[Berzul]

My lack of knowledge of the Xenos mechanical infrastructure and terminology may have caused me to wrongly identify the vehicle. It is indeed a Battle Wagon, not just a Trukk.

 

I think he did not expect me to have enough range and firepower to take the squads on.

 

Specially as he started by focusing on a somewhat removed part of the army.

 

Also, I do agree that jumping 2 squads could have been better, but he opted for jumping one, with an extra attack, which is not an entirely bad way to go.

 

Had he made his first charge, that might have been it for me.

Edited December 15, 2017 by Berzul

[Kasper_Hawser]

Was he trying to charge your bikes? Well, at least you still had the devastators, Land speeders and Dark talon for anti-infantry dakka even if the bikes bit the dust. Not to mention Grim Resolve + signum + Cherub would have made your devastators very accurate and a lot of shots.

[SnakeChisler]

"Da Jump" like other psychic powers except smite is governed by the rule of 1

 

Even in narrative games psychic stacking is very very broken 

[Berzul]

"Da Jump" like other psychic powers except smite is governed by the rule of 1

 

Even in narrative games psychic stacking is very very broken

Is it once in the phase or once per psyker in the phase?

[Berzul]

Was he trying to charge your bikes? Well, at least you still had the devastators, Land speeders and Dark talon for anti-infantry dakka even if the bikes bit the dust. Not to mention Grim Resolve + signum + Cherub would have made your devastators very accurate and a lot of shots.

I was using the Index. Don't have the Codex yet.

 

But yeah, I had a lot of firepower on the table. Served me well. He mostly went for my bikes to prevent me from reaching objective 3 and the outflank his position with the unit. I was packing 2D6 flamer shots and 28 bolt shots in that squad.

[SnakeChisler]

 

"Da Jump" like other psychic powers except smite is governed by the rule of 1

 

Even in narrative games psychic stacking is very very broken

Is it once in the phase or once per psyker in the phase?

 

once per phase only exception is smite