The Angels Descend - Narrative Battle Report

Hi Readers,

Today is the write up of the penultimate battle in my narrative game series with a nice chap called Stuart. This is something of a swansong for Stuart as he is selling his Orks after out final game as he expects his second child soon and so a long sojourn from the hobby will begin.

To get some final use out of his tactical cards we played a maelstrom game which ended up being Cloak and Shadow with the Angels descending from Darkness to try and stem the Greenskin tide! The winner of this match up would be able to choose deployment and first turn in the final game with no roll of required or seizing available either, so plenty at stake!

Can the Blood Angels avenge their Black Templar Brethren and push forward to wipe the Orks out? Read on to see...

 The Ork horde lines up to rush the battlefield centre

The Blood Angels stare across the swamp land at the Greenskins their curse itching at their souls for blood (the Storm raven and termies are all in reserve with Cassor the damned on the Raven) 

Hiding out of line of sight as much as possible, tank is mobile cover!!

The horde advances and the battlewagon immobilises itself with a double 1 result (including re-roll!) 

 The Orks right flanks also moves up, the Mek taking a firing position in the building.

Missing a picture but a trukks occupants took a single hull point off the Baal Predator but just a glance.

Lemartes and his death company advance blowing open the tank boyz trukk with their infernus pistol preparing for a charge! 

 The Baal predator takes 2 hull points off the trukk and BBQ's a nob and takes a wound off another! I forgot they had 2 wounds!

 The Other death company with Astorath prepare for a long charge into the battlewagon!

 The Death company easily polish off the Boyz but thats lots of guns ahead!

 The other charge fails and all hell looks to break loose...

 Two flyers come on from reserves!

 Shooting takes 2 down....

 The awesome trike continues up the left flank

 Just a cool conversion!

 The boyz dismount ready to attack the death company head on!

 The warboss is going to punch the predator to death!

 The furioso remains hidden, hiding near an objective and with rear armour to the wall...

 The Orks smash home!!

 As does the Warboss

 The Baal predator dies and Astorath is cleft in twain after this photo is taken! Fortunately he is not my warlord!

The Storm Raven drops off Cassor! Is he gonna kick arse?

 He raises a claw and screams his rage to the sky!

 Cassor the damned charges in butchering orks but the horde holds!

 The Ork flyer goes to shoot the Storm Raven but he jinks! (And not one of the shot hit!)

 The MegaNobz going to punch the Furioso!

 The Warboss gets ready to enter the fray!

 The Orks round on Lemartes after his escape from earlier combat! He falls to their overwhelming shot volume...

 The Killer Kans camp the objective

 The Battlefield with the still not arrived Terminators chilling at the back!

 Cassor the damned is a character so he challenges the warlord and instant kills him!! Huzzah! But loses an arm in return.

 In the Orks turn he is finally finished off

 The Nobz finished off the Furioso but he toasts two of them to death!

 The Death Company Hammer makes it free and runs for an objective!

 What you can't see here is the deep striking squad of terminators and my warlord. Because they died. Horrifically. Truly horrifically.

 The lightning claws just above survive the burna bombas AP2 bomb! My god that was close!

 You flying bugger!

 The Orks run forward to claim the objective from the hovering flyer.

 I am going to smash you screams the Death Company!

 The Storm Raven blasts the Orks off the objective!

 The final Death Company Thunder Hammer smashes open a trukk!

 The battle comes to an end after turn 4 due to time constraints and we count the damage....


Conclusion

At the end of the game, I had First Blood, Linebreaker, and Slay the Warlord. Added to my 8 Maelstrom I came out with 11! Stuart had Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker aaaaaan... 10 Malestrom points, putting him on 12! I lost by one point but it was very close! I forgot about the immobilised battlewagon and it claimed an objective that otherwise would have given me supremacy and D3 points!

So we go into our final game with Stuart well ahead overall, we will see if I can win the final game to claw back some pride! I have to paint up quite a few more marines to really compete, heres hoping!

I hope you enjoyed this anyway :)

Peace out,

Rob

Battle for the Relay - Emperor protect us! Templars vs Orks

Hi Readers me again,

Its been a pretty post heavy week so far so hopefully I'm not inundating people with tripe but actual decent content! Today we have the concluding half of my last narrative battle. We have already seen the Orks run rampant through the substation tunnels, over running and slaughtering the brave Templar task force sent to fend them off. Will their devious machinations prove the undoing of the defence force above? Or will they have won the battle but lost the war?

The second game in this scenario was a custom designed one. It was based on a 4x4 table with small 750 points forces, the remnants of the Templars versus the fast pursuing horde of Orks fresh from their victory in the battle of the hive ruins. The Templars were deployed in the centre of the board and the Orks would go first and come on from whichever edge they chose too, encircling the Templars and going for the kill.

The central column on the table housed the last living astropath on the planet and he had to be protected at all costs to ensure speedy reinforcement of the planets defence. If he was held by the imperial forces at the battles close then the Blood Angels would be granted +1 to their reserve rolls in the coming battles, but should he fall the Angels of Death would receive a -1 to their reserve rolls instead. 

This battle started after turn three in the the tunnels had been completed so that the winner in the tunnels actually got to effect the game above them in the earlier turns. This was the dawn of a bloody battle, who would hold the upper hand at the close of day?

 The Templars have their back to the wall, soread in a defensive ring around the comms tower, even the neophytes of the chapter have been pressed into action in this time of dire need, the lone vindicator that survived the previous battle looks on in anticipation...

 The Emperor's Champion stands proudly, his faith is his shield and the Emperor's will prevails.

 The air is sliced as the buzzing blades of the Deff Koptas flank the stalwart templars, a wayward rocket rocks the vindicator but he will still have his say with his booming gun..

 Three more flying mad Orks come from the front but their manic shooting either miss or smash into the siege shield of the mighty blessed Vindicator

 The Ork force is fully mobile from its hot pursuit with two squads of boys and some burna boyz (far left) come screeching to a halt in front of the comms relay and lay down a hail of bullets, but as the wagons jerk to a stop only a few bullets make their mark and 2 neophytes fall...

 The deffkoptas look on and await the Templar response

 The Templars have withstood the brute force with a hull point and 2 neophyte casualties to their name. Retribution would be theirs!!

 The Demolisher cannon shook and boomed! And took a single glance on the Burna Boyz trukk with a 1... I forget to roll two dice here and this was a big mistake as I could have blown it up and taken some of those boyz out...

 Bloody Orks...

 A withering hail of fire wrecks the trukk (its a trukk honest!) but the melta can't explode it and so the boys retreat behind it and make a charge all but impossible, this was the major key moment in the battle.

 The smaller 10 man templar squad loses a man to overwatch and in the shooting face the sergeants plasma pistol blew his head off (face palm), but they make it into battle and with the rage of losing 1 of their number they thrash the orks!

 In a desperate squabble the buzzclaw ork takes down his brethren and stands alone against the zealous Templars

 The cowardly greenskins decide that discretion is indeed the better part of valour...

 In response to the best efforts of the Templars the Orks dismount as the Warlord strikes his chest and cries high into the sky.. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!

 There is not safety, no place to hide, but to stand firm and face the green tide

 The battle lines clash!

 All foes are met!

 The line must hold! A further two neophytes fell in the shooting phase meaning the Templars were prepared to counter-attack and strike back with righteous fury!

 Meanwhile the buzzclaw was cleaved in two by the power axe

 The vindicator, having survived the onslaught of the last battle, is at last brought low by the dread deffkopts..

 The Emperor's Champion gallantly strode to the fore of battle and hacked 2 wounds from the Warboss, but as he raised his sword to end his life, the power klaw broke his guard and plunged through his torso, his lifeless form sliding to the ground...

 However, the templars in their defiance won the combat and 4 Orks perished due to in fighting and combat was held...

 On the counter, the Templars, fresh from victory against the other deffkoptas sweep into the second squad and take a single wound off for the loss of one marine. The deffkoptas fail to leave combat with their mobility and are locked hard against the chassis of the vanquished tank

 The templars prepare themselves for another round of bloody combat

 Despite their bravery and amid good losses from the orks, the beaten Templars retreat further towards the comms tower, desperate to protect the Astropath inside.

 Further shooting fells a neophyte and combat is met once again, the grouond lies slick with red and green blood. But the Templars fall.

 So few remain from both sides, but the remaining templars are caught up and cannot make their way to the tower to defend the feeble psyker within!

 In the distance a great rumble is heard from beneath the ground as an almighty explosion occurs! Fearing the blast will be the end of them, the Templars brace themselves, but they are mistaken!

 The blast erupts beneath the burna boyz trukk taking another hull point off it and leaving it sunken amid rubble with movement a great danger now.

 The rmaining boyz climb the tower and the warboss full of confidence rushes to finish off the final marines, but is swiftly met with a power axe to the face! Crushing his skull as the final marines decide to prepare and make good their escape.

Few survived, but the astropath was not among them as the final 6 boyz run amok in the tower. The Templars had fallen and the Angels would find only death waiting for them...

Conclusion

This was a very fun game to play with a custom scenario and there was a lot of valiant combat all over the place and some brutal Ork kunning to take the day at the end. If I had blown the burna boyz up or have got the charge against a single squad of Orks off to take them down piecemeal I may have been able to hold, but weight of numbers finally pulled through and I just couldn't bring them down. Losing the Emperor's Champion to a failed 4+ invulnerable was also a shame as he did well to take 2 wounds off the warboss, but no 6's to wound which would have been instant death.

I hope you enjoyed this report anyway! The next game will be a maelstrom game, though we haven't picked one yet I think contact lost would be very appropriate!

Till next time guys and gals,

Peace out,

Rob