Triad Cluster Campaign: Orks vs. Sons of Horus, the horde descends

The Blood Axes throw down with the Sons of Horus!

We had a big turnout today, with twelve army-bearing players (and two others stopping by) and seven games - Orks vs. Sons of Horus, Sisters vs. Tyranids and then Eldar, Eldar vs Orks, SW vs. Orks, Necron vs. Tau, Blood Angels vs. Eldar.  On top of that there were some Warmachine demos and card games, making for a pretty packed store.

A few shots of other games:

Orks started out well here, but the Eldar ground them down.

Power Klaw > Bastion, but not enough to defeat the warriors of Fenris

Sisters won here, but not without loss.  Broodlord alone wrecked three tanks!

More from the Ork/Eldar game.

More Orks vs. Wolves

More of Sisters vs. Nids

Stormboyz!  Whoosh!

Tau vs. Necrons

Tale of the Space Wolves:

The stormwolf came screeching across the battlefield. Rune priest Gerel already saw the damage that had been done. The warnings had come in too late. 

Whaguss’s orks had managed to infiltrate the perimeter and quickly closed the gap on the defending space wolves. Black smoke was rising from several sources. The bastion, two razorbacks and one of the whirlwinds were already smoking rubble. In the center of the compaound was a destroyed battlewagon and a horde of green. The second battlewagon was parked near the where the orks had penetrated the defenses. By the looks of it the orks had taken the camp by surprise, the entire left flank was lost. The right side was still putting up a fight but would not last long. 

The stormwolf banked and came in for its attack run. The sudden banking and smoke of the battlefield causing all but one shot to miss its target. “Continue to bear down on him, prepare to assault”. The eager bloodclaws cheered in unison, wanting to get to grips with the enemy. They poured out of the craft as it and the battlewagon exchanged fire like two kids on the street corner exchanging blows. As soon as Gerel stepped out he saw the horde had changed direction. 

He wanted that second wagon but knew he had to deal with the greenskins on foot first. His pack already sensing his order had turned their attention to it and charged headlong. Like two trains hitting each other the damage was devastating. The pack got the upper hand cutting down handfuls before they could react. If they had waited it would have been his men on the receiving end of it. A minute later the fight was over . His readouts told him the wagon and a unit of nobs was still left. 

He could see the stormwolf banking hard and heading towards the ruined bastion. The second whirlwind was making its way across the field to secure the far objective, leaving the nobs and burning wreckage of the third razorback. His squad quickly turned and jumped the battlewagon. The power mauls ripping the metal plates off until it exploded, dumping the lootas to the ground. They charged in weathering the fire of the remaining mob quickly slicing them down. A quick scan and read out showed that while Whagus did escape the area was secure.

 That pack'll make Grey Hunter soon!

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So, back to my own battle:

We played Vanguard Strike deployment.  Primary mission was six pre-placed objectives.  Secondary getting into enemy DZ.  First Blood, etc. still apply.  I played the same force as before.  I set up with one wagon on each end, with trukk ard boys backing up meganobs, firebase with shokk attack gun and lobbas in back covering one objective, and 30-strong shoota mob in Reserve.  Sons of Horus had two smaller marine squads, a 20-man squad with Praetor (commander dude) in Land Raider Spartan, Sicaran tank (behind ruin with blue roof), heavy squad with volkite weapons and Fire Raptor gunship.  He had some kind of trait that let him pull a unit from Reserve, so the ship started on the table.  I had a bonus to seize but failed.

Gunship streaks forward, and it and Sicaran chew up boys with the shokk attack gun.

Lascannons from the land raider lash out to the battlewagons to no effect.  Volkite weapons wreck Trukk for First Blood.

Steel Leejun's wagon crashes into ruins towards the Sicaran and marine squad behind.

Wagon moves up shielding ard boys from nasty volkite weapons.

Fire Raptor takes a hard turn and shoots a few ardboys.  Sicaran exhibits surprising speed and zips around to shoot the side of a battlewagon, knocking off a rokkit launcher.

Lascannons take out a big shoota and a second hull point from the mega-wagon.  Shoota boys walk onto the table, using ruins to block LOS from the volkite guns.

Steel Leejun piles out to assault the Sicaran that had gotten too close, while meganobs charge into the Spartan.  Shokk Attack gun shots had failed to hurt it so far.

Klaw destroys Sicaran, exploding it and taking a few boys along.

Many klaw attacks explode the Spartan, spilling out a bunch of marines.

The Sons of Horus decided to avenge their land raider, and dumped everything they had into the meganobs.  All the squads fired in, using their special rule to double shots.  In the end the Warboss and one meganob remained, both wounded.  In my turn I shot up the big marine squad, wanting to soften them up a bit.  A lobba shell scattered off, taking out the last meganob.  Ooops.  Alone, but not having much choice, the warboss charges in!

And gets clubbed to death with bolter butts. 

The Fire Raptor dropped into hover mode to get more shots off and stay on the table, but that left it vulnerable for krumpin.  Nob obliged, using his special go go gadget spring shoes to punch it out of the air.

Steel Leejun head over to take out a marine squad.

Sons of Horus secure the center.

Steel Leejun wipes out marines and moves towards another.  Shoota boys move out to finally engage the volkite squad. 

Success!

Steel Leejun engage more marines, but inconclusive combat as game ends.

Sons of Horus had the center but not much else.  Even with bonus points from Slay the Warlord and First Blood it's not enough, and the Orks carry the day!  The Steel Leejun also earned enough Glory Points to earn another upgrade, going to Toughness 5.

Some other upgrades:

Blood Angels "Not Walking Dead" Death Company go to T5 (along with their 4+FNP)
Flesh Tearers "Tears of Cretacia" Death Company go to T5
SW Bloodclaws go to T5 (popular roll today)
"Reavers" inquisitorial henchmen get +1 Strength (pairs well with the boss' rad grenades)
"Colt .45"aka Chosen of the Prioress battle sisters get Fearless (though they're still stealthy)
Wraithknight gets Zealot (he's an angry Wraithknight)
Ork Nobs get T5 (VERY popular roll today)

So far the Imperials have been unstoppable, going undefeated in all their games.  If they keep it up this will be a short campaign!