Navy vs Orks 250pt 'Assault on Scar Lake' battle report

[Beaky Brigade]

The skeleton garrison of outpost Eight Alpha scanned the horizon, trying not to see the growing dust cloud. The Colonel and his 'essential personnel' had departed via Aquila Lander at first light. The promised airlift for the 'other' personnel hadn't materialised.

Turbojets roared above and a ragged cheer erupted from the Guardsmen as they recognised Imperial Thunderbolts overhead, a sound that was soon overruled by a chattering of the automated Hydra defences. The Orks wouldn't be denied their blood after all.

Mission:

Garrison Relief at 250 points each, using the 'Assault on Scar Lake' historical rules from page 57 of the Rynn's World book. The Orks are attacking an Imperial base that the Imperials are evacuating.

Apologies in advance as the details are mainly based on the photos I took and the game got less leisurely as we went on, so less photos = less recollections.

The defender needs to pick up troops from the landing zone to win, and gets 20 extra points that must be spent on AA guns. The twist is after turn 7 the AA guns start to switch to Ork control as the base is overrun, and landed Imperial Aircraft take damage.

Narratively this is the opposite of the stock scenario because the Imperials are evacuating troops rather than dropping them off.

The optional historical rules included in Rynn's world are rather woolly and have a few bugs and logic holes, but I think these special rules are intended to be used in this friendly context and to be modified as you see fit. We decided it was more logical for the Arvus to land even though drop troops weren't prohibited.

My list was just everything I've assembled sans the regular Marauder, plus upgrades to take me up to 250 points + 20

Imperial Squadron:

4 Thunderbolts with 2 Skystrike Missile pairs each

2 Furies with 2 Skystrike Missile pairs each

2 Arvus Lighters
2 Marauder Destroyers with Armoured Cockpits

2 Hydra Batteries (bought with the free 20 points the defender gets with the Scar Lake rules)

Ork Sqwadrun

2 Eavy Bommers

1 Grot Bommers w/ 4 Grot Bombs
2 Fighta Bommers
4 Dakka Jets

A collection of Epic scale Ork vehicles as set dressing

I don't remember the exact upgrades but it was mainly custom shootas for all the aircraft that could take them.

In this mission the landing zones are a large area of hexes, but I wanted to try and land on the landing pad I spent a lot of time making! The pad also represents a 4 structure ground target the Orks can bomb for points.

The Arvus can only operate for 6 turns due to the fuel limit, so my plan was to get in, get the troops and get them off the board as soon as I could. If I could shoot down some Ork aircraft while doing so that was a bonus.

Turn 1

Both squadrons shot forward to engage the enemy aircraft, the Marauders diving to hunt the Ork heavies with their cannons while the Lighters came in low and fast, rapidly slowing to avoid overshooting the landing zones. A flight of Dakkajets came in hugging the dirt to intercept.

Most of the Thunderbolts moved to cover the pad while some engaged the Fighta Bomma formation.

The turn 1 shooting was eventful. Two Dakkajets were dispatched with a flight of Skystrike missiles, but the remaining two in the centre blasted an Arvus Lighter out the sky. Should have given them cockpit armour!

The Marauders slowed to descend to the Ork's altitude but in doing so were 1 hex beyond their max firing range. Oops! The Orks launched Grot bombs and shooting did two damage to a Thunderbolt.

Turn 2:

The Marauders aggressively evaded the Grot Bombs which soared past them, and the Marauder turrets opened up as they overshot the Ork Heavies, wounding one of the beasts.

A dogfight began to swirl over the outpost, with several Thunderbolts picking up tails and hits as the Arvus landed (well short of the pad sadly!). The Hydra machine spirits must have been disquieted by the approaching Orks, their spitting fire hit no mark.

Turn 3: Unfortunately the large number of aircraft was slowing the game down and we realised we wouldn't get to turn 7, it being an evening game!

Everything seemed to swirl over the landing pad as if by magnetic attraction. The Fury survived a hail of tailing fire but the Thunderbolt wingman who swooped in to his rescue picked up the same Dakkajet as a tail! My opponent got 3 tailing fires in one turn!

As the overloaded Arvus struggled for altitude a huge Bommer cratered the landing pad but only damaged abandoned materials. The last of the troops were away!

A grinning trooper's face exploded in the cargo compartment as the Arvus was racked by vengeful Ork bullets, but the stricken craft limped away.

Turn 4: The Arvus bugged out towards the edge of the Area of engagement, jinking to avoid a collision with a Bommer. The escape was bought at a heavy cost. 5 Imperial Aircraft were among the blazing wreckage littering the area, and others had been heavily damaged. Loota Boyz were already peeling off from the ground convoy to help themselves to the red hot spoils. The last of outpost buildings were obliterated by a second bombing run.

We called it just after 11pm, there was no way to kill the Arvus before it moved off in Turn 5, so at least it was a sort of conclusion.

Nearly all the aircraft had some damage and there was no time for a disengagement phase so there were a lot of victory points to be had. The Orks downed 5 aircraft and I killed 4. With the extra points for evacuation and destroying the ground target we were pretty even, with a minor 5/10 point Ork lead over the Imperial Navy.

We should have taken the rulebook advice about larger point games taking all day! Oh well, we wanted to try slapping everything down to see what happened and we achieved that!

I think I need more practice with smaller point games as I struggled to micromanage the all the Thunderbolts well.

I also ended up in the sub optimal short range band too often, squandering my fire power. I need to remember to avoid closing to close range (or collect Orks instead )

Once again Sky Strike missiles were fun but didn't do much. The Hydras fired every turn but did 1 point of damage. 5+ and 5+ is just too weak to be effective even with 6 dice. I'll try finishing my Manticore Missiles to see if I get better luck in future.

Man of the Match for the Orks would be the Dakkajet with 2 kills. Worst model would be the Grot bombs, who did nothing* (one did end the game in contact with an AA gun but we didn't bother to see if he damaged it).

MVP for the Navy would be the the little Arvus that could, LVP would be the Marauders I would say. The didn't take many hits or do much damage. It might have been better to take one and load it up with more missiles and upgrades.

I would say ideally I would have brought 3 or 4 Arvus Lighters, as they are pretty vulnerable with only 2 structure points, and 60 victory points from troops would have helped!

Having to land really made their job difficult as slowing extended their time on the board. Valkyries might have been better in this case.

Until next time, tally ho!

Edited October 24, 2020 by Beaky Brigade

[Firedrake Cordova]

Nice write-up :)

[Gorgoff]

That was nice. :)

[MithrilForge]

Awesome!, it was a good read, great played mission and the planes looked sweet , what more could you want ?!?.

 

Cheers Mithril

[thewarriorhunter]

Really nice write up. Sounds like it was a fun game.