AAR: September 29, 2012 - Sudden Threat

A volcanic eruption has caused erratic lava flows in many places on this planet.  The Dark Purifiers are called in to assist with the transport of three ancient statues to a museum.  They are threatened with destruction by the encroaching magma.  When their small force arrives, they are shocked to find some of Chainsaw's Ladz at the same location!  Apparently, the vile Orkz heard that there were some interesting targets in the area - the same statues that the humans hope to preserve!  Neither side is fully prepared for this conflict and they both hastily call in for reinforcements to wipe out their enemies...

Seize Ground with 3 objectives using Dawn Of War battlefield rules.

5x6 table.  The lava flow to the very north (in the shape of a 'V') will instantly wound any model that is unlucky enough to fall into it.

Low rock walls can be climbed by models as difficult terrain, but once on the flat surfaces the rocks are treated as normal terrain.

There is no cover in the form of vegetation - only hills, rocks, and the statues themselves are available to hide behind.

Orks versus Space Marines with 1731 point limit.

Chainsawz Ladz: 
HQ - Warboss
HQ - Big Mek (Shokk attack gun) 
Elites - 15x Kommandoz (Nob with power claw, 2x Rokkit)
Troops - Deff Dread (2x Kustom mega-blasta)
Troops - 30x Boyz (Nob with power claw)
Troops - 30x Boyz (Nob with power claw)
Fast Attack - 2x Deffkopptas (Twin-linked rokkits)
Heavy Support - 3x Lobba gunz (6x Extra crew, Runtherd, 3x Ammo runts)
Heavy Support - 10x Flash Gitz (Kaptain Krunktoof, Painboy, Cyborks, Blastas, Shootier)

"You putz sta'chews in moosee'em?  Dat so dum!  We blow dem all up - dat a betta plan!"

Dark Purifiers
HQ - Captain (Transport: Drop pod)
HQ - Librarian (Gate of infinity, Vortex of doom)
Elites - Dreadnought (Transport: Drop pod; Power fist, Multi-melta)
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)
Heavy Support - Land Raider Redeemer (Multi-metla)

"Gotta catch 'em all!"

Dark Purist wins the initial die toss.  He selects the blue half of the table.

The dawn of war game type means that almost all forces will be kept in reserve - only 2 Troops units and 1 HQ unit may be placed during setup.

Tactical squad 1 is lead by the librarian and they are positioned to immediately secure the north statue on their half of the table.

Tactical squad 3 is placed near the lone statue to the south, with some units holding the high ground. 

Warboss Chainsaw is quite pleased that the "fun 'n gamez" he had planned for the afternoon have gotten so much more interesting!  He leads a huge mob of 30 boyz and screams vile insults at the tactical marines who are near the south statue.

Chainsaw's favorite deffdread takes a lonely watch near the north statue.  It will have to hold until relieved...

Let the conflict begin!

With the scream of retro-firing jets a space marine drop pod slams into the ground!  It seems the captain was inspecting the pod when the call for help was sounded.  He meant to land right in front of tactical squad 3, but the pod scattered and instead he finds himself almost in the middle of the orks!

Tactical squad 1 moves towards the ork-held northern statue.

The space marines open fire:

• Tactical squad 3, the captain, and the drop pod all attack mob1.  Only 2 boyz die, but they were both picking snot-grubs out of their noses, so they were obviously not the brightest of stars...  "Good rid'ence ta bad rubbish!" laughs the warboss.

The deffdread pokes its mega-blastas around the edge of the rocks to get a look at tactical squad 1.

The huge groups of orks that belong to mob1 swarm around both sides of the drop pod and surround the captain.  The warboss chortles evilly the entire time.

The ork attacks are as follows:

• The deffdread tries to kill some space marines in tactical squad 1, but misses.
• Mob1 shoots at the captain as they close with him, but his impressive armor stops every attack.
• Seeing this, the orks break out their chainaxes and start chopping!  The captain takes two wounds.

The land raider was just over the next hill it seems!  It growls into play in the center of the field.

The terminators also try to respond to the call for aid, unfortunately as they begin to materialize on the battlefield their failsafes activate - their target is off!  The teleport is aborted which is much better than being merged with a rock.  They return to the reserves.

The librarian accesses the infinity gate and steps through the fabric of space itself!

The humans counter-attack:

• Tactical squad 1 shoots a krak missile at the deffdread.  The armor-piercing warhead blasts right through the front armor and blows a huge assortment of gears and chains out of the back of the machine!  Strangely, this is not a serious detriment to the walker at all.  "No!" screams the pilot, "Not me spare gear collection!  Youse rotten 'umies!  Me been savin' dat fer weeks!"
• The assault between the captain and mob1 continues.  There are just too many enemies all around the beleaguered captain - he falls!

Running toward the sound of the gunz, the Big Mek joins the fight.  Roaring overhead is a pair of deffkoptas.

Mob1 has their blood up and charge into tactical squad 3 with horrible slavering jaws gaping wide.

The deffdread moves away from the rocks in order to range in on the librarian.

Orkish combat results:

• The deffdread fires his mega-blastas at the librarian and cuts the man right in half.
• The deffkoptas open fire at the drop pod and transform it into smoking wreckage.
• Mob1 shoots at tactical squad 3, killing 2 of the marines.  Then they "get ta gripz wif 'em".  The remaining space marines are butchered, struggling in vain to bring down a single foe.

At the end of this turn, Chainsaw takes the lead as the score stands at 2 to 1.

With a ear-splitting shriek, the second drop pod descends into the fray.  It slams into the ground, just missing one of the priceless statues.  As the dreadnought piles out of the steaming pod, it takes ownership of the northern objective from the orks control!

The snipers double-time into the battle as well, smiling grimly at the men in tactical squad 2 as they pass them.

The land raider growls effortlessly up the hill and turns it's weapon systems towards the celebrating orks of mob1 below.

Attacks this turn are as follows:

• The dreadnought opens fire at near point-blank range at the deffdread, but is sorely disappointed as the shot goes right between the war-walker's legs.
• The twin-linked assault cannons of the land raider open up into the midst of mob1 and 4 orcs are shredded by the staccato of explosive rounds.

The group of kommando orks arrives from the southern flank.

Mob1 hurries to get out of the whirlwind of death that the tank has brought to them.

The deffdread closes with horrid shrieks with the dreadnought, "Watch where youse aimmin' at, ya clanker!"

The orks attempt to destroy some of the space marines heavy equipment:

• The deffdread lands a lucky shot and the dreadnought's gyroscope system is vaporized.  The war machine quickly falls over, it's limbs thrashing helplessly.
• The kommandoz fire two rokkits at the land raider, but both of them spiral off into the distance.
• The deffkoptas unload a rack of rokkits at the tank as well and this time they hit!  Or did they?  Well, if the pilot's squint, they can just make out where the paint has been dulled from the impacts.  "How we kill dat ting?"
• The Big Mek charges up his shokk attack gun with a mad cackle.  A snotling is sucked into the intake and is hurled through the Warp!  The raving mad snotling/projectile emerges from null-space two feet from the tank's side armor, traveling at over 100KPH.  The resulting explosion against the armor is not very effective, although quite spectacular in it's goriness.  A small squeegee on the tank's view-port wipes back and forth, removing the ooze from the armored glass...

The terminators seem to have repaired their teleport trajectory and attempt to beam into battle again.  Their calculations are a bit off and they nearly have to abort again, but they make it!  Most of them do anyway... one fellow's leg is merged with the rocks and will need considerable medical attention later!  A squad of terminators moves south after they arrive.

The land raider driver snorts in amusement, "These xenos can't outrun me!"  He drives to the other side of the hill and again points the weapons down at mob1.

The snipers move into position on top of a small hill and break out their long rifles.

Tactical squad 1 has some trouble with the crumbling rocky ledge that borders the lava flow, but they manage to get on top where it is flat.

The attacks come quickly thereafter:

• Terminator squad 1 shoots krak missiles at the deffdread and black smoke pours from the engine.  The primary oil pump is gone, but while they watch a secondary motor sputters to life!  It will only be immobilized for a short time.
• Terminator squad 2 pours all their considerable firepower up the hill at the big mek and his unnatural-looking weapon.  The ork leader is quickly cut to small bits from the onslaught.
• The land raider uses one of it's heavy flamestorm cannons and roasts 5 ladz from mob1.  Their tortured cries are sweet music to those who have pledged to never leave an alien alive.

A fiendish roar echoes from the east of the battlefield as mob2 streams like a tide of green blood into the fray!  They are closely followed by a big gunz crew who quickly begin setting up their lobbaz begin some rocks.

The kommandos move forward even as mob1 falls back from the lethal weapons of the land raider tank.

Attacks this turn are as follows:

• The deffkoptas send a stream of rokkits at the tank.  All of them hit, but none of them manage to penetrate the super-tough vehicle.
• Even though it is immobile, the deffdread pilot can still pull a trigger.  It tries to hit the drop pod, but the lack of mobility hinders its aim and it misses.
• The huge group of mob2 shoots at terminator squad 2, killing two of them even before they get into close-combat range.  Once the hand-to-hand melee is started 2 more terminators fall, leaving only one man alive in a sea of greenskins.  Two orks are killed by the space marines in this action, so the battle will continue to rage next turn.

The land raider is not happy to see the mob of orks escape, so he drives down to the far side of the hill.

Tactical squad 1 runs along the edge of the lava pool with no fear.  Their plan is to secure the second northern statue and it seems to be working fine so far.

Terminator squad 1 rounds the rockpile that the lobbaz have hidden behind and prepares to kick their toy guns over...

The space marines continue to assault and slay the foes of all mankind:

• The snipers take careful aim at the deffdread and blow the secondary oil pump out.  The engine seizes at once and the machine shudders to a stop.
• The drop pod's automatic stormbolter gun shoots at the lobbaz, but there is no effect.
• The land raider shoots a hail of rounds into the annoying deffkoptas, and damage one of them, but they are both still in the air - dodging the attack madly.
• Terminator squad 1 opens fire on the grot who are setting up their gunz, killing 3 of them.  Then they close with them and rip all their little heads off!  The blood-splattered lobbaz are left behind, with no one to fire them...
• The lone terminator from squad 2 bravely tries to kill some of mob2 in close quarters combat.  He fails as the sheer weight of enemy numbers pulls him down.

"WAAAGH!  Who called fer Kaptain Krunktoof!  We iz here to pull yer teff 'nd otar body partz out ov da fire!" hollers a huge ork who steps into the battle in the north.  He is followed by a disgustingly rich band of flash gitz.

Mob2 weave around the forlorn lobba gunz on their way to settle accounts with terminator squad 1.

Mob1 moves behind the cover of the statue as the kommandoz move towards the tank.  The warboss moves to join the kommandoz instead of the mob he has sent to hide.

The deffkoptas move to get a better shot at the tank and close the gap around the wreck of the drop pod.

Near-mindless ork aggression is as follows:

• The deffkoptas rokkits flare into the tank once again.  This time a rokkit penetrates the armor, but the rokkit turns out to be a dud.  "Wot a gyp!  Me no can be'leaf it!" 
• The kommandoz shoot their own rokkits at the tank, but the armor protects it from any damage.
• The flash gitz open fire with their dangerously radioactive weapons at tactical squad 1.  The painboy is kept busy for a few moments as he slaps on skin-grafts (ripped from very unwilling grot-donors as he goes), and no lasting damage is done by the guns to their owners.  The same can not be said for the weapon's targets.  The over-powered energy bolts tear through the space marines power armor as if it wasn't there.  None of them survive the unbelievable over-kill.
• Mob2 slams into terminator squad 1.  The terminators stand strong and not a single fellow goes down.  Five of the orks are pulped by the space marines deadly power fists.  This only seems to anger the remaining ladz...

Can the space marines stop the orks from winning back their northern objective?  Can they remove the southern one?  Or is the game going to be a draw after all the combatants have suffered through?

The driver of the land raider isn't sure, but he knows one thing he can do - send his tank roaring across the bodies of greenskin filth! 

The land raider tank shocks the kommandoz!

The warboss sees the huge tank speeding towards him and spits a fungal-goober into the dirt.  As his proud army watches, he charges towards the tank, even as the rest of the kommandoz are diving out of the way.
With his power claw snapping impatiently, he tries to cut the treads in half as it draws near.  It will take split-second timing...  Can he do it?

NO!!!  With a horrible >CRUNCH!< the warboss is flattened by the rumbling tank!  A small squeegee wipes back and forth over the view-port, clearing away the resulting 'warboss juice' as best as it can...

The land raider scatters the rest of the kommandoz and they flee in dismay, trying to escape the same horrible fate as their brave, but foolish leader.  The tank comes to a stop just short of the statue, thus denying the orks the objective!  The score is now 1 to 0 in the space marines favor!

Further attacks are as follows:

• The land raider unloads it's flamestorm cannons into mob1 and incinerates 4 more boys.
• The snipers try to kill some of the flash gitz, but can't seem to hurt them.
• The drop pod shoots into the flash gitz as well and it manages to injure one of them.  This annoys the highly-trained snipers to no end: an automatic system did more damage then they did?  Pffft.
• The battle between terminator squad 1 and mob2 continues as 3 terminators die for the return of only a single ork falling out of ranks.  The last terminator is disgusted at the way this fight has gone for him and his proud battle-brothers.

The orks rally to the cry of, "Revenge fer da warboss!"

The kommadoz turn about and charge towards the tank, swearing to rip it apart.  Mob1 also comes out from hiding to do their fallen warboss proud by a final, desperate assault.

The flash gitz stroll over to the drop pod while making obscene hand gestures towards the fuming and impotent snipers.

The battle rages on:

• The deffkoptas and kommandos fire rokkits from all directions at the land raider, but nothing seems to dent the thing!
• The flash gitz shoot at the drop pod and when it fails to blow up, they slam their virbo-axes into it.  The drop pod explodes!
• Mob2 finally kills the last terminator from squad 1 and consolodate their ranks towards the statue.  They are in range and capture the objective!  The score is now tied: 1 all!
• Mob1 charges into the idling tank.  The driver is confident that their puny weapons can't damage his mighty vehicle.  But the nob's power claw slices through the internal promethium feed tank - AND THE INTERIOR TURNS INTO AN INFERNO!  The crew of the tank die horribly, much to the orks profound satisfaction!  The tank's internal ammunition stores cooks off almost instantly and the tank goes up like a bomb!  Mob1 reclaims the southern objective with the removal of the hated tank, making the score 2 to 1 in their favor!

The random game-length roll ends the game just after this amazingly unlikely event!  It's all over!

Chainsaw Wins!  The marines were scattering all over the map and that did not help them.  One lucky break at the end enabled the orks to claim victory from the limbo of a draw.

"It came down to da wire, but we getz ta smash stuffs now!  Woo-Hoo-Ho-Waaagh!"

"Drop pods?  How do we use these things?  Is there a manual or something?"