28mm Warfare AAR: AAR: July 14th, 2012

The Dark Purist and I faced off once again on Saturday with our Warhammer40k armies. It was your typical butchery and mess of 28mm-scale tabletop war gaming. In discussing the battle after the dust had settled on a crushing defeat for yours-truly, we decided that it would be helpful if we could take pictures of the battle as it progressed and record it in a blog.
Here it is.
Unfortunately, we did not take any photos of this battle, but in the spirit of what the 28mm Warfare AAR blog is all about, I will review it from my perspective. Perhaps the Dark Purist will have a different take on these events, but this post is all mine!

Standard Cleanse Mission.

5x6 table. A patch of wilderness with scattered trees and boulders not even worthy of a name: Grid BX112.

Orks versus Space Marines with 755 point limit.

Chainsawz Ladz:
HQ - Warboss
HQ - Warphead
Elites - 9x Kommandos (Nob, Burna, Rokkit)
Troops - 12x Boyz (Nob with PC, Rokkit)
Troops - 12x Boyz (Nob, Rokkit)
Troops - 12x Shoota Boyz (Nob, Rokkit)
Heavy Support - 3 Lobbas (1x Extra Crew, Runtherd, 2x Ammo Runts)

Ultramarine Strikers:
HQ - Captain
Elites - Dreadnought
Elites - 5x Terminators
Troops - 10x Tactical Marines
Troops - 10x Tactical Marines

Chainsaw won the initial toss and selected to fight from a corner.
The Ork setup put the three troops of boyz more-or-less equally distant from each other with the warphead attached to the unit of shoota boyz and the warboss in command of another. The big gunz were close to Dark Purist's corner, using trees and rocks to provide cover.
The Space Marines were positioned in a tight group smack in the middle of their corner.
The Ork Kommandos positioned themselves just past some trees, a scant 18" from the enemy on their side of the board.

Orks moved forward at a run in a three-pronged movement, with the Kommandos taking cover in some trees on the Space Marine flank. The opening salvo from the Ork lobbas was just out of range. Psyker powers were also just barely out of range to hit and made some pretty lights, instead...
The Space Marines all move forward at a walk, splitting into squads and moving to meet the rushing Orks. A few long-range shots were fired, but cover saved their targets.

The Ork boyz continued to run forward. The Kommandos have trouble moving through the dense undergrowth. More psyker powers from the warphead make an interesting light show, but nothing effective. The big gunz make their first barrage and show their quality - much to the hooting delight of the ladz, 3 Space Marines are blown into bloody chunks.
The Space Marines also continue to advance, with the Terminators moving to intercept the Kommandos. More weapon fire proves fruitless as the Orks continue to move strictly through and behind cover.

The shoota boyz slow their advance in order to fire into a tactical squad that is supporting the dreadnought. The other two mobs continue to swing through the woods towards the enemy, in a simian fashion. No psyker powers this round. The big gunz have their best round yet, wasting 4 Space Marines from another tactical squad. A weapon is blasted off the dreadnought by the shoota boyz' rockkit launcha. The Kommandos shoot fruitlessly at the Terminators.
Space Marines show no fear under the constant cat-calls and pounding of artillery - however they must face some tactical realities. They begin the pull back, in order to get out of range of the withering rain of shells. Their weapon fire as they withdraw slightly is effective and Orks begin to die.

Smelling victory, the Orks boyz continue to rush towards their bloodied foe. They are deep into the Space Marine's side of the battlefield at this point, and will soon come to grips with the 'umies. A frazzle burst of warp-energy kills a single space marine. The single tactical squad still in range of the lobbas takes more casualities. Shooting yields a little results. At this point the warboss begins to realize he has made mistakes and there might be a problem...
Ultramarines continue to rally around their command, slowly retreating to ensure the Orks cannot close with them during the next round, with the dreadnought and two remaining marines standing apart from the rest of the group. Their bolter fire takes the front ranks of the charging boyz out.

The boyz are frustrated to not be able to move far enough to assault this round, so instead fire their weapons at the foe - making a lot of loud noises and bangs. The big gunz badly miscalculate the range and are way off, but manage to walk their barrage over to another group of enemy. No powers are manifested this round. The Kommandos are in range to assault and do so - getting wasted with extreme prejudice by the Captain and his Terminators.
Now is the time for restitution, brothers! The Space Marines move towards, fire upon, and assault all of the Ork mobs. It is a total slaughter. The shoota mob is stomped into paste by the dreadnought, turns to flee and are mowed down by it's weapons. Only the warphead survives. The warboss and his squad are butchered to the last beast. The other mob, whittled down by bolter fire on their long approach are beaten badly by the Terminator squad - the surviving four Orks flee madly.

The last Ork units are out of options. The warphead uses his zzap power to try and blow the dreadnought up to perhaps bring the game to a draw - it merely shakes it up a bit, despite an awesome penetration total of 17. The pitiful remnants of the once confident Ork mobs flee in terror. The gunz blast once again, but the range is too long.
The Space Marines spend their turn mocking the Orks, caring for their wounded, and taking from those too badly hurt the Chapter's Due.

The Dark Purist wins! Chainsaw is left with a mere 248 points on the table, while Dark Purist had the Orks on the run with almost double that, mocking the broken greenskins as they fled.