Fourth War for Armageddon - Escape!

After the initial surprises and setbacks from attacks against better prepared than expected orks and surprise assaults from traitor forces, the Imperial forces fall back towards Hive Acheron to regroup.  Unfortunately their foes have cut off most avenues of retreat, and small forces try to punch through where they can.

This week we were playing the Ambush mission from the new rulebook, with a few modifications to fit the intention better (restrictions on value you get from deep strikers or flyers escaping).  I played against Cory's orks.  Given the mission I took an armored spearhead (command russ, other russ, hellhound, armored sentinel, two chimeras with infantry squads and a platoon commander).  Cory was also all mounted, with warboss in batlewagon with boyz and a big mek, and two trukks with more boyz.  Power Level 50.

After a mostly inaccurate initial bombardment, the ork vehicles speed forward and engage the lead imperial vehicles.

After a few scrapes, the hellhound breaks free and loops around the top of the ruin at the center of the action.  One trukk and boyz squad have been wiped out, with several imperial vehicles heavily damaged.  Still, a few vehicles threaten to break away while infantry deploys to screen their escape.

Orks smash into the infantry and the command tank.  While one squad is destroyed, miraculously the other manages to occupy a trukk and the warboss for several critical turns.

Meanwhile the hellhound has difficulty getting away, harried by more boyz and the battlewagon.  Thankfully the zzap gun keeps missing.

While remnants of one squad and command tank block one group of orks and the hellhound bars another street, the platoon commander boards the surviving chimera and directs it and the remaining russ to floor the accelerators and make for the open path.  They manage to escape off-board and bring news of the disasters to Hive Acheron.  Imperial victory!  But wars are not won by retreats...

At the same time, sonofsonsoftaurus' Ultramarines also tried to bash past more orks. Caught up in purging the xenos, the marines did not push through, preferring to clear the area and be retrieved by Thunderhawks later.

In other news, still waiting on my July issue of White Dwarf from my subscription. So glad that they got all of their delivery issues sorted out.  Of course the store has had copies for some time, so I've flipped through it there and have seen internet pictures from others who've had theirs since the 3rd, so I have a pretty good idea what's in the issue, but it would be nice to actually get my own.