28mm Warfare AAR: AAR: August 25, 2012

The plume of black smoke shows the direction the Ork horde is moving in, but their numbers need to be winnowed before they can be crushed. The Space Marine captain attempts to lure in a portion of the Ork army in an effort to divide and conquer. The aliens are cunning enough to see through this gambit, but go out to meet the humans anyway - just for the sport of it! What will the result of this tempting lure be?

Standard Annihilation Mission.

5x6 table. A hilly spot of ground with several rock piles and some forests.

The forests are difficult terrain, all hills and rocks that have flat areas are regular terrain. Other rocks are merely impassable.

Orks versus Space Marines with 1330 point limit.

Chainsawz Ladz:
HQ - Warboss
Elites - 7x Nobz & Painboy (Power claw, Kombi-rokkit, Kombi-skorcha, Twin-linked shootas)
Elites - 15x Kommandoz with Boss Blackgutz (2x Burna)
Troops - 23x Boyz (Nob with power claw, 2x Big shoota)
Troops - 22x Boyz (Nob, 2x Rokkit)
Troops - 12x Gretchin (Runtherd with grotprod)
Heavy Support - 3 Lobba gunz (5x Extra Crew, Runtherd, 3x Ammo Runts)
Heavy Support - Battlewagon ('ard case, deff rolla, 2 Big shootas)

Ultramarine Dark Purifiers
HQ - Captain
Elites - Dreadnought (Power fist, Multi-melta, Heavy flamer)
Elites - 10x Terminators (2x Cyclone missile launchers, 2x Chain-fists, Power fists)
Troops - 10x Tactical Marines (Flamer, Missile launcher)
Troops - 10x Tactical Marines (Melta, Heavy bolter)
Troops - 6x Sniper Scouts with Sgt. Immortus (Missile launcher)
Fast Attack - 1x Marine Biker

Chainsaw won the initial roll-off and chose the red side of the table.

Dark Purist gets the blue edge. He tries to steal the initiative, but fails (to much greenskin laughter).

The Orks hide their big gunz behind both the hill and the battlewagon. One mob of boyz has a gretchin shield, the other has the warboss as a leader. The nobz are positioned ready to enter the battlewagon in the center of the army.

Dark Purist places all of the tactical marines on one side of the board, supported by the dreadnought and the snipers. A wide separation is between these forces and the scary-looking terminator squad complete with captain. The grizzled biker is happy to have a place where he can see the whole battlefield.

Let the game begin!

The Orks move in. The only unit that doesn't run towards the foe are the big gunz emplacement. The nobz squad scrambles on board the battlewagon before it rumbles down the center of the battlefield.

Chainsaw's attacks:

Some of the nobz fire their weapons at tactical squad1, but they are out of range. Still the gunshots "makez a fine, boomy noise," so it's not for nothing!
The scream of artillery shells fall into the midst of tactical squad3. Two space marines are killed during the attack.

Having seen that the Orks are not surprised by their ambush, the Ultramarines respond quickly and effectively.

Several units remain stationary so as to fire their heavy weapons, the units that do move, march steadfastly toward the foe.

Dark Purist's attacks lance all across the field of battle:

The dreadnought, snipers, tactical squad1 & squad2 all fire their heaviest weapons at the battlewagon. There is no noticeable effect of the firepower, other than blasting one of the big shootas off the side of the polluting menace.
Tactical squad3 shoots at the gretchin mob that is providing cover for the ork mob1 behind them. 3 of the grot are messily perforated.
The mighty terminator squad, lead by the captain, fire a blizzard of weapons into mob2. The results of unbelievably destructive as 8 boyz are blown away. Two of these deaths are the result of detonations of cyclone missiles.

The warboss is confused by all the noise and body parts flying through the air. He orders mob2 into the cover of the trees to "try 'nd sort thingz out".

Mob1, with the screeching gretchin before them, continue to advance. The runtherd has to judiciously apply his fancy new grotprod to get the gibbering grot to move forward towards the hulking metal monster of the space marine dreadnought.

The battlewagon driver sees the trouble that the warboss and his mob are having, so makes chooses at this time to head toward the terminators as targets.

The shooty and stompy stuff:

Mob2 and the warboss shoot at the terminators to try and get back some of their own, but their weak fire doesn't even scratch the mighty suits of armor.
The lobbaz fire at tactical squad3 again, killing 1 and pinning the rest of the unit, as they scramble for foxholes to hide from the barrage.
Mob1 shoots at the snipers hidden in the rocks, but the are far too well positioned and can't draw a bead on any of them.
The nobz shoot at tactical squad3 as they hug the ground during the barrage they are enduring and manage to pick off another of them.
And finally, in a rare display of greenskin rage versus brains, the gretchin mob slams into the space marine dreadnought. Biting armor plate, crawling over it and urinating on connections, even trying to cover the sensor lens with their bodies are all acts of insane bravery (or fear of that cursed grotprod) over common sense. The scene makes the warboss proud as he glances that direction. "'ats all dere good fur. We'll 'ave sum grot pudding, t'nite after that ting stomps 'em!"

Seeing that the battlewagon has made its tactical choice, the biker and the terminators withdraw to open the range, while tactical squad2 moves into position to strike at the tank's vulnerable rear armor.

The battle rages with the following results:

Tactical squad2 fires into the battlewagon's rear armor, but the thick armor dissipates the plasma blast with surprising efficiency.
The snipers and tactical squad1 fire into the snarling orks of mob1. 2 boyz fall down screaming.
The biker and the terminators shoot into "the cowardly aliens slinking in the trees." Mob2 suffers another 5 casualties, despite the cover the trees offer. "Well, datz no good. Dese runty trees are puny - I needz sumfin stouter ta shoot behind..."
The noble pilot of the dreadnought has gotten over his revulsion at the small green things crawling all over him and starts stomping them into the ground and crushing them with his power claw. The gretchin suddenly understand the nature of their predicament and turn to flee. The runtherd lets his attack squig eat one of them, but his satisfaction is short lived as the dreadnought opens the nozzle on his heavy flamer and incinerates the entire squad.

The battlewagon skids to a stop just in time for mob2 and the warboss to take cover behind it.

The ladz in mob1 are pleased as anything that the gretchin kept the dreadnought occupied long enough for them to "come ta gripz wif it".

Most surprizing for the space marines is the sudden arrival of Boss Blackgutz and his kommando squad. They come out of nowhere and begin hooting gleefully.

The damage the orks do this round is impressive:

The kommandoz shoot at the snipers as they attack them from behind. One sniper is killed. Then the kommandoz slam into the snipers, cutting and hacking at them without mercy. They loose 2 orks, but slaughter the entire group of marine scouts.
The lobbaz continue to pound away at tactical squad3, killing another marine and keeping the entire unit pinned and unable to do anything for yet another round.
Mob1 surrounds the dreadnought in the hopes of keeping it busy until the two kommandoz with burnas can come on over and cut it into scraps. "Jist fer fun", the nob tries to cut through an important-looking cable with his big choppa... He roars with approval when the attack shuts the robot body down completely and it topples onto its back!

The space marines respond with vigor to the ork attack. The terminator squad moves up to engage the battlewagon and prevent it from driving over them with its deff rolla.

Tactical squad2 moves to engage the remainder of mob1.

The results of space marine aggression this turn are as follows:

The biker, tactical squad1 and tactical squad2 all shoot at mob1 to soften them up for the close combat that is surely to come next. They kill six of the ladz before tactical squad2 crashes into them. In the press of hand-to-hand, 2 more orks die, but all of the space marines are killed.
The terminators fire cyclone missiles and storm bolters at the battlewagon as they close with it to no effect. Then they punch it with power fists and it rings like a bell as the captain's thunder hammer hits home. The crew of the battlewagon are left holding their hands to their ears while screaming. The tank will not be going anywhere or doing anything next round.

"WAAAGH!!!" The battle cry of ork hordes the galaxy over is unleashed!

The deep reverberations of the hull of the battlewagon give added effort to the nob squad to exit the vehicle as fast as they can.

The kommandoz and mob1 run to assault the remaining space marines in their half of the battlefield.

Mob2 and the warboss run with eyes full of bloodlust towards the terminators who have killed so many of their fellow ladz.

The hideous results of ork assaults are:

The nobz squad shoots at tactical squad3, but the space marine power armor shrugs off their weak slugs.
The big gunz crew turns their sights to the biker. Shells pound the ground all around, but the grizzled veteran expertly dodges each incoming round before it hits, laughing at the orks poor fire discipline all the while.
Mob1 runs into tactical squad3 and the fighting is intense. One boy dies while two space marines perish.
Boss Blackgutz and his ladz go through tactical squad1 like a band saw. One of the kommandoz is slain, but the marines are butchered where they stand.
Mob2 assaults the terminators and do a fair amount of damage before they are torn limb from limb by the righteous anger of the space marines. A total of nine boyz and the nob are killed, while two terminators are killed and the captain is wounded twice. The warboss makes a tactical withdrawal and hopes to find some tough new ladz to lead back into battle. "I needz sum more dakka over here! Blackgutz! Git over dere!"

The biker sees that all of the space marine units he was going to support are beyond his help, so he turns around to off fight the nobz and warboss.

Assaults and rapid-fire bolters galore:

The biker opens up on the nobz, but they are far too tough to take any lasting damage. Many of them get some fancy new scars during the attack.
Tactical squad3 assaults mob1 and manage to kill 3 ladz before they are cut down to the last man.
The terminators and captain continue to pound on the battlewagon and this time they rip right through armor, tear into the crew compartment, and set off a chain reaction of ammo cook-off that turns the battlewagon into a massive bomb. The blast leaves almost no recognizable wreckage behind, but one of the hatches slices a terminators head off.

The kommandoz and the small force that is the remnants of mob1 both run toward "the only place left where therez good fightin' ta be had."

The nobz assault the terminators in a bid to kill off all of their hated human foes.

The orks attacks are as follows:

The warboss got stuck in some trees and he can't join up with the nobz, so instead his whiles away the moments trying to kill the biker. His slugs bounce off the armored bike.
The lobba crew fires carefully at the terminator squad. They are a bit nervous, since some very large and tough nobz and the warboss are easily within their "margin o' air'or". Mork smiles upon them however, and nobody gets hurt - nobody green anyway. One of the terminators somehow catches a shell right at his neck joint, turning his armor almost inside out.
The nobz jump into combat with the terminators, shooting their weapons as they close. They kill 4 of the terminators, but take 5 losses of their own as the terminator power fists punch right through their armor - leaving no time for the painboy to ply his trade.

The biker thinks that turnabout is fair play and moves to target the warboss.

The terminators remain locked in close combat with the few remaining nobz and so can not move.

The results of space marine force of arms are:

The biker rapid fires at the warboss, but does no lasting damage.
The terminators have had enough of the nobz and rip them to large, bloody chunks with another terminator paying for their victory with his life.

The warboss moves to join the kommandoz and mob1 takes cover in some rocks while aiming at the terminators.

A few ranged attacks then occur:

The ladz of mob1 shoot, but their sluggaz don't have nearly enough power to penetrate the terminators armor.
The lobbaz fare somewhat better as another shell finds and disables a terminator marine.

The biker drives to the enemy lines in order to harass the lobba crew and hopefully force them to close shop.

Combat results:

The biker shoots the big gunz emplacement, but misses! He is disgusted with his failure and resolves to hit the gunnery practice range twice a week from now on.
The terminators shoot at mob1 and kill 2 boyz.

At the end of this turn, the random-game-length roll ends the entire game. It's all over, folks!

Chainsaw wins! The Orkz turn the tables on the Ultramarine ambush, ripping the space marines apart. The orkz had 495 points left on the field (37%) to the marines 162 (12%). A decisive victory for the greenskin horde.