Having fought to something of a standstill on the agri-world of Muckville, orc mania decided he'd try his luck with a series of raids by his orkish forces on a Squat mining colony- backed with an Imperial Guard garrison.

In the first skirmish his Fightas were "seen off" 2-0 by a pair of Thunderbolts from the Imperial garrison.

Following straight up though were his ground forces- itching for revenge against some squat ground forces.

The table was a small mining settlement, with a T shaped road running down the middle, branching of to enter the mine shaft. Several neat piles of slag/rubble marked the site providing good cover. At the South end of the table a long wooded hill stretched from my edge to his, while in the North a smaller hill marked the other side of the valley.

Photo shows the Squat lines from the South- my left is made up of the guild bikers and the Overlord, then comes my thunderers in rhinos, berserkers, then on my far right the warriors. Behind all is my artillery company.

Should have said that the Ai report is on the Ai section, for what it's worth (it's very short).

Photo shows the terrain from the South West, showing the orkish lines. Stuart deployed the Kult of Speed, then the Goffs, then his Gutrippas, doom diver kannon, his shok attacks, his Renegade mekboys and then his Giblet grinda with pirates aboard (queue space pirates theme music throughout the game). On his far left he deployed the madboyz.

Turn 1

Squats deploy Thunderers into the central buildings. Berserkers reach the first slag pile. Warriors inch forward into their wood. The Kult of speed race forward but do not make contact. My Trikes line them up for an advance fire shot. He deploys nobs behind the 1st detachment (forgot they're one mob didn't we), so I charge it with my first bike unit. he throws in his second buggy boy detachment to countercharge them. I throw my second bike detachment and countercharge his renegade mekboys. Bikes wheel and fire out on the flank but the plus 4 to plus 2 hurts and worse I roll 4 hits from 5 from the trikes. All told in a turn his Kult of speed is broken and his morale rolls are abysmal- they all run away.

In his centre things move more smoothly. His giblet grinda deploys its pirates (nah-na-nee nah nah space pirates!) into their objective slag pile, the Goffs charge forward with their 3+ CAf just itching for a fight and the Renegades roll forward screened by 3 dragstas. His Doom Diver misses the Airship, and it shoots up a gutrippa and a deflector dragata too. My bikes chew up a couple of mekboys, including another precious dragsta.   He fires at the thunderers with his gut rippas and get 4 sixes, rerolls for hits - none. Not happy. All in all a thoroughly miserable ork first turn. VPs are Squat 14 (2 objectives and the Kult of speed, versu ork's two objectives (space pirates and the mad boyz).

Photo shows the centre after close assaults and counter fires. The Thunderers are happily ensconced in the buildings, berserkers in amongst the rubble (but just out of shot), Goffs are bearing down and Mekboys are slightly thinned.

Turn 2

The orks bikers have broken and I launch one group at the fleeing remnants to pursue them and hope they rout. Mean I know, but I rarely get the opportunity to see how it works.

His Goff boys charge my central bike detachment and his renegades plow on towards my gun line. My trikes countercharge his Goff Nobz to prevent them getting a shot at my Overlord, which sneaks in to pick off the Doom Diver (left out of command it is hurtling foward).

As his Goffs go in my thunderers snap fire and do very good work killing about a half dozen. S is again not happy. The +3 versus +4 clsoe assault don;t go perfectly either, 2 bikes are left alive and more goffs die. The Renegades have the gun line in sight and start laying waste to it. I pick off another mekboy vehicle with my warriors and they are borken but pass morale.

The stab in the back of the retreating ork bikers fails to rout anyone, but only 1 nob biker survives the assault. He fails morale in the end turn too. The trikes trade stand for stand and lose 4 of their number.

My warriors had a pop at the Giblet grinda to discover it is a 1+ tank with a plus 1 save, making it invulnerable through the flank. This is going to make it very very hard to kill...

End phase I add the renegades-20Vp. Orks have smashed the artillery company- 16.

Photo shows start of turn 2 Goffs bearing down on those bikers, berserkers in amonsgt the rubble, space pirates (nah- na ne nah nah) opposing them and renegade mekboys about to drive into the gun line. Aka say good bye gun line...

Turn 3

Wave 2 of the Goffs wade in to clear out the bikers. The remaning Goff Nobz charge out for a first fire shot at the Overlord, which has moved laterally and not more prudently to the rear. Despite losing a few more noba stands the overlord takes a hit, and duly rolls a six. Only consolation being it rolls a hit for the crash roll and goes down like the proverbial (literal) lead balloon.

This is a blow as I was hoping to use it to hose the Giblet Grinda and it is now almost invulnerable. mekboys continue to exterminate my gun line (2 stands at game end) and also pick off a warrior or two.

My trikes engage his charging forward shok attacks (out of command) and kill one each. Other Bike detachment regroups in the wood from whence the Goffs sprang.

In the centre my remaining bikes survive Goff and gutrippa assaults (Warlord and bike stand left) and I'm still not quite sure how.

Game is quite neatly balanced with remaining forces- Giblet grinda very tough, mekboys likewise, but the Goffs are broken and with attachments they're enough. Squats claim the abandoned Goff objective, and add the Goff's themselves- 35. Just. Orks claim the Overlord to increase to 16.

Photo shows centre as the Gutrippas and remaining Goff boys charge the Squat bikers. Just beyond the buildings you can (amy be able) to see the last trikers having engaged the rough ground.

Photo shows the end in the centre. The Giblet Grinda is standing over the berserkers. The pirates (insert theme music) have been thinned but are still Ok.

The last two bikers have just survived the Goff 2nd wave (including the last gutrippa) and the last Goff boy is there too. The bullet proof thunderers are waiting to switch fire to the superheavy.

Next week Grotbag will switch fronts to try and force a breakthrough via deeper in the mountains. Opponents will be a light force from the Imperial garrison.

BTW Grotbag is what the Squats call the ork worlord. Am leaving it to ork mania to come up with similarly derogatory name for the Local Squat "king" (or mine shaft supervisor as Pratchett has it). Perhaps something like Sticky beard? Stinky Beard...

Nice!  I really like the table and the literal use of rubble...very cool.  It is also good to see the traditional Squat vs Ork grudge match.  Playing 2000 points is about the best for the Orks to have a chance too.  I'd imagine the Squats struggled to fit much in while the Orks got 2 clans and the Renegades...but those small battles give interesting results sometimes.

As I recall, Evil Sunz were a solid choice for little battles.  Big Clan, mobile, and you could buy Nobz Warbikes to have an independent Command group too if you wanted to spread out a bit.  Free Gretchin and a Runtherd works ok too.

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Fire bad, tree pretty - Buffy

Thanks for posting Madollin,

Like Zap I like to see the stumpies and green skins having a go. Pity about the Kult on turn one. It's always been fragile and needs extra units to survive.

Am leaving it to ork mania to come up with similarly derogatory name for the Local Squat "king"

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My head is full of War...

[img]http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk120/Warhead40k/Tyranid%20Swarm/DSC02262.jpg[/img]

Dumpy the Short is pretty cool.  I might use that for my Warlord when I make my Murkutu Gabe army  

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Fire bad, tree pretty - Buffy

Agreed Dumpy the short is good, though how big are Orks vice Squats. how much height have they got to look down on Squats?

Tactically I had a long chat with S after the game, which bore it's own fruit really.

m

The names and language I was using after this Orc defeat probably can't be repeated    - poor tactics on my part matched by some lottery winning luck on Michaels part did the trick - Michael I like the names Squat thrust the 3rd or the great 'loose perm' beard the 4th.

The mighty (don't forget his full title) Grotbag dealt with the survivors in his own special way......part 2 would be different  

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Get in close and bash 'em

Yeah! Orkz iz nevah defeet'd coz theyz jus keeps commin' back!  

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My head is full of War...

[img]http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk120/Warhead40k/Tyranid%20Swarm/DSC02262.jpg[/img]

I like Erik "loose perm beard" IV.

Will get on and post next battle report in a bit, wherein Grotbag had a good rant at his troops about discipline, and "da plan" and things went a little difefrently.

M