Big Stompy Robots - 40K Battle Report

 

 

Last Thursday we decided to roll out some new models that hadn't yet been battle-tested - the Ork Stompa I finished last week, and the Imperial Knights that Conscript Greg and I painted last summer.

 

The game would be the culmination of the Rynn's World campaign we'd been playing for some time - the final assault by Thrugg Bullneck and his warband (along with the Stompa!) on the Imperial stronghold of New Rynn City, defended by Pedro Kantor's Crimson Fist Space Marines and two mighty Imperial Knights.



 

Space Marine Devastators take up position on the city walls. The scenario was simple - six objective markers placed on the battlefield, the forces lined up on the diagonal just like a beauty shot from the old White Dwarf :-)

The Orks fielded, in no particular order: two squadrons of two and three warbuggies; two Deff Dreads, a Flakka Dakka wagon; three mobs of 15 Boyz; a unit of 5 Kommandos; a Battlewagon with Killkannon, a unit of 10 Stormboyz, and finally, Thrugg himself in mega-armor with 5 mega-armored henchmen. Oh, and the Stompa.

The Imperials came out with three squads of Marines in Rhinos, a Predator, a Devastator squad, a Terminator squad, Scouts, an Assault squad, and Pedro. Plus two Imperial Knights -

 

The Blue Bomber...

and the famous "El Booze"!

The view from the Ork lines as the Imperials take the first turn.

El Booze and the Blue Bomber anchor the Imperial line.

Rhinos move up covered by the Knight.

Crimson Fist Devastators rained a hail of missiles down on the Orks.

The Blue Bomber wielded its Thermal Cannon to wicked effect. Melta strength + large blast = many dead Ork Stormboyz...

Conscript Frederick moves up the Flakk wagon.

After whittling down the Kommandos with Devastator fire, the Marines disembark to prepare for the assault. Dreadnought has had its powerfist knocked out.

Warbuggy on a suicide run at the Knight. "Can a vehicle with no weapons do anything?" "Sure, you can ram things..."

Aaaand this goes pretty much as expected...

One pile of slag.

After lighting up the Predator with its main gun, the Stompa gets to grips with the Knight. I was actually feeling pretty good about this.

Over on the other flank, things aren't going that well. The Deff Dread charges in only to be felled by Marine krak grenades before it can swing a power klaw.

The three remaining Terminators had leapt forth from their crater to charge Thrugg and his mega-armoured ladz, who themselves had disembarked their transport to try and get some attacks in on the nearby Knight. The Crimson Fists died to a man but took down all but Thrugg and his faithful lieutenant.

Unfortunately for the Orks, their ace in hole ended up as a smoking one. The Stompa whiffed on its first hit on the Bomber (rolling a "1" on the damage table)... the next turn, El Booze charged in and between it and the Bomber they beat the Stompa's azz into a shiny red pulp :-(

Some more gratuitous Imperial propaganda shots...

So while the Stompa went the way of all newly painted models, at least the Knights scored a massive kill on their debut by putting down the Stompa. We also realized what a poor matchup my Ork army is against Space Marines. I'd need a ton more Boyz, but I don't really feel like painting more figures. The list seems to match up much better against Imperial Guard... or in Rogue Trader games :-)

Anyway, it was fun and the fight for Rynn's World has been won by the forces of the Imperium. But I'm sure the Stompa will be back!

30 Seconds Over New Rynn City: Aeronautica Imperialis Battle Report

Last Thursday I wanted to set up something we hadn't played for awhile. But I also thought it would be cool to do another game in keeping with our current and long-running Rogue Trader "Invasion of Rynn's World" campaign. The solution was "Aeronautica Imperialis", the short-lived aerial combat game from Forge World, set in the 40K universe.

I found a suitable scenario in the AI rulebook. An Ork air fleet is tasked with taking out some ammo supply bunkers on the outskirts of New Rynn City. Imperial interceptor aircraft and ground defences must defend the targets. The Orks had a Blasta Bommer, two Fighta-Bommers, and two squadrons each of three Fightas. The Imperials had two heavy flak guns and two squadrons of Thunderbolts, one of two and the other of three aircraft.

The models I have for AI are mainly the old Epic aircraft, cast in white metal. They're great models.
 

The Ork Fighta-Bommers are converted Imperial Marauders from Epic. I greenstuff'd on some Orky looking engine covers and rivets and gave 'em a red paintjob.
 

The Blasta Bommer is a resin Forge World piece. A gorgeous model but a bit of a challenge to assemble as the resin on the rear stabilizers was pretty warped. Lots of fiddly little gun barrels too, and unfortunately some were casualties of our recent house move :-(

Fightas are Epic pieces and are super-fun to paint. Very characterful and Orky little models.

Here's a nice shot of the beginnings of the furball. Aeronautica Imperialis uses clever little "maneuver cards" that also act like templates for the maneuvers. Pre-plotting is limited to choosing a maneuver for your plane for the next turn. Speed is set at the start of each turn (shown on the red dice) and altitude is a function of maneuvers picked (green dice).
 

The two sides dice for initiative at the start of each turn and the winner picks one plane to move, and play alternates back and forth. Shooting alternates too, with the initiative winner picking the first plane to shoot. Fighters generally take two points of damage to bring down but some weapons can do more than one point per hit. Ork big shootas, for example, roll 8 dice at short range! Hits are scored on a 5 or 6 if the target is at the same altitude as the firer - if they're one range band apart it takes a roll of 6.

A Thunderbolt catches one of the Ork Fightas in a deflection shot. Conscripts Greg and Mike ran the Imperial side, and if it wasn't for bad luck they'd've had no luck at all. Usually Mike can be relied upon for hot die rolling but not this night. Both Greg's and Mike's dice were appalling.

The Orks drew first blood with a shootdown of a Thunderbolt. Kills went back and forth for a bit but the Orks had more planes in the air so could absorb more losses.

Fighta and Fighta-Bommer

The Orks left the heavy lifting to the Blasta Bommer and it obliterated one of the bunkers on its first bomb run. Then the huge Bommer ended up flying off the table! A Fighta-Bommer hit the other bunker and although the doors were blasted off, the ammo inside failed to detonate.

The Orks had much better dice luck than the Imperials in the dogfight and after about 7 turns the Imperials had lost too many planes to continue - after taking 50% losses the remainder must bug out. So although the Orks only busted one bunker, we had to give them the win as they forced the other side off the table.

I really like AI for a straightforward aerial fight. There isn't a ton of record keeping required but the maneuver cards keep things flavorful and moderately tactical. The models are great too, and it's easy to put on a game. It's one of those Specialist Games that never should have died.

You(erl) Make The Call - Rogue Trader Battle Report

Orks defend their captured Imperial astropathic tower

On February 20th we resumed our casual 40k Rogue Trader campaign set during the Ork invasion of Rynn's World, a plot derived from the original "Warhammer 40,000 - Rogue Trader" rule book. We kicked this off back in the spring of 2012, at the time of the 25th Anniversary of Warhammer 40k.  To recap...

• Pedro Cantor and the Crimson Fist survivors barely escape the "Battle at the Farm".
• Cantor and his Marines try to break through the Ork lines around New Rynn City ; he barely staggers through into the Imperial lines, a moral victory for the Orks.
• Cantor rests up in the medical bays, and is pleased to find a number of additional survivors from the Chapter are present in the New Rynn City garrison, together with Imperial Army and militia units.
• While Cantor is getting his various super-organs treated in hospital, the Orks make a major push against the lines - the Imperials hold them off.

The next chapter in the story would involve a call for help.  The New Rynn City garrison is strong enough to hold the defences, but not strong enough to push the Orks off of Rynn's world. The planetary governor's astropath, Yerl, is located among the survivors, found healing in the medical bays along with Cantor. To make a astropathic distress call, he needs to get back to his designated astropath facility - which happens to be behind the Ork lines. 

Dallas' boyz await the Marine attack

The Imperial garrison sallies forth - the objective is to get Yerl into the tower, get the message out, and get back to friendly lines.  The longer he stays in the tower, the stronger the message will be and the more likelier it will be received by the right Imperial government people elsewhere in the sector.  But Yerl is a VIP - the 40k equivalent of an intergalactic iPhone5S - you need that dude to survive. The Imperials would enter from a short table edge. They had ten turns to get the job done, and get him back off the table.

Love these old RT-era Orks!

The Imperial force was substantial - two squads of Marines, a Predator and a dreadnought.  The Marines were accompanied by a Medic (mostly to protect Yerl) and a Librarian, and led by a kick-ass officer represented on the table by the RT anniversary figure.  Indo and Byron took the Imperial side.

The guys listen to me blab on about the rules - they are thankfully very patient fellows

For their part, the Orks were not sure what the Imperials were up to, but figured it was not good.  They noted the breakout towards the building behind their lines, the building with weird psyker vibes.  A small garrison of two squads of boyz and a Killa Kan was in place to try and hold the Imperials back.  A Wartrack, more boyz squads, and a squad of armoured boyz and a looted Rhino would be the reserve force. The Orks also had a weird boy. Jim and Dallas took command of the Orks.

Marine column approaches

We played pretty close the main Rogue Trader rules for this game - including the Compendium-era vehicle rules (although we ignored the "TRR" - the turning radius - to this day I don't understand how that one actually works).  With these older rules, the Rhinos were tough - like, really, really, really tough. And also very fast. So the Marines rolled up and got down to work.

Dallas' Killa Kan sets off to deal with Indo's Marine squad

Indo was set up to overwhelm an Ork squad with close shooting, but the dice were not with him.  Dallas sent the Killa Kan into them, and it went very, very bad for the Marines, with a number of Crimson Fists ending up as food for the "power klawz" on the Kan.  Ouch! Combined fire from the Predator and the Marine dreadnought eventually hit the Kan critically.  Remember the old critical damage tables? They could be quite funny (at least, when it's not your vehicle involved).  Dallas had seen off Indo's squad, but the damaged Kan turned around an ran wild, opening fire on its own boyz.  Dallas' foot sloggers got BBQ'd by their own Kan!

Byron's Marines deploy from their impervious Rhino

Byron formed his squad with black-powder-era precision out of his Rhino and began a steady march to the "facility".  They took quite a lot of fire as Jim's defenders and Ork reinforcements tried to engage them, and many Marines fell, but at this point my "scenario design", such as it was, hit a pretty big pothole.

Predator and Dreadnought covering the Marine action

The Marine Commander was a serious bad-ass - a minor hero, meant to represent the commander of one of the Companies, sent by Cantor to lead a detachment to bolster New Rynn City, before the Ork attack hit the planet.  Given the catastrophe at the Crimson Fist monastery, he would be one of the only senior officers left in the Chapter. This guy had a BS of '6', so he almost never missed (especially with Byron rolling).  Here is the catch - he had a plasma gun, and a plasma gun is rated "following fire" - remember that rule?

Indo's squad is noticeably smaller after the visit from the Killa Kan

The Marine Commander was a killing machine!  Following fire weapons allowed you to keep shooting as long as you hit and caused a wound, and there were other targets within 4" of the original one. Well, with a BS of '6', this guy almost never missed, and the plasma gun is killer, so it almost always caused a wound.  This guy was scything down whole Ork squads.  Thematically, this matches well with the fluff (especially as the model in question was inspired by the Crimson Fist commander on the cover of the original rule book!).  But it was not fun for the Ork players (although the Marine players found it fantastic, of course).

Byron's Marines unleash the flamer on Jim's Ork boyz

Even with Commander Killing Machine mowing down every Ork he could see, the aliens put up a very, very stubborn resistance.  Jim's boyz extracted a heavy toll, despite being on the receiving end of flamer shots and bolter fire.  As the Space Marine numbers dwindled we discovered another fun and long lost part of the RT vehicle rules - collisions!  In RT, you can speed up or slow down only a certain amount, so if you are going too fast, you will hit stuff - buildings, dreadnoughts, infantry...

Burn baby burn! The Rhino is poised to run down any survivors...

The Marine Rhinos began to run into all sorts of stuff, I would about 30% on purpose and the rest just by accident. The Ork psyker was squished against the building. Ork infantry were run over. The second Ork Kan was rammed. The Rhinos were damaged bit by bit, but the original Rhinos were super-tough APCs, and it showed in the game.

Ork squad cut to ribbons by the Marine Commander and his following-fire Plasma Gun - ouch

The Ork players returned the favour, running over some Marines with their looted Rhino, and ramming the Marine dreadnought into out-of-control movement (again, hilarious unless it is your dreadnought). In the midst of this chaotic battle, Yerl managed to enter the building and spend two turns calling for help.  But he was not able to escape the table before the game ended!

A second Killa Kan tries to hurry into the action

So the game was a draw!  The Imperials side got a distress call sent, but the fate of their Astropath is unknown.  And the Marines got a bloody nose (they were T '3' - a rude shock for Byron and Indo!), not that "Commander Plasma Gun" would have noticed as he waged a lone war against the Orks.

Dallas' damaged Kan is going bonkers, firing the flamer on the nearest target - his own boyz!

Rogue Trader is so much fun, and it was great to play again.  But the game was also a good dose of reality on some aspects of the rules, particularly the old vehicle rules.  We have previously played Rogue Trader in a hybrid fashion, incorporating 5th edition vehicle rules, and that is something we will go back to.  The original vehicle rules, with their great detail, can be a lot of fun for very small games, but are a bit too wacky to have more than one vehicle on the table. Same goes for the dreadnoughts.  The psykers were also kind of useless, so I'll need to do some better planning there to set it up so there is a reason to use them. 

Finally the Marine Commander was out of control...need to be more careful with his weapons next time, or perhaps have some sort of cap on "following fire" - he was a one-man army!

Collisions galore! One Rhino hits the Ork Kan, the other collides with the fence.

Will Yerl's call for help make it through? Will the Imperial Administration receive the call, and send a relief force? Would nearby patrolling elements of another Space Marine chapter perhaps pick up the distress signal and investigate? Or did the message end up getting filed under "low priority random transmissions" at the desk of some colon servitor at the sector capital? Stay tuned for the continuing campaign in the Battle for Rynn's World!

A big thank you to Dallas for hosting, and to Dallas, Jim, Indo and Byron for their patience and light-hearted spirit with all the Rogue Trader craziness.  It was a fun game, I'm looking forward to the next chapter!