by Matt Helmen and Don Haney
Sunday, August 27, 2000
This battle was played on a 4’x16’ foot table with another 4’x4’ section for the Ork Mega Gargant and a third 4’x8’ table with a bridge section. The bridge table was home to the Imperial Motor Pool while the main table was made up of Imperial bunkers and fortifications. The Mega Gargant table represented the back of the Ork lines as it provided supporting fire for the assaulting speed freeks.
At the outset of the battle each side had 3 objectives given to them and a
4th "covert" objective of taking out the enemy's commander. The Orks had to take the gun emplacement on the hillside, the center trench system, and the ammo dump. The Imperials had to reclaim the immobilized but functioning Baneblade, the center trench system, and maintain control of the ammo dump. The defense/assault of the bridge and Imperial Motor pool on the other table was another objective for each side.The Orks quickly advanced on the left flank and were able to grab and hold one of their objectives, the ammo dump, almost immediately. In the center the Imperials were able to slow the Ork advance a couple of turns of very accurate firing. The Mega Gargant lent itself well to the supporting fire role but not as well as it should have, managing only to kill a few troops each time it fired. The Ork warlord called for a fighta-bomber air strike on a pesky unit of Catachans, and the strafing run succeeded in killing 4 of them.
On the bridge table, the eldar were attempting to slow the advance of the overwhelming number of Space Marines and prevent them from regaining the motor pool. In short order the Eldar figured out how to operate one of the Basalisk in the motor pool and began firing into the Space Marine lines. In an errant bombing run away from the main battle line, an Ork Fighta Bomber managed to inadvertently assist the Eldar in taking out a few of the Space Marines on the bridge. The Eldar forces were still severely outnumbered however and it was only a matter of time before the Space Marines were able to regain control of the motor pool and divert some of their forces to assaulting the Mega Gargant!
In the last turn of the game the Orks retained their undisputed control of the ammo dump, which they had already taken a few turns earlier. The central trench system was firmly in Ork hands, being held by an aspiring champion on a juggernaught and a nearby supporting squad of Chaos Marines. In the last round the Orks' Khorn Berserker allies finally blew open the gun emplacement and killed the crew. By consolidating inside they had uncontested control of the emplacement. The green forces had also killed the Imperial commander a round or two earlier. When the Imperials began the final portion of the last turn, the Orks had achieved 4 out of their 5 objectives and the Imperials had only achieved 1 out of their 5 objectives, that being the taking of the bridge and motor pool. It was looking pretty grim for the forces of the Emperor.
However, when the Imperials took their last actions that turn they were able to launch several last-ditch bids to snatch victory from the Orky jaws of defeat. The Baneblade lobbed a battle cannon shell at a squad of Orks and the explosion happened to glance the Ork commander. Because of a 50/50 die roll, he was considered hit by the cannon and the resulting wound killed him. A unit of assault marines was able to crack open the looted Baneblade's hatches, having been previously weakened by a slain battle sister. By killing the crew they had successfully retaken the super heavy tank. A squad of space marine scout snipers dashed to the gun emplacement and, by holding their own in hand-to-hand fighting against the Khorn berserkers inside, contested that objective. While the ammo dump remained firmly in Ork hands, the Warhound titan used it's mega-bolter to obliterate the Chaos Champion on the juggernaught that was holding the trench system. After stomping a few Orks in hand-to-hand, the Warhound advanced close to the trench system and contested the nearby Chaos Marines' tenuous hold on that objective. When the smoke cleared, the Imperials had managed to take back or contest most of the objectives the Orks had previously achieved.
While the victory wasn't pretty, the Imperials managed to ultimately achieve 3 of their objectives: retake the looted Baneblade, kill the Ork commander, and retake the bridge and motor pool. The initial green tide of the Ork assault was beaten back enough so that the Orks managed to hold claim of only 2 of their objectives: holding the ammo dump and having slain the Imperial commander.
All in all, this was a tense and hard-fought battle. The final outcome really hinged on the bold (and lucky) actions a few Imperial squads in the tense moments of the very last turn, as the Imperials desperately tried to avert an overwhelming Ork victory. While the Imperials were ultimately triumphant, they in no way can claim that the Emperor's fist swept aside the foul aliens with ease. If the forces of Ghazghzkull rise again in the future, will the hand of fate again be on the side of the Imperium?